By Mustapha Ajbaili
When Kosova declared independence Sunday, Feb.
17, Arab leaders, again, were left behind in the international
demonstration of support for a free and independent Kosova. As nations
join the march for global consensus over the statehood of Kosova, Arab
nations inattentively stand parallel to the Israeli caution to heed
Kosova's self-determination.
While Israel's position can be explained by
the fear that Palestinians may take a similar step for
self-determination, Arabs' official disregard hitherto for the birth of a
Muslim-majority state in Europe is clearly difficult to fathom, at
least for ordinary observers.
Eight days after Kosova announced
independence, only four Muslim-majority states — Turkey, Malaysia,
Afghanistan, and Senegal — have announced official recognition. Some
observers may argue that all Islamic and Arab states have acknowledged
the independence of Kosova when the Organization of the Islamic
Conference sent formal recognition to the government of Kosova. However,
expressing opinion as a block would divert attention on each member
state's genuine position and renders the group's decision insignificant,
especially when it is non-binding to its members.
Regimes in Limbo
The Arab regimes,
from Rabat to Baghdad, whose ligitmiacy has been widely criticised
appear to have more self-fulfilling ties with opponents of Kosova's
independences than with the lofty principles of freedom, democracy, and
Muslims' aspiration for unity.
For decades,
Russia, one of the staunch objectors of independent Kosova, has supplied
prominent Arab regimes in Syria and Algeria with military weapons and
political backup in their endless battles at home and across borders.
In North Africa,
official welcome of Kosova's independence is unlikely to go on public,
if actually there exists a welcome. For Morocco, any talk about
self-determination is likely to evoke anxiety about Western Sahara conflict.
As for Algeria, President Abd-Elaziz
Bouteflika, who is currently preparing for a constitutional "reform"
that would allow him "reelection" and a longer stay in office, paid a
visit to his traditional ally, Russia, and uttered no single word on the
birth of a new state on the other side of his Mediterranean borders.
This reveals not just how interest-oriented
Algerian regime proclaims to be, but more, how improvident and
tunnel-visioned it actually is. Why? Because a fervor endorsement of
Kosova's independence in the international sphere would grant legitimacy
to the Algerians' bellicose and unyielding support for the Polisario
Front on the basis of respecting people's right for self-determination.
Eastward, Sudan's government, a least from a
pragmatic perspective, is likely to share worry with its major foreign
ally, China, vis-à-vis
the self determination of Kosova. Both countries, if to recognize the
independence of Kosova, would have to be consistent as to accept the
self-determination in Darfur and Taiwan, which are likely to go for
secession.
The Chinese standpoint on Kosova's
independence is expected to go beyond passive objection to take on an
active approach where it influences its allies, like Sudan, to contain
growing recognition of Kosova's independence.
In the Gulf, the fear factor that motivates
any response or lack of response to the freewill of a people is not
acutely different from that found in Sudan and Morocco. In Iraq, fears
of religious and ethnic-based territorial splits haunt not only
concerned observers inside the country but more leaders in Saudi Arabia
and the rest of the Gulf nations.
Previous Links
The Saudi — as
well as other Arab — belated response to Kosova's unilateral declaration
of independence is consistent with previous official involvement of
Arab states in the Balkan region.
During the
Bosnia-Herzegovina war (1992-1995), hadn't it been for individual
Muslims and Muslim aid and charity organizations, the slaying of the
Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) by the Serbia-backed Bosnian Serbs would have
continued at the watch of the self-proclaimed Islamic leaders.
Despite time and
space variation, the cases of the Arab stance on both Kosova and
Bosnia-Herzegovina war are clearly analogous. In fact, as NATO prepared
for the bombing campaign to liberate Kosova from Serbian military
cruelty in 1999, the Libyan secretary of the People's General Committee
for Foreign Relations and International Cooperation Omar al-Muntasir,
upon meeting with the Serbian ambassador to Libya, rejected foreign
(NATO) intervention in what he considered Serbian affairs.
Such often
ambiguous and trembling official Arab response can be traced back to the
historical link between many Arab nations and both the former Soviet
Union and other communist nations like Yugoslavia.
As in the long
catalogue of historic events that have exposed leaderships in the
Islamic and Arab worlds so inert and incapable, the Muslim populace,
despite being largely incapacitated by repressive regimes, remains the
one and only source of solace for Kosovars in the Islamic World.
(Published Feb.25, 2008 in Onislam.net)
