Excerpt from IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 107, January 14, 2000

SPECIAL REPORT: CHAOS AND COMPLEXITIES IN KOUCHNER'S KOSOVO

By Shkelzen Maliqi in Pristina

The Kosovo protectorate is based on the co-operation of the UN, KFOR (including NATO and Russian troops), and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). KFOR is charged with preventing armed conflict and guaranteeing security; UNMIK, with establishing a transitional administration and normalising political and economic processes; and the OSCE with organising elections, creating independent media, drawing up laws and a durable democratic system.
But the relationships between these organisations - particularly the UN and the OSCE - are not always co-operative. For example, while the OSCE was preparing media regulations and creating the basis for a new public media in Kosovo, UNMIK unilaterally created Radio Television Kosovo (RTK), without consulting the OSCE or local journalists and experts on the media advisory board. The new station operates without the involvement of local staff, and viewers have dismissed its programmes as being of poor quality. Many were insulted by the failure to employ experienced local staff who had been sacked by Belgrade from Radio Television Pristina in 1989.

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