Building Democracy in the 21st Century: Inclusiveness in forming a democracy

foreign [Music] [Music] hello my name is Heidi Matson and I am the discussion group coordinator and a member of the student Advisory board at the Dole Institute welcome to the Dolan Institute of politics and thank you for attending today's program discussion groups are made possible by Newman's Own Foundation and this spring series is presented in partnership with the Kosovo American Education fund and gauchi's residency is made possible with the support of the Jim Jama opportunity fund today's program will be live streamed and available on our YouTube channel you can also ask access videos of past Dole Institute programs by visiting our YouTube channel at any time after the program we will have some time for audience questions if you have a question please raise your hand in a student worker with a microphone will come to you please ask just one brief question for virtual viewers you can send your questions to dolequestions at ku.edu the Dole institute's mission is to Foster civil and respectful discussion around important and often difficult topics please phrase that your questions with this in mind and ask just one brief question before we begin I'd like to remind you to please turn off your cell phones and before we hand things over to Dr Goshi here's a special video from an alumna from the Kosovo American Education fund hello everyone I'm davidai and I'm KF alumna of class of 2017. I'm very grateful for the KF scholarship because it made it possible for me to study International Security at Georgetown University living and studying in U.S has been a truly life-changing experience for me I was able to obtain one of the best educations available in the field of security studies while also making a lifetime friendship and expanding my Professional Network after finishing my Graduate Studies I was excited to come back to Kosovo and to give back primarily as part of the office of the president of Kosovo than the think tank community and more recently now as part of the higher education system without a doubt KF has been instrumental for my personal and professional growth and it continues to be one of the most transformative and impactful projects for the develop element of our country I would like to thank all of those who have contributed to care throughout these years and I would like to use this opportunity to invite all of those who can to continue supporting KF and its important Mission thank you join me in welcoming spring fellow chandram gashi [Applause] well thank you everyone and welcome again at the Dole Institute where we will continue our discussion the series of discussions on building democracy in the 21st century focusing on Kosovo Our Guest today is indeed a very special one I was her advisor back in 2011 and she's the first five-star general of kosovo's police force she's the first woman president of the Republic of Kosovo she's the youngest Head of State female head of state elected democratically in the world she has been active throughout her presidency to promote women's rights to engage youth in decision making processes to strengthen democracy and and security both in Kosovo and in the region in the western Balkans she is an inspiration to not only many young girls but also boys and men and women in Kosovo and Beyond and so I'm very honored to have as our guest as my guest Madam atifete yahyaga president of the Republic of Kosovo from 2011 until 2016. thank you madam president for accepting to come to uh at the Dole Institute and here in Kansas it's a it's a real honor to be here with you thank you very much and thank you for uh having me at the Dole Institute thank you to Audrey to Kaif and to all of the friends that I was able to meet this afternoon while I'm here in uh which I'm really impressed with everything what this institute has been doing and they couldn't have a better fellow than having you here and with your background Chandra thank you thank you very much so I would like to ask some questions that start before you became president I mentioned already you were the first five-star general in kosovo's police force um why did you choose to serve in the security sector because that's not a natural choice for for for for many many people and uh how did your family react to that well first of all chandram I find very unusual that uh like 11 years after we are switching the roles and I was 11 years ago posing the questions to chandram and now he's posing the question to me so the two World changes it changes for the very good things uh well um chandram it it was a very long uh uh uh uh it is a very long story behind that why I have actually chosen to uh join to uh security uh sector uh to join to an organization which was uh seen as only the environment only for men and particularly coming from a country and from the region where it is a very practical society that certain jobs and the function are reserved only for demands but not for the women but I think the main reason behind that was that I myself and to a certain point you but definitely the uh the fellows from my generation and one generation uh before me we got to use to live into the very hardship circumstances I was born into the during the Civil resistance time I did throughout my entire education primary secondary and the University degree under the milosevic regime and every time that we have seen the uniform and the police and the military which in the normal democracies and other countries around the world it's the uniform is there to protect you to serve you while in our case it was the other way around where every time that we see in the uniform we've seen the bidding we've seen the prosecution we've seen the imprisonment and even the uh killing and assassination in uh in total and so after the end of the war uh I uh I was a graduate young graduated lawyer I start working for the United Nations mission in Kosovo and that time we were building the all of the and creating the sub-laws and the laws to uh to establish the new police organization immediately after the end of the war and for the first time we were introducing the gender element to within the Kosovo police where before the women were only in administration part but not within the active uniform and operational side of the police and the military and so somehow it was very much tempting for me to kind of to be a part of that organization which is which is a which was about to start it from uh scratch but more to that that the first woman who has started joined to the uh police organization they have been followed with a a bad comments by the general public that you need to belong yeah you need to belong to the lower ranks of the society and no good educational background in order to join to the uh police organization and definitely that was not the situation in real and so I wanted to contribute to join to this organization by helping to increase the percentage of the women educated women to join to the police