The Kosovo Government Calls out the UAM

Behind the trees lies one of the offices of the UAM, branded with the blue sign.

The big news the past two days has been a report** put out by the Office for the Integration of the North in the Kosovo government, citing the inefficiencies of the UN Administration in Mitrovica (UAM) and how the UAM is actually blocking integration of the city between the Albanians and Serbians. The information in the report is not fabricated by the authors, rather it was taken through interviews with members of the international presence, government, and civil society. The report also tries to tell a story of the UAM, how it was created to fill the void of local governance in Mitrovica North (which is inhabited primarily by Serbs) as well as to administer to all communities in Mitrovica North equally. The report concludes that this is not the case, and that the UAM does not follow its mandate by only aiding the Serbian community and being seen as illegitimate by all communities (even the Serbs) in Mitrovica North. It must be mentioned that Kosovo has been calling for the ousting of the entire UN administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) since their independence in February 2008.

The report also focuses on the Serbian parallel structures in Mitrovica North, which operate illegally, according to Kosovo law, and were to be replaced by the UAM with its creation in 2002. Yet the parallel structures still exist and some members of the parallel structures also work for the UAM and receive double salaries. The salaries from the UAM come from the Kosovo budget, whereas the salaries from the parallel structures come from the Serbian government (most likely the Ministry of Interior, but this is unconfirmed). So although the UAM was supposed to take the place of the parallel structures in Mitrovica North, the UAM is helping the parallel structures survive.

UNMIK rejects this paper of course and the Special Representative to the Secretary General of the UN, and head of UNMIK, Lamberto Zannier had this to say about the report: "[It] contains many factual inaccuracies and makes a number of unsubstantiated claims. I regret that the authors did not consult me or the appropriate UN officials during the preparation of this paper, as in doing so they would have had the opportunity to issue an accurate report." Interesting comments, but quite political, and he needed to say this to save face with his boss (Ban Ki Moon) and the international community.

The debate about whether the UAM, and UNMIK as a whole, should stay or go will go on for quite some time in Kosovo. The release of the report comes at an interesting time where Kosovo is arranging talks with Serbia about how to patch up their relationship as two independent states. Serbia still does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state, yet they are on board with talking with the Kosovo government. Regardless of these talks, Kosovo would love to get UNMIK out of the country to solidify their independence recognitions, as UNMIK's mandate was to administer to Kosovo and ready them for independence. Even if UNMIK were to dismantle its mission, the other international organizations, such as EULEX, OSCE, and the ICO, would most likely remain in Kosovo to help progress the rule of law and politics.

**For the first two hyperlinks, the first article translated in the pdf by UNMIK are loose summaries of the report and the front page of Koha Ditore on both September 22 and 23. To read an article from a Serbian news outlet, written in English, please go here.

The Iber River. The bridge in the background is the famed bridge that separates the Mitrovica South from Mitrovica North. In this picture, Albanian youth sit on the southern side (lower half of the picture) while Serbian youth sit on the northern side. The Iber is known to be contaminated with lead.