UNMIK and EULEX missions of “parized”

Following NATO's 78-day bombings against Serbia, on 9 June 1999, the Kumanovo Technical Agreement was signed, which ended the war and enabled the deployment of international troops to Kosovo. As of June 10th 1999, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1244, with which Kosovo is deployed under international administration by the UN with its UNMIK mission. The United Nations mission UNMIK had a mandate to help a quiet and normal life for all citizens of Kosovo. UNMIK's main objectives were to establish Kosovo institutions, rule of law, preserve public order, rebuild infrastructure, return refugees and democratisation of society. This mission to Kosovo had control of three powers: Legislative, executive, judiciary and was led by UN Secretary-General (PSSP) Special Representative

After the war, U n The NMIC played an important role in establishing Kosovo institutions. In 2001, The PSSP approved the Constitutional Process, which was drafted by international and local experts. On the basis of this Constitutional Convention, the establishment of Kosovo's provisional self-government institutions consisting of the Parliament of Kosovo, Government, Presidency and Courts, which were monitored by internationals. The Constitutional Framework had defined Kosovo's Parliament as Kosovo's highest institution and lawmakers, but the competencies of the Parliament were limited by UNMIK. UNMIK's competencies went to that level that when the Kosovo Assembly passed laws, they were able to be abolished immediately by the SPSP.

The Indefinable Power of The PSSP had also signed harmful agreements on Kosovo. In November 2001, SPSP Hans Haekkerup and government representative Nebojsa Covic had signed an agreement the Albanian side had not been aware of. The publishing of this agreement becomes a scandal because one of the points of this agreement between Haekkerup and Covic says “re-confirms that the position for Kosovo's future status remains as outlined with Resolution 1244, as well as this decision cannot be changed with any action taken by the provisional institutions of self-government”. According to this point, Kosovo's provisional self-government institutions could not take any steps towards Kosovo independence. The Albanian side had refused to implement this agreement. This has been one of P's reckless actions The SS report with Albanians.

One of the UNMIK's main goals in Kosovo was to rule the law and maintain public order in order to provide security for all Kosovo citizens, but this proved to be difficult for the UN mission because the judicial system was at first almost destroyed and there was a lack of staff to try thousands who were charged with various crimes. On the other hand, powerful unknown groups were committing murders of Albanian political personalities that rocked Kosovo and created great chaos in the country. U n NMIC made efforts to impose public order and rule of law, but it was still unable to whiteen many murders and credibility towards this mission only faded in the country.

After the war ended, relations between Albanians and Serbs were still tense, U n The NMIC repeatedly called for peace-building in Kosovo and was at the same time on the ground for maintaining stability in the country, but they failed to do so, especially in the March 2004 riots. The March riots began after reports that three Albanian children had drowned in the Iber River, near the village of Caber as a result of the persecution of several Serbs, it revolted all over Kosovo, and after this announcement began fierce protests, which lasted two days, where 19 civilians were killed by whom 11 Albanians and 8 Serbs were injured, and many other houses and monuments of cultural heritage remained destroyed. UNMIK police, despite their intervention, failed to control the situation and stop the riots. UNMIK's inability to manage such riots and the major violence that was caused caused sent signal to the international community to commit more to resolving Kosovo's final status.

Shortly after these events, UN Secretary - General Kofi Annan appointed Norwegian Kai Eide to conduct a report on the situation in Kosovo. Norwegian took office, and with its arrival in Kosovo, many visits were made with representatives of political parties and other communities. Then his report is submitted in October 2005 to UN Secretary Kofi Annan and his report Eide mentions that many things can be improved and recommends that the time has come for the start of negotiations on Kosovo's final status.

And so it happened, negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia began in February 2006, which were mediated by Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari. At the start of the two countries' negotiations, they had introduced their positions, Pristina had stressed that it does not accept any solution that no longer has to do with full independence, while Belgrade opposed everything that concerns independence. After many rounds of negotiations, a comprehensive proposal for Kosovo status was drafted by mediator Ahtisaari. When this proposal was made public for all, protests organised by the Vetevendosje Movement had erupted in Pristina, which opposed Ahtisaari's proposal, which they claimed was not referring to the people of Kosovo, but only to one minority -- the Serb who is manipulated and instrumentalised by Serbia.

