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Misleading UN Report on Kosovo - Part B
- By TFF - October 3, 1999
"The UN and NATO missions in Kosovo violate Security Council Resolution
1244 which clearly guarantees the sovereignty and the territorial integrity
of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). The Security Council has just
reaffirmed that Kosovo is a part of FRY. 1244 also demands the full
cooperation of FRY in implementing the missions tasks. All this is pure
pretence, as any visitor to Kosovo will learn - and mission members will
tell you privately.
The Report of the Secretary-General (S/1999/987 of September 16) does not
even bother to mention whether KFOR/UNMIK cooperates with Belgrade! It
seems pretty clear, rather, that the international community has fooled
Belgrade and considers it so weak that it doesn't even have to be polite or
give the world the impression that it respects the country's sovereignty.
This coincides with credible press analyses that U.S. decision makers think
Kosovo must become independent.
The international presence of UNMIK and NATO in Kosovo base itself on the
bombing campaign the legality of which remains highly disputable. In its
day-to-day operations, this presence amounts to a de facto occupation force
that co-operates with Albania military and civilian leaders who have
perpetrated gross human rights violations," says Jan Oberg upon his return
from Pristina, Skopje and Belgrade, TFF's 37 mission to the region. Here
follow some facts:
"The missions have set up border points to Serbia but until recently not to
Macedonia and Albania. Public and state property is 'taken over' by the UN
and KFOR, no legal regulations done or rent or compensation paid to the
Yugoslav state. Visa is not needed to enter Kosovo. The German Mark is
introduced and the Yugoslav dinar disappearing. Tax and customs are now
collected to the benefit of Kosovo, with no proportion going to Serbia or
Yugoslavia. A new army-like "Kosovo Protection/Defence Force" is
established and has the old KLA commander at its head. Should we be
surprised if the mineral resources and the Trpca mining industry complex in
Mitrovica is soon 'taken over' by foreign capital? Dr. Kouchner serves at
the moment as a one-man legislature: he can overrule any federal law and he
promulgates legally binding "regulations" by the day.
Resolution 1244 stipulates that 'after the withdrawal an agreed number of
Yugoslav and Serb military and police personnel will be permitted to return
to Kosovo to perform functions' such as liaising with the international
civil and military missions, marking and clearing mine fields, maintaining
a presence at Serb patrimonial sites and maintain a presence at key border
crossings (specified in Annex 2). Reference to all this is conveniently
omitted in the UN Report - that serves to evaluate the UN mission and is
written, we must assume, by the UN staff in Pristina itself.
So much for the United Nations manifest, gross violation of FRY's
sovereignty and territorial integrity. One understands why all this goes
unmentioned in the Report. I am not a lawyer, but it looks to me as a new
sort of international lawlessness and might-makes-right," says Jan Oberg.
"There are many other quite strange aspects of this Report. For instance,
it conveniently avoids telling its readers that there are four government
structures in Kosovo. KLA rapidly set up a government and local
administration as well as other institutions before NATO got in. Naturally,
it runs the place and it is not willing to hand over to the UN, as it
believes it has legitimacy because of the military struggle to liberate
Kosova. All personalities are appointed, nobody elected and there is, thus,
no element of democracy. The earlier, elected, government and parallel
society of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo under the leadership of
its elected president Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, constitutes another government
structure but it has been systematically undermined and marginalized by
leading actors of the international community as well as by KLA.
The third government structure - had it not been driven out by the UN, KFOR
and KLA - was that of Yugoslavia. Had the KFOR and the UN not been so keen
on getting rid of them all, there would have been more competent
administrators, doctors, nurses, public utility technicians, teachers etc
available today. And finally, according to resolution 1244, the UN
administration of Kosovo is to become the FOURTH government with all
executive powers in this tiny territory - but with little chance of
implementing its authority, because:
The present situation is a farce. The total international presence
encompass NATO/KFOR, the UN (UNMIK and all UN family organisation), OSCE,
the European Union, over 300 NGOs, some media - perhaps as many as 70.000
foreigners! They all need interpreters, assistants, drivers, technicians
and practical fixers. So, any local with some command of foreign languages
and an administrative talent now seeks employment with international
(better paying) organisations rather than with the local administration.
The UN desperately needs experienced internationals and thousands of local
staff to take over the executive power and complete administration of
Kosovo as is its mandate - but a) they are not available and b) if they
were available, they are likely to have to fight their way into the town
halls or be polite assistants to those sitting there already appointed by
KLA! UN officials catapulted into the towns as local government officials
have no experience from Kosovo - one, I heard, did not know who Dr. Rugova
is!
Again, such minor problems is not mentioned in the UN Report. Absent is
also any assessment of the wider stability of the region post KFOR/UNMIK.
There is not a word about helping Serb refugees (about 1 million) in Serbia
or the increasing destabilisation of Serbia that NATO bombings and KFOR's
mode of operation have contributed greatly to." Oberg summarises:
"This extremely coloured report can do nothing but disservice to the
international community's decision makers. It tells us that UNMIK and KFOR
make significant progress. This may be true on small issues but in vital
areas for the future, the mission is already beyond repair. If the
international community gets no better evaluations of the strong and the
weak sides of its missions, one wonders whether it would not be wiser to
have some impartial - non-NATO and non-UN - expert group to evaluate its
missions. The real situation is obviously filtered and censored up to the
point when the honest and visionary Secretary-General - who has to rely in
the information he gets from missions - puts his signature on what is
basically a falsifying picture of reality.
This is also the moment when the media ought to keep an eye on the
situation. But most left when there were no more dead bodies to film and we
were told that 'peace' would come!
Without more honest reporting and evaluation of progress, UNMIK and KFOR
will rapidly disintegrate beyond repair.
And mind you, I am not saying that I think everything could or should have
been done differently from some more or less idealistic peace perspective.
I am saying that the mission threatens to be a disaster as judged on ITS
OWN criteria, mandate and mode of operation. KFOR and UNMIK spell further
disaster in the region.
Members of the missions who are skeptical and deeply concerned - should be
encouraged to voice that concern publicly and be rewarded, not punished,
for doing so. The UNMIK and OSCE, not KFOR - Europe, not the United States
- will be blamed when this goes as wrong as I fear. That must be avoided
now. The missions must be fundamentally reshaped and become both lawful,
morally principled and accountable which they are not today," ends Jan
Oberg.
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Dr. Jan Oberg
Director, head of the TFF Conflict-Mitigation team to the Balkans
and Georgia
T F F
Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research
Vegagatan 25, S - 224 57 Lund, Sweden
Phone +46-46-145909 (0900-1100)
Fax +46-46-144512
Email: tff@transnational.org
http://www.transnational.org
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