Global spotlight on Balkan tinderbox
John CHERIAN
The unilateral declaration of independence by the Serbian province of
Kosovo on February 17 has once again put the Balkan tinderbox in the
international spotlight.
The Albanian-dominated enclave in Serbia with a population of less
than two million is another mini-state that has emerged from the
wreckage of the Yugoslav Federation.
Last year, it was the turn of Montenegro (with a population of
800,000) to break away from Serbia.
The backing of the West was crucial in both cases. In Kosovo, the
wild celebrations that followed the declaration of independence lasted
for days.
The United States’ Stars and Stripes in fact outnumbered the national
flag of Kosovo in the jubilations on the streets of the capital Pristina.
Kosovo Albanians acknowledge U.S. President George W. Bush and former
President Bill Clinton as their political godfathers.
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was secretly armed and trained by
the U.S. and Germany in the 1990s. This was despite Washington
officially labelling the KLA a “terrorist outfit” after it was accused
of trafficking in drugs, arms and women.
It was Clinton who unleashed the three-month-long North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO)-led war in 1999 against Yugoslavia mainly on
the pretext of human rights violations in Kosovo by the Yugoslav state.
The assault wrought great havoc on Yugoslavia’s infrastructure.
Bridges, passenger trains and television stations were among the
targets hit by NATO planes and missiles. That war had led to the
occupation of Kosovo by the West under the umbrella of the United
Nations. A permanent U.S. military base was concurrently established
there.
An independent Kosovo fitted into the grandiose plans of the U.S. to
gain hegemony over the strategic Balkan region and isolate Russia
further.
The U.S. military base in Kosovo, called “Camp Bondsteel”, is among
the string of bases that have come up since the 1990s in the Balkans,
East Europe and Central Asia. It has been used for “rendition” flights,
and the interrogation and torture of suspects in the U.S.-led “war on
terror”.
False State
With the active connivance of major Western powers such as the U.S.,
the United Kingdom, Germany and France, the Kosovo leadership laid the
groundwork for secession from Serbia. The Prime Minister of Kosovo,
Hacim Thaci, declared that the independence of Kosovo signalled “the end
of the dissolution of former Yugoslavia”.
Among the most vocal supporters of Kosovo’s independence is the
current French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner. Kouchner was the
first U.N.-appointed administrator in Kosovo and served from 1999 to
2001.
The Serbian Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica, criticising
Washington’s support for an independent Kosovo, said that the U.S. had
by its actions shown that it was ready “to unscrupulously and violently
jeopardise international order for the sake of its own military
interests”. Kostunica described Kosovo as a “false state”.
Serbia was quick to recall its ambassadors from the U.S., France,
Turkey and Austria. The Serbian Parliament passed a resolution
condemning the “declaration of independence”.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic asserted that his country would
“fight tooth and nail” to have the declaration overturned. He emphasised
that Kosovo Albanians were not the only people in the world to have a
grievance against Belgrade. More than 200,000 people staged angry
demonstrations in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
The wrath of the crowds was focused on the embassies of those
countries that had actively connived in the break-up of the Yugoslav
Federation.
Part of the U.S. embassy was set on fire. Angry mobs also set fire to
customs posts manned by international peacekeepers along the border with
the self-proclaimed state.
Kosovo has been an emotive issue for Serbians, who consider the
territory the cradle of their culture and civilisation. Kosovo fell to
the Ottomans in the 15th century. Until the end of the 19th century,
Serbs formed the majority in the province. Successive wars and forcible
population transfers reduced them to a minority in the province in the
20th century.
By the 1970s, Serbs constituted only 25 per cent of the population.
After the NATO attack on Yugoslavia in 1999, ostensibly to protect the
majority Albanians, it was the Serbs who fled Kosovo. Less than 10 per
cent of the population in Kosovo today is Serb.
No Serb politician, even pro-Western ones like the recently
re-elected President, Boris Tadic, is willing to give up Kosovo. Tadic,
who was conveniently out of the country when the recent dramatic events
unfolded, later said that he would “never give up the fight for our
Kosovo”.
International reactions
The fear in the international community is that the events in Kosovo
may be a precedent that could be replicated in other parts of the world.
Breakaway regions in the Caucasus are threatening to declare
independence.
The Serbs in Bosnia have said that they are planning to unite with
Serbia. Kashmiri separatists are now loudly demanding that the Kosovo
model should be applied to the disputed territory.
