Why the remaining Serbs in Orahovac believe that the future of their town will be a model for all of Kosovo and Metohija (4)
A costume party for the cameras and an opportunity for photos
By Jelena Tasic
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| Most customers are Albanians: Stanislav Stojanovic, potter |
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Orahovac, Belgrade - "After the arrival of the international mission in Kosovo and Metohija the entire industrial zone of Orahovac, all agricultural and industrial facilities remained on the other side of the line of demarcation with the lower part of the city and inaccessible to the Serbs. Since 1999 no one has attempted to reinstate them in their jobs because their companies are undergoing a privatization process. We complained to the Agency for Privatization. There are not enough jobs for the Albanians, either, and barely 15 percent of them are employed," says Dejan Baljosevic, the deputy chief of the UNMIK Local Community Office for Velika Hoca and Orahovac.
According to Baljosevic, the remaining Serbs live from pensions, social assistance, and renting their houses to foreigners. In Velika Hoca the situation is even more difficult because there are not as many foreigner renters who, as a rule, prefer to live in Serbian settlements. The wine industry is also going through difficult times. In Velika Hoca about 30 percent of the vineyards once belonging to Serbs are being cultivated; in Orahovac it is only 10 to 15 percent.
"We can travel from upper Orahovac to Velika Hoca at our own risk. We always go in groups. Some act as sentries while the others work. Many people don't know what happened to their property located on the peripheries and in the hills. We lack escorts for regular pruning, spraying and harvesting of the vineyards," say the Orahovac Serbs.
| OSCE advisory role The OSCE department for democratization in Orahovac covers three municipalities: Orahovac, Djakovica and Malisevo. "Each of these three municipalities has its own characteristics and its own problems that are a priority. Malisevo is a rural municipality where only 2,500 people live in the town. A lot is being done there on information distribution in the villages, which are presently cut off from municipal institutions, which is also the case in other municipalities. In Djakovica there are a lot of minority communities but no Serbs. There work is being done on returns of the Roma community, many of whom are currently displaced in Podgorica. In Orahovac we have a problem with the return of the Serbian community currently also being addressed by the Committee for communities, whose job it is supervise decisions and actions of the municipalities, as well as to ensure respect for rights of all communities in the community," says Alexandra Simpson. She adds that in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Kosovo and Metohija OSCE will have an advisory role for which a special department will have responsibility. "In Orahovac we have local elections officials who are working together with municipal officials. Everything is up to the people and local politicians who need to see what they need to do in order to get people to vote. Our job is to ensure that they know the law and their jobs when they are elected into the institutions," notes Simpson. |
In the present situation best off are those employed in education, health and the municipal administration because the Serbian Government have found a way to re-employ them and pay them salaries, which have been increased on the Serbian side by the decision of the Serbian Government. This has resulted in social stratification of the remaining Serbian population because neither UNMIK nor Belgrade care about the industrial workers.
| Pottery and tarambukas One of the few trades that has survived the new living conditions in Orahovac is that of the potter. Stanislav Stojanovic, the potter of Orahovac, learned his trade from his father. He lived with his family in the lower part of town. "We were the only Serbian house among the Albanians. They were good neighbors and my main customers. They also delivered my materials. When we moved here into my friend's house, they came from the Solidarites organization and asked me whether I wanted to work in my trade and provided me with the necessary machines. I fixed them up a little. I am not working as much as before because in this crisis it is difficult to obtain clay, oxide, glaze... Before 100 euros would pay for a truckload of earth from Djakovica, now they are asking for 400. The problem is that there is also no demand," says Stojanovic. He says that Albanians are still his main customers. They buy only ceramic parts for chimneys, which Stojanovic sells for four euros, although he claims he could get at least twice that at the farmer's market. "Serbs buy mostly earthenware pots, so-called 'kalenice', which they send to central Serbia. Here everyone already has them. My pension is only 5,800 and we are a family of five. I have three children going to school. I could not survive just with my trade. Out of the ten of us, only one other brother and myself are potters. He moved somewhere close to Gornja Batocina and went completely bankrupt. There is no work for him, he has no income and he has four children. I don't have enough to help him because we are barely making ends meet," says Stojanovic. His tarambukas (vase drums) have a better quality sound than the popular Arab ones. "Not everyone knows how to make tarambukas. I was fortunate that an Albanian who played the tarambuka in an Albanian orchestra taught me how to make them. Later, circumstances forced me to learn how to mount the skins. One needs solvent, a young goat's skin, which gives the best sound, that needs to be tanned, dried, soaked and prepared," explains Stojanovic. |
"They are socially the most at-risk part of the population both in Orahovac and in Velika Hoca. Although the Local Community Office provided carefully checked lists, because of error on the part of employees in the Ministry for Social Issues, many of them did not even receive a one-time stipend of 15,660 dinars approved by the Serbian Government to assist them," points out Baljosevic.
