Caitlin Chase Kosovo Final Paper
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This Land Is Your Land, This Land is My Land Narrative Healing Through Affective Engagement in Kosovo Caitlin Chase December 29, 2010 Chase. Caitlin 2015 reserved. © rights All Copyright 2 INTRODUCTION In the late 1990s, the American community slowly became conscious of a burgeoning crisis in Kosovo. Television screens flashed with images of refugees and shocking stories of ethnic cleansing. Watching from afar, secure within the parameters of another culture, another country, and another reality, such profound violence seemed incomprehensible. The American public demonized the perpetrators: evil, maniacs, terrorists, killers. We condemned. There was refuge in the notion that such brutality was borne of a few errant individuals. The safety of distance fostered the fantasy that such atrocity would never penetrate the American existence. Chase. PART I A Brief History of the Conflict in Kosovo: 1974-2000 Caitlin In order to better grasp the universal vulnerability to violence, and thus to effectively direct ethico-political action toward its prevention in Kosovo and other territories, we must first reserved. understand the history behind the atrocity.2015 For centuries, Serbian and Albanian ethnic communities have clashed over the© right to Kosovar territory. The shared history comprises a long, complex, and often unclear fight forrights political and economic power in the province. In 1974 a new Yugoslav Constitution grantedAll Kosovo the status of a sovereign republic. The years following marked “a veritable Albanian national renaissance” in the form of a flourishing academic and political presenceCopyright in Kosovo (Judah 38). The Yugoslavian president, Josip Broz Tito, who had mediated the creation of a united republic, died in May of 1980. When conflict subsequently erupted between Serbs and Albanians, the Serbians populace increasingly emigrated from Kosovo. In September of 1986, in response to the migration, the Serbian press published Memorandum, drafted by members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU). The document stated: According to all evidence, faced with a physical, moral and psychological reign of terror, [the Serbian nation seems] to be preparing for their final exodus. Unless things change 3 radically, in less than ten years’ time there will no longer be any Serbs left in Kosovo, and an ‘ethnically pure’ Kosovo, that unambiguously stated goal of the Greater Albanian racists... will be achieved (as cited in Judah 2002: 50). The release of the Memorandum fueled the Serbian nationalist movement. Shortly thereafter, on April 24, 1987, Slobodan Milošević, then the leader of the Serbian Communist Party, addressed a group of Kosovo Serbs protesting in Kosovo Polje. In this speech he infamously declared, “No one shall dare to beat you again!” Julie Mertus states that this “is remembered as the seminal moment in Milošević’s career, the point at which he turned into the protector of the Serbian nation” (1999:143). The phrase was to become a rallying cry for Serbian nationalists. Over the summer of 1987 hostility continued to escalate betweenChase. Serbian a nd Albanian communities. On September 3rd Aziz Kelmendi, an Albanian soldier in the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), opened fire in army barracks. The Paraćin Massacre, as the event came to be known, left four dead and five wounded. Kelmendi wasCaitlin later found dead in what was said to be a suicide. Eight men were tried as accomplices based upon their sworn ‘confessions.’ However, throughout the trial, the accused would claim2015 that the statementsreserved. had been coerced. (Mertus 1999:150). Serbian and Albanian ‘Truths’© about the event collided.1 Kosovar Albanians believed a distressed Kelmendi acted alone, and therights supposed conspirators had been framed. On the other hand, most Serbs understood the massacre to be evidence of Albanian irredentist conspiracy (Mertus 1999: 151). Media representationsAll of the massacre were vehemently anti-Albanian. NIN, a YugoslavianCopyright news publication, reported : “The causes of the murder were... deeply rooted in the upbringing [of the men]... Those who raised them and guided them taught them nationalism, which means that love for their own nation means hatred for other nations” (as cited in Mertus 1999: 151). The aftermath of the massacre thus bolstered the growing Serbian nationalist movement. 1 Julie Mertus defines ‘Truth’ as “the meaning given to facts, experience and myth” (2). This ‘Truth’ differs from ‘truth’ in that the former is the product of power relations, while the latter may be understood as an ‘all-or-nothing’ factual account. 