The Walls of Kosovo

Walls surround Albanian houses in Kosovar villages. In the eyes of many Serbs, they seem like unconquerable castles. Since 1992 a wall has divided the elementary school in Priština into Serbian and Albanian parts. Local children live from a very young age with the notion that an insurmountable barrier divides one ethnic group from the other. Coexistence of Serbs and Albanians in today's Kosovo is in ruins. Belgrade is far away, and the politicians responsible for the Kosovo question are so lacking in knowledge about the basic needs of Serbian and Albanian coexistence in Kosovo that one cannot expect the wall between both ethnic groups to be torn down anytime soon. Serbian police and soldiers patrol here instead of negotiators; there is random revenge; even innocent villagers are murdered. Albanians are increasingly reaching for guns smuggled across the border from nearby Albania. (One World)