[R-G] Grubacic / Kosovo: A new War in the Balkans? From supervised independence to unsupervised violence / Dec 10

[Anthony Fenton]

Today's commentary:
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-12/10grubacic.cfm

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ZNet Commentary
Kosovo: A new War in the Balkans? From supervised independence to  
unsupervised violence December 10, 2007
By Andrej Grubacic

I have been receiving a lot of emails recently, asking if there is  
going to be another war in Kosovo. This commentary is an attempt to  
respond to these inquires. What are the latest developments regarding  
the future of Kosovo? According to BBC, mediators in talks between  
Kosovo and Serbia have concluded that no agreement can be reached on  
Kosovo's final status ahead of a UN deadline of December 10th. Who  
are these mediators? The mainstream media call them "troika": EU, US  
and Russia. After 120 days of deciding the fate of the Serbian,  
Albanian and Roma people who live in Kosovo, "troika" was "unable to  
break a deal" and solve the "looming Kosovo crisis". Kosovo, to  
remind ZNet readers, is still a Serbian province, at least under  
international law. It was "liberated" in 1999, in the course of  
"NATO's first war", a humanitarian intervention whose aim was to  
promote democracy in this semi-barbaric part of the world, sometimes  
referred to as Wild Europe by its civilized western European  
neighbors. The newly established democracy is a colonial protectorate  
hosting American military basis and Guantanamo-like prisons used for  
interrogation purposes in the "War of Terror". The remaining Serbs  
and Roma are being periodically "cleansed", and pushed to remote  
enclaves. Roma, for the most part, live in camps built on  
contaminated ground. The colonial Government removed the Roma from  
three refugee camps built on toxic wasteland only to relocate them to  
a camp in north Mitrovica abandoned by the French because of the lead  
poisoning. They live in fear, waiting for the next move of the  
Albanian government.

The newly elected Albanian government of Hashim Tachi, war criminal  
of UCK (KLA) fame, and one of the leading members of the Kosovo  
criminal cartel, have threatened to declare independence unilaterally  
after the UN deadline. His threats are supported by the statements of  
the governments of the US, Britain, Germany, France and Italy who  
insist that the international community (and this community is truly  
international: it embodies international people outside of Kosovo,  
who are deciding the lives of people of Kosovo) "must honor its  
responsibilities to Kosovo". Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov  
has accused his negotiation partners of impatience: "Regrettably, our  
Western partners are blocking such (talks) by saying that Kosovo's  
independence is unavoidable". Nato spokesman James Appathurai is  
tired of talking: "the Nato point of view is ... that the process  
should now move - that there needs to be movement towards  
resolution". Lt Col Grossmann of K-For says that, "NATO will stay  
here as long as it is needed, and as long as the international  
community sees it as a proper means to put out this conflict." NATO  
as a proper means of putting out the conflict? In his reaction to  
these "proper means", Aleksandar Simic, an advisor to Serbia's prime  
minister Vojislav Kostunica, "told the Belgrade media that Serbia had  
the legal right to use war as a means of defending its territory if  
Kosovo declares independence. This made His Excellency Wolfgang  
Ischinger, the European member of a "troika", very angry and upset.  
How dares Simic! His Excellency told the reporters that he believes  
that, "it is inadmissible and intolerable that even before the troika  
report is out one of the parties expresses himself in this way".  
Interestingly enough, he does not find it "inadmissible and  
intolerable" for the envoys of the international community and NATO  
to say, even before the troika report is out, that the independence  
of Kosovo is "imminent". Nor does he mention Thaci, who has assured  
the EU and Washington that he, impulsive as he is, changed his mind,  
and that he will wait and declare independence after some more  
meetings of the international community, but not later then early in  
the new year. Kosovo's Albanian President Fatmir Sejdiu also said  
independence for Kosovo "will happen very quickly" but refused to  
give an exact date. Colonial governor of Kosovo, Joachim Rucker, is  
certain that, " the people of Kosovo have enough maturity to let  
international mechanisms work". By these international mechanisms he  
probably means the forthcoming EU summit in Brussels on 14th of  
December, which is expected to send a signal of support to Kosovo  
from a majority of the EU states. It is also probable that Serbia  
will be offered a "carrot" : a promise that one day they will be  
permitted to join the European Union. It is also safe to say that as  
soon as this declaration is issued, Serbs and Roma from the "Serbian  
north" of Kosovo, as well as enclaves in the centre and south of the  
region, are going to be attacked. A new circle of ethnic violence  
will ensue, and Kosovo, "the crucible of Europe's most divisive  
conflict in recent memory", will explode into a full-blown regional  
conflict. The International Crisis Group, which is strongly in favor  
of Kosovo independence, in a recent report expressed concern over  
possible "unsupervised, possibly violent, independence process". It  
is important to note that the independence being promised to Kosovo  
Albanians is a "supervised independence". This means that the  
independence given to the Albanians would be supervised and  
constrained by a so-called International Civilian Representative, and  
backed by a strong international military presence (this was, in more  
honest times, called occupation).

  My answer, the only one I can give, to the question if there is  
going to be another war, between NATO and Serbia, and between Kosovo  
Albanians and Kosovo minorities, is yes. There will be another war.  
If the "international community", with its army and its colonial  
apparatus, does not leave Albanians, Serbs and Roma to decide their  
future for themselves, the war, or, in the least, "localized"  
violence (and internationally supervised) and another wave of ethnic  
cleansing of Serbs and Roma, will be inevitable. The only chance for  
peace in the Balkans is the end of the occupation of the Balkans. In  
Kosovo as well as in Bosnia. European and American gentlemen,  
iternational "humanitarian" NGO's, dear concerned members of the  
international community, please leave. And don't forget to take the  
BBC journalists with you.

  *Andrej Grubacic is an anarchist historian and Znet writer from the  
Balkans. He is a member of the post-Yugoslav "Freedom Fight"  
collective, "Global Balkan" network, and the editorial board of  
Balkan Z magazine. He can be reached at zapata at mutualaid.org