Profonde divisioni in Europa sull’indipendenza del Kosovo

 

 

By Chris Marsden

18 February 2008

–   Yesterday’s declaration of independence from Serbia by Kosovo’s parliament brings the world a step closer to another war on European soil. The move has been prepared and encouraged by the United States and the European powers in a deliberate attempt to stoke hostilities with Russia.

Kosovan Prime Minister Hacim Thaci declared “The independence of Kosovo marks the end of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia,” while Serbia’s Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called Kosovo a “false state”. The unilateral move by Kosovo is expected to win the support of the US and the EU today, in the face of strenuous objections from both Serbia and Russia that this action is a flagrant breach of international law.

–   Kosovo has long been the focus of bitter conflict between the Serbian government and separatist forces from the territory’s majority ethnic Albanians, most notably the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). These conflicts were utilised by the Western powers to facilitate the break up of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and thereby secure their domination of a region considered strategic in securing control of oil, gas and mineral deposits in territories previously dominated by the Soviet Union[e].

–   The KLA was secretly armed and trained by the US and Germany, while Washington officially designated it as a terrorist organisation funded by heroin trafficking. In 1996, it began targeting Serb police units in Kosovo, sparking a military conflict with the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic that, by 1998, saw the province divided along ethnic lines. The KLA took control of between 25 to 40 percent of Kosovo in mid-1998 before Serb forces wrested the KLA-held area back. The imminent defeat of the KLA prompted direct intervention by NATO in 1999, justified in the name of opposing ethnic cleansing and atrocities by Serbian forces.

–   The war ended on June 10 after a 78-day aerial bombardment of Serbian forces and Serbia itself. Its end saw a military standoff between British and Russian forces at Pristina airport.

–   Kosovo was placed under the control of the United Nations, but on terms that reflected the tense power struggle for regional hegemony between the US and EU on one side, and Russia on the other. Kosovo has a population of just two million, of whom the majority are ethnic Albanian. But there remained a minority of Serbs, which even today, after campaigns of ethnic cleansing, numbers around 120,000.

–   Resolution 1244 of June 10, 1999 ordered the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces and the handing over of Kosovo to the control of the UN Security Council—of which Russia is a permanent member—and its military mission, KFOR. It made no mention of independence and was based on the general principle of “facilitating a political process designed to determine Kosovo’s future status” and a “political solution to the Kosovo crisis”. Its preamble referred specifically to the “territorial integrity” of Yugoslavia, and Article 10 authorises only “substantial autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia” and deployment “under United Nations auspices”.

However, since the West engineered the downfall of Milosevic in September 2000 and the subsequent inauguration of Bush as president, the US has been pushing for Kosovo’s independence. Bush visited Albania last June and has challenged Russia to try and block independence on the Security Council.

–   This is only one example of the worsening relations between Moscow and Washington. Hostilities have emerged over control of the Middle East’s and Central Asia’s energy supplies, as well as Washington’s threat to set up rocket silos in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as part of its so-called “missile shield”.

–   The US won the support of Europe’s major states—most notably Germany, France and the UK—so as to use the European Union[e] as an instrument for bypassing the Security Council and facilitating a final push for a limited form of independence for Kosovo on terms drawn up for the UN by former Finnish president, Martti Ahtisaari. The limitations supposedly include international supervision, a limit to its armed forces and commitments to protect the Serbs and other minorities. Kosovo is not allowed to join another country, meaning Albania.

–   The EU has already approved the dispatch of a 2,000-strong police and justice mission to Kosovo to take over a watchdog role from the United Nations in June. Deployment is to be staggered, but by June 1,500 police officers including special anti-riot units, 250 judges, prosecutors and customs officials will be in place. They will come from Germany and Italy, as well as the US. NATO troops will continue to be stationed there.

–   The EU mission statement declares baldly that independence for Kosovo is within the spirit of Resolution 1244 and that “once an entity has emerged as a state in the sense of international law, a political decision can be taken to recognise it.”

–   The move has been denounced by Moscow and the pro-Western Serbian government of President Boris Tadic, who was only installed last week and is opposed by more nationalist parties. Both insist that Serbia is a sovereign state that has not agreed to independence for Kosovo. There is no Security Council resolution authorising the independence of Kosovo from Serbia, and both insist it is therefore illegal.

–   Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared February 12: “We are speaking here about the subversion of all the foundations of international law, about the subversion of those principles which, at huge effort, and at the cost of Europe’s pain, sacrifice and bloodletting have been earned and laid down as a basis of its existence.

“We are speaking about a subversion of those principles on which the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe rests, those [principles] laid down in the fundamental documents of the UN.”

