Repishti's open letter to Kostunica

Baldwin, New York, USA
Open Letter
July 14, 2006

H.E. Vojislav Kus’tunica
Prime Minister, the Government of Serbia
Belgrade, Serbia (Europe)

Your Excellency:

On Wednesday, July 13, 2006, I received a Serbian version of your speech before the UN Security Council, reproduced in Belgrade’s newspaper POLITIKA (SWET I MI).Because of the importance of the speech, and the forum where it was delivered, I read it with great interest. I admit my great disappointment.

The content of the speech could have had some converts, if it were delivered before the tragic massacres of 1998-99 in Kosova. However, since then, everything has changed. The mass graves of over 12.000 innocent victims – old men, women and children, the defenseless members of our society, - the over 3.000 Albanians wo have disappeared, unaccounted for or still held incommunicado in Serbian jails (as is the case of the university professor Ukshin Hoti), the forceful expulsion of nearly one million people, beaten, raped, robbed and humiliated, by the Serbian Army, Police and Serbian gangsters, instructed to act freely in Kosova with guaranteed impunity – have changed everything. After this ordeal, to claim Serbian sovereignty over the martyrized land of Kosova is more than unjust: it’s immoral, it’s illegal, it’s criminal! I am,therefore, convinced that there will be no converts to your thesis, now!.

Serbia in 2006, thanks to her policies engineered by the war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, and the pro-fascist Serb Radical Party of the accused criminalVojislav.Seselj’s supporters – who maintains you in power, today – is resolved to live in the dark past, refuse today’s reality, and reject a promising future in post-war Europe. That’s deeply regrettable for Serbia, and her pro-Europe neighbors.


1) You refer to the region as “Kosovo i Metohija”, “Kosovo” and“Kosmet”. The law professor Kos’tunica is aware that the official name of the region is “Kosovo or Kosova”, recognized and enshrined in the 1969 Constitutional Law, and the following documents, mainly the 1974 Constitution of Kosova, The name was changed to “Kosovo i Metohija” in March 1989, by the war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, then President of the FR of Yugoslavia, the man who stripped Kosova of her autonomy. By using the “Kosovo i Metohija” slogan, you approve Milosevic’s act, you follow in his ignominous steps. You didn’t have to do it, if you were thinking differently from the war criminal Milosevic.

2) You insist on “the respect for the territorial integrity of Serbia, as basic element of the international public law, and of the UN Charter”. Yet, you carefully neglect to mention that ALL authority in any democratic country resides with the will of the people (the American “We the People”), and that the cornerstone of every governmental responsibility is the protection of, and the safety, of its population/citizens. Serbia has cruelly violated both principles.
There is no moral basis for Serbia to rule over the martyrized Kosova; and, as a result, there is no obligation on the part of the aggrieved party, the Albanian victims, to obey the laws of the oppressive Serbian State. By using widespread terror, killing, maiming, raping and mass expulsion in Kosova, Serbia has forfeited its right to rule over Kosova. This is the opinion of the international commu-nity, that forced Serbia to leave Kosova and accept a UN Administration there until such time that Albanians in Kosova will be able to freely express their will.

Legally speaking,the question of sovereignty was litigated before the Permanent Court of International Justice (predecessor of today’s World Court). It was decided that “…self-determination could trump national sovereignty, and justify the break-up of a state, only during period of extreme chaos, “times of transition”, when the central government finds itself unable to do its job, and regular rules no longer apply.

