The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon started an unprecedented Balkans tour on July 20 coming straight from China. In a week – till July 26 – he’s to visit Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and the Serbian region of Kosovo unrecognized as an “independent nation” neither by Serbia, nor by Russia, as well as many other states. This is the first time the Secretary General visits all the republics appeared from the ruins of former Yugoslavia.
The most “troubled” republics of former Yugoslavia are to be the final phase of the tour.
During his stay in Serbia on July 23-24 Ban Ki-moon will hold talks with the new President Tomislav Nikolić, newly appointed Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremić, who has been recently elected to preside over the UN General Assembly. He’ll leave Belgrade for Kosovo to meet the officials of UN Interim Administration Mission and other international organizations in Pristina and the representatives of local government. The Orthodox monastery Visokih Decana and medieval Kosovo town Preseren are part of the visit’s program.
Leaving Kosovo, that remains to be a “hot spot” on the European map, Ban Ki-moon is to go to a no less troubled area, a historic Balkan region still called a former Yugoslav Republic Macedonia in official UN documents. At the final leg of the saturated tour he is to make a stop in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There he’ll have more interlocutors than in other republics because the country is governed by a collective Presidency. The visit to the Potochary Cemetery is a special event to inevitably restart discussions in Bosnia and Herzegovina itself as well as beyond its borders on causes, character and lessons of the 1995 Srebrenica events, especially in the light of a recent statement by the new Serbian leader Tomislav Nicolic refusing to recognize it as genocide. [1]
Kosovo is the place where Ban Ki-moon will hold the most intensive discussions. He’ll be the first head of United Nations to visit the region after its unilateral declaration of independence. Many Serbians find it to be a serious reason to blame the esteemed guest for trying to legitimate the separatist regime. President Tomislav Nikolic said that his visit to Pristina “has problems” [2]. The UN Secretary had to explain the mechanism of his visit to make it, as he sees it, an event of neutral status; He said at a special interview for Balkan media that his visit to Kosovo will be arranged according to the UN Security Council’s resolution 1244.
The definition was required because right before the press conference the Serbian President asked him to make precise the purpose – was it to meet the UN mission in Kosovo or to pay a visit to the self-proclaimed state? [3] As is known the UN Security Council’s resolution N1244 adopted on 10 June 1999 reaffirmed “the commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the other States of the region, as set out in the Helsinki Final Act”. Moreover the document reaffirmed “the call in previous resolutions for substantial autonomy and meaningful self-administration for Kosovo” [4]. The recent explanations offered by Ban Ki-moon presuppose that the document is still in force (otherwise the Secretary General would have brought to naught all the efforts applied by the organization he leads to settle the problems of the Balkans). However its being effective didn’t stand in the way of the West hastily rushing to recognize the self-proclaimed Kosovo. A few years ago Ban Ki-moon dissociated himself from the problem, he never even commented on the merits of the “Kosovo project” worked out by the USA and the European Union.
According to what the Secretary General says his main mission is the establishment of full cooperation between Belgrade and Pristina – in other words it’s aimed at the encouragement of the policy implemented by the European Union in Kosovo for a year and a half [5]. He said “Both parties must fully cooperate for the sake of their prosperity and security. This is it what I will talk to leaders of Serbia and Kosovo". [6]
The fact that his Kosovo agenda is “recurring” hasn’t escaped the attention of Pristina English language media. Newspaper Zeri most strictly defined the sentiments prevailing in Kosovo saying there was doubt the visit will result in “anything spectacular”. The political analyst from the Kosovo-based think tank KIPRED Ardian Arifaj said that he views Ban Ki-moon’s visit “more as symbolic rather than a visit that could be useful for Kosovo”. I must say he is right when saying: “Kosovo aims to become member of the UN but it still isn’t and doesn’t have formalised relations with the UN. Therefore, it doesn’t stand to gain much. UN still has its mission in Kosovo and UNMIK is the largest international mission in Kosovo but doesn’t play a role in Kosovo’s every-day affairs.”
At the same time, the leader of the Serbs in the north, Marko Jaksic, said the Serb community doesn’t expect anything special from the visit of the UN Secretary General. However, he added that they do expect Ban to reconfirm that UNSCR 1244 is still the most valid document for Kosovo. “We hope Ban Ki-moon will act in line with this resolution and these views while allowing the continuation of UNMIK’s presence in Kosovo territory despite the fact that, through a very bad political decision, Belgrade has permitted EULEX to replace UNMIK,” Jaksic said [7]. The statement is a heavy blow to former Serbian authorities. In 2009 they sanctioned the deployment of UN mission in Kosovo that helped the local separatists to build the self-proclaimed statehood without looking back at the UN decisions.
