Parallel Lives

During working days the streets of Pristina are full of people, but the members of the two nations do not seem to notice one another. The other nation simply does not exist for the one in question. The last marriage between them took place in 1990. Only obituaries tacked to trees in the streets show that Serbs and ethnic Albanians live here side by side. But chances for change lie in trade and business, and in this area there is no visible boycott of one side by the other. Another curiosity, there is still a "Brotherhood and Unity" street in Pristina, and the sports center is still called after WW2 Serb and ethnic Albanian heroes Boro and Ramiz.

The Provincial Chamber of Economy has registered around 17,000 private firms which employ 20,000 workers. Apart from trade which is the dominant activity, there are firms involved in industrial production, mining, banking, traffic... and of course, catering. According to the same source, 97% of the private capital is held by ethnic Albanians. Jobs in state services are held by Serbs who also own many of the pubs, or act as middlemen in transactions between Serbian firms and ethnic Albanian businessmen, for a commission.

The market in Pristina is a place where the two nations meet. From early morning trucks full of apples, bananas, oranges and fresh cabbage are unloaded. All this goes straight to the stalls where one can find eastern sweetmeats, dates, peanuts, technical appliances, underwear, home-made preserves, milk, flour... Mounds of rubbish can also be seen in equal quantity. This oasis of trade is disturbed by occasional police patrols. Cigarette vendors get out of the way quickly and merge into the crowd.

Ethnic Albanian tradesmen are not very talkative, especially in contact with a Serbian journalist. The grocery stores are full to overflowing. The goods are varied and the service excellent. The boutiques are well stocked and have a lot of Italian goods. The owners laugh, and say that they are not giving statements to the press. The ethnic Albanian owner of a private pharmacy was a little more talkative. He had been an official in the Pharmaceutical center earlier, and had decided to start a private business because the times were right. He is not dissatisfied, and his pharmacy is frequented by Serbs and ethnic Albanians. He said that even though most of the private pharmacies were owned by ethnic Albanians, only a Serb had a contract with the Pharmaceutical center allowing him to issue prescriptions. Answering our question, he said that he hadn't noticed that the inspectors had different standards or that they were working outside their competencies. We found out however, that tax inspectors and the financial police often throw all the guests out of premises owned by an ethnic Albanian if one of the guests makes a caustic remark, but that they show a lot of understanding and tolerance towards Serb owners.

"Where's the man with the camera?", asked Provincial Secretary of Education, Culture and Science Marinko Bozovic, obviously unhappy because he wouldn't be photographed. He believes that 200,000 -250,000 children are boycotting legal institutions of education and not studying the official curriculum, all at the instigation of the Democratic League of Kosovo (DSK). "This is being used for political purposes because we allegedly ban their children from being educated, and that's not true", said Bozovic.

He went on to say that ethnic Albanian primary schools were using educational facilities and heating, and that they weren't paying for this, that such schools had their directors, administration, diplomas, official stamps and books in which Serbia was presented as the occupying force. Bozovic said that Serbia did not recognize their system of education, but that primary schools were tolerated because primary school education was guaranteed by the Constitution. The ministry was even prepared to recognize primary school diplomas, but with additional tests in literature, history and geography. The rest is out of the question, said Bozovic.

Of the 15,000 students at the University, more than half come from Serbia. New professors are always welcome and by autumn 360 flats will be available, but only for those who come with their families. It seems that Chancellor Papovic has cast an eye on one of the flats. Bozovic went on to say that ethnic Albanians can study only Literature and History in the Albanian language, and that the "diplomas with eagles" are recognized by Germany and Switzerland. Bozovic believes that the problem can be resolved only if "a biological balance is set up". "A million of them, a million of us, and then we can implement the laws", said Bozovic.

The secondary electro-technical school for ethnic Albanian pupils is in a two story house in the suburb of Velanija. Some 809 pupils in 32 classes fit in somehow and work in three shifts. They can choose between three departments: energy, telecommunications and automatic machines. Lecturer Nusret Simunica who receives a 100 DEM salary, assures us that the criteria are strict. 28% of the pupils fail. The pupils sit four to a desk in rooms which have been turned into classrooms. The lecturer has a piece of chalk, the pupils notebooks and pencils. In the director's office there are two plastic balls, and parts of a computer in a sideboard. We ask about teaching appliances and Simunica points to the computer parts. Is there a chance for normalization, and returning into the normal courses? "No", said a colleague, "the reason for the parallel system of education does not lie in the curriculum, that's just the regime's alibi for discrimination". Simunica, who says that he is cosmopolitan, concludes that this situation will not end, "because a sickness is worse when it is chronic".

