Hello guys, I am supposed to make a long project on Kosovo's independence, a state somewhere in Europe. I did some research and wrote this paper.
It is very long to read but read as long as you can.
I have to turn it in on Friday.
Warm regards
Is it true that there is no legal basis for the independence of Kosova?
With Kosovo being so much in the news, many people are scrambling to learn something real about the history of Kosovo and its way to becoming an independent state. According to the history of the Balkans, Kosovo has not been part of a Slavic tribe-it was mainly lived by Illyrians (Albanians). Kosovo for a long time was under the control of different empires but mainly under the Ottoman Empire from the end of the fourteenth century till the end of the nineteenth century. In 1389 a terrible battle happened in Kosovo between Serbian and Ottoman Empire. Serbians created a myth about this battle which closely relates them to Kosovo even though they were defeated by "the Turks" [ ]. Serbia sees Kosovo as a religious place which belongs to Serbia only. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Serbians illegally occupied Kosovo in 1912. Since that year till 1999 Serbia discriminated Albanians based on their religions, political opinions, and ethnic groups. Overall, the main reasons why Kosovo now is an independent state are because Serbia violated human rights, denied the ability of Albanians to exercise their right to self-determination, and the access to decision making process.
The only country that has had a legitimate rule over Kosovo has been the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). In light of the fact that Kosovo has never been legally incorporated into the republic of Serbia, Serbia may have no claim to sovereignty over Kosovo and can make no claim of territorial integrity. Kosovo's independence will in no way be in contradiction with international law. The foreign minister of Russia, Sergay Lavrov, said: "borders should be changed only by agreement. Since there is no agreement there should be no recognition of Kosovo's independence". In fact it was Serbia that acted in contradiction with international law in 1912 when it annexed Kosovo through military occupation after its aggression against the Ottoman Empire. In other words Kosovo's independence is legal; Kosovo participated in the governance of the SFRY, which is now broken, but not in that of Serbia [ ].
If a country denies its people the right to self-determination, that country has the right to be separated from that governing state. Self-determination principle is an internationally accepted legal principle which challenges the principle of territorial integrity because it is the will of the people that makes a state legitimate. The international law supports the proposition that territorial integrity and sovereignty of a government is entitled to be respected only so long as it respects the equal rights and interests of the whole population to the territory[ ]. But Serbia especially during the Milosevic regime denied Albanians the right of self-determination. It ruled Kosovo's people in a similar way to that of Adolph Hitler with Jewish people. In 1980 when Milosevic came to power he took away the autonomy of Kosova which was given before and gained control over social, economic, and educational policy in Kosovo. Serbia did not entitled to an unlimited right of self-determination.
Most sovereign states do not recognize the right to self-determination through secession in their constitutions. Many expressly forbid it [ ]. However, there are several existing models of self-determination through greater autonomy. Kosovo had suffered quite a lot in the first two decades of Tito's Yugoslavia, when the notorious tyrant Alexander Rankovic was Yugoslav interior minister. Repression was fierce, even the Albanian language was restricted, and Serbs ran just about all the local government positions. Albanian people is one of the people in the Balkans that suffered the most. Many times they were not allowed even to speak Albanian or listen to an Albanian radio station. So even during the period of autonomy, Albanians continued to be second-class citizens. For example, in the United States, despite the formal equality which blacks and Hispanics now have, they fill the jails and the gas chambers. In Yugoslavia, despite the formal guarantees for Albanians, the same thing happens. Repression for demonstrations would include the questioning of tens of thousands of Albanian Kosovars, and long prison sentences were common. Albanians seem to have been heavily overrepresented in the ranks of political offenders, such as teenagers sentenced to jail for shouting "Long live the Republic of Kosovo!" And it is notable that almost half of the 35 cases of capital punishment during 1975-1985 were carried out against Albanians. However, the number of official executions is extremely small besides the number of Kosovars killed by the security forces . So, all of these mistreatments and the violation of self-determination right by Serbia resulted in making Kosovo independent.
