Kosovo Declares Independence. Russia Unhappy.

It could happen here. Do not think it could not.

Think about some Southwestern US counties declaring independence from the US. The majority population, because of years of illegal immigration, brought the illegals into the majority. Further assume the majority were Islamic and in ongoingl conflict with native Christians. Assume Russia supported the illegals and the secession (think Vicente Fox). Add into the mix that Russia and Warsaw pact countries bombed Washington DC to stop the US from forcing the illegals back across the border. 

That is Kosovo. 

How did we ever get involved in Kosovo? 

Where is our interest in that mess?

____________________

Russia denounces Kosovo independence bid
39 minutes ago
MOSCOW -AP-

Russia denounced Kosovo's declaration of independence from its ally Serbia on Sunday and called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Kosovo's parliament approved a declaration of independence from Serbia, backed by the U.S. and European allies but bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia.

The Foreign Ministry said Russia supports Serbia's "just demands to restore the country's territorial integrity" and wants the Security Council to renew efforts to reach a settlement on the issue of Kosovo's status.

Kosovo's independence declaration violates Serbia's sovereignty and the U.N. Charter and threatens "the escalation of tension and ethnic violence in the region, a new conflict in the Balkans," the ministry said in a statement. It warned other nations against "supporting separatism" by recognizing Kosovo.

Kosovo has formally remained a part of Serbia even though it has been administered by the U.N. and NATO since 1999, when NATO airstrikes ended former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

Russia has stressed its opposition to any decision on Kosovo's status that is not accepted by Serbia. It has warned that recognition of Kosovo by the United States and other nations would encourage separatists in the former Soviet Union, across Europe and around the world.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov echoed the ministry statement in comments on state-run Vesti-24 television. He called Kosovo's declaration an "illegitimate act" and said Russia supports what he called Serbia's pledges to struggle in a constructive way to keep its borders intact.

"All possible international mechanisms, first of all the United Nations and its Security Council" would be called upon to address the issue," Peskov said.

He said Russia would closely monitor the response of other countries to the declaration

Kosovo is a European Problem.

Kosovo is 92% Albanian and predominately Muslim. There may be other reasons to get involved with Albania, but Kosovo is not one of them.

There is no possible US interest in Kosovo. There never was. There should be no European interest in Kosovo. You can find twenty other parts of Europe where similar local interests conflict with national interest. Start with Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and even Cornwall.

We have enough problems. Kosovo is not one of them.

If the Europeans wish to make it a problem, stand aside and let them.

_____________________

February 16, 2008
Kosovo to declare Independence Sunday
Rick Moran American Thinker

In a move guaranteed to open an international hornet's nest of trouble, Kosovo will declare its independence from Serbia on Sunday:

"Tomorrow will be a day of calm, of understanding, and of state engagements for the implementation of the will of the citizens of Kosovo," said Thaci after meeting religious leaders from the predominantly ethnic Albanian province.

Expectations that independence would be declared on Sunday have been running high but Thaci's comments marked the first top-level confirmation that the long-awaited break with Serbia would take place this weekend.

Thaci appealed for celebrations to unfold with "dignity ... on the day of the declaration of independence, on the big day, on the historic day ... a day of thanksgiving for a sovereign and independent Kosovo".

Kosovo inched closer to its historic declaration of independence with a growing sense of excitement among its people and the European Union launching a police and judicial mission to smoothen the birth of the world's newest state.

Serbia, backed by Russia, has said that the split -- supported by the United States and most major European powers, nine years after Kosovo was put under interim UN administration -- would be illegal.
After 9 long years and an open ended committment by NATO troops to keep the peace between ethnic Albanians and Serbs and an ineffectual UN administration that did virtually nothing in that time to resolve the issues between Kosovo and Serbia, Kosovo is taking a step formally that most international observers say has been a def facto situation since the war; independence from Serbia.

