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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