Eastern Europe's Muppies

or how the transition in Eastern Europe is nothing but waiting. The aim of this waiting is usually called "change" but by now it is hard to understand if it is a slim common understanding of the content of this great, great word.

OSCE Kosovo Mission helps sustain Bosnian-language education

An OSCE report.

Kosovo minorities leave, claiming discrimination

Deutsche Welle

May 27


The refusal of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership to ensure minority rights is driving out many non-Serb minorities, a new human rights report says.

The London-based Minority Rights Group International (MRG) says exclusion from political and social life and discrimination are forcing ethnic Bosniaks, Turks, Roma, Croats, Gorani, Ashkali Egyptians and even some Serbs out of Kosovo.

Non-Serb minorities have criticized the international community for paying too much attention to Albanian-Serb relations and ignoring other groups.

"The priority for the international community should be to ensure that there is some kind of international human rights mechanism to which minorities in Kosovo can turn," MRG director, Mark Lattimer, said.

Lack of political will

Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008 and Serbia's opposition to the move had resulted in a vacuum in international protection for minorities, the MRG report says. Since declaring independence, ethnic divisions have worsened between the enclave's two million Albanians, 120,000 Serbs, and 80,000 others from smaller ethnic groups, despite the presence of 14,000 NATO peacekeepers and a 2,000-strong European Union mission overseeing a fragile peace. "There is a lack of political will and substantive investment in effective implementation of minority rights among majority Albanians," the report says.

"Together with a bad economy, these conditions mean that many members of minority communities are now leaving the new Kosovo state altogether," MRG concludes.
Integration "a fantasy"

The Kosovo government has called the report "not factually accurate" and says minority rights are guaranteed by the constitution. But Lattimer, in an interview with Deutsche Welle, described that claim as "a fantasy" and stressed that the trend toward greater ethnic segregation was continuing. "Effectively," Lattimer said, "ten years of international rule have seen an increase in segregation between communities." The MRG report says that the poor treatment of minorities was due to a perception that they had been allies of, or did little to oppose, the former Serb regime in the 1990s.

Serbia still regards Kosovo as part of its historic heartland and has asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to rule on the legality of its secession. Serb President Boris Tadic, ahead of a visit to France on Wednesday, told the French daily Le Figaro that Serbia would "never recognize" the unilateral independence of Kosovo.

Kosovo's independence has only been recognized by 60 of the world's 200 countries.

Protests in Macedonia, after religion classes stopped by the Constitional Court

In many former communist states, the inclusion of religion classes in school - mostly compulsory - was considered a top priority in terms of education. The decision was took mostly at the political level, under the pressure of the religious leaders - mostly in the Christian-Orthodox countries, following a long Byzantine tradition of "symphonic" dialogue between state and religious authorities, with advantages for both sides. The public debate lacked completely and the voices of the "civil society" are the echoes of the religious establishment. From a context to another, the risks of a high presence of religious leaders and influence in the public sphere are varying. For the Macedonian case, we should keep in mind that less than a decade, it went through a bloody ethnic conflict.

FOCUS News Agency

April 23

Skopje. Religion teachers as well as representatives of non governmental organizations from several Macedonian towns gathered Wednesday in front of building of Constitutional Court in Skopje. They protested against court’s decision on stopping religion teaching in secondary school, Utrinski vesnik informs. Teachers called the court “Defender of Stalinism and Marxism”. They asked court to stop taking politically motivated decisions.

There were “anonymous” non governmental organizations among protestors. Some of the attendants said they are from local VMRO-DPMNE committees in Center and Gazi Baba municipalities. Other said they are citizens, edition informs.

Macedonian Constitutional Court abolishes Religious Instruction in School

Makfax

April 15

The subject of religious instruction will no longer be studied in primary schools, pursuant to the ruling of the Macedonian Constitutional Court abol

The subject of religious instruction will no longer be studied in primary schools, pursuant to the ruling of the Macedonian Constitutional Court abolishing the Article 26 of the Law on Elementary Education, adopted in 2008.

The abolished article said "religious instruction can be studied in the primary schools as a subject of personal choice."

The Court said that the article in question contravened the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia.

The proposal for abolishment of the Article 26 was tabled by the Liberal-Democratic, which explained that it breached the Constitutional provision that says the Republic of Macedonia is a secular state in which the religious education can be organized on a voluntary basis outside the schools, and by no means in the framework of the compulsory elementary education.

