RADIO STORY
Illegal woodcutting in Osojane Valley
By DANAS I SUTRA
Hello, and welcome to UNMIK on Air.
Before the conflict in 1999, 2000 Kosovo Serbs lived in the village of Osojane in the Municipality of Istok. Today 300 Kosovo Serbs, live in the village and since retrunig to their homes, the most difficult thing is to find a way to make a living.
We talked to one of the inhabitants Radisa Djuric.
One can mostly
live out of agriculture here, and very few people are employed, except for 25
or 29 workers in the Rados Tosic primary school . There are a couple of
them who work in the medical centre. The others are on their own. They have lived
on social welfare the last two years.
Freedom of movement
is minimal, and is limited to a security zone encompassing about 16 square
kilometres about the village which is made secure by the presence of
international Spanish soliders attached to KFOR.
Though a convoy
travels twice a week to Kosovska Mitrovica for supplies, some things are hard
to get. For example it is very hard to get firewood, which will make heating
for house a big problem in the coming winter.
Ah, how we provide heating. We use the wood we
receive from the Coordination centre. But if you would just move your camera
left or right, you’d see the forest everywhere around you. We have more forest
than cultivated land, but we have no possibilities even to go to that
forest. Not even to see if there are
some usable lumber, and I’m sure there aren’t. Some people found out for
themselves when they went there escorted by KFOR. Not only that there are no
usable lumber, but the Albanians cut them down every day. We report that to
KFOR and – nothing.
They go to the spot, find them and take them in,
or they don’t find them at all.
I don’t know, I couldn’t hear anything this
morning, but usually they do it in July. The rush is in August and September.
You can hear the chain saws all day long.
Legally , Radisa
owns about three acres of quality Oak forest. That would be more than enough
for one household.
CUT3
For many
households. Because that forest grows fast. It takes 10-15 years to regrow. But
it is not possible, it is all cut down. Not only that, it is destroyed. After
each lumbering, the forest is set on fire. So, the posibility for it to revive
is minimal.
There are some
who lived from it, but now, even if we had the forest, I don’t believe the
Albanians would want to buy from us. They most probably wouldn’t, they’d buy it
somewhere else. Earlier, the whole Pec region, the five municipalities, 70% of
them was supplied from our local community.
People whose life
was connected to the forest, today receive wood as welfare from the Serbian
Coordination Centre for Kosovo.
Although there are
laws protecting the owners of the forest, the gangs who execute the illegal
wood cutting are well organized and they are able to disburse the illegally cut
wood, very quickly.
In the aftermath
of the conflict, illegal wood cutting in Kosovo became a quick and easy way to
make money, in recent months illegal woodcutters have become confident to the
extent that they will not hesitate to attack forest rangers and members of the
secuirty service
Today the trees
are now nearly all gone. The forests are so severaly damaged that some valleys
suffer from the danger of landslide and eroison.
Throughout Kosovo there are only 400 forest guards who work under the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, they have been aided in their work by the passing of the the new Environmental Protection Law.
However they are underfunded and currently the body is working with the UN to develop public campaigns to make people aware of the dangers and loss to their enviorment.
But the villagers
of Osojane nevertheless are persistent.
The Djuric family
have got two cows, sell cheese and kajmak, distill rakija in their house, and
live assured that social welfare shouldn’t be relied on, because people lose
their work habits, Radisa says, and become parazites.
Radisa
disapproves of those who do not want to
have a try, and primarily sees his future in Osojane.
You were
listening to UNMIK on Air. Thank you for listening have a good day.