A new declaration of independence

Photo by Jack Hill/The [London] Times

Times caption: "Ethnic Albanians thank Britain and the US for the 1999 Nato bombing that drove Serb troops out of Kosovo"

The Serbian and Kosovar flags

The flag of Kosovo was officially adopted following the unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. The flag is partly the result of an international design competition, organized by the United Nations backed provisional government, which attracted almost a thousand entries. The competition rules insisted that the final design must not use ethnic or national symbols or colour schemes in order to ensure that it represented all citizens. The now used design is a variant of one proposal. It shows six white stars in an arc above a golden map of Kosovo on a blue field. [Wikipedia]

[Emphasis mine]

From the Los Angeles Times:

PRISTINA, SERBIA -- Kosovos's parliament today declared the province's independence from Serbia, a controversial secession backed by Washington and many European governments but opposed by Russia and its Serbian allies.

The declaration was immediately condemned by Serbia, which lost control of the province to U.N. supervision in 1999, when NATO bombing campaigns drove out Serbian forces attacking ethnic Albanian separatists.

Russia demanded an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, now scheduled for this afternoon in New York.

LAT has this background info, which I add for anyone who's not been tracking news of Kosovo:

Kosovo has about 2 million people, 90% of them ethnic Albanian. The vast majority are Muslim, mostly secular and unabashedly pro-Western. Pristina has a main boulevard named for former President Clinton, who is revered here because he ordered the NATO airstrikes that drove out Serbian forces.

Serbia, a predominantly Orthodox Christian country that traces its cultural roots to Kosovo, argues that allowing the region to split away violates international norms. But supporters of independence argue that Kosovo, given the history, could never return to Serbian rule.

Le Monde published extracts of the declaration. Here is a tidbit:

- Le Kosovo "est une république démocratique, laïque et multiethnique, guidée par les principes de non-discrimination". "Nous protégerons et promouvrons les droits de toutes les communautés du Kosovo et créerons les conditions nécessaires à leur participation effective aux processus politiques et de prise de décision".
[snip]
- "Nous adopterons dès que possible une Constitution qui proclame notre engagement à respecter les droits de l'homme et les libertés fondamentales de tous nos citoyens, tels qu'ils sont définis notamment par la Convention européenne des droits de l'homme. La Constitution intègrera tous les principes significatifs du plan Ahtisaari et sera adoptée dans le cadre d'un processus et d'un débat démocratiques".

[My translation: Kosovo "is a democratic, secular, and multi-ethnic republic, guided by the principles of non-discrimination." "We will protect and promote the rights of all the communities of Kosovo and we will create the necessary conditions for their effective participation in the political processes and decision making."
...
We will adopt, as soon as possible, a Constitution that proclaims our commitment to respect human rights and the fundamental liberties of all our citizens, as they are notably defined in the European Convention of Human Rights. The Constitution will integrate all significant principles of the Ahtisaari plan and will be adopted in the context of a process of democratic debate."]

You can check the New York Times article here. Der Spiegel's online English international edition has this article about the lead-in to today.

Related to our earlier posting, Prince Leka II of Albania has ties to Kosovo and, if I remember correctly, the university there (like being a patron of it or something).

Serbia is not happy, of course. Serbs consider Kosovo to be a "heartland" territory of their history, though that hardly corresponds with the current strongly Albanian demographics of the region. Russia is not happy because the idea of ethnic regions declaring independence is highly threating to the Russian Federation.

What we can all do is pray for the people of this region, for peace, security, the rights of minorities, and a path forward amid strong tensions.
--the BB