Mitrovicë/Mitrovica: cultural heritage and community

2011-08-27T11:05:00.000+01:00

I decided to officially archive this blog on the day my DPhil was confirmed. But I have waited for the electronic publication of my thesis, Interrogating Archaeological Ethics in Conflict Zones: Cultural Heritage Work in Cyprus, to announce the archiving. From now on, I will blog at Conflict Antiquities.

On Conflict Antiquities, I will concentrate on illicit antiquities trading, organised crime and political violence in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. As I explain in an introduction to Conflict Antiquities,

I want to study the history of the trade in conflict antiquities; and to explore the relationship between the trade in conflict antiquities and the funding of conflict and violence.

2005-12-09T09:26:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 25: "Motel Mitrovica". Having walked all around the centre, having walked past "[the] hotel" several times, thinking it might be the place I was looking for, but deciding it couldn't be and having been given directions several times, eventually I returned to the hotel and it was indeed Motel Mitrovica.

[Corrected on the 14th of January 2007.]

I had thought that it might've been taken down because it was the Serbian spelling, as in Peje, extremists had smashed the sign for the Hotel Metohija (Hotel of the Land of the Monasteries) and in Decan, they had spray-painted out the Serbian spelling on the sign as you enter the town, because they deemed them unacceptable.

Thankfully, however, Anonymous has corrected me that this is:

"Not true, Mitrovice is the name in Albanian but it can also be called Mitrovica. So the spelling is correct. When asked which city are [y]ou from, you can not say I'm from Mitrovicë, so we say I'm from Mitrovica."

So, I don't know why it was there, but there's no reason to assume it was related to the other cases that I initially interpreted it in light of.

2005-12-09T09:14:00.000Z

South Mitrovice's other church 2: lastly, my tour guides brought me to the Catholic Holy Cross Church, which I had also visited myself, having seen the crucifix over some other buildings and worked my way through the winding streets until, finally, I arrived.

2005-12-09T08:52:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 24: the arch on the hillside looming over Mitrovice/Mitrovica is a Communist monument, erected under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, which I thought was a monument to victory in the Second World War, but which some others have said was a monument to miners and mining after the war. Initially, I'd thought it could be a water tower or reservoir, but luckily the Albanian youths I met corrected me.

2005-12-09T08:50:00.000Z

South Mitrovice buildings 23: this is the bridge for the disused railway line through Mitrovice/Mitrovica.

2005-12-09T08:49:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 22: the Albanian youths showing me the sights/sites of south Mitrovice walked me along the disused railway line, showing me this. I can't remember, however, what this was, though I think it may have been a water tower; I don't believe it was a Communist monument, as I don't think the architectural design would have been appropriate.

2005-12-09T08:44:00.000Z

South Mitrovice's old church 3; this was the bishop's residence for the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Sava, before both were attacked and burned out.

2005-12-09T08:42:00.000Z

South Mitrovice's old church 2: my guides also brought me back to this, the burned-out Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Sava.

2005-12-09T08:39:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 21; coincidentally, the Albanian youths giving me a tour of south Mitrovice brought me back to the first building that I had seen and considered worth photographing (South Mitrovice building 1). If I remember rightly, they said that this house was over a century old.

2005-12-09T08:05:00.000Z

Mitrovice/Mitrovica's new bridge: French KFOR built a new bridge to represent reconciliation between the communities, though given how deeply divided the communities still are, it could be said equally to represent just that division, to emphasise the distance and the fragility of the connections between them.

Notwithstanding this generosity, some individual French KFOR soldiers' behaviour has been at least questionable, with some intimation of acts of omission or commission that would constitute complicity in human rights abuses.

When I told the Albanian youths giving me a tour of south Mitrovice that I had not been able to take a photograph of the bridge from the road (as it might provide intelligence to terrorists), they brought me into a school playground, from which I could take a photograph of the bridge without giving any information that might undermine security (and without being stopped by a soldier).

