British diplomat says Kosovo can win independence

Reuters ^ | Feb 6, 2006 | S. Buza

[Banat]

By Shaban Buza

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - The United Nations-run province of Kosovo can win independence from Serbia in negotiations this year if it shows enough democratic maturity, a senior British diplomat said on Monday.

"The more the leaders of Kosovo can reach out to the other communities and show that Kosovo is a mature democracy, the more fully an independence can be delivered," John Sawers, the political director of the Foreign Office, told reporters after meeting Kosovo Albanian leaders in the capital, Pristina.

The comments are in line with what diplomats have been saying in private for months -- that a form of conditional independence for Serbia's southern province is almost certain, provided the Albanian majority makes concessions to minority Serbs and accepts some continued international supervision.

The first round of face-to-face negotiations between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian officials is due to take place in Vienna later this month, having been delayed for several weeks by the death of Kosovo president Ibrahim Rugova on January 21.

Legally part of Serbia, the province of 2 million people became a U.N. protectorate in 1999, when NATO bombing drove out Serb forces accused of atrocities against Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.

Serbia officially opposes independence but 90 percent of the population are ethnic Albanians, who demand nothing less than their own state after years of discrimination and violent repression.

Fearful of fresh ethnic violence, the U.N. Security Council last November launched a mediation process led by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari to decide Kosovo's "final status."

The Contact Group of major powers -- the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia -- issued a statement in London last week saying a deal should be on the table within the year.

The statement urged Serbia to "bear in mind that the settlement needs ... to be acceptable to the people of Kosovo."

Sawers said it was up to Kosovo's leaders to secure their goal. "The more Kosovo's leaders can work together, the more they can understand each others issues, each others concerns, the more fully the goal of the people of Kosovo can be achieved and the quicker it will be achieved," he said.

The comments were unlikely to go down well in Belgrade, where Sawers is due to meet Serbian leaders on Tuesday.

[Banat]

Well, Sawers has come clean in the meantime. According to B92, "multiethnic democracy" is no longer a prerequisite for independence.

We're witnessing banditism on the part of the "international community". Albanian terrorism, fascism and rabid church-burning Islamism are being rewarded whilst the legitimate Serbian interests and concerns are, once again, being completely ignored.

The UN and the "international community" are actively aiding the Islamists. They have cut off water supply, phones and electricity to Kosovo's Serbs and have refused Serbia's offer to provide these services free of charge.

The message is clear: move out or die.

If you have a bit of free time on your hands, please take a look at some of these 17 short documentaries, or bookmark them for later viewing.

You will not see any of this mentioned by the established/MSM media. Multiethnic paradise brought to you by the UN. Would you want to live like this?

I beg you to get in touch with your honourable representatives and let them know what is going on in Kosovo. Please bump all the FReepers on your ping list.

[Banat]

PING

[pgyanke]

When I saw the title, I was prepared to "go ballistic" on this thread. Realized I didn't need to when I saw your post. Good job.

[bereanway]

"Serbia officially opposes independence but 90 percent of the population are ethnic Albanians, who demand nothing less than their own state after years of discrimination and violent repression."

Ahhh, what would we do without the wonderful, balanced, objective reporting of the MSM?

[FormerLib]

If NATO pushes the Muslims to accommodate other ethnic groups as a requirement for independence, their response will be to complete the extermination of those groups and then declare the accommodation complete.

And this appears to be okey-dokey with the Brits.

Peace and justice will only return to Kosovo alongside the Serb army.

[TBP]

Why did states liek Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia fall apart? Multinational states don't hold together well. Perhaps it's best if Kosovo goes its own way. We should generally be on the side of freedom movements.

[horse_doc]

Letting Kosovo "go its own way" after being ethnically cleansed of Christian Serbs is another way of rewarding Islamic extremism.

This would be an exceptionally stupid idea, given that there is a war on.

