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Introduction
Chapter 2
After the Exile:
Displacements and
Suffering in Kosovo
Annie Lafontaine*
The war in Kosovo ended in the summer of 1999, and by the end of
the year 2000, most of the 850,000 Kosovar Albanians who had fled
the violence were back in the province. This was both the largest and
quickest refugee repatriation in modern European history and by its end,
Kosovo and its population were branded “free” (Chomsky, 2000; Dérens,
2000; IICK, 2000; Judah, 2000). Even in the post-war context, however,
displacements past and current, violence, and suffering were still developing
new forms and meanings. While this multiplicity of past hardship and
present difficulty was reinterpreted and re-enacted by the people through
already existing political discourse and praxis, the suffering and violence
were also changing them, spreading through their living habits and
relationships, transforming the old familial and political structures.
This article is based on material taken from the Archives of Memory, and
on fieldwork done with Kosovar Albanians in the winter and summer of
the year 2000 in different areas of Kosovo (Prishtinë/Pristina,
Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, Pejë/Pec, and Prizren, as well as in some villages of
* Ph.D Candidate in Anthropology, University of Montreal.
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