[AKI] Kosova's UNMIKians : A Protectorate without a Vision

[AKI News]

Advocates for Kosova Independence (AKI)
November 17, 2001

On the day of Kosova's historic turning point, during the difficult process
of establishing the rule of law throughout the tumultuous central Balkan
peninsula, a new action campaign was formed to advocate for the right to
self-determination for the people of Kosova.  Sponsored by the Kosova Action
Network, the Advocates for Kosova Independence (AKI) has been created for
the purpose of providing a forum for discussion and research to evaluate as
to what form that self-determination should take.

During the past 5 years, Kosova Action Network has advocated for human
rights and principles of equality first by supporting the Independent
Student's Union (UPSUP) demand for education and then by advocating for the
release of 2,300 illegally detained Kosova Albanian prisoners, some 200 of
whom still remain in Serb prisons.

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  ** AKI Newsletter, Issue 1 **
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News: November 17, 2001 : Elections held in Kosova
Elections held in Kosova on November 17 for the first time since 1989. After
twelve years without elected representation, the Kosovars elect
representatives with limited power. Real power will remain with UNMIK
leaders.

News: November 16, 2001 : Macedonia adopts a new constitution
Arben Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians, welcomed the
constitutional changes. "We repaired the constitution and now we have to
repair the mentality that created ethnic conflicts."

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Kosova's UNMIKians: A Protectorate Without a Vision

There are many reasons for beginning this effort. Kosova's future cannot be
left
vulnerable and dependent upon such random factors as:

1) The half-hearted inattention and fluctuations of the US political
leadership regarding a vision for Kosova and a stable future for the Balkans

2) The recalcitrance of Russia and China's veto power on the UN Security
Council and their steadfast lack of concern for human rights, subverting the
very principles the UN was formed to protect fifty years ago.

3) The hypocrisy implicit in the EU's haphazard application of principles of
sovereignty they consistently award to the tattered remnants of the Former
Yugoslavia while stating in all their by-laws that protection of minorities
and human rights is the priority of every member of the EU and Council of
Europe

4) Kosova and Serbia's political leadership vacuum and absolute lack of
tolerance, generosity, and moral vision

5) The failure of Kosova's citizens to understand the expectations of
Western leaders regarding protection of minorities, the rule of law, and
fundamental human rights.


These factors spiral around and around each other. Each sector points a
finger of anger and blame at the other instead of acknowledging and
shouldering the responsibilities needed to create a shared vision that is
safe and meaningful for all citizens.

This fact remains: Kosova is unique. It lies at the geopolitical center of
the Balkans and therefore, if for no other reason, will always be crucial in
establishing a stable region. The large Albanian population has never
enjoyed full representation or legal equality in the way that other European
ethnic groups have during the past fifty years. The freedom that arose from
the collapse of Communism never reached Kosova. In 1989 they slipped into an
imposed totalitarian repression. The strange borders drawn up at the
collapse of the Ottoman Empire did not reflect the needs of the Albanian
population and divided them from each other. The Albanians have never had a
chance to formally express these historic wrongs in a setting where they
have representation. This is one stream of experience.

In Kosova there is a confluence of historic and present-day expectations.

Here is another stream, the international one. We are all familiar with the
difficulties that surrounded NATO's decision to intervene in Kosova. The
decision marked a historic change in the status of principles of human
rights. It signaled a historic end to totalitarianism. It marked a turning
point away from the laissez-faire policy of non-intervention in the affairs
of sovereign states (which resulted in the terrible disasters in Bosnia and
Rwanda). Kosova was supposed to be the test case, in which international
policy-makers decided that the world need NOT stand idly by watching ethnic,
intra-state slaughter of thousands on CNN. The people of Kosova did not
deserve to die at the hands of an army that had already killed 250,000
others. We took the responsibility of intervening. But we, all five parties
mentioned above, avoided the responsibility of structuring a legitimate,
planned solution. The result has been so far - defacto partitioning (like
Mitrovica) or enclaves or the location of a semi-permanent Russian tank at
the Prishtina airport. UNMIK is forced to lurch from crisis to crisis
dragging a reluctant population behind it.

But what to do? Kosova cannot remain for long as a protectorate without a
future while Serb politicians ludicrously bluster about now being the time
to plan to re-enter Kosova. And the Bush administration pays no attention to
either the significance of this region nor what America has invested in it
so far. And the EU considers Serbia and Macedonia to be the two significant
countries, with their rights and principles a priority to Kosova's. That
leaves a political power vacuum at the center of a region where minorities
now know for a fact that only violence gets the attention of outsiders. The
peaceful method, the referendum stated in UN1244, for now, has been
postponed. Until when?

By denying Kosova the chance for self-determination, are we denying a
population the right to freedom of speech? Are we then creating a defacto
country called UNMIK? Will UNMIKians some day vote in the FRY legislature?
Will that make FRY an international protectorate as well?

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RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Read the Kosovo Report by the Independent International Commission on
Kosovo. Oxford University Press. 2000. or visit them on the web at
www.kosovocommission.org

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