Kosovo: Real Chutzpah

Seems the US Embassy in Pristina is on a roll. In just one week, it reportedly chooses the president of a “sovereign” country and then apparently bullies the UN into providing its AID mission with official permission to move ahead with a project in north Mitrovica that the local community rejects. Not many places left in the world where the US can do this sort of thing any more. Welcome to Kosovo.

The choice of a country's president is, normally, a matter for its people. But the choice for Kosovo president of a relatively unknown figure with no political clout of her own suggests that it was meant to politically neuter the office and prevent any further challenges to the Thaci government. The US Ambassador's strange response to Mr. Pacolli's description of the Ambassador's pulling from a envelope his choice for president – “I believe that Mr. Pacolli is confused. He lost the presidency of Kosovo, not the Oscar for the best role” – is not quite a denial. And Pacolli's description of the Ambassador's threat to withdraw US support if he and Thaci did not agree to the choice certainly does have precedent within the hallowed traditions of American diplomacy. But where else can the US dictate such matters nowadays? Not even in Iraq and Afghanistan, where America has given many lives and much money.

The US apparently also had its way with the UN in Kosovo. USAID has been aggressively pursuing a program of buying northern Serb support for the Pristina government with funds and projects whether the receiving communities want them or not. Local officials have made clear that they appreciate USAID assistance and like the project (a park) but cannot accept the political conditions. (The tender document describes the project as part of the Kosovo government's outreach and aimed at the Serbs accepting “the new reality and integrate into the Kosovar society.”) Last week, the UN mission reportedly agreed to give one problematic project in north Mitrovica a permit – UNMIK is the legal government there – despite local officials rejecting it because it implies recognition of independent Kosovo. Locals blocked a road on April 8 to prevent USAID from moving ahead with the project. The US embassy blamed “people who claim to have the interests of the population at heart” for preventing northern Serbs “from taking advantage of this opportunity” and pledged to keep trying. (The US still cannot accept the fact that very few Serbs in Kosovo want to live under Pristina's control.) The locals blamed the head of UNMIK for providing the permit and suggested he resign if he cannot resist US pressures to depart from status neutrality.

I worked closely with USAID over my years in the State Department and even served as acting AID country director in one post. In those days, USAID would never have sought to force a project on a local community or use it to push a one-sided political agenda. But AID was swallowed up by State several years ago and, at least in Kosovo, seems to serve entirely political aims. If the Embassy and USAID were really interested in helping the people of north Mitrovica, they would simply remove the objectionable political language from the documentation and reach agreement with all relevant local officials.

The continued US effort to force Pristina on the northern Serbs runs the risk of provoking conflict. Indeed, someone threw a grenade – the traditional method in Kosovo for delivering messages – at a Pristina-based insurance company's office at one of the northern crossing points with Serbia. (It did only property damage.) It is worth considering why the US takes such a direct and aggressive interest in Kosovo. Perhaps because of concern about Kosovo Albanian criminal organizations or possible threats to regional stability from claims for a “Greater Albania?” But surely these are more problems for the EU than the US. Maybe, it is simply because the US can act in Kosovo as it cannot almost anywhere else, with almost complete impunity. That would be real chutzpah.