Special Report: Meeting the Burden of
Statehood: Is Kosovo Ready?
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis - September 29, 2006
Analysis. By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS.<1> The international community is
being asked whether it should consider recognizing the sovereignty of the
Serbian province of Kosovo. But first it is necessary to ask whether Kosovo
meets the criteria for sovereignty. Unless it does, the new so-called state
would be an artificial entity subsisting on aid from the world community. And --
as with all dependent societies -- it will merely continue to nurture
frustrations and resentment of its benefactors, causing a growing source of
criminal and terrorist behavior damaging to its region and to the world.
Some of the major points I make in this regard are that:
1. Kosovo does not meet any historical standards for sovereignty. The territory
of Kosovo was seized for the present majority of the area only by external
powers, and cannot even be defended in the normal sense by the proposed new
state itself. Moreover, it is not economically viable except through criminal
activities, and has been created solely as a dependent of the international
community.
2. For Kosovo to be recognized as a legitimate sovereign state, the
international community must violate the sovereignty of another recognized
state, the Republic of Serbia, bypassing a variety of treaties and
understandings, such as the UN Charter and the Helsinki Accords.
3. Kosovo is already a territory run as a criminal enterprise, with links into
jihadist movements. As a result of this and other factors, Kosovo is not run
along lines which have historically been proven to be viable from the standpoint
of national management.
There is nothing mystical or pre-ordained about statehood and sovereignty. To be
valid and lasting, statehood and sovereignty are conditions which are earned and
defended, not dispensed by other, more powerful societies. Even Yasir Arafat
said that any state given to the Palestinians by their enemies was a state not
worth having.
In my new book, The Art of Victory: Strategies for Personal Success and Global
Survival in a Changing World,<2> I deal specifically with how societies form and
prosper. I noted: "Few people today are familiar with many of the countries
which existed only, say, 300 years ago. ... Italy did not then exist as a
sovereign state; nor did the United States. And more countries will appear or
disappear in the next few decades. The wars of secession, and the re-shaping of
boundaries -- largely suppressed by the Cold War -- begin anew. The wars to
break up Yugoslavia are still unfinalized. And in many of the new wars we will
see savagery abound as groups 're-discover' old identities, and seek to
capitalize on the permissive climate of change and chaos."
In the book I go on to say that in many respects, the "al-Qaida " phenomenon
owes its success to the financial links with what we are calling the Albanian
mafia, just as the Albanian criminals owe their success to the logistics and
networks of al-Qaida . The chaos of changing borders -- such as we are seeing
today in the Balkans, and elsewhere -- is fertile ground for criminality. In the
coming decades there will be more and more "no go" areas in the world. In many
respects, the terror has just begun. Criminal states, such as the proposed
Kosovo Albanian "state", will profoundly change the sense of security of all
peoples around the world. Already Kosovo is becoming like Afghanistan under the
Taliban . And like the Taliban destruction of the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan,
the Albanian Islamist process of destruction of the Christian Churches will be
complete if Kosovo is granted independence, and Western civilization will be
gone from a large part of the Balkans. In its place will be a criminal-terrorist
state, leaching into the heart of Europe. And it was made feasible by the
short-term policies of many European and US politicians of the 1990s.
We are now at a watershed. The World community does not have to continue with
the errors of the 1990s. It does not have to willingly accept -- and pay the
price in economic and security terms -- that Kosovo should be granted the status
of a sovereign state. Kosovo does not meet any of the criteria for a modern
nation-state, either in terms of the structure developed since the Treaty of
Westphalia in 1648, or of the post-Westphalian structure now emerging. Because
of globalization and the free movement of people, ideas, and capital, 21<st>
Century statehood will demand, at least, certain conditions of economic and
structural sustainability and multi-confessional and multi-cultural composition.
Attempts to define sovereignty in terms of the antique tribalism of
mono-ethnicity and single belief societies flies in the face of the realities
now emerging with a globalized society.
Kosovo and Narco-Trafficking
Kosovo is now the principal center of narco-trafficking for all of Europe, and
this has enabled the Albanian mafia to displace other criminal enterprises
throughout most of Western Europe, and to expand criminal activities into other,
non-narcotic areas. Two points in this regard are important: firstly, the
Albanian mafia is essentially what we can loosely call the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA), although it now goes by various names; and secondly, the KLA exists,
and is able to access much of its narcotic product, because of its close
interrelationship with jihadist movements and foreign state sponsors.
See Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, October 25, 2005: Heroin
Production Facilities Flourish in Kosovo Area Under US Military Protection .
As an example, three major heroin production laboratories, run by the KLA, are
operating within the area of Kosovo which has been under the control of US Army
units operating from Camp Bondsteel. Ironically, to support the KLA which the
former US Clinton Administration had deemed an ally, some US authorities
operating in the area specifically protected the laboratories from inspection by
other NATO forces in the area. There is also evidence that, over a period of
years, US military and possibly intelligence elements have actively engaged in
relations with, and protection of, the narco-traffickers.
Since the withdrawal of Serbian control over its Kosovo province, there has been
an increasing amount of opium grown in the area, and this is a major supply
source for the heroin laboratories, although some raw opium may also be fed into
the laboratories from, or via, Turkey (possibly including some raw opium from
Afghanistan and Iraqi Kurdistan).
The determination of the KLA to defend these facilities is now well-known
locally. A Russian unit, some four years ago, engaged the KLA in a firefight in
the area, at night, after which the KLA forces were sufficiently strong and
well-armed that they surrounded the Russian camp and essentially prevented the
Russian forces from leaving their camp.
