Kosovo: Alternative Realities

I wrote two days back about the dangers of possible war over north Kosovo.  The situation remains serious and tensions high.  The northern Kosovo Serbs have offered a peace plan to KFOR and EULEX worth serious consideration.  But instead, for now its hard to know whether to laugh or cry over recent events and statements emanating from Pristina and its international supporters.  They seem to be living in alternative realities absurdly but also dangerously out of synch with the real situation on the ground and the complexities of the continued international dispute over Kosovo's status.

At the top of the list is the EU attempt this week to force a Russian convoy of "humanitarian aid" to pass through Kosovo customs before being able to deliver its cargo to the local Red Cross.  The Russians no doubt know they were setting up the Quint to make some sort of blunder in its handling of the aid convoy, which took some days to drive to Serbia.  Some - including ICO Chief Pieter Feith - have questioned the need for such aid.  But Russia authorities say that while there is currently no humanitarian crisis in Kosovo, the reported cargo of electric generators, blankets, clothes, food and cooking gear are needed to help prevent one in the coming winter.  Anyway, sure enough, EULEX rose to the occasion by stopping the convoy.

EULEX apparently saw this initiative by a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council - which passed the 1999 Resolution (1244) under which EULEX now has responsibility for rule of law in Kosovo - as a good opportunity to force Russia to recognize the government in Pristina.  EULEX insisted on either accompanying the convoy into Kosovo or redirecting it to a southern crossing point manned by Pristina police and customs.  The EULEX contingent to accompany the convoy would have included Kosovo Albanian poice.  The Russians refused both options and the northern Kosovo Serbs stopped EULEX from traveling north.  Reportedly an agreement has now been reached and the convoy may enter on December 16.

It seems unlikely that the genteel mandarins of the EU would have chosen to confront Russia on their own.  Over Kosovo?  It is not unlikely that the US hand was behind this again with US NATO forces being the element to stop the 27 trucks from entering in the first place.  I remember working in the Clinton White House during the late '90s and asking colleagues there why the US treated Russia so arrogantly.  The answer was that we had "won" the Cold War and Russia was now a second rate power of no account.  Seems the same short-sighted attitude prevails despite all talk of "reset."

Next on the alternative reality list is Feith, the most apparently clueless international in the Balkans.  After staying relatively quiet recently, he reportedly criticized the Russian aid effort and, for good measure, jumped back into the debate over the north.  He repeated to reporters his longstanding refrain about resistance to Pristina authority in the north being led by criminals and suggested that the EU will insist on abolition of "parallel" police and security and administrative structures before granting Serbia candidacy.   Perhaps he is counting on US support for his next job but at least he is being finally honest.

Along with Feith, there is the recent "revelation" by Prime Minister Thaci that the barricades in the north are preventing his government implementing its "decentralization" plan for the north.  The is an Orwellian use of language in which "decentralizing" means abolishing those "parallel" local institutions actually supported by residents and imposing upon them rule from Pristina institutions dominated by Kosovo Albanians that they so clearly reject.

Finally, two snippets many may have missed recently.  KFOR and EULEX are always talking about the criminals in the north.  But a strange silence covers events for which actual people are identified.  Two Kosovo Serbs arrested last month in Serbia for transporting weapons actually worked for the EU and may have been trafficking the weapons for Kosovo Albanians.   As of today, the two - Arlov and Mitrovic - are still listed as members of the EU Info Kosovo office "team."  (Look fast, they may soon clean this up.)  Also, a person named by KFOR as behind organizing violence against it in the north reportedly worked until recently for the Pristina telecoms company (PTK) and had in the past unsuccessfully tried to put its cell telephone antennas into the north.  Who actually is doing what and for who is not an easy matter to judge in Kosovo.  That the Quint may use any Kosovo Serbs it can find to gain a foothold in the north also can leave one unsure of whether to laugh or cry.