The good side of Milošević in Tirana
The anti-national policy of the Albanian government and state media is brought to an end
High-ranking Albanian officials encourage divisive elements within Kosovo's political and military forces. Albanian TV shuts the screen to Kosovo's intellectuals and its most popular political figures
By Ismail KADARE
Anti-Serb bombs also exploded over Anatolia. The government, never satisfied with its inherited reddish hue, threatens a “jihad,” an utterly absurd motive placed on the list of the final arguments of a regime that is collapsing. It should not be forgotten that it is Anatolia that, for centuries, taught half the peoples of Europe what forced Islamization is. That is why today's threats from the Turkish government worry no one. Russia's pro-Serb leaning is equally ridiculous. Russia has lost Kosovo forever, to the point that it does not even have the strength to propose its nationalist visions. By now, perhaps for the first time, Russia is much farther from Europe than Turkey is.
Meanwhile, Europe has for years looked at the Balkans with cold eyes, and despite the horrifying scenes of dispossession, killings, flight, the feeling of genocide and persecution, it has hesitated to call by its proper name what is happening in Kosovo. It took the wave of refugees to show it that in a small province there is taking place what it itself has known in its darkest century.
Against this tragic backdrop, the conduct of official Tirana and especially of the Albanian state media is not only incomprehensible, but unforgivable. Instead of becoming the moral center of its nation in a decisive moment, it has chosen to pursue a backward policy of distinctions, exclusions, and insults toward the most representative figures of Kosovo. Albanian television has shut the screen to intellectuals and leaders who have honored the war and the Albanian cause, while encouraging or tolerating divisive voices, often of no real weight, but useful to Tirana's old ideological scheme.
Kosovo is no place for primitive political experiments. In this dark time it needs unity, respect for representation, and historical conscience. Anyone who tries to use its tragedy for the petty calculations of day-to-day politics harms not only Kosovo, but the entire Albanian nation.
The Albanians of Kosovo are shedding blood and experiencing the greatest displacement of the end of the century. They have the right to be heard in their most worthy voice, not through old clichés and the language of outdated schemes. Excluding free thought and weighty personalities from the public screen is a direct service to those who want a weak, divided Kosovo without dignity.
In the end, the question is not only about Kosovo. It is also about Albania: will it behave like the mother state or like a blind party apparatus? Will it know how to rise above the mud of the past and live up to the national drama?
Kukës - One of the Kosovars tries to calm him down with a word and a look