UVU Balkans Study Abroad | Emergency Services Department

Remembering the Kosovo War

The militia sang as the marched through the tunnel

Carlos and I visited with a woman who told about her experience as a young woman in the Kosovo War of 1998-1999. She and her family lived in a neighborhood with both Serbian and Albanian residents. For years they lived as friends but when the war came Serbians joined the Serb militia and turned against their Albanian neighbors. Militia were feared more than the Serbian army. Their acts were more heinous, perhaps because the atrocities were committed against neighbors and former friends.

She remembers the singing as the Serb militia marched through the nearby tunnel. They sang about Srebrenica and how this would be much worse. One early morning as their family were eating breakfast, a warning came that they were in danger. They left their meal unfinished and walked into the nearby countryside where they hid for the next months. They found refuge in a small village, fearing everyday that they might be discovered.

When they returned to their home, they found that it had been used as a prison and place of torture. The walls were splattered with blood and other evidence was left of the crimes that occurred there. To this day, no one has lived in the house.

Read more about Srebrenica at  https://www.theguardian.com/law/2010/jun/10/hague-bosnian-serb-srebrenica-genocide1 

Leta was 10 years old during the war.

Ramadan - the Holy Month

While Kosovo describes itself as as secular society, many of its people are religious. About 95 percent identify themselves as Muslims. The number that practice Islam is much smaller, maybe less than 20 percent. That is except during Ramadan - the Holy Month.

Ramadan is the holiest month for Muslims. It is the ninth month in the Muslim lunar calendar. Healthy adult Muslims fast in Ramadan from dawn until dusk. This includes abstaining from drinking, eating, immoral acts and anger. Other acts of worship such as prayer, reading the Quran and charity are also encouraged during the holy month. Charitable contributions are often given to the Imam for distribution.

Young musicians make money by playing along the streets of Pristina to announce the end of fast. 

 Every year, while Muslims around the world fast during daylight hours, they eat and celebrate during the night. The effect on productivity and health may be devastating. While intermittent fasting may be good for health, Ramadan turns the eating patterns of participants upside down. While participants may fast during the daytime, Muslims wake up early to eat a pre-dawn meal called suhoor, and they break their fast with a meal referred to as iftar. Sleep patterns are also disturbed.

In the Mideast, daytime hours are consistently about 12 hours. Farther north or south the times vary so that in Kosovo on May  18, 2019 day time is 14 hours and 42 minutes. Sunrise is at 5:10 a.m. and sunset is 7:53 p.m. In Oslo or Edmonton, daylight hours are much longer. 

As an outsider, a real benefit I see is the opportunity for adults to become reacquainted with friends and family. Adherents of Ramadan often go out at night to eat with friends or invite friends to their homes. Restaurants are crowded in time to break fast in the evening. Many open at 2 a.m. to offer a pre-dawn meal. A drum rolls and adherents begin their meals at night with water and then dates. We were invited for the evening meal at the Sharrit Restaurant above Tetova in Macedonia. Amazingly, every guest had food on their tables, a lovely soup and cheese sauces with bread. We all began to eat at the same time. A downside may be that children are neglected while parents celebrate. Several times a week we have been feeding two teenagers whose parents are often away at night. One is fasting; the other is not.

Read more about Ramadan at https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/ramadan-2019-important-muslims-190505145156499.html 

Prishtina - City with a Great Vibe

NEWBORN Monument celebrating Kosovo's birth as a nation in 2008

I came across a great article that describes things to do and see in Prishtina (Pristina), the capital of Kosovo. Tom writes: "Prishtina has that 'something' and I really miss it - the relaxed and friendly locals, crazy architecture, superb food and the vibrant streets in summer evenings."

Read the rest of the article at https://www.adventurous-travels.com/posts/prishtina-kosovo-ugly-city-with-a-great-vibe 

KOSTAJNICA - a town divided

Kostajnica, from all appearances, looks like a peaceful town, with beautiful scenery and an interesting history. Running down the heart of the town is the Una River. On one side of the river is Croatia; on the other is the Republic of Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a town divided between ethnic rivalries and wars that go back centuries, the most recent being the breakup of the Yugoslav Republic in the 1990s, when Croats fought Serbs and Serbs fought Bosniaks.

The Una River divides Kostajnica.

 In 1878 the Kostajnica valley was largely an Albanian community. The Albanians also lived in the rural parts of Toplica, Pusta Reka, and Jablanica valleys while the Serbs lived near the river moths and mountain slopes. The expulsion and genocide of the Albanian population in 1877-1879 left the territory with few Illyrian people, the name for the original inhabitants of the western Balkans. Historian Justin McCarthy estimated that 131,000 Albanian and Turk Muslims lived in the region in 1876. By 1882 the number was 12,000. Most Albanians fled south, many settling in Kosovo. A small number gave up their religion and melted into the Serbian Orthodox population. 

Russia was at war against the Ottoman Empire and requested Serbia's help. Because Serbia feared a fifth column among the Muslim population, the Serbs pursued a policy of enforced expulsion and genocide against the Albanians. While the army had security concerns, the Serb government wanted a homogeneous and reliable population in the region. Before the Serbian army could arrive, the Albanians packed and started moving south. The Serb army followed them, destroying villages and their mosques. At the end of the conflict, the Congress of Berlin  gave the territorial gains to the Kingdom of Serbia. Albanians were forced to relocate to Kosovo, Macedonia, and Thessaloniki. Others found refuge in the Samsun region near the Black Sea.  

Most Albanian refugees were resettled in over 30 large rural settlements in central and southeastern Kosovo. I met recently a descendant of the Kostajnica refugees in Kosovo. She said a small number of Albanians remained in the region and in Kostajnica. The one connection of these people have with their Kosovo cousins is their last name, Kostanica. The name is common to members of the family who live in Kosovo and in their original home in Kostajnica. 

Kostajnica Castle on the Una River.

HRVATSKA KOSTAJNICA - KOSTAJNICA

The entire history of Kosovo explained