No negotiations – SELF-DETERMINATION! By Albin Kurti NO NEGOTIATIONS Kosova is now passing through the process of status definition. Instead of adopting universal values, particular standards have been imposed on the Kosova process. Defining Kosova as a unique case implies that experience teaches us nothing and experiment, improvisations and ad hoc measures are established as method. Earlier this year, the issue of Kosova’s status was in the UN Security Council, but was thrown back to the Contact Group. The UN Security Council does not want to deal with an issue that is not urgent, but wants a success story, and are now seeking prior reconciliation between Kosova and Serbia (and Russia). Lëvizja VETËVENDOSJE! can talk with the Serbs of Kosova but is against negotiating our independence with Serbia. Belgrade wants to make the independence of Kosova impossible – just that. This is the exact meaning of its formula “more than autonomy, less than independence”. Negotiations with Serbia are taking us to Serbia. Through negotiations Serbia attempts to legally re-establish control of our population and territory, through internal division of Kosova. The recently announced new negotiations, including direct talks, for 120 days is meant to paralyze people in Kosova in an endless atmosphere of ‘waiting’ – made up to pretend that something is done in order to ask people to do nothing, i.e. wait. Likely these 120 days will be extended, and the new negotiations will result in new concessions. The Kosova Negotiation Group was formed so there would be no traitors – if they are all traitors, no one is. It will collapse not because of the negotiators’ failure, but because of their success. They will make an agreement with Serbia. This is why Lëvizja VETËVENDOSJE! points to the principle and method – not the outcome. No negotiations (with Serbia) but self-determination (of the people of Kosova). Our concept is a concept of right, marking an approach opposite of official politics. The opposite of self-determination of the people of Kosova are the continuation of negotiations. The negotiations are unequal because Serbia is a state and Kosova is considered just a province. They equate crime and genocide (the state of Serbia) with the victims (the people of Kosova) and likewise aggression with liberation war – absurdly it was Kosova who had to fulfil standards and conditions for negotiations, and not Serbia. They are deceptive, since Kosova does not lack status, but the people of Kosova lack freedom. And they are damaging, implying readiness for compromise, which in itself cancels independence and sovereignty as possibility. NO WAR War and bloodshed will occur in Kosova in two cases. First, if the people remain silent too long. This will lead to the implementation of decentralization, legitimising and increasing ethnic differences and tensions, driving people to extreme reactions. Second, if people’s impatience results in a violent explosion or armed conflict that remains temporarily/territorially confined and controlled. Lëvizja VETËVENDOSJE! believes we should not wait to see which of these scenarios will be realised, but work to prevent them. Our method is to non-violently fight the regime and not turn against other ethnicities. UNMIK is interested in Albanians and Serbs hating each other in order that they do not hate UNMIK, and knows that Lëvizja VETËVENDOSJE! has struck where it was necessary: problematizing the political system and not ethnic differences. Currently ethnic tensions are simply fed by the system. Serbia will profit from war or violent conflict between Serbs and Albanians in Kosova, because it will facilitate fortifying Serb enclaves. UNMIK will also profit because it then can continue here for at least another decade. Violent conflict inside Kosova is beneficial for UNMIK and Serbia for another reason as well. Currently an agreement between Kosova’s Negotiation Team and Serbia for a Kosova-Serbia federation will be difficult to realise due to public opinion in Kosova. In the context of a chaotic explosion, as in March 2004, acceptance of such an agreement will be much more likely. An emergency situation after 120 days will make it easier to lock negotiators into an international peace conference like Dayton or Rambouillet. Russia, at the suggestion of Serbia, has now refused drafts of the new resolution favourable to Serbia. This tells us that Serbia has a plan for how to respond to an Albanian explosion of dissatisfaction. The current Western hesitation proves further two things: awareness that Serbia has a plan, and that only Serbia actually has a plan. The contents of this plan can easily be predicted based on the model of rebellion of Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia in the 1990s – declaring autonomy and independence by blocking roads and installing military government. This will be far easier in Kosova. Serbia will not admit intervening in Kosova (as Milosevic did not admit intervening in Bosnia), but will send arms, officers and strategic plans (you will not see this on television), claiming local Serbs were discriminated against and endangered. The eventual Albanian reaction will be used to justify Serbia