At a meeting held in Sofia on December 10, 11 and 12, a delegation of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, together with representatives of the US Institute for Peace adopted a Declaration about its further political activities. Historian Dusan Batakovic participated at the Sofia conference as an advisor of the Serb side. He explains in an interview with Danas:
The meeting in Sofia was supposed to be analogous to the one held by Albanians in the United States, when they adopted their declaration about Kosovo with their demands for the American and international administration. In contains many elements unacceptable to the Serbs, including the demand for self-determination and the definition of Kosovo as a single national unit. Because of that the Declaration from Sofia attempts to inform the international community about the current situation in the province. The international authorities are expected to take full control of the province instead of ignoring the fact that KLA rules Kosovo in the way which borders with the worst lawlessness from the Ottoman era. On the other hand, the survival of Serbs in Kosovo has been brought into question.
Security above all. The question of security is closely related to the question of rule and self-rule, and there are also humanitarian issues as well as the refugee problem. Our attitude is that while the problem of the security and the return of refugees to a safe environment is not resolved, it makes no sense to conduct a census, and even less to organize any kind of an election. Every decision imposed on Serbs will represent a de facto legalization of ethnic cleansing. We emphasized that Kosovo should remain a part of FR Yugoslavia, which should not only be a technical but also an actual fact, visible in the field. We demanded that those parts of the province where Serbs are in majority be given self-rule in a fully decentralized political system. There is no sense in replacing the evil centralization of Milosevic's kind with the same type of centralized rule, led this time by Hashim Thaqi or another one of Albanian extremists.
We said that we are not against ethnic Albanians, but against Albanian nationalism. We condemned every type of ethnically based violence. Of course, in our demands and visions of the future of Kosovo we left space for possible future talks with Albanians.
Is that related to the most recent initiative of Kosovo Serbs to hold talks with Ibrahim Rugova?
We expressed readiness to talk with moderate Albanian representatives, since we are convinced that we should not and must not talk to extremist nationalists and terrorists. Thaqi has so far on numerous occasions done the opposite of what he had promised. We do not see any sense in talking to him although everyone is suggesting that he has become an unavoidable partner, since his men are in power in Kosovo. Because of that we ask why UNMiK and KFOR are not in power, since that is supposed to be their mandate. We clearly told the Americans that we cannot be hostages of their policy which, out of fear of loosing 10 American soldiers in a clash with Albanians, does not dare impose order in Kosovo, and is prepared to sacrifice lives of 100,000 Serbs for that. In Kosovo I've seen scenes of violence that are worse than anything seen in horror movies. What is today happening to the Kosovo Gypsies is worse than anything from the Third Reich.
But the worst of all is the total avoidance of the representatives of the international authorities. All of them have seen that the situation in the field has nothing to do with the media propaganda from the last few years for which both Milosevic and Kosovo Albanians share credits.
What are the ultimate goals of your proposals?
With this declaration we wanted to assist the International Community to establish order in Kosovo based on the principles it has declared in the past. Its politicians daily invoke these principles when talking about Kosovo. By pointing out that the problem of security cannot be resolved unless it is related to the problem of government, we claim that Serbs need local self-government. Moreover, not self-government defined in the Anglo-Saxon manner, including anything and nothing. We demand clearly defined judicial, police, and administrative self-rule, in order to preserve our language, heritage, sacred sites and avoid living in ghettos similar to the Warsaw ghetto in WWII. On the other hand, Serbs in Kosovo are now organized in a more efficient manner. They have established the Serb National Council which includes representatives of all enclaves and is presided by his excellence bishop Artemije, who has been leading consistent policy for several years now and has condemned any ethnically motivated violence.
There is a shared conviction to stay in Kosovo and fight to the end. That demonstrates that the logic that armies pass but as long as the people stay nothing is lost has rekindled among our people. I am impressed by the fact that the Serb participants of the meeting in Sofia mostly have three children, some of them even four. We have forgotten that Kosovo Serbs are the only Serbs whose birth rate exceeds their death rate. They were the only source of our vitality.
