Swiss teach Kosovars how to run a penal system

The prison project is part of Swiss efforts to promote justice in Eastern Europe Keystone Archive

Prison officials from Kosovo have wrapped up a course in management training in Basel, as part of Swiss efforts to reconstruct the prison and penal system in the Yugoslav province.

Twenty-four staff from middle and higher prison administration took part in the course, organised by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Switzerland has been involved in the rebuilding of the judicial system in Kosovo since June last year, following a request from the then United Nations Special Representative, Bernard Kouchner.

The Agency says a functional prison system and a modern prison administration are important for long-term restoration of public order in Kosovo, as well as for the development of economic stability, the rule of law and democracy.

Apart from the training, the Swiss project includes reconstruction of the prison hospital and visitors’ centre of the Dubrava prison at Istok.

The programme, costing SFr950,000 ($562,000) over 18 months, aims to provide Kosovo with a more modern, efficient penal system which conforms to international human rights standards.

One of the participants, Veli Gashi, said a complete revamp of the penal system was needed following the 1999 conflict. “Serbia really made a mess of many things in our prisons. Another big problem is that we have had a lot of crime after the war in Kosovo,” he said.

The project leader, Hans-Jürg Bühlmann, who is director of the Department of Prisons of canton Basel City, said the training included lessons in leadership, psychology, human rights questions and ethics.

Other training topics included general administrative issues, communication, crisis management and team building.

The main difference between the Swiss and Kosovar systems is the approach to the inmates, Bühlmann told swissinfo.

“Under the Serbs there was a very strict system which included torture. A new system without such behaviour is being introduced, so the handling of the inmates will be very different to that which existed before,” he said.

Switzerland is not trying to impose a carbon copy of its prison system on the course participants.

“We do not say you have to act the way we do in Switzerland. We give them our ideas, for example about how to solve problems, and it is up to them to adapt our advice to create their own system,” Bühlmann said.

Switzerland is also running similar projects in Russia, Romania, Ukraine and Tajikistan, as part of efforts to promote justice in Eastern Europe.

by Robert Brookes