IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 27
Tony Borden
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WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 27, 1 May 1999
IN THE WRONG PLACE. This is not a good time to be Albanian in Belgrade.
Beatings are followed by the question: "Why don't you go to Albania?"
Gordana Igric reports from the Rakovica refugee camp, near Sarajevo, where
many have fled.
MAKING CONCESSIONS AND BUYING TIME. Celebrations of the seventh birthday of
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were muted last week in Montenegro, as
the days of the federation seem numbered. Ljubinka N. Cagorovic reports
from Podgorica.
UNANIMOUS FOR NOW. NATO member states remain unanimous about the bombing
campaign against Yugoslavia. But the difficult decisions are yet to be
made. Ian Williams in New York reports.
BCR ARCHIVE. IWPR's Website <www.iwpr.net> now hosts a search engine to
access the entire archive of 100 articles from the Balkan Crisis Reports,
written by leading independent journalists and analysts from the region.
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Editor: Anthony Borden. Assistant Editing: Christopher Bennett, Alan Davis.
Internet Editor: Rohan Jayasekera. Translation by Alban Mitrushi.
"Balkan Crisis Report" is produced under IWPR's Balkan Crisis Information
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IN THE WRONG PLACE
This is not a good time to be Albanian in Belgrade. Beatings are followed
by the question: "Why don't you go to Albania?" Many have fled.
By Gordana Igric in the Rakovica refugee camp, near Sarajevo
J.R. was born 28 years ago in Belgrade. He worked for 11 years as an
auto-mechanic in a big industrial plant in Rakovica, the working-class
quarter of Belgrade. His is also Albanian.
Three months ago five unknown bandits walked into the manufacturing hall.
They pulled J.R. out into the courtyard in front of his colleagues and beat
him. They broke his arm, his leg and one rib, shouting: "Move to Albania.
What are you waiting here for?"
When J.R. complained to his boss, he was met with a shrug of the shoulders.
"That's nothing," said his boss. "Why are you complaining?"
Then when the NATO bombing began, J.R. began to receive threatening
telephone calls in the middle of the night.
So on March 31, he left his flat, his car and all his other possessions,
and came to Sarajevo together with his wife and child.
Now he lives in a big refugee camp in the vicinity of Sarajevo that happens
to bear the same name, Rakovica. They share a tent with 50 other people,
his few belongings kept under his bed. His wife cooks lunch on a small wood
stove in front of the tent; his child is coughing.
J.R. is only one of 300 Albanians from Belgrade in the camp. It also
accommodates some 1,600 refugees who have come from Kosovo and Sandzak
since the beginning of the bombing.
But the total number of "Belgrade" Albanians who have fled to Bosnia is
certainly much higher. Many more have settled with friends or families, and
therefore are not on the official register. Before the war, estimates for
the number of Albanians in Belgrade ranged as high as 100,000. Albanians in
the refugee camps in Bosnia claim that now very few remain.
The plight of Albanians from Belgrade has passed almost unnoticed due to
the tragic fates of those Albanians expelled from Kosovo. Mostly bakers
from the area of Dragas in Kosovo, they lived in a relatively compact
community. Others sold goods at the market, or worked as street cleaners or
garbage collectors. In recent years, life was never easy for them. But
their presence was tolerated while the regime waged campaigns against
Slovenes, Croats or Muslims--depending on the wars it was fighting at the
time.
Since March 1998, however, and the beginning of the war in Kosovo, things
took a turn for the worse. Threats on the streets, at the workplace and on
the phone increased. Albanians' shops were robbed and damaged. With the
bombing campaign, this only increased.
"What are you waiting for here?" a menacing voice on the telephone asked
the 30-year-old Albanian factory worker every night. "We will slit your
throat, so we can have your flat. Why don't you go to Albania?" He is now
in the Rakovica camp, with his wife and four children. "I left everything I
had. I fled for my life," he says.
A.G., 46, is a father of four. He worked for 26 years in the Milling Baking
Industry, a state bakery in Belgrade. Ever since the bombing started his
colleagues became aggressive.
