Reply #19: I am afraid I couldn't resist...

[Vladimir]

in hindsight, Serbs should have probably let Kosovo go in the early ninties on their own initiative, since this would have put the human rights boot on the other foot - but politically this was as unfeasible then as it is impossible for the government now, even when it has been endplayed. In any case, when compared to the Bosnian Serbs' crimes, or the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Croatia (on which of course the West was always quiet, perhaps because the Croatian army was trained by retired US generals), or Turkey's record, or one might even say Latvia's treatment of its ethnic minorities, the Serbs' mid-90s record in Kosovo does not particularly stand out. The worst of what attrocities were commited did not, in any case, come until much later, arguably until the bombs were already falling.

In any case, all that has changed since '99 is who is the minority where - the low level repression and segregation continues, with the boot on the other foot. The Serbs left in Kosovo will eventually move out or die out (the birth rate across Serbia as a whole is atrocious), and this particular passage will end, for better or worse. Only the hypocrisy of the 'liberation' of '99 will remain (Can you imagine how the story would have gone in 2002? Yeah, so can I...). The Kosovars have found out the hard way why the 'liberation' was fought in any case - they are unlikely to be given meaningful independance any time soon. The status quo is too convinient.

On edit: In any case, the Kosovar Serbs are hardly the only ones who have suffered since '99, so have the Roma, ethnic Turks, the Kosovars themselves. But then the Roma always suffer, especially in the Balkans.