By David L. Phillips/*
The government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are on the verge of an historic peace agreement after 50 years of civil war. Sustainable peace requires a plan for disarming, demobilizing, and reintegrating (DDR) ex-combatants. The UN has vast experience with DDR, which can help consolidate Colombia’s peace.
Disarming is always difficult. DDR requires a clear understanding of terms and well-defined goals.
DDR is a process that seeks to remove weapons from the hands of combatants, take combatants out of military structures, and help them integrate socially and economically into the society.
– Disarmament is the collection and destruction of weapons in the possession of combatants, as well as civilians. It also includes the development of a responsible arms management program.
– Demobilization involves the dismantling of the command, control, and remobilization capacity. Ex-combatants are typically grouped in camps to prepare for life outside the armed group.
– Reintegration works best when the ex-combatant has a job, and the community benefits from recovery and development. Community centered reintegration has proven effective in several post-conflict contexts.
Peace requires incentives. Ex-combatants are wary of promises after years of fighting. Going forward, combatants will weigh the benefits of entering a DDR program to remaining in an armed group.
The “ripeness” theory of conflict resolution is based on the belief that a comprehensive peace agreement can be achieved when combatants grow weary of war. Political will is the prerequisite for peace and DDR.
Of course, each situation is unique. Designing a conflict-specific DDR program relies on good baseline data, political analysis, and cultural understanding. To increase chances for success, directly-affected communities should also be involved in design and implementation of the DDR program.
Security is the universal requirement for any peace agreement. Parties to the conflict need security in order to prevent backsliding and deadly violence. DDR cannot proceed effectively without a cease-fire agreement.
In addition, DDR must be part of a broader transitional justice plan. Incentives could include pardons or targeted amnesties. Truth commissions versus criminal justice processes can also be considered.
Security sector reform is also part of a transitional justice plan. In Colombia, para-military groups emerged out of drug-trafficking and the reaction of rural landowners to attacks and kidnappings by guerilla groups. The government of Colombia signed an accord with paramilitaries in 2003, allowing them to disarm and demobilize as units. Despite halting progress, paramilitary groups still exist and could undermine current negotiations.
Economic factors are also critical to peace-building. Ex-combatants require livelihoods, sustainable employment and income. Reintegration can incorporate educational opportunities to foster job skills. Cash payments through a guns buy-back program could help kick-start the economy.
Colombia’s conflict has been going on for more than half a century. Distrust runs deep. As a procedural breakthrough, both sides have invited the UN to participate in DDR.
The UN must be pro-active. As a first step in confidence building, the UN could establish a trust fund to support both the re-integration of ex-combatants, as well as the needs of recipient communities so they can better meet the needs of returning combatants.
Transparency is important. Stakeholders must be engaged. The UN should invite DDR participants to discuss what DDR means to them, and how DDR would be implemented.
The UN must show results. It can quickly establish cantonment areas where UN personnel would take custody of weapons and ultimately dispose of them. Additionally, the UN would prepare a list of units and individuals to be demobilized. To avoid the appearance of defeat, the UN could also organize an event where individuals are acknowledged — before demobilizing.
Colombia is a potential success story. A peace accord would not only end 50 years of civil war. It would also showcase ways that UN agencies can advance the cause of peace through humanitarian and development assistance.
*Mr. Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights.
*The Huffington Post
Bowie: A World Class Humanitarian
By David L Phillips*/
I met David Bowie in 1994, during the war in Bosnia. Bowie was deeply troubled by ethnic cleansing of Bosniak Muslims by Croats and Serbs. He used his celebrity discreetly yet effectively to raise awareness about events in Bosnia. I knew Bowie as a humanitarian and a man of principle.
Bowie and I met at the Imperial War Museum in London. I was accompanied by Haris Silajdzic, Bosnia’s Prime Minister. Arrangements were made by Bob Summer, the former CEO of SONY Music, and his wife Susan.
The purpose of our meeting was to view a painting owned by Bowie called “Croatians and Muslim.” The painting depicted two Croatian men raping a Muslim woman, while pushing her head into a toilet. Bowie described the painting as “evocative and devastating.”
