The happy innocent days when Serbs thought that with Slobo gone, they would be treated fairly.
I have received a number of emails from friends curious to know the inside track on the Kosovo situation from their man on the ground in Serbia.
The problem is that when one is very close to the situation, and are disinterest enough to be able to see the complexities, it become very hard to summarise the story for those watching through the grossly distorted lenses of the infotainment industry (aka the media).
Even though I am not a Serbs, I am emotionally exhausted and drained by the whole topic. I just want it to be over now so the country can move on. That said I owe it to many of you to give you some insights that I have gleaned living in Serbia and having seen the situation close-up for three years. This is my position statement on Kosovo:
The Serbs are rightfully furious. Kosovo has, indeed, been illegally stolen from them by means of gross and illegal violence (the bombing) . They have been bullied by a strongly biased anti-Serb EU and America that cannot admit that they were duped by the terrorist KLA into illegally bombing a sovereign state in defence of Ethnic Nationalist separatists who mostly staged a humanitarian crisis (I say mostly becuase there is no doubt Milosevic’s forces did commit at least some atrocities). The EU and US are violating long-standing and fundamental principles of International Law and diplomacy - Sovereign Equality and Inviolable borders - two pillars of modern stability since World War 2.
States recognising Kosovo insisted that it is not a precedent because it is a “special case”. The reasoning is that supposed crimes committed by the Serbian government against Kosovars have removed Serbia’s right to govern this part of its own country. This reasoning is baseless in law and ignores the fact that those crimes were massively and deliberately exaggerated by orders of magnitude.
Additionally the appalling treatment of minorities by Albanians is ignored. Serbian, Roma and Gorani minorities have suffered much more ethnic violence and deracination than Albanians. By that logic of the EU/US they Albanians have ruled themselves out of governing the province too.
The democratic and pluralist Serbia of 2008 is being punished today for the actions of a deposed and dead dictator, himself an Ethnic Nationalist, acting without proper mandate in a country that violently opposed to him. It is like punishing the people of Iraq for the actions of Saddam Hussein.
The reasons and justifications for NATO intervening in Kosovo in 1999 were utterly baseless and illegal.
The reasons and justifications offered by the EU/US for granting Kosovo independence today are also baseless and illegal. They are desperate to be done with the mess they have created in Kosovo. They are also desperate not to establish a precedent - even though that is exactly exactly what Kosovo is: The intellectual, moral and legal justification that every separatist region of the world was waiting for.
With all that said, here is the shocker: I support Kosovo independence.
As a pro-Serb I find myself in the strange situation of being outraged by the way in which Kosovo was forced from Serbia but at the same time convinced that the best thing may now be to just let it go and move on. If the EU were trying to force Serbia to integrate Kosovo there would be war. When I ask Serbs the simple questions: “Do you really want to have over a million hostile Albanians as citizens of Serbia?” the answer is resoundingly “No”.
I believe you would have 500 year problem if you forced Kosovo back into Serbia. There would be massive community tensions, possibly insurrection and destabilising war. I believe Kosovo is economically untenable and would be a burden to the State of Serbia. I think there is better way, and this is what it is. Since the the people of Kosovo and the people of Serbia will be neighbours forever, some sort of accommodation must eventually be reached. I believe the best chance of that is when both regions are more prosperous and borders are completely open: both in the EU, for example.
If it were done to me (and it is not of course, I support the people of Serbia in what they decide) this is what I would do if I were president of Serbia.
I would endorse full independence and international recognition for the State of Kosovo with a commitment to mutual social and economic development, with the following conditions:
- Financial compensation to be paid to Serbia for the illegal and wrongful bombing by NATO in 1999
- EU sponsored recompense for the 400bn of Serbian State assets in Kosovo
- Full acknowledgement that putative Serbian crimes in Kosovo - and the justifications for the bombing - were massively over stated
- Full recognition that the Republic of Serbia is surrendering its rightful sovereignty over its province of Kosovo in the interests of peace and stability and with the understanding that its sovereignty and territory is henceforth fixed forever
- Immediate fast-track accession status for Serbia AND Kosovo into the EU
- Kosovo to remain a sovereign state until at least 2030, with no option for unifying with neighbours or other secessionist territories.