organization with the idea that I would serve there for maybe two or three years help increase the percentage of the women and step back and continue uh serving to my career which I started as in the uh law background but I got stuck there for about 15 years without knowing because slow they start arousing throughout the ranks and when you asked me about how was the reaction of the family to my surprise I was lucky I cannot say that the majority of the women in Kosovo but particularly in the Southeastern part of the Europe had the luck on the privilege that I had to be raised by a family in general but particularly from a father of that believed in equal rights for me and my brother uh and maybe sometimes even much more rights for myself than for my uh brother that was a year and a half older than I was that he chosen the profession which was uh maybe 100 percent or more uh uh uh financially uh more burning for my family than it was my profession he was in the medicine while I was in uh in a law but my father and his family his entire family uh because my family's background it comes from the very rational family where they have been prosecuted by the state of the rankovic and the malashevich for the decades in a row and so mainly because they given the rights more rights to the uh a majority and to the more marginalized community that they supposed to be given particularly towards the women and so I did had a huge support from my family in general my mom did resist in the beginning mainly because of the perception of the people or the pressure of the perception of the people but I did enjoy huge support from my father and I'm forever grateful I am the person that I am here today with you uh just because I had the father like I had uh starting from my early uh uh childhood and when I'm here in the uh when I'm in this topic I try to always encourage particularly the young parents that they have to raise with equal standards boys and girls because there is where they start getting the first elements what they're really going to be in the near future um and um it is fair to say that of course you were extremely successful uh in the Kosovo police force and but part of this success is also due to uh to your training that you uh obtained uh in in various uh parts of the world including the FBI so you know this is uh you know a tough uh Kosovo uh General uh who then becomes uh the first uh president a woman president of the Republic of Kosovo um so you already broke barriers uh in the police force but this time you really managed to uh crack that last ceiling in Coastline yes yes indeed um and that's the right expression here in Kansas with uh you know with the basketball being so famous um you you already embodied that uh sense of equality gender equality and and women's rights in your um uh career you mentioned the support that you uh got in your family but how did you transmit that Vision that you had for women's rights and gender equality in inclusion of of Youth um when you became president because suddenly you were no longer just the person embodying a vision you also were able to implement that Vision yeah uh well chandram I got elected as the president in a very unusual circumstances as you already uh known being first of all the Kosovo citizen but later on serving as one of my close collaborators and the staff members within the ayaka presidency 2011 2016. uh six months before I was elected as a president of Kosovo 2 two presidents were ruled down by the Constitutional court for the violation of the Constitution and we were in a very deep political crisis not only the two presidents were ruled down by the Constitutional court but within the year we have overcome two rounds of the of the parliamentarian elections with a huge local and international monitoring system put in a place and till that level of the international reporting of the uh of the fabricated fat of the votes so starting from that time 2009 and 2010 until today's day where Kosovo is being ranked one of the most advanced system of the hosting and keeping the elections uh country has gone through the huge positive transformation for for less than a decade uh time and that time the three main political parties they came up with a proposal to nominate the consensual candidate for the first time like you mentioned uh non-partisan uh candidate which in a way I always say like it took three months to nominate a woman to come and fix the mess that they have created for a couple of years in a row yeah and so to my uh uh surprise I was elected on the first round of the elections with over 30 with over 80 percent of the uh votes by making me like you said that the first woman to be elected into the highest position in Kosovo in the Southeastern part of the uh Europe the youngest head of state democratically uh elected but children I did not realize and even today when I tried to reflect in the times uh behind I still I could not even imagine the challenges that I was about to face the very first moment that I took the over the office uh there was never a talk and the uh or I I will be more than happy if that people will be kind of like measuring my uh success or lack of the success based on my process of the decision making or based on my role roles and responsibilities constitutional roles and responsibilities but with more of the talk what is she wearing today what kind of the heist hairstyle she's having today what kind of the heels what kind of the bags what kind of the nail polish so maybe about the 10 headlines uh the first 10 headlines and Kosovo were about this one and maybe somewhere the 11 or the 12th headline was about wait a second what is she talking about today what kind of the decision she has been taking today and so but I have expected but not up into that uh level in there and so I had couple of the main rules when I took over the office where you have been a part of that my first rule was that that I'm not going to allow any interference whatsoever to be involved within the Office of the President like used to build till the time that I have uh taken over by other powers within uh the country mainly from the political uh parties my second rule was that that I'm going to have a majority of the population of Kosovo to be represented in the office of the president of Kosovo when you speak about the inclusiveness that 61 of the population of Kosovo my dear ladies and gentlemen are under the age of the 30. so I wanted the same representation to be represented within the office the cabinet of the president of uh Kosovo 51 of the population of Kosovo are my own kind are the women of Kosovo and I wanted the exactly the same percentage to be represented within the office of the uh president and into the process of the decision making I kind of and we kind of Chandra have extended that table of the decision-making and we have added more chairs for all the ones that has been for far too long left outside of the decision-making process but at the same time they had to be living with