Poor Serbian Church in Fushe Kosova (by Dr Sudhakar Natarajan)

A small Serbian Church in Kosovo Polje. (Sorry , Fushe Kosovo!). It is surrounded by barbed wire with a KFOR(NATO) watch tower on the right side. This Church is located opposite to the Russian KFOR Hospital in Kosovo Polje ( Sorry again, Fushe Kosovo!)Multilingual, multi ethnic and multicultural. Can Kosovo ever live up to these three cornerstones of secularism? Is it asking for too mush in this nascent UN administered erstwhile part of former Yugoslavia?Forget the above three parameters. Allow me to rephrase my question. Can Kosovo( sorry Kosova!!) be a true bilingual, biethnic and a bicultural society? I am forced to rephrase my question because unlike many other countries having numerous races, Kosho has mainly two major ethnic races. The Serbians and the Albanians. Can these two people ever bury the painful events of history and peacefully coexist , that would finally take the land to dizzy heights of prosperity.I have devised a simple LITHMUS TEST, to gauge the success of this UN mission. The UNMIK(United Nations Mission in Kosovo) can claim that they are successful only if either of these two events are possible.(A) Even if a single Albanian family is able to stay and flourish in North Mitrovice ,without the fear to the bullet.(B) Even if a single Serbian can go to ARDI Store in Pristina and buy a packet of Gauda cheese without the lingering fear of having his brains blown off by a fanatic.The United Nations Mission in Kosho (UNMIK) can consider their endeavours a reasonable success only if events (A) or (B) have a remote statistical possibility of occurring .The Albanians in Serbian dominated areas of Mitrovice are not comfortable. The Serbians in are a prisioner in their isolated pockets. A Kosovar Serbian teenager has to go all they way to Serbia to have a pizza or to go to a disco, that too in a NATO guarded train.Some national contingents of UNMIK and KFOR are considered openly pro-Serbian by the Albanians and some are considered blatantly pro-Albanian by the Serbians.How many Serbian KPS officers are deployed in Albanian areas in Kosova?How many Albanian KPS officers are considered impartial by the Serbians?How many Albanian KPS officers can work fearlessly in North Mitrovice?Poor Albanians are economically suffering in North Mitrovice. The Kosova Serbians have hardly any scope to support themselves economically, other than chickenfeed doles from the Serbian Government.There is a Church in Fushe Kosova , next to the only existing Serbian café in Fush Kosova, opposite to the Russian KFOR hospital, that is in a dilapidated condition due to lack of funds and mostly remains closed. It definitely has seen better days. KFOR guards it.It this poor church does not require KFOR, if it is restored to former glory , if worshippers can freely visit it and live without the fear of the Bullet, if the Serbians are allowed to use the power of the Ballot , then and only then will the mission be considered a success.It is basically the BULLET versus the BALLOT. Whoever wins, will decide the fate of Kosova!!!!!!

DR SUDHAKAR NATARAJAN

email: drsudhakar2000@yahoo.com