The reporter's impression, and this was confirmed by some ethnic Albanians, is that secondary schools cannot offer adequate education under such circumstances, but that only a level of literacy can be maintained this way.

The Serbs' and ethnic Albanians' parallel way of life is present everywhere. The ethnic Albanians insist on their so-called Republic of Kosovo which has only been recognized by Albania. This is why they insist on their system of education, social protection, sports, information... in short, self-sufficiency. Their greatest success lies in education. DSK leader Ibrahim Rugova's Education advisor Dzavit Ahmeti said that 11,000 students, 56,000 secondary school pupils and 273,000 primary school pupils were covered by the ethnic Albanian educational system. Around 96% (30 million DEM) of the budget are earmarked for education, not counting donations. There are 873 lecturers at the university, 4,000 teachers in secondary schools and around 14,500 primary school teachers. All schools follow the Republic of Kosovo curriculum and diplomas and pupil's reports were attested with its stamp. Ahmeti underscored that they had not encountered problems with the validation of their diplomas abroad, but that students had had some problems in some countries. Concerning relations with the state of Serbia, Ahmeti said that in the past year no single educational facility had been closed down, but that there were cases of repressive police behavior against teachers, most often in Vucitrn and Kosovska Mitrovica.

Unlike university and secondary schools, primary school classes are conducted, for the most part in the same facilities in which Serb children attend school. The Serb half of a primary school in Pristina is called "Milos Crnjanski", the ethnic Albanian half Dardania. Dardania director Zecira Isljamija said that 2,400 pupils had at their disposal a quarter of the 5,600 sq meters -the entire space of the two schools. Classes were conducted in four shifts, according to the Republic of Kosovo curriculum, and salaries for 103 staff were ensured. Electricity and public utilities were covered by the state of Serbia. Isljami is proud of the fact that parents collected 22,000 dinars and refurbished the school themselves. Even though they share the same roof, the schools Dardania and "Milos Crnjanski" are physically separated. Isljami pointed to some partitions. He mentioned the classrooms and spare rooms they were given by the Serbian school last year. The only place where Serbian and ethnic Albanian children can meet is the gym hall (it is on the Albanian side of the school (and Serb pupils enter through a red metal door in the wall) and the canteen, also on the Albanian side. Asked if the children played together, the director said: "No, definitely not! There was a fight two years ago and we barely managed to tear them apart. It's quiet now."

In the Serbian half of the school, pedagogue Natalija Bogdanovic explained the walling up of the school with the need to prevent ethnic Albanian children from taking away the school inventory to their side and destroying it. English teacher Tatjana Popovic said that there were three classrooms full of smashed desks and other equipment. Director Bogi Gogic explained his limited authority in the building with state policy. He said that the Serbian state had relented for "certain reasons". "If it's in the state's interest for things to develop this way, then that's the way it will be." We were told that there were four ethnic Albanian children among their 630 pupils. Ms Bogdanovic took us to visit a fourth grade. Their teacher Dusica Bojovic said they played and were friendly with their ethnic Albanian coevals, but only out of school, on playgrounds next to their buildings. They told their friends on the other side of the wall that wished to make up. A sixth form in Dardania agreed. They are older and spend less time with their Serbian coevals in playgrounds in front of their apartments. In the presence of the director and two teachers they talked to us, looking at their teachers all the time. "They make fun of us, and we are afraid that if we make fun of them they will call the police"; "Why shouldn't we make up, when children are not to blame"; "We would cooperate with them if we had all our rights". In manifesting its capacity for self-organization, the ethnic Albanian bloc is most convincing in the field of education.

