Kosovo The newborn trying to walk with his own feet

Carley Willis, Yara Chdid, Sandra Höhne and Rhavena Terto

In an effort to understand the complex history of Kosovo and how the nation rose from the

ashes, preparation was necessary. We had in-depth lectures on behalf of Professors Marijana

Grandits and Vedran Dzihic, who outlined the history of Kosovo beginning in the 6th century with

the immigration of Salvic groups to the region of Kosovo. The trip to Kosovo took place from

January 15th to 23rd and was a merge of the European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and

Democratization as well as the Vienna Master of Arts in Human Rights. To what extent that

experience would transform us wasn’t clear, but it certainly transcended our expectations.

The warm kosovarian people

We arrived in Kosovo on January 15th, the

following day of the assassination of

Oliver Ivanovic, a leader of Serbian

community in the north of Kosovo.

Already in the airport of Pristina, the news

of the political crime and the deportation

of colleagues that weren’t allow to enter

the country, set the tone for what we

could expect from Kosovo. As we stood in

the small airport confronting the looks of

the local people to the group of the new

comers, we had an idea how different

Kosovo would be from the western

European scene.

From the preparation, we all had

formulated a certain image in our heads

about Kosovo and its people. Before the

trip, some of us were asked the same

question from friends and family: are you

sure it is safe in Kosovo?

To our surprise, once we reached Pristina and spent a week there, that image was completely

altered. First of all, kosovarian people are very warm and approachable. The mother of our host

family received us with an affable hug, and dedicated, although failed, attempts to

communicate, as she did not speak English, which is not unusual in Pristina.

“Leaving the bustl ing city center, we crossed abandoned railroad tr acks and coffee houses

before being picked up in a car and taken to the top of a hill where we were shown the

house in which we would call home for the rest of the week . It was in this journey […] I

had learnt that the picture I painted in my head through preparation was far different

than the Kosovo I arrived in.” Carley Willis

Church of Christ the Saviour, Pristina.

Overall, we were positively surprised by the reception of the local people, from the host families

to shop attenders and waiters, always smiling and trying to make small talk. They were oftenly

surprised to encounter an outsider. Once, in a grocery store, the attendant was astonished to

know where we were from, questioning our reasons to be in Kosovo. “Here is like the Brazilian

jungle you know, like Amazonia” he said laughing, leaving us intrigued and a bit concerned on

his reasons to say that. Looking back, it doesn’t come as a surprise now, that we didn’t feel safe

in the streets. As mentioned before, walking though Pristina means getting curious looks from

the locals and, at night, it can be problematic to walk alone if you’re a woman, as you will easily

be approached by men passing by.

With 70% of its population being under 30 years of age, the youngest and poorest city in the

Balkans, Pristina, has an alarming rate of unemployment. According to the city Mayor, Shpend

Ahmeti, more than 50% of the kosovarian youth is unemployed, although most of them are well

qualified. Like the politician Albin Kurtis comically - and, at the same time, sadly – noted in our

first meeting: “the machiatos in Pristina are so good, because they come with master degree”.

This considered, the urban scene in the town is certainly curious: a lot of people, mostly men,

on working hours, simply standing in the streets, talking to each other or observing the traffic.

The official voices: the meetings with the OSCE, UN, EULEX and

the government

Already in our first meeting, we received a speech from a representative of the political party

Vetëvendosje, Albin Kurtis. The amusing speaker outlined three main issues; being

democratization, dialogue with Serbia as well as resource extraction as the main focus of this

social democratic movement. This was the first but not the last dialogue with a strong

representative who treated the meeting as more of a public relations opportunity, common in

a place such as Kosovo, where there are a plethora of voices all vying for the limited

opportunities available.

The meeting with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo was certainly one of the most interesting

and revealing, due to the level of honesty we received. The representative, Shpend Qamili, an

optimistic and energetic kosovarian, stressed the main issues on the country and talked about

the political recognition. Right from the beginning, he stated that his mission focus on the social

and local approach, and has nothing to do with politics. In other words, his team has no role or

opinative attribution about the political recognition issue.

Politically speaking, the UN does not

treat Kosovo as a country, it is not a

member, which puts Mr. Qamili in a

curious position. To us, with an open

heart and a warm welcome

accompanied by the famous machiatos,

he says to have faith in his country. In his

everyday work, drafting the official

papers, he has to be constantly careful

to avoid the term, referring to Kosovo as

a region or territory. UN Mission in Kosovo meeting, 2018.

