Kosovo

How Myths and Truths Started a War

Julie A. Mertus

Preface

The initial version of this book was completed in August 1998 and revised in the fall and winter of 1998-1999--before the NATO bombing of Kosovo in March 1999. The "hot spring" of 1999 might not have occurred if the international community had heard the voices in the stories that appear in this book.

As of this writing, the international community faces a terrible quandry. Milosevic has not moved one step closer toward signing a peace agreement. The very people NATO wants to help, Kosovo Albanians and anti-Milosevic Serbs, have been placed in great danger. Many have been murdered, tortured, or disappeared, including leading human rights and humanitarian activists and independent journalists. Many more have fled the country or are in hiding.

The absence of international monitors in Kosovo has given a green light to Serb "cleansing" of Albanians. A sea of humanity is headed toward Kosovo's borders. They are nearly all Albanians. When Kosovo Albanians cross the border, Serbs force them to leave their passports and identity papers behind. They will probably be unable to return without proof of citizenship. If bombing ends, the ethnic cleansing will only intensify. But if bombing continues and no other action is taken, the door-to-door slaughter of Albanians in Kosovo will also continue.

This book explains how the international community created this untenable situation by failing to support the Albanians in their initial passive resistance to brutal Serbian repression. Only after the world community failed to respond to their nonviolent quest for freedom did Albanians take up arms. Although the social movement that supports this quest comprises diverse ideologies, it is united by a single drive—the quest for freedom from oppression. Even defeated, Kosovo Albanians will never give up this dream. Unless an acceptable solution is found soon, Albanian efforts to achieve autonomy or independence for Kosovo will destabilize the region for years to come.

For over ten years, Serbian authorities brutally repressed Kosovo Albanians. The vast majority of Albanians responded with a campaign of "passive resistance." Only after the world community failed to respond to their nonviolent attempts at reform did Albanians take up arms. Plans for armed resistance in Kosovo came to the fore as a desperate attempt of Albanians seeking world recognition of their plight. Ultimately, however, the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) was propelled by the center of the Albanian social movement, not by the radical fringes. Even when many Albanians still wanted to believe in passive resistance, by the middle of the summer of 1998 nearly every Albanian in Kosovo supported the KLA.

This is the main point most analysts miss: The war in Kosovo is propelled by a social movement with diverse ideologies but one main drive—the quest for freedom from their oppressors. Even if defeated today, Kosovo Albanians will never give up this dream. Serbs cannot simply make them go away. Unless an acceptable solution is found today, the Albanian efforts to achieve autonomy or independence for Kosovo will destabilize the region for years to come.

--Baltimore, March 29, 1999