the outcomes or the results of our process of the decision making so I added more chairs for women for minority community and for the marginalized communities so I can actually testify I was there when a Madam president was elected and I served at the beginning and and I could not believe the level of sexism that I was seeing in the media you know there was never a focus on policy it was more a focus as Madam president said on on on on caricatures um you mentioned that uh this is I get the opportunity to ask questions now and I'm really thankful to Audrey and the Dole Institute uh so uh therefore I have a question which is uh I think not many people back at home know about this but is it true that you have defeated in swimming when you were president a sitting prime minister oh boy so how the hell do you know this my sources oh gosh now I know why he was my my advisor there yes it's true um do you want to reveal to us who that prime minister was uh yes it was the uh former prime minister of Albania and it was one of the very few times that I was able to grab uh uh two days or three days of the summer holidays to leave and to be able to spend a little bit of time with my family and I used to swim a lot before I cannot say it for now and so I did not realize that I was posing the challenge for the Secret Service but never thinking that posing the challenge to the city and prime minister that time and I was getting into the hour into the water and getting out of the water like four hours after so I was doing like miles of the swimming from one corner to another corner and so one day the Secret Service from my team and the Secret Service of the team of the Prime Minister were sitting each other sitting with each other a complains like oh the Prime Minister goes for swimming and he comes back after two hours and the team that was escorting me said like oh boy it's nothing than being within the team with yayaga because the water is not only above the skin but is under the skin for us and so apparently uh so one of the day he invites me for coffee and I said like we don't have to drive you can just start swimming from your side where you are sitting and I can start from the side where I am staying and so we can meet with each other somewhere in between yeah and and and and by the way it's it's interesting the dynamic is interesting because the Albanian prime minister he had built sort of this reputation in the media and everyone in the media knows that he was a great swimmer they did not know that we actually had a better swimmer in Kosovo so that's that's why I imagine doing this thanks God we didn't because the Medias were hunting me to get me somewhere in the bathing suit and so I have one more one more you know type of question uh of this sword before we get into more policy uh discussions um uh so uh again I've done some research and it appears that you were a great uh marks person or or a sharp shooter so nobody could actually defeat Madam president and and I'm you know we're not armed here don't worry but uh so how did you actually handle that because uh there is this very famous photo in Kosovo where uh president yahyaga is holding a gun and and again this is breaking many barriers in in the image of of people who thought that guns are just for men and uh and so you know could you tell us a little bit about your experience uh what you can share about uh in the FBI yeah there is that dominated that the guns are for uh man's about to be handled better for by women uh Yes actually uh I was in top of a generation uh in Kosovo in the Kosovo police we have this rule that is like 60 rounds and out of the 60 I had 59 in number 10. from all distances and so I think this was more on in in my genes because my father he used to be uh the second uh in during his army service in the former Yugoslavia and but I never ever handled the weapon uh till after the end of the war when I joined to the uh security organizations and so um I kind of like continued to uh to build into that skill even now when I have a free time I go to the shooting range and I particularly uh take a lot of women from Kosovo and go there because it is a different effect that has on you when you're handling a a weapon and it's in it's a type like it's a different type of the empowerment that you come out of that therapy under the records that I kind of use it in my term there so we will we will remain in the issues related to security and um when you were a president one of the issues that you tackled head-on was the issue of violent extremism and you were known in the entire region and and Beyond actually to have been one of the first leaders that took concrete actions early on because at some point you know there were many who joined forces but you did that early on and did the fact that you had this background in security help you or what was your outlook how did you evaluate this this danger that was facing Kosovo and and the entire world while chandram um neither Kosovo neither U.S neither any other country in the world can be or could be or will be immune uh facing with the global challenges neither Kosovo could be immune back in 2013 and 2014 where the rest of the Europe and the Southeastern part of the Europe or the Western Balkans have been facing uh with the violent extremism yes indeed Kosovo was the very first country in our part of the region and much wider to you towards within the EU that has given the Bold response on tackling the violent extremism within couple of days and no definitely this did not relate to my background as the former five-star general of the Kosovo police that was purely the task of the president who is uh which was my constitutional obligation because uh Kosovo as you know is a parliamentary in democracy where the executive powers fall under the uh the government legislative under the parliament while the National Security and the foreign policy and the certain judicial uh competence fall under the president so that was purely National Security uh issue and so it was my obligation my constitutional obligation to step in and give a very bold response towards the violent extremism and we were the very first country at the global level uh that even uh actually before we took of uh took on the proper actions uh no matter the Kosovo at that time was one about 1.9 million population we had the highest percentage of the uh foreign Fighters per capita which were going outside of the Kosovo to fight in Iraq and Syria and other countries and I simply did not wanted that Trend to be dominating Kosovo in the region of the Southeastern part of the Europe so for the first time Kosovo has given a very bold on a spot within one join operation we have arrested about 80 percent of the foreign Fighters which were present in uh Kosovo for the first time we have shut down uh the illegal mosques operating in Kosovo illegal ngos who were financially supporting the uh the um and in a way infiltrating the people within as the point uh Fighters and in indoctrinating our people