If it's the right of self-determination and if force alone is the only way to apply that right, you guys lost completely with no right to complain. Too bad, so sad.
Prior to 1991/92 the west, lead by the US and Germany, ecouraged and supported seperatist movements within the republics of the former Yugoslavia which lead to the envisaged results. The unconstitional and thus illegal declaration of idependence was quickly recognized by another illegal act: agression through recognition. The former Yugoslavia was 'no more'. Serbia and Montenegro proclaimed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on the 27th April 1992. In 1998 the west was at it again. This time supporting the albanian muslim terrorists of the KLA on which behalf NATO waged an illegal war of aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In the end and after the terror bombing campaign the serbian province Kosovo was occupied by NATO and delivered on a silver plate to the KLA. Sure you can be proud of the US defeating the Serbian people. Who would have thought the US, the mightiest Superpower in human history together with 18 other NATO members could defeat the Serbs. Fortunately, the US had also the support of the Croats(NAZI-allies in WWII), the bosnian muslims(NAZI-allies in WWII) and the Albanians (surprise, surprise, also NAZI-allies in WWII). Was someone studying Hitler's invasion plans for Yugoslavia in the Pentagon? Sure they were.
Now you are suggesting to apply the same principles to Kosovo and Knin? Fine, lets get NATO to bomb Croatia, occupy Krajina and install the Serbian Liberation Army as government. Just a joke. With your comment, you have proven to have no clue at all about the constitutional and political organization of the former Yugoslavia and the complicated mechanisms that led to the civil war in 1991/92. First of all, the Serbs were a constituent nation and represented 10 out of 22 million people in the former Yugoslavia and cannot be compared to the albanians, who were one of many minority groups(Hungarians, Turks, Slowaks...) in the former Yugoslavia. Calling the Serbs within the former Yugoslavia minorities is simply wrong. Even if you cut the coherent serbian populated areas with Tito's borders in pieces(Krajina Serbs, Bosnian Serbs, Kosovo Serbs, Vojvodina Serbs, Sumadija Serbs, Sandzak Serbs, Belgrade Serbs, Serbian Serbs...) it is one historically coherent area that will seek to unite sooner or later. Hope someone will finally understand this inevitable fact in the Pentagon or State Departement or maybe even a retard like you. A large portion of the albanian population in the former Yugoslavia were illegal immigrants and therefore speaking of non-existent rights is absurd. You can't strip away citizen rights of illegal immigrants, because they are no citizens and have no such rights. The legal portion of the Albanian minority population in the former Yugoslavia enjoyed like the other minority groups more rights(native language TV, newspapers..) than any minority in any country in the world. Comparing the outbreak of hostilties provoked by the terrorist KLA in 1998 to the civil war in Bosnia and Croatia in 1991/92 is simply nonsense. Here we have fundamental principles breached, the constitution of the former Yugoslavia and the constituent status of the serbian nation degraded, their legitimate right to self-determination deprived and thus the War on the Serbs west of the Drina declared. Having in mind that the Serbian population was exposed to genocide during WWII in these areas by the same forces they had to fight again in 1991/92, it is no wonder the Serbs faught back ferociously. Not to forget five hundred years of muslim occupation, islamization, oppression and humilation.
Why is it that Bosnia and Croatia had the right to secession and Republika Srpska Krajina and Republika Srpska based on the same principles did not? These unanswered questions were the reason for the war to break out. Why was the right to self-determination denied to the Serbs before the start of the war? You can't violate internationally recognized borders of a souvereign state (former Yugoslavia) by recognizing the independence of secessionist republics and at the same time declaring the borders of these newly recognized states(Croatia&Bosnia) as untouchable. The west recognized Croatia's and Bosnia's independence from Yugoslavia. Applying the same logic, Serbia, Russia and the rest of the world could have recognized Republika Srpska Krajina and Republika Srpska after Croatia and Bosnia became recognized independent states by the international community. Why not? It was the 'west' who made the Helsinki Agreement null and void.
You are operating under the misapprehension that our policy toward Serbia and her Neighbors (see below about 'the neighbors') was based from the beginning from some machiavellianistic calculation to Screw Serbia. Not so. We didn't have a freaking clue about what we should do, so we kind of made things up as we went along, as influenced by events. Unfortunately, the events that influenced us were All Bad and, um, er, all pure Serb manufacture (except for Billy, Monica and Ken Starr of which more below).
Here's the sequence of events as how we saw it. You won't buy it, I'm sure, but I'll make the argument anyway. Here's the short version:
0) Never forget the First Law of War: Don't Annoy the Neighbors.
1) In 1990 the West and Russia wasn't entirely sure which side was right. The West had no interest in old Yugoslavia because they were never Nato, and besides, at the time the USA had a little problem with Iraq and Kuwait. The Russians had no interest in Yugo because they were never Warsaw Pact, and besides, at the time the USSR had a little secession problem all their own with, well, everybody.
2) In 1990 The West wasn't willing to stick their nose into a fight they weren't sure was theirs. The Russians, for their part, didn't have a nose to stick anywhere.
3) In 1991 The West saw some degree of right on both sides and were quite willing to let the two sides settle it locally. We might, at the beginning, have dealt with Serb mini-provinces in Croatia having some association with Serbia or something. It became a practical matter, however. However. HOWEVER....
