Swiss Review 3/2018

9 Swiss Review / May 2018 / No.3 Kosovo Albanians funded their parallel state with volun- tary contributions. The community abroad also played a vi- tal role here. The peaceful resistance led by the literary critic Ibrahim Rugova lasted for just under ten years. The suppressed Albanians won a lot of sympathy in the West. At the end of the 1990s, Rugova let the reins slip. More and more young men were losing patience and took up arms. The UCK rebel army soon made a name for itself with at- tacks on representatives of the Serbian state and Albanian collaborators. The UCK’s first press releases were written between Zurich and Geneva. The future rebel leaders Hashim Thaci, who is the country’s president today, Ramush Ha- radinaj, the prime minister, and Kadri Veseli, the head of Parliament, lived here during the 1990s. The Serbian state responded to the first armed attacks carried out by the UCK with brutal force. The extended family of UCK founder Adem Jashari was almost completely wiped out at the beginning of March 1998. A year later, the Serbian security forces had killed around 1400 Kosovo Albanian civilians and displaced around 300,000 people. NATO in- tervened to prevent an impending genocide. The aerial battle lasted 78 days and ended with the withdrawal of the Serbian state from Kosovo. The province was put un- der UN administration and given independence in 2008 based on a proposal by the Finnish UN envoy Martti Ah- tisaari. The former UCK rebels have since had free rein. Hashim Thaci and Ramush Haradinaj govern Kosovo poorly. Corruption scandals shake Europe’s poorest rela- tion. But such conduct has few consequences. An EU mis- sion, which sought to set up a constitutional state after in- dependence, has been completely discredited in light of numerous scandals and suspected bribery. The Kosovan war heroes clearly believe they are entitled to dip into the state coffers. Over 100,000 Kosovans have therefore turned their backs on their homeland over the past four years. Anyone outside the system of patronage finds life hard. Unemployment stands at over 30%, and young peo- ple, above all, see few prospects in the country. Huge challenges remain in the form of integrating the 100,000-strong Serbian minority and coming to terms with the wartime past. Several former UCK leaders car- ried out atrocities on Serbs and the Roma minority. A spe- cial tribunal, set up following a report by the Swiss poli- tician Dick Marty, now aims to bring the suspected war criminals to justice. Exports and glimpses of hope There are nevertheless some glimpses of hope for Kosovo. For example, the company Frutomania farms 140 hectares of land with apple, pear, plum, apricot and quince trees. The Kosovan smoothies made of fruit juice with no added sugar, water or additives can be found in almost every shop in Kosovo and are increasingly being exported abroad. Swisscontact, the Swiss organisation for sustain- able economic growth, is helping the Kosovans to promote their products. Frutomania recently also began produc- ing spirits. Another example: Gjirafa is a successful IT company that runs an Albanian version of YouTube and Netflix and is trying to develop online retail in various forms. All Kosovans received somewelcome news at the end of March. The republic finally obtained its own dialling code – +383. These three numbers represent a symbol of state- hood to Kosovans. States canmake an application for an in- ternational dialling code to the International Telecommu- nicationUnion inGeneva as soon as they become amember of the United Nations. Kosovo is a long way off that. How- ever, a solutionwas found under pressure fromthe EU. Aus- tria made the application for a Kosovan dialling code. Pre- viously, Kosovo was dependent upon Serbia in terms of telecommunications. Anyonewanting to speak to the pres- ident of Kosovo via the fixed network had to dial the inter- national code for Serbia. There remains much to do before Kosovo becomes a properly functioning state. It will be a hard slog to free the nation from the stranglehold of the greedy elite so that a young generation comes to power and leads the country into the EU in the distant future. That currently remains just a dream, but then Kosovans have made many dreams come true. Founding their own state, for one thing. ENVER ROBELLI IS AN EDITOR AT THE “TAGES-ANZEIGER” The Swiss Cross can be spotted in many places in Kosovo, not just at the Swiss embassy in Pristina.