- UN/NATO funded peacekeeping mission to guarantee the safety of minorities (Gorani, Roma and Serbs) until 2030 or until the Serbia Parliament agrees to end the mission.
- World Heritage Status for remaining Serbian Churches and monasteries with permanent guards and protection
- Harsh hate crime legislation to be part of the Kosovo law guaranteeing safety for all against ethnic violence and sectarian oppression
- Right of return and/or full restitution for deracinated Serbs, Roma and Gorani
- 20 year energy and mineral rights concessions for the Republic or Serbia in Kosovo mines
- Guaranteed investments and structural loans to bootstrap Sustainable Economic Development (Business Process Outsourcing, Renewable Energy, Hi Tech Low Infrastructure Industries)
- That the EU funds a full transport and infrastructure upgrade to Serbian sections of corridors 10 and 8 to include redundant fibre links to Timishoara, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Budapest and Zagreb
- Serbia to retain Free Trade Agreements with Russian Federation and the EU with the exclusive right to conduit trade for Serbian manufactured or produced goods
- A UN/NATO funded Peace and Reconciliation Commission to resolve and finally account for 20th Century Balkan History and end the ludicrous anti-Serb bias in the narrative of the Yugoslav wars and super state institutions like ICTY
This is my best case scenario. Other scenarios - all of them ranging from very unlikely to ludicrous - include:
- An orgy of separatism and unification, with Kosovo partitioned into Albanian south and Serbian north. Republika Srpska (Serbian part of Bosnia) secedes from Bosnia and formally joins up up with Serbia and Northern Kosovo to form the Greater Serbia of Milosevic’s dreams. Meanwhile Albanians in Macedonia and Montenegro secede and join with Albanian and Souther Kosovo to form a Greater Albania
- A Cyprus like partitioning with a partly recognised southern Kosovo continuing in limbo for another 20 years
- Kosovo slips into destitution as a failed mafia state and requests reunification with thriving Serbia
- Kosovo merges with Albania
- Russians assist Serbia in forcefully recapturing Kosovo
Here are some other things I have learned from the Kosovo situation:
Population is Destiny.
For at least 1000 years Kosovo has been considered by Serbs to be their spiritual heartland. The problem is that the Collins Atlas of World History is right: Half of history is human migration (the other half is mostly population fluctuations and conquest). In Kosovo, these factors went against the Serbs. Due to migration and rapid Albanian population growth, Kosovo’s population became overwhelmingly Albanian in the 20th century and that fact alone made its eventual separation from Serbia inevitable. Population is destiny, and the Serbs in Kosovo once outbred and outnumbered were eventually, and dare I say it, inevitably, deracinated. [NB. It is a little known fact that the biggest number of victims of Ethnic Cleansing are Serbs, with hundreds of thousands of Serbian refugees (or Internally Displaced People) from Croatia and Kosovo still crowded into emergency housing across Serbia.
You reap what is sown in your name
Human rights violations carried out in the name of Serbs inflicted enormous damage on the reputation of Serbs and Serbia. A perception took hold that Serbs were genocidal murderers and this (unfair) perception was exploited by Albanian propagandists to devastating effect. If Milosevic has not walked into the KLA trap with his over reacting in Kosovo, there could never have been any global support for Kosovo.
Passivity and learned helplessness blight Serbia
Unlike other Balkan peoples, overseas Serbs had no cohesive lobby and even today the Serbian Diaspora is muted and ineffectual. Overseas Serbs are the key to the future of Serbia not only as returnees, but also as global lobbyists and investors in Serbia (via remittances or bankrolling business opportunities). Are they helping? Not that I can see. Currently many overseas Serbs have a contemptuous attitude to their homeland. Those that consider themselves patriots damage the reputation of the country further by fighting at tennis championships or through online abuse. A major problem is resigned passivity, self-pity and Learned Helplessness.
