>From: Giovanni Scotto <gscotto@zedat.fu-berlin.de>
>Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 18:44:12 +0100 (MET)
>Subject: PressInfo 35, Kosovo. What Can Be Done
Now? (fwd)
>Reply-To: pace@peacelink.it (Multiple recipients
of Movimenti per la pace)
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 12:26:56 +0200
>From: Transnational Foundation TFF <tff@transnational.org>
>To: TFF PressInfo Recipients <tff@transnational.org>
>Subject: PressInfo 35, Kosovo. What Can Be Done
Now?
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * *
Dear Selected TFF PressInfo Recipient,
It's a pleasure for us to send you this PressInfo
about possible initiatives toward violence-
prevention in Kosovo.
T F F P r e s s I n f o
# 3 5
K O S O V O - What Can Be Done Now?
"Violence closes doors and minds. Good conflict-resolution
opens them. A principled,
impartial and innovative approach is now the
only way to prevent a new tragedy in the
Balkans. A limited United Nations presence could
be one element in violence prevention,"
says TFF director Jan Oberg. "Below you find
some examples, developed by us during our
work with the Kosovo conflict since 1991. We'd
be happy to have your comments and
your suggestions."
"Many things can still be done - but only as long
as there is no, or limited, violence. When
violence is stepped up, opportunities for genuine
solutions diminish. Governments and
citizen around the world can take impartial goodwill
initiatives, for instance:
* A HEARING IN THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
We need to get the
facts on the table, presented by impartial experts
as well as by the parties themselves;
listen actively to them for they have interesting
arguments and question their positions,
activities and policies.
* MEETINGS all over Europe with various groups
of Serbs and Albanians to discuss their
problems. Governments and NGOs can provide the
funds, the venues and the facilitators.
* SEND A HIGH-LEVEL INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION
OF "CITIZEN DIPLOMATS" to
Belgrade and Kosovo and have it listen and make
proposals on the establishment of a
permanent dialogue or negotiation process but
NOT on what the solution should be.
* A NON-VIOLENCE PACT. Pressure must be brought
to bear on all parties to sign a
document in which they solemnly declare that
they will unconditionally refrain from the use
of every kind of violence against human beings
and property as part of their policies.
* SIMULTANEOUS WITHDRAWAL of Serb police and
military from the region (with the
exception of what is needed for self-defence
along the borders) and disarmament of the
Kosovo Liberation Army. This should be combined
with a
"WEAPONS-BUY-BACK" PROGRAM: citizens and paramilitary
units are remunerated for
handing in their weapons to collection points
controlled by the UN.
* Monitoring of this process by UN CIVIL AFFAIRS
AND CIVIL POLICE (200 or so are
enough).
* POSITIVE INCENTIVES. Make it known to the parties
that international organisations will
help them with things they need if they refrain
from violence now and engage in talks. As a
vital element in the conflict is underdevelopment,
poverty and deepening economic crisis,
there is considerable space for economic "carrots."
* SHOW RESPECT. Tell the parties that any solution
they reach voluntarily will be
accepted by the international community. This
means not treating them as helpless, clients
or inferiors.
* GET YUGOSLAVIA BACK INTO THE OSCE. Lift the
suspension of Yugoslavia in the
OSCE, it was unwise from the beginning to exclude
Yugoslavia which then, naturally, did
not want to continue hosting the OSCE missions
on its territory.
* UN CIVIL POLICE MISSION. Get perhaps 200 United
Nations Civil Police on the ground
to prevent incidents like those we have seen
from exploding into something nobody can
control.
* INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES. Don't wait
for the European Union to find
a common policy on this issue. The Scandinavian
countries and Switzerland could play a
particularly active role in this conflict.
* ARRANGE SEMINARS where a lot of IMAGINATIVE
LONGTERM SOLUTIONS can be
suggested, analysed and debated in a non-binding
manner, almost like a brainstorm -
such as:
- various types of autonomy,
- international presence,
- protectorate or other types of transitional
administration,
- demilitarisation,
- normalisation of everyday life before an overall
solution is reached,
- conditions and modalities for remaining in
Serbia/Yugoslavia
- humanitarian presence and human rights monitoring,
- economic development, e.g. creation of a Kosovo
Co-Prosperity Region or Economic
Free Zone,
- UN or OSCE peacekeeping,
- trusteeship,
- condominium (shared control of one government
by two or more states),
- "cantonisation" or a division of Kosovo,
- federalisation (i.e. Yugoslavia consisting
of not only Serbia and Montenegro but also of
Kosovo)
- combinations of these ideas that the parties,
citizens' groups and others would accept.
