HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Dec 30, 2003 With the eyes of the international community focused to some degree on Iraq and to an increasingly lesser extent on Afghanistan it is important to remember that the West intervened several years before the Afghan war in Kosovo. Kosovo is at this moment an integrated region of Serbia, which was formerly, called Yugoslavia but now simply the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro. After years of bloodshed in the wake of the disintegration of Yugoslavia into separate nations and failed Western policies aimed at the region, the NATO alliance undertook upon itself the duty of ending ethnic cleansing in the Balkans for a final time. Yugoslavia itself could not maintain it’s “physical” integrity in the post-Cold War era as ethnic minorities and majorities began calling for their own separate states. In this wake, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Macedonia were all born out of bloody conflicts for freedom. The West itself did very little to aid the peoples of the Balkans to attain their own self-determination. We sponsored coffee clutches in many locals, such as Dayton and Paris, where we gained nothing but a great deal of “dialogue’. The architect of much of the atrocities in the Balkans was the then president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic. In the end Milosevic failed in his mission, Yugoslavia disintegrated, and the new republics kept their independence. The formerly autonomous region of Kosovo did not join the ranks of Croatia and many of the other regions of Yugoslavia at the end of the conflict. It sits trapped, not allowed to set its orbit to its own wishes, not by the Serbian government and sadly not by the Western Alliance. Looking back with hindsight on the conflict nearly 4 years after NATO’s air war and subsequent protectorate occupation, the mass graves have not offered up the amounts of bodies that many of the Western leaders said we would find. Most likely their intelligence was faulty or their informants longed for intervention so strongly that they found room for fuzzy reporting. Whatever the reason, the intervention was not only right, it was long overdue. In the words of former United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher speaking on another subject, “right and wrong are not measured by a head count of those to whom the wrong has been done. That would not be principle but expediency.” She is correct; to assign a quota that must be reached in mass graves before intervention can occur is painfully irresponsible. The message should have been then as it was after World War II that ethnic cleansing has no place on the continent of Europe and it will be stopped by all means necessary. Aggressors will be confronted and we will be clear and stern “End your tyranny or we will end it for you.” In reality our message was muddled and as so happens with unclear messages and dictators whether they be Slobodan Milosevic, Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein they end up believing that they can get away with it. Slobodan Milosevic was appeased by the West in his earlier aggression against the non-Serb peoples of Croatia and Slovenia and so he continued his aggression elsewhere within the Balkans, for one simple reason, we let him. The truth is the West’s action’s had perpetuated the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans by placing an embargo on the selling of arms to the Croatians and Bosnians, basically lining these people up for target practice. When we did intervene in Bosnia militarily it was from our airforces (mostly the USA and UK) and it was from a safe distance. We made it clear that we were not willing to sacrifice anything except missiles to end the bloodshed. The grim picture repeated itself once more in Kosovo as our airforces brought Slobodan back to reality for a final time and he was humbled before his people, who overthrew him on April 1st 2001. He was sent to The Hague later that year by the new Serb administration. If Milosevic had been put on trial in Serbia it would most likely have caused a civil war; the West also offered though, financial incentive for the Serbs to hand over the “Butcher of Belgrade.” The reason for rehashing an unfamiliar past to most is because Kosovo now sits in limbo. A pseudo protectorate of the United Nations, (It is important to state that the NATO intervention in Kosovo went on without a UN Security Council resolution) administrated by the NATO alliance. Recently though talks were held to discuss creating a better dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo. This sponsored talk unfortunately was missing influential players from the Kosovar side, and what was not on the table for discussion was the future of Kosovo, only its “present.” With dialogue like this it is ensured that Kosovo’s time as a territory of the international community lorded over by people unfamiliar with and not of the region will continue indefinitely. Kosovo could have been an example of an intervention that was completely successful; this will sadly not be the case. Unfortunately the international community is more interested in seeing that Kosovo remain part of Serbia then see that a lasting peace comes to the whole of the Balkan region. A true peace, which could have brought justice, freedom and democracy, to a people who, has never known them. For the first time in Kosovo stability would be brought about by a sense of democratic community and not tyranny. Instead though bureaucracy will become the order of the day. The European Union helped to sponsor the latest chat-fest aimed at getting Serbs and Kosovars to like each other. This was done hot off the heels of the EU’s most recent failure in peacekeeping in Macedonia, where the EU called on NATO assistance to get the job “done.” With greater EU involvement in Kosovo there will be no chance that the entity responsible for “federalizing’ Europe will turn around and see to the devolution and further disintegration of a nation state. No they will see to it that Kosovo becomes their very own European fiefdom for their impotent empire. Regional stability will not be affected by Kosovo leaving Serbia anymore so then it already has been. There is absolutely no reason for a steady transition to the democratic process to be delayed. Our forces, as well as all international forces have been there for far too long. They can be put to better use in other regions of the world; Iraq and Afghanistan come quickly to mind. Self-determination is not just a privilege in the New World Order it is a right and it must be given to all in order for the Free World to extend itself. A timetable must be set up and kept to, that would bring Kosovo to independence if it is, as I imagine the will of the Kosovar people. Thus a referendum must be held allowing the people to vote, and this means all the people including the Serb minority. This would be verified by the international community already present in Kosovo as well as any members of the United Nations who wish to come out of their hiding in Turtle Bay. All those who were forced out of Kosovo be them ethnic Albanian or Serb should be allowed to continue to return, obviously those who committed crimes against humanity would be exempt from return. This process should take place in a timetable that is no longer then two years at the most. If independence from Serbia is chosen then the will of the people have spoken and thy will must be done. Thus the speedy but skillful removal of NATO forces must begin, and a guarantee of NATO protection must be extended to the fledgling state in order to repel any thought of Serbian aggression. The leaders of NATO must make it clear to the government in Belgrade, enter Kosovo at your peril. A pledge of free world reconstruction aid must be extended as well, though this should be aid and not, never-ending welfare. Financially the Europeans must take the lead, it is their neighborhood, it is their responsibility, and it is their duty. Undoubtedly Kosovo’s democracy will not be perfect from the start. Democracy is a learned trait one that is applicable to all and I have no doubt that Kosovars will be able to evolve their democracy far better without stringent meddling from outside forces, then they would be with the bureaucratic meddling that only Brussels can supply. The assertion of a national identity in Kosovo under this process would serve as a lesson in success in so called nation building. Kosovo would not be a rich nation, nor would it be powerful, but it would be peaceful, as long as it remembers what Milosevic’s government in Belgrade had forgotten, that the cornerstone of a democracy is that the majority governs with minority rights safeguarded. Somehow I imagine that this lesson is something Kosovo could lecture on, rather then be preached to about. ------------ About the author: Ian Reilly is a recent graduate of Marymount Manhattan College where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in the Humanities with a concentration in International Studies. He was born and raised in New York City, New York. Email Ian Reilly: McUKFrog@aol.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
