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Kosova Is An Example Of Nation-Building Done Properly
27 May (Zeri & Statesman Journal) – There's at least one predominantly Muslim part of the world with a history of deep ethnic and religious divisions where the local population has embraced American intervention and the passage of time is witnessing a mission accomplished. It's small. Many Americans won't know where it is. Once the subject of presidential debates in 2000, it has been overshadowed by Iraq.
The place is Kosova, where the U.S. and NATO intervened in 1999 to stop the ethnic cleansing by Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic and begin the process of building a functioning nation from the rubble of the final collapse of the old Yugoslavia in the Balkans region of southeast Europe. Since September 2005, I've been working there periodically with the newly formed electricity regulators.
Other than the spires of the many centuries-old mosques that dot the city, there is little to distinguish the capital of Prishtina except the predominance of U.N. cars and facilities. The normal population is 500,000, but there are more than 70,000 U.N. personnel providing security and supporting assistance programs of international donors.
The U.N. presence here and the planned, gradual progress toward sustainable, functioning democratic institutions is a unique experiment that holds some lessons for the art of "nation-building" that has dominated the politics of U.S. foreign policy for the past decade.
After the death of President for Life Joseph Tito in 1980, Yugoslavia began to unravel under ethnic and economic tensions, and the Serbian nationalists sought domination. The U.S. and NATO intervened in 1995 to end the siege of Sarajevo in Bosnia, and again in 1999 when President Clinton committed 20,000 troops to stop atrocities as Christian Serb nationalists sought to drive the predominantly Muslim ethnic Albanians out of the autonomous region of Kosova.
After stopping the Serbs, the U.N. authorized the establishment of an interim civilian administration for Kosova to progressively establish autonomy and self-government. The first priority was security, achieved by a 35-nation NATO-led Kosova Force (KFOR) of 50,000 troops, including 7,000 from the U.S. In 2001, a constitutional framework for provisional self-government was passed, with the U.N. maintaining reserved powers until the final status of Kosova could be determined.
Peace has generally been maintained; infrastructure and institutional capacity are being rebuilt. Kosovars are electing their own assembly. Serious problems with unemployment and corruption still exist, but the international military and civil cooperation and U.N. administration have given Kosovars the time and opportunity to revive.
The main entrance to the city from the airport was renamed Bill Clinton Boulevard. A Nike superstar-like painting of Clinton waving to a crowd looms over the street from the side of a high-rise brick building. One hotel has put a small-scale Statue of Liberty on its roof. Tell a cab driver you are from the United States and rather than being seen as a mark for higher fares, you're more likely to get a thank-you and pat on the back as a welcome.
Ironically, when U.S. intervention in the region was being debated, many Republicans derided it as a military entanglement without an exit strategy. Candidate George Bush in 2000 said, "Troops shouldn't be used for what's called nation-building."
In Kosova, there were enough troops and diplomacy to establish the secure environment needed to build institutions of government. There was an internationally unified effort to gradually build the institutions necessary and provide competent administration and delivery of services. Some might see the international experience in Kosova as a portent of what can happen if we just hang in Iraq long enough.
For others, though, it is an example of the kind of foundation that the people who were deriding the concept of nation-building should have planned before they embarked on their own adventure.
Kosovo: UNMIK Police Commissioner Orders Investigation Into Mala Krusa Incident
Prishtina, (Bota Sot) 26 May -- The local institutions and political entities have harshly reacted to yesterday's incident in Krushe e Vogel Mala Krusa. An investigation into this incident has already started at the orders of UNMIK [UN Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo] Police Commissioner Kai Vittrup. The investigation commission will include local and international investigators.
Vittrup has also requested the launch of an investigation into the policemen's conduct during the incident in Krushe e Vogel, Prizren. ShPK Kosovo Police Service, KPS spokesman Veton Elshani has confirmed this, saying that Prizren police inspectors are investigating the incident and that the police commissioner has ordered a probe also into the policemen's behavior during yesterday's incident.
The incident, in which dozens of Krushe e Vogel residents and three international policemen in Kosova [Kosovo] were injured, was condemned by the international authorities in Kosova, which asserted that this is not the right way to build a legal and democratic state.
SELF DETERMINATION! Continued The Campaign Against The Serbian Products
27 May (Epoka e Re) – The SELF DETERMINATION! Campaign against the Serbian products continued in Gjilan.
“Many citizens didn’t hesitate and joined us. We were also supported by the coffee shops and small businesses. There were some who didn’t allow our posters in their shops but however many of the citizens supported our initiative” the SELF DETERMINATION Movement.
SELF DETERMINATION! Center in Gjilan, will continue with this activity in the future, states the SELF DETERMINATION! Movement.
One more reason [as if any more were needed] to keep them apart. Coexist they cannot, which should be self-evident even to the blind. And self-determination is a good slogan, Woodrow Wilson used it, IIRC.