Serbo Journal

I am not drunk

2007-10-23T00:51:00.001-04:00

This is classic

Kosovo compromise: 14 working points

2007-10-23T00:44:00.000-04:00

1. Belgrade and Pristina will focus on developing special relationships which will be based on their historical, cultural and human dimensions.

2. Belgrade and Pristina will in the future resolve problems in a peaceful manner and will not enter any actions or intentions which could be characterized as a threat to the other side.

3. Kosovo will be fully integrated into the regional structures, in particular those linked to economic cooperation.

4. There will be no return to the pre-1999 situation.

5. Belgrade will not rule over Kosovo.

6. Belgrade will not regain physical presence in Kosovo.

7. Belgrade and Pristina are determined to work on progress which will lead to the association and eventual membership in the European Union, as well as on progressive integration in the Euro-Atlantic structures.

8. Pristina will carry out wide measures aimed at improving the condition of the Kosovo Serbs and other non-Albanian communities, in particular through the decentralization of local government, constitutional guarantees and respect of cultural and religious heritage.

9. Belgrade and Pristina will cooperate in the fields of key importance, including:

a) The fate of the missing persons and the return of the displaced; b) protection of minorities; c) protection of cultural heritage; d) their European perspective and regional initiative; e) economic questions, including fiscal policy and energy, market and harmonization with the standards of the European Union, the development of common economic organs and the development of strategy in accordance with regional economic initiatives; f) freedom of movement of people, goods, capital and services; g) banking sector; h) infrastructure, transport and communications; i) protection of the environment; j) public health and social progress; k) fight against organized crime in particular in the fields of terrorism, arms, drugs and human trafficking, as well as in the fields of organized crime; l) cooperation between municipalities and authorities from the two sides; m) education.

10. Belgrade and Pristina will create common bodies which will assure cooperation.

11. Belgrade will not interfere in the relations of Pristina with international financial institutions.

12. Pristina will take care of its finances fully independently (taxes, budget revenues, etc).

13. Kosovo will continue the process of stabilization and association with the EU without any interference from Belgrade.

14. The international community will keep its civilian and military presence in Kosovo even after the status is determined.

Early snow in Bosnia

2007-10-23T00:42:00.000-04:00

Since sunday snow fall has reached over 3 meters in some parts.
source: AP

Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari sold out for 2 million euros

2007-06-26T19:42:00.000-04:00

Former Finnish president and one of the world’s most respected living Nazis Martti Ahtisaari (i.e. Adolfsen) is a very busy man these days. Turkey — correctly noting Ahtisaari’s strong pro-Muslim bias, undoubtedly a result of historically sound and productive fascist/Muslim alliances — wants Ahtisaari to help them break into the EU. In Northern Ireland, where Ahtisaari was meddling before, he was appointed an “international advisor” to a reconciliation group.

Let’s hope they can afford the 70-year-old whore with a steep price list.

According to the June 21 article by the Banja Luka daily Fokus, titled “Albanian Mafia Bought Ahtisaari,” German Federal Intelligence Service BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst) has recently sent a report to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon revealing that Albanian separatists and terrorists in Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province have literally purchased Ahtisaari’s plan which suggests independence for the Serbian province and its severing from Serbia.

German Secret Service has found that 2 million Euros (2.68 million USD) have been transfered directly to Ahtisaari’s personal bank account, and that amounts of multi-million Euros were given to the UN envoy in cash on at least two occasions, totaling up to 40 million Euros (over 53 million U.S. dollars).

According to the Fokus’ source, the German BND Secret Service Brigadier Luke Neiman was directly appointed by the German government to designate part of the German Secret Service apparatus to the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, after the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requested such service. It was, therefore, the UN Secretary-General who received the detailed report about the corruption of his special envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

Noam Chomsky About Serbia, Kosovo, Yugoslavia and NATO War 1

2007-06-10T16:27:00.000-04:00

Russian tanks in Kosovo (1999) Part 3

2007-06-10T16:24:00.002-04:00

Russian tanks in Kosovo (1999) Part 2

2007-06-10T16:24:00.001-04:00

Russian tanks in Kosovo (1999) Part 1

2007-06-10T16:23:00.001-04:00

Death of Yugoslavia Part 3

2007-06-10T16:21:00.002-04:00

Death of Yugoslavia Part 2

2007-06-10T16:21:00.001-04:00

Death of Yugoslavia Part 1

2007-06-10T16:18:00.000-04:00

Novel argument against UN imposed solution to Kosovo

2007-04-04T00:22:00.000-04:00

Over at Byzantine Sacred Art Blog, blogger posted rather interesting argument against UN imposed solution to Kosovo problem. Thomas Fleiner who is Director of the Swiss Institute of Federalism was quoted in Belgrade daily Novosti. It goes like this.

That would be the crucial violation in my view. For the first time an association of the sovereign states would make a decision to disintegrate one of its members. Can anyone imagine any sane human being joining the club that has the right to destroy its member, by a simple managerial decision? United Nations should not be a union of suicide seekers...

Lavrov's answer

2007-04-03T21:06:00.000-04:00

Today at United Nations.
Will Russia support Ahtisaari plan?

"Russia may only support the variant that will be mutually advantageous for
the two parties,"

"I do not agree that the UN and U.S.'

There you go straight from Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, reported by ITAR-TASS.

Bush "authorizes" arming of Serbia

2007-03-22T21:33:00.000-04:00

In a memorandum to the Secretary of State, President Bush
has authorized arming of Serbia and its once partner, Montenegro.

According to the White House Press Release, President Bush has authorized
"furnishing defense articles and defense services" to both, Montenegro and
Serbia.

"Pursuant to the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of
the United States, including section 503(a) of the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961, as amended, and section 3(a)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended, I hereby find that the furnishing of defense articles and defense
services to the Republic of Montenegro and the Republic of Serbia will
strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace," says
the George Bush memo to the Secretary of State.

It is not clear whether "furnishing" implies sale of arms or a grant of arms
to Serbia.

Addressing the Secretary of State, President George Bush further orders that
"You are authorized and directed to transmit this determination to the
Congress and to arrange for the publication of this determination in the
Federal Register."

From Serbianna.com

What could this mean?

Kosovo-Metohija integral and unalienable part of Serbian territory

2007-02-07T16:40:00.001-05:00

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said today in talks with Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht that Kosovo-Metohija is an integral and unalienable part of Serbia's territory.

Kostunica stressed that Serbia advocates respect of international law and the foremost principle of the UN Charter, which is inviolability of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries.

The Serbian Prime Minister pointed to the fact that the solution for the future status of Kosovo-Metohija must be based on respect of international law, the UN Charter and should be in accordance with European values and standards.

It was jointly stated at the meeting that Serbia and Belgium have good relations, and there are possibilities of advancing economic cooperation between the two countries.

Kostunica: Ahtisaari is outside his mandate

2007-02-07T16:37:00.000-05:00

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said today during the talks with the US Special Envoy for Kosovo-Metohija, Ambassador Frank Wiesner that the proposal of UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari is unacceptable for Serbia.

Kostunica said that this proposal does not proceed either formally or in terms of content from the negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija conducted so far. Instead of making a proposal on the future administration of the province, Ahtisaari opened the question of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia without any authorisation and proposed snatching away a part of its territory.

The Serbian Prime Minister said that this proposal is contrary to the UN Charter, the Serbian Constitution and basic principles of international relations, as well as to the international practice of solving disputes within states.

Ahtisaari also failed to take into account numerous proposals made by the Serbian negotiating team in the proposals of the solution contained in the annexes of the document, Kostunica pointed out.