DSK presidency member Mehmet Harizi and Solidarnost president Emin Kabasi informed us of the standard of living among ethnic Albanians. They said that 100,000 endangered families were receiving aid via the Mother Theresa humanitarian organization and the DSK-sponsored Solidarnost. It was underscored that there was no religious, racial and political discrimination against the 60,000 people who received some form of aid every month. Foodstuffs, wood and coal, clothes, medicine and sometimes money were given. Kabasi said that the Center for Social Work (of the Serbian state) ignored ethnic Albanians. They said that they had sent data on 310,000 endangered persons to the International Red Cross, and that there was a problem over the distribution of humanitarian aid. Apart from the official one, there is also an ethnic Albanian Red Cross, and the international humanitarian organizations don't know how to set up contact because of the legal procedures. This is why ethnic Albanians demand that their compatriots return to this organization, in order that there might be a single Red Cross, but for the time being the legal Red Cross is not answering.

We asked to visit some endangered ethnic Albanian families. In the company of Solidarnost activists we visited the family of Murat Residovic, refugees from Foca. Murat, his wife Dzenira and son Irfan fled in summer 1992. They took a bus to Macedonia, were turned back and stopped in Pristina. The ethnic Albanians accepted them "as brothers". While talking, Murat kept looking at the activists, who said: "We don't know anything". Then Murat, with the help of his son said that the ethnic Albanians, i.e. the DSK were helping them. And he glanced at the activists. Together they recalled all that the DSK had bought them. "And fuel", said the activists. Had they tried to get in touch with the legal Red Cross, in order to regulate their refugee status? No, replied Murat and his wife, because of their son. They had registered with Merhamet.

The activists then took us to visit the family of Uksen Cokoli, who has a wife and seven children. We crossed a muddy courtyard and entered the cellar of a shanty house. It contained something like a stove, two foam blocks instead of beds, and everything was filthy. The wife and four children don't speak Serbian. They get all their aid from the DSK. "No, no they don't recognize the Red Cross", translated an activist. We left. The activists asked if we wished to see some more. We thanked them. On the other side of the same house, facing the street, there were two empty rooms, but the windows were broken. We asked why the Cokoli family didn't live there. They answered that Cokoli had tried to set up some business, but hadn't succeeded!?

The activists insisted that we visit Solidarnost offices. When we got there Riza Brada insisted on giving us his views on the DSK program, and said that ethnic Albanians have the strength, and are prepared to suffer even greater sacrifices, and that they don't want freedom just for themselves, but for all... that the DSK is not just a party, but a front. Brada said that Albanian tribes have been turned into Montenegrin ones, and that the Saljic are really Salja, and Cosic are not Cosic but Cosja. Brada drew a dramatic picture of attempts at preventing the distribution of aid, especially medicine, in order that the ethnic Albanian people might be wiped out by disease. He concluded that, because of poverty, the Serbs and ethnic Albanians were much closer to each other, and that they should get rid of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic together.

Analyst with the Pristina Center for Social Work Mila Adrovic denied stories of discrimination. In a recently competed analysis of the Center's work in 1994, data say that 74% of various forms of social aid goes to ethnic Albanians, 15.5% to Serbs, and so on down the scale to Romanies, Montenegrins, Muslims... Secretary with the Secretariat for Social Care in Pristina Cedomir Prlincevic, said that Serbs in Kosovo were increasingly poor. He gives the following reasons for this: an increasingly old population structure because the young are leaving, the banking system which robbed the people (few ethnic Albanians got ripped off). Prlincevic said that for reasons of security (and because of the insecure situation in Kosovo) the Serbs had invested their money in real estate in Serbia and that the liberalization of the economy found them unprepared and with empty pockets. Of the ethnic Albanians Prlincevic says that they are economically stronger and increasingly independent of the state's social aid because of their orientation towards private business and the West, where 400,000 ethnic Albanians live and work.

Living in their separate spheres of poverty or accumulation, the two nations are divided in the spheres of sports and leisure. The Serbs have halls and stadiums for competitions, the ethnic Albanians houses and commons. Ethnic Albanians claim they have founded their Kosovo Sports Federation with 20 sports associations. The Serbs don't believe this.

