October 13, 2006

Who is Agim Ceku?



Who is Agim Ceku?




Bad news for Kosovo raises Balkan tension

Simon Tisdall
Friday October 13, 2006
The Guardian


Plain-speaking Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president who has been widely tipped to win the Nobel peace prize today, let the Kosovo cat out of the bag this week with potentially unpredictable consequences for Balkan stability.

As UN envoy charged with brokering a settlement by the end of the year between Serbia and the ethnic Albanian leadership in Pristina, Mr Ahtisaari conceded the negotiations were not going well. In fact, he went further. Agreement on Kosovo's final status was not on the cards, "at least not in my lifetime", he said. "The parties remain diametrically opposed." The breakaway province might have to wait a little longer for its long-sought independence, he said.

That was definitely not what the US, Britain or most Kosovans wanted to hear. They say 2007 must be the year when Kosovo becomes a sovereign country. And almost regardless of whether this ill-starred entity of about 2 million people with no visible means of support and a dispiriting history of crime, violence and division can be transformed into a viable state, they seem determined, at least in public, to have their way.

Other factors have a bearing. Nato still has more than 16,000 troops tied down in Kosovo, seven years after intervening to end the late Slobodan Milosevic's oppressive rule. The EU has 6,500 soldiers in Bosnia. Both organisations, facing expanding commitments elsewhere and keen to encourage Balkan self-sufficiency, want out.

On present plans, the international presence in Kosovo would be drastically reduced following a settlement. In Bosnia, the EU hopes to deploy the new pan-European gendarmerie. Any delay would badly upset these calculations. According to the US, it would also increase the chances of renewed sectarian fighting involving Kosovo's put-upon ethnic Serb minority.

US and British officials have moved quickly to re-bag Mr Ahtisaari's cat, insisting the talks are on course. After meeting Kosovo's prime minister, Agim Ceku, in London yesterday, the Europe minister, Geoff Hoon, said Britain "remains committed to working towards a settlement of Kosovo's status by the end of 2006". Mr Ceku, too, is adamant. "Nothing less than independence will be acceptable ... Kosovo is ready. We are going to be a modern, democratic, secular country," he said this week. If Kosovan aspirations were thwarted even temporarily, a unilateral declaration of independence could not be ruled out.

Unsurprisingly, Serbia has other ideas. Having watched Montenegro go its own way this year, the Belgrade government offered autonomy but resolutely opposed Kosovo's secession. So, too, has the Serbian Orthodox church.

Both government and clergy back a new national constitution, to be voted on (by Serbs but not Kosovo's ethnic Albanians) in a referendum later this month. It deems the province an "integral part" of Serbia and is expected to be approved. Early elections in December are also likely to focus on the issue.

Indeed, some fear the Kosovo controversy may act as a lightning rod for wider discontents. This year's suspension of Serbia's EU membership talks, the perceived failure of the 2000 pro-democracy revolution, and entrenched economic problems are all fuelling an anticipated surge in support for the far right.

The Radical party, led by the jailed war crimes indictee Vojislav Seselj, looks likely to win most votes. Liberal and left-of-centre parties are meanwhile urging a boycott of the constitutional referendum, saying its passage will trigger renewed confrontation with the west.

All this might be dismissed as internal politicking. But Russian sympathy for Belgrade's stance adds a whole new dimension to rising Balkan tensions. Moscow, a member of the so-called Balkans Contact Group, opposes Kosovo's independence partly because it may encourage secessionists elsewhere, such as in Chechnya. If Kosovo is cut loose, it says, then Abkhazians and South Ossetians in Georgia and ethnic Russians in Moldova should be afforded similar licence.

But Moscow's stance has little to do with resolving the Kosovo conundrum and a lot to do with the wider, ongoing geopolitical struggle between Russia and the west. By suggesting delay Mr Ahtisaari, like a hapless England goalkeeper, may have missed his kick and given the game away.



Comments

 

Fascinating. With all due respect, how does one win the Nobel Peace Prize by being the first to leave the negotiating table? I am not aware of a single success having come out of the Pristina-Belgrade talks in Vienna. If Ahtisaari had found a way to help these two parties find some common ground before throwing up his hands, THEN I would say, "That guy deserves a Nobel." (BTW, I am an American living in Pristina, been here for five years. I came to Kosovo/a as a bridge-builder, and I'll leave the same -- though I must say, it's killing me. BTW2: My country is not SCG. If you were to add 'Kosovo' to the pop-up list on your registration page, you'd make a lot of people happy down here -- the *compromise* being that Kosovar Albanians spell it with an 'a'.)

