Division of Kosovo: "pros" and "cons"

© RIA Novosti. Ilya Pitalev

13:36 22/11/2011

Tags: Kosovo

This story by Pyotr Iskenderov, PhD, Senior Research Associate Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Science, Strategic Culture Foundation expert, was published in International Affairs magazine.

The statement about a possible division of Kosovo made by the chairman of the Kosovo Assembly Jakup Krasniqi ahead of the resumption of talks between Belgrade and Pristina may give a new direction to the burning discussion on Kosovo issue.

If earlier Kosovo's Albanian leaders vigorously opposed the very possibility of the division of the region's north populated with Serbs, now they are ready to consider this variant but on the condition that Kosovo will get territorial compensations. Here is how Mr. Krasniqi phrased it himself: "If Kosovo's borders are changed, Albanians will have to think about other Albanians who live beyond these borders because no one the Balkans have been so deprived of his interests as we have". Earlier, the Albanian leaders of three southern Serbian communities with mixed Serbian-Albanian population (Bujanovac, Presevo, Medvedja) made it clear that they would support the division of the northern district from Kosovo on the condition that Kosovo receives the Presevo valley.    

As you know, the impossibility of the division of Kosovo as well as its accession to other states was set in the decisions by the International Contact Group in the end of 2005. Back then, not only the Albanian leaders but also Serbia's authorities opposed the division. In its turn the West was promoting the idea of the uniqueness of Kosovo's case insisting on the inviolability of the Balkan territories. 

However, the recent months saw significant changes in the sentiments of Belgrade and the EU. A group of Serbian officials headed by First Deputy Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said the division of Kosovo into Albanian and Serbian parts was a desperate but the only possible measure to protect Serbian people in that region. Many officials in Brussels were caught off balance by the aggravation of the situation in the north of Kosovo and the local police's attempts to get control over the administrative border with Serbia. Supreme Commissar of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton strictly demanded from Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga to give up making unilateral steps.

Mrs. Ashton's special envoy Robert Cooper made the situation even more complicated announced that the current technical talks between Belgrade and Pristina would be completed by the end of the year and they would be followed by the "political dialogue". However the dialogue will start not earlier than the elections (slated on April 2012) are held in Serbia. It is not a secret that the West sees the oppositional Serbian Radical Party, which is now gathering a momentum, as the only obstacle on the way to Serbia's total "westernization". That is why in the near future the US and the EU will try to avoid the subject of Kosovo's status in order not to discredit the ruling coalition even more in the eyes of the Serbian public opinion.

Meanwhile other European officials have also joined the discussion. According to the European Commission's deputy Doris Pack, dirty games are continuing in the north of Kosovo. Pack rules out the division of Kosovo because in this case the division of Balkans will have no end. 

Austrian diplomat Albert Rochan approached the problem of Kosovo north differently. When being deputy special envoy of the UN Secretary General on the settlement of Kosovo crisis he (together with Martti Ahtisaari) took part in the development of the plan on granting Kosovo "supervised independence". Rochan does not see any sense in looking for a new solution on the northern Kosovo issue and suggests that the EU should remove the barriers set by five EU member states (Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia), which obstinately refuse to recognize Kosovo's independence.

Germany is continuing to stick to its "tough line" policy taking the most anti-Serbian and pro-Albanian position among all the EU member-states. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle stressed that his country would not change the terms Serbia should meet to enter the EU. He made it clear that it particularly concerns the demand to Serbia's authorities to stop supporting Serbs in Kosovo.

The definite answer is expected to be given on December 9, when Brussels hosts this year's last session of the European Council on Serbia's entry to the EU. The passions are definitely rising in the EU as the forum approaches. On November 14, an emergency meeting of EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule with Foreign Ministers of the EU member states was held in Brussels. At that meeting the fate of Serbia's request was discussed and, according to available data, Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and some of his colleagues from Central and Eastern Europe  "decisively supported" granting Serbia the status of the EU member. The only exception was Westerwelle who decisively reiterated his country's tough position.  

In the current situation, when neither the EU nor Pristina or Belgrade know what to do with Kosovo Serbs the idea of Kosovo's division may get a second wind. The question, which arises in that case, is how far the revision of Balkan borders may go and what position Serbia's government will take? It is clear that the implementation of the plans of Jakup Krasniqi, who is concerned with the discrimination of Albanians on Balkans, gives Belgrade the right to raise the question about the fates of Bosnian Serbs.

However doing so would mean starting the conflict with the EU and NATO which is definitely not part of the plan of Serbia's president Boris Tadic and his supporters, when Kosovo Serbs are openly accusing official Belgrade of making them victims of Serbia's integration into the EU. The resolution, which has been recently adopted by the Skupstina (parliament) of Serbian communities of Kosovo and Metohija, rejects the initiatives submitted to them by Serbian authorities and personally by Tadic. Under the resolution the consent of Kosovo Serbs to the terms of the agreement proposed by Pristina on checkpoints Brnjak and Jarinje (Belgrade insists on) would mean "the official recognition of Kosovo independence, which contradicts the Serbian constitution". The deputies said the proposals of the Serbian authorities were like "a stab in the back to all Serbs residing in Kosovo and Metohija and their struggle for territorial integrity of the country".

This uncertainty creates favorable conditions for a far-reaching "reformatting" of Balkans, which does not look like something unrealistic considering the current crisis in the EU.

The fate of Kosovo Serbs, considering the vague (putting it mildly) position of the Serbian authorities, will depend on two factors: their own readiness to continue the resistance and the position of Russia. The recent collective address of Kosovo Serbs to the State Duma (lower house of the Russian parliament) with the request to grant them the Russian citizenship came as bombshell in Europe… France Press in particular reminded that Russia is Belgrade's historical ally. Now it is Russia's turn to voice its position on this issue as well as other Balkan issues.

(Views expressed in this article reflect the author's opinion and do not necessarily reflect those of RIA Novosti news agency. RIA Novosti does not vouch for facts and quotes mentioned in the story)

http://en.rian.ru/international_affairs/20111122/168930330.html

RE: KUHNER: Myth of Croatian fascism - Tito demonized republic's heritage on path to erecting Yugoslav union

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/24/myth-of-croatian-fascism/. 

 

"Recently, Croatian authorities arrested Josip Boljkovac for the mass murder

of anti-communists after the end of World War II. Mr. Boljkovac, 89, is charged

with committing numerous war crimes at the infamous Dubovec camp ".

