Myth, Poverty and Businessmen

Trucks carrying food from Serbia were stopped this weekend on the border with Kosovo. Eyewitnesses say the police instructed the drivers to go back to where they came from. Early news on economic sanctions came from Kosovo.

The scenes were so reminiscent of what happened on Slovenian borders in 1989 and the Montenegrin border last year. The borders, however, have moved perilously close to the capital and Serbia has gone one better than last time: it imposed sanctions on its own goods bound for destinations on its own territory. It is hard to determine the reason for this completely senseless act, bar showing muscle and arrogance to the rebellious Kosovo and its population. It is uncertain whether the embargo is intended to punish Kosovo'' inhabitants or a result of unsettled accounts between the Serb and the ethnic Albanian trade partners, who are reportedly doing business better than ever in spite of what's going on in Serbia's southern province.

Judging by the Serbian regime's behavior in similar circumstances in the past, the Belgrade authorities never gave a toss about the economy. This attitude is best reflected by the situation in Kosovo, whose economy will become history just like Serb tales about sacred land. Torn between reliquary, history, tradition, monasteries and political abuse, Kosovo today is nothing but a dead economic giant that promised a "bright future". The optimism was always based on money invested in the province rather than its natural resources or the output even in the best of times.

The collapse of Kosovo's economy, which never was all that bright, has been going on for at least a decade. Huge investments went down the drain and all statistics show that Kosovo's economy is virtually non-existent. About 70 percent of Kosovo's enterprises are working with 30 percent capacity, while 80 percent of the equipment is outdated. Much of it was destroyed and looted in the ever-present turmoil, by Serbs and ethnic Albanians alike. Experts of the Economic Institute and the Development Branch drew up an economic reconstruction program for Kosovo 18 months ago. The Serbian government actually wanted to join in at that particular time, but that too was short-lived as the current echelon came to power.

Aleksanar Vlahovic of the Economic Institute says Kosovo's shattered industry is a genuine effect of running the economy with political decrees. "The former Yugoslav republics invested 17 billion dollars in Kosovo from 1955 to 1985. Most investments went down the drain. Economists and enterprisers were getting kickbacks bigger than investments and the lion's share of the money was used to cover consumption costs. A huge amount of money was spent to build power plants completely unsuitable for Kosovo's requirements. "We now have some 400,000 square meters of empty and badly equipped industrial plants. A lot of technological hardware bought ten years ago has never been unpacked", Vlahovic said.

Kosovo is full of gigantic industrial plants and other facilities that have never been used. In Suva reka, there is a massive plant that was supposed to produce tires. It is a complex with an area of 77,000 square meters covered with an expensive aluminum roof and it has never been used. Kosovo is the bet example of distributing financial means without applying the most basic economic laws, or "unpaid welfare" if you like.

The collapse of the former Yugoslavia spelt the end of investments in Kosovo. There was no more money to shut all the holes that appeared as a result of unwise decisions. The province stopped being a symbol of economic growth reflected by shining industrial plants rather than a progressive economy. The final blow to Kosovo's shattered economy was dealt when Slobodan Milosevic came to power and said that Serbia had more important business than the economy in its southern province. Kosovo got another meaning for he Serbian cause. It stopped being Serbia's economic pride and became a historic relic. Somehow, statistics show that even in the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo's economy had far more in common with Slovenia and Croatia than mother Serbia.

The experts who drew up the economic reconstruction program made it clear to the Serbian government that only eight firms in Kosovo have a future. They too need investments to recover and start competing on the market, but the Serbian government has so far kept a low profile on this one.

On the other hand, the Serbian authorities have no data on real life in Kosovo and the genuine state of its economy. According to research conducted by the Ekonomska politika magazine, only 150,000 of Kosovo's 375,000 workers are entitled to social insurance and pension, meaning that over 200,000 people work on the black market. Kosovo's inhabitants live separate lives, depending on their nationality. They have to pay for two states in one: Serbia and a parallel ethnic Albanian state, the so-called republic of Kosovo. This unrecognized state, however, has its own education system, health organization, political power and an exile government. Well-informed observers say that Kosovo's Serbs have bankrupt state-owned companies whose products appear only on Serbian television while the ethnic Albanians have all the genuine propellers of economic life - the private sector and trade.

