Forumi Horizont (http://www.forumihorizont.com/index.php3)
- Ceshtja kosovare dhe me gjere (http://www.forumihorizont.com/forumdisplay.php3?forumid=162)
-- C`po ndodh ne Kosove? (http://www.forumihorizont.com/showthread.php3?threadid=4482)

Ismail Kadare: Repairing the evil

me falni qe eshte ne anglisht por jane komentet e kadarese per Kosoven

Most dailies carry the comments of well-known Albanian writer Ismail Kadare on the recent riots in Kosovo. ‘We saw how the dream of Milosevic for a Kosovo without Albanians ended up. A Kosovo without Serbs is also impossible. Therefore we all need to look for a possible Kosovo’. (Excerpts)

1.
There are two kinds of difficult events. Those which are forgotten more easily due to more important events taking place and the others, which get remembered for a very long time. What happened in Kosovo recently unfortunately falls in the latter category.

Let us not have illusions. The Albanian cause suffered a reversal in March 2004. A heavy blow. A step back.

We need to be aware of it. We need to get rid of the blind anger, of the shortsighted vision, of the fiery temperaments, of this bad surrogate for patriotism, and see what happened and see the consequences. An ethnic minority was attacked, with or without provocation (it does not change the essence of the attack). Serb houses got burned with torches. And Serb churches. Within a night more churches got burned than during a century in Europe. It was a suicidal temperament, completely anti-Albanian but dressed in an anti-Serb robe. If it would be proved that a Serb chauvinist center was directing that anger, we would not be surprised at all. During one night, the noble characteristics that Albanians took pride in for centuries: religious tolerance, acceptance of others, hospitality, got burned together with churches. The perverse idea that the war in Kosovo was a war for religion and not for freedom got more believable. Other anti-Albanian and racist ideas that have been propagated for years all around that Albanians are prone to destructions, disruptions and wars also got more believable.

One of the biggest damages is the anger against the international community and KFOR. Despite problems that could exist, a sacred line was crossed: the liberators got attacked. And together with them the fate of Kosovo, too, the fate of all Albanians. And it happened on the eve of the fifth anniversary of liberation. Just a few days before, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia were to receive an invitation by US President Bush as candidates for NATO. If it is confirmed, as expected, that the violence was organized, then its main goal was to create animosities between Albanians and the West, namely to cut off their path that leads to Europe. Based on this, the suspicions of incited mobs firmly stand. Incited by nostalgic and communist extremists, by those who have the war against the West and NATO in their blood, by radicals of various types who cannot stand Europe and the West, by hysterics and wet chickens that get brave when they should not. Lastly by Albanians sold to foreign intelligences, mainly Serb ones.

In the analysis to follow, the Albanian opinion will be of special importance. It will be part of the evil or on the contrary it will have an impact on repairing it. Condemnation of the violence by public opinion and the political class in Kosovo, and especially in Albania, has been a very positive factor, and it played its role. It showed that Albanians, unlike how they are seen, are capable of becoming aware of mistakes. And it had an effect on holding back the world’s anger.

2.
Temporary breakdowns and losses are an integral part of the fate of the nations. Only those who stand up and manage to overcome and repair the evil can win.
One of the noblest and most insightful opinions expressed these days is that of an American senator who said that Albanians have taken a step back, but they can take two steps forward to repair what they broke.

So can the evil that happened be repaired? Yes, of course. It can be significantly repaired; it just takes goodwill by the Albanian side. The statement of the Kosovo Government to reconstruct the Serb houses and churches is a serious step against the evil. But it is an insufficient step. The repairs should go deeper, to the roots of the evil.

In the Balkans like anywhere else, evil is reparable. The Balkans is not a fatally condemned part of Europe.

Repairs would be possible if the Albanian side realized, as it realized that it should reconstruct Serb houses and churches, what really happened in Kosovo in March this year. It is crystal clear that Albanians are the biggest losers. But as it has already been said, everybody lost in Kosovo. The elation of Serbian nationalists for Albanian losses is illusory. If we take a closer look at it, they have lost, too. Drowning deeper and deeper in chauvinist darkness is unfortunate for any nation. The idea of understanding, of coexistence, suffered in Kosovo. So did European democratic and humanistic ideals. The scornful cynicism of a racist Europe won, against a peninsula it abandoned.

It has been said before that the process of Europeanizing the Balkans fully coincides with the interests of the Albanians. Is it a wishful dream? Not at all. What other nation in the Balkans condemned the violence of its people against members of another nation on the very first day? Six years passed since the horrors in Kosovo, and no condemnation is seen by the guilty side. This non-condemnation has been, among other things, a cause of the anger accumulated in Kosovo.

3.
One of the most frequent questions regards adolescents. Why were they manipulated so easily? One more reason for disappointment and pessimism.

Thousands of adolescents today between the ages of 12 and 16 were between 6 and 10 during the war and massacres in Kosovo. They witnessed never before seen horrors. They saw their parents being killed, their sisters being raped, houses being burnt. Therefore their manipulation in the current circumstances in Kosovo was easy.

Finding manipulators and bringing them to justice is an imperative for Kosovo. No matter the driving force behind them: mafia, religion, neo-communism, or adventures, they are anti-Albanian.

No nation with dignity accepts to let its children go to the front line of danger. The people of Kosovo should condemn with contempt this moral perversion.

