Word: serb
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When the Balkan wars started in 1991, Mitrovica, or Kosovska Mitrovica as it is known in Serbia, was just another ethnically mixed city in Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia. But, as the Serb strongman stepped up his campaign against ethnic Albanians and the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, old neighborly ties began to fray. One night the body of Lindita's father was found in a back street on another side of town. A restaurant owner, he had been accused of giving food to the rebels. The Rexhepi family believe he was murdered by Serbs...
Then came the Kosovo war. When Serb forces withdrew in late June 1999 under NATO bombardment and peacekeeping forces arrived to establish a U.N. administration, Serbs who had been expelled from other parts of Kosovo made a last stand in the city. Mitrovica, which lies only two dozen kilometers from Serbia, is highly prized because of its massive Trepca coal mine. Clashes between Albanians and Serbs have left dozens killed and many more wounded. Former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke once called Mitrovica "the most dangerous place in Europe." In many ways, it still...
...Ibar River, a shallow, polluted stream running between high banks through the center of Mitrovica, has become the city's main demarcation line. To the north is Serb territory; to the south, ethnic Albanians dominate. But there are some notable exceptions. In the Albanian zone, for example, 17 Serbs have refused to leave and are now under 24-hour protection in compounds ringed with razor wire. In the north, a few hundred Albanians live in equally fortified "confidence zones" established by the U.N. and kfor...
...heavy peacekeeping presence, clashes between the rival groups have fallen off and an uneasy normalcy has settled in. At Mitrovica's Serbian Orthodox church, for example, Father Svetislav Nojic, 64, continues to hold sparsely attended Sunday liturgies, though worshipers must travel under armed guard to get there from the Serb side of town. Nojic says he needs an escort just to take a walk in his tiny garden. Still, most days he ventures out to tend his congregation north of the Ibar, hunkered down in an armored personnel carrier. "I have been a priest for 47 years," he says...
While extremists operate on both sides, they are most visible in the north, where Serbs have violently resisted efforts by the U.N. to return Albanians and impose "multiethnic" rule. At the first sign of an Albanian intruder, or an effort by the U.N. to return refugees, self-appointed vigilantes known as bridge watchers use radios, mobile phones and even car horns to summon hundreds of supporters within minutes. At one clash last year, Agim Ibrahimi, 42, lost his 17-year-old son when someone from the Serb side lobbed a grenade. KFOR estimates there are around 300 bridge watchers, while...