If Ukraine can not recognize Kosovo, it should let Kosovars travel here – Jeta Xharra

Sviatohirsk: The founder of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Kosovo, former reporter and Kosovo manager of BBC, TV-presenter of Life in Kosovo Jeta Xharra has visited Donbass Media Forum this year. She spoke to Front News about Ukraine not recognizing Kosovo’s independence and about everything Ukraine could actually could learn from the experience of Balkan wars.

 

– Welcome to Ukraine. Is it your first time in our country? What is your impression about Donetsk region?

 

– Hello! That is my second time in Ukraine. I was here ten years ago although I have never been to Donetsk region. I was invited here by Swiss embassy who has been supporting Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) for the last ten years and are now doing a similar work here and thought that the methodology we developed in the Balkans to report on conflict-sensitive topics could be useful here in Eastern Ukraine. So, they thought we had something to share, in particular sharing our experience of building multiethnic teams to report on a conflict from all sides – in places where even today we have a kind of cold or frozen conflict such as it is between Kosovo and Serbia. So this is why I came. I was a bit skeptical first because I did not know much about the conflict in the Eastern Ukraine and I thought “who am I to tell them about their country?” I must admit, I am pleasantly surprised that in times where your country is having a war, basically here where we are hundred kilometers from the frontline, you are having such a Media Forum take place with 200 people and you are asking some tough questions in this context, such as issues of patriotic journalism versus independent journalism. That was simply impossible during Jugoslav wars; we did not organize something like this during the conflict, but much after. Or, it was simply impossible to do – remember that Sarajevo for example was under siege for four years. But even in places where it was possible to organize, such questions would be unimaginable to be discussed during the war in a media forum in Serbia, Bosnia, in Kosovo or Macedonia. So I am deeply impressed that people from here, from the Eastern Ukraine, not some international organization from outside but your home-grown organization from here run by Oleksey Mazuka, managed to organize a very self-reflective Forum where journalist discuss issues that are frankly, being discussed around the world.

 

– What do you think about the fact that Ukraine has not recognized the independence of Kosovo yet? Do you personally understand such position of our government?

 

– Yes, it is very unfortunate. I believe nobody has bothered to explain that basically Ukraine and Kosovo share a lot of similar experience, you became independent from Soviet Russia and we became independent from a socialist Yugoslavia and Russia was our enemy in this, and Russia is your enemy too – but this perspective seems to not have been explained enough here in Ukraine.

 

I have so many colleagues of mine who would like to come to Urkaine but they can not because your country apparently does not even accept our passport. I have a British passport because I lived in UK, I worked there for BBC World Service, then returned to Kosovo and now I run a current affairs TV program on Kosovo public TV but I could come here only because I have a UK passport. If you remember ,Kosovo football players could not play in Ukraine, so our teams played a game in Poland because you country did not allow people with Kosovo passport to come.

 

I think this should be a wake up call that even if you don’t recognize the independence of Kosovo, you should find a way for people to come, the same way for example Greece, Romania, Slovakia, countries that do not recognize Kosovo but still gives us a piece of paper saying that we can enter or travel to their country. This is 21st century and we live in the same continent, Ukraine and Kosovo both aspire to be in the EU so it is un-European and un-neighborly to stop each other from traveling, moving freely. Therefore, Ukraine should be more relaxed about accepting Kosovars to travel here. I understand the political implications, Ukraine’s political position right now, but Ukraine could relax the travel ban for Kosovars to their country. It should not be either-or and option simply to ban Kosovars. We must improve neighborly relations, because now it is not neighborly way to behave.

 

–  Also I would like to ask about Montenegro, which has recently joined NATO. Could you describe the reaction on Balkans and what is your opinion about this event?

 

– This is a very important moment in history of the Balkans, not only for Montenegro and NATO. Imagine, NATO bombed Montenegro (together with Serbia) in 99 and almost 20 years later Montenegro has reformed so much that it enters NATO. That is amazing progress and it inspires us the other Balkan neighbors – so it is an example which Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia should follow – and one day, Serbia too! I believe that Balkan citizens future in NATO is better and it is the dream of so many of us. And Montenegro has just shown that a dream could become real.

 

– What can Ukraine learn from Kosovo example?

 

 – There are a lot of similarities between what happened in Kosovo. In sense that today Northern Kosovo inhabited mainly by Serbs who do not accept Kosovo independence. We have many Serbs who are citizens of Kosovo, about one hundred thousand Serbs, but they are not huge fan of Kosovo independence. And I have met Ukranian citizens in Eastern Ukraine, an industrial zone, who would much rather they lived in Russia because they work in factories which only make tools for Russian market – so that is unfortunate.  So, our country, Kosovo is trying to do a lot to include Serbs in our institutions, into our system. We added an extra 10 municipalities to our country, just for new towns to be with majority Serb citizens so they can feel like they can run their own cities – so that their communities could feel better about running their own municipal services. The problem is Serbia still supports them financially, same as how Russia is supporting citizens of the occupied territories in Ukraine. What could be possibly useful for Ukraine is to be creative in how to make citizens who are not such fans of Ukraine to feel more welcomed, and more taken care of in your state – something we had to do with the Serbian community which felt very hostile to a Kosovo state. The thing is that institutions of your country must find the ways, your Ukranian acceptable ways to integrate the whole population into your state and not leave them behind even if they feel more inclined to the Russian state.  If you give them jobs, education and a future in Ukraine – if you give them a chance to express themselves in the language they prefer – then this is one way for them to see that Ukraine is not a country that is hostile towards them but it is welcoming of all its citizens, even those citizens who are clearly more pro-Russian at the moment in your Eastern Ukranian zone. On the other hand, Ukraine and Kosovo are very different in other ways, you have 44 million people and we have 2 million people, so of course, I am aware that there are a lot of differences. But at the same time, as you feel sorry for yourselves being stuck in this conflict, I would like you to feel grateful that, it is because of your conflict with Russia that you have visa-free travel for Ukranian citizens to Europe. Kosovo’s war has ended almost 20 years ago, and we are still the only Europeans that can not travel to Europe freely because our visa-free regime has not been yet lifted. So, at least you got something out of your conflict with a much more serious enemy that your are currently fighting against, Russia.

 

Vladislav Urubkov