and we have also a kind of like tracked down all of the illegal finances that was coming in order to support those kind of the activities So within couple of days the whole situation was brought into the con which was brought under the control and to my surprise there are much bigger countries within the European Union that has immediately contacted our intelligence services and others in order to get the best examples or the doing or knowing how to do and how to act in crossover in order to copy and to adopt it within their countries and within their organization and particularly into the sharing of the information intelligence how to tackle this uh phenomena so I'm really happy that I was able to act in the timing that we acted otherwise I would not even imagine the consequences if we would only delayed for about 24 hours of action there so that's I think a sign of of real uh leadership and uh and um I'm assuming that uh the the close U.S Kosovo relationship and as a matter of fact and when we took these actions uh Kosovo uh uh we just overcome the Parliamentary election we had no government in place and we had no parliament in place uh so we were acting with the acting government and no parliament in place and so it was one of the most difficult circumstances for me personally as the president to manage uh during the August of 2014. yes I I and and just for for some context of course whenever you take bold decisions it's it's uh you know it's easier to spread the responsibility around but uh but in this case uh it took a real leadership for from yourself um I would like now to to mention the U.S Kosovo relationship because one of the areas in which uh this relationship has been really evolving and and deepening over the years is security but the relationship between the United States and Kosovo is multifold and of course we're here at the Dole Institute and and the late Senator Dole being one of the early supporters of of Kosovo um in the late 80s early 90s could you tell us a little bit about how you see the U.S Coast of a relationship how it has evolved over the years well I couldn't I wouldn't think of the better place to to reflect or to celebrate the extraordinary relation uh between Kosovo and the US than here in the Dole Institute like you mentioned where the base of that are many decades before that we even are here uh today and the U.S has been and continues to be one of the greatest allies and the supporters of the people of Kosovo and the country of Kosovo U.S and the people of United States have been with us in the most trying times I mentioned in the very beginning during the Civil resistance by not only bringing to the surface of the administration of this country about the geography where Kosovo is physically wear with about the major violation of the human rights which are happening almost in the heart of the Europe and I always recall a very strong word of the secretary Albright that she mentioned a few days after the liberation of Kosovo when she came to welcome the first troops of the NATO uh in Kosovo when she mentioned that if we did not act now the history will not forgive us I wouldn't be here and I think I mentioned this morning uh uh doing some some events today that I wouldn't be here as a living human being with you or you with me here with this audience if the United States of America and the leadership of this country wouldn't be there for us before the 90s after the 90s till the time that we declared our independence and being the strong Ally and a friend and the supporter even at the Declaration of the independence of a Kosovo and this is in all uh it is spread around not only a political level but at a diplomatic level at the military and others and so there is no more pro-american uh country in the world than is Kosovo and our Albanian people in uh uh in uh in general and you know children we have the statue and the and the boulevard of the president uh Clinton uh which is just like couple of hunters uh meters further within the uh statue of the uh of Senator doll and with the Statue of the uh of the secretary Albright and so this is the way how we uh show our appreciation and our gratitude what this nation and this country has been uh doing for us but I want to say that we are still in the halfway we still haven't not fulfilled what our Kosovo needs to be and where we should be because we all know what is the final it should be the final destination of Kosovo the full EU membership in the piece with all of us it's uh neighbors and the full membership into the NATO and the U.S has to play and should be playing a crucial role on moving our country and our region in that direction so early on WE you referenced an in this answer um the the plight of Kosovo terrible aspects of uh of the war was that unfortunately uh there were thousands of women and and some men that were survivors of sexual violence during the war and you um uniquely uh exercised not only your duties as a president but also your compassion as as as a as a person to try to support support them and I would like to mention here that the first time that uh Madam president went to meet with some of these survivors see in order to make sure that she protects their identity she actually drove herself without her security detail to make sure that nobody would uh would see her and this you know you went to lengths back then and you have been doing so continuously with your foundation um why is it that you you wanted to support this cause and you wanted to support these women when I speak about the survivors of the sexual violence being that 12 years ago when I first came across with the survivors or today I become more than more than emotional why uh because it could happen to me it would happen to my mother I was in my early twenties my mother was in early 40s 24 years ago we haven't heard a country which has been totally destroyed not only from the infrastructure point of view but also from the human side of it over 13 000 people killed and massacred over one million people made by force to leave the country for the purpose of the ethnic cleansing just because you are Kosovo Albanian still till today's day children we are speaking about over 1 600 people missing in different massive Graves where we don't know I have a family members which are missing in different massive Grace at the same time with a denial from our Northern neighbor of Serbia to cooperate with institutions of Kosovo or the International Community to share where the statistics datas and the maps of the remains of our loved ones are and an estimated number of twenty thousand women and men raped during the war time where rape has been used as a tool of War to our shame as a people of Kosovo well we have taken our institutional and the social responsibility towards all categories of the war somehow we let the survivors of the sexual violence under the mercy of no one covering them with a veil of Shame pointing the finger towards them that it's your fault you ask for it just because of our