Jevtiq: Serbian List did well to support Haradinaj for prime minister

Kosovo Government Minister Dalibor Jevtic says Serbs and Albanians should build confidence and that Kosovo Serb children should learn Albanian to ensure better communication for the future.

The key word in Kosovo today is trust, which must be built between the two communities and on [state] institutions”, told BIRN in an interview, Dalibor Yevtiq, Minister for Communities and Kthim in the Government of Kosovo.

“The recognition of the Albanian language is a must for the Serb community. Most middle-aged and older generations of Albanians know Serbian, which is not the case with the Serb population, and this should also change”, Jevtic said.

Jevtic, a member of the Serbian List's Headship, who is supported by Belgrade, who has served as minister in three Kosovo governments, has said that in his professional and personal experience he has always learned to place the lives of ordinary people before politics.

“The policy of life before politics has proved itself to be very productive, as over the past few years we have not seen any incident with a deadly result between the Albanian and Serbian communities”, he said.

And if we push more in this direction, overcome stereotypes and free the past in order to make the future better, life will triumph in Kosovo”.

The Serbs had the right to support Haradinaj

Yevtic thinks the Serbian List's decision to support the government led by Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo's new prime minister, former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, who was acquitted of war crimes charges by The Hague's 2007 Tribunal, has already shown that it has been a good choice.

“Now we are making some progress on very difficult issues that have been stuck for a long time”, Jevtic said.

If we talk about the lives of Serbs in Kosovo, it is not the same in the south and north of Kosovo. That's the fact that a policy should be considered. I have found that the prime minister is determined to handle issues like the one we have in Gjakova, which is still a city forbidden to Serbs. He told me that we will go there together and solve these problems”.

Gjakova is a town southwestern in Kosovo where there were large-scale destructions during the 1998-99 conflict, and where they suffered numerous civilian casualties, mainly among Albanians.

In 2015, an attempt to organise a visit to displaced Serbs in their previous homes in Gjakova was met with protests and throwing stones at their buses.

This prompted Jevtic's predecessor, Aleksandar Jablanovovic,'s resignation, as he called the barbarous incident and was then dismissed by the government under increased public pressure.

Jevtic said that popular understanding that Serbs should be blamed for everything, which is still widespread in some parts of Kosovo, should be addressed, but stressed that this is not an easy task.

“Prime Minister Haradinaj must not testify to his patriotism to anyone, unlike his predecessor Isa Mustafa, and that is why I am convinced he can do this”, he said.

Language is vital.

Confidence must be built between the two communities, because simply securing money to rebuild the homes of Serbs who fled after the 1999 war is not enough to ensure that their return is sustainable, Jevtic said.

I think the language issue is vital for confidence building. I believe it would be good if Serbian children learned English and Albanian as foreign languages and vice versa”, he explained.

This was once quite normal in Yugoslavia. Today, Serbs and young Albanians communicate only in English. I myself understand Albanian very well, but I use it in moderation, as I like to express myself very accurately, so I communicate with Prime Minister Haradinaj in the Serbian language”, he added.

Serbia can and should contribute, Jevtic said, citing an Albanian language teaching project that was implemented in the southern Serbian towns of Presevo, Bujanoc and Medvedja in 2012.

Serbian Ministry of Education, With Support of British Embassy in Belgrade, O Mission The SEU in Serbia launched a programme to teach Albanian children Serbian in primary schools in the area, a project intended to support integration and help Albanian children go to higher education at Serbian universities.

“The recognition of Albanian is a must for the Serb community in Kosovo. Most of the generations of middle and old Albanians recognise the Serbian language, which does not happen [in Albanian language] among the Serbian population, and this should also change”, he said.

When you speak to someone in his language, communication is always very complete and brings better results”.

We're using our mind.

After the 1999 conflict, around 240,000 Serbs fled Kosovo, and so far only 10 per cent have returned, according to the Ministry of Communities and Kthim.

In 2017, 343 people have been returned so far, a decline almost half from 2016, the ministry says, largely due to the fact that two sets of elections have been held in Kosovo this year, avoiding the attention of the Pristina administration on this issue.

Jevtic stressed that people need social and economic security to rebuild their lives, noting that in previous years, some Serbs have tried to return to communities where they do not feel secure.

So we have arranged the policies for this fact and if someone once lived in Ferizaj or in Pristina, but today he wants to live in Shtrpce or Gracanica, we don't question that goal, but we help that happen”, he explained.

Yevtic noted that returns to urban communities are currently relatively non-existenceal and wants this trend to be reversed, even though he admits there are real obstacles.

“When the Pristina chairman tells me Serbs are welcome, but at the same time they treat the Church of Christ Savior as they do, it makes me think that this invitation is not genuine”, he said.

“They call it the legacy of Slobodan Milosevic, but the Pristina municipality building is also, so should we destroy him too?

Construction of the Church of Christ Savior began under Milosevic's rule in 1995 in the Pristina University space, but construction was stopped by the war so it remained unfinished.

The Serbian Orthodox Church has organised protests after the object has been destroyed, while Kosovo Albanians have protested its removal, arguing it is a monument to Milosevic's oppressive regime.

Yevtic argued that the return of people displaced by conflict in urban areas will also depend on those who are able to educate their children in their native language, even though this issue will last longer than providing homes for returnees.

If I say we have considerable returns to cities in the short term, it would be irresponsible, even though I wish this would happen tomorrow”, he said.

But we're not talking about what's in our hearts, but we're using our own” mind.