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Argument: Kosovo cannot be likened to other modern secessionist movements

Issue Report: Kosovo independence

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  • Eqerem Mete. “Bush Right on Kosovo Independence”. The Conservative Voice.com. June 21, 2007 – “As well as this, the independence of Kosovo does not bear resemblance to secessions in other parts of the world. The relationship between Kosovo and Serbia can be likened to that of Indonesia and East Timor. East Timor was annexed by Indonesia in 1975 contrary to the will of Portugal as the external sovereign, a fact that made its annexation by Indonesia illegal. This injustice was redressed in 1988 when the Indonesian government recognized the right to self-determination of the East Timor people. Singapore is another example that should be taken into consideration. It split from Malaysia in 1965. The case of Kosovo is also similar to the case of Namibia, which broke away from South Africa and won its independence in 1991. The Eritrea case too provides another example in this regard. Kosovo’s independence can by no means be compared to secession of territories that were not annexed in a unilateral manner against the will of the people of the original sovereigns. The separatist movements in Transdnjestrovle (Moldavia), in Southern Osetia and Abkazia (Georgia), for instance, lack Kosovo’s ethnic basis. In Kosovo about 95 percent of the population is Albanian. These regions did not have an autonomous or federal status at the time of dissolution of the former Soviet Union as Kosovo did at the time of dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. The situation of the Kosovo Albanians cannot be likened to that of the Scots, Catalonians, Welsh, Corsicans or Basques either because the latter have not been ever deported en masse or massacred by the states, which control them. In addition to thousands upon thousands of Albanians slaughtered and deported abroad over one century under Serbia, about ten thousand Albanians were massacred by the Serb army and paramilitary bands prior to and during the Kosovo conflict and war in 1998-1999.”