Serbia and Kosovo

[Грешник]

Ok so I am wondering if someone with a bit more of a brain for things like this (preferably someone who IS Serbian) could explain to me what this is all about and how we as Orthodox Christians should view this. Thanks.

Serbia 'may compromise on Kosovo'
By Nick Hawton
BBC News, Belgrade

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic
Serbia's foreign minister has said he is convinced a compromise solution can be found to decide the future of the disputed province of Kosovo.

In an exclusive BBC interview, Vuk Jeremic said Serbia was even ready to give up certain sovereign prerogatives.

The province of Kosovo, currently part of Serbia, has been governed by the UN since the war ended in 1999.

Mr Jeremic said it could be given "the widest possible autonomy in the world" to meet Albanian independence demands.

Kosovo's majority Albanian population wants independence from Serbia.

A new round of talks is due to take place between Belgrade and the Kosovo Albanian leadership after moves to introduce independence were blocked at the UN Security Council.

Major shift

Mr Jeremic acknowledged that there was still a large gap between the negotiating positions of Belgrade and of the Kosovo Albanian leadership but he said compromise was possible.

A new round of talks is expected to begin soon, with representatives of the United States, Russia and the European Union presiding.

There is no great optimism that a solution will be found but Mr Jeremic said Serbia would be willing to consider even giving up some of its sovereign prerogatives.

"Like being able to have their own access to the World Bank and the IMF, like the international financial institutions, like some kind of representation abroad," he said.

"We are prepared to give up a lot of things, but they also need to be prepared to give up something."

He also acknowledged Russia's support for Serbia at the UN Security Council but insisted Serbia's long-term future lay in the EU.

"As a result of Russia's principled position - principled adherence to international law, we've got these negotiations, but there should be absolutely no doubt that Serbia's strategic orientation is membership in the EU," he said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said the status quo in Kosovo cannot be maintained.

But it will take a major shift from either side for a solution to be found during the next round of negotiations.

[Pravoslavnik]

Juvenaly,

Code: Select all

 I have only been to the former Yugoslavia twice during the past 17 years since the civil wars broke out, but my grandparents were born there, so I will take a crack at a response.  Kosovo province has been an historic  part of Serbia since the days of the Nemanja Dynasty, when St. Sava--the son of St. Simeon (King Stefan Nemanja)--became the first Patriarch of the autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church.  Serbia, like most of the Balkan Peninsula, was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the 14th century, and was organized as a province of the Ottoman Empire.  Many indigenous Orthodox Christians in Albania, Bosnia, and Hercegovina eventually converted to Islam--something which gave them status and privileges under Moslem law, sharia, that were denied to Christians.

     The Serbs, with very little help from anyone--including their Roman Catholic "Hapsburg" neighbors to the West, Croatia and Slovenia--were able to drive the Turks out of Serbia in the 19th century, and to re-establish an independent, sovereign Orthodox state.  Their autonomy and sovereign status was resented by the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburgs, and this international tension eventually precipitated World War I, after a Serbian nationalist assasinated Austrian Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo (Bosnia) in 1914.  During the course of the 20th century--including the two devastating World Wars--Kosovo province became increasingly populated by Albanian Moslem immigrants to the region, along with the indigenous population of Moslem converts from the centuries of Turkish occupation.

    During the past twenty years or more, the (Albanian) Moslems in Kosovo--now comprising a majority of the local population-- began to clamor for independence.  A guerilla army--the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)--was organized, and apparently funded by Osama Bin Laden, in the 1980's.  Moslems have viewed this as part of a more global Jihad against the infidels--as part of the longstanding goal and religious obligation of Moslems to convert the entire earth to Islam and the rule of sharia.  However, the Koran and Sunna also require Moslems to dissemble (to lie) to infidels about this overall religious goal; something that is called "Taquiya."  Hence, you will often hear Moslem politicians and warlords speaking publicly about peace and brotherhood, and denying that Islam has Jihadist ideals toward Christian nations and territories.

     Enter Bill Clinton, Thomas Eagleburger, and NATO.  In the 1990's policy wonks in NATO and the U.S. State Department decided that they needed to establish improved alliances with the Islamic world.  After the break up of Yugoslavia--beginning in 1990 when Slovenia and Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia--NATO and the Clinton administration made a strategic decision to support the KLA (and Croatian and Moslem groups in Bosnia and Hercegovina) in their military conflict with Serbia--and with Serbs in Bosnia.  

   There was a great deal of press coverage in the U.S. and Western Europe during the late 1990's about Serbian persecution and "ethnic cleansing" of Croatians and Moslems, in particular.  Atrocities were certainly committed by Serbs, but the West never got the whole picture of  longstanding genocidal conflicts during the past several centuries in the region which had been perpetrated by Moslems and Croatians against Orthodox Serbians.  I followed the news closely, and [i]I never saw a single photo or news story in the U.S. about the Orthodox Serbian Churches and Monasteries that were being blown up by Moslems in Pristina and elsewhere in Serbia.[/i]  In fact, the only such photo ever published, outside of some Orthodox websites, was in a French newspaper several years ago.  Some have accused Croatian and Roman Catholic public relations people of helping to suppress this information, but I do not know the cause for this media silence. Certainly the U.S. State Department has had some role in the way the public relations have been handled regarding Kosovo.

        I have no professional or inside information about the current U.N. negotiations in Kosovo, but it seems to me that Orthodox Christians in American, and elsewhere, should support the sovereignty and rights of Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, Montenegro, and elsewhere in the Balkans.  Unfortunately, the West has always done just the opposite, and only Russia has, traditionally, defended the rights of Serbia in world affairs.  (And even Russia capitulated to Western interests with regard to Montenegro in the Napoleonic era--leaving St. Peter of Montenegro on his own, to eventually become the only military commander other than Kutusov to defeat Napoleon when he was at the height of his military power.) If Moslems (Albanians) in Kosovo, or anywhere, are secretly attacking and persecuting Christians, the West should support an end to the violence and theft that has been the [i]modus operandi [/i]of Islam since the days of Mohammed's Hejira in the 7th century.  Unfortunately, most Americans do not know about the Moslem practice of "taquiya"--the religious injunction to lie to infidels about Islam.  Every time an American journalist or politican comments about Islamic violence and Jihad, we hear some lofty public pronouncement from Moslems about how Islam is really a religion of peace and brotherhood!