PRE-ELECTION CHAOS IN KOSOVO

AIM Pristina, November 29, 1997

In the course of this year several dozens of attacks have been made on the local police stations and other police facilities in practically all parts of Kosovo. Until several days ago loss of human life was rare during such attacks. Unfortunately and unluckily for the people in these parts, Serbs and Albanians alike, the latest armed attacks have escalated to such a degree that human lives are lost and grave sufferings are being inflicted. It seems that it is too early to speak of the final balance, but as far as it is known during only two days, November 25 and 26, on the territory of the communes of Srbice and Decani three men, two Albanians and one Serbian policeman, were killed and nine other wounded (six Serbian policemen and three Kosovo Albanians, two of whom were children).

On November 28, during burial ceremony of Haljit Geci, Secretary of the village school in Lausi, who died of wounds inflicted by fire arms, three masked armed young men in uniforms suddenly got up on the improvised stage. To some 20 thousand people gathered there they introduced themselves as members of, as they called it, Liberating Army of Kosovo. The essence of what they said boils down to but a few words: Such situation in Kosovo can and will no longer be tolerated and they will avenge their killed comrades.

The Liberating Army of Kosovo was born among the people and it will fight to the very end for, as they said, national liberation and unification. This, probably for everybody, sensational surprise lasted very short, just a couple of minutes. Those who have witnessed it say that all present reacted to this event with much emotions. Incidentally, this was the first public appearance of members of the so called Liberation Army of Kosovo on the territory of Kosovo for which the local Albanian political top echelons claim to be non-existent. This was followed by the burial of killed Iste Socaj, who according to the official police authorities had been killed during armed attack on the Police Station in Rznic, the commune of Decani. To be sure, the Kosovo Board for the Protection of Human Rights refuted any possibility of the late Socaj taking part in such an attack since, as they claimed, he was detained by the police on November 25, after which no one knew his precise whereabouts.

In any case, all comments after such incidents look alike. The Serbian authorities are accusing the Albanians, the Kosovo Albanians are accusing the Serbian police and the authorities. However, analysts estimate that the staging of such an incident at this moment, just before presidential elections in Serbia, can hardly suit the ruling regime, but that according to their calculations such conflict situations could nevertheless bring crucial votes to their candidates. However, a possibility of this getting back at them as a boomerang, should not be ruled out, i.e. that because of this whole mix-up the electorate might decide to side with the more radical options of the nationalistic right, epitomized in Vojislav Seselj.

The latest events which are shaking the Kosovo public and the growing number of killed in comparison to previous similar situation, show that the balance of fear has been most seriously disturbed and that the years long period of neither peace nor war might be at its end. Although psychological, in addition to material prerequisites have been met long ago, it is hard as well as unimaginable, to claim that a war will break out in Kosovo. But, it is also hard not to notice how the situation prevailing in the preceding 7-8 years is "wearing thin".

Something similar had happened during a short period in April and May last year. But, the political situation, especially within the Albanian movement, was much more sensitive than today. Marked deterioration and disturbances in the internal Albanian relations occurred in the second half of this year. After years of political and diplomatic stagnation and unimaginable disregard of the internal Albanian processes on the part of the establishment, major political, social and psychological developments have been initiated within the Albanian society in Kosovo, mostly spontaneously and apart from what the Albanian political minds have been claiming for years. For quite some time now it is generally considered by many local circles that neither such politics nor big promises have brought any improvement.

However, these same circles point out that if that same politics can offer any convincing justification in this respect - namely, that nothing depended on it - it nevertheless has no excuse for numerous weaknesses in the internal organization and mobilization of the Albanians, especially regarding the actual adjusting of both short and long-term objectives with the realistic possibilities, even under circumstances such as these in Kosovo. Similar reasoning about the Kosovo situation resulted in the following interpretations: Impotent and incapable of facing the objective complications and contradictions of the truly difficult and complex situation in Kosovo, in recent weeks the Albanian politics rather unconvincingly tried to patch the things up, in which the most disappointing thing was the buying of time week by week (postponement of students' protests, promises which ended up in endless delaying of the Albanian elections, ungrounded promises about the implementation of the Agreement on the Normalization of Education...)and thereby bringing itself to a deadlock. It first started losing the trust of its people, and after it, the control over it.

Although none of the Albanians believed that Albania will bring them freedom, anarchy and conflicts in Albania have directly contributed to the abandonment of hope of the Albanians in the Balkans ever becoming a respectable factor in the quest for and the attainment of a political solution in Kosovo. In that sense, they were left without the principal psychological support and lost their psychological balance which seriously undermined the prevailing sentiment and the hope for a peaceful resolution of the Kosovo issue.

