HOW TO SETTLE THE KOSOVO CONFLICT
Policy recommendations by the Bertelsmann Foundation
and the Center for Applied Policy Research
The Bertelsmann Foundation and the Center for
Applied Policy Research at Munich
University are working on regulations for ethnic
problems in Central and Eastern Europe.
Since 1996 the project partners have organized
a discussion process between Kosovo
Albanian and Serbian intellectuals on possible
ways to build confidence and work out joint
approaches concerning the Kosovo conflict. At
a meeting in Athens they presented a list of
policy recommendations and hypothetical scenarios
aimed at finding peaceful ways to
obtain different final statuses for the area
concerned. Each scenario was developed in
order to clarify its elements and implications,
irrespective of its desirability.
The project partners are convinced that a comprehensive
democratization of Serbia is a
necessary but not sufficient precondition for
reconciling Serbs and Albanians. In their
opinion, a solution of the Kosovo problem requires
mutual respect of the Serbian and the
Kosovo Albanian concept of legitimate order and
a gradual, pragmatic approach to
improve the modus vivendi in Kosovo. The Serbian
side should understand that practical
improvements do not render the Kosova state project
obsolete and that any attempt at
using improvements as a vehicle to impose the
Serbian concept of legitimate order would
block a rapprochement. The Kosovo Albanian side
should understand that practical
improvements do not undermine the credibility
of the Kosova state project and thus do not
depend on a prior change of status. Such a mutual
awareness should guide the policies of
both sides. In this way they could avoid a further
aggravation of the conflict and lay ground
for a constructive approach to the differences
of interest.
THE FIRST STEP: A LETTER OF INTENT
Democratically elected representatives of the
Serbs and the Kosovo Albanians should get
together in order to prepare a joint letter of
intent, aiming at building up confidence
between both sides. Such an endeavour will have
full international support in the form of a
third-party involvement facilitating the negotiating
and implementation process. This step
does neither imply the recognition of the "Republic
of Kosova" nor the acceptance of the
Kosovo problem as an internal affair of Serbia.
The letter of intent shall contain the following commitments:
a) Both sides commit themselves to pursue their
objectives without any use of violent
means, to respect human rights and democratic
principles.
b) Both sides agree to start negotiations in two
areas: Firstly, confidence building and
practical improvements, secondly, definition
and institutionalization of the status of Kosovo
in relation to Serbia and the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia.
A gradual but continuous and simultaneous negotiation
process in both areas is important.
Neither side should be given the possibility
to block partial negotiations arguing that a prior
agreement on the status is required or that compromises
in practical areas imply the
recognition of the status quo.
THE SECOND STEP: CONFIDENCE BUILDING MEASURES
AND PRACTICAL
IMPROVEMENTS
The Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leadership should
aim at committing both parties
concernded to non-violence, democratic principles
and the respect of human rights. For
that purpose, confidence-building measures and
practical improvements are to be
negotiated and implemented unilaterally and between
both sides:
1. Unilateral confidence-building measures
a) The Serbian parliament should remove the state
of emergency, declared on 26 June
1990, and all legal consequences derived from
this act. The normalization of the situation
should take the changed circumstances into account
and cover the following areas:
education, public health, jurisdiction, public
administration, police.
b) The Kosovo Albanian side should reaffirm not to resort to violent means.
c) Kosovo Albanians should be offered civilian
forms of military service or exempted from
military service for a mutually agreed interim
period.
d) The Yugoslav army should support a deescalation
by avoiding public appearances in
Kosovo. Army units should not get involved in
police activities. The army should confine
itself to controlling and defending the borders
of the FRY.
e) Serbian refugees shall not be settled in Kosovo.
Intentional changes of the ethnic
proportions in Kosovo will intensify tensions.
At the same time it should be acknowledged
that the Serbian government has to care for refugees.
The best way to support these
people is to comply with the Dayton agreement
and facilitate a return of the refugees to
their homes.
f) The education agreement of September 1996 should
be implemented without further
delay. Kosovo Albanians should be allowed to
use the school and university buildings
again. Curricula, standardization of exams, recognition
of degrees, financing and
supervision of schools should be determined jointly,
by involving the Serbian ministry of
education, the Kosova state education authority,
parents and teachers. This implies
mutual recognition of the existing education
systems. The Serbian state should also apply
this principle with respect to the degrees obtained
by Kosovo Albanian pupils and students
during the last years. However, if schools decided
to choose other curricula, the
recognition of degrees should be linked to the
fulfillment of certain standards. In principle,
a higher degree of independence would entail
a higher degree of responsibility for the
maintenance and service quality of schools. It
may be useful to implement different models
with varying degrees of independence, adjusted
to local preferences and needs.
g) The local public administration should again
be staffed with ethnic Albanian personnel to
stop the crowding-out of ethnic Albanian civil
servants. Public employment policy should
not fulfill an agreed-upon quota basis but rather
seek to choose the best-qualified
applicants, irrespective of ethnic origins.