- In summary, develop a multitude of options,
don't narrow it all down to "Our way, or war."
* ACKNOWLEDGE THAT VIOLENCE BEGINS WHEN PEOPLE
SEE NO IDEAS OR
WAYS OUT or when they are afraid of losing face.
Violence-prevention means helping
parties overcoming that feeling.
* FOCUS ON INTERESTS, NOT POSITIONS. There could
be governmental and
nongovernmental dialogues on specific, concrete
needs and interests - education, health,
finance, culture, etc. - with the common understanding
that the longterm status of the
region will be more easily solved if the parties
have found solutions to pressing issues for
the millions of citizens involved, particularly
youth.
* ESTABLISH A TRUTH COMMISSION. The situation
is already infected with prejudice,
racism, hate, propaganda and media blackouts.
The majority of foreign media cover the
violence, not the underlying conflict; they often
side with the party they sympathise with but
seldom analyse the problems that must be solved.
* ESTABLISH A RECONCILIATION COMMITTE with impartial
international organisations
and highly respected international figures. Reconciliation
is not needed only after wars: it is
much easier to heal psychological wounds when
20 rather than 200 000 have been killed
and no material damage has happened.
* AN OSCE-LIKE PROCESS FOR THE BALKANS. There
are more than enough
problems in this whole region - and in its relations
with the rest of Europe, the EU, NATO
etc. There is poverty, animosity, misery, human
rights violations. Serbia has more than
600 000 refugees, the largest number in Europe.
There are international "national
interests" in all the Balkans. It is time to
develop a compre-hensive approach through a
series of conferences and dialogues. If the OSCE,
the UN, small governments and NGOs
cannot take such an initiative, who can? When
is the time, if not now?
"It is not the task of outsiders to dictate anything.
Only the parties themselves can find an
acceptable and sustainable solution. What we
foreigners can do now is to HELP THE
PARTIES take the necessary steps back from the
abyss and prevent a tragedy that could
cost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives
and spread to Macedonia," says Dr. Jan
Oberg.
"THIS IS WHY TFF FACILITATED A DIALOGUE IN WRITING
between Belgrade and
Prishtina authorities between 1992 and 1996.
Our proposal emphasises the process and does not
say a word about the end result. To
break the deadlock, THE BEST OPTION NOW is a
combination of a new kind of UN
presence combined with non-governmental mediation.
The UN is the least biased and
most conflict-resolution competent organization
we have. A UN presence should be new,
limited and entirely non-military. We call it
a United Nations Temporary Authority for a
Negotiated Settlement, UNTANS.
It aims to facilitate, in a context of order,
safety and respect for human rights, a peaceful
and longterm negotiated settlement of all conflict
issues between the parties. It's difficult,
but not impossible. To summarise, there are so
many ways to approach conflicts such as
that in Kosovo. Violence is the result of fear
and lack of good ideas. The best help
governments and NGOs can bring just that - new
ideas and therefore no threats or force,"
concludes TFF's director.
We can mail PressInfo 24 about UNTANS to you,
just ask us. You may also read it or
order the full mediation report at http://www.transnational.org.
There you will find all the relevant links to
Yugoslavia and the Kosovo province, too.
TFF
TRANSNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR
PEACE AND FUTURE RESEARCH
Vegagatan 25, S - 224 57 Lund, Sweden
Phone + 46 - 46 - 145909 (9:00-10:00 and 14:00-16:00)
Fax + 46 - 46 -144512 (24 h)
E-mail: tff@transnational.org
Website: http://www.transnational.org
If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.
