Thursday, January 03, 2008

Does Kenyan crisis = Javier Solana's Opportunity?


Picture: Javier Solana on behalf of EU/WEU and Shimon Peres on behalf of Israel sign "Treaty of Association" the first of the many Barcelona Process agreements. This was November 20, 1995. Two days later, Israel was to experience its greatest earthquake in history, 7.2 to 7.3 mw, epicentered at Eilat in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aqaba region. This was a week before Solana opened the Barcelona Conference with an attack on Catholics and the Crusades of Pope Urban II. One declared purpose of the Process was to "battle religious fundamentalism - worldwide." Only 10 days after this signing, Javier Solana was to be named the new head of NATO! That treaty was reconfirmed with the institution of the European Neighbourhood Policy which was effective for a 7 year period from January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2013. It is up for a 3 1/2 year review period in 2010, the same year that the EU remilitarization "Headline Goal 2010" is to be in place
"He waxed great toward the East, Toward the South, and Toward the Pleasant Land . . ." Could it be?

Dear Readers:

This is interesting. Even more of interest is that Javier Solana seems to be taking sudden global prominence, towards the South -- towards Africa. The events in Kenya are truly tragic. A church was burned to the ground yesterday and there have been hundreds of deaths. My first political science professor at Wayne State University in Detroit many years ago was a distinguished Kenyan by the name of Dr. Harrison Muyia. I pray for the Kenyans and with the increased stature this may now be giving Dr. Solana, I pray for us all!

Constance
cumbey@gmail.com


UPDATE: EU Solana, US Rice Call For Kenya Coalition Government AFPNasdaq Thu, 03 Jan 2008 6:16 AM PST(Adds quotes, detail.) BRUSSELS (AFP)--European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Thursday for the creation of a coalition government in violence-wracked Kenya, a Solana spokeswoman said.
EU and U.S. urge Kenyan parties to form governmentReuters via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:03 AM PSTU.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Kenya's rival political parties to work to form a government, an EU spokeswoman said after the two spoke by phone on Thursday.
World powers call for coalition governmentDaily Telegraph Thu, 03 Jan 2008 5:44 AM PSTEU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for the creation of a coalition government in violence-wracked Kenya.
EU, US In Joint Diplomatic Efforts On Kenyan Crisis - AFPNasdaq Thu, 03 Jan 2008 5:45 AM PSTBRUSSELS (AFP)--European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will discuss with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the possibility of sending E.U. and U.S. envoys to crisis-hit Kenya, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
EU, US urge Kenyan parties to seek coalition -EUAlertNet Thu, 03 Jan 2008 5:17 AM PSTSource: Reuters BRUSSELS, Jan 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Kenya's rival political parties to seek a coalition government, an EU spokeswoman ...
EU, U.S. urge Kenyan parties to form government -EUAlertNet Thu, 03 Jan 2008 5:47 AM PSTSource: Reuters (Updates with new statement) BRUSSELS, Jan 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Kenya's rival political parties to work to form a ...
See more news stories that match my keyword

20 comments:

Constance Cumbey said...

FARMER (Bjorn Freiberg) is to be my guest tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern USA time (2 p.m. Pacific time) on MY PERSPECTIVE.

Please plan to join us. Farmer has his own extremely excellent blogspot and he is closer to the European scene than most of the rest of us.

Constance

Anonymous said...

I absolutely think so - I was wondering if it would be this ot Kosovo - but it seems this will be the 1st item.
Tarmers last post was extremely inlightening,[not that his others have not benn :)] I appreciate his insight.

DouginMI

Anonymous said...

Have any of you noticed it was the new LIBERAL government in Australia that has suggested mandatory internet filters to filter pornography - for the children of course? The Howard Government broke the ice with the suggestion that the government would "offer" the service. The new government goes the one better.

See this link for the ABC

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/31/2129471.htm

Cheers

Anonymous said...

The crackdown on internet has been happening all over. See the following for a sampling. In the West, the groundwork is being laid by filtering pornography and breaking up pedophile rings (an excellent thing) and also for monitoring potential terrorists. You can see in other countries, they don't need that pretext.

