The images are indelible. Bucolic rural scenes on the verge of spring are dotted with pyres of spiraling smoke. Normal life has been all but suspended. Troops prepare to patrol the area.
Mass killings predominate.
And, no, this isn't in any way comparable to the Balkan nightmare, but it is horrifying nonetheless. As you read this, more and more animals are being herded into pens or fields and shot dead in the head, their carcasses tossed into mass graves or burned on huge, odoriferous pyres. One cow managed to drag itself across a barn floor a day after it supposedly had been killed. At first I thought it was an emergency measure to contain a disease that could kill animals and threaten human health. Most cows survive it and are well again within a few weeks.