Highest Rate of Exodus

by Zoran B. Nikolic

The southern tip of Serbia which is mostly populated by Albanians is more peaceful than Kosovo ever way. But unrest can easily be brought to this small territory. These people are angry and desperate because they live in a place that is three times as provincial as anywhere else. This situation cannot be remedied even by the fact that one of the most important European highways passes right through here, because no one cares about them

"You ask about the incidents in Bujanovac and Presevo? The last one occurred on December 21 when a group of special policemen, a group which just arrived to Bujanovci as reinforcements, entered an Albanian pizzeria, forcing out the guests and swearing and threatening the owner for nearly two hours," states Riza Halimi, President of the Presevo Democratic Action Party which gathers together Albanians from the South of Serbia. The truth be told, we hear for the first time about the incident Halime describes. We were brought to the very south of Serbia, a region pressed between the Macedonian, Bulgarian and the newly established Kosovo border, by a set of incidents which occurred in recent weeks.

First, on November 23, a police patrol was attacked near the village of Bresic in the community of Bujanovac, on the highway Bujanovac- Gnjilane. Assistant Commnader Caslav Ivkovic and Policeman Zoran Stojiljkovic received non-life threatening wounds. Slavoljub Mihajlovic, Investigating Judge from the Regional Court of Vranje stated that on the basis of an investigation carried out on the scene of the crime two days after it occurred, it has been ascertained that around thirty bullets were fired from ambush by at least five people. A bunch of "empty casings" was discovered at the location where the attack was carried out. According to statements given by policemen Stanisa Velickovic from Bujanovac and Dragan Aleksic from Vranje who were driving in the car with their wounded colleagues at the time of the attack, two uniformed policemen with KLA emblems motioned with a flashlight for them to stop. When the policemen stopped their vehicle, the attack occurred.

Judge Mihajlovic presumed that the ambush had been laid for a truck carrying several members of the MUP, which came directly after the attacked car.
Then on the night between December 7 and 8, a device made from plastic explosives went of some 150 meters from the police station, damaging neighboring buildings without injuring anyone. Finally, on December 11, at around eleven o'clock in the evening, a bomb was detonated in the school yard of the elementary school "Branko Radicevic" in Bujanovac, also close to the local police station. Windows on the school, on the neighboring "Gumoplastika" store and a sports complex were broken.

IMPORTED TERRORISM: None of these incidents have been solved and the perpetrators remain unknown, or at least the MUP is not issuing any statements regarding this. The attack on the police near Bresica occurred in a five-kilometer wide safety zone that is out of bounds to the Yugoslav Army, according to the agreement signed in Kumanovo. This area is patrolled by the Serbian police.

Riza Halimi informed us about another incident in the safety zone at the beginning of November that also occurred on the territory of the community of Bujanovac. "Shots were fired between a villager and the police in the village of Dobrosin, a village located on the very border with Kosovo. The police withdrew, and on the road which leads to Lucani and heads onto the highway all the villagers were coming back home on vehicles as it was market day. They were battered by the police and one vehicle had its tires deflated. That very day all the women and children from Dobrosin withdrew to the neighboring village in Kosovo. I have no official information, but most likely through the intervention of the KFOR, civilians came back to the village, while everyone who came from Kosovo withdrew," Halimi tells.

Sources close to the local MUP tell us that even though the perpetrators of these bombing attacks are not known, it is small likelihood that the organizers of these misdeeds are residents of Presevo or Bujanovac. "We have no indications that there is a local terrorist organization in this territory," states our source. "Even though for some time already the village of Veliki Trnovac in the community of Bujanovac keeps getting smaller instalments of light infantry weapons, four to five Kalashnikovs in one go, this has now abated. There are around one thousand criminals on the territory of these communities who take part in smuggling operations, as well as in drug trafficking, but without any uniform organization, so that it is most likely that every terrorist act has been imported from Kosovo itself. There are no commanders here," this state official claims, wishing to stay anonymous. Still, even if things were to get difficult, there would hardly be any problems with getting commanders here. A member of the Kosovo protection corps, who used to be a resident of Presevo until the war, told a reporter with the Los Angeles Times on November 30 that since the beginning of the war, 300 youths joined the KLA from Presevo alone. "Perhaps someone was in a mood for bragging," an Albanian from Veliki Trnovac told us. "No one knows how many of them were in the KLA. Rarely will a son admit to his father that he was there."

