[ALBSA-Info] London Times editorial

[Agron Alibali]

           The Times (London)                        
February 23, 2000, Wednesday


Losing the peace

 The intense clashes between British troops and Kosovo
 Albanians  in
Mitrovica might have been prompted by the explosive
circumstances of this
divided city. They are also a reflection of the wider
difficulties that the
international community has faced as it attempts to
restore order within Kosovo.
The ethnic violence demonstrated in Mitrovica is
unusual, if only because Serbs 
and  Albanians  in the rest of Kosovo have so
separated themselves from each
other that direct conflict is impractical. But the
drift towards anarchy seems
relentless. The prospect of a smooth transition to
civilian control, scheduled
to start by the end of this year, now appears
unrealistic.

    The task of promoting civil peace within Kosovo
never promised to be
comfortable. The legacy of discrimination practised in
the province by Slobodan 
Milosevic over a decade, the impact of the war itself
and the mass expulsion of 
Kosovo  Albanians,  the continuing destabilisation
orchestrated by Mr Milosevic 
within Kosovo and Montenegro, and the fact that Serbia
sits at the centre of
those economic networks and transport routes essential
to recovery, will
continue to impede reconstruction.

    The minimal progress made in Kosovo over the last
nine months is still very 
disappointing. The elementary institutions essential
for a civil society to
function coherently - an agreed legal code,
established property rights,
reliable tax revenues, a functioning banking system
and at least an embryonic
political process free from physical intimidation -
remain absent or inadequate.
The most potent symbol of this disorder has been the
directorate established to 
arbitrate in the numerous property disputes across
Kosovo. It could not start
work as planned because of a dispute over who owned
the buildings from which it 
was to operate.

    The absence of any consensus over the authority of
Yugoslav legislation
within Kosovo, the uncertain procedures for trials,
the refusal of local police 
officers to arrest, or judges to impose sentences on,
all those with whom they
sympathise has inspired an orgy of lawlessness. The
overwhelming majority of
criminal suspects are released shortly after their
arrest and then disappear.
The international police force is still, as Bernard
Kouchner, the UN Special
Representative for Kosovo contends, understaffed and
overstretched. It has not
received the promised reinforcements. This has obliged
Nato peacekeeping forces,
with varying degrees of commitment and competence, to
assume a policing role
which was never intended.

    This is not purely a problem of unruly elements
and insufficient resources. 
The bureaucratic in-fighting between the numerous
international institutions -
UN, Nato, EU and the OSCE - that possess a presence of
sorts in Kosovo has
compounded matters. M Kouchner was appointed to his
post at the behest of France
for reasons of "political balance" rather than
regional expertise or technical
competence. He has proved an inefficient administrator
with an unhelpful
enthusiasm for personal publicity. The UN now needs to
reconsider every aspect
of its work in Kosovo. If it does not, then it will
find itself present on the
ground for decades but to little beneficial effect.

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