... A well-oiled NATO PR machine, which specialized on the Balkans since the wars of 1991-1999 can deceive Westerners – but not the locals. ...[ Albeit, that 'well-oiled PR machine' somehow managed to deceive almost half of the locals who voted. What's with them? ] ... Politicians from the EU and the US like to blame Serbs for "failing to learn the lessons of history." Meanwhile, the Americans and West Europeans demonstrate a unique ability to forget their own misdeeds – at least, in the case of the former Yugoslavia. [ Amen to that. ] http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_05_21/75489956/The victory of a "pro-Russian" candidate in Serbia a surprise to the West – lulled by its own Balkan PR
The unexpected victory at the presidential election in Serbia of Tomislav Nikolic, the former leader of the much reviled Radical party, was a surprise to the world, but not to Serbia itself. Since Tomislav Nikolic replaced Vojislav Seselj, now on trial for alleged war crimes in the Hague, in 2003 as the head of the Radical party, he has reinvented himself as a moderate supporter of Serbia's integration into the EU and rebranded this political force as the Progressive party of Serbia. The country desperately wanted normalcy and some kind of international rehabilitation for the much publicized "crimes of Serb nationalism" of the 1990s. These developments did not mean, however, that Serbs forgot about the NATO bombings in 1999 or that NATO was as popular as the EU in Serbia. The Western media simply failed to remind its readers of this sentiment in Serbian society, hence the current feeling of bewilderment. A well-oiled NATO PR machine, which specialized on the Balkans since the wars of 1991-1999 can deceive Westerners – but not the locals. Instead of concentrating on the problems, the mainstream press in Europe and the United States had been lulling its readers with stories about the imminent victory of the pro-Western incumbent, Boris Tadic, who won elections on a "pro-European" platform during the 2000s. Even Tadic himself seems to have fallen victim to this delusion, opting for an early presidential election this spring. That move of Tadic, surprisingly, stunned only the Serbs themselves, it did not raise many eyebrows in the West – and for a reason. For decades the subject of the vast majority of Western press reports from Serbia was the obsessive hunt for the so called war criminals. So, when the two main suspects, former Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, were captured, Brussels and Washington completely lost interest in Serbia, leaving it to its own devices. The decision to declare Kosovo an independent country, obviously taken not just in Pristina, but also in the Western capitals, was also expected to be easily "swallowed" by the Serbian public. Boris Tadic was expected to win, although his only "achievement" was a tentative agreement of the EU this year to start negotiations on Serbia's membership in the European Union (EU). Now, when predictions of Tadic's victory failed to materialize, the Western press is about to rush into another extreme, adopting an alarmist stand. Now the New York Times expresses doubts in Serbia's EU course towards and scares its readers with a perspective of Serbia's becoming "a province of Russia" – a view attributed by this newspaper to Tomislav Nikolic. The very tone of the polemic around the Serbian election in the West European and American press reveals primarily the strength of negative stereotypes about Serbia and Russia and an almost narcissist obsession with one's own practice of "nation building." "I don't think the general course of Serbian foreign policy will change under Nikolic, he is also for the EU," said Pavel Kandel, senior research fellow at the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences. "But voting for Nikolic, the Serbs wanted to send the West a strong message that its projects in the Balkans are failing." Indeed, what are the results of the "nation building" in the Balkans, forced on Serbia and its neighbors by the US and the EU? Let us look at both history and modernity. This spring for Bosnia-Herzegovina, with its large Serb population, is the time of the 20th anniversary of the saddest events in its history – a series of clashes and attacks that ultimately led to the Bosnian war. The war formally ended in 1995 and Bosnia-Herzegovina became a de facto protectorate of the Western powers – the United States and the European Union. The term of "protectorate" belongs to Nebojsa Popov, a Serbian human rights activist, the founder of the Belgrad-based magazine Republika. 