6 August 2005 - Letter from
Prishtinë/Prishtina – Kosovo
Friends.
I can’t believe that I have been here for
over a year, but I have – a year and two months to be exact. I don’t know how
long I will be able to stay but my current contract goes until the end of
November. As peacekeeping missions go, this is a good assignment. The work is
challenging and not particularly dangerous (except for the roads which are bad
and the drivers worse); and life can actually be quite pleasant.
I have a very nice apartment about 10
minutes from the office. Although last Sunday night, at 9:30, when I arrived back from a weekend in Greece, there
were men hosing down the building next door. I thought it was a fire but it was
not. They were just knocking down the neighbouring building with an excavator.
And that went on until 3 a.m.
in the morning. They then dug out the foundation and are now hard at work
constructing a new building. I am not quite sure why, but there are two cement
mixers with the output being carted up to the top of yet another neighbouring
building – and a whole crew of men laying bricks, drilling holes, and knocking
in metal rods. Needless to say, this will continue all through August and
September, with 2 inches of dust on my balconies every day – not to mention the
layers of dirt throughout the apartment. So I have to axe the idea of sitting
on the balcony and enjoying breakfast or dinner outside. Moreover, the workmen
seem to arrive at 5:30 a.m.
– so I try to be up and out by then. I
tend to wake up about that time anyway – which is when the sun rises, and
shortly after the Imam calls the faithful to prayer (from a mosque not too far
away – though that is all mechanized today); and just after the bakery, two
doors down, stokes up their wood fire (there is always that particular burned
smell in the air when I get up). But, if
I’m lucky, the water is on at that hour – in the winter, it was seldom on
before 7:00; and there is
almost always electricity in the morning. It goes off a lot – but usually in
the evenings, just when you are set to cook or watch something on TV. (And I do
not have an invertor – which I should get – which battery operates some basic
appliances.)
Actually, my own work – these days – is
often in dust and dirt as my major project at the moment is trying to make
return to the Roma Mahala happen. This is an area in the northern-“ish” part of
Kosovo (a 45 minute drive from Pristhinë/Pristina) – to be politically correct, you spell names
in both Albanian and Serbian. The Roma “Mahala” (or settlement) on the south
bank of the Ibar River, was the second largest in the
Balkans (after the mahala in Macedonia).
It used to be home to about 8,000 people – is an area of about 13 hectares and
had about 750 homes. In 2000, after the NATO troops were in Kosovo, it was
burned down by extremist Albanians who believed that the Roma had been
collaborators with the Serbs. Most of the Roma, Ashkaeli, Egyptians (we used to
called them “gypsies”, but this is now a pejorative term) fled to Serbia, to
Macedonia, to West European countries, but about a thousand of the poorest
remained here in Kosovo. They were put into camps by UNHCR for what was
intended to be a few weeks. Now, 6 years later, they are still in these camps –
which were, unfortunately, constructed right next to the tailings of the Trepca
mines – on land that is highly polluted with lead and other heavy metals. There
are four camps in the northern municipalities, three heavily lead polluted, and
all a hygienic nightmare. The Roma are among the poorest and most marginalized
in all of Europe. And, making return happen is
complicated by security factors, the fact that the land they came from was an
informal settlement (and many did not own the land on which they had built
their houses) and is now prime real estate, right in the middle of Mitrovicë/a,
and the fact that the Roma – poorly educated, highly suspicious of
internationals (and for good reasons) -- are very difficult to work with; and
the need to plan for an emergency evacuation of the current camps on health
grounds, over the opposition of the RAE themselves. So it is a challenge. With
a number of dimensions. First, we are trying to improve conditions in the camps
until the some 700 people can be moved from there. Second, – we are engaged in
planning the first phase of the reconstruction – an area of approximately 3
hectares of land where we are planning to put up 9 small apartment buildings,
as well as to develop the infrastructure for the rest of the Mahala; and trying
to get the rubble of the destroyed buildings cleared away so new construction
can be started.
Morty – my brother – if you are reading
this, you would marvel that your sister is now talking about things like where
sewage lines are to be laid, how much more it adds to the cost of a building to
put in basements, how to tender for architectural drawings, and how to ensure
that an area is safe when you are going to blow up some buildings (or, at
least, have KFOR blow them up for you).
See photos below!!! (Me and General Traqui, French Commander of the
Multinational Battalion, or with General Jamie Balfour -- discussing progress
on the rubble clearing.)
But, I must say, this is far more
interesting work than what I was doing for the past few months – the dreaded
“standards” process – of trying to assess how good the government was
performing against a set of standards. Of course, that did have its moments.
For example, it was interesting to note, one afternoon about 6 weeks ago, that
parking signs were going up all over town. Great! There would be some control
now over where people could park. But, both the metal signs, and the tickets
you got when you paid to park, were only in Albanian. My friends and family in Quebec will understand
the importance of bilingualism in signage – but here it also relates very much
to freedom of movement. Somehow, though, the municipal authorities just didn’t
get it. Or maybe they did – and maybe the company that got to make the signs in
the first place (friends no doubt of the municipality) profit doubly as they
now get to make another whole set of signs – this time bilingual. How long it
will take, though, is not clear. So far, the signs are still only in Albanian.
But, I began by saying that life if quite
good here. And it is. Now – in the summer – it is possible to go to Greece, or Macedonia or Albania for a
weekend. Pristina has neither lake no river, so the sea has a real attraction
and Thessalonika is only a 5 or 6 hour drive, depending on the borders and the
drivers. There are also quite a lot of
good restaurants. And since this is a non-family duty station, most people are
happy to go out together for lunch or dinner – there is a commaraderie that is
nice.
So – we will see what happens a few months
down the road. Whether I stay or leave. It was a quiet summer but, politically,
there is a simmering just below the surface. Some fear that come September, we
may have violence. I hope not, but everything is possible. The unemployment
rate here is still 60+ percent. The economy is not good for locals. Real ethnic
integration is a chimera. And it will take many many years before the notions
of democracy and human rights are meaningful concepts here.
But – if you are in the area, I have a bed,
and food, and it would be great to see you. Write and tell me what you are up
to. Because what is hard is keeping in touch. I really enjoy it when I hear
from you and get your news.
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