Asked by Wiesner how he sees the continuation of this process, the Serbian Prime Minister said that Serbia first has to constitute its state organs that will proceed from the recently held elections, which is a practice in all democratic states.

Kostunica insisted that in order to continue negotiations, as proposed by Ahtisaari, it is necessary to convene Serbian parliament that will bring decisions on that issue. The Serbian Prime Minister said that Serbian parliament will be constituted immediately following the termination of the election process.

Kosovo Reality Check

2007-02-06T16:33:00.000-05:00

State Department press spokesmen Sean McCormack, borrowing a line from FOX News, has called the proposals made by UN Special Envoy Martii Ahtisaari for Kosovo "fair and balanced"-presumabl y because the plan would make Kosovo an independent state without calling it that.

But if the United States thinks we're in the home stretch, think again. Part of the problem is that the Bush Administration wants to get Kosovo "solved" and off the agenda (and perhaps as part of a renewed set of talking points to the Muslim world about how the U.S. is not anti-Islamic) . A number of Democrats want to hold up Kosovo as a positive legacy of their version of unilateralism- in contrast to the way the Republicans have conducted the Iraq war. And if everything can be wrapped up for the 2008 elections, so much the better. And a solution that doesn't cost much would be peachy.

"Our goal remains an outcome that advances regional stability, promotes multi-ethnicity and is acceptable to the people of Kosovo", McCormack said. Well, I have news. No solution on the table can guarantee all three. Certainly not one that doesn't call for a major commitment of time, resources, attention, and forces able and willing to enforce the settlement.

Given that most non-Albanian residents of Kosovo have either left or now live in enclaves, ratifying the status quo sends the signal that ethnic cleansing-at least when carried out by the right groups-works- especially when it takes care of problematic issues raised by "multi-ethnicity. " (Kurds in Northern Iraq have taken notice). If the "people of Kosovo" refers to all communities, then this plan is a dead letter, as Bishop Artimije of Kosovo said this past Friday.

On the other hand, a vast majority of the province's residents want full and unconditional independence- no strings and no delays. So if the Ahtisaari plan depends on ratification in a referendum (and tellingly, there are no such plans for a vote)-it would fail. But then again-settlements are often imposed. As I like to remind people, the Aland Islands settlement (near-independence for the island's Swedish population within a Finnish state)-often held up as a possible model-was rejected in a popular referendum but nonetheless imposed by the major powers and the League of Nations.

Regional stability would best be promoted by strict adherence to the 1975 Helsinki Final Act provisions of no changes in borders. And in the future it will be very difficult-when in efforts to end internal conflicts within a country autonomy is proposed-for the majority not to view this as a half-way house to eventual separation (or for that matter, the minority group may see it in those terms).

There has been a great deal of discussion about a Kosovo precedent "further east" but what might lie "further west"? What about long-held Basque aspirations for full independence? What about the future of Spain as a single unified state? Precedents are always in the eyes of the beholder.

Had NATO been willing, it might have been able to impose an Aland-Islands style settlement for the province back in 1999. But it would have required being prepared to use force and also to break up criminal gangs and militias who would have been ready to fight to preserve their positions. The question is whether an independent Kosovo government today would be ready to do the things NATO has been unwilling to do.

I have to agree with Tim Potier who wrote in our pages in the Spring 2006 issue that not trying to rush final settlements might in fact lead "to a better peace than might be achieved with time pressures." The U.S. approach to Kosovo should not be driven by either our problems in Iraq or the needs of our electoral calendar.

Nikolas K. Gvosdev is editor of The National Interest.

Bishop Artemije: Serbia Will Never Agree to Detachment of Kosovo and Metohija

2007-02-06T16:30:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 PRNewswire -- Direct from talks in Brussels with the European Commission and European Parliament, Bishop Artemije, spiritual leader of the Christian Serbs of Kosovo and Metohija, today begins a week of talks regarding the future of the province. Under a proposal made February 2 by the United Nations special envoy, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, Kosovo would be detached from Serbia and put on a path to independence. The Ahtisaari plan immediately was rejected by the Serbian government and Holy Hierarchical Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Bishop Artemije: "The [Ahtisaari] proposal is unacceptable to us because it presupposes the separation of Kosovo from Serbia and as such will never be accepted either by the Kosovo Serbs nor the Serbian state. Only a solution found through talks and compromise can be a lasting solution. If the international community imposes a solution it will not bring peace and stability to the region, but rather it will destabilize the region." (Reuters, Feb 2.) Serbia has offered the widest possible autonomy for Kosovo and its large Albanian Muslim population, but Kosovo Albanians threaten further violence if their demands are not met.

Under United Nations civil administration and NATO military control since the 1999, Kosovo has become a black hole of corruption and organized crime activity. Approximately 250,000 Christian Serbs - some two-thirds of their pre-war population -- has been terrorized from the province, along with similar proportions of Roma (Gypsies), Croats, Ashkali, Gorani, and other groups, along with entire Jewish community. Some 150 Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries, many of them of world cultural significance, have been demolished or damaged, and new attacks occur on a daily basis.

Bishop Artemije will ask Congressional and the Bush Administration to withdraw their support for Kosovo independence, which would mean:

* Eradication of the remaining Christian Serbs from Kosovo, the cradle of Serbia's spiritual and national life, and rewarding violence and intolerance;

* Creation of a rogue Islamic state in Europe, ruled by terrorist and organized crime figures who are members of the so-called "Kosovo Liberation Army," which would destabilize entire west Balkan region and strengthen the terrorist threat to Europe; and

* Violation of all accepted rules of international law, including the U.N. Charter, if a settlement is imposed detaching part of a state's integral territory without its consent, a precedent that would mean destabilization of numerous countries with large ethnic and religious minorities.

Serbia: In Search of a Kamikaze

2007-02-06T16:22:00.000-05:00

Serbia: In Search of a Kamikaze Can Karpat, AIA Balkan section

Last Friday, Martti Ahtisaari, the UN representative and mediator for Kosovo visited Belgrade and Pristina to present his proposal on the final status of Kosovo to the Serb and Albanian officials. The reactions coming from the two capitals are not surprising. While Pristina is satisfied, Belgrade is totally outraged. However, there is a big difference between the two: the latter, which has no government for the moment, has to form one, which is entitled to accept officially the loss of Kosovo. So the question of the day is: Who is willing to be the Kamikaze?

Last Friday, Martti Ahtisaari, the UN representative and mediator for Kosovo visited Belgrade and Pristina to present his proposal on the final status of Kosovo to the Serb and Albanian officials.

Although the proposal does not mention independence, it would make it possible for Kosovo to have its own flag, national anthem, army and Constitution. Kosovo would also be able to seek international recognition, which will eventually provide the province with state sovereignty. According to the plan, a NATO-led peacekeeping force will remain in the province and an international representative will be appointed to monitor the government's actions.

Could anyone, who is even slightly acquainted with the Kosovo question, claim that this proposal came as a complete surprise? No way. For months, experts predicted this outcome: independence - in the long run. Martti Ahtisaari had the courtesy not to insert the word "independence" into the document. That is all. The reactions coming from the two capitals are not surprising either. While Pristina is satisfied, Belgrade is totally outraged. Yet, there is a big difference between the two: the latter, which has no government for the moment, has to form one, which is entitled to accept officially the loss of Kosovo.

