Kosovo

[thejuice]

Its quite an interesting development that has many worrying repecussions though. Russia are clearly not happy about this and are threatening to support pro-Russian seperatists in Georgia if Kosovan independence is accepted by the UN. The Serbians on a local level are up in arms over this, and depsite their being a minority in the region want to keep Kosovo as part of Serbia. UN will decide over whether to accept Kosovo as a sovereign state today.

[Aerlik]

One of the fellas where I work is Kosovan working for a Croatian who would happily employ any class, creed or colour EXCEPT Serb.  Any way the Kosovan went hyper yesterday at the news of independence being joined by the Croats and Bosnians in a great party.  To see his face and sheer unbridled joy was a pure pleasure.  Good luck to him and his countrymen, as there are going to be many long years ahead.

Got me thinking about the immense party there will be all over the world when we get our reunification.

[balladmaker]

When you see the celebrations on the streets in Kosovo, it is hard not to be happy for them.

Got me thinking about the immense party there will be all over the world when we get our reunification.

Got me thinking the same as well, from Dublin to Durban, Belfast to Beijing, Lisdoonvarna to London......the Irish will be on the streets. 

[Declan]

Angry Serbs dispute Kosovo's independence
18/02/2008 - 15:10:09

Thousands of Kosovo Serbs took to the streets in protest today over their ethnic Albanian leadership's declaration of the province's independence from Serbia. A member of staff is pictured clearing up a damaged McDonald's restaurant in downtown Belgrade.Thousands of Kosovo Serbs took to the streets in protest today over their ethnic Albanian leadership's declaration of the province's independence from Serbia.

Chanting "This is Serbia" and "Down with America" and carrying banners reading "Russia Help!", about 5,000 protesters demanded that the parts of Kosovo where Serbs live remain within Serbia.

In a first sign that Serbia was attempting to retake authority in the north of Kosovo, some Serb policemen started leaving the multiethnic Kosovo police force and placed themselves under Belgrade's authority, a senior Kosovo Serb police official.

There are about 320 Serb policemen in the force, which was established by the UN authority that has run Kosovo since the end of the war between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999. The departure of Serb policemen in the force would be likely to trigger a confrontation with the UN administration.

In Kosovo's capital, Pristina, a spokesman for the local police denied that the Serb members had abandoned their duty in the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica.

Russia has supported its ally Serbia's claim to Kosovo, while the United States has supported Kosovo's drive for independence. President George Bush today recognised Kosovo's declaration of independence, saying "The Kosovars are now independent."

"America is no longer the single world power," Marko Jaksic, the Kosovo Serbs' hard-line leader, told the noisy gathering in the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. "The Russians are coming. As long as there is Russia and Serbia, there will never be an independent Kosovo."

The crowds, singing nationalist songs, marched to a bridge spanning a river that divides Kosovska Mitrovica in two, with Serbs living in the north and ethnic Albanians in the south of the drab mining town.

They were confronted by Nato peacekeepers guarding the bridge, but there were no violent incidents.

"If the Albanians try to cross the bridge, we demand from the Serbian army to use all available means to stop them," Jaksic said.

Ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslim, saw yesterday's independence declaration as a final victory over Serbs in their decades-long struggle over the impoverished territory. Kosovo's Serbs, mostly Christian Orthodox, vowed to defend the province they consider the cradle of their state and religion.

About 800 Serbs staged another protest in a medieval Orthodox church in the town of Gracanica, near Pristina. They denounced the US and pleaded for Russia's help.

Some kissed red, blue and white Serbian flags and carried banners saying "We trust Russia."

The Serbian government in Belgrade has assured Kosovo's defiant Serbs that they will remain Serbian despite Kosovo's declared independence, suggesting the virtual partition of the province.

Tensions soared in Serb-controlled areas, which make up 15 per cent of Kosovo's territory, after the ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament in Pristina declared independence. Serbs comprise less than 10 percent of Kosovo's 2 million population.

Heightening the stand-off between Belgrade and Pristina, Serbia's Interior Ministry filed criminal charges on Monday against the three Kosovo leaders who were instrumental in proclaiming independence _ President Fatmir Sejdiu, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and parliament Speaker Jakup Krasniqi.

A statement said the three had committed "a serious criminal act against the constitutional order and security of Serbia" by participating in the proclamation of a "false state" on Serbian territory. The charges are only symbolic as Serbia has not had jurisdiction over Kosovo since the 1999 war there


Not a lot of love there!!!

[Son_of_Sam]

I'm not quite sure I agree with Independence for Kosovo, as far as I understand a very high percentage of the Albanian population in Kosovo are decended from illegals entering the old Yugoslavia & the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before it for about the last 100 years. Now I know the suffered greatly over the now gone dictator Milosovich & the various Serb militias but what if China where to continue to fill Tibet with ethnic Chineese or even if Britain decided to move about another million Island of Britain residents into the North, would everybody be so pleased?

[his holiness nb]

what if China where to continue to fill Tibet with ethnic Chineese or even if Britain decided to move about another million Island of Britain residents into the North, would everybody be so pleased?

Thats a very valid point, and a tactic used by some of the superpowers all to often.

Take over, then move enough people over so your "people" have a majority, then say "sure let the people decide, lets be democratic, we dont mind walking away if its what the people want, arent we just great"
All this knowing fine well they had ensured this would not happen due to the earlier actions.

