Post by albquietman on Feb 18, 2008 17:13:48 GMT -5
Bush, EU Allies Recognize Kosovo as Russians Protest
By James G. Neuger
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush and leading European allies offered diplomatic recognition to Kosovo, pledging economic and political aid for the newly independent state in the face of Serbian and Russian protests.
Bush's declaration and endorsements by the U.K., France, Germany and Italy provided a cloak of legitimacy for the mainly ethnic-Albanian state, which broke away from Serbia yesterday after a nine-year battle.
``As Kosovo opens a new chapter in its history as an independent state, I look forward to the deepening and strengthening of our special friendship,'' Bush said in a letter, released by the White House, to Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu.
Europe and the U.S. are racing to line up international support for the territory of 2 million people, intent on writing a peaceful final chapter to the wars that ripped apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Kosovo's parliament voted 109-0 yesterday to sever ties with Serbia, capping a struggle for statehood that began in 1999 when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serb troops.
Alluding to the American role in that war, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement in Washington that the establishment of diplomatic relations ``will reaffirm the special ties that have linked together the people of the United States and Kosovo.''
In all, 17 European Union countries will recognize Kosovo this week and more will follow, German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier told a news conference after an EU meeting in Brussels.
German Declaration
The German government will make a formal declaration on Feb. 20. Germany is still nursing scars from its premature recognition of Slovenia and Croatia as the first breakaway Yugoslav republics in 1991, which opened up fissures within the EU and hastened Yugoslavia's slide into civil war.
``It's not the victory of one over the other, it's the victory of peace, the victory of good sense and certainly not the victory of Kosovars over the Serbs, it's the victory of the two populations,'' French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.
Russia, which called an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting yesterday to protest Kosovo's breakaway, is counting on dissenting voices in the EU to build a case for keeping Kosovo part of Serbia.
EU Dissenters
While at least five EU countries -- Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain -- won't immediately recognize the new state, all of them offered to send experts as part of a 1,900-strong team of European police, customs and legal officials that will help manage Kosovo. Four of the dissenters - - Spain, Greece, Slovakia and Romania -- are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
Some EU countries fear that recognizing the new state might embolden separatist movements within their own borders. The northern tier of Cyprus, for example, has been occupied by the Turkish army since 1974.
``We cannot recognize the secession of a part of a sovereign state that is a member of the United Nations,'' Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis said.
Kosovo's leaders promised to respect the rights of the Serb minority and not to challenge international frontiers. Kosovo has a 90 percent ethnic-Albanian majority, with an estimated 130,000 Serbs scattered along the northern and eastern border with Serbia and in isolated pockets. Yet the territory has near- mythic status in Serb culture, dating back to the defeat of Serb forces by Ottoman invaders in 1389.
NATO Peacekeepers
Legally part of Serbia after the 1999 war, Kosovo has been run by a European diplomat under a UN flag and policed by 16,000 NATO peacekeepers now on high alert to prevent renewed ethnic tensions. NATO almost lost control of the province during anti- Serb riots in 2004.
Serbia reacted to the declaration of independence by vowing to reassert authority over the breakaway state, and Russia condemned the unilateral move as a violation of international law.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called the new Kosovo ``a fake state'' in the thrall of NATO and vowed to reincorporate the territory. Still, Serbia will respond peacefully and will ``leave the violence to the violators,'' he said yesterday.
Protests in Belgrade turned peaceful after a night in which youths smashed windows of McDonald's restaurants and the U.S. and Slovenian embassies, Agence France-Presse reported. More than 5,000 demonstrators marched through central Belgrade today, chanting ``Rise up, Serbia,'' AFP said.
Serbian Threats
Kosovo's proclamation without the unanimous endorsement of the UN Security Council creates a legal no-man's-land. Serbia threatened to downgrade relations with countries that recognize the new state and, as the supplier of 40 percent of Kosovo's electricity, could inflict harm on the aid-dependent economy.
EU leaders, in turn, are wooing Serbia with the promise of eventual membership, counting on recently re-elected pro-western President Boris Tadic to reconcile the 7.5 million Serbs to the loss of Kosovo. Tadic was sworn in for a second term last week, pledging to hold on to Kosovo while steering Serbia toward EU membership.
