Pristina recovers after all-night party
The muezzin’s dawn tannoy-call to prayer was a jarring wake-up call reminder that Europe’s would-be newest state is a Muslim country. But to see the boisterous celebrations rocking the capital streets on Sunday, after a special session of parliament called the Republic of Kosovo into being, it seems that the population looks west to New York and Los Angeles, rather than east to Mecca.
At a giant metallic sign reading ‘NEWBORN’ just down the street from the UN mission HQ in Pristina, at 11pm Sunday night saw hundreds of teenaged and 20-something Kosovars, male and female, drinking on the streets and dancing to Tupac Shakur’s California Love. Here couples hold hands and show the same public affection as in most Western countries. The garb here is denim and leather, rather than burka and jellaba. All over Pristina are posters emblazoned ‘Thank You’ and addressed to the US and Britain, seen as the driving force behind the 1999 NATO intervention that drove out Slobodan Milosevic’s army and brutal paramilitaries, and paved the way for Sunday’s declaration.
