Five years since deadly riots, not a Serb left in Prizren (Feature)

By Thomas Brey Mar 17, 2009, 13:36 GMT

Prizren - Demolished by rioting Albanians five years ago, the Serbian Orthodox cathedral in the southern Kosovo city of Prizren has been restored to its original glory in a multi-million dollar effort.

But there are no Serbs left to attend services. The last of them fled after the massive, Kosovo-wide attack by majority Albanians on March 17, 2004.

Five years after the violence, in which more than 20 people were killed and hundreds injured, the scars are as fresh as ever, and the historic Serb Quarter on the slope above the centre remains buried in ash and rubble.

Albanian extremists went on to destroy at least 350 Serb homes and 30 historic monuments of culture, such as churches and monasteries. Some 3,800 Serbs fled their homes, and none have returned.

Sprawling Serb vineyards have dried up, and restoring the gaping wound that was the Serb section has been put off, with the ousted people too afraid to return, but unwilling to sell.

Albanians demolished the centuries-old Archangel monastery on the outskirts of the city, leaving only the foundations. It was an occasion when the Kfor NATO-led peacekeeping force made a poor impression.

Saying its military units were not equipped to deal with demonstrators-gone-wild - 'we couldn't shell vandals from tanks' - Kfor pulled back and left the theatre to the mob.

Despite the security pull-back, at least 55 soldiers and 100 international police were injured. Kfor strategists now give assurances that the force, in Kosovo since mid-1999, is meanwhile equipped for such eventualities.

The fifth anniversary of the March 17 'Pogrom' was marked by services in churches in Serbia and Kosovo, but not in Prizren, where the Albanians ostracized Serbs for ever.

The burned remains of the ancient Holy Mother church stand downtown, surrounded by barbed wire laid by Kfor after it was demolished.

Today an estimated 50,000 Serbs remain in central and eastern Kosovo enclaves, resisting the less violent, but equally relentless pressure of the Albanians.

Thousands of Serbs in the area of Gnjilane, in the east, had to survive winter without power, often in intervals several weeks long, amid claims of technical malfunction or unpaid bills.

The Serbs say they see a pattern clearly - the goal is to 'ethnically cleanse' parts of Kosovo which the Albanians are supposed to share with them.