very male and Macho dominated Society because it did not happen to us it could not happen to us and so this topic it's close to the public it happened but in case did not happen it was exactly the first two weeks in my term as the president that I met a group of the 36 women from Adventist area that chandram has changed me forever as a person as a woman of that Society I met a woman that she was only 47 years old when she was raped she was a mother of three daughters she was raped with together with three other daughters the older daughter was only 17 years old the middle daughter was 13. and the youngest one seven years old with a Down syndrome I met women that they were all their bodies they had the marks of the cuts of the knives sorry to the Gentlemans in these rooms cut the breasts four s's you know what are the symbol of the four s's that's the Serbian national symbol no simple that they had Cuts in their stomachs and when the wounds did not properly healed so you can only imagine the marks throughout their legs they had the marks of the shots of the cigarettes throughout their bodies so their thoughts were removed by force in there so I simply could not believe that that has happened to the women of Kosovo that moment I made a promise to those women that I will not leave a stone Unturned before each and every one's voice is going to be heard and their sacrifice I went against the general public of Kosovo because you know what I've gone through that time the government was not supporting me the parliament was not supporting me it was unpopular Topic in Kosovo I was keep receiving advisors from all political Elites in Kosovo don't start this topic president because we are going to eat you out this is close chapter for us well I would say this chapter is about to open now 15 years after the end of the war to our shame we kept the survivors to live with the traumas and the horrification that what has happened to them so it took me a couple of years to be able to analyze thoroughly my competence is because the political at least that time they were hardly waiting to send me to the Constitutional court and to discharge me from the position not that I really wanted to keep that because I was already sick of that position but I I just started something that I didn't want myself to be stopped which was not necessarily my competence as the president I initiated the law actually I created the National Council for the survivors of the sexual violence the only case in the world to be led by the president to be established with a presidential decree which I brought around the same decision-making table government Parliament International Community women organizations which were from the very beginning very much supporting me and I am forever grateful to them that they were the only one that has supported that later on either the government started ralling out there the women activist media uh Maine diplomats are present in Kosovo in there and from the first day I made all the meetings public and to be publicly broadcasted all the meetings were all no matter this lasts for one hour two hours five hours or ten hours because I want it for everyone who was like which was against that to be able to be facing with a public shame these are the ones which are trying to victimize more the survivors of the sexual violence for the first time in the history of Kosovo the survivors of the sexual violence got protected by law as the civilians victims of the war where their identity is being protected from the beginning of the process till the end of the process their Rehabilitation reintegration resource socialization and access to the free medical services and access to the justice when we speak about the tackling of the culture of impunity and the access of the justice can you believe children that for 24 hour years after the end of the war we have only one perpetrator that has been brought in the front of the justice and got minimum of the sentence for the three rapes that he has done why because one way the International Community did not pay the proper attention that we're supposed to be paying immediately after the end of the war related to the evidence because they always Justified towards me oh modern president there is not enough evidence what kind of the evidence you need for the rape cases when you have exactly the victim or the Survivor of that particular uh crime which is they are still living and they are Among Us in there and at the same time facing with a denial of the Serbia to cooperate with the institutions of Kosovo or the International Community because all of the survivors they know with certain exception who has done that one I personally met over 8 000 survivors of the sexual violence throughout Kosovo there's not even a single day per week that I don't travel in one place or Village around Kosovo to meet one Survivor and to talk to them and do you know children and my dear ladies and gentlemen one thing that always keep being mentioned by their side towards me every time I ask is anything more that we can do for you it's like Whoever has done this to us to be facing with a Justice because for us we don't have a peace in our heart and mind before we see whoever done this would be facing with the Justice they remember them by Faith by nicknames by their tattoos by left ideas in the crime where where the crime has been uh conducted they know them because they have been their neighbors other people so all of them they know who has done these crimes but we have been failing and failing again to provide what is theory basic the justice for those uh crimes while each and every one of us have enjoyed our Liberty freedom and Independence in the hearts and minds of those survivors there is still war like it happened yesterday so you have demonstrated that your uh your public service does not end when your term ends and in 2016 uh you your term Ended as the President of the Republic of Kosovo but you established later uh the yahyaga foundation which has actually uh uh taken on an important role to tackle some of these issues and others and this is going to be the last question before we open the floor to the audience we have we have some students here we have some students no doubt watching us I would like to know what did you dream of when you were a student what that was not being a president so so the message is you don't have to dream of becoming a president in order to become one but I I want I want you to reconnect us to your to your student years I would like to know because it's it's interesting and and then just you know uh walk us back to that moment please uh well do you want me first to answer the question about the foundation and later on for this one I'll ask the foundation later well um I do know that this supposed to be more of the motivational kind of like talk and so uh but my my student years are not regular student years like you actually have my student years were more kind of like uh hiding from one location to another location and