Even the local Serbs cannot believe that the local Albanians are behind the explosion in the schoolyard. Even though the Serbs are moving out of Bujanovac, they stress that no one ever exerted any pressure on the to leave. "Whoever left, did that only because he managed to get a lot of money for his house," says a Serb from Bujanovac. "Why wouldn't I sell some shack for 500,000 German Marks when I can buy for that money three three-bedroom apartments in the very center of Belgrade?"
INACCESSIBLE KARADAK: The Albanians in Bujanovac and Presevo also have nothing bad to say about their Serb neighbors, even where the local MUP is concerned. Their troubles began only once the war ended, five months ago.

Riza Halimi, also President of the Community of Presevo, with ninety percent Albanian population, claims that from March 24 to June of this year, around 25,000 Albanians from the territory covering the communities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja fled to Macedonia. Around twenty thousand left Presevo, while some five thousand fled Bujanovac. "Few people left Medvedje at that time - mostly officials and political activists who managed to flee to Switzerland through Sandzak." Halimi blames the war psychosis for the exodus. The Kosovo border section of the Presevo community, a sparsely populated area called the Karadak, was the hardest place at that time. According to Halimi, six Albanian civilians were murdered there during the war (all together 11 in all three communities). Halimi claims that there were also cases of looting of Albanian property. Local Albanians had their regularly registered weapons and hunting rifles appropriated, as well as cellular telephones. None of this has yet been returned to their rightful owners. Telephone lines also did not operate during those three months.

The most powerful element of the war psychosis was reflected in satellite TV programs and calls for mobilization which began arriving to Albanian youths in April. "People were being informed through television about what was happening in Kosovo and what could possibly happen to them. At that time there were convoys of refugees fleeing through these parts to Macedonia," states Zecirja Fazljiu, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians, Halimi's weaker but more radical coalition partner in Presevo. "The culmination was reached when youths who did not get calls to serve the army in the past ten years finally did get mobilization calls - at that time, the exodus reached its peak," states Fazljiu. "One youth, a member of the Presidency of my party, got a mobilization call and asked me what he should do. I didn't know what to tell him. We adopted the attitude if army units are staying here, then people should respond to calls to serve. Some people did respond to calls to serve." Those who did not respond to calls to fled across the Macedonian border during the night. A working army unit was formed from the young Albanians who responded to the call to serve, just like in many other places in Serbia, and that unit remained in Presevo. Still, Zedirja Fazljiu persistently claims that the objective was to drive fear into people. Even the Serbs in Presevo say that his description of the "convoys of refugees" is true, but they stress that the Albanians from Presevo never fled in that way, en mass and in convoys.

After the state of war ended, nearly all Albanians from this region returned to their homes. Halimi says that around two thousand people came back from western countries by air, while another 1,230 are still in refugee camps in Macedonia, near Tetovo and Gostivar.

ECONOMIC REASONS: The second wave or refugees occurred when the Yugoslav Army withdrew from Kosovo and its units were concentrated on the very edge of the safety zone, while the police increased its presence in that zone. "In the beginning there was no traffic permitted in the Kardak region, with all of its villages falling in the demilitarized zone. The Gnjilane highway was completely closed off. Even the traffic to Macedonia, near Kosovska Mitrovica was also closed off," Halimi tells. "The use of grazing grounds was halted, as well as the use of private forests, while even agricultural activities were being hindered in Kosovska Mitrovica. Every day a farmer would have to go to the school where the military command was located, in order to get permits to travel for every family member that had to go to work in the field. Even the army unit which was earlier in charge of this territory now demanded permits, so that frequently they did not acknowledge the permits issued by the other command. At that time many people moved from the Karadak, even though they had just arrived back from Macedonia. They went to Gnjilane and Pristina," he says. After the war a similar situation occurred in Medvedja that took place in Karadak and the mountainous regions of the community of Bujanovac. In Medvedja, the majority of Albanian settlements is located in the safety zone. "As things stand now, around 3,500 to 4,000 residents fled from the community of Presevo, while over 10,000 Albanians mover from all three communities, mostly from Medvedja," states Halimi.