2005-12-09T08:04:00.000Z

South Mitrovice buildings 19: here, as elsewhere, older buildings conserved sufficiently to function, but not restored, are dwarfed by newer constructions; the feel of the place is lost when every aspect of its character is intruded in by these faceless structures.

2005-12-09T07:56:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 18: this is a memorial to "Mehe Uka, 1962-1996"; although he's been cast pulling a pistol, it's unclear who he was or in which circumstances he died. A UCK/KLA unit has been named in honour of Uka.

2005-12-09T07:49:00.000Z

South Mitrovice buildings 17: this abandoned industrial complex appears to be a coal mine, though I'm not certain; the waste in the foreground seems to have been dumped on a similarly large scale, though smaller scale dumping within residential and other public places is common throughout Kosova/Kosovo.

[Updated on the 10th of February 2008.]

Kosova/Kosovo's economic situation is still dire. The BBC's Mark Mardell recently met Trepqa/Trepça mine manager Nazmi Mikullovci, who observed:

"If I get rid of these old workers, they would get 40 euros a month. That's pretty close to a death sentence. We have no social insurance, no medical insurance.

So tell me what I should do about our rather elderly workers. They are willing to work, they want to work but they are very limited in what they can actually do. It's another set of handcuffs."

2005-12-09T07:43:00.000Z

South Mitrovice's new mosque 3: these are the dome and minaret. Some young children started talking to me as I walked around and, when our conversation quickly faltered, they fetched some young adult friends who spoke English. For the next hour or two, these young adults gave me a tour of south Mitrovice, showing me those places they thought an archaeologist or architect would find interesting; the first sight/site on this tour was the new mosque.

2005-12-09T07:35:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 16: natural and social development are encroaching on the ruins of this home, destroyed during the war.

2005-12-09T07:30:00.000Z

South Mitrovice buildings 15: these houses show the wide range of ages and styles that are found in every place, as well as the development, which is continuing apace.

2005-12-09T07:27:00.000Z

South Mitrovice buildings 14: in the foreground is the market; in the background, but still drawing the eye, is a mosque, though I do not know whether it is the Mosque of Zallit ("Xhamia e Zallit"), Mosque of Hajji Veselit ("Xhamia e Haxhi Veselit") or Mosque of Bajrit (Xhamia e Bajrit"). I do know it's not Elbrit Mosque (Xhamia Elbrit), as that was destroyed.

2005-12-09T07:10:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 13: playfully appropriating the global brand of McDonald's, though simultaneously converting it into the Albanian community's icon, the two-headed eagle, this is the "MeDonald's Qebaptore [MeDonald's Kebabery]".

[Updated on the 3rd of February 2006]

I'm glad to see B. Sefaja's work is appreciated by others; the University of Pittsburgh's Professor Mike Madison has just blogged his colleague Prof. Mark Walter's photograph of this kebabery. Mike Madison does, however, say that, "the dragon heads sprouting from the golden arches come from the flag of the Kosovo Liberation Army".

To be clear, I didn't speak to this kebabery's owners or staff, whereas Mark Walter may well have done and so may know that the eagle ("dragon") is a symbol of allegiance to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) (Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves (UCK)).

The KLA flag, nonetheless, is simply the national Albanian flag - the flag of Albania - or the ethnic Albanian flag - the flag of Albanians in Albania, but also in Kosovo, Macedonia and elsewhere - inside a border formed by the acronym, "UCK", over the top and the name, "Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves", under the bottom, as shown on Drobesh's UCK/KLA blog.

Unless Mike Madison, Mark Walter or someone else can tell me otherwise, I'm going to err on the side of caution and continue to categorise this sign as an expression of ethnic Albanian cultural identity, as a marker of the Kosovo Albanian community, rather than as a KLA symbol; after all, not all Kosovo Albanians supported the KLA, let alone some of its members' (unofficial or unsanctioned) violations of human rights.

