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The Siege of Kosovo

The declaration of independence by the Kosovo Parliament on the 17th February 2008 comes with mixed feelings. On one hand having worked for almost two years in Kosovo during the post NATO period, I am very happy for the people of this small mountain valley state in finally achieving their sovereignty for self-determination, on the other, I have concerns for the impact that it will have with the rest of the world

That initial feeling goes back to the deplorable condition I first found Kosovo had been left in on the departure of the disgruntled Serbian army and militias, the mayhem and wanton destruction of anything that belonged to the Albanian population, the complete lost of responsibility of the Serbian masters towards its indigenous inhabitants absolved them absolutely from having any further interest or stewardship in the province. Their treatment of this particular ethnic group of citizens of what was once part of Serbia was appalling and warrants no recompense in their favor. I can recall coming from Australia arriving in Prishtina some five or six weeks after the NATO hostilities had concluded and being in a state of bewilderment that one group of people with a similar history and makeup of its neighbors could be so brutal, so vicious in response to their call to serve their own nationalism that there is no doubt in my mind that they no longer deserve to have any say in the matters of Kosovo.

Historically Kosovo has of course has had its power base transferred dozens if not a hundred times in its long and checkered history. The indigenous people can trace their history to the Illyrians from the 4th century BC while the Slavic tribes did not start to appear until the 7th century AD, a thousand years later when it was absorbed under the might of Serbian military domination often switching between the rule of Serbian, Bulgarian and Byzantines from Turkey. Serbia won a more dominant role in 1346 and lost it to the Turks in 1455 under whose control it remained for almost the next 500 years. The prize of course was the extensive mineral wealth the area contains and still has.

Throughout the period of the late 19th century, it was the constant quest between the Serbian Kingdom and the Turks until finally coming under Serbian rule once again after World War 1. At each stage enormous atrocities were committed by the Serbian rule against the local inhabitants, often forced from their land only to repair to it as each wave was dispelled. The oppression

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