The KLA's use of Kosovo as a criminal clearing-house extends to a wide range of
other activities. Stolen cars from all around Europe, but particularly from
Italy, are "re-processed" in Kosovo, and given new papers, before being
re-exported to places such as Albania. One such car was used for some time by
the Albanian Interior Minister, until a few years ago, before, on a visit to
Greece, it was identified because of an Interpol alert, and seized by Greek
authorities and taken from the Albanian Interior Minister. As well, electrical
goods and household fittings removed from the homes of Kosovo Serbs, who have
been driven from the area, are on sale through a major network of retail outlets
in Albania.
Little of this gains international attention, although the use of roadblocks by
the KLA reached such a level that the United Nations and NATO leaderships in
Kosovo have issued warnings to their personnel.
See Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, October 20, 2005: KFOR Claims
"Criminals" Active in Western Kosovo; Linked to KLA and Narco-Trafficking .
US involvement with the narco-trafficking has gone beyond merely turning a blind
eye to the activities of the KLA in the area. US military vehicles, several
years ago, were known to have actually transported narcotics from Kosovo, into
Western Europe.
Kosovo and Jihadist Links
Our organization, the International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA), has
for some years identified the growing links which the KLA has with the jihadist
movements which are largely identified under the rubric of al-Qaida . It is
important to note, however, that labels such as "al-Qaida " are misleading.
These KLA-jihadist links have been well-documented.<3> Moreover, the KLA, and
the territory of Kosovo, forms the basis of the territorial link for jihadists
moving into and out of Europe, seamlessly interacting with jihadists in Bosnia,
and in the southern Serbian area of Raska, as well as in the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), and the newly-independent state of Montenegro,
and so on.
Significantly, as we know from a wide range of information, Europe is a major
target for the global jihadist movements, and not only those under the al-Qaida
label, but also those financed and logistically made viable by the Iranian
Government.
We know that a number of foreign governments support, either directly or
indirectly, jihadist activities which are based in Kosovo and Bosnia. These
state sponsors include the Turkish and Iranian governments, and both governments
do so for nationalist reasons or, often, because of corruption, rather than for
ideological or religious beliefs. Indeed, even secular officials in Turkey who
are concerned over the rise of Islamism in their own country support the KLA,
for example, because of historic links into the Balkan territories and
communities which once formed an integral part of the old Ottoman Empire and
which still are seen as being within the orbit of pan-Turkism. In this regard,
although it is not the topic of this presentation, we see a major spread of
jihadist, criminal, and intelligence activities into FYROM, Montenegro, and
these activities are often dependent on the support of the Albanian Government.
The People's Republic of China (PRC) is actively engaged in the area, as well,
using its old Cold War contacts in Albania.
Illicit Weapons Trafficking
It is axiomatic that narco-trafficking and terrorism are interdependent with the
illegal traffic in weapons. We have strong evidence, which is touched upon in
Appendix (iii), that the entity which we are, for the sake of expediency calling
the KLA, is heavily engaged in arms trafficking not only to support its criminal
and jihadist -linked activities, but also as a profit-center in its own right.
It is significant that international financial controls have meant that the
terrorist-criminal movements have been forced to adopt new means of handling and
funding their activities, and in organizing their command and control. We're
seeing the use of bartering, or commodities and services exchanges, replacing
wire transfers of funds in the financing of acquisition of weapons and
explosives throughout Europe, for example. The KLA has been able to operate an
illegal weapons exchange with impunity, having the "safe haven" of Kosovo,
protected by the international community.
The man who has been at the center of this activity has been a second-ranking
KLA leader, Niam Behzloulzi, also known as "Houlzi". That may not be his real
name, but we know he carries (or has until recently carried) ID under the name
of Niam Behzloulzi.<4>
In Conclusion:
There is ample evidence that Kosovo has no legitimacy in the normal sense of a
sovereign state, and that, if it was to be recognized as such, it would further
erode the credibility of the international system. Indeed, the United Nations is
a body based on the membership of sovereign states, fewer and fewer of which can
actually meet the criteria for real sovereignty. The Cold War bi-polar system
sustained, for 50 years, many non-viable, so-called "states" within the ambit of
the superpowers, but that world is gone, and now we are increasingly seeing
"failed states" for what they are.
Kosovo would emerge as a "state" at a time when it can no longer expect the
long-term protection of the global system. This will only force it to turn
increasingly to the criminal-terrorist enterprises which have been the hallmark
of its birth.
Footnotes:
1. This paper was originally presented to the conference, Reconsidering Kosovo,
held in Washington, DC, September 28, 2006, under the auspices of the American
Council for Kosovo.
2. Copley, Gregory: The Art of Victory: Strategies for Personal Success and
Global Survival in a Changing World . New York, 2006: Simon & Schuster's
Threshold Editions. ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-2470-0, or ISBN-10: 1-4165-2470-3. See
www.artofvictory.com.
3. Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, October 25, 2005: Jihadist
Terrorist Leader Returns to the Balkans as Actions Intensify to Promote Kosovo
Independence, and Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, March 19, 2004: New Kosovo
Violence is Start of Predicted 2004 Wave of Islamist Operations: the Strategic
Ramifications, and Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, November 12,
2005: The Origins and Developments of Modern Islamist Organizations in the
Balkans; Links Into Narco-Trafficking .
4. Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, October 25, 2005: New Evidence
Highlights Albanian Link to Explosives Used in London, Madrid Bombings .
Copyright 2006 Defense & Foreign
Affairs/International Strategic Studies Association
Reprinted with permission.