As they say, those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Once the EU drove Yugoslavia into a civil war with a divisive policy that sets up one ethnic group against the other.
In 1991 EU nations secretly supported separationist preparations in Croatia and Slovenia. Then they prematurely recognized them under the excuse that Yugoslavia had dissolved: a distortion of the situation and dangerous exploit in international law that could be used against any multi-ethnic country. But perhaps the most dangerous was that the EU adopted the self-delusion that everyone would follow them. In fact nothing changed on the ground in Yugoslavia except that one side had gotten an ally and the other an adversary.
Rich provinces all over the world try to secede in the knowledge that they will be even richer when they no longer have to subsidize the rest of the country. In the case of Croatia and Slovenia there was the additional appeal of a speedy EU membership. Given these circumstances the secession of Slovenia and Croatia was probably unavoidable unless the EU adopted an explicit policy that took attraction of a speedy EU membership away. Instead the EU fell for Croat and Slovene propaganda that tried to paint their secession in moral colors. Milosevic was painted as an extreme nationalist. He wasn't. He was just asking what most politicians representing an underrepresented large ethnic group that felt discriminated against would have asked. His political methods weren't always nice, but he was faced with political adversaries in other republics who had extended their power far beyond what had been intended in the Yugoslav constitution. His involvement in mass urder in Bosnia was still in the future: for the moment his policies in Kosovo were very similar to Croatia's policies towards its Serb minority.
A sound policy would have taken a distance and let both sides struggle it out in the political arena. It would have stressed that without an agreement the republics were still part of Yugoslavia, but it the same time it would have discouraged violence or rigorous steps by the central government. Instead the "moral" view of the EU led to immoral behavior. It now considered the rebellious Serbs in Croatia as insurrectionists instead of one side in a conflict. And it discarded Croat discrimination as primarily Croatia's "internal affairs". The result was predictable: Croatia didn't see anymore need for caution in its treatment of its Serb minority and the Serbs didn't see any other way than armed conflict to achieve their goals. Bosnia's war started in a similar way.
One would have supposed that more than a decade later the West would do better with Kosovo. Instead we see exactly the same pattern. The EU again couldn't resist the temptation to choose sides: this time by recognizing Kosovo. It could have chosen a neutral position and appointed a neutral mediator, but instead it appointed Ahtisaari whose misguided principles ("Kosovo should never again under Serbian rule") made any other outcome than unilateral independence impossible. A real neutral negotiator would asked the Albanians to convince Serbia that the rights of the Serb and other minorities were guaranteed.
Now too the real bad things happen afterwards when the EU has no longer the capability to see the behavior of both sides in the same light. Where in Croatia the EU crossed the line with its ignoring of the maltreatment of Croatia's Serbs, it seems now poised to cross the line with the privatization of Brezovica. Anyone can see that that will inevitably result in the end of the employment of many Serbs there. Past actions, like the evacuation of the court house, concerned symbols. Here it concerns directly the survival of Kosovo's Serb minority. And just as in the past the EU hid behind declarations about Croat "sovereignty" it now hides behind Kosovo sovereignty and the Ahtisaari Plan.
19 comments:
"Once the EU drove Yugoslavia into a civil war with a divisive policy"
I don't buy that one bit. The choice of the civil war and aggression was entirely the fault of the Serbian government.
"Kosovo should never again under Serbian rule" was quite a wise principle. Kosovo, after all, never chose to be forcibly joined to Serbia early in the 20th century. And Serbia's major attempts over the years to colonize Kosovo and wipe out the indigenous population showed the complete folly of allowing Serbia to posses Kosovo against its will for one moment longer.
I can't see why its such a problem understanding the reality of Kosovo. Kosovo's 100 year experience indicated that it was impossible to live under Serbian tutelage. The struggle in Kosovo has been between people that want freedom and people that want to control others. It has been a long struggle and Serbian behavior did not improve, it got worse. There is no room for compromise when it comes to the basic rights of people. Is this hard to understand and accept? The colonial era has come to an end, wake-up!!!
To anonymouse I: borders are historical. if the fact that Kosovo did not choose was an argument tomorrow South Tirol would ask to become part of Austria and many areas worldwide would follow them. Also there is the question of timing: if you had held a referendum in 1850 the Serbs would have been the majority. And according to Edith Durham even in 1908 the Serbs were in the majority east of the railway.
To anonymouse II: ask it the Serbs in Leposavic. They will tell you that the colonial era has just begun for them. And Serbian rule was not constantly bad: in the 1970s and 1980s the Albanians had a high level of self rule.
Wim,
You are taking from the Serbian point of view. For you anything else outside this point of view has no validity.
I just read a page from a 1598 english book that point out the predominance of the Albanian population in Kosovo. But then, at one time German tribes were in charge of Europe. What have references to the past have anything do with the present reality?
I tell you averall the Kosovar experience in Yugoslav has been bitter (I should say suffocating), you turn around and say that there were 10 less repressive days in the 1970's. Do you understand, Yugoslavia has had its days, gone...
You are reading 1598 books? Please give me the title!
I am primarily focused on international law. And my feeling is that the longer Kosovo waits with striking a deal with Serbia the worse a deal it will get. Not to mention the harm of a dubious status. Not to mention also the devastating effects of Kosovo's maltreatment of its minorities: every foreign investor knows that he risks the same treatment.
