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Putin draws parallels – the Kosovo war as a precedent for the Ukraine war? – News

5 March 2023

Contents

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is using the Kosovo war to cover up his actions in Ukraine. Southeast Europe correspondent Norbert Mappes-Niediek explains why the comparison is flawed.

What role did outside interference play in the wars in Yugoslavia? In the book «War in Europe. The overwhelmed continent” is also about these questions.

Legend:

The USA bombed Yugoslavia with NATO partners – for the first time without a UN mandate. At the time, they violated international law to protect human rights.

Keystone/EPA/Sasa Stankovic

Norbert Mappes-Niediek describes how the first tanks rolled into Slovenia. He describes the shock that war suddenly broke out again in Europe and traces history up to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. And the author asks about the consequences of intervention up to the current Ukraine war.

Norbert Mappes-Niediek was an advisor to the UN Special Representative for the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and spokesman for the German Bundestag in the 2000s. He wrote for various daily and weekly newspapers. Today he mainly works for public media.

His book “War in Europe. The overwhelmed continent.» It’s about the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia. The description begins with the first tanks in Slovenia and the shock that war suddenly breaks out again in supposedly peaceful Europe, right up to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Written before the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the book has gained unexpected relevance.

When Slovenia and Croatia wanted to become independent, the idea was initially rejected by the members of the European Union. The EC Troika tries to mediate. It tries to keep Yugoslavia together for reasons of stability. Similar signals are coming from the USA.

Only the newly reunited Germany is in favor of the secession of Slovenia and especially Croatia. The EU is currently being constituted at the Maastricht summit. In order for the summit to succeed, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President François Mitterand are trying to avoid the issue of the disintegrating Yugoslavia.

“That was the problem,” Mappes-Niediek is convinced. “The two said that all six Yugoslav republics can apply to the EU for recognition under international law.” According to Mappes-Niediek, the fact that the offer of recognition was not only aimed at Croatia and Slovenia, but – for the sake of the appearance of impartiality – at everyone, put Bosnia in acute danger of war.

US sees new role for NATO

The war in Croatia is followed by a bloody war in Bosnia and a civil war between Kosovar Albanians and Serbs. After the massacre in Racak, a village south of Pristina, the US attitude changed.

The Kosovo War is the last of the four Yugoslav wars from 1991 to 1999.
February 28, 1998 is considered the start of the Kosovo war: 25 Albanians and four Serbs are killed during an operation by the Serbian security forces against the Kosovo-Albanian liberation army KLA. In the months that followed, the situation escalated rapidly.
After international mediation failed, NATO forces began air strikes on Serbian targets on March 24, 1999. The operation had no UN mandate. On June 10, 1999, the Yugoslav leadership gave in and withdrew from Kosovo.
How many people fell victim to the conflict is disputed. Estimates range from 12,000 to 15,000 dead.

Joe Biden, then Senator, advocates intervention. Mappes-Niediek quotes him: “It’s about much more than humanitarian interests,” it’s about the future role of NATO. US Republicans fear a new Vietnam. But Biden and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright convince her.

The human rights aspect that was present in Kosovo is completely absent from the Crimean issue.

The USA and their NATO partners then bombed the rest of Yugoslavia and the capital Belgrade. In doing so, according to the author, they are breaking international law.

“We have to be clear that the USA ended the war with it,” said Mappes-Niediek. No court has yet judged whether this was legal. It remains unclear whether international law or human rights should be given greater weight.

Russia and the Kosovo precedent?

According to the author, the Kosovo war set a precedent. After 9/11, the USA invaded Afghanistan again without a UN mandate, in pursuit of Osama bin Laden.

US soldiers in Kuwait before the invasion of Iraq

Fifteen years after the outbreak of the last Yugoslav war, Vladimir Putin proclaimed that the Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine should be “protected from the rampages of neo-Nazis, nationalists and anti-Semites”.

Mappes-Niediek quotes Putin’s keynote speech: With the recognition of Kosovo, the western partners themselves set the “precedent” for the annexation of Crimea. From the author’s point of view, no justified parallel.

“The human rights aspect that was present in Kosovo is completely absent from the Crimean issue.” Nevertheless, it is not irrelevant if you break international law. “If you put morals before the law, others will do the same” – from their point of view.