How about my state, county, or city?
I'm all for this one, folks, because being a libertarian means local control, local control, local control.
The less centralization the better, as history has borne out.
"Kosovo’s independence is legal, UN court rules; Serbia won’t recognize statehood" by Dan Bilefsky, New York Times | July 23, 2010
PRAGUE — Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law, the United Nations’ highest court said yesterday in a ruling that Kosovo heralded as a victory but that legal analysts warned could spur separatist movements around the world.
Uh-oh.
Legal specialists said that while the International Court of Justice had ruled that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was legal, it had avoided saying that the state of Kosovo was legal under international law, a narrow and carefully calibrated compromise that they said could allow both sides to declare victory in a dispute that remains raw even 11 years after the war.
Political analysts said the advisory opinion, passed in a 10-to-4 vote by the court judges, is likely to spur other countries to recognize Kosovo’s independence.
Yeah, sometimes that is good, sometimes bad(?).
Of the 192 countries in the UN General Assembly, so far 69, including the United States and a majority of European Union nations, have recognized Kosovo....
Oh, so when it is a GLOBALIST GOAL it is ALL GOOD!
Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia on Feb. 17, 2008, marked the culmination of a showdown between Serbia and the West in which the United States and a majority of European nations said Serbia’s violent repression of Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians under a former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, had forfeited Serbia’s right to rule the territory.
Well, we know who lost there.
Related: Musical Mass Graves in the Balkans
Puts the U.N. decision into perspective, doesn't it?
Serbia and its ally Russia countered that the declaration of independence by Kosovo was a reckless breach of international law that would inspire separatists everywhere....
Yeah, when THEY have a COMPLAINT or THEY RECOGNIZE someone that is NOT GOOD!!
Analysts said that the legal legitimacy conferred on the independence declaration by the court could have profound consequences for global geopolitics by potentially being seized upon by secessionist movements in places as diverse as northern Cyprus, Somaliland, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Transnistria....
Yeah, RUSSIA HAS RECOGNIZED THEM after GEORGIA ATTACKED THEM in 2008!!!
One might even think of it as DEFENDING and PROTECTING (but not in my newspaper).
So WHOSE NEXT, the Kurds?
And while we are in Russia's backyard:
"Security summit to focus on Kyrgyzstan" by Peter Leonard, Associated Press | July 17, 2010
ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Dozens of top officials from Western and former Soviet countries will meet today to redress international inaction over the teetering Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, which has been rocked by months of instability and violence.
The informal summit will bring together diplomats from 56 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe member states for talks that will touch upon security in Afghanistan.
Impoverished Kyrgyzstan has returned to relative calm since clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks last month claimed hundreds of lives and reduced swathes of the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad to smoldering ruins. Most of the violence involved majority ethnic Kyrgyz burning and looting Uzbek neighborhoods.
The AmeriKan MSM's way of saying the attempted CIA retaking didn't work and the MSM stopped covering it.
Also see: Kyrgyz Concentration Camps Expand As Crisis Calms Down
No mention of those.
The OSCE summit being held outside Kazakhstan’s former capital, Almaty, is expected to consider the option of dispatching international police to the south. That outcome would present a rare opportunity for the organization to define its security role in the region.
Well, THAT SURE MAKES the MAYHEM STINK, cui bono?
Kyrgyzstan’s fate is of acute interest to the United States, which has an air base in the country that acts as a transit point for soldiers and nonmilitary supplies to and from nearby Afghanistan.
Didn't I just ask the question?
Russia also has a military base about 19 miles outside the capital, Bishkek.
Nonetheless, there have been few international attempts to remedy the fallout of June’s ethnic violence, and the bloody uprising in April that led to the overthrow of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Russia has resisted calls from Kyrgyz citizens and politicians to send peacekeeping troops unilaterally or as part of a mission under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Moscow-led military bloc intended as a counterweight to NATO.
Have I ever told you I hate globalist globe-kickers, dear readers?
Some analysts see the prospect of a security contingent forged under the umbrella of the OSCE as a compromise solution that will avoid inciting rival strategic claims for influence over the region.
As long as it is NOT led by the RUSSIANS, right?
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And nothing going on but low-level human rights abuses:
"UN receiving reports of torture in Kyrgyzstan prisons" by Associated Press | July 21, 2010
GENEVA — Kyrgyzstan forces have been jailing and torturing ethnic Uzbeks in the Central Asian nation, according to reports to the United Nations.
Hundreds of the Uzbeks are being imprisoned because of their ethnicity, and there are reports of forced confessions, beatings, police intimidation of families, and extortion, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement yesterday.
Hundreds of minority Uzbeks were killed in rampages last month by ethnic Kyrgyz and hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks fled their homes ahead of arson mobs. Tensions still simmer in the southern part of the country.
That is where OUR CIA-BACKED MAN is from!
Pillay said local authorities are “routinely turning a blind eye’’ to abuses, including doctors refusing to provide medical care.
So what you have here -- no thanks to the obfuscating AmeriKan MSM -- is a SPLIT in the Kyrgyz military with forces loyal to the former regime controlling the south.
Kyrgyz government spokesman Farid Niyazov said several criminal investigations have been launched into rights violations. He did not elaborate.
Same as the newspaper here.
“The government is aware of these problems,’’ he said, adding that officials support an independent investigation into the ethnic violence.
Problem is they can't get in there without creating even more violence.
Kyrgyzstan has endured months of turbulence since Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed from the presidency in April.
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"Ethnic Uzbeks reportedly deprived of care" by Associated Press | July 22, 2010
ALMATY, Kazakhstan — International health and rights groups said yesterday that minority ethnic Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan are being deprived of medical treatment and opportunities to seek refuge in neighboring Uzbekistan.
Here?
An uneasy peace has descended on Kyrgyzstan since June....
But activists say Uzbeks, who suffered the worst of the violence, are now being persecuted by police and security forces.
The aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said armed security forces posted near hospitals are deterring many from seeking much-needed care....
Gerry Simpson, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said dozens of families seeking to flee to Uzbekistan have been stopped from leaving by Kyrgyzstan troops.
--more--"
Also see: Can't We All Get Along in Kyrgyzstan?
"AIDS spreads in Eastern Europe, UN says" by Associated Press | July 21, 2010
VIENNA — Scientists and activists are warning that AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is on the rise even as a global conference reports progress on other fronts....
Of particular concern to analysts, policymakers, and activists gathered at the AIDS 2010 conference is that those suffering from the deadly disease in the region are often stigmatized, criminalized, and denied access to lifesaving treatment....
I didn't know they were all living in Gaza?
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