Serbs in Macedonia

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Subject: Serbs in Macedonia

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Serbs in Macedonia 



Serbs in Macedonia: In Search of Identity

AIM Skopje, October 06, 1999

The last week's press conference went practically unnoticed by the
public although the Social-Democratic Alliance, the largest opposition
party, used it to announce its intention, in the middle of the
presidential campaign, to join the ranks with its one-time coalition
partner the Socialist Party and, what is more interesting, it declared
its support of some smaller parties, including the Democratic Party of
Serbs and the nomination of Tito Petkovski for the President of the
Republic. Reacting to the attempt of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE to isolate
it by developing more or less successful alliances with other
parliamentary parties, this largest opposition party rallied
non-parliamentary parties which have unsuccessfully tried for years to
attract the attention of voters. One of such parties is the Democratic
Party of Serbs which, after years of internal upheavals (at least
judging by the media in the Macedonian language), has won the
reputation of the best articulated political representative of its
compatriots.

True, some political analysts think that the Democratic Party of Serbs
speaks only for the rural part of the Serbian population in Macedonia
and, moreover, that its activity is almost exclusively centered around
the area to the north of the capital which is called the Skopje
Montenegro populated by Serbs living in either ethnically homogenous
communities or in settlement in which they represent the majority
population. Other politically active Serbs who live in cities are
rallied around stronger Macedonian parties. In any case, such as it
is, the Democratic Party of Serbs can count on limited influence in
view of the statistically small number of members of this nation in
Macedonia. Namely, according to the last official population census
carried out in 1994, the Serbs represented only 2 percent of the total
population (39,000), although same as other nationalities, they
claimed to be more numerous. But, in contrast to others, the Serbs are
not mentioned in the preamble of the first and, for the time being,
only Constitution of independent Macedonia, either as a national
minority or as an ethnic group. On one occasion, in its contacts with
the official Belgrade, the state authorities promised to rectify this,
but that has to be taken with reserve as no one can tell with
certainty when will this highest act of the country be reconstructed.

The Democratic Party of Serbs had its "moment of glory" in the first
days of the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Press
agencies from all over the world sent the news that this party had
organized massive anti-NATO protests in the streets of Skopje when
several Western embassies were demolished. This information was only
partly true because some other smaller non-parliamentary parties have
joined in the organisation of protests. Criminal charges were brought
against the DPS leaders. As one commentator, favourably inclined to
the policy of official Belgrade, concluded with much satisfaction: "a
small, non-parliamentary party managed to get tens of thousands of
demonstrators into the streets". The following four rallies organized
on the main Skopje square during NATO aggression against Yugoslavia
went rather peacefully and did not attract much media attention.

Several bomb attacks on members and facilities of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation at the height of the Kosovo crisis were carried
out by persons of Serb nationality (as the media zealously pointed
out) from the mentioned areas of the Skopje Montenegro. The media also
insisted on the fact that the perpetrators were connected with the
members of military-security services of the neighbouring FR
Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, Pavle Trajanov, Minister of the Interior
found it necessary to point out at one of his press conferences that
political structures of Serbs in Macedonia were not involved in the
bomb attacks. This remark came in handy in view of the rather rapid
rise of political temperature in some villages around Skopje inhabited
by Serbs. The papers wrote with much concern about armed night patrols
in the villages of Kuceviste, Mrsevci, Mirkovci so that the reporters
concluded that the situation resembled the one in Kninska Krajina,
Slavonija and Bosnia at the beginning of Serbian revolt. The police
was alarmed by these events the more so because the neighbouring
villages are populated by the Albanian so that even a smallest sparkle
could start a fire.

Conviction of fours young men for participating, as the Court had
established, in the planting of explosive under a NATO truck in the
organisation's headquarters in Skopje in June did not attract much
attention of the media. The "four" were sentenced to 16 months in
prison. One of the defence attorneys used the same argument as the
media that one of the accused kept arms only to defend himself as he
lived in the village of Mrsevci which is surrounded by the Albanians.

