The Great Kosovo Riddle

 

Latest news:
http://news.google.be/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Kosovo+

Good luck, Montenegro

http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=21345&NrIssue=13&NrSection=20


"Consolidation" of Kosovo's TMK as "multiethnic army"
http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2006/05/albanian-premier-calls-for.html

NATO to protect decisions on Kosovo future
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060508-014304-5002r

"Kosovo Status Determination Will Build Regional Security"
http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2006/05/kosovo-status-determination-will-build.html

"The most important thing is finding a healthy and long-term solution for Kosovo and Metohija"
http://www.kosovo.net/news/archive/2006/May_08/2.html

....................

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=838

Axis (Turkey)

May 8, 2006

The Great Kosovo Riddle

Can Karpat, AIA Balkan Section

Serbia is at odds with the EU after it failed to extradite Ratko Mladic. The fourth round of the Kosovo final status negotiations in Vienna ended with mutual recrimination and accusation between the Albanian and Serbian teams. During Kosovo Premier Agim Ceku’s visit to Skopje, Macedonian Premier Vlado Buckovski suggested that experts from Macedonia and Kosovo would confirm the former administrative border between Macedonia and former Yugoslavia as a real state border. Here is the week that shook Serbia…

On 3rd May, the EU postponed the talks on the stabilisation and association agreement because Serbia failed to extradite Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army chief wanted for genocide.
On 4th-5th May, the fourth round of the Kosovo status talks began. The direct talks, which turned to greater local self-government for Kosovo’s 100.000 remaining Serbs, degenerated into mutual recrimination and accusation between the Albanian and Serbian teams.
On 5th May, after his meeting with Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku, Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski suggested that technical experts on both sides with support of US cartographers would confirm the administrative border between Macedonia and Yugoslavia as a real state border.
Last week’s chronology is not very hopeful as far as Serbia is concerned. And there is no immediate good sign on the horizon. Montenegro has already begun to prepare new passports. The fifth round of the Kosovo negotiations is scheduled for 23rd May - two days after the independence referendum in Montenegro. The “Greater Serbia†chimera progressively turns into a “Smaller Serbia†reality.

Painful times for the Serbia-EU relations

Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jocic assured the international community that search for the fugitive war crimes accused Ratko Mladic will continue in the following days. However chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Carla Del Ponte, speaking in Sarajevo last Friday, dismissed the arrests and raids in Belgrade, aimed at apprehending Ratko Mladic, as not serious: “Operations in Belgrade are just for the galleryâ€. It seems as though the current Serbian authorities completely lost their credibility. But what if the EU itself, which closed its doors, though probably momentarily, to Serbia, has actually lost its credibility?
The EU follows an obvious reward-or-punish process in its dealing with Serbia. On 29th April, NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, speaking at a forum in Brussels, clearly stated: “See that Mladic gets to The Hague, and I can tell you that NATO will bring you in very quickly, [and] then you can continue stabilisation and association with the European Unionâ€.
Apart the childishness of this process, is this really the best way to “rehabilitate†Serbia? If someday Serbian authorities extradite Mladic and Karadzic, it would be better that they do so because they think that these men should be tried for what they allegedly did during the Bosnia War. Only then Serbia could “exorcise its demonsâ€. Otherwise the extradition would be an unpleasant duty, which one accomplishes rather reluctantly just for the sake of a reward. Serbia must be won, not “bribedâ€.
It is known that in Serbia even those, who defend publicly the need to cooperate with the ICTY, base their arguments on little more than compliance with the international law. This can be changed through the consolidation of democracy, education, etc., but certainly not through punishment. Those, who want to join the EU in Serbia, are 60 percent of the population. Other 40 percent, however, is not a negligible minority, and their arguments are not always unconvincing. The international community should not give them such simple opportunities to strengthen their arguments.

The Kosovo talks: Deadlock on Mitrovica

During the fourth round of the Kosovo final status talks, the Serbs wanted 14 new municipalities, while the Kosovo Albanians were offering 3. The Serbian team demanded to make the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica (northern Kosovo) a municipality of its own, while the Albanians were asking for two municipalities to be formed within the confines of one city. The two proposals about the fate of Mitrovica were diagonally opposite: Division or reunification.
The Kosovo Serbs live scattered in small communities throughout the province. Except in Mitrovica where they remain in sizeable numbers - enough to have a mini-state of their own. Mitrovica is the last urban centre of the Serbs in Kosovo and a gateway to Serbia proper. The town is divided by the river Ibar, which separates the Serb-dominated north from the Albanian-dominated south. Mitrovica, the scene of the bloody riots of March 2004, was recently patrolled by tanks to prevent ethnic clashes.

Ethnic map of Kosovo - blue zones represent Serbian concentration  (click for enlarge)

Mitrovica is the ultimate symbol, which will confirm whether reconciliation between the Albanian and Serbian communities is possible in Kosovo. While Kosovo’s Serbs and Albanians work and socialise together in urban areas like Pristina, life is less friendly in the Serbian enclaves. The “Train of Freedom†has run from the province's southern border with Macedonia to the northern border with Serbia proper since the end of the Kosovo War. The de facto divided town of Mitrovica is not an obstacle for the train. Yet, the last stop for Albanian passengers is on the southern side of the town. Many Serbs usually gather in a café on the other side, watching the bridge to check that no Albanian come across. According to French author Ernest Renan, in order to form a national body, the people of this body must learn to “forgetâ€. Obviously in the case of Kosovo, it is too early to forget - the wounds are still fresh.
Mitrovica is the key for the future of Kosovo and that of the whole region. Many fear that if Kosovo becomes independent without granting the Kosovo Serbs the large autonomy they want, these Serbs would leave Kosovo for good. This means that there will be thousands of Serbs along the Kosovo border of Serbia, full of resentment and ready to explode any time. The ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party would not fail to provoke them and exploit their anger. This stock of angry radical nationalists on Serbian border would threaten not only the safety of Kosovo, but also that of other neighbouring countries, the rest of Europe and Serbia itself.
During the last direct talks, the Serbian team made an interesting proposal. Slobodan Samardzic, a Serbian negotiator, stated that his team suggested the creation of 16 “communities†run by Serbs and other non-Albanians, including Roma Gypsies, Turks and Muslims of Slavic origin (Gorans and Bosnians). Does Serbia try to mobilise other non-Albanian communities of Kosovo and make out of minority rights a cause célÄbre in order to gain some support from “inside the castleâ€?
On 28th April, representatives of the Goran and Bosnian communities demanded for setting up new municipalities in Vitomirica (western Kosovo, near Pec), Recane (southern Kosovo, southeast of Prizren) and in the part of Dragas municipality (southern Kosovo, near Gora region) inhabited by Gorans and Bosnians.
As to the Turks of Kosovo, which are the third largest minority of Kosovo, they lost most of their rights after the establishment of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Turkish language, which was the third official language of Kosovo before the war, was replaced by English thereafter. Against the UNMIK, which somewhat discriminates some minorities of Kosovo, the Serbian proposal may seem attractive.

The border dispute anaesthetised

As to the visit of Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku to Skopje, it brought nothing new. Agim Ceku and his Macedonian counterpart Vlado Buckovski stated that the Kosovo-Macedonia border issue is just a technical question, not a political problem. Buckovski stressed: “The former administrative border of the former Yugoslavia will be the one pending demarcation once certain conditions are met i.e. once we get a partner with a full international credibilityâ€. The discussion of this issue was postponed until a “more appropriate momentâ€.
Serbian Foreign Ministry expressed its surprise over the statement by Vlado Buckovski that experts from Macedonia and Kosovo would confirm the former administrative border between Macedonia and former Yugoslavia as a real state border. The internationally recognised state border between Serbia-Montenegro and Macedonia was established as such by the agreement on the state border in 2001.
Thus, ten days after the border dispute, which was revived on 25th April by Agim Ceku, everything got back to the starting point. Was this a kind of much ado about nothing?
According to the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo President Sandra Raskovic-Ivic, this was not the case: “The first thing that is obvious is that Ceku already feels like the premier of an independent and internationally recognised state of Kosovoâ€. Ceku was appeased on 5th May with Buckovski’s proposal of experts. Ceku acted as a real prime minister, and was also responded as a real one. He marked a good point for the Kosovo team.
Was Buckovski’s proposal a coincidence? Macedonia decided to hold parliamentary elections two months ahead of the official September deadline. Did Buckovski, the leader of the ruling Social Democrats, send a message to the Albanian minority, which forms no less than 19.2 percent of the population (est. 2004)? Also Ceku claimed that the reactions of Macedonian politicians were done for internal political consumption in the first place. If this is the fact, then Ceku himself is not exempt from internal political motives. He must placate the angry inhabitants of the Kosovo border village of Debelde, whose properties were divided by the new boundary.
The border demarcation agreement was signed on 22nd February 2001 - two years after Serbia lost control over Kosovo. Despite this fact, the agreement was welcomed by every factor in the international community (Macedonia’s neighbours, the EU, USA, NATO, etc.). Today there is no reason to change the current situation. With an unemployment rate nearing 55 percent, Kosovo will probably independent only by name. An economically dependent Kosovo will not be able to annul an agreement, which still benefits from international approval.

