Backgound of struggle in Kosovo
By Gary
Wilson
Few people in the United States had heard of Kosovo when
President Bill Clinton ordered the U.S. military to begin
bombing there. Where is Kosovo? What's the background?
Kosovo is a province of Serbia. Serbia is one of two
republics in what remains of the country of Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia today is about as big as the state of Kentucky, and
is more mountainous than that Appalachian state.
The two republics of Yugoslavia are Serbia and Montenegro.
Yugoslavia is on the Adriatic Sea across from Italy.
Serbia is a multi-ethnic state. Although it is a majority
Serbian, there are many Albanian, Roma, Montenegrin, Bulgarian,
Slovak, Croat and other nationalities living in Serbia. Kosovo
is the only part of present-day Yugoslavia where there is any
ethnic conflict.
Kosovo is an area a little smaller than Connecticut. It is
entirely mountainous with two large valleys--Kosovo valley and
Metohija valley. That's why all Yugoslav references refer to
the region as Kosovo and Metohija, or Kosmet for short.
The mountains are thinly populated while the valleys are
densely populated. In fact, Kosovo is the most densely
populated region of the Balkans. There are almost as many
Albanians living in Kosovo as there are in Albania.
Kosovo has the richest mineral wealth of the Balkans,
including rich reserves of coal, nickel, lead, zinc, magnesium,
lignite, kaolin, quartz, asbestos, limestone, marble, chrome
and bauxite. It also has the biggest power plant in all
Yugoslavia, producing essential electricity for all of
Serbia.
Big-power invasions of Kosovo for its mineral wealth began
with the Roman empire and continued through the Nazi occupation
of World War II. Following the end of World War II and the
victory of the communist partisans, Yugoslavia--including
Kosovo--was finally free of all outside occupiers.
For about 45 years, all the peoples of the Balkans lived
together in peace. In fact, socialist Yugoslavia made great
achievements in developing a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural
society. In Yugoslavia no single nationality claimed a
majority. There were seven main nationalities and they were not
located in geographically distinct areas, but were spread out
through the six republics and two provinces.
Only the Yugoslav communists have successfully pursued a
policy of multi-ethnic equality in the Balkans. It is a legacy
that many in the region are proud of and continue to
support.
The Yugoslav government and the government of Kosovo are
multi-ethnic. At the peace talks in Rambouillet, France, there
were 10 representatives from Yugoslavia. They were not just
Serbs; there were two Albanians, a Slavic Muslim, a Turk, a
Goran, a Romany and an Egyptian.
Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo, is the fourth-largest
city in today's Yugoslavia. It is about the size of Providence,
R.I. Pristina was the original capital of Serbia.
Serbs have lived in Kosovo since the 6th century. The Battle
of Kosovo of 1389 against the Ottoman conquerors marks the
beginning of the Serbian nation.
The Ottoman empire controlled the region until 1878, when an
imperialist conference in Berlin divided the region among the
emerging European powers.
The majority population of Kosovo was Serbian until World
War II, when hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Serbians were
either forced to flee or were exterminated by the fascist
occupiers.
Kosovo, however, has been a multi-ethnic region for hundreds
of years. Kosovo is not only the birthplace of Serbia. It is
also considered the birthplace for what is known as the
Albanian national renaissance.
Both Serbs and Albanians have historic claims to Kosovo.
These claims were recognized by the socialist government of
Yugoslavia under Tito. Under the constitution of 1974 Kosovo
was an autonomous region under Albanian leadership. The
constitution even gave Kosovo an equal vote with the republics
in the federal government. It also guaranteed affirmative
action-like programs for the Kosovo Albanians. An Albanian
university was established for the first time. Before World War
II, there was no Albanian center of higher education
anywhere.
When Slobodan Milosevic ended Kosovo's autonomous status in
1991, it was a bureaucratic response to a situation that really
needed a political response. Throughout the Cold War, the NATO
imperialist powers had encouraged anti-communist Albanian
nationalists with ties to Kosovo. According to Miranda Vickers'
pro-Albanian book, "Between Serb and Albanian: A History of
Kosovo," throughout the 1980s the center for Albanian
separatism was in New York and its main proponent was the U.S.
Congress.
Paramilitary groups with covert Western support began
targeting Serbs in Kosovo and inciting anti-Serb sentiments.
Tens of thousands of Serbs fled Kosovo in this time because of
discrimination, according to Vickers.
After paramilitaries began murdering Serb farmers, Milosevic
responded with a political crackdown that curbed Albanian
rights.
The imperialist powers seized upon this and began to
encourage Albanian separatists. The U.S. Congress funded the
founding of a "Kosovo government in exile."
After the collapse of the socialist government in Albania,
the U.S. and Germany quickly swept in. The government of
Albania today is completely dependent on the U.S. government
for its existence. The U.S. has a military base in Albania and
there are up to a hundred top NATO officers stationed in
Tirana, the Albanian capital.
According to the French Press Agency, the Central
Intelligence Agency has been working in Albania to "modernize"
Albania's secret police. This is usually an indication that the
CIA is directing the operations.
Albania's foreign policy came so completely under U.S.
control that in 1993, Albania joined Paraguay and Israel as the
only countries in the world voting with the United States in
the UN in favor of Washington's embargo of Cuba.
Kosovo Liberation Army
Albania is the headquarters for the Kosovo Liberation Army,
which has been dependent on covert support coming primarily
from Germany and the United States.
The Kosovo Liberation Army has made it clear that its goal
is an ethnically pure, Albanian-only Kosovo. Even the New York
Times, whose reporting has been unabashedly hostile to the
Yugoslav government, reported on March 28 that many of the
leaders of the KLA trace their roots to a fascist unit set up
during World War II by the Italian occupiers.
The Italian fascists and the German Nazis encouraged the
creation of a "Greater Albania." It was meant to deepen ethnic
divisions in the Balkans. Never before in history had there
been a "Greater Albania."
The KLA has revived the call for a "Greater Albania" and has
patterned some of its uniforms and insignia on the fascist unit
set up in World War II.
While the U.S. says it does not support independence for
Kosovo, everything it is doing is promoting such an
eventuality. It is the old tactic of divide and rule: break
Yugoslavia up into ever smaller pieces, keeping them weak and
fighting each other, so no state is strong enough to resist the
empire.
But the people of Yugoslavia are refusing to accept any
further dismemberment of their country.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page