A SERB FROM OBILIC

(By Zoran CULAFIC)

Ljubisa Spasic is a sturdy man of 65 who manages his 150 kilogram frame with the aid of a wooden cane. His face is punctuated with a prominent moustache; which curves upwards and slopes downwards around the corners of his mouth.

Spasic returns to his former home in Obilic on a daily basis-- his house was destroyed in the latest unrest. He spends his days sitting in the yard, not ready or willing to leave.

Ljubisa: Look over there, it was our living room … everything is destroyed now…look … over there was a sofa … color TV over there … in that corner was kitchen furniture … electric range … and the stove here … and so … all is burned down now … look what they have done.

Spasic walks through the remains, cataloguing the ruin. Spasic also owned a restaurant- below his home- that too, was destroyed. The building was situated across the street from Obilic Power Plant B… forty years of hard work vanished in some ten to fifteen minutes on March 18th.

Hello and welcome This is UNMIK on Air.

In 1999, Ljubisa Spasic says he did not want to leave Kosovo, but on March 18th he was forced to flee when KFOR soldiers evacuated him minutes before a crowd rushed into his house…ultimately vandalizing it and setting it ablaze.

But Spasic was away from his home for just one day. He now spends his evenings with cousins in Plementina, but early each morning Spasic walks for 30 minutes to Obilic without a KFOR escort in order to sit in a small wooden chair in his front yard until sunset:

Ljubisa: In 1999 when it was the most difficult for me I did not leave … I did not want to go out from my house … 40 years I was working hard, I earned all of this honestly, with my sweat, and now, I’m at zero …I was one of the richest peasants in Obilic. None of my neighbors here can say that I was a thief, a criminal ... that I did anything inhuman. I have earned honorably all of this with my ten fingers … and in ten-fifteen minutes everything was burned down. Some people over there and some solders told me that it was like 30 meters flame in the sky at four o’clock in the morning.

In that fire everything he had owned—his house, the restaurant downstairs, the number of surrounding auxiliary buildings storing agricultural machines and equipment, the pigsty and chicken coop were destroyed…. But not before looters had stolen paraphernalia and tools- even the ashtrays from his restaurant says Spasic.

Yet Spasic maintains that even in the face of the latest destruction he is determined to stay where he and his wife raised five children.

Before 1999, Obilic had some 100 Serb families and approximately 50 Roma families, but today Spasic is the only remaining Serb.

Spasic says he and his wife have raised their children to be humans and not to distinguish people by their ethnicity or religion.

Ljubisa: In that way I have educated my children and they grew up and get married … I put them on the right track in life … and my children are real humans and heads of households … that fact may confirm all of my neighbors, no matter of what ethnic origin they are, I’m telling you the truth frankly.

Spasic says his home has been attacked as many as 19 times since 1999; he describes The March 18^th attack as the worst one, even after, he says, he survived a few armed attempts to kill him.

Ljubisa: in 2000, June 25th they wounded me near the pigsty …the sow was about to bear piglets at that time … they wounded me in the belly, look …the wound is still leaking …It was three bullets, one just scratched me, and three entered my belly … they shot me with a Kalashnikov … a short machine-gun burst … 7-8 bullets … I fell down and they thought I was dead … Later my wife stopped some KFOR soldiers and they took me to the hospital … and then to Mitrovica hospital.

Despite these attacks, there are good people among his neighbors Spasic told UNMIK on Air…as well as ones he has difficulty trusting. But Spasic says that not all Albanians are the same… criminals and thieves exist nearly everywhere- regardless of ethnicity.

Spasic remembers how his Albanian neighbors had come to his aid before—in 1999:

Ljubisa: Six months during that 1999 year I was living alone, thanks to the neighbors … when I didn’t have any bread, he threw some to me during the night, over the fence … and so … I’d rather not to identify my neighbors, because … they are scared of theirs too … but I thank them very much … they did come to me …

Q – Do you believe that after all what happened here you could live together again?

Ljubisa: Yes, sure … as for me I guarantee that I can live here … yes I can … I cannot leave my house so easy … It would be the best if someone would like to rebuild this auxiliary building there … to repair the bathroom so I can come and live here like a man … until they rebuild my house.

And that was all for this edition of UNMIK on Air. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more.