9s Conversations on Europe/CREES Lecture. "Kosovo from NATO's Intervention to Independence: An Appraisal."

November 5, 2009
4:00PM - 5:30PM, 1636 International Institute/SSWB

Host Department: Center for European Studies - European Union Center (CES-EUC)

Veton Surroi, journalist and politician. Sponsor: CES-EUC, CREES, WCED. Veton Surroi is presently a publicist and publisher in the KOHA Media Group in Prishtina, Kosovo. He is also the Chair of the Board of the Foreign Policy Club, an NGO in Kosovo dealing with international policy. As a renowned journalist he started KOHA Ditore, the biggest and most respected independent newspaper in Kosovo, as well as KTV, the most respected independent national TV. During the '90s he was a well known political and civil society activist. As such, he participated in the Rambouillet peace talks of 1999, and was one of the signatories of the Rambouillet Accords. In his capacity as head of the ORA party and MP, from October of 2005 –December of 2007 he was a member of the Unity Team of Kosovo, which negotiated the independence of the country. Mr. Surroi was awarded the IFJ Award of the Year in 2000 as well the Genzen Medal of Holland and National Endowment of Democracy Award.

Further Information

1989 caught Kosovo in a paradox. The wave of democracy was spreading throughout Central and Eastern Europe, but Kosovo was living through a state of emergency and Yugoslavia, with its delicate federal arrangement, was being paralyzed. Joining others as a pro-democracy activist,  in what would become the Democratic Alternative of Kosovo led by Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, Vetton Surroi became involved  in defining the policy of the non-violent movement of Kosovo. In 1999, 10 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, Yugoslavia went through its last violent disintegration. Having failed to prevent genocide in Bosnia and Hercegovina, the US and Europe decided to act in Kosovo. In the spring of 1999, after 78 days of bombing, NATO allies ended the occupation of Kosovo and established the UN protectorate. In 2006-07, under the auspices of the UN Security Council, former Finnish president Ahtisaari conducted the Kosovo status process, establishing conditions for a higher degree of international legitimacy of aspirations for the majority of the Kosovars. That led to the proclamation of independence of Kosovo in 2008. After a 20 year struggle for democracy inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall, but without full UN Security Council or EU backing, the international community has created serious obstacles in the state-building process in Kosovo, impeding it in its first years of a clear perspective in European  and transatlatnic integrations. 

 

Part of the "The Nines: Brinks, Cusps, and Perceptions of Possibility—from 1789–2009"

 

Contact Information: ces-euc@umich.edu