Alas! As is known even if the issue of the Kosovo status is to be raised at the impending talks held by Ban Ki-moon in Pristina it will not be considered on the basis of the UN Security resolution N 1244. According to Kosovo newspaper “Epoca e Re” the Secretary General will hold full-fledged negotiations with President Atifete Jahjaga, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, and the Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Jakup Krasniqi in the administrative center of the region, the same way he’ll have it done in other Balkan capitals by the time. Obviously it will not let Ban Ki-moon make statements opposing the official Pristina policy. Especially as the former Foreign Minister of South Korea never had such intentions. [8]
His stance on the situation in Serbia’s three southern municipalities with mixed Serb-Albanian population: Bujanovac, Medvedja, Preševo appears to be more realistic. Anyway, according to Kosova Sot newspaper the Secretary General has already received a corresponding request from the local Albanian leaders, who openly state their intention to repeat the Kosovo scenario in the Presevo Valley. [9]
With Tomislav Nikolic becoming President Serbia’s stance on Kosovo is rather reserved. According to the sources from Serbian Progressive Party Nicolic has prepared his own “plan of Kosovo settlement” but its content is kept out of public view. Still some time before the Ban Ki-moon’s tour new Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic reaffirmed that he thought the region’s partition was the best solution. [10]
Looks like the Ban Ki-moon’s Balkan tour is to demonstrate once more the UN regional policy is in crisis. I’d like to be mistaken but the Secretary General makes murky statements displaying inability to take a clear stance on one of the key regional problems. It confirms the view offered by the US National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2025 report. Made public as far back as 2008 it clearly says the prospects are bleak that the United Nations will be able to unite the members in multilateral effective efforts, especially within the framework of the Security Council in its present or extended form. [11]
Since 1999 the United Nations policy in the Balkans has become a hostage of the NATO military operation against Yugoslavia that pushed it to the sidelines of regional political processes. Speaking figuratively Aidan Hehir, a well known British international relations expert, described the situation stressing the UN was hit by ‘illegitimate, but legal” interventionism [12]. Elizabeth Baker of the New York Times was even more candid saying whatever politicians do about the United Nations, NATO will be the one to control Kosovo. [13]
Actually the United Nations has dissociated itself from tackling the key global problems delegating these functions to NATO, the European Union and other organizations, including the League of Arab Sates. The USA and West Europeans have a clear plan of political “reshaping” of vast territories in the Balkans, North Africa, the Middle and Near East. The UN doesn’t go beyond fruitless discussions in general terms.
Moreover, as the classified documents that have been made public show, it is Ban Ki-moon who was at the origin of the self-proclaimed independence of Kosovo. According to Koha Ditore newspaper reports based on the Wikileaks information the UN Secretary General had an informal “tête-à-tête morning conversation” with Zalmay Zhalilzad, then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in 2007. Ban Ki-moon told him he personally supported the goal of Kosovo becoming an independent state but was apprehensive about confrontation with Russia. [14] No surprise the incumbent Secretary General makes vague worded statements concerning the Kosovo issue.
By and large we have the same situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the only thing that is different is that the United Nations Organization actually kept away from the mission of exercising control over the Dayton peace accords delegating the functions to the Office of High Representative of world community. Today after 17 years the situation is in a deadlock.
(to be continued)
[1] http://www.unmikonline.org/Pages/13072012SG.aspx
[2] AFP 151211 GMT JUL 12
[3] AFP 151111 GMT JUL 12
[4] http://www.un.org/russian/documen/scresol/res1999/res1244.htm
[5] Kosova Sot,17.07.2012
[6] Bota Sot, 17.07.2012
[7] Zëri, 17.07.2012
[8] Epoka e Re, 16.07.2012
[9] Kosova Sot, 16.07.2012
[10] Zëri, 14.07.2012
[11] The World after crisis. The global trends – 2025; the changing world. М., 2009. p.156.
[12] Hehir A. Humanitarian Intervention After Kosovo: Iraq, Darfur and the Record of Global Civil Society. Basingstoke, 2008. P.11.
[13] The New York Times, 08.06.1999
[14] Koha Ditore, 06.09.2011.
