<
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/6/11/the-west-has-lost-the-plot-in-the-balkans>
"Images of pipe-wielding and stone-throwing Serb militant nationalists
assaulting NATO peacekeepers in the northern Kosovo town of Zvecan in late May
put the Balkan country in the international spotlight once again. The violence
erupted in the Serb-majority north of the country after Kosovo police escorted
to work mayors who had been recently elected in local polls which ethnic Serb
residents had boycotted.
The news that Serbia had concurrently placed its military on high alert had
many unfamiliar with Balkan affairs asking if another armed conflict was about
to break out in Europe.
The answer is no, we are not on the verge of another Balkan war. But that does
not mean the situation in Kosovo is not alarming.
Apart from the violence, what is raising concern in the region is the role that
the United States and the European Union have played in abetting a dangerous
new phase of Serb nationalist militancy in Kosovo and in the Western Balkans
more broadly.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, backed by the US, the
United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy, also known as the Quint.
It came after almost a decade of international supervision under the UN Interim
Administration which was set up at the end of the Kosovo War. During this
interim period, Kosovo remained nominally part of the then Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia as an “autonomous province”, but Belgrade exercised no actual
authority over any aspect of the territory’s governance, save for a limited
presence in a handful of Serb-majority municipalities in the north.
Kosovo had also enjoyed a significant degree of self-rule during the socialist
period, though its ethnic Albanian majority was a frequent target of
repression. In 1989, as Slobodan Milosevic seized power in Belgrade, he imposed
a new constitutional regime on Kosovo and turned the region into a veritable
police state with ethnic Albanians stripped of virtually all civil liberties.
This draconian rule eventually resulted in armed resistance by the Albanian
community, and ultimately NATO’s military intervention.
Over the past 15 years, the US and the EU have sought to secure a normalisation
deal between Pristina and Belgrade. Despite successive rounds of high-level
talks, the two sides remain as far apart on a settlement as ever – as the
clashes in Zvecan neatly illustrate.
But there is no question of equal culpability here. The problem remains almost
entirely on the Serbian side."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
