The Balkans' moment of truth
Source: The San Francisco Chronicle
By Joe Biden
February 18, 2008
The San Francisco Chronicle
The Balkans' moment of truth
Joe Biden
Monday, February 18, 2008
Kosovo's leaders declared their province's independence from Serbia on Sunday. What happens next will shape the future of Southeast Europe.
Kosovo's status has been the last major challenge left after the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Resolving the issue could inaugurate a new era of progress in the Balkans. Or it could precipitate the worst regional crisis since the wars of the 1990s.
The people of Kosovo want to move beyond the violence and uncertainty of the last decade. Under Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, the ethnic Albanians who comprise 95 percent of the population endured ethnic cleansing and brutal discrimination. Since the United Nations assumed control of the province in 1999, life has been more stable, but beset by administrative dysfunction. Kosovo's legal limbo meant that its people had no prospect of securing the foreign investment required to rebuild their economy or a political foundation on which to rebuild their society. The situation was unsustainable.
Instead of looking to the future, Serb leaders have fixated on the past, desperately trying to retain sovereignty over Kosovo's territory. But Belgrade made no effort to show how Serbia would use this sovereignty to better the lives of Kosovo's citizens or to provide the effective governance Kosovo needs. The province could not remain a territorial souvenir of Serbia's imperial glory.
For two years, the United Nations tried to broker an agreement on Kosovo's independence. The United Nations' plan included extensive protections for Kosovo's Serb minority. Unfortunately, Belgrade rejected the proposal and Russia blocked its adoption by the U.N. Security Council. So while resolving Kosovo's status through a unilateral declaration of independence is hardly ideal, it was necessary. The time had come for action.
As an independent nation, Kosovo possesses significant energy reserves, a young population and the potential to become the world's most pro-Western majority Muslim democracy. It also faces epic levels of unemployment, corruption and tension between ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs. Too many Kosovars have viewed independence as an end goal, rather than a waypoint on the road to euroAtlantic integration. If Kosovo's transition to statehood is to succeed in substantive rather than semantic terms, leaders there will have to prepare the public for the tough work that lies ahead and reach out beyond ethnic lines.
The framework for Kosovo's independence includes the strongest safeguards for minority rights anywhere in Europe. Yet it does not - and cannot - force Kosovo's ethnic communities to move beyond coexistence to cooperation. The process of overcoming longstanding interethnic divisions should begin immediately with outreach from the Kosovar government, particularly to moderate Serb enclaves in southern Kosovo.
For the region, what happens in Belgrade in the wake of Kosovo's independence will be even more important than what happens in Pristina. By virtue of its size and influence, Serbia is the key to long-term peace and stability throughout the Balkans.
Serbia's destiny is in Europe and Belgrade should be on the cusp of membership in the European Union and NATO. Tragically, it is not. Some of the country's leaders seem determined to sabotage its future. Belgrade's recent decision to reject a deal with the European Union that would have provided Serb citizens with trade and travel benefits on the grounds that it would have meant capitulation on Kosovo was unconscionable. So is its failure to extradite fugitive war criminals. Serbia's people and especially its leaders must view Kosovo's independence as an opportunity to re-evaluate their country's course rather than as an excuse for more self-inflicted failure.
Russia has taken full advantage of the failings of Serbia's leadership. In what seems to be a reward for Moscow's obstructionism at the United Nations, Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom is purchasing a majority stake in Serbia's oil monopoly at a small fraction of its market value. For those of us in the West eager to see Serbia succeed, such developments are disheartening.
If leaders in Belgrade use Kosovo's independence as an excuse to inflict more damage on their wounded nation or neighboring Serb populations in Bosnia and Kosovo, the region could be in for a period of major instability. But, if they prioritize the welfare of Serb citizens over stale nationalist dogma, then Washington and Brussels should stand ready to welcome Serbia into the euroAtlantic fold.
Europeans and Americans should be wary of calls for hasty disengagement from the region now that Kosovo is on its own. Tensions will run high during the next few months and even under ideal circumstances, maintaining stability in the Balkans will require significant infusions of development aid, NATO peacekeeping and robust diplomacy. However, we should recognize Kosovo's independence for the milestone that it is. Managed deftly, it will remove the last major stumbling block standing between the Balkans and the future.
Joe Biden represents Delaware in the U.S. Senate, where he is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
