610th anniversary of Serbs' battle with Turks is relatively quiet

By Lori Montgomery, and Fawn Vrazo Knight Ridder Newspapers

KOSOVO POLJE, Yugoslavia -- On the broad plain that cradles this nondescript Pristina suburb, the Serbian Prince Lazar suffered a noble defeat at the hands of the invading Turks in 1389. On Monday, the 610th anniversary of that epic battle, dejected Serbs faced defeat again.

"A lot of people are leaving. There is looting. All the shops are broken," said Jovanka, a Serbian grandmother in a blue-checked housedress who was afraid to give her last name. She stood in her garden of 35 years next to a line of wooden kitchen chairs, a freezer and a stove, preparing to load a 36-foot moving truck bound for refuge in Serbia.

Across Kosovo, Serbs are leaving, forced out of their homes by ethnic Albanians determined to avenge 11 weeks of mass murder and forced deportation. Since NATO peacekeeping troops replaced Serbian government forces earlier this month, more than 80 Serbs reportedly have been killed in Kosovo, hundreds of Serb houses have been looted and torched and at least six Serbian Orthodox churches have been desecrated or burned.

As many as half the 200,000 Serbs who lived in Kosovo before the war have reportedly fled. On Monday, those who remained celebrated the anniversary of the Kosovo Polje battle, a fight to the death between Lazar and the far stronger armies of the Ottoman Empire that has come to symbolize the fierce pride and fearlessness of the Serbian nation.

This year, there was no joy in that celebration. Many Serbs said they blame Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for their plight as much as the ethnic Albanians they accuse of pushing them out.

"We are all aware -- as well as God, who knows -- how much evil has been done in the last year, and especially in the last three months," said Bishop Artemije, a high church official. "The Serbian Orthodox Church has officially demanded the resignation of Milosevic not because he lost this war in Kosovo, but because he made this war in Kosovo."

Church officials Monday called on NATO peacekeeping forces and the United Nations to provide greater protection to Serbs living in Kosovo, saying they will no longer be able to work jointly with the international community toward establishing a multiethnic society unless order is restored.

The church also blasted Milosevic, blaming his "undemocratic regime" for the suffering of both Albanians and Serbs.

"Mr. Milosevic has done a lot of evil to all," Artemije said, "but he has done the most evil to the Serbian people."

Milosevic built his political career on the backs of Kosovo Serbs. Oppressed by an unfriendly ethnic Albanian majority, Serbs here were desperate for a hero when Milosevic appeared in Kosovo Polje in 1987 and told them they would never be beaten again.

Taking up their crusade against ethnic Albanians, Milosevic sought and won a change in the Yugoslav constitution that placed Kosovo -- until then, an autonomous province of Serbia -- under Belgrade's control. Thousands of ethnic Albanians were fired from their jobs at state institutions, and were replaced by Serbs at all levels of government.

Ten years ago, on the 600th anniversary of the Kosovo Polje battle, Milosevic returned to Kosovo to claim his victory in a stirring paean to Serb nationalism attended by an adoring crowd of nearly a million.

"Today, six centuries later, we are again fighting battles. They are not armed battles, though such things cannot yet be excluded," Milosevic declared here at the time. "The moment has come when, standing on the fields of Kosovo, we can say openly and clearly -- no longer!"

Soon after that speech, Croatia and Slovenia fought for their independence from Milosevic's Serb-centric Yugoslavia. Within three years, Bosnia was in flames. Last year, the armed battles finally came to Kosovo, when Milosevic sent government troops to attack separatist ethnic Albanian rebels.

That conflict culminated this month when Milosevic surrendered under NATO bombardment, pulling his forces out of Kosovo and abandoning the Kosovo Serbs to the wrath of returning ethnic Albanians. Even the 20,000 NATO peacekeeping forces now stationed here have been unable to guarantee their safety.

On Monday in the Serb enclave of Gracanica, only about 100 fearful residents ventured out to celebrate the Kosovo Polje anniversary at a special mass at the medieval Orthodox monastery where Prince Lazar's body is said to have rested after his glorious death in battle.

A few miles north, about 200 visitors gathered at the stark stone tower that marks the Kosovo Polje battle site, where Milosevic addressed the masses in 1989.

There was concern that something dramatic might happen on Monday's anniversary, which was also the date in 1914 that Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip picked to assassinate Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz-Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia, an event that led to the start of World War I.

But the visitors Monday were all journalists come to watch a handful of ornately vested Orthodox priests bless the monument with chants, burning candles and incense.

"We are facing a very difficult time -- celebrating today yet feeling a grave concern for our people's suffering," said Father Sava Janjic, standing amid 600-year-old paintings of Orthodox saints in the monastery at Gracanica.

Nearby, Kosovo's beleaguered Serbs gathered to light slender candles and pray to St. Vitus, the Slavic divine associated with Lazar's martyrdom. Before a picture of Lazar, Nenad Nicic stood with his pregnant wife, Tanya, bending low so his 2-year-old son, Milos, could kiss the gold-trimmed icon.

"It's very hard for us to stay here," said Nicic, 25, explaining that many Serb friends have already fled.

Across the street in the 1389 Restaurant, Milorad Pavic was drinking beer, a refugee from a nearby village where Serbs are plagued by constant shooting, robbery and vengeful killings at the hands of ethnic Albanians.

"Milosevic has betrayed everyone now," said Pavic, 36, a miner who hasn't received his state paycheck in more than five months.

"Ever since the bombing stopped, Milosevic has never even mentioned Kosovo," added Pavic's drinking companion, Cvejic Jugoslav, 40. "He's rebuilding the bridges in Serbia. He doesn't care for us."