Word: ethnicities
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...sure, the consequences of a declaration of independence by Kosovo may not turn out to be dire; after the horrors of the 1990s, neither radical Serbs nor Albanians really want to risk a war. But nor does the region enjoy an instinct for reconciliation. Thousands of ethnic Albanians died at the hands of Serbs in the late 1990s; revenge attacks on local Serbs as recently as March 2004 left 19 dead and nearly 1,000 injured, with dozens of medieval Orthodox churches destroyed...
...verge both of important elections and a potential declaration of nationhood. Since 1999, some of the best hopes of this 4,203 sq. mi. (10,887 sq km) territory have been on hold, as it remains legally a part of Serbia, while being administered by the U.N. The same ethnic divisions and territorial disputes that fueled the 1999 war still linger, as do the international differences on how to manage them. Upon arrival, however, I was more interested in the past eight years of Dani's life. On the living-room couch of the wood-paneled house where he lives...
Back in the spring of 1999, Ramadan Ilazi was among the nearly 1 million ethnic Albanians forced to flee Serb ruler Slobodan Milosevic's attempt to "cleanse" them from Kosovo. It was amid the endless lines of U.N.-issued tents in the Senokos camp in Macedonia that I first met this boy, known to his friends as Dani. As a reporter covering the Albanian exodus, I would talk to scores of refugees. But Dani, who was then 14 years old and looked no more than 10, would prove to be a one-in-a-million encounter...
...frustrations and hopes of a generation of Kosovars eager for a way out not just from Serbia, but also from a dysfunctional tradition of top-down, tribal politics. At the age of 22, he has become the kind of man who can help Kosovo achieve the political maturity and ethnic comity it so badly needs. The question is whether he and those like him will get that chance...
...through all of this, Dani maintained his keen awareness of what's at stake in his troubled homeland. Between his shoulder blades is a large tattoo of a snake and the initials E.I.S., for the words "Ethnic Identity Sucks." Though the entire Serb minority fled Ferizaj after the war, Dani has met many Serbs at youth conferences elsewhere in the Balkans. He'd also traveled in Serb villages in Kosovo right after the war while interpreting for U.S. troops, and he saw one old woman who'd just been badly beaten by local Albanians. "This land we have fought over...