[ALBSA-Info] Daily Telegraph 5

[Agron Alibali]

 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)

February 10, 2000, Thursday

Pg. 20



The Balkans: legacy of war: Do-gooders fail to heal
Kosovo wounds A
flood of highly paid international aid workers - the
third invasion in 12 months
- has served only to spark local resentment

By PATRICK BISHOP

 BODY:
AT THE headquarters of the Organisation for Security
and Co-operation in Europe,
the body charged with persuading people to abandon the
bad old ways, the notice 
board dedicated to recording progress on "Elections
and Democratisation" is
poignantly empty.

   Outside, the streets are choked with expensive
four-wheel-drives driven by
middle-aged white males accompanied by youthful female
interpreters. As night
falls, Pristina's bars and restaurants fill up with
the "internationals" looking
for relaxation after a hard day of meetings.

   Kosovo is undergoing its third invasion in 12
months but this time the
occupying force is not in uniform. The new arrivals
are a disparate crew of
do-gooders led by the big battalions of the OSCE, the
United Nations Mission in 
Kosovo (Unmik) and the European Union, and supported
by countless irregulars
from the world's non-governmental humanitarian
organisations.

   You do not have to be a yokel to marvel at the
scale of the operation, nor a 
cynic to wonder what is going on.

   What are they doing, all these men and women, with
their purposeful air,
smart ski jackets and trilling mobile phones? It is a
question that Kosovars
frequently ask as they dodge the arcs of filthy slush
from the wheels of the
4x4s.

   Who are the beneficiaries of all this conspicuous
expenditure? Among the
blacked-out, unheated blocks of flats and the hangdog
women scouring the market 
for cheap food, it is hard to suppress the thought
that the winners of the peace
so far are Toyota, Nokia, Timberland and the Pilsner
Urquell brewing company.

   As the anniversary of the Kosovo war looms, both
Kosovars and the outsiders
who are supposed to be helping them to rebuild their
lives are beset with
frustration. No one doubts that life is better than a
year ago. Yet the rate of 
recovery lags well behind the expectations of the
local population.

   Despite their insistence that they are doing their
best, the "internationals"
cannot disguise their unease that the massive effort
being expended on the
enterprise is not producing results.

   Just when it seems that stability is returning,
there is some dreadful
reminder of the hatred and violence still throbbing in
the dingy streets and
blasted villages.

   At the turn of the year it seemed that security, if
not peace, had come to
Kosovo. The surge of murders following the war had
subsided and the killing rate
was down to one or so a week. The presence of 50,000
Nato KFOR soldiers appeared
to be adequate protection for the Serb and Roma
minorities.

   Then last week a UN-escorted bus was attacked with
rockets and two elderly
Serbs killed. In revenge attacks, seven  Albanians 
were murdered and six
wounded, and this despite a KFOR presence that would,
as the UN points out, be
the equivalent of two million soldiers and social
workers on the streets of
Britain.

    The most obvious flashpoint is the northern town
of Mitrovica, where Serbs
live on one side and the majority  Albanians  on the
other, separated by a
bridge guarded by French troops.

   It is the scene of regular demonstrations and
stand-offs. "They want to drive
me out; they want to kill me," said a 26-year-old
former civil servant, who can 
see his office on the far side of the bridge but is
too frightened to go to
work. "But then, we don't like the  Albanians  either.
We don't want to live
with them."

   Reconciliation is many generations away, as the
"internationals" have quickly
recognised. No one is wasting any time trying to get
Kosovo's inhabitants to
like each other.

   It is enough that, propelled by self-interest, they
should work together,
taking over some responsibility for running the place.

   Nineteen embryonic administrative departments have
been established, with the
main ones such as health, education, local
administration and finance taking
their first few faltering steps.

   So far only the three main  Albanian  parties are
on board, but that is
something, given the potential for internal strife.
Until elections are held,
Kosovo will be run by an Interim Administrative
Council, a partnership of the
 Albanians  and the UN.

   Once again, the Serbs have yet to sign up. Local
representatives from the
Gracanica area have indicated their willingness to get
on board, but they are
being held back by militants from Mitrovica assumed to
be under the control of
Slobodan Milosevic.

   Until Serbs feel safe in Kosovo, co-operation is
bound to be hesitant and
conditional. Recent events suggest that trouble-makers
still feel they have
little to fear from the new regime. But after seven
months in which all but the 
most heinous criminals have had to be set free while
awaiting trials that may
never take place, the rule of law is tentatively
taking root. Last month 137
judges, prosecutors and magistrates were sworn in and
courts have begun
processing the backlog of cases.

   But there is still a crippling lack of police to
arrest and investigate.
About 2,000 international police are deployed, far
fewer than the 6,000 that the
head of Unmik, Dr Bernard Kouchner, has been pleading
for. Nor is the police
academy set up to train a local force capable of
producing the numbers needed.

   Recruits are certainly not attracted by the
salaries. Local people are bitter
at the pitiful pay being offered to the men and women
needed to rebuild Kosovo. 
A doctor gets pounds 120 a month and a teacher pounds
95. A local translator
will get four times that. Top international staff at
the OSCE can expect up to
100 times more.

   To the resentful young, the "internationals" make
an absurd sight as they
bustle around, clogging the traffic.

   Memories are short and freedom has not filled their
bellies or put flesh on
the bones of their dreams. The new occupation may be a
benign one, but Kosovo is
still - physically and metaphorically - a place of
darkness.

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