A Report on the Situation of Rroma
in
Kosovo
September 1999.
This report has been prepared by our representative in Switzerland,
Dr. Stéphane Laederich
Abstract:
In view of the report made by OSCE representatives about the Kosovo, we have unfortunately found it necessary to go back and discuss a few facts about the region. First, the history of the Rroma settlements, second, the Rroma population and groups in the region and finally, the integration of the Rroma prior to the events that led to the NATO intervention in the region..
We conclude this paper on the wishes of the Rroma refugees concerning the future of the Kosovo.
Whenever one speaks about Kosovo and its history, myths and confusion as well as conflicting claims are made. So before even one attempts to sketch the history of the Rroma, one unfortunately needs to say a few words about the region.
Present day Albania, Kosovo, north Western Greece were part of Epiria - and Kosovo was in the administrative district of Dyrrachion on the Byzantine Empire. The arrival of the Slavs in the Balkan - and up to present day Greece in the middle of the first millennium left permanent Slav settlements over the entire Balkan. The region was lost by the Byzantine Empire after the arrival of the Bulgars in the region, and present day Kosovo and Albania were part of the Bulgarian Empire whose maximal extension was reached under Tsar Samuel in the later years of the IXth century. The region was re-conquered by the Byzantine Emperor Basil II (died 1025) who extended the northern border of the Empire well up to Istria, even crushing the Serbs in the process. While the Serbs managed to regain a degree of independence in the XIth and XIIth century, Kosovo and Albania remained firmly in Byzantine hands. In fact, many of the "sacred" Serbian churches in the region were already built by the Byzantine as a mark of thanks about their conquest.
Even the dismembering of the Byzantine Empire after the sack of Constantinople in 1204 left Kosovo and Albania in Greek hands, in the Epirian Despotat - although the North east of Kosovo fell in Serbian hands while the Dalmatian coast was firmly in Venitian hands. The arrival of the Ottoman Turks in the Balkan in the XIVth century changed the power balance and, after their victory against a Western and Serbian Coalition in the Kosovo Fields (1389), Serbia's independence was crushed and Kosovo was to remain part of the Ottoman Empire up to its dismembering in the later years of the XIXth century.
The population of the region remained mixed - a mix of Greeks, Slavs and Rroma - as we will see until the arrival of the Albanians - in the XVIth-XVIIth century. These were settled in the region by the Ottoman originally as a military unit defending the Northern reaches of the Empire.
While few documents prior to the Ottoman Empire attest the presence of Rroma in Kosovo, there are many hints and papers that show the Rroma were present prior to that date. There are for example documents attesting the presence of Rroma in Ragusa (present day Dubrovnik) in 1362 - referring to Egyptians or even earlier in Prizren in 1348, referring to Tsiganije, but the most important information stems from the Ottoman Tax registers dating from the later years of the XVth century. Concerning Rroma, the Ottoman administration was mostly concerned with them paying taxes, and these provide a dearth of information about Rroma in the Empire.
First, the majority of Rroma were sedentary. Out of roughly 20'000 Rroma families in the Balkan during that period, only 11 were reported as being nomadic! The second important information is the geographical spread of the Rroma. There were of course non on the Asiatic side of the Empire, and Rroma were concentrated in Thrakia, Macedonia and Kosovo, with a rather large settlement in Greece proper.
While it may seem that 20'000 families means a small number of Rroma in the Balkan, one only needs to think that in the entire Balkan, prior to the Ottoman conquest, one had less than 3 million inhabitants, about a third to a half of which lived in Constantinople. Thus, 100'000 to 150'000 Rroma is already a large minority - a minority which would consistently grow over the centuries.
There are basically two main groups of Rroma in present day Kosovo. The first, and by far the largest one consists of the descendent of the early Rroma settlers and they are closely related to the Arlii Rroma found in Bulgaria, Southern Serbia, and Macedonia. The second wave of Rroma settlement on Kosovo occurred in the XVIIth and XVIIIth century with the arrival of Rroma from Valachia (present day Romania) who were fleeing the prevalent slavery in that country. These are closely related to the Serbian and Bosnian Gurbeti - although in Kosovo, they often simply call themselves Rrom. There have been of course other arrivals in the region, notably many a Kalderash in the later years of the XIXth century.
Quite a few Rroma in that region where so integrated and assimilated that their language simply was lost. These are variously called, but one needs to say a word about the "Egyptians" who have gained a certain degree of "official" recognition. We have seen above that Egyptians were already mentioned in the XIVth century - although these were of course Rroma and that this name has survived in many languages as Gypsies, Gitans etc. This all stems from a myth. As Rromanes does not contain a single trace of Arabic (other than via the Turkish in the Balkan), one can say with certainty that the Rroma never were in Egypt. All this myth probably arose due to the presence in Modon (Methoni) of a hill called Gyppe where many Rroma lived before its Ottoman conquest.
