From mentor at alb-net.com Mon Jul 12 13:59:03 2004 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 13:59:03 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Kcc-News] Kosova Parliament Challenges U.N. Message-ID: 1. Kosovo's Parliament Set To Challenge UN's Authority (RFERL) 2. Kosovo Parliament Challenges U.N. Authority (Reuters) ### 1 ### http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/07/1965fbf8-54f6-4ea7-b8d2-9db48862dbd3.html Kosovo's Parliament Set To Challenge UN's Authority By Patrick Moore Thursday, 08 July 2004 Kosova's parliament voted on 8 July to adopt several constitutional changes, including one establishing the right to hold a referendum on independence. Other measures call for switching responsibility for international relations and public security from the UN civilian administration (UNMIK) to Kosova's own officials. UNMIK has repeatedly warned the parliament that it is not competent to make changes to the Constitutional Framework. Only the UN Security Council, which adopted Resolution 1244 in 1999, has the authority to make such changes, UNMIK stresses. One unnamed international official called the parliament's vote a waste of time. But in the wake of the ethnically motivated unrest in March, many political leaders in Kosova have called for speeding up the transfer of authority from UNMIK to Kosovar officials (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 2 and 16 April 2004). In a well-publicized editorial, publisher Veton Surroi suggested in the 17 June issue of "Koha Ditore" that the next head of the international administration would do well not to bring any grand plan along. Instead, he should simply let the elected Kosovar officials get on with governing, intervening only when absolutely necessary. In fact, many Kosovars argue that the violence showed that the province is a time bomb waiting to explode so long as the status issue remains unresolved. They stress that time has come to end what is essentially a colonial administration in a postcolonial world, moving toward independence based on self-determination and majority rule, as has been the standard in the post-1945 process of decolonization. These and other scenarios regarding Kosova were discussed on 17 and 18 June at an off-the-record conference in Berlin sponsored by the German Foreign Ministry, the Bertelsmann Foundation, and the Munich-based Center for Applied Policy Research, titled "Rethinking the Balkans" (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 25 June 2004). Many of the Western participants at that gathering stressed that the Kosovars must first meet internationally mandated standards before there can be movement toward clarifying Kosova's final status. Serbian participants, for their part, were generally keen to note the importance of all minority rights, including freedom of movement and the right of all refugees and displaced persons to go home. Several Serbs stressed that they will measure the Albanians' sincerity by the extent to which they protect the Serbs' rights, adding that few Serbs are optimistic on this score following the March violence. Instead, many Serbs argued for some form of administrative partition. One Serb said that dividing Bosnia into two ethnically based entities in 1995 might not have been a perfect solution, but it has worked. Besides, he wondered, how can one charge that Bosnia is a weak state when it has the might of the international community behind it? Some of the Kosovar Albanian participants took the opposite approach, arguing that one reason for the frustration that led to the March violence was the tendency of UNMIK to try to build a multiethnic society on basis of ethnic divisions. Instead, Hashim Thaci of the Democratic Party of Kosova (PDK) told "Balkan Report" on the margins of the conference that Kosova needs a solution resembling Macedonia's 2001 Ohrid agreement, which would reconstruct Kosova on the civic principle rather than on an ethnic basis. This, Thaci continued, would mean an end to enclaves and parallel structures by treating Kosova as a single country. Serbs would have the right to dual Serbian and Kosovar citizenship and to contacts with Serbia. Their cultural and historical monuments would be protected, Thaci stressed. But at least some of the Westerners at the Berlin conference called for recasting rather than ending the foreign administration in Kosova. Some participants close to Germany's opposition Free Democratic Party (FDP) repeated their party's call for replacing UNMIK with an EU administration, while maintaining NATO's security presence. One FDP member of the German parliament told "Balkan Report" on the margins of the conference that the EU is more knowledgeable about Kosova's affairs than are many international officials from Africa or Asia, adding that the EU is in the best position to offer the Kosovars incentives to meet the necessary standards. When asked by "Balkan Report" what the EU would do if the Kosovar Albanian majority wanted a political as well as a military role for the United States, his FDP interlocutor replied "we'll see" (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 5 March 2004). For their part, many Serbian participants eagerly leaned forward in their seats when the subject of EU rule in Kosova was raised. But the Kosovar Albanians tended to be skeptical, sensing that the project is more an attempt by some in the EU to show that Brussels can solve Balkan problems than something that will truly benefit Kosova. One Kosovar remarked that it seems strange that foreigners want to leave Iraq at the first sign of violence, but when unrest breaks out in Kosova, some foreigners seem more intent on staying than they were before. ### 2 ### http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=574&e=9&u=/nm/20040708/wl_nm/serbiamontenegro_kosovo_dc_2 Kosovo Parliament Challenges U.N. Authority Thu Jul 8,10:41 AM ET By Matthew Robinson PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - Kosovo's parliament threw down the gauntlet to the province's U.N. overseers Thursday, adopting constitutional changes including the right to call a referendum on independence from Serbia. The amendments also included switching control for international relations and public security from the U.N. mission, which has run the majority Albanian province since the 1999 conflict, to local authorities. But to become law they must be signed by Kosovo's acting U.N. governor, who has already warned that only the United Nations (news - web sites) has the authority to make major constitutional changes. "Any comprehensive review of the Constitutional Framework is outside the competence of the assembly," the U.N. mission said ahead of the vote, referring to the 2001 document which set the ground rules for Kosovo's provisional government and parliament. Kosovo was placed under U.N.-led administration in June 1999 after a 78-day NATO (news - web sites) bombing campaign to halt Serb repression of ethnic Albanians. It remains formally part of Serbia and Montenegro, the loose union that replaced Yugoslavia last year. The province's international administrators, backed by NATO peacekeepers, continue to hold the real power including a veto over parliament. But local Albanian leaders are increasingly impatient for formal independence and control over their own affairs. "WASTE OF TIME" One senior international official in Kosovo described parliament's move as a "non-starter" and a "waste of time." He accused local politicians of playing to the electorate by making it look as if they were taking on the United Nations. "They're not even using the powers that they have effectively to run the government and manage affairs," he said. Oliver Ivanovic, a member of the minority Serb coalition which boycotted the parliamentary session, said the action could only "threaten the already fragile stability and security" in Kosovo. Ethnic Albanian discontent erupted in mid-March with a wave of fierce anti-Serb, anti-U.N. violence in which 19 people were killed and hundreds of homes destroyed. Some Balkan experts have since advocated strengthening the local institutions and scaling down the U.N. presence after parliamentary elections scheduled for October. Parliament's amendments, adopted by 85 of the 88 deputies present in the 120-seat body, included the right "to determine Kosovo's final status through a referendum." The international community has set out a policy of "Standards before Status," by which Kosovo must prove its credentials in democracy and human rights before discussion of its final status, possibly after mid-2005. "We believe that setting standards and then implementing standards is the way forward for Kosovo," U.S. Deputy Undersecretary for Political Affairs Marc Grossman said late on Wednesday after meeting local leaders in Pristina. From mentor at alb-net.com Fri Jul 23 07:12:50 2004 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Kosova Crisis Center News and Information) Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 07:12:50 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Kcc-News] IWPR: Investigation: Kosovo's Over-Politicised University Message-ID: http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200407_508_1_eng.txt Investigation: Kosovo's Over-Politicised University >From politicians doubling up as lecturers to student leaders preoccupied with "the national question", the University of Prishtina is an institution crying out for reform. By Sebahate Shala and Era Gjurgjeala in Pristina (BCR No 508, 23-Jul-04) It is Wednesday morning and Arsim Bajrami, lecturer at the Department of Political Sciences of the University of Prishtina, UP, is giving his lecture on models of democracy to his first-year students. At 12.15, he packs up his notes and returns to his office at the Rectorate Building, where he serves as vice-rector for academic affairs. Two hours later he is off to the Kosovo assembly. As deputy-president of the second largest party in the region, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, Bajrami is also entrusted with leading the PDK caucus in parliament. Professor Bajrami's active political life is by no means unusual at UP, Kosovo's main institution for higher education, which had almost 27,000 students on its rolls during the academic year 2003/04. High-profile figures from across the political spectrum hold management and lecturing posts at UP. While not all are as active as Bajrami, four other members of parliament, from all three main parties, hold high executive or teaching posts. Their involvement attests to the continuing influence that political parties may exert on Kosovo's academic life and the interest they have in retaining a foothold on campus. But by allowing deep political penetration, UP is tolerating a violation of Kosovo's public service regulations, which forbid public servants, including university employees, from simultaneously holding political posts. The current law on the civil service, UNMIK Regulation 2001/36, which covers all staff at the UP, lays down a basic principle of "political neutrality and impartiality" among employees, calling for "loyal service to the institutions of the government without fear or favour, and irrespective of political views and affiliations". Article 28.1 of the administrative directive, which specifies the above regulation, explains that while civil servants may belong to political parties, they may not be actively involved in political activity; precisely, they may not hold leadership or paid positions at any level. The directive specifies, "A civil servant elected for a public post shall resign [political activity], effective from the date that he or she takes the oath or confirms acceptance of the elected post." The presence of politician-lecturers not only violates the Kosovo civil service code but the university's own voluntary commitments. The