The former Yugoslavia was, indeed, facing a “time of transition”…As for Kosova, it remains an extraordinary episode in modern history…Kosova is the rare case where the strict conditions set by the international law for secession were met. Even more remarkably, the Western community noticed and came to the aid of the separatists…. When Kosova erupted in full-fledged rebellion, Yugoslavia had largely ceased to exist.” (Jonathan Temperman,”No Dangerous Precedent”, The International Herald Tribune, June 23, 1999)

3) The UNSC Resolution 1244 (1999), on which you insist so much, does not pre-clude an eventual independent final status for Kosova. According to the authoritative Center for Strategic International Studies (Princeton,N.J.1993), Serb claims of sovereignty and territorial integrity for the FR of Yugoslavia do not rest on sufficient legal foundations. Therefore, it concludes that “ the UN Resolution 1244 is NOT a barrier to resolution of final status.” Serbia herself, by participating in the on-going negotiations held in Vienna, Austria, to resolve the problem of Kosova has, de facto, accepted these premises.

The Security Council has made it clear that the UN Administration was only “ an interim” entity, pending the settlement of the final status of Kosova.,”,,,organizing and overseeing the development of provisional institutions for democratic and autonomous self-government pending a political settlement including the holding of elections.” (UNSC Res.1244(1999),par.ll) Consequently, a Constitutional Framework for Provisional Self-Government was set up and approved.

The “interim” UN Administration in Kosova was also charged by the Security Council with the obligation to facilitate “a political process designed to determine Kosova’s future status, taking into account the Rambouillet Accords” (UNSC Res. 1244(1999), par.11) What was left for the Security Council is providing an express time table for resolving the question of the final status of Kosova, which according to the Rambouillet Accords “,,,set a three year time frame…” expiring in June 2003. Now, the transfer of sovereign functions to the Kosova institutions continues , to be completed with the institutions existing the day of the solution of the final status.

Serbian references to the UNSC Resolution 1244, and the Annex 2 of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, do not consider the fact, that the above documents provide for the equal recognition of state’s right to sovereignty and territorial integrity, AND OF A MINORITY’S RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION. Serb sovereignty and territorial integrity are expressly placed within the context of the “Interim” political framework agreement providing for substantial self-government for Kosova and, “…the necessity of taking full account of the (1999) Rambouillet Accords.” UNSC Res. 1244(1999), Annex 2, par. 8)(Emphasis is mine.SR)

The Accords did provide for the near total expulsion of the FR of Yugoslavia’s sovereignty over Kosova, and for the creation of a mechanism to determine the final solution within three years (2003). To deny these facts is tantamount to deviate the truth.


4) You oppose the freely expressed will of the 90 percent plus of a population trying to break the shackles of a century-old Serbian yoke, and set up an independent country of their own, peacefully and in cooperation with the international community.Serbia became a state after throwing away the Ottoman yoke. The same holds true for all Balkan countries. The same should hold true for Kosova, too!

The 1776 American Declaration of Independence states:” When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the politcal bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect for the opinion of the mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation…” I will limit myself to the following:



a) Paris Peace Conference,1919,vol.XII, PPC 184.018/3

The Secretary of State to Mr. A.J.Balfour, Paris, April 18, 1919


“…British Embassy at Washington has informed the Department of State as following regarding alleged massacres of Albanians in Montenegro:”Gusinje, Plava, Ipek(Peje), Djakova, Podjour, and Roshji (Rozhaje) have been scenes of terrorism and murder by Serbian troops and Serbian agents whose policy appears to be the extermination of the Albanian inhabitants of the region…”Very truly yours, Robert Lansing(Secret.of State)

b) What happened before 1919(since the 1913 occupation of Kosova) is seen in the Serb legislation aimed at depriving Albanians of their basic rights, and in the atmosphere of terror described in the Carnegie Endowment Report. The Balkan Wars (Washington, D.C.1913) and in the Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars (Washington,D.C, 1914)


c) The subjugated Albanian population was not represented in the Parlament and


Government of the SHS Monarchy, and later of Yugoslavia.Serb officials and officers became their deputies. Land was confiscated and given to new Serb-Montenegrin settlers. Serb PM N.Pasic took 10.000 acres of fertile land for himself.Albanian language was prohibited in all government offices. No school was open from 1913 to 1941. No book, magazine, or newspaper was published. Teaching of Albanian language was punished by death, as is the 1929 case of the Franciscan Father, Stephen Gjecov. Illiteracy reached 95 percent. Impoverished and persecuted, wave after wave of Albanians emigrated, to end up in the deserted lands of Anatolia. Their properties sequestred, their ID documents taken away, leaving them with no chance for return. Three Albanian deputies who entered the Parliament in Belgrade were assassinated.

