Another Failed State?

to mjoni so what you are saying in the war in former yugoslavia the serb were the only one cutting throats,killing and raping you need to wake up if you want to look at that then you need to blame all of the countries in the world for example the US and nam,iraq,afganastan etc...... evb1234 i agree with you 100%

TO: evb1234 @ 02/18/2008 3:43:08 PM
Get a book and read first and make a comment. "you have heard"??? ethnic Hungarians and the Donau Schwaben - most of us in this forum have not heard about "their struggle" for equal rights and dignity. Kosovars always lived there. And to enlighten you, Yugoslavia's border were set in 1913/1915. Even then the serbs used genocide to push albanians there to Albania so they coud have an ethnically cleansed land.

I've heard that there were few ethnic Albanians in Kosovo until waves of Albanian immigrants swept in after World War II. If this is the case, then the ethnic Albanian case for declaration of independence seems very weak, and countries should be very slow to even consider recognition.

Conversely, if the ethnic Hungarians and the Donau Schwaben Germans in what is now northern Serbia (forcibly subjugated by Belgrade after World War I) wanted to break away from the Serbian state to rejoin Hungary, then I would wholeheartedly support them. However, the ethnic Hungarians and Germans (at least those who remained after the post-1944 slaughter and ethic cleansing under the Communists) have been in the north of Serbia since at least the Middle Ages, and they peaceably settled what was then an essentially uninhabited frontier. This is a materially different case than Kosovo if in fact the Albanian population there was a post-war "import".

Bottom line, the boundaries of continental Europe are largely a mess, based as they are on military conquest, ethnic cleansing, forced migrations, and clumsy political compromise rather than plebiscite or historical ethnic settlement. Kosovo is less of a special case than a symptom of a far larger and difficult problem. The Kosovo crisis (as it soon will be known) is the next chapter of a much bigger drama.

Vojkan--We don't need to look into the past 800 years to learn about the serbs. All you need to do is look at the past 20 years. The people that were cutting throats based on faith were the serbs, in Croatia, then Bosnia and then Kosovo. Whatever the first 780 years were about was wiped out in front of the world's eyes over the past 20. You can't blame it all on Milosevic, you still have war criminals in serbia and 48% of serbs voted for nikolic in the last election. Nikolic is nothing but another milosevic in disguise as he uses the false pretenses of nationalism to advance his own agenda and self in serb politcs.

AGREE with worldlover.

Vojkan: Muslims? And even it it was so, since when is religion a cause for statehood? A secular republic was just created, where Serbs can live or leave. While I am catholic from my dad's side and orthodox from my mom side, where Serbian crime in Bosnia justified because they were muslims? Grow up and mature in your judgement.

KOSOVO NEEDS TO BE ENDORSED BY ALL COUNTRIES. THEY DO DESERVE THE INDEPENDENCY. THERE WERE A LOT OF KOSOVO PEOPLE KILLED BY THE SERBIANS. AS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN, I BELIEVE SERBIANS CAN GO TO HELL FOR THE TORTURE THEY HAVE DONE TO THE KOSOVIAN PEOPLE.

KOSOVO NEEDS TO BE ENDORSED BY ALL COUNTRIES. THEY DO DESERVE THE INDEPENDENCY. THERE WERE A LOT OF KOSOVO PEOPLE KILLED BY THE SERBIANS. AS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN, I BELIEVE SERBIANS CAN GO TO HELL FOR THE TORTURE THEY HAVE DONE TO THE KOSOVIAN PEOPLE.

TO michelle-anna: I live in NY Michele and I am an Albanian from Albania - to satisfy your curiosity. You?
Kosova belongs to itself and to its people and they are over 90% kosovar albanians and so they have even during Milosevic years. GET OVER IT?? Assuming you are Serb, don't you understand that there is no future for Serbia outside of Europe and that there is nothing that you or your country can do? Aren't enought for you all the wars and genocide that the Serb/Federal Army caused? Aren't the pictures and recordings from the was with Slovenia, Kroatia and Bosnia enough? Nato's bombs on Belgrade were just a taste of your own medicine in the rest of Yugoslavia and after enough warning was given and after half of kosovo population was forced in Albania. Most likely we will ever speak/see Michelle, it will be for us and the rest of the rest of the world to see. And while you/I move on with our chosen life in the US/West ( I assume you are here), the average serbian people bear of the consequences of poor choices from their leadership without opportunities to move on and advance........it is a tragedy no matter to who it happens.

