Trading with the enemy in Mitrovica, Kosovo. - RUhosting

(respondent #4). A Serb working in Kosovo says that it is impossible to have relations with Albanians in
public or tell your real opinion about the situation, but in private it is no problem (respondent #10). An
Albanian from Mitrovica south says almost exactly the same: “On a personal level, people can get along
pretty well. But at public gatherings it is not so easy, because your own community can lash at you for
having contact with ‘the others’”. It is possible to cooperate, just not officially (respondent #17). This is
heard quite often, direct family or friends have no problem with people having contact with the other ethnic
group, but it is the rest of the society that causes problems (field notes, respondent #1).
It is hard to really get a grasp on the rules, because they are unwritten and their usage varies per situation and
location. “People here have fake morals” respondent #2 tells me when he gives the example of two Turkish
girls who live in Mitrovica North, and were always with the Serbs and against Albanians. However, when
recently they made a music video with an Albanian artist they were discriminated against. Respondent #2
came into the office and a woman who also works in the same building was showing students this video and
talking very badly about those ‘Turkish traitors’. This same woman gets her salary from the Albanian
government for her own project, which she hides under the flag of the World Bank. People are quick to work
with Albanians themselves if it brings them benefits, but are also easy to judge other Serbs for working with
Albanians (respondent #2).
5.6. How this context shapes and limits inter-ethnic trade.
In this chapter the current state of inter-ethnic relations in Kosovo and specifically Mitrovica has been
discussed, as well as how these have changed during the past 30 years and are influenced by the economy
and politics. Albanians and Serbs have different perspectives on inter-ethnic relations. Albanians are
politically quite open to it, but on a personal level not really eager to include Serbs in their society yet.
Because the politics of Albanians are currently pro-integration - whether or not this is internalised in the
Albanian mindset - there are less obstacles for Albanians to engage in inter-ethnic contact. This has at least
transformed Pristina into a city where Serbs are tolerated again, and have become a normal part of life. In the
rest of Kosovo it is not going so quickly. Serbs in the enclaves face more obstacles when engaging in contact
with Albanians, but bare necessity might make this contact increase in frequency and this might also reduce
some obstacles as it becomes more accepted. In the Serbian north of Kosovo contact remains very difficult, if
not impossible. It is happening though, if there is mutual benefit, as will be seen in the next chapter.
Reconciliation projects have shown to have a very limited, if any, success and generally failed at really
influencing inter-ethnic relations. The local population on both sides of the river has grown hostile against
these programmes and feels being forced into liking their enemy. The inter-community rules dubbed the “the
rules of the inter-ethnic game” have also been discussed as these rules seem to be both a product as well as a
cause of the current relations between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo.
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