views on Kosovo

from Transitions Online:

Commentators consider the impact of independence, and what happens next.

It wasn’t the first time the leaders of Kosovo declared independence. In 1990, ethnic-Albanian lawmakers called for statehood when Belgrade dissolved the province’s assembly. Ibrahim Rugova, the quiet academic who became president of Kosovo in 1992, defied his Western admirers by calling for independence. And there have been countless other hints of such action since NATO partitioned Kosovo from Serbia in 1999.

The difference on 17 February, when Kosovo’s new prime minister Hashim Thaci carried through with an election promise and presented the statehood proclamation to a rubber-stamp parliament, is that it came with the unfettered support of the United States and many European Union countries.

But reaction has been a mix of jubilation – for ethnic Albanians – and outright anger – demonstrated by the tens of thousands of Serbs who protested this week, some sacking and burning the American Embassy in Belgrade.

Transitions Online normally uses this space for “Our Take,” our weekly editorial on the issues shaping the region. But given the volume of commentary after Kosovo declared independence, we think it important to offer readers a survey of what others are saying. Reading through these commentaries, culled from the BBC Monitoring Service and newspapers, there is evident fear about the spillover effects of Kosovo’s action in other regions where there are ethnic and territorial divides – and not just in the former communist countries. There is also palpable concern that Kosovo – with a battered economy and a reputation for shadiness – will be independent in name only for the foreseeable future, a state scorned by its foes and heavily dependent on its advocates.

Here are excepts of these viewpoints:


BOSNIA | ‘Pandora’s Box Opened’

By Pantelija Matavulj, Bosnian Serb state-owned Glas Srpske, 18 February:

… Emboldened by a group of West European countries and America, the [Kosovo] Assembly declared this southern Serbian province independent, thus marking the end of a long chapter in the disintegration of Yugoslavia. International law, which has so far more or less governed world peace, has been ignored. …

By setting this precedent, the world has laid a new marker stone for future relations globally. The recognition of [Kosovo’s] independence is a precedent in international law and will open a Pandora's Box which will undoubtedly destabilize Europe. Nations scattered across several countries on the Old Continent will demand the right to unite. …

A [Kosovo] syndrome will be born. If Kosovans have been granted the right to independence, there is no reason why other nations with the same right should not be forming a queue to achieve the same goal. …

Unrest in Mitrovica during the outbreak of communal violence in March 2004.

MACEDONIA | ‘Independence and Uncertainty’

By Mitko Biljanoski, Dnevnik, 18 February:

… Kosovo Albanians have been celebrating the historic day of the birth of their independent state. … Yet, everyone, the Kosovo Albanians in particular, should realize that they have independence, but not a state.

Statehood cannot be presented as a gift, nor taken away by force. Statehood is something you build from the foundations up to the chimney. The bypassing of the United Nations, which is the pillar of international order, has contributed to the proclamation of the [independence] declaration. However, this maneuver will create major problems for the Kosovars while trying to establish their state. …

Kosovo …, as well as the EU, which has begun to deploy its mission in Kosovo, will have to bear a huge burden. They will have to jointly build the state, brick by brick, floor by floor. The new state's foundations must be built on respect for all the citizens' rights and on firm guarantees for inviolable borders, that is, the abandonment of the idea of a Greater Albania. A house constructed on these foundations cannot shake, fall, or bother the neighbors. Thus, no one will be threatened or humiliated. Only after Kosovo becomes a stable and functional state can it stand straight in front of the gates of the joint European home.

CZECH REPUBLIC | ‘Racketeers’ Freedom’

By Martin Hekrdla, Pravo website, 19 February:

It is good to repeat the bare fact that the declaration of and support for Kosovo's independence is a violation of international law and a precedent for violent separatists. This holds true. And the Balkans, the EU, and the world, will drink the cup of the consequences thereof to the bottom.

What is even more serious is the fact that the decisive capitals of the Western world have joined their tactics and their Balkan strategies with the steps of a terrorist organization, the UCK [Kosovo Liberation Army]. And that its "cadres" – led by Hashim Thaci, a.k.a. “Snake” – now make up the backbone of Kosovo's illegal statehood. …

Today's situation is not a subterfuge of history, no unintended consequence. Terrorists are easy to re-label freedom fighters (and vice versa, of course). But how to label a state which mafias do not penetrate but actually rule over? …

Kosovo has rich coal reserves, yet can’t produce enough power to meet demand.

FRANCE | ‘Change You Can Believe In’

By Roger Cohen, International Herald Tribune, 20 February:

… In 2005, the [U.N.’s] World Summit adopted the “responsibility to protect,” known by that acronym [R2P]. R2P formalized the notion that when a state proves unable or unwilling to protect its people, and crimes against humanity are perpetrated, the international community has an obligation to intervene — if necessary, and as a last resort, with military force.

Member states declared that, with Security Council approval, they were prepared "to take collective action in a timely and decisive manner" when "national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity."

An independent Kosovo, recognized by major Western powers, is in effect the first major fruit of the ideas behind R2P. It could not have happened if the rights of human beings were not catching up at last with the rights of states. …

ROMANIA | ‘Kosovo or Washington Diktat’

By Miruna Munteanu, Ziua website, 20 February:

… The recognition of independence of Kosovo Province is a dangerous precedent which raises questions about the sacred inviolability of borders. The first precedent was created in 1999, when Serbia was demonized for having dared to respond to the provocations (that were often taking the form of crime or terrorism) orchestrated by the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas. Much was written about the vast media campaign meant to accredit the idea of a "genocide" orchestrated by Belgrade against the Albanian population. Statistics now indicate that it was actually Serbs who were the victims of "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo.

