http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=14295&cid=87&p=31.07.2007
Voice of Russia
July 31, 2007
KOSOVO PROBLEM IS EVERYONE’S CONCERN
By Mike Sullivan
-Small as it is, Kosovo can serve as a detonator for
the huge bomb Europe sits on.
If the genie of separatism is out, the UN Security
Council will no longer be able to squeeze it back no
matter how many resolutions it may take. The world
order set out in 1945 will be no more.
The Kosovo Albanian leaders have promised they won’t
declare independence before they get a nod from
Washington.
Which means that the US is assuming the functions of
the UNO [United Nations], upsetting the entire system
global stability hinges on.
Which also means that the Europeans, who took delight
in the Soviet breakup of the early 1990s, may now have
to deal with the very same problem.
The draft resolution on Kosovo, worked out by a group
of Western countries and granting the region de-facto
independence over strong objections from Belgrade, had
earlier been rejected by Serbia and Russia.
Moscow believes that any plan not based on direct
agreements between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians is
fraught with a very dangerous precedent, namely a
revision of such a fundamental principle of
intentional relations as the inviolability of a
country’s internationally recognized borders.
And still, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has
said it loud and clear that Washington remains
foursquare behind the Kosovars’ desire to gain
independence “this way or another”.
Her deputy, Nicholas Burns, minced no words, saying
that Kosovo would break away from Serbia already
before the end of this year. “America has promised the
Kosovans independence and that’s how it’s going to
be,” Burns said.
This means that the UN Security Council, whose
resolutions once served as the basis for settling
conflicts between states, can now sit back and see its
authority being take up by Washington and its allies.
Failing to secure Moscow’s consent to the illegal
separation of 15% of Serbian territory, the Americans
resorted to all sorts of political maneuvering with
Condoleezza Rice’s meeting with the Albanian
separatist leaders held in an atmosphere of mutual
trust and full understanding of each other’s
priorities.
The Contact Group, which the Americans want to play
the role of a UN Security Council minus a Russian
veto, could be further imitation of a “fair” solution
to the Kosovo problem.
Comprising Russia, the United States, Britain,
Germany, Italy and France, the Contact Group
traditionally came up with proposals which it then
submitted for consideration by the UN Security
Council.
Five of the six member-states are in favor of granting
full independence to Kosovo completely ignoring
Belgrade’s objections.
Just why the Europeans are engaged in such a suicidal
thing that could have truly catastrophic consequences
for the whole world is hard to say.
The Europeans, who took delight in the Soviet breakup
of the early 1990s, may now have to deal with the very
same problem.
Small as it is, Kosovo can serve as a detonator for
the huge bomb Europe sits on.
If the genie of separatism is out, the UN Security
Council will no longer be able to squeeze it back no
matter how many resolutions it may take. The world
order set out in 1945 will be no more.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