Related items:
Serbian Radical Party: The Hubris of Serbian Political Scene (04.05.06)
Euro-Atlantic Axis in the Balkans: Macedonia-Kosovo-Albania (02.05.06)
Kosovo Turks: Those Who Live in the Most Critical Region of the Balkans (15.12.05)
Kosovo: A New State or a New Bone of Contention in the Balkans? (26.11.05)
Kosovo is Heating Up Again (16.11.05)
Kosovo - Another Example of the International Impotence (29.10.05)

La Com�die Apsurde

"The director has total freedom to programme what he wants, according to his conscience,"

"Your decision goes against everything that constitutes a free society."

 

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1770543,00.html#article_continue

 

Pro-Serb scandal rocks La ComédiePaul Arendt
Tuesday May 9, 2006

The Guardian

France's best-known theatre company, Comédie Française, stands accused of "cultural censorship" after banning playwright Peter Handke's work. A production of Handke's play Voyage to the Sonorous Land, or the Art of Asking was cancelled after it was learned that Handke attended Slobodan Milosevic's funeral in March.

Handke, whose writing credits include Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, is known for his pro-Serbian views. According to European press reports, he said at the funeral that he was happy to be beside "a man who defended his people". In the German magazine Focus, he questioned the western media's emnity to Milosevic.

Jean-Pierre Jourdain, secretary general at the Comédie Française, calls the comments scandalous. "Imagine for a moment that an author said Bin Laden wasn't at all responsible for 9/11," he says. "There would be an outcry. What's the difference with Milosevic?"

The decison to axe the production has been heavily criticised. In an open letter to the theatre, Handke's editor Ulla Unseld-Berkewicz wrote, "Your decision goes against everything that constitutes a free society." Nobel prize-winning author Elfriede Jelinek and Claus Peymann, director of Germany's Berliner Ensemble theatre company, have also come out in support of Handke. In a statement, Peymann said: "It's shocking that a European country, which has for years been a proponent and defender of individual freedom, has imposed such cultural censorship and subordination on its national theatre."

The theatre, however, stands by its decision. "The director has total freedom to programme what he wants, according to his conscience," says Jourdain.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

Kosovo consternation

http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060508-091537-7458r.htm

Kosovo consternation
By James "Ace" Lyons Jr.
May 9, 2006


Among the most important priorities of U.S. global policy is combating the international traffic in drugs and in persons (often a euphemism for women and children forced into prostitution).
    Because of the linkage and overlap among terrorist networks and organized criminal gangs, the battle against trafficking is also an integral part of the war on terror.
    Fighting organized criminal activities is difficult even in countries with a functioning legal system, honest police and the rule of law. Think how much harder that would be when dealing with an independent country where the authorities are an integral part of the criminal enterprise.
    Amazingly, that's what the international community seems to want to help establish in the Serbian province of Kosovo. When Kosovo was placed under United Nations administration and NATO military control at the end of the 1999 war, some hoped the province soon would meet at least minimum qualifications for some kind of independence, as demanded by Muslim Albanians who greatly outnumber the remaining Christian Serbs.
    That hasn't happened. Instead the drug, sex slave, weapons, money-laundering, and other illicit trades that helped fuel the conflicts of the 1990s have continued to grow. Just this month Marek Antoni Nowicki, Poland's leading human-rights lawyer and the U.N.'s international ombudsman for Kosovo until last year, denounced the "real criminal state in power" in Kosovo, working right under the nose of the U.N. and NATO. "Crime groups have been able to operate with impunity," said Mr. Nowicki. "These networks can rely on the weakness of the public institutions to sanction their operations." Mr. Nowicki's charges came on the heels of a March 2006 report by the U.N.'s internal watchdog agency, the Office of Internal Oversight, which found the head of U.N. Mission -- who holds virtually dictatorial powers -- derelict for ignoring fraud and other abuses at the airport in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.
    None of this should come as any surprise. Even in 1999, when the Clinton administration decided to take military action in support of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), there were numerous and credible intelligence and news reports of the KLA's criminal and terrorist inclinations. Predictably, KLA veterans found even more opportunity to ply their illicit trades when, ostensibly demobilized, they were recruited by the UN into Kosovo's police, civil administration, and quasi-military "Kosovo Protection Corps." The foxes were asked to guard the chicken coop -- another U.N. fiasco.
    As described in reports issued by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, criminal activity in Kosovo continues to be closely tied to operations of the Albanian mafia across Europe, from home bases in Kosovo and adjacent areas of Albania and Macedonia. For example (from 2003): "According to the International Organization for Migration and EUROPOL, the principal supplier countries [i.e., for trafficked women] today are Moldova (up to 80 percent: many Moldovan villages do not have any more women), Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. The networks used various routes, including the route that passes through Kosovo, Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (see the village of Veledze, the regional centre of prostitution) and Montenegro, then through Italy. The Albanian mafia has set up a real cartel on prostitution. It handles more than 65 percent of the trafficking in women in the Balkans." From 2004: "In Kosovo, as many as 80 percent of internally trafficked victims are child!
 ren."
    The response of international bureaucrats to this disgrace is predictable: ignore it and hope nobody notices. Or even better, pretend all is going well, declare the mission a success -- and hand power over to the criminals as the new sovereign "government."
    If that happens, even the minimal interference in the Kosovo-based gangs' operations will be removed. A criminal state not seen since the defunct Taliban regime in Afghanistan will be set up with easy proximity to the rest of Europe.
    Such an outcome would make a mockery of some of the United States' most important global security priorities. While the international community desires some sort of "closure" to the ongoing mess in Kosovo (and this is understandable), it is hard to think of a supposed solution worse than independence. Seven years after the 1999 war, this is one Clinton legacy that demands urgent reconsideration.
    
    James "Ace" Lyons Jr. is a retired admiral in the U.S. Navy. He is a former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet (the largest single military command in the world), senior U.S. military representative to the United Nations and as deputy chief of Naval operations and was principal adviser on all Joint Chiefs of Staff matters.
   
Copyright 2006 The Washington Times 

Will the Whistleblower Who Revealedthe First War Crime in Yugoslavia Go to Jail Soon ?

Will the Whistleblower Who Revealedthe First War Crime in Yugoslavia Go to Jail Soon ?

GEORGES BERGHEZAN

June 25, 1991: Slovenia and Croatia unilaterally proclaim their independence, the Yugoslav army is deployed at the country's international borders. Three days later, in the village of Holmec, at the Slovene-Austrian border, three young conscripts, attacked by Slovene police who had encircled their tank, waved a white flag and surrendered. They were killed in cold blood by the police in the presence of a cameraman from the Austrian TV network ORF. It was the first documented war crime in a conflict that would continue spilling blood in the former Yugoslavia for the next eight years.These facts were kept secret for the next seven years until the ORF footage showing the surrender and the execution of the three soldiers -- two Serbs and one Croat -- was finally broadcast on Slovenian television. Pressured by the Slovene branch of the NGO Helsinki Monitor and its president, Neva Miklavcic Predan, an official inquiry was conducted, but it concluded in 1999 that no war crimes at all had been committed (the soldiers would have simulated their execution and they would have been killed shortly afterward in combat). Things probably could have stayed there -- and the affair could have continued to be completely ignored by the international media -- if Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian president, during his cross-examination of the Slovene President, Milan Kucan, who had been summoned by The Hague Tribunal in May 2003 to testify against Milosevic, had not posed several troubling questions to his adversary and brought several supplementary pieces of information to the case, which included the death certificates of the aforementioned soldiers. Visibly caught off guard, Kucan gave assurances that the case had not been closed, all the while denying that the conscripts had been executed. A few days later, Neva Miklavcic Predan held a press conference in Ljubljana in which she cast a shadow of doubt on Kucan testimony. The statements made at this press conference sparked a defamation lawsuit filed by twenty-six Slovene war veterans whose "feelings were profoundly hurt" by her allegation of war crime. At the same time, a Slovenian court closed the case once again at the beginning of April 2006, reiterating that no war crime had taken place in Holmec, basing its decision on the 1999 inquiry. On the other hand, in Belgrade, a special tribunal for war crimes finally decided to open an inquest on the matter. At The Hague, despite the evidence provided by Miklavcic Predan, and then by Milosevic, there still does not seem to be any interest in what appears to be the first war crime committed in the Yugoslav wars.For Neva Miklavcic Predan, however, the case has not been closed. The complaint filed by the war veterans has gone its course and resulted in the trial now taking place. She risks being sentenced to two years imprisonment and the next hearing has been set for May 30. During the first two hearings, the accusations relied on a gross falsification of the ORF video that tries to make one believe that the Slovene police did not fire upon the Yugoslav conscripts.Furthermore, she is accused of having tried to bribe a government official in order to obtain citizenship for a Roma. This second trial has now been suspended. She could be sentenced to three years more in prison as a result of the proceedings. Finally, a judge in Ljubljana, feeling offended by a remark that Miklavcic Predan made, has also filed a complaint. She is subject to three months' imprisonment if she is sentenced.Neva Miklavcic Predan considers herself to be the victim of political trials intended to punish her for having cast a shadow over the mini-war of independence waged by Slovenia, which has often been characterized as a model among the new members of the European Union. Even if the affair starts making headlines throughout the former Yugoslavia, it still remains unknown beyond. However, the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) have initiated a campaign of support and have requested writing to the Slovene authorities in order to stop the harassment of the president of Helsinki Monitor. We have taken up their appeal, which we reproduce below. Action requested:Please write to the Slovenian authorities and ask them to: i. Put an end to any kind of harassment against Mrs. Neva Miklavcic-Predan, and ensure that her right to a fair and impartial trial be guaranteed in any circumstances;ii. Conform with the provisions of the Declaration on Humans Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, in particular article 1, which states that "everyone has the right, individually or in association with others, to promote the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels", and article 12.2, which states that "the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration";iii. More generally, conform with the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and with all other international human rights instruments binding Slovenia.

