Why can I hear many in the Balkans, including Albanians, saying 'told you so'. The shit will be hitting the proverbial fan once this article by the Guardian makes itself known in the Balkans. With attention focused on the disputed country/province (depending who you talk to) after last weekend's not-so-transparent elections, a Council of Europe (CofE) report into crime in Kosovo has confirmed allegations that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army kidnapped and killed Serbs, whose kidneys were then later sold.The CofE report, tabled by human rights investigator Dick Marty, will not be news for people in the Balkans. They have known about these 'revelations' now for years. However, in a true display of the ever-persistent colonial, patronising and superiority complex attitude of the West towards the 'uncivilised' Balkans, now they are being taken seriously. One of the main (not-new) points highlighted was that former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and current Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi's links with organised crime date back more than a decade, when those loyal to his Drenica Group became the dominant faction within the KLA.
Marty has pointed out Western double standards towards human rights in Kosovo. Since 1998 the West has been purposely blind in its support for the KLA and, consequently, for the Kosovo government led by Thaçi. The West has chose to ignore suspected war crimes by the KLA, "placing a premium instead on achieving some degree of short-term stability". He concludes that during the Kosovo war and for almost a year after, Thaçi's forces meted out revenge against Serbs, Roma and ethnic-Albanians accused of "collaborating" with the enemy.
This inquiry was commissioned after the former chief prosecutor for war crimes at The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, said she had been prevented from investigating senior KLA officials. Del Ponte's claim has grounds in that only four Albanians have faced the War Crimes Tribunal, one of which was former KLA commander-turn-politician (or crime boss to others) Ramush Haradinaj, who was first acquitted but now is facing the dock again after the 'revelation' that his thugs intimidated witnesses.
No matter what the West says, an overwhelming majority of people in ex-Yugoslavia see the Tribunal as a politically-motivated show trial with no legitimacy, whereby a disproportionate number of Serbs have been tried, of the two Macedonians tried the 'clearly innocent' nobody gets 12 years while the 'guilty-as-hell' former Interior Minister is acquitted of all crimes, while so few Albanians have been tried. Then the West has the audacity to criticise Balkan countries for their less-than-transparent judicial systems!
What this report will signal is that all the suspicions many in the Balkans have had that the West were taking sides in the Balkan conflicts, despite the West's denials, are true. It has mainly been nationalist political groupings who have been the most vocal advocates of these former conspiracy theories now exposed as fact. The unwitting consequence of this is that it will increase the credibility of other political theories and tales of Western intrigue that many in the Balkans believe and propagate. However, they are not to blame. The West should not have supported criminals who are callous enough to fan the popular nationalist notion of 'regaining greater Albania' to disguise their organised crime and maintain the power structures which allow such illegal activities to thrive. The point is that this current system of governance in Kosovo is how Serbia under Milošević operated. The West rightfully was quick to at least vilify Milošević and Serbia; however when it comes to Kosovo now, they not only have looked the other away but have fully supported and protected its leaders and the corrupt system they have created!
I'll be keeping a close watch to see what the political fallout will be from this report. I hope that Kosovo's long-suffering population will finally be able to rid themselves of these corrupt criminals so that they can finally have leaders who will look past personal interest and deliver a decent standard of living for all of Kosovo's population and beyond.
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