Karen Thomas, Bournemouth, 1 July 2005

Civilians were “surprised but pleased” when asked for their views by the Feinstein Institute on the work of the military and non-governmental organisations in Kosovo.

Larry Minear, author of the Institute’s recent report on post-conflict peace and security, added: “We were distressed civilians felt out of the loop.”

Local people claimed they had not been consulted before about peace building in the province and they were keen to have feedback about the military-NGO response to the report.

Mr Minear explained that competition between the military and NGOs in any post-conflict situation can lead to the civilian voice becoming secondary to other objectives.

He said working closely with the locals “goes to the heart of what aid agencies were about” and his impression was that NGOs would give civilians a greater priority in the future.

But Gustavo D’Angelo, Director of Care International Kosovo, said his organisation already worked very successfully with civilians.

“NGOs in general get along much better with the local population because they work closer to the grass roots and tend to establish a much better relations with the local population”.

Yet Mr Minear confirmed the praise in the report for British troops deployed on peace building missions.

He said they have an approach that “reached out to local populations, tried to bridge the gaps, and tried to communicate”.

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