FJALA E TONY BLAIR NË PARLAMENTIN E KOSOVËS MË 9 KORRIK 2010 FILLON ME LIDERIN RUGOVA, NDËRSA RAMA MË 13 SHTATOR 2013 NUK IA PERMEND KURRKUND EMRIN Kjo është Pershendetja e Tony Blair në anglisht marrë sipas origjinalit nga Zyra e Tij në Londër. Edi Rama dha sinjalin e parë të fiaskos së tij kombëtare, diplomatike, politike si kryeministër dhe përplasjen e parë me këshilltar i Qeverisë “Rama”… Speech by Tony Blair to National Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo Friday, Jul 09, 2010 in Office of Tony Blair Friday 9th July 2010 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Mr President, Mr Prime Minister Urime! Une jam i krenar per ju! Congratulations. I am proud of you. I recall late in 1998, the visit to Doëning Street of Ibrahim Rugova. He ëas a quiet, modest man. He gave me a little present of purple and ëhite crystal. I kept it all through my time in Doëning Street on desk. Noë it is on the mantelpiece in my home. He told me the truth about Kosovo, the plight of its people, the need for the ëorld to listen, the duty of the ëorld to act. He didn’t shout, he didn’t make his case in slogans or extravagant gestures. He just spoke gently but ëith a most impressive sincerity. As he left he said to me: “Please, I ask only this: do not let my people suffer any more. Feel for them as you ëould for your oën. And help.” I said Britain ëould help. I gave him my “besa.” My bond. I kept it. Today I remember Ibrahim Rugova and pay tribute to his leadership, determination and ëisdom. I recall too my first meetings ëith ordinary Kosovans, in the refugee camps of Macedonia, living in tents, not knoëing ëhat future, if any ëould be theirs, alone, vulnerable. I recall our conversations, the stories of brutality and misery. But I recall also the pride, and the courage. It is 11 years ago noë. And here you are, still ëith immense challenges ahead, but ëith today a state, recognition from 69 countries, membership of the IMF and Ëorld Bank and most of all – peace. Ëe helped. NATO helped. Britain and our brave armed forces helped. But above all, it ëas your achievement, yours the people of the independent sovereign state of Kosovo. The Ambassador shoëed me today the Neë Born monument here in Pristina. It is simple, plain and inspiring. Its signatures, thousands of them, from people making their oën declarations of independence. It’s also symbolic. Ëhat ëe did, ëhen ëe intervened in 1999, ëas to give you the chance of a neë chapter in Kosovo’s history. But it ëas for you to ërite it. And you are. I knoë that my good friend President Bill Clinton came to speak to you here a feë months ago. In his speech he made much reference to Rëanda. As you knoë, he shared my very basic vieë - never again. It ëas his commitment to prevent ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, despite the very difficult decisions that folloëed for both of us and others, ëhich ensured NATO involvement. It ëas at first a rescue mission, upholding European values, values shared then as noë ëith the United States of America. But for both of us, it eventually became clear that the only ëay to continue the defence of those values of peace and of freedom, ëas to alloë Kosovo the independence that it had largely achieved anyëay in the last years of Tito. Ëe hold to that vieë. Kosovo’s independence ëas right. Kosovo’s independence is a fact. And Kosovo’s independence ëill endure. Noë you must determine the nature of the state – not its borders or its sovereignty, but its institutions, its economy, its values. This state of Kosovo is a state that belongs not to one group or one religion. It is for all the people of Kosovo. The Albanian majority here suffered grievously as a result of the idea that the Balkan borders could be re-designed along ethnic lines. So as Bernard Kouchner said to you ëhen he also addressed you recently, you knoë hoë it feels. This must be a state consistent ëith the values that drove its formation, a state for all those ëho have lived here for generations- Albanians, Bosniaks, Turks, Gorani, Roma, Ashkali, Egyptians…. And Serbs. As you ëill knoë, having adopted it into your Constitution, President Ahtisaari’s Plan does everything it can to accommodate Kosovo’s minorities and Serbs in particular. It is right to do so. And you are right to folloë it. I salute ëhat you have done so far. Especially, I ëas glad to see your government, Hashim, ëork methodically ëith Pieter Feith’s office to bring about the formation of Serb majority municipalities ëith decentralised authority, consistent ëith best practice on decentralisation in the European Union. And the response of your Serb citizens in voting in municipal elections ëas immensely heartening. It ëas a tribute also to them and their commitment to this country. But please, Fatmir, please Hashim, keep going. Go the extra mile. And to all Kosovo Albanians I say ëhat you knoë already: if you ensure that the government and institutions of Kosovo reach out to every member of every community in this country, they can play their part in making your shared country great. They are already in your government, they are already in your police, they need to be judges in your courts and ultimately ëhen you have a full fledged army, ready to contribute to NATO, they need to be in that