The skeleton of a new Kosovo

 

 

By Ruïe-Jalo Wijnschenk

 

On Thursday 17 June, we visited the EULEX (which is the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) headquarters, where we were honored to receive a presentation by Swedish diplomat and current EULEX Head of Mission Lars-Gunnar Wigemark. The year 2008 marks the start of EULEX, which took over the then present UN mission attending to the rule of law in Kosovo (supervising, among other things, the Kosovar police, correctional services, and the establishment of a customs system). During the presentation and the following discussion, Mr. Wigemark elaborated on EULEX’s unique mandate which includes the monitoring of Kosovo’s judicial system in order to contribute to creating the "skeleton" of a new Kosovo. Central to this mandate is EULEX’s role of “monitoring, mentoring, and advising,” ultimately with the aim for Kosovo to gain and take more ownership over its judiciary. EULEX is also mandated to support the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor’s office which are currently located in The Hague. Mr. Wigemark furthermore touched upon the fundamental issues of visa liberalization, about which he stated that both the young and elderly population of Kosovo fall victim to the connected travel restrictions, and the unclear status of Kosovo which consequently leads to porous borders facilitating organized crime. 

 

When asked about the shifting public opinion in Kosovo on the ongoing presence of the international community, Mr. Wigemark sighed with what seemed to be a sense of relief. He noted how he was glad that the focus of this particular question by one of our students was on the international community as a whole instead of a focus on EULEX in particular. Before resuming to answer the question, he quietly mentioned the backlash which EULEX received in its early years as it was handling controversial and sensitive cases after the conflict. Regarding the presence of the international community, he introduced a comparison between Kosovo and Afghanistan, mentioning how this would make for an interesting dissertation topic. He explained this comparison by inviting us to think about the following issue: how long can the international community be present in a region or country until it becomes part of the problem and could be considered as an occupying force? What stage needs to be reached before the international community can step back, enabling local institutions to take over? He followed up on these fundamental and thought-provoking questions by stating that EULEX, for a while, actually had become part of the problem in Kosovo. Although he swiftly continued to answer other questions after this revealing comment, we talked about its possible meaning during the debriefing with our class. What Mr. Wigemark seemed to infer was how Kosovo needs to get on with taking full ownership over its local governance and judiciary and how EULEX’s presence in a sense might have been in the way of this process of statebuilding. 

 

During our discussion we also got to know Arie Johannes van der Pas, who is an alumnus of the University of Amsterdam and currently works as EULEX’s Coordinator North. In connection to a preceding comment by Mr. Wigemark on how the recent election in March of Prime Minister Albin Kurti introduces a new era for Kosovo, Mr. van der Pas illuminated how the mono-ethnic municipalities of Kosovo Serbs are not included in the Pristina-Belgrade dialogue. Addressing the "non-paper" of April this year, he mentioned how a territory switch incites a deep fear and anxiety in Kosovo Serbs who live South of the Ibar river as it would potentially leave them without rights and the protection of Serbia. We learned that the Serbian Orthodox Church in response, has become a fundamental political actor in such dialogues on partition and "land swaps," representing Kosovo Serbs living south of the Ibar. Both Mr. van der Pas and Mr. Wigemark emphasized that Kosovo is essential to Serbia as it is considered to be the "cradle of Serbian civilization," a sentiment primarily embedded in the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church and its prominent monasteries present in Kosovo which are viewed as Serbian "statehood" within the region.