America’s Kosovo Dilemma

if that happened, and the Americans really just withdrew...
in that case probably even the last Albanians would realize that they were duped by their "friends"...

the next weeks will be interesting though...

Mr Ambassador:

Well said. Those are in fact the realities... and they were entirely predictable.

The pressure of Mr Holbrooke; the ICG; HRW; Senator Biden; Congressman Lantos; and various other individuals within the US State Department toward Belgrade has created the very scenario you now lament.

One policy was agreed to in Bosnia and then it was entirely contradicted in Kosovo. This lies at the center of the dilemma and is the single largest element that unites Belgrade's politics. It was entirely predictable.

It was also the cavalier attitude of those very people (and others) who created the Russian response you now see. They took every opportunity to abuse Russia even to the point of public ridicule and humiliation... and naturally Russia will reassert itself.

You should also make mention of the costs that accompany sidestepping the UN and seeking unilateral declarations (the messy way to independence). It is predictable that this will only lead to a counter declaration north of the Ibar; an exodus of Serbs from the South of the province to north of the Ibar (de facto partition); prolonged legal challenge; total isolation from Belgrade (most notably transport for exports of lignite); and the "precedent effect"... that will probably begin in Banja Luka.

Belgrade has offered Pristina the exact same economic benefits they receive by being independent (the same access to the same development sources)... but also cooperation instead of perpetual belligerance.

Serbia has defended itself well to exploit the natural divide within Europe and has developeda sound legal strategy. It should not be criticized for defending its interests in a peaceful manner. Everyone has the right to defend their interests to the fullest of their powers.

Dear Ambassador Montgomery,

With all due respect, Russia is only following international law, not this "transigence" as you seem to term.

Under good faith, UN Resolution 1244 was signed in 1999 by the then Yugoslav Federation led by Slobodan Milosevic.

The UN Resolution has not been adhered too:

The following was to be implemented according to the UN resolution:

(1) The return of Serbian and or Yugoslav police at the Border crossings.

(2) The return of Serbian and or police to guard the main religious sites.

The result of this has seen the Serbian minority living in virtual Ghettos' only under the protection of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

You fail to point out to the American Public that over 100 Christian Serbian Orthodox churches have been razed to the ground by Albanian extremists.

You fail to point out that the Albanian extremists have even desecrated Serbian Gravesites.

You fail to point out that over 240,000 Serbs have been cleansed from Kosovo right under the watchful eyes of UNMIK.

You do point out the obvious, of course the Kosovar Albanians are heavily reliant to the United States. The US pushed NATO to bomb Serbia for 78 days even through the Christian Orthodox Easter Holiday.

The only reason that UN resolution 1244 was signed is that Serbia did not back down while EU was starting to split at the seams, particularly Germany and Greece with anti-war opposition.

Europe again appears to be split with Greece, Spain, & Romania against independance. Germany is not totally convinced of Kosovo indpendance while UK and France will tow the US line if they have to.

Yes, the US will want a quick solution, but they will need to buy a Serbian politician to do it-not a Russian one this time.

Kontantin Gregovic,
Edmonton, Canada

This is just more spin and Serbia needs to redouble it's principled stance. Which path the US deceides to take is up to them but the Serbian leadership needs to continue on the principled path - maybe then the Americans will silently drop their imposed solution.

Ambassador - very well written. With all due respect, Konstantin's comments just filled in some obvious holes in your article. The game just goes on.

But what is the point of keeping 2 milion Albanians in Serbia anyway?
They would be 21% of the population straight away and could grow up to 30% in just 15 years or so!
Shouldn't Serbia just try to keep the extreme North with half of Mitrovica, Lepoasvic and Zubin Potok? It is just 10% of Kosovo but it is better then nothing I guess...

