THE
KOSOVO PROBLEM
Of
course it would be better if Kosovo had remained an autonomous part of
Serbia.
Unfortunately,.genocide
as inexcusable as was practiced by Serbia against Albanian Kosovars was
always likely to make it impossible for them to accept any subjection
or ownership of their land by Serbia.
Serbs
still claim ownership of Kosovo. They say that just as the Falklands
are part of the UK and we would not let it go, so they will not let
Kosovo go. But this is absurd. We had not tried to ethnically cleanse
the Falklands in the 20th century. It was inhabited by native
Falklanders and people who wished to be British. If the inhabitants of
the Falklands had said they wished to be part of Argentina, we could
not and would not have invaded to throw out the Argentine invaders.
Argentina itself has benefited hugely from the overthrow of Genral
Galtieri that followed from his Falklands defeat.
The
ownership of Kosovo by Serbs, against the will of its inhabitants, has
been lost by their genocidal behaviour. There are Serbs who live in
part of Kosovo, and in my view that part of Kosovo, if its inhabitants
agree in an overwhelming majority, should become part of Serbia.
Whether
Kosovo is economically viable is another matter. There are a great many
countries that are not. It could be said that any country that cannot
balance its payments or make up the imbalance by a rolling
counterbalance of inward investment is not economically viable. The UK
is probably about to become economically unviable but we can bluff our
way through. The Kosovo economy is impossible to assess as most of it
is unoffocial, untraceable and illegal. That probably makes it viable
by local standards.
The arguments for NOT supporting Kosovan independence, discounting
Serbian arguments which are invalid and just another of their
psychological problems, are probably just as strong as those against.
However, Kosovars have made the choice NOT to accept any Serb rule and
that is that.
.