Half a Big Mac is not a smorgasbord
Jerry Gallucci over at Transconflict says Serbia is offering Kosovo a smorgasbord of possible solutions to the status question. Looks more like half a Big Mac to me. Not something I’d be interested in.
Anyone who thinks the European Union will accept Serbia as a member without settling the issue of Kosovo status, as Gallucci suggests, is living in a different reality from mine. That would require twenty-two European states that have recognized Kosovo as sovereign to go mad, suffer amnesia or more likely brain damage. Even if twenty-one of them did, the Dutch can be relied upon stay sane, remember and insist, as they did with the arrest and transfer to The Hague of Ratko Mladic. Several EU members have already stated that settling Kosovo’s status will be a precondition, and those that haven’t will rely on the EU requirement of “good neighborly relations” to make the same point.
Gallucci’s smorgasbord consists of one basic idea: Serbia retaining control of northern Kosovo. To agree to that, Pristina would have to gain control of the Albanian-majority areas of southern Serbia. After all, Kosovo has its political pressures, too, including from the Self-Determination movement Gallucci mentions. And Serbia would have to recognize Kosovo’s sovereignty and territorial integrity before any territorial exchange, since Kosovo could only engage in such an act as a sovereign.
In the unlikely event such an agreement could be reached, Pristina and Belgrade would then have to figure out how to guarantee that it would not destabilize Bosnia and Macedonia. This would be particularly important for Belgrade, since instability could of course spread from Bosnia to Sandjak, a part of Serbia in which many Muslims (they call themselves “Bosniaks”) live.
Gallucci wonders why ethnic states are such a bad thing. They aren’t. The problem is that forming them often entails a process known as violent conflict. It did in the 19th century, it did in the 20th and it would in the 21st. It’s admittedly difficult, but best to avoid war whenever possible. And fighting, or even quarreling, over half a Big Mac would just be ridiculous.
It is time for Belgrade to accept reality. Kosovo Serbs as well as the Serbian religious institutions in Kosovo can and should be treated properly. Putting forward a smorgasbord of ideas on how to satisfy those requirements would be a good idea. A one-way partition of Kosovo is not.
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6 thoughts on “Half a Big Mac is not a smorgasbord”
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I’ll avoid getting into a detailed polemic here about what an eventual compromise between Belgrade and Pristina (or Tirana) might look like and whether the EU will demand full recognition or just good neighborly relations between Serbia and Kosovo for eventual membership. (Best might be for the EU to admit all the remaining Balkans countries as a group and bring down borders that way.) But the last point, that partitioning or re-drawing borders would necessitate war is just lazy thinking. Such things can be, and would have to be, matters of mutual agreement. And in cases where not practical — this does not include Kosovo — the international community should work with the relevant parties to make sure multi-ethnic/consocial democracy really works. The Balkans is Europe and the Europeans have some experience in this. Belgium and the Netherlands have not fallen apart yet.
You have to wonder whom all these proposals are aimed at. The Serbs south of the Ibar are against any split (Boganovic is saying that they would be exposed to violence and even greater ethnic cleansing following a split), those in the North (that would would become the new “Kosovo” that would the new heart of Serbia that was saved) are still holding out for the whole thing, and Albania doesn’t want to upset the current balance between north and south and various religious groups in Albania today.
The first Serb poster at B92 on Dacic’s suggestion maybe had it right: “Calm down, Dacic, elections aren’t for a year.” Or maybe it was the Dutch who had to be quickly won over by a show of Serbian reasonableness? Their parliament just voted not to sign on to the SAA, so obviously it didn’t work. (Tadic is challenging the EU to live up to what he claims is their part of the bargain – can this really be aimed at impressing anyone who isn’t going to be voting in the Serbian elections?) Jeremic has just made a swing through Latin America and the Caribbean to strengthen the resolve there against new recognitions) with the stated purpose of forcing more concessions from Prishtina in the talks – it all sounds a little panicky. Serbia is facing deadlines – candidacy status, date for talks before the next elections in the short-term, a declining population in the long-term (at the same rate as Russia’s). Another consideration – in a couple of years, the Mladic trial may start bringing out the extent of Serbian responsibility for what happened in Bosnia: if claims of a handful of organ-harvesting cases (Marty says fewer than 10) can be used against Kosovo, how will the long-denied responsibility for Srebrenica etc. look to the world? The Albanians know there’s no sense rushing for EU membership, there’s simply too much that has to be done first, border or no border. And their demographics are a lot better – from the outside, it looks like they can afford to wait while they work, even if only in the grey economy. Maybe Peacefare.net will have a better feel for the situation in a couple of weeks?
Marko keeps coming late to Kosovo – and asking for deals taken off the table 20 years ago.
I think that as usual, everyone is dealing on two levels: the real and the “historical.” On the real level, everyone knows that the Serbs south of the Ibar are on their own. (The record of the internationals — ICO and EULEX — does not hold out much hope for helping them.) Thus they have increasingly opted for participation in Pristina’s institutions.
