Balkan Winds: Kosovo 2017 Election

The results of the 2017 Kosovo national election are in. And it’s not good news for security and cooperation in the Balkans.

A former leader of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Ramush Haradinaj and his party the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), has won the election with 34 per cent of the vote. He is expected to form a coalition government with the nationalist Movement for Self-Determination or Vetevendosja Party (VV), which has about 27 percent. The latter party is led by Albin Kurti, has been a disruptive force in Kosovo, releasing tear gas in the previous parliament while its supporters threw firebombs outside to protest contentious deals with Montenegro and Serbia.

This result should leave any objective analyst with little doubt that Kosovar politics have moved radically left, with concomitant provocative implications.

One such issue is the prospect of former ethnic Albanian senior rebel commanders (KLA) facing prosecution in the newly established war crimes court. The court in The Hague is expected to shortly issue indictments for crimes committed against civilians during and after the 1998-1999 war with Serbia. Will the new leadership extradite their comrades? 

Author's Note / January 7, 2018: In December 2017 and January 2018, Kosovo MPs of President Hashim Thaci’s Democrartic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj's Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), both former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), have said they will support a law to suspend the new court (aka Specialist Chambers), which means not to comply with any indictments issued by the court to prosecute former KLA members, and therefore reneging on an international commitment.
https://www.politico.eu/article/ramush-haradinaj-hashim-thaci-kosovo-politicians-in-panic-attack-over-war-crimes-court/

Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës (UÇK), known in english as the Kosovo Liberation  Army was an ethnic - Albanian paramilitary organization that sought the separation of Kosovo from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and Serbia during the 1990s and the eventual creation of a Greater Albania. Its campaign against Serbian security forces, police, government officers and ethnic Serb villages precipitated a major crackdown by the Serbian Military and Serb paramilitaries within Kosovo, that engendered what has become to be known as the Kosovo War of 1998–99.

Another interpretation of the NATO action against the Republic of Serbia (FRY) might be termed “The War for Kosovo Albanian Self-Determination,” whose proponents seem to want to protect the uniqueness of the Kosovo War to the extent of virtually denying its reality.

Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright lied about the “atrocities” being committed in Kosovo leading up to the war in March 1999. What was going on in Kosovo in 1999 was a military campaigned waged by the Kosovo Liberation Army (“KLA”), to separate Kosovo from Serbia, and eventually creating a greater Albania, made up of Albania, Kosovo, northern Macedonia, and the Preševo Valley in Serbia. The so-called humanitarian disaster in Kosovo was orchestrated by the KLA, not Serbia. Mr. Clinton’s statement to the nation, read: “We act to protect thousands of innocent people,” while Madeleine Albright chirped endlessly about atrocities being committed by the Serbs. It was all lies. The real perpetrator was the KLA, Mr. Clinton’s and Madame Albright’s “freedom fighters.”

Moreover, the KLA took advantage of the Holbrooke Agreement (Rambouillet) in October 1998, in which Serbia removed their forces from Kosovo, to continue their bloody guerilla campaign. This was never made public. There were very few incidents of Albanian civilians being attacked and murdered by Serbian forces (see OSCE reports of monitoring groups). Total Albanian civilians killed before the war started in March 1999, was 47.[1] So, the raison d’être for NATO to go to war was false. 

In January 2008, John Bolton and Lawrence Eagleburger, two wise statesmen wrote,[2] “We believe an imposed settlement of the Kosovo question and seeking to partition Serbia’s sovereign territory without its consent is not in the interest of the United States. The blithe assumption of American policy — that the mere passage of nine years of relative quiet would be enough to lull Serbia and Russia into reversing their positions on a conflict that goes back centuries — has proven to be naive in the extreme.”

The resulting naïve and foolish “sui generis” (uniqueness) diplomatic action taken by the George W. Bush Administration, and most prominently Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the European Union, promoting and recognizing Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence on February 17, 2008, has had disastrous results. This Kosovo paradigm has become synonymous for diplomatic blunder.

Some of the clearest examples of the Kosovo folly are found in the small wars of independence since February 2008. First was in Georgia, August 2008. The South Ossetians ran the KLA playbook and the Russians ran the NATO playbook. United Kingdom Foreign Secretary, David Miliband said at the time, you, or in this case Russia, ‘cannot go back on fundamental principles of territorial integrity, democratic governance and international law.’[4] However, the West’s position is fundamentally invalid, argumentum ad iIgnorantiam, in as much as Kosovo independence was itself a clear violation of international law, a UN Resolution (1244), and the principles of national sovereignty.

Second was Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea on March 18, 2014, followed by Russia’s invasion of the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine in July – August 2014. The upshot is, whether legal or not, Russia today is in total control of the Crimea, and Russian troops support pro-Russian separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine.

A basic rule of thumb for small wars of independence is -- the more insignificant, the more of them. A basic rule of thumb for Kosovo is – a desire does not necessarily translate into an acceptable result.

Kosovo explains a lot as to why American foreign policy has been so risible and pathetic, under Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama. The world is a dangerous place, even deadly. Lives are at stake, and the possibility of a catastrophic event is not science fiction. History in the Balkans is long and serious, and not correlated to today’s bankrupt sensibilities and political correctness.

Bolton and Eagleburger further opined, “Even if Kosovo declared itself an independent state, it would be a dysfunctional one and a ward of the international community for the indefinite future. Corruption and organized crime are rampant. The economy, aside from international largesse and criminal activities, is nonviable. Law enforcement, integrity of the courts, protection of persons and property, and other prerequisites for statehood are practically nonexistent. While these failures are often blamed on Kosovo’s uncertain status, a unilateral declaration of independence recognized by some countries and rejected by many others would hardly remedy that fact.”[5]

Indeed, here we are in 2017, and prophesies of failure have proven to be correct. The international community’s, a euphemism for the United States and European Union, failure to establish a viable multi-ethnic state in Kosovo, should now be considered a more serious concern, given the recent direction Kosovo has taken.

