January 3 2000
OPINIONSix months after Nato entered Kosovo with a promise of peace, the UN seems helpless as the territory plunges towards bloodthirsty anarchy, warns Eve-Ann Prentice
Kosovo's bleak midwinter
The Canadian soldier huddled against the biting wind on a blizzard-swept hill on the de facto frontier and, after checking my passport, said: "I am obliged to advise you, ma'am, that you are entering hostile territory."
He was referring to the Serbia ruled by Slobodan Milosevic. Behind him stretched the mountains and plains of Kosovo which I was leaving and which the Canadian was implying was now a haven of stability compared with Belgrade.
The fact is that six months after Nato entered Kosovo, murder, kidnapping and gang warfare are rife, the United Nations shows little sign of being able to cope, and British and other troops are fast realising they are in for a long and gruelling stay.
Blood-spattered pavements bore testimony last week to scenes of carnage at a shopping centre in Kosovo where a home-made bomb was thrown into a crowd of Serbs as they drank coffee. Ten people were hurt in the attack in Vitina, in the south of the province, last Monday, which reportedly occurred despite the presence of nearby American Kfor peacekeeping troops. Four ethnic Albanians were later arrested in connection with the bombing.
The attack was just the latest blow for the Nato-led peacekeepers, who are struggling to restore order in a land still teetering on the edge of anarchy. The United Nations has still not set up a judicial system or tackled an acute housing shortage. The UN even failed to ensure that enough snowploughs were deployed in the right places to keep vital supply lines open during recent - predictable - blizzards.
Many British soldiers serving in Kosovo are privately scathing about the UN mission (Unmik), but they are anxious to support it publicly, fearing that Nato will be left holding the fort if morale within the UN - already low - declines even further.
The delay in setting up a system of courts means that there is still no way to try those arrested, such as the shopping-centre bomb suspects. The result is that 90 per cent are released within 48 to 72 hours.
Last week a 14-year-old girl abducted in northern Pristina was rescued within one hour by members of the Royal Green Jackets, who sealed off exit routes and sprang a "rat-trap", catching the three kidnappers as they tried to leave the city with their hostage. Not only is there no system to try the girl's kidnappers, the UN police are also running out of space to hold those they seize.
The UN mission says that it will begin appointing 400 judges this month. However, it is clear that some officers in the British contingent of Kfor, which serves in Pristina and territory in the north-east near the border with Serbia proper, think the UN is working far too slowly. "Anarchy is the only way to describe the situation here now, complete anarchy," said one. "Unmik needs to pull its finger out - and fast."
Before the Nato campaign, Pristina had a population of 240,000, including about 47,000 Serbs. Today this has swollen to 500,000, with a tiny, embattled Serb minority estimated at between 800 and 1,200. Almost all the Serbs' apartments have been taken over by ethnic Albanians and there is little chance they will voluntarily hand these back to any Serbs who feel brave enough to want to return.
Few British troops went on leave over the holiday period and almost all the 5,500 serving in Kosovo are sleeping in tents, in stark contrast to the 5,000 UN and other international aid agency workers now in Pristina who have apartments and hotel rooms while the local population fights for accommodation.
In Pristina the atmosphere is tense and the British soldiers have to keep a constant vigil over the few remaining Serbs, who rarely venture from their homes for fear of attacks by ethnic Albanians. Many Serbs praise the UK troops, saying that they are doing more than any other nationality in Kfor to be even-handed. However, many in the British contingent privately say that they need more help from the UN mission.
Pristina is unrecognisable compared with the city before the Kosovo conflict. Street names have been changed to honour Albanian-born notables such as Mother Teresa, and every shop bears an Albanian name, often adorned with the red Albanian flag. Anyone who even inadvertently speaks Serbian is at best greeted with hostile looks; a Bulgarian Kfor soldier was set upon and killed in the autumn after saying the Serb word for "thank you".
With so few Serbs left in the UK-patrolled sector of Kosovo, violent attacks on them have statistically dropped. However, there are now signs that inter-Albanian strife is on the rise as moderate and extremist Albanians fight for supremacy.
During even the darkest days of Serb administration of Pristina, Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, could be found in his office with just two or three assistants alongside. On the day before Christmas Eve, he arrived for talks at one of the Kfor buildings in Pristina with a convoy of cars and surrounded by about 50 bodyguards.
Two days before Christmas, Amnesty International painted a damning picture of Kosovo six months after Nato's entry. "Violence against Serbs, Roma, Muslim Slavs and moderate Albanians in Kosovo has increased dramatically over the past month, pointing to a failure by the United Nations mission to protect human rights," the rights group said. "Murder, abductions, violent attacks, intimidation, and house-burning are being perpetrated on a daily basis.
"In the first week of December, 24 murders were reported. Amnesty International is particularly concerned about reports of abductions of young children and women, which have reached an alarming rate in recent weeks. Two Serb women who were abducted and reportedly tortured and raped in October escaped and an investigation is under way."
Amnesty also gives warning about the rise of inter-Albanian conflict: "Identity-based human rights abuses are coupled with abuses which appear to be part of an organised campaign to silence moderate voices in ethnic Albanian society," it says. "Last month, Kontakt, a multi-ethnic radio station based in Pristina, had its offices ransacked and equipment stolen. Members of the Democratic League of Kosovo Party have also increasingly become the target of attacks and intimidation."
Amnesty concludes: "The campaign for human rights in Kosovo is far from over. In the spring of this year the international community intervened in Kosovo with the declared aim of preventing a human rights catastrophe. However, at the closing of the year human rights abuses continue to be perpetrated on a daily basis."
The Canadian soldiers at the frontier meanwhile cast wary glances down the snow-covered track towards Serbia proper. Ethnic Albanian extremists last month sneaked across this boundary in the dead of night and killed two Serb policemen, so Kfor troops have been on high alert over the holiday period in an attempt to prevent a repeat attack. This is, indeed, hostile territory, whichever way you look at it.Copyright 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd
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