[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} PRESS: Albanians cross forbidden bridge to mourn boy killed by Serbs (Independent, 9 February 2001)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2001-02/forbidden090201.shtml

Albanians cross forbidden bridge to mourn boy killed by Serbs 

By Justin Huggler in Mitrovica 
9 February 2001

All day they cross the river - crouched, fearful figures, walking
through streets of razed houses - coming to pay their last respects. 
    They gather in a silent café to add their names to the makeshift
book of condolences, a notebook of ruled pages. Beside the book, a
framed photograph of a serious, frowning boy. On the photograph, the
words: "Gazmend Ibrahimi, 28 July 1985 - 29 January 2001." 
    Gazmend was blown to pieces by a Serbian grenade - an Albanian
murdered by Serbs in Kosovo more than a year after the war to stop the
killing ended. 
    Last week, a crowd of Albanians marked Gazmend's death with the
worst riots Kosovo had seen in a year. 
    As the mourners come to the the café they pass the sandbags of a
checkpoint manned by troops from the international force in Kosovo
(K-For). Mitrovica is still divided: razor wire runs along the banks of
the river Ibar, and K-For soldiers patrol the bridges to keep the Serbs
and Albanians apart. 
    At the end of the war, thousands of Kosovo's Serbs retreated to the
half of Mitrovica north of the river and now the division of the city is
stark: Serbs in the north, Albanians in the south. Gazmend lived in one
of the tiny pockets of Albanians who dared to stay in the north, in an
area known as the Bosnian quarter. 
    "Where else would we go?" said his father, Agim Ibrahimi, shocked
with grief as he greets the steady stream of mourners crossing from the
south. "Our home is here." That home is a tiny, single room, rebuilt in
the shell of the family house which was burnt down by Serbian troops
during the war. "We are five of us living here," he says - then stops,
corrects himself. "No, we were five," he says. "Now there are only four
of us." 
    It is a dangerous place to live. Just walk two streets up, to where
Gazmend died, says Mr Ibrahimi, and you are in the firing line of Serbs
who want the last Albanians out of north Mitrovica. Many Albanians have
fled south but Gazmend's family is too poor. Mr Ibrahimi has had no work
since the UN forced the mine complex where he worked to shut because of
the pollution it was causing. 
    During the Nato bombing campaign, Gazmend and his family were among
the thousands of refugees forced out of Kosovo by Serbian troops. They
were ordered on to a bus at gunpoint and spent months in a refugee camp
in Albania. "When the war ended, we thought we could come back to a
normal life," Mr Ibrahimi said. 
    Gazmend died in agony a few metres from the K-For checkpoint. Halil
Jonuzi was one of the youths who was with him when he died. He has
shrapnel wounds to his throat. "We were standing, talking among
ourselves," he says. "Suddenly there was a grenade in front of our
legs." He says the K-For troops did nothing to help. There were seven
injured. Gazmend's 14-year-old brother, Armend, was among them. 
    Mitrovica is in the sector of Kosovo controlled by French K-For
troops and the Albanians complain that the French are pro-Serb. K-For
spokesmen strenuously deny any bias. 
    On the Albanian side of the main bridge, a crowd is growing restive.
So deep is the mistrust of the French that the troops are replaced by
Italians. 
    On the Serbian side, French soldiers are drinking coffee in the
Dolce Vita, a bar frequented by the "Bridge Watchers", self-appointed
Serb vigilantes who check those crossing and order Albanians back. There
is plenty of bonhomie. 
    The customers in the Dolce Vita say they don't know who threw the
grenade that killed Gazmend. One Bridge Watcher says he deplores the
killing. "But we have 30,000 Serb refugees from Kosovo and the world
only cares about the Albanians," he said. "Do you think the killing of
the boy was the start of it? Two weeks ago, two Serbs were beaten up in
that part of town." 

© 2001 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd.


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