| Another outbreak of bloody conflict in Kosovo demonstrates
yet again the profundity of human forgetfulness. Every time the lofty idea
of protecting the rights of one people becomes the source of the violation
of the rights of another people.
Until 1999 the developments in Kosovo represented an obvious evil. This
evil had to be stopped. However, the organisers and perpetrators of that
action could find nothing better to do than to virtually sign a pact with
one group of bandits against another.
This was the moment when Albanian extremists learned in Kosovo, "the
strong always holds the weaker guilty."
Consequently today our Western partners de facto have to hastily refute
their own "arguments" of five years ago. This is especially
difficult, as many of them had already managed to become involved - as
enthusiastically as they had in spring 1999 - in a new story with the
same plot: I should reiterate here that the Western allied forces entered
Iraq, inter alia, to implement the right of the Iraqi people to "common
human values."
At the same time it looks as if certain lessons have been learned from
the experience of Iraq and Afghanistan (as in their time the Taliban started
in virtually the same way as the Albanian extremists in Kosovo –
with a massacre of those of another faith and ethnic origin). However,
the price of these lessons is blood, death and the sufferings of a great
number of people. Let’s not forget the terrible terrorist act in
Spain on March 11, which led some European capitals to abandon at long
last the "satisfaction" of separating fanatics possessed with
hatred into "good" "fighters for freedom" and "bad"
terrorists.
Another thing should also be noted: peacemakers should not forget that
they are responsible for the results of their actions.
The price of freedom and human rights is great. It is our common task
to prevent these notions from being inflated for the sake of momentary
political viability. In my opinion this is the main lesson to be drawn
from the Kosovo drama, and not only from the situation in Kosovo.
See also:
Situation
in the Balkans
| 