From mentor at alb-net.com Mon Apr 7 13:37:17 2003 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 13:37:17 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Kcc-News] PRESEVO ALBANIANS SPURN MILITARY DRAFT: Balkan Crisis Report No. 420 Message-ID: WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 420, April 20, 2003 PRESEVO ALBANIANS SPURN MILITARY DRAFT http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200304_420_3_eng.txt A call for ethnic Albanians to serve in the army of Serbia-Montenegro is falling on deaf ears. By Belgzim Kamberi in Presevo There has been a poor response to the south Serbian authorities' attempts to recruit ethnic Albanian youngsters into the armed forces. Since Yugoslavia's violent dissolution in the early Nineties, Albanians have ignored calls for military service, as they considered the army a tool of the former president and arch-Serbian nationalist, Slobodan Milosevic. One former Albanian guerrilla commander spoke for many when he told IWPR, "How could I serve in an army I was fighting against?" Until two or three years ago, Albanians did at least register and undergo medical examinations, but they have been left alone since that time. However, the authorities' attitude has now changed. "Calls for military service have been sent to youngsters from all ethnic communities - including Albanians," Milovan Coguric, secretary of the defence ministry and member of the coordinating body for southern Serbia, told the media. Ethnic Albanians in Serbia - excluding Kosovo - are concentrated in the three southern municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja - some 70,000 of them live there together with 40,000 Serbs. It was the centre of an armed conflict between the Yugoslav army and Albanian guerrillas from January 2000 until mid-2001. Fighting died down after an internationally-brokered deal was reached between the two sides, under which the Albanians disarmed and gave up plans for secession in return for guarantees of greater human rights and representation in local government and police structures. The agreement opened the way to a process of fuller integration in local administration. But Albanian political leaders in southern Serbia say the planned military draft may inflame the situation once again. They say Albanians still lack confidence in Serbian institutions - especially the largely unreformed army. "The war has left deep scars and it is impossible to convince Albanian parents to send their sons for military service in Serbia," said Skender Destani, of the Party for Democratic Action, SDA, the biggest Albanian party in the area. "We are in favour of a democratic Serbia and are not prepared to join an army whose generals are sought for war crimes by The Hague tribunal," said Jonuz Musliu, leader of the Democratic Progress Movement party, which emerged from the ranks of the former guerrillas. This distrust has been heightened by the recent assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, who was gunned down in Belgrade on March 12. "These events show that elements of the Milosevic regime were still active in Serbia's military and police structures," Presevo mayor and SDA leader Riza Halimi Sadi last week during a meeting with the republic's deputy president Nebojsa Covic. Ethnic Albanian leaders argue that their people should not be summoned for military service until matters have visibly improved and confidence had grown. "We need to talk to the Serbian leadership and the international community and retain the status quo until matters progress," said Shaip Kamberi, chair of the Albanian Council for Human Rights in Bujanovac. Albanians need to be properly represented in local and regional political structures before the question of military service can arise, the community's leaders argue. "We have not yet seen a real integration in state institutions, and in the meantime they are asking for Albanians to fulfil their military service," Kamberi complained. But Serbian officials disagree. "There is no reason to ignore calls for the draft," Coguric said. "Anyone in southern Serbia who avoids military service will face legal action." Serbian officials accuse Albanians in the region of continuing to harbour dreams of joining Kosovo. In March 1992, they held an unofficial referendum, where most voted to secede from former Yugoslavia and unite wi th the province. Though Kosovo is formally part of Serbia and Montenegro, it is effectively run as an international protectorate. Talks on its final status have not yet begun. Belgzim Kamberi is an independent journalist in Presevo. From mentor at alb-net.com Wed Apr 16 10:32:11 2003 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 10:32:11 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Kcc-News] KOSOV@: PSYCHOLOGICAL WOUNDS (Balkan Crisis Report No. 423) Message-ID: KOSOVO: PSYCHOLOGICAL WOUNDS http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200304_423_3_eng.txt Four years after the Kosovo war, an increasing number of people are suffering from emotional problems linked to the conflict. By Alma Lama in Pristina More than three years after