At its first press conference after summer vacations, leaders of the
Democratic Party of the Serbs have condemned the activities of KFOR in
Kosovo accusing it of ethnic cleansing of the Serbian population in
the Province and of assisting the Liberation Army of Kosovo in this.
Some reporters even pointed out that the vocabulary used at that press
conference did not differ from the rhetoric of the regime-controlled
media in Belgrade. Their impressions were confirmed by responses of
the DPS leaders to embarrassing questions. Concerning opposition
protests in Belgrade and demands for the resignation the FRY President
Slobodan Milosevic the comment was that "it was up to the people to
decide about their President at elections". About the activities of
the opposition opinion of the representatives of the Democratic Party
of Serbs was similar to that of the officials of the Socialist Party
of Serbia who accused opposition leaders of maintaining contacts wit
their Western mentors. The recent visit of Zoran Djindjic, leader of
the Democratic Party of Serbia, did not attract much interest of the
local political Serbian factors which was yet another proof that the
Democratic Party of Serbs and Serbian opposition are on the opposite
sides of the same street.

After last year's change of power the media, on whose reporting the
Government has some influence, have stopped calling about the
Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia a branch office of the Belgrade
regime. Incidentally, the DPS leaders themselves frequently gave
reason for the same conclusion. Lately, there have been many articles
suggesting that the Democratic Party of Serbs doesn't have a fully
developed concept of activity and that it is still in search of
answers to all questions which are of interest for the position and
future of this nation in Macedonia. Apart from the mentioned
constitutionally unregulated position in Macedonia, this nation still
has problems in exercising its national, educational, religious,
informational and other rights.

In their reports international human rights organisations have
regularly pointed to rather modest possibilities for the use of the
Serbian language in the media, impossibility to profess their
religion, problems in the educational system as a result of the lack
of manpower, etc. The Democratic Party of Serbs was well remembered
for its reaction to the discovery  of an illegal university in the
Albanian language in the village of Mala Recica, near Tetovo, and the
announcement of the authorities' intentions to legalize it. This party
stated that that would provide an opportunity for all other national
communities in the country to establish their own universities. In
view of the number of Serbs in Macedonia, the media treated this as a
good joke. True, some rather renown journalists tried to elaborate
further on this thesis claiming that the legalization of the Tetovo
University would create preconditions for political rather than
educational activities of neighbours.

Electoral coalition of the Social-Democratic Alliance with the
Democratic Party of Serbs might have come as a surprise, but it should
not be expected to produce any long-term connections. For, while it
was in power, the Social-Democratic Alliance shrank from speaking
harshly about the situation in Macedonia, which is standard practice
of the Democratic Party of Serbs. In any case, neither the
Social-Democratic Alliance nor any other parliamentary party gave
support to the DPS at rallies although some of their members might
have participated in the spring anti-NATO protests. In their meeting
with the press, representatives of the Social-Democratic Alliance did
not disclose any details about the arrangement they have concluded,
although some things sound quite logical: it is quite natural that
this party's candidate at the presidential elections on October 31
will need the valuable ballot of every single voter, but what could
have the SDSM offered the Serbs in return.

The shortcoming of the Macedonian electoral system lies in the fact
that small parties like the DPS are not represented in Parliament. At
all parliamentary elections held to date, the DPS did not have much
luck with its strategic partners and was not able to make its voice be
heard from the parliamentary rostrum. However, election of the chief
of state cannot change much in this respect. Even assuming that the
candidate of the Social-Democratic Alliance wins the elections he will
find it difficult to co-exist with the opposing government coalition.
In other words, it is highly unlikely that the Serbs will improve
their position in this way. But, be it as it may, it is an important
fact that for the first time since Macedonia won its independence that
the Democratic Party of Serbs has decided to make a pact with a
relevant political factor such as the Social-Democratic Alliance and
thereby finally join in the political life of the country.

AIM Skopje

Zeljko Bajic

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