UNMIK ON AIR

3rd June 2003

KPC

(Zoran Culafic)

 

SLUG: Despite allegations of involvement with extremist elements minority members still sign up with the Kosovo Protection Corps.

 

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on Air

 

General Agim Ceku: I think this is a good beginning, it is very important that Serb community members join our institution, to be amongst friends in the KPC.

 

A welcoming note for the eight Serbs who became members of the Kosovar Protection Corps from KPC chief General Agim Ceku; an interesting development, coming as it does on the heels of allegations of connections between the KPC and the banned Albanian National Army. It also coincides with the lifting of a ban on international training for KPC members, imposed soon after reports of KPC involvement in the mining of a bridge in northern Kosovo.

Given this background, the enlisting of new minority members is a shot in the arm for the KPC.

Ever since the demilitarization of the KLA and the creation of the KPC there have been repeated calls for minorities to join the organization. A KPC without minority members clearly cannot claim to represent all of Kosovo’s people – according to KPC spokesman Shemsi Syla, the entry of 16 recruits from the minorities is a positive, but only the first step.

 

Shemsi Syla: We are still not satisfied but it is going well. It is our impression that the Serb minority is finally beginning to understand the reality, because just yesterday, 8 of them enlisted – it means that things are going well and we hope that pretty soon we will fulfill the 10 percent quota.

 

But this is a slow and controversial process.  The first two Serbs to join the KPC left their positions soon after, allegedly because of threats from their own community. For most Serbs, and certainly for their political representatives, the KPC is seen as nothing other than a re-named KLA. But the KPC’s track record shows that ex-fighters make no difference when it comes to helping people in need. That, together with the passage of time, feels spokesman Shemsi Syla, has helped minorities to start trusting the KPC.

 

Shemsi Syla: They say they have a new courage now, a different way of looking at circumstances – they are closer with the KPC members, they talk to them; they also say they need work and that now they see another reality within the KPC.

 

Unemployment is clearly a major factor. The KPC seems to be a certain employment opportunity for the minorities who, despite the differences, share that problem with the Albanians. At least, that was the case for new recruit Zlatka Stojanovic:

 

Zlatka Stojanovic: I like it, they accepted us normally, well what to say, to thank them.  I’d suggest the others to come to work here. It is better and better, the situation. The reason: I was without job, I came here and I work normally I need to work. We accepted the new reality and we should be all together, as we were always. 

 

The argument hasn’t convinced Kosovo Serb political leaders who have almost unanimously criticized the decision by some Serbs to join the KPC. Denouncing it as acting against the interests of Serbs, they have urged new recruits to rethink their actions and reiterated calls for the abolition of the KPC.  For Rada Trajkovic, it is incomprehensible that Serbs are ready to join the KPC and work with people she said had committed crimes.

 

Rada Trajkovic: I do not accept and do not understand the Serbs who are ready to be with people who are involved in destabilizing the south of Serbia, in putting mines in northern Kosovo. I cannot understand this and I’d like to believe that there exists no parallel support for this by the individuals in Belgrade. I do know that the premier and his government are not behind that project.

 

 

So it’s not all-smooth sailing for the new Serb recruits. Anonymous threats, open refusal by their neighbors or family members to interact with them are only some of the difficulties ahead.  Novica Petkovic is however prepared to take this in his stride.

 

Novica Petkovic: I have nothing to say, no comment. I’m not afraid of anyone, because I accepted the position on a voluntary basis, because of the job. We are accepted well and I hope it will be good. None of the politicians will pay me if I do not earn on my own. It is right that everyone should act according to his will. One of my friends, an Albanian, suggested I join the KPC and so, I applied.

 

There is no reason to think unemployment figures will change any time soon, and it is probable that many more minority members may apply to the KPC.  Whatever the politicians might say, insists Shemsi Syla, Kosovo is a home for all those who live in it, whatever their religion or nationality, and so is the KPC: 

 

Shemsi Syla: It is a good spirit, a different atmosphere has been created- despite the attacks, the labeling by Serb leaders in Belgrade – they have seen that they should be here, they should live here and to also be within the KPC- where their place is.

 

That brings us to the end of this edition of UNMIK ON AIR. Thanks for listening.