Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

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discussion. "Believe us, our patience
has reached its peak. We cannot stand
this any longer. Hundreds of village
inhabitants are still living in the basements
in the town of Vitina in
Kosovo, whereas the other part are
here in Vizbegovo", repeats his words
again Ismail, explaining to us that
every day his school's students send
letters to him, asking for a possibility
to go back where they are supposed to
be, by the school desks.
"We went to the village a few
days ago", Ismail's uncle, Brahim,
joins the discussion. He described the
way they found the village after 14
months. He further talked about
human soul, which can never be
defeated.
THE SCHOOL SOLDIERS
"We didn't believe at all that we
will find our houses complete.
However, we were lucky for finding
most of them not damaged from outside",
says Brahim, continuing the
conversation by telling that the current
residents of the village, the ARM
soldiers, had demolished everything
they found.
"However, that does not matter",
joins Ali, Ismail's brother. "We will
reconstruct them so that they will be
even more beautiful from what they
were before", expresses his willingness
Ali, dressed in warm clothes, as
if he wanted to say, "Although I am
here in Skopje, my soul is still in
Tanushevci".
Word after word, conversation
after conversation, and the room was
constantly becoming smaller because
of the residents of Tanushevci, who
wanted to say something regarding
what they saw a few days ago in their
forgotten village.
"Where the knowledge should be
blossoming, where there must not
enter the iron weapons, there were
soldiers placed. How is this possible?",
asks the headmaster of the
school, Ismail.
"When I arrived in the village the
other day, I experienced the biggest
surprise in my life, when I saw that at
the desks where there used to be my
students, now there were sitting soldiers
with automatic machine guns in
their hands", expresses his astonishment
Ismail.
The village school, which used to
have the name "Liria", and which is
now called "Mihail Grameno", a few
years ago was completely built from
the foundations to the roof, by the village
people, without any assistance.
The conversation about the school
made the Tanushevci residents forget
about their houses. One of them said
that the pencil should not be replaced
with weapons, the other one said that
it is about a sacred temple, the third
one said that it was the temple of
knowledge, and they went on and on,
eventually ending up in silence…
As a village leader, Ismail has a
large burden to carry over his shoulders.
"I am also a president of the
local municipality. I am exhausted
from the requests sent to politicians,
ministers and international organizations…
but, all in vain", he says.
Now, when almost all the displaced
people have returned back in
their homes, the Tanushevci residents
are still wondering around Skopje and
Vitina streets. In the evening, they go
back to the basements, since there is
no other place for them to go.
THE DESERTED VILLAGE
Although the war is over, the
Tanushevci fields are deserted. They
make phone calls to the MPs, ministers,
OSCE, the International
Committee of the Red Cross,
UNHCR, the Fox… but they never
get down on their knees and humiliate
themselves.
"If we do not return to our village
now, then us going back in June will
make no sense. It is now the time for
us to tillage our wonderful soil." -
says Hasan, another inhabitant of
Tanushevci, almost at the same age as
Shefki.
Ismail takes the floor again. This
time in the role of the village leader
he asked
how is it possible for elections to
be organized without the displaced
people returning to their homeland.
He asked how is it possible to have
census without placing everyone in
their homes. He asked other questions
as well with a higher voice, but mostly
he asked when most of the
Tanushevci residents will be issued
their citizenship, those that have not
been taken into Macedonia's
"bosom".
"Neither last, nor this year we
requested anything but equality. In
fact, the last year's conflict resulted
from inequality", we heard Brahim's
voice, who was trying to find reasons
for the inequality that was caused to
his family and to his village people.
Having heard all of this, one more
time we asked them when they plan to
return to their age-long homeland. As
if this question one more time
enflamed the fire and the sorrow for
the motherland.
And again stories, the talking
going back to the school and the four
hundred students of Tanushevci,
Brest and Malino, which are in a triangle
located at the peak of Skopska
Crna Gora, 50 kilometers north of
Skopje.
Before the war, there used to be
nine schools in this triangle, but now
there is only the Tanushevci school
left, inhabited with soldiers, who
instead of pencils , carry cold
weapons in their hands…
"Except for the school building in
Tanushevci, all other buildings are
turned into ash", said at the very end
the director of the school without students,
Ismail Ibrahimi, not being able
to answer the question what will happen
to the Tanushevci people.
As if the appeal of Tanushevci villagers
to those that consider themselves
being at "important" positions
terminates here.
"We ask everyone not to leave us
forgotten in abyss. We ask everyone
to enable us to return. We ask everyone
to help us so that we could also
enjoy the life in this world… We
ask…"
(The author is journalist in "Fakti)
What is happening to us?, May 2002