Government,
International Law
Sep. 21, 2002
De Facto Partition in Kosovo Challenges U.N.'s Authority
Kosovo is the only area in the world being governed by an international organization. Under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, the special representative to the secretary-general is the chief executive officer for the international occupation of Kosovo. After the 1999 NATO bombing, the special representative's task was to develop meaningful self-government in this unique enclave within the Serbian portion of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
William Slomanson
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Email: bills@tjsl.edu
William Slomanson is also the author of California Procedure in a Nutshell (5th ed. 2014).
By William Slomanson
Kosovo is the only area in the world being governed by an international organization. Under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, the special representative to the secretary-general is the chief executive officer for the international occupation of Kosovo. After the 1999 NATO bombing, the special representative's task was to develop meaningful self-government in this unique enclave within the Serbian portion of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Under the ensuing May 2001 Constitutional Framework for Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo, the United Nations cautioned that none of the evolving governmental institutions in Kosovo should in any way affect or diminish the authority of the United Nations. It expressly reaffirmed that Kosovo is an undivided territory.
Kosovo's Ibar River flows through the center of the northern city of Mitrovica, near the Serbian border. That city lies within the French sector of Kosovo's five military zones. In 1999, NATO military forces established a checkpoint on both sides of a 50-meter-long bridge in Mitrovica.
This area has since been the lightning rod for ethnic irritation. Although Serbian leaders deny it, international officials suspect that the Serbian National Council for Northern Kosovo orchestrates the supposedly spontaneous violence that occasionally has erupted at or near this bridge.
The Mitrovica bridge checkpoint impedes freedom of movement and the evolution of a truly multiethnic society within Kosovo. It is the de facto dividing line between Kosovo's Serb-inhabited north and the Kosovar-Albanian south.
Neither France nor NATO are to blame for Mitrovica's challenge to the United Nation's authority. Establishing the bridge checkpoint was born of the laudable desire to prevent arms traffic from Serbia proper into northern Kosovo. NATO soldiers also have monitored the north-south movement of unsavory individuals wishing to foment ethnically motivated violence.
Several weeks ago, I approached the bridge checkpoint with Enver Hasani, a Pristina University colleague. Hasani is a Kosovar Albanian who represented Kosovo in the Rambouillet peace talks in early 1999. Although no one disputes that Mitrovica is well within Kosovar territory, the French NATO guards asked for our passports.
We were allowed onto the bridge but prohibited from crossing into northern Mitrovica. We observed the well-known cafe La Dolce Vita, home of the so-called Bridgewatchers. Pursuant to congressional testimony this summer, this is a Serbian group whose primary task is to monitor the flow of ethnic Albanians attempting to cross the river into Mitrovica's north side.
The Bridgewatchers reportedly include plainclothes police officers from Serbia's Interior Ministry and other pro-Serb inhabitants of northern Mitrovica. Pictures of this bridge checkpoint are available at http://home.att.net/~slomansonb/KSU_Jpegs3B.html.
In the July hearings on Capitol Hill before the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, invited witnesses testified as follows: Belgrade hopes to solidify this de facto partition of Kosovo, which is itself a U.N.-administered autonomous region inside Serbia; NATO established this checkpoint to prevent attacks by extremist Albanian groups on the Serb population in northern Kosovo; NATO military police have failed to fully control the city of Mitrovica; and the United Nations is unable to assert its authority effectively over the portion of Kosovo north of the Mitrovica checkpoint.
One could argue that U.N. acquiescence in this de facto separation of Kosovo is a humanitarian Band-Aid solution to protect the Serbian population of Kosovo. Serb enclaves throughout Kosovo have been guarded by NATO's military troops for the three years since the U.N. occupation began. Yet the Mitrovica division means that Serbs also have a not-so-discreet safe harbor into which they can migrate should they prefer security in numbers.
This unofficial partition has arguably enhanced the prospects for a greater Serbia. Slobodan Milosevic's Serbia attempted to establish the Serb entity known as Republica Srpska in the now independent nation of Bosnia. The international community should acknowledge that Kosovo's division at Mitrovica is yet another step in the same direction.
Any change in Kosovo's geopolitical status should result only from a fresh U.N. resolution. Mitrovica's de facto parallel system presents a challenge to the United Nation's authority, thus raising the issue of whether the rule of law is being eroded in Kosovo.
On Aug. 1, Milorad Todorvic, the provisional Kosovo government's interministerial coordinator for returns, declared that Kosovo must discourage any further exodus of Serbs to northern Mitrovica from southern Kosovo.
The European Union, Kosovo's biggest donor, echoed this sentiment several weeks ago during the E.U. chairman-in-office's presentation to the Security Council. Danish Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Loj condemned this illegal parallel structure in Mitrovica north as destabilizing the United Nation's supposedly exclusive control of Kosovo.
When violence flared in Mitrovica in February 2000, the Pentagon ordered the U.S. general in charge of the U.S. contingent in Kosovo not to deploy any troops there. The United States does not readily tolerate military casualties, as occurred elsewhere in Kosovo in July when U.S. soldiers were injured by exploding land mines.
On Aug. 28, however, the United States suddenly upgraded its concern by stationing 100 U.S. troops at the Mitrovica checkpoint. The stated objective is to aid the French NATO forces in managing their particular military zone. But one can speculate that, when this form of battle line is drawn, such an ethnic division can only discourage successful completion of the U.N. task in Kosovo.
The primary objective of the international community is to promote a multiethnic society. Thus, the divided city of Mitrovica is an ethnic Balkanization of Kosovo.
NATO, the United States and the United Nations must ensure that the region stretching from the northern edge of the Mitrovica bridge to the Serbian border remains an integral part of Kosovo. If not, then Mitrovica will become yet another military checkpoint sired by good intentions but growing up to challenge the will of the international community.
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