As predicted, the proposal made the formation of a government in Serbia most improbable. In theory every party (except Liberal Democrat Party) is against the proposal. Even President and leader of Democrat Party (DS) Boris Tadic vowed not to recognise an independent Kosovo. After he met Martti Ahtisaari last Friday, Tadic stated: "I told Mr. Ahtisaari that Serbia and I, as its president, will never accept Kosovo's independence" . Tadic's DS is known as the most moderate and pro-Western element in Serbian political scene.

The outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica declined to meet with Ahtisaari on Friday. And after the proposal became public, he denounced it as "illegitimate" . His party, Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) insists on the negotiations platform for Kosovo, which, among others, foresees the serious aggravation of diplomatic relations with those countries that would recognise Kosovo in the future.

For DS, the most probable coalition partner of DSS for the moment, this clause is risky. Any reaction of this kind would condemn Serbia to diplomatic isolation as it was the case in the Milosevic era. For a party, which supports Serbia's integration into the EU and NATO, such defiance is unacceptable. Therefore, we can conclude that since 2nd February, the dispute over the office of premiership between DS and DSS has no longer any concrete sense. Serbian politics, as Danas put it, became the hostage of Kosovo.

On the other hand, however, Serbian Radical Party (SRS), which is firmly against Serbia's integration into any Euro-Atlantic alliance, would like to pursue this thorny path. Yet, there is one small problem. It is as clear as mud in the eye that the new government will be the one, which, as long as the Kosovo status is concerned, will also sign its own death sentence. There is no other way.

On the one hand, the international community considers Martti Ahtisaari's proposal as "stable and sustainable" , which may be the case indeed. Russia cannot be fully trusted, for she would always cherish her own political interests over Serbia's - like any standard state in the great international chessboard. On the other hand, however, no politician who yields Kosovo would survive thereafter in Serbia. So who will be the Serb Matthias Erzberger? This German politician, who headed the German delegation that signed the Armistice after the First World War, and thereafter advocated acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles, a.k.a. the "Diktat". He ended very dramatically, since he was assassinated in 1921 by members of the Freikorps, the extreme right militia.

Under these circumstances, we can reasonably argue that the Radicals would never accept to be dragged into such Kamikaze-like government. The Radicals are wily enough not to let themselves seduced by Vojislav Kostunica's new Kosovo pose.

The possible coalition scenarios imply DS and DSS as usual. However, the recent Kosovo proposal shook the fragile political balance. No party is willing to commit suicide, for now it is obvious that a clear death awaits them all in Kosovo.

Some analysts predict new elections. This is quite possible indeed. However, if held, the turn-out of these elections would be the most miserable one that the Serbian plural democracy has ever seen. This could definitely suit the Radicals the best, for their electors are very disciplined. And it is almost sure that neither DS nor DSS would ever be able to make the same score.

It seems that unless a political Kamikaze is found, Serbia is in an impossible situation. The Kosovo proposal may be a stable and sustainable one. But at what cost?

Slovakia wants balanced Kosovo settlement

2007-02-06T16:18:00.000-05:00

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - Slovakia is one of the 15 members of the UN Security Council deciding on whether or not the new Kosovo status plan presented by Maarti Ahtisaari will be adopted and, if so, along what lines.

The UN special envoy's plan represents an open proposal but its author has already indicated that he has no intention of entering into lengthy negotiations with the two parties, but rather intends to conduct consultations, limited in time, on certain aspects of the deal. The process is set to culminate with the adoption of a new Security Council resolution, which is a prerequisite for the EU to step in and take over responsibility from the UN in Kosovo and for the presence of KFOR in the area to continue.

No new resolution, however, could lead to a set of unilateral acts whose direction is impossible to control. Several factors will influence Slovakia's position and priorities as we enter into the final act of the Kosovo drama and as we hear more about the Ahtisaari plan.

Slobodan Milosevic's liquidation policy towards Kosovo Albanians caused their exodus from Kosovo and prompted a NATO-led military intervention while the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 then placed Kosovo under interim UN administration. However, this move fell short of preventing the exodus of Serbs from Kosovo, most of whom never returned to the region. This was followed by the building of democratic institutions and several elections, often with the participation of Kosovar Serbs, followed by their boycott of the newly elected institutions.

Now the economy is in dire straits and unemployment rates are extremely high. The omnipresent ethnic tension is aggravated by occasional fatal incidents. This situation calls for massive civilian and military engagement by the international community. The status quo has ceased to be sustainable. While in 1999 Kosovo was faced with a number of different scenarios, the course of events gradually lead to a single one remaining today.

Under the supervision of the UN Security Council and the Contact Group, steps have been taken since 1999 to reinforce the de facto autonomy of Kosovo and its independence from Serbia. Serbia has no intention of agreeing to Kosovo's independence. A certain part of Slovakia's public as well as of its political forces support this stance since they see the matter as a separation of a territory against the will of the state.

However, Slovakia's public is equally aware of the fact that in order to attain its aim Belgrade is offering Kosovo unprecedented, almost absolute autonomy under the principle of minorities' collective rights - which is a model based on the principle that we deem unacceptable. The situation leaves open very few alternatives, none of which seems appealing. There is no ideal solution to it. Nevertheless, our first and foremost interest lies in a future solution that will enhance peace, stability and prosperity in the Balkans.

The outcome must not be a victory for one party and a defeat and humiliation of the other one. It must reflect reality, yet at the same it has to aim at providing a European perspective to the entire region. Therefore, today, EU member states must come together and unite both in finding a solution for Kosovo and in promoting a European perspective for Serbia, while giving some concessions.

This is our responsibility towards our national interests, but also towards our partners in the EU and our allies in NATO. Slovakia is in its second year on the UN Security Council and this month we also hold its presidency. Through our position on the issue of Kosovo, we must show that our country is mature enough to shoulder such responsibility.

The author is Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic.

Serb President to Ask for Delay in Kosovo Talks

2007-02-06T16:15:00.001-05:00

Serb President to Ask for Delay in Kosovo Talks By VOA News

06 February 2007

Serbia's president says he will ask for a short delay in renewal of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo. Boris Tadic said the six-nation Contact Group overseeing developments in Kosovo (Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the United States) should delay the discussions by about 10 days until Serbia's new parliament, elected two weeks ago, convenes for its first session.

Mr. Tadic said he will present this position to a U.S. envoy, Frank Wiesner, in Belgrade Tuesday as well as to ministers of the European Union. United Nations Kosovo envoy Martti Ahtisaari presented his proposals for the future of the breakaway province to leaders in Belgrade and Pristina Friday. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders welcomed the proposals, which Serbia denounced as a recipe for independence.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority is demanding full independence, but Belgrade is strongly opposed. U.N. authorities have administered Kosovo since 1999, when NATO air strikes drove Serbian and Yugoslav security forces from the province following a deadly Belgrade crackdown on ethnic Albanians. Some information for this report was provided by AP.

Muslims stab Kosovo Serb woman, stone school

2007-02-06T16:13:00.000-05:00

http://www.serbiann a.com/news/ 2007/01168. shtml

SERBIANNA (USA)

Muslims stab Kosovo Serb woman, stone school February 6, 2007 -- Twenty seven year old Kosovo Serb woman Milica Delevic was repeatedly stabbed, then robbed and left for dead on the streets of the northern Kosovo town of Kosovska Mitrovica. She is hospitalized and is under intensive care after undergoing surgery.

Milica Delevic was ambushed by the group of Albanian Muslims around 7 p.m, in the dark part of the street near the Red Cross building where she worked. Stabbings were done on her abdomen.

Regional spokesperson for the UNMIK police, Larry Miller, confirmed that young woman of Serbian nationality was attacked with the knife and seriously wounded but said that the motive was robbery and not the fact that she was Christian Serb. Miller says that they are holding two men in custody but they are not the attempted killers but alleged witnesses.

