Chaos in Kosovo

Albanians see the arrival of NATO forces as the first step towards total independence from Yugoslavia. The Serbs look upon NATO and the U.N. as ``occupying forces'' and are unwilling to join any initiative. VAIJU NARAVANE on the situation in Kosovo.

``THIS IS not the place you visited two years ago. This is a completely new country. In fact it is not yet a country,'' Mr. Avni Spahiu, Director of Radio and Television Kosovo (RTK), says with an ironic smile. He reminds me of the day in his office at Rilindjia when he talked of the exploits of Skanderbeg, the legendary Albanian who fought the Ottoman Turks several centuries ago, of the difficulties involved in bringing out an Albanian daily in the face of constant Serb harassment and censorship and the inevitability of an armed uprising in Kosovo. ``Our concerns now are so very different. Now I think of pollution, dust and garbage collection; of democratic institutions and the crime rate. Then we thought of survival,'' he says.

Kosovo with its 1.8 million people is the size of a large Indian district. Pledges for reconstruction and development for the province now total upwards of $1 billion and the military hardware concentrated on this tiny patch of the earth is astounding. A year after it launched a 78-day bombing campaign to stop Serbian repression in the province whose population is overwhelmingly Albanian, the international community is determined to make Kosovo into a success story - a turn of the century Marshall Plan.

Dr. Bernard Kouchner, one of the founders of Medecins sans frontiers, the Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian organisation, has been given a ``Mission Impossible'' by the U.N. Secretary- General, Mr. Kofi Annan. As his Special Representative for Kosovo, Dr. Kouchner has wide-ranging executive powers and is something of a Viceroy in this U.N. protectorate which is governed by Security Council Resolution 1244 of June 10, 1999. The Resolution simultaneously guarantees the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia made up of the Serb and Montenegrin Republics while promising substantial autonomy to Kosovo. The resolution also speaks of the return of an appropriate number of Serbian police and armed forces to the province. The United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has a year's renewable mandate and is expected to administer the province, while Kfor peacekeepers are to protect the civilians, guard the frontiers, carry out de-mining operations, and ensure the return of refugees.

As the head of the UNMIK, Dr. Kouchner also supervises the work of the other three ``pillars'' of the civilian administration - the European Union, the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe and the U.N. High Commission for Refugees. Together they are supposed to build institutions, hold elections, ensure the return of refugees, create infrastructure, jump-start the economy, provide services such as policing, sanitation, health, education, transport, water, electricity and telephones. While the return of some 900,000 refugees can be claimed as a success, UNMIK faces formidable challenges.

``The problems here are enormous. We have to start from scratch. There are no institutions, a very high crime rate, the economy is not working. We have to start a new phase, go from the aid phase to investment - in agriculture, infrastructure, services, small businesses. Seven months after UNMIK was created, there is still no commercial bank. People have to rely on cash transactions, keep their money in pillowcases. And at the moment the only person investing is the mafia,'' says Mr. Spahiu.

The U.N.'s already difficult mission is being made even more arduous by criminal activity. The Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) was dismantled and 5000 of its 22,000 recruits have been absorbed into the Kosovo Protection Force, a body somewhat on the lines of the Home Guards. However, there are 17,000 battle-hardened young men who are unemployed and in need of a livelihood. A number of them have been drawn into organised crime, running brothels and extortion rackets. ``The problem here is political, not one of reconstruction,'' says Dr. Kouchner who has repeatedly called on the international community to define what is meant by ``substantial autonomy''. Albanians see the arrival of NATO forces as the first step towards total independence from Yugoslavia. They feel NATO and the U.N. will knock Kosovo back into shape and then hand it over to them as a free country, something that the U.N. Resolution expressly rules out. The Serbs look upon NATO and the U.N. as ``occupying forces'' and are unwilling to join any initiative by Dr. Kouchner.

The divided city of Mitrovica where the Serbs continue to receive their salaries and pensions from Belgrade is the symbol of these irreconcilable positions. Another flagrant example is that of a spanking new clinic built by the U.N. for the Serb community in Gracanica. The Serbs have rejected this well-equipped, modern facility, preferring to drive three hours to the hospital in Nis or six hours to Belgrade. Dr. Kouchner's real success so far has been the creation of the Joint Interim Administrative Council (JIAK) with the participation of three Albanian leaders (the moderate Mr. Ibrahim Rugova, the nationalist Mr. Rexhep Qosja and the radical Mr. Hashim Thaci), which the Serbs have refused to join. The setting up of the Council permitted Dr. Kouchner to obtain the disbanding and disarming of the KLA (although many weapons still remain hidden), and the dissolution of the provisional Government proclaimed by the KLA leader, Mr. Hashim Thaci.

Preparations are now under way for municipal elections to be held next October and UNMIK plans to launch a series of discussions in April on the question of ``substantial autonomy''.

Says a commentator, Mr. Veton Surroi, ``This place has to be a state, viable politically and economically. I am not saying internationally recognised, but with classical state functions. Now it is more an anarchic or chaotic non-governmental organisation. We need to be bolder in tackling the question of reform.''

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