America, Serbia and Kosovo

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America, Serbia and Kosovo

America, Serbia and Kosovo
 
Source:US and Former Yugoslavia

 

View: Fikret ERTAN, Zaman

 

Hopes are diminishing for a year-end result from negotiations that have been continuing for months regarding Kosovo’s final status.

 

U.N. Assistant Representative Albert Rohan has mentioned this matter. In a statement he made several days ago, Rohan said clearly that the chance for progress in negotiations was decreasing and that if things continued like this, negotiations could last another ten years.

 

For some time the situation, which is due to the parties not changing their positions, has begun to influence another development.

 

 

 

This development, which has escaped notice, is related to increasing closeness and cooperation arising between Serbia and America, and it is extremely important. The first indications of this development appeared during Boris Tadich’s official visit to Washington at the beginning of the month. It seems that this development will affect both American-Serbian relations and the Kosovo dispute.

 

 

 

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice had a very important meeting in Washington with Vice President Dick Cheney and powerful senators. Explaining his country’s Kosovo thesis to them, Tadich signed an important military cooperation agreement with Rice. The main topic of this agreement is the arrangement of conditions to allow American soldiers to move through Serbia. Possessing rights of transit over Serbian land with the 1995 Dayton Agreement, America has clarified and strengthened these rights with this new agreement.

 

While speaking with American authorities on the subject of Kosovo, Tadich has repeatedly stated that they were opposed to the independence of Kosovo and that its independence threatened security and stability in the Balkans.

 

We don’t know exactly how much American authorities were influenced by Tadich’s arguments or what kind of answers they gave him, but we have learned that they asked Tadich about General Mladich and that they said they expected results on this matter.

 

 

 

A Serbian journalist named Blich informed us that American authorities offered to postpone the U.N. decision on Kosovo until after Serbian parliamentary elections if Serbia found Mladich before this November and turned him over to the International War Crimes Court in Lahey.

 

As it is known, Mladich has been hunted for years because of the war crimes he committed in Bosnia. The Mladich topic is extremely sensitive in America. So much so that a $5 million reward will be given to those who catch him.

 

 

 

As a matter of fact, while they are behaving in the same way to him, Tadich has grasped the connection America has made between Mladich and Kosovo and he appears to be preparing to use it to strengthen Serbia’s negotiation position related to Kosovo. For this reason, it seems that in the coming months Mladich will be caught and turned over to Lahey.

 

Serbian parliamentary elections are related to this topic: When Karadag became independent as a result of a referendum in May; the constitution of the Serbia-Karadag Federation unavoidably became ineffective. For this reason, a new constitution must be accepted in order to hold new parliamentary elections in Serbia because elections held before a new constitution is made would probably take place after the acceptance of Kosovo’s independence. Today’s moderate, pro-Western administration would lose the elections and the Serbian nationalistic Radical Party would gain power. It is foreseen that this would create problems both inside Serbia and in the region. In order to prevent this possibility, America has said it can have the Kosovo decision postponed until after parliamentary elections, until 2007.

 

With these developments, the Kosovo problem is beginning to take on new dimensions.

 

e-mail:f.ertan@zaman.com.tr

 

September 2006
 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2005     Journal of Turkish Weekly     http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=38899
 

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Can Bosnia's Peace Survive?

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Can Bosnia's Peace Survive?

Oct. 2, 2006 | Vol. 168, No. 15

Can Bosnia's Peace Survive?

The war ended more than a decade ago, yet pre-election posturing is bringing old ethnic and nationalist tensions to the surface throughout the region

BY ANDREW PURVIS | BANJA LUKA

As Bosnian Serb politicians go, Milorad Dodik was considered one of the good guys. The former businessman took over the job of Prime Minister of the Bosnian Serb Republic in Banja Luka shortly after the end of the Bosnian war in 1995, helping to purge the local government of cronies of the wartime leader Radovan Karadzic. He battled corruption and helped international investigators send indicted war criminals to the Hague. But these days, Dodik sounds like a changed man.

In the past two months he has questioned the underlying agreement that ended the war, attacked Muslim politicians for "consorting" with war criminals and asserted that his Serb-dominated Republic may try to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina and ultimately join Serbia. Meanwhile, Bosnian Muslim leaders in Sarajevo are matching him word for word: Haris Silajdzic, a former Bosnian Muslim Prime Minister, and another erstwhile moderate, told Time that the boundaries imposed at the end of the war should be erased because "they are not natural. They are based on genocide."

