What is Behind the Boycott?
AIM Pristina, November 7, 2000
The current Albanian-Serbian relations are marked by confrontations regarding this autumn elections. Only the topics are new. The true problems are the same ones that existed before KFOR's arrival and the establishment of UNMIK's authority in Kosovo, same as before the election of Vojislav Kostunica for FRY President. However, the situation on the ground has greatly changed and the protagonists are now forced to take new facts into account.
The Albanians no longer have Serbian sword hanging over their heads which is explained to the local public as the newly-won freedom. And if freedom is associated with independence then it can be said, that both formally and actually, all those who thought so were mistaken, say the local analysts.
On the other hand, taking into account the political objectives, Vojislav Kostunica and Slobodan Milosevic are totally identical. Many of them even state that Kostunica is a nationalist by persuasion, while Milosevic was a nationalist just because of his ambition to keep the power. They prove this by Kostunica's latest statements on war, war crimes, elections, final status of Kosovo. Despite all this, there is a big difference in their practical positions. Under new circumstances, Kostunica cannot behave like Milosevic, cannot act as he might wish to or as he did during Milosevic's time.
The departure of Serbian forces the Kosovo Serbs experienced as enslavement, and for them the freedom would be the re-establishment of the Serbian rule in Kosovo. For the Albanians that would be the reintroduction of slavery and there is no doubt that just like in 1989-1999, a large number of them would oppose this with arms. This is the essence of the Albanian-Serbian problem in Kosovo. It seems that arguments made by the Serbs on their position in Kosovo and the arrival of KFOR, as well as now in connection with the elections, are only a cover for the essential goals. On the other side of these arguments is the intention to prevent the distancing and separation of Kosovo from Serbia. That is why the Kosovo Serbs boycotted the registration of the population and the local Kosovo elections of October 28. Already this spring, when the census started, the Serbian representatives stated that they would not take part in the elections to be organised by UNMIK and OSCE.
These were the true arguments of the opposition, although there were differently presented. The first set of arguments relates to the lack of security, restricted right of movement and closure into enclaves. The second set includes the fulfilment of requirements for the return of the Serbs. It is claimed that all Serbs who now live outside Kosovo have been forced to leave, although broader public knows well that some 100 thousand of them decided to flee with the Serbian armed forces mostly because of their involvement in crimes committed in Kosovo, i.e. in fear of revenge. Nevertheless, whenever an opportunity presents itself, Serbian representatives in Kosovo say that "200 thousand Serbs were expelled" from Kosovo and "calmly" mention the figure of 300 thousand, although it is clear that even according to the official Belgrade statistics, that at the end of this decade there were about 200 thousand Serbs in Kosovo. In other words, no one mentions UNMIK, KFOR and UNHCR data on 90 to 100 thousand Serbs currently living in Kosovo.
As one of preconditions for the registration of the population and participation in the elections they demanded that all exiled Serbs also be registered or their return guaranteed. Now, a completely different argument is made. They say that the Serbs in Kosovo had no problem in registering, but that Milosevic's regime did not allow those who found shelter in Serbia to register expressing their hope that with the new authorities in Belgrade, this problem would be solved. The third set of arguments is most imprecise. It is said that the registration of the Serbian population and their participation in the Kosovo elections, naturally in the joint authorities with UNMIK also, should be realised in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 1244. The most convincing prerequisite should be that the Serbs from Kosovo could demand for UNMIK to bring such and similar decisions relating to Kosovo only after obtaining the approval of the Serbian state authorities in Belgrade.
This set also includes the demand forwarded by the Serbian National Council in Gracanica that the Albanians should take part in the Serbian parliamentary elections of December 23 this year and elect their representatives in the Serbian-Montenegrin federation. Otherwise, the Serbs will withdraw from all joint bodies organised by the UN Civil Mission. By the way, it should be mentioned here that the Serbian participation in these bodies so far was symbolic, at the level of observers and conditioned by numerous requests. UN Administrator for Kosovo Bernard Kouchner recently held intensive talks on these issues with the Serbian representatives and there are rumours that a coordinated list of the Kosovo Serbs representatives was produced which Kouchner will provisionally appoint to the local authorities until such time when it would be possible to hold special elections in communes with the majority Serbian population. Nevertheless, all these issues are still very complicated because, inter alia, representatives of the Serbian National Council in Gracanica and northern parts of Mitrovica have not yet agreed on all the details.
