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By:
Syle Ukshini
- November 3, 2024 08:01
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Joseph Marko with the book "The destruction of the autonomy of Kosovo 1989-1991 and the consequences for the idea of European integration" - published by the "Konrad Adenauer Foundation" (KAS) in Kosovo, Pristina, 2023 - brings a detailed examination of the process of the abolition of the autonomy of Kosovo since 1989 and for the impacts it had on political developments in the region. This report not only focuses on the historical and constitutional events that took place during this period, but also examines the long-term consequences for the idea of European integration of the region.
On July 3, 2001, the eyes of the international public were focused on Courtroom I of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Serbia and the former Yugoslavia, was due to make his first court appearance to enter a plea on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the 1998–1999 war in Kosovo.
As the three judges led by Judge Richard May entered the courtroom, a sullen-looking Milosevic would refuse to acknowledge the court's authority and, using a provocation tactic that would continue throughout the trial, turned to Judge May. as "Mr. May". But he refused to react to the provocations, although his rhythmic tapping of the pen on the notebook was the only outward sign of irritation he would display. Although Milosevic continued to refuse to address the judges in the usual way, a behavior that was a manifestation of his challenge to the authority and legitimacy of the ICTY, Austrian scholar Joseph Marko, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Public Law and Political Science at the University of Graz in Austria, 20 years ago he was preparing an expert witness report requested by the Office of the Prosecutor (OP) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in preparation for the indictment and proceedings against Millan Militunović, Dragolub Ojdanić and Nikola Šainović as well as against Slobodan Milosevic.
It was no coincidence why the ICTY selected Professor Marko to draft the opinion of the expert witness, through which an overview of the historical context of the development of the constitutional system of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and the constitutional status of Kosovo within the Yugoslav federal system until its dissolution in 1991 and the adoption of the new Constitution of the remaining Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro) of 1992. Marko is a brilliant connoisseur of the Balkans, since in the years 1997- 2002 he served as an international judge at the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, then president of the European Court of Human Rights in accordance with the Dayton Agreement, as well as a political-legal adviser on constitutional reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the High Representative Schwarz-Schilling in the years 2006-2007.
Since it was made clear to Professor Marko from the beginning that the ICTY practiced the rules of Anglo-Saxon criminal procedure, which meant that judges officially do not read anything in advance about the historical and political context, but listen and ultimately evaluate all that in legal language is called " proven facts" based on the oral presentations of witnesses brought by both the prosecution and defense lawyers, this expert witness report provides a broader historical, political and legal context of the destruction of Kosovo's autonomy guaranteed under the Federal Constitution of Yugoslavia of 1974 and the violation of obligations and international law by Serbia, namely the remaining Yugoslavia.
According to the author, the publication of the expert witness report almost twenty years later, prepared and translated into Albanian by the professor of Political Sciences at the University of Pristina, Dr. Arben Hajrullahu, and supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Kosovo, serves a two-fold purpose: First, when single judges or panels of judges "determine the facts" the report will show that the verdict on what is true or not it is not easy. Thus, while reading the judgments against Milan Milutonović and Slobodan Milosevic and the legal reasoning based on the testimony and cross-examination of eyewitnesses, this report will help to understand not only the intricacies of the Anglo-Saxon system of criminal procedure, but even more to understand the factual details mentioned by these witnesses with more or less accuracy and the factual evidence missing and necessary to provide a complete overview of the events beyond the single and fragmented acts assessed by the judges as having been criminal offenses individual or not.
Undermining the rights of Kosovo Albanians
The importance of the content in this study lies in the detailed examination of the process of the abolition of the autonomy of Kosovo from 1989 and the impact it had on the political developments in the region. This report not only focuses on the historical and constitutional events that took place during this period, but also examines the long-term consequences for the idea of European integration of the region. Through the analysis of the expert Joseph Marko, it is emphasized how the constitutional changes imposed by Serbia weakened the autonomy of Kosovo and created a harmful precedent for regional stability and efforts towards European integration. In this context, the content of the study is important, because it provides a detailed overview of what happened legally and politically in Kosovo.
Marko points out that the removal of Kosovo's autonomy by Slobodan Milosevic's regime was a violent and unilateral act that challenged the delicate balance of ethnic and political relations in Yugoslavia. This action not only undermined the rights of Kosovo Albanians, but also increased tensions and ethnic polarization in the region. According to him, this repressive measure was followed by the policy of assimilation and oppression, which led to a deterioration of the human and political situation in Kosovo. Marko emphasizes that this action by the Milosevic regime had deep and long-term consequences, not only for the situation within the former Yugoslavia, but also for its European prospects.
The report of the witness, an expert on constitutional and legal issues, is conceived in three parts: The destruction of the autonomy of the Autonomous Socialist Province of Kosovo, where, in addition to the constitutional developments in Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia, the programs, laws and decisions of Serbia for the removal of autonomy of Kosovo. In the second part, the author deals with the position and powers of various state bodies according to the Constitution of Serbia of 1990 and the Constitution of the remaining Yugoslavia of 1992 and the relevant legislation. Meanwhile, in the third part, it mainly dwells on the international obligations derived from international law regarding the war in Kosovo, focusing mainly on the resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations and the Security Council.
The testimony of the former president of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova
An example dealing with the subject of the expert witness report, namely the abrogation of Kosovo's territorial autonomy guaranteed under the Yugoslav federal constitution of 1974, should suffice for illustrative purposes.