my routine going to uh uh from the secondary school and the uh then and the university uh was that I left home seven o'clock in the morning and I came back seven or eight o'clock in the morning in the evening why because I had to do one class uh for example in Sunny Hill where I live today and to go to the second class I had to walk for 45 minutes to go to runyevs from runyev to go to krakodan for another 40 minutes from Drago down to go to dubrovniki Street which is it was another a one-hour walk and so because we were uh because of the milosevic repression system we were made by force to leave our schools like our parents were made by force to leave their jobs and everything we were operating into the parallel system Education Health and other uh that was we were working in the parallel system and I had to hide books in my stomach in the back side we were not allowed even to take the backpacks because we were hiding for the from the police of the milosevico regime I was personally once laying down in the ground and having the poo poo boot of the police officer on my neck while my brother was beaten to death with his friends while he was coming back from his uh classes because they found the medical books in uh in his back and so it's not one of the best memories uh uh for me uh chandram but yes we had these times where uh we were organizing this Union events hiding from one public location to another location I was always dreaming that I want to continue to my studies for the criminology which was never available in Kosovo the only place available in our closed neighborhood was in Croatia and in Slovenia and as I said earlier my father was a big supporter of me and he had that moment that he was about to sell all of his property so he can give me all of the money and he was about to resign his job to join me because of that time to allow a woman to go alone to be educated like no no no that is not happening in Kosovo and so then it was just one year before the war has started in uh in Kosovo and I decided it's not the right timing to continue for the criminology I will see for a better momentum and it will be really unfair to leave my entire family to solve the property to rent the place where we are going to live and nobody will know what was going to happen and so that's why I kind of like changed my uh uh my kind of like a vision what I'm going to do with myself without knowing that after the war I will be joined to the security in a different uh perspective but I don't know that feeling how is to go to the prom evenings to wear a nice dress and yes I did wear the nice dress but I did not end up to go to the prom evening because the police came one hour before to that venue where we're supposed to have the celebration and event and destroyed everything and so then we just gathered in some of my friends places and so it's not one of the best memories but still when we reflect to that time gosh Our Generation now has everything and they still don't really know how to enjoy that so I regret and I wish I could turn the time back and the God knows what kind of a spoiler I would be but anyways so this is this is extremely uh remarkable and I I really appreciate you sharing with us uh these these personal experiences which I think are inspirational um for for many people not just in the audience but uh elsewhere as well and and the remarkable progress that Kosovo despite the challenges has made uh and I think you're you're a living example of that now is is the time for uh questions from the audience if you have a question please raise your hand and a student worker with a microphone will come to you for virtual uh viewers please send your questions to dolequestions at ku.edu please ask just one brief question please phrase your questions with this in mind and ask just one brief question thank you I see someone over there hello uh so your government you have a very young country you said 61 were under the age of 30. and you made your cabinet representative of that now a lot of uh more well-known governments around the world are four countries that have much older demographics in general do you think those places would also benefit from having younger representation in government even if it's different from the actual demographics of the country um absolutely we definitely uh we need to start placing much more trust in the future generation and in the Young Generation uh because the future is in your hands definitely is not no matter that I'm still young by age but definitely it's not even in our hands uh the reason why I have established the yoga Foundation because we left that question without being answered and I want to connect with your uh question there is it is exactly the reason why I established the yayaka foundation to continue uh giving the platform to the young people of Kosovo not meaning that that platform is not being given to work by the current governments because we have been seeing some major positive transition and transformation uh within this past 24 years of uh Kosovo and particularly with this latest governments by giving more chances and more opportunities towards the women towards the young people and towards the marginalized uh communities parliament of Kosovo today has over 46 percent of the women represented into the parliament we which is the highest percentage that Kosovo ever had or any other country in the region of the Southeastern part of the Europe and trust me over 40 percent of those women would be in the parliament with or without the quote and the top five women voted for the parliament are the most voted uh from out of 120 members of the uh Parliament and we have a much more of the women in the parliament of Kosovo as the Deputy Prime Ministers ministers Vice ministers but also with the group eight we have much more the younger people which are the ministers that with the deputy ministers mayors of municipality so we are seeing that they are we are trying continuing to build into this uh good and the positive change that Kosovo has tried but also in the closed neighborhood I see this is happening though with a lot of hesitation not many other countries are copying into that and the reason why I established the haircut Foundation was first of all to send the direct or indirect message towards the political releasing Kosovo and the region that there is a life after leaving the highest office if you really want to continue uh using that moral Authority that you build while you are in the office to continue pressing in the topics which are very dear to my uh to your heart for me for example despite of my constitutional obligation things which were very dear to my heart were women youth reconciliation and the peace issues and the security issues and exactly the same topics I converted and established into the uh I put it in uh within the yayaga foundation and I given that platform to the group of about the 17 women I'm sorry there is no man still working in the viaga foundation don't blame me for that it's not