In analyzing the current situation in Kosovo, particularly the position of Serbs there, Belgrade weekly 'NIN' presented in its issue of February 5, 1997, an article by Batic Bacevic.

The Serbs in Kosovo Polje are not beaten by anybody anymore (as in the famous Milosevic promise), but still they do not seem overtly happy. We mainly fight among ourselves, we make divisions, and do not trust anybody, is a disappointed statement by one of those that participated the most in the happenings of the people, who repeats that things are not going for the good , almost after each sentence. We were all enamored ten years ago and watched Milosevic as if he was Saint Sava, because he promised so much to us, he said that everything will be taken care of. During this period everything has gone for the worse, now we are all waiting that somebody starts to shoot, and that the Calvary starts, another former staunch supporter adds, as he watches carefully whether some officials are monitoring his conversation with unknown persons. Hanging at the portals of one of the most beautiful Serbian monasteries are the posters of the ruling party with poetic messages For Serbia and Both Serbia and the world. Death announcements are hanging over the posters.

The fact that there is much more election posters of the ruling parties than Serbs themselves in Kosovo indicates in the roughest manner that Kosovo is becoming the center of Serbia only on the election day and a few days afterwards, so that it could fall into self - isolation immediately afterwards. Very often a thesis is heard recently in Belgrade that a boomerang will return to Kosovo Serbs because they still support the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. I would like to remind the wider public that Milosevic and his party get some 90,000 votes and that I ask the authors of this thesis what is with other two million votes. Kosovo Serbs cannot retain or bring down somebody from power. They are tied to Belgrade with an umbilical chord and they are conscious that if this chord is cut, everything is over, says the Belgrade university professor Dragisa Velickovic.

The news that Serbian president Milan Milutinovic did not have the time to talk about Kosovo with the president of the Serbian Resistance Movement Momcilo Trajkovic and Rask-Prizren bishop Artemije, has created unexpectedly harsh reaction among the thinking Kosovo Serbs, and has forced them to think again about the Belgrade illusionists, whose program for Kosovo is equalled to Belgrade TV program.

The majority of those we talked with is conscious of the fact that time is in favor of Kosovo Albanians and praises their solidarity, business sense and patience. Based on surface, disjointed conversations with people, who seem like intellectual giants compared to party officials, it can be concluded that Kosovo Serbs have fallen into a magic circle, out of which it is harder and harder to come out each day. Serbs have feverishly tied themselves to the state, because they were incomparably fewer and poorer, and the state is of such nature that there will be less and much poorer Serbs in Kosovo.

On the other side of the Kosov divide one can see great discipline of moderate politicians and intellectuals, who have expressed mild scepticism towards the ruling LDK. As in Serbia, the main opposition force among the Kosovo Albanians appears on the right side of already right wing movements. The Dayton peace agreement has uncovered something perverse in human nature. It shows that attention can be drawn only through the use of force. As soon as violence outbreaks, airplanes full of diplomats start arriving. That is why small violent groups in Kosovo are attempting to inject dynamics into the situation and to draw international attention, estimates Veton Surroi, the editor in chief of the leading Albanian language newspaper Koha ditore.

The Albaninas themselves in their statements evade strong words and say that they have no problems with Serbian neighbors and plain folk. Even though top analysts from Belgrade will easily conclude that KLA terrorist actions and political appearances of Rugovas LDK actually represent amplitudes of a well synchronized movement, on the ground, the appearance of masked and armed fighters is seen somewhat differently. Kosovo Albanians had the possibility to watch the events in Croatia, Bosnia, and are not prepared to go through similar nightmares, which does not mean they will give up on their demands. Younger generations, students in particular, as well as the part of Albanians whose fathers fought on the German side during the war, will hardly accept the Gandhi methods of the current leader of the Kosovo Albanians and the policy of indirect pressures. Around the question: wait or fight - there might arise a rift in the unified block among the Kosovo Albanians.

The Kosovo stale mate in which both, the Serbian and Kosovo side will hold on to petrified positions concerning the internal question of Republic of Serbia or internal question of the Republic of Kosovo, could only be moved under an incomparably stronger pressure of the international community. Lonely analysts of the Kosovo dead knot estimate that both Milosevic and Rugova have become hostages of their own, easily promised speed, which could cost them their heads in any compromise made. One of the most renowned Albanian politicians said in an unofficial conversation that the main actors of the Kosovo drama are acting as people who are sitting on a time bomb and know that any move could blow them apart. The problem is that this bomb could also be fatal for those around it.

Source: Belgrade weekly 'NIN', February 5, 1998