17 years after the start of the Bosnian experiment, even Western reports do not declare the project for "artificially multiethnic" Bosnia-Herzegovina a success. A recent survey conducted by the Western-financed Balkan Foundation for Democracy revealed that only 30 percent of Bosnia's citizens trust their "compatriots" from other ethnic groups. The result is much worse that even in the times of Slobodan Milosevic – Bosnian Moslems continue to distrust Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs, the mistrust between Serbs and Croats has not in any way decreased. "It is interesting to note, that Croats and Serbs living in Bosnia are not fans of the Bosnian soccer team, which is formally "theirs," says Pavel Kandel of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "Instead, Serbs are fans of the Belgrade teams and young Croats dream of playing for Zagreb clubs. This is just an indicator of the failure of the experiment, in which several "generations" of West European governor-generals took part." Ironically, general Wesley Clark, the head of the military intervention against Yugoslavia in 1999, recently came out in the New York Times with an article pathetically headlined "Bosnia Still Needs Fixing." How did the Western experts expect the Serbs to react to such articles from a person many accuse of systematically destroying former Yugoslavia? Or to the anti-Serb movie on the war in Bosnia from Angelina Joli, an American who had never set foot to the Balkans, but tries to resolve local moral problems? The economic development does not inspire much enthusiasm neither. In Serbia, the much publicized "march towards the EU" brought about a situation when Nikolic could win claiming that the country now lives worse than before Tadic came to power in the year 2004. A recent visit by an IMF mission and numerous economic statistics paint a rather gloomy picture for Bosnia too – the country still has to make up for the 75 percent slump in the economy that occurred during the war of 1990s. Once a home to the Sarajevo Olympic Games in 1984, Bosnia never recovered from the war, which became a result of a hasty recognition of its independence from Yugoslavia by Western powers – Germany in the first place. Politicians from the EU and the US like to blame Serbs for "failing to learn the lessons of history." Meanwhile, the Americans and West Europeans demonstrate a unique ability to forget their own misdeeds – at least, in the case of the former Yugoslavia. |
May 24, 2012
Voice of Russia: The victory of a “pro-Russian” candidate in Serbia a surprise to the West – lulled by its own Balkan PR
May 22, 2012
Serbian Election: The End of the Beginning, by S. Trifkovic
Serbian Election: The End of the Beginning
by Srdja Trifkovic • May 21, 2012 • Printer-friendly
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning, quipped Churchill in November 1942, following Montgomery's modest success at El Alamein. The same applies to Tomislav Nikolić's victory in the second round of Serbia's presidential election last Sunday.
The defeat of Boris Tadić—amply and inappropriately assisted in the final stages of his campaign by the unspeakable, greasy-haired, gay-pride-marching U.S. ambassadress Mary Worlick—is certainly not the end of the global-imperial lethal grip on Serbia. It is to be hoped that is heralds the beginning of its end, but it certainly is the end of the "pro-Western" regime's four-year-long exercise in self-abasement abroad and ruthless robbery at home.
The robbery included the regime's theft of some hundreds of thousands of opposition votes following the parliamentary election on May 6. For reasons too technically complex to elucidate here—the seedy details are available to the curious (provided they are not faint of heart)—the ruling coalition of thieves and traitors seems poised to form the next government of this long-suffering land, regardless of Sunday's presidential race upset. That upset was only made possible by the fact that in a two-candidate race it is much, much harder to engineer the wholesale robbery (nearing 7 percent of all votes cast) that we have witnessed in the multi-party ballot on May 6.
The yawning gap between Serbia's popular will and Belgrade's declared political outcome was brazenly glossed over in the Western media two weeks ago, however. The Leninist dictum that the morality of an act depends on the progressive status of its perpetrator still applies. In that spirit, Mr. Nikolić's "ultranationalist" credentials of yore are routinely invoked as his defining trait of today. The comparison is somewhat strained, but just imagine our mainstream media insisting that a dubiously reconstructed "Anti-White, Foreign-Born Radical Leftist" was elected President in November 2008.