UP is officially committed to the 1999 Bologna Declaration on Higher Education in Europe, which draws from the Magna Charta Universitatum of 1988 that says, "to meet the needs of the world around it", a higher education institution must be "morally and intellectually independent of all political authority". Criticism of the UP's practices has recently become more vocal on campus, with new student movements demanding a university free from overt political influence. As Glauk Konjufca, an activist in the new student initiative, Tjeterqysh, (which translates as "Something Different"), puts it, "As long as the university executive and teaching posts are filled by party activists, there is a permanent danger that key decisions on professorships, teaching assistants and students will be influenced by political considerations." AN INSTITUTION AT THE CENTRE OF THE "NATIONAL QUESTION" Politics is not new to Kosovo's university. Since its foundation in Tito's Yugoslavia in 1969, the university has played a central role in the region's political life. Anton Berishaj, a UP sociology lecturer, describes its chronology as follows, "From its foundation until 1974, the UP was a national, romantic institution. From 1974 until 1981 it was an institution of enlightenment, while in the Eighties and early Nineties it became a fortress of nationalism. In the last decade of the last century, it turned into a fortress of resistance." The demand for a university-level institution in Kosovo was closely associated with the political movements of the late Sixties and with the drive by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority for the status of an autonomous province of Serbia to be upgraded to that of constituent republic. In 1981, seven years after Kosovo's provincial government gained direct, separate representation to the main federal Yugoslav bodies, the university was again at the centre of political life. After student protests erupted over conditions in their halls of residence, what began as a local campus disturbance escalated into bloody, province-wide demonstrations, demanding republic status for Kosovo. The trouble ended in several dozen deaths and the imposition of martial law. In the 1990s, the UP became a symbol of Kosovo Albanian resistance to Slobodan Milosevic's government in Serbia, which abolished the region's autonomy in 1989 and attempted to re-Serbianise the territory. As Albanians abandoned or were forced out of state-run education, police, health and government institutions, setting up their own parallel networks, the university suffered in tandem with the rest of society. After refusing to comply with a new Serbian curriculum, which largely eliminated the teaching of Albanian literature and history, most university lecturers were dismissed in 1991 and forced to organise alternative teaching in private homes. The Serbs thus remained in total control of the university buildings for several years. After more than half a decade of this parallel education, a new wave of student protests erupted from the parallel Albanian UP in late 1997. These articulated frustration over the failure of the Serbian government to restore some campus facilities to Albanian students, as Milosevic and the main Kosovo political leader, Ibrahim Rugova, had agreed in 1996. Nearly five years after the end of the NATO bombing campaign in 1999, which culminated in the expulsion of Serbian forces from Kosovo (and the consequent flight of Serb students from the official campus), the traditional close relationship between politics and the university continues, in spite of some attempts to eradicate the politicisation. EDUCATION AMID POLITICAL INTERFERENCE The status quo in Kosovo since the end of the war in 1999 has only confirmed the politicised atmosphere at the university. The executive body of the UP, known as the Rectorate, has been dominated ever since by the PDK, the largest party to have come out of the Albanian guerrilla movement, the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA. Arsim Bajrami and Hajredin Kuci, two deputy leaders of the PDK, are the UP's vice-rector and head of the public relations office, respectively. On the other hand, the ministry of education, science and technology is in the hands of the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, the PDK's main political rival and Kosovo's leading party since the 1990s. This has been the case ever since 2002, when control over education was transferred from the UN administration to local institutions. With authority over the UP split between the Rectorate and the education ministry, the dynamics that have ensued have naturally tended to echo the wider party political struggles in Kosovo as a whole. While the PDK has struggled to preserve its power over the university, the LDK has tried to insert its own authority into the academic world, reducing the power of its main rivals. As Glauk Konjufca of Tjeterqysh told IWPR, "The university is an arena which different politically-influenced groups struggle to control." A key battlefield between the education ministry and the Rectorate has been the drafting of the new statute of the university, which was to impose a higher level of professionalism in the curriculum, management and teaching. Although the Law on Higher Education, passed in May 2003, demands that the new statute for the UP be completed within three months from the day the law came into force, the drafting process took well over a year, with deadlines being continually postponed due to disagreements between the Rectorate and the education ministry. Enver Hasani, a lecturer in international law and international relations at the political sciences department, told IWPR, "The minister [of education] has been pushing for a new statute for the UP ever since the adoption of the new law on higher education, but the Rectorate has been stalling." Hasani said the drafting process of the statute dragged