Kosovo’s clock is ticking

Rumblings in Europe and beyond, not violence, the threat

The European Union, the bastion of peace and prosperity rose from the ashes of two sanguinary World Wars and today it still portrays that tranquil image, notwithstanding the wars and bloodshed of the Balkans in the 1990s.

The impending Kosovo independence, a direct fallout from those Balkan wars, may not trigger an all-out war in the region, but it will definitely result in some major indelible changes not only in the region but also world afar.

Kosovo’s population is 90 percent Albanian, and their goal of independence was reiterated February 8 by Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. “We have confirmation by around 100 countries that they are ready to recognise Kosovo’s independence immediately after we declare it. We will have a powerful and massive recognition,” he said.

Addressing journalists after the regular weekly meeting with Joachim Ruecker, chief of the UN mission in Kosovo, Thaci refused to divulge either the names of his list of countries or specify when he plans to declare independence.

In keeping with his declared intentions to keep his supporters mostly Western powers in confidence about intended declaration of independence, there is a general murmur in diplomatic circles that February 17 may be the D-day.

On the other hand, Serbia continues with its hawkish statements as the EU-backed reelected Serbian President Boris Tadic warned of an escalation in conflicts if Kosovo declares independence.

Speaking at the opening of an annual security conference in Munich, Tadic who enjoys the support of powers that are supporting Kosovo independence, said, “Should Serbia be partitioned against its will ... it could in turn result in the escalation of many existing conflicts, the reactivation of a number of frozen conflicts, and the instigation of who knows how many new conflicts.”

But his comments try to cater to the sentiments of Serbian people as well as play along the European officials, especially the EU’s enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn who has been instrumental in offering all the carrots to Serbia thus openly helping Tadic to win again.

On January 28, before the final round of Serbian presidential elections, EU foreign ministers offered Serbia a deal on free trade and travel, presenting it as a “signal to the Serbian people,” while denying that it was intended to influence the vote.

Now, with the win of the pro-EU Tadic in Serbia, the EU is in a win-win position. First it can go ahead and give recognition to an independent Kosovo and then as Serbia accepts the carrot of EU membership, Belgrade has to regularise its relationship with an independent Kosovo.

Commenting on the victory of Tadic, Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission said the result was “a victory for democracy in Serbia and for the European values we share.” He added: “Your victory comes at a critical moment for Serbia and for the western Balkans. We wish to accelerate Serbia’s progress towards the European Union.”

The European Union on one hand has been supporting pro-Western Tadic on Serbian political landscape but it has given a go-ahead on the other hand to an EU police and justice mission to Kosovo. Without specifying a launch date, the mission was approved in writing to allow the EU’s 1,800 police and legal officials to take over from the United Nations in Kosovo, under UN Security Council resolution 1244, which refers to an international security presence.

The 16,000-strong NATO force, however will remain in Kosovo, which is still a province of Serbia. Kosovo has been run by the UN since a US-led NATO bombing campaign drove out Serb forces accused of a brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

The imminent independence of Kosovo will fan the forces of separatism in rest of Europe and other parts of the world as it comes under the aegis of the UN mandate. In an interview with New Europe recently in Brussels, Joseba Azkarraga Rodero, Minister, Department of Justice, Employment and Social Security, Basque Country in Spain, reiterated its fallout on other simmering conflicts.

Stressing “Fighting for self determination is the right of the people,” Rodero said, “We support the rights of self-determination of Scottish and Kosovo people through peaceful and democratic means to reach such ends.”

On the other cases of such struggles, he added, “People have been fighting for their own states. Large states talk of borders and that is not correct. We can see cases of Kosovo and Scotland – similar cases where people are fighting for self determination.”

Moreover, at the Russia-NATO meeting last December, held in Brussels, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists, “We are for a solution which will be acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina and only for government bodies which will be fully empowered to ensure security.”

Asked to comment on Moscow’s response to a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, Lavrov said, “Reaction will be based on international law and I very much hope that other members of international community will proceed on that basis too.”

Lavrov called the projected solution “as a precedent,” adding, “How the Kosovo crisis is going to evolve is being looked at by a lot of other countries in the world and not only countries in the Balkans. So it has to do with international law, Helsinki act and any body who goes against them, will certainly go on a slippery path and not help stability of Europe.”

Arguing that such a solution for Kosovo will set a dangerous precedent for separatist inspirations elsewhere like Basque, Scottish and other regions, Russia has supported Serbia’s stance at the UN Security Council to keep Kosovo within Serbia but with greater autonomy.

Last but not least, the European Union along with the US has been again supporting Kosovo independence without reacting to an earlier report in this newspaper about the rise of Wahhabism and the tightening of the grip of fundamental Islam over Kosovo’s society where the majority population is Muslim.

The rampant use of foreign money from Saudi Arabia and other countries to spread “intolerant” and “puritan” form of Wahhabism is going to allow anti-West terrorism to rear its ugly head right in the back yard of the European Union. But until there is no blast, no killings of innocent people and no public outcry, the Western leaders will behave the problem is not festering.

