A postmodern declaration

Kosovo's sovereignty is a fiction: real power lies with EU
officials backed by western firepower

• John Laughland
  
• The Guardian,
  
• Tuesday February 19 2008

There seemed to be no immediate consequences when, in 1908,
Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina. Vienna was in clear violation of the 1878
Treaty of Berlin, which it had signed and kept Bosnia in Turkey, yet the
protests of Russia and Serbia were in vain. The following year, the fait
accompli was written into an amended treaty. Six years later, however, a
Russian-backed Serbian gunman exacted revenge by assassinating the heir to the
Austrian throne in Sarajevo in June 1914. The rest is history.

Parallels between Kosovo in 2008 and Bosnia in 1908 are relevant, but not
only because, whatever legal trickery the west uses to override UN security
council resolution 1244 - which kept Kosovo in Serbia - the proclamation of the
new state will have incalculable long-term consequences: on secessionist
movements from Belgium to the Black Sea via Bosnia, on relations with China and
Russia, and on the international system as a whole. They are also relevant
because the last thing the new state proclaimed in Pristina on Sunday will be
is independent. Instead, what has now emerged south of the Ibar river is a
postmodern state, an entity that may be sovereign in name but is a US-EU
protectorate in practice.

The European Union plans to send some 2,000 officials to Kosovo to take over
from the United Nations, which has governed the province since 1999. It wants
to appoint an International Civilian Representative who - according to the plan
drawn up last year by Martti Ahtisaari, the UN envoy - will be the "final
authority" in Kosovo with the power to "correct or annul decisions by
the Kosovo public authorities". Kosovo would have had more real independence
under the terms Belgrade offered it than it will now.

Those who support the sort of "polyvalent sovereignty" and
"postnational statehood" that we already have in the EU welcome such
arrangements as a respite from the harsh decisionism of post-Westphalian
statehood. But such fictions are in fact always underpinned by the timeless
realities of brute power. There are 16,000 Nato troops in Kosovo and they have
no intention of coming home: indeed, they are even now being reinforced with
1,000 extra troops from Britain. They, not the Kosovo army, are responsible for
the province's internal and external security.

Kosovo is also home to the vast US military base Camp Bondsteel, near
Urosevac - a mini-Guantánamo that is only one in an archipelago of new US bases
in eastern Europe, the Balkans and central Asia. This is why the Serbian prime
minister, Vojislav Kostunica, speaking on Sunday, specifically attacked
Washington for the Kosovo proclamation, saying that it showed that the US was
"ready to unscrupulously and violently jeopardise international order for
the sake of its own military interests".

In order to symbolise its status as the newest Euro-Atlantic colony, Kosovo
has chosen a flag modelled on that of Bosnia-Herzegovina - the same EU gold,
the same arrangement of stars on a blue background. For Bosnia, too, is
governed by a foreign high representative, who has the power to sack elected
politicians and annul laws, all in the name of preparing the country for EU
integration.

As in Bosnia, billions have been poured into Kosovo to pay for the
international administration but not to improve the lives of ordinary people.
Kosovo is a sump of poverty and corruption, both of which have exploded since
1999, and its inhabitants have eked out their lives for nine years now in a
mafia state where there are no jobs and not even a proper electricity supply:
every few hours there are power cuts, and the streets of Kosovo's towns explode
in a whirring din as every shop and home switches on its generator.

This tragic situation is made possible only because there is a fatal
disconnect in all interventionism between power and responsibility. The
international community has micro-managed every aspect of the break-up of
Yugoslavia since the EU brokered the Brioni agreement within days of the war in
Slovenia in July 1991. Yet it has always blamed the locals for the results.
Today, the new official government of Kosovo will be controlled by its
international patrons, but they will similarly never accept accountability for
its failings. They prefer instead to govern behind the scenes, in the dangerous
- and no doubt deliberate - gap between appearance and reality.

