Although all of the recent human rights talk about Kosovar independence sounds terrific, we should make sure we don’t forget the most important thing of all: the lives of average people.

The recent declaration of inde­pendence of Kosovo and the rheto­ric surrounding it underscored with stark clarity the pervasive sway of the power that rules politics, both globally and locally. The rhetorical strategies of power play that are typically drenched in the high moral authority of human rights once again took the central stand.

Yet real people in their everyday lives seldom reap any benefits from this moralistic agenda. Clearly, I’m stating the obvious here, but I find the latest rhetorical inundation of ‘concern’ for the people of Kosovo coming from the leading protago­nists worth examining.

Despite their high moral brass, the hypocrisy between the lines is deafening, and quite frankly, nause­ating.

The ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo has very few incentives to remain a part of the Serbian state. They were subjected to systematic repression in the 1990s by the auto­cratic regime of Slobodan Milosevic, by means of violent atrocities and equally-damaging economic depri­vation.    The current Serbian government does not discuss this. Instead, it has decided to foster a narrative that perpetuates several myths: firstly, that Serbs are the victims of a centu­ries-old international conspiracy of the ‘decadent’ West; and secondly, that Serbs are a God-chosen people whose claim to divine justice is be­yond such petty considerations as a critical evaluation of history and earthly responsibility.    The purpose of this myth-mak­ing is two-fold. One the one hand, it clouds the fact that there are two million Albanians living in Kosovo who simply do not wish to be a part of the Serbian state, period. On the other, it helps to carry on the inter­nal power play.    When the Serbian Prime Minister talks about the jeopardized human rights of the people of Kosovo, he refers exclusively to the remaining Serbian minority – roughly 100 000 people.    What’s more, he persistently claims Serbia’s sovereignty over the territory of Kosovo, but offers not even a fleeting remark on how he plans to integrate two million dissenting Albanians into Serbia’s political and social system. If he is so keen on keeping Kosovo – and with it its two million inhabitants – in Serbia, would he be willing to grant a prime-ministerial position to an Albanian? Considering that a Serbia including Kosovo would have the Albanian population as its larg­est minority, such a move would be only natural.    Even more importantly, would the Prime Minister be willing to sell this to his Serbian countrymen, to persuade Serbians to accept an Al­banian presiding over Serbian gov­ernment in Belgrade?  

This seems an unlikely prospect for the time being. Not only because he would thereby risk losing power, but also because in so doing, he would fall right though the appar­ently- solid, all-prevailing narrative that not a single member of Serbian ruling establishment dares to ques­tion: namely, that the Serbs are the eternal victims, divinely excused for any malfeasance.    Moreover, the government’s for­tissimo concern for the lives of Ser­bian people appears to be limited to the territory of Kosovo only. The lives of the remaining eight mil­lion people in the rest of Serbia are evidently suspended in the face of a grave threat to Serbian territorial integrity. Their everyday economic worries and apprehensions about their future lives have fallen prey to the self-defeating, metastasizing idiom of a ‘nation in danger’; an im­age that attends to the myth created and sustained by those same pow­erholders who publicly lament over the tragic destiny of the Serbian people.    The same deception can be iden­tified in the Serbian government’s outcry for defending international law. The government certainly has a point when it condemns the manner in which the declaration was made, given its apparent violation of two fundamental pillars of international order: sovereign equality and invio­lability of borders.    However, doctrines of interna­tional law aside, I’m more con­cerned here with the duplicity of the Serbian government.    This same government was not that respectful of the tenets of in­ternational law when it merely simulated cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and refused to extradite key genocide suspects.    Why? Because once again, this would undermine the prevailing narrative of ‘Serbian martyrdom’, which right-wing parties exploit to preserve power.

Prev - Next >>