| INSTITUTE ALB-SHKENCA , TIRANA - ALBANIA |
| Publikuar më 23 mars, 2009 në orën 16:27 ( ) |
English | |
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Respond
to:
sdrepishti@att.net
March 20, 2009
M E M O R A N D U M
The Honorable BAN KI MOON
Secretary General, UN Organization
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
New York City, N.Y.10017
Dear Mr. President:
The Institute Alb-Shkenca, an association of Albanian scholars from around the world, would like to bring to His Excellency’s attention, the following:
Recent statements by the Government of the Republic of Serbia requesting that further negotiations regarding “the status” of the Republic of Kosovo should be promoted, possibly with the approval of the United Nations, bear the potential to poison the overall atmosphere in the Western Balkans.
Additional Serbian provocative requests, which undermine the international position of the Republic of Kosovo, have already caused unnecessary tensions, and political uncertainty, and are seen as threats to peace and security in the Western Balkans.
We believe that these provocative Serbian demands should be immediately rejected as dangerous and as obstacles to peace. In the next Meeting of the UN Security Council, March 23, 2009, where the “problem” of Kosovo will be discussed, opponents of the Republic of Kosovo must be confronted, and stopped.
Serbia is trying to win debating points in international politics by calling for the existing plans to implement the blueprint for Kosovo’s independence-- devised by the former United Nations Envoy and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Martti Ahtisaari,-- to be dropped. As thenSenator Joseph Biden put it in 2007, ”…trouble in the Balkans is almost always the result of false expectations”!
On February 17,2008, the Parliament of Kosovo formally declared the Independence of the Republic of Kosovo. It was an expression of the overwhelming will of the local population. As of now, this solemn act has been officially recognized by over fifty countries, including 23 countries of the European Union, the United States, Japan, Albania and others. These countries count for more than 60 percent of the developed world.
Located between Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia, the new Republic of Kosovo is embarked on the road to freedom, democracy, membership to the United Nations, and accession to the European Union. Its population of over two million, is composed of 92 percent Albanians, and 8 percent national and religious minorities, including Serbs, Montenegrins, Ashkali, Roma and others. The Honorable Chris Patten commented: “Although outnumbering ALL minorities nine to one, Albanians (in Kosovo) have agreed to establish a multi-ethnic state with the strongest minority protection regime ever seen in Europe”
The new state is expected to join soon the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, while additional countries are considering its formal recognition. The process influences the course of events favoring the new Republic of Kosovo to further integrate within the family of free nations. This positive orientation has become the cornerstone of the political--domestic and foreign--activities in that country.
The unconstitutional abolition of Kosovo’s autonomy, March 1989, and the ensuing decade of tragic events, plus the murderous Serbian military and Police operations during the 1998 and 1999 especially, --which left over 10.000 Albanians killed ( a very conservative figure) over 2.000 persons still missing, over a million victims of “ethnic cleansing” expelled, rapes, wanton destruction and more -- led to a situation in which a return of Kosovo under Belgrade’s rule was inconceivable. Belgrade’s discredited policies in Kosovo forced the international community to take Serbia, militarily, out of Kosovo.
A new local administration was set up. The Albanian Kosovars’ right to self-determination was recognized. Two free and fair general elections were held. Delegates, freely elected convened to form the Parliament of Kosovo, which is now fully operational as the highest legislative body of the country. A Government instituted there by a coalition of major political parties, and the office of the Presidency of Kosovo are duly formed, and operate according to the approved Constitution of the country, and the laws enacted by the Parliament. Presently, the process of state building in Kosovo is completed. Speaking about Kosovo’s independence, the Honorable Martti Ahtisaari, former UN Envoy for Kosovo, declared:
“…If a dictatorial leadership in any country behaves the way Milosevic and company have done to Kosovar Albanians in Kosovo, they lose the right to control them anymore”.
This principle was reaffirmed by the UN General Assembly approval, in 2005, of the “Responsibility to Protect” Resolution.