The emerging of an ethnic Albanian business lobby is explained by an assumption that Milosevic actually governs Kosovo through this lobby. Momcilo Trajkovic, the president of the Serbian Renewal Movement and a businessman himself, says that ethnic Albanian businessmen are powerful individuals who work for "the Serbian regime, themselves and the Albanian separatists".

They are able to buy strategic products through Serbia and Vojvodina. They always have flour, oil, sugar, cereals and other food products. The final price paid by Kosovo's inhabitants for the most basic food products includes all production costs plus bribe and tax to the Republic of Serbia and Rugova's shadow government", Trajkovic said.
Serb producers are paid in hard currency coming from foreign-based ethnic Albanians. Rumors have it that most of the money comes from drugs and arms smuggling. Only profitable business knows no boundaries in the divided and blood stained Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians own most gas stations in the province, and one needs a whole stack of permits from the Serbian authorities to open a gas station anywhere. There are joint venture companies in Kosovo too. They operate under a Serbian name with ethnic Albanian capital. Informed sources say Serbs who don't live in Kosovo join this game.

There are cases of ethnic Albanian firms operate with Serb capital. Ranking Serb officials in Kosovo are part of the game too, for they have a reputation of successful businessmen. As the people say in Kosovo, they trade national interests for cash money and invest part of their capital to move to Serbia, while telling their compatriots that they should all remain on Serbia's sacred  land. The Kosovo turmoil is obviously dominated by political problems and interests. The economy is a privilege of the few Serbs and ethnic Albanians able to make a fortune for themselves from the all-round misery.

What can Serbia possibly get from Kosovo, except the above-mentioned? An economy kicked thirty years into the past by a man who has been in power for ten years and promised the Kosovo Serbs peace and stability, ignoring the majority ethnic Albanians. Stories on the Kosovo's vast natural resources were written for years and years, but both sides to the conflict used the wealth lying beneath the surface to discredit each other. The Serbian regime said the ethnic Albanians sold metals and ores to finance their struggle for independence whereas the ethnic Albanians said half of Belgrade was built form Trepca's capacities.

Experts say that talking about Kosovo's vast resources is a complete waste of time with the political situation as it is. Srboljub Antic, a power supply expert of the Economic Institute, says Kosovo's coal reserves are important for the Yugoslav economy. He says that there is about ten million tons of lignite in the Kosovo basin. "The quality of the coal is poor and it won't last long transport routes. It could be goo for the power industry, but the present exploitation rate is one percent in Kosovo and zero in Metohija. Therefore, there is no point talking about these resources unless Yugoslavia's power industry gets based on Kosovo's resources. With the conflict between two nationalist sides raging on, suggestions of this kind bear no relevance whatsoever", Antic said.

Apart from cobalt, bauxite as well as gold and silver as the side-products, Kosovo has 18 million tons of nickel. The Glogovac plant can keep running for another 18 years with this, while Trepca is safe for another 30 years with lead and zinc reserves estimated at 46 million tons. However, the amount of Kosovo's resources is not an issue, for even experts say they don't know how much of it there is because they hardly ever had the chance to do any kind of research.

Rich beneath and at war above the surface, Kosovo today is plagued by war, poverty and the never ending argument between its Serbs and ethnic Albanians on who owns what. The Serbs keep talking about their past, monasteries and sacred values, while the ethnic Albanians can think of nothing else except an independent republic of Kosovo. The vast majority of the people are poor in the "wealthy province". Economy and progress, the basic postulates of normal life, don't seem to be of much interest at the moment. No one even bothers to mention ores, power plants and resources. Kosovo's most valuable asset of our time is weaponry, so there is no point asking whether Serbia can survive without Kosovo. Serbia's regime says it could survive without the whole world, but it is unlikely that it will survive if it loses Kosovo. The economy doesn't matter, for mythic tales sell like hot cakes.