Kosovo: The Hypocrisy of the U.S. Cries to Respect International Law

News Flash: The Bush administration acknowledges there is a such thing as international law.

But, predictably, it is not being invoked to address the US prison camps at Guantanamo, the wide use of torture, the invasion and occupation of sovereign countries, the extraordinary rendition program. No, it is being thrown out forcefully as a condemnation of the Serbian government in the wake of Thursday's attack by protesters on the US embassy in Belgrade following the Bush administration's swift recognition of the declaration of independence by the southern Serbian province of Kosovo. Some 1,000 protesters broke away from a largely non-violent mass demonstration in downtown Belgrade and targeted the embassy. Some protesters actually made it into the compound, setting a fire and tearing down the American flag.

"I'm outraged by the mob attack against the U.S. embassy in Belgrade," fumed Zalmay Khalilzad,the US Ambassador to the United Nations. "The embassy is sovereign US territory. The government of Serbia has a responsibility under international law to protect diplomatic facilities, particularly embassies." His comments were echoed by a virtual who's who of the Bill Clinton administration. People like Jamie Rubin, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's deputy, one of the main architects of US policy toward Serbia. "It is sovereign territory of the United States under international law," Rubin declared. "For Serbia to allow these protesters to break windows, break into the American Embassy, is a pretty dramatic sign." Hillary Clinton, whose husband orchestrated and ran the 78-day NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, said, "I would be moving very aggressively to hold the Serbian government responsible with their security forces to protect our embassy. Under international law they should be doing that."

Yes, the Serbian government had an obligation to prevent the embassy from being torched and ransacked. If there was complicity by the Serbian police or authorities in allowing it to be attacked, that is a serious issue. But the US has little moral authority not just in invoking international law (which it only does when it benefits Washington's agenda) but in invoking international law when speaking about attacks on embassies in Belgrade.

Perhaps the greatest crime against any embassy in the history of Yugoslavia was committed not by evil Serb protesters, but by the United States military.

On May 7, 1999, at the height of the 78 day US-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the US bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese citizens, two of them journalists, and wounding 20 others. The Clinton administration later said that the bombing was the result of faulty maps provided by the CIA (Sound familiar?). Beijing rejected that explanation and alleged it was deliberate. Eventually, under strong pressure from China, the US apologized and paid $28 million in compensation to the victims' families. If the US was serious about international law and the protection of embassies, those responsible for that bombing would have been tried at the Hague along with other alleged war criminals. But "war criminal" is a designation for the losers of US-fueled wars, not bombers sent by Washington to drop humanitarian munitions on "sovereign territory."

International law matters only when it is convenient for the US. So too are the cries for "humanitarian interventions." And despite the extremism of the Bush administration, this is hardly a uniquely Republican phenomenon. In a just world, there would be a humanitarian intervention against the US occupation of Iraq -- with its indiscriminate killings of civilians, torture chambers and widespread human rights violations. There certainly would have been such an intervention during the bipartisan slaughter, through bombs and sanctions, of Iraq's people over the past 18 years. But that's what you get when the cops and judges and prosecutors are the criminals. US policy has always operated on a worthy victim, unworthy victim system that is almost never primarily about saving the victims. Humanitarianism is the publicly offered justification for the action, seldom, if ever, the primary motivation.

If you are a victim who happens to share a common geography with US interests, international law is on your side as long as it is convenient. If not, well, tough. The UN is just a debate club anyway. Just ask the tens of thousands of Kurds who were slaughtered by Turkey with weapons sold to them by the Clinton administration during the 1990s. Or the Palestinians who live under the brutality of Israel's occupation. In some cases, the "victims" allegedly being protected by the US actually get bombed themselves, as was the case with President Clinton's "humanitarian" bombings of the north and south of Iraq once every three days in the late 1990s.

In the bigger picture, the Bush administration's quick recognition of an independent Kosovo has given us a powerful reminder of a fact that is too often overlooked these days: empire is bipartisan, as are the tactics and rhetoric and bombs used to defend and expand it.

Read my article on Kosovo at Alternet

Comments

[LizM]

Here's an op-ed on the subject of the Balkans and Kosovo that may be of interest...

http://biden.senate.gov/newsroom/details.cfm?id=293126&&

[MilwaukeeDan]

This weekend will mark 2 weeks since declaring inepedence, there are less than 20 countries that have recognized Kosovo out of 192 nations that they sent letters to. What does most of the world know that the United States and it's flunkies in NATO don't?