Zivorad Grkovic, a former deputy in the Serbian Assembly, says that the remaining Serbs in Orahovac are divided "into poor people and people who are concerned, many of whom have already built houses in central Serbia".
"Ninety percent of those remaining are elderly people whose families have already been moved to central Serbia, and who stayed behind to sell the land and house. A second group are those who are receiving salaries: educators, medical and municipal staff, 70 percent of whom have built houses in central Serbia. They can't find a common language with someone who is receiving a miserable social assistance payment, let alone with those who have nothing. There has been no assistance of any sort since April. There is no money, no freedom, no electricity, no water... So far the Serbian Government has paid three months of compensation for laid off industrial workers; it still owes eight months. It's 5,800 dinars each. I really don't know if one can survive with that amount. God forbid if we should start paying water and electricity," says Grkovic.
"I've gone to the Coordinating Center. I've bombarded the various ministries with stories about life here. They're not interested. I am especially surprised by Mr. Covic, who has created such divisions among the people. Last year he came and told us decisively: 'Those who want to go can go; those who want to stay can stay.' Before he used to talk so much about how Serbia stood behind us and in front of us. Unfortunately, Serbia has done nothing yet for Kosovo. Instead of helping the Serbian people, our politicians just give bombastic statements when the Albanians kill some Serb or when it's election time," says Zivorad Grkovic categorically.
Alexandra Simpson of Britain, the head of the team for democratization of the OSCE department for democratization in Orahovac, says that things are not all black and that there is an initiative by Albanian private business owners to employ workers from the Serbian community in their factories. In Orahovac there are currently two Albanian private farms, one producing wine and the other roof tiles, which are looking for Serbian workers. The Albanian language press wrote about it but the Serbian side suspects it is "a marketing ploy on the part of Albanians who want to get loans to begin working because many foreign investors condition investments on project multiethnicity".
"Nevertheless, we see this as a positive initiative in which we can assist. At the end of last year we worked with the municipality to draw up a plan for integration of municipal officials from the Serbian community back to the Municipality but March 17 had a negative impact on the situation. We don't provide donations but we invest a lot of effort in assisting the establishment of contacts," says Simpson.
She notes that OSCE in Orahovac currently has a concrete project, a Youth assembly whose participants are secondary school students. "We took care to also include children from the rural communities. During the training process they will learn about the functioning of democratic institutions. A joint camp will be organized for children from 10 municipalities where this project is being implemented. Our goal is for young people to have a defined position regarding their needs so that they will participate in the work of the municipalities and resolve their problems. After the first meeting everyone went together to a park in the city," emphasized Simpson.
At the beginning of August the Youth center founded by the German NGO "Students for life" celebrated its fourth anniversary of work. Both Serbian municipal representatives and Serbian youth, for whom a satellite office of the Center has been opened in the upper town, were invited to attend the main celebration held in the headquarters of the Center near the bus station in lower (Albanian) Orahovac.
Handshakes and greetings exchanged with the hosts, all of whom speak Serbian was the extent of the Serbian-Albanian social mixing with the exception of an Orahovac reporter who briefly joined the Serbian group.
The situation did not change after the "mandatory" formal ceremony, where all the speeches were in Albanian and without translation despite the fact that at least half of the guests were Serbs. International representatives had their personal translators at their side. After the formal introduction, accompanied by discrete evergreen music, the gap between the Serbs and the Albanians was filled by the latest Albanian pop hits played too loudly. Those familiar with local conditions claim that when Albanians visit the upper part of town they behave differently and far more casually. At things considered, it is hard to overcome the impression of most local residents of Orahovac that it was all "a costume party for the cameras and an opportunity for photos".
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