The so-called Egyptians in both Kosovo and, to a lesser extent in Macedonia are a recent development. No one heard about them before the break-up of Yugoslavia and the Milosevic regime and its press are in part responsible for this phenomenon. We are thus and will continue to do so in this paper, referring to the so-called Egyptians as Rroma.
As usual, it is extremely difficult to assess the number of Rroma in any given country. Communist regimes were always intent at reducing their numbers, the most extreme case being Bulgaria where there were officially no Rroma prior to the middle of the 1980's - and where one currently counts 900'000 of them. Thus, statistics are notoriously unreliable in that respect if not outright false.
In Kosovo, another facet of this problem arose due to the extreme integration of the Rroma in the society at large at least before the events that led to the NATO intervention. Doctors, lawyers, farmers as well as a dearth of other "non-typical" trades were found among Rroma in that region. This problem was compounded by politics: The Albanian nationalists had a strong motivation to show that the Albanian were in majority in Kosovo. Thus, many Rroma were simply counted as Ethnic Albanians in the official censuses. This unfortunately did not happen by itself. Many Rroma reported to us that they were officially "Albanians" and this under pressure of Albanian nationalist themselves who visited them the day before the census. In fact, of all the Rroma refugees from Kosovo we have interviewed and spoken to, only a tiny little part were "officially" counted as Gypsies.
One only needs to add to this that any minority, even well integrated, will have a tendency of not declaring themselves for fear of discrimination, a phenomenon which existed in Kosovo after the arrival of Milosevic to power in Yugoslavia and the subsequent deterioration of the situation of Rroma in the region. Thus, the official 1991 census counted "only" around 45'000 Rroma in the region, a gross understatement.
During the Rambouillet conference, two Rroma representatives, C. Koka and C. Abazi (for the Egyptians) stated respectively that they were ca. 150'000 Rroma and 160'000 Egyptians in Kosovo. Although both representatives were put in place by the Milosevic regime, the numbers in their are closer to the reality. In fact, both probably inflated their numbers but neither of them counted Rroma from groups other than their own and thus, one is reduced to estimates.
We estimate that there were around 400'000 Rroma in Kosovo. To underline our argumentation, consider the number of refugees in Switzerland and Germany. In Switzerland, there are around 160'000 Kosovars and an informal survey indicates that more than 10% of them are Rroma. According to Rroma activists, there are around 80'000 Rroma from Kosovo in Germany alone - in any cases, all being officially ethnic Albanians. Adding to these slightly deflated numbers from the Rroma activists in Kosovo, one arrives at a reasonable number of 400'000 - by far more than Serbs in the region.
The Serbs as the Albanians did a similar inflation of their numbers in the region. Croatians, Macedonian and Montenegrin (around 20'000) were counted in their ranks, and the dispute of to whom to attribute the 150'000 Muslims from Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia as well as the roughly 50'000 Turks (Gorani) still rages. So, while the Albanians, with a million and a half were by far the most numerous in Kosovo, there were substantial other minorities, most notably the Rroma themselves.
According to all Rroma we interviewed, their situation deteriorated with the arrival of Milosevic to power in Yugoslavia. The rise of "ethnic" and nationalistic ideas was to prove fatal to the Rroma in the region - even though they are by far its oldest residents. Besides the "creation" of the so-called Egyptians which can be traced to a willingness on the side of the authorities to both split and reduce the number of Rroma - something which a short look at articles which appeared in the press during the last few years can attest, the Milosevic government enticed quite a few Rroma to join its party and bombarded them as Rroma representatives. This was mostly the case for orthodox Rroma - a minority in Kosovo, who mostly do not speak Albanian but Serbo-Croatian. The other Rroma were either in Rugova's party (NDK) or even members of the UCK. This is attested by the fact that most Rroma refugees in Switzerland all have their UCK membership card and have been paying 3% of their income to that party - a fact confirmed to us and even to the press in Switzerland by numerous interviews.
The integration of the Rroma in the society and its politics - as well as the engagement of many Rroma against the Milosevic regime is attested by all refugees we have spoken to. We have encountered a lawyer, the son of a prosecutor, doctors, farmers, factory workers as well as traders and businessmen, even policemen, all living side by side with the Albanians in the villages and cities. According to our sources, the integration was by far more prevalent in the cities were the difference between Rroma and ethnic Albanians was blurred. Many Rroma, again, contrary to the established clichés were not poor. In all Rroma families, one or more person worked in a foreign country, mostly in Germany and Switzerland but also in Italy. Most refugees we have encountered had already been in Switzerland or Germany prior to the War and had worked there for several years.