Serbs are under constant intimidation by dominating Muslims in Kosovo who have expelled over 200,000 Christian Serbs out of the province in an attempt to make a religiously pure Islamic state.

Meanwhile, a Serbian elementary school in Lipljan was stoned by the group of young Albanian Muslims who broke windows and damaged walls then fled the scene as the police was arriving.

In a village of Crkvena Vodica, Serbian residents were exposed to verbal abuse and threats of expulsion by a marauding Muslim mob that was shouting slurs at them, demanding independence and threatening forced expulsion by sending all "Serbs to Serbia".

In another Kosovo village of Obilic, another Muslim mob was intimidating Christian Serbs and the police personnel while addressing the UN envoy Marti Ahtisaari with a slogan of "How much more should we pay you for independence? ".

February 6, 2007 (10:58 EST)

Serbia will never recognize Kosovo's independence - president

2007-02-04T12:24:00.001-05:00

Serbia will never recognize Kosovo's independence, President Boris Tadic told Belgrade's Fonet news agency Friday.

The president, speaking after a meeting with United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari, said that any decision on Kosovo's independence imposed from the outside would contradict the main principles of international law. Plans for Serbia and its predominantly Albanian region Kosovo presented by the UN envoy have been interpreted by both sides as suggesting a division of the territories, and foreseeing eventual independence for Kosovo.

The Serbian leader said the document submitted by Ahtisaari to Serbian and Kosovar leaders, "does not unambiguously state the 'independence' of Kosovo, and does not mention the territorial integrity of Serbia. Mainly because of this, but also partly because of certain other provisions of the document, the plan opens up the possibility of Kosovo's separation from Serbia." All parts of the document will be thoroughly studied, he added.

The president said he intended to discuss the document with all leaders of the newly-elected parliament, and that he hoped this would enable Serbia to defend its national interests and implement a unified policy on Kosovo. The UN Security Council is expected to vote on a final draft resolution on Kosovo in March.

Russia, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council and a traditional ally of Belgrade, has repeatedly said that sovereignty for the UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo could have negative consequences for unresolved conflicts in the former Soviet Union that erupted in the early 1990s. In mid-January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that a decision on Kosovo's independence should satisfy both Kosovar and Serbian authorities, and that a forced decision on the status of Kosovo was out of the question.

Last November, thousands of Kosovar Albanians attacked the UN headquarters in the capital, Pristina, over a delayed decision on their demand for independence. The region has been a UN protectorate since NATO's military campaign against Belgrade to end a war between Serb forces and Albanian separatists in 1999.

BBC: Balkan jigsaw seeks final piece

2007-02-04T12:20:00.000-05:00

Gabriel Partos BBC South-East Europe analyst

The blueprint for Kosovo's future that Martti Ahtisaari, the United Nations special envoy, has presented to leaders of Serbia and Kosovo confirms earlier reports that, if approved by the UN, it would set Kosovo firmly on the path to eventual independence. Supporters of the deal argue that resolving Kosovo's long-term status will settle the last remaining problem left over from the violent break-up of the old Yugoslav federation of six republics during the 1990s.

The Western countries in the six-nation Contact Group that has been spearheading the UN's diplomatic process on Kosovo believe it will boost stability across the Balkans and help the countries of the region integrate more closely with the European Union and Nato as they prepare for membership of these two organisations. They believe it will appease Kosovo's independence- seeking Albanian majority, who have been growing restless after living nearly eight years under a UN protectorate.

KEY PROPOSAL POINTS

Contains no reference to Serbian sovereignty or independence for Kosovo
Blocks Kosovo from joining Albania, or having its Serb areas split off and join Serbia
Kosovo can use national symbols
Kosovo can join international organisations
Creates international envoy mandated by UN and EU with power to intervene in government
Retains Nato and EU forces in military and policing roles
Protects non-Albanian minority with guaranteed roles in government, police and civil service
Protects Serbian Orthodox Church sites and Serbian language

Whatever the possible long-term benefits, the Ahtisaari plan is likely to cause some headaches, at least in the short term, among the countries of the region.

Serbia's leaders have made it clear they will not accept what amounts to independence for Kosovo - even if the word "independence" does not feature in Mr Ahtisaari's recommendations.

While Serbia's political parties are engaged in intense discussions on forming a new coalition government following last month's inconclusive elections, outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia has indicated that any new government should sever diplomatic relations with countries that recognise Kosovo.

If applied against the United States and major European countries, such a move would be counter-productive for Serbia. It would isolate Belgrade in a way similar to what happened when it broke off diplomatic relations with leading Nato countries during the conflict between Slobodan Milosevic's Serb-Montenegrin federation of Yugoslavia and Nato, in the course of the war over Kosovo in 1999.

However, for several of Serbia's neighbours the threat of possible diplomatic repercussions is a cause for concern. Some countries are worried that a diplomatic rift with Serbia could make life more difficult for their nationals who are part of the rich patchwork of ethnic communities, first and foremost, in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina. The 300,000 ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina form the largest of these communities. Besides, Serbia is also home - among others - to Croatian, Slovak, Romanian and Bulgarian minorities.

Violated agreement Yet the concerns of these countries - most of them new EU members - are dwarfed by the potential problems facing the much poorer and weaker states of the region.

Kosovo's independence is likely to revive the arguments over separatism in two former Yugoslav republics, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of the Serb Republic, one of Bosnia's two autonomous entities, has in recent months been suggesting that the people of his entity should have a referendum about their future - even though breaking away from Bosnia would mean violating the Dayton peace accords which brought peace to the war-ravaged country in 1995.

Mr Ahtisaari's plan contains no provisions for a referendum in Kosovo, not least to ensure that the Kosovo settlement does not become a model for others to follow. Indeed, supporters of Mr Ahtisaari's blueprint, including the Western powers, are at pains to point out that the Kosovo case is unique, not just in the Balkans, but right across the area of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union where there are still so-called "frozen conflicts" involving national and ethnic groups demanding independence.

Kosovo's unique legal status is due to the fact that it has been under UN administration since the end of the war in 1999. Moreover, any change in Kosovo's status - whether along the lines of Mr Ahtisaari's recommendations or not - is subject to endorsement by a resolution in the UN Security Council. In spite of the insistence that Kosovo should not serve as a model for others, there are worries not only in Bosnia but also in Macedonia.

Many Macedonians fear that if Kosovo's Serbs, who want Kosovo to remain part of Serbia, declare their own secession from an independent Kosovo, that might revive separatist sentiments among Macedonia's large ethnic-Albanian population.

Economic difficulties

However, Mr Ahtisaari's blueprint rules out any partitioning of Kosovo, echoing the guidelines issued to him by the Contact Group. It also bans Kosovo's merger with any other state - which means that the idea of union with Albania (and the creation a greater Albanian state) is not on the cards.

That is not a problem for Albania, which has more than enough economic difficulties of its own to want to acquire further problems by linking up with Kosovo. The prospect of Kosovo's independence is a triumph for Albania - the only country that recognised Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence in the early 1990s when Kosovo was still firmly under Serb rule.

By contrast, for other countries in the region, the Kosovo settlement process may yet contain many problems and pitfalls.

Albanian man made £4,000 a day from pimpin

2007-02-04T12:19:00.000-05:00

IC WALES (UK)

Albanian man made £4,000 a day from pimping Feb 2 2007 Gareth Rogers, South Wales Echo An Albanian man who moved to Cardiff because he spotted a gap in the sex trade market was earning £4,000 a day from trafficking his female victims.