People refuse to vote out corrupt politicians. They lament “Its Serbia brother”, or plead “What can we do”? The answer is “Plenty”. It may just be pure exhaustion and cynicism but Serbs today do not seem to have the energy to tackle their problems forcefully. People put their faith in “The Russians” or prayer or magic. The situation is aggravated by dreadful and self-serving local politicians and a harmful cultural artefact that can only be described as some sort of Martyr Syndrome, a national self-pity that blocks the nation’s healing and stops Serbs account for what happened to them and for what was done in their name. Serbs should stop being furious with Albanians or Americans and direct their fury at the corrupt political elites who have inflicted disasters on them. The political classes continue to threaten their future with short-termism and political cowardice (i.e. refusing to state publicly what most know and believe, namely that Kosovo is irreversibly lost to Serbia). Until Serbs do something to help themselves , and stop wallowing in self-pity (however justified) , they will continue to languish in limbo.
We have amused ourselves to death
Kosovo has taught us that you do not need an army or nuclear missiles, you only need to fool those who do into taking your side. Neil Postman’s worst nightmare has come to pass. The infotainment industry now drives the world.
I think it may actually be worse, way worse and that William S. Burroughs is right:
“We have a new type of rule now. Not one man rule, or rule of aristocracy, or plutocracy, but of small groups elevated to positions of absolute power by random pressures and subject to political and economic factors that leave little room for decision. They are representatives of abstract forces who’ve reached power through surrender of self. The iron-willed dictator is a thing of the past. There will be no more Stalins, no more Hitlers. The rulers of this most insecure of all worlds are rulers by accident inept, frightened pilots at the controls of a vast machine they cannot understand, calling in experts to tell them which buttons to push” - William S. Burroughs
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There is a plan for Kosovo. You cannot say that there is no any possible alternative plan for Kosovo minorities to live in peace and be successful in modern United Europe. These are the concrete details of a 50-50 % Plan for Albanians and Serbian population in Kosovo.
http://sasha-bogdanov.livejournal.com/119407.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPGgG3Y4BEM Oj Kosovo, Kosovo uzivo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0YF8zu-6FM Oj Kosovo!
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/02/18/world/20080218KOSOVO_8.html
Ethnic Albanians in Pristina gathered around a newly unveiled monument after Kosovo declared independence. For the ethnic Albanians who make up 95 percent of the population of Kosovo, independence marks a new beginning, after decades of repression and war.
Photo: Damir Sagolj/Reuters
The real flag of Kosovo independence is a flag of Great Albania.
The blue pseudo flag of Albanian Kosovo demonstrated in official press conference is nothing but camouflage for brutal and cynical annexation of territory of Christian Serbia in favor of Albanian Muslim majority which aggressive plan is very clear - to build one more Muslim Albanian country on the occupied territory of defend less Serbia and on the territory of cheated Europe. All the Albanians in Kosovo in these days demonstrate nothing but this shameful truth for humanity.
Kosovo needs a 50 – 50 % solution and representation of Serbians and Albanians in regional parliament body as an Autonomy in Serbia - Nothing more and nothing less. This is not a begging. This is a moral duty of European and International community to enforce 50-50 % presentation of Serbian and Albanian population in local Government and Parliament in Kosovo – And let it be local – two Houses of Representatives - Parliament of Kosovo. This is what Kosovo Constitutional Chapter must mean for these people once and forever – A True Justice - a 50 – 50 % solution and representation for Serbians and Albanians in regional parliament body and in the local Government as in normal European Autonomy in Serbia - Nothing more and nothing less. This is what The Constitution and all the local powers should mean for population of Kosovo.
