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Bishop behind barbed wire

• Mark Mardell
• 29 Jan 08, 08:38 PM

This is the first time I have been to a church service held behind barbed wire.

Inside the chapel next to in Kosovo, a priest in white robes adorned with red crosses swings a silver censer, and the tinkling of bells and and the sweet, musty smell of incense fills the air.

His companion is preparing the host, behind a wooden screen painted with glorious icons.

Most of the congregation are nuns, clad head to foot in black. There are six other worshippers.

The youngest of them, a girl perhaps in her late teens, yawns and covers her mouth. The service started at seven and it is now nine and the ethereal rhythmic chanting is somewhat soporific.

Swedish sentry

Outside, a Swedish soldier stands in his sentry-post built into the side of the monastery, cradling an automatic rifle.

Coiled razor wire tops the wall and big concrete blocks stand in front of it. Not that , has much time for United Nations soldiers.

鈥淯nfortunately, the destruction of our holy shines have been committed under the authority of the international community, in the presence of and , so their presence here was not any guarantee or protection for our churches and monasteries.

鈥淲e can only presume what will happen to us if the Albanians would be granted independence of Kosovo. And I鈥檓 asking myself why would the international community sacrifice one historical nation and its cultural heritage in the 21st century. I wonder, why?鈥�

Land of churches
There is no doubt Serbian churches were destroyed during and after the war and one American academic has made

I have heard so many times how important Kosovo, the land of Churches, is to Serbs so I want to find out from . The Bishop, a man with a rich voice, tells me: 鈥淥ur main and historical seat is in but we were expelled from there in 1999 so this is our temporary residence now.

鈥淭he monastery of Gracanica and our other monasteries are like title deeds, witnesses, that Kosovo has always been and will always be part of Serbia. It is not only a question of territory, but a spiritual essence in giving identity to the Serbian people in general and to each Serb individually.

鈥淎nd Kosovo is a symbol of eternal values which the Kosovo-Serbs determined for in . And Kosovo is the cradle of the Serbian spirituality because the biggest and oldest Serbian monasteries are here. It is the cradle of Serbian culture and Serbian statehood.

鈥淲丑补迟 a heart is to a man that is what Kosovo is to Serbia and the Serbian people. And as no one can give his heart to anyone else and remain a man, alive, in the same way Serbia can never give up Kosovo and remain what it has been.

鈥淲丑补迟 .鈥�

Kosovo lost

When I say that when I was in Serbia some people told me that Kosovo is already lost, the Bishop鈥檚 translator does a double-take and clearly believes she has misunderstood the question. She has not, and the Bishop chides me.

鈥淔irst of all, you are still in Serbia now. Because Kosovo is Serbia and not only Serbia, but the centre of Serbia. I do not know who you have spoken to who has told you that Kosovo is lost, but Kosovo is not lost and will not be lost. It will always be in Serbia as an occupied part of its territory."

Will it ever be rejoined with the rest of Serbia, then, I ask. And if so, how?

鈥淎s God wills. I do not have a solution in my hands.鈥�

Many Serbs say they will leave Kosovo when independence is declared and I am unsure whether they really will.

Those who have the opportunity to make a better life in Serbia have already gone and conditions would have to be significantly worse to force the remainder to hold to their emotionally spoken words. But one thing is sure, the Bishop is staying, and so is the barbed wire and the Swedish soldier.

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Mining Kosovo's future

• Mark Mardell
• 29 Jan 08, 08:14 AM

Underneath my feet are thousands of tons of lead, gold, silver, zinc and copper. I am at the in Kosovo.

Some wait only for for the mine to regain its former glory, but will they wait in vain?

At first sight it seems completely abandoned apart from one person manning the main gate. Then one old miner appears to guide us up four flights of stairs, through a white-tiled building which is deserted and neglected, the white tiling cracked and dirty.

Then we mill about for a bit by one entrance to the mine. Over the door is a sign saying 鈥楪ood luck鈥�!