[villastrangiato]

I am half Albanian third generation born in the United States in 1965. Although I can understand and sympathize with some of the Albanian perspectives in Kosovo - I could never support the United States actions and policies after the initial intervention to stop potential genocide. As we are allegedly one of the world's leaders in protecting human rights - we had a moral obligation to put an end to the atrocities perpetrated by the Serbs against the largely unarmed population in Kosovo - but that is all we had the "right" to do. Whether the population chooses "democracy" or some other form of government is none of our god damned business! And speaking of moral obligation - why is it we seem to pick and choose which genocide to intervene in? Are the people of Darfur any less human than the Kosovo Albanians? The hypocrisy and fraud of the country I was born in has made me ashamed to admit I am a natural born US citizen. Let us be clear and honest about who we are in the year 2008. We are not in Iraq right now to defend democracy or "our" freedom. We are there purely to represent our (BIG OIL INDUSTRY) interests - period. And the Clintons represents more of the same lies and hypocrisy about what "we" stand for. While a lot of American Sheeple might be buying their logic - the rest of the world isn't. And ultimately, we will have to face the rest of the world's music. Our country's recent currency devaluation is clear evidence that that is already happening. If it is in fact true that the "meek shall inherit the earth", the United States will most definitely come up on the short end of that stick - humility, decency, and respect for others seem to be in very short supply these days.

[Jonahson]

While you may not find details of atrocity,
starting from how the natives were treated right up the Iraq invasion, in local history books you can be assured these transgressions will be part of the history of the countries where it happens and the memory of the people transgressed.

[cognate]

Mr. Scahill, while I agree with you on US hypocrisy, imperialism and disregard for international law, I support Kosova's independence.

It's true that Kosovo was at the center of the medieval Serbian state. But the Serbs lost control of it in the 14th century and over the following centuries moved - en masse - to what is now the heart of their state: Belgrade, northeast Serbia and the province of Vojvodina.

The Kosovar population has been mostly Albanian for centuries. In an imperialist drive of their own, the Serbs retook Kosovo in 1912 and carried out mass killings and ethnic cleansing of Albanians from 1912 all the way to 1999. The inhumanity against Albanians practiced under Milosevic was but the last chapter of a long history.

[MilwaukeeDan]

cognate, Serbs retook Kosovo in 1912 and ethnically cleansed the place, are you kidding?? The Serb/Albanian population was split 50/50 after WWII. Josip Broz Tito encouraged poor Albanians to immigrate there and many did to escape the Stalinism in Albania. It was Tito who gave them autonomy and that's when he lost control of the place, it became ghettoized and the Serbs started leaving, from half a million in 1945 to 120,000 now, while the Albanian population went from 500,000 to 2.1 million. Where do you get your information?

[cognate]

Yes, the Serbs ethnically cleansed Kosovo, beginning in 1912, following five centuries in the Ottoman empire.

The Serbian (and Yugoslav) government ran a colonization program in the 1920's and 1930's, settling Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo on lands previously confiscated from the ethnically cleansed Albanians. This attempt at redressing the ethnic balance ended with WWII when Italy, later Germany ran Kosovo. Under Tito the poor economy of Kosovo encouraged everyone - Serb, Albanian, or Roma - who could leave to do so, either to the West or the richer parts of Yugoslavia.

If Tito was so good to the Albanians, why did they revolt in 1968, in 1972 and 1981? Yugoslav tanks rolled on the streets of Prishtina several times before Milosevic came to power in 1987-88.

[darthmaul]

Look at how many wars Nato and Europe have been responsible for, while the poor Serbs were innocent bystanders:
1. War in Slovenia (1991)
2. Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995)
3. Bosnian War (1992-1995)
4. Kosovo War (1996-1999)
In all of these wars the Serbs were provoked and never did anything wrong. And General General Ratko Mladić was really innocent of the Sebrenica massacre and it wasn't the Republika Srpska Army under his command that slaughtered 8,000 men and boys. And the fact that years after the war Mladić has not been apprehended by the Serbs is just plain bad luck. And just because pictures-Portraits of Radovan Karadzic, another "alleged" war criminal, (who due again to bad luck has not been apprehended) were on display at recent Serb Kosovo protests is nothing to worry about. Lighten up world, don't worry! And quit picking on the Serbs!

