A Long Road

It is nearly ten years since I came to Kosova for the first time in August 1998, during the war of liberation. I have seen life under the Serbian regime; people living as refugees in their own country, whole families living under plastic sheeting in make shift camps in the forests, houses burning and whole villages destroyed, school teachers defending their homes against tanks with rifles. I have been evacuated from here just days before the NATO aerial bombing campaign knowing friends were left behind. Whilst working in the refugee camps in Macedonia I have shared some of the suffering of thousands forced to leave Kosova. I have witnessed the Serbian generals meet NATO generals in Macedonia in June 1999 to surrender Kosova to NATO. Stood watching with crowds of refugee men, women and children, as an endless column of the British Army vehicles enters Kosova and, along with everyone else, including the soldiers, cried tears of joy at the sight. I have worked to repair damaged homes and worked with people rebuilding their damaged lives. Helped build institutions of a new state and step by step seen a country rebuild itself. And been proud and honoured to have played a small part.

So it has surely been a long road to independence. Tomorrow will come another land mark in Kosova’s history when Prime Minister Thaqi makes the long awaited declaration. The streets are adorned with flags and already there is a sense of celebration, of a party waiting to happen. People here deserve to enjoy it so lets hope its a peaceful one.

So our little son knew what he was doing when he was born three days later than expected; his own big struggle for independence will now for always be celebrated on Kosova independence day. And right now one of Enita’s elderly aunts, Fatmire, is seriously ill and not expected to live too much longer. I hope no one alive here today, who will have waited so long for this, dies before they know their country is, for the first time in its history, just that - a country.