When I first got to know Berkovo, in 2008, the handful of Serb families had only just returned to the village, having fled during the 1999 war when their homes were set on fire and destroyed. [...]
The result was that Berkovo was one of the very few villages in Kosovo where Serbs and Albanians were living side by side. It was a tentative experiment in ethnic co-existence, and there was no guarantee it would succeed. [...]
"We were starting again from scratch back in 2008," said Savo, "that's not easy when you're 50 years old. But life goes on, we tried, and now we can stand again on our own two feet." He looked about proudly. [...]
Lubinka told me: "I'm not a Serbian, I'm a Kosovar, this is where I was born. I lived here, I'm growing old here. If I visit Serbia for two days, I can't wait to come back here, to my home." [...]
"There's one young girl, eight or nine years old, and my son is 27, and another boy who drives a van, but the rest of us are old, 50 or 60 years or older. We will disappear because we will die, but we'll stay here as long as we're alive," said Savo.
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