 

 

Dear editor,

 

It is quite shocking to read this sort of articles in Washington Times, considered as a serious and

worldwide known newspaper. It is not the first time that your "journalist", instead of informing, spreads

a sort of unhealthy propaganda  for someone, in the wrong way.

 

When speaking about the making of the kingdom of Yugoslavia, Mr. Kuhner is wrong about the Croatian good intentions.

My grandfather Milan Vukelic, the Serb,was one of the members who participated in making that kingdom of Slovenia, Croatia and

Serbia, with his cousin Josip Juraj Straussmeyer, the catholic bishop of Zagreb, but from the very beginning a minority of

Crotas were against that union. The result was that in 1909, some  53 were arrested and judged for the treason, which was largely described

in sptember 1909 issue of the Croat magazine "Globus" published in Zagreb which is today in my possession. ( I can send you a copy if you wish).

According to  Croat magazine "Globus",  then Austro-Hungarian authorities claimed that  parts of Croatia where Serbs lived were completely

autonomous by the decree of the empire, but the Croats would not accept the fact. I am in possession of many documents from that period left

by my grandfather.

 

Later on, what happened in Marseille –France, in 1934 was the result of the "demonized" Croatian politics. King Alexander of Yugoslavia was

murdered, together with the French PM by the Croat Ustasha.

 

The WWII period was not like described by Mr. Kuhner, because, again because a great part of my family lived in Zagre, Osjiek and Sisak in Croatia.

Not to be murdered by the Croats and in order to avoid to finish their lives in the Jasenovac concentration camp, my grandmother, and her two sisters

were obliged to convert themselves to Catholicism, while their brother the Serbian orthodox priest, Jovan Magarasevic, wa send to Jasenovac camp,

where he was murdered and then thrown into a pit in the place named Jadovno. The Croat communist dictator J.B. Tito ordered after the war that that pit

was to be covered with concrete in order not to be known to the larger public opinion.

 

As far as in the first paragraph when speaking about Josip Boljkovac who was arrested for the "mass murder" of "anti-communists" after the WWII,

Mr. Kuhner does not say who were those "anti-communists". They were all Ustasha Nazi soldiers who were fighting for Hitler all around the Europe,

and who tried to escape the justice. Mr. Kuhner does not say that the same Josip Boljkovac was the Croat interior  minister  in 1990, who fought "Chetniks".

Chetnik is a Croat name given to Serbs before the WWII. But, knowing that the very same "Chetniks" fought Nazis and Communists, it is quite strange to read

that Milan Nedic was anti-Jew, or communist murdering Nazi Ustasha Croats. Besides, it is quite strange to say that Italinan fascist Mussolini helped "Chetniks"

 in the same time  Winston Churchill did it or US government.  

And at the end, "creating of Great Serbia", knowing facts are that Croats exterminated some 750 000 of Serbs, Jews and Roma in the biggest Nazi concentration camp

in the Balkans during WWII, that they  expelled in 1995 some 350 000 and ethnically cleansed regions where Serbs lived, and robbed their properties in those regions.

Propaganda is not in any case the history., and Mr. Kuhner is trying to remake the history in his own way. Is he paid for doing that ?

 

Dragan Rakic

AI member

Strasbourg

France

EU

 

 

 

Belgrade: Kosovo Serbs have right to apply for Russian citizenship

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Belgrade: Kosovo Serbs have right to apply for Russian citizenship

­The Serbian authorities will not prevent ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo from applying for Russian citizenship, Belgrade's ambassador to Moscow, Jelica Kurjak, has stressed. "This is for each citizen to decide, and the state cannot do anything here," he told Interfax. He described the move by over 20,000 Serbs living in Kosovo to apply for Russian citizenship as "a cry of despair." Their appeal to the Russian Embassy in Serbia is in fact "an attempt to seek friends' protection," Kurjak said, commenting on recent attempts by Pristina to take control of Serb customs checkpoints in the northern part of Kosovo in what ethnic Serbs see as a bid to isolate them from Serbia proper.

 

Due West: Should Russia rethink its Kosovo policy?

15:39 23/11/2011

Weekly column by Konstantin von Eggert

Tags: Serbia, Kosovo

Barricades adorned with Russian tricolors. Portraits of Putin, Medvedev and Lukashenko, slogans like "We want Russian troops here!" - that is the reality in Mitrovica, the Serb enclave in northern Kosovo bordering Serbia proper. Or the province of Kosovo and Metokhia, as the Serbs call this area. I spent the last weekend in Kosovo and for the first time was able to take a peek at what is going on there.

Serbs in Mitrovica are trying to prevent Kosovo customs officers and bailiffs from entering the enclave. The Serbs regularly clash with UN police. The de facto Albanian government in Pristina operates in Mitrovica only with the help of international forces. The population there hopes that sooner or later they will break away from Kosovo and join Serbia.

A few days ago the Russian media exploded with reports that no less than 20,000 Kosovo Serbs sent a letter to the Russian Embassy in Belgrade asking to be given Russian citizenship. They claim this is the only way they can protect themselves from intimidation by the Pristina government. But, according to Western diplomats in the region, the majority of signatures was collected among Serb refugees in Serbia, and sometimes even among people who themselves have never lived there, but have family roots in Kosovo. This was confirmed by Russian diplomats in Belgrade. They said that at least part of the signatures was collected in Serbia itself. So the main rule, which I learned while covering conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s – "Never fully trust anyone or anything" – is still useful.

The strange story of the Serb letter to Moscow is one more piece of evidence of that. It seems that this is yet another ploy by the opponents of Serbia's pro-European president, Boris Tadic. He and his party are to face parliamentary elections in 2012. First, the letter implicitly accuses Serbian authorities of failing to protect their compatriots in Kosovo. Second, it deals a blow to Belgrade's position in negotiations in Brussels with the government in Pristina. The negotiations are mediated by the EU and form part of a normalization effort that Tadic has initiated with Kosovo.

Third, the Serbs living in the west and south of Kosovo are not particularly happy with their brothers' in the north exercise in letter writing. In theory, Mitrovica Serbs may be able to secede. Then their brothers in the south and west of Kosovo would find themselves left behind.

Finally, the Russian government is not very happy either. Despite its opposition to Kosovo independence and its insistence on being the protector of Serbs, Moscow does not want an open conflict with NATO and the European Union. This is exactly what would have happened if the Russian authorities decided to grant the Serbs' request for passports. But, judging by the conversations I had in Pristina on the sidelines of the inaugural Germia Hill Conference organized by the European Council on Foreign Relations, the Kosovo government is not entirely unhappy with the developments. It is an opportunity for it to tell its Western partners: "You see, we really try to make peace with the Serbs, but they are rowdy, unreasonable and stage provocations."

