The proclamation of Kosovo’s independence last week and the international community reactions to it expose the tensions inherent in the present world order.

 

The UN structures and its Charter reflect the subordination of the ideals of a world governed by the rule of international law to the realities of a world order moved by power politics and informed by a constant struggle for power.

 

The constitutional doctrine of international law is based on the concept of state sovereignty reflected in the UN Charter provision recognizing the state exclusive jurisdiction over its population and territory.

 

But state sovereignty has been challenged by the growing demand to view human rights laws within the context of international law. This essentially meant that human rights abuses must be the concern of the international community and offenders cannot hide behind the protective shield of state sovereignty.

 

The proclamation of the independence of Kosovo confirms the diminution of state sovereignty and goes even further by challenging the state’s right to territorial integrity in favor of the principle of self-determination.

 

Thus, Serbia and Russia are right when they argue that Kosovo’s independence is a violation of the UN Charter and of Serbia’s right to territorial integrity.

 

But the refusal of Serbia to accept an international proposal for ending the insurgency in Kosovo, and the atrocities committed by the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic against the Albanian people in Kosovo, earned Serbia little sympathy and diminished its bargaining power.

 

The European Union and the United States articulated such a response by arguing that “Serbia’s brutal subjugation of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority cost it any right to rule the territory.”

 

This may be the most forceful expression of the rise of the importance of human rights laws as against the entrenched concepts of state sovereignty and the state right to territorial integrity.

 

This was put into practice after NATO planes bombed the Serbian army into submission in 1999 and forced it to withdraw from Kosovo. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1244, which recognized Serbia’s sovereignty over Kosovo but proceeded to deny Serbia the right to exercise that sovereignty by placing Kosovo under the authority of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), and allowing the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) the task of guaranteeing security.

 

This development would be welcomed if it were to be applied consistently and without discrimination, informed by the principles of justice and international law, and not driven by the politics of power.

 

Unfortunately the politics of power with its selective application of international law, and discriminatory concern for human rights continue to be the practice.

 

 

 

The West blames Russia and its politics of power for the crisis in Kosovo. Richard Broke, a former US envoy to the Balkans, argued that “Russia’s actions could determine whether there is another war in Europe,” and that “Russia seems to be enjoying the opportunity to defy key Western countries, especially Germany and the United States”

 

But can Russia realistically be expected not to view the events in Serbia and Kosovo within the larger politics of power context of NATO’s punishment of Serbia in 1999, NATO’s expansion closer to Russia, and Washington’s decision to place its missile defense system close to Russia?

 

The European Union has been asserting its own power ambitions. EU officials have said that in the long run the Balkans belong to the EU. Can Russia be expected not to view Germany’s rush to recognise Slovenia and Croatia’s break away from Yugoslavia in 1991 as part of Germany’s eagerness to accelerate the breakup of the whole Republic of Yugoslavia and extend the European Union’s influence to the strategic Balkan Peninsula?

 

At a meeting last May of Foreign ministers from the Group of 8 countries Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, argued that Kosovo independence could encourage separatist movements in the Russian-backed regions of Ossetia and Abkhazia and threaten the territorial integrity of Georgia which the West wants to preserve. It could also encourage separatist sentiments in Chechnya and Tatarstan, threatening the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation itself.

 

The double standards did not escape the attention of the Russian foreign Minister. He pertinently compared Kosovo to Palestine and asked the ministers of the Group of 8 “why they were in such a hurry to grant independence to Kosovo while for 40 years they had failed to support independence for Palestine.” (Herald Tribune, May 30, 07)

 

The Palestinians have suffered from Israeli occupation, repression and collective punishment to the general indifference of the international community and the shameful acquiescence of Washington. During the 2002 Israeli assault against the Palestinian refugee camp Jenin, Palestinians pleaded for support and protection from the UN to no avail. Representatives of the European Union were even denied the right by Israeli authorities to visit the besieged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

 

Saddam Hussein’s repression of Kurdish and Shiite revolt against his rule elicited no meaningful actions from the US or Europe. Both the US and the EU continue to refuse to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus even after it accepted a UN peace plan in 2004, rejected by Greek Cyprus.

 

In 2006 Israel launched its second war against Lebanon. It indiscriminately bombed civilian targets as Washington and London shamefully blocked any UN Security Council resolution for a cease-fire.

 

As he watched helplessly the rising toll of civilian casualties, Washington’s complicity, and the paralysis of the UN, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora tearfully but elegantly expressed the sentiment of all those suffering from double standards:  Why, he asked, are the Lebanese people being ignored. “Are we the children of a lesser God?”

 

Prof. Adel Safty is Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Siberian Academy of Public Administration, Novosibirsk, Russia. He is author of From Camp David to the Gulf, Montreal, New York; and Leadership and Democracy, New York

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