Save “the Republic” Of Kosova
Diktatura e instaluar në Kosovë nga hashimi dhe hijenat e tijë antishqiptare po e kthen vendin nën kthetrar e serbise¨.
Liga Shqiptaro Amerikane ka lëshuar një deklaratë , që po e sjelli këtu në lidhje me këtë qështje.
SAVE “THE REPUBLIC” OF KOSOVA
A Public Declaration
From the Albanian American Civic League’s Board of Directors
Introduction
Thirteen years after NATO airstrikes against Serbia ended Slobodan Milosevic’s genocidal campaign against Kosovar Albanians in 1999, and four years after “supervised independence” began in 2008, we feel compelled to publicly address the deteriorating political and economic situation in Kosova. All factors are responsible: The international community has failed to establish a just and lasting political solution to the Serbian-Albanian conflict. The Kosovar leadership has failed to protect the sovereignty and integrity of the Republic. And the Serbian elite, through a multimillion dollar lobbying campaign and support of parallel structures in northern Kosova, have been successful in their efforts to destabilize Kosova and much of the region. With only lip service opposition from the West, Belgrade has been able to control northern Kosova since 1999. Meanwhile, Serbia has never been brought to justice for its ten-year occupation, followed by war crimes and destruction in Kosova.
The focus of the European Union and the United States in 2012—now in a final push to resolve the conflict between Belgrade and Prishtina and exit the region—is on northern Kosova, where Belgrade’s oft-repeated intention to make the de facto partition of this Serb majority area de jure is coming ever closer to fruition. Belgrade has been successful in convincing much of the international community that the Serbian minority in northern Kosova is at risk. In reality, the conflict in the north has always been about Belgrade’s expansionist aims. Ever since Milosevic’s troops invaded Kosova in 1998, Serbia’s endgame has always been the partition of the north, just as it was in Bosnia, where it was able to create an ethnic Serb enclave called Republika Srpska.
Post-war political pressures on Kosova and the acquiescence of Kosovar politicians
The political leadership in Kosova has been pressured to satisfy the West in order appease Serbia since war’s end in 1999. Unfortunately the Kosovar political elite did little to resist the demands that were placed on it, out of a lazy belief that the United States would always represent its interests. In order to gain “supervised independence” for a country that is 92 percent Albanian and 5 percent Serb, Kosova accepted compromises through the “Ahtisaari plan” and other measures, including:
•Changing the Albanian name of the Republic of Kosova to the Serbian “Kosovo”
•Removing the Albanian flag and adopting a Kosova flag and national anthem that are devoid of historical and cultural meaning
•Giving Kosova Serbs more rights than any other ethnic minority in Europe, including dual citizenship, establishing direct links between Kosova Serb municipalities and Belgrade, receiving non-taxable funds from Serbia on top of funding from Kosova’s central government, and getting 10 out of 120 seats in the Kosova parliament reserved for Serbs on top of any seats gained through elections.
•Granting tax-free and “extraterritorial status” for Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries, even though many were originally part of Albanian culture and protected by Albanians.
Kosova’s internal political and social problems
The lack of a robust democratic government, the rise of corruption, insufficient rule of law and free press, high unemployment coupled with little economic development, and substandard educational institutions in Kosova have made it harder for the country to defend its interests on the international stage. Much of this is the result of Kosova having spent nine years as an international protectorate and four years without genuine independence—leaving it economically, politically, and socially in limbo and vulnerable to Serbia’s interference in its internal affairs. But some of the blame must be placed on the Albanian leadership and public for the following reasons:
•There is indifference and unwillingness on the part of many educated and capable Kosovars to become actively engaged in the democratic process.
•There is an almost total submission of the political class and public to the will of the US State Department and other Western representatives in Prishtina. (There should be no illusion that the United States and other Western democracies will be able to resolve the problems of Kosovar Albanians.) Also, the belief that the United States will take care of Kosova is often used as an excuse on the part of Albanian politicians and professionals not to work to resolve Kosova’s problems, and this must stop.
•There is a growing lack of interest in resolving the Albanian national cause in Kosova and a resulting lack of empathy toward Albanians in Macedonia, Montenegro, Presheva, and Chameria.
We believe that the politicians who are not preserving and protecting the interests of the majority should be voted out, and that Kosovars must regain the ability to develop the state on a par with their counterparts in other parts of the world who are seeking to insure that accountability and transparency are the hallmarks of their civic life.
The Turning Point: EU-sponsored talks between Kosova and Serbia
The Prishtina-Belgrade negotiations that began under the sponsorship of the European Union in March 2011 were purportedly “technical,” but final status discussions (Serbia’s principal aim) are now on the front burner. The talks, which to some extent were
designed to help Serbia become part of the European Union by showcasing it as a nation committed to regional stability, broke down last fall after confrontations by Belgrade-backed Serb extremists in the north, over Prishtina’s effort to extend its jurisdiction over all of Kosova’s territory, left an Albanian policeman dead and four NATO soldiers and sixteen Serb civilians seriously injured. German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, in a principled departure from other EU member nations, responded by blocking Serbia from getting candidate status last December and insisted that the barricades that local Serbs had erected throughout the north had to be removed and all illegal parallel structures in northern Kosova abolished before EU accession talks could continue.
