'Nie wieder Krieg! Nie wieder Völkermord!' Der Kosovo-Konflikt als europäisches Problem

Rarely in recent years has a violent ethnic conflict been so clearly foreseen by so many experts as in the case of Kosovo. The escalation of the conflict in early 1999 led to a specific combination of war, terror and genocide which was very different from traditional civil and international war. A decisive reason for the peculiar situation of Kosovo is the fact that the international community continues to this day to accept in unchanged form the decisions made by Stalin and Tito regarding the territorial and political status of the ethnic and national groups in Eastern Europe. Since Kosovo did not receive the status of a republic (as did Slovenia or Macedonia) under Communist rule, the West is unwilling to recognize the possibility of secession in the Kosovo case. Although the interventionist war was fought by NATO in the first instance against the genocide policy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, it was also directed against Albanian secessionism. This will probably lead to a quite lengthy protectorate under the auspices of NATO, Russia and the UN in Kosovo, and perhaps to violent clashes between the international forces and the Albanians. The study discusses the ambivalent situation in Kosovo from the perspectives of international law and political ethics as well as outlining several components for a potential civil and peace strategy in the region, which could minimize the danger of renewed terror and war between the international forces and the Albanians in Kosovo