Fault lines from Georgia to Kosovo

Yet, Jeremic warned, “this has become a test case of global significance. Should it be allowed to stand, the door would open for challenging the territorial unity of any U.N. member state.”

In this sense Security Council resolution 1244 from 1999 remains the legal bedrock of the multiethnic solution.

Serbia is the author of its own destruction, reaping the whirlwind of its brutal actions in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.

Even today, General Radko Mladic, an indicted Serb war criminal remains on the lamb in Serbia, protected by elements of the state security apparatus and probably the high echelons of the Belgrade government. Only last year Radavan Karadovic, living undercover in Serbia, was captured and taken to face trial at the Tribunal in the Hague.

While Kosovo's independence has been recognized by sixty countries, including the U.S., Britain, Canada, Turkey, and most of the European Union, significantly no state in South America and few in Africa and South Asia have done so.

Why? Countries like China, India, Indonesia, all multinational states with separatist rumblings, are decidedly nervous about the political precedent and all are haunted by the genie of separatism.

Mainland China confronts deep ethnic fault lines in Tibet and among the Muslims in Xinjiang, and what Beijing claims a “separatist” Taiwan also plays into the issue.

While seemingly small and distant places, both Georgia and Kosovo illustrate the wider threat to the territorial integrity of so many states; usually not democratic, on whether separatist or independent minded regions can coexist with the central government.

Vice President Joe Biden recently toured the Balkans making an American recommitment to the region's political freedom, sovereignty and economic well-being. Building on the Bush Administration's political recognition of Kosovo and close ties to neighboring Albania, the Vice President said all the right things.

Now, however, comes the real test for Washington to keep its commitments throughout the Balkans despite the diplomatic distractions and to do the right things as well.

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He can be contacted at: jjmcolumn@att.net

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