The image was so troubling that the Imperial War Museum disowned it. Bowie stepped into the controversy, buying the art work from the Scottish painter, Peter Towson, for $28,000. Art, whether visual or musical, was a call to action.
With the help of Bowie’s publicist, we lined-up dozens of media meetings at the Dorchester Hotel. Silajdzic went from room to room, 10 minutes each, doing television interviews.
Bob and Susan hosted a small private dinner. Bowie was there. Brian Eno, the musician and master recording engineer, attended with Anthea. Peter Towson was present. Other personalities in the British rock scene were also seated.
The dinner conversation focused on the siege of Sarajevo. Not unlike what’s happening today in the Syrian town of Madaya, Sarajevo was encircled. Serbian artillery fired indiscriminately. Snipers took deadly aim. Residents had no food or water.
We talked about the impact of Towson’s painting. Guests expressed horror at the systematic use of sexual violence against Bosniak Muslims. We explored organizing a series of meetings to establish rape a war crime.
Bowie thought the siege of Sarajevo could be broken by holding a concert, and offered to perform.
Safe passage was his pre-condition. The journey to Sarajevo was a scary trip in 1994. Driving from Croatia over Mt. Igman was treacherous. The road was built on crumbling limestone. There were many road blocks and land mines. Alternatively, the UN provided a shuttle service from Zagreb to Sarajevo using old Antanov propeller planes. The shuttle service was sarcastically called “Maybe Airlines.” Flights were often canceled. Some took off, but never landed.
Silajdzic proposed dates for Bowie’s concert in the spring. The UN Department of Peace-keeping Operations suggested we travel by helicopter. I kept trying to confirm arrangements with Bowie, but he wouldn’t commit. Bowie later revealed his phobia for helicopters.
The Sarajevo concert never happened. Bosnian Serb forces intensified their attacks against UN safe areas. The slaughter continued through the following summer when 8,000 men and boys were killed in Srebrenica.
I ran into Bowie backstage at Carnegie Hall a few years later. He was performing at a fund raising event for Tibet House.
We reminisced about Bosnia; discussed the Dayton Peace Agreement. He updated me on Brian Eno’s charity called “War Child,” a music school for war traumatized youth in Croatia.
In his book, A Year, Eno wrote: “Incidentally one of the connections we made was this guy named David Phillips, from an organization called the Congressional Human Rights Foundation, and he has proven extremely helpful: sort of taking Anthea and War Child under his wing, introducing her to all sorts of useful contacts.”
I was honored to help. Bowie and Eno are good people. They are humble stars who helped mobilize the music industry in response to Bosnia, and to promote peace and human rights in other violent corners of the world.
The world knows Bowie as an innovator in the fields of music, fashion, and drama. David Bowie was also a world class humanitarian. He was strong, yet understated. He was principled, yet discreet. Bowie gave voice to the voiceless, using many instruments at his disposal to bend the arc of history towards justice.
*Mr. Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights.
*The Huffington Post, January 13, 2016/
Turkey’s Islamist Agenda in Kosovo
By David L. Phillips/*
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed an audience in Prizren during an official visit to Kosovo in October 2013: “We all belong to a common history, common culture, common civilization. We are the people who are brethren of that structure. Do not forget, Turkey is Kosovo, Kosovo is Turkey!”
Turkey’s foreign policy in the Balkans promotes a neo-Ottoman agenda, aimed at expanding its influence in former territories of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey exports Islamism under the guise of cultural cooperation. It also seeks economic advantage, using business as leverage to consolidate its national interests.
The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) is a vehicle through which Turkey advances its ideological agenda. TIKA is the vanguard of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which supports Muslim Brotherhood chapters around the world. TIKA runs a parallel and complementary foreign policy to official state institutions, coordinating with Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and the Presidency of Religious Affairs to promote the AKP’s Islamist agenda.
TIKA operates like a social welfare agency. In Kosovo, it supports more than 400 projects in the fields of agriculture, health and education. Affordable health care is offered in Kosovo at Turkish-run hospitals and clinics, sponsored by TIKA.
