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Georgia Shows Canada Was Rash On Kosovo

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  • Georgia Shows Canada Was Rash On Kosovo

    GEORGIA SHOWS CANADA WAS RASH ON KOSOVO
    By Scott Taylor On Target

    The Chronicle Herald
    http://thechronicleherald.ca/Columnists/107 6341.html
    Sept 2 2008
    Canada

    BACK ON March 18 when Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced
    that Canada would recognize Kosovo's unilateral declaration of
    independence many decried this decision as a violation of the United
    Nations charter.

    It was without a UN mandate that NATO had intervened in the clash
    between Serbian security forces and Albanian separatist guerrillas
    in 1999. However, it was UN Resolution 1244 that brought a ceasefire
    to the disputed province, and although NATO troops were to replace
    Serb forces in providing security, Kosovo was to remain the sovereign
    territory of Serbia.

    It was obvious that Harper's Conservatives understood the implications
    of recognizing the secession of a province based on a unilateral
    declaration of independence by an ethnic majority of that territory,
    as it took a full month for Canada to concede to recognition of the
    new state.

    The U.S. and the British had been the primary pilots steering Kosovo
    towards independence in this manner, as they knew that Russia and
    China would block any further efforts to achieve a consensus on this
    issue through official United Nations channels.

    Under tremendous pressure from the U.S. State Department, Harper
    finally buckled and joined the small number of nations that had already
    recognized Kosovo's independence. At that juncture some three dozen
    countries had followed the American lead, and despite George Bush's
    best efforts, that number has topped out at just 46.

    A similar number of nations have rejected Kosovo's independence
    outright and the remaining 100 UN members continue to sit on the fence.

    At the time that Harper reluctantly agree to the recognition of Kosovo,
    he claimed that this particular Balkan province was a "unique case" and
    therefore violating the UN charter, which deems national sovereignty
    to be inviolate, would not set any sort of precedent.

    As witnessed by recent events in the Republic of Georgia, the breakaway
    territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia have wasted little time in
    proving Harper wrong. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early
    1990s, three new countries -- Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia --
    emerged in the strategically important region known as the Caucasus.

    While much of the western media's attention was focused on events
    in the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, an equally brutal series
    of wars was being conducted in this region. The end result was a
    number of unresolved frozen conflicts with sovereign territories
    occupied by belligerent nations -- such as the Nagorno-Karabakh
    region of Azerbaijan, which is still being held by Armenian troops --
    and regions such as South Ossetia and Abkhazia that refused to join
    Georgia when it separated from Russia.

    Armed with U.S. assurances and military aid, American-educated Georgian
    President Mikheil Saakashvili decided on Aug. 7 to flex his muscles
    and attempt to exert control by force over South Ossetia. The Russians
    were not caught napping and they responded immediately and forcefully.

    The Georgian troops were hurled out of South Ossetia back into Georgian
    territory and Saakashvili immediately took to the airwaves to call
    upon the international community to save him from Russian aggression.

    Back in April at the NATO summit in Bucharest, it had been Canada
    and the U.S. who had pushed forcefully for Georgia's inclusion into
    the alliance. Thankfully, the central European nations rejected both
    Georgia and Ukraine's admission to NATO as it could unnecessarily
    provoke the Russians.

    Had Canada and the U.S. been successful, as a NATO member,
    Saakashvili's cry for support would have plunged the alliance into
    a military showdown with Russia.

    It has now become clear that the Russian bear may be reawakening
    in terms of military might, but its intention in the Caucasus seems
    limited to recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as separate states --
    not reoccupying all of Georgia.

    What is hypocritical beyond belief is Bush and Condoleezza Rice
    claiming that by recognizing these two small states as independent,
    Russia is setting a dangerous precedent for others to ignore the
    UN charter.

    That would be the same UN charter that the U.S. ignored when it bombed
    Serbia in 1999, when they invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and when they
    invaded Iraq in 2003.

    Canada made a grave mistake in the recognition of Kosovo, and we
    should not be so quick to leap on board the Bush bandwagon when it
    comes to determining a policy on the Georgian crisis.

    Like the Americans, we no longer have the moral authority to denounce
    Russia's present actions.
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