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Serbia, Hegel and Pragmatic History
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Historians who indulge in narrating pragmatic history - as specified by G.W.F Hegel in his most notable book, The Philosophy of History - aim to give an account of the past through an ideological lens. Meaning, there is either a theory or an ideology attached to that account of history; there is room for manipulating a narrative and give it some sort of general meaning that will satisfy the present political climate. Amidst this transitional era of dynamic politics in the Balkan Peninsula, Serbia uselessly reverts to the past in this manner like no other nation around them. A brief glance of www.srbija.gov , specifically their section on Kosova, speaks volumes for itself. When it comes to Kosova, the gist of their adopted argument centers around a historical account that is not only very pragmatic in nature but also dates back to the memorandums of Vaso Cubrilovic (read: The Expulsion of the Albanians). Yet, most Serbs seem to forget that if history has taught us anything – it is “that people and governments never learn anything from [it], or act on principles deduced from it”. Presheva Valley is solid proof, that Serbia’s defense in citing the past to bear upon the present is simply delusional.
See/read for yourselves!
LINK
Some Things Never Change...
As if enduring the current economic/political circumstances isn't enough, Preshevars are now left to contend with this.
The paramount mood among ministers in Serbia leaves you with an impression that change really isn't around the corner, it's all very superficial. The decision reeks of ethnic-cleansing and is apt to foster more of the same. The malicious purpose of all this is to narrow the academic scope of future Albanian prospects. In assessing the current pattern that has developed in Serbia, the institutional mistreatment of minorities conducted in so many levels, will gradually come back to haunt them.
The paramount mood among ministers in Serbia leaves you with an impression that change really isn't around the corner, it's all very superficial. The decision reeks of ethnic-cleansing and is apt to foster more of the same. The malicious purpose of all this is to narrow the academic scope of future Albanian prospects. In assessing the current pattern that has developed in Serbia, the institutional mistreatment of minorities conducted in so many levels, will gradually come back to haunt them.
Multi-Ethnic?
Here is an article titled, Brooks For “Multi-Ethnic Authorities In Southern Serbia”, written by Javor Plazar for eYugoslavia.
Not sold!
p.s. There was a boycott Mr.Brooks.
If multiethnicism is the solution to the question of Presheva Valley, it would seem to follow that what's taken place the last 7 years has only enhanced continuous structural repression rather than an optimal solution that Brooks espouses. Who is to say the status quo will change?
He said, “Leaders in this region know well the only way to solve their problems. If you compare parliamentary elections of 2007 with those held this year, it becomes obvious there was no boycott this time, which demonstrates that people know how they should solve their problems.”
Not sold!
p.s. There was a boycott Mr.Brooks.
Halimi: Tensions increasing in south Serbia
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PREŠEVO -- Riza Halimi says incidents and attacks on Albanian property across Serbia are heightening tensions in the south.
Halimi, the only Albanian deputy in the Serbian parliament and president of the Party of Democratic Action (PDD) believes that the situation is being aggravated by a "series of very belligerent and irresponsible statements coming from the authorities, where every move towards European integration is rejected."
He stated that the PDD, together with the Albanians from southern Serbia, were trying to “instill the hope that a normal life for all citizens will be guaranteed with a normal path towards European integration’.
According to the PDD leader, “there have been no incidents so far“ in the Preševo Valley.
"The only worrying fact is that a rather aggressive meeting of war reservists was allowed to take place in Medveđe. I am not in any way against an expression of democratic will, but, in general, manipulation with war reservists and reminders of the hard days we experienced here in 1999 will again lead to a destabilization of the situation both here and on a wider scale,” Halimi surmised.
He reiterated that "when conflicts developed in the Presevo Valley, the government at the time, in cooperation with NATO, took the decision to relax the Ground Safety Zone."