[MilwaukeeDan]

dm, the war in Slovenia was a JNA(Yugoslav National Army) vs Slovenian separtists war, more Americans get murdered in one weekend than the number of paricipants killed in this war. The JNA pulled out and was disbanded. The Croatian war, Serb separtists in Krajina and Slavonia regions take up arms as Croatia proclaims independance and brings back symbols of the Croatian Ustashi, a WWII nazi puppet state that was responsible for the extermination of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies at the Jasenovac concentration camp. The majority of Serbs in Croatia were driven out into Bosnia, Serbia and Europe, there are also thousands of these refugees here in the US. Bosnia was never a country(and most still claim it isn't) and was a 3 way war between the 3 factions. In some areas, Serbs and Muslims fought the Croatians, in others the Serbs fought the Muslims and Croats and in some parts, all three sides fought each other. Kosovo, I think Mr. Scahill explains everything quite clearly. Ratko Mladic is probably getting a tan on the Black Sea, so I'm not sure how the Serbs are going to find him. Interpol and the FBI have been looking for him in Serbia since 2004, suprised?! Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic as well as Milosevic's army chief are/were Montenegrins, not Serbians, please get informed before you generalize.

[MilwaukeeDan]

dm, Srebrenica was one of the UN "safe havens" in eastern Bosnia. Instead of letting war take its course and letting the Serbs overun these areas, creating living refugees. The UN took sides and made these areas refugee camps. These so called safe havens were used as training grounds and bases to launch attacks against surrounding Serbian villages. Hundreds, if not thousands, of serbian peasants died, but nothing much was ever reported in the western media. The number 8,000 gets thrown out there a lot, I'm not sure if it's too high, but this happens in all wars, it's a tragedy of war, and no one hates war more than I do. I was one of the few who was against the Vietnam war, Granada, Gulf War I, The wars in Yugoslavia, Gulf War II(the return to Iraq),and the Afhgan occupation. I would love to see peace in the world, too bad governments will never allow it.

[cylindar]

You are right except for one thing. The Serbs are under no obligation to protect anyone in the US embassy. It is a courtesy not a law.

[Jonahson]

Zalmay and co. must be joking. Since when does US respect sovereignity? Their pre strikes and invasion of Iraq is a good example.

[Norge]

With sociopathic authority ruling the world, law usage when usable for one's own purposes is the certain way for lose of credibility by thinking people of the world.

The tragic game of politics has become through the ages, the game of the most cruel and barbaric power strutters of the human specie.

Rolf Krogsæther

[CanSoc]

One does not have to be a supporter of US neocolonialism to support the independence of Kosovo. Serbia lost its claim to the region when it launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the majority ethnic Albanian population, violating one of the most important principles upon which a national government is based, the protection of all members of its population. The Serbs who were complicit either through their active support of or their passive acquiescence in Milosevic's policy brought the present situation on themselves. The days when govermments could defend their mistreatment of subject populations as being in compliance with international law on the ground of national sovereignty are over.

[joanndarc]

Oh yeah, and we ALL support the Conederation of the Southen United States. And FL and TX should be returned back to Spain. And WHITE americans ought go back to Europe, their Homeland.

[20thcenturykid]

Well said, CanSoc! The same is true in the newly arch-nationalist Slovakia's suppression of the Hungarian-speaking populations, where a girl was beaten bloody by Slovaks recently because she dared to speak Hungarian on her cel phone. Same is true in the ethnic Hungarian region of Erdely (Transylvania) in present-day Romania, where the protection of the subjected Hungarian population is becoming criminally nonexistent. Watch for the uprisings next time, it won't be long! Long live Kosovo!

[nakahara]

Sorry, but as a Slovak citizen with a little more insight into the matter I have to correct some of your claims:

That "beaten" Hungarian girl - by the way, her name is Hedviga Malinova (Slovak name) - actually orchestrated the "attack" herself. There never was any "beating".
Hedviga originally claimed that she was attacked by two men who slapped and kicked her, stole her documentation and valuables and wrote some nationalistic crap on her blouse. All because she spoke Hungarian into her cellphone. But!
Investigation proved that Hedviga never phoned to anyone that day - her mobile operator had no data about any phone call from her mobile phone. Hedviga also had no actual wounds from her "beating" and her clothing from the day of the "attack" was pristine clean. The graphological experts proved that the writings on her blouse matched her own writing style - not to mention the Hungarian gramatical mistakes in the writing itself. The "stolen" documentation and valuables were later discovered to be still in Hedvigas possession. Hedviga could not point the place, where she was "beaten" to the police and could not describe her attackers...

