Kosovo used to be a majority Muslim republic of Yugoslavia, whose citizens were ethnic Albanians. War broke out in 1998 when the ethnic Albanians sought independence and Serbia's armed forces fought to keep them as part of Serbia, the largest remaining Yugoslav republic. The fighting ended in 1999 after an 11-week bombing campaign by NATO, by which time about 13,000 people had been killed and hundreds of thousands had fled their homes. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Serbia still refuses to recognize Kosovo as an independent country. About half of the world's countries now recognize Kosovo as a separate country.
A member of our tour had been a United Nations peacekeeper stationed in Kosovo during the 1990s. As we passed a monument to UN peacekeepers in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, our tour member posed beside the monument. He worked in the rural areas of Kosovo . He and his team went from one village to the next to see that the villagers had adequate food, schools, and utilities. They also gathered intelligence on any unrest or threats in the villages. To our tour member's surprise, UN peacekeepers are still stationed in Kosovo.
We had a particularly interesting local guide, who led us on a walking tour of Pristina's many museums and monuments. He said that, although members of Orthodox, Muslim, and Catholic churches get along well these days, he, as an actor, has lost out on a number of excellent roles because he comes from Kosovo. The wounds of the wars from the 1990s still have not fully healed.
Madeline Albright, President Clinton's secretary of state, is venerated in Kosovo because of her influence in negotiating truce between Serbia and Kosovo.
Mother Theresa is venerated in Kosovo, although her message of peace is only partly realized in this war-torn land.
The United States is popular in Kosovo, and Kosovo's modern art installation included this "Route 66" sign.
There are still some missing war leaders, with large signs urging "Bring them home.
Kosovo's government offices fly the blue Kosovo flag..
At the end of our walking tour, our guide took us to the new Catholic cathedral. Its stained glass windows celebrate modern saints rather than the typical Biblical ones. Our guide referenced this new cathedral as evidence that the relationships between Muslims and Christians are much improved.
Earlier in the day, we visited a local mosque with particularly beautiful decoration inside.
We also visited an interesting, Turkish-style house. Such houses have been preserved all over the Balkans as museums of Balkan life.
This woman symbolized, for me, the synthesis of traditional and modern in the Balkans' Muslim cities. She is fully covered in conservative clothes, but she is talking on a cell phone, smoking a cigarette, and is sitting next to a motorcycle.
No comments:
Post a Comment