A large number of Serbs did leave Kosovo not because of any campaign to push Serbs out of Kosovo but Serbs felt uncomfortable living in Kosovo. This makes us understand that there was a low standard of living, much lower than elsewhere in Serbia or Yugoslavia, just as people in other parts of Yugoslavia migrated from one place to another in search of better conditions. Many Albanians too migrated away from Kosovo in order to find work elsewhere in Yugoslavia or even in Germany or the United States; although they tended to maintain their ties with Kosovo and send money back home (similar to how Mexican toilers seek work in the U.S. in order to keep their families afloat). Albanians were obliged to join Serbian military for more than a year. Many of them were killed by Serbians from behind and identified by the military that they committed suicide. So many Albanians had two choices: to join Serbian military and die or leave Kosovo.
In 1990 the Alliance of Independent Trade Unions of Kosovo was founded, which was supposed to develop a fund to support unemployed Albanian workers. But it was closed after a while. During this year Serbia prohibited the sale of property of Albanians, outlawed the Albanian language newspapers, and closed the Kosovo Academy of science. Albanian cultural institutions were either closed down, or put under Serbian management and purged of their Albanian content. Albanian-language radio and TV stations were closed down. Theater, ballet and museums were also affected, and the material in the National Library was pruned. There was a passion to Serbianize place names in Kosovo; even the name of the province itself was changed, becoming once again "Kosovo and Metohija", a name irritating to Albanians. And especially, there was a Serbianization of the schools. A uniform school curriculum was decreed for all Serbia and made compulsory in Kosovo; as might be expected, it downgraded the Albanian language and culture. Knowledge of Serbo-Croatian was made compulsory as a prerequisite for secondary education in Kosovo. Albanians were much likely in the position as black people were in America. Albanians had to greet Serbian people and stay in good term with them. Once you disagree with a Serb you were considered a "terrorist" and you had to deal with serious consequences-jail.
Ten years ago the Serbian state-capitalist government stepped up the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, burning villages and towns, and massacring Albanian Kosovars. This is their long-expected spring offensive, and it is a horrible crime against humanity. Serbia exercised oppressive rule over Kosovo through a series of civil and human abuses. These abuses were just the beginning of Milosevic regime in Kosovo. Through successive decrees made by the Republic of Serbia, thousands of Serbs moved to Kosovo to create ethnically clean Serb-only community. In response to this, "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA) was created. Then Serbs began a campaign to destroy KLA; in fact they just started killing and massacring civilians. Approximately one million Albanians were expelled from Kosovo by Serbs . Serbs severely violated human rights and international law. Furthermore, Serbia began the genocide in Kosovo. Many political leaders of powerful states in Europe accepted the existence of genocide in Kosovo, including the German defense secretary Rudolf Sharping , and his British counterpart Gorge Robertson . So NATO in accordance with some Security Council resolutions decided to bomb Serbian military targets in order to stop the genocide, human rights violation, and ethnic cleansing.
On the basis of these arguments and facts, the new political legal and international status of Kosovo should be the equivalent, without any doubt, with independence and sovereignty with internationally recognized personality in all of its territory. Now we see that Kosovo has arguments and facts to present before the International Court of Justice. Kosovo has never been legally part of Serbia. It was occupied by Serbia after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Serbia denied Albanians the right to self-determination, which led them to deep and severe discriminations. Albanians did not have access to decision making process of the Serbian government. The violation of human rights made Albanians suffer for the whole life. The deep rooted conflict with Serbs caused many of them to stay away from Kosovo; otherwise they will get massacred. During the last decade 1990-2000 many of them were not allowed even to speak Albanian publicly. Furthermore, the intention of Serbian government was to assimilate Albanian language, culture, and traditions. According to those arguments, the declaration of Kosovo's independence is legal and does not contradict with the international law.
May 10, 2009 Done by: Rinor Zuka