This article is shame fo the respected news paper .It has no fact just prejudice in neofashistic style.Kosova with Albania was part of greater ancient empire Ilyrian empire (read enciklopedia britanica).It was one of few states that fought war with roman empire at the time of oktavian august.Ilyrians are the direct ancestors of today albanians and if we albanians had empires in ancient times surely we can govern today our self.The writers of these article dont know basic history of ancient europa ,serbs ocupied albanian land in 9 and 10 century after crist and a that time they where barbarians slav tribes that came from siberia so i say to the writers of this article before you write something you first inform yourself because you petend to be journalist or not

Do u know where is Kosovo and where is Albania? do u know anything about serbia in past 800 years? u saying that we are cowards, read something about our country more and u will know, u like islam faith and muslims?, coz tomorrow they will be in front of ur doors trying to take ur house and ur land, how someone so smart or stupid can say that giving the support of people who are capable to cut anyone throat just coz u are ddifferent fai

Listen my friend, whoever yu are, wherever you live. Kosovo belongs to Serbia just as much as The Eiffel Tower belongs to me or to you for that matter. GET OVER IT!

The Serbs are showing their culture by attacking foreing embassies in Belgrade, beating their own policeman, recalling the ambassador from the US, indicting Kosova's leadership. This is the NEW Serbia? Hasn't Serbia learned from the past? I guess the only thing they learned is to be Russia's puppet. This is how Yugoslavia was formed. Apologies from Serbs? Do they even understand they are the cause of their own problems?? MOVE ON, MOVE ON........or you like standstill? Kosovo's indipendence is here to stay.

Kosovo has been just been recognized by the US and the major European powers, it's just a matter of time before the rest of the world follows. And let's face it Russia doesn't care about Serbia's welfare, Russia is just using Serbia as a bargaining chip to use for more weighty matters down the road.

The Serbs are a bunch of cowards and ran from Kosovo with their tails between their legs. Serbia is a depressing country with backward thinking...I predict in 10 years from now Kovoso will out perform Serbia in all areas...Serbia is doomed, and so are its people as long as they live in denial.

The Serbs should first apologize to the Kosovars and all the neighbors in the region and the world for that matter....and only then would we consider welcoming them back to the international community.

So the ball is in their court.

Long live Kosovo!!! Freedom tastes so good.

TO DIENA - EYE - R. Srpska
Move on with your life and with your bags if you have to. Sebia will NEVER be USA.
USA is the country that hosts the world, diverse nationalties and backgrounds, religions and sects. This is why people like you and I live side by side in this country and have the right to dissagree and not kill each other.
History seems so week in your words and you people are high into something: people moving from Albanian to populate Kosova? Albania itself was isolated after WWII as a comunist country. They would shoot you if you tried to cross into Yugoslavia. Serbia has neither historic or any other rights on Kosova. MOVE ON PEOPLE, US and the big EU powers RECOGNIZED KOSOVA and more countries will every day. Kosova was albanian land and so it will be. No Albanian has called for a "greater Albania", versus the big and dominant Serbia in former Yugoslavia. Even Montenegro did not want to stay with Serbia, imagine Kosova. MOVE ON....the better your mind status, Serbia, Kosova and europe will be. In the big European family there is room for all, as long as past is left behind. Mother Russia is not the future of Serbia, Europe is.

Moshe, Albania was Germany's allie in WW2.

Great title, very appropriate. One major issue outside the headlines is that Kosovo is not only very poor today, but that it has consistently received huge funds from the richer parts of the former Yugoslavia, only to see the income gap widen and needs for subsidies grow. Europe has taken on itself a liability of 2 million people, with history of dependance on aid. Unless by some miracle oil gets discovered, Kosovo is bound to be a drain on Europe for decades.