Kosovo report linked to Transnistria independence

UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari calls independence "the only viable option" when two sides can't agree on a common state

NEW YORK (Tiraspol Times) - Independence for Kosovo, currently part of Serbia, is recommended by U.N. mediator Martti Ahtisaari.

" - Independence is the only viable option for a politically stable and economically viable Kosovo," special envoy Martti Ahtisaari said in a report to the United Nation's Security Council.

In Tiraspol, the capital of unrecognized Transnistria (officially named Pridnestrovie), similar aspirations abound. Many locals found echoes of their own situation, and felt that Ahtisaari was describing their own struggle with Moldova when he called independence "the only viable option."

Independence of the Kosovo province is fiercely opposed by Serbia but supported by much of the West, led by an influential group within the United States State Department.

Serbia rejects independence for Kosovo as a violation of international law, arguing that territorial integrity trumps the principle of self-determination. The United States does not agree, with US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried having made it clear that in the bigger picture, there are more important issues than a blind adherence to a territorial integrity which for all practical purposes has already been rendered moot by events on the ground.

Fried, who has worked closely with Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra fame, has links to a number of neoconservative groups and has been labelled ""an Iraq war-hawk" by human rights activists. Part of an influential group of foreign policy makers aligned with Israel, his recent advocacy for Kosovo independence has brought him some unusual bedfellows.

The war between Serbia, a Christian nation, and its mostly Muslim Kosovo province involved foreign fighters on the Kosovo side. Some of them, including Guantanamo-held David Hicks, a muslim convert, are now accused by the United States of having ties to al-Qaida, and of fighting for both the Taliban and for the Kosovo Albanians who waged Jihad in Serbia in 1999 and had NATO bomb their enemy.

President: "We have a better case for independence than Kosovo"

Although Ahtisaari's Kosovo recommendations are closely studied in Transnistria, the president of this new and emerging country believes that his country has a much better historical and legal justification for independence than Kosovo.

Kosovo rejects a common state with the country that it is formally part of.

While his country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated a study comparing the advice of the Kosovo report to Transnistria's own quest for international recognition, President Igor Smirnov, 65, prefers to point out the differences instead of the similarities between the two.

" - Of course they are different. Look to international law, and look to the history of this land. Pridnestrovie has a much stronger legal and historical basis for recognized sovereignty than Kosovo," says Smirnov, referring to Transnistria by its official, constitutional name; Pridnestrovie. "We do not overestimate the impact of Kosovo resolution, but if Kosovo is recognized as independent, then obviously that adds some more arrows to the quiver of our diplomats."

The United States, in what some see as a preference for politics over international law, has given no indication that it will apply a "Kosovo precedent" as a way to solve post-Soviet frozen conflics. But in Transnistria, public opinion is increasingly contemptuous of perceived Western double-standards: non-Slav independence movements like that in Kosovo receive generous support on their path to independence despite evidence of massive corruption and ethnic cleansing, but Slavic or pro-Russian separatists are treated as pariahs.

The official, but somewhat contradictory position of the US State Department, is that Kosovo is unique and that although the territorial integrity principle can be broken in one part of Europe, it must be upheld in another part of Europe. For now, official State Department policy is to insist that Transnistria is part of Moldova and must not be allowed to choose its own future, despite the strongly held desire of more than 90% of its population for independence.

" - Kosovo’s status is only for Kosovo. Period," insisted Daniel Fried. In an attempt to explain why, the US Assistant Secretary of State argued that there could be no comparison between Kosovo and Transnistria because the latter situation had not, as he put it, led to an “international war.” The implicit message was that independence must only be granted if NATO attacks another country to promote separatism.

Unstable NATO peacekeeping in Kosovo

With Europe's most expensive peacekeeping operation taking place in Kosovo, the West is in a hurry to settle the issue this year. The peacekeeping operation has received mixed reviews and has been largely unable to protect Kosovo's Serbian minority from attacks by Albanian nationalists.

Despite a NATO-led force of 16,500 peacekeepers, Kosovo flare-ups are a regular occurrence and fatalities are common in the region. Most of the deaths are caused by violence between those who support independence and those who don't.

In contrast, the five-sided multilateral peacekeeping force in Transnistria has only 1,200 peacekeepers and has been successful in preventing violence since 1992. During the fifteen years of its mission, not a single life has been lost to any violent incidents.

The local peacekeeping mission, which includes troops and military observers from Moldova, Transnistria, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE, was established following the signing of a cease-fire agreement which ended Moldovan attacks on Transnistrian towns and cities.

NATO has ruled out any involvement, and most of the countries in the peacekeeping arrangement - with the notable of exception of Moldova - believe that the current format is a successful guarantee against renewed outbreaks of violence.

Independent statehood already a fact, despite lack of recognition

Transnistria, which already has a full independence in every way except on paper, has no ethnic violence or attacks against minority groups. Its Slavic majority does not attack the Moldovan minority, and most of the Moldovans who live in Transnistria are in favor of independence as well. According to a 2006 survey, the majority of Moldovans in Transnistria prefer independent statehood rather than joining their ethnic brothers across the Dniester river in a common state.

Officially called Pridnestrovie, but also known under names such as Transdniester and Transdniestria, the unrecognized country has its own flag, currency, constitution and all the other attributes of statehood. And according to the world's leading treaty on the subject, it already successfully passes the test for becoming a country. The Montevideo Convention sets out four requirements for a country to achieve statehood under international law: A permanent population, a defined territory, a government and the ability to relate to other states. Transnistria, de facto independent since 1990, easily meets all four requirements.

Under international law, statehood is an empirical fact which can not be "wished away" regardless of a lack of formal diplomatic recognition. Article 3 of the Montevideo Convention states that “The political existence of the state is independent of recognition by other states.” The United States is a signatory to this treaty.

In a referendum held 17 September 2006, local voters backed independence by a wide margin. The outcome of the vote showed 97.1 percent in favor of maintaining the pro-independence stance, and 94.6 percent saying no to a proposal for joining the Republic of Moldova in a common state.

See also:
» Kosovo precedent takes shape as USA rules out return to the past
» Echoes from Kosovo reach Pridnestrovie, bringing new hope to status talks
» No precedents in the unique case of Transdniester