News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Office of Communications
Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301Contact: Patricia Coen 609/258-5764
Date: March 27, 1998
Experts from the Former Yugoslavia to Discuss Self-Governance in the Balkans
Princeton, N.J. -- A panel discussion entitled "Self-Governance and Autonomy in the Balkans: The Case of Kosovo" will be presented at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs on Tuesday, March 31, at 4:30 p.m., in Robertson Hall, Dodds Auditorium.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanians are seeking independence for their province in southern Serbia, where there are nine times as many Albanians as Serbs. But Serbs value Kosovo as the birthplace of their culture and church. Continuous tension between the two groups since 1989 has recently resulted in violence and fears that a situation like the one in Bosnia may develop. A conflict over Kosovo could involve Albania, Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey.
The distinguished panelists who will gather at the School are Lubica Acevska, ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia to the United States; Petrit Bushati, ambassador of Albania to the United States; Sonja Biserko, executive director of the Serbian Helsinki Committee in Belgrade; Zarko Korac, professor at the University of Belgrade; and Veton Surroi, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Koha Dotrie, Pristina, Kosovo. On Tuesday, March 24, Surroi was named a member of a new 15-person team that will draw up a platform for talks between Albanians and Serbs on Kosovo’s future.
The panel will explore the current situation in and around Kosovo, the potential for further regional conflicts, as well as options that might help avert further conflict.
The panelists will be introduced by Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, director of the School’s Liechtenstein Research Program on Self-Determination, a co-sponsor of the event.
The Liechtenstein Research Program on Self-Determination, funded through the generosity of Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein, brings together scholars, experts, and those directly involved in movements for self-determination or self-administration, or in international organizations of policymaking concerning those issues. The program supports teaching, research, and publication in this field and examines this complex and critical subject from a variety of aspects&endash;legal, strategic, political, ethnic, social, religious-cultural, and economic.
The panel discussion is cosponsored with the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.