January 30, 2008
False steps in Kosovo
At a conference on Europe’s future held last October in Brussels, Robert Cooper, a high-level European Union foreign policy strategist, made an interesting observation. "I like the idea of 27 countries struggling to agree with each other. It is rather undignified, but it is a powerful message," he said.
Well, when it comes to the EU’s policy on Serbia and Kosovo, one can certainly agree with the "undignified" bit. Something of a low point was reached this week at the regular monthly meeting of EU foreign ministers. It produced an offer to Serbia of an "interim political agreement", dangling the carrots of freer trade, visa liberalisation and educational exchanges in the vague hope that this would cause Serb voters to back Boris Tadic, the moderate incumbent, in this weekend’s presidential election run-off.
Since I first lived in Belgrade in the late 1980s, everything I have learned about Serbian politics over the past 20 years has taught me that most Serbs are unlikely to take seriously such well-intentioned foreign attempts to guide them down the path of virtue.
There are good reasons why large numbers of Serb voters will vote for Tomislav Nikolic, Tadic’s ultra-nationalist challenger, and these reasons will apply no matter how much the EU tries to butter up the electorate from afar. They are the same reasons why Nikolic’s Serbian Radical Party, far from fading out of sight after Serbia’s disastrous military adventures in the 1990s, has in fact gone from strength to strength.
Serbs take the view that the collapse of communist Yugoslavia left them worse off than any other nationality once part of that state. From being top dogs in the multinational Yugoslav communist party, army and bureaucracy, they found themselves either penned into the smaller state of Serbia or converted into ethnic minorities in places such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo that claimed a right to independence.
This sense of victimhood persists and blends with more specific grievances about Kosovo. Here it is not so much a question of memories of the Ottoman defeat of the Serbs at the 1389 battle of Kosovo Polje, and all that supposedly implies about Serbia’s self-sacrifice on behalf of medieval Christendom.
It is more that, in the century following Serbia’s recovery of Kosovo in 1912, the ethnic Albanian component of the province’s population has increased to the point that most Serbs can see for themselves that, in demographic terms, the struggle is all but lost. This is a hammer blow to national identity and pride and very hard indeed to accept - even for Tadic and the relatively liberal modernisers in his circle.
The EU is therefore misguided if it thinks it can sugar the pill of Kosovo’s independence with the offer of visas and some subsidised schooling for Serbs at a German or Portuguese university. Possibly Tadic will just edge out Nikolic in the election run-off. But even Serbia’s "nice guys" cannot afford to be seen by their domestic audience to have given up on Kosovo under foreign pressure.
Apart from some prejudice (Serbs weren’t “top dogs” in “military” Communist Party), the article is spot on.
Posted by: Jovan Jovanovic | January 30th, 2008 at 12:34 pm | Report this commentSir i agree with you in a large part. But i just want to bring to you a conversation made with an albanian politician in F.Y.R.Macedonia. He told me that the safety of Kosovo was Milloscevic and his policy that brought Yugoslavia in this situation. And his policy was the genocide. Please sir don’t forget this. Nato would’nt never attack Serbia, it was necessary and i think that today the independence of Kosovo is necessary too. So i do not understand why the EU(all states in one voice) hesitate to recognize Kosovo independence. We have not to forget sir, just remember what happened 10 years ago.
Posted by: Jetmir Dinoshi | January 30th, 2008 at 4:55 pm | Report this commentThank you for the kind attention.
First of all, the article is based on a false premise that the Serbs were the “top dogs” in the former Yugoslavia. I can go on for days proving the opposite. But, more importantly, everyone is trying to sweep underneath the carpet the fact that the EU’s approach on Kosovo is completely an anti-European one - the one that favors a unilateral decision over such a sensitive issue rather than putting forward an approach that prevails, as it should, in the EU’s internal affairs. That would be the compromise. No true negotiations between the Serbs and Albanians ever took place due to the fact that the EU (as well as the US) has never made any attempts to compel the parties to reach the compromise. The EU was always playing a one-sided game, promising to the Albanians the independency, on one hand, and shutting the Serbs’ mouths with candies and popcorn, on the other. The Serbs were tricked by the EU, as they have been many times in the past, after they gave up Milosevic. Then, no wonder Kosovo-in-Serbia is more important for them than Serbia-in-EU. Such a wrong EU policy from the very beginning. And, then you ask yourself why will the Serbs vote for Nikolic?
