German Officer's Life's Blood is in Kosovo
July 25, 2006
The one-day of face-to-face negotiations between Kosovo Albanians and Serbians over the future status of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo concluded without a breakthrough as Belgrade wanted anything but independence for the region and Pristina would accept nothing less, UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari said in Vienna.
Equally difficult to Ahtisaari's job will be that of German Major General Roland Kather. In September he will take over control of the NATO troops that have been ensuring Kosovo's security for seven years.
"For me, it is like going back home," said Kather, 57, of his appointment, before pointing to a picture on the wall of an old bridge from the Ottoman period in the center of Prizren and many mosques on a hill in the background.
"It had a powerful effect on me," said the man from Hanover who was stationed there in 1999 and 2000. "It was my second deployment after Bosnia and Herzegovina, which began in 1996. I was the commander of the southern multinational brigade, and I have seldom before ever seen so much misery and suffering. But I also saw how one can help others with simple means."
Helping others lay hate to rest
As a professional solider and commander of the German 13th Armored Infantry Division in Leipzig, the preparation grounds for most of the German troops deployed abroad, he has visited Kosovo many times and is familiar with the region.
Beginning on Sept. 1, Kather's task will be to control and prevent any outbreaks of violence, such as those that occurred in 2004 when violence flared up and led to over 30 deaths. His job is made even more difficult by the fact that he is leading 17,000 soldiers at a time when the Albanian-dominated province is awaiting a decision on its future.
Kather, who is succeeding Italian Lt. Gen. Giuseppe Valotto, said he aims to be friendly but strict, with weapons used only as a last resort while the main focus will be to foster the slow process of reconciliation between the region's ethnic groups.
"Back then in 1999, I had to learn that there is a different kind of structure in the Balkans," Kather said. "There you have huge families, clans really, and a long tradition of hate. It is this hate that they have to grow out of."
That is a reason why he wants to focus on younger generations and strengthen the civilian-military partnerships that foster such projects.
"I have already started this," he said. "It is important to get kindergartens started, to build schools, to give children a regular life and make it possible for them to go to school. We would like, over time, that we can hopefully eliminate this hate."
Goal is to make another European friend
Near a notebook Kather keeps filled with names of Kosovo's movers and shakers, many he has known since his first deployment, is a book showing pictures of the mountainous landscape that is Kosovo. It depicts a beautiful terrain, and for him, it is worthwhile to try to do something for this country. He said he hopes that when he leaves, a peaceful solution to the question of the country's status will have been found.
"My goal is that when I go home in a year I will have the feeling 'You've accomplished something here,'" he said. "That we have made another European neighbor and friend."