Capital Fears

``One thing should be said, there is no League of Communists any more and our people with their high level of national awareness know their way and who to trust. The block of collaborationists who insist on the formation of a Serbian national chauvinist system to oppose the Albanian national block won't have any effect. Because of that the Union of Independent Trade Unions of Kosovo does not recognize those individuals and won't even consider their views,'' Hairulah Gorani, President of the Kosovo Albanians' trade unions, said in reaction to reports that a new bank was being opened in Pristina as well as new offices of the Komercijalna Banka Beograd.

The new Gama Bank is intended to be the bank for all Kosovo business dealings. The Komercijalna Banka is just a branch office of the Montenegrobank.

There would be no story if it was just a case of the two banks and Gorani would certainly not react that passionately. His anger is caused by the individuals he mentioned.

Those individuals are Jusuf Zeinulahu and Remzi Kollgeci, key figures in the two banks. Zeinulahu is currently justifying the request for Gama's work permit. He is a businessman, former member of the Yugoslav League og Communist Central Committee Presidency and last President of the Kosovo Executive Council. That Council went abroad, fleeing President Milosevic's vision of a unified Serbia and Zeinulahu became the first Kosovo Prime Minister in exile. Remzi Kollgeci was President of the Kosovo Presidency in 1988-89 in the last days of its autonomy. He resigned that post.

Those two former officials, both one time defenders of autonomy, have now entered the Kosovo political saga in somewhat different circumstances and against their will when it seemed they could end their political cycles with bank jobs.

Naip Zeka, a member of the Kosovo Democratic Alliance (DLK) Presidency and economic advisor to Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, speaks very openly: ``The banks would not have attracted anyone's attention if those two gentlemen were not their heads.'' Zeka said the opening of the two banks could be interpreted as an effort to create another block which could link Serbia and Kosovo through capital and create certain political powers which could use money to affect political solutions. ``Any link between former politicians and Belgrade creates anxiety.''

Kollgeci believes time will prove Zeka wrong and wonders why no one reacted to the fact that an Albanian heads the Jugobanka branch offices in Pristina.

Zeinulahu spoke to the press for the first time in five years. He says there was speculation when he returned from abroad last year on why he had come back. A year ago, when he returned, RFI radio aired a comment which suggested that his return to Kosovo was important in itself. Zeinulahu wonders why he couldn't just do what he does best since he knows the system. ``The creation of a bank is not a relationship of political dimensions and is no different than the relationship towards Serbian or Albanian companies. A political solution cannot be sought in banks with ``nationally mixed'' capital.''

Kollgeci wonders how much political and ideological terminology is used in business dealings and whether the entire Albanian private sector will be labelled collaborationist because it has dealings with the economies of Serbia and Montenegro. Anyone who wants to think rationally about the Kosovo situation in this environment should go to work, he said. He added that he wasn't going to return to politics: ``Younger men are coming along.''

``Is the purchase of sugar in Vojvodina harmful to the national interest,'' Zeinulahu asks. He adds that fear of joint capital comes from the fact that Kosovo's political problem has not been solved yet. He wonders whether that means life should stop until a political solution is found.

Both former provincial officials obviously said Yes to life. Anyone who raises the question whether life should stop until a political solution is found from the rhetorical to the level of principle is inevitably condemned to conclusions that anything that has an economic interest is also part of the unacceptable system.

Naip Zeka has every right to be suspicious. He allows for the possibility that only economics are at stake, that Albanian capital is linking with Serbian to get a work permit but he says the DLK will recommend caution to Albanians as it did with Jugoskandik and Dafiment.

Kosovo's Serbs and Albanians avoided life together wherever they could. They couldn't manage separation only in the economy. They're both very cautious and full of negative prejudice about each other except in business dealings where they cooperate sincerely and respect each other. Real interests are easily found and true economic values show a high level of resistance towards politics.

But to get back to the two banks. If the existing rule that a healthy economic interest is stronger than politics is proved right both the Montenegrobanka and Gama Banka have much greater prospects of success in Kosovo than compromised state banks. They have good reputations and private businessmen expect them to finance them. The Privredna Banka in Djakovo has been operating for four years. It has integrated well into the Yugoslav monetary system but Albanian businessmen criticize it for not wanting to risk financing ambitious projects.

``I can't imagine business without banks,'' an Albanian founder of the Gama Bank said. ``I heard that the Komercijalna Banka is stable and I need a bank like that for business,'' that businessman said.

Then why did he remain anonymous?

``The situation is like that at the moment. Everything is linked to politics. They would just ignore me and that's enough.''

The anonymous businessman said the collaboration accusations were not true since without ``some of us who are working and struggling there would be no life. I don't think of myself in that way nor do others think of me as a collaborator without asking me how many people depend on me for a living.''

The anonymous founder of the Gama Banka pays taxes regularly to the self-proclaimed Kosovo Republic which survives thanks to that money. He also pays taxes to Serbia which partly functions thanks to his money. Both states function partly successfully on the same territory. The businessman says he would be happy to pay taxes only once and he doesn't even consider deciding whose taxes because ``whatever they agree we'll swallow it. We are like experimental mice.''