They show us that we are not welcome. They wave their hands, mutter in the direction of the bus, make threats. Before, when the road led through Gnjilane, they threw stones and fired shots at the column. It's a sad sight on the road from Podujevo to Pristina: a convoy of Serbs from Gracanica in red Nis Ekspres buses, KKFOR armored transporter, bus transporter, bus and so on to include two more buses and two transporters. The Serbs from Gracanica going to their motherland. It's the only way they can go. In the bus from Belgrade, deathly silence. No one utters a word: silently they observe the scenery as they pass: the burnt down and destroyed houses, the reminders of NATO bombs, garbage dumps, wrecked cars, motley signs on which international donators announce huge projects for the reconstruction of houses throughout Kosovo. On almost 100 kilometers of roadway one cannot spot a single traffic sign but there are dozens of light green-colored gasoline stations. There are many automobiles with KS (Kosovo) license plates on the road. At the intersection to Urosevac a column separated to the right along the road leading to Strpce and Brezovica. The damaged mountain road through the forest was navigable. There was snow only on the peaks of Brezovica and Mt. Sar. The column passes the last checkpoint in the village of Drajkovci, 10 kilometers from Strpce, without much delay. Before, say the locals, inspections of material goods and people used to take as long as two hours. Now, after a more than a year of KFOR presence in Kosovo, the inspections are shorter because the KFOR troops know the local residents. Before Poles were deployed here; now the Serbs in Strpce are protected by Ukrainians, with support from the U.S. contingent which heads the district.
Arrival of the convoy: The long column arrived in Strpce after dusk, after an 11 hour-long trip. There was no electricity in the village at the foot of Brezovica. Several hundred local residents welcomed this column, one of many coming from Serbia proper. In the main street there is always a sort of celebration: residents of Strpce come, packages arrive, with consumable goods, various merchandise, medicine, most of it from humanitarian assistance.
On Tuesdays and Fridays there are buses going to Serbia; on Thursdays KFOR provides special escort for freight trucks and automobiles. These are the only days of the week that newspapers and letters are read here. The lives of approximately 13,000 residents of Sirinicka Zupa on those days appear normal. On other days, their country is 10 kilometers across. That is how far they can go. Beyond that no one, not even KFOR, can guarantee their safety. The locals Albanians quickly finish off those who stray beyond the invisible border. To this day it is not known where some local residents who vanished a year ago and earlier are. In the southernmost Serb enclave, of the 16 villages of Sirinicka Zupa belonging to the Strpce municipality, only four are inhabited by Albanians. Since the arrival of KFOR the Serbs have not been leaving. They say that they have nowhere to go and that they intend to stay. "Good man, the worst thing is that we are surrounded. Look, good man, you see the helicopter, you see where it is; it's all because of the Albanians," says old Ljupka bitterly. She and her family have lived in Strpce for years and they could not imagine living anywhere else. On that day US KFOR troops patrolled the muddy streets from early morning because the Albanians had come to Strpce for talks with the local authorities on future common life in the municipality. KFOR helicopters monitored the village for almost 15 minutes without moving from the hill above Strpce. They left when the talks again concluded unsuccessfully. The Serbs don't want 17 Albanian assemblymen in their municipality. "They want to come back to the municipal administration, the hospital, the school. They just want unrest and to put the blame on us," said the people angrily, gathered in front of the municipal hall where Serbs and Albanians sat together.
The two sides exchanged views across tightly packed American helmets. The international administration in Kosovo and Metohija intends to observe the results of the local elections won by Rugova's Democratic Alliance of Kosovo (DSK). According to them, even though Strpce municipality has a Serb majority [about 80%], there must be ethnic parity between the assemblymen of the future municipal administration - 17:17. Unhappy and disappointed each time they are visited by the Americans and the Albanians, the Serbs of Strpce become restless. And while both sides await an outcome, the municipality is in the hands of the international administration and the municipal administrator, Charles Messier. The municipal building is crowded. There are a lot of people coming, going, asking questions about all sorts of things. Several announcements are posted on the main door. On the right side on a prominent spot, a notice: "I am pleased to inform you that you may come to the municipal building and ask an UNMIK official to answer any questions you may have. There are too many rumors circulating in Strpce and there is only one place where you can get information; please, do not be afraid. We are here to inform you and tell you what is going on in the municipality." Signed by municipal administrator Charles Messier.
New police: In the center of Strpce next to the municipal building there is also a cultural hall, a health clinic, a post office and several manufacturing companies. The former Serbian police building now houses the Kosovo police. There have been no Serbian policemen in Strpce since June 1999. Besides international representatives, there are also local residents in the Kosovo police. Wearing blue uniforms with the insignia "Kosovo Police", young men and women from the region walk through Strpce. They got the job after eight weeks of training in Vucitrn where together with the Albanians they trained to maintain law and order in Kosovo. The job means a lot to them: influence and an income of almost 400 German marks a month; however, a few admit, albeit shyly, that they don't feel comfortable wearing the blue uniform without the flag and emblem of their own country.