Back on February 11, 1999, the 106th Congress of the United States, recognizing the explosive and illegal situation created by the Serb conduct in Kosovo, resolved:
“it is the sense of the Congress (the Senate concurring) that;
(1) by illegally revoking the autonomy of Kosova in 1989, and undertaking other constitutional actions, by officially and hastily discriminating against the majority ethnic Albanians in Kosova, and by committing numerous crimes against humanity, including ethnic cleansing, against the people of Kosova, Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugo- slavia (Serbia and Montenegro) especially as ruled by Slobodan Milosevic, have forfeited any right to govern or to determine the political status of the territory of Kosova…’;and,
…b) provide for a Referendum on the final status of Kosova to be held within Kosova on date certain, which would include independence as an option, and be guaranteed by the international community…”(1st Session. H.Con.Resolution 32)
There is an inherent tension between “self-determination” and “sovereignty” or ’territorial integrity” in international politics, as isoftentimes also between “the preservation of peace” and “administration of justice” in world affairs. Today, the Republic of Serbia pays lip service to the principle of “territorial integrity”. This is especially true when it comes to the developments in Kosovo, because the former “SocialistAutonomous Province of Kosovo” was both, an element of the Yugoslav Federation and “in the composition (“u sastavu”) of the Republic of
Serbia, at the moment when Serbia resolved to inherit the entire Yugoslavia. Conflicts exploded. The “Yugoslav Federation” was disbanded.
Six federal units became independent states. Kosovo (and Voivodina) were denied the right to secede. “…But the shattering of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Ethiopia within the past decade is a precedent not lost on many ‘nations’ that would be states”, wrote Professor Hurst Hannum. The only legitimate goal consistent with the present international order is, he added, ”…ensuring that the separation or unity occurs without disturbing international peace”.
From December 1989, the date of the first formation of an independent political party in Kosovo, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and its leader and mentor, Dr.Ibrahim Rugova, conducted a disciplined and conscious “peaceful but active resistance”, avoiding confrontations and conflicts, while, in the meantime, building the foundations of a new state, home to the Albanian majority, and protector of all national and religious minorities. When in Spring 1998, armed clashes between elements of the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) and Serbian military and police units became public knowledge, the Rubicon had been crossed. Serbia wanted the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo; local Albanians wanted Serbia out of Kosovo.
The conflict became unavoidable, and Kosovo was an international issue that the international community could not avoid any longer. At that point, the general public opinion was in favor of supporting “ a deserving international assistance” to the victimized Albanian Kosovars.
After Spring 1998 in Kosovo, the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) and their armed movement was the only option left, since Serb oppression prohibited free expression to the Albanian masses. The peaceful resistance and the armed resistance during the last decade of the twentieth century in Kosovo are but two sides of the same coin, namely, the struggle for freedom and independence. Both movements were prompted, and were primarily conceived with people’s lives and their well-beings in mind, fundamentally addressing the present, and the immediate precedent. It was a “here and now” complaint of utmost urgency against the Serb Government repression.
That is also the reason why, when responding to their claims, the international policymakers’ foremost goal was the protection of people’s human rights, according to the human right norms developed especially since 1945.
It is this Albanian Kosovar response that attracted the attention of the civilized world Their claims were well-received by the decision-making circles of the United States and Western Europe, who decided to intervene in 1999, in a particular action likely to promote the rights of the people concerned--and later clearly expressed by the “Ahtisaari Plan”, endorsed by the UNO’s Security Council in 2006.Kosovo is now a free country not because “Albanians are a nation, therefore, have a right to a state”, but because two million Albanian Kosovars have been cruelly and persistently
oppressed. They have, therefore, the right to be free and decide their own fate.
Calling the NATO intervention in Kosovo (1999) “A good fight” Professor Peter. Berkowitz, of Harvard., concluded:
“…Yet, we owned to ourselves to recognize that sometimes courage, sacrifice, and generosity become necessary to vindicate the principles that give sense and substance to our lives. On certain occasions, we must summon as a nation the wherewithal to fight those, at home and abroad, who would float the standards our politics teaches us to regard as universal. Kosovo is such an occasion”.
Answering Serb claims that Belgrade can act with impunity in Kosovo, since
“Kosovo is part of Serbia” the distinguished American writer, and human rights activist, Susan Sontag, wrote:
“…Empires rise, fall, reconfigure under the weight of the events; so are the national borders….Are national borders, which has been altered so many times in the last one hundred years, really to be the ultimate criterion? You can murder your wife in your own home, but not outdoors in the streets…Imagine that Nazi Germany had had no expansionist ambitions, but had simply mark it a policy, in the late 1930’s and early in 1940’s to slaughter all German Jews. Do you think a Government has the right to do whatever it wants on its own territory? Maybe the
Governments of Europe would have said that 65 years ago. But would we approve now of their decisions?”
A few weeks before NATO attacks on Serbia, Spring 1999, in a meeting with Serb President Milosevic, General W.Clark, NATO Commander, asked what the President planned to do with Albanian Kosovars? The answer he received, and reported, was: “We kill them all!” At that point, should the international community have withdrawn and accepted the slaughter of the victims, or use military force to reverse the slaughter? History has passed its judgment. The dictator was humbled, and defeated. Two million Albanian Kosovars could breath freely.
