Coastal
Post Online
June, 2003
Kosovo: Four Years After UN Intervention
By Marie-Pierre Lahaye
Albania has become a no man's land for Roma (Gypsies). The predominantly Serb-speaking Roma had to
resettle in and around Serb majority areas after the US-led UN police action in
the Balkans. No longer able to enjoy freedom of movement and access to services
Roma now depend on community Serb structures. According to UNHCR (United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights), Roma situation mirrors the one of
the Serbs, with limited income-generation prospects and rampant poverty as a
result of severely restricted freedom of movement.
The term Roma is preferred to the
most commonly known but rather pejorative appellation "Gypsies"
because it is the term in the Romani language used worldwide by this people to
refer to themselves.
The three subgroups of Roma in Kosovo
are: Roma, Ashkaelia, Egyptians with the latter two groups, Ashkaelia,
Egyptians generally not considering themselves Roma. Both the Ashkaelia and
Egyptians tend to have Albanian surnames, speak only the Albanian language,
although commonly they understand some Romane and Serbian; they are exclusively
Muslim. A Gorani is a Muslim Slav.
The story of Caki’s family
Caki’s family home was burned about
10 days after the war ended along with 110 other houses from Crkvena Vodica, a
village in which many Roma lived in peace with their neighbors. They stayed in
their home during the 78 days of the bombing, and once the ethnic-Albanians
were victorious, they fled the village and left behind all their belongings.
The father stayed. He watched the ethnic-Albanians setting houses on fire while
KFOR (The Kosovo Force (FOR) is a NATO-led international force
responsible for establishing and maintaining security in Kosovo) was present.
Caki’s family has since moved more than seven times. Today, they live in a
Romani settlement in a Serbian enclave. They occupy a house some Roma, now
refugees in Italy, let them use while they are away. Community survival and
solidarity are the only help Roma can rely on. In the almost four years since
the war ended no NGO or governmental agency has ever inquired if they needed
help. (NGO are non-governmental organizations associated with the United
Nations). Caki’s father is now busy writing the story of the family war experience
and his children translate it into English.
Life in the camps and in the settlements
Seeking collective security, Roma
tend to congregate in compact settlements, villages or neighborhoods. Life is
particularly harsh in the winter when it is cold. While in Kosovo, we stayed in
Preoce, a Romani settlement located in a Serbian enclave a few kilometers South
of Pristina. We slept in the cozy home of Ajsa and Sadri. They live with their
daughter, her husband Hisenn and a newborn baby because Hisenn's family home
was destroyed after the war. Today, the five of them share a small habitation
composed of two rooms, each the size of a handkerchief. The family life and the
chores of the house all take place in these two small chambers: cooking,
eating, washing, cleaning, sleeping, visiting, working, calling, watching TV,
smoking, listening to the radio. It is a miracle what happens everyday in such
a tiny space. Sadri and Ajsa's son living nearby, he and his wife, and their
two young boys also hang out most of the day in the winter in the grandparents
home to save on wood because there isn't money to heat two houses.
As in every single Romani home or
camp I went into, the environment is warm, cozy and superbly clean. Everyone
entering a house systematically leaves their shoes outside. Immediately after
each meal, a woman collects the (homemade of course) bread crumbs lying on the
ground in order to keep it at all times perfectly clean because, as Sani will
explain to me later, the ground symbolizes the earth from which all food rise.
There was no water inside the house of Ajsa and Sadri, only outside. Yet their
house was cleaner than most American homes I visited when I lived in the USA.
Please, do not talk to me ever again about "dirty Gypsies."
The Plemetina Internally Displaced
Persons (IDP) camp is located outside the municipality of Obilic, in an
industrial zone with no public transportation to the nearby centers. The area
is quite desolate and depressive. The camp has been built along a railroad track
and behind a power plant. According to the billboards set by the European
Agency for Reconstruction, this is also the environment the European Agency
chose to rebuild homes for minorities. Mother Teresa, a Pristina-based NGO run
by ethnic-Albanians, administrates the camp which is now home to 91 families.
