William Walker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | June 1, 1935 [1] |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | United States Foreign Service diplomat |
William Graham Walker (born June 1, 1935) is a United States Foreign Service diplomat who served as the US ambassador to El Salvador and as the head of the Kosovo Verification Mission. [2]
Walker was born in Kearny, New Jersey. [1] As an undergraduate, he studied Architecture and Political Science at the University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). [3] He received an M.A. in Latin American Studies from UCLA in 1969. [3]
As a Foreign Service officer, he has served mostly in Latin America, notably in Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras, Peru, [4] Domestically, he has served on the Argentina desk at the US State Department, and with the Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco. [3] He was a Foreign Service Inspector in the Office of the Inspector General from 1978 to 1980 and State Department Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City from 1977 to 1988. [3]
From 1985 to 1988, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, [1] with responsibility for relations with Central America and Panama. [3] By coincidence, he shares his name with a historical soldier of fortune who in the 19th century attempted to conquer parts of Central America (and was ultimately executed). [4] From 1988 to 1992, he served as Ambassador to El Salvador. [5] He was the Vice President of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. between 1994 and 1997. [2]
In August 1997, Walker was named as a Special Representative of the Secretary General and was appointed to head the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES). [2] He led a mission consisting of some 800 UN civilian and 2,500 military peacekeepers and administrators. [2] The mission was responsible for overseeing the peaceful reintegration of this Serb-controlled region of eastern Slavonia into Croatia following the end of the Croatian War. [6]
Walker was subsequently appointed to head the Kosovo Verification Mission, leading some 1400 international and 1500 local staff between October 1998 and June 1999 along with British Major General John Drewienkiewicz, Walker's military adviser. [7] This was a peacekeeping mission mounted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in an attempt to halt the ongoing violence in Kosovo by verifying compliance on the part of Yugoslav forces with U.N. resolutions. [8]
Following the Račak massacre of 45 Kosovar Albanians in January 1999, Walker visited the site and called it an "unspeakable atrocity" and "crime very much against humanity." [9] On January 18, 1999, the FR Yugoslavia government accused him of "going far beyond his mandate", and of "waging a campaign of disinformation against Serbia", declaring him persona non grata and ordering him to leave the country. [10] A week later, on the intervention by European Council and Russian Federation, Prime Minister of FR Yugoslavia Momir Bulatović froze the decision. [11] The Račak massacre was a pivotal incident in pushing NATO into launching its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. [12] The OSCE mission was discontinued following the end of the Kosovo War in June 1999. In a 2008 interview, Helena Ranta, the Finnish pathologist who was tasked with examining the Račak massacre, accused Walker of pressuring her into proclaiming that Serbian security forces were responsible for the massacre in her report, despite it not being a part of her job. [13]
On November 24, 2008, he became honorary citizen of Republic of Albania, the title given by President Bamir Topi.[ citation needed ] On January 15, 2009, on the 10th anniversary of the Račak massacre, he was awarded the Golden Medal of Freedom by the President and Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo.[ citation needed ] In January 2017 a statue of Walker was erected in the village of Račak. [14]
During the 2010 Kosovo elections Walker supported and campaigned for then Albanian nationalist and radical Albin Kurti. [15] Walker has repeatedly criticized former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi and accused him of corruption. [16] In 2020 Walker was hired as a consultant for Thaci. The five month agreement was signed by Thaci and the Walker Foundation, an association set up by Walker. [16]
Walker is married and has four children. [1] He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. [3]
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.
The Kosovo Liberation Army was an ethnic Albanian separatist militia that sought the separation of Kosovo from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and Serbia during the 1990s and the eventual creation of Greater Albania due to the presence of a vast ethnic majority of Albanians in the region, stressing Albanian culture, ethnicity and nation. It was considered a terrorist group until the breakup of Yugoslavia.
The Račak massacre or Račak operation was the massacre of 45 Kosovo Albanians that took place in the village of Račak in central Kosovo in January 1999. The massacre was prompted by Albanian separatist activity in the region, and perpetrated by Serbian security forces. The Serbian government refused to let a war crimes prosecutor visit the site, and maintained that the casualties were all members of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) killed in combat with state security forces.
Račak is a village in the Štimlje municipality of Kosovo. It became notorious in January 1999 after at least 45 villagers were killed.
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Hashim Thaçi is a Kosovar politician who was the President of Kosovo from April 2016 until his resignation on 5 November 2020. He was the first Prime Minister of Kosovo and the Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in the new cabinet led by Isa Mustafa, which assumed office on 12 December 2014.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in Kosovo have improved in recent years, most notably with the adoption of the new Constitution, banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, homosexuality is still viewed by Kosovar society as a taboo topic.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move which Serbia rejects. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state and continues to claim it as the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. Initially there were no relations between the two; however, in the following years there has been increased dialogue and cooperation between the two sides.
Serbian-Spanish relations are foreign relations between Serbia and Spain. Both countries established diplomatic relations on October 14, 1916. Serbia has an embassy in Madrid. Spain has an embassy in Belgrade. Both countries are member states of the United Nations, Interpol, Council of Europe and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Spain is member state of the European Union since 1986 and Serbia is a candidate country since 2012 negotiating its future membership which Spain is strongly supporting. Spain is member state of NATO alliance while Serbia is militarily neutral country with strong historical relations with the Non-Aligned Movement.
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United Nations Security Council resolution 1160, adopted on 31 March 1998, after noting the situation in Kosovo, the council, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, imposed an arms embargo and economic sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, hoping to end the use of excessive force by the government.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1203, adopted on 24 October 1998, after recalling resolutions 1160 (1998) and 1199 (1998) on Kosovo, the Council demanded that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia comply with previous Security Council resolutions and co-operate with the NATO and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) verification missions in Kosovo.
Gabriel Keller is a French diplomat and teacher. Keller earned a history professor agrégé degree in 1972 at Paris West University Nanterre La Défense.
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