Despite its extensive activities, Zeri reports that the Central Bank of Kosovo has logged only 2.7 million Euros transferred by TIKA to its Kosovo account between 2009 and 2014. TIKA transfers most funds in cash with no official record. It does not want to draw attention to its activities.
Most TIKA funds are used to restore Ottoman monuments and build mosques. For example, TIKA supported restoration of the Sultan Murat Tomb in Kosovo. It rebuilt Ottoman religious sites like the Fatih Mosque and the Sinan Pasha Mosque, which cost 1.2 million Euros. Since 2011, TIKA has restored approximately 30 religious structures from the Ottoman period and 20 new mosques across Kosovo. Erdogan personally pledged funds to build the country’s biggest mosque in Pristina.
In addition, TIKA supports regional Islamic unions and institutions. It subsidizes community based social mobilization projects, which promote Islam. TIKA’s network of Muslim community leaders and imams, which includes imams from Turkey, actively promotes Islam. Its benevolence includes food for the Iftar meal during Ramadan, delivered to impressionable Kosovars in poor rural areas.
TIKA also sponsors schools in Pristina, Prizren, Gjakova, and Peja. Some schools provide Qur’anic instruction, as well as Turkish language instruction. As many as 20,000 Turks reside in Kosovo, where Turkish is an official language. The Turkish Embassy in Pristina awards 100 scholarships for Kosovars to study in Turkey each year.
But not all schools supported by TIKA are part of the formal education sector. Some function like madrassas, offering Islamic education, thereby contributing to the radicalization of Kosovar youth. The Government of Kosovo acknowledges that more than 300 Kosovars have joined the Islamic State in Syria. The figure dates back a couple of years. Today’s number may be much higher.
Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Centers are also vehicles for Turkish influence. According to its charter, Yunus Emre Centers “provide services abroad to people who want to have education in the fields of Turkish language, culture and art, to improve the friendship between Turkey and other countries.”
Support for educational institutions is a propaganda tool to foster a positive impression of Turkey among Kosovars. Turkey’s Minister of Education visited Kosovo and publicly asked Kosovo institutions to change history texts in order to portray Ottomans as liberators, rather than as occupants and aggressors.
Erdogan asked the Government of Kosovo to close schools established by Fetullah Gulen, with whom he had a falling out. Kosovo officials acquiesced, though Gulen schools offered quality education to Kosovars.
Turkish businessmen also benefit from Turkey’s aggressive religious and cultural promotion. A well-respected Turkish scholar asks of the AKP, “Are they Islamists or just thieves with a religious rhetoric?”
Turkey is Kosovo’s largest trading partner, after Serbia. The trade volume between Turkey and Kosovo was 206.5 million Euros in 2012. (Export to Kosovo was 199.5 million Euros; import from Kosovo only 7 million Euro). Trade volume slightly decreased in 2013-14 due to an economic slowdown in the region.
Tenders for some of the biggest public projects in Kosovo have been won by Turkish companies. The Limak Holding Company won the concession to manage the Pristina International Airport. The Çalık-Limak Consortium also acquired the Kosovo Energy Distribution Services. Limak pledged to invest 300 million Euros in the transmission system, but its investment still has not materialized.
The Merdare-Morina highway connecting Kosovo to Albania was built by the Turkish construction company, Enka, in consortium with Bechtel. Çalik-Limak has just started construction of the Pristina-Hani Elezit highway between Kosovo and Macedonia.
The award of tenders may be subject to political influence. Çalik Holding and Limak are politically well-connected. Erdogan’s son-in-law is a major shareholder in Limak.
The Turkish banking system dominates the financial sector in Kosovo. A majority of Kosovo’s major banks are Turkish, including the Turkish Economic Bank (TEB).
More than 900 Turkish companies operate in Kosovo. About 7,000 Kosovars are employed by Turkish companies in, for example, the food processing and textile sectors. It is hard to be accepted or keep a job in a business where the owner is Turkish if you don’t speak Turkish.
