Kosovo's Independence

On Sunday, February 17th Kosovo, the breakaway region of Serbia is expected to declare its independence via a vote of the UN-backed legislative assembly.  According to the BBC, the UN and the US will move quickly to recognize the legitimacy of this fledgling state.  I have had greater interest in this situation and its origins since moving into the "Slavic world" and been told of the similarities between the Tatar situation and that of Kosovo.  My interest was peaked as I came across some disturbing writings regarding the Albanian Kosovars who were supposedly the aggrieved party in this conflict.  In any conflict of this sort, it is difficult to find accurate, unbiased information (particularly in English) but I feel like there are some facts that basically agreed upon by both sides.  These are the basics of the conflict:

Kosovo is a southern provence of Serbia with a majority population of ethnic Albanians (the nation directly southwest of Serbia).  Due to the fluidity of empires in the past 1000 years, the region has been claimed alternately by both groups as well as others.  Serbia is an orthodox Christian nation while Albania is a majority nominal Muslim (ie. non-devout) nation, having converted fairly recently under the Ottoman Empire - largely to avoid second-class citizenship and higher taxes (see dhimmi).  

The initiation of violence in Kosovo was perpetrated after the collapse of the Yugoslav state by the Albanian separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the mid-90's with attacks on Serbian police, military and civilian targets...which was a response to Serbian persecution....which was a response to separatist activities...which was due to.....(continued ad nauseam going back decades).  The international community got involved after the Albanian community in and out of Kosovo complained about the Serbs heavy-handed attempts to squelch the rebellion and the claims - now known to be wildly inaccurate - of ethnic cleansing.  NATO intervened to drive the Serbian military out of Kosovo in 1999.  During NATO's administration, several claimed massacres of civilians (though this status is also disputed) were perpetrated by both sides, some with NATO "peace-keepers" present.

What has become increasingly clear in a situation where there really are no good guys, is that we (the western world) have thrown our support behind the greater of two evils.  The KLA, which has since remade itself into a political party known as the Democratic Party of Kosovo, was an organization whose goals may be understandable but it's methods are inarguably criminal.  In order to begin negotiations with them as a legitimate entity in the Kosovo conflict, the US first had to remove it from its list of international terror organizations, which now in the post-9/11 era seems ridiculous.  For financing and arms the KLA relied heavily on, and was probably a direct ally of, the notorious Albanian mafia.  Known throughout Europe for all manner of illicit behavior, including as the principle traffickers of heroin on the continent, this crime syndicate continues to be the principle backers of the new Kosovar government.  So much so that Hashim Thaci, the would-be president of this fledgling nation was the primary intermediary between the KLA and the Balkan mafias.

This post is getting long but I must finish with this; currently the ethnic Albanian Kosovars are reveling in their upcoming independence by burning churches, harassing and killing their Serbian neighbors.  I expect that despite claims of ethnic cleansing and genocide by Serbian forces, by the end of this year the numbers will bear out that more Serbs will have lost their lives at the hands of the Muslim majority than the other way around.

Additional source:

Senate Republicans Report 1999 (see the list of mainstream media stories in bold at the bottom if you doubt the motives/honesty of the Republican Party)