Canada should uphold international law and not recognize Kosovo

BEXAMINER Canada should uphold international law and not recognize KOSOVO
Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:56 am (PST)
http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=912781

BARRIE EXAMINER (CANADA)

EDITORIAL

Canada should uphold international law and not recognize Kosovo

Posted By SCOTT TAYLOR

Posted 5 hours ago

Last weekend, the streets of Kosovo were flooded with citizens celebrating a
unilateral declaration of independence by ethnic Albanian Prime Minister
Hashim Thaci. This much-anticipated announcement formally severed all
official ties between the disputed province and the rest of Serbia, thereby
creating Europe's newest state.

The United States was the first to recognize Kosovo's independence, with
U.S. President George W. Bush sending his congratulations to Thaci from a
stop in Tanzania. The United Kingdom, Germany and France were quick to
follow suit, and with these big powers on board, the Albanian Kosovars
popped the champagne corks.

For people only paying casual attention to this long-simmering Balkan hot
spot, Thaci's declaration of independence may indeed be viewed as a joyous
occasion. In fact, most Canadians may be forgiven if they thought this whole
matter was resolved back in the summer of 1999.

After a 78-day bombing campaign, NATO had negotiated a ceasefire agreement
with the Serbian government. Under the terms of UN Resolution 1244, Serbian
security forces would withdraw from Kosovo, and under NATO military
supervision, the 800,000 Albanian Kosovar refugees who had fled the fighting
would be repatriated. The Albanian guerrillas - known as the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA) - were to be disarmed and demobilized by NATO troops,
who would also ensure the safety of Kosovo's 200,000 ethnic Serb civilians.

Resolution 1244 made it very clear that under the UN Charter, Kosovo would
remain the sovereign territory of Serbia. Over the past nine years, NATO has
failed to uphold its part of the bargain. The KLA was never disarmed; they
were simply formalized into the Kosovo Protection Corps.

With Serbia unwilling to relinquish the sovereignty of this province - the
religious heartland of the Serbian people - there was no legal way to push
independence through the UN Security Council.

Up until 1998, the U.S. State Department regarded the KLA as a terrorist
organization. The KLA's assassinations and bomb attacks against government
officials led to a heavy-handed Serbian military crackdown. At this point
the Americans changed horses and decried the Serb reprisals rather than the
terror provocations of the KLA. Under U.S. pressure, an ultimatum was issued
by NATO to Serbia in February 1999, and the KLA was suddenly legitimized as
freedom fighters.

By March 24 of that year, when the deadline expired without Serbia's
compliance, NATO began bombing Kosovo and Serbia.

Putting recent history aside, the fact remains that Kosovo is simply not
viable as an independent country. It is a landlocked, mountainous province,
not quite twice the size of Prince Edward Island, with a population of two
million. The unemployment rate stands at 50 per cent; for those working the
average annual income ranges around $2,400 CDN a year. Prostitution and
illegal drugs form the major pillar of Kosovo's economy, with the other main
infusion coming from the annual foreign donations of approximately $600
million.

The red and black flag they wave is the Albanian flag, not Kosovar. And as a
result of the ongoing violent attacks against non-Albanians in the province,
this is now one of the most ethnically-cleansed territories in all of
Europe.

Prime Minister Thaci is a former ruthless KLA warlord who called himself
"Snake" and the commander of the Kosovo Protection Corps is Agim Ceku, who
made a notorious name for himself as a war criminal in Croatia.

Given the rotten foundation upon which Kosovo intends to build its own
independent state, I think Canada would be well advised to uphold the UN
Charter in this instance, and to respect the rule of international law.

Scott Taylor reported from inside Serbia and Kosovo during the 1999 bombing
campaign and has made more than 20 subsequent visits to the region.

JPOST Kosovo's stark warning

JPOST Kosovo's stark warning
Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:52 am (PST)
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1203605149058&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

JERUSALEM POST (ISRAEL)

Column One: Kosovo's stark warning

Caroline Glick , THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 21, 2008

Kosovo's US-backed declaration of independence is deeply troubling. By
setting a precedent of legitimizing the secession of disaffected minorities,
it weakens the long-term viability of multi-ethnic states. In so doing, it
destabilizes the already stressed state-based international system.

States as diverse as Canada, Morocco, Spain, Georgia, Russia and China
currently suffer problems with politicized minorities. They are deeply
concerned by the Kosovo precedent. Even the US has latent sovereignty issues
with its increasingly politicized Hispanic minority along its border with
Mexico. It may one day experience a domestic backlash from its support for
Kosovar independence from Serbia.

