In Search Of An Identity

Gora is on the threeborder point between Serbia, Albania and Macedonia. Life would have continued as it always has in this forgotten corner of the earth, if it hadn't been for the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) and the Serbian Democratic Movement (DEPOS). In its statement DEPOS claims that Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) supporters are confiscating personal weapons from DEPOS supporters in 17 villages of the Gora region at the foot of Mt. Sara, and that they are withholding food packages and not giving them any oil or naphtha.

``Yes, they took away my pistol. My father gave it to me 16 years ago,'' said Cerim Ilijazi, the DEPOS candidate from Dragas, Gora municipality, and President of the SPO municipal committee. Ilijaz said that the policemen had said they were taking his pistol as part of a ``check up,'' but he still doesn't know who or what they are checking up on, just as he doesn't know whose loyalty the police will be questioning.

Ilijaz started his political career as a SPS member. ``That was at the time when you had to say if you were for or against Serbia, and I expressed my stand with my membership,'' said Ilijaz. Then things started changing. There was some shifty business, and he turned to the political views held by his son Orhan, who was a pupil in Prizren two years ago, and is now a student at Belgrade University. Ilijaz changed his party colors. ``That's when the trouble began,'' he said.

``They told me they knew I was in collusion with DEPOS,'' said Dzimsit Abazi, a man who received an order for the confiscating of his hunting rifle and permit, on March 29. ``I am a loyal citizen of Serbia which guarantees political pluralism and it is in Serbia that I built my house, bought my car, and the rifle I had until yesterday. The fact that they took the rifle doesn't rankle as much as the fact that they consider me an enemy,'' said Abazi. ``I am ready to stand in the vanguard of Serbia's defence.''

The Gora police chief signed an order for the confiscating of a hunting rifle from Harun Aslani, the acting Party of Democratic Action (SDA) president, and a 7.65 mm pistol from Muzafer Misini, a tailor from Lestane. The Police told Misini: ``You know why we're doing this. You took part in the DEPOS election committee. You're against Serbia.''

``The way I see it, I have to support the SPS in order to be loyal to the state,'' said Misini.

These were stories with names to them, the others preferred to remain anonymous. The state has statistics, but keeps them for ``internal'' use. Muzafer Misini feels humiliated because the police have taken all he had but have given others rifles and ammunition. His conclusion is that patriotism is best proved by voting for the SPS.

``Where does Krstac stand in totalitarianism, if Belgrade can't fight it?,'' asks a young man in the village of Gornji Krstac. ``If Belgrade finds it difficult to defend itself, then what can Krstac do?'' And another rhetorical question: ``But perhaps the inhabitants of Gora are timid by nature, perhaps its the closeness of the border, perhaps that's the reason they build fortified houses...''

He says that the people of Gora are afraid of losing their jobs, and that all authority (and the economy) are in the hands of the ruling party, and that redundancy affects entire families, and creates social problems.

In spite of the fear that opposition supporters feel, DEPOS won a fifth of the votes in Gora, and the SPS 55%. SPS deputy and president of the executive committee of the Gora municipality Fait Ibro, commenting opposition criticism that electoral lists were ``shortened'' by some 1,400 names, said that this was because all those with a permanent residence outside Gora did not vote. The opposition suspect another reason: they say that the authorities have become more cautious after former Yugoslav PM Milan Panic's success in the region at the 1992 elections. Ibro claims that Panic's success was ``analyzed as a curious phenomenon.'' ``We believe that a SPS which would not be national, would be best suited to this environment,'' said Ibro.

It is interesting, however, that in Muslim environments, former SDA voters, in its absence at elections, opted for opposition parties with a Serbian national identity. Cerim Ilijazi said that he wasn't sure if the SDA supported Serbia or not, so that he opted for the SPO.

Gora and its inhabitants are in search of an identity. The issue is a complex one, and there is no answer. They don't know if they are inhabitants of Gora (or Goranci, as they are known) or Slavs or Muslims. Neither territorial, tribal or religious characteristics can be considered solely in determining their national identity. Gora is an impoverished backwater, and few of its inhabitants have much of an education. The few who have secondary school diplomas and university degrees, completed their education during the period of Socialism, but there are not enough of them to find an answer to the question of national identity.

