Kosovo: a long time coming

Why independence was necessary

Vanja Custovic

How many of you would know if someone was lying about the history of Kosovo?

I asked myself this as I read the article “The heart of Serbia,” published in the Manitoban on March 5. The goal of the article was to convince Canadians not to support the world’s newest state which, declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17, 2008.

To begin, the original article was full of historical inaccuracies and wrong dates. One example being that the Bosnian war ended in 1993, when in reality the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war was signed in 1995. Yugoslavia did not start to crumble in 1992 but in 1991 when Slovenia and Croatia split.

The writer conveniently omitted all history where Kosovo was not under Serbian rule — like the fact that before the Serbs claimed it in 1190, Kosovo was Dardania and was inhabited by Thracians and Illyrians, both strong candidates for the ancestors of the modern Albanians. And the fact that the Ottoman Empire ruled Kosovo for almost 500 years from 1445 to 1912. And even though those facts show medieval Serbia only held it for about 250 years, this article even claimed Kosovo was “the cradle of Serbian civilization” for “10 centuries,” starting at 1190. Do the math and marvel at this time-travelling civilization.

It was during that 500 years of Ottoman rule that the Serbs gradually shrank away and Albanians became the vast majority. By 1912, Serbs were less than 25 per cent and when Serbian forces reclaimed Kosovo, Albanians saw this as nothing short of an occupation. Their birth rate grew while the Serbs' birth rate shrank. By the late ’80s, Albanians went from 75 per cent to 90 per cent of Kosovo.

Then there was the argument that “Kosovo is the size of an average Manitoba farm.”

Kosovo is 10,887 square kilometres, about the same size as Jamaica. The “average Manitoba farm” is about 900 acres. Kosovars can breathe easy knowing no farmer will mistake their country for his or her farm and plough through downtown Pristina with a tractor, planting grain in the streets.

One of the biggest things “The heart of Serbia” tried to do was paint Albanians as nothing but drug-trafficking, human-smuggling terrorists in an attempt to demonize them, as this would prove that these “criminals” don’t deserve their independence. It failed to mention Kosovo was the poorest part of Yugoslavia and it failed to mention that drugs have always been smuggled into Western Europe through the Balkans. Serbian mafia figures like Željko “Arkan” Ražnatovic have achieved legendary status. Arkan leads his own paramilitary group, “The Tigers,” which had direct ties to Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serb president and indicted war criminal. Arkan was also later indicted for war crimes in Kosovo.

That’s not to say the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) Albanians were clean, because they were far from it. But if we do indeed call them terrorists, then what possible title do we bestow upon Serb forces that the CIA says committed 90 per cent of the atrocities in the Yugoslav wars? Who committed genocide on 8,000 Bosnian villagers in Srebrenica. Who had to be bombed by NATO for three months in 1999 to stop the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo? So no, the KLA isn’t clean, as many of them were charged with war crimes of their own; but everything they did the Serbs did tenfold. Nothing is black-and-white.

When Milosevic snuffed out the autonomy Kosovo had in 1989, unemployment grew while Albanian media was almost completely banned. Albanian was no longer one of the official languages. What possible result could one expect from this but resistance?

From 1991 to the present day, all the other Yugoslav republics (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro) have gained independence — some peacefully, others through brutal wars. The very fact everyone wanted independence in the first place speaks volumes. Only Kosovo was left with Serbia, and we all knew it was inevitable.

In the end, both sides can make historical claims to the land or talk about injustices done to them, but we’re still left with the current situation which is this: over 90 per cent of Kosovo does not want to be part of Serbia. Either there will be independence or a never-ending fight for it. History shows that without a doubt. Serbians needs to let go of the land 99 per cent of them don’t live on.

On Tuesday, March 18, 2008, Canada joined a growing majority in the international community in recognizing Kosovo. The Kosovars have a country. And no amount of pulled ambassadors or rocks thrown at NATO will change this.

Vanja Custovic was born and raised in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He immigrated to Canada in 1996 and is an aspiring musician and writer.