Part 1: A lot of confusion for 10 euros a week

Although the hosts said we shouldn't mix things up, last week's visit to Pristina by a group of reporters from Belgrade, Vojvodina, Skoplje and Tirana organized by the Kosovo Provisional Government nevertheless fit in nicely with the main political trend in the Province, the story about the fulfillment of standards. The real life, as it turned out on the ground, does not have much to do with the mathematics of UNMIK and the Pristina administration.

ORDINARY ALBANIANS

Thanks to the faultless hospitality of the hosts, the reporters did not lack for the pleasures of luxurious restaurants and entertainment destinations. They walked through Pristina, but only the short distance from the Grand Hotel to the Kosovo parliament building and UNMIK, and always escorted by host Daut Dauti, the government spokesman. Along the way they stopped in the shops and made purchases without problems but care was taken that no one should be completely separated from the group. However, the reporters did not have a chance to see how "ordinary" Kosovo Albanians live. It's true that after some insistence on their part they managed to walk through the Albanian part of Orahovac in order to get from the municipal building to the upper, Serbian part of town. Ljubisa Djuricic, the auxiliary municipal vice-president, openly said that it is only recently that he become "courageous enough to come to work without an UNMIK police escort".

"Recently there have been frequent calls from the municipal president and the municipal administration to Serbs to move about freely in the Albanian part of Orahovac. But unless the present local government is supported by the entire Albanian population, we also expect the leaders of other political parties to publicly and sincerely guarantee safety to the Serbs," commented Djuricic.

Aside from a visit to the municipal building, where they met with Esad Haxhijahu, the municipal president, and his associates, the reporters did not stay for long anywhere in the Albanian part of Orahovac. The renowned local wine of Orahovac was sampled in the Serbian part of town, which is separated from the Albanian part by a "buffer zone" of Serbian homes destroyed and torched from June 1999 to March 17 of last year.

"Activity aimed at the normalization of life has doubled since the definition of the standards that are the future of our municipality and Kosovo. Our conclusion is that they have been implemented, although we are not satisfied with freedom of movement and returns," admitted Esad Haxhijahu, a member of the DSK (Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic Alliance of Kosovo).

We heard from Lutfij Haziri, the minister for local self-government in the Kosovo Government, who is responsible for the standard of returns that "everyone who was born in Kosovo and has private property here can return". The government "will guarantee their property rights and reconstruction of damaged property".

"This is not valid for Serbian refugees from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, who lived here for a few years and are documented by Belgrade as being refugees from Kosova. The number of Serbs who wish to return is unknown and is being manipulated. Because of this, the Kosovo Government has decided in favor of the signing of a protocol and registration of refugees. If the number of Serbs living in Kosovo is added to the number of those who claim to be displaced persons in Serbia, it follows that almost a million Serbs lived in Kosovo," claimed Haziri, despite the fact that for six years the Serbian side has been saying there are close to 250,000 Serbs expelled from Kosovo and just over 136,000 who still remain in the southern Serbian province.

EMPTY PENTAGON

We saw what the life of Serb returnees looks like in the mixed village of Vidanje near Klina. Breg Djetaj, the deputy municipal president and DSK president for Klina, met us in the Drim Motel not far from town, where we did not stop. From the bus we managed to see the empty Pentagon Hotel, Mother Teresa Hospital and a monument to this Catholic woman saint.

On the freshly asphalted road next to the bus Djetaj explained to us that returns to Klina municipality began two and a half years ago with the arrival of Serb returnees to Bicha and Grabac. Life in Vidanje is shared by Serbs, 40 households out of the 100 living here prior to 1999 having returned, and Albanian Catholics. Unlike the UNMIK chief who is claiming on the basis of his information sources that "Serbs do not want to go back to Kosovo" and consequently supporting every form of return, both spontaneous and organized, Djetaj says that Klina municipality is insisting on organized returns and only by "people whose hands are clean". He announced plans for the opening of a school and the integration of returnee children but he did not mingle with the Serb locals who were sitting not far away.

"Municipal representatives only visit us for official things, such as the arrival of some delegation. Except for that, no one comes to talk to us, to ask us about any problems and difficulties. Neither the municipality nor Serbia. Once Haradinaj came. The Danish League gives us 10 euros per week. That's for everything: bread, food, water - because the tap water is not suitable for drinking. We buy bottled water," said Miloje Sarkovic. He returned to Vidanje with his wife. Their children remain in central Serbia. "It's a real ghetto. We don't go anywhere. We have no transportation to go even as far as Bicha and Grabac. The Italians who protect us provide us with an escort once a week to (central) Serbia. You have to register seven days in advance and you're lucky to get a spot. There's a lot of confusion," he said.

SEPTIC TANK

The village has water and electricity but still no sewage system or telephone service. "There were a lot of promises made but it's all empty words, nothing more. We have a lot of children who want to come back but until we see a school, we just don't know. The municipality has promised a sewage system and it hasn't come to anything. We can't use our wells anymore because of the septic tanks. Thank God we are healthy, for now, because we have no health protection. Physicians from Osojane and Gracanica stop by once a month. It's as if we were enslaved here, in a way. Nowhere to go, nothing to do," said Miloje.

