Maverick
February 17th, 2008, 02:22 PM
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PRISTINA, Kosovo — The former Serbian province of Kosovo declared independence on Sunday, sending tens of thousands of euphoric ethnic Albanians into the streets of this war-torn capital to celebrate the end of a long and bloody struggle for national self-determination.
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Key Dates in Kosovo (February 17, 2008)
Times Topics: Kosovo | Serbia
The declaration marks the final dismemberment in the 17-year dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. It also brings to a dramatic climax a showdown between the West — which argues that the former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s brutal subjugation of Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians cost Serbia its authority to rule the territory — and Belgrade and its ally Moscow, which counter that Kosovo’s independence declaration is a reckless breach of international law that will spur other secessionist movements across the world.
Ethnic Albanians from across the world streamed into Pristina, braving freezing temperatures and heavy snow, to dance in frenzied jubilation. Beating drums and waiving Albanian flags, they chanted “Independence! Independence! We are free at last!†while an enormous birthday cake was installed on Pristina’s main boulevard.
An outpouring of adulation for the United States — Kosovo’s staunchest ally in its quest for independence and the architect of NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign against Mr. Milosevic — was evident everywhere. Thousands of revelers unfurled giant American flags, carried posters of former President Bill Clinton, and chanted “Thank You U.S.A.!†and “God Bless America.â€
In reading Kosovo’s declaration of independence, its newly elected prime minister, the former guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci, struck a note of reconciliation. He addressed Parliament in both Albanian and Serbian, pledging to protect the rights of the Serbian minority while reaching out to Serbia.
“I feel the heartbeat of our ancestors,†he said, paying tribute to Kosovo’s war dead and to the European Union and Washington. â€We the leaders of our people, democratically elected, through this declaration proclaim Kosovo an independent and sovereign state.†He promised to protect the rights of all the people of Kosovo.
In Belgrade, which has regarded Kosovo as its heartland since medieval times, Serbia’s prime minister, the nationalist Vojislav Kostunica, vowed that Serbia would never recognize the “false state.†He said Kosovo was propped up unlawfully by the United States and called the declaration a “humiliation†for the European Union.
His government has ruled out using military force to respond, but was expected to downgrade diplomatic ties with any government that recognized Kosovo.
The United States and its European allies issued statements noting the declaration of independence but stopped short of diplomatic recognition on Sunday.
“The United States is now reviewing this issue and discussing the matter with its European partners,†State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement Sunday morning. Noting that the United States would continue to support the rights of all ethnic and religious communities in Kosovo, Mr. McCormack said the United States “calls on all parties to exercise the utmost restraint and to refrain from any provocative acts.â€
European Union officials said that Britain, France and Germany were expected to recognize Kosovo’s independence within 48 hours. The Security Council was expected to meet on Sunday.
Germany, with close to 2,400 troops on the ground in the infant nation, is the largest contributor to the NATO deployment in the former Serbian province. According to the German Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, spoke by phone Sunday with the Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, and Mr. Jeremic agreed that ensuring the stability of the region was the “highest priority.â€
Ulrich Wilhelm, the spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in a statement, “The last open question of the breakup of Yugoslavia must be answered now, because it impedes the security, stability and economic development of the entire region.â€
He pointed out, however, that the foreign ministers of the European Union nations would meet Monday to discuss Kosovo’s declaration and that the government of Germany, the European Union’s largest member, would “on the basis of this consultation, decide on further steps.â€
President Bush, speaking Sunday in Tanzania on a tour of Africa, said the United States would continue to work to prevent violence in Kosovo in the wake of the proclamation, while reaching out to Serbia. Kosovo’s independence comes nearly 10 years after Slobodan Milosevic’s violent suppression of the province’s ethnic Albanians prompted NATO to intervene in a 1999 bombing campaign that saw hundreds of thousands Albanians and Serbs flee. An estimated 10,000 civilians were killed in the 1998-99 conflict, many of them Albanians, while 1,500 Serbs were killed in the revenge killings that followed. Another 2,000 people went missing and were never found.
Kosovo — a poor, landlocked, predominantly Muslim territory of two million — has since been under the protection of the United Nations and policed by 16,000 NATO troops who keep a fragile peace.