on for over a year because it did not suit the interests of the Rectorate. "Without a strict law, the management of UP lacks any rules and can continue doing whatever it pleases," he said. The main stumbling block appears to have been the procedure for electing a new executive management at the university. According to Rexhep Gjergji, an adviser to the education ministry, the ministry and the Rectorate had to seek professional advice from international experts in order to overcome their differences. The latter became involved in re-drafting the new statute, the final version of which was approved by the UP senate on June 29, 2004, and was ratified by the Kosovo assembly ten days later. AN INSTITUTION SUFFERING FROM LOW STANDARDS With so much energy being spent on national and political questions, the UP has had limited opportunities to develop into an academic powerhouse, with graduation rates being disturbingly low and funding rather inadequate. Critics feel that at least part of the problem is caused by politicians' battles for influence and control over the university. According to lecturer Hasani, it is not surprising that standards of education have suffered, when "academic and scientific advancements, the appointment of faculty deans and the admissions procedures are all mainly done in accordance with party loyalties". In the academic year 2002/03, only about 11 per cent of UP's registered students even graduated, and nearly two-thirds of these were students of economics, law and humanities, at a time when Kosovo is desperately short of architects, engineers and doctors. On the other hand, Georg Woeber, special adviser on higher education to the education minister, and principal international officer in the education ministry, insists standards at UP must be judged within Kosovo's recent historical context. "It is difficult to compare the performance of the UP with other European or regional universities, because there are no other universities which started more or less from scratch less than five years ago. Bearing this in mind, the performance of the UP is acceptable," he said, although also admitting that there was room for improvement. The other part of the UP's problem is not politics, but wretched under-funding. Its total budget of 10.2 million euro, allocated from the Kosovo budget in 2003, meant the university spent only 440 euro on each student on average. This compares badly even with relatively poor regional institutions, such as the University of Skopje, which spends about 790 euro per student per year. The gulf with western institutions is far vaster, with the corresponding figure standing at 20,300 euro per student at the University of Amsterdam, for example. As about half the UP's total budget is used to pay the salaries of university staff, few funds are left for research, capital investment, updating and reforming the curriculum, essential student services and upgrading the academic body. REFORM BY A NEW STATUTE? With new elections to the Rectorate coming up next semester in October, a concern of local critics is that party politics may continue to take precedence over professional teaching, leaving little improvement in the quality of education. Some critics, such as lecturer Hasani, still retain hope for a more professional university, basing it mainly on the new statute of the UP and the implementation of the Law on Higher Education. "The new law on higher education is one of the most modern in the region. Only strict adherence to this law and to other international standards on education will guarantee the de-politicisation of the UP," he said. "Otherwise, the UP will only shift from one to the other political wing." Education ministry officials claimed that the statute would be entirely compatible with the provisions of the 1999 Bologna Declaration, which sets out standards for higher education. Rexhep Gjergji of the education ministry was explicit about the link between the statute and de-politicisation. "Faculty employees cannot also hold other executive, state or party posts. The new statute of the UP will prohibit this," he said. However, the new statute has no provisions explicitly dealing with the issue of the political activities of UP's managing or lecturing staff. Indeed, Georg Woeber takes the view that the new statute should not concern itself with matters that are already provided for by the regulation on the civil service. "This matter [the potential politicisation of the UP] is covered by the law on the civil service, and the new statute should not duplicate its provisions. The role of the statute is to provide rules for the daily operation of the university," he told IWPR. Whatever its merits on other areas concerning university business, on the issue of university politicisation the statue falls back - for the time being at least - on UNMIK regulation 2001/36, which has largely been ignored to date. Hence, it is highly likely that politicians like Nexhat Daci and Sabri Hamiti of the LDK, Arsim Bajrami and Hajredin Kuci of the PDK, and Zylfie Hundozi of the Alliance for the Future of Kosova, AAK, will continue lecturing at UP while still retaining their party posts and their Kosovo assembly positions. One reason why the UNMIK regulation 2001/36 has been so widely disregarded by the UP management and academic staff may be that key officials within the university do not feel university neutrality is a principle worth upholding. For example, Arsim Bajrami, vice-rector and lecturer at UP, says he has no qualms about violating the civil service code and sees no inconsistency between his role at UP and his political commitments at the Kosovo assembly and the PDK. "I do not respect UNMIK regulations, but work to develop our own laws. I will therefore continue with all my engagements until Kosovo becomes a state," Bajrami told IWPR. "Without resolution of the status of Kosovo, it is illogical for professors to be locked up in