Ancient Blood Feuds Resurface In Kosovo

ONASA (BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA FEDERATION)
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

Released : Dec 22, 2005 8:27 PM

PETROVE, Serbia-Montenegro, Dec 22 (ONASA - AFP) - The centuries-old custom of blood feuds has gripped a part of Kosovo, threatening the lives of people in two clans as it did with thousands of ethnic Albanians in the past.

The feud between the two clans began at the end of November when Fadil Mujota, a 36-year-old father of four, was shot dead at a gas station owned by the Beqaj family in the central village of Belinc.

"Fadil went to Belinc to fill a tank with gasoline. His friends, who were waiting for him in a nearby cafe, had no time even to put sugar in their coffee when they heard shots and found him covered in blood," said Shaip Mujota, the victim's eldest brother.

The circumstances behind the murder are still not clear, although a main suspect, 16-year-old Arlind Beqaj, has been detained pending a trial.

The blood feud system is believed to have re-emerged in Kosovo due to a power vacuum during the UN-run province's painful transition from conflict six and a half years ago.

As a result, many Albanians in Kosovo have returned to the laws of their tribal roots in a bid to settle disputes, namely the Code of Leke Dukagjini, an Albanian aristocrat from the era of struggle against Ottoman rule in the 14th century.

The legal system that has since existed in Kosovo, as well as parts of neighboring Albania, includes the right to kill to avenge murders, or "whoever kills, will be killed".

An estimated 50 murders in the province have been linked to blood revenge between the end of Kosovo's 1998-1999 war between Serbian forces and Albanian rebels and the end of last year.

"Kosovo is still in a vacuum between strong traditions of the past and modern values," Naim Maloku, sociologist and professor at the Pristina University, told AFP.

Maloku noted that Kosovo's society was "deeply patriarchal, torn by its inclination toward the West and by its religious past which originates from the East."

"These two civilizations clash, pushing people towards one or another pole and making them oscillate between them," he added.

Last week, six brothers from the 60-member Mujota clan were still receiving condolences from friends and family at their homes in the hillside village of Mollopolce.

The Mujotas, well-known and respected here for their contribution to the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force that fought Serbian forces during the conflict, could hardly hide their anger at the lack of any rule of law.

"Unfortunately, the system does not function. I know that no one can return our brother. God willing, Fadil will be the last victim," said Shaip Mujota.

He said he had given his word of honor, or "Besa" -- a rule declaring that any murderer will not to be killed outside his home -- to the Beqajs and their children, "who have to go to school."

"I am a teacher and I know that going to school is important," Mujota said.

"But we have to know why our brother was killed."

Since the killing, the pressure has mounted on both families, aware of the custom that those deciding against vengeance and "honor killings" were seen as cowards and considered unworthy.

Although the Dukagjini code also offers ways for the families to reconcile through mediation by influential people respected by both sides, the two clans are yet to find a truce.

There were no signs of life outside six traditionally high-walled Beqaj houses in the muddy village of Petrove, set in the eerily calm mountainous region.

"We are in a blood feud with the Mujotas," admitted 63-year-old Fehmi Beqaj, the head of the 70-member clan known in the region as successful merchants.

"We are waiting for the dispute with the Mujotas to be resolved," he said, adding that their gas station and sawmill businesses had been paralyzed for weeks.

Beqaj said the "Besa" offered by the Mujotas would last till the third day of the Muslim Bayram holiday in the middle of February.

"Until then, our children can freely go to school, but after it expires, we will be confined to our houses until this dispute is over," Fehmi said, turning down the likelihood the matter could be resolved with the help of police.

The feud was "between the two families and will be settled in accordance with the code ... What God decides, will be," he said.

BETA WEEK - Belgrade

The UN deputy envoy for the Kosovo future status talks, Albert Rohan, asked Belgrade and Pristina last week to offer specific topics for debate to open the talks. The international community is actually sending a clear signal of its determination to steer the negotiating process to everyday needs of the people living in the province, sidelining endless Kosovo Albanian discussions on independence and Belgrade's insistence on Kosovo being an integral part of Serbia and Montenegro.

