“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. Resolution 1244 also demands the full cooperation of FRY in implementing the mission’s 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 does not 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 bases 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 Albanian military and civilian leaders who have perpetrated gross human rights violations,” says Jan Oberg upon his return from Pristina, Skopje and Belgrade, TFF’s 37th 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, with no legal regulations adopted and no rent or compensation paid to the Yugoslav state. No visa is needed to enter Kosovo. The German Mark has been introduced and the Yugoslav dinar is disappearing. Tax and customs are now collected for the benefit of Kosovo, with no proportion going to Serbia or Yugoslavia. A new army-like ‘Kosovo Protection/Defence Force’ has been 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 are soon ‘taken over’ by foreign capital? Dr. Kouchner serves at the moment as a one-man legislature: he can overrule any federal law and 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 maintaining a presence at key border crossings (specified in Annex 2). Reference to all this is conveniently omitted in the UN Report – which serves to evaluate the UN mission and is written, we must assume, by 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 like 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 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 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 encompasses NATO/KFOR, the UN (UNMIK and all UN family organisations), 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. Thus, any local with some command of foreign languages and 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 mandated – but (a) they are not available and (b) if they were available, they would likely have to fight their way into town halls or become polite assistants to those already appointed by KLA. UN officials catapulted into towns as local government officials often have no experience from Kosovo – one, I heard, did not know who Dr. Rugova is.
Again, such minor problems are not mentioned in the UN Report. Absent is also any assessment of the wider regional stability post KFOR/UNMIK. There is not a word about helping Serb refugees (about 1 million) in Serbia or the increasing destabilisation of Serbia to which NATO bombings and KFOR’s mode of operation have greatly contributed.”
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 are making 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 weak sides of its missions, one wonders whether it would not be wiser to have some impartial – non-NATO and non-UN – expert group evaluate them. The real situation is obviously filtered and censored up to the point when the honest and visionary Secretary-General – who has to rely on the information he receives from missions – puts his signature on what is basically a falsified 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’ had 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 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. 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 lawful, morally principled and accountable, which they are not today,” ends Jan Oberg.
© TFF 1999
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