Neil Clark : Kosovo a Crisis of The West's Own Making

Andrej Tisma wrote:
>
> http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22966948-7583,00.html
>
>
> The Australian
> December 24, 2007
>
>
> A crisis of West's own making by Neil Clark

>
> Powerful Western nations make threats to Serbia.
> Despite Western threats for it to accept Kosovan
> independence, Belgrade is standing firm. Serbian armed
> forces are on standby to reclaim the province by force
> if necessary. Russia has promised Serbia its support.
> If war does follow, then Serbia will no doubt be
> blamed by Western governments for not toeing the line.
> But it would be an unfair judgment.
> The present crisis in Kosovo has been caused not so
> much by Serbian intransigence, but by the West's
> policy of intervention in the internal affairs of
> sovereign states, which, over the past decade has
> caused chaos, not only in the Balkans, but across the
> globe.
> Ten years ago, Kosovo was at relative peace. Albanian
> demands for independence from Belgrade were being
> channeled through the peaceful Democratic League party
> of Ibrahim Rugova, while the small groups of Albanian
> paramilitaries that did exist were isolated and had
> little public support.
> According to a report by Jane's intelligence agency in
> 1996, the Kosovo Liberation Army, the most extreme of
> Albanian paramilitary groups, does not take into
> consideration the political or economic importance of
> its victims, nor does it seem at all capable of
> hurting its enemy.
> It has not come close to challenging the region's
> balance of military power. As late as November 1997,
> the KLA, officially classified by the US as a
> terrorist organisation, could, it has been estimated,
> call on the services of only 200 men.
> Then, in a policy shift whose repercussions we are
> witnessing today, the West started to interfere big
> time. The US, Germany and Britain increasingly saw the
> KLA as a proxy force which could help them achieve
> their goal of destabilising and eventually removing
> from power the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, which
> showed no inclination to join Euro-Atlantic
> structures.
> Over the following year, the KLA underwent a drastic
> makeover. The group was taken off the US State
> Department's list of terrorist organisations and, as
> with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan a decade or so
> earlier, became fully fledged freedom fighters.
> Large-scale assistance was given to the KLA by Western
> security forces. Britain organised secret training
> camps in northern Albania. The German secret service
> provided uniforms, weapons and instructors.
> The Sunday Times in Britain published a report stating
> that American intelligence agents admitted they helped
> to train the KLA before NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.
> Meanwhile, Rugova's Democratic League, which supported
> negotiations with Belgrade, was given the cold
> shoulder.
> When the KLA's campaign of violence, directed not only
> against Yugoslav state officials, Serb civilians and
> Albanian collaborators who did not support their
> extremist agenda, led to a military response from
> Belgrade, the British and Americans were ready to hand
> out the ultimatums.
> During the 79-day NATO bombing of Yugoslavia that
> followed, the West made promises of independence to
> the KLA which, eight years on, are coming back to
> haunt them.
> Recognising an independent Kosovo will push Serbia
> from the Western orbit as well as creating a real
> chance of war. And it will set a precedent: if the
> rights of self-determination for Kosovan Albanians are
> to be acknowledged, then what about the rights of
> self-determination for Serbs in Bosnia, who wish to
> join Serbia?
> Doing a U-turn, and attempting to get independence
> postponed, runs the risk of violence from Kosovo's
> Albanian majority. It's an almighty mess, but one of
> the West's own making.
> Had it not intervened in Yugoslav internal affairs 10
> years ago, it is likely a peaceful compromise to the
> Kosovan problem would eventually have been found
> between the government in Belgrade and the Democratic
> League. Rugova's goal was independence for Kosovo from
> Serbia, but only with the agreement of all parties.
> What is certain is that without Western patronage the
> KLA would never have grown to the force it eventually
> became.
> By championing the most hardline force in Kosovo, the
> West not only helped precipitate war, but made the
> issue of Kosovo much harder to solve.
> It is ironic that for supporters of liberal
> intervention, Western actions in Kosovo are still seen
> to have been a great success. It was at the height of
> the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999
> that the then British prime minister, Tony Blair, made
> his famous speech at Chicago in which he outlined his
> doctrine of the international community.
> Blair argued that the principle of non-interference in
> the affairs of sovereign states - long considered an
> important principle of international order - should be
> subject to revision. "I say to you: never fall again
> for the doctrine of isolationism," Blair pleaded.
> But after surveying the global debris of a decade of
> Western interference, from the Balkans to Afghanistan
> and Iraq, is it any wonder that isolationism and
> observing the principle of non-interference in the
> affairs of sovereign states again seems so appealing?
> ———————-
> Neil Clark, a regular contributor to The Spectator and
> The Guardian in Britain, teaches international
> relations at Oxford Tutorial College.
>
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