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  • A boy has his eyes measured<br />
The Blind School Sarajevo, is the only centre in Bosnia for children and young adults. It was extensively damaged during the civil war an was used by the Bosnian Serb army as a military position from which to snipe and shell the city. The few teaching staff left during the war managed to visit some of their blind pupils and continue a limited education. The school reopened after the war ended but conditions remain dire.
    sfe_970701_0012.jpg
  • A girl tries to read her watch<br />
The Blind School Sarajevo, is the only centre in Bosnia for children and young adults. It was extensively damaged during the civil war an was used by the Bosnian Serb army as a military position from which to snipe and shell the city. The few teaching staff left during the war managed to visit some of their blind pupils and continue a limited education. The school reopened after the war ended but conditions remain dire.
    sfe_970701_0009.jpg
  • Two friends at the Blind School.The Blind School Sarajevo, is the only centre in Bosnia for children and young adults. It was extensively damaged during the civil war an was used by the Bosnian Serb army as a military position from which to snipe and shell the city. The few teaching staff left during the war managed to visit some of their blind pupils and continue a limited education. The school reopened after the war ended but conditions remain dire.
    sfe_970701_0008.jpg
  • A teacher pays a home visit to a deaf-blind boy and his family
    sfe_970701_0003_1.jpg
  • Two friends navigate their way to school past a probable minefield, Sarajevo.The Blind School Sarajevo, is the only centre in Bosnia for children and young adults. It was extensively damaged during the civil war an was used by the Bosnian Serb army as a military position from which to snipe and shell the city. The few teaching staff left during the war managed to visit some of their blind pupils and continue a limited education. The school reopened after the war ended but conditions remain dire.
    SFE_970701_0001_1.jpg
  • The baptism of child in an Orthodox Church, Tirana, Albania. All religions weer banned under the Communist dictator Enver Hoxha but after the regime's fall, many who had kept their faiths secret bacame open in their celebrations of their faith.
    SFE_970301_0022.jpg
  • A statue of Skanderbeg, Skanderbeg Square, Tirana, Albania. Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg (1405 ?ƒˆ?—?® 1466) is an Albanian national hero, credited with repelling the Ottoman invasions for two decades.
    SFE_970301_0021.jpg
  • Selman Brahim has been living as a man for 40 years after the family's eldest son died. In the Albanian tradition of the Avowed Virgin ('Virgjineshe' or 'Sworn Virgins'), authorised by the Kanun of Lek (an ancient system of laws) she/he now leads the family as a man. She is seen here with  a picture of her as a younger person. Lepurush Village near Skhoder, Northern Albania
    SFE_970201_0037.jpg
  • The 'Accursed Mountains of Northern Albania. The harsh and unforgiving landscape of hills is renown for outlaws and bandits and is mentioned by the explorer Edith Durham in her seminal work "High Albania" (1909). The land is still governed by the ancient Kanun of Lek and blood feuds are still common
    SFE_970201_0025.jpg
  • Selman Brahim is 53 and has been living as a man for 40 years after the family's eldest son died. In the Albanian tradition of the Avowed Virgin, she now leads the family as a man. Village near Skhoder, Northern Albania
    SFE_970201_0017.jpg
  • Selman Brahim has been living as a man for 40 years after the family's eldest son died. In the Albanian tradition of the Avowed Virgin ('Virgjineshe' or 'Sworn Virgins'), authorised by the Kanun of Lek (an ancient system of laws) she/he now leads the family as a man. She is seen here with her sister's grandchild and a picture of her as a younger person. Lepurush Village near Skhoder, Northern Albania
    SFE_970201_0012.jpg
  • Pashke Sokol Ndocaj and her uncles. Since the death of her father and brothers, Pashke has lived as a man in the ancient traditions of Avowed Virgins of Albania ('Virgjineshe' or 'Sworn Virgins'), where women 'become' men to head the family and renounce their former sex.Thethi, Albania
    SFE_970201_0003.jpg
  • A girl practices her accordian in the ruins of the Blind School. The Blind School Sarajevo, is the only centre in Bosnia for children and young adults. It was extensively damaged during the civil war an was used by the Bosnian Serb army as a military position from which to snipe and shell the city. The few teaching staff left during the war managed to visit some of their blind pupils and continue a limited education. The school reopened after the war ended but conditions remain dire.
