Firm principlism as a response to Kurti's uncompromising approach to the formation of the CSM

There can be no talk of removing the barricades until certain preconditions are met. The formation of the CSM is only one of them; the real reasons are deeper and systemic.

Taught by my own experience, I have repeatedly warned about the modus operandi of the collective West, whose two main characteristics are lies and manipulation. Signing agreements without any intention of implementing them, buying them time, and using the honesty and naivety of the other party who implements their obligations from the agreement as a responsible and moral party does - all the time without any intention to implement their obligations and ensure the implementation of the obligations of their partners. The goal is always the same - to buy time, to bring the other side to the fait accompli. And then say that the previous agreement has been overcome and push a new one.

Ten days ago, in an interview with a German magazine, Angela Merkel confirmed Petro Poroshenko's boast that the Minsk agreements had been just a maneuver to buy time for Ukraine, with no real intention of ever implementing them. Although I understand her motive to justify her, objective and visionary attitude towards Russia, which during her mandate had made Germany the most economically and politically powerful member of the EU, with a sovereign policy that did not respond to remote control from the other side of the Atlantic, this need is deeply disappointing to justify to those who, realistically, cannot even make her coffee, in a way that undermines her unquestionable political legacy. However, even though her motives were purely personal, her statement drove a stake through the heart of any potential settlement of the conflict in Ukraine with some kind of agreement - because what is the point of any agreement if there is no confidence that the other side will implement it – and she sent a message to Vladimir Putin that this conflict had to end militarily.

Balkan parallels

Some parallels - and not the military ones - have been imposing themselves for some time, not only in terms of solving the problems of Kosovo and Metohija but in the region as a whole. All those excited and angry foreign emissaries who visited Belgrade and Pristina these days, with general empty statements that what had been agreed had to be implemented, while at the same time refusing to confirm their firm support for the full implementation of any of the agreements signed so far, and that the most important thing was that the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, as soon as possible, remove the barricades and return to the institutions and that they would make sure that, for example, the CSM was formed, inadvertently driving the nail into the coffin of the EU's impotent involvement in solving this problem and both new and the old "brilliant" Franco-German proposal. Because the EU, in its world-famous manner, not only failed to implement even the technical agreements that it negotiated and guaranteed 10 years ago, but also by not implementing the agreed and arrogantly imposing status issues, it violated its mandate, which, therefore, it must be returned to the jurisdiction of the UN Security Council.

I have already spoken several times about the fact that the Albanians from Kosovo and Metohija, whenever they need to implement their obligations - create a crisis. One example is the pogrom in 2004, when the UN plan on standards before the status was supposed to be implemented, which included the return of internally displaced Serbs and other non-Albanians. From the very beginning, it was clear that by bringing Kurti to power, the malignant Western players intended to escalate the situation with senseless crises that build on each other, to speed up the situation and impose some external intervention, in a situation when it became obvious that they could not end their parastatal project as they planned - with a meek and servile recognition of that violent creation by Serbia. The completion of the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs that began in 1999 was only an "additional benefit", as some of our politicians fascinated by the West like to say. As those malignant Western players would say in their native language it is a "win-win" situation.

Loss of capacity

Kurti cannot lead Provisional Institutions; this is shown above all by the economic situation in the province. His only capacity is to throw tear gas, rattle guns, and cause trouble. He is one of the few Albanian leaders who managed to create divisions among the usually homogenous Albanians in Kosovo, as demonstrated by the recent address of the so-called president Vjosa Osmani, to the Albanian political parties that were boycotted by the majority of those parties. However, some of those who are now criticizing Kurti and recommending themselves to the Western masters as potential replacements, such as Ramush Haradinaj, have themselves created crises to divert attention from their duties to some new problem. So Kurti is a problem, but the bigger problem is the already mentioned western whisperers.

