[Kcc-News] "LEGALISED" DIVISION OF MITROVICA; GOVERNING MITROVICA: A CRITICAL CROSSROADS (Balkan Crisis Report No. 393, Part I)

[Mentor Cana]

IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 393, Part I, December 23, 2002

COMMENT: "LEGALISED" DIVISION OF MITROVICA  The UN Mitrovica agreement
effectively legitimises the Serbian parallel structures it claimed it
wanted to remove. By Nexhmedin Spahiu in Mitrovica.
  http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200212_393_3_eng.txt

COMMENT: GOVERNING MITROVICA: A CRITICAL CROSSROADS  What lies in store
for northern Mitrovica - gradual reintegration into the rest of Kosovo or
institutionalised separation? By Valerie Percival in Pristina.
  http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200212_393_4_eng.txt

COMMENT: "LEGALISED" DIVISION OF MITROVICA

The UN Mitrovica agreement effectively legitimises the Serbian parallel
structures it claimed it wanted to remove.

By Nexhmedin Spahiu in Mitrovica

A much-trumpeted UN sponsored agreement to reunify Mitrovica in northern
Kosovo now appears to have practically legalised the division of the town
instead.

The chief of United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNIMK, Michael Steiner,
signed the accord with Serbian deputy prime minister Nebojsa Covic on
November 25. Ostensibly, it was intended to loosen Belgrade's grip on
northern Mitrovica, which is predominantly populated by ethnic Serbs, and
open a way for the return of ethnic Albanians who form a majority in the
rest of Kosovo.

The ethnic division emerged after the NATO intervention, when Serbs
expelled from other parts of Kosovo fled to northern Mitrovica and pushed
Albanians into the southern half of the town.

A closer look at the agreement shows that it stripped the largely Albanian
municipal assembly of its powers in the north of the town. In addition,
the UNMIK administration due to be formed in the north has been designed
to discourage Albanians from seeking jobs on it.  The accord also provided
no framework to encourage Albanians to go back to homes they used to
occupy before the war.

Many Albanians in Mitrovica have been slowly waking up to realise the
effects that Steiner's document will have on our community.

On the day it was signed, I received hundreds of phone calls from
different parts of Kosovo and from all over the world congratulating me on
the "reunification" of Mitrovica, my hometown.

At first sight, the agreement sounded revolutionary. For three and a half
years since the arrival of NATO troops in Kosovo, the divided town has
been a black mark on the international community's record in Kosovo. This
was because UNMIK controlled only the southern, Albanian populated side of
the town while Belgrade ran parallel structures for Serbs north of the
river Ibar.

Now, Steiner tells us he has managed to convince Covic to give up the
control over northern Mitrovica. But, the question is, to what cost?

My scepticism was first aroused when I found out that Faruk Spahia,
chairman of the Local Council of Mitrovica, was informed about the "great
news" of reunification by journalists of the from RTK national television.
You'd expect the head of UNMIK to have been the first to break this news
to the elected local government!

Steiner eventually did invite the local council leaders for dinner, only
to tell them that, in order to achieve the reunification of Mitrovica,
they had to refrain from using their powers over the northern part of the
city.   Confusion was reinforced by the fact that the Local Council of
Mitrovica was stripped of the formal powers given to it by UNMIK decree in
2000.

With this agreement, UNMIK is basically telling them that they will not
have the means to do the job they were elected to do.

I wanted my international friends in Mitrovica to explain what this
agreement actually meant. One of them was kind enough to explain that
Steiner had, in fact, given way to Covic, who was negotiating on behalf of
the Serbs living on the north of Mitrovica. He showed me the agreement,
signed by Steiner and Covic, which confirmed my worst fears.

I found out Covic had demanded that, if Belgrade is to halt its support
for parallel structures in the south of Mitrovica, UNMIK will have to
convince Mitrovica's local council, dominated by Albanians, to give up
their authority over the Serbian side of the town. Steiner went along with
this condition.

Practically, with this agreement, north Mitrovica is again going to get a
special treatment compared with the rest of Kosovo. The governing
procedures which are applied to all municipalities in the region will not
be applied in north Mitrovica. This means that the south will, de facto,
be functioning as a parallel entity, only this time  supported by UNMIK.
The organisation called the United Nations has served to divide the town.

To find out what the Serbs were thinking about the agreement, I turned to
TV Most, a local TV station based in Zvecan, a Serbian enclave near
Mitrovica. I heard the Covic statement promising Mitrovica Serbs that all
the present employees of the parallel administration will be employed in
the same position by the UNMIK administration that is due to be
established in the north.

