Forgotten world (71): Kosovo
A dominant theme of NightHawk is that we live in a wide and varied world and we should know more about other countries and other cultures and learn to respect them. Therefore, on 14 occasions now, I’ve had a week-long feature devoted to parts of the world that tend to be under-reported or even forgotten. You can check out the previous 70 entries here. This week, I am going to run an 15th series of postings on this theme.
When is a country not a country? Perhaps when it is Kosovo, the home of 2.47M people, 88% of them ethnic Albanians and a mere 7% Serbian. When the former Yugoslavia started its descent into brutality and break-up, the original source of secessionist violence was in the province of Kosovo, but this is now the last part of the former Yugoslavia to settle its status. In 1989, Slobodan Milosovic abolished autonomy in Kosovo and a programme of ethnic cleansing in 1999 was only stopped by a NATO air campaign followed by the arrival of UN troops.
Now the UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari of Finland has proposed a compromise plan between the demand of the Serbs that Kosovo remains a part of Serbia and the plea of the Kosovans for full independence. Under this plan, Kosovo would have a flag, a national anthem, a constitution, a central bank, a currency and even a fledgling army, but would not yet have full independence. His plan is to be put to the UN’s Security Council today.
It is clear why the Kosovans want independence given their treatment by the Serbs, but why to do the Serbs want to retain sovereignity over Kosovo? It all goes back to 1389 when the Serbs lost an epic battle there to the Ottoman Turks it and embraces the region being the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church.