By Marek Antoni Nowicki, Ombudsperson of Kosovo The Ombudsperson column, „Off the Record“, is printed every second Friday. Please send your comments to: ombudspersonkosovo@ombudspersonkosovo. org When many people travel, they find the time to take a few photos or scratch a few thoughts and descriptions of the unfamiliar, new place onto a picture postcard to send to family and friends back home. In my frequent travels around Kosovo, there are no picture postcards to buy on which to jot down my thoughts. But, I am compelled to share these observations, as most inhabitants of Kosovo do not venture into the territories that I tend to visit. So I have sketched out for you, the reader, a few postcards from regions around Kosovo with which you may not be, as of late, so well acquainted: June 2005- Dear Reader: Upon entering the Serbian village of Grace/Grace, my official vehicle was stopped and thoroughly checked by KFOR personnel making it a bit complicated even for the Ombudsperson to visit. KFOR soldiers asked about the purpose of the visit, with whom I was to meet, what type of questions I intended to ask. After the checkpoint, my car drove about fifty meters along the road towards the village when it was stopped again. A senior officer was there to ask the same questions and eventually waved my car on when he was satisfied with the answers. In this isolated setting, signs of poverty were difficult to ignore, as in other areas around Kosovo. The people wore frayed and thin clothes, faces were gaunt. Students regularly travel to school outside of the village in a bus that has windows re-enforced with steel grating to protect them from rock-throwers. The bus is accompanied by a special police escort. All in all, after entering and later exiting the village, neither proved to be very welcoming nor was the village easily accessible. June 2005- Dear Reader: Belo Polje/Bellopoje, a village located just outside of Pejë/Peæ. The inhabitants here are returnees- for the moment only comprised of male heads of households- who have worked for the better part of two years in an effort, together with humanitarian organization, to rebuild their lives with the aim to one day call for their wives and children to rejoin them. Their families stay in Serbia-proper so their children can safely go to school. Today, the reconstruction of their houses is making visible progress, however this is not the first time their homes had to be rebuilt. After having been moderately restored following the 1999 conflict, the houses were again destroyed in March of 2004 by people from the neighborhood. After such a long time the returnees still rely on humanitarian assistance to provide and deliver three meals a day. The big hurdle to return efforts, as it is in other places, is that the inhabitants cannot access their agricultural lands as they have been occupied by hostile neighbors. Further complicating matters, a large proportion of their yards is covered in trash dumped over parts of the village. There are no apparent efforts to start cleaning these areas, amidst complaints from municipal authorities that such an undertaking would be too expensive. But the question that begs asking: Who allowed people to dump on another person’s land in the first place? Likely the same people who allowed this to happen assumed the owners would never return to use their property. Aggravating the situation, prospects for employment are merely the substance of dreams. Over the last two years I have heard the same questions, the same problems, and the same despair in their voices: they have no idea how to move forward. The return efforts here seem to be very much concentrated on simply constructing shelter, although important, but it is just one piece of a very complicated puzzle of rebuilding lives. Given these circumstances, and if there is no considerable change, there is a large question mark concerning the sustainability of such returns. June 2005- Dear Reader: The enclave of Gorazdevac is not far from Belo Polje/Bellopoje. Here, the villagers were never forced from their homes. As in Belo Polje/Bellopoje, there is a noticeable KFOR checkpoint at the entrance, which my car is briskly waved through. The enclave still lives under a long shadow which stretches back to the dramatic summer of 2003 during which three children were shot to death by a still unknown perpetrator wielding a Kalashnikov. Until now, the investigation has not shown any promising leads or results. As in other similar cases there is a perspective that there will never be justice for these crimes. A familiar despair, as among returnees, is obvious here and the question persists: will they need to one day leave this area forever? June 2005- Dear Reader: Kuzmin is a village situated in the Municipality of Fushë Kosove /Kosovo Polje. The villagers here tend to their livestock and farm a fraction of their land that they can access to eke out a living. When I arrived to Kuzmin, I was met by a farmer who could not contain his frustration: recently his last cow and tractor were stolen. Over the years, he and his fellow villagers have been repeatedly robbed of their animals, tractors and other farming equipment. Each incident prompted the villagers to inform the police and file reports. Not once did the police arrest a perpetrator for the crimes. Instead, the police response was: you should be lucky that you didn’t lose your head. Even if certain suspects or perpetrators were identified, the police were not ready to follow-through due to the perceived risks involved, which is easy to understand. To lose a life over someone else’s tractor is not an appealing concept. This situation indicates the reality particularly in Serbian villages which tend to be more vulnerable to these types of crimes. Subsequently, humanitarian organizations have donated cows, seeds and farming equipment to make up for their losses. But over time, even these were stolen and again police did not manage to bring the perpetrators to justice. Of course this cycle creates and sharply contributes to the perception of insecurity. Dear Reader, if there is a sincere will to make a change, to see the reintegration of returnees and to prepare solid ground for Serbs so as they can see a place for themselves here, then more visible efforts on behalf of the government and the neighborhoods must be seen on the ground. This is the only way, also for me, to send different, more colorful postcards from certain regions of Kosovo.