No, apart from verbal assurances. On behalf of Kosovo Serbs I offered a revised version of the cantonization proposal in August 1999 and that proposal was rejected. Now, everyone is aware that a spontaneous cantonization has been implemented in the field. Serbs from Prizren have moved to Strpce, which together with Brezovica makes up a large canton. Those Serbs from Pristina who did not escape to Serbia moved to Gracanica, Laplje Selo, Caglavica. Serbs from Gnjilane are moving to Vitina and Kamenica... to regions with Serb majority. North from Mitrovica, there is a Serb canton. Now, it only remains to codify the existing situation and help Serbs to survive. What deeply disappoints and worries me is that after the rejection of the cantonization proposal there have been no other proposals. I do not claim that my proposal is the best, only because it is mine, but that it is necessary because it is the minimum of the minimum.
If you reject a plan that between life and death chooses life and fail to offer anything to replace it - what does that mean? The lack of political will to protect Serbs is one of the most ignominious consequences of everything that has been happening in the last ten years. Now we are at the very end of the spiral of ethnic fragmentation and hatred. While in Bosnia violence ended after the arrival of the International Forces, in Kosovo the worst wave of ethnic cleansing started with the arrival of the International Forces. That is a paradox.
Would the negotiating position of Kosovo Serbs be "stronger" if they enjoyed support of a state?
That is an essential condition. Because of that we stated that every solution of the status of Kosovo while Milosevic is in power would be against the Serb interest. Alpha and omega of every "calming of the situation" in this region is the change of the regime in Serbia. While Milosevic is in power, everything done in Kosovo can be justified as done in order to reduce his influence in the province, whereby it automatically gains legitimacy in the international circles. Since we cannot get anything from Milosevic we are talking with those who are de facto in power in the province. That is the sad destiny of Kosovo Serbs. Our people must learn one thing: the fact that someone is the president of a state does not mean that he is prepared to defend its interests. Quite frequently in history, rulers of various states did everything in their power to destroy and weaken those states, which is also the case in our country.
There is a habit in our country to believe that the state is something above politics, as it were some sort of a perpetual mover that rejuvenates itself, while politics is something bad and base. We must learn that a state is based on stable institutions which can be built only by a democratic political regime.
What is the role of the Serbian opposition in all of that?
In the Serb National Council there are representatives of the Democratic Party of Serbia, the Serb Renewal Movement, the Democratic Party and supporters of other smaller opposition parties. Kosovo Serbs want as close as possible links with Serbia proper, but they do not want to have close links with the Milosevic regime. If we make a clear distinction than perhaps we would be able to find some acceptable means of coexistence, acceptable for the rest of the world as well. The biggest problem in Kosovo is the problem of ethnic minorities, but it is first necessary to clarify the confusion regarding the terminology in that area. Four wars were waged in the Balkans because of the terms minority and majority. If you are a minority that means that you live in somebody else's state which is not yours in the ethnic sense. In the American society minority groups are not ethnic groups but the term has a completely different meaning. On the other hand, in this region the term minority does not signify a numerical qualifier but a descriptor for a status within a society. Because of that we insisted on the term ethnic community so that no one ends up a minority in Kosovo.
In Kosovo that is very important, because otherwise if [the ethnic Albanians are successful] in reducing the number of Serbs below five percent then Serbs will get minority rights, such as the right to have their folk dancing societies and attend school in Serb language once a week, as in Sweden for example. That means that you live in somebody else's state. Also, I have doubts that the Albanian society in Kosovo, which is 90 percent rural, is capable of developing better and efficient democratic institutions that would adequately protect numerically inferior ethnic communities. If the international community has so far in the Balkans in every instance regarding the Serb question applied specific solutions, in violation of accepted international laws and norms, why shouldn't it do the same in Kosovo where for the first time it is in the position to protect Serbs? Most of Kosovo Serbs haven't participated in any manner in the violence against Albanians.
Is this an example, as some claim, of double standards used by the West, which earlier this year bombed FRY because of the humanitarian catastrophe of Kosovo Albanians?
The NATO bombardment and the action initiated by the USA in full cooperation with Europe was a complete fiasco. All of them are now feeling very bad because of that but do not intend to abandon their concept. An American participant of the meeting in Sofia told me, I quote: "The International Community will insist on the multiethnic concept of Kosovo, on common institutions regardless of ethnicity of their members, even if that means that all Serbs leave the province". That is a nonsense, which points at a contradiction in terms. In America all citizens accept a given framework, that all of them are Americans regardless of their ethnic origin and separate identities, while in Kosovo the idea of a single Kosovo identity only suits Kosovo Albanians. That provides them with an acceptable tool for the forced assimilation of non-Albanians and that is why that concept has so skillfully been imposed on the International Community - the people of Kosovo shall make its own decisions. Which people of Kosovo?
