So, why is the principle of self-determination any worse than the opposing principle of "territorial integrity"? Both can be, and have been, abused. But in recent years, it is the latter that has been most often abused, because it is the one that has been in fashion.
All too frequently, governments cite the principle of "territorial integrity" to justify doing whatever they choose to some ethnic group or other that they perceive as threatening that integrity. In other words, the territory is more important to them than the people living on it (to hell with the people, actually!).
Kofi Annan, bless his soul, has apparently drawn a lesson from his observations of Rwanda, Kosovo, and Chechnya...In any event, he feels it is time to revise that notion of "territorial integrity," by complementing it with the notion of "individual integrity." In other words, a government should not be allowed, unchallenged, to slaughter its own people for the sake of keeping a piece of territory, or to treat such a slaughter as a "purely internal affair." I'm with Annan.
Do you really think the Austrian Empire should have been retained? Then why not the Soviet Union? And what was wrong with granting Ireland the right to self-determination??? You're gonna get my Irish up...<g>
Joan |
