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Distant War Zones Lure Jobless Kosovo Serbs

By Nikola Krstic in Strpce

07 07 2008  Desperate to escape unemployment in their isolated enclaves, Kosovo Serbs are journeying as far as Iraq and Afghanistan to make a living.

Branislav Nikolic has returned home from Afghanistan after two years’ working in a US army base.

Sitting in his family home in Strpce, a small Serbian enclave in southern Kosovo, he explains how he decided to go to Afghanistan via a company that hails from a country that many Kosovo Serbs see as a foe.

“I couldn’t make a living here, so I decided to go to a war zone,” he said. “I think everybody here would do the same if they could,” Nikolic added, sipping coffee.

Joblessness is the fate of the majority of the 120,000 or so Serbs in Kosovo, about half of whom live in isolated enclaves in the south and centre of the country, surrounded by Albanians.

While estimates of the numbers of unemployed in Kosovo varies, according to some figures, about 45 per cent of the working population are jobless.

While most Serbs look on the presence of US soldiers in Kosovo with resentment and fiercely oppose Washington’s support for the country’s independence, Nikolic made a US company with a base in Kosovo the solution to his troubles.

Dozens of Kosovo Serbs have done the same, applying to US companies in Kosovo to work with US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I know most [Serbian] people don’t even want to hear the name of this country but that’s how I got the opportunity to earn a decent living and I’m extremely grateful,” Nikolic told Balkan Insight.

The recent downturn in the fortunes of the Kosovo Serbs dates back to 1999, when after 78 days of NATO bombing of Serbian forces, Serbia’s authorities agreed to withdraw from Kosovo.

More than 200,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians left Kosovo in their wake. The remainder live in isolated enclaves with limited possibilities of movement and normal life.

Life in the enclaves depends on aid from Belgrade, while young people have almost no chance of earning a living because work possibilities are so limited.

Bojan Tomic is another Kosovo Serb who took the same path. After the war, he fled from his hometown of Urosevac – Ferizaj in Albanian - and tried to start a new life in Strpce.

But two years ago, he, too, decided to go abroad and seek a job with the US-led coalition forces in Iraq.

“The real reason I left was the situation in which my family and I found ourselves,” he said.

“We couldn’t make a living, no matter how hard we tried; the conditions were not there for me to stay in Kosovo and survive.”

Most local people in Strpce used to work in agriculture or in the nearby ski resort at Brezovica.

But those possibilities disappeared after the war, when it was no longer safe to leave urban settlements for the fields. The ski centre lost most of its visitors thanks to the overall situation.

Vanja Boskovic, who also went to Iraq from Strpce two years ago, and is still working there said the salary was only one motive for going. More important than that was the possibility to learn skills he could not acquire at home.

“The important reason for my leaving was to gain experience,” he told Balkan Insight. “Although before I left I had worked in management, gaining experience in a different atmosphere, culture and environment seemed a precious opportunity.”

All the Kosovo Serbs who had gone to these far-off war zones agreed they took risks with their personal safety but none felt a dilemma over getting work through US companies.

Indeed, Branislav Nikolic was decorated by the US in Iraq for the courage he showed under fire. After an attack on the US base in which worked, he moved wounded US soldiers to an infirmary.

“I was employee of the month on several occasions and reached the position of head of an administrative department,” he recalled.

Vanja Boskovic contrasted his experience of work in Afghanistan favourably with the ambiance from which he came, where nepotism appears to rule and employment without “connections” is almost impossible.

“Not all the experiences in my stay were positive but it was easy to get used to a system in which everyone knew what their job was and where work, knowledge and effort were valued,” he said.

The return home to Kosovo brought relief because the men were reunited with their families. But the reality of modern Kosovo is too bleak for them to feel much certainty about the future. Since Kosovo declared independence in February, tensions are on the rise again.

Nikolic feels dissatisfied with what he encountered on his return. “In Kosovo and Strpce it’s almost impossible to get a job without strong connections,” he said. “I will have a difficult time also because everyone thinks I earned enough money in Afghanistan not to need to work.”

Boskovic also says he cannot start living an ordinary life back in Kosovo following his sojourn in Iraq. “I can only imagine how I would feel if I started working in a company in Kosovo where you advanced only if you were well-connected through your relative, best man, friend or political party,” he said, resignedly.

Instead, he plans to resume his education at a university in England.

“My life’s dream is to go to Oxford,” he said, talking of the historic university town whose “dreaming spires” have fired the imaginations of countless students over the centuries.

“But I think Sheffield or London universities are something I can achieve and be admitted for a Masters in management.”

Nikolic has no game plan over what to do in the following months. He and his family currently live on their savings and on the humble salaries of his parents. “No one here wants to know if I’m a tested worker,” he said. “It’s even crossed my mind to leave all this and return to Afghanistan.”

Nikola Krstic is a journalist from Srpce and BI correspondant. Balkan Insight is BIRN's on line publication.