http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1045302.html
They’ve got it wrong, Kosovo’s totally dependent
By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target
Mon. Mar 24 - 5:54 AM
LAST WEEK, Prime Minister Stephen Harper quietly announced that Canada would
formally recognize Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence. This
recognition came a full month after the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo
declared the disputed province to be the world’s newest country. The U.S., U.K.
and Germany helped orchestrate this bit of political manoeuvring by the
Albanian Kosovars as they knew that any attempt to follow the legal course of
independent statehood through UN channels would be vetoed by the Russians.
Thus, after the Americans, Brits and Germans announced their formal
recognition, several other European countries followed suit. But a significant
number of key countries such as Spain immediately denounced the unilateral
declaration as illegal. Canada sat on the fence for 30 days, but finally caved
in to pressure from the U.S. State Department. So other than once again
placating the Americans, what exactly has Canada achieved through this formal
recognition of independence?
Let’s start by taking the emotional issues off the table and examining the
background. Kosovo is a tiny, land-locked, mountainous, underdeveloped province
in the centre of the Balkans. It is located between Serbia and Albania, and not
surprisingly, its population of two million is a mix of Serbs (10 per cent) and
Albanians (90 per cent). Over the past several centuries, Kosovo has been the
battleground for clashing empires. Yet, despite the ebb and flow of invaders
and the exodus and influx of ethnic groups, this impoverished province has
always remained the religious heartland of Serbia’s Orthodox Church. It is for
this reason that the Serbian political leadership in Belgrade cannot concede
the loss of Kosovo from its sovereign territory.
As Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie has opined, denying Kosovo to the Serbs would be
akin to denying the Jews access to Jerusalem. The bloodshed and inter-ethnic
violence we have witnessed in Kosovo over the past decade illustrates clearly
the strength of this emotional bond.
If the Serbs were to take a purely logical approach to the future of this
region, they would have been the first to cut Kosovo loose. When Kosovo was a
semi-autonomous province in Yugoslavia, residents of all six Yugoslav republics
had to pay a special tax to subsidize the Kosovars. This drain on the federal
treasury was one of the factors that contributed to the breakup of Yugoslavia
in the early ’90s. By 1999, at the time of the NATO intervention, it was the
embargoed citizens of Serbia who were alone in shouldering not only the cost of
subsidizing Kosovo but also funding counter-insurgency security operations
against Albanian separatist guerrillas. Nine years ago, following the
conclusion of the NATO bombing campaign and withdrawal of Serbian police and
military units, the international community became responsible for the economic
burden of supporting Albanian Kosovars.
This now costs the European Union an average of 450 million Euros per year in
aid money, which constitutes the bulk of Kosovo’s legitimate revenue.
Underground criminal activity has made Kosovo the illegal drug capital of
Europe, and the region boasts the highest number of prostitutes per capita in
the world. The unemployment rate in Kosovo stands at 50 per cent, and those who
are working make an average annual income of just 1,800 Euros (Cdn$2,400).
Nearly half of those lucky enough to have a job in Kosovo work directly for
either international administrators or in support of the 17,000 foreign troops
stationed there.
Despite the presence of NATO soldiers, the Albanian majority has continued to
mount attacks against protected ethnic Serbian enclaves. The largest of these
was a three-day bloodbath in March 2004, which left three dozen people dead,
hundreds injured, 800 houses burned and a number of Serbian Orthodox churches
destroyed. As a result of the ethnic cleansing of all non-Albanians from the
region since 1999, Kosovo is now one of the most racially "pure" territories in
the entire world.
In making his announcement that Canada will recognize an independent Kosovo,
Harper made a point of stressing the fact that this situation was completely
different from that of Quebec. I will agree with that but only to note that
Quebec is already far more independent than Kosovo can ever be. Quebec has a
resource-rich, vibrant economy, its own national assembly, foreign consulates
abroad, a unique cultural identity and even a distinct flag.
In comparison, Kosovo is entirely dependant on foreign aid and will be occupied
for the foreseeable future by foreign security forces. And those jubilantly
celebrating their "independence" are waving the Albanian flag — not the
American-designed new Kosovo flag.
Let’s hope that by the time the UN General Assembly convenes in September to
vote on the legality of Kosovo’s independence, the Canadian government will
have come to its senses and withdrawn recognition. After all, how can you
recognize something which does not exist in any tangible form?
( [EMAIL PROTECTED])
Scott Taylor is editor-in-chief of Espirit de Corps magazine
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
