A desire for normality – the key to conflict resolution?

Children on a playground in front of the Missing monument in Gracanica. The desire for normality in the midst of an environment with a heavy history.

 

By Levin Stamm

 

There is no large-scale violence in Prishtina. There is no large-scale violence in Gračanica. Still, to talk of peace seems inappropriate. Galtung comes to mind: This is what negative peace must feel like. An absence of violence, with the possibility of it flaring up hanging over the country like the sword of Damocles.

 

In Gračanica, I talk to Lidija. She is half Serbian, half Albanian and a manager at a local hotel that once upon a time declared to be the first “multiethnic hotel of Kosovo”. Serbs, Albanians and Roma used to work hand in hand. Now that the euphoria of a new, meaning-loaded age in Kosovar history is slowly waning, Lidija faces the struggles of operating a hotel in a Serb-majority region. With wages in Prishtina remaining higher, Albanian employees are hard to find. Albanians continue to avoid travelling to Gračanica. The Serbian flag, omnipresent in the streets of the town, likely does not help either.

 

Lidija, who points out that she is from the “mixed community”, wants one thing. Normality. The ability to raise her children and grow her business. Still, the conflict permeates most aspects of life, but Lidija resists. She said, “A few days ago, I was with one of my business partners. He was supplying us with curtains. At that moment in time, it was a heavy political situation in the media because of the North Mitrovica situation. So me and him were alone in the room taking measurements, when he said, ‘we are working together’. I said, ‘Yeah, like usual, nothing special’. He says, ‘But if somebody sees us, what will people say with the politics that are going on?’ I said, ‘But politics is for politicians to deal with. You and I are just two simple people trying to develop our businesses. We have nothing to do with these things.’”

 

While in Kosovo, I often noticed a certain disconnect between “ordinary” people, media and elites. I obtained a feeling that the people had grown mostly tired of the division, while the media and politicians kept emphasising it. Of course, there are always exceptions.

 

Nevertheless, could it be that the key for peacebuilding efforts lies in this longing for an undisrupted life, for stability and prosperity? A longing that can cross ethnic borders? It is this thought that made me enthusiastic about the many grassroots organisations we met. They were by far the ones that most resonated with this simple interest of bringing calm into their communities.

 

Be it Arber from the Center for Social Group Development, Andjela from the Center for Cultural Diversity and Minority Development or Avni from Roma Versitas Kosovo – they all emphasised that the wish they most frequently encountered when working with their communities was the one for a life without disruption and fear.