When we visited the camp, we came across a family whose mother has been
diagnosed with a heart disease that could only be cured at the Pristina
hospital. Terrified at the idea of being cured by the very same people who had
caused her family the loss of their home, the mother preferred to stay in the
camp. We found her lingering in pain on a mattress with her four children
running around while her 17-year old responsible daughter-in-law was running the
show in her place. VOR managed to take her to the Serbian-run Mitrovica
hospital where she received the papers needed for a transfer at a Belgrade
hospital where she eventually could be cured.
The warehouse in Leposavic is another
IDP camp. It is located in the northern sector of Mitrovica, a city still
divided by ethnic-hatred. Many of the IDPs come form Fabricka Street,
"Roma-Mahala" in the Albanian-dominated south Mitrovica which was the
largest pre-conflict Roma settlement in the municipality. It was home to 67.000
mostly Romani families, but is now abandoned, destroyed. As we drove by to film
what is left of the "mahala" we came across some school kids who were
tearing down what still could be saved from these rugged houses. Today, the Albanian
population and the municipal leadership continue to resist the return of the
Roma, Ashkaelia, and Egyptian population in the "Roma-Mahala." Gusani Skender, the Leposavic camp Director,
is very worried because since December 12, 2002, the camp no longer receives
aid. 200 persons live in the camp: 39 families, 3 Egyptians, 1 Serbian and 35
Romani.
The Macedonian refugees camp of Sutka
is located in the Romani district of Skopje. UNHCR administrates this camp. We
had to smuggle in our camera to do the interviews because UNHCR does not allow
anyone to film. As we were listening to the refugees, we soon understood
why. After four years there are still
no bathrooms, nor restrooms for the residents of the camp. No schools for
children and adolescents who haven't had the chance to go to school in the last
four years. What kind of future can these kids aspire to? Let's not even talk
about their diet. "The food is so scarce. We do not know what to do,"
commented a middle-age lady with a Da Vinci Madonna face, before asking us with
no reproach but without hiding her
distress either, "Are we supposed to eat it or to give it to our
kids?"
The tyranny of power cuts
As we arrived, I was really surprised
to find out that life in Kosovo is now punctuated by power cuts. For four hours
with electricity, two ensued without. It used to be even worse, shortages would
go unannounced and could at times last more than 24 hours to the point that
Serbs were so enraged that they blocked the highway from Pristina to Skopje for
three consecutive days. I did not recall Kosovo having power shortage in the
past. As a matter of fact, I remember Kosovo selling electricity to neighboring
countries. Could it be that electricity is now used as an instrument of tyranny
to pressure minorities to leave the province? In its 2001-2002 Annual Report,
the Ombudsperson Institution in Kosovo noted: "The provision of public
utilities (electricity, water, etc.) to [Serbian and Romani] ghettos is at much
lower standard than to the rest of the population."
The international civil and military presence
What strikes anyone arriving to
Kosovo since the province has become a UN protectorate is to see the
overwhelming presence of the West. The defiling of KFOR armored vehicles and
4X4s with logos of governmental and non-governmental agencies is relentless,
and in sharp contrast with local population old means of transportation.
Pristina has become a very cosmopolitan place where it is now possible to find
a daily paper in more than eight different languages. At the UNMIK (United
Nations Interim Administration) registration office, 2200 NGOs are registered,
600 are international and 1600 are domestic which more than likely are funded
by Western interests since 60% of Kosovo population is unemployed. Who else
could fund these civic and humanitarian initiatives?
