Serbs in Macedonia

Democratic Decorations

Thanks to the fact that interethnic controversies are defined on the level of Macedonian-Albanian relations, the Serb minority, like all the others, is politically on the margins, but accepts it peacefully because it pays.

AIM Skopje, 31 March, 1998

Political ambitions of Dragisa Miletic, leader of the Democratic Party of the Serbs in Macedonia have reached their zenith. This marginal politician was finally invited to sit down at the main table of an all-Macedonian political symposium. At the office of the head of the state Kiro Gligorov, it was assessed that it was very convenient for them to make Miletic one of the 12 apostles who are expected, in the beginning of April, to reach a consensus concerning the open interethnic issues in this state. Judging, however, by the list of the invited persons and circumstances which have made a chronic ailment acute, Miletic will be given a seat somewhere at the farthest end of the table, equally far away as if he had watched the event from the outside. But, all he cares for anyway is to see the event "live" and to be seen, of course, and his intention coincides with the impression the organizers of the gathering wish to make.

Not wishing to ignore the noble ambition of the state leadership and president Gligorov personally to gather concerning the delicate topic of interethnic relations the broadest possible spectrum of people, especially representatives of collective interests of the minority ethnic groups, one cannot avoid drawing the conclusion that this gathering equally as the global Macedonian policy concerning the mentioned topic is determined by seeking the balance between the majority nation which the Macedonian state has got its name from and the biggest majority, the Albanian, which is striving to introduce changes on this highest, nation-building level. The other minorities, including of course the Serbs, whether anyone wishes to admit it or not, are political outsiders in this bipolar structure. It may sound paradoxical, but it is nevertheless evident, this is a very comfortable position in which everything is resolved on the Macedonian-Albanian level, and after that all the other minorities collectively benefit from it, which objectively, they are not even capable of consuming. The game is, of course, occasionally spoiled by personal ambitions of some leader of a minority party, but basically these are incidents which draw attention of the public just for two or three days at the most.

Although Miletic, once more often than nowadays, also simulated incidents, from this distance it seems that he did it usually just because of his eccentricity and the need to be convinced by his own ears that the "the Serb voice is heard", or he might even have been doing his homework dictated from Belgrade, and not articulated national interests of Macedonian Serbs. As a reminder it should be said that they are a group of about 40 thousand persons, or about two per cent of the total population, according to the data of the last population census. Serb spiritual fathers will claim that this figure is five times bigger and that this discrepancy is just another proof that the "heavenly nation" is threatened. It must be admitted that based on their participation in public life, influence in the economy, culture, science, sport, the impression is that there are more Serbs living in Macedonia than what the results of the census showed. This, again, imposes the conclusion that a large number of people with characteristic family names in the telephone book, decided to break institutional connections with the parent state, putting an equation mark between state and national affiliation. According to the taste of ones, this is an illustration of assimilation in its negative form, and according to others, a definite and integral establishment in the newly created socio-political structure.

Not just one of them declared to the signatory of this article that his ambition was to essentially and formally disassociate himself from a shameful national policy and without any prejudice live enjoying only his civil rights. You will guess, they belong to the part of the population living in big cities, and regardless of whether they have retained their ethnic prefix, these people are mostly accepting developments in the Balkans as final and they are striving to find a place for themselves in new circumstances. That is the reason why they are at the same time avoiding Miletic's "Serb Democrats", as well as numerous associations of the Serbs and the Montenegrins. Dragisa Miletic, on the other hand, gathered the part of the Serb population which lives comparatively compactly in villages or somewhere at the outskirts of cities and who have difficulties accepting the fact that nowadays things are different than what they used to be. Whatever that may mean at this moment.

Miletic's circle is considerably frustrated by the fact that the Serb minority was "omitted" from the preamble of the Macedonian Constitution, but it must be admitted that they too are responsible why this "injustice" was not corrected in time. Not even the current authorities have shown too much zeal to put the Serbs back in the Constitution, but they cannot be reproached either for having manifested even the slighetst signs of discrimination against members of this ethnic group. The Serbs, therefore, enjoy all the rights which minorities listed in the Constitution have in Macedonia. Two times a week, state television broadcasts half-an-hour programs in Serbian, a private television station operates in Skopje for the Serb population, all private radio and television stations carry numerous films, reportage and entertaining programs produced in Belgrade, and Macedonian news stands are full of journals from the other side of the border. Just as they prefer to read Politika than Nasa borba, Miletic's supporters would gladly change the editorial teams which produce the program for the Serbs in Macedonia, but this is obviously the matter of political taste. That is why the Democratic Party of the Serbs, utterly without foundation, "laments" that the Serbs are deprived of information, probably expecting the state to pay for their party bulletin. Or possibly, that Belgrade do something of the kind.

Where there is an objective need for it, and in compliance with Constitutional rights, children of the Serb minority are enabled to study in their mother tongue, but in cities people prefer to educate children in the official language so that the number of "Serb parallel schools", in proportion with interest, is significantly decreasing. In the Macedonian educational folklore, however, there is the category of "positive discrimination" which is established in order to keep the balance of education of the minority youth, so that it should not be believed that the Serbs are deprived in this sense either. The most evident are problems in connection with practising the Orthodox religion, since the controversy between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian Orthodox Church concerning the autocephaly of the latter has not been resolved yet. It proved, however, that except for sometimes coming in handy for other purposes, these disturbed relations between the Macedonian Serbs and the Lord does not burden the relations between this minority and the official policy.

It seems that policy interpreted by Dragisa Miletic has undergone a visible transformation after local elections held in Macedonia two years ago. Candidates of the Democratic Party of the Serbs have won a significant number of mandates in municipal self-administration, and they even have their own mayor. This is actually the official name of the post although according to the influence and space of its "jurisdiction" it is closer to that of a village headman. Dragisa Miletic is, nevertheless, obviously satisfied, since the success on the local level sufggests that in the next phase he just might march straight into the parliament. His aggressive rhetoric from the beginning of his career, perhaps for that very reason, was replaced by more moderate stands and more civil vocabulary. He did not manage to attract attention of the Macedonian public, however, even with the manner in which he reacted to the developments in Kosovo. Although he "warned" that Macedonian Serbs would go to defend "century-old territory" if need be, hardly anybody took him seriously. Least of all those who Miletic would send to Kosovo. Obviously, much larger stakes are in the game now, and much stronger trump cards up the sleeves. Dragisa Miletic and other party leaders of "small minorities" in such circumstances appear as a specific democratic decoration, and their contribution in defining the interethnic strategy, in view of the relation of political forces can be compared with the reach, in absence of contact with representatives of the Albanians, of the recent meetings of the Serbian official delegation with members of the remaining Kosovo minorities in Pristina.

AIM Skopje

BUDO VUKOBRAT