"They were telling me at work to chose a stove where I wish to be baked. I
could no longer take it. I had a flat in Belgrade, but I left everything
and set out for Bosnia," he says.
Even those who had managed to open their own local bakeries and become
well-liked in their neighbourhoods were not spared.
A group of unknown bandits broke into a well-known bakery owned by Uka
Cocaj, located in the Merkator shopping centre in New Belgrade. He and his
workers were beaten up and his bakery demolished. He, too, is now a refugee
in Sarajevo. The same happened in Zemun, a part of Belgrade where the
Radicals of Vojislav Seselj hold power. This time, the unknown bandits also
set the owner's car on fire.
Two days after the bombing started, on the Sarajevo Street in central
Belgrade, 14 shops owned by Albanians were demolished. So was an
Albanian-owned sweet shop in Belgrade's central Slavija Square. The owner
of one private shop, who says he spent 30 years in Belgrade, found an
inscription written on his shop door one morning, with the derogatory name
Serbs use for Albanians: "Death to Shiptars!"
Others found the doors of their homes or their mailboxes marked in red. As
the fear increased Albanians stopped speaking Albanian in public.
Some Albanians left Belgrade because their families living in Kosovo were
expelled, either to Macedonia or Albania. The men of the older generation
worked in the Yugoslav capital and saved money to send it their families. A
60-year-old Albanian, who worked for 39 years for the municipal services,
said he heard that his village near Dragas was burnt, and that all local
families were expelled.
"Since then I don't know where my family is," he says. "Who would I now
send money to? If they no longer live here, then my place is not in Serbia
either. " He came to Rakovica in hopes of finding his family.
Many of the Albanians from Belgrade had problems even after leaving the
city, at the border between Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska. A.G. says that
five other Albanians were on the bus with him. It was April 3, and they
reached the border-crossing near Zvornik at 5.30 p.m. The Serbian police
collected documents only from Albanians.
"They took the men one by one into a room. I was beaten by four policemen,
punching me in the head and kicking me in the kidneys," he says.
Another man testifies that he was beaten at the same border crossing on
April 4 together with 15 other Albanians.
"They forced one man to kiss a picture of Slobodan Milosevic. They broke
the forehead of an old man. People are still recovering from that beating,"
he says. On some occasions, the police destroyed the Albanians' documents.
The Albanians from Belgrade, like those who arrived from Kosovo via
Montenegro, live in uncertainty in the Rakovica refugee camp. They had
hoped that they would find the doors of Western embassies open, and could
leave the region. But they are learning that refugees are not welcome. They
now realise that they have only joined the thousands of Bosniacks (Muslims)
who flooded Sarajevo and Tuzla after being expelled from their homes during
the war in 1992-93, and who are still waiting to return.
Gordana Igric is an independent journalist from Belgrade.
MAKING CONCESSIONS AND BUYING TIME
Celebrations of the seventh birthday of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
were muted last week in Montenegro, as the days of the federation seem
numbered.
By Ljubinka N. Cagorovic in Podgorica
Officially Montenegro has appealed to the international community to halt
the NATO offensive against Yugoslavia. But many Montenegrins fear that a
premature end to the campaign would lead to the ouster of the current
pro-Western administration.
The Yugoslav Army and Milosevic loyalists in the tiny republic, which
together with Serbia makes up the Yugoslav federation, are stepping up
pressure on the Montenegrin government and appear stronger by the day. In
response, Podgorica is making concessions and attempting to buy time, in
the hope that Belgrade will eventually cave in to NATO's demands.
In an official statement issued last week, the state leadership, comprising
President Milo Djukanovic, Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic and Speaker of
the Parliament Svetozar Marovic, explained their position: "The leadership
and the state organs of Montenegro . . . do not wish to complicate further
the already complicated situation.
"Rather, with their constructive behaviour they strive to contribute to an
easing of political tensions and the return of peace into the country,
after which it will launch an initiative to improve the constitutional
system of the federal state, so that problems in its functioning could be
avoided in the future," the statement said.
Immediately after the first NATO bombs landed, Podgorica imposed a
so-called civilian state of emergency, and obliged everybody employed in
the state sector to work. The move was aimed at heading off imminent
mobilisation of Montenegrins following Belgrade's imposition of a state of
war, a condition which Podgorica refuses to recognise.
