For someone who has not seen or extensively read news beyond the headlines, Kosovo is a vague reference to an unknown country. And yet, President Clinton just announced that at least 4000 American marines may be deployed in the region soon. According to him, America’s national interests are at stake, and action should be taken now rather than later.

But what is happening in Kosovo that concerns America? What dangers may come to the world in general, and to America in particular, from whatever is happening? Is there a real reason for anyone to get involved?

A general overview of the situation and the dynamics that brought about American involvement was given in the presentation The Kosovo massacre: Where? What? Why? on Tuesday, Feb. 14. This article provides some background for people who could not make it to the presentation, and will hopefully serve as an incentive for readers who want to learn more. (Informative handouts are available at the library circulation desk and a videotape of the presentation is available on reserve.)

Kosovo is a province in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. It is located northeast of Albania, north of Macedonia, southwest of Serbia, and east of Montenegro. Its population is roughly 2 million, of which approximately 90% are Albanians, 6-8% Serbs, and the rest Turks, Roms, or Egyptians.

In the last year, the region has been dominated by violence—mostly exercised on Albanians, who are seeking independence from Serbia. Since the early 1990s, all parties that were involved in the Yugoslav conflict seemed to agree on one thing: the Yugoslav crisis began in Kosovo, and it will end in Kosovo.¹ The Kosovo crisis has set in motion horrible events like massive ethnic cleansing in Croatia and Bosnia, as well as recent events in Kosovo itself.

While the beginning of the conflict may lie far back in history, for the purposes of this article, the tangible beginning was in 1989. Until then, Kosovo enjoyed a status similar to that of Croatia and Slovenia, which were republics within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Although the Albanians were not happy with the situation, soon it would get worse.

The conflict started with the rise in power of one man: the president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic. In early 1988, the Serbian assembly, led by Milosevic, adopted amendments to the Serbian Constitution that removed Kosovo’s control over the Kosovar police force, criminal and civil courts, civil defense, and economic, social and education policy. Moreover, the amendments effectively prohibited the use of Albanian as an official language in Kosovo, forbade the sale of property to Albanians, closed the Albanian language newspaper, closed the Kosovo Academy of Sciences, and resulted in the expulsion of 80,000 Kosovo Albanians from state employment.

To force these amendments through the Kosovo parliament as required by the Federal Constitution, members of the Serbian security forces surrounded the Kosovo Parliament building with tanks and armored personnel carriers, and inserted special police and communist party functionaries among the Kosovo delegates. These actions were met by mass demonstrations by the Kosovo Albanian population, and resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency in Kosovo by the Serbian government. More than 100 Albanians were killed in the demonstrations.

In addition to politically and economically marginalizing the Kosovo Albanians, the Serbian regime also began a process of marginalizing the other Yugoslav republics by blocking the rotation of the federal presidency and removing non-Serbs from key federal positions. The increasing fear felt by Milosevic’s policies in Kosovo and a growth of Croatian nationalism in response to Serbia’s new nationalist politics led to the breakup of Yugoslavia. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in June 1991.

The Serbian regime retaliated by ordering the Yugoslav National Army and associated paramilitary forces to occupy strategic positions in Slovenia and Croatia. The ensuing conflict resulted in the commission of mass atrocities against civilians in Croatia. Prompted by the fear of facing the same fate as the Kosovo Albanians, the republics of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia declared independence as well.

The Serbian regime responded to these declarations of independence by instigating a war of ethnic aggression, which relied extensively on terrorizing civilians to accomplish its objects of ethnic separation. The intensity and barbarity of these acts eventually led to the creation of an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.2

Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, Kosovo Albanians have sought independence and, for almost 10 years, have organized countless peaceful protests. Even though the international community has paid lip service to their Ghandi-like stance, the Kosovo Albanians have been subjected to a systematic denial of their basic human rights through a policy of arbitrary arrests, police violence, detention incommunicado, torture, and summary imprisonment.

Kosovo Albanians protest against  the removal of their autonomy in 1989.

Albanians have organized in military units to  protect themselves from ethnic cleansing.  This is a photo of the Kosovo Liberation Army

In the past year, the Kosovo Albanians have been the victims of governmental Serbian ethnic aggression, resulting in the killing of more than 2000 Albanians (many of them women, children, and the elderly), the displacement of over 350,000 civilians, the deliberate destruction of over 18,000 homes, the siege of almost half of the population centers, and the looming prospect of mass starvation. In response, Albanians have organized in a collective self defense.

