Annen Southerland
Dr. LaLande
POSC 235
April 24, 2006
Kosovo: The Beginnings, Events and After Effects
Under the rule of Josip Tito the Yugoslavian states had always been united and likeminded in policy due to his ability to keep Yugoslavia non-aligned through WWII and also both Nazi and Stalin free as well. However starting in the early 1990’s the once peaceful and homogeneous Yugoslavian states started to violently rip apart. The states of The Republic of Yugoslavia consisted of Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and also Macedonia and once the closed country and economy opened up to the world it also opened itself up to a world of problems. A major problem that occurred was in the southern region of Serbia called Kosovo. Consisting of a large population of Albanians in this region, close to 90 %, there was a strong ethnic movement to combine with Albania and create an greater Albanian state, along with the Serbian citizens that were Albanian who lived in the Kosovo region. From this strong desire of an Albanian state came many problems that not only brought in the European Union but also NATO and US forces as well. The Kosovo problem has had its lasting effects on its region as well as on the EU and other involved in the solution to the problem.
Within the group of states that made up Yugoslavia there was a crisis evolving because since the once homogeneous state of Yugoslavia opened up to the world the economy suddenly, and of course expectantly, began to crumble. With the now
crumbling country the people began to turn to the ethnic identities and association with their closer regions within the Yugoslavian states for unity. From this came the demand of independence from a majority of the states. Starting with Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia, Yugoslavia began to completely fall apart. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was reconstructed with just Serbia and Montenegro but something inside Serbia was brewing. As described by Parenti, “Within Serbia itself were two autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Kosovo was the next target” (Parenti 95). With obvious progression Kosovo would become the next of the regions in line to want independence from the new greater Yugoslavia, even though it now only consisted of two regions.
The strong Albanian identification came before the split of the Yugoslavian country; it started back under the rule of Tito. During his time of control over Yugoslavia there was a period of ethnic cleansing that occurred. Described by saying, “Tito did little to discourage the Albanian campaign to ethnically cleanse Kosovo of non-Albanians. Between 1945 and 1998, Kosovo’s population of Serbs, Roma, Turks, Gorani (Muslim Slavs), Montenegrins, and several other ethnic groups shrank from some 60 percent to about 15 percent, benefiting from a high birthrate, and much more from the heavy influx of immigrants from Albania and the continuing expulsion of Serbs” (Parenti 96). From this is shown that the strong association with ethnic Albanians started far before the events of the actual Kosovo Crisis and were never thwarted from leading up to the actual war.
In the Former Republic of Yugoslavia the minority of people that actually lived in
Kosovo got many rights within the country that minorities even in Western Europe and
the US have never received. The Albanian population in Kosovo has political rights such as having their own Supreme Court and Albanian flag. They also have numerous other social rights as well such as their own education, consisting of Albanian Universities, teachers, textbooks and other things along those lines. Socially they also have their own media, newspapers, TV and radio. All of these things are very unusual for a region to be granted from it’s national government, however, most unusual is that the 8% population of Yugoslavia that actually lives in Kosovo receives 30 % of the federal budget and 24 % of the World Bank development money given to the nation (Parenti 98). These unusual circumstances of rights given to the Kosovo region led to more of an independent feeling that eventually led to the events that followed starting with the mass of Albanians in Kosovo calling for an all Albanian nation to split off and combine with the larger state of Albania.
While the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was under control of the Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic the separation of Kosovo from the Serbian state continued full force. Dinan explains Milosevic’s control by writing, “…early 1999, when Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic got up to his old tricks, this time in Kosovo. The EU did not yet have the military means to act against him but seemed finally to have the political will to do so. Having watched Milosevic start one Balkan war after another, and having been lied to repeatedly by him, EU leaders had little doubt about the need to stop the Serbian leader from causing yet another human disaster” (Dinan 598). It was clear when things started happening in Yugoslavia that Milosevic would not let Kosovo succeed
from the Yugoslavian republic without putting up a fight and in part the events and outcomes can be partially blamed on him.
There were many different groups involved in the Kosovo Crisis, which range from local groups of Kosovo such as the KLA, Kosovo Liberation Army, and the KDL, Kosovo Democratic League. These two groups coexisted within Kosovo until the point at which the less extreme organization, the KDL, was pushed aside by the more extreme movement that was beginning to occur in the Kosovo region of Serbia (Parenti 98). Also in direct opposition to both the KDL and KLA was the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s national government and army under the control of Slobodan Milosevic, who had caused many wars around that region before this time also.
Outside of Kosovo several groups came into the crisis to help with agreements and resolutions when it became apparent that none of the groups within the country were able to solve the problem. Most directly the European Union had a stake in what was happening at this end of the European continent and had reason to worry about what outcomes might occur and how it would affect the EU directly. Within the EU’s aide in Kosovo was the Europol that had direct contact within the region itself. Along with the EU, NATO was brought in, mostly by means of the US. Under the office of Clinton Washington stepped in at the time when the Yugoslavian government had started to send troops into Kosovo in response to all of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s attacks on the government. Under US’s influence NATO was one of the greatest mediators in the situation. One of the last major groups involved was the OSCE, or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. This group led one of the major missions into
Kosovo.
Of course with any war or major “humanitarian crisis”, as the US called it there is not always a clear view of what always was going on. Shaded areas become colored in the wrong light due to media influence and government’s release of correct or full knowledge. The war in Kosovo is a similar situation where the influence of the media and lack of knowledge has led to not many correct ideas about what really happened in Kosovo. However in most simplified terms the events are as follows.
