A decade and a half kept secret about the declaration of Kosovo's independence: The most expensive fake news in history

Many countries recognized Kosovo based on misinformation that the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Provisional Assembly, formed in accordance with Resolution 1244, although the creators and signatories of that document denied this in their statement to the International Court of Justice, 14 months later. Did Joachim Richter know that and why did he misinform the UN Secretary-General? Why did Serbia never react to that?

In July 2010, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined that the Declaration on the Independence of Kosovo on February 17, 2008, was not adopted by the temporary institutions of self-government in Kosovo, formed according to Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council, but that its authors were the political leaders of the Albanians from Kosovo, who they did not declare themselves as the Assembly of Kosovo, so they did not act within the framework of temporary institutions. In this way, it was concluded that this informal activity was not prohibited by special international law, established by Resolution 1244.

At the UN General Assembly, Serbia proposed a question for the ICJ without first noticing who the author of the Declaration was, so basically, it didn't even know what it was fighting against when it started a legal fight against the Declaration. If it's any consolation, almost the entire world was misinformed. A special question is how it is possible that the majority of those present at the session of the UN General Assembly on October 8, 2008 (eight months after the Declaration of Independence) were convinced that the Declaration was proclaimed by temporary institutions, and with that conviction, they adopted Resolution 63/3, which they ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to answer the following question.

"Was the Declaration of Independence unilaterally proclaimed by the temporary institutions of self-government in Kosovo in accordance with international law?".

The very next day, on October 9, 2008, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes to the President of the ICJ and informs him that the UN General Assembly has raised a question and delivered Resolution 63/3 in which the preamble states:

"Remembering that on February 17, 2008, the temporary institutions of self-government in Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. This shows that at the time of sending the letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ban Ki-moon and his administration have been officially spreading disinformation that they have declared independence for eight months temporary institutions. Until that moment, more than a dozen countries recognized the independence of Kosovo, but it will be shown that the reasoning for the recognition was based on - misinformation by many countries.

On the occasion of the declaration of Kosovo's independence, an emergency closed session of the UN Security Council was held on February 17, 2008, after which Ban Ki-moon told reporters that his special representative and head of UNMIK in Kosovo, Joachim Richter, informed him that "the Assembly of Provisional Institutions self-government in Kosovo today adopted the Declaration on Kosovo Independence". That statement is still on the UN website, "Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today briefed the Security Council on the latest developments in Kosovo, a province of Serbia administered by the UN since Western forces drove out Yugoslav forces amid inter-ethnic fighting in 1999. Speaking to reporters afterward, Mr. Ban said that his special representative and head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Joachim Richter, informed him that the Assembly of Kosovo's Provisional Institutions of Self-Government had earlier today adopted a resolution on the declaration of Kosovo's independence.

What is obvious at first sight from the documents of the ICJ, is that almost the whole world was in the wrong about what happened on February 17, 2008. The world was convinced that the document was adopted by the Assembly of Kosovo, and based on that, many countries in the following days and months recognized Kosovo's independence or, on the contrary, refused to recognize it, considering that the Assembly had no right to do so. Neither of them knew what they were really taking a stand on.

In its explanation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that on March 28, 2008, more than a month after the declaration, Ban Ki-moon submitted to the Security Council the periodic report of UNMIK on the situation in Kosovo, in which it is stated that "the Assembly of Kosovo held a session during which it adopted the 'declaration of independence', declaring Kosovo an independent and sovereign state (UN Document S/2008/211, paragraph 3)". Therefore, even in that report, the real authors of the Declaration are not revealed, so it is obvious that UNMIK continuously misinforms the Secretary-General and the UN Security Council.

On what basis did the Ministry of Foreign Affairs conclude that the Declaration was not promulgated by the Assembly of Kosovo? In order to clarify the procedure, after the ICJ received the issue from the UN General Assembly in October 2008, it sent a letter to the UN member states and gave them the opportunity to express their opinion on the issue within six months. Within that period, about 35 states expressed their opinion, and on April 17, 2009, the authors of the Declaration also submitted their statement to the ICJ, who in item 6.01, right at the beginning, confidently state that "contrary to the misleading language in the matter submitted to the court" which is the General Assembly The UN submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "The Declaration of Independence is not an act of the temporary institutions of self-government in Kosovo."

In the continuation of the statement, Kosovo presents to the court a series of evidence that it is not about the Assembly.

The Declaration of Independence was not submitted for first and second reading, nor did it pass through parliamentary committees, as is the case when the Provisional Assembly acts. In this case, voting was done directly. In addition, the Declaration was signed by all present, and the decisions of the Provisional Assembly are signed only by its president, it was signed immediately after the vote, and not after the usual 48-hour period in which an objection can be lodged against the text. The declaration was not sent to the head of UNMIK, as was the case with all acts adopted by the Provisional Assembly, and it was not published in the Official Gazette of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Kosovo.

Item 6.14. statements could be the reason for launching an international criminal investigation for the manipulation of the translation of the Declaration, "The English and French translation of the Declaration of Independence included by the United Nations Secretariat in file 371 does not reflect the actual content of the Declaration that was read in Albanian, voted on, and which was signed on February 17, 2008. In particular, the words, ``The Assembly of Kosovo... approves...'' (L Assemblee du Kosovo... Approuve') do not appear in the original text. The Republic of Kosovo brings to the attention of the court the photographs of the original Declaration (as attachment 1) and its translation into English and French. This Declaration was actually read, voted on, and signed during the extraordinary session of the Assembly on February 17, 2008."

Did Joachim Richter know that the Assembly did not declare independence and why was he silent?

All the aforementioned arguments from the statement of the representatives of Kosovo had an effect on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which agreed that the Declaration had not been adopted by the Assembly, which in strictly legal terms made sense because the judges went through the 'evidence' they had without paying close attention, which is the way in which the courts generally function.

It is disputed that the authors of the Declaration hid those "evidence" for 14 months after the Declaration of Independence and that the UN, as the largest institution in the world, spread false news for months.

From all of the above, it can be seen that the Albanian leaders planned a procedural maneuver in detail in order to make a departure from the Assembly in a formal and legal sense, and on the other hand, the incorrect information that the Assembly adopted the Declaration would spread around the world. Because if they had transparently announced to the world that they had left the official institutions within the framework of Resolution 1244 and declared independence privately, no one would have recognized them. It was easy to fool the media and guests that day, given that everything took place in the Assembly building.

The head of UNMIK, Joachim Richter, must have been aware of the plan to make a clear departure from the Assembly in the papers, so he did not intervene. Upon the request to act, which he received from Serbia, he decided to remain silent, because if he clarified to Belgrade that it is not the Assembly that makes the decision, Serbia would then use that to stop the wave of recognition, and the whole plan would fall into the water. The ICJ notes that Richter's silence suggests that he did not consider the Assembly to have declared independence, as otherwise, given that the heads of UNMIK had previously annulled similar Acts of the Assembly on independence in the period from 2002 to 2005, in accordance with that practice and he was obliged to act. However, regardless of the fact that Richter legally defended himself, the question remains how he dared to spread false news in the UN Security Council.

Because of everything that happened in the world after the proclamation of the Declaration on the Independence of Kosovo, Kosovo is "sliding through" as a pretext for new wars, in which even nuclear weapons are used, it could turn out that everything that preceded the recognition of Kosovo as independent states became the most expensive fake news in history.

Written by: Bojan Bajic, an expert in business ethics and compliance