For the ethnic Albanians, who make up 95 per cent of the territory, independence marks a new beginning after decades of political repression and war.
“Independence is a catharsis,†said Antoneta Kastrati, a 26-year-old ethnic Albanian from Peja, who said his mother and older sister were killed by their Serbian neighbors in 1999. “Things won’t change overnight and we cannot forget the past, but maybe I will feel safe now and my nightmares will finally go away.â€
The spirit of exaltation in Pristina was a sharp contrast to the despair, anger and disbelief that gripped Serbia and the Serbian enclaves of northern Kosovo.
Invoking the nationalist mythology of loss and sacrifice that Kosovo has held in the Serbian consciousness since the Ottoman Turks defeated the Serbs in Kosovo in the 14th century, the Serbian prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, this week called for “Serbs to be as united as we were in 1389.†Newspapers in Belgrade lamented that the Albanians “have stolen Kosovo.â€
In the Serbian enclave of Mitrovica, a divided city that has long been a flashpoint of violence between Albanians and Serbs, small groups of Serbs gathered at the bridge between the Serb north of the town and the Albanian south. Serbs said they were under orders from Belgrade to ignore the independence declaration and remain in Kosovo in order to keep the northern part of the territory under de facto Serbian control.
“I will stay here forever,†said Svetozar, a 70 year-old Serbian engineer. “This will always be Serbia. I am not afraid of Kosovo’s independence because I don’t recognize it.â€
When a small group of Albanians tried to cross the bridge leading to the Serbian northern part, they were held back by police officers, along with 10-foot-high metal barriers wound with razor wire.
Independence brought happiness to the small rural Albanian village of Cabra, near Mitrovica, where the drowning of three Albanian boys under mysterious circumstances in March 2004 sparked mass violence against Serbs. Fatbardha Veseli, 14, the sister of one of the boys who drowned: “I am so happy. Maybe we will be more free.â€
Asked if it independence could bring reconciliation to the younger generation in this divided nation, she replied, “I have no Serbian friends.â€
In Brussels, where retaining unity over Kosovo has been one of the most tortuous foreign policy challenges in decades, European Union officials Sunday were busy drafting a statement to be announced at a foreign affairs meeting on Monday that would acknowledge Kosovo’s independence declaration without explicitly endorsing it.
Several member states — including Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Romania — oppose recognizing Kosovo without an agreement from the Security Council. These countries fear that recognizing Kosovo would encourage other secessionist movements within their own borders. Even with the European Union’s deep internal splits, on Saturday, the union overcame its divisions by giving final approval for a police and judicial mission that will help Kosovo administer the country after the United Nations leaves.
Kosovo’s declaration created immediate ripples in the former Soviet space, where small separatist areas — one in Moldova and two in the republic of Georgia — have existed since the early 1990s. All three enclaves receive extensive political support from the Kremlin, and exist as Russian protectorates. Two of them — Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia — released coordinated statements announcing an intention to seek recognition as independent states by Moscow, the United Nations and members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, or C.I.S., a loose alliance off 11 former Soviet republics. “South Ossetia will ask the C.I.S. and U.N. member states to recognize their independence in the near future,†said Eduard Kokoity, the Ossetian president, according to the Interfax news agency. “I am certain that the independence for South Ossetian and Abkhazia will be declared soon.â€Mr. Kokoity and Sergey Begapsh, the Abkhaz president, had met with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Friday, and received a commitment from the Kremlin for more support. Mr. Begapsh echoed the Ossetian plan in a statement to Interfax.“The situation in Kosovo is a precedent, one cannot say that the Kosovo case is unique,†he said. “Abkhazia will soon ask the Russian Federal Assembly and the U.N. Security Council to recognize its independence.â€Abkhazia and South Ossetia both have borders with Russia along the Caucasus ridge line, and in the past several years Russia has granted Russian citizenship and issued Russian passport to almost all of the residents in the two enclaves. It has also said that it is willing to defend its citizens. Georgia’s government, which has made national reunification a priority, has not recognized the inhabitants of the enclaves, who are predominantly ethnic Abkhaz or Ossetians, as Russian citizens. Georgia has also improved its military readiness, and sought admission to NATO — which has angered the Kremlin.The borders were quiet yesterday.
