Balkanized

‘IT began in Kosovo. There it will end.” Even before the eruption of violence in Serbia’s southern province in February, it was commonly assumed that the simmering discontent between the 90 per cent Albanian majority and the Serb minority that controls the region would mark the final disintegration of Yugoslavia. It was in Kosovo in 1987 that Slobodan Milosevic came to prominence as the first Yugoslav Communist to adopt nationalistic rhetoric as the way out of the dead end of the old system. Two years later, Milosevic, using his power as Serbia’s Communist Party boss, abolished Kosovo’s autonomy. From there it was downhill all the way for internal peace in Yugoslavia, as Slovenes, Croats, and then Bosnians declared independence in order to escape a similar fate.

And yet, during the bitter years of war in Bosnia, Kosovo was the one Balkan volcano that did not erupt, even when U.S. warplanes shattered the myth of Serb invincibility in the run-up to the Dayton Accords in 1995. Despite their massive majority, and although they had declared independence in 1992, Kosovo’s two million Albanians seemed more Gandhian than the Mahatma in their dogged attachment to political inertia as a means of gaining independence. As Milosevic’s dream of greater Serbia fell apart, the Kosovo Albanians seemed never to lose an opportunity to lose an opportunity.

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Mark Almond

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‘IT began in Kosovo. There it will end.” Even before the eruption of violence in Serbia’s southern province in February, it was commonly assumed that the simmering discontent between the 90 per cent Albanian majority and the Serb minority that controls the region would mark the final disintegration of Yugoslavia. It was in Kosovo in 1987 that Slobodan Milosevic came to prominence as the first Yugoslav Communist to adopt nationalistic rhetoric as the way out of the dead end of the old system. Two years later, Milosevic, using his power as Serbia’s Communist Party boss, abolished Kosovo’s autonomy. From there it was downhill all the way for internal peace in Yugoslavia, as Slovenes, Croats, and then Bosnians declared independence in order to escape a similar fate.

And yet, during the bitter years of war in Bosnia, Kosovo was the one Balkan volcano that did not erupt, even when U.S. warplanes shattered the myth of Serb invincibility in the run-up to the Dayton Accords in 1995. Despite their massive majority, and although they had declared independence in 1992, Kosovo’s two million Albanians seemed more Gandhian than the Mahatma in their dogged attachment to political inertia as a means of gaining independence. As Milosevic’s dream of greater Serbia fell apart, the Kosovo Albanians seemed never to lose an opportunity to lose an opportunity.