UNMIK/PR/1434
PRISTINA - PDSRSG Larry Rossin today delivered the following remarks to a Conference on "Role of the United Nations: Peace, Security, Human Rights and Development" sponsored by the civic society organization "Forum 2015" and by the UN Development Program, at the Grand Hotel:
“Mr Prime Minister, Muhamet, Christine, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It’s always a pleasure to attend a birthday party, and a special pleasure when I can be here today to join you in celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations. I want to thank Forum 2015 and UNDP for organizing this event.
The United Nations Charter was a document born of hope and determination after sorrow, in the aftermath of the Second World War that brought death and destruction on a global scale.
For much of the Cold War there was sorrow that the UN could not do more to assist the downtrodden of the world, not least due to incredible politicization of so many of its key processes.
At the end of the Cold War, there was hope that new opportunities had been opened at the end of the bipolar global standoff that would finally allow the organisation to work as its founders had intended.
But it has been the third factor, determination, that has brought the UN to where it is today. Determination of the founders that global conflict on the scale of World War II should never again occur, determination of men and women in all the member states who have adhered to and sought to promote the original post-war vision, and determination of tens of thousands of people from every country of the world, who have given of themselves to make the work of the Organization have a lasting impact.
Throughout its history, in periods of greater and lesser global tension, in developed, developing and transition environments alike, the UN has worked with determination wherever it could. This has mostly been quiet work, unnoticed, very often at staggering risk to UN staff members, to make peace where it did not exist, to consolidate peace where it was fragile, and to mitigate suffering and promote human, social and economic development, everywhere, always.
The work of the UN’s specialised agencies – the High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Development Programme, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Industrial Development Organization, the Children’s Fund, UNESCO and so many others – has contributed enormously to reducing poverty, improving global health, responding to natural disasters, and assisting old and new nations to become full partners in the a dynamic and challenging global policy and economy. With its unique access and marshalling the resources of the entire globe, the UN and its agencies have been able to illuminate and address extreme challenges to human survival, dignity and development even in the most remote, darkest and most oppressed corners of our world.
Peacekeeping, though, has become the standard by which the UN has been judged most of the time. Here, like in all those most difficult endeavors which the international community tends to hand over to the UN for action, there have been successes and failures. The failures are long remembered – Somalia and Rwanda in the 1990s, for example, or of course UNPROFOR. UN peacekeeping has also registered some spectacular successes, many now half-forgotten. The role of the UN in ending long-running conflicts in places such as Namibia and El Salvador, now both stable nations building better futures for their peoples and their regions, will be an enduring memorial to the vision of the UN’s founders.
Even on a smaller and more local scale, the successes of the UN in fostering agreement between Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro regarding the Prevlaka Peninsula, or overseeing the peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia into Croatia, or stabilizing the border between the former FRY and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the 1990’s through the UN Preventive Deployment, have been important factors in the increasing, and increasingly irreversible, normalization of this region after a decade of terrible conflict.
What about Kosovo? Where does Kosovo fit into that scheme of things here?
As we commemorate UN Day here today in Pristina, in New York the Security Council is preparing to meet, in just a few hours, in a historic session that will consider, and I anticipate approve, the start of the long-awaited political process to determine Kosovo’s status, as set forth over six years ago by the Security Council in Resolution 1244.
That decision will mark the beginning of the end of the UN’s large-scale commitment in Kosovo. Whatever the outcome of the status process, it should be definitive. For that reason alone it should lead to the superseding of Resolution 1244 which mandates our presence here as the “interim administration Mission.” When the “interim” period ends, so will the need for our Mission. And while we will carry out every element of our mandate under Resolution 1244 until the day it and we are superseded, we have no desire to stay here any longer than our presence is directed by the Security Council. We look forward to, and are restructuring the Mission for, handing over to Kosovo’s institutions. It is Kosovo’s institutions which should be, and increasingly are, responsible for building Kosovo’s future for all its citizens, all its children.
