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| Albanian boys show the symbols of the Kosovo Liberation Army – Ivan Aleksic |
One of the things I realized, was “Who was the winner? “. Soon it was “clarified” at school what it meant. Serbia was the moral victor, and the understanding of what it means to be a “moral victor” I only later understood, precisely a few years ago when I visited Kosovo.
As I write this report, Kosovo has for several years, especially after the unilateral declaration of independence, has been a very topical issue and a powerful political weapon in Serbia, while very little is known about the real life of Serbs in Kosovo, and even less to the Albanians. What is obvious is that there is great hatred between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. This hatred existed for centuries in the area, but has escalated the past few years.
After the war and NATO bombing in 1999, soldiers of KFOR came to Kosovo to maintain peace artificially. I have seen that such a peace is only apparent, because both Serbs and Albanians have used every opportunity and inattention KFOR to hurt each other. When I talked with the Serbs, I heard terrible stories about Albanian crimes against Serbs: A pregnant woman who was murdered by Albanian snipers on her terrace while the drying clothes, and a bombs being thrown into a crowded Serbian nightclub during the weekend are just some of the many examples. Also when I talked to the Albanians and they had their own stories against the Serbs. An Albanian man told me about the time when he was studying in Pristina and his roommate who went to the store one day and never returned or has been heard of since.
I realized that reconciliation between the two peoples is impossible. But hope has given me an Albanian who told me that his child was born after the war and that it will not remember the crimes that occurred during the past year. If peace continues, and this new generation of children grow up in peace, there is a chance that the future of Serbs and Albanians to live harmoniously.
Albanians and Serbs still live in Kosovo so close but so far. An interesting example is the town of Kosovska Mitrovica in northern Kosovo which is the center of the conflict. Serbs live in the north, and Albanians in the south. The town is so small it literally from the balcony they can see what is happening on the other side. Divided by only a small bridge over the Ibar River. The bridge has lost it purpose to bring together people, it now divides people.
They live in different realities that co-exist but “do not recognize each other”. There are to many misunderstandings and barriers that still hinder normal communication between Serbs and Albanians, displaying both still present obsession with history and identity. Many Serbs are in confusion as a result of the establishment of parallel institutions. Kosovo Serbs do not know who to ask – if the parallel institutions selected in the last Serbian elections, which does not recognize UNMIK to Kosovo institutions, which you run the risk of being labeled traitors or institutions that have nothing to Serbia in Kosovo and the powers that they can not solve the problem.
But currently is difficult to be a Serb in Kosovo because Kosovo two years ago was part of Serbian state and the Albanians were a minority. And today is the reverse, when the Albanians in 2008 unilaterally proclaimed independence, Serbs have become a minority in their own country. Since then, a large number of Serbs left Kosovo, and if you lived there for generations and is considered the Kosovo Serbian holy land with the highest number of monasteries and historical monuments. This is life in the same space, but in different “states”. Albanians related to Kosovo Serbs to Serbia “. And some still say that Serbia is the ” moral victor “.