This is what must be implemented in Kosovo as in a European Autonomy of European country Serbia. It must be done once and forever by the UN, by NATO and by EU in Kosovo, the lost by Christian Europe, betrayed and forgotten European Autonomy of European and Christian Republic of Serbia.
Instead of this precise and hard legal work of International Institutions in Kosovo we become witnesses of a total failure of US policy and attempt to sell on TV an immoral show of obstruction of Justice and Christian and European values in Kosovo as a victory of freedom. But it is a victory of an open form of aggressive, Muslim oriented, nationalistic tyranny on the territory of cheated and manipulated Europe.
In Kosovo nowadays Albanians have to be brought to courts to make them become less aggressive, and less greedy. International community must stop Albanians now and must do not allow them to be this open aggressive and victorious. Their open new Bolsheviks’ policy directed to declining and robbed Christian Serbian population in Kosovo must be stopped and brought to total defeate by International community, by NATO and by EU if we want a real peace in Europe.
The truth is shameful for the US State Department, especially if the people of US State Department are the men who wrote this openly only pro-Albanian so called Kosovo Constitution. There is no any norm in this document that would implement a basic 50-50 % norm of representation for Serbian and Albanian citizens in Kosovo. There is nothing like this in so called Kosovo Constitution.
Then comes a question – Then what the US and NATO had come to Kosovo for?! Was it done for a shame – just to confiscate this European Christian land from Serbian Christian defendless minority and brutally give it to the aggressive Muslim and atheistic Albanian majority in Kosovo backed by NATO overwhelming military force?! – What kind of ethic and moral principles made you to do so and act as betrayers of faith in your good will by Serbian Christian minority?!
That creates a shocking, colorful precedent in modern history.
Today it is not the Serbian minority in Kosovo but it is the Albanian majority who are the open despots and robbers. And it is going on and on for the last 9 years. This is what US and EU bureaucracy and their propaganda hide from American Christians and European citizens and concerned people all over the world today.
Look at the beautiful Serbian towns and villages that Albanians openly confiscated from Christian Serbian minority and openly possessed of what they robbed in a very cynical way.
Actually, the same way, Shiites’ leaders used American intervention into Iraq and Baghdad to rob and discriminate Sunni minority under US military presence. US silently supported these open and confiscated robbery and annexations by Shiites’ militia and Shiites’ authorities. And now you can see the results – corrupted morality creates a perfect base for violence and growth of terrorism from both sides in Iraq.
The shameful similiar robbery happened in Kosovo for last 9 years, and they want to legitimate it by International recognition of so called «Independence of Kosovo».
It is a massive crime toward Serbian oppressed Christian population and we should not legalize this crime against Serbian people at in any circumstances.
Serbian population of Kosovo had been bombed by NATO and US military force at the end of this conflict in 1998. It is more than enough reason for NATO and Europe to come to Kosovo and to establish real equality for Serbian minority. Albanians offer them somehow a shameful 10 % presentation which is not acceptable at any means. Serbian population of Kosovo had to flee from that depleted uranium’s bombing by NATO in 1999 and since then did not get an honest and secure chance to return to their 1000 years Christian towns, Churches and villages. Europe must give them a second chance to return to their beautiful modern European towns into their historical Serbian homeland in Kosovo as a normal return into their homeland in Europe.
Look at the record of last 9 years. Albanian power does not give oppressed Serbian Christians equal rights on every day basis. This must be recognized by International community and Europeans and American people should stand for the right cause – cause of freedom and justice and equal rights for robbed and oppressed Christian Serbian minority on their own homeland territory only because NATO and US President Bush used and continue to use force in a wrong way – the shameful and disgusting way - In Kosovo they support a greedy, armed by NATO and very cynical Albanian aggressor.
The US Bush’s Administration and not effective European bureaucracy follow primitive way of accepting criminal «One nation’s power» of Albanians in Kosovo. And Administration of President Bush tries to legitimate such a despotic, hypocritical regime in Kosovo.
