By Olja Stanic
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) – Bosnian Serb nationalists stepped up threats on Thursday to secede from Bosnia if Kosovo declares independence from Serbia on Sunday.
“In case Kosovo proclaims independence, we shall request independence for the Serb Republic as well,” Branislav Dukic, the chairman of SPONA, an association gathering several Bosnian Serb war veterans groups, told a news conference.
Under the Dayton accords that ended the 1992-95 war, Bosnia comprises two loosely connected autonomous regions, the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation, with little love lost between them.
While Muslims and Croats want a stronger state, the Serbs want to preserve full autonomy of the region they won in the war with help from their political and economic backers in Serbia.
Dukic said his association would ask the regional parliament to declare the Serb Republic’s independence without referendum “if the European Union recognizes independent Kosovo unilaterally and against international law”.
“If Kosovo’s illegal parliament may declare independence, there is no reason why the Republika Srpska legal parliament would not have that right,” Dukic told Reuters.
Dane Cankovic of the “Choice is Yours” nationalist movement, which advocate the Serb Republic’s secession, said the movement would stage peaceful protests if Kosovo becomes independent and then pressure the Serb parliament to do the same.
“We want to remain in neighborly relations with Sarajevo and Zagreb and in fraternal relations with Belgrade,” Cankovic told Reuters.
this is a short summary of arguments for and against:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7244538.stm
well, the arguments are such bullshit that they would be Thomas Aquinas glow with pride at their casuistry and hypocrisy…
With that kind of ‘logic’ you could, as the French expression goes, say nothing, everything and its opposite.
could you give specific examples?
Sure, the BBC writes:
The document interprets references in the 1244 preamble to Kosovo being part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and to the “territorial integrity” of Yugoslavia as being non-binding
1244 says:
Reaffirming the commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the other States of the region, as set out in the Helsinki Final Act and annex 2 (…)to establish an international civil presence in Kosovo in order to provide an interim administration for Kosovo under which the people of Kosovo can enjoy substantial autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
How is that for bullshit? Good enough?
(If not, just read 1244, the UN Charter and the Helsinky Final Act)
be careful: the BBC isn’t making that claim, it’s saying that this document makes that claim:
“The European Union has drawn up, as it is required to do by EU procedures, a document to justify its own mission to Kosovo and the arguments deployed are the same as the ones used to justify recognition.”
the article also gives me to believe that the weight of the legality is against separation.
yeah, that’s what the BBC would say if challenged. Except that for a media used to pontificate they are suddenly very “neutral” when confronted with an “interpretation” which says the exact opposite of what the spirit and letter of the document being “interpreted” actually said. Frankly, the BBC does a halfway decent job only when British policy is not involved. On Kosovo they are just your average Imperial propaganda outlet.
As for where the “weight of the article”: there is *NO* weight in any argument for the secession of Kosovo, at least not a legal one, and not a pragmatic one.
“yeah, that’s what the BBC would say if challenged.”
funny, then, how i got out of it more or less what your own position is.
“As for where the “weight of the article”:…”
i never used that phrase. why the quotes?