Flight of the Gypsies[1]

Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, August 9 1999

According to information available to me, it can hardly be said there are any Gypsies living in Kosovo, except in a camp at Kosovo Polje; they are mostly older people who were unable to flee. Nearly all the houses owned by Gypsies have been burned. Albanians started retribution because some Gypsies were drafted into the Yugoslav Army. Because of the fact that a few Gypsies were drafted, between five and ten thousand Gypsies were ousted from Kosovo. Kosovo is being discussed as if it were either Serbian or Albanian property. What belongs to my father in Prizren is nobody else's, regardless of whether Serbs or Albanians rule. Croatia has not taken in a single Gypsy refugee from Kosovo, except perhaps those who came to join their families. There are only Albanians in the refugee camp near Djakovo; there are no Gypsies there.

FERAL: You have announced you will be having talks with Kosovo Albanian leader Hashim Thaci in order to help solve the problem of the Gypsy exodus from Kosovo. What do you hope to achieve with that meeting?

Kasum Cana: I would like to reach an agreement regarding the safe return of Gypsies to Kosovo. I will ask Hashim Thaci, if he is indeed the leader of Albanians, to sign that agreement; the agreement should also be signed by KFOR representatives, who ought to guarantee the safety of Gypsies in Kosovo. If that doesn't take place, Gypsies will not be coming back to Kosovo, because they wouldn't feel safe. My father was beaten up in Prizren and is today in Switzerland; he is still afraid and says he doesn't wish to go back for at least five years.

According to information you have, how many Gypsies are left in Kosovo today, after the end of NATO attacks and the arrival of KFOR?

According to information available to me, it can hardly be said there are any Gypsies still living in Kosovo, except in a camp at Kosovo Polje; they are mostly older people who were unable to flee. We do not have exact figures on the Gypsy exodus from Kosovo. We never even knew the exact number of Gypsies living there, because for their own security they have been declaring themselves as Albanians, Turks, Serbs.

ALBANIAN REVENGE

Nearly all the houses have been burned. Albanians started retribution because some Gypsies were drafted into the Yugoslav Army. Because of the fact that a few Gypsies were drafted, between five and ten thousand Gypsies were ousted from Kosovo. The Albanians who expel Gypsies from towns, are not those who lived with us, but those who do not know us at all. Some Albanians in Croatia tell me that only Gypsies who bloodied their hands have been expelled from Kosovo. That means that five or ten thousand Gypsies have blood on their hands! I regret that Gypsy assets, earned with hard work, are being destroyed: these were not neighborhoods of small houses or tent dwellings, these were valuable multistory buildings. In Prizren, the district of Dusanova has been burned down, only Terzi-mahala remains. Meanwhile, media show pictures of laughing British KFOR soldiers with burning Gypsy houses in the background. KFOR does its job very badly.

It seems that Kosovo Gypsy leaders have not appeared in public and attempted to avert the exodus by negotiations?

Kosovo Gypsy leaders have little public presence because they are afraid. Besides, most fled Kosovo at the beginning of the war. Currently, the only Gypsy group with organized presence in Kosovo are Egyptian Gypsies who speak Albanian. I regret that Rajko Djuric [well known Gypsy activist and writer from Serbia], who is in Berlin, and Dragoljub Ackovic, author of a book about Gypsy martyrdom in the Jasenovac concentration camp during WWII, who is now in Belgrade, are not more active. Also, I expected that Luan Koka and Bajram Haliti would fight more for Gypsies in Kosovo.

Have international mediators mentioned the Gypsy departure at all?

No, nobody ever mentions Gypsies. For example, there is no talk at all about the return of Gypsies to Bosnia-Herzegovina. I used to really respect Madeleine Albright, but now I am very angry at her, because she demands return to Kosovo only for Serbs, without mentioning Gypsies or other ethnic groups, like Turks who lived in Kosovo. People discuss Kosovo as if it were either Serbian or Albanian property. What belongs to my father in Prizren is nobody else's property, regardless of whether Serbs or Albanians rule.

Which countries are main destinations for Gypsies fleeing Kosovo? Has anybody come to Croatia?

When NATO attacks begun, I asked the Police to allow some Gypsies who fled from Kosovo to Serbia, to Novi Sad or Kragujevac, to go to Croatia. They answered that to enter Croatia one must have all the necessary papers and visas. Croatia has not taken in a single Gypsy refugee from Kosovo, except perhaps those who came to join their families. There are only Albanians in the refugee camp near Djakovo; there are no Gypsies there. Kosovo Gypsies like to go to Italy, Switzerland, Canada. Lately, they have stopped going to Germany because some Albanians there have pictures of Gypsies mobilized into the Yugoslav Army, and are looking for them.

SAKIC'S EMBLEM

European Roman Rights, an organization with headquarters in Budapest, asked me to attend the trial and try to find surviving Gypsy inmates of Jasenovac and place them under American Embassy protection. Many applauded my efforts in connection with the trial of Dinko Sakic, and they were not Gypsies or Serbs, but youth, students who thought that he must be tried. I attended a part of the trial, but gave up after the threats. Just appearing at the trial caused fear in some Gypsies. For example, at a meeting with two of senior Gypsy leaders in Zagreb, one complained that his son had problems: people would not buy his firewood "because Gypsies are meddling in Dinko Sakic's trial". Also, I gave up on attending the trial, because I could not stand, for example, Dinko Sakic turning toward me and the Jewish community representative and pointing at the Ustashe emblem on his folder.