Look at the record of last 9 years. But nothing has been done to make Albanians obey laws, follow the real way of justice and make them truly to perform exact equality and liberty for all – I mean concrete presentation of 50-50 % Serbians and Albanians in all fields of life in this region. Nothing has been done to make Albanians obey this type of law and order in Europe. After such long record by Albanian majority of systematic obstruction of all principals of equality and true human values and justice, it is simply nothing to be proud of! If you give an open aggressor International recognition and Independence on a disputed territory, than you support robbery and open Albanian aggressor under the NATO flag. It is a Shameful act of tyranny to demoralized Christian minority on territory of Europe. Nothing can be more cynical than such acts.
The US stays on the side Muslim cunning aggressor in this conflict. Thanks US presence in Kosovo Christian minority is defeated and demoralized and kicked out from its homeland and churches and properties. It is way too bad and shameful for our generation to be declared as a victory of freedom. It has nothing to do with freedom for equal among equals Christian European nation what the Serbian people. It is a total obstruction of Justice. It is a victory of theft and robbery and violent annexation of Christian land with all properties of robbed Serbian population.
There is nothing to be proud about. It is a shameful act of brutal anti-Christianity under American flag with NATO long term involvement. It is a moral dead-end and moral catastrophe of presentation of NATO and the US among Orthodox Christian people and countries. It is shocking, and it will never be forgotten by Orthodox Christianity everywhere, not only in Russia or Greece or Serbia. There is an alternative choice. There is a 50-50 solution which has to be implemented by NATO in Kosovo as an equal Autonomy of Albanians and Serbs in Serbia as a European Union’s country. This is what should be and still must be implemented by authorities and all possible ways including police and military force.
Today the message is very clear – We, NATO and The American military force, came to Kosovo, where actually there were 1500 Christian churches in service before NATO and the USA with your historical mission came. So then the Americans come and take this land by force and give this land under total control of atheistic and Muslim Albanians majority. Hey, Serbian Christians! Take 5-10 % of symbolical seats in the Parliament of Independent Kosovo and be happy and keep silence!
Do you understand that this is total- total! – Political failure and Criminalization of American mission in the world? There is no lower moral point in American representation in Europe, especially in old Christian Orthodox countries such as Greece, Georgia and Russia.
You, my fellow Americans, by making Christian Serbs a meaningless minority in Kosovo and dividing them by force from Serbia – you Americans, become a monster, a Terminator in Europe, a Tool of de-Christianization of Europe in big scale by whole big territories!
Occupation Kosovo by NATO and US military forces for further de-Christianization of old Orthodox territory of Serbian Kosovo is unprecedented act of political and military vandalism in modern European history.
And we tell you in a very clear language - there is a clear legal alternative - we must build a legislature in Kosovo like quote’s’ legislatures in Switzerland, like in Iraq or Afghanistan you try to establish on a parliament and government level.
The precedent for NATO and the US military force must be once and for all -
- Yes we came to support the oppressed ethnic minority or majority. We established by force the Rule of Law. But the Rule of Law where ever we would come ever means for any of counter standing side one main legitimate point - after our predictable victory none of counter standing forces ever get an absolute advantage of legally represented and Internationally recognized force - maximum anybody may expect from our participation and breakthrough is maximum 50 % seats at any governing level. Period.
When this will be a Universal principal of NATO involvement anywhere in the world then there will be no grounds for speculations over legal or illegal mission this one particularly of NATO is in the particular place. You wanted a military help for a minority - you got it. Yes we came and helped quickly. But none of former oppressed ones are aloud to become new dictators from the name of nationalistic majority ever. This must be a UN and NATO condition that everybody in the world must know and be ready to obey it.
This is why that 50-50 % principal as a Universal political principal of NATO and UN troop’s participation in regional conflicts must be declared and that is the principal which NATO may represent without exceptions as a principal model of Higher Justice for all the people of the world. This is the key principal that must be implemented in any zone of regional conflict as an understandable precondition and a Universal Political Principal of any the UN or NATO military forces’ involvement into regional conflicts.
