Overview: Kosovo was a province of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The main players in its recent war were the government, army and militias of Yugoslavia, NATO, and the Kosovo Liberation Army. The Presbyterian Church (USA) stated in 1999-APR that the main victims were the people of Kosovo who were murdered
"at a scale unknown in Europe since the end of World War II. These reports have become so numerous and so consistent that it is difficult not to give them credence...If, as it now appears, genocide is taking place in Kosovo, it must stop...No person in Kosovo or anywhere else should be forced to become a refugee merely because he or she belongs to one ethnic group or one religious tradition." 11
At its core, the conflict was largely a religious one:
"...religious identity has been present constantly in the antagonisms that have fragmented the Balkans for centuries - setting neighbor against neighbor, Muslims against Orthodox Christians, and Orthodox Christians against Western Christians..." 20
Precise data is impossible to obtain. The religious affiliation of the approximately 1.9 million residents of Kosovo, includes on the order of:
Muslims: 1.6 million Serbian Orthodox: 150,000 Roma and Ashkali: There once numbered on the order of 150,000 people. However, many have been forced out of the country 30,31 Roman Catholics: 60,000
Was the Kosovo crisis an ethnic conflict or a religious conflict? There have been a series of struggles for independence during the 1990's in the area once covered by the country of Yugoslavia: This series started in 1990 in Slovenia; 1991 in Croatia; 1992 in Bosnia Herzegovina. Each of these conflicts have often been described as an "ethnic conflict." In reality, the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Muslims in those countries share a common Slavic ethnic origin. They view themselves today as distinct peoples, largely because of their different religious heritages.
Peter Black, senior historian at the United States Holocaust Museum commented:
"In the Balkans, religious identification became part of national identity, as expressed through language and the communication of the national myth. Thus, being Orthodox is part of being Serbian." 20
In contrast, people in North America consider religion mainly as part of their personal/family identity. Because of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, and the separation of church and state which it specifies, Americans don't have a single faith group associated with their feelings of nationalism. As Peter Black commented "being Catholic or Orthodox or Muslim isn't part of our American identity." Canada's history is somewhat different. In the past, the French majority in Quebec had strongly identified their culture with Roman Catholicism. This largely ended in the 1960's, during the "quiet revolution" when there was a massive collapse in the influence of the Catholic church.
Unlike the rest of the former Yugoslavia, the Kosovo conflict had both ethnic and religious components. Before the recent exterminations and forced "ethnic cleansing," 90% of the population of Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. These are descendants of the ancient Illyrian tribes who occupied this area since before the Roman Empire. Their language is unrelated to all other languages in the area; they are now mainly Muslim.
So, the Kosovo conflict was fueled by differences of:
Ethnicity: between Serbs, of Slavic origin, and ethnic Albanians who are Illyrian in origin. Religion: between Serbs, who are almost entirely followers of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and non-Serbs, who are overwhelmingly followers of Islam, and Roman Catholicism. There is also a minority of ethnic Albanians who follow the Albanian Orthodox Church. However, there would be no significant friction, on religious grounds, between Albanian and Serbian Orthodoxy.
As in all conflicts involving ethnicity, religion, national aspirations, economics, etc., there was no single cause of the Kosovo war. However, in our opinion, it is not much of an over-simplification to view the war in Kosovo as largely a religious conflict between:
Serbs who overwhelmingly belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church, Ethnic Albanians who are mainly Muslims, and A Roman Catholic minority.
Current religious/ethnic makeup of the former Yugoslavia: The data below shows how closely the ethnic division in each country matches the religious distribution:
Republic of Slovenia:
1.97 million; 96% Roman Catholic, 1% Muslim, 3% other. 91% Slovene; 3% Croat
Republic of Croatia:
4.67 million 77% Roman Catholic; 11% Serbian Orthodox 78% Croat,12% Serbian
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
3.36 million 40% Muslim, 31% Serbian Orthodox, 15% Roman Catholic 40% Serbian, 38% Muslim, 22% Croat
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (including Kosovo, and its refugees):
11.21 million 65% Serbian Orthodox, 19% Muslim, 4% Roman Catholic, 1% Protestant, 11% other 63% Serbian, 14% Albanian 6% Montenegrin, 4% Hungarian, 13% other
Kosovo:
1.89 million 81% Muslims, 10% Serbian Orthodox, 9% Roman Catholics 90% Albanians, 10% Serbs, 3% Roma (Gypsies), 1.5% Turks
The above data is believed to be accurate in late 1998. The percentage of Serbs left in the province as of 1999-JUL is probably slightly under 5%.
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM):
2.01 million 67% Eastern Orthodox, 30% Muslim
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