Serbs in KosovoWITHOUT PROTECTION OR FUTURE
The Yugoslav and Serbian authorities' influence on developments in Serbia's province of Kosovo is dwindling at breakneck speed, while the position of Kosovo Serbs is becoming worse and worse despite the international community's efforts to protect them. It is difficult to establish the accurate number of Serbs and Montenegrins who remain in Kosovo, and estimates range from 40,000 to 100,000. Their fears became particularly strong after Sept. 28, when two missiles were fired at an open market in the village of Bresje, near Kosovo Polje. Two people were killed and 47 wounded in the attack.
The bombing attack on Bresje was the most serious incident since the Sept. 20 announcement that the Kosovo Liberation Army had turned-over its weapons, and of the establishment of the Kosovo Protection Corps, headed by the former KLA military leader, Agim Ceku. Displeased with a decision over the KLA transformation, two Serb representatives in the Transitional Council of Kosovo, Raska-Prizren diocese Bishop Artemije and Momcilo Trajkovic withdrew from the council, which is a particularly serious problem for the Serbs in Kosovo.
A local Serb official from Gracanica, near Pristina, who is close to Trajkovic, told BETA that international condemnation of the attack on Bresje was cold comfort for the Serbs in Kosovo. He believes that the decision by Bishop Artemije and Trajkovic to withdraw from the Kosovo Transitional Council, headed by Bernard Kouchner, was justified, but that the move would make the protection of Kosovo Serbs' interests even more difficult, since there is no one to represent the Serb population on the council.
Explaining their resignations, Trajkovic and Bishop Artemije said that they could not accept the fact that "a terrorist organization has been legalized" behind their backs, a reference to the establishment of the Kosovo Protection Corps. They added that they lost a great deal of the initial trust their compatriots had placed in them, since representatives of international organizations failed to fulfill their promises. The Bishop's deputy on the council, Father Sava, said that the loss of trust in Trajkovic and Bishop Artemije could make the Kosovo Serbs turn again to the authorities in Belgrade and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Trajkovic repeated on several occasions that Milosevic and former KLA leader Hashim Thaqi have benefited most from the developments in Kosovo.
Still, the Serb representatives have left their doors open to cooperation with the U.N. mission and KFOR, but they had to withdraw, since their compatriots would never forgive them their consent to the establishment of the Kosovo Protection Corps. Trajkovic is trying to improve the aggravated position of Serbs in Kosovo by strengthening the existing ties with the opposition coalition Alliance for Change. He asked the coalition to more eagerly promote the cause of Kosovo Serbs in the West. Trajkovic believes that the province will be certainly lost if the Serbs of Kosovo turn to the authorities in Belgrade again.
Logically, the weakening influence of Trajkovic and Bishop Artemije suits Milosevic, who has almost no influence on the events in Kosovo. International representatives contact the Yugoslav Committee for Cooperation with U.N. Mission in Kosovo only when they have to. Trajkovic and Bishop Artemije believe that the committee is no more than a smoke screen for the authorities in Belgrade to maintain the illusion that they are able to protect the country's sovereignty in Kosovo.
Parallel authorities
Last week, sources close to the Church-National Assembly in Gracanica, as well as the Serbian National Council in Kosovska Mitrovica, which is the only large urban area inhabited by Serbs, said that the Kosovo Serbs would form their own parallel institutions in Kosovo. Also, they hinted that they would ask for a permit to establish a force similar to the Kosovo Protection Corps that would include Serbs. The idea of cantonizing Kosovo was also re-activated, and the Democratic Party has offered a similar solution. Democrat leader Zoran Djindjic has presented his party's platform for Kosovo in several European capitals.
The international community will never let the Kosovo Serbs form their parallel institutions, while prospects are rather poor for them to impose such a solution on the merritt of their own strength. The number of Serbs who remain in Kosovo is small, and they are still ill-organized and disunited. Serb enclaves surrounding Pristina, as well as the isolated ones in the south of Kosovo, have no strength whatsoever. Even in the Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, chances that the Serb parallel institutions or some kind of Serb protection corps could be formed are rather slim.
Diplomatic sources in Pristina claim that the idea to divide Kosovo into cantons and establish of a Serb defense force were refused, and that no one considered them in the same light as the two Serb bodies that proposed them wished. A diplomat in Pristina, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told BETA that such a message was conveyed to the Serbs during NATO Secretary General Javier Solana's recent visit to Kosovo. The Serbs could possibly count on better protection and the establishment of special protected zones for them, but they will not be given a chance to form their own authorities. The only thing they can do is to cooperate with international organizations, said the source.
(Beta)
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