US AND RUSSIA AT LOGGERHEADS OVER KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE
By Paul Mitchell
World Socialist Web Site, MI
j23.shtml
July 23 2007
Tensions between the United States and Russia, already inflamed at the
G8 summit last month, have erupted over the issue of independence for
Kosovo. The dispute is also splitting Europe, emboldening secessionist
movements elsewhere to press for independence and threatening further
instability in the Balkan region. There is widespread fear of further
violence whether independence goes ahead or not.
The United States is threatening to bypass the United Nations in
order to prevent Russia from using its veto on the Security Council to
stop independence. On July 18, US Under Secretary of State Nicholas
Burns declared that Kosovo will be independent by the end of 2007,
restating George W. Bush’s promise when he met with Albanian Prime
Minister Sali Berisha last month.
Burns told the daily newspaper Koha Ditore, "The US will not allow
anyone to come in the way of Kosovo’s independence" and added that
"this will happen either at the UN Security Council or through other
mechanisms."
Burns said the US had delayed implementing the final status solution
for Kosovo proposed by UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari in order
to allow Russia to be a part of the process, "but Russia has not
been constructive."
Later that day, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed the US
position, saying, "We are committed to an independent Kosovo and we
will get there one way or another."
Kosovo has been administered as a protectorate since 1999 under the
terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which recognised Serbia’s
sovereignty over the province while simultaneously placing it under
the occupation of foreign troops governed by an un-elected UN viceroy.
Formally, a new Security Council resolution is needed to pave the
way for Kosovo’s independence. In this case, "independence" should
more accurately be understood as a transfer of control of a de-facto
fiefdom of the Western powers from a UN high representative to a
European Union (EU) high representative, empowered to overturn laws
passed by the Kosovar parliament, remove public officials, and ensure
that the diktats of international financial institutions are enforced.
To that end, the US and EU drafted a new Security Council resolution
which calls for the transfer to take place over a 120-day period,
during which time the Western powers will exert pressure on the
Kosovan Albanian majority and the province’s Serb minority, which
wants to remain part of Serbia, to come up with an agreement. EU
officials have indicated they may hold another round of "proximity
talks" starting in September, or organise an international conference
modelled on the 1995 Dayton Accord that ended the war in Bosnia and
has since enshrined ethnic divisions in three Bosnian mini-states.
The US and the EU warned Russia that if it vetoed the Security Council
resolution they would pursue Kosovan independence through the informal
Kosovo Contact Group, comprising the US, Britain, France, Germany,
Italy and Russia, but where Russia does not have a veto. EU foreign
policy chief Javier Solana said, "If it is not a possibility at the
United Nations at this time, I’m sure there will be an agreement
among members of the Contact Group to open a process of negotiations."
In the event, the US and EU withdrew the resolution and resolved to
discuss the issue on July 25 in Berlin.
The resolution did not openly call for independence if talks fail,
but Russia said the text still contained a hidden path toward Kosovo’s
independence which officials insisted was a breach of international
law. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said of the draft, "Almost the entire
text and maybe particularly the annexes are permeated with the concept
of the independence of Kosovo."
That the Western powers are pursuing Kosovo’s independence so hastily
is in part due to their having let the genie of Albanian nationalism
out of the bottle when they boosted the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
in the 1999 air war to oust Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
Earlier this year, several thousand Kosovo Albanians demonstrated
against delays to independence. Two demonstrators were killed after
UN police fired rubber bullets, leading to the resignation of the UN
police chief and Kosovan interior minister.
The KLA leadership, which now enjoys top positions in the government
of the province, is threatening to unilaterally declare independence.
Kosovo Prime Minister and former KLA commander Agim Ceku declared on
July 14, "The time is now. There is no need for discussion. There is
nothing left to negotiate."
After the failure of the UN resolution to be passed, Ceku repeated
calls for the Kosovo parliament to declare unilateral independence
from Serbia on November 28-Independence Day in neighbouring Albania.
