[Prishtina-E] Steiner is Wrong - Freedom is Not Destabilizing, by Alice Mead

[kosova at jps.net]

Steiner is Wrong - Freedom is Not Destabilizing

By Alice Mead
(Special to Zeri, Prishtine, May 10, 2002)

The immediate conflict between the new head of UNMIK and the new Parliament,
is not surprising. After three years of heavy-handed, top-down
administration, UNMIK has strayed far afield of its original mandate, which
should have reflected the principles for empowerment of populations,
specifically those who, perhaps for centuries, have been under various forms
of totalitarian or apartheid rule as Kosova has. The question is now
becoming-- how does UNMIK and UN 1244, together with newly devised
institutions created by Belgrade and UNMIK match the clearly stated goals in
the 1960 UN Declaration of Independence for Colonial Peoples, stating that,

"Recognizing the passionate yearning for freedom in all dependent peoples
and the decisive role of such peoples in the attainment of their
independence,

Aware of the increasing conflicts resulting from the denial of or
impediments in the way of the freedom of such peoples, which constitute a
serious threat to world peace,

Considering the important role of the United Nations in assisting the
movement for independence in Trust and Non- Self- Governing Territories,

Recognizing that the peoples of the world ardently desire the end of
colonialism in all its
manifestations, . . .

Believing that the process of liberation is irresistible and irreversible
and that, in order to avoid serious crises, an end must be put to
colonialism and all practices of segregation and discrimination associated
therewith,

Welcoming the emergence in recent years of a large number of dependent
territories into freedom and independence, and recognizing the increasingly
powerful trends towards freedom in such territories which have not yet
attained independence,

Convinced that all peoples have an inalienable right to complete freedom,
the exercise of their sovereignty and the integrity of their national
territory,. . .

And to this end declares that:

2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right
they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their
economic, social and cultural development.

3. Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness
should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence.

5. Immediate steps shall be taken, in Trust and Non-Self-Governing
Territories or all other territories which have not yet attained
independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories,
without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely
expressed will and desire, without any distinction as to race, creed or
colour.

For decades, Serbia treated Kosova as a colony, failing to develop the area,
driving out various unwanted populations, robbing the local population of
land, savings, property, resources by the dreaded Fiscal Police, and
eventually completely suspending their autonomous government, instituting a
brutal, apartheid regime. The effort to restore basic human and civil rights
ended not in Serb apologies, cooperation and reparations, but in diplomatic
failure and the NATO war. During the war, again, soldiers looted homes,
robbed displaced peoples, demanded huge bribes, burned property, destroyed
livestock, and took materials from the area. Serbia relied on a constant
flow of money from Kosova into Serbia through this period. Sadly, the NATO
war ended without a peace agreement. The status of Kosova remained
undecided.

No historian could argue with the fact that since the end of World War II
and the birth of the United Nations, a beleaguered organization in desperate
need of accountability, transparency, and reform, that the end of the age of
colonial empires has dominated international politics as much as has the end
of Communism. Since the 1950's, more than fifty five former dependent
colonies have undergone painful transitions into becoming independent
states, often through protracted guerilla-type violence, factionalism, and
destabilizing civil wars.

Following -- ironically enough -- one of the few organizations involved in
this process is the United Nations Security Council, heavily weighted
towards permanent empowerment of former empires- Britain, France, Germany,
Russia, United States, and China. While newer nations who may at long last
have been released from colonial domination, for example Bangladesh,
Singapore, or Ghana, do not have nearly the same power. Similarly, the G8
group has no representation from newer states either.

Even today, states that were part of the British empire--Sudan, Palestine,
India, Ireland, Afghanistan-are some of the most intractably violent and
volatile places in the world because of unresolved territorial issues that
are of vital importance to local populations. What cost are we now paying
for not having respected the full and equal rights of these local
populations, for allowing centuries of economic exploitation to flow into
the coffers of Europe, for the overt and covert racism inherent in the
tendency to ignore the rights and freedoms of the Sudanese, the
Palestinians, or the citizens of East Timor and Kosova?

