A Cure for Kosovo? | Sojourners

A Cure for Kosovo?

When it comes to conversation about Kosovo and the actions of Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, most of us are felled by an awful case of analysis paralysis and take to our emotional beds. The good news is there are peaceful options in Kosovo and we can help support them.

Leaders of the Kosovar resistance recently initiated dialogue with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill to promote their growing nonviolent religious resistance movement in Kosovo. Serbian Orthodox Bishop Artemije and Momcilo Trajkovic, of the Serbian Democratic Resistance Movement, are asking that any further political agendas for Kosovo contain certain key elements, starting with the understanding that the Kosovo situation is not an ethnic conflict but one resulting from the continuous human rights abuses wreaked on Serbs and Albanians alike by the Milosevic regime. "The international community must not use the same ethnic principles for determining the future of Kosovo that Milosevic uses," said Trajkovic.

The proposal also states that Milosevic's government should be politically isolated and not allowed to represent Kosovo Serbs in any further negotiations; a plebiscite on Kosovo status must be organized in a way that includes all of Serbia; all Kosovo leaders must openly condemn the violence of both Serb forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army; the international community should endorse a resolution that would prevent military intervention from Albania as well as from Serbia, and do everything possible to help Kosovars stay or return to their homes, whether Serb or Albanian.

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Sojourners Magazine January-February 1999
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