[ALBSA-Info] Nga Etrit Bardhi

[Asti Pilika]

KOSOVO'S NOUVEAUX RICHES 

                Resentment is mounting over huge wage
disparities created by the international
organisations. As the UN and others shell out
                vastly inflated salaries to a lucky
few, tens of thousands of public employees wait in
vain for their meagre payments.

                By Imer Mushkolaj in Pristina (BCR No.
105, 7-Jan-00)

                Besnik Zabergja stands at the bar in
Tricky Dick's café, Pristina, smoking a Marlboro
cigarette and drinking a foreign beer.
                Dressed up and swaying to the loud
music, Besnik has joined some young friends for a
relaxing drink after work. Just down the
                road Idriz Ajeti holds a tense
discussion with his wife over the family budget.

                Besnik, a student of electronic
engineering, now works for the Organisation for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as a
                personal assistant. He earns 2,000
German marks (DM) per month. Ajeti, a distinguished
academic, founding member of the
                Kosovo Academy of Science and Arts and
author of several scientific studies, has to make do
on 165 DM month - if he is gets
                paid at all. 

                With the arrival of NATO forces and a
plethora of other international organisations in
Kosovo, a new stratum of the privileged has
                been created. The OSCE, the United
Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the multitude of
other non-government
                organisations (NGOs) in Kosovo have
recruited hundreds of local young people to help - and
pay very good salaries in return.

                Meanwhile tens of thousands of
Kosovars - professors, academics and public employees
of all descriptions - have not received
                even their minimal salaries for
several months. A driver or interpreter for an
international organisation receives around 1,000 DM a
                month, six or seven times the average
income in Kosovo. 

                Virtually the only requirement is a
driver's licence. But only a few hundred such jobs
exist, while the rest of the population is left
                to cope with the effects of Kosovo's
fractured economy. 

                Most factories are still not
operational and many people remain reliant on
assistance provided by humanitarian organisations.
                Kosovo teachers are among the poorest.
They had hoped that the arrival of the UN
administration under Bernard Kouchner would
                resolve the problem of their salaries.
But six months after the end of war, teachers have
received a 200 DM subsidy and little
                else. 

                "UNMIK has promised that they will pay
at least $200 a month, but we have seen nothing until
now. We are still working for free,"
                said Fatmushe Shala, an elementary
school teacher in Pristina. 

                For nine years, Shala and her
colleagues have been paid through direct contributions
from Albanian families using the schools,
                providing an average salary of not
more than 150 DM a month. 

                Professors at the philology faculty at
Pristina University have also only received a subsidy
of $200 from UNMIK. "Professors have
                not received any payment for
months.The amount given to them as aid by UNMIK is
minimal. People are not happy," said Vesel
                Nuhiu, dean of philology. 

                As a result, many professors and
students from the faculty are employed as interpreters
by international organisations. 

                "The third and fourth course of
English language at our faculty is almost non-existent
at the moment. All the students have left
                the university and are working for
international organisations. In addition, ten of our
professors work part time for these
                organisations," Nuhiu said. "It is
absurd that a professor is paid five to six times less
than his students. We cannot ask
                professors to work for us for such a
ridiculous salary."

                The situation is also bad in other
sectors of the Kosovo economy. Employees in the energy
sector are also paid irregularly. "We
                have only received 540 DM in aid from
UNMIK since the end of the war," complained Bajram
Gjinovci, a worker at the Kosova B
                thermoelectric power station.

                Kouchner has announced that the annual
budget for the province for the year 2000 will be
about $391 million. International
                authorities are planning to meet the
monthly salary payments for around 65,000 Kosovo
employees. Simple arithmetic produces
                an average salary of 270 DM a month
for each worker. But as the administration collects
little revenue from the province itself,
                almost all such payments come from
international donations.

                UNMIK officials recognise that
unemployment and the general standard of living are
among the biggest challenges facing Kosovo.
                "It is very important to us that
business restarts amidst good conditions", said
Maurice Mezel, head of UNMIK's employment
                office. "We should find a way to
decide on payment according to some qualifications. It
is difficult to understand how one of our
                drivers can earn a 1,000 DM a month,
while a doctor receives nothing for months on end."

                Mezel emphasises the need for close
co-operation with Kosovo institutions on vocational
training, to prepare people to work with
                the EU and other international
organisations - an approach Kosovo Albanian officials
welcome.

                Most people in Kosovo look with mixed
feelings of admiration and resentment at the lucky few
who have secured prized
                employment with international
organisation. "It is not normal at all that a driver
or interpreter with UNMIK is paid that much, while
                my husband earns only 165 DM,"
complained Hajrija, wife of the academic Ajeti. 

                "Kouchner himself is building two
different classes in our society, the poor and the
rich," Agim, a medicine student, complained. 

                "My salary is the only income for my
family," said Mimoza Pireva, a student now working as
an interpreter for the British sector
                of KFOR. "But I do not think this [a
relatively large income] is fair either, and I am
sorry about it," she added. 

                Idriz Ajeti remains philosophical: "I
think things are going to be better in the future, and
everybody will get what he deserves." Yet
                while he and others like him wait and
hope for fair compensation from the UN, Besnik
Zabergja and his lucky counterparts will
                continue their toasts at the local
café, which some of its grateful patrons wish to
rename "Tricky Kouchner's".

                Imer Mushkolaj is a journalist in Kosovo.
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