November 15, 2001
A False Choice for Kosovo
And the Real Choice for the Balkans
Two days from now, denizens
of Kosovo will have the opportunity to vote for a "legislative assembly" of that
occupied province, likely believing that they are exercising their right to
choose a government. Not "citizens," mind you, for to be a citizen one must
first have a country, and even the UN/NATO occupiers are not ready to declare
Kosovo an independent state – yet. Furthermore, since little or no serious proof
is required that a voter resided in Kosovo before the war (and even if they did,
that does not mean they were Yugoslav citizens), most "citizens" among the
voters will owe their allegiance to the neighboring Albania.
Established under the "constitutional framework" imposed by the UN
administration, this Assembly will have little real power, but great
symbolic significance. By holding a vote, the UN and its NATO occupying
force (KFOR) aim to show that their occupation is just and benevolent. Who ever
heard of elections in an occupied territory, after all? By giving the Albanians
a semblance of government, they temper the fires of separatism while ensuring
they continue to burn. And by having the Kosovo Serbs vote, they gain both the
recognition of the occupation's legitimacy, as well as leverage for when Kosovo
Albanians do declare independence.
Thus
the UN and NATO win all the way; the Albanians get at least something; and the
remaining Serbs lose what little they had.
THE
CONSENSUS
Even
though the "constitution" does not give them outright independence, it does
provide for the major attributes of sovereignty – a president, an assembly, a
judiciary. Kosovo already has a separate currency (the German Mark, and soon the
Euro), a separate curriculum (mostly imported right out of Albania), and a
separate banking system (mostly owned by Germans). It even has a paramilitary –
the Kosovo Protection Corps, formed out of the "disbanded" KLA and paid for by
the UN.
Despite
this de facto separation from Serbia, Kosovo Albanians – or "Kosovars,"
as pathetic excuses for journalists persist in calling them – remain committed
to full independence.
This is a recurring theme on all sides of the political spectrum, from Ibrahim
Rugova's ostensibly pacifist LDK, to parties led by KLA thugs Hashim Taqi and
Ramush Haradinaj.
PLATITUDES A LA CARTE
Rugova
is, of course, a shoo-in for "president." He was even publicly endorsed by Daan
Everts, head of OSCE mission in Kosovo charged with organizing the election.
Taqi is
guaranteed a big slice of the pie as well. His party's presidential candidate is
Flora Brovina, a
former KLA physician whose claim to fame is spending 19 months in a prison in
Serbia. Thanks to this, Brovina also enjoys the admiration of Albanians' foreign
sponsors. She carefully nurtures this sympathy by well-chosen platitudes, from
her lip service to UN/NATO's bromides about "multiethnic" Kosovo ("Serbs are
citizens of Kosovo and they have to be part of Kosovo"), to the slick sales
pitch for independence (an "inevitable, life or death issue" that would lead to
"better times for the impoverished economy," an "independent Kosovo will
guarantee the minorities equality" – all from Reuters). Most of all, Taqi is
playing on Brovina to dispel the stereotype of Albanian patriarchal
backwardness.
Ramush Haradinaj, a
frequent guest at the US Department of State and one of America's favorite KLA
commanders, is another strong candidate. That Haradinaj is still at large – and
becoming more influential by the day – despite a fight with Russian peacekeepers
and a midnight arrest following a shooting at a henchman's home, shows that he
must have some very powerful protectors. Perhaps it was they who coached him to
advocate Kosovo as a "regular society, a stable one, with high standards of
respect for human rights and minority rights." (Reuters)
THE
SHADOW SUPPORTERS
Of
course, Brovina and Haradinaj's KLA has never paid any heed to lofty
proclamations of tolerance, multi-ethnicity and human rights – not when they
blew up Serbs in refugee buses; not when they killed Serbs in the fields, barns
and homes; not when they stole or torched Serb and Roma homes; nor when they
murdered Serbs and even their fellow Albanians in the course of their separatist
quest. Their pronouncements are not aimed at the victims of separatist terror;
they are either dead, or know better. The only likely customers are the
foreigners – the occupying authorities themselves and the public of their
countries.