Addresses:� President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Janez Drnovsek, Erjavceva 17, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tel.: 00 386 1 478-10-00, Fax: 00 386 1 478-12-00, Email: janez.drnovsek@up-rs.si; gp.uprs@up-rs.si� Premier of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Jansa, Gregorciceva 20, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tel.: 00 386 1 478-10-00, Fax: 00 386 1 478-17-21, Email: janez.jansa@gov.si; gp.upv@upr-rs.si� Minister of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Lovro Sturm, Zupanciceva 3, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tel.: 00 386 1 369-52-72, Fax: 00 386 1 369-52-76, Email: lovro.sturm@gov.si� Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Dimitrij Rupel, Presernova 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tel.: 00386 1 478-23-73, Fax: 00386 1 478-21-70, Email: dimitrij.rupel@gov.si� Supreme State Prosecutor, Barbara Brezigar, Dunajska 22, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tel.: 00 386 1 434-19-35, Fax: 00 386 1, Email: bbrezigar@dt-rs.si� District Court of Ljubljana, president, Tavcarjeva 9, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tel.: 00 386 1 366-44-44, Fax: 00 386 1 366-45-18, Email: marjan.pogacnik@sodisce.si� Local Court of Ljubljana, President Vesna Pavlic Pivk, Miklosiceva 12, 1000 Ljubljana. Slovenia, Tel.: 00 386 1 47 47.701, Fax: 00 386 1 47-47-705, Email: urad.@sodisce.si� Higher Court in Ljubljana, President Jernej Potocar, Tavcarjeva 9, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tel.: 00 386 1 366-40-00, Fax: 00 386 1 366-40-70, Email: jernej.potocar@sodisce.si� Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, President Franc Testen, Tavcarjeva 9, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tel.: 00 386 1 336-42-02, Fax: 00 386 1 336-43-01, Email: urad.vhrs@sodisce.si� Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, President Janez Cebulj, Betthovnova 10, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tel: 00 386 1 477-64-00, Fax: 00 386 1 251-04-51, Email: info@us-rs.si� Ambassador Mr. Aljaz Gosnar, Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations in Geneva, rue de Lausanne 147, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland, Tel: + 41 22 716 17 80, Fax: + 41 22 738 66 65, Email: mge@mzz-dpk.gov.si� Permanent Mission of Slovenia in Brussels, 30 avenue Marnix, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium, Tel : +32 25124466, Fax : + 32 25120997AUTHOR'S ADDRESS : g.berghezan@tele2.beMORE : See chapter "Medialies" in the book Liar's Poker -Yugoslavia, the great powers and the next wars. Info : michel.collon@skynet.beMORE ABOUT YUGOSLAVIA, MEDIA-LIES? HIDDEN US and GERMAN STRAGIES...: (in French)
http://www.michelcollon.info/mailinglist_en.php

'No Mladic, no membership'

Sir, I cannot see the draw for the people of Serbia to come into the 
vipers nest. After all,  the countries which are blackmailing Serbia 
over a Bosnian Serb, bombed the country and destroyed much of it's 
civilian facilities and infrastracture in 78 days of hell in 1999. 
There has been nothing but pressure and blackmail since that year of 
infamy. Why would anyone think for a moment that the Serbs have a 
place with the sowers of death and destruction is beyond me.
Sincerely, B. Perry
London

''''''''''''''''

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2163199,00.html


Times Online
May 03, 2006


EU tells Serbia: 'No Mladic, no membership'
By Simon Freeman and agencies

The European Union today suspended membership talks with Serbia in punishment for the country's failure to deliver the fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic to a UN tribunal.

A deadline for the transfer of the Bosnian Serb general, wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, into the custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague expired at the end of April.
Olli Rehn, the EU Enlargement Commissioner, issued a statement today confirming that talks over Belgrade's possible integration into the EU had been frozen.
"It is disappointing that Belgrade has been unable to locate, arrest and transfer Ratko Mladic to the Hague. The Commission therefore has to call off the negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
"Serbia must show that nobody is above the law and that anybody indicted for serious crimes will face justice," he said after a meeting with Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the tribunal.
The EU's decision to carry out its long-standing threat will intensify the pressure within Serbia to hand over General Mladic, 64, who many Serbs still regard as a war hero, but whose continued freedom has rendered the country a hostage.
The renegade general has evaded capture since 1995, and is generally believed to be living under the protection of senior military and political figures within Serbia.
Suspension of the tentative talks will be seen as a hugely punishing sanction for the country which is struggling to rebuild its economy after a decade of civil war.
Vojisclav Kostunica, the Serbian Prime Minister, has coerced or bribed previous indictees into giving themselves up but General Mladic is refusing to co-operate, aware that his arrest could fatally destabilise the coalition government.
There was intense excitement on February 21 this year when television reports suggested that General Mladic, one of Europe's most wanted men, had been arrested.
Despite several days of headlines and insider reports that he had finally been captured, the reports - which came a few days before an earlier EU deadline - transpired to be without foundation.
There has been a fresh wave of rumours of his impending capture in the past few weeks, most recently it was suggested that Mladic had been tracked down by a team of agents from MI6 and the CIA and would be arrested on May 1.
General Mladic led the Bosnian Serb forces to commit many of the atrocities and massacres which characterised the Bosnian war.
He is chiefly associated with the four-year siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 attack on Srebenica - in which at least 8,000 Mulsim men and boys were massacred - considered the worst atrocity in Europe since the Second World War.
The next round of talks, the first stepping stone towards eventual EU membership, had been due on May 11. They have now been postponed indefinitely.

End of a Grand Illusion

http://newsblaze.com/story/20060429061438nnnn.nb/newsblaze/OPINIONS/Opinions.html

NewsBlaze

Op-Ed ContributorCrossfire War: Kosovo PM Expects State of Independence by June 2006By Willard PayneCrossfire War - TEHRAN WATCH -Southeast Europe Theatre: Pristina/- (Tehran) -/Belgrade; End of a Grand Illusion - Kosovo PM Expects State of Independence by June 2006 - War of the European Enlargement
Night Watch: PRISTINA - A Grand Illusion is about to end and in this case with more fighting than the conflict that ended the New World Order. Kosovo then Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi stated, earlier this year, that he expects Kosovo to become independent by June 2006. "For us it is important that in June 2006 we should make Kosovo a state. I am convinced we should do that." I don't think his expectations have changed any since the beginning of the year and I suspect every armed Albanian group also expects the same even without the EU/UN/NATO's approval. [EurActiv]Since then he seems to have been replaced by Agim Ceku, who likes to be photographed in uniform. Today Prime Minister Ceku told a Sofia television station that a UN Security Council resolution will declare Kosovo independent by the end of the year but Ceku may just be playing the diplomat. Ceku may know that fighting will resume in May to take advantage of the international arms support they have been receiving from Islamic governments.The position of Serbia President Boris Tadic is just as entrenched. He has always refused to accept or sign what he called an "imposed position" as if he anticipates the negotiations in Vienna going against Belgrade.In the meantime waiting in the wings is Tehran, who has armed Albanian units and in January signed a security agreement with Serbia. Iran knows that it will be mostly NATO and the EU caught in the crossfire of what I am calling the War of the European Enlargement. Perhaps the most ridiculous, most unbelievable decision I have ever witnessed was the agreement to divide Yugoslavia. It was a classic example of the evil with a clown face mentality. I actually thought Europe had gotten tired of map making. Societies obviously retain their character. And Washington allowed itself to be Yanked into it.These endless rounds of negotations and referendums was intended to lead to EU enlargment, incorporating the states that emerged out of the divided Yugoslavia into the European Community. The EU will have to incorporate the war instead and Iran's obvious involvement as Tehran continues to prepare its Avenue of Invasion. The Council of Guardians in Tehran are privately thanking the West for creating this other front.When the war finally ends whatever flags are left flying will withdraw into further darkness-militarism. The leading lights that established progressive European institutions, that broke down a lot of barriers after World War II, were extinguished quite some time ago. What they represented and accomplished died with them.

