New Europe, Belgium
Kosovo: `Thinking Outside Of The Box’
Author: Wes Johnson is the 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.
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Wes Johnson is the author of Balkan Inferno: Betrayal,
War, and Intervention 1990-2005, Enigma Books, New
York, NY, 2007.