With the Prishtina-Belgrade talks about to resume in March (when the EU again plans to vote on Serbia’s admission), Belgrade continues to openly refuse to recognize Kosova’s independence and has yet to withdraw its financial and political support for illegal, parallel structures in northern Kosova. In addition, Serbs in northern Kosova held an illegal referendum on February 15, with 99.7 percent of the region’s voters refusing to accept the legitimacy of the central government in Prishtina.
Kosova’s admittance to regional meetings, until now blocked by Belgrade, will be the focus of the March meeting in Brussels. Through weeks of shuttle diplomacy, Western negotiators have been trying to convince Prishtina that it can gain admittance if it is willing to be identified as “Kosovo” without the word “Republic” and with a “footnote” that includes a reference to UN Resolution 1244, identifying Kosova as a province of Serbia under UN protection, and a statement that the International Court of Justice affirmed the legality of Kosova’s declaration of independence.
•We believe that Kosova must not agree to delete “Republic” in front of its name; nor should it agree to any reference to UN Resolution 1244, which was nullified when Kosova’s independence was recognized by the United States and most Western nations on February 17, 2008. Since the end of the war, Kosova has been asked to make concessions to Serbia. It is time for the Kosova government to draw the line here.
•We believe that Kosova should not continue talks with Serbia until they recognize Kosova’s independence. The current negotiations (which after independence should never have been agreed to in the first place) will not bring lasting peace and stability to Southeast Europe as long as Serbia refuses to recognize Kosovar Albanians as equal counterparts and to respect the sovereignty of Kosova.
•We believe that the Serbian government should return the human remains of the Kosovar Albanians whose corpses were transported in refrigerated trucks and buried in and around Belgrade when the war ended in June 1999 and to pay war reparations.
•While we believe that there should be no special privileges for the Serbian minority in Kosova, we also believe that their rights should be strongly and forcefully protected, as has been true for Turkish, Roma, and Ashkalli populations in Kosova. After being subjected to ten years of brutal military occupation and two years of ethnic cleansing and genocide at the hands of Slobodan Milosevic’s military and paramilitary forces, Kosovar Albanians should be on the “cutting edge” of human rights developments in Europe.
The Albanian relationship with the international community
Albanians respect and trust the United States, because of President Woodrow Wilson’s historic role in establishing the sovereign state of Albania at the end of World War I, when Russia and European powers were prepared to carve up all Albanians lands.
Nevertheless, with the war in Afghanistan and the crisis in the Middle East, it is time to recognize that the United States has more pressing issues on its foreign policy agenda and cannot be relied on to determine Kosova’s future.
It is also time to acknowledge that American administrations have not always acted in the interests of the people of Kosova. It took twenty years of lobbying the US Congress on the part of the Albanian American Civic League to get then President George W. Bush to support Kosova’s declaration of independence in 2008. And it will take another lobbying effort in the US Congress (and in the parliaments of the five EU member states that refuse to recognize Kosova’s independence) to end the Serbian-Albanian conflict and bring genuine independence to Kosova. While the Obama administration has maintained publicly that the de facto partition of northern Kosova must not become de jure, it has taken no action to back up this position. In reality, the Obama administration has chosen to take a back seat to Europe when it comes to Kosova and the Balkans.
•We believe that the political leadership and Kosovar public must forcefully oppose the partition of the north, which in its de facto form was the product of the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Mitrovice by Belgrade-backed paramilitaries after the war. In addition, there is no need to create a special entity for the north, when the majority of Kosova’s Serbs (80,000 out of 120,000) live in southern Mitrovice and other parts Kosova.
•Kosova’s political leadership should challenge Belgrade’s effort to get international support for its “Ahtisaari Plus” plan, which seeks to advance the status of Serbs in the north by creating an autonomous political entity, while it violates the human and civil rights of the Albanian majority population in southern Serbia—in Presheva, Medvedje, and Bujanoc.
Save “The Republic”
Since 1986, the Albanian American Civic League, under the leadership of Joseph DioGuardi and Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi (beginning in 1994), has made a significant contribution to promoting the human and national rights of the Albanian people in the Balkans and throughout the world. We will continue to work for the resolution of the Albanian national cause and for lasting peace and stability in Southeast Europe. Once again, Kosova has become the biggest problem and challenge facing our nation. We hope that Albanians all over the world will contribute their time, professional talents, and resources to help save “the Republic” of Kosova.
Board of Directors
Albanian American Civic League
Kili
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