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Kosovo's Serbs on the march

• Mark Mardell
• 18 Feb 08, 09:07 PM

鈥淲e will not give up Kosovo,鈥� chant the demonstrators. There are children in the front of the march, followed by tough-looking men with shaved heads, training in their wake teenaged girls made-up to the nines and granddads with lined, weary faces.

It seems everyone is on the street in Mitrovica. : on the south side of the bridge the Albanians, this side, the North, the Serbs.

After spending a weekend watching faces in Pristina lit up with joy because of the declaration of independence, this is the other side of the coin. The sense I get is not so much anger as loss.

A song of mournful beauty blasted from the stage declaring 鈥淜osovo we will return鈥�.

Strong and proud

A priest tells the crowd, estimated by police to number around 8,000, that they must remain strong and proud. To loud applause the next speaker declares 鈥淜osovo is Serbian鈥�.

A man with a woolly hat emblazoned with a Serbian eagle, a Serbian flag wrapped around his shoulders, catches my attention. Does he speak English? He does and dives into his wallet and fishes out a British passport.

Gojko Raicvic lives and has come here to support fellow Serbs.

鈥淭he message to my compatriots is to tell the government of Great Britain that what they are doing in supporting the USA is shameful,鈥� he tells me.

鈥淪o the message is that what you are doing at the moment is discrediting the history of Great Britain, the proud British nation which always used to support law and order and justice.鈥�

What鈥檚 happening today, he says, is the law of disorder, the law of injustice.

Why shameful I ask?

鈥淪imply because whoever knows a bit of European history knows that forcing its way towards Vienna and Europe, so we were the victims of history 500 years ago and we are the victims once again.鈥�

Suffocation

The appeal to history is so familiar in the Balkans that it is refreshing to listen to Tanya Ladarevic and hear her day-to-day concerns. She is not going on the march but is worried about the future.

鈥淚 think that international law has been violated as a native of Mitrovica and of Kosovo,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 am very much afraid for my future, my daughter's future and for Serbs who live in enclaves because I don鈥檛 think they can plan their lives to live there. And worst of all, what will happen for sure even if there is no violence, is that there will be administrative suffocation from the new Kosovan institutions.鈥�

She compares the situation to times when Kosovo Albanians were allowed a fair degree of autonomy.

鈥淲hen I was a child there was such a huge and strong administrative suffocation so I expect that it will happen again. And Albanians are pretty skilful in that and this really can be hidden from the international community. You can鈥檛 hide violence but you can hide administrative suffocation.鈥�

What does she mean by that term?

She gives me an example: the current plans quite clearly say that Serbian schools can use text books from Belgrade.

鈥淎t the end of the day, Pristina will use any kind of veto to prevent the import of the books from Belgrade. Here it will use everything prevent it.

鈥淭ake birth certificates. It can take days or months to get papers. If you have to go to court, hospitals or shops you know you just feel everywhere that you are a second class citizen.

鈥淜osovo Albanians for the past eight years haven鈥檛 shown great tolerance. There is no tolerance, it鈥檚 very bad. How would you feel in the your own country, or anywhere, to be treated like a second class citizen?鈥�

On the march

After stopping to hear the speeches, the marchers carried on down the main street .

A thinner line of police than I would have expected stopped them from going any further. I overhear an American man in plain clothes and wrap-around shades with a drawl from the deep South speaking into his mobile.

鈥淚f they start pushing, I鈥檒l tell you to deploy. You won鈥檛 here from me until then.鈥�

Another officer berates his crew pointing at a man doing silly poses for photographers in the middle of the bridge. 鈥淲ho let the nutter through?鈥�

The demonstrators burned an American flag, lit flares and threw firecrackers but the push never came and our Southern friend didn鈥檛 make the crucial call.

Heartfelt dismay

There was no need to unfurl the razor wire or call up the riot squad who waited in vans in the back streets. Serbian dismay is heartfelt but anger has not translated in to either violence or serious political action that would destabilise this new nation.

However, I am hearing reports that three Serbian members of the Kosovo Parliament have resigned because they were not allowed to speak at Sunday鈥檚 meeting that endorsed independence.

In Belgrade, a minister has told a colleague that each ministry has a separate plan for dealing with Kosovo and that the Serbian administration will be developed and more investment will go in to make the economy stronger in Serbian areas. These are early days. The reaction of Serbs who live here will be crucial for Kosovo鈥檚 future.

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Kosovo's giant mosh pit

• Mark Mardell
• 18 Feb 08, 12:31 AM

Mother Teresa Street in central Pristina has turned into .

The crowd surges one way and then twists back the other and, for a while, you have to give up all hope of independent movement. From time to time people will clear a small circular space for a spot of traditional dancing to the sinuous local pop music, as the crowd flows either side of them.

It's one way of keeping warm in the freezing weather.

It鈥檚 the second night of partying here, although tonight there are are more families and children. Maybe it鈥檚 the fireworks that are pulling in the crowds although I wouldn鈥檛 take my kids near: it鈥檚 pretty but not particularly safe.

People are lighting rockets, with cigarettes, in the middle of the crowd. Bangers litter the streets and you just have to watch your step, and indeed your ears.

As the night goes on the music policy changes and hip-hop blasts out from nearby the high golden letters spelling out (in English) 鈥淣ewborn鈥�.

The crowd is nowhere near so dense here and people are bursting into spontaneous little dances. Of course while it is all rather light-hearted here, not everyone loves the newborn country. In Mitrovica and Belgrade there has been trouble, although buildings, not people, have so far been the targets.

Happiest day

It seems every second person I talk to says it is the happiest day of their life. and they were similarly wild but there wasn鈥檛 the sheer sense of relief and joy.

In Montenegro, the feeling was that they were glad to be shot of a problematic brother, here it's an enemy they are discarding. One local newspaper's front page this morning was a picture of Milosevic, Tito and with the headline underneath a single fruity Anglo-Saxon word followed by YU (punning on you, and Yugoslavia).

A colleague from here says happily 鈥淚 have a state: I am no longer triple X鈥�. That apparently was his designation in a British visa when travelling on a UN-issued passport.

People everywhere are wearing T-shirts proclaiming 鈥淣ow I have a state鈥�. But my friend raises a question. When he gets his new passport, what if he travels to a country like France that will recognise Kosovo and then goes on within , to Spain, that doesn鈥檛? Is he allowed to do that?

While the crowd partied, Kosovo鈥檚 parliament met to sign the declaration and approve some new laws to make it possible.

They have . It's obvious that this is where Kosovo is heading, but is this appropriate stuff for a declaration of independence?

I haven鈥檛 spoken to any Serbs today, so this is necessarily one-sided. But tomorrow demonstrations are planned in various Serbian towns within Kosovo, so I hope to listen to the other point of view then.

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