In short, Hedviga Malinova is a pathological liar.

To inform you, there is no suppression of Hungarian people in Slovakia - Hungarians have the same rights as Slovaks, they can freely speak their own language, lead their own churches, theaters, cultural institutions...if you want to see suppression, look elsewhere.

It is a shame that such lies can still blame the whole nations nowadays, despite our "information" age...

[plutorage]

CanSoc - with national sovereignty "over" as you put it, is the Nuclear Non Proliferation treaty also over, since it was signed by states on the understanding that they enjoyed the protection of the law of sovereignty.

They would give up the protection offered by the nuclear bomb, as against other nations, because the law of sovereignty protected them from other nations. With that protection nullified by Kosovo, is not the Non Proliferation treaty nullified?

[FearlessFreep]

Standard operational b***s***.

Such hypocrisy is particularly pronounced under Republican administrations, but it always happens under the Democrats too.

[oldpotsmuggler]

What is a country? Or, more fundamentally, what is a country for?

How common is it for people to set up a national boundary and use that line as a place to hide behind while they commit aggression against the folks on the other side of it? Or the other favorite of using such a boundary as a place to keep people inside of for the purpose of their own government oppressing them?

Now to the crux of the matter. When is the human race going to mature to the point where we no longer need or want national borders at all? We like to say that we live in a country but we don't. We invariably maintain ourselves in a fairly restrictive area and, as long as we enjoy the full panoply of individual rights within our home space, it should not matter if our central government is one of several hundred, or the only one on the planet.

Would we be benefited if Los Angeles insisted on being a country? The justification, of course, would be that the people there share a place and are far more numerous than a good many other population groups who insist on being called a country instead of maintaining the same grouping and being called by the name of a smaller kind of governmental unit.

What if the Japanese had to share a voice with non Japanese speakers in order to be able to finally get a handle on solving problems whose solutions really need to be implemented everywhere? I mean, they would still be Japanese people living their Japanese lives in their Japanese houses in a place called Japan. In addition to that, though, they would world citizens.

Kosovo, I don"t know! It makes just no sense to me. What do they gain besides the ability to discriminate against not-Kosovo? Let them be Europeans or something. Something to keep the Serbs from banging on them and them from banging back.

[raptor]

An an "Island on the Land" (read the book?) it is geographically separate.

It is economically viable, unlike Eritrea, Basqueland in Spain, etc.

Its economy is greater than some members of, say, APEC, and many members of the UN.

What's the common uniting factor, the raison d'etre?

Quiz: Which great English orator, a Conservative/Tory, was seen at Versailles plotting the future map of the Balkans based on a topographic map? (Let's see, reds with reds, blues with blies, oranges with oranges, etc.)

[raptor]

The start should have been: Souther California is an "Island on the Land....
Sorry.

[MilwaukeeDan]

Three of the biggest crimes/lies against the American people by their govenment and the MIC(and Ike was right,by the way) in the last 40 years. #1, The Vietnam war, we lost 56,000(?)poor men and killed 1 million poor Vietnamese to "stop the spread of communism", now we have the communist Vietnamese making Nike shoes for us. #2, The "war on terror",Iraq and Afghanistan, where there are maybe 100,000 dead, millions "ethnically cleansed" and the creation of more jihadists than we can ever kill. #3, the war against Serbia, no doubt, Milosevic had to go, but handing part of that country to a bunch of drug running terrorists, the KLA, what the f**k were they thinking? Sometimes, I think they deserve their own country, and the USA won't admit to a mistake, so they will continue to prop up this thing called Kosova for as long as possible. What most Serbs don't like is the arrogant attitude displayed by the West and the Albanians. It's easy to talk tough when you have a bully(USA) in your corner. You all ran like a bunch of p*ssies when a couple thousand Serb special forces came after you. Chill out, you got your country, now, get a job. What Mrs. Clinton doesn't tell you is 50% of the population is under 25(highest birthrate in Europe) and unemployment runs at over 60%. The economy, of what there is, is crime based. When Yugoslav official went there, they always had armed escorts, or risk getting their heads cut off. If you don't believe Mr. Scahill or myself, there is much independant information about Kosovo floating arount the net and books. There was also an interesting editorial by Timothy Kenny, USA Today May 14, 2007, titled, "Kosovo faces rocky road to independance". Mr. Kenny is a former USA Today editor,a Fulbright scholar, journalism proff. at UCONN and tought journalism in Kosovo in 2002 and 2003, it's an inreresting read.

