Freelance diplomats
lend a hand to would-be states
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
(AP)
BRUSSELS-Northern Cyprus, Western
Sahara and Somaliland may not have much in common, but they share
the same predicament: all are unrecognized states striving to
capture international attention.
Enter Independent Diplomat — freelance diplomats who offer their
assistance to such nations-in-waiting. They have scored a notable
success helping Kosovo win independence from Serbia — but critics
say they can only accomplish so much without involving governments
and should not pretend to have more influence than they do.
The nonprofit group, comprised of former diplomats from a variety of
nations, stands ready to help would-be governments navigate the
complex system of national bureaucracies and international
organizations designed to accommodate established nations.
"Very often government or international officials will refuse to
talk to our clients, or if they talk to them they're reluctant to
give them the information they ne ed," said Nicholas Whyte,
who heads the Brussels office of the nonprofit group.
"And from our clients' side, they are often inexperienced in dealing
with interna tional bureaucracies precisely because nobody
talks to them," said Whyte, an Irish international affairs expert.
With offices in New York, Washington, London, Brussels and Addis
Ababa, Ethi opia, the organization provides its clients with
guidance on how to approach foreign governments or international
organizations such as the United Nations or the European Union.
The group played a role in helping Kosovo gain independence from
Serbia. The province had been under international rule since the war
ended in 1999 until declaring independence last year, and has been
recognized by about 60 nations so far.
"We received great assistance from them at a time when we needed it
most," said Ilir Dugolli, Kosovo's representative to the EU.
Independent Diplomat's $1.8 million annual budget comes from
foundation and government donations, as well as client fees. Clients
are charged according to their ability to pay, with the poorest
paying only nominal amounts.
The group also counsels established nations on issues where they
lack expertise, including advising the Republic of the Marshall
Islands on the U.N. climate change process and working with East
European countries applying for EU membership.
"We advise would-be countries, but also regular states where we can
add our own expertise to theirs, as long as they are democratic
countries that respect international law," said Carne Ross, the
group's founder and director.
He said Independent Diplomat adheres to a strict policy of rejecting
clients eng aged in armed struggle, such as Hamas in the Gaza
Strip or Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers.
"If Robert Mugabe came to us for advice, we wouldn't help him," said
Ross, a former senior British diplomat.
The organization says it has had significant impact as an
intermediary, including arranging a recent meeting between EU
officials and the president of Western Sahara's government-in-exile.
The territory was taken over by Morocco 35 years ago, and although a
U.N.-negotiated truce in 1991 called for a referendum on its future,
this has never been held.
Independent Diplomat "are our true friends," said Mohamed Abdelaziz,
who leads the government-in-exile based in a refugee camp in the
Algerian desert.
The self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus requested
the group's assistance in negotiations to reunify the Turkish and
Greek parts of the island. Cyprus was split along ethnic lines after
the Turkish invasion in 1974, and thousands of Greek as well as
Turkish Cypriots fled to the southern part of the island.
"Turkish Cypriots are institutionally disadvantaged by the policies
of the inter national community, and yet are expected to carry
on with the peace process," Whyte said.
However, Cypriot officials dismissed the group as outsiders with no
influence over island policy.
"The Republic of Cyprus was accepted into the European Union in 2004
with full legal sovereignty over the entire territory" of Cyprus,
said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with
government policy. "That's certainly not going to change whatever
anyone from the outside says or does."
Robert Cooper, secretary-general of the European Council in
Brussels, also questioned the group's influence.
"Achieving anything in foreign affairs is very difficult for
non-governmental gro ups," he said. "Some NGOs perform
extremely valuable work and are well resp ected ... but in the
end nothing is achieved without governments (and) they should not
pretend that they have influence when they don't."
Still, Richard Dalton, the former British ambassador to Iran, said
those involved in the endeavor were "individually capable people"
who could make a difference.
"Their philosophy and their code — and the approach that they take —
does fill a gap for countries and for movements who don't have
access to the international system," he said.
International recognition has eluded Somaliland, the self-declared
republic in the north of Somalia which has had an effective
government for almost two decades, including its own currency and a
viable economy.
"International policy has been predicated on shoring up Somalia's
weak and emb attled central government rather than supporting
the one part of the country that has demonstrated its ability to
avoid conflict," Whyte said.
The organization believes the world's diplomatic institutions need
to be more accessible to such non-state groups, or the price will be
more bloodshed.
"Our work helps countries and other political actors avoid conflict
by using existing diplomatic channels ... as long as they are
allowed to," he said.
Source: AP
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