Serb Grief Over Kosovo Runs Deep

Filed under: Europe, Kosovo, Serbia — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on February 25, 2008 @ 3:24 pm CET

The New York Times reports that nationalist hooligans “may have been behind the torching of the United States Embassy here, but the feelings of anger, sorrow and betrayal over the loss of Kosovo cut across all segments of Serbian society.”

As the NYT points out, the world is waiting to see whether those riots were “the final spasm of anger in Serbia or the first tremor in a new Balkan earthquake.” Those who only know a little about the Balkan - and I consider myself to be one of them since I’m not a specialist nor an amateur specialist (yeah yeah, I know) - know that it’s an instable part of the world and that it’s not exactly difficult to make Balkan peoples start raping, plundering and killing. They’ve got a violent past and will probably have a violent future.

In short: it’s an extremely volatile part of the world. One seemingly small thing can set off a fire. The independence of Kosovo isn’t exactly a small thing, so it’s not difficult to believe that this may result in tremendous chaos.

Back to the article: it’s a good read. The NYT explains well how Serbs think about Kosovo’s independence. It’s a highly emotional issue for Serbs. This isn’t something most of them will “get over” any time soon.

The American ambassador, meanwhile, can be “angry” about the violence committed by Serbs but this is what they should have expected, especially considering the fact that America and the EU have basically written Kosovo’s constitution and were, thus, deeply involved in the matter.

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1 Serb Grief Over Kosovo Runs Deep

February 25, 2008 @ 3:33 pm CET

[…] The Stiletto wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe New York Times reports that nationalist hooligans “may have been behind the torching of the United States Embassy here, but the feelings of anger, sorrow and betrayal over the loss of Kosovo cut across all segments of Serbian … […]

2 sashal

February 25, 2008 @ 7:25 pm CET

Michael and Jason, here is an interesting take on the Kosovo problem from the Russian point of view and the relationships between USA and Russia in this regard , check it out, please…

http://www.takimag.com/site/article/kosovo_and_the_last_grasps_of_american_unipolarity/