Desintegration of Yugoslavia: the return

February 17th 2008 – The Serbian province of Kosovo seceded from Belgrade over a week ago. Kosovo had been a UN protectorate since 1999 when Bill Clinton sent NATO to bombard Slobodan Milosevic and the Yugoslav army (APY) out of the province. Being ethnically 90% Albanian, the Kosovars and their President Thaci seem delighted to become the 194th country on the planet.

Now for some rain; I have always been a strong proponent of People’s right to dispose of themselves. Unfortunately, there are two obstacles that prevent me from calling this dash for independence “national self-determination”.

Firstly, without wanting to anger the Kosovars, they do not seem to fit the definition of a nation. 90% of the inhabitants identify themselves as Albanian and anti-Serbian. A number of them even demand unification into a "Great Albania". Furthermore, the 10% or so of Serbian Kosovars identify themselves as Serbian and have set fire to anything American, Albanian or European in the last week and a half. They would not only like to remain in Kosovo but also still believe in Milosevic’s “Great Serbia” program that would have united all Serbs from Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro into one Nation-State. I state my point that Kosovo is not a nation-state but rather two nationalities forced to live within arbitrary borders (imposed by the Ottoman Empire centuries ago) and hell-bent on hating each-other.

Secondly, national self-determination involves the sovereignty of the people BY the people. Being very far from a direct democracy, I believe President Thaci was not justified in declaring this independence unilaterally. That’s right, no referendum, Thaci only counted that 90% of his province was Albanian and then told the world that at least 90% of Kosovars wanted independence. It’s funny; he says AT LEAST 90% because he doesn’t discount the possibility that some Serbian Kosovars might want their own country yet there is no room for the hypothesis that one or two Albanian Kosovars might not want secession.

Nevertheless, Kosovo is now independent, being officially recognised by some major world powers (USA, Germany, UK, France, Turkey). I must also mention that many major powers have refused to do so (Canada, Spain, Russia, China). This division is even more pronounced in countries with Serbian populations. The American embassy in Belgrade was basically burnt to the ground. Protests in Banja Luka, Bosnia have reunited massive amounts of Serbs (up to 100,000) against the Kosovars. All border posts around the Serbian provinces of Kosovo have been destroyed.

Thaci has, of course, assured Serbian Kosovars that this new country would not be one of discrimination but rather of equality for all "Kosovars''. I truly believe him yet the Serbian Kosovars remember that Croats, Slovenians, Macedonians, Montenegrins and Muslims were told the same thing for fifty years as the dominant Serbian population monopolised all political institutions in Yugoslavia and went on an exodus of ethnic cleansing in the 1990s. My point is that the Serbs can’t believe Thaci because if it was them, they would make sure to get rid of that pesky 10% of foreigners.

The European Union and NATO are trying their darndest to prevent such a situation of human rights violations to occur again in the Balkans by sending in a peace force and by offering “fast-track” clauses to include Serbia into the EU much before they should be. Needless to say, Belgrade has denounced the peace force, affirming that Kosovo's secession is illegal and if NATO troops enter the province, they are aggressively and illegally entering Serbia. As for the bribes by the EU, Serbia is now riddled with burning flags of the European Union.

Just as with the relations between Serbs and Croats, time is the only helpful factor in the equation between Serbs and the new Kosovo. All the western world can do for now is try to prevent a genocide while both parties have time to cool down.

(Pictured: Some Bosnian civilians dumped in a mass grave during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre - The new Kosovar flag...not very inspiring)

End.