Serbs reject independent Kosovo

Serbs reject independent Kosovo

Serbs reject independent Kosovo

Serbia's foreign minister has said his country can never accept a fully independent Kosovo, ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.

The province is still legally part of Serbia and Montenegro - but it has been under UN protection since 1999.

Ministers from Balkan states aspiring to EU membership are at the two-day talks in the Austrian city of Salzburg.

Delegates will also discuss how to keep the Palestinian territories functioning without funding a Hamas-led government.

Both the EU and the US are debating whether to stop donations after the militant group takes over following its election win.

Hamas does not recognise the right of Israel to exist and is regarded by many as a terrorist organisation.

Ministers are also expected to consider:

• The recent Danish cartoon row and ways in which the Christian and Islamic worlds can avoid such clashes in future

• EU policy on Iran in light of the recent referral to the United Nations Security Council over its nuclear activity

• The situation in the Ukraine and the forthcoming elections in Belarus.

However, correspondents say new policies will be thin on the ground as the meeting is informal.

'Humiliation'

Serbia's foreign minister told the BBC he planned to deliver a message to his European counterparts that Serbia could never accept a fully independent Kosovo.

Vuk Draskovic said the result would be a humiliation for Serbia, dangerous for the region and the whole of Europe.

Talks are due to resume about the status of Kosovo, with many in the international community preferring that it becomes a state in its own right.

Mr Draskovic also acknowledged that the Serbian army and police were shielding Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who is wanted for war crimes at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The EU has warned Serbia its talks on closer ties with the Union would be disrupted if it failed to co-operate fully with the tribunal.

http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2006/03/serbs-reject-independent-kosovo.html

Kosovo media

Rohan: Private messages about independence helped negotiations (Zëri)

Zëri reports that the Deputy Status Envoy Albert Rohan has said in an interview to VOA that the private messages sent to both talking sides by US, British, Italian and German officials that negotiations are likely to lead to independence for Kosovo, have helped the negotiations process. “This was very important because in fact sobered up both sides and moved them away from dreaming and makes them now have a more realistic approach,†said Rohan.

 

He said the first second round of talks between Kosovo and Serbian officials held last month in Vienna went better than expected and that the next meeting scheduled for 17 March will focus on concrete issues of importance to both sides. According to Rohan, these issues are to include decentralization, rights and responsibilities of minorities, religious and cultural sites, division of resources and debts, as well as the future of international presence in Kosovo.

 

Rohan also said that UN envoys and members of the Contact Group are determined to conclude Kosovo status negotiations in 2006. “There were some, especially Kosovo Albanians, that asked for a final settlement by summer of this year. We told them such a demand is not realistic. There were others who asked for negotiations to last for two or three years but this was also not realistic,†Rohan said in the interview.

Serbia and Montenegro: Serbia�Financial System Stability Assessment,

Serbia and Montenegro: Serbiaâ€â€Financial System Stability Assessment,

including Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes on

the following topics: Monetary and Financial Policy Transparency,

Banking Supervision, and Payment Systems
http://www.reporter.gr/bd/download/xls/IMFreport060308.pdf

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Reporter: Hipol Sale Contract Signed w/Italian Co.
http://news.serbianunity.net/bydate/2006/March_09/16.html

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MarketWatch



Serbia to sell banks, telecoms, aims for 6% growth

By John W. Miller
Last Update: 3:45 PM ET Mar 9, 2006

BELGRADE (MarketWatch)- Riding a strategy of aggressive privatization,
Serbia expects a 6% gross domestic product growth rate in 2006,
finance minister Mladjan Dinkic told Dow Jones Newswires in an
interview.

