"Thank You Germany!"

 

2008/02/18

 

PRISTINA/BELGRADE/BERLIN

 

(Own report) - Sunday, after Berlin's years of preparations, the
South-Serbian province, Kosovo, declared its secession in violation of
international law. Kosovo is "independent" of Serbia, declared Hashim Thaci,
the Prime Minister of the Provincial Administration in Pristina. The German
government intends to recognize the secession soon. Berlin will thereby be
participating in the violation of the UN Charter and other valid legal
norms, just as the German police and judicial officers, who will be
dispatched to Kosovo within the framework of a so-called EU mission. Their
deployment will be without a valid, internationally recognized legal basis
and will therefore constitute an illegal occupation. The objective is to
establish an informal protectorate, while keeping its nationalist forces in
check. Kosovo's secession is the preliminary finale of a policy seeking the
parcelization of the Balkan states along the lines of allegiance, which
began with Berlin's recognition of the Croatian secession. Each of the EU
states, after brief hesitation, joined this policy and along with
Washington, militarily attacked what was left of Yugoslavia in 1999. Since
that time, Berlin has been fostering the Kosovo nationalists, whose
representatives in Pristina are designated as the bosses of organized crime.
One of them is the current Prime Minister Thaci. On the murals celebrating
Thaci's proclamation of secession, one reads "Thank You Germany!"

With yesterday's proclaimed secession the provincial administration in
Pristina has concluded what Berlin has been preparing for years - at first
with covert secret service support for the KLA, then with participation in
the military aggression against Yugoslavia in March 1999 and finally within
the framework of the UN Administration in Pristina (UNMIK)
(german-foreign-policy.com reported [1]). The secession of Serbia's southern
province was carried out in violation of the UN Charter - guaranteeing all
UN member states the sovereignty and territorial integrity - and in
disregard of the decisions taken by the UN Security Council. Most
significant is the Resolution 1244 explicitly reconfirming to Belgrade the
integrity of its sovereign territory. The German government intends to
recognize the secession soon and demands that all EU member states do the
same. Berlin thereby proves once again that it is the driving force behind a
growing degeneration of international law, blatantly exalting the despotism
of power to the highest principle of foreign policy.

Fantasy

With the aid of fantasy the foreign ministry seeks to cover up the German
government's renewed breach of international law. In its statement before
the Foreign Relations Committee of the German Parliament, the ministry
alleged that the guarantees of Serbia's sovereignty and integrity, laid down
in UN Resolution 1244, refer merely to a "transitional government" in Kosovo
and does not preclude secession. A reading of the text proves this audacious
fabrication to be groundless. According to the Foreign Ministry, the UN
Resolution - except for the guarantees for Serbia's sovereignty and
territorial integrity - is still in force, so as not to jeopardize the
legitimacy of NATO's and the EU's deployment, because if the resolution were
no longer valid, it would mean that the western countries' occupation of
Serbian territory would be dependant upon the "invitation" of their Kosovo
vassals in Pristina, an embarrassing dependency that Berlin and Washington
would like to avoid.[2]

Precedence

This ludicrous approach that degrades UN Resolutions to non-binding
suggestion lists, from which one can pick and choose to apply clauses at
preference, meets open contradiction even within the entourage of the
Foreign Ministry. Warnings of incalculable counter-measures are being heard.
"Unilateral interpretations of Security Council Resolutions constitute (...)
cases of precedence that, under other circumstances, can be turned against
the western nations,"[3] a member of the Foreign Ministry's Council of
International Jurists wrote in a newspaper article.

Decree

German legal arbitrariness can also be seen by the way the decision was
taken to dispatch a so-called police and judicial mission to Kosovo. In
spite of massive pressure from Berlin, six EU member states are still
rejecting the secession, because their own sovereignty is threatened by
separatists. With the refusals of Spain, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece
and Cyprus to actively support the new "EU-mission", the modalities for
decision making were changed without further ado and the dispatching of 2000
police and judicial officers was virtually taken by decree. In Brussels one
could hear concerning the decision-making, that the dispatching had been
proposed and "formally adopted" when the time-limit for lodging an objection
- at midnight on Saturday - had expired without a veto from an EU member
state. With this new voting technique, final approval becomes superfluous.
Berlin had made it clear that it would accept a veto under no circumstances.
To demonstrate its determination, Germany had already chosen its first 63
police officers for the "mission" before the time-limit had expired.[4]