Blood Flowers: With love, from Kenya

Human sufferings, ethnic tensions add to political warfare

On Valentine’s Day, February 14, when you reach out to buy those flowers for your loved one, stop for a second and think of blood spilled on the streets of Kenya through which those were allegedly transported under police and army protection. Valentine’s Day is a big money spinning date for Kenyan growers, thanks to the country’s perfect match of high altitudes and equatorial sunshine.

By developing an end-product wrapped ready-to-sell on the shelves of the Western supermarkets, Kenya has become the European Union’s biggest source of flower imports but the recent political and ethnic turmoil has threatened the trade. “Trade turn over in 2006 from Kenya to EU was 345 million Euro,” said Rolf Persson, Secretary-General, Union Fleurs (European Flowers Association) based in Sweden.

While the global media attention is focused on the sanguinary clashes resulting in nearly a thousand deaths, voices were raised in Canada, Europe, Kenya, and the United States calling “on the international community to help the people suffering from violence in the Lake Naivasha region of Kenya, not the global industrial flower farms that exploit the lake and its people.”

A report, “Lake Naivasha: Withering Under the Assault of International Flower Vendors,” released January 31, blasted outrageous news coverage sympathetic to the flower industry. Pointing out, “With hundreds of people have been killed and thousands displaced due to violence that intensified recently,” Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter said, “The situation in Naivasha is a human tragedy, not an investment loss. Our sympathy and aid should go to the people in the region, not the international corporate owners of these flower farms that exploit the workers, the lake, and the environment.”

“The problems in the floricultural industry due to information from Kenya are transports of all kinds,” said Persson, and, according to local reports, army and police are guarding flower transports in Kenya instead of people as the trade is controlled by the rich and influential. The bloody clashes taking place today are a cumulative effect of years of tensions between local tribes and patronage of ruling class to their own people.

Speaking to New Europe, Helena Clarke, Kenyan-British freelance journalist based in Brussels explained, “President Kibaki is from the Kikuyu tribe which stands for the majority, the rich and the elite. Most of the flower farms are owned by the rich, mostly Kikuyu in the Rift Valley.”

“Originally Rift Valley is land of the Kalentin and the Masai but Kenyatta, Father of the Nation and Kenya’s first president, himself a Kikuyu, helped his people to settle in the Rift Valley. During his term he made sure he helped his people and that when he was gone, he would leave his people wealthy.”

“Naivasha Lake is the second largest and highest lake of the central Rift Valley lakes. This fresh water lake has kept much of its colonial charm and is the centre of a prosperous flower export business.”

These sentiments are echoed in the aforementioned report which states, “Public access to the freshwater Lake Naivasha is limited because the flower farms own much of the land around the lake, leaving poor residents to find water from communal taps and waiting in long lines to do so. They’ve created an unsustainable increase in the labor population, depleted the lake’s waters, and pumped the local environment full of toxic pesticides and fertilisers.”

“The farms surround Lake Naivasha. They deplete its waters and poison them with pesticides,” said Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “They are sowing the seeds of economic and environmental devastation that, unless stopped, inevitably will yield a harvest of poverty, water deprivation, and violence.”

“These flower farms are harming people and animals alike,” explained Josphat Ngonyo, director of the Africa Network for Animal Welfare. “Numerous bird and fish species are disappearing from the area and that’s a problem for the environment and the people who depend on the lake.”
Plant life has vanished, and the local hippopotamus population has decreased from 1,500 in 2004 to 1,100 in 2006. Barlow and Hauter witnessed the destruction firsthand when they visited a local flower farm with a documentary film-maker Sam Bozzo during the World Social Forum in 2007.

Barlow recalled seeing “pipes pumping water from the lake to the flower greenhouses and a ditch where waste water drained back into the lake. If action isn’t taken immediately, the lake will not only be polluted, it will be drained.”

Although Persson said, “More than 100,000 people are directly depending on the floricultural trade and without the possibility to export these people will be out of jobs and income and the crisis will be worse,” the ground reality of working conditions and monetary benefits for workers are deplorable.

Chemicals used in the flower facilities are sickening workers. Wenonah Hauter, during a trip, observed some workers in protective gear spraying flowers, while others had no protective clothing.

Persson suggested, “Europe can offer political input to solve the crisis and since a fundamental reason to this sort of problems are unemployment and poverty Europe can offer more business and trade opportunity so more people can get a job and income. The floriculture industry is a good example what Europe can offer to create jobs and income in the developing countries,” but human rights observers and environmental gurus are warning Europeans and others to consider humane factors before indulging in those flowers.

“Factory flower farms have wreaked havoc on Kenya’s rivers and on Lake Naivasha, all to extract floricultural and horticultural commodities for export to wealthy destinations in Europe and elsewhere,” said Olivier Hoedeman of Corporate Europe Observatory. “Europeans don’t want to say ‘I love you’ with flowers that cause that kind of harm.”