Borders in the Balkans

So Draagen feels safe. In any case, the numerous checkpoints on the way are manned by raucous Serbian constabulary. Moreover Draagen is able to impress them with his brief military record during the Bosnian war.

The driveway of the Grand Hotel is like a cluttered parking lot. The excessive publicity about Pristina being in the heart of a war zoneremoves all expectations of normalcy. Yet the massive reception hall is not only elegant in its decor, but heavily populated with a lively assortment of journalists, OSCE verifiers, NGOs, and if you watch closely, plenty of Serbian intelligence officers positioned strategically around the bar at the far end. It8217;s like a party.

An even livelier party is in progress on the first floor, which is described as 8220;The Press Club8217; . The bright young lady with a clear English accent rises from her swivel chair. She gushes about 8220;the friendly people of India8221; and to strike instant rapport, moves audaciously to themes like the Kama Sutra.

Past midnight, Radovan arrives. He is introduced as the director of the Press Club. Without being asked any questions, he proceeds to deny any official sponsorship for the Press Club.

8220;Yes, we are all Serbs, but this is an independent Press club for the journalists of Kosovo and Methohija pronounced Metokhia.8221; I did not know the province had a double-barrelledname.

Radovan leaps to his feet and places his finger on an ancient map of the province, 8220;Metohus is Greek for Church property.8221; This is the fundamental complication in Kosovo. The province is rich in the history of the medieval Serb Orthodox Church. And yet over 80 per cent of the population of Kosovo consist of Albanians whom the Serbs refer rather disparagingly to as 8220;Mussalmans8221;.

My decision to visit some of the historic Christian sites exposes me to a profoundly Balkan irony. My driver, Draagen, refuses to drive me out of Pristina. 8220;Serbian troops have left and the countryside is swarming with Mussalmans,8221; he says.

There is only one alternative: switch to an Albanian taxi driver. He is a burly blonde with grimy teeth, which he exposes continually in a massive grin to make up for the fact that he speaks no English.

He drives me to the ancient monastery of Granica, around an imposing church built in 1320, its inner walls and ceilings lined with frescos of great beauty and grandeur. Two younggirls, perched on scaffolding, are restoring one of the more exquisite paintings. Nuns in black gowns are lighting slim candles. There is no throng of worshippers but there is no dearth of them either. Where, one wonders, have all the Albanians gone, the ones whom the Serbs in the safety of Pristina have so demonised?

Women on the streets of Pristina have the sort of cultivated elegance reminiscent of Beirut before that city was destroyed in the Seventies. The Serbs are indistinguishable from the Albanians.

To meet the Albanians in congregation, one has to visit the schools of Kosovo. The junior school close to one of the mosques in Pristina is one large block of buildings, divided exactly in the middle into Serbian and Albanian halves. 8220;We educate 2,000 Albanian students on our side8221; says Tahir Krasnice, director of the Albanian section, 8220;And the Serbs educate 100 students on their side.8221; The Serb side has access to official grants from Belgrade. 8220;We depend on donations from parents and monthly feesfrom students,8221; Krasnice says. The only telephone allotted to the school is on the Serb side. The director of the Serb section refuses to talk,8220;We need permission from Belgrade.8221;

To understand the origins of this apartheid, you visit the monument the Serbs have built to celebrate the battle of Kosovo, not far from Pristina. It is a square column in the middle of vast windswept fields. It was here that the Serbs fought a historic battle against the Ottomans on June 28, 1389. Even though the battle was lost, they celebrate it because the losses they inflicted on the enemy had halted the march of the Ottomans towards Europe. Subsequently, Serbs remained under Ottoman rule for five centuries 8212; until after the first world war. In Tito8217;s Yugoslavia, Kosovo was an autonomous province, just as Serbia was.

In 1989, when communism was being discarded, Milosevic switched to Serbian nationalism as a creed. It is interesting that on the monument for the battle of Kosovo two dates have been inscribed: 1389 and1989, the later commemorating the inauguration by Milosevic of Serbian nationalism.

Since 1989, the Kosovors have been sulking and protesting, but the world8217;s focus was on Bosnia. While western intervention in Bosnia was delayed, in Kosovo it has been instant. Why?

Bosnia erupted in 1992. The European context then was different. The fall of the Berlin Wall did signal the collapse of Soviet-style communism. But, that was only one side of the picture. In capitals like London and Paris, it also spelt the augmentation of German might. When German Foreign Minister Genscher fell out of line with Europe and recognised Croatia ahead of the EU, the Allies versus the Axis8217; phobia afflicted many minds. Finally, the Americans allowed Iranian arms to be funnelled into Bosnia to restore balance and the NATO air strike of 1995 brought the conflict to an end.

When Milosevic cracked down in the Kosovars in March, to quell the movement for greater autonomy, lakhs fled into the mountains dotting Kosovo. Having learnt thelessons from Bosnia, Richard Halbrooke swung swiftly into action.

And now that an agreement has been signed, the refugees are dismantling their plastic tents in the freezing cold. Old women and children, sticks in hand, are trekking back along mud paths making a beeline for their homes to villages like Komaran, all its houses gutted and smashed. The mosques for Friday prayers resonate with thanksgiving to the Americans. In the context of Huntington8217;s clash of civilisations, this is a historic new role the Americans have created for themselves.