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Monday, April 16, 2001
THE SOUTH SIDE
Moderate Optimism in Spite of Differences
Although changes in Belgrade are slow to reach the south of Serbia, political representatives of Albanians from the region are nevertheless somewhat optimistic.
Three months after the formation of the Coordinating Committee, roots and effects of the crisis are still present in this part of Serbia. The difficulty of disentangling the knotty issue is indicated by two very different perspectives: the view of Nebojsa Covic, the president of the Coordinating Committee of the FRY and Republic of Serbia governments for Municipalities Bujanovac, Medvedja and Presevo, on one hand, and the view of Albanian political representatives in the south of Serbia, on the other.
Coordinating Committee blames Albanian extremists for the conflict that up to this point alone has resulted in deaths of several Serbian policemen, Albanian civilians, and members of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB). Albanian politicians, on the other hand, claim that the origins of the crisis are to be sought in the former Serbian regime headed by Milosevic, and that the recent conflict is an upshot of the longstanding practice of discrimination and disrespect for the human rights of Albanians, not only in these three troubled municipalities, but in all of Serbia. Speaking for FreeSerbia.org, president of the Committee for Protection of Human Rights from Bujanovac, Saip Kamberi says that the human rights issue has been problematic in Serbia as a whole. However, when certain problems emerge in the context of a multiethnic community, and state authorities resort to repression methods aimed at members of a particular ethnic identity, the problem becomes much more serious.
Changes On the Cards
Presevo |
The key reason for Albanian discontent is the ten-year long militarization of the region, starting from 1992, when Albanian high school was turned into a barracks for the retreating Yugoslav Army forces from Macedonia. But, what angered Albanians the most was the positioning of police and army forces, which retreated from Kosovo, following the signing of the 1999 Kumanovo agreement. "The forces that directly took part in the war against the Albanians, were extremely anti-Albanian and brought with them war psychosis. The regime's blunder was to put those people on the approaches to Kosovo", maintains Kamberi. His opinion is shared by Behljulj Nasufi, member of the presidency of the Party for Democratic Action (PDD) from Presevo, which took part in every election held since the institution of a multi-party system in Serbia ten years ago. Nasufi underlines that since Milosevic's fall from power, there were changes in the politics of the Serbian authorities, but attitudes of the army and the police remain unchanged. "Generals who committed crimes in Kosovo and in this region, remain in their positions even today", says Nasufi.
According to the sources of the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, 14 Albanian civilians were murdered on the territory controlled by the Serbian police in the course of the past year. The executioners of those crimes were discovered, and Saip Kamberi states that the media blamed it on Albanian terrorism. "Bringing the true criminals to justice would contribute to calming down the situation", concludes the president of the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights.
Behlul Nasufi |
Although it was anticipated that the change of regime in Belgrade would contribute to the improvement in the state of human rights, Albanians claim that the situation is not much better. "We agreed with the representatives of the Coordinating Committee to supply them with daily reports of individual cases of human rights violations committed by police and other state-controlled forces. They formally promised to work on preventing such incidents from recurring", says Kamberi, adding that he is just finalizing his quarterly report. "I recorded 71 incident in which 100 citizens were mistreated", maintains Kamberi, adding that "on March 1 alone, when a systematic police action was conducted in Bujanovac and nearby villages of Turija and Oslare, I received complaints from 22 citizens who were abused or threatened by members of the police forces".
Unsolved murders, physical abuse, taking over of private property, all led to mass flight of the Albanian population from this area, especially in the municipality of Medvedja. "Ethnic cleansing took place on that territory, especially in the ground safety zone, so that after the war, twenty thousand Albanians moved to Kosovo and Makedonija", stresses Behljulj Nasufi. He views all this as incentive for forming the UCPMB. "Young people, a minority of them from UCK, were not allowed to return to their homes. The other part are those who were pressured into leaving the ground safety zone, and last Decemer, this force emerged in Dobrosin, headed by Sefket Musliju", says Nasufi.
Discrimination
Albanians point to their complete exclusion from the state institutions as a great problem which remains unresolved with the forming of the Coordinating Committee. There are no Albanians working in the Bujanovac municipal court, and only one employee in the public prosecutor's office is Albanian. He has held the same position since Tito's times, and is about to retire. A total of four Albanians are employed with the local government. "No Albanians are currently employed in the police. If Albanians are employed at all, they are all in positions of no significance, as delivery boys or couriers. There is also one translator, who, however never has anything to translate, since Albanian is not recognized as an official language", describes Kamberi the ethnic structure of employees in the institutions of the local government.
Asked to describe the situation since the power shift in Belgrade, he says that starting from December up to mid-February this year on the territory of Bujanovac municipality 274 new public employees were hired. "I demanded specific information from the Labor Department on the ethnic makeup of these new employees, which they of course refused to provide. But from what I know, a total of 14 Albanians were employed, all of them in educational institutions", says Kamberi in a resigned tone.