d) In l937, the Cubrilovic Memorandum appealed to the Yugoslav Government “to force” Albanians to emigration. A 1938 Convention with Turkey was concluded, for that purpose, providing for the emigration of 150-300.000 Albanians. In 1940, a second Memorandum by the Serbian diplomat/writer, Ivo Andric (1938 Nobel Prize for Litera-ture (sic!)recommanded to the Yugoslav Government the dismemberment of Albania among her neighbors, in order to secure the permanent Serbian rule over Kosova. In 1944, a second Cubrilovic Memorandum, of the same nature, was requested by the Serb A.Rankovic and the Montenegrin M.Djilas, but was rejected by the Slovenian E.Kardelj and finally by the Croatian J.B. Tito.

e)During WWII (1941-44)Kosova was occupied by the Axis powers, and dismem-<> bered. Many Serbs left to escape punishment. In 1945, they returned with a vengeance. As many as 36.000 Albanians are believed to have been killed by Tito’s partisans. Kosova was recognized an autonomus status, but under the rule of Serbia. Since 1945 to this day, the list of Serb oppressive policies is long, ending with the Milosevic’s abolition of autonomy (March 1989), and the devastating Serb aggression of 1998-99.

f)These racist policies found two solid allies: The Serb Orthodox Church and the Serb intellectual class.. In 1967, a Serb Blue Book accused Albanians of pressuring Serbs to emigrate. The leader of this infamous publication was the writer Dobrica Cosic, former President of the FR of Yugoslavia. In 1986, a Memorandum prepared by the Serb Academy of Science and Arts, and the Serb Literary Association (Francuska 7) accused Albanians in Kosova of committing crimes against the Serbs, and appealed to divest Kosova of her autonomy and punish Albanian leaders. Over 550.000 Albanians went through Police hands –arrested, beaten up, killed, jailed,- according to Yugoslav officials. The 1998-99 Serb military aggression on Kosova is the result of a wicked and abomi-nable propaganda led by Serb intellectuals.

g) On March 1999, explaining the reaon of the NATO intervention against Milosevi’c Yugoslavia, US President J.W. Clinton had this to say:” …We act to protect thousand of innocent people in Kosova from a mounting military offensive…Milosevic stripped Kosova of the constitutional autonomy its people enjoyed. Now, they (the Serbs) started moving from village to village, shelling civilians and torching their bodies. We have seen innocent people taken from their homes, forced to kneel in the dirt, and sprayed with bullets. Kosovar men dragged from their families, fathers and sons together, lined up and shot in cold blood. This is not war in the traditional sense. It is an attack by tanks and artillery on a largely defenseless people, whose leaders have already agreed to peace. Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative…”(Federal Document Clearing House)


5) You enumerate Serbian losses in Kosova in terms of human beings, as well as properties, mainly Church properties, without any reference to the victimized population of Kosova, or without any reference, directly or indirectly, to the “butcher of the Balkans” S. Milosevic, who ruled over Yugoslavia and Serbia. Thanks to a ruthless military power, Serbia inherited from the former Yugoslavia an army and a tyrant led by criminal instincts. Serbia’s political and military leaders are now before the UN War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia, for planning and executing atrocities against humanity, and war crimes, “…in a joint criminal enterprise…whose main object was to secure the continued Serb control over the province (of Kosova), to change the make-up of Kosova by expelling half of the population…Thousands were killed, men were beaten, women raped…” the prosecutor Thomas Hannis, told the UN War Crimes Tribunal. “Serb and Yugoslavs burned villages and towns as they went in order that those who were expelled had nothing to return to. Yugoslav and Serb forces forced refugees to hand over identifi-cation documents and took licence plates from cars and tractors before they (refugeess) crossed the border.


