Serbia Asks UN for Sovereignity Protection

BELGRADE (AP)--Serbia's prime minister sought support Wednesday from the United Nation's new secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, against granting independence to Kosovo, the separatist province whose future is being discussed in international talks.

Vojislav Kostunica sent a letter to Ban asking that "the United Nations ensure inviolability of Serbia's borders, its sovereignty and territorial integrity."

The southern province, populated mainly by independence-seeking ethnic Albanians, has been a U.N.- and NATO-run protectorate since 1999 when the alliance halted a Serb crackdown on the separatists.

Seven years after NATO air strikes forced Serb troops out of Kosovo, the province formally remains part of Serbia but a lasting settlement is being sought, through U.N. mediation, by Western powers and Russia.

Belgrade has proposed a broad autonomy for Kosovo, but the province's majority population demands complete secession.

"It is simply unacceptable and impossible that Serbia's borders be redrawn against its will," Kostunica said in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press.

He also said that if Kosovo - which accounts for 15% of Serbia's territory - becomes independent, it would effectively "create another Albanian state" in the Balkans, in addition to neighboring Albania.

What I've been saying ever since that damned war began. Yugoslavia was a sovereign state. Clinton, Blair, and Schroeder attacked it without ANY support from the UN. If the UN stands for anything at all, it is to defend the sovereignty of its member nations.

That's aside from the fact that we also fought the war on the wrong side, rushing to the aid of Muslim terrorists.

Of course, it's no longer clear that the UN does stand for anything. But it's worth a try. This new Secretary General is actually a decent man, to all appearances, maybe the first decent Secretary General in a dog's age.

Interesting point. The classical definition of national sovereignty since the rise of nations in the Renaissance has been the ability of a nation to impose internal order on its citizens through laws, and to defend itself against external aggression.

Since the end of the Second World War, that has changed, precisely because of the UN. Now there are numerous "sovereign" nations that cannot possibly defend themselves against aggression without the help of bigger nations like the U.S., or without the help of the UN. Indeed, the defense of small sovereign nations is one of the things the UN likes to boast about, even if it has a dismal record of accomplishment.

In spite of the fact that clinton was a notorious UN-lover, he never even attempted to invoke UN sanctions against Serbia--partly because Russia would have vetoed it, and partly because the UN is not, supposedly, in business to attack and break up sovereign nations.

If they support taking Kosovo away from the Serbs, it will undermine their central reason for existing. I should think a lot of small and defenseless countries around the world should be worrying about this precedent.

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