What are we supposed to learn from this lesson? That a country is not allowed to resort to force when its territorial integrity is threatened from within? Not at all. That philosophy has never been applied in the case of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The USA was not equally concerned about Jerusalem's reprisals against the Arabs on the West Bank and in Gaza. On the contrary, it has always declared its support for Israel's right to self-defence. But the Serbians were denied the same right. This is a clear example of the use of double standards. …

The logic of dismantling the former Yugoslavia does not apply to Kosovo, not even formally, because in that case we were talking about a republic included in a federation from which it could have withdrawn at any time. Kosovo has never been a state entity. It has always been an integral part of Serbia, ever since the time of the old medieval kingdom. We are therefore witnessing a real territorial rape now, a dictate by the great powers, which are redistributing the zones of influence among themselves. And small countries, as usual, have no say in that.

HUNGARY | ‘Pristina on the Promenade’

By Miklos Gabor, Nepszabadsag website, 18 February:

On Sunday [17 February] Kosovo declared its independence. I sympathize with the Serbs in their sorrow over this and I rejoice together with the Kosovo Albanians. …

Independence is a symbolic act. Kosovo's roaring poverty will not cease, and foreign capital will not be flooding into the new republic. The independence of a state dependent on foreign aid is symbolic. The independence will also be limited externally because the world is justly worried that ethnic cleansing will be continued and control over Kosovo will be taken over by drug dealers and car thieves. The international community which drove the Serbs out of the province nine years ago, continues to be responsible for the life and safety of the remaining Serbs, Roma, and other minorities. It is to be seen whether it is capable of this. …

CROATIA | ‘Final Split’

By Marko Barisic, Vjesnik website, 15 February:

[Kosovo’s independence] is a direct result of the failed ethnic cleansing project that then Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic attempted to carry out against Kosovo's Albanians in 1999. As a reminder, it had been in Kosovo in the late 1980s … that Milosevic began to build his charisma as "the Serbian leader" with which, several years later, he would launch the conquest aimed at creating a greater Serbian state encompassing a significant part of Croatia, almost all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and, of course, Kosovo.

As the attempt failed despite the use of brutal methods including even genocide, it is no wonder that the last act of the collapse of the imperial project is unfolding right now in the very place where everything began: Kosovo. …

Many analysts believe that the new relations will contribute to the area's stabilization and be a step towards lasting peace. History, however, teaches us that plenty of caution is called for when it comes to optimistic scenarios in that region.

UNITED KINGDOM | ‘This Dependent Independence is the Least Worst Solution for Kosovo’

By Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 21 February:

… Is this a precedent, as some fear and others hope? Of course it is. Every declaration of independence is a precedent. Russian-backed leaders in South Ossetia and Transnistria are muttering about following the example of the American-backed Kosovans. Basque and Catalan separatists take note, and the Spanish government has reacted against the declaration of independence with startling sharpness – partly because it comes in the middle of a hard-fought election campaign. Kosovo is the top story on the website of Unpo, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, which has 69 members, from Abkhazia to Zanzibar.

"Kosovo is a special case," says Kosovo's declaration of independence, going on to insist … that it is not a precedent. But all the 68 other Unpo members are special cases too. Liberals have universal rules for the treatment of individuals; they have always got in a tangle about groups – both about the position of groups inside a country (witness the debate around multiculturalism) and about which group is entitled to exercise the right of self-determination. They have no consistent answer to the nationalist's question: "Why should I be a minority in your country when you could be a minority in mine?" Kosovo's declaration of dependent independence is the least worst way forward, but don't let us pretend it's not a precedent. Both statements are true: Kosovo is unique, and there will be more Kosovos.

Mitrovica’s Romani quarter burned down in 1999 and has yet to be rebuilt due to resistance from the town’s Albanian majority. Photo by George Willcoxon.

RUSSIA | ‘Kosovo Fails All Tests for Nationhood’

By Michael Pravica, Pravda website, 19 February:

… The U.S. and the EU are creating a very dangerous precedent by illegally creating a "Greater Albania" that will irreversibly damage relations with Russia and encourage some 200 separatist movements the world over. The U.S. has lost the "moral" authority to act as self-appointed "policeman" of the world. Just as the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia was the precursor to World War II, the Western theft of Kosovo may provoke World War III. It's time for Russia to draw a line in the sand.

GERMANY | False EU Promises for the Balkans

By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp, Spiegel Online International, 21 February:

… Belgrade, once capital of the diverse nation of Yugoslavia and now merely head of a shrunken Serbia, is for the moment content to pout about glory lost. Serbia is recalling its ambassadors from all those countries, including Germany on Wednesday [20 February], that recognize Kosovo. Government leaders are also doing little to calm heated emotions among the populace and are refusing to sign agreements negotiated with the European Union. The country had a golden opportunity to jump on the EU-membership fast track, but it showed a willingness to let the chance slip away out of intransigence over the Kosovo issue.

Had Belgrade submitted a list of demands in exchange for flexibility over the Kosovo issue – territorial compensation, financial aid or a timeline for accession – it would have gotten the majority, if not all, of what it asked for.

But now, relations between Serbia and EU have hit rock bottom. It won't stay that way for long, though. The two sides need each other. Without Serbia on board, long-term stability in the Balkans is an impossibility. And without the EU, Serbia has no future.