Is there Serbia in Kosovo

If you planned to travel with your car towards Kosovo these days, do check on a map where the border of what we used to call 'Serbia proper' with the 'Southern Serbian province' is exactly drawn, and do remember well the last village on the Serbian territory before the border. Then, you must stop there and remove the license plate from your car, of course, only if your car is registered in Serbia. Apart from other reasons, the travelers, being afraid of the more radical Albanians who might halt their cars and harass them (if not something more brutal) introduced this practice. All vehicles which can be seen in Kosovo these days are regularly displaying the license plates from their countries of origin (Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo proper, the UK, Croatia...), only the vehicles from Serbia are an exception. However, by removing your car plates you are making a move which is rather respected by the local, mainly Albanian population. You are rejecting one of the symbols of Serbian patriotism and acknowledging the existence of another system within which the Serbs are not among the favourite ones, unless they show readiness to respect such a system with no reserve.

FOUR TEMPORARY GOVERNMENTS: Today almost none of the Serbian state institutions in Kosovo functions. Banks, post-offices, shops and municipal buildings are closed. Among the first to leave Kosovo, together with the army and police, were representatives of the local executive and court authorities, which brought about the creation of a vacuum and which was filled mainly with chaos, in the first several days. The officials often retreated at a high speed, taking care of their personal property in the first place, and leaving the archive and documentation unprotected in the corporation, municipal and court buildings. The KFOR representatives, who took over the official buildings after some time (after they checked whether they were mined or not), claim that the found documentation is either incomplete or destroyed.

At the moment, there are four different governments functioning in Kosovo, two Albanian (Tacqui's and Bukoshi's), one international (Sergio Viero de Mella) and the Temporary Executive Council of the Province with Zoran Andjelkovic as a leader. Out of all four governments, only the last one has no prospect of survival, i.e. is obliged to yield before the civil administration of UN, after the indefinite period of transition (probably within a next few weeks). Zoran Andjelkovic Baki, president of the executive council, sees nothing fatal in it: "Our executive council is called temporary, anyway", Andjelkovic explains for VREME, while preparing to go to his hometown Varvarin for a while. His office, and in recent times, also his residence, is situated in the building of the Provincial Executive Council, which was pretty damaged during the bombing of the post-office building nearby. From a few days ago, the council building is guarded by the British parachutists, which, however, does not hold back the remaining of the Kosovo Serbs from coming there everyday in hope that their state would resolve their problems.

Although Andjelkovic refuses to comment on it, since the arrival of KFOR he remains the only symbol of the Serbian government in Kosovo.

"People come and do not believe that he is there", says one the guys from Andjelkovic's security. "Then I ask them if they want to see him, I take them in, and when I show him to them, they say 'oh, now I feel better'." "The elementary institutions of life in Kosovo are disturbed, the institution of private property, privacy and a right to work", says Andjelkovic on the question about how the state institutions function in Kosovo. "Therefore, if these are not protected, how can we talk about any other institution?" According to Andjelkovic, when the existence of the Temporary Executive Council terminates, the future of Serbian political and social organisation in Kosovo would be based on a national parliament:

"It is necessary to establish a parliament or a similar institution, which would represent the Serbs in communication with other national communities and civic authorities of UN. Such an organisation is, however, predicted in the Rambouillet document. Delegates which would represent the Serbs, would be elected from each village and each town. Their mandate would not be longer than a few months, or until the end of the year, in favour of establishing a more permanent institution when all Serbs come back to Kosovo."

ROLE OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH: Apart from Andjelkovic, the Kosovo Serbs are being represented also by the Serbian Resistance Movement, with Momcilo Trajkovic as its leader, and the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC). The UN and KFOR representatives treat SPC and Trajkovic just as they do the representatives of the official Serbian government. Father Sava Janjic, one of the permanent actors in the negotiations with UN and the Albanian representatives in Kosovo, sees nothing surprising in it: "We are doing exactly what we did before. The difference lies only in the fact that the others are gone, so our opinion is more accepted than before." Yet, many Serbs are hiding in the local caves and monasteries before the influx of revengeful refugees and members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (some real, some simulated), few of them believe that the church can offer them the actual protection.

Zoran Andjelkovic recognises in it the problem of legitimacy:

"Well, how can a priest represent the population? In a democratic society, the nation can be guided only by the legitimately chosen representatives."

