Serbs in KosovoTHREE ASSEMBLIES
The Province of Kosovo and the status of the Serbs who remain there following the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army and police continues to be one of the central issues in the conflict between the Serbian authorities and the opposition. The authorities are desperately trying to maintain influence over the remaining Serbs in Kosovo, claiming that their polices in years past had been quite correct and that the responsibility for everything that has happened in Kosovo and continues to happen there is the responsibility of the West and the international community. At the same time the authorities wish to lessen the influence of their chief political rivals in the province, the leaders of the Church-National Assembly Bishop Artemije and Momcilo trajkovic, who have close relations with the representatives of the U.N. and international forces.
In Zvecan, a hamlet in northern Kosovo on July 30, local officials close to Belgrade, established the Serb National Assembly, a new organization of Kosovo Serbs. The state and pro-state media gave the event much publicity. A key role in establishing the assembly was played by the chairman of the Temporary Executive Council of Kosovo, Zoran Andjelkovic. The assembly is composed of representatives of the municipalities, the heads of districts and members of the Yugoslav parliament and Serbian legislature from Kosovo. The assembly is chaired by the until recently director of the Serbian public revenue service branch office in Pristina, Zivojin Mitrovic. Practically, all of them are members of the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia, while the organization is no more than a new edition of the former Serb authorities in the province.
The Serb National Assembly is a kind of counter weight to the Church-National Assembly. Until now Belgrade had maintained the stand that it has full legitimacy in Kosovo and the its officials are the only legitimate representatives with whom the international community may cooperate. However, the majority of those officials withdrew from Kosovo with the Yugoslav army and the police, while individuals and organizations gathered around the Church-National Assembly have intensified activists and openly started to cooperate with the international community, which now plays the decisive role in the province. The international community is ignoring the representatives of the Serbian authorities in Kosovo, and is trying to resolve current problems with Trajkovic and Bishop Artemije. the decision to establish the Serbian National Assembly can therefore be interpreted as an attempt by the authorities to make up for lost time and to entrench a Serb organization under its control, which can act as a foil to Serb organizations that are not controlled by Belgrade.
Organizations
Serb organizations in Kosovo have sprung up as a result of internal disagreements and pressure from the central authorities in Belgrade over the years past. Until the arrival of the international forces in Kosovo, the Serbs held all the power in the province, where the albanians formed their own underground authorities. At the local level there had been 30 municipalities and five districts. Except for the southern municipalities of Gora and Dragas, in all other municipalities the Serbs headed the municipalities and districts. The dissatisfaction of some of the Serbs and the Serb Orthodox Church with the policies being pursued by the Serb and Yugoslav authorities in Kosovo, resulted first of all several years ago in the establishment of the Serb Resistance Movement, which was joined by the Serb Orthodox Church.
The leaders of the Serb Resistance Movement are Momcilo Trajkovic and Bishop Artemije. The Serb Resistance Movement and the Serb Orthodox Church organized the first Church-National Assembly, which was held at Gracanica Monastery near Pristina. By the time the war started in Kosovo the Assembly had met several times and started functioning as a kind of parliament. Representatives of the Serbian opposition were regularly invited to attend the Assembly meetings, but the opposition did not accord it any significance. At the last session of the Assembly held on the eve of the NATO intervention, the National-Political Council of the Assembly was established. Trajkovic and Bishop Artemije became the leading figures on the council, being successful in presenting themselves to the international community as the authentic representatives of the Kosovo Serbs. The seat of the National-Political Council is in Gracanica near Pristina.
The people involved in the activities of the Church-National Council have in the mean time taken two of the three seats assigned to Serbs in the Transitional Council for Kosovo, the highest body of authority of the U.N. civilian mission in the province. Members of that council are Momcilo Trajkovic and Bishop Artemije. trajkovic had earlier announced the the third seat could go to a political option different from his, meaning the authorities in Belgrade. The Serb National Assembly at its founding meeting already offered its candidates for the seats on the Transitional council to the director of the Pristina office of the Serbian public revenue service, zivojin Mitrovic and the the head of the Kosovo district, Veljko Odalovic.
Besides the Serb National Assembly (which is controlled by the authorities) and the Church-National Assembly, there is also a Serb National council. This is organization of serbs living in the enclaves in the north of the province. The organization was formed in January of this year, and its members are Serbs from Kosovska Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Leposavic and Zvecan. The Serb National Council is closer to the opposition then it is to the authorities. This organization is showing a tendency to cooperate closely with the Church-National Assembly.
The Population
Representatives of the Serbian authorities are especially active in several of the municipalities in the northern enclaves, where Serbs are the absolute majority of the population and where they feel safe. Observers in Belgrade believe that these areas could become very significant in the near future, as the expulsion of the Serbs from the other areas of the province, where they are in the minority continues. Representatives of the authorities are mostly not present outside the northern enclaves, where most activists are members of the Church-National Assembly. The continued expulsion of the Serbs would have a more adverse effect on the Trajkovic and Bishop Artemije then it would on the authorities.
Considering the fact that the remaining Serb population is increasingly concentrating in the northern border areas towards serbia, it would be realistic to conjecture that it could result in some kind of division of territory in the field. The possibility of dividing Kosovo had been mentioned in Belgrade even before the NATO airstrikes, but it was believed that the Serb side would receive close to the same portion of the province as would the Albanians. Officially there are no known plans concerning this, but this idea could become current if the influence of Belgrade in Kosovo continues to weaken, and the Serbs continue to move out.
The assessments concerning the number of Serbs who remain in Kosovo vary between some 30,000 and 100,000. According to the last official census of the population taken in 1991, there were close to 100,000 Serbs in Kosovo. It is possible that the number of remaining Serbs is closer to the greater assessment than the lesser, as there is information that some have remained in their homes in isolated enclaves. Although there is no reliable data, it is possible that there are as many as 80,000 Serbs still in Kosovo at this moment. Most are in the northern enclaves.
The leader of the Serb National Council, Marko Jaksic, several days ago announced that according to data at the disposal of the council, some 40,000 serbs remain in Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvecan, zubin Potok, Leposavic and Leska. According to assessments by local Serb sources some 1,000 Serbs remain in the provincial capital of Pristina. They are mostly elderly people who stayed behind to look after houses and apartments belonging to their families. There are at least five thousand people in the villages around Pristina and Kosovo Polje. At least 3,000 Serb families remain scattered in Gracanica, Laplje Selo, Cagalvica, Preoc, Donaja and Gornja Gusterica, Livadja, Bresje, Ugljar, Batus, Suva Dol, and Lepina. If on the average they have only two members, then this is a total of 6,000 people. In the area between Pristina and Vucitrn (Priluzje, Plemetina, Babin Most and other villages) there are some 2,000 Serbs.
The Church-National Council in the area of Gnjilane, in eastern Kosovo, announced that there are 30,000 Serbs in that part of the province. The region is known as Kosovsko Pomoravlje. The Serbs did not leave Strpci in southern Kosovo. According to assessments there are at least 10,000 serbs in that part of the province. In Gorazdevac near Pec (western Kosovo) there are 400 men, while in Orahovac and Velika Hoca (central Kosovo) there are respectively 2,500 and 1,250 Serbs.
(Beta)
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