I love Peace
PEACE ESSAY
There is no nobler goal than Peace. On September 21st of every year a holiday passes quietly away, with hardly a glance from others. It is said that this happens, for that day is the International Day of Peace, a time in which we should recognize the concept of Peace.
Indeed, twenty five years ago a resolution was passed making September 21st the Day of Peace. Not just for America. Nor just for Britain or France, China or Japan, Kenya or Nairobi, but for the entire world. The entire world! It is a day when no race is superior to the other, no religion is correct over another, no thought is more justified… and ideally, no gun is fired, no knife is drawn.
It is a day when our swords should go undrawn, when the Ideal of Peace perseveres over the need to be right. A day when we lend a helping hand to others in need simply for the sake of doing what is right. Time to admit when we our wrong, and humbly accept when we are correct. Yearly this time passes with nary a thought to it. Hardly a nod. It is sad that the Day of Peace is so rarely recognized, so largely unknown, for it is such a moral time should not pass as it does. In fact, it should not pass at all.
September 21st, the International Day of Peace, should never pass. It should begin without an end. Ideally it would stretch on through the rest of human history. And how difficult can it be? To simply accept another’s differences, to acknowledge and respect creeds other than our own, to go out of the way to help the poor are merely little things we can all do for ourselves and others to the betterment of the world. The threat is large, however, and others would undoubtedly take advantage of a pacifist society. It happened in Tibet, and it would certainly happen again. So while we must take steps towards peace - for that is imperative, it is also imperative that we do so with caution. Not all the world desires peace. Much of it also desires power, and that is a lust that must be done away with before we can even consider peace as possible.
But we can begin. We can live our own lives in a manner more peaceable. We can preach acceptance. Talk the talk AND walk the walk. We must. For as surely as the phrase ‘charity starts at home’ is true, so to is the fact that Peace must begin with oneself. Spend time to yourselves, listen to what your heart tells you. Meditate on what ails you, what rubs you the wrong way, and convey those positive actions onto others. By doing so, you will have begun the march toward Peace, and others shall surely follow.
Let's peace be upon and with us for always.
24 September 2006
The Power of Philanthropy
I love Peace
Fortune Magazine
Date: September 7, 2006
Bethany McLean
Bill Gates has the money. But no one motivates people and moves mountains like Bill Clinton. He's even got Rupert Murdoch onboard. A look at how the former President has borrowed from the business world to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and other scourges.
(Fortune Magazine) -- When the black SUV crested the hill and stopped near a cluster of low buildings in the desolate Rwandan village of Rwinkwavu , a crowd of people cheered and the cameras started to roll. Showtime. Paul Kagame, the tall, cave-chested President of Rwanda, alighted from the driver's seat, and Bill Clinton, thinner than he used to be and ruddy in a brightly checked shirt, emerged from the passenger's side.
They were there to visit a hospital that treats people with HIV/AIDS, and Clinton was ... still Clinton . The former President was midway through a nine-day, seven-country African sprint meant to showcase the work of his William J. Clinton Foundation: conferring with the American ambassador to Chad at 5 A.M. on a runway in N'Djamena; talking politics with reporters in a Johannesburg hotel until his eyes, which these days have deep-black half-moons under them, were bleary; celebrating Nelson Mandela's 88th birthday; launching a development initiative in Malawi with President Bingu Wa Mutharika; and visiting a clinic with Bill and Melinda Gates in Lesotho, where Clinton was knighted last year.
Soon it would be on to Ethiopia , Nigeria , and Liberia , but now he was in Rwinkwavu, making the rounds with Dr. Paul Farmer - a hero in the world of medicine for his work treating AIDS patients in Haiti . Last year Clinton persuaded Farmer and his Boston-based organization, Partners in Health (PIH), to bring their methods to Rwanda.This hospital was the result, and now it was time to show it off.
What seemed like half the village followed Clinton and Farmer from room to room, along with the obligatory horde of reporters and some very zealous Rwandan security guards. "Make sure you meet this guy," said Clinton , gesturing toward an embarrassed Farmer. "You'll be able to say you shook the hand of the guy who won the Nobel Peace Prize." The group made its way to a ward where mothers and their sick children were huddled three to a bed; Clinton tried to make a connection with them. A bit later, outside, he effortlessly changed tone, joking with a young woman: "I'll let you be President if you'll let me be 20 years old again. No one would take that trade."
As the crowd swirled around him, one petite American woman in a simple black suit chose to stay out of the spotlight. Beth Collins spent 17 years in the corporate world-director at Walt Disney Theatrical Productions, vice president at Universal Pictures, CFO of Talk Media - before giving up the business life in 2004 to become the Clinton Foundation's Rwanda country director. Now 45, she says she had always felt the call of service but made the decision to answer it (and take a humongous pay cut) only when she came across a book about the genocide in Rwanda - and realized that because she'd been traveling the world nonstop for Disney (Charts), she didn't even know there had been a genocide in Rwanda. A colleague put her in touch with Clinton, who has always regretted that he didn't do more as President to stop the genocide. Collins says she never had a moment's doubt about swapping one life for another.
And so, with the support of the Rwandan government, she and Farmer came to Rwinkwavu and set about rebuilding the dilapidated clinic, a onetime Belgian colonial hospital built to service a tin mine. In 1994, the year that an estimated 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered by Hutu militia, the hospital was abandoned and became a place where people hid and were killed. Now, thanks to funding from Clinton, Unicef, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, it is a hospital again, with a small, clean white room stacked with lifesaving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) that hold AIDS at bay.
In 2004, Collins helped the government place Rwanda 's first orders for those drugs. Roughly 1,700 Rwandans receive ARVs through the program, which trains regular people to deliver and administer meds. "I've never loved a job more than this one," Collins says. "Now I can use my business experience to really do something."
The un-funded foundation
Welcome to the world of the Clinton Foundation - which, it should be said at the outset, is not a foundation at all in the traditional sense, because it has no money of its own. What it does have, of course, is Bill Clinton and all he brings with him: what Dr. Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund, calls his "personal bully pulpit"; what Bob Carson, outgoing chairman of the American Heart Association, calls his "mind-boggling convening power"; what Doug Band, who began as Clinton's personal aide in the White House and now carries the title of counselor, calls his "ability to motivate people and move mountains."
The people he motivates are an odd but potent mix of longtime allies and FOBs, doctors and activists, and executives ranging from the unknown and enormously dedicated (Beth Collins) to the high-profile and frankly improbable (longtime nemesis Rupert Murdoch, who is bankrolling a global-warming initiative).
"We take a lot of cues from the business world," says Clinton, who these days can sound more like a CEO than a politician. "We have very entrepreneurial people and a very entrepreneurial process. We identify a problem, we analyze it, and we move." Much of his staff comes from business, and he says using business practices "allows us to do a lot with relatively small resources."
Overseas assignments don't come with a car and driver or first-class airfare. "Your job satisfaction is not my main concern," policy chairman Ira Magaziner, an FOB for almost 40 years, likes to tell the staff. "You can sit in coach for ten hours." The foundation's 2006 budget is just $30 million; next year it will roughly double.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, by contrast, has a $30 billion endowment. "Yeah, I'd like to have his money," says Clinton of Gates. "But I think our way adds value. It's kind of a pain to always ask for financing, but perhaps it forces you to look closely." "We have a culture of getting s**t done. It is very empowering and very unforgiving, " says Anil Soni, a former McKinsey consultant who is now COO of Clinton's HIV/AIDS initiative. "Ira and Clinton will say, 'People are going to die tomorrow if we don't do this.' And it's true."
The foundation doesn't have a clearly defined hierarchy or a detailed business plan. Its tentacles sprout from need, opportunity, and passion rather than design. "We don't have committees, we don't have processes," says foundation CEO Bruce Lindsey, who has been with Clinton since Arkansas . "If a decision needs to be made, we make it. If we can help, we help now, not tomorrow."
The foundation operates a bit like a management consulting firm - burrowing into and improving the work of larger organizations - albeit one that is out to rescue the world from the dark threats of poverty, AIDS, climate change, and childhood obesity. "The scale and ambition were startling," says Mala Gaonkar, a hedge fund manager at Lone Pine Capital who gives money to Clinton . "I'm an analytical person.The foundation is very good at saying, 'Here are the outcomes, here are the metrics, here's how we've done.' "
Since we're talking about Bill Clinton, you'll also hear criticisms. His foundation is just a way to keep the cameras and the crowds coming. He's just doing it to help his wife. He overpromises and underdelivers. He grabs credit for the work of others. He's searching for redemption. There's probably some truth to all of them.
Certainly nobody soaks up the spotlight like Clinton - of course he got together with Madonna to discuss what they might do to save Malawi . And inevitably, all the showmanship can make you wonder about the substance. But to criticize is also to acknowledge that the bar is higher for Clinton than for anyone else. Instead of joining corporate boards, he's attacking many of the world's most intractable problems.
He is not going for the quick hits; he's going where others haven't. And he agrees that the bar should be set high: "I believe a lot should be expected of me because I was given an astonishing life." He also says he has opportunities now that he didn't have as President. "The raw power [of the presidency] can be way oversold. There are limits to it."
Unique as it is, the Clinton Foundation also stands for something larger than itself. "I am trying to do this in a way that will inspire other people," he says. "I hope the way we do things will become more the norm." Like the Gates Foundation and Robin Hood, the Clinton Foundation is part of a new turn in philanthropy, in which the lines between not-for-profits, politics, and business tend to blur. In this hardheaded philanthropic world, outcomes matter more than intentions, influence isn't measured in dollars alone, and you hear buzzwords like "scalability, " "sustainability, " and "measurability" all the time. As Clinton says, "It's nice to be goodhearted, but in the end that's nothing more than self-indulgence. "
AIDS initiative
On Aug. 14, more than 24,000 people from 160 countries gathered in Toronto for the biennial International AIDS Conference. In a cavernous convention center, attendees waited for hours to cram into a room the size of several football fields to hear Bill Clinton and Bill Gates talk about their work on HIV/AIDS. Where Gates discussed his long-term search for an AIDS vaccine, Clinton described a more immediate goal. "What I wanted to do was to stop people from dying," he said. "I thought we could do something no one else was doing, and so I did it as best I could."
The Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI, for short) is illustrative of the foundation's work for its businesslike approach, its fearlessness, and its knack for promotion. CHAI's model-act like a for-hire blue-chip consultant and attempt to change the structure of a market rather than just dole out money - has become a blueprint for the foundation as a whole. CHAI employs 491 of the foundation's roughly 570 employees, about half of them volunteers. It's also where the whole enterprise got its start.
When Clinton left office, he didn't have a master plan. There were only a handful of people working on raising money to build his library and a lot of requests. "Every board, every bank, every hedge fund wanted him," says Band. "But he is not a corporate animal. He's a public servant." After leaving office some $10 million in debt, in the past five years Clinton has made over $30 million giving speeches and more than $10 million as an advance for his book, My Life; a deal with businessman Ron Burkle could yield him tens of millions more.
In 2002, Clinton went to Barcelona for that year's International AIDS Conference, and Dr. Denzel Douglas, the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis , told him, "We need your help." Douglas said that if the destruction being wrought by AIDS wasn't stopped, any other effort to alleviate poverty would be useless. "I didn't have a clue what I was agreeing to," Clinton said in Toronto . "We had a total of 12 people in Harlem , and we couldn't even answer the mail."
The problem is immense. In sub-Saharan Africa , where perhaps 70% of the world's infected people live, in some countries more than 20% of the adult population is HIV-positive. The health-care infrastructure is minimal to nonexistent in many places, and annual incomes are less than $200 a year. As recently as the late 1990s, the prevailing attitude toward the explosion of HIV/AIDS was that it was basically hopeless.
Antiretrovirals cost upwards of $10,000 a year. The multinational pharmaceutical companies that owned the patents on these drugs were reluctant to lower their prices. "For the first 20 years of the known epidemic, from 1981 to 2001, we did very little," says Feachem, head of the Global Fund. "We denied, we minimized, we grossly underfunded. " As President, Clinton admits, he defended for too long the patents of Big Pharma companies against cheap competition from generics. But he rejects widespread criticism of his administration' s HIV/AIDS efforts, arguing that he was stymied by the GOP-controlled Congress. "I think I did do a good job," he says.
The dismal global picture had begun to change well before 2002, when Clinton got involved. No one in the deeply politicized global AIDS community will ever agree on the impact of any given initiative, but certain things indisputably happened.
In no particular order: Activists, particularly Nobel Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders, began to protest the high price of drugs. Indian generic-drug makers, led by Cipla, began to make cheaper generic ARVs. The major pharmaceutical companies agreed to provide their drugs at what they say is no profit to the poorest of countries. In 2001 the Global Fund was started, and its billions provided major purchasing power. In January 2003, George W. Bush announced that the U.S. would commit $15 billion over five years to "turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean ."
Clinton decided to take on the price of ARVs and dispatched his longtime aide Magaziner to look at the problem. By 2002 the most common ARV, the three-in-one pill that patients took twice a day, was being sold for as little as $250 to $500 per person per year, and for much more in some places. Magaziner thought that was all "outrageously expensive."
Magaziner and Clinton were Rhodes Scholars together. A former management consultant, Magaziner became a key architect of Hillarycare, and after that blew up, he pretty much disappeared from public view. But these days he seems to be everywhere. With his intense eyes and rumpled olive-green suits, and usually fresh from a 20-hour flight in coach, he has something of the mad scientist about him. "He's not a charmer and not a politician, but he's the genius," says Basil Stamos, a doctor whose family helps fund the foundation.
Magaziner called in a network of volunteers, some of them donated by McKinsey, and had them dissect the supply chain for ARVs. "There are a lot of little things that come naturally to someone with a business background," says Magaziner. As it turns out, much of the cost of the drug is the raw materials. He first went to Big Pharma to discuss how they could reduce their costs, but he says they weren't interested. ("Ira came to see us to offer to help us work through our supply chain," says one pharmaceutical executive. "We had already scrubbed the numbers. We understand our supply chain.") So Magaziner turned to India .
Generic-drug makers like Cipla were already starting to crack Big Pharma's monopoly. Magaziner's team got all the suppliers to agree to lower their prices to the point where they would lose money in the first year. They did so in part because CHAI guaranteed them certain volumes. In late 2003, CHAI announced that it would make the most common AIDS drug available for less than $140 a year via agreements with four generic-drug companies.
In Toronto , Clinton described CHAI's accomplishment this way: "Four years ago, first-line generics cost about $500 a person a year. So we set out to organize a drug market to shift it from a high-margin, low-volume, uncertain payment process to a low-margin, high-volume, certain payment process.... We were able to lower the price to just under $140 a person a year." He also said that over 400,000 people in almost 60 countries are now getting ARVs under his foundation's agreements. The foundation has also negotiated price reductions for pediatric drugs and HIV tests.
Within the global AIDS community, however, there are often complaints that headline numbers and press releases present too rosy a view. The Clinton Foundation is not immune to this criticism. At a meeting of generic-drug makers in 2005, discussion turned to Clinton . "He is a very good talker," said Cipla CEO Dr. Yusuf Hamied, according to a transcript. It's true that the $140-a-year price comes with a long list of conditions that weren't included in CHAI's press release, and that the 400,000 figure includes patients whose drugs-and doctors-are paid for by others. (CHAI doesn't break out the number of people whose drugs it actually pays for.)
When Clinton says, "We reduced the price from $500," that's a royal we-it includes the contributions of drugmakers like Cipla and groups like the Global Fund. In response to such criticism, the Clinton Foundation provided Fortune with a spreadsheet showing that between 2003 and the present, it arranged for the purchase of $72 million worth of ARVs, at an average price of less than $140 for the most common three-in-one combination. Nor does that number tell the whole story. As Cipla's Dr. Hamied puts it, " Clinton has played a major role in giving companies like Cipla credibility, for which I will always be grateful."
Other key players agree. "Our folks have gone out and looked very closely," says Joe Cerrell, director of global health advocacy at the Gates Foundation. "There's no question that the work and the accomplishments have been dramatic." The Gates Foundation has already given Clinton $750,000 and is evaluating two more grants. "We're fundamental believers in the model," says Cerrell.
You'll also hear that the publicity Clinton generates is disproportionate to the size of his work and obscures the contributions of others-although this may be inevitable, given who he is, and may do more good than harm, since he aims the spotlight on such worthy causes. In Toronto, Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, recounted how he went to Magaziner "almost begging him to intervene" in Lesotho, a tiny, landlocked kingdom that is surrounded by South Africa and has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS. "Within one month-I repeat, within one month-the Clinton Foundation had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Health," said Lewis, contrasting CHAI's urgency with other organizations that moved "with supernatural acceleration from inertia to paralysis."
Sir Bill
In addition to funneling low-cost ARVs to Lesotho , the foundation has helped pay for the refurbishment of a pediatric clinic near Maseru , the capital. In gratitude, King Letsie III last year dubbed Clinton a Knight Commander of the Most Courteous Order of Lesotho. In July the Maseru airport - which can be used only during daylight because the landing strip has no lights - was festooned with banners for Clinton 's arrival.
What you wouldn't know from all the hubbub is that others are working in Lesotho too. For instance, back in 1999, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Charts) announced it would donate $100 million over five years to five African countries, including Lesotho . In December 2005, BMS, along with the Baylor College of Medicine, opened a pediatric clinic that's also in Maseru .
When the Secret Service did their advance work in Lesotho before Clinton 's visit, they chose the BMS-Baylor clinic as the place to have doctors on standby if Clinton should fall sick. "No one has star power like Clinton ," says Dr. Mark Kline, president of the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative. "But the casual observer might be led to believe that no one else is doing anything, and that may draw resources away from others. They're doing great stuff, but they're one of a number of groups that are doing great stuff."
In Toronto , Clinton also announced that his goal was "universal access [to ARVs] by the end of the decade." It is almost impossible to comprehend the enormity of that goal - the billions that would be needed to pay for drugs, delivery, training, and infrastructure. In one small instance, Dr. William Bicknell, a professor at Boston University who also works in Lesotho, calculates that Lesotho will be able to treat up to 45,000 people a year with the roughly $9 million it is expected to have available. But upwards of a quarter-million people in Lesotho will need treatment by decade's end.
That Clinton would even say "universal access" may hint at his messianic streak, but it's also a measure of how much things have changed in a very short time. "There was anger and recrimination, " says Feachem. "Now there is hope and ambition." Everyone agrees that what has made the difference is access to treatment. Old prejudices, such as the notion that poor people couldn't be trusted to take their pills regularly, have been proven false. As Clinton said in Toronto , "They'll live if you give them the tools to live." But even Clinton acknowledges that treatment alone will never be enough. "I think it will be a rocky road until we have a vaccine or a cure," he told the crowd in Toronto .