Alexander Bogdanov,
Saint-Petersburg,
Russia
More concrete details of a 50-50 % Plan for Albanians and Serbian population in Kosovo and what must be implemented by EU and International UN forces in Kosovo you may read in my blog
http://sasha-bogdanov.livejournal.com/
http://sasha-bogdanov.livejournal.com/110502.html
http://sasha-bogdanov.livejournal.com/119407.html
http://sasha-bogdanov.livejournal.com/111024.html
http://sasha-bogdanov.livejournal.com/105018.html#cutid1
http://sasha-bogdanov.livejournal.com/108763.html
I would vote for you
Speaking about stealing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VWZoKWBYXE
This is how the Serbs are grieving over the loss of Kosova - by stealing and looting the western stores. So big is the desperation that they are carrying the loot with their teeth - since their arms are already full. Shows a lot about the character of the nation.
Check this:
Freedomhouse
Wikipedia:
Freedom House is a nonprofit organization. It is predominantly funded by the U.S. government,[4] and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
…The methodology Freedom House uses for its reports has been criticised by social scientist K. A. Bollen for its perceived bias towards countries with pro-US positions.
Shmosovo Report
…In late 1997, an ethnic Albanian guerrilla movement called the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began a series of attacks against Serbs in the province, as well as against fellow Albanians deemed to be collaborating with the Serbian government. Serbian government forces responded to the growing insurgency with disproportionate force, and after two rounds of internationally-sponsored negotiations in February-March 1999 failed to bring an end to the increasing violence in the province, NATO launched a 78-day bombing campaign in March 1999 aimed at forcing the rump Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) to relinquish control over the province.
…The March 2004 violence and the failure of the Serb community to participate in the parliamentary elections created new uncertainties about Kosovo’s future. During the course of 2004–2005, fears that extremists would begin attacking international forces in Kosovo led UNMIK to abandon its “standards before status” policy, under which Kosovo’s future status would be determined only after its political leadership and society as a whole had achieved certain standards regarding human rights and political and civil liberties, particularly in the areas of democratization, rule of law, respect for minority rights, and respect for the security of neighboring states. After the March 2004 violence, the new policy officially became “status with standards,” but it was soon clear that the international community had decided to proceed with determining Kosovo’s final status regardless of the human rights situation.
…The Albanian population in Kosovo, which is predominantly Muslim, on the whole enjoys freedom of belief and religious association, but there have been consistent, systematic attacks on Orthodox Christian churches and other holy sites associated with the Serb population. During the March 2004 violence, 30 Christian churches and monasteries were destroyed or damaged. Since NATO took control of Kosovo in 1999, roughly 130 churches and other properties belonging to the Serbian Orthodox Church have been destroyed or damaged. Over the past several years, Kosovo’s smallProtestantcommunity has claimed that “Islamic extremists” were attending services so as to be able to identify worshippers and later harass them. There were also several reported incidents of attacks on Protestant places of worship.
…only half of Kosovo women between the ages of 25 and 64 have received even basic elementary education. In some rural areas of Kosovo, this figure reaches only 10 percent. In May 2006, the Education Committee in Skenderaj municipality unanimously agreed to prohibit married women from receiving a secondary education because “they should be taking care of their husbands.” Similarly, in many rural areas, women are effectively disenfranchised by “family voting,” in which the male head of a household casts ballots for the entire family. Domestic violence is an area of serious concern.
HRW high hopes
Let’s use right name, Failureovo.
Jon I do not know what will the solution be to Kosovo as I see each way you side it just seems to make things worse for everybody. I don’t know if Serbia can move on because its politicians for at least a decade will have Kosovo as a policy. I simply don’t know, this Balkan nation building has been going on for 20 years now to be honest with you let them build a hundred states. who is going to stop our crazy people? Tito is dead…
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