UNMIK ON AIR
HOW MANY
SERBS?
April 4
2003
(Luan
Qorraj)
After the end of Kosovan
war thousands of peoples left their homes fearing for their lives, most of them
Serb. Some left Kosovo to seek shelter in IDP camps or with their relatives in
Serbia, others gathered in enclaves protected by KFOR peacekeepers, or moved
towards northern Kosovo where they felt safer, surrounded by their own people –
with the Ibar river as a physical boundary between them and the Albanians.
But how many of them have
actually left Kosovo? And how many want to come back? It’s not just a question
of numbers: the issue has deep political significance as well.
But some of the figures do
not match. According to Belgrade’s Kosovo envoy Nebojsa Covic, there are over
180 thousand displaced Kosovo Serbs living in Serbia proper. Those numbers are
also quoted by the UNHCR and UNMIK’s office on returns. With the hundred
thousand still believed to be living in Kosovo that would make the total number
of Kosovan Serbs roughly 300,000.
But even Serb demographers
say that there were never more than 200,000 Serbs living in Kosovo. Miladin Kovacevic is the head of federal
statistical bureau in Belgrade and one of the people who organized the last
population census in 1991. According to him there were 350,000 non-Albanians in
Kosovo 12 years ago – but they weren’t all Serbs.
Miladin
Kovacevic: From those 350,000,
194,190 declared themselves as Serbs, according to the Federal Statistical
Bureau data. So we could say there were around 195 thousand.
Miladin
Kovacevic: I do not know from which
sources those data come from. I could guess that when they refer to the Serb
population, the ones who declare themselves as Montenegrin, Yugoslav etc. To
tell you the truth I do not have any idea about the sources that these data are
coming from.
We tried repeatedly to
contact Mr. Covic to ask him where he got his figures – but he wasn’t available
for comment.
The discrepancy in numbers
has become a worrying issue for a lot of Kosovan Albanians, who are it will be
used by hard line Belgrade circles to support some of their claims. Rifat
Blaku, a Prishtina demographer:
Rifat Blaku: The number of three hundred thousand, by certain
circles, is trumpeted around the enclaves, for the annoying maps dividing up
Kosovo, also property issues. And it can become an obstacle for all the
democratic processes and the process of democratic solution of the Kosovan
issue.
No need to worry, says
Peggy Hicks – the head of UNMIK’s office on returns. The real question is not
“how many are there?” but “how many are
coming back?”
Peggy
Hicks: I know that’s the question
that a lot of Kosovo Albanians are asking. I’d put the question back to you -
Why this incredible focus on the numbers? I mean, when we talk about it we know
that even if there are 200 thousand Kosovo Serbs in Serbia those people are not
all going to come back. People who come back are those who want to return, who
want to integrate within Kosovo society. So the real question should be: how
many of those people are there?
Still the Albanians are worried that inflated numbers of
Serbs can be used to slow down Kosovan development, since sustainable returns
are one of the benchmarks being used to measure progress. Rifat Blaku.
Rifat Blaku:
Without the return of all the displaced Kosovo will not have
investments. There will be no aid without the creation of a Kosovo
approximately as multiethnic as it was before.
And he adds that, even if
all of the Serbs return, those numbers could be misused by Belgrade
authorities.
Rifat Blaku: If all, let’s say 190 thousand
Serbs return, the accusation of the Belgrade regime will remain as a sword
above the heads of the internationals and current Kosovan authorities- saying that
there is no equality here, there is majority rule, not everyone has returned –
since there are only 190 thousand, while there are 300 000.
Peggy Hicks, from the
office of returns says that the entire issue has been looked upon with the
wrong attitude. She assures Kosovan Albanians that no one is measuring the
success of returns by the numbers of returnees. More depends on the readiness
of Albanians to accept the Serbs, than on the number of Serbs who have actually
returned:
Peggy
Hicks: The condition is not that
Serbs return. No one is saying that there is a certain number of Serb returns
and then everything is fine. The condition is that the situation within Kosovo
has to be appropriate so that all those who want to return can return.