This is another example of you borrowing only from Serbian sources.
The book: L'Ottomanno, Lazzaro Soranzo, 1599.
I don't need Serbian sources for that. I see the campaign against UNMIK: exactly the same hate-mongering as is happening against Kosovo's minorities. You can bet that a foreign investor that gets in trouble with some Albanians - by firing people or by ending a contract with some Albanian partner - will get the same treatment.
There are no shortcuts when it comes to establishing the rule of law.
"...ask it the Serbs in Leposavic. They will tell you that the colonial era has just begun for them..."
"...the longer Kosovo waits with striking a deal with Serbia the worse a deal it will get... Not to mention also the devastating effects of Kosovo's maltreatment of its minorities..."
I don't know where you get your information, but this is brutal talk, superficial and insensitive.
I don't know how much you know about the Balkan mentality, but Albanian Serbian experience over the last 150 years (remember the Serb Albanian problem did not start after 1912) for optimism for a deal on sovereignty. As far as the Albanians are concerned there is no way back, under any circumstance.
Please don't talk about Kosovo's three northern communes as symptomatic of Albanian behavior towards the minorities because Prishtina has no control in that area. As for the rest of the Serbs, if they were left alone, they will start integrating with no problem. Other minorities are well integrated.
Albanian and Serb people had never a problem getting along , until the politicians and other elements in Belgrade started working on their "myths".
Wim, I could see you are against big power interference, but please understand that Kosovo is a very sensitive and complex subject, and superficial comments don't serve easing of tension. Unfortunately there are no easy solutions to this problem.
"Other minorities are well integrated."
Yeah, half of the Gorani have left and probably most of the Roma and Ashkali.
"Albanian and Serb people had never a problem getting along": come on, two sentences before you note that the conflict is very old.
"Unfortunately there are no easy solutions to this problem."
I totally agree. Unfortunately the independence declaration was an attempt for an easy solution that ignored the complexity.
"Albanian and Serb people had never a problem getting along": come on, two sentences before you note that the conflict is very old.
No, no, I said no problems until the Serbs started working on their "myths".
True a lot of people have left Kosovo, due to the war and also in search of better living. You fail to mention the Albanians as also belonging in this group. I think that there is a much, much larger number of Kosovars outside of Kosovo than any other group.
The independence declaration certainly did not please everyone nor attempt to solve all of the problems relating to Kosovo, but it certainly was badly sought by the majority of the population. As for the other problems, with good will, there will be a better chance to seek a solution now than there was anytime in the past(as history so well has shown).
"until the Serbs started working on their "myths"."
And when did the Serbs start to do that according to you?
"True a lot of people have left Kosovo, due to the war and also in search of better living. You fail to mention the Albanians as also belonging in this group."
Nope. Many Albanians left in the 1990s when Europe was still hospitable for refugees from former Yugoslavia. After 1999 that was no longer the case and many of the people who left after the Kosovo War have ended up in Serbia - often destitute. And more are now following as Germany and other countries are sending them back.
You also fail to mention the robberies, discrimination and other pressure that has forced many of the minorities to leave.
O.K.
Let's put an end to this.
I was not talking anly about the period after 1999 when it comes to the Albanians. Where would they go,
no one would take them.
To learn when Serb Albanian problems started, please check what happened to the Albanians that inhabited(in majority) the area between Kosovo and Nish, Serbia during late 1800's.
It has been a pleasure,
Thanks
ok, let's put an end to this.
Only, I need to answer your last insinuation (why cant you ever say what you mean?). I suppose you mention 1878 when Serbia conquered the Nis area and drove out the Albanians there. Only, if I remember well I read in some Albanian source that this concerned about 10,000 people (or even less). That doesn't look like a majority to me. But it resulted in much more vigorous retaliations against Kosovo's Serbs. That may indeed have been the start.
Just one more thing. Did you ever realize that for the Serbs 1878 was a decolonization operation - liberating territory from the Ottoman empire. Their throwing out the Albanians as collaborators with the Turks was not that different from the behavior of the Algerians when they drove out all French colonist and anyone who even had sympathized with France when they became independent.
I don't want to condone it. I just want to put it in context.
OK,
The number was probably more than five times larger than what you cite.
I can't understand your logic! You are kind of understandable to the Serbia's expulsion/extermination actions, the result of a state policy, and compare it to the events of 1999, result of an uprising,not state policy, and the people that left can return.
You mentioned an Albanian 'source' on the subject of expulsions, these sources seem to mention 300,000 Albanians to have been exterminated/expelled.
I checked your L'Ottomano. It concerns one sentence (page 99/100) and elsewhere on internet it is claimed with some credibility that that only concerns some region near Prizren. There are other sites that claim to have better evidence for early Albanian preponderance. Let the discussion flow. I am not a historian and have no ambition to be so. I will see what comes out. I don't think that ancient history should determine the present situation.
I will leave 1878 for later.
Wim,
L'Ottomano does mention Prizren, which is in Dardania, which is predominantly Albanian.
You want to conclude that only Prizren had an Albanian preponderance, not on the bases of this book.
Post a Comment