What Cost Kosova?

Yugoslavia's fierce inter-republican strife recently erupted in the northern Republics of Slovenia and Croatia, yet the root of the crisis lay far to the south, in the autonomous province of Kosova. Serbia's commitment to the forced integration of Kosova, with its 90 per cent ethnic Albanian population, into the Republic of Serbia was the fuse which lit the Yugoslav keg.

The Kosova problem stems from the Serbs' constant and vehement opposition to granting the province republic status, which they argue, would eventually lead to secession from Yugoslavia and linkage to a Greater Albania. The Serbs' almost fanatical determination to maintain their control over Kosova originates from the enormous historical significance of the region as a central part of the medieval Serbian empire which still contains the treasures of Serbian religious art in the churches of Pec. Decani and Gracanica.