Quotations or extracts should include attribution
to the original source.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
* *
>Dr. Jan Oberg
>Director, head of the TFF Conflict-Mitigation
team to the Balkans and Georgia
>T F F
>Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future
Research
>Vegagatan 25, S - 224 57 Lund, Sweden
>Phone +46-46-145909 (0900-1100)
>Fax +46-46-144512
>Email tff@transnational.org
>http://www.transnational.org
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
################################################################
Centre for Peace and Security Studies
Free University Brussels
Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels (Belgium)
Tel.: +32.2.6292228 Fax: +32.2.6292278
email: wdehaar@vub.ac.be
URL: http://www.vub.ac.be/POLE
____________________________________________________________________
Date:
Sun, 8 Mar 1998 13:19:48 +0100
From: Wim de Haar <wdehaar@VUB.AC.BE>
Subject: [ALBANEWS]
PressInfo 34,
Kosovo. Why it's serious. What not to do! (fwd)
>From: Giovanni Scotto <gscotto@zedat.fu-berlin.de>
>Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 11:08:56 +0100 (MET)
>Subject: PressInfo 34, Kosovo. Why it's serious.
What not to do! (fwd)
>Reply-To: pace@peacelink.it (Multiple recipients
of Movimenti per la pace)
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 00:48:40 +0200
>From: Transnational Foundation TFF <tff@transnational.org>
>To: TFF PressInfo Recipients <tff@transnational.org>
>Subject: PressInfo 34, Kosovo. Why it's serious.
What not to do!
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * *
Dear Selected TFF PressInfo Recipient,
It's a pleasure for us to send you this PressInfo
about the Kosovo crisis. It refers to
statements made by leading international diplomats
up till today 21:00 GMT at which time
media report 51 dead in violent events the last
six days in the province.
T F F P r e s s I n f o # 3 4
KOSOVO - why it is serious and what not to do
"The statements and threats by European Union
commissioner HANS VAN DEN BROEK
and foreign secretary ROBIN COOK are imprudent:
they focus on the actors, not on the
problems. When BENJAMIN GILMAN, chairman of the
US House International Relations
Committee talks about sanctions, sending "NATO
and UN troops" to the region and
supports "independent Kosova," there is even
more reason for concern.
They speak the language of power and violence,
not of understanding and dialogue. And it
is likely to harm the Kosovo-Albanians.
The TRAGIC TRUTH is that since 1990, neither the
United States, the OSCE nor the EU
and its members have developed any policies to
help the Serbs and Albanians avoid the
predictable showdown we now witness in Kosovo.
There is much talk about conflict prevention,
early warning, preventive diplomacy and non-
military security. The second tragic truth is
that there has been very little intellectual
innovation since the so-called end of the Cold
War. No new organisations have been
created, geared to handle the new conflicts.
Governments still seem unaware that their
diplomats must be trained in conflict understanding
and management - as anyone dealing
with legal issues must be trained in law. And
global media still focus on violence, not on
underlying conflicts or possible solutions,"
says Dr. OBERG who, during the last six years,
has been personally engaged with a TFF team of
experts in conflict-mitigation between
Serbs and Albanians at government as well as
NGO level.
Regrettably recent events in the Kosovo province
of Yugoslavia confirm the early warnings
by many independent voices, including the TFF
since 1992 and, latest, our PressInfo from
August 1997:
"The Serbs and Albanians have proved that they
themselves are unable to start and
sustain a dialogue process towards conflict-resolution
and reconciliation. International
attempts, lacking analysis as well as strategy,
have failed, too. The overall situation has
deteriorated and violence is escalating, slowly
but surely. It simply cannot go on like that in
the future, and go well. New thinking should
be applied sooner rather than later."
Following is Dr. Oberg's assessment of why the Kosovo situation is dangerous:
"The KOSOVO-ALBANIAN LEADERSHIP which supports
pragmatic rather than principled
non-violence and wants international involvement
is rapidly being undermined by a
"Kosova Liberation Army" whose violence suits
the Belgrade authorities' repression well,
and vice versa. The Albanians proclaimed their
independent state "Kosova" in 1990. They
hoped that the Dayton process would include them
and that the international community
would not recognise Yugoslavia with Kosovo inside
it. Since both assumptions turned out
to be wrong, the Kosovo-Albanian leadership has
not been able to devise a new policy
and strategy for stepwise achievement of their
longterm goal.
The SERBIAN LEADERS refuse any international governmental
involvement in what they
consider an internal affair of Yugoslavia. But
that is no longer a viable argument. The
increasingly violent situation in the Kosovo
region threatens inter-national stability.