At a small dinner party last year in London , a dapper, goateed Scottish entrepreneur named Sir Tom Hunter found himself seated next to Clinton . Hunter, who sold his sneaker empire for $500 million in 1998 and is now the richest man in Scotland , soon found himself in Africa . After late-night discussions about the intertwined nature of the forces that make poverty such an intractable problem-Does health care help people who don't have clean water? Does clean water help someone who is starving?-the two decided to launch an integrated development program in Rwanda and Malawi . The goal of the Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative, or CHDI, which even Clinton admits is "pretty brassy," is to double per capita income within ten years. Hunter is committing $100 million over a decade; Clinton is lending his name and the manpower. Already, Magaziner has had people out riding the trucks that distribute fertilizer in order to figure out how best to reduce the cost, just as they did with ARVs. " Clinton speeds things up," says Hunter. "We don't have to wait to see if someone takes our call. Our goal is to take the dependency out," he adds. "We absolutely want to put ourselves out of business."
In addition to his physicians, saints, and Scottish entrepreneurs, Clinton also has his Wall Street supporters, including money management firm Sterling Stamos. Sterling Stamos, which manages over $3 billion, is set up so that 10% of the general partners' profits go to charity. Chris Stamos, a partner in the firm, says he decided to commit money to Clinton when, along with Tom Hunter, he accompanied Clinton to Africa . The defining moment came in Rwanda , when a local reporter asked Clinton about his administration' s failures during the 1994 genocide. "It didn't happen under my administration, " Clinton replied. "It happened under me."
"It Zas so unpolitical, " says Stamos.
Just a few weeks after Clinton returned from his 2006 trip to Africa, he was at a press conference-yes, another one-in Los Angeles . Accompanied by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, he announced his latest initiative: an attempt to tackle global warming by working with the world's 20 largest cities to help them reduce emissions and buy energy-friendly products such as efficient lighting more cheaply. The $3 million in funding is coming from three donors: Anson Beard (one of the retired Morgan Stanley executives who played a role in ousting CEO Phil Purcell), Barbra Streisand-and Rupert Murdoch. "I'm quite sure it's the only time that Rupert Murdoch and Barbra Streisand have done anything together!" says Clinton . Few have been tougher on the Clintons than Murdoch's New York Post, but recently the camps have been cozying up; Murdoch even hosted a fundraiser for Hillary. Murdoch "has the same right to his opinions that I have to mine," says Clinton . "It would be hypocritical of me if I weren't willing to work with people who have opinions different than mine." He laughs. "It was said of me when I was governor that I'd never remember who I'm supposed to hate one day to the next."
What with global warming and the worldwide HIV/AIDS pandemic, you might think Clinton has his hands full. Then you meet Bob Harrison, a former Goldman Sachs partner who now spends most of his days in a cramped room in Clinton 's Harlem office. The little space is dominated by a giant posterboard that says ALLIANCE FOR A HEALTHIER GENERATION. After Clinton 's quadruple-bypass surgery in the fall of 2004, the American Heart Association called to see if he'd do a public-service announcement. Clinton responded that he wanted to do something that had measurable results, and in May 2005 his foundation and the AHA announced the alliance, which has as its grand goal stopping the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity by 2010. It's a personal issue for Clinton-he battled his weight as a child, and his ongoing struggles with diet have been exhaustively chronicled-but it is more than that. Childhood obesity could cause this generation of Americans to be the first in history with a shorter life expectancy than their parents. The economic consequences are staggering.
Like most of Clinton 's projects, the alliance is both immensely ambitious and embryonic. This spring Clinton held-surprise! -a press conference to announce a deal he had struck with the beverage industry to limit the amount of sugar and calories in drinks sold in schools. Harrison is now negotiating a similar deal with snack-food makers, and other parts of the plan, such as helping health-care providers better treat obesity, are underway. "This is as intense and urgent as almost any period of time at Goldman Sachs," says Harrison, who worked for the John Kerry campaign after leaving the firm. He does not take a salary.
Clinton's beverage deal has already come under fire from a wide range of activists, lawyers, and academics, who say he simply swiped the groundwork laid by a grass-roots movement, and that he has been used as a handy public relations tool by soda companies desperate to avoid the very real threat of litigation. When you look closely at the agreement, it's all voluntary. States such as Connecticut have passed legislation that goes further. "Industry went looking for someone like Clinton to make it look like they were doing something good, when in reality they were being forced into it," says Kelly Brownell, the director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale who was recently named one of Time's 100 most influential people for his work on childhood obesity. "I'm not surprised that Bill Clinton would do something to grab the spotlight," says Michelle Simon, the founder of the Center for Informed Food Choices.
The deal with the soda companies showcases another key tenet of the Clinton Foundation-its determination to work with, not against, industry. "The foundation's approach is to be very conscious of economic realities. We're not trying to put anyone out of business or even do damage," says Harrison . Says Clinton : "I never ask any business to lose money. What we need most in AIDS, in climate change, in health care, is for them to reexamine the premises on which they operate." He cites Wal-Mart's move to a greener business model as a key example of doing well by doing good. The alliance's work may help test the limits of that old saw.
Everyone who works for the Clinton Foundation insists that "no" is part of the vocabulary-after six months of research, for instance, they decided they didn't have the resources at this particular time to fix the world's water and sanitation problems. But you can't help wondering about their level of self-awareness when Band says, with apparent sincerity, "We believe we'll have way more impact if we focus on a few things specifically rather than a lot of things broadly." They seem to be spread thin, but from their perspective, maybe they're being incredibly selective. Band, with his ever buzzing BlackBerry, a letter from Mandela on his desk, and an e-mail from Spielberg in his in-box, says that the foundation receives 5,000 pieces of mail a week, 20% of them requests for help. "If it's a malady the body can have, they've come to us," says foundation CEO Lindsey.
If it all sounds a bit grandiose, could it be any other way? As Lindsey says, "It's the nature of the beast. We work for a man who sees big problems and wants to tackle them."
On a Thursday in late August, Clinton 's Harlem office is a frenzy of activity. People are streaming in and out of the conference room, where a gigantic purple orchid blooms against the Manhattan skyline. Clinton is in the house, and a string of events are in full swing to celebrate his 60th birthday, which began on the day itself, Aug. 19, and will conclude with a private Rolling Stones concert fundraiser in October. Today Clinton 's staff threw him a surprise party, and Bono sent a singing telegram delivered by famed Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, who sang what amounted to a history of the Irish in America . Clinton teared up. (No, he isn't Irish.)
Clinton's office is an oasis of calm. Lining the windowsills and covering the walls are framed memorabilia and photographs. It seems more like a museum than a working office, and indeed, Clinton isn't there often. He travels roughly half the year, and when he's in New York State he works mostly out of Chappaqua, spending one day a week in the Harlem office.
Clinton's health problems in the fall of 2004 don't seem to have slowed him down. He looked exhausted in the wake of his surgery but now appears fit-and remains absurdly active. In addition to the foundation, there's the Bush-Clinton Katrina fund, his work as the UN's special envoy for tsunami relief, and-oh, yes-politics. It is an election year, after all, so his calendar includes time for campaigning. "I knew I would want to help as much as I could," Clinton says. And then there are the things that just pop up, like today's meeting with a Make-A-Wish child whose wish was to meet Clinton . ("He's so smart," says Clinton . "He's read all the books I have.") He also finds the time to read four or five books a week. On the trip to Africa , he talked constantly about Robert Wright's Nonzero. ("It contradicts people's sense of themselves to have to share the future with the other," Clinton said. "But there is no conceivable alternative. ") Of course, he also golfs, although he says, "If I played more than once a week, I'd get bored."
Clinton says he spends more than half his time on the foundation, and he's trying to get to the point where that's all he does. "I don't see how we could have exploded this any faster and had more impact that we have," he says. "We started with me, a handful of people, and $10 million in debt." When asked if he has any fear of failure, he says, simply, "No." Then he offers a line that you might hear from a motivational speaker. "If you try enough things and are ambitious enough, you're going to fail at some. The thrill of this is trying to do it." He insists that his foundation is not an attempt to atone for past sins or compensate for lost power. "I promised myself when I left the presidency that I would not spend one day sitting and moping and wishing I was still President," he says. He repeats a variation of this a little too often for it to be believable, though, and while he'll discourse on the limits of presidential power, he also recounts a telling anecdote. Someone recently asked him if he thought he would wind up doing more good as a former President than he did as President. "Only if I live a long time!" he said.
In truth, no explanation of Bill Clinton's motives can do them justice. Is he trying to help Hillary by generating goodwill and building support among both Republicans and Democrats? He'll deny that Hillary needs any help. He is sensitive to charges that he didn't put a stamp on his time as President, and he acknowledges a few failures-about Rwanda , he says, "I do think I have a debt there, and I don't think it can ever be fully discharged." But if he has any sense of mission not accomplished, he won't admit to it.
Clinton casts his motivations in moral and religious terms-and frequently mentions his own mortality. In a speech a year ago, he said, "It will benefit us economically if we do this. But we need a little humility here. If we really have our religious teachings grounded, well, we will do this because it's the right thing to do." He also said, "I've reached an age now where it doesn't matter whatever happens to me. I just don't want anybody to die before their time anymore." In Harlem, he picked up a picture of himself and Hillary back in Arkansas . "I was only 39 then, and I didn't look it," he said. "I didn't look my age until I was 45, and then it all went to hell." He's been saying things like this since 1996 or so, when he seemed to realize that his graying-now white-hair lent him a gravitas he'd lacked. But after quadruple-bypass surgery, who can say he hasn't earned it now?
Flying through African skies after a long day in Malawi , Clinton went on another extended monologue about his motivations. "Always in my life, I've had a consuming interest in people, politics, and policy. I'm out of politics now except for whatever use I am to Hillary. But I'm not out of people and policy. My primary motivation is that I love this stuff." For the people in Malawi , he said, there was but one choice: to work to live. "That's the way 99% of people in human history have lived. If you're in that narrow class who can live to work, you are privileged not just now, but in any single moment that ever existed." He added, "If you can do something that makes a difference, you have a moral obligation. But it's not a burden, it's a joy. I think those are my motives," he concluded. "But who can really know?"
posted by I love peace
Fortune Magazine
Date: September 7, 2006
Bethany McLean
Bill Gates has the money. But no one motivates people and moves mountains like Bill Clinton. He's even got Rupert Murdoch onboard. A look at how the former President has borrowed from the business world to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and other scourges.
(Fortune Magazine) -- When the black SUV crested the hill and stopped near a cluster of low buildings in the desolate Rwandan village of Rwinkwavu , a crowd of people cheered and the cameras started to roll. Showtime. Paul Kagame, the tall, cave-chested President of Rwanda, alighted from the driver's seat, and Bill Clinton, thinner than he used to be and ruddy in a brightly checked shirt, emerged from the passenger's side.
They were there to visit a hospital that treats people with HIV/AIDS, and Clinton was ... still Clinton . The former President was midway through a nine-day, seven-country African sprint meant to showcase the work of his William J. Clinton Foundation: conferring with the American ambassador to Chad at 5 A.M. on a runway in N'Djamena; talking politics with reporters in a Johannesburg hotel until his eyes, which these days have deep-black half-moons under them, were bleary; celebrating Nelson Mandela's 88th birthday; launching a development initiative in Malawi with President Bingu Wa Mutharika; and visiting a clinic with Bill and Melinda Gates in Lesotho, where Clinton was knighted last year.
Soon it would be on to Ethiopia , Nigeria , and Liberia , but now he was in Rwinkwavu, making the rounds with Dr. Paul Farmer - a hero in the world of medicine for his work treating AIDS patients in Haiti . Last year Clinton persuaded Farmer and his Boston-based organization, Partners in Health (PIH), to bring their methods to Rwanda.This hospital was the result, and now it was time to show it off.
What seemed like half the village followed Clinton and Farmer from room to room, along with the obligatory horde of reporters and some very zealous Rwandan security guards. "Make sure you meet this guy," said Clinton , gesturing toward an embarrassed Farmer. "You'll be able to say you shook the hand of the guy who won the Nobel Peace Prize." The group made its way to a ward where mothers and their sick children were huddled three to a bed; Clinton tried to make a connection with them. A bit later, outside, he effortlessly changed tone, joking with a young woman: "I'll let you be President if you'll let me be 20 years old again. No one would take that trade."
As the crowd swirled around him, one petite American woman in a simple black suit chose to stay out of the spotlight. Beth Collins spent 17 years in the corporate world-director at Walt Disney Theatrical Productions, vice president at Universal Pictures, CFO of Talk Media - before giving up the business life in 2004 to become the Clinton Foundation's Rwanda country director. Now 45, she says she had always felt the call of service but made the decision to answer it (and take a humongous pay cut) only when she came across a book about the genocide in Rwanda - and realized that because she'd been traveling the world nonstop for Disney (Charts), she didn't even know there had been a genocide in Rwanda. A colleague put her in touch with Clinton, who has always regretted that he didn't do more as President to stop the genocide. Collins says she never had a moment's doubt about swapping one life for another.
And so, with the support of the Rwandan government, she and Farmer came to Rwinkwavu and set about rebuilding the dilapidated clinic, a onetime Belgian colonial hospital built to service a tin mine. In 1994, the year that an estimated 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered by Hutu militia, the hospital was abandoned and became a place where people hid and were killed. Now, thanks to funding from Clinton, Unicef, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, it is a hospital again, with a small, clean white room stacked with lifesaving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) that hold AIDS at bay.
In 2004, Collins helped the government place Rwanda 's first orders for those drugs. Roughly 1,700 Rwandans receive ARVs through the program, which trains regular people to deliver and administer meds. "I've never loved a job more than this one," Collins says. "Now I can use my business experience to really do something."
The un-funded foundation
Welcome to the world of the Clinton Foundation - which, it should be said at the outset, is not a foundation at all in the traditional sense, because it has no money of its own. What it does have, of course, is Bill Clinton and all he brings with him: what Dr. Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund, calls his "personal bully pulpit"; what Bob Carson, outgoing chairman of the American Heart Association, calls his "mind-boggling convening power"; what Doug Band, who began as Clinton's personal aide in the White House and now carries the title of counselor, calls his "ability to motivate people and move mountains."
The people he motivates are an odd but potent mix of longtime allies and FOBs, doctors and activists, and executives ranging from the unknown and enormously dedicated (Beth Collins) to the high-profile and frankly improbable (longtime nemesis Rupert Murdoch, who is bankrolling a global-warming initiative).
"We take a lot of cues from the business world," says Clinton, who these days can sound more like a CEO than a politician. "We have very entrepreneurial people and a very entrepreneurial process. We identify a problem, we analyze it, and we move." Much of his staff comes from business, and he says using business practices "allows us to do a lot with relatively small resources."
Overseas assignments don't come with a car and driver or first-class airfare. "Your job satisfaction is not my main concern," policy chairman Ira Magaziner, an FOB for almost 40 years, likes to tell the staff. "You can sit in coach for ten hours." The foundation's 2006 budget is just $30 million; next year it will roughly double.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, by contrast, has a $30 billion endowment. "Yeah, I'd like to have his money," says Clinton of Gates. "But I think our way adds value. It's kind of a pain to always ask for financing, but perhaps it forces you to look closely." "We have a culture of getting s**t done. It is very empowering and very unforgiving, " says Anil Soni, a former McKinsey consultant who is now COO of Clinton's HIV/AIDS initiative. "Ira and Clinton will say, 'People are going to die tomorrow if we don't do this.' And it's true."
The foundation doesn't have a clearly defined hierarchy or a detailed business plan. Its tentacles sprout from need, opportunity, and passion rather than design. "We don't have committees, we don't have processes," says foundation CEO Bruce Lindsey, who has been with Clinton since Arkansas . "If a decision needs to be made, we make it. If we can help, we help now, not tomorrow."
The foundation operates a bit like a management consulting firm - burrowing into and improving the work of larger organizations - albeit one that is out to rescue the world from the dark threats of poverty, AIDS, climate change, and childhood obesity. "The scale and ambition were startling," says Mala Gaonkar, a hedge fund manager at Lone Pine Capital who gives money to Clinton . "I'm an analytical person.The foundation is very good at saying, 'Here are the outcomes, here are the metrics, here's how we've done.' "
Since we're talking about Bill Clinton, you'll also hear criticisms. His foundation is just a way to keep the cameras and the crowds coming. He's just doing it to help his wife. He overpromises and underdelivers. He grabs credit for the work of others. He's searching for redemption. There's probably some truth to all of them.
Certainly nobody soaks up the spotlight like Clinton - of course he got together with Madonna to discuss what they might do to save Malawi . And inevitably, all the showmanship can make you wonder about the substance. But to criticize is also to acknowledge that the bar is higher for Clinton than for anyone else. Instead of joining corporate boards, he's attacking many of the world's most intractable problems.
He is not going for the quick hits; he's going where others haven't. And he agrees that the bar should be set high: "I believe a lot should be expected of me because I was given an astonishing life." He also says he has opportunities now that he didn't have as President. "The raw power [of the presidency] can be way oversold. There are limits to it."
Unique as it is, the Clinton Foundation also stands for something larger than itself. "I am trying to do this in a way that will inspire other people," he says. "I hope the way we do things will become more the norm." Like the Gates Foundation and Robin Hood, the Clinton Foundation is part of a new turn in philanthropy, in which the lines between not-for-profits, politics, and business tend to blur. In this hardheaded philanthropic world, outcomes matter more than intentions, influence isn't measured in dollars alone, and you hear buzzwords like "scalability, " "sustainability, " and "measurability" all the time. As Clinton says, "It's nice to be goodhearted, but in the end that's nothing more than self-indulgence. "
AIDS initiative
On Aug. 14, more than 24,000 people from 160 countries gathered in Toronto for the biennial International AIDS Conference. In a cavernous convention center, attendees waited for hours to cram into a room the size of several football fields to hear Bill Clinton and Bill Gates talk about their work on HIV/AIDS. Where Gates discussed his long-term search for an AIDS vaccine, Clinton described a more immediate goal. "What I wanted to do was to stop people from dying," he said. "I thought we could do something no one else was doing, and so I did it as best I could."
The Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI, for short) is illustrative of the foundation's work for its businesslike approach, its fearlessness, and its knack for promotion. CHAI's model-act like a for-hire blue-chip consultant and attempt to change the structure of a market rather than just dole out money - has become a blueprint for the foundation as a whole. CHAI employs 491 of the foundation's roughly 570 employees, about half of them volunteers. It's also where the whole enterprise got its start.
