Wine and Flack Jackets

by Vladan Alimpijevic

Danas, Beograd, FR Yugoslavia, July 29 1998

I visited Orahovac for the first time almost by chance. While waiting for a bus to Prizren, I walked between Sarena and Papaz Carsija and examined domestic knives with double blade, tin sheath and colorful handles. One could hear singing of Serbian Orthodox monks coming from the seminary... It was a lazy, hot day at the end of summer and only a few passers by could be seen in the streets of Orahovac. I was visiting a friend from the Youth Work Camp "Highway Brotherhood and Unity". He taught Latin in a high school. It was the time of brotherhood and unity. We drank good local red wine and discussed politics. "Kosovo should be a republic," Sabahudin was adamant. I didn't contradict him. He told me about Albania as well. He participated in a conference there: "In Albania people do not lock houses, there are no thieves". We reminisced about girls from the Sabac brigade...

The next day was a market day. I felt a bit ill at ease because people spoke Serbian because of me. I learned my first sentences in Albanian. Dust, buffaloes, red peppers in sacks, early grapes, and kebab. I spied curiously over one of the walls into a yard without a single blade of grass and Sabahudin warned me that that was not polite.

Later, I found out from the papers that my friend had been arrested. He was a member of a secret Maoist organization. That seemed impossible, because although he drank wine, he believed in God... Later, I traveled to Orahovac on business. I remember another market day. Summer and four policemen in flack jackets and long barrel guns. They were pleasantly surprised to see a car with Belgrade number plates. I saw Sabahudin only one more time, after jail, in Belgrade. He had changed and was serious; nevertheless, towards me, he was still very polite and attentive. Recently I've been reading the news from this town with fear. I know that Sabahudin is on the other side. I know that [the battle for Orahovac] couldn't have gone without him. The way things are now, either he or I can go back to Orahovac. The wine has been spilled, and the girls from Sabac have found husbands a long time ago.

Translated on 8/10/98