GLOBOCICA: A tiny community of ethnic Serbian Muslims is agonising over whether to vote in Kosovo’s landmark election tomorrow—weighing civic duty against fears that Serbia could cut off financial assistance.
Nostalgic for the days of the former Yugoslavia, these Slavs who converted to Islam under the Ottoman empire, nowadays live scattered in Kosovo, neighbouring Macedonia and Albania, as well as in Serbia proper.
But the polls tomorrow—the first organised in ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo since it proclaimed independence from Serbia in February 2008 -- have make them prudent towards their possible participation.
More then 1.5 million people are eligible to vote in Sunday’s election for mayors and local council members in 36 municipalities, including the capital Pristina.
“I fear that Serbia might interrupt its assistance if we take part in the local elections,” said Veis Serifi, a representative of Gorani community in the small village of Globocica, hidden in mountains on the border between Kosovo and Albania. But he does not spread this fear among the people, he insists, saying he will vote, aiming to do something useful for his community.
“We simply want to remain here and preserve our identity,” says Serifi. He has four children and all of them will learn Albanian, as he has done in childhood, besides Serbian language they speak.
“But I will now allow them to be assimilated. We survived in the Ottoman empire, in Serbia and nowadays in Kosovo. We will preserve our identity,” he said.
He puts a lot of hope in European future for the Western Balkans, saying that the “European Union, our dream, (is) our new Yugoslavia,” reminiscing about the era of the old communist federation when people were able to move and work freely, without borders. Serbia, which has rejected the independence of Kosovo, has been financially supporting this small community, as well as other non-Serb minorities in a bid to prove its sovereignty in its former province.
Belgrade’s financial assistance is essential for Goranis, whose numbers have gradually been decreasing as many have left their homes in search for better future. The unemployment here is around 70 percent, compared to 40 percent in the whole of Kosovo, says Hajri Ramadani, an official in Dragas, the main municipality in the area.
Deputy mayor of Dragas, ethnic Albanian Shahadin Tershnyaku, is convinced that many Gorani teachers use Serbia’s educational programme only because they receive an estimated 500 euros per month, twice the average teaching salary in Kosovo.
“They themselves admit they do it because of high salaries,” Dragas’s mayor Salim Jenuzi says.
