25.8.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

Complain in Azerbaijan

Kosovo reminds you of Sweden in so far as guests remove their shoes. Shoes that are taken care of by the hostess and brought to you again when it is time to leave.

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hey are turned down. They find out that if they had been discriminated by a private company the court could examine their complaint. But, alas, the railway is part of the UN: It’s UNMIK Railways. And the UN, informs the court, enjoys legal immunity in Kosovo. So you cannot question the decision. It is irrevocable.

Xhezide Zogjani did not believe her ears, she says. She had just been taught by the UN that she should not accept to be discriminated. Also that “in the determination of his civil rights and obligations (…), everyone is entitled to a fair (…) hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal…” Now she learnt that the principles that UN teaches are valid for everybody - except the UN itself! Could this really be true?

………….

Bedri Shabani did exactly what the UN wants Kosovans to do. He broke the Albanian pattern. When he discovered that several of his bosses within the Customs Service had been bribed by smugglers, he collected evidence and went to the UN police. “I had five kilos of documents.” Time passed, nothing happened. Then he turned to the press. This was brave, close to stupid, because in Kosovo you can get shot for less. But look - a breakthrough! The head of Customs is arrested! But released shortly thereafter - by order of a UN judge. The Albanian prosecutor protested, saying he had been run over, and accused the UN of sabotaging justice. But people in the streets shrugged their shoulders. They had recognized the Albanian pattern.

By coincidence it so happened that Kosovo’s governor at the time, the German diplomat Michael Steiner, was intimate with a daughter of one of the Customs bosses, himself the best friend of the arrested. No harm in love you may think (they married later). But to whom shall Bedri Shabani complain now, when his governor made himself challengeable? He writes to Kofi Annan. He shows me the letter. It’s like in the fairy tales. The confiding subject carries his complaint about the governor to the Emperor and in simple words asks him to do justice.

So far it wasn’t a catastrophe perhaps. We cannot know who had done wrong. It is not until this moment that the inconceivable happens. Shabani is sacked from Customs. It was an unforgivable breach of duty, the UN claims, to write to Kofi Annan. Not at all, retorts the court in Pristina where Shabani appealed. Kofi Annan exerts supreme power over Kosovo and you can complain to him, Shabani used his freedom of expression. The dismissal is void.

Encouraging, isn’t it? First Shabani, father of six who risks his life, and then these Albanian lawyers who have studied their human rights. You are almost led to believe that the UN had started to make progress.

…………………..

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25.8.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

Publicerad 25 juni 14:27

A foundation for justice in Kosovo

PRISTINA. The current UN governor in Kosovo, Joachim Rücker, is proud of the progress that has been made during eight years of UN rule. Maciej Zaremba’s criticism of the UN as corrupt and incompetent (in “Koloni Kosovo”, a series of articles) is sweepingly biased, he says.

Joachim Rücker receives me at the UNMIK headquarters in Pristina. He has been here since 2005 and was appointed UN Secretary General Special Representative in Kosovo last year on September 1. He has a background as a diplomat and a mayor in small-town Sindelfingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

UNMIK stands for United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. The headquarters are in a well-guarded building. You can spot the barbed wire on the fence and guests proceed through security controls as thorough as the ones at an international airport.

Joachim Rücker admits that UNMIK isnt particularly appreciated among the people in Kosovo, even though the latest opinion poll points toward a certain improvement.

Obviously, after eight years of international administration people are tired and frustrated. They want clarity on the status of Kosovo. Nobody is saying that the current political condition is good, but we are trying to make the best out of the situation.”

Dagens Nyheter asks him to give an account of the UN’s rule as he has perceived it. A very positive picture emerges.

In 1999 there was a humanitarian crisis in Kosovo. Law and order had collapsed, just like the central and local administration. It was during theses circumstances that the UN arrived, at first with disaster relief and food. Thousands of buildings that had been destroyed were rebuilt. A new police force and new courts of law were created. I think it is fair to say that we not only handled the first crisis situation but also laid the foundations of a working democracy, a functioning judicial system and a functioning market economy!”

Hence a picture quite different from the one in Maciej Zaremba’s article series, where the UN is accused of not wanting to fight corruption and UN officials are above the laws and rules that Kosovo’s inhabitants are supposed to comply with.

“The articles are very unbalanced. They focus on a few specific cases and draw far-reaching conclusions based on these. UNMIK has had its share of bad eggs over the last eight years, we look upon them seriously and have taken action. But basing a series of articles on a few cases produces a misleading picture of the mission, and it’s also humiliating to the thousands of honest and devoted persons working at UNMIK.”

Joachim Rücker says he also discovered racist undertones in the articles. When Dagens Nyheter asks him to specify, he refers to one of Zaremba’s depictions of the KFOR with units from Romania, Morocco and Mongolia.

The most important criticism concerns the systematic corruption, that the UN has yet to create efficient control mechanisms and has failed to fight fraud. Comment?

“That’s a sweeping accusation. The fact of the matter is that during our eight years we have done a lot to fight corruption. To give you an example: Right now, prosecutors are working on more than forty cases concerning serious corruption. It has led to three verdicts, two ongoing trials and more of these are about to begin.”

Dagens Nyheter’s articles are, among other things, based on reports from OIOS, the UN internal audit body. The reports reveal several cases of corruption and mismanagement, for instance at the Pristina airport and at Kosovo’s energy and telephone companies. OIOS also criticised UNMIK heavily for not having taken action against these cases.

“UNMIK has been very persistent and thorough in following up on several of the suggestions and recommendations that we have been given. In a couple of cases we have been in disagreement with OIOS on which administrative measures that were possible to implement. We think we did what could have been done under the circumstances. OIOS for instance wanted us to deal with persons at the airport that were accused of mismanagement and not necessarily corruption. These persons had left their assignments a long time ago.”

According to Marie Fucci, in 2004 the head of the Kosovo Trust Agency that governs all publicly-owned companies, “the man in the street is worse off today than when the UN or the Western diplomats arrived, bringing amounts of money hitherto unseen in Kosovo.” Comment?

“Let’s look at the facts instead. Look at Kosovo’s electricity supply for instance. Here there are mistakes in Dagens Nyheter’s articles. There is now a steady increase in supply of electricity. You can say that its not enough, but electricity supply is increasing, so it hasn’t been getting worse. Look at the facts instead of quoting persons that probably haven’t been too successful.”

In the articles, several examples are given of persons that have failed to win their cases against UNMIK because the officials have immunity.

“You have to remember that immunity isnt the same thing as impunity. UN staff all over the world have immunity and diplomatic benefits. It is true that a UN official can’t be tried in court when he is on a mission. But we have lifted immunities in several cases when there has been signs of someone doing wrong.”

How can an ordinary Kosovo citizen who feels mistreated win his case against UNMIK if you all have immunity?

“There is a legal system, perhaps not perfect, but we have laid a good foundation. People that feel they have been treated unjustly can go to court and sue UNMIK or his employer. The articles are wrong in saying that citizens here can’t obtain redress against a public authority decision.”

UNMIK has been criticised from more than one side. Not long ago, Human Right Watch published a critical report where the UN is said to be lacking liability, which tarnishes its reputation and undermines its legitimacy.

“I think it’s a sweeping statement to say that there is a lack of liability, so I don’t buy that description. We take Human Rights Watch’s reports very seriously and try to follow up on their recommendations as much as possible. There is criticism in the report but there is also the acknowledgement that we have institutions that protect human rights in Kosovo.”

How come the criticism about corruption comes from so many directions?

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25.8.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

If you want to understand why Kosovo, after almost eight years of UN-rule and some ten billions in aid money, remains in such a bad shape you should study the Trutschler affair in detail. How did he get the job? The OIOS discovers that nobody double-checked his CV. Why not? The OIOS does not answer that question.

On the other hand UN auditors discover that Trutschler paid a good round sum of money to his successor. Money that the UN man from Canada accepted. He has no explanation to this peculiar transaction. It was a private gift, he answers when the auditors suddenly begin to ask questions. Really, 200.000 dollars, for nothing? “Well no, as a matter of fact, Mr. Trutschler loved my daughter’s voice. This was a contribution to her singing career.”

Let’s stop the film for a while. The UN has not yet caught Mr Trutschler the thief. but has already recruited another unbelievable person in his place. Is this pure coincidence?

When the UN auditors draw their conclusions they borrow an expression from James Bond. UNMIK had equipped Trutschler with a licence to steal”, they write. All normal scrutiny was disabled and the audit was a joke. High officials were vested with virtually unchecked authority, but were never called to account for their actions.

The diagnosis published in 2003 was alarming and was confirmed soon thereafter. Without ado the persons who employed Trutschler were able to leave the UN country with excellent recommendations and a considerable fortune in their pockets. Vice-Governor Andy Bearpark, who never took action against the German, was even entrusted with the reconstruction of Iraq.

Not even Jo Trutschler was brought to justice in Kosovo. That he was punished at all was pure coincidence. Justice in Germany got their claws into Trutschler when they discovered that he purported to be a doctor! A German doctor! For that foul deed and for other cases of criminal deception he got 42 months in prison.

