Translating Culture: Mediating Customary Law Related Language

Arben Shala

doi:10.14712/24646830.2020.8

Abstract

This paper aims to outline the role of translators and interpreters as cultural mediators for international police forces during peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions in Kosovo. They were an essential source of cultural information concerning informal legal practices, folk culture, speaking style and etiquette with the parties in the procedure. These idiosyncrasies require deep understanding and are a prerequisite for producing meaningful translation. The culture in mediation is represented in a particular way of speaking known as allegorical conversation (biseda me rrotulla). It relies on ambiguous language, on allusions, ellipsis, references to customary law resolutions, folk stories, specific and anonymous people, and traditional procedures to resolve disputes.

Highlights

The century-long crisis in Kosovo culminated in 1998–1999 with war and NATO’s 78-day air campaign against the former Yugoslav (Serbia and Montenegro) military and industrial targets.On June 10, 1999, the International Security Forces (KFOR) and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia concluded a Military Technical Agreement in Kumanovo, Macedonia
United Nations police officers were an integral part of the mission for approximately nine years (1999–2008)
The personal experiences of the author working together with the international police and the Kosovo Police for over 18 years require an ethnographic approach. It provides the perspective of the author, familiar with the cultural conventions and the conceptual world of the parties to the procedure as an active participant. This is combined with insights from linguistic anthropology/ ethnolinguistics when describing the language used in folk stories as a cultural resource and their use for a distinctive way of speaking as a cultural practice

Summary

Introduction

The century-long crisis in Kosovo culminated in 1998–1999 with war and NATO’s 78-day air campaign against the former Yugoslav (Serbia and Montenegro) military and industrial targets. On June 10, 1999, the International Security Forces (KFOR) and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia concluded a Military Technical Agreement in Kumanovo, Macedonia. The Agreement (often referred to as Kumanovo Agreement) intended to end hostilities and the humanitarian crisis and created the conditions for the deployment of international civil and security forces (S/1999/779: 2). Kosovo became an international protectorate or trusteeship of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) (Knudsen – Laustsen 2006: 8). United Nations police officers were an integral part of the mission for approximately nine years (1999–2008).

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Conclusion