Some interesting historical info on Serb / Albanian conflict.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, Serbs were once allies and neighbors Apr. 9, 1999 | 11:53 p.m. By Inga Saffron (Sunday 4-11 release) Knight Ridder Newspapers
For all the ferocity of the Serbs' recent assault on the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo, the two groups have not always been at each other's throats. They were once allies and neighbors, sharing a common religion and a common enemy, as well as common ground. The grudges that fuel today's conflict, scholars say, did not develop until the turn of this century, when the Turkish Ottoman empire fell apart and Serbian and Albanian nation-states began to form. These resentments were kindled by the policies of Yugoslavia's former Communist government, then stoked by the politically ambitious Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, until they finally exploded into the flames of all-out war last month. Now the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians are competing with guns and rockets for control of a landlocked piece of territory no bigger than Connecticut. An area of small farms and hard-scrabble mountain villages, Kosovo was the poorest and least-developed province of the former Yugoslavia, and, with two million inhabitants, among the most densely populated places in Europe. The area's poverty only seems to intensify the competition between the Albanians, who made up 90 percent of the population, and the Serbs. Almost exclusively Orthodox Christian, the Serbs are a generally large-boned, Slavic people who migrated south from Slovakia into the Balkans around the seventh century. The smaller, more Mediterranean-looking Albanians speak a language that has elements of both Greek and Latin, and they probably lived somewhere to the south and west of Kosovo when the Serbs began arriving. They claim to be descendants of the ancient Illyrians, the area's original, indigenous tribe. While predominantly Muslim, there are many Catholic and Orthodox Albanians. The Albanians' two greatest heroes are both Catholic: the 16th century crusader Skanderbeg and Mother Theresa (an ethnic Albanian who was born Agnes Goinxha Bejaxhiu). Because of the fertileness of the Kosovo plain, both tribes began gravitating to the area after the seventh century. But whoever was living in Kosovo at the time -- then under nominal control of the Roman Empire -- was probably ''displaced by the Slavs,'' said John V.A. Fine, an expert on early Balkan history at the University of Michigan. The indigenous people were pushed up into the barren mountains by the more powerful Serbs, at least for awhile. Over the centuries, those mountain people gradually drifted down to the fertile plain. Some were Albanians, but along with them came a dizzying array of other language groups -- Vlach, Dacian, Romany, even Germans and Croats. By the 12th and 13th centuries, the golden years of the Serbs' Nemanjid Kingdom, Kosovo was primarily Serbian, writes Noel Malcolm in ''Kosovo: A Short History.'' Still, there were plenty of Albanians around, and by most accounts, they managed to live peacefully with the Serbs. Supported by the rich silver mines in the area, Kosovo became the crucible of Serbian culture during that medieval period. Hundreds of monasteries went up, decorated with elaborate frescoes, and the Patriarchial seat -- the center of the Serb Orthodox Church -- was established in Pec. The monasteries are one reason that modern Serbs retain such an intense, emotional attachment to Kosovo, even though so few of them live there now. Yet, as Albanians often claim, their Christian ancestors, too, helped build the religious centers. When the Ottomans invaded in 1389, both Serbs and Albanians rose up against the Muslim force, fighting together for the Serbian king, Lazar. After the Ottoman conquest, however, Serbian and Albanian interests slowly began to diverge. Over the next two centuries, Albanians began gradually to convert to Islam, partly to avoid the Ottoman's tax levy on Christians. The Serbs, who had a more developed church structure than the Albanians, eventually chose to migrate north, to the area controlled by the Christians of the Hapsburg Empire. The Albanians' conversion to Islam gave them several important privileges, including the right to own large tracts of land. Along with the Turks, the Albanians became the Serbs' landlords, no doubt feeding the earliest resentments. According to Fine, however, there were no significant uprisings until the late 19th century. The Ottoman Empire was in its death throes, and Europe's numerous ethnic groups were developing strong national identities. As the clamor for national homelands grew, each group outdid the other to produce national myths justifying their claim to territory. It was then that the Serbians resurrected their nearly forgotten medieval heroes, including King Lazar, and began to recall the greatness of their Kosovo empire. By the turn of the century, the Albanians were also aspiring to include Kosovo in their own homeland. Then, as now, Kosovo was the border territory where two of the largest, and most dissatisfied, ethnic groups in the Balkans bumped up against each other. Both Serbs and Albanians have always felt they got a bad deal when national borders were drawn for the