He lured women to this country with the promise of jobs in restaurants, only to force them into prostitution in a business that netted him £110,000. Albanian nationals Argan Kanani, 22, who lived with his prostitutes in Llanedeyrn, Cardiff, and Erjon Javori, 32, of Sheffield, were jailed for a combined total of more than 12 years for trafficking four Lithuanian women to South Wales and Birmingham.

After the sentencing, at Cardiff Crown Court, DI Tony Brown, who headed the investigation, promised aftercare would be given to all the victims. At the sentencing, Judge Roderick Denyer QC said while he drew back from using an emotive word like slavery to describe what happened to the women, they were controlled and degraded.

Most thought they were coming to work in restaurants or hotels. The court heard how Kanani, who came to this country at 18, was renting a house in Queenwood, Llanedeyrn, and earning up to £4,000 a day.

Kanani said he chose to come to South Wales because Birmingham, where he had started his business, had become overrun with Eastern European sex workers. Prosecutor Robert Brown said: 'The women were all from poor Lithuanian families and easy targets for being tricked into flying here.

'In a strange country and with language problems, they submitted to the regime and were paid a pittance.' Kanani pleaded guilty to two counts of controlling prostitution for gain and was jailed for five and a half years, while Javori was jailed for seven.

DI Brown said: 'We have a mixture of women from inside and outside the EU and we will be very much led by them on what they want to do. 'Our intelligence says that this is a very small problem in South Wales, but this is certainly the biggest case we have had to deal with. And if there are any other victims out there, we would ask them to come forward.'

Sarah Walker, of the English Collective of Prostitutes, said: 'We have a problem that many women are scared to come forward because they fear they will be deported and that is worse than continuing what they are doing. 'But the authorities need to ensure that these women are given the same care and treatment that rape victims would be given and that all complaints are taken seriously.'

Cathy Owens, Amnesty International Programme Director for Wales, said: 'These women should not be treated like criminals, they should be treated as victims of a terrible crime. They need counselling, healthcare and secure accommodation. '

US warns citizens to be cautious in Kosovo

2007-02-04T12:13:00.000-05:00

The United States' diplomatic mission in Kosovo on Friday issued a warning to its citizens to be cautious during ongoing efforts to settle the future status of the disputed Serbian province.

"The next several weeks will see a number of important political events in Kosovo, including the possibility of demonstrations and other public manifestations, " it said in a statement.

It said US citizens in Kosovo, whose ethnic Albanian majority wants the province to become independence, should maintain a high level of vigilance since any demonstrations could become confrontational and possible escalate into violence.

"American citizens are therefore urged to avoid roadblocks and areas of demonstrations or where large crowds are gathered, if possible, and to exercise caution if within the vicinity of any demonstrations. "

United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari on Friday presented his anxiously awaited proposal to resolve Kosovo's status to the Serbian authorities in Belgrade. He was to due to submit it to the Kosovar authorities in Pristina later in the day.

The southern Serbian province has been run by a UN mission since 1999, when NATO ended a crackdown by Serbian forces on Kosovo's nascent independence movement.

Lavrov says Russia and US still at odds on Kosovo

2007-02-04T11:55:00.001-05:00

Moscow and Washington are still in deep disagreement over the future of Serbia's Kosovo province, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday.

Speaking to Russian news agencies after a visit to the United States, Lavrov said Kosovo was the key point of disagreement between the two countries.

"We still have no common vision of how this problem should be solved," Lavrov told Interfax news agency. "Kosovo is a subject where our disagreement is deepest, unlike our positions on Iran, Iraq and the Middle East."

On Friday, U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari unveiled a plan to set Kosovo on a path to independence, an outcome that the province's majority Albanians quickly applauded but Belgrade rejected.

Kosovo: The illusions of independence

2007-02-01T16:28:00.000-05:00

By M. Bozinovich

January 29, 2007 -- Ahtisaari has written a secret plan for Kosovo status, yet major news media outlets are leaking details about it galore and all the leaked details are aimed at propping up Kosovo Albanian side telling it that there is no reason to pull out of the status process just yet.

So, the leaks are loaded with vivid details that the independence is postponed until a new UN resolution will be written sometimes in summer that will overwrite the existing Resolution 1244 that assigns sovereignty to Serbia and that the replacing UN resolution will pave the way for Kosovo Albanians to unilaterally declare independence so that individual countries will then line up to recognize it.

Continue on Serbiana.com

CNN to pay back money to Serbia for error in commercial video

2007-02-01T16:23:00.000-05:00

The CNN network will pay back money to Serbia due to errors in the commercial video presenting Serbia's tourist offer, Serbian media said.

The new promotional campaign on Serbia has the same music matrix as the already existing campaign on Kazakhstan. The mistake was detected and corrected. The Serbian Tourist Organization will receive the money for the days when the commercials were aired. The video has new music matrix, CNN spokesperson said. Kazakhstan kicked off its commercials on the CNN three months before Serbia did so, thus, the mistake could have been made by the same team that made the video.

The videos will be screened 507 times in the course of a four-month advertising campaign.

Amanresorts signs 30-year lease for Sveti Stefan island-hotel in Montenegro

2007-02-01T16:21:00.000-05:00

Luxury resort operator Amanresorts signed a 30-year lease Wednesday to renovate and run the famed Sveti Stefan island hotel, once the playground of Hollywood celebrities.

Singapore-based Amanresorts said it would invest â‚¬40 million (US$52 million) to revamp the limestone houses and cobblestone streets that drew a Hollywood stars during the 1970s but fell into decline during the breakup of the former Yugoslav federation in the 1990s.

"The objective is to bring Sveti Stefan back to its former glory and pre-eminent position in the tourism industry in the Mediterranean, " said Adrian Zecha of Amanresorts, who signed the deal with Montenegro's tourism and ecology minister, Predrag Nenezic.

Amanresorts is to pay â‚¬2.1 million (US$2.7 million) annually to Montenegro for Sveti Stefan and for the nearby Milocer hotel, formerly a summer residence of Serbian monarchs that was nationalized after World War II.

Both facilities will be renovated and reopen for tourists in 2008, said Nenezic. Under the contract, the Asian investors also get another nearby hotel, built in the early 1970s, but will demolish it in order to a build a completely new one on the lot.

Originally a 15th century fishing village, Sveti Stefan consists of a few dozen stone houses perched atop a large, circular rock in the sea linked to the mainland by a narrow sandy isthmus.

In the 1960s, when Montenegro was part of communist Yugoslavia, authorities turned Sveti Stefan into an exclusive resort with 118 rooms and suites. Visitors included former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and movie icons Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sophia Loren and Sylvester Stallone. U.S. chess legend Bobby Fischer played his controversial 1992 match against Russia's Boris Spassky at Sveti Stefan, in violation of the U.S.-backed embargo on Yugoslavia.

The turmoil of the 1990s now well behind Montenegro, now a sovereign state following its split last year from Serbia, "Amanresorts will ... bring the highest quality service product to Montenegro," Zecha said, calling it "the next coming thing." The Singapore-based group oversees posh playgrounds around the globe, from France to French Polynesia.

Devil will retire

2007-01-31T11:20:00.000-05:00

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal confirmed today that she will retire in September, marking the end of an era in international law.

Carla Del Ponte, the tribunal's third and longest serving chief prosecutor, will be remembered primarily for overseeing former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's genocide trial, which ended before a verdict could be reached after he died of a heart attack in his cell in March.

