In our travels through the Balkans it has become increasingly clear that we’re on much more than a vacation. Our trip has taken us to plenty of vacation spots for sure (Italy, Seychelles, Cyprus, etc). Being gone so long from home, however, there’s only so much time you can spend on the beaches or ooohing and ahhing at museums. Eventually you become engaged with the cultures, the people, and the history that surrounds you.
No matter where you travel in the Balkans, you cannot escape the troubled history of almost every country here. Wars and atrocities are not exclusive to the 20th century. Long-standing conflict between Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim communities have fueled nationalistic fervor for a couple of hundred years at least coinciding with the emergence of nationalism itself. Armed conflict between Muslims from the Ottoman Empire and the Christian Balkan people has been going on for almost 1000 years.
The most horrific consequences of religious and nationalistic extremism manifested themselves in the late 20th century…first in Bosnia and Herzegovina and later in Kosovo. Not since World War II when Adolf Hitler made the case for the extermination of an entire group of people, have we seen such horrors that emerged in the 1990’s in the Balkans. (And to be fair in places like Rwanda and Sudan as well.)
I wrote about Serbian efforts to eliminate Bosnian Muslims from the face of the earth in this piece that was inspired by a visit to the Museum of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide in Sarajevo. Click here
Today I want to focus on the events in Kosovo during 1998 and 1999. As a result of the continued problems created with the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Kosovo (mostly Muslim) decided to fight against Serbian efforts to incorporate Kosovo into the Federation of Serbia and Montenegro. In response to sporadic attacks by UCK (the Kosovo Liberation Army), Serbia decided to try once again to eliminate an entire people. The world’s lackluster response to the attempts at ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina just a few years earlier certainly led the Serbs to believe little would stand in their way.
So they began massacring Muslim males by the thousands. They also ordered the systematic rape of Muslim women in an effort to genetically “purify” Kosovo. This time, however, United States President Bill Clinton decided to get off the sidelines and lead a NATO initiative to stop the genocide. This led to the bombing of Belgrade and the eventual arrest and conviction of most of Serbians leadership in the International Criminal Court.
But there have to be scars.
Memorials all over Kosovo both mourn the atrocities and celebrate American intervention. Most Kosovars know that without Clinton’s actions, there is no Kosovo. But still, I wondered, how do people deal with the legacy of the genocide.
In our travels, I am inclined to engage folks in conversations about their history. My curiosity leads me to ask questions that probably make people uncomfortable. As a long-time teacher, though, that was how I taught, so it makes sense that that’s how I travel too.
In Pristina, Kosovo, I met two men who shed much light on the struggle to deal with the genocide. Victor, the owner of our hotel, and Edi, an American businessman were very willing to discuss the issue.
Victor’s family got him and his siblings out of Kosovo as the genocide began. They went to Florida, got an education, and returned many years later to open their business.
Edi’s family also got him out and sent him to Michigan where he got an education and now works for a tech company that does business in the US and in the Balkans.
Both were saved and given an opportunity to grow to manhood as immigrants in the United States and to return to their country to help its rebirth and growth. Both said to me in separate discussions that there was no point in wallowing in the misery caused by Serbian atrocities. Don’t get me wrong…they are not fond of Serbia. They both said, however, that if they lived their lives motivated by vengeance instead of attempting to grow the country that they’d be letting down the people who suffered so much on their behalf.
For the first time I figured out how it was possible to look past the horrors, and it made sense.
The story doesn’t end here. In my conversations with Edi at a restaurant (where he approached my wife and I after hearing English coming from our table) he shared his stories and explained how he copes. I asked him about his thoughts on the United States today. Sometimes we initiate the discussion about the current state of affairs in the U.S. More often we’ve been approached by so many people in every line of work on this trip…in the Seychelles, in Turkey, in Malta, in Italy, in Cyprus, etc. as they want to know what WE think. Out of the twenty or so people we’ve talked to, there’s been exactly one who supports the trump agenda. One. And he was a white South African. Go figure.
Without explicitly saying it, Edi, sitting in that Pristina restaurant, seemed to also indicate his support for trump. After all we had talked about, I was pretty bummed out that this guy who had overcome so much and made such a success of himself would not see the damage trump was doing. Edi was a U.S. citizen and is clearly very informed in events on both sides of the Atlantic.
I wrote it off to him not being able to see past the great things the United States did on his behalf. The U.S. ended the genocide. The U.S. took him and his family in. The U.S. educated him. The U.S. maintains a military base in Kosovo that is certainly a primary reason why Serbia has not continued its forceful attempt to make Kosovo part of Serbia. Maybe he’s just too damn grateful to be critical of anything the U.S. does, no matter how destructive trump is to the foundations of our democracy.
We parted ways in the restaurant and I headed to the men’s room before the long walk back to our car. Because my wife really doesn’t cherish conflict, I never take on trump supporters when she’s around. I was resigned to just being disappointed that Edi didn’t see things the way I did.
There was this moment…there’s always a moment…when something clicked. I was looking into the mirror and sorting out my feelings when it struck me. I had one more question for Edi.
I walked back out to his table and asked him “What do you think would have happened to you if trump was president when the genocide started here?”
He paused for a moment, looked at me and said “100% dead.”
I know how that comment rocked me, and I’m hoping it opened a path for him to see that you can be grateful for American help and also recognize the awfulness of donald trump.
The Grumblings 
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