Only The Police Functions

The Serb Resistance Movement (formed by Kosovo Serbs to voice discontent) has been restored. It was one of the most topical issues in the second half of the 1980s when Kosovo was the greatest symbol of Yugoslav and Serb troubles.

The Movement announced its second coming in an open Letter to the Serb Public, a petition (43,000 signatures) warning the public and FRY, Serbia and Montenegro institutions that the Kosovo Serbs are losing patience waiting for a political solution for the province. They never got a reply from the authorities but their letter and a document titled "Basic Goals of the Serb Resistance Movement" won the support of the Radicals (SRS), Democratic Party (DS) and Serbian Democratic Party (DSS), the nationalist intelligentsia and political leaders in Pale and Knin. Contacts along those lines resulted in the idea on a meeting of over 100 people devoted to Serb national interests in the Gracanica monastery on May 20.

Momcilo Trajkovic is one of the organizers of the meeting and a Movement member.

VREME: What has changed in the position of Kosovo Serbs since 1987?

TRAJKOVIC: "In the short term, a lot - positively. The Serbs are safer than they were thanks to the police who are the only segment of the state of law that functions. And I don't know whether to say fortunately or unfortunately. The current authorities have gone from the slogan Kosovo is Serb to a situation where they can't even defend the stand that Kosovo will at least belong to Serbia.

The regime has suppressed authentic political forces, eliminated them. Look at who the key figures in Kosovo are now; all "Great Serbs", in a situation when they are not needed, are counter-productive. They have authority and are literally selling it to the Albanians for money. They're corrupt, bribable, they build houses in Serbia and accuse us in the Movement of treason.

The Serbs here are in charge of devastated state companies, they get miserable salaries and the Albanians are developing capital that comes from abroad. The Serbs are on the road to economic ruin. Instead of strengthening the Serb population economically so they can survive the long, exhausting fight against serious Albanian separatism, the regime has pushed them into poverty and made them unable to compete economically with the Albanians. At the same time, the economy in Central Serbia and Vojvodina is directly linked to the Albanian economic elite. If a Kosovo Serb trades with an Albanian he risks being accused of treason by local regime representatives while the Albanians are buying up entire annual production programs in Serbia and financing their separatist policies. In the end, how can Serbs trade when their salaries are under 200 dinars."

VREME: Does that mean Serb national policy in Kosovo should be a policy towards the Albanians?

TRAJKOVIC: "I'll be even more clear: the conflict here is between two different political philosophies and philosophies of life: the Albanians have territory and only territory and the Serbs power and only power. In that conflict, if it continues like this, the Serb doctrine will be defeated. If the Serbs lose alongside Albanian political abstinence what will happen when they return to the Serbian political scene."

VREME: What about the Albanian problem?

TRAJKOVIC: "I have to say that the Serb people have no interest in seeing the Albanians as second rate citizens but they have to understand the position of the Serb people and at this stage they have to accept the fact that this is a Serb state, which would ease the tensions among Serbs caused by the feeling that their interests are endangered."

VREME: But that will cause anxiety among Albanians.

TRAJKOVIC: "No. The protection of Serb interests means protection of the integrity of the state but includes the protection of the rights of everyone who lives in Serbia and is not a Serb since the integrity of the state cannot be protected if there are people whose rights are endangered."

VREME: How would you solve that problem?

TRAJKOVIC: "I advocate Albanian participation in Serbia's parliamentary life and the abolishment of autonomy. At local level, where national minorities exist, the problem of inter-nationality relations would be solved through bi-cameral assemblies where one chamber would be national and parity based and where all decisions important to national relations would be reached by consensus. We know we have to start a dialogue with the Albanians, and not just with them but we feel that we first have to start a dialogue among Serbs and agree on what we actually want."