The Kosovo precedent

[bemildred]

The claim being made by many Russians and Serbians that the independence of Kosovo will explode the EU or even Europe itself, appear overblown to most in the west. But the intensity of opposition to Kosovo's independence in Serbia and Russia is such that it would be a mistake to ignore it.

This opposition among the Russians is practically unanimous. From the nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky to the communist Gennady Ziuganov to even Nikita Belykh, leader of the Union of Right Forces, a crumbling but consistent defender of liberal values in Russia - all support the official line of Putin's government. The Russian foreign ministry states that Kosovo's independence could lead to a new conflict on the Balkans; that the way it has been introduced violates a host of international laws, the statutes and the resolutions of the UN and of its security council; and that it could result in many serious consequences for international stability.

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Russian political commentators believe that the "unilateral" proclamation of Kosovo's independence and its immediate recognition by the US and by the heavyweights of the EU create a precedent for many separatist movements all over the world, from the Basques in Spain to the Uighurs in China, and that multiple conflicts could flare up with new vigour, having received such an impetus.

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What pains the Serbs most, of course, is the fact that Kosovo has never been a colony, or a conquered country. It was, indeed, the territory where Serbian statehood came into existence and developed and which was then lost to what originally was an Albanian minority. The Russians support this sentiment: how would the British feel if in 20 or 30 years Windsor, for example, proclaimed its independence on the grounds that the majority of its population was now Muslim and if the US decided to support this claim?

I would disagree with this much, the entire Balkan region has been conquered, reconquered, fought back and forth over, and generally been in dispute since early antiquity. It's sort of like Mesopotamia that way.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/irina_filatova/2008/02/the_kosovo_precedent.html

[Selatius]

1. The Kurds know about Kosovo's declaration of independence. They will ask America why...

the US was so ready to recognize Kosovo's independence yet so adamantly opposed to Kurdistan's independence.

[bemildred]

2. You ever heard of Nagaland?

I'm sure the Pashtun will find it a relevant precedent too.

[bemildred]

3. The Real Story Behind Kosovo's Independence

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Perhaps the greatest crime against any embassy in the history of Yugoslavia was committed not by evil Serb protesters, but by the United States military.

On May 7, 1999, at the height of the 78 day US-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the US bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese citizens, two of them journalists, and wounding 20 others. The Clinton administration later said that the bombing was the result of faulty maps provided by the CIA (Sound familiar?). Beijing rejected that explanation and alleged it was deliberate. Eventually, under strong pressure from China, the US apologized and paid $28 million in compensation to the victims' families. If the US was serious about international law and the protection of embassies, those responsible for that bombing would have been tried at the Hague along with other alleged war criminals. But "war criminal" is a designation for the losers of US-fueled wars, not bombers sent by Washington to drop humanitarian munitions on "sovereign territory."

Beyond the obvious hypocrisy of the US condemnations of Serbia and the sudden admission that international law exists, the Kosovo story is an important one in the context of the current election campaign in the United States. Perhaps more than any other international conflict, Yugoslavia was the defining foreign policy of President Bill Clinton's time in power. Under his rule, the nation of Yugoslavia was destroyed, dismantled and chopped into ethnically pure para-states. President Bush's immediate recognition of Kosovo as an independent nation was the icing on the cake of destruction of Yugoslavia and one which was enthusiastically embraced by Hillary Clinton. "I've supported the independence of Kosovo because I think it is imperative that in the heart of Europe we continue to promote independence and democracy," Clinton said at the recent Democratic debate in Austin, Texas.

A few days before the attack on the US embassy in Belgrade, Clinton released a Molotov cocktail statement praising the declaration of independence. In it, she referred to Kosovo by the Albanian "Kosova" and said independence "will allow the people of Kosova to finally live in their own democratic state. It will allow Kosova and Serbia to finally put a difficult chapter in their history behind them and to move forward." She added, "I want to underscore the need to avoid any violence or provocations in the days and weeks ahead." As seasoned observers of Serbian politics know, there were few things the US could have done to add fuel to the rage in Serbia over the declaration of independence -- "provocations" if you will -- than to have a political leader named Clinton issue a statement praising independence and using the Albanian name for Kosovo.

http://www.alternet.org/audits/77546/

[Diclotican]

4. bemildred

bemildred

The whole Kosovo case is a issue the russian,serbs and many other nations in the area have problems with.. Not by se that you have a country named Kosovo. But because many Albanians in Kosovo must just want THAT place to be a sovereign nation, but also parts of FYR Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria who in their myths and in "ancient history" have all been part of a imperial, they once called Illyrium.. Who was once a part of the Roman Empire of some importance... And for many kosovo-Albania's, the statehood of Kosovo, are just the beginning of a greater albanian empire - on the expense of FYR-Makedonia, Greece and Bulgaria off course.. Many Albanians are dreaming of a time when Albania, Kosvo, parts of Greece and parts of Macedonia and Bulgaria all are in the Reich of Greater Albania, and where Albanian LAW is the right thing to do... Whatever the cost on the ground be when you trow out hundred of thousands of native bulgarians, and greece and makedonian... For them everything is right, because they believe that THEY have been the victim of everything the last 2000 year.. So therefore they have the right to ethnically cleanse the Balkans for everyone, who are not albanian... Believe me, this is nothing more than recipe for disaster in the Balkans what happened when Kosovo was given the green light to go independed... Many extremist in Albania want to go far away from the idea of just Kosovo as a nation, to impose THEIR WILL on the broader Balkan.. Even if it means ten of thousands of death, maimed and a infrastructure in ruins...