As an American taxpayer can the kindly ambassador please point out why my tax dollars are going towards the stationing of 70k US military personnel in Germany and another 11k in the UK 60 years after the end of WW2?Is the Warsaw Pact planning on attacking these two rich countries?Germany has 300k members in its armed forces with a defense budget of over $30b and France and the UK have similar numbers of personnel with an even higher budget in the range of $40b.It is obvious from your comments about the US walking away from the Balkans even though we only have a measley number of personnel stationed there that you do not consider the area vital to US national interests and if that is the case then I suggest you leave the Kosovo question to the Europeans.Our country provided them with massive aid vis a vis the Marshall Plan which helped bring unprecedented prosperity to Western Europe.Do you not agree that it is time now for the Europeans to put their money and personnel where there mouths are and start pouring in the billions of euros it is going to take to raise the Balkans to European standards of development including primarily in the economic arena?We have gotten ourselves into a situation where we are damned if we do and damned if we don't in this Balkans quagmire but as a matter of principle I support the right of self determination for all peoples.It is hypocritical to argue that one group deserves special consideration and is a UNIQUE case.If we support the right of self determination then we need to prepare for at least 100 more countries to join the UN starting with Kosovo and then Taiwan followed by Kurdistan and so on and before I forget my good friend Richard Gere wants to make sure I mention Tibet.

The biggest mistake was when the international community invited Serbia to participate in discussions over the final status. The international community together with the kosovars should have settled the status after the bombing.. Russia will not veto nor support the new resolution it will abstain from voting.

Mr. Ambassador

Your assumption that:
"Finally, there are concrete reasons why this bond with Americans remains so strong. Namely, it is difficult to find any influential official, policy maker, or independent foreign affairs specialist in the United States who has not publicly or privately indicated that independence for Kosovo within current borders is the only possible outcome. Most made no secret of their views. "

First many of them have no idea where Kosovo is. Second, most of them don't have a understanding of importance of tradition, culture and history.
Third, without any hesitation official from State Department started to support KLA which was for years on their list of terror organizations.

It is not a secret why it has happened and it is not a secret that US soldiers will stay forever in Kosovo at list in their bases like Camp Bondsteel.

The goal of your government Mr. Ambassador was not to stop a violations of human rights, because under UMNIK protectorate the right of Serbs, Romas and other nationalities were violated.

The goal was and is to secure passage to Black Sea and sources of energy in Caspian Sea region.

Zbyszek

I find it incredible that (a) anyone could think it acceptable to just cut off 10% of Serbia's legally held territory; and (b) that they could use the threat of violence from any group seeking independence as a reason for handing over the land. Both are precendents which should not be allowed, and could lead to mass instability around the world.

To 'Noel': (Do you realise that this is a Serbian site and not The Guardian? I doubt that the BBC would publish an equivalent comment in similar circumstances.)
"The biggest mistake was when the international community invited Serbia to participate in discussions over the final status."
There was and is no choice. Legally Kosovo remains part of Serbia (that's not a political statement but a legal fact).
"The international community together with the kosovars should have settled the status after the bombing."
The only bodies able to negotiate anything after the bombing were Nato, the UN and Serbia. They did negotiate and drew up an agreement whereby Serbia retained sovereignty over Kosovo and the UN entered the province and allocated 'protectorate' status. This did not however protect the 3,000+ people (mainly Serbs, but also Albanians, Roma and others) who have been killed or kidnapped since the end of the bombing. Nobody seems to report this, even though it is there in UN reports.

Dear Mr Ambassador, As a resident in Kosovo since April 2000 I feel I am in a position to express a qualified opinion on the future status of Kosovo. For Kosovo Albanians the recent elections in Serbia for them took place in "another country". The Serbs believe that Kosovo belongs to them and is their declared intention to keep it. On the other hand Kosovo Albanians want independence on the basis of their right to self determination. An offer of greater autonomy by Serbia is not a viable solution because Kosovo Albanians have already achieved that with the help of UNSC resolution 1244. My solution is to declare Kosovo immediately as the Republic of Serbia and Kosovo. The wording of the new UN resolution should be so drafted as to declare Kosovo to remain as a Protectorate.(UN/EU) Serbia and Kosovo could then be fast tracked to EU accession and as in the meantime the Republic Kosovo could fulfill its declaration to create a harmonius multi ethnic society and in time follow the example of Montenegro and sucede.In conclusion I must add that this idea has been totally rejected by my Albanian friends and colleagues. For my part I cannot believe that Russia would veto the formation of a Republic.I must also admit that what I have proposed is fanciful but so are all the other ideas and proposals I have listened to or read.

It is typical of America to make a mess and then just walk away from it. It is just like taking a dog to the park and he does his buisnes and makes a mess and then just walks away.