Although Albanians make up 60 per cent of residents of Bujanovac municipality, while 30 per cent are Serbs, Albanian parties have only 12 out of 41 delegates in the municipal assembly. Through flagrant gerrymandering and manipulation of electoral regulations, Socialist Party of Serbia and Yugoslav Left managed to win majority rule in the municipality for the past ten years. What particularly irritates the Albanians is that even after all the recent changes, the mayor of Bujanovac remains Stojanca Arsic, local YUL strongman.
Shaip Kamberi (right) |
Another method used by the SPS regime for alienating the Albanians were mass dismissals of workers. Last 11 Albanian policemen were fired near the end of 1998, for refusing to take part in war in Kosovo. Kamberi gives another example of such behaviour coming from the former regime. "During the NATO bombing, under the pretext of preventing an international incident, the managers of [several major factories in the region] ordered their Albanian workers not to bother coming to job during the war in Kosovo. When it was all over, the first day the workers came to work, they were promptly fired. A total of 94 workers were fired. Both policemen and factory workers used legal means to nullify these decisions and receive compensation, but these processes are still ongoing.
The only profitable enterprise from Presevo that had Italian business partners, Eurofleks, had 250 employees, Serbs and Albanians alike, but when the bombing ended, it was made into a military barracks to house the retreating Yugoslav army. "If Yugoslav and Serbian authorities have good intentions, then there is something to look forward to. The first thing they need to do is to move the soldiers from this factory", Behljulj Nasufi says resolutely.
Media Void
Riza Halimi |
When it comes to information, it should be noted that, with the exception of one monthly magazine in Presevo and a bi-weekly in Bujanovac, there are no media operating in Albanian language. Behljulji says that the Serbian government signed an agreement with the local authorities in Presevo to open a radio station. All appropriate equipment has already been obtained. "Biserka Matic promised us that radio will begin to function on January 15. The Serbian government did provide technical assistance, but as for the frequency - we still don't have one. It seems to me that the philosophy of the former regime still rules; otherwise, if Serbs in the south have Radio Vranje, TV Vranje, Radio Bujanovac, why can't Albanians have their own local station", says Nasufi, adding that he has twice contacted the federal minister for telecommunications Boris Tadic, who promised the frequency permit would be issued, in spite of the freeze on permits that lasts until June. However, those promises still go unfulfilled. "We can rightly say that we are totally in an informational void, because we have neither a television nor radio, and Albanian press from Kosovo is illegal. Our only sources are satellite programs of RTV Kosova, Radio Free Europe, Deutsche Welle and Radio B92", concludes Nasufi his account of Radio Presevo. In any case, this radio station has lately been broadcasting only music. "I broadcast music all day long, and press conference of the Party for Democratic Action, when we hold them. So let's see if they ban me", says Nasufi.
Another source of Albanian dissatisfaction is found in the educational policies of the Milosevic regime - that likewise remain unchanged with the new authorities in Belgrade. "Albanians study according to official educational programs of Serbia, but the real problem is that the translations of textbooks from Serbian are literal, and Albanian culture and heritage are all but entirely excluded. In textbooks for the first four grades of elementary school, all poems are in Serbian", comments Kamberi on the educational programs for Albanian children. Behljulj Nasufi stresses that a huge problem for Albanian community is that university diplomas from Pristina, Tirana, Rijeka, Bugarska, are not valid in Serbia. He emphasizes that acceptance of diplomas is "the first step, if the Serbian and Yugoslav governments are serious about integrating Albanians into state institutions".
Optimism
In spite of all the problems, our interviewees demonstrate a certain amount of cautious optimism, when it comes to negotiations. Nasufi points out that it is important that the Serb side accepted negotiations with UCPMB. "The most important thing for us is that the results of the negotiations are put into practice, and from the Albanian side, the key player is UCPMB. I appreciate a statement made by the Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic, when he said that the key thing was that problems are being solved, it doesn't matter who solves them", specifies Nasufi.
It appears that certain things are beginning to stir from a long coma. For instance, there is the agreement on the forming of multiethnic police forces, that would have 400 members of local Albanian and Serbian population. They would go through a three-month long training, followed by sixteen weeks of training on the ground, before going on duty, and this entire process is to be supervised by OECD. Another positive signal is the opening of dialogue over the return of Albanian refugees to the municipality of Medvedja. Demilitarization and the return of refugees are the principal demands of Albanians. That there is indeed some room for optimism-Kamberi acknowledges: "I was optimistic ever since the Coordinating Committee was founded. I saw that Mr Covic and Mr Ljajic are serious about negotiating, that they understood our problems at the time. For them, it was the first time to visit this region, but they immediately saw the injustice committed by the former regime. I think that it is now their moral and political obligation to see that this injustice is righted, and that the mistakes made by the former regime are no longer made."
Boris Milicevic
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