Serbia boasts dozens of valuable factories and state-owned companies
despite a decade of sanctions and a bloody civil war. The sectors most
attractive to foreign investors so far have been tobacco factories,
cell phone operators and banks. Both Serbia and tiny Montenegro are
members of the Yugoslav federation, but Montenegro has its own finance
ministry and is preparing to vote on independence this spring.
Serbia faces big challenges, including taming high inflation and
unemployment. It's still a developing country: its an annual gross
domestic product is around EUR25 billion, and the economy is less than
a tenth the size Belgium, which has a similar population. But the
minister says its biggest problems are political, not economic. GDP
growth was 7.2% in 2004 and 6.5% in 2005. The E.U., which has accepted
neighboring Romania and Bulgaria, has refused to begin talks on
Serbia's joining the 25-nation trading bloc until the government in
Belgrade arrests General Ratko Mladic, who is wanted as a suspected
war criminal for the massacre of Muslims in Bosnia in 1995. At
EUR2,750, GDP per capita "is higher than in Romania and Bulgaria,"
Dinkic said. The minister said Serbia will be ready economically to
join the E.U. by 2012, but he's not in a hurry.
"When a country joins the E.U., its wages go up, so we're happy to
have several years to attract foreign companies with low wages," he
said.
Privatization is key to his plans. The biggest interest from foreign
companies has been in banks, Dinkic said. Hyper-inflation during the
Milosevic era triggered a slowdown in banking.
"We became an economy where people put money under their pillow,"said Dinkic.
With peace and more stability, that is now changing. Serbs now have
EUR2.3 billion in savings, and that figure is growing by EUR100
million a month, Dinkic said. Banks are issuing 30 times more loans
than in 2001. Serbia now has 3.8 million credit cards.
Foreign banks have helped restore faith in credit. Serbia last year
sold Jubanka to Greece's Alpha Bank (ALPHA.AT) for EUR152 million, and
currently has three other banks on the table, including the biggest
domestic player, Vojvodkanska.
An Austrian bank, Raiffeisen International Bank Holdins (RIBH.VI), is
the market leader in Serbia. The premiums for former state-owned banks
are rising, Dinkic said. He expects a 6-to-1 price-to-asset ratio.
The government has already sold off two tobacco factories, to Philip
Morris, owned by Altria Group Inc. (MO), and British American Tobacco
PLC (BTI). Japan Tobacco International (2914.TO) is paying EUR25
million for another factory.
Serbia attracted them by locking in low excise taxes until 2011,
Dinkic said. Real taxes on cigarettes in Serbia are only 30% of cost.
A pack of Marlboros costs only EUR1.25 in Belgrade, a quarter the rate
in most Western European countries. Serbia is also selling off
mobile-phone operator Mobtel. After seizing the company from tycoon
and Milosevic ally Bogoljub Karic, and charging him with bribery and
embezzlement, Serbia is set to float the company in April, Dinkic
said.
The starting price will be EUR700 million. The government will receive
82%, and the rest will go to Austrian entrepreneur Martin Schlaff, who
bought a stake last year.
"This will be a test" for Serbia's privatization process and the
establishment of rule of law, Dinkic said. He praises the Austrian
government and Austrian banks "for helping us do the deal".
After selling off banks, cell phone and cigarette companies, Serbia
will privatize energy assets by autumn, including the national oil
company, Dinkic said.
In 2007, Dinkic says, the government will unload an insurance company.
But not every state industry will bring in cash. Some factories, like
the Zastra car complex, are inefficient and won't find buyers, Dinkic
said. "No company will take that for free."
The economy's biggest problem is inflation. Prices rose 13.7% in 2004
and 17.7% in 2005. Even though Dinkic forecasts inflation at under 10%
in 2006, he acknowledges that "Serbia is in transition so prices of
services are going up" from the deflated levels of the past.
Part of the problem is that there isn't enough competition in retail
trade, he said.
Still the current inflation is a far cry from the early 1990s, when
the government had to print bank notes worth 500 billion dinars. To
keep prices under control and back the currency, the government will
continue a strategy of aggressive spending cuts, Dinkic said.
Serbia ran a 1% surplus in 2005, down from a 4% deficit in 2004,
thanks mostly to a new 18% value added tax, which now accounts for
half of its revenue, or EUR2.5 billion. The debt has been cut to 44%
from 170% five years ago.
As the government cuts costs and privatizes industries, Dinkic expects
19% unemployment to remain a problem. He argues the problem is normal
for a country in transition.
"Flexibility of labor is very low," he explains. "People want one job
for life." He defends closing down factories. "You can't force people
to buy something they don't want."

-Contact: 201-938-5400

                                   Serbian News Network - SNN

                                        news@antic.org

                                    http://www.antic.org/

State Department: There are problems with minority rights inKosovo (Beta)

 

 

State Department: There are problems with minority rights in Kosovo (Beta)

 

Minorities in Kosovo, above all Serbs and Roma, are discriminated, although the situation has improved over the past year, reads the US State Department report on human rights in the SCG for 2005. The houses of Serbs are set on fire and in some cases, the Albanian majority is trying to expel Serbs by force, it is stressed in the document. Speaking of education and healthcare, it has been assessed that Serbs are discriminated in that field as well, and that there is no progress regarding the cases of ethnic violence against Serbs. It is also stressed that few of the IDPs that fled to central SCG after the conflicts in 1999 have returned to Kosovo. The reason for that is the uncertain final status of Kosovo, fear for safety and property issues, the State Department believes. An especially serious problem in Kosovo is sexual abuse of children, minors and women and there is proof that international and local officials are also involved in human trafficking, the statement reads