For centuries Serbs have striven with epic fervor to unite their scattered people,define their lands,preserve their unique identity.

States and most of Europe,To many Serbs,that makes Nakalamic a traitor.After Kosovo grabbed independence,TV viewers worldwide watched radical nationalists storm through Belgrade,Serbia's capital,smashing windows and torching a symbol of arrogant foreign meddling-the U.S. embasssy.The Serbian government views Kosovo's independence as an illeagl dismemberment of Serbia's sovereign territory-It ordered Serbs in Kosovo-many of whom receive cash assistance from Serbia-to boycott elections there,and most obeyed.Without the requisite ballots from his district.Nakalamic lacks a council vote and thus can't fully participate in drafting budgets and ordinances.Yet many Serbs seem resigned to the new borders,and to the prospect of a smaller,tamer Serbia at ease with its neighbors.People are marching and demostrating,but no one believes we will get Kosovo's back,a young woman I met in Belgrade as she and her fiance.A Caribbean American from New York,had a midnight drink with friends on a stylish Belgrade street,A student from Florence,is the kind of liberal,internationally oriented Serb on whom Western governments pin their hopes.After Kosovo independence and the resulting riots.Serbian voters.in the spring of 2008,surprised the world by propelling into power to a pro-european union government that vowed to track down Serbian's war criminals- evidence of a widespread belief that the country's best hope for cultural and economic growth is with the West.But outsiders should never mistake resignation for acceptance.It's Serbian pride,we can't say,sure .take kosovo.Do whatever you want to us.what kind of people would we be?A human rights lawyer who pursues accused Serbian war criminals,says the gulf between unreconstructed nationalists and Western-style democrats,including Serbia's president,Boris Tadic.is not as wide as outsiders may think.To Popvic,all major parties to some extent cling to the ideal of uniting Serbian-inhabited lands-a catalyst for way in the 1990s.It's charitable to say this country is divided between democrats and nationalists.In reality,the nationalist ideal rules.