Feb. 19 – Radio West was born in 1999, the same year Nato intervened in Kosovo to stop Serbia’s bombings. And the Italians of the K-For created the first radio station in Pec, or Peja, from where they broadcast inside the Villaggio Italia. As months went by, local stations popped up, broadcasting in Serbian and Albanian. Radio Gorazdevac was established in 1999 by Darko Dimitrijevic, who lived in Gorazdeva, the Serbian enclave in Pec. His aim was to “inform the local serbian population with a short-wave radio.” Following in his example, the albanian Radio Peja was also re-established in 1999, as it was originally opened in 1984 but shut down in 1990 by Milosevic when Kosovo lost its autonomy. As years went by, Radio West was closed, while Radio K-For, broadcasting from Pristina is still active. Italy’s role in developing a functioning radio system in the territory, however, never wavered. “We had begun producing TV shows with a non-professional camera, but thanks to CIMIC and the Italian Military we obtained two new cameras,” says Darko Dimitrijevic, coordinator of Radio Gorazdeva. And Radio Peja conferms this “the material and logistical support we received from K-For is considerable.” The Italian NGO Intersos “worked with us until 4 years ago, and created a regional network to exchange information on identity, cultural and religious questions.”
