KOSOVO: PRISTINA: CITY HALL REOPENS

submitted by europelmbh on 03/10/16 1

English/Nat For the first time since the end of NATO airstrikes, a mixed Albanian-Serb staff of 140 civil administration workers returns to work, reopening Pristina's city hall as life in Kosovo inches back to normal. For most of Albanian employees, Monday was the first working day since 1990, when Milosevic effectively stripped province of its autonomy. Following the pullout of Yugoslav army and Serbian police forces last month, and the departure of tens of thousands of Serbs fearing retribution, the war-battered province has been without local governments, courts and police. The long and complicated process of reshaping Kosovo society into a multi-ethnic and multicultural community began at Pristina city hall on Monday morning. At 08.00 local time, 60 Serbs and 80 Kosovars Albanians, all former city employees, turned up for work at the building which still carries the emblem of the Serb republic. For most of the Albanian employees, this was their first working day since 1990, some could not remember where their old offices were. In 1990, after Milosevic changed Serbian constitution Kosovo lost its autonomy, thousands of ethnic Albanians in civil administration were forced to leave their jobs. On Monday, they finally managed to came back to their work after nine years. They heard UN administrator, J.F. Carter, welcome them back and tell them "things will never be the same again" SOUNDBITE: (English) "Today hopefully we will be setting the scene for a new order as far as work within this municipality and within your society.Things will never be the same as they were prior the 1990's nor will they be the same as they were in 1999 in March, but we would ask you to be tolerant along the lines as described in the Koran and in the Bible." SUPER CAPTION: J.F. Carter, the U.N. chief civil administrator, U-N officials are busy recruiting people to fill vacancies in the civilian sector in an attempt to help Kosovo recover from years of ethnic conflict and bloody fighting. Pristina's City Hall will have nine departments and two co-mayors, called municipal presidents - Zvonimir Stevic, a former deputy mayor, and Mexhit Syla, an ethnic Albanian, who has not worked since 1989 when he lost his job in an electricity company after serving in the local government until 1984. You can license this story through AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/6a9c1cf1a7127f5cb0a909784791304a Find out more about AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

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