‘20 years on from the Kosovo War, how are things in the Balkans?’

In the spring of 1999, the NATO bombings, fighting between the Yugoslav army and the Albanian guerrilla (KLA), and civilians caught up in the turmoil made headlines throughout the world. Twenty years on, the Balkans are still licking their wounds, ravaged by a decade of wars and a seemingly never-ending transition. While we speak of the exchange of territories to achieve “lasting peace” between Kosovo and Serbia, at the risk of reopening Pandora’s Box, the only future prospect for young people in the region is exile. Between past rifts and future uncertainties, a discussion moderated by Eddy Caekelberghs.

The conference will be preceded by a 35-minute slideshow by photographer Hazir Reka. Like a living witness to his country’s memory, photographer Hazir Reka has been following the evolution of Kosovo since the early 1980s. With his camera always on standby, he followed from up close the long descent into hell as it unfolded before his eyes: the resistance to the nationalist policy of Belgrade, NATO bombings, attacks against civilians, huge amounts of refugees trying to escape the war, all the way to the difficult post-war situation. He tells this complicated story through his 35-minute slideshow, shown for the first time in Brussels.

With:
• Eddy CAEKELBERGHS, RTBF (moderator)
• Nerimane KAMBERI, Director of the French Department at the University of Pristina (Kosovo)
• With Dušan GAJIĆ, documentary filmmaker, correspondent of Radio-Television of Serbia in Brussels
• Christophe LAMFALLUSSY, reporter at La Libre Belgique, former spokesman of Eulex
• Jean-Arnault DERENS, editor-in-chief of the Courrier des Balkans