[Banat]

You wouldn't apply the same logic should an "Aztlan Liberation Army" appear in the Southwest, would you? The principle of sovereignty and inviolability of internationally recognized borders must be upheld; be it Serbia, Spain, Russia or the U.S.

This is a good read.

If you consider the borders and security of your Republic sacred, and you're ready to defend it come what may, then why do you not accept that Serbs feel the same way about their security, borders and Republic?

[DTA]

>>>>>>Why did states liek Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia fall apart? Multinational states don't hold together well. Perhaps it's best if Kosovo goes its own way. We should generally be on the side of freedom movements.<<<<<<

Is this your agenda?

If not, why you support terrorism?

[TBP]

You wouldn't apply the same logic should an "Aztlan Liberation Army" appear in the Southwest, would you?

Thre is a difference between multiethnic and multinational. The Austro-Hungarian Empier wa a multinational state and while I think the Hapsburgs were pretty good monarchs, there was only so long that such a country can hold together.

We have always been a unified culture, one that incorporated elements of other cultures, but incoprporated them into the larger context of the unified culture. The Aztlan movement, the open-borders crowd, the liberal "diversity" crowd, and others are actively tryuing to change us from a unified culture and a unified national identity into an Austria-Hungary.

The principle of sovereignty and inviolability of internationally recognized borders must be upheld; be it Serbia, Spain, Russia or the U.S.

Or Iraq? Or Yugoslavia? Or the Soviet Union? Sovereignty is teh most imnportant principle of a nation, but some of tehse borders were created by Western diplomats and imposed on the people, and thus they have little validity. Trying to preserve such borders is a cause not worth the trouble, IMO.

If the Kurds wanted independence, would you support them? How about before Shoeshine Boy was toppled? Did we support Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in their claims of independence? Of course we did, and we were right to do so. What about Tibet? Shoudl we support their freedom or the sovereignty, borders, and territorial integrity of Communist China (a country that has missiles pointed at us)?

If you consider the borders and security of your Republic sacred, and you're ready to defend it come what may, then why do you not accept that Serbs feel the same way about their security, borders and Republic?

For the same reason that I never accepted such claims where the Soviet Union was concerned. There are legitimate claims and illegitimate ones.

[F-117A]

Thanks for posting this!

[Banat]

I agree, but Serbia is a nation-state - unlike Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union or the A-H Empire. The borders of Serbia are not a product of a behind-closed-doors-border-drawing session.

[joan]

The British government was always anti-Serb. They were the ones who helped commie Tito (Croat-Slovene) defeat the Serb Chetniks. The British were giving Tito credit for what Draza Mihailovic and the Chetniks accomplished against the Germans. They were constantly lying. The British were broadcasting the same anti-Serb propaganda and lies as Stalin.

The British were the ones who tried to prevent the rescue of downed Allied airmen (including hundreds of Americans) because it would credit the Chetniks and Serbs who'd saved them, fed them, sheltered them, and helped build a rescue airstrip.

Art Jibilian, who had recently returned from Linn Farish’s mission with Tito, was asked to join Halyard. “I was contacted since I was an experienced radio operator behind the lines. They asked, ‘Would you like to go in again?’ I said, ‘Sure.’

“It took us almost a month to get in because the British didn’t want us to go in….[They didn’t want] Mihailovic to get credit for helping American airmen.

“After about a month we finally got into Pranjane. When we landed we found not 50 but 250 airmen. They were in pretty bad shape. Some of them had wounds they had been force-marched, et cetera. Many did not have boots in the parachute jumps but the natives made sure they had something on their feet. These people fed the men; 250 take up a lot of resources and those people fed these men at the expense of themselves and their children.

“Directing about 300 laborers, we built the airstrip. When we were with the Halyard Mission, preparing an airfield to evacuate downed fliers, the Partisans were shelling us with our own ammunition that we had dropped to them.

----- "Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of WWII’s OSS", by Patrick K. O’Donnell, Chapter Six - Into the Balkans: Yugoslavia and Albania