In the morning hours the street which leads through the center of Strpce is crowded with people and that is where everything happens. Automobiles with Urosevac license plates displaying merchandise are parked in front of the department store where nothing has been bought or sold for a long time. Here one can buy everything from Chinese knick-knacks to Hungarian running shoes. To get merchandise one goes by convoy to Belgrade and then on to Pancevo, Subotica or Segedin. The prices are all in German marks.
50 year-old Lujza has lived in Strpce for the past 30 years. She came here as a high school student from Subotica and married. She worked in the Pristina company Jedinstvo and then the company went bankrupt she began to trade. "It is hard to earn money. We go far to get merchandise - about 650 km in each direction - but somehow we are managing to get by!," says Lujza. For this woman and many residents of Strpce, life has become "normal". The period of adjustment to traveling by convoy, to living, as many say, in a prison, passed a long time ago. Numerous local stores are filled with goods.
Some things are more expensive, some cheaper than in Serbia. In the cafes which sprang up almost overnight the music of Bijelo Dugme, Hari Mata Hari, Miso Kovac [Bosnian and Croatian performers] can be heard. A hospitable atmosphere in the cafes where KFOR troops and locals sit together. Over a hundred people, mostly young men and women, work for foreign organizations - UNMIK, OSCE, KFOR, the firemen - mostly as translators. And those who speak English well have the opportunity to earn as much as 1,000 German marks a month. There has never been more money circulating in Sirinicka Zupa. A local attorney says that approximately half a million marks exchange hands in the municipality. Residents of Strpce employed in schools and healthcare earn 220 German marks and more from KFOR. On top of their state salaries and Kosovo bonuses [paid by the Yugoslav government], many make as much as 400 German marks a month. On the other hand, there are many people who until recently worked in manufacturing, for example, in the seamed pipe factory and cement factory who are not getting a single mark or dinar from either KFOR or the state. Humanitarian aid arriving from international organizations through the mediation of the Yugoslav Red Cross is the only assistance for this section of the population.
No tourists or snow: A winding mountain path leads to the tourist resort of Brezovica three kilometers from Strpce. For two seasons already the well-know ski resort has had no visitors. Tourists are not coming from anywhere; the largest, four star hotel, Narcis, houses 100 UNMIK policemen who work on the border crossing toward Macedonia - Jankovic-Globocica. The empty hotel seems forlorn.
A neighboring hotel, Breza, houses Ukrainian KFOR troops. Their headquarters is here. They are enclosed by barbed wire and dark green nylon sheeting. It is not permitted to approach or to take photos. There is snow only on the peaks of Mt. Sar. In nearby hotels - Lahor and Junior - heartache. They house families from Prizren, Urosevac and other places in Kosovo. There are about 300 people in Junior alone.
Every other day they receive beans and canned string beans. They are able to put together two meals a day from this; everything else they must provide for themselves. They are refugees in the land of their birth. In Strpce people live without electricity which disappears almost every three hours. While locals say that the Albanians in Urosevac are to blame because they are angry for not being allowed to ski in Brezovica, more knowledgeable sources believe the outages are a result of overloading. No one here pays for the electricity they use and no one saves electrical power: everyone uses it for heating and sometimes it is squandered. Despite the stacked piles of wood in front of every house, electricity is "cheaper" for many. "The Albanians are not electrical experts like the Serbs. They did not work for years and that is why all these outages are happening. Many of them were killed in Obilic [power plant] because they don't know their job," a young man explains to a vacationing relative from Belgrade. In complete darkness Strpce looks frightening. The entire area is teeming with small streams pouring down from the peaks of the surrounding mountains. The murmur of running water and the barking of dogs create an uneasy feeling. Most probably it's something one grows accustomed to. These people have grown accustomed to everything and been through so much already. A new building which the local construction company Gradjevinar has been building for the past six years from the so-called YU-program contains 20 unfinished apartments. Only one apartment on the first floor is inhabited by a woman who arrived from Croatia six years ago. She says that she is not afraid and that after fleeing from Krajina, she will not flee from the Albanians, too, if they ever arrive here.
Even though they are territorially cut off from Serbia, the residents of Strpce have access to the 063 [Yugoslav] mobile phone network. Almost everyone in the town has a cell phone, especially the young. Phone cards for the 063 network are sold everywhere at a price of 20 to 22 German marks. None of the many sales stand and small store owners pays any taxes. Merchandise is brought from Serbia according to need while payment of dues, and telephone bills, awaits better days. And based on what they do and say, political parties mean almost nothing to the locals at the moment. Except for a few yellowed Serbian Renewal Movement posters, not a trace of political contest. Only the posters and stickers of Otpor [Resistance] in the display windows of many stores resist the rain and the times.