Click on the image to download full text on PDF file.

Anna Di Lellio

Monuments marking the battlefield are placed a few kilometers apart: a memorial to the fallen Christian heroes, the turbe (mausoleum) of the Sultan’s standard-bearer in the locality known as Gazirnestan, and the Sultan’s turbe to the west, at Mazgiti They are archeological and political signifiers of opposing camps, physical symbols of discourses and practices that “memory entrepreneurs” have adopted to plot national stories.‘ Most notable and best known among them is the Serbian narrative of the battle, constructed as a unique tale of Christian martyrdom granting Serbia histori-

cal rights over Kosovo. Less obvious plotlines built on the memorialization of the battle and its mythical protagonists are also relevant to Albanianand Turkish national discourses. In the contemporary political context, theold battlefield has become a highly resonant political symbol of European identity for all.

Click on image to download full text on PDF file.

Case of Kosovo
Caitlin McCum
Development Consultant, Brooklyn., NY, USA

The initiative to establish a truth commission in the successor states of the former Yugoslavia (RECOM) prese-rits a rich Case study of the performance of the that traiisitionai justice professionals propose on a global scale: am inclusive package
that offers truth, justice, reconciliation and Stability. Whether these goals Could he achieved is the Subject’ efe Critical debate that questions overìy ambitieus projects of truth commissiozës, espeeiaîly their Sensitivity to wea! understandings and praetices
of transìtionaî justice We aim to contribute to this debate by examining the reception OfRECOM in Kosovo, where moet local actors remain either noticommittal or outright opposed to RECOM. What these actors share is the conviction that their own narratives be taken seriously, even when this means refusing the suppression of “truths” that can be divisive. We ‘found that giving priority to “the local” irnpîies more than adapting the
received professional “toolkit”: it might require abandoning it.

Click on image to download full text on PDF file.

Anna Di Lellio
Published online: 7 July 2009
© Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009
Abstract In 1989, as the countries of the Soviet bloc took a turn toward democracy and Europe, Yugoslavia and Serbia plunged into a bloody war and moved in the opposite direction. This article argues that the legacy of that era is still strongly felt in postwar and post-Milosevic Serbia. Now, like then, the choice is not simply for or against Europe. By holding on to the nationalism of the Kosovo myth, which territorializes both the Serbian ethnos and the opposition between Christianity and Islam, Serbia is tracing a tortuous path toward democratization and European integration. In the contemporary context, the Kosovo myth impedes Scrbia`s recognition of Kosovo as an independent state; it continues to fuel the rhetoric of fractious elites that never cease to tap its capacity for rallying the public; and it provides room for “pro-European” leaders to negotiate EU integration, stracldling the
fence between Europe`s Atlantic propensities and the resurgent power of Russia. This
nationalist myth thus plays a normative and an instrumental role, both domestically and
internationally. Outside Serbia, it also engagcs with a narrow and “thick” notion of Europe,
which gained traction within Europe itself in the post-9/ ll climate of heightenecl fear of
Islam, where cultural identity tmmps the values of liberal democracy.