Dzevad Dalifoski is the SPO secretary for Gora. He was a lieutenant in the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), but teaches national defence now. He says that all have laid claims to the people of GoraMacedonians, Serbs and Albanians. The latter have some success, because of the same faith and similar names. Thanks to the inaccessible areas they inhabit, the language spoken by the people of Gora has not changed much in the past 1,000 years, and is reminiscent of Old Serbian and Macedonian. When filling in forms, under the heading `nationality,' the people of Gora invariably declared themselves as ``undecided,'' while in the last decades they have declared themselves ``Muslims,'' very rarely ``Albanians.'' Bosnia, as the land in which religious and ethnic characteristics were quickly linked to a national identity, is far from Gora. ``I can't say I'm a Muslim,'' said Dalifoski. The people of Gora are dispersed and can be found in several Albanian and Macedonian villages. They too are in search of a national identity.

The slogan``Gora is a defence against all forms of separatism'' is proof of their loyalty. When Serbian Constitution changed the status of the Provinces (Kosovo and Vojvodina) and the campaign against separatism in Kosovo was over or at least postponed, their loyalty was forgotten, as was the 304 sq kilometerslarge area they inhabit. Projects proposed by the authorities some six, seven and eight years ago concerned tourism, mountain herbs, cattlebreeding, roads... The water in Dragas is not fit for drinking and the rubbish is not removed from the dump in the center of the town... all this belongs to plans on the future. A House of Culture is planned, the plant for the production of special oils is still waiting for installations from ``Merima'' (a chemical plant from Krusevac) to be delivered, even though several years have passed... The only plant in operation is ``Drateks,'' a spinningmill.

There are only 1,200 jobs for 17,000 people.

The men gather around a notice board with a proclamation addressed ``to all SPS branch presidents in Gora'' informing them that ``the young Socialists have launched a drive aimed at employing young people in the Kosovo-Metohija police.'' Those interested are asked to report to the SPS offices in Dragas.

The villagers of Restelica are not interested in joining the police force. They prefer to work as day laborers in Belgrade. We learned that the majority of the men waiting for jobs near the Vuk Karadzic monument in Belgrade are natives of Gora. They complain that it is no longer safe to sleep in the park behind the monument. Growing poverty is forcing them to come to the park in Belgrade. They can't look for jobs with the police force as advertised because they don't fulfill an important requirement they don't have secondary school diplomas. Primary School Director Cufta Zevdzan said that only 5% 6% of the 650 pupils will continue their education. The director and teachers are still waiting to receive what was promised on television food packages. For the time being they have received 500 gm of coffee and 3 kgs of detergent. They did not get any extra money or firewood for the winter. Zevdzan asks: ``Where are we? Are we in the same state? Someone has to look after the border, and that's what we are doing, but when it comes to reimbursementthere's nothing.''

The children are leaving school, their cheeks red from the cold mountain air. Only 5%6% of them will go on to secondary school, and 94%95% of them will end up in the park in Belgrade, or they will become shepherds. But the flocks are smaller and there are less of them. Veterinary surgeon Ramadan Esati said that there were some 60,000 sheep in the fifties. The number has dropped to around 12,000. Esati said that there were no real Sara shepherd dogs left, not even in Restelica which used to be famed for them. Shepherds say that the number of lambs have dropped because of the long winters and the expensive feed. They recall times when they took their flocks to winter grazing grounds in Macedonia.

The village of Rapca is well known for its pastry cooks, who remember better days when they had pastry shops in all over Yugoslavia-Belgrade, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Adriatic coast... ``We'll live better as soon as life returns to Serbia,'' said a man who had a pastry shop on the Croatian coast, but said this was not a time for mentioning names.

The Gora municipality was reorganized from the Dragas municipality which included ethnic Albanians from Opolo, on the hill sides of Mt. Sara. After the reorganization, Prizren got a greater concentration of ethnic Albanians, so that Gora is practically ``ethnically pure.'' In this way the authorities have gained a concentration of loyal citizens. Loyalty, however, is judged by loyalty to the SPS. If the authorities look askance at the fact that a part of the inhabitants of Gora support the opposition, an opposition belonging to the Serbian bloc, how would they behave if they had the SDA against them or some Gora nationalist party, which would demand autonomy? There are such thoughts, albeit fragmentary ones.