Sounding Out

While reading the dismal diplomatic notes circling the world and endlessly reiterating the expressions "deep concern", one might gain the impression that the large-scale Balkan war the politicians have been talking about so much over the past few months is being prepared in Prizren. There are around five hundred reasons for the concern - that is the number of refugees from Krajina quartered in this town. Most of them are staying in the Pedagogical boarding school (around 300) while the rest are lodged in several smaller similar institutions. Even before the refugees arrived in their destinations, Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic Alliance of Kosovo appealed to the world community complaining that the "centuries-old plans of Serbian hegemonists on the re-colonization of Kosovo are about to be achieved". The US Administration reacted to the appeal immediately, by sending Serbia a sharp warning not to upset the national structure in the Province. Albanian President Sali Berisha's Cabinet called for an urgent session of the Security Council and warned that Albania would "do all it can" to prevent the expansion of the Yugoslav war to Kosovo, Macedonia, and elsewhere. Greek authorities then grew concerned for peace in the region and the Russian diplomacy qualified the Albanian stands as unacceptable. To top it all, it was announced that the US member of the Contact Group, Robert Frasure, had included this issue in the "menu" of his talk with Milosevic in Belgrade on Thursday.

Meanwhile, mostly unaware of their importance for peace in the Balkans, but also deeply unaware of their own misery, the Krajina refugees wonder how they ended up in Prizren, a town with a 90-percent Albanian population, in the first place "No-one told us we would be coming here" , says an elderly man from Knin, who is staying in the boarding school together with some members of his large family. "They only said we were going to a reception center and put us on a train, and we found out where we were only when we got here." He does not complain about the accommodations or the staff's behavior, but he would not like to stay there. "It's not safe here", he says, but admits that none of them have had any unpleasantness from the local population. "I don't know, all of them are nice, but we'd rather be among our own. I wish the whole thing would be resolved with the Croats in Vojvodina, but in a human way, without war. Let them go there and we will move into their homes." Others openly admit they fear they will have to pack their things on their tractors in a few years again and flee again. At any rate, none of the fifteen refugees we talked wishes to remain in Kosovo - all they want is to bring their families together again, most of which are still separated in tractor columns, and go somewhere. None of them have any idea what they would do in Prizren anyway.

Ljubisa Stefanovic, deputy Chairman of the Prizren municipality and member of the Refugee Reception Taske Force, claims the local authorities still have no long-term plans for the Krajina refugees. "The top priority is to extend these people basic aid, while what will become of them, mostly depends on them", he said. Stefanovic leaves the impression of a man who is not sure what to do with his new fellow citizens and who seriously fears he might do something which might later cause him trouble. For example, he refused to cite the precise number of refugees in Prizren "in state interests" although the official data were made public the previous day in Pristina.

In the meantime, in the Pristina headquarters of the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova has been receiving foreign journalists rallying in the "potential new hotbed of crisis in the Balkans" and patiently repeating the story of the "re-colonization of Kosovo". Rugova admits that the number of refugees that have so far arrived (a total of 750 by Thursday) is not so big to pose a threat to the Albanians, who account for over a million and a half of the Province's population, but indicates that larger-scale arrivals and the Serbian authorities' serious attempts to permanently settle them in Kosovo "might result in inter-ethnic conflicts".

However, Krajina Serbs are the ones offering the greatest and most concrete resistance to settling in Kosovo. Refugees in two Kosovo-bound trains pulled the emergency brakes Wednesday evening near Kragujevac and the not fated colonists scattered, despite the police's nimble attempts to put them back on the trains.

Figures

According to the data released by the Kosovo Refugee Reception Task Force in Pristina Wednesday evening, 1,536 refugees had arrived in Kosovo by that day, which accounts for around one percent of the number of Krajina refugees who crossed into Serbia. Most of the refugees (527) are accommodated in Prizren, and smaller groups are lodged in Suva Reka, Pec, Urosevac, Gnjilane, Podujevo and Vucitrn. Only 50 refugees have found refuge in Pristina. All of them are still in reception centers, such as schools and boarding schools - with the exception of a small group of people who have been taken in by their relatives. None of them have so far been offered a piece of land, housing or a job.