minorities in focus

Matilde Ceravolo, MRG’s Fundraiser, makes friends in Pristina and hopes for peace

Such a statement would attract international worries, had it not come from Besnik, a smiling, lovely 12-year-old, excited about practicing his English.

We are sitting atop the Prizren castle ruins, admiring the fascinating Turkish-style city at our feet, and the snow-capped mountains in front of us. Prizren is the main town inhabited by Kosovar Turks, and the only one where Turkish is still an official language. From our exceptional point of view we can observe the impressive quantity of minarets, but next to them, also several orthodox churches, demonstrating how this city has been a crossing point of different cultures.

Today, orthodox churches are surrounded by barbed wire, protected by German KFOR, behind ostensible UNMIK notices informing that no offence will be tolerated. Just under the castle, the Serbian quarter is still destroyed and inhabited. The owners never felt secure enough to return to their houses.

As I chat with my new friend and his schoolmates, I wonder how he gathered so much hate. He is too young to remember the Milosevic era. What must he be hearing from his father, commenting on the evening news?

The Serb quarter in Prizren

During my short stay in Kosovo I have heard and read testimony of hate against Serbs on a daily basis. Since 1989, Albanians in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have been victim of systematic discrimination and violation of human rights. FRY forces are believed to have implemented deliberate ethnic cleansing. The hate against Serbia is understandable.

But Kosovar Serbs have also been victims of the conflict. It is estimated that about 200,000 of them were displaced. A number of extra-judicial killings have been documented, of which the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was considered responsible.

Nowadays, KLA members have become political leaders of the independent Kosovo. Pristina and the whole country are filled with posters celebrating the KLA and its fighters. Albanian flags are everywhere; the National Museum in Pristina dedicates one entire floor to KLA history.

I wonder how Serbs could ever feel safe in a country that celebrates their killers; how would they ever accept to being a part of such a country?

Last Sunday Serb voters were divided, but the pro EU Democratic Party of Serbia’s president Boris Tadic got a clear majority. The new government is still to be decided and it is difficult to imagine that Serbia would accept the independence of Kosovo.

However, on behalf of MRG, during the last 10 days I have been meeting members of all the communities. The common issue that came out from all the meetings is that Kosovars have similar worries and aspirations: to live freely and safely in a country that respects their identity, no matter if the country is called Serbia or Kosovo.

Tomorrow I will be leaving this complex country and its fascinating people. I am far from having answered all the questions I had on the creation of this new state and the international intervention. But I believe that only dialogue and trust can create the premises for a sustainable solution, and for this to happen, leaders on both sides must abolish hate speech and adopt peaceful language.

All I wish to Besnik and his friends is they have the chance to grow up without enemies.

Matilde Ceravolo, MRG’s Fundraiser, reflects on the similarities and differences of two cities caught up in ethnic feuding

As my flight left Ljubljana, I wondered why it would take as much time to reach Pristina as it took to come from London. Naïve question soon answered. The plane went all along the Croatian coast, then into Italian airspace towards Brindisi, turned right into Albania and then North again to Pristina… Direct flights to Kosovo are not allowed into Serbian airspace.

I went to Mitrovica today, to meet the Serbian community. Airspace is not the only thing they are not prepared to compromise.

It is quite impressive how perceptions change when you change the point of view. South of the river, you are in independent Kosovo which contains a northern Serbian-inhabited region. You cross the river, and you are in the southern region of Serbia.

Mitrovica and Nicosia are the last divided cities in Europe. Different language, different religion, and a history that makes barbed wire difficult to remove.

In Cyprus, accession to the EU is playing a key role for the solution of the stalemate. The Turkish Cypriot community has showed a clear interest in dialogue, as does the newly elected President of the Republic. The hopes for reunification are at the highest point of the last 30 years.

Serbs in Mitrovica hope that the accession of Serbia will have the same effect on Kosovo, and that the independence process will be reverted. What they forget is that Northern Cyprus was never recognized by the international community (with the exception of Turkey), while Kosovo as been brought to life under the international protectorate.

As an outsider, walking in the streets of Mitrovica as well as in Nicosia, I feel the nonsense of once-neighbours transformed into enemies, while these places could host all their children in a peaceful community. Before 1999, Mitrovica used to be the most multi-ethnic municipality in Kosovo. Now it is the symbol of national identity for both Serbian and Albanian Kosovars.

Most of the responsibility lies at the door of the international community. Crimes of the recent past have never been prosecuted, ethnic cleansing has not been punished, displaced people have not been given the security to return to their homes.

Kosovo is at an historical turning-point. On 11 May, Serbian citizens (including Kosovars) will be called to elect the Government that will lead the country for the next year. It is the moment for Serbs to choose between renewed nationalism or dialogue.

