Misleading
UN Report on Kosovo (B)
TFF PressInfo
78
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 the 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 be
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.
© TFF 1999
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