The income of these expatriates was almost entirely returned to Kosovo in the form of cash - and the subsequent building spree of rather large houses - but also in the form of wares such as cars, videos, televisions etc. There was thus a substantial Rroma middle-class in the region and even quite a few very rich ones.
The NATO intervention was to dramatically change the situation of Rroma in Kosovo. While it is true that some Rroma collaborated with the Serbian authorities, most Rroma simply though that this was not their war. They had nothing against the local Serb or the local Albanian and most chose not to take sides in that conflict. This was to be a fatal mistake as non-collaboration exposed them first to reprisal by Serbian paramilitary troops and then to the ire of the UCK.
The Serbian paramilitary troops forced Rroma to dig graves, used them as shields against the NATO bombing campaign. For example, Rroma civilians were put in buildings and the army then set up tanks and military equipment in front of the building so as to almost guarantee its destruction by NATO and thus "telegenic" civilian casualties. Thus, in one case of a NATO "collateral" damage, part of the victims were Rroma. This prompted many Rroma to flee alongside the Albanians or, in the case of Gurbeti - the Rrom - to Serbia and Montenegro. Their fate in the refugee columns was no better than in Kosovo itself. They were forced out of the Albanian refugee columns by Albanian themselves, were denied access to refugee camps - even the Western press acknowledged this, at least in one case where anti Rroma riots were reported in one refugee camp in Macedonia.
The fact that Rroma did not take sides - although some were members of the UCK - and the relative wealth of Rroma compounded the problem after the departure of the Serbs from Kosovo. Rroma were variously accused of collaboration with the Serbian paramilitary - if being forced to dig graves is such a thing, to have plundered empty Albanian houses - as their possession of such things such as videos "obviously" attested, at least in the minds and writings of the press and of the UCK propaganda.
We have been reported cases of torture, in one case, a Rrom was held by Albanians in UCK uniform and they burned the Albanian Eagle into his skin with cigarettes; cases of murder - a Rrom had his head cut off; of rape as well as the most common beatings and house burning. To give but a small idea of the scale of the house burning, from 30 randomly sampled refuges, we counted more than 50 burnt and looted houses.
To Rroma who were officially Albanian and who were in the UCK, sometimes even as fighters, this cannot be understood. They have all lived besides Albanians for centuries and never encountered any problem. Now, they are de-facto expelled and the NATO and the West who officially fought for an ethnically diverse and tolerant Kosovo are currently condoning these expulsions and even murders. The western press is unfortunately not unbiased. For most journalists and westerners, a Rrom without a trailer, a Rrom farmer with a house proves to escape their somewhat limited fantasy and runs contrary to their stereotypes.
Thus Rroma are fleeing. Not fleeing life in a caravan, but leaving their entire possessions, houses, and are fleeing for their lives. For those who fled to Serbia and Montenegro, the situation is desperate as these countries do not want them and priority is given to others. We have reports even that during the bombing campaign, the Rroma in Serbia (in at least two towns) were denied access to bomb shelters indicating the current Serbian view of Rroma.
How many refugees there are is rather difficult to assess. There are probably around 80'000 to 100'000 in Serbia proper, over 25'000 in Montenegro, an unknown number in Macedonia, although preliminary surveys among Rroma from that region who live in Switzerland seems to indicate that their number lies far above the 6'000 officially acknowledged. We estimate them at around 15'000 to 20'000 - probably the same number as in Albania. How many fled to other countries is difficult to say. We can only indicate that since the cessation of hostilities in Kosovo, all refugees who are arriving in the West are overwhelmingly Rroma - in the case of Switzerland, this means over 90%. All in all, probably 30 to 50% of the Rroma population of Kosovo has fled or is fleeing. And, as Kosovo is by now officially "safe" they will be returned there to face a more than problematic future.
What the Rroma wish is simple: a return to their integration in the Kosovo society as has always been the case, their equality in front of the law and help for those who had to flee and whose houses were burnt. In brief, all what Rroma want is to live peacefully in a region where they have been present for almost a millennium.
We do hope - and all the Rroma in Kosovo do so - that the NATO intervention to preserve a mutli-ethnic and introduce democracy to Kosovo will not have the opposite effect, namely the creation of something Kosovo never was, and ethnically pure Albanian statelet.
They definitively need protection from the Albanian mobs and the West should think seriously that if nothing is to be done soon - or if "good" resolutions are discussed but never implemented, it will have to deal with 400'000 Rroma refugees, a problem the NATO intervention was meant to prevent.
To that end, we recommend: