25 Years Since the End of the War in Kosovo
The events of and preceding the war in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, and the ensuing NATO campaign, are being continuously misused and instrumentalized in the Serbian public. Even after 25 years, Serbian official and public discourse, education programs, memorialization, and media renderings of these events remain devoid of any serious, state-driven will to deal with the events of 1999 in a self-reflective manner.
On the contrary, a self-victimizing narrative surrounding the Kosovo War has being increasingly mythologized and rendered official. This is especially true of events preceding the intervention, and the role of the Serbian police, military, and paramilitary apparatus therein.
Kosovar official policies of remembrance are also dominated by a monolithic official narrative, leaving little room for constructive debate. Both these contexts are clear manifestations of (and they also manifest themselves into) the ongoing stalled normalisation negotiations between the two states.
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