Between them, the two former moderates have cranked up the heat for Bosnia's upcoming general elections, scheduled for Oct. 1, to a level not seen since the war ended, alarming international officials who oversee the country and ordinary citizens who fear a return to violence. "These men are feeding off each other. They are not real nationalists, but they are using it to get elected. This is our catastrophe," says Senad Pecanin, editor of the Sarajevo weekly Dani. The concern is all the more urgent because Silajdzic and Dodik, if current public opinion polls are borne out, could be the first postwar Bosnian political leaders to wield significant political power; the group of Western countries that has overseen Bosnia since 1995 is scheduled to scale back its authority next year, and although it will hand over duties to the E.U., the scope of those duties may be sharply reduced.

"There is a lot of fear," Bosnia's High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling told Time recently in Sarajevo. "People remember the same rhetoric from the early 1990s. And that ended in war. There is risk of it going too far." While he and other diplomats say a return to war is unlikely, Pecanin is less sanguine: for the first time since the war, he said, "I am afraid for the peace here."

The tensions are rooted in the Dayton peace accords, named for the Ohio town where they were hammered out in 1995. To silence the guns, the agreement created two separate ethnically based "entities," the Muslim-Croat Federation, which comprises 51% of the country, and the Serb Republic, the majority Serb area that makes up the rest.

More than a decade on, these areas still have the appearance of separate countries. They have their own Prime Ministers and parliaments; their own languages, religions and mobile-phone networks. Although the army was finally unified under one command last year, the Serb Republic is crucially resisting efforts to centralize the police force.

And any visitor can attest that they feel like two different countries. Cross the border into the Serb Republic from the Muslim-Croat Federation and Latin script road signs give way to Cyrillic, mosques to Serbian Orthodox churches. Locals prefer Serbian beer and loza, a grape brandy, and the only flags visible, even on official government buildings, are Serbia's red, blue and white rather than Bosnia's official blue and yellow. "We've got everything here," said Predrag Andelic, 50, over a cigarette and a bottle of beer. He's a war veteran from near the city of Prijedor, site of internment camps that saw the deaths of thousands of Muslims, Roma and Croats. He and his neighbors don't trust Muslim leaders in Sarajevo. "We would like to share with the Muslims but they do not want to share with us," says one friend. "They want to take over."

This month's election campaign has opened up a sharp new divide between Bosnia's leaders over the future of the two entities. Silajdzic, the leading Bosnian Muslim prime ministerial candidate, says he would like to see them dismantled in "a year or two." He explains: "A minority of 23.8% [Serbs] can block the whole country. We should be a citizen-based, and not an ethnically-based, country." He favors what he calls a new "dialogue" with all sides about how to eliminate the old borders and establish a centralized government in Sarajevo, but critics fear he means a Muslim-dominated state in which ethnic Serbs and Croats would lose their collective rights.

Serb leaders insist that the entities, and hence their Serb-dominated statelet, are sacrosanct. "We will fight" attempts to dismantle the current system, Dodik told a Serbian news agency earlier this month. Speaking to Time, the Serb Republic's President, Dragan Cavic, struck a more conciliatory note. He said the idea of a referendum calling for the secession of the Serb Republic was "crazy, suicide," but added that dissolving the entity's borders unilaterally would lead to "a crisis that I cannot imagine." He warned: "Enough blood has been spilled."

Until the past few months, senior politicians were barely able to talk about redrawing Bosnia's borders. The Office of the High Representative for Bosnia (ohr) was endowed by the U.N. with extraordinary executive powers to keep the peace in postwar Bosnia, and it used them regularly to make sure that local politicians toed the line. Dozens of judges and other bureaucrats were sacked and hundreds of politicians barred from office for breaking the rules and threatening the peaceful development of a multiethnic country. But now the U.S. and other Western countries plan to hand over responsibility for Bosnia to a European Union representative, possibly with strictly limited powers, by next July. Schwarz-Schilling, who succeeded Britain's Paddy Ashdown in the office earlier this year, has already adopted a more cautious approach than his predecessors. Bosnia's politicians need to "face the consequences of their own mistakes," he explained to Time, noting that a final call on whether or not the E.U. will wield executive powers will only be made early next year. "The decision will be whether to stick with the plan of disbanding the ohr, or to rethink," said Schwarz-Schilling.