    sfe_970701_0018.jpg
  • A boy makes his way to class in the destroyed  Blind School.The Blind School Sarajevo, is the only centre in Bosnia for children and young adults. It was extensively damaged during the civil war an was used by the Bosnian Serb army as a military position from which to snipe and shell the city. The few teaching staff left during the war managed to visit some of their blind pupils and continue a limited education. The school reopened after the war ended but conditions remain dire.
    sfe_970701_0014.jpg
  • A teacher pays a home visit to a deaf-blind boy and his family
    sfe_970701_0004.jpg
  • Illegal money changers of the Black Market, at work on the streets of Tirana, Albania
    SFE_970301_0031.jpg
  • A boy walks past a Socialist Realist mural celebrating the Communist Revolution and a sign for Coca Cola, Tirana, Albania
    SFE_970301_0019.jpg
  • The grave of Enver Hoxha in a cemetary in Tirana, Albania
    SFE_970301_0008.jpg
  • Lula Ivanaj, 41 has lived like a man for 26 years after the death of her elder brother she accepted the tradition in Albania of the Avowed Virgin. She works as a mechanic and truck driver. She takes care of her sisters' children when not working. Skhoder, Albania
    SFE_970201_0021.jpg
  • The centre of town, Korçë. Korçë's proximity to Greece, which claimed the entire Orthodox population of Albania as Greek, led to its being fiercely contested in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. The city was occupied by Greek forces in 6 December 1912. Its incorporation into Albania in 1913 was controversial, as Greece claimed it as part of a region called 'Northern Epirus'.
    Albania019_1_1.jpg
  • Opening Shkodra's catholic cathedral to worshipers after 25 years. The cathedral of Shkodra was called Kisha e Madhe (the Great Church) because, at that time, it was one of the largest churches in the Balkans. With the notorious 'cultural revolution' of 1967, all the churches in Albania were closed, some were destroyed, others transformed into cultural centres or stores. The cathedral was transformed into a palace of sport and was host to the Congress of Communist Women in 1973.
    Albania048_1_1.jpg
  • Opening Shkodra's catholic cathedral to worshipers after 25 years. The cathedral of Shkodra was called Kisha e Madhe (the Great Church) because, at that time, it was one of the largest churches in the Balkans. With the notorious 'cultural revolution' of 1967, all the churches in Albania were closed, some were destroyed, others transformed into cultural centres or stores. The cathedral was transformed into a palace of sport and was host to the Congress of Communist Women in 1973.
    Albania047_1_1.jpg
  • Opening Shkodra's catholic cathedral to worshipers after 25 years. The cathedral of Shkodra was called Kisha e Madhe (the Great Church) because, at that time, it was one of the largest churches in the Balkans. With the notorious 'cultural revolution' of 1967, all the churches in Albania were closed, some were destroyed, others transformed into cultural centres or stores. The cathedral was transformed into a palace of sport and was host to the Congress of Communist Women in 1973.
    Albania050_1_1.jpg
  • Known as the "Black Widow of the Balkans", Nexhmije Hoxha, the wife of the Albanian communist dictator Enver Hoxha, at home in Tirana  under house arrest. In the foreground is an early photograph of herself as a young pioneer. At the age of 20, Nexhmije joined the Albanian communist party and rapidly rose in the party hierarchy thanks to her close relationship with the party leader Qemal Stafa. After his assassination during the World War II, Nexhmije married his successor Enver Hoxha.