For the same reason, his mission doesn’t count on funds that are available to states, so the short

budget is mainly directed to social and local projects, which according to him, have been

impacting mainly the areas of gender equality and civic education. The political status also defies

the relationship between the UN mission and the kosovarian government. The fact that until

today the kosovarian government doesn’t fully represent the country in international fora, and

the remaining presence of the UN, defies its self-determination. Sovereignty is still under the

shadow of international presence, after all it was only in 2008 the UN stopped governing the

country. Bottom line, the government wants to have the minimum possible contact with the UN

mission, to ensure autonomy, or, as he accurately putted:

“We don’t want the UN in Kosovo, we

want Kosovo in the UN.” Shpend Qamili, UN mission in Kosovo, 2018.

Interestingly, the political deadlock also implies some unthinkable traces. Kosovo stands for

having one of the most progressive legislation on domestic matters, and its basic legislation

refers to human rights standards as set by the UN; the problem is, as we would repeatedly hear

in the next days, the implementation. Kosovo is trying to play by the rules (at least formally), to

smooth the process of achieving international recognition as a country, and to be accepted in

the European Union. Commenting on this progress, he predicts the Balkans situation to be

solved in more or less the next ten years, and confidently affirms: “we are leading ourselves to

be jobless”.

Mr. Qamili and his colleagues demonstrated a faith and optimism for Kosovo’s bright future that

really impressed us. Prove of that, was their inspiring initiative to empower a movie project,

which they were very excited to exhibit the trailer as we ended the meeting. The movie is called

Home and transmits an urgent message about refugees (can be found in the homepage:

http://www.homefilm.org/). We left the meeting with sincere hopes the movie reaches people

around the world, and sensitize them for the refugees suffering, as it certainly did with us.

Later on that week, we were received at the EULEX fancy building. There, after passing through

x ray machines and passport checks in the security, we had a meeting with the representatives.

The EULEX meeting had a tone of a press conference. With a prepared speech, and deliberately

avoiding certain questions, the spokesperson mainly reinforced how the EULEX mission is the

largest civilian mission of the European Union to stabilize conflict, promote peace and

development. The EULEX is part of the integrated EU approach to the Balkans, and mainly

consisted in two areas: monitoring and executive mandates.

The monitoring mission mainly involves assisting the Judiciary and strengthening the Rule of

Law, as well as fighting corruption. While the executive mandate encompass the executive

functions, as well as the transition of those to the local government.

Moving towards the completion of their mandate in June of this year, they expressed their

concern with Kosovo’s stability and the legacy of their mission. The aim is to achieve the full

progressive transition of local functions to the local authorities, as they said “EULEX was never

designed to substitute Kosovo institutions”. Speaking about the main challenges, they

recognized how pervasive it still is the lack of accountability, political elite corruption and the

prosecution of war crimes perpetrators. Nevertheless, they gave an overall positive note about

how the kosovarian people see the EULEX work done so far.

For the EULEX representatives, the local perception of their success divides in practical and

political level of acceptance. In the spokesperson words, in the practical level “the kosovarian

people recognize the experts did a good job”. While, on the political level of acceptance, “they

want EULEX to disappear, because its a statement of ‘you cant do it yourself’”. Still on the issue

of the legacy, they commented about the fear of creating a “culture of dependence” opposed

to the fear of, as they complete the mandate, leaving a vacuum, and risking to see everything

fall apart.

“We need to get the right balance between staying to long and leaving too soon”EULEX , Kosovo meeting, 2018.

However, it was crucial to notice that civil society representatives and the local people didn’t

seem to agree much with the EULEX opinion on their success. The Kosovar Civil Society

Foundation, BIRN Kosovo and Community Building Mitrovica were much more critical. Not only

about the EULEX work, also the UN, were oftenly pointed as failures mainly regarding the

corruption, accountability and prosecution of war crimes matters.

Commenting about corruption, the Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj, was eager to say that all

his actions are fully transparent. On the meeting held on the 19th, he stressed how everything is

in evolution in Kosovo. In his words, “the country is not perfect, but there is a significant

awareness raising amongst decision makers”. In this brief meeting, the politician made a speech

about the need of strengthening the Rule of Law and Kosovarian institutions. Speaking about

the problem of Visa liberation for Kosovarian citizens and the demarcation issue with

Montenegro, he recognized the situation was “not ideal”. At the same time, he stated that there

are no “hidden agendas” with Montenegro and that, from their part, they are willing to solve

the situation, but it lacks will from the other party.