Kadri Veseli, a prominent Kosovo politician, was a former critic of Turkish concerns acquiring Kosovo state enterprises. Veseli bemoaned Turkey’s penetration as bad for both Kosovo’s economy and its EU aspirations.
Since become Speaker of Kosovo’s Parliament, however, Vaseli has not said a word about Turkey’s economic dominance. He and other prominent Kosovo politicians, including Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, have close ties to Erdogan, as well as Turkish business and political leaders.
Turkey has cemented its influence through security cooperation. Around 2,000 Turkish soldiers were deployed as part of the KFOR peacekeeping mission in 1999. There are still 350 Turkish soldiers in Pristina and Prizren. Turkey has indicated its willingness to assume control of Bondsteel, the US base in Kosovo, as US forces withdraw.
Turkey has also shown itself a reliable political partner. Ankara was reluctant to endorse Kosovo’s independence, lest a parallel be drawn with its Kurdish minority. However, Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo when it declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s notion of “strategic depth” views Turkey as a regional power and an alternative to the EU for countries like Kosovo. Muslim solidarity is the centerpiece of Davutoğlu’s strategy to expand Turkey’s influence.
Davutoğlu explicitly linked Turkey’s foreign policy to its Ottoman legacy during a trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2009. “The Ottoman centuries of the Balkans were a success story. Now we have to reinvent this.” He announced, “Turkey is back.”
Faster integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions is the best antidote to Turkey’s influence in Kosovo and the Western Balkans. US interests would also be served through intensified engagement in the region.
Closer cooperation between the US and Kosovo would be a bulwark against Turkey’s export of Islamism. It would also prevent the further radicalization of Kosovo society, staunching the flow of Kosovars to join ISIS.
Mr. Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He served as a Senior Adviser and Foreign Affairs Experts to the US Department of State during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. Phillips is author of “Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and US Intervention” (Kennedy School at Harvard University and NBC Publishing).
The Huffington Post
29, December 2015
Promovohet ne Tetove libri i David Philips per Kosoven
Promovohet ne Tetove “Në çlirimin e Kosovës: Diplomacia detyruese dhe ndërhyrja amerikane” i Daviv F. Philips/
NEW YORK : Eshtë promovuar në USHT – Tetovë – libri në versionin shqip i ish- diplomatit amerikan David L. Phillips drejtor i Programit për ndërtimin e paqes në Institutin e Universitetit Columbia për Studimin e të Drejtave të Njeriut dhe një bashkëpuntor në “Harvard Kennedy School’s Project ” mbi të Ardhmen e Diplomacisë.
“Ky libër I dedikohet Ambasadorit Richard Holbrooke. Kosova nuk do të kishte arritur as një her pavarësin e saj pa ndimën e Hollburkut. Vdekja e parakoshme e Hollburkut ishte një humbje e madhe për të gjith botën. Zgjidhjet e krizave siç e kemi krizën e Siri tashme nuk do ishte shumë e rëndë për të zgjidhur sikur të ishte Richall Hollbruk në mesin tonë” – tha autori i librit, David Phillips.
Ish Ambasadori I Shqipërisë në Maqedoni Arben Ceku në fjalimin e tij theksoi se Devid Phillips e meriton titullin si ambasadori i popullit shqiptar në SHBA.
“David Phillips I cili nuk I len të zën pluhur dosjet e cështjeve shqiptare dhe problemet shqiptare, Pavarsisht se ne nuk e kemi emëruar as një her David Phillipsin si ambassador të popullit shiptar un mund të them me plot bindjen se jo vetëm për shkak të kontributit të thën në këtë libër por për shkak të gjith kontributit të tij David Phillips e meriton Titullin si ambassador I popullit shqiptar në SHBA prej 30 vitesh kontribut” – tha ish Ambasadori i Shqipërisë në Republikën e Maqedonisë, Arben Çejku.
Edhe rektori i USHT-ës Vullnet Ameti vlerësoi kontributin që David L. PHILLIPS jep për çështjen shqiptare.