Meanwhile, the new constitution of the Republic of Kosovo has been designed and must now be implemented.

Unless the new authorities on both sides – with the support of the European Community – create a safe environment for all communities, where human rights are protected and every citizen has equal opportunities, irrespective of its ethnicity, the frustration will rise again. And again… History has shown what unanswered frustrations and fear can bring. This is the moment to give answers.

MRG’s Media Officer, Emma Eastwood, hears tales of strife from Kenya and right below her nose in Hungary

Last night I interviewed Nyang’ori Ohenjo from the Kenyan Indigenous Fisher Peoples Network, whose analysis of the recent (and current) post-election violence in Kenya is somewhat more thorough than that portrayed by the international media. He tells me that even though many of the concerns of minority communities in Kenya were addressed in the 2001 Constitution review process, the 2002 government led by Mwai Kibaki reneged on those constitutional promises thus setting the stage for serious resentment and animosity towards the Kikuyu community loyal to him. Nyang’ori claims that come the December 2007 elections many people had simply had enough, with their backs up against the wall their only recourse was to turn to violence. For an in depth look at this issue see MRG ‘s 2005 report, Kenya: Minorities, Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Diversity, which Nyang’ori helped to write.

Nyang’ori Ohenjo

Talking to the journalists present at the seminar today from the new EU member states was informative but at times disheartening. The Slovenians told me of the difficulties they face getting coverage of international development issues past their editors and painted a picture of Slovenian society as increasingly inward looking following an initial euphoric period post-independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.

As we sipped our coffee on the balcony admiring the view of the Danube, one of the Hungarian journalists alerted us to a neighbourhood conflict happening right under our noses. Apparently a shopkeeper in the Jewish quarter of Pest refused to sell a ticket to a skinhead for a concert by an extremist group a few days ago and her shop was firebombed. A broad coalition of anti racist activists turned up the following day to show support for the shopkeeper and this afternoon the extreme right wing has organised a counter demonstration. Am I imagining it or can I hear more sirens than usual…

I’ll encourage the journalists to let us know what happened tomorrow morning - from what I’ve been told by members of the Hungarian NGOs here it’s not an isolated incident and reflects wider tensions throughout the country.

MRG’s Media Officer, Emma Eastwood, is in Budapest for an MRG Europe seminar on the rights-based approach to international development

I’ve finally escaped the MRG office in London and am holed up in the Buda hills with NGOs and journalists from the new EU member states.

The venue couldn’t have been better placed for those of us new to Hungary, Budapest spreads out as far as the eye can see below our eyrie in the Council of Europe Youth Centre. Dominating the view is the gothic National Parliament building on the banks of the Danube, resplendent in the spring sunshine.

My role at the seminar is multi-faceted - I’m here to learn more about human rights and development, the work of the NGOs present and all importantly to build relationships with journalists from the new EU member states. At the same time I’ll also be giving an online demo of the new MRG World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples and will run a workshop on harnessing the power of the media for advocacy.

My covert mission however is to seek stories that bring the work of MRG to life and my eyes and ears are open for news ‘angles’. Tales of discrimination against Roma in this part of Europe abound… We’re meant to be looking at development in the South, yet many of the NGOs from this region are rightly focusing on their own neighbours - a 2003 report by UNDP found that Roma living conditions in central and eastern Europe were comparable to sub-Saharan Africa. Viera from the Slovakian NGO Center for the Support and Development of Human Potential illustrates the point when she tells me about over-crowding and lack of even the most basic amenities in what is effectively a Roma ghetto in the town of Kosice. Apparently the neighbourhood, called Lumik IX, appears in a gritty film about migration in central Europe called ‘Import Export’ by Austrian director Ulrich Seidl if anyone wants to check it out.

I’ve come well armed for the job of documenting the proceedings - laptop, MP3 recorder, mic, headphones, camera, mobile phone. I battle with a bona fide spaghetti junction of cables in my room… My hope is to interview MRG partners from Kenya and Uganda who’ve come to the seminar to contextualise the theory with case studies from the front line of EU development projects.

We begin by delving deeper into the definitions of poverty and human rights and examine the motivations behind overseas development assistance (we’re a cynical lot I’m afraid, I won’t depress you with our answers). I look around and realise that the gender balance of the seminar is shockingly awry – out of 30 NGO participants and speakers only four are men – interestingly it’s a trend similarly reflected back at the MRG office in London. This is gender mainstreaming gone mad, what about the introduction of quotas I say…

MRG’s SE Europe Programme Coordinator Snjezana Bokulic enlightening us all on UN mechanisms – I can’t help wishing that we could steal the Council of Europe’s slogan ‘all different, all equal’ - it embodies the protection of minority rights in just a few words compared to our tongue-twister of a mission statement (and maybe that way journalists would stop thinking I was calling them about a shareholders’ story).