There is one interesting detail: according to Western diplomats in Pristina, nearly all Kosovo Serbs acquired Kosovo passports - in addition to their Serbian ones – despite the fact that Belgrade doesn't recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state and still officially considers it a Serbian province. People are pragmatic, and who could blame them for this. This is not to say that Serbs do not have a problem living in a majority-Albanian state. But it seems that with time old animosities become muted, and the pain dulls. It also seems that Kosovo authorities are quite serious about eventually joining the EU. For this they have to have a spotless record on minority treatment. Hence a proliferation of bilingual street signs and trilingual headed papers in all government institutions.

Moreover, the Serbs in Serbia proper also increasingly "think European" and are slowly getting accustomed to the idea that they will not have Kosovo back. Russia has recently opened its Emergencies Ministry airbase near the town of Nis. Ostensibly to help in potential disaster relief and guard against possible damage to the South Stream gas pipeline. Many people at the Pristina conference asked questions as to whether this could be a disguise for a Russian Air Force site. It could be, or it might not be.

But Russian presence is sorely missing in Kosovo. Russia withdrew its paratroopers in 2003, citing "economic reasons." Since the 2008 Kosovo independence proclamation, Moscow does not want to have anything to do with Pristina, despite the fact that Belgrade does. Today the protection of Orthodox churches and monasteries in Kosovo is in the hands of the so-called liaison mission of Greece, a country which, just as Russia, does not officially recognize Kosovo. If Russia had such an office, the Serbs would have felt much more secure, and Russia would have had more information and more meaningful policy in the region.

Things may be changing. A senior Kosovo diplomat told me: "Recently, Russian diplomats at international conferences have started to approach me and generally feel freer to talk with us." I said that Moscow's official position has not changed. But at the same time I thought to myself: "If the Serbian government talks to Pristina, why should Russians be 'holier than the Pope' on the issue?"

Kosovo independence is a fait accompli. Sooner or later it will be recognized by Serbia. Would Russia change its mind after this? I do not know. What I know is that Kosovo Serbs (if we Russians really care about them) would feel much more at ease if Russia were present there in some meaningful way.

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

http://en.rian.ru/columnists/20111123/168968303.html

Tear gas, barbed wire, isolation: NATO tools for Kosovo raid

Tear gas, barbed wire, isolation: NATO tools for Kosovo raid

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Published: 24 November, 2011, 06:04
Edited: 24 November, 2011, 19:05

NATO troops in Kosovo fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of Serbs (image courtesy of RTS)

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Serbs protesters have thwarted attempts by NATO to dismantle a barricade in Northern Kosovo. And while NATO claims their decision to fire teargas came as 21 of their soldiers were injured, Belgrade has warned Pristina against any further violence.

The Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic has called on the Prime Minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci to restrain his NATO led forces from attacking Serbian civilians.

"The red line for Belgrade would be Hashim Thaci's decision to initiate an armed attack on Serbs in Kosovo. Thaci must know that any attack against Kosovar Serbs means an attack on Belgrade," Dacic said in a statement aired on local television Thursday.

Dacic went on to warn Pristina it would be mistaken to think that fears of upsetting the current balance of power would exclude the possibility of war.

Dacic was quick to point out "historically, we've lost Kosovo several times, and then it's returned to us."

The Serbian minister's strongly worded appeal is a response to overnight clashes in Northern Kosovo which NATO claims injured 21 of its soldiers.

NATO released a statement Thursday saying Serb protesters threw stones and drove trucks loaded with gravel into its troops. The alliance also claims one soldier was seriously injured, as the decision to fire tear gas and end the operation was taken to avoid "serious casualties on both sides,'' the Associated Press reports.

Wedensday night's disturbances came as Serbs thwarted attempts by a Kosovo Force (KFOR) contingent under NATO command from dismantling a barricade near the town of Zvecan in Northern Kosovo.

Late on Wednesday, KFOR forces stretched barbed wire across a road near Zvecan – a town located near the de facto Serbian capital of Kosovska Mitrovica -as they moved to dismantle the concrete barricade.

Shortly after NATO forces arrived, a siren went off which alerted local Serbs, who soon rushed to the area and began tearing down the barbed wire.

 KFOR troops then deployed tear gas in a failed attempt to repel the hundreds of Serbs who had gathered to protect the barricades.

After the NATO troops withdrew from the area, the Serbs moved to further reinforce the concrete blocks.

According to RT's Aleksey Yaroshevksy, some sources have said NATO forces also used rubber bullets, though no injuries have been reported. 

Tensions in Northern Kosovo have been on the rise for months over disputed border crossings.

The government of the breakaway province wants to control the border with Serbia to enforce an import ban – a move resisted by ethnic Serbs in Kosovo.

In July, a policeman was shot dead whilst Kosovo police were trying to take control of the border posts.

At the time a temporary deal was reached between Pristina and Belgrade to allow the international peacekeepers to guard the border, but was rejected by local Serbs.

Kosovo proclaimed independence in 2008, though Serbia never recognized the breakaway move.

Political analyst Aleksandar Pavic told RT that NATO had destabilized the region by taking Pristina's side in the conflict, a decision which overstepped their role as a peace keeping force under UN Security Resolution 1244.

"In 2008 Pristina unilaterally declared independence and NATO countries recognized that independence so the root of the problem is that we have Western Powers who are recognizing an illegally declared state and they are trying to make the Serbs down there live in this illegally declared state, and that's why practically every day now, especially over the past several months, they're overstepping their UN mandate," he said.

embed video

 

Don DeBar, an anti-war activist and journalist, says that the latest move by NATO's Kosovo Force is a blatant sign of aggression.

"I really don't see a justification for what is happening in terms of the actual facts on the ground. I just see one more act that's a pattern of blatant international aggression by NATO and the United States."

Konstantin Kosachev, head of Russia's State Duma foreign affairs committee, told RT he hopes Russia's response to the latest unrest on the Serbian-Kosovo border will not be a military one, as Russia does not wish to come into direct confrontation with NATO or anybody else.

"But the situation as it is developing right now is extremely alarming. Kosovo Serbs feel desperate, betrayed and alone. This is why many of them have addressed Russia in order to seek Russian citizenship. Probably this is a more political action without any further development, but this is a very strong signal to both NATO and to the ruling authorities in Serbia and in Kosovo that the situation is abnormal and needs further political attention in order to protect the human rights of people who live there before anybody proceeds further on with the question of status,"

he stressed.

http://rt.com/news/nato-dismantle-barricade-kosovo-093/

Serbia May Put EU Accession on Ice

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·        By Goran Mijuk

The European Union's carrot-and-stick tactics may be losing their appeal to Serbia, which may put its aspirations of joining the EU on ice or even drop them altogether as the country is unwilling to part with Kosovo, its former southern province that unilaterally declared independence in 2008.

