June 27, 1999

KOSOVO POLJE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Under the stone tower commemorating the centuries-old battle that has become the lodestar of Serb nationalism, two British soldiers sunbathed Sunday as they made a lunch of instant noodles.

Apart from them, the three-story monument to the battle of Kosovo Polje was deserted in the midday sun, an abandoned symbol of the Serb pride that has been under siege this month.

Since the entry of NATO-led troops into Kosovo, Serbs have fled in droves, fearing retaliatory violence by the ethnic Albanians their forces terrorized during the NATO bombing.

Ethnic Albanians have looted and torched Serb houses, much as the Serbs did theirs as they fled to refugee camps two months ago. And across the province, murders and attacks on Serb civilians are reported with increasing frequency.

But in the ethnic Albanian village in the shadow of the monument, residents said they weren't worried about possible Serb commemorations of Monday's 610th anniversary of the battle.

"He who has blood on his hands will not stay here and come to this place," said Mustafe Bajoku, 33, a local farmer.

In 1389, an army of Balkan forces faced off against Ottoman Turks in a bloody battle that some call a Serb rout, and others call a draw. The Turks went on to conquer Serbia and ruled it for 500 years, injecting an tenacious strain of martyrdom into the Serb psyche.

In 1987, a member of the Serbian Central Committee named Slobodan Milosevic came to Kosovo Polje, which means "field of blackbirds," to hear Serb grievances about abuses at the hands of Kosovo's Albanians, and gave an emotion-charged address that included the ringing vow: "No one should dare to beat you!"

The speech launched Milosevic's rise to Serbian -- and later Yugoslav -- president. It established him as a staunch defender of Serb nationalism -- in Kosovo, against the ethnic Albanian majority.

In 1989, as head of the Serbian League of Communists, Milosevic introduced constitutional amendments revoking Kosovo's autonomy, and ethnic Albanians launched a series of massive protests and strikes.

Serbian troops entered the province to put those down, killing dozens; 80,000 ethnic Albanians were expelled from their jobs, and new laws prevented ethnic Albanians from buying or selling property without special permission.

For Serbs, the anniversary of the battle continues to be a symbol of nationalistic pride.

"He who is a Serb and of the Serb birthline and has not come to the battle in Kosovo, may he have no heart and bear no daughters or sons," reads an inscription carved on the walls of the monument.

But peacekeepers say Serb community leaders tell them there are no formal celebrations planned for Monday.

"There's a bit of a siege mentality, and I don't think it will be flamboyant," said Capt. Michael Corbett, an intelligence officer with the Irish regiment based in Kosovo Polje. "There is so much tension here."

That's fine with Bajoku, who can see the stone tower from his single-story tile-roofed house. He lost three relatives in the Serb attacks that drove

hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo.

"Of course I don't feel good that they can come back here and gather, but nobody can deny them," he said.

"They can come here as much as they want to. They built it, didn't they?"