KOSOVO PRECEDENT FOR TRANSDNIESTER, SAYS PRES.
By Times staff
Tiraspol Times & Weekly Review, Moldova
(With information from AP)
May 18 2007
Transdniester will benefit from an eventual Kosovo independence,
says its president. Igor Smirnov also thinks his country has an even
better case for independence than Kosovo. Transdniester is fighting
to win official recognition as an independent state.
Tiraspol, the capital of unrecognized Transdniester: "More legal and
historical right to independence than Kosovo", says SmirnovTIRASPOL
(Tiraspol Times) – As Kosovo is pushing for independence, a precedence
is being shaped in international where self-determination and democracy
wins out over the opposing principle of territorial integrity. At the
same time, independence looks like it’ll be recognized in a case of
secession even when the metropolitan state disagrees.
" – The Kosovo precedent will be important for us," said Igor Smirnov,
President of Pridnestrovie. As reported by the Associated Press, he
maintains that Pridnestrovie, which is also known as Trans-Dniester
or Transnistria, has an even better case for independence than Kosovo.
Others in the know confirm that Kosovo will indeed set a precedent.
Mahmoud Othman, a senior Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament,
explains that eventual independence for Kosovo "will establish a
legal principle" in international law.
The United States and European Union are trying their best to dismiss
this. The man who planned Kosovo independence, former Finnish president
Martti Ahtisaari, said he did not believe a precedent would be set
by granting the province independence. "No two problem areas are the
same," he said.
Pro-independence leader Igor Smirnov, the current President of
Pridnestrovie (unofficially also known as Transdniester).
Nevertheless, Kosovo’s future looks set to have far-reaching effects.
Where international law is concerned, there is no law for one party
which can then be denied to others. The argument that "no two problems
areas are the same" is essentially only a political argument. It has
little to do with law, say conflict resolution specialists, because
law operates on the opposite principle – law functions best when
justice is truly blind.
" – Kosovo’s independence would certainly have broad and destabilizing
consequences for many other secessionist conflicts," says Bruno
Coppieters, head of the Political Sciences Department at Brussels
Free University. Coppieters is a specialist in unresolved post-Soviet
territorial claims, having written extensively on Pridnestrovie and
Abkhazia, among others.
The U.S. and EU insist Kosovo is a special case because it has been
a United Nations and NATO protectorate following an invasion in 1999.
" – A new Security Council resolution would clearly specify that this
was a unique case not applicable to other regions," U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State Daniel Fried said in a recent interview, adding that
"Kosovo will be independent one way or the other."
No border changes through war If Kosovo independence is a direct
result of an act of aggression – the 1999 war – then that in itself
is contrary to international law.
The most fundamental rule holds that peremptory norms of general
international law are binding on all parties.
In the case of the former Yugoslavia, the prevailing standards of
international law were defined very clearly at a very early stage by
the Badinter Arbitration Committee, named for its chair, which ruled
on the question of whether the Republics of Croatia, Macedonia, and
Slovenia, who had formally requested recognition by the members of
the European Union and by the EU itself, had met conditions specified
by the Council of Ministers of the European Community on December
16, 1991.
The Badinter Committe, in its Opinion No 3, stated that: "According
to a well-established principle of international law the alteration of
existing frontiers or boundaries by force is not capable of producing
any legal effect."
Kosovo gained its ‘de facto’ independence from Serbia as a result of
war. It is now trying to get ‘de jure’ independence.
In contrast, Pridnestrovie (Transdniester) became independent in 1990
through a democratic referendum followed by a peaceful declaration
of independence. The declaration did not involve war, and no one
was killed at the time. Moldova did not accept the declaration, and
in 1992 tried to put an end to Pridnestrovie’s peaceful ‘de facto’
independence. This led to a war when Moldova sent troops over the
Dniester river in an attempt to impose its sovereignty upon its
‘de facto’ independent neighbor.
" – Although there was a war, this wasn’t started by us," says Petru
Gladchi, a civil society activist in Tiraspol. "I was just a kid
at the time, but I still remember. Moldova sent tanks and airplanes
against us. They entered Pridnestrovie. We never entered Moldova, we
didn’t bomb their towns and villages, and we certainly never wanted
to impose our sovereignty on them. We just wanted them to respect
our declaration of independence, just as we had respected theirs."
Kosovo precedent confirmed A new State created from war is invalid,
says international law, and this would seem to rule out independence
for Kosovo. Pridnestrovie, which was already ‘de facto’ independent
before Moldova’s failed 1992 invasion, doesn’t have that problem:
Although lacking international recognition, it declared independence
peacefully, as the result of a referendum among the inhabitants.
As such, Pridnestrovie – or Transdnestr, as some call it – is on
more solid legal ground than Kosovo. But if Kosovo independence goes
forward as the U.S. wants it to, experts agree that it will inevitably
set a precedent despite assurances to the contrary.
Josu Erkoreka, a parliamentary spokesman in Spain – which currency
holds the OSCE presidency – confirms that Kosovo is a precedent. He
calls this "very good" and a "a very positive development," bringing
more freedom and democracy to a world that needs it.
Othman, in Iraq’s parliament, says it is wrong to claim that Kosovo is
somehow special. Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees. In February,
he repeated that independence for Kosovo would be taken as a precedent
by others, including Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh. He
did not mention Pridnestrovie, since technically Pridnestrovie is
not looking to break away from Moldova.
Pridnestrovie declared independence one year before the current
Republic of Moldova even existed, and has never at any time in history
been part of an independent Moldovan state.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
