United Nations Mission in Kosovo - Criticism

Criticism

The UNMIK has been criticized for failing to achieve many of its stated objectives and is widely resented by both Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians. After seven years of work (as of 2006):

• Key infrastructure is not reconstructed; specifically, electric distribution is still very problematic;
• UNMIK created constitutional framework for Kosovo, while authorised to create only legal framework;
• UNMIK has been slow to transfer competencies to the provisional Kosovo institutions;
• Ethnic violence has occasionally flared (most notably in March 2004);
• Corruption, including allegations of corruption within UNMIK, remains endemic;
• Human rights have been problematic, especially with Kosovo's minority communities;
• There has been a failure to eliminate parallel structures, insofar as health and education within the Kosovo Serbian community remain dependent on Serbian budgets;
• UNMIK has been accused of failing to implement an economic development strategy;
• The government of Serbia claims there are around 250,000. refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Kosovo, the vast majority of whom are Serbs, who still do not feel safe returning to their homes. Kosovo Albanians displaced from the divided town of Mitrovica have yet to be granted the right to return.
• Amongst other things, according to SC Resolution 1244, Serbia is authorised to send a specific amount of its troops back into Kosovo. UNMIK so far has prevented Serbia from doing so, thus in fact breaching the resolution.
• Illegal Serb intelligence and interior forces continue to operate clandestinely in Kosovo, especially in the north;
• Since the establishment of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in 1999, according to some international organizations Kosovo has become a major destination country for women and young girls trafficked into forced prostitution. And that the presence of UN/NATO peacekeeping troops helps 'fuel the sex trafficking trade'. According to Amnesty International, most of these women are trafficked from Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine.
• On 10 February 2007 UN police fired rubber bullets at unarmed demonstrators in Pristina, killing two and injuring 82. The Chief Constable resigned, however the police unit which fired the rubber bullets returned to Rumania where they have not been investigated. Meanwhile in Pristina, UNMIK arrested and detained the demonstration organiser, Albin Kurti of VETËVENDOSJE! (Albanian for self-determination). He remained in detention without trial until July 2007 and subsequently has been under house arrest. Amnesty International has criticised UNMIK's conduct of his prosecution.

In June 2005, a BBC article suggested that the European Roma Rights Centre were to sue UNMIK over the treatment of Roma refugees.

In July 2006, a book, 'Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo', written by two former senior staffers at UNMIK, exposed a catalogue of errors and incompetence in the institution over its seven year history.