There was another reworking of McDonald's iconography in Prizren.

[Updated on the 22nd of November 2006]

A friend, Sabina, confirmed that the MeDonald's sign was derived from the Albanian flag, not the Kosovo Liberation Army emblem.

2005-12-09T06:58:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 12b: this is a detail from the site, which consists of a foundation stone with the date, 1920, on it and a painted sculpture, possibly indicating the original owner's profession, on top of it.

2005-12-09T06:53:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 12a: this site was constructed in 1920 and is typical of the period.

2005-12-09T06:31:00.000Z

South Mitrovice buildings 11: the buildings in the foreground appear to be new or newly renovated, but in the architectural style of the 1920s and 1930s, when there was a great deal of construction and renovation in Kosova/Kosovo; the buildings in the background are new and in an anonymous style.

2005-12-09T06:25:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 10: I think this is a Communist monument, lionising knowledge, peace and work, as the three people in arms appear to be holding a book, a dove and a coal-pick.

2005-12-09T05:14:00.000Z

South Mitrovice's new mosque 2

2005-12-08T20:00:00.000Z

South Mitrovice's new mosque 1.

[Updated on the 25th of November 2005]

According to locals, this mosque was built in 2003. Its construction may be a combination of a desire to provide for the current local community and a resignation to the situation in this divided city, but it may also be more.

Even if it were entirely incidental, which I cannot confirm, this building and others like it in both south Mitrovice and north Mitrovica are produced by and help to reproduce an ethnicisation of the community and the conflict.

As it is, with the levels of uncertainty and insecurity that remain and the depth of division that exists, this could constitute a deliberate Islamification of south Mitrovice, as the new Orthodox church could constitute a Christianisation of north Mitrovica.

2005-12-08T19:51:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 9: this is a memorial to "Hasan Prishtina, 1873-1933", who was the leader of the first Albanian parliament.

2005-12-08T19:48:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 8: this large barn-like structure has been significantly damaged, but it does appear to be recoverable; I couldn't tell whether initial conservation work had been done or whether it had been left to disintegrate.

2005-12-08T19:42:00.000Z

South Mitrovice buildings 7: unclear in this photograph, there is a coil of barbed wire stretched along the top of the wall between the buildings; I think the building between the structures in the foreground and the background has been severely damaged, if not destroyed.

2005-12-08T19:38:00.000Z

South Mitrovice's other church 1: the crucifix raised here is atop the Catholic Holy Cross Church.

2005-12-08T19:36:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 6: this close-up of the disused industrial site does make the number of windows smashed clearer, but with the time I had I was unable to get as close as I wished, so, unfortunately, the resolution's poor.

2005-12-08T19:33:00.000Z

South Mitrovice buildings 5: the complex in the background is an abandoned building; from the materials I saw later, I believe it may have been a coal mine.

2005-12-08T19:23:00.000Z

South Mitrovice's old church 1: this, the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Sava and the bishop's residence next to it were damaged during the March 2004 riots; both are now under KFOR guard, barbed wire and other fortifications (hopefully) making further attacks upon them more difficult.

2005-12-08T19:12:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 4: as in the north district of Mitrovica, old ruins and new builds nestle side by side; the losses of historic character and hospitable places to faceless architecture and anonymous spaces are also evident.

2005-12-08T19:07:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 3: this is a close-up photograph of one house's wall, which has degraded without any recent conservation work, revealing the many stages of construction.

I think it's worth bringing this into the main post, as it bears on the place's history. Anonymous commented that:

This wall was like that even before I left Mitrovica back in 1993, Roma family use to live there, but I heard that someone bought the house so soon it will be a new building there.

2005-12-08T18:57:00.000Z

South Mitrovice buildings 2: this street displays the palimpsests - the different layers of activity that have built up over time - as houses have been built, then damaged or destroyed and renovated, rebuilt or replaced. The palimpsests built into these homes are, helpfully, though some would argue unattractively, visible, as the conservation and restoration of the buildings has not been performed in the original styles.

