MEDIA REACTION: KOSOVO; SAO PAULO

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000070 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD DEPT PASS USTR USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: KOSOVO; SAO PAULO ¶1. QIndependent Kosovo Liberal, largest national circulation daily Folha de S. Paulo (2/19) editorialized: QThe way Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia was not normal. The ideal process for the emergence of a nation was not respected. Among other reasons, an understanding did not work because of the Serbian governmentQs intransigence and RussiaQs diplomatic actions. However, KosovoQs separation from Serbia is unavoidable. KosovoQs return to SerbiaQs domination would be unfeasible. The European Union says that KosovoQs condition as a province historically repressed by the Serbians is enough to justify the break of protocol in the case of KosovoQs emancipation. It is a good argument in favor of the independence, but the EU was unable to convince all members to support it. Nations such as Spain, that has faced the Basque separatism intent, fear the creation of a precedent. ¶2. QThe Spark That Relights Historic Fires National circulation daily O Estado de S. PauloQs Paris correspondent Giles Lapouge commented (2/19): QVladimir Putin has warned the UN Security Council that he will not permit Kosovo to become the organizationQs 193rd member. The collusion between Russia and Serbia is a logic one: they are Slav and orthodox nations, while Kosovo, whose population is predominantly Albanian, is Muslim. In addition, there is fear of QcontagionQ. In Russia, several ethnic groups in the Caucuses have claimed their freedom, like Kosovo. A simple spark may relight millenary ethnic, historical and religious fires. ¶3. QRegion Will Continue Under the UN/EU Tutelage Business-oriented Valor Economico wrote (2/19): QKosovoQs independence tends to consolidate, but the process is a risky one and not free from trouble. Russians have repressed a separatist movement in Chechnya, the same way Turks have done in Kurdistan and the Chinese in Tibet. And neither the US nor the European Union, which supported KosovoQs independence, has been sympathetic to the independence of those regions. The reason is always political: not to offend an allied nation (Turkey),not to provoke a very important nation (China),or to silence in view of repression against a common enemy (Russia combats radical Chechnyan Muslims). In the case of Kosovo, both the US and the EU encouraged the independence. European diplomats said that KosovoQs situation is different, unique. It is not. What reasoning has then moved the US and the EU? Among other reasons, to remind an increasingly assertive Russia the limitation of its real power. The EU is expected to absorb the Balkan nations, its last natural frontier, in the next few decades. This fact may force Serbia to move from the area of Russian influence to the West. [In the meantime] encapsulated between a hostile Serbia and Albania, one of EuropeQs poorest nations with a strong presence of organized crime, Kosovo tends to remain for years, maybe decades, as a UN and EU protectorate. WHITE