    Albania011_1_1.jpg
  • The display board of a street stall selling music tape recordings on the 13th of December 2018, in Pristina, the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2339.jpg
  • Christ the Saviour Serbian Orthodox Cathedral is an unfinished Serbian Orthodox Church on the campus of the University of Pristina, the construction was interrupted by the Kosovo war and it has never been completed. Pristina, Kosovo.  Photographed on the 13th of December 2018, Pristina is the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2281.jpg
  • The Skyline of Pristina including the National Library of Kosovo ‘PjetEr Bogdani’ and the incomplete  Christ the Saviour Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, on the 13th of December 2018, Pristina, Kosovo.  Pristina is  the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2176.jpg
  • Two women walking past US flags flying on the street George Bush Boulevard Xhorxh Bush on the 13th of December 2018, in Pristina, the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.  The street was named in honour of the US president to show appreciation for the military support received from the US during the Kosovo war with Yugoslavia.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2146.jpg
  • A street stall selling cigarettes to smokers on the 13th of December 2018, in Pristina, the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2082.jpg
  • Sectarian graffiti adorns walls on the Serbian side north side of the Mitrovica bridge, over the river Ibar which separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018. Mitrovica or Kosovska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in Kosovo. Settled on the banks of Ibar and Sitnica rivers, the city is the administrative centre of the Mitrovica District.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1997.jpg
  • A statue of Prince Lazar of Serbia on the Serbian side north side of the Mitrovica bridge, over the river Ibar which separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018. Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović was a Serbian ruler who died in 1389 that created the most powerful state in the Sebian Empire.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1982.jpg
  • A view from Mitrovic bridge looking north into the Serbian side of town at the makeshift boarder fence which separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018. The bridge was rebuilt with funding from the EU. Mitrovica or Kosovska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in Kosovo. Settled on the banks of Ibar and Sitnica rivers, the city is the administrative center of the Mitrovica District.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1955.jpg
  • Looking down Rruga Agim Hajrizi through the shopping streets in the south side of Mitrovica, a town in Northern Kosovo that straddles the river Ibar which separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018.  Mitrovica or Kosovska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in Northern Kosovo.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1776.jpg
  • An Albanian t-shirt shop in the south side of Mitrovica, a town in Northern Kosovo that straddles the river Ibar which separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018.  Mitrovica or Kosovska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in Kosovo. Settled on the banks of Ibar and Sitnica rivers, the city is the administrative center of the Mitrovica District.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1771.jpg
  • The sons of Amathj Mehmed, killed in a blood feud with a photograph of their father on his wedding day. They are in a feud with the familly of Murat Balia, who was killed in the same conflict.<br />
<br />
The Kanun (code of behavior going back hundreds of years) included an elaborate legal code trying to regulate blood feud (gjakmarrya) – a system of reciprocal ”honour killings”. According to the Code, if a man is deeply affronted, his family has the right to kill the person who has insulted him. However, by doing this, the family will become a target for revenge on the part of the victim’s<br />
family. The victim’s closest male relative is obliged to kill the murderer of his family member. The pattern of reprisal killings thus formed has been passed on for generations of families and has been manifested up to the present day in Albania “Blood is never lost”, states the Kanun
    Albania109_1_1.jpg
  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. Zequir Haxhia, the Bariaktor (chief of the villiage) marking out and defending his family land taken away during the enforced collectivisation.
    Albania105_1_1.jpg
  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. Valbone in the winter rains.
    Albania101_1_1.jpg
  • Bringing in hay for the winter. High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. <br />
Pack mules are often the best transport on roads closed by snow for 4 months of the year
    Albania095_1_1.jpg
  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. Pack mules are often the best transport on roads closed by snow for 4 months of the year
    Albania087_1_1.jpg
  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. Young conscript waiting for a lorry. In the background is the Drin valley with it's hydro electric dams. Much of the electricity is exported and the north of the country experiences daily cuts.
    Albania086_1_1.jpg
  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. Trout fishing in Valbone.
    Albania084_1_1.jpg
  • Family in their Sunday best waiting for the Koman Ferry to Bajram Curri. The ferry was the easiest way into the Highlands avoiding some of the bad roads.
    Albania082_1_1.jpg
  • Members of a local shoe cooperative celebrating "Ladies Day" in a hotel near Shkodra.
    Albania081_1_1.jpg
  • Members of a local shoe cooperative celebrating "Ladies Day" in a hotel near Shkodra.
    Albania080_1_1.jpg
  • Milot market. This is the main cattle and vegitable market in the north of the country. The farm sector produced over 30 percent of Albania's net material product (see Glossary) and employed over 50 percent of the work force before the centrally planned economy buckled.
