"Thank
You Germany!"
2008/02/18
PRISTINA/BELGRADE/BERLIN
(Own
report) - Sunday, after Berlin's years of preparations, the South-Serbian
province, Kosovo, declared its secession in violation of international law.
Kosovo is "independent" of Serbia, declared Hashim Thaci, the Prime
Minister of the Provincial Administration in Pristina. The German government
intends to recognize the secession soon. Berlin will thereby be participating
in the violation of the UN Charter and other valid legal norms, just as the
German police and judicial officers, who will be dispatched to Kosovo within
the framework of a so-called EU mission. Their deployment will be without a
valid, internationally recognized legal basis and will therefore constitute an
illegal occupation. The objective is to establish an informal protectorate,
while keeping its nationalist forces in check. Kosovo's secession is the
preliminary finale of a policy seeking the parcelization of the Balkan states
along the lines of allegiance, which began with Berlin's recognition of the
Croatian secession. Each of the EU states, after brief hesitation, joined this
policy and along with Washington, militarily attacked what was left of
Yugoslavia in 1999. Since that time, Berlin has been fostering the Kosovo
nationalists, whose representatives in Pristina are designated as the bosses of
organized crime. One of them is the current Prime Minister Thaci. On the murals
celebrating Thaci's proclamation of secession, one reads "Thank You
Germany!"
With
yesterday's proclaimed secession the provincial administration in Pristina has
concluded what Berlin has been preparing for years - at first with covert
secret service support for the KLA, then with participation in the military
aggression against Yugoslavia in March 1999 and finally within the framework of
the UN Administration in Pristina (UNMIK) (german-foreign-policy.com reported
[1]). The secession of Serbia's southern province was carried out in violation
of the UN Charter - guaranteeing all UN member states the sovereignty and
territorial integrity - and in disregard of the decisions taken by the UN
Security Council. Most significant is the Resolution 1244 explicitly
reconfirming to Belgrade the integrity of its sovereign territory. The German
government intends to recognize the secession soon and demands that all EU
member states do the same. Berlin thereby proves once again that it is the
driving force behind a growing degeneration of international law, blatantly exalting
the despotism of power to the highest principle of foreign policy.
Fantasy
With
the aid of fantasy the foreign ministry seeks to cover up the German
government's renewed breach of international law. In its statement before the
Foreign Relations Committee of the German Parliament, the ministry alleged that
the guarantees of Serbia's sovereignty and integrity, laid down in UN
Resolution 1244, refer merely to a "transitional government" in
Kosovo and does not preclude secession. A reading of the text proves this
audacious fabrication to be groundless. According to the Foreign Ministry, the
UN Resolution - except for the guarantees for Serbia's sovereignty and
territorial integrity - is still in force, so as not to jeopardize the
legitimacy of NATO's and the EU's deployment, because if the resolution were no
longer valid, it would mean that the western countries' occupation of Serbian
territory would be dependant upon the "invitation" of their Kosovo
vassals in Pristina, an embarrassing dependency that Berlin and Washington
would like to avoid.[2]
Precedence
This
ludicrous approach that degrades UN Resolutions to non-binding suggestion
lists, from which one can pick and choose to apply clauses at preference, meets
open contradiction even within the entourage of the Foreign Ministry. Warnings
of incalculable counter-measures are being heard. "Unilateral
interpretations of Security Council Resolutions constitute (...) cases of
precedence that, under other circumstances, can be turned against the western nations,"[3]
a member of the Foreign Ministry's Council of International Jurists wrote in a
newspaper article.
