> The following is an account of the Workers' Aid visit to Bosnia, Kosovo
> and Serbia. Workers Aid has been very active in bringing workers from
> these countries to tour the UK and discuss the possibility of creating a
> united working class internationalist response to both regional
> nationalisms and Western NATO intervention. What is interesting in this
> report is the focus on perspective of working people themselves, their
> words, thoughts and desires--something we don't read enough of, even, and
> especially on the Left!
> Sharon
>
> According to Robert Myers:
> > From bobmyers_wa at hotmail.com Thu Jun 22 16:10:33 2000
> > Message-ID: <20000622202724.55239.qmail at hotmail.com>
> > X-Originating-IP: [213.120.56.61]
> > From: "Robert Myers" <bobmyers_wa at hotmail.com>
> > To: svance at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
> > Subject: visit to kosova and Bosnia
> > Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 21:27:24 BST
> > Mime-Version: 1.0
> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
> >
> >
> > A short visit to Bosnia and Kosova.
> > Bob Myers, Workers Aid. June 2000
> >
> > John Davies and myself traveled to Bosnia and Kosova to put on
performances
> > of his play 'Taking Sides' in Tuzla, Prishtina, Gjilan and Gjakova.
Each
> > show required us to spend a day preparing lights and sound with the
local
> > theatre technicians so our time for meeting with old friends was fairly
> > limited and I can only make some very general remarks about the
situation in
> > the two countries.
> > It is two years since I was in the Bosnian town of Tuzla and on the
surface
> > life appears to be returning to 'normality'. The centre of town has
been
> > pedestrianised and is full of new café tables. A lot of new building
has
> > taken place, shopping malls, cafes and offices. I took a drive up to
> > Sarajevo and there you could easily forget there had been a war. In
streets
> > crowed with tourists and locals most of the war damage has vanished -
old
> > buildings restored and newly painted, the shrapnel blasts up the side of
> > every tower block filled in and the millions of shattered windows
replaced.
> >
> > But Sarajevo and even central Tuzla are not everywhere. We drove
through
> > Gorazde where many homes remain completely destroyed. We passed through
> > villages still empty and silent. In the normality of Sarajevo it is
easy to
> > forget that this is a country where thousands of people are still unable
to
> > return to their homes. While we were there Bosnia TV showed a group of
> > refugees trying to return to Doboj and being blocked by rows of police
from
> > the so called 'Serb Republic'.
> > The UN administration has papered over many cracks. Nice new notes and
coins
> > circulate - 'kms' or convertible marks, backed by the German banks.
These
> > are not only used in all parts of Bosnia but are even sought after by
> > traders from Serbia who come to sell agricultural and other produce. But
> > behind the single currency and many other 'unifying' moves the country
is
> > still bitterly divided. The lines of division may be invisible to the
> > outsider but they are as real as when front lines and troops marked them
> > out.
> > In Tuzla we spoke to several people - all supporters of the Social
> > Democratic Party - who are very optimistic that the autumn municipal
> > elections will see a further shift away from all the three main
nationalist
> > parties to the social democrats, who are standing as a single party in
all
> > parts of Bosnia. (The two factions that emerged from the old CP have
> > remerged ) This slow rise of the social democrats goes alongside the
recent
> > elections in Croatia where they defeated the HDZ party of Franjo
Tudjman.
> > It is very easy to see that the social democratic rise to power is the
> > chosen strategy of the occupying UN/NATO forces. For them the
nationalist
> > extremists have done what they were needed to do. In Tuzla people spoke
of
> > the almost universal corruption, which existed before the war but became
the
> > norm during the war. A worker in the hospital laboratory told me that
while
> > the doctors, radiologists, surgeons etc are on almost double the wages
of
> > nurses, technicians etc (400DM per month for nurses, 750DM for doctors)
the
> > doctors mostly expect back-hand payments from all patients. If you need
an
> > x-ray the hospital cannot afford the negatives but the radiologist has
also
> > his private clinic and if you go there and pay then you get your xray
etc
> > etc. While the laboratory technician was telling me this for a minute
I
> > thought to ask, 'Why don't you all protest?' but then realised it was a
> > stupid question. The war was exactly to break up such an organised
working
> > class response to the 'free market'. In the universities it is the
same. To
> > get high enough up on the list of candidates a professor puts forward
for
> > admissions you must pay - maybe 1000DM, maybe more, and this goes
straight
> > to the professor.
> > So for three years the west stood by as the bloody nationalists tore
Bosnian
> > society apart and left it desperate and broken. Now, from their
controlling
> > position, the west backs the social democrats to put the country and
even
> > the region back together as an integrated economic area, confident that
the
> > working people will have no say in deciding how things should be run.
