Does Kosovo’s status give green light to separatist movements?
PARIS — In what clearly represents surmounting a significant legal hurdle for
the young state of Kosovo, the International Court of Justice has ruled that
the ethnic-Albanian province’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008
did not violate international law. Yet, the court’s ruling was
characteristically equivocal insofar as it did not say that the new State of
Kosovo in itself was legal. Nonetheless many international observers argue that
the ruling gives a green light to separatism in a score of regions, some in
Europe itself.
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The World Court passed an 10-4 non-binding advisory opinion which said that
international law contained “no prohibition of declarations of independence,”
and thus Kosovo’s declaration of independence “did not violate international
law.” As would be expected the Serbs rejected the ruling. Ironically Serbia
successfully lobbied the UN General Assembly to bring the case to the Hague
court in the first place. Writing in Le Figaro, Pierre Rousselin commented
editorially, “A Delicate Epilogue in Kosovo.”
Kosovo’s independence became a fait accompli largely in reaction the actions of
the ruling Serb regime of Slobodan Milosevic who turned the ethnic Albanian
enclave into a simmering Balkan pressure-cooker where the cruelties of ethnic
cleansing and political repression made the best case for freedom from
Belgrade. After endless political negotiations, a decade long United Nations
mandate, the Kosovar Albanians unilaterally declared independence from Serbia
in February 2008.
The Bush Administration immediately offered American diplomatic recognition of
the new Republic as did France, Germany, Turkey and a host of other countries.
Today Kosovo is recognized by 69 countries; without question an important
achievement but still far short of the two-thirds of the 192 member UN General
Assembly. Kosovo is not a member of the UN.
Importantly key countries such as Russia (Serbia’s historic patron), People’s
Republic of China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia have refused to recognized the
government in Pristina. To be sure some of the reasons are obvious — Moscow,
Beijing and have traditionally supported socialist Serbia ideologically. But
more importantly, multi-ethnic states, be they democratic or not, have a
deep-seated fear of Kosovo stoking the embers of political separatism from
Spain to Sumatra and Sinkiang.
Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic opined, that the court ruling could
encourage separatist movements to “write their declarations of independence.”
He has a valid point.
Thus while most of European Union’s 27 member states have recognized Kosovo,
five countries have notably not done so. Spain, Slovakia, Cyprus, Greece and
Romania all fear ethnic rumblings inside their frontiers such as the Basques or
Catalonians in Spain.
But this emerges as the tip of a potentially far deeper political issue. Russia
is crossed by many ethnic fault lines especially in the volatile Caucasian
region where Chechnya naturally comes to mind. On the flip side, there’s the
issue of the Russian-backed separatist regimes in Georgia — Abkhazia and South
Ossetia.
Mainland China rightly fears separatism — look only at Tibet and Sinkiang
Province where ethnic repression by the Beijing rulers of both Buddhists and
Muslims has led to deep resentments and growing separatist rumblings.
Let’s face it: Indonesia remains a mosaic of ethnic groups and nationalities
who are not all on the same political page as the Jakarta government. The same
goes for democratic India. And Sri Lanka recently ended a vicious separatist
struggle. The point is that tiny Kosovo’s independence can be interpreted in
many ways in far flung parts of the world.
While the Kosovo government in Pristina appears to have achieved an important
juridical benediction from the World Court in the Hague, the fact remains that
the social and ethnic stability in the disputed region rests with NATO’s
peacekeeping forces. Almost 10,000 troops from the multinational KFOR units
remain in the enclave a decade after the war between Serbia and NATO. Moreover
international aid has been the intravenous for the two million mostly secular
Muslims in the landlocked Balkan republic. Organized crime sadly remains
equally entrenched as a millstone to development.
Pierre Lellouche of the French Foreign Ministry told Le Monde, “The juridical
chapter is closed, but the political chapter is opening.”
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John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues.
He writes weekly for WorldTribune.com.
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2010/mz0704_07_23.asp
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