The Klina region, say local residents, is rich and fertile for every imaginable crop but they lack tools to work with and to cultivate the land. The agriculture which provided Vidanje with its livelihood in the past could be renewed but only with assistance. "We have nothing. The Italians gave us our beds. We paid the Gypsies five euros each to transport them to our houses. They gave us wood, too, but you have to pay the Gypsies five euros if you want to take it home. The conditions are impossible but nevertheless you are drawn to the place you were born. The state, in all honesty, has given us about ten cans (of food) and half a 25 kilo bag of flour. Nothing else," said Miloje Sarkovic.

Part 2: Talk about crimes silently ignored

The Kosovo Protection Corps is being told "not to think about creating a military security force for now because Kosovo still does not have an equivalent police service", something the officials of Kosovo provisional institutions consider a great handicap for Pristina "because currently there are more than 30 foreign secret services active in the Province". When asked by reporters whether the KPC will become an army in the event that Kosovo becomes independent, the answer was that "the KPC is ready for all competencies entrusted to it by the institutions"

Last week's visit to Pristina by reporters from Belgrade, Vojvodina, Skoplje and Tirana concluded with a tour of the headquarters of the Kosovo Protection Corps. The KPC was created in 1999 through what the UN mission calls "demilitarization" and the Serbs consider to be a reorganization of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which the Serbian side accuses of carrying out ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija. Officially the KPC is now "a multiethnic organization for emergency services" and standard number eight. In the brochure "Standards: Eight small steps, one large step for Kosovo" which we were handed as soon as we stepped into the Kosovo institutions, it is explained twice (perhaps due to a printing error) that "the KPC, in accordance with the constitutional framework, acts completely within the framework of its mandate as a civil organization that quickly responds to protect the population during catastrophes and emergency situations". The standards say that the KPC "must act in a transparent and responsible manner and represent all communities in the Province".

Instead of meeting as scheduled with KPC commander Agim Cheku, former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officer, veteran of the Homeland War in Croatia, who became famous as one of the masterminds behind operations Medak Pocket and Storm, and then as head of the Kosovo Liberation Army command, we were met by colonel Shemsi Sulja, whose curriculum vitae on file with the Security Information Agency (BIA), where is known by the nickname of Shacha, is hardly less impressive.

In a BIA book entitled "Albanian Terrorism and Organized Crime in Kosovo and Metohija", our KPC host is mentioned as one of the commanders of the KLA and accused not only of misappropriating (Albanian) money but also of "organizing and issuing orders for the murder of Serbs and Kosovo Albanians believed to cooperating with the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP), especially in the municipality of Novo Brdo and Kosovsko Pomoravlje, as well as training the members of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja during the course of the year 2000 on the territory of southern central Serbia".

Not only at the KPC but in all official meetings held with the reporters during their visit to Pristina, the issue of crimes committed in Kosovo and Metohija by both sides were somehow silently ignored, while broaching the same topic in private conversation appeared to lead to sudden deafness. It took us almost an hour to tour the KPC headquarters, which is located in the former building of the Technical Faculty. They showed us centers for training which, we were told, is conducted without weapons and according to standard procedures, dormitories, a gym, a library and a computer center... In every room we were greeted by photographs of Skenderbeg and Adem Jashari.

The KPC Training Program, which was completed last year, was prepared under the auspices of the International Organization for Migration with the support of the principal donor, the U.S., as well as contributions from Great Britain, the Council of Europe and the EU, which is apparent from the handbooks used for training. In the KPC there is a lot of emphasis on the English language, which is studied intensively. We were told that 20 percent of the KPC officers are former JNA officers, and the Corps is now multiethnic and includes women. Among minority members the highest ranking officer is a Bosniak, colonel Music, the deputy commander for minority communities and a member of the KPC command.

KPC representatives note that they "are not thinking about creating a military security force for now because Kosovo still does not have an equivalent police service", something we had heard earlier the officials of Kosovo provisional institutions consider a great handicap for Pristina "because currently there are more than 30 foreign secret services active in the Province". When asked by reporters whether the KPC will become an army in the event that Kosovo becomes independent, colonel Sulja answered that "the KPC is ready for all competencies entrusted to it by the institutions".

"We are well-trained. We have good discipline but everything depends on the process and institutions. One day UNMIK and KFOR will no longer be here and protection forces will be needed," said Sulja.

Judging from all appearances the Pristina administration is preparing itself for what Naser Rugova, political advisor to the Kosovo prime minister, calls "the optimal solution" - an independent Kosovo within its present borders ("the best solution of all would be the unification of all Albanian territories in the former Yugoslavia and unification with Albania"), while Serbs are expected "to integrate into Kosovo society and institutions as an active part of all social reforms". "As far as final status is concerned, we want to see Kosovo Serbs on the Kosovo delegation side because they are citizens of Kosovo," emphasized Naser Rugova.

