Kosovo Conflicts Between Serbians And Ethnic Albanians

Essay, Research Paper

Kosovo: Conflicts Between Serbians and Ethnic Albanians

I. Introduction

A. Thesis- The conflict between the Serbs and Albanians shows us the

amount of intolerance with religious, political, and racial conflicts

throughout the history of the relationship between the Serbs and

Albanians.

II. History of Kosovo

A. Battles

1. 1913 Albanian rebellion against Serbian officials.

2. The cause was the rape of an Albanian women.

B. Kosovo s extra problems

III. Religious conflicts

A. Albania religion

1. Islamic belief

2. The Koran criticised Jews and Christians

B. Serb religion

1. Serbian Orthodox

2. A division in the Christian belief.

IV. Political Conflict

A. Fascism

B. Democracy

1. Milosevic s wife a well-known communist.

2. Democracy had their fights with communism during the Cold War.

V. Racial Conflict

A. Serbs

B. Albanians

1. Ethnic Albanians conflicts with Serbian officials.

2. Milosevic s determination on getting rid of Ethnic Albanians out of

Kosovo.

VI. Conclusion

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The conflict in Kosovo right not reflects to us the intolerance of race and

religion demonstrated by the Serbs toward the ethnic Albanians. The situation

right now is the evacuation of all ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo. This situation

began on February 1990 after fighting broke out between ethnic Albanians,

police, and the Slavic minority (Satyendra, paragraph 2). Many other situations

that have occurred in the past have contributed to the conflict that is happening

now. The conflict between the Serbs and Albanians shows us the amount of

intolerance with religious, political, and racial conflicts throughout the history of

the relationship between the Serbs and Albanians.

The history of Kosovo have been very turbulent and conflicts rose up at

every incident that occurred. Some 600 years ago, the Serbs confronted the

Turkish invader on June 15, 1389 at their homeland that resulted in Battle of

Kosovo. The Serb was led by Prince Lazar and they fought brilliantly to the end.

Though he was wounded and was captured and beheaded by the Turks

(Satyendra, paragraph 1, Kosovo deeply embedded in psyche of the Serb

people ). One of the early conflicts that occurred in 1913 with small bands of

Albanian rebels, known as kacaks were protesting against a Serbian officer in

September. He had tried to rape a Albanian women but a women s husband shot

the Serbian official dead in the village of Fshaj. The result was Serbian officials

destroying that village with two others and killing 35 Albanians (Malcolm,

257). During the end of the war in Kosovo in October 1912, Edith Durham, a

news reporter that was in Montenegro at the time asked a wounded soldier why

she can t go up to one of their posts in Albania. The soldier would reply We

have not left a nose on an Albanian up there! She would later find out when she

had a chance of visiting a northern Albanian outpost, where she saw Ottoman

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soldier s noses and lips cut off. A Danish reporter managed to get some news

out of Kosovo where it is reported that 5,000 Albanians had been killed in

Prishtina. The reporter would later wrote the Serbian campaign had taken on the

character of a horrific massacring of the Albanian population (Malcolm, 254).

During the reimposition of Serbian rule, the Serbian soldiers entered Kosovo in

October 1918 planning on revenge for the hostile attitude of the Albanians at the

time of Serbia s withdrawal from Kosovo in 1915. Albanians resisted against

Serb s onslaught. Even though Montenegrins helped the Albanians, 200 were

killed at the beginning and would later escalate. Serbian troops killed 6,040

people and destroyed 3,873 houses (Malcolm, 273). Serbs have tried to

counteract their images as the good guys and the Albanians as the bad guys by

using Serbian media by accusing Albanian men raping Serbian women. A

Serbian Orthodox name Atanasije Jevtic wrote in his book that Albanians rape

anything they can get their hands on. This was definitely a false statement which

was proved by human rights experts (Malcolm, 339).