During protests in Pristina aimed at opposing negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, something serious happened. Two Vetevendosje Movement activists, Mon Balaj and Arben Dzedini, were shot dead by UNMIK Roma police, thus causing major uprisings throughout Kosovo. More than a decade has passed, and UNMIK has failed to bring the perpetrators to justice. This event still remains a black spot on the UN mission and its inability to establish justice. However, Vienna negotiations continued, and as a result, Kosovo is declared an independent and sovereign state. With the declaration of independence, the European Union takes the lead role in Kosovo, while other international organisations return to EU support. Since the EU had assumed the leading role, this organisation through its institution to the EU Council announces sending the mission to rule of law in Kosovo, EULEX.

EULEX is the largest civilian mission established under joint policies for security and protection in the EU. The mission's task was to help Kosovo institutions succeed in enabling equality in law enforcement to citizens. In 2008, U n NMIC passes responsibilities to EULEX in the areas of justice, police and customs and thus EULEX inherit thousands of files, which were incomplete by UNMIK. The EU mission at the beginning of the mandate had executive competencies, and the main goal was to rule the law and support Kosovo institutions in this direction. E ULEX has also been engaged in the professionalism of Kosovo police and customs through monitoring, mentoring and advising. The mission since the beginning of its mandate so far has also conducted 699 field operations to locate missing persons, including 172 exhumations. During this time, the remains of 470 persons have been identified, 327 persons of whom were found persons.

In the rule of the law, EULEX's expectations of fighting organised crime and corruption were great. With the arrival of this mission, a large part of citizens believed that fighting corruption would be great and that this integration processes towards the European Union would be faster, but now after many years, citizens are depressed because corruption is still one of the factors we are blocking integration processes. E ULEX is involved in judging many cases of organised crime and corruption, and expectations were that crime heads would be punished, but the results were disappointing for all. And when everyone had eyes on the EU mission, for fighting corruption, the opposite occurred, allegations of corruption and interference in judicial processes broke out within the mission.

EULEX recently faced a major scandal. The former Chief of the Judges Assembly in EULEX appeared in public. Simmons had resigned from this mission in 2017 and had since begun charges of corruption against EULEX, interference in judicial processes for political purposes, threats to witnesses and hiding evidence. Simmons sent many requests to political leaders in Kosovo to enable reporting in the Assembly. After many requests, he was accepted to report to the Commission for Legislation. During the report, he shocked all, claiming that EULEX is not a mission of rule of justice, but a political mission, saying this mission was meant to remove from the political scene those he named the “major balances” or those who were seen as an obstacle to Kosovo dialogue Serbia. In addition, it has reported that EULEX has given Serbian prosecutors documents related to war crimes committed by Serbs in Kosovo and that there have been personal data of Kosovo citizens who were victims of those crimes and details of witnesses, most of them Albanians. The EULEX mission through a communique has denied all Simmons charges, saying they are untrue.

But, after Simmons' report, now even a former EULEX senior official, Maria Bamieh is seeking to report before the Parliament on its violations. Ex-prosecutor Bamieh has announced that she is willing to report to the Parliament on corruption scandals within Mission E. ULEX, by international prosecutors and judges who have served in Kosovo. Bamieh accuses EULEX of once creating cases against those politicians who did not like him and pressured to remove cases against those they liked. Bamieh goes further, saying that everything was dictated by Brussels and that justice and rule of law were the illusion they used to hide in order to achieve their political goals and goals in the Balkans. All these charges are suggesting the mission EULEX has been unable to fight organised crime and corruption, and that rule of law failed to apply in full. In 2018, EULEX's mandate is extended again, but with limited competencies and thus the mission hands over thousands of unfinished files and only becomes a monitoring mission. Currently, the mission has mandated until 2023, and during this period it is providing logistical and operational support to the Specialised Chambers and Prosecutor's Office in The Hague.

With more than two decades of international missions whose purpose was rule of law and the assistance of Kosovo judicial institutions in this direction, success has still not been achieved. Kosovo's judicial system has failed to fully independence and to have efficiency. Over 200 thousand unresolved substances, many substances turned into retrials, political interventions, corruption and many other irregularities characterise Kosovo courts. Reforms in justice are necessary, property, increasing the number of judges, better management of subjects and many other things that would facilitate the work of judicial staff and enable rule of law. The rule of law is vital to the state of Kosovo, because in this way evils such as organised crime and corruption, which are obstacles to integration processes, will be minimized. A state with an independent judicial system of prosecutors, judges and professionals with integrity, Euro-Atlantic integration processes will be faster.

(Autor is a student of Political Sciences)