Madam, - John O'Brennan's article of March 30th (since highlighted in the International Herald Tribune) is a very welcome contribution to an understanding of the current crisis in Kosovo. The baneful influence of Kosovo's current indeterminate status on the political and economic climate of the province, and in particular and most acutely on inter-communal relations, cannot be overstated.
However, there are obvious and far-reaching dangers in arguing the approach to a final settlement on the basis of - to quote from J. O'B.'s article - the concept of "an ethnically demarcated and independently constituted Kosovo." It is clear that such partitionist thinking is heavily determined by the current crisis and what appears to be an unstoppable spiral of inter-ethnic violence. In condemning rightly the thuggery displayed in recent weeks by extremist Albanian elements, there is a danger that the EU will once again revert to the politics of the latest atrocity, in groping towards an ill-conceived and fatally flawed concept of "compromise" that will ultimately only appease the apologists of inter-ethnic hatred and "the separation of peoples". In fact the upsurge of violence from elements within the Albanian community is a comparatively recent phenomenon, arising as it does from 15 years of repressive policies from Belgrade, coupled with frustration at the total absence of support from the international community for the broadly based campaign of passive resistance throughout the 1990s.
J.O'B. correctly identifies the status of Kosovar Albanians among the Belgrade establishment as a kind of "Untermenschen": yet it cannot be over-emphasised that this has been the general status accorded to all those ethnic groups - not to mention those many non-complicit Serbs - from the former Yugoslavia deemed unworthy of and/or providing an awkward obstacle to, the realisation of the project for a "Greater Serbia" since 1989.
It is the ever-present reality and threat of this Belgrade-inspired project that continually frustrate and undermine any hope of persuading the Serb population of Kosovo - as has happened elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia - to reconcile themselves to building an independent Kosovo with their Albanian neighbours.
Just as importantly, this, currently latent, project encourages many among the Albanian population in the belief that the native Serb community constitutes a constantly threatening fifth column.
The key to a long-term solution has to be a reversal of current EU policy away from prioritising "standards" ahead of "status", and instead to recognise Kosovo's eventual right to independent "status", thereby finally removing the destabilising effect of Belgrade's machinations, while continuing under the terms of a renewed UN mandate to promote the necessary "standards" for rebuilding inter-communal trust and coexistence, as has been the case for most of the past several centuries.
The many parallels between the Kosovan and Irish struggles for independence should have long ago made the resolution of this crisis an issue to be placed high on the agenda of any Irish government's European policy.
The political, legal and moral case for Kosovan independence has been ably put by the historian Noel Malcolm, among others; suffice to say that from an Irish perspective and based on practically any criteria one cares to choose, the legitimacy of Kosovo's claims to independence and territorial integrity considerably exceed those of Ireland in 1921. - Yours etc.,
PETER WALSH, Greystones, Co Wicklow.