A country that idolizes Clinton and Bush grapples with ghosts of its bloody past
Armend Nimani / for NBC NewsGet breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.MITROVICA, Kosovo — When Ibrahim Delija walks the streets of his hometown, he worries someone will ask him for a light.
The NATO airstrikes in 1999 drove away forces from neighboring Serbia who were carrying out a brutal crackdown against Kosovar rebels fighting for independence. It was also NATO's first war. Though it retreated in the war, Serbia has never recognized Kosovo's independence. Neither do almost half the world's countries, including Russia, China and Spain. This has effectively kept Kosovo stunted and in limbo, blocking its route into international organizations such as NATO, the United Nations and the European Union.
Reopening this regional tinderbox could provoke nationalist violence and discrimination, the detractors say, even leading to a domino effect empowering other ethnicity-driven separatists around the world. However, a report by Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty later that year described Thaçi"the most dangerous of the KLA's 'criminal bosses," painting him as the kingpin of a violent network trafficking drugs and even the harvested organs of murdered Serb captives.
."There has been speculation that he is pursuing a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin" meaning"Kosovo would join NATO and Serbia would remain under Russian influence."Armend Nimani / for NBC News That's left it to experts to decipher what a deal might look like. The most likely scenario, they say, might see Serbia relinquish part of its territory almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians. In return, Kosovo could cede the northern chunk of its land dominated by Serbs.Armend Nimani / for NBC News
Tringa Sadiku, an Albanian from the south side, lives less than a 10-minute walk away but until a few years ago was too afraid to venture over.
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