Imperial Consummation

Training Aid

As reported from the Serbian capital, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has taken over the training of Kosovo agents for its own secret apparatus in Pristina, while the Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution (BfV) is instructing future agents in domestic espionage. The BND and its predecessor organizations disposed of perfect contacts within Kosovo, which it put to use in the service of NATO's 1999 aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.[1] In the course of this aggression, German government agencies had close documented ties to representatives of the outlawed UCK underground army.[2] A few days ago, the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, attended the funeral in Pristina, of the president of the Serbian Kosovo province, Ibrahim Rugova, and watched as armed men in illegal UCK uniforms accompanied the coffin of the deceased and fired gun salutes at his graveside.

Illegal Privatization

The German creation of networks, within the Kosovo protectorate's security apparatus, is supplemented by massive efforts to gain influence in the economic administration. The German, Joachim Ruecker, was entrusted with the post of department manager for "economic development" within the UN administration UNMIK. Ruecker, who had for many years, been the mayor of Sindelfingen in Baden-Wuerttemberg, is primarily in charge of the "privatization" of Yugoslav state property located in Kosovo. This "privatization' has not been authorized by Belgrade and is therefore illegal under international law . In this function, he decides over the sale to foreign investors of industrial enterprises and natural resources. As Safet Gerxhaliu, spokesman for foreign relations at the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, happily remarked recently, the German UNMIK man has "correctly" launched the "privatization process" (i.e. the expropriation of socially formed property assets).[3]

First successes

Ruecker's work points to differences in foreign policy concepts between the EU and the USA. Whereas Washington is not opposed, in principle, to a future fusion of Kosovo and Albania, Berlin wants to keep the Balkans divided. From the EU point of view, it must be ensured, on the level of economic policy, that the USA, with its Albanian appendix, is kept at bay from larger acquisitions in Kosovo. Ruecker's recent activity fits into this tableau: making rigorous use, as UNMIK representative, of his right to intervene, the former Yugoslav nickel company "Ferronikeli" was sold to the British company "Alferon" in December for 33 million Euro. A US-Albanian investor had unsuccessfully offered 50 million Euro.[4]

"Independence" without sovereignty

In the context of German interests in dividing Southeast Europe into mini-states and preventing an Albanian great power, Berlin is confronting difficulties in its efforts to consolidate its Kosovo strategy within international law. A formal secession would violate UN resolutions, meet with resistance in Moscow, but, above all, create a pan-Albanian momentum. The German foreign policy ponders, therefore, the amputation of Kosovo from Belgrade, but seeks solutions, granting institutional control of Pristina, without the USA having to participate too intensively. The "International Balkans Commission", which has made the "integration" of Kosovo into the European Union it's objective, is active In this domain. This panel initiated by the "Robert Bosch Foundation" [5], in Stuttgart, (Baden-Wuerttemberg) is cast with high-ranking politicians - among them, Richard von Weizsaecker, former German President, Giuliano Amato, former Prime Minister of Italy, Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden as well as numerous former heads of state and government of various Southeast European countries. The commission recommends a multi-stage "transition" toward Kosovo's "independence", without the province ever attaining the sovereign status of an international law subject. In a primary phase, the UN administrative authority is to be transferred to the EU ("independence without full sovereignty"), in a second phase negotiations between the Kosovo authorities and the EU will be initiated ("guided sovereignty"), in order to have Kosovo ambiguously integrated into "Europe" ("shared sovereignty").[6]

Empire

The recommendations of the "International Balkans Commission" extend beyond Kosovo, to include Bosnia and Macedonia. If these territories are not to degenerate into "Ghettos" on the periphery of Europe, the perspective of their membership in the EU must be opened within the next decade, it is being said. If Europe's current "neo colonial rule" were maintained over the "quasi protectorates", this would result in an increase, on the one hand, of popular "economic discontent" and create, on the other hand, an "immense and unnecessary financial and moral burden" for the EU. In the Balkans, therefore there are only two possibilities for the European Union, concludes the commission: "expansion" to include the mentioned territories or the establishment of an "empire" ("Enlargement or Empire").[7]

Consummation

Already furthest advanced, is the planned EU affiliation in the energy sector. In several accords, the Balkan protectorates have had to declare their willingness to restructure their gas markets to conform to German and European conceptions and to accord the EU member nations transit rights for pipeline projects to Central Asia and Iran.[8] The self- appointed "Balkans Commission's" considerations on constitutionality extend from a temporary trusteeship of the EU, which has developed into a neo-colonial alliance of states, to a plan to achieve - as the final result of its "expansion" project - a complete annexation of the territories acquired by war - the imperial consummation.

[1], [2] Jürgen Elsässer (Hg.): Nie wieder Krieg ohne uns. Das Kosovo und die neue deutsche Geopolitik, Hamburg 1999
[3] "Ruecker and his local and international associates have put the privatization process on the right track". Investors discouraged to come to Kosovo; www.eciks.org
[4] Jürgen Elsässer: Die Kosovo-Saga; Junge Welt 21.12.2005
[5] see also Deutsche Gestaltungskraft
[6] International Commission on the Balkans: The Balkans in Europe's Future, April 2005, S. 18ff.
[7] ebd., S. 8
[8] see also Kriegsrendite

see also Neuer Vasall