Together, but apart

The youth speak Albanian, Serbian and Romani in the public spaces of the village. The streets bear the names of Albanian and Serbian heroes. But also toponyms of Roma and Ashkali. Right in front of the house of the Serbian mayor of the multi-ethnic village, "Rruga e Bregajve" is connected to "Brotherhood-Unification" - incorrectly written in Serbian, on the sign not far from the center. As is rarely the case in Kosovo, Plemetini i Obiliq weaves conflicting reports not only between its residents. Even between Kosovo and Serbia.

However, Sultan Berisha, a 19-year-old Roma, says that the biggest challenge for young Plemetians is high unemployment. Along the main road, which stretches along the railway without train traffic, young people come and go with handcarts, bicycles, improvised carts, or with two-wheeled tractors, with trailers, with metal materials. Teenagers play in the garbage-strewn yards in front of two Roma and Ashkali collective housing buildings. Below them, writing and reading are taught - not even now because of the pandemic. The little ones without a ball, improvise with some plastic bottle. There used to be a football field. In the big football stadium in the middle of the village, in some places the wild grasses have grown up to the belt. limited to youth activities.

Cobi refers to old man Slobodan Vlasic, former mayor of the village and former chairman of the defunct major football club. The man in his mid-seventies is the owner of the store across the "street" in front of the buildings separated for families that are part of the social schemes. Plemetini is unable to reactivate the football club due to the lack of institutional support and the refusal of young Albanians and Serbs to wear the same shirt.

"Even the cat can't growl"

However, the young people of the communities occasionally play in the ball field. Near her, where the platform of the train station is, a woman cries to her friends in Albanian that her son has severe headaches. "Don't have the corona?" – returns the other. Another intervenes in the Romani language.

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"Yes, yes, we get along well with Albanians, Serbs and all", says Berisha, teenager, father of two daughters. "But even the cat barks at me."

"We have no problems among ourselves. We are neighbors and we have a good time, but we have our own school, our own Albanians. Roma and Ashkali some go to the Albanian school, some to the Serbian one", says a Serb in his early twenties, without wanting to reveal his identity.

Ramiz Thaçi, the retired village vice president, says that Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians make up the majority of the population. "The Roma are now about a thousand, Albanians over two hundred and some six hundred Serbs", he emphasizes, showing that during the nineties, Serbian refugees from Croatia and Slovenia settled in Plemet. Thaçi, a former political prisoner, says that after the war, Serbs from the surrounding villages also settled in the village, who "wanted to create a new municipality" with a Serbian majority, with the support of parallel institutions. In recent years, the number of Roma and Ashkali families has been increasing.

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"We have Serbian families with whom we don't even speak at all", emphasizes Thaçi, who during the eighties was held for three years in Nis Prison, as part of the Movement for the Republic of Kosovo. "We have informed them (authorities, vj) about the uniforms that have ears". Three Albanian civilians were killed by Serbian forces in the village shortly after the start of NATO bombing.

Thaçi shows in front of the courtyard doors that the multi-ethnic presidency has managed to secure support from various organizations to support the youth.

However, the division is also seen in the car plates in front of the schools in a courtyard. Serbian teachers have KS license plates, with which they cross the border with Serbia without any problems. With RKS are the Albanian teachers. In "Pandeli Sotiri" Albanian is taught. Serbian and with the Serbian system in "Branko Radičević". The wife of Shaban Berisha, the Roma official in the Repatriation Sector in the Municipality of Obiliq, works there as a cleaner. His two older children studied economics in Graçanica, at the branch of the University of Mitrovica.

No chance

Sultan Berisha says that the youth of Plemetini lacks job opportunities. While Serbian families depend on Serbia's salaries and pensions, Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian families are forced to recognize Serbia as their state in order to materially benefit from social schemes. "We get 250 euros from Serbia", says the young father, who works during the spring and summer for 20 euros a day in various plantations in the surroundings of Obiliq and Vushtrri.

Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians have youth unemployment rates of 49 percent. Although complex, Kosovo's legal and institutional framework for the protection and promotion of the rights of non-majority communities provides a strong basis for the promotion of respect for individual and group rights.

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Haki Abazi, former official for communities and return in Obiliq Municipality and Egyptian activist, says that Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children may face integration difficulties because there is no unification of the education system. "Even though it is the right of the parents that their children attend lessons in any language, they may have problems with integration", Abazi emphasizes, indicating that Roma students, who speak Romani at home, are being tested more.

Difficulties during Albanian communication are witnessed by a Roma student of the eighth grade in "Branko Radiçeviq", when he passes in front of Vlasiq's store. You can buy there with dinars and euros. The flags of the producing countries are placed at the front of the product shelves. Even of Kosovo. His grandson - the second taller - does not want to talk.

"For Plemetini, we are left with neither Graçanica nor Mitrovica (North, year)", says Vlasiqi. "Look, I'm telling you, I've been the mayor of the town for eighteen years," says Vlasiqi in Serbian, continuing in Albanian: "What are they saying, the leader of the town?"

"It's a bit confusing," says Berisha with a laugh, when asked about the influence of the Serbian parallel system in the village. "There is an opportunity for education, it just depends on the desire of the students and the parents", emphasizes Berisha, the father of four children, while he leaves the yard work in the new house in Plemet for a while. He says that unlike the previous years when in the multi-ethnic village there were frequent marriages of girls even at the age of twelve, in recent years the situation has started to improve as "even the girls are becoming aware".

World Labor Organization research data shows that 12 percent of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian girls are married before the age of 15, compared to only one percent of boys from these communities and less than one percent of girls. from other communities who marry before this age. Almost 43 percent of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian girls up to the age of 18 are married or cohabiting compared to only 14 percent of boys from their communities and 10 percent of girls from other communities.

"We have great multi-ethnic relations"

Berisha, the repatriation official, says that due to the high level of poverty, Plemetian youth are being forced to give up schooling. Compared to about 98 percent of the general population, only 73 percent of women and about 87 percent of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian men are literate.

"Yes, I have to help my fathers," says Shaban Berisha.

Sultan Berisha acted similarly, who turned his back on school in the fifth grade. In 2014, his family took out loans to immigrate illegally to Germany. Germany repatriated the family of ten after a year. "They took us at four in the morning and took us to the plane to Kosovo", says Berisha with a laugh. "Once again we went to Magharia (Hungary, vj), but they returned to us after a month". Now the twelve members of two families live in the apartment with two bedrooms and a living room.

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Most of the interviewees, including the vice-president Thaçi - say that thefts have become more frequent in the village. "We have trouble with you. They are stealing cows and tractors, and they don't stop them", emphasizes Shaban Berisha. During the twenty minutes of the interview in front of his doors, the police patrol goes back and forth along the main street of Plemetini. But despite the fact that the influence of the two systems can be seen everywhere, Berisha insists: "We have great multi-ethnic relations".

(This publication was produced with the support of the European Union. The content of this publication is the responsibility of Rexhep Maloku and in no way can be considered as the position of the European Union or BIRN and AGK).