Recently, we’ve witnessed the drama in northern Kosovo and Metohija. Barrels of gunpowder have long sat, waiting to explode, with rulers playing with fire above them.
“The pride of the Serbian railroad”, a train that was meant to show Serbian national pride and carry the message that Serbia is still present in its southern province, was meant to debut on the renewed rail line between Beograd and Kosovska Mitrovica. The train bore the colors of the Serbian flag and in many languages, the words: Kosovo is Serbia.
As the train travelled south, a video circulated the internet of people putting a bomb on the train tracks the train was meant to use. In the meantime, without consulting the international KiM forces, Albanian armed soldiers arrived in northern Kosovo, inhabited mostly by Serbs, and stood by the track.
To avoid casualties, the train was to stop in Raška, not far from the rail line that separated Kosovo from the rest of Serbia. Examinations of the railroad later confirmed that there were no bombs on the track, but the incident raised a lot of dust. Serbian media reported that the armed Albanian soldiers were meant to shoot the train, which was transporting civilians. Politicians and reporters continued to report on the occurrences throughout the next few days…
Since I’ve been researching the Kosovo and Metohija crisis, as objectively as possible, this is the first time I’ve said: “Why did we pry?” Although I completely disagree with the decisions of the Albanian authorities, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they had indeed ordered the shooting of the civilians, I can’t help but ask myself: What did the initiator of this whole fiasco expect? I would be outraged and offended if a train stating that Kosovo is independent rode through central Serbia. I would see it as a clear provocation.
It’s hard for me to believe that the Serbian and Kosovo authorities are full of such thoughtless people. When I look at the result of the whole incident, I see that politicians on both sides of the spectrum got points for commenting on it, that Serbs in the south of Kosovo are frightened, and that passion and national pride has awoken among the voters.
Having observed the epilogue of the situation, I can’t help but ask myself if it’s all part of a simple exchange? Has an exchange with the goal of satisfying the petty interests of politicians ridden over the backs of poor passengers and bitter people?
The question of Kosovo is sensitive and it is impossible to remove national passions from the equation: for Albanians, Kosovo is home, for Serbs it is an eternal homeland, deeply seeded into Serbian spirit, tradition, history…
What we cannot fall for are political schemes. Those, who are most comfortable, cause the suffering of their own nation.
We have already let their words sway us and we’ve become their weapon. The result is a country with a lack of uranium, thousands dead, hundreds of thousands exiled, poverty…
I don’t want to give hypocritical statements such as: “Let’s pretend nothing happened,” because that would be an enormous injustice to the countless victims and to ourselves, but let’s stop for a moment and look at what’s happened: the untouchables rub their hands in satisfaction, while we suffer…