The basic problem in the Kosovo crisis is the concept of a single Kosovo nation that has been erroneously interpreted exactly by the West. They have copied the "melting-pot" principle from the United States or France for example, where the term nationality signifies citizenship, while in this region it signifies ethnicity. On several occasions we explained to Kouchner that there is no Kosovo nation, that Kosovars are ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and that when he says "Kosovar Serbs" that literally means Albanian Serbs. Serbs in Kosovo refer to themselves as Kosovci [pronounced Kosovtsy]. The term "Kosovo nation", although it is skillfully and efficiently used by the Albanians in their propaganda, does not exist. We demand that instead the term peoples of Kosovo be used, since it refers to peoples who belong to different cultures, speak different languages, have different traditions, have opposing interpretations of history and visions of the future. In Kosovo, unlike in Bosnia-Hercegovina, there are no mixed marriages.
The differences are absolute and total. Coexistence in Kosovo always existed under threat of force and one side has always felt discriminated or was truly discriminated in one manner of another. On the other hand the conflict in Kosovo has been structured as a conflict for the full and undivided domination of one side over a certain territory and in that sense the Albanian nationalism has turned out to be successful. That is a diaspora type of nationalism, which legitimizes its claim for a certain territory by establishing an ethnic majority in it over time. In the Balkans many ethnic groups share the proverb: "The mountain belongs to those who own the sheep". The application of that model in Kosovo has given fantastic results.
Kragujevac - In the corner, next to a double metal door, and right next to a TV set (a cartoon is on) and a space heater which is blowing warm air, a crowd of children, 2-3 to 5-6 years old is crouching, jostling, and from time to time, jumping. They are kept company by several adult men, dressed as if they were about to go skiing. Women are busily doing something a few steps away, while the cold is barging in from everywhere: through half closed doors and large glass panes. The snow on the tin roof is melting under the cold December sun and the water is leaking through...
This was the scene a few days ago in the collective center (a store owned by the supermarket chain PKB) in the Kragujevac settlement Bresnica. There, a group of 200 refugees from Metohija has been trying to somehow survive for almost six months. Among them there are 95 children of preschool and primary school age. During the last few days this group of persons expelled from Metohija has been freezing since, besides space heaters which are more frequently broken than working, they have no other source of heat.
He worries that the refugees from Metohija could freeze to death in Bresnica or, in the best possible case, fall ill en masse until their problems with heating and (un)sanitary and inhuman living conditions in PKB's supermarket are sorted out. He accuses the state and its government for the situation shared by him and his fellow two hundred refugees. He testifies that the Serbian police pillaged everything while it was in Metohija. "Full trucks of goods and valuables were shipped by policemen from Djakovica and Pec to Montenegro. We remained as poor as we were before the war," claims Ilic.
"We must bear our fate, and it is a horrible fate. We are day and night on this concrete floor, space heaters are getting broken and fuses burning all the time. The children have it the worst. We adults can somehow pull through," adds Mila Petkovic (45), also from Djakovica. She left in Djakovica a three-storied house and memories of good life and good relations with Albanians. "Our first neighbor, an Albanian, saw us off with tears in his eyes," she says and claims that "all of this happened because of politicians".
In spite of all of that, Mila Petkovic would like to return to Djakovica, since she does not consider her current conditions worth living. "I would return with my family, if only someone could guarantee peace. We can have one meal a day, but let it be peace... We cannot take this anymore," she says and adds with resignation that the fate of expelled individuals will be from now on "decided by others".
A young man, who introduces himself as Zoran, would also return to his hometown of Suva Reka. He is in exile with two small children and a wife. Zoran blames the president of this country for his fate and the fate of other refugees from Metohija. He believes that he (the president of this state) "should not end up in the Hague, but should be crucified in the center of Belgrade".
Todor Djordjevic (57), another inhabitant of Suva Reka, does not talk about return but he is also having a horrible time in the collective center in Bresnica. Especially at night when the temperature drops below zero, when children cry and cough, and wet cold barges in from all sides...