Kosovo

“ The whole guilt rests with Serbia, for it was she who broke her pledged word and threw down the glove.
Kosovo Day was a melancholy spectacle. Nothing is more dolorous than a people forced "to rejoice" by an army of occupation. All shops are shut, and the population summoned to church to celebrate the "freeing" of the land. Once how pleased I should have been. Now I have seen and know too much! The people of Ochrida had to officially rejoice that their nationality was destroyed, though it had survived some six centuries of the Turk. ”

“ Still, the emotional bond that formed, fostered by a common vision and shared hope - is intact. Albanian flags fly over Albanian municipalities in Kosovo and in Macedonia. The possession of weapons and self-government have always been emblematic of the anticipated statehood of Kosovo. Being disarmed and deprived of self-governance was, to the Albanians, a humiliating and enraging experience, evocative of earlier, Serb-inflicted, injuries. Moreover, it was indicative of the perplexed muddle the West is mired in - officially, Kosovo is part of Yugoslavia. ”

“ Kosovo is a land of great mineral wealth and commensurate agricultural poverty. It has always languished with decrepit infrastructure and irrelevant industry. Kosovo's mineral riches were looted by Yugoslavia for decades and both Macedonia and Kosovo were the poor relatives in the Yugoslav Federation. ”

“ Kosovo, while technically still part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro) according to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, is largely autonomous under United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and is greatly dependent on the international community and the diaspora for financial and technical assistance. ”

“ The nation’s concern about the seizure of Kosovo-Metohija has shown strength and unity. Such strength and unity required all national institutions to make the decisions which are the foundations of our national and state programme for Kosovo-Metohija.
The people want us to give our word – as long as we are alive Kosovo is Serbia. ”

“ It is the United Nations Charter that is ultimately to guide any reasoning. In his view, Kosovo's declaration of independence can only be appropriately considered in the light of the complex and tragic factual background of the grave humanitarian crisis of Kosovo, which culminated in the adoption by Security Council of its resolution 1244 (1999) . The Law of the United Nations has been particularly attentive to the conditions of living of the population, in Kosovo as in distinct parts of the world, so as to preserve international peace and security. ”

“ By now, these human waves and military trampling left Kosovo dilapidated to the core, a backwater both economically and culturally. People left Kosovo in this period because it offered no present work and no future prospects. ”

“ The Kosovo situation is a blessing, not in disguise, for Macedonia. It is through this – and other Serb-induced crises – that Macedonia attained geopolitical importance. The West pampers Macedonia and finances its fiscal and trade excesses precisely because of its strategic location and because of its Albanians. The potential for inter-ethnic tension is deemed to be sizeable by the West. To avert it, the West is willing to bribe all parties involved into tense calm and strained civility.
The Kosovo crisis has just started. The Serbs are a resilient, cunning bunch. ”

“ It was, therefore strange to see the body language of the octogenarian president of Macedonia with his much younger Albanian counterpart. They stood apart and made diametrically opposed declarations about the future of Kosovo. Watching the old communist apparatchik Gligorov, I was reminded or Milosevic when he announced the Serb victory in operation Allied Force. He stood so rigid, as though about to break and leaned towards the camera, creating an eerie fish lens effect. Balkanians are not proud people, they are adaptable. ”

“ We, the people of Kosovo, Determined to build a future of Kosovo as a free, democratic and peace-loving country that will be a homeland to all of its citizens; Committed to the creation of a state of free citizens that will guarantee the rights of every citizen, civil freedoms and equality of all citizens before the law ”

“ Is there a nation in the world that is being asked to renounce everything that makes it a nation, as is being sought of the Serbs today? If we accept that we are not Serbs, they are promising us that we, as a nation without memory and origin, will be better off.
They are asking us to renounce our brothers in Kosovo. They are telling our brothers in Kosovo that without leaving their houses they entered a new state. They have not and they never will. They are telling them that they are separated from us. They are not and they never will be. ”

“ This is not to say that Albanians on both sides of the border do not share the same national dreams and aspirations. Kosovar intellectuals were watching Albanian TV and reading Albanian papers even throughout the Stalinist period of Enver Hoxha, the long time Albanian dictator. Albanian nationalists never ceased regarding Kosovo as an integral part of an Albanian motherland. ”

“ The international community time and again called on the authorities in Belgrade to respect human rights and to cooperate with the international community with a view to settling peacefully the question of greater autonomy for Kosovo, but to no avail. ”

“ All Americans can be proud that our leadership has put Bosnia on the path to peace. And with our NATO allies we are pressing the Serbian government to stop its brutal repression in Kosovo--to bring those responsible to justice and to give the people of Kosovo the self-government they deserve.
All Americans can be proud that our leadership renewed hope for lasting peace in the Middle East. ”

“ The oft-repeated tale that Montenegro was founded by the refugees from Kosovo is thus we see mythical, as Kosovo was fought a century earlier in 1389. Lineally, the Montenegrins are Bosnians, Herzegovinians and Albanians rather than Serbs of Serbia. Bosnia and the Herzegovina were independent of the old Kingdom of Serbia, which explains much of the reluctance of Montenegro to be to-day incorporated by the Serbs.
Ivan and his refugee tribes successfully resisted the Turkish attacks on their stronghold and were helped by Venice. But conversions to Islam became frequent. ”

“ The distinct ethnic character of the people and their isolation within a fairly restricted and definable area brought support for their demands for independence in the early twentieth century. There were places where different ethnic populations intermingled, and there were other pressures that affected the definition of the borders. The Kosovo area across the northeastern border is a part of modern Yugoslavia, but it contains a substantial Albanian population. ”