PRISTINA, Kosovo — The former Serbian province of Kosovo declared independence on Sunday, sending tens of thousands of euphoric ethnic Albanians into the streets of this war-torn capital to celebrate the end of a long and bloody struggle for national self-determination.
Skip to next paragraph
Multimedia
Kosovo Celebrates IndependenceSlide Show
Kosovo Celebrates Independence
Endgame in KosovoAudio Slide Show
Endgame in Kosovo
Related
Key Dates in Kosovo (February 17, 2008)
Times Topics: Kosovo | Serbia
The declaration marks the final dismemberment in the 17-year dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. It also brings to a dramatic climax a showdown between the West — which argues that the former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s brutal subjugation of Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians cost Serbia its authority to rule the territory — and Belgrade and its ally Moscow, which counter that Kosovo’s independence declaration is a reckless breach of international law that will spur other secessionist movements across the world.
Ethnic Albanians from across the world streamed into Pristina, braving freezing temperatures and heavy snow, to dance in frenzied jubilation. Beating drums and waiving Albanian flags, they chanted “Independence! Independence! We are free at last!†while an enormous birthday cake was installed on Pristina’s main boulevard.
An outpouring of adulation for the United States — Kosovo’s staunchest ally in its quest for independence and the architect of NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign against Mr. Milosevic — was evident everywhere. Thousands of revelers unfurled giant American flags, carried posters of former President Bill Clinton, and chanted “Thank You U.S.A.!†and “God Bless America.â€
In reading Kosovo’s declaration of independence, its newly elected prime minister, the former guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci, struck a note of reconciliation. He addressed Parliament in both Albanian and Serbian, pledging to protect the rights of the Serbian minority while reaching out to Serbia.
“I feel the heartbeat of our ancestors,†he said, paying tribute to Kosovo’s war dead and to the European Union and Washington. â€We the leaders of our people, democratically elected, through this declaration proclaim Kosovo an independent and sovereign state.†He promised to protect the rights of all the people of Kosovo.
In Belgrade, which has regarded Kosovo as its heartland since medieval times, Serbia’s prime minister, the nationalist Vojislav Kostunica, vowed that Serbia would never recognize the “false state.†He said Kosovo was propped up unlawfully by the United States and called the declaration a “humiliation†for the European Union.
His government has ruled out using military force to respond, but was expected to downgrade diplomatic ties with any government that recognized Kosovo.
The United States and its European allies issued statements noting the declaration of independence but stopped short of diplomatic recognition on Sunday.
“The United States is now reviewing this issue and discussing the matter with its European partners,†State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement Sunday morning. Noting that the United States would continue to support the rights of all ethnic and religious communities in Kosovo, Mr. McCormack said the United States “calls on all parties to exercise the utmost restraint and to refrain from any provocative acts.â€
European Union officials said that Britain, France and Germany were expected to recognize Kosovo’s independence within 48 hours. The Security Council was expected to meet on Sunday.
Germany, with close to 2,400 troops on the ground in the infant nation, is the largest contributor to the NATO deployment in the former Serbian province. According to the German Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, spoke by phone Sunday with the Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, and Mr. Jeremic agreed that ensuring the stability of the region was the “highest priority.â€
Ulrich Wilhelm, the spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in a statement, “The last open question of the breakup of Yugoslavia must be answered now, because it impedes the security, stability and economic development of the entire region.â€
He pointed out, however, that the foreign ministers of the European Union nations would meet Monday to discuss Kosovo’s declaration and that the government of Germany, the European Union’s largest member, would “on the basis of this consultation, decide on further steps.â€
President Bush, speaking Sunday in Tanzania on a tour of Africa, said the United States would continue to work to prevent violence in Kosovo in the wake of the proclamation, while reaching out to Serbia. Kosovo’s independence comes nearly 10 years after Slobodan Milosevic’s violent suppression of the province’s ethnic Albanians prompted NATO to intervene in a 1999 bombing campaign that saw hundreds of thousands Albanians and Serbs flee. An estimated 10,000 civilians were killed in the 1998-99 conflict, many of them Albanians, while 1,500 Serbs were killed in the revenge killings that followed. Another 2,000 people went missing and were never found.
Kosovo — a poor, landlocked, predominantly Muslim territory of two million — has since been under the protection of the United Nations and policed by 16,000 NATO troops who keep a fragile peace.