When Clinton left office, he didn't have a master plan. There were only a handful of people working on raising money to build his library and a lot of requests. "Every board, every bank, every hedge fund wanted him," says Band. "But he is not a corporate animal. He's a public servant." After leaving office some $10 million in debt, in the past five years Clinton has made over $30 million giving speeches and more than $10 million as an advance for his book, My Life; a deal with businessman Ron Burkle could yield him tens of millions more.
In 2002, Clinton went to Barcelona for that year's International AIDS Conference, and Dr. Denzel Douglas, the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis , told him, "We need your help." Douglas said that if the destruction being wrought by AIDS wasn't stopped, any other effort to alleviate poverty would be useless. "I didn't have a clue what I was agreeing to," Clinton said in Toronto . "We had a total of 12 people in Harlem , and we couldn't even answer the mail."
The problem is immense. In sub-Saharan Africa , where perhaps 70% of the world's infected people live, in some countries more than 20% of the adult population is HIV-positive. The health-care infrastructure is minimal to nonexistent in many places, and annual incomes are less than $200 a year. As recently as the late 1990s, the prevailing attitude toward the explosion of HIV/AIDS was that it was basically hopeless.
Antiretrovirals cost upwards of $10,000 a year. The multinational pharmaceutical companies that owned the patents on these drugs were reluctant to lower their prices. "For the first 20 years of the known epidemic, from 1981 to 2001, we did very little," says Feachem, head of the Global Fund. "We denied, we minimized, we grossly underfunded. " As President, Clinton admits, he defended for too long the patents of Big Pharma companies against cheap competition from generics. But he rejects widespread criticism of his administration' s HIV/AIDS efforts, arguing that he was stymied by the GOP-controlled Congress. "I think I did do a good job," he says.
The dismal global picture had begun to change well before 2002, when Clinton got involved. No one in the deeply politicized global AIDS community will ever agree on the impact of any given initiative, but certain things indisputably happened.
In no particular order: Activists, particularly Nobel Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders, began to protest the high price of drugs. Indian generic-drug makers, led by Cipla, began to make cheaper generic ARVs. The major pharmaceutical companies agreed to provide their drugs at what they say is no profit to the poorest of countries. In 2001 the Global Fund was started, and its billions provided major purchasing power. In January 2003, George W. Bush announced that the U.S. would commit $15 billion over five years to "turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean ."
Clinton decided to take on the price of ARVs and dispatched his longtime aide Magaziner to look at the problem. By 2002 the most common ARV, the three-in-one pill that patients took twice a day, was being sold for as little as $250 to $500 per person per year, and for much more in some places. Magaziner thought that was all "outrageously expensive."
Magaziner and Clinton were Rhodes Scholars together. A former management consultant, Magaziner became a key architect of Hillarycare, and after that blew up, he pretty much disappeared from public view. But these days he seems to be everywhere. With his intense eyes and rumpled olive-green suits, and usually fresh from a 20-hour flight in coach, he has something of the mad scientist about him. "He's not a charmer and not a politician, but he's the genius," says Basil Stamos, a doctor whose family helps fund the foundation.
Magaziner called in a network of volunteers, some of them donated by McKinsey, and had them dissect the supply chain for ARVs. "There are a lot of little things that come naturally to someone with a business background," says Magaziner. As it turns out, much of the cost of the drug is the raw materials. He first went to Big Pharma to discuss how they could reduce their costs, but he says they weren't interested. ("Ira came to see us to offer to help us work through our supply chain," says one pharmaceutical executive. "We had already scrubbed the numbers. We understand our supply chain.") So Magaziner turned to India .
Generic-drug makers like Cipla were already starting to crack Big Pharma's monopoly. Magaziner's team got all the suppliers to agree to lower their prices to the point where they would lose money in the first year. They did so in part because CHAI guaranteed them certain volumes. In late 2003, CHAI announced that it would make the most common AIDS drug available for less than $140 a year via agreements with four generic-drug companies.
In Toronto , Clinton described CHAI's accomplishment this way: "Four years ago, first-line generics cost about $500 a person a year. So we set out to organize a drug market to shift it from a high-margin, low-volume, uncertain payment process to a low-margin, high-volume, certain payment process.... We were able to lower the price to just under $140 a person a year." He also said that over 400,000 people in almost 60 countries are now getting ARVs under his foundation's agreements. The foundation has also negotiated price reductions for pediatric drugs and HIV tests.
Within the global AIDS community, however, there are often complaints that headline numbers and press releases present too rosy a view. The Clinton Foundation is not immune to this criticism. At a meeting of generic-drug makers in 2005, discussion turned to Clinton . "He is a very good talker," said Cipla CEO Dr. Yusuf Hamied, according to a transcript. It's true that the $140-a-year price comes with a long list of conditions that weren't included in CHAI's press release, and that the 400,000 figure includes patients whose drugs-and doctors-are paid for by others. (CHAI doesn't break out the number of people whose drugs it actually pays for.)
When Clinton says, "We reduced the price from $500," that's a royal we-it includes the contributions of drugmakers like Cipla and groups like the Global Fund. In response to such criticism, the Clinton Foundation provided Fortune with a spreadsheet showing that between 2003 and the present, it arranged for the purchase of $72 million worth of ARVs, at an average price of less than $140 for the most common three-in-one combination. Nor does that number tell the whole story. As Cipla's Dr. Hamied puts it, " Clinton has played a major role in giving companies like Cipla credibility, for which I will always be grateful."
Other key players agree. "Our folks have gone out and looked very closely," says Joe Cerrell, director of global health advocacy at the Gates Foundation. "There's no question that the work and the accomplishments have been dramatic." The Gates Foundation has already given Clinton $750,000 and is evaluating two more grants. "We're fundamental believers in the model," says Cerrell.
You'll also hear that the publicity Clinton generates is disproportionate to the size of his work and obscures the contributions of others-although this may be inevitable, given who he is, and may do more good than harm, since he aims the spotlight on such worthy causes. In Toronto, Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, recounted how he went to Magaziner "almost begging him to intervene" in Lesotho, a tiny, landlocked kingdom that is surrounded by South Africa and has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS. "Within one month-I repeat, within one month-the Clinton Foundation had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Health," said Lewis, contrasting CHAI's urgency with other organizations that moved "with supernatural acceleration from inertia to paralysis."
Sir Bill
In addition to funneling low-cost ARVs to Lesotho , the foundation has helped pay for the refurbishment of a pediatric clinic near Maseru , the capital. In gratitude, King Letsie III last year dubbed Clinton a Knight Commander of the Most Courteous Order of Lesotho. In July the Maseru airport - which can be used only during daylight because the landing strip has no lights - was festooned with banners for Clinton 's arrival.
What you wouldn't know from all the hubbub is that others are working in Lesotho too. For instance, back in 1999, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Charts) announced it would donate $100 million over five years to five African countries, including Lesotho . In December 2005, BMS, along with the Baylor College of Medicine, opened a pediatric clinic that's also in Maseru .
When the Secret Service did their advance work in Lesotho before Clinton 's visit, they chose the BMS-Baylor clinic as the place to have doctors on standby if Clinton should fall sick. "No one has star power like Clinton ," says Dr. Mark Kline, president of the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative. "But the casual observer might be led to believe that no one else is doing anything, and that may draw resources away from others. They're doing great stuff, but they're one of a number of groups that are doing great stuff."
In Toronto , Clinton also announced that his goal was "universal access [to ARVs] by the end of the decade." It is almost impossible to comprehend the enormity of that goal - the billions that would be needed to pay for drugs, delivery, training, and infrastructure. In one small instance, Dr. William Bicknell, a professor at Boston University who also works in Lesotho, calculates that Lesotho will be able to treat up to 45,000 people a year with the roughly $9 million it is expected to have available. But upwards of a quarter-million people in Lesotho will need treatment by decade's end.
That Clinton would even say "universal access" may hint at his messianic streak, but it's also a measure of how much things have changed in a very short time. "There was anger and recrimination, " says Feachem. "Now there is hope and ambition." Everyone agrees that what has made the difference is access to treatment. Old prejudices, such as the notion that poor people couldn't be trusted to take their pills regularly, have been proven false. As Clinton said in Toronto , "They'll live if you give them the tools to live." But even Clinton acknowledges that treatment alone will never be enough. "I think it will be a rocky road until we have a vaccine or a cure," he told the crowd in Toronto .
At a small dinner party last year in London , a dapper, goateed Scottish entrepreneur named Sir Tom Hunter found himself seated next to Clinton . Hunter, who sold his sneaker empire for $500 million in 1998 and is now the richest man in Scotland , soon found himself in Africa . After late-night discussions about the intertwined nature of the forces that make poverty such an intractable problem-Does health care help people who don't have clean water? Does clean water help someone who is starving?-the two decided to launch an integrated development program in Rwanda and Malawi . The goal of the Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative, or CHDI, which even Clinton admits is "pretty brassy," is to double per capita income within ten years. Hunter is committing $100 million over a decade; Clinton is lending his name and the manpower. Already, Magaziner has had people out riding the trucks that distribute fertilizer in order to figure out how best to reduce the cost, just as they did with ARVs. " Clinton speeds things up," says Hunter. "We don't have to wait to see if someone takes our call. Our goal is to take the dependency out," he adds. "We absolutely want to put ourselves out of business."
In addition to his physicians, saints, and Scottish entrepreneurs, Clinton also has his Wall Street supporters, including money management firm Sterling Stamos. Sterling Stamos, which manages over $3 billion, is set up so that 10% of the general partners' profits go to charity. Chris Stamos, a partner in the firm, says he decided to commit money to Clinton when, along with Tom Hunter, he accompanied Clinton to Africa . The defining moment came in Rwanda , when a local reporter asked Clinton about his administration' s failures during the 1994 genocide. "It didn't happen under my administration, " Clinton replied. "It happened under me."
"It Zas so unpolitical, " says Stamos.
Just a few weeks after Clinton returned from his 2006 trip to Africa, he was at a press conference-yes, another one-in Los Angeles . Accompanied by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, he announced his latest initiative: an attempt to tackle global warming by working with the world's 20 largest cities to help them reduce emissions and buy energy-friendly products such as efficient lighting more cheaply. The $3 million in funding is coming from three donors: Anson Beard (one of the retired Morgan Stanley executives who played a role in ousting CEO Phil Purcell), Barbra Streisand-and Rupert Murdoch. "I'm quite sure it's the only time that Rupert Murdoch and Barbra Streisand have done anything together!" says Clinton . Few have been tougher on the Clintons than Murdoch's New York Post, but recently the camps have been cozying up; Murdoch even hosted a fundraiser for Hillary. Murdoch "has the same right to his opinions that I have to mine," says Clinton . "It would be hypocritical of me if I weren't willing to work with people who have opinions different than mine." He laughs. "It was said of me when I was governor that I'd never remember who I'm supposed to hate one day to the next."
What with global warming and the worldwide HIV/AIDS pandemic, you might think Clinton has his hands full. Then you meet Bob Harrison, a former Goldman Sachs partner who now spends most of his days in a cramped room in Clinton 's Harlem office. The little space is dominated by a giant posterboard that says ALLIANCE FOR A HEALTHIER GENERATION. After Clinton 's quadruple-bypass surgery in the fall of 2004, the American Heart Association called to see if he'd do a public-service announcement. Clinton responded that he wanted to do something that had measurable results, and in May 2005 his foundation and the AHA announced the alliance, which has as its grand goal stopping the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity by 2010. It's a personal issue for Clinton-he battled his weight as a child, and his ongoing struggles with diet have been exhaustively chronicled-but it is more than that. Childhood obesity could cause this generation of Americans to be the first in history with a shorter life expectancy than their parents. The economic consequences are staggering.
Like most of Clinton 's projects, the alliance is both immensely ambitious and embryonic. This spring Clinton held-surprise! -a press conference to announce a deal he had struck with the beverage industry to limit the amount of sugar and calories in drinks sold in schools. Harrison is now negotiating a similar deal with snack-food makers, and other parts of the plan, such as helping health-care providers better treat obesity, are underway. "This is as intense and urgent as almost any period of time at Goldman Sachs," says Harrison, who worked for the John Kerry campaign after leaving the firm. He does not take a salary.
Clinton's beverage deal has already come under fire from a wide range of activists, lawyers, and academics, who say he simply swiped the groundwork laid by a grass-roots movement, and that he has been used as a handy public relations tool by soda companies desperate to avoid the very real threat of litigation. When you look closely at the agreement, it's all voluntary. States such as Connecticut have passed legislation that goes further. "Industry went looking for someone like Clinton to make it look like they were doing something good, when in reality they were being forced into it," says Kelly Brownell, the director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale who was recently named one of Time's 100 most influential people for his work on childhood obesity. "I'm not surprised that Bill Clinton would do something to grab the spotlight," says Michelle Simon, the founder of the Center for Informed Food Choices.
The deal with the soda companies showcases another key tenet of the Clinton Foundation-its determination to work with, not against, industry. "The foundation's approach is to be very conscious of economic realities. We're not trying to put anyone out of business or even do damage," says Harrison . Says Clinton : "I never ask any business to lose money. What we need most in AIDS, in climate change, in health care, is for them to reexamine the premises on which they operate." He cites Wal-Mart's move to a greener business model as a key example of doing well by doing good. The alliance's work may help test the limits of that old saw.
Everyone who works for the Clinton Foundation insists that "no" is part of the vocabulary-after six months of research, for instance, they decided they didn't have the resources at this particular time to fix the world's water and sanitation problems. But you can't help wondering about their level of self-awareness when Band says, with apparent sincerity, "We believe we'll have way more impact if we focus on a few things specifically rather than a lot of things broadly." They seem to be spread thin, but from their perspective, maybe they're being incredibly selective. Band, with his ever buzzing BlackBerry, a letter from Mandela on his desk, and an e-mail from Spielberg in his in-box, says that the foundation receives 5,000 pieces of mail a week, 20% of them requests for help. "If it's a malady the body can have, they've come to us," says foundation CEO Lindsey.
If it all sounds a bit grandiose, could it be any other way? As Lindsey says, "It's the nature of the beast. We work for a man who sees big problems and wants to tackle them."
On a Thursday in late August, Clinton 's Harlem office is a frenzy of activity. People are streaming in and out of the conference room, where a gigantic purple orchid blooms against the Manhattan skyline. Clinton is in the house, and a string of events are in full swing to celebrate his 60th birthday, which began on the day itself, Aug. 19, and will conclude with a private Rolling Stones concert fundraiser in October. Today Clinton 's staff threw him a surprise party, and Bono sent a singing telegram delivered by famed Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, who sang what amounted to a history of the Irish in America . Clinton teared up. (No, he isn't Irish.)
Clinton's office is an oasis of calm. Lining the windowsills and covering the walls are framed memorabilia and photographs. It seems more like a museum than a working office, and indeed, Clinton isn't there often. He travels roughly half the year, and when he's in New York State he works mostly out of Chappaqua, spending one day a week in the Harlem office.
Clinton's health problems in the fall of 2004 don't seem to have slowed him down. He looked exhausted in the wake of his surgery but now appears fit-and remains absurdly active. In addition to the foundation, there's the Bush-Clinton Katrina fund, his work as the UN's special envoy for tsunami relief, and-oh, yes-politics. It is an election year, after all, so his calendar includes time for campaigning. "I knew I would want to help as much as I could," Clinton says. And then there are the things that just pop up, like today's meeting with a Make-A-Wish child whose wish was to meet Clinton . ("He's so smart," says Clinton . "He's read all the books I have.") He also finds the time to read four or five books a week. On the trip to Africa , he talked constantly about Robert Wright's Nonzero. ("It contradicts people's sense of themselves to have to share the future with the other," Clinton said. "But there is no conceivable alternative. ") Of course, he also golfs, although he says, "If I played more than once a week, I'd get bored."
Clinton says he spends more than half his time on the foundation, and he's trying to get to the point where that's all he does. "I don't see how we could have exploded this any faster and had more impact that we have," he says. "We started with me, a handful of people, and $10 million in debt." When asked if he has any fear of failure, he says, simply, "No." Then he offers a line that you might hear from a motivational speaker. "If you try enough things and are ambitious enough, you're going to fail at some. The thrill of this is trying to do it." He insists that his foundation is not an attempt to atone for past sins or compensate for lost power. "I promised myself when I left the presidency that I would not spend one day sitting and moping and wishing I was still President," he says. He repeats a variation of this a little too often for it to be believable, though, and while he'll discourse on the limits of presidential power, he also recounts a telling anecdote. Someone recently asked him if he thought he would wind up doing more good as a former President than he did as President. "Only if I live a long time!" he said.
In truth, no explanation of Bill Clinton's motives can do them justice. Is he trying to help Hillary by generating goodwill and building support among both Republicans and Democrats? He'll deny that Hillary needs any help. He is sensitive to charges that he didn't put a stamp on his time as President, and he acknowledges a few failures-about Rwanda , he says, "I do think I have a debt there, and I don't think it can ever be fully discharged." But if he has any sense of mission not accomplished, he won't admit to it.
Clinton casts his motivations in moral and religious terms-and frequently mentions his own mortality. In a speech a year ago, he said, "It will benefit us economically if we do this. But we need a little humility here. If we really have our religious teachings grounded, well, we will do this because it's the right thing to do." He also said, "I've reached an age now where it doesn't matter whatever happens to me. I just don't want anybody to die before their time anymore." In Harlem, he picked up a picture of himself and Hillary back in Arkansas . "I was only 39 then, and I didn't look it," he said. "I didn't look my age until I was 45, and then it all went to hell." He's been saying things like this since 1996 or so, when he seemed to realize that his graying-now white-hair lent him a gravitas he'd lacked. But after quadruple-bypass surgery, who can say he hasn't earned it now?
Flying through African skies after a long day in Malawi , Clinton went on another extended monologue about his motivations. "Always in my life, I've had a consuming interest in people, politics, and policy. I'm out of politics now except for whatever use I am to Hillary. But I'm not out of people and policy. My primary motivation is that I love this stuff." For the people in Malawi , he said, there was but one choice: to work to live. "That's the way 99% of people in human history have lived. If you're in that narrow class who can live to work, you are privileged not just now, but in any single moment that ever existed." He added, "If you can do something that makes a difference, you have a moral obligation. But it's not a burden, it's a joy. I think those are my motives," he concluded. "But who can really know?"
posted by I love peace
20 September 2006
Actual: taken from ESI report..
