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Serbs being expelled from Kosovo blame Milosevic and NATO They ask why the world opened its humanitarian coffers to ethnic Albanians but not to them Sunday, September 12, 1999 By Philip Smucker, Special to the Post-Gazette
BUDVA, Yugoslavia -- Despite the presence of NATO and other international security forces, nearly 180,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo or been forced from their homes, leaving as few as 20,000 in the still-embattled province.
Many have found their way to this tranquil seaside resort in Monetenegro and are living as refugees like Toma Markovic and his family of eight, who now inhabit a one-room apartment with minimal assistance from the outside world.
Markovic says that if Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, indicted for war crimes by the international tribunal in the Hague, is guilty for what happened in Kosovo during the war, then NATO is guilty for what has happened since the peace was signed.
"Our regime should be accused of not having stopped the Serbian paramilitaries," says Markovic, formerly of Pec and now the leader of 1,700 exiles here in Budva. "All the crimes, all the destruction, all the murders of innocent Albanians in Pec were committed by people who were outsiders -- who were not from Pec.
"The West can say to Mr. Milosevic that he should have stopped it. But now the regime can legitimately ask, 'Why couldn't you prevent the same thing from happening to the Serbs once you arrived in Kosovo since you control the most powerful military alliance in the world and have absolute power in Kosovo?'"
It is a common refrain.
Pec suffered some of the worst slaughters in Kosovo during NATO's 11-week bombing campaign. The Pec countryside is littered with mass graves of ethnic Albanians, many of them dragged from their homes and shot at point-blank range.
Markovic says he was in Pec during its destruction and tried to stop the paramilitaries. He stood in front of buildings that his firm had constructed, presenting the Serb fighters and looters with false papers saying they actually belonged to him.
After the war, the Markovic family had some 40 members expelled from Pec by ethnic Albanians returning under the protection of NATO. Eight, including Toma, a newborn grandson and an older retarded son, now sleep on the floor of a single room here.
Serbian and Montenegrin refugees in Budva say they can't understand why the world opened its humanitarian coffers to ethnic Albanians but has left them to fend for themselves.
"We'd like to at least get some of the same humanitarian help that they received when they were expelled," says Vesna Angelkovic, an economist who worked as a clerk for the government before her expulsion.
Though the Serbs say they are ready to return and live in peace with their Albanian neighbors, they don't hide the resentment that lingers from years of ethnic conflict. "While the Serbs tried to save the state, the Albanians were in private business getting rich and living better than anybody in Yugoslavia," says Ljubisha Angelkovic.
Markovic is now trying to work through the Serbian Orthodox Church to arrange for Serbs to return to Pec. He has gone back himself under NATO escort but was afraid to get out of his car. He took photos of the charred ruins of his house, burned like hundreds of other Serbian homes across Kosovo.
Markovic believes Western leaders could protect Serbs and allow them to go home if they just gave the nod.
"Secretary of State Albright said she would bomb and she did. She said she would target military installations and she did that too. She also promised the safety and the security for all the people in Kosovo and that is the only promise she didn't fulfill still. And we have hope her last promise will be fulfilled."
In the meantime, Serbian refugees, mostly unemployed and living off the good will of neighbors, have plenty of time to think about what should have happened.
"Slobodan Milosevic will not be seen as a traitor but as an incapable leader," says Markovic. "The best thing that could have happened to him would have been for him to get killed by a bomb in his own home. That would have made him a martyr like Prince Lazar, but the West didn't want that."
Markovic and many of his fellow refugees believe that Milosevic did not suffer the glorious fate of the famous prince who died in the 1389 Battle of Kosovo because he was tipped off by NATO before his house was bombed. They believe his survival is part of a Western scheme to keep Serbs down -- the same scheme that allows Albanians to evade NATO patrols and expel Serbs from their homes.
Philip Smucker is a freelance journalist who writes frequently for the Post-Gazette.
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