AFP/Getty Images

A photo taken on Sept. 28 shows NATO-led peacekeepers standing near a Serbian flag as they guard a barricade at the Jarinje border crossing between Serbia and northern Kosovo.

The EU, which is expected to decide on Dec. 9 whether to proceed with accession talks with Serbia, said in October that before the integration process can be accelerated, strained relations with Kosovo need to be improved.

Conflict between the two neighbors gained momentum this summer when Kosovo police forces took over several border posts to enforce an import ban. Kosovo's Serbs, who dominate the region, reacted by putting up road blocks, which sparked clashes with the police and later with North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led troops.

Tension in the region remains high and several barricades and roadblocks still stand even as officials from Serbia and Kosovo have resumed talks in Brussels, after suspending them during the summer violence. Top policy makers still hope the talks can be brought to a successful end and pave the way for Serbia's EU integration.

Even if the EU accepts Serbia as a candidate for membership, the Kosovo issue will weigh on this Balkan nation's EU path for years to come.

So far, the EU has stopped short of coercing Serbia to acknowledge Kosovo's independence. But the bloc is likely to urge Belgrade sooner or later to take such a step because it doesn't want a simmering political conflict on top of its financial troubles. Serbia hopes to solve the Kosovo problem without having to accept its independence, but the EU may be less convinced that's feasible.

Since giving up Kosovo is unpalatable to a majority of Serbs, who consider Kosovo their cultural cradle, parts of Serbia's political establishment is considering dropping the EU bid. Nationalist rhetoric is once again heating up in the run-up to next year's elections, scheduled for May.

Serbia's influential interior minister Ivica Dacic said earlier this week that "if the price to gain membership in the EU is for Serbia to give up Kosovo, it should never be accepted because there are national and state interests and Serbia can survive without the EU."

Mr. Dacic doubled-up on Wednesday, telling Serbian news group B92 that Serbia mustn't pledge it won't ever got to war over Kosovo, arguing for a "balance of fear" and adding that Serbia "lost Kosovo and got it back several times in history."

While such belligerent talk may be part of election tactics, Mr. Dacic's view could win traction should Serbia fail to get candidate status for EU membership. If such populist views gain a majority among Serbia's voters, this would spell the end of the pro-European government under Boris Tadic at next year's election, creating more insecurity in the region.

http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2011/11/23/serbia-may-put-eu-integration-on-ice/

The ball is in EU court for Kosovo-Serbia talks: Belgrade

23 November 2011, 13:37 CET

— filed under: Serbia, Kosovo, talks

(BELGRADE) - Serbia said on Wednesday the ball was in the European Union's court as talks between Belgrade and Pristina resumed in Brussels after months of stalemate caused by border disputes.

"The ball is in the European court, and not only with December 9 in mind," the date when EU should decide whether to grant Serbia candidacy status, Serbian government spokesman Milivoje Mihajlovic told Beta news agency.

Pristina "is not giving up its goal to use the dialogue towards confirming Kosovo's independence," which Belgrade has refused to recognise, Mihajlovic said.

Europe should "show whether it is for an impartial and just solution" of Kosovo problems, he added.

Serbia and Kosovo made limited progress Tuesday as they returned to the negotiating table to pursue tough talks to normalise ties that are key to Belgrade's hopes of winning entry to the EU.

The seventh round in a dialogue brokered by the European Union concluded with an agreement by both sides to mutually recognise each others' university diplomas and meet again by the end of November.

Belgrade key negotiator for the talks, Borko Stefanovic, told the daily Politika that Serbia would do "everything" to make progress in the negotiations.

"Not because of the delays and (EU) candidacy status, but because the problems are still there and we have to find a solution," Stefanovic said.

But his Kosovo counterpart Edita Tahiri complained about the slow progress of the talks.

"I believe we are in a situation in which we bring up documents which are not going to be applied," Tahiri told Politika.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade and the Serbs in northern Kosovo have rejected the move and still consider the region to be Serbia's southern province.

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/serbia-kosovo-talks.dnn

ANALYSIS: Serbia's Tadic in a tight bind over EU aspirations

ANALYSIS: Serbia's Tadic in a tight bind over EU aspirations

By Boris Babic Nov 17, 2011, 17:58 GMT

Belgrade - Serbian President Boris Tadic appeared to have painted himself into a corner Thursday, as Kosovo Serbs rejected his orders to cooperate with the European Union - fuelling doubts that Belgrade can do enough to be recognized as a European Union membership candidate in a just few weeks' time.

Tadic, leading a fragile coalition, has governed Serbia since 2008 by promising to take the country closer to EU membership while not giving up on Kosovo, the mostly Albanian former province that declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Serbs from northern Kosovo regard their enclave as Serbian soil and Belgrade as their capital. Fiercely hostile to Albanians, they see the EU talks as a trade-off in which Tadic will hand them to Pristina in exchange for a key to Serbia's EU accession.

Until recently, Tadic's camp had hoped that the EU at its summit in Brussels on December 9 will recognize Serbia as a membership candidate and set the date for the start of accession talks.

Under pressure from the West, Serbia agreed in March to launch talks with Kosovo, under EU mediation, to resolve problems stemming from its row with Pristina over Kosovo.

But negotiations stalled over the contentious issues of borders and Belgrade walked out in September, when tensions in northern Kosovo led to a confrontation with NATO peacekeepers.

Belgrade sided with its compatriots, who blocked all traffic in their northern enclave in order to prevent Kosovo from taking control over its border with Serbia.

EU heavyweights - Germany, France and Britain - meanwhile are showing growing impatience with Serbia, saying it must not only return to the talks, but also implement agreements from the first five rounds if it wants to move closer to membership.

Tadic wants to comply. But the Kosovo Serbs in their northern enclave do not. On Thursday, they flatly rejected the talks and existing agreement, spurring doubt on signals from Belgrade that the talks were are set to continue.

Now Tadic, who as president has limited formal authority but is the leader of the governing alliance, faces the choice of turning his back either on the EU or the Serbian Kosovars, in what most Serbs regard as the nation's heartland.

Complicating the calculations are the fast approaching dates - the EU summit next month and Serbian parliamentary elections due imminently, although a date has not yet been set.

