Camp Bondsteel is a huge military base in the eastern part of Kosovo.
A visit to Kosovo would be incomplete without a trip to Camp Bondsteel. So on my last day in Kosovo, I hired a taxi driver and drove to the camp. From the capital, Pristina, the journey takes about forty minutes by car.
Major Pecena of the U.S. Army had informed me on the phone that they were still waiting for my security clearance (it was now somewhere at the NATO headquarters in Brussels), but that at least they could show me some activity going on outside the camp.
Sergeant Smith would wait for me at the gate at 10:00.
About five hundred meters from the gate my taxi driver, who barely spoke English, stopped and let me out. He refused to come any nearer to Camp Bondsteel. I decided that it was useless to start a discussion.
It was a beautiful day. I was going to walk.
While passing some concrete barriers, I approached the gate. There was a sign, “KFOR-personnel enter here.” The sign pointed to the left.
Since I didn’t belong to KFOR (The Kosovo Force) responsible for the security in Kosovo after the departure of the Serbian troops in 1999, I walked straight.
Somebody started shouting, but only after half a minute did I realize that the shouting was directed at me. Not only shouting, but a soldier was pointing a gun at me. He was not very close--I mean that I could not see if he had pimples or not--but it was clear to me that his gun was pointed at me.
It has been a long time since somebody pointed a gun at me.
Actually, it might have been the first time in my life. Even in Afghanistan, nobody pointed a gun at me. They just attacked me with small rockets, but that was nothing personal.
Anyhow, the gun and the shouting made it clear to me that I had walked in the wrong direction. I could not believe that a U.S. soldier was going to kill me by mistake. After all, I wanted to visit Bondsteel to show the world the decency of the U.S. Army.
Although I could swear to God that I didn’t belong to KFOR, I took the gate for KFOR personnel.
I told the guards that I had an appointment with Sergeant Smith. Their answer was unintelligible. But my mobile phone and camera were confiscated for the time being.
Next week: more about Bondsteel.