by Shefqet Cakiqi-Llapashtica

The idea of the Republic of Kosovo, the colonial situation of Kosovo, the anti-colonial liberation war, genocide, the aggressor, and the gaps in knowledge about Kosovo. According to documents from the Archive of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia from 1940: Kosovo was considered a colony.

The Archive of Yugoslavia, the fund of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, file 1940/14–12, together with the “Theses on the National Question” prepared by Moša Pijade for the Fifth Conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and Fund 507, Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, contain the following findings:

In the topic “Theses on the National Question” and specifically on the “National Question in Kosovo”, in point 1.) and sub-point b) we find these conclusions:

b) Serbian Colonization
Kosovo became the main region for the colonization of the Serbian element.
This colonization took place through the confiscation of land (pastures, meadows, forests) from the local Muslim population, especially from Albanians.
Local poor peasants were not given land, while settlers from Serbia were installed (Chetniks, paramilitary commanders, Montenegrins, and even from Vojvodina, Bar, and Istria).
Fertile Kosovo and Drenica fell into the hands of the colonists.
In the first phase of the colonization of Metohija, the regime simply seized the most fertile land and distributed it especially to Montenegrin officers.

c) Kosovo as a Colony
Kosovo became a typical colonial province.
Like Macedonia, Kosovo was a zone exploited by Serbian and foreign capital in various forms.
The local population consisted mainly of artisans, peasants, and small traders – meaning there was no locally accumulated capital.

Conclusions
a) Kosovo represents a complex mosaic of national minorities and ethnic groups.
b) Serbian imperialism placed this province in a colonial position without solving the fundamental problems.
c) The national question of Kosovo is essentially the question of Albanians, Turks, Muslim Slavs, and some other minorities (Roma, Egyptians, Vlachs).
d) The project of “Greater Albania” does not offer a solution, but replaces Serbian imperialism with Albanian or Italian imperialism.
e) The solution lies in the formation of a Free Workers’ and Peasants’ Republic of Kosovo, through the revolutionary overthrow of the Serb fascist-imperialist regime.
This would guarantee Albanians, Turks, and Muslims ownership of the land, liberation from national oppression, and the opportunity for free political and cultural development.

Milovan Đilas on Kosovo during the Second World War

Member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, leader of the war in Montenegro and Yugoslavia, close collaborator of Moša Pijade and Josip Broz Tito.

Question: What was your position on Kosovo at that time?
Milovan Đilas: My personal position, or…
Question: Your personal position?
Milovan Đilas: My position was the same as that of the other members of the Central Committee, as well as the Central Committee of Albania, that Kosovo should join Albania and be a federal unit of it within a wider Balkan federation.

Question: The Bujan Conference and the reaction of the CPY?
Milovan Đilas: When we received the Bujan Conference decisions in the Central Committee, no one knew what Dukagjin was, except me. As a Montenegrin, I explained to my comrades that Dukagjin includes territories of both Yugoslavia and Albania. Then it was decided that the Bujan Conference decisions should not be approved. At Tito’s suggestion, I wrote and signed the text on behalf of the Central Committee, rejecting the conference decisions, but in a mild way so as not to hinder the mobilization of Albanians.

These data confirm the positions of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (1940) and the position of a member of the Politburo of the CPY, Milovan Đilas, that Kosovo was not a voluntary part of the state of the Southern Slavs: Yugoslavia.

Why was Serbia not declared an aggressor?

Serbia was not officially declared an aggressor in the wars of the former Yugoslavia for pseudo-legal, political, and diplomatic reasons, even though it was the main instigator of the wars. Additionally:

• Serbia and Montenegro considered themselves the successors of Yugoslavia.
• The government in Belgrade (under Slobodan Milošević) presented itself as the legitimate representative of Yugoslavia and viewed the independence of Croatia, Bosnia, and later Kosovo as separatism.
• The wars in Croatia and Bosnia were interpreted as internal conflicts within Yugoslavia.

Serbia’s Strategy: Indirect Support

• Serbia and Milošević avoided formally declaring war.
• They supported local Serb groups in Croatia and Bosnia with weapons, money, and paramilitaries.
• They presented the war as a civil conflict in which Serbs were “defending themselves.”

International Legal Interpretation

• The ICTY did not officially declare Serbia an aggressor, but punished aid to Serb forces in Bosnia.
• The International Court of Justice in 2007 ruled that Serbia was not directly responsible for the genocide in Srebrenica, but was responsible for failing to prevent it.

Diplomatic Influence

• Russia and some other states supported Serbia, blocking UN Security Council decisions that would have declared it an aggressor.
• The West initially treated the wars in the former Yugoslavia as internal conflicts.

Serbia as Successor of Yugoslavia

• Serbia and Montenegro considered themselves the continuation of Yugoslavia, not a new state attacking its neighbors.
• Belgrade presented the war as an effort to preserve Yugoslavia, not as aggression.

The War in Kosovo and NATO Intervention

• In 1999, the West punished Serbia with bombing, but did not formally declare it an “aggressor.”
• Serbia presented the war as an internal matter and a fight against “UCK terrorism.”

Conclusion:
Serbia was not formally declared an aggressor due to its strategy of indirect action, international support, and the lack of a clear legal decision from the UN and international courts. Politically and historically, however, it is seen as the main actor in the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Kosovo is a victim of international decisions regarding the war in the former Yugoslavia: the war was called civil, the aggressor Serbia was not named, due to the influence of Russia and China in the Security Council and the Dayton decisions… because of these decisions we still suffer today.

The Problem of Kosovo:
Kosovo was not an integral part of the state of the Southern Slavs.

The commission formed in 1992 did not understand that Kosovo and the Albanians were not part of Yugoslavia either ethnically or in a common way and were never an equal part of Yugoslavia.

The War Crimes Court in The Hague in 1993, under the influence of Russia and China, qualified the war in the former Yugoslavia as an internal conflict, without an aggressor — something that suited Serbia the most.

Albanians in the former Yugoslavia were not Southern Slavs, were never loyal to Yugoslavia, and since 1876–77 have been waging a liberation war.

Sources and literature:

• Archive of Yugoslavia, fund of the CC of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, file 1940/14–12, together with Moša Pijade’s “Theses on the National Question.”
• Archive of Yugoslavia, Fund 507, CC of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.
• Archive of Yugoslavia, Fund 790/1, Communist International.
• istorija20veka.rs

Credit: Shefqet Cakiqi-Llapashtica