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EDITORIAL
by VETON SURROI
The radio inside the BMW informs automatically that it is 21:30. One week before, this was a
sign that curfew starts thirty minutes later. Besnik does not care. No only because there is no
more curfew in Tuzla and many other parts in Bosnia, but because there was never any
curfew for him. His BMW is known to the whole town, as the car of one of the best warriors
of this area.
We pass through the middle of the town. Near the cafe where several months ago a grenade
killed 77 youths - another sign of resistance. The youths are again on the streets: Italian
fashion on men, girls compete whose skirts are shorter. Fingernails and hair fashion reflect
the seducing smiles. Essentially different from the camp inhabited by refugees from
Srebrenica. In the morning, a foreigner bought 180 bubble gums for refugee children: as soon
as they saw them, the mothers started pushing the children and taking the gums for
themselves.
Besnik glances discretely. He just turned twenty two and for a moment, interrupts his story
about war. Looks at the youths on the street in the last days of October. "You see them today,
but they could surprise you tomorrow. If needed, all would be on the first line of the front".
He probably knows what he is talking about. He is a Captain of the Bosnian Army, its elite
part, the special units. Together with his commander, also Albanian, he was one of the first
who entered Gorazde, with the special mission to send explosives to fill up the ammunition
which would defend this enclave. He was also among the first to see the surprise of the locals:
"We were masked as we entered the town, and our only signs of identification were the
Albanian and Bosnian flags. When the locals saw the Albanian flag, they asked whether
Albania had joined the war too".
One of his commanders is in Sarajevo, and the other one is in Doboj. Both of them are
Albanians, and this I stress not because of curiosity or national feelings, but because it is a
very important element for Tuzla. When was started, states the secretary of the municipality
and member of the Tuzla crisis headquarters, the organization of the defence of Bosnia was
lead by now a legendary Albanian officer, deserted from the YPA. Not only did he organize
the excellent military formation which didn't allow the fall of this town, but Serbian forces
saw themselves forced to retreat some thirty kilometers. The radio commanding orders were
given in Albanian, so Karadzic's forces wouldn't understand a thing. "At one stage, we could
hear them say: Albanians are attacking us!", claims the secretary.
The weekly Koha (The Times) was published in Prishtina (Kosovo) between 1994 and 1997. Edited by Veton
Surroi, a young Kosovar journalist and one of the pioneers of democratisation in former Yugoslavia, Koha
soon became a symbol of quality among the region's media. In 1997 it started to be published daily under the
name of Koha Ditorë. W ith the kind permission of Mr. Surroi, Koha digests were originally posted on
http://koha.estudiosbalcanicos.org.
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The car is leaving the center. We pass by his shop, Levi's exclusive representative in Tuzla. In
front of his shop, a bookstore. As soon as the door opens, a huge picture of Alija Izetbegovic
stands up front and some twenty versions of the Koran. On the right hand side, Tudjman's
works (who is indirectly responsible for Besnik's wounding in the kidney) and Momo Kapor
(who is bit more directly responsible for Besnik's life in state of war) together. On the left, the
whole old edition of philosophy and sociology. On the top, Latin-American and French
novels. "Can you find anything similar to Tuzla anywhere?", asks Besnik. Nowhere.
"When will war stop?", I ask him. "When the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes
ours", says.
DIALOGUE
IS KOSOVA CHECHENYA?
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collocutor considers that the article is a poor comment which
doesn't reflect Kosova's reality, but takes some "stereotypes" and
invented differences, as is the case with the alleged regionalist
groups, as a starting point... Our collocutor further states that
he never belonged to any group, including the "Gjakova group".
"This is an invention of the UBD (secret police) created in
Rankovic's time, and which was revived after 1981 and was helped by
some Albanian officials longing for a career...
The other actor of this critical text, Azem Vllasi responded from
Texas, where he has been for some time. Vllasi considers that the
conditions to start the dialogue are more favorable than in the
beginning of the crisis, before all because of Milosevic's changed
behavior, who was now forced to "become pragmatic and finally was
convinced that his aspiration to create Greater Serbia by war and
hurting the others is not accomplishable. "Serbia and Serbs are
sick of war", says Vllasi.
-3-
political methods, and the Albanians chose this option as the only
way to solve their problem". Vllasi thinks that none of the parties
should put conditions for dialogue, but one precondition would be
that none of the parties can't choose the "desired" collocutor...;
the other would be to accept the mediation of the third party, i.e.
the international community (because this is the only way to
achieve something); the principle of equality should be applied,
and not that "Albanians are asking for something and the Serbs are
giving it to them".
