Tyana and Saranda

Tyana is seven and her dream is to become a tennis player. Saranda is nine and when she grows up she wants to be a journalist. Young girls like similar to many others who attend the small school of Binca/Binaq village: two small buildings erected near the Orthodox Church, a few blocks away from the centre, consisting in a couple of stores. It would be a story similar to many others if Tyrana weren’t Serbian and Saranda Albanian, and if their school where they study together wasn’t located in Kosovo, the formerly Serbian province that witnessed tragic ethnic clashes at the end of the 1990s. In 2001 a multiethnic school was established in Binca/Binaq (Serbian and Albanian names). In the school, children from the two communities – divided in separate classrooms to enable the teaching of both the Albanian and the Serbian school programs – share the same music, art and gym classes, as well as recreation areas. It is a rare example of coexistence in this Balkan region where despite episodes of violence decreased in recent past years, the two communities tend to live isolated from one another, in some cases also within the same village.Today a certain degree of stability appears to have been reached. But in the area north of Mitrovica, the Serbian majority continues opposing Albanians’ unilaterally proclaimed independence of past February 17, and many steps still need to be made to achieve reconciliation. Michele Luppi, correspondent for SIR Europe, gave an account of his experience in this village in Kosovo. A small but significant example. The village of Binca/Binaq, with slightly more than five hundred inhabitants (350 Albanians – most of whom are Catholic – and 200 Serbians), is part of the municipality of Viti/Vitina, in southern Kosovo, on the border with Macedonia. It is just at a few kilometers’ distance from the sanctuary of Letnica, held dear by Mother Theresa. Indeed, this is the place where each summer the Blessed Albanian nun celebrated the Assumption. And this is where she decided to consecrate her life to God. We enter the school accompanied by Father Lush Gjergji who for many years served as parish priest in the village, and who is also one of the promoters of the initiative. “Since the days that followed the end of war, marked by the withdrawal of the Serbian army and the arrival of Nato forces – the priest recalled – we understood that we had to act immediately to prevent further hatred and suffering. We decided that in order to heal divisions we had to start from the beginning, from the moment when Milosevic declared that Serbians and Albanians could no longer share the same school environment. An agreement with families and teachers ensued, and thanks to the financial contribution of the Italian chapter of Caritas, we rebuilt this school”. We enter the first of the two buildings dedicated to Serbian intellectual Mladen Markovic, while the other school building, located nearby, is dedicated to Albanian writer and poet Ndre Mjeda.In a small classroom, heated by a large wood-burning stove, ten Serbian children are taking English lessons. The school has sixty students, forty-four of whom are Albanians.”I’ve been working here for two years, and no problem has ever broken out among the children”, we were told by Srecko Vlajkovic, Serbian teacher. “We hope – he continued – that negative episodes will never occur. We are trying to recreate the foundations of a positive future by recovering the peaceful coexistence that has characterized this area for many years”. Indeed, historically Serbians and Albanians have always lived together in peace in this area of Kosovo. Until a few years ago, a large number of Croatians lived here too, but almost all of them fled during the war between Serbia and Croatia for fear of retaliations. Thirteen Albanian children study in the adjacent classroom. “Fortunately no casualties were registered in this area since the last war – remarked Albanian teacher Nuhi Gashi-while acts of violence were ongoing in other parts of the country. We are grateful for this to the children’s parents, since it is thanks to them that good relations were preserved”.By sharing the same grounds, the children learn to pick up the language of the other, and this enables communication. In fact, in Kosovo the new generation ignores the culture and language of the other. “We sought to work together for the good of the entire village”, said Zoran Marinkovic, coordinator of the Serbian community of Binac, who welcomed us in his home near the school. “We have always been viewed as an example in Kosovo and today we managed to leave behind all the sad events that occurred under Milosevic’s dictatorship. Now all we want is to be given the possibility to work (unemployment reaches 60% ed.s’ note) and to earn a living with the sweat of our brow”. Binca/Binaq is certainly a rare but significant case, especially now that Kosovo is marked by a frenzy to celebrate its independence, but also by the fear that episodes of violence might erupt in Northern Kosovo.