Tensions rise in the Balkans
3/24/2009
In case anybody thought Kosovo was done and dusted, a furious row at the UN this week provided a rude reminder that behind every seemingly benign Balkan exterior lurk dark, tightly held grievances that can and do burst forth at the first provocation. Having started well, the current decade is drawing to a ragged, tensely confrontational close across the western Balkans. That’s a big problem for the region and a bigger one for Europe.
The row erupted during a security council debate on Kosovo’s progress since its unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia just over one year ago. Skender Hyseni, Kosovo’s foreign minister, accused Belgrade of interfering in northern areas where many ethnic Serbs live. “Lawlessness, with evident support of the leadership in Belgrade, has turned this part of Kosovo into a safe haven for all kinds of criminal and illegal economic activity,” he said.
Boris Tadic, Serbia’s president, hit back. “Serbia, together with a number of EU member states, faces tremendous problems arising out of the activities of the ethnic Albanian mafia in Kosovo, which specialises in the trafficking of narcotics, human beings and weapons,” he said. Serbia, he went on, would “never” recognise Kosovo’s independence. “It is obvious to everyone today that 13 months after the illegal UDI, Kosovo is no state.”
Harold
