http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m41436&hd=&size=1&l=e
The Oil factor in Kosovo independence
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
February 24, 2008
On February 17, Kosovo broke away from Serbia and declared its
independence. Not surprisingly it was instantly recognized as a state by the
U.S., Germany, Britain and France. With 4203 square miles area, Kosovo may be a
tiny territory but in the great game of oil politics it holds great importance
which is in inverse proportion to its size.
Kosovo does not have oil but its location is strategic as the
trans-Balkan pipeline - known as AMBO pipeline after its builder and operator
the US-registered Albanian Macedonian Bulgarian Oil Corporation - will pass
through it.
The pipeline will pump Caspian oil from the Bulgarian port of Burgas via
Macedonia to the Albanian port of Vlora, for transport to European countries
and the United States. Specifically, the 1.1 billion dollar AMBO pipeline will
permit oil companies operating in the Caspian Sea to ship their oil to
Rotterdam and the East Coast of the USA at substantially less cost than they
are experiencing today.
When operational by 2011, the pipeline will become a part of the region's
critical East-West corridor infrastructure which includes highway, railway, gas
and fiber optic telecommunications lines. This pipeline will bring oil directly
to the European market by eliminating tanker traffic through the ecologically
sensitive waters of the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.
In 2000, the United States Government's Trade and Development Agency
financed a feasibility study of pipeline which updated and enlarged the
project's original feasibility study dating from early 1996. Brown & Root
Energy Services, a wholly-owned British subsidiary of Halliburton completed the
original feasibility study for this project.
The US Trade and Development Agency's paper published May 2000, which
assesses that the pipeline is a US strategic interest. According to the paper,
the pipeline will provide oil and gas to the US market worth $600m a month,
adding that the pipeline is necessary because the oil coming from the Caspian
sea will quickly surpass the safe capacity of the Bosphorus.
The project is necessary, according to a paper, because the oil coming
from the Caspian sea "will quickly surpass the safe capacity of the Bosphorus
as a shipping lane". The scheme, the agency notes, will "provide a consistent
source of crude oil to American refineries", "provide American companies with a
key role in developing the vital east-west corridor", "advance the
privatisation aspirations of the US government in the region" and "facilitate
rapid integration" of the Balkans "with western Europe".
The pipeline itself, the agency says, has also been formally supported
"since 1994". The first feasibility study, backed by the US, was conducted in
1996.
In November 1998, Bill Richardson, the then US energy secretary, spelt
out his policy on the extraction and transport of Caspian oil. "This is about
America's energy security," he explained. "It's also about preventing strategic
inroads by those who don't share our values. We're trying to move these newly
independent countries toward the west.
"We would like to see them reliant on western commercial and political
interests rather than going another way. We've made a substantial political
investment in the Caspian, and it's very important to us that both the pipeline
map and the politics come out right."
Professor Michel Chossudovsky, author of America at War in Macedonia,
provides a deep insight into the Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian-Oil Pipeline
project:
"The US based AMBO pipeline consortium is directly linked to the seat of
political and military power in the United States and Vice President Dick
Cheney's firm Halliburton Energy. The feasibility study for AMBO's Trans-Balkan
Oil Pipeline, conducted by the international engineering company of Brown &
Root Ltd. [Halliburton's British subsidiary] has determined that this pipeline
will become a part of the region's critical East-West corridor infrastructure
which includes highway, railway, gas and fibre optic telecommunications lines.
"Coincidentally, White and Case LLT, the New York law firm that President
William J. Clinton joined when he left the White House also has a stake in the
AMBO pipeline deal.
"And upon completion of the feasibility study by Halliburton, a senior
executive of Halliburton was appointed CEO of AMBO. Halliburton was also
granted a contract to service US troops in the Balkans and build "Bondsteel" in
Kosovo, which now constitutes "the largest American foreign military base
constructed since Vietnam".
"The AMBO Trans-Balkans pipeline project would link up with the pipeline
corridors between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea basin, which lies at the
hub of the World's largest unexplored oil reserves. The militarization of these
various corridors is an integral part of Washington's design.
