Ferki Emini: It’s really very difficult, I must say that in economic terms it’s very difficult because there is not enough money, there is nothing to do. Romas here in Priluzje are living through very hard times.

Ferki Emini, a Roma blacksmith living in the village of Priluzje near Obilic.

Hello AND Welcome to UNMIK ON AIR with Sputnik KIlambi

Kosovo is definitely not a land of milk and honey for Serbs and Albanians, the two major ethnic groups who continue to be the main focus of international humanitarian organizations. But things are even worse for the “under minority”, as the Romas sometimes describe themselves. In the village of Priluzje, predominantly Serb and Roma, living conditions are precarious, at best.

Only ten Romas in Priluzje get a monthly pay cheque – they were all previously employed by the predecessor of KEK, Kosovo Electroprivreda. The others have to get by with the 52 euros they get each month as welfare handouts. Not surprising then that for Priluzje Romas, Ferki Emini is a wealthy man because he owns a smithy. He makes ploughshares and other agricultural tools, axes, knives, saws and similar things.

Ferki Emini: I’d not say I’m that rich this trade was practiced by my grandfather and my father and they left it to me. My children are also learning the trade. We were doing it before the war and after the war, with our children. There is always a need for our services in the agriculture business and therefore blacksmiths can never vanish, they need us.

Ferki Emini: This furnace was made out of terra-cotta bricks and mud and chaff. We construct it and build it by ourselves. The furnace allows us to make plowshares and other agriculture work-tools for tractors and other things so that our fellow villagers can work their land. The blacksmith is therefore very important for agriculture, very important they say, the blacksmith’s hands are dirty, but his bread is white.

The main problem for Romas is the absolute lack of job opportunities in their area. Neither can they count any longer on what they call “private jobs”, that is, seasonal jobs such as working in the fields, digging up roads or construction work, jobs that are paid on a daily basis.

Many Roma families in Kosovo live on the edge of existence, but their plight rarely gets talked about because, say the Romas, they are not politically influential enough to get local or international attention.

Only a handful of humanitarian organizations are helping us, say the Romas of Prilizje, but the aid-package is barely enough to feed a family for four or five days.

The village blacksmith is in an enviable position; the majority in his village doesn’t have the skills to work as a blacksmith. Cazim Berisha is a displaced Roma from Crkvena Vodica and lives with his relatives in the nearby village of Plemetina, which has some 450 Romas. Like his fellow villagers, Berisha has no job and no income at all.

Cazim Berisha: We live very modestly. We have nothing to live on, we have no salary, no job, nothing living conditions are hard, but the relations between us are good, with Serbs and with Romas. What we earn during the summer we use to pay for firewood in winter.

Berisha told us that his children and those of his relatives are unable to attend school, which in the long term can only undermine their opportunities to get out of the cycle of poverty and misery. Schooling apparently is a luxury they cannot afford.

Cazim Berisha: We are not even thinking about it. We do not have conditions to buy food, let alone think about books and other school needs.

Prilizje’s blacksmith, Ferki Emini hopes that there will be more opportunities in the future for Romas to work, and he suggests that local and international institutions could help make a difference if they supported small businesses – various kind of crafts and trades easy for village people to get into.

Being the only blacksmith around, his clients come from the Serb enclaves of Gracanica, Plemetina, Babin Most to buy his ploughshares. It costs 400 dinars (6.5 euros) to repair and sharpen them, while new ploughshares cost 25 euros and are made in Belgrade; as for axes, they cost around 100 – 150 dinars (2 –2.5 euros).

Jobs and money might be scarce or even non-existent, but the Romas have their music and dance, talents that are appreciated by most people in the Balkans. And even though their living conditions are miserable, they know how to get fun out of life. Life is beautiful, says Dzemal, a young Roma in his mid-twenties.

Dxemal: Romas are well known for their music and dance. Romas never did anything evil to anyone during the recent hard times. They just tried to live and enjoy. Music, dance, food and drink, that’s they need, they never committed any crimes, but they suffered the most, being left without anything.

Kosovo can’t afford to leave anyone out if it wants to move ahead – its Roma people have as much a stake in this future as anyone else. That brings us to an end of this edition of UNMIK ON AIR. Thanks for listening.