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Recognition of Kosovo

Harun ur Rashid
THERE has been diplomatic pressure from the US and Britain for the government of Bangladesh to recognise Kosovo.
The immediate-past caretaker government decided that it was premature to recognise Kosovo partly because of the absence of any decision in the matter by the Organisation of Islamic Conference (O1C).
Some argue that the circumstances that led Kosovo to declare independence are similar to those in Bangladesh during 1971. The argument is misconceived; the situation was vastly different in many respects:
First, Bangladeshi freedom fighters fought against an occupation army, which surrendered in Dhaka on December 16, 1971. Second, the former territory of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was never under the administration of the UN. Third, Pakistan recognised Bangladesh in February 1974. Fourth, the UN envoy to Kosovo recommended that Kosovo should have internationally-supervised independence for an initial period.
Kosovo has a population of about 2 million people, with an overwhelming
majority of Albanian Muslims, and shares borders with Montenegro to the west, Albania to the southwest, Republic of Macedonia to the south and Serbia to the north and east.
After UN-sponsored negotiations failed to reach a consensus on an acceptable constitutional status because of opposition by veto-wielding members of the Security Council, Kosovo's provisional government unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on February, 17 2008. The US and Britain supported Kosovo's independence in the Security Council.
Kosovo has received recognition from 62 out of 192 UN member-states as of this date. The United States and some major European countries, such as Britain, Germany, France and Italy have accorded recognition to Kosovo, while some EU members such as, Spain. Romania, Cyprus,and Greece did not recognise Kosovo.
Serbia, the mother-state of Kosovo, Russia and China also have not recognised it. The official position of these countries is that Kosovo is a Serbian province under ad-interim UN control, formally known as Autonomous Province of Kosovo.
The countries that oppose recognition of Kosovo consider that recognition as an independent state in the Balkans will boost the ethnic demands for independence across the world. They further argue that the recognition of Kosovo by European Union member-states has provided a manual on how to achieve recognition of an ethnically divided state.
The unilateral declaration of independence by a state would legitimatise the doctrine of imposition of a solution to ethnic conflicts. It would open a Pandora's box, specialy in Africa where ethnic conflicts are rampant. The implication of recognition of Kosovo was perceived when Russia recognised break-away territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008 as independent states after the Georgian conflict in August 2008.
The question is: how does a state assess its own stand on recognition of a new state?
The recognition of a new state is a vastly different ball game from that of a government. The recognition of a new state provides a country with sovereignty and enables it to become a legitimate player in international affairs.
Certain principles are considered to prevent third or distant countries complicating the political situation in the region by giving premature recognition to a new state.
There are certain guiding principles of recognition of a new state and. ordinarily, the following considerations are weighed:
• Whether neighbours of the state that wish to recognise have accorded recog-
nition (Bangladesh has to see whether India or Pakistan or Nepal or any Saarc country has recognised it);
• Whether all neighbouring countries of the new state (Kosovo in this case) have recognised it;
• Whether the mother-state (Le. Serbia in this case) has recognised Kosovo and whether the new administration has been accepted by all ethnic people within the new state.
It is doubtful whether all the above conditions have been met Furthermore, in the case of Kosovo, a Muslim-majority territory, whether the 56-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has taken any decision. It is noted OIC is split on the issue of Kosovo's recognition, and the last Islamic Conference of the Foreign Ministers held in Uganda failed to reach a consensus on the subject Only two countries (Malaysia and Turkey) of OIC have reportedly recognised Kosovo.
Political observers say the issue of recognition is a game of power-politics between US/EU and Russia and China. At a EU-Russia summit on May 21 -22, there was no meeting of minds on this issue.
Bangladesh does not wish to be caught in a power game between big powers by recognising Kosovo prematurely. National interest will guide the decision in matter of recognition of Kosovo at an appropriate time, after OIC takes a decision on Kosovo.
Barrister Harun ur Rashid s a Former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN. Geneva.