4) "Settling it locally" included ethnic cleansing BY SERBS from the very beginning: first Croats from the "Serb republics," then Croats and Muslims from the RS.
5) Ethnic cleansing looks really bad on television. For every city the Serbs took in Kraijina etc and in Bosnia etc and cleaning out non-Serbs, they lost influence in the West because they too closely resembled a certain unnamed German regime we're all aware of. It also violates the Don't Annoy the Neighbors Rule. Strike one.
6) The Serbs besieged Sarajevo.
7) Siege warfare ALSO looks really bad on television. For every random shell landing in a marketplace, the Serbs again lost influence in the West because they too closely resembled a certain unnamed German regime we're all aware of. This ALSO violates the Don't Annoy the Neighbors Rule. Strike two.
8) Europe began to be flooded with large number of Yugoslavian refugees, annoying European taxpayers. Strike two-and-a-half.
8a)Muslims and Croats began to beat the hell out of each other when things got tough, thus making the Serbs look a little bit better by comparison. Reduce strike count to two-and-four-tenths.
9) Serbs began to threaten taking UN piecekeepers and relief personnel hostage. Strike two-and-three-quarters.
10) The 1996 Presidential elections were heaving into view in the US, and the sink emperor didn't want to look bad on the campaign trail. Strike two-and-seven-eights. (Okay, the Serbs didn't have anything to do with this one.)
11) Serbs began rounding up Muslim prisoners of war and sticking them in barns and machinegunning them to death in public, thus becoming TOTALLY INDISTINGUISHABLE from a certain unnamed German regime we're all aware of, and REALLY violating the Don't Annoy the Neighbors Rule. Strikes three through nine; end of inning, end of game, end of series, end of season.
Upshot:
SOMEBODY in the White House decided, between visits to Monica, "Get this $#!T off my TV screen." So we pulled out the piecekeepers, pulled out the relief personnel, and started bombing the hell out of weapons that threatened urban areas. Which by some accident all happened to be owned by the Serbs. We also decided that the bogus Serb "independent republics" in Croatia needed to be put out of business, not because we thought the Croats had the better claim, but because they were slightly better behaved than the Serbs were (better behaved = not rounding up and shooting large numbers of people with an election year coming up, and having the good sense to keep TV cameras away when ethnic cleansing).
RESULT: Blitz, Storm, and the NATO bombing campaign, followed by creative sleep deprivation against the Serb negotiators in Dayton (plus taking advantage of the fact that Milosevic cut your throats when you weren't looking by giving away the Brcko store and the territories around Sarajevo--he SCREWED you guys, don't you know?), followed by the Op. Joint Forge REAL peacekeeping mission.
Verdict: You lose.
Early on, the US might have been perfectly willing to allow a settlement where the Serbs were allowed to keep these lands in their jurisdiction. As it was, we DID allow you to keep 49% of Bosnia, even though you're only 31% of the population there.
But...but....but...but you guys crossed some lines, particularly a bright red one labeled "Genocide." When you did that, that was all she wrote for you. Regarding territory redistribution, we wound up having to fall back on the default setting: status quo ante bellum, let's stick with the borders we know.
oh, I forgot to mention...
12) In 1999, after our (admittedly in-your-face) negotiations with Serbia broke down, you started repeating steps "5" and "7" above against the Kosovars. This led to....
SOMEBODY in the White House AGAIN decided, between visits to Ken Starr, "Get this $#!T off my TV screen...NO! WAIT! KEEP THIS $#!T ON MY TV SCREEN; THEY'RE IMPEACHING MY BUTT!"
So they pulled out the bombers, put the Serb army out of business, destroyed large amounts of Serb industry, and oh by the way, put down that Yugo factory responsible for making the targeting analyst's first car, and lo and behold:
Kosov{o/a} is now Bosnia II. And the Emperor got to keep his crown until 20 Jan 2001.
Happy ending: The Crown Prince of the Sink Emperor loses election in 2000 and the Sink Emperor is succeeded by someone who can keep his fly zipped and who knows how to keep a bunch of smart people working for him without quitting in disgust.
Lesson of the story:
a) It's not enough to be 'right,' if the other side is a lot stronger than you are.
b) Just because you're a lot stronger than they are, doesn't necessarily mean that you're right, especially if you commit a lot of unnecessary atrocities and the other side mews piteously and gets an old guy with a red-white-and-blue top hat, a white beard, an overcoat and a really big baseball bat to come in and save their butts from you.
c) Don't annoy your neighbors too much. As I said above, the Serb "republics" in Croatia had their shot, but they annoyed the neighbors a bit too much. So as part of the general movement to get Serbia to (a) get rid of Slobo and (b) adopt democracy, we needed to shut them down. (Be glad we didn't shut down the Republika Srpska too. Frankly I wish we'd did, the place is a hellhole.)
Morals of the story:
1) Don't annoy the old guy with a red-white-and-blue top hat, a white beard, an overcoat and a really big baseball bat. He tends to win fights he gets into. Especially when he's going after people who beat up on weaklings. ESPECIALLY when the guy giving him orders is being impeached for boinking an unpaid intern.
AND
2) Genocide annoys the neighbors.