A Short Comment - Two Realities of Kosovo
*the full version of the commentary is being translated and will be uploaded soon

We are presenting to you two reports which were read at the Meeting of the UN Security Council on April 24, 2002: the first by Mr. Michael Steiner, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Kosovo and the other by Dr. Nebojsa Covic, the vice-president of the Serbian Government and the chief of the Cooridination Center for Kosovo and Metohia.

The Mexican Ambassador in the Security Council, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, gave a very characteristic impression after the both reports were read:

"It seems there are two Kosovos. One is moving towards civility, democracy, tolerance, respect for human rights and the restoration of the rule of law. Yet, there is another Kosovo characterized by inter-ethnic discord, the rejection of tolerance and the promotion of violence."

In the continuation of the discussion Russian Ambassador and the present Chairman of the UN SC Sergei Lavrov very correctly explained the existing paradox about the two different realities on the ground saying: "While there has been progress on socio-economic issues, transfer of police functions, elections and the establishment of the provisional coalition Government, such improvement virtually affects ONLY the Kosovo Albanians".

While Mr. Steiner focused more on positive accomplishments on the ground, primarily in the field of building of institutions and ecconomic development and offered a series of benchmarks which would have to lead to the final discussion on the status issue, Mr. Covic explained that the life of Kosovo Serbs has not been essentially improved, despite of certain positive results on the Kosovo wide level. The general atmosphere of intolerance towards the Serbs and the essential lack of basic human rights and freedom of movement do not give much opportunities to ordinary Serbs in Kosovo to feel the benefits of the political and economic results, which on the other hand, cannot be properly evaluated out of the wider security and minority rights context. Dr. Covic offered a constructive cooperation of the new democratic Belgrade Government suggesting that the Kosovo problem should be approached rather from the regional level and not the opposite.

In any case, the idea suggested by the ICG and Goldstone's commission that the final resolution of the Kosovo status in a form of "conditional independence" would lead to the stabilization in the entire region has not won support in the Security Council. This proposal is seen by many as an attempt to build a roof of a house without erecting the walls on which it would safely stand. The general impression remains that the longer the situation in Kosovo is so unstable and unfavorable for the non-Albanian communities, the more time will have to pass until the final status is fully determined. It is also becoming evident that the new regional role of the Belgrade Government cannot any longer be ignored like in the Milosevic period because the new prospects for the full implementation of the UNSCR 1244 have been opened.

With the establishment of the new Kosovo Government the conditions have finally been met to open a meaningfull political dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade on the implementation of the Resolution 1244, primarily on the establishment of the Kosovo's substantial autonomy within FRY, as envisaged by the UNSCR 1244. With the improvement on the ground and the confidence building, this dialogue will eventually evolve into a discussion on the final status of the Province. In this process of dialogue the international support should be reserved for that side or policy which would offer better prospects of political stabilization, ecconomic development and the future European integration of the entire region. Any other criterion or partiality from the international side would be of negative effect for the region. If this dialog goes in the positive direction, the true winners in this match should be those citizens of the Province (regardless of their ethnicity) who wish to live and work in peace and democracy.

Comment by Fr. Sava

Sun Apr 14,12:49 PM ET
By DRAGAN ILIC, Associated Press Writer

RUDARE, Yugoslavia - Hundreds of relatives of Serbs missing since the
end of Kosovo's war examined clothes, wedding rings and cigarette cases
Sunday, hoping to determine the fate of loved ones believed slain in the
province.

Families streamed into a pair of tents erected near a motel in southern
Serbia to view items U.N. forensics investigators uncovered after the
fighting ended in 1999. The relatives donned surgical masks to guard
against infection while looking at items found with 360 corpses
unearthed at sites throughout the southern Yugoslav province.

Some 1,300 Serbs have been reported missing since former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites)'s 1998-1999 crackdown on
ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Most of those people are presumed to be
dead.