But the international influence can
also be more indirect and ingenious. It is noticeable for instance in the
vocabulary everyone now uses to comment on the present situation or on the
solutions the country needs to implement. In Belgrade, I met with Miljenko
Derenta, a dynamic middle-aged man, President of Civic Initiatives, a Citizens'
Associations for Democracy and Civic Education. In an impressive hotel of the
Yugoslav capital, Derenta was leading, for the 4th consecutive year since the
bombing ended, a Conference of civil society leaders gathering more than 370
organizations throughout Yugoslavia. Like many Serbs I met before who
eventually surrendered to the western discourse he sounded apologetic not to
say guilty when he explained to me the goals of his organization. One of them
was to establish "democracy schools" he said and added as to justify
his statement "because we don't have a democratic tradition." Another objective was to develop inter-ethnic
programs. But I ask myself: who really needs lessons of democracy today? Which
country was more multi-ethnic than Yugoslavia before the IMF (International
Monetary Fund) and its austerity measures stirred up ethnic rivalries and the
CIA and its German counterpart armed ethnic rival groups? Do they replace
events in their geopolitical context in the "democracy schools" which
the West subtly directs and heavily funds?
Significant anecdote with a Gorani entrepreneur
While in Skopje, we stopped one day
at a Balkan style fast-service restaurant for lunch. The owner was a Gorani
from Kosovo who fled his native land in June 1999. A week later, as we drove by
his neighborhood, we decided to stop for coffee. It was Bajram, a Muslim
holiday. On this occasion, in honor of the dead, Muslims kill a sheep for
peace. We found him standing in front of the restaurant in the company of his
father. He greeted us as he recognized our faces. Never mind the restaurant was
closed, he opened it for us and served us. He did not want us to pay, because
it was a holiday. More importantly, he wanted to show Sani that war did not
change anything between them.
My first encounter with UNMIK
On my first day in Kosovo, I got a
terrible flu and the next day felt even worse. So I decided to consult a doctor
and was taken by my hosts to the nearby clinic operated by UNMIK. Upon my
arrival, the doctor immediately declared: "That's what you get when you
stay in the Gypsy camp!" "You
mean Roma," I replied and then I asked my translator to explain to her I
had just arrived and more than likely got that nasty virus in the USA or on my
way to Kosovo.
Interview of Kosovo Ombudsperson, Marek Antoni Nowicki
Generally speaking, the Ombudsperson
is by far the most honest official we interviewed . He did not try to deny the
bad living conditions under which Roma have to live nor to embellish the
situation. "When we speak about Roma community, the situation is extremely
bad, and here there are additional elements making it even worse. Their
extremely restricted freedom of movement has serious repercussions on all
aspects of normal life's access to employment, medical care, schools, and
public service generally," Nowicki commented.
We also discussed at great length the
question of immunity of the whole international presence in Kosovo. It is very
ironic to note that while the main responsibility of the international security
presence deployed in Kosovo should be devoted to "establishing a secure
environment in which refugees and displaced persons can return home
safely," many complaints the Ombudsperson received dealt with KFOR and
UNMIK's taking and continuing occupation of the private property of individual
residents of Kosovo, and about the impossibility of obtaining compensation for
the occupation of that property. Since both KFOR and UNMIK personnel, including
locally recruited personnel, are immune from legal process in respect of all
acts performed by them in their official capacity, the Ombudsperson has
basically no recourse in face of those violations. Although Nowicki addressed
the issue and argued towards the UN SRSG that the Status, Privileges and
Immunities of KFOR and UNMIK and their personnel in Kosovo(UNMIK Regulation No
2000/47) is incompatible with
recognized international standards, as well as with the European
Convention on Human Rights, his claim, filed in April 2000, has not yet been
answered.
Asylum Countries threaten to begin large-scale return of ethnic minorities
According to the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) the vast majority of Kosovo Albanians (184,074
as of December 31, 2002) who fled in 1999 have returned home and benefited from
reinstallation and reintegration support. But the return of ethnic minorities
is still pending three and one-half years later. As of January 31, 2003, UNHCR
figures attest of 6,226 returns belonging to minority ethnic groups.
