Civil Society in Kosovo Since 1999

CIVIL SOCIETY IN KOSOVO SINCE 1999 Prishtina, 2012 Publisher: Centre for Political Courage Department of Political Science, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Prishtina For the publisher: Arben Hajrullahu Editor: Mentor Agani Contributors: Mentor Agani, Remzije Istrefi, Valdete Idrizi, Pëllumb Kelmendi, Gjylbehare Bella Murati Language editing: Andrew Halterman Design: Studio Venera2000 Printing: TWINS Published in Prishtina, 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is the final product of a two year research project entitled “Civil Society in Kosovo since 1999,” realized with financial support from the Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP), which is run by the University of Fribourg upon the mandate of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The members of the Research Team would like to express their profound gratitude to all the individuals at RRPP involved in supporting this project, and particularly to Programme Director of RRPP, Prof. Dr. Nicolas Hayoz, and to Jasmina Opardija, the RRPP Programme Manager. We would also like to express our gratitude to the members of the Centre for Political Courage (CPC) at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Prishtina, for their support during the supervision of the project while it was ongoing, and particularly to CPC’s Director, Prof. Dr. Arben Hajrullahu, and to Administrative Assistant, Nita Bylykbashi. Our gratitude goes as well to Andrew Halterman for his precise work in language editing of the English version of the book. CONTENT CONTENT List of Abbreviations .............................................................................. 7 Preface ...................................................................................................... 9 1. Mentor AGANI CIVIL SOCIETY BY PROXY: THE DEVELOPMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN A PROTECTORATE .................................. 13 2. Pëllumb KELMENDI CIVIL SOCIETY AND CONTENTIOUS POLITICS IN POST-CONFLICT KOSOVO ......................................................... 33 3. Remzije ISTREFI; Valdete IDRIZI MAKING THE PEACE BUILDING WORK: IS COMMUNITY BUILDING MITROVICA MAKING A DIFFERENCE ................... 59 4. Gjylbehare Bella MURATI PROMOTING RECONCILIATION IN POST-CONFLICT KOSOVO ......................................................... 83 Notes on Contributors ........................................................................... 107 5 ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ATRC Advocacy Training and Resource Center B & H Bosnia and Herzegovina BB Building Board (monitoring Board for BtD) BtD Bridging the Divide BTD Balkan Trust for Democracy CBM Community Building Mitrovica CCSD Centre for Civil Society Development CRYM Centre for Resources, Youth and Media CSO Civil Society Organization EU European Union EULEX European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo FCT Forum for Cities in Transition FER Fryma e Re FRY Federal Republic of Yugoslavia GA General Assembly GAP GAP Institute HLC Humanitarian Law Centre HRW Human Rights Watch ICC International Criminal Court ICG International Crisis Group ICO International Civilian Office ICO/EUSR ICO European Union Special Representative ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia IDP Internally Displaced Person IPKO Internet Project Kosovo KAN Kosova Action Network KCSF Kosovo Civil Society Foundation KFOR Kosovo Force KIPRED Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development 7 ABBREVIATIONS KLA Kosovo Liberation Army KWECC Kosovo War and Ethnic Crimes Court Mi2 A youth portal MLGA Ministry of Local Governance Administration M-M@G Kosovan bilingual multi-medium publication MMC Mitrovica Media Centre MMT Mitrovica Monitoring Team MPT Municipal Preparatory Team NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NGO Non Governmental Organization OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe PISG Provisional Institutions of Self-Government RAE Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities RRPP Regional Research Promotion Programme SBASHK Kosovan Education and Science Union SRSG Special Representative of the Secretary General UAM United Nations Administration – Mitrovica UAM UNMIK Administration – Mitrovica North UN United Nations UN SC UN Security Council UN SC R UN SC Resolution UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNMIK United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo UNMIK/REG UNMIK Regulation USAID United States Agency for International Development 8 PREFACE PREFACE The research project “Civil Society in Kosovo since 1999,” proposed to, and accepted by the RRPP had several objectives. The first objective was to explore the particular paths that the development of Kosovan civil society has taken since 1999, under the very distinctive conditions prevailing in Kosovo. Second, we sought to examine if Kosovan governmental structures abused and manipulated the particular difficulties that Kosovo was facing in its efforts to achieve statehood, with the aim of impeding the functioning of civil society, as well as the impacts that these alleged abuses and manipulations had in the process of Kosovo’s transition to democracy. Finally, the project was also an effort to understand and explain the extraordinary shifts in civic engagement in Kosovo after the war of 1999, when compared with the forms and intensity that this engagement had before 1999. In the examination of the impact of Kosovo’s distinctive conditions after 1999 on the development of contemporary Kosovan civil society, the research team focused primarily on two overwhelmingly important conditions: the characteristic situation of a post-war environment, and the immense presence and influence of the international community in Kosovo. As far as the potential abuses and manipulations by Kosovan governmental structures are concerned, the focus of the research team was on the possibilities that these structures had to exploit the so-called “major national issues” (such as those relating to the Kosovan final status, the recognition of Kosovan independence, and the vast difficulties related to northern Kosovo), in order to justify an environment in which inefficient governance and large levels of corruption reign. The efforts related to the third objective comprised an attempt to make sense of the abrupt diminishment 9 PREFACE of civic spirit after 1999, which had been tremendously strong before, and to understand the transformation of Kosovan civil society into an entity more like a decoration on the political stage, than a driving force engendering any significant political improvement. The methodology chosen for our research was to conduct interviews with a considerable number of prominent individuals within civil society, or related to civil society. When taking this approach, the research team was well aware that this methodology can involve a certain risk, namely, the risk of getting information which can turn out to be unusable for social scientific deductions. Indeed, there is a permanent possibility that the individuals selected for interviews will have numerous and various considerations, which, in turn, can make it difficult to produce a social scientific survey out of the facts that they provide. Nevertheless, and with the inherent risk of this approach in mind, the research team was firmly convinced that there was an advantage to this methodology as well. The members of the team believed that if the number of individuals interviewed was large enough, and if the interviews were as comprehensive as possible, then certain patterns of phenomena would surface, which would, in turn, enable the authors to draw well informed conclusions. As the research advanced, both the abovementioned risk and advantage of this methodology emerged. In several interviews, for instance, the viewpoints of the respondents were completely outside any pattern and incompatible with anything expressed by other respondents. Nevertheless, there were some patterns that repeated themselves in most of the interviews, which, up to a certain level, allowed for generalizations with scientific value, and which can be useful for political and social scientists in fields ranging from democratic theory to policy analysis and planning. These generalizations will be presented in the following sections, and on occasion we will also make several, sometimes tentative efforts, to explain the reasons behind the viewpoints expressed 10 PREFACE that were outside of mainstream explanations encountered during the interviews. As far as the design of the questionnaire for interviews and the efforts to make them comprehensive are concerned, it should be stressed at the very outset that the objectives of the research allowed only one understanding of civil society: that of civil society subjecting the government of Kosovo to Kosovan society. Hence, the working definition of civil society that was primarily used by the researchers was the one given by Ernest Gellner in his work Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals: “Civil society is that set of different non-governmental institutions which is powerful enough to counterbalance the state, and, while not preventing the state from the fulfillment of its role of the defender of order and of the arbiter between major interests, can nevertheless prevent it from the domination and atomization of the rest of society.”1 The researchers had considerable level of freedom during their inquiries, but the interviews basically followed the

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