The Serbian Government and newspapers were celebrating a rare victory for Serbia in the international political arena after the UN General assembly voted to allow Serbia to challenge Kosovo’s independence at the International Court of Justice.
One thing that I noticed is the weird coalition of the nay voters: The U.S., Albania, Nauru, Palau, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.
Most of those against it simply abstained as a mark of respect to the ICJ and the process of seeking resolutions peacefully and through appeal to International Law. The US and Albania were predictably opposed to the measure because of their heavy investment and interest in Kosovo. But Nauru, Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands? Were they confused about what they were voting on?
Nauru is a truly dreadful place. I learned all aboit it on a superb This American Life episode:
Nauru is a tiny island, population 12,000, a third of the size of Manhattan and far from anywhere: yet at the center of several of the decade’s biggest global events. Contributing editor Jack Hitt tells the untold story of this dot in the middle of the Pacific and its involvement in the bankrupting of the Russian economy, global terrorism, North Korean defectors, the end of the world, and the late 1980s theatrical flop of a London musical based on the life of Leonardo da Vinci called Leonardo, A Portrait of Love.
Nauru is an isolated hell hole that will sell itself for anything: Afghani Asylum seekers captured in Australia were detained in Nauru for a fee paid by Australia. Most of the worlds criminal banking and internet filth is hosted there. It is by every account a dreadful little whore state in the middle of nowhere that once sued the CIA for not keeping it going! And now uses its UN vote to support its master the USA in supporting another little US backed hell-hole. No surprises there then.
Today Kosovo recieved the “boost” of having two more little countries recognise it, Balkan neighbours Montenegro and Macedonia. They were essentially forced to do so by severe threats from the EU that failure to recognise Kosovo would mean obstruction of their route into the EU. Their large and growing Albanian minorities also played a part. I suspect these countries may one day rue the day they did if their own provinces abuting Albania decide that they too want to declare unilateral independence.
Some call it simple diplomacy, other realpolitic, but I see it as the crudest bullying and bribing. Many Serbs are sickened by what they consider to be betrayal and selling out, especially by Montenegro. A very large minority of Montenegrins are de facto Serbs. Many Kosovo “Serbs” are of Montenegrin origin. As someone commented to me last night “Maybe if all the “Serb” IDPs (refugees) from Kosovo went home to Montenegro and Macedonia those countries might lose their zeal for appeasing the EU?”
My sense is that Serbs are losing patience with the EU. The EU’s “Politics of Conditionality” is going too far and the government is weakening. The EU is behaving like a beautiful vamp promising “access” after just one more condition is met. Meanwhile, its clueless suitor Serbia is waking up to the fact that the vamp has a hostile husband – the US – and may never be able deliver what it promises becuase its own polity is strongly against expansion, especially if we hit a global recession.
I am desperately keen for the EU to start giving Serbia something constructive after 8 years of democracy, liberal reform and seeking peaceful recourse through International Law. It is behaving like a model democracy and its reward is to be constantly attacked and harrried, mostly because of the actions of Bosnian Serbs over a decade ago (or in the case of Radovan Karadzic, a Montenegrin).
Kosovo receives recognition boost – BBC
Jeremić: Triumph for Serbia, international law – B92
Serbia Wins Bid to Review Independence of Kosovo – NYTimes.com
Serbia wins right to challenge Kosovo at ICJ – FT
How States Voted on Serbia’s Kosovo Case at UN – Balkan Insight
