Word: serb
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...Serb Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is often quoted as saying that Slobodan Milosevic "belongs to the past." The authors of the new history textbook used in Serbia's elementary schools don't seem to agree: Milosevic is not even mentioned in the book, while the decade of war and ethnic cleansing that resulted in the breakup of the country is handled in just two paragraphs. How could such a crucial period in Yugoslav history be dispatched so summarily? And how could Milosevic, the era's main protagonist, be excised from the account...
...past three years, Lindita Rexhepi, an ethnic Albanian high school student from the mining city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, has not been able to go home. She was 14 when Serb troops expelled her and her family from their small cement-block home as part of their offensive against ethnic Albanian rebels and forced them across the border into Montenegro. When the war ended in 1999, they returned to find the narrow road into their hillside neighborhood blocked by Serbs, many of whom had fled here from Albanian-dominated areas elsewhere in Kosovo. The last time Lindita tried...
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...