Nobody asked me but…
The other day I was criticized as being one of many Canadians who didn’t understand the conflict in the former Yugoslavia - or the issues involved in Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia.
That statement is very true.
I do not understand it. At least not anymore than I do any other conflict that rages on in the world. Though attempts to research and make sense of the former-Yugoslav does bring it’s own unique challenges.
Any attempt at trying to draw a time line that follows and accurately depicts the origins of the violence of that region is peppered with different accounts, stories and versions of who did what to whom, where and why.
Innocents have died, wars waged, and violations of human rights and international law have all arisen as result of the turmoil in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia dating back to, well, take your pick. There has been crimes of ethnic cleansing resulting from deep rooted Ethnic Nationalism.
As General Lewis Mackenzie once put it in the 90’s when commanding the United Nations Protection Force , “There’s plenty of blame to go around in the former Balkans.”
The point of my post late last week was to question if the process of declaring independence wouldn’t bring about more violence and bloodshed to a historically volatile pocket of Eastern Europe - while polarizing views and alliances among the world’s leading nations. I had no intention of justifying whether or not Kosovo had the right to separate - just that the process might be reckless.
Since then, Canada has defended it’s own status with respect to Quebec, the NATO bombing campaign of the late 90’s has been re-visited, a UN observation post has been destroyed and just an hour ago a US Embassy was beset by protesters.
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Smoke billowed from the American embassy in Belgrade after scores of protesters broke into the building on Thursday, cheered on by crowds outside, in a protest at U.S. support for Kosovo’s independenceA few people waved the flags of Russia and of Spain — which has also refused to recognize Pristina’s secession…
Police estimated 150,000 people packed the square, with columns of at least 10,000 more demonstrators filling up nearby boulevards. Eye witnesses reported big crowds elsewhere in the city.
The “people’s rally” was Serbia’s biggest since protesters filled the streets in 1999 to protest at NATO bombing and then in October 2000, when they stormed the same parliament building to oust nationalist autocrat Slobodan Milosevic.
In the crowds were many hardline nationalist Radicals, from Serbia’s biggest party, who shouted anti-Albanian slogans.
“Today Kosovo is in all our hearts,” their leader Tomislav Nikolic told the rally.
I will say this - when US President Bush provided his public support to Kosovo’s independence his coaxing and prompting from his ear piece was so evident, even for him, that it sent shivers down my spine as to how little he knows about the country - likely as much or less than me I suppose.
“It’s something that I’ve advocated along with my government,” Bush said in an interview on NBC’s “Today.”
By appealing directly to the U.S. and other nations for recognition, Kosovo’s independence set up a showdown with Serbia — outraged at the imminent loss of its territory — and Russia.
After the conflicts in the 90’s Canada accepted many refugees from all ethnicities in the area- Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Albanian. For all those that have friends and family in the contentious region, I wish them safety and a peaceful resolution in the very near future.
Now Playing:
Book: Carol Off: The Lion The Fox and The Eagle; Ghosts of the Medak Pocket
Report
Nobody asked me as well but… I’ve been trying to not understand but figure out the conflict. I decided for myself that you cannot understand it - I decided that if you can understand any conflict that is rooted in or stems from ethnic nationalism than something is wrong within yourself.
This event will just add to the list of who did what to whom and when. People in that region are extremely nationalistic by nature and never forget - I have a history book open now “june 28, 1389 Kosovo field, serbs will never forget the day that Turks broke the strength of Serbia and the new history began - the story of fight for freedom”
Report
I’ve found the work of McGill University political theory professor Jacob Levy to be illuminative on this topic. Based on research on ethnic conflicts and ethnic identities, he lays out a normative liberal framework for managing ethnic identities in “The Multiculturalism of Fear.”
Here’s a post from his blog about independence.
Report
I can understand the Serbian people being upset at the loss of this land as it is an important part of their history, yet, on the other hand I feel like saying “you reap what you sew” in the fact that on countless occasions during the conflicts in the Balkan peninsula, they shelled targets primarily due to their cultural or historical significance to either Croats, Bosnians and even Kosovar Albanians. Who shelled Dubrovnik, razed the Eltz manor in Vukovar, destroyed countless mosques and libraries in Bosnia?
I sorta wanna say, like speaking to a child; that it doesn’t feel so nice, and next time maybe you should think of how it might feel for the other person.
I am however glad that Boris Tadic asked his people to restrain from violent acts against foreigners and their embassy’s (even though it was after they broke into the US, Croatian and Bosnian embassies) saying that, this will only hurt their cause.
