The Battle for Kosovo
Those who are Serbian and have a Serbian heart and do not come to battle for Kosovo will not have children —neither male or female, crops, or wine. They will be damned until they die,” is inscribed on this monument that commemorates the historic Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when Serbian Prince Lazar lost his life while defending Kosovo from the advancing Ottoman Empire. Six hundred years later, Slobodan Milosevic addressed a crowd of a million Serbs here and stripped the local Albanian majority of their civil rights and autonomy.

Today in Kosovo, this and every Serbian monument, religious site, and community south of the Ibar River is under 24-hour KFOR protection. If they weren’t, they would surely be destroyed by Albanian extremists taking revenge.

The Serb Orthodox Church has expressed regret for what Serbs did during the war.

But many Serbs refuse to acknowledge the atrocities and war crimes committed in their name throughout the Balkans.

“In 1989, the Albanians didn’t work with the Serbian rules so they didn’t get anything. They left willingly from Serb society. If Texas were to be separated from the USA, war would happen. Albanians are Serbian people and they shouldn’t be separated into their own country,” said Dajan, a young Serb in Zvecan.

“The Albanians are richer than the Serbs. Maybe they made a lot of money during the last twenty years.We had to pay taxes to Serbia, now the money goes to Pristina and to all of the Albanians,” said Vuk, his friend.

“Years ago, my family went to Bajram and my friend’s family came over for Christmas.

We are not ready to live together now. I am not feeling safe. KLA members have been made into local police. That is a big mistake. They will organize something. Most people have weapons at home.”

They ended our conversation confident they had found a solution to the problems.“We need a king and a flag. Our king, Alexander, made Yugoslavia good,” they said.