Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February 2008 did not violate international law, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said on Thursday in a groundbreaking ruling that could have far-reaching implications for separatist movements around the world, as well as for Belgrade’s stalled EU membership talks.
The long-awaited ruling — which the court took up after a complaint to the UN from Serbia — is now likely to lead to more countries recognizing Kosovo’s independence and move Pristina closer to entry into the UN. At present, Kosovo’s statehood is backed by 69 countries, but it requires over 100 before it can join the UN.
Announcing the decision, the ICJ president, Hisashi Owada, said international law contains no “prohibition on declarations of independence.”
Although both Belgrade and Pristina had said they were confident of a ruling in their favor, speculation began to emerge a few hours before Thursday’s announcement in the Hague that the decision — which is not legally binding — had gone Kosovo’s way.
Prior to the judgment, US Vice President Joe Biden had made it clear that the US would not contemplate a retreat from Kosovo’s newly independent status.
Key considerations that the UN’s top court examined — arising out of dozens of submissions by UN member states as well as by Kosovo’s own leadership — have focused on issues of sovereignty, the slim volume of precedent in international law and how formerly large states such as the USSR broke up along administrative borders.
Serbia has continued to demand Kosovo be returned, arguing it has been the cradle of their civilization and national identity since 1389, when a Christian army led by Serbian Prince Lazar lost an epic battle to invading Ottoman forces.
The ruling is expected to have profound ramifications on the wider international stage, bolstering demands for recognition by territories as diverse as Northern Cyprus, Somaliland, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria.
The ICJ’s ruling is not, however, expected to have an immediate impact on the situation on the ground in Kosovo, where a small area with a Serb majority has itself split away around the north of the town of Mitrovica, which has about 100,000 residents. That deadlock has sometimes erupted into violence, despite intense international efforts, with Serbs and Kosovans running their own areas.
Kosovo sparked sharp debate worldwide when it seceded from Serbia in 2008, following the bloody 1998-1999 war and almost a decade of international administration. The 1998-1999 war, triggered by a brutal crackdown by Serb forces against Kosovo’s separatist ethnic Albanians, left about 10,000 ethnic Albanians dead before ending after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign. Hundreds of Serbs were also killed in retaliatory attacks.
Today’s ruling will reinforce Kosovo’s resistance to any kind of renegotiation — particularly over the status of the Serb majority areas in the north.
Kosovo’s foreign minister, Skender Hyseni, said before the ruling that reopening negotiations was “inconceivable.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not