    Albania076_1_1.jpg
  • Milot market. This is the main cattle and vegitable market in the north of the country. The farm sector produced over 30 percent of Albania's net material product (see Glossary) and employed over 50 percent of the work force before the centrally planned economy buckled.
    Albania075_1_1.jpg
  • Milot market. This is the main cattle and vegitable market in the north of the country. The farm sector produced over 30 percent of Albania's net material product (see Glossary) and employed over 50 percent of the work force before the centrally planned economy buckled.
    Albania074_1.jpg
  • Washing clothes in the Enver Hoxha state farm in Korce, near the Greek boarder. Albania's principal industries were labor-intensive, but there were ample labor reserves in the agricultural population. Workers officially put in a six-day, forty-eight-hour week with at least two weeks of annual vacation. People who fled Albania during the communist era, however, reported that ten-hour workdays were the minimum at many farms and factories.
    Albania069_1_1.jpg
  • High Albania, near Valbona. Man carrying cut grasses for fuel.
    Albania067_1_1.jpg
  • The wedding party in Shkodra of Liliana and Albert Palushi.<br />
The table cloths consisted of the monarchist newspaper "Fatherland".
    Albania063_1_1.jpg
  • Worshipers in the Et'hem Bey mosque located in the center of the Albanian capital Tirana. In January 1991, despite opposition among communist authorities, ten thousand people entered the mosque. After the 27 year ban on religious worship this event became the onset of the fall of communism in Albania.
    Albania058_1_1.jpg
  • Worshipers in the Et'hem Bey mosque located in the center of the Albanian capital Tirana. In January 1991, despite opposition among communist authorities, ten thousand people entered the mosque. After the 27 year ban on religious worship this event became the onset of the fall of communism in Albania.
    Albania054_1_1.jpg
  • Worshipers in the Et'hem Bey mosque located in the center of the Albanian capital Tirana. In January 1991, despite opposition among communist authorities, ten thousand people entered the mosque. After the 27 year ban on religious worship this event became the onset of the fall of communism in Albania.
    Albania053_1.jpg
  • In the backstreets of Shkodra, behind the catholic cemetery chapel executions were carried out by henchmen of the Siigorimi. The locals talk of secret executions here of up to 1500 people and many buried in a mass grave.
    Albania052_1_1.jpg
  • A delivery of womens underwear arriving in a state shop in Tirana. Albania's communist economic system, with its strict central controls, egalitarian incentive system, and bias toward heavy industry, collapsed in the early 1990s, idling almost all of the country's production lines. Albania's government reported unemployment at about 30 percent, but unofficial 1991 estimates indicated that about 50 percent of the work force was jobless.
    Albania044_1.jpg
  • Korce, Albania. The goverment figures at that time show full employment but because of the closure of many industrial industries in the 1990's, 25% of the state employees were redundant & unnecessary.
    Albania041_1_1.jpg
  • A meeting of Monarchists in Shkodra wanting the return of Leka, son of Zog, to return to rule. King Zog I was forced into exile only two days after the birth of Leka due to the Italian invasion of Albania, and replaced on the throne of Albania by Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.<br />
<br />
Leka became heir apparent of the abolished throne on 5 April 1957. Leka was proclaimed King of the Albanians by a convened Albanian National Assembly-in-Exile, in a function room at the Hotel Bristol, Paris.<br />
<br />
In 1993 he entered Albania for the first time since childhood under a passport issued by his own Royal Court-in-exile. In 1997 Leka returned again, this time being greeted by 2,000 supporters. A referendum was held in Albania concerning a monarchical restoration. After a recount it was announced that the restoration was rejected by approximately two-thirds of those voting. The King questioned the independence of the election. Police intervened, gunfire broke out, one person was killed, and Leka fled.
    Albania039_1_1.jpg
  • The National Historical Museum (Muzeu Historik Kombetar) in Tirana is Albania's largest museum. It was officially opened on October  28th, 1981. The gigantic mosaic over the main entrance is entitled The Albanians and represents the development of Albania's history including everyone from Illirians to partisans.
