1 post tagged “ethnic cleansing”
Kosovo is a little spec of dust that has been a Province most recently controlled by Serbia. Under the former Serbian regime Slobodan Milosevic, an ethnic cleansing of Albanian Muslin Kosovars was undertaken.
Ethnic cleansing in the Balkans is nothing new. The Ottoman Turks did this very same thing to Orthodox Christians in Serbia. During World War II, Germany made allies of the Muslim populations in the Balkans who in turn exacted an ethnic cleansing (primarily directed toward Jews) against non-Muslims.
It is no excuse but it is no surprise that when Serbia achieved sovereign independence that new nationalist tendencies flamed into attempting to establish a Serbian hegemonic Balkan state. This resulted in the time honored practice of ethnic cleansing, this time the ugly practice was initiated by Serbs of an Eastern Orthodox back ground against Muslims. It was not pretty.
Milosevic first went after the Muslims in Bosnia and Croatia. Then later Milosevic went after Kosovo Muslims. As I mentioned before, ethnic cleansing is nothing new in the Balkans. The Muslims did their own version of ethnic cleansing against the minority Christians in Kosovo while Milosevic was committing his atrocities against Muslim Kosovars.
So now it has come down as part of American Foreign Policy (utilizing the United Nations to an extant) to recognize an independent sovereign Kosovo. This is a move which Serbia and Serbia’s traditional Slavic champion Russia are highly against.
Too late! TODAY President Bush recognized Kosovo’s declaration of Independence as a sovereign nation separate from Serbia.
