UNMIK ON AIR
25 Jan. 2003
(Martin Redi)
Hello and welcome
to this week round-up edition of UNMIK on Air.
On the program
today:
We visited a
successful business in Kosovo
And
Michael Hartman
talks about the judicial system in Kosovo
But first
2003 is expected
to be a year of intensive political campaign led by the International
administration in Kosovo, with the aim to clear the path for the new democratic
institutions to deepen their roots in the province.
UNMIK has already
put on the agenda a list of benchmarks which have to be fulfilled prior to
opening talks of Kosovo’s final status, and it seems that in the near future,
both K-Albanians and K-Serbs are going to regroup their political forces,
trying to put themselves on the process.
In this sense, it
appears that the recent birth of a new Serbian political coalition, called “The
Movement for Kosovo and Metohija”, could represent a move forward for the
international administration, eager to stabilize the political process in
Kosovo.
Music up
The new Serb
coalition group is lead by Momcilo Trajkovic, who was on the political margins
after deciding not to participate in the Kosovo parliamentarian elections two
years ago. Trajkovic is now dealing with Kosovo’s political reality and trying
to promote a new Serbian policy towards Kosovo, which, as he said, must be an
authentic K-Serb policy, with a clear distinction from Belgrade.
We talked with Mr.
Trajkovic who told us he is fully ready to cooperate with the international
community, as well as with all K-Albanians leaders, in creating a new political
approach to the Kosovan issue, which includes the fact that Serbs are willing
to live in Kosovo and re-integrate into Kosovo’s society.
Momcilo Trajkovic: Those who have been
represented, these people are now far away from here. The remaining people have
been left alone and again someone is trying to put on them some political
leaders to impose a so-called Serb cooperation. But there is no need for
cooperative Serbs any more. Milosevic had his own cooperative Albanians, and I
think what we need now are real political forces. I’m sure that the
international community realized that point, and I think even the Albanians
realized it as well, but Belgrade, it seems to me, did not realize yet that
Kosovos policy could be made only by real Serb political factors which are
deeply rooted in Kosovo.
Momcilo is very critical toward Belgrades policy, which was aimed,
according to him, just to manipulate K-Serbs and not to find a way to resolve
the problem for the sake of K-Serbs and at the same time for the sake of all
citizens who are going to live together in Kosovo. Still Belgrade has a key
role in the future dialogue. Momcilo:
Momcilo Trajkovic:
It does not
mean that we want to take distance from Belgrade. We cannot resolve the Kosovo
issue without Belgrade; particularly we cannot resolve the issue of the “final
status” without Belgrade, even if we wanted to do it by ourselves. The
international community will not accept it in that way, and not to talk about our
strong willingness that that issue is being resolved with the participation of
our state. But, there are many other issues, which can be dealt with in
different ways. What we want is our state to help us in solving it, and not to
misuse or manipulate us. That cannot be made by remote control from Belgrade.
Trajkovic stresses that the key issue in making a better future for
Kosovo is “to set the rules of the game”, as he said, that is to make an
environment for Serbs and Albanians to start talking to each other, and not to
use the fact that they are mayority as an instrument to weaken the minority. In
that sense Trajkovic is critical towards the international community.
Momcilo Trajkovic:
It seems
that in some way the international community here is playing the role of
Milosevic, giving the right to the majority, by over voting, taking decisions
which are of vital interest to the minorities. Adding to this the fact that,
the majority is already hostile to the minorities, particularly the Serb
minority. It is disaster, it is an unbelievable mistake and it is unbelievable
politically naďve; unless there are some other ideas behind this, which I do
not want to believe;, I’d rather accept it as a political mistake. What is
needed is to teach us how to talk to each other, how to respect each other, how
to be tolerant. That is the key issue.
And what about
Kosovo politicians? Trajkovic says that what they need is education.
Momcilo Trajkovic:
We are
uneducated communities and the democratic processes cannot be lead by
uneducated communities. Plus hostile ones. That is why education is very
important; education, while the international community is still here. Only
after that we can start a sincere political dialogue and as soon as we all
realize that, I think we will start to solve the crisis. And there is no definite resolution of the
Kosovo issue, but there is a process of solving it. A lot of water will run
under the bridge until the problem is finally solved; but meanwhile, what we
can do is make every day a bit better. And by that we will show that we are
serious people, capable of solve problems, and by that we will start to get
closer to Europe as well.
The leader of the new Serb coalition points out that the issue of
political maturity is a key point for the Balkans nations.
Momcilo Trajkovic: And that’s why the key question
now is who will be the first to become a mature society. And that one will be
the key figure for the international community and it will take the whole
responsibility for the democratic processes here in the Balkans. And that’s why
I think That K—Albanian politicians who are responsible for our future must
think about that very seriously. Are they going to hurt these people here, and
us with them as well, cause we live here, or are they ready to help all of us,
together; as real political factors, political subjects for the democratic and
economic development of Kosovo. I think the time for suffering is now behind
us, and the time for a totally new society is ahead. A society that must not be
a selfish; which must integrative.
That was Momcilo Trajkovic the
leader of the newly formed Serb coalition “The Movement for Kosovo and
Metohija.
Though you can find several
different brands of bottled water in the shops and cafes, “Bonita” is the only
local company bottling natural water.
Before the war, Agim Dushi, the
owner of “Bonita” bottled water, located in Lypjan, had a plastic manufacturing
company, which afterwards was completely destroyed during the conflict. It was hard for Agim to start from scratch,
but Agim didn’t give up.
Agim Dushi: I developed the idea right after
the war since there are no such factories in Kosovo, and considering market
needs and the import of water from neighboring countries, we thought that such
a factory would be beneficial for the Kosovo market.