Night Watch Information Servicehttp://www.crossfirewar.com

Based in Flossmoor,IL 60422.ph:708-957-9651/fax:708-798-2929.

e-mail:III82100@aol.com

Thumbs-up for Independence

Latest news:http://news.google.be/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Kosovo

Kosovo's press get thumbs-up from OSCE commissionhttp://www.ijnet.org/Director.aspx?P=Article&ID=304911&LID=1

No troop cut before Kosovo status resolution-NATO
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28676346.htm.................

UN to endorse Kosovo independence
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/agencija/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=1&NrArticle=20697&NrIssue=452&NrSection=20............

http://www.dtt-net.com/en/index.php?page=view-article&article=1466

28/04/2006

Russia against Kosovo's independence(Sofia, DTT-NET.COM) - Russian government has voiced its opposal to Kosovo independence arguing that such a settlement is dangerous for the stability in Western Balkans region."We don't agree with those who try to convince us that there is no alternative to Kosovo independence. That's a dangerous path that could lead toward dangerous consequences for the region and create a precedent for other conflict situations," AFP quoted Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov saying to the reporters on Friday after NATO-Russia meeting in Bulgarian capital, Sofia.Lavrov's statement creates a new momentum on the position of major international powers on the future of UN administrated territory.Russia together with US, Germany, France, Italy and UK is member of Contact Group for Kosovo which have said in common statements that the status of Kosovo "should be acceptable to the people".Ethnic Albanians who represent around 90 percent of Kosovo population insist on independence but Serbia and Serbian minority in Kosovo are against.UK and US officials have said that independence is the likely solution for Kosovo.Western diplomats have said earlier that Moscow will not use its veto against Kosovo independence at UN Security Council, but Friday's statement of Russian foreign minister seem to create a new obstacle to the push of London and Washington to make Kosovo independent and split from Serbia and Montenegro state union......................

This is a universe of pain

http://www.kosovo.net/news/archive/2006/April_28/2.html

KiM Info Newsletter 28-04-06

Serbian, foreign writers and artists visit Metohija and Visoki Decani MonasteryBishop Teodosije sincerely thanked the participants in the "Pilgrimage and Brotherly Love" campaign who came to encourage the faithful of Metohija during these paschal holidays. He especially thanked Austrian writer and dramatist Peter Handke for the solidarity he has shown for years toward the suffering Serbian people from Krajina and Bosnia to Kosovo and Metohija. The visit to Orahovac, Velika Hoca, Zociste, Visoki Decani Monastery and the Pec Patriarchate was organized on the occasion of the paschal holidays by the Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija and the Association of Writers of Kosovo and MetohijaKIM Info ServiceApril 27, 2006On Tuesday, April 25, a group of Serbian and foreign writers and artists visited Visoki Decani Monastery together with several displaced Serbs from the Orahovac region. They have been visiting Metohija for the past two days as part of a campaign called "Pilgrimage and Brotherly Love".Prior to stopping at Visoki Decani Monastery participants in this noble campaign visited the village of Retimlje near Orahovac where a number of Serbs were kidnapped and killed during the course of 1998. Together with members of the Kostic family, which lost 14 of its members during the war, the writers and artists lit candles at the Orthodox cemetery now completely overgrown with weeds. On that occasion the group of writers was exposed to verbal attacks by local Albanians. The members of the Kostic family visited their native villages of Opterusa and Retimlje for the first time in almost eight years. Protosingel Petar, the chief priest of Zociste Monastery, served a memorial service at the cemetery in Retimlje for all Orthodox Serbs buried there and those whose bodies have not yet been found.The visit to Orahovac, Velika Hoca, Zociste, Visoki Decani Monastery and the Pec Patriarchate was organized on the occasion of the paschal holidays by the Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija and the Association of Writers of Kosovo and Metohija. In Visoki Decani Monastery the poets read poems dedicated to the Serbian holy shrines in Kosovo and Metohija and Svetlana Stevic sang an old song originating in the Metohija region. The guests were especially delighted by the brothers Marko (12) and Nikola Maksimovic (13), guests of the monastery from Kraljevo, who performed several traditional Serbian melodies on the flute together with Decani monk Jovan.Bishop Teodosije sincerely thanked the participants in the "Pilgrimage and Brotherly Love" campaign who came to encourage the faithful of Metohija during these paschal holidays. He especially thanked Austrian writer and dramatist Peter Handke for the solidarity he has shown for years toward the suffering Serbian people from Krajina and Bosnia to Kosovo and Metohija.Upon entering the town of Decani as well as upon departing from it on their way to Pec, the bus transporting the writers was showered by stones by the local Albanians, whose whistled in disapproval when the bus carrying Serbs passed. According to poet Ranko Djinovic there was some damage to the vehicle but no one was injured. Despite the unpleasant experience, the writers and artists said that they would always respond to words of derision and rocks with songs and forgiveness, recalling the words of the Gospels: "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do."The delegation of foreign writers also included Kurt K�pruner, Thomas Diechmann and several of their colleagues from Austria, Germany and Russia. The delegation completed its visit to Metohija with a tour of the Pec Patriarchate...................http://www.blic.co.yu/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#9Blic (Serbia and Montenegro)April 28, 2006Austrian writer Peter Handke in KosovoThis is a universe of painStanding on the side of justice, as he said, and always with the victims, Austrian writer Peter Handke visited Kosovo several days ago.Standing at burnt homes of the Nikolices, Kostices, Bozanices and Bandices in the villages of Retimlje and Opterusa near Orahovac, Handke said: 'These are universes of pain. I do not have the right to speak. I shall keep silent, I have to keep silent. Thank you for making it possible for me to see this horror personally. This is not the 21st century'.Together with a group of domestic and foreign writers, Handke visited the most jeopardized locations in Kosovo under patronage of the Coordination Center.'He was speechless but he promised to tell in his way the horror that Kosovo Serbs are exposed to', organizer of the visit Ranko Djinovic said.'Feeling terrible that a mother cannot find her son's grave in a destroyed cemetery in Retimlje, Hendke defended a Serb woman who at that moment was verbally attacked by Albanians. He managed to get from Austrian KFOR commander a helicopter escort in continuation of the visit but was astonished to witness stoning of the convoy downtown Decani in spite of escort and a minute later while approaching the Monastery of Visoki Decani', Djinovic said.Handke left yesterday but promised to return soon with far larger number of writers having world reputation in spite of the threats he received 'in order to awake the world that has fallen asleep'.

US: Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia- the unfinished businesses in Balkans

http://www.dtt-net.com/en/index.php?page=view-article&article=1435&CMSSESSID=7686c2b28d97163f80934ae60a922c21


US: Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia- the unfinished businesses in Balkans
26/04/2006

(Athens, DTT-NET.COM)- US government top officials said that a lot of unfinished issues still remain in Western Balkan region related to Bosnia and Herzegovina future, democratisation of Serbia and especially the Kosovo status.

"There are important decisions that will have to be taken about how to move forward on the Balkans. We are watching the evolution of Bosnia-Herzegovina toward a more normal state and trying to support that at the same time that we try and encourage the continued democratization of Serbia and Montenegro and try to determine how to think about the future of Kosovo," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters on Tuesday in Greek capital, Athens.

Rice said she is to discuss the three issues with EU and NATO colleagues this week.

"Of course, when you think about where the Balkans was 15 years ago, it's night and day. And now there is still a good deal of unfinished business in the Balkans. As I said, continuing the process of democratization is extremely important. The issue of a European horizon for the countries of the Balkans is also at issue" she added.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently undergoing the revision of its 1995 constitution and is being pushed by US and EU to make necessary changes of the key document in order as Washington and Brussels say, to strengthen its central institutions.

