Demographics as Destiny
Travis Woodson
Serbia and Kosovo, November 2007
On November 18, 2007, http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2476, the former leader of the Albanian Kosovars’ Kosovo Liberation Army, claimed victory in Kosovo’s parliamentary elections. Thaci has promised to declare independence for the Serbian province immediately after December 10, 2007, the deadline set by the United Nations for the conclusion of talks on the future status of the province. The United Nations and KFOR military forces (i.e., the NATO-led Kosovo force, mostly U.S., Russian, French, and British troops) have occupied Kosovo since 1999. The Serbs, although proposing broad autonomy for the province, have adamantly opposed secession.
The Serbs responded to Thaci’s imminent declaration of independence by warning the West that such a declaration would lead to new secessionist moves in other parts of the Balkans. “If the independence of Kosovo is recognized, it would not be the final stage of disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, but the first stage of new disintegration and secession in the Balkans,” said Serbia’s Kosovo minister, Slobodan Samardzic. Some analysts warn that a declaration of independence could have a domino effect, with Kosovo itself the first casualty as the Serbs in northern Kosovo break away. Other areas at risk are Macedonia, where a rebellion in 2001 by the country’s 25% Albanian minority was put down with Western mediation, and Bosnia, which is tenuously trying to hold together Serbian, Croat, and Muslim populations.I am here in Belgrade, Serbia with my Serbian wife, visiting her friends and relatives. I asked several Serbs for their views on Kosovo.
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.com/authors/Woodson-Kosovo.html
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2436