A great week for plucky Serbia

I find myself in an absurd position when it comes to taking sides in the battle over Kosovo between the Government of Serbia on the one hand and the EU, US and Kosovo government on the other.

I am actually for an independent Kosovo. I think it would be unworkable and detrimental to all sides to even attempt to force Kosovo back under Serbian sovereignty even if it were remotely possible, which it isn’t. I genuinely believe it would be in Serbia’s best interests to let it go accept it is for the most part irreversibly lost. I want Serbia in the EU as soon as possible and I want the isolated negative violent ethnic nationalism of the 90s to be displaced and supplanted by a positive national pride of a thriving Serbia rightly back in the community of nations as the cultural and economic centre of a stable and prosperous Balkan peninsula.

That said I am sickened by lies, foul play, hypocrisy and bullying of “my side” . I feel like I did watching the Springboks when they first returned to International Rugby in the 90s. I desperately wanted my team to win but I was desperately ashamed of their foul play, brutality and thuggish arrogance. This is how I feel about the the behaviour of the EU and the US towards Serbia. I support the team and its objectives, I detest the foul means and pure nastiness of its tactics.

That is why I am happy it say it was a great week for Serbia.

The massive vote in favour of allowing Serbia’s challenge to Kosovo’s legality at the International Court of Justice both surprised and somewhat dismayed the EU/US/Kosovo bloc who expected it to pass, but not by the margin it did.

They (we?) hit back immediately with the pre-prepared plan to force Serbia’s two tiny neighbours Montenegro and FYR Macedonia to recognise Kosovo within a day of the vote.

This cynical manoeuvre was designed for psychological and propaganda effect: (1) To ruin the party for the Serbs and (2) to reset the frame by getting the global media’s focus away from Serbia’s UN victory and focussed on Serbia supposedly by being “stunned” by Montenegro and Macedonia’s “betrayal”.

In the scheme of things, Montenegro and Macedonia’s recognition is as insignificant as they are. Everyone knew they were being bullied into this recognition and Serbs were disappointed – for them mostly – but not surprised that they caved in.

In their zeal to head off the Serbian diplomatic victory the EU poured effort and threats into both these countries to get them to do their bidding this week, and they gave no thought to the consequences. Now that they have served their purpose, Montenegro and FYR Macedonia they will go back to being EU supplicants , and like Serbia, constantly told that progress is contingent upon yet another concession. Now, however, they will also have to live with the anger of their largest trading partner and the destabilising effect that their recognition will have on their internal political situations. For the sake of a short term flat earth news moment the EU has set back relations between Balkan neighbours and destabilised two countries al the while professing the desire to do the opposite.

The follow-up insult-to-injury gambit was the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Martti Ahtisaari, a loathed figure in Serbia, widely considered to be blatantly pro-Albanian and the man who handed Kosovo its (illegal) independence. The prize was expected to be awarded to imprisoned Chinese dissident Gao Zhisheng, but the committee decided instead to continue its tradition of politically motivated awards, almost certainly in my opinion as part of the co-ordinated response to Serbia’s UN victory.

Serbs must not allow themselves to be fooled by these crude gambits. The EU is trying the old tactic that worked so well for them and KLA against Milosevic: Provoke the Serbs into overreaction and violence.

Those days are over.

I want Serbia to smarten up even more than it has. Focus on the substantive and essential. Use the law, every legal instrument, every institution. Conduct the fight in the media and the internet. User the groundswell of anger and resentment against the US and the EU to force them into accounting for themselves and their illegal actions.

You see, I want the Serbs to give them a bloody nose. I want them to fight them down to the wire. To take it to penalties and extra-time.

I do not believe that Serbia can win in terms of what they might consider victory i.e. retaking Kosovo, but they can certainly win by being morally superior, beating the truth out of the EU/US in open court and exposing to the world the full extent of the lies and injustice it has endured.

From the run up to the illegal and unjustified bombing of Serbia in 1999 right up to today, I seen so much blatant unfairness and falsehood from my side over Kosovo (and to a lesser degree over Bosnia before that) that it has tested my faith in the West and the grand narrative of my political life, that of fervent apologist for Western values and foreign policy.

Those values are undermined by vested interests driven lying and manipulative parts of the Western system. I want then to be exposed and beaten as much as I want Balkan nationalism to be exposed and beaten.

I cannot support Serbia in its putative wish – to keep Kosovo – but I fully support it taking on bullies.

So come on Serbia, put on the good fight for you and for us. Keep smacking the bully in the chops with your legal and media fists. The more you hurt it the nastier and more vicious it will get. In the end you will get a proper negotiated settlement over Kosovo, and with it a good measure of vindication and exoneration to boot.