Tadic today asked United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon to declare Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia ``null and void'' and dissolve Kosovo's national assembly.
``If you allow this illegal act to stand, you will show that right and injustice may go unrespected in the world,'' Tadic said in a speech to an emergency Security Council meeting.
50% Unemployment
Nine years of western management have failed to lift Kosovo out of poverty. Unemployment is close to 50 percent, wealth per person is 5 percent of the EU average, and corruption and organized crime are rampant, the European Commission says.
European governments will hold a donors conference in coming months and plan to commit 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to shore up Kosovo's economy over the next couple of years, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said.
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Europe will ``help the western Balkans close two decades of violence and conflict and strive and open a period, whatever the strains and the stresses and difficulties, of security and stability.''
Last Updated: February 18, 2008 16:24 EST
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMuemIgDXf90&refer=home
Serbia recalls ambassador from US
Kosovo Serbs rally on their side of the main bridge in Mitrovica
Serbia has recalled its ambassador from Washington in protest at US recognition of Kosovo's independence, saying the US has "violated international law".
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica also threatened to withdraw envoys from other countries which recognised the territory's secession from Serbia.
Mr Kostunica said the envoy's recall was Serbia's "first urgent measure".
France, the UK, Germany and Italy have all recognised the new state following its declaration of independence.
In New York, the UN Security Council is meeting to discuss the move.
Serbian President Boris Tadic is to ask it to annul the independence declaration, and Belgrade is counting on Russia to veto Kosovo joining the UN as a new nation.
The leading European states which endorsed independence did so after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels in which it was agreed that Kosovo should not set a precedent for other states.
Spain and several other member states have withheld recognition because of concerns about separatist movements within their own borders.
'Non-existent state'
Serbian media report that Belgrade's ambassadors to all states which recognise Kosovo's independence are being ordered home.
The Associated Press news agency quotes the foreign ministry as saying Serbia's envoys to France and Turkey have been withdrawn for "consultation until further notice".
Speaking to Serbian TV from New York, President Tadic said he intended to "demand from [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon the immediate annulment of the independence proclamation by the non-existent state in Kosovo".
Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told the BBC that Kosovo had little to gain from declaring independence.
"There is no way they will get into the United Nations or the OSCE or the Council of Europe," he said.
"So what will they be getting, changing nameplates at the offices of Western countries in Pristina, calling them embassies?"
Serbia's interior ministry has filed criminal charges against Kosovo Albanian leaders instrumental in proclaiming independence, accusing them of proclaiming a "false state" on Serbian territory.
In Belgrade, about 10,000 students marched in protest at the independence declaration, and Serb enclaves inside Kosovo also saw anti-independence rallies.
Serbian security forces were driven out of Kosovo in 1999 after a Nato bombing campaign aimed at halting the violent repression of ethnic Albanian separatists.
The province has been under UN administration and Nato protection since then.
Pledges of support
On Monday, Washington formally recognised Kosovo as a "sovereign and independent state".
In Brussels, EU foreign ministers adopted a compromise proposal from Spain, one of several countries which argue that Kosovo's independence is a breach of international law and will boost separatists everywhere.
The bloc set aside differences by stressing Kosovo's declaration was not a precedent for separatists elsewhere and pledging that the whole Balkan region would eventually join the bloc.
Unanimous recognition of Kosovo was never at stake at the meeting because the EU has no legal right to recognise new states, BBC European affairs correspondent Oana Lungescu notes.
The question was whether, despite their differences on recognition, Europeans could unite on how to bring stability in their backyard, after almost two decades of seemingly endless Balkan crises.
It took hours of tortuous negotiations but the EU managed to pass the unity test, our correspondent says.
Kosovo, the ministers agreed, was a unique case and did not call into question international legal principles, such as territorial integrity.
The bloc's statement said the EU was ready to play a leading role in the Balkans, with a 2,000-strong police and justice mission headed to Kosovo and new measures to promote economic and political development in the region, including a donors' conference by June.
The EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana said there was a total commitment to bring all the Balkan countries into the EU.
But Kosovo will not be able to get very close until it is recognised by all 27 members, and that may take a long time, our correspondent adds.
Among other countries to recognise Kosovo was Turkey.
