The heart of Serbia
What’s the big deal about Kosovo?
Divna Calic and Marija Glisic
How many of you can find Kosovo on the map of the world? Ten points for the correct answer, five points for the correct continent, zero points if you “Googled” it! With the exception of geography majors, most of you would probably have great difficulty locating this region on the map. Once you do find it, you may be disappointed to realize that Kosovo is the size of an average farm in Manitoba. So why is such a tiny place the cause of so much international controversy these days?
To understand what the “big deal” about Kosovo is, it’s necessary to provide a quick lesson on the history of the Balkans.
To begin, it’s necessary to go back nearly a thousand years, to 1190. In that year, Kosovo became the administrative and cultural centre of medieval Serbian state. Over the next 10 centuries, Kosovo became the cradle of the Serbian civilization. It also became the heartland of the Serbian Orthodox heritage and identity and home to the most sacred ancient monasteries and churches. Kosovo is to Serbs what Jerusalem is to the Jewish people, or what Mecca is to the Muslims. Kosovo is the heart of Serbia.
Jump ahead to 1912, when, at the Conference of Ambassadors in London, Serbia was given sovereignty over Kosovo. Then, during the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, the Yugoslav Federation (consisting of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia) experienced a time of economic and political prosperity. Seeking refuge from the instability of their own country, hundreds of thousands of Albanians migrated to Kosovo looking for a better life. As a consequence of this massive migration, Albanians came to represent 74 per cent of the population in the Kosovo region. The Yugoslav Federation granted Albanian immigrants full citizenship and attempted to help them integrate into Yugoslav society, all the while recognizing their heritage by building schools that provided lectures in both Serbo-Croatian and Albanian. In addition, the Albanians in Kosovo were allowed to maintain their culture and traditions through their own media and they were also granted seats in Yugoslav parliament. Resentment grew through the Yugoslav Federation towards the continuous demographic explosion of births among low-income, poorly educated Albanians who became dependents of social-assistance programs and who became a financial drain on the federation.
Then, in the mid-1980s, large numbers of Serbians migrated out of Kosovo in response to Albanian intimidation and increasingly aggressive attempts to create an ethnically clean Kosovo. With this end in mind, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was formed.
The 1990s was a tumultuous time for the entire Balkans region. In 1992, the Yugoslav Federation began to crumble. Kosovo remained under Serbian jurisdiction. A year later, the American-sponsored Dayton Peace Agreement was signed, putting an end to the civil war in Bosnia. Kosovo was recognized as a Serbian territory within Serbian borders and was placed under Serbian administrative control.
Meanwhile, throughout the ’90s, the KLA was fighting against the legitimate Serbian government. Hashim Thachi climbed through the KLA ranks, eventually becoming its leader in 1999. Thachi is held responsible for organizing numerous terrorist acts targeting both Serbs and mainstream Albanians opposed to Albanian nationalism, and in 1997 was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the court in Pristina (the capital city of the region of Kosovo), after which he went into hiding.
Towards the end of the ’90s, the situation changed dramatically. In 1999, the NATO bombing of Serbia was initiated by the United States of America. Thachi re-emerged as the new leader of the KLA and all charges against him were dismissed. Following the NATO air strike campaign, UN Resolution 1244 formally placed Kosovo under the administration of the United Nations and reaffirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia — meaning that Kosovo was to remain part of Serbia and that the KLA and other Kosovo Albanian groups became demilitarized. Despite this requirement, Thachi and the KLA assumed true control of Kosovo, turning it into the capital of drug, weapon and human (women and children) trafficking in order to fund their terrorist activities. It is estimated that the KLA is responsible for transporting $2-billion worth of illegal drugs into Europe every year. It is impossible to know the exact number of girls and young women (ages 14 to 24) sold into prostitution every year, but conservative estimates place the figure in the thousands.
This takes us to the present. Last month, backed by the United States, Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia, and Hashim Thachi declared himself the prime minister of the self-proclaimed independent Kosovo. This directly violated UN Resolution 1244, and consequently, the head of the UN mission was obligated to annul this decision but has not done so to this date.
Do you think it’s right for a group of immigrants to declare independence from a country to which they immigrated? Previously considered unimaginable, Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence breaks every international law, treaty and agreement concerning territorial integrity and sovereignty that exist. Further, Kosovo is now recognized as independent by the United States and a few of its powerful allies.
And that brings us to Canada. Canada has a long and proud history of fighting against injustice and has emerged as a champion of human rights everywhere. As Canadians, we have a responsibility to fight injustice at home and abroad. This most grievous violation of the basic rights of a sovereign country should not be supported by Canadians who fight for justice. Say no to independence for Kosovo.
Divna and Marija were both born and raised in Serbia; Divna is a second-year pharmacy student, and Marija is a fourth-year-honours student in psychology.