–   The Russian foreign ministry warned on Friday it would have to “take into account” any declaration of independence by Kosovo in regard to its relations with Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Kosovo’s independence “presupposes a revision of commonly accepted norms and principles of international law” that govern separatist movements from Moldova to Indonesia, it added.

This followed the statements made by President Vladimir Putin at his final annual press conference in the Kremlin before stepping down that any declaration of statehood would be “illegal, ill-conceived and immoral”.

–   Putin argued that Kosovo was in the same category as separatist conflicts in parts of the former Soviet Union[e], such as Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Trans-Dniester and warned that Russia would be forced to act. “Other countries look after their interests. We consider it appropriate to look after our interests. We have done some homework and we know what we will do,” he threatened.

–   Fears have been raised that Russia will now back separatist demands, destabilising the US allies, Georgia and Ukraine. But there are broader fears that developments in Kosovo will unleash separatist demands throughout Europe.

Serbia’s foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, warned of a precedent that would lead to “an uncontrolled cascade of secession”.

“Should Serbia be partitioned against its will … it could in turn result in the escalation of many existing conflicts, the reactivation of a number of frozen conflicts, and the instigation of who knows how many new conflicts,” he warned.

Serbia has threatened to blockade Kosovo and cut its power and telephone systems. But Moscow’s responses are far more important and threaten a direct conflict with the US.

–   Speaking alongside Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in Moscow last week, Putin said Russia may target its missiles at Ukraine if it joins NATO and accepts the deployment of the US missile defence shield. “It is terrifying even to think that in response, Russia could target its nuclear missile systems against Ukraine. This is what worries us,” Putin said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denounced Russia for “intimidating its neighbours”, stating that the “reprehensible rhetoric that is coming out of Moscow is unacceptable” and declaring that Washington was “devoted to the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine and of other states that were once a part of the Soviet Union[e].”

–   It is against this background that the move towards Kosovan independence must be judged. In reality what is being created is nothing more than a Western protectorate. It will be administered by the EU, but will act as a spearhead of a more general US-led offensive against a Russia that is resurgent, thanks to its growing revenues from oil and gas. In every respect, it represents a grave threat to the peoples of Europe and the entire world.

In Kosovo itself, Serbia has denied that it will respond militarily, while the former KLA leader, Thaci, has vowed to protect the rights of minorities and ensure “security for all citizens”. Neither pledge counts for much.

The 16,000-strong NATO force is already preparing for conflict. About half of the Serb population lives south of the Ibar River in enclaves among the overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian population. The rest are in Serb-dominated areas in the north, where around 5,000 ethnic Albanians live. In the northern part of the divided border town of Mitrovica, Serb leaders announced they would form their own parliament answering only to Belgrade. Troops have laid concrete and razor-wire barriers.

–   Britain, already under pressure in Afghanistan and Iraq, is now expected to send up to 1,000 extra troops to Kosovo and has placed its last remaining reserve battalion, the Spearhead Lead Element, on standby to deploy. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Major General Martin Rutledge, who is in charge of policing Kosovo, warned, “If my office got it wrong we could significantly destabilise events that are going to unfold in the next few months. I don’t think that’s an overstatement. We are playing for quite high stakes.”

The Telegraph notes that for the past nine years, “the military ambitions of the former Kosovo Liberation Army’s leaders have been curtailed by absorbing its commanders into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) — a civil defence force which acts as a fire service and is partly armed.”

The force is to halve in size after independence. “If we lost their trust they would have every opportunity to go off and do things we would not want them to,” said Rutledge. “They certainly know where the weapons are and how to get weapons so it is very important to dissolve them with dignity … In this environment it only needs few people to do something inappropriate.”

–   Fear of such a development, of mounting conflict with Russia, and of the spread of separatist sentiment has led to divisions within Europe, with Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Slovakia, Portugal, Malta, Bulgaria and Romania arguing against a declaration of independence. Some of the 27 EU nations are expected to state their formal opposition to the setting up of a Kosovo state today.

Events prompted the Guardian’s Simon Tisdall to warn of “a moment of great peril for Europe … As the UN bows out, Kosovo will effectively become an EU protectorate, under its costly, possibly indefinite supervision. Whether the EU countries, divided among themselves, endemically infirm of purpose, and facing many other demands on military and nation-building resources (such as Bosnia, Chad, Lebanon and Afghanistan) are equal to this task is open to question.”

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By Stefan Steinberg

19 February 2008

Deep divisions emerged at the European Union[e] meeting in Brussels on Monday, with the assembled Foreign Ministers unable to arrive at a unified position with regard to the declaration of independence made by the Kosovan Prime Minister on Sunday.