You can forgive a dog because he does not know any better, but America claims to be Christian and should know better. I beleive that America destroys other nations to keep themselves as top dog.

I just wonder again and again...what those guys are writing here ...even when all media says something completely different, they don´t notice it.

sentences like: "The biggest mistake was when the international community invited Serbia to participate in discussions over the final status." just say it all.

Noel: Serbia is a state. an entity of international law. something the Albanians in KiM are desperately trying to pretend being.

"Russia will not veto nor support the new resolution it will abstain from voting."
well, maybe Mr.Putin is saying it only to entertain the world press...

you are suffering of a lack of reality, Noel.

this refusal to notice what is obvious makes it really almost impossible to have a discussion on that matter.

Mr. Ambassador is just plain wrong.

His assumptions smack of western short-termism. What can we get now, regardless of the cost in the medium to long term.

Why should Kosovo be treated as a 'special case' when it is in the West and their allies interests?

If a UN Security Council resolution passes 'independence' for Kosovo, it is ripping up one of the most fundamental corner stones of the modern state. The consequences globally could be on par with Woodrow Wilson's idea of 'self-determination'.

Putin is doing the West a favour, not as some would have us believe, just politiking and interfering because he can.

Unnamed EU diplomats have been quoted in the western press as saying (I paraphrase) "Russia has no right to meddle in EU security issues", yet these same people will argue their right to intervene in Georgia and Chechnya. This is called having your cake and eating it (hypocrisy).

Bosnia was recognised as a whole to preserve the ideal of not outside powers dividing up other states, despite the fact that Bosnia was never in its history and independent state and did not fulfill the requirements for independence. Some of these being the support of the majority of it's citizens (1/3 did not take part in the referendum), protection of all minorities (Izetbegovic raised the spector of an fully islamic bosnia), and control of its territory.

This is what caused the war in Bosnia. Mis-applying the fundamental inviability of borders by force and outside influence to a territory which such rules were not created.

Now they want to do the same to Kosovo. They clearly have not learned their lesson. They make the rules, yet discard them or misapply them when it is in their own selfish interests.

Saying that Kosovo is a special case is the worst kind of diplomatic hypocrisy possible and will not run.

South Ossetia and Abkhazia have much, much stronger grounds (in international law) for splitting from Georgia, yet those that advocate splitting from Serbia would refuse this right to the Ossetians and Abkhazians.

Maybe those who advocate independence think they are right, but they will be damning generations of others around the world to conflict and death. God help all of us in such a scenario.

Mr. Montgomery said that number of US Officials were "pressing it to improve the human rights situation in Kosovo". It's hard to see that as genuine concern for human rights, especially when we take a look at minority rights in places like Turkey (Kurds). But, let's not go that far. What about human rights for Serbs in Croatia who were denied even use of language?
I can only agree with Luciano to say that "I support the right of self determination for all peoples.It is hypocritical to argue that one group deserves special consideration and is a UNIQUE case."
Appareantly, this does not apply only to Serbs (in former Yugoslavia).
I can see Mr. Montgomery's point:
"First of all, virtually every Kosovo Albanian is passionately determined to be irrevocably separated from Serbia and to have full independence."
So is virtually every Serb in Bosnia to be irrevocably separated from Bosnia.
And before that in Croatia.
The difference is: They were bombed for their desire to be irrevocably separated from Bosnia and Croatia.
Then Albanians were not bombed for their desire to be irrevocably separated, but rather, Serbs were the targeted again.
With all due respect, this one will be very hard to forget.
Worst of all, there is very little that US can do now to change it.

Very interesting use of the word "closure." It assumes that the people of the Balkans have no memory. In this sense, the idea that a US imposed solution "closes" the issue is pure naivete. This is why the EU, in this case, is behaving more as the adult at the table.

I agree whith Robert,that Serbia must keep north of kosovo,whith north Mitrovica,Zubin potok,Leposavic, enclaves such as:the village of gracanica,kosovca kamenica,strepce. Historical places like:novo brdo,kosovo polje,religious places:decani,prizren,pec.For the other enclaves or religious shrines a real protection should be assured.Please visit the site:www.kosovo.net/.HELDER --PORTUGAL.