    Albania033_1_1.jpg
  • Small statue of Enver Hoxha in a waiting room inside the Pyramid,  Tirana. This brutal structure was designed by the daughter and son-in-law of Enver Hoxha, Albania's communist dictator. Initially, it was a mausoleum (officially the "Enver Hoxha Memorial Museum"), inaugurated in 1988 as the final resting place of Albania's ruler, Enver Hoxha, the lord of life and death in Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985.<br />
<br />
With the fall of the Communist regime in 1991, Hoxha's corpse was evicted, just three years into its final rest. In 1992, the Pyramid became in name Tirana's main cultural center devoted to promoting contemporary arts (visual and performing arts, music, film and culture). In reality, its various halls were better known for the hosting of consumer goods trade fairs.
    Albania032_1_1.jpg
  • Skanderbeg Square, Tirana
    Albania029_1_1.jpg
  • Ransacked communist party headquarters in Shkodra
    Albania027_1_1.jpg
  • Elbasan had the largest metallurgical complex in Albania. The home of the 'Steel of the Party' integrated iron and steel works with a design capacity of around 750,000 tons per annum. Until 1990, this complex employed 12,000 people. <br />
<br />
Although the Elbasan blast furnaces and basic oxygen converters closed in 1991, small scale steel production from scrap metal continued from the plant's single Italian-made Danieli electric furnace until 2006, with less than 1,000 employees. These, too, were made unemployed in February 2006 when the Turkish company Kurum, which had been granted the concession to operate Elbasan, closed the plant and withdrew from Albania
    Albania022_1_1.jpg
  • The centre of town, Korce.
    Albania021_1.jpg
  • Outskirts of Korce. A bunker, one of 700,000, has been built outside the house for protection against an unseen enemy. The bunkers, each large enough for a man and his rifle, were built by Albania's Stalinist dictator Hoxha between 1950-1985, who propigated the fear of invasion from all corners, from NATO and even the Soviet Union, against an enemy that never came.<br />
<br />
It is said that when a prototype for the bunkers was presented to Hoxha, he demanded the architect to go inside of it. A tank was then ordered to open fire. The bunker withstood the shelling, the architect survived, and Hoxha gave the go ahead to build replicas of the prototype all over the country. There is still one bunker for every four Albanians today, and nobody seems to know what to do with them.
    Albania020_1_1.jpg
  • A statue of Stalin overlooking the centre of town in Korce. Albania practiced a militant form of Communism, withstanding the reforms of other Eastern Europe’s “revisionist wave” since the 1956 thaw. Alienated from both East and West, Albania adopted a “go-it-alone” policy and became notorious as an isolated bastion of Stalinism with statues revering “the last communist leader” in most city squares.<br />
<br />
In December 1990 the party ordered all statues and symbols bearing his name removed. The decision to excise Stalin from public life came on what would have been the Soviet dictator’s 111th birthday. A crane moved into Tirana’s Stalin Boulevard at midnight on Thursday 21st December 1991 and loaded the dark bronze statue onto a truck, its head hanging over the back.
    Albania018_1_1.jpg
  • Head of Stalin, Tirana. A crane moved into Tirana's Stalin Boulevard at midnight on Thursday 21st December 1991 and loaded the dark bronze statue onto a truck, its head hanging over the back. The Tirana radio said Stalin's name and symbols associated with him were to be removed from streets, institutions and the city named for him.
    Albania016_1_1.jpg
  • Tirana Middle School for languages. This privileged state school in the centre of town had few books or glass panes in the windows and class sizes of 40.
    Albania014_1.jpg
  • Sali Berisha emerged as the leader of Democratic Party (DP), the first and largest of the new opposition parties to the commuist regime. He was formally elected DP chairman in February 1991.<br />
A qualified doctor, Berisha was Hoxha's heart surgeon in the 1970s.  He is currently Albania's prime minister.
