January 21, 2002
German diplomat Michael Steiner faces a tough task as the new United Nations administrator in Kosovo following his appointment by the Secretary General Kofi Annan.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council naming Steiner, a former adviser to the German chancellor, as successor to Hans Haekkerup, who has stepped down for personal reasons, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa learned Monday. Steiner will take over as head of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) at a time when the U.N. administration is preparing the ground to hand over power to self-governing institutions which will ensure substantial autonomy for the province.
But the political process of building up those institutions has been stalled after disagreements between Kosovo Albanian politicians for more than a month and are likely to continue after the brutal murder of one of the members of the recently convened Kosovo Assembly. A spokeswoman and a veteran of UNMIK, Susan Manuel, said that after more than two years the mission needs a strong personality to carry on its work. "The (special representative) cannot be weak, is going to have to be tough ... In this part of the world, in the Balkans, personality means a lot," she said.
Steiner was appointed over two other candidates for the post of Annan's special representative. One of the others was the Italian Carlo Cabigiosu, who has served in the province as the commander of the NATO-led peacekeeping force (KFOR).
The 52-year old German diplomat takes over from the Dane Hans Haekkerup, who led the mission for one year, from January 2001 until December. Before Haekkerup, French national Bernard Kouchner was the first administrator in Kosovo it became U.N. administered in June 1999. Steiner is a career diplomat with experience in the Balkans.
He joined the efforts of the international community to bring peace in Bosnia-Hercegovina when he served there as a deputy High Representative of the international Community after the war. Earlier he was German ambasador to the Czech Republic and lately he was foreign police senior adviser German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.
But he had to resign after he was embroiled in a scandal over his appetite for Russian caviar and disrespect for soldiers serving him after they filed a formal complaint against him over his behaviour during Schroeder's visit to the Russian capital last November. German diplomats have characterized Steiner as a workaholic and an abrasive, difficult person to work for. His possible nomination was welcomed in advance in Kosovo.
There is some appreciation by Kosovo Albanians of Germans and their culture of hard work. Pictures and stories on Steiner have made headlines in the local media ever since Haekkerup left the mission.
"The local population has complained that they didn't have enough interaction with the previous (special representative). I really don't know if that is going to be a crucial factor, but it can't hurt to have someone who is engaged more," she said.
Steiner's prodecessor was disliked by Albanians who make up the vast majority of province's population for being distant and for his attempts to restore ties with the Belgrade authorities, a step that was feared by them as a violation of their dream for a full independence from Yugoslavia.
Albanian political leaders were outspoken against Haekkerup since while he was in office, but after he resigned last December main local newspapers rushed to comment his departure as "the smartest thing" the U.N. administrator had ever done in Kosovo.
Manuel thinks that Steiner will have a lot of work to do and faces a lot of challenges in Kosovo. "Kouchner and Haekkerup were in Kosovo at different points in history. Kouchner was in emergency phase, Haekkerup in the phase of structuring the legal framework for this transition to a substantial autonomy," said Manuel.
She thinks that mainly what has to be done 31 months later is the transition of UNMIK from being the administrator for all the governance of Kosovo, to having a much more limited role with the concentration on law and order, higher concentration on issues such as return of displaced people and refugees, fight against organized crimes, improving of the justice system.
"This is not like a mission that is just static. We have been continuously progressing from June 1999 towards substantial autonomy and also trying to improve the conditions of life, so the person who comes here is going to have a lot of work", Manuel ended.
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