The subject religious instruction was introduced in elementary education in 2008/09 school year. It comprised courses in two subjects of choice - Religion Teaching and History of Religions.

School magazine in multi-ethnic Montenegro has lessons for adults too

Mia Lausevic

OSCE Website

April 9

The bell rings at the "Marshal Tito" elementary school in Ulcinj on Montenegro's southern coast, and the classroom doors burst open, letting out a torrent of children, laughing and running. A group of them stand in front of the classroom I have come to visit, waiting for their teachers to arrive. We enter the classroom, everybody takes their seats and now I can get a better look at them.

About 30 pupils, aged 7-15, sit in front of me. Ulcinj is known as a place where different cultures - Montenegrins, Albanians, Serbs, Roma, Egyptians and Ashkali - and different faiths - Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox - merge, and that is strongly reflected in this class.

But although the pupils come from very different backgrounds, they have one thing in common: they are all members of the school's journalism club, publishing the best of their work in their own magazine Djecja Planeta (Children's Planet).

The club has been run since September 2008 by two Egyptian journalists, Muhamed Ukovic and Biljana Alkovic, who have been trained under an OSCE Mission to Montenegro project to develop Roma, Egyptian and Ashkali leadership potential.

No taboos

Biljana, a student of political science, has nothing but praise for the children she works with. "There are no taboos in our discussions," she says. "We encourage the children to speak freely of the problems they face. We conduct interviews and opinion polls, trying to get answers to questions such as observance of children's rights and violence in schools, and we publish the results in the magazine."

The young journalists meet on Mondays after school. They work in groups with their teachers, discussing various topics - ethics, tolerance, discrimination, drug abuse and other problems - and preparing the material for the next issue of Children's Planet.

"When I grow up, I would like to be a journalist. I would work hard on observance of human rights and I would criticize all those who breach them," wrote Bahrija Begzic, a 12-year-old girl from the sixth grade in an article for the magazine.

Striving for truth

Her friend Zlatica Nakic, also 12, added: "Striving for truth is the purpose of journalism. A journalist has to behave well and be friendly, because journalists are the eyes and the ears of common citizens. This profession also requires impartiality and tolerance, which are necessary for good communication and good relations."

And in an article on friendship, Zlatica's twin sister Tamara wrote: "My best friend is Mersiha. My secret is her secret, my pain is her pain too, she's happy when I'm happy and we share everything. We have different religions, but that only helps us learn about different cultures and understand that different cultures and tradition should bind us, not divide us. Friendship knows no boundaries, nations or skin colour."

The magazine has a print run of 1,500 copies and is distributed free to all pupils at the school. "All the children are excited about it - not just those who work on it, but those who read it too. We started working in September 2008 with some 12 pupils, and now the journalism club has more than 30 members," Biljana says with pride.

Common goal

"This initiative has proved very valuable, as children from different cultures and religions are very motivated to work together in groups for a common goal - the magazine," says Raffaella Zoratti, Democratization Officer in the OSCE Mission and manager of the project.

"The idea was to create strong new friendships. To my surprise and my great pleasure, from the very beginning these children worked together as one, without any prejudice, with their hearts and minds open. It seems to me that we have plenty to learn from them."

As I leave the school, I have the feeling that these children have given us a difficult and very important task. They have created a Children's Planet free from all discrimination, intolerance and injustice - can we adults do the same?

What to do in/with the Western Balkans?

From the last The Economist, two articles on the Balkans:

- The Western Balkans, a stuck Nation - These countries are hit by the economic crisis, fighting with a culture lacking or tailored against cooperation, with unclear EU and NATO membership status. It is hardly to believe the situation will improve, before a long period of evaluation of the consequences of the last enlargements of the two organizations.

- A year in the life of Kosovo - Even everybody agrees on the extraordinary economic, social and political stability guarantees offered by the EU membership perspectives, at the practical level an infinite number of issues arouse. You need transparent and accountable systems, flexible and, most important, corruption free bureaucracies, human resources and skills and, again, a low level of corruption, in order to skilfully use the EU financial resources. As for Kosovo, it haven't been yet prooved the apocalyptic predictions - aired not for free mainly by Russia - of a permanent turmoil in the area, following the unilateral declaration of independence, one year ago. But, the level of poverty and lack of a clear future are nothing but encouraging for its fate.