2005-12-08T18:53:00.000Z

South Mitrovice building 1

2005-12-08T18:47:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 13: old and faded, the "CCCC" that means, "Cvi Crbi Ce Cereju" - "Only Unity Saves Serbs" - is written on this residential block's wall; here, too, is "Slobo", a short form of the first name of the former dictator, Slobodan Milosevic.

[Updated on the 22nd of November 2006]

Apparently, I should have read "CCCC [SSSS]" as "Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava", which means "Only Unity Saves Serbs", rather than as "Svi Srbi Se Sereju", which according to one friend, Sabina, means, "All Serbs are Shitting Themselves", but which according to another, Nikola, means nothing (because the last word means nothing).

[Updated on the 14th of January 2007]

Arber added that:

One minor correction, though: the "CCCC" are actually cyrillic "s"es for "samo sloga srbina spasava"...it's a well-known nationalistic slogan...

A funny story that happened to me a few years ago, in high school was one of a young Serb man from Bosnia who had decided to so promote the symbol, he proposed the school soccer team to make it the school symbol. The naive teacher almost agreed to it :P...I had to clarify the significance of such a symbol...odd but true...

2005-12-08T18:35:00.000Z

North Mitrovica's new church 2: this is a clearer view of the new, Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Demetrios the Great Martyr, which has now been consecrated and serves the local community.

2005-12-08T18:28:00.000Z

North Mitrovica buildings 5: this former home has been left in ruins, either because its owners were killed, or because they chose or were driven to live elsewhere; it is surrounded by new constructions for the new, ethnicised community that exists in the Serb enclave.

2005-12-08T17:56:00.001Z

North Mitrovica political art 12: this symbol was visible throughout the enclave; the fire-steels around the cross are Cs, "CCCC", that are the acronym for "Cvi Crbi Ce Cereju", "Only Unity Saves Serbs".

[Updated on the 22nd of November 2006]

Apparently, I should have read "CCCC [SSSS]" as "Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava", which means "Only Unity Saves Serbs", rather than as "Svi Srbi Se Sereju", which according to one friend, Sabina, means, "All Serbs are Shitting Themselves", but which according to another, Nikola, means nothing (because the last word means nothing).

2005-12-08T15:32:00.000Z

South Mitrovice's Roma Mahalla 2: this is another view of the neighbourhood, also known as Fabricka Mahalla, that was obliterated in 1999.

2005-12-08T15:29:00.000Z

North Mitrovica building 4

2005-12-08T14:48:00.000Z

North Mitrovica buildings 3

2005-12-08T14:47:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 11: "Kosovo... Crbija", "Kosovo... Serbia", insists that Kosovo is or should be part of Serbia, rather than an independent state. The fire-steels around the cross are Cs - "CCCC", meaning "Cvi Crbi Ce Cereju", "Only Unity Saves Serbs".

[Updated on the 22nd of November 2006]

Apparently, I should have read "CCCC [SSSS]" as "Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava", which means "Only Unity Saves Serbs", rather than as "Svi Srbi Se Sereju", which according to one friend, Sabina, means, "All Serbs are Shitting Themselves", but which according to another, Nikola, means nothing (because the last word means nothing).

2005-12-08T14:40:00.000Z

North Mitrovica buildings 2

2005-12-08T08:00:00.001Z

South Mitrovice's Roma Mahalla 1: this is - or was - "Roma Mahalla" or "Fabricka Mahalla", the Roma neighbourhood in Mitrovice/Mitrovica, south of the river. In 1999, the entire neighbourhood was burned to the ground and the community driven out, because some members of the Albanian community thought that some of the Roma had collaborated with some of the Serb nationalists.

