Comments on: Kosovo independence: A lament for Yugoslavia and no cheer for ethnic states

by: R Shanmugananthan( Shan)

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:34:09 +0000

Yugoslivia has set a valuable lesson for the modern world. When people are made to suffer because they did not belong to the ruling group they will try to overcome that suffering. This is a natural human reaction. The negative consequences for the perpetrators of this ‘tyranny’ is a good lesson for other similar countries.
The assumption that the international powers will not intervene in domestic affairs of other Countries has also been disproved beyond any doubt in Yugoslavia.
The people of Balkhan are living in peace after the split. This is another lesson for the world.

by: asa

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:24:13 +0000

Kosovo cannot be construed as nation by the yardstick of binding forces like language and culture; it is merely a state of convenience to prevent a Greater Albania due to contiguous nature of the territories.

A nation cannot be successful unless there is a separation of the state and religion

It is a tragedy that the Serbian people gets converted in their cradle to another religion by the conquering Turks only 500 years ago, and then they construct a nation based on religion. Still there is a significant Serbian population on the other side of the river in Kosovo.

But if only Serbia (within Yugoslavia) had behaved sensibly one would not have witnessed this partitioning.

Lessons can always be learnt.

by: 2ndClassTamil

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 18:37:00 +0000

We have been constantly bombarded by the history of Kosovo these days. Rajan Philips gives a good account. But what are the lessons? Author is pretty thin on this and it is all in his first paragraph.

That it is not a clash of the principles of sovereignty and self-determination, but a matter mainly of expediency and/or self-interest is the view of the author.

He has verymuch dicounted the fundamentally important underlying force of ethno-nationalism. The issue of secession has so far arisen in history mainly because of ethnic divisions. It is ethno-nationalism that has triumphed in Kosovo. Hitler tried it the dirty way and lost. But the post world war victors did it subtly by realigning borders along ethnic lines along with mass ethnic migration for disaggregation. Hence the peace in Europe. Post Cold War USSR split along ethnic lines and has disaggregated. What awaits Asia is a question. Can India, the land of maharajahs keep at bay the ethno-nationalist forces? Maybe, for the foreseeable future, if they give up their Hindian image and allow genuine wealth shearing. But I suspect by then a new term econo-nationalism may have reared its head in this global village.

by: Dayan

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:31:53 +0000

The independence of Kosovo brings more advantages to the world. The people of Kosovo and Serbia will live peacefully in the years ahead unless Russia interfere with those countries.

This is the way forward for the proactive world of our own.