RIGHTS-KOSOVO: Donors Pledge Two Billion Dollars for Reconstruction

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Shada Islam

BRUSSELS, Jul 28 1999 (IPS) - International donors and aid agencies meeting for the first time to assess Kosovo’s reconstruction requirements on Wednesday pledged two billion dollars in immediate assistance for the war- devastated province amid fears that development-aid resources will be utilised.

Officials admitted that the package included some funds which had already been disbursed in assistance to Kosovo.

They predicted that more resources would be needed after further evaluation studies of the damage caused to Kosovo by Serbian ethnic cleansing and eleven weeks of Nato air strikes were completed in October.

For political reasons, the meeting did not discuss reconstruction assistance to Yugoslavia, whose infrastructure and industry was severely damaged during the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air attacks between March and June.

“A more accurate figure for the global costs of reconstruction, peace -implementation and recovery (for Kosovo) will be available in autumn,” said the European Union’s deputy director general Francois Lamoureux who co-chaired the meeting with the World Bank

The meeting attended by over 100 donors estimated Kosovo’s urgent financial requirements at around 545 million dollars. Aid experts said this included resources required to cover Kosovo’s budgetary deficit, to provide for the immediate needs of the refugees and for urgent reconstruction work.

The focus on Kosovo has triggered concerns that funds available for development spending in other parts of the world could be slashed.

Aid experts caution that the EU which has said it will pay for the lion’s share of the reconstruction costs, could make across the board cuts of about 10 per cent in its overall development budget.

Members of the European Parliament, however, have pledged to fight any attempts to reduce EU aid. Glenys Kinnock recently warned that it was “unacceptable” to take money away from the world’s poorest nations to pay for the crisis in Kosovo.

But international donors insist that peace and stability in Kosovo are crucial for the future of the wider Balkans region.

“Our task here today is to kick-start the rebuilding of Kosovo,” James Dobbins, the United States’ Secretary of State for Kosovo told the meeting.

“Unless basic human needs are met between now and winter for the over one million returning refugees and internally displaced people, we cannot expect to lay the groundwork for social stability or a self- sustaining economy,” Dobbins warned.

The United States has pledged 500 million dollars in cash and commodities to the Kosovo reconstruction effort, with the focus on providing emergency shelter, food aid and health care.

The European Union has already paid out 380 million dollars in humanitarian assistance and says further reconstruction aid worth 140 million dollars will be released by the end of the year.

Sources said Japan had announced 200 million dollars in aid, with Germany saying its assistance would be around 175 million dollars.

Aid officials told the meeting that the top priority in the coming days would be to help the returning Kosovo Albanian refugees to prepare for the hardships of winter. This will require urgent help to repair houses and restore water and electricity.

A study of infrastructure damage in Kosovo drawn up by the EU Commission paints a dismal picture of a province ruined by years of government neglect, low investments – and now destruction caused by conflict and war.

The report underlines that out of over 200,000 houses surveyed in 1400 villages, almost 120,000 dwellings have been either totally destroyed or significantly damaged.

“The total cost of repairing them is put at 1.12 billion euros,” the EU’s Lamoureux told the meeting, adding that he expected the returning refugees to pay for about 25 to 30 per cent of the rebuilding work.

“This is in addition to the cost of emergency repairs to schools, clinics and hospitals, rural electricity supply, water supply and transport infrastructure,” he added.

Aid experts said that Serbian paramilitaries had deliberately targeted school buildings. “Many have been looted and burned,” the Commission’s assessment study said. “Some clinics are operational but can only provide rudimentary care.”

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees warned of the need to focus on food security, saying that the conflict had led to the destruction of crops.

Donors insist that reconstruction work can only be carried out effectively once there is a local administration in Kosovo. “Kosovo currently has no institutional framework. The Kosovars themselves do not know which model to go with,” Lamoureux said.

“Security, the broadest sense of the term, must be improved and an administrative structure set up,” he added.

EU officials say that the training and recruitment of a civilian police force are under way but considerable technical and financial help is needed.

Building an effective administrative structure is proving to be even more difficult. The EU has suggested that administrators should be brought in from outside to assist the local authorities and build a Kosovar management structure.

The peace agreement between Yugoslavia and NATO stipulates that Kosovo will remain a Serbian province under a UN civil administration and a NATO-Russian peacekeeping military force. But a sweeping ethnic- cleansing campaign by the Kosovo Liberation Army has scared away most of the 200,000 Kosovo Serbs.

Kosovo Albanians have taken over or destroyed most of the Serb- owned houses and businesses in the province, as well as the formerly Serb-controlled state enterprises and radio-television stations.

Donors have been warned that they are in for the long haul. Once the emergency goals are met, the World Bank and the EU plan to start work on a long-term economic recovery programme for Kosovo which will include the relaunching of the rural economy, help for private businesses, and reconstructing infrastructure networks.

The EU has established a special agency for the reconstruction of Kosovo which is expected to become operational in autumn.