university departments and only remain observers to political developments." For their part, students remain deeply divided over politician-lecturers, with some saying they are happy to have the politicians on campus as long as they are conscientious. Arben Vrajolli, a third-year political sciences student, said, "Hajredin [Kuci] is of the same calibre as Arsim Bajrami, very able and always punctual. His political activities are his own business and as a student I don't feel the effect of his political commitments." Ibadete, a second-year chemistry student, also commends her lecturer, Nexhat Daci, the speaker of the Kosovo assembly, "Daci does his best as a lecturer. He is responsible, and was only absent on few occasions, when he went on official trips abroad and had good reasons. I think a politician who is also a lecturer cannot influence decisions at the university." On the other hand, Driton Halimi, a third-year law student, said, "Their duties at the university are of secondary importance for these lecturers. I don't believe that students should be sacrificed because their professors are also [Kosovo assembly] delegates." AN OVER-POLITICISED STUDENTS' UNION The politicisation of the university is compounded by the role and profile of UP's foremost student body, the Independent Union of Students of the University of Pristina, UPSUP. With the university occupying such a central place in Kosovo's political scene, it was almost inevitable that demands for student rights would be closely interwoven with wider nationalist politics. The UPSUP called for student demonstrations in 1997, dissatisfied with the failure to implement the agreement on higher education reached between Kosovo's parallel authorities and Belgrade. Although Ibrahim Rugova disapproved of the UPSUP's call, its appeal was answered not only by the students but scores of ordinary citizens. Nearly five years after Serb forces left Kosovo, the union is finding it hard to break out of its mode of resistance, its target now oscillating between Kosovo's institutions, UNMIK, and the NATO-led security force, KFOR. Propounding values not normally associated with European student organisations, the union, together with associations of war veterans and war invalids, has repeatedly concentrated on political themes, calling for the release of former KLA fighters arrested on suspicion of war crimes, for example. Gani Morina, UPSUP's leader until April 2004 and former KLA fighter, said he took part in protests against the arrest of Fatmir Limaj, an ex-KLA fighter and senior PDK official, by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY. "We protested because it was disgraceful to see a KLA fighter being tried in The Hague alongside Milosevic," said Morina. The union was also a vocal critic of October 2003 talks between Pristina and Belgrade. Justifying the union's intervention on that issue, Morina said, "We reacted not because we were opposed to talks but because we wanted the decision for talks with Belgrade to be taken by the Kosovo assembly, and not in violation of the will of the people." In March this year, the union was again at the forefront of national politics, as two days of violent anti-UNMIK riots erupted, forcing almost 4,000 Serbs from their homes. At the start of the protest, on March 17, Morina addressed a crowd that had gathered outside UNMIK headquarters in Pristina, attacking the international bodies for their role in the territory. "We have come here to demand that UNMIK, KFOR and the international community adopt a fairer attitude towards Kosovo, because our freedom was not given to us but was won by ourselves," the student firebrand said. Morina denied that the UPSUP was actively involved in the protests, which later spiralled into violence. "Even if it had been honourable to organise these protests, the UPSUP cannot take the credit, because we simply did not organise them," he said. He also insisted he got involved in the March protests as a citizen, not as a student leader, maintaining that the union existed primarily to defend student rights on campus, not articulate a wider political platform. "The union was set up to advance studies and protect the rights of students," he said. "Our actions are often labelled as politically influenced, but only so that they [the education ministry and the Rectorate] can avoid accepting criticism for their own mistakes." The critics are not convinced, however. Skender Fetahu, leader of the New Student Organisation, ORS, a recently-founded rival to the UPSUP, is scathing in his condemnation of the union for neglecting student issues. "The UPSUP did not organise a single student event during the leadership of Gani Morina," he said. "All his time was taken up with political activities and with the rights of war heroes and invalids, which are issues of concern for parliament, not a student organisation." With a new UPSUP leadership in place only since April, it remains to be seen whether the union's future activities will follow the pattern set during Morina's mandate. But the momentum is in favour of shifting the focus onto purely student issues. The year 2003 saw a proliferation of organisations and initiatives aimed at protecting student rights, ranging from Tjeterqysh to the ORS and a third organisation, the Student League, all of which are shifting the agenda of student activism towards academic concerns. The new UP statute recognises all these organisations as legitimate student representatives with the same status as the UPSUP, allowing them to compete for leadership in a new student assembly. "The new statute will allow us to hold elections and compete for the trust of students. It will be like political parties competing for government," said Fetahu of ORS. UP NEEDS TO GET POLITICS OFF CAMPUS With such a pronounced history of involvement in nationalist politics, a certain degree of political influence and activism at the UP is to be expected, given