VZCZCXYZ0011
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSO #0070 0501315
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 191315Z FEB 08
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7913
INFO RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 9063
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO PRIORITY 8587
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 3029

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000070 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD 
 
DEPT PASS USTR 
 
USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: KOSOVO; SAO PAULO 
 
 
¶1. QIndependent Kosovo 
 
Liberal, largest national circulation daily Folha de S. Paulo (2/19) 
editorialized: QThe way Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia 
was not normal. The ideal process for the emergence of a nation was 
not respected. Among other reasons, an understanding did not work 
because of the Serbian governmentQs intransigence and RussiaQs 
diplomatic actions.  However, KosovoQs separation from Serbia is 
unavoidable. KosovoQs return to SerbiaQs domination would be 
unfeasible. The European Union says that KosovoQs condition as a 
province historically repressed by the Serbians is enough to justify 
the break of protocol in the case of KosovoQs emancipation. It is a 
good argument in favor of the independence, but the EU was unable to 
convince all members to support it. Nations such as Spain, that has 
faced the Basque separatism intent, fear the creation of a 
precedent. 
 
¶2. QThe Spark That Relights Historic Fires 
 
National circulation daily O Estado de S. PauloQs Paris 
correspondent Giles Lapouge commented (2/19): QVladimir Putin has 
warned the UN Security Council that he will not permit Kosovo to 
become the organizationQs 193rd member. The collusion between Russia 
and Serbia is a logic one: they are Slav and orthodox nations, while 
Kosovo, whose population is predominantly Albanian, is Muslim.  In 
addition, there is fear of QcontagionQ. In Russia, several ethnic 
groups in the Caucuses have claimed their freedom, like Kosovo. A 
simple spark may relight millenary ethnic, historical and religious 
fires. 
 
 
¶3. QRegion Will Continue Under the UN/EU Tutelage 
 
Business-oriented Valor Economico wrote (2/19): QKosovoQs 
independence tends to consolidate, but the process is a risky one 
and not free from trouble. Russians have repressed a separatist 
movement in Chechnya, the same way Turks have done in Kurdistan and 
the Chinese in Tibet. And neither the US nor the European Union, 
which supported KosovoQs independence, has been sympathetic to the 
independence of those regions. The reason is always political: not 
to offend an allied nation (Turkey), not to provoke a very important 
nation (China), or to silence in view of repression against a common 
enemy (Russia combats radical Chechnyan Muslims).  In the case of 
Kosovo, both the US and the EU encouraged the independence. European 
diplomats said that KosovoQs situation is different, unique.  It is 
not. What reasoning has then moved the US and the EU?  Among other 
reasons, to remind an increasingly assertive Russia the limitation 
of its real power. The EU is expected to absorb the Balkan nations, 
its last natural frontier, in the next few decades. This fact may 
force Serbia to move from the area of Russian influence to the 
West. [In the meantime] encapsulated between a hostile Serbia and 
Albania, one of EuropeQs poorest nations with a strong presence of 
organized crime, Kosovo tends to remain for years, maybe decades, as 
a UN and EU protectorate. 
 
WHITE