"The whole time we strongly opposed the presence of army and police forces in the valley, since they are not suitable for the situation, and are here in relation to goings-on in Kosovo and the eventual recognition or otherwise of an independent Kosovo. To a certain degree, we are hostages to that situation," the PDD leader pointed out.
He claimed that, "as far as state interests are concerned, this militarization is useless and quite harmful."
"I don’t expect a return to the Ground Safety Zone’s previous state, because that is only envisaged in the case of larger conflicts," said Halimi, adding that "even with the present negative situation he does not expect that it will reach a stage where the KFOR commander will have to intervene."
"It is in the interests of the state itself that stability here is preserved through political, economic and social measures, and that this military component is used as little as possible," said Halimi.
In addition to the fact that he does not believe that KFOR will act rashly, Halimi warned that it was in the interests of the region that "we, on this side, think more seriously and sensibly."
Source: B92
Kosova is free!
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Comment, reproduced from the Greater Surbiton weblog, which stresses the historic importance of Kosova's achievement of independence
Yesterday, I truly felt what a privilege and a joy it was to be alive, and to watch as the great people of Kosova finally achieved the freedom that they have sought for so long. It is a moment that all Kosovar patriots, all sincere Serbian democrats and all those who believe in freedom for the people of South East Europe, and indeed in freedom generally, should be celebrating. With all my heart, I should like to congratulate the people of Kosova on this great occasion.
Kosova was crushed and oppressed by the Ottoman Empire; murderously invaded by the Serbian Army; repressed and colonised under the Yugoslav kingdom; dismembered by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy; and terrorised by the Communist police-state after World War II. It was partially emancipated in the late 1960s and 70s, only to see its autonomy brutally abrogated by Slobodan Milosevic, in an assault that culminated in the attempted genocide of the late 1990s. Who would have thought before 1999 that the story would have a happy ending ? Who would have thought that when Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, East Timor would one day be free ? This is a lesson, that no matter how bleak things may seem, justice and liberty may triumph in the long run. I have said before that the idea that Kosova’s independence will cause innumerable other ‘separatist’ territories around the world to try to follow suit is a scaremongering myth. Still, I hope that the happy outcome will indeed inspire other enslaved nations not to give up hope: liberation may be just around the corner; you can’t keep a good nation down. Long live the freedom of the Chechens, Kurds, Taiwanese, Kashmiris, Darfurians! Long live a free Palestine alongside a free Israel!
It is easy to forget at this happy time that yesterday there were, in fact, two victors: Kosova and democratic Serbia. No nation can be free if it oppresses another, and all true Serbian democrats should be celebrating, not only the emancipation of their Albanian sisters and brothers, but their own. Kosova was a millstone around Serbia’s neck, and Serbia will be happier without it; just as Britain and France are happier with Ireland and Algeria independent. Many Serbs may not feel like celebrating, but one day this will all appear in a much more positive light to them; an unhappy conflict is over and their path to long-term peace, prosperity and participation in the European dream is open. As for the die-hard nationalists - Vojislav Kostunica, Tomislav Nikolic and co. - long may their misery last. Their genocidal campaign to break up Yugoslavia, redraw borders and establish a Great Serbia was the direct cause of Kosova’s independence. They sought to dismember their neighbours, yet this led only to Serbia’s loss of Kosova. What goes around comes around. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Unfortunately, their misery will not be as great as the misery of the mothers of Racak, Srebrenica and Vukovar; they should bear that in mind while they wallow in their self-pity. But how many Serbs turned out to demonstrate and attack the US embassy ? 1-2,000 ! There was a time when hundreds of thousands of Serbs would have demonstrated over Kosova; that time is past. The people of Serbia have moved on; the nationalists should too.