U.N. officials in recent months have promised to do more to determine
the fate of the missing, both Serbs and ethnic Albanians. An estimated
3,000 ethnic Albanians are also still unaccounted for nearly three years
after NATO (news - web sites) bombing halted Milosevic's crackdown and
drove out Yugoslav government forces.

Wiping away tears, Sasa Ristanovic recognized a blue shirt his father,
Momcilo, wore June 17, 1999_ the day he disappeared in the Kosovo city
of Prizren.

"Now I know what I felt for years," he said. "My father was killed and
dumped in a grave."

Ristanovic and tens of thousands of other Serbs fled the province soon
after NATO forces took control, fearing attacks leveled in revenge for
Milosevic's crackdown.

The exhibit located 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of the capital,
Belgrade, was held outside of the province in part to help those afraid
to return.

Forensic experts say the families of 15 people were able to recognize
personal items at the exhibit.

Many of the relatives also gave blood samples, providing DNA evidence
that could help U.N. investigators determine the identities of some of
the remains.

PATRIARCH PAVLE RECEIVED MICHAEL STEINER, HEAD OF UNMIK

His Holiness Pavle, Serbian Patriarch, received Mr Michael Steiner, special envoy of the UN Secretary General for Kosovo and Metochia in the Patriarchate Palace in Belgrade today. The talks dwelled on the current situation in Kosovo and Metochia, participation of the Serbian people in the governing institutions in Kosovo and Metochia, as well as on the possibilities for establishing multiethnic society in Kosovo and Metochia, for setting democratic rights and providing a normal life and work for the refugees willing to return.

Talking with the primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Head of the UN Civil Mission in Kosovo repeated that the return of the exiled Serbs to Kosovo and Metochia represented the process that the international community is in charge of. "Our goal is multiethnic Kosovo. We need help from all authorities, first of all from the Serbian Orthodox Church" Steiner said.

Patriarch Pavle said that he himself had met with representatives of various other religions and Churches in Kosovo and Metochia in the period when he had performed the duty of Bishop of Raska-Prizren, adding that he was still ready to talk with them any time.

His Grace Pahomije, Bishop of Vranje, member of the Holy Synod of Bishops, attended the meeting of Patriarch Pavle and Michael Steiner (who was heading the delegation).

This is not Patriarch's first meeting with Michael Steiner. They had already met during the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Epoka e Re (Kosovo daily in Albanian) writes that Kosovo Ombudsperson Marek Nowitzki reportedly said that the Albanian community in Kosovo is pressuring the Serbs, leaving the impression of a strategy to expel all Serbs from Kosovo. Nowitzki told Belgrade newspaper Blic that part of the pressure is the sale of Serb properties. "We have the situation where a traditional Serb neighborhood turns into an Albanian one and UNMIK doesn't do anything about it," he said.

"There's no freedom of movement. Human rights are not respected. Generally speaking, with every day the situation is increasingly worse. Serbs are increasingly isolated in their enclaves. There is no freedom of living. Their property has been usurped. Serbs are in dilemma to stay or to leave. We are far away from minimal living conditions," said Nowitzki.

He criticized the NGO, HPD Habitat, which has oversight of property issues. "Habitat is big mistake. People in Bosnia and Croatia know this well. As long as this situation exists, there is little hope that things will get better. We have to ask ourselves how long the people in Shtërpce, Prishtina and Graçanica will stand being isolated," he said.

Nowitzki judged that if Habitat continued to work at the current tempo, it would need 500 years to resolve property issues, which would be intolerable for the Serb community. "The Serb community in Kosovo has been beheaded. They need urgent help. There are no qualified people that can be compared to Albanian political leaders," he said.

Report by UNMIK Media Monitoring Division

SRNA: Obilic 12.42, April 4th

Obilic: In the night between the 3rd and 4th of April two Serb houses were attacked. Unknown attackers threw a hand grenade on the house of Svetislav Stolic but no one from his family who were at the house in the time of attack were injure. That was confirmed by the member of the Municipal Council Mirce Jakovljevic. The house of Zoran Milic was attacked twice by rocket propelled grenades by unknown attackers too. No casualties were reported.