TV Most was founded by the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's
party. This time it was telling the truth. The details about employment in
northern Mitrovica administration were confirmed in the document I had
been shown earlier.

To make matters worse, the job openings for local administrators in north
Mitrovica were advertised only in the Serbian language, making it clear
that UNMIK did not want Albanians applying for the posts.

After the TV debate organised by Koha Vision and by me, as the director of
Radio- Television of Mitrovica, I asked John Rogers, the International
Administrator of Mitrovica, why the openings were not advertised with the
local Albanian media. His reply was laughable - that all the money
earmarked for advertising the jobs had been used up due to the high cost
of Serbian newspaper advertisements.

It's no wonder local Kosovars are fed up with UNMIK's biased policies and
double standards. The limiting of job opportunities to just one community
is one more proof of that.

Despite all this, some of my friends still don't understand what is going
on. They are optimistic about the latest developments. Halil, who used to
live in the north before the war and whose house is occupied by a Serb
family, says, "We will be back in our homes in no time ... we are run by
internationals and international standards will not allow the occupation
of other people's homes."

But a person sitting next to us chimed in, "The same people who stopped
you returning home will stop you again, only now they have the backing of
international community to do it."

This is what actually happened to Murat Shabani, an Albanian who decided
to go back to his house in northern Mitrovica, a few days after the
agreement was reached.

On the day he arrived with his family, a grenade was hurled at the house.
We believe it was thrown by the paramilitary group known as the
"Bridgewatchers", young men paid by the Serbian ministry of interior, MUP,
to keep Albanians out of northern Mitrovica.

Another issue stemming from the agreement is the fate of Albanian houses,
which were destroyed in northern Mitrovica. If Albanians decided to go
back, despite the great security risks, it's highly unlikely they would be
granted rebuilding permits by the Serbian local authorities.

Three weeks after the joyful media frenzy over the "reunification of
Mitrovica", Kosovo Albanians are only now beginning to realise the real
consequences of the agreement.

Most of the local Albanian media, especially the most watched
Radio-Television of Kosovo, RTK, interpreted the agreement as a triumph
over Serbian parallel structures. This comes hardly as a surprise
considering that RTK is financed by UNMIK and its managing board was
appointed by Steiner's predecessor, Hans Haekkerup.

Other Albanian language media, apart from Koha Vision and the
Radio-Television of Mitrovica, also waxed enthusiastic over the
"liberation" of northern Mitrovica, churning out patriotic songs in
celebration.

However, it is clear to me that, by signing this agreement, Steiner has,
in fact way given legitimacy to the Serbian parallel structures in the
north of the town.

In the TV debate, John Rogers did not rule out the possibility that the
UNMIK administration in northern Mitrovica might turn into a municipality
of its own one day.

Veton Surroi, the editor of the biggest daily newspaper in Kosovo, was
also sceptical about the latest turn of events in Mitrovica. "Belgrade
finally removed a lot of pressure coming from the international community
and in the meantime reinforced its position in northern Mitrovica,"  he
wrote in his  column.

It seems most people are waiting to see the first practical effects of the
Steiner-Covic agreement. As of now, things do not look good.

I fear that Belgrade's plan for eventual partition of Kosovo has taken a
step forward. with Steiner's signature on an agreement which, in effect,
legalises the old Serb parallel structures that UNMIK was claiming it
wanted to remove.

Mitrovica has been divided again, but it is not official yet. I am
convinced that Kosovar Albanians can expect similar "blunders" from UNMIK
when it starts  negotiating on the future status of Kosovo.

Nexhmedin Spahiu is a political analyst and the director of Mitrovica
Radio Television.


COMMENT: GOVERNING MITROVICA: A CRITICAL CROSSROADS

What lies in store for northern Mitrovica - gradual reintegration into the
rest of Kosovo or institutionalised separation?

By Valerie Percival in Pristina

For almost three and a half years, the troubled city of Mitrovica has been
a thorn in the side of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK.
Rocked by frequent uprisings and an apparently unbridgeable gulf between
Albanians and Serbs, the city epitomises the ethnic fault-line that
characterises Kosovo.

The northern part of the city has been run by an illegal parallel
administration supported by Belgrade, and is viewed by Albanians as an
island of unchallenged Serb power, influence and control.  On November 25,
the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Kosovo, Michael
Steiner, announced an agreement reached with Belgrade whereby illegal
administrative and security structures in the north of the city will
replaced with direct UNMIK rule.

The agreement represents a victory for UNMIK, which can finally claim to
run the whole province, and a setback for those in Belgrade who hoped that
the continued division of Mitrovica would provide them with an invaluable
argument for the partition of Kosovo during final status talks.  It has
placed Mitrovica - and maybe even Kosovo - at a critical juncture, and so
deserves the support of the international community.