The prospect of a weaker international presence is disturbing to many. Emsuda Mujagic, 54, is a Muslim woman who was driven from her home near Prijedor in the Serb Republic in 1992. Her village was torched and 48 family members, she says, were murdered in camps. She was able to escape and returned a few years ago, thanks mainly to the presence of foreign troops and the international community. Now she says, "I don't think it's a good idea for the ohr to leave. I am afraid. The politicians will just have a free hand to build up people's fears and fan ethnic intolerance."

Moreover, the region is already undergoing a kind of realignment. Neighboring Montenegro won independence from Serbia in late Spring, and contentious talks are under way to grant autonomy to ethnic Albanians in Kosovo — where Serbs are an embattled minority — by as early as next year. Serb politicians in Belgrade and in Bosnia warn that an "imposed" solution in Kosovo could inflame Serbs across the region. Of course, it's possible that the current round of nationalist posturing by moderate politicians is mere populist vote-getting. But too many with memories of recent history are unwilling to rely on that.

With reporting by Dejan Anastasijevic/Sarajevo

©TIME. Printed on Sunday, September 24, 2006

http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/printout/0,13155,1538599,00.html

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OHR seeks clarification about planned RS-Serbian accord

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OHR seeks clarification about planned RS-Serbian accord

KFOR steps up patrols as Kosovo final status process reaches last phase
24/09/2006

 

PRISTINA, Kosovo, Serbia -- KFOR has stepped up patrols across the province, in order to prevent possible violence as the Kosovo status settlement process reaches its final phase. KFOR spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Walter-Hubert Schmidt indicated on Friday (22 September) that the stepped up patrols were also in response to recent incidents that have strained interethnic relations in Kosovo. In the latest, two Serbs were injured Friday after they were attacked by a group of ethnic Albanians in the eastern village of Osojane.

 

Meanwhile, UN police in Kosovo say they arrested seven ethnic Albanians, suspected of involvement in the March 2004 ethnic riots that killed 19 Serbs. No other details were released. (Albanian News, Tanjug - 23/09/06; B92 - 22/09/06)

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Meeting between Bishop Artemije and Pat Robertson

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Meeting between Bishop Artemije and Pat Robertson

 

 

Sunday, September 22, 2006

MEETING BETWEEN  BISHOP ARTEMIJE
 
AND PAT ROBERTSON

On the first day of his visit to the USA His Grace Artemije, Bishop of Raška and Prizren, together with other members of his delegation, consisting of Prof. Miroljub Jevti?, Mr. Dragan Veli? and Protos Simeon, Abbot of the Monastery of Banjska, visited Mr. Pat Robertson, Protestant pastor and Christian activist, who is closely involved in social, political and spiritual happenings in America today. Pat Robertson is well-known in the entire United States of America for his speeches, lectures, commentaries and answers to various questions which define American culture and civilization of this day.

Through the exceptionally powerful TV network CBN he exxerts a very great influence on tens of millions of Americans who closely follow his opinions and positions on various issues and who, being closely involved in politics, are in a position to impact a significant segment of American administration.

It is a great pity and a mistake on the part of our administration that people like Pat Robertson have not been identified as factors capable of helping us change the unjustly negative image of Serbia and the Serbian people which, unfortunately, is still prevalent in the public opinion of the world. This brings us to the question of inertia and indiffierence of several administrations, which have in recent times been at the helm of our state and which have failed to identify and understand the value of lobby activities—so necessary in the world of great powers today. For decades now, unsparing of money or effort, the Croats, the Muslims and the Albanians have been actively and assiduously engaged in this matter, and the results of their work are evident and are always to our detriment.

Well acquainted with the current situation and fully aware of global dimensions of the danger which radical Islam represents, bent as it is on establishing its power in all not yet islamized parts of the world, Pat Robertson easily recognized the elements of jihad and the Wahhabi ideology in the activities of Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija. He is also aware of the negative consequences which the independence of Kosovo and Metohija will bring in its wake.

