EULEX Kosovo challenges

Monday February 18

Kosovo's declaration of independence on February 17 was formally unilateral. Its timing suited EU requirements: it was delayed to allow the 27-nation bloc to authorise beforehand the deployment of a police and justice mission, EULEX Kosovo, so that EU members opposed to Kosovo's unilateral move could sign up to it, without being seen as condoning independence.

The deployment of EULEX, under French General Yves de Karmebon, a former commander of the NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo (KFOR), is to begin within days. It will, in practice, replace the UN administration (UNMIK) over a transitional period of 120 days. EULEX will have several key tasks, and face a number of difficulties:

• It will provide a 1,500-strong police contingent to supervise and assist the predominantly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo Police Service.
• Judges and prosecutors will provide expertise in tackling crime and administering impartial justice in a region where clan and family loyalties as well as intimidation have seriously impaired the functioning of the judiciary.
• Most Serbs, particularly in the four Serb-controlled northern municipalities, will almost certainly not cooperate with EULEX, as it is being deployed without specific UN authorisation, and they view it as a tool for consolidating Kosovo's independence.

In time, Kosovo's Albanians are likely to become increasingly frustrated with these relics of international supervision, now that they have their own independent state.