This is a clear manifestation of the plan to modify the ethnic balance of Kosova.

Once outside the country without legal documents how were they ever going to return to the country ?” he asked. For all this, a sinful silence reigns in Serbia!

How can Albanian Kosovars – and Serb aggressors- forget the savagery of the Serb criminal groups, such as “the Tigers” of Arkan and “the Franks” of Seselj whose prefered weapon was “the knife”, the glorified “noz’”, so dear to Serbian marauders since the inception of their state? Human Rights sources calculate that over 174 Albanian families have been burned alive in their houses, men, women and children…!

6) You refer to the ugly events of March 2004. They were ugly but nor planned. An unfortunate incident that caused the drowning of three Albanian teenagers was the sparkle for the outburst. We condemn it! However, you neglect to explain that out of the 19 victims, 11 were Albanians and 8 Serbs. You also neglect to indicate that the Government of Kosova has spent substantial amount of money to repair the damaged churches, houses, and other objects belonging to the Serbs. In Belgrade, the only mosque serving 300.000 Moslem Serbs, has not received the permission to rebuild and operate!

7) You speak about “accepting the compromise and reaching an agreement”. The essence of your compromise is the permanent Serbian sovereignty over Kosova. Albanians refuse it net. Which Black citizen of South Africa would accept the return to “the apartheid”, on a “democratic” South Africa? Which Russian Jew would accept the return to a society where the Russian policeman would be “the guarantor” for a free and prosperous life? None! Why should the Albanians feel and act otherwise? Albanians in Kosova ,too, are entitled to a life in freedom and dignity, and they intend to earn it for themselves and their descendants. One hundred years of Serbian rule over Kosova have been a century of Serb policies to dominate, expel, starve, and humiliate an entire people, the Albanian Kosovars! Never again! Never again!

8) You are concerned about the preservation of religious and cultural monuments in Kosova. We agree! They are universal patrimony, and they belong to the entire humanity.

Protection of Serbian monuments in Kosova has been a noble tradition cultivated by the local Catholic and Moslem populations for over four centuries of Ottoman rule. In l960, Serbian Patriarch, Gherman, awarded the Medal of Recognition of the Serb <>Orthodox Church to the Albanian family Nikci, of Peje, for having guarded the Patriarchate of Peje, generation after generation. These are the same monuments that you refer to, now. They survived – and continue to survive- thanks to the spirit of religious tolerance and traditional respect Albanian population has for all houses and objects of worship. Unfortunately, one cannot say the same for the Serbs. During the 1998-99 Serb aggression, over 190 Moslem mosques and Catholic churches were totally or partially destroy ed by the Serbs in Kosova, oftentimes by “Serbian neighbors”

9) You speak about “standards” and their fulfillment before the final status. Of course, no miracle has happened in Kosova. The UN Representatives in Kosova have frequently reported to the UN Security Council about the progress, or the lack of, in this field. A lot has been achieved, more remains to be done. However, no one can deny that the institu-tions of Kosova are democratic, motivated and intend to provide peace, bread and prosperity to all the citizens of Kosova.


10) “The decentralization”, as a democratic system of Government, is expected to protect ALL citizens, without exception. That’s why it has assumed great importance in the negotiating table. However, this democratic principle has been utterly distorted. You ask for a horizontal link between the predominantly Serb-inhabited communities as a divider of the territory of Kosova, and a direct vertical link with Belgrade, as an extended arm of the Serb presence in Kosova. Briefly stated, you are using a democratic solution for a political gain. I am certain that a similar Kosovar claim on the Albanian mnority in the Presheva Valley, would be rejected by the Serb Government.