I love Peace
Litmus test: A test using a single indicator to establish the nature of a substance
Mitrovica is Kosovo's litmus test. It is here that the Guiding Principles set down by the Contact Group – no partition, decentralisation, return and a multiethnic Kosovo – will face their toughest test. It is in Mitrovica that the Kosovo leadership must prove that its commitment to a multiethnic society is more than rhetorical.
On 4 May, Mitrovica and municipal boundaries will be on the agenda of the status talks in Vienna. In recent weeks, there has been renewed and often heated debate over competing proposals for this divided town. ESI organised a special conference on Mitrovica with Wilton Park in Vienna on 30 March, where we outlined our proposals for a lasting solution for the town:
Move as quickly as possible to a permanent solution for Mitrovica that enables local institution-building to begin, without another transitional international administration. Another temporary solution at this stage would simply defer the hard decisions to a point in time when international influence will be weaker, and the international presence on the ground reduced. It would ensure that Mitrovica remains a flashpoint in Kosovo politics. The international community should play a strong, indeed reinforced, role in Mitrovica in coming years in two areas: security and economic development. It should not be involved in municipal governance directly.
The parties to the talks in Vienna should accept the creation of a new municipality of North Mitrovica, comprising the territory currently under UN administration. Such a municipality would obviously need to comply with Kosovo laws and regulations like any other municipality, including full respect for property rights and support for returns.
Make the acceptance and implementation of a permanent solution to Mitrovica a test of the willingness of the Kosovo government to deliver on its promises of decentralisation, and to protect Kosovo Serbs against extreme elements within the Kosovar Albanian community.
Preparations to transfer authority from the UN–run administration to an appointed North Mitrovica municipal executive should start this summer, in parallel to status talks. The administration of a new municipality of North Mitrovica should be in place before the final status process comes to an end, to be followed by municipal by-elections early next year.
Make clear that UNMIK, KFOR and any international successor mission will respond strongly to any attempts to use force to influence the political destination of northern Kosovo. The Contact Group's commitment to "no partition" of Kosovo needs to be underlined by deploying more international troops in the area North of the Ibar while status talks are underway, with a commitment that they will remain in place for as long as required in the post-status period.
International security provisions must be stepped up immediately to send strong and clear signals to hardliners on both sides that violence will not prevent the implementation of a political settlement. The creation of a separate North Mitrovica municipality must not lead to a legal vacuum north of the Ibar.
Future cooperation between the two municipalities of the town, Mitrovica and North Mitrovica, should be based on clear economic incentives, and should be a condition for international donor support. Donors should closely coordinate their efforts, and should insist on working with a Mitrovica Regional Development Agency, that will include representatives from Mitrovica, North Mitrovica and Zvecan municipalities.
The international community should significantly raise its profile when it comes to economic and social developments in the town. The UN should appoint a high level Mitrovica Development Coordinator as a visible face of its commitment to development of the town, who would bring together international donors, the Kosovo government and Serbia as 'strategic donor' for Kosovo Serbs. The 'Friends of Mitrovica' group of donors would need to be revived.
One flagship project to be pursued by the Mitrovica Development Coordinator could be a feasibility study on an international South East European University in Mitrovica, similar to the multilingual university successfully developed in Tetovo (Macedonia).
Why Mitrovica Matters
The key to Kosovo's future lies with a small piece of territory less than three square kilometres in size. All of the most pressing issues in the final status talks come to a head in Mitrovica. North Mitrovica is the last part of Kosovo still under direct international administration. Decentralisation is yet to occur, return and property rights remain a source of tension, security structures have been found sorely wanting, and institutions on the ground – local and international – have failed to mount an effective response to the town's deepening economic crisis.
There are many reasons why Mitrovica matters so much to the future of a multiethnic Kosovo. An estimated 18 percent of Kosovo Serbs live north of the river Ibar in North Mitrovica and the municipality of Zvecan (with another 18 percent in Leposavic and Zubin Potok).
Where Kosovo Serbs live, based on primary school enrolments (2003)
Municipality
Primary school pupils
Percentage
of total
Gjilan / Gnjilane
1,936
13.5
Leposaviq / Leposavic
1,819
12.7
North Mitrovica
1,630
11.3
Kamenice / Kamenica
1,325
9.2
Prishtina / Pristina
1,229
8.6
Shterpce / Strpce /
1,217
8.5
Zveqan / Zvecan
981
6.8
Lipjan / Lipljan
969
6.7
Zubin Potok
869
6.0
Vushtrri / Vucitrn
619
4.3
Viti / Vitina
474
3.3
Obiliq / Obilic
408
2.8
Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje
348
2.4
Peja / Pec
180
1.3
Novoberde / Novo Brdo /
164
1.1
Rahovec / Orahovac
137
1
Istog / Istok
33
0.2
Skenderaj / Srbica
30
0.2
Total
14,368
100.0
With the exception of North Mitrovica, the world of urban Kosovo Serbs has entirely disappeared. There are no more than a handful of Serbs left in Pristina, Pec, Prizren or any of the other larger towns, leaving North Mitrovica with its hospital and university as the last remaining urban foothold. This explains why Mitrovica has become so important – both economically and symbolically – for the Kosovo Serb community.
Furthermore, Mitrovica has an ominous history of communal violence. The most recent riots in March 2004 showed that Mitrovica remains Kosovo's most dangerous flashpoint, where a single spark can touch off widespread violence. A stabbing incident on the bridge on 27 March has once again highlighted the dangers. There are justified concerns that any turning point in the status process (either a breakdown or a breakthrough) could precipitate renewed violence here that would spill over into other regions.
Towards a permanent solution
On 7 April, former mayor of Mitrovica and Kosovo's first Prime Minister, Bajram Rexhepi, presented a 'Mitrovica Strategy' to the Kosovo Albanian leadership. The proposal foresaw the creation of two sub-municipal units, in the South and North, governed jointly through a single Executive Council, which would be run by an international administrator for the coming years.
On 19 April, the Kosovo Negotiation Team has taken an even bolder step forward by proposing the creation of three or four new Serb-majority municipalities, including a new municipality in North Mitrovica, but including a special international role in the administration of the town. In a TV debate on Mitrovica on 26 April, Bajram Rexhepi appealed to leaders on both sides that: "This is the last moment to give Mitrovica a chance. Mitrovica was not given a chance for the last seven years"
These proposals have provoked heated reactions. Parts of the Kosovo media branded Rexhepi's proposal as 'un-Albanian' for making too many concessions to the Serbs. Local politicians in South Mitrovica publicly condemned the proposal, arguing that the city must be reunited at all costs. Milan Ivanovic, representative in the Serb National Council, announced that Serbs would not accept any status other than a separate municipality, responsible directly to Belgrade.
Faced with apparently intractable positions, some international policymakers have been quietly calling for the issue to be kicked further down the road, for fear that any decision might trigger a violent reaction. ESI believes that it is an illusion to believe that the problem of Mitrovica will become easier to solve as final status talks approach their conclusion. It is likely that implementing a settlement would be even more difficult in a post-status environment, when international leverage over the political process will have declined. Most importantly of all, further delay would be missing an opportunity to make early progress on one of the most controversial issues within the status talks.
The outlines of the strategic dilemma are clear. Kosovo Serbs fear living within a reunified, Albanian-controlled town, and being displaced from their last urban stronghold. Kosovo Albanians fear that a division of Mitrovica would be a step towards the partition of Kosovo.
One way forward would be for the Pristina delegation to make a unilateral offer on the municipal boundary. This would resolve one of the key standards and fulfill a precondition to a final status solution. It would be an opportunity for the Kosovo Albanian leadership to demonstrate their willingness to address Kosovo Serb concerns. It might strengthen the hand of those Kosovo Serb politicians who see their future within Kosovo politics.
There are two main concerns holding back the Albanian side from making this offer. First, Pristina fears that the creation of a new Serb-controlled municipality in North Mitrovica could create a legal vacuum north of the Ibar, where hardliners could once again set up paramilitary formations to harass citizens and block returns. The second fear concerns the international community. Pristina doubts that the international commitment to supporting Mitrovica's multi-ethnic future will translate into meaningful assistance. Without concrete measures, selling a painful compromise to the majority population in the South will be more difficult.
To address both of these fears, some members of the Negotiation Team suggested the appointment of an international administrator who would oversee the implementation of a political settlement during the transition period, and ensure that international attention would remain focused on Mitrovica. Albanian leaders would also like to see an increased presence of KFOR and international police as a signal to hardliners on both sides that security concerns are taken seriously.
This paper supports calls for a stronger international role in a post-status Mitrovica as far as security and development issues are concerned. However, anything that creates a special administrative arrangement for Mitrovica should be resisted.
Giving an international administration a direct role in local governance would prolong Mitrovica's anomalous position and keep the town trapped in a transitional status. There would be very little incentive on either side to invest the efforts required to make a complex power-sharing arrangement functional. On the contrary, hardliners on both sides would treat the status of the town as still 'up for grabs'. They would work to undermine the position of the international administration, while keeping tensions simmering, in the hope of forcing a more favourable political arrangement in the future. In short, a Mitrovica under temporary international administration would not be solved at all. It would continue to be a chip in a large strategic game.
A future international administrator will be no better equipped than past UN administrators to 'force' both sides to cooperate or to prevent a politically motivated boycott of joint institutions. For the past seven years, even with substantial numbers of international troops and police at its disposal, UNMIK has struggled to exercise any real authority in Mitrovica. There is no reason to believe that a future mission, whether UN or EU, would fare any better in the absence of a final political settlement.
Mitrovica as a development challenge
Rather than introducing awkward power-sharing arrangements, the most promising way of getting the municipalities to work together would be to identify their shared economic interests, and condition international assistance on a degree of cooperation.
There is an underlying awareness on both sides that social and economic conditions in the divided town are steadily deteriorating. As former Prime Minister Rexhepi, once mayor of Mitrovica, put it in 2004: "Mitrovica is a town whose light is flickering, with the perspective of death, and this goes for both sides."
Life in North Mitrovica is sustained almost entirely by external subsidies from both Belgrade and Pristina. The most significant economic factor in the North is transfers from the Serbian budget. The economic situation in South Mitrovica is even worse. Nowhere in the Western Balkans has the collapse of socialist industries been as complete as in Mitrovica. Socially owned enterprises, which once provided more than 19,000 jobs, now offer just over 1,000 jobs in the South. The private sector consists almost solely of micro-enterprises – kiosks, tax drivers, car mechanics and small construction firms.
The outlines of the economic and social predicament of Mitrovica region are clear. As things stand, a return to 'normality' is a bleak prospect indeed. There might be a sharp decline in the number of foreigners living and spending money in Mitrovica, and fewer donor projects than today. If the lifeline of external subsidies provided by both the Serbian and Kosovar budgets were cut, Mitrovica would have little to look forward to but continued depopulation and economic decline. Any reduction in transfers from Belgrade, in particular, could lead to an exodus of the Serbian elite. In the long term, the Serbs of North Mitrovica have as much to fear from economic decline as they do from inter-communal violence.
International diplomats have long spoken of the need for an economic revival in Mitrovica. However, the resources have not arrived at anywhere near the scale required and have failed to reach the local population.
Donors should support a political settlement in Mitrovica with a major commitment of resources. Preparations for this too should already be launched before this summer. As soon as is feasible, resources should be programmed on the basis of a Mitrovica regional development plan, covering North and South Mitrovica and Zvecan municipalities, prepared by a Regional Development Agency in which all these municipalities would be represented. Participatory programming of donor assistance would provide the mechanism through which regional cooperation could be re-established. This would be much more likely to succeed than any artificial, inter-municipal administrative body.
One flagship project for the economic future of Mitrovica that has been gaining currency in recent times is the idea of a multilingual and international South East European University. The university established in Tetovo in 2001, just as Macedonia was on the brink of civil war, has been an enormous success. It has brought together students from both Macedonian and Albanian communities, helping to stabilise the town and provide much-needed jobs and capital. After an initial investment from international donors, the South East European University in Tetovo is now self-financing. ESI believes that this success could be replicated in Mitrovica. Details of this proposal can be found in the annex.
Annex: Mitrovica as a university town
There is one initiative donors could launch which would immediately present a very different vision for Mitrovica: a multiethnic university town.
Such a proposal has been presented by ESI at various international meetings in recent months, and there appears to be genuine interest among some core donors. A coalition of donors should explore the idea of setting up a high-quality, multi-lingual South East European University in Mitrovica. If a feasibility study were initiated soon, a new university could open its doors as early as October 2007.
The decision to establish the South East European University in Tetovo was taken in July 2000. Construction began in April 2001, just as Macedonia was on the brink of civil war. Although tensions had been highest in the Tetovo region, classes began on 29 October 2001.
This ambitious project has transformed the image of Tetovo from a hot bed of Albanian discontent to an attractive university town. In just over a year, an international, multi-lingual university emerged on the site of an apple orchard, formerly used by the Agricultural High School in Tetovo. Today the university has about 6,000 students. High quality education, modern curricula and subjects not offered by other Macedonian universities also succeeded in attracting close to 2,000 non-Albanian students to a town that is 70 percent Albanian. The university is recognised as one of Macedonia's top educational facilities.
There are many concrete lessons from this unique success story. In Tetovo, a coalition of donors raised close to €40 million for construction and operations. The US alone contributed nearly half of this. Some €2.5 million from the European Agency for Reconstruction are currently being used to expand the university's facilities. Tuition fees ensure that the university is self-financing, with a number of European governments, including the Norwegian, Austrian and Dutch, providing targeted scholarships. There was also a leading public face behind this success story: Max van der Stoel, then OSCE's High Commissioner for National Minorities, helped build international and local support for the University.
Kosovo has a desperate need to expand and modernise its tertiary education. Locating a new university in Mitrovica would ensure future employment for the city, while attracting a new generation to the town. According to a classic textbook on regional economics, universities
"have a substantial economic impact on the regions in which they are located. They employ many workers, occupy large areas of land and spend a substantial amount in the local economy. In addition to the effect they have on the local economy through the multiplier effects of their expenditure, universities can have much wider effects through the outputs they produce such as knowledge, skills and amenities".
Mitrovica is already on the way to a university town. With the relocation of ten faculties of the Serbian-managed University of Pristina to Northern Kosovo, mostly to North Mitrovica, the university has become an important part of the local economy. An estimated 3,500 students are seriously pursuing their studies; of those, some 2,000 live in Mitrovica. The university employs some 1,060 people, out of which 750 are teaching staff. While most professors do not actually live in Mitrovica, the university still brings in a considerable flow of money. Students and professors rent apartments, spend money in the local shops and bring life to the town. The university was also by far the biggest investor in Mitrovica over the last three years: three new student dormitories have been constructed, an old one refurbished and a fifth is under construction. Other new buildings in Mitrovica include the rectorate, the philosophical faculty, a building for the medical faculty in the hospital compound and a building providing accommodation for 45 teaching staff.
Building on this, ESI proposes to set up a second, multi-lingual university (in addition to the Serb university in the North) as a top-quality private non-profit institution, offering courses meeting demands which are not serviced presently within the Kosovo education system (Environmental Studies, European Integration Studies, etc.).
The idea was discussed in detail at the joint ESI-Wilton Park Conference in Vienna. Several European governments expressed an interest to help mobilise funds to explore the idea further. As a first step, a feasibility study would need to be completed and a leader similar to Max van der Stoel identified who could push the idea. With sufficient international financial backing and support of the government, classes could start as early as October 2007.
This paper was supported by the Foreign Ministry of the Government of Norway. The Mitrovica Wilton Park Conference on 30 March 2006 was supported by the Governments of Norway and Switzerland. The opinions expressed here are those of ESI.
Litmus test: A test using a single indicator to establish the nature of a substance
Mitrovica is Kosovo's litmus test. It is here that the Guiding Principles set down by the Contact Group – no partition, decentralisation, return and a multiethnic Kosovo – will face their toughest test. It is in Mitrovica that the Kosovo leadership must prove that its commitment to a multiethnic society is more than rhetorical.
On 4 May, Mitrovica and municipal boundaries will be on the agenda of the status talks in Vienna. In recent weeks, there has been renewed and often heated debate over competing proposals for this divided town. ESI organised a special conference on Mitrovica with Wilton Park in Vienna on 30 March, where we outlined our proposals for a lasting solution for the town:
Move as quickly as possible to a permanent solution for Mitrovica that enables local institution-building to begin, without another transitional international administration. Another temporary solution at this stage would simply defer the hard decisions to a point in time when international influence will be weaker, and the international presence on the ground reduced. It would ensure that Mitrovica remains a flashpoint in Kosovo politics. The international community should play a strong, indeed reinforced, role in Mitrovica in coming years in two areas: security and economic development. It should not be involved in municipal governance directly.
The parties to the talks in Vienna should accept the creation of a new municipality of North Mitrovica, comprising the territory currently under UN administration. Such a municipality would obviously need to comply with Kosovo laws and regulations like any other municipality, including full respect for property rights and support for returns.
Make the acceptance and implementation of a permanent solution to Mitrovica a test of the willingness of the Kosovo government to deliver on its promises of decentralisation, and to protect Kosovo Serbs against extreme elements within the Kosovar Albanian community.
Preparations to transfer authority from the UN–run administration to an appointed North Mitrovica municipal executive should start this summer, in parallel to status talks. The administration of a new municipality of North Mitrovica should be in place before the final status process comes to an end, to be followed by municipal by-elections early next year.
Make clear that UNMIK, KFOR and any international successor mission will respond strongly to any attempts to use force to influence the political destination of northern Kosovo. The Contact Group's commitment to "no partition" of Kosovo needs to be underlined by deploying more international troops in the area North of the Ibar while status talks are underway, with a commitment that they will remain in place for as long as required in the post-status period.
International security provisions must be stepped up immediately to send strong and clear signals to hardliners on both sides that violence will not prevent the implementation of a political settlement. The creation of a separate North Mitrovica municipality must not lead to a legal vacuum north of the Ibar.
Future cooperation between the two municipalities of the town, Mitrovica and North Mitrovica, should be based on clear economic incentives, and should be a condition for international donor support. Donors should closely coordinate their efforts, and should insist on working with a Mitrovica Regional Development Agency, that will include representatives from Mitrovica, North Mitrovica and Zvecan municipalities.
The international community should significantly raise its profile when it comes to economic and social developments in the town. The UN should appoint a high level Mitrovica Development Coordinator as a visible face of its commitment to development of the town, who would bring together international donors, the Kosovo government and Serbia as 'strategic donor' for Kosovo Serbs. The 'Friends of Mitrovica' group of donors would need to be revived.
