Parallels with Pridnestrovie: Euro MP says Kosovo not unique

British Euro-MP Charles Tannock is a Ukraine specialist and the foreign policy spokesman for his party at the EU level

LONDON (Tiraspol Times) - A British Euro-MP, Conservative politician Charles Tannock, says that an independent Kosovo will create what he calls a "Kosovo precedent" that will affect other parts of Europe and areas elsewhere. In just-published remarks, he highlights the four unrecognized countries on the post-Soviet space: Transdniestria, or Pridnestrovie as it is officially called, as well as Abkhazia, South Ossetia and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR).

" - The US position is unambiguously misguided in not foreseeing that the “Kosovo precedent” will incite instability and potentially even violence elsewhere," he believes and asks: "Why the rush to give Kosovo independence? Many serious disputes have gone unresolved for decades. The Kashmir question has lingered since 1947, the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus since 1974, and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank from 1967. Yet no one is suggesting that unilateral solutions be imposed in these potential flashpoints."

In Pridnestrovie, the overwhelmingly pro-independence population has waited for more than 17 years to have their state become a recognized member of the international community. The republic declared independence on 2 September 1990 as the result of a referendum, yet the neighboring country of Moldova - which never held a referendum - still clings to the belief that the pre-independence borders of the Soviet Union should exist, and that Transnistria (as it is called in Moldovan) should be part of Moldova.

" - Nevertheless, the US — and most European Union members — argue that Kosovo’s situation is sui generis and will set no legally binding international precedent," he notes in commentary published by Pakistan's Daily Times, adding that not everyone else in the world sees things the same way. Apart from Russia, which has already ruled out the unconvincing claim that Kosovo is somehow unique, Tannock also adds that Spain, Cyprus, Romania and Ukraine are among a list of other European countries which have their doubts about the way that the United States is handling the issue.

Charles Tannock is a member of the European Parliament, where he is spokesman on foreign affairs for the British Conservative Party. In such a key position, he is now worried about the fact that the US is now preparing to "go it alone." He writes that "instead of thinking what Ahtisaari deemed unthinkable, a partition of Kosovo with a small part of the north going to Serbia and the rest linked to the Kosovars ethnic brethren in Albania or a separate state, the US plans to act without the UN’s blessing."

Pridnestrovie an old part of Ukraine, not Moldova

Tannock is familiar with the general area around Pridnestrovie, in particular with neighboring Ukraine. In addition to his job as foreign policy spokesman, he is currently Vice-President of the EU-Ukraine PCC delegation. Among the two neighbors which Pridnestrovie is sandwiched between, there are stronger historic ties between Ukraine and Pridnestrovie than between Moldova and Pridnestrovie. With Tiraspol as its capital, Pridnestrovie was an autonomous republic inside Ukraine until 1940, when Soviet dictator Josef Stalin merged it with a part of Romania to form the Moldavian SSR.

With regards to independence for Kosovo, Euro MP Charles Tannock questions the wisdom of the current State Department over-eagerness.

" - Look before you leap is as sound a principle in foreign policy as it is in life. Yet, once again, the Bush administration is preparing to leap into the unknown. Even though lack of foresight is universally viewed as a leading cause of its Iraq debacle, the United States (with British backing probable) is now preparing to recognise Kosovo’s independence unilaterally — irrespective of the consequences for Europe and the world," explains Tannock.

" - The conflicts in Transdnistria and the South Caucasus are usually called “frozen conflicts,” because not much has happened since they began in the early 1990’s. Any unilateral move to give Kosovo its independence is likely to unfreeze them." For the more than 500,000 inhabitants of Transdniestrie (Pridnestrovie), a solution to its frozen conflict with Moldova will be a long-awaited blessing. More than nine out of ten are strongly in favor of independence and eager to find a way out of the current legal limbo as an unrecognized state: For more than 17 years since Pridnestrovie declared independence in 1990, the de facto country has not had any access to the United Nations or any other international institutions.

Last week, Charles Tannock also commented on UN membership for Taiwan, which like Pridnestrovie is another largely unrecognized country that currently is not part of the United Nations. According to Euro-centric The Parliament Magazine, he said, "It seems strange that there is a huge rush to resolve the Kosovo issue yet the Taiwan issue cannot be raised in the UN without intimidation." A group of influential Euro-MPs, or MEPs as they are also known, have thrown their weight behind Taiwan’s latest bid to join the United Nations.

See also:
» Russia: First, solve older self-determination issues before Kosovo
» Kosovo independence gives equal rights to Pridnestrovie; other unrecognized countries

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» Echoes from Kosovo reach Pridnestrovie, bringing new hope to status talks