After 18 years, according to the UN Development Program (UNDP), 35% of the population is unemployed. However, Kosovo’s population is not suffering equally. The number rises to 60% among young people; 56% among women; and more than 90% of the marginalized Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian people. Moreover, the European Union since Kosovo’s declared independence in 2008 has provided €2.3 billion[6] and the United States $758 million in financial support.[7] Kosovo is the largest per capita recipient of EU financial assistance in the world.[8]

The Trump Administration should take care to note the folly of foreign policy decisions in the Balkans by the previous Clinton, Bush, and Obama Administrations. There will continue to be more tsoris and tumult unless there is a change in policy. That will at a minimum only be accomplished by getting fresh eyes on the subject.

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[1] Organization for Security and C0-operation in Europe (OSCE), Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Report on Kosovo, published January 5, 2003, confess, “The death toll as yet can only be guessed at.” It should be noted that statistics gathered were anecdotal, given by accounts of refugees who had fled Kosovo before and during the conflict. Moreover, the infamous “Racak Massacre,” on January 15, 1999, was reported, the next day, January 16th, by the head of the KVM (OSCE Monitoring Group), William Walker, a US career diplomat, who visited the site and without waiting for any forensic investigation, announced that Yugoslav forces had massacred "civilians" in the village. However, according to the BBC account, the KLA had been using Racak as a base to launch operations against police and had killed 4 policemen in the general vicinity. Another eyewitness account by a French Journalist, Christophe Chatelot, who was in Racak on the afternoon of January 15, 1999 after the Yugoslav forces withdrew from the village, reported he had observed nothing out of the ordinary. Finally, it needs to be noted, that Mr. Walker, in 2010 and again in 2017, supported and campaigned for the notorious nationalist Kosovo Self - Determination Party, whose platform calls for a "Greater Albania." Indeed, ‘truth is the first causality of war!’

[2] John Bolton, Lawrence Eagleburger, and Peter Rodman,  “Warning light on Kosovo,” The Washington Times, January 31, 2008

[3] M. Gilbert and R. Gott, The Appeasers, Weidenfield and Nicholson (1963)

[4] The full quote – “There can be no going back on fundamental principles of territorial integrity, democratic governance and international law.” The Financial Times, “West tells Russia to keep out of Georgia,” August 28, 2008, P. 1.

[5] John Bolton, Lawrence Eagleburger, and Peter Rodman,  “Warning light on Kosovo,” The Washington Times, January 31, 2008

[6] “Kosovo and the EU,” European Union External Action, Brussels, Belgium, 12/05/2016 (does not include military expenditures for Kosovo Force, aka KFOR)

[7] US support data source: foreignassistance.gov, using Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Bulletin 12-01 (does not include military expenditures for Kosovo Force, aka KFOR)

[8] The International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT), Geneva, Switzerland

The Mueller Inquisition

Enough is quite enough!

An investigation of a deceit is ipso facto a deceit.

Can one be guilty of collusion and/or obstruction of a deceit?

In other words, can one be guilty of something that never happen?

We have had previous special prosecutor investigations that were unsatisfactory, and in at least one case egregious, e.g. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

The United States Deputy Attorney General, Ron Jay Rosenstein, is responsible for Mr. Mueller’s appointment as a Special Prosecutor to investigate President Trump and his associates for illicit dealings with Russia in connection with the 2016 Presidential Election. The investigation is premised on journalist’s reports from anonymous sources and a bogus international report.

“What the hell is going on out there?”

Although the Executive Branch made Mr. Mueller’s appointment, and should Mr. Rosenstein not see fit to correct his foolish mistake in appointing a special prosecutor and Mr. Mueller, then the Republican Congress must immediately terminate his appointment as Special Prosecutor. Moreover, Mr. Mueller’s associations with principles in this case, and his recent staff appointments of persons hostile to President Trump and his Administration, immediately disqualifies him as an impartial functionary.

It needs to be said, that the Obama Administration refused to appoint “a single” special prosecutor during its eight years in office, even though there was no paucity of real scandals needing investigation.

The following are serious scandals not investigated by the Obama Administration and which no Special Prosecutors were appointed:  Operation “Fast and Furious;” Benghazi terrorist attack and cover-up; IRS targeting of conservative entities; Department of Justice seizing records of journalists; NSA surveillance of ordinary Americans; Iran Nuclear Deal; Ransom payments to Iran for release of hostages; Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange; Hillary Clinton's email scandal; Clinton Foundation scandal; The VA death-list scandal; Solyndra green energy scandal; Administration Officials Lying to Congress; Voter Fraud in 2008, 2012 and 2016 Elections; Russia Hacking White House Computers in 2014; Clinton Champaign coordinating with DOJ and the Attorney General Loretta Lynch; US Taxpayers Funding Iran Military; et cetera.

The fact that the same people in the Mainstream Media who were colluding and coddling with the Clinton campaign cannot see a scandal in the Obama administration does not mean that no scandals were there. It should be obvious that the vast majority of Americans do not care what the Mainstream Media say or write. Point in fact, the Election of 2016! But we do care that our vote in that election has consequences!

In summation, I cannot think of another time in recent American history that we need government (Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary) to meet its responsibilities to the American people, and get on with the business of government to deal soberly with the myriad of problems facing our nation such as healthcare repeal and reform, tax reform, President Trumps executive and judicial appointments, infrastructure, et cetera.