“Ne të gjithë jemi dëshmitar të tmerve dhe mizorimit që ka shkaktuar regjimi I Miloshoviqit ndaj popullit shqiptar në Kosovë dhe më gjërë . Por Davidi I ka integruar ato me një mjeshtëri të rrall në libërin e tij “Çlirimi i Kosovës”” – u shpreh rektori i USHT-së, Vullnet Ameti.
Njëherit Rektori I USHT-së Vullnet Ahmeti i ndau mirënjohje autorit te libërit David Phillips për kontributin e dhënë për clirimin e Kosovës, shkruan shtypi shqiptar nga Maqedonia.
Libri me titullin shqip “Çlirimi i Kosovës “– është me parathënien e ish diplomatit amerikan Nicholas R. Burns, ish Nën /Sekretar i Shtetit, aktualisht një professor universiteti, kolumnist, lektor, një njohës i shkëlqyer i çështjes së Kosovës. Ai është aktualisht professor i Praktikës së Diplomacisë dhe Politikës Ndërkombëtare në Shkollën e Qeverisë John F. Kennedy të Harvardit dhe një anëtar të Bordit të Drejtorëve të Qendrës së shkollës Belfer për Shkencën dhe Çështjeve Ndërkombëtare.
Në librin :”Çlirimi i Kosovës – Liberating Kosovo”, të ish diplomatit amerikan David L. Phillips drejtor i Programit për ndërtimin e paqes në Institutin e Universitetit Columbia për Studimin e të Drejtave të Njeriut dhe një bashkëpuntor në “Harvard Kennedy School’s Project ” mbi të Ardhmen e Diplomacisë, tregohet: Kosova, pas korporatizimit të saj në ish – Republikën Serbe të Jugosllavisë, u bë gjithnjë e më pasive gjatë viteve 1990, mbasi Jugosllavia( e shkërmoqur dhe që nuk egziston më) u zhyt në luftë të brendshme dhe të shqiptarë etnikë të Kosovës, kur kosovarët kërkuan autonominë, atëhere.
Në mars të vitit 1999, forcat e NATO-s filluan sulmet ajrore kundër caqeve në Kosovë dhe Serbi në një përpjekje për të mbrojtur popullin etink shqiptarë, kundër persekutimit dhe shfarrosjes.Fushata e bombardimeve përfundoi në qershor 1999, dhe Kosova u vendos nën administrimin e OKB-së, si një periudhë e quajtur e tranzicionit, ndërsa negociatat për statusin e saj pasuan. Kosova përfundimisht shpalli pavarësinë në vitin 2008. Pavarësisht tensioneve të brendshme politike dhe problemet ekonomike, shteti më i ri është njohur nga shumë vende ( 112 vende të OKB) , dhe shumica e banorëve të saj e kan mirëpritur ndarjen e saj nga Serbia.
Në librin e tij :”Çlirimin i Kosovës , David Phillips ofron një përllogaritje bindëse të negociatave dhe veprimeve ushtarake, të cilat kulmuan me pavarësinë e Kosovës. Duke u mbështetur në pjesëmarrjen e tij, në procesin diplomatik dhe intervistat me pjesëmarrësit dhe aktorët kryesorë. Phillips, solli kronikat e Sllobodan Millosheviqit në pushtet, vuajtjet e kosovarëve, dhe ngjarjet që çuan në shpërbërjen e Jugosllavisë. Ai analizon se si NATO, Kombet e Bashkuara dhe Shtetet e Bashkuara, vunë në punë diplomacinë, deri sa filluan bombardimit ajrore të forcave paqeruajtëse, për të vënë në lëvizje procesin që çoi në pavarësinë e Kosovës. Ai gjithashtu ofron njohuri të rëndësishme në një çështje kritike në politikën bashkëkohore ndërkombëtare: si dhe kur Shtetet e Bashkuara, kombet e tjera, dhe OJQ-të duhet të vepronin për të parandaluar spastrimin etnik dhe të shkeljeve të rënda të drejtave të njeriut.
