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.