FRY - KOSOVO The situation in Kosovo is also discussed by Dejan Anastasijevic in the January 31, 1998 issue of the Belgrade weekly 'Vreme'.
The police in Kosovo has suffered two consecutive defeats last week in the clash with Albanian rebels in the Drenica region. So we had: two dead and four injured civilians, a helicopter almost shot down, material damage on a large number of buildings. During that period, Serbian and Albanian political leaders have strengthened their efforts to confuse their already crazed nations and all the more concerned world.
The new wave of violence began on Thursday, January 22, in the village of Donje Prekaze, near Srbica, after the unsuccessful attempt by the police to re - enter the village for the first time after 1992. According to the reports from the ground, the police established its base a few days earlier in the factory; in the morning they cut through the factory fence, attempting to enter Prekaze unnoticed in that manner. The surprise did not succeed - they were met by strong fire from the house of the Jashari family and surrounding woods. After half hour of shooting, during which there was use of mortar launchers, the policemen were forced to retreat back to the factory. There is no data whether any members of the police force or UCK on the other side, were injured in this incident, but two women from the Jashari families were injured, while a body of a factory worker was later found. Day later, Serbian police attempted to wash its hands from the failed attempt with an unconvincing statement which state that there was no police intervention at all, and that all this was a clash between Albanian gangs.
Probably as a sign of retaliation, 47 year old Desimir Vasic was intercepted on the road Klina - Srbica, where he was killed. A few days later, UCK attacked the police station in Malisevo (Drenica) and injured two policemen, forcing the rest of them to temporarily retreat from the village. Further on, the police injured an Albanian youth in Kacanik, 50km from Pristina.
The ball of violence is rolling faster and faster, in accordance with its own logic which has less and less to do with what the politicians are saying and doing, and what the politicians are doing and saying has less and less to do with what is really happening in the Province. While the Serbian authorities are attempting to hide the whole problem under the brand of terrorism., the leader of the largest Albanian party in Kosovo stubbornly insists that the Kosovo Liberation Army does not exist and that this is just a provocation of Albanbians by the Serb police. At the same time, Rugovas opposition within the Albanian movement is flirting with the liberators, while the Serbian opposition is asking from Milosevic the use of energetic police measures. It could be sensed that nobody has the strength to admit that there is an armed uprising going on in Drenica in which the whole local population is participating, and that this uprising is a consequence of year long rejection of Rugova and Milosevic to give up on their maximalistic demands and start negotiating seriously.
An empty space has been created for years between the two utopian visions of Kosovo as the holy Serbian land and as the Albanian independent and neutral Republic of Kosovo. Today that space is inhabited, and the only two tenants are the Serbian police and UCK. It seems to both Milosevic and Rugova that it is smartest for them not to move out of their trenches while thing resolve themselves in this or another way.
The kind of situation we are in, it is no miracle that the attempts of the world diplomacy to establish a negotiating process have very little effect. A good example is the parliamentary session of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
Actually, it is unrealistic to expect any kind of a diplomatic or negotiating success until Rugova and Milosevic start feeling that their personal positions are seriously threatened. For the moment, Milosevic is convinced that his support for Milorad Dodik and Biljana Plavsic leaves enough room to resist the pressure of the West when Kosovo is in question. On the other side, Rugova counts upon the fact that possible escalation of the conflict opens up the possibility for Kosovo to be placed under some form of protectorate, which his party has been asking now for a number of years. It should not be excluded that this outcome could suit Milosevic in some way: maybe he is counting on the situation where chaos is created, and then the door widely opened for OESCE, UN or whomever, and then let them extinguish the fire, and than send them the bill for peace turn and cooperation. Neither Milosevic or Rugova would mind if, little by little, the conflict spills over into Macedonia, maybe even wider: the bigger the headache for the Wst, as constructive factors it would be easier for them to bargain.
In all that it is obvious that both of them are perfectly ready to charge this political bill in blood of the nations they say they represent. The most sorry thing is that these nations in largest percent support exactly this kind of a strategy, suggested by recently conducted polls.
Source: Belgrade weekly 'Vreme', January 31, 1998