In a very precise analysis of the situation, Bishop Artemije drew the attention of Pat Robertson to the fact that a growing number of representatives of American administration and public at large agree with this conclusion. The one remaining unassailable bastion is the State Department which is, at the same time, the chief architect of the US policy concerning Kosovo and Metohija. The Statement Department has retained Clinton’s approach to resolving the problem of Kosovo and Metohija, as well as Clinton’s neo-liberal personnel structure. The persistent refusal on the part of the State Department to confront seriously the terrorist character of the Albanian administration in Kosovo and Metohija, and even of a large part of the Albanian population, among whom the radical Wahhabi elements are on the rise, can further jeopardize the safety of Europe and even America through the strengthening of the so-called White Al Qaeda, whose members are recruited from among European-born Muslims. White Muslims are already engaged in acts of terrorism in and ...

After hearing detailed descriptions of the destruction of Christian civilization and ethnic cleansing of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, concluding that that “Islam is a terrible curse, a scourge which has afflicted this world, Pat Robertson exclaimed: “We unleashed this curse upon the world!”. He add that it was “absolutely scandalous that we should permit the establishment of an Islamic state in Kosovo and Metohija by robbing a sovereign state of part of its territory, with the aid of American money to boot.”

After the conversation with Pat Robertson, Bishop Artemije, and Jim Jatras, representative of VENABLE, the firm engaged to conduct lobby activities on behalf of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, were interviewed by CBN. CBN intends to visit Kosovo and Metohija as well as by the end of this year and to make a comparative analysis of radical Islamic activities in these two areas. Pat Robertson has personally undertaken to correct the prevalent false image of Albanian Muslims in Kosovo and Metohija and to recruit forces to fight against the continuing destruction of Christianity in this area which has been Christian for so many centuries.

Press Department : Diocese of Ras- Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija

 

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FM Bakoyannis addresses UN general assembly

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FM Bakoyannis addresses UN general assembly

 