Figura eminente të jetës politike dhe diplomatike, kan folur për librin që tani doli edhe në gjuhën shqipe me titull: “Çlirimi i Kosovës – Liberating Kosovo”, të David Philips
“Kjo histori diplomatike të hedh dritë mbi ngjarjet në Kosovë dhe informon ndërmjetësimin për të ardhmen ai thekson rëndësinë e analizës së kujdesshme në mënyrë që të kuptojmë shkaqet rrënjësore të konfliktit dhe të gjejmë zgjidhje të qëndrueshme.” thotë për këtë libër, Martti Ahtisaari, Kryetari i Bordit të Iniciativës për Menaxhimin e Krizave ; ish-i dërguari special i Sekretarit të Përgjithshëm të OKB-së për procesin e statusit të ardhshëm të Kosovës; fitues i Çmimit Nobel të Paqes 2008
”Një përllogaritje “riveting Insightful” i politikave, dhe procesit, dhe “lojtarët” që çuan Kosovën drejt pavarësisë.” e ka quajtur librin e Philips për Kosovën – Soren Jessen-Petersen, Professor, Shkolla e Studimeve të Avancuara Ndërkombëtare të Universitetit Johns Hopkins, ish Përfaqësuesi Special i Sekretarit të Përgjithshëm dhe Administrator në Kosovë
Kurse, Frank G. Wisner, Përfaqësues Special i Presidentit të Shtetit të SHBA për bisedimet e statusit final të Kosovës thotë se : “David Phillips, me këtë libër na ka dhënë njohuri në kohë dhe të rëndësishme në një prej çështjeve thelbësore të periudhës pas Luftës së Ftohtë – përgjegjësin e komunitetit ndërkombëtar dhe të Shteteve të Bashkuara për të vepruar, kur bota po ballafaqohej me genocid, krime kundër njerëzimit, dhe spastrim etnik “-
Me librin “Në çlirimin e Kosovës: Diplomacia detyruese dhe ndërhyrja amerikane” – Phillips, e di se si të tregojë një histori, dhe ai ka treguar me këtë rastë një histori që ishte për të u treguar … Phillips në ri-tregimin e fushatës së shqiptaro-amerikaneve për Kosovën, në SHBA, është bërë më shumë instruktivë, dhe gjithashtu i pranueshem …. Phillips, duket se ka folur me këtë libër për pothuajse të gjitha ato që tregojnë në Amerikë dhe në Kosovë. ” – ka thënë Toby Vogel, për gazetën shqiptaro amerikane Illyria në SHBA.
Ndërsa për– Erik Jones, Survivor “Version subjektiv i diplomatit David Phillips rreth historisë së fundit të Kosovës ka anët e forta se një vetë-vetëdije, një analizë objektive që ka pas më parë shumë mungesa. Ai siguron një llogaritje autentike të motivimeve nga politikëbërësit, të përfshirë në zgjidhjen e çështjes së Kosovës ai e bën këtë histori më të lehtë për të identifikuar heronjët:. Autori me tregimet i tij me të madhe tregon për jetën e disa figurave më popullore në Kosovë, portretet e Richard Holbrooke, Martti Ahtisaari, dhe Soren Jessen-Petersen. ”
Harry Bajraktari autor edhe ai i një libri për Kosovën, çlirimin dhe pavarësinë e saj, kur e lexoi atë pa u përkthyer qe shprehur : “Unë do të kërkoja që të gjithë miqtë e mi që të marrin nga një kopje të librit “Në çlirimin e Kosovës: Diplomacia detyruese dhe ndërhyrja amerikane”, librit të shkruar nga ish diplomati amerikan David Phillips(Në e-book(libër electronik) gjinden 80 minuta video, ku Presidenti Clinton i flet popullit Amerikan për Kosovën dhe pse duhet të luftojë për atë, si dhe intervista të ndryshme në video:Tony Blair, Richard Holbrooke, Madeline Albright.). Në të njëjtën kohë libri i Philips mbulon aktivitetin e komunitetit shqiptaro-amerikan dhe flet për lobingun e shqipëtarëve në Washington. Gjithashtu aty gjinden dhe opinionet e kongresmenit Eliot Engel, Senatori Bob Dole dhe miq të tjerë të shqipëtarëve, se si kan punuar dhe vepruar për një Kosovë të lirë dhe të pavarur.
