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Between Serb and Albanian: a history of Kosovo MIRANDA VICKERS, 1998 London, Hurst & Co. xix + 328pp., hb. L35.00, ISBN 1 85065 278 3; pb. L14.95, ISBN 1 85065 358 5
This book has been published at a time when Kosovo (Kosova, in Albanian) has become a major flash point, internationally. It is a threat to the Bosnian `peace process' and it could herald a major outbreak of fighting and of genocide in the Balkans. It is far from certain, now, that the current slaughter of civilians and the burning of villages will result in some form of political solution, or a resentful endurance of the longstanding discrimination against its mainly Muslim Albanian population. Indeed, the choice which is open to both Serbs and Albanians is hardly likely to be a meaningful compromise. The alternatives are: outright independence, union with a `Greater Albania' (since Macedonia would be involved at some stage), a nominal (but in fact continued) Serb oppression, partition, or the slow reduction in number, expulsion, starvation, and possibly slaughter, of its Albanian and non-Serb citizens. In view of these circumstances, this book is remarkably objective and in her acknowledgements (xvii), the author expresses her thanks to her friends, both Albanian and Serb, in her attempt to obtain an all-round view of the respective historical claims to the province which are hotly defended by the two principal contestants.
Miranda Vickers has written several books on Albanian subjects and she is a specialist on many aspects of the life of the Kosovars and their history, more especially their recent history. Unfortunately, there are a number of unacknowledged quotes in her text. Her book has been published at about the same time as Noel Malcolm's Kosovo: a short history (London, Macmillan, 1998). This is claimed to be a successor to his widely praised Bosnia: a short history (London, Macmillan, 1994). Some reviewers have reviewed his new book and that of Miranda Vickers almost side by side....