The Presevo Valley: Farewell to Arms?!
AIM Pristina, January 10, 2001
At the entry of the village of Dobrosin, which lies in the border zone between Kosovo and Serbia, American soldiers carry out checks with "X-rays" and take particulars from everyone who passes, starting with names and age to reasons for going to that village. This village - Dobrosin – is considered to be a base of Albanian rebels from communes mostly populated by the Albanian majority in the South of Serbia. After passing through a checkpoint surrounded by barbed wire and strong reflectors, guarded by soldiers with automatic weapons of "Thompson" type, we get to another one, several hundred yards further. This is a "poor" checkpoint with young men in olive-drab uniforms and "Kalashnikovs" standing behind sand bags. The barrels of their guns remind of TV Tirana programmes and its stories about "party steel" which were very popular in reports of Albanian communists who kept the country in isolation for 50 years.
On the other side, the Albanian guerrilla fighters, which call themselves the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac - LAPMB (a poor imitation of the image and name of the Kosovo Liberation Army) "verify" (at random) the identity of passers-by. A group of local people is standing in the cold January sun, while a bunch of kids is playing in the street (as if wishing to leave the impression of being free). After getting "permission" to continue their journey they come upon a rough village road with deep ditches because of which, after a few yards, a luxurious car develops engine problems making one feel ashamed.
A group of young guerrilla fighters who said that they had just been released from the "infirmary" which has no doctor, claim that their commander is in the village of Konculj on the road connecting Bujanovac in Serbia with the commune of Gnjilane in Kosovo. Tired, sick and unshaven they look more like a group of once popular "observers" from youth organisations of the former Alliance of the Socialist Youth.
The trip, which takes two hours on foot, becomes much shorter if you travel by a car type "Niva" with eight other passengers apart from the author of this report. Bare hills have been "scarred" at many places, both by the Serbian security forces, as well as by Albanian guerrilla fighters who alternatively surrender these "fortifications" to each other. The car engine is the only sound on this terrible road passing through the security zone in the width of 5 kilometers in which the Serbian forces are denied presence, apart from local police forces (according to the Agreement signed with NATO in Kumanovo after the end of the war in Kosovo). There is no sign of larger conflicts, but nevertheless, some 30 persons have been killed on this road in 2000 and thousand others have been displaced.
After a hard journey expecting at every step to fall down the abyss, we arrived to the village of Konculj - a depression. A major road along which Serbs and Albanians travel and control on both sides, passes near the village. The idle villagers watch a long line of vehicles, tractors and trucks with several hundreds of people who came to "ask permission to return to the village of Lucane in the commune of Bujanovac" which they abandoned a month ago because of the fightings. Several Red Cross vehicles came and left, while those who were waiting in the street hoped that "KFOR would intervene" (they simply call all foreigners KFOR).
In contrast to them, Serbian special police forces remained entrenched. Behind them are armed guerrilla fighters with their highest commanders. At dusk, the villagers lost every hope of returning to their homes, but nevertheless expected things to "start moving for the better". On the eve of the New Year, the peace corps of Kosovo succeeded in mediating an agreement between representatives of the Serbian Government and Albanian guerrilla fighters regarding the withdrawal of checkpoints from roads in the commune of Bujanovac and the one linking this commune with Gnjilane. Both sides claim that they respected this agreement and that "it ensured freedom of movement for everyone".
However, despite this "freedom of movement" six members of the Serbian community "spent" the New Year's eve somewhere at a checkpoint of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac. Again, KFOR peace forces intervened and helped in setting them free. KFOR has already joined the game and the well versed say that they even violated the Kumanovo Agreement helping resolve problems in the Presevo Valley. Nevertheless, they remained unperturbed by the claims that KFOR has turned into LAPMB's logistic support and that it was protecting or playing into the hands of the new Yugoslav officials in Belgrade. To such statements they calmly respond: "We are for peace".
The guerrilla fighters say that they have removed the checkpoints, and the Serbian side claims the same. However, local humanitarian activists say the opposite. Shaip Kamberi, President of the Board for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, who followed the efforts of the villagers of Lucane to return to their homes, warned that the presence of the Serbian security forces is still very large and that they have withdrawn only one checkpoint at the entrance of the village Trnovac. "That was a combined military-police point" and, according to some claims "Frenky's" boys, notorious paramilitary units who committed war crimes in Kosovo, were stationed there".
On the other hand, the Albanian guerrilla fighters claim that the Serbian officers were spreading propaganda and deny that there is any truth in the announcements of the Yugoslav Army officials that the guerrilla will start its operations around Orthodox Christmas. On January 6, one guerrilla commander known by the name of "Lleshi", said that that was out of the question. He even "congratulated Christmas to all members of the Serbian community wishing them peace and tranquility" and promising that the "Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac would do everything possible so that they can have a peaceful celebration".
The guerrilla commanders say that there are positive signs that could open the way to a political solution to the problem of Presevo Valley.
Local people from Konculj think that the "reopening of the border between Kosovo and Serbia has much helped improve the humanitarian situation since they had problems with food supply for days". KFOR opened border crossings, except the one at the village of Dobrosin and the inhabitants there who lived for days only from the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told us that they felt relieved now.
Nevertheless, on the Kosovo side of the border, new reinforcements with British and Scandinavian soldiers have been deployed which should guarantee the progress achieved towards a peaceful solution, as well as prevent the spreading of any illegal activities from Kosovo deeper into the land security zone. This new operation will last one month and in order to show their resolve and preparedness, already three days after their deployment, the British arrested 13 persons on suspicion of being LAPMB members. Over 100 people have been arrested by peacekeepers and are detained in the US camp "Bondsteel" near Urosevac, where they will answer for their activities.
Be that as it may, nothing has been solved yet, but it seems that both sides have understood that arms will get them nowhere. The new Yugoslav officials know that their forces cannot get into the land security zone and, for the time being, their demands for its narrowing, have remain futile.
The use of heavy armament is forbidden in this zone, and it is considered that any military activity that could cause bloodshed would be "fatal" for the new Belgrade authorities. At the same time, they have been given guarantees that any separation of this region from Serbia is out of the question. On the other hand, the guerrilla fighters know that they have neither the strength nor the support for a larger war and their "teachers" have sent them signals that "cultural autonomy is no cause worth dying for" (which, in all likelihood, will be the maximum they will get).
AIM Pristina
Besnik BALA