"After eight years, I have done my work. It's time for me to go back to a normal life," she told reporters Tuesday in The Hague. In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, Del Ponte said that in the dozens of trials she has supervised – including 20 in which the defendants pleaded guilty – "I never saw one (defendant) who had real remorse." Expressions of regret were only designed to ease their sentences, she said.

Del Ponte warned that the two former Bosnian Serb leaders most wanted by the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal could go free unless they are caught before the tribunal is closed in 2010 and if the UN Security Council takes no further action. Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb political leader, and his top general, Ratko Mladic, have evaded arrest since the UN tribunal issued indictments against them in 1995 for genocide and other war crimes committed during the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia. The Security Council has instructed the tribunal to finish its last trials by 2008 and conclude the appeals process within another two years, before closing down.

If the court no longer exists, its arrest warrants against Karadzic and Mladic will become invalid. "If the tribunal must close the door by 2010, they (the Council) must find another solution" for the remaining fugitives, Del Ponte told reporters. Del Ponte repeated her assertion that Serbian authorities know Mladic's whereabouts and could arrest him at any time. "It's a political decision," she said.

"Mladic is within reach. I believe the intelligence services know where he is," she said. If the government gave the order today to arrest him, "I could have him here by the evening," she said. Until last spring, the Serb government was in frequent contact with him to persuade him to voluntarily surrender to the court, as more than a dozen other fugitives had done, she said. But nothing is known about the location of Karadzic, whose flight from justice is financed by organized crime and drug money, Del Ponte said. Another four fugitives are at large.

She urged the EU not to resume preliminary talks with Serbia, aimed at paving the way for Serbia to join the 27-country, until it fulfills its pledge to fully co-operate with the tribunal. A resumption of talks on a Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia would be "extremely damaging," said Del Ponte. She will meet the EU's foreign policy chief Javiar Solana in Brussels on Wednesday as part of her campaign with EU members to block the talks. Del Ponte said she hoped a coalition of democratic countries headed by President Boris Tadic will form the next government in Belgrade following Serb elections, since it would co-operate more with the tribunal than a nationalist government. "Yes, it would make a difference," she said.

Russia, China voice similar positions on search for Kosovo compromise

2007-01-31T11:08:00.000-05:00

BEIJING. Jan 31 (Interfax-China) - Russia and China have stated that they have similar positions on the situation surrounding Kosovo, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov said.

"The Russian and Chinese positions coincide in that we advocate a search for a compromise in the talks," the Russian diplomat said after consultations with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui.

"This decision must not be locked in any time frames, if a solution is to be found that would strengthen peace and stability in the Balkans and in a wider context," he said.

Russia has said on many occasions, said Titov, that the method to be chosen in settling the Kosovo problem "will be of serious importance and will be projected to other regions and international situations."

The first ever attempt is being made to detach a part from an integral state, not an independent entity from a federative state, the Russian diplomat said.

"If the separation takes place without the state's consent a very negative precedent will be created for other international situations," he said.

Titov also announced that the UN secretary general's special envoy Marti Ahtisaari was expected to inform Belgrade and Pristina of the proposals on ways to settle the situation.

"Further developments will depend on the reaction to these proposals by the parties concerned. We've always wanted these proposals to facilitate the negotiations, " he added.

During the consultations the parties "exchanged views on the situation in Europe as a whole and on various international organizations' activities in Europe," he said.

Serbia offers interior independence to Kosovo-Metohija

2007-01-30T21:30:00.002-05:00

Serbia offers interior independence to Kosovo-Metohija

Belgrade, Jan 29, 2007 - Advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister and coordinator of the state team for negotiations on Kosovo's future status Slobodan Samardzic stated today that Serbia offers interior independence to ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo-Metohija through an agreement which would symbolically preserve "the membrane of Serbian sovereignty" over the issue of the province.

In an interview for the Reuters agency, Samardzic said that Serbia only needs respect of its borders, adding that interior organisation of the state may ensure maximum flexibility.

He explained that Belgrade will not govern all other issues related to the vital interests of ethnic Albanians, such as economic, social and cultural ones. He also stressed that these issues could be directly related to financial institutions.

Belgrade's plan does not insist that Serbia controls the border and this matter could be left to international police, said Samardzic and stressed that the Serbian side does not demand that its army and police return to the province.

He said that in ten years' time, Serbia's and Kosovo-Metohija' s membership in the EU would reduce the importance of borders and equalise the monetary and customs policy.

Samardzic noted that Belgrade has not been offered the chance to come up with its own suggestions and added that applying pressure is not a good way to solve this issue in the next few months, as the West is doing now.

The problem of Kosovo is 100 years old and Ahtisaari provided only three hours of Serbian-Albanian status talks last year with a note that it was the meeting of the deaf.

Serbia's plan is a multi-layered plan of administration under the umbrella of Belgrade, he said and concluded that Europe is brimming with successful self-determination stories with no secession.

And the Kosovo Goes to... the International Community?

2007-01-30T21:30:00.001-05:00

And the Kosovo Goes to... the International Community? Can Karpat, AIA Balkan section

Last Friday, Martti Ahtisaari, the UN representative and mediator for Kosovo, presented his proposal on the future of Kosovo to the Contact Group at a closed-door session in Vienna. Probably no independence, but a Dayton-like broad international engagement in Kosovo. At the end, it seems that Kosovo will get rid of Serbia - to go to . the international community? Meanwhile, the coalition negotiations have just begun in Serbia. As one Serbian minister put it, "it has never happened that a European state is requested to have its key issues discussed at a time when its government has not been set up". This is a grand première indeed .

The Kosovo well

Last Friday, Martti Ahtisaari, the UN representative and mediator for Kosovo, presented his proposal on the future of Kosovo to the Contact Group at a closed-door session in Vienna.

All that we know is that Ahtisaari's Kosovo status proposal focused on protecting minority rights and foresaw "a strong international civilian and military presence within a broader future international engagement in Kosovo". That was what he told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last Wednesday.

Of course what interests the public opinion is not this rather impenetrable and vague bureaucratic rhetoric. The main question is short and plain: at the end, independent or not independent?

Diplomats close to Ahtisaari state that "independence" as word does not appear in the document. Instead, the proposal intends to repeat the Dayton model, namely the establishment of an international administrator in Kosovo. As in Bosnia, there will be an international military presence backed up by NATO peacekeepers and a civilian one backed by the EU.

Martti Ahtisaari plans to present his proposal formally to the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians during his visits to Belgrade and Pristina on 2nd February. So as predicted, no one would be happy with the outcome.

The Kosovo Albanians have been assured by their politicians for years that the only possible outcome would be full independence. It was often said that this policy was quite perilous and unwise. Now the Kosovo Albanians would feel themselves frustrated by this proposal, which no doubt delivers them from Serbian control, though without turning their province into a sovereign state as they expected. What will be their reaction? Or rather let us put the question bluntly: will their reaction be peaceful or violent?

As to the Serbs, the proposal would mean nothing but unsaid independence for Kosovo, which is indeed the case. And all this during a most delicate period for Serbia: the post-elections period. The coalition bargain started yesterday. Would such a proposal push Serbia into the political abyss?

And finally, let us ask one final question: what on earth pushed the international community to such a hasty initiative? Crass ignorance of Balkan affairs? Political impatience? The traditional belittlement of the Balkans as "Europe's backyard"? Or all three of them?

As the outgoing Minister of State Administration and Local Governance, Zoran Loncar put it: "It has never happened that a European state is requested to have its key issues discussed at a time when its government has not been set up".