We took a trip to Lypjan and visited the factory to see for ourselves
the whole process that happens before “Bonita” reaches your table. It’s amazing
to see how a mere small tube-like piece of plastic takes shape into a bottle, a
useful knowledge that Agim carries from his days before the war.
Every step is completely automated; from the cleaning of the bottles to
the filling, labeling, packing,
even the stamping of the bottling
date.
Xhevdet Kumnova: This is the plastic tube out of
which we make a bottle of 1.5 litres. Cleanness of staff and equipment is of
utmost important, and we are very careful about it.
Bonita is currently producing 2.000
bottles per hour; 48.000 bottles a day; all of this in two daily shifts. Last
summer, when there was a peak demand, the factory managed to produce up to
54.000 bottles, more than 70.000 litters and
KFOR, mainly German KFOR is getting from 30 to 40 % of their production.
Bonita Staff Singing:
Hey you pretty girl among the bushes
I was waiting for you all summer
Now the spring has come.
The happy guy singing
is one of 43 operators employed in Bonita. The staff make between 220E and 800E
per month depending on their position. Agim hopes to increase salaries 20 %
during this year; something that Kosovo employees are not used to. Gursel
Sadiku has been working here since April last year.
Gursel Sadiku: I
check electric equipment, I can tell the equipment is new, there are not many
interventions. We are happy with the job, and to tell you the truth with the
salary, too. We pay taxes we are supposed to pay, we have job insurance.
Sofie Mziu:
Hysni: how long have you been working here?
Sofie: one year and two months. I take care of labels.
Hysni: Can you tell us is it a secret how much you make?
Sofie: laughing.
Hysni: Do you at least make more than two hundred?
Sofie: Yes.
The factory has a fully equipped lab where the quality of the water is
studied every two hours. Apart from this, they have a contract signed with the
Institute for Public Health of Kosovo. Dr. Selvete Krasniqi, is the deputy
Director of the institute and she doesn’t hesitate in recommending Bonita.
Selvete Krasniqi: Bonita is the best, when
it comes to laboratory results. When it comes to mineral contents, we do not
deal with this. We say that Bonita so far is good and it meets the criteria. If
something is wrong we have our press office and issue a statement.
So we wish the staff of Bonita the best of luck and to keep up with the good work.
JINGLE
Michael Hartmann: I
was the first appointed international prosecutor. I got here in February 2000
where I have previously been working for the UN in Bosnia. I found this the
most challenging, difficult and rewarding job I’ve ever had in my life. This system
started with most of the judges having left and having to build a brand new
judiciary using lawyers many of whom had not practiced or whom had not
practiced as judges for a good part of the 90’s .
That was Michael Hartmann-the first, ever, international prosecutor to
practice his duty in Kosovo, remembering the beginnings of the Kosovar
judiciary.
Mr. Hartmann, was the prosecutor involved in most of the high-profile
trials, and numerous other small ones that were held in post war Kosovo. Not an
easy task, considering all the difficulties and controversies that have
surrounded the judicial system. Ever since the beginning –the system has
received praises as well as condemnations and accusations coming from all
sides. Albanians, in a lot of cases, claimed that the judiciary as pro-Serb and
Serbs said it was pro-Albanian while the international community did it’s best
to keep the balance.
Mr. Hartmann, has been closely following the developments of the justice
system and says that there might have been mistakes, in the early stages, but
that it was far from being pro-anything, and a lot of improvements were
achieved in the past three years:
Michael Hartmann: What I’ve seen since then is
a judiciary that is receiving training and experience and has improved in it’s
decision making. So I see improvement, it is slow, but it is steady. You cannot
do things quickly and I think they are going to be right. Is there room for
more improvement, there certainly is.
One of the great criticisms
that the judiciary, and the police service have been receiving is the “not
enough arrests” accusation. Michael Hartmann says that the public shouldn’t be
blaming the judiciary for that, but mainly themselves since, there are not
enough witnesses. He acknowledges that, even with the witness protection
program, witnesses can find themselves in danger but adds that sometimes people
should endanger themselves for the benefit of the community:
Michael
Hartmann: it
is just not the matter of having proper resources for witness protection,
though that helps, it is also that the people here, if they want Kosovo to be a
good place to live for their children they have to take some risks. And they
must come forward and feel the responsibility to come forward. You need not
only to have a good resourced and effective witness protection program but you
need to have the willingness by people to come forward and to say what they
saw.
Hartmann explains that one of
the risks of a democratic judiciary is that, sometimes, villains do walk away.
It happens for many reasons, be it the lack of evidence, the lack of witnesses
and so many other possible reasons. But that is the way democratic courts
function all over the world, and the people have to accept this fact if they
want to make sure that they do have a functioning and fair judiciary:
Michael
Hartmann: It
is better to have 10 guilty released then to wrongfully convict one innocent.
Therefore you make absolutely sure, that means some people who may have
actually been guilty, in the eyes of the God; whoever their god is. We can’t
prove it to the judges and therefore the judges order the persons released.
This is the price of having a fair judicial system.
So, where does Mr. Hartmann see the Kosovan judiciary in the future: he
says that it will all depend on how the society treats the system:
Michael Hartmann: There are different alternatives depending upon the interest of both local and internationals in continuing the professional growth of the judiciary. And that means they must be protected, they must be paid well-because with the pay as it is now I see several people who I respected greatly have either left or are considering leaving the judiciary- and last there must be accountability. If judges and prosecutors do good jobs, in 5 years you could have a very, very good, European judiciary here.
That was Michael Hartman, first appointed international prosecutor in
Kosovo, And that it for this weekend edition of UNMIK on Air.
Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more.