yugoslavias implosion

230
ChApter 3
Macedonia and Kosovo—which was seen as a potential danger to
the stability of the entire region and nato’s southern wing. In addition,
Washington and its Western European allies saw an opportunity
to advance the goals of the Copenhagen Document, which had been
drawn up in 1990 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe. The Copenhagen Document is not only a blueprint for a
democratic Europe—a Europe governed by the rule of law and committed
to the protection of human rights—but also emphasizes territorial
integrity as the basis of European security.
In the wake of the collapse of Albania in 1997 and the resulting
new dynamics in relations between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs, a
variety of international non-governmental organizations (ngo s)
were able to arrange meetings between Albanians and Serbs in hopes
of mediating on behalf of Western governments while Belgrade continued
to treat Kosovo as an internal issue. The u.s. Council on Foreign
Relations, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the
Greek Elemetias Foundation, and many other groups offered their
services in efforts to bring the two sides to the same negotiating table.
The Rome-based Community of Saint Edigio brokered an agreement
between Milošević and Rugova on education, one of the most politicized
issues. 384
384 The two sides met only when encouraged to do so by other actors . Only two meetings were
convened in the country by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, the Kosovo
Helsinki Committee, and the Pristina Committee for Human Rights and Freedoms . The first
conference was staged in Ulcinj (Montenegro) in July 1997; it called for an international
conference and mediation . The second one was held in Belgrade (Serbia) on November 21–22,
1998, several months before the NATO intervention .
The attitude toward Albanians in Serbia was revealed when the Belgrade daily Naša Borba
presented its 1998 tolerance award to Albanian students; the gesture provoked an outcry
in Belgrade, the chief objection being, “‘Isn’t there anyone in our midst who deserved that
award?”‘ The intention of the panel (or at least of some of its members) was to make a gesture
of goodwill against a backdrop of general hysteria, especially in view of the fact that the
1997 award had gone to Belgrade students . The award had informally been reserved for a
prominent—and worthy—Belgrade intellectual, and the president of the panel resigned in
the middle of the deliberations after realizing that the award would go to the Albanians .