In media shorthand the accurate description of President-elect Nikolić would be "a pro-EU moderate nationalist." In reality it is hard to be both, of course, but many decent Europeans are trying to square the circle, from Scotland and Catalonia to Poland and Slovakia. The only issue on which the winner draws the line is "Kosovo or Serbia?" Unlike his defeated opponent, he realizes that it is impossible to compromise on a first-order priority—the country's territorial integrity—for the sake of what is a second-order objective of joining an organization. (Whether doing so is on offer, and whether it would confer any benefits on the joiner, is another issue—see my Endless Road interview on RT.) How many eminently clubbable "Europeans" would agree to cede their country's current sovereignty over Alsace-Lorraine, or South Tyrol, or Sudetenland, or Transylvania, or Schleswig-Holstein, or South Dobrudja, or Silesia (to name but a few of historically contentious provinces) for the sake of remaining in "Europe"?
Unsurprisingly, Nikolić's reluctance to do so is deemed extremist and criminal. No Serb unashamed of his name and ancestors will ever be deemed clubbable by those hell-bent on turning Europe into Eurabia and morbidly celebrating the demographic demise of European Americans as a great and glorious historical milestone.
Nikolić is a simple man. He is not a statesman but a politician. He made a shrewd move by splitting away from Vojislav Šešelj and his cult known as the Serbian Radical Party, an increasingly irrelevant cabal of aficionados devoted to the hero-worshipping of their unjustly imprisoned Leader. Does he have the guts and the vision to become a true national leader? It is hard to make predictions, especially about the future. Suffice to say, he has the guts and stamina to withstand a race that was spectacularly dirty—thanks to Boris Tadić and his Democratic Party—even by the Third World standards.
The Nikolić victory will not alter the catastrophic position of Serbia in the short term, her headlong economic, social, and above all moral downfall engendered by the plutocratic rule of Tadić and his "pro-Western" camarilla. That victory nevertheless matters a great deal because it has fundamentally altered the balance of political power in Serbia. For years Tadić and his kitchen cabinet have run the entire gamut of state institutions. For years he has doubled, incredibly, in the self-excluding roles of the president of his Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS) while performing the functions of the head of state, thus effectively controlling the DS-dominated government in brazen violation of his constitutional prerogatives as president. Such twining of functions used to be the hallmark of Tito, Stalin and Enver Hoxha. It is unknown to the world deemed democratic today.
In the end Tadić suffered the fate of Slobodan Milošević. He became cocky, arrogant, and convinced of his own infallability. Just like Milošević, he cut his presidential mandate short, convinced he could manipulate the electorate by controlled media and pliant institutions. Just like Milošević in the fall of 2000, he lost—only one-fifth of all eligible voters supported him—because Serbia is still a real country composed of real people... the efforts of Ms. Mary Worlick and her paymasters notwithstanding.
May 16, 2012
Kosovo: Serb returnees threatened with expulsion
Greetings in our Risen Lord,
Christos Anesti!
Every time one hears about the idea that Serbs are threatened to leave Kosovo/Metohija hardly will we hear nothing whatsoever in the media of the West or even from the EU, who have all Crucified Kosovo/Metohija and put the Serbs on the Cross and forget about their humanitarian struggles and constant persecution on a daily basis.
The way to achieve Independence has been the current situation in the region is that push and make sure ever Serb leaves and thus indicating that the majority is not Serb but Albanian! The West listens to this factor and thus tells the free world –the majority is no longer Serbs!!!!
The second thing to bring down the Serbs was to destroy their monasteries, and churches –over 153! Everyone knows how much the Serbs love their Orthodox faith and if they do not have a Church available then they move to another place where this is possible. At the same time it's without a doubt what is at hand at this hour is the West wants to make sure Holy Orthodoxy will perish in the region throughout Kosovo/Metohija!
All humanitarian organizations as well as the free should hear these words: Serbs will remain in Kosovo/Metohija!
Serbs will not despair!
Serbs will seek to pray anywhere if they have to travel several miles to attend Church!
Serbs will remain in Kosovo/Metohija!
Serbs will be faithful to their forefathers and to the Holy Orthodox faith they love!
