8th mission, December 2008
It is 7 PM. Our team of volunteers sets out on its annual mission to help the Serbs of Kosovo and Metochia. The road is long – we know it by heart. But it’s different every time: this year we are taking 36 m3 of clothes, new toys and sports gear donated by our friends from France, Belgium and, for the first time, Italy. It is the largest convoy ever organized by Solidarité Kosovo.
As is the case every year, we lost a lot of time at the borders, because of red tape and technical trouble with one of the vans (which we nickname ‘Culbuto’, i.e. Weeble). Eventually, exhausted after 40 hours on the road, we arrive and meet our friends of Kosovska Mitrovica. As usual, we are greeted as heroes, even if for us, they are the heroes.
A few days before our departure, our friends of Kosovska Mitrovica had told us they had started a boxing club (full-contact boxing) attended by 70 youth several times a week. They still needed a few pairs of gloves and pao pads. In less than a week, thanks to our many friends, we succeeded in bringing them not only several pairs of gloves, paos and a punching/kicking bag but also a complete 25 m2 boxing ring! You may imagine their reaction!
Shortly after our arrival, we leave to continue our mission among the Serbian enclaves inside zones mainly populated by Albanians. The situation seems calm but our Serbian friends still recommend to us to ask for a police escort… In addition, the Albanian authorities of Kosovo installed a ‘border’ between the northern (Serbian) part of Kosovska Mitrovica and the (Albanian) southern part. If we do not want to stay blocked for hours, we need an authorization from Pristina to assist the Serbian population. Mission impossible. After more than 4 hours waiting we decide to cross the bridge, with the help of a Serbian officer of the Kosovo Police Service. This works out, and we finally arrive in the southern part of the city. The immense Albanian area of Kosovo is open for us, but we will have to do without a police escort.
With our local friend and guide Pajo, we go straight to Crkolez. There, a small Serbian community of 80 people is waiting for us. They cultivate the land or work in the village school. We are received by the headmaster, who thanks us for the toys and school material. His wish for the next year? To receive computer material. We take note of his request – these children cannot grow in the margins of the 21st century.
In winter, the night falls early and we want to reach our next destination before the roads are desert…
7 PM: we arrive at the Visoki Dečani monastery, the medieval pearl of Serbia, where our friends the monks are waiting for us for dinner. At the gates, heavily armed Italian soldiers protect the precinct from Albanian attacks. The greeting in this monastery had something of really otherwordly. The monks live here in quasi self-sufficiency, on the mountainside. This place is simply outside ot time.
This is the height of the orthodox Christmas period, but the monks welcome us as if we were prestigious visitors. We have the privilege to attend the morning liturgy, the same that has been practiced in this area for over 800 years, and which penetrates your heart like a burning sword. Believer or not, no member of our team remained indifferent to this night in the monastery. Before leaving, we give the monks 12 m3 of new clothes donated by a French textile corporation. They are filled with joy. Several of them have to help us carry everything inside the monastery and we have a good laugh with our Serbian hosts.
We spend the night in the monastery, then set out again immediately after breakfast for the enclave of Velika Hoča. This enclave, the most isolated from the area, sits right in the middle of Kosovo. 700 people live there. The village, one of most beautiful of Kosovo Metochia (13 churches and monasteries, stone houses built several centuries ago) is relatively large. One could think one is in a typical village of central Serbia. But the KFOR bunker overlooking the playground brings back us to dark reality. We are in a Serbian enclave, and one of the most dangerous in Kosovo Metochia. The headmaster and the priest welcome us with open arms and we begin the distribution of many toys and clothes to the children and youth. Balls, table football, teddy bears, frisbees… The school playground soon looks like a Christmas day scene, with children shouting, singing and playing all over with their new toys. We take advantage to film the scene so that the donors can realize the joy provided by their gifts to these children who live in the most dangerous zones of Europe, which can be attacked at any moment.