 


Who is Agim Ceku? It's great to see that Margaret Beckett greeted him with such respesct.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/total_coverage/kosovo/ceku.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldbriefing/story/00,,1920947,00.html

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/polbet0306.htm

http://www.balkanpeace.org/hed/archive/july00/hed292.shtml

How can anyone be the Prime Minister of a PART of a country? The only comparison I can make is say, being Prime Minster of Scotland, Wales or Ireland!

Kosovo and Metohija are a part of Serbia and no amount of ethnic cleansing by the Albanians of all other minorities is going to chage that fact. NATO occupation will not change that fact either. It will end for them just like Iraq.

NATO is desperate enough to get out and leave the region in a worse mess than when they went in. If they don't deliver on their promises the Albanians will have their guts for garters. Not a nice prospect. The soldiers on the ground have seen what the Albanians are capable of.

 


I think it would be wrong to see Russia as utterly opposed to Kosovan independence. In fact the only reason I can see for them opposing it is that they want to maintain close relations with Serbia. It would certainly be wrong to see them as opposed because it might encourage secessasionary struggles in the former Soviet Union. Russia WANTS secessationary struggles.
Not on its own territory obviously, but many years of appalling brutality and bloodshed have seen that Russia's territorial integrity is intact. If Kosovo gets its independence however, then Russia will feel free to call for independence in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Trandniestria, Eastern Ukraine etc etc. In fact Kosovan independence would almost definitely strengthen Russia's hand in its backyard.

 


If full independence can be granted to Kosovo - from which a large proportion of the Serbain minority has fled due to intimidation - where would that leave the future status of Republika Srbska? Why should the Bosnian Serbs be expected to accept a Bosnian Muslim-dominated government in Sarajevo while the Albanians in Kosovo are granted independence from the Serb-dominated government in Belgrade?

 


The "bad news" from Kosovo is that 240,000 people remain ethnically cleansed from their homes. Meaningless "independences" that get handed back the next day to Brussels and other EU elite unaccountable structures are not worth a single death.


 


Ah yes ... Kosovo. The part of Serbia which NATO (without the UN resolution which "progressives" seem to think is mandatory nowadays) fought so hard to remove from Serbia and hand to a bunch of terrorists (the KLA) - and without so much as a squeak of protest from the BBC (but that was the nice Mr Clinton - wasn't it. Not the nasty Mr Bush).

From a part of the world where all the artificially created (by Tito) internal boundaries of Yugoslavia are considered sacrosanct and unchangeable ... except Serbia's.

This being a place which NATO went into to "prevent a humanitarian catastrophe", which ... erm ... only kicked off *after* the bombing started - to Clare Short's apparent surprise (she not having made any preparations for the unforseen fact that civilian populations tend to run away from places that are being bombed - and where NATO has fulfilled its promise of preserving a "multi-ethnic Kosovo" by presiding over a colony which has seen the systematic ethnic cleansing of a large proportion of its ethnic Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, Macedonians and even non-Albanian Muslims (most of whom had to take refuge in nasty racist Serbia).

A place chock-full of as yet undiscovered "mass graves" and "rape camps" alleged to have been created by people who had the cheek to believe that they had the right to put down a terrorist uprising within their own country.

As somebody else has pointed out - why should Serbia be liable to be carved up according to demography, but not Bosnia? It is no wonder that the Serbs believe that double-standards are being applied here.

And the result of all this wonderful western intervention? The re-Balkanisation of the Balkans, a Bosnia which has even less independence now (and for the foreseeable future) than it had when it was part of Yugoslavia (and which even had to suffer having Paddy Pantsdown as its Grand Poobah for a while), and a Balkans where the only remaining multi-ethnic society is ... erm ... nasty racist Serbia.

Way to go.

 


"Warrant for the arrest of Agim Ceku has been withdrawn because of his new prime ministerial status," quotes an Interpol release issued on March 24.

http://www.ccmr-bg.org/vesti/frommedia/media0180.htm

So much for 'the end of impunity'. NATO and their thuggish allies are still immune from prosectuion for the crimes they committed in Kosovo.

 


Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, managing director of the Grameen Bank, was awarded the Nobel for his efforts toward eradicating world poverty. [MSNBC] Mr. Ahtasaari is a shoe-in for 2007. I'm assuming, of course, that he'll find a way to get a picture of Agim and Vojislav shaking hands -- with smiles on their faces.

 


Agim Ceku was one of the greatest generals in Croatian army. He has won nine major awards for achievment during the Croatian-Serbian war.
What people don't know is that he never fought in Kosova/o. He was only appointed the head of KPC (Kosovo Protection Corps) only few weeks before the end the war in 1999.
As a person he is very nice, honest and friendly. He is a former Army University tutor in Belgrade-Serbia.