building walls around enclaves as walls around monasteries are being built today. This Palestinianization of Kosova will be smoothed over and the conflict perpetuated. The same scenario may occur in the case of a declaration of independence by the government of Kosova without preparing the defense of Kosova’s borders and territorial integrity. If they impose war on us, then there is no other option but to fight. But, it will be painful and with a great loss of people and territories. Important international actors will not be too concerned if a new war explodes in Kosova if it remains controlled and confined within the borders of Kosova. NO INTERNATIONAL RULE Currently Resolution 1244 of the SC of UN, confirms the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Yugoslavia (now Serbia) over Kosova. This is suspended by international rule and presence, but not abolished. UNMIK is doubly non-democratic: in-itself – with an authoritarian hierarchical structure, and in Kosova – subordinating Kosova’s institutions and representatives inclusively and absolutely is to its rule. UNMIK is an absolute regent who approves laws, controls their implementation, and can suspend them. The police and judicial system, local administration, institution building, and economic reconstruction are the so-called four pillars of UNMIK, all under UN’s Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) and above domestic law. Kosovar institutions without sovereignty are, in fact, neither Kosovar nor real institutions: Kosovo Albanian politicians are accountable to UNMIK, UNMIK is accountable to New York, and Serbian politicians in Kosova are, in fact, accountable to Belgrade. Kosova’s ministries do not have real responsibilities or control. The Government of Kosova is deprived of real substance. Besides being unaccountable and antidemocratic, UNMIK is also a neo-colonial administration. UNMIK officials do not experience the consequences of their decisions. They come to Kosova because they double their domestic salaries, do not pay taxes, get long weekends, career advances and have low expenses. They have no responsibility towards, and often no interaction with the local population. They all have jeeps – to them Kosova is sometimes like a desert and sometimes like a jungle. After eight years of international rule, enormous underdevelopment characterizes Kosova in all aspects. Three things are increasing there: poverty, unemployment and dissatisfaction. Lack of development means lack of future. UNMIK and the politicians keep talking about fulfilling standards while the standard of living for the people of Kosova is disintegrating; it’s sliding from bad to worse. NO DECENTRALIZATION – NO PARTITION Everyone is now writing about partition. All those analysts who wrote that independence was about to come are now writing that partition is about to come. They were wrong then and they are wrong now. Serbia would support partition only if Kosova comes close to independence, avoiding as such the loss of all Kosova. Currently Serbia can win more through negotiations than overt partition or a massive intervention in Kosova, and aims for internal division. Serbia’s focus in the Kosova status negotiations is thus territorial autonomy of Serbs. While Kosovo Albanians demand more competences, responsibilities and political power, Serbia wants more territory. Just like in Croatia and Bosnia. The precedent of Bosnia – where preservation of external borders was paid for with internal, ethnically based ones – represents a real threat to Kosova. Through the Ahtisaari programme of decentralization aka ethnic division, new municipalities with Serb majority will be created. This will empower, legalise and connect Serbia’s illegal parallel structures and enclaves in Kosova into an entity under Belgrade’s control. The result will be Serbia controlling around 30% of Kosova and the future international mission here the remaining 70%. The International Community will accept this internal division as long as it does not disturb the paradigm of regional stability, i.e. internal division of Kosova must not be reflected in western Macedonia and the Valley of Presheva. Agreement between Prishtina and Belgrade on internal division of Kosova will ensure this. SELF-DETERMINATION The status of Kosova is a political problem that has a democratic solution: namely, respecting the will of the people of Kosova. UN Resolution 1244 and the political system led by UNMIK in Kosova are not in compliance with the will of the people. People do not feel represented because they are not represented, and their interests are not defended. Kosova does not lack status, but its citizens lack freedom, freedom to choose their lives and future, freedom to develop. This freedom has a name. Its name is self-determination. Self-determination is collective freedom, essential to individual freedom. Self-determination is the basic compensation for centuries of injustice, continuous repression and humiliation, hundreds of thousands violated, thousands killed, and widespread damage and destruction. Self-determination is finalising the incompleted disintegration of former Yugoslavia. The UN Resolution on Declaration on Granting Independence to colonial countries and peoples (1514, December 14, 1960), speaks of ‘the passionate yearning for freedom in all dependent peoples and the decisive role of such peoples in the attainment of their independence’; ‘Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence.’ By opposing Serbia in our country, we create an example for all other peoples who are not free. Through opposing the UN mission in Kosova, we are defending the very principles and values of the UN. NON-VIOLENT DEMONSTRATIONS The people of Kosova are not suffering from narcolepsy nor are they a flock of sheep. The people of Kosova wait and endure but not because they are ill, tired or weak, but mainly because they are deceived. People of Kosova has long enough over-valuated international diplomats and international missions, and under-valuated themselves. Between the waiting enfeebling us toward a collective agony, and war for which we are not prepared, is the road of demonstrations. We have to demonstrate the will of our people, for the will of the people. The US, even if it were completely on our side, would never demonstrate for us. Our will is ours. In the situation in which Kosova is entrapped, as street politics is necessary, so is its peaceful nature. With non-violence should be understood strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, protests and demonstrations. The demonstrations must openly say no to negotiations with Serbia, no to the Negotiation Group of Kosova and call for an end to international rule. They should be for self-determination of the people of Kosova, for civil rights and freedoms, for well-being and equality. The demonstrations should articulate the current separation between the people and the regime and demand to inverse this relationship: not the people to exist for the sake of the government, but the government to exist for the sake of the people. Most importantly, the demonstrations should demand a referendum for the people of Kosova, an exercise of the right to self-determination, a concrete political act of collective freedom, and inauguration of democracy that opens the road for the rule of the majority. Meanwhile, a constitution of Kosova should be written, and the preparations should be undertaken to transform the KPC into an army, and the KPS into a proper police force. Demonstrations for radical change must not be just massive, but long term if necessary. And as long-term as necessary. Independence cannot be achieved in a completely dependent manner as they pretend in Kosova. Recognition by the other cannot be more important than oneself – only when we respect ourselves, we can win the respect and recognition of others. Montenegro did not seek recognition but organized a referendum, then declared independence and pursued recognition. Our Assembly should declare independence after a referendum, ensuring the decision’s legitimacy – its source not merely politicians but all people. A declaration by the Assembly of Kosova without a referendum will only provoke similar declarations from the enclaves, and their independence will be much more real than that of the government of Kosova. Independence through a referendum on the other hand, will unite a divided Kosova. Currently the lack of integration of the Serb minority is not related only with the bitter past, but also with the future. While all of Kosova’s neighbours are in favour of or indifferent towards Kosova’s independence, Serbia is strongly against. In an independent Kosova, Serbs will not be seen anymore as a threat by Albanians – as a backdoor for Serbia’s return. Besides cutting Serbia’s intrusion, self-determination will facilitate Kosovo’s socioeconomic development and produce a feeling of progress necessary for integration, as well as lasting peace, stability and security. Once people feel they have a better future, they will be far more peaceful. At the edge of existence, when survival is the issue, even brothers and best friends become hostile. Albanians, Serbs and others working together would nurture integration, communication and cooperation. AFTER SELF-DETERMINATION Even external self-determination remains a formal freedom if there is not also internal self-determination meaning a government and political system based on the choice of the people. After external self-determination of the people of Kosova, new and free elections must be held for a true government in a sovereign Kosova. Only then we will have truly free and democratic elections, political pluralism and parties with serious ideologies and programmes. The parties we have now, and new parties, will continue, but under new leadership. Parties that do not manage this transformation will disappear. Each mission and international presence in a free Kosova should be here in agreement with us. Kosova needs international help and advice, but not international rule. Not a ruling UN mission in Kosova, but a diplomatic mission of Kosova in the UN. Not a tutor mission from the EU in Kosova, but a mission of Kosova as a member in the EU. This, only self-determination makes possible. Self-determination, only self-determination, makes this possible. Albin Kurti albin.kurti@gmail.com TOP