U.N. Court Rules Kosovo Declaration Was Legal

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U.N. Court Rules Kosovo Declaration Was Legal​

By DAN BILEFSKY
Published: July 22, 2010

PRAGUE —

Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law, the United Nation’s Highest Court said Thursday in a ruling that Kosovo heralded as a victory but which legal experts warned could spur separatist movements around the world. But legal experts emphasized that while the court had ruled that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was legal, it had scrupulously avoided saying that the state of Kosovo was legal under international law, a narrow and carefully calibrated compromise that they said could allow both sides to declare victory in a dispute that remains raw even 11 years after the war there.​

Political analysts said the advisory opinion, passed in a 10-4 vote by the court judges, is likely to spur other countries to recognize Kosovo’s independence, which has thus far been recognized by 69 countries, including the United States and a majority of European Union nations, but has failed to attain recognition by two-thirds of the United Nations General Assembly.

Reading the nonbinding opinion, whose political consequences could reverberate far beyond Kosovo, Hisashi Owada, president of the International Court of Justice, said international law contained no “prohibition on declarations of independence” and consequently Kosovo’s declaration “did not violate international law.”

Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership welcomed the court’s decision.

“This is a great day for Kosovo, and my message to the government of Serbia is ‘Come and talk to us,’ ” Kosovo’s foreign minister, Skender Hyseni, said after leaving the court, The Associated Press Reported.

But Serbia was adamant it would never recognize what it has previously called a false state, while Russia, one of its staunchest allies, insisted the court’s decision did not provide a legal basis for Kosovo’s independence.

The Serbian foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, said the ruling could encourage separatist movements elsewhere who would now be “tempted to write declarations of independence.”

The United States State Department said the ruling was “a judgment we support,” according to The Associated Press. “Now it is time for Europe to unite behind a common future.”

James Ker Lindsay, a Balkan expert at the London School of Economics, said the court had trod carefully in weighing the right of a people to self-determination over the right of a sovereign state to territorial integrity, and had decided to sidestep the issue altogether.

“It has essentially said that Kosovo’s legitimacy will be conferred by the countries that recognize it rather than by the court,” he said.

Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia on Feb. 17, 2008, marked the culmination of a showdown between Serbia and the West in which the United States and a majority of European nations argued that Serbia’s violent repression of Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians under the former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, had forfeited Serbia’s moral and legal right to rule the territory.

Serbia and its ally Russia countered that the declaration of independence by Kosovo was a reckless breach of international law that would inspire separatists everywhere. Last year the United Nation’s General Assembly, at Serbia’s urging, referred Kosovo’s declaration to the court, based in the Hague. Hearings began in December.

Analysts said that the legal legitimacy conferred on the independence declaration by the court could have profound consequences for global geopolitics by potentially being seized upon by secessionist movements in places as diverse as Northern Cyprus, Somaliland, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria.

But legal experts stressed that the court’s studious avoidance of ruling on the legal status of Kosovo as a state had been calculated to avoid encouraging nationalist movements and left the issue of a territory’s independence at the discretion of the countries that chose to recognize it.

“The court invariably is very prudent and avoids making political decisions,” said Bert Barnhoven, an expert at the Asser Institute for International Law, a policy organization in The Hague.

The judges on the panel — split almost evenly between countries that have recognized Kosovo’s independence and those that have not — have a history of narrow and conservative judgments.

Major European powers and the United States have been at pains to characterize Kosovo as a special case that should not serve as a precedent for other groups hoping to declare independence. But in hearings last December in the Hague, Spain, Russia and China — all of which face secessionist movements in their own borders — argued forcefully that Kosovo should remain a part of Serbia. China was so impassioned that it made its first oral pleading to the court since the 1960s.

“If the I.C.J. opinion establishes a new principle, an entire process of creating new states would open throughout the world, something that would destabilize many regions of the world,” President Boris Tadic of Serbia told the Tanjug news agency ahead of the ruling.

Mr. Milosevic, the former Serbian leader, revoked Kosovo’s autonomy in 1989 and fiercely repressed ethnic Albanians, who make up most of its population. Some turned to armed rebellion. NATO intervened in 1999 to halt Mr. Milosevic’s violent response to the rebels. After the war ended, the United Nations administered Kosovo for eight years, during which time it lingered in a legal limbo. After the failure of a negotiated settlement, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in February 2008.


