Interviews

Watch a Video excerpt of the interview.

"We have music, and if somebody doesn’t have music, then they’re nothing."

What kind of Roma are you?

SB: I am Egyptian.

We have music, and if somebody doesn’t have music, then they’re nothing.

Life here is terrible. No one can celebrate any holidays, because no one has any money.

What kind of Roma live here?

Svestenik= priest. Emil did not give his last name.

Emil requested that we not videotape him.

"They have many children. And why not? Thank God! But if you don’t have the necessary things, it’s tragic."

Emil's interview became, in the end, a plea for us to look into the case of a Roma professor who cannot secure work in the new Kosovo because of his race. Emil mentioned the man's name; we knew him. He was a professor at Pristina's Roma school until its demise in 1999. He was the only Roma PhD in Kosovo. Emil denounced the racism of the new authorities- both internationals and locals. Even a brilliant Roma couldn't get a fair break. Emil suggested that we interview him.

We did not tell Emil that we knew the professor well. We lied and promised we'd look him up. Two years before I tried to hire that professor for 500 Deutschmarks a month- a competitive wage, more than a judge's monthly pay. The professor skipped two interviews; we gave him one last chance, and he blew that too. UNMIK Gracanica educational officials had tried to employ him as well. He was chronically late and did no work. They were forced to let him go. The professor was an unemployable because of his conceit and his habits. But he played the racism card- one of the few Roma in Kosovo that had absolutely no right to. In a province where Roma have little chance of securing work outside that which involves wielding a shovel or pick, that professor was the one man who had all the weapons of education and connections at his disposal. But he would do nothing but sit in his sweatpants and whine about the injustice of it all.

We recognized that the professor had a story to tell, and we sought to interview him weeks before we came to Emil. He opened the door of his home, heard our pitch, and demanded a few hundred Euro for his time. We wouldn't pay; he shut the door.

Emil was as seduced by the professor's story as we were, years before. Emil's a good man, in a tough parish that is not his home, serving a flock of the depressed and near-dead. Tough as his situation is, he still had time to plea for his friend, and I regret lying to him and pretending not to know the professor.

SE: You can call me priest Emil of Bostan.

Where are you from?

SE: I finished school in Sremski Karlovci, and later I worked in the Vojvodina. I now work here, as a priest.

Do you know many Roma here?

SE: Of course. I have Roma friends. Roma are mainly Muslim; they have their own religion, different from the Orthodox. But that is not important; the most important thing is that we’re all people.

Everyone has their own religion, but as I said, we are people. Some Roma are really smart, and they live better. But too many Roma are uneducated. That’s a kind of bad religion. Seventy or eighty percent of Roma are uneducated; they don’t care about school. Many of them don’t have regular jobs.

"I knew those songs once, but I’ve forgotten them."

ML: I am 67 years old. My father’s name was Demo, and my mother’s name was Azemina.

Where are you from?

ML: We used to live in Gjilan*.

(*Gnjilane/ Gjilan- 36.5 kilometers southeast of Kosovo Polje)

In the past, on Djurdjevdan, we would go out early in the morning and we would swim in the river; before, it was better than now.

My father would sing many songs about Saint Vasilija*. I knew those songs once, but I’ve forgotten them.

Mrs. Kurta is an IDP from Crkvena Vodica.

Watch a Video excerpt of the interview.

"Our neighbors; we never had problems with our neighbors."

The owners returned from Germany in 2003. Mikra and a dozen others were evicted with a few day’s notice. They moved into a roofless, gutted home on the Mahala’s edge; several locals stretched a tarp over the place where the roof used to sit.

How old are you?

MK: I’m 75 years old.

Where are you from?

MK: I lived there for 45 years.

Did you have many Serbian and Albanian neighbors in Crkvena Vodica?

MK: Yes, we lived with Serbs and Albanians there. Our neighbors; we never had problems with our neighbors.

How old were you when you were married?

MK: I was very young when I married.