TrainingBIRN Summer School BIRN Network About us
BIRN Newsletters
You can subscribe free of charge to Balkan Insight, BIRN's weekly
online publication analysing and investigating important developments in
the region.
Subscribe
RTK, Pristina
24 11 2006 The "Life in Kosovo" TV debate show, broadcast on Kosovo's public television RTK, looked at the return of people to their former homes in Kosovo. The programme examined a number of issues, including where the returnee process has been most successful; whether people are sufficiently motivated to return to Kosovo; and if the resolution of Kosovo's status will result in more returns.
Panelists
in the debate were: Frode Mauring, head of United Nations Development Program,
UNDP; Dragana Zivkovic, director of the return department at the ministry of
return; Dardan Gashi, head of the government's technical group on return; Nazmi
Fejza, deputy minister at the ministry of return; and Fatmir Sheholli,
spokesman of the ministry of return.
Among
the studio audience, there were ten returnees from the different ethnic groups
in Kosovo who talked about their personal experiences.
1. Hashim
Gugac
2. Nebojsa
Kazic
3. Bexhet
Hasani
4. Haki
Ymeri
5. Agron
Hajrizi
6. Idriz
Bislimi
7. Sergje
Stolic
8. Petko
Plesic,
9. Desko
Pesic
10. Ramadan Rrahmani
Mauring
said the number of people interested in returning is growing and the resolution
of final status talks will bolster the process.
Zivkovic
spoke of the main challenges facing the return process, which she said
including the provision of new homes and economic stability.
"The
ministry of the returns was working hard on building a good environment for
sustainable return," she said.
Sheholli
believes the security situation has not encouraged returns, but the process
should now improve with a ministry now devoted to it. Gashi said the ministry
of returns has negotiated with Belgrade
about bringing people back.
Sheholli
was critical of UNDP over funding the return process, claiming it has withheld
money. Mauring denied the charge.
Fejza
said the ministry shouldn't go around criticising others until it got its own
house in order, pointing out that internal and external auditors had concluded
that funds had been misused in the ministry.
Bislimi
complained that some UNDP practices were discriminatory. Mauring again denied
the charge, saying, "Every returnee
is given some kind of assistance."
Overall,
the discussion panel felt that conditions for people to return had improved and
that people in Kosovo had begun to welcome the process.
At the beginning of 2010 BIRN network published Digging Deeper - A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans, written in cooperation with Sheila Coronel, Director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and professor of professional practice at Columbia University, New York.
