Whither Kosovo? Whither Democracy

In September 1999, the Independent International Commission for Kosovo held its first meeting in Stockholm with a brief to analyze objectively the Kosovo crisis that led to the first ever military intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Swedish prime minister Goran Persson initiated the work, but the of the commission was guaranteed and its chair and cochair were given the freedom to appoint the remaining members. Thirteen multidisciplinary experts from eleven countries on four continents decided on the mandate and terms of reference. (1) The commission met six times. It consulted widely with relevant governments and officials. It made a number of visits to Kosovo and met tete-a-tete with important leaders. Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response, Lessons Learned, published in October 2000, concluded that, in the absence of United Nations Security Council authorization, the NATO military response violated international law but was nonetheless politically and morally legitimate. (2) The illegality lay in NATO's decision to avoid the Security Council and certain Chinese and Russian vetoes. The legitimacy arose from the egregious oppression and violations of the human rights of the Kosovar Albanians by their Serb rulers. The Kosovar Albanians were the victims of ethnic cleansing that led to more than a million of them being driven from their homes. Whereas many of them fled after the NATO military campaign was initiated, there is no doubt that the bombing provided cover and encouragement for the Serb forces to intensify their execution of the policy of ethnic cleansing. It was simply unrealistic to expect the Kosovar Albanians to submit again to rule from Belgrade. The subsequent removal of Slobodan Milosevic as the head of state of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in no way changes this reality. In recognizing that the NATO intervention was both illegal and legitimate, the commission pointed to the consequent gap between international law on the one hand and morality on the other. An inevitable consequence of such a gap is that the system of international justice suffers. Where the law is not just, respect for it and its institutions is diminished. The apartheid laws of South Africa provide a graphic illustration of this phenomenon. The laws were manifestly unjust and oppressive. Imprisonment for violation of those laws became a badge of honor rather than shame. When such a gap emerges in international law, it is essential that steps be taken to narrow it. The commission suggested, therefore, that the UN General Assembly should consider a declaration setting forth the conditions that would make humanitarian intervention legitimate. The community of states should lay down the guidelines that could be used to measure legitimacy (for example, in the case of Kosovo) and attacks on legitimacy (in cases such as Chechnya). If the General Assembly does not undertake such an initiative, individual governments and international commissions should be encouraged to do so. The commission also recommended conditional independence for Kosovo. This meant from Serbia, although it was subject to international supervision, primarily to ensure the integrity of its neighbors and the full protection of the human rights of the minority communities of Kosovo. Since the commission reported, Milosevic has fallen from office, violence has spread to Macedonia, and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has promulgated a new constitutional framework. Elections under this framework were held on 17 November 2001. In light of these developments and many comments on the original publication, the Kosovo commission reconvened in September 2001 and issued an addendum to its report at the end of October 2001. (3) After reconsidering all pertinent developments in Kosovo itself and in the region, the commission unanimously reaffirmed its initial findings and recommendations

Commission · Democracy · Human rights · International community · International law · Legitimacy · Mandate · North Atlantic Treaty · Peacekeeping · Political science · Politics · Security council · Sociology · Treaty · United Nations Charter · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Public Administration

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