Kosovo and Metohija has 30 municipalities. In 25 the majority population is Albanian, in five it is Serbian. After security and freedom of movement, decentralization of government in Kosovo and Metohija is at the top of the Serbian priorities that are needed to ensure the survival of the Serbian community in the Province. The statement of Kosovo prime minister Bajram Kosumi that, due to a lack of funds in the budget and the lengthiness of the process, decentralization must await the resolution of status will not help in finding a compromise. All the more so because Kosumi announced five decentralization pilot projects as part of the pre-status warm-up that Serbs claim are intended to change the ethnic structure of the local government in the next local elections in the Province.

Representatives of the Ministry of culture, youth and sports in the Kosovo government have announced that the deputies of the Kosovo provisional assembly are expected to soon consider the proposed law on cultural heritage, in which the entire heritage of the Province is treated as Kosovo's. "The law on cultural heritage protects the cultural heritage of all ethnic groups as Kosovo's. The text of the law has been given to all communities and political parties for their review. The cultural heritage in Kosovo is considered to be Kosovo's heritage, and is not divided into religious or ethnic (categories)," explained Armenika Etemi, senior official of the Office of the Kosovo prime minister.

The Kosovo Ministry of culture recently tried to push through this concept in Paris at a donors' conference for the cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija but a brochure renaming the Serbian cultural heritage as Kosovo's heritage had to be withdrawn. Even Peterssen reacted.

Representatives of the Kosovo Government's Ministry of health also spoke about positive discrimination of minorities (affirmative action) in Kosovo and the tolerance of the Government, especially toward the Serbian community.

"In the Kosovo health system there are three categories of health workers. Those who are loyal to UNMIK, have signed contracts and receive salaries like everyone else. Those who do not recognize (UNMIK) and challenge the Kosovo Government receive 200 percent salaries from Belgrade, and there are some who receive both the double salary from Belgrade and are at the same time financed from the Kosovo budget. That's illegal but it is tolerated," said Astrit Ajeti, the deputy health minister. According to Ajeti, the Ministry has given 380,000 euros just for maintaining the hospital center in Kosovska Mitrovica.

"That not true. They may have donated three or four tankers of heating oil somewhere along the line but that is less than one percent of the total health protection needs of the Serbian population in Kosovo and Metohija. The hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica is funded by the Belgrade Ministry of health, which can be seen from the invoices. All workers in Kosovo and Metohija receive 200 percent salaries from the budget of the Ministry in Belgrade," explained Marko Jaksic, the director of the Health center in the northern, Serbian part of Kosovska Mitrovica.

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"They toss us crumbs"

On the territory of (greater) Pristina, more precisely, in surrounding settlements and villages there are currently 12,500 Serb residents. According to information provided by Milorad Todorovic, the coordinator for Pristina municipality of the Serbia-Montenegro and Republic of Serbia's Joint Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija, 33,000 Serbs remain in the entire central part of Kosovo and Metohija. From the turnoff from the Pristina-Skoplje road leading to Ajvalija and Gracanica, some ten kilometers southeast of the city, an industrial zone has sprung up in recent years where representative offices of many company from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are located. "They employ only Albanians. No one has had any serious business contact with us, they just toss us crumbs. The Serbs need to work, to earn their livelihood," said Milorad Todorovic. This interview took place on the eve of St. Vitus Day (June 28), independently of the Pristina visit by reporters.

Todorovic explained that Serbs in the central part of the Province are trying to survive primarily by buying and selling. "There are some state institutions such as health and education that have employees who receive a salary. There is also the local self-administration, where we have 868 employees on the payroll who were formerly employed by the municipal assembly. Unfortunately, more than 50 percent of these people are now in central Serbia, where they are receiving a minimum base salary of 4,600 dinars to live on. The action plans I proposed have not been implemented for two years now," said Todorovic.

He added that only recently was he summoned by UNMIK and the Albanian municipality "to participate in a work group for returns but only as a member of his political party (the Democratic Party), not as a representative of the Coordinating Center". According to Todorovic, visiting the homes in the village of Badovac on the eve of St. Vitus Day had nothing to do with Pristina. "We still have not addressed the needs of people who have been expelled from Metohija in 1999, and in order to pass out keys to the houses in Badovac the commission had to introduce the criterion of injuries or casualties in the family. It's a fact that the house of the Stolic family in Obilic was rebuilt 20 days ago but was set on fire again, meaning that normal conditions for someone to return there simply don't exist," said Todorovic.

As far as the announced decentralization pilot projects, including Gracanica, Todorovic says that he has spoken about it with Pristina and UNMIK on several occasions. "After failing to expel the Serbs from this region through war and use of force, they are now trying to do this through decentralization. At this moment they are like milk and honey, there is no better people in the world than the Albanians, just so they can get away with presenting their implementation of standards as a success," notes Todorovic.

(Translation by sib on July 10, 2005)
Original published by Danas, Belgrade, July 5, 2005, www.danas.co.yu