Crimean case, a carbon copy of Kosovo

While the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) connived to impose sanctions on Russian authorities for accepting the March 16, 2014, Crimean referendum results that led to the Crimean peninsula`s secession from Ukraine and got annexed by Russia, the same western countries rushed into accepting Kosovo weaning off itself from Serbia some few years ago, when the time was not proper to do so.

 Ukraine in conjunction with the western countries are crying foul over the move by Russia to accept the Crimean referendum, the same as Serbia did when Kosovo was declared independent from Serbia so the west should accept the events happening in Crimea like what they did during the Serbia-Kosovo crisis. The west has always been quick to condemn other countries if they feel that their interests have been trampled upon but remain silent if results suit them.

Crimea's secession from Ukraine was just like Kosovo's secession from Serbia and any arguments otherwise are just attempts to bend the West-advocated rules that were applied to the Kosovo case, failing to accept that the Crimean scenario is just a carbon copy of the Kosovo case. It is surprising that the USA and the EU are failing to accept the independence of the Crimean people when they pushed for Kosovo to secede from Serbia at the time when Serbia was not ready to let her catch go.

Everyone knows that the western countries created the Kosovo precedent with their own hands. In a situation absolutely the same as the one in Crimea they recognized Kosovo's secession from Serbia to be legitimate while arguing that no permission from a country's central authority for a unilateral declaration of independence was necessary.

 The problem with the western countries is that they want to mislead the world into believing that the Kosovo issue was unique due to the large number of victims during the Balkan wars and the dissolution of Yugoslavia but would that be taken seriously considering that Serbia was not ready to let Kosovo declare her independence from Serbia. What is the difference here, when Crimean people had declared for their self-determination and the same western countries find it hard to accept but only to blast Russia and impose sanctions on the Russian Authorities?

This behaviour by the USA and the EU is total beyond double standards, and it is something baffling, primitive and blatant cynicism. Such behaviours shown by the western countries, of imposing sanctions on Russia just because the Russian authorities have accepted Crimea to rejoin Russia is just mischievous and smacks of countries possessed with a big brother mentality meant to scare other countries from determining their destination and self-determination. The western countries should realise that no country in the international law should just twist things to fit her interests, a situation where one calls something white on one day and black on the next one. This shows that the USA and its EU supporters are wrong on how they are treating the Crimean-Russian association.

The USA and the EU are now blaming Russia of violating international law with its actions in Ukraine failing to reason and recall what the western world did in Serbia was the same with what Russia is doing in Ukraine. In actual fact Russia`s actions in Crimea is better compared to what the western countries did in Kosovo. The western countries unleashed NATO in Serbia as a way of making sure that Kosovo got independence and a lot of blood was shad in the process. In this way, Russia has only accepted Crimea to be part and parcel of it without any use of force, so why is it that the west fails to accept that the Crimean people have the right to choose what they want to do. The west just forced Serbia to let Kosovo declare herself independent from Serbia when they saw it fit to do so.

 Russia did not force Crimea to secede from Ukraine but the Crimean people decided on their own to secede from Ukraine through a referendum which was held freely and fairly without any violence or loss of blood. So which side is better here, the USA in conjunction with the EU in bombing of Serbia for the independence of Kosovo and that of Russia which accepted Crimea to rejoin her without blood shad? This is food for thought for those who claim to know what the rule of law and international law is all about.

The USA which is rushing to claim that Russia failed to adhere to the principles of international law when Russia accepted the secession of Crimea from Ukraine, should realise that the same USA failed to observe the principles of international law in the case of the Serbian and Kosovo crisis. The invasion of Serbia by NATO military forces was the worst case of international law violation as Serbia being a sovereign nation should not have been attacked by any foreign forces in the name of wanting to set free Kosovo. In actual fact, it was Russia that defended international law and its institutions in accepting that Crimea rejoins it, while western countries have been diminishing them in their operations around the world. The situation in Crimea is just a reflection of this broader process in which Russia is observing international law but the west is trying to scuttle such efforts by imposing sanctions on Russia.

The USA and EU disregarded the rule law when in 1999 when they bombed Serbia causing Slobodan Milosevic to be deposed and brought to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a move which was meant to humiliate him. All those actions by the USA and the EU were done with no support from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution meaning that the USA and the EU violated international law by sending NATO forces to bomb Serbia. Even today some people in Varvarin village in Serbia are still being traumatized with those bombings that took place fifteen years ago. Russia which the west rushed to impose sanctions on it has not violated any international law and no villagers in Ukraine are being traumatized by that Russian action.

Americans have been making sure that where they have interests they can act alone without outside assistance, they only ask for assistance from other countries when they want to legitimize their illegal actions in the international community. It is a fact that when the USA invaded Iraq and Afghanistan in both instances being assisted by the United Kingdom, the move was to get the American companies to have investments in those countries. Today a lot of American companies are involved in many activities in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, Libya etc.

So what the Americans did in Kosovo in which they bombed Serbia using the military forces of NATO was to make sure that the American companies get investments opportunities in that country. Now that Russia is accepting back Crimea which was given to Ukraine in 1954 by Mikhail Gorbachev, then Russian president, the western countries have rushed to denounce Russian. They forgot the history of Crimea where which clearly shows where this country came from. America and company is failing to understand that Russia has got the right to protect the ethnic Russians in Crimea.

Currently American officials, whether former or those currently posted in Kosovo, are owners or co-owners of many companies there, primarily those in the telecommunications and energy sector: It is said that the U.S. investors in Kosovo are involved with projects in the construction, energy, and real estate development sectors. Kosovo has been designated as a beneficiary country under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, under which a wide range of products that Kosovo might seek to export are eligible for duty-free entry to the United States. This clearly shows why America rushed to recognize Kosovo as an independent nation but today failing to recognize the Crimean case. Americans do not want to recognize that as the Russian expansion makes them recall the Cold War era incidences, so imposing sanctions on Russia is a revival of the containment policy which the Americans adopted during the Cold war era.

 It is a fact that General Wesley Clark, who commanded NATO forces during the bombing of Serbia, is now the owner of a Canadian energy company that actively utilizes coal and synthetic fuel products from Kosovo. In related issue, Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright owns a 75-percent stake in the K-Telecom company operating in Kosovo. In effect, it is said that Albright is a monopolist when it comes to telecommunications in Kosovo.

So these political shenanigans by the USA and her allies of imposing sanctions on Russia over the Crimea crisis should be blamed and condemned by all the progressive forces of the world. In that way, the international community should support the efforts by Russia of making sure that Russians are protected from any harm, either those in Russia or outside Russia including those in Crimea the same as any country does to its citizens as a way of safeguarding their security.

Mukachana Hanyani, Harare-based political and social commentator who can be reached through mhanyani@yahoo.com