Sould we forget the Serbian people of Krajina?Where were U.S. and Europe?If Kosovo becames an independent country,then Srpska republica must have self determination too.HELDER--PORTUGAL.

if that happened, and the Americans really just withdrew...
in that case probably even the last Albanians would realize that they were duped by their "friends"...

the next weeks will be interesting though...

Mr Ambassador:

Well said. Those are in fact the realities... and they were entirely predictable.

The pressure of Mr Holbrooke; the ICG; HRW; Senator Biden; Congressman Lantos; and various other individuals within the US State Department toward Belgrade has created the very scenario you now lament.

One policy was agreed to in Bosnia and then it was entirely contradicted in Kosovo. This lies at the center of the dilemma and is the single largest element that unites Belgrade's politics. It was entirely predictable.

It was also the cavalier attitude of those very people (and others) who created the Russian response you now see. They took every opportunity to abuse Russia even to the point of public ridicule and humiliation... and naturally Russia will reassert itself.

You should also make mention of the costs that accompany sidestepping the UN and seeking unilateral declarations (the messy way to independence). It is predictable that this will only lead to a counter declaration north of the Ibar; an exodus of Serbs from the South of the province to north of the Ibar (de facto partition); prolonged legal challenge; total isolation from Belgrade (most notably transport for exports of lignite); and the "precedent effect"... that will probably begin in Banja Luka.

Belgrade has offered Pristina the exact same economic benefits they receive by being independent (the same access to the same development sources)... but also cooperation instead of perpetual belligerance.

Serbia has defended itself well to exploit the natural divide within Europe and has developeda sound legal strategy. It should not be criticized for defending its interests in a peaceful manner. Everyone has the right to defend their interests to the fullest of their powers.

Dear Ambassador Montgomery,

With all due respect, Russia is only following international law, not this "transigence" as you seem to term.

Under good faith, UN Resolution 1244 was signed in 1999 by the then Yugoslav Federation led by Slobodan Milosevic.

The UN Resolution has not been adhered too:

The following was to be implemented according to the UN resolution:

(1) The return of Serbian and or Yugoslav police at the Border crossings.

(2) The return of Serbian and or police to guard the main religious sites.

The result of this has seen the Serbian minority living in virtual Ghettos' only under the protection of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

You fail to point out to the American Public that over 100 Christian Serbian Orthodox churches have been razed to the ground by Albanian extremists.

You fail to point out that the Albanian extremists have even desecrated Serbian Gravesites.

You fail to point out that over 240,000 Serbs have been cleansed from Kosovo right under the watchful eyes of UNMIK.

You do point out the obvious, of course the Kosovar Albanians are heavily reliant to the United States. The US pushed NATO to bomb Serbia for 78 days even through the Christian Orthodox Easter Holiday.

The only reason that UN resolution 1244 was signed is that Serbia did not back down while EU was starting to split at the seams, particularly Germany and Greece with anti-war opposition.

Europe again appears to be split with Greece, Spain, & Romania against independance. Germany is not totally convinced of Kosovo indpendance while UK and France will tow the US line if they have to.

Yes, the US will want a quick solution, but they will need to buy a Serbian politician to do it-not a Russian one this time.

Kontantin Gregovic,
Edmonton, Canada

This is just more spin and Serbia needs to redouble it's principled stance. Which path the US deceides to take is up to them but the Serbian leadership needs to continue on the principled path - maybe then the Americans will silently drop their imposed solution.

Ambassador - very well written. With all due respect, Konstantin's comments just filled in some obvious holes in your article. The game just goes on.

But what is the point of keeping 2 milion Albanians in Serbia anyway?
They would be 21% of the population straight away and could grow up to 30% in just 15 years or so!
Shouldn't Serbia just try to keep the extreme North with half of Mitrovica, Lepoasvic and Zubin Potok? It is just 10% of Kosovo but it is better then nothing I guess...

