Category: News and Events

Kosovo Special: The Minorty Perspective can be read in Balkan Insight no. 37, < http://www.birn.eu.com/bihome.php >.

All the articles were written by trainees who attended an earlier BIRN training workshop.

The second part of the primary level training for Kosovo minorities is scheduled for September, and will also be followed with a special edition dedicated to the most relevant topics.

These reports, training and debate events are all part of BIRN SaM’s Minority Training and Reporting project, which is supported by the British Embassy in Belgrade .

For more information on this project, contact BIRN SaM Director Dragana Nikolic-Solomon.

BIRN Kosovo director Jeta Xharra recently hosted a debate on the LDK, examining its internal turmoil and speculating on who will emerge to lead the party – and when they will be elected to office.

The panel included four LDK members – its vice-president Eqrem Kryeziu; Besa Gaxherri from the Women’s Forum of LDK, Lulzim Zeneli from the Youth Forum and Ali Lajci, head of Peja/Pec municipality, representing the municipal divisions of the party.

The debate was preceded and advertised by two articles written in the Express daily newspaper as the first time that the LDK leaders would have the opportunity to raise their differences in a public forum since the death of Rugova.

Trying to define who is actually leading the LDK, Eqrem Kryeziu said that “based on the statute of the party, at the time when there is no president, the party is leaded by three vice-presidents and the secretary general”.

Kryeziu believes that internal party elections should be postponed. “We need more time to fill the gap after Rugova’s death,” he said, adding that the leadership also needed time to explain its reasons for removing high-profile party members Nexhat Daci and Adem Salihaj in the wake of Rugova’s death.

Kryeziu also said that the “LDK is not looking for an iconic leader, but for a leading mechanism” – an idea that was supported by all panelists in this debate.

Commenting on the creation of two factions within the LDK – one led by Kryeziu, Fatmir Sejdiu, Kole Berisha and Sabri Hamiti, and the other led by the discharged Daci and Salihaj – Kryeziu said that “these groups were made due to major institutional changes that happened recently, they are not factions of the same party but rather more like two different alternatives”.

Sitting next to Kryeziu, Besa Gaxherri described him as “hurried” when explaining the recent institutional changes, which she believed were “wrong” and “not according to the party protocols”.

Gaxheri said that she would not agree with the postponement of the party elections, stressing that the field operators of the LDK like herself expect elections to be held in already set time of early June and not be delayed further. She also expressed dissatisfaction with Kryeziu’s interim leadership.

“I have no idea [where the party stands on] important issues, such decentralisation and Mitrovica for example. Do we have a policy on that?” she asked Kryeziu.

Although the panelists tried to give an impression of unification, they seemed to split into two groups during the debate – those who want party elections to happen now and those who want to delay them after the deadline of June 2006.

Lulezim Zeneli said that if elections are postponed, the structures of LDK will be illegitimate. “With the election process we will [impose] legitimacy on the LDK leadership,” he said.

Commenting on the recently created divisions within the party, Ali Lajci described them as just alternative opinions. “There are no factions within LDK since there is no more than one programme and one platform,” he said.

In the other hand Lajci pointed out that LDK has its executive bodies such as general council and that “all these issues should be discussed and decided there”. But he stressed that the party hierarchy should decide soon if elections are to be held in June, or later in the year.

Since July 2005, university management and the ministry of education have failed to make decisions in a number of key areas, most notably the appointment of a rector.

Participants in the BIRN event included leading figures in the territory’s education sector, such as the deputy minister for education, Fevzi Berisha, the Kosovo premier’s education adviser, Dukagjin Popovci, and the former minister for education, Rexhep Osmani.

The audience was made up of students from a number of university faculties.

Adem Beha, a political sciences student, listed some of the major problems affecting higher education in the territory.

“Isn’t it wrong that professors only come to classes when they have free time; when exam papers are lost; and when professors are guilty of plagiarising their own MA and PhD theses,” he said.

Natyra Gjurgjeala, a medical faculty professor who had been working at the university since 1974, said that the academic criteria applied at the moment is one of the worst in UP’s history.

The panellists were questioned extensively on the mismanagement of funds and corruption.

Popovci said the lack of funds was just an excuse for low-quality teaching, pointing out that the real problem was bad planning.

“Of the 400,000 euro set aside for the university’s budget for the first three months of this year, only 100,000 have been spent,” he said.

Elbasan Hoti, a student representative, said the administration of UP is so bad that students have no idea who to approach for student projects.

Jusuf Thaqi, a psychology student, said that one of the biggest problems for students was self-motivation because of their poor employment prospects.

“Lack of motivation among students is one of our biggest concerns – even if you get straight A grades, it is highly unlikely you will get a job when you leave university,” said Thaqi.

One of the most controversial subjects tackled in the debate was the upcoming election of faculty deans and the future leadership of UP.

Sejdi Hoxha, a representative of student parliament, complained about the transparency of the former, claiming that students had been excluded from election commissions – a claim denied by Berisha, who insisted that the commissions were overseen by the OSCE.

The battle between two biggest political parties, the LDK and the PDK, for control over the university was another topic of discussion.

Commenting on the politicisation of UP, Gjurgjeala said “student engagement in politics and politicians’ encouragement of this should remain outside the university.

“University should be a place dominated by activities that increase the quality of studies.”

Adopting a format similar to the BBC’s cultural slot Newsnight Review, the programme asked why so many Pristina movie-goers were going to see the film and what religious and non-religious Kosovars felt out about the controversy surrounding it.

To discuss the issues thrown up by the book and the film, BIRN invited a panel of four prominent Kosovars: Dukagjin Gorani, from the Kosovar Institute for Journalism and Communications; Iliriana Loxha, an artist; Milazim Krasniqi, a writer; and Anton Berisha, an engineer.

Gorani said that the popularity of the film in Pristina, as in the rest of the world, was down to its incorporation of numerous religious dilemmas in a “populist thriller” format.

“For me as a Catholic, the Da Vinci Code is not interesting at all,” said Berisha. “This book has no facts and no analyses, nothing but unproved claims.” Berisha reckoned the book was an insult to Catholics the world over.

Gorani disagreed, saying it allows readers to question biblical stories, in particular whether Jesus was the son of God or an extraordinary human being with great leadership and oratory skills.

Discussing whether the controversial assertions made by the film could be defended as freedom of speech, Krasniqi said this right ends the moment it is used to offend, upset or ridicule others. He drew parallels with the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which so enraged Muslims.

The panelists contrasted the big local interest the Da Vinci Code generated with the generally low turn-out for other cultural events in the territory.

Krasniqi pointed out that a bookfair held this month served to highlight the low level of interest in reading. “There is a huge cultural crisis happening in Kosovo at the moment,” said Krasniqi.

He described the Da Vinci Code as something of circus which will do little to encourage local audiences to buy books or go to the theatre and cinema more often.

* The RTK debates are moderated by Jeta Xharra, BIRN Kosovo Director.