“in [the] Balkans tragedy is part of life...let’s not use this tragic event for going back[wards].

Haradinaj, prime minister of Kosovo (when asked about the assassination of Serbian politician Oliver Ivanovic), Januray 19th , 2018.

Overall, meeting with the prime minister, Pristina’s mayor, the Minister of Foreign Affairs,

Behgjet Pacolli, and the international bodies, were substantially eye opening to us, as it

showcased the power play within politics in the region.

Ibrahim Rugova Highway and the role of EULEX

Ibrahim Rugova Highway, also known as Patriotic Highway, was built to link Pristina with the

Albanian border.

Its construction, that started in 2010, seems to be one of the most distinct cases of corruption

in the recent history of Kosovo.

With its lenght of 101 km, the costs ended up in an amount of 966 million Euro. During the

building the price has been raised about more than twices as much as planned. To overcome

the distance between the capital and the Albanian border it takes drivers almost two hours on

the old route, the time saving on this new one is twenty minutes. Within this journey drivers can

fill their tanks in one of the many gasoline stations or have a rest in the dispropornately high

amount of motels. The in and out mainly happens through Macedonia and Serbia. To advert for

the new Highway, the government of Kosovo used nationalistic arguments. The Highway was

supposed to strenghten the link between Kosovarians and their „Albanian brothers“.

Albeit no country is immune against corruption, it is said to be endemic in Kosovo. At the time

when the Highway was planned and finally built, the Prime Minister, the Finance Mister, the

minister for transport, the American Ambassador, Christopher Dell, and the american enterprise

Bechtel-and its turkish joint-venture partner Enka were involved in that project. Critics had the

impression that EULEX apperared to be rather indolent on that subject.

The mandate of EULEX is quite strong, amongst its members are policemen, prosecutors and

judges who have to power to start investigations, proceedings and arrests against those who are

responsible for war crimes, organised crime and corruption. The EU gave a quite huge amount

of money for the reconstruction of Kosovo, but local opinions say that this money did not help

to improve the situation for Kosovarian citizens, since a big part of the money went back to

donor countries, in form of salaries, fees for experts evaluating the situation in Kosovo. Within

this evaluations, it was found out that the priorities, when it comes to investigations, should be

the educational and health care system.

Albin Kurtis, the leader of the opposition party, pointed out that EULEX did not bring experts for

economy to the country and states that in his view this organisation „lacks interest in the

economic progress of Kosovo“.

Christopher Dell, who was appointed

American Ambassador by Barack Obama

in 2008, enjoyed, since Kosovarian

people are quite thankful to the USA for

their leading role in the NATO-

intervention, power, sympathy and

influence. The award of contract of the

audition went to the american enterprise

Bechtel-and and its turkish joint-venture

partner Enka. The decisive criterias of the

audition were pointed out to be vague.

And the company did not give

information about the costs in advance,

merely a rough estimation. Mr. Dell was

accused of, not only support the idea to

build this Highway, but also giving

assistence to the US company Bechtel

during their negotiations with the

government of Kosovo.

A document drafted by Eversheds, a British law firm brought in by the government to help with

negotiations warned that signing the contract would be “extremely dangerous”, it pointed out

that it would be a crime according to the Kosovarian penal law, to sign the contract being aware

that it would have negative consequences for the state.

Furthermore, Valdrin Prenkaj, a philosophy student made a survey amongst the workers

building the Highway who complained about their wages. There was evidence to suggest that

government officials were promised or paid to persuade them to manipulate the procurement

process in a manner that favors Bechtel-Enka, or that their offer will accept their unusual,

potentially harmful contract clauses.

In April 2014 „The Guardian“ published an articel on Christopher Dell with the headline: „US

ambassador to Kosovo hired by construction firm he lobbied for“.

Ibrahim Rugova Picture, main square, Pristina, 2018.

Dealing with the past

“The instant when I understood that all members of our host family - even the very young

ones - were survivors of war, was one of the most puzzling situations I experienced. There

seems to be a difference between knowing and understanding.“ Sandra Hohne

Talking about the war with the local people can

be an interesting experience, especially when

you are an outsider trying to grasp the scale and

complexity of a conflict that victimized

thousands of people of a living generation.