Let me repeat what I have said many times. If the US and its allies want to get rid of Kurti, it could easily be done, we've already had a chance to see it. It is enough to stop the money flow to the already dying economic situation and the Albanians from Kosovo and Metohija will remove him from power themselves. But the real intentions, despite rhetorical threats, in the situation we currently have in Kosovo, are shown by encouraging Kurti to submit a candidacy for EU membership - even though it directly violates numerous agreements, including Washington's letters of intent. It is clear to everyone that this is an internal political maneuver and smearing the eyes of their public; that this goes against all laws in the EU, and that five EU countries did not recognize this parastate in an attempt, but there is no reaction. On the contrary, just as there is no reaction to Kurti and Osmani posing with maps of Greater Albania, or to the announcement of the Self-Determination Movement at the moment when Escobar crossed the administrative line towards central Serbia that the CSM would not be formed. At the same time, a visa-free regime is approved for the citizens of this phantom parastatal creation on our territory. Let's face it, I fully support people being able to travel freely, it should have been done much earlier. And I'm already looking forward to reports of tens of thousands of "well-behaved and well-to-do" new visa-free travelers causing panic and discontent in other countries, not just the UK. So, despite the empty talk and threats to Kurti, the West needs Kurti.

A pink utopia

Currently, the main goal of the Western administrations is to remove the barricades in the north of Kosovo and to return the Serbs to the institutions. Why? For 20 years, the West has falsely presented the situation in this occupied part of our territory with a picture through rose-colored glasses - peace, tolerance, respect for diversity, rule of law, and respect for human rights. A pink place from utopia, with unicorns and cotton candy, where everyone would like to live and which therefore deserves to be confirmed as a "state". That narrative is reinforced by the elaborate reports and ranking lists of Western organizations that, as part of the Western propaganda machine, deal with the "promotion of democracy, human rights and the rule of law." Arbitrary arrests of the Serbs, unreasonable draconian prison sentences for a verbal offense or, for example, wearing a T-shirt with the Serbian flag, usurpation and seizure of Serbian property, false testimony by Albanian usurpers of Serbian property about the alleged crimes of Serbian owners in order to keep something that does not belong to them, destruction of churches and cemeteries, inappropriate use of force and selective application of the law, for example on the Petrovic family from Velika Hoca - that is not important, that does not count, because in so-called Kosovo - everything is perfect. That is why the exit of Serbs from temporary institutions is such a problem. Because if everything was as ideal as they claim - it wouldn't happen. And that is why the Serbs must return to Provisional Institutions, as soon as possible, before someone in that lobotomized public starts to wonder why they left them. And to draw parallels with some countries in other parts of the world, which are on the blacklist of both the US and the EU, due to exactly the same type of repression against minority communities.

The statement of the head of EULEX that he did not know where the kidnapped Dejan Pantic was - is astonishing. His job is exactly that, to know and to prevent the violation of rights. Such an impotent organization has lost all meaning, instead of respecting the mandate entrusted to them, they are complicit in the repression of the Serbs and other non-Albanians. Not to mention the corruption scandals that compromised that mission ten years ago, whose epilogue we never learned. And, as can be seen now, this seems to be a common problem in European institutions, at all levels, including the highest ones.

A growing pebble

For several months now, at international conferences and public academic-political debates about the crisis in Ukraine in the US and Europe - of course, except for those organized, for example, by NATO through the German Marshall Fund - not a single gathering passes without talking about NATO's illegal aggression to the former Yugoslavia. Ever since Angela Merkel made the aforementioned statement about the Minsk agreements, it has been spoken more frequently about the shameful attitude of the collective West towards UNSCR 1244, which had been consciously and actively violated while buying time to create the conditions for the self-proclamation of independence of the Kosov Albanians in the occupied part of the sovereign state, in complete contradiction to the adopted international binding legal framework. What was an almost imperceptible pebble in the shoes of NATO, and above all the US and its allies, despite all the censorship and aggressive propaganda, is slowly becoming bigger, blistering, and causing much greater discomfort than it was the case until now. And, what is extremely important to them at the moment, it undermines that preconceived narrative regarding Ukraine.

Older generations probably remember the 1944 black-and-white film, Gaslighting. Recently, the term has been increasingly used to describe, among other things, the aggressive Western propaganda related to the pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine, which is being manipulated to such an extent that the global public begins to doubt its perception, experiences, and understanding of what is happening. For more than 20 years, we have been exposed to this kind of aggression by our "western partners", to make us believe that the Kosovo issue is a finished matter and that we should take "brave steps" - against our own national and state interests. And this is precisely what all these calls for the urgent removal of barricades and return to institutions are about, while Pristina western mentors will "personally" deal with the formation of the CSM at some undefined time in the future.