But such support cannot be unequivocal until UNMIK demonstrates that this
agreement will form a pragmatic step towards the reintegration of Serbs
and Albanians, and not serve to institutionalise the existing separation
of the two communities.

In a report issued in June this year, the International Crisis Group, ICG,
argued that the continued division in Mitrovica was enabling Belgrade to
stake out a de facto partition of the province.  Such a partition would be
destabilising for Kosovo and would set a dangerous precedent in a region
already torn apart by a decade of conflict. We argued that concrete steps
to tackle the division in Mitrovica were possible, with the right
combination of political will and international muscle could be brought to
bear.

We recommended that the international community put pressure on Belgrade
to play the role of honest broker in the north and outlined a multi-track
approach that addressed security issues, recommended the establishment of
a specially-administered area governed by UNMIK assisted by a local
council, and outlined a plan for a gradual integration of this area into
the larger municipality.

The November agreement followed months of difficult negotiations between
the deputy prime minister of Serbia, Nebojsa Covic, and Michael Steiner.
Both deserve credit for demonstrating the courage and will to tackle the
Mitrovica problem.  Mitrovica's Serbs were initially offered a substantial
decentralisation of existing municipal powers, plus various economic
development initiatives, on condition that they turned out to vote at the
October 26 local elections.

When less than one hundred people in north Mitrovica cast a vote, UNMIK's
strategy failed.  Instead, a fall-back plan was implemented, with UNMIK
assuming administrative control in the north of the city.

Michael Steiner hopes the new administrative arrangements will bring
normality to the north. The barbed wire checkpoints on the bridge over the
Ibar river which divides the city have already been dismantled. The
notorious paramilitary-style Bridgewatchers, who guarded the bridge from
the Serbian side, will be replaced by the Kosovo Police Service - whose
officers will include both former Bridgewatchers and Serbian police.

KFOR will adopt a less visible and less intrusive presence in the area and
UNMIK is relocating some of its own institutions to the north.  These
include the new Kosovo Trust Agency that will oversee the privatisation of
formerly state-owned enterprises, which should provide a small economic
boost to the area.

The new UN Deputy Municipal Administrator for Mitrovica will have 70
employees, and an advisory board composed of local Serb, Albanian and
Bosniak representatives.  This arrangement closely reflects the
recommendations outlined by the International Crisis Group. With
Belgrade's cooperation, UNMIK has established a special UN-administered
area in the north, set up a council composed of local leaders and brought
local Serb police officers into the new fold.

But UNMIK's move into north Mitrovica may have come at the price of
legalising a previously de facto division. It remains unclear what
relationship north Mitrovica will have with the rest of the municipality,
what strategy exists to reintegrate it into the wider area, or what will
replace the parallel services, currently provided by Belgrade in sectors
such as health or education.

The future of parallel institutions such as the Mitrovica hospital run by
Milan Ivanovic has not been clarified. UNMIK has even offered assurances
that there are no plans to take control of the education and health
departments in north Mitrovica. This begs the question of what level of
authority UNMIK will exercise in practice.

Mitrovica was intended to become UNMIK's decentralisation showcase, as the
mission embarks on a wider decentralisation programme across the province.
When the Serbs in north Mitrovica did not vote, thereby forfeiting the
decentralisation package on offer, direct UNMIK rule followed.  This is
undoubtedly a step forward, but as Michael Steiner understands only too
well, it cannot be the final step.  UNMIK's efforts to govern Mitrovica
must not come at the price of sacrificing the goals of multi-ethnicity and
integration.

Since 1999 the entire thrust of international effort in Kosovo has been to
create a unified multi-ethnic province under the provisions of Security
Council Resolution 1244, which sealed the end of the NATO action. Kosovo
Serbs would like nothing better than to redraw the municipal boundaries in
Kosovo along ethnic lines, arguing that only ethnic segregation can
guarantee them a future in the province.

Mitrovica is now at a critical crossroads. Northern Mitrovica could begin
a gradual process of reintegration into the rest of the municipality and
into Kosovo. Or it could be granted an institutionalised separation from
the rest of the municipality, laying the foundations for the cantonisation
of the province. If the aim of integration is abandoned here, the impact
will be felt in other municipalities facing similar, albeit less daunting,
ethnic tensions.  If multi-ethnicity remains our goal in Kosovo, we must
not let this provisional solution in Mitrovica, however well-intentioned,
become the first step towards institutionalising the ethnic divide.

Valerie Percival is Kosovo Project Director for the International Crisis
Group.