The Council of Europe (CoE)'s (2005:23) Progress Report for Kosovo admits that "three IDP [Internally Displaced People] camps in northern Mitrovica for Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian[s] are situated on sites heavily lead-polluted caused by the former Trepca mining activities and thus pose a serious health risk to the inhabitants".

The CoE relays that the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended "emergency measures, including the evacuation of the centres", to halt the lead poisoning, which may have killed dozens of children.

The Council of Europe says that "an agreement was signed in April 2005 by UNMIK, UNHCR, OSCE and the Mitrovica Municipal Assembly President creating a framework for the return of former residents of the Roma Mahalla to their homes in southern Mitrovica", then concedes, "however", that "the returns process has not yet started".

The CoE explains that, "return is unlikely to happen this year", not only because "work is ongoing to rubble clear the site", but also because they still have to "[choose] the design of the buildings"; moreover, "the question of funding also remains unclear". Ultimately, it appears that all they are doing is destroying the ruins; but even this is not - or should not be - a simple matter.

If they erase all evidence of the violence without preserving and conserving it to support memory and education, they may undermine their own and others' work towards understanding and solidarity. If people do not know and cannot understand what happened, it will be even more difficult to lead them to respect human rights standards and to engender community reconciliation.

The Council of Europe recognises that "this situation is unsustainable and need to be fully addressed without further delay", however:

for a long time, lead pollution had been an open secret;
in 1997, there was a public report of lead poisoning;
(therefore) in 1999, when the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) chose the site, it knew it was contaminated;
(in fact) also in 1999, the United Nations itself, in the form of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS), noted that Kosovo's mining industry had caused "serious environmental degradation and impacts on the health of the local population";
the UNHCR insisted on placing the camp there despite protests by its own Romani affairs advisor;
in 2000, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission In Kosovo (UNMIK) found "blood lead concentrations exceeding the permissive limits" and recommended relocation;
also in 2000, the then UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Bernard Kouchner stated that, "the people of Mitrovica are at risk because of this [Zvecan] smelter" and that, "as a doctor, as well as chief administrator of Kosovo, I would be derelict if I let this threat to the health of children and pregnant women continue for one more day"; and
in 2004, the World Health Organisation insisted the situation was "urgent";
[and in 2005, the BBC reported that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had concluded that 'at least one child ha[d] died from lead poisoning', while the Kosovo Roma Refugee Foundation (KRRF) believed 27 had been killed. (Belatedly added on 21st June 2009.)]

Now the Council of Europe (CoE) is stating the obvious, whilst it, the United Nations Mission In Kosovo (UNMIK), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Operation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Kosovo's own municipal authorities continue to fail to protect those they are responsible for. They may be responsible for the violation of their subjects' human right to the highest attainable standard of physical health.

[Mitrovice/Mitrovica and samarkeolog updated on the 25th of October 2007.]

I was delighted to read that, finally,

The UN refugee agency [UNHCR] has helped 92 members of Kosovo's minority Roma, Ashkalia and Egyptian (RAE) communities to return to their home district in the divided city of Mitrovica....

The 92 Roma moved into two new apartment blocks in Roma Mahala, which was destroyed after its 8,000 inhabitants fled eight years ago fearing attacks from extremists. The municipality of Mitrovica granted the land on which the new apartment blocks were built....

Returnees receive food and non-food packages for an initial period of three months. The UN refugee agency will help and advise them in areas such as property rights, socio-economic rights, civil registration, and capacity building and income-generating initiatives.

Yet, according to the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC),

Residents of the Osterode IDP camp complained to the ERRC that since December 2006, humanitarian food aid had been cut for residents of that camp. In addition, doctors who had regularly checked the health status of children in the camp had also stopped coming since January 2007....