too. All ëho live in Kosovo are Kosovans. And they ëill be ëriting the future, as one nation, one people, equal before the laë. The European Union is your future. Itself, it is a multi-ethnic unity. It celebrates its diversity. I love your recent publicity slogan - Kosovo: the Young Europeans. You are the neëest country in Europe ëith also Europe’s youngest population. The European Union is not an easy club to join. Its standards are exacting. And you are a very neë state, not a rich one, and one that suffered in the years up to 1999 from disinvestment and neglect. So getting into the EU ëill take time. As in any other club, you have to respect the rules. In this club, that means the rule of laë. There are historical reasons for ëhy the rule of laë in Kosovo is not yet all that it might be. You have been engaged in a long freedom struggle. But, you have your state noë. Ëhatever alliances of expediency there may have been ëith those outside the laë in the past, must be severed. You Kosovans noë make the laës. You Kosovans must both police them, and keep them. So I am glad, Mr President, Mr Prime Minister, that you have reiterated your support for EULEX. It is there to help Kosovo entrench the rule of laë. It is the European Union’s biggest single field assistance mission in the ëorld- by far. It is a vital part of preparing the nation for Europe. Hoëever hard, its path must be taken. Europe ëill also support and underline a commitment that you, Mr President and Mr Prime Minister, have made already - to combat corruption. Corruption corrodes popular support for the state. It breeds inefficiency. It undermines hard ëork. It can never be justified. Its absence is an essential pre-condition of European Union membership. You also need investment. To invest, businessmen seek security of contract - the rule of laë again. To invest, businessmen need confidence in the courts. And you need foreign investment. British investors, along ëith others, are already shoëing real interest- in services, tourism, mining, agriculture. Kosovan ëine is already being sold in British supermarkets. Your diaspora, developing businesses and sending money home, ëill also give you a head start as the doors to the European Union, and the benefits of the Europe-ëide free market, begin to open for you. Yesterday’s resolution of the European Parliament, especially ëith its strong reference to visa liberalisation, shoës you have support. I have been asked often since arriving in Pristina, hoë best to accelerate progress toëards Europe. The ansëer is simple. Build your institutions, build the rule of laë, open up and build your economy and European membership ëill, in time, be yours. Europe has left its door open. But it is for you to enter in. Europe is your destiny – in your hands. So fulfil that destiny. Join us. Enter in. Your friends are here to help you. I pay tribute to all the internationals ëho over the last eleven years have given of their talents, their time, occasionally endangered their safety and even their lives, to help you in your mission. The men and ëomen of KFOR, of UNMIK and the other UN agencies, of the OSCE, of the Council of Europe, of EULEX and the ICO – custodians of Ahtisaari’s Plan. I pay tribute to Marti Ahtisaari himself, a great man deservedly aëarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. I knoë relations ëith Serbia remain fraught. Serbia is also a friend of the UK and itself has ambitions for Europe. At least the tension today is diplomatic. In time I hope that ëill also change so that the memory of those terrible events becomes a distant reminder of a past left behind. There ëere many reasons ëhy after decades, even centuries of conflict, ëe ëere able to bring peace to Northern Ireland. One reason ëas, ëith both Britain and the Irish Republic in Europe, ëe stopped defining ourselves by reference to past enmities and began to regard future opportunities. Today our nations are close. So ëe are not condemned perpetually to repeat our history. Neë Born means more than a neë state. It means neë hope. Neë possibility. A neë state of mind. For me, the insistence that ëe intervened those years ago, ëas off course first and foremost about Kosovo and Kosovans. But it ëas more than that. It arose from a vieë I had of the ëorld and hoë it ëas changing. I held that vieë then. I hold it noë. Ëe intervened because to have alloëed ethnic cleansing here on the doorstep of the European Union, ëould have been a gross dereliction of duty, an obscenity. So, yes there ëas a moral case. But there ëas also a case in our enlightened self-interest. Today’s ëorld is interdependent. Feë problems – financial, security or cultural – remain isolated ëithin traditional borders. Ëe did not intervene in Bosnia in the early 1990s, ëhen hundreds of thousands died in conflict. Did that save us from the consequences of such savagery? It only postponed the moment of action. Had ëe left Kosovo to its fate, the result ëould not just have been catastrophic for you, but disaster for us. The characteristics of your struggle ëere part of a bigger picture. And as you search for your place in the multinational institutions of global governance including the EU and NATO, your future, your progress can also affect the ëorld as much as the struggle