Kosovo: Facing the Court of History.

• Author: Lozowy, Lesia
• Position: FURTHER READING - Book review

Kosovo: FACING THE COURT OF HISTORY Branislav Krstici-Brano, translated by Ivanka Grkovici (Amherst: Humanity Books, 2004), 462 pages.

In his book, Kosovo: Facing the Court of History, Branislav Krstici-Brano fore-goes presenting a historical overview of the highly complex ethnic conflict in the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo; rather, he offers an analysis of certain socio-political factors that contributed to ethnic tensions and open conflict in the region.

The first half of the book was written before 1991 and identifies population trends, land ownership and the prevalence of cultural monuments as the criteria for weighing the interests of Albanians and Serbs in the Kosovo territory. Krstici-Brano maintains that both sides share substantial, albeit mutually exclusive, claims--the Serbs have historical roots in the territory while the Albanian community represents an ethnic majority in the region. He concludes that the rights of both parties must be recognized and reconciled by integrating Serbian historical territories into Serbia and according special status to an area with a majority Albanian population.

Krstici-Brano completed the second half of the book after Serbian and Yugoslav security forces first clashed with the Kosovo Liberation Army in 1996, and after the North...