THE AGONY OF KOSOVA-INTRO

There are more people of Albanian descent outside the country of Albania than in it. Large Albanian communities exist in Greece, Italy, Turkey, the United States and the area formerly Yugoslavia. Smaller groups are citizens of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Many live and work in Germany, Switzerland and the Middle East, where there are shortages of laborers.

Better jobs, more freedom and improved lives for their children caused Albanian immigrants to start communities in foreign lands. Most now are comfortable -- but not everyone is happy. Those who have failed to have secure environments include the 1.9 million indigenous Albanian people of Kosova, a self proclaimed Republic ruled by Serbia which some have referred to as an apartheid in the middle of Europe.

Kosova abuts northern Albania. Some 90 percent of its citizens are ethnic Albanians. Historians believe Albanians were the earliest residents of Kosova. Nevertheless, Kosova is ruled by the state of Serbia. Serbs control the government because they are former Yugoslavia’s largest single group of people and brutal force is usual to maintain control.

Kosova has a special place in the heart of the Serbian people. It was near Kosova’s capital of Pristina that a huge army of Christian Serbians (and Christian Albanians) was defeated in 1389 A.D. by an even greater number of Islamic Turks. The “Battle of Blackbird Field” marked the end of Serbia’s empire and the beginning of 500 years of Turkish rule. Serbians revere the site and feel Albanians, especially those who are now Muslims (havØing been converted by the Ottoman Turks), have no place there.

There are many reasons why Serbs don’t see eye-to-eye with Kosova’s Albanian majority. Many Kosova Albanians follow Islam, while the Serbs are Orthodox Christians. The Serbs are Slavic -- of different origin than most Albanians. The high Albanian birthrate makes Kosova’s Serbs feel surrounded. Unemployment plagues all Kosova residents. Albanians prefer democracy and view Serbs as enforcers of their Communist government at a time when Communism is coming apart everywhere in Europe. They also feel that the Serbs have kept mineral-rich Kosova economically poor and backward on purpose. Even worse accusations, involving everything from violations of basic human rights to murdering women and children, fly between the two groups.