For the ethnic Albanians, who make up 95 per cent of the territory, independence marks a new beginning after decades of political repression and war.
“Independence is a catharsis,†said Antoneta Kastrati, a 26-year-old ethnic Albanian from Peja, who said his mother and older sister were killed by their Serbian neighbors in 1999. “Things won’t change overnight and we cannot forget the past, but maybe I will feel safe now and my nightmares will finally go away.â€
The spirit of exaltation in Pristina was a sharp contrast to the despair, anger and disbelief that gripped Serbia and the Serbian enclaves of northern Kosovo.
Invoking the nationalist mythology of loss and sacrifice that Kosovo has held in the Serbian consciousness since the Ottoman Turks defeated the Serbs in Kosovo in the 14th century, the Serbian prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, this week called for “Serbs to be as united as we were in 1389.†Newspapers in Belgrade lamented that the Albanians “have stolen Kosovo.â€
In the Serbian enclave of Mitrovica, a divided city that has long been a flashpoint of violence between Albanians and Serbs, small groups of Serbs gathered at the bridge between the Serb north of the town and the Albanian south. Serbs said they were under orders from Belgrade to ignore the independence declaration and remain in Kosovo in order to keep the northern part of the territory under de facto Serbian control.
“I will stay here forever,†said Svetozar, a 70 year-old Serbian engineer. “This will always be Serbia. I am not afraid of Kosovo’s independence because I don’t recognize it.â€
When a small group of Albanians tried to cross the bridge leading to the Serbian northern part, they were held back by police officers, along with 10-foot-high metal barriers wound with razor wire.
Independence brought happiness to the small rural Albanian village of Cabra, near Mitrovica, where the drowning of three Albanian boys under mysterious circumstances in March 2004 sparked mass violence against Serbs. Fatbardha Veseli, 14, the sister of one of the boys who drowned: “I am so happy. Maybe we will be more free.â€
Asked if it independence could bring reconciliation to the younger generation in this divided nation, she replied, “I have no Serbian friends.â€
In Brussels, where retaining unity over Kosovo has been one of the most tortuous foreign policy challenges in decades, European Union officials Sunday were busy drafting a statement to be announced at a foreign affairs meeting on Monday that would acknowledge Kosovo’s independence declaration without explicitly endorsing it.
Several member states — including Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Romania — oppose recognizing Kosovo without an agreement from the Security Council. These countries fear that recognizing Kosovo would encourage other secessionist movements within their own borders. Even with the European Union’s deep internal splits, on Saturday, the union overcame its divisions by giving final approval for a police and judicial mission that will help Kosovo administer the country after the United Nations leaves.
Kosovo’s declaration created immediate ripples in the former Soviet space, where small separatist areas — one in Moldova and two in the republic of Georgia — have existed since the early 1990s. All three enclaves receive extensive political support from the Kremlin, and exist as Russian protectorates. Two of them — Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia — released coordinated statements announcing an intention to seek recognition as independent states by Moscow, the United Nations and members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, or C.I.S., a loose alliance off 11 former Soviet republics. “South Ossetia will ask the C.I.S. and U.N. member states to recognize their independence in the near future,†said Eduard Kokoity, the Ossetian president, according to the Interfax news agency. “I am certain that the independence for South Ossetian and Abkhazia will be declared soon.â€Mr. Kokoity and Sergey Begapsh, the Abkhaz president, had met with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Friday, and received a commitment from the Kremlin for more support. Mr. Begapsh echoed the Ossetian plan in a statement to Interfax.“The situation in Kosovo is a precedent, one cannot say that the Kosovo case is unique,†he said. “Abkhazia will soon ask the Russian Federal Assembly and the U.N. Security Council to recognize its independence.â€Abkhazia and South Ossetia both have borders with Russia along the Caucasus ridge line, and in the past several years Russia has granted Russian citizenship and issued Russian passport to almost all of the residents in the two enclaves. It has also said that it is willing to defend its citizens. Georgia’s government, which has made national reunification a priority, has not recognized the inhabitants of the enclaves, who are predominantly ethnic Abkhaz or Ossetians, as Russian citizens. Georgia has also improved its military readiness, and sought admission to NATO — which has angered the Kremlin.The borders were quiet yesterday.