They register users in Bangladesh (they also did this when we lived in Malaysia ten years ago)

In Bangladesh: http://www.e-bangladesh.org/2007/10/03/crackdown-on-internet-users-in-bangladesh/

In Thailand, youtube and other sites banned:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/worldbusiness/05tube.html?ex=1333425600&en=d4c3824714b7b322&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

In China (against porn): http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=3036691

Saudis arrest blogger:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/31/AR2007123101915.html

S. Korea: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/26/technology/AS-TEC-SKorea-Internet-Pornography.php

Ulterior motives in China?: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/technology/2004/10/13/china_web/

The US has been making the case for years, here is the most recent12/14/07:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402257_2.html?nav=rss_email/components

People in the West will ask for such filters to protect our kids.
You can check these sites or the Open Net Initiative for a quick round up:

http://opennet.net/

Anonymous said...

Internet Censorship in Japan in 3 easy steps:

http://gyaku.jp/en/index.php?cmd=contentview&pid=000320

Professor Glen Reynolds in Popular Mechanics writes an oped about the average person turning cell phone cameras on government. Constance you might enjoy this one since you noted Dr. Solana's distate for the power of these cameras and you tube.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4237005.html

Anonymous said...

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4237005.html
The rest of the link to get the story.

Dorothy

Rudi said...

Constance:
I've sent you an e-mail with some information re. Africa, Internet Governance Forum, and the World Summit on the Information Society.
It's way over my head and thought you might be able to tie it together. Rudi

Anonymous said...

Woohoo!
I got on the Micro Effect.
Thank you Constance!

Yours,
Paul

Anonymous said...

Kosovo is definitely something to watch. The EU is stuck between Russia and the U.S. having very strong opinions on Kosovo's independence. Here's an article with a small comment from Solana:

http://tinyurl.com/2ofmaq


David in B.C.

Anonymous said...

http://fulfilledprophecy.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=35260

This is an article about the world banks going sharia. Very interesting and I am offended by the banks.

Anonymous said...

http://fulfilledprophecy.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=35176

And a very important posting on FP.

Anonymous said...

Dave in BC
I've tried the Tiny URL you
posted six times and six
times I've been booted off.
I wonder why.

Yours truly
Paul

Anonymous said...

I don't know why. I still works for me. It's an article from the International Herald Tribune. It's home page, I guess, is www.iht.com. I guess you can search for the article. It was posted on Jan. 4. I'll see if I can copy the article and paste it here in the comments. Hold on, I'll be right back

David in B.C.

Anonymous said...

Okay here's the article:

EU prepares ground to decide Kosovo fate

By Paul Taylor Reuters
Published: January 4, 2008

BRUSSELS: Brick by brick, the European Union appears to be building up its own legitimacy to determine Kosovo's final status if Russia blocks agreement on the breakaway Serbian province at the United Nations.

In a series of statements, the EU's Portuguese presidency and its foreign policy and enlargement chiefs have declared that Kosovo is a European question, that its future lies in the EU and that the Europeans will have to manage the outcome.

"Kosovo's status is fundamentally a European issue," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters in an interview this month. "We trust that other parties such the United States and Russia will avoid unilateral actions."

Kosovo's two million ethnic Albanians are demanding independence, while Serbia has offered broad autonomy.

EU officials insist their preferred option is a negotiated solution between the Belgrade government and Kosovo's Albanian leaders, backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution.

The province has been in legal limbo under U.N. rule since NATO waged an air war in 1999 to force a Serbian withdrawal.

A troika of international mediators led by German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger is trying to broker a deal by Dec. 10.

But the chances of a consensual outcome are slim and the EU is preparing for a situation in which there is no deal and the Security Council remains deadlocked.

Moscow's threat to veto any resolution granting Kosovo independence without Serbia's consent, and Washington's pledge to recognise a unilateral declaration of independence by the Kosovo Albanians puts the Europeans on the spot.

"I cannot conceive that we could have at the end a situation where there is a strong position of Russia, a strong position of the United States, and where Europe simply does not exist," Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said on Sept. 8.

"This is a European territory. It's not in Asia or Latin America," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.

EU officials note that Brussels has paid for the last 8 years of limbo, European troops already make up the bulk of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, and the EU is due to take over supervision and running the police from the United Nations.