These days I talked about Kosovo with a Western official. As expected, he also repeated the agreed narrative about the necessity of removing the barricades and returning to the institutions. And he also emphasized his concern with the "militant behavior" of the new Minister of Defense of the Republic of Serbia?! He had no answer to my question about how his administration had not expressed concern about the militant behavior of Kurti and the illegal entry of illegal police forces into the north of Kosovo and Metohija, the usurpation and construction of illegal "bases" on Serbian property, with the complicity of KFOR and EULEX.

Next steps 

All things considered, our next steps are more than clear. There can be no talk of removing barricades and returning to institutions until certain prerequisites are met. The formation of the CSM is only one of them; it is a motive, while the reasons are found in deep problems and systemic repression, with the complicity of the collective West and flagrant violation of all legally binding international agreements.

1. The request of the Government of Serbia regarding the return of the Serbian security forces, although arrogantly rejected even before it was formally handed over, is a rational strategic move that, regardless of the outcome, returns the attention of the international public to UNSCR 1244, which the US and its allies have been actively undermining since its adoption and successfully pushed it under the carpet until now. As I already mentioned, the announcement itself had the effect of starting a discussion about this resolution and its planned disavowal by Western countries at political-academic gatherings in the world, now in a much broader context that threatens the geopolitical interests of the collective West.

2. It is true that the request for the return of security personnel, as provided for in UNSCR 1244, should be sent to KFOR, but the UN Security Council should also be informed about it, and at the same time draw attention to the EU's withdrawal from the mandate entrusted to it - to mediate in the dialogue on exclusively technical issues. Given the EU's illegal attempts to direct the talks to status issues, as well as its inability to ensure the implementation of what had been agreed upon 10 years ago, an official request for the return of the process to the auspices of the UN should be submitted.

3. Demand the immediate withdrawal of illegal police forces from northern Kosovo.

4. Demand immediate and written guarantees from the commander of KFOR and the Secretary General of NATO on compliance with the conditions for any entry of police officers who are not part of the local multi-ethnic police into all Serbian areas in Kosovo and Metohija, including those, south of the Ibar.

5. Dismantle and demolish the illegally built bases in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, return the usurped land to the Serbian owners and pay them monetary compensation for the losses suffered due to the compromising of the quality of the land, intended for agricultural production.

6. Set a deadline for the formation of the CSM - in the originally agreed mandate, by 31.1. 2023. Set the same deadline for the return of property to the Visoki Decani monastery.

7. If the CSM is not formed within that period, declare the Brussels Agreement - and the Brussels process as a whole, suspended and dead.

8. Do not prevent the Serbs south of the Ibar from leaving all Provisional Institutions already on February 1, 2023.

9. After the formation of illegal municipal structures in North Mitrovica, immediately proceed with the formation of municipal assemblies in the north of the Republic of Kosovo by Serbian deputies and all other municipal structures in private houses, if access to the municipal premises is prevented.

10. After the exit of the Serbs from the Provisional Institutions both south of the Ibar, provide them with logistical and any other support in connection with the formation of Serbian institutions in those areas as well.

11. Provide budget funds for salaries and other affiliations of Serbian institutions both in the north and in the south of Kosovo and Metohija.

12. Request the international community to immediately release all arrested Serbs.

13. Request the international community to declare a general amnesty for all participants in the civil resistance of the Serbian community.

14. To dissolve the so-called army of Kosovo and return those structures to the existing legal framework, which, among other things, is defined by the so-called Constitution of so-called Kosovo.

15. Reject the so-called Franco-German proposal, considering that there is absolutely nothing in it that could be acceptable to us because it completely ignores UNSCR 1244 and the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia. Regardless of the nuances involved, the proposal of two
Germanys, which the western mediators, charmed by their genius, arrogantly and superficially put in the center of this document, is completely inappropriate and inapplicable to our situation and as such was rejected more than 15 years ago.

16. After submitting the candidacy for the EU by the Provisional Institutions in the Republic of Kosovo, immediately publish the documents on the withdrawal of recognition and continue the active unrecognition campaign.

Such a list of demands would certainly be rejected by Pristina, because, as known, they do not want to fulfill even what they have committed to, so far. But Pristina is not the address for these demands, but its Western patrons. The answer to Kurti's uncompromisingness relating to the question of the formation of the CSM must not be too much of a compromise approach, but a firm principle. When things are set like this, there is a chance that we could see another matrix arriving from Pristina as well. After all, even if that does not happen, Belgrade has nothing to lose by changing its approach - on the contrary.

Written by: Nebojsa Covic, former president of the Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija