Well-connected? Optimistic voices on Kosovo at the London School of Economics
Thursday, 13 November 2008
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By Elizabeth Gowing
It had been an unsettled and unsettling 24 hours in Pristina with the
announcement of the Kosovan government's rejection of the six point proposal
for establishing EULEX across Kosovo, as negotiated between Belgrade and the
EU. This was the run-up to the London School of Economics' Tuesday night
debate with respected commentators on Kosovo, Tim Judah, Anna Di Lellio, Jelena
Bjelica and Daut Dauti presenting their views on Kosovo's Independence and the
Balkans: regional implications and challenges.
The challenges certainly made themselves heard, in the presentations of the
speakers and then in passionate contributions from the floor. Anna Di Lellio,
formerly of the UN and the OSCE, talked powerfully of Kosovo's status of
'permanent transition' and 'permanent negotiation'. The panel and audience
debated the extent of ethnic cleansing, of restrictions on movement for those
living in enclaves, of organised crime, of Kosovo as a precedent, and of the
failures of the international community. Depressing and familiar and
depressingly familiar themes.
However one refreshing theme emerged. Daut Dauti's final word on the subject
was 'hope'; Tim Judah elaborated. He reminded his listeners of the dire
forecasts made this time last year of what the world could expect as a result
of a declaration of independence: lines of Kosovo's Serbs on tractors heading
for the border, enclaves wiped out, churches destroyed, and Serbian politics
dominated by the far right. It hasn't happened.
The upbeat tone surprised me. When I had read Judah's book Kosovo: war and
revenge I had found it a bleak analysis of the cycles of Serb and Albanian
ascendancy in Kosovo and the apparent inevitability of these cycles. This view
is perhaps another way of articulating Anna Di Lellio's concept of Kosovo's
'permanent transition'. I hadn't wanted to believe that these cycles and
transitions would repeat endlessly.
But how could the last 10 years be considered different from any other period
of Kosovo's bloody history? My optimistic answer would be because of this and
that. This, the internet. That, the debate at LSE and what it represents.
Through electronic media, widely if not universally available, and through
other contact with people from beyond the Balkans, today's Kosovars - Serb,
Albanian, and others - are more aware than any generation before them, of the
world outside Kosovo. Kosovo has witnessed an unprecedented exchange of
peoples and ideas in this decade, through the international community which has
come to Kosovo and the experience of Kosovars and the countries where they
sought asylum. The world has heard of Kosovo, has learned from experiences
there; and Kosovars too have a perspective which is better informed, which
takes in wider considerations, including the EU and NATO, Russia, the world
Islamic community. In every sense of the phrase, Kosovars are now better
connected.
On a visit to Prizren a while ago I spoke to a Roma community leader about work
he was doing there on the integration of different ethnic communities. I asked
him what had inspired him to take on such a challenge and he told me that he
had been a refugee in Switzerland. There he had seen how Italian, French and
German communities lived together harmoniously - and profitably, and when he
came back to Kosovo he started working to achieve something similar in his home
town. From my own experience of working in Hackney, an economically-deprived
and socially challenging area of London which is the first home for many
asylum-seekers from across the world, I had to wonder whether all Kosovo's
refugees would have taken such positive messages from the communities where
they lived abroad. But as Tuesday night's audience - diaspora, Kosovan
students on scholarships, Foreign Office analysts, and BBC Radio 4 listeners -
left the LSE theatre, in intense discussion in Serbian, Albanian, English, I
had an uncertain sense of hope that this and that might be experiences which
could just make the difference, break the cycle of 'war and revenge'. Everyone
knows what is at stake here. Maybe this time next year the challenges will
dominate less and an LSE debate could be held on 'Kosovo's Independence and the
Balkans: regional implications and successes'.
http://www.newkosovareport.com/200811131397/Views-and-Analysis/Well-connected-Optimistic-voices-on-Kosovo-at-the-London-School-of-Economics.html
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