Former Roma Mahalla Residents' Association for Protecting Roma Rights (APRR) representative and lead-contaminated internally displaced persons (IDP) camp resident,

Mr [Skender] Gusani's primary concern related to the fact that while 57 families had moved into the new flats and houses, only 13 of those families had been living in the IDP camps in Northern Mitrovica. The majority of the families given housing in the new buildings were reportedly Romani, Ashkalia and Egyptian returnees from Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, other parts of Kosovo, and elsewhere....

[Moreover] ownership of the new houses was not being passed to the occupants. Property rights were given to the occupants in the form of 99-year leases. Mr Gusani expressed great frustration with this given that houses were intended for those Roma, Ashkalia and Egyptians who had legally owned their houses in the mahala before the war....

[Furthermore] the houses built under the supervision of Danish Refugee Council (DRC) were of very poor quality.... The red bricks were themselves both the outer and inner walls, with no form of insulation included in the construction; the interior walls had merely been painted white....

The houses were heated by electric heaters purchased by the occupants. Almost all of the homes were constructed on multiple levels, and one house visited by the ERRC had stairs on the outside of the structure which the occupants had to use to move between their sleeping area and their living, eating and sanitary area. Given the winter weather in Kosovo, such conditions are highly inadequate.

.... Rubble and dust had not been covered with grass or stone and in the windy weather on the day of the ERRC visit, dust and dirt filled the air making it impossible to be outside in the area.

(Some quoted paragraphs broken for readability.)

2005-12-07T15:04:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 10: these are yet more panels of graffiti by members of the Albanian community. They read, from left to right: "United States Albania" (either referring to the Kosovo Albanian community's allies in the fight against Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbian nationalist government or to the aspiration for a united state for Albanians); "made in Kosova", using the spelling associated with a belief in Kosovan independence, with the signature, "Shizi" underneath; and "peace and love".

2005-12-07T12:39:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 9: I think this banner reads, "Postujte Rezolutsiju 1244: Povratak Crbskevojske i Politsije", "Respect Resolution 1244: Return Serbs and the Police".

Currently, Soren Jessen-Petersen, the head of UNMIK, says that "on the standards linked to minority issues there are problems. On the return of refugees, for example, there has been an insignificant number of returns. On freedom of movement, we still have a problem where more than 20% of people say they don't feel they can move freely".

He also says, "on the other hand", that, "institutions are improving, there has been progress in the rule of law, we have a fairly good local Kosovo police service". Correctly, in my opinion, he judges that "the real improvement will only come with status".

The returns programme is failing and that is because the potential returnees do not have the security necessary; part of the reason they don't have the security necessary is the behaviour of some of the members of the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) and the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), a successor organisation to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which has a controversial, intermittent role in emergency responses.

[The other part of the reason is, of course, the behaviour of some of the members of the community, which creates the need for the KPS and the KPC to intervene in the first place, but here I wish to focus on those tasked with establishing and maintaining community security.]

Human Rights Watch has observed that "Some members of the KPC have been implicated in human rights abuses against minority communities in Kosovo, and involvement in organized crime". The units comprised of the local ethnic majority, the staff poorly equipped and poorly rewarded, the KPS struggle to fulfil their mandate; compounding this, there is such distrust between the KPS and the other institutions, crucially KFOR, that sometimes they may not act effectively.

It may be worth giving some examples of the security problems caused by some members of the Kosovo Police Service, from last year, when incorrect rumours about the causes of some Albanian children's deaths in Mitrovice on the 16th of March 2004 led to riots across Kosovo. These were all taken from a (2004) Human Rights Watch report on the violence.

When Finnish KFOR and local KPS faced riots in Kisa in Lipljan/Lipjan on the 17th of March 2004, "KPS officers remained passive until two hand grenades exploded, one in the churchyard and another in the yard of a neighboring home."

"Almost immediately, the KPS officers moved to arrest the Orthodox priest and his neighbor, accusing them of throwing the hand grenades, even though both were bleeding from wounds received from the grenades and told the KPS the hand grenades had been thrown by the Albanian crowd".