When UNMIK allowed the holding of Yugoslav elections this September in Kosovo, all representatives of the Kosovo Serbs welcomed this decision as the only possible and logical one. And under such circumstances, when it was assumed that Milosevic and his entourage would win, they claimed that the Albanians should have also participated in these elections since Kosovo was "the integral part of Serbia and Yugoslavia". As a consequence, they should have voted for the election of "their" president. Some 45 thousand Serbs living in Kosovo voted at those elections. That should be between 80 and 90 percent of citizens with the voting right. Out of this number, some 35 thousand voted for Milosevic. And now those same ones demand or condition the participation of the Albanians in the Serbian parliamentary elections, at which the Parliament and government to be inaugurated by the President of the Republic of Serbia, charged for war crimes in Kosovo by the Hague Tribunal, will be elected.
And while Kostunica, as it is frequently said here, "tries to strike a balance of crimes", stating that both sides had committed them, the Kosovo Serbs find it difficult to accept that, probably because they have learned in the last ten years to present themselves as the Albanian victims, even when many of them took part in the crimes committed in Kosovo.
And although Serbian representatives welcomed the holding of the Yugoslav elections also in Kosovo, this autumn, they have rejected or negatively assessed the recent holding of the local Kosovo elections. Yugoslav President Kostunica stated that they should not have been held at all, since it was not possible for everyone to vote, primarily for all the Serbs. Kostunica called these elections dangerous for the entire Balkans, and it is widely believed in Serbia, probably because of the presented information, that mono-ethnical elections were held in Kosovo because the Turks, Bosniacs, Romanies, Goranies and Ashkalies did not take part in them. And while just before the elections Father Sava Janic, spokesman for the Serbian National Council, stated that the Kosovo Serbs would recognise the electoral results if the international community recognises them, on the other side Bishop Artemije called the Kosovo elections (after they were already held) a political farce.
Momcilo Trajkovic, Coordinator of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) for Kosovo, also close to the National Council in Mitrovica where Kostunica had and still has a considerable influence, condemned the holding of the Kosovo elections, but also the participation of the Serbian representatives in UNMIK authorities. The Serbian lady politician Rada Trajkovic, President of Seselj's Serbian Radical Party for Kosovo until the NATO intervention, and currently a representative of the Kosovo Serbs in the Provisional Administrative Council of Kosovo, now "asks" of the Serbs and Albanians to live together. Se recently stated that Serbia, although it was bombed by the West, is trying to find the ways of cooperating with the West, but to a journalist's question said that she had no regrets in regard to the policy that was implemented in relation to Kosovo in the past years.
The Kosovo Serbs have turned out in large numbers at the September federal elections and announced their participation in the December Serbian elections, naturally if Kouchner decides to allow something like that. He is still thinking that over and it seems that he might agree only if the other side accepts what the civil administration is demanding of it. Although they did not react to the organisation of the Yugoslav elections in Kosovo, because UNMIK and OSCE underlined that they would neither support nor prevent them, it is quite probable that representatives of The Kosovo Albanians would express great dissatisfaction with the possible holding of the Serbian elections. Not even UN Resolution 1244 mentions such a possibility, i.e. the holding of Serbian elections (according to the local legal experts).
And when it comes to the security of the Kosovo Serbs and arguments that they were unable to take part in the Kosovo elections because they did not feel safe, despite great difficulties they are daily faced with in this connection, many claim that that was not he real reason behind their non-participation. Even spokesman for OSCE, Rolland Bless stated that in the opinion of this international organisation it was primarily a political decision of the Kosovo Serbs because, according to him, they had no problem with security when the turned out for the Yugoslav elections held in Kosovo. Analysing arguments forwarded by the Serbian community in Kosovo on their non-participation in the local elections, for some time now the Kosovo analysts have been claiming that there is a "deeply-rooted anti-Kosovo attitude" in the political elite of the Kosovo Serbs who both physically and territorially see themselves only as part of the Serbian territory, i.e. as a sacrificed part of Serbia which deserves all possible privileges "that must be provided even by force of arms, if need be".
However, the majority of local observers see the stands of the Serbian representatives on some political issues, including elections, as closely conditioned and dependent on the stands of the official Belgrade on those same problems. And that is why they often look towards Belgrade searching for possible indications from that direction.
AIM Pristina,
Fehim REXHEPI