The Balkans
Reflections on Kosovo: Part I
By D.W.

When I first deployed to Kosovo as a brand new soldier in 2000, it was a grand and dangerous adventure. We were defending our country and civilizing the world in uniform as our fathers and grandfathers had done. Now after two tours in Iraq I have come to see Kosovo as a cakewalk but I am glad that I was able to do it. I learned a lot from that time and I carry the lessons and positive memories with me. We actually left an impact in Kosovo and we did not lose a single soldier during that tour and no one was seriously injured. How innocent we were back then.

The first and most prominent lesson was that the Kosovo conflict was not a religious war even though many in the media tried to spin it that way.

It was probably an ethnic/racially motivated war and both parties happened to have different religions. If the Kosovar Albanians were all Catholics instead of Muslims (like in Croatia), the conflict would still have taken place. Both the Albanians and the Serbs were not very religious people and I observed this very extensively and deliberately. In all homes that we searched, you would be hard pressed to find a bible or a Koran.

Sure there were some people who were motivated by a genuine belief in religion but they were few and far between. There were no homicide terror bombings by Islamic fascists in the Balkans that I know of. Fundamentalist groups may be trying to make headway there but there haven’t been any Albanian Muslims implicated in any of the numerous terror plots foiled throughout Europe.

In fact, very few Albanians attended the Mosque, except for old men who kept the prayer rituals dressed in Muslim garb. Many Kosovar Albanians either once lived in Germany or had relatives there. They clearly saw themselves as Western Europeans and this identity manifested itself in their habits and conduct. They expressed a hatred for Serbs as an ethnic group and not for Christians or Westerners as many Arabs do. The NATO coalition had a contingent of Arabs from Saudi Arabia and from other Middle Eastern states but the Albanians saw these guys as being different, like non-Western as they were.
 

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Although the Serbs may have identified themselves as Christian warriors, they were generally not Christians. I quizzed many a Serb on basic bible facts and on the life of Jesus and they simply couldn’t answer them. Serbian churches were habitually empty except for old women. The Serbs were far more influenced by nationalism and communism than with religion, which was only a superficial aspect of their identity.

As far as attacks on churches went, the Albanians attacked them because they were symbols of Serbian political dominance and not out of any hatred for Christians. During the Milosevic regime, Serbs would build churches on the edges of Albanian areas with the sole purpose of antagonizing them. Nobody actually went to the churches or worshipped there; they were political symbols. Many of these churches were burned down by Albanians for an inexcusable but understandable reason.

The next interesting thing I learned was that the Kosovars had a separate and distinct identity from their ethnic kinsmen in the homeland. Kosovar Albanians clearly understood themselves as being separate from Albanians. During the years of communism, the Kosovar Albanians were part of Yugoslavia, which was a separate and more advanced nation from the isolationist communist Albania. For the most part, the Kosovar Albanians tend to think of themselves as being more westernized and higher class than the actual Albanians. They clearly had no intention of uniting an independent Kosovo with Albania although this sentiment may be different in areas that border Albania.

As for the Kosovar Serbians, they were treated with some disdain by the Serbs in Serbia who saw them as a lower class of Serb. I discovered this interesting fact from Serbian refugees who had tried to return to Serbia after the war and instead found a cold shoulder. The Serbian government was clearly reluctant to integrate the Kosovar Serbs into their territory as they received no help outside of family connections. These two Serb groups had a bond that was only skin deep and not much more. The Serbians from Serbia were glad to help their kinsmen kill Albanians but not to help them when it would actually inconvenience their society.

Another interesting observation is that neither group really liked or respected the French very much. France was clearly pro-Serbian in their bias and diplomatic actions and all the Kosovars perceived it as such and it showed. The Serbs acknowledged that the French were friendly but didn’t have much respect for them as they didn’t do enough to stop NATO from interfering with the war. The Albanians saw them as being pro-Serb and regarded them in the same light.

The French Military had responsibility for a northeastern area of Kosovo that had a thick mixture of both ethnic groups. They also had the volatile city of Mitrovica, which was divided into two halves by a river. The Serbs were generally on one side of the river with the Albanians on the other side and a series of bridges linked the city. One bridge in particular was a focal point of hostility when thugs from both sides would antagonize and attack each other, sometimes right under the nose of French troops who were supposed to stop them. Some of the incidents I remember involve firearms which was clearly a dangerous escalation that the French could have avoided if they had been aggressive enough.

In one particular month, Albanians and Serbs began to gather in large mobs on their respective sides of the bridge in protest to some incident that could have been avoided.

The French were sandwiched between the two groups and were taking a beating, clearly unable to contain the situation. My brigade scrambled an infantry company to assist the French in Mitrovica to prevent further escalation. They got to the site very early in the morning and when the mobs got out in the morning and saw that the Americans were there, nothing happened and the crisis dissolved. Albanian men brought the soldiers cigarettes and women made them cakes. The Serbs may have hated us but they certainly respected us and respected what we were capable of.

After I had left, I read news articles about how the U.N. police training force and their Kosovar students were trying to control another uprising in riot gear when a Serb thug shot at them. Although they were prepared for a gunfight, they had to leave. French Soldiers on the same bridge at the time were able to respond with lethal force but did nothing to protect the U.N. police. Does this surprise you? I have come to accept that as a common response from our erstwhile allies.

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