“ The current situation in Kosovo is of grave concern to all of us. We and our allies have begun military action only with the greatest reluctance. But we believe that such action is necessary to respond to Belgrade's brutal persecution of Kosovar Albanians, violations of international law, excessive and indiscriminate use of force, refusal to negotiate to resolve the issue peacefully and recent military build-up in Kosovo all of which foreshadow a humanitarian catastrophe of immense proportions. ”

“ Kosovo's neighbors, Macedonia and Albania, are taking the refugees in, despite the huge burden this places on these poor, struggling nations; so are Greece, Bosnia, and Bulgaria, showing there's more mercy than madness in the Balkans, more compassion than cruelty in this troubled region of the world.
All of us want to provide for the refugees; all of us want to make it possible for them to return home. Let us do our part for all the innocent people whose lives have been shattered by this conflict. ”

“ Things don't just happen – they whisper, conspiratorially – things are directed from above, ordained, regulated, prevented, or encouraged by "them". A group of 400 rule the world. They are Jews, they are the Serb mafia, or the Bulgarian. Or the Americans who plan to dominate (which obviously puts Kosovo in context) . They are the rich and powerful, the objects of envy and frightened admiration, of virulent hate and rage. They are responsible. We pay the price – we, the small and powerless and poor. ”

“ Materially revamped, nationally revived, militarily vindicated, an invigorated power that withstood the mightiest alliance in history – Serbia is in an excellent position to emerge as an important, nay, indispensable, regional, pivotal player. It can have its choice. In Rugova it will find a genteel, compliant, respectable and submissive partner. In Thaci – a fellow bully. Serbia can conduct business with both. As it tramples over internal dissent, suppresses Montenegro and tightens its grip on its minorities – Serbia will strive to split Kosovo. ”

“ The interim administration in Kosovo was designed to suspend temporarily Serbia's exercise of its authority flowing from its continuing sovereignty over the territory of Kosovo. The purpose of the legal régime established under resolution 1244 (1999) was to establish, organize and oversee the development of local institutions of self-government in Kosovo under the aegis of the interim international presence.
Thirdly, resolution 1244 (1999) clearly establishes an interim régime; it cannot be understood as putting in place a permanent institutional framework in the territory of Kosovo. ”

“ Milosevic, visibly ill at ease, surfed this tide of religion-tinged nationalism straight into Kosovo, the historical heartland of Serb-ism. Oppression breeds resistance and Serb oppression served only to streamline the stochastic nationalist movement into a compartmentalized, though factious, underground organization with roots wherever Albanians resided: Germany, Switzerland, the USA, Canada and Australia. The ideology was an improbable mix of Stalinism (Enver Hoxha-inspired) , Maoism and Albanian chauvinism. ”

“ The Kosovar crime clans were effected by the war (though their activities never really ceased) and into the vacuum gushed Albanian organized and ruthless crime. But contrary to media-fostered popular images - crime was but one thread in the emerging tapestry of the new Kosovo. Other, no less critical issues were and are demilitarization and self-government. Albanians and Serbs have more in common than they care to admit. Scattered among various political entities, both nations came up with a grandiose game plan - Milosevic's "Great Serbia" and the KLA's "Great Albania". ”

“ He considers these arguments important in terms of resolving the broader dispute in Kosovo and in comprehensively addressing all aspects of the accordance with international law of the declaration of independence. Moreover, he argues that consideration of these points is precisely within the scope of the question as understood by the Kosovars themselves, amongst several Participants, who make reference to a right of external self-determination grounded in self-determination and "remedial secession" as a people. ”

“ The enemies are numerous: the Serbs (should Kosovo ever be returned to them) , NATO and KFOR (should they be charged with the task of reintegrating Serbia) , perhaps more moderate Albanians with lesser national zeal or Serb-collaborators (like Zemail Mustafi, the Albanian vice president of the Bujanovac branch of President Slobodan Milosevic's ruling Socialist Party, who was assassinated three months ago) . Moreover, the very borders of Kosovo are in dispute. The territory known to its inhabitants as "Eastern Kosovo" now comprises 70,000 Albanians, captives in a hostile Serbia. ”

“ That he, too, expected war was evident, for he appointed the military commandant Hussein Riza as Vali.
The Albanians of Kosovo again rose in revolt. Ise Boletin again led them. They triumphed everywhere, and this time entered Uskub, where their conduct was admitted to have been exemplary by the Foreign Consuls. The Turks, finding that the Albanians were about to march on Monastir, called a truce, and agreed to recognize the four vilayets of Janina, Scutari, Kosovo, and part of Monastir, as an autonomous Albanian province. ”

“ However, the authorities in Belgrade unfortunately insisted on their position and did not seize the opportunity afforded them in Rambouillet. Those authorities insisted on pursuing a policy of repression against the Kosovar Albanian community, a policy that started when those authorities put an end to the autonomy enjoyed by Kosovo until 1989. It would seem as if they have quickly forgotten or disregarded the lessons drawn from the tragic experience of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ”

“ With the exception of the Border Zone, VJ units may travel through Kosovo only to reach duty stations and garrisons in the Border Zone or approved cantonment sites. Such travel may only be along routes and in accordance with procedures that have been determined by COMKFOR after consultation with the CIM, VJ unit commanders, communal government authorities, and police commanders. ”

“ As the years passed, calls for the restoration of the 1974 constitution (under which Kosovo was granted political, financial, legal and cultural autonomy and institutions) - merged into a sonorous agenda of "Great Albania" and a "Kosovo Republic". The Kosovar crowd was never above beatings, looting and burning. The hate was strong. Yugoslavia's ruling party - the League of Communists - was in the throes of its own transformation. With Tito's demise and the implosion of the Soviet Bloc, the Communists lacked both compass and leader. ”