Kosovo and Tamil Eelam

"The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was the equivalent of the LTTE, fighting a terrorist war to secede from Serbia, but they had a far more potent weapon than the LTTE’s suicide bombers, Osama bin Laden and the bogey of Islamic fundamentalism. Osama Bin Laden is the modern day Attila the Hun, striking psychological terror to the heart of Europe. Europeans would move heaven and earth to stop this modern day Attila’s legions from getting a foothold in Europe."
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by Dushy Ranetunge in London

(February 22, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) of the former Yugoslav region of Kosovo has attracted comparison and distortion with the Sri Lankan conflict.

The majority Serbs regard Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia and a part of their historical heritage, similar to the Sinhalese perceptions towards the North and the East of Sri Lanka. The Serbs are orthodox Christians, while the Kosovars are Muslims.

There are historical and nationalist emotional similarities in the medieval liberation battles of the Sinhalese against South Indian (Tamil) invaders, to that of the Christian Serbs against the Islamic Ottoman Turks. The battle of Kosovo fought in 1389 is seen by Serbs as a defining moment of their nation.

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was the equivalent of the LTTE, fighting a terrorist war to secede from Serbia, but they had a far more potent weapon than the LTTE’s suicide bombers, Osama bin Laden and the bogey of Islamic fundamentalism.

Osama Bin Laden is the modern day Attila the Hun, striking psychological terror to the heart of Europe. Europeans would move heaven and earth to stop this modern day Attila’s legions from getting a foothold in Europe.

KLA also had the support of neighbouring Muslim Albania, similar to the LTTE and the Tamil Nadu factor. Kosovars are of Albanian Muslim descent as Tamils in Sri Lanka are of Tamil Nadu descent.

It was alleged that the Kosovo Liberation Army(KLA) had direct links to Osama Bin Laden and Islamic fundamentalists, who began pouring into Kosovo and Bosnia to fight on behalf of the Muslims against the Serbs who were ethnically cleansing and massacring the Muslims. Hundreds of Iranian revolutionary guards and Mujahadeen fighters began moving into Kosovo via Albania.

Military instructors from Turkey and Afghanistan financed by the Islamic Jihad were training KLA in guerilla tactics.

Bin Laden had visited Albania himself. He was one of several fundamentalist groups that had sent units to fight in Kosovo. Bin Laden is believed to have established an operation in Albania in 1994

Albanian sources say Sali Berisha, who was then president, had links with some groups that later proved to be extreme fundamentalists.

According to Frank Ciluffo of the Globalized Organised Crime Program, in a testimony presented to the US House of Representatives Judicial Committee:

What was largely hidden from public view was the fact that the KLA raise part of their funds from the sale of narcotics. Albania and Kosovo lie at the heart of the "Balkan Route" that links the "Golden Crescent" of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the drug markets of Europe.

According to Ralf Mutschke of Interpol's Criminal Intelligence division also in a testimony to the US House Judicial Committee:

The U.S. State Department listed the KLA as a terrorist organization, indicating that it was financing its operations with money from the international heroin trade and loans from Islamic countries and individuals, among them allegedly Osama bin Laden" . Another link to bin Laden is the fact that the brother of a leader in an Egyptian Jihad organization and also a military commander of Osama bin Laden, was leading an elite KLA unit during the Kosovo conflict.

A process of Islamic radicalisation had begun in Bosnia and Kosovo, Europe’s backyard raising alarm in the West.

If the Western powers had sided with the Christian Serbs in compliance of the UN resolution which had declared Kosovo a part of Serbia, they would have created a breeding ground for Islamic fundamentalism in Europe’s backyard. The valleys of Kosovo would have become the new battleground between the forces of radical Islam and Christianity.

Preemptively, the European powers moved into Kosovo, first with NATO troops and then allowed the secession of Kosovo, as a strategy to contain, manage and squeeze out Islamic fundamentalism from the backyard of Europe.

Weapons of Mass Destruction facilitated the entry of Western troops into Iraq and ethnic butchering by the Serb army of Muslims facilitated the entry of NATO troops into Kosovo.

All these movements were to secure strategic interests but were justified as humanitarian intervention. When millions of Jews in Europe were being exterminated by the Germans there was no intervention as Allied strategic interests were elsewhere. It was the same in Rwanda more recently.

The Sri Lankans played the same game till recently, when humanitarian intervention was used to justify a military push into the East.

The Western powers were even prepared to act contrary to a UN resolution, so that they could stabilize and manage Kosovo to keep the legions of Osama out of Europe’s back yard. It is this that makes some Western powers uncomfortable in recognizing Kosovo. Significantly, Spain which is struggling to contain Basque separatists has refused to recognize Kosovo.

Russia and its natural ally Serbia will never recognize Kosovo and an immediate withdrawal of NATO troops could cause complications as it is doubtful if Kosovo on its own could defend its borders against a Russian backed Serb advance. At present Western relations with Russia are at a low.

In Sri Lanka, the situation is very different. The conduct of the Sri Lankan army cannot be compared to that of the Serbian forces, however keen the LTTE may be to stage such comparisons. The LTTE stands out as the biggest butchers of Tamils in modern Tamil history in its attempt to eliminate all dissent and alternative Tamil opinion.

The only ones with a strategic interest is India and it has already militarily intervened in Sri Lanka and withdrawn. The interests of the Western powers in Sri Lanka in relation to the conflict are primarily driven by Tamil Diaspora political lobbying.

No foreign army will intervene in Sri Lanka in the near future as the cost it will pay for such an intervention would be unacceptable to their domestic constituency.

The KLA like the ANC conducted itself in a manner enabling it to make the transition from terrorists to statehood maintaining support and confidence of the Western democracies. The LTTE after having murdered its way through two heads of state, and sacrificing Tamil civilians as cannon fodder for their cause do not quite have the same appeal.

Although Tamil expatriates who support the LTTE compare Velu to Nelson Mandela, and have recently got excited about UDI of Kosovo, the destiny of the LTTE is closer to that of POL POT, rather than the ANC or the KLA.