Evangelicals Fight Against an Independent
Kosovo
Guy Dinmore, of the Financial Times, reports on the new mission shared by US evangelicals and
Serbia's Christian Orthodox Church: quashing US support for an independent
Kosovo.
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Leading evangelicals, such as Pat Robertson and Jerry
Falwell, have called on their supporters to pressure the
United States to not permit independence
for this Muslim-majority province. Along with Bishop Artemije, Kosovo's most
senior Orthodox cleric, Robertson and Falwell are concerned that an independent
Kosovo will become a new haven for Islamic terrorism.
For those of you in need of a refresher on US-involvement in Kosovo, Jurist gives a brief and useful overview of the US presence in Kosovo, and the protracted conflict that has engulfed this Muslim-majority province.
Kosovo, while considered a successful case of American military intervention, is by no means a done deal. While the province is under the administration of the United Nations, it faces an uncertain future. A new Serbian Constitution, not yet approved by Serb voters, considers Kosovo a province of Serbia. And while negotiations on Kosovo's status are ongoing, the lack of resolution has fueled recent attacks on Kosovo's Serbian minority.
This new Serbian push against an independent Kosovo comes with Serbia's recent accession to America's "coalition of the willing." Serbia has supported America's policies in the Middle East, and is now using this position to highlight their concern that an independent Kosovo would be a terrorist Kosovo.
The most recent sign of the blossoming US-Serbian cooperation is President Bush's October 3rd retraction of a 2002 ban on US military assistance to Serbia.
While many analysts do not foresee an independent Kosovo as a new outpost for Islamic terrorism, they are concerned about Kosovo turning into a failed state. Kosovo could become "a weak reliant on international aid and prone to exploitation by criminal gangs involved in drugs and human trafficking," reports Dinmore.
Keeping the Kosovo question unanswered is America's best bet for now. While producing an uneasy truce, it avoids a return to the all-out conflict that engulfed the region in the 1990s. Yet this diplomatic holding pattern cannot last indefinitely. And regardless of the final result, the losers of any US-backed decision will likely resort to violence. Of what duration and intensity depends on the adroitness of great-power diplomacy.
Will an independent Kosovo produce another West Bank in Eastern Europe? Odds seem against it for now, but even faint odds are frightening.
For those of you in need of a refresher on US-involvement in Kosovo, Jurist gives a brief and useful overview of the US presence in Kosovo, and the protracted conflict that has engulfed this Muslim-majority province.
Kosovo, while considered a successful case of American military intervention, is by no means a done deal. While the province is under the administration of the United Nations, it faces an uncertain future. A new Serbian Constitution, not yet approved by Serb voters, considers Kosovo a province of Serbia. And while negotiations on Kosovo's status are ongoing, the lack of resolution has fueled recent attacks on Kosovo's Serbian minority.
This new Serbian push against an independent Kosovo comes with Serbia's recent accession to America's "coalition of the willing." Serbia has supported America's policies in the Middle East, and is now using this position to highlight their concern that an independent Kosovo would be a terrorist Kosovo.
The most recent sign of the blossoming US-Serbian cooperation is President Bush's October 3rd retraction of a 2002 ban on US military assistance to Serbia.
While many analysts do not foresee an independent Kosovo as a new outpost for Islamic terrorism, they are concerned about Kosovo turning into a failed state. Kosovo could become "a weak reliant on international aid and prone to exploitation by criminal gangs involved in drugs and human trafficking," reports Dinmore.
Keeping the Kosovo question unanswered is America's best bet for now. While producing an uneasy truce, it avoids a return to the all-out conflict that engulfed the region in the 1990s. Yet this diplomatic holding pattern cannot last indefinitely. And regardless of the final result, the losers of any US-backed decision will likely resort to violence. Of what duration and intensity depends on the adroitness of great-power diplomacy.
Will an independent Kosovo produce another West Bank in Eastern Europe? Odds seem against it for now, but even faint odds are frightening.