In the north, some refuse to acknowledge the reality of having “lost” Kosovo south of the Ibar but other accept that reality and would be pleased if in the end they can remain in Serbia or at least not under Pristina.
Give Tadic credit, he is speaking both to the real situation and to history.
“Albania doesn’t want to upset the current balance between north and south and various religious groups in Albania today.”
Amer, where did this come from? I’d except this “Albanians are tribal, primitive people” from the Serbian posters at B2.
Albania isn’t doing anything because Berisha’s goverment isn’t capable of doing anything… other than sabotaging Kosovo’s economy by removing taxes on Serbian products and at the same time placing higher ones on Kosovar ones.
The comment was lifted from a KIM Radio piece on June 4 http://www.radiokim.net/?cid=3,7,10813.
It was from an interview with “analitičar Nedžmedin Spahiu” who said that the idea of a Greater Albania is supported in Kosovo because the government is not functioning well, but that Albania is not interested:
“[politički analitičar iz Kosovske Mitrovice Nedžmedin Spahiu je u izjavi KIM radiju rekao da političke snage u Albaniji takva pitanja smatraju opasnim,] jer bi, kako navodi,ugrozilo političku ravnotežu, između severa i juga Albanije i verskih zajednica koje su stvarane u proteklih 100 godina. ”
“… it would threaten the political equilibrium between the North and the South of Albania and between the religious communities that has been established over the past 100 years.”
As an American, I don’t see anything particularly primitive or tribal about a division of interests between the north and south of a country. Kosovo was historically part of Northern Albania, adding its voters would seem to help Berisha a lot more in national elections than Rama, with his base in the south, for example.
As for the paralysis in Albania, it makes you realize how much America has benefited from the tradition of graceful withdrawals from the scene of battle after the courts have spoken on elections. It was probably the most patriotic thing that Nixon ever did. Gore behaved well – but we ended up with a ruined economy and unending wars because of it. Usually the outcome of a close election isn’t that consequential, and flipping a coin would serve just as well. If you could get people to agree to accept the outcome, of course.
Amer, I wouldn’t trust any Serbian media except for e-novine. Even B92 has turned into a nationalist mouthpiece ever since Tadic’s government has gained power (check 2 articles at BalkanInsight on serbian media). Their own propaganda aside, they have the old, bad habit of purposedly misquoting and butchering Albanian (among others) media articles to further brainwash their citizens.
In this specific case, Nexhmedin Spahiu is among the half a dozen of Kosovar “intellectuals” who promote a Kosovar identity as different form the Albanian one. Such looneys are loathed all over Kosovo (you could join some Albanian Facebook groups and ask there) but make good material for the Serbian propaganda machine.
To reach the conclusion that “Albania doesn’t want to upset the current balance between north and south and various religious groups in Albania today.” through the words of such an isolated figure it is quite a jump, don’t you think?
Sure, Berisha would gain some votes (thanks to his surname) from the ignorant Kosovans who are unable to write 2 sentences in their local dialects let alone Albanian, but the educated ones are aware of his treacherous acts towards the nation (selling fuel to Milosevic during the embargo on YU, arresting UCK members in the mid 90-s, his puppy Lulezim Basha having worked with UNMIK in raising charges against UCK members etc etc) lastly sabotaging the Kosovan economy. Read here
http://www.telegrafi.com/?id=46&a=6321&dergo=1
http://www.telegrafi.com/?id=46&a=7992
http://www.telegrafi.com/?id=46&a=8152
http://koha.net/?page=1,3,57774
Honestly I don’t know where you got this “Rama gains more votes in the South vs Berisha in the North”. Seems like the lot of anti-Albanian articles you read on Serbian sites are starting to take root. If you followed the latest elections you’d know the Socialist Party won almost every big city, even most of the north (with the exception of Shkodra) whereas the Sali Party won mostly in the small village communes. So it is more like city folk vs ignorant peasant. North vs South, what is that?
Being from Albania myself, I am really appalled to hear that there is a balance in my country “between north and south” that could be broken should Kosovo join it. If you are referring to gegs and tosks, such distinctions are NOT made in Albania. The dialects of North Albania, have little in common with those in ex-YU despite being all called geg (a trip in the region would be really helpful 😉 ). Regarding the religious part, neither Albanians nor K Albanians are religious at all so it is hap hazardous to consider any (breakable) balances. The whole of Kosovo was and still is a bit differences from the WHOLE of Albania due to the obvious fact that we were separated for half a century but ever since the dawn of this century the contacts are so frequent(media, entertainment, art, education etc) that the differences are quickly vanishing. Durres is now full of K.Albanians who are spreading to the rest of the riviera and few pupils from Kosovo have yet to visit Albania in school-buses. And myriads of K.Albs reach for the festival of Gjirokastra in the deep south each year. And more but I think this piece is already too long.