The Neocons are trying to create a diversion from Ukraine, for obvious reasons.
For some reason, the peoples of former Yugoslavia can get really riled up over license plates. And no, it’s not just Serbs — they are all that way. Anyway, over 20 years later, NATO is still babysitting Kosovo. Anyone who knew anything about Kosovo would have predicted this, and anyone could see Camp Bondsteel was built for the ages, but of course Clinton, Albright, Shea, Clark, at al, never told us this would be the case. And most Americans are unaware we still have troops there.
Okay, back to demographics.
During WWII the Nazi-allied Albanians wiped out nearly all the Jews in Kosovo, and great numbers of Serbs were killed or driven out. After WWII, Tito allowed Albanians from Enver’s Maoist gulag (called Albania) to pour into Kosovo, while making return of Serb refugees difficult.
During the 70s and 80s, when Kosovo had very generous autonomy and its governance was in the hands of corrupt ethnic Albanians, many Serbs fled. You could read in old Croatian newspapers of ethnic Albanian violence against ethnic Serbs, raping of women, blinding of cattle — the Serbs did not make this up.
Kosovo was a welfare province and very poor, with other provinces and constituent nations of Yugoslavia funneling money into it, only for it to wind up in the pockets of corrupt leaders or spent on showy projects such as ugly and expensive public buildings of crummy commie concrete (that often went unfinished). The Croats, who lived in the wealthiest constituent nation, resented “having to pay for their cesspool in Kossovo” the most and who could blame them?
The ethnic Albanians’ very high fertility rate and the ethnic Serbs’ low fertility rate was another reason for the shift in ethnic makeup of the province.
In 1999, the massive ethnic cleansing of ethnic Serbs (and other ethnic minorities) pretty much spelled the end of Serbs in Kosovo, aside from a few “bitter clingers” in the extreme north and still fewer in the extreme southeast around Štrpce. I think it would have been better to cede the area around North Mitrovica, Leposavić, etc., to Serbia, but nobody asked me and “the international community” has a weird thing for borders drawn by now-deceased commies.
1961 Kosovo Albanian population: 63%
1961 Kosovo Serb population: 24%
1981 Kosovo Albanian population: 78%
1981 Kosovo Serb population: 13%
2011 Kosovo Albanian population: 93%
2011 Kosovo Serb population: 1.5%
No wonder the ethnic Serbs in the north would prefer to be governed by Serbia:
Kosovo unemployment rate (2020): 25.5%
Serbia unemployment rate (2020): 10.1%
Kosovo GDP per capita (2021): $4,987
Serbia GDP per capita (2021): $9,215
Now, one might think Serbia would be relieved to be rid of their troublesome welfare province and let the EU pay for it for a change, and let NATO babysit it, but no. They consider it the spiritual birthplace of their culture and there are ancient Serbian churches and monasteries. Serbs. Inat.
“Mass protests in Belgrade
Serbs took to the streets demanding the restoration of UN Security Council resolution 1244.
Kosovo is Serbia.”
https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1602393068149174272