[raptor]

"ethnically cleansed", Oh, how Serbian. How tidy and genteel a phrase. Like "collateral damage". How far would a writer get these days describing Israel/Palestine as "the final solution of Europe's Jewish problem" by exporting it?

[fact finder]

MilwaukeeDan; For more on the subject of U.S. hypocrisy in Kosovo go to www.globalresearch.carch.ca index.php?context=va&=8055 you may have to Google it.

[MilwaukeeDan]

ff, been there, thanks.

[LizM]

First of all, you are quite correct to say that the US has lost its moral authority. It has also lost its credibility (almost completely), its standing in the world (perhaps, irrevocably), and its global leadership role (possibly, permanently), too. All reasons why Joe Biden should be the next POTUS, but that's fodder for a whole other post!

However, I hope you don't seriously believe that the bombing of the Chinese Embassy was anything other than an infinitely tragic mistake.

And, I hope that you are not implying that the declaration of independence by Kosovo should not be respected by the rest of the world or that Serbia, the nation, doesn't need to seriously grow up and move on to the important task of rebuilding Serbia.

[MilwaukeeDan]

The United States believed Milosevic was hiding there, that's the rumour anyway. Like killing him was going to stop the war. And Crazy Joe, he was for the disintergation of Yugoslavia and now he wants to divide up Iraq, yepp, that'll solve everything. Ask the Russians, Chinese, Greeks, Romanians, Spaniards, Slovakians, Montenegrins,,,what they think of Kosovo's declaration of independance. Time to wake up, LizM.

[LizM]

Hey Dan,

I can't say that I'm surprised anymore when the Biden strategy is misrepresented...the media doesn't understand the first thing about it, either. And, for that matter, neither does the blososphere, this site most definitely included!

Actually, Senator Biden's Iraq strategy is the only hope there is of keeping Iraq united by promoting and facilitating a political solution based on federalism and Iraq's constitution. This strategy, in a nutshell, provides a mechanism whereby the warring Iraqi factions could engage in tough negotiations to determine their political future. The regional and major powers would be involved in the process in an effort to support and secure whatever political accommodation the Iraqis are able to achieve.

You may be surprised to know that the Biden strategy has already received the overwhelming and unprecedented support of a majority of Republicans and Democrats in Congress and has been unofficially endorsed by the permanent members of the UN Security Council. But, most importantly, most of Iraq's sectarian leaders are on board with the strategy and most see Joe Biden as a friend of Iraq.

I would urge you to take a very close look at what Senator Biden has been advocating - it won't take you very long to realize that this strategy has nothing whatsoever to do with dividing or carving up Iraq. It is not about a US imposition or about the partitioning of Iraq. It is about an effort to bring an end to a vicious civil war by way of a political solution - the only one out there - that will allow US forces to withdraw without leaving a failed state behind and serious consequences for the US, the region, and the rest of the world for decades to come.

[Boyaca]

I could not possibly agree mre with your Post. Well said.

[MilwaukeeDan]

Thank you Mr. Scahill, your COMPLETE article pretty much explains everything. But I just don't get it, why recognize this non state? It is a international crime on par with the Iraq occupation, but no one is talking about it. The Kosovo Albanians have a country, it's called Albania or they can stay in the democratic Serbia. Is this all about imperialism or NATO occupation? Sure seems that way. Everyone should read the complete artice on Alternet. Thanks again.

[lachgirl]

My understanding (and I'll admit its limited) is that the majority of people living within that region felt that their interests were not represented by the main government of Serbia, and felt economically and politically that they would be better served to be on their own. Its a pretty common process--its why Spain and Portugal don't claim entire continents any more, or why Ireland is a country, etc etc.

And in the reality of today that is the EU, where Europe is economically one 'country', it makes sense that smaller, long colonized regions are exploring political independence, especially after a long period of oppression. See: Scotland.

Of course, I am of Basque descent, so there may be bias creeping in here...