Europe, Headlines

SERBIA: Uneasy Over the Kosovo Parallel With Georgia

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Aug 26 2008 (IPS) - Serbia was remarkably quiet in the days following the conflict in South Ossetia that began Aug. 8. Speculation by international politicians and in media of a parallel with Kosovo simply could not fit into a simple picture.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic issued a short statement later after Cvetkovic met with Russian Ambassador Aleksandar Konuzin.

“Serbia is concerned about the humanitarian crisis in South Ossetia,” it said. The statement expressed sympathy over the loss of lives, and called for an end to the conflict through diplomatic means.

“The reason for the slow reaction is simple,” foreign policy analyst Seska Stanojlovic told IPS. “It was not sure how to see itself. Is there a comparison with Kosovo? Was Serbia Russia, Georgia or South Ossetia in this case?”

The southern Serbian province Kosovo declared independence in February this year, backed by the United States and some members of the European Union (EU). Belgrade insists that the move was illegal, as it cancelled its sovereignty over 15 percent of Serbian territory. Russia backed Serbia in the United Nations (UN).

South Ossetia was widely described as wanting to secede from Georgia, much like Kosovo sailed away from Serbia. Under former leader Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia tried in 1998 and 1999 to control Kosovo with force, despite ethnic Albanians’ desire for independence.


“This is where the similarity with Georgia could be put,” first post-Milosevic foreign minister Goran Svilanovic told B92 TV. “Its effort to keep South Ossetia with force was as senseless as Milosevic’s effort over Kosovo.”

Russia intervened on behalf of South Ossetia and against Georgia. In 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) intervened on behalf of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by bombing Serbia for 11 weeks, to prevent a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

Russian leaders spoke of the Georgian action against South Ossetia as “aggression”, “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing” of the local population. “Such expressions only added to the general confusion in Serbia,” Stanojlovic said. “Particularly so when Georgian actions (against South Ossetia) were compared with Srebrenica by Russians.”

Ethnic Serbs in Bosnia are blamed for the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.

Ethnic cleansing is an expression forged in the West for mass expulsion of Bosniak Muslims during the 1992-95 war, and evictions by Serbs of more than 800,000 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999.

Croats have spoken of “aggression” by Serbia since the republic began its secession from former Yugoslavia in 1991. But Serbia sees itself as a victim of NATO aggression. For most people, this was the most traumatic event in the recent past, regardless of the reason for the NATO action, that took 1,500 lives and destroyed industry and infrastructure.

Russia has called for an international war crimes tribunal to be established for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, as it was for Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic fell from power in 2000 after a popular uprising when he refused to admit he had lost the election.

He was extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2001 to stand trial for war crimes in the wars of disintegration of the former federation in the 1990s. Milosevic died in 2006, without being sentenced.

“The decision on what to say about Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia was a very complicated one for Belgrade,” the daily Danas wrote. “Ordinary people liked the show of force by Russia. However, that’s tough – if you openly support Russia, you violate the idea of territorial integrity of Georgia.”

Kosovo politicians and analysts see no parallel between South Ossetia and Kosovo.

“Kosovo is a unique case, not to be compared to any other in the world,” Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu told Pristina TV. “The status of Kosovo was solved through international mediation.”

“Any parallel between Kosovo and South Ossetia is false,” Ilir Dugolli from the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development told the TV station. “Kosovo had been an international protectorate for eight years, with an open status that was to be resolved; this is not the case with South Ossetia.”

 
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