Ceku said the parliament should discuss the proposal after his return
from a meeting with Condoleezza Rice in Washington on July 23, where
discussions on holding elections in Kosovo are due to take place.
Ceku also criticised moves to divide Kosovo along ethnic lines, as some
analysts have suggested, saying, "Partition is not a solution, and it’s
simply not possible… No one will agree and it will not be accepted."
Ignoring his own role in ethnically dividing the Balkan region and the
terrible conditions facing the Serb minority (20,000 houses belonging
to Serb refugees have been occupied or burnt, and only 600 have been
returned) Ceku added, "If you start to draw borders in the Balkans,
where do you stop?"
The question, nevertheless, is one that deserves an answer. And it
is one that has implications that go far beyond the Balkan region.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Ko~Ztunica repeated his demand for the
preservation of Serbia’s territorial integrity, saying, "We will not
accept an amputation of 15 percent of our territory. According to our
constitution, the province of Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia."
When asked by reporters if EU officials had suggested Serbia trade
Kosovo’s independence for EU entry, he answered, "The offer is like
this: If you want Europe you can forget Kosovo, if you want Kosovo
you can forget Europe." He complained, "Things cannot be like that.
It’s an indecent offer."
However, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner let it be known that
Serbia will sign a preliminary agreement with the EU by the end of the
year and become a candidate member in the second half of 2008, during
France’s presidency. He warned Serbia, "Nonetheless, we harbour no
illusions-there is the issue of Kosovo which has to be settled first."
To overcome calls by other separatist forces for consideration of
their claims for independence, the US and the EU have repeatedly
stated that Kosovo is a sui generis case-whatever the final solution
to its status, it cannot be copied for other disputes. However,
Russian State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov said independence for
Kosovo would encourage separatism in many countries worldwide,
"including Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova,
Spain, the UK and many African countries."
Former deputy foreign minister and presidential candidate for
Nagorno Karabakh, Masis Mailyan, suggested, "The Kosovo model of
conflict settlement could be an example for the resolution of other
conflicts… In this sense the Kosovo model is an interesting one for
us. That is to say, we could achieve recognition under a new scenario."
Elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, separatists in Georgia’s South
Ossetia and Abkhazia regions, and in Moldova’s Transdniestria, also
want international recognition and say they are watching closely what
happens in Kosovo.
The seriousness of the issue for Moscow in what it sees as its
sphere of influence was hinted at in an op-ed piece by Novosti news
agency political commentator Pyotr Romanov. He warned, "The old
order is crumbling before our very eyes. Russia has firmly upheld
the territorial integrity of Georgia and Moldova, in line with
international law and even though its relations with these states are
far from ideal. What should it do now, support separatist tendencies
on its border? Or withdraw from the UN? This reminds me of the demise
of the League of Nations and of the run-up to World War II."
The Balkan region has once again become a patchwork of ethnically
divided states at the mercy of great power intrigues.
One need not look to 1939 in order to understand the dangers
involved. At the end of the Kosovo conflict in June 1999, 200 Russian
troops briefly occupied Pristina airport. Moscow had expected to
police its own sector of Kosovo, independently of NATO.
NATO’s K-For peacekeepers were preparing to enter Kosovo on June 12,
but were met by Russian troops who had moved in from Bosnia. In
collaboration with NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, NATO
Supreme Commander General Wesley Clark ordered 500 British and French
paratroopers to be put on standby to occupy the airport.
The BBC later reported that the plan was blocked by General Sir Mike
Jackson, K-For’s British commander, who told Clark, "I’m not going
to start the Third World War for you."
The Russians took the airport and had plans to fly in thousands of
troops. General Leonid Ivashev said, "Let’s just say that we had
several airbases ready. We had battalions of paratroopers ready to
leave within two hours."
Clark planned to order British tanks and armoured cars to block the
runways, but was once more vetoed by Britain. A deal on Russian troop
deployment was subsequently agreed, but for a period it looked as if
Kosovo might be partitioned into a Serbian area in the north and an
ethnically Albanian area in the south. The plan for independence has
raised these fears once again, and with them the very real possibility
of war.