Keys to Change

At first a loud applause broke out, followed by the jingling of several tens of key chains.  Thus, on Tuesday March 31, around six o’clock in the afternoon, several hundred people gathered in front of the Institute for Albanians Studies in Pristina to share the joy of Ph.D. Sadrija Fatiua, Director of this Institute.  The Institute for Albanians Studies is the first building which the State University in Pristina was obliged to return to its former residents, according to measures signed by representatives of the Serbian Government and Kosovo’s Albanians.  Two hours prior to the time representatives of the Institute had announced for entry into the building, people began to gather in front on the street.  A small ceremony was also expected, with the anticipated guest being Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, from the Vatican organization “St. Eugidio,” who mediated in reaching the agreement.  Instead, around quarter to six, a man from the Serbian Government Security showed up, led Ph.D. Fatiua and an RTS television crew from the crowd down a small path across a field full of plastic bags instead of grass, and took them to the University library where Monsignor Paglia awaited them.  After some time, Ph.D. Fatiua returned, jingling his keys and causing exuberant reactions among those gathered.

Symbolic actions followed one after another from early morning on.  University in Pristina students, who had earlier announced that they would obstruct Albanians from entering the University buildings using “every means available,” in the end only entered the building that morning (some twenty of them), fumigated it, pasted “Treason” signs, both in Serbian and English, on windows around the entrance, after which they exited the building walking backwards.  (Students from the University in Nis, who had announced that they would come to the aid of their colleagues in Pristina, were nowhere to be seen.  Journalists noted only one empty bus with Nis registration plates.)  Then janitors and part-time staff at the University spent the entire morning moving the Biology Section of the Mathematics Faculty which had been using the building up to this point.  Someone found an old communist flag in the building and it was placed in front.  Passers by looked at it with wonder, not understanding what was happening.  It appeared that their eyes searched for a two-headed black eagle on its red surface.  In the end, when journalists realized that there was still some time before Albanians would enter the building, they went to do other jobs; someone exploited the confusion and burned the flag, breaking the flagpole.

DIVVYING AND CONSTRUCTION: Even though the measures agreed upon on March 23 foresee that “St. Eugidio,” in consultation with both sides, will determine by March 31 which three faculty buildings Serbs and Albanians will begin to share by the end of April, Monsignor Paglia did not wish to say a word on this matter to the journalists who waited for him in front of the library.  Neither side officially stated even one word regarding this, and it is only unofficially being learned that Albanians asked for the buildings of the Philosophy, Philology and Mathematics faculties.

The initial handing over of the Institute for Albanian Studies went smoothly (among Serbs of Pristina, at the University and outside, more and more frequently you can hear the opinion that returning this building to Albanians is “completely all right”), but everyone agrees that beginning to share faculty buildings won’t be.  Everyone agrees that there is danger that in changes between classes altercations might occur between Serb and Albanian students, and it is unclear what will happen to offices for faculty administration.  There is not enough of them to physically divide them, while neither side can even imagine that its documentation would be accessible to “those others”.  That is why among Serbs in Pristina there’s an opinion that buildings should have been physically divided.

One for them, one for us... what drastic change in only ten days!  Then everyone was adamant on preventing the entrance of Albanians into university facilities using “every means available”.  “You will see many things around here yet”, stated a Pristina resident to a VREME reporter.  “So don’t be too surprised, or you’ll get a heart attack”.
Solomon’s solution is seen by everyone in the construction of new buildings.  On Wednesday, staff of the British Embassy were observed on a tour of the University looking at which buildings would require the most investment.  Pristina has received visits these days both from Russian and French parliamentary delegations, as well as from the Political Director of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wolfgang Ichinger.

UNTIL THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY: As far as things go with “President Ibrahim Rugova’s executive body for preparing a platform for negotiations with Serbia”, which here is called G-15, things are pretty lukewarm.  Members of this body have only met three times, but never with all members present.  Adem Demaci, Leader of the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo, which is in opposition to Rugova’s Democratic Alliance, is the only one who could afford to refuse outright the offered honor.  “I do not believe Rugova, he does not believe me, what can I possibly advise him on,” explained Demaci.  Bujar Bukosi, President of the Kosovo Government in Exile has a very good reason for not coming.  Yugoslav authorities issued a warrant for his arrest nine years ago.  Some G-15 members have decided these days on traveling abroad.  The reason for all the dithering by G-15 is that none of its members actually know what is the function of their body.  Are they only supposed to state their agreed upon opinion to Rugova, or are members of the negotiations team supposed to be chosen from their ranks, which is more likely?  There are indications that if the latter is the case, Adem Demaci would accept membership in G-15.  In meetings held up to now, there has been no opportunity for clearing up anything.  The first, merely administrative meeting was presided by Rugova, while everyone else kept a low profile.  The second time they gathered to meet with Robert Gelbard, and there was hardly room for clearing up anything on that occasion.  They only managed to agree not to issue statements to the press, which makes the situation even more difficult for some of them.  “Are we supposed to disassemble Zeri?” asks Skeljzen Malici, an analyst for this weekly and member of G-15, half jokingly.  The problem is that beside him, Bljerim Salja, Editor in Chief of Zeri, and Hidajet Hiseni, who also writes for this journal, are also members of G-15.  “Now we must behave like negotiators”, states Malici.  It is supposed that G-15 will have to reach some decisions by the next meeting of the Contact Group, scheduled for April 22.  The next meeting of Rugova’s council is set for April 1.

No one knows, but it is supposed that soon the new membership of the parliament of the “Republic of Kosovo” will meet and will include exclusively DSK members.  It is also supposed that there will be no insistence on forming a new government, because Bujar Bukosi is sending messages from abroad that he is prepared for cooperation with the new old president.  At least until the first opportunity.

There are no new armed conflicts in Kosovo.  During the weekend, only several incidents of firing guns into the air were registered.  In the communities of Srbica and Glogovac the situation is gradually becoming normal.  The few groups of foreign journalists who are still driving around Kosovo in armored vehicles are not meeting up with anything interesting.  Only one group of journalists, which was paying a visit to the base of the Albanian Humanitarian Organization “Mother Teresa”, near Vucitrna, was asked by Albanians to show their visitor’s permits, which are issued by the (Serb) Regional Secretariat for Information.  Still, those familiar with the situation in Kosovo are quite certain that conflicts around Sakovica and along the Yugoslav-Albanian border “have not even begun yet”, and are worried also about Lab, the region around Podujevo.  A new wave of violence can probably be expected in the days prior to the next meeting of the Contact Group, scheduled for April 22.