As US, EU policy shifts in region, a renewed push for Kosovo’s partition and secession of Bosnia’s Serb entity follows. Talk of partitioning Kosovo has heightened tensions in the region and provoked public alarm, with Serbian bishops calling on believers to pray for the “salvation of Kosovo”. The reaction follows statements by Serbian and Kosovar leaders that splitting Kosovo, or a swapping of territories, may be on the cards. Kosovo, with a 90 percent Albanian population, declared independence from Serbia in 2008. The US has since advocated its independence, but Serbia has refused to recognise Kosovo as well as its ally Russia. Since then, the relationship between the countries has remained tense and they have struggled to reach an agreement in EU-brokered “normalisation” negotiations, which began seven years ago. Many warn that partitioning Kosovo could provoke more ethnic conflict in the surrounding region, and could cause a ripple effect in nearby Bosnia and Herzegovina – paving the way for Bosnia’s Serb entity Republika Srpska (RS), comprising 49 percent of Bosnian territory, to secede. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/ethnic-borders-redrawn-greater-serbia-180808152223486.html
Are ethnic borders being drawn for a ‘Greater Serbia’? (Al Jazeera)
- Published: 6 years ago on 10/08/2018
- By: OSCPA F
- Last Modified: August 10, 2018 @ 2:12 pm
- Filed Under: International