There is an ignoble tradition on the Left of refusing to acknowledge any of the good things that Western leaders do. Let us break this tradition and give credit where credit is due. Well done George W. Bush and the United States of America! Well done Gordon Brown and the United Kingdom! Well done Nicolas Sarkozy and the Republic of France! Well done to the free world! And a special well done to Tony Blair, our greatest prime minister in half a century, whose resolution in 1999 made this all possible. Well done not just for doing what is right, but for standing up to the imperialist bully and thug, Vladimir Putin. It is easy (and right) to be critical of Russia, but it should not be forgotten that in the early 1990s, Russia’s record on the Balkans was less bad than that of Britain and France; our leaders used Russia’s alleged (in fact mythical) ‘historical friendship with Serbia’ as an excuse for their own disgraceful policy of appeasing Milosevic, and the worst elements in Russia were only encouraged. It is time to make it clear that if Russia wants to avoid irrevocably damaging its relations with the West, it needs to stop causing trouble for us in the Balkans. We should be friends with Russia, but this means Russia democratising, not the West pandering to a brutal ex-KGB tyrant who uses weapons of mass destruction against his own civilians and wages racist campaigns against ethnic minorities. Putin asks: ‘Why do we promote separatism? For 400 years Great Britain has been fighting for its territorial integrity in respect of Northern Ireland. Why not? Why don’t you support that?’. He seems not to realise that we in the UK will happily let Northern Ireland go if that is what its people want; the concept of a democratic majority appears to be alien to him. Or perhaps he’s just stupid.
If anything dampens one’s mood, it is the tepid welcome to newly free Kosova given by so many pundits and commentators; freedom apparently is not very inspiring to our chattering classes who live permanently in fear. The Guardian describes Kosova’s independence as ‘a unilateral solution which only sets back further the goal of a new international order, where disputes are decided multilaterally’. No doubt the Guardianistas would be happier allowing Chinese Communists and Russian KGBers a veto on the freedom of every new state; thank goodness Dubya and Gordon take a less wishy-washy approach. That a right-wing, Republican US president should prove to be more progressive and ‘left-wing’ on the question of national self-determination than our leading liberal paper - not to mention our so-called ‘radical left’ - is merely a sign of the times.
The Daily Telegraph has come out in favour of the partition of Kosovo as a solution to the problem, showing that the spirit of Neville Chamberlain’s brand of unreconstructed Toryism is very much alive. Let us be clear on this point: according to the last legitimate census of Kosova in 1981, a single Kosovar municipality had a Serb majority - Leposavic. The current Serb majority over a larger area of northern Kosova is simply the result of ethnic cleansing, and should not be recognised. Kosova should allow Leposavic to secede and join Serbia - provided Serbia similarly allows the Albanian-majority municipalities in southern Serbia proper, Presevo and Bujanovac, to secede and join Kosova. But thankfully partition - which really might open a Pandora’s box for border changes in the Balkans - is not going to happen, so any debate about it is a waste of time.
As for whether we are hypocritical for not recognising a similar right to secession for Republika Srpska (Bosnia’s Serb Republic) or Abkhazia: perhaps these two entities could allow back to their homes the roughly half of their respective populations they kicked out in the process of establishing themselves; then perhaps we might discuss the merits of their respective cases. But a country that can only achieve a workable majority in favour of independence by expelling half its population is not a country with any right to that independence.
Indeed, if there’s one good thing that can be said about the awful new flag that has been foisted upon Kosova by the international community, it is that it does at least contain an image of Kosova in its existing borders, so militating against partition, and is therefore less totally dreadful than the monstrosity imposed on Bosnia by the international community a decade ago; a flag that is too awful for me to reproduce here, or even link to.
Why should the people of Kosova not be allowed a flag with their own beloved black double-headed eagle on a red background ? A flag that they held onto through all the bad times: It waved above their infant might; when all ahead seemed dark as night.
They are out of the dark now.
Long live Kosova !
Marko Attila Hoare
Presevo Veterans Rule out Armed Conflict
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Former ethnic-Albanian rebels from southern Serbia say they welcome Kosovo's independence but it will not inspire them to resume their armed struggle against Belgrade.