Starting in response to lack of movement to the nation that the ethnic Albanians called for, the Kosovo Liberation Army, the more extreme group in Kosovo, started attacks on the government in Yugoslavia. As shown by Parenti the attacks were persistent. He writes, “The KLA attacks continued for more than a year before triggering a concerted response from Yugoslav police and paramilitary…’Serbian security forces finally took the bait and went into Kosovo countryside to root out the KLA’ The conflict took about two thousand lives altogether from both sides, according to Kosovo Albanian sources” (Parenti 102). Once the action between the two sides escalated to the point of many civilians becoming causalities the other groups that had been watching, i.e. EU and the US, knew that something had to be done soon.
The first form of major intervention was in the form of the OSCE’s Kosovo Verification Mission, better known as the KVM. During this time there was a cease-fire called for both sides to begin to cooperate and try to resolve the situation. However the KLA persists through the cease-fire and continues with its attacks upon the Yugoslavian government. The ideas of the KLA are illustrated the following, “KLA tactics were
perfectly evident. It was very much in Yugoslavia’s interest to observe a cease-fire, de-escalate the conflict, maintain the status quo, and avoid destruction that NATO military action would bring. But it was in the KLA’s interest to pursue the very opposite course: escalate the political conflict into a military one by acts of violence and terrorism that would eventually incite retaliation from Serb forces…give NATO the needed pretext to wage its “humanitarian” assaults upon Yugoslavia” (Parenti 102-103). With the continued violations of the cease-fire it was completely evident that NATO would have to step in.
By the summer of 1998 the plan for NATO’s intervention was mostly put into place with the influence of the US government however the US government went forward and declared officially for Kosovo to be a “Humanitarian Crisis” and they sent orders to Belgrade to withdraw its FRY, Former Republic of Yugoslavia, troops out of the Kosovo region. After the many threats from the US and with large backing from NATO Milosevic stood his ground with his troops and refused to withdraw troops and stop the attacks.
From this NATO and others were left with no other alternative and they started an air strike that lasted 78 days. The strike had lasting results as shown by Wood and Yesilada writing that the bombing was “causing severe economic damage to Serbia” (Wood and Yesilada 226). After two and a half months of continued strikes from NATO and the US and more requests to withdraw the troops from Kosovo, Milosevic’s government finally pulled back and accepted a “NATO-led international security force in Kosovo” (226).
Even though most of the attacks stopped with the withdraw of the Yugoslavian troops from Kosovo the effects from the many months and almost two years of assaults had lasting results in many different ways.
One of the good effects of the war was the fact that it showed that it was possible for many different international institutions to get along in a time of crisis. Even though all of the groups that were involved didn’t always see eye to eye in terms of international security they were able to come together at this time. Wood and Yesilada write, “The response of the Western Allies and Russia to the Kosovo crisis is an example of cooperation between NATO, the WEU, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)” (226). The ability for these different institutions to be able to come together and stop the Kosovo Crisis was incredible however in the eyes of some Europeans it was not was should have happened.
On the other side of the story Dinan writes about the situation in a different light saying, “It was humiliating for the EU to have to depend on the United States to halt Serbia’s aggression first in Bosnia, then in Kosovo, and shameful for the EU to have done so little to avert the slaughter of thousands of Europeans in the far corner of the continent” (Dinan 560). Both sides of the argument can be argued as to whether or not Europe should have handled the Kosovo Crisis by itself or whether it was necessary for NATO and other organizations and countries to get involved but either way that one looks at it the crisis was eventually resolved and Europe did play a larger role after the resolution was reached.
Once the Kosovo Crisis has ended the European Union stepped in to have a more active role in the rebuilding of the country. A large part of the contribution to the rebuilding was monetary. The European Union’s Commission provided 378 millions euros in emergency humanitarian assistance for the victims of the Kosovo Crisis and 127 millions more euros for the reconstructions process as well. The funds were “used for finance infrastructure development, housing, institution building, environmental cleanup, education and other human development programs” (Wood and Yesilada 227). Not only did they send monetary relief to the region but they also sent and still have present in Kosovo 36, 000 soldiers known as the Kosovo Force, or KFOR, and 800 civilian police of the EU also serve in Kosovo as well.
Along with the aide that was sent to Kosovo there was also a later reach to help Serbia as well. As described saying, “Following the democratic transition in Serbia on October 5, 2000, EU foreign ministers announced the lifting of sanctions and the immediate repeal of the oil embargo and flight ban. They declared the extension of the European Reconstruction Agency to Serbia and Montenegro and promised to help with the clearing of the Danube. Following these decisions, member states of the EU began to normalize relations with Serbia” (Wood and Yesilada 227). Under the presidency of Prodi the Commission sent over 200 million euros to the effort of rebuilding Serbia. And in total the monetary response from the EU was more than 700 euros for all of the Kosovo Crisis.
In the end of the Kosovo Crisis it was obvious to the European Union that something would have to change. Even though the Crisis was ended it was evident that
the EU, with its organizations alone, could not have stopped the happenings in Kosovo. In Ever Closer Union it is shown by the following, “Nevertheless, the Kosovo crisis and NATO campaign strengthened Blair, Chirac, and other EU leaders in their determination to develop an EU military capability. The sophistication and power of the U.S. military operation also showed how far the EU would have to go before having and effective joint force” (Dinan 598). At this point in time it was made clear that the EU would soon enough have to have a defense capable of dealing with its own problems but for now the ability to have alliances with organizations such as NATO and other strong countries such as the US was a saving grace.
posted by JstAnthrSthrnBel @ 4/26/2006 12:22:00 PM
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