The Prague Post
August 22nd, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Real Estate Prague Prague Rentals Prague Apartments Prague Art & Antiques

Home » Archives » News

Kosovo autonomy dispute rages

Serbians view Czech recognition as a 'betrayal' of history

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 25th, 2008 issue

MICHAEL HEITMANN/The Prague Post
Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, left, and MP Jaroslav Foldyna, took sides in a heated panel discussion of experts June 18.
Photo courtesy of MO ČR (www.army.cz)
The Czech Mission in Kosovo has about 500 soldiers posted there.
One month after the Cabinet sauntered off to the north Bohemian town of Teplice to formally recognize the independence of Kosovo in an “extraordinary meeting,” the decision continues to fulminate among local pundits.
Emotional tirades interwove with constructive criticism in a June 18 panel discussion that pitted Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg against some of the country’s top experts on Czech foreign policy in the Balkans.
While commended by several participants for his willingness to face the onslaught of disapproval voiced by the audience, Schwarzenberg’s arguments for recognizing Kosovo appeared meek next to the commentaries of his fellow panelists, including former Foreign Affairs Minister Jiří Dienstbier.
One day after returning from a visit to Belgrade, Dienstbier initiated the discussion with a reminder of Serbia’s historic solidarity with the Czechs.
“For the Serbians, the Czech recognition of Kosovo was perceived differently than the recognition of other countries. They recall that their country was willing to mobilize [against Germany] during the Munich Agreement, that they protested against the [Soviet] invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, that they supported the Charter 77 [anti-communist] movement,” he said.  “From this less intellectual perspective, they view the Czech decision to recognize Kosovo as a betrayal.”
It was the first of several panelist allusions to the infamous agreement of 1938, when France and England yielded to Germany’s request to annex Sudetenland, an ethnically German area in Czechoslovakia. Although the Czech government may not have realized this, the fact that the Cabinet’s decision was made on the territory of the former Sudetenland is an irony that did not go unnoticed by Serbian intellectuals, said Dienstbier.
“An area belonging to another country was annexed because a different language was spoken there. This is symbolic of what happened in Kosovo,” he added.
Despite what Dienstbier called a “feeling of regret” at the abrupt Czech decision — which caused Serbia to recall its ambassador to the Czech Republic — Serbian politicians have no intention of severing diplomatic ties with Prague, and are in fact searching for ways to ease tensions that  erupted there as a result of the Czech decision.
With Prague’s diplomatic priorities firmly fixed on the Balkans, Belgrade hopes that the Czech Republic will champion Serbian interests when assuming the EU presidency in January. These include the approval of an association agreement strengthening Serbia’s ties to the EU, the abolishment of visa requirements for Serbs traveling to the EU, and the establishment of EU education programs and scholarships for Serbian students.
Ambiguous policy
Aware of Serbia’s disappointment, the Czech government “remains committed to fully integrating Serbia into the EU,” said Schwarzenberg. “We must support Serbia, but we must also support Kosovo.”
He stressed cooperation with the United Nations’ plans for regional stability and emphasized the importance of boosting Kosovo’s economy. “The biggest problems in Kosovo are terrible poverty, destitution and unemployment,” he said. “It is therefore extremely important to attract foreign investment.”
Aside from outlining the Czech government’s future involvement in Kosovo, Schwarzenberg attempted to defend the government’s aberrant decision to recognize its independence. As recently as February, Schwarzenberg said the Czech Republic was “in no rush” to recognize Kosovo, and that a final decision would be based on an EU consensus and further negotiation with the region.
“Initially, we postponed the recognition, but we cannot be engaged in the region without participating in the development,” he now said. “Prime Minister [Mirek Topolánek] decided that it was time that I present the issue.”
Schwarzenberg’s main argument for the recognition was the presence of 500 Czech soldiers in the area, who would be placed in an “unpleasant situation” if they occupied a territory whose government was not recognized by their country. However, this explanation was promptly refuted by Dienstbier, who pointed out that Slovakia had deployed soldiers to Kosovo despite not recognizing it.
Aside from complicating the Czech military presence, Schwarzenberg said failing to recognize Kosovo jeopardized the Czech Republic’s membership in the International Steering Group (ISG), a recently forged union of countries supporting independence and democracy in the region.
After joining the group in March, the Czech Republic was recently expelled due to its fragmented stance on Kosovo independence, Schwarzenberg said, earning harsh criticism from Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Lubomír Zaorálek, who questioned the logic of joining the ISG in the first place.
“We voluntarily joined a group of the most ardent supporters of Kosovo independence, and were then kicked out when they found out this decision had no support here — not in the governing coalition or Parliament,” he said, collecting applause. “What sort of purpose did this serve?”
According to Zaorálek, this sort of ambiguity is characteristic and extremely detrimental to the country’s foreign policy. Instead of joining the ISG, the Czechs could have used their knowledge of the region to try and find a compromise for the Kosovo issue while maintaining their position as negotiators. “I saw this as a great potential for the Czech foreign policy platform and for the EU presidency,” he said. “But now our chance has been lost.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