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monotonously, at least every week in the LDK press conference,
repeated that it wants dialogue. It is no secret that the dialogue
is the Albanians' main card... This doesn't mean that the Albanian
representatives are not fearing the conversations, which were even
stressed in public, after insisting on having the "third party"...
Asked about this issue, Tanic said that Lekic's statement is his
personal view. "Lekic has not participated in any official contacts
about Kosova and is not authorized to give any statements on behalf
of our party. Our attempts to establish a serious contact with the
LDK have failed but do not feel that everything has failed
completely...
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An idea to include even more political personalities in this
dialogue which would be valid for both sides (it would, e.g. be
good to have Draskovic on the Serbian side) would rather have the
purpose to expand the negotiating teams which would make
conversations easier, says Tanic.
KOHA: Do you think the contrary will happen, now with the
"cooperative policy" Belgrade is applying...?
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to be on both sides of the checker board. We would also want to
have as collocutors people who are not chauvinists, who have done
no harm to our people, who are democrats. But it is not our
business to determine the members of the Serbian delegation. This
is a matter of the Serbian government, people and public. In the
same way, it is not Serbia's business to determine the
representatives of Kosova. Kosova and Serbia should talk as equal
subjects. I would say as a conversations between two republics...
Kosova could be represented only by the representatives which were
elected in the free elections and who have the mandate. Only those
who have created the republic can speak in the name of the Republic
of Kosova, and not those who are against it. Time of Esat Pasha
Toptani's diplomacy is over.
KOHA: You believe then, that there are Hasbulatovs among Albanians?
HYSENI: The LDK and I would say the whole democratic movement has
no reason to avoid dialogue. On the contrary, our chances are in
the dialogue. We have invested a lot in dialogue, but in an equal
dialogue which would be also serious and fruitful. To have it so,
we believe that there must be dialogue in the presence of a third
party.
BBC INTERVIEWS
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KURTESHI: The best and most realistic solution would be full
independence of Kosova. We must have in mind the realistic and
objective situation we are facing, therefore, we must discuss all
other options and alternatives, so we can come to an adequate and
possible solution right now.
* How do you explain the fact that one of the reasons why Belgrade
insisted on lifting the autonomy was the so called "existence of a
state in a state"?
* Who do you think is the most responsible for the loss of, how you
say, the independence of Kosova in the former Yugoslav system?
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* How do you comment the requests of some individuals and circles
to have the former politicians return to politics, you being one of
those former politicians?
BBC INTERVIEW
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Kosova?
VLLASI: It is true that since 1981 there were huge pressures coming
from Serbia to restrict the constitutional functions of Kosova.
And, until the end of 1988 and beginning of 1989, we defended our
constitutional competencies and the government mechanism in Kosova
functioned, when Serbs, facing our resistance, the strong
resistance of the people, started penetrating in Kosova through the
federal organs which had competencies over the federal units,
including us, and especially in some extraordinary cases. Then, the
Presidency of Yugoslavia decided to use the force, I was arrested,
and the constitutional autonomy was stepped on, by violence. The
other instrument of violence was the Communist League as the ruling
party, and the reason was that the Albanians stepped out from it
massively.
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lessons it teaches - meaning that only by learning something from
the political situation, one can contribute in a way.
MONUMENTS
And not only this, but different centers of Kosova there are always
more busts of personalities from the Serbian past and history and
less and less Albanian figures. It wouldn't be strange to find a
bust of an Albanian personality in sewage recipient holes or
garbage containers, as it happened with Emin Duraku's bust in
Gjakova and Hasan Prishtina's in Prishtina.
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Therefore, all Kosova's facades are full of cyrillic inscriptions
and all urban centers are being filled up with monuments and busts
of Serbian personalities.
Walking down the core of Prishtina, one can see the achievements of
Serb "reconstruction". The Serb Orthodox Church is being
constructed in the University Campus, in front of the Rectorate
stands the monument to Dositej Obradovic, on the grounds of the
Faculty of Philosophy stands the bust of Vuk Karadzic. All of this
would imply the existence of a Serbian culture if those monuments,
temples and busts were erected in an unused location or a location
not comprised by the urbanism plan. However, Vuk Karadzic's
monument was erected on the fundament of the monument to 104
victims of fascism - created by sculptor Radoslav Musa Miketic -
while the bust of Dositej Obradovic was placed in front of the
building of the Rectorate when the sculptures of the Symposium of
Contemporary Sculpture which aimed at becoming an international
event, were removed from the grounds.
