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versus guerrilla clashes continue in Kosovo, leaving more

than 900 dead since February.  "Only force keeps Kosovo

inside Yugoslavia now," concludes Mark Almond, Oxford pro-

fessor of modern history.20

Tying the Balkan Knot

Still, there are more than 180,000 Serbs living in

Kosovo today, and the province is widely considered by

Serbs as the cradle of Serbian culture and history.21   In

fact, over 75 percent of all Serbian cultural and national

monuments are located in Kosovo, including the historic

14th century monastery of Samodrezi where the Serbian King

blessed his army just before their defeat at the hands of

the Ottoman Turks in 1389.  Accordingly, Yugoslav Army

Gen. Dusan Samardzic recently told a group of new offi-

cers,

This is a turning point for Yugoslavia, when we

need to show the world our military ability and

might.  Kosovo-Metohija's integrity has been

threatened by [ethnic] Albanian secessionists,

with assistance from abroad.  Our ancestry and

posterity would never forgive us if we surren-

dered the cradle of Serb culture to someone

else.22

At the same time, representatives of the KLA have

said that they will not stop fighting the Serbian govern-

ment until they achieve the "total liberation" of Kosovo.23

Further, in a March 1998 statement, the KLA pledged

revenge on Serbs, declaring, "We will wreak multiple

vengeance for innocent deaths in the region of Drenica.

We swear it on their blood."24

The conflict is Kosovo, therefore, is not simply a

matter of Kosovar Albanians suffering under a brutal and

repressive regime--which they are--but a complex clash of

mutually exclusive political claims which are aggravated by

conflicting historical grievances--real and imagined.  As

former U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia Warren Zimmerman cor-

rectly observes,

The competing claims of Serbs and Albanians have

been hopelessly tangled in the webs of history

and myth.  In its essence, however, the main

issue is as simple as it is intractable.  The

Serbian claim . . . is based primarily on the

historical-cultural principle--the Jerusalem

argument.  The Albanian claim to independence is