The independence of Kosovo is not enough

The emancipation of Serbia will be evaluated based on the treatment of the municipalities in the Preševo Valley
The Kosovo knot is beginning to unravel. The inevitable and unstoppable process of the Republic of Kosovo’s entry into the international institutions leads to unofficial recognition, and the establishment of normal international relationships over time. It is a process that may last for a while but with less and less uncertainty. Of course, unless someone insane makes some kind of suicidal move. Unfortunately, in our history madness has most often won over all the rational and peaceful solutions. It will soon be revealed how the seemingly peaceful politicians’ rhetoric is hypocritical, or that military exercises and raising fighter planes were only a way to mask political agreements. The autocrats in Serbia must eventually accept the reality, from the unanimous international directive, while the entire case will be overly dramatized to present them as victims of world conspiracies and thefts. All of this is being done to manipulate innocent people in the upcoming decades and centuries.
From today’s perspective, Serbian politics has all its hopes in the so-called Community of Serbian Municipalities in the North of Kosovo. It is a misconception that this plan compensates for the loss of the entire Kosovo – in essence, such a plan only deepens the existing conflicts and produces new ones. First of all, the civic character of society is being replaced by ethnic character.
Looking ahead, we should focus our attention on much more important matters that will occur right after the official recognition of independence. The first important question is how to overcome the constant, and now a particularly heated crisis with the status of the so-called Republic of Serbs within the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The most dangerous compensation claim, which would be on the verge of serious conflicts, would be reciprocity – separating the Republic Srpska (RS) from Bosnia and Herzegovina and joining Serbia, or the creation of a RS counterpart in Kosovo, in the form of the ZSO (Community of Serbian municipalities). But whatever the resolution of that question is, it is necessary to discuss a much more important topic:
The real question is how the life will be like with these new conditions, how will those countries (Serbia, Kosovo, BiH) treat their own citizens – more specifically, how will the Kosovo authorities treat Serbian minorities in the entire territory of Kosovo, and how will Serbian authorities treat Albanian minorities in the so-called Preševo valley. More precisely, the question is – How will these countries treat all their citizens, regardless of their nationality?
From today’s perspective, Serbian politics has all its hopes in the so-called Community of Serbian Municipalities in the North of Kosovo. It is a misconception that this plan compensates for the loss of the entire Kosovo – in essence, such a plan only deepens the existing conflicts and produces new ones. First of all, the civic character of society is being replaced by ethnic character. With that project, the Serbs from the southern part of Ibar river are being pushed into a subordinate position, just like the Albanians from the north of Ibar river. Possible reciprocity, giving the same rights that ZSO has, municipalities in the south of Serbia, in Bujanovac, Medveđa and Preševo, leads to the creation of an enclave which cannot partake in the existence of Kosovo, nor can it expect an improvement in its status within Serbia. Both assumed Communities would only be a fertile ground for further division, isolation, and the core of discontent and conflict.
The political idea of the state decentralization and strengthening of the local self-government exists as the only integrative project in the current state when centralized power produces constant crises in relation with its citizens, and with the whole world.
The unraveling of the Kosovo knot should not be expected only in formal terms of the state independence, but it must be found in essential emancipation; and above all, in Serbian society, which could have a positive impact on relationships within Kosovo. The first step of emancipation would be recognition of war crimes committed against Albanian civilians during the NATO campaign, as a precondition for talking about crimes that the UČK committed against the Serbs after June 1999 and in March 2004. Emancipation, liberation from a difficult historical burden of misconceptions, myths, prejudices, nationalism and hatred, it also means freeing society from the violence of the state that imposes their will, ideology, in all forms of life; first, in economy, and then in independent actions and development in the fields of education, culture, healthcare.
The political idea of the state decentralization and strengthening of the local self-government exists as the only integrative project in the current state when centralized power produces constant crises in relation with its citizens, and with the whole world. Such a policy does not mean the abolition and weakening of the state, on the contrary, the state which will be freed from the usurper – political arbitrariness corrupted by domestic and foreign capital, by the ideological-political program of the Church, it will be able to be an effective service of citizens – which is controlled, and which serves the public interest.
Truly radical changes must change the entire system of the state organization and society. Existing parliamentary democracy has been usurped by political parties that are held on the political scene with nationalist, demagogic manipulations, lies and propaganda and do not represent real needs and interests of citizens. With decentralization and developed local self-government, democracy would get a chance to be closer to the will of the citizens.
The largest national interest of the citizens of Serbia would be to support the Albanians, the residents of Preševo valley, to stop isolation and to be treated equally like all other residents of Serbia – not only according to national-minority rights but essentially, according to the civil and human rights and conditions for economic development.
Such a political program can be a new political vision that would be acceptable to all citizens, regardless of ethnicity. In practice, this means that both Serbs and Albanians would have a common interest in establishing a new social relationship on the entire territory of Serbia, and not only in the enclave of Preševo valley. Albanians would not fight for exclusive independence only of their own Valley, but together with the Serbs to strengthen the local area of self-government throughout Serbia. In this way, both Serbs and Albanians would get out of their narrow national interest and raise it to the other, new, common interest of citizens. And just like that, if instead of being “political Albanians” or “political Serbs”, they became political citizens, they would have a chance to get out of the existing vicious circle. Therefore, not a single municipality in Serbia, “From Horgoš to Preševo” should be “Serbian” but should be property of the citizens who live in them. Citizens in the municipality of Preševo were not only discriminated against the rights of national minorities (education, textbooks, recognition of diplomas…) but also, as an example, concerning the rights and privileges of residents of Vladičin Han when it comes to investments and support from the state for their economic development. However, the inhabitants of Vladičin Han are also discriminated against by the central government in Belgrade, the status and power of the capital city. Belgrade as the country’s capital is a state within a state, according to all indicators, not only because of its population, but also because of the size of the budget, construction plans, power of decision-making… Vladičin Han and Preševo (and 90 percent of municipalities in Serbia) should recognize that what they have in common is this subordinate position to the country’s capital which does not allow them to develop further.
Without such political turn, recognition of the common problems and interests in political cooperation and creating associations – they would only repeat themselves in the established model of the existing relations in which the almighty state implements its own will over all its citizens, hiding behind national, so-called “Serbian” interests. The largest national interest of the citizens of Serbia would be to support the Albanians, the residents of Preševo valley, to stop isolation and to be treated equally like all other residents of Serbia – not only according to national-minority rights but essentially, according to the civil and human rights and conditions for economic development. As such they can represent a bridge of cooperation between Kosovo and Serbia, for a future in which the borders are only formal and administrative, alike those borders in the European Union today, and what they used to be like in SFR Yugoslavia. Everything that was irretrievably missed over several decades in Kosovo, can be corrected in the case of the Preševo Valley.
Of course, these are all the possibilities. We reached the absurdness where the past seems like a utopia and dystopia seems like the future. The question is whether there is time to sober up and find a way out of the war dead ends, or if another disaster is inevitable, this time the most difficult one, to be able to start a new life from the ashes.
The text was published in the Bulletin STANAR #16&17, autumn 2022.
Illustration: Overlay of Paja Jovanović’s painting “Honored Kosovo”, 1921, and pictures from the trial of Nebojša Pavković in The Hague.