Spins abound on the UN Kosovo ruling

Doubts emerge as to whether the ICJ ruling indeed favors separatism across the world.

Immediately after the release of the ruling by the International Court of Justice, Western powers spun the decision as a victory for separatism while issuing statements that the separatism inside Serbia is unique and would not apply elsewhere in the world.

Some are doubting that.

Serbia says that the decision is a “compromise” because the Court avoided recognizing Kosovo Albanians the right to secession and transferred any further decisions about the Kosovo issue to the UN General Assembly.

Serbia says that the ICJ avoided giving a direct answer to a question of legality of the declaration saying that the declaration was neither in line with nor in breach of international law.

International law has no active provisions that limit declarations of independence, therefore Kosovo’s declaration of independence from February 17, 2008, does not violate international law, says in the ICJ decision.

The Court did not decide on the “right to self-determination or secession” and Serbia never asked that.

Serbia says that the ICJ has in fact opted to stay within the framework of its mandate, which states that it can decide disputes between countries, and to accept that international law neither recognizes nor denies separatist movements the right to secession.

As a result, says Serbia, the case of Kosovo has been sent back to the UN General Assembly, giving Serbia the opportunity to prove its policy in New York come autumn.

“The West wants to say that this case has no precedent importance, but that’s kind of a contortionist logic,” said Dana Allin at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank.

“You can say that, but whether you can enforce it is hard to say,” said Allin.

The president of the breakaway Georgian territory of Abkhazia has welcomed the ruling on Kosovo saying that the “decision of the International Court once more confirms the right of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to self-rule”.

Armenian analysts Vahan Hovhannesian welcomed the ICJ statement saying that it is a “new tool in Armenia’s struggle for recognition of NKR [Nagorno-Karabakh] independence.”

Hovhannesian said that the UN Court ruling is the “law.. either observed or it’s not. It cannot be applied in one case and disrespected in another”.

Regions around the world where separatists may be energized by Kosovo’s secession include Spain’s Basque country and Catalonia, Scotland, Italy’s ethnic German populated Alto Adige, and parts of Romania and Slovakia populated by restive Hungarian minorities.

In the Middle East, Kurdish politicians in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region have also said they will carefully study the ICJ decision.

The ruling could also have far-reaching effects on Indonesia, the largest Muslim state, where at least two provinces, Aceh and West Papua, are seeking independence.

“Many countries will be under pressure to recognize Kosovo before the U.N. General Assembly in September,” Serbian President Boris Tadic said Friday.

“Serbia will do its utmost so that there are the least possible such recognitions,” he said.

“It’s a very dangerous precedent,” Serbia’s Foreign Minister Jeremic said.

“Pandora’s Box has been opened, and it must be closed before something flies out of it,” he noted.

The separatist Kosovo president appealed to his fellow Muslims in the Middle East saying that the “African and Arab countries, would recognize Kosovo after ICJ’s decision”.

Egypt has held off its recognition pending the UN ruling.

“For minority groups considering to secede, the opinion is something that seems useful at first sight. But legally speaking it does not help them at all,” said Willem van Genugten, legal analyst at the Netherlands’ University of Tilburg.

“The advisory opinion is restricted to Kosovo in more or less every paragraph, and the court avoids whatever implication for other minority groups,” van Genugten said.

“The court found an elegant way out by not creating a precedent,” said Jean D’Aspremont, international law analyst at the University of Amsterdam.

July 24, 2010
SERBIANNA
Agencies

Tags: Serbia

This news story was posted on Saturday, July 24th, 2010 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Kosovo, Serbia. You can follow any responses to this news story through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.