Until late 1998, the international community was pursuing a policy of containment—merely guarding against spillover of the conflict into neighboring countries. There are approximately six million Albanians in the Balkans, only three million of whom are within Albania. Two million are in Kosovo, over half a million are in Macedonia, 50,000 to 100,000 are in Montenegro, and about 300,000 have recently emigrated to Greece. The conflict in Kosovo may spill over into Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia, Greece, and possibly Turkey (with which Albania has a treaty of cooperation in the defense field). The likelihood of a conflict within the NATO alliance terrifies the Western world.³ WWI, which started in the Balkans, brings back bad memories for America. The American administration would ostensibly prefer to take preventative measures rather than salvage Europe from another enormous catastrophe.

At the heart of the international community’s incapacity to deal effectively with the conflict in Kosovo is its overwhelming opposition to the idea of an independent Kosovo. However, it is important to recognize what nearly all Albanians and many Serbs already believe: that Kosovo will eventually separate from Serbia. The real questions are when, how, and at what cost in human suffering.⁴

Recently, the Contact Group, led by the United States, has forced both sides to negotiate. In these negotiations, Albanians have proposed a three-year interim period during which NATO troops would protect them from the Serb ethnic agression. At the end of such period, Albanians want to hold a referendum, based on the right to self-determination, to decide their future democratically.

Many political analysts, as well as legal experts, agree that the Albanian stance is a reasonable one and that an independent Kosovo is just a natural progression of the dissolution of ex-Yugoslavia. An authoritative argument on why the recognition of an independent Kosovo will not create a “legal precedent” that would endanger the world’s stability is presented by the International Crisis Group.⁵ The legal bases behind this argument include:

1) the legal and factual similarities between Kosovo and the other republics of the former Yugoslavia, which have received recognition by the international community;

2) the precedent established by the international community in recognizing Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia;

3) the historical fact that Kosovo, while legitimately part of Yugoslavia, has never been legitimately incorporated into Serbia;

4) the international status of the former Yugoslavia as a dissolved state;⁶

5) the extent to which the people of Kosovo have been subjected to ethnic aggression; and

6) analogy to the recent state practice associated with the Hasavyurt Agreement of 1996, and the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement.⁷

Human rights abuses in Kosovo have been tolerated for the sake of territorial integrity. “[T]he international community’s interest in preserving international borders should not be elevated above the imperative of halting atrocities that are leading to thousands of dead and many more displaced. Seeking to preserve what is left of the Yugoslav borders by closing their eyes to the potential death of thousands is both futile and inexcusable and could lead to the regional instability that the international community is trying to avoid.”⁸ Human sacrifices should no longer be the price for sovereign stability.

History has proved that artificial multiethnic entities cannot survive unless there is a will for co-existence among the interested parties. This simple historical truth is evidenced by the disintegration of the great colonial Empires, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, most recently, the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

There will eventually come a day when everyone will be a citizen of a world without borders. But before that day comes, all nations of the world, big and small, should be allowed to develop their own identity based on their most inherent right—the right to decide their own future. Such a right must be recognized for the people of Kosovo.

¹ Noel Malcolm, KOSOVO: A SHORT HISTORY xxvii (1998).

² See International Crisis Group, Intermediate Sovereignty as a Basis for Resolving the Kosovo Crisis, <http://www.crisisweb.org/projects/sbalkans/reports/kos07repa.htm>.

³ Both Greece and Turkey are NATO members.

⁴ See International Crisis Group, KOSOVO:BITE THE BULLET, <http://crisisweb.org/projects/sbalkans/reports/kos09main.htm>.

⁵ See Intermediate Sovereignty as a Basis for Resolving the Kosovo Crisis, supra note 2. 

⁶ Serbia and Montenegro have asserted the formation of a joint independent state as the continuation of ex-Yugoslavia. However, this entity has not been formally recognized as a state by the international community. Cia Factbook, <http://www.odci.gov/CIA/publications/factbook/sr.html>.

⁷ Upon a majority vote of the population, the territory of Northern Ireland may separate from United Kingdom and become part of Ireland.

⁸ Human Rights Watch, Role of International Community, <http://www.hrw.org/reports98/kosovo/Kos9810-13.htm>.