he was released from a Serbian prison, it is still difficult for Arsim Uka to turn on the light in his bedroom on awakening. "When the light would go on at the prison, everybody had to wake up quickly and turn facing the wall with our hands behind and on our knees - those who were not quick enough were subjected to inhuman tortures and beatings," he recalled. Uka's recollection and fear is just one of thousands of such memories that plague the survivors of the 1999 Kosovo conflict during which more than 10,000 people were killed and half a million uprooted before NATO military intervention expelled the Serbian forces. Four years after the war, the corridors at the Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Pristina are full of people waiting to be treated for conditions caused by what doctors call post-traumatic stress disorder. In reality, little help is available for them: there are only about 30 psychiatrists and psychologists in the contested province and the government does not have any programmes to treat such trauma. Despite the passage of time, the problem is growing, with one survey indicating that the number of reported cases more than doubled between 2001 and 2002. Uka has travelled to the Kosovo Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Tortures from Podujevo, 40 km north of Pristina. His missing teeth are a reminder of the tortures he suffered during his ten-month incarceration in Leskovac prison in Serbia, on charges of abducting an ethnic Serb. He tells doctors he suffers from stomach pain and deep depression, which is accompanied by constant thirst and frequent nightmares. He recalls in an interview how the prison guards had forced all the Albanian prisoners to get into cold water without removing their clothes and were then forced to walk around in the snow. Barely suppressing tears, he also says he was sexually abused in prison. "I had the feeling that I was going crazy there - it still haunts me from time to time," he said. The centre said in January that the number of patients treated for psychiatric disorders increased from 1,187 in 2001 to 2812 last year. Dr Ferid Agani, a neuro-psychiatrist, said it is not surprising that more people are being diagnosed with the disorder, " Right after the end of the war, people had to think of their most immediate problems such as reuniting with their families, rebuilding their destroyed houses, facing the new post-war reality and things like that, but now that these issues might have been partially solved, people are starting to suffer more spiritual pain." In September 1999, the US Centre for Disease Control, CDC, concluded from a survey of 1,358 people that 18.7 per cent of those questioned showed signs of the ailment. A year later, a similar study showed that 25 per cent were affected. People most likely to suffer are children, raped women and those who have lost their loved ones in war or were held and tortured in Serbian prisons. The CDC survey estimated that 67 per cent of Kosovo Albanians are suffering psychological disorders. Some have flashbacks, accompanied by deep emotions, fear, anxiety and uncontrolled reactions. But Dr Agani said that most Kosovars try to contain this within the family and do not ask for help from doctors until symptoms become very serious. Which is why experts believe that the actual number of people suffering from severe depression is much higher than surveys indicate. Psychologists blame mental health problems for increasing rates of crime, suicide, family violence and divorce. But the biggest problem is that Kosovo is not equipped with the necessary medical expertise and medical staff to treat patients with such emotional problems. There are only 26 neuro-psychiatrists, four clinical psychologists and one child psychiatrist in the whole of Kosovo. As a result, few patients get adequate treatment. Dr Agani said the current social, political and economic difficulties in the province are also leading to increased cases of emotional distress. According to the 2002 annual report of the ministry of labour and social affairs, 57.1 per cent of the able-bodied population is unemployed, half live below the poverty line and 12 per cent do not have even minimal living conditions. Hannu Vuori, an official at the United Nations Mission in Kosovo responsible for health, acknowledged that the health ministry does not have any specific programme or funding for people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. "Such projects have not been foreseen because mental health is considered a very complex speciality and we have not had any proposal from competent specialists in the field who would be able to implement such projects for people suffering from the trauma," Vuori said. Alma Lama is an independent Kosovo journalist From mentor at alb-net.com Tue Apr 22 14:08:08 2003 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 14:08:08 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Kcc-News] KOSOV@: POWER TRANSFER CONCERNS (Balkan Crisis Report No. 424) Message-ID: http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200304_424_2_eng.txt KOSOVO: POWER