UN MEMBERSHIP FOR THE WORLD’S PHANTOM REPUBLICS
By René Wadlo

Tiraspol Times & Weekly Review
25/Sep/2008
Moldova

>From Geneva, UN Representative René Wadlow writes that it is time for
a ‘package deal’ which puts Transdniestria and Abkhazia in the United
Nations, along with Kosovo and other de facto independent states. He
knows there will be opposition, but in the long run his solution is
the best way forward for everyone involved.

"The Phantom Republics" has been the name given to the states demanding
the status of independence after the break up of Yugoslavia and the
Soviet Union: Abkhazia, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia
and Transnistra. The current conflict between Russia and Georgia
has put the Abkhazia and South Ossetia conflicts at center stage of
world politics.

The independence of Kosovo has been recognized by a good number
of countries, but there is also strong opposition, and Kosovo has
not been granted membership in the United Nations. However, if the
Phantom Republics supported by Russia — Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia,
South Ossetia and Transnistra — were granted UN membership, it might
be possible that Kosovo independence would be a counter-weight and
a sign of good will on the part of the Russian Federation.

Security should start with a ‘package deal’ of membership for all
the Phantom Republics in the United Nations as soon as possible. The
UN General Assembly begins in late September, and membership should
be a high priority. With UN membership, the danger of changing their
status by force is lessened.

Membership in the UN raises for some the spectre of ‘fragmentation’
or ‘Balkanization’ of the world into a multitude of tiny units to
the disadvantage of world security.

However, in this case, the recognition of independence is a necessary
first step for security and a lessening of tensions.

Once UN membership has been universally accepted for the Phantom
Republics, new forms of regional cooperation can be undertaken in a
calmer and clearer atmosphere. Once recognized through UN membership,
it will be up to each of the Phantom Republics to create economic,
social and political ties with its neighbors.

There are obviously oppositions to recognizing each of these states
as independent, in particular opposition from the states of which
they were once a part. Serbia has run a long campaign against the
independence of Kosovo citing history, the human rights of minorities,
and territorial integrity. At one stage, I had thought that it might be
possible to create a pan-Albanian cultural union with official links
among the Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia while keeping
a political status of autonomy within Serbia. However, governments
like simple solutions — you are in or out, independent or not. Just
as it is difficult to be partly pregnant, so it is difficult to be
partly independent.

Thus, after long and bitter negotiations, Kosovo is an independent
state which will have to create links with Albania and Macedonia but
which cannot escape relations with Serbia which remains the economic
motor of the region. Each of the Phantom Republics is in a difficult
position, and with good will and creative political imagination,
other forms than independence guaranteed by UN membership might have
been found. Alas, good will and creative political imagination have
been in short supply.

In the case of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, at least since
1993, there have been mediators from the UN and the Organizations
for Security and Cooperation in Europe. There have been ‘track two’
— non-governmental meetings to discuss the issues. There have been
detailed proposals set out, one by a colleague from the University of
Geneva, Prof Giorgio Malinverni, who proposed a form of asymmetrical
federalism for Georgia — a Swiss Ambassador, Edward Brunner, being
the UN mediator at the time. While the plan was discussed, nothing
seems to have come of it. Today, the issues in Georgia have resulted
in tensions between the USA, Europe and Russia not seen since the
end of the Cold War in 1990.

My proposal is a ‘package deal’ in which all the Phantom Republics
become UN members at the same time. Such a package deal resembles
earlier package deals for membership when countries had been blocked
by Cold War tensions. UN membership grants recognition of being part
of the ‘international community’. It guarantees existing frontiers
and is a wall against aggression. UN membership will also provide
an elegant way for Russia to withdraw its peacekeeping troops from
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and first from the ‘security zones’
which are clearly in Georgian territory.

During the period of international control of Kosovo, prior to its
independence, a shorthand term for policy was ‘standards before
status’. In Kosovo, there should be at least minimum respect for the
standards of the rule of law, safeguard of minorities, and a return
of refugees, prior to discussions on its status of independence or
autonomy within Serbia. One can discuss if these standards were in
fact met prior to independence. However, in the case of the other
Phantom Republics, the reverse policy is needed: status before
standards. There needs to be universal recognition of the status of
independence by UN membership before there can be any serious effort
of establishing the rule of law and human rights. As long as a clear
status is not established, the republics will remain politically and
economically unstable. Without UN membership, there will always be
excuses for the presence of Russian military forces.

Following the Kosovo precedent, the most stable outcome of the
conflict in Georgia is independence for Abkhazia and South Ossetia
with rapid membership within the United Nations. UN membership
should be a sufficient guarantee against attack. There is probably
no need for peacekeeping forces, especially not Russian peacekeeping
forces. The United Nations should provide human rights monitors
as well as providing help for economic planning with a regional
focus. Independence with UN membership can provide a new and stable
political-economic framework so that people may try to pull their lives
together which they have not been able to do since 1992 when armed
violence and refugee flows broke out in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. UN
membership for Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistra will help prevent these
‘frozen conflicts’ from melting into new violence as well.

Thus, the Phantom Republics will join the UN to sit along with such
small UN members as Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, and
San Marino — states born with the restructuring of feudal Europe. It
may take some time to turn Abkhazia into a Black Sea Monaco, but
inevitably, for economic and social reasons, neighboring states learn
to cooperate if they are not able to destroy one or the other by war.

René Wadlow is the Representative to the United Nations, Geneva,
of the Association of World Citizens and the editor of Transnational
Perspectives, a journal of world politics and social policy founded
in 1974.

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