Tracks disappear inside and I venture a short way into the mouth of the tunnel, but it doesn鈥檛 look desperately safe. Some more miners appear. There are no youngsters among them, their faces are tired and lined and several look as though they should be at home, enjoying their pension.

At its height, more than 5,000 people used to work here. But the men tell me there are now only about 600 of them, trying to keep the creaking beast ticking over.

They say when the Serbs left, they stripped the mine of all its equipment. Now, no ore is processed here but sent via two companies, one Swiss and one British.

Wartime attack

One man tells me that during the war he fled his village on a tractor with many relatives. But under attack by Serbian troops they had to run. He had to leave his aunt behind because she was disabled. He says she was burnt to death. This is the sort of thing they are all trying to forget, and which perhaps forces them to be optimistic about the future.

He says: 鈥淜osovo is rich in minerals and rich in farming land, is rich in all other aspects. Here, we provided wealth for so many years for the whole of Yugoslavia, there is no reason why we cannot provide now for just Kosovo. That鈥檚 why I鈥檓 saying Kosovo has a bright future.鈥�

It is true Kosovo has the second largest deposits of and there are United Nations plans for large scale generation with the hope that it will eventually export power to the rest of Europe.

But mineral mining doesn鈥檛 make huge profits and this mine is clearly in need of massive investment. Businesses worried about profits in an economic downturn may not rush to put their money in a place that has a questionmark over its future.

We clamber up a steep ladder and then a series of steps cut into the hillside. At the top is the pit head. Rusty sheets of metal cover huge holes in the ground and tools are scattered around on large work benches.

Two miners dressed in thick leather aprons are clambering up the tall gantry clutching huge spanners. They shout and a pile of debris shoots down the hillside, clattering on the road below.

Longing for independence

Abaz Nimani who鈥檚 60 has worked at the mine for 38 years. He is longing for Kosovo to declare its independence.

鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 even tell you all the suffering we鈥檝e been through to get to that day,鈥� he says.

鈥淲e鈥檝e suffered a lot from the communist system and the Belgrade system which has ruled here. But it鈥檒l all be worth it.鈥�

and that worries him.

鈥淲e have to do much more to provide new job opportunities for the youngsters. They are just sitting around doing nothing, yet they are very hard working people.鈥�

A short way from the mine itself is the HQ. It鈥檚 just as beaten up as the mine itself, adorned with communist-style crossed-hammer symbols.

We poke around for a good while looking for the right building. All look abandoned.

But one shows some signs of life when we tentatively push at the heavy glass doors. Although it seems empty we can hear one voice. Amid all the abandoned offices, a man sits busily looking at spreadsheets.

He tells us we need the next floor. Up the cracked and chipped marble staircase there is more activity and the headquarters of Trepca mine. We meet Nazmi Mikullovci, the manager of Trepca.

He is a man with problems. He tells me that it鈥檚 uncertain who even owns the land. He says in a normal business he could just go ahead and make a decision. Here he has to talk to four different international agencies as well as the Government.

He says this leads to delays that cost them a million dollars last year.

Handcuffed by the system

鈥淪o for me, the independence of Kosovo is not just about my own personal freedom, it means opening up the business and a real chance to change the systems that handcuff us.鈥�

But some changes are hard if not impossible to make until Kosovo develops as a country. At the moment it doesn鈥檛 have a pensions scheme.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not about the law, it鈥檚 about morality,鈥� he says.

鈥淚f I get rid of these old workers, they would get 40 euros a month. That鈥檚 pretty close to a death sentence. We have no social insurance, no medical insurance. So tell me what I should do about our rather elderly workers. They are willing to work, they want to work but they are very limited in what they can actually do. It鈥檚 another set of handcuffs.鈥�

Finally and officially breaking away from Serbia may be much easier than shedding shackles on growth and development, and without economic success Kosovo will not truly be independent.

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