Decree
German
legal arbitrariness can also be seen by the way the decision was taken to
dispatch a so-called police and judicial mission to Kosovo. In spite of massive
pressure from Berlin, six EU member states are still rejecting the secession,
because their own sovereignty is threatened by separatists. With the refusals
of Spain, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus to actively support
the new "EU-mission", the modalities for decision making were changed
without further ado and the dispatching of 2000 police and judicial officers
was virtually taken by decree. In Brussels one could hear concerning the
decision-making, that the dispatching had been proposed and "formally
adopted" when the time-limit for lodging an objection - at midnight on
Saturday - had expired without a veto from an EU member state. With this new
voting technique, final approval becomes superfluous. Berlin had made it clear
that it would accept a veto under no circumstances. To demonstrate its
determination, Germany had already chosen its first 63 police officers for the
"mission" before the time-limit had expired.[4]
Impunity
Amnesty
International has recently published a report on its research concerning the
"police and justice mission" being conducted in the name of the
United Nations, but also under western control. The conclusions are devastating
for the numerous -among them also German - police and judicial officers who have
been deployed in Kosovo since 1999. According to Sian Jones, Amnesty
International's researcher on Kosovo, "hundreds of cases including
murders, rapes and enforced disappearances have been closed, for want of
evidence that was neither promptly nor effectively gathered" by the UN
Mission. There is persistent "impunity" for war crimes and crimes
against humanity in the southern Serbian province claiming to be an independent
state and about to be recognized by Germany.[5] According to Amnesty „no
progress is ever made", quite the contrary, the situation has worsened in
recent months. Amnesty International "urges the UN not to undertake any
similar international justice missions in the future until effective steps have
been taken to ensure that none of the extensive flaws identified in this report
are repeated."[6]
Networks
The
current Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is among those persons whose past
could shed light on what Amnesty considers "extensive flaws".
Washington and Berlin's close ally proclaimed the southern Serbian province's
"independence" in Pristina yesterday. If the UN police and judicial
officers would have accomplished their mission, Thaci would have been brought
to trial long ago. Already in 1997, Serbian judges had sentenced him to ten years
in prison - for several murders. "Thaci had ordered liquidations within
his own ranks," two former KLA fighters report about their former
leader.[7] In the eyes of the German Foreign Intelligence Service
(Bundesnachrichtendienst), the current Prime Minister is one of the heads of
the Kosovo Mafia and a sponsor of a "professional killer".[8] A
survey commissioned by the German Bundeswehr asserts that "in intelligence
circles" Thaci "is considered to be 'far more dangerous'" than
Ramush Haradinaj, who is indicted for war crimes [9], "because the former
KLA leader has an extensive international criminal network at his
disposal."[10]
Last
Question
With
the Kosovo declaration of secession, that, in violation of international law,
has granted criminals their own state, German efforts to achieve the
disempowerment of its traditional opponent, Serbia, has attained its objective.
Belgrade has lost the control over most of the territory of what had formerly
been Yugoslavia, has been deprived its access to the sea and is surrounded by
hostile states. On the other hand, through a new war against Belgrade and the
break-up of Serbian territory, Berlin was able to successfully reassert its
claim as hegemonic power in Southeast Europe. With yesterday's declaration of
secession, according to the German government, the "last remaining open
question concerning the disintegration process of Yugoslavia (...) has been
resolved."[11]
[1]
see also Neuer
Vasall, Imperial
Consummation, Teil
der Verwaltung, A
Sort of Resurrection for Yugoslavia, Die
Herren des Rechts, Paketlösung,
Abmontiert,
Sieger
im Kalten Krieg, Selbstbestimmung,
Die
zweite Welle, Dayton
II, Mit
kreativen Tricks, Angelpunkt,
Countdown
and Kooperationsraum.
[2] Die Argumentationen entstammen einem Papier des Auswärtigen Amts mit dem
Titel "Kosovo. Resolution des Sicherheitsrates 1244 (1999) und eine evtl.
Unabhängigkeitserklärung des Kosovo".
[3] Kein Recht auf Abspaltung; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 14.02.2008
[4] EU entsendet Polizisten und Juristen in das Kosovo; Reuters 16.02.2008
[5] amnesty international legt neuen Kosovo-Bericht vor; www.amnesty.de
[6] Kosovo (Serbia): The challenge to fix a failed UN justice mission;
www.amnesty.org
[7] "Die Schlange" greift nach der Macht im Kosovo; Die Welt
28.01.2006
[8] Jürgen Roth: Rechtsstaat? Lieber nicht!; Die Weltwoche 43/2005
[9] see also Political
Friendships and Heldenfigur
[10] Operationalisierung von Security Sector Reform (SSR) auf dem Westlichen
Balkan; Institut für Europäische Politik 09.01.2007. See also Aufs
engste verflochten
[11] Erklärung zur Entscheidung des Parlaments im Kosovo; Presse- und
Informationsamt der Bundesregierung 17.02.2008
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56134
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