Considering that the population of ethnic-minorities that fled after the
bombing amounts to be 230,000, this does not even represent 3 percent The
majority (56.4 percent) of them are Serb while only 10.4 percent (645) are
Roma.
Several countries of asylum have now
announced their intentions to begin large-scale returns of ethnic minorities to
Kosovo in Spring 2003. Germany is one of them and is threatening to start the
forced return of 30,000 refugees. The international community in Kosovo is
alarmed by this new policy but its actors do not seem to agree on how to tackle
it. The Ombudsperson is of the opinion that governments should be convinced to
suspend this policy because the conditions do not exist to receive such a big
influx of deportees and the security situation of minorities presently in
Kosovo continues to be a major concern. UNHCR's position is more mitigated.
Although they say that minorities should continue to benefit from the
international protection in countries of asylum, UNHCR stresses that returns
should only take place on a voluntary basis with integration being supported
through assistance in order to ensure sustainability. UNMIK is more pragmatic.
Peggy L. Hicks, Director of Office of Returns and Communities believes
"that both with the minority and the majority community we can create a
window of opportunity for returnees to come back."
A newly appointed Washington
bureaucrat with three-years experience on the matter since she was transferred
right from Bosnia to Kosovo, Hicks already secured a budget of 32 million Euros
and has some kind of plan in mind. Convinced that security problems have
improved in certain locations, she intents to begin a repatriation program in
these locations first. She also plans to work with local municipalities and to
condition the rebuilding of bridges and roads to the returning and hiring of
ethnic minorities. She also asked donors for financial assistance in order to
improve the reintegration of families when they return in order to encourage
others to do the same. The news propagated fast in the aid community. NGOs are
now busy multiplying contacts and efforts to see which one of them will get the
new business. If that is a sign of hope for the Romani community who could at
last receive a bit of assistance for suffering inflicted to their people while
none of them has ever had anything to do with the current conflict, it remains
to be seen if credits will be confirmed and if the strategy implemented will
allow aid to reach Roma.
Governmental and non-governmental
agencies need to start by hiring Roma to implement the programs they
specifically design for them. They need to show the example, otherwise how can
they reach out to Roma and how can they convince others employers to do so? The
Swiss liaison office in Pristina recently funded an ESL program that Paul
Polansky and VOR run in different settlements and camps throughout Kosovo that
proved to be very successful. Reputed to be talented with languages, Roma can
pick up a new one very fast. Thanks to this initiative, there is now a pool of
multi-lingual Roma who can be trained to implement the programs that will serve
their community and rebuild their future.
"I want you to tell the world how
much we suffer here"
"Do you see how minorities have
to live here?" Dragan asked me one day. The owner of a restaurant where we
used to eat in a Serbian enclave, said, "We are like animals in
cages." He offered, "I invite you to stay in my house as long as you
want, no costs, but I want you to tell the world how much we suffer here."
If you want to meet Dragan, and find
out by yourselves the horrific conditions under which ethnic minorities still live nearly four years after NATO
"humanitarian" intervention began,
come and join an international delegation of peace inspectors to Kosovo
this Summer. You will visit camps and settlements, you will meet with leaders
of all ethnic minority groups as well as with key representatives of the
governmental and non-governmental organizations. You will also experience
Romani community life and get to know Ajsa and Sadri's beautiful family. For
more information, you can contact the author at <peaceinspectorstoKosovo@yahoo.com>
<peaceinspectorstoKosovo@yahoo.com>.
About the author:
A native from Belgium, Marie-Pierre
Lahaye is a social and cultural anthropologist and activist who has traveled to
Yugoslavia several times in the last 5 years. Her articles have been published
in France and in the United States. She is currently working on a book in which
she discusses how the ideological and financial support that the US-led West
provided in Yugoslavia for building and organizing civil society was used to
convince the Yugoslav people to trust the Western model calling for the
sovereignty of the market. She is a
founding board director of Voice of Roma.