It might come as a surprise, or not, but the

kosovarian people don’t really want to talk

about it. From the inside of the host family, to

the people you get to meet in a café, the

reactions are varied and intriguing, but overall

marked by a tone of let the past stay in the past.

Hannah Arendt, in We Refugees, tried to warn

us: the survivors just want to forget.

We, the outsiders, we are the ones who want to

talk about it. Some of the people might even

sound alienated, if you choose to look through

insensitive and judgmental lens. In our last day

in the divided city of Mitrovica, we had two

meetings that seemed diametrically opposed in terms of how you can see things living in a post-

conflict state.

When the focus is the economy, job opportunities and what the future holds, you might hear

phrases like “the war was so long ago and now everything is fine, really, everything is okey”.

Especially in circles where the people don’t have - and don’t want - anything to do with politics.

However, it might just be a personal way to deal with reality. It might be, as a young and very

intelligent mediator, Bosanska Mahala, who received us later that day, summed up: “look, is not

that we are still killing each other everyday, but we just want to be isolated from each other”.

“The fact is, until now, most people are still afraid to cross that bridge.” Bosanska Mahala, 2018.

The bridge she was talking about is the Ibar River Bridge in Mitrovica, that divides the Serbian

north and the Albanian south, theme of the project Beyond the Bridge: Freedom of Movement

and Safety, a public opinion analysis implemented by the Mitrovica Mediation Center. The

findings in the report state that “60 percent of respondents report that they have negative

feelings (exposure, threat, discomfort) when crossing the main bridge.”

Ibar River Bridge in Mitrovica, 2018.

The Mitrovica bridge represents the Kosovo war, the still living ethnic hate between Kosovo

Albanians and Kosovo Serbs. Talking about her work, she tells us how they seek to contribute to

the reconciliation process, and how it transformed her personally, as she also belongs to a group.

“It made me overcome my perception on the others, our ‘constructed narratives’”. She

emphasized how much the reconciliation process is exactly about that, deconstructing those

narratives, even the historical ones.

Is not unusual to hear contradicting versions of the war events, the story changes depending

which group tells it. The mediator also pointed out, the physical barrier in Mitrovica is crucial to

understand how the people in each group grow up repelling each other. They are born isolated

within a community that tells them their official version, what to think and who to hate. They

work to figure out how to deconstruct the hate narrative, and build up a different story: that

regardless of everything that happened, they all belong to one group now, the kosovarian.

“After that meeting, we went to the Mitrovica bridge to wait for our bus. I took a picture

of the Ibar river bridge, the sun was setting. I looked at that beautiful sunset , side by side

with the police car ; and the fences that marked where the north and south separated the

same people .” Rhavena Terto

How we will remember Kosovo

“ It was intriguing to observe the construction of collective ethnic memories which I believe

is extremely dangerous for the effective development of Kosovo as one nation. The

attachment of people to their identity whether Albanians or Serbians is clearly present; it

is almost as if they are not ready yet to fully embrace their Kosovarian identity”

Yara Chdid

In that intense cold week, we were confronted

with Kosovo’s agonies, and at least in one thing

we all agreed: the fact that most kosovarians

cannot travel and see the world, is certainly the

most unfortunate. It was inevitable to compare

how we, from a variety of home countries, being

able to travel and be dazzled with different

realities, experienced a feeling they couldn’t

understand. Our privilege also extends to the

income disparity present in the country. As

visitors, we savored the low prices of food and services, yet upon reflection, knowing the reasons

behind it certainly erases the advantaged feeling.

We witnessed how the recent war and late declaration of independence in 2008 created a

number of challenges for the new state. We could see the newborn stumbling and trying to

walk with his own feet. And it is crucial it continues to do so, as international actors cannot

change people’s own mindsets. It requires a slow change from the inside. With 90% of Kosovo's

2 million inhabitants being ethnic Albanians and only 7% Serbs, what you see walking around is

Albanian flags, not Kosovarian.

Reconciliation is a word heard quite often. Forgiveness is the tricky one, hard to achieve. Those

asked if they were able to forgive, reply that life must go on. The old rule of the eye for an eye

is overturned in favor of a shared responsibility, and individual pain and hatred are gradually set

aside in favor of social peace. That too is wise, but difficult. The theme of coexistence between

perpetrators and victims seems to be pragmatism. People reconcile because they have to live

together. As outsiders, it was a life lesson to see the kosovarians doing it with warm heart and

kindness.

Sandra, Yara, Rhavena and Carley in Pristina, 2018.