A life of high risk

By Jelena Tasic

In the courtyard of the dormitory of the Pec Patriarchate: Radmila Grkovic, a victim of the March 17 violence, and Violeta Krstic

Orahovac, Belgrade - For more than five years the residents of the Serb quarter of Orahovac have lived, as they themselves claim, on lists - for entry to and exit from Orahovac, humanitarian aid, monetary assistance and everything else - but also with the conviction that the resolution of the fate of this Metohija village will be the model which will be implemented throughout Kosovo and Metohija. They say that there are many reasons for them to feel like guinea pigs because, with the exception of Prizren, where most of the remaining 46 Serbs are living in a German KFOR military base, the isolation of Orahovac and nearby Velika Hoca is practically unmatched anywhere in the south Serbian province.

"After the arrival of international forces the Serbian part of town was gradually transformed into an enclave, the enclave into a ghetto, and life in the ghetto into a hell. Representatives of international organizations have no sympathy for our dissatisfaction with life in the ghetto, which they refer to by less horrible names. They have suggested that we also use more civilized terms, for example, "the Serbian quarter", "the Serbian or upper part of town" and even "the northern part of town", following the example of Kosovska Mitrovica, even though the geographical position of the Serbian part of Orahovac bears no relation whatsoever to north on the compass. We now use their favorite term, enclave, as a concession to the sensibilities of the members of the international community," explains Dejan Baljosevic, the deputy head of the local UNMIK office for the communities of Velika Hoca and the upper part of Orahovac.

Statistics According to Serbian statistics, in the past six years 18 Serbs have been killed, 60 wounded and 66 kidnapped in the municipality of Orahovac. In addition to Serbs, seven Egyptians and one Roma were also kidnapped. Before the war the KLA murdered nine Serbs; during the war it killed three more and one was killed in the NATO bombing. After the war four more Serbs were murdered. Before the war the Albanians kidnapped 39 Serbs and five Egyptians. During the war there were no kidnappings but after the introduction of international administration, 27 Serbs, two Egyptians and one Roma were kidnapped. After the war Albanian extremists in the municipality of Orahovac torched 233 Serbian houses. According to Albanian statistics, during the war 10,670 Albanian houses were destroyed.

Although Esad Hadziaha, the mayor of the municipality of Orahovac, has on several occasions contested the pre-war numbers of his Serbian cohabitants, official data of the local UNMIK office in the Serbian part of town show that out of a total of 5,200 Serbs living in the municipality until the introduction of the international protectorate only 1,240 now remain: 540 in the town of Orahovac and 700 in Velika Hoca three kilometers away. With the exception of one Gorani family, the Serbs say, the Albanian part of Orahovac is ethnically pure while on the hillside, there are large numbers of Albanians, Egyptians, Roma and a Bosniac family of four living next to the Serbs. In Velika Hoca there are two Roma families sharing life with the Serbs.

"Everything happened like in a film" Even though the March 17 violence did not have the same scope in Orahovac as in the north and central part of Kosovo and Metohija, during an attack by 2,000 Albanians from the lower part of town a Serbian couple, Radmila and Stanisa Grkovic, were beaten up and their house in Vidovdanska street on the line of demarcation was demolished. "When the masses came, my husband and I were on the balcony. They were shouting "KLA, KLA". The crowd consisted only of men aged 18 to 30 years. They carried flags, poles, stones, bricks... We quickly closed the door and went inside. They charged on the first floor and broke everything. Then they climbed up to our floor. One group was beating my husband, another was beating me. They dragged me until they snatched my purse with my documents and the money I was holding in my hand. I saw my husband was covered in blood. Three or four groups took turns. Each of them beat us. They dragged me down the stairs, punching and kicking me. They hit him with blunt objects. He was heavily beaten: his head, his entire left leg. He survived by a thread. The nerve in his left leg is damaged. He just started to walk a little very recently. Everything happened very quickly, like in a film, in half a hour or so. The Kosovo police and the UNMIK police watched all this from a nearby house in the street. They did not have the strength to protect us," said Radmila Grkovic. She and her husband were transferred to the hospital in Mitrovica only after two weeks, where they remained for more than a month. Upon leaving the hospital they received monetary assistance from UNMIK in the amount of 20 euros, which was handed to them by the mayor. Radmila Grkovic says she has  not filed charges against those whom she recognized in the crowd that beat them because everyone knows who they were but were pretending they did not. Their house was visited by Bajram Rexhepi, the prime minister of the Kosovo provisional government and has been partially repaired; however, the Grkovices do not want to return there. They are presently living in the former dormitory of the Pec Patriarchate. They say that their documents and money, 500 euros, necessary for further medical treatment and rehabilitation, has not been returned to them. They are happy that at least their 24 year old son, who is currently in Belgrade, was not at home on March 17.

