Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence


APPENDIX 37

Memorandum submitted by Oxfam

KEY MESSAGES

    —  Plans are being made for the shift from the emergency assistance phase of the international operation in Kosovo towards more sustainable economic reconstruction and growth.

    —  This will not succeed without improved security. UN Member states must provide more police to Kosovo, as well as funding to train a new indigenous police force.

    —  The legal situation in the province must be clarified and a functioning judicial and penal system rapidly established.

    —  Clarification of property ownership is essential if a market economy is to be re-started in Kosovo.

CURRENT SITUATION

  Six months after the end of the war in Kosovo, plans are being made for the end of the emergency assistance phase of the international operation and a move towards sustainable economic reconstruction and growth. The humanitarian pillar of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is making plans for a phasing down of operations by June 2000, when the work of UNMIK's economic reconstruction pillar should be well under way. The re-establishment of a functioning banking system in Kosovo is a prerequisite for the start of economic activity essential for the province's recovery and stabilisation; the opening of the Micro Enterprise Bank in Pristina on 24 January was thus an important step in this direction.

  Oxfam also hopes that it will be able to shift the emphasis of work in Kosovo away from emergency assistance and towards development in the spring. However, given the current situation in the province, we fear that the plans for a switch to development work and private sector growth currently being made by international agencies, including UNMIK pillar IV, the European Commission Agency for Reconstruction, UNDP and others, will not succeed in the next year if other significant problems are not addressed quickly and convincingly.

  Security is a prerequisite for economc growth. UNMIK and KFOR have not established a secure environment in Kosovo in which people can re-start their lives and invest in businesses. Violence against ethnic minorities continues to be a huge problem, preventing the return of displaced people and keeping remaining minorities effectively imprisoned in isolated apartments, houses or non-Albanian cantons, Freedom of movement does not exist for the remaining Serb, Roma and other minority groups.

  Violence in Kosovo is not only a problem for minorities, however. UNMIK has not established the rule of law in Kosovo, and it is unclear who is in charge in many areas. Confusion created by parallel administrative structures is unlikely to be clarified by their official abolition on 31 January, because UNMIK does not have municipal governance structures with which to replace the system that was established by the KLA immediately after the war. UNMIK is not currently in a position to prevent the extortion of protection money from small businesses by the major political party, the successor political party to the KLA. The unofficial authorities are also said to be dismissing teachers that refuse to support the party, and attempting (sometimes successfully) to influence the distribution of humanitarian assistance in Kosovo according to political support. In this confused and confusing situation, the majority of Kosovans feel unable to work towards re-starting their livelihoods with any confidence.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  Some basic conditions are necessary if the security situation is to improve for ordinary people in Kosovo.

    —  UN member states must provide an adequate number of police to Kosovo: at present, only two thousand are patrolling the province, far short of the six thousand requested by the SRSG. OSCE has also had much difficulty obtaining international funding to train a new indigenous police force for Kosovo. UNMIK can only stand up to extortion and intimidation by ex-KLA forces if it has the capacity to enforce its authority. If lawlessness persists, and if the ex-KLA forces continue to act with impunity for much longer, legal economic growth will be seriously inhibited and illegal markets in drugs, prostitution and arms will grow still further. It will also be impossible to create the atmosphere of political security necessary for free and fair election at the end of the summer.

    —  The legal situation in the province must be clarified and a functioning judicial and penal system rapidly established. At present, the legal situation remains confused because, in a curious policy U-turn, the SRSG decided in December that the applicable law of the province should be changed from current FRY law to 1989 Kosovo law. This confused the legal codes that were being drawn up by international agencies, so at present several crucial legal documents relating to property ownership and other issues do not exist in official Albanian translation. Judges cannot apply the law because the documents setting them out are simply not available; thus the courts cannot function, and criminals cannot be prosecuted. Because of confusion over the applicable law, enforcement is similarly difficult for the few police officers actually working in the province.

    —  Clarification of property ownership is essential if a market economy is to be re-started in Kosovo; without regulation of ownership of businesses and homes, people will not feel secure and investment will not occur. The property issue will be extremely difficult to resolve in Kosovo, because legal conditions prevailing in the 1990s made it very difficult for Albanians to acquire property legally and because records have been destroyed or are held only in Belgrade. The situation is further confused by the existence of "socially-owned" property in Kosovo, as in the rest of former Yugoslavia. Despite the crucial links between the property issue, returns and economic reconstruction, however, the Propety Directorate has not yet been established and currently functions with only one international member of staff in Pristina.

  Without the preconditions of adequate law enforcement and a clarification of the applicable law in Kosovo, investment by the Micro Enterprise Bank and other reconstruction agencies to re-start economic growth in Kosovo will be wasted. Economic reconstruction, with the creation of new jobs and opportunities, is the best way to stabilise the whole region and give people a stake in peace. However, at present the conditions necessary for stabilisation and economic growth in Kosovo do not exist.


 
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