UNMIK ON AIR

20 Jan. 2003

Domestic Violence in Kosovo

(By Luan Qorraj)

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on Air.

Domestic violence is an unfortunate and well-known expression all over the globe. Every now and then there reports come out to the surface of spouse and children abuse and these reports are more or less the same in all countries of the globe.

These reports appear in public as particularly gruesome cases of spouses or child abuse, or as a dirt report of public figures having household difficulties. Domestic Violence doesn’t bypass the richest or the poorest of people of all countries.

And Kosovo is no exemption to this rule. Lately there appears to be an increase in domestic violence within kosovan families. Valbona Kamberi has been working with the KPS domestic violence Unit since it was formed back in ’99. She told us that the number of cases of domestic violence in Kosovo has increased.

Valbona Kamberi: In the year 2002 we had more cases than in 2001. The numbers of domestic violence cases is on the rise, we had 20 percent more cases than the previous year.

An NGO that has been dealing with cases of domestic violence for over ten years in Kosovo is the Center for Protection of Women and Children in Prishtina. The reports the Center has been receiving coincide with police reports and confirm an unfortunate increase in domestic violence. Sevdije Ahmeti, director of the Center says that one of the reasons for this might be the high poverty rates in Kosovo, where according to the World Bank’s figures half of the population lives below the poverty line.

Sevdije Ahmeti: A factor that influences this type of violence, I would say the main one, is poverty, the lack of family perspectives, the welfare is endangered.

Sevdija adds that, unlike the general picture of an abuser as a violent alcoholic set up to solve all family differences with his fists, most abusers are actually the elder family members, most of whom are now impoverished and have lost patience when it comes to solving family problems.

Sevdije Ahmeti: We have a social category, which is now very poor, the pensioners. They are causing family violence. Violence doesn’t happen only within the married couple, but it has to do with elder family members who do not have any patience any more so they solve all problems through physical and psychological violence.

On the other hand the police, through their own experience, do not claim poverty as the root of the problem. According to their findings not all domestic violence cases come from impoverished surroundings. KPS officer Valbona claims that poverty is not the main factor, other issues come into the picture; she explains that there are cases of family violence which are much more complex and have their origins in other smaller dissatisfactions, which pile up with time and explode when economic, emotional or other problems just overfill the cup, turning frustration into violence.

Valbona Kamberi: I wouldn’t say that family conditions, or any other such thing is the main reason. These fights start with very small things, then they escalate to higher levels of violence. Most of these cases have gone through long periods of problems and other, various, conflicts until they reached the most severe stage.

The stereotypical picture of family violence, and abusers, is far from reality, adds Valbona. Police experience differs from what you may see on TV. Abusers are, usually, quite different from trite images of uneducated tough man who expresses his resentment through abusing his family members. Valbona says that in real life family abusers are usually the ones you would least expect to be.

Valbona Kamberi: I wouldn’t say it has to do with the lack of education since last year we made a comparison between a number of citizens who live in rural areas and the ones who live in the cities. The result was that the highest number of people who use violence in their family are intellectuals.

Whomever it may be, says Sevdie Ahmeti from the Center for Protection of women and child, there is one thing to keep in mind: people who are violent will, most likely remain violent, but that is not the behavior they would like their children to inherit.

Sevdie Ahmeti: Our children are growing up as stereotypes of their parents. A mother brings up a son and a daughter; a father brings up a son and a daughter. The daughter grows up after her mothers image – the way a mother endures the daughter endures the same. The son grows after his fathers image and he learns to solve his problems the way his father did. This is the way of growing up; violence is inherited, it grows, it grows roots, it moves from generation to generation.

On this note we end todays program; we will be bringing more in the future. Thanks for listening and stay tuned.