The EU would also bear the brunt of managing a potential wider Balkan crisis if Kosovo erupts into violence, they say.

But diplomats and analysts say there are legal, political and practical problems with trying to make the EU an alternative source of legitimacy for Kosovo's final status.

The legal issue is the precedent of recognising a state's independence without the backing of the U.N. Security Council, the acknowledged authority in the international community.

Moscow has warned that could become a model for breakaway areas of Georgia and Moldova or for the Armenian-occupied territory of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan.

NATO launched its air campaign against the former Yugoslavia in 1999 without U.N. blessing because of Russian opposition, but founding a state without such authority poses longer-term legal headaches than waging a military operation for a few weeks.

"While people acknowledge that this is what NATO did in 1999, stomachs would be a little too weak at this moment for the EU to do the same thing," a European military source said.

Kosovo could not become a member of the United Nations without the consent of Russia or Serbia, nor access sorely needed credit from international financial institutions.

The political problem is that EU member states do not yet agree on recognising Kosovo's sovereignty.
Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Greece, Cyprus and to a lesser extent Spain, all have reservations about such a move because of ethnic minorities or separatist movements at home.

EU officials say the mood at a two-day brainstorming session of the bloc's foreign ministers in Portugal this month was one of determination to put European unity above national qualms. But that does not guarantee agreement in December.

Practical problems include how to maintain the NATO force and get an EU administrative and police presence into place without a Security Council resolution, and how to prevent the northern part of Kosovo, populated by ethnic Serbs, seceding.

The European military source said the Europeans would likely need some sort of U.N. cover, possibly a permissive statement by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to take over on the ground.

He said NATO lawyers were arguing that the existing U.N. resolution 1244 on Kosovo provides sufficient legitimacy to keep the so-called KFOR in place in the event of a unilateral declaration of independence.
(additional reporting by Mark John)

David in B.C.(Battle Creek)

Anonymous said...

Thanks Dave,
Very interesting article, though
I feel more confused now
than ever regarding Kosovo.
_and why it is that iht.com comes
up on my screen and then
leaves me looking at my desktop
and no explanation.

Yours,
Paul

Anonymous said...

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/01/barack-obama-backs-taliban-supporter-in.html
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Obama Backs Taliban Supporter in Kenya

"Note that the mainstream media hasn't reported a single word regarding the true nature of Kenya's unrest -- nor Obama's involvement with Odinga and the onset of a Taliban-style Sharia law in Kenya."

Dorothy

Rudi said...

Dorothy,
In reference to this quote from your comment,
"Note that the mainstream media hasn't reported a single word regarding the true nature of Kenya's unrest -- nor Obama's involvement with Odinga and the onset of a Taliban-style Sharia law in Kenya."
This made me wonder even further about Obama being mentioned in this report from allAfrica.com:
"US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, EU Foreign chief Javier Solana and American Democratic Party presidential hopeful Barack Obama whose father was Kenyan, called for dialogue among the rival camps." ("Kenya: Kibaki's Peace Plan") Rudi

Full article at:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801030991.html

Anonymous said...

Rudi,
My guess is that we will see lots of spin on this. Probably when Obama went over to Kenya his people decided to overlook Odinga's communist, pro-Muslim leanings in favor of some positive publicity in the black community in the US. Now at a very crucial time for Obama, this can backfire on him and his advisors. Just how many people, even those reading here, are going to look at the details of what is happening in Kenya? Making excuses is a refined art these days.

Dorothy

Rudi said...

Here is the Dec. 2007 ESDP Newsletter (European Security and Defense Policy)
Coincidently(? or NOT?)this issue was dedicated specifically to
"Africa- EU"
"It is not hard to foresee that the ESDP’s operational development
will be closely connected to the African continent in the near future." Page 10

http://tinyurl.com/35mu6y
or
http://www.consilium.europa
.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/CEU
_70400%20ESDP_%205
_final301107.pdf

Unknown said...

This just in on my Yahoo News.
They are suspecting that Kenya crisis was well orchistrated, and that attackers were bought by high governing officials. I wonder who really was behind it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080112/ap_on_re_af/kenya_violence_for_sale