Multiethnic Kosov@: Mission Impossible

30 April 2003

Kosovo Albanians are �in love with� the Americans. One of the main streets in Kosovo is called �Bill Clinton�, the new �Victoria Hotel� displays a copy of the Statue of Liberty and there is a �Hillary� Cafeteria nearby. Missing is only Monica Lewinsky.
Kosovo/a Albanians supported unanimously the Iraq war. They make a direct reference to NATO intervention in Yugoslavia against Milosevic�s rule and the war to overthrow Saddam. At the same time Russia took the decision to withdraw its contingency and to leave Kosovo.

At the beginning of April the Yugoslav media circulated the opinion of the University of Barcelona Professor Francisco Veiga that during the Iraq war the USA have decided to find a new loyal ally on the Balkans and would encourage the formation of a �great Albania�. Balkan media even came up with relevant maps. On every street of Pristina one can find a 5 Euro map of ethnic Albania spanning all the way to Nis and encompassing Southern Serbia, Western Macedonia, Kosovo/a, Albania, Northern Greece and Chameria (a region of Greece in the region of Thesprotia).

The two banks of the Ibar River
The separation of Kosovska Mitrovica along the two banks of the Ibar River is illustrative of the future of the province. The southern part of the city is inhabited by ethnic Albanians; all the signs are in Albanian, the streets are bustling with life; there is trade and commerce, transactions take place in Euro.
The northern part is marked by destruction, burnt down and plundered houses of Serbs and Roma, signs in Cyrillic and goods are traded in dinars. Grafitti such as �Sesel � President� can be found.
Ms. Olivera Milosevic, chair of the Association of Women from Northern Mitrovica is waiting for us at the bridge across the river Ibar, guarded by the French corps of KFOR to show us the Serb part of the divided city. �That is multiethnic Kosovo�, she says pointing to the tens of ruins of homes adjoining the Roma neighbourhood. When the KFOR soldiers moved out, the Albanians attacked and ruined the Roma and Serb houses, which are stand bleak now, burned down and plundered.
Even today Olivera has friends in the southern part of the city and is asking for reconciliation. �I would only leave, should an independent Kosovo be proclaimed�, she claims. The Serb from Kosovska Mitrovica are living in isolation in the northern part of the city and travel to the other towns and villages inhabited by Serbs on buses, called �blue corridors�.

On the 4th April 2003 thousands of Serbs in northern Mitrovica protested against the head of the UN mission Michael Scheiner�s plan to transfer powers to the local self-governance institutions. Some of the slogans read �For the Serbs, not for Independent Kosovo�.
After the rally, I am talking to Neboisa Jovic, chair of the Serb National Council for Northern Kosovska Mitrovica, accused by the UN mission of instigating disorder during last year�s clashes between the Serb population and UNMIK. He sees the future of Kosovo/a as two separate entities, the Serb one encompassing the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, Leposavic, Svecan, Zubin potok, the villages of Srpce, and Gniljane, Priruzie, Gracanica. He also believes that the villages around Pristina, inhabited by Serbs, should also join the Serb entity and that talks about the status should be held between Pristina and Belgrade.

�Currently, Mitrovica is a double city. Southern Mitrovica is ethnically cleansed. Among Albanians there is no will for mutual and multiethnic dialogue�, says Jovic. He explains that the formation of Serb municipalities aims at the self-protection of the Serbs, �The solution is the separation of Kosovo, probably its division into cantons without any change of borders. The first thing we should get used to is to look at one another�.
Neboisa Jovic advocates the return of all the Serbs who fled the province. �Just 1000 from the Serbs that fled have returned to the province. You have probably heard the statement of Marek Novicki, ombudsman in Kosovo, who warned the Serbs that today Kosovo is not different from 1999 when they left it and the issue is not only the shortage of land or the occupied territory but mostly that all the positions are in the hands of Albanians�.

In the southern part of the city I meet Ms. Florije Ibishe from the Association of the businesswomen, who sits on the local municipal council. I learn from her that the goal of the municipal administration is to register all the local companies. Communication between both parts of the city is so much disrupted that a representative of the association visits businesswomen from the northern part of the city to register them.

There are Serbs who cross the bridge across the Ibar river on their own to get registered, while others are guarded by UNMIK. A total of 300 business owners from the northern part of the city have been registered so far. Florije referred on many occasions to two key words � �multiethnicity� and �donors�.
One can infer that international organisations are expected to fund projects for mutual business between the different ethnic groups in the separated city, without guarantee that the millions of dollars will not soak as water in sand.
I meet Ms. Imran Avdiu, who owns a luxurious clothing shop. She recounts how she left her own house in the Serb part of Mitrovica, which is currently occupied by a Serb from Vustri.
Once she visited her former home under the escort of KFOR soldiers. This particular case is indicative about the logic of war: while travelling through Vustri (Vucitrn in Serbian), I saw many new Albanian houses and destroyed Serb homes. There is a new mosque in Vustri in a kitch pseudo-baroque style with a minaret, resembling a rocket. There are only Albanians to be found along the road from Vustri to Pristina.