    Albania010_1_1.jpg
  • Marching soldiers Tirana. The ranks and the structure of the Albanian Armed Forces were organised based on the Soviet concepts, thus increasing the political control of the State-Party over the Armed Forces.<br />
<br />
Like all other branches of the state, the military was subjugated to Communist Party control. All high-ranking military officers and most of the lower and middle ranks were members of the Communist Party - and had loyalties to it. The State and Party went even further in 1966, when military ranks were abolished following the example of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and the military commander was insignificant with respect to the commanding role of the political commissars.<br />
<br />
The Sigurimi, was responsible for the execution, the imprisonment and deportation of more than 600 Officers from the Armed Forces, thereby completely neutralizing the Armed Forces ability to start a coup d’état. As the communist regime collapsed in Albania during 1990, there was a real fear that the armed forces might intervene to halt the collapse of communism by force. In the event, the armed forces stood by as the regime of which they had been a part disintegrated.
    Albania007_1_1.jpg
  • Soldier guarding the landing stage of the Koman Ferry to Bajram Curri. In order to maintain it’s political control, the Albanian Communist Party use an army conscription system, enlisting in the Armed Forces personnel dedicated to the military career from the Albanian rural areas, a category of people easily manipulated and subjected to political brainwashing.
    Albania005_1_1.jpg
  • Skanderbeg Square, Tirana, rush hour 1pm. The quiet serenity of this busy scene is because prior to 1991, it was illegal to own a car in Albania. There were, of course, a few automobiles running around but these were either driven by high communist officials or municipal employees.<br />
<br />
In 1991 the Albanian government lifted the decades-old ban on private-vehicle ownership. Car imports numbered about 1,500 per month, and a black-market car lot began operating just behind the square. The number of cars in Albania has soared since the collapse of Communism, from 5,000 in the early Nineties, to over 500,000 today. Most are stolen from around Europe.<br />
<br />
The population has more than doubled since 1990 and is now well over 700,000, fuelled by an influx of migrants from rural areas. The city is now choked with some 300,000 cars, lorries and buses which burn fuel banned in the EU and Over 35,000 tons of exhaust gases are annually expelled in the capital alone, 10 times the WHO limit. Tirana is now the most polluted capital in Europe.
    Albania001_1_1.jpg
  • Mannequins wearing trousers, at the entrance to a shop on a street in Pristina on the 13th of December 2018, the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2334.jpg
  • Christ the Saviour Serbian Orthodox Cathedral is an unfinished Serbian Orthodox Church on the campus of the University of Pristina, the construction was interrupted by the Kosovo war and it has never been completed. Pristina, Kosovo.  Photographed on the 13th of December 2018, Pristina is the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2317.jpg
  • Christ the Saviour Serbian Orthodox Cathedral is an unfinished Serbian Orthodox Church on the campus of the University of Pristina, the construction was interrupted by the Kosovo war and it has never been completed. Pristina, Kosovo.  Photographed on the 13th of December 2018, Pristina is the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2304.jpg
  • An overview of the Qendra area of Pristina, on the 13th of December 2018, the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2178.jpg
  • The newly constructed Cathedral of Saint Mother Teresa on the 13th of December 2018, Pristina, Kosovo. A Roman Catholic cathedral constructed in 2007, the cathedral is dedicated to the Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary, Saint Teresa of Calcutta.Pristina is the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2258.jpg
  • US flags fly on the street George Bush Boulevard Xhorxh Bush on the 13th of December 2018, in Pristina, the capital and largest city of Kosovo, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities.  The street was named in honour of the US president to show appreciation for the military support received from the US during the Kosovo war with Yugoslavia.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2099.jpg
  • A statue of Skanderbeg in central Pristina, the capital and largest city of Kosovo on the 13th of December 2018, it has a mainly Albanian population along with other smaller communities. GjergJ Kastrioti Skenderbeu 1405 - 1468 was an Albanian national figure who lead a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in 1444.
