Kosovo: Ownership, Politics, Economy

AIM Pristina, 30 September, 1999

Kosovo is living in its old and with its old problems. That is why a lot is uncertain, and much of everything that has been initiated is very fragile. That is also the cause of periodical oscillations between improvements and deterioration of the situation. Causes of such uneven development are numerous and very closely interwoven. They often reach way back into the past and every simplification the foreigners present here are inclined to make just further complicate the situation or create a distorted image of what is actually happening under and above the surface of developments. The first impression about numerous inadequate estimates and measures is that a very large number of foreigners who have come here to do their "temporary jobs" do not know much about the people and problems of this part of the world. This is the reason for errors in seeking the best solutions. Probably this is also the explanation for numerous delays which still aggravate the situation especially when classic and other forms of crime are concerned which inevitably acquire numerous political nuances.

There is no doubt, however, that "Kosovar foreigners" know or feel certain things far better than the local people. For instance, the question of entrepreneurship, money, ownership. It is an established fact that Westerners are highly sensitive about the legal aspect of affairs, especially when ownership is concerned, regardless of what is hidden behind the legal framework. In view of the high complexity of the problems it is easier for them to refer to the principles of legalism than to face the essence or some of its aspects which have after all brought about the conflict and the war in Kosovo. However, since they have taken the hot potato into their hands, the foreigners in Kosovo will not always be able to avoid certain labyrinths into which they would gladly not enter at all.

The politicians and diplomats who have come here with sincere intentions to do something are at great pains. Kosovo is not burdened only by tangled historical heritage, but also by numerous very intricate relations from the most recent past. This recent past is not measured by decades and years, but only months. The question of the economy and its development, for example, are automatically linked to money. But to do or move something significant from the standstill in this sphere is not just the question of money. These problems are unsolvable or hardly solvable from the legal aspect. How can a sound beginning be initiated if it is not clear what belongs to whom, that is, if the question of ownership has not been solved. UN Security Council Resolution 1244 clearly determines that UNMIK is the supreme authority in Kosovo, although temporary, but formally it does not abolish the sovereignty of FR Yugoslavia. For a sound approach to numerous problems in Kosovo, it is necessary to legally or otherwise clearly resolve the dilemma whether this sovereignty persists in the existing conditions or whether it is temporarily interrupted, which should be logical in view of the fact that every Yugoslav form of executing power in Kosovo has been annulled.

Everything that had any actual or potential value under Yugoslav rule was either state or publicly (which also means state) owned. In the past ten years, all Kosovar values and potentials were forcibly or unlawfully confiscated or integrated by serbian authorities into public corporations with seats in Serbia proper. If this unlawfully established state of affairs should be recognised, it would mean that Kosovo as a separate community does not own anything built in the past either on or under the surface of the surface of the earth, or of its natural resources. Indeed, had it been possible, Kosovo would have been deprived even of the sky above it.

UNMIK is faced with all these issues raised as burning practical problems. How can the economy be stirred, especially large systems such as the electric power system, telecomminications, Trepca mining and industrial complex, in certain aspects even agriculture without which it is difficult to imagine even the initial steps of sound normalisation, if the essential question of the right to control and manage the facilities and all economic activities is not solved. The fiscal system, the tax system, are no minor problem either. It is impossible to do it without establishment of the payment operations and all other forms of normal circulation of money, the banking system inclusive. In the current circumstances all these mechanisms cannot operate if not as Kosovar only, that is, completely independently of Belgrade. Once established as independent, especially in view of the integral political processes in Kosovo and general disposition of Kosovo Albanians, it will hardly be possible to reintegrate these systems into the broader Yugoslav ones.

Among other, that is the reason why UNMIK put off the demands of service rendering organisations for collecting money from the citizens for services. The question of ownership and the right to manage that money would be raised, as well as of its normal circulation, and if this does not exist, the danger increases of various forms of embezzlement and crime which are possible with such large sums of money carried around in pockets and bags. UNMIK does not forbid starting of large systems from the standstill, except for Trepca, that is, it enables the former and the new workers to work in them, but it is putting off resolving the question of their status and other practical issues. That is why they cannot provide for the salaries, they cannot do any planning and what is even more significant, they cannot enter any arrangements with foreign donors or investors.

There are experts who have suspicions that in this way Belgrade is given the possibility to continue with the sale of Kosovar natural and other resources by selling share. The Kosovar part of Telecom had been sold in this way, and not even a part of the money made in this way has ever been invested in Kosovo. There was much talk about a Greek corporation which had invested into or bought a part of Trepca a year ago for about 650 million dollars. However, Trepca is hardly surviving for a long time already, and since ten years ago it is completely paralysed. Since recently rumour has started about a French businessman who bought 20 per cent of the shares of Trepca. This businessman has allegedly visited Trepca and talked in Mitrovica with the French command of KFOR which controls this region. During last summer rumour spread that Greece had asked France to protect its interests in Trepca. Apart from being marked as manupulation of someone else's wealth, it was interpreted as cooperation with the regime in Belgrade intended to alleviate its problems and an attempt to obstruct or aggravate realisation of aspirations of Kosovo Albanians.

It should be said that Trepca is in Mitrovica and the region around it which is at the moment controlled by the Serbs or more precisely by the Belgrade regime and that in the military sense it is in the zone of control of the French KFOR command. The truth and/or semi-truth about Trepca that is reaching Kosovo from abroad which cannot be confirmed here additionally strains the situation and intensifies suspicion about real motives of different treatment of the Serbs and the Albanians by French troops in that region. Information are spreading around Kosovo, media inclusive, which lead to the conclusion that certain French circles and media are not with very good intentions biased in favour of one of the sharply opposed political extremes in the Albanian movement.

Fehim REXHEPI