Sincerely,
Branko
Posted by: Branko Milosevic | January 31st, 2008 at 4:42 pm | Report this commentRecognition of souther Serbian province of Kosovo is an illegal act (UN Security Council is the only body where such complex issues could be resolved with active cooperation all sides in the conflict and so called great powers). Serbs have been forced out of Krajina and slowly leaving Eastern Croatia too, no real penalty was given to Croatia, now we have situation where the second Albanian state is about to be illegally created, all of this is giving a clear massage that the standards that so called “Great powers” are applying to certain Balkan nations aren’t and weren’t the same. By the way the most of non-ethnic Albanians are forced out of their homes from Kosovo, but this doesn’t concern much “protectors of human rights”, how come? Please try to remember also of genocide and terror that Fascist Albanians were implementing during WW2 over Serbs,when thanks fully to Italian soldiers, who were present in Kosovo too during WW2, ancient Serbian Christian churches were preserved from mad Albanian fascist, who were doing ethnic cleansing. Also if ethnic Albanians from Kosovo can get their statehood on the territory of another sovereign state (Serbia),why those states that are pushing this illegal act also don’t help to all of those people who were always under foreign rule (Kurd for example)????? There was no real negotiations, there was no will from some so called Great powers to establish mutually accepted solution and this will not be probably the end of this story, unfortunately for all ppl who live in that region. Thanks.
Posted by: Boris | February 1st, 2008 at 2:20 pm | Report this comment.
In the ex Yugoslavia the E.U. give everybody and his dog national rights except the Serbs it seems
They get threats or kicks !
.
Posted by: jeannick | February 1st, 2008 at 9:23 pm | Report this commentLast paragraph is right on the spot. US diplomats intentionally, and EU politicians out of pure lack of competence, are pushing Serbia into extremists hands. Idiotic comments one can already hear on BBC of how current government corruption was the reason Radical party won additional million votes, almost double it could ever muster, or equally incompetent comments on CNN of how Serbia voted for Kosovo to be amputated, just shows the total lack of understanding of what is going on there.
Posted by: Dusan | February 4th, 2008 at 8:10 am | Report this commentSerbia has just narrowly escaped appointment of a dangerous and unapt individual in largely ceremonial Presidential position. However, intentional support from individuals like Daniel Fried of US State Department, and unintentional support from incompetent individuals like Sarkozy and Merkel, will in near future bring Radical party at the head of Serbian government. This is a position of real power which will give them another opportunity to destabilize Balkans. I deeply believe that Germany and Mr Kohl bear the brunt of responsibility for bloody Yugoslav wars. Instead of indorsing acceptance of the whole country, as it was in 1990, into EU, they preferred to break it apart first. This time the situation is quite similar, but the reasons are pure incompetence and fear from a couple of career diplomats in US State department. No big forces in the background, just a couple of individuals pretending to be USA and able to arrange amicable welcome for George Bush somewhere in Europe (Albania).
This is unbelievable:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,533208,00.html
How is creation of a semi-recognized Mafia state on Serbian territory going to somehow reduce Serbian irritation and get Serbia closer to those who are playing with their country’s integrity? I guess a total lack of emotional intelligence, combined with arrogance already shown in the past with catastrophic consequences, is the only thing that may bring up such conclusion.
Posted by: Dusan | February 6th, 2008 at 8:13 am | Report this commentWhen speaking of Kosovo, almost everyone forgets terrorist atttacks that ethnic Albanians terrorists launched against legitimate state officials (Serb, Albanian, Ashkali, Roma, and others) in Kosovo long before Milosevic’s famed 1989 speech. The UCK was a recognized terrorist group no different than the PKK or IRA. Albanians may be the majority in Kosovo, but not in Serbia. Claiming that they deserve independence is like saying Turks deserve independence in some parts of Berlin.
If Kosovo receives independence, the Kurds in southeastern Turkey, Northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and southeastern Syria also deserve independence. Remember the Albanian efforts in the Presevo Valley, Macedonia, and even Greece to initiate conflict, hypothestically based on human and political rights?
What about the Basques that we have opposed so fervently? What about Abkhazia or Ossetia?
If Kosovo receives independence based on demographics, which quite frankly is all that it is, than numerous other places also deserve independence.
Kosovo independence will spell the end of the sovereign state system.
Thanks Maddy!
Posted by: Tom Jenkins | February 15th, 2008 at 4:43 pm | Report this commentRespectfully, to Jetmir Dinoshi:
Why remember only the consequences and not the cause? Ten years ago? Why not remember the terrorist attacks of the 1980s and early 1990s? Why not remember why Milosevic sent the VJ into Kosovo rather than relying on ordinary police?