the fact that many within the university - and outside it - still feel it has a key role to play over "national" questions. What this conviction must not overshadow, however, is the responsibility of the university to provide a high-quality education to Kosovo's students. The role of UP as the main educator of Kosovo's future elite is becoming all the more vital, given the aspiration of Kosovo's Albanian majority for statehood. But with such a low percentage of registered students graduating each year, UP has a long way to go to fulfil the ambitions set out in the Bologna Declaration. If UP is to meet European standards, tough decisions will have to be made by its policy-making and executive bodies. It is important that these are decisions made free from political considerations, with the interest of the student and the labour market primarily in mind. The new statute may help the university take key steps in this direction, as experts expect it to equip the UP with a progressive handbook for the daily operation of the university. Georg Woeber, who was involved in redrafting the statute, said that having such a detailed set of regulations would substantially reduce political influence on decision-making. But Woeber went on to admit, "To write a statute and implement it are different things." Nor does Kosovo's recent experience with the law on the civil service fill everyone with confidence that a new statute on its own can alter years of behaviour. What the new statute is almost certain to alter, however, is representation of students. A stronger student body, with seven representatives in the university senate, will hopefully ensure student concerns are not marginalised by UP's decision-making and executive authorities, be they politically influenced or not. Era Gjurgjeala is a researcher at the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development, KIPRED, and Sebahate Shala is a journalist for the Kosovan daily Epoka e Re. From mentor at alb-net.com Fri Jul 30 20:50:18 2004 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Kosova Crisis Center News and Information) Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 20:50:18 -0400 Subject: [Kcc-News] 1) Kosovo Braced for Autumn of Discontent; 2) Defectors from Leading Kosovo Party Threatened Message-ID: <000101c47698$59c29f10$03fea8c0@linux> 1. Kosovo Braced for Autumn of Discontent 2. Defectors from Leading Kosovo Party Threatened ### 1 ### http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200407_509_3_eng.txt Kosovo Braced for Autumn of Discontent Constant power failures, worsening unemployment and a pervasive sense of hopelessness make for dangerous cocktail, which some say can only end in fresh violence. By Arben Salihu, Muhamet Hajrullahu and Zana Limani in Prishtina, Gjilan, Mitrovica and Jeta Xharra in Prizren (BCR No 509, 30-Jul-04) On a rainy Tuesday morning, 25-year-old Arsim Graicevci sits at the Kaqa cafe in Pristina and tries to compete with the deafening sound of the power generator by humming the line of the George Gershwin song ?Summer time and the living is easy?. In fact, life in Pristina is anything but easy. ?The whole city has been without electricity for the last 18 hours and the water goes off for seven hours every night,? said Graicevci, over morning coffee. ?All that?s left for me to do is joke about how life is supposed to be easy in summer, when it is a far cry from the Kosovan reality.? In divided Mitrovica, the town in northern Kosovo hit by violent ethnic riots in March, the main square is filled with people mobbing passers-by with offers of cigarettes and telephone cards. Ismet, a telephone-card seller, says business is getting worse, ?People would rather go and wait in line in the post office to pay 10 euro for a card than buy it from us at their own convenience for 11 euro.? In the worst-case scenario, Ismet and his colleagues walk around the town, or just sit out the afternoon drinking coffees in bars, if they have made enough money to pay for them. As international donor money dries up, unemployment rises, poverty deepens and Kosovo's infrastructure crumbles, there are growing fears that public dissatisfaction may erupt again, on much the same lines as it did in March. Miftar Bala, a miner, 41, recently demonstrated his unhappiness by holding a 15-meter-long slogan in front of the Kosovo parliament on July 14 in a protest organised by the Association of Independent Trade Unions of Kosovo, BSPK. Bala, a tired and desperate-looking man, and roughly 10,000 other protesters, were demanding jobs, and better pay and conditions for workers, as well as the privatisation of state enterprises. Zeqir Shkodra, an official in the BSPK, said the union would take more radical measures in September if its requests were not met. ?If our demands are not taken seriously by the international and local institutions it might come to a boycott of the general election in October,? Shkodra told IWPR. With 126,000 members, ranging from miners to teachers, doctors and civil servants, the BSPK threat cannot be written off as a bluff. But workers? protests are only the tip of the iceberg of social and economic discontent that is affecting most Kosovars. According to a June 2004 report by Riinvest, a development and research institute, the official unemployment rate has increased by 30 per cent in the last two years. While international donations fell from 957.7 million euro in 2000 to 120.2 million in 2003, the number of jobless rose from 208,000 in December 2001 to 287,265 by February this year. Riinvest?s research also showed dissatisfaction with the workings of the parliament of Kosovo has risen correspondingly by 10 per cent in roughly the same period, from November 2002 to March 2004. Public disappointment is likely to be reflected in a low turnout by voters in the October?s general election. Ramiz Muja, 73, from Gjilan, 45 kilometres south-east of Pristina, is one of many who say