The Breaking Point

by Veton Suroi (The autor is the editorinchief of the Pristinabased paper ``Koha'')

There are immediate associations with Kosovo in the foreign and domestic press, when the negotiating process on Bosnia and the Krajina are concerned. The most obvious one, now mentioned as the American position, is the 2K plan (Kosovo and Krajina have similar future relations with Serbia and Croatia respectively, of which they would be loose parts). The less obvious one is the Albanian position, and it could also be called a 2K position of a different kind. The Albanians in Kosovo, insist that whatever Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic gets as far as territory is concerned, Kosovo should get as well. Essentially, the message and the belief are, if the Serbs get away with secession in Bosnia and unification with Serbia, why shouldn't the Albanians in Kosovo have the same option?

I do understand the reasoning behind the 2K plans. It is understandable that the American-Russian duo functions best when playing the game of ``broad autonomy'' in Croatia and Serbia: the Russians exert their influence on the Serbs in Croatia and in Serbia, whereas the Americans have started doing so with the Croats and will continue to do so with the Albanians in Kosovo. I also understand the reasoning behind Karadzic's idea of equivalence. As far as Kosovo Albanians are concerned, it is a question of principle if one border is changed, then all borders can be changed.

One very obvious principle, however, is forgotten in both 2K cases: Kosovo is not (yet) a war issue. It has a constitutional precedent created in peaceful (and undemocratic) times, and it can find a solution for itself through a constitutional evolution and peaceful negotiations, hopefully, towards more democratic conditions.

I think that both the international negotiators and Kosovo Albanians will understand the fallacy of their 2K pretensions. The West, because in its insistence to create a point of leverage with the Serbs, is pushing them to equal their demands in Croatia to those of Albanians in Kosovo, and are so putting the participants in the violence and war (the Serbs in Krajina) and those using nonviolent methods to resist a discriminatory regime (Albanians in Kosovo) in the same basket. In this basket they have also dumped a territory which has been created violently (Krajina) and one which has been suppressed by repressive means (Kosovo).

Kosovo Albanians on the other side, are doing a similar thing when they demand to be treated on the same political level as those responsible for ``ethnic cleansing,'' butchery and atrocities against mankind in Bosnia.

Is this a moral question, a pragmatist might ask? Well, I would reply that it is a question of choosing one's company, and Karadzic is not the best travelling companion.

Pragmatically, though, the 2K plan is not the solution. For one thing, selling the Krajina 2K plan to the Kosovo Albanians is tantamount to initiating a process of dynamic and violent seizure of a better negotiating position. The end may well be the insistence of the Kosovo Albanians on being part of Karadzic's 2K equation. On the other hand, there is no significant reason why Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic should apply the same rules he wants for Serbs outside of Serbia to the issue of ethnic Albanians outside of Albania (those in Kosovo). In the present political situation, arguments supported by force carry more weight, and this is one thing that Milosevic doesn't lack. And, a fundamental reason is that by addressing the Kosovo issue without addressing the human rights issue first, is to take human rights violations for granted.

Nonetheless, and without the wish to reject the idea of a confederation or federation a priori, the basic approach is not to be discarded. And the approach is that there should be an active link between all the territories of the former Yugoslavia. Is this a breaking point? On the one hand yes, because it symbolizes the moment in which the participants in the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia believe it to be a passing episode before a new reintegration, but not in one state. My feeling is that we still have to wait for the breaking point, and it will probably come with an attempt at resolving the Kosovo crisis. On reaching this moment, we will come to the understanding that the borders of the former Yugoslavia must be crossed. For better or worse.