Ottawa's Kosovo recognition - finally!

The news in the Balkans just keeps on changing! Just a short time ago, Ottawa officially announced that it had recognized the independence of Kosovo. Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, at left, must be happy. Serbia's ambassador to this country, Dusan Batakovic, is set to return to Belgrade, ostensibly only temporarily, awaiting further instructions.

Fledgling news reports have been pointing out that Japan was one of the recent countries that had recognized Kosovo's independence -- leaving Canada as the last G7 nation remaining officially 'on the fence.' Out of solidarity with this body, far more important for Canadian economic and security interests than any other(s), Ottawa finally threw in the towel. Whatever the reason, it was inevitable. Personally, I am delighted to hear this news.

What is ridiculous, however -- and here, this is coming from dissenters, Serbian, Canadian and others -- is the allusion to Quebec, and the implications that the recognition of Kosovo will mean that Quebec will have a greater incentive to separate. Nothing could be further from the truth; in fact, I would venture to say that such equations just obfuscate ground-level realities and situations.

Why? First, the last time Quebec held a referendum, and the separatists were only narrowly defeated, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard hammered out the 'Clarity Act,' which clearly outlined specific conditions and procedures to follow in the event of a successful future referendum. It ensures, to this day, that the conditions for Quebec's separation from Canada must be clearly mandated, concise, and heavily structured -- with limitations on what Quebec can expect from Canada in the get-go period of independence, and with the likelihood of territorial changes being made.

As a National Post column points out, and here I quote: "Under Canadian law, as set forth in the Clarity Act, Quebec can legitimately achieve independence, but only on the strength of a clear referendum victory on a straightforward question and after negotiations with the rest of the country for a mutually acceptable settlement that could include the partition of some of Quebec's present territory." Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe himself pointed out, as quoted in this same piece, such rules, and backed Kosovo's independence. "The right of peoples to govern themselves is a universal principle...The proof has been made that the people of Kosovo have decided for themselves to stand upright, that Kosovo should be an independent country." Comparisons to Quebec, therefore, fail to hold any water in such a comparison.

Second, and here again Canadian precedent is clear, circumstances change when gross human rights violations have taken place. Canada's Supreme Court is in clear agreement on this as well. This was the norm in Kosovo following 1989, and only ceasing until NATO's bombing campaign drove Serbian forces out of the territory. It was followed, shamefully but predictably, by revenge against Serbs (and Roma). Kosovo, under UN Resolution 1244, has existed as a de facto independent state since its passing, an international protectorate existing in a state of economic and strife-ridden limbo ever since. The wheels have finally begun to plow forward, though the Kosovans will hardly have an easy or fun time of it.

There has been no Clarity Act equivalent in the Kosovo case, as a combination of stonewalling, stagnation and outright deadlock have characterized negotiations on a final settlement of the Kosovo case. The Serbian (and Russian) side refused to relinquish anything beyond Kosovo's "autonomy," never clarifying just what this would mean, while the Kosovans refused to stay in any arrangements that would involve being part of Serbia. Can one blame them, given the recent past?

Indeed, some of the quieter ho-hum in Serbia has questioned such a position from Belgrade, and the prospects of having an unstable territorial and ethnic underbelly of instability and hostility with no resolution in sight. Would all of this be really worth it in the long-term, all for the sake of a smattering of monasteries, identity and sentimentality in the region, which is already predominantly Kosovan/Albanian, and which will only continue to be so?

Many people are going to be pissed for the foreseeable future, but the long-term will be very different. Tempers will subside, slowly but surely, even though the international rules of the game have been drastically altered by this chain of events. As for now: talley-ho to Kosovo!