Serbia is faced with the fate of Montenegro as on 21 May Montenegrins are to decide whether the smaller republic to remain in state union with Serbia or become independent state. Belgrade is also facing the fate of Kosovo this year, with Ethnic Albanian majority of UN administrated territory insisting on independence.

Rice said that US is involved very closely at the current process of negotiations on Kosovo future under auspices of UN special envoy Martti Ahtissari.

"And I think what we need to do is to support Special Representative Ahtisaari in his work. I know that these are very delicate issues and we want both a democratic and a stable Balkans. That's the real goal before us. That is going to require a realistic assessment of what the final status can be. But I think it is appropriate to have discussions go on for a while to see what the parties can - the interested parties can- come to on their own," she said.

US has appointed its own envoy (Frank Wisner) working together with Ahtissari in order to achieve a solution which Rice said must contribute to the stability in the region.

"We have appointed to help with that work with American Special Envoy Frank Wiesner, a very dedicated and experienced diplomat who is working with Mr.Ahtissari and consulting the parties, discussing with the members of the - the states that have been active in the situation. I've talked with my Russian colleague (Sergey Lavrov) about this and I think we're going to have many other conversations, but the goal here has to be a final status outcome that is - that contributes to a democratic and stable Balkans. "

Current talks between Kosovo and Serbia politicians are focused on the self-rule powers for Serbian minority at municipal level. Ahtissari has said that at the second phase of the talks the issue of status will be tackled.

UK and US officials have indicated that independence is the likely settlement which both (London and Washington) are to support.

'''''''''''''''''''
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1761545,00.html

Barbed wire and bridges

The Balkans will continue to fragment unless the EU makes cooperation a condition of membership

Gyula Hegyi
Wednesday April 26, 2006
The Guardian


Dolce Vita is a small cafe in Kosovska Mitrovica, on the Serbian side of the city. It is on the river bank, in front of the bridge leading to the Albanian part. Sometimes the bridge is opened to traffic, other times it is barricaded with barbed wire and tanks of the French gendarmerie. After decades of the cold war, Berlin is now united, but those with nostalgia for its wall have only to travel to Kosovska Mitrovica. It is a city divided into two hostile parts.

The former Yugoslavia is split into ever smaller units. Where once there was one country, now there are five states, plus smaller entities clamouring for independence or at least complete autonomy. This chain of mini-states and enclaves lacks economic viability, but is rich in well-paid "ministers" and "parliamentarians". Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo were oppressed by Milosevic, so the US and its European allies bombed the so-called smaller Yugoslavia.

Now Milosevic is dead, the name of Yugoslavia exists only in history books, and the Serbs have been expelled from the larger part of Kosovo. Pristina, freed from Serbian rule by the Americans, became a 100% Albanian and Muslim city. The twin symbols of the city are the wondrous new mosque, built with Saudi money, and a local replica of New York's Statue of Liberty, painted pink. The veil and huge American billboards go hand in hand in this part of the world, where Muslims still admire the United States.

Albanians in Kosovo want an independent state, while its Serbs are afraid of the Albanians and prefer to remain part of Serbia. Under international law Kosovo still belongs to Serbia. The aim of the 1999 war was, at least officially, to establish the rule of law and democracy. Serbia is a democratic country now, and it would be wrong to break international law by taking away its province against its will. If we accept that state frontiers can be changed by wars, and new states created by bombing, then we risk opening a Pandora's box. On the other hand, the ethnic Albanians have good reasons for not wanting to live under Serbian rule. And Kosovo's ethnic Serbian community does not want to live under Albanian rule, also with reason. So is the answer to create one Kosovo for the Albanians and a smaller one for Serbs?

There is only one viable long-term solution. All states, regions and entities of the former Yugoslavia want to join the EU. And the EU can build upon that ambition. It should make cooperation between the small western Balkan countries the most important criterion of any enlargement in the Balkans. It would be silly to start talks with one or two small states that are not ready to have good relationships with their neighbours.

Croatia and Macedonia are on track for EU membership. Two other countries wish to join as well: Bosnia and Herzegovina, with its three ethnic communities - Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats - who don't want to live together in one state; and Serbia and Montenegro plus Kosovo, where some of the Montenegrins and most of the Albanians want an independent state. If all the separatist dreams were to be met, that would mean six new states instead of two.

Europe's response should be: "Look, we want you, but all together. If you can create two loose federations in which every entity has its own rights, if you can cooperate in a smaller union, then you are more than welcome in our bigger union as well. But do not think that one entity can join earlier than the others, just because of its war record."

We want to create real peace in the Balkans, not new frustrations by selecting the good guys against the bad ones. As far as the economy and infrastructure go, there are no real differences between these two federations. The EU should, therefore, start the pre-accession process on the principle of equal chances for all.

A loose federation should include Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and an autonomous Vojvodina inside Serbia. Respect for the rights of all nations and religions, autonomy in internal affairs, and a common strategy for EU accession and foreign affairs would be necessary. The Vienna talks on the future of Kosovo, which began earlier this year, should lay the basis for a new, creative structure for the future. An independent Kosovo or Montenegro with hostile minorities would regenerate the old conflict, while a new EU-backed form of coexistence could stabilise the region.

· Gyula Hegyi is a Hungarian Socialist MEP
ghegyi@europarl.eu.int

 

Spring in the Balkans

AntiWar.com

April 26, 2006

Interesting Times
by Nebojsa Malic

Spring in the Balkans

News from the Balkans over the past week almost created the impression that this was just another ordinary region in the Empire's periphery, where local rustics practice entertaining eccentricities and cope with natural disaster. The greatest flood in 100 years along the Danube has attracted a lot of attention, as has the discovery of a "pyramid" in central Bosnia by amateur archaeologists.
The publication of a 250-page report, compiled by Croat and U.S. intelligence and warning that al-Qaeda is recruiting in the Balkans, almost came in under the radar. After all, this wasn't news; numerous sources have alleged and documented this activity for years, only to be ignored or dismissed as "pro-Serb." There's Islamic terrorism in the Balkans? Quick, outlaw the term "Islamic terrorism"!
Yes, the region may seem quiet, but the calm is relative and deceiving. Albanians are determined to achieve control of Kosovo, and perhaps beyond. Montenegro's ruling clique is desperately pushing for secession, with less than a month left before a referendum decides its political future. And in Bosnia, seemingly unimpressive constitutional reforms may open doors to omnipotent government the likes of which even that country has not seen before.
Easter in Kosovo
As beleaguered and besieged Kosovo Serbs gathered in their enclaves to celebrate Easter this Sunday, they could not escape the occupied province's politics, even on this holiest of Christian holidays. The head of the provisional Albanian government, former KLA leader and Croatian officer Agim Ceku, had asked to attend the service in Gracanica � a request politely but categorically denied by Bishop Artemije.
With the KLA responsible for the fact that the bishop and so many Serbs have become refugees in their own homeland, letting Ceku use Easter as proof of political correctness and "tolerance" toward Serbs would have been grossly inappropriate. But where Ceku failed, the Albanian "president" of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu, succeeded; Bishop Teodosije allowed Sejdiu to attend the service in Visoki Decani, and one Kosovo Serb leader praised the precedent.
The diametrically opposite decisions of the two bishops mirror the division in Serbia when it comes to Kosovo. Even the leaders of Kosovo Serbs are divided; while Oliver Ivanovic praised Sejdiu's visit, his colleagues Rada Trajkovic, Marko Jaksic, and Milan Ivanovic claimed that the UN and WHO have been planning to evacuate some 40,000 Serbs from the occupied province once it became independent (and Albanian).
Their claim was denied by both the UN and WHO. However, even the province's international occupiers agree that Serbs won't survive long in an independent, Albanian Kosovo:
"The more vulnerable and isolated [Serb] enclaves will be emptied within one to two years. � I give [North] Mitrovica and the other entirely Serbian-populated areas to the north 10 years at the most."
Albanians insist the independence is inevitable, and a chorus of voices in the West backs up that assertion. There are murmurs that Albanians in southeastern Serbia (Presevo, Bujanovac), eager to win special status � or even annexation to the expected independent "Kosova" � are considering resorting to violence again. The game is afoot, and the plot thickens by the day�
Toil and Trouble
Meanwhile, the Western editorial propaganda apparatus has already begun lining up behind the Montenegrin separatist cause. Marcus Tanner, a journalist for The Independent and IWPR and Croat hagiographer, recently offered a sympathetic account of how the poor Montenegrins are "hostages" to Serbia, just like "everyone in the Balkans," and how they are determined to win their "freedom" despite the opposition from Brussels.
In truth, the separatists could not have stayed in power for eight years without generous financial backing from the outside � primarily from Washington. And Brussels may have declared a preference for a joint state of Serbia and Montenegro, but has treated the two as separate nations in practice.
Tanner says the Montenegrin authorities are acting as if the secession were a done deal. However, at least part of it is bravado in face of somewhat different reality. The New York Times' Nicholas Wood finds Montenegrins divided on the issue, sometimes down to husbands and wives. And the Italian AKI news service reports that, with the separatists 10 percentage points short of the majority they need, yet another film showing them trying to buy votes has surfaced. Furthermore, the government was outraged when a delegation of pro-union politicians who visited Washington last week was actually received by U.S. officials. Until now, only the separatists enjoyed access in Washington's circles of power.
With the referendum scheduled for May 21, the next 25 days will be anything but calm.
A Trojan Constitution
On Tuesday afternoon, the joint parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina was supposed to adopt a set of constitutional reforms that, though relatively innocuous, could have major repercussions for the country's future.
Paradoxically, even as they seek to streamline government for greater efficiency, the reforms actually increase the size of the government and the number of bureaucrats, supposedly only temporarily. And while most changes are minor, they contain the equivalent of the U.S. "commerce clause" that could unleash centralization � "a legislative Trojan horse if ever there was one," as even the pro-reform, pro-Empire Transitions Online described it.
Another irony is that the reforms brought out sharp divisions among the Bosnian Muslims ("Bosniaks"). Wartime Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic emerged from his hideaway in Turkey to organize opposition to the reforms. His "patriotic bloc" consists of demagogues, rejects, and has-beens of Muslim politics over the past decade, and while condemned by the Muslim establishment (including the Islamic clergy), commands great attention in the media.
Silajdzic's criticism of the reforms plays the crudest nationalist card, claiming that only he and his are defending "Bosnia," and everyone else is plotting to destroy it. To counter it, Muslim politicians have had to trumpet their "patriotic" credentials; that has inevitably meant denouncing the Serbs and Croats. According to Transitions Online:
"For years, the Bosniak leadership has pretended that the issue � how to bring the Serbs and Croats who are alienated from Bosnia back into the political fabric of their country � didn't exist, or that it was the fault of Serbs and Croats to begin with."
Desperately in need of a "reality check," the Muslims are now reverting to this fiction instead, thanks to Silajdzic's demagoguery. If the constitutional reforms really result in a bigger, stronger central government, this will not bring peace to Bosnia's feuding communities. Quite the contrary: it will provide a massive bone of contention and promote more fighting.
The "Chinese" Curse
Robert F. Kennedy once mentioned what he said was a Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." With the political winds in the Balkans gathering into a storm, this will certainly be an interesting spring.

