Western powers overseeing Kosovo have announced the end of their supervision of the Balkan nation, the last to be born out of the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
Since its unilateral declaration of independence from Serbian in Febraury 2008, Kosovo had been overseen by a group made up of 23 EU countries, the US and Turkey. On September 10, 2012 Pieter Feith, the Dutch diplomat serving as both serving as the European Union Special Representative(EUSR) and as the International Civilian Representative in Kosovo, declared the end of international supervision. What does this mean to the ethnic minorities of Kosovo is too early to say.
In 2008, in the months following the declaration of independence, I carried out fieldwork in Kosovo, interviewing several Roma, Askhali and Egyptian Kosovans and wrote two concept papers (Integrating minorities in a post-conflict society and Towards the social inclusion of RAE in Kosovo) to inform the implementation of the Kosovo’s strategy for RAE integration (funded by the EC). This article published recently in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2012, vol. 38, n.8) discusses some of the findings of the work and portraits the challanges that the supervision status was posing to ethnic minorities. Stemming from my time in Kosovo, I have also published an interview with two very active Roma leaders in Romani Politics in Contemporary Europe (Sigona & Trehan, 2009) and a number of posts on this blog (both texts and photos).
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Very interesting the paper on RAE Leadership in newly independent Kosovo. The minorities are a very important factor on the establishment and consolidation of institutions, especially in the Kosovo case. The question is, in my perception, if one can approach any clear perspective if situated only in the Kosovo context, the RAE situation is a Balkan thing and the problematic of these minorities has roots not only in a pre-war/ ethnic cleansing/ post-conflict society/ new independent state but in the history of the region. Kosovo should be a multi-ethnic society, but should be indeed very difficult to be a multi-ethnic society in a region where ethnicity has played crucial role in social economic and mainly political developments at least in the last 100 years.
Regards,
Mona
I agree with the need to embedd the analysis of the minority issue in the broader history of Yugoslavia and the Balkans. However, I think that one should not leave out of the picture the ‘colonial’ nature of international involvement in the region.
We in the Balkans welcome ‘colonialism’ and have come to the believing that the international constructivism is functional, there is no other option. Trying to shape a European Identity, would agree to anything at this stage and it may result in a superficial process of policy making and implementing, mainly with human rights.