We asked to attend a sports event. We were offered karate, but asked for a team sport. Finally we saw a training session. The Football Club Kosovo trains on a field, a little outside Pristina. Twenty youths ran out into the playing field when we arrived. They did exercises without a ball, because they only have one. Coach Saban Zeciri, a former Partizan player, talked of the poor conditions, the rooters, ratings, a visit to Bulgaria, talented players, sacrifice, self-denial, problems, confiscating of equipment, attempts at getting ready for the spring season"... We asked if they had asked to play on the stadiums. The answer was no.

Apart from the Pristina boxing team which is dominated by Romanies, the official sports scene is ethnically pure. FC Pristina leads a miserable existence in the second B league and plays before 1,000 - 1,500 viewers. The club's last successful period was when Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan was president and when they nearly got into the First league, when free tickets were distributed and when an attractive lottery drew as many as 15,000 viewers per game. The idyll ended after Raznatovic lost 500,000 DEM, a certain sponsor Miljkovic who pretended to be the owner was beaten up, the best players were sold off and FC Pristina ended up in the Second B league. The basketball clubs Kosovo Polje - Fagar and Pristina DND are in the Second B league. The names of famous players are slowly fading into oblivion.

The building of the Provincial Ministry of the Interior is big and long. It ends with the District Jail, also big and long. Western estimates put the number of policemen at 30,000. Ethnic Albanians believe that there are 50,000, while the authorities don't give any figures, but say that there are as many as are needed, and that they are in a state of alert. The police force is mostly made up of Montenegrins and Herzegovinians (colonized in these parts after WW1) and living in military and police stations. They eat and sleep there, and receive salaries of 300 dinars. This is the reason for the great dissatisfaction among policemen, so that ethnic Albanians bribe them with a box of cigarettes, a canister of petrol, some DEM... Inspections are frequent, and the ethnic Albanians offer their bribes discreetly. The Serbs are spared these levies, but when making deals, they also have to pay up.

There are not many policemen in uniform in the streets. When officials from Belgrade come visiting, then they can be seen on the streets, and they go into action. The object under suspicion is besieged, captured. During the night the police raid houses and search them and the inhabitants.

Crime is at the level of the previous years. Because of changes in its competencies, the District Prosecutor's Office is less inundated with work. The most frequent crimes dealt with by the Municipal Public Prosecutor's Office are: crimes in the economy, the cutting down of wood, tax evasion, unlawful trade, serious and less serious injuries, while the District Prosecutor deals with political crimes. Members of the National Movement for the Republic of Kosovo and the National Movement for the Liberation of Kosovo, 35 of them, have received jail sentences ranging from one to eight years. The sentences have not yet become valid. Proceedings are being conducted against 170 persons of Albanian nationality (arrested in November), members of the so-called Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Kosovo. The number of crimes due to the illegal possession of arms has gone up, especially among Serbs. Pristina Public Prosecutor Miodrag Brkljac said that there were cases when Serbs working for the police and the military sold arms to ethnic Albanians. The percentage of murders and robberies was within the normal level, in both ethnic groups.

Brkljac underscored that the cadre situation in the judiciary was catastrophic. Some courts like the ones in Djakovica, Suva Reka and Orahovac... only had presidents, while all courts and the prosecuting offices lacked judges. The problem lies in the fact that the number of those who wish to leave is greater than the number of those who have an interest in coming. In the judiciary, Serbs are lawyers and in difficult criminal cases often defend ethnic Albanians, while an opposite case has not been recorded. Kosovo is full of illegal housing settlements and houses built without municipality permits. In the Pristina suburb of Vranjevac, 50% of the houses have been built illegally, said Pristina Town-Planning Secretary Dragan Velic. So that some order might be put into the whole situation, Velic urges a new, realistic general zoning plan (the project is underway); putting the land books into order (in the past 40 years the usurpation of state-owned land, and a tardiness in registering ownership changes were characteristic of the situation in Kosovo); defining streets and allotting house numbers for all households, which should be made conditional to the issuing of personal documents.

We were told that none of this can be done routinely, because all problems in Kosovo take on political connotations. And this one has a historical heritage. After WW1 Herzegovinians and Montenegrins colonized the region. The end of WW2 saw the expropriation, nationalization and usurpation of that which had been expropriated and nationalized, then the buying and selling of land between sellers (Serbs) and buyers (ethnic Albanians) for money, or on oath, then a denationalization...

The only land books in order are those left by the Turks in 1912.