The Guardian 30 January, 2008
Crunch time for Serbian Kosovo
In supporting the campaign of the Albanian separatists in Kosovo the western powers are tearing up treaties they had signed recognising the post-war borders of all the European states. They are also attempting to relegate the decisions of the United Nations which get in the way of their objectives.
In the 1990s, following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the US and the major European powers saw an opportunity to tear Yugoslavia to pieces, control the Balkan countries and open the way to disrupt the former Republics of the Soviet Union. NATO has been steadily building up military forces and establishing US military bases in countries that have borders with the Russian Federation.
It was under the leadership of Slobodan Milosevic that Serbia attempted to maintain the province of Kosovo as a legitimate and historical part of Yugoslavia. He was ostracised and eventually railroaded by the western-promoted War Crimes Tribunal for his resistance to the efforts of the western powers to tear Kosovo out of the Serbian Federation. The US and Britain, in particular, launched a savage war against Serbia but even then the peace settlement recognised Kosovo as part of Serbia.
Today, only the Russian Federation and Serbia have stood up to the bandit policies of the US and the major European Union powers in upholding the principles of the UN and the treaties recognising the post-war borders of European States.
But, the western powers never gave up their objective of smashing any country that attempts to resist their objectives and their power. They supported the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a fascist led organisation, as it waged war for the "independence" of Kosovo. Kosovo was placed under the administration of the United Nations but now, because they can no longer get a UN decision to rubber-stamp their objectives, the western powers are attempting to expel the UN forces and place the so-called "peace keeping forces" under the control of NATO. This would be accompanied by a declaration of "independence" by the Albanian government of Kosovo.
The Russian government has declared on many occasions that it will oppose any UN Security Council resolution that sanctions the independence of Kosovo. China also opposes such a move as do several other members of the UN Security Council. The western powers, however, continue to indicate that they will ignore the United Nations unless it too capitulates to western policies.
All Serbian political parties oppose the "independence" of Kosovo. An election is scheduled to take place on February 3 for Serbian president and although the western media infer that one of the candidates is "pro-western" the opposition of all candidates to Kosovo independence is largely ignored.
The present president of Serbia, Boris Tadic, has recently visited Moscow, no doubt to coordinate their common opposition to Kosovan independence. In addition, agreements were reached on trade questions including an oil deal and the planned construction of an oil pipeline in conjunction with the Italian energy supplier Eni from the Caspian Sea through Bulgaria and Serbia to Italy. It would also serve other Southern European countries.
The support of Kosovo independence by the western powers is foolish and short-sighted and could encourage ethnic separatist movements in other countries, not only in Europe but on other continents as well.
This would increase worldwide instability and the break-up of other nations which have ethnic minorities that are often discriminated against. The US and other European powers have shown that they will stir-up such rivalries if it serves their purpose of creating a number of small puppet states that can be easily dominated by the more powerful imperialist states of Britain, the US and France, and in Asia, Japan.