Keep going in the right direction

Posted in Uncategorized - April 24, 2013 - 14 Comments

Here is my full testimony this afternoon to the Subcommitee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.  The prepared oral version (I was limited to five minutes) is below:

Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity to testify on the pathway to peace for Kosovo and Serbia, which has been a long and difficult one.  With your permission, I’ll summarize and submit my full testimony for the record.

I’d like to make five points:

  1. This is a good agreement.  If fully implemented, it would go a long way to establishing democratically validated institutions as well as clear legal and police authority on the whole territory of Kosovo while allowing ample self-governance for Serbs in northern Kosovo on many other issues.
  2. Implementation will be a challenge, one that requires Pristina to make integration attractive and Belgrade to end the financing that makes resistance in northern Kosovo possible.  Belgrade and Pristina will need to cooperate to end the smuggling of tax-free goods that has enriched organized crime and spoilers, both Serb and Albanian.
  3. The agreement should end any discussion of exchange of territory between Kosovo and Serbia, which is a bad idea that risks destabilizing Bosnia, Macedonia and even Serbia proper.  We should work to make northern Kosovo a model of win/win reintegration for the rest of the Balkans. 
  4. Belgrade and Pristina have taken an important step towards normalizing relations, but they will need to do more, including eventual recognition and exchange of ambassadors.  If that does not happen, neither will be able to get into the EU and both may try to arm themselves for a possible new confrontation.  In accordance with this agreement, each will apply for EU membership as an independent and sovereign state.
  5. We owe props to the EU and in particular Catherine Ashton, not only for the mediation work she did but also for the vital incentives the EU provided.  The US government shares supporting actor credit with leading Lady Ashton, which is as it should be. 

Mr. Chairman, I am relieved that an agreement has been reached, but still concerned about the future.  The Belgrade/Pristina dialogue is a classic case of elite pact-making without a broader peacebuilding process.  The underlying drivers of conflict have not been addressed.  Many Serbs and Kosovo Albanians still think badly of each other and rank themselves as victims.  There has been little mutual acknowledgement of harm.  Few Albanians and Serbs have renewed personal ties.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to do so as many younger people lack a common language other than English.  It is almost 14 years since the end of the NATO/Yugoslavia war.  To be self-sustaining, this peace process is going to need to go deeper and involve many more citizens on both sides.

The road is long, Mr. Chairman, but we are near its end and we need to keep going in the right direction.

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14 thoughts on “Keep going in the right direction”

  1. I tried to find this on C-Span, but had no luck. The House’s YouTube channel offered only Chairman Rohrabacher’s opening statement and his questioning of Jonathan (is it?) Moore, who seemed concentrated on simply getting the whole thing over with.

    Does this Rohrabacher person know nothing about the situation? Apparently he, or one of his staffers, once read Balkan Ghosts and stopped there in his research – where else would this “fighting for centuries” come from? And then there was his preening over his self-consistency in demanding self-determination for the Serbs in the north of Kosovo because we had supported the Albanians in their quest for it (under radically different circumstances). It is truly embarrassing that this man is the head of any subcommittee in the House. The level of his statements would be appropriate perhaps to the B92 comments section – they’re all familiar from there, at any rate.

    It sometimes amazes me that the country has survived our elected officials as long as it has.

    1. Amer he is actually a us congressman for over 20 years served on many defence and foreigh relations committees and was pro KLA :

      “Bosnia and Kosovo independenceRohrabacher was opposed to American ground troops in the Yugoslav Wars. He advocated for the direct bombing of the Serb military on Serbian soil, criticizing the ineffectiveness of western forces against the Serbs, NATO was limited to small fixed attacks, as the Serbs penetrated UN safe areas and attacked Bosnian forces. Rohrabacher said they “should bomb Serbia’s military infrastructure, in Serbia – get that, in Serbia – rather than dropping a couple of duds on tents, which only proves the West’s gutlessness, and emboldens Serbian cutthroats.”[46][47] Rohrabacher considered the events in Bosnia to constitute genocide.[48] In 1995, Rohrabacher personally visited Sarajevo in Bosnia, criticizing the devastation Serb forces inflicted on the city, saying “This is a loss to all mankind, not just to the people of Sarajevo,”. He also encountered vagabond children asking for money.[49]

