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February 10 was the first anniversary of the murder of two Vetevendosje moevement protesters. This commentary by Alexadra Channer was written on December 13th 2007. It is still relevant to the situation.  Movement for Self-Determination!
Mustafë Nerjovaj is now nineteen and lives with his family in Lubizhdë in Has. He is the eldest son in his family, responsible for providing for his brother and two sisters, and his mother, because his father died fighting in the war. He had a job in a bakery before the demonstration, a job which provided just enough money for his family to survive. On 10^th February, Mustafë turned and ran with the crowd when the police first fired tear gas and stopped when he reached the Hotel Illyria. There he saw a boy injured on the ground. He bent down to help him, and was shot in the head. The bullet struck the left hand side of his forehead, by a miracle not entering his brain. He collapsed unconscious for five days, and was close to death. Today, he is no longer able to work and is now awaiting an operation to replace part of his skull. His family is trying somehow to survive on the sixty-two euros a month that they receive from social welfare.
Zenel Zeneli still has one bullet lodged near his heart and another in his thigh. He too was near the front of the demonstration and retreated with the crowd, unable to breathe or see from the tear gas. When he reached the side of the road, he stopped and only then, looking down, noticed that his chest was covered in blood. At first he felt nothing, and then he was shot in the leg and collapsed on the ground, falling unconscious. A group of activists carried him through the police lines, an act for which they were arrested and later described by the prosecutor as ‘the most dangerous group’ in the demonstration. Zenel was sent to the hospital in Bondsteel where he fought for his life, and then remained under observation in Shkup. During the weeks that he was in hospital it was his colleagues at work who helped to provide for his young family and to bring his pregnant wife to visit him. Just one week ago Zenel returned to work and is now able to provide for his family again. He is twenty-seven. Although UNMIK (UN Mission in Kosova) said they would arrange for the very dangerous operation necessary to remove the bullet lodged near his heart, Zeneli says they have not contacted him once over the last seven months.
Mon Balaj ran with his cousin into the Hotel Illyria to escape the tear gas. They were followed inside by the Romanian police. Together Mon and his cousin started to run away, but his cousin suddenly realized that Mon was not beside him. When he turned to look for him, he saw him lying on the ground. Mon had been shot from behind, at close range, just behind his ear. He was also beaten on the head with a baton. Having shot him, it is hardly surprising that none of the police came to his aid as he lay dying. Mon was taken to Prishtina hospital before he was transferred alone, without his family who were prevented from accompanying him, to the hospital in Shkup. After his death, representatives from UNMIK and Kosova’s institutions rushed to visit the family and promise that justice would be done. But no one from the institutions had even bothered to inform his family in Podujeva of Mon’s death. They found out the terrible news that their son and brother had died by watching the TV news.
Arben Xheladini was the only son in his family. He went out on the 10^th February to protest and he was shot in the front of the head, after he had retreated with the crowd to the crossroads at the Hotel Illyria. Late on Saturday night, although his pulse had stopped, he was transferred to Bondsteel. Like Mon, his family was not allowed to accompany him, and he reportedly died at 0300, alone. As with the family of Mon Balaj, no one from the institutions bothered to inform his parents or his young wife that Arben had died. His family only discovered his death because they drove to Bondsteel themselves the following morning. Needless to say, representatives from UNMIK and Kosova’s institutions flocked to visit the Xheladini’s afterwards, but still no one has been held accountable for Arben’s death. Arben’s son Olti is now four years old and has no father. His wife has no husband, his four sisters have no brother and his parents no son.
These ten months have shown us exactly what UNMIK meant when it expressed its ‘condolences’ for the deaths in the demonstrations. It is probable, based upon their injuries that both Mon Balaj and Arben Xheladini were already dead before they left Prishtina hospital on the night of 10^th February. Yet they were transferred alone, to Shkup and to Bondsteel, without their families, who were then not informed officially of their deaths. There seems to be only one possible explanation for this: To delay making public the news of their deaths in order to lessen the possibility of more demonstrations the following day. Furthermore, for four days after the demonstration, UNMIK refused to admit that its police had fired rubber or plastic bullets, despite the presence of eighty-two people in Prishtina hospital having these bullets removed from their legs, chests, arms and backs. Meanwhile, before admitting what they had done, they tried through propaganda to create the impression that the UN police had been justified in using violence by claiming one after the other that Vetevendosje had aimed to ‘enter the institutions’ (armed with their T shirts). Ulpiana Lama, the government spokesperson even described the police response as ‘professional’. Finally, having failed to cover up their crime, UNMIK established a so-called ‘independent’ investigation, directed by Robert Dean, the Director of the Department of Justice, who is directly appointed by the head of UNMIK, the SRSG.
Through his two reports, UNMIK washed its hands of the crime and hoped that we would all forget what it had done. First Dean declared that there was no evidence to pinpoint which Romanian policemen had shot the lethal bullets. Despite the hours and hours of video footage taken by TV stations, security forces and the UN police units, there is conveniently no video footage of the murders of Arben Xheladini or Mon Balaj. Just in case this wasn’t sufficient, UNMIK allowed the Romanian unit to leave Kosova before the Dean report was published, announcing their departure to the media the day after they had gone. Second, Dean declared it was impossible to ascertain who gave the order to the police to use violence that day: The chain of command was too ‘ambiguous’. By this time, the international police commissioner Stephen Curtis in charge of the police operation on 10^th February, had already resigned and left the country, immune from prosecution or investigation. The only hope that the families still have for justice is the application they made to the Human Rights Advisory Panel in October. After a silence of two months, they have finally acknowledged their claim and will review it in January. This Panel can only make recommendations to UNMIK. It cannot force them to open a criminal investigation.
It was UNMIK who directed this police operation. It was UNMIK police who murdered two young men. It is UNMIK that has declared itself innocent. And it is UNMIK judges which are now sitting in judgment over Albin Kurti, leader of Lëvizja VETËVENDOSJE!, hoping to shift the blame for UNMIK’s crime, onto him. Albin Kurti has been held in prison and now under house arrest since the 10^th February, and his political trial continues in the face of criticism from Kosova society and international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. This is a shameful episode in the UN’s history. The message is loud and clear: International police can come to Kosova, kill its people and not be held accountable for their actions. Life is cheap in Kosova.
Justice must be done to give the families some peace. It must be done to ensure that the events of 10^th February are never repeated in Kosova again. Arben did not die so that his son Olti might face the same fate. He died so that he could live free.
Alexandra Channer
PhD candidate in political science, University of Pennsylvania
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