Serbs will just eat bread and soup from the fields and go hungry because they know no one cares and have betrayed them all!
Serbs will pray and Serbs will not give up!
Let the West and let the free world know this for sure!
The betrayal of the Serbs must now end today at this hour!
Now I humbly ask you during these Holy Paschal days of the Resurrection of our Lord the following let us together offer our prayers for peace and understanding, and that the hour should be to cease from threatening Serbs and realize they will remain!
We can help those who are so desperate for our assistance at this time and perhaps you would like to send a loving donation to the Decani Monastery Relief Fund.
Please email me: father@serfes.org
Thank you and may our Risen Lord watch over us all!
Peace to your soul!
God love and bless you!
Humbly in Christ our Lord,
+ Very Reverend Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
President of The Decani Monastery Relief Fund
Who prays for you and with you!
I have run to the fragrance of your myrrh,
O Christ God, for I have been wounded by your love;
do not part from me, O heavenly Bridegroom.
"Wounded by Love," The Life and The Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios
See us at facebook.com/orthodoxchurchboise
Serb returnees feel intimidated after flyers were distributed in their villages in Metohija, calling for them to once again be driven out of their homes. ...
[ NATO's 'allies' (as in 1999) might need NATO's help to 'drive out' the remaining handful of Serbs. NATO will be meeting in Chicago next week. No doubt NATO brass know that their work on behalf of 'the Kosovars' is very much appreciated, and their presence just might be needed to finish the job. And, to bring a supply of bombs, in case needed.
It's mostly elderly Serbs remaining in Metohija, so it should not require too much more bombing to 'drive the oldsters out'. ]
Kosovo: Serb returnees threatened with expulsion
Source: Tanjug Politics | May 15, 2012
KLINA -- Serb returnees feel intimidated after flyers were distributed in their villages in Metohija, calling for them to once again be driven out of their homes.
(Tanjug, file)
The flyers were signed by a group calling itself "the Albanian People's Army".
This was confirmed by Jovo Jović, a representative of the village of Klinavac, in the municipality of Klina.
In a statement for the Tanjug news agency on Tuesday, Jović said the flyers, which refer to Serbs as "criminals, either directly or indirectly", are causing fear among the returnees in Klinavac and other nearby villages.
The threats appeared on Monday, and were placed on the thresholds of Serbs' houses in Drsnik, Berkovo and Klina, villages inhabited by a total of some 100 Serb families, Jović explained.
"We are trying not to prejudge anything. We will inform all institutions in Kosovo and central Serbia about this, as we do not want to conceal these serious threats," he underlined.
"We have not reported the case to the police, because we do not trust them. KFOR told us that the police know about this and that they will be patrolling the villages, but we have not run across any of them as yet," Jović added.
Meanwhile, the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija condemned the threats and called on the EU mission in the province, EULEX, "to find out who was responsible". The ministry also urged the NATO mission, KFOR, "to reinforce their troops in the returnee villages".
Reacting to these reports, a KFOR spokesman told Tanjug that they were "concerned about the emergence of the flyers", but that he would not discuss "any concrete steps KFOR will or will not undertake", saying it concerned "operative issues".
The spokesman also noted that KFOR "takes seriously any security threat".
May 15, 2012
European Elections: Who forgot Serbia?
European Elections: Who forgot Serbia?
07.05.2012
Turn on a western TV outlet, open a western newspaper. Two elections: France and Greece. What about Serbia, you know, that "forgotten" nation in the Balkans that shed the blood of hundreds of thousands of its sons and daughters fighting against imperialism and fascism in two world wars? And what about the serious allegations of irregularities?
Turn on a western TV outlet, open a western newspaper. Two elections: France and Greece. What about Serbia, you know, that "forgotten" nation in the Balkans that shed the blood of hundreds of thousands of its sons and daughters fighting against imperialism and fascism in two world wars, the one the west thanked by carving off its southernmost province of Kosovo and recognising it as a "country"?
