Kosovo, whose population suffered mass killings, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing during the 1998–99 war, has joined the US-backed ‘Gaza Peace Board’ being established by Donald Trump to oversee the ‘management’ of Gaza.
The decision has been widely criticised given Kosovo’s own reliance on international law and foreign intervention during the war, where Serbian forces carried out a widespread campaign of violence and ethnic cleansing against Kosovo Albanians. At least 700,000 people were forcibly displaced, and in Meja in April 1999, Serbian forces killed at least 376 Albanian civilians, many of them Muslim, after separating men and boys from a column of people being expelled towards Albania.
Kosovo’s government has defended its participation by arguing that, having benefited from international protection itself, it should now help Palestinians. But critics point to the contradiction of Kosovo joining a US-backed framework that has faced serious criticism over its compatibility with international law and Palestinian rights.
The move raises questions about how a state whose own history is so closely tied to international intervention, civilian protection and accusations of ethnic cleansing can now participate in a Gaza framework criticised for potentially facilitating the very abuses Kosovo once depended on the international community to prevent.