> > However the west's strategy is one thing, popular will may be another.
> > Support for the social democrats from some of the best people we knew in
> > Tuzla, union activists, civic activists etc, is genuine and widespread.
> > They see in this the chance to rid society of the nationalists who they
see
> > as their main enemy, and a chance to try to regain some kind of normal
> > relations between people. For example our old friend Murveta Stevic,
from
> > the primary school teachers union in Tuzla, was enthusiastic about the
> > autumn elections as she saw it as the possible way to stop the advance
of
> > separate schools and separate curricula for Croats, Serbs and Muslims,
which
> > are now implemented everywhere except Tuzla. She also felt that in the
new
> > social democratic party she had democratic rights denied her in the old
> > Communist Party. These two perspectives, however, - that of the UN/NATO
and
> > that of the defenders of unified Bosnia cannot co-exist very far. Those
who
> > want to use the social democrats as a way of enforcing the free market
must
> > endorse a society of inequalities and deny any possibility of a
> > real,meaningful self determination. And this perspective will have
need to
> > weaken popular will, seek to weaken mass involvement in controlling the
> > future society and thus must again seek out lines of division just as
the
> > nationalists did. But for the moment these differences are hidden from
> > sight for most people.
> > Unemployment remains high. Wages in those of the old pre-war industries
that
> > are still operating are often not paid for months on end. One
engineering
> > worker I know well told me that in his factory only 50 of the 700
employees
> > are actually working but even they have not been paid for six months.
This
> > 'problem' of 'employed persons' continues to dog the new free
marketeers.
> > The government keeps proposing that all those people not actually
working
> > should be considered no longer employed rather than 'waiting for work'
as
> > at present. This would then cut them off from any entitlement to pay,
> > compensation if the plant is sold, pensions etc. But the whole
situation
> > remains unsettled. The resistance of workers may be muted but it is not
> > entirely absent. 30,000 people demonstrated in Sarajevo the last time
this
> > measure was proposed.
> > I went to visit the miners union. When I got there they were busy in a
> > meeting because there was a strike at one mine. I arranged to meet again
but
> > maybe because of some misunderstanding the meeting did not happen so I
> > cannot give a picture of what is happening in the mines.
> > I paid a couple of visits to the widow of Tihomir Babic, the mining
> > technician in Tuzla who acted as one of the main translators from 1995
> > onwards for all the miners delegations that visited the UK. He died at
the
> > end of last year. We visited the cemetery were he is buried. A heart
of
> > flowers decorate his grave. His wife and daughter miss him very much
and
> > wanted to know how all the different people Tihomir had met in the UK
were.
> > Faruk Ibrahimovic and some other friends had done a very good job
putting up
> > posters for the Taking
> > Sides play. The audience was not huge but everyone we spoke to
afterwards
> > was very enthusiastic about it, especially those ordinary Tuzla citizens
who
> > had worked with Workers' Aid 'family' during our many visits. They loved
it.
> > A Tuzla student who is studying in the USA said she would try to
organise
> > for the play to be brought out to the States. It was good the next day
to
> > sit and have coffee with Mirza Mukic whose newspaper article written in
> > 1994 forms the basis of the central narrative, where the play's
> > narrator invites the audience to come with him on a tour of one of
Tuzla's
> > old Ottoman streets, with its inhabitants from the four corners of
Europe.
> >
> > Our old friend Dragomir Olujic, a journalist from Belgrade, came to
visit
> > us. He had wanted to travel with
> > us to Mitrovica but our friends there told us that it was too dangerous
for
> > a Serb to come to the divided
> > town. So we met in Tuzla instead. Dragomir gave us a report of the rise
of
> > OTPOR which he said was full
> > of the same Serb chauvinism as the rest of the so calle 'opposition'.
OTPOR
> > had refused to give a platform
> > to a well known internationalist and opponent of Milosevic but they had
no
> > problem giving space to the
> > ultra nationalists like Draskovic. Dragomir will write an article all
about
> > OTPOR and send it to us in the
> > near future. He explained that the situation in Serbia continued to
> > deteriorate both economically and also in
> > terms of repression, with virtually all the independent media now shut
down.
> > We discussed the campaign of
> > solidarity with the Trepca miners - Dragomir had accompanied an Albanian
> > miner on a recent speaking
> > tour of the UK. He proposed as a next step the possiblity of a meeting
with
> > some Kosova Albanian trade
> > unionists and some Serbian trade unionists.
> >
> > We left Tuzla and drove through Bosnia via Gorazde to Montenegro. The
rift
> > between Serbia and Montenegro - the two remaining republics comprising
> > 'Federal Yugoslavia' has reached such a point that Montenegro is defying
> > Federal law and allowing EU passport holders to pass through without a
visa.
> > So we passed through Montenegro without a problem on our way, we
thought, to
> > Kosova. However we
> > found ourselves at the Serbian-Montenegrin border. We had taken the
wrong
> > road and headed towards Serbia. At first it seemed that they would just
send
> > us back to find a different road into Kosova, but then they began to
> > investigate the contents of the car and found all the Workers' Aid
> > -Solidarity with Kosova'
> > banners and other things we use for decorating the theatres where the
play
> > is being performed. Sadly, being without a hidden camera, we missed the
> > ultimate campaign shot of a group of Serbian police and Militia holding
up
> > 'Convoy to Kosova - Stop ethnic cleansing' banner.
> > So they made us go with the police into Serbia to the nearest police
> > station. After several hours of statement taking by an investigator
typing
> > with one finger we were taken in front of a magistrate and sentenced to
two
> > months in jail or 400DM fine for being in Federal Yugoslavia without a
visa.
> > No doubt in a slightly more democratic atmosphere we could have had a
good
> > time arguing that we had been allowed into Federal Yugoslavia by the
> > Montenegro police without a visa and then forced into Serbia by the Serb
> > police, but instead we paid the fine and were allowed back into
Montenegro
> > and this time took the right road to Kosova. Apart from the loss of
400DM
> > we had the slightly more serious problem that they had stamped our
passports
> > with 'Not allowed in Yugoslavia for one year', thus blocking our return
> > route through Montengro. However had we been Albanian our treatment
would
> > have been far less 'correct'. (In Prishtina two days later we saw
several
> > hundred people gather to demand the release from Serbian jails of the
> > hundreds of Albanians who were taken out of Kosova by the Serbian
state
> > forces before they withdrew. Many women, especially from Gjakova, held
up
> > photos of their husbands and sons who are now missing and believed to be
in
> > Serbian prisons).
> > We arrived in Pristina at 2.30 am and had to wake up our good friend
Zenel
> > Zecka, general secretary of the Education union, and ask him for a floor
to
> > sleep on.
> > It was 11 months since I was last in Prishtina. At that time the NATO/UN
> > troops were pouring in from just about every nation on earth. Every
> > government wanting to show their flag. But then the atmosphere was one
of
> > chaos with the overriding sense of jubilation from the Albanians that
their
> > ten year long nightmare was over. Now things had settled down to a new
kind
> > of normality that is extremely un-normal. Prishtina is a constant
traffic
> > jam. Yes, thousands of citizens have returned with their cars but for
every
> > local car there is a white UN vehicle. They line the streets, bumper to
> > bumper - police, military, and do-gooders. A high percentage of the
people
> > walking in the crowded streets have their UN cards dangling round their
> > necks on chains. A society, in terms of the 2 million Albanians, which
for a
> > decade survived repression , organised itself to carry on life despite
mass
> > sackings of all state employees, organised its own education system, its
own
> > health service, now needs hundreds of social workers from around the
globe,
> > advisors on this, experts on that. Of course in one sense, given that
the
> > Albanians were excluded from all state activities and employment for a
long
> > time there is a shortage of all kinds of expertise but many people we
spoke
> > to are torn between welcoming this influx of assistance and frustration
at
> > its disempowering reality. In the National Theatre, where the play was
to be
> > performed in Prishtina, there is a team of young, talented people
running
> > the theatre, preparing new productions and so on but amongst the
audience
> > for our performance was the Minister for Culture - a Chilean bureaucrat,
for
> > the minister is of course a UN minister.
> > Despite this huge international presence the central building in
Prishtina
> > which houses the Post Office and government offices remain bombed out
> > shells. In the country as a whole roads have been repaired where bombs
> > destroyed bridges and so on, some of the railways have been restored but
> > everywhere there are burnt out houses. The old central shopping area of
> > Gijlan, much of it lovely old buildings from Ottoman times, remains
> > completely burnt. But at the same time where individuals can find the
money,
> > often from relatives abroad, rebuilding of private homes goes on
quickly.
> > Everywhere there are repairs being done and even new homes being built.
