Kosovo & LTTE Separatism

(February 25, Colombo – Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Kosovo is no more a part of Serbia and has become a free state. Nation after nation have begun to recognize this new status. This development has become a popular news story throughout the world and questions have begun about how this would influence various liberation movements, and in the case of Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Nilantha Ilangamuwa set his task to get a cross-section of views from experts in various parts of the world particularly concerned with liberation movements. How did Kosovo achieve this status?

Here we present what Col R. Hariharan shared with the Sri Lanka Guardian.

“This applies to the LTTE struggle also. The Tamils have a long history of living alongside Sinhala population. Till 1973 there had never been any Tamil insurgency to form a united Tamil nation. Otherwise, with Tamil Nadu across the sea, historically the Tamils would have carved out a united Tamil nation involving parts of Sri Lanka and India long ago. Secondly, the Kosovo independence came about not because of Albanian struggle alone. It found support from the west and the US.”
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Questions:

• What do you think declared of independence (UDI) by Kosovo from Serbia?
  
  How is it an influence to other guerilla movements, who are seeking separate state such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)?

Answer: Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence is all together different in nuance and content from the demand for Tamil Eelam by sections of Tamil polity and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The evolution of the word balkanisation relating to this volatile region of erstwhile Yugoslavia indicates the instability and shifting tectonic relationship between Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Slovanians and Kosovan Albanians in the Balkans for centuries. There are religious, racial, linguistic and cultural differences between these communities occupying this region. Chauvinism of different varieties is endemic to this region.Global powers in different centuries have played upon these differences to create constituencies for themselves for their imperial aims. Kosovo independence is only yet another manifestation of this with the US and the NATO powers ranged on one side and the Russians on the other.

The German conquest of this region in the World War II and the fight against it by the nationalists united under Tito gave him a national leader a status. This led to the creation of a united Yugoslavian state once again under him. Marshall Tito, though a Croat, was able to rule the whole country as one united entity by virtue of his personality and ruthless style of Communist leadership. When he fell out with the Soviet Union, he used the cold war rivalries to survive and keep his Communist regime in power. After he died the unity wrought by monolithic control collapsed and Yugoslavia broke up into smaller states. The break up of the Soviet Union and the emergence of new republics in the same region almost coincided with the disintegration of Yugoslav state. The two major countries among Balkan states Serbia and Croatia have different religions (Orthodox and Catholic respectively) and languages (written in different scripts) with historical affinities with Russia and Germany respectively. Being the two major power blocs in the erstwhile Yugoslavia their assertion of power came to a boil when Serb leader Mlasevic came to power. Mlasevic considered Serbia as the legitimate successor of Yugoslavia, fostered Serbian chauvinism.

It was in this scene, the Albanians majority in Kosovo decided to fight Serbian authority and launched the struggle for independence. Mlasevic’s ruthless use of force to put down the Kosovans fight for their identity and pogroms carried out against them kindled worldwide sympathy for Kosovo. When the UN Security Council did not accept the recommendation for its independence in 1997, the NATO countries and the US used their forces to bombard Serbia relentlessly so that it was forced to accept UN presence to govern Kosovo in an interim arrangement in 1999. The Kosovo declaration of independence has neither UN mandate nor approval. The UDI is not likely to be accepted by many countries because it is outside the ambit of UN process. Many nations which have internal separatist insurgencies fear their recognition of Kosovo would set precedence for similar demands in their countries. Such nations also include some members of the EU like Spain. However as Kosovo has the presence of EU troops under UN umbrella it could succeed in surviving thanks to the support of the US and some of the important members of the EU. Within the Security Council it is doubtful whether it would ever be approved. So its anomalous existence is likely to continue.

It is difficult to predict how the UDI of Kosovo would affect the fate of other insurgency movements because they have diverse agenda, background, and operational environments in societies different from the Europe. Some like the Kurdish insurgency has trans-national character involving more than one nation. Some others like the Baloch in Pakistan have regional and tribal grievances. In Kashmir most of the insurgent groups do not have independence as the goal.

This applies to the LTTE struggle also. The Tamils have a long history of living alongside Sinhala population. Till 1973 there had never been any Tamil insurgency to form a united Tamil nation. Otherwise, with Tamil Nadu across the sea, historically the Tamils would have carved out a united Tamil nation involving parts of Sri Lanka and India long ago. Secondly, the Kosovo independence came about not because of Albanian struggle alone. It found support from the west and the US. That type of international support for Tamil Eelam does not exist. And the LTTE’s ruthless style of operation against Tamils and Sinhalas – troops and civilians alike - has alienated global sympathy that was there in plenty in 1983. Of course much would depend upon how the Sri Lanka government comes out of the present war. If it uses it as an opportunity to subjugate and alienate Tamil population due to feeling of Sinhala superiority instead of genuine nation building, no Kosovo is needed to rekindle international opinion in favour of Tamils.

Thirdly, international laws are selectively applied upon weaker states. It is often used as a tool in the power struggle of nations. Kosovo has proved this. After all the US human rights record is not lily white; still nations enforced their will on Serbia on the very same charges! A major reason is the US has a transparent system of governance that did not exist in Serbia. This is an important reason why Serbia does not find too many friends.

Lastly, legal precedents do not always translate into similar action; but possession does (as the saying possession is three fourths of law goes). This applies to nation states, however they originate. Both sides are right now trying to prove this maxim in Sri Lanka through military means.

(Col. R Hariharan, a retired Military Intelligence officer, served as a specialist on Sri Lanka. He is associated with the South Asia Analysis Group and the Chennai Centre for China Studies. E-mail colhari@yahoo.com)