Will Kosovo Burn?

David Edenden

I have been against the independence of Kosovo because it will destabilize the Balkans.

However I think it is in Russia's interest go along with an independent Kosovo and then to immediately declare it as a precedent and move to recognize the independence of the disputed regions along its border.

Nato and the EU want Kosovo independence because it is impractical to stop the Albanians from fighting for it, but they think it is practical to fight the Kosovo Serbs and Serbia proper to keep Kosovo unified.

If the "West" does not want to fight the Albanians for the cause of stability in the Balkans, then they surely are not going to fight the Russians along its border.

In both cases, Nato and the EU have proved themselves to be ... wimps.

Oh ... bye the bye, Nicholas Wood has never been concerned about the plight of Macedonians of Greece.

U.N. Fears Serbs Will Disrupt a Free Kosovo
New York Times:

By NICHOLAS WOOD

Published: December 10, 2007

PRISTINA, Kosovo, Dec. 9 — As Kosovo moves closer to declaring its independence, fears are rising that Serbia and Serbs in Kosovo’s north could take steps to try to disrupt the province’s shaky economy and scare off countries ready to recognize it as a sovereign state.

Senior United Nations officials say they are particularly worried that the Serbian government will direct Kosovo’s Serbs to disrupt most of the province’s power supply and assert partial control of the north by having Serb police officers break away from the province’s police force. Such moves could further inflame tensions between the province’s ethnic Albanians and Serbs, possibly leading to violence.

...

Aid agencies, including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, have already drawn up contingency plans for an exodus of 5,000 to 100,000 refugees, many of which they expect will be ethnic Serbs.

While the Serbian government has repeatedly emphasized that it wants to avoid any violence in the province, it has promised to stop trade with Kosovo and begin economic sanctions if it declares independence.

...

The province’s main power plant, which supplies 75 percent of Kosovo’s electricity, runs on water supplied from the north, where Serbia still retains substantial control. In addition, Serbia could cut some of the province’s other power by stopping the transmission of electricity from Europe, which runs on power lines through Serbia.

Even more alarming, United Nations officials say, is the possibility that ethnic Serb members of Kosovo’s police force could quit and adopt Serbian uniforms, a move that might provoke attacks from hard-line ethnic Albanian groups.