> The first and most extreme group looked at events not from a position of
> humanitarian concerns, but through the prism of class struggle. Their
> support for or opposition to any movement was based not on any moral
> considerations but on their position in the anti-imperialist struggle. Hence
> although many would offer total support to the IRA in Northern Ireland, to
> the PKK in Turkey, or to the NLF in Vietnam, they rushed to condemn the KLA
> as terrorists and bandits. There were indeed many disturbing aspects about
> the behavior of the KLA, but no more so than with the other organizations
> that were deemed deserving of solidarity. And few had as much support in
> their claimed constituency as the KLA so obviously did.
> With a straight face, these supporters of liberation movements across the
> globe were prepared to deny Kosovars the right to self-determination
The problem with this analogy is that it ignores the fact that there are two competing groups seeking the right to self-determination in Kosovo: the Serbs and the Albanians. It is impossible to support both of them (unless you want to go down the partition route, which few do). Thus it remains to determine which competing self-determination claim has more legitimacy. Supporters of the Albanians generally argue in terms of majoritarianism, but this would seem to suggest that *any* group of people has the right to secede if they can muster the numbers in favour of it. On that basis, Albanian supporters would also have had to support the Serbs in the (Croatian) Krajina and the (Bosnian) Republika Srpska. Funnily enough, few of them have done so.
An alternate measure is by historical claim. Although the Albanians, again, claim a historical link to Kosovo there is little firm evidence to back this up. The Serbian historical claim is far stronger. I would suggest that it is this, rather than class struggle, that leads supporters of Irish republicanism to back up the Serbs in the conflict. By the same token there was little sympathy among Irish republicans for Milosevic's plan for a Greater Serbia to include those regions of Croatia and Bosnia where Serbs live.
Someone else can address the PKK and NLF analogies.
> and
> indeed condoned the form of apartheid that Belgrade had inflicted upon the
> Albanian majority in Kosovo.
I've heard absolutely nobody *ever* justify Belgrade's treatment of Albanians in Kosovo, and this includes the many Serbs I know well.