This initial uncompromising approach to Belgrade has since been modified. A
moderate faction in President Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists
(DPS), headed by the Speaker Marovic and supported by Prime Minister
Vujanovic, have decided on a policy of concessions, rather than head-on
confrontation, thus handing the tactical initiative to the Yugoslav Army.
After three days of debate, the Montenegrin parliament unanimously adopted
a resolution on the maintenance of civic peace. Through this the
authorities effectively adopted a policy of passive resistance. Meanwhile,
Belgrade has been engaged in what amounts to a creeping coup against the
Montenegrin leadership.
The newly-appointed commander of the Yugoslav Army in Montenegro, Gen.
Milorad Obradovic, who replaced the moderate Gen. Radoslav Martinovic on
April 1, has steadily been raising the pressure on Podgorica, even using
press gangs to mobilise Montenegrins. The number of reservists failing to
respond to the draft is ever greater, and has reached 30 per cent.
The Yugoslav Army has tried to draft Montenegro's Justice Minister, Dragan
Soc, and has initiated criminal proceedings against Deputy Prime Minister
Novak Kilibarda, whom it intends to try in a military court, despite his
parliamentary immunity. General Obradovic has also demanded control over
state television, a ban on foreign programmes, and the right to censor the
media.
The authorities have refused to give in to these demands, but have allotted
more time to Serbian television. Meanwhile, the Yugoslav Army continues to
hassle foreign journalists and, on occasions, confiscate their equipment. A
military court is also prosecuting journalists from the weekly newspaper
Monitor and Radio Free Montenegro, for daring to criticise the military.
Belgrade also demands control of Montenegro's oil reserves and authority
over the police. "The Montenegrin police will be brought to heal, or it
will cease to exist," Federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, a Montenegrin
loyal to Milosevic, told a rally in Podgorica last week.
Montenegro has handed over the fuel storage depot in Bijelo Polje to the
Yugoslav Army, but the republic's special police are jealously guarding all
other supplies.
The Yugoslav Army attempted to take control over the border crossing with
Croatia, in the UN-monitored demilitarised zone of Prevlaka, but backed
down rather than force a confrontation with both Podgorica and the UN.
Nevertheless, it dispatched some 500 reservists to the south of the
republic tasked with defending the Montenegrin coast.
The atmosphere of fear and insecurity increased when the Yugoslav Army
killed six Kosovo Albanian refugees in the village of Kaludjerski Laz near
Rozaje. Deputy Prime Minister Dragisa Burzan called this a "crime against
humanity" and has demanded the surrender of those responsible to the
civilian authorities, to no avail.
The insecurity of the government is acutely felt by Montenegro's Muslim
Slav community, many of whom are leaving the mountainous inland areas of
the republic where they live and heading for Bosnia. The influx of some
105,000 Kosovo Albanians, roughly 17 per cent of Montenegro's population,
has packed predominantly Albanian areas such as Rozaje, Plav and Ulcinj
with refugees.
On April 27, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia celebrated its seventh
birthday. But from Podogrica, it seems that the days of this latest
Yugoslav federation are numbered. In an address to the nation on that day,
President Djukanovic said: "The fate of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
is even today on the verge of uncertainty." He characterised the country's
existence as "seven long years of international isolation, civil war in the
surrounding [countries], of enduring suffering, but also of patience and
faith in better days."
Ljubinka N. Cagorovic is a journalist in Podgorica.
UNANIMOUS FOR NOW
NATO member states remain unanimous about the bombing campaign against
Yugoslavia. But the difficult decisions are yet to be made.
By Ian Williams in New York
Serbia's sacked Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic was right when he told
interviewers that Serbian attempts to split NATO had failed. Indeed, his
realism cost him his job. However, while all NATO leaders are agreed that
something had to be done about Kosovo, undercurrents of dissent remain
about what precisely that should be.
Perhaps the real danger is that having achieved unanimity on bombing--in
the absence of agreement on ground troops, or even on the methods and
legality of the oil embargo--the alliance will rely exclusively on air
power.
