Kosovo, Clinton and binladensa (continued)

Last week, in linking to Michael Totten’s piece on Kosovo and its affection for Bill & Hillary Clinton, there were some questions about whether Clinton’s legacy there was really a good thing, given the abuse the Orthodox Christians have suffered there (see comments section at that link).

Totten begins to answer those questions in this first installment of a two-parter that continues looking at the region – and the religion question – The Bin Ladens of the Balkans, Part I:

Kosovo’s war, then, wasn’t religious. It was ethnic. Christians did not fight Muslims; Serbs fought Albanians. Serbian nationalists ethnically-cleansed Kosovo’s Catholics right along with the Muslims.
[…]
90 percent of all Kosovar Albanians, Catholic and Muslim alike, were displaced from their homes by Milosevic’s armed forces during their ethnic-cleansing campaign. In 1999 they were allowed to return to their homes under NATO protection. Enraged mobs then set to firebombing Serb houses and Serbian Orthodox churches.

Five years later, in 2004, violence exploded in Kosovo once again following rumors that Serbs chased Albanian children into the Ibar River where they drowned. Serb and Albanian gunmen fired shots at each other from their respective sides of the river. Mobs of enraged Albanians burned Serb churches and houses for three days. According to U.N. spokeswoman Isabella Karlowitz, 16 churches and 110 houses were destroyed. Dozens were killed. Hundreds were wounded.

Neither Catholic citizens nor Catholic churches were touched in either of these spasms of violence. The fact that the violence was ethnic rather than religious doesn’t mean it was better, but it does mean it was different from how it is sometimes perceived from abroad.

Totten includes a lot of pictures of Christian memorials and shrines – it’s an interesting read. And remember, Totten manages to keep going on the strength of reader donations; if you like his work, please consider hitting one of his paypal buttons!