On September 30, 1991, Kosovars voted in a referendum, which would

make Kosovo a independent state. A conflict would arose that Albanian

politicians could no longer ignore the fate of the Kosovars. Fearing a massive

influx of Kosovars refugees, the Tirana government issued statements criticising

policy of Kosovo s Serbian leadership (Vickers and Pettifer, 150). Another

Kosovo problem occurred in 1690 when Serbians planned a insurrection against

the occupying forces of the Turkish-Ottoman Empire which failed. A good part of

the Serbian population left Kosovo to escape enslavement by the Turks. The

immigration of the Serbs increased again with another failed insurrection in 1735

that would change Kosovo s ethnic composition. Albanian s now settled in the

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abandoned villages and towns. They would later convert to Muslim to be the

same as their conquerors (Satyendra, paragraph 3, Kosovo deeply embedded in

psyche of the Serb people ). In the early 1980 s, the Serbs were convinced that

Tirana, which can only survive if they are isolationists, who was not interested in

including Kosovo within Albania s borders. Although, Albanian leadership often

used the situation that is happening in Kosovo as a means in of deflecting

domestic discontent, the realised how unrealistic it would be to unify the two

Albanian communities. Decades of separation would widen the differences

socially and psychologically between the Kosovars and the isolated Albanians

(Vickers and Pettifer, 144).

The ethnic Albanians are part of the Islam faith. Islam is like Judaism and

Christianity, but they believe in Allah which means belief in one God. He is refer

to as creator of the world and life in it. Their messenger was Muhammad who

lived in Mecca at the time of his revelation which is now known as the Koran

(Gordan, 10-11). The Koran have criticised Jews and Christians in the Koran.

The Koran says the Jews and Christians can be claiming themselves as the

devine people. The Koran would state that only God can decide who is devine, if

any. Christians are definitely criticised for their claim as Christ as devine that

would anger the Muslims because God can not share his divine nature, or that

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God has a divine partner. This idea contradicts one of the most fundamental

ideas of the Islamic faith (Gordan, 23). The Koran believes that their role is to

correct the errors and false ideas that men and women have added to God s

earlier revelations (Gordan, 27).

Throughout the history of the Serbian and Albanian relations in Kosovo,

they have separated each other as far as they can. Both of their language are

completely different. The one that stands out the most was their religion which

the Serb built their identity with the Serbian Orthodox Church. This church

acquired it s status within the Greek Orthodox Church which they will become

independent in 1346. The Serbian Orthodoxy has a type of Christianity to it and

it is much furthered removed from social and political matters than in the case

with Protestant or Roman Catholicism (Malcolm, 12). In Kosovo, Serbians treat

the Church very differently. They stay very involved in politics but it is very loyal

to the Church. Cedomil Mijatovic, a Serbian diplomatic, explains it very well by

saying, The religious sentiment of the Servians [ie. Serbians] is neither deep

nor warm. Their churches are generally empty, except on very great Church

festivals, and on political festivals. The Serbians of our day consider the Church

as a political institution, in some mysterious manner connected with the

existence of the nation. They do not allow anyone to attack her, nor to

compromise her, although, when she is not attacked, they neglect her (Malcolm

13-14). These two religions amazingly does not have conflict with each other.

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Islamic, Catholicism, and Christianity or Orthodoxy have gotten along very finely

in Kosovo. Each religion would use the others rituals like protecting from

disease or curing it, they would use it. Pjeter Bogdani was a visitor in 1681 and

he said that they glorify the religious diversity. Though the only conflict if it could

be called that way that Muslims have a higher social and economical advantage

in Kosovo. So Christian men would marry Christian women and then the man

would only convert to Muslim while keeping his ties to Christianity which they call

crypto-Christianity (Malcolm,130-131).

The structural causes of the Kosovo crisis from national conflicts to

economic backwardness did not disappear during the forty five years of

communist rule , but they even intensified. The main intention of the communists

has never been to really resolve the basic contradictions in Yugoslavia, but

rather to secure their own power. The aging dictator was a master in conducting

such a utilitarian, cynical and even luxuriant policy. (Okey Eastern Europe)The

Democratic regime was deteriorating according to another recurring media

stereotype, these “forces” were supposed to exist inside most of the states of

eastern Europe. They are claimed to be the common opposition, to the

warmongering politicians. How do you recognise “democratic forces”?