I look back even now on what I would regard as a successful Mission. Especially given the uncertainty of the legal regime and complexity of the mandate set out in 1244 by the Security Council back in June 1999 – emergency relief, stabilization, governance, institution-building and empowerment, economic recovery, and facilitation of the future status process – much has been achieved.
I was here before, during and after the war. I remember the oppression that existed before, the terror and dislocation during, and the institutional vacuum afterward. As the American Chief of Mission right after the war, I did all I could to bring American support to UNMIK and KFOR as they struggled to address the immediate consequences of devastation and conflict, and to build the structures to take Kosovo beyond what it had been before. Visiting Kosovo periodically through the time of UNMIK’s mandate, I could see for myself the enormous progress being made in mandate fulfilment even amid equally staggering challenges and many shortfalls. And now, having supported directly for over a year Søren Jessen-Petersen’s dynamic leadership, in partnership with the Kosovo institutions UNMIK itself created and empowered, we have come a long distance.
I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the thousands of men and women who have come to Kosovo from all over the globe during the past six years – experts, police, support staff, UN Volunteers, Africans, Europeans, Asians, North Americans, our partner staffs from the EU and OSCE and the UN agencies. They have spent time away from their families, in difficult, sometimes dangerous conditions very far from home, to make Kosovo a better place for its people. Some – thank God, few – have sacrificed their lives or their health in this land far from home. I likewise want to pay special tribute to the thousands of Kosovo staff of every ethnicity and walk of life who have given their best to make UNMIK effective in building their society. We have sometimes to put up with unworthy denigration of all these dedicated people. We do put up with it, because we and those who have worked alongside these colleagues know just how irrelevant that is. Kosovo’s future will be built by hard work, not activities inconsistent with the dignity of the people of Kosovo. Long after all that is forgotten, a better Kosovo will stand as the monument to the work of all of those who have served in UNMIK, alongside their Kosovo counterparts.
There have been disappointments – the March 2004 riots, the stubborn persistence of violence and discrimination against minorities, the very few IDP returns, the very great difficulties in sparking real economic vitality and job creation, the complex legal constraints that have impeded full forward movement, and many others. And there is still a mountain of work to be done to ensure that all Kosovo’s inhabitants can live equally, freely and safely. But despite all the disappointments, we should recall the real achievements, the protection of human rights, the construction of institutions and a free and open political life never before enjoyed in Kosovo’s history, of which we all – the people and institutional leaders of Kosovo, the international community – can be proud.
None of that work will come to an end because the status process is beginning, nor during it. Increasingly, as has been the case for some time now, it will be the work of the Government, not of UNMIK. I can assure you that every one of us in UNMIK will remain fully engaged in the reform processes here – from Standards to privatisation to strengthening the civil service to decentralisation. I can also assure you that we will look for an even greater level of commitment from all of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government, and indeed all the people of Kosovo and all their political leaders.
That is because Kosovo is yours, not ours. Building a Kosovo that can sustain and improve itself is increasingly your job, not ours. Soon, it will be your job alone. Responsibility for many past shortcomings may rest with us, but who really cares? Soon we will all be gone. What matters is that the responsibility for future performance will increasingly be that of the people of Kosovo and their government. And, let me say to Kosovo’s people: just as UNMIK could never have achieved what it has without international backing but also your engagement, so also your government can never succeed unless it enjoys your moral, political and practical support. In a democratic system, people must engage within the system if it is to succeed.
The UN today celebrates its 60th birthday. In eight months, UNMIK will celebrate its 7th anniversary. By then, it may well be anticipated that the political process to determine Kosovo’s future status, taking into account the Rambouillet Accords, will be near doing so. The future cannot be foretold, but we should not look forward to nor expect an 8th birthday for UNMIK. What will follow UNMIK is not for UNMIK to say – that will be determined by the Security Council by international stakeholders, and by the political process likely to be launched later today in New York. What I am confident of is that the international community will remain engaged and committed to Kosovo’s future, in various ways including through the UN specialized agencies, for a good long time to come, to the same degree that the people and leaders of Kosovo themselves commit to and engage in securing their own future. And knowing Kosovo, I am confidently hopeful that that commitment and engagement will be unstinting.
Happy Birthday, United Nations!”