The idea was to have these sculptures spread on all areas of the
University Center. Naturally, these pieces had no national or
ideological determinations; the themes were various and sculptors
from all parts of the Former Yugoslavia participated, including
Vojislav Vujisic, Agim Çavdërbasha, Svetomir Arsic, etc. We could
say that such "cultural" initiatives of Serbia have very low
motives and the least they have are cultural purposes. Behind stand
the political purposes aiming at the Serbianization of any Albanian
trace, be it cultural, traditional, urban or architectural.
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ideology, which destroyed or disfigured towns, as happened with the
ancient core of Prishtina, along with the mosques from the 14th
century, the synagogue and the catholic church (the same location
where the new church was built), which were "replaced" also by a
department store. The experts on the construction policy interpret
this as a trademark of Serbia and Yugoslavia in these areas without
urban culture and tradition, whose "style" is noticeable throughout
Kosova, where the towns are completely "new" and "constructed" with
the application of Yugoslav socialism in them.
All of those which have no urban continuity are being changed with
the installation of Serbian monuments or busts. Even those which
were constructed to the memory of the triumph against fascism here
- are disappearing, maybe even on purpose, on the fiftieth
anniversary of the victory against fascism! The removal of the
monument to brotherhood and unity of the Kosova people in Gjakova
was also cynical. It happened in the time when the Serbian
president again referred to this ex-Communist political slogan in
his policy towards Kosova. The reasons why this monument was
removed are found in the great Serbian religiousness! They needed
another orthodox church.
The monument in Klina was ruined in the most vandal way possible.
It was projected by Slobodan Maldini (student of famous Bogdan
Bogdanovic). What is paradoxical in all of this, as the well known
attorney and human rights activist Nekibe Kelmendi says, is that
this monument cost as much as twenty apartments, while the contract
for its construction was signed in 1985 by Milos Jeremic, then
President of the Municipality of Klina.
These acts are result of decisions and acts adopted by the highest
legislative organ - the parliament. As Kelmendi stresses, referring
to the construction of the church inside the University Campus, the
"Parliament of Serbia, with a Decision on the supplement to the
Decision for the Adoption of the Detailed Urbanism Plan of the
University Center in Prishtina, adopted on 15 December 1990, and
published in the "Official Herald of the RS" #18/90, added
paragraph 4 which states: "A Serbian orthodox temple will be built
in the part of cadastre lot # 7090 of the municipality of
Prishtina, and so will the Institute for Serb ecumenical history
and its accompanying buildings." So, in a complex exclusively
foreseen for superior education, a religious temple was to be
forcibly constructed, and what is worse, by violating the law.
These violations were evidenced in many aspects: the elaboration
and adoption of the act was done without the participation of the
local authorities where the site is located; the act was not
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adopted by the competent organ - the Municipal Assembly of
Prishtina; the draft program for the preparation of the space plan
was not done by the competent organ - The Planning and Development
Institute of Prishtina; the local association never discussed about
the proposal, and the proposal never came from the executive organ
of the municipality, which is a legal must. This Decision was also
contrary to the Decision for the adoption of the Urbanistic Plan of
Prishtina until the year 2000. But, the authors of this plan were
not only Albanians. The plan was elaborated during autonomy which
tends to be presented by Serbs as the period of Albanization of
Kosova. The co-authors of this plan were also the Institute for the
Construction of the Town of Belgrade, the Road Institute in
Belgrade, the Center for the Urban Planning and Development in
Belgrade and the Urbanism Institute of the SR of Croatia.
MACEDONIA
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attempt, and that its representative remained in Shkup on September
28, and set up the explosive device!
Frckovski also said that the attempt could have been directed
against the governmental organs, the Ministry of Interior in
particular. At the end of his statement, Frckovski said that he was
politically responsible, and immediately after the press
conference, he offered his resignation to Premier Crvenkovski.
The journalists were very much interested to listen to as many
details as possible about the attempt, but Frckovski gave evasive
answers. This was explained by the need of secrecy at this stage of
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investigations. There was no answer to the question which was the
neighboring country, what was the name of the "representative",
whether Macedonian nationals were involved, whether foreign secret
services were involved, and why was the impression that opposition
parties were involved created, with the permanent interrogations of
their members... The name of the former Interior functionary Pavle
Trajanov was mentioned several times, and he was the first one to
mention that organized crime was active in Macedonia, and that high
ranked officials were involved in it. Frckovski declared that this
had nothing to do with the attempt, and then stated that the
changes in the leading posts of the Ministry of Interior are result
of the new organization of the Ministry, done in accordance with
the law. Asked when could the public expect full information on the
case, or whether the police has everything under control, the reply
was direct: "The police does not have everything under control.
