Dienstbier: Serbia and Balkans should not be torn apart
Former Czechoslovak foreign minister Jiri Dienstbier on Tuesday appealed to the international community not to additionally break up the Balkans with Kosovo's suspicious independence, but systematically offer the region the prospect of EU integration.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Dienstbier warned that the US, certain European politicians and the international mediators had never seriously looked for a compromise solution, but "wanted to convince the Serbs or potentially blackmail
them into accepting Kosovo's independence."
"No state will accept the separation of a portion of its territory without resistance, just because the local majority speaks a different language," Dienstbier, who is also the former human rights envoy in the former Yugoslavia, said.
"Changing borders according to the ethnic principle is a time bomb. The Serbian democrats had been saying that the principle cannot be applied to change the borders with Croatia and Bosnia. How are they to
explain that the Serbs should accept the ethnic principle now," Dienstbier wondered.
Opposition to the independence of Kosovo has recently also been voiced by two US experts, despite the fact that the US administration advocates independence with or without the UN's approval.
Former US Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger has expressed worry about the intention of Washington to seize Kosovo from Serbia and proclaiming it an independent state.
"I think it is not something we want to establish as tradition. There are very good reasons to oppose international aims to separate Kosovo from Serbia," Eargleburger said.
James Lyons, retired US Navy admiral, said the US could not overlook the fact that the dominant element in the local Albanian administration were commanders of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, known to have ties to the global jihad movement and organized crime.
"From a strategic viewpoint, we are endorsing the formation of a "Taliban-like" state at the very heart of Europe. It is difficult to see what advantages exist for the US to force a resolution for Kosovo, especially one that threatens to unleash instability in the troubled region, as well as a broader political showdown with Russia, and China too. Not only do we have enough serious issues with those countries, over Iran, Taiwan and North Korea, the US can ill afford to commit additional military forces to a new confrontation in the Balkans, with our ongoing efforts in the Middle East", Lyons said.
