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Comment: Questions for Kosovars in First 120 Days

25 04 2007  Kosovo's destiny for years will be shaped by the way its citizens deal with things at the dawn of their freedom.

By Jeta Xharra in New York

“When lemons is all you have, make lemonade”. That was the advice that the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gave to Kosovar leaders and civil society activists at a conference in New York called "Developing a Strategy for Kosovo's First 120 Days" held from April 12-15.

We, the up-and-coming Kosovars, need to give it our best and most charming shot, as we get closer than ever before to becoming a country. It is exciting to live at such a pivotal moment. We who have seen much war, loss and grief in the past will make it or break it in the very near future

Those first 120 days, to refer back to the conference title, may define the outline of our society and country for the following 120 months or even 120 years.

This is because you can tell a good day by its morning. Kosovo's morning - its first 120 days of independence - will be a closely watched dress rehearsal for the drama (drama I hope, not tragedy or comedy) that follows.

Will our ship of state sail straight into the storm while we fight over the wheel, or will we calculate wisely which way the wind is blowing and use this to get us to our goal?

First impressions will count and will make the world fall in - or out - of love with us. Moreover, the world will be looking for more than just looks but for character and backbone, too.

One thing that became clear from the New York conference is that Kosovars want change and are no longer in the same victorious and delirious mood as in June 1999 when the NATO bombing ended.

This became clear from the amount of time we spent discussing what we did not want Kosovo to be like and what should not happen in Kosovo, rather than what should.

Of course, ideally, one would want such a conference to be filled with discussions about the many competing political ideas to run the economy and modernise Kosovo.

But when this is too much to ask, establishing what you should not do is not necessarily a bad way to begin.

The former US president, Bill Clinton, seemed to agree. When addressing the conference on April 13, Clinton stressed to participants that, when leading this new country, the leaders should wake up every day thinking about what you should not do.

Clinton said Kosovars could do little to stop Russia from using its veto in the Security Council against the UN plan for Kosovo's "supervised" independence. It was pointless to waste time over it.

Kosovars need to think instead primarily about a strategy to make Kosovo economically successful.

International experts at the conference pointed to the three broad challenges that Kosovo is facing. Firstly, Kosovo is in transition from UN rule to self-rule. The challenge here is whether Kosovo is escaping this to end up with little more than a form of joint EU/NATO occupation.

Secondly, Kosovo is in transition from being a province of Serbia to becoming independent. The challenge here is whether just becoming independent from Serbia is enough. "What you do with your energy, minerals, telecom and economic strategy in general defines whether you are dependent or independent," commented Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister in Afghanistan who now runs the State Effectiveness Institute

Thirdly, Kosovo is in transition from a Serbian-dominated society to one that is mainly Albanian-dominated or multi-ethnic. The challenge here is whether Kosovars are capable, as Clinton put it, "of not letting majority rule turn into majority tyranny".

Aside from these broad questions, many smaller practical issues require urgent decisions and attention during the first 120 days.

One is to draft a new constitution with enough public participation so as to dispel the perception that constitutions are drafted by international officials and that nobody needs to ask the Kosovo public what constitution they actually want.

Another concerns the adoption of new state symbols such as a flag and a hymn, a subject that the politicians have continuously put on hold because of its sensitivity.

Then again, where will Kosovo's leaders and civil activists be in the first 120 days, when many foreign correspondents will be present in Serbian enclaves, watching to see whether the Serbs are packing their bags.

Whether Kosovo's remaining Serbs will indeed pack their bags after independence is a unclear. If they do, can Kosovo Albanians do anything to offer the world an alternative picture of Kosovo?

How quickly will we organise the next elections, and will they be municipal or general elections? This is important; knowing the election schedule will affect the restless opposition parties in the so-called unity team. So far, they put the national interest above narrow party interests.

Also, Serbs tend to take part in local but not in general elections, so what polls Kosovars organise first will matter in terms of their inclusion or not in the new Kosovo.

What should be said to the donors at the donor conference planned soon after the UN final status resolution? Albright suggested that Kosovars should highlight the regional benefits of any projects they float. They need to let investors see that they will benefit not only Kosovo but the wider region. Kosovars need also to devise economic projects in which the Serb community is also engaged.

Last but not least, how can we engage the public creatively in independence-day celebrations? How can we plan them from an artistic rather than a folkloric point of view, and so put ourselves on the world map at the start of those all-important 120 days?

Jeta Xharra is BIRN Kosovo Director and anchor of the Life in Kosovo current affairs programme. The conference was organised by Rockefeller Brothers Fund, East West Management Institute, Justice in Transition and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.