AK IV Lessons Learned The Treatment of Kosovo’s Non-Majority Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic Mitrovica 2020 Contents I. Introduction .................................................................................... 3 II. Lesson 1 ............................................................................................. 7 III. Lesson 2 ........................................................................................... 17 IV. Lesson 3 ........................................................................................... 28 V. Conclusions and Recommendations .................................. 40 Author’s Note: The overriding purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature of the relationship between the government, its institutions, and non- majority communities in Kosovo in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and to assess its ability and readiness to ensure the equal treatment of all citizens, regardless of ethnic or national belonging. In other words, to describe a set of lessons that this ongoing emergency has taught us about the position of those communities, and how they are treated by central authorities. As will be outlined throughout the course of this document, the pandemic did not, in and of itself, create a problem but rather served to highlight a range of issues in the implementation of legislative and constitutional provisions that regulate the rights granted to non-majority communities. It indeed exposed the government’s shortcomings in communicating and providing equal access to information and services to all of its citizens, something that is problematic in normal circumstances but that now constitute a very tangible threat to public health and security. 2 I. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique set of challenges to governments across the world. While the most obvious of these challenges is the great risk that the virus poses to public health, it has also served to put a great deal of strain on economies, state institutions and has had a vast impact on the day-to-day functioning of governments. Along these lines, a question that has frequently arisen during the course of this global crisis is how to balance the need for extraordinary measures to protect citizens from the spread of this deadly disease while at the same time maintaining respect for basic human rights and legal and constitutional norms. The frightening dimensions of the pandemic have demanded a comprehensive response, one that nonetheless many states have successfully balanced with a commitment to maintaining their given constitutional/legal orders: Many, if not necessarily all, have accepted the necessity for what would normally be objectionable interruptions to daily life, that is, restrictions on movement, public (and private) gatherings, lockdown measures and the mass closure of schools, offices, commercial operations, transport hubs and borders. The logistics of this challenged even the most advanced and developed countries, as evidenced by the difficulties faced by, for example, the United States. This has been yet more arduous for structurally fragile states to undertake and has served to seriously strain financial resources and endanger already-weak economies. The countries of the Western Balkans responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in a similar manner to other European countries; by passing strict and sweeping measures that included lockdowns, border/airport closures, and a shuttering of commercial activity. As 3 the first cases of the virus emerged in Kosovo in early March of 2020, the government passed a series of strict measures (beginning with the declaration of a state of public health emergency) aimed at mitigating its effects and slowing its spread.12 The state of public health emergency was in place until the 6th of May, 2020, when it was revoked by the Kosovo Assembly, meaning that while some measures remained in place, curfews and other similar restrictions were lifted.3 This coincided with a fall in the number of infected and by early June borders began to re-open for normal traffic.4 All of these happened more or less in parallel with events in Serbia, where the government also loosened restrictions in early May of 2020. Since then, cases have once again begun to rise, but measures similar to those seen between March and May have not been re- imposed. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic placed the Kosovo Serb community in a uniquely difficult position: straddled between two governments, and faced with already-challenging social, political and economic dynamics, their interests are often lost in the political crescendo. What’s more, the relative fragility of local institutions have made responding to a large-scale public health crisis all the more difficult: Shortly after the lifting of restrictions issued in March of 2020, cases once again began to rise sharply in Kosovo Serb communities (at a much higher rate than they did between March and May) and there were widespread reports of serious strain on local healthcare institutions in Serbian communities throughout 1https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-kosovo/kosovo-confirms-first- coronavirus-cases-an-italian-and-a-kosovar-idUSKBN21039A 2https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-kosovo/kosovo-to-declare-state-of- emergency-to-counter-coronavirus-idUSKBN21445J 3http://radiomitrovicasever.com/2020/05/06/ukinuto-vanredno-stanje-vanredne-mere- ostaju/ 4https://kossev.info/kosovska-vlada-potvrdila-ukidanje-mera-o-slobodi-kretanja/ 4 Kosovo.56 Furthermore, the crisis served to aggravate pre-existing issues in the relationship between central governing institutions and Kosovo Serbs. A lack of integration, poor communication between Pristina and Serb-majority municipalities, and the uneven application of legislation governing community/minority rights were pre-existing, but nevertheless were intensified by the pandemic. It can be difficult to segregate problems that are faced by all communities of Kosovo from those that are specific to the Kosovo Serb community: With its still-developing institutional structures, this crisis has invariably tested the limits of the ability of government bodies to adequately respond to the needs of its’ residents. That having been said, the ongoing emergency has shone light on many deficiencies within Kosovo’s institutions, and in some cases, exposed an inability to respond to the needs of non-majority communities. This paper will attempt to highlight a key number of “lessons learned” from the pandemic from the point of view of the Kosovo Serb community. It will not seek to analyse the situation from an epidemiological perspective, but rather to examine what COVID-19 has taught us about the position of non-majority communities in Kosovo, and the dynamics of the relationship between them and centre(s) of political and institutional power. For each ‘lesson learned’ a set of conclusions will be posited that are based on research and monitoring carried out by NGO Aktiv between March and August of 2020. These monitoring activities were expansive, and included interviews with relevant stakeholders, contact with 5 Based on interviews with healthcare workers in clinics and the Clinical Hospital Center in North Mitrovica 6https://www.kosovo-online.com/koronavirus/krizni-stab-km-neophodno-je-striktno- postovanje-mera-i-odgovornost-gradjana-13-7-2020 5 focal points based in municipalities north and south of the Ibar river, and close scrutiny of government communiques, public statements and press releases. 6 II. Lesson 1 Information is Key: The Kosovo Government failed to communicate effectively with Kosovo’s non-majority communities, which in turn resulted in the spread of disinformation and rumour, potentially endangering public health. During the course of a public health crisis is it of crucial importance that the general public is kept abreast of developments and is aware of steps that can be taken in order to protect itself; a lack of access to such information is reflective of a systematic failure on the part of a government to communicate effectively. Beginning in mid-March 2020, Aktiv began to closely monitor the flow of information from key public institutions (i.e. the Ministries of Health, Interior, Foreign Affairs etc.) One of the most glaring problems that was noted was the lack of translations made available from Albanian into Serbian. Something that should be noted here is that, when it comes to questions of public health, most Serb communities in Kosovo utilize services provided by healthcare institutions that operate under the legal framework of the Republic of Serbia, and only in very rare cases seek care from clinics or hospitals that serve Albanian-majority areas. That having been said, many Serbs, particularly those who reside south of the river Ibar, were unable to obtain information on government measures, restrictions on freedom of movement and other essential information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. This occurred for a number of reasons, chief among them the fact that the vast majority of government press releases and public 7 statements were made in the Albanian language, and it was therefore left up to local media outlets to seek translations of their own volition.7Despite the fact that local media transmitted information that they received from the government to their readers, the information that filtered through to the general public was often incomplete8, which fostered a situation where citizens were forced to separate rumour from fact: The Government