Charming Imran is optimistic about the future of Kosovo/a, �In the long run, we will be together again, in case the extremists leave�. I ask her whether mixed marriages are to be found. Before the war, there were some � Albanian men married with Serb, Bosniak and Turkish women. �Even today, young people could fall in love but they simply do not have any common place to meet�, claims Imran.
Three seamstresses work in her small workshop and since her business is on the verge of survival, she is exploring opportunities to expand it. The whole countryside of Kosovo/a is marked by the luxurious homes of the Albanians, which speak of wealth. I ask Imran why she doesn�t apply for a credit from rich Albanians. In stead of replying, she bursts into laughter.

The parallel Serb institutions
In April the Serbs in Gracanica and Leposavic protested against an independent Kosovo. In Gracanica I meet Ms. Rada Traikovic, who is a deputy in the Parliament in Pristina. There is a sign on the house, she lives in, which reads Coordination Centre for the Union Republic of Yugoslavia and Republic of Serbia for Kosovo and Metohia, one of the few places where one can find the name of the former Yugoslavia, as well as KOSMET, the Serb abbreviation for Kosovo, which is not recognised by the Albanians.
She claims that the participation of Serbs in the Pristina Parliament is a cover-up, a formality, meant to display the multiethnic and non-Albanian nature of the Parliament. She asserts not a single Serb from Serbia is supporting the separation of Kosovo/a from Serbia. There are many ideas about the future of Kosovo/a in Belgrade, while the Albanians in Pristina have only one vision � an independent Kosovo. This vision entails the temporary cantoning of Kosova, the establishment of two entities, and the Serb one is to be linked to Belgrade.

Ms. Rada Traikovic did not conceal her dissatisfaction, when I asked her how the parallel institutions, set up by the Serbs in Kosovo/a function in the areas of healthcare, education, �These are lifesaving institutions. The hospital in Pristina has not employed a single Serb, the postal officers do not speak Serb, neither there is a TV programme in Serb, the Serbs do not go to the theatre, because the plays are in Albanian and so are the movies in the movie theatres. The Serbs are afraid to use the public transport�. She recounts how the Serbs in Gracanica have set up three small hospital units for medical assistance and how Serb children are taught in private Serb language schools.

Radicalisation and nostalgia
The village of Strpce, situated in the skirts of the Sar Mountain on the road to Pristina, is populated by Serbs. One can spot the soldiers from the KFOR armoured vehicles. Children swarm outside the �Jovan Cvijic� School. Life has returned to normality. The cars that until three years ago drove without plates now display two different sets of plates � the ones with the KS abbreviation can be driven only within Kosovo/a, Albania and Macedonia, while the cars displaying the abbreviation of the cities can travel everywhere. A paradox that resembles the one with the passports � the Yugoslav one can be used to travel freely, while the UNMIK one is not valid outside the province. Freedom requests victims!
Two elderly men from Strpce explain that this is a �purely Serb and purely Orthodox village�. �Even if I am offered 100 000 DM, I would not go to Pristina or Urosevac. I would only move to Belgrade or Skopje�, cries out the elderly man and agitated, orders a drink. The Serbs from this village failed to unite during last year�s local elections and came up with candidates from 10-11 parties, which resulted in the dissipation of the votes. In the fact there are many ethnic Albanians in the municipality of the Serb village.

There are so few Serbs left in Kosovo Polje that they can be counted on the fingers of the hand. They are employed by the Health Home, which hosts the Russian international corps; they have their own pub with a portrait of Slobodan Milosevic and that is the place I meet Neboisa from Lipljan. He proudly pulls down the zipper of his cardigan and displays a T-shirt with a �Serb Hero� logo and a portrait of Radovan Karadzic. There are only 300 Serbs residing in Pristina, comprising mostly of elderly people, he waives his hand.
He doesn�t blame the native Kosovans, but the Albanians that have arrived from Albania. �Kosovo is sacred Serb land. The Albanians are a timid people, within 24 hours after the withdrawal of KFOR the Yugoslav National Army will step in and solve the issue. The score as of today is 1:1 and one more war is to change it�, predicts Neboisa.

Generals� Trials
A hot topic in Kosovo/a are the so called �generals� trials� of former commanders of the disbanded KLA (UCK in Albanian) . The party speaker Hashim Thaci and the war hero Fatmir Limaj, as well as the former army commanders Hairadin Bala, Isak Misliu and Agim Murtezi were arrested and sent to the Hague. Gen. Mini declared that the Hague would request the extradition of ten former KLA commanders, some of whom have set up political parties of their own, which was interpreted by Pristina as a sign that the next to follow suit are Hashim Thaci, Haradinaj and Agim Cheku.

