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Argument: An independent Kosovo is the least bad option now

Issue Report: Kosovo independence

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  • Charles Kupchan, Senior fellow for the Council on Foreign Relations. “Independence for Kosovo”. Foreign Affairs. November/December 2005 – “The case for independence, however, rests not on Kosovo’s readiness, but on the lack of realistic alternatives. Ethnic Albanians are now in command, and they are adamant about breaking away from Serbia. As Kosovo’s prime minister, Bajram Kosumi, made clear in his office in Pristina, ‘The people of Kosovo will decide their own future. … If Kosovo does not become independent, there will be serious consequences.’ Kosovo’s Albanians have reached their limits; the atrocities and injustices of the past, combined with the empowerment of the present, make it all but impossible to envisage the continuation of Serbian sovereignty. Unfortunately, continued sovereignty is exactly what the Serbian government has in mind.”
  • Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament, said in February 2005, “Kosovo has nowhere left to go other than independence. Returning to a state relationship with Serbia is anathema to the 90 per cent of the population that is ethnic Albanian, and forcing such a solution would reignite war. Any protectorate option would be seen by Kosovo Albanians as merely the buying of time at their expense. And there are no viable candidate organisations to take on the role: the UN’s political capital in Kosovo is exhausted after its five years of inadequate, stop-gap administration, and the EU is not geared or willing to take over Kosovo’s governance.”

Counter-arguments

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