Kosovo held elections, the region held its breath
Daniel Korski 3:17pm
The people of Kosovo voted yesterday in the first local elections since the Albanian-majority region won independence from Serbia last year. More than 1.5 million people were eligible to cast their ballot and some 74 political parties, coalitions and independent candidates stood.
The elections are a test of Kosovo's readiness to organize democratic elections on its own and to be taken seriously as an independent state. So far, 63 countries have recognized Kosovo, including the US and most countries in the EU. But Serbia still does not recognize Kosovo, and the influential Serbian Orthodox Church urged the 120,000 ethnic Serbs in Kosovo to boycott the polls. They have been encouraged by a number EU governments including Spain, which will hold the EU’s Presidency from January, who have not yet recognised Kosovo.
Voting passed off calmly. Local Serb politicians called on people to ignore Belgrade’s demand – and many seem to have done so, with turnout among the 80,000 Serbs living in enclaves in central Kosovo thought to be higher than expected. Election authorities put the overall turnout at about 45%. And unlike in neighboring Albania, no major instances of unrest or fraud allegations were reported.
Whatever Serbia says, this vote is another step towards entrenching Kosovo’s statehood. Deep down, most Serbs – including senior government ministers -- know this. But they are, in the words of one official, “still digesting” the fact of Kosovo’s independence.
A lot will depend on Serbia’s links with the EU. If Serbia moves closer to the EU, she might be more relaxed about Kosovo. So far, though, Serbia’s efforts to draw closer to the EU have been delayed by the Netherlands, which insist that Serge Brammertz, the chief United Nations war crimes prosecutor, must first declare the Belgreade government is doing what it can to capture war crimes suspects. But signs are that Brammertz will report positively to the UN Security Council in early December, and that the Dutch will remove their veto and allow Serbia to make a formal application for EU membership.
There are plenty of problems in the Balkans, but this weekend’s peaceful vote in Kosovo, next week’s likely decision by EU governments to forward Albania’s membership application to the European Commission for an opinion and next month’s expected decision on Serbia all bode well.
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Herbert Thornton
November 16th, 2009 5:11pm Report this commentAnd here's the 2039 version -
The people of Anglorabia voted yesterday in the first local elections since the Muslim-majority region won independence from the United Kingdom last year. More than 90 million people were eligible to cast their ballot and some 74 Islamic-compliant parties, coalitions and independent candidates stood.
The elections are a test of Anglorabia's readiness to organize democratic elections on its own and to be taken seriously as an independent state. So far, 63 countries have recognized Anglorabia.....
Beer Moth
November 16th, 2009 9:33pm Report this commentWell nailed Herbert. They'll have us done up like the proverbial kipper.
TomTom
November 17th, 2009 7:59am Report this commentSorry, you mentioned Serbia does not recognise Kosovo....are you implying Russia does ? That China does ?
Maybe someone should recognise Kurdistan or even the new Pashtun Homeland straddling Pakistan and Afghanstan.....it was Czechoslovakia that first recognised Israel in 1947 to antagonise the British.
Will we revoke The Helsinki Agreement of 1975 ? It seems to be as inconvenient to NATO as the Versailles Treaty was to Germany post-1919
thankfullyyours
November 17th, 2009 8:55am Report this commentHerbert, you seem to know little of what happen there before nato's intervention. Sarcasm does not help you understand anything it simply clogs your vision.
thankfullynot
November 17th, 2009 11:54am Report this commentWhat did happen? An explicit Albanian plan to outbreed Serbs came to fruition, was met by stolid bureaucratic oppression/discrimination typical of an appartchik like Milosevic. An active terror campaign by the UCK(KLA) was supported by several outside actors and the Serbian response, with hindsight, seems relatively measured. I suspect they killed rather less Albanian non-combatants than UK and US forces have killed accidentally in Iraq and Afghanistan. They didn't even approach what Russia, China and various other states have delivered in the course of recent counter insurgency campaigns. Yet the so-called International Community, led by Clinton (sidenote- really Albright, for it was her war, stung as she was by the humiliation given to the Americans during the Bosnian War, largely as a result of British Conservative foot dragging. Albright was fighting the last war and Kosovo was just seized upon as justification to hammer Milosevic. Bosnia was the legitimate intervention, Kosovo was not) and Blair (who we now know all about). The operation itself was a shambles and the ethnic cleansing happened only after NATO had started, illegally I might add - funny how that is forgotten by the lefties moaning about Iraq, and after failing to hit the Serbian forces in Kosovo, hampered by the not below 15000 feet no casualties rule imposed by the morally bereft and strategically myopic Clinton, the alliance seamlessly and with barely a whisper moved onto bombing Belgrade under the spurious excuse that this would somehow affect the MUP et al forces on the ground. if that's not a war crime I don't know what is, but only Tony Benn seemed to notice. Weird for a bloke like me to live through that era I can tell you.
In hindsight, the Kosovo operation was one of the most blatant illegal uses of force we have seen in the last century to remove a sovereign piece of territory from a Nation on the European landmass. It is quite incredible, I am just amazed that the Serbs have taken it with such little reaction. Milosevic beat them down and their confusion at having fought unjustifiable wars of aggression against Bosnia and Croatia has blinded them to a real injustice. For now anyway, Kosovo is far from over.
So that's what happened thankfullyyours. Oh and the UK got swamped/flooded/name your word by opportunistic Albanians who took the Home Office carte blanche to set up criminal empires in this country which plague us still with people and narcotics trafficking which plagues us still but is carried out now by apparently British subjects who understand blood feuds, travel freely to and fro Albania and Kosovo to ply their trade and would kill you if you spoke Serbian in their presence (unless you're one of their fences in which case all's fair)
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