 


Aim Ceku was only great because he killed and cleansed Serbs as did Godovina. And if they were great then Milosevic was great too. He could have been appointed the head of KPC but that does not do him justice for heading the KLA so I am sorry, but your statement does not clear his name. Second, your other statement that he is very nice, honest and friendly, is impossible, because as we have seen he is a successful politician and no politician gets there by being nice, honest and friendly. Look at George Bush!! Politicians are greedy, driven, full of B.S. and can lie to your face. Those are the facts don’t try to make it seem like he is innocent and a nice guy because we all know its untrue, otherwise Kosovo would be a stable region within Serbia if this all was true but in fact even without Serb "ethnic cleansing" and "aggression" it is the most violent and unstable region in the Balkans. Thank you very much.

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Letter to President Bush regarding Serbs in Kosovo, Senator George Voinovich





Letter to President Bush regarding Serbs in Kosovo, Senator George Voinovich




Letter to President Bush regarding Serbs in Kosovo, Senator George Voinovich

October 12, 2006 on 9:59 am | In Washington, News in English, Kosovo & Metohija |
 
 
EXCERPT:

Dear Mr President,

I write to you today to express my deep concerns about the situation in Kosovo. I am concerned that we are moving too quickly toward a final status in Kosovo and have not developed a sound plan for implementation with support from both sides involved. We may be facing a crisis in Kosovo if we do not slow down and engage more heavily with Serbia and the Kosovar Albanians to ensure that the final plan can be implemented.

[ Letter to President Bush from Senator Voinovich (PDF) ]

 

http://news.serbianunity.net/2006/10/12/239/




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Bishop Artemije: Independence could trigger tragic consequences for Europe


Bishop Artemije: Independence could trigger tragic consequences for Europe




 




October 12th 2006


Independence could trigger tragic consequences for Europe


    MOSCOW, Oct 12 (Tanjug) - Raska and Prizren Bishop Artemije of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) warned on Thursday that if Kosovo and Metohija were granted independence, this could trigger tragic consequences throughout Europe.
    "I would compare the independence of Kosovo with a malignant toumor that is spreading and which could affect both its surrounding regions and the entire Europe," Bishop Artemije told reporters in the Interfax news agency in Moscow.
    According to him, seven years after the deployment of the international troops in the province, it has become a black hole rife with crime, narcotics trade, arms smuggling and human trafficking.
    "An independent Kosovo would become a base for extremist forces, and its separation from Serbia would result in the annihilation of the Christian community and the erasing of all traces of the 1000-year  history of Christianity," Bishop Artemije set out.
    He pointed out that since the arrival of the international forces, over 150 orthodox churches and monasteries have been demolished, and more than 400 mosques have been built from funds supplied by Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf countries.
    (end)



 



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Serb negotiator says revision of Kosovo talks needed



Serb negotiator says revision of Kosovo talks needed




 
International Herald Tribune
 
Report: Serb negotiator says revision of Kosovo talks needed in order to reach compromise
 
MONDAY, OCTOBER 9,
 
BELGRADE, Serbia A chief Serb negotiator in the Kosovo talks called Monday for a "serious revision" of the U.N.-brokered process, including the replacement of U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, according to a news report.

Slobodan Samardzic, an adviser to Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, said that a "new methodology" is needed in order to reach a compromise between Serbia and Kosovo Albanians on the future status of the contested province, according to the official Tanjug news agency. He did not elaborate.

The negotiations, which started early this year under U.N. auspices, so far have produced no result with both sides entrenched in their positions — the ethnic Albanians demanding independence from Serbia and Belgrade offering broad autonomy for the breakaway region.

On Monday, the chief mediator, Ahtisaari acknowledged that compromise is nowhere in sight because he said both sides remain too far apart.

"The parties remain diametrically opposed," Ahtisaari said in the Finnish capital, Helsinki. "I can't see there will be a negotiated settlement."

But, he added his team "will continue to press forward until all potential areas for compromise have been explored."

Kosovo, formally a Serbian province, has been run by the United Nations and NATO since a 1999 war. The region remains a potential flash point in the Balkans.

The United States and its allies in the so-called Contact Group for Kosovo — which also includes Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia — have sought to wrap up the talks by year end.

Most analysts have predicted Kosovo would be granted some form of independence, despite Serbia's opposition to the secession.

The plans to find a solution for Kosovo this year have failed, Samardzic said, according to the Tanjug interview. He said a different approach and a new envoy are needed next year to push the process forward, the report said.

"The situation will take a new course from Jan. 1," Samardzic was quoted as saying. "I believe this course will entail a serious revision of the entire process by the United Nations and the Contact Group."

In Finland, Ahtisaari failed to specify what would be the next step in case no solution is found for Kosovo at the negotiating table.

But he warned that "Kosovo is the last piece of the Balkan puzzle. Without a lasting solution for Kosovo, there will be no lasting solution for the Balkans."


http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/ap/2006/10/09/europe/EU_GEN_Serbia_Kosovo_Talks.php





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