    Kosovo-Pristina-2107.jpg
  • A statue of Prince Lazar of Serbia on the Serbian side north side of the Mitrovica bridge, over the river Ibar which separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018. Prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic was a Serbian ruler who died in 1389 that created the most powerful state in the Sebian Empire.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1986.jpg
  • Sectarian graffiti adorns walls on the Serbian side north side of the Mitrovica bridge, over the river Ibar which separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018. Mitrovica or Kosovska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in Kosovo. Settled on the banks of Ibar and Sitnica rivers, the city is the administrative centre of the Mitrovica District.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1981.jpg
  • Men sit outside drinking and smoking next to the Albanian flag and a statue of  Mehë Uka in the shopping area in the south side of Mitrovica, a town in Northern Kosovo that straddles the river Ibar that separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018.  Meha Uka was a teacher, political prisoner, who is  a Hero of Kosovo. Mitrovica or Kosovska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in Northern Kosovo.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1923.jpg
  • A man looks through a disused advertising board in the shopping area in the south side of Mitrovica, a town in Northern Kosovo that straddles the river Ibar that separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018.  Mitrovica or Kosovska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in Northern Kosovo.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1839.jpg
  • Pigeons feeding outside the Kentucky Fried Chicken  KFC in the south side of Mitrovica, a town in Northern Kosovo that straddles the river Ibar that separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018.  Mitrovica or Kosovska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in Northern Kosovo.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1819.jpg
  • The makeshift boarder fence on the Serbian side north side of the Mitrovica bridge, over the river Ibar which separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018. The bridge was rebuilt with funding from the EU. Mitrovica or Kosovska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in Kosovo. Settled on the banks of Ibar and Sitnica rivers, the city is the administrative center of the Mitrovica District.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1611.jpg
  • A block of flats just on the on the Serbian side north side of the Mitrovica bridge, over the river Ibar which separates the Serbian and Albanian districts of Mitrovica, Kosovo on the 12th of December 2018.
    Kosovo-Mitrovica-1617.jpg
  • The Muslem funeral of 23 year old Baghkim Sinani in the mountain village of Kalimash, in the mountains of High Albania.
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  • The Muslem funeral of 23 year old Baghkim Sinani in the mountain village of Kalimash, in the mountains of High Albania.
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  • The familly of Murat Balia who was killed ina blood feud with the familly of Amathj Mehmed. His nephew, Myftar Balia, is lying in the bed with the wounds from 8 bullets. He is surrounded by his familly and his son Edward (holding the lamp) aged 17 is bound by the Kanune (code of behavior going back hundreds of years) to defend his family's honour.<br />
<br />
The Kanun included an elaborate legal code trying to regulate blood feud (gjakmarrya) – a system of reciprocal ”honour killings”. According to the Code, if a man is deeply affronted, his family has the right to kill the person who has insulted him. However, by doing this, the family will become a target for revenge on the part of the victim’s family. The victim’s closest male relative is obliged to kill the murderer of his family member. The pattern of reprisal killings thus formed has been passed on for generations of families and has been manifested up to the present day in Albania “Blood is never lost”, states the Kanun.
    Albania108_1_1.jpg
  • This ruined pig farm in the village of Babine in Northern Albania marks the site of a blood feud which has already cost the lives of several people.<br />
<br />
The barn was deliberately built in 1961 on the site of a Sufi mosque by the head of the local communist party, Murat Balia. To add to the humiliation the mullah, Dervish Luska, a famous theologian had his head shaved in front of the village.<br />
<br />
In 1991 after the fall of communism the coop was dissolved and people started to dismantle the buildings. The family of Amathj Mehmed were dismantling the building when it was too much for the old Coop head, Murat Balia, and a gun battle started leaving Murat, his son and the the father of the family dismantling the barn, Amathj Mehmed. The 2 families are now "in blood" and family hounour will result in future killings.
    Albania107_1_1.jpg
  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. Widow in Valbone home with the corn to last the coming winter.
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  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. Zequir Haxhia, the Bariaktor (chief of the villiage) marking out and defending his family land taken away during the enforced colectivisation.
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  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. Classic Albanian haystacks in Valbone
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  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. Valbone in the winter rains.
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  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains.
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  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains.
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  • Family in their leaving the Koman Ferry from Bajram Curri
    Albania097_1_1.jpg
  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains, near the mountain village of Kalimash. Women collecting wood for fuel.
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  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains. Lorries are the people's taxi's
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  • High Albania, the Accursed Mountains in the distance. <br />
Lorries are the people's taxi's.
    Albania092_1_1.jpg
  • Waiting for a country bus near Pishkash, Albania.
    Albania091_1_1.jpg
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