In spite of that, representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Resistance Movement are in permanent contact with the civic administration of UN, thanks to whom they already had meetings with the KLA members, led by Hashim Tacqi. The subject of their conversations were, above all, the guarantees that the Serbs could continue living in Kosovo undisturbed and safe. Zoran Andjelkovic was not invited to those meetings, though he thinks that he would not feel uncomfortable in the company of Tacqi: "You know, today it is quite regular that every nation has right to chose its representative, it is its mirror towards the world. It is not important to me who is on the other side, but rather what is being talked about and what is being signed. And even more meaningful is whether someone can take over the responsibility of representing a national community, even without a proper form to satisfy the legitimacy of representing that national community." As far as the national community in question is concerned, it is far from being apt to organise itself. Being used to have their problems resolved by the state, now when that state is not present anymore and cannot offer them protection, they are totally helpless and orientated towards defeatism. Apart from Serbian enclaves such as Gracanica, Kosovo Polje and part of Kosovska Mitrovica, there are no more Serbian shops or factories - neither private, nor state-run. The private ones are closed, and those run by the state are appropriated by the Kosovo Albanians. The Albanians demand that the overall conditions should be returned to the year 1990, when, as they reckon, the Albanian population was systematically dismissed from work. According to their opinion, anyone who acquired a job since that year, and those were mainly the Serbs, should be treated as usurpers and illegally employed, and therefore, they cannot retain their jobs.
Even if the attitude that the Albanians have been permanent victims of the Serbian repressive regime in Kosovo for ten years, is taken into consideration, such a fashion of solving problems would hardly fit into any legal system which UN is attempting to introduce in Kosovo. However, when you put a question to UN legal experts about the matters of private property and right to work, they simply roll their eyes.

EMPTY SHELL: The legal adviser of Sergio Viero de Mello, Hansjerg Strohmeyer, in a conversation for VREME, still regards these matters as premature.

"You must understand that we are still in the phase of formation, that we are still establishing the basic legal institutions such as courts. First of all, we must protect the existence of all people in Kosovo, then we will be able to discuss other questions which are also significant."

Strochmeier has two-years-long experience from Sarajevo, but he thinks that we are dealing with a different problem here.

"When we arrived at Kosovo, we came across something that can be described as an empty shell. The institutions did exist, but nobody was in them, most of the staff was gone."

Making a great slalom between the actual questions concerning the problems of the Serbs in Kosovo, Strohmeyer strictly stuck to the basic principle of UN, which means that the keystone for legal operation should be found in the Yugoslav federal laws, unless they are in contradiction with the international legal practice and human rights. As an example, he quoted article 74, point 2 of the Criminal Law, according to which a judge can, under certain circumstances, forbid further meetings between the accused one and a lawyer.

"So far, we have organised one court council, which is constituted of two Albanians, one Serb and one Muslim. We have two investigative judges, four attorneys, as well as a panel of three judges for taking in the complaints. We are dealing with the court buildings in Pristina and Prizren, but at the moment, we find it much more productive if the judges go to the spot." In this period, he still lacks the appropriate advice for those who are in want of legal protection. At present, they can engage lawyers who have their offices registered in Yugoslavia.

"There are many of that kind in Kosovo, both Serbs and Albanians, who work professionally and do not make distinction between nationalities of their clients. I personally know some of them", claims Strohmeyer. Apropos of the personal documentation, UN plans to rely partly on the surviving archive, and partly on the documents issued to the refugees by UNHCR, and it is also assumed that a number of Albanians managed to keep intact at least some of their personal papers issued by the Serbian authorities. On the question whether he will turn to the Federal Ministry of Justice for help, Strohmeyer replied that they intend to cooperate with anyone who can offer them assistance in order to establish the successful legal system in Kosovo as fast as possible, though trying not to be too direct in his answer.

TELEPHONES IN CHAOS: In the meantime, the conditions in Kosovo are moving from chaos towards a controlled anarchy. The customs taxes, licenses, inspections simply do not exist. The only things that have to be obeyed are limitations insinuated by KFOR, such as curfews in several towns of Kosovo, which begin already at 8:30 in the evening. The operation of municipal services is partially financed by UN, while the majority of institutions still work quite flimsily. The initial euphoria among the Albanians slightly cooled down which is, above all, evident in the monetary organisation. Several days after the army and police departed from Kosovo, the dinar was unofficially invalidated as a means for paying (at one moment the black rate was twenty dinars for one German mark), but the emotions dwindled since the quantity of foreign money which circulated in Kosovo was not enough, not to mention the complications with giving the change back (the only thing that functions in the Province is the retail market). The dinar was, therefore, returned to shops and restaurants through a small door, the rate was stabilised - about thirteen dinars for one mark, and no further limitations are being mentioned, although all prices are conveyed in marks. As far as the products are concerned, those from Greece and Macedonia are dominating, although goods from Serbia are still not much behind. The latter are, most probably, supplies that merchants managed to hide at a safe place before the war, and now they are selling them out. At present, nobody is quite willing to talk about the procurement of new quantities.

