Trading with the enemy in Mitrovica, Kosovo. - RUhosting

towards their colleagues of the other ethnic group because of the feared negative reaction by their own
community. It seems to me they had several options in answering this question: 1. saying that they still hate
“them”, whether this is the truth or a lie it would be the safest answer. 2. saying that they have positive
attitudes towards “the other”, this would be the least safe answer. Or 3. not answering the question, which is
what generally happened. So, it is at least curious they did not all go for answer 1.
Also, most of the other locals I interviewed who had contacts with members of the other ethnic group over
longer periods of time reported that their relations and views of the other ethnicity improved during this
process. This is another argument that leads me to conclude that it is at least plausible that inter-ethnic trade
can improve individual relations over a longer period of time. There seems to be no reason to believe so far
that sustained inter-ethnic contact through trade leads to worse individual relations. In short, on a community
level inter-ethnic trade can demonstrate peaceful relations and build trust which is believed to have a positive
impact on inter-ethnic relations if sustained over a longer period of time. On an individual level, it is
plausible to believe trade could also improve the attitudes of traders themselves. In both cases it seems
unlikely that there are negative effects of this legal or grey trade.
Inter-ethnic trade is heavily influenced by the “rules of the inter-ethnic game” - the inter-community rules
forbidding contact with “the other” - which limits it to something best not done out in the open. At the same
time inter-ethnic trade has been able to stretch these rules. Generally it is accepted now if people engage in
inter-ethnic contact to make money. As long as it is not too visible traders do not have to fear punishment by
their own community. It is likely that this loosening of the rules has not much to do with trade itself, as one
trader put it: it's only because time passed since the war. Without trade however, there would still be barely
any contact. If trade dies, so will contact die. It is possible that, as traders are to some extend the pioneers of
re-established inter-ethnic contact (there are also some others, such as people working at NGOs, but this
happens on a much smaller scale in Mitrovica), their contact could be an example to the rest of the
population who because of this will slowly grow more accustomed to people having contact with “the other”.
This, in turn, could lead to a greater relaxation of the “rules of the inter-ethnic game”. Which would be a
very positive development as these rules obviously have a very negative impact on inter-ethnic relations.
It must also be noted that trade relationships seem to be more robust than any of the other inter-ethnic
relations. Many people reported that during the massive riots of 2004 much joined projects were destroyed,
and the same thing happened with Kosovo's declaration of independence when many Serbs quit their jobs at
international or multi-ethnic organisations. During and after these events, which put a huge strain on interethnic
relations, trade relations remained intact. This shows that these trade relations are quite strong and
either through mutual trust or interest can withstand a national crisis.
Another find was that different groups: local traders, locals working at NGO's or IGO's or internationals had
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