Multiethnic Principles Of Administration And Politics Of The International Community In Kosovo

• Author: Donik Sallova
• Position: Faculty of Public Administration, AAB College, Prishtina, Kosovo
• Pages: 272-277

MULTIETHNIC PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION AND POLITICS OF

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN KOSOVO

Lecturer Donik SALLOVA1

Abstract

This paper aims to present and analyze the multiethnic principles of international community administration

and policy in Kosovo during the period of international administration of Kosovo and the period of negotiations for the

final status settlement of Kosovo. The international community has been neutral with the political aspirations of the

people of Kosovo for self-determination an d has implemented a policy that has essentially built a multiethnic political

concept on Kosovo as a political entity. The imposition of these multi -ethnic principles in the construction of the state of

Kosovo runs counter to many principles of the functioning of democratic states, whose sovereignty derives from the

people, and governance is legitimized by the majority through democratic elections. The paper will conclude that despite

the compromises made in the nature o f the state of Kosovo with regard to the rights of minority communities in Kosovo,

especially the Serb minority, the rejection of this minorit y towards Kosovo's institutions has increased due to the

autonomy offered through the constitution, numerous laws and agreemen ts negotiated in Brussels between Kosovo and

Serbia.

Keywords: multiethnic, politics, administration, international community, Kosovo.

JEL Classification: K23

1. Introductory considerations

International administration was deployed in Kosovo following the NATO bombing of

Yugoslavia, after (Yugoslavia) refused to sign the Rambouillet agreement2 and end ethnic violence

in Kosovo, which consequently brought the capitulation of Yugoslavia and the signing of a technical

- military agreement with NATO in Kumanovo.3 This opened the way for the United Nations Security

Council's adoption of Resolution 1244.4 The aim of this paper is not the analyze of the functional

structure of the UN presence in Kosovo as an international mission or as an international

peacebuilding mechanism, but we will focus only on the undemocratic nature of the principles of

administration and governance of the UN mission in Kosovo, known as UNMIK (The United Nations

Mission Interim in Kosovo). On the basis of Resolution 1244, the international administration in

Kosovo drafted its own Regulation, no.1999/15, establishing itself as the governing power in Kosovo,

where “all legislative and executive power related to Kosovo, including the administration of the

executive organs of Kosovo, is established, justice, is vested in UNMIK and exercised by the Special

Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations”6.

Despite the state of emergency of 1999, it seemed that the UN mission would be a governing

and not just a peacekeeping mission, and that it would ignore the political will for self-determination

of the citizens of Kosovo expressed in the 1990s. th. Although this mission was conceived to be

accomplished through a “trusteeship” practice that would ensure peace and help build the self-

government capacity of local institutions,7 it was genuinely realized as a UN governing system in

Kosovo. It seems that the enthusiasm of liberation had led people to stop focusing on this overlap of

1 Donik Sallova - Faculty of Public Administration, AAB College, Prishtina, Kosovo, donik.sallova@universitetiaab.com.

2United Nations – Security Council, Interim Agreement for Peace and Self-Government in Kosovo-Rambouillet Accords, https://peace

maker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/990123_RambouilletAccord.pdf (Last seen 23.09.2019).

3 North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Military Technical Agreement – between the International Security Force (“KFOR”) and the

Goverment of the Federal Republic o f Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia, https://www.nato.int/kosovo/docu/a990609a.htm (Last

seen 23.09.2019).

4 United Nations – Security Council, Resolution 1244 (1999) https://unmik.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/old_dnn/Res1244

ENG.pdf (Last seen 23.09.2019).

5 United Nation Mision Internim in Kosovo, Regulation no. 1999/1 On the Authority of the Internim Administration in Kosovo,

http://www.unmikonline.org/regulations/1999/re99_01.pdf (Last seen 23.09.2019)

6 Marc Weller, Shtetësia e kontestuar – administrimi ndërkombëtar i luftës së Kosovës për pavarësi, Prishtinë: KOHA, 2009, p. 301.

7 B.T. Knudsen & B.C. Lausten, Kosovo Between War & Peace – Nationalism, Peacebuilding and International trusteeship, New

York, Ruotledge, 2006, p. 65-66.