The elections riddle in Serbia

Last week the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) interim president Tomislav Nikolic stated: "The Radical Party is the winner but we shall not have the opportunity of forming a government. We are now going to see how the two parties, the Democrat Party [DS] and the Serb Democrat Party [DSS] will come together". An excellent example of Schadenfreude indeed!

As Nikolic put it, it is quite probable that to find a common ground between Boris Tadic's DS and Vojislav Kostunica's DSS will be a difficult task.

Apart the dispute over the prime minister chair, Kostunica declared that he will not accept any coalition government with the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) in it. Note that LDP is the only Serbian party which does not oppose to the independence of Kosovo.

Otherwise, the DSS top official Dragan Sormaz warned, new elections will have to be called. This was a rather premature warning anyway. Should we take it as a sign of DSS' bad faith?

Yet, as Vojislav Kostunica himself already stated, it is now up to the President to appoint the prime minister. It is expected that Boris Tadic designate the former finance minister Bozidar Djelic to this post. As to the second problem, it may be that this would not be that difficult to push aside.

No matter how or when, DS and DSS accompanied by other minor Serbian and minority parties would probably form the new government at the end. However, the question is not there.

The main question is: will a DS-DSS coalition government, though a pro-Western and democratic one, be functional enough to face the country's serious international and economic problems? Or will it be just a suspension of sentence - as sentence called SRS?

One last nuance, though. Many Europeans patronise the Serbs about the January elections, reproaching them for allowing the Radicals to be the winner. However, in comparison to the last general elections on 28th December 2003, DS marked + 10.3 points, while SRS only + 1.1 point. When one thinks of the serious domestic and international problems that this country does and will face, this result is in fact a promising one for the future.

Serbia Boycotts UN Kosovo Envoy Ahtisaari

2007-01-28T09:46:00.000-05:00

Serbia plans to boycott the United Nations envoy for Kosovo when he arrives in Belgrade next week to present his plan for the breakaway province's future, local media said Saturday.

Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari presented his plan to the so-called Contact Group of big powers - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia - behind closed doors on Friday in Vienna.

The still-secret plan, or proposal, is expected to launch Kosovo toward independence.

Nominally still a province of Serbia, but with a vastly dominant Albanian majority that wants independence quickly, Kosovo has been a UN and NATO protectorate since 1999.

Also on Friday, Serbian caretaker Premier Vojislav Kostunica said that he would not receive Ahtisaari when he arrives in Belgrade to present the plan to Serbia on February 2.

Ahtisaari was scheduled to visit Pristina later that same day.

Kostunica said that the caretaker government, which is to be replaced following the January 21 elections, was without authority to deal with big issues such as Kosovo's status and that it would have to wait for the upcoming government.

On Saturday, Justice Minister Zoran Stojkovic said that no member of Kostunica's cabinet would meet Ahtisaari, whom Serbia has frequently accused of being biased in favour of the Albanians.

Staunchly pro-European and seeking close ties with the West, President Boris Tadic was "likely" to see Ahtisaari when he arrives, sources from his cabinet were quoted as saying.

Tadic, however, has little real power, his function being largely based on protocol.

Without a clear election winner, Serbia has a late-May deadline for the new government to take over, but possibly faces months of political stalemate and even new polls.

Ahtisaari, who mediated Kosovo talks between Belgrade and Pristina starting last February, has already delayed the presentation of his plan in deference to Serbia's elections, called after the country proclaimed its new constitution in November.

So far, 10 months of talks have failed to bring Belgrade and Pristina any closer. Serbs continued insisting on sovereignty over Kosovo, while Albanians reject anything less than independence.

Banking on Russia - which only said it opposed an "imposed" solution, but did not commit - to block Kosovo's independence, Kostunica is attempting to delay the Kosovo process, some analysts said.

He hopes that "Albanian frustration at the delay would lead to violence ... weakening Pristina's position," James Lyon, the International Crisis Group think-tank representative in Belgrade, said in a text he posted on the B92 internet portal.

Russia Seeks Delay In UN Kosovo Plan

2007-01-28T09:44:00.001-05:00

A Western diplomat has said. that Russia wants any UN decision on the future of Kosovo to be put off until after Serbia has formed a new government following inconclusive general elections on January 21.

Western news agencies quoted the unnamed diplomat as saying Russia urged the delay at a meeting of the six-member Contact Group in Vienna today.

The five Western members of the Contact Group -- the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Germany -- reportedly saw no need for delay.

Kosovar Prime Minister Agim Ceku also said today there was no need for any further delay in implementing the UN proposal.

The Contact Group had previously asked UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari to delay his proposal on Kosovo until after Serbia's general elections.

Ceku said the Contact Group then assured his government there would not be another delay.

Holloman commander recalls being shot down in Serbia

2007-01-28T09:40:00.000-05:00

The surface-to-air missile that hit the belly of Lt. Col David Goldfein's F-16 in May 1999 came from an unexpected source.

The SAM launch sites had proved to be a constant threat in Serbia, disappearing and reappearing. This one appeared right under the squadron's route as it flew into Belgrade, Serbia, on a night mission to destroy enemy air defenses. The missile destroyed Goldfein's engine.

"I became a very expensive glider pretty quick," said the 47-year-old Goldfein, now a brigadier general in command of Holloman Air Force Base, who recounted the incident last week. He saw the flak clouds from the anti-aircraft fire that was trying to zero in on his damaged plane.

He felt a stinging sensation on his hand and he looked down to find blood welling from a minor shrapnel injury, said Goldfein, who then commanded the 555th Fighter Squadron and led the first of many missions of Operation Allied Force over Serbia.

"That's when your training kicks in," said Goldfein, one of two pilots shot down in the operation. "It was a full-moon night. You don't want to be highlighted (in the sky) too long."

He waited to eject so he would have just enough time for his parachute to deploy while spending as little time as possible as a floating target. The ejection mechanism worked flawlessly.

After landing in a "perfectly plowed field," he rolled and popped off his parachute. Helmet still on, he grabbed his things and headed for a ravine. The ravine sloped down at a steeper angle than he had expected from his hasty survey, and he tripped and fell face first.

"My stuff was like a raft in front," he said. "I was riding it like Indiana Jones down to the bottom."

He collected himself and then made radio contact with the fighters still circling above.

"My first call was answered by my buds who were with me," Goldfein said. "There wasn't a minute I didn't hear jets overhead, and that was very comforting. There was absolutely no question in my mind I was getting out that night."

As his training had taught him, he dumped anything shiny that would reveal his location and traveled along the edge of the plowed field. If the field had land mines, he thought, the farmers would already have dug them up.

The countryside looked a lot like Indiana or Ohio farmland, he said. "There were lots of dogs and roosters up and awake and sounding off at 2 a.m.," he added.

After walking about two miles, he found a relatively remote cleared area.

"I had to find a good spot to stay hidden and coordinate the rescue," Goldfein said. "It was just, 'Don't screw it up; don't get in the way.' "

He once again communicated his position, and then, from his hiding spot, heard a rustling sound and looked in the direction of the noise.

"Whatever it was, it reared up on its hind legs ... I saw beady eyes," he said. "I say it was a Serbian tiger, but my buds said it was probably a field mouse."

He ran for a distance, which turned out to be a blessing because he found a better landing spot. When the rescue helicopter arrived, it brought enemy fire with it. Within seconds of its arrival, Goldfein was in the helicopter. A later inspection revealed five bullet holes in the fuselage.

"We never know when some young airman is going to risk everything to come pull us out," Goldfein said. "You become extremely humble. They get a bottle of scotch from me every year -- a single-malt, good quality."

