Was Kosovo right to declare independence from Serbia?
View Gallery <Javascript:%20ViewGallery();> BURNING ISSUE YES Hillel Ticktin, emeritus professor at the University of Glasgow THE Kosovan government had to declare independence, given the attitude of the Serb authorities. The only alternative would have been to continue in an indeterminate half-way house, supported by the European Union and the United States, without any clear status. The declaration has not been accepted by Serbia and Kosovo will be subject to clear EU rules – in reality, given its economic and political dependence on the EU and the US, it will have only a very limited independence. Its separation from Serbia will be more firmly established, at a time when Serbian nationalism and xenophobia remain strong. Under Serbia, the Kosovans were reduced to a subservient status and even expelled from educational institutions. Reconciliation between Kosovans and Serbians would only be possible in a non-nationalist context, which is absent today. Had there been, for instance, strong left-wing parties anxious to introduce a Balkan socialist commonwealth with guaranteed civil rights for all, it would have been another matter. Even then the Serbian authorities would have had to condemn the historical decisions of earlier governments and Kosovo would have had to have self-governing status. This is clearly not possible at the present time. The Russian government has opposed and condemned the move to Kosovan independence partly because it has proclaimed itself the guardian of Slav interests, in order to maintain its own influence abroad, but also because it does not want to be seen supporting the break-up of existing countries. NO Vesna Hadzivukovic, a freelance journalist from Belgrade THERE are two major arguments in upholding the recognition of Kosovo's independence. One is that it is "a just punishment of Serbia for the suffering of Kosovo Albanians under the Milosevic regime" – an argument that abolishes the whole structure of international law and UN charter in the name of moral assessment. If we follow this line of logic, was Slobodan Milosevic acting morally when he stripped Kosovo Albanians of their privileges after the suffering they inflicted on their non-Albanian neighbours? Any suffering should make us sad and angry, but was this particular suffering more "state-building material" than the suffering of the people in Northern Ireland, for example? Or, if we accept suffering as a legitimate pretext for Kosovo's independence, then the suffering of hundreds of thousands of non-Albanians from 1999 onwards must be a reason sufficient enough for exactly the opposite. The other argument is that Kosovo is a unique case. What makes it unique? There are at least a few dozen nations with proven historic sovereignty: Scotland, the Basques and Flemish, all within the EU. Apparently, this argument should serve as an anaesthetic for the growing concern that a precedent with unforeseeable consequences has been created. Alas, within an hour of Kosovo's declaration of independence, the presidents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared their readiness to appeal in the near future to the Commonwealth of Independent States, Russia and the United Nations with a request to recognise their independence. Why not? And how many others are there? The full article contains 523 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper. Last Updated: 17 February 2008 8:20 PM http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Was-Kosovo-right-to-declare.3786637.jp