Setting aside the global implications, it is hard to see how Kosovo
constitutes a viable state. Its 40 percent unemployment is a function of the
absence of proper economic and governing infrastructures.

In November, a European Commission report detailed the Kosovo Liberation
Army's failure to build functioning governing apparatuses. The report noted
that "due to a lack of clear political will to fight corruption, and to
insufficient legislative and implementing measures, corruption is still
widespread... Civil servants are still vulnerable to political interference,
corrupt practices and nepotism." Moreover, "Kosovo's public administration
remains weak and inefficient."

The report continued, "The composition of the government anti-corruption
council does not sufficiently guarantee its impartiality," and "little
progress can be reported in the area of organized crime and combating of
trafficking in human beings."

Additionally, the prosecution of Albanian war criminals is "hampered by the
unwillingness of the local population to testify" against them. This is in
part due to the fact that "there is still no specific legislation on witness
protection in place."

The fledgling failed-state of Kosovo is a great boon for the global jihad.
It is true that Kosovar Muslims by and large do not subscribe to radical
Islam. But it is also true that they have allowed their territory to be used
as bases for al-Qaida operations; that members of the ruling Kosovo
Liberation Army have direct links to al-Qaida; and that the Islamic world as
a whole perceived Kosovo's fight for independence from Serbia as a jihad for
Islamic domination of the disputed province.

According to a 2002 Wall Street Journal report, al-Qaida began operating
actively in Kosovo, and in the rest of the Balkans, in 1992. Osama bin Laden
visited Albania in 1996 and 1997. He received a Bosnian passport from the
Bosnian Embassy in Austria in 1993. Acting on bin Laden's orders, in 1994
his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri set up training bases throughout the Balkans
including one in Mitrovica, Kosovo. The Taliban and al-Qaida set up drug
trafficking operations in Kosovo to finance their operations in Afghanistan
and beyond.

In 2006, John Gizzi reported in Human Events that the German intelligence
service BND had confirmed that the 2005 terrorist bombings in Britain and
the 2004 bombings in Spain were organized in Kosovo. Furthermore, "The man
at the center of the provision of the explosives in both instances was an
Albanian, operating mostly out of Kosovo... who is the second ranking leader
of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Niam Behzloulzi."

Then, too, at its 1998 meeting in Pakistan, the Organization of the Islamic
Conference declared that the Albanian separatists in Kosovo were fighting a
jihad. The OIC called on the Muslim world to help "this fight for freedom on
the occupied Muslim territories."

Supporters of Kosovo claim that as victims of "genocide," Kosovar Muslims
deserve independence. But if the Muslims in Kosovo have been targeted for
annihilation by the Serbs, then how is it that they have increased from 48%
of the population in 1948 to 92% today? Indeed, Muslims comprised only 78%
of the population in 1991, the year before Yugoslavia broke apart.

In recent years particularly, it is Kosovo's Serbian Christians, not its
Albanian Muslims, who are targeted for ethnic cleansing. Since 1999,
two-thirds of Kosovo's Serbs - some 250,000 people - have fled the area.

The emergence of a potentially destabilizing state in Kosovo is clearly an
instance of political interests trumping law. Under international law,
Kosovo has no right to be considered a sovereign state. Even UN Security
Council Resolution 1244 from 1999, which the KLA claims provides the legal
basis for Kosovar sovereignty, explicitly recognizes Serbian sovereignty
over Kosovo.

For Israel, Kosovo's US-backed declaration of independence should be a
source of alarm great enough to require a rethinking of foreign policy.
Unfortunately, rather than understand and implement the lessons of Kosovo,
the Olmert-Livni-Barak government is working actively to ensure that they
are reenacted in the international community's treatment of Israel and the
Palestinians. Today, Israel is enabling the Palestinians to set the
political and legal conditions for the establishment of an internationally
recognized state of Palestine that will be at war with Israel.

By accepting the "Road Map Plan to a Two-State Solution" in 2004, Israel
empowered the US, the EU, Russia and the UN, who comprise the international
Quartet, to serve as judges of Palestinian and Israeli actions toward one
another. In November 2007, at the Annapolis conference, the
Olmert-Livni-Barak government explicitly empowered the US to "monitor and
judge the fulfillment of the commitment of both sides of the road map."

That these moves have made Israel dependent on the kindness of strangers was
made clear this week when Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni instructed Israel's
ambassadors to launch a campaign to convince the international community
that Israel and the Palestinians are making great strides in their
negotiations toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. Livni's move
was precipitated by growing European and US dissatisfaction with the pace of
those negotiations and by reports from the meeting of Quartet members in
Berlin on February 11. There all members voiced anger at the slow pace of
negotiations and opposition to Israel's military actions in Gaza, which are
aimed at protecting the western Negev from rocket and mortar attacks.