'In the end, he will probably do nothing, because he can do nothing,' former Serbian diplomat Mirko Stojcevic said. 'He will probably just wait for December 9 and hope that Serbia will, despite all, be promoted to the status of an EU membership candidate.'

In that case, elections would be called immediately, for the first half of February, so Tadic's Democratic Party could reap the benefits of its 'success' in Brussels.

'If Serbia does not get the candidacy, then he will delay the elections until at least April,' said Stojcevic, now a political analyst for the Western Balkan Capital investment fund.

In that case, Tadic, who has said that he will never recognize Kosovo and abandon his compatriots, will probably turn to a more populist nationalism,

'Whether that can work, it is too early to tell,' Stojcevic said. 'But in either case the Kosovo crisis will be resolved neither by the EU summit, nor for the elections.'

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1675907.php/ANALYSIS-Serbia-s-Tadic-in-a-tight-bind-over-EU-aspirations

Russia 'Serious' about Granting Citizenship to Kosovo Serbs

World | November 17, 2011, Thursday| 426 views

Kosovo Serbs gather near a road barricade in the village of Zupce, Kosovo, 25 October 2011. EPA/BGNES

The Kremlin "fully understands" a mass application by ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo for Russian national passports and will consider their requests seriously, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

"In the political sense, we fully understand the motives for Serbs living in Kosovo to make such applications ... and we will study them carefully," Lavrov said, in comments reported by the Interfax news agency, as cited by DPA.

Lavrov's remarks at a Moscow press conference came two days after Serbian activist Zlatibor Djordjevic announced from Kosovo that he had kicked off a campaign to obtain Russian citizenship for as many as 20 000 ethnic Serbs living there, and had begun submitting passport applications to Russia's Foreign Ministry, DPA reminds.

The applications would be acted on 'in accordance with Russian immigration law,' Lavrov said.

In a possibly related development, officials at Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations (RMES) on Thursday announced the agency had dispatched a military transport plane loaded with humanitarian aid supplies to the Serbian city Nis.

The Il-76 aircraft was loaded with 36 tons of sugar, tinned foods, portable stoves and camp equipment for ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo, Interfax reported RMES officials as saying.

Moscow considers Kosovo to be part of Serbia, and has not given recognition to the region's de facto independence. Russian nationalist politicians often call for greater Kremlin support to Kosovan Serbs.

Russia historically has been tough on extending citizenship to foreign nationals living inside the country, while at the same time liberally providing passports to ethnic Russians living in minority enclaves in other nations.

Russia's issue of thousands of passports to ethnic Russians living in the Georgian province South Ossetia and the Ukrainian province Crimea is one of the contentious issues in relations between Moscow, and Tbilisi and Kiev.

Serbs constitute 5-10% of the 2-million population and Albanians make up the majority of the people in Kosovo.

Albanian authorities proclaimed Kosovo's independence from Belgrade with support from the United States and the European Union in 2008.

Both Serbia and Russia have refused to recognize Kosovo's independence. Ethnic Serbs in Kosovo are bluntly opposed to the Albanian authorities in Pristina.

Tensions flared in Kosovo's ethnic Serbian enclave in October after Kosovo Albanians installed their customs officers at the Jarinje and Brnjak border crossings with Serbia.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=134032

Russian Envoy: Kosovo Serbs Should Be Granted Russian Citizenship

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20111116170147.shtml

RosBusinessConsulting
November 16, 2011

Russian envoy pledges support for Kosovo Serbs

Moscow: Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin called upon authorities to grant Russian citizenship to 20,000 Kosovo Serbs after this group filed a relevant petition, claiming that its security was in jeopardy in a region dominated by ethnic Albanians.

"This opportunity should be discussed, including with the Russian president, and we should assist them in relocating to Russia," Rogozin said, adding that Kosovo Serbs should be included in Russia's repatriation program.

Kosovo Serbs Want Russian Citizenship Out of Desperation - Leader

World | November 15, 2011, Tuesday| 311 views

Kosovo Serbs gather near a road barricade in the village of Zupce, Kosovo, 25 October 2011. EPA/BGNES

The more than 20 000 Kosovo Serbs, who applied for Russian citizenship last week, were acting out of despair and disillusion in Belgrade's ability to defend the ethnic minority, a Serbian leader in Kosovo, Marko Jaksic, said on Tuesday.

Last week, Kosovo Serbs handed over a petition with signatures to the Russian Embassy in Belgrade, asking for Russian citizenship.

"Those who turned in the petition live mostly in the southern enclaves in Kosovo, further away from the administrative border between Kosovo and Serbia," Jaksic said, as cited by RIA Novosti.

Jaksic stressed that the decision of the Kosovo Serbs to seek Russian citizenship showed how hard their lives were.

"As Russian citizens they would be more secure compared to their current status when Belgrade has turned its back on them," Jaksic said.

Serbs constitute 5-10% of the 2-million population and Albanians make up the majority of the people in Kosovo.

Albanian authorities proclaimed Kosovo's independence from Belgrade with support from the United States and the European Union in 2008.

Both Serbia and Russia have refused to recognize Kosovo's independence. Ethnic Serbs in Kosovo are bluntly opposed to the Albanian authorities in Pristina.

Tensions flared in Kosovo's ethnic Serbian enclave in October after Kosovo Albanians installed their customs officers at the Jarinje and Brnjak border crossings with Serbia.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=133972

Socializing losses: Trilateral takeover of Europe?

Socializing losses: Trilateral takeover of Europe?

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Published: 13 November, 2011, 19:07
Edited: 14 November, 2011, 02:17

Anti-austerity protesters hold a Greek flag reading 'not for sale' during a student parade in Athens, attended by the Greek minister of education (AFP Photo / LOUISA GOULIAMAKI)

The sovereign debt crisis tightening its grip on Europe has claimed the scalps of two prime ministers – those of Greece and Italy. Looking at the men poised to replace them, one cannot but ask – is this another turn of the screw for ordinary people?

Greece and Italy hold huge swathes of public debt they are unable to service unless they get massive European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund support, as a prelude to refinancing by international banks.

Greece has replaced its prime minister after he dared to say he would put a further round of harsh austerity measures to a referendum vote. The country's new PM is Lucas Papademos, former vice president of the ECB and of Greece's own Central Bank, and a member of David Rockefeller's (JPMorgan Chase/Exxon) powerful Trilateral Commission.

As for Italy, instead of Silvio Berlusconi they got the former European Commissioner Mario Monti, who happens to be European chairman of the Trilateral Commission.

