Southern Serbia, or the Albanian "Motive-Hunting"

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=809

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 Kosovo�s, 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 Kosovo�s 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 theAlbanian 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 forDemocratic 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 Serbia�s 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 Serbia�s 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 Kosovo�s 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-UCK�s 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 Serbia�s 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.