Kosovo: Pristina's War on the UN

I've written previously about Kosovo Albanian efforts to push the UN from its peacekeeping role in the north. The verbal attacks are escalating and turning ad hominem. The UNMIK press update for September 24 carries several articles from the Pristina press attacking the work of the UN in the north – including noting that UN officers working there are Russians or other Slavs who have good relations with local Serbs. The press, and quoted comments from Pristina authorities, continue the line that the UN's job in Kosovo ended with the UDI and that the UN office in north Mitrovica (UAM) is an obstacle to incorporating the north.

The Kosovo government now has a 25 page paper outlining its case against UAM. The report – apparently written by two grad students who worked in Kosovo for the summer and may have been paid by the EU – describes UAM as one of the “principal obstacles of North-South integration in Kosovo and of cooperation in … Mitrovica.” It accuses UAM of failing to hand over local government to a “legal” entity, failing to provide services to all communities in the north and working with “parallel” Serbian structures. The authors accuse UAM of “breaching its mandate and … aid[ing] in de facto partition between the Serb and other ethnic communities in Mitrovica North … enhancing the authority of the parallel structures ... [and] helping Belgrade’s strategy of controlling the territory north of the Ibër/Ibar River and thus violating the territorial integrity of Kosovo.”

The report's authors ascribe UNMIK's decision to establish UAM in 2002 to “weariness” with conflict in Mitrovica and suggest it “legally enforc[ed]” the de facto partition of the city. They raise the issue of the Slavic staff of UAM and that UAM incorporates a large number of locals also on the Serbian payroll. The report outlines the budget allotment that UAM receives from Pristina through the southern municipality – some two million euros this year – with Serbs getting what the authors consider as more than their share. They report that many local services are performed by Serbs working within Serbian institutions and that, therefore, UAM is not the true government of north Mitrovica. UAM is also accused of not following the Kosovo Constitution or implementing the Ahtisaari Plan and of ignoring the needs of non-Serbs and not supporting Albanian returns to north Mitrovica. The report ends by suggesting that the partition of Mitrovica is not “a military one that prevents freedom of movement, rather it is one of civil disobedience in which Serbs do not recognize the institutions of Kosovo and continue to use the institutions of Serbia.” UAM, it concludes “merely strengthens the parallel structures” and has left the non-Serb communities looking “south to Kosovo institutions for services.”

This student paper merits only a C. It evidences little sense of the actual history of Kosovo or understanding of how peacekeeping works. UAM was established not from weariness with conflict but because conflict served no purpose for those who actually lived in Mitrovica. The “de facto partition” was indeed a fact that had to be dealt with through pragmatic arrangements with and between all relevant parties. UAM could not have substituted for the local Serbian institutions (left in place when NATO moved into Kosovo in 1999). It could, though, find ways to work cooperatively with all sides and co-opt them. UAM has done its best to serve the interests of all communities but its first job was to avoid conflict and potential causes of conflict. Therefore it placed limits on possibly provocative actions from both sides, including unilateral returns that might have led to insecurity. It has always used part of its budget for the non-Serb communities. But now, Albanian leaders in north Mitrovica apparently have been ordered not to take money from UAM. This is ironic as the money comes from Pristina. In fact, one of UAM's significant accomplishments has been to get the Serbs to accept funds from the Kosovo budget despite their rejection of independence. Some had seen this as a step in gaining acceptance of some relationship with Pristina.

The simple truth is that the UN has kept the peace in the north despite provocative actions from both sides and this does not serve the interests of the Kosovo Albanian political elite. They want the UN and all other international “factors” to help them subdue the northern Serbs. Their interest in “returns and reconstruction” is simply an effort to send thousands of Albanians north to ethnically alter the population there as they have done in the south. They also use the issue of the north and attacks on UNMIK to divert the attention of the Kosovo public from the fact that not much has improved since independence. Attacking UNMIK is shear hypocrisy and a blatant effort to clear the UN from the north as a prelude to negotiations and eventual insertion of internationals willing to work to their agenda.

If UAM were to be removed from the field, Serbian resistance to Pristina and its institutions (including the ICO and EU office) would hardly disappear. Without UAM, the Serbs would simply go their own way with one more step toward partition.