One flagship project to be pursued by the Mitrovica Development Coordinator could be a feasibility study on an international South East European University in Mitrovica, similar to the multilingual university successfully developed in Tetovo (Macedonia).
Why Mitrovica Matters
The key to Kosovo's future lies with a small piece of territory less than three square kilometres in size. All of the most pressing issues in the final status talks come to a head in Mitrovica. North Mitrovica is the last part of Kosovo still under direct international administration. Decentralisation is yet to occur, return and property rights remain a source of tension, security structures have been found sorely wanting, and institutions on the ground – local and international – have failed to mount an effective response to the town's deepening economic crisis.
There are many reasons why Mitrovica matters so much to the future of a multiethnic Kosovo. An estimated 18 percent of Kosovo Serbs live north of the river Ibar in North Mitrovica and the municipality of Zvecan (with another 18 percent in Leposavic and Zubin Potok).
Where Kosovo Serbs live, based on primary school enrolments (2003)
Municipality
Primary school pupils
Percentage
of total
Gjilan / Gnjilane
1,936
13.5
Leposaviq / Leposavic
1,819
12.7
North Mitrovica
1,630
11.3
Kamenice / Kamenica
1,325
9.2
Prishtina / Pristina
1,229
8.6
Shterpce / Strpce /
1,217
8.5
Zveqan / Zvecan
981
6.8
Lipjan / Lipljan
969
6.7
Zubin Potok
869
6.0
Vushtrri / Vucitrn
619
4.3
Viti / Vitina
474
3.3
Obiliq / Obilic
408
2.8
Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje
348
2.4
Peja / Pec
180
1.3
Novoberde / Novo Brdo /
164
1.1
Rahovec / Orahovac
137
1
Istog / Istok
33
0.2
Skenderaj / Srbica
30
0.2
Total
14,368
100.0
With the exception of North Mitrovica, the world of urban Kosovo Serbs has entirely disappeared. There are no more than a handful of Serbs left in Pristina, Pec, Prizren or any of the other larger towns, leaving North Mitrovica with its hospital and university as the last remaining urban foothold. This explains why Mitrovica has become so important – both economically and symbolically – for the Kosovo Serb community.
Furthermore, Mitrovica has an ominous history of communal violence. The most recent riots in March 2004 showed that Mitrovica remains Kosovo's most dangerous flashpoint, where a single spark can touch off widespread violence. A stabbing incident on the bridge on 27 March has once again highlighted the dangers. There are justified concerns that any turning point in the status process (either a breakdown or a breakthrough) could precipitate renewed violence here that would spill over into other regions.
Towards a permanent solution
On 7 April, former mayor of Mitrovica and Kosovo's first Prime Minister, Bajram Rexhepi, presented a 'Mitrovica Strategy' to the Kosovo Albanian leadership. The proposal foresaw the creation of two sub-municipal units, in the South and North, governed jointly through a single Executive Council, which would be run by an international administrator for the coming years.
On 19 April, the Kosovo Negotiation Team has taken an even bolder step forward by proposing the creation of three or four new Serb-majority municipalities, including a new municipality in North Mitrovica, but including a special international role in the administration of the town. In a TV debate on Mitrovica on 26 April, Bajram Rexhepi appealed to leaders on both sides that: "This is the last moment to give Mitrovica a chance. Mitrovica was not given a chance for the last seven years"
These proposals have provoked heated reactions. Parts of the Kosovo media branded Rexhepi's proposal as 'un-Albanian' for making too many concessions to the Serbs. Local politicians in South Mitrovica publicly condemned the proposal, arguing that the city must be reunited at all costs. Milan Ivanovic, representative in the Serb National Council, announced that Serbs would not accept any status other than a separate municipality, responsible directly to Belgrade.
Faced with apparently intractable positions, some international policymakers have been quietly calling for the issue to be kicked further down the road, for fear that any decision might trigger a violent reaction. ESI believes that it is an illusion to believe that the problem of Mitrovica will become easier to solve as final status talks approach their conclusion. It is likely that implementing a settlement would be even more difficult in a post-status environment, when international leverage over the political process will have declined. Most importantly of all, further delay would be missing an opportunity to make early progress on one of the most controversial issues within the status talks.
The outlines of the strategic dilemma are clear. Kosovo Serbs fear living within a reunified, Albanian-controlled town, and being displaced from their last urban stronghold. Kosovo Albanians fear that a division of Mitrovica would be a step towards the partition of Kosovo.
One way forward would be for the Pristina delegation to make a unilateral offer on the municipal boundary. This would resolve one of the key standards and fulfill a precondition to a final status solution. It would be an opportunity for the Kosovo Albanian leadership to demonstrate their willingness to address Kosovo Serb concerns. It might strengthen the hand of those Kosovo Serb politicians who see their future within Kosovo politics.
There are two main concerns holding back the Albanian side from making this offer. First, Pristina fears that the creation of a new Serb-controlled municipality in North Mitrovica could create a legal vacuum north of the Ibar, where hardliners could once again set up paramilitary formations to harass citizens and block returns. The second fear concerns the international community. Pristina doubts that the international commitment to supporting Mitrovica's multi-ethnic future will translate into meaningful assistance. Without concrete measures, selling a painful compromise to the majority population in the South will be more difficult.
To address both of these fears, some members of the Negotiation Team suggested the appointment of an international administrator who would oversee the implementation of a political settlement during the transition period, and ensure that international attention would remain focused on Mitrovica. Albanian leaders would also like to see an increased presence of KFOR and international police as a signal to hardliners on both sides that security concerns are taken seriously.
This paper supports calls for a stronger international role in a post-status Mitrovica as far as security and development issues are concerned. However, anything that creates a special administrative arrangement for Mitrovica should be resisted.
Giving an international administration a direct role in local governance would prolong Mitrovica's anomalous position and keep the town trapped in a transitional status. There would be very little incentive on either side to invest the efforts required to make a complex power-sharing arrangement functional. On the contrary, hardliners on both sides would treat the status of the town as still 'up for grabs'. They would work to undermine the position of the international administration, while keeping tensions simmering, in the hope of forcing a more favourable political arrangement in the future. In short, a Mitrovica under temporary international administration would not be solved at all. It would continue to be a chip in a large strategic game.
A future international administrator will be no better equipped than past UN administrators to 'force' both sides to cooperate or to prevent a politically motivated boycott of joint institutions. For the past seven years, even with substantial numbers of international troops and police at its disposal, UNMIK has struggled to exercise any real authority in Mitrovica. There is no reason to believe that a future mission, whether UN or EU, would fare any better in the absence of a final political settlement.
Mitrovica as a development challenge
Rather than introducing awkward power-sharing arrangements, the most promising way of getting the municipalities to work together would be to identify their shared economic interests, and condition international assistance on a degree of cooperation.
There is an underlying awareness on both sides that social and economic conditions in the divided town are steadily deteriorating. As former Prime Minister Rexhepi, once mayor of Mitrovica, put it in 2004: "Mitrovica is a town whose light is flickering, with the perspective of death, and this goes for both sides."
Life in North Mitrovica is sustained almost entirely by external subsidies from both Belgrade and Pristina. The most significant economic factor in the North is transfers from the Serbian budget. The economic situation in South Mitrovica is even worse. Nowhere in the Western Balkans has the collapse of socialist industries been as complete as in Mitrovica. Socially owned enterprises, which once provided more than 19,000 jobs, now offer just over 1,000 jobs in the South. The private sector consists almost solely of micro-enterprises – kiosks, tax drivers, car mechanics and small construction firms.
The outlines of the economic and social predicament of Mitrovica region are clear. As things stand, a return to 'normality' is a bleak prospect indeed. There might be a sharp decline in the number of foreigners living and spending money in Mitrovica, and fewer donor projects than today. If the lifeline of external subsidies provided by both the Serbian and Kosovar budgets were cut, Mitrovica would have little to look forward to but continued depopulation and economic decline. Any reduction in transfers from Belgrade, in particular, could lead to an exodus of the Serbian elite. In the long term, the Serbs of North Mitrovica have as much to fear from economic decline as they do from inter-communal violence.
International diplomats have long spoken of the need for an economic revival in Mitrovica. However, the resources have not arrived at anywhere near the scale required and have failed to reach the local population.
Donors should support a political settlement in Mitrovica with a major commitment of resources. Preparations for this too should already be launched before this summer. As soon as is feasible, resources should be programmed on the basis of a Mitrovica regional development plan, covering North and South Mitrovica and Zvecan municipalities, prepared by a Regional Development Agency in which all these municipalities would be represented. Participatory programming of donor assistance would provide the mechanism through which regional cooperation could be re-established. This would be much more likely to succeed than any artificial, inter-municipal administrative body.
One flagship project for the economic future of Mitrovica that has been gaining currency in recent times is the idea of a multilingual and international South East European University. The university established in Tetovo in 2001, just as Macedonia was on the brink of civil war, has been an enormous success. It has brought together students from both Macedonian and Albanian communities, helping to stabilise the town and provide much-needed jobs and capital. After an initial investment from international donors, the South East European University in Tetovo is now self-financing. ESI believes that this success could be replicated in Mitrovica. Details of this proposal can be found in the annex.
Annex: Mitrovica as a university town
There is one initiative donors could launch which would immediately present a very different vision for Mitrovica: a multiethnic university town.
Such a proposal has been presented by ESI at various international meetings in recent months, and there appears to be genuine interest among some core donors. A coalition of donors should explore the idea of setting up a high-quality, multi-lingual South East European University in Mitrovica. If a feasibility study were initiated soon, a new university could open its doors as early as October 2007.
The decision to establish the South East European University in Tetovo was taken in July 2000. Construction began in April 2001, just as Macedonia was on the brink of civil war. Although tensions had been highest in the Tetovo region, classes began on 29 October 2001.
This ambitious project has transformed the image of Tetovo from a hot bed of Albanian discontent to an attractive university town. In just over a year, an international, multi-lingual university emerged on the site of an apple orchard, formerly used by the Agricultural High School in Tetovo. Today the university has about 6,000 students. High quality education, modern curricula and subjects not offered by other Macedonian universities also succeeded in attracting close to 2,000 non-Albanian students to a town that is 70 percent Albanian. The university is recognised as one of Macedonia's top educational facilities.
There are many concrete lessons from this unique success story. In Tetovo, a coalition of donors raised close to €40 million for construction and operations. The US alone contributed nearly half of this. Some €2.5 million from the European Agency for Reconstruction are currently being used to expand the university's facilities. Tuition fees ensure that the university is self-financing, with a number of European governments, including the Norwegian, Austrian and Dutch, providing targeted scholarships. There was also a leading public face behind this success story: Max van der Stoel, then OSCE's High Commissioner for National Minorities, helped build international and local support for the University.
Kosovo has a desperate need to expand and modernise its tertiary education. Locating a new university in Mitrovica would ensure future employment for the city, while attracting a new generation to the town. According to a classic textbook on regional economics, universities
"have a substantial economic impact on the regions in which they are located. They employ many workers, occupy large areas of land and spend a substantial amount in the local economy. In addition to the effect they have on the local economy through the multiplier effects of their expenditure, universities can have much wider effects through the outputs they produce such as knowledge, skills and amenities".
Mitrovica is already on the way to a university town. With the relocation of ten faculties of the Serbian-managed University of Pristina to Northern Kosovo, mostly to North Mitrovica, the university has become an important part of the local economy. An estimated 3,500 students are seriously pursuing their studies; of those, some 2,000 live in Mitrovica. The university employs some 1,060 people, out of which 750 are teaching staff. While most professors do not actually live in Mitrovica, the university still brings in a considerable flow of money. Students and professors rent apartments, spend money in the local shops and bring life to the town. The university was also by far the biggest investor in Mitrovica over the last three years: three new student dormitories have been constructed, an old one refurbished and a fifth is under construction. Other new buildings in Mitrovica include the rectorate, the philosophical faculty, a building for the medical faculty in the hospital compound and a building providing accommodation for 45 teaching staff.
Building on this, ESI proposes to set up a second, multi-lingual university (in addition to the Serb university in the North) as a top-quality private non-profit institution, offering courses meeting demands which are not serviced presently within the Kosovo education system (Environmental Studies, European Integration Studies, etc.).
The idea was discussed in detail at the joint ESI-Wilton Park Conference in Vienna. Several European governments expressed an interest to help mobilise funds to explore the idea further. As a first step, a feasibility study would need to be completed and a leader similar to Max van der Stoel identified who could push the idea. With sufficient international financial backing and support of the government, classes could start as early as October 2007.
This paper was supported by the Foreign Ministry of the Government of Norway. The Mitrovica Wilton Park Conference on 30 March 2006 was supported by the Governments of Norway and Switzerland. The opinions expressed here are those of ESI.
17 September 2006
Kosovo: State Department International Religious Freedom Report 2006
I love Peace
Raporti per Lirine Fetare ne Kosove per vitin 2006 i
bere nga State Department-i.
KOSOVO
Kosovo continued to be administered under the civil
authority of the U.N. Interim Administrative Mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK), pursuant to U.N. Security Council
Resolution (UNSCR) 1244. UNMIK and its chief
administrator, the Special Representative of the
Secretary General (SRSG), established a civil
administration in 1999, following the conclusion of
the NATO military campaign that forced the withdrawal
of Yugoslav and Serbian forces from Kosovo. Since that
time, the SRSG and UNMIK, with the assistance of the
international community, have worked with local
leaders to build the institutions and expertise
necessary for self-government under UNSCR 1244. UNSCR
1244 also authorized an international peacekeeping
force in Kosovo (KFOR) to provide a safe and secure
environment.
The UNMIK-promulgated Constitutional Framework for the
Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) in
Kosovo provides for freedom of religion, as does UNMIK
Regulation 1999/24 on applicable law in Kosovo; UNMIK
and the provisional institutions of self-government
generally respected this right in practice. Attacks by
Kosovo Albanians against Kosovo Serbs peaked following
the NATO campaign in 1999, and again in March 2004,
when violence perpetrated by Kosovo Albanians resulted
in the deaths of 19 persons (11 Kosovo Albanians and 8
Kosovo Serbs), 954 injuries, and widespread property
damage, including 30 Serbian Orthodox churches,
monasteries, cemeteries and more than 900 homes.
Respect for religious freedom increased during the
period covered by this report and government policy
continued to contribute to the generally free practice
of religion. Historically, tensions between Kosovo's
Albanian and Serb populations have been largely rooted
in ethnic, rather than religious, bias. Roman Catholic
institutions were not targets. Attacks on Orthodox
religious sites significantly decreased after the
March 2004 riots, although some minor vandalism
occurred during the period covered by this report.
The violent events of March 2004 slowed the transfer
of responsibility for the protection of Serbian
Orthodox churches and other religious symbols from the
NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) to U.N. international
police (CIVPOL) and the Kosovo Police Service (KPS).
KFOR halted the process immediately following the
March 2004 riots and increased the number of
checkpoints near Serbian Orthodox churches,
monasteries, and patrimonial sites; however, the
transfer process has since continued. For example,
KFOR relaxed its two fixed checkpoints on either side
of the main road to Decani monastery on April 27,
2006. Kosovo leaders, with the acceptance of the
Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), sought to address the
concerns of persons displaced by the violence,
reconstructed all but a handful of houses damaged, and
funded and finished preliminary assessments on thirty
religious sites damaged in March 2004.
The U.S. government discusses religious freedom issues
with UNMIK, the PISG, and religious representatives in
Kosovo as part of its overall policy to promote human
rights. The U.S. government has contributed to the
continued safekeeping of Islamic manuscripts,
refurbished through U.S. government funds. After six
years of international community assistance, the PISG
must still fully address interethnic reconciliation
and make further progress on implementing the
"Standards for Kosovo," which help provide the
framework for establishing a multiethnic, sustainable
democratic society. In October 2005, the U.N. Security
Council endorsed the U.N. secretary general's
intention to begin status negotiations for Kosovo,
which include discussions on the protection of
cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo. As a member
of the Contact Group and contributor to the NATO-led
Kosovo Force, the United States remains fully involved
in all aspects of peacekeeping and democratization in
Kosovo. The U.S. government also supports UNMIK and
KFOR in their security and protection arrangements for
churches and patrimonial sites. In December 2004, the
SRSG and KFOR commander signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU), which specifies response
mechanisms and cooperation between the KPS and KFOR to
maintain order. Contingency plans for riot control
have been revised to include an operational presence
in municipalities and permanent contact among local
police, UNMIK, communities, village leaders, and local
authorities.
Over the course of the period covered by this report,
the UNMIK police community policing initiative
completed phased deployment of 350 international
police officers to 30 locations in the region that are
considered sites for potential return of displaced
persons and those inhabited by minority communities.
Section I. Religious Demography
Kosovo has an area of approximately 4,211 square miles
and a population of approximately 2 million, although
the last credible census was taken in the 1980s. Islam
was the predominant faith, professed by most of the
majority ethnic Albanian population, the Bosniak,
Gorani, and Turkish communities, and some in the
Roma/Ashkali/ Egyptian community, although religion was
not a significant factor in public life. Religious
rhetoric was largely absent from public discourse,
mosque attendance was low, and public displays of
conservative Islamic dress and culture were minimal.
The present Serb population in Kosovo, which was
estimated at 100,000 to 120,000 persons, was largely
Serbian Orthodox. Approximately 3 percent of ethnic
Albanians were Roman Catholic. Protestants made up
less than 1 percent of the population and had
thirty-six churches and small populations in most of
Kosovo's cities, the largest concentration located in
Kosovo's capital of Pristina. Approximately forty
persons from two families in Prizren had some Jewish
roots, but there were no synagogues or Jewish
institutions. Estimates of atheists or those who did
not practice any religion were difficult to determine
and/or largely unreliable.
Foreign clergy actively practiced and proselytized.
There were Muslim, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and
Protestant missionaries active in Kosovo. Roman
Catholic communities were concentrated around Catholic
churches in Prizren and Pristina. UNMIK estimated that
seventy-one faith-based or religious organizations,
which listed their goals as providing humanitarian
assistance or faith-based outreach, worked in Kosovo.
In March, UNMIK transferred the tracking of such
organizations to the Ministry of Public Services, but
the ministry had not provided any new information by
the end of the period covered by this report.