Impunity

Amnesty International has recently published a report on its research
concerning the "police and justice mission" being conducted in the name of
the United Nations, but also under western control. The conclusions are
devastating for the numerous -among them also German - police and judicial
officers who have been deployed in Kosovo since 1999. According to Sian
Jones, Amnesty International's researcher on Kosovo, "hundreds of cases
including murders, rapes and enforced disappearances have been closed, for
want of evidence that was neither promptly nor effectively gathered" by the
UN Mission. There is persistent "impunity" for war crimes and crimes against
humanity in the southern Serbian province claiming to be an independent
state and about to be recognized by Germany.[5] According to Amnesty „no
progress is ever made", quite the contrary, the situation has worsened in
recent months. Amnesty International "urges the UN not to undertake any
similar international justice missions in the future until effective steps
have been taken to ensure that none of the extensive flaws identified in
this report are repeated."[6]

Networks

The current Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is among those persons whose
past could shed light on what Amnesty considers "extensive flaws".
Washington and Berlin's close ally proclaimed the southern Serbian
province's "independence" in Pristina yesterday. If the UN police and
judicial officers would have accomplished their mission, Thaci would have
been brought to trial long ago. Already in 1997, Serbian judges had
sentenced him to ten years in prison - for several murders. "Thaci had
ordered liquidations within his own ranks," two former KLA fighters report
about their former leader.[7] In the eyes of the German Foreign Intelligence
Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst), the current Prime Minister is one of the
heads of the Kosovo Mafia and a sponsor of a "professional killer".[8] A
survey commissioned by the German Bundeswehr asserts that "in intelligence
circles" Thaci "is considered to be 'far more dangerous'" than Ramush
Haradinaj, who is indicted for war crimes [9], "because the former KLA
leader has an extensive international criminal network at his disposal."[10]

Last Question

With the Kosovo declaration of secession, that, in violation of
international law, has granted criminals their own state, German efforts to
achieve the disempowerment of its traditional opponent, Serbia, has attained
its objective. Belgrade has lost the control over most of the territory of
what had formerly been Yugoslavia, has been deprived its access to the sea
and is surrounded by hostile states. On the other hand, through a new war
against Belgrade and the break-up of Serbian territory, Berlin was able to
successfully reassert its claim as hegemonic power in Southeast Europe. With
yesterday's declaration of secession, according to the German government,
the "last remaining open question concerning the disintegration process of
Yugoslavia (...) has been resolved."[11]

[1] see also Neuer
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/56102?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  Vasall, Imperial
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/55971?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  Consummation, Teil
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/56245?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  der Verwaltung, A
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/55997?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  Sort of Resurrection for Yugoslavia, Die
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/56461?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  Herren des Rechts, Paketlösung
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/56533?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6> , Abmontiert
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/56656?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6> , Sieger
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/56705?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  im Kalten Krieg, Selbstbestimmung
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/56742?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6> , Die
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/56925?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  zweite Welle, Dayton
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/57032?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  II, Mit
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/57060?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  kreativen Tricks, Angelpunkt
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/57075?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6> , Countdown
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/57098?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  and Kooperationsraum
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/57102?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6> .
[2] Die Argumentationen entstammen einem Papier des Auswärtigen Amts mit dem
Titel "Kosovo. Resolution des Sicherheitsrates 1244 (1999) und eine evtl.
Unabhängigkeitserklärung des Kosovo".
[3] Kein Recht auf Abspaltung; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 14.02.2008
[4] EU entsendet Polizisten und Juristen in das Kosovo; Reuters 16.02.2008
[5] amnesty international legt neuen Kosovo-Bericht vor; www.amnesty.de
[6] Kosovo (Serbia): The challenge to fix a failed UN justice mission;
www.amnesty.org
[7] "Die Schlange" greift nach der Macht im Kosovo; Die Welt 28.01.2006
[8] Jürgen Roth: Rechtsstaat? Lieber nicht!; Die Weltwoche 43/2005
[9] see also Political
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56126?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  Friendships and Heldenfigur
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/57133?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6> 
[10] Operationalisierung von Security Sector Reform (SSR) auf dem Westlichen
Balkan; Institut für Europäische Politik 09.01.2007. See also Aufs
<http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/57103?PHPSESSID=fgh3lofd4d
1457l7g6beib87s6>  engste verflochten
[11] Erklärung zur Entscheidung des Parlaments im Kosovo; Presse- und
Informationsamt der Bundesregierung 17.02.2008

 







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