Axis
24.04.2006
Southern Serbia, or the Albanian "Motive-Hunting"
Can Karpat, AIA Balkan Section
Their reasons are numerous: they are Albanians
and the majority, the region is deliberately left undeveloped and poor by
Serbia, their history and fate should be linked to Kosovos, they have the right
to take their destiny into their own hands. One thing is certain: They want to
have a special status within Serbia and they need a motive for this. Do the
Albanian politicians of southern Serbia try to turn the Kosovo issue into a
wider Albanian question in the Balkans?
A meaningful
timing
Those, who are acquainted with Shakespeare,
know how difficult it is to analyse Iago, the wonderful villain of Othello.
The puzzling question about Iago is the question why. Famous Shakespeare
scholar, Samuel Taylor Coleridge uses the _expression_ of motive-hunting for
Iago, who seems not to know his main motive even himself, and who, with numerous
soliloquies, tries to justify his deed.
Nowadays the Albanian politicians of
southern Serbia (the three towns of Presevo, Bujanovac, and Medvedja) seem to be
in a similar motive-hunting process. They want to be granted a special
status within Serbia and for this they need a convincing motive, so that the
international community could commit themselves on their behalf as they did on
behalf of Kosovo in the past.
However the international community prefers to
consider the Kosovo case as a sui generis. As it is known, the US
administration convinced Moscow not to oppose to Kosovos independence with the
guarantee that this will not set a precedent for Chechnya or elsewhere. Western
powers do not wish a further ethnic-based atomisation in the Balkans. Yet, the
Presevo Valley Albanians continue to look across the mountains at Kosovo, where
they see the prospect of an independent Albanian state. And this is a great hope
for the Albanians of southern Serbia, who have never been really happy to be
just a minority in a Slavic majority state. The platform, which was adopted on
14th January by council members from Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja,
respecting the will of the citizens to define the Presevo Valley as a
constitutional and territorial region, demands for a special status, which
definitely goes beyond standard autonomy. According to this platform, the
Presevo Valley must have special relations with Kosovo, including the
possibility of joining Kosovo.
As the negotiations for the final status of
Kosovo go on, a great opportunity offers itself to the
Albanian politicians
of Serbia. The acting mayor of the Presevo Valley and the president of
Democratic Albanian Party (DPA) Ragmi Mustafa stated: Since Rambouillet, the
parleys should have been attributed an Albanian-Serbian character, for the
Albanian question concerns the whole ex-Yugoslavian territory. Since 1999,
problems of those Albanians in Montenegro, the Presevo Valley and Macedonia
should have been discussed. As to the moderate president of Albanian Party
for
Democratic Action (PDD), the most influential Albanian party of southern
Serbia, Riza Halimi assured the international community that their demand to
join the Kosovo negotiations does not mean that they demand the unification of
these three municipalities with Kosovo. Yet, since the appearance of the
Albanian National Army (ANA) in 2001, the Albanian political scene in southern
Serbia has been radicalised. As a result, local parties have become more
nationalistic. Politicians such Riza Halimi,
who favours cooperation with
Serbia and moderation are not popular any more. In November 2005, Ragmi Mustafa
tried to oust Riza Halimi, who has been the mayor of Presevo since 1992. Along
with Mustafa, Skender Destani, president of Democratic Union of the Presevo
Valley and Orhan Rexhepi, president of Party of Democratic Progress pointed out
that Halimi was an obstacle to their cherished goal, which is to unite to Kosovo
the three municipalities in Serbia with large Albanian communities. That is why,
today, the statement of Halimi does not gain much support among the southern
Serbias Albanian politicians.
This month, thousands of Albanians gathered in
Bujanovac and Presevo in order to display their general dissatisfaction against
the Serbian authority. Some shouted out Presevo Valley is Kosovo. According to
rumours, southern Serbias Albanians expect an exchange of territory between
northern Kosovo and southern Serbia. Northern Serbia, being a de facto
Serbian enclave, is one of the main bones of contention between Belgrade and
Pristina. Although every party involved refute these rumours, even the existence
of such rumours is per se very interesting.
This is a risky bluff.
Pristina is careful not to unveil its position about the demand of the Presevo
Valley to participate in the negotiations. This demand, which is disapproved by
the international community, may harm Kosovos cause. Even Hashim Thaci,
ex-chief of Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), now - the president of
Democratic Party of Kosovo, emphasised that their aim is to have an independent
Kosovo, not a Greater Albania nor a Greater Kosovo. Will the new Kosovo
Prime Minister, Agim Cheku, ex-UCKs chief of staff, behave differently?
Probably he will not. Kosovo politicians will avoid any radical attitude in
order to obtain what they have ever wanted: full independence.