Whenever we hear of "sovereign debt crises" – whether in Mexico 1997, Brazil 1999, in my native Argentina in 2001/2, or today in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and (soon to come) the UK, France, or the US – what it really means is that governments cannot collect enough tax revenues from their people to pay interest and capital on debt that is mostly in the hands of private banking institutions.

Cutting through the Orwellian Newspeak* of the media, this means that the people of Greece, Italy, and Argentina must pay for the mistakes of bankers and corrupt governments, suffering higher taxes, unemployment, lower wages and pensions, and a deterioration in public healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

So, whenever there is a public debt crisis, "We the People" must pay for it.

­Adrian Salbuchi is a political analyst, author, speaker and radio/TV commentator in Argentina

However, when in September 2008a private debt crisis exploded due to the derivatives swindle which buried Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG and many other private institutions, the US and other governments came to the rescue of the bankers, providing bailouts for banks "too big to fail" (Newspeak for too powerful to fail). They saved the likes of CitiCorp, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs with…. taxpayers money (TARP), and by having the FED (hyper)inflate the US dollar (know in Newspeak as "Quantitative Easing I, II and III"), which means passing a huge chunk of the cost of those bailouts on to the Rest of the World using the US dollar as global currency.

So again, irrespective of whether debt collapses are public or private, it is always "We the People" who pay because, under the current system, all profits are privatized and all losses are socialized.

But let us go back to Messrs Monti and Papademos. They sit on the Trilateral Commission together with hundreds of corporate chairmen and CEOs such as Ana Botin (Bank Banesto/Santander, Spain), Peter Sutherland (Goldman Sachs/BP, UK), Michel David-Weill (Lazard Bank, France), Jurgen Fitschen (Deutsche Bank, Germany), Stephen Green (HSBC, UK), Nigel Higgins (Rothschild Group, UK), Lord Guthrie (N M Rothschild, UK), Klaus-Peter Müller (Commerzbank, Germany), Dieter Rampl (UniCredito, Italy), Otto Ruding (CitiCorp Europe), Lord Simon of Highbury (Morgan Stanley, UK), Emilio Ybarra (BBVA, Spain), Robert Kelly (Bank of NY Mellon) Lord Brittan (UBS, UK), Robert Zoellick (World Bank), plus Timothy Geithner, Henry Kissinger and many, many others…

In fact, the Trilateral Commission articulates with the powerful Council on Foreign Relations (New York), Chatham House (London) and many other think-tanks forming an intricate web of private global power-brokers bringing together key players in finance, industry, media, government, academia, intelligence and the military, who run today's global system focusing on their interests, and clearly not on those of "We the People."

No doubt Messrs Papademos and Monti will do everything necessary to ensure Italy and Greece do not default on their debts – but rather that their peoples endure all the hardship, undergo all the pain, and make all the sacrifices so that major bankers sitting on the Trilateral can all get their money back. Those who should never have made loans to Greece and Italy (and Argentina and Portugal…) the way they did.

Adrian Salbuchi for RT

http://rt.com/news/europe-debt-crisis-takeover-215/

KUHNER: Radical Islam in the heart of Europe - Washington Times

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/10/radical-islam-in-the-heart-of-europe/

 

The Washington Times

 

KUHNER: Radical Islam in the heart of Europe

Wahhabis unsheath terror in campaign to impose Shariah

 

10 November 2011

 

Is Bosnia-Herzegovina doomed? The small Balkan nation is being subverted by powerful internal forces that threaten its existence. The West must wake up before the former Yugoslav republic descends once again into sectarian bloodshed.

Last month, an Islamic terrorist from neighboring Serbia, Mevlid Jasarevic, opened fire on the U.S. embassy in Bosnia's capital, Sarajevo. The 23-year-old jihadist was armed with hand grenades and an automatic weapon. Fortunately, no one was killed. Mr. Jasarevic was protesting American policy toward the Muslim world. He was arrested and is awaiting trial.

Police also raided a northern Bosnian village, Gornja Maoca, which is a hotbed of Wahhabist activity and a place Mr. Jasarevic often visited. The terrorist attack shocked both Sarajevo's political establishment and theU.S. State Department. It shouldn't have. In Bosnia, radical Islam has been growing for years. In fact, America and the West have deliberately turned a blind eye to its dangerous rise.

From 1992 to 1995, Bosnia was ravaged by a war pitting Muslims (known as Bosniaks), Serbs and Croats against each other. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the conflict was not - and never was - a civil war driven by "ancient ethnic hatreds." Instead, the country was a victim of outside aggression. Serbia's late strongman, Slobodan Milosevic, waged a genocidal campaign to annex large chunks of Croatia first and thenBosnia in order to erect a Greater Serbian Empire. More than 200,000 were murdered and nearly 2 million ethnically cleansed. To counterSerbia's expansionist ambitions, Islamic countries sought to help the besieged Bosniaks. In particular, Saudi Arabia and Iran offered extensive financial and military assistance. Thousands of foreign Mujahedeen guerrillas entered the country to battle rampaging Serb forces. The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement ended the fighting. It also partitioned Bosnia along religious lines, creating two quasi-national entities - the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic.

Yet, after the war, many jihadists did not leave. The Saudi governmenthas spent millions funding the construction of mosques and religious education centers. More ominously, Saudi-backed clerics have vigorously promoted Wahhabism, an intolerant and extreme form of Islam. In pamphlets, books and sermons, Wahhabis demand an Islamist Bosnia where Orthodox Christian Serbs and Catholic Croats are subjugated under Shariah law. The goal is also to drive out Western, especially American, influence. It's no accident that Mr. Jasarevic is a Wahhabi. Militant Islam has regained a foothold in the Balkans.

For the past decade, anti-American sentiment has intensified among segments of Bosniaks. Following the toppling of the Taliban regime inAfghanistan, U.S. troops found more than 1,000 dead jihadists on the battlefield possessing Bosnian passports. The Saudis have supported several Bosnian charities serving as front groups for al Qaeda cells. Radical organizations, such as the Young Muslims, have proliferated. During the Iraq war, some Bosnian Muslim fighters joined the insurgency against American forces. At one of Sarajevo's main mosques, the second-highest-ranking cleric in the country, Ismet Spahic, publicly denounced the U.S.-led campaign in Iraq as "genocide." Western intelligence reports say Bosnia has become fertile soil for recruiting "white al Qaeda" - Islamic extremists with Caucasian features, who could easily blend into American or European cities and commit heinous atrocities.

Western public officials, however, have refused even to acknowledge the Islamist problem. For example, from 2002 through 2006, the international high representative for Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, repeatedly downplayed the rise of Wahhabism under his watch. Mr. Ashdown acted as the viceroy of Bosnia. He preferred to preside over pompous ceremonies, amass administrative power and gorge at elaborate banquets. He refused to speak out against incidents of Islamic extremism, such as vandalism against Catholic churches, the harassment of priests and nuns, and the growing persecution of Bosnian Croatians. He feared offending Muslim sensibilities.

The result is that Bosnia has become a safe haven for Islamic militants. They remain a minority but increasingly pose a mortal danger to a unified Bosnian state. The government in Sarajevo rightly condemned the terror attack. The majority of Bosniaks remain secular or moderate. For too long, however, they have tolerated the Wahhabis in their midst. This must change. Radical mosques must be shut down; fundamentalist clerics must be confronted and marginalized; videos sold on the streets of Sarajevo glorifying jihadists must be outlawed; and outside Saudi money must be banned.

Otherwise, Bosnia will disintegrate. The country's ethnic Croatians are chafing under Sarajevo's centralized rule. Yet the bigger danger is the Bosnian Serb Republic. It is led by a bellicose nationalist, Milorad Dodik. He is a vulgar liar. He has denied the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, where about 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered by Bosnian Serb forces - the worst atrocity on European soil since the end of World War II.

More ominously, Mr. Dodik has called for secession. He wants the Bosnian Serbs to form a common homeland with Serbia. He is Milosevic's ideological heir, championing a Greater Serbia. There is only one problem: The Bosnian Serb Republic is founded upon genocide and mass ethnic cleansing. It is morally illegitimate. To this day, the Bosnian Serbs have not allowed most of the Bosniaks and Croatians expelled during the war to return to their homes. An independence bid almost certainly would trigger another war with Sarajevo - drowning the Balkans in blood once again.

The irony is that it was American air power that finally brought the Bosnian Serbs to heel and saved countless Bosniak lives. And still, jihadists such as Mr. Jasarevic are eager to wage holy war. This reveals the moral depravity and spiritual darkness at the heart of Islamic fundamentalism. The fundamentalists cannot be appeased. The West - including the peoples of the Balkans - must awaken to this evil force lurking in the heart of Europe.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute.

Behind the Russophobia of Serbia's Quislings

Identity And Other Politics

Behind the Russophobia of Serbia's Quislings

by Nebojsa Malic, November 05, 2011

 

The Empire-manufactured reality matrix continues to disintegrate. Aware that its grip on power is rapidly weakening, the quisling regime in Serbia is now trying to whip up anti-Russian hysteria. Their target is Moscow's ambassador, Aleksandar Vasilevich Konuzin. Back in September, Konuzin stood up at a pro-NATO event in Belgrade, hosted by "NGOs" on Empire's payroll, thundering, "Are there any Serbs in this room?" This was in response to NATO troops beginning an operation of seizing the north of the province for the "independent" Albanian regime; an attempt thwarted by the Kosovo Serbs themselves, despite Belgrade's constant betrayal.

More recently, Konuzin attended a rally of the opposition Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), and praised it for advocating change. This drew harsh criticism from the government and its hangers-on, who charged the Russian with "interference" and "disrespecting Serbia's sovereignty."

The accusations reek of the worst kind of hypocrisy. First off, none of these people give a rotting rodent's posterior about Serbia's sovereignty. They are all too eager to surrender the occupied province of Kosovo, and give the Eurocrats everything they demand — and then some. Secondly, none of them have ever been bothered by interference or disrespect, so long as came from EU or Imperial ambassadors.

The Astroturf Opposition

Konuzin wasn't out of line to appear at an opposition gathering. He was, however, mistaken about the object of his praise. Namely, the Progressives are an Astroturf party, a product of post-electoral engineering on par with the current governing coalition. The alliance of Democrats and Socialists put together in June 2008 (with the "assistance" of US and UK ambassadors) is a perversion of democracy, as the two coalitions ran against each other.

US diplomatic dispatches published by WikiLeaks reveal that it was a Democratic operative that persuaded Tomislav Nikolic, deputy leader of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), to split off and form the Progressives. SRS leader Vojislav Seselj has been imprisoned by the Hague Inquisition since 2003; unable to convict him on spurious "hate speech" charges, it has been keeping him imprisoned on repeated charges of contempt of court. Adding insult to injury, the Progressives got to keep the seats in the legislature, to which they were elected as Radicals. So, not only was the current government never elected as such, neither was the "opposition"!

Misdirections

Now, however, the government in Serbia is in trouble. An election is approaching in April, and they have nothing to offer. In 2008, the Democrats campaigned on a lie that they would fight for both European integrations and Kosovo. But the EU is in a major economic and political crisis, so few are likely to again buy the fantasy of money magically raining from the sky on Serbians loyal to Tadic. Furthermore, Brussels has clearly spelled out that recognizing the "independent" Kosovo is a prerequisite for further talks — about negotiating the possibilities of probability of maybe considering whatever may be left of Serbia (when everyone is done with it) joining someday.

The Kosovo policy was exposed as a fraud last year, and more so this fall, as Belgrade tried to backstab the Serbs standing up for their rights. The economy is a disaster. Mladjan Dinkic, the international bankster who ran Serbia's economic policy since October 2000, recently left the government and reinvented himself as a champion of "regionalism", hoping no one will remember that the country's ruin is largely his fault.

Meanwhile, the lunatic "Liberal Democratic" fringe is running on the platform of unconditional surrender to the Empire, pitching it as the pinnacle of patriotism. They call it "The Reversal" — of sanity, perhaps, but not of any government policy implemented by Tadic or his DOS predecessors.

The strategy seems to be to saturate the electorate with a plethora of options, all of which are run by Empire loyalists. Between that and post-electoral trickery, they aim to ensure the survival of their policies no matter who actually wins the vote.

Then there is a cabal of separatists in the northern province of Vojvodina, seeking to establish a private satrapy with Empire's backing – the way Milo Djukanovic did with Montenegro. It doesn't matter that the vast majority of inhabitants in the province are ethnic Serbs; a campaign is already underway to convert them to "Vojvodinians", exactly the same way as the inhabitants of Montenegro were stripped of their historic Serbian identity. Leaflets that appeared in the northern city of Novi Sad this week, picturing Serbia kicking to the curb a slovenly, vodka-swilling Russian, have all the hallmarks of this group.

False Choices

Not surprisingly, the mainstream Western media are covering the issue as a question of choice between Russia and Europe. One example was a piece this week by WSJ blogger Goran Mijuk, who argued that, "Serbs will now have to find a compromise between the Russian and European option… But a solution is possible. As is the case with the Serbian script, which uses both Latin and Cyrillic, Serbs know how to emulate Western and Eastern standards."