Section II. Status of Religious Freedom
Legal/Policy Framework
In 2001, UNMIK promulgated the Constitutional
Framework for Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo
(the "Constitutional Framework"), which established
the PISG and replaced the UNMIK-imposed Joint Interim
Administrative Structure. Following November 2001
central elections, the 120-member Kosovo Assembly held
its inaugural session in late 2001. In 2002, the
Assembly selected Kosovo's first president, prime
minister, and government. Kosovo's latest government
was formed after the Kosovo Assembly elected Fatmir
Sejdiu as Kosovo's president on February 10, 2006, and
Agim Ceku as Kosovo's prime minister on March 10,
2006. UNMIK had transferred most of the authority
authorized by the Constitutional Framework to the
PISG, and, while it transferred some competencies to
the Ministries of Justice and Interior in February
2006, UNMIK and NATO retained ultimate authority in
such areas as security and protection of communities.
Kosovo's Constitutional Framework incorporates
international human rights conventions and treaties,
including those provisions that protect religious
freedom and prohibit discrimination based on religion
and ethnicity; UNMIK and the PISG generally respected
this right in practice. UNMIK, the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the
PISG officially promote respect for religious freedom
and tolerance in administering Kosovo and in carrying
out programs for its reconstruction and development.
UNMIK, as Kosovo's final administrative
decision-maker, sought to protect religious freedom in
full.
UNMIK recognizes as official holidays some, but not
all, holy days of the Muslim, Roman Catholic, and
Orthodox religious groups. UNMIK recognizes the major
religious Orthodox and Islamic holy days of Orthodox
Christmas, Eid-al-Adha, Orthodox Easter Monday,
Orthodox Assumption Day, the beginning of Ramadan, Eid
al-Fitr, and western Christmas.
There are no mandatory registration regulations with
regard to religious groups; however, to purchase
property or receive funding from UNMIK or other
international organizations, religious organizations
must register with the Ministry of Public Services as
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Religious
leaders have complained that they should have special
status apart from that of NGOs. Protestant evangelical
community representatives have complained that they
cannot receive documentation proving religious or NGO
status in Kosovo because the Ministry of Public
Services requires that they be a documented entity for
at least five years before they can be legally
registered as an NGO.
In response to the complaint that religious
communities should have special status other than that
of NGOs, the Kosovo Prime Minister's Office
established a working group to draft a law on
religious freedom and the legal status of religious
communities in 2003. The group consisted of
representatives of the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and
Islamic religious groups in Kosovo; Serbian Orthodox
representatives declined to participate. Nonetheless,
the working group continued to provide Serbian
Orthodox representatives with drafts of the law.
On May 20, 2005, the Kosovo Assembly passed the first
reading of the draft law on Religious Freedom and the
Legal Status of Religious Communities in Kosovo, which
would further protect the rights of religious
communities and individuals.
Before the draft law's first reading in May 2005, the
Islamic community and Roman Catholic leadership
proposed new amendments to this draft, which included:
labeling the Islamic community the "only
representative" of Kosovo Muslims; establishing a
ministry of religion; and exempting religious
communities from paying utilities. The assembly
committee did not add these provisions to the draft
law. After the first reading in the Assembly, the law
went back to parliamentary committee for further
debate. The Islamic community lobbied local political
leadership for inclusion of amendments which continue
to require a minimum number of adherents before a
religious group can be registered as a "special
status" religion and in a "special relationship with
the Government," which Protestant religious groups in
Kosovo believe would pave the way for the teaching of
religion in public schools. In December 2005, a group
of religious leaders from the Serbian Orthodox Church,
the Islamic Community, the Roman Catholic community,
and the Jewish community (in Serbia), as well as
working-level PISG representatives in Vienna, drafted
these changes as amendments to the law, but the
assembly committee did not add these elements into the
law sent to the Government for approval. By the end of
the period covered by this report, the Contact Group
named this law among three pieces of priority
legislation that the PISG is to pass in 2006. The law
had not been given a second reading in the assembly at
the end of the period covered by this report. The
contentious provisions that met with objections from
the Protestant community were excluded from the draft
law approved by the Kosovo Assembly and would likely
be addressed in subsequent legislation. The most
recent draft law enshrined the right to believe and
worship freely in Kosovo.
In April 2006, ethnic Albanian President Fatmir Sejdiu
visited Decani monastery for Orthodox Easter and spoke
in Serbian while conversing with the clergy, marking
the first time a president of Kosovo received and
accepted such an invitation. Veton Surroi, leader of
Reform Party Ora (PRO), visited the SOC's Decani
monastery twice during the reporting period, in an
effort to hear SOC concerns pertaining to Kosovo's
final status negotiations. Central and local
government officials participated in a landmark
interfaith conference hosted by the Pec Patriarchate
from May 2 to May 4, 2006, which included a visit to
the Decani monastery, a nearby mosque, and a Roman
Catholic church.
Restrictions on Religious Freedom
UNMIK, the PISG, and KFOR policy and practice
contributed to the generally free practice of
religion; however, the Kosovo Islamic Community at
times publicly alleged that Kosovo lacked genuine
religious freedom, citing as examples UNMIK's refusal
to provide radio frequencies for an Islamic radio
station and the closing of a prayer room in the
National Library by the Ministry of Education,
Science, and Technology in 2004. The same community
also alleged that, although thirty-two acres of
municipal land were allocated and the cornerstone was
laid August 28, 2005, for a Roman Catholic cathedral
in Pristina dedicated to Mother Theresa, a Catholic
nun of Albanian ethnicity, the Pristina Municipal
Assembly refused its request to allocate space for new
mosques for what the Islamic community claimed was a
growing Muslim population in Pristina. Some Kosovo
Muslim leaders complained that they were not consulted
prior to registration of foreign Islamic NGOs with
UNMIK.
Kosovo education legislation and regulation provide
for a separation between religious and public spheres.
In May 2005, a principal suspended a public school
teacher for wearing a headscarf to class, citing a
provision of Kosovo's law on education which obligates
public institutions to adopt a neutral attitude
towards religion when providing education. On May 29,
Pristina Municipality' s Department of Education
dismissed the teacher, a decision the Ombudsperson' s
Institution supported when the investigation revealed
the teacher was found to have been proselytizing
during class time. A male student filed a complaint
with the Ombudsperson' s Institution alleging he was
expelled from school for wearing a beard; school
officials told the Ombudsperson Institution that the
student was not expelled, but only prevented from
returning to class while he wore a beard. Another case
from April 2005, which was under investigation at the
end of the reporting period, involved a primary school
student who was dismissed from class for wearing a
headscarf. A similar case resulted in a June 2004
non-binding opinion from the ombudsperson that the
ministry's interpretation should only apply to school
teachers and officials, not students. All parties
filed petitions with the Ministry of Education and
formal complaints with Kosovo's ombudsperson.
Protestants continued to report that they experience
discrimination in media access, particularly by the
public Radio and Television Kosovo (RTK). Protestants
also reported that Decani municipality denied them
permission to build a church facility on privately
owned land they had purchased, citing negative
reaction from local citizens, and that the Ministry of
Environment and Spatial Planning upheld the decision.
Decani municipal authorities responded that their
donation of time in the shared municipal convention
center afforded Protestants adequate space.
There were no reports of religious prisoners or
detainees in the country.
Abuses of Religious Freedom
On January 17, 2006, the SOC alleged that the
Association of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) War
Veterans, in cooperation with Gjakova municipality,
had erected a monument honoring KLA veterans on church
property. On February 2, the SOC announced that UNMIK
promised, in cooperation with the PISG, to "work to
protect this church property." The monument remained
in place at the end of the reporting period.
Forced Religious Conversion
There were no reports of forced religious conversion,
including of minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted
or illegally removed from the United States, or of the
refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the
United States.
Improvements and Positive Developments in Respect for
Religious Freedom
During the period covered by this report, Kosovo
political leaders- including government and political
party officials- increasingly called for religious
tolerance and participated in milestone interfaith
events. Kosovo officials also constructively engaged
in several rounds of U.N.-led negotiations this year
with Serbian officials to reach agreement as part of
the Kosovo status talks on ways to better protect
religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo. Talks were
ongoing at the end of the period covered by the
report.
During a January 6, 2006, visit to the Serb residents
in Pristina on Orthodox Christmas, the then-Prime
Minister Bajram Kosumi said that Kosovo was not only
his home, but the home of all Kosovo's residents,
irrespective of ethnicity and religion.
Serbian Orthodox clergy reported constraints on
freedom of movement that prohibited adherents from
freely attending worship services, but reported that
they themselves were able to move freely around Kosovo
with little incident. On March 22, 2006, UNMIK Chief
Soren Jessen-Petersen and Kosovo President Fatmir
Sejdiu paid a visit to Rahovec municipality. In two
separate meetings with members of Serb and Albanian
communities, Sejdiu and Jessen-Petersen called on
citizens of Rahovec to work together to achieve full
human rights for all Kosovars.
On March 28, 2006, Veton Surroi convened the
Communities Consultative Council in Durres, Albania,
bringing together political leadership from Kosovo
Serbs and Kosovo's other minority communities to
openly discuss their ideas for the Kosovo status
talks.
On April 19, 2006, the SRSG urged internally displaced
persons (IDPs) and IDP associations to participate
actively in the ongoing returns efforts. In his
meeting with members of IDP associations, the SRSG
said that the PISG and UNMIK, in active collaboration
with IDP associations and minority groups, had revised
the returns manual to ensure direct participation of
IDPs themselves in decision-making processes.
One challenge facing the international community and
the PISG has been reducing and preventing ethnically
motivated attacks on Serbian Orthodox churches and
shrines and on the Serbian Orthodox population of
Kosovo. Since the riots of March 2004, during which 30
Orthodox religious sites and more than 900 homes and
businesses of ethnic minorities were burned or
damaged, the number of attacks on Serbian Orthodox
churches has decreased. Members of the PISG and some
political leaders, who made efforts to communicate
with Kosovo Serbs and Serbian Orthodox officials after
the riots and during the period covered by this
report, continued to express a public commitment to
assist in their return and the reconstruction of
damaged or destroyed churches.
Prompted by the international community after the
March 2004 riots, Kosovo leaders sought to address the
concerns of the Serbian Orthodox Church and persons
displaced by the violence and agreed to fund and
cooperate with local religious officials and
international experts in rebuilding the damaged
property. On the basis of a Council of Europe damage
assessment, the PISG allocated $5.3 million (4.2
million euros) for the initial phase of the
reconstruction of churches and monasteries damaged in
the March riots. The PISG completed the first phase of
emergency repairs in full cooperation with the SOC
during the period covered by this report.
In a May 2006 report to the UNSC, UNMIK stated that
most of the criminal cases related to March 2004 riots
were handled by the local judiciary: charges were
pressed against 426 people, resulting in 217
convictions, 14 acquittals, 89 pending cases, and 106
cases dropped for lack of evidence. International
prosecutors conducted forty-four of the most serious
riot-related cases, resulting in thirteen convictions,
with punishments ranging from suspended sentences to
eighteen years in prison for attempted murder.
General crime statistics as reported by UNMIK on May
24, 2006, revealed a decline in potentially
ethnically-motivate d crimes. Compared to the
seventy-two incidents recorded from January to March
2005, nineteen such cases were reported during the
same time period in 2006. UNMIK police reported that
of the 1,408 Kosovo Serb convoys escorted by the KPS
from January to early May 2006, there were only 6
incidents of stone throwing, leading to 5 arrests by
the KPS. In response to reports in the Serb media of
increasing security concerns among Kosovo Serbs, UNMIK
and KPS began twenty-four- hour foot patrols in
majority ethnic Serb areas of Kosovo in May 2006.
On May 16, 2006, ethnic Albanian students from a
secondary school in Decan municipality, accompanied by
the director and four teachers, visited the Decani
monastery, marking the first nonofficial visit of
ethnic Albanian Kosovo residents to the monastery
since the end of the conflict in 1999. Father Sava
Janjic welcomed and guided the group through a tour of
the site; both sides expressed positive impressions,
and Father Sava told the group he would welcome more
such visits in the future.
On April 14, 2006, UNMIK, for the third time, renewed
a six-month protection zone for 800 hectares
surrounding Decani monastery, which prevents
commercial development on protected property.
The municipal assembly of Rahovec/Orahovac passed a
resolution on June 19, 2006, allowing the monks of
Zociste/Zocishte monastery to regularly use their
church bell. Until June 19, as directed by German
KFOR, the monks rang the bell only for important
church holidays.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and a large
Serbian delegation traveled to Kosovo on June 26-28 to
commemorate the 650th anniversary of the death of King
Dusan at the Holy Archangels Monastery in Prizren, and
the annual Vidovdan commemoration of the defeat of the
Serbs and their allies by the Turks in the Battle of
Kosovo Polje in 1389. The visit, a possible
flashpoint, went without incident.
Section III. Societal Abuses and Discrimination
Ethnicity and religion were inextricably linked in
Kosovo and made it difficult to determine if societal
discrimination and violence were religiously or
ethnically motivated. While most Kosovo Albanians
identified themselves as Muslim, the designation had
more of a cultural than religious connotation. Kosovo
Serbs identified themselves with the SOC, which
defined not only their religious but also their
cultural and historical perspectives. During and after
the 1999 conflict, some Serbian Orthodox leaders
played a moderating political role, while others
withdrew from constructive discussion. Most Kosovo
Serb politicians continued their three-year boycott of
participation in government institutions.
Societal violence continued and increased marginally
from the last reporting period. Three high-profile
killings of ethnic Serbs occurred during the reporting
period: on August 27, 2005, two young men were fatally
shot while driving, and a third was stabbed in March
on the flashpoint bridge separating ethnic Serb
majority north Mitrovica municipality from ethnic
Albanian majority south Mitrovica. The first crime had
not been solved, but police authorities reacted
quickly to arrest suspects in the second case, one of
whom was released and was awaiting trial. On May 6,
2006, Kosovo Serb media reported that unknown
attackers shot at a car driven by Serbian Orthodox
priest Srjdan Stankovic in Zvecan municipality; UNMIK
charged an ethnic Serb Kosovo Police Service officer
in connection with the incident for "brandishing a
firearm." One other high profile shooting occurred at
a gas station; no one had been charged for this
incident by the end of the period covered by this
report. Although tension between communities remained
high, the prevailing crime trend continued to be
against property instead of persons. In 2005, however,
57 percent of potential ethnically motivated incidents
were assault and intimidation- related, not necessarily
property-related offences, as in the previous
reporting period. There were some reported incidents
of rock-throwing and other assaults against Serbian
buses and Serbian Orthodox clergy as they traveled
outside of their monasteries, and monks and nuns at
some monasteries reportedly did not use parts of the
monasteries' properties because of concerns about
safety.
Security concerns continued to affect the Serb
community and also affected its freedom to worship,
particularly after the March 2004 riots. Some Kosovo
Serbs asserted that they were not able to travel
freely to practice their faith. Father Sava Janjic of
Decani monastery told USOP that, since KFOR stopped
escorting non-clergy parishioners to religious sites
in April 2005, he noticed a decline in attendance at
services. Sava also reported that, when traveling
through Kosovo, clergy transit vans were sometimes
pelted with stones and verbal insults, although he and
his co-religious generally traveled freely and without
incident on Kosovo's main highways during the period
covered by this report. Father Sava and Bishop
Teodosije (Sibalic) of Lipljan both traveled with an
escort to USOP on occasion without incident, including
on July 1, 2005, for a Fourth of July celebration. On
April 21, 2005, KFOR withdrew its last two armored
vehicles from the bridge connecting majority
Serb-inhabited north Mitrovica and Kosovo Albanian
dominated south Mitrovica and, on April 29, 2005,
opened twenty-four- hour passage on the bridge;
however, following the stabbing incident near the
northern side of the bridge, civilian passage was
again temporarily halted. KFOR maintained a nearby
presence.
Problems at Serbian Orthodox religious sites continued
during the period covered by this report, such as an
abundance of garbage at a cemetery near the Pec/Peja
Patriarchate. Local Serb radio reported on May 12,
2006, that unknown attackers broke newly fitted doors
and several new windows added to the SOC's Church of
Saint Ilija, in Podujeve/Podujevo municipality, by the
PISG as part of the renovation of March 2004
riot-related damage. The SOC told the media that
unknown attackers vandalized the Church of the Birth
of the Mother of God (Theotokos) in Obiliq/Obilic on
June 19, 2006, by taking at least two crosses from the
church's domes and a portion of the lead roof. This
church was built in 1998, damaged in the March 2004
riots, and placed on the list of sites to be
reconstructed using money from the PISG.
The Kosovo Police Service reported on June 20, 2006,
that unknown attackers vandalized sixteen tombstones
in a Serbian Orthodox cemetery located in the ethnic
Serb majority village of Staro Gracko/Starogracke in
Lipljan municipality. KFOR had reportedly cordoned off
the cemetery on June 9 when visitors discovered a
landmine there. Investigations were ongoing at the end
of the period covered by this report. On June 21, Serb
media reported that the Serbian Orthodox Church of St.
Andrew in Podujeve/Podujevo municipality was
vandalized as well.
Many of the churches and monasteries burned in the
March 2004 riots were constructed in the 14th century
and are considered part of Kosovo's cultural and
religious heritage. Father Sava Janjic provided a
comprehensive list of religious sites destroyed or
damaged between March 17 and 19, 2004. The list
included thirty sites altogether in the following
fourteen locations: Prizren, Rahovec, Gjakova,
Skenderaj, Peja, Ferizaj, Kamenica, Shtime, Pristina,
Fushe Kosove, Vushtrri, Obiliq, Mitrovica, and
Podujevo.
Individual donor countries began repairs to several of
the seventy-five priority cultural and religious
monuments identified at the May 13, 2005, donors'
conference in Paris.
In addition, problems continued with the unfinished
Serbian Church of Christ the Savior (only the exterior
walls stood), located on University of Pristina
grounds. During the 1990s, the Serb-dominated
administration in Pristina gave the land on which the
church sits to the SOC. In 2003, the Pristina
Municipal Assembly passed a resolution to return the
land to the university. The UNMIK representative in
the Pristina municipal government immediately
suspended this decision. In February 2005, a Christian
cross attached to the church was damaged. The SRSG
recommended that Pristina authorities abandon their
September proposal to convert the unfinished church
into an entertainment venue, such as a movie theater
or an art gallery.
In light of societal violence in Kosovo against
properties owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church and
Serbian Orthodox religious symbols, UNMIK authorities
continued to provide special security measures to
protect religious sites and to ensure that members of
all religious groups could worship safely. KFOR
deployed security contingents at religious sites
throughout Kosovo to protect them from further
destruction, such as that which had occurred
immediately after KFOR's intervention in 1999;
however, KFOR gave priority to saving persons' lives
rather than property and was unable to stop the
burning and destruction of many sites in March 2004.
