Kosovo syndrome in the Sri Lanka psyche

[Harold Schiffman]

Kosovo syndrome in the Sri Lanka psyche
February 28, 2008 by lrrp

Kosovo not only divided Serbia into two independent States, it also
divided the world into two differing blocs. One that supports
cessation and the other that does not. The major power blocs in the
West had consented to accept Kosovo as an independent state even
before it made the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) on
17th February. The USA was thanked by thousands of Kosovans who came
on to the streets of Pristina for giving them an independent country.
Yet it was a difficult acceptance for all of those big powers. Bush
therefore qualified their stand by saying cessation of Kosovo and
accepting it, would not be made a precedent. For most who opposed,
there were ample reasons to do so. Russia is pained with separation
and still fights against more cessations. China has not given up on
Taiwan. Spain has Basque wanting to secede. India has at least Kashmir
fighting a liberation struggle. Pakistan has Baluchistan rebelling for
freedom. Cyprus torn in two is still sore. So is our own Sri Lanka,
waging a war that claims to keep the country as a Unitary State.

The Sri Lankan government cannot therefore felicitate Kosovans over
their liberation and would be left in a tight patch, if Palestinians
liberate to establish their own State too. Yet the Sinhala South that
expects the war to deliver a unitary State for them, needs to learn a
few lessons from the Kosovo issue, what ever this government says
about wining the war and annihilating the LTTE. A few words about the
war and negotiations with all stakeholders to the conflict as per
"Mahinda Chintanaya" to begin with would indicate where this country
is being led right now. In the Sinhala version of the Mahinda
Chinthana booklet, Presidential candidate Rajapaksa promises to
conclude all negotiations within 03 months from assuming office (page
/ 29) as Executive President. A pledge there would be no war in this
country, there after from March 2006. Having assumed office in
November 2005, the war was dragged on for two years for now without
any semblance of negotiations, but with promises thrown in between by
different personalities of high authority on winning the war. Once it
was before end 2007 and then before Sinhala New Year 2008. There was
the promise of eliminating 10 Tigers every day to finish the war by
June this year. The crowning glory to all these promises came from the
President himself about a fortnight ago when he told the Indian media
he would need  "about an year, or may be one and a half years" to
finish the war. That would keep this country bleeding in agony at
least till mid 2009. And then who knows for how long there after ?

But that had been the war with every government, starting with
President JRJ who wanted General Weeratunge to report back to him
after finishing off the Tamil insurgents by end December 1979. That is
not all about waging war against an insurgency that has a political
reason for its brutal presence. It's all about the Kosovo Albanians
gaining independence with a separate State, for SL to learn a lesson
or two.

Kosovo Province with 90 percent Muslim Albanians since the Turks ran
over all that Balkan land from 1389 stretching up to the doors of
Vienna and established the Ottoman rule for over five centuries,
enjoyed a fair degree of autonomy since 1963 within the Yugoslav
Republic under President Josip Bros Tito. President Tito was a
Socialist maverick who opposed Stalin, allowed religious freedom and
schemed a different social system that allowed for profit sharing
within a state controlled economy. Tito believed in defusing tensions
through loosening state controls and the Yugoslav Republic underwent
another major constitutional reform in 1974 that gave education,
health and housing to the autonomous regions and provinces and Kosovo
gained self – government in many areas of social life including police
and the judiciary.

Like most Eastern European States with the Yugoslav Republic running
into dissenting politics in the decade of 80, Serb nationalism was a
rallying call in Belgrade that paved the way for Slobodan Milosevic to
rise to power. This on the other hand catalysed Kosovo Albanian
sentiments and in 1981, a student protest broke out in six of the
major Kosovan cities with a call for a "Kosovo Republic within
Yugoslavia". The protests were brutally suppressed by Belgrade and
thus began the organised Kosovo Albanian nationalist movement with a
political agenda. The Kosovo Albanian nationalism gained further
legitimacy with Milosevic ascending to power in Serbia in late 1987.