Report
All we need is an Archduke to come out of the woodwork…heh
It is little wonder then why Russia, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Indonesia and China so vehemently oppose this move as well. It just gives further legitimacy to their respective internal independent seekers (legitimacy, of course, is in the eyes of the beholder… but see Tibet, East Turkestan, Chechnya, Northern Cyprus, Elam, Euskadi, Aceh, Papua, Greek Macedonia, etc…and see why this opens a can of worms for these folks) But one surprising country that is pro-Kosovo is Georgia, considering they have two very tumultuous, independence seeking regions within their own borders (South Osseita and Abkhazia). But, I reckon they are pro-Kosovo in hopes of looking democratic, progressive, and pro-western in the eyes of the EU and NATO following their own “Rose Revolution” some years back.
Report
Corr: South Ossetia
Report
Just a side note….I don’t know about the other countries, but Russia supports Serbia not because of its own independence seekers - Russia lost pretty much everything there is to loose a long time ago. It stands behind Serbia because if we were to betray Serbs, our fellow slovaks that we have always supported and helped at the time of need, we will loose even more and gain a very dangerous and unforgiving enemy doing it… (this of course is a personal opinion of a not-so-proud Russian with a few Serbian friends, I’m not a political analyst)
Report
I believe you mean Slavs, and not “Slovaks”, but I understand your point. But lest we forget, it is totally inaccurate to say that Russia has always defended Yugoslavia as it were. Tito himself was hardly the model Soviet sycophant. He rarely toed Stalin’s line, and in fact, Yugoslavia was expelled from COMINFORM for Tito’s defiance towards Stalin and the Soviet Union nearly invaded. Tito helped spark the non-aligned movement. So I think the real reason is my inital point a few posts up.
Report
“All we need is an Archduke to come out of the woodwork…heh”
I didn’t want to be the first to say it.
I have a very close friend who served in Tito’s guard: He says the world needs to keep this area in conflict so that the world can seek economic recovery.
The fire has always been easy to set in Serbia.
Report
Indeed. I was speaking with a Serbian language instructor in the US govt (Serb born) this aft, she was incredibly disappointed in her countrymen. It is important to remember that there are those Serbs that arent so nationalistic.
Report
Quoting infinitelyabsurd:
interesting read…
Report
Quoting Patrick Pitt:
Yes, I too have a “Surb” friend (as he calls himself) who has made similar corolations about keeping the conflict alive for now and adding that economic’s plays a key role in that abstract situation over there.
Report
Quoting Rukasu:
Its probably too late to comment, but thank you for correction Rukasu. Ideally it should be “slovyane”, but yes I did mean Slavs. Few important points though:
- Yugoslavia and Serbia were not one and the same
- I never said that Russia defended either one (read the words for what they are not for what they may be)
Report
Quoting vika:
I dunno, seems pretty cut and dry, “we have always supported and helped”, and yes I realize Yugoslavia and Serbia are not the same, but Serbia was part of Yugoslavia…read the words for what they are not for what they may be
Report
Serbia was a part of Yugoslavia.
I took a bit of flack for referring to Kosovo as a part of the former Yugoslav in my former post - I had to rethink the position. Because it’s true not every person there is part Slavic - so there is some unintentional separatist’s remarks on my part there.
But then I thought - no - it used to say Yugoslavi on my globe and ergo donc I shall sleep soundly at night.
In any case thank you for the comments.
Report
Yeah these are interesting updates.
Russia’s got Chechnya and Georgia, Spain/Basque
To let Kosovo call itself a country I think would be to greet Quebec and even Alberta as new countries and that’d be pretty ugly. Newfoundland, Texas. Provincially, Vancouver Island, Northwestern Ontario, there are histories of variations of separatist movements all over the world.
I can’t find Canada’s official take on this but I assumed it’d be spineless and neutral.
I want to know why they were throwing rocks at the Canadian embassy too, it’s obvious they’ll burn anything American right around now.
Report
Thank you for the comment.
Canada seems to be progressing carefully. While I think comparing Quebec and Kosovo are apples to oranges (similar to when The Irish Republic was compared to Quebec during the FLQ crisis) I can see how some separtist movements will take this as their cue.
They were throwing rocks at the Canadian embassy? I was under the impression via the CBC that the Canadian embassy for the most part was untouched - though if they were throwing rocks at the Canadian embassy Serbia could be doing that for our part in the NATO bombing campaign.
Report
just a final word about Russia’s possible position : http://www.cfr.org/publication/15093/ - quite a good break down of the situation. Also anyone is free to look up info on Russia and Serbia’s energy deals and much more that is going on behind the newslines.
And I entire agree with Pitt’s comment above - why is everyone comparing Quebec and Kosovo - or any other conflict for that matter. All conflicts have their own unique origins and cannot be measured against each other.