As an American taxpayer can the kindly ambassador please point out why my tax dollars are going towards the stationing of 70k US military personnel in Germany and another 11k in the UK 60 years after the end of WW2?Is the Warsaw Pact planning on attacking these two rich countries?Germany has 300k members in its armed forces with a defense budget of over $30b and France and the UK have similar numbers of personnel with an even higher budget in the range of $40b.It is obvious from your comments about the US walking away from the Balkans even though we only have a measley number of personnel stationed there that you do not consider the area vital to US national interests and if that is the case then I suggest you leave the Kosovo question to the Europeans.Our country provided them with massive aid vis a vis the Marshall Plan which helped bring unprecedented prosperity to Western Europe.Do you not agree that it is time now for the Europeans to put their money and personnel where there mouths are and start pouring in the billions of euros it is going to take to raise the Balkans to European standards of development including primarily in the economic arena?We have gotten ourselves into a situation where we are damned if we do and damned if we don't in this Balkans quagmire but as a matter of principle I support the right of self determination for all peoples.It is hypocritical to argue that one group deserves special consideration and is a UNIQUE case.If we support the right of self determination then we need to prepare for at least 100 more countries to join the UN starting with Kosovo and then Taiwan followed by Kurdistan and so on and before I forget my good friend Richard Gere wants to make sure I mention Tibet.

The biggest mistake was when the international community invited Serbia to participate in discussions over the final status. The international community together with the kosovars should have settled the status after the bombing.. Russia will not veto nor support the new resolution it will abstain from voting.

Mr. Ambassador

Your assumption that:
"Finally, there are concrete reasons why this bond with Americans remains so strong. Namely, it is difficult to find any influential official, policy maker, or independent foreign affairs specialist in the United States who has not publicly or privately indicated that independence for Kosovo within current borders is the only possible outcome. Most made no secret of their views. "

First many of them have no idea where Kosovo is. Second, most of them don't have a understanding of importance of tradition, culture and history.
Third, without any hesitation official from State Department started to support KLA which was for years on their list of terror organizations.

It is not a secret why it has happened and it is not a secret that US soldiers will stay forever in Kosovo at list in their bases like Camp Bondsteel.

The goal of your government Mr. Ambassador was not to stop a violations of human rights, because under UMNIK protectorate the right of Serbs, Romas and other nationalities were violated.

The goal was and is to secure passage to Black Sea and sources of energy in Caspian Sea region.

Zbyszek

I find it incredible that (a) anyone could think it acceptable to just cut off 10% of Serbia's legally held territory; and (b) that they could use the threat of violence from any group seeking independence as a reason for handing over the land. Both are precendents which should not be allowed, and could lead to mass instability around the world.

To 'Noel': (Do you realise that this is a Serbian site and not The Guardian? I doubt that the BBC would publish an equivalent comment in similar circumstances.)
"The biggest mistake was when the international community invited Serbia to participate in discussions over the final status."
There was and is no choice. Legally Kosovo remains part of Serbia (that's not a political statement but a legal fact).
"The international community together with the kosovars should have settled the status after the bombing."
The only bodies able to negotiate anything after the bombing were Nato, the UN and Serbia. They did negotiate and drew up an agreement whereby Serbia retained sovereignty over Kosovo and the UN entered the province and allocated 'protectorate' status. This did not however protect the 3,000+ people (mainly Serbs, but also Albanians, Roma and others) who have been killed or kidnapped since the end of the bombing. Nobody seems to report this, even though it is there in UN reports.

Dear Mr Ambassador, As a resident in Kosovo since April 2000 I feel I am in a position to express a qualified opinion on the future status of Kosovo. For Kosovo Albanians the recent elections in Serbia for them took place in "another country". The Serbs believe that Kosovo belongs to them and is their declared intention to keep it. On the other hand Kosovo Albanians want independence on the basis of their right to self determination. An offer of greater autonomy by Serbia is not a viable solution because Kosovo Albanians have already achieved that with the help of UNSC resolution 1244. My solution is to declare Kosovo immediately as the Republic of Serbia and Kosovo. The wording of the new UN resolution should be so drafted as to declare Kosovo to remain as a Protectorate.(UN/EU) Serbia and Kosovo could then be fast tracked to EU accession and as in the meantime the Republic Kosovo could fulfill its declaration to create a harmonius multi ethnic society and in time follow the example of Montenegro and sucede.In conclusion I must add that this idea has been totally rejected by my Albanian friends and colleagues. For my part I cannot believe that Russia would veto the formation of a Republic.I must also admit that what I have proposed is fanciful but so are all the other ideas and proposals I have listened to or read.

It is typical of America to make a mess and then just walk away from it. It is just like taking a dog to the park and he does his buisnes and makes a mess and then just walks away.

You can forgive a dog because he does not know any better, but America claims to be Christian and should know better. I beleive that America destroys other nations to keep themselves as top dog.