http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=8901

Southern Serbia, or the Albanian "Motive-Hunting"

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=809

Axis

24.04.2006

Southern Serbia, or the Albanian "Motive-Hunting"

Can Karpat, AIA Balkan Section

Their reasons are numerous: they are Albanians and the majority, the region is deliberately left undeveloped and poor by Serbia, their history and fate should be linked to Kosovo�s, they have the right to take their destiny into their own hands. One thing is certain: They want to have a �special status� within Serbia and they need a �motive� for this. Do the Albanian politicians of southern Serbia try to turn the Kosovo issue into a wider Albanian question in the Balkans?A meaningful timing
Those, who are acquainted with Shakespeare, know how difficult it is to analyse Iago, the wonderful villain of �Othello�. The puzzling question about Iago is the question �why�. Famous Shakespeare scholar, Samuel Taylor Coleridge uses the expression of �motive-hunting� for Iago, who seems not to know his main motive even himself, and who, with numerous soliloquies, tries to justify his deed.Nowadays the Albanian politicians of southern Serbia (the three towns of Presevo, Bujanovac, and Medvedja) seem to be in a similar �motive-hunting� process. They want to be granted a �special status� within Serbia and for this they need a convincing motive, so that the international community could commit themselves on their behalf as they did on behalf of Kosovo in the past. However the international community prefers to consider the Kosovo case as a sui generis. As it is known, the US administration convinced Moscow not to oppose to Kosovo�s independence with the guarantee that this will not set a precedent for Chechnya or elsewhere. Western powers do not wish a further ethnic-based atomisation in the Balkans. Yet, the Presevo Valley Albanians continue to look across the mountains at Kosovo, where they see the prospect of an independent Albanian state. And this is a great hope for the Albanians of southern Serbia, who have never been really happy to be just a minority in a Slavic majority state. The platform, which was adopted on 14th January by council members from Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, �respecting the will of the citizens to define the Presevo Valley as a constitutional and territorial region�, demands for a �special status�, which definitely goes beyond standard autonomy. According to this platform, the Presevo Valley must have special relations with Kosovo, including the possibility of joining Kosovo. As the negotiations for the final status of Kosovo go on, a great opportunity offers itself to theAlbanian politicians of Serbia. The acting mayor of the Presevo Valley and the president of Democratic Albanian Party (DPA) Ragmi Mustafa stated: �Since Rambouillet, the parleys should have been attributed an Albanian-Serbian character, for the Albanian question concerns the whole ex-Yugoslavian territory. Since 1999, problems of those Albanians in Montenegro, the Presevo Valley and Macedonia should have been discussed�. As to the moderate president of Albanian Party forDemocratic Action (PDD), the most influential Albanian party of southern Serbia, Riza Halimi assured the international community that their demand to join the Kosovo negotiations does not mean that they demand the unification of these three municipalities with Kosovo. Yet, since the appearance of the Albanian National Army (ANA) in 2001, the Albanian political scene in southern Serbia has been radicalised. As a result, local parties have become more nationalistic. Politicians such Riza Halimi, who favours cooperation with Serbia and moderation are not popular any more. In November 2005, Ragmi Mustafa tried to oust Riza Halimi, who has been the mayor of Presevo since 1992. Along with Mustafa, Skender Destani, president of Democratic Union of the Presevo Valley and Orhan Rexhepi, president of Party of Democratic Progress pointed out that Halimi was an obstacle to their cherished goal, which is to unite to Kosovo the three municipalities in Serbia with large Albanian communities. That is why, today, the statement of Halimi does not gain much support among the southern Serbia�s Albanian politicians.This month, thousands of Albanians gathered in Bujanovac and Presevo in order to display their general dissatisfaction against the Serbian authority. Some shouted out �Presevo Valley is Kosovo�. According to rumours, southern Serbia�s Albanians expect an exchange of territory between northern Kosovo and southern Serbia. Northern Serbia, being a de facto Serbian enclave, is one of the main bones of contention between Belgrade and Pristina. Although every party involved refute these rumours, even the existence of such rumours is per se very interesting. This is a risky bluff. Pristina is careful not to unveil its position about the demand of the Presevo Valley to participate in the negotiations. This demand, which is disapproved by the international community, may harm Kosovo�s cause. Even Hashim Thaci, ex-chief of Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), now - the president of Democratic Party of Kosovo, emphasised that their aim is to have an independent Kosovo, not a �Greater Albania� nor a �Greater Kosovo�. Will the new Kosovo Prime Minister, Agim Cheku, ex-UCK�s chief of staff, behave differently? Probably he will not. Kosovo politicians will avoid any radical attitude in order to obtain what they have ever wanted: full independence. However it is probable that the Kosovo politicians hold this card as a trump against the Serbs during the negotiations. If Belgrade insists on the partition of Kosovo, Pristina will not hesitate to demand about the status of the Albanians in the Presevo Valley. Whether the establishment of such a direct link between the Serbs of Kosovo and the Albanians of southern Serbia will be blessed by Western powers, which are determined to conclude the Kosovo question by the end of 2006 at any price is another interesting question. All the more as there is already a great pressure upon Belgrade. The signals coming from the politicians from Pristina and Presevo would be an ultimate �stick� to Serbia: �Our demands will be more radical if only Kosovo is divided�. Maybe not physically, but spiritually the Presevo Valley seems to weigh on the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina. An artificial problem?The Albanians of southern Serbia are culturally and economically identical to those of Kosovo. Until 1946, when a decision by the Yugoslav government to separate these three municipalities from Kosovo and place them under direct Serbian Republic jurisdiction was taken, southern Serbia was a part of Kosovo. With the beginning of the unrest in Kosovo during the 1990s, the Albanians of southern Serbia organised an unofficial referendum in which they voted nearly unanimously to re-attach the Presevo Valley to Kosovo. In 2000, the unrest began, this time in southern




