Some joined the 21st S.S. Scanderbeg division; others were activernin the Balli Kombetar, whose goal was to purge the regionrnof Serbs; others simply settled private scores—the Albanians arernuniversally famous for their blood feuds.rnIn Kosovo, the 45-plus years of communist rule had twornphases; the first, down to 1966, during which Tito’s governmentrnattempted to centralize the authority of the regime byrnbalancing the ethnic interests of Serbs and Albanians. Somerneffort was made to suppress Albanian nationalist movementsrnthat received a steady stream of support from Tirana, but nationalistrnSerbs, entirely loyal to the Belgrade government, werernThe new section of the Nevesinje graveyard. Burials since therntroubles began occupy almost a third of the site.rnsubjected to the same harassment.rnAfter 1966, the situation changed, and the entire regionrnwas handed over to the Albanian majority. Tito’s primary objectrnappears to have been to foster the ethnic antagonisms thatrnmade his personal rule an absolute necessity. During the nextrn25 years, the Albanians did everything they could to persuadernthe Serbs to leave. The university at Prishtina was turned intornan Albanians-only enclave; place names were changed—rneven the name of the region. The Albanians disliked “Metohia,”rnbecause it bears witness to the ancient and continuedrnpresence of the Orthodox Church; Serb villages were infiltratedrnby Albanians who intimidated and terrorized their Christianrnneighbors.rnThe result of this campaign was a steady exodus of Serbs, untilrnSlobodan Miloshcvitch broke with party orthodoxy and beganrnencouraging the Serbs of Kosovo-Metohia to stay andrnfight. 1 visited a ruined church ovedooking one of the villagesrnwhere the resistance began, and after spending a few momentsrnon the streets of Fetch, 1 became convinced that the Serbianrntales of oppression are not all propaganda. Getting out of therncar, 1 began walking toward the bazaar, when several muscularrnAlbanians walked up to me to make it plain 1 did not belong.rnThey did not know who or what 1 was, except that I was not Albanian.rnOne of them stuck his face into mine and glared. Anywherernelse, 1 might have pushed his face in. Here, it might havernmeant our lives.rnAs a young man, I used to frequent rough places and havernbeen in black-only bars at two o’clock in the morning and toldrnto get my white a— out if 1 knew what was good for me; as anrnadult 1 have been jeered by feminists, slandered by conservatives,rnand mugged by blacks and gypsies: 1 have talked to communistsrnand Klansmen, white racists and black racists andrnJewish racists, but I never knew what real hatred was until I ranrninto the Albanians. 1 only wish that Senator Dole, when he visitedrnKosovo, instead of taking the Potemkin village tour offeredrnby Albanian separatists, had actually gone out on the streetsrnand experienced the two groups at first hand. But—so thernSerbs claim—^when they offered to meet with him, his staff refused.rnThe senator only wanted to hear one side of the story.rnThe Kosovo problem can never be resolved on the principlernof majority rule. Such a solution is as impractical as it is unjustrn—impractical, because the Serbs will never abandon therncenter of their ancient kingdom, their greatest churches, andrnthe battleground and scene of the “Kosovo Oath” that givesrnwhat little cohesion there is to the Serbian national identity;rnunjust, because the Albanian preponderance in population isrnpartly the result of oppression and genocide. President Clintonrnhas considered sending troops to Macedonia, and it has beenrnsuggested that this army could be sent into Kosovo to controlrndisturbances, in other words, to guarantee the Albanians theirrnright to continue their campaign of cleansing the region ofrnSerbs.rnA Macedonian adventure would virtually guarantee the outbreakrnof a Balkans War involving Bulgaria, Albania, and evenrnGreece, as well as Serbia. It will be very bloody, whatever somernSerbs may pretend to think of the Albanians. One retired policemanrntold me how he and his partner had held back hundredsrnof rioting Albanians and concluded, “I’m not worriedrnabout those guys; they’re chicken.” Later, in private, a Serb nationalistrndismissed this as boasting—mere “Serbianizing”:rn”Whatever else they are, the Shiptar are not cowards.” Citingrna piece of proverbial lore, he explained: “They are men (i.e.,rntough, heroic) but they are not humane. A good Serb is supposedrnto be both. We are not, always, but with them humanityrnis not even an ideal.”rnThe Serbian Republic of Bosnia-HerzegovinarnBack in Belgrade there are gypsy bands playing on every streetrntheir wild incompetent music. Only a gypsy would attemptrnjazz improvisations on a battered tuba. What is this all about,rnI ask, some kind of feast day? A Serb friend laughs, and saysrnit’s always like this when something is about to happen. Therncops go out and roust the gypsies and tell them to play—theyrnthink it is reassuring. Miloshcvitch must be selling out thernBosnians.rnAs bad a press as the Serbs in general have received, it isrnnothing compared to the treatment given to the Bosnian Serbs.rn1 had no opportunity to investigate the atrocity stories of massacresrnand rape hotels. When 1 asked various Serbian journalistsrnand officials about them, they admitted that terrible thingsrnhad been done by all sides—Muslims, Croats, and Serbs—but,rnthey added, the Muslims had practiced systematic rape inrnBosnia more than a year before the first charges were raisedrnagainst the Serbs. Why hadn’t the Western press reported thernearlier stories?rnI asked if there were films of the Serbian victims. Therernwere, and they would show them to me if 1 wanted, but mostrnof the women would not appear on camera, and of those whorndid most would not allow their names to be used and insistedrnupon sitting with their backs to the camera. They feel toorn16/CHRONICLESrnrnrn