A day in the life of two monitors

One thing is for sure: You need a strong stomach to work as a monitor in Tetovo, as I quickly realize sitting next to Agustin Nunez-Vicandi while he negotiates one hairpin curve after another. He had to squeeze a protest in a nearby town into his already filled schedule today. Therefore the monitor drives as fast as the watchful eyes at headquarters (via the GPS tracking system in the cars) allow. “You have to like being on the road,” he admits apologetically.

Four international monitoring officers and four language assistants, who function as indispensable all-round consultants, work in the only remaining field station of the OSCE Mission to Skopje, based in the western town of Tetovo. The Mission supports the implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement that ended a seven-month long conflict in 2001. Hostilities had started in Tetovo back then - and this is where sometimes it is very evident that old wounds still have not properly healed.

“I love the variety of my work”, says Nunez-Vicandi while carefully navigating his car between two vegetable stands. “Where else do you get to discuss politics, security, culture and education with different counterparts in the course of a single day?” The human rights expert from Spain has been working in Tetovo for two years now. “In the beginning it was a steep learning curve”, he confesses.

You really need at least a year to truly understand the background and context of everything you see and hear.

The day has started at 8:30 am with a quick morning briefing of the whole team. Now we are headed for the first stop of the day, a short visit to what is locally known as the “fortress”, a memorial for fallen ethnic Albanian fighters near the mountain ridge where the conflict broke out 12 years ago. The monitors visit the nearby village on a regular basis. Drinking an obligatory cup of coffee in the main square has greater significance than it seems. “We cannot just come up here when something happens. If we would do that, people would associate negative events with us,” explains Ulrike Schmidt, the head of the Tetovo Field Office. “The OSCE car parked out front signals we are here, we are approachable.”

Whenever Schmidt introduces herself for the first time, she explains her role at great length: “In the Macedonian and Albanian language the word for ‘monitor’ has a connotation of checking or surveillance,” she says. Even within the international community, she is often confronted with the stereotype of a person in military fatigues, peering through binoculars.  She prefers to describe herself as a “confidence builder”, because this reflects the long term approach of her work. “Sometimes people ask how I, as a woman, manage to function in this strenuous position,” she says smilingly.

But this is a job that requires a lot more diplomacy than muscles.

Most of the monitors have an educational background in political science or law. All of them are experienced mediators – by virtue of training and “a lot of learning by doing”, as Nunez-Vicandi puts it. An analytical mind, cultural sensitivity and general flexibility are basic skills needed for the job. Being on call 24/7 certainly takes some getting used to. “And you won’t get far without an overall likeable personality and good communication skills,” he says. “What really matters is that we can help solve issues locally.”

Success stories like what was achieved in the aftermath of the traditional carnival in Vevcani last year illustrate how significant the monitors’ work is: After a performance deemed offensive to Islam, the Tetovo team immediately reached out to every involved mayor and religious authority and initiated a joint meeting. Already scheduled protests were cancelled, announced lawsuits not filed, all parties involved slowly calmed down. “This is tangible, very satisfying work”, concludes Nunez-Vicandi.

Building trust, a reliable communication network and a friendly atmosphere is what the next visit is all about. We are at the Tetovo Tekke, the oldest compound of the Bektashi Islamic religious community in the Balkans. Long-standing disputes about land ownership, use of the property and the non-recognition of the Bektashi group (an Islamic Sufi order) in the country prompt the monitors to drop by a regular basis. And they seem truly welcome. We chat with a caretaker of the compound. “You don’t come often enough,” he complains with a hearty laugh as he sees us off.

Now it is time to observe the protest against the firing of municipal employees after the recent local elections in Gostivar, about half an hour’s drive away. It turns out to be smaller and much quieter than anticipated. Usually the monitors are tipped off about events and protests long before they are announced in the newspapers or on Facebook. “Establishing a good communication network built on mutual trust is one of our most important long-term goals”, says Nunez-Vicandi. This is crucial not just for the early warning function, but also in case facts reported in the media need to be verified.

We don’t want to be late for the next meeting with the new mayor of the town of Struga – after all, first impressions are lasting. Nunez-Vicandi runs up the stairs in the municipal building – just in time. They talk about the recent elections, complaints about the layoff of some municipal staff, possible solutions to alleviate the town’s huge debt and how to be a mayor who truly represents all citizens. The last stop of the day is a call on the Kichevo branch leader for “Dignity”, an ethnic Macedonian former fighter organization that recently formed a political party. The monitor inquires about a referendum initiative and attentively listens to the concerns of his counterpart. As with the mayor of Struga, he explicitly offers future mediation, if needed and so desired.

Over the past two years the monitors have been rather busy addressing urgent inter-ethnic issues. “I wish we had more time to also focus on long standing conflicts like the building of churches and mosques in sensitive areas,” says Schmidt. Her team functions as the eyes and ears of the Mission in the west. Another group of monitors, similar in size, operates from Skopje in the northern part of the country. Good communications with Mission headquarters are crucial to ensure that their findings will translate into programmes on a national or regional level.

It has started to rain in the late afternoon, and the 130 kilometers return trip on the same windy mountain road add further strain to exhausted minds and sensitive stomachs – certainly to mine. Back in the office, after nine hours of travel, Agustin Nunez-Vicandi eagerly sinks into his desk chair to complete his activity report. “I know that some people think that monitors just sit around and drink coffee,” he says. “If only they could come out and spend a day with us.”