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Resources > Global Issues > Kosovo – Civil ... > Background on Kosovo > The Parallel Soci...

The Parallel Society and the Birth of Civic Action

In direct response to Serbian repression, the Albanians of Kosovo built their own system of government, known as the "parallel society."

Ibrahim Rugova, head of the LDK.

The political foundation for the parallel society was laid in 1992, when the Albanians held clandestine multi-party elections and established an underground Parliament. The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), headed by Ibrahim Rugova, received 93% of the overall vote, and emerged as the dominant political party.

The first challenge was to fill the void left by the absence of government services, which had been denied to the Albanian population. The parallel administration established functional councils (environment, health, agricultural, education, human rights, etc.) that were composed of Albanian professionals that had been dismissed from their jobs. At one stage, doctors in the parallel system were treating 6,500 Albanians a day.

The entire apparatus was funded by a 3 percent tax that was levied on Albanians in Kosovo, and by contributions from the Albanian Diaspora. Claims have been made regarding mafia and drug money contributions, but ordinary Kosovars made a tremendous sacrifice to come up with 3 percent of their paltry income. Throughout ten long years, they found enough to provide professionals (doctors and teachers) with approximately 300 DM ($150) every two or three months.

Jak Mita, vice president of the Mother Teresa Society, with photographs of the MTS office which was destroyed by Serbian forces during the war.

The real driving force behind the parallel society was volunteerism. Illustrated by the Mother Teresa Society (MTS), whose network of 636 community centers served as the delivery point for food aid, health care, and a range of other social services. The centers were staffed by 7,000 volunteers.

Similar stories could be found throughout the parallel society. On December 14, 1989 a group of eminent Kosovars established the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms. By the mid-1990s, the Council had sub-branches in every community in Kosovo. Over 2,000 volunteers were monitoring violations and feeding it to the Council in Prishtina for distribution to the outside world.

Primary, secondary, and university classes were held in private homes and taught by unemployed teachers and professors. Their "salaries" were paid by Albanian parents. The parallel society also produced sports teams, cultural institutions, trade unions, and an independent marketing and tax system.

Many of those profiled in these pages came to prominence under the parallel society.

The handicapped suffered a great deal from the withdrawal of government services. Nevertheless, this helped create an incentive for Handikos--an association for the handicapped created by Halit Ferizior in the early 1980's.

Their first task was to update the lists of handicapped Kosovars. Halit Ferizi and his friends turned to the main Albanian political party (LDK) and joined with the Mother Teresa Society (MTS), as both had extensive contacts in the villages. Within weeks, they had identified a network of community representatives, who assessed the needs of the disabled and visited their homes.

By the time of the NATO campaign, 320 volunteers were working for the disabled in 25 local groups. This was a formidable achievement. In fact, in terms of support from their fellow citizens, handicapped Kosovars were probably more fortunate than their counterparts in many more developed societies.

Igballe (Igo) Rogova worked at a television station until she was fired in 1990. The following year, she helped found Motrat Qiriazi, an organization for rural women activists. In 1995, the group decided to focus on improving the literacy of women in the region of Has, which borders Albania.

Has is rich in culture, but the people are desperately poor. The girls in particular are treated like property--readied for marriage before they even leave primary school. "Girls wanted literature classes," says Igo, "but this was difficult because the Serbian authorities had burned many Albanian language books."

"We encouraged publishing companies in Prishtina to reprint books in Albanian. It was a kind of cultural revolution. In two years, seven new libraries were built in the area where we were working. It was risky, but we were careful. The police didn't harass us too much, because they think that women are stupid." (Two of the libraries were burned during the NATO intervention.)

Nazlie Bala (below) is one of Kosovo's foremost human rights activists. In the early 1990s, Nazlie received six months of training in human rights field research at the United Nations in Geneva and in Norway. She then worked for five years as a field coordinator for the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms in Kosovo, training locals in how to take statements and record violations.

By 1997 tensions were rising, and together with friends, Nazlie founded an organization ("Elena") to monitor violations against women. They also organized workshops in women's rights and held workshops for traumatized children.

Another prominent professional who responded to the crisis was Aferdita Kelmendi, one of Kosovo's most prominent radio journalists. In 1995 Aferdita created a Media Project to train young women journalists. The trainees learned graphics, layout, editing, and writing under her as they put together a magazine ('Eritrea'). On the wall of the room was a large poster, which read (in English): "I want. I know. I can."

There were countless examples of civic action that clearly showed the parallel society as more than administrative and political "structures" (councils, parliament, etc.), as it is often portrayed. Rather it was a collective statement that the Albanians of Kosovo were determined to take control of their own lives, without resorting to violence.

The international community never took the time to understand this aspect of the parallel society, and how it might have contributed toward Kosovo's reconstruction. Yet it was at the heart of this unique and unprecedented achievement.

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