TRANSFER CONCERNS The "transfer of competencies" from international community to local control is hitting a series of stumbling blocks. By Alma Lama in Pristina Worries are deepening over the transfer of power in Kosovo, following the Serb boycott on April 8 of the joint commission meeting aimed at shifting power from the United Nations to the Kosovo government. Serbs in the protectorate fear the meeting marks the beginning of a slide towards an independent Kosovo in which they would have little or no power. But while some in the protectorate remain cautious over what transferring authority may mean, many Albanians are adamant that the role of Kosovo's government must be expanded. Ramush Tahiri, political advisor to the President of the Assembly of Kosovo, is convinced that Kosovars can run the country much better than the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, has done in the past four years. "The bottom line is that UNMIK's budget ends in 2006 and they have to start giving the power away to the local administrators who speak the language, know the mentality and are here to stay for good rather than on a six month contract," Tahiri told IWPR on Wednesday. Although substantial areas including budgetary, taxation and overall fiscal control have been handed over, UNMIK will retain control defence, justice and diplomatic relations. UNMIK, however, appears more cautious about how much authority the Kosovo government can expect to assume. "If you want to carry something heavy, then you need strong arms," Simon Haselock, head of UNMIK's public information department told IWPR on Monday. "Now they know what transfer means, they know that qualified people are needed to deal with it, and there simply aren't enough of those, so it's not as easy as they thought. They really know now what a decade of being frozen out of government has meant." Lack of professionalism is a key problem facing the new government, according to Haselock. Under the Milosevic regime, Albanians were excluded from government, so many of the officials running Kosovo's institutions have no previous experience to draw on. Challenged over any shortcomings in their work, they make excuses or try to shift the blame, said Haselock. Officials outside Kosovo have also expressed concern that the transfer process may be moving too fast. In Belgrade Deputy Serb premier Nebojsa Covic said in an interview last week on UNMIK radio that he felt the problem was not with transference itself but rather with its timing. "We are not generally against transfer of competencies, but the problem for us is when and how it is done," he said. Bajram Rexhepi, the prime minister of Kosovo, has admitted that his government does lack a clear strategy for the power transfer. According to Rexhepi this is partly due to the fact that the average government salary of 270 euro a month is hardly a motivation for educated civil servants and local specialists, who are more likely to go and work for international organisations for at least double the money. However, even enthusiasts such as Tahiri - who claims that the Kosovo government can handle all the responsibilities given to it - confess that there is one challenge which will be extremely difficult to overcome. Many in the government fear that the Kosovo Serbs are becoming increasingly radicalised by the transfer process. A day after the transfer of power working group began talks, Kosovo Serbs organised a demonstration in Gracanica, the Serbian enclave in the centre of the protectorate, carrying banners protesting against independence. The transfer of power has a longer term significance to both Albanians and Serbs. The former, many of whom want sovereignty, see the process as an opportunity to prove they are capable of running their own state. Mehmet Hajrizi, secretary to the prime-minister said: "It is very important, because it will have a bearing on how Kosovo meets the standards which the international community has laid down as the primary conditions for our independence." Officials have so far complained that their limited mandate prevents them from working effectively. UNMIK insists that the current government's incompetence in exercising its limited authority means it has not yet earned the right to greater powers. "Faced with a difficult situation, too many local officials raise their hands and ask UNMIK to come in and help them," claimed Haselock. "The non-functioning of the tax system is one of the most glaring examples," he said, adding that out of 40,000 businesses now registered in Kosovo, the government has only collected taxes from 2,000 - which means that 95 per cent of businesses are not paying. Even the Kosovo Energy Corporation, KEK, the biggest public company in the province, has not been taxed. Tahiri begs to differ, claiming that UNMIK is the highest authority when it comes making taxation effective. While the blame game continues, it appears as if the process which is, in theory, being called "the transfer of competencies" may in practice turn into a transfer of incompetencies - from UNMIK to Kosovo government. Alma Lama is a regular IWPR contributor.