OSCE supports humanitarian bus services for minority communities
It is 6:45 am in Babimoc/Babin Most village, some 12 kilometres north of Kosovo's capital Prishtinë/Pristina. Dusica Adanovic and Mirijana Savic are two of a dozen people from the village waiting for the bus. "I hope it will come today," says one, recounting all the times the bus did not turn up. A friend interrupts - "There it is!" he says.
Dusica and Mirijana commute every day from Babimoc/Babin Most to Obiliq/Obilic, some six kilometres away, where they have been working for the last ten years. The only problem they face, says Mirjana, is an irregular bus service, which often causes them to be late to work.
The humanitarian bus service is the only form of public transport that connects Babimoc/Babin Most with five other minority community settlements in Miloshevë/Milosevo, Prilluzhë/Priluzje, Plemetin/Plemetina, Obiliq/Obilic, Caravodicë/Crkvena Vodica, leading to the last destination Gracanica/Gracanicë, seven kilometres south of Prishtinë/Pristina. However, over the last three years the service has been unreliable. Now, following the OSCE Mission's latest intervention, there have been significant improvements.
A lifeline for communities
"Ensuring that the bus runs on time may seem like a relatively small issue, but for people living in minority enclaves, reliable and safe public transportation can be a lifeline," says Diana Cena from the OSCE Mission's communities section "The service enables people to access shops and market places, education, health care and social welfare services, as well as municipal and central institutions," she says. "It also positively affects the sustainability of the returns process."
The responsibility for the humanitarian bus service, which was set up by the UN in Kosovo in 1999, was transferred to Kosovo institutions in August 2006. Although the OSCE and the UN missions, together with the Kosovo ministries of transport and communications and of communities and return, sit on a transport advisory committee that sets routes and manages and monitors the work of the bus service, problems had already begun by early 2007 when the service was outsourced to private contractors. The first issue was that the bus schedule was not respected. Then the number of bus runs was reduced, and finally the bus drivers started charging 50 Serbian Dinars (50 euro cents) per trip for what should be a free ride.
Finding solutions
The OSCE Mission, which had started monitoring and reporting on the service in November 2006, brought the matter to the attention of the ministry of transport. More recently, in co-ordination with the ministry, the OSCE facilitated a meeting between the private bus company that now provides the services and representatives of the affected Kosovo Serb community to help ensure the smooth running of the service and establish reporting mechanisms for any irregularities. Since the Mission's intervention, local residents have noted marked improvements to the service.
There are currently 20 humanitarian bus routes operating throughout Kosovo. "Despite the problems it has encountered along the way, the concept of the service has proven successful in terms of the number of users, and it remains the only service provided by the Kosovo government specifically for minority communities," says Cena. The Mission has also appealed to the ministry to ensure funding and not to rush with privatizing the service, as well as to increase the number of lines due to growing demand
Further steps
Transport is just one issue being tackled by the OSCE communities team to improve the quality of life for Kosovo's minority communities. Others aspects include education, return and reintegration, access to services, participation and integration in public institutions as well as freedom of movement and security. "Human rights are often tied to each other," says Gianluca Siega Battel, head of the OSCE Mission's communities section. "We pay special attention to all these issues so that people like Dusica and Mirijana can go about their daily lives in a way that most people take for granted."