It is not accidental that the events of March started with children to end up with churches. Pushing children to commit crimes against the religion of others, the provocateurs wanted to distort the identity of children, to tell them that before being Albanians they are religious first, and to plant the idea that the evil in Kosovo came from Serb churches first, before dictatorial, chauvinistic, and neo-communist Serbia, hoping that this way any hope for reconciliation would vanish. At the end of the day, endless confrontations in the Balkans have only one name: suicide.

4.
Out of the peoples in the Western Balkans, it is Serbs and Albanians that weigh the most, be it for good or for bad. Peace or war in the peninsula depends on their relations.

The Western Balkans is the tip of Europe that still remains outside the mother continent. Therefore it is breaking the European democratic, economic and military ideas. Furthermore, it has tendencies to resume conflict. And like it or not, this Balkans tends to bring with it the extended horrors of the Middle East. It is beyond doubt that this will not be allowed. The punishment will be heavy for those who will be to blame for it. And chances are that they will be looked for among these two nations: Serbs that experienced the punishment once, and Albanians that have not as yet. Or both of them together.

What are these two nations doing to face this situation? Waiting for the condemnation to fall on the other, and themselves to bear the consequences as well? In other words, for Serbia to be elated because Albania lost both eyes, so it’s no big deal if Serbia loses only one, as an old tale goes.

This is not the way forward; this is the way toward an abyss.

Reconciliation or beginning to ease tensions between Albanians and Serbs is not impossible. Only one day after the terrible events of March, the willingness of the Kosovo Government to reconstruct burnt houses and churches was equal to asking for an apology. A gesture that in our Balkans is very rare. Apologizing here is considered a weakness and not courage, though that’s what it truly is.

The lack of apologies from Serbs for massacres against Albanians remains as stated earlier one of the key factors of unrest in Kosovo. And not only that, instead of apologies, you have calls for revenge, and for renewal of crimes, and what is worst – taking pride in them.

The history of Albanian-Serb relations is primarily a long chronicle of revenge. Neither side can explain clearly what happened. They are baffled by incomprehension, by not knowing themselves and the others, by the sick Balkan sensibility, by tragic misunderstandings.

It took them ages to understand that they cannot eradicate each other. And having understood this, they try to replace eradication with mutilation instead of looking for ways to get closer.

Harsh and stubborn people, they were by turns in the position of force and weakness.

After the Kosovo battle of 1389, which was the last act of Albanian-Serbian friendship, Serbs felt degraded by the half-rule of Albanians, and they turned their hatred toward Ottomans into hatred against Albanians over the four centuries to follow. After Kosovo was given to a Slavic state, this idea of hatred triggered revenge.

After the liberation of Kosovo in 1999, the reflex of revenge woke again, this time among Albanians, and it was as fatal as the one of Serbs. The history repeated itself dramatically. This time it was a handful of Kosovo Serbs that had to pay for crimes a state committed for several decades.

These revenges, the one of Serbs at the beginning of the century, and of Albanians at the end of it, as any other revenge, have cowardice at the core.

Pristina and Tirana seem to have realized it. Belgrade is still lagging behind.

5.
What will become of Kosovo?

This question, in between all the chaos, contradictory statements, Resolution 1244, the emotions, can seem quite disturbing.

The same question, asked in a clearer thinking area, is much simpler. A population of 2 million in the Balkans aspires to enjoy what all the other people of the continent do: its freedom, respectively its independence. There is also a resolution with the number 1244, which seems to sometimes acknowledge and sometimes deny this freedom. The people are face to face with the resolution and either the people have to change or the resolution has to be clarified. Never until now in the history of the Balkans has a population been put under the rule of some other population. The freedom of one people is unquestionable. But the reluctance to proclaim it seems to have been the greatest insult for Albanians and perhaps the biggest force that led them to their suicidal rebellion.

Apart from this, the reluctance has also encouraged mad dreams of Serb chauvinists for Kosovo’s new enslavement.

We are all aware that Kosovo’s freedom is not without problems and obligations. Albanians have accepted the international administration and military. For five years they have been friendly to them. Such a thing does not happen often and it should have been appreciated more. Unfortunately, the opposite happened. The continuing dissatisfaction towards Albanians, provocations, threats, insults, the denial of their suffering.

The majority of Albanians have accepted the mistake of 17 March. The acceptance of guilt is not a weakness, quite the opposite. It is a sign of rare bravery and civilization in the Balkans.

Provocations from Belgrade have become daily occurrences in Kosovo. It is dangerous to question children’s’ deaths chased by dogs. It is insulting to see the KPC commander handcuffed for the third time in an international airport because of a Serb warrant. It is bitter, if true, that French soldiers refused to accept flowers from Albanian children. All these should not be turned into a pool full of hatred.

The vision of the majority of Albanians for Kosovo is very close to the international one. An undivided Kosovo, belonging to two entities that lived in it for centuries. An independent Kosovo, homeland to both parties. Such a Kosovo is not an artificial creation. We saw how Milosevic’s dream of a Kosovo without Albanians ended. A Kosovo without Serbs is also impossible. That is why there should be insistence on the possible Kosovo.
If a joint mission between Serbs and Albanians could exist, the reason of its existence could only be reconciliation in the peninsula. As was stated before, these are the most important people in the western Balkans. This is why there needs to be an awareness. To be important is to act accordingly. And to act importantly means to think that way.