Peace Lab Day 7

By Maaike van der Kolk

As this trip comes to end, we have all had more time to realize the complexity of the post-conflict situation in Kosovo. Reflecting on the past seven days, the thing that has struck me the most is the general feeling among Kosovo’s people of not having the ability to dream abpit the future. 

In this regard, the first few days in Pristina pleasantly surprised me. When visiting the University of Pristina on day two, most students expressed their wish to stay in Kosovo in the long run, in order to be able to contribute to shaping its future. Despite the high unemployment within Kosovo and their wish to go abroad for a while in between, there was a sense of hope: a belief that they could make some change to the future of Kosovo.

However, the more people we talked to over the last few days, especially as we have also visited the northern part of Kosovo, the more I have heard perspectives that are a lot more depressing. Some said that the dream of most of Kosovo’s people – whether Albanians or Serbs – is to be able to just live a normal life--a life in which you do not constantly have to be stressed about incidents occurring. As one woman told us, the recent arrests of border police still created fear among people in the North that there would be an invasion and a new wave of ethnic cleansing. It may be wrong to call this wish for a normal life a ‘dream’ though. One of the staff members of the UNFPA we talked to in Mitrovica reminded us that the wish for such a normal life is not a ‘dream’; it is a basic human right. The conversation I had with her has to be the most striking of this trip. Although many people we talked to mentioned that there still was one thing that gave them hope, the younger generation, this woman had no sense of hope left whatsoever. She told us that it is impossible to dream, as you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow. The fact that the youth has the ‘dream’ to go abroad is not positive. It is not a ‘dream’; it is a wish to escape.

In our meetings on Wednesday the 19th, this feeling resurfaced, as people talked about being locked up in a society they cannot escape.

Our first meeting of the day was with former politician and current CEO of the Millennium Foundation Kosovo, Petrit Selimi. We were invited into their modern office, the Foundation being a rather wealthy organization that receives funding from the US. The MFK mostly works on funding projects in the energy sector and on government transparency. The meeting we had with Selini, however, quickly moved from the Foundation’s work to his personal views on Kosovo. As the meeting progressed, his fire started to rage more and more and again, we saw a man who was furious about the fact that Kosovo’s people are ‘locked in a cage’ due to the lack of visa liberalization, despite Kosovo having met the conditions that needed to be met for this. What is necessary for Kosovo to go forward, he said, is a compromise. However, how can you expect to have open minded, reconciliation-minded people if they are locked in a cage? ‘If you lock a dog in a cage, you’ll get a wild one’. There are so many young people in Kosovo with amazing potential. However, it is extremely depressing to realize that you can never leave in order to become the best you can be as some people are imposing limitations on who you can become.

It was extremely interesting that our next meeting was with one of the most, if not the most, influential person within Kosovo on this issue of visa liberalization, the Minister of European Integration, Mrs. Dhurate Hoxha. She highlighted that visa liberalization is not only important for the opportunities of the people of Kosovo, but without this, prejudices of Kosovo abroad will also not change. She did have a strong faith in the youth, perceiving them as the best ambassadors of the country and something that could be used as a competitive advantage in the future.

After these quite intense meetings, we took a bus to Batlava Lake where we spent the afternoon swimming, relaxing and having dinner at a restaurant where we knew there would be another party going on at the same time. Little did we know, however, that it would turn out to be a reunion of around 200 former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) members who celebrated the 20th anniversary of the liberation of one of the last towns to be freed during the Kosovo War. All night long, live Albanian music was played and eventually even danced to. It did feel weird to be in that ‘celebrating’ atmosphere, with us even dancing with them, and it almost made you forget what had actually happened on both sides during that conflict. Yet, we were lucky to fall into this unique experience on one of our last days in which we could see the close brotherhood of those who had fought together.

Now, we only have two more days left and with everything previously mentioned, it feels weird to be able to leave Kosovo after having been faced with the frustration that people feel of being locked in Kosovo. I feel even more strange about the fact that I am able to move to Cape Town in two weeks to study abroad for a semester, a dream that is shared by many youths in Kosovo but an unattainable one for most of them.