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| Albert Rohan |
In an article on the Viennese newspaper Die Presse, one of the mediators about the Kosovo status talks held in Vienna, Austrian Ambassador Albert Rohan explained why Kosovo's independence is a special case and why the case of Catalonia can not be compared to Kosovo.
"Every case should be evaluated according to the particulars and specifications it has and then can be judged for the right of secession of a country. In the case of Kosovo, there is a fundamental discrimination on the part of a state," writes first in his article Albert Rohan.
"Kosovo had a dual status: the status of the autonomous province and the right of the entity of equal representation in the Federation of Yugoslavia with the republics that separated from the former Yugoslavia.""Its equal status in the Yugoslav federation lost with the dissolution of Yugoslavia, while the status of autonomy was suspended in 1989 by Serbia. As a reaction, in September 1991, the majority Albanian population carried out the independence referendum with a share of 87 percent of the population and a pro-independence vote of 99 percent of the voters in the referendum," Austrian diplomat further explains.
"This is followed by the mass repression of the majority Albanian population in Kosovo by the Government of Belgrade and, consequently, the end of the peaceful movement and the beginning of the armed uprising against Serbian rule."
"This caused Serbia's military operations in 1998/99, whereby 800,000 Kosovars were expelled from Kosovo. To end this mass deportation, the international community imposed international military intervention. In Kosovo, UNMIK was subsequently deployed and the KFOR military mission. In 2006, at the initiative of Kai Aides from the UN began talks on Kosovo's future status in Vienna and as a result of the UN Special Envoy's proposal, Martti Ahtisaari, Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Belgrade rejected and on its own initiative, the International Court assessed that Kosovo's independence was not in violation of the International Law," Rohan writes.
"None of these developments resemble the situation in Catalonia, which with language, identity and culture belongs to Spain's common history. Catalonia has a high economic development and has a comprehensive constitutional and administration-guaranteed autonomy," wrote in the autorial text published in Die Presse the former international status mediator for Kosovo, Albert Rohan./Oculus News