"The US policy of "protecting the pipeline routes" out of the Caspian Sea
basin (and across the Balkans) was spelled out by Clinton's Energy Secretary
Bill Richardson barely a few months prior to the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia:
This is about America's energy security. It's also about preventing strategic
inroads by those who don't share our values. We're trying to move these newly
independent countries toward the west. We would like to see them reliant on
western commercial and political interests rather than going another way. We've
made a substantial political investment in the Caspian, and it's very important
to us that both the pipeline map and the politics come out right.
"In favour of the AMBO pipeline negotiations, the U.S. Government has
been directly supportive through its Trade and Development Agency (TDA) and the
South Balkan Development Initiative (SBDI). The TDI suggested the need for
Albania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria to "use regional synergies to leverage new
public and private capital [from U.S. companies]" while also asserting
responsibility of the U.S. Government "for implementing the initiative."
And the U.S. Government has fulfilled its role in promoting the AMBO
project, granting several contracts to Halliburton for servicing U.S. troops in
the Balkans, including a five year contract authorized in June of 2005 by the
U.S. Army at a value of $1.25 billion, despite criminal allegations made
against Halliburton that are currently being probed by the F.B.I., according to
Craig A. Brannagan author of On the Political Executive: Public or Private?
This leaves little doubt that the war in the former Yugoslavia was fought
solely in order to secure access to oil from new and biddable states in central
Asia. It is obvious that the former Yugoslavia, especially Serbia, was a
serious problem for the realization of the plan. The intervention in Kosovo and
Metohija was carried out in order to please Albania, whose port of Vlore is the
ultimate destination of the pipeline.
In 1998, fighting breaks out between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanians
in Kosovo. President Milosevic sends in troops, and atrocities were committed.
This opens the door for NATO's Operation Allied Force, occupying Kosovo in 1999
and then handing it over to the UN, with a huge American presence in the area.
UN resolution 1244 is drafted stipulating that Kosovo is Serbian land, and at
the same time gives Kosovars governance autonomy.
June 1999, in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of Yugoslavia, US
forces seized 1,000 acres of farmland in southeast Kosovo at Uresevic, near the
Macedonian border, and began the construction of Camp Bondsteel which is the
biggest construction project of a US military base since the war in Vietnam.
Now, why would the United States build such a massive camp in Kosovo?
In evaluating Kosovo's independence, it is also important to know that
Kosovo is not gaining independence or even minimal self-government.
It will be run by an appointed High Representative and bodies appointed
by the U.S., European Union and NATO. An old-style colonial viceroy and
imperialist administrators will have control over foreign and domestic policy.
It is similar to the absolute power held by L. Paul Bremer in the first two
years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. U.S. has merely consolidated its direct
control of a totally dependent colony in the heart of the Balkans.
An International Civilian Representative (ICR) will be appointed by U.S.
and E.U. officials to oversee Kosovo. This appointed official can overrule any
measures, annul any laws and remove anyone from office in Kosovo. The ICR will
have full and final control over the departments of Customs, Taxation, Treasury
and Banking.
The E.U. will establish a European Security and Defense Policy Mission
(ESDP) and NATO will establish an International Military Presence. Both these
appointed bodies will have control over foreign policy, security, police,
judiciary, all courts and prisons.
These bodies and the ICR will have final say over what crimes can be
prosecuted and against whom; they can reverse or annul any decision made. The
largest prison in Kosovo is at the U.S. base, Camp Bondsteel, where prisoners
are held without charges, judicial overview or representation.
US has argued the case of Kosovo is unique and that separatists in other
states in Europe and the Balkans will not receive aid and welcome from major
powers. "It is incorrect to view this as a precedent and it doesn't serve any
purpose to view it as a precedent," said Alejandro Wolff, US deputy permanent
representative to the UN. He may be right because other separatists may not
have any attraction for the oil giants.
However, the Kosovo independence bolsters hopes of militants in the
Indian-controlled Kashmir to achieve the same status for the disputed
territory. "The world community, the European Union in particular, should play
a Kosovo-like role in getting the dispute resolved in Kashmir," says Yasin
Malik, chairman of pro-independence group Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front.
Although several countries have recognized Kosovo as a new state but
India said it was studying the legal ramifications. India is wary of
recognizing Kosovo as an independent state because of its potential
implications for Kashmir, racked by a nearly two-decade freedom struggle
against New Delhi's occupation that has left more than 43,000 people dead.