Spain had already made clear prior to the declaration that it would not recognise an independent Kosovo, and on Monday Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos reaffirmed to the press: “The government of Spain will not recognize the unilateral act”.

Other EU countries publicly opposing independence for Kosovo include Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia, Portugal, Malta, Bulgaria and Romania. This means that nearly a third of the member states of the European Union[e] have made clear they intend to refuse recognition to Kosovo.

–   On the other hand, the major European powers moved rapidly to express their solidarity with Pristina. The initiative in recognising Kosovo was taken by the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who declared on Monday: “We intend to recognize Kosovo”. Kouchner went on say that the French President Nicolas Sarkozy had already written to the president of Kosovo informing him of the French decision.

–   French recognition of the new mini-state was followed by statements from British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who told reporters that their respective governments would also recognize Kosovo. Italy has also made clear that it plans to recognize the new country.

In the debate on Kosovo independence, EU officials have facilitated agreement by member countries by sleight-of-hand. The declaration of independence made by the Kosovan parliament on Sunday is regarded by legal experts as a travesty of the resolution (1244) drawn up for the governance of the province of Kosovo by the United Nations Security Council in June 1999, following the extensive bombing of Serbia by NATO forces. Resolution 1244 called for the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces but made no mention of independence and referred instead to the “territorial integrity” of Yugoslavia.

–   In order to ease recognition of Kosovo by EU countries and overcome the palpably illegal nature of the declaration made Sunday, foreign ministers devised an escape clause on Monday which declared that the province’s history of “conflict, ethnic cleansing and humanitarian catastrophe” in the 1990s by Serbia exempted it from a rule which stipulates that international borders can only be changed with the agreement of all parties. This utterly undemocratic initiative now allows EU countries to recognize Kosovo’s independence as an exception to the rule of “territorial integrity” of nations under international law.

US intensifies tensions with Russia

–   According to international protocol, it was expected that the EU would be first in line to proclaim its policy on Kosovo, based on the argument that this is a “European issue”, but the first statement acknowledging independence came from the other side of the Atlantic. In an interview with NBC on Monday, US President George W. Bush rushed to recognize Kosovo’s declaration of independence. “The Kosovars are now independent,” he said adding “It’s something I’ve advocated with my government.”

Bush’s statement was quickly amended by White House spokeswoman Dana Perino who denied that Bush’s comments amounted to US recognition of independence. “He didn’t announce that,” she said. “What he meant by that is that the Kosovars have declared their independence.” Perino reminded the press that it is the job of the US State Department to officially declare recognition.

–   On Monday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that Washington had formally recognized Kosovo as “a sovereign and independent state.” In an official statement, Rice declared, “President Bush has responded affirmatively to a request from Kosovo to establish diplomatic relations between our two countries.”

●    Bush’s eagerness to unilaterally declare US support for Kosovo independence underscores the significance of this issue for the White House, which is seeking to use the conflict over Kosovo to increase the isolation of Russia and deepen divisions inside Europe.

–   Independence for Kosovo has been a major priority for Bush during the past year. Following his participation in the G8 summit in Germany last summer, Bush flew straight to Albania, where he promised Kosovo Albanians in Tirana that they would become citizens of an independent state. Bush called for an end to “endless dialogue” that was getting nowhere and predicted Kosovo independence by the end of the year. Now, just six weeks after the deadline announced by Bush, many of those in the crowds of independence supporters celebrated the declaration on Sunday in Kosovo by waving both the Albanian national flag and the Stars and Stripes.

The White House has taken an increasingly aggressive stance towards Russia in recent years, notably through US activity in the so-called “colour revolutions” in the Ukraine and Georgia. American support for Kosovo represents another major step towards the encirclement of Russia by the US and NATO powers and is in line with fresh propaganda from US think tanks aimed at reviving the Cold War – this time with Russia in the role formerly played by the Soviet Union[e].

The revival of hostilities with Russia was a central theme at the Munich Security Conference held just a week ago in Germany, and statements made in and around the conference make clear that the increasing demonisation of Russia is not only a central plank of White House policy, but is also supported by broader political circles.

–   One day before the conference, the Süddeutsche Zeitung printed a statement by Republican presidential candidate John McCain, in which he demanded that Russia be thrown out of the G-8, that support be given to the independence of Kosovo, and that a so-called “league of democracies” be set up under US leadership, as an alternative to the UN.

–   McCain’s plea for a harsher line against Russia was then taken up one day later by one of the most prominent US right-wing ideologues, Robert Kagan, who in the same newspaper declared: “Seen geographically, Russia and the European Union[e] might be neighbours, but geopolitically they live in different centuries.”