UCPMB patch
Serbia, with the terrorist attacks of the Liberation Army of Presevo-Medvedja-Bujanovac (UCPMB). Between March and May 2001, following intense NATO and US-led diplomacy, the international community brokered a peace agreement between the Albanians and Serbs that led to the disbanding of the UCPMB (Konculj Agreement) and to the famous Covic Plan. The Covic Plan foresaw economic, social and political amelioration of the region. Five years have been passed since the creation of this plan and the region, with an unemployment rate of about 33 percent, is still one of the poorest in Serbia. Presevo is the most undeveloped municipality, with a GDP per capita that is a sixth that of Serbia's average. Many Albanians are persuaded that Serbia deliberately condemns the region to chronic poverty. However the Serbian government has already invested 300 million Dinars (around 3.5 million Euros) this year in the three south Serbian municipalities and around 3.435 billion Dinars (about 40 million Euros) in the past four years. An additional 1.55 billion Dinars (18 million Euros) has come in foreign grants and donations, which makes a total of more than 5 billion Dinars (60 million Euros). Yet, it is true that most of the funds were spent on infrastructure, with little direct investment in the economy. No new jobs have been created in southern Serbia as a result of the investment. And although privatisation plays a key role in Serbia�s economic policy, not a single local public company has been privatised yet. These are the facts, though there is no clue that Serbia has any deliberate purpose in delaying the privatisation process. That the Albanians of southern Kosovo have serious problems is a fact. Yet, their case is definitely not comparable to that of Kosovo during the 1990s. Serbia is not the Serbia of Slobodan Milosevic any more. On the contrary, Serbia today wants to be a part of Europe as it never wanted before. And whereas there was once an open war in Kosovo, there is only a general dissatisfaction in southern Serbia. And this is not enough for the international community to multiply the Kosovo example. According to the EU officials, the Albanian youth would prefer to stay in Serbia, which will be a member of the EU and enjoy some visa facilities in the future. According to the same officials, only the elderly Albanians wish the annexation of the Presevo Valley to Kosovo. And after all, as they already dominate the town council, ethnic Albanians have little to gain from further divisions of the resources of an already impoverished community. And finally, the Albanians of southern Serbia, who did not support the UCPMB as a whole as the Kosovo Albanians supported the UCK, certainly will not approve of the use of violence to resolve their problems. The international community emphasised more than once that the Kosovo negotiations will only handle the Kosovo question and nothing else. The problems of southern Serbia will probably be dealt with in the framework of the democratisation and decentralisation process within Serbia. If the standards of minority rights are harmonised and generalised during the Kosovo negotiations, this will be a positive and productive evolution for the stability of the whole region. If these standards are the same in Serbia as well as in Macedonia and Montenegro, this will sure prevent further probable ethnic-based conflicts. So it seems that the international community will not let the Kosovo question be degenerated into a wider Albanian question in the Balkans. However the upcoming local elections in southern Serbia and the improbability in the Kosovo negotiations may prepare some unpleasant surprises for Serbia. �The situation in the south of Serbia is dramatic and I am afraid that serious incidents might affect security situation�, stated Riza Halimi this month. Local elections for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja municipalities have not been scheduled yet, and they should, according to the law, take place in July. So this summer will be a turning point for Serbia as well as for the international community. One will see if the Albanian voters share the radical views of some of their politicians.

NATO�s Invasion of Kosovo & Apologetics for State Violence

http://blog.zmag.org/node/2562

Home � ZBlogs � Noam Chomsky

NATO�s Invasion of Kosovo & Apologetics for State Violence


Z Sustainer: In an interview on Irish television (RTS News �On the Iraq War and Rendition Flights�, January 19, 2006) you were asked some questions about NATO�s �humanitarian intervention� in Kosovo. The interviewer quoted the executive summary of the OSCE report KOSOVO � As Seen, As Told concluding that the Serbian forces� �intent to apply mass killing as an instrument of terror, coercion or punishment against Kosovo Albanians was already in evidence in 1998�. You responded �They didn't say that. What they said is that they had contingency plans to carry out atrocities if they were under attack�. I haven't been able to find any mention of �contingency plans� in this report.
Noam Chomsky: Hard for me to remember exactly what was said in an interview 3 months ago, particularly one like this, which was mostly a tirade in which I was barely able to get a word in edgewise. However, what you cite -- "intent to apply mass killing" -- is a contingency plan, in that context: intent under certain circumstances, if they arise. That wasn't in question. It would have been unnecessary to add, redundantly, that the intent if those circumstances arise was formalized in a contingency plan. That's taken for granted. If the US and UK "intended" to invade Iraq, they had "contingency plans" to do so. That seems elementary. And note that after the period you are referring to, there was a tentative settlement, which more or less held until it was broken by the KLA guerrillas, and was maintained, in fact, until NATO announced the intention to bomb and withdrew the monitors and the KLA escalated its attacks (the OSCE reported)
When I wrote about this at the time and since, I mentioned that obviously the Serbs had contingency plans, as every sane person knew. The US has contingency plans to invade Canada. Israel has contingency plans to expel Palestinians, and few sane people doubt that they would carry them out if under attack. That&undefined;s what military planners do for a living.
The OSCE (and other Western) records are reviewed in some detail in my book A New Generation Draws the Line. I don&undefined;t know of any other detailed review. Later, I also reviewed the British Parliamentary Inquiry, which reached the remarkable conclusion that up to January 1999, most of the atrocities -- ugly, but at a low level, by international standards -- were committed by KLA guerrillas attacking Serb targets in the hope of eliciting a harsh response, and we know from OSCE and other sources that nothing substantial changed from then until the announcement of the bombing. The OSCE records describe an upsurge in KLA attacks when the monitors withdrawn were withdrawn in preparation for bombing (March 20). In that book I reviewed the kind of material selected from the OSCE report by the Irish TV announcer, but also reviewed the material that would have been selected by his exact counterpart in Belgrade, and the full conclusions. You can check and see.
There are a few serious scholarly studies by supporters of the bombing, which I&undefined;ve cited, in particular Nicholas Wheeler&undefined;s. Unlike almost everyone, he reports the timing of atrocities accurately. He draws the astonishing conclusion that of the 2000 killed in the year up to the bombing, 500 were killed by Serbs. That&undefined;s even more extreme than the British Parliamentary Inquiry. You can find citations in my Hegemony or Survival.
Z Sustainer: In the interview you also talk about �the entire Western documentation�. Is there any mention of �contingency plans� or any suggestion that the atrocities committed against the Kosovo Albanians were the product of the Serbs� implementation of �contingency plans� that were only set in motion because the Serbs �were under attack� in these documents? Or anything that amounts to same thing (in other words)? Your interpretation seems reasonable, but is there anything that suggests that the documentation (or NATO or the political leadership) interpreted the events the same way?
Noam Chomsky: That's constant, throughout, including the phrase you quote from the interview. Throughout, the record reviews possible "intent" -- that is, contingency plans. After the bombing, with the anticipated atrocities, it was commonly argued that the Serbs were going to carry them out anyway, so that the US and its allies are not responsible for the atrocities which, they anticipated, would result from the bombing. There was one explicit discussion of contingency plans (instead of just "intent," which is about the same thing, under the assumption of sanity). After the bombing elicited the anticipated atrocities, there was a leak of an alleged contingency plan -- Operation Horseshoe -- which was brought forth to show that the atrocities would have taken place anyway. Nato commander General Clark was asked about this, and said he had never heard of it. Even if true, it's irrelevant anyway, since it was not "known" before the bombing was undertaken, and therefore couldn&undefined;t have been a motive. The "Operation" was soon exposed as a probable intelligence fabrication. You can find details in my book. However, after exposure, and despite the transparent irrelevancy even if true, it continues to be evoked as a justification for the atrocities that were the anticipated consequence of the bombing.
As to NATO interpretation, in the same book I reviewed the official story. Once the standard inversion of the historical record is corrected (the timing of the bombing and the anticipated atrocities), the US official justification reduces to preserving "the credibility of NATO," which of course means "credibility of the US." For the meaning of "credibility," ask your favourite Mafia Don.
We know have a more authoritative source, however. From the highest level of the Clinton administration: Strobe Talbott, now director of the Brookings Institution, who was the lead American negotiator and director of a joint National Security Council-Pentagon-State Department task force on diplomacy during the bombing. Talbott wrote the foreword to a recent book on the war by his director of communications, John Norris. In it, Talbott writes that thanks to Norris�s book, anyone interested in the war in Kosovo �will know...how events looked and felt at the time to those of us who were involved� in the war. That sounds fairly authoritative. Presenting the position of the Clinton administration, Norris writes that �it was Yugoslavia�s resistance to the broader trends of political and economic reform � not the plight of Kosovar Albanians � that best explains NATO�s war.� That had been surmised, but is now confirmed from a very high level.
Z Sustainer: Another Kosovo question. In a review of your book The New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo Adrian Hastings writes the following: �Doubtless without intervention there would not have been hundreds of thousands of Kosovars fleeing the country within weeks, but there were already - as Chomsky admits - several hundred thousand internal refugees and an extensive policy of torching Albanian homes. There is no reason to think that this would not have continued and grown worse. The refugees were bound to abandon the country in ever-increasing numbers with no likelihood of return and the permanent destabilisation of neighbouring states. A Kosovo left in the hands of Milo�evic would have continued in a state of bitter conflict unless it became one in which over a number of months the majority of Albanians were ethnically cleansed. The growing flow of Albanian refugees all across Europe would have been as big a problem as that of Bosnians had been a few years earlier. Chomsky repeatedly claims that the bombing �failed� in that it greatly escalated the refugee flow; but its failure in that regard was only temporary. It in fact ensured the rapid return of the refugees, undoubtedly to miserable conditions but not to worse conditions than they had experienced in the months before the bombing, and essentially to a situation which would improve rather than indefinitely deteriorate.�Noam Chomsky: The word "admit" gives the game away. There's no "admission," any more than there is an "admission" that the KLA committed atrocities. Rather, I reviewed the record prior to the bombing. The book that infuriated him said virtually nothing about the decision to bomb; it was about a different topic, as the title indicates. But in my next book, when the record was available from impeccable Western sources, I did review it, infuriating the Hastings of the world even more.
Z Sustainer: 1. How would you respond to this kind of �it had to get bad before it could get better� argument? 2. Is the argument sensible if we make the assumption that diplomacy was not � and could not ever be � an option (just like our leaders)?
Noam Chomsky: I rarely bother to respond to vulgar apologetics for state violence. We can put aside Hasting's surmises, which have no interest or credibility. What we do know is that there had been a steady low level of violence, with some surges and declines, and that nothing special happening up to the bombing, apart from the KLA escalation right before the bombing, reported by the OSCE. We also know that according to the British parliamentary inquiry, most of the violence (as noted) was provoked by the KLA guerrillas seeking (as they openly said) to provoke a harsh response that they could use to elicit Western intervention, and that the bombing was undertaken with the clear anticipation that it would lead to an escalation of atrocities, as it did. This much was already clear from the Milosevic indictment, relying on US-British intelligence: with one exception, the charges were after the bombing -- which also elicited the first refugee flow out of the country sufficient for the UNHCR to begin issuing reports. Hasting also knows -- but would never say -- that there were two diplomatic options on the table at the time when NATO bombed, a NATO proposal and a Serb proposal, and that after 78 days of bombing, a compromise was formally reached between them, ending the war (I add "formally" because NATO instantly violated it, as he also knows). That at least suggests that peaceful means were still available, had NATO (meaning the US and UK) not been intent on military action -- for reasons that are now conceded publicly. Of course, if we adopt the North Korean stand and worship our Dear Leaders without question, then there were no diplomatic options.
To see how depraved such arguments are, consider a comparable one. Suppose that the relative military strength of Iran and Israel were the same as that of NATO and Serbia. Suppose that an Iranian Hastings were to advocate bombing of Israel, knowing that it would lead to an escalation of atrocities against Palestinians and probably expulsion of Palestinians, but saying that it doesn't matter because after Israel was forced to capitulate after heavy bombing the Palestinians could return. How would we react? How is this different?
It is also worth adding that the hypocrisy of the pretense of concern for the fate of the Kosovar Albanians is so colossal that it takes a really well indoctrinated educated class to suppress it. To mention only the obvious (discussed in New Military Humanism, but scrupulously ignored by outraged reviewers), at the very same time, the US and UK were not only tolerating comparable or worse atrocities, but were actively participating in escalating them -- including a major case that was not "at the borders of NATO," as the Hastings and others like him lamented, but right within NATO. To "overlook" all this and shed tears for the victims of the crimes of others takes a really impressive level of vulgarity and disciplined subordination to power.
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About Noam Chomsky
Biography
Linguistics Professor at MIT, critic of US foreign policy, anti-capitalist, and long time advocate of liberation and justice, Noam Chomsky lives in Lexington, Massachusetts. Author of dozens of books and hundreds of essays, the content of this blog is drawn largely from the ZNet Sustainer Forum where he answers queries from members of the ZNet Sustainer Program.

