Kosovo: “Thinking Outside Of The Box”

Kosovo: “Thinking Outside
Of The Box” Author: Wes Johnson, author of Balkan Inferno: Betrayal, War 15 September 2007 - Issue : 747

A front page photo in the
International Herald Tribune a few weeks ago of the blackened and twisted
remains of an automobile blown up by the Basque terrorist ETA outside a police
barracks in Spain was yet another reminder of the danger to peace and stability
posed by various liberation movements that use violence to advance their cause.

By Wes Johnson

Only a few years ago both the Irish
IRA and the French Corsicans were making their demands at the point of a gun –
and sticks of dynamite. Today, we can add the Chechens; Turkish Kurds;
Armenians in Nagorno-Karabagh; Abkhazians and Ossetians in Georgia and the
Turks of northern Cyprus to the clamor for separatism and independence. And
that is only in Europe. Consider Africa from the Western Sahara over to the
Horn. In the Middle East, we have Palestinians divided amongst them-selves and
an Iraq that may split up. In Asia, Tamils in Sri Lanka; Tibetans; and Kashmiri
and Philippine Moslems. There are dozens of such movements and organisations
around the world – some with legitimate grievances, some not. Why then is
independence for Kosovo considered to be so very urgent – mainly by the
Albanians themselves in this tiny impoverished Balkan back- water and their
powerful US supporters in Washington?

The International Crisis Group (ICG)
has issued yet another report urging independence – even without the
agreement of the UN Security Council. It calls Kosovo “a ticking time bomb in
the EU’s backyard.” This so-called independent think-tank has pushed this issue
for years, always issuing dire warnings should the Albanians not get their way.
Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the architect of NATO’s 1999
bombing campaign, has often led the pack backed by Rand Corporation Director
James Dobbins. It is striking how former senior US officials dominate the ICG:
Thomas Pickering, Morton Abramowitz, Kenneth Adelman, Steven Solarz, Wesley
Clark, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carla Hills, and Swanee Hunt. Leslie Gelb of the
Council on Foreign Relations is there as well – and others. Former ICG country
director Edward Joseph has called for US “brinkmanship” over Kosovo in order to
block Russian influence. It was an unwelcome return to Cold War rhetoric, a
blind unwillingness to accept the fact that others may see Kosovo differently
from Washington.

Given ICG efforts to undermine and
prejudge the outcome of the ongoing round of talks between the Kosovo Albanians
and Belgrade in advance, the EU’s representative to the Contact Group, Wolfgang
Ischinger, has urged both sides to “think outside of the box” – to even
consider partition if both sides want it. Previously the Contact Group had
considered such talk taboo. However, if one is to really “think outside of the
box”, then one might well imagine that Belgrade may want to table other issues
– which might promote flexibility and encourage them to consider trade-offs.
Among these might be a “green light” for the Srpska Republic to leave an
obviously dysfunctional Bosnia-Herzegovina to join their brethren across the
Drina River in Serbia; an agreed autonomy for the Krajina Serbs of Croatia, as
set out in previous UN-brokered negotiations; and finally a “dual autonomy” for
Kosovo that would give the Serbs and Albanians their own symbols, schools,
religious institutions, police, and local governing bodies. Each community
could have its own banks; and both could have tariff-free trade and other
services with Serbia and Albania respectively. Kosovo could enjoy
representation in inter-national organisations, as others do, but not full
sovereignty. As with being pregnant, there is no half way house to
“independence”. A second Albanian state in the Balkans is not needed – nor is
it desirable, as it would set a very unfortunate precedent internationally.

____________

Wes Johnson is the author of Balkan
Inferno: Betrayal, War, and Intervention 1990-2005, Enigma Books, New York, NY,
2007.

http://www.neurope.eu/articles/77689.php

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