Have you found any Gypsies, former inmates of Jasenovac?

It seems that all the surviving Gypsy inmates from Jasenovac are dead by now. According to our data, there were between three and five Gypsy witnesses. Lawyer Cedo Prodanovic informed me that one surviving inmate lives in Vinkovci. I could not find him. I was told that he had died long time ago. I tried to find other witnesses in Rijeka. Maybe they are really dead, maybe they are afraid to appear and testify. But Gypsies need no proof that they perished in Jasenovac, that is well known.

The suffering of Gypsies is mentioned only few times in the evidence given the trial?

Every witness speaks of suffering of his group in Jasenovac (e.g. communists, Jews) and claims that they suffered the most. Nobody mentions that not only Jews, but also Gypsies had to dig graves; they could not spread the truth about what they've seen, not being able to speak language other than Romani[Gypsy language]. That has not been mentioned at all. For sure, Dinko Sakic, who apparently was always tidy and wore shining boots, had these very boots cleaned by some poor Gypsy. However, I'm grateful to witnesses who did mention Gypsy suffering. One such witness gave an account of a pregnant Gypsy woman who, when asked by an Ustashe solder what she carried in her belly, answered "I don't know, brother"; the soldier then ripped her belly open with a knife because she called him a brother. A Gypsy was murdered for playing a song ordered by an Ustashe, unaware that that was a partisan song. Gypsies were held in camp 3c, the so-called "camp within the camp", which was separated by barbed wire from the rest of the camp. Ustashe said that Gypsies "had warm blood, and are not bothered by cold". I think that Pichili "tested" Gypsies, more than others, in his ovens.

CROATIAN CALVARY[2]

All in all, more than 20,000 Gypsies died in Jasenovac; perhaps up to 40,000. Gypsies were also killed outside Jasenovac. It is not mentioned that there were Gypsies killed on the Croatian Calvary; they were perhaps drawn in as musicians or craftsmen [in the Ustashe Army].

Some Gypsy associations in Croatia announced they will demand that the indictment of Dinko Sakic be expanded to include genocide. Can they succeed?

That statement was made by a gentleman from the Gypsy Club of Croatia; he was just showing off. We don't want and aren't capable of expanding the indictment, because we don't have enough evidence. Our position is that it is up to state prosecutors whether to expand the indictment, because they handle all the evidence and witnesses. It is up to them to try Sakic for genocide. It is terrible to see injustice winning; the trial looks as if he were somebody who killed two or three people. I guessed that Sakic's trial would be somewhat like Artukovic's. In any case, it would have been a completely different story had the trial taken place earlier, say in 1981.

What do Croatian Gypsies want from Dinko Sakic?

Only former German chancellor Kohl has made a formal apology to Jews, Gypsies and other victims of the Nazis. In Croatia nobody has done that. We want Dinko Sakic to express his regret for what he did, publicly, through media. We will forgive the evil.

How safe do Gypsies feel in Croatia today, considering that, this spring, one Gypsy was beaten up in Rijeka, and one in Zagreb. Have the perpetrators been found?

No. European Roman Rights has begun its investigation of the case. Tatjana Peric is the Croatian representative in that organization. However, for now, Croatia is a safe country for Gypsies, because racism is not prevalent here. Still, there are Gypsies who say they have been beaten up, but, more often, they keep quiet about it, because they haven't been injured heavily.

EMPTY PROMISES

According to the official data there are 6,000 Gypsies in Croatia. Our estimates are that the actual figure is over 80,000. The ruling party has made all kinds of promises, yet today, Gypsies do not have even a small office where they could work on solving their problems and integrating into the Croatian society. Everybody has their plaques on buildings except for us. I don't wish to suggest that HDZ should go back to their shed [the founding congress of HDZ, ruling political party in Croatia, was held in a shed], but give us some space too! I was a candidate in the third election district for the Zagreb City Hall. My issue was the urbanization of Gypsy settlements; bringing of drinking water and sewage. HDZ simply paved 500 meters of road and won the election. Around 40% of Gypsies in Croatia live in misery. Besides, in order for Gypsies to assimilate into the Croatian society, they need to have papers. But they are denied Croatian citizenship because they are illiterate or because their names are Stevan, Jovan [typical Serb names].

An important minority right is being able to study your mother tongue as an extracurricular activity at school.

It is a great shame that the Ministry of Education and Sport did not facilitate summer school for Gypsy children, although minister Pugelnik is boasting that everything is being done to represent languages of minorities in extracurricular programs. If we talk to somebody in local government from an opposition party, they will tell you that "HDZ has taken all the money"... I would also mention that there is a school in Medjimurje [region in north-western Croatia] that has a separate entrance for Gypsy children.

[2] The Croatian Calvary (Croatian: KRIZNI PUT = the way of the cross), an episode in Croatian history, when, in 1945, the Ustashe army surrendered, with a great number of civilians who were fleeing communist Partisans, to the British at the town of Bleiburg in Austria. The British, in turn, surrendered them to Tito's army. Most of them were soon executed without a trial, some in death marches led throughout the country. The Croatian official history compares the plight of the "Croatian martyrs who were executed only for being Croats" with that of Jesus Christ and his carrying of the cross on the way to crucifixion.