Additional reporting by Marlise Simons in Paris and Stephen Castle in Brussels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/world/europe/23kosovo.html

 

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Kosovo independence declaration deemed legal​

By Adam Tanner and Reed Stevenson

THE HAGUE | Fri Jul 23, 2010 2:51am EDT

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law, the World Court said Thursday in a decision with implications for separatist movements everywhere.

The non-binding, but clear-cut ruling by the International Court of Justice is a major blow to Serbia and will complicate efforts to draw the former pariah ex-Yugoslav republic into the European Union.

It is likely to lead to more states following the United States, Britain and 67 other countries in recognizing ethnic-Albanian dominated Kosovo, which broke away after NATO intervened to end a brutal crackdown on separatism by Belgrade.

It may also embolden breakaway regions in countries ranging from India and Iraq to Serbia's war-torn neighbor and fellow former Yugoslav republic Bosnia to seek more autonomy.

"The court considers that general international law contains no applicable prohibition of declaration of independence," Judge Hisashi Owada, president of the ICJ, said in the clear majority ruling delivered in a cavernous hall at the Hague-based ICJ.

"Accordingly it concludes that the declaration of independence of the 17th of February 2008 did not violate general international law."

Serbian President Boris Tadic insisted Kosovo remained part of Serbia, a statement which, alongside the unequivocal nature of the ruling, threw confusion over Serbia's path toward EU membership, seen in the West as a way to stabilize the Balkans.

"Serbia will never recognize the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo," Tadic said.

News of the court's decision prompted celebrations in the Kosovo capital Pristina, where people drove through the streets waving Kosovo, U.S. and British flags and shouting "USA, USA!."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said everyone should move beyond the issue of Kosovo's status and seek cooperation.

Kosovo Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni said the ruling would compel Serbia to deal with it as a sovereign state.

"I expect Serbia to turn and come to us, to talk with us on so many issues of mutual interest, of mutual importance," Hyseni told Reuters. "But such talks can only take place as talks between sovereign states."

In the flashpoint northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica, Albanians fired bullets in the air and let off firecrackers while Serbs gathered in their part of town and international forces blocked bridges across the river dividing the two sides.

In Serbia the Orthodox Church, which has deep roots in Kosovo, rang church bells and led prayers.

Serbia's dinar currency hit all-time lows, forcing the central bank to intervene for the second day in a row.

CLEAR RULING, CLEAR OPPOSING SIDES

Serbia lost control of Kosovo in 1999 when a 78-day NATO bombing campaign ended a two-year war between Serbia and ethnic Kosovo Albanians, and put in place a U.N. administration and a NATO-monitored ceasefire.

The reaction of Serbia's ally Russia to the ruling contrasted sharply with that of the United States, a reminder of Cold War tensions and of the risk of a continued impasse in the region, one of the poorest corners of Europe.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said the court's decision did not provide a legal basis for Kosovo's independence since it only referred to the declaration of independence and did not address the legality of consequences such as statehood or recognition.

Analysts said the ruling left little room for doubt.

"I don't think anyone was expecting that. It is a clear, strong and unambiguous statement in favor of Kosovo's independence," said Marko Prelec of think tank the International Crisis Group.

"It will strengthen Kosovo's position vis a vis Serbia in the international scenes and weaken Serbia's position. There will be many more recognitions now."

FAULTLINES

The ruling was being watched closely by other nations grappling with calls for secession from within their borders.

"This is bad news to a number of governments dealing with separatist movements," said Edwin Bakker, researcher at the Clingendael Institute of International Relations. "This ruling brings Kosovo's entry in the U.N. much closer."

Georgia filed a lawsuit in 2008 against Russia at the same court, saying that Russia's incursion into South Ossetia and Abkhazia amounted to ethnic cleansing. Spain, which has its own regions seeking greater autonomy, has said it will not recognize an independent Kosovo.

"The decision of the International Court once more confirms the right of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to self-rule," said Sergei Bagapsh, president of the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.

In the Balkans, the ruling could fortify separatist sentiments in the Serb half of Bosnia, another former Yugoslav republic which remains divided along ethnic lines.

(Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina, Ivana Sekularac and Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade, Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Willam Maclean in London; edited by Philippa Fletcher)


Kosovo independence declaration deemed legal | Reuters

 

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So this is the fact. Our peoples had a right for self-determination, from Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia until Milosevic rule, Kosovo as a federal part of Yugoslavia had it's rights as authonomus region. But Milosevic taked our Authonomy,and tried an ethnical cleansing against Albanians. And after all, every analist knows that Serbia lost Kosovo. They payed their huge mistakes made against Kosovo.