LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
July 20, 2006
New York
Balkan realities
Tod
Lindberg is right that the EU and NATO countries should not turn their backs on
Balkan countries wishing to share in the peace and prosperity of the new Europe.
However, he is wrong to suggest that it was only Slobodan Milosevic's "genocidal
policies" that set the Balkans in flames in the early 1990s and wrong to condemn
Serbian determination to maintain Kosovo as an integral part of its territory
("Where Milosevic's butchery held sway,"
Op-Ed, July 11).
It
has become fashionable to blame Milosevic and Serbia for everything that went
wrong in the former Yugoslavia while overlooking the concerns of the Christian
Serbian population in Bosnia and in Kosovo at the grim prospects of having to
live in Muslim-dominated states.
Alia Izetbegovic, the Muslim
Bosnian leader, was an Islamist extremist who made no attempt to hide his plans
for destroying the Christian entity in Bosnia, writing, "There can be no peace
or co-existence between the Islamist faith and non-Islamist institutions." As
for Agim Ceku, the so-called prime minister of Kosovo, the
Canadian military knows what crimes he is guilty of even if the Hague Tribunal
refused to indict him.
In 1993, Mr. Ceku commanded Croatian
forces that violated a U.N.-brokered cease-fire and overran three Serbian
villages in the Medac pocket. When the Canadians counterattacked and re-entered
the burned villages, they discovered all of the inhabitants and domestic animals
had been slaughtered. Mr. Ceku later also ordered undefended Serbian villages
shelled in violation of the rules of war, causing heavy casualties among the
civilian population.
In 2002, Mr. Ceku was indicted by Serbia
for responsibility as a Kosovo Liberation Army commander for the murders of 669
Serbians and other non-Albanians during the fighting that broke out in Kosovo in
1998. The indictment includes murder, abduction, torture and ethnic cleansing of
the non-Albanian population from Kosovo. This is the man recently invited to
Washington to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a meeting obviously
planned to show U.S. support for Kosovo independence.
For many
outside observers, including this writer, the continued support by the United
States for an independent Kosovo is incomprehensible. Granting independence to
Kosovo would be a serious violation of Serbia's territorial integrity, which is
one of the most cherished principles of international law and is enshrined in
the United Nations Charter. U.S. violation of this principle would have
far-reaching implications for the very framework of international peace and
security.
Independence for Kosovo also would create a criminal and terrorist state in the heart of the Balkans. This is not a happy prospect in today's world.
Kosovo independence would set a precedent for other
aspiring ethnic groups for independent status and would destabilize not only the
Balkans, but many other parts of the world. It also would mark a low point in
U.S.foreign policy. It is difficult to be held up as the champion of the rule of
law, of democracy and the global war on terror, while at the same time giving
support to war criminals and terrorists.
JAMES
BISSETT
Former Canadian ambassador
to the former
Yugoslavia
Ottawa
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060719-081857-6783r_page2.htm