DEMONSTRATIONS IN BELGRADE REFLECTED

IN THE BROKEN ALBANIAN MIRROR

AIM Pristina, 22 December, 1996

Kosovo Albanians reacted to anti-regime demonstrations of the Serbian opposition with a delay of two weeks after their beginning. On the other hand, however, the Albanian public and the Albanians in general were well informed about developments in Belgrade and other towns of Serbia, primarily by independent Belgrade journals and information broadcasts of foreign radio stations which the Albanians listen to ever since radio and television program in Albanian language was abolished in Kosovo. In daily press in Albanian language (Bujku) and on Albanian Radio-Television, events in Serbia were presented as if this was something happening on the other side of the world. This explains the wrong impression outside Kosovo that Kosovo Albanians were in the beginning indifferent or restrained. One could rather say that this impression was imposed by Kosovo politicians, that is, the dominant (official) Albanian policy pursued or symbolized by the leader of Kosovo Albanians, Ibrahim Rugova.

In this staging, events in Belgrade are presented as a mere protest against theft of votes and as an internal Serb matter which does not concern the Albanians. The main explanation was that the Serbian opposition has an even more nationalistic approach to the question of Kosovo than the current authorities in Belgrade, or that there are no essential differences between them. The inertia of political practice probably contributed to it a lot, since it persistently tried to make the deepest possible psychological, political and legal resistance to Serbia, primarily in the sense of propaganda, but also by constructing a separate, Kosovo, network of legal and political institutions, due to which the Albanians have neither reason nor interest to interfere in the internal Serbian political life and internal affairs of other states.

The politicians mostly with a delay became aware that the demonstrations were in fact a powerful and broad movement of civil resistance to the regime. When calculations began among the Albanian political public about what this movement could contribute to overcoming the long-lasting Kosovo blockade, the Albanian politicians could not pass over in silence the subject of Belgrade demonstrations in front of the Albanian public any more. Of course, for making moves concerning the Serbs and Serbia, which due to seriousness of the moment cannot be pure propaganda, courage was needed to overcome and pull down certain, for years carefully constructed, firm, primarily psychological barriers.

That is why it is no pure chance that the first to send public support from Pristina was Adem Demaqi. Like the first swallow (which announces spring), but maybe even more because of the style of the message, he probably shocked many, but it seems that only with such a psychological shock it was possible to open the road to a more liberal approach to sensitive Serb and Serbo-Albanian topics. In sincere faith and hope, Adem Demaqi, on 5 December, among other said to the Serbian people the following: "... And we were right, people of Serbia, when we did not accept to fight with you, as power-greedy red masters wished. And we are right today, us the Albanians, although with heavy police chains, when we are directing a look of hope, offering a hand of a martyr to you, friendly people of Serbia".

In a one-hour interview given to the Albanian RTV, Demaqi said that since many had criticized him for calling the Serbian people "brotherly", he had used only the word "friendly". But, Demaqi continued, both words expressed not only deep personal convictions about all nations, but also the coarse (not propagandist and calculating) reality, because the Serbs were a fact, and the Albanians could resolve their existential problems and aspirations only and primarily by facing the Serbs. There was and there should be no doubt that this inevitable facing would be easier with democratic Serbia. The Albanians should also offer support for the sake of facilitating evolution and freeing of this movement of nationalistic burdens and myths, especially concerning the Albanians and Kosovo, said Demaqi among other.

At the regular press conference of the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo (DSK), one of its vice-presidents (instead of the absent Rugova) Hydajet Hyseni, with no doubt in the name of the DSK, absolutely dominant organization in the political life of the Albanians, in his introductory statement said, among other, the following: "Democratization of Serbia is assessed in Kosovo not only as an essential internal issue of Serbia and its democratic forces, but also as a significant precondition for resolving the unresolved Kosovo problem and general process of stabilization and democratization of this part of Europe. Kosovo Albanians support inevitable democratization of Serbia, but the test amd the most significant criterion for the assessment of events and political forces in Serbia for them (the Albanians) is and cannot be but democratic or anti-democratic stance in practice towards the unresolved Kosovo issue. The real democratic movements include the necessary component of anti-chauvinism. Without a radical change of Serbian policy towards Kosovo, there can be no true democratization in Serbia and consequently, its stability and progress.

According to the manner in which this stance was presented to the Albanian public and internal comments, according to the increased number of carried reactions from the foreign press on nationalism and chauvinism of the Serbian opposition and allusions of all kinds (the so-called verbal information and commenting in small and closed groups is still very spread among the Albanians), it was obvious that inside the DSK there is no agreement on demonstrations in Belgrade. However, the worst thing is that the impression is that the subject of controversy are not the demonstrations as much as internal rivalry and attempts to use the demonstrations for certain unreasonable and unacceptable divisions inside the Albanian movement. These divisions go along the line of a making a clear distinction between those who are in favour of independent Kosovo (the current official policy and those who support it) and those who are allegedly for Kosovo under the rule of Serbia. Such a division in the Albanian movement is absurd, but it is also possible, in the fire of pure propaganda due to incredible one-sided daily information in Albanian. Since support to Serbian demonstrations were at the same time initiatives for public discussions on many sensitive issues, among which the one on the former Albanian policy would be inevitable, it might seem incredible, but all things considered, avoiding conversation about this subject was and still is the main reason why the leading Albanian party is threatening with internal Albanian division and why it is trying to reduce the support from Kosovo to Belgrade demonstrations to colourless and generalized support to democratic processes in Serbia. Such an approach is made easier by the still highly accentuated arguments about nationalism and chauvinism of the Serbian opposition and the contemplations that it is necessary to wait before taking a clear stand concerning opposition on Kosovo.

In this context it is necessary to observe the commentary titled "Serbian Opposition Like the Position" which was published in the newspaper Bujku. Bujku is believed to be one of the most important institutions in the Albanian movement, so this commentary can be understood as a kind of an official stance. Among other it reads:

"While rational Westerners were obesrving the developments (in Serbia) calmly, without rashly expressing unreserved support, some of our political personalities and Albanian media hurried in the very beginning to greet them, as if they involved brethren by blood and ideal. Bothers and sisters, that is the intonation of the message of Adem Demaqi... Saluting them, one would say as if they were their fellow-combatants, and not enemies who until the moment when they went out into the streets asked for heads of Kosovo Albanians and their blood... Draskovics and Dindjics were until recently Milosevic's brothers, and they are more than brothers concerning the Albanian issue. How can they at the same time be brothers to Adem Demaqi? There were such pathetic tones in dilettantish analyses of the Albanian TV... Some pathetic Kosovo reporters of the program broadcast via satellite were also seized by euphoria without foundation, and nothing to say about Yugo-nostalgic Albanians... Albanian reactions to demonstrations of the Serbs in Belgrade are intensifying the convinction that if someone milder than Milosevic emerged, a category of our people affected by the inferiority complex would hurry to Belgrade without a compass and a program, just in order to sit down at the table with their masters. Is their time coming?", the commentator of Bujku wonders.

In the attempts to keep up or even raise the level of support to Belgrade demonstrations, the official Tirana also made its stance clear especially by issuing frequent editorials in the official media and those close to the authorities. A different voice from the Albanian RTV is a fact of the greatest political significance for public and political life of the Albanians in Kosovo. After several years, the firm unison of hard-core single-minded informing of the Albanian public in Kosovo was broken, which will not remain without political consequences if it continues.

Ever since the beginning of demonstrations in Belgrade until 21 December, Ibrahim Rugova was not in Kosovo. From reports arriving in Pristina, one gets the impression that in America and France Rugova spoke about Belgrade demonstrations being mostly an internal Serbian problem and an internal problem of another state. After return, Rugova spoke in Tirrana with the Albanian President Sali Berisha. The statement published by the Albanian TV on demonstrations in Belgrade is quite different though. It says that Berisha and Rugova warmly greeted the active protests of the students in Belgrade and democratic forces in Serbia. "Aimed against Milosevic's dictatorship which is exerting the worst of pressures and repression on Kosovo Albanians, protests of this powerful movement deserves support", it is underlined in the text of the support. In a comprehensive report about the talks published in Pristina, this stance on demonstrations in Belgrade is completely left out, obviously by censorship...

FEHMI REXHEPI