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Serbia's Albanians Warn Of Discrimination Behind Attacks
by Jean-Eudes Barbier
VELIKI TRNOVAC, Yugoslavia (AFP) - Moderate Albanians in southern Serbia have called on Belgrade to put an end to the ethnic discrimination of the Slobodan Milosevic era, or risk facing an upsurge of armed separatist attacks.
"I am one of those who think the political options for solving the problems of Albanians are far from exhausted," Galip Beqiri, mayor of the Albanian-populated town Veliki Trnovac said.
The town is in an ethnic Albanian area of southern Serbia, currently the focus of attacks by separatists, calling themselves the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB), seeking to unite the area with U.N.-run Kosovo.
Beqiri acknowledged that not everyone in his area had the same outlook, and among 8,000 inhabitants of the town, there was a number who "have joined the guerrillas and have taken up arms."
Seeking to bolster influence in the area, much of which is located in a demilitarized buffer zone, the separatists have found they can still count on lingering resentment of Milosevic-era nationalism.
And, local leaders say, this will have to change if Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica is to avoid further violence.
"Sixty-two percent of the 50,000 inhabitants of Bujanovac are Albanians, but they are under-represented in the public institutions," a local leader from the Party for Democratic Action (PDD) explained.
Albanians "are non-existent in the police forces, they have no radio station or newspapers, and the availability of education for the young is limited."
Kostunica, who took office in October, has already shown a will for a dialogue with the minorities living in Serbia, a move that has raised hopes here.
But for the Albanians, time is running out, and the complaints of Milosevic-era discrimination continue to rear their head. Most complaints have centered on the behavior of police towards them, and an alleged increase in humiliation, harassment and, sometimes, beatings.
The Belgrade leadership may be new, local leaders argue, but its make-up has yet to change.
"Some of these policemen are criminals who have sullied their names in Kosovo" during the 1998-99 war, one Veliki Trnovac official said.
"We want to be equally represented in the local police units," he insisted.
But Colonel Novica Zdravkovic, the chief of the Serbian police in the region, admits that the behavior of some of his men has not always been in accordance with the demands of the service.
"We have recently taken disciplinary measures against five of them," he said.
Zdravkovic said that the priority was to secure the region and normalize the traffic on the road leading to Kosovo, controlled for almost a fortnight by the UCPMB.
He noted that in recent months, some 90 serious incidents between the UCPMB and his units were recorded, in which about a dozen people were killed.
Acts of “terrorism”, notably bomb attacks, have also multiplied in southern Serbia, he said.
And moderate Albanians recognize this has not created an atmosphere that is conducive to cohabitation. The two communities live almost entirely separately. Albanians and Serbs have their own areas, meeting places, shops and schools.
"The guerrillas are causing fear among moderate Albanians, but if our right to work, movement and a normal life is not respected, the UCPMB might gain on the ground," one PDD official warned.
But there are some glimmers of hope, albeit few and far between. This week, one rumor was spread in Bujanovac that the house of the only Serbian resident in a nearby village was burned down by the Albanians.
But the house of 80-year-old Obrad Ristic was still standing, and, in absence of its owner, who has fled following increased tensions in the area, an Albanian neighbor has been feeding the chickens and a dog belonging to the old Serb.
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