http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/07/kosovo-prelude-to-georgia/
JATRAS: Kosovo prelude to Georgia?
James George Katras
Sunday, September 7, 2008
COMMENTARY:
In anticipation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's recognition of the
independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, President Bush said "Georgia's
territorial integrity and borders must command the same respect as every
other nation's."
Critics of Russia's action include Sens. Barack Obama, Joseph Biden and
Joseph Lieberman; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; former United Nations
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke; and many others in the bipartisan
establishment.
Among the specific criticisms are Russia's violation of the sovereign
territory of Georgia, a fledgling democracy and a member of the United
Nations; a disproportionate response to Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili's attempt to settle South Ossetia's status by force, including
Russian military operations well outside of South Ossetia; and Moscow's
tardiness in withdrawing its forces under a deal brokered by French
President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Evidently irony is not much appreciated in Washington. It seems critics have
forgotten President Bush's recognition of the independence of Kosovo, a
province of democratic, U.N. member Serbia. President Bush's reference to
"every other nation" whose "territorial integrity and borders must command
the same respect" apparently has at least this one exception. If he can
violate the United Nations Charter and the Helsinki Final Act, which
guarantee sovereign borders, what right does he have to accuse others of
doing the same?
If Moscow stepped over the line in its crushing military response to Mr.
Saakashvili's offensive, what do we call 78 straight days of NATO's bombing
throughout Serbia, destroying most of that country's civilian
infrastructure? If Russia is to be faulted for imperfect implementation of
the Sarkozy agreement, what can be said about Washington's violation of U.N.
Security Council Resolution 1244, which ended the 1999 Kosovo war and
reaffirms Serbian sovereignty in the province?
The standard reasons cited for making Serbia an exception to the rule we
demand in Georgia is that NATO intervened to stop genocide of Kosovo's
Albanians and that they will never again accept being part of Serbia. But
after the war actual casualties among all ethnic groups - whether by
military action, atrocities committed by both Serbs and Albanians, and the
toll of NATO's bombing - proved to be far fewer than those cited in
justification for the war. Compared to South Ossetia's much smaller
population, mutual accusations of genocide against South Ossetians and
Georgians, respectively, are proportionally larger than those at issue in
Kosovo. And are South Ossetians and Abkhazians less adamant that they will
not submit to Tbilisi's rule than Kosovo's Albanians are with respect to
Belgrade?
It also should be kept in mind that Kosovo's legal status is very different
from that of entities in the former Soviet Union. Under the Yugoslav
constitution - the same authority that justified the secession of Croatia,
Slovenia, etc. - Kosovo, part of Serbia since before Yugoslavia was formed,
has no legal claim to independence. In contrast, the 1990 Soviet law on
secession - which was the legal basis of the independence of Union Republics
such as Georgia - required that autonomous entities within their borders be
allowed, via referenda, to remain in the Soviet Union, and by extension its
successor, Russia.
Thus, while Kosovo's status as part of Serbia is unquestionable, South
Ossetia and Abkhazia can make a good case they were part of Soviet Georgia
but never the current independent state of Georgia. (The same would apply to
Transdniestria with respect to Moldova and Nagorno-Karabakh with respect to
Azerbaijan. When will they follow suit?)
By trashing the accepted international "rules of the road" on Kosovo,
Washington has created what amounts to the rules of the jungle. Each power
acts as it will, either to suppress restive minorities or to compromise
other countries' borders: The United States tries to force Serbia to accept
Kosovo's independence and pressures other countries (without much success)
to recognize it; Georgia tries to subdue the Ossetians and the Abkhazians
and fails; Russia moves to establish the Ossetians' and Abkhazians'
independence and now also will try to secure wider recognition. In turn, the
U.S.-supported separatist Kosovo Albanian administration itself threatens a
miniature version of Mr. Saakashvili's South Ossetia offensive to subdue
Serbian enclaves, where the remaining one-third of the province's prewar
community finds refuge. Where does the logic of "big fish eat little fish"
end?
In Kosovo, Washington sowed the wind, and now Georgia has reaped the
whirlwind. Only a return to the negotiating table to address comprehensively
Kosovo, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and similar trouble spots elsewhere can
prevent this malignant precedent from spinning further out of control with
incalculable consequences for global peace and security. With each step down
this road it will be harder to put the genie of might-makes-right back in
the bottle.
James George Jatras is a lawyer and director of the American Council for
Kosovo in Washington, an activity of Squire Sanders Public Advocacy, LLC,
and Global Strategic Communications Group, which are registered agents for
the Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija. Mr. Jatras formerly
served as a foreign policy analyst of the U.S. Senate Republican leadership.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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