· John Laughland is the author of Travesty: the Trial of
Slobodan Milosevic and the Corruption of International Justice

jlaughland@btinternet.com

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/19/kosovo.eu

Play it again, Adolf -- Danke, Deutschland

"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

NATO-UN record is bad news for Canada

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8019

Warning: NATO-UN
record is bad news for Canada

James
Bissett, a former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia

Global Research, February 6, 2008
Globe and Mail, Toronto John Manley's Afghan report focuses rightly on the willingness of our NATO allies to send additional combat troops to Kandahar as a condition of our remaining in Afghanistan, but there is a broader issue for Canadians: the poor track record of NATO and the United Nations in bringing peace, order and good governance to the countries they have occupied after a military intervention. The most obvious example is Kosovo. It has been almost nine years since UN Resolution 1244 brought an end to the NATO bombing of Slobodan Milosevic's Serbia. That resolution, which laid down the parameters for the future of Kosovo by providing for a functioning civil society with democratic institutions, called for the return of all refugees and the disarming of the Kosovo Liberation Army, provided for a limited number of Serbian security forces to patrol Kosovo's borders and to guard Christian holy places, and reaffirmed Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo while guaranteeing the Albanian community a high degree of local autonomy. It was a blueprint for success. Sadly, none of the provisions of 1244 were fulfilled by NATO and the UN. Under the watchful eyes of 40,000 NATO troops and UN officials, the Albanians were allowed to expel almost all of the non-Albanian population from Kosovo and to destroy 150 Christian churches and monasteries. Notwithstanding billions of dollars in development aid, Kosovo remains the poorest area of Europe. There is massive unemployment, the per capita income is $1,600 a year and infant mortality is the highest in Europe. It has become a "black hole" where crime, corruption and violence flourish. Kosovo is a small territory in southern Serbia, less than twice the size of Prince Edward Island; it has a population of about two million. Yet, after eight years of occupation, NATO and the UN have proved incapable of bringing law and order. In other words, they have made a mess of it. Afghanistan is a vast and mountainous country about the size of Alberta. It has a population of 32 million with a long history of resisting foreign invaders. NATO forces, now numbering 15,000, are facing a fanatical enemy determined to force them to withdraw, and even though these forces are supplemented by 28,000 U.S. soldiers, it is doubtful that any military force is large enough to bring peace and stability to the country. The Kosovo failure should serve as a warning that NATO and the UN are institutions ill-equipped to carry out the multifaceted task they have taken on in Afghanistan. The Manley report has pointed out that UN personnel in Kabul suffer from a "lack of leadership, direction and effective co-ordination from UN headquarters in New York." That is nothing new: Mismanagement has been a chronic problem characterizing UN operations everywhere. An added problem is that NATO itself is an organization that has not yet found its role in a post-Soviet world. When it was founded in 1949, it was designed as a purely defensive group with two goals: Defend the West from any possible Soviet attack; and uphold the principles of the UN Charter while never using, or threatening to use, force in the resolution of international disputes. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO lost one of its primary reasons for existence. The second reason - to act in accordance with the UN Charter's principles - was seen by some NATO members as an inhibiting factor in dealing with issues involving human-rights abuses or rogue states. The turning point for NATO came with its military intervention in Kosovo allegedly for humanitarian reasons. The bombing of Serbia was done in violation of the UN Charter and NATO's Article 1. During the bombing campaign, in April of 1999, on the occasion of NATO's 50th birthday, Bill Clinton announced a new "strategic concept" for NATO. The new role essentially meant the alliance could and would intervene wherever and whenever it felt necessary to preserve peace and security. Its days as a purely defensive organization had ended. As with any multinational organization, NATO has become difficult to manage. Its new role is not clearly defined, and decision-making is slow and cumbersome. Not all of its members are enthusiastic about the Afghan mission, where the chances of success are slim and the cost in blood and gold may become prohibitive. Others see it as a multinational facade to mask the unilateral aims of the Bush administration. This is not a formula for success. Like it or not, Canada must fulfill its NATO obligations. But let us be clear about what those obligations are and the price we pay to fulfill them. James Bissett is a former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia
James Bissett is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by James Bissett