The world saw on the TV screens the trainloads of Kosovar refugees forced out of their homeland, reminiscent of the scenes of Europe’s Nazi transportation convoys to Auschwitz for millions of Jews and non-Jews alike. Then, something clicked inside the dormant consciences of the civilized world. A line was drawn in
the sand. Finally, a forceful response to the violence of a fascist state against its people who were, nominally, its own citizens within their legally recognized borders, became a categorical imperative, The slaughter of the innocent was stopped, and a new life for two million Albanian Kosovars was dawning.
Recognition of the independence of the Republic of Kosovo is the international response to an injustice being redressed. From the chains of Serb slavery to the freedom of the Albanian Kosovars is a major step forward in our historical march of universal liberty for all!
A rather fragmented pattern of authority, due to Serb strategy obstructing a normal course of events, leaves the Republic of Kosovo in a new interim status which is very likely an attempt to impede the polity of economic and political reform, and invite possible violence. “Serbia must look at its past,” advised a few days ago, the High Commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, the Honorable Thomas Hammarsberg.”Serbia should adopt a formal strategy for accepting and telling the truth about the conflicts in the region…”This is evident in the Serbian version of events in Kosovo. Not once have we heard even a note of simulated remorse, let alone an apology for the tens of thousands of Albanian Kosovars, victims of Serb violence. Kosovo today is a distinct country of widows and orphans. It is believed that 174 Albanian families , man, women and children, were burned alive within their charred homes by Serb military and police armed units. If their victims were willing to forgive, they are not ready to forget. Empty seats in their dining tables are difficult to ignore, or refill.
“A second victim”, the Serb people, are prisoners of a victimization campaign and mentality. They are seeing their fears fanned by unscrupulous leaders, political and religious, as they are being asked to lash out at “others”, the Albanians. After the Declaration of Independence in Kosovo, skeptics predicted dangerous times. Fortunately, Kosovo since June 1999 has enjoyed a period of peace; law and order have prevailed, and “Serb exodus” so much advertised by Kosovo’s enemies, has not materialized.
Three years ago, in 2006, several Serbian leaders, calling the solution in Kosovo a “non-solution,” declared “…we are going to wait until the current power structure in the world has changed to reclaim our territory(Kosovo)” This meant the decline of the United States and the fading away of the European Union. This ominous wish was also made by the Serb Orthodox Church .
To this trend, thoughtful Serbs, as the distinguished lawyer and human right activist, Srdja Popovic responded: ”Serbia had two states:
Yugoslavia and Great Serbia. Both collapsed. (This is) a propaganda aiming at preventing Serbia’s accession to the European Union, and to make a shift toward Russia. The only way out of this stalemate for Serbia is: to recognize Kosovo’s independence immediately…”
The tragic flaw in Serbia’s hopes on Russia is their difficulty to understand that Russia does not care about Kosovo. But it does care about reasserting its international power.
Kosovo is a perfect launching pad to start rolling back the West. Oil and natural gas for Western Europe are Russia’s modern weaponry. Russian interests, on a local level, encourage the Serbs not to cooperate with the EULEX Mission in Kosovo. On the international level, Serbia with strong support from Russia, is actively engaged in blocking Kosovo’s accession to the United Nations, and other global organizations. The spiritual father of modern Serb chauvinism, Dobrica Cosic anticipates a new war “…for the re-composition of the Balkans”, as the Serbs expect the United States to decline and Western Europe to fade away….!
*
This is where we find ourselves, today The choice is clear:
a) an independent Republic of Kosovo, free, democratic with European vision, a country committed to respect the freedom and the dignity of ALL its citizens, and in peace and cooperation with its neighbors, including a democratic Serbia; OR
b) A threatened Republic of Kosovo living in fear of violence and political insecurity endorsed by the dark forces of successive Serbian totalitarian governments, a prescription for continued frictions and conflicts in the Western Balkans, for the entire 21st century.
It is encouraging to see the Republic of Kosovo, one year after its independence as a country, although provoked by Serbia, embarked in the building of a modern and democratic state and society, with solid political institutions, and demonstrating admirable calmness, maturity and dignity
Such a country, such a society deserve the world’s total support.
Dear Mr.Secretary General:
Your courtesy of distributing the contents of this Memorandum among the Member States of the UN, will be greatly appreciated.
Respectfully submitted,
For The Institute Alb-Shkenca
Signed:
Jahja Kokaj, Ph.D.
University of Kuwait
Niko Qafoku, Ph,D.
University of Washington
Sami Repishti, Ph.D.
City University of New York (ret.)
Gentian Zyberi, Ph.D.
University of Utrecht (NE.)
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