me to be playing for that uh and that I given them the platform where my role there is uh pro bono and I given that platform uh in one way to start supporting the community indirectly but from the other side is that I want to build a future leaders for Kosovo that's great so any further questions please raise your hand and I see many so maybe over here there's a gentleman over here hi thank you for doing this talk um earlier this morning and today you've talked about your support for the marginalized communities of Kosovo and your dedication to reconciliation I was hoping you could talk a little bit about how your work towards um reconciliation of these marginalized groups including them in government and community and then also your work to kind of bring the cohesion of the multi-ethnic groups of Kosovo together well Kosovo it's one of the unique countries in the region when we speak about the Equal Rights and the obligation across the board for all citizens by the Constitution of Kosovo each all citizens of Kosovo enjoy equal rights and equal obligation uh being that 90 percent of the cost of our Albanian or being 10 of the cost of a Serb cost of Aroma Kosovo ashkali Kosovo Turkish Bosnia montenegrian croat or whatever even if you are 0.01 percent you will enjoy equal rights and obligation by the Constitution of Kosovo one of the biggest strength that Kosovo always had for the decades in the role I speak is itself the composition and the multi-ethnicity of Kosovo by purpose during the war time uh they try to kind of like spin something else but we kind of like jumped in that immediately after the end of the war and we kind of like extended our uh like we reached out towards all the community groups to bring them back back on board and not to allow that percentage of the loss of trust that what the color was given during the war time and in order that each and every one of them is and should be an equal citizen of uh Kosovo and that is being represented across the board at the municipality level at the government level as I mentioned on not only women and youth we have a deputy prime minister which is of the minority Community we have ministers which are of the minority Community we have 10 percent of the parliament member members of the parliament who belong to the uh sir minority community and the other percentage beyond the 10 which are other minority commits which are directly elected by their uh people uh uh there and politically speaking uh back in 2011 we have started the uh the political dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia because we do have a lot of Unsolved issues uh from our uh past I have mentioned a few of them but I didn't mention uh others under the facilitation of the European Union and supported strongly by the United States a lot of the agreement has been reached to the technical level uh which is in a way will be leading us to the further normalization of the relation between Kosovo and Serbia uh which we are hoping that that would be leading to the Final Act of the first of all of the Serbia finally accepting about the crimes that they have and the genocide that they have conduct towards the innocent citizens of Kosovo because that is a starting point for the long-lasting peace not only between Kosovo and Serbia but but for the entire region of the Southeastern part of the Europe because I was speaking about only about the crimes and Kosovo but we should not forget about the crimes and genocide in Boston Herzegovina and they are Croatia where uh that we have over uh to our 300 000 uh people that has lost their lives within not uh bigger than over uh 10 million population of Kosovo of Bosnia uh of Croatia of Bosnia and Kosovo and so uh reconciliation is a very long process trust in self is a very long process so we are in a good path to that but we are still very far where we supposed to be as the countries in theater but but also as a region and I also want to rely I will go a little bit with without trying to be misunderstood and try to be more diplomatically correct on that I think the time has come that we have to change a little bit approach particularly from the International Community perspective towards the Serbia itself uh it I think it has been enough of the carrots there I think the time has come that they have to be playing more of the sticks there and making Serbia more stick to the obligation that they have uh into the relation to all of the countries in the region when they started the process of the dialogue when they signed those agreement they should Implement those agreement they should stick to this agreement and they should meaning on the normalization that will open the path to the uh Mutual recognition but the mutual recognition precondition is accepting the crimes that they have conducted in Kosovo so far they haven't done neither with Croatia neither with Bosnia and definitely not with Kosovo and that is the high time for that thank you for that uh there was a question over there please good afternoon Madam president I hope you're doing well uh my question to you is uh do you do you believe that by the end of this this decade at least uh Republic of Kosovo achieves full recognition from all the United Nation member countries and if it's possible how can we achieve that using the proper responsible Democratic Manner and especially keeping in mind about the geopolitics of today's world we're a country like Russia has reintroduced physical Warfare to bring about regime change in countries like Ukraine or Georgia and I've been also reading about that there are increasing Serbian threats from the northern border of Castle thank you very much well since the Declaration of the independence of the Kosovo as a matter of fact just last week we have made 15 years of the Declaration of the independence of Kosovo over 120 countries around the world has recognized the independence of Kosovo which is beyond the half of the world yes it's true we are still not a member state of the United States uh of the uh we're still not a member state of the United Nation uh though we are in the right track to that process because Kosovo has moved quite a long way even by being a full member of many of the regional and international organizations around the world uh uh I think we came in a different stage particularly like in the reference like you are mentoring and now that uh the uh system and the concept that we at the global level uh and the many leaders around the world that has been adopted so far have shown not to be very successful that of the exclusive approach rather than inclusive approach uh and I think now is the high time that we as leaders around the world we should reflect on this and start changing our policy no matter how big or how small you are at the end of the day we are facing with the same challenges and with the same uh uh uh uh with consequences and as inclusive as we are that we will be much more able to serve the best way uh and the best capacity we can to our citizen being a small