Shpend responds to Ed

Shpend Ahmeti of “Self-Determination” responds to my SAIS colleague Ed Joseph’s memo, which peacefare.net published last week:

MEMO

To:        Edward Joseph

From:    Shpend Ahmeti; Prishtina, Kosova

Date:     16 June, 2013

Subject: Five Replies to Edward Joseph from VETEVENDOSJE!

Thank you very much for your letter and your advice. We had a very good visit to the United States where we were able to present our views and program to our diaspora, universities, senate and congress members, State Department and others.  The SAIS debate was a very interesting and useful forum to test our ideas.  We certainly hope that the debate will be posted online so that more people will be able to watch it.

As a movement, we are open to comments, criticism, and questions.  We believe that debate will only help us strengthen our program, our concept and our movement in general.  We have been called all kinds of names, but rarely do we see criticism that tries to directly answer our argumentation. 

We have duly noted your five points which you more or less argued during the SAIS debate.  In my memo, I have tried to summarize our arguments that we also made during the debate.  The explanation will hopefully explain why some of the premises you make are unacceptable to us. 

For your information, your memo was presented in some of the local media (close to government) in Kosovo as the official position of US government, which they would not say even when members of government would speak.

1.      You say “Speech may be free; but positions have their costs”

Politics is about taking positions that have costs.  Without costs, there will be no change.  Change is what we seek.  We are ready to bear these costs so that the people of Kosova can live a better life.  We think of many before us who took positions with a lot of costs, including their lives, but that is one of the reasons we are where we are today.  I am sure that the US would not be where it is today if it were not for politicians who took positions to advance the life of Americans. 

We have mentioned in the debate that Serbia and Kosova are two abnormal states; Serbia, because it has not faced its past, and Kosova because of its limited independence.  I cannot but say that lasting peace and stability in the region is possible only when based on universal principles such as justice, reciprocity and equality. For that reason both Serbia and Kosova need to change, although in a somewhat different manner.

In this regard, while sitting from Washington, Serbia’s chauvinist and semi-fascist past as well as its failure face with this fact and to change accordingly might seem inconsequential, yet it is a vital interest for Kosova as its neighbor for this to happen.

Moreover, it is our responsibility as well as that of any international actor interested in the prosperity of this region to facilitate this process in every possible way. Consequently, I think it is only trivial to say that attempting to hide these issues under the rug by equalizing and distributing blame of what happened in the Balkans at end of the previous century in addition to failing to hold accountable those responsible (on whichever side they may be) is a recipe for this horrible past to repeat itself.

Furthermore, while it is true that all countries in the region need to face some very difficult facts, where ethnic hatred, organized crime and corruption are a ubiquitous phenomenon in the region, it is equally true that Kosova is by no means an aberrant example. To say the least, Serbia lost a prime minister to organized crime. Therefore, we have to reject the insinuation made in your letter. 

Moreover, as all of us must condemn all crimes (including those of war) committed by anyone in the Balkans I cannot but stress that this is an incommensurable phenomenon. We cannot build a future based on the falsehood that we all were equally guilty of what happened in the past.  Facts do not support this equalization.  The Serb government engaged in a collective government effort to systematically ethnically cleanse Kosova of all Albanians. We have thousands of statements to prove, and thousands of victims to remind us of that.  

As we have said in the debate, this does not justify individual crimes committed by the Albanians against the Serbs, and we take full responsibility for that, but this should not equalize the criminal activities of the Serb Government and the liberation efforts of the Kosova people.  Many Germans died at the hands of liberated European countries after 1945, but nobody equalizes these crimes with the Nazi atrocities across Europe.

Therefore discussing about what is happening in Serbia, Kosova or anywhere in the region for that matter, by anyone and everyone rather than considered as harping should be a duty for all of us.

2.  You say “However convinced you are about the value of unification with Albania, you are opening yourself up to an eventual political embarrassment”

It is very interesting to note that in 1998, Robert Gelbard, at the time Clinton’s special envoy to the Balkans, while testifying in the US congress firmly stated that the United States does not support Kosova’s independence.  At most, he said, the US is willing to support substantial autonomy for Kosova within Serbia.  In most of the meetings, politicians who were asking for the Kosova’s independence were considered to be irresponsible and not realistic about the demands for independence.

Yet, 15 years later, here we are.  Kosova has declared independence, albeit not with full sovereignty, and with the support of the United States. The main reason for that is the insistence of the Kosova people to have independence.  We cannot and should not ignore the will and the wishes of the majority of the people. Our role as politicians is to be the voice of the people of Kosova.  We stand for the right of the Kosova and Albania people to choose, if they wish so, to unite.  This right would be used in a peaceful and democratic manner, a right that every democratic independent country has. We strongly believe that it is in the interest of Kosova, Balkans, and the United States for unification to happen. We certainly will do our best to convince all of our allies of these interests. 