Belgrade's reaction to this has been positive.

Head of the Coordinating Center for Kosovo Sanda Raskovic-Ivic said that decentralization and the status of Serb private, state and church property in the province should be the opening issues. Raskovic's suggestion indicates that the Serbian authorities, albeit under direct international pressure, have become more pragmatic and focused on matters of direct relevance to the position of Kosovo Serbs and Serbia's state interests in the province. This approach differs greatly from the original priority that Kosovo should remain within Serbia and Montenegro, which senior government officials continue to press for in their statements.

It is also good for Belgrade that Rohan has also put forward decentralization and minority protection as central themes of the talks.

Belgrade believes the decentralization process is a way to protect Kosovo Serbs and guarantee broader autonomy and links with Serbia to Serb-majority municipalities in the province. The Albanians will in all likelihood insist on these municipalities' connection with the government in Pristina. The realistic
expectation is that international representatives will encourage both sides to reach a compromise in this and many other negotiating battles ahead.

Raskovic has by no means exhausted the list of topics for debate, since the Serbian negotiating team is yet to produce a definite negotiating platform. Unofficial sources say the document will be based on the Serbian government plan for Kosovo designed earlier and a Kosovo agenda offered by Serbian President Boris Tadic. No dramatic turns are expected, since not only the views of the president and the government largely coincide, but they have also realized that specific issues, like decentralization, deserve priority.

UN special envoy for the Kosovo status talks Martti Ahtisaari said earlier this week in New York that his impression from the meetings he had in Belgrade and Pristina was that the two sides were ready to begin the dialogue with a local government reform, describing the issue as very important for the

protection of non- Albanian communities in Kosovo, Serbs in particular. "Kosovo Albanians will have to take this into account and join the discussion," the Finnish diplomat said.

Two Ministries

Having encouraged the two sides to select specific issues to discuss at the beginning of the talks, the international community allowed Kosovo's provisional institutions to set up a ministry of the interior and a ministry of justice.

The decision will not only force the provisional authorities to take a more active part in protecting minorities, but it has also eliminated the possibility of debates on police and judiciary sneaking into the negotiating process.

The justice ministry was first mentioned in Kai Eide's recommendations last year, when the Norwegian diplomat sent a report to the UN secretary general on the causes and consequences of anti-Serb violence in March 2004. Eide said in his report that "the process of transferring powers to Kosovo in the field

of judiciary was underway." The international community, however, has no intention of leaving police and judiciary entirely in the hands of the Kosovo government. The European Union announced this month that it would play an important role in the two sectors.

Albanian parties have interpreted the forming of the two new ministries as yet another step that brings them closer to their ultimate goal -- an independent Kosovo. It will certainly help them contain the pressure from radical Albanians to promulgate independence immediately and who also believe that independence should not be negotiated at all. There is little probability that the new ministries will become operative and independent immediately. Instead, officials say it will be a gradual process.

Belgrade

Kosovo Serbs and Belgrade have criticized the international decision as an incentive to pro-independence aspirations in the province.

However, no avalanche of protests followed.

The reaction might be described as moderate, and not indicating any radical or dramatic changes in Serbia's approach to the Kosovo issue. The process clearly enjoys international support, which means that the Serbian side, even if it wished to react strongly, could actually do nothing to stop it.

A careful analyst of the Serbian ruling coalition's behavior over the past few months might not be surprised by the lukewarm reaction to the news that two delicate sectors have been transferred to the provisional government in Kosovo.

Namely, Belgrade officials have never explicitly asked that Serbia should exert powers over police and judiciary in the entire province, insisting instead that all autonomous powers should be granted to Serb municipalities. This is in line with the announcements that Belgrade would bring up decentralization as the topic number one for the talks, which boils down to the request for the Serbs to enjoy police and judicial powers in their local governments.

UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] has decided to expand the influence of municipal assembly presidents in appointing local police chiefs. They will be offered three candidates to choose from. This might be favorable for the Kosovo Serbs, who have asked for greater powers of new municipalities that are to be formed during the decentralization process in the procedure of appointing leading police officials.!