The rebels led a brief uprising against Serb forces in 2000-2001. The insurgency ended with a Nato-brokered peace deal that called for the rebels to disarm and be re-integrated into society.
"We are backing Kosovo's independence,"said Lulzim Ibishi the head of a veterans' group representing the now-defunct Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja said.
"We know that people from the Presevo valley are unhappy as the area will remainIbishi said.Ibishi says his organization plans to celebrate Kosovo's independence inside its offices in Bujanovac.Local ethnic Albanian leaders have warned against public celebrations, he said.
in Serbia but we are not in favour of armed conflicts,"
BalkanInsight!
February 17th, 2008: Picture of the Day
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Tens of thousands of euphoric ethnic Albanians flooded into the streets of Pristina, Kosovo's capital, on Sunday to celebrate Kosovo's declaration of independence.
Valley of Uncertainty
May not be 100% with the author but his keen sense of observation makes for a good read. Enjoy!
A small region of Serbia remains an important part – and possible flashpoint – in the Kosovo debate.
There is very little that should make the Presevo Valley an important regional security issue.
The far south of Serbia is home to some 60,000 members of the ethnic-Albanian minority in a country of 7.5 million. While Serbia cannot boast a distinguished record when it comes to the treatment of minorities, things have been steadily improving over the past seven years, most notably in the Presevo Valley. Serbian and international officials frequently reassure the public that the region is stable.
Yet it has been impossible to ignore since 2000, when the leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) decided to organize a limited insurgency in the Presevo Valley.
The valley borders eastern Kosovo, whose ethnic-Albanian majority hopes to gain full independence from Serbia. It hugs northern Macedonia, with its large ethnic-Albanian minority. Ethnic-Albanian politicians see the region as “a chess piece in the larger game,” says a newly published report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG).
Ideally, they would like to see it united with an independent Kosovo. But most accept that this is not realistic and instead think that the valley could be brought into play should a partition of Kosovo be on the agenda. Since the Serbian government never really oppressed the Presevo Valley Albanians in the way it did the Kosovars, it is reasonable to suspect that the 2000 insurgency was organized with a view to putting this piece of land on the map for any future endgame over Kosovo.
All concerned sides have so far rejected the partition of Kosovo into two parts – the northern area bordering Serbia proper that traditionally had a Serbian majority, the remainder of the province with an Albanian majority. There is little reason, however, to take these official positions as set in stone.
If the whole of Kosovo is the name of the game, the best that Belgrade can hope for is an interim solution, with an internationally supervised Kosovo becoming independent. Serbian leaders know perfectly well that having Pristina as a subordinated party in a long-term relationship with Belgrade is no longer feasible, nor is re-establishing the Serbian state’s physical presence in the province. Many Serbians think partition is a more realistic option.
Had Belgrade offered Pristina anything remotely resembling a fair partition deal a decade ago, chances are the Kosovars would have considered it. That’s no longer the case. The chief reason why they have stayed clear of partition publicly is that NATO ruled it out after the alliance evicted Serbia from most of Kosovo in 1999. Partition was seen as inherently destabilizing, with a potential to trigger unwanted trends in places such as Macedonia or Bosnia.
SECOND THOUGHTS
While there are few signs today that international officials consider partition as a desirable way forward, many are having second thoughts about the promises given to the ethic Albanians in the aftermath of the 1999 intervention.
In 1999, NATO did not attack Slobodan Milosevic so much for what he had done in Kosovo as for what Western leaders feared he would eventually do. In early 1998, as the Kosovo Albanian insurgency had just started in earnest, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright argued the West should not repeat the mistakes it made by not intervening earlier in Bosnia. The view was shared by many NATO allies.
While standing up to Milosevic back then could be credibly described as primarily, motivated by humanitarian reasons, the intervention was always going to have far-reaching geopolitical implications as well. Put simply, NATO was hardly going to chase Serbia out of Kosovo only to let it come back one day. Independence emerged as the only logical solution.