[Son_of_Sam]

Wait & see they will have American bases in there sooner than you can say Greater Albania.

[magickingdom]

i think they should send all the albanians back home...  now that i think of it that could work in a few places 

[thejuice]

Kosovo: To recognise or not to recognise? 
By Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent, BBC News website 

The declaration of independence by Kosovo has provoked a worldwide debate about the merits of recognising it as a state.

Several governments with breakaway movements of their own are refusing to do so. They are anxious about setting a precedent and argue against recognition on the grounds that there was no agreement between Serbia and Kosovo and no clear UN Security Council mandate.

Others have endorsed the declaration as a unique and justified move for freedom and the inevitable outcome to Kosovo's history, in which Serb troops were forced out after Nato waged war in 1999 and the province was handed over to UN control.

The numbers matter. There needs to be a critical mass of countries recognising Kosovo to enable it to develop and prosper. The United States, which made its own declaration of independence in 1776, and whose support for Kosovo has not been in doubt, led the way in recognising Kosovo. President Bush said: "The Kosovars are now independent."

The European Union
Several major European Union member states have also swung behind Kosovo, giving it powerful support. The EU as a whole has a key role in supervising the limited form of independence that a UN report recommended for Kosovo and which Kosovo has accepted.

Britain, France, Germany and Italy all see the Kosovo move as a one-off and as the last piece of the old Yugoslav jigsaw being slotted into its new place.

However, the EU, which has no common foreign policy except by agreement, is not unified. Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia are in the No camp. So is Spain, with its own separatist Basque movement.
Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said: "Spain is not going to recognise this unilateral declaration of independence... because it does not consider that this respects international law."


Russia
Beyond the EU, Russia is opposing independence, as it always has, again arguing that such a move should depend on there being an agreement with Serbia first.

"We are talking here of the disruption of all the basic fundamentals of international law in Europe, which is a result of years of suffering and wars and strife," said the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Russia's Sergei Lavrov calls it a "disruption of fundamentals"

"It would undermine the basics of security in Europe... It would inevitably result in a chain reaction in many parts of the world, including Europe and elsewhere." One question is whether Russia will now more actively support the demands of two regions of Georgia for secession. South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoyty said: "Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have more political and legal grounds for their independence than Kosovo... we can clearly see a policy of double standards."

China

China indicated its opposition, perhaps with Taiwan in mind.

"China expresses its deep concern about Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence," the Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. Taiwan spoke in favour of Kosovo. "Our consistent position is that we want to develop relations with any free and democratic country," spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh said. To which the Chinese spokesman replied: "It is known to all that Taiwan, as a part of China, has no right and qualification at all to make the so-called recognition."

Israel, with negotiations for a neighbouring state of Palestine ongoing, was cautious, refusing to give an immediate position. Israel itself declared its independence in 1948.

Precedent?

Regions with aspirations of independence of their own are using the Kosovo declaration as a potential precedent for them. "I salute the independence of Kosovo. No people can be forced to live under the rule of another," said Mehmet Ali Talat, leader of the Turkish Cypriots.


Kosovo is "a lesson in how to resolve conflicts of identity and membership, peacefully and democratically," said Miren Askarate, spokeswoman for the Basque regional government in northern Spain.
The chairman of the breakaway Transdniester region of Moldova, Yevgeny Shevchuk, said: "We believe that a new era started and a new system of international relations was formed the moment part of a country, based on a series of historical developments, decided to live independently, and this country can gain recognition."



The big worry is that if it goes ahead, that it will open the flood gates for other break-away regions.

[Son_of_Sam]

Why is Britain recognising it, sure oulde hatched head himself Churchill did not recognise Irelands Independence in his Emergency Time propaganda. 

[Zapatista]

This is a very difficult issue and because you see faces of happy people it does not make it the right thing to do. There are many sad faces too.

The Irish issue is much easier to define as we are an Island and are a different race than the British.

These places have had different rulers and undefined borders only to be replaced different rulers and by ever changing defined borders. This makes it impossible to tell where one state should begin and another end.

"Got me thinking the same as well, from Dublin to Durban, Belfast to Beijing, Lisdoonvarna to London......the Irish will be on the streets"

The small numbers who went to the street in support of independance belore got battered and harrassed by Irish people.

You would also think that if it meant that much to the Irish people they might have tried to do something about it.

[GweylTah]

The Irish issue is much easier to define as we are an Island and are a different race than the British.

Yeah, of course we are.

[Tony hawks]

One of the fellas where I work is Kosovan working for a Croatian who would happily employ any class, creed or colour EXCEPT Serb.  Any way the Kosovan went hyper yesterday at the news of independence being joined by the Croats and Bosnians in a great party.  To see his face and sheer unbridled joy was a pure pleasure.  Good luck to him and his countrymen, as there are going to be many long years ahead.

Got me thinking about the immense party there will be all over the world when we get our reunification.

Dont hold your breath then again...

[J70]

The Irish issue is much easier to define as we are an Island and are a different race than the British.

Yeah, of course we are.

All this time and you didn't notice, Gweyltah!

Richard Pryor's blind character, on discovering that he is black (from See No Evil Hear No Evil):

I'm not white?!!
This is a scandal!
What do you mean, I'm not white? Why didn't you tell me this before?
I'll have to cancel the swimming lessons: What will the guys at the club say?
I'm not white!... Lord, help me.
Does Dad know?

[Rav67]

There's no such race as Irish or British!