The only thing which is under strictly Serbian control, but still functions, even though with a alterable quality of service, is mobile telephony. Of all Serbian companies, KFOR made effort to protect only MOBTEL, exclusively out of practical reasons. Having in mind that UN and KFOR are using over 6000 mobile phones in Pristina, mainly from Macedonia and the United Kingdom, the functioning of this system is of strategic importance. Only the Serbs, and a small number of Albanians still have mobile phones, though the latter probably obtained them thanks to connections of the former, or brought them from Macedonia. Finally, during the last period, the Albanians made all efforts to eliminate all symbols which might remind of the long-lasting Serbian dominion in Kosovo. All public inscriptions in Cyrillic are wiped off (bilingualism used to be an obligation in Kosovo), and only those in Albanian remained. Naturally, the Yugoslav and Serbian flags are removed - there are only two left in the office of Zoran Andjelkovic Baki, together with a picture of the Yugoslav president - while the Albanian flags are now fluttering from most of the local shops and apartments. Most of the institution marks are also removed, so that, with the exception of the Provincial Executive Council building, there are no more symbols of the Serbian public spirit in Kosovo. Nor are there the unofficial ones. The young Albanians were so enthusiastic to replace all Serbian graffiti with their own "UCK", "LKCK", "BIA". While your reporter was walking the streets of Pristina, he was surprised to notice something like this: "JUL IS COOL".

The Independence Days

On Friday, July 2nd, about 6:30 p.m., a group of young Albanians got out of their cars in the centre of Pristina and, on the surprise of all journalists who got settled in the 'Grand' hotel nearby, they started waving their flags shouting praises of Kosovo, NATO, America, Drenica and Adem Jashari. Lacking the authentic news, the journalists came running to the spot to check what is going on, while the little Albanian group was becoming bigger and bigger, so that by 7:30 p.m. all main roads were already blocked. There were thousands of people in the streets waving with flags, or driving in their cars in long lines (with the unbelievable number of people on the roofs of various vehicles, cars, buses, trucks... lots of job for tinsmiths). Those who were not informed were finally told that on that very day, nine years ago, the independence of Kosovo was declared.

The celebration lasted until very late at night, which brought about the growth of violence. At about 9 p.m., the first shootings could be heard and were soon accompanied by automatic weapons. Around midnight, the most serious conflict between the KFOR soldiers and the Kosovo Albanians so far took place. A group of ten guys, of which at least one had the automatic gun, opened fire at the building of the Provincial Executive Council, which offered residence to about fifty Serbs at that moment, mainly the administrators. The British specialists who were in charge of protection of that building estimated that such an attack put their own safety in risk, and since the Albanians refused to respond to their command and throw their guns away, the Britons opened fire and killed two gunmen, leaving another two wounded. The city centre was quickly emptied, though the majority of demonstrators were already leaving. On the next day, the investigation, the results of which were never disclosed, was carried out, while the official explanation was that the specialists reacted in accordance with the circumstances. And in spite of that incident, the Albanians did not show any change in their attitude towards NATO soldiers, whom they, by the way, treat as their own army.

Only two days after, on Sunday July 4th, the inhabitants of Gnjilane had the opportunity to demonstrate their love towards the state which, according to their opinion, is their greater obligee - the United States, on the occasion of the US Independence Day. Most of the shops exhibited messages in English, such as "Happy Independence Day" with provisional American flags, and the town dawned with the graffiti of NATO countries symbols, as well as those of the American marine units accommodated in this town. The marines themselves endeavoured to remain in discretion as much as they could. "This is just another working day", they replied routinely to the journalists, stressing that the only difference was that they were having barbecue in their camps. The menu was genuinely American, grilled ribs and chicken with the accompanying sauces, Pepsi-cola, cocoa and non-alcoholic bear. All supplies came directly for America, including the coal, only the grapes were from Chile.

Of all Serbian companies, KFOR made effort to protect only MOBTEL, exclusively out of practical reasons. Having in mind that UN and KFOR are using over 6000 mobile phones in Pristina, mainly from Macedonia and the United Kingdom, the functioning of this system is of strategic importance.