[Kcc-News] PRESEVO ALBANIANS SPURN MILITARY DRAFT: Balkan Crisis Report No. 420

[Mentor Cana]

WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 420, April 20, 2003

PRESEVO ALBANIANS SPURN MILITARY DRAFT
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200304_420_3_eng.txt

A call for ethnic Albanians to serve in the army of Serbia-Montenegro is
falling on deaf ears.

By Belgzim Kamberi in Presevo

There has been a poor response to the south Serbian authorities' attempts
to recruit ethnic Albanian youngsters into the armed forces.

Since Yugoslavia's violent dissolution in the early Nineties, Albanians
have ignored calls for military service, as they considered the army a
tool of the former president and arch-Serbian nationalist, Slobodan
Milosevic.

One former Albanian guerrilla commander spoke for many when he told IWPR,
"How could I serve in an army I was fighting against?"

Until two or three years ago, Albanians did at least register and undergo
medical examinations, but they have been left alone since that time.

However, the authorities' attitude has now changed. "Calls for military
service have been sent to youngsters from all ethnic communities -
including Albanians," Milovan Coguric, secretary of the defence ministry
and member of the coordinating body for southern Serbia, told the media.

Ethnic Albanians in Serbia - excluding Kosovo - are concentrated in the
three southern municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja - some
70,000 of them live there together with 40,000 Serbs.  It was the centre
of an armed conflict between the Yugoslav army and Albanian guerrillas
from January 2000 until mid-2001.

Fighting died down after an internationally-brokered deal was reached
between the two sides, under which the Albanians disarmed and gave up
plans for secession in return for guarantees of greater human rights and
representation in local government and police structures.

The agreement opened the way to a process of fuller integration in local
administration.  But Albanian political leaders in southern Serbia say the
planned military draft may inflame the situation once again.

They say Albanians still lack confidence in Serbian institutions -
especially the largely unreformed army.  "The war has left deep scars and
it is impossible to convince Albanian parents to send their sons for
military service in Serbia," said Skender Destani, of the Party for
Democratic Action, SDA, the biggest Albanian party in the area.

"We are in favour of a democratic Serbia and are not prepared to join an
army whose generals are sought for war crimes by The Hague tribunal," said
Jonuz Musliu, leader of the Democratic Progress Movement party, which
emerged from the ranks of the former guerrillas.

This distrust has been heightened by the recent assassination of Serbian
prime minister Zoran Djindjic, who was gunned down in Belgrade on March
12.

"These events show that elements of the Milosevic regime were still active
in Serbia's military and police structures," Presevo mayor and SDA leader
Riza Halimi Sadi last week during a meeting with the republic's deputy
president Nebojsa Covic.

Ethnic Albanian leaders argue that their people should not be summoned for
military service until matters have visibly improved and confidence had
grown.

"We need to talk to the Serbian leadership and the international community
and retain the status quo until matters progress," said Shaip Kamberi,
chair of the Albanian Council for Human Rights in Bujanovac.

Albanians need to be properly represented in local and regional political
structures before the question of military service can arise, the
community's leaders argue.  "We have not yet seen a real integration in
state institutions, and in the meantime they are asking for Albanians to
fulfil their military service," Kamberi complained.

But Serbian officials disagree.  "There is no reason to ignore calls for
the draft," Coguric said.  "Anyone in southern Serbia who avoids military
service will face legal action."

Serbian officials accuse Albanians in the region of continuing to harbour
dreams of joining Kosovo.  In March 1992, they held an unofficial
referendum, where most voted to secede from former Yugoslavia and unite wi
th the province.

Though Kosovo is formally part of Serbia and Montenegro, it is effectively
run as an international protectorate.  Talks on its final status have not
yet begun.

Belgzim Kamberi is an independent journalist in Presevo.