The society of the endangered

In the second year of the health and economic crisis that is devastating the whole world, the officials of the new Government and institutions in Kosovo seem to have solved all the problems related to the crisis, from economic and health measures to the supply of vaccines. So, now they spend their free time dealing with other “immediate” topics such as the state and the status of Monastery Decani. Perhaps for any bystander, this would really have seemed like an immediate issue given that the Monastery Decani has been declared by the Europe Nostra as one of the most endangered cultural monuments in Europe in 2021 and that the foundation of any democratic and civilized society is its cultural and historical diversity and wealth. However, with just a little observation, even the most uninformed bystander would quickly realize that the situation is quite the opposite and that in Kosovo the wealth of diversity is recognized only one-sidedly, unanimously, and monoculturally.

It is clear that the daily obstruction of the dialogue, the inflammatory rhetoric about the conflict, the relations with the Serb List (Srpska lista), and even the issue of the Monastery Decani, are nothing but a deviation from the topic of electoral promises, which not even the pandemic prevented from being overly ambitious, idealistic and almost unattainable for one mandate; the mandate after which the citizens will evaluate them. Because at the end of the day, electoral promises are yet another foundation of Kosovo that has been overexploited immensely for over twenty years. However, what is not at all clear to me, or I don’t want it to be clear, is why our colleagues from the civil society, who are advocates of human rights (and non-majority communities members are still humans) are joining such campaign consciously, knowing that they are wrong.

Maybe it’s me, I may be crazy, stupid, naive, or all of the above, that I have dedicated my whole life to the values and beliefs that I have seen as supranational, supra-political, and above all human. I have always publicly and unequivocally criticized everything that has contributed to the polarization of relations between Albanian and Serb communities in Kosovo, I have criticized my family, friends, community, and even myself, for the perceptions and attitudes colored with misunderstanding, narrow-mindedness, selfishness, and untruthfulness which contributed to nothing more than amplifying the problem of the relations between Serbs and Albanians. I sharply criticized political representatives of Serbs, both from Belgrade and Kosovo, and their often destructive, nationalist, and populist policies and decisions, for which I was the target of criticism, attacks and was publicly labeled as an “internal traitor and foreign mercenary”. And it is not easy to “endure and exist in a terrible place”, nor am I better than anyone else, but what has always helped and pushed me was the support of my colleagues from all communities and the knowledge that we have each other and that we are working together for values, not interests.

Nevertheless, it takes two to tango, and I, for twenty years of my career, have hardly seen a group of a handful, let alone a group of 40, civil society organizations to condemn politics, behaviors, attitudes, or misperceptions towards the Serb community, and the opportunities for are unfortunately innumerable. If you follow the media even superficially, read the reports of international organizations, or look back at the reports in which compiling yourself have participated, you can find bits and pieces of everything that the Serb community in Kosovo is faced with repeatedly. Frequent attacks on returnees, almost daily thefts of churches, desecration of cemeteries, the conversion of the Temple of Christ the Savior in Pristina into a public toilet, crimes and murders, the issue of property rights, preparations for building a military base near North Mitrovica and Zvečan which to say the least, create discomfort for Serbs, all the way up to violations of the Constitution, laws and all the mechanisms that should “protect” Serbs in Kosovo as equal members of the society, have so far not been sufficient for civil society colleagues from other communities to react, condemn and demand accountability from their political representatives. What everyone seems to forget is that the lack of responsibility, above all, despises Kosovo as a responsible, mature and independent self-government for which it fights and presents itself to be, and does not contribute to stability and independence but opens up new questions and new concerns among those who are to support that stability and independence.

The responsibility of the institutions and the political representatives for the fragile relations between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo is enormous, as their inactions led to the fact that even today, after 20 years, a group of Albanians physically attacked a minor (Serb) in Gracanica and walked away from the police station without any responsibility. Yes, this happened just a few days ago, only 7 kilometers from Pristina, and while we may describe this as an isolated incident, it is important to know that it is not – it is something that has become everyday life on the banks of the Ibar river, in Gracanica, Anamorava, in places where returnees live, so much so that we as citizens ignore such news in the newspapers because it is “nothing new”, and we as civil society skip over them because we do not deal with “cases” but with “systematic problems”. However, ignoring such incidents will certainly not stop them, and most importantly, it will not change the reasons and motives that lead to them. Therefore, it is also your responsibility dear colleagues, because if you had only once exerted pressure openly, without calculating and thinking about “national interests” and the personal positions, over the institutions and the Government, and if you had spoken about universal values and not national ones, maybe things would be different, and we would not even discuss them today. The need to present the situation in Kosovo different from the reality, and to speak at international conferences, in the media, in meetings and discussions about Kosovo’s most modern legal framework that “protects” non-majority communities, without referring to the inapplicability of those laws in practice and the reality in which non-majority communities live, has for some time now separated us professionally, humanely and in values.

Facts also tell that the Monastery Decani is threatened and that it is one of the rare cultural monuments in the world, and the only one in Europe, which is protected by international armed forces due to real security risks. It is also a fact that the Monastery was the target of physical and verbal attacks, despite the fact that it was, in the worst times of the conflict, a refuge, among others, for Albanians as well. It is also a fact that, despite the decision of the Constitutional Court, the property of the Monastery Decani is not registered in the cadaster. It is also a fact that, despite the Constitution and the Law on Protected Areas, the attempts to build a highway next to the Monastery are constant for years now, so much that even the Ambassadors of the major western countries have raised their voices, and the representatives of the OSCE and of the European Union have expressed their views. It is also a fact that the Monastery Decani is on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger since 2006. All these facts, for you colleagues, are “a false reflection of the reality in Kosovo, which mainly comes from the reports of Serb institutions”. It is clear that the reports of international organizations and their representations in Kosovo, global and local media reports, the testimonies of monks, the experiences of your colleagues, all of which confirm these facts, are not sufficient proof that the Monastery Decani really is in danger.

If all these facts I am listing are not reason enough to ask yourself what kind of society you want to build and what kind of society you want to live in, and despite all these facts you still appear publicly and defend the “purple image of the reflection of the reality in Kosovo” – then I wonder where the boundary of integrity, tolerance and all the values we are fighting for is? Is the society we are aiming for a society where everyone is protected and equal or a society where only those who have the power in their hands are so? Is it a society which was not taught anything by history except shifting power roles and glorification over them? It is not a shame to admit the mistake, it is one of the greatest steps of humanity, a step towards the others, but above all towards oneself. I hope that one day you will look back.

And at the end of the day, at the end of the tunnel, we should all feel endangered in such society, because of daily violation of laws, human and religious rights, inter-ethnic attacks, theft, and destruction of churches and monasteries, the desecration of monuments and cemeteries are indicators of a long-term disorganized society, not a short-term issue of who is currently (more) affected, Serbs, Albanians, Roma, Turks, Bosniaks or Gorani. And as long as Kosovo is not an equal society for all its citizens, it is not a society for anyone, and never will be – in front of the world, in front of Serbia, in front itself.

Within Kosovo Collective Op-Ed series

Opinions expresses in this oped series do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Trust for Democracy, the German Mashall Fund of the U.S. (BTD), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), or the U.S. Government. 

Project is supported by the Balkan Trust for Democracy of the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. and USAID.