Other articles in News (25/06/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Reader's comments:

add your comment
[13:09 26/06/2008] : It is sad to think that people are questioning Kosovo recognition based on the relationship between the two countries.
Please look at this at a realistic way and understand that Serbs have ruled over Kosovo with an iron fist for way too long.
They did not care about Kosovo or its people and thus left it as the most underdeveloped region in former Yugoslavia.
If kosovo was so important and critical to Serbia, why did they not invest more in it? At the same time, please remember what they did to my country of Bosnia and to Croatia, Slovenia and then Kosovo.
Serbia started four wars - lost all of them - and caused the murder of hundreds of thousands of people.
They lost every right to rule over Kosovo, since you can't kill one's family and be welcomed back.
Forget the historical ties with Serbia and look at what they did in the middle of Europe.

Serbia is talking about international law and how 1244 should be followed, but in the '90s, they did not care much about international law.
How interesting. They are again trying to use Kosovo for their political gain, but Kosovo is on its way toward the European Union and Serbia is still trying to form a government. There are still freezer trucks of Albanians in the bottom of Danube River that will come up one day.

There is not one reason why Serbia should rule Kosovo.
mike smith
sarajevo, bosnia
[13:13 26/06/2008] : The Czechs will do whatever they are told by their masters in Washington and London.
Margot Winston
Prague
[16:48 26/06/2008] : The situation in Kosovo was nothing like that in the Sudetenland, it's really an absurd comparison. The Czechoslovak government had been giving the Germans there increasing freedom, unlike in Yugoslavia where autonomy was taken from the Kosovars after they had been given it. The Czechoslovak police did not murder entire families in seeking to put down unrest in the region. The Czechoslovak army did not force the inhabitants of the Sudentenland from their homes and out of the country. And as for support in 1968, Albania withdrew from the Warsaw Pact rather than support the invasion - on that basis, maybe its attitudes should receive some consideration here.

On the other hand, why in the world does Serbia want Kosovo back? There are only about 6 million Serbs in the country (they have large minority populations). Two million angry ex-Kosovars could swing their elections to the tiny liberal party and start influencing the country's politics even before the combination of the growing Albanian population and the shrinking Serbian population resulted in the Albanians being the majority in the country. At which point it could vote to merge with Albania for a truly "Greater Albania". Why in the world would the Serbians want that?
Judith Yeaton
Boston, formerly Prague
[16:57 26/06/2008] : The recognition has nothing to do with the past relations with Serbia! The recognition has nothing to do with the events in Kosovo 1997 onwards! The recognition has nothing to do with the reality, rights, history, or whatever.
It is strictly related to the fact that CEZ (or whatever the name is of the Czech electric company) will have the right to build the power plant in Kosovo.
So, the recognition has to do with Euro 4 billion!
Alban Kosovari
Prishtina
[19:18 26/06/2008] : This reminds me of the way the Russians were kept in the Contact Group and other Kosovo forums without having any influence. It only helped the international careers of the diplomats and politicians involved.

It might be a better strategy to expose the ISG as a blatantly pro-Albanian lobby group that does not possess the objectivity required to assure human rights in Kosovo.
Wim Roffel
Leiden
Note: Comments that include profanity, personal attacks or any other inappropriate material are prohibited.  

Add your comment


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.