Tuesday, September 4 - Meeting with Albanian leaders, visit to the village of Laplje Selo, talks with Eric Morris, visit to Decani Monastery and talk with Father Sava Janjic and the brothership of the monastery (about the refugees, health care, schools, Serbs in Metohija, Taqi and Haradinai)

The day started in Laplje Selo hospital, the construction of which was financed by the French Red Cross and has just been completed. Lewis Kanioko from the UNMIK Health Department said that this hospital with 26 beds and a few hundred square metres cost around DM1 million. The hospital will have an ambulance service, pediatrics and internal medicine departments, and emergency care facilities.

Class of art in front of St. Holy Mother Church in Lipljan (click on photo to enlarge)

After that followed the visit to the village of Lipljan, where some 2,100 people now live, and a visit to 132 Serbian children who play in the backyard of St. Holy Mother Church instead of going to school. They are protesting because they have no acceptable conditions for the beginning of the school year. They were supposed to attend one of the two schools in Lipljan, which was attended solely by Albanian children. According to director of Primary school "Braca Aleksic" Miodrag Makaric, the children will stay in the church's backyard until further notice. Parents and teaching staff refuse the UNMIK's proposal, that teaching should be carried on in 'boxes.' UNMIK Municipality administrator Cecilia Piazza said that they were looking for proper location for the school and that she hoped that a solution which would satisfy the Serbian children's parents would soon be found.

After we arrived from Lipljan we had a conversation with Hashim Taqi, president of Democratic Party of Kosovo and Ramush Haradinai, president of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, who agreed to meet with Belgrade reporters. Ibrahim Rugova, president of Albanian Democratic League of Kosovo refused our request.

Taqi speaks to Serbian journalists (click on photo to enlarge)

Both Albanian leaders denied their responsibility for the Serb and other non-Albanian suffering in Kosovo-Metohija, reiterating that those were only speculations. "KLA and the battle for democracy cannot be condemned," said Haradinai and Taqi, stressing that they cherished "democratic values."

Taqi expressed his satisfaction with the Serb registration for the Kosovo electrons, because thus democratic life in Kosovo would improve. "Besides Albanian, the Serbian, Turkish and Bosnian languages are spoken in Kosovo. Kosovo needs a future of ethnic tolerance, not of discrimination," said Taqi. The future of Kosovo is for Taqi and Haradianai fixed. "Kosovo will be independent and democratic, with open borders," they said.

After "heated" talks with Taqi and Haradinai, came a discussion with Eric Morris, UNHCR special envoy for Kosovo-Metohija, who said that the situation for some ethnic communities in Kosovo was unacceptable - primarily for the Serbian community, and then for Roma, Ashkalis and Egyptians. "UNHCR supports return of all communities. When I arrived here a year ago, the international community's position was that not much could be done, and I know it is hard to press the Kosovo leadership to talk on such matters," said Morris.

Since the reporters were not permitted to go to the village of Osojane, where a part of the Serb population had returned, but then went back to central Serbia, Morris said that Osojane could be manipulated for political purposes. "We have a cautious approach to this issue because we believe that the situation is extremely delicate. Therefore we think that a discrete approach until the elections is the best policy," Morris stressed. Later we found out that Hans Haekkerup visited the enclave without the presence of reporters.

After the meeting with Morris, we set off to Decane Monastery. The meeting with the brotherhood of the monastery was emotional and and excited, since such meetings were rare since the war in Kosovo. The small Serb enclave, this monastery with 30 souls in it, is protected by Italian KFOR troops, just as it was protected by Italian forces during World War Two. Father Sava Janjic, who greeted us on behalf of the monastery's brotherhood, gave us his views on the current situation.

"It is very difficult to discuss the possibilities of normal life in Kosovo-Metohija. Among Albanians themselves there are disagreements, but they have a common position on Serbs not returning to their homes. Our people can hardy persevere in such conditions. Metohija has very few Serbs living there: 100 in Prizren, very a few in Orahovac and Velika Hoca, 6 old ladies in Djakovica, not one Serb in Pec, about 1,000 in Gorazdevac, a few in Suvi Do and some other enclaves," Father Sava said.

He said that the brotherhood was not always ready to go along with what the Serbian government was doing. "But we are encouraged with Nebojsa Covic's attempts to unite all Serbs. We understand the difficulties our state faces. We stay loyal to God, and hope that Kosovo-Metohija will not be just a part which could be cut off from Serbia, rather we hope that it is the heart and soul of the Serbian people."

Concerning the forthcoming elections, Father Sava said, "our choice is not what is better, but what we lose if we don't participate," and stressed "as Artemije said: without a better life, there are no free elections." He added that he didn't forsee any improvement with or without the elections.

We returned from Decani late in the evening.

Five days in Kosovo-Metohija
Monday, September 3
Wednesday, September 5
Thursday, September 6
Friday, September 7