However it is
probable that the Kosovo politicians hold this card as a trump against the Serbs
during the negotiations. If Belgrade insists on the partition of Kosovo,
Pristina will not hesitate to demand about the status of the Albanians in the
Presevo Valley. Whether the establishment of such a direct link between the
Serbs of Kosovo and the Albanians of southern Serbia will be blessed by Western
powers, which are determined to conclude the Kosovo question by the end of 2006
at any price is another interesting question. All the more as there is already a
great pressure upon Belgrade. The signals coming from the politicians from
Pristina and Presevo would be an ultimate stick to Serbia: Our demands will
be more radical if only Kosovo is divided. Maybe not physically, but
spiritually the Presevo Valley seems to weigh on the negotiations between
Belgrade and Pristina.
An artificial
problem?
The Albanians of southern Serbia are culturally and
economically identical to those of Kosovo. Until 1946, when a decision by the
Yugoslav government to separate these three municipalities from Kosovo and place
them under direct Serbian Republic jurisdiction was taken, southern Serbia was a
part of Kosovo. With the beginning of the unrest in Kosovo during the 1990s, the
Albanians of southern Serbia organised an unofficial referendum in which they
voted nearly unanimously to re-attach the Presevo Valley to Kosovo. In 2000, the
unrest began, this time in southern
| UCPMB patch |
Serbia, with the terrorist attacks of the Liberation Army of
Presevo-Medvedja-Bujanovac (UCPMB). Between March and May 2001, following
intense NATO and US-led diplomacy, the international community brokered a peace
agreement between the Albanians and Serbs that led to the disbanding of the
UCPMB (Konculj Agreement) and to the famous Covic Plan. The Covic Plan foresaw
economic, social and political amelioration of the region. Five years have been
passed since the creation of this plan and the region, with an unemployment rate
of about 33 percent, is still one of the poorest in Serbia. Presevo is the most
undeveloped municipality, with a GDP per capita that is a sixth that of Serbia's
average. Many Albanians are persuaded that Serbia deliberately condemns the
region to chronic poverty.
However the Serbian government has already
invested 300 million Dinars (around 3.5 million Euros) this year in the three
south Serbian municipalities and around 3.435 billion Dinars (about 40 million
Euros) in the past four years. An additional 1.55 billion Dinars (18 million
Euros) has come in foreign grants and donations, which makes a total of more
than 5 billion Dinars (60 million Euros). Yet, it is true that most of the funds
were spent on infrastructure, with little direct investment in the economy. No
new jobs have been created in southern Serbia as a result of the investment. And
although privatisation plays a key role in Serbias economic policy, not a
single local public company has been privatised yet. These are the facts, though
there is no clue that Serbia has any deliberate purpose in delaying the
privatisation process.
That the Albanians of southern Kosovo have serious
problems is a fact. Yet, their case is definitely not comparable to that of
Kosovo during the 1990s. Serbia is not the Serbia of Slobodan Milosevic any
more. On the contrary, Serbia today wants to be a part of Europe as it never
wanted before. And whereas there was once an open war in Kosovo, there is only a
general dissatisfaction in southern Serbia. And this is not enough for the
international community to multiply the Kosovo example.
According to the EU
officials, the Albanian youth would prefer to stay in Serbia, which will be a
member of the EU and enjoy some visa facilities in the future. According to the
same officials, only the elderly Albanians wish the annexation of the Presevo
Valley to Kosovo. And after all, as they already dominate the town council,
ethnic Albanians have little to gain from further divisions of the resources of
an already impoverished community. And finally, the Albanians of southern
Serbia, who did not support the UCPMB as a whole as the Kosovo Albanians
supported the UCK, certainly will not approve of the use of violence to resolve
their problems.
The international community emphasised more than once that
the Kosovo negotiations will only handle the Kosovo question and nothing else.
The problems of southern Serbia will probably be dealt with in the framework of
the democratisation and decentralisation process within Serbia. If the standards
of minority rights are harmonised and generalised during the Kosovo
negotiations, this will be a positive and productive evolution for the stability
of the whole region. If these standards are the same in Serbia as well as in
Macedonia and Montenegro, this will sure prevent further probable ethnic-based
conflicts.
So it seems that the international community will not let the
Kosovo question be degenerated into a wider Albanian question in the Balkans.
However the upcoming local elections in southern Serbia and the improbability in
the Kosovo negotiations may prepare some unpleasant surprises for Serbia. The
situation in the south of Serbia is dramatic and I am afraid that serious
incidents might affect security situation, stated Riza Halimi this month. Local
elections for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja municipalities have not been
scheduled yet, and they should, according to the law, take place in July. So
this summer will be a turning point for Serbia as well as for the international
community. One will see if the Albanian voters share the radical views of some
of their politicians.
Related items
Montenegros
Independence Depends on European Mathematics (19.04.06)
Southern Serbia: The
second Kosovo?
(21.02.06)
