The ethnic conflict in Kosovo provided several valuable lessons concerning on international efforts to prevent ethnic conflict, said Jean-Christian Cady, a UN representative in Kosovo, at the Stockholm International Forum on preventing genocide January 28.

"Kosovo is a good example of what the international community and the United Nations can achieve to stop ethnic cleansing and build policy instruments that will prevent it from occurring again," he said.

Cady said the international community must demonstrate a "clear and common will" to stop ethnic cleansing and must quickly deploy an international mission with "a military component and a robust mandate."

He cited two problems in Kosovo: delays in establishing a full peacekeeping presence, which led to interethnic retaliation, and the difficulty in achieving refugee returns, particularly of Serbian refugees.

UN News Centre
28 January 2004

KOSOVO IS GOOD LESSON IN INTERNATIONAL ACTION AGAINST ETHNIC CONFLICT, SAYS UN OFFICIAL

28 January 2004 - The inter-ethnic conflict in Kosovo provides good lessons about both the successes and pitfalls of international action in halting ethnic cleansing and preventing it from occurring again, a senior United Nations official told a conference on genocide today.

These include the need to establish a peacekeeping presence as soon as possible in the area of conflict to prevent retaliation, and the difficulty of ensuring the return of all refugees, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Deputy Special Representative in Kosovo, Jean-Christian Cady, told the Stockholm International Forum on preventing genocide.

"Kosovo is a good example of what the international community and the United Nations can achieve to stop ethnic cleansing and build policy instruments that will prevent it from occurring again," Mr. Cady said of the province that has been under UN administration since June 1999 following fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

He stressed that prerequisites included a clear and common will of the international community to stop an ethnic cleansing as well as the deployment as soon as possible of an international mission with a military component and a robust mandate.

"One of the shortcomings we had in Kosovo was that during the time it took to establish the full peacekeeping presence, in the summer and autumn of 1999, numerous interethnic retaliation actions took place and the victims became the perpetrators," he said.

The second difficulty is the return of refugees. In Kosovo practically all ethnic Albanians went back in a matter of weeks, but more than four years later most Serbs who fled have not returned despite the efforts of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

"Even though some of them do return, many Serbs feel that the interethnic security situation is too fragile and the unemployment too high, to allow them to settle again in Kosovo," Mr. Cady said.

Before reconciliation can occur, effective justice must be delivered, so that no crime is left unpunished, whoever the victim or perpetrator, he added.

"The main challenge of UNMIK is to create stable conditions for a multiethnic Kosovo, not only to prevent ethnic cleansing from occurring again when the mandate of the international mission comes to an end, but also to ensure a normal development and prosperity of all communities, free from harassment and with equal access to institutions, an impartial police and justice system," he declared.