"A year after" is Kosovo's biggest ongoing controversy. For some it marks the first anniversary of "liberation," for others it is a year spent in a dungeon for a fictitious crime. This drastic discrepancy in perceiving what "the year after" is all about is the key feature of the apartheid rule in Kosovo today. Inside the few isolated Serb enclaves there are no people guilty of any crimes.

Where, then, should those responsible for the fact that statistics are working against the Kosovo Serbs be sought? Some 250,000 Serbs were exiled, 899 murdered, about 1,200 abducted, and nothing is known of their fate (Are they held in camps? Have they been detained? Are they dead?). It appears that one year after, the only changing figure not life-threatening to Serbs is the date.

Today's Kosovo has 80 churches and monasteries less than a year ago. Some of them dated from the 13th and 14th centuries.

History is bleeding. Serbs no longer have the right to believe in God. This is the sentence pronounced by the New Kosovo.

The escalation of fascism in Kosovo brought with it new rules. In the ethnically cleansed towns (with the exception of Kosovska Mitrovica one-sixth of which is still controlled by Serbs) these rules are being implemented without exception. Assaults on those who speak Serbian (or any other Slavic language, similar to Serbian, at that) stun no one any more. This cultural genocide against the Serbs, not only limited to language, has caused an exodus of an entire university with 12,000 professors and students. There is no literature in Serbian. The flames in which all human rights were reduced to ashes have destroyed even the freedom to speak.

Life inside the Serb enclaves is extremely difficult. The Serbs, pushed into ghettos spanning several kilometers, are aware that any attempt to leave their enclaves without escort would mean certain death. This isolation is taking a toll. The people are aware there is no way out. They can but ask themselves: what will become of our children? Someone put it quite well when he said that spring has arrived everywhere except in Kosovo.

It is still winter for some fifteen Serb children in the Pristina-based YU Program Center. As I write these lines, some of them are being escorted by KFOR members to downtown stores to buy new toys. Before leaving, they are warned not to speak Serbian for security reasons. They, the soldiers in charge of their safety, will buy them whatever they wish. The only condition is that they remain silent, so that they are not noticed or overheard, thus provoking "revenge" for their "crimes." Of them, only a few are old enough to attend the first grade. Their age testifies to their "guilt."

Slightly over a year ago the world decided to react to the exiling of 800,000 Kosovo Albanians, roughly one-half of the entire Kosovo Albanian population in the province. What will the world do now, after 70 percent of the Serb population has been exiled from Kosovo?

For a whole year I have been asking myself: why? So that the Albanians could kill? What is the solution? Will the response to all this come from the air or by land?

(The author is a member of the Serb National Council of Kosovo and Metohija.)

JUNE 2000
 

Thus a fire that threatened to engulf the entire region of South-East Europe and seriously endanger peace in Europe has been contained.

Had NATO backed off in the face of Milosevic's insolence and aggressiveness, there would be no Albanians left in Kosovo today, and they would have become a problem of the world and Europe. The Albanian querrillas would have strengthened, and for a long time there would have been no peace in Kosovo and the wider region. It is difficult to fathom what would have happen to Macedonia, and maybe even Montenegro would have disappeared, crushed under Milosevic's merciless and aggressive offensive.

The presence of the international peacekeepers in Kosovo is of strategic importance for a long-lasting peace in the region, and a speedy Europeization of the Balkans.

Peace is gradually returning to Kosovo, the region is successfully being revitalized, and this process is noticeable everywhere. The enormous task of rebuilding destroyed homes and the starting of all-out development is currently under way. Kosovo has gone far from the situation it faced a year ago. Of course, the wounds and scars of the great plight, humiliation, and suffering caused by the Serbian regime throughout the past decade are still fresh.

According to an incomplete analysis, during three months in 1999 alone, the Serbian forces killed some 13,000 Albanians, about 3,000 people went missing, and over 1,300 are still being held in Serbian prisons... Frustration, bitterness, and outrage are still enormous... Their consequences are instances of revenge, temporary insanity, murders and attacks on the Serbs and members of other ethnic communities. Even Bosniacks are targeted, though they were in no way responsible for what went on. Even Serbs who never took part in the crimes are suffering. Today, the international forces are protecting the Serbs, and it is a big question whether a single Serb would have remained in Kosovo had it not been for the international protection.

The presence of international forces in Kosovo indirectly plays a significant role in a possible change of government in Serbia and its democratization. After the defeat of the current Serbian regime's policy in Kosovo, which kept deluding Serbia that Kosovo could be preserved by force and repression, Serbia is gradually sobering up. It is growing less intoxicated by the irrational Kosovo Myth. Though it appears that the NATO intervention in the short run has strengthened Milosevic's personal power, his days, in fact, are numbered. If it weren't for the intervention, who knows when and if his power would end! Thus, he has been cornered, Serbia is closer to democracy than it has ever been before, and is nearing its liberation from Milosevic's dictatorship.

NATO has won the war for Kosovo. Now it is Kosovo's turn to win the battle for a lasting peace. This should bring peace and security for all citizens regardless of their ethnic background, religion, or any other affiliation. This battle has to be won by all citizens of Kosovo, primarily Albanians as the majority population. But it cannot be won without the presence of the international community and its active role and assistance.

Many of us Albanians have not imagined freedom as a situation we currently have. Most people want to live in conditions of tolerance, democracy, peace and security, their human rights protected. Most people do not want to see various extremists taking justice into their own hands; they want to live in conditions in which the law rules, and in which crime is suppressed... Most of them believe that revenge is detrimental to Kosovo and the Albanians alike. It is, after all, well known that revenge and hatred are a poor ally in the struggle for progress and a better future.

Those who wish well to Kosovo cannot remain indifferent to the fact that the position of the international community could turn against us. The worst that can happen to the Albanians is loss of the support of the international community. This is why preventing extremists and criminals is in the best interest of all citizens of Kosovo. The international community did not protect Albanians from the crimes so that, under international protection, they could commit crimes against others.

International peacekeeping forces will remain in Kosovo for a extended time because the preservation of strategic peace in the region is at stake there. However, the idea is not only to protect Kosovo from such crimes that have been committed until a year ago, but to help Kosovo develop into a democratic, tolerant and economically advanced society in its presence and with its support.

(The author is an attorney and political analyst based in Pristina)

June 2000