What is more, Albania partially spilled over its misfortune onto its compatriots on the other side of the border. For over a month now, several thousands of inhabitants of some 15 villages and settlements on this side of the Albanian border are living in fear and terror night and day. The whole region of the commune of Djakovica, better known as Reka e Keqe (Crna Reka), is filled with numerous gangs of robbers armed with newest weapons, which are said to come from Albania. The are ruthlessly taking by force everything (home furniture, bovine cattle, small livestock, valuables, etc.) and it is even rumoured that take hostages so as to extort huge sums of money as ransom.

The Albanian political representatives from this region say that these gangs have killed six of their countrymen till now. Unable to defend themselves from these gangs, the population from this region is leaving or has already left its homes. Today there is no one left in the village of Kosare. In past years the Serbian policemen and soldiers have killed many Albanians during their individual attempts to cross the border illegally, and now large plundering mobs are chasing and terrorizing the Albanian farmers even using large night search-lights. The Albanian representatives hold the Serbian military and police authorities responsible for this situation and do not even rule out a possibility that some of them are in collusion with these gangs, mentioning even their connection with the Albanian refugees located in the village of Junik.

In Kosovo everything is politicized, which is why it is hard to discern classical crime from the criminal political activities, in which both the Albanians and the Serbs engage, sometimes even together. In Djakovica, which lives in fear of robbers' bands from Albania, a gas station was robbed several days ago by a masked group which did not come from Albania, but from Kosovo, and consisted of the Serbs and Albanians. Else, it is widely believed here that because of the great concentration of police and military forces in Kosovo frequent robberies and burglaries would be impossible without the participation of police. Perhaps the "mistaken" kidnapping of Bozidar Spasic, Chief of the Communal Police in Obilic, which was not politically motivated as it turned out later, by the people on the other side of the law, but this time of Serbian nationality, speaks best of the chaos ruling in these areas nowadays.

As of recent there is a growing conviction among the Albanians that police groups have increased their illegal activities. Despite the so called outlawed arrests, it is suspected that the police out of uniforms is of late more actively implementing methods of intimidation so as to silence people or to revenge itself. In the last couple of weeks there were three cases of attacks on lawyers which the Albanians see as directly linked to this profession. Several days ago in Pristina the attack was made on the family of the renown attorney-at-law Hasan Hoti, who is a member of the defense team of 19 Albanians prosecuted before the District Court of Pristina. Hoti himself is convinced that the assailants were the Serbs and probably members of the police forces.

The mentioned trial of the Kosovo Albanians charged for associating into the so called Liberating Army of Kosovo and terrorism, has not cleared up the confusion regarding this alleged army. Confessions were obtained under both physical and mental coercion during investigation, but at the hearing the accused have withdrawn their confessions. On the other hand, it is a fact that the Court Council did not present convincing material evidence nor witnesses to the court, who would confirm their terrorist activity. After the latest attacks and human sufferings, the question of this organization becomes even more urgent. Leaving aside the politics which is the source of the problem, more complex review of these socially dangerous phenomena should not be disregarded in analysing increasingly frequent different forms of violence. For example, in certain Albanian rural environments there is a deeply rooted tradition that a grave dishonour is done to any man whose house or even a village is entered by force, which is precisely what the Serbian police has been doing for years. Forms of resistance which occurred in the region of Srbice several days ago had been registered in these areas in the past too.

When analysing all these forms of uncontrolled violence or deviant behaviour in Kosovo, which have increased to such an extent that it is possible to claim that Kosovo is in a pre-anarchistic stage, one should not lose sight of the crux of the matter. And the crux is the present regime in Belgrade. Several years ago it destroyed with violence all legal Kosovo institutions, created a legal chaos and introduced a regime of lawlessness and political arbitrariness. With its policy: either - or, Belgrade has driven the Albanians into a ghetto, introduced a system of discrimination and made their life unbearable under such conditions. Therefore, when speaking of certain forms of responsibility of the Albanian leadership for the situation which can hardly or not at all be controlled, one should always bear in mind that Belgrade was the one which, because of the balance of powers, decided on the form of rule and life in Kosovo and rejected all the initiatives not only for finding the final solution, but also for partial improvements.

The situation in Kosovo neither was nor is difficult only in the political sense. People are being destroyed economically and socially because of which a large portion of the population is reduced to poverty and, it seems of late, general hopelessness. It is true that all people of Kosovo suffer because of such deterioration, but not equally. Collective privileged status of the Serbs, especially in seeking employment, makes them more resistant to these hardships. In addition, they are at a psychological advantage as they consider themselves members of a state nation. In this way, with generous help from the state, they are at the same time trying to compensate for being numerically inferior in Kosovo. However, behaving as prisoners of the state or better said, the current ruling apparatus in Belgrade, the Kosovo Serbs have proven to be far or perhaps farthest from any prospects of democratic resolution of their problems.

AIM PRISTINA

Fehim REXHEPI