Vidovdan at Gazimestan is always more than an ordinary commemoration - it is a date loaded with history, symbolism and politics. This year, the gathering of Serbs at the memorial complex in Kosovo unfolded in the shadow of a heavily armed police presence and tensions between those present and the Kosovo authorities.

According to reports, police were deployed along the access roads and at the memorial itself, with around 50 officers at the entrance to the complex. Visitors went through a thorough security check, and were handed written instructions on conduct, with the threat of arrest for any breach. The traditional tower was closed off with warning tape, and special units formed cordons through which people passed one by one.

The heaviest part of the report concerns the detentions - reportedly around twenty people, including minors, were held after the crowd was directed toward a narrow exit. Since the source of this news is Serbian and openly critical of the Kosovo institutions, the details are worth reading with caution - the truth about events like this almost always depends on who is telling it.

But regardless of the emphasis, one thing remains clear: in the Balkans, even a single commemoration can become a stage for political tension. Places of remembrance here are rarely just places of remembrance - they are arenas where old scores are settled with new means. The question is not whose truth it is this time, but why, thirty years after the last wars, we still have not learned to keep at least the dead out of daily politics.