I am meeting Hashim Thaci on 4th April 2003. Before reaching his party office we run into a crowd of protesting Albanians, who demand the liberation of their fellow countrymen who are being tried in the Hague. I start my interview with a question about the declaration on independent Kosovo/a, put forward by several Albanian MPs.
Hashim Thaci avoids most of my questions through short and standard answers. Answering my question about the return of Serb refugees, he claims that there are 8000 Serbs who have returned to Kosovo/a. I remind him that during his visit to Sofia a few years ago he stated that Kosovo/a would aspire to democratisation but currently we are witnessing chaos and organised crime.

How would organised crime be fought? Mr. Thaci disagrees over my statement and gets nervous. He looks at his PR, smiles at me and all of a sudden decides he has important business to do. However, I tell him I have the right to a short final answer and display a map of ethnic Albania, which is sold everywhere on the streets of Pristina.
His comment is that maps of ethnic Bulgaria can also be found in Bulgaria. But not universally throughout the streets of Sofia, I retort and share that I have interviewed students from the Pristina University saying they are willing to sacrifice their lives for �great Albania�. The fact is that maps such as this one only further encourage the young people to think in this way.
My last question to Mr. Thaci�s comments on the fact that on my last visit to Pristina I met at the party headquarters Mr. Fatmir Limaj, who used to be Mr. Thaci�s speaker and former commander of KLA. Today the accusations against Mr. Limaj have been formalised by the Court in the Hague. �This case is to be tackled by the Pristina government�, snaps Mr. Hashim Thaci and dashes out of his office.

Who is backing AKSH?
Despite the fact that after the end of the war KLA was disbanded and transformed into TMK (Kosova Protection Corps), in Decani masked men belonging to the new parallel army called AKSH were spotted. There are no direct proofs but rumour has it that we are faced with a power struggle among Albanian leaders over control of trafficking and this fight can be traced to former KLA commander Ramush Haradinaj, who currently leads the third political force of the Albanians in Kosovo/a.

Prizren � Democracy without electricity and armoured vehicles
In the city of Prizren I discover a multiethnic marriage between an Albanian man and a Serb woman. The city that hosted the Prizren League that set the beginning of the Albanian struggle for independence boasts mosques and churches from the Ottoman Empire but can hardly be called as multiethnic. There are ten refugees who have found asylum in the Serb Orthodox monastery St. Cyrill and Methodius. �We live forcefully here�, �I can not find myself a proper place anywhere�, says the Albanian Zekir Morian from Djakovica, who is married to a Serb woman, Ruza Banovic. They both want to emigrate for Australia but are waiting for visas. They have no children. �And thanks God�, he says. They are unemployed and receive monthly social assistance at the amount of 24 Euro. Pensioners receive a monthly pension of 28 Euro. Who is to blame? �Politicians got their pockets full�, grumbles an elderly woman. Olga Filipovic complains that her husband died and her daughter is suffering form epilepsy, �We live like prisoners�.

�We will kill you, lices!�, reads a grafitti in Serb alongside the road from the castle. Demolished houses are seen all around, which have been plundered and burnt down. On the hill there is the St. Spas church, which is guarded by KFOR.
All the churches in Prizren are guarded by KFOR with armoured vehicles. In the centre of the city close to the old mosque one is to find the old church of St. George, which has been erected in 1856 and has hosted the Ras-Prizren Episcopate until 1999. Icons from all over have been collected here.

�There are only 63 Serbs in Prizren, out of which 20 are young people and can live a life of their own; the rest are old and sick and we used to outnumber 12 000 in 1999�, says father Alexander, �Four years passed since the end of the war and no one has yet returned. I have nowhere to go. I go to Belgrade from time to time to visit my family. I ride a tank to my home for the fourth consecutive year now�, says the clergyman who goes to the barrier on his own.

Prizren seems to be hosting two parallel worlds � while the Serbs are desperate and depressed and live with the thought that there is no perspective, the other part of the city is bolstered by the energy of the Albanians, which live a life such as if no war ever took place. The shops are laden with goods, life goes on. In one of the coffee places I meet Yulzime and Kimete who belong to the diaspora that fled in 1981 during the students� demonstrations in Germany �due to political reasons�, specifies one of the women.
I am asking whether the unification of Kosovo/a and Western Macedonia is possible. �Why not? There are no problems between us. We do not want to live under foreign rule. We want our own people and land. We want unification but not the one that the Serb propaganda is referring to as the Great Albania�.

In front of the post office I run into elderly Albanians who recount the high incomes they have once enjoyed and �currently we have pseudo democracy, after Tito things went bad�, snaps one of the elderly man from Opae, a municipality comprising predominantly Albanian and Goranian (Slavs converted into Islam) villages.
The city, as well as the whole countryside of Kosovo/a, are subject to electricity cuts. While after sunset, I found myself on the road to an Internet cafe after the power cut, I could only hear the buzz of the power generators, which supply the houses, the shops and the bars. �What a democracy without electricity!�, remarked a young Albanian in a small radio station, where I checked my electronic mail.

Multiethnic Kosov@: Mission Impossible

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