Actually, this morning's Washington Post had another very instructive map. This one was supposed to show how the Yugoslavs have "destroyed Kosovo." In any case it depicted areas where 90% of the Albanian population was before the war, villages that have been burned, sites of "large encampments of internally displaced persons" and sites where such encampments have been attacked by Yugoslav forces, presumably the main enclaves of the UCK/KLA. From seeing where none of those are is probably a good indication of zones where the Serbs were (and presumably are) predominant, and thus the obvious "easy" places to have in a "Serb zone" after a partition.
There seem to be three such areas, one in the east, with Pristina, the capital and site of Kosovo Polje, on the western edge of that (this is the biggest such zone by far), a small sliver in the northwest, and a small finger in the farthest south that extends down south of Prizren and between Albania and Macedonia. Otherwise, it's pretty thick with (or was) with Albanians, including all across the middle.
The most difficult zone indeed must be in the southwest, in Metohija, near the Albanian border, running from Pec through Djakovica to Prizren. This is a zone of heavy Albanian population (or was) but it is also the zone that is thickest with Serbian Orthodox monasteries, including that of the Patriarchiate in Pec and the castle of the mythified Prince Lazar in Prizren. It has also been the site of the worst reported recent brutalities, including an alleged mass rape camp in Djakovica. Most of the recent refugees have been coming out of this area as well.
It would appear that the Serbs are seeking to clear the area of Albanians both to control their sites and also to create a cordon sanitaire against UCK/KLA infiltration from Albania, which will certainly be a problem, even after the Serb victory is admitted by NATO and the bombing stops.
The reported sites of attacks on encampments (and thus the presumed sites of major UCK/KLA enclaves) included one near Pec, one near the center in Drenica, long a major UCK/KLA stronghold, and one in the northeast. Earlier reports have indicated that the most effective of the UCK/KLA commanders on the ground are the one near Pec and the one in the northeast. Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message----- From: Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Tuesday, May 11, 1999 1:11 AM Subject: Re: Barkely's guide to Kosovo
>
>Okay, Pec and Kosovo Polje even I know from _Black Lamb, Grey Falcon_.
>Together I think they constitute exactly what us non-experts would
>consider the Serb Jerusalem. (The other stuff might be at best their
>Hebron, which I think even Israel will have to pull out from someday, or
>their Bethlehem, which Israel has already left.) From what you say it
>seems that a North/South Partition could easily be drawn that would
>include both sites in the northern half. I may be wrong, but I have a
>suspicion that's what people who propose this option have in mind.
>
>Michael
>
>On Mon, 10 May 1999, J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. wrote:
>
>> Michael,
>> I know where the top four are by name. Beyond
>> that, fairly early on in this the Washington Post published
>> a map, wish I had saved it, that showed a much larger
>> selection of such sites. Virtually none were in the north.
>> The top four are almost certainly, the monastery in
>> Pec that is viewed as the sacred center of the Serbian
>> Orthodox Church. It is in the west of Kosovo-Metohija
>> in the Metohija part, more south than north, but pretty
>> much middle. Next would be the Field of Blackbirds,
>> Kosovo Polje, site of the battle in 1389 in which the
>> Serbian Prince Lazar died at Ottoman Turkish hands,
>> although most historians think the battle was a draw and
>> was a largely religious one with then Christian Albanians
>> siding with the Serbs against the Muslim Turks (conversions
>> of Albanians to Islam came later). Kosovo Polje
>> is in a suburb of the Kosovan capital of Prisitina which
>> is just southeast of the center of Kosovo-Metohija.
>> Probably next most important are the monastery of
>> Glagovica which is in the far south and has been bombed
>> by NATO and the castle of Prince Lazar in Prizren, in the far
>> south also.
>> Barkley Rosser
>
>__________________________________________________________________________
>Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com
>
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