country as it gets Kosovo being a big country like is the US and others and the relation of the uh of the war with the Ukraine yes definitely that has quite of the consequences uh in the close neighborhood but also in a much uh wider uh concept and we are yet to see more consequences uh out of that were economically financially and other uh uh consequences in that uh regard but in the relation of Kosovo I think Kosovo is quite well set because Kosovo has a very strong Alliance on the French friendship with many countries around the world particularly within the strong powers and by the resolution 1240 for uh kosovo's external borders are being protected by the NATO troops uh uh and the soldiers which are physically present in uh Kosovo and to all of those countries and the organization which still have a doubts about making the step forward for recognizing the new reality of Kosovo or in that part of the Southeastern part of the Europe I think the answer is very clear is the verdict of the international court of justice uh where uh Declaration of Independence of Kosovo did not violated none of the international laws and the kosovo's case is the swigenous case and I still kind of like don't understand why the countries are still raising the questions about the recognizing and unrecognizing Kosovo where the case is pretty clear on that thank you so we have uh one final question and if we could keep the question short and then I can't ask Madam president to keep the answers short so um indirectly is telling me like keep the answer short thank you so much for being here please sharing your experiences insights um my question to you is what has been the challenges of building and preserving democracy in Kosovo especially for the Youth during a period when there's a global decline in democracy in the world backsliding year after year consecutively yeah uh well the biggest challenge was and continues to be how to not allow the brain drain uh how to create more educational opportunities for the young people more job opportunities and attracting more foreign directive investment in uh Kosovo and the removing as much as possible this black clouds around Kosovo which are dominant above Casa which are mainly damaged due to the bad PR which is not necessarily related to the Daily uh reality in Kosovo and trying to uh give and present to the rest of the world what is actually the real Kosovo the real of Kosovo is this is this the water like she opened this discussion uh today that she had a golden opportunity to be uh through the fund of the kayak to be educated in the Georgetown and to come back and invest in Kosovo and so that has been and continues to be to the certain point the burning also for the current government but indirectly also for us where we'll Lobby not in a way way affecting the career of the young people but we need them more in Constable like others they need in other countries thank you very much and I actually will ask the final question myself because earlier we had the pleasure of meeting among other people secretary former Governor Sebelius and she told me you know what you should ask Madam president you have had a woman president Kosovo there's a second woman president when do you think there will be a woman president of the United States yeah um I'm really hoping soon uh I consider myself a lucky that I lived operated and had the state of Kosovo in the era of two great women that without any reservation uh I say that they are not only they were and they are one uh my closest friends and mentors secretary Albright that she's not among us anymore and secretary Clinton this country had a golden opportunity I don't want to be politically misunderstood here because for someone which is totally neutral from my political uh background but I speak more from the gender perspective that back in 2016 I was physically in the U.S and I participated in some of the uh uh events at that time and before reading the book what happened of secretary Clinton that time I asked Mike myself a question what actually happened in this country that I was I personally looked it up as the Zenith of democracy for the world where over 40 percent of the white American women did not vote for a woman candidate brings me to another Point chandram here without trying to be to take much of the long time we women sometimes don't have a tendency to be a biggest enemies of Our Own Kind the biggest criticisms when I took over the office did not come from the man's man I'm sorry they don't know what is the makeup man they don't know what are the nail polish definitely not the high heels shoes bags other things women are the one that knows this they started and with that when this platform has been offered without even being asked towards a man man took it capitalized and started hitting me even harder to that to the women in this audience and virtually please stick to each other don't think only about yourself think about Generations before you and especially after you it's in our moral obligation if I made one step forward my niece which is only eight years old is going to make 200 steps before me because it was my obligation to uphold that platform for her and I'm happy that I did that now in Kosovo is not question mark actually it's more of a taboo to have a woman bus driver than to have a woman president no I seriously mean it's not an issue anymore because that taboo has been already broken in there and my second advice that I want to leave the young people in general it's here because we are in University campus I expect that this kind of question is being asked because I usually have this kind of question what would be the advice for the young people there is nothing that cannot be done in this world don't allow anyone ever ever in your life say to you that you cannot do that that is not for you choose something different choose something softer something that you can have an easier life more paid life and others choose something that you feel that you want to do that that you can give the maximum out of that and don't you ever ever ever compromise with the values that you stand for I haven't done that never in my life not even for the minor things it made me go extra miles definitely it made me go to that level it's like it's impossible to get through but it was possible thank you so much I think uh it's time to thank Madam president for for your and and thank you thank you all for being here with us and those online as well and I invite you to join us again next week when we continue our third and final discussion in our series focusing on Kosovo and building democracy in the 21st century I would like to thank you again Madam president it's been an honor and thank you the Dole Institute see you soon thank you so much [Music]

Channel: The Dole Institute of Politics

Views: 344

Keywords: Dole Institute, Dole Institute of Politics, Politics, University of Kansas

Id: a-XmOhc3zMg

Length: 76min 57sec (4617 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 23 2023