Because democracy remains weak in Serbia, it has been unable to

prevent nationalism from spilling across the Balkans. In Bosnia, municipal

elections held in September revealed the hopes that the Bosnian people yet

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share in democratic values as the solution to their problems, and the

determination of nationalist parties to frustrate those hopes. The elections also

exposed the shocking extent of the OSCE s connivance with Bosnian Serb and

Croat ultranationalists to pre-determine electoral results. By certifying patently

undemocratic elections and accommodating war criminals whose political

credentials were established through genocide, OSCE leaders in Bosnia

compromised the integrity of an important organization responsible for

strengthening democratization in post-Cold War Europe. The Helsinki

Commission should investigate the failure of the OSCE to uphold its democratic

mandate in Bosnia. What can be done about the threat?

National integration in Southeastern Europe has been effected under the

strong influence of several factors. They have varied depending on the local

conditions, from historicism to religion, as a result, shaping particular types of

national movements. The victory of the Communists in the civil war, gained with

the decisive support of the Red Army in 1944, resulted in a Leninist-type

federation, based upon ‘brotherhood and unity’ of all Yugoslav peoples, in

conformity with he new social and totalitarian vision. Yugoslavia’s post-war

internal reorganisation was based on the national policy of the Communist Party.

As early as 1920, the Comintern considered Yugoslavia to be an

“expanded Serbia . (Sugar Lederer)Although according to the inter-war ethnic

composition the

Serbs constituted either an absolute or a relative majority in Montenegro,

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Bosnia-Herzegovina and Vojvodina, the CPY considered that the possibility

should be left open for each of these regions to become independent units within

the future federal and communist Yugoslavia. An important and only strategic

turnabout took place in 1935 when the Comintern’s policy took the course of

joining forces into a “Popular Front” against “the growing danger of Nazism and

Fascism in Europe.(Shoup, Communism )

The powerful wife of Serbia’s President Slobodan Milosevic criticized her

political opponents, saying opposition leaders were pushing Serbia into

civil war. “We are hearing in Serbia calls to violence and the type of violence

which will inevitably end in a civil war,” Milosevic’s wife — In turn, opposition

organizers appealed to Milosevic not to divide Serbs by painting his foes as

traitors — saying that such accusations could lead to civil war.

the Balkans have had a standard flow of influence and infiltration from

bordering states throughout its history. That area is constantly undergoing

reform and uprisings from its inhabitants. The Serbs and the Albanians have

been the two major opposing forces in Kosovo. The two could either begin to

make amends for past incidents and proceed with reconstruction, or they could

feud against each other until one falls in a terrible bloody mess. Anything could

start unfortunate event. However, we predict that the situation will resemble

something that has occured in the past, they will circulate around; religious,

political, and racial conflicts within Kosovo.

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Gordan, Matthew. Islam: World Religions. New York: Brown, 1991

Malcolm, Noel. Kosovo: A Short History. New York: New York, 1998

Osborn, Kevin. Tolerance. New York: Rosen, 1993

Satyendra, Nadesan. Understanding Kosovo: Kosovo deeply embedded in

psyche of the Serb people. Online Internet. 31 Oct. 1998.

Satyendra, Nadesan. Understanding Kosovo: Similarities. Online Internet.

31 Oct. 1998.

Vickers, Miranda, and James Pettifer. Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan

Identity. New York: New York, 1997.

P.Shoup, Communism and the National Question in Yugoslavia, London and

New York: Columbia University Press

P. Sugar and I. Lederer, Nationalism in Eastern Europe, Washington 1970,

R.Okey, Eastern Europe 1740-1985.Feudalism to Communism, London: Unwyn

Hyman, 1986.