Today, they buried the children whose deaths supposedly started the latest round of violence. Still very little news from inside--some sources claim that only a few homes and churches were destroyed; others put the numbers in the hundreds and the number of refugees (mostly Serb) in the thousands. Hopefully, the new week will bring more answers and some peace (although history has yet to substantiate these hopes). Also, I hope to have some news from friends over there this week--about theatre, music, gossip--ANYTHING but the endless chatter of politics, ethnic cleansing, and nationalism that seem to be all that our media pundits are interested in discussing.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the second US invasion of Iraq. It is also three days before the five-year anniversary of the NATO bombing of Serbia. Today, the NYT has only one, short, rehashed article about moving troops back into Kosovo; it's as if the entire conflict just disappeared overnight. FreeSerbia.org reports that things have calmed a bit. There is no news yet on B-92 about today's status. I hope to know more soon. I will also bring up the current crisis at today's local ACLU meeting. It will be interesting to see if any of the attendees are even aware of the resurgence in violence. Funny, but it seems to me that we should be concerned about all of the conflicts in the world for which we are responsible, not just the current, trendy ones.

Here are some good websites with up-to-date reporting on the current situation. There is a translation link earlier in the blog where you can plug in your text for translation. (I realize that Serbian is neither the most popular nor the easiest language to learn, these days. Pity.) Notice that I did NOT say that the reporting was unbiased; I leave that determination to you.

http://www.freeserbia.org/
http://www.b92.net
http://www.serbia.sr.gov.yu/
http://knowledgenet.tol.cz/look/knowledgeNet/section.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=12&NrIssue=17&NrSection=21

Next, I will post an overview of sites with information on the "history" of the region.

Without a record, an event will never truly exist in the minds of the people.
The more accurate the record, the better the chance that people will read it, hear it, and act upon it.
What is happening where you are? What are the official reports? What is REALLY happening?