Except that resolutions are rarely logical. Punishing Milosevic’s Serbia hardly needed any justification. But what makes some Western leaders apprehensive now is taking things away from an undoubtedly improving Serbia eight years later. And some are uneasy about punishing the very Serbian politicians who helped remove Milosevic from power.
That is why we rarely hear the case for independence argued in any great detail. If they have to utter the I-word, Western leaders now prefer just to state their position without explaining it, moving on quickly to expressing hopes for the success of the current talks between Belgrade and Pristina.
The strategy of the international community – with the exception of the United States, which wants to blaze ahead with independence – is probably best described as hoping that a better solution will emerge. And that’s where partition inevitably comes into play one way or another, for the only imaginable alternative to making the whole of Kosovo independent is making most of it independent, with the rest remaining part of Serbia.
Some Western officials have indicated they would accept any solution that Belgrade and Pristina might forge, including partition. The problem is the two are very unlikely to agree on anything concerning the status of Kosovo, let alone a partition deal.
It is often thought the Serbians would want to get the very north of Kosovo. But that’s unlikely to satisfy them as Serbia already controls this part of the province. The odds are they would want a bit more – perhaps a face-saving piece of territory containing an important monastery – but the Albanians would probably go to war to prevent this from happening.
The only partition scenario the Albanian leaders have been prepared to discuss involves swapping the north of Kosovo for the Presevo Valley. But this just won’t happen.
The most likely scenario remains the one in which the Kosovo government unilaterally proclaims independence, with Serbia maintaining its control of northern Kosovo and re-integrating the territory more openly. This would very likely trigger a new insurgency in the Presevo Valley, spiraling into a refugee crisis and more regional unrest.
This is why the attention paid to Presevo Valley is fully justified.
Copyright © Transitions Online. All rights reserved
Tihomir Loza
Three Albanians Die in Shootouts in South Serbia
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Three ethnic Albanians were gunned down in southern Serbia, only days after police and a group of gunmen clashed near the boundary with neighboring Kosovo, Serbia’s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry said that Skender and Arburim Ajdini were killed late Tuesday in the town of Presevo, just outside neighbouring Macedonia. The suspected gunman is still at large, it said.
“We believe that the suspect has already fled to Kosovo but the reasons for the killings are not political but related with unsolved personal affairs,” a police official in Presevo said.
Meanwhile in the neighbouring town of Bujanovac another ethnic Albanian was killed in a broad daylight shootout, a police statement said. Police arrested a suspect and charged him with murder. “This killing also has nothing to do with politics,” the police official said.
The shootings have raised tensions in the region that is still recovering from a ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001 that ended with a Western-brokered peace deal.
On Saturday a police detachment patrolling the border area near Bujanovac encountered an armed group, masked and dressed in black uniforms. According to police, the gunmen were attacking cars on a local road leading to Kosovo. One gunman was killed in a shootout while the rest of the group remained at large.
Southern Serbia’s Presevo Valley with its predominantly ethnic Albanian population borders the Albanian-majority province of Kosovo, which has been administered by the UN and protected by NATO peacekeeping force since the Atlantic alliance in 1999 drove out Serb forces, ending a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.
BIRN 2007
Introduction
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I'd like to welcome you to The Preshevar's Valley, a blog seeking to manifest the thoughts and the whereabouts of an average Preshevar - simultaneously showcasing my brothers' modern struggle for existence, in a place jammed with tension, Presheva Valley!
Brief introduction, The Albanians of Presheve, Bujanovc and Medvegje.
More:
- Official site of Presheva
- Albanian Platform for the Res. of the Conflict in P.M.B
- Inform yourself about the region
- Presheva in Pictures
Unrest, Conflicts and War by gettyimages
Seeking JUSTICE in hopes for PEACE!
Support the VALLEY!
Support the VALLEY!
