A chara, - Fintan O'Toole's piece on historical and present relations between the Serbs and the Kosovar Albanians (Opinion, April 30th) lays the burden of the blame on the Serbs. One important point that he did not make is that Kosovo Polje, the Plain of the Blackbirds, site of a famous battle in 1389, is in Kosovo. This is the most hallowed ground to the Serbian people. It is to them what Jerusalem is to the Jews.
The Kosovar Albanians have done their ethnic cleansing too. In 1941, when Kosovo was partitioned by the occupying forces of Germans and Italians, the Albanians seized the opportunity to burn down Serb and Montenegrin villages and drive out thousands of the inhabitants. Few Albanians joined the liberating forces during the war, either the nationalistic Cetniks or the Communist Party, the principal liberating force. But they did found an Albanian Fascist Party. This wanted to unite Albania and Kosovo and in pursuit of this, 40,000 Serbs and Montenegrins were driven from their homes between 1941 and 1944. - Yours, etc.,
Pat Feeley, Claremont Villas, Glenageary, Co Dublin.