The exodus of Albanians from the south of Serbia still continues. Still, they themselves admit that there is a lot less of this now and that people are mostly moving out of economic reasons, and mostly to Kosovo. "People are moving in search of jobs, especially highly-educated individuals," states Halimi. "Since 1991 they have been having problems in having their diplomas acknowledged which they acquired in Pristina, in the parallel educational system," the Mayor of Presevo continues. "The ones who finished school between 1991 and 1999 could not work here. Now they have an opportunity of getting jobs in Kosovo. Those who get jobs also take their families with them, if they found housing."

Riza Halimi says that there are cases where local Albanians illegally occupied Serb houses in Kosovo. "It is possible that there are cases like that, but I know many people who bought houses from Serbs. Some live with relatives, but the majority are in collective housing," Halimi claims.

DIFFERENCE IN PRICE: Halimi complains that his fellow Albanians are now being forced into ghettos in Serbia. "On the one hand there is the border toward Macedonia. In order for anyone to visit relatives in Macedonia, they need to pay half of their monthly salary just for the exit tax. Toward Kosovo there is gain the classic border. True, you don't need a passport and you don't need to pay an exit tax, but there are many police check points and there is a lot of control, which result in considerable problems," states Halimi. Albanians are especially bothered by the police check point near the village of Konculj, on the Bujanovac-Gnjilane highway. The police gets very angry, the Albanians claim, when they find out that anyone is going to Kosovo to see a doctor. Albanians do not have much trust in Serb doctors, while nearly all Albanian doctors from these territories found jobs with the KFOR. Albanians are also worried about the growing number of police check points. "Until recently we traveled through Kosovo through country roads, but now there are police controls even there," states a resident of Bujanovac. "Still there is no reason for us to complain because people are allowed to go to Kosovo," Halimi concedes. Even trade and smuggling are operating." He sees a different sort of economic problem on the horizon. "Since 1992 we had constant growth in different trades, in commerce, for instance. That is why we did not have special problems for financing set to us by the Serbian government. With the taxes gathered from small operations it was possible to continue to work. But in 1999 a turnaround occurred. Tradesmen's and commercial stores are going out of business on a daily basis. Earlier you could hire a craftsman for 25 to 30 German Marks per day. Now craftsmen in Kosovo are being paid 70, 80, even 100 German Marks per day. We had problems getting skilled people for some small repairs in the community. The economic degradation of Serbia continues. There isn't much development in Kosovo, but still some there is some money with the coming of the army and the entire world passing through there, so that a sudden change in prices occurred. Here, one kilogram of sweet peppers was three times less expensive than in Pristina. As soon as trade with Kosovo began, prices here grew rapidly," Halimi complains, stressing that the problem is posed by the severed cultural, sports and information ties with the southern region of Serbia.

Inter-ethnic incidents are still taking place. On October 27, in Veliki Trnovac, a purely Albanina village with some nine thousand residents, at half past one after midnight, a military truck entered the village with fifteen soldiers and two officers. They forced all the guests out of the local tea house in the center of the village, administering blows to each one. They stopped three Mercedes Benz cars which they found in the street. They dragged the drivers out of the cars, and thoroughly beat up two of them. They riddled the cars with bullets and cut their tires with their bayonets. The villagers say that the police informed them that the perpetrators have been arrested and that they were drunk on the evening in question.

The taxi drivers in Bujanovac, exclusively Albanians, had several confrontations with Serbs fleeing from Kosovo, people who stayed at bus stations in Kosovo for several months. It must be said that the Albanians from the south of Serbia do not have much understanding for the position of refugees from Kosovo, even though their leaders state that they will fight for rights that are equal to those enjoyed by Serbs in Kosovo. "Only those who did something bad in Kosovo were forced to flee from there," states an Albanian from Bujanovac.