Though
officially US, EU, UN and NATO disavow any intention to grant Kosovo
independence, their unofficial minions are busily agitating for just such a
course. So, there is plenty of reason for suspicion when the election is endorsed by these
minions – the omnipresent International Crisis Group (ICG) and the "independent"
international commission on Kosovo, to mention just two. The latter (currently
led by the former ICTY Head Inquisitor Richard Goldstone) issued a call for
"conditional independence" of Kosovo just before last year's local elections.
NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE
With
all that in mind, the Belgrade regime nonetheless instructed the Kosovo Serbs
to take part in this weekend's vote. Scattered in exile or surrounded by barbed
wire, KFOR guards and mobs of murderous Albanians, even if the Serbs could
vote, why should they?
What
would taking part in Kosovo's quisling government mean? A respite from incessant
attacks? Unlikely. Even if it does, that would only show who had been behind the
attacks for so long, or who had the power to stop them but did nothing. Freedom
of movement? Only in one direction – out. Security of life and property? Only if
they disappeared, or sold their property for whatever pittance the Albanians
offered. A voice in decision-making? They have been ignored before; there is no
reason to listen to them now. More aid? More food in the ghetto would be nice.
It would be nicer not having the ghetto, though.
For
Belgrade, Kosovo is but a means to boosting individual politicians' vanities and
influence. They feel important and jubilant when the UN and NATO invite them to
sign meaningless
treaties. These perfumed princes also believe that the same people who
terror-bombed the Serbs for 78 days on behalf of the KLA
(which they armed and trained) and occupied Kosovo to begin with, can somehow be
their partners in bringing Kosovo back. Perhaps there is a word in the English
language more fitting to describe this than "idiocy," but it doesn't readily
come to mind.
ARBITERS OF BLAME
All
these pretentious morons have to do is look south, where NATO's obedient ally
Macedonia continues to be framed for its own murder. Whether it is the Albanian
parliamentarians who refuse
to show up for the vote on constitutional "reforms," or the supposedly
disarmed UCK attacking
Macedonian police with rockets and assault rifles and taking hostages, both
the Western press and the Imperial representatives in that semi-occupied country
lay the blame squarely on
the Macedonians.
Or has
Belgrade forgotten that yesteryear's Bombers of Belgrade and yesterday's
Aracinovo Taxi Service have armed, trained and sheltered the Albanian
"liberation army" of Presevo, Medvedja and
Bujanovac for almost a year, then agreed to its "disbandment" in order to create
a precedent for eviscerating
Macedonia? Perhaps they failed to notice that the "National Liberation Army"
of Macedonian Albanians operated unhindered from Kosovo for months, or that a
new "liberation army" is budding in
NATO-occupied Kosovo, ready to swoop into the Presevo valley again. Will they,
in a couple of years, encourage the surviving Serbs in "Eastern Kosovo" to vote
for Albanian institutions as well?
EMPIRE'S WILLING SERVANTS
These
may sound like rhetorical questions, but even a cursory glance at the
behavior of local leaders throughout the former Yugoslavia and the Balkans in
general is proof enough that this sycophantic bootlicking
is not an exception, but rather a rule.
It is
as if everyone assumes that the Empire (manifested through the UN/NATO/OSCE/EU
et al.) has a right not only to interfere, but also to set itself up as the
ultimate authority, judge, jury and executioner anywhere it pleases.
Yet no
law, no writ, no divine providence grants these people this right, save for the
fact that they say so, that they have the bombs to kill anyone who might
disagree, and that they can get away with it. What would have been denounced as
tyranny a hundred years ago is now accepted as normal. What would have been
inconceivable just a decade ago is now taken for granted. What has possessed the
minds of human beings so, that they are selling out this cheaply what
generations of their forebears earned with rivers of sweat, tears and
blood?
THE
REAL CHOICE
Though
this column's deeply held
conviction has always been that the Balkans will not see any progress until
the Empire's occupation is lifted, perhaps this sentiment has not been entirely
accurate. Even before this physical liberation can occur, the people of the
Balkans – those in the former Yugoslavia as well as their neighbors – must face
what they have become and start taking responsibility for their future. Right
now, they are but slaves of the Empire, of their own demagogues, and of
illusions. Unless they choose to think differently, this is all they will ever
be.
That,
and only that, is the real choice; today, this Saturday, and forever.
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