http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/03/kosovo-minorities-eu-government
The flight of Kosovo's minorities
The EU insists that Kosovo is a tolerant and multi-ethnic society. So
why are its minorities leaving?
*
Comments (29)
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/03/kosovo-minorities-eu-government?commentpage=1>
* Ian Bancroft <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/ianbancroft>
* guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, Wednesday 3 June 2009
20.30 BST
*
*
* A highly critical report <http://www.minorityrights.org/> by
Minority Rights Group International (MRG) maintains that members
of minority communities are beginning to leave Kosovo
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/kosovo> over a year after its
unilateral declaration of independence, due to persistent
exclusion and discrimination. In contradicting the conclusions of
the EU's general affairs and external relations council, the
report once again demonstrates the emptiness and evasiveness of
statements by members of the international community asserting
Kosovo's supposedly multi-ethnic character. Without urgent
measures to improve the position of minorities in Kosovo, such a
discourse will increasingly serve only to parody, not portray, the
reality on the ground.
The report
<http://www.minorityrights.org/7856/reports/filling-the-vacuum-ensuring-protection-and-legal-remedies-for-minorities-in-kosovo.html>,
Filling the Vacuum: Ensuring Protection and Legal Remedies for
Minorities in Kosovo, concludes that Kosovo "lacks effective
international protection for minorities, which is worsening the
situation for smaller minorities and forcing some to leave the country
for good". These minorities include not only Kosovo's Serbs, but also
Ashkali, Bosniaks, Croats, Egyptians, Gorani, Roma and Turks, who
together make up around 5% of the population of Kosovo according to
local estimates.
MRG's conclusions clearly contradict those
<http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/gena/107921.pdf>
of the recent meeting of the EU's general affairs and external relations
council, which "noted with satisfaction the initial results achieved by
EULEX <http://www.eulex-kosovo.eu/> in assisting the Kosovo authorities
in consolidating the rule of law and in contributing to a safe and
secure environment for all inhabitants, regardless of their ethnic
origins". The divergence between such statements and the reports of
human rights organisations such as MRG has become a distinctive feature
of the international community's efforts to provide positive assessments
of Kosovo's institutions. The result is policies that are insufficient
to contend with the substantive problems faced by local communities.
Though the government of Kosovo have often been commended for its stated
commitment to upholding minority rights, MRG's report goes on to
describe how "a lack of political will among majority Albanians and poor
investment in protection mechanisms have resulted in minority rights
being eroded or compromised in the post-independence period". According
to MRG, Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence has left "a
vacuum in effective international protection for minorities"; a vacuum
that the Kosovo government seems both unwilling and unable to fill.
Without tackling deficiencies in the area of the rule of law –
reconfirmed by a newly released report
<http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/19752/> by the Balkan
Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), which describes Kosovo's courts
as being "inefficient, opaque, and hampered by persistent institutional
obstacles" – the plight of minorities will continue to be of secondary
importance to the apparent need to proclaim Kosovo
<http://www.enewspf.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7643:vice-president-biden-address-to-the-parliament-of-bosnia-and-herzegovina&catid=88888983:latest-national-news&Itemid=88889930>
an example of a tolerant and multi-ethnic society.
Indeed, Mark Lattimer, the executive director of MRG, also emphasised
<http://uk.oneworld.net/article/view/162983/1/> how "restrictions of
movement and political, social and economic exclusion are particularly
experienced by smaller minorities". Such conditions are only likely to
be further aggravated by the worsening economic situation in Kosovo,
especially for the Ashkali, Egyptian and Roma communities that suffer
from deeply ingrained poverty and marginalisation.
MRG has long drawn attention to the many failures to uphold the rights
of minority communities in Kosovo, with a 2006 report
<http://www.minorityrights.org/664/press-releases/failure-by-international-community-to-protect-minorities-in-kosovo-could-lead-to-renewed-conflict.html>,
Minority Rights in Kosovo under International Rule, describing the
situation of minorities as the worst in Europe and "little short of
disastrous"; the international community having allowed "a segregated
society to develop and become entrenched". Despite these and other
warnings from human rights organisations, the international community
has continued to not only ignore the difficulties faced by minority
communities in Kosovo, but to regularly proclaim success with respect to
minority rights protection.
While both the international community and the Kosovo government insist
that minority rights are guaranteed and conform to the highest
international standards, MRG's report instead highlights how the
segregation of Kosovo continues unabated. Indeed, it is increasingly
clear that the litany of failures with respect to minority rights has
been further exacerbated and entrenched by Kosovo's unilateral
declaration of independence. In sidelining the imperatives of
re-integration, the international community's approach towards Kosovo is
likely to have ramifications elsewhere in the Western Balkans. Without
immediate and substantial steps to tackle minority rights issues,
especially the return of internally displaced persons
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/05/kosovo-serbs-return>
(IDPs) and refugees, Kosovo will remain the most segregated territory in
Europe and a constant source of tension and instability for the entire
region.