This move couldn't have come at a worse time. With the US, NATO, and the EU all supporting Kosovo independence, the Russians and the Serbian allies are presented with a humiliating fait accompli. It will not sit well in Moscow or Belgrade and could lead to a variety of sanctions by Russia against Europe. And it won't help the frosty relations between Washington and Moscow either.

For the Serbs, this is a devastating blow. Kosovo is considered the center of Serbian culture and religion. The majority Albanian population has dominated the province for hundreds of years, however, and many see the move for independence as long overdue.

Predictions for 2008

A democrat in waiting.

One story that has fascinated me over the years has been that of Kosovo. It is the ultimate Carterization of US foreign policy, the preachy, condescending, and evangelical triumphal crusade for democracy, the application of which was extended to Iraq.

That Wilsonian dream was pretty much retired by the close of the Cold War, put away by tough practical men.

Carter, doffed the political mantel and wore it like a cardigan. He dusted off democratic certitude and used it to dissuade the supporters of the Shah from saving their own necks. Many of them heeded Jimmy's solemn advice and were executed by the mullahs, who brought us Iran I.

The democratic crusade has been losing some support lately, but still is referred to when dealing with China and Russia.

Every argument for supporting lopsided trade with China centers around its helping spread democracy to China.

"Democracy will be coming to the Middle East", was another recent expensive trek.

My prediction for 2008 is that Russia and Serbia will not permit Kosovo independence, (which is a euphemism for enlarging Albania). Will the American public finally tire of our Jimmy Carter foreign policy? What do you think 2008 will have in store for us?


INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS | 27.12.2007 DW
Serbia to Shun EU Path if Kosovo Independence Recognized

Serbia said it would reject any offer of membership of the European Union or NATO if they recognized the breakaway province of Kosovo as an independent state, raising the stakes in a long-standing diplomatic battle.
Serbia's national assembly voted 220 to 14 in favor of a resolution, which stated that Serbia would not sign international treaties that did not acknowledge its territorial integrity and sovereignty over Kosovo. The vote which took place on Wednesday, Dec 26, was specifically referring to the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) which would move Serbia along the path to EU membership should it sign on next month.

Kostunica said Serbia will never accept Kosovo's independence
As discussions began in the assembly earlier in the day, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said: "At this moment a powerful resolution which parliament will pass today must be our last line of defence from violence and unilateral independence."

Both President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Kostunica, leaders of the two central parties in Serbia's center-right ruling coalition, backed the resolution, as did the nationalist Radicals and Socialists in the opposition.

But, the discussions over the resolution pitted parliament's nationalist and pro-Western parties against each other, with analysts speculating that the debate served more as a campaign platform for presidential elections in January.

"Blow to Serbia's EU ambitions"

The opposition Liberal Democratic party, led by Cedomir Jovanovic, rejected the resolution, saying the draft represented "a blow to Serbia's ambitions to become an EU member."

Pro-Western Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic expressed hope that Serbia would sign the SAA by the end of January, despite the resolution, but also without forfeiting sovereignty over Kosovo.


Belated funeral of 30 Kosovo Albanians killed during the 1998-99 war between Serbs and Albanian guerrillas
Serbia said it would postpone its decision on NATO membership, and said it would oppose a European Union supervisory mission ready to take over from the United Nations in Kosovo unless it won Security Council approval. Russia has already blocked the move in a bid to support its Serb ally.

"Serbia will never accept the independence of Kosovo," Tadic told parliament on Wednesday, adding that the diplomatic campaign against it would resume at a United Nations Security Council meeting scheduled for Jan. 9.

He also warned that if NATO peacekeepers failed to protect Kosovo's minority Serbs, "the Serbian Army is ready."

Kosovo ready to declare independence

Most Serbs live in northern Kosovo -- more or less already partitioned from the area dominated by the 90-percent Albanian majority. Kosovars, for their part, are preparing to declare independence in the next few months, with support from the European Union and the United States.

