“No to Kosovo” editorial in The Statesman
February 22, 2008 by drsubrotoroy
The Statesman of Kolkata and New Delhi, editorial February 20 2008 www.thestatesman.net
“Without American and British backing, there would have been no
unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo’s Muslim “Ethnic
Albanian” population. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair bombed the Serbs
heavily on behalf of Kosovo’s Albanians, and George W Bush has now
promoted the latter’s breaking away. In part this has been because the
Americans want to show they are not anti-Muslim ~ 90% of Kosovo’s 2
million people are Muslim ~ though Muslim anger at America will hardly
reduce itself because Kosovo’s Albanians are now waving American
flags. The USA has been purely self-interested in another way also:
the largest American military base created between the Vietnam and
Iraq wars is Camp Bondsteel, 40 km from Pristina, the capital of
Kosovo. There have been calls for Russia to station troops in Serbia
in response to the American base ~ making Kosovo a flashpoint for a
new Cold War between Russia and the West. America’s own short history
being hidden in mythology, US foreign policy has not been much guided
by proper historical understanding. By creating an American dependency
in recognized Serbian territory, the USA may have sown the seeds of
new Balkan wars. World War I began in 1914 when in next-door Sarajevo,
a 19 year old Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, killed Austria’s Archduke
Ferdinand and his wife, causing Austro-Hungary to declare war on
Serbia and hence on Russia, which in turn caused Austro-Hungary’s
German ally to enter on one side, and Russia’s ally France and
France’s ally Britain to enter on the other. Almost a century later,
Russia will today veto any move by Kosovo to enter the UN, and China’s
Foreign Ministry has urged talks between Serbia and the Kosovo
Albanians. India through our MEA also must urge the world community to
follow international law, and that means in this case saying no to
Kosovo. Serbia was vanquished and viciously subjugated for centuries
by the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Let not new Balkan or
world wars start needlessly over Kosovo again.”
