engers
Membrum
Posts: 83
(1/30/07 4:53 pm)
|
As Leskovac goes, so goes Serbia
A city's industrial decline is symbolic of national isolation
LESKOVAC, Serbia: The crumbling factory walls and idle smokestacks that dominate this town are replicated across Eastern Europe, symbols of once-proud industrial centers that fell into decline almost as soon as the Berlin Wall came down.
But although vast parts of the East labored to rebuild their economies in the 1990s and join European life, Serbia did not. It pursued wars in parts of the former Yugoslavia — Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo — that in turn led to Western sanctions and NATO airstrikes.
Even in the eight years since the last war ended, commerce has not revived in cities like Leskovac, in southeastern Serbia. The heavy cost is still being tallied, in the young who flee and the others who turn gray and dispirited.
Babicko, a nearby village, is simply dying. Of 700 residents, only 4 are children of school age. Houses, whether of stone or mud brick, are falling into disrepair.
When the time comes, "my daughter can try to sell it," said Ljuboslava Svetkovic, a pensioner living there. "If not, it will all collapse."
Leskovac's proud industrial history, in which textiles played a leading role, dates back 150 years. In the 1860s, the city was Serbia's second-largest, and by the start of the 20th century its wool and cloth exports brought the city renown.
In 1990, Leskovac had a population of 69,000, with nearly 11,000 employed in its textile factories. Today, the industry has collapsed, with just 880 workers remaining.
Pensioners and the unemployed outnumber those with jobs.
It may not be surprising that a mainstay export industry would suffer from wars and isolation. But it is the years of peace that have left local residents angry.
"It's the Turks and Chinese," said Novica Ilic, the director of Sintetika, one of 17 textile companies in Leskovac. The city's factories, he said, could never hope to compete with the cheap labor and technical innovation from China and Turkey.
But isolation, not globalization, is more likely the culprit, a result of the wars, in which more than 200,000 people died. For that, there is anger at the government.
Local critics say the political elite in Belgrade, the capital, is mired in issues dating from the wars and is not focusing on improvement.
Even Ilic admits that Serbia's textile sector is being outpaced by neighboring countries that have found a place in the global market.
While some large industries in Serbia have been privatized — steel and tobacco plants were sold to American companies — most enterprises owned by national or local governments are in limbo, economists say. If anything, their debts are growing.
In Leskovac, privatization has barely begun and much-needed investment in technology has failed to materialize.
"They are not ready to tackle the social problems and face the workers," said Ilic, the company director.
Many blame Belgrade.
"There simply is no economic policy," complained Jovica Svetkovic, the head of Leskovac's economic planning department.
For the last six years, he said, Serbia's political debate has been dominated by issues stemming from the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Other issues also bear a heavy economic cost. Perhaps most important, Serbia has failed to normalize its ties with the European Union, which is most likely to provide it with investment and markets.
Its failure to find and hand over Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, to face war crimes charges in The Hague has delayed the signing of a preliminary agreement with the EU. Such an agreement would be a milestone toward EU membership and would improve trade relations, something that Macedonia has already done.
"Basically this country is stuck with the Mladic case and the Hague tribunal," said Goran Svilanovic, the foreign minister first of Yugoslavia, then of Serbia and Montenegro, and now a member of the Serbian Parliament.
Western diplomats in the region hope that after the parliamentary elections this month, Serbia's two main democratic parties will be able to patch together a governing alliance, bringing about conditions that could foster reform.
But in Leskovac and its outlying villages, this is one more hollow promise.
"This is the Balkans," said a forlorn Ljubisa Svetanovic, 55, who lives in Babicko. "God has said good night. Life stopped here a long time ago."
linkj
Edited by: Stankoisaserb  at: 2/1/07 2:45 am
|
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies