Kosovo Serbs crave Russian citizenship

Vremya Novostei

Kosovo Serbs crave Russian citizenship

A new turn is imminent in the situation around Kosovo after Thursday's meeting at the UN General Assembly in New York, which clearly showed that Serbia's government is not going to risk a conflict with the West over the territory that unilaterally declared independence in February 2008.

Serbia hopes this policy will help promote its EU bid. However, Kosovo Serbs have accused officials in Belgrade including President Boris Tadic of trying to sacrifice their interests for relations with the West, and threatened to seek out Russia for support.

The Kosovo resolution put up for a vote of the UN General Assembly on Thursday is the result of long and difficult negotiations. Serbia's initial draft included a clause ruling out Kosovo's independence and calling for new negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo. Brussels demanded that Serbia withdraw its draft under threat of freezing the country's EU accession process. Serbia refused to withdraw the resolution, although agreed to soften the requirements.

As a result, the resolution became more relaxed and more open to compromise but at the same time, more vague. A reassessment of Kosovo's independence was entirely removed from the document.

"The Serbian government is aware that the West, that is, the United States and the European Union, is unlikely to make significant concessions on Kosovo or review its decision on the region's independence," Konstantin Nikiforov, director of the Institute of Slavic Studies in Russia, said. In his words, it was clear ten years go that the Western powers were determined to follow through on independence for Kosovo Albanians. Therefore, Serbia and the EU are limited to technicalities at their negotiations, such as international guarantees of certain autonomy for the areas in Kosovo where ethnic Serbs live.

The region's Albanian authorities are not interested in building relations with Serbia either, Nikiforov adds. The 100,000 Serbs living in densely packed communities in the northern areas of Kosovo populated by 2,000,000 are the least fortunate in this situation. They refuse to recognize the new government's jurisdiction and accuse Serbia of lack of support.

President of the Serb National Council of Northern Kosovo Milan Ivanovic said on Wednesday that the recent moves by Boris Tadic are forcing the Kosovo Serbs to turn to Russia. He warned that they will apply for Russian citizenship for all Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija if the EU-Serbian agreements violate the Kosovo Serbs' rights and are implemented without Russia's approval.

According to Ivanovic, Russia knows how to protect its citizens wherever they live, referring to the August 2008 conflict in the Caucasus that led to the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Moscow.

http://en.rian.ru/papers/20100910/160544886.html

Opinion & analysis

Serbia accepts watered-down U.N. Kosovo resolution

Topic: Kosovo declares independence

 

Kosovo celebrates the Independence Day on 17 February 2010

17:43 10/09/2010

© RIA Novosti. Natalia Grebenyuk

Serbia has finally been persuaded to compromise over Kosovo. On the eve of a vote on the UN General Assembly resolution on Kosovo, Serbia (which had been calling for Kosovo's status to be reconsidered) threw its weight behind the EU initiative. The resolution now goes forward as a joint EU-Serbian initiative.

The resolution passed by an overwhelming majority of the 192-nation assembly on September 9 contains no mention of the illegality of Kosovo's independence, or the fact that Belgrade will never accept it, nor does it call for fresh talks on Kosovo's status.

EU diplomats did a good job editing the document, which in legal terms is considered a letter of intent. Despite Serbia's fierce rebuttal of any such suggestion, the resolution highlights Belgrade's changing position.

The document mentions unresolved problems, takes into consideration the July 2010 ruling of the International Court of Justice that Kosovo's declaration of independence did not contravene international law and also initiates economic dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina under EU auspices.

Now that clauses referring to the illegality of Kosovo's independence have been omitted, several EU countries refusing to recognize Kosovo (Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Slovakia) can now take part in this dialogue. Seventy states have recognized Kosovo to date, while another 60, including Russia and China, refuse to do so. Kosovo is unable to join the UN because, as permanent UN Security Council members, Moscow and Beijing have the right to veto all decisions. All other countries have either delayed recognition of Pristina's independence or have assumed a wait-and-see attitude.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Belgrade would never accept the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence and delayed the General Assembly session by almost three hours.

After spotting the Kosovo delegation in the General Assembly hall, Jeremic demanded that it leave the premises since it is not a member. It took two-and-a-half hours to clarify the delegation's status, and finally its members were listed as "guests" of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the United States.

We can continue to debate whether the Serbian government is doing the right thing, whether it is pro-Western, pro-Slavic, pro-Serbian or a traitor. Setting all emotions aside, the incumbent Serbian president and government simply had no alternative. Both had proclaimed a pro-European policy during their election campaigns, but their stubborn stance on the Kosovo issue prevented them from joining the EU.

Considering Serbia's beleaguered economy, seriously affected by the 1999 NATO air strikes, Belgrade does not have much hope without EU assistance. Serbia's future would be bleak, indeed, unless it opts for the "European alternative." In fact, the country would become a political and economic rogue state among the other former Yugoslav republics which have either joined the EU and NATO or are on the verge of doing so. Serbia has no one to rely on.

The "Kosovo syndrome" is likely to cause a splitting headache on almost every continent but will hardly have any major impact on Old Europe, namely, the United Kingdom, France or Belgium. Although Scottish, Irish, Corsican or Flemish nationalists are quite restless, they remain rational. But the situation in other countries is far more serious. China faces problems in Tibet. India's Punjab region wants to become an independent state of Khalistan. Turkey, Iraq and Iran have to deal with Kurdish separatists. Indonesia also had to quell separatism in East Timor, while Sri Lanka fought a protracted war against the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).

There are more countries suffering from long-neglected problems of separatism than is desirable. Cambridge University estimates their number at over 100.

Russia has done everything possible to resolve the Kosovo conflict in line with international law. Whether this objective could have been accomplished against concerted opposition is another matter. Most likely, it would have been impossible. At the same time, Moscow has received a hard-earned trump card, namely the "Kosovo precedent," which it can use in any game, whatever the circumstances and against any partner. Although Russia has lost Serbia to Europe, there is nothing else one can do when principles must be upheld.

RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20100910/160549247.html

Pastor Terry Jones......and Yugoslavia (VIDEO)

Perhaps it is not my place, but I must give you my opinion on the video made by Pastor Terry Jones, at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/39062971#39062971

 

Or  D/L… http://www.4shared.com/video/b2NMtCE_/msnbc_video-_Pastor_wont_back_.html

 

 

As you all know by now, the Pastor has cancelled the burning of the Koran: 

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/florida-pastor-calls-off-koran-burning/?partner=rss&emc=rss

 

If what Pastor Terry Jones said about Yugoslavia (he definitely knew about the churches being blown up) and what was passed on to him by phone by a former Green Beret Special Force member, all Serbian organizations, and I do mean all, should contact Pastor Jones (and if necessary, subpoena him) and demand that he reveal the name of the former Green Beret so that there is an investigation into what is undoubtedly one of the worst atrocities committed against the Serbian people by Muslim forces ever perpetrated.  

 

And again, this is just my opinion, but this should not be laid to rest.

 

Stella