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What’s wrong with this picture
Here we have an American ambassador to one country
casting aspersions on the Prime Minister of a neighboring country.
That alone makes me recoil. It is not only unprofessional. It also
makes the job of his colleague in Pristina harder. The last time
American officials trashed Prime Minister Kurti and even organized
his fall from power, he returned after elections with a renewed
mandate and an enlarged majority. He has hinted recently he might
call a snap election, presumably hoping thereby to show the
Americans that he has the unequivocal support of most of Kosovo.
Hill also praises the President of Serbia, the
country to which he is accredited, even though Vucic has mobilized
troops and sent them to the Kosovo border. There they confronted
NATO-led forces, including Americans, who are responsible for
Kosovo’s external defense. This is a clear violation of the February
normalization agreement between Belgrade and Pristina that the
Americans say is legally binding. It prohibits the threat or use of
force (Article 3).
Instead of denouncing this violation, Hill
mentions that Kosovo Serbs have been playing friendly games with the
NATO forces. That’s not surprising. Kosovo Serbs know that NATO
today protects them as well as the Albanians south of the Ibar
River. It was primarily Serb gangs President Vucic sent from
Belgrade who did the dirty work of attacking NATO soldiers. About
that, Ambassador Hill says nothing.
Let’s see if Vucic buys
He presses however for the Association of
Serb-majority Municipalities inside Kosovo. This proposition was
agreed in 2013. The quid pro quo was extension of the rule of law
under its constitution to the entire territory of Kosovo. Belgrade,
however, has not allowed that extension. It has resisted Pristina’s
efforts to get Serbs in northern Kosovo use Kosovo license plates,
withdrawn officials from Kosovo institutions in the north, supported
and enforced the Serb boycott of elections in northern Kosovo, and
maintained clandestine Serbian security forces there, who cooperate
with the rioters sent from Belgrade. Not everyone sympathetic to
Serb complaints is as blind as the Ambassador to what is going on in
the north.
Under current conditions, there is little doubt
that creation of the ASMM would formalize Belgrade’s control over
northern Kosovo. Nevertheless, I think Pristina should put forward
its own proposition for the ASMM. Prime Minister Kurti has mentioned
the Serb National Council in Croatia as a possible model. He should
spell out that or his own proposition in a written proposal fully
consistent with the Kosovo constitution, as the Americans have
guaranteed any ASMM has to be. Let’s see if the good Vucic buys.
Even if he does, the American guarantee should be in writing with a
commitment to monitor implementation on a regular basis.
What now?
Public complaints about current American policy in
the Balkans are rife. No one in the State Department is listening.
There are, however, lots of government officials at State who are
uncomfortable with the blindness towards Serbia’s misdeeds and
America’s Kosovo-bashing. It is time for them to get together to
submit a dissent channel message that tells Secretary Blinken what
he needs to know. His Balkan leadership is making serious mistakes.
He should order a speedy reevaluation and course correction.
PS: Even for the State Department, Hill’s comments
about Kurti were too much. So Gabe Escobar had to correct them, I
think yesterday:
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