> > However, the ambivalent attitude towards the UN/NATO is widespread. Our
> > western 'anti-NATO' 'anti-imperialists' could never get to grips with
the
> > situation. They would see the vast UN/NATO operations, the military
> > roadblocks everywhere, the total UN control of society, the ever
growing
> > alliance between the self-appointed Albanian political leadership
coming
> > out of the UCK) and the western powers, the all prevailing growth of
> > corruption and the attacks on Serbs and they would triumphantly declare
> > 'Well what do you expect from an imperialist invasion?'. But what these
> > people never really got to understand was the nature of the previous
> > imperialist invasion - from Belgrade. Most Kosovars we spoke to were
clear
> > that they had not yet got the independence they wanted but one thing
they
> > knew for sure - the present occupiers were a million times preferable to
the
> > last ones. The new authorities are not randomly killing them and are
> > actually negotiating with them and holding out the prospect of some kind
of
> > self rule (form unclear) at some future date ( time unspecified).
> > A meeting was arranged with the Trepca miners committtee. Firstly I
handed
> > over donations of several thousand DMs sent by 'Trade Unions for Kosova'
and
> > Durham NUM. Then the miners new President, Qazim Jashari, gave a report
on
> > their situation. The Albanian miners, locked out for ten years, had
finally
> > been allowed to return into the mines by NATO last December after six
months
> > of protest campaigns at the continued lockout by NATO troops. The
December
> > agreement to allow the return stipulated that there were to be no wages,
no
> > insurance, no welfare and that all questions of ownership of the mines
were
> > unsettled.
> > Now two hundred former employees, out of over a thousand who have
registered
> > wanting to return, miners, managers, engineers etc, are working to try
to
> > restore the fabric of the mine after years of neglect. Their biggest
> > problem is flooding. The pipes are all badly calcified and on each
level
> > there is only one working pump, giving no spare capacity to cover for
> > breakdowns which are happening regularly. New pumps are being sought
but
> > they are needed immediately and manufacturers are giving a delivery time
of
> > four months or more. So a round the clock operation is needed to just
> > prevent the water level rising and destroying the mine. For the moment
> > there is no clear prospect of resuming production. For that capital is
> > needed and there is one problem - who will lend to a mine whose
ownership is
> > in dispute? The Italian trade unions donated over one million DMs to
> > provide the miners with some small wages but there is still great
hardship
> > amongst the mining community, especially in villages like Star Trg,
where
> > most of the houses were destroyed by Serbian artillery and have not been
> > rebuilt.
> > The miners made it clear that they have suffered discrimination and
would
> > never in turn discriminate against others - ie they are against any
> > persecution of the Serbs in Kosova. However they are equally clear that
> > there cannot be any normal relations between Albanians and Serbs simply
on
> > the basis of 'forgive and forget'. The division of Mitrovica and the
virtual
> > annexation ( ie the exclusion of Albanians despite NATO/UN control) of
the
> > northern part of Kosova by Serbia make such a 'peace' impossible.
Normal
> > relations can only take place once the Serbs accept that Kosova will
never
> > again be part of Serbia, when those who have the greatest responsiblity
for
> > the years of persecution are dealt with and when the Serbs in general
are
> > able to apologise for the wrongs that have been done.
> > Of course the western left who want to put an equals sign between the
years
> > of state organised persecution of Albanians and the revenge attacks
that
> > are now taking place, or even worse see the Albanians resistance to
> > repression simply as 'Albanian separatism' will not be able to see the
> > essential truth of this attitude. All the Kosovars we spoke to
condemmed
> > the violence against ordinary Serbs in Kosova but also recognised the
desire
> > for revenge by some people plus the possibilty of criminal gangs etc
being
> > behind some of the killings, for whatever reasons. The truth is that as
> > long as a regime remains in place in Serbia that still lays claim to
Kosova,
> > and as long as that regime pulls the strings in the Serb communities in
> > Kosova then the Albanians rightly see those communities as a threat.
> > And it is this threat that allows NATO/UN to justify its role in
controlling
> > Kosova and denying self-determination. The miners' committee, like
others,
> > spoke of their frustration at many apsects of the new colonial control
but
> > at the same time saw the need for NATO/UN to stay because without them
the
> > Albanians would once more be at the mercy of Belgrade.
> > It is with this in mind that ways must be found to begin some dialogue
> > between the best people in the workers and students movements in Kosova
and
> > Serbia. Rather than simply shouting 'down with imperialism' as our
left
> > are doing what needs to be done is to simultaneously campaign against
the
> > NATO/UN denial of self-determination and at the same time help the
Kosova
> > working class, with its strong progressive history help in turn to
> > strengthen the tiny voice in Serbia that speaks out in a principled way
> > against Serb nationalism.
> > Given all that has happened this will not be easy - only a very few
people
> > will be able to see the need and possibility of this common work, but it
is
> > only from this that there can be a real 'anti-imperialist' campaign.
(ie
> > real because it is against all aspects of imperialism not just those
that
> > suit some anti-American dogma)
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________________________________________
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