The status of Kosovo, a Southern province of Serbia, has been in limbo for almost a decade. After Serbia began committing crimes against humanity in Kosovo against ethnic Albanians, a brief war in 1999, led by NATO, knocked Serb forces out of Kosovo for good. Since then, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has overseen the governance and security of the province.
In July, as a volunteer with the Lutheran World Federation Department of World Service Program in the Balkans, I had the opportunity to visit Kosovo and see firsthand what is happening there. The LWF has been working with both Serbs (who make up 10% of Kosovo’s population) and ethnic Albanians (who make up roughly 90% of the population). Their focus has been to help rebuild houses for people who are living in ‘enclaves’ inside Kosovo, where they are ethnic minorities. They also provide different agricultural resources, like greenhouses, livestock, seeds, and education, in order to help former refugees make a living.
The LWF is based in Kosovo in a city called Mitrovica. This city, divided in the middle by a river, used to be a vibrant, multi-ethnic city. But since the war, Serbs moved to one side, and ethnic Albanians to the other, and few dare cross the bridge that separates them. UN troops guard the bare bridge- which used to see a lot of daily traffic- and Serb gangs often wait on ‘their’ side of the bridge, ready to attack anyone that crosses.
Houses and industry continue to be in disrepair, and the economy is suffering. But NGO’s don’t want to invest in Kosovo, because of the uncertainty of its final status. If independence is declared, or if Serb forces are allowed back in, fighting could break out. Why rebuild only so others can destroy again?
That is why final status needs to be decided now, so that people can get on with their lives and the recovery can really begin. Many states are backing independence, but Serbia and Russia are opposed to this. A partition is possible, but that would be tragic and shortsighted, as we have seen in the case of Bosnia. In any case, I hope that we can support the effort to declare a final status for Kosovo shortly, so that all Kosovars, both Serb and ethnic Albanian, can benefit. As for me, I would like to see an independent Kosovo before the new year.
On Friday, Ecumenical News International has given me this information:
Orthodox leaders rally to oppose Kosovo independence
Warsaw (ENI). Serbia’s predominant Orthodox church has launched a diplomatic drive among church leaders abroad to prevent an expected UN vote to allow the independence of Kosovo from Serbia. “By supporting this independence drive by Albanians living in Kosovo, the West forgets the hurt suffered in recent years by the Orthodox Serbs who live there,” Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II of Russia told Serbia’s Vecernje Novosti newspaper on 8 December. [376 words, ENI-07-0971]
I do not intend to be anti-ecumenical – I have many Orthodox friends. I just wanted to show that even the churches are involved in this dispute.