What Kosovo Serbs Live On

AIM Mitrovica, January 29, 2001

What currency is used in Kosovo depends on whether it is a part where the Albanians live, or where the Serbs are. The Albanians use the German mark as their official currency, and the Serbs (many believe that in this way they boycott Kouchner's decision on the German mark being the official currency) use Yugoslav dinar, but German marks are also in circulation depending on whether they receive their salaries from Serbia or in one of the international organisations. The situation is similar in Kosovska Mitrovica. After the war the city was divided into the northern part controlled by the Serbs and the southern which is controlled by the Albanians. Before the war in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica there were about four thousand Serbs, but nowadays there are no official data on how many Serbs live in this part of the city. It is believed that there are about 15 thousand. Among these 15 thousand are the citizens who have always lived in the northern part of Mitrovica, but also the Serbs from the southern part of the city, displaced persons from other parts of Kosovo, and mostly young people who have come from Serbia in order to find employment and earn some money here. In many ways, life is quite normal in this city. The schools work normally, health service operates, shops, kiosks are open, there are nightclubs for the young...

The teaching process proceeds normally in schools, and the teachers are financed by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia. They used to receive subsidies from UNMIK, but then it was abolished because education workers of Serb ethnic origin refused to sign that they would work according to the UNMIK curricula. But this does not refer to all of them. The teachers who work according to the curricula from the Republic of Serbia receive from it full salaries, leave subsidies, in dinars. How much they receive, the teachers refuse to say, but add "we don't complain, it is enough"... Some receive the UNMIK allowances - those who have signed that they would work according to the curricula of UNMIK and according to the words of some teachers "it is much more than the fixed salary that is received from Serbia". That is how one part of the Serbs in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica make their living, but it is difficult to estimate what percentage of the population this refers to.

Before the war majority of the Serbs worked in Trepca Mining Combine, but after the scandal that involved director general of the mine Novak Bjelic and after his banishment from Kosovo, all activity in this mine died out. The mine was taken over by French soldiers of KFOR and for a time the workers of Trepca received aid from KFOR amounting to 70 or 80 German marks a month depending on the qualification and the work they used to do. However, as the workers of this combine say, before the mine was taken over by French soldiers of KFOR, the salaries were not any better, about 1000 dinars a month, and not regularly. "we were robbed by Novak Bjelic" is the widespread opinion among the Serb workers. Be that as it may, it is a fact that a part of the Serbs who worked in this mine before the war are left without their jobs and salaries. What do they live on nowadays? They shift around the best they can.

Some have opened kiosks, some are selling in the market, some are smuggling, and the less resourceful ones live on humanitarian aid which consists of flour, oil, and they also got firewood for the winter. "Fortunately we don't pay electric power and telephone bills, otherwise I don't know how we would have survived", says a former worker of Trepca. Electric power and telephone bills are nowadays paid in the biggest part of Kosovo (in regions where Kosovo Albanians live), but not in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica and northern Kosovo. The main post office building is in southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica where the Albanians live, so that it is completely out of the question to go there just in order to pay the bills. However, more than 15 thousand telephones were cut in this part of the city because of high telephone bills. The citizens say that nobody delivers telephone bills. The same refers to electric power bills. “Nobody has brought us bills so that we could pay them”, says our interlocutor.

Health services in the northern part of the city operate faultlessly. Modern equipment was provided with the means donated by various donors. It is impossible to determine the number of health workers, but what is known is that they receive salaries from Serbia in dinars and they also receive aid from UNMIK – the so-called Kosovo allowance. Many young people from Kosovska Mitrovica, but from Serbia as well, work in one of the international organisations. They can earn between 600 and 1,300 German marks. Some have opened cafes, and there are cafes all over the place as the result of the still unestablished rule of law in this part of Kosovo and Mitrovica. “Unlawful constructing of cafes in this city cannot be interrupted, because people have to make their living somehow. They don't all have a monthly salary”, says an international official who did not wish his name to be known.

That not all the people have jobs and a monthly income is quite true. One can freely say that almost half of the population in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica can barely survive. “We are forced to steal, to smuggle, to get involved in very dirty business, in order to survive. You think that I am not ashamed because of that, but an empty stomach – mine and my children's – doesn't want to know about it”, says a woman who sells cigarettes in the street, who was once employed in Trepca Combine as an engineer. There are many physicians, teachers and engineers, university-educated people, who have lost their jobs after the war. Many of them are nowadays selling cigarettes, kitchen appliances and various other things. Some work as cleaners, sellers in kiosks or smugglers. “This will not last for long, I hope. I will work in my profession again”, says teacher of Serbian language and literature who is selling lottery tickets in the street...

The pensioners have received a raise of 100 dinars. Nowadays the average pension in Mitrovica is about 60 German marks, which is not enough even for bread and milk, in fact just for the first ten days in a month. “We shift around, we get some humanitarian aid, I somehow make ends meet”, says a pensioner. The life of pensioners was not easy before the war either, and it is no better nowadays. Perhaps the local saying that those who have will always have and those who do not never will is coming true...

AIM Mitrovica

Valentina CUKIC