11) Your insistence that 15 percent of the territory of a sovereign state ( in this case, Serbia) cannot be separated to satisfy the demands of “a threatening” Albanian popula-tion in Kosova. We respectfully disagree!


a) Kosova is a land inhabited by over 90 percent of Albanians, an autochthonous population, born and grown up there, who love it, till and preserve it, and are ready to defend it. Kosova was forcefully annexed by Serbia three times in the past century, For the first time, Albanians in Kosova are given the chance to expres themselves freely. They want independence. It’s the will of the overwhelming majority of Kosova, and we must respect it. It’s a reality on the ground which cannot be neglected, much less denied.


b) By her policies of expulson and extermination, Serbia has lost all her moral and legal rights to rule over Kosova. Now, the international community recognies this fact, and is on the verge of recognizing Kosova’s “legal” rights, and confirm them by a new UN Security Council Resolution.

Excellency: please, do not forget that a major war was fought in Kosova in 1998-99, and Serbia lost. An Agreement to withdraw all Serbia’s army and police forces from Kosova has been reached, and Serbia has signed it. A total withdrawal of Serbian forces was enforced (June 1999), and the vacuum left was replenished by the UN Mission in Kosova, and the NATO troops, according to the UNSC Resolution 1244 (1999) that ”…effectively said Kosova’s sovereignty will be determined at a later day.” (US Amb. Nicholas Burns), most probably by a popular Referendum, or a new UNSC Resolution.


In order to achieve that goal peacefully, talks are been held in Vienna,Austria,where Albanian and Serb negotiators intend to solve “the technical issues”. Some of the worst crimes in Europe, after Hitler, were perpetrated successively in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and finally in Kosova. A consensus has been reached that the sovereignty of Kosova needs to be determined, and agreed upon, by the international community. Afew basic principles have been set and approved, namely


a) No Serbian return to Kosova. b) No partititon of Kosova. c)No union of Kosova with another State, mainly with Albania. d)Kosova has to be a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic state. e) The will of the majority of the population in Kosova must be respected.
We know all too well that Serbia finds it difficult to accept the new proposals. Indeed, under your leadership, Serbia is mobilized to oppose it. It will be in vain! Your claims on Kosova are seen as being irrational and deviating from the truth.

What is left, according to you, is the language of threat.” The independence of Kosova will be a destabilizing element in the entire region.” This language of fear is unaccep-table in the year 2006 . The fascist Serb Radical Party threatens open war. Bishop Artemije threatens of a “holy war in Kosova”, “to liberate our lands and brothers”. This sounds ominously similar to the cries of 1878, 1913, 1918, and 1945. However, the world has changes, and Serbia must change “sous peine de mort!” ( or die). It is my sincere hope that the leadership of Serbia will do all it can to prevent the consequences of this threat. The Balkans, especially since 1991, are fed up with war, crimes, and atrocities and will not accept new deaths and destructions.

Excellency, I invite you to visit Kosova, this time without a machine gun in your hands. Come and see her mass graves, more than 200.000 households destroyed, mos-ques, churches and other objects of worship ruined or desecrated by Serbia, come and see the tens of thousands of widows and orphans without a roof over their heads, the destruction of the infrastructure brought by Serbian Army, Police, and gangster forces, the poverty that tortures that people, the pervasive fear that chokes them and cuts the enthusiasm for a new beginning. Please, come and see the rivers of blood and tears shed by the victimized Albanians on Kosova as a result of Serbian savage atrocities.

Then, I am confident that you, as the rest of the world did, will come to the conclusion that it’s time for Serbia to settle down, to meditate, to ask for forgiveness, to atone. And to let the people of Kosova enjoy their newlyfound freedom, and the forthcoming independence.

Please, Excellency, accept the assurances of my high consideration. Sincerely yours,
Sami Repishti Ph.D.
City University of New York
Former political prisoner (1946-56)
Human rights activist