 By Albin Kurti n March 23, 1989 the Kosova autonomy was annulled and the Kosova Assembly building was surrounded by tanks. Inside the building there were also votes by infiltrators who were not even delegates. Only 13 delegates were against. Five days later Serbia celebrated its new constitution, which gave Serbia full power over Kosova. Massive demonstrations occurred throughout Kosova. Hundreds of thousands demonstrated. 28 Albanians were killed and 300 were injured. The demonstrations continued. An overall of 90 Albanians were killed by February, 1990.
On August 17, 1990 the Serbs organized a referendum for the removal of
autonomy in Croatia. They put barricades in the main streets in Kinin,
Benkovc and Obrovc. Croatia considers this day as the day of Serbian
aggression upon Croatia. In the train station in Kinin, the Yugoslavian
Army openly furnished the Serbs with weapons. The project for Greater
Serbia was activated massively and armed all over.
72 years ago, the great grandfathers of these Serbs had formed
Yugoslavia as a platform for Greater Serbia. The first leader of the
Government of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians was the Serbian
radical Stojan Protic, who was appointed by Serbian King Alexandar
Karagorgevic. Svetozar Pribicevic, a Serb from Croatia, was the
Minister of Internal Affairs. 72 years later, the majority of police
officers in Croatia were Serbs. 72 years later, the great-grandsons of
Yugoslavia’s creators thought that Yugoslavia was keeping Serbia small.
They started to demolish the creation of their ancestors for the same
reason they created it.
At the end of 1994, 30% of Croatian territory and 70 % of the Bosnia
territory was occupied by Serbian military and paramilitary forces. The
two other pillars where the Serbian hegemony was based were the Serbian
Academy of Science and Arts and the Serbian Orthodox Church. The first
pillar proved ‘scientifically’ the need for Serbian expansion and made
its domination aesthetic. The second pillar consecrated the new Serbian
rule and considered it as the second Serbian revival after the revival
from the Balkan wars.
In June 1991, Bishop Atanasije Vetic, during the ceremony of his
appointment as head of the Banat Diocese, addressed the Croats
publically by saying: “We forgive you for killing us; however, we
cannot forgive you if you make us kill you.” The Serbian soldiers were
invading territories to create Serbia. The Serbian soldiers who were
killed were creating Serbia with their graves. The Serbian preachers
blessed all those who were going to war, including Arkan, Ulemek,
Simatovic, Captain Dragan, Babic, Martic, Karadzic, Mlladic and similar
people when they were heading to Croatia and Bosnia, and also when they
were heading to Kosova a few years later. “In the place where there is
a Serbian grave, there is Serbia!” – were yelling the Serbs. The
committed crimes were being minimized. The crimes that were impossible
to be hidden were presented as the bad side of the war.
The other side of the war was portrayed as good – expression of vitality from the Serbian people.
On February 2, 2007 the Ahtisaari Plan was made public in Prishtina.
The Annex 5 of this plan which has to do with the religious and
cultural heritage in Article 1.2 says: “Kosova will recognize the
Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosova, including churches, monasteries, and
other buildings that are used for religious purposes as an integral
part of the Serbian Orthodox Church with headquarters in Belgrade.”
This Plan created extraterritorial zones by Serbianizing 45 religious
Orthodox buildings and thousands of hectares of land. If one Muslim or
Catholic Albanian is converted to Orthodox then he becomes Serbian.
Kristac, who came from Korça to work in Kosova performs his religious
rituals in a Catholic church. He does not go to Graçanica or to the
Deçan monastery. This monastery was initially a Catholic church that
was built by the Franciscan Abbot Father Vita Kuçi from Kotorr,
sometime at the end of the third decade of the 14th century. The
Ahtisaari Plan made it possible for Serbia to usurp the orthodox
heritage in Kosova, usurp the medieval heritage as part of their
attempts to present Kosova Albanians as people who have come from
Albania or remnants from the Ottoman Empire. Eight days after
publishing the Ahtisaari Plan, on February 10 2007, the UNMIK Police
killed Arben Xheladini and Mon Balaj and injured around 80 other
Albanians during a demonstration against this plan and supporting
self-determination for the Kosova people.
On October 5 2008, 12 VETËVENDOSJE! activists climbed the Bjshkët e
Nemuna (Cursed Mountains) to go to the Neqinat Lake which is located at
an altitude of 1912 meters. They were accompanied by a feral dog that,
while showing the way, in the meantime was also marking the territory
of his path by urinating next to certain trees. Gilles Deleuze wrote
that the dog marks the territory with his urine. The dog’s urine is
detached from the food chain and becomes a marking tool. Deleuze, who
was philosopher of continuity, was making his argument against the
conviction of human singularity and against ‘human, all too human…’
I was remembering all this while listening to the news that the bishop
of Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro Amfilohije Radovic was
visiting the Tarabosh Mountain and the graves of Serbian soldiers in
Bardhaj of Shkodër. They allegedly died while trying to liberate
Albania from the Ottoman Empire. The history surely has to do with the
past, however, the (re)writing the history has to do (also) with the
future. History is the history of the future: whenever it has been
(re)written it was made considering a (political) project for the
future. These were later collected (once again considering a desirable
future) in what is later named a history text which is not certain
whether this text will survive. The new interpretations of facts
restore the facts. Everything in history comes with a history to be
remade. Maybe Amfilohije Radovic has read Martin Heidegger when he says
that “fact is only that which is in the light of a fundamental concept
and it always depends on this light to see how far this concept will
go.” And maybe he has not read Heidegger. His self-confidence maybe
comes from our weakness.
Translated by Arber Jashari for the The Daily Falcon. Albin Kurti leads the Vetevendosje! Movement.
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