      The leader of the Albanian American Civic League ethnic lobby group, Joseph J. DioGuardi, praised Rohrabacher for his support to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), saying “He was the first member of Congress to insist that the United States arm the Kosova Liberation Army, and one of the few members who to this day publicly supports the independence of Kosova.”[50] Rohrabacher gave a speech in support of American equipping the KLA with weaponry, comparing it to French support of America in the Revolutionary War, saying “Based on our own experience, the Kosova Liberation Army should have been armed.” “If the U.S. had armed the KLA in 1998, we would not be where we are today. The ‘freedom fighters’ would have secured their freedom and Kosova would be independent.” [51]

      So what does that tell us about his comments concering N.Kosovo?

      Land swaps will eventually be the answer,something ive been advocating

      1. One can be a Congressman all one’s life and still be a simplistic thinker.

        The referendum being promised in Belgrade today may make things clearer for him.

        1. i was just responding to the comment concerning this ” Rohrabacher person” as being a nobady that didn’t seem to know what hes talking about,but actually was a strong advocate of Kosovo.

    1. “What is the argument that the west will use not to allow the RS the secede”?

      That creature (Republic of Srpska) is created based on ethnic cleansing and genocide.

      1. even if thats the case its been established and recognized as a entity in a very weak govt of bosnia.The entities have minimal interaction and at the end of the day bosnia may fucntion and see better days if the serb entity splits off.

        1. peter,

          If Bosniaks agree on this why not. Nevertheless I fully agree with Mr. Serwer in his last blog “Pandora’s box opens also in Serbia”.

          1. i responded to mr serwer concering pandoras box.serbs gain alot more than they lose.

    2. It doesn’t need an argument, it will be sufficient simply not to recognize any “unilateral declaration of independence.” And who else can RS politicians count on to recognize them, anyway? Serbia and Russia are both guarantors of the Dayton Accords, and even if Serbia were willing to overlook this detail, it seems to have lost its enthusiasm for supporting Serbs outside of Serbia to its own detriment. Nikolic now says that the Serbs of Bosnia are Bosnians for him, and the political parties are abandoning the idea that even the Serbs of Kosovo deserve any special support, not when their EU future is at stake. As far as picking up support among the broader international community, there doesn’t seem much interest these days in getting into trouble with either the West or Russia/China by changing the status quo of new entities with ambitions.

      As far as RS doing better by going it alone, that’s delusional. They’ve already got more people receiving pensions than paying into the system – this is not a sign of a healthy economy, and demographics is not an area they can expect any help from Serbia on. Russia may keep them afloat as a useful irritant to the West, but it don’t seem to have the interest in making Bosnia an example of the advantages of outside investment that the Austrians had. Someday somebody will call Dodik’s bluff, and the goat will be barbered.

      1. Amer,

        You are right. Just remembering Kosovo MP’s on 1991 when they declared independence of Kosovo, after held referendum. Who took into account such declaration? Nobody. Kosovo continued being under aggression of Serbia. The declaration of independence on Februaru 2008 was totally different as it was largely supported from subjects of international law – states of the world.

        So Republic of Srpska may declare independence even tomorrow but what happens? In essence – nothing. Nobody will recognize such independence. What Serbs would gain from such move would be their isolation since even Serbia would not have courage accepting such move.

    1. “Spain will not recognize Kosovo” – until there’s a change of government and somebody realizes protecting Franco’s project is no longer worth the effort. Spain was once granted half the New World (by a Spanish pope) and has really never gotten over it, but the time for grand pronouncements is past. In any case, a referendum showing Serbs are more interested in Serbia’s economic advancement than “saving Kosovo” may convince them they can change their minds now without losing too much face.

      “Intense debate” – did you even read the piece you are responding to? (Do you have any experience with B92’s creative headline writers? Especially of the English-language headlines that they hope will influence non-Serb readers?)

      1. Rohrabachers comments hit a nerve?

        Spain and the other EU countries that wont recognize Kosovo will only i believe do so if Serbia does it first. A Mutual agreement between Serbia and her former province MUST BE ACHEVIED

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