February 9, 2008 (LPAC)--Lyndon LaRouche, responding to a question during his Jan. 17 webcast, warned that the scheme for an independent Kosovo is nothing more than a British-orchestrated drive for a new Balkans war. By drawing the U.S. and Russia into opposite sides on the Kosovo question, the British, LaRouche said, are "out to have a war with Russia, or to get the United States to fight a war with Russia, and the truth of the situation is, what the HELL interest do these people have in killing each other? None! What we need is a regional agreement, really, like a Treaty of Westphalia kind of agreement, in terms of the entire region..."

LaRouche's warning was echoed, in somewhat more diplomatic terms, by the President of Serbia, Boris Tadic, in a speech on Friday, Feb. 9, at the Wehrkunde Security Conference in Munich. Tadic noted that the law, in the case of Kosovo, is established by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, which puts the question of Kosovo's status in the Security Council. "The alternative," he said, "is a dangerous leap into the dark unknown in a time of great global turbulence. The precedent that would be established should Serbia be partitioned against its will--which is what the imposed independence of Kosovo is in truth--could in turn result in the escalation of many existing conflicts, the re-activation of a number of frozen conflicts, and the instigation of who knows how many new conflicts."

Instead of letting that happen, Tadic said that "the only way to resolve differences in the Europe of the 21st Century, is through negotiations. Serious negotiations that continue until all parties feel satisfied. That's how Europe has been transformed from a place of strife to a place of concord. And that's how we avoid setting precedents that could strike at the very foundation of the architecture of international security."

Prior to Tadic's remarks in Munich, the Serbian cabinet minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzjic, said at a press conference in Belgrade that he has been provided with documents indicating that the Kosovar-Albanian parliament wants to proclaim independence on Feb 17. He said that date is confirmed by the other fact that on that day, the United Nations intends to withdraw its civilian personnel from Kosovo. Serbian media report that an (unnamed) US diplomat recently spoke of a Sunday in February, on which the independence would go into effect--that would be Feb 17, indeed.

At the same time Samardzijc was speaking, Hasim Thaci, the president of Kosovo, met with the EU's envoy Joachim Ruecker in Pristina, Kosovo, and claimed that more than 100 states of the world had given assurances they would recognize an independent Kosovo, which "no one could prevent" in any case.

The European Union is adding to the momentum for independence, by preparing to dispatch an 1,800-person police and judicial mission to take over the administering of Kosovo when the U.N. leaves. Not surprisingly, the mission is being prepared by a British diplomat. The Russian Ambassador to the E.U. said on Wednesday, that such a mission is a violation of resolution 1244, and that Russia would do everything in its power diplomatically to prevent the independence of Kosovo.