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Kosovo’s
Independence
A matter of Western oil interests, not
democracy
By Aditya Ganapathiraju
10/03/08 "The
Daily" -- -- Kosovo,
a small territory where primarily ethnic Albanians reside,
announced its independence from Serbia last month. While Western
leaders have celebrated this unilateral secession as a great
moment for democracy, the actual details of the secession paint
a different picture.
In 1999, the United States led NATO in bombing the former
Yugoslavia under the pretense of preventing Serbian aggression
against Kosovar Albanians. Former president of Serbia, Slobodan
Milosevic, whom the United States once supported, played a key
role in the aggression.
While bombing was said to be essential to prevent genocide, in
2005 senior Clinton official John Norris wrote differently in
his novel Collision Course.
“It was Yugoslavia’s resistance to the broader trends of
political and economic reform — not the plight of the Kosovar
Albanians — that best explains NATO’s war,” he wrote.
Bill Richardson, Clinton’s secretary of energy, also brought up
underlying reasons for the bombing.
“This is about America’s energy security,” he said months after
the bombing.
At the time, the U.N. Security Council passed resolution 1244,
which guaranteed a commitment of all member states to the
“sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia.
Serbian and Russian political officials have said Kosovo’s
declaration of independence was in gross violation of 1244 and a
breach of international law, while the United States asserts
that Kosovo’s independence was fully consistent with 1244, said
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in
a security council press release.
“I’m very torn,” said Stephen Zunes, a UC San Francisco
professor of international studies, in an interview with
therealnews.com. “I have supported the Kosovo Albanians’
struggle for self-determination for quite a few years now, and
yet … the nature of the current Kosovo-Albanian leadership and
the hypocrisy and double standards of the United States and
other Western powers makes this a time that should be one of
celebration to one of, frankly, great apprehension.”
Zunes and others point to the hypocrisy of Western powers in
supporting Kosovo’s right to secede but ignoring other regions
with similar aspirations, like Tibet, Western Sahara, the Basque
country in Spain, Kashmir, Taiwan, Palestine and Kurdistan.
Asia Times columnist Pepe Escobar said to look at Camp Bondsteel
and the Albanian Macedonian Bulgarian Oil Corp. (AMBO) for
answers as to why the United States is interested in Kosovo’s
independence.
The $1.1 billion AMBO pipeline will take oil from the Caspian
Sea, bypassing the heavily trafficked Aegean and Mediterranean
seas and routing it through Macedonia to the U.S.-friendly
Albanian port of Vlora, ultimately taking the oil to refineries
in the United States for significantly less cost than it now
incurs.
Camp Bondsteel will serve to provide “security” in the region,
defending critical pipeline areas while also serving as “a sort
of smaller — and friendlier — five-star Guantanamo, with perks
like Thai massage and loads of junk food,” Escobar said.
Kosovo’s independence may have little to do with its autonomy.
Officials in Brussels have confirmed that thousands of EU
bureaucrats will be sent to the nation-state to form another “EU
(and NATO) protectorate,” Escobar wrote.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurdistan has been denied its independence.
Turkey officials are furious at the precedent Kosovo has set and
invaded Northern Iraq with 10,000 troops to show the world that
Kurdish secession is not an option.
“An array of European analysts, not to mention Russians, has
compared the current, dangerous state of play in the Balkans to
Sarajevo in 1914 that led to the outbreak of World War II,”
Escobar wrote.
Reach columnist Aditya Ganapathiraju at
news@thedaily.washington.edu.
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