Trading with the enemy in Mitrovica, Kosovo. - RUhosting

Trader 3.
Respondent #7, an Albanian lived in Mitrovica his entire life, always on the south part. He trades anything –
anything there is a market for – but mostly mobile phones. He gets contacts from his friends and he also has
connections from before the war, because “back then Mitrovica was still mixed, so I knew a lot of Serbs”. He
started trading in 2001, this same year Serbs contacted him if he wanted to do trade with them, and that’s
how it started. Respondent #7 explains that he had good contact with Serbs before the war. After the war
these contacts stayed but became trade contacts. According to him it is very hard to trade with Serbs because
you need the connections. You need these connections not only to engage in trade but also not to be attacked
by them. Because often Albanians who go to the north of Mitrovica are attacked. He believes trading is safe
though, because there is mutual interest. He feels good about trading with Serbs, because he makes money.
Earning money makes him feel good about himself.
Respondent #7 believes he feels the same way about Serbs as all other Albanians: he just has to work with
Serbs because he needs the money, he feels that he has no other options. When making money, he doesn’t
care about the war. In business he trusts Serbs, he has good relations with them and so far they haven’t led
him down, “they don’t lie”. It is easy to work with them if you keep your word. Outside trade however he
doesn’t trust them. “If they don’t have interest they don’t care about you”. He says he is afraid he would be
attacked by Serbs if they wouldn’t have any interest in him anymore. When I ask why he believes this he
says that this happened before to other Albanians that used to be trading with Serbs. He cannot give an
example of one of these incidents though. According to him Albanians are different than Serbs in this, they
wouldn’t attack Serbs, “because Albanians have a different mentality”. Respondent #7 believes that in the
future trade between Albanians and Serbs will disappear. Now people only trade with Serbs because they
have no other options. He, and he believes all other traders as well, would prefer to have a different job or
different trade. But lack of options drives them to trade with Serbs. He says that most Albanians he knows
who are trading with Serbs still don’t like them but there are also exceptions. He tells of an Albanian trader
who married a Serbian woman a few years ago, which he met through his trade contacts. Also, a lot of
contact is happening at the petrol station, but not legal.
Short conclusion
The most important information to take from this is at the same time the hardest to really say something
about: have traders through their profession developed more positive relations with "the other"? This is a
difficult question to answer because all traders went to great lengths to avoid answering this. From their
answers some things can be concluded though. First, trade requires trust and this is present in their
relationships with their colleagues across the river. Second, they socialise. This social contact is linked to
doing business but it shows they have contact on a personal level. To me, these conditions - trust and
personal interaction - would seem to be good starting points for building peaceful relations.
72