On May 3, 2002, the former president of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, was called to testify and report on the events related to the parliamentary debate in the Assembly of Kosovo on the "suspension of the federal status of Kosovo, namely the autonomous status of Kosovo" on March 28, 1989. According to the author of the report, Rugova reported that "special measures or extraordinary measures" were taken with the "suspension of some institutions" and "putting Kosovo under police control." In this context, the author underlines that the first attempts to change the Constitution of the RSFJ were in 1987 in order to overcome the alleged asymmetry of the Constitution of the RSFJ. While the amendments approved in the year brought minor changes and left intact the institutions and powers of the KSAs, in the parallel process of amending the SSR Constitution in 1988 and 1989, many powers and institutions of the KSAs would pass depending on the institutions of Serbia.
Illegal constitutional changes after the state of emergency
However, Marko argues that the lack of legitimacy of these constitutional changes by the Assembly of Kosovo in March 1989 is due to the fact that the constitutional change occurred after the state of emergency had been declared. According to the author, there are two stages which mark the stages of the degradation of the Constitution of Kosovo, the adoption of the new Constitution of Serbia in September 1990, according to which the competences of Kosovo were drastically weakened, reducing the level of autonomy below the level of local self-government , while with the 1992 Constitution of the remaining Yugoslavia, Kosovo is no longer even mentioned as an autonomous province.
Marko also argues that the abrogation of Kosovo's autonomy in 1989 was a repressive act that fundamentally changed ethnic and political relations in the then federal Yugoslavia, causing primarily ethnic tensions, the dissolution of institutions and their serbization, as well as the mass migration of the Albanian population. According to the author, the Law on Extraordinary Circumstances of 1990 formalized the exercise of Serbia's power over Kosovo, culminating in the Law on the suspension of the work of the Assembly and the Executive Council (Government) of Kosovo, the Law on the suspension of the Presidency of Kosovo , the dismissal of the members from Kosovo in the Presidency of the RSFJ and the dismissal of the judges of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of Kosovo as well as the Law on labor relations in special circumstances.
The new constitution of Serbia for the suspension of the autonomy of Kosovo
These discriminatory laws and against the Albanian population were followed by 500 decisions of the Assembly of Serbia, which affected all spheres of society in Kosovo. According to the author, these laws and administrative regulations resulted in the total removal of Kosovo's autonomy. Consequently, with the Serbian constitution of 1990, the Assembly of Kosovo no longer had legislative powers, the competences of Kosovo were completely subordinated to those of Serbia, while the Constitution of Kosovo was transformed into a "statute", which could enter into force only with the consent of the Assembly of Serbia. The author's conclusion is that the way of removing the autonomy of Kosovo from the Republic of Serbia constituted a violation of the Constitution of the RSFJ, because in this way Serbia received powers that the Yugoslav Constitution of 1974 did not give it. Paradoxically, through political manipulation and playing cards of Serb rights, Milosevic, on the one hand, used the new Constitution of Serbia to suspend the autonomy of Kosovo, which was guaranteed by the Constitution of the SFRY, but on the other hand another, used Kosovo's status as a federal unit to control four votes (Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Vojvodina) in the eight-member Presidency of the RSFJ.
The plan with the return of 400 thousand Serbs to Kosovo
It was this period when Milosevic restored a legal and constitutional system similar to that of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where Albanians were denied all political, national and cultural rights. In fact, such a repressive and colonizing discourse started in March 1990, when the Assembly of Serbia approved the "Program for the realization of peace, freedom, equality, democracy and prosperity of the KSA of Kosovo" and the "Operational Plan" which the parliament approved in March 1990, a systematic approach was developed to pass them depending on the relevant institutions of the Republic of Serbia and the state, economy and education of Kosovo. This legislative program and other repressive measures towards Kosovo even at first glance seemed ad hoc or spontaneous reactions, they were systematically planned actions and aimed to change the ethnic balance by offering a return program for 400 thousand Serbs and Montenegrins who had emigrated from Kosovo in the period after the Second World War. Also, this anti-Albanian legislation sought to ensure that the Albanian majority in Kosovo would remain politically powerless, as long as its representation would be equated with the representation of minorities. From an overview of all these measures, the author concludes that all political, economic, social and educational institutions of Kosovo must be subordinated to the relevant institutions of Serbia, although this is often euphemistically expressed in terms of "cooperation and provision of help" It was this discriminatory policy against Kosovo Albanians as part of the anti-Albanian doctrine, which was also displayed through the objectives of the infamous Memorandum of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo and which aimed to achieve two key objectives: the centralization of Serbia and the centralization of Yugoslav Federation. Until his objective failed because the former Yugoslav republics one after the other abandoned the federation, Milosevic managed to centralize Serbia by using as an instrument the discontent of the Kosovo Serbs, with the aim of mobilizing the Serbs politically and justifying the changes in the status of Kosovo. These methods of political action, which are still used today in the north by the Serbian president, from the bottom up through street pressure, known in sociology as "the law of the crowd", were characterized by Milosevic as "the people's event" which meant bringing to life of the strategy of communication of Kosovo Serbs only through Belgrade and disobedience to the Government of Kosovo, as well as the cultivation of the narrative of victimization of local Serbs.
The restoration of Serbia's constitutional dominance over Kosovo was realized through the adoption of the first acts of Serbian legislation for Kosovo, openly revealing a public program of ethnic domination and discrimination against Albanians. This situation in Kosovo resembled that of the period between the two world wars, when Serbia was trying to drive the Albanians out of Kosovo and serve it and in this way realize the idea of changing the demographic structure of Kosovo, populating Kosovo with a Slavic population as well as offering a program for the resettlement of Serbs and Montenegrins who had left Kosovo in the period after the Second World War. The autonomy of Kosovo was a big problem for Serbia, because as the Serbian historian Latinka Perović said, "the realization of the national rights of the Kosovar Albanians was experienced as the destruction of Serbia, as the disintegration of its unity and territory".
To be continued in the next issue of the Culture Supplement
