Rada Trajkovic on Navigating the new Kosovo

6th January 2010

Rada Trajkovic, a doctor by profession, is a veteran among local Serb politicians in Kosovo. She came under heavy criticism from Belgrade when she decided to become an observer in the Interim Administrative Council of Kosovo, on behalf of the Serb National Council. She said her goal was to work fTextor preservation of the Serb community in Kosovo.

Trajkovic supported the participation of Kosovo Serbs in the November 2009 local vote. B92 quoted her as saying "the elections in Gracanica, Ranilug and Kolokot and the enlarged Novo Berdo municipality represent a new chance for Serbs". As a result of her stance, she lost her position as head of the Serb National Council, which fired her on December 1st.

Her views, however, are echoed by many Serbs living south of the Ibar River. Danijela Mitic, a local UNDP expert and mother of two, told SETimes that her community is becoming more independent and wants to integrate for the sake of its survival. "Serbs that participated [in the local elections] are aware that maybe they will be able to govern their enclaves," she said. In an exclusive interview, Rada Trajkovic speaks of the challenges ahead and how to meet them.

Southeast European Times: You participated in the recent Kosovo local elections and even appealed to Kosovo Serbs to participate. How important is it for the Kosovo Serbs to have their voices heard in the local and central institutions in Kosovo?

Rada Trajkovic: We are faced with tremendous discrimination that is coming from the centralised institutions. This discrimination is endangering our survival as a nation in Kosovo. The decentralisation process and creation of the new municipalities were the only way for us to protect our community against discrimination and to create territorial wholes where Serbs could rule over themselves, and where we could organise our lives locally and protect our endangered identity.
 
It is very important for Serbs in Kosovo not to allow their own country to be alienated from them in both symbolic and institutional sense. We must remember that the Albanian leadership in Kosovo has changed the names of almost all cities and towns, villages and streets. At Pristina Airport all the announcements are given in Albanian and English only. The Serbian language is not officially used in public institutions, even though this goes against the very constitution of Kosovo.

The territory of Kosovo has gone through a complete change in the ethno-cultural sense, especially since two thirds of the pre-war Serbian population has been expelled from the province and over 150 monasteries and churches demolished, while hundreds of new mosques have been built. The aggressiveness of this transformation made us believe that only with strong and functional local institutions -- which would have the mechanisms to protect our identity and where we could voice our opinions -- the multiethnic and multicultural nature of Kosovo could be protected.

SETimes: It seems the Serb National Council has punished you for that. What will be your reaction?

Trajkovic: I will fight that decision and get it annulled. I dispute the legality of the decision since a majority of the Council members did not take part in this vote. I consider this decision to be the last attempt of extremists to impose their projects as dominant ones. Uniformity of opinion is usually a result of repression and I oppose it as such. I do not believe that you can stubbornly try to impose one solution onto all problems and disregard all the specific circumstances and realities surrounding them. After all, the solution that they are trying to impose on us is the same one that failed elsewhere in the Balkans. We should all learn from those mistakes.

SETimes: How much do you think Belgrade has influenced this decision of the Serb National Council?

Trajkovic: That's a question for Belgrade, but I think they do not mind the witch hunt that has been orchestrated against me.

SETimes: Do you support real decision making from the Kosovo Serbs instead of directives from Belgrade?

Trajkovic: Serbs in Kosovo should be able to formulate their independent opinions and voice their demands to all three important factors that are shaping their reality: Belgrade, Pristina and the international community. It is insulting to us to be treated as incapable of making our own judgments and decisions. We have been living on this land for centuries and we know the circumstances and challenges that are facing us very well. However, this does not mean that we will give up our close ties to Belgrade.

SETimes: It seems there is a difference in opinions between the local Serb leaders in the north and those in the Serb majority areas in the rest of Kosovo. Where do you see your future and the future of your community having in mind that you are a veteran among the local Serb politicians in Kosovo?

Trajkovic: If the Serbs living north and south of the river Ibar do not co-ordinate their joint survival strategy, I am afraid there will be no future for Serbs in Kosovo. Decentralisation is a good way to support Serbs who are living south of the Ibar River, because their survival is a crucial factor for the democratisation of Kosovo. They are the seed of a multiethnic Kosovo. Hence, they need strong support from the international community to remain in the enclaves and to reinforce their presence there.

Northern Kosovo is certainly unique in its circumstance. Therefore, it would require a special, perhaps regional, organisation. However, the north must have some form of institutional links to Pristina, not for the sake of Pristina, but for the sake of their compatriots living south of the Ibar River. Furthermore, according to the Ahtisaari plan, we have a right to form an organisation of all Serb municipalities in Kosovo. I would go a step further and request our own representation office to be created in Brussels that would enable us to protect our rights and interests more effectively.

SETimes: Kosovo Serbs will have more power in the local level due to the decentralisation process and the new municipalities created based on the Ahtisaari proposal. How can that power be used to benefit Kosovo Serbs and the wellbeing of Kosovo citizens in general?

Trajkovic: Serbs have earned those privileges as a result of Kai Eide's UN report in which he prominently noted that the survival of their community was in danger. This report also served as the basis of the Ahtisaari plan. However, these newly formed municipalities are not islands and they cannot function in isolation. They present an opportunity for Kosovo to become functionally multiethnic and for us to start co-operating with our neighbours. And since all of the majority Serb municipalities are rural by nature, we expect our areas to become more urbanised. We expect new opportunities to open up for young people from our community. We also expect to have the right to create Serbian-language electronic and print media that would be present in all of Kosovo. There are many things to be done.

SETimes:What do you expect Pristina to do for the Kosovo Serbs in concrete terms?

Trajkovic: I would expect them not to undermine our institution-building efforts in the new municipalities, which are already well under way. Also, I would expect them to be more prepared to tackle the issue of responsibility for ethnically motivated crimes against Serbs.

SETimes: From different surveys, it is clear that poverty, unemployment and the economic situation in general are the main concerns among Kosovo citizens in general and for the Kosovo Serbs as well. What can be done to change that situation?

Trajkovic: What we all need is to have a stable Kosovo. That is the main prerequisite for any investment. This means that we need to establish legal communication between Serbs and Albanians and between Belgrade and Pristina. If we establish this legal and transparent
communication, we could work together to stop illegal and criminal communication that is, unfortunately, functioning perfectly and in a very multiethnic way. It would be tragic to have Kosovo as functionally multiethnic only in the criminal milieu. Hence, we need to work together.

SETimes: How do you see the future of Kosovo in general and the future of your community in particular?

Trajkovic: I think that the future of Kosovo should be determined by new political elites that will not have an illegal past. Some new young people from both communities should sit down and talk rationally about their future, without the burdensome shadow of history. Maybe some people from the Albanian community will one day recognise the need for closer ties to Belgrade in pursuit of our joint European future. Maybe Belgrade will prioritise its care for the real interest and rights of Serbs in Kosovo over its obsessive fight for the territory only. I believe that Albanian people have a democratic potential that needs to be recognised and supported. And democratic ideas always find the way to come to light.

Kosovo has received a lot of international support and encouragement, and it has been given many things without any responsibility being asked from the Kosovo leaders. In the upcoming period the situation in Kosovo will depend on that very responsibility and the ability of the Kosovo leaders. Their future will depend more and more on the approval of their citizens. Whether they will make it depends on them. However, the most important thing for me is to have a constructive Belgrade that will, through strengthening of the Serbian community in Kosovo and continuous efforts to preserve our cultural heritage, also preserve its influence in Kosovo.

This interview was commissioned for SETimes.com.