РефератыИностранный языкKoKosovo Conflicts Between Serbians And Ethnic Albanians

Kosovo Conflicts Between Serbians And Ethnic Albanians

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


Pham Pantoja 2


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


Pham Pantoja 3


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


Pham Pantoja 4


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.


Pham Pantoja 5


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


Pham Pantoja 6


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.


Pham Pantoja 8


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.

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