http://news.therecord.com/Opinions/article/325363
WATERLOO RECORD (CANADA) EDITORIAL March 20, 2008 Canada moved too fast on Kosovo One month after Kosovo rocked the world by announcing its separation from Serbia, Canada has recognized this new independent state. In taking this step, the Canadian government was likely bowing to the inevitable. But it was also, in geopolitical terms, acting prematurely, hastily and in a way that could both contribute to international instability and come back to haunt it. The reasons have to do with politics in Canada as well as the Balkans. Nine years ago, Canadian Forces joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military campaign that ended Serbian aggression against the Serbian province of Kosovo. Canadian warplanes participated in bombing raids that lasted weeks and killed thousands of Serbs. But Canada's reasons were clear and justifiable. We were halting a pernicious and concerted Serbian campaign to uproot, displace or kill the Muslim, ethnically Albanian population of Kosovo. And halt it we did. To those who opposed this military intervention back in 1999, Canada and its NATO allies repeatedly declared that they were acting to protect the lives of Kosovars, not to make them independent. This distinction was crucial. Had NATO intervened to aid a nationalist movement within a sovereign state and win for that movement independence, it would have been severely criticized. Indeed, the UN Security Council resolution 1244 later confirmed Serbia's control over the province to clarify that point. It is understandable that given the history of bad blood between the Serbs and the Kosovars, the Kosovars would want to have their own country one day. However, it would have been better for many reasons if that country was born not from a unilateral declaration of independence but after good-faith negotiations between Serbs and Kosovars, assisted by the international community. For one, Kosovo is far from a truly independent state today and depends on economic handouts from other European countries. Secondly, the boundaries of the new Kosovo are far from clear -- at least from the Serbian perspective. Thirdly, Serbia's historic friend and ally, Russia, has seen the quick recognition of Kosovo by the United States and Britain as yet one more insult, one more provocation. Finally, the fate of the Serb minority in Kosovo is unresolved. They, too, can claim they are being persecuted. And if Kosovo can separate from Serbia, can the Serbs in northern Kosovo separate from that new country? Many of these questions will ring loudly in the ears of Canadians whose government passed a law to impede if not prohibit a unilateral declaration of independence by Quebec. Should there be another referendum in Quebec, or if a separatist government there unilaterally declares sovereignty, Canada would object most vociferously to other countries quickly recognizing the province's independence. If that undesirable possibility ever becomes reality, Canada's recognition of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence could be thrown back in its face. It is, to be sure, difficult to know how best to respond to groups of people who claim the right to self-determination within the borders of a larger nation and after they have been persecuted by that nation. Ironically, as the Canadian government was recognizing the independence of the Kosovars, another embattled minority, the Tibetans, were bitterly denouncing the control of their country by China. In the grand scheme of things, it is easy to thumb our noses at Serbia. As for the Tibetans, whatever our concerns may be for their rights, we will go to the Beijing Olympics as planned. Letters to editor: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:lhaddrall%40therecord.com>
