Trip Report to Macedonia and Kosovo

29 june - 1 july 1999

After participating in some of the zagreb regional conference on 28 june and a bit of the morning of the 29th, i left for macedonia and kosovo, with jill sinclair of canada. Together we had worked out a good tentative schedule for our time there, which was modified a bit as the trip developed.

29 june, late afternoon

We arrived at skopje airport and were met by people from the unicef office in macedonia and taken to the office to get our security clearance badges and a briefing of the situation in the camps after which we went immediately to stankovic two refugee camp to watch a mine awareness session with some 70 children.

A team of 3-4 teachers were working with the kids, using printed materials and a model board showing different types of mines and uxo. Despite the heat of the camp, the interaction was spirited. The trainers were teachers from the various villages in kosovo, who had been searched out in the camps to be trained as mine awareness trainers so that sessions can be continued back in the home villages. Trainers wore t-shirts clearly identifying them as mine awareness trainers and would be using them back in their villages.

As you all likely know, by that date some 477,000 refugees had spontaneously returned to kosovo. Organized return by unhcr had begun either that day or the day before and 1,300 had returned under their auspices.

30 june

we left early in the morning by car for pristina. Meetings we had were as follows:

- with various ngos/organizations involved in mine action - with de mello, flanagan and others at the unmik offices - visit with hi to pristina hospital
- with kla military and political leadership - sat in on macc session where various clearance organizations were tentatively assigned to different areas of the province for mine action - with serb leadership
- sat in on end of day security/situation briefing with de mello and international agencies and media
- dinner meeting with flanagan

1 july

- left for gllogovc for mine awareness session with chilren from surrounding villages
- press briefing
- departed pristina

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summary: when we were there agencies had only been back in kosovo for a little over two weeks. The situation was considered tense and fluid. As kosovar refugees continued to stream back into the province, serbs were leaving. By the time we were there about 71,000 serbs had left the province, of a total population of about 160,000. Those remaining were being regularly harrassed and in one briefing it was noted that the biggest security threat at that moment was the kla.

The situation, as many of you likely know, with mines and cluster bombs was still unclear. Only halo trust had been carrying out a very rough survey in an area somewhat central to the province; mag was to be assigned to an area in the west and being surveying as well. Of the various agencies in province, they were tentatively being assigned to different areas of concern. But when we were there, only halo was operational at that point.
Many teams were scheduled to be arriving over that next weekend and in the two weeks following. While the overall situation remained unclear, it did seem that the degree of contamination was not as severe as had originally been feared.

Maps had been turned over by the yugoslav army, indicating 425 minefields in the areas near the borders with macedonia and albania. The kla had also provided maps, and also insisted that they had cleared all the mines that they had laid. When we were there, kosovo verification commission maps were still being sought and nato maps, showing where cluster bombs had been used, had been declassified. It seems that there are between 10-20,000 duds in the province.

Flanagan at the mine action coordination center (macc) noted priorities for mine action with included safe return of refugees, insure ability to provide humanitarian assistance, safe settlement, and secure infrastructure in municipalities. The macc at this time has only two vehicles and 4 staff; its task is to coordinate the work of the various mine action teams on the ground and the information in a database being set up.

It was anticipated that the halo survey would be completed in about six weeks. Mine action tasking would be related to results of the survey.
Priorities were seen as needing to be flexible vis-a-vis safe community space and individual dwellings. The concern has been to get as much done before winter sets in because then mine action will not be possible. The ground can freeze as early as late september/october in kosovo, so that was very much on everyone's mind. Winter is seen as a time to take stock and consolidate longer term planning.

We met with a kla general who is in charge of their general command, an assistant to the kla's 'shadow defense minister' and another who is assistant to the 'shadow foreign minister.' They reiterated that they had cleared all their mines; we stressed a need for continued cooperation and after conferring among themselves, they said they would appoint a point person on their side to coordinate with macc on mine action and that they would assign a person in charge of each sector of the province as well. We conveyed this information directly to flanagan at macc. We talked about the mine ban treaty, about the need to abide by international law, particularly if one wished to gain the support of the international community. The meeting ended on the note that they wanted 'the republic of kosovo' to be the 136th signatory to the treaty.

We later met with serb leadership; the man who had worked at the un in disarmament affairs for some twenty years and is now the serbian liaison with unmik. Also another political leader from the province and a military type. The serbian unmik liaison said he had pressed his government before to sign the treaty, but once the war happened, the government had the right to use the mines, but now the war is over and it is time to get on with things. They said they had turned over all their maps. They would cooperate. That they wanted to be able to send in teams to help with clearance -- something allowed by the peace agreement, which theoretically could begin after 15 july, but which everyone recognizes at not very likely at this time, given the level of tension and hatred. They want to have the teams in because they want to be able to demonstrate 'control' and 'authority' in the province.

We should stay in touch with flanagan to see if, in fact, the kla does cooperate and what happens, if anything, with serb clearance teams, which does not seem very likely.

I ran into dr. Robin coupland after the end of the day briefing and his observations were interesting and actually mirrored what i had been thinking and jill as well. He had been a week already out in the villages, making a preliminary assessment for icrc. He noted that the level of mine awareness was very high -- and felt that the was the result of the work we have all done to make landmines a high priority all over the world. He noted the concern of the kfor people about mines, and cluster bombs as well, and again felt that the level of awareness and the fact that they knew they had to worry about the cluster bombs was the result of our work.

I had been able to do a lot of press in zagreb, and we did a good briefing at the end of the trip, just before leaving. I also did a press conference with the austrian campaign early the next morning in vienna, and did lots of one-on-one interviews during the next days of was in austria. Obviously, i spoke quite a bit about what we had seen in kosovo, but also about the treaty and the need for all to sign it, and the issue of the cluster bombs.

That is going to have to be it for the moment.

I hope this is helpful.

Jody