2. Cooperative confidence-building measures
a) Serbian police officers and civil servants
working in the province should participate in
mandatory conflict management training. This
would facilitate empathy and improve skills
in non-violent techniques to reduce tensions
and settle conflicts. Similarly, Kosovo
Albanians doing community work should take part
in such programs which could be
organized and supported either by Serbian or
international organizations.
b) The Serbian police and the Kosovo Albanian
authorities should create a coordinating
council responsible for the internal security
in the province. Kosovo Albanian political
representatives are to support the investigation
into terrorist acts.
c) The independence of the jurisdiction in the
crucial areas of penal and administrative law
needs to be strengthened. A judiciary commission
consisting of Kosovo Albanian, Serbian
and international experts should be established
in order to evaluate the work of courts in
the province and submit proposals for structural
improvements.
d) As regards the return of Kosovo Albanian medical
staff into public health care
institutions, a similar agreement should be negotiated
with international mediation.
Arrangements guaranteeing an effective participation
of ethnic Albanians and non-ethnic
hierarchies have to be developed for public health
care institutions. The professional
medical organizations should create a codex of
non-discriminating behavior and monitor
compliance with its rules. As the health system
faces economic reform, privatization of
practices and health insurance organizations
offers organizational forms to establish the
current shadow state health care and social services
in the legal paradigm of welfare
pluralism. Within such a framework the state
is complemented by other service providers.
This change of paradigm may support the normalization
of the situation.
e) Public administration, health care and welfare
institutions should offer services in the
Albanian and Serbian language. Schools should
use Albanian as the language of
instruction and teach Serbian as the first foreign
language, gradually increasing the
amount of subjects taught in the Serbian language
in the secondary schools.
3. International support
a) The office of an ombudsperson should be established
in order to improve the legal and
political means to cope with problems of human
rights. The ombudsperson would have full
access to information and the right to present
cases directly to the political bodies in
Serbia. He/She should consider alleged or apparent
violations of human rights and
discriminations on ethnic or other grounds. All
persons should have the right to submit
applications concerning alleged violations of
human rights to the ombudsperson.
b) Serbian and other national or historic monuments
in Kosovo should be protected,
supervised and preserved by UNESCO.
c) The economic development of Kosovo should be
supported by creating a free-trade
zone and liberalizing visa regulations between
the FRY, FYROM and Albania. Other
Balkan countries should be encouraged to join.
The state-owned enterprises in Kosovo
ought to be privatized, preferably according
to a citizenship-based voucher scheme which
leaves less scope for corruption and discrimination
on ethnic grounds. Kosovo Albanians
should be allowed to buy real estate. The EU
could support this development by extending
the PHARE program to the FRY and by granting
most-favored nation status to countries
participating in the free-trade zone. The World
Bank or the EBRD could design special
loan programs for Kosovo businesses.
d) Measures must be undertaken to fight corruption
and discrimination practiced by civil
servants. For example, municipal property should
be sold or let in public procurements,
thus reducing the scope for discretion. World
Bank and OECD experts should assist in
implementing these measures.
e) The Serbian government should permit the presence
of permanent missions of the
OSCE, the UN and the EU in Kosovo and cooperate
with the Personal Representative of
the OSCE Chairman-in-Office for Kosovo and with
the High Representative for the Former
Yugoslavia.
f) The international community should give financial,
technical and political support to the
implementation of these practical improvements.
However, a settlement of the Kosovo
problem will be a precondition for the full integration
of the FRY into the Council of Europe,
the IMF, World Bank, the WTO, NATO and the EU.
g) The OSCE (and the UN) should acknowledge this
action by granting membership to the
FRY since it entails a substantial progress towards
a solution and the recognition of the
fact that the Kosovo problem is not an internal
affair of Serbia.
THE THIRD STEP: STATUS OPTIONS
Kosovo Albanians have a right to internal self-determination,
i.e self-determination which
does not violate the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia. The granting of individual rights
pertaining to persons belonging to national
minorities in international law does not constitute
a sufficient approach to solve the Kosovo
problem. Institutionalizing a form of internal
self-determination with a territorial component
appears necessary. International organizations
may and should participate in a final
regulation of the Kosovo problem. The following
outlines represent the core ideas and
elements upon which arrangements for a final
status could be based. They constitute
possible hypothetical scenarios which have to
be worked out and brought into a serious
public discussion.
1. Transfer of a South Tyrolean-style territorial
autonomy to the province of Kosovo and
Metohija
The international community considers "autonomy"
as a framework for the solution of the
Kosovo problem and links the integration of the
FRY into international organizations to an
agreement between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians.
