Conflict in Kosovo

Uncertainty surrounds territory after its declaration of independence.

Nearly three weeks after the Balkan territory of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, international opinion about its unilateral action remains far from unified.

Though over 20 countries, including the United States and many European Union members, have recognized Kosovo as an independent state, Serbia has called Kosovo’s declaration an illegal act of secession. World powers such as Russia and China back Serbia’s stance, while states such as Canada and Spain remain on the fence.

At Harvard, Serbian students said they had expected Kosovo’s move, but offered differing views on how the international situation would play out.

“Kosovo becomes a legitimate country by being recognized by the United Nations,” said Ivan Posavec ’10, a student from the Serbian capital of Belgrade. He added that such recognition is unlikely to happen given Russia’s veto power in the Security Council.

Vuk Babic ’10, a resident of Serbia’s northern province of Vojvodina, said that Kosovo is already “de facto independent” because it is recognized by Western nations: “It’s unlikely that the US, the UK, France, Germany, and all these countries that have recognized Kosovo will say, ‘We were wrong and we’re going to switch back.’”

Since Ottoman Turks defeated Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the territory has seen conflict between its majority of ethnic Albanians and the minority Serbs. As Yugoslavia broke apart in the early 1990s, Kosovo remained a part of Serbia.

Attacks by a Kosovar guerrilla movement led to brutal repression by the Yugoslavian military under President Slobodan Milosevic. Thousands of Kosovo’s Albanians died in the resulting ethnic cleansing campaign in 1999, while hundreds of thousands more were forced to flee to the neighboring countries of Albania and Macedonia.

After NATO airstrikes forced the withdrawal of Serbian forces in June 1999, Kosovo nominally remained a part of Yugoslavia but was overseen by a UN mission as international diplomats discussed the future of the territory.

“Kosovo and Serbia were bound to separate at some point in their history,” wrote Vera Mucaj ’09, originally from Albania, in an e-mail. “I’m glad the time is now and not in 1998, because that could have possibly led to a full-fledged war. Since the rest of the world now has their eyes on Kosovo, this seems to be the best time for Kosovo to declare independence.”

Kosovo’s declaration of independence on February 17 was met by celebrations in the capital, Pristina, and by protests in Belgrade. Tensions have run high between Albanians and Serbs in Serbian-majority areas of Kosovo, located primarily in the north.

Serbian politicians criticized countries that have recognized Kosovo for what they see as a double standard. The global response “transforms the right to self-determination into an avowed right to independence” and “legitimizes the forced partition of internationally recognized, sovereign states,” wrote Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic in an op-ed in the New York Times.

Posavec agreed, pointing to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb-majority region of Republika Srpska. “In the question of Republika Srpska, the Serbs didn’t have the right to secede,” he said. “Now they’re saying that Republika Srpska is not a special case and Kosovo is.”

Babic said that the central issue facing Serbia should be its policy towards the EU, which is seeking to expand into the former Yugoslavia and which is assuming an oversight role previously held by the UN. “I kind of have the feeling that we’re blackmailing the EU now: ‘Give us back Kosovo or we won’t join the EU.’ But I think at some point we will have to tilt towards the EU,” he said.

Located in the southwest of the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo is home to two million people. Over 90 percent of its population is ethnically Albanian, and most Albanians are Muslims. About 100,000 largely Christian Serbs remain, most in small enclaves. Kosovo is one of the poorest areas of Europe, with a per capita income of $1437 in 2006, according to the World Bank.

Urging “standards before status,” Babic said that Kosovo’s economic situation should be a priority for international policy-makers. “If people were economically satisfied and the economy was stabilized, then things would be better,” he said. “The way they did it now, Kosovo will never be part of the UN. … No one in their right mind will want to invest there.”

Despite ongoing tensions in the former Yugoslavia, Posavec said that he and fellow Balkan students had found common ground at Harvard.

“When we come here, all the conflicts are left behind, and you realize how much you’re the same,” he said. “But back in the region, people still care about who’s who and who has what last name.”