While Moscow and Belgrade invoke international law and the UN against NATO,
Draskovic was correct to point out Serbia's isolation in the international
community. Kofi Annan's "peace offer" to Belgrade was not that dissimilar
to NATO's own demands.
In these circumstances, Annan's potential contribution is that he provides
an alternative to NATO for Belgrade to climb down to. At present, the only
realistic diplomatic option open to Milosevic is a surrender conditioned by
some small print.
NATO is not concerned which banner its troops march under when they enter
Kosovo, nor does the alliance mind if some Ukrainians and Russians come in
as well. It is, nevertheless, unlikely that the UN will have any military
role--although, as in Bosnia, it could be brought in for an auxiliary
civilian policing role.
The US-preferred draft of the original NATO summit communique would have
made only a passing mention to the UN, in deference to the strong feeling
in the US security establishment that the alliance is not beholden to the
world organisation.
The Europeans united to insist successfully on a much more substantial
reference that recognised "the primary responsibility of the UN Security
Council for the maintenance of international peace and security." It went
on to "look forward to developing further contact and exchanges of
information with the UN, in the context of co-operation in conflict
prevention, crisis management, crisis response operations, including
peacekeeping, and humanitarian assistance."
While NATO has maintained remarkable unanimity that the bombing has to
continue until Belgrade made substantial concessions, there is still an
even more remarkable degree of aversion to what every military expert
considers essential and inevitable--at the very least contingency planning
for ground forces.
In the light of the special relationships between both the UK and US and
also Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, it seems likely that the British
hawks--far and away the most aggressive in the alliance--have their
sympathisers in the White House. Certainly Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of
Connecticut, who co-sponsored Republican Senator John McCain's resolution
calling for ground troops, has never been known to do anything that would
embarrass the president.
For all the usual reasons, Clinton and his vice president, Al Gore, are
still downplaying any suggestion of a land war. Yet with slim hopes for any
other way out, they are aware that the pressure of events is leading
precisely in that direction.
At present, it seems that they are content letting Congress and the British
make the running so that the White House can later change tack, while
retaining later deniability in the event of anything going wrong, such as
US casualties.
While Madeleine Albright has consistently been a hawk eager to support
deployment of ground troops, within the administration she does not
currently have much sway. It is perhaps significant that Assistant
Secretary of State Strobe Talbot went to Moscow to discuss possible peace
initiatives, and not the Russian-speaking Albright.
Indicative of attempts to keep options open, the word "genocide" has been
used much less in Washington than in London. Indeed, the Americans have
privately complained to Annan about his use of the term. It seems,
therefore, that someone, somewhere in Washington, still anticipates that
business may have to be done with Slobodan Milosevic. Already, State
Department spokesman James Rubin has said that a pause in the
bombing--advocated by Russia in recent days--might come if Milosevic agrees
to meet alliance demands in Kosovo.
Some of the Republicans, fired up by equal measures of militaristic
patriotism and a burning desire to score points against Clinton, have
doubled the $6 billion the administration has sought for emergency military
appropriations. This enables them to get the higher military budget that
they had originally wanted and, since the money comes from the Social
Security Fund surplus, there is the added bonus of derailing the
president's plans for reforming Social Security.
Some Republicans are genuinely horrified by what Milosevic is doing to the
Kosovo Albanians, while others want unity in the face of the real
enemy--Bill Clinton. Hence resolutions calling for the withdrawal of all
ground forces until Congressional approval has been voted, and the tied
House of Representatives vote on the bombing.
These are, however, unlikely to be successful, whatever hopes Belgrade may
pin on them. Ultimately, the British media onslaught and European pressure
are likely to avert the more egregious efforts to negotiate a second peace
agreement along the lines of the Dayton accord for Bosnia that rewards
Milosevic for ethnic cleansing. Having worked so hard to get all the NATO
allies on board by consensus, the present course of action is effectively
locked in. But there are many hard choices ahead for an administration that
is traditionally averse to them.
Ian Williams, UN correspondent for The Nation and author of "The UN for
Beginners", was for many years US editor of the IWPR magazine, WarReport.
IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 27
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