FM Bakoyannis addresses UN general assembly    Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis addressed on Friday midnight (Greek time) the United Nations 61st General Assembly focusing on the challenges of the 21st century, the Millenium Targets, developments regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East and in Iraq and Greek policy for the Balkans, the Cyprus issue and Greek-Turkish relations. The Greek foreign minister also referred to Greece's role in the international political scene and the issue of global terrorism. "Allow me to add my heartiest congratulations to you for being the third woman in the history of the United Nations to be elected President of the General Assembly, particularly at such a critical time in world affairs. Your election is an inspiration for women everywhere struggling to achieve equality and opportunity. You illustrate the truth that, as Plato wrote 2,400 years ago, any society that does not exploit the talents of its women is wasting half its resources," Bakoyannis said.     "I wish also to congratulate and thank your predecessor, my friend and colleague, Jan Eliasson, for all he worked so hard to achieve during his term.     "While we are recognizing service to the United Nations, we would be remiss if we did not extend our appreciation to Secretary General Kofi Annan. I want to express the appreciation of my government for all his efforts to maintain and strengthen the prestige and moral authority of the Organization.     "I would also like to welcome Montenegro to the family of states, the Greek foreign minister said.     "The 21st century began with huge challenges:poverty, wars, humanitarian crises, waves of refugees, terrorism, the proliferation of weapons, human trafficking, drugs, intercommunal violence, environmental downgrading, natural disasters. What is necessary for us to confront these woes is for us to handle the deeply-rooted causes that have been developing for centuries. In order to achieve this, we must join our forces to mobilise the combined strength of our ideas, our resources and, above all, the humanity that we all share," she said.     Referring to the issue of terrorism, the Greek foreign minister said that "it has become the most pressing problem of our times, that touches all of us, regardless of religion, race or gender. We must face this major danger collectively because nobody, no matter how powerful he is, can do it unilaterally. The most effective way for us to handle terrorism at its root is to promote tolerance, mutual acceptance, mutual understanding and, above all, development, the possibility for all to have access to the necessary commodities for their life.     "The need for us to achieve the targets of the millennium within the time limits set by the heads of state and government during the summits of 2000 and 2005 is important. The targets include, of course, the crucial issue of us reaching the limit of 0.7 percent in development aid to countries facing serious economic difficulties. This target constitutes the key for us to achieve global cooperation on development and we are all determined to achieve this as soon as possible.     "On their part, the developing countries need to pursue serious economic policies and reforms that promote development and create reliable and transparent institutions. Only through concentrated collective action do we have hope of remedying the imbalances and inequalities that lie at the root of many of the conflicts preoccupying the world today. Allow me to stress at this point that we must place Africa at the centre of our efforts," Bakoyannis noted.     "The tensions in the Middle East demand equal attention. The Middle East is the region that will test the mettle of this Organization as a force for peace in the immediate future. If we fail in that test, all of us stand to pay a heavy price. During the past several months we all became witnesses to unforgettable images of suffering and destruction in this part of the world.     "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the root of most problems in the region and it is obvious that it should be at the top of the list of our priorities if peace and stability are to return to the area. The Road Map offers the strategic plan for a solution based on the principle of land for peace, especially since basic elements of it are well known and generally accepted by the international community. The Road Map is in essence a performance-driven guide to a settlement based on all relevant Security Council Resolutions, including 242 and 338, the conclusions of the Madrid Conference and the Arab Summit in Beirut, and we must all make every effort to see that it is implemented.     "On Lebanon, strict implementation of Resolution 1701 provides the blueprint for resolving the basic problems that led to the recent crisis. We understand the difficulties before us, but we must push ahead resolutely because determination and tenacity are essential to tackling long-standing issues in volatile regions.     "The continued violence and instability in Iraq are a cause of great concern for all of us It is critical that every effort possible be made to bring order and unity to that troubled country. Deaths, especially of civilians, have reached terrifying levels with no end to the slaughter in sight. All who have any influence with the warring factions in Iraq must try to make them see what pain and suffering they have inflicted on their own people and what worse horrors they will unleash on their land if they continue to drift toward a devastating civil war.     "Our own region, the Balkans, was once known as ?history’s cauldron,? and we endured a century of bitter ethnic, religious and ideological conflicts up to very recent times. We are moving rapidly, however, to disown that label for the sake of our own peoples and the new Europe we are building. Some trouble spots remain, but we are trying to deal with them in a new spirit of cooperation and tolerance.     "Kosovo is one issue that still needs attention. The status talks are underway and we hope that they will produce a viable settlement that will strengthen the security and stability of the entire region. Right now this appears difficult. To overcome the impasse will require patient and careful diplomacy. Our goal in reaching a viable, long term solution should not be compromised by setting an artificial deadline.     "I deeply regret that the Cyprus problem remains unresolved. In the 32 years of the military occupation of one third of the territory of Cyprus by well over 40.000 Turkish troops, Greece has strongly supported all initiatives by the United Nations for the achievement of a comprehensive solution. We are committed to doing everything possible to achieve a just and viable solution, on the basis of the pertinent Security Council Resolutions and the EU principles and values. We strive for a bizonal, bicommunal federation, that will bring peace and prosperity on the island.     "Our goal remains an agreed solution between the two communities, without arbitration and tight timetables, which will be approved subsequently by referenda. To these efforts we are prepared to lend our wholehearted support.     "Greece’s foreign and security policy is based on the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter and especially on the peaceful settlement of disputes and of good neighborly relations.     "This basic framework is also reflected in my country’s continuing efforts to further improve relations with Turkey and to consolidate mutual understanding and cooperation. On our part, we are trying to overcome the remaining difficulties, continuing to take initiatives to widen and deepen cooperation in all fields so that the relationship with Turkey becomes a win-win situation for both countries. In this context, we are hopeful that Turkey will reciprocate for our countries to solidify good neighborly relations.     "European integration is the bright promise visible on the horizon for the entire region of South Eastern Europe, a future which will encompass greater cooperation and interaction among all the countries in the area and heal the wounds of the past century at long last.     "We live in a troubled world and the United Nations is always enmeshed in the worst of the troubles so that it sometimes seems that it is not accomplishing much. We must not forget, however, the conflicts it has resolved, the misery it has diminished, the suffering it has abated, the pain it has eased all over the world in its brief lifetime.     "Man feeds on dreams of hope, Aeschylus wrote, and for men, women and children everywhere the United Nations remains the best hope there is," Bakoyannis concluded.

"Man feeds on dreams of hope"
http://www.ana.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=4644924&maindocimg=3940203&service=6

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