Because of improving security conditions and
decreasing interethnic tensions in some areas, KFOR
removed static checkpoints from most churches and
religious sites, including relaxing checkpoints at
Decani monastery, during the period covered by this
report, relying instead on patrols by the U.N.
international police (CIVPOL) and indigenous Kosovo
Police Service (KPS). In most cases, such changes in
security measures did not result in a change in the
level of safety of, or access to, the religious sites.
During the March 2004 riots, KFOR, CIVPOL, and KPS
were involved in crowd control and protecting lives
and property. The priority was evacuating persons over
saving property, even religious property. Immediately
following the March riots, the process of transfer of
jurisdiction over local police stations from KFOR to
CIVPOL and KPS was halted; subsequently, transfer
continued, and all thirty-two jurisdictions in Kosovo
were under local KPS patrol at the end of the period
covered by this report.
Although Protestants previously reported a slight
improvement in their situation, they reported
suffering more violence and discrimination during the
period covered by this report. They reported
discrimination through verbal attacks and exclusion
from interfaith initiatives by the religious
leadership who defended their actions on the grounds
that Protestants are not considered a "traditional"
religion in Kosovo. They also stated that, while
public television station RTK as an institution did
not specifically report on the Protestant religion,
some individuals within the RTK had a more positive
approach. Protestants also reported slight
discrimination in schools where school officials
occasionally called in parents of pupils to deter
their children from being Protestant. Protestants
reported that a U.S. citizen pastor was beaten in
Decani municipality by a young man opposed to the
Protestants' building of a church there. Protestants
also reported verbal local opposition to showing a
Christian-based movie in villages throughout Kosovo,
as well as break-ins at churches and harassment of
adherents.
Roman Catholic leaders reported that they had good
relations with the Muslim community but hardly any
bilateral contact with the Serbian Orthodox Church
leadership. Roman Catholic and Serbian Orthodox church
leadership believed each other to be highly
politicized. The Muslim community made similar remarks
concerning their relationship with the Roman Catholic
leadership and lack of relationship with the Orthodox
community. On May 3, 2006, thieves stole thirteen
religious paintings from a Catholic church in Letnica
village, which was inhabited by ethnic Albanian and
Croats. The Pec/Peja Patriarchate hosted Kosovo's
first interfaith conference in two years from May 2 to
4, 2006. Participants from Islamic, Orthodox, Roman
Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant religious
communities, diplomatic liaison offices, UNMIK, and
members of the PISG's central and local governance
structures discussed religious freedom; visited a
Roman Catholic church, a mosque, and Peja/Pec's
Orthodox church, accompanied by regional municipal
leadership; visited Decani monastery; and, accompanied
by ethnic Albanian Decan/Decani mayor Nazmi Selmanaj,
walked together to the mosque in the city center. The
common statement released by the religious leaders
committed the group to hold regular meetings to
intensify interreligious dialogue and cooperation, to
promote the returns process of all displaced persons,
and to engage in the process of drafting religious
freedom legislation. Norwegian Church Aid hosted the
May 2006 conference to promote peace and dialogue
among religious groups. The Islamic community offered
to host the next meeting in October 2006.
The withdrawal of Former Republic of Yugoslavia and
Serbian troops from Kosovo in 1999 and establishment
of UNMIK administration through UNSCR 1244 resulted in
an improved situation for the majority, largely
Muslim, ethnic Albanian population, and a cessation of
attacks on their mosques and religious sites.
Islamic, some local Orthodox, and Roman Catholic
leaders have attempted to encourage tolerance and
peace in Kosovo, in both the religious and political
spheres.
Section IV. U.S. Government Policy
The U.S. government discusses religious freedom issues
with the U.N. Special Envoy for the Kosovo status
talks, UNMIK, the PISG, and religious representatives
in Kosovo as part of its overall policy to promote
human rights, and has sought to promote ethnic and
religious tolerance in Kosovo. U.S. officials also
maintained close contacts and met regularly with
religious leaders of the Serbian Orthodox, Islamic,
Roman Catholic, and Protestant communities to discuss
their concerns and to push for interfaith dialogue. A
delegation of Serbian Orthodox officials formally
visited U.S. government institutions in the United
States from March 15 to 22, 2006.
U.S. officials continued to urge dialogue between
members of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and
ethnic Albanian members of the PISG. Officials from
the United States met frequently with the heads of
major religious communities. In contrast to previous
reporting periods, United States Office Pristina
personnel attended Serbian Orthodox holiday services.
U.S. officials continued to support UNMIK and the PISG
in rebuilding religious buildings damaged in the
interethnic riots of March 2004. Officials from the
United States met frequently with the heads of the
major religious communities, provided funding to
preserve Ottoman-era transcripts in the Gazi Medhmed
Pasha library, and granted $1 million to UNESCO's
large-scale effort to preserve cultural heritage in
the country.
The United States is involved actively in UNMIK, whose
goal is to secure peace, facilitate the return of the
displaced, lay the foundations for democratic
self-government, and foster respect for human rights
regardless of ethnicity or religion.
U.S. KFOR peacekeeping troops worked to prevent ethnic
and religious violence in Kosovo and guarded religious
sites. U.S. KFOR was credited by local SOC officials
with preventing the situation from further escalation
in their sector during the March 2004 riots, and they
increased their presence within the sector they
patrol.
The U.S. government funded the remainder of a survey
of Islamic manuscripts in Kosovo to help the local
Islamic community preserve its religious heritage.
The U.S. Department of State funds a U.N.
international police (CIVPOL) advisor in Pristina and
provided $40 million (31.86 million euros) to support
KPS and CIVPOL. KPS and CIVPOL have worked to prevent
ethnic and religious violence in the country.
The U.S. Department of State provides $3.5 million in
funding for returns programs for Muslim and Orthodox
Roma, Orthodox Serbs, Muslim Bosnians, and other
minority communities.
In the wake of the March 2004 interethnic violence,
U.S. officers met with Islamic, Orthodox, and Roman
Catholic authorities to discuss ways of supporting
reconciliation and interfaith dialogue. Many
high-level U.S. government and military officials
continued to visit the country in conjunction with the
final status negotiation process and meet with both
political and religious leaders to assess the
situation and urge reconstruction and progress toward
a multiethnic Kosovo. The U.S. Office also urged the
Government to reconstruct Serb homes quickly and allow
UNESCO to take the lead on reconstruction of destroyed
and damaged religious sites in the country.
Released on September 15, 2006
I love Peace!!!
Raporti per Lirine Fetare ne Kosove per vitin 2006 i
bere nga State Department-i.
KOSOVO
Kosovo continued to be administered under the civil
authority of the U.N. Interim Administrative Mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK), pursuant to U.N. Security Council
Resolution (UNSCR) 1244. UNMIK and its chief
administrator, the Special Representative of the
Secretary General (SRSG), established a civil
administration in 1999, following the conclusion of
the NATO military campaign that forced the withdrawal
of Yugoslav and Serbian forces from Kosovo. Since that
time, the SRSG and UNMIK, with the assistance of the
international community, have worked with local
leaders to build the institutions and expertise
necessary for self-government under UNSCR 1244. UNSCR
1244 also authorized an international peacekeeping
force in Kosovo (KFOR) to provide a safe and secure
environment.
The UNMIK-promulgated Constitutional Framework for the
Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) in
Kosovo provides for freedom of religion, as does UNMIK
Regulation 1999/24 on applicable law in Kosovo; UNMIK
and the provisional institutions of self-government
generally respected this right in practice. Attacks by
Kosovo Albanians against Kosovo Serbs peaked following
the NATO campaign in 1999, and again in March 2004,
when violence perpetrated by Kosovo Albanians resulted
in the deaths of 19 persons (11 Kosovo Albanians and 8
Kosovo Serbs), 954 injuries, and widespread property
damage, including 30 Serbian Orthodox churches,
monasteries, cemeteries and more than 900 homes.
Respect for religious freedom increased during the
period covered by this report and government policy
continued to contribute to the generally free practice
of religion. Historically, tensions between Kosovo's
Albanian and Serb populations have been largely rooted
in ethnic, rather than religious, bias. Roman Catholic
institutions were not targets. Attacks on Orthodox
religious sites significantly decreased after the
March 2004 riots, although some minor vandalism
occurred during the period covered by this report.
The violent events of March 2004 slowed the transfer
of responsibility for the protection of Serbian
Orthodox churches and other religious symbols from the
NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) to U.N. international
police (CIVPOL) and the Kosovo Police Service (KPS).
KFOR halted the process immediately following the
March 2004 riots and increased the number of
checkpoints near Serbian Orthodox churches,
monasteries, and patrimonial sites; however, the
transfer process has since continued. For example,
KFOR relaxed its two fixed checkpoints on either side
of the main road to Decani monastery on April 27,
2006. Kosovo leaders, with the acceptance of the
Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), sought to address the
concerns of persons displaced by the violence,
reconstructed all but a handful of houses damaged, and
funded and finished preliminary assessments on thirty
religious sites damaged in March 2004.
The U.S. government discusses religious freedom issues
with UNMIK, the PISG, and religious representatives in
Kosovo as part of its overall policy to promote human
rights. The U.S. government has contributed to the
continued safekeeping of Islamic manuscripts,
refurbished through U.S. government funds. After six
years of international community assistance, the PISG
must still fully address interethnic reconciliation
and make further progress on implementing the
"Standards for Kosovo," which help provide the
framework for establishing a multiethnic, sustainable
democratic society. In October 2005, the U.N. Security
Council endorsed the U.N. secretary general's
intention to begin status negotiations for Kosovo,
which include discussions on the protection of
cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo. As a member
of the Contact Group and contributor to the NATO-led
Kosovo Force, the United States remains fully involved
in all aspects of peacekeeping and democratization in
Kosovo. The U.S. government also supports UNMIK and
KFOR in their security and protection arrangements for
churches and patrimonial sites. In December 2004, the
SRSG and KFOR commander signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU), which specifies response
mechanisms and cooperation between the KPS and KFOR to
maintain order. Contingency plans for riot control
have been revised to include an operational presence
in municipalities and permanent contact among local
police, UNMIK, communities, village leaders, and local
authorities.
Over the course of the period covered by this report,
the UNMIK police community policing initiative
completed phased deployment of 350 international
police officers to 30 locations in the region that are
considered sites for potential return of displaced
persons and those inhabited by minority communities.
Section I. Religious Demography
Kosovo has an area of approximately 4,211 square miles
and a population of approximately 2 million, although
the last credible census was taken in the 1980s. Islam
was the predominant faith, professed by most of the
majority ethnic Albanian population, the Bosniak,
Gorani, and Turkish communities, and some in the
Roma/Ashkali/ Egyptian community, although religion was
not a significant factor in public life. Religious
rhetoric was largely absent from public discourse,
mosque attendance was low, and public displays of
conservative Islamic dress and culture were minimal.
The present Serb population in Kosovo, which was
estimated at 100,000 to 120,000 persons, was largely
Serbian Orthodox. Approximately 3 percent of ethnic
Albanians were Roman Catholic. Protestants made up
less than 1 percent of the population and had
thirty-six churches and small populations in most of
Kosovo's cities, the largest concentration located in
Kosovo's capital of Pristina. Approximately forty
persons from two families in Prizren had some Jewish
roots, but there were no synagogues or Jewish
institutions. Estimates of atheists or those who did
not practice any religion were difficult to determine
and/or largely unreliable.
Foreign clergy actively practiced and proselytized.
There were Muslim, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and
Protestant missionaries active in Kosovo. Roman
Catholic communities were concentrated around Catholic
churches in Prizren and Pristina. UNMIK estimated that
seventy-one faith-based or religious organizations,
which listed their goals as providing humanitarian
assistance or faith-based outreach, worked in Kosovo.
In March, UNMIK transferred the tracking of such
organizations to the Ministry of Public Services, but
the ministry had not provided any new information by
the end of the period covered by this report.
Section II. Status of Religious Freedom
Legal/Policy Framework
In 2001, UNMIK promulgated the Constitutional
Framework for Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo
(the "Constitutional Framework"), which established
the PISG and replaced the UNMIK-imposed Joint Interim
Administrative Structure. Following November 2001
central elections, the 120-member Kosovo Assembly held
its inaugural session in late 2001. In 2002, the
Assembly selected Kosovo's first president, prime
minister, and government. Kosovo's latest government
was formed after the Kosovo Assembly elected Fatmir
Sejdiu as Kosovo's president on February 10, 2006, and
Agim Ceku as Kosovo's prime minister on March 10,
2006. UNMIK had transferred most of the authority
authorized by the Constitutional Framework to the
PISG, and, while it transferred some competencies to
the Ministries of Justice and Interior in February
2006, UNMIK and NATO retained ultimate authority in
such areas as security and protection of communities.
Kosovo's Constitutional Framework incorporates
international human rights conventions and treaties,
including those provisions that protect religious
freedom and prohibit discrimination based on religion
and ethnicity; UNMIK and the PISG generally respected
this right in practice. UNMIK, the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the
PISG officially promote respect for religious freedom
and tolerance in administering Kosovo and in carrying
out programs for its reconstruction and development.
UNMIK, as Kosovo's final administrative
decision-maker, sought to protect religious freedom in
full.
UNMIK recognizes as official holidays some, but not
all, holy days of the Muslim, Roman Catholic, and
Orthodox religious groups. UNMIK recognizes the major
religious Orthodox and Islamic holy days of Orthodox
Christmas, Eid-al-Adha, Orthodox Easter Monday,
Orthodox Assumption Day, the beginning of Ramadan, Eid
al-Fitr, and western Christmas.
There are no mandatory registration regulations with
regard to religious groups; however, to purchase
property or receive funding from UNMIK or other
international organizations, religious organizations
must register with the Ministry of Public Services as
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Religious
leaders have complained that they should have special
status apart from that of NGOs. Protestant evangelical
community representatives have complained that they
cannot receive documentation proving religious or NGO
status in Kosovo because the Ministry of Public
Services requires that they be a documented entity for
at least five years before they can be legally
registered as an NGO.
In response to the complaint that religious
communities should have special status other than that
of NGOs, the Kosovo Prime Minister's Office
established a working group to draft a law on
religious freedom and the legal status of religious
communities in 2003. The group consisted of
representatives of the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and
Islamic religious groups in Kosovo; Serbian Orthodox
representatives declined to participate. Nonetheless,
the working group continued to provide Serbian
Orthodox representatives with drafts of the law.
On May 20, 2005, the Kosovo Assembly passed the first
reading of the draft law on Religious Freedom and the
Legal Status of Religious Communities in Kosovo, which
would further protect the rights of religious
communities and individuals.
Before the draft law's first reading in May 2005, the
Islamic community and Roman Catholic leadership
proposed new amendments to this draft, which included:
labeling the Islamic community the "only
representative" of Kosovo Muslims; establishing a
ministry of religion; and exempting religious
communities from paying utilities. The assembly
committee did not add these provisions to the draft
law. After the first reading in the Assembly, the law
went back to parliamentary committee for further
debate. The Islamic community lobbied local political
leadership for inclusion of amendments which continue
to require a minimum number of adherents before a
religious group can be registered as a "special
status" religion and in a "special relationship with
the Government," which Protestant religious groups in
Kosovo believe would pave the way for the teaching of
religion in public schools. In December 2005, a group
of religious leaders from the Serbian Orthodox Church,
the Islamic Community, the Roman Catholic community,
and the Jewish community (in Serbia), as well as
working-level PISG representatives in Vienna, drafted
these changes as amendments to the law, but the
assembly committee did not add these elements into the
law sent to the Government for approval. By the end of
the period covered by this report, the Contact Group
named this law among three pieces of priority
legislation that the PISG is to pass in 2006. The law
had not been given a second reading in the assembly at
the end of the period covered by this report. The
contentious provisions that met with objections from
the Protestant community were excluded from the draft
law approved by the Kosovo Assembly and would likely
be addressed in subsequent legislation. The most
recent draft law enshrined the right to believe and
worship freely in Kosovo.
In April 2006, ethnic Albanian President Fatmir Sejdiu
visited Decani monastery for Orthodox Easter and spoke
in Serbian while conversing with the clergy, marking
the first time a president of Kosovo received and
accepted such an invitation. Veton Surroi, leader of
Reform Party Ora (PRO), visited the SOC's Decani
monastery twice during the reporting period, in an
effort to hear SOC concerns pertaining to Kosovo's
final status negotiations. Central and local
government officials participated in a landmark
interfaith conference hosted by the Pec Patriarchate
from May 2 to May 4, 2006, which included a visit to
the Decani monastery, a nearby mosque, and a Roman
Catholic church.
Restrictions on Religious Freedom
UNMIK, the PISG, and KFOR policy and practice
contributed to the generally free practice of
religion; however, the Kosovo Islamic Community at
times publicly alleged that Kosovo lacked genuine
religious freedom, citing as examples UNMIK's refusal
to provide radio frequencies for an Islamic radio
station and the closing of a prayer room in the
National Library by the Ministry of Education,
Science, and Technology in 2004. The same community
also alleged that, although thirty-two acres of
municipal land were allocated and the cornerstone was
laid August 28, 2005, for a Roman Catholic cathedral
in Pristina dedicated to Mother Theresa, a Catholic
nun of Albanian ethnicity, the Pristina Municipal
Assembly refused its request to allocate space for new
mosques for what the Islamic community claimed was a
growing Muslim population in Pristina. Some Kosovo
Muslim leaders complained that they were not consulted
prior to registration of foreign Islamic NGOs with
UNMIK.
Kosovo education legislation and regulation provide
for a separation between religious and public spheres.
In May 2005, a principal suspended a public school
teacher for wearing a headscarf to class, citing a
provision of Kosovo's law on education which obligates
public institutions to adopt a neutral attitude
towards religion when providing education. On May 29,
Pristina Municipality' s Department of Education
dismissed the teacher, a decision the Ombudsperson' s
Institution supported when the investigation revealed
the teacher was found to have been proselytizing
during class time. A male student filed a complaint
with the Ombudsperson' s Institution alleging he was
expelled from school for wearing a beard; school
officials told the Ombudsperson Institution that the
student was not expelled, but only prevented from
returning to class while he wore a beard. Another case
from April 2005, which was under investigation at the
end of the reporting period, involved a primary school
student who was dismissed from class for wearing a
headscarf. A similar case resulted in a June 2004
non-binding opinion from the ombudsperson that the
ministry's interpretation should only apply to school
teachers and officials, not students. All parties
filed petitions with the Ministry of Education and
formal complaints with Kosovo's ombudsperson.
