From: "Joseph Green" <comvox-AT-flash.net>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 00:46:43 +0000
Subject: Re: M-I: Kosovo


In regard to Heartfield's note on Kosovo, it might be worthwhile to 
note a bit more of the history.

There has been a national issue in Kosovo for a long time,
part of the many national issues in the Balkans.  When the
Great Powers redrew the map of the Balkans  in Dec. 1912, in
the wake of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, they allowed
the Albanians their own state, but they didn't draw its borders 
on demographic principles and stripped off some
key areas such as Kosovo from Albania. As a result, the right to
self-determination has remained an issue in Kosovo to this day.


In World War II the Axis did seek popularity in 
Albania by forming a "Greater Albania". But
the Albanians didn't take the bait, and the Axis was
unsuccessful in stopping the anti-fascist partisan
war. The Albanian partisans held that the issue of 
Kosovo should be settled after the war, the pre-war borders
should be maintained for the time being, and that the 
Albanians and other people in the Kosovo region should fight as part 
of the Yugoslav resistance. The Kosovans were promised, however, by 
the Yugoslav partisan movement,  that Kosovo would have the right of 
self-determination after the war. This promise was never met by Tito. 
The Albanians were one nationality that were not allowed
their own republic in Yugoslav--the republics in
Tito's Yugoslavia  having on paper the right to self-
determination..

Finally, whether or not the Kosovans want
union with Albania,  the issue involved is the
Albanian nationality,  and not "Muslims".
Not all Albanians are Muslims, nor
all Muslims in the former Yugoslavia Albanians. 


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