There are several explanations as to why Orahovac was selected for the first KLA attacks back in 1998 circulating among the Serbs. The first is strategic, since Orahovac had no military except for a purely educational and disciplinary presence because the more militant Albanians from the Drenica region and neighboring Malisevo were seriously complaining to their compatriots from Orahovac for "minding their own affairs and cooperating with the Serbs while (their compatriots) bled". Many believe that a similar tactic was repeated on March 17 of this year in Prizren, which paid the price for the first signs of post-war "pro-European tolerance".

In Orahovac they point out that the Orahovac area, with its large number of purely Albanian villages where the Serbian police did not venture, was a stronghold of the KLA and its network. In the attack on Orahovac in 1998 four Serbs were murdered and 39 abducted.

The present enclaves, the upper part of Orahovac and Velika Hoca, were created after the withdrawal of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Army and Serbian police from Kosovo and Metohija. The belief was that this was the best interim solution for the temporary self-defense of the Serbs during the filling of the so-called "security vacuum" and the deployment of KFOR troops.

"KFOR did not establish control checkpoints on the lines of demarcation themselves but always 20-50 meters inside the enclaves, abandoning Serbian families in front of the checkpoint to the mercy of Albanian extremists. As the enclave grew smaller, KFOR followed the Serbs and pulled its security checkpoints deeper and deeper to avoid direct confrontation with the Albanians. Now the Serbian part of town is separated from the Albanian part by a so-called buffer zone of torched Serbian houses," explained Dejan Baljosevic.

Serbs are now saying that the period during which German KFOR maintained permanent checkpoints and closed off side access with barbed wire was "a period of somewhat more relaxed and carefree life". KFOR's poor assessments that violence would decrease and frequent irritation with reporters who despite bans took photographs of the barbed wire, which became a symbol of the Kosovo Serbs' way of life, led to the discontinuation of security checkpoints. "They tried to convince us that they were doing it for our own good so we wouldn't have the impression that we were in prison," said local residents of Orahovac.

Albanians pass through the Serbian part of town freely on foot or in automobiles. "Except to provoke us, they also come to buy Serbian property for which they offer great sums of money. For many smarter and more moderate Albanians, this method is a safer and more effective way of completing the final phase of ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija territory," believes Dejan Baljosevic.

Baljosevic says that "the number of serious crimes has fallen but that's not the result of an improvement in the security conditions but the result of increasing caution on the part of the Serbs themselves who, living under new rules that impose a life of high risk on the isolated enclave, are trying to keep the lowest profile possible in order not to attract the attention of extremist Albanians".

"Every Serb knows when and where he can move freely. He knows that he can work only land in immediate proximity to the enclave and that he must go there with a group, never alone. He knows that he must not respond to the provocations of Albanians who entertain themselves by passing through the enclave looking for a reason for argument and assault. Having learned by past experiences that representatives of international organizations have little understanding for their right to a normal life, the Serbs have resigned themselves to the situation, grown accustomed to their isolation, sinking slowly into gloomy Kosovo daily life which Albanian political leaders and so-called intellectuals are cynically calling the new Kosovo reality," says Baljosevic.

This reality, according to him, maintains a state of illusory balance due to which all three sides are superficially content: "The Albanians are happy that they can continue ethnic cleansing and discrimination against Serbs unhindered and unpunished. The international representatives are happy because they can represent this false peace as a success of their mission. And the Serbs are happy, in spite of the fact that the present situation is unfavorable to them, merely to still be alive."

To be continued