Train is a lifeline for Serbs in divided Kosovo

Train is a lifeline for Serbs in divided Kosovo
Reuters

JAN 1: From KosovoPolje near Pristina, the train threads through Serb enclaves to Zvecan, a suburb of the divided city of Mitrovica, stitching together the separated communities.

To its passengers, it is more than just a means of transport. It is a symbolic manifestation of the changes that have taken place in Kosovo in the past 18 months.

Last year, it was used by Serbian forces to deport ethnic Albanians. Now, it is virtually the only safe way for Kosovo Serbs to move inside the province.

"This train means life for us," said a middle-aged Serb who boarded it at Kosovo Polje on a grey December afternoon.

Kosovo Polje is a mixed neighbourhood, so the passengers arrived at the last minute, after soldiers from the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force were already in place, wearing flak jackets and carrying machine guns.

As in other parts of Kosovo, Serbs in Kosovo Polje are afraid that ethnic Albanians will seek to avenge more than 10 years of suffering under former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic.

They live in enclaves guarded by KFOR. They have little money or work and use the train to go shopping, see relatives or visit Serbia proper. At each stop in a Serb enclave, people gather around the train, chatting with the passengers about local news.

"We will be killed without this train," said another Serbman on the train. "Going somewhere by car means waiting for a long time for a (KFOR) convoy and it's too cold".

One carriage is for Kosovo Romas, hated by ethnic Albanians as Serb collaborators but also often despised by the Serbs, who take other carriages.

Many windows have been broken by stones thrown at the train.

Not one passenger would give his or her full name or agree to talk in Front of television cameras, considering it too dangerous.

KFOR soldiers on the train are Greek, seen by the local Serbs as more sympathetic than those from Western Europe or United States.

"This is the only link for the Serbs between enclaves, where they live, and normal life," said Bernard Kouchner, the United Nations governor of Kosovo.

Kouchner's proclaimed duty - to create a peaceful multi-ethnic Kosovo seems as distant now as it was 18 months ago.

An ethnic Albanian driver of the train was recently beaten up by Serb passengers. In response, KFOR cancelled it for several days.

When NATO started an air war in March 1999 against Serbian forces in Kosovo, they responded by intensifying what the West was already calling ethnic cleansing of the predominantly Albanian region.

The train could carry well over 1,000 people when full.

Serbian forces first turned the Albanians out of their homes, often at gunpoint, forced them on the train and sent them to the border with Macedonia. They had no time to gather any personal belongings and their money and documents were often confiscated at the border.

The Albanians first found themselves at Blace where tens of thousands spent days in the open, under cold, rainy skies with no food, medicines, or toilets. From the sodden fields of Blace they were despatched to refugee camps.

Serb forces withdrew from Kosovo in June 1999 and NATO troops and the United Nations took over the administration of the province. Many Kosovo Serbs fled, to find themselves faced with hundreds of thousands vengeful ethnic Albanians on their return home.

Those who stayed - estimated at about 100,000 - found themselves locked in their enclaves.

Italian railway engineering regiment undertook to repair the railway in Kosovo.

It started work last year, Left for the winter and returned in August to finish by December.

The regiment travelled in a special train of its own which took five days to arrive in Kosovo, covering 2,800 km (1,740 miles) across six countries (Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia) to ypass Yugoslavia.

The Italians repaired and rebuilt 300 km (186 miles) of track. The train can now carry up to 350 people a day and KFOR says it has had 133,000 passengers since last year.

"Our aim was to guarantee free movement for people in Kosovo, especially for the Serb minority, because it is easier to protect people on the train," Regiment Commander Captain Luigi Postiglione told reporters before leaving Kosovo.

The train's journey starts, once or twice a day, at KosovoPolje. It stops at several Serb enclaves and then arrives at Zvecan, a suburb of the northern part of the divided city of Mitrovica.

Last year it had been going further, to Serbia proper, but a bridge was blown up and the journey now ends at Zvecan.

Mitrovica is another symbol of divided Kosovo.

The Albanian part, buzzing with activity, ends at the French peacekeepers' checkpoint on the bridge over the river Ibar.

To get to the Serb part one needs to pass barbed wire, concrete blocks and then another checkpoint on the opposite site of the bridge. The pace of life is slower in the Serb enclave where strangers are regarded with suspicion.

So-called bridgewatchers, tough-looking Serbs, may easily gather several hundred people in a few minutes if they consider they see danger.

Mitrovica is not a closed enclave, further to the North a road leads to Serbia proper which makes it attractive for the train passengers.

One of them, a doctor who gave her name as Eliza, said she had a slim hope.

"I hope life will be better in the New Year," she said.

"Clinton is leaving, Milosevic has left".

US President Bill Clinton is seen by the Kosovo Serbs as the man who had orderd the air war.

Many acknowledge that Milosevic stirred the nationalist sentiment in former Yugoslavia which led to four wars, the most recent in Kosovo.

But when Serb enclaves voted in the Serbian parliamentary election on December 23, more favoured Milosevic's Socialist Party than the Democratic Opposition which won an overwhelming victory in other parts of the country.