BUFFALO, N.Y., 5 December 2006 — On Oct. 29, 2006, a referendum was held in Serbia to vote on a new constitution. Roughly 51 percent of the 6.6 million Serbs in Serbia came out to vote (just above the 50 percent needed) with a majority voting for the new constitution which, among other things, claims Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia. As Serbia works to negotiate European Union membership, the issue of predominantly-Muslim Albanian Kosovo and the results of this referendum are of unique importance.
Kosovo, despite the relatively small minority of Serbs still living there, is thought of by Serbs as traditionally Serbian because in the Middle Ages the Serbian capital was located at Pristina in what is now Kosovo. In 1389, Serbia effectively lost Kosovo, when Serbian forces were defeated by the expanding Ottoman Empire, ushering in hundreds of years of Muslim Ottoman rule. Over time, Muslim Albanians moved in large numbers to the province, while Christian Serbs were forced out by Ottoman oppression. Serbia did not fully regain the province until 1912, during the Balkan wars, but Serbs have never resettled there in substantial numbers.
With the demise of Yugoslavia, Kosovo’s Albanians began pushing for independence and the movement turned violent in 1995, resulting in four years of increasingly deadly low-level conflict. In 1999, Europe and the US, fearing a resumption of wide-scale war in the Balkans, and disturbed by news of Serbian massacres of Kosovar Albanians, asked Serbia to allow NATO to station peacekeepers in the territory, and when it refused, NATO began a bombing campaign. The brief Kosovo war forced Serbia to effectively relinquish control of the province, though no final legal agreement was made at the time. Since the war, Kosovo has been effectively governed as a protectorate of the EU and the UN.
Yet in this election, ethnic Albanians, who today make up roughly 90 percent of the population in Kosovo, were not able to vote. Many believe that had they had the opportunity to participate, it would have easily tilted the balance of the referendum in the opposite direction.
The results of this referendum, according to many analysts, will not have an effect on the continuing talks between Serbian and ethnic Albanian officials on final status issue, which aim to come to an agreement on the territory’s political status.
Instead of trying to keep Kosovo as part of Serbia and in the process risking conflict between Serbians and Kosovar Albanians — not to mention destabilizing the entire region — Serbia should grant Kosovo independence and focus on a more realistic demand: The protection of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo. Belgrade is worried that the minorities in Kosovo will eventually be forced to leave the moment independence occurs. Additionally, the EU has made it clear that beginning negotiations on Serbian entry into the EU hinge on Serbia’s willingness to pursue the final status talks with Kosovo in good faith.
In a related BBC article published on March 10, 2006, Agim Ceku, leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army in 1999, “pledged to protect the rights of Kosovo’s minority Serb community.” But Serbian leaders, who accuse Ceku of committing war crimes, are not willing to take his statements at face value.
In order to calm fears that minorities will be persecuted or treated like second-class citizens, serious efforts must continue by Kosovo’s leaders and citizens alike to protect the rights of non-Albanian minorities in their midst. This means equal opportunities and tolerance of different faiths and ethnicities in a democratic Kosovo.
As efforts to create an independent Kosovo are strongly moving forward, both the Kosovo government and civil society must continue to step up and take greater initiative to create programs and projects to foster ethnic and religious understanding in order to quell the fears of Serbian and other minorities. Dialogue must begin with the promotion of reconciliation in churches and mosques, discussion of what a liberal and democratic Kosovo should look like, followed by programs within the education system that promote respect for a diversity of cultures and beliefs.
The government of Kosovo should make it clear that all forms of ethnic and religious discrimination will be punished. Kosovar teachers should be required to participate in ethnic and religious dialogue training. Schools should also implement interfaith and interethnic activities such as sport and art programs. The new independent Kosovo should include strong legal protection laws of Albanians, Serbs, Roma, Muslims and Christians alike. With such work on interethnic and interfaith dialogue, Kosovo can be an excellent example of a majority Muslim country in Europe respecting the rights and faiths of non-Muslims, a role model for other ethnically and religiously divided countries in Europe and elsewhere.
— Fait Muedini is a Ph.D. student and Presidential Fellow at the State University New York-Buffalo department of Political Science. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