The last straw on the camel's back was the Serbian referendum in 1989
that allowed curbing of autonomous powers in the provinces of Kosovo
and Vojvodina. Most national minorities and Kosovo Albanians boycotted
the referendum. Milosevic's government was accused of rigging the
elections, controlling of media and abuse of human rights.
Constitutional reforms that had to be ratified by the provincial
governments were done so with tanks and armoured cars lined in front
of provincial assemblies. The constitutional reforms thus affected
gave the Serbian government of Milosevic, total control over police,
the judiciary, economy, language policy and the education system,
previously enjoyed by the provincial governments.

The results were obvious. Initial non violent protests led by Kosovo
Albanian populist Dr. Ibrahim Rugova failed to resolve the Kosovo
conflict. Instead they swelled the presence of Serbo-Yugoslav military
and police in Kosovo. The rest is history of ethnic cleansing. Over
100,000 Albanians within the Kosovo province were sacked from state
enterprises by the Serbian government. The provincial media was shut
down and the Pristina University closed. In 1995, Croatian Serbs were
settled in Kosovo in an attempt to change the ethnic balance within
Kosovo.  With non violent politics of Rugova unable to deliver justice
to Kosovo Albanians, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) came into
existence in 1996 and the struggle to establish an independent Kosovo
took a violent turn. With Milosevic's government choosing war,
Albanian villages in Kosovo were looted and burnt down. Whole villages
were displaced and thousands of ethnic Albanians sought refuge in
neighbouring Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro. Fleeing ethnic
Albanians were killed and dumped in mass graves. In return, Serbs in
Kosovo had to flee to Serbia.

The entry of NATO, the formation of UNMIK and the facilitation of
stability and peace within the Kosovo province under UNMIK since 1999,
were all results thereof. The NATO took 78 days of heavy bombing to
compel Milosevic's government to agree to withdraw all its military
and police from Kosovo. The UN Security Council Resolution 1244
accepted Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo but the majority of the
Kosovo Albanians refused to accept Serbian rule. This compelled the UN
to facilitate negotiations between Serbia and KLA on the "status of
Kosovo". UN backed negotiations began in February, exactly two years
ago.

Lessons to learn are not very complicated. One, even 02 mn people
would not accept ethnic or religious ideology based centralised rule
over them. Two, military interventions in controlling nationalist
aspirations leads to violent protests that over time changes into
armed conflict that we prefer to call "terrorism". Three, hyped State
nationalism can not compensate a protracted war, breaking down of
social stability, economic devastation and criminalising of social
forces. Four, what we label as "terrorism" that emerges out of
political suppression can not be suppressed militarily and
negotiations to end that terrorism have to be with those terrorists
themselves. In short, war is no answer to a politically triggered
conflict although it turns into an armed conflict due to authoritarian
and sectarian politics of a governing party.

This basic fact was perhaps understood by the post Milosevic Serbian
government that negotiated the status of Kosovo with the KLA
leadership, although it had to accommodate Serb sentiments. There was
no room left any more to compromise on the old autonomous rule that
was given by the Yugoslavian State under Josip Bros Tito. It now had
to be something more than what was there thirty years ago. This left
the Serbian government of Vojislav Kostunica to choose between another
war and an independent Kosovo. He chose the latter by protesting,
instead of going back to war even with the backing of the Russian
super power.

What is important to us is the strategy that was developed by the KLA
which was classified a "terrorist organisation" by the CIA, the USA
and the UN. The BBC's Correspondent in the Balkans, Paul Wood wrote in
March 2001 that "the Kosovo Liberation Army became the most successful
guerrilla movement of modern times". They had proved to the
international community the Serbian authorities are not only violating
human rights within a genocidal war, they would not accommodate the
Kosovo Albanian aspirations within a democratic power sharing system.
That Kosovo Albanians have no alternative but to be independent from
Serbian hegemony to achieve peace for both societies. It is therefore
worth reading how the Sri Lankan situation would evolve with Indian
backing that may not be enough to plug leaks of robust Southern
hegemony. One that avoids accommodating Tamil aspirations with actual
power sharing, substituted instead by war for another one and a half
years to satisfy Southern sentiments within an economy that holds no
promise even for the Sinhala majority.

http://lrrp.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/kosovo-syndrome-in-the-sri-lanka-psyche/

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