In fact, Cyrillic is the native Serbian alphabet, while the Latin alphabet in use throughout the Balkans (and claimed by everyone else) is a letter-for-letter adaptation of it. But the real question is, why emulate at all? Can't the Serbs just be themselves?

More to the point, the Russians aren't asking the Serbs to emulate their ways, culture, traditions, or politics. All Moscow is asking is that the Serbs stand up for their own freedom and look out for their own interests. How on Earth is that questionable?

On the other hand, the Empire – through the quisling government and "civil society" groups — has demanded of the Serbs to give up Cyrillic, "reform" their Orthodox Christian church and undergo a wholesale "identity change" in order to be accepted by the EU and NATO. You know, the NATO that 12 years ago attacked Serbia and occupied Kosovo, where the EU is now building an Albanian "independent state"? None of that bothers the "reformers," while Russian support for Serb independence makes them see red.

It's the Identity, Stupid

This deliberate conundrum about identity helps explain a peculiarity about last week's jihadist attack on the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo. Both local and Western media have described the attacker as "Serbian" – that is, a citizen of Serbia. Yet those very same media vocally insist that the Muslims living in that region of Serbia are "Bosniaks". So apparently, one can be a "Bosniak" when special privileges are about to be dispensed, but magically becomes "Serbian" upon engaging in terrorism.

Early in October, Canadian daily The Globe and Mail published a feature on a Quebecois composer of Serbian origin, who explained that only in Canada did she become aware of her roots and the richness of her native culture. While she still lived in Serbia, she believed, along with many others, that traditional identity and culture were something to be despised and ashamed of, cast aside in favor of some higher, global, cosmopolitan identity.

This was in the 1980s, before the wars that broke up Yugoslavia, or the "democracy" brought by NATO bombs, boots and bribes. Back then the identity to aspire to was that of the socialist workers of the world. Today it is of global conspicuous consumers. Either way, it was at the expense of genuine identity, culture and traditions. Back then, it was the Yugoslav Communists who demanded this. Today it is the Euro- Atlantic "Democrats". It makes one wonder what exactly is the difference.

Read more by Nebojsa Malic

• A Most Stubborn Reality – October 30th, 2011
• Occupations, Faux and Real – October 14th, 2011
• The Emperor's Speech – September 23rd, 2011
• Showdown at Goat Gate – September 16th, 2011
• Winter is Coming – August 26th, 2011

http://original.antiwar.com/malic/2011/11/04/identity-and-other-politics/

Kosovo – barricades considered

 

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Kosovo – barricades considered

Posted on November 2nd, 2011 in the category Kosovo by TransConflict Subscribe to the transconflict RSS feed

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Having eschewed violence and successfully prevented the one-sided outcome in the north pushed by Pristina and its international supporters, the Serbs should now consider removing the barricades at the two main Gates in order to allow a practical test of KFOR and EULEX's status neutrality.

By Gerard Gallucci

The current tense stalemate in north Kosovo continues. The local Serbs remain on their barricades, building one to take the place of another that KFOR removed, despite the cold weather and coming winter. KFOR says it refuses to use the partial freedom of movement (FOM) offered by the Serbs until EULEX can exercise it as well. The KFOR commander and EULEX deputy chief tried on October 31st to travel together through the barricades, but the EULEX vehicles were not allowed through and they turned back. Given that some KFOR supply convoys reportedly have used the opportunity to go north in the past several days, the attempt by the senior Quint officials to exercise FOM seems to have been a bit of a stunt.

The northern Kosovo Serbs mounted their barricades as a response to the effort by Pristina – initially supported by KFOR and EULEX – to impose its customs controls on the northern boundary between Serbia and Kosovo. The local Serbs see the effort as an attempt to impose a state border between them and Serbia proper. As they reject the independent Kosovo state, they rejected the effort to establish its northern border. The Serbs saw setting barricades as their only way to peacefully protest and prevent KFOR and EULEX from supporting Pristina by transporting its officials back and forth to the crossing points. The locals also began using alternative roads to avoid the "official" crossings. KFOR at times sought to block those in an effort to force the Serbs to use the crossings manned by Kosovo Albanian officials (brought there in KFOR and EULEX helicopters).

To be clear, all activities by KFOR and EULEX to impose Kosovo customs and Pristina's officials at the boundary crossings were illegal under their UN peacekeeping mandate. The barricades used by the northerners to resist these illegal efforts were well within their right to peacefully resist. Eschewing violence, even when KFOR fired at them, they have successfully prevented the one-sided outcome in the north pushed by Pristina and its international supporters.

It is fair to ask, however, if the barricades remain necessary. The northerners have successfully made the case that the question of the north will not be settled by force. There is increasing recognition that something more more be done than simply trying to impose Pristina's control in the north. It even may be that KFOR and EULEX are ready to accept some neutral formula on customs.

So, perhaps, it is a good moment to bring down the barricades at the two main Gates. This would allow a practical test of KFOR and EULEX status neutrality. If no effort was made to collect Kosovo customs at the Gates, there would be no need to remount any barricades. Even if EULEX allowed Kosovo police and customs officers to be at the Gates, as long as they did not seek to control or collect fees there, they could be ignored. And if they did try to collect fees at the Gates, the locals could simply go around. In other words, it might be worth thinking about treating the boundary crossings as if they were not there rather than continuing to block them. This would allow KFOR and EULEX room to return to peacekeeping and their UN mandate without rubbing their nose in their inability to force surrender. It would also relieve pressure on the northerners themselves and on Belgrade.

The barricades along the Ibar may be another matter. The Serbs may find them still necessary to be able to prevent any new unilateral incursions by the Kosovo Albanians until KFOR accepts its responsibility to prevent such, rather than ferry ROSU north by helicopter as it did in July.

Gerard M. Gallucci is a retired US diplomat and UN peacekeeper. He worked as part of US efforts to resolve the conflicts in Angola, South Africa and Sudan and as Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council. He served as UN Regional Representative in Mitrovica, Kosovo from July 2005 until October 2008 and as Chief of Staff for the UN mission in East Timor from November 2008 until June 2010. Gerard is also a member of TransConflict's Advisory Board.

To read other articles by Gerard for TransConflict, please click here.

To keep up-to-date with the work of TransConflict, please click here. If you are interested in supporting TransConflict, please click here.

http://www.transconflict.com/2011/11/kosovo-barricades-considered-211/