Yugoslavia is eager to become an integral part
of the international community and seeks
much needed investments and loans; it can hardly
have it both ways.
THUS, THE SERBIAN AND ALBANIAN LEADERS SHARE THREE
THINGS:
1) a policy with mutually exclusive positions
2) an inability to get an sustained, orderly
dialogue going
3) an increasing, perceived need to use VIOLENCE.
Thus, over time the Albanian side has gotten stuck
with symbol policies of their
independent state. The Serb side is equally stuck
with nothing to offer but repressive
policies within Yugoslavia. In short, a vicious
circle.
In this situation it is COUNTERPRODUCTIVE to issue
warnings, threats or judgments - as
has been done the last few days by Western diplomats
in general and HANS VAN DEN
BROEK, ROBIN COOK and BENJAMIN GILMAN in particular.
Since the Yugoslav tragedy
began in 1991, the US and the EU have proven
remarkably incapable at analysing the
conflicts and the complexities of the Balkans.
Their policies are better characterised by
nationalism and double standards than by "common"
policies or statesmanship.
DO THESE DIPLOMATS SERIOUSLY EXPECT US TO BELIEVE
THAT NEW
ECONOMIC SANCTIONS against the 10 million people
in Yugoslavia (of which 2 million
Kosovo-Albanians) will make ordinary Serbs reconciliate
with the Kosovo-Albanians or that
they will make the Yugoslav leadership including
President Milosevic initiate negotiations?
Will Milosevic believe the West is really angry
with him when it has made itself quite
dependent upon his co-operation in the - fragile
- implementation of the Dayton
Agreement?
How many billions of dollars are the sanction-advocates
willing to set off to compensate
the trade partners who will be barred from trading
with Yugoslavia - has, for instance, not
Macedonia suffered enough under the former sanctions?
How do sanction advocates
think secession-prone Montenegro will react to
being victimised once again?
Statesmen wanting to prevent violence would ADDRESS
THE PROBLEM and ask: how
can we help solve it? They would need facts,
analyses, and some basic knowledge about
conflicts as well as history and psychology -
in short understanding - before making
proposals.
Not so Gilman, Cook and van den Broek. Conscious
about past conflict management
blunders, they skip listening, knowledge and
analysis, play it tough, apportion guilt, talk
down, point fingers, and offer lectures on civilised
behaviour. They pretend to know the
ideal solution and threaten punishment in a tone
you would use only to people you
fundamentally don't respect. By ATTACKING THE
ACTORS, they help solidify their locked
positions and harden the attitudes.
And so they continue the history of European and
American arrogance in the Balkans. If
violence increases, they may turn the blind eye
to the tragedy. Alternatively, they may
exert a - self-appointed - moral obligation to
intervene militarily arguing that this is the only
way to make these people understand noble Western
motives as well as intellectually and
morally superior conflict-management...
BUT THIS IS NOT THE ONLY WAY. IT'S THE WORST WAY.
In the next PressInfo we
suggest other options. But regrettably, a scenario
along the lines above can no longer be
excluded," ends Dr. Oberg.
You will find the relevant links to Yugoslavia
and the Kosovo province at our website -
http://www.transnational.org
TFF
TRANSNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR
PEACE AND FUTURE RESEARCH
Vegagatan 25, S - 224 57 Lund, Sweden
Phone + 46 - 46 - 145909 (9:00-10:00 and 14:00-16:00)
Fax + 46 - 46 -144512 (24 h)
E-mail: tff@transnational.org
Website: http://www.transnational.org
If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.
Quotations or extracts should include attribution
to the original sources.
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>Dr. Jan Oberg
>Director, head of the TFF Conflict-Mitigation
team to the Balkans and Georgia
>T F F
>Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future
Research
>Vegagatan 25, S - 224 57 Lund, Sweden
>Phone +46-46-145909 (0900-1100)
>Fax +46-46-144512
>Email tff@transnational.org
>http://www.transnational.org
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
################################################################
Centre for Peace and Security Studies
Free University Brussels
Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels (Belgium)
Tel.: +32.2.6292228 Fax: +32.2.6292278
email: wdehaar@vub.ac.be
URL: http://www.vub.ac.be/POLE
senden