Velika Hoca’s specialty is wine. We cannot refuse to visit a cellar and a brief tasting session before hitting the road again to our next stop: Orahovac.
In Orahovac, we also distribute toys and clothing to a school administrator and the young children who have been waiting for us, and are helping us unload the equipment. The person in charge of the enclave says that it is quieter at the moment and that it is easier for the Serbs to go around the nearby Albanian area. But he does not forget that the situation was the same in March 2004, the day before the latests anti-Serb pogrom… Orahovac really looks like a ghetto. Some even call this village “the Serbian ghetto of Orahovac”. 300 Serbs live in the higher part, and 10 000 Albanians in the lower part. As we drive out from Orahovac, in the Albanian area we see signs proclaiming “I love USA” posted on all the walls. Further on, the Wahhabite mosque has a plate indicating that it has been “funded by SAUDI ARABIA”. From a landlocked European Christian village, we have arrived in an American Moslem country. As with Chetchnia, one can see that American imperialism teams up quite well with Islamic imperialism to weaken ‘old Europe’!
We are visiting many enclaves this year. Fortunately, the roads are in rather good condition, and there is less snow than last year. We leave for the enclave of Banja. We like Banja: there are many small children and we stop over there each year. The sun starts to dart its last rays on the church tower as all the children storm the soccer grounds to receive their gifts: there are some fifty of them. Their parents and grandparents thank us with emotion for not having forgotten the old alliance between the French and Serb peoples.
Our mission in the enclaves is almost through. We make a quick survey of the work done:
- 10 days on mission since we left France
- 36 m3 of equipment deposited
- Five enclaves visited: Crkolez, Visoki Dečani, Velika Hoca, Orahovac and Banja. An enclave close to Gračanica will receive our assistance via the local humanitarian association ‘Spas’, to which we have left several cubic meters of equipment. The boxing club of Kosovska Mitrovica is finally equipped at the level of its ambitions.
We quietly return to Kosovska Mitrovica, very satisfied with our trip. Our local contacts and our experience make us think that we start to become genuine professionals. We distribute every time more, in record times. Optimistically, we also have the impression that, apart from several police controls on the Albanian side, the climate is calmer this year than in previous years. But we had not arrived yet at Kosovska Mitrovica…
Our arrival in the big city in the North of Kosovo and Metochia takes us back abruptly to the real situation in which the local populations live.
While arriving on the bridge across the Ibar that separates symbolically the Albanian and Serbian communities, we fall upon police officers from Kosovo and an impressive line of KFOR soldiers in battle dress blocking the bridge. “Go back, the bridge is closed! There is a very big problem!!” What’s the matter? The soldier speaking to us does not provide details, and almost grabs the steering wheel of our first van to make us turn back. We find ourselves stuck on the Albanian side. We call a Serbian friend, who explains that Albanians have just stabbed a Serbian youth, which caused a riot of Serbs in the small Moslem sector of the north of the city, “Bosnjacka Mahala”: Albanian stores were arsoned and destroyed. Thanks to our local contacts, we find an alternate route to the northern part of the city.
We park and go see the city. The streets are empty. There are constant patrols by KFOR, and helicopters fly at low altitude above our heads. The ambience is sinister and a charred smell infests the city. The reality of Kosovo and Metochia is back.
Two days later, a part of the team returns to France while the other stays to visit in the hospital the young Serb wounded by Albanians. We bring a good pile of gifts bought locally, as well as French champagne. All smiles, the young Nikola thanks us with open arms for our efforts for the Serbian people. A Serbian television channel (TV Most) is filming. It is appalling to think that just a few hours ago, this young man could have been the latest victim of Albanian extremists dreaming of eradicating any Serb presence from Kosovo. It is most stunning to see that his is rather unmoved. As soon as he leaves the hospital, he will resume ‘normal’ life, fearless, without lowering his head. He is afraid of nothing. He is a Serb of Kosovo.
Dragan Ninković