And what happened in the Serbian elections? The early forecasts give incumbent President Boris Tadic (DS-Demokratska Stranka) a marginal lead (26.8%) over Tomislav Nikolic (SNS-Srpska Napredna Stranka) 25.6%. However, let us see how.
Accusations of serious irregularities have been levelled at Tadic and his party in the elections in which 7,026,579 Serbian citizens had the right to vote for among 12 Presidential candidates and 250 Members of Parliament choosing among 18 electoral lists.
In Novi Sad, several people were detained after offering 2,500 dinars to vote for Tadic, according to b92. Also in Novi Sad, there are accusations that a political rally was held in a concert given by George Balasevic, despite the fact that this took place on Saturday night, when there was a political blackout, or supposed to be. It is claimed that Tadic attended this event and gained political capital from it.
Globally, there are accusations that 261,000 voting papers have gone missing and will be introduced in the ballot boxes. Inside Serbia there is a considerable weight of public opinion which accused the Tadic government of being controlled by foreigners, of usurping the position in government to pander to the caprices of the foreign paymasters and there is a very heavy climate of suspicion that Tadic will try to rig the election.
Watch this space.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
May 14, 2012
Russia Warns Against Training Syrian Rebels In Kosovo
http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?pg=2&id=331687
Interfax
May 14, 2012
Moscow opposes plans to train Syrian militants in Kosovo
MOSCOW: The Russian Foreign Ministry is concerned by the reports that Syrian militants will be trained in Kosovo, and has urged the international community to prevent that from happening.
"Lately there have been media reports about contacts between Syrian opposition representatives and the authorities of the so-called Republic of Kosovo. This is not just about 'exchange of experience' in organizing separatist movements aimed at toppling existing regimes, it is also about training Syrian militants in Kosovo," the ministry said in a statement issued on Monday.
They intend to use areas that are geographically similar to the Syrian landscape, the ministry said. It is likely that training centers will be opened at the former bases of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
"Such intentions raise concerns. They run counter to the efforts of United Nations-Arab League Special Envoy Kofi Annan, backed by the entire international community. Moreover, turning Kosovo into an international site for training militants from various militant groups could become a serious destabilizing factor spreading beyond the Balkan region," the statement said.
"We are calling on international organizations present in the province to take whatever steps necessary to foil such schemes," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
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http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120514/173451677.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
May 14, 2012
Russia Warns Against Training Syrian Rebels in Kosovo
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday urged international bodies operating in Kosovo to prevent the region from turning into a training ground for Syrian rebels.
A delegation from the Syrian opposition visited Kosovo in April to allegedly make a deal on exchanging experience in guerilla warfare against ruling authorities.
So far, the fractured Syrian opposition has been unable to form a steady front against the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Russian ministry said in a statement that the talks covered not only the ways of organizing armed resistance against authorities but also the training of Syrian militants in Kosovo.
"There are plans to use the areas [in Kosovo] that resemble the terrain in Syria. The possibility of setting up training camps at the former bases of the Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA] is also being discussed," the statement said.
"Transforming Kosovo into an international training ground for armed militants may become a serious destabilizing factor that could extend beyond the Balkans," the document said. "We urge international bodies operating in Kosovo to take all necessary steps to prevent these plans."
The ethnic Albanian KLA fought a separatist war against the regime of President Slobodan Milosevic in 1998-99. About 10,000 people died in the Kosovo conflict.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in February 2008.
Both Serbia and Russia have refused to recognize Kosovo's independence.
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May 11, 2012
Edmonton Journal (Letters): Less rewriting of Serb past - by Amb. James Bissett
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Prof. Jasmina Vujic: Systematic Efforts not to Allow Serbian Diaspora to Vote in Serbian Elections
Systematic Efforts not to Allow Serbian Diaspora to Vote in Serbian Elections
The Serbian nation is considered to have a sizable Diaspora. The number of expatriate Serbs around the globe is estimated at around 3.5 million - about a third of the nation - primarily located in North America, Germany, Austria, Australia and New Zealand. The period after WW II also saw subsequent waves of emigration, first sparked by political motives, and later shifting more to socio-economic grounds. The latter eventually affected the intellectual elite as well, resulting in an increasing and serious "brain drain" over the past two decades. Since the October 2000 democratic changes in Serbia and Montenegro, the Serbian Diaspora hoped for a better relationship with the Homeland, and for joint work on further development of democratic civil society and crucial economic reforms in order to speed up the painful transitional period.
