Last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper quietly announced that Canada would formally recognize Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence. This recognition came a full month after the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo declared the disputed province to be the world's newest country.
The U.S., U.K. and Germany helped orchestrate this bit of political manoeuvring by the Albanian Kosovars as they knew that any attempt to follow the legal course of independent statehood through UN channels would be vetoed by the Russians.
Thus, after the Americans, Brits and Germans announced their formal recognition, several other European countries followed suit. But a significant number of key countries such as Spain immediately denounced the unilateral declaration as illegal. Canada sat on the fence for 30 days, but finally caved in to pressure from the U.S. State Department. So other than once again placating the Americans, what exactly has Canada achieved through this formal recognition of independence?
Let's start by taking the emotional issues off the table and examine the background. Kosovo is a tiny, land-locked, mountainous, underdeveloped province in the centre of the Balkans. It is located between Serbia and Albania, and not surprisingly, its population of two million is a mix of Serbs (10 per cent) and Albanians (90 per cent). Over the past several centuries, Kosovo has been the battleground for clashing empires. Yet, despite the ebb and flow of invaders and the exodus and influx of ethnic groups, this impoverished province has always remained the religious heartland of Serbia's Orthodox Church. It is for this reason that the Serbian political leadership in Belgrade cannot concede the loss of Kosovo from its sovereign territory.
http://www.espritdecorps.ca/Ontarget%20080326.htmhttp://www.espritdecorps.ca/index.htmI think that we need some more views, rather than the paid MSM on many subjects.