Kagan then sketched out a scenario for a European-Russian war, enumerating the potential triggers for such a conflict “in diplomatic stand-offs over Kosovo, Ukraine, Georgia and Estonia; in conflicts over gas and oil pipelines; in nasty diplomatic exchanges between Russia and Britain; and in a return to Russian military exercises of a kind not seen since the Cold War.”

US support for Kosovan independence is based on a policy aimed at isolating Russia as a major player in trade and foreign policy in Asian countries and the Middle East, while undermining stability in one of Washington’s principal rivals — Europe.

–   While some European countries, such as Germany, have taken a cautious but increasingly critical approach to US military policy in Central Asia (Afghanistan) and the Middle East (Iran),

–   the major EU powers are intent on ensuring that the US does not monopolise economic and political developments in former Yugoslavia. This is why Germany, which has developed close trade links with former Yugoslav states and has a long tradition of political involvement in the region, is now supporting the declaration of Kosovan independence alongside the US.

The Balkan powder keg

At the same time, a number of commentators have pointed out that the setting up of a new mini-state in the heart of Europe is fraught with enormous risks. The seventh state to be founded on the territory of former Yugoslavia since 1990, Kosovo is utterly unviable as an independent entity. It has an estimated unemployment rate of 50 percent and no reliable electricity grid for the provision of power. Although corruption is rife within the Kosovan regime, which is based on the former CIA-backed UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army), nothing has been done by the existing EU and NATO protectorate to curb the criminal practices of the country’s ruling elite.

–   According to the Spanish newspaper ABC: “The country is neither ready, nor viable. Kosovo needs international help on every level — economic, military, police and administrative — to survive and be transformed into a state worthy of its name. … This independence is a European failure, no doubt not the last, for there still remain many problems to be resolved in this long and bloody dismembering of the former Yugoslavia…of which the separate parts, paradoxically, wish, in a future of interdependence, to unite in a European Union[e] that is gradually being filled with small, ethnically homogenous states… So a new dependent state has been born in Europe. That’s nothing to be proud of.”

–   The German Frankfurter Rundschau comes to a similar assessment and declares there is no basis for jubilation over the declaration of independence: “The independence which has finally been achieved barely deserves the name. Constitution, flag and coat of arms, even the day of the proclamation were imposed on the Kosovans, irrespective of their nationality, under the supervision of leading western powers.What is now being feted as the birth of new state is hardly more than the setting up of another European semi-protectorate in the Balkans.”

The unstable political situation within Kosovo is also demonstrated by the fact that a total of 3,000 United Nations police and 3,000 NATO-led troops are currently engaged in defending the territory’s Serbian minority. Following the declaration of independence, it is now expected that these contingents will have to be reinforced dramatically.

Violent clashes have already begun. On Monday, thousands of Serbs demonstrated in northern Kosovo, chanting “This is Serbia,” and “Down with America!” Crowds marched towards the bridge in the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica but were held back by NATO soldiers.

–   At the same time, the Serbian government stepped up its campaign of opposition to Kosovo’s independence. On Monday, Serbia’s Interior Ministry filed charges against three Kosovo-Albanian leaders, including Prime Minister Hacim Thaci, accusing them of committing a “serious criminal act against the constitutional order and security of Serbia,” by proclaiming a “false state.”

Meanwhile, the Belgrade government recalled its ambassador from Washington in retaliation for the US recognition of Kosovan independence. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica announced the withdrawal of the ambassador, calling it the “first urgent measure” to be taken against those countries recognizing Kosovo. “This statement by the US cannot make a false state true,” he said, “but before the entire world it has demonstrated the violent face of the US policy of brutal force.”

Speaking to the United Nations Security Council Monday Serbian President Boris Tadic denounced the unilateral declaration of independence as a violation of international law and a threat to stability internationally. “If you cast a blind eye to this illegal act, who guarantees to you that parts of your countries will not declare independence in the same illegal way?” he said. “Who can guarantee that a blind eye will not be cast to the violation of the charter of the United Nations, which guarantees the sovereignty and integrity of each state, when your country’s turn comes up?”

He asked the 15-member council, “Are we all aware of the precedent that is being set and are we aware of the catastrophic consequences that it may lead to?”

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, voiced strong support for the Serbian position, calling Kosovo’s declaration of independence “a blatant breach of the norms and principles of international law.” Meanwhile, China’s Ambassador Wang Guangya made a similar statement, saying the move posed a “serious challenge to the fundamental principals of international law.” These two veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council are blocking any formal UN recognition of the newly declared state.

–   Nearly a century after the outbreak of the First World War, the major European imperialist powers and America are once again lighting matches to the “Balkan powder keg” with their support for Kosovan independence, threatening a conflagration with consequences for the entire region and beyond.