Tiny Montenegro Is Split on Cutting Ties to Serbia

NY Times
Europe

April 23, 2006
Tiny Montenegro Is Split on Cutting Ties to Serbia

By NICHOLAS WOOD

HERCEG-NOVI, Montenegro � In May, Montenegrins will vote in a referendum to decide a question that has hung over them since four other former Yugoslav states � Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia � declared independence in the early 1990's: whether to retain ties with Serbia or go their own way.
Like much of Montenegro, this seaside resort on the Adriatic, a favorite of vacationers from Serbia, appears split down the middle.
"We all have friends or relatives on one side or the other," said Miroslav Milosev, 32, a waiter who came here five years ago to find a job.
He favors independence. "We are struggling together, and it's inevitable that we will go our own way eventually," he said. "Everyone else has."
But his wife, Ksenja, wants to keep ties with Serbia, where the economy and population of 9.7 million dwarf tiny Montenegro, which has slightly more than 600,000 people.
"I think it's silly to make new borders now," said Mrs. Milosev, whose parents are from Montenegro but live in Serbia. Not only does the town benefit from Serbian tourism, she said, but residents go to Serbia to attend a university or for medical care. "Education and health care is much better there," she said.
In reality, Serbia and Montenegro are quite separate already. Each has its own customs service, currency and government. They share little beyond the military forces and a foreign service.
But the debate over official independence is tense. And in this town, pollsters say, they have had to stop asking their questions on doorsteps.
"We give them the questions to fill out by hand," said Rasenko Cadenovic, of the Damar polling agency, based in Podgorica, the capital. "It's the only way to avoid a family row."
Montenegro, which shares a religion and a language with Serbia, supported the Serbian republic in the wars of 1991 to 1995. The two republics are all that remain of the former Yugoslavia. In 2003 they adopted the name Serbia and Montenegro, formally putting an end to the federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
But a small independence movement took root, and in 1998, when Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic embraced it when he was distancing his republic from Slobodan Milosevic.
Since then, the government has repeatedly noted that Montenegro was independent from 1878 to 1918, and became part of Yugoslavia only after World War I. Mr. Djukanovic describes the referendum as a chance to restore that independence.
But while his government argues that independence is needed to complete political and economic changes, Mr. Djukanovic's critics say it is a move initiated by him, the region's longest-serving leader, to entrench his control over Montenegro. And some, who want independence, resent his use of the issue.
Nebojsa Medojevic, a leading critic, predicted that nothing would change much for Montenegrins after a vote to break away, considering that Mr. Djukanovic has been in office for 17 years.
"Why would he start to reform things?" said Mr. Medojevic, who is the director of a group called the Center for Democratic Transition, which lobbies for Mr. Djukanovic's removal from office. "Any serious reform would endanger him and his friends. I am for independence, but I am absolutely against this regime."
Mr. Djukanovic's administration has been tainted by repeated accusations of corruption and links to organized crime. The prime minister is also wanted by a court in Bari, Italy, which investigated him on suspicion of links to cigarette trafficking.
For separation to occur 50 percent of those eligible must actually vote, and 55 percent must vote in favor. The terms were agreed on by the government and the European Union, which Montenegro hopes to eventually join.
Mr. Cadenovic says the elderly are more inclined to support the union with Serbia and younger people are more likely to favor independence.
There are geographic divisions too, with areas in the northeast, near Serbia, generally in favor of the federation, and areas on the coast wanting to break away. The pro-independence bloc is thought to have a majority, but perhaps not the 55 percent Mr. Djukanovic needs.
"With a 100 percent turnout, we estimate he has a 6 to 8 percent lead," Mr. Cadenovic said.
Should separation be approved, there is little Serbia could do. Montenegro has a constitutional right to independence, and diplomats say that Serbian retaliation could harm Serbia as much as Montenegro, which is Serbia's only route to the sea.
The prospect is tricky for Serbia. Negotiations are under way on Kosovo, the war-torn, Albanian-dominated province where Yugoslav forces withdrew only after NATO bombing in 1999. It has been run by the United Nations since, and it too could become independent.
There is little doubt the referendum will prompt high emotions, but few expect the kinds of conflict that followed declarations of independence in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia.
"It won't be like that here," Mrs. Milosev said. "Everyone's roots here are so mixed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/world/europe/23montenegro.html?_r=1&oref=slogin