Interview with Prof. Milenko Karan

At the "Grand'' Hotel in Pristina we spoke with Milenko Karan, the psychologist, who refuses for the reasons known only to him to be introduced as a professor of the University of Pristina and an associate of the Institute of Psychology. For the same reasons he describes himself as "a man who studies the queries and the problems in the field of political psychology.'' Presented here are the experts of our conversation that deal with the Kosovo issue.

Facts: There are two states here existing right next to each other. Or, if you like it better, their state within our state. Regardless of all our praises that ours is governed by law theirs functions much better. Our state does not work because it satisfies itself with telling tales in this area and for this area. It is thus said that the number of Serbs in the municipality of Decane will rise by 200 per cent with the building of a new settlement for the Serb refugees from Albania. No one mentions that right now there are 600 Serbs to 30,000 Albanians in this municipality. Moreover, a half of those people who arrived from Albania and who had the houses built for them plan to leave Kosovo.

Manipulations: Firstly, the people are being given the promises that I'm sure will never be fulfilled. Let's be specific and fair: Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic boasts about having established the state governed by law from Horgos to Dragas with the number of police he has on his disposal, which is nothing but funny. The same applies to the statement by Vuk Draskovic, the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), that 150,000 flats will be built in the span of three years. I don't believe the figures that 10,000 people have returned to Kosovo over the last ten years. I can guarantee you that two thousand of them are common crooks who had been here, reported their departure only to register themselves again in order to get a flat. Both the ruling and the opposition parties benefit from manipulating with cheap visits, party parades, and promises made in bad taste, such as those that 700,000 Albanians will be expelled from Kosovo, when no one was in the last fifty years.

The people will accept whatever really happens to them. I think that no one will be pleased in the end. Some kind of the Albanian autonomy within Serbia will satisfy neither the Albanians nor the Serbs because it will put them into a position similar to that in 1974. Therefore, the tension will remain.

Reconciliation: There will be a reconciliation only on condition that both sides agree to the passage of time. There was a plenty of time, but little good will. The dialogues now resemble autistic monologues where everybody talks at will and for themselves. There must be a catharsis of innate delusions, that go ``all of them are the same,'' ``it is not possible to live together,'' but it was.

In Kosovo there is a naive belief that something will change with those visits and tales. But, it won't. There is only a bitter and unpleasant demographic fact that the population of Kosovo is 90 per cent Albanian and 10 per cent Serbian and the rest. If you take their demographic growth into account, with the basic knowledge of maths you'll work out that the Serbs will make up 6 per cent of the population, which is not considered a national minority anywhere in the world. Only few consider this possibly annoying fact, but all those who refuse to accept the reality are schizophrenic.

There is a big fraud here as well. And those who bought it can also be considered responsible. The fraud implies all those easily made promises that everything will go smoothly, that there is the state governed by law, that there is no reason to be afraid. But, many people are. They don't fear for their lives as much as they fear another historical defeat, that this area which without a doubt was Serbian is being discussed in terms of percentages as if it were on the market. If we could only establish such a psychological situation where we would stop badmouthing and fighting each other if we don't want to or aren't able to like each other.

Future: There is an illusion that the Serbian people in Kosovo is protected which is correct if looked at from the Pristina's ``Grand.'' There are no inhuman acts like rape and desecration, but not because of the strength of the Serbian state, as it says it is, but because the other side decided it to be so. You cannot pave your way to Europe with rapes. The Serbs and the Albanians can live together if you have in mind the geographical area, but, psychologically speaking, for the moment they can only live next to each other hopefully as good neighbors. And that would be a big accomplishment in comparison with what can happen here. Perhaps, our grandsons will be wiser, as I doubt that our sons will.