UNMIK was also tried in the verdict. “The clear lack of control mechanisms” it says, makes it easy for people without specific qualifications to get positions they would not have been able to find elsewhere. It is often enough to know someone who knows someone else, and so on…” So, considering that an open box of treasure makes the thief bolder, the court deliberated upon a verdict somewhat more lenient for Trutschler.

“Those who do not leave Kosovo with their pockets full of money are either dumb or saints” says Y.
“Kosovo is a rubbish heap for lethargic politicians and an El Dorado for thieves” says X. Some steal openly, impudent as children. Soon they will probably pull their trousers down and defecate in the street” says N.
“I have participated in quite a few UN missions but none as rotten as this one” says Z.

These four individuals come from different countries and have (or had) central positions in UNMIK. But no one had a better insight than Marie Fucci, in 2003-2004 head of the Kosovo Trust Agency, the umbrella organization responsible for public and socially owned enterprises.

The man in the street is worse off today than when the UN or the Western diplomats arrived, bringing amounts of money hitherto in Kosovo,” Fucci says.

“The beneficiaries of donor support, who should have been the population, were instead the local mafias, some in local government, and cowardly and incompetent international administrators, who never ran anything in their lives but scared.”

Large sums of taxpayers’ money have been wasted on activities that have nothing to do with re-invigorating the Kosovar economy but with lining the pockets of the nomenclature of Kosovo and the UN, Fucci maintains.

She re-calls that half her working days were spent dealing with anti-corruption agencies, most of them not too competent either.” Until she became persona non grata.

Marie Fucci blames the UN, but adds that it was not the only agency responsible. “If it weren’t for the large flow of money from donors like the EU and USAID, financed by their countries’ tax-payers with minimal accountability, much of the corruption would not have been possible.”

“Corruption” is a relative concept. It was not until I had really dug deep into some real cases that I began to understand the depth of the damage. I cannot depict this understanding by stapling adjectives. So please be patient. Here comes The tale of the seven robbers or as many methods to plunder Kosovo. Some are well known, others I have tracked down myself.

The first profiteer we will call Bo Olsson. He is of the modest kind and frequently found. In his native country, he was perhaps an ordinary office clerk. In Kosovo he emerges as an international top consultant at the telephone company PTK. As a matter of fact the position should have been publicly announced. “But I knew an Albanian in Bangkok who knew the Austrian boss in Pristina”, explains Bo Olsson. And what did he do in Kosovo? “Gave advise on how to organize and then I helped formulating some job vacancies.”

“He was not worth even a third of his salary” they tell me at his work place. Thats for sure. His salary was some 11,000 euros a month. How, could you guess? Oh, yes. It was determined by marauder number two:

Her name is Lema Xheme. She belongs to the category of local talents who have been appointed company managers by UNMIK. Since she is Albanian her salary as manager is set according to local level, 1,000 euros a month, but nothing prevents her from hiring personal advisers” from abroad at ten times that amount. She brings in half a dozen, says Olsson. Dear reader, you have most probably already seen through the plan. Correct: When Mrs Xheme and Mr. Olsson both end up in custody (on suspicion of corruption) she can deposit a bail of fifty thousand euros, but he can’t.

How many Olssons are there in Kosovo? Inga-Britt Ahlenius, head of the UN audit in New York, has investigated the UNs methods of hiring staff. Between the years 2003 and 2005 there were 403,792 applications for 1,758 positions in the UN. This means 229 applicants per job. According to UN regulations the candidate’s abilities shall be tested in stages. A very detailed study of the UN mission in Uganda shows that six out of ten vacancies are filled up the Bo Olsson way: the person gets the job by knowing someone, with no double check on formal merits and without the vacancy having been announced.

The third kind of marauder is related to the previous two but is more impudent. More environmentally adapted, you could say. His name is Gavin Jeffery and he is the managing director of the same phone company PTK. Bypassing the finance manager without further ado he engages an acquaintance from London. The latter stays for nine months, mostly plays poker on the internet according to his colleagues, and enjoys 16,000 euros a month, plus an office car, plus - yes, it’s true - an extra sum to be able to rent a car during weekends! (I did not think this was true until I saw the contract with my own eyes). Is it rude of me to remind you that the budget this money comes from is also the source for supporting the one million Kosovans living on less than 78 cents a day?

The fourth kind of marauder goes for larger preys so he is willing to run some risks. Like the Briton Roger Reynolds, another UN boss within the same company PTK. He finds a partner called Norway Invest and pays three hundred thousand euros up front to its owner Owe Johansen for a promised contract. A contract that could be worth up to ten million& It is said that Norway Invest will extend the emergency phone network. Thereafter Reynolds says thank you UN for the confidence placed in me and goes on to work for the Norwegian company where he enjoys a salary of 20,000 euros a month - of Kosovo money appropriated by himself.

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25.8.2007 by admin.

Wir kamen, sahen und versagten

Vor acht Jahren begann im Kosovo ein einzigartiges Experiment: Um das Land vor militanten Serben und Albanern zu retten, besetzten es die Vereinten Nationen. Zum ersten Mal in der Geschichte übernahmen sie eine Regierung, schufen eine neue Verwaltung und trieben Steuern ein. Das Experiment ging schief – die Wirtschaft liegt brach, die Korruption blüht und die Menschen spucken den UN-Soldaten ins Gesicht.

»Revolution!«, sagt Albin Kurti und kippt seinen Cappuccino hinunter, »wir werden die Bande stürzen.« Als er den Satz zum zweiten Mal wiederholt, horchen einige Gäste im Café auf und drehen sich um. Man kennt ihn, Kurti gilt als Idol der Jugend im Kosovo, einem Land, in dem jeder Zweite jünger als 25 ist. Vor zehn Jahren führte er die Studentenproteste gegen Milosevic an. Als friedliche Aktionen nicht fruchteten, wurde Kurti Ideologe bei der UCK, Kosovos bewaffneter Guerilla. Nun hat er genug Anhänger, um das ganze Land mit der Parole Vetëvendosje zu überziehen: »Selbstbestimmung«, so heißt auch seine Bewegung.

Kurti versichert, die Revolution werde friedlich verlaufen. Hunderttausend Menschen würden die Schaltstellen der Macht belagern, das Hauptquartier der Polizei und den Gerichtshof, um dort auszuharren, so lange wie nötig. So will er die Kolonialmacht verjagen – die Macht, die sein Land »zersplittert, das Volk ausplündert und die Frauen schändet«. Wer wissen möchte, wohin das Geld aus dem Kosovo wandert, müsse sich nur die neu gebauten Prunkvillen in London oder Amsterdam ansehen, behauptet Kurti. Wer etwas über die Moral der Kolonialmacht erfahren wolle, müsse nur die Bordelle zählen. »Die gab es nicht, bevor diese Leute bei uns landeten.«

Jeeps passieren das Café, Elektrogeneratoren brummen, während Kurti UN-Erklärungen und den amerikanischen Bürgerrechtler Malcolm X zitiert. Man fühlt sich wie im Kongo der Sechzigerjahre, aber wir befinden uns in Pristina, der Hauptstadt des Kosovo. Und die Kolonialmacht, die verjagt werden soll, ist die UNO, die hier seit acht Jahren regiert.

Als die Weltgemeinschaft 1999 eintraf, wurden ihre Mitglieder noch als Befreier begrüßt. Heute kommt es vor, dass ihnen Menschen auf offener Straße ins Gesicht spucken oder ihre Fahrzeuge demolieren. Ein UN-Bulletin mit dem Titel Frühwarnberichte vermerkt, dass nur dreißig Prozent der Kosovaren den Vereinten Nationen vertrauen. Vor vier Jahren waren es noch doppelt so viele. Jeder Zweite erklärt sich heute bereit, an organisierten Protesten gegen die fremde Macht teilzunehmen.

Der Einsatz im Kosovo ist der größte in der UN-Geschichte. Und auch der erste, bei dem sie die volle Verantwortung für ein Land übernehmen, das mehr oder weniger in Schutt und Asche liegt. Die internationale Gemeinschaft sichert nicht nur den Frieden und pumpt Trinkwasser – sie stellt das Land auf ein komplett neues Fundament: Sie baut ein Rechtssystem auf, bildet Polizisten aus, legt Einbahnstraßen fest und erhebt Steuern. Kurz gesagt, sie schafft den ersten UN-Staat der Welt. Viele hoffen, dass durch humanitäre Interventionen wie diese eine bessere Welt entstehen könnte.

Der militärische Eingriff im Kosovo rettete Zehntausende Menschenleben und war zweifellos gerechtfertigt. Aber wie steht es mit dem zweiten Ziel der Mission, der Erschaffung eines UN-Staates nach Grundsätzen wie Ehrlichkeit, Gerechtigkeit und Demokratie? Nach fast acht Jahren UN-Einsatz und Kosten von fast 22 Milliarden Euro blüht der Schwarzhandel, die reguläre Wirtschaft steht vor dem Zusammenbruch. Die Standardausrede lautet: Solange die Unabhängigkeit des Kosovo von Serbien nicht vollzogen ist, wagt niemand, in das Land zu investieren. Klingt plausibel. Aber welche Investitionen sind nötig, um Gurken oder Tomaten anzubauen?

http://sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de/?RDCT=7cfb8cb6d8b2cbd25707 

Von: MACIEJ ZAREMBA