4 In November 1988, with the cooperation of the local party committee, Milošević dismissed Kosovar Albanian communist leaders. As Serbia continued to centralize control over Kosovo, ethnic Albanian protests intensified. In February 1989, 1300 miners in Trepča went on an underground hunger strike. The strike provoked rallies of solidarity throughout Slovenia and Kosovo. Due to the uproar, under Milošević’s guidance, the Serbian Federal Assembly imposed martial law in Kosovo. This entailed “imposing curfews, riot police, and administrative detention. Key industries were placed under compulsory work orders, prohibiting strikes” (Mertus 1999: 181). In addition, Serbian federal troops were dispersed throughout Kosovo. Ethnic Albanian demonstrations were increasingly met with violence from the military police. Criminal charges were also filed against many protestors. Chase. During this time, between July 1988 and the spring of 1989, Milošević organized ‘Meetings of Truth’ throughout Serbia. Over one hundred of these rallies occurred, involving a total of approximately 5 million people (Judah 2002: 54).Caitlin On November 19, 1988 at a demonstration in Belgrade Milošević proclaimed, “Every nation has a love which eternally warms it heart. For Serbia, it is Kosovo. That is why Kosovo willreserved. remain in Serbia” (Judah 2002: 55). Such rhetoric, speaking of the Serbian claim2015 to the Kosovar homeland, was typical of the © “Meetings of Truth.’ rights On May 8, 1989, Milošević became the president of Serbia. On June 28th – the anniversary of the Battle of KosovoAll – he addressed a crowd of approximately one million Serbs (Judah 2002:Copyright 56). In the speech, Milo šević strategically referenced the story of the Serbian Prince Lazar. Serbian epics state that, prior to battle with the Ottomans, Lazar was called to make a choice between “a kingdom on earth, with all the riches that that entailed or [to] die for the empire of heaven... for truth and justice and the everlasting?” (Judah 2002: 5). As the story goes, Lazar chose the latter and, thus, the Turkish Empire conquered Kosovo. Following the Ottoman occupation, the predominantly Orthodox Serbian population migrated north. The Albanians, many who were Muslim like the Turks, garnered significant political power in Kosovo during this time. Mythology about the defeat at the Battle of Kosovo and the subsequent Turkish occupation of 5 Kosovo has framed the Serbian national narrative. This mythology asserts both the historical persecution of the Serbs, as well as their rightful claim to the territory of Kosovo. In the following year any lingering Kosovar autonomy rapidly disintegrated. In July 1989, the Serbian Parliament passed the Law on the Restriction of Property Transactions, which forbade Albanians from selling real estate without approval from a commission of the Serbian Ministry of Finance. This law was meant to halt the migration of Serbs from Kosovo. On March 30, 1990, the Serbian government adopted The Program for the Realization of Peace, Freedom, Equality, Democracy and the Prosperity of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, which forced the majority of Albanians with positions in the civil service or the public sector to resign (Judah 2002: 62). Furthermore, the Albanian curriculum was dismantledChase. and replaced by Serbian academics. The discrepancy between the naming of the Program and its actual outcomes is a profound example of the propaganda implemented by Milošević. In the spring of 1990, in the midst of the politicalCaitlin upheaval, thousands of Albanian school children fell ill with stomach pains, hallucinations, and breathing issues. Kosovar Albanians asserted that Serbs had poisoned the children2015 with neurotoxins.reserved. The Serbian population believed the ordeal was a propaganda stunt ©intended to stir up sympathy for the Albanian cause (Mertus 1999: 188). To this day there is no decisiverights ‘Truth’ about the event due to the multiple, contradicting reports produced by both sides. The controversy further amplified mistrust between the two communities. All Finally,Copyright on September 28, 1990, the Serbian Assembly passed a new constitution that officially revoked the sovereign status of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Serbia thus possessed both political and institutional power in Kosovo. In response, Kosovar Albanians organized the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK), which promoted a political strategy of non-confrontation. They formed a parallel state, including a system of private schools and alternative health care. On May 24, 1992, the LDK hosted illegal parliamentary elections that established Ibrahim Rugova as president. They also developed a system to collect taxes from Kosovar Albanians and the diaspora community (Judah 2002: 68). 6 During the mid-1990s the sociopolitical environment in Kosovo remained tense, but stable. While there were many localized instances of violence