The Flower of Kosmet

• Photographer
  emanuele occhipinti, Italy
• Studio
  emanuele occhipinti
• Website
  http://

“Kosmet” is short for “Kosovo and Metohija”, a land which has
been long disputed by the Serbian and Albanian Kosovans. After
the war, unleashed by Slobodan Milošević in 1999, the UN
intervention allowed for a gradual return of the Albanians, who
in their turn enacted a ferocious revenge against the Serbs,
despite the presence of peace-keeping forces. For over a
decade, Albanians forced about 200,000 Serbs to flee Kosmet
and seek refuge in safer areas. The Albanians also desecrated
hundreds of graveyards and orthodox monasteries; a serious
insult for the Serbs, who consider these lands to be sacred
because of their historic religious significance.
Due to the ongoing violence and the lack of security, Serbs now
represent less than 20% of the population of Kosmet. Most of
them reside in the neighbourhood of Mitrovica located to the
north of the Ibar River. The opposite shore, accessible across a
bridge, is inhabited by Albanians. Elsewhere in Kosmet, Serbs
are confined to small enclaves; extremely poor villages on the
outskirts of towns, or little hamlets perched on mountainsides,
with no water or electricity, no clinics, no schools. During my
journey through Kosmet, I visited some of these enclaves,
meeting the Serbs and hearing their stories of violence and
misery. I could perceive the hatred which divides them from the
Albanians, a hatred that continues to be fuelled and handed
down from one generation to the next, so that a peaceful
solution to this dreadful coexistence becomes ever more
difficult to reach. My work seeks to tell the stories of these
people’s lives, people who are rooted to their land, as are the
božur - the local name for peonies - the flowers of Kosmet,
scarlet in colour, just like the blood that has been spilt in this
never-ending war.

Emanuele Occhipinti is a freelance photographer based in Rome.