I just wonder again and again...what those guys are writing here ...even when all media says something completely different, they don´t notice it.

sentences like: "The biggest mistake was when the international community invited Serbia to participate in discussions over the final status." just say it all.

Noel: Serbia is a state. an entity of international law. something the Albanians in KiM are desperately trying to pretend being.

"Russia will not veto nor support the new resolution it will abstain from voting."
well, maybe Mr.Putin is saying it only to entertain the world press...

you are suffering of a lack of reality, Noel.

this refusal to notice what is obvious makes it really almost impossible to have a discussion on that matter.

Mr. Ambassador is just plain wrong.

His assumptions smack of western short-termism. What can we get now, regardless of the cost in the medium to long term.

Why should Kosovo be treated as a 'special case' when it is in the West and their allies interests?

If a UN Security Council resolution passes 'independence' for Kosovo, it is ripping up one of the most fundamental corner stones of the modern state. The consequences globally could be on par with Woodrow Wilson's idea of 'self-determination'.

Putin is doing the West a favour, not as some would have us believe, just politiking and interfering because he can.

Unnamed EU diplomats have been quoted in the western press as saying (I paraphrase) "Russia has no right to meddle in EU security issues", yet these same people will argue their right to intervene in Georgia and Chechnya. This is called having your cake and eating it (hypocrisy).

Bosnia was recognised as a whole to preserve the ideal of not outside powers dividing up other states, despite the fact that Bosnia was never in its history and independent state and did not fulfill the requirements for independence. Some of these being the support of the majority of it's citizens (1/3 did not take part in the referendum), protection of all minorities (Izetbegovic raised the spector of an fully islamic bosnia), and control of its territory.

This is what caused the war in Bosnia. Mis-applying the fundamental inviability of borders by force and outside influence to a territory which such rules were not created.

Now they want to do the same to Kosovo. They clearly have not learned their lesson. They make the rules, yet discard them or misapply them when it is in their own selfish interests.

Saying that Kosovo is a special case is the worst kind of diplomatic hypocrisy possible and will not run.

South Ossetia and Abkhazia have much, much stronger grounds (in international law) for splitting from Georgia, yet those that advocate splitting from Serbia would refuse this right to the Ossetians and Abkhazians.

Maybe those who advocate independence think they are right, but they will be damning generations of others around the world to conflict and death. God help all of us in such a scenario.

Mr. Montgomery said that number of US Officials were "pressing it to improve the human rights situation in Kosovo". It's hard to see that as genuine concern for human rights, especially when we take a look at minority rights in places like Turkey (Kurds). But, let's not go that far. What about human rights for Serbs in Croatia who were denied even use of language?
I can only agree with Luciano to say that "I support the right of self determination for all peoples.It is hypocritical to argue that one group deserves special consideration and is a UNIQUE case."
Appareantly, this does not apply only to Serbs (in former Yugoslavia).
I can see Mr. Montgomery's point:
"First of all, virtually every Kosovo Albanian is passionately determined to be irrevocably separated from Serbia and to have full independence."
So is virtually every Serb in Bosnia to be irrevocably separated from Bosnia.
And before that in Croatia.
The difference is: They were bombed for their desire to be irrevocably separated from Bosnia and Croatia.
Then Albanians were not bombed for their desire to be irrevocably separated, but rather, Serbs were the targeted again.
With all due respect, this one will be very hard to forget.
Worst of all, there is very little that US can do now to change it.

Very interesting use of the word "closure." It assumes that the people of the Balkans have no memory. In this sense, the idea that a US imposed solution "closes" the issue is pure naivete. This is why the EU, in this case, is behaving more as the adult at the table.

I agree whith Robert,that Serbia must keep north of kosovo,whith north Mitrovica,Zubin potok,Leposavic, enclaves such as:the village of gracanica,kosovca kamenica,strepce. Historical places like:novo brdo,kosovo polje,religious places:decani,prizren,pec.For the other enclaves or religious shrines a real protection should be assured.Please visit the site:www.kosovo.net/.HELDER --PORTUGAL.

Sould we forget the Serbian people of Krajina?Where were U.S. and Europe?If Kosovo becames an independent country,then Srpska republica must have self determination too.HELDER--PORTUGAL.