region by the European powers. Serbia, which became an independent nation in 1878, had a head start in its claim to Kosovo, and during the First Balkan War in 1912, it succeeded in seizing Kosovo, infuriating the Albanians. That date marks the formal beginning of the Serbian-Albanian feud. From then on, the Kosovo Albanians would struggle to free themselves from Serbian control, and the grudges would mount. After World War I, when the boundaries of Albania and the old Yugoslavia were set by the victorious Allies, the Serbs' 1912 seizure of Kosovo was formally recognized. Serbia, including Kosovo, became part of the new Yugoslavia kingdom. The official name of that new country, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, bluntly overlooked the non-Slavic Albanians. In the chaos at the end of World War II, when Communist revolutions were sweeping both Albania and Yugoslavia, thousands of Albanians poured into Kosovo from Albania. Meanwhile, Serbs continued their slow exodus from Kosovo, seeking better economic opportunities in the northern and better-developed parts of Yugoslavia. The fact that Kosovo Serbs spoke the same language as the Serbs to the north, made emigration much easier for them than for the Albanians. Still, life was far better for Kosovo Albanians than for their ethnic siblings in Albania, ruled by the xenophobic dictator Enver Hoxha. Though Yugoslavia and Albania were both Communist, they represented the opposite poles of ideology, with Albania being the most rigid, and Yugoslavia the most liberal. Tensions mounted as a result of these differences, and there were repeated border incidents. In the Yugoslav Communist media, Albania was often portrayed as an enemy, adding to the negative feelings about the Albanian ethnic minority. The greatest fear of Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavia's Communist leader, was always nationalism. He constantly played one ethnic group off another. In 1974, he reorganized the country by dividing the Serbian republic of Yugoslavia into three parts: Serbia proper, an autonomous Hungarian province; Vojvodina; and an autonomous Albanian province, Kosovo. Some scholars believe the move was intended to diminish the power of the Serbs, the most numerous ethnic group in Yugoslavia. The new designation gave Kosovo Albanians the first chance at home rule in their history. Once in charge, the Kosovo Albanians showed they could be just as oppressive and discriminatory as the Serbs. It became impossible for Serbs to obtain jobs in the provincial government and police force, and Albanians were given priority for housing. Serbs complained they could not get a fair trial in Albanian-controlled courts. Serbs left in droves. At the time, few inside Yugoslavia recognized how much Serbs resented their treatment in Kosovo, which they considered the cradle of their civilization. ''There's no doubt,'' said Zachary Irwin, a Balkans expert at Penn State University, ''that a great deal of Serbia's response today originates'' from this period. One of the few who sensed the simmering Serb anger was Slobodan Milosevic. He made his career in the late '80s through a series of speeches in which he vowed to end discrimination in Kosovo, including one in which he promised Serbs that ''no one will ever beat you again.'' Then in 1989, on the 600th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest, he revoked Kosovo's autonomy from the Albanians. Back in charge, the Serbs were determined to seize privileges from the Albanians, despite being a tiny minority in Kosovo. Increasingly oppressive, the Serbs eliminated funding for Albanian-language schools and institutions, and they stepped up police harassment. The Albanians responded with a remarkable campaign of passive resistance. For almost a decade before the start of the current conflict, the vast majority of Kosovo Albanians refused to attend Serbian schools, work in Serbian government jobs, use the Serbian postal system or vote in Serbian elections. Even in 1996, when it appeared that an alliance of Serbian Democrats and Kosovo Albanians could have defeated Milosevic, they boycotted the elections. The campaign of passive resistance might have continued but for two events: After ten years of nonviolent resistance, Kosovo Albanians felt betrayed by the United States in 1995 when leaders here decided not to bring up their cause at the Dayton peace talks, which ended the war in Bosnia. A year later, the Tirana government in Albania collapsed, and in the ensuing anarchy, the country's weapons armories were raided. Thousands of guns were sold to Kosovo Albanians at bargain prices. In the process of refining their grievances, Serbs and Albanians have built up a long list of complaints about each other. Serbs, who generally have one or two children per family, view themselves as more cultured and more European than the Albanians. They particularly resent the Albanians for having large families, for living in extended-family groupings and building fortress-like compounds to accommodate everyone. The Albanians revile the Serbs for denying them access to education in their own language. And as with any tribal conflict, the biggest crime for both is otherness -- being one of ''them,'' instead of one of ''us.'' Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. AP-NY-04-10-99 0037EDT |