there is little point in voting if neither local nor international institutions do anything to improve living conditions. The local bodies, says Muja, ?say constantly that they have no power to change things for the better in Kosovo but then insist we go out and vote for them?. He asked, ?What?s the point of the exercise?? A report on Kosovo to be published this September by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, highlights the growing alienation between Kosovo?s population and the authorities, both local and international. ?Parties have become increasingly disconnected from the people, politicians are not accountable and party platforms are superficial, neglecting the real needs of the population,? the UNDP report says. The most dramatic statistics in Riinvest?s research work concern the standing of the UN authority in Kosovo, UNMIK, and its leader, the Special Representative of the Secretary General, SRSG. Confidence in these bodies has fallen by 40 per cent in the last two years, it says. This is especially disturbing, as it suggests UNMIK may be on the receiving end of public anger in the event of another outburst, as the public holds it largely responsible for Kosovo?s economic and social development. Isa Mustafa, vice-president of Riinvest, says the international community cannot duck its share of responsibility for the economic malaise in Kosovo. ?The international administration has a whole department led by EU in charge of economic development,? Mustafa said, in a recent TV debate, entitled Let?s Talk About Kosovo. ?It is they who are not doing much to create a development strategy and policy for Kosovo.? UN officials, however, continue to insist that the economy is not one of their priorities, as their mandated task is peace keeping. ?The international community is not here to develop Kosovo?s economy,? one senior official told IWPR. ?We are a temporary peacekeeping mission that answers to the Department of Peace Keeping Operations in New York, not a government answering to the pleas of voters or citizens.? Kosovo?s prospects look even grimmer from the viewpoint of Safir Berisha, as he sits in Prizren?s Shadervan square, which once overlooked one of the finest views in Kosovo ? a medley of colourful rooftops, old Ottoman-style houses and ancient stone-paved lanes. Many of those rooftops were burned in the March riots, when some 700 Serb and non-Albanian homes were attacked throughout Kosovo. Berisha, a representative of the War Veterans Association, uniting former combatants of the armed struggle in the Nineties against Serbian forces, says the current social, political and economical depression could easily ignite into violence against the authorities, UNMIK in particular. ?The Albanians once saw UNMIK as a patriarchal force whose word could not be contradicted,? Berisha said. ?But that ice was broken in March and as soon as the first stone was thrown we sensed it would be easier to do it again.? Berisha, a local leader of the second biggest party in Kosovo, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, says he speaks first and foremost as a veterans? representative, which he describes as ?the most badly affected element of society?. While the main, Pristina-centred political parties are losing touch with people on the ground, more militant groups, such as his War Veterans Association, are taking over the grass roots with their populist, anti-international discourse. ?We have held more than 30 meetings with people in villages around Prizren this year, we listen to their problems and we can see people are in a rebellious mood, ? Berisha said. ?They are very unhappy with what international administration has done so far for Kosovo and have nothing to lose.? What form Kosovo's discontent will take in coming months is far from clear. The international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, claims it is taking no chances and has boosted troops levels since the March riots. Nexhmendin Spahiu, a political analyst in Mitrovica, says the deployment of more soldiers is not the answer to the problem. ?This is just the calm before the storm,? he said. ?But it can also be seen as a chance for UNMIK and local institutions to improve both themselves and the situation in Kosovo. If that doesn?t happen, another upheaval is likely after summer.? Bahri Shabani, leader of BSPK, on the other hand, insists that protests will take a peaceful form, along the lines of the demonstration that the BSPK recently organised. Either way, the current plight is not attractive to the kind of potential investors whose funds might develop Kosovo's economy, and so reduce unemployment and lower tension. Shemsi Llapashtica, owner of a furniture workshop on the outskirts of Pristina, says the poor electrical supply has hindered the expansion of his business and, by extension, the employment of a larger workforce. ?Machines break easily with such frequent and sudden energy cuts, and I can?t afford to take on new workers who are going to spend hours every day doing nothing and waiting for the electricity to come back,? Llapashtica said. In Mitrovica, pensioner Ahmet Beqiri, 60, is convinced no improvement in sight. ?I have seven sons aged 20 to 34 and not one is working,? he said. ?We can barely manage to get to the end of the month with my pension and the small social security payment.? The dilemma is whether the extremists on the one hand, or the moderate parties and international authorities on the other, will succeed in channelling people?s anger and frustration. For Ramiz Muja, in Gjilan, the only certainty is that the coming autumn is not likely to bring changes for the better, ?I don?t know if it smells of gun powder, but one thing is for sure - it doesn?t smell good.? Arben Salihu, Muhamet Hajrullahu and Zana Limani are attending an IWPR journalism course supported by the OSCE. ### 2 ### http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200407_509_4_eng.txt