The US representative at the Quartet's meeting, Assistant Secretary of State
David Welch, reportedly told his colleagues, "First, we must not allow the
suicide bombing in Dimona and the shooting on Sderot to affect the
negotiations."

Welch reportedly added, "It is also important to us that neither the
Palestinians in Gaza nor the Israelis in Sderot are hurt. Also, we must
continue to strengthen Mahmoud Abbas and Salaam Fayad."

Moreover, Ran Koriel, Israel's ambassador to the EU, reportedly warned Livni
that the Russians are pushing for the re-establishment of a Fatah-Hamas
government. Several EU states, including France, are reconsidering their
refusal to recognize Hamas.

If Israel had not empowered the Quartet generally and the US specifically to
determine whether the PA and Israel are behaving properly, a European or
Russian decision to recognize Hamas would have little impact. But given
their role as arbiters, Quartet members can take punitive action against
Israel if it fails to comply with their wishes. The Quartet can replace
international law in determining who can assert sovereignty over Gaza, Judea
and Samaria and how Israel can exercise its own sovereignty. And so, Livni
is reduced to begging them not to recognize Hamas.

Once the US decided in 1999 to commit its own forces to NATO's bombing of
Serbia and subsequent occupation of Kosovo, the jig was up for Serbian
sovereignty over the area. The fact is, NATO forces in Kosovo were deployed
for the express purpose of blocking Serbia from exercising its sovereignty
over Kosovo, not to prevent violence between the Kosovars and the Serbs or
among the Muslims and Christians in Kosovo. That is, NATO deployed in Kosovo
to enable it to gain independence.

And if US or NATO forces are deployed to Gaza or Judea and Samaria, they
will not be there to protect Israelis from Palestinian terror or to prevent
the areas from acting as global terror bases. They will be there to
establish a Palestinian state.

Failing to understand the meaning of Kosovo, the Olmert-Livni-Barak
government refuses to understand this point. Indeed, the government is
actively lobbying NATO to deploy forces in Gaza. Just as it wrongly hoped
that UNIFIL forces in south Lebanon would fight Hizbullah for it, so today,
the Olmert-Livni-Barak government insists that NATO forces in Gaza will
fight Hamas for it.

If applying the lessons of UNIFIL to Gaza is too abstract for the
Olmert-Livni-Barak government, Israel has experience with EU monitors in
Gaza itself to learn from. Wrongly assuming that the Europeans shared
Israel's interest in preventing terrorists and weapons from entering Gaza,
Israel requested that EU monitors set up shop at the Rafah terminal linking
Gaza to Egypt after Israel withdrew from the border in 2005. Yet whenever
confronted by Fatah and Hamas terrorists, rather than fight the EU monitors
flee to Israel for protection. And its monitors' experience with Palestinian
terrorists taking over the border has never caused the EU to question its
support for Palestinian statehood.

Then, too, since the US, EU, UN and Russia all consider Gaza, Judea, Samaria
and Jerusalem to be one territorial unit, it is not surprising that Israel's
request for NATO forces in Gaza has been greeted by a US plan to deploy NATO
forces in Judea and Samaria. If NATO forces in Gaza would do nothing to
secure the border with Egypt or to fight terrorists and would scuttle
Israeli operations in the area, NATO forces in Judea and Samaria would not
simply prevent Israel from protecting its citizens who live there. They
would also prevent Israel from taking action to prevent the Palestinians
from attacking central Israel and asserting control over the border with
Jordan. And yet, as The Jerusalem Post reported this week, Israel is
conducting talks with the US regarding just such a NATO deployment.

What the Serbs made NATO fight its way in to achieve, Israel is offering
NATO on a silver platter.

Not surprisingly, Abbas's adviser and PA propaganda chief Yasser Abd Rabbo
reacted to Kosovo's declaration of independence by recommending that the
Palestinians follow the example. Abd Rabbo said, "Kosovo is not better than
us. We deserve independence even before Kosovo, and we ask for the backing
of the United States and the European Union for our independence."

For its part, the Olmert-Livni-Barak government has responded to Kosovo's
declaration of independence with customary confusion. But the lessons of
Kosovo are clear. Not only should Israel join Russia, Canada, China, Spain,
Romania and many others in refusing to recognize Kosovo. It should also
state that as a consequence of Kosovo's independence, Israel rejects the
deployment of any international forces to Gaza or Judea and Samaria, and
refuses to cede its legal right to sovereignty in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and
Jerusalem to international arbitration.