Correspondents say this has symbolic significance because for centuries the Ottoman Turks ruled the Balkans, including modern-day Serbia and Kosovo.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7251802.stm
By James G. Neuger
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush and leading European allies offered diplomatic recognition to Kosovo, pledging economic and political aid for the newly independent state in the face of Serbian and Russian protests.
Bush's declaration and endorsements by the U.K., France, Germany and Italy provided a cloak of legitimacy for the mainly ethnic-Albanian state, which broke away from Serbia yesterday after a nine-year battle.
``As Kosovo opens a new chapter in its history as an independent state, I look forward to the deepening and strengthening of our special friendship,'' Bush said in a letter, released by the White House, to Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu.
Europe and the U.S. are racing to line up international support for the territory of 2 million people, intent on writing a peaceful final chapter to the wars that ripped apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Kosovo's parliament voted 109-0 yesterday to sever ties with Serbia, capping a struggle for statehood that began in 1999 when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serb troops.
Alluding to the American role in that war, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement in Washington that the establishment of diplomatic relations ``will reaffirm the special ties that have linked together the people of the United States and Kosovo.''
In all, 17 European Union countries will recognize Kosovo this week and more will follow, German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier told a news conference after an EU meeting in Brussels.
German Declaration
The German government will make a formal declaration on Feb. 20. Germany is still nursing scars from its premature recognition of Slovenia and Croatia as the first breakaway Yugoslav republics in 1991, which opened up fissures within the EU and hastened Yugoslavia's slide into civil war.
``It's not the victory of one over the other, it's the victory of peace, the victory of good sense and certainly not the victory of Kosovars over the Serbs, it's the victory of the two populations,'' French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.
Russia, which called an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting yesterday to protest Kosovo's breakaway, is counting on dissenting voices in the EU to build a case for keeping Kosovo part of Serbia.
EU Dissenters
While at least five EU countries -- Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain -- won't immediately recognize the new state, all of them offered to send experts as part of a 1,900-strong team of European police, customs and legal officials that will help manage Kosovo. Four of the dissenters - - Spain, Greece, Slovakia and Romania -- are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
Some EU countries fear that recognizing the new state might embolden separatist movements within their own borders. The northern tier of Cyprus, for example, has been occupied by the Turkish army since 1974.
``We cannot recognize the secession of a part of a sovereign state that is a member of the United Nations,'' Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis said.
Kosovo's leaders promised to respect the rights of the Serb minority and not to challenge international frontiers. Kosovo has a 90 percent ethnic-Albanian majority, with an estimated 130,000 Serbs scattered along the northern and eastern border with Serbia and in isolated pockets. Yet the territory has near- mythic status in Serb culture, dating back to the defeat of Serb forces by Ottoman invaders in 1389.
NATO Peacekeepers
Legally part of Serbia after the 1999 war, Kosovo has been run by a European diplomat under a UN flag and policed by 16,000 NATO peacekeepers now on high alert to prevent renewed ethnic tensions. NATO almost lost control of the province during anti- Serb riots in 2004.
Serbia reacted to the declaration of independence by vowing to reassert authority over the breakaway state, and Russia condemned the unilateral move as a violation of international law.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called the new Kosovo ``a fake state'' in the thrall of NATO and vowed to reincorporate the territory. Still, Serbia will respond peacefully and will ``leave the violence to the violators,'' he said yesterday.
Protests in Belgrade turned peaceful after a night in which youths smashed windows of McDonald's restaurants and the U.S. and Slovenian embassies, Agence France-Presse reported. More than 5,000 demonstrators marched through central Belgrade today, chanting ``Rise up, Serbia,'' AFP said.
Serbian Threats
Kosovo's proclamation without the unanimous endorsement of the UN Security Council creates a legal no-man's-land. Serbia threatened to downgrade relations with countries that recognize the new state and, as the supplier of 40 percent of Kosovo's electricity, could inflict harm on the aid-dependent economy.
EU leaders, in turn, are wooing Serbia with the promise of eventual membership, counting on recently re-elected pro-western President Boris Tadic to reconcile the 7.5 million Serbs to the loss of Kosovo. Tadic was sworn in for a second term last week, pledging to hold on to Kosovo while steering Serbia toward EU membership.
Tadic today asked United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon to declare Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia ``null and void'' and dissolve Kosovo's national assembly.