Even within Kosovo, the minority Serbs, who still number around
120,000 despite the ethnic cleansing, have indicated that the territory
that they occupy will merge with Serbia. They are threatening to set up
their own parliament in the town of Mitrovica.
Branislav Ristivojevic, a close associate of the Serbian Prime
Minister, said that his country would take the U.S. to the International
Court of Justice if it did not annul the decision to recognise Kosovo’s
independence.
The Serbian Prime Minister had earlier demanded that Washington
“annul” its recognition of Kosovo’s independence and confirm Serbia’s
sovereignty.
Despite the key role the European Union has played in the creation of
the mini-state, many of its member-countries have refused to recognise
it formally. E.U. members such as Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and
Romania have sizable minority communities clamouring for separate
identity.
The Basques in Spain have for long been waging a violent struggle for
statehood. The Basques and the Turkish Cypriot leadership have hailed
the declaration of independence by the Kosovo Albanians.
Senior Palestinian officials highlighted the double standards adopted
by the West on the issue of statehood. Yasser Abdel Rabbo, a senior
Palestinian official, said that Palestine had a more legitimate case for
independence than Kosovo. He emphasised that if the international
community could accept Kosovo’s independence, then it should “happen
with Palestine as well”.
Russia has warned the E.U. from recognising Kosovo. Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov criticised the E.U.’s deployment of a task force
to supervise Kosovo’s police, customs and justice systems. He said that
the E.U. decision was taken without the approval of the U.N. Security
Council.
Military mission
The Security Council’s Resolution 1244 of June 1999 had ordered the
withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and the takeover of the
territory by the Kosovo Force (KFOR), the U.N.-sanctioned military
mission. However, the resolution had not made any mention of
independence for Kosovo.
The preamble of the resolution refers specifically to the
“territorial integrity” of Yugoslavia. Article 10 of the resolution only
authorises “substantial autonomy within the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia”.
The U.S. used the E.U. to circumvent the U.N. and bestow
“independence” on Kosovo. Coming in handy was the plan drawn by Martti
Ahtisaari, the U.N. special representative to Kosovo.
Ahtisaari, a former President of Finland, had recommended a limited
type of independence for Kosovo. According to the plan, Kosovo would not
be allowed to be part of a greater Albania. Its government would be
under international supervision.
The E.U. is sending a 2,000-strong police and justice mission called
the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) to replace the U.N.
mission in Kosovo. These forces will be in addition to the 16,000 NATO
troops already on the ground in Kosovo.
Many observers feel that these measures have made “independent”
Kosovo a “protectorate” of the West. Under the terms of the U.S.-E.U.
“supervised independence”, Kosovo’s leaders will have limited powers.
EULEX, under a E.U.-appointed “viceroy”, will have the final say on
all important matters. The Kosovo Albanians had to give up their red
flag emblazoned with a two-headed eagle, in favour of an E.U.-sponsored
blue flag with the map of Kosovo.
One commentator described Kosovo as a “post-modern state, an entity
that may be sovereign in name but is a U.S.-E.U. protectorate in
practice”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that the declaration of
independence by Kosovo would have an impact on Moscow’s relations with
Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia, Georgia’s breakaway republics.
Kosovo’s independence, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated,
“presupposes a revision of commonly accepted norms and principles of
international law”.
Moscow warned that the development would encourage separatist
movements “from Moldova to Indonesia”. President Vladimir Putin had
warned the West that any declaration of independence by Kosovo would be
“illegal, ill-conceived and immoral”.
New Delhi has also reasons to be concerned about the developments but
has not yet formulated a clear position on the issue. Even when
Yugoslavia was being bombed by NATO forces, New Delhi refused to take a
clear stand. An External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said that there
were “several legal issues” involved and that the government was
studying the evolving situation.
“It has been India’s consistent position that the sovereignty and
integrity of all countries should be fully respected by all states,” he
said.
Indonesia and Sri Lanka have been more forthright. Their governments
have said that they would never recognise an “independent” Kosovo. China
and Vietnam have expressed the opinion that any solution to the Kosovo
problem should not infringe on the sovereignty of Serbia.
An adviser to the German Foreign Ministry, writing in the newspaper
Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung warned that the independence of Kosovo
created a precedent which could be directed “in other cases against the
Western states”.
The spokesman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Parliament
described Kosovo as a “mafia state”. The SPD is a partner in the
coalition ruling the country.
Germany has played a key role in the disintegration of Yugoslavia, by
first actively encouraging Slovenia and Croatia to secede.
Courtesy Frontline
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