CLOUD CUCKOO LAND

Everyday Life in Sandzak

As it seems at present, Sandzak Muslims will vote for Ugljanin, and the ruling coalition (SPS-JUL-ND) can do nothing but fight with the opposition over the votes of the Serbs. There are no more "ethnically cleansed" coffee shops, and everybody is on the promenade again

AIM Belgrade, 23 October, 1996

Despite the fact that in the past few years, pressure of Serbian authorities on Sandzak Muslims has visibly diminished, fear and distrust in this region are still more than prominent. The best proof for this was the campaign of vaccination of children against poliomyelitis this autumn. As part of the effort of the World Health Organization and UNICEF, a campaign was organized to vaccinate children up to the age of five in 15 municipalities in Kosovo and another 14 municipalities in Serbia, mostly those bordering with Kosovo. In Novi Pazar, health workers were faced with an unusual obstacle - on the walls of mosques (the Muslims are a large majority population here) posters appeared overnight warning that this was not vaccination, but an attempt to sterilize children. At the same time, news spread that nearby "purely Serb" Raska was not included by the vaccination, due to an attempt to save money. Irrational fear spread among the Muslims from Novi Pazar and nothing could drive it away. Persuasion followed, explanations that the campaign included even some municipalities in vicinity of Belgrade. In vain, alarmed mothers kept repeating: "If it isn't dangerous, why aren't they vaccinating children in Raska? What kind of vaccine is it when it is made just for the Muslims?"

A physician from Novi Pazar (a Muslim by nationality), recalls for AIM that he had no peace at the time: "One evening a friend called me, an educated, clever and serious man, to ask me if rumours were true. Since I was not at home, he asked my wife what it was all about. She answered that she did not know, but that the next day I was taking our youngest son for vaccination. This put him at ease. Although my child had a cold, I had to take him the next day to be vaccinated. If I had not, noone would have trusted me".

Indeed, many did not believe anybody, so just a little over half of the children up to the age of five were vaccinated in the municipality of Novi Pazar, making the campaign, according to world criteria (there must be more than 95 per cent) a failure, despite bragging of the authorities. It is difficult for the interlocutor of AIM to conceal that he is somewhat angry with his fellow-citizens and says that everything should be done to prevent "Kosovoization" of Sandzak.

Nevertheless, Sandzak is not Kosovo, and many connoisseurs claim that it is impossible to apply the "recipe" of complete ethnic division here. During the war in Bosnia, police terror raged around this region, army units were deployed in the hills surrounding Novi Pazar, with tanks and cannons pointing at the city, and (para) military troops of Republica Srpska raided Sandzak municipalities bordering Bosnia, set Muslim houses on fire in far off villages, beat people up and maltreated them. There were also cases of murder, and hi-jacking of the bus in the village of Sjeverin was remembered the longest, as well as the hold up of the train on the railroad between Belgrade and Bar in the station called Strpci and kidnapping in Bukovica, Montenegrin part of Sandzak. Although Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic promised a long time ago to the families of people kidnapped from the train that he would "turn the skies and the earth upside down to find them", their fate has never been explained.

Such a situation was inevitably reflected on interethnic relations in small towns of Sandzak, so citizens of Novi Pazar recall that at the time, Serb youth withdrew from the promenade which usud to be the favourite meeting place of all young people, and went out only into a few "ethnically cleansed" coffee shops and met at certain street corners. However, fortunately, even at the time there were places where young people (especially fans of rock-and-roll music) went out together regardless of ethnic origin. "Not a single political party has the right to claim that interethnic conflicts were avoided over here thanks to it - this is so only thanks to traditional interethnic tolerance, conscience and responsibility of the population", says for AIM Zuhra Mimdzic, President of the Municipal Committee of Yugoslav United Left (JUL) in Novi Pazar.

The worst has passed - the war in Bosnia is over, so the pressure in Sandzak diminished. The army withdrew its units, tanks have been removed from the hills, and numerous arrested Muslims, sentenced to several years in prison in dubious trials (for "terrorism", "threatening territorial integrity of the country") were released, either thanks to amnesty (Montenegro) or the fact that higher courts "cancelled decisions of the courts of the first instance (Serbia). Recently, after three years spent in Turkey and Western Europe, the controversial leader of the Muslim National Council, Sulejman Ugljanin returned, although he was one of the persons wanted by the police. The authorities have shown their good will in this way, and in return Ugljanin drastically mitigated his nationalistic rhetoric. His political opponents claim that the authorities have allowed him to return to make it easier for them to control Sandzak Muslims - it is easier to keep tabs on Ugljanin in Novi Pazar than in Turkey or Switzerland.

During Ugljanin's absence, control of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was taken over by moderate Rasim Ljajic who broke up with Ugljanin. Ugljanin's supporters reacted by founding a series of parties with the same name, so that at the moment there are four SDAs in Sandzak. Only Ugljanin's SDA Sandzak participates in the federal and local elections on 3 November, which is formed by SDA of Yugoslavia, SDA of Sandzak, True SDA, Liberal Bosniac Organization (LBO) and only in the local elections, the Reform Democratic Party of Sandzak (RDSS). The fourth or rather the first party with the name of SDA headed by Rasim Ljajic, in a coalition with some minor parties, formed a rival list of candidates, but this party at the last moment (deadline was 18 October) decided not to participate in the elections after all. "We did not want to be accused of dividing the electorate of Sandzak Bosniacs", explains Rasim Ljajic for AIM.

In electoral units nos. 19 (Uzice) and 21 (Kraljevo), skilfully planned in such a way that in both the Muslims are the minority nation, only one Muslim national list of candidates will run in the elections with chances to win two (realistic assessment), or four (Ugljanin's expectations) seats in the federal assembly. Tactic of JUL to try to attract "moderate" Muslims by a surprisingly sharp criticism of its own coalition partner (SPS) for nationalism and abuse of power has thus gone to the dogs. There are few Muslims who will swallow the hook, especially after the decision of Reformists (who gather a significant share of the liberal democratic intelligentsia) to join Ugljanin's coalition in the minute to twelve. Apart from that, supporters of moderate Ljajic, when they cannot vote for their own party, will certainly much rather vote for Ugljanin than JUL.

Therefore, the ruling block of parties can do nothing but fight for the votes of Sandzak Serbs. The opposition coalition "Together" and the Serb Radical Party (SRS) which was very popular among the Serbs who live in majority Muslim environment rely on the votes of this same electorate. "If Seselj had not split with Milosevic, 70 per cent of the Serbs would have voted for the Radicals", claims a connoisseur from Novi Pazar and assesses that the Serbs will probably mostly support the ruling coalition due to their own frustration and perception of power. They will vote, to put it bluntly, for those who control tanks and cannons which should protect them from neighbours if the situation starts going badly again.

The situation is, fortunately, slowly getting back to normal. Signs of that are becoming evident all over the place. What is most important - there are no more "ethnically cleansed" coffee shops, and everybody is out on the promenade again.

(AIM) Uros Komlenovic