After a few hundred meters the army finds the first Albanian houses. The hamlet of Duska Mala. A little girl of about four stands in the doorway of one of the houses crying at the top of her lungs
"This place really isn't that ugly," responds the captain after a moment of silence. "Look at these tilled fields; the soil here is excellent."
"Yes, of course, you're right," says the deputy Prime Minister, gazing toward an Albanian village which the army was about to enter.
A few minutes earlier seven military transporters full of members of the military police (the 7th Battalion) waited for Nebojsa Covic in front of an imaginary line marked only by a red post marking the border of the buffer zone.
Since June 1999 this has been forbidden territory for the Yugoslav Army. The five-kilometer-wide and 400-kilometer-long zone in the meanwhile has become a hub of Albanian terrorism, especially in the south of Serbia, near Bujanovac. After an agreement with NATO and a ceasefire signed separately in Merdare and Konculj, on Wednesday, March 14, the Yugoslav Army returned to its former positions. The previous night, the police secured the major points in this part of the zone ("Zone C-East" according to NATO's classification) along the border with Macedonia that was re-entered by the army special forces men from the 72nd and 63rd Brigades. The return had been officially announced by Nebojsa Covic, the chairman of the Yugoslav and Serbian government coordinating committee for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja at 10 p.m. the previous night after all-day negotiations with representatives of KFOR and NATO.
Three directions: On Wednesday, by six in the morning, teams of reporters headed in three groups toward the locations where the soldiers would enter the zone. The first group was led by police general Obrad Stevanovic; the second by Yugoslav defense ministry secretary Milovan Coguric; and the third by coordinating committee member Miodrag Markovic. The fourth, unannounced, group includeed Nebojsa Covic and the Radi Television Serbia team for whom the best photo opportunities and exclusive statements were reserved. Thanks to luck and coincidence, the fourth group was also joined by the "Reporter" team and later on, thanks to us, other reporters as well.
The return into the safety zone was carried out from three directions: the village of Miratovac on the very border with Macedonia, in the direction of the village of Trnava and toward the village of Norca. On Tuesday Nebojsa Covic visited Norca and attempted to convince the Albanians that the army did not represent any kind of threat to them and that they were coming to ensure security for all. One day later, it was obvious that the attempt was not successful. In the village of Miratovac, the elementary school principal requested that the soldiers keep away from the children who were "afraid" of them. This was done immediately. In accordance with the agreement with representatives of the North Atlantic alliance, soldiers would not be deployed in the villages in the zone.
God's help: In the convoy of army vehicles headed by Nebojsa Covic, the mood was serious, businesslike. The military police in full battle gear responded to Covic's encouragement ("Good luck!") with nods; one older soldier added, with a smile: "With the help of God!"
And finally they set out. A few minutes before seven, two soldiers with mine detectors headed out in front of the first transporter. Two others joined them. Nebijsa Covic followed behind the transporter with two army officers and one police officer, surrounded by his personal guard. The convoy moved slowly, following the rhythm of the detectors which are used, for the sake of safety, to check the roadway to the village of Trnava.
Some one hundred meters from the edge of the zone, the convoy was approached from the left side by an elderly Albanian pushing a bicycle. Soldiers approached him. "Tell them not to give him a hard time," Covic said to the captain. The warning was unnecessary. After a short stop, the soldiers allowed the Albanian to approach the road and the convoy of vehicles. RTS takes advantage of the opportunity to get a statement from "a live Albanian" but the man's responses are limited to "I don't know" and "I don't understand."
After a few hundred meters the army found the first Albanian houses. The hamlet of Duska Mala. At first there didn't seem to be anyone here. Everything was locked. Then, slowly, one by one, the Albanians came out, first the older ones, then the younger ones. A little girl of about four stood crying at the top of her lungs in the doorway of one of the houses. Shortly a woman appeared, also crying, and took the child into the house.
Vranje connection: After the convoy had passed, we stopped to talk with the locals. While we were doing so, the soldiers came out of the transporter and took up positions every 20 meters. The Albanians were already in front of their houses, dissatisfied. They said that Covic should have stopped and talked with them. They all said the same thing: that there was no need for the army to be there; there were no terrorists there; the soldiers were just frightening the children. Naim Sulejmani, the father of the little girl who had been crying, said she had reason to be afraid of the army. "Come into the house and I will show you," he said, and we accepted the invitation. "See, the army broke this during the war," said Sulejmani showing us a dresser with a broken door. "They broke all our windows," he added. When asked where his family had been during the time of the bombing, he replied: "Half in Turkey, half in Macedonia." (Family ties between the Albanians from southern Serbia and Macedonia are very strong, especially between the villages of Miratovac and Lojane. According to NATO and KFOR's explanation, the Yugoslav Army was permitted to return to this specific part of the zone in order to prevent the transfer of weapons to the Macedonian Albanians across "the strongest of channels". The most recent developments in Macedonia have really shaken up this theory.)
Sulejmani's older neighbor was the only man to visit the village during the war. "I came two or three times and spoke with the soldiers. There were reservists from Vranje here; whenever we have someone who is sick we take them to the hospital in Vranje. We know those people and why shouldn't we live together," said the old man who in his youth had worked in Belgrade as a tradesman in the construction industry.
Naim Sulejmani and his neighbors claimed that the army had stolen all their televisions and audio systems and that all seven houses in Duska Mala had been looted. "See, just look at what they are doing now," said the Albanians and pointed to the soldiers deployed along the road. When asked how things were going, the soldiers responded with "Everything's fine" and "It's quiet."
The rest of the army continued on the road toward the village of Trnava; then they continued, on foot and in full battle gear, into the mountains towards Kosovo. After a short stay with the army Nebojsa Covic returned to the negotiating table. KFOR representatives arrived in less than an hour after the army's return to check how things were going. There was no shooting.
There is still almost no contact between the Albanians and the Serbs. Otpor [Resistance] activists who recently opened an office in Bujanovac and are now are working in the government press center have ideas on how to change this. "We have to introduce some optimism here," says 22 year-old Nadica, a student from Vranje, temporarily working in Bujanovac. "We need to smile for these people," she believes, admitting, however, that she has never talked with the Albanians.