The United States and a number of EU countries have indicated
they will recognise a unilateral declaration of independence by
Kosovo Albanians, after the failure of almost two years of
UN-sponsored negotiations on the southern Serbian province's
status.
The United Nations has administered Kosovo since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serb forces who had fought ethnic Albanian separatists. 10,000 civilians had perished in previous clashes and 800,000 people were driven out of the country.

Serbia, which considers Kosovo its cultural cradle, has offered the two million Albanians in the breakaway province broad autonomy, but Kosovars insist on total independence.

War criminal thought to be in Serbia


Outgoing chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte
Earlier on Wednesday, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor Vladmir Vukcevic said that wartime Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic was hiding in his country. He said that the "noose is tightening" around the fugitive, but said the officials did not yet know Mladic's precise location.

It was the first admission by a Serbian official that Mladic, who is wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity for his role during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, is in hiding in Serbia. In particular, Mladic and Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic are wanted for the July 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.

Belgrade has repeatedly claimed it does not know Mladic's whereabouts. However, Carla Del Ponte, the outgoing chief prosecutor of the United Nations war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands, has insisted he is in Serbia.

Kosovo Independence Will Come With a Cost

"Once you're into this family, there's no getting out."

Human beings are tribal. We can be multi-tribal and change tribes, but there is a primitive part in all of us that always knows our inner-homey. Sometimes tribes are not obvious. Teams, gangs, fraternities all define new tribes. Some are more permanent than others. There comes a time when primitive loyalties can surface and we are reminded who we are.

When that call comes, blood rises. It is a call stirred by fighting words, a racial slur, hardcore bigotry or a call to nationalism. Some of us become more of who we are with age or by being provoked by real or perceived external threats. Symbols, flags, songs, or words can all stir our tribal instincts.

Multi-culturalism and diversity can be less than skin deep.

Opponents of Kosovo Independence Fear Separatist Reaction

Radio Netherlands

The expected declaration of independence by Kosovo has a number of nations on edge. Those who oppose Kosovo's autonomy harbor separatists of their own. A free Kosovo could be just the rallying call these movements need.
With all the signs pointing towards a declaration of independence from Kosovo after the UN-set deadline for reaching a settlement passes on Monday, the European Union is bracing itself for a wave of renewed calls for autonomy from separatist movements across Europe.

If Kosovo declares independence from Serbia, it will set a powerful precedent for movements from Spain to Scotland, all wanting to rewrite the map of Europe and form their own independent states, according to experts.

"There is a real risk that the quasi-dogma of the intangibility of borders which has existed since the end of the World War II will fall," French political scientist Jean-Yves Camus of the Paris-based IRIS institute told AFP. "This would benefit movements which seek to rewrite the map of Europe based on ethnic, linguistic or cultural criteria," added Camus, a specialist on separatist movements in Europe.

The emergence of similar lifestyles and English as a common language in Europe, combined with the disappearance of borders and the lack of democratic legitimacy of EU bodies, had fueled "the development of micro-distinctive identities," said Camus.

While Kosovo's ethnic majority leaders have vowed not to unilaterally declare independence from Serbia without US and European Union approval, they are expected to announce their intentions to form a new state in early 2008.

Opposition includes fear of own breakaway states

Many of the countries which oppose the creation of an independent state of Kosovo have at least one separatist movement working towards autonomy within their own borders.


Russia has been fighting Chechen separatists for years

Serbia's ally Russia, which leads the opposition, has problems with separatists in Chechnya and the Caucasus region while Spain has had a long-running dispute with the armed ETA movement. Other countries against Kosovo's independence such as Cyprus and Greece have ethnic minorities which demand more power.

"In the West, this [Kosovo] solution will set off separatists in Europe,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published in French newspaper Le Figaro earlier this year. ”Look at Scotland, Catalonia and the Basque Country."

Spain is currently experiencing a period of unease as its northern Basque Country and its wealthy northeastern region of Catalonia have stepped up their demands for more autonomy.

