--Monday, 17 April 00--
Busy today but I kept up with the flow and even got some old items addressed.

Naim told me that he was not badly treated during the recent troubles because his neighborhood had six Serb families and everyone knew everyone else. The all-Albanian neighborhoods were badly treated. This is a statement about Naim's willingness to forgive: a Serb shot two incendiary rounds into his bedroom.

Naim also said that some people said that people like the Serbs in Naim's neighborhood were nice at home but actually went to places they weren't known and committed atrocities and then came home and were friendly with their Albanian neighbors just in case things went the other way. So, here in Kosovo, even good behavior becomes a kind of proof of evil behavior.

At a cafe in the evening, I asked for a Skopsko (pronounced skopska) beer which is brewed in Skopje, Macedonia and the waiter said they didn't carry it. He went on to say that they had been told not to carry it because Macedonia had not been helpful in the recent troubles. So it is here. It is good to report that Skopsko is available in a number of cafes.

The young men here really like the color black. Black jeans, black tee shirts, black shirts, black leather jackets.

Friday was a delicious Spring day: a touch cool in the cleansed air offset by a beguiling warmth from the sun. The daffodils were in bloom and the fruit trees were covered with lightly tinted blossoms.

Saturday was a "bad air day", not cold but dead with the face of a corpse. You could see the air and their was nothing pretty in it.

Today was the first hot day, it must have been about 85. Ominous for everyone without air conditioning and that is almost everyone, everywhere here.


--Tuesday, 18 April 00--
A friend of mine wrote to me about reading an article about inadequate garbage disposal in Prishtina and the risk of a major rat problem.

"Inadequate garbage disposal" is the understatement of the year. Trash piles up in ad hoc dumps located around dumpsters, on the sides of roads, and in vacant lots. Periodically someone, probably a resident, sets fire to the trash (to reduce the volume) and noxious smoke wafts over the neighborhood. A few blocks away, the same thing is happening. All across the city. It is a MAJOR air pollution problem in a city where you can SEE the air.

And what is the municipal administration doing about this? The UNMIK News flier (April 10, 2000) reports in "Combating the garbage crisis":

"UNMIK has made an urgent appeal to donors for further assistance with the garbage situation. Municipalities around western Europe have been asked for direct cooperation and assistance. UNMIK estimates the additional needs in the waste sector for the rest of 2000 will be about 3.7 million deutsche mark.

Above, open burning of trash, in this case, near the railroad bridge leading to the Dragodan neighborhood.

"According to the World Health Organization, the garbage situation is not yet of high risk to public health, yet it has affected the quality of life in Prishtina, where the expanded population has exacerbated the problems. The lack of equipment and the need for more skilled workers also contributed to the crisis.

"In particular, the waste management company Hygiena Teknika needs more personnel and a training programme. It currently has 215 workers, compared to 340 in the sector before the conflict. Trucks, containers, compactors, tractors, bulldozers, tools and protective clothing are also urgently needed. The company plans on renting 15 private tractors in the near future.

"In late March the workers of Hygiena Technika went on strike over unpaid wages. An UNMIK spokeswoman announced on 3 April that salaries for sanitation workers for January and February were being paid and that most of the work force was back on the job."

The lack of vision of the municipal administration is demonstrated in other areas. Prishtina has three major streets that run parallel and are quite close to each other North and South of the city center. Each street averages 2+ lanes wide with almost continuous parking on the sidewalks. Driving up or down the two most popular streets frequently is slower than walking (I know: the two building I frequent the most are at opposite ends) and walking is obstructed by frequent narrows created by the cars on the sidewalk and the number of people who have to maneuver around them.

The municipal administration could put vertical pipes in the ground every five feet (or so) to force parallel parking and give reasonable space to pedestrians. It could also turn the three street combination into two large traffic circles which are one way on each street. Can't do it? Why not? That is the way they did it in Prizrin which is of similar size and layout.

The regional headquarters of UNMIK in Peje. The building looks like the offspring of a union of a pagoda and an office building.

A Trip to Peje
Wayne, Steve and I went to Peje this morning. Outside of town we picked up three representative of the Customs Office there and proceeded to the BPK where we arrived around 10 AM and had a meeting with the recently appointed branch manager. The meeting went well and quickly. The branch manager stated that he had no difficulty accepting deposits if we had an account there. I asked if I could open an account immediately and signed the paperwork on the spot for two accounts, one for customs and one for taxes.

At 11 AM we adjourned to the bank vault and viewed numerous paper envelopes filled with cash. I asserted myself (this really runs counter to my personality but I had to put myself out this time) and insisted that we sort the bags by number before we opened anything. I started restacking the bags into bins based on their numbers (20s, 30s, etc.) and before long discovered the single digits. I found a slim bag 1 and sent it out for opening by a team of one bank person and one Customs person. The Customs person sorted the currency and determined that it agreed with the Customs report. The bank person counted the money (determining that a stack of a hundred twenties actually contained 100 twenties, etc.)

Pretty quickly I discovered that bag 4 was missing. I approached the Customs people and they consulted their records and realized that they had sent bag 4 directly to Prishtina so there was an explanation. All the other 55 bags were accounted for.

The machine above "bails" stacks of currency. In the background a customs and a bank representative jointly verify the contents of the currency bags.

Once the process became routinized, we focused on efficiency and opened a second counting station, running like the first. The mechanical currency counters were an incredible assist. The Peje branch had two, the BPK office only one.

The counting went on for seven hours without interruption and not one person complained. I am not even sure if anyone went to the bathroom. At 6 PM when the Custom records and the banks counts were reconciled, we were given a deposit slip for more than 4,932,000 DM (about $2.5 million).

The final figured was 210 DM below the records Customs kept, an amazing level of accuracy. One reason for this is that the controls Customs placed on its collections were among the finest I had ever seen. The Customs people were outstanding and the bank staff was very professional.

Only a portion of the currency counted and deposited in Peje. As an old line goes, "After a while, it really adds up."

We begged off on the almost inevitable ceremonial dinner because of the time and began the trip back. All the roads here are two lanes and filled with all kinds of traffic from horse drawn wagons to tractor trailers pulling double loads and everything imaginable -- and unimaginable -- in between. Add in major potholed sections and bridges eaten by cruise missiles and short distances become long ones. We arrived in Prishtina just as the sun was setting.

Risky Business
Yesterday one man was killed and two injured in a shooting incident along my path to work. It seems to have been a private argument.

Last night I heard an explosion around 9 PM. It seems that someone fired a rocket propelled at a Serb living across the street from my hotel room. The grenade missed its target and exploded in the apartment next door. Two Albanian Kosovar men were reported to be in the hospital.

I was told that a mine exploded 100 yards from the Dea hotel. It seems that it was inadvertently brought there by earth moving equipment. Remind me to stay away from backhoes.

Another day in Kosovo.

The above is part of a window display in Prizren which shows what unexploded ordinance and mines actually look like.