``If you allow this illegal act to stand, you will show that right and injustice may go unrespected in the world,'' Tadic said in a speech to an emergency Security Council meeting.
50% Unemployment
Nine years of western management have failed to lift Kosovo out of poverty. Unemployment is close to 50 percent, wealth per person is 5 percent of the EU average, and corruption and organized crime are rampant, the European Commission says.
European governments will hold a donors conference in coming months and plan to commit 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to shore up Kosovo's economy over the next couple of years, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said.
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Europe will ``help the western Balkans close two decades of violence and conflict and strive and open a period, whatever the strains and the stresses and difficulties, of security and stability.''
Last Updated: February 18, 2008 16:24 EST
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMuemIgDXf90&refer=home
Serbia recalls ambassador from US
Kosovo Serbs rally on their side of the main bridge in Mitrovica
Serbia has recalled its ambassador from Washington in protest at US recognition of Kosovo's independence, saying the US has "violated international law".
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica also threatened to withdraw envoys from other countries which recognised the territory's secession from Serbia.
Mr Kostunica said the envoy's recall was Serbia's "first urgent measure".
France, the UK, Germany and Italy have all recognised the new state following its declaration of independence.
In New York, the UN Security Council is meeting to discuss the move.
Serbian President Boris Tadic is to ask it to annul the independence declaration, and Belgrade is counting on Russia to veto Kosovo joining the UN as a new nation.
The leading European states which endorsed independence did so after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels in which it was agreed that Kosovo should not set a precedent for other states.
Spain and several other member states have withheld recognition because of concerns about separatist movements within their own borders.
'Non-existent state'
Serbian media report that Belgrade's ambassadors to all states which recognise Kosovo's independence are being ordered home.
The Associated Press news agency quotes the foreign ministry as saying Serbia's envoys to France and Turkey have been withdrawn for "consultation until further notice".
Speaking to Serbian TV from New York, President Tadic said he intended to "demand from [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon the immediate annulment of the independence proclamation by the non-existent state in Kosovo".
Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told the BBC that Kosovo had little to gain from declaring independence.
"There is no way they will get into the United Nations or the OSCE or the Council of Europe," he said.
"So what will they be getting, changing nameplates at the offices of Western countries in Pristina, calling them embassies?"
Serbia's interior ministry has filed criminal charges against Kosovo Albanian leaders instrumental in proclaiming independence, accusing them of proclaiming a "false state" on Serbian territory.
In Belgrade, about 10,000 students marched in protest at the independence declaration, and Serb enclaves inside Kosovo also saw anti-independence rallies.
Serbian security forces were driven out of Kosovo in 1999 after a Nato bombing campaign aimed at halting the violent repression of ethnic Albanian separatists.
The province has been under UN administration and Nato protection since then.
Pledges of support
On Monday, Washington formally recognised Kosovo as a "sovereign and independent state".
In Brussels, EU foreign ministers adopted a compromise proposal from Spain, one of several countries which argue that Kosovo's independence is a breach of international law and will boost separatists everywhere.
The bloc set aside differences by stressing Kosovo's declaration was not a precedent for separatists elsewhere and pledging that the whole Balkan region would eventually join the bloc.
Unanimous recognition of Kosovo was never at stake at the meeting because the EU has no legal right to recognise new states, BBC European affairs correspondent Oana Lungescu notes.
The question was whether, despite their differences on recognition, Europeans could unite on how to bring stability in their backyard, after almost two decades of seemingly endless Balkan crises.
It took hours of tortuous negotiations but the EU managed to pass the unity test, our correspondent says.
Kosovo, the ministers agreed, was a unique case and did not call into question international legal principles, such as territorial integrity.
The bloc's statement said the EU was ready to play a leading role in the Balkans, with a 2,000-strong police and justice mission headed to Kosovo and new measures to promote economic and political development in the region, including a donors' conference by June.
The EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana said there was a total commitment to bring all the Balkan countries into the EU.
But Kosovo will not be able to get very close until it is recognised by all 27 members, and that may take a long time, our correspondent adds.
Among other countries to recognise Kosovo was Turkey.
Correspondents say this has symbolic significance because for centuries the Ottoman Turks ruled the Balkans, including modern-day Serbia and Kosovo.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7251802.stm