Territorial issues in the Balkans remain unresolved since 1913. After World
War II, Russia emerged as a federated republic under Communism. And
Yugoslavia was formed in the same mold--created from a series of ethnically
based republics, with two lesser provinces, supposedly united under a
central communist dictatorship. Serbia seeks very successfully to maintain
this now-outdated concept which will continue to give Serbia economic
dominance in the region and will keep Kosova underdeveloped and dependent.
The political status given to an impoverished minority population in a 1945
communist dictatorship determines now its future and prevents its citizens
of self-determination and freedom? It appears so. This, in effect, is the
first cause in the misguided policies being applied in Kosova.

Given the important historic shift internationally from overt racism,
apartheid regimes, colonial domination, resource exploitation, and
centralized dictatorships, what independent organizations are there now who
have oversight of this still-evolving shift towards local empowerment,
universal human rights, and regional/global economies? Only the United
Nations.

The EU, in the high-handed, closed-door creation of the new country of
Serbia/ Montenegro (who knows where Kosova fits into this abomination of a
plan and isn't the EU an economic organization which, until now anyway,
didn't have the power to create new nations?) that point of view, of a
centralized communist federation of South Slavs, now diluted by time, chaos,
civil war, corruption, nationalism, hundreds of thousands of refugees, and
the demise of communism and totalitarianism, supports this unprincipled
hodge-podge of policies that seek to preserve Serb dominance and economic
centrality. The plan is to make Belgrade the economic center of the region.
But that's not a UN universal human rights plan. It's an EU economic plan.

There is no plan to develop Kosova economically, but to continue to allow
hundreds of thousands of unemployed to work outside the region and to send
money home.

Kosova ended up with an interim UN administration, governed by 15 rotating
foreign countries in New York City.

Contrast this with another bid for independence, the island of East Timor
with a population of 800,000, which was given an interim UN government.
However, at the same time, they were also given the rapid transfer of powers
due to them as described in the 1960 UN declaration on independence. Could
the difference be that East Timor has a Nobel Laureate leader, while the
Albanians are without political, civic, or moral leadership? The Albanian
power vacuum has opened the door for opportunistic policies to flourish in
Kosova.

Instead of a rapid transfer of power, UNMIK administrators and Nebosja Covic
have created various adhoc blocks to direct, representative power. First
there was the November 2001 agreement, which set the precedent for settling
decisions about Kosova in Belgrade, and created the so-called High Group,
then there was the Serbia/Montenegro agreement in which Kosova was not
included. Covic speaks about Kosova at the UNSC. Albanians are not allowed a
voice at the UN. Media is under orders not to air or publish controversial
points of view. Steiner recently told Bajram Rexhepi he could not travel to
the USA to meet with Albanian Americans. The UNMIK director maintains veto
power over all legislation.

The topic of final status officially cannot be discussed and there are no
known plans for beginning that discussion. The defacto partitioning of
Mitrovica has not been studied or resolved. When university students asked
questions about this issue at a press conference, Steiner screamed and swore
at them. The border change in Viti which gives several Albanian villages to
Macedonia is similarly taboo. Meanwhile, Covic has altered the number of
Serb returnees from 100,000 to 200,000. That is not up for discussion
either. The outrageous salaries--between $100,000 to $200,000- paid to
internationals while pensions for the elderly are $25 per month is not up
for review or discussion either.

UNMIK is simply not accountable. No one will review this situation and put
it back on track. If the local population becomes poor enough, and it seems
they might, or frustrated with the Mitrovica situation, and it seems they
might, or furious about the impervious bureaucracy that UNMIK is rapidly
becoming, their recourse --since they have no political power at all-- will
probably be violence. Do we want a Palestine or Northern Ireland in the
center of the Balkans? By inattention--and this means American inattention -
it seems that we might be creating one.

In direct violation of the 1960 UN declaration on creating freedom for
disenfranchised peoples, the UN has told the citizens of Kosova that they
"are not ready" for independence or self-determination. And they aren't. But
the path to that freedom should be clearly visible. At the moment it is
obscured with a tangle of ill-conceived policies and procedures as UNMIK
administrators lurch from crisis to crisis.



Alice Mead is an American author and human rights activist.

Ky shkrim mund te ribotohet me kusht qe te theksohet autori dhe gazeta Zeri,
Prishtine.