Lately, Serbia has given concrete evidence that they themselves view Kosovo’s problem as political and that they will not respect any ruling of the ICJ in favor of Kosovo. One can not call upon law only when it suits him and reject it when it does not suit him.

On October 8 2008 on the request made by Serbia the General Assembly of the UN passed a resolution in favor of Serbia’s request to ask for an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice on the legality of the declaration of independence by the Kosovo Assembly. 77 UN member-states backed the resolution, 6 voted against, while 74 abstained. At that time Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić stated that the adoption of Serbia's resolution in the General Assembly constitutes a victory “not just for Serbia, but for the international law as well“. The Serbian Government declared that all the time it is pursuing a strategy to claim that Kosovo’s problem is not political but it is legal or to quote Serbian President Tadic “we need to move the problem from the political field into the legal one”. This all looks nice and fair if one would understand that we are dealing with a car accident or other dispute of a technical nature and one would agree that there is no need to add politics to a dispute which could be legally resolved. However, the recent signals from Belgrade show that even Belgrade does not believe in its own claims.

Belgrade’s true intentions revealed

On 17 April 2009, 35 UN member states plus Kosovo have submitted their statements to the ICJ secretariat while it is understood that 22 are in favor of Kosovo and 14 in favor of Serbia. This fact apparently caused some nervosas in Belgrade and the true intentions raised to the surface. In an interview published by Belgrade’s daily “Blic” Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said: “The Belgrade government will not recognize Kosovo, at any cost, even in the event that the decision goes in favor of Priština,” Jeremic stressed, "as long as a democratic order based on the Serbian Constitution exists in this country". This statement by Jeremic himself clearly shows that even Belgrade does not believe in its own claim that Kosovo is a legal problem because Jeremic uses political arguments against the ICJ potential ruling in favor of Kosovo.

Political hypocrisy

For months Belgrade has been telling various governments in the world not to recognize Kosovo because the Kosovo problem is being dealt by ICJ and that Belgrade wants to protect the international order and has full trust in the ICJ process. One can not resist not to ask how someone who himself does not plan to respect the ICJ decision can ask from someone else to do so? If Belgrade has already prepared to reject a negative ruling why Jeremic continues to manipulate with the others? Countries in support of Kosovo’s independence should use this argument and show the true face of Jeremic’s hypocrisy.

Manipulation of the ICJ

It is clear that Belgrade’s intention is not to preserve international law but instead it aims to manipulate the ICJ process for its own political agenda. There are two solid arguments to back this claim. At first one should think why Serbia asked for a non binding opinion and not for a ruling on the case of Kosovo’s independence. It is simple! Serbia did not want to take any chances with the ruling and this means that when asking for a non binding opinion instead of a ruling Belgrade maneuvered in the safe political field far away from the potentially dangerous legal field. At that time analysts said that by asking for a nonbinding opinion Belgrade protects itself and is not obliged to respect the potential negative ICJ ruling. This argument is further strengthened by the latest statement by Jeremic that Serbia will not change its political course towards Kosovo regardless of the ICJ ruling. So much for protection of international law!!! One can not call upon law only when it suits him and reject it when it does not suit him.

The way forward!

If one from the spouses asks and is persistent for a divorce the court can not prolong the case forever and in the end it has to make a practical decision. If one of the spouses does not want to continue living together the court can not make them leave together and no technical legal arguments can apply to impose the opposite. Similarly, Kosovo’s independence can not be handled in a technical legal manner because the problem was and continues to be political. The world has enough arguments, including the latest from Belgrade, that the problem of Kosovo is political and therefore it requires a political solution. This is needed because the chapter of Kosovo should be closed and the people of the region should continue living and working with each other side by side, everyone in his own house, but still together as good neighbors.