Reports, Comments, Networking
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Action Links
A Friend's Kosovo "Primer" and set of Links
Comments
Action Links
Anti-NATO
Bombing protests being organized by the
International Action Center (IAC)
in new York City. Check their site for lists of dates and
locations. The IAC was organized by former U.S. Attorney General
Ramsey Clark after the Gulf War, and is strongly anti-imperialist and
anti-U.S. sanctions against Iraq in its perspective.
A Friend's set of Links:
A California Friend, Rachel Findley, reports (3/31/1999) on her very fruitful efforts to surf the web for resources to understand the Kosovo situation:
"Last week I found myself utterly at sea with respect to Kosovo. I was grateful to Chuck Fager for the informative links but I found that the level of analysis was far above my knowedge. I couldn't tell the players without a program. Even the background articles assumed some kind of background that I had missed because I wasn't paying attention back in 1992...
"So I started with those pointers and assembled a primer on Kosovo, which may be of use to others. If my friends and Friends are typical, we all know there's something very wrong there, but we can't express much more than horror. So the primer may be helpful to others.
"I also discovered the nonviolent parallel government in Kosovo that's been running since 1992 or so. I wish I'd known more about Ibrahim Rugova and the parallel government sooner. And I wish my government had taken him more seriously when he had the support of the Albanian Kosovars. We missed an opportunity to leap into and join a movement that might have brought the Balkans to a very different place.
"There are reports that Rugova was arrested and shot, though not killed, this week. "I'm sending on the links on this story. I find it compelling, and deeply distressing. "I can't find the story in any of the newspaper background pieces I have been studying.
"I wonder how many other stories there are out there in the world, of powerful movements that use the methods of nonviolent struggle? How can we work to become more aware of them, and to insist that our government work with them before they lose the patience of the people? How can we bring ourselves to put out energy into the struggles before they become news stories, crises, and wars? It's so easy to accept the media's judgment about what is worthy of our attention, so hard to resist that drumbeat."
Primer:
Map of
Yugoslavia:
http://www.commondreams.org/kosovo/yugomap.htm
Map of
Kosovo:
http://www.commondreams.org/kosovo/kosovomap.htm
History
of Kosovo: "History,
Bloody History" (by Tim Judah), from the BBC
Another
Historical Sketch -- Kosovo, back to the Illyrians, Greeks, Turks,
etc.
http://www.centraleurope.com/ceo/special/kosovow/hist.html
Brief
biographies of some central players:
http://www.centraleurope.com/ceo/special/kosovow/bio.html
Chronology
of Kosova including parallel state, 1989-Jan. 1999:
http://www.sit.fi/~liukkunf/kosovo1.htm
Chronology of conflict in Kosovo since 1998:
http://www.centraleurope.com/ceo/special/kosovow/chrono.html
Nonviolent Albanian Movement in Kosovo:
"Drawing Energy from Despair"
As soon as Belgrade suspended Kosovo's autonomy in 1989, the Kosovars, out of necessity as much as choice, opted en masse for nonviolent resistance. Ibrahim Rugova, who had already denounced terror in his literary works, stood at the head of this peaceful, open resistance, the aim of which was independence. Ten years later, the bloodshed which Rugova wanted to prevent has erupted in full force: by neglecting the Kosovo question in the Dayton Accords, the West has de facto handed the country over to its Serb executioners. The consequence has been the formation of an organized, armed resistance, which has served as a pretext for pogroms and an eruption of ethnic violence. Rugova faces this dramatic reality at a time when all peaceful solutions seem to be exhausted.
BBC:
Biography
of Ibrahim Rugova (by Tim Judah); description of the nonviolent
Albanian movement in Kosovo.
Fall
1998 interview with Rugova by Marie-Francoise Allain.
http://www.new-presence.cz/98/12/allain.html
Introduction
to interview with Rugova by Guy Dinmore.
http://www.megastories.com/kosovo/rugova/rugova.htm
"At
least Kosovo is still full of Albanians" (date?)
http://www.megastories.com/kosovo/rugova/albanian.htm
"Do
not mourn, work for the future"
http://www.megastories.com/kosovo/rugova/mourn.htm
"Rugova
has created a parallel state"
http://www.megastories.com/kosovo/rugova/state.htm
"Rugova's
party is intimately involved with the KLA"
http://www.megastories.com/kosovo/rugova/party.htm
"The
Americans could drop Rugova"
http://www.megastories.com/kosovo/rugova/american.htm
REPUBLIC
OF KOSOVA. THE STATE ORGANIZATION. PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC. THE
GOVERNMENT. THE PARLIAMENT. IMPORTANT ADRESSES. POLITICAL PARTIES.
INSTITUTIONS.
URL:
http://www.kosova-state.org/English/republic_of_kosova.html
Divisions
among Albanians at Rambouillet peace talks: Rugova pushed into taking
position that could not be accepted by Serbs?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/243742.asp#BODY
News Sources and Summaries:
"The
Kosovo Crisis: Drumbeats of War"
Links to breaking stories, background, maps, groups, etc.
commondreams is "Breaking News for Progressive-Thinking Americans"
http://www.commondreams.org/kosovo/kosovo.htm
BBC's
Kosovo page
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1998/kosovo/
BBC's
In-Depth
Analysis page, with links to analysis, history, biographies, and
internet links
Comments:
From Chuck Fager, March 24, 1999
To get this page started, I would like to pose a question, especially to Quaker readers:
What does the Friends Peace Testimony call for in this situation?
Here are some factors I attempt to take into account while seeking answers:
- There is no draft to resist.
1A. The Cold War is over. Or at least it was. - The Serbs may be more the "bad guys" in the situation, but nobody's hands are very clean.
- I don't personally think we can finger the US or the Pentagon as some sort of evil aggressor in this situation - though the resort to large-scale violence is surely a slippery slope.
- The notion of collective action to prevent or end genocide is a respectable one, even if as a pacifist I couldn't join it by picking up a gun. What do we make of it?
- If item number 4 above is valid, what constructive roles are there for groups like Quakers who can't condemn the purpose of the military venture, even as we likewise can't join it?
- There are lots of other areas in the world where Kosovo-like situations are festering; what can we do to be useful in heading off similar outcomes in them?