Last year Catalan voters overwhelmingly backed a new charter which recognized the region as a "nation" within Spain and grants it enhanced powers in taxation and judicial matters.

Separatists claim EU structure makes autonomy possible

As in other separatist regions of Europe like Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium, and northern Italy, supporters said Catalonia deserved extra powers because it makes a bigger contribution to the economy.

The armed Basque separatist group ETA ended a 15-month ceasefire in June while the Scottish National Party, which came to power in May, plans to hold a referendum on independence in 2010.


Lingusitic divisions have led to a debate on splitting Belgium

Belgium meanwhile has been without a government for six months after a general election on June 10 highlighted deep divisions between the nation's majority Dutch-speakers and Francophones.

For many nationalists, membership in the 27-nation European Union has only served to make separation seem more viable.

"Europe can regulate our functionings and transfer payments. Why must we maintain this intermediate roof we call Belgium," the leader of the Flemish nationalist party, Bart De Wever, told French daily Le Monde last month.

Russia to block independence at UN level

Meanwhile, Russia stepped up its opposition Tuesday by announcing that it would demand that the UN Security Council annul any unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo.

"Russia will of course demand the annulment of such a decision. We will demand a meeting of the Security Council because it would be a violation of a Council resolution," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted the country's chief Kosovo negotiator Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko as saying.

Why is Bush calling for Kosovo's Independence?

Is there any limit to this man's foolishness? What strategic interest does the US have in encouraging a narco-criminal Islamic state appearing in Western Europe? There surely are enough things stirred up in enough places without President Bush proving once again he belongs somewhere else far from any office of responsibility. Does he not see the irony in his support for open US borders and amnesty, and what has happened to Kosovo?

Since the NATO/UN intervention in 1999, Kosovo has become the crime capital of Europe. The sex slave trade is flourishing. The province has become an invaluable transit point for drugs en route to Europe and North America. Ironically, the majority of the drugs come from another state "liberated" by the West, Afghanistan. Members of the demobilized, but not eliminated, KLA are intimately involved in organized crime and the government. The UN police arrest a small percentage of those involved in criminal activities and turn them over to a judiciary with a revolving door that responds to bribes and coercion. The objective of the Albanians is to purge all non-Albanians, including the international community's representatives, from Kosovo and ultimately link up with mother Albania thereby achieving the goal of "Greater Albania." The campaign started with their attacks on Serbian security forces in the early 1990s and they were successful in turning Milosevic's heavy-handed response into worldwide sympathy for their cause. There was no genocide as claimed by the West -- the 100,000 allegedly buried in mass graves turned out to be around 2,000, of all ethnic origins, including those killed in combat during the war itself.

The Kosovo-Albanians have played us like a Stradivarius. We have subsidized and indirectly supported their violent campaign for an ethnically pure and independent Kosovo. We have never blamed them for being the perpetrators of the violence in the early '90s and we continue to portray them as the designated victim today in spite of evidence to the contrary. When they achieve independence with the help of our tax dollars combined with those of bin Laden and al-Qaeda, just consider the message of encouragement this sends to other terrorist-supported independence movements around the world.

-Maj-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, now retired, commanded UN troops during the Bosnian civil war of 1992

________________________

Bush calls for Kosovo's independence

SMS NDTV

Sunday, June 10, 2007 (Tirana, Albania)
US President George W Bush, receiving a hero's welcome as the first American president to visit Albania, said on Sunday there cannot be endless dialogue about achieving independence for Serbia's province of Kosovo.

''Sooner rather than later you have got to say 'Enough is enough, Kosovo is independent,''' Bush said during a news conference with the Prime Minister of Albania.

Bush, standing alongside Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, urged Albania to help maintain calm and peace in Kosovo as the province's independence process moves forward. He said any plan to extend talks must have the goal of 'certain independence.'

Mr Bush said he was “worried about expectations not being met” in Kosovo, where 90 percent of the population are ethnic Albanians demanding independence from Serbia and where Nato leads a peacekeeping force of 17,000 troops.