As one of two representatives of the Serbian Diaspora from USA in the Diaspora Council that was established by President Kostunica in 2002, and as a Vice-President of that Council, I worked very hard in promoting the rights of Serbs abroad to citizenship, voting rights, denationalization, and rehabilitation of wrongly accused, and participation in the economic, social, cultural and moral renewal of the Serbian nation. The Council proposed many ways how the Serbian Diaspora could effectively contribute to the rebuilding of the Serbian nation with their knowledge, experience, and worldwide connections.
After more then 10 years, very little of what was promised to the Serbian Diaspora was fulfilled. Although the Serbian government admitted that without ongoing financial help from the Diaspora, entire regions of Serbia would have been reduced to poverty, and that in 2011 at least 5.5 billion of dollars was obtained from Diaspora, still the Serbian Diaspora investors have been treated as second-class investors. Experts from the Serbian Diaspora (engineers, scientists, professors, businessmen,..) have not been welcomed in Serbia, and even the most basic right of the citizens of one country, the right to vote, has been denied to the Serbian Diaspora.
In 2002, the Diaspora Council proposed that the Serbian citizens abroad could vote either in Serbian embassies and consulates, or by mail ballot or by electronic voting. Only the first option was accepted, which created tremendous problems for the majority of Serbian Diaspora due to a very limiting number of voting locations, large distances that the voter needed to travel (sometimes, thousands of kilometers), and a very complicated process off registration to vote.
I will only present several examples from my own experience with voting. The Western USA including California where I live, are under the jurisdiction of the Consulate General of Republic of Serbia in Chicago. One of the two voting location for the Serbian elections in 2007 was open there. I went through the lengthy registration process, and flew to Chicago to vote. However, nobody was able to vote, because the voting lists from Chicago jurisdiction were sent to Washington Embassy and, from Washington jurisdiction to Chicago. In 2008, me and several colleagues were able to collect enough registered voters, and the voting location was opened in the Silicone Valley, where at least several hundred young Serbian engineers live and work. All of us had to again go through the lengthy registration procedure. However, the lists of registered voters were again not accurate, so that the large percentage of those who registered to vote were not on the lists.
In the most recent elections that were held on May 5-6, 2012, basically nobody from California was able to vote. Information about the elections and the procedure how to register was sent very late, in my case only one day before the registration deadline. For the third time we had to go through the lengthy registration procedure. In addition, it was not specified that the deadline was midnight of April 14 (but Belgrade time), so that California voters deadline for registration was shortened by 9 hours. Many of those registered on April 14 were denied registration for being late. However, the same people were already registered to vote in 2008! Until 2 to 3 days before the election date (May 5), nobody informed the voters in California if and where they could vote. Only then, a small percentage of registered voters received information that they need to travel to Chicago to vote. It was already late for people to find any reasonably priced tickets to fly to Chicago. Additional complication was that traveling and personal documents for Serbian citizens were changed several times over the last 10 years. The last change – the biometric documents – required people to travel to Chicago to get the new documents, which many were not able to do.
For the 2012 elections, the number of voting location for the Serbian Diaspora was reduced by more than 2 (no voting locations for Australia, and only 3 or 4 for Northern America), and the procedure was twice as complicated. The end result is that less than 1000 Serbian citizens around the world were able to cast their ballots. All of the above could have been prevented if mail ballot or electronic voting was allowed. After more that 10 years of advocating simplified ways of voting for the Serbian Diaspora, I must say that somebody obviously does not want to allow it.
Prof. Jasmina Vujic, California, USA, May 10, 2012
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