Kosovo: can good ever come of evil?
Three years of independence have brought neither prosperity, nor democracy, nor any real international recognition to Kosovo. The world press keeps debating the recent PACE resolution accusing Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and his closest associates of creating secret prisons and smuggling human organs, weapons and drugs.
(Mikhail Aristov, Voice of Russia) Thursday, February 17, 2011
Even former western supporters of the region's independence have started referring to Pristina as a "black hole" or a "ghetto of Southeast Europe". The self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo does not have delegations to any international organizations, including the United Nations. The number of those unemployed and eager to leave, illegally in most cases, has not decreased since February 17th, 2008 - the day that Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence.
The main challenge today is Kosovo's involvement in both domestic and international scandals, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Science Pyotr Iskenderov believes.
"Kosovo has failed to form an efficient and adequate new government, even though the country's latest general elections were held as far back as December 2010. Relations between the leading parties of Kosovo Albanians have become more strained than ever before, with never-ending recriminations, ultimatums and blackmail. The government will obviously never be able to work, if it is formed at all. We will most likely witness an aggravation of the struggle between Kosovo Albanians on the one hand and military and political clans backing them on the other," Pyotr Iskenderov said.
Prime Minister Hashim Thaci seems to have disappointed his western sponsors and supporters. Judging by the January report from Swiss Senator Dick Marty, Kosovo turned into a sort of criminal activity depository. According to the western press, a secret investigation of Thaci's activities was carried out by intelligence agencies, including America's FBI. The report claims that the Kosovo PM and his associates led the so-called Drenitskaya criminal group (named after the Drenica Valley). Apart from human organ trafficking, it smuggled weapons and controlled a considerable part of Balkan drug trade routes.
At present, the EU mission in Kosovo is trying to take the lead on further investigations to soft-pedal the case and only convict secondary figures, Pyotr Iskenderov assumed.
"The EU was obviously shocked to find out that European taxpayers' money was flowing into a region governed by people involved in such flagrant crimes. The status of an independent Kosovo has sustained irreparable damage. This year's anniversary may therefore be marred by a number of complicated domestic policy processes. There is a danger that Kosovo's top Albanian leaders will attempt to distract their voters and the entire international community to some other issues. In particular, they can provoke another Serbian-Albanian conflict," Pyotr Iskenderov said in conclusion.
Further developments in Kosovo will depend on both the efforts of the international community and the willingness of leading western powers, which are de facto protecting Kosovo, to clamp down on their Albanian partners and remove the most controversial personalities - first and foremost, incumbent Prime Minister Hashim Thaci - from office.
Three years of Kosovo's social experiment were based on the most vicious genocide of the Serbian population. 280,000 Serbs left the region over this period of time. 150 Christian churches were destroyed in Kosovo - a place that was once the center of Serbian Orthodox culture. All this is just another confirmation of a general truth saying that no good can ever come of evil.