Mbasi unë mendojë, thotë Bjaraktari se kjo është një vlerë, ndërsa ke lexuar një nga librat më të mirë të shkruar deri tash për Kosovën. Autori me anë të këtij libri na sjell një përllogaritje shumë të saktë mbi luftën e Kosovës për liri dhe pavarësi. David L. Phillips, është një autor i shkëlqyer që është në gjendje për të treguar këtë histori të ndërlikuar dhe të gjatë në një libër që rrëfen fare qartë një histori më se të vërtet” – citohet të ketë thënë Harry Bajraktari, veprimtar dhe ish botues i gazetës shqiptaro amerikane Illyria
***
Rreth Autorit
David L. Phillips është drejtor i Programit për ndërtimin e paqes dhe të Drejta në Institutin e Universitetit Columbia për Studimin e të Drejtave të Njeriut dhe një bashkëpuntor në “Harvard Kennedy School’s Project ” mbi të Ardhmen e Diplomacisë. Phillips ka shërbyer si këshilltar i lartë i Byrosë për Azinë Qendrore, Çështjeve për Europën Jug Lindore, dhe Byronë për Çështje Evropiane dhe Kanadeze në Departamentin Amerikan të Shtetit, dhe si këshilltar i lartë i Zyrës së Kombeve të Bashkuara për Koordinimin e Humanitare Çështjeve. Ai është autor i librit “Unsilencing the Past: Track Two Diplomacy and Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation” ( 2005), si edhe librit “Në çlirimin e Kosovës: Diplomacia detyruese dhe ndërhyrja amerikane nderuar me çmimin MIT Press, 2012,si dhe “Lëvizjet e dhunshme myslimane në tranzicionin” nderuar me çmimin Transaction Press, 2008, dhe From Bullets to Ballots: Violent Muslim Movements in Transition (Transaction Press, 2008), dhe librin ” Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco” nderuar me çmimin Perseus Books, 2005.
Diplomacy: An Insider’s Guide” – Review of LIBERATING KOSOVO by David L. Phillips
International crises are not always resolved on the battlefield or at the negotiating table. Sometimes breakthroughs come around a table at a restaurant that is continents away. Or they fall in place because of a thoughtful gesture made by an important player at a cemetery years before.
This is one of the lessons of “Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U.S. Intervention,” a new book by David L. Phillips, a onetime senior adviser to both the United Nations and the United States State Department who is now director of Columbia University’s Program on Peace-Building and Human Rights.
To read this account of how Kosovo, once a Serb province made up mostly of ethnic Albanians, managed to tear itself free of Serb domination and earn widespread international recognition as an independent nation, is to realize that high-level diplomacy can in many ways resemble a social-media campaign.
Rather than make a viral video, post on Facebook or beg for “likes,” a UN official hoping to start international negotiations on Kosovo’s future had lobbied for international support by wooing a group of diplomats over dinner at Nora’s Restaurant in Washington’s trendy Dupont Circle neighborhood.
Need to raise money for a clandestine rebel army? New Yorkers know that Bruno Ristorante is a popular northern Italian spot in Midtown Manhattan. But its roots are actually Albanian, and Albanian Americans put $1.6 million in cash on the table there when they were invited to help create the Kosovo Liberation Army one night in 1999.
Phillips’s book is meant to be an exploration of Kosovo’s liberation and the American role in the struggle. But it is very much a how-to book.
How to win over US and European politicians? Albanian Kosovars are Muslims, and insular American lawmakers might have been put off by their religion. Jim Xhema, a prominent Albanian American, said he learned to wine and dine senators and their staff members at the Monocle, a steak place right down the street from the Dirksen Senate Office Building, where he would “drink like a fish just to prove that Albanians were not Muslim fundamentalists,” Xhema told Phillips.
Similarly, Ibrahim Rugova, Kosovo’s first president, prohibited Muslim rituals at his 2006 funeral because he feared the many Europeans attending the service might be put off, Xhema added.