Corruption, corrupt privatization process, half of the country living in poverty, half of the country unemployed  are far more damaging to our credibility then the will of the people for unification.  Yet you have not mentioned any of them even once in your memo. We consider them very embarrassing facts for both Kosova and United States as our biggest ally. 

3.      You say “Stop whining about Kosovo’s ‘limited independence.’”

The position “we saved you, therefore we own you” is not at all an American position.  Not of the current government, and not of any US government.  Based on my experience of living and working in the US, it is simply not in the American spirit.  Freedom is not given, it is a right.

When you save someone from persecution and violence, I believe that the greatest injustice is to tell the very same person that they owe you their life, and that is why they should listen to you.  Apart from this not being an argument, it is also not the right way to develop Kosova and the US-Kosova relations.

Kosova owes its independence to the will and the sacrifice of its people.  Certainly, without US support the NATO intervention would not happen in 1999, and maybe independence would not be declared in 2008.  But, it would happen, and the US would eventually support it. If not under Clinton, then under Bush. If not under Bush, then under Obama, because it was the right thing to do.  But more importantly, it was the will of the people of Kosova.

You say that the truth is that no country can do what the majority of its citizens want.  For us, the will of the democratically produced majority is the definition of democracy.  We have learned this from the United States.  We have learned the Self-Determination (Vetëvendosje) concept from Woodrow Wilson.  Therefore, our model is based on modern democracies around the world.

4. You say “The US cares — a lot — about the condition of the Serb community in Kosovo.  So should you”

Firstly, we never talked about institutional “development”. We talked about the difference between institutional integration and socio-economic integration. Institutional integration (what is being pushed for now) are guarantees to have two Serb ministers in the government, a Serb police commander, a separate court of appeals etc. etc.  Socio-economic integration is about economic and social development where people integrate through working together and having quality services provided by the government,  Obviously, we believe the latter is more important, since the first one has failed miserably, in the last 14 years.

Secondly, if we accept your premise of the importance of institutional development which is a good thing, the current state of affairs cannot exactly be called institutional development.  You do not develop institutions by dividing them ethnically. Neither do you develop institutions by telling policemen and judges that you do not trust them, just because they were born Albanian?

We do care about the Serbs in Kosova.  As we do care about the Roma in Kosova; and the Turks, and the Ashkali, and the Egyptians, and the Albanians; and all the rest; equally.  We do not see them only as Serbs but as citizens of Kosova. You should see them that way as well.    

You say that you care about how Albanians are treated in Serbia and in Macedonia, but we see negotiations only about the Serbs in Kosova. Albanians in all of the surrounding countries are not respected, their rights are constantly violated, and many of them are leaving their homes (will send you statistics if you are interested).  If you really think that the April 19^th agreement is a good solution, please raise it to a principle level and advocate for the same solution to be applied in all of these countries. 

The century old bloodletting between Serbs and Albanians did not happen because of the ethnic or cultural differences between the two sides.  They happened because of hegemonic aspirations of Serbia to control and dominate the Balkans against the will of other people. This was concluded by the ICTY as well.

Again, the source of the crisis is not the position of the minorities in Kosovo, but the position and aspirations of the Serbia government.  Our government is not talking to the Kosovo Serbs about their “legitimate anxieties”; it is rather talking to Dacic (spokesperson of Milosevic) and Serbia, therefore causing anxiety in the whole region.

5.      You say  “Stop blasting the 19 April Agreement; start looking for ways to ensure that it is implemented properly”

How can we wish for the implementation of an agreement that we think is bad and damaging to Kosova.  That would be both illogical and certainly dishonest.

You somehow imply that concessions that we make will give us more recognitions. According to you Slovakia, Cyprus, Greece, Russia, China etc. have not recognized us and therefore we need to make more concessions to Serbia where we give up our sovereignty in order to get more recognition.  However, this is a paradox.  With all the concessions that we are making, there is no more state and sovereignty to be recognized.

You also imply that we have to say publicly that Serbia has recognized us, with the hope that we will fool some of the non-recognizers into thinking that Serbia has recognized us, so that they do as well.  I am not sure that works.  The goal is not to help our enemies, but to put pressure on Serbia and other countries into a normal recognition.

At the end, Mr. Joseph, Kosovo needs to be a normal country with normal neighbors.  The continuous conditions being placed on Kosovo have made the lives of it citizens worse rather than better, and the country anything but normal

But to you and many internationals, we are abnormal people, living in an abnormal country. According to you, we should accept that.

If we accept all that you say in your memo, we would not be a different voice.  We would be in a government with Thaçi, and there would be no need for you to write this memo. Kosova would continue to live in a corrupt, non-sovereign, abnormal situation where people are unequal. 

However, we have higher hopes and better dreams for our country.  We refuse to accept inequality and abnormality. Until you begin to see us as a normal country and equal to any other country, you will fail to see the VETEVENDOSJE argument.