KEY POINTS:
Settling domestic arguments with an AK47 assault rifle is almost routine for many of the 2.5 million people living in the fragile peace of Kosovo.
So, too, is sorting out your business rivals with a grenade, says Commander Mark Chadwick, New Zealand's last military officer to be deployed to the small Balkan country.
It declared independence from Serbia in February after a bitter war that erupted in 1998 when the majority ethnic Albanians in the province rebelled against Serbian rule.
About 6 per cent of the Kosovo population is Serbian and Commander Chadwick said there was no easy solution to the ethnic-based hostility.
"It is the Serbian birthland, and that is why they are so staunch with Kosovo and they are very anti-independence because of that reason."
The ethnic Albanians wanted the Serbs out, but the Serbs were being paid by the Serbian Government to stay, he said.
"They [the Serbian Government in Belgrade] pay a salary to the enclave to remain in Kosovo. It is going to be around for generations."
While the average salary in the enclave was about $500 a month, the Serbs were being paid up to $2000 a month.
Although the Serbs and Albanians mostly did not associate, those in criminal and blackmarket activity supported each other, regardless of their ethnic roots.
"They both have a lot to gain. When we are talking 45 per cent unemployment in Kosovo, black-market fuel and trading is the main sort of lifeline."
Commander Chadwick's return to New Zealand this week marked the end of New Zealand's nine-year commitment to Kosovo and the end of a 16-year commitment to the Balkans.
As a military liaison officer with the United Nations Mission to Kosovo (Unmik), Commander Chadwick closely monitored the security of the area and liaised between the peacekeeping troops of 27 countries, local authorities and Nato, which had 14,000 troops based there.
He said the country was "stagnant" rather than stable after the war of the early 1990s when ethnic Albanians declared independence from Serbia.
"The violence can erupt at any time. It is a bit of a pressure cooker."
He said the local Serbian and Albanian populations were well equipped to take care of their problems which more often than not included a violent and permanent solution.
"The whole country is heavily armed. It is not just the Serbs. Everybody has AK47s. Everybody has hand grenades and pistols."
Commander Chadwick said an AK47 sold on the easily accessible black market for about $200.
"There is firing every day. They use them every day.
"It is domestic violence. They will pull them on their wives; the wives will pull them on their husbands. It is family feuds, gang feuds. Criminal activity, organised crime is huge over there."
He also said guns and bombs were a common means of dealing with business rivals. "If a cafe opens up next door to you, they are likely to get a grenade through the window one night. That happens all the time, it is not rare."
He said family and clan rows were also likely to be settled in the traditional way.
"They are likely to have four or five other family turn up with AK47s and start blasting." Despite that, the situation was considered relatively stable internationally. New Zealand had decided to pull out after contributing one military officer for the past nine years.
The UN was also expected to hand over to the European Union, which would focus on law and justice issues.
Commander Chadwick visited all the main centres in Kosovo and said most of the younger people wanted peace, but that might not happen until the older generations died out.
He said in the capital of Pristina: "They are a modern people. Fashion is a huge trend and it is a huge, young population. It is just like any other European city with respect to the people - very friendly, very kind and very helpful. You go to the enclaves [outside Pristina] and it is completely different." The hostility and the barely sustainable and fragile environment were alien to New Zealanders.
However, he said, coming from NZ also gave him the advantage of being able to look at both sides of the conflict from an unbiased position.
That was unlike many of the European countries who sent peacekeeping troops. "A lot of them have their own biases to the Serbs or the Albanians, depending on their allegiances."
Russia was very pro-Serbian while countries such as Britain, Germany or France were pro-Albanian.
Commander Chadwick said that by considering both points of view, he could understand where the differences lay.
- NZPA
