中东－科索沃发生血腥暴动

 

Kosovo Reflects on Bloody¹ Riots

 

Thursday, March 17, 2005, marks the first anniversary of anti-Serb rioting throughout Kosovo. Several ethnic² Albanians and Serbs were killed, hundreds of Serbian homes were destroyed and some centuries-old orthodox churches and monasteries³ were damaged.

 

It began when three ethnic-Albanian children drowned in the Ibar river that divides the predominantly Serb and Albanian parts of Mitrovica in the north of Kosovo. A fourth boy, aged⁴ 13, survived. He told the news media that the boys had walked past a house and that two Serbs appeared. There was a dog. The boys ran into the river. Three of them drowned.

 

Bob Gillette, an American media executive, heads the United Nations unit responsible for the media in Kosovo. Mr. Gillette says Kosovo's public television sensationalized the tragedy.

 

Bob Gillette: Public television took this story and said, therefore it is clear that Serbs attacked these children and caused them to drown. They turned this vague story, in which the boy never said there was an attack, into an assumption that became a fact in their reporting. And then they hammered away at it through the evening of the 16th, a year ago today, stopped all normal programming, shifted to symphony orchestras to emphasize the gravity of this tragedy.

 

As Albanian anger rose throughout the territory and with citizens glued to their television sets, Mr. Gillette says the reporting continued to be distorted.

 

Bob Gillette: And then they brought the father of one of the boys who had drowned, just as the body had been found, on to the screen, who said the Serb Chetnik [nationalist] hordes⁵ have killed my child in the most horrible way. We are way beyond fact [now]. This is journalism⁶ at its worst.

 

Within hours there were anti-Serb protests in Mitrovica and Pristina. They quickly turned violent.

 

Bob Gillette: Two or three days later, 19 people were dead. Four-thousand people, mostly Serbs, have been driven out of their homes. Thirty-some churches, historic, mostly Serb churches, have been burned.

 

In April, a month after the violence, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, blamed reckless and sensationalized reporting for the rioting. A subsequent judicial⁷ report by the U.N. administration found no evidence that Serbs were in any way connected with the tragedy at the Ibar river.

 

A law student at Pristina University, Behlul Zeka, is among a minority of Albanians willing to say publicly that the rioting may have had nothing to do with Serb provocations⁸.

 

Behlul Zeka: Well actually those scenes were shameful⁹ for everybody in Kosovo. Because burning and attacking of civilians¹⁰ and innocent people, I mean, it was not good. Those people who went on the streets, I do not know, it was terrible.

 

The ferocity of the events one-year ago shocked both the U.N. administration and the outside world. Ethnic Albanians, victims of Serbian repression¹¹ less than a decade ago, were now seen in a different light. Passions have cooled in the past 12 months but March 17th is an anniversary that brings pride to no one.

 

Barry Wood, VOA news, Pristina.

注释：

orthodox [5C:WEdCks] adj. 正统的，保守的

monastery¹² [5mCnEstri] n. 修道院

drown [draun] v. 溺死，淹死

sensationalize [sen5seiFEn7laiz] vt. 使引起轰动

tragedy [5trAdVidi] n. 悲剧，惨案

vague [vei^] adj. 模糊的

assumption [E5sQmpFEn] n. 假定，设想

symphony orchestra 交响乐团

ferocity [fE5rCsiti] n. 残忍，暴行

1 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

2 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

3 monasteries   

修道院( monastery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In ancient China, there were lots of monasteries. 在古时候，中国有许多寺院。
• The Negev became a religious center with many monasteries and churches. 内格夫成为许多庙宇和教堂的宗教中心。

4 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

5 hordes   

n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落

参考例句：

• There are always hordes of tourists here in the summer. 夏天这里总有成群结队的游客。
• Hordes of journalists jostled for position outside the conference hall. 大群记者在会堂外争抢位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

7 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

8 provocations   

n.挑衅( provocation的名词复数 )；激怒；刺激；愤怒的原因

参考例句：

• We cannot ignore such provocations. 对于这种挑衅，我们不能置之不理。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• They must immediately cease all their provocations. 他们必须停止一切挑衅。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

10 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

11 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

12 monastery   

n.修道院，僧院，寺院

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• She was appointed the superior of the monastery two years ago.两年前她被任命为这个修道院的院长。