This form of criminal acts are very hard to discover even in more
serious states".
Another question was evaded during the press conference: what does
Frckovski's resignation really mean, whether it was irrevocable or
maybe there is a chance for the premier not to accept it. It is
clear that the premier is in a very delicate position: it would be
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normal if he would accept the resignation as well as the opinion of
the minister himself about his political responsibility. But, on
the other hand, the Ministry of Interior is in the phase of
reorganization - classical police is created and the former secret
services are being put aside - and a counter-informing service is
created and it will be under direct subordination of the President
of the Republic. New posts are created, others ceased to exist.
Many people consider that the departure of the first man of
Interior in Macedonia would cause chaos, because allegedly the ones
who are leaving would like to take advantage of the situation and
gain space for domination. A similar situation by the end of the
eighties and the "case of the eight suspended" created real chaos,
then supported by Frckovski's statement that it is not known how
deep have the foreign informative services penetrated in the
Ministry of Interior.
Naturally, again, it all depends of when and will the first man of
the state come back.
MACEDONIA
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of the Republic, who according to the Constitution replaces the
president in his absence or his incapacity (leaving aside that
there is nothing written about who is competent to detrmine this
and when) is one of the newest proofs that the state, in times of
Gligorov's incapacitation, functions without any problems. What's
more, the Macedonian delegation gathered additional political
points with the official inauguration of the Macedonian flag in
front of the UN building, and after signing the agreement with the
neighboring countries (but Greece) for the East-West communication
line...
- 18 -
fear that after the elections, the Macedonian representatives would
lose participation in decision making, because the municipalities
were dominated by the "others". When the first "free" elections
took place, this tendency was enforced when the electoral units
were disfigured (the difference of the number of voters were the
best proof of this "fishy business").
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official communication (especially the Turks).
KOSOVA
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democracy and the local draft-constitution) - maybe time for
political standstill in such an energetic and effective state. And,
which it is said to last at least three years.
But, thanks to God and the "moisty rain in our political drought",
and thanks to the constellation in general, the last months did
evidence some important events and by all means useful to further
explain our national fate in the repressive daily life: thus, we
experienced the women mega-conference in Beijing, Adem Demaçi's
mega-interview in "Zëri", Rugova's and Bakalli's interviews by BBC
- Albanian section and Rexhep Qosja's interview in Belgrade's
"Intervju".
Let's put aside the cliched practice to claim that the harshest
criticism to the political flows in Kosova usually were and
continue being articulated by the most "independent" and the most
"marginalized" politically - the above interviews (apart from Dr.
Rugova's, "in accordance to the postures adopted by the
Presidency.."), would easily become part of the anthology of harsh
accusations against the (so far) one and only untouchable among us:
the LDK, its leadership and its chairman.
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invented independence and that "of the certain realization of our
national aspirations for freedom within the parallel system".
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the interests of the people and the nation...". Full stop.
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Without elaborating how come the issue of national liberation was
defined (so quickly) as professionalized politics, a reserved one
and with the tendency to restrict even more the decision making
circle - the question would be: Who can profit from all this lack
of interest? The ones who propagated it, and who according to Qosja
and Demaçi (and not only them) are precisely the LDK and it's
leadership, which through "exclusions, exclusiveness and tagging"
got hold of the complete monopoly over the Kosova Albanians? Or the
contrary: this stagnation will turn into a silent witness of the
political lynch which would follow while looking for the
responsible of the capital failure which is more and more
emphasized - remaining in FRY?
Who knows, maybe our political leadership knows something that the
mortal human is not allowed to know: maybe it knows "about the
politics of mimicry, conspiracies, gesticulations...". However,
Nasa Borba is often more read carefully. And here, there are no
dilemmas.
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political mediator between Belgrade and Prishtina, based on its
plan known as UNTANS - United Nations Temporary Authority for
Negotiated Settlement in Kosovo, foresees also the withdrawal of
the Serbian police and the reduction of the army troops (only for
defending purposes), also the appointment of a foreign
Administrator - but not the abrogation of the discriminating laws
of Serbia or the dispute of the autonomy as something which evolves
towards the independence through political declaration. There are
no dilemmas here either.
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