Why not remember the Prstina riots of the early 1970s? Kosovo Albanians receive autonomy and wanted more. Violence was their means, but I should say the means of a limited few, as most ethnic Albanians in Kosovo only wanted peace. I am firmly convinced a special place in Hell exists for those willing to create a conflict and leave their countrymen to suffer while they enjoy the benefits of sanctuary. Many “leaders” are guilty of this.
Kosovo Albanians will soon be the dog that caught the fire truck, and will ask with confused amazement, “Now what do we do with it?” Worries already exist about what Kosovo will do if Serbia closes its borders and shuts off electricity and other supplies.
Kosovo Albanians wanted independence, and they should get it good and hard.
Posted by: Tom Jenkins | February 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pm | Report this commentEvery article I read on the Balkans invites eloquent and excellently-argued comments from Serbs.
Credit to them that they fight their corner, but I do not understand why the victim complex is allowed to stand.
They remember ancient grievances but deny any responsibility for the horrors committed in Bosnia in particular just 15 years ago.
They point to their monasteries in Kosovo and hope nobody will remember the historic mosques they dynamited in Banja Luka and elsewhere.
Kosovo will take its chance of independence and Serbia will perhaps eventually reluctantly accept EU “candies and popcorn” derided by Branko in the comment above. Meanwhile Bosnia is left behind with little EU interest and no justice for the victims of Mladic, Karadzic and others.
Posted by: Chris | February 18th, 2008 at 9:53 am | Report this commentRespectfully,to Mr Tom Jenkins
Posted by: Jurgens Raspopi | February 26th, 2008 at 6:48 pm | Report this commentI think that to be sincere a special place in Hell is reserved to Serbia.They’re not dogs they’re wolves searching for albanian blood.The serbians say that Kosovo is the heart of Serbia
and I think that according to history the serbians were south slaves that came as barbarians at the fifth century and found
on those lands populations who spoke albanian language Mr Jenkins.And I think that the Indipendence of Kosove was a good decision
but the union with Albania was the best one
concerning the fact that in Ancient times
Kosovo was an albanian region!
Respectfully,to Mr Tom Jenkins
you lack intellectual facts you are base purely in false facts that serbs have been distributing. What about 70 protests, or 80’s protest? are you just mentiong them because you have heard of them but donk knoe the reasons for it? let me remind you Kosovo was the first country in the 80’s to shout publicly “democracy” in protests thats they wanted nothing more or less.
Posted by: FS | February 28th, 2008 at 12:17 pm | Report this commentRespectfully, to Mr Jenkins,
Sir i am only 23 years old and i have not seen what you are saying, so in my post i have write facts that i have seen with my eyes. But sir i have studied and i have read a lot about my country. So if you want, we can discuss about my truth and your truth, but is time lost.( It is normal for you that Kosovo is Serbian and for me that Kosovo is Albanian). But Mr. Tom i do not wont the great Albania, and believe me i have all wrights to want it.( Berlin 1913 Albania was cut in pieces). We do not wont the great Albania, let’s go together in EU. Sir Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, F.Y.R.Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo are lost for Serbia. You have to understand this. In Balkan Peninsula there are no more spaces for the old ideologies. Sir the party of Sesel have the relative majority in your parliament, where are you going…?
Thank’s for the kind attention.
Posted by: Jetmir Dinoshi | March 4th, 2008 at 9:14 am | Report this commentDear Albanian compatriots, please do stop embarrassing yourselves. This mambo-jumbo history you present here, the one you have been thought even at Pristina “university”, is something Enver Hoxa dreamed up in his spare time and it became a part of Albanian school curriculum. You have been exposed and poisoned with it only due to idiotism of Mr Broz, and I do understand it is not your fault to accept it as a fact. You are related to Illyrians not more or less than our southern neighbors to Macedonians. Your language was first recorded in the Balkans some time after Alexius I brought all sorts of tribes, convicts and heretical groups from all over the Empire to Epirus, to try to fight Normans off. Illyrians were Romanized 10 centuries before that, mixed with other Balkan groups and spoke Latin or Greek. This is something that anyone educated outside of Enver Hoxa education system understands, so repeating this nonsense only undermines credibility of your claims.
Kind regards,
Dusan
Posted by: Dusan | March 7th, 2008 at 7:25 am | Report this comment