A short History of Kosovo

I think it is very important for people to know the difference from Serb propaganda & real
history, so I am inserting here a short history of Kosovo, most taken from Noel Malcolm's
excellent new book: Kosovo, a short history, UK Macmillan, US NYU Press, reviewed also
in FT & Economist recently:

The continuing tragedy suffered by Kosovo compels me to highlight certain issues,
foremost: Kosovo was not a Serbian province, neither in Tito's Yugoslavia, nor during
most of its existence. The Serb myth of Stefan Dushan and the Battle of Kosovo as
Serbia's defining moment is indeed, a myth.

Serbs migrated with other Slavs into the region centuries after the pastoral Albanians there
had already been ruled by Greeks, Romans, and then the Byzantine Empire. Serb identity
began with its own Orthodox patriarch in the 14th century. After Bulgarian rule in the 12th
Century, the equally aggressive Serbs had their own brief periods of empire building from
1114 until 1389, ending with that mythic battle lost to the Turks.  But please note, Kosovo
was not part of the original Serbia, but was incorporated by force afterwards, and for less
than 100 years. The other myth is the "Zadruga",  which was never in fact codified by
Dushan, but coined as a concept and attributed to him by nationalistic zealots in the early
19th century.  Serbia did not see independence again until 1878, and, although Serbs had
a long history of violent forays into the region, Kosovo was not part of it. Following its
aggressive notion of a Greater Serbia, Serbia menaced adjacent areas until, in 1913,
Western powers at the Congress of Berlin, after dividing the choicest bits among
themselves, allowed Serbia to have Kosovo, regardless that Kosovo had done fine without
Serbia over the preceding five centuries.  But even during this reign, Kosovo remained
distinct from Serbia, subjugated like Macedonia, by the then Serbian King.  In 1918, it was
amalgamated into the nation of Yugoslavia, again, not into Serbia.  So all in all, Kosovo
has been subject to the rule of Serbia for a period of perhaps 65 years in over twelve
centuries of known history, autonomous within Yugoslavia for another 70, and subjugated
by every other power to ravage the region.

More serious, as noted by such experts as Noel Malcolm, is Serbia's program of ethnic
cleansing in Kosovo - a Serb goal for over 100 years, although constrained under Tito to
ethnic suppression. Milosevic seized power, winning the people with just this ethnic
premise, as clearly stated as Hitler's similar sentiments in the thirties. "Greater Serbia" and
other myths were fanned to obscure the failures of government and the tangible reasons
for coveting the region...the rich mines that Hitler occupied immediately, crucial to the
supply of lead and other metals for his war machine.  Coincidentally, these mines are due
to be "privatized" shortly, in the Russian manner, so that the new owners are certain to be
Serbian ex-nomenklatura or "New Serbian" types - reliable friends of the regime.  As
reported, Milosevic has used funds from other privatizations to pay for his police thugs,
again, reminiscent of the SS. Another discomfiting parallel to Prague '38 is the Western
hope, now as then, that such ruthless demagogues would not dare do what they proclaim
and the problems will somehow go away.  As then, they  will not.

The Dayton accord-makers glossed over the dubious nature of Serbian legal claims to
Kosovo and guaranteed future violence by giving Serbia control of Kosovo.  Predictably,
the accord awarded the biggest concessions to the most violent participants -  it also
denied Bosnia its former borders & access to the sea, and rebuked the non-violent
opposition government in Kosovo. Kosovo had been one of two autonomous regions in
Yugoslavia, yet Western map-makers only granted Croatia, Slovenia, & Macedonia
freedom. Echoing WW2 again, with the fate of the Baltic democracies afterwards, it seems
this population is too insignificant for Western powers to confront Serbia's histrionics or its
backer, Russia.  Strange that today, despite pumping huge amounts of money to keep
Russia afloat,  we cower at its threats and grant it all manner of preferences.

Congress is considering indicting Saddam Hussein for human rights abuses, yet the case
against Milosevic is just as blatant. We must learn from history, from Hitler, Bosnia,
Chechnya, Cambodia, Vietnam and others. Without independence, Kosovo will become a
killing field again. For a change, we must stand up for the victims and do what is right, not
what is mistakenly taken for expedient. The West's pattern of abandoning tolerant,
moderate Moslems in this region is excellent fuel for fanatical Islamic groups, who point to
the treatment of Bosnians and now Albanians as proof of Western disdain for their human
value.  Indeed, who can say they are wrong.