Blatant Reality

With the US completely absorbed in the presidential primary season, little attention has been given to the fact that Kosovo will most likely secede from Serbia this Sunday.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica went on national television on Thursday to tell Serbia to brace for the imminent secession of Kosovo province, which their government would never accept.

 

The coalition had adopted a document to annul in advance “an event which will become reality in a few days, about illegal violence and an act of declaring independence of Kosovo”, Kostunica said.

 

His statement was his most open acknowledgement yet that Serbia cannot now prevent Kosovo’s Albanian majority from proclaiming independence on Sunday, with the promise of Western recognition.

Serbia, of course, is going to take measure to try and stop this secession but with many western countries ready to back this move, Kosovo’s independence is almost guaranteed.

The date for the declaration has not been announced, but political sources say plans are in place for Sunday.

 

Certain of recognition from the United States and most members of the European Union, Kosovo will become the last state to emerge from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.

 

Backed by Russia, Serbia will reject the move. It will encourage Kosovo’s 120,000 remaining Serbs to do the same, worsening a de facto ethnic partition that will weigh on the new state for years to come.

With the tension already building between Russia and the United States over the so called “new arms race,” this act by Kosovo will surely just add more fuel to the fire.

Therefore, this Sunday when you are reading about McCain and Obama in the paper, don’t be surprised to see a headline about a new country in the Balkans and that it’s formation is causing quite the diplomatic nightmare.