Editor’s note: The Daily is running a series this week about the crisis in Yugoslavia. Today’s story examines the history surrounding the ethnic wars.

NATO’s military intervention in the Balkans has created a conflict extending from the original battles between Serbians and Albanians.

The Yugoslavian Federation consists of two republics, Serbia and Montenegro, with Serbia being the larger and more socially dominant of the two.

“[Yugoslavia] is not a new problem — the issues began a few years ago with a national upsurge to remove the province’s autonomy,” said Richard Mansbach, professor of political science. “What we are seeing today became inevitable.”

NATO air strikes are focused on the providence of Kosovo.

Kosovo became a providence of Serbia in 1913 and is an integral part of Serbia, and therefore Yugoslavia, said Nenad Kostic, professor of chemistry and a native Serbian.

“Kosovo has always had a high Albanian population due to the highest birth rate in Europe, massive immigration from Albania and the expulsion of Serbs from Kosovo,” he said.

There is a history of animosity between the Serbs and the Albanians, Kostic said. The two ethnic groups have different cultures, customs, languages and different views about the same historic facts.

“America woke up to the situation recently when the Serbs had the upperhand,” Kostic said. “If you look back at the 20th century, either the Serbs or the Albanians had the upperhand over the other. The powerful one would always oppress the other.”

The Albanians had the upperhand in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s during Communist rule and attempted to push the Serbs out of the region through harassment, Kostic said.

The Albanians’ nationalism in the early ’90s directly spurred Serbian nationalism, which brought on the rise of Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic, Kostic said.

Kostic, a self-proclaimed outspoken critic of Milosevic, disagrees with his homeland’s president about the dealings with Albanians, but he said he understands that both groups are to blame for the situation.

“A pendulum of injustice has swung on both sides,” Kostic said.

According to a fact sheet from the U.S. Department of State, there are already 18,500 Kosovar refugees in Albania, 10,000 in Macedonia and 25,000 in Montenegro since last week’s bombings.

A debate representing both sides of the issue will be held Wednesday at noon in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union.