Byzantine Blog

The Kosovo Catastrophe

By Martin Sieff, Editor of the United Press International (HumanEvents.com)

It is hardly a conservative policy to support the establishment of an Islamist state on the European continent, turn a blind eye to the well-documented persecution of an ancient Christian community, engage in a Woodrow Wilson-style passion for nation building and follow in the footsteps of Bill Clinton. Yet that is what the United States has done by recognizing the independence of Kosovo.

Kosovo is the ancient heartland of the Serbian people going back to the dawn of their history. It certainly had a Muslim ethnic Albanian majority before Clinton and his Secretary of State Madeline Albright bombed Belgrade back in 1999 in order to force the Serbs to cede its autonomy. Since then the Albanian Muslim majority has become overwhelming and had has run rampant over the ancient Christian Serb community [...]

Kosovo and the Threat of Violent Separatism

By Mark Kramer, Director of Harvard University's Cold War Studies Program (Washington Post, Report.com, TheSacramentoBee)

Kosovo's decision to declare independence was a bad idea. The U.S. decision to recognize it was worse -- and not because it prompted a crowd of angry Serbs to torch the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade.

Even if the pint-size chunk of the Balkans does not degenerate into failed statehood like Sudan or Somalia, it almost certainly will remain in its current perilous condition and become a European bastion of criminality and human trafficking. Recognizing Kosovo also sends a bizarre message to separatist movements around the world: If you resort to violence, the West might support you; if you're peaceful, you haven't got a prayer [...]

Independent Kosovo a Minefield, Not a Triumph

By Seumas Milne, The Canberra Times

It might have been expected that the catastrophe of Iraq and the bloody failure of Afghanistan would have at least damped the enthusiasm among Western politicians for invading other people's countries in the name of democracy and human rights.

But the signs are instead of a determined drive to rehabilitate the idea of liberal interventionism so comprehensively discredited in the killing fields of Fallujah and Samarra. First there was the appointment of the committed interventionist, Bernard Kouchner, as French Foreign Minister. Then, late last year, that supposedly reluctant warrior, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, reasserted the West's right to intervene across state borders.

[...] But it's hard to see much triumph in the grim saga of Kosovo. NATO's 1999 bombing campaign, unleashed without United Nations support and widely regarded as a violation of international law, was supposed to halt repression and ethnic cleansing, but triggered a massive increase in both; secured a Serbian withdrawal only through Russian pressure; and led to mass reverse ethnic cleansing of Serbs and Roma, including almost the entire Serb population of Pristina. After nine years of NATO occupation under a nominal UN administration, crime-ridden Kosovo is more ethnically divided than ever, boasts 50 per cent unemployment and hosts a US military base described by the EU's human rights envoy as a "smaller version of Guantanamo".

Its independence declared in defiance of the United Nations Security Council and damned by Russia, China and European Union states such as Spain as illegal is a fraud and will remain so as an EU protectorate controlled by NATO troops. By encouraging a unilateral breakaway from Serbia, without negotiation and outside the UN framework, the US, Britain and France have given the green light to secessionist movements from Abkhazia to Kurdistan [...]

Phony Kosovo ‘Independence’

By Jared Israel, Arutz Sheva and TENC.net

We are inundated with misinformation about Kosovo 'independence.' Case in point: "Kosovo Declares its Independence from Serbia," in the February 18th New York Times. [1] It should have a warning label: 'This article is harmful to the truth.'

The Times says Kosovo Albanians had "a long and bloody struggle for national self-determination," suggesting a people distinct from Albanians in Albania, acting independently. But the Times also describes Kosovo Albanians celebrating by waving not 'Kosovar,' but U.S. and Albanian flags:

"The distinctive two-headed eagle of the red and black Albanian flag, reviled by Serbs, was everywhere Sunday, held by revelers, draped on horses, flapping out of car windows and hanging outside homes and storefronts across the territory." [...]

This supports the charge that 'independence' is part of a U.S. (and German and Vatican) strategy of absorbing Serbia's province of Kosovo into a Greater Albania that previously existed only under WWII Axis patronage [...]

Severing Kosovo—A Major US Setup

Comment by Paul Andrew Kirk (HumanEvents.com)

I have served two tours in Kosovo with the US Military and I can tell you the following as factual:

1. Almost all facets and levels of the provisional government in Kosovo are corrupt. In fact its the worst I've ever seen and I've had to deal with some pretty corrupt governments during my career.

2. Supervised independence or even full independence will not improve the miserable lives of the ordinary people of Kosovo. Partly because of what I've listed as fact "1"., and partly because it will take decades of imense amounts of foreign aid throughout economy in order to bring Kosovo into a functioning state that wouldn't need foreign assistance for its survival.

3. Ethnic cleansing is still a common occurence in Kosovo but, this time its the ethnic Albanians ethnically cleansing the Serbs, Roma, Ashkali, Croatians, and Turk minorities through intimidation and at times outright force. I have personally witnessed this on many occasions.

4. No amount of foreign investment will provide enough jobs for the amount of unemployed people in Kosovo. The only way for Kosovo to maintain stability is for the EU to open its borders for an influx of foreign workers from Kosovo.

5. Islamic extremism is on the rise in Kosovo. KFOR soldiers have been attacked in Gjilan [Gnjilane], Ferizaj [Urosevac] and Prizren when I was there. You just won't see or hear about it in the news. More Mosques have been built in Kosovo in the last five years than schools, roads, health clinics, and all other sanitation projects combined. Compliments of Muslim charities from the Middle East.

6. Mass graves of Kosovo Serbs and Roma have been found during my rotation and reported to the UN. Yet nothing has been done. Why? When we posed the question to our UN contacts in Pristina they replied: "During the transitional stage of Kosovo this would be destabilizing. We'll wait until there is a final resolution before we proceed." All those journalists interested in a real story...start looking in around Novo Brdo.

7. The US Government along with key EU allies never had any intention of allowing Serbia a fair opportunity to negotiate with the Kosovar provisional government on the possibilities of a workable settlement that might have been permanent. I was party to a couple of meetings where US Government officials point blank told the Kosovar representatives that no matter what, the US will support independence and that going to these conferences in Vienna were just to give a favorable impression on the world opinion.

These are the facts. Some people might be outraged and some might be surprised, however it really doesn't matter in the final analysis of all things considered. Superpowers will do what they want.

Kosovo independence will do nothing for stability of the region, in fact, the opposite will occur.

The Kosovar Albanians are now joyous they will have a new nation but, when all the partying ends and the dust clears, all that will exist is another backward, poverty stricken, underdeveloped, internationally protected country in an area of hostile neighbors thats todays news story and tomorrows breeding ground for extremism and resentment.

HT: George Thompson, Nebojsa Malic

Cartoon by Toso Borkovic (Serbia)