Protestants continued to report that they experience
discrimination in media access, particularly by the
public Radio and Television Kosovo (RTK). Protestants
also reported that Decani municipality denied them
permission to build a church facility on privately
owned land they had purchased, citing negative
reaction from local citizens, and that the Ministry of
Environment and Spatial Planning upheld the decision.
Decani municipal authorities responded that their
donation of time in the shared municipal convention
center afforded Protestants adequate space.
There were no reports of religious prisoners or
detainees in the country.
Abuses of Religious Freedom
On January 17, 2006, the SOC alleged that the
Association of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) War
Veterans, in cooperation with Gjakova municipality,
had erected a monument honoring KLA veterans on church
property. On February 2, the SOC announced that UNMIK
promised, in cooperation with the PISG, to "work to
protect this church property." The monument remained
in place at the end of the reporting period.
Forced Religious Conversion
There were no reports of forced religious conversion,
including of minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted
or illegally removed from the United States, or of the
refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the
United States.
Improvements and Positive Developments in Respect for
Religious Freedom
During the period covered by this report, Kosovo
political leaders- including government and political
party officials- increasingly called for religious
tolerance and participated in milestone interfaith
events. Kosovo officials also constructively engaged
in several rounds of U.N.-led negotiations this year
with Serbian officials to reach agreement as part of
the Kosovo status talks on ways to better protect
religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo. Talks were
ongoing at the end of the period covered by the
report.
During a January 6, 2006, visit to the Serb residents
in Pristina on Orthodox Christmas, the then-Prime
Minister Bajram Kosumi said that Kosovo was not only
his home, but the home of all Kosovo's residents,
irrespective of ethnicity and religion.
Serbian Orthodox clergy reported constraints on
freedom of movement that prohibited adherents from
freely attending worship services, but reported that
they themselves were able to move freely around Kosovo
with little incident. On March 22, 2006, UNMIK Chief
Soren Jessen-Petersen and Kosovo President Fatmir
Sejdiu paid a visit to Rahovec municipality. In two
separate meetings with members of Serb and Albanian
communities, Sejdiu and Jessen-Petersen called on
citizens of Rahovec to work together to achieve full
human rights for all Kosovars.
On March 28, 2006, Veton Surroi convened the
Communities Consultative Council in Durres, Albania,
bringing together political leadership from Kosovo
Serbs and Kosovo's other minority communities to
openly discuss their ideas for the Kosovo status
talks.
On April 19, 2006, the SRSG urged internally displaced
persons (IDPs) and IDP associations to participate
actively in the ongoing returns efforts. In his
meeting with members of IDP associations, the SRSG
said that the PISG and UNMIK, in active collaboration
with IDP associations and minority groups, had revised
the returns manual to ensure direct participation of
IDPs themselves in decision-making processes.
One challenge facing the international community and
the PISG has been reducing and preventing ethnically
motivated attacks on Serbian Orthodox churches and
shrines and on the Serbian Orthodox population of
Kosovo. Since the riots of March 2004, during which 30
Orthodox religious sites and more than 900 homes and
businesses of ethnic minorities were burned or
damaged, the number of attacks on Serbian Orthodox
churches has decreased. Members of the PISG and some
political leaders, who made efforts to communicate
with Kosovo Serbs and Serbian Orthodox officials after
the riots and during the period covered by this
report, continued to express a public commitment to
assist in their return and the reconstruction of
damaged or destroyed churches.
Prompted by the international community after the
March 2004 riots, Kosovo leaders sought to address the
concerns of the Serbian Orthodox Church and persons
displaced by the violence and agreed to fund and
cooperate with local religious officials and
international experts in rebuilding the damaged
property. On the basis of a Council of Europe damage
assessment, the PISG allocated $5.3 million (4.2
million euros) for the initial phase of the
reconstruction of churches and monasteries damaged in
the March riots. The PISG completed the first phase of
emergency repairs in full cooperation with the SOC
during the period covered by this report.
In a May 2006 report to the UNSC, UNMIK stated that
most of the criminal cases related to March 2004 riots
were handled by the local judiciary: charges were
pressed against 426 people, resulting in 217
convictions, 14 acquittals, 89 pending cases, and 106
cases dropped for lack of evidence. International
prosecutors conducted forty-four of the most serious
riot-related cases, resulting in thirteen convictions,
with punishments ranging from suspended sentences to
eighteen years in prison for attempted murder.
General crime statistics as reported by UNMIK on May
24, 2006, revealed a decline in potentially
ethnically-motivate d crimes. Compared to the
seventy-two incidents recorded from January to March
2005, nineteen such cases were reported during the
same time period in 2006. UNMIK police reported that
of the 1,408 Kosovo Serb convoys escorted by the KPS
from January to early May 2006, there were only 6
incidents of stone throwing, leading to 5 arrests by
the KPS. In response to reports in the Serb media of
increasing security concerns among Kosovo Serbs, UNMIK
and KPS began twenty-four- hour foot patrols in
majority ethnic Serb areas of Kosovo in May 2006.
On May 16, 2006, ethnic Albanian students from a
secondary school in Decan municipality, accompanied by
the director and four teachers, visited the Decani
monastery, marking the first nonofficial visit of
ethnic Albanian Kosovo residents to the monastery
since the end of the conflict in 1999. Father Sava
Janjic welcomed and guided the group through a tour of
the site; both sides expressed positive impressions,
and Father Sava told the group he would welcome more
such visits in the future.
On April 14, 2006, UNMIK, for the third time, renewed
a six-month protection zone for 800 hectares
surrounding Decani monastery, which prevents
commercial development on protected property.
The municipal assembly of Rahovec/Orahovac passed a
resolution on June 19, 2006, allowing the monks of
Zociste/Zocishte monastery to regularly use their
church bell. Until June 19, as directed by German
KFOR, the monks rang the bell only for important
church holidays.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and a large
Serbian delegation traveled to Kosovo on June 26-28 to
commemorate the 650th anniversary of the death of King
Dusan at the Holy Archangels Monastery in Prizren, and
the annual Vidovdan commemoration of the defeat of the
Serbs and their allies by the Turks in the Battle of
Kosovo Polje in 1389. The visit, a possible
flashpoint, went without incident.
Section III. Societal Abuses and Discrimination
Ethnicity and religion were inextricably linked in
Kosovo and made it difficult to determine if societal
discrimination and violence were religiously or
ethnically motivated. While most Kosovo Albanians
identified themselves as Muslim, the designation had
more of a cultural than religious connotation. Kosovo
Serbs identified themselves with the SOC, which
defined not only their religious but also their
cultural and historical perspectives. During and after
the 1999 conflict, some Serbian Orthodox leaders
played a moderating political role, while others
withdrew from constructive discussion. Most Kosovo
Serb politicians continued their three-year boycott of
participation in government institutions.
Societal violence continued and increased marginally
from the last reporting period. Three high-profile
killings of ethnic Serbs occurred during the reporting
period: on August 27, 2005, two young men were fatally
shot while driving, and a third was stabbed in March
on the flashpoint bridge separating ethnic Serb
majority north Mitrovica municipality from ethnic
Albanian majority south Mitrovica. The first crime had
not been solved, but police authorities reacted
quickly to arrest suspects in the second case, one of
whom was released and was awaiting trial. On May 6,
2006, Kosovo Serb media reported that unknown
attackers shot at a car driven by Serbian Orthodox
priest Srjdan Stankovic in Zvecan municipality; UNMIK
charged an ethnic Serb Kosovo Police Service officer
in connection with the incident for "brandishing a
firearm." One other high profile shooting occurred at
a gas station; no one had been charged for this
incident by the end of the period covered by this
report. Although tension between communities remained
high, the prevailing crime trend continued to be
against property instead of persons. In 2005, however,
57 percent of potential ethnically motivated incidents
were assault and intimidation- related, not necessarily
property-related offences, as in the previous
reporting period. There were some reported incidents
of rock-throwing and other assaults against Serbian
buses and Serbian Orthodox clergy as they traveled
outside of their monasteries, and monks and nuns at
some monasteries reportedly did not use parts of the
monasteries' properties because of concerns about
safety.
Security concerns continued to affect the Serb
community and also affected its freedom to worship,
particularly after the March 2004 riots. Some Kosovo
Serbs asserted that they were not able to travel
freely to practice their faith. Father Sava Janjic of
Decani monastery told USOP that, since KFOR stopped
escorting non-clergy parishioners to religious sites
in April 2005, he noticed a decline in attendance at
services. Sava also reported that, when traveling
through Kosovo, clergy transit vans were sometimes
pelted with stones and verbal insults, although he and
his co-religious generally traveled freely and without
incident on Kosovo's main highways during the period
covered by this report. Father Sava and Bishop
Teodosije (Sibalic) of Lipljan both traveled with an
escort to USOP on occasion without incident, including
on July 1, 2005, for a Fourth of July celebration. On
April 21, 2005, KFOR withdrew its last two armored
vehicles from the bridge connecting majority
Serb-inhabited north Mitrovica and Kosovo Albanian
dominated south Mitrovica and, on April 29, 2005,
opened twenty-four- hour passage on the bridge;
however, following the stabbing incident near the
northern side of the bridge, civilian passage was
again temporarily halted. KFOR maintained a nearby
presence.
Problems at Serbian Orthodox religious sites continued
during the period covered by this report, such as an
abundance of garbage at a cemetery near the Pec/Peja
Patriarchate. Local Serb radio reported on May 12,
2006, that unknown attackers broke newly fitted doors
and several new windows added to the SOC's Church of
Saint Ilija, in Podujeve/Podujevo municipality, by the
PISG as part of the renovation of March 2004
riot-related damage. The SOC told the media that
unknown attackers vandalized the Church of the Birth
of the Mother of God (Theotokos) in Obiliq/Obilic on
June 19, 2006, by taking at least two crosses from the
church's domes and a portion of the lead roof. This
church was built in 1998, damaged in the March 2004
riots, and placed on the list of sites to be
reconstructed using money from the PISG.
The Kosovo Police Service reported on June 20, 2006,
that unknown attackers vandalized sixteen tombstones
in a Serbian Orthodox cemetery located in the ethnic
Serb majority village of Staro Gracko/Starogracke in
Lipljan municipality. KFOR had reportedly cordoned off
the cemetery on June 9 when visitors discovered a
landmine there. Investigations were ongoing at the end
of the period covered by this report. On June 21, Serb
media reported that the Serbian Orthodox Church of St.
Andrew in Podujeve/Podujevo municipality was
vandalized as well.
Many of the churches and monasteries burned in the
March 2004 riots were constructed in the 14th century
and are considered part of Kosovo's cultural and
religious heritage. Father Sava Janjic provided a
comprehensive list of religious sites destroyed or
damaged between March 17 and 19, 2004. The list
included thirty sites altogether in the following
fourteen locations: Prizren, Rahovec, Gjakova,
Skenderaj, Peja, Ferizaj, Kamenica, Shtime, Pristina,
Fushe Kosove, Vushtrri, Obiliq, Mitrovica, and
Podujevo.
Individual donor countries began repairs to several of
the seventy-five priority cultural and religious
monuments identified at the May 13, 2005, donors'
conference in Paris.
In addition, problems continued with the unfinished
Serbian Church of Christ the Savior (only the exterior
walls stood), located on University of Pristina
grounds. During the 1990s, the Serb-dominated
administration in Pristina gave the land on which the
church sits to the SOC. In 2003, the Pristina
Municipal Assembly passed a resolution to return the
land to the university. The UNMIK representative in
the Pristina municipal government immediately
suspended this decision. In February 2005, a Christian
cross attached to the church was damaged. The SRSG
recommended that Pristina authorities abandon their
September proposal to convert the unfinished church
into an entertainment venue, such as a movie theater
or an art gallery.
In light of societal violence in Kosovo against
properties owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church and
Serbian Orthodox religious symbols, UNMIK authorities
continued to provide special security measures to
protect religious sites and to ensure that members of
all religious groups could worship safely. KFOR
deployed security contingents at religious sites
throughout Kosovo to protect them from further
destruction, such as that which had occurred
immediately after KFOR's intervention in 1999;
however, KFOR gave priority to saving persons' lives
rather than property and was unable to stop the
burning and destruction of many sites in March 2004.
Because of improving security conditions and
decreasing interethnic tensions in some areas, KFOR
removed static checkpoints from most churches and
religious sites, including relaxing checkpoints at
Decani monastery, during the period covered by this
report, relying instead on patrols by the U.N.
international police (CIVPOL) and indigenous Kosovo
Police Service (KPS). In most cases, such changes in
security measures did not result in a change in the
level of safety of, or access to, the religious sites.
During the March 2004 riots, KFOR, CIVPOL, and KPS
were involved in crowd control and protecting lives
and property. The priority was evacuating persons over
saving property, even religious property. Immediately
following the March riots, the process of transfer of
jurisdiction over local police stations from KFOR to
CIVPOL and KPS was halted; subsequently, transfer
continued, and all thirty-two jurisdictions in Kosovo
were under local KPS patrol at the end of the period
covered by this report.
Although Protestants previously reported a slight
improvement in their situation, they reported
suffering more violence and discrimination during the
period covered by this report. They reported
discrimination through verbal attacks and exclusion
from interfaith initiatives by the religious
leadership who defended their actions on the grounds
that Protestants are not considered a "traditional"
religion in Kosovo. They also stated that, while
public television station RTK as an institution did
not specifically report on the Protestant religion,
some individuals within the RTK had a more positive
approach. Protestants also reported slight
discrimination in schools where school officials
occasionally called in parents of pupils to deter
their children from being Protestant. Protestants
reported that a U.S. citizen pastor was beaten in
Decani municipality by a young man opposed to the
Protestants' building of a church there. Protestants
also reported verbal local opposition to showing a
Christian-based movie in villages throughout Kosovo,
as well as break-ins at churches and harassment of
adherents.
Roman Catholic leaders reported that they had good
relations with the Muslim community but hardly any
bilateral contact with the Serbian Orthodox Church
leadership. Roman Catholic and Serbian Orthodox church
leadership believed each other to be highly
politicized. The Muslim community made similar remarks
concerning their relationship with the Roman Catholic
leadership and lack of relationship with the Orthodox
community. On May 3, 2006, thieves stole thirteen
religious paintings from a Catholic church in Letnica
village, which was inhabited by ethnic Albanian and
Croats. The Pec/Peja Patriarchate hosted Kosovo's
first interfaith conference in two years from May 2 to
4, 2006. Participants from Islamic, Orthodox, Roman
Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant religious
communities, diplomatic liaison offices, UNMIK, and
members of the PISG's central and local governance
structures discussed religious freedom; visited a
Roman Catholic church, a mosque, and Peja/Pec's
Orthodox church, accompanied by regional municipal
leadership; visited Decani monastery; and, accompanied
by ethnic Albanian Decan/Decani mayor Nazmi Selmanaj,
walked together to the mosque in the city center. The
common statement released by the religious leaders
committed the group to hold regular meetings to
intensify interreligious dialogue and cooperation, to
promote the returns process of all displaced persons,
and to engage in the process of drafting religious
freedom legislation. Norwegian Church Aid hosted the
May 2006 conference to promote peace and dialogue
among religious groups. The Islamic community offered
to host the next meeting in October 2006.
The withdrawal of Former Republic of Yugoslavia and
Serbian troops from Kosovo in 1999 and establishment
of UNMIK administration through UNSCR 1244 resulted in
an improved situation for the majority, largely
Muslim, ethnic Albanian population, and a cessation of
attacks on their mosques and religious sites.
Islamic, some local Orthodox, and Roman Catholic
leaders have attempted to encourage tolerance and
peace in Kosovo, in both the religious and political
spheres.
Section IV. U.S. Government Policy
The U.S. government discusses religious freedom issues
with the U.N. Special Envoy for the Kosovo status
talks, UNMIK, the PISG, and religious representatives
in Kosovo as part of its overall policy to promote
human rights, and has sought to promote ethnic and
religious tolerance in Kosovo. U.S. officials also
maintained close contacts and met regularly with
religious leaders of the Serbian Orthodox, Islamic,
Roman Catholic, and Protestant communities to discuss
their concerns and to push for interfaith dialogue. A
delegation of Serbian Orthodox officials formally
visited U.S. government institutions in the United
States from March 15 to 22, 2006.
U.S. officials continued to urge dialogue between
members of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and
ethnic Albanian members of the PISG. Officials from
the United States met frequently with the heads of
major religious communities. In contrast to previous
reporting periods, United States Office Pristina
personnel attended Serbian Orthodox holiday services.
U.S. officials continued to support UNMIK and the PISG
in rebuilding religious buildings damaged in the
interethnic riots of March 2004. Officials from the
United States met frequently with the heads of the
major religious communities, provided funding to
preserve Ottoman-era transcripts in the Gazi Medhmed
Pasha library, and granted $1 million to UNESCO's
large-scale effort to preserve cultural heritage in
the country.
The United States is involved actively in UNMIK, whose
goal is to secure peace, facilitate the return of the
displaced, lay the foundations for democratic
self-government, and foster respect for human rights
regardless of ethnicity or religion.
U.S. KFOR peacekeeping troops worked to prevent ethnic
and religious violence in Kosovo and guarded religious
sites. U.S. KFOR was credited by local SOC officials
with preventing the situation from further escalation
in their sector during the March 2004 riots, and they
increased their presence within the sector they
patrol.
The U.S. government funded the remainder of a survey
of Islamic manuscripts in Kosovo to help the local
Islamic community preserve its religious heritage.
The U.S. Department of State funds a U.N.
international police (CIVPOL) advisor in Pristina and
provided $40 million (31.86 million euros) to support
KPS and CIVPOL. KPS and CIVPOL have worked to prevent
ethnic and religious violence in the country.
The U.S. Department of State provides $3.5 million in
funding for returns programs for Muslim and Orthodox
Roma, Orthodox Serbs, Muslim Bosnians, and other
minority communities.
In the wake of the March 2004 interethnic violence,
U.S. officers met with Islamic, Orthodox, and Roman
Catholic authorities to discuss ways of supporting
reconciliation and interfaith dialogue. Many
high-level U.S. government and military officials
continued to visit the country in conjunction with the
final status negotiation process and meet with both
political and religious leaders to assess the
situation and urge reconstruction and progress toward
a multiethnic Kosovo. The U.S. Office also urged the
Government to reconstruct Serb homes quickly and allow
UNESCO to take the lead on reconstruction of destroyed
and damaged religious sites in the country.
Released on September 15, 2006
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