Having lived and worked in Serbia/Kosovo (the proper name depends on whether you're Serbian or Albanian- or on which side you happen to support), I still maintain an interest in affairs there. While I've admired and supported Serbia's slow and inexorable move towards full democracy, I've found that the country's attitudes and policies towards Kosovo in some respects haven't really changed much at all. Now, the country's new President is asking us to essentially ignore the past and give them the benefit of the doubt.
Boris Tadic, the newly elected (and first non-Communist) president of Serbia, seems to be taking the advice of the country's Washington PR firm. He's taking his case directly to the American people- and his message is really not all that different from previous Serb leaders.
Serbia seeks to regain its rightful place in the West to reaffirm our unequivocal commitment to the values we all share. Only together can we defeat our common enemies: terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, territorial aggression, ethnic and religious extremism, the illegal arms trade and trafficking in drugs and human beings. Elements of these common enemies of the West are present today in the Serbian province of Kosovo, administered by the international community since the end of the war in June 1999.
The March pogrom against the non-Albanian communities of Kosovo, especially against Kosovo's Serbs and their centuries-old holy sites, was planned and organized by Albanian extremists intent on imposing a maximalist solution -- independence through force of arms. In March, when I was minister of defense, I ensured that Serbia's military did not transform the crisis into a conflict. Instead I requested that my friend U.S. Adm. Gregory G. Johnson, the NATO Allied Forces commander for Southern Europe, order international security reinforcements to Kosovo to put an end to the pogrom....
I have embraced the principles of the Belgrade Plan for decentralization in Kosovo as proposed and unanimously accepted by the Serbian parliament. This plan respects the "substantial self-government" for Kosovo called for in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 while introducing the "autonomy within autonomy" formula necessary for Kosovo's Serbs to preserve their way of life and their Christian faith.
Serbia is committed to a political solution to the Kosovo situation and will work constructively with the Contact Group and Kosovo's Albanians to bring a lasting and just peace to our southern province. But first, those who ordered the attacks on Serbs and their patrimony in Kosovo must be held responsible. Additionally, the more than 200,000 Kosovo Serb internally displaced persons must be allowed to return to their homes. Last, more than 150 churches and monasteries destroyed by Albanian extremists need to be rebuilt.
I find it interesting, and rather disturbing, that Tadic is lobbying for the protection of Serbs in Kosovo, and yet makes no mention of the years of repression directed against the more than 90% Albanian majority. It's as if he expects Kosovo's Albanians to simply forgive and forget.
I would agree that peace is in everyone's best interest. Nonetheless, until Serbs and their leaders recognize and admit their complicity in the repression that was part and parcel of life in Kosovo prior to the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, Albanians will never welcome them back in Kosovo.
The general Serbian attitude remains unchanged: Kosovo is Serbia. This flies in the fact that more than 9 out of every 10 residents are Albanian. Tadic asks for the right of return for displaced Serbs, and yet he fails to address the plight of hundreds of thousands of Albanians who were forced out of their jobs simply because they're Albanian.
From where I sit, until and unless Serbs own up to their oppression of Kosovo's Albanian population, they have no claim and no right to any part of Kosovo. Clearly, they are hoping that the West will simply accept their statements at face value and not ask any uncomfortable questions. Given the recent history of Serbian policy in Kosovo, we need to see action, not mere words, to indicate that they recognize and accept responsibility for their behavior. If Tadic is going to toss the word "pogrom" at Albanians, he needs to take a good long look in the mirror.
The more things change, the more they stay the same....
