WHEN SPRING COMES EARLY

AIM Pristina, 29 April, 1998

After a short period of "lethargy", the political situation in Kosovo is deteriorating again. Many journalists and well-informed circles mark 29 April as the new "D Day", when the Contact Group will sit and evaluate to what extent Belgrade has met its demands. Everyday walks of Kosovo Albanians downtown Pristina and some of the bigger towns of Kosovo, with the motto "Kosovo is One Big Prison", are not considered as significant among Kosovo Serbs. The only exceptional thing in everyday half-hour walks occurred a few days ago when the walkers put up a table and three chairs on a cart, with three flags on the table - the Yugoslav, the Amarican and the Albanian - and a small toy cannon under the table. The message is clear. Insisting on a dialogue under the threat of cannons. One thing is for sure - the situation in Kosovo is not good at all.

Business in Kosovo is almost completely interrupted. Nobody wishes to risk investing into anything that may be destroyed the very next day. They keep asking each other: "Neighbour, will there be war?" There is usually no answer, but generally everything is conditioned by the behavior of the other party. In any case, there is no real estate trade (or at least it is greatly reduced), and private manufacturing plants of Kosovo Albanians are mostly processing and connected to construction or decorating houses. Rumour goes in towns that many peasants have not even sowed the land. The main doubts arising concerning it are whether the people are terrified or wise, helpless or uninformed.

An Albanian who visited relatives in one of the villages in Drenica, evidently embittered, clearly and simply formulates his political stand as follows: "After killing of women and children, even if half a million Albanians are killed, we shall not live under Serbia any more!"

And what is it like on the Serbian side? Kosovo Serbs are somewhat encouraged by the entrance of the iron-hand Vojislav Seselj and his Radicals into the government of Serbia, the influence of whom seems to be starting to show, although it still does not appear to have reached Kosovo. The other encouraging thing for them is the voting in the referendum against foreign mediation in internal affairs of Serbia and FRY. However, all that came after signing of the agreement on normalisation of education signed with representatives of Kosovo Albanians under patronage of foreigners - the Italian Catholic community Saint Egidio. Foreigners have also "interfered" in the "internal affair" of Serbia and they are already stationed in Kosovo in the form of various humanitarian and non-governmental organizations. And there are also the frequent visits of diplomats and parliamentary delegations of western countries who are interested in Kosovo and resolving of its problems.

From the angle of the mentioned facts, which are absolutely not to the liking of Kosovo Serbs, the referendum question concerning engagement of the international community in resolving the Kosovo crisis, it is still not quite clear what the Serbs have voted for: in favour of Milosevic and the sanctions again?

However, the current situation is quite unfavourable for Kosovo Serbs, in which fighting is going on somewhere in the western part of Kosovo. These are not open conflicts, but the number of victims is big. Because of fear, churches were half empty even for Easter. Stories about arming of Kosovo Albanians, attempts to smuggle in armament from the territory of Albania, movements of the population, shelling of houses... Is this just the beginning?

AIM Pristina

Dorijan NUAJ