If Kosovo was to be a Independent nation, where the DEMOCRATIC IDEA was the founding principle of everything, then I would have been happy about it. But when you have a large chunk of the population claiming that they have the right to take areas of other nations, because it in ancient time belonged to them.. Even that the turmoils in the 400 and following the peoples wandering into Europe the hound res year later it is impossible to say which country or area belong to how... I fear that it are starting a problem in the Balkans who can end in a war.. And Balkan can burn long when it first burning... All history tell you that...

And for the record. No I am not a serbian, I am not even from the balkans.. But I know enough history in the balkans to say that the Independence in Balkan, can be the first shoot in a long sequence of shoots that can end in a war with Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and FYR-Macedonia, if the power in EUROPE and US are not telling the albanians in Kosovo, that they have to stay put, and do not claim what is not theirs.. AKA areas of other nations.... One of the nations the albanians are lining to, is US, And US have a obligation to try to stop extremism in Kosovo to really starting. As European nations have the obligation to try defuse the situation, and to tell albanians that they have to accept that the border is what it is..

Diclotican

Sorry my bad English, not my native language

[bemildred]

5. Diclotican ....

I am familiar with the history of the region. Not an expert, though. I don't disagree with your analysis, but must say that the Albanians, if they are doing as you say, are simply acting like the other nationalities in the area have done repeatedly in the past.

My own opinion is that they would do better to join together and learn to get along, to respect each others right to local autonomy, while working in concert to defend themselves from international meddling. In other words bring Yugoslavia back, or maybe we should call it "The Balkan Free State" or something like that. The truth is they have been provinces and satrapies of various empires and outsiders since antiquity, a perpetual battlefield, and it's their own damn fault for allowing themselves to be divided on racial, religious, and ethnic lines. The important thing is they all live together, and they all have a common interest in defending themselves from outside meddling.

[Diclotican]

6. bemildred

bemildred

You are right there, nationalities in the area have been doing that many times over in the past.. And the border on Balkan have never been the safest thing in the world.. But today the complications is so mutch more than just one pepole getting more land than others.. Many of the borders who are today, have been as you pointed out the result of wars, imperiums and more wars down the known history.. From the antiquity to the modern times the border, and the pepole have been divided by "race" and by "nationals. And the outside powers, who have allways have interst in the balkans have allways playet a role in why the whole area have been a mess for eons...

The best learing that the diferent nations, and peopole in this area can learn, is to learn how to live togheter.. Maybe not under One roof, bu under different roof.. But even under different roof, they would work together to a better future.. And if just the greater power, The Hungary-Austrian Empire, or UK and USA stay away, mutch about the bad blood in the Balkans would over time be stoped, and a better future for all.. But I am afraid that the bigger players in this world are not intersting in real Peace.. Just A Peace they can manage and manipulate when needed... Today it is Kosovo who are the "best friends of US" But just wait.. If Kosovo are "to independed" US would coose up to Serbia, to play both ways with Russia, and to try to get Kosovo to understand the bounder of their "liberation":. I may be synical about the US the last 8 year or so.. But this country are never doing something, if they dont want mutch more in return for their grants... And if Kosovo really belive in FREEDOM and LIBERTY,they may try to not be to close to US but to kep some distance Even that US have been instgrumental in the statehood of Kosovo...
I know our forreing ministers, allways, since the start oft the cold war, never tried to be TO close to US and what they wanted about Norway, when it come to our nabour Russia.. And it was a standard aneximon in our forreing policy to never be to good in engelish, becouse then the minister can claim he dont understand what the Secretate of State in US was talking about.. Yes, friendship and alliance with US, but try to keep little distanse becouse our nabour in the East was not so happy about our NATO membership... But for the most part we was little more than a mosqito in the fur of the Sibirian Bear anyway.. And after the cold war, we managed to keep our kind of friendship, both with Russia, and with US..

ANAYWAY. That was a digress from what we wast talking about here.. The Balkans have to work togheter for a better peacefull future, that we agree about.. But how you get this pepole, with so diferent ethnisity to get along with eatch other?.. I dont know, but trade and excange with youth, where they are learing how to respect the other part, is maybe the best way to do it?

We have managed to make a peacefull future her in the West Europe... So I guess it is posible in the Eeast Europe, even that bad old blood are deeper there then in the West...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad engelish, not my native language

[bemildred]

7. Well I can't disagree with you.

And I don't know the answer either. But it would probably help if they could all agree on who their enemies are, and those enemies were seen to not be each other. It's been nice talking to you in any case.