Defectors from Leading Kosovo Party Threatened Split in LDK ranks stirring passions, but unlikely in short term to displace main party on Kosovo political stage. By Muhamet Hajrullahu in Pristina (BCR No 509, 30-Jul-04) Edita Tahiri, once a high-profile member of Kosovo?s biggest political party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, fears for her life after deciding to quit and form a new political movement. The former member of the party presidency, along with another woman colleague, Edi Shukriu, abandoned the LDK to announce on May 27 that they were forming the Democratic Alternative of Kosovo, ADK. In a sign of the violent passions this split has stirred, a shadowy nationalist organisation called Homeland Security on July 12 warned those leaving the party that their lives were in jeopardy. ?We warn all of you deserters that are trying to sabotage the work of the LDK in the field that you will pay for this with your life,? the furious message read. The letter writers made it clear they were targeting ?women rebels? like Tahiri who had left the LDK. The episode has cast a shadow over the run-up to October?s general elections in Kosovo, when the territory?s inhabitants are to vote for a new parliament. The LDK, led by Ibrahim Rugova, Kosovo?s president, is the region?s oldest ethnic Albanian grass roots political organisation. Since its formation in 1989, it has governed Kosovo Albanian society virtually unchallenged and has taken more votes than any other party in every ballot. In the last general election in 2001, the LDK won 45.6 per cent of votes, which was more than any other party but not enough to form a government alone. As a result, Kosovo has been led since then by a fractious coalition of the LDK, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK. Polls suggest the LDK?s support has slipped in recent months, which may explain why defectors such as Tahiri have encountered such fury over their moves. A survey in June 2004 by the Index Kosova survey, a Gallup International partner organisation, says more than 10 per cent of those who backed the LDK in July 2003 would no longer do so. Critics say the LDK is unlikely to regain the voters? complete confidence if it refuses to reform what they describe as its archaic, monolithic character. After complaining that the police had not even contacted her ? let alone offered her protection ? over the death threat, Tahiri says anxiety over her personal security will not stand in the way of her campaign or cause her to regret the split from the LDK. Outlining the reasons for leaving, she listed growing voter dissatisfaction with the political process, manifested in the low turn-out in recent elections, the lack of internal democracy within the LDK and an autocratic management style, for which she blamed the centralist leadership of Rugova. ?The March events made this split even more urgent,? she said, referring to the outburst of ethnic-inspired rioting that saw several thousands Serbs forced from their homes. ?Since I did not manage to bring about internal changes in the LDK, though I have been trying to do so since the end of the war, I formed a new party. It is clear Kosovo needs to develop new political alternatives.? Whether any of these alternative forces will bite deep into the LDK?s support base is open to question, however. The ADK?s programme of ?independence, peace and prosperity? differs little on the surface from the LDK?s own platform. Voters may warm more to Tahiri?s claim to fight current trends in Kosovo, which she says have made ?leaders richer and citizens poorer?. The ADK insists the party will wage war on corruption in local and international institutions and make economic development a priority, though it stops short of providing detail of how this goal will be achieved. Analysts say this policy weakness may deny the new party the chance of making a serious impact on the political scene. Shk?lzen Maliqi, one of Kosovo?s leading commentators, says the LDK is not likely to lose many votes imminently as a result of the breakaway group. ?This [new] political formation has had no time to consolidate its forces, or to form a programme, so it will probably not manage to get more than two seats in the [next] parliament,? Maliqi said. ?What would really have been an alternative for Kosovo voters is one big new movement that would encompass all the new political initiatives, not many new small entities which are unlikely to get more than 5 per cent of the votes.? The other political novelties that Maliqi was referring to include a new civic movement, named Ora, led by the prominent publisher and intellectual Veton Surroi, and Azem Vllasi, a former prominent Kosovo communist leader in the Tito era, who has now joined the Social Democratic Party of Kosovo, PSDK. Movements such as Ora, the ADK and the PSDK will be competing among themselves for voters disillusioned with the fruits of the LDK?s 15-year existence and with the slow progress of Kosovar institutions since the end of the war. The arrival of these initiatives clearly heralds a more democratic atmosphere, but the best they can probably hope for at this stage is to dent the LDK?s chances of forming the next government on its own. In the meantime, both police and politicians say they are puzzled as to the identity of the unknown extremists standing behind the threat to Tahiri. ?I don?t think this shadowy organisation will influence people?s decision to leave or not leave the LDK because nobody knows who they are or who stands behind them,? Maliqi said. Refki Morina, of Kosovo?s Police Service, KPS, told IWPR that the police was taking the threat seriously and was investigating who was behind it. ?The Regional KPS Unit and the international police are covering these cases but we have not managed to discover anything specific for the moment,? he said. Muhamet Hajrullahu is attending an IWPR journalism course supported by the OSCE.