In Bestin in Lipljan/Lipjan, Joka Vesic relayed to Human Rights Watch, that "the KPS officers didn't take an active part, but they also didn't stop them. There was no KFOR or UNMIK presence."

As Human Rights Watch noted, not only ethnic Serbs, but "Roma, Ashkali (Albanian-speaking Roma), and other non-Albanian minorities also faced violence". It is also important to note that, in Vucitrn/Vushtrii, "even though Vucitrn is in close proximity to two major French KFOR bases - 'Belvedere' and Novo Selo - KFOR or UNMIK did not take an active part in the defense of the Ashkali community".

In the end, "while some KPS officers assisted in the evacuation of Ashkali residents, it appears that other KPS officers played an active part in the violence, arresting and abusing Ashkalis who attempted to defend their homes. According to some Ashkali, some KPS officers participated in the burning of Ashkali homes."

Abdush Cizmolli, the Ashkali village leader, declared that, "'nobody is more to blame than KFOR and UNMIK. If they wanted to, with one tank they could have saved us—it would not have come to all these problems'". French KFOR soldiers explained that "the Ashkali community was 'militarily indefensible'" and that most of them were defending northern Mitrovica.

Human Rights Watch commented that, "KFOR contingents tend to see their engagement in traditional military terms rather than in more appropriate policing terms. In the case of Vucitrn, it is unlikely that KFOR would have had to militarily engage the largely unarmed Albanian crowd by opening fire or otherwise."

They recommended instead that, "crowd control tactics commonly used by civilian police could have had a significant impact" and that "the Ashkali community in Vucitrn was easily defensible from a crowd control perspective". Evidently, not only the KPC and the KPS, but also KFOR, need to be reformed, to ensure the security of all the citizens of all the communities of Kosovo.

[Updated on the 8th of December 2005]

2005-12-07T12:02:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 8: the posters read, "for 6 years KFOR and Albanians are expelling Serbs" and "UNMIK i Shiptari 6 goduna proteriji Crbe". Interestingly, the two posters are slightly different, the English language one condemning "KFOR and Albanians", the Serbian language one "UNMIK and Albanians". They hide a notice informing locals of Germany's "rehabilitation of urban water supplies and sanitation" in the district.

2005-12-07T11:49:00.000Z

North Mitrovica buildings 1: this is the view, from the bridge between the two districts, up the main street in the Serb enclave; in the foreground, fencing blocks one side of the road and barbed wire is laid against the traffic lights, ready to block the other side if the security situation required it.

2005-12-07T10:23:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 7: I haven't been able to find any exact translations of ~~"USKE",~~ "GAGO", or "EKI", though Usk may be the name of a person or place.

[Corrected on the 20th of May 2007.]

Anonymous commented that, "Uske is a nick name of a person nothing more".

The only approximation I could find was "USK" as a Serbian abbreviation of "Albanian National Army". (AKSh (Armata Kombetare Shqiptare) is the Albanian language acronym for the ANA (Albanian National Army).)

As English language tags are written elsewhere (and French language graffiti here) it is quite possible that a Serbian language tag was written here by a member or supporter of the Albanian National Army.

The reading of the acronym, though, may be inaccurate, as I understand that the Serbian language acronym would be ANA (Albanski Narodni Armija); USK in Serbian would, however, sound the same as UCK (Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves), the Albanian language acronym for the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) and a UCK member or supporter may have intended the phonetic reading of the tag, understandable to Serb readers.

2005-12-07T09:47:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 6: "heartagram"; this combination of a heart and a pentagram "represents the juxtaposition of love and hate/anger, or life and death". It was originally conceived by a Finnish "love metal band", HIM.

2005-12-07T09:42:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 5: in the Serb enclave, but facing the bridge to the overhwlemingly Albanian district of south Mitrovice and the predominantly French KFOR soldiers who patrol here, the graffiti reads, "ici est de Front Thessalonique", though I believe it should read, "ici est le Front Thessalonique" - "here is the Thessaloniki Front".

