The Serbs

In the isolated village of Velika Hoca in southwestern Kosovo—a new nation or a rebellious province of Serbia, depending on whom you ask—people still talk about a brawl that broke out several years ago. It was after the Kosovo war, which had begun between separatist Albanian guerrillas and Serbian forces and had ended when NATO air strikes pounded Serbia and its strongman president, Slobodan Milosevic, into submission in June 1999. The West had stepped in to stop atrocities against Kosovo Albanians and avert a refugee crisis, assuming peace would reign once the dictator and his fighters were vanquished.