By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Jun 20 2000 (IPS)

Thousands of Serbs who decided to remain in Kosovo, following the withdrawal of the Yugoslav Army (VJ) and the Serb police from the southern Kosovo province in June 1999, say they regret their decision.

The withdrawal was in accordance with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Organisation (NATO) agreement signed in the Macedonian town of Kumanovo on June 9, 1999.

The agreement ended the three months of NATO air strikes against Serbia.

A United Nations led administration was established to normalise life for the 1.8 million strong ethnic Albanian community and some 400.000 non-Albanians in the province.

However the Kosovo Serbs say the creation of a multi ethnic society in Kosovo is not possible.

“Under the very eyes of the international peace forces (KFOR), more than 250,000 non-Albanians left Kosovo, more than 1,000 Serbs were killed in the past year and 1,200 were abducted,” says Bishop Artemije, the highest Serb Orthodox church representative in Kosovo.

“More than 90 Orthodox churches were destroyed and dozens of thousands of Serb homes burned to the ground” he adds.

Bishop Artemije is viewed by Kosovo Serbs as their sole leader. In the past 10 years, he never supported violence and repression of Belgrade government against ethnic Albanians in the province.

“Serbs are an unwanted minority among ethnic Albanians and the idea of multi ethnic society is far from being achieved,” the bishop told journalists in Belgrade, after spending two weeks in New York and Washington.

In New York he explained problems of Kosovo Serbs to the members of the UN Security Council, while in Washington, he tried to obtain help from the US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

“Promises were given to me that Serbs, living in enclaves in Kosovo, could have a certain degree of autonomy,” Bishop Artemije said.

In the meantime, analysts point out that a multi ethnic society in Kosovo will remain a dream.

“Serbs are living in several enclaves, segregated due to the fact that they come from another nation. It’s unclear why the international community stood up for Bosnia and prevented the creation of clear ethnic states there, while that is exactly what is being done in Kosovo now,” says Belgrade analyst, Branislav Krstic.

He says the Dayton peace accords on Bosnia prevented the creation of ethnically clean states of Bosnian Serbs, Muslims or Croats, re-uniting them into a single state, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

“At the same time, under the UN resolution 1244, Kosovo remained part of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but is practically becoming an independent state of ethnic Albanians under the UN protectorate,” Krstic says.

“This double standard of the international community in Balkans only makes things worse and indefinitely unclear” he adds.

Last week, Serbs living in eastern Kosovo wrote an angry letter to the Federal Government of Yugoslavia, blaming it for “chaos that Serb live in”.

“We find you personally responsible for the humiliation, cultural and national disaster that Serbs in Kosovo are facing a year after you signed the Kumanovo agreement,” says the letter addressed to Nebojsa Vujovic, deputy Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia.

Vujovic and VJ general, Svetozar Marjanovic, signed the agreement with NATO commander, British general Michael Jackson in Kumanovo, Macedonia.

The agreement was presented by the government – controlled media here as “victory against NATO”.

The government of Yugoslavia has begun making public statements threatening to send its security forces to Kosovo. This would be in violation of the Kumanovo agreement which only allows for the return of “dozens of Serb security forces” at an unspecified time in the future, “to guard Orthodox shrines”.

Kosovo is the cradle of the Serb medieval state and hosts hundreds of Orthodox churches and monasteries, dating back to 12th century.

At a June 16 reception, marking the day of VJ, chief of staff general Nebojsa Pavkovic said that “both the UN administration and KFOR troops failed to fulfill the Security Council resolution 1244 (on Kosovo)”.

“That is why the VJ is, in combat and psychological sense, ready to return to Kosovo”, he added.

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