Letter to the Times 12 March  2006

The Letters Editor, The Times. March 12th, 2006

from Jim Addington, chair: Action for UN UN Renewal
3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 3EL Tel. 020-8399-2547

The news that Milosevic has died before a verdict could be reached at his trial is likely to reopen the story of the collapse of Yugoslavia, which culminated in the war war over Kosovo. In the decade of the 90s the major powers were feeling their way. The Soviet Union, which would have prevented any action over Kosovo during the cold war, no longer stood in the way. On the other hand the Russian leaders tried through diplomacy to prevent the military action by 19 NATO countries which took place in March 1999. The attack on Yugoslavia, which began with the bombing of Kosovo itself, did not have the support of a UN Security Council resolution.

Almost a quarter of a century earlier all the European states, together with the Soviet Union, the USA and Canada, agreed in the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 which set up the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. They agreed, without equivocation, that they would never breach the borders of another European state. This was in line with the United Nations Charter. Article 2(4) guarantees the political independence of every member state. In his 1999 annual report the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, stated that the attack on Kosovo was not legitimate.

The collapse of Yugoslavia, which began with the withdrawal of Croatia and Slovenia, was a sad end to the new state of Yugolsavia created after the first world war by the victorious powers. Now the region is again well and truly Balkanised with a large number of barely viable mini states, some still divided on ethnic lines. This is part of the post cold war tragedy which, through intervention, has semi-permanent 'safeguarding' forces occupying states from former Yugoslavia to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Yours truly, Jim Addington