The graffiti draws a parallel between the line dividing the communities in Mitrovice/Mitrovica and the Thessaloniki Front, which was a line in the First World War, during which the Entente Powers, including Serbia and France, occupied Albania.

2005-12-07T08:52:00.000Z

North Mitrovica's new church 1: this is the new Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Demetrios the Great Martyr, which was under construction when I visited. The church was consecrated on Saint Demetrios's Day, the 10th of November 2005; about 2,000 members of the Serbian Orthodox community of north Mitrovica attended.

[Updated on the 9th of December 2005]

2005-12-07T08:40:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 4: the fire-steels around the cross are Cs - "CCCC [SSSS]", which means "Cvi Crbi Ce Cereju" - "Only Unity Saves Serbs". The tag "Crbija [Srbija]" - "Serbia" - insists that Kosovo is, or should be, not Kosova, an independent state, but Kosovo and Metohija, a part of the Serbian state. Kosovo is still under international administration; it does not yet have a definite status.

[Updated on the 22nd of November 2006]

Apparently, I should have read "CCCC [SSSS]" as "Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava", which means "Only Unity Saves Serbs", rather than as "Svi Srbi Se Sereju", which may mean "All Serbs are Shitting Themselves" (although their acronyms and popular usages are the same).

One friend, Sabina, tells me that:

cccc it means, in serbian language- samo sloga srbina spasava..your translation into english language its correct..but this translation of yours its not correct- cvi crbi ce cereju..you mixed latinica+cirilica...C is cirilica writing, and it means S..so, put s instead of c..svi srbi se sereju..again its falls, uncorrect..

it means, in srbian language, like- all srbs are shiting themselfs..srbian people use a lot of this fraze, also with meaning- samo srbin srbina spasava, it means- one srb is saving another srb..

its the same like samo sloga srbina spasava, and your translation is correct, just your direct translation its not..srbians took this from PALEOLOG, bizantins..original it goes like this BBBB- basileus basileon basileion basileusin..they took this from them, etc..

Another friend, Nikola, however, said that, in the phrase, "Svi Srbi Se Sereju", "that last word is meaningless", so I guess the whole phrase is; then, solely "Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava", "Only Unity Saves Serbs", remains.

2005-12-07T08:14:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 3: "KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army]"; I didn't expect to see this here.

After the Serbian nationalist government's violations of minorities' human rights created community divisions and drove those minority communities to seek autonomy, the human rights violations committed by a minority of the KLA and its allies' members deepened the existing divisions.

Now, in the divided city of Mitrovice/Mitrovica, the community is segregated into increasingly nationalist, increasingly sectarian communities; there is an overwhelmingly Albanian community south of the river and an overwhelmingly Serb community north of the river.

So, I'm surprised that this graffiti tag for the predominantly Albanian secessionist movement hasn't been erased; I don't know quite what to make of the fact that it hasn't.

2005-12-07T07:26:00.000Z

North Mitrovica political art 2: "Istina o Kosovu i Metoxiji: Utorak 28 Juna 2005... Beliki Narodni Miting" - "the Truth about Kosovo and Metohija: Tuesday 28 June 2005... A mass national meeting".

2005-10-06T06:51:00.002+01:00

North Mitrovica political art 1: ~~I think "Siptarska je juga pregolema" translates as "Albania is the southern monster";~~ this was some of the first graffiti that I saw in the Serb enclave of north Mitrovica.

[Corrected on the 22nd of June 2009.]

I thought I'd done quite well to translate the graffiti using a couple of weeks' knowledge of Teach Yourself Serbian and a dictionary, but a Serb friend has kindly informed me that I was 'so wrong'.

'Siptarska je tuga pregolema' was a sarcastic sneer that '[Kosovo] Albanians' sorrow is really big'.