Hence Serbian and Kosovo Albanian
political leaders will have to accept that the
Kosovo problem is not an exclusively internal
affair of Serbia and that separatist action is
against the will of the international community.
As the Yugoslav constitution of 1974 was embedded
in the socialist power structure and
induced competency conflicts between the Socialist
Autonomous Province of Kosovo and
the Republic of Serbia, it cannot serve as a
basis to develop a territorial autonomy model
for Kosovo. Therefore working autonomy models
in Western Europe, in particular the
autonomy statute of the Italian region of Trentino-South
Tyrol, are to be adopted.
The South Tyrolean model seems appropriate because
it was established after both sides
committed violent acts and in the course of the
post-World War II democratization of Italy.
The FRY has had similar experiences and faces
democratization. In South Tyrol,
economic prosperity paved the way for territorial
autonomy whereas economic reforms will
trigger comparable economic dynamics in Kosovo.
Austria's accession to the EU
facilitated a final agreement with Italy on the
autonomy statute while the perspective of EU
integration and the "regional approach" of the
EU provide a similarly constructive
international setting in the case of Kosovo.
However, a reform to implement a South
Tyrolean-style autonomy would require to transfer
legislative competencies to the
autonomous province, implying a change of the
current Serbian constitution. According to
the South Tyrolean model, legislative competencies
of the province of Kosovo comprise
the crafts, tourism, agriculture, mining, town-planning
and urban development, social
security, toponyms, local customs and cultural
institutions, nursery schooling, vocational
training. In other areas competencies shall be
divided between provincial and republican
levels.
2. Republican status for Kosova within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Kosovo
Albanians constitute a much larger group than
Montenegrans, fulfill nearly all criteria of a
"people" in terms of international law, suffer
from grieveous and systematic offences
against human and minority rights, and dispose
of a statehood experience when Kosovo
was a constituent federal unit in the former
Yugoslavia. Hence they have a right to internal
self-determination and thus to become a constituent
republic of the FRY. This status
entails a constitution, independent legislation,
administrative and judicial institutions and a
right veto in vitally important issues decided
on the FRY level. The competencies of an
FRY consisting of Kosova, Serbia and Montenegro
pertain to defence and security, foreign
and monetary policy. All the remaining policy
areas are in the competency of the
constituent republics. The borders of Kosova
are guaranteed on the federal level, Kosovo
Albanians become a constituent nation of the
FRY and Albanian becomes an official
language of the FRY. Kosovo Serbs are considered
a constituent nation in Kosova and
enjoy positive discrimination. Such a federal
organization would best agree with the multi-
national character of the FRY. It needs to be
protected by the international community.
3. Creation of an independent republic of Kosovo/a
Since the continuation of Serbian rule over Kosovo
entails repression and human rights
violations and leads to a violent conflict threatening
the stability of the region, a possible
solution may be to abolish Serbian rule and establish
an independent republic of
Kosovo/a. Independence is obtained after a transitional
period during which Kosovo/a is
governed by an international civil administration.
An independent Kosovo/a is not a
homogeneous nation state but consists of all
citizens living on the territory of Kosovo/a or
related to Kosovo/a citizens, including Kosovo/a
Serbs. This state is a parliamentary
democracy committed to the coexistence of all
ethnic groups on its territory, which is
ensured by a second parliamentary chamber representing
the ethnic groups in the
legislative process and by a permanent judicial
commission consisting of representatives
from all ethnic groups in Kosovo/a. The commission
investigates into cases of
discrimination, prosecutes and sanctions discriminative
acts, mediates in ethnic disputes
and monitors inter-ethnic relations. The state
of Kosovo/a protects and preserves historic,
religious and national monuments in cooperation
with the UNESCO. With the
establishment of independence public assets on
the territory of Kosovo/a become property
of the state of Kosovo/a, financial assets and
liabilities are assigned in accordance with the
principles and practices applied in the international
conference on the former Yugoslavia.
Serbian nationals may maintain their private
property rights or receive compensation. An
independent republic of Kosovo/a is to become
a bridge between Albania and Serbia,
implying close political and economic relations
and open borders.
These hypothetical scenarios constitute "useful
fictions" which were developed in the
course of a discussion process with Kosovo Albanian
and Serbian intellectuals. They help
clarifying the political visions suggested in
the debate and thus foster pragmatic
approaches to a settlement of the conflict.
The Bertelsmann Foundation and the Center of
Applied Policy Research present these
recommendations to encourage a public discussion.
They are grateful for all comments
and suggestions aiming at a constructive dialogue
on the Kosovo problem.
Cornelius Ochmann Martin Brusis
Cornelius.Ochmann@bertelsmann.de
101350.200@compuserve.com
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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