Kosovo is independent; and now?

[claudio vda]

Sunday 17th of February the Kosovo government, after the failure of all the negotiations, proclaimed the independence unilaterality; European Union was not able to find an unitary position and it is going in a confusedly way: some countries straightaway recognized the new country, others will wait one month, other says they will never do it.
The situation is terribly intricate: in the Middel Age, during the XII- XIV centuries, Kosovo was the heart of the Serbish Kingom, with Prizen capital and Pec residence of the orthodox patriarch; in the town we can still find some ancient monasteries. In 1389 the ottoman army defeated the serbish army in the famous battle of Kosovo Polje; so the serbish migration from Kosovo to the danubian plains started. During the XVII century, the Asburgic Empire fomented some revolts of the locals populations against the Ottoman Empire; the failure of those revolts caused new serbish migration toward the North. In the following centuries, the Ottomans retreated toward the South, parallely to the Serbish and Austro-Hungarian expansion.
At the beginning of the XX century, Kosovo was populated about 50% from Serbians and 50% from Albanians. During the lasts 100 years, Serbian have continued to leave Kosovo moving to more rich regions of Central Serbia, while the Albanian population grew a lot and now they are the 90% . Since the ‘80s, Albanian-Kosovars asked for autonomy from Beograd; after, the coming to the power of Milosevič extremized all the positions. Today Serbish nationalists think that Kosovo is Serbia because of his history and Albanian live there and think it is his home. The minority Serbish-Kosovars is closed in some enclaves and feels the situation as a siege. The problem is that everyone is right.
UE has not an unitary position: some ones are afraid of a dominoes effect in a lot of regions: Pais Vasco / Euskadi ; the Belgian situation; Corse / Corsica ; Alto Adige / Sudtirol ; Magyars minorities in many countries ; Turkish Ciprus ; Abkhazia and so on.
Others think that we cannot going against the will of the 90% of the population.
The new Kosovo borns as a country with limited sovereignty, de facto an UE protectorate, as for 9 years it was a NATO protectorate; UE have still spent about 1 billion of Euro for Kosovo and it will spend more in the future with EULEX mission and commercial aids. During that, Albanian-Kosovars are apologizing USA for independence and Serbians look to Russia… what do you think will happen, now?

[Van Geel]

I think the situation will evolve without violence.

[tabbs]

Voted No. "Violence" in the sense of violent protests here and there may occur. But another war is unlikely in my opinion. Then again Kosovo will de facto have only limited sovereignty in the foreseeable future anyway ...

Christian

[ART]

I think like tabbs.

[claudio vda]

Perhaps more a reporting than a comment.

Some days are passed since the 17 February and we saw an impressive peaceful demonstration of protest in Beograd, where a lot of hundreds of thousand of people affirmed that Kosovo is the birthplace of the Serbia and that Serbia will never renounce to it. In the meantime, a little group of hooligans assailed and destroyed USA and Hrvatska embassy, sacked some magazines and caused many damages.
If it is evident that the about hundred hotheads are only a microscopic minority, it is as much clear that Serbish population feels strongly wounded by the loose of the Kosovo, that is felt as the loose of the historical heart of the Nation. The demonstration were peaceful and it’s not possible to equivocate the Vojislav Kostunica speech; the Serbish premier said that Kosovo was the first name of Serbia “What’s Kosovo? Where is Kosovo? Of who is Kosovo? There is someone between you that doesn’t think that Kosovo isn’t of him? If as Serbians we renounce to the Serbity, to our history, to our origins, what kind of Serbians are we?” Kostunica said also that “Serbia will not renounce to his place in the World, but it asks to be treated as all the other countries and peoples. Still we will be alive, Kosovo is Serbia, our Kosovars brothers will not be alone and forgotten: still we’ll refuse the ultimatums and we’ll accept the friendship, Serbia will be free”.

Meanwhile, the Albanian component of the new Kosovo is organizing the new country, that will be an UE protectorate, as for 9 years it have been a NATO protectorate, and it is receiving enough well the EULEX mission.
Kosovo was and is a region deeply dependent from foreign helps, a region that have to do big efforts also in the fighting of the organized crime who have prospered in the empty space generated after the war of the ’99 and the EULEX mission have the thorny job of transform a subsistence economy and based on the foreign helps in something of more solid, trying also a way of integration between the two communities, but many are afraid that Kosovo will never be a multiethnic country, but a devised one, with an Albanian and a Serbish community.

[Jes]

OH! I hope there's not a new war!!

Moreover, they proclaimed the independence on 17th February... which is my birthday!! thus...