The relevance of the United Nations in the wake of the Iraq
war.
And
The human rights group Amnesty International paints a bleak
picture of minority rights in Kosovo
But we begin on a more positive note – a call for dialogue
between Prishtina and Belgrade and an admission of responsibility for crimes
committed against Kosovo Albanians by Serb forces from Serbia’s deputy premier
Nebosja Covic.
A worthy suggestion, you
would think. But so far there has been no official reply. And Mr. Covic’s call
was met by certain unease in Prishtina.
Bexhet Shala, from the
council for defense of Human rights and liberties, for example, believes it is
nothing but a political stunt aimed towards getting points from the
international community.
Behxhet Shala: Covic’s call for repentance from
both sides is simply a hypocrisy that he is playing for political gains. And he
makes the call after the mafia regime that ruled Serbia has been unmasked. If
he had made this call right after the war was over then it would have carried
more weight.
While Natasa Kandic, a
Belgrade-based human rights activist, also finds the Serbian deputy pm’s
invitation out of place, though her reasons differ from Mr. Shala’s. For her
the issue of seeking forgiveness is just a formality that has to come after
other issues have been settled.
Natasa Kandic: The issue of seeking
forgiveness, apologizing, reparation and other means of setting up the process
of reconciliation come naturally after results are achieved in talks that have
to do with serious issues that are a burden for both kosovo and Serbia.
And the issues in
question are the ones that have to do with the feelings of the population
since, in order to have peace; there should be a feeling that justice has been
served amongst the ordinary people.
Natasa Kandic: I think that the issue of the
missing, war crimes responsibilities, cooperation of courts in processing war
crimes are very important. And without solving them there is no possible
forgiveness, there is no road to reconciliation. That is the starting point.
But isn’t any attempt at
reconciliation a good thing – regardless of people’s skepticism about the
motives? We asked Mr. Covic for his comments – but he told us he didn’t have
the time.
The latest report by Amnesty
International paints a bleak picture of the human rights situation of
minorities in Kosovo. Entitled “Prisoners
in our own homes”, the report says Serbs and other ethnic minorities remain at
serious risk despite almost 4 years of peace and the presence of UN and NATO
peacekeepers.
The organization charges that many
ethnically motivated crimes, which occurred in the immediate aftermath of the
war and since, have not been solved, creating a climate of impunity.
The Amnesty report talks of
discrimination in both health care and employment – this it says has led to an
increase in mortality rates while joblessness amongst Serbs and Romas runs at
around 90 percent.
Amnesty acknowledges that progress
has been made, especially with regards to security conditions for minorities,
but stresses that much more needs to be done if Serb and other IDP’s are to
return to Kosovo. Sian Jones, Amnesty International Team Researcher
Sian Jones: Of
course the situation in some places has got very much better, and we have seen
in the year we have been researching this report, we certainly have seen
improvement over that year, we have also seen considerable improvements for
example comparing the situation with this time in 2000. But the situation still
exists where there is denial of freedom of movement and there is also
discrimination against minorities in terms of access to employment, access to
education, and access to health services.
Jones adds that Kosovo
Albanians living in areas of Kosovo in which they are the minority population
are under similar strains – they too are denied freedom of movement and suffer
from similar security concerns.
Sian Jones: Although
within for example the Albanian community may feel this does not reflect their
experience, certainly it would reflect the experience of ethnic Albanians who
are living in the northern part of Kosovo, Zubin Potok, northern Mitrovica,
where they experience the same denial of freedom of movement, the same fear of
attacks, and the same for example access to education in those areas.
Local authorities in Kosovo have
dismissed concerns raised by the Amnesty report as based on erroneous
information. The office of Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi called it a quasi copy
of the recent United Nations report on Kosovo. And according to his advisor,
Ramadan Avdiu, it does not reflect the situation on the ground. Neither UNMIK nor local institutions are
responsible for the lack of Serb integration, he says, it is the Serbs
themselves.
Ramadan Avdiu: The
report for example does not mention that the worst situation when it comes to
the freedom of movement is in the northern part of Kosovo, where practically
Albanians cannot pass the Ibar river, if they do they put themselves at risk,
while for Serbs there is no danger to come be that from Northern Mitrovica or
from other parts in Gracanica or in Prishtina. This is not stated in the report,
but it is stated that there is a lack of the freedom of movement for Serbs.
JINGLE
The successes and failures of UN peace building efforts have
triggered intense debate in the run-up to and since the Iraq war. Much of the
comment, especially across the Atlantic but also here in Kosovo, has been
adverse, focusing on UNMIK’s alleged failures, and hence the irrelevance of the
UN in post-conflict Iraq. Unmikistan is
the way one Kosovar journalist recently described the UN presence in Kosovo,
adding piously, that he wished the Iraqi people would be spared such an
experience.
The fact of the matter though is that building the peace is
much more difficult than winning a war. Both in the Balkans and more recently
in Iraq, the victory by NATO troops or the Anglo-American military force was a
foregone conclusion. Rebuilding a post
war society however is another ball game – while security considerations remain
important, it takes political will and above all long term commitment for such
interventions to succeed.
The United Nations, argues
Mark Cedras, a frequent commentator on UN affairs, at the Bonn International
Centre for Conversion in Germany, is uniquely equipped to deal with such
contingencies, not least because it guarantees a longer-term focus. And to
those who say Kosovo would have been better off being a US protectorate rather
than a UN one, he has these words of caution.
Mark Cedras: The US essentially shies away
from intervening or establishing these sorts of systems in areas where it does not
have a direct interest. This was sort of still seen as a European sphere of
influence, not an area where the US should establish a longer term or more of
an intensive presence so I think that the UN presence was something that just
fit, this is the best case scenario for this area.
Afghanistan is a case in point he says the murderous Taliban
regime collapsed swiftly under the US onslaught in November 2001 and Hamid
Karzai was handpicked to be the new ruler. 5 billion dollars in reconstruction
aid was pledged by the international community, which also promised a 10,000
strong international police force. The reality is that aid pledges have not
been redeemed, US attention is not as focused as it was 15 months before, while
apart from Kabul the capital, the rest of Afghanistan is largely under the rule
of the gun and of warlords.
Mark Cedras: This is an area where the US
does not have a vested interest economically and other aspects, so in terms of
its not playing or giving a full effort in order to establish a strong central
government this is the same sort of situation I’m sure would have occurred in
Kosovo, which is why Afghanistan is better served by having a UN run framework.
And at some point, probably sooner rather than later,
Washington will inevitably turn to the UN for help. In fact Washington already
has. Steve Bennett, the head of the Kosovo police school is currently in Iraq
providing guidance on setting up an accountable and democratic police force.
Steve Bennett: People who have done that once are
better prepared to do it the next time, and to apply the things that they have
institutionally and individually learned about how to make a mission like this
work.
Still a place for the U.N., then. And that’s all for this
week’s roundup from UNMIK on Air.