Years before his death, Rugova, a Muslim, had taken Rep. Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat and a Jew, to a Jewish cemetery near his home in Pristina, now the capital of Kosovo, where he laid ceremonial stones from the city atop grave sites in Jewish tradition. Long afterward, Engel, one of the strongest supporters of Albanian causes in Washington, showed his appreciation for Rugova by laying stones from Kosovo on his grave.
American politicians hunting for campaign cash also knew to go to Bruno’s, where they could hit up the Albanian-American community. The quid pro quo was their support for a strong US role in the independence campaign.
Among Kosovo’s strongest supporters, along with Representative Engel, were Senator Bob Dole, a Kansas Republican, and Rep. Joseph DioGuardi, a New York Republican, all of whom benefited from Albanian-American infusions of electoral contributions.
What goes around comes around. Engel introduced Albanian-American leaders to Bill Clinton in 1992 when he was running for president; and in March 1999, Clinton personally stopped by a Washington meeting of those leaders to offer tips on how to win NATO backing for their fight.
Kosovo was left on the sidelines when a NATO bombing campaign forced Bosnian Serbs and Croats to end their assault on Bosnian Muslims after the breakup of the Yugoslav Republic. The resulting peace deal, reached in Dayton, Ohio, in 1995, failed to address the question of Kosovo’s fate. It took another war — and another NATO assault — in 1998-99 to end the next war in the region, between Kosovo Albanians seeking independence and the anti-independence forces led by the Serb president, Slobodan Milosevic.
Ten-thousand people were killed in that war and nearly a million Kosovar Albanians driven from their homes in fighting punctuated by ethnic slaughter and other atrocity crimes. But it took literally years to lure the international community to intervene on Kosovo’s behalf. Even then, the intervention fell to NATO after it became clear that the UN would not act; Russia, a historical Serb ally, made clear it would veto any Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force.
After the fighting ended, the UN granted Kosovo substantial autonomy under an international administration. The idea was to eventually proceed to independence, but the Serbs and Moscow continued to oppose such a step even as many officials in Washington and Europe pushed for it. In a “how-not-to” moment, Phillips recounts the sad tale of a 2006 effort by Condoleezza Rice, then the US secretary of state, to persuade the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, to quietly consent to Kosovo’s independence even as he publicly backed Serbia’s claim of sovereignty there.
Alas, the Financial Times soon ran a story indicating that Russia and China would not block independence. The leak forced Russia to bolster its support for Serb sovereignty. Even in February 2008, when a frustrated Washington finally gave Kosovo a green light to unilaterally declare its independence, Moscow and Beijing held out, and to this day have refused to recognize its new status.
In another notable how-not-to moment, George W. Bush, who showed no passion during his presidency for the Kosovo cause, named Alphonso Jackson, his secretary for housing and urban development, to lead the US delegation to Kosovo for President Rugova’s funeral. “Jackson was an odd choice,” Phillips writes. “He had no experience or knowledge of Kosovo. He could not even pronounce Rugova’s name correctly during his eulogy.”
While nearly a hundred nations have recognized Kosovo’s independence since 2008, just about as many have not, and Serbia still claims the territory as its own. So Kosovo is no example of a perfect international intervention.
Phillips nonetheless draws three lessons for Washington from the crisis and its handling by other international parties. “First, the United States cannot intervene everywhere, but that does not mean it cannot intervene anywhere,” he writes.
Second, early intervention can prevent a crisis from spiraling out of control. “It is more efficient to prevent conflicts before they occur than to get involved later, when the costs of intervention are far greater,” he says.
Finally, the US must work to maintain credibility by knowing how to use power and how to properly harness the tools available for peacekeeping, peace enforcement and peace-building. On Kosovo, endless international negotiations “represented both a diplomatic failure and moral defeat,” Phillips writes. But then President Clinton concluded that “the business of diplomacy is saving lives” and brought in NATO intervention. “When the United States finally acted in Kosovo, it used power applied with purpose.”
“Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U.S. Intervention,” by David L. Phillips; 978-0-262-01844-9
Caption: A Kosovo refugee arriving at McGuire Air Force Base in Burlington, N.J., in May 1999, part of Operation Allied Force, the NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War.
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