Day One

By Viktoria Kaffanke

Dear Reader, 

I hope this blog finds you in good health and ready to read about some of the experiences and discussions we had on our first full day in Pristina.

In this blog post, I will be giving an account of our main visits of the day by providing you with the website of the organisation which can be referred to for more information, and some quotes I found really interesting from these visits. 
 

Enjoy:

Less than 10 hours after having landed in Pristina, the entire group met at the #NEWBORN sign with very little sleep and still adjusting to the new country. After the first coffee (apparently famously good here), we made our way to the first stop of the day: EULEX, one of the ten civilian missions of the EU established in 2008 as a Rule of Law mission (more information can be found through this link: https://www.eulex-kosovo.eu/). Instead of showcasing the things discussed during the visit to EULEX as most of this information can be found on the website, I wanted to highlight and discuss a quote that stood out as interesting to me.

“It is not a question if they want us, but if they need us”. This was in response to questions about criticism and continuous extension of the EULEX mission in Kosovo. This quote shows the dichotomy of political agency of people. For one, she did clarify that EULEX is only present and able to extend their mandate if the local governments agreed to the extension as they still need support from their local executive, judiciary and monitoring agencies. However, it raises the question of whether EULEX would leave if the local government disagreed, while at the same time the EU saw a benefit of maintaining the mission. So, far it seems that the EU has only extended its mandate in areas that still need support, as indicated by the local government and the results of the EU internal evaluation process. But officially, the final decision on extension of the mandate is under the authority of the EU. This raises an interesting question on how much authority the national government of Kosovo actually yields. While I let you deliberate this as I do not have an answer to this question, I wanted to note that tactically it would seem unwise for the EU to extend the mandate without the permission of the local government. Firstly, it would worsen EU’s and EULEX’s image in Kosovo and around the world, and secondly, most of the current tasks of EULEX are in monitoring, advisory, or training roles. All theses tasks require the collaboration of the local authorities which is unlikely to occur when the country does not agree with the presence of the institution and thus, EULEX would not be able to perform their task. So, even though Kosovo might not have the final say on the extension of the mandate of EULEX, they do have significant influence on the perceptions on EULEX and its success and thus, yield a lot of soft power.

After this very interesting talk and discussion at EULEX, we had a lovely lunch which was followed by the meeting with the Kosovo Women’s Network (Information on their activities can be found in this link: https://womensnetwork.org/). There is a lot to be said about this meeting, but the thing that stood out the most was the way the director, Igo, told her story in a way that captured the attention of everyone, while at the same time clearly communicating some of her own beliefs. I collected some ideas and quotes from this too short meeting:

1.     If you pay no attention to someone, you show them that their message is not important.

2.     “You can’t buy reconciliation. It has to be in our time and in our way”. – Igo

3.     “We march! We don’t celebrate!” (Theme of Women’s March 2019 in Pristina)

4.     Using the medium of religion to address topics typically swept under the rug.

5.     “We don’t have to love each other, but we go together to where we have to go”. – Igo

There could be entire essays on each of these ideas and I do think all of us should think about how these topics relate to our live and our experiences. There seems to be a very strong message in all of these statements about women's empowerment and their decision of exercising the subsequent political agency. They choose to fight the fights they see the most effective and efficient. They are aware that still a lot of work has to be put into fighting these fights, but are very goal orientated and thus, seem to take every hurdle as an opportunity. It was truly inspiring to meet these women (see photo) and listen to their stories and the impact every individual in organisations can have on the reality we are living and encounter every day. 
 

From this very grassroots network, we went to meet representatives of the political party “Vetevendosje!” (This is the link to the official party website: https://www.vetevendosje.org/ ). As with the previous meetings, it is impossible to go into detail in all the discussions that were had which were many. A main discussion that kept on surfacing though was their declining of any international involvement in internal affairs. They see the international institutions that have shaped the face of Kosovo since the end of the war in 1999 as colonial instruments to oppress Kosovo that hinder its self-determination. Coming from a very international university and study programme, in which we discuss international institutions and their intervention in other states constantly, this perspective on international institutions as a colonial mechanism was very foreign to me. The way international intervention is normally portrayed in media and other sources, mainly focuses on portraying the willingness to support the conflict resolution or management in respective countries. This reminded me of a statement we use to notice the big influence perspective has: “Someone’s terrorist, is another’s freedom fighter”. The acts that occur are the same, but the end goal differs due to the context in which persons find themselves in.

After these very thought-provoking meetings, we settled into a nice restaurant in the middle of Pristina to discuss and reflect jointly on the impressions we had gathered until exhaustion caught up to us and we returned home to relax from the entire day and travels. 
 

As becomes apparent when reflecting on this day and all we have learned, every single organisation has its own story to tell with their own beliefs and perspectives on Kosovo and I really look forward to encountering more perspectives in the following days.

Have a nice remaining day!