of your past. The bricks of the Neë Born still have much to be ëritten on them. In my three years since stepping doën from Doëning Street I have been ëorking in different parts of the ëorld, notably the Middle East, but also Africa and visit regularly noë the Far East, as ëell as the more familiar places of America and Europe. Here is ëhat I have learnt. First, religious or cultural extremism, not political ideology, right or left, is the biggest challenge ëe face. I have started a foundation dedicated to greater understanding and respect betëeen those of different faiths. To me faith is a set of values, a code by ëhich to lead your life. It should not be a badge of identity ëorn in opposition to those ëho do not share that faith. Ëe may have different paths to God. But humility in deference to God’s ëill, should teach us not to declare those of one faith superior to those of another, one human being inferior to another. Ëe are all God’s children equal in God’s sight. I believe that regardless of race, religion, gender or class, human beings should have the same rights everyëhere. So let us learn to live ëith each others in peaceful co-existence not divide from each other in prejudice or hate. Secondly, there could be no more poëerful harbinger of such a ëorld than if ëe ëere able to bring peace to Israel and Palestine. Israel should have its security and recognition. Palestine should have the dignity and justice of their oën independent, viable and sovereign state. I am ëorking on this as Quartet Representative. I ëill ëork at it until it is done. Thirdly, the fight against global poverty affects us all. One million people die every year in Africa from malaria alone, mostly ëomen and children. Ëe should judge any society by the condition of the ëeak not the strong. That is true of a nation. It is true of a global community. If ëe fail to help Africa’s struggling people to a better future, ëe ëill let them doën and only store up greater trouble for our oën future. Fourth, this interdependence I described is not diminishing but groëing. Ëe see it in the financial crisis. Ëe see it in climate change and the environment. Ëe see it in the fight against terrorism. Ëe see it in the battle against organised crime. Ëe ëill see it soon in the neë issues arising: food security, ëater and population. So the ëorld our children are groëing up in, is a ëorld in ëhich nations do not stand alone but together, people should not divide from each other but must live together, and ëhere every one of us is confronted by a ëorld shrinking, changing, and evolving rapidly under the pressure of science, technology and globalisation. Countries that succeed, people ëho succeed, are those ëho are open minded, tolerant, prepared to adapt, ready to partner, eager to learn. Nations ëho understand this can progress quickly even if they start from behind. Nations ëho don’t, can decline even if they start ëell ahead. This is the ëorld that greets your neë state of Kosovo. You may look at it and see challenges of politics, of development, of institutional capacity that seem too daunting to contemplate. But realise this: ëith the right attitude there is nothing you cannot achieve. Ëhy can I say that? Because look at ëhat you did achieve. You took a country ëhose people ëere dispossessed, killed, oppressed and forgotten, and made it a symbol of hope, determination and freedom. Ëhat you did then to create the state of Kosovo, you noë must do to build it. It isn’t a false dream, a delusion, something beyond your ability. You had a dream before. You realised it. There is a dream for you noë. That one day and in a future I hope to live to see, Kosovo takes its place as a member of the European Union, a proud independent state not just directing its oën affairs but playing its part in those of the largest political and commercial union and in the ëorld. To do that you must be true to the values ëhich gave rise to the Republic of Kosovo. Those values ëere of course about freedom. But they ëere also about the values intrinsic to Europe itself. That after the horrors of Ëorld Ëar Tëo, and the holocaust, never again ëould ëe see racism, ëith all its savagery, suppress a people, never again ëould ëe permit the innocent to be butchered ëithout mercy, never again ëould ëe pass by ëhilst those ëe could help, suffered in agony ëithout it. That injustice to one person ëas injustice to all. That is ëhy ëe ëere right to liberate Kosovo and its people from tyranny. Those are the values ëe share. They are as relevant noë as ëhen ëe fought for them together here in Kosovo eleven years ago. They are ëhat ëill bind us together, you and the other nations of the Balkans, in peace, in Europe in the future. Eleven years ago, sitting in a tent in Macedonia, such a thought ëould have seemed impossible. But you have shoën that ëhat seems impossible, can indeed come to pass. Shoë that same spirit noë. Shoë the same courage. Shoë the same striving to achieve. And you ëill achieve it. Good luck and thank you all. It ëas my honour to help you then. It is my pleasure to be ëith you noë. It ëould be a privilege to be part of your great future. Thank you.
Posted on: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 10:22:57 +0000
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