On September 24 last year, amid the latest flare-up in tensions between Serbia and its former province, Kosovo, a Kosovo Albanian businessman called Burim Piraj took to Facebook with a call to boycott goods made in Serbia.
The row between the Balkan neighbours was over recognition of vehicle licence plates, yet another manifestation of the frictions caused by the failure of Western efforts to mediate a solution to relations between Serbia and majority-Albanian Kosovo 14 years after the latter declared independence.
Serbia, which lost control over Kosovo following an 11-week NATO air war in 1999, refuses to recognise Kosovo as independent and has actively undermined its international integration, angering Kosovo Albanians.
Since Piraj set up the Facebook group ‘Mos Bli Prodhime Serbe’ [Don’t Buy Serbian Products], more than 55,000 people have signed up.
