Kosovo"s stark warning
By Caroline B. Glick
http://www.JewishWorldReview.comKosovo's US-backed declaration of independence is deeply troubling. By setting a precedent of legitimizing the secession of disaffected minorities, it weakens
the long-term viability of multi-ethnic states. In so doing, it destabilizes the
already stressed state-based international system.
States as diverse as Canada, Morocco, Spain, Georgia, Russia and China currently
suffer problems with politicized minorities. They are deeply concerned by the
Kosovo precedent. Even the US has latent sovereignty issues with its
increasingly politicized Hispanic minority along its border with Mexico. It may
one day experience a domestic backlash from its support for Kosovar independence
from Serbia.
Setting aside its global implications, it is hard to see how Kosovo constitutes
a viable state. Its forty percent unemployment is a function of the absence of
proper economic and governing infrastructures.
In November 2007, a European Commission report detailed the Kosovo Liberation
Army�s failure to build functioning governing apparatuses. The report noted that
�due to a lack of clear political will to fight corruption, and to insufficient
legislative and implementing measures, corruption is still widespread� Civil
servants are still vulnerable to political interference, corrupt practices and
nepotism.� Moreover, �Kosovo�s public administration remains weak and
inefficient.�
The report continued, �The composition of the government anti-corruption council
does not sufficiently guarantee its impartiality,� and �little progress can be
reported in the area of organized crime and combating of trafficking in human
beings.�
Additionally, the prosecution of Albanian war criminals is �hampered by the
unwillingness of the local population to testify� against them. This is in part
due to the fact that �there is still no specific legislation on witness
protection in place.�
The fledgling failed-state of Kosovo is a great boon for the global jihad. It is
true that Kosovar Muslims by and large do not subscribe to radical Islam. But it
is also true that they have allowed their territory to be used as bases for Al
Qaida operations; that members of the ruling KLA have direct links to al Qaida;
and that the Islamic world as a whole perceived Kosovo�s fight for independence
from Serbia as a jihad for Islamic domination of the disputed province.
According to a 2002 Wall Street Journal report, al Qaida began operating
actively in Kosovo, and the rest of the Balkans in 1992. Osama bin Laden visited
Albania in 1996 and 1997. He received a Bosnian passport from the Bosnian
embassy in Austria in 1993. Acting on bin Laden�s orders, in 1994 his deputy,
Ayman Zawahiri set up training bases throughout the Balkans including a training
center in Mitrovica, Kosovo. The Taliban and al Qaida set up drug trafficking
operations in Kosovo to finance their operations in Afghanistan and beyond.
In 2006, John Gizzi reported in Human Events that the German intelligence
service, BND confirmed that the 2005 bombings in Britain and the 2004 bombings
in Spain were organized in Kosovo. Furthermore, �the man at the center of the
provision of the explosives in both instances was an Albanian, operating mostly
out of Kosovo�who is second ranking leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Niam
Behzloulzi.�
Then too, at its 1998 meeting in Pakistan, the Organization of the Islamic
Conference declared that the Albanian separatists in Kosovo were fighting a
jihad. The OIC called on the Muslim world to help �this fight for freedom on the
occupied Muslim territories.�
Supporters of Kosovo claim that as victims of �genocide,� Kosovar Muslims
deserve independence. But if the Muslims in Kosovo have been targeted for
annihilation by the Serbs, then how is it that they have increased from 48
percent of the population in 1948 to 92 percent today? Indeed, Muslims comprised
only 78 percent of the population in 1991, the year before Yugoslavia broke
apart.
In recent years particularly, it is Kosovo�s Serbian Christians, not its
Albanian Muslims that are targeted for ethnic cleansing. Since 1999, two-thirds
of Kosovo�s Serbs � some 250,000 people � have fled the area.
The emergence of a potentially destabilizing state in Kosovo is clearly an
instance of political interests trumping law. Under international law, Kosovo
has no right to be considered a sovereign state. Even UN Security Council
Resolution 1244 from 1999, which the KLA claims provides the legal basis for Kosovar sovereignty explicitly recognizes Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo.
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