Goldfein said the unit saves the last of the bottle and, when he is able to bring the new bottle in person, they drink it together. Even though the airmen who participated in his rescue have rotated out of the squadron, he said, "it's the legacy of the unit."

But, he added, "I keep in touch with many of the airmen on that rescue."

Goldfein said he wanted to fly immediately afterward, but his commanders told him to wait a day. Although he flew the next day, he points out that pilots in Vietnam often flew the same day they were rescued and they didn't receive a hero's welcome when they returned home.

Nonetheless, Goldfein could rightfully consider the incident a day at the office.

"My dad is a career fighter pilot in the Air Force century series fighters," Goldfein said. "I've really been in the Air Force my whole life."

His older brother, a two-star general, is vice director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, and his younger brother flies F-16s at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

Goldfein also deployed to Abu Dhabi for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and to the Vicenza Combined Air Operations Center for Operation Deliberate Force. He has more than 3,900 flying hours in the T-37, T-38 and F-16C/D.

Russia and West divided on UN Kosovo plan

2007-01-28T09:38:00.000-05:00

VIENNA (Reuters) - Russia is skeptical about a plan by United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari that would give Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo virtual independence, a senior diplomat told Reuters on Friday.

After a meeting in Vienna with the six-member Contact Group of major powers, the diplomat said Russia had urged a delay in any U.N. decision on Kosovo until Serbia had formed a new government following an inconclusive parliamentary election on Jan 21.

"It was a very tough meeting. The Russians are very skeptical about the plan," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "I have never seen the Quint (United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy) more united."

Ahtisaari's spokesman Remi Dourlot told reporters after the meeting the envoy would travel to Belgrade and Pristina as planned on February 2 to present his proposal to officials.

The Contact Group has set policy on Kosovo since the U.N. took control in 1999 of the province where 90 percent of the population is ethnic Albanian. Ahtisaari drafted his plan after a year of shuttle diplomacy and fruitless Serb-Albanian talks.

Diplomatic sources said the Vienna meeting was the last step before he presents his proposal to officials next Friday. He will hold further bilateral talks in coming weeks, but diplomats say that would be merely fine-tuning details of the plan.

Eight years after NATO drove out Serb forces accused of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo while fighting Albanian separatists, Kosovo's Albanians demand nothing less than full independence.

Their patience was tested in November, when the Contact Group told Ahtisaari to delay until after Serbia's election.

"There is no need for another delay," Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku told reporters in Pristina on Friday. "The Contact Group assured us before that there wouldn't be another delay."

Belgrade is offering only far-reaching autonomy for a territory it sees as the sacred cradle of the Serb nation.

Diplomatic sources told Reuters this week Ahtisaari's plan would set Kosovo on the road to independence with international supervision, giving it the right to apply for membership of international organizations.

It would provide for a right to dual citizenship and urge Pristina to establish good relations with Serbia, but contain no reference to Serbian sovereignty.

LONG COALITION TALKS

Russia's insistence on waiting for a new government in Belgrade could mean a delay of weeks or months. Last weekend's national election in Serbia failed to produce a clear majority and parties were preparing for lengthy coalition talks.

The ultranationalist Radical Party won 28 percent of the vote but could find no partner that would give it a majority.

The pro-Western Democratic Party came second and is looking for a deal with the party of moderate nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and a smaller liberal party.

Kostunica used increasingly hardline rhetoric during his campaign and has said a common stance on Kosovo is the key to a coalition deal. It is not clear how easy it will be for him to agree with the Democrats on how to handle the potential loss of the province.

Parties have until late May to agree on a coalition, or a fresh election would have to be called.

After a meeting in Brussels, NATO, which keeps 16,000-plus peacekeepers in the province, also advised against a delay.

"There was a strong sense around the table on the need for a (U.N.) resolution as soon as possible," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters. "Long delays risk a lack of clarity, risk fostering instability, " he added.

The alliance is on alert for ethnic tensions caused by the report and wants to ensure it is not caught napping by any new violence in Kosovo, as it was in March 2004 during two days of rioting by ethnic Albanian mobs.

(Additional reporting by Douglas Hamilton and Mark John)

Statement by Martti Ahtisaari

2007-01-28T09:29:00.000-05:00

Statement by Martti Ahtisaari, the UN Secretary-General' s Special Envoy for the Future Status Process for Kosovo before the 2007 Ordinary Session of the CoE Parliamentary Assembly

Wednesday 24 January

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, Dear parliamentarians, ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for your invitation to address your Parliamentary Assembly. Since 1999 the Council of Europe has played a key role in the international community's efforts in promoting human rights and good governance in Kosovo. The CoE expertise in these issues has been, and will continue to be, essential even after Kosovo's status has been resolved.

I would like to take this opportunity here today to provide you with an overview and assessment of where we stand in the status process. I will also brief you on the preparatory work being undertaken for transition from UNMIK to an eventual future international presence in Kosovo following the status resolution. Finally, I will highlight what the CoE's future role in Kosovo could be within the overall envisioned international engagement.

As Special Envoy of the UN SG for the status of Kosovo for the past year I have led the talks between the parties to determine the future status of a territory that has been administered by UNMIK for almost 8 years. Throughout the talks, I have continually assessed the dynamics and developments of the process itself while taking into account the reality of the situation on the ground in Kosovo.

During the future status process, our objective has been to build the foundations for a Kosovo where members of all communities - in particular the Kosovo Serb and other minority communities - can live a dignified, safe and economically sustainable life. Our objective should remain to build a multiethnic society, but we need to be realistic and should be under no illusions: this will require time and cannot happen without the cooperation of all of Kosovo's communities.

Together with my team I have brought the representatives of Serbia and Kosovo together for numerous direct and proximity talks on a range of issues, namely, decentralization, cultural and religious heritage, community rights, and economic issues. My staff has engaged in constant and intense expert-level discussions with both sides. These efforts have been part of a "bottom-up approach", geared towards finding areas of concrete agreement between the sides on issues of direct relevance to Kosovo's minority communities, in particular the Kosovo Serbs. Our fundamental objective has been to create the political, institutional, economic and societal foundations for a Kosovo in which all of its communities can coexist in peace.

As requested by the Foreign Ministers of the Contact Group countries in New York on 20 September, I am now finalising my comprehensive proposal for a status settlement. My proposal takes into account the results of the talks between the sides, and, where no agreement was reached, I have proposed solutions that I judge to be fair and balanced. My settlement proposal focuses strongly on the protection of minority rights, in particular of the Kosovo Serbs. It provides the foundations for a democratic and multiethnic Kosovo in which the rights and interests of all members of its communities are firmly guaranteed and protected by institutions based on the rule of law. It also foresees strong international civilian and military presences within a broader future international engagement in Kosovo. With the recent conclusion of Serbia's parliamentary elections, I am now preparing to present my proposal to the parties without delay in the near future.

One of our key challenges in our proposal has been to define the scope and scale of the international community's future engagement in Kosovo. In the past few months this process has moved forward considerably. A future International Civilian Representative, or "ICR", is envisaged, whose mandate will be to supervise implementation of the Settlement, and who would also be the EU Special Representative. Co-ordination mechanisms with other international organizations, including the CoE, will also be essential to ensure that these organizations work together effectively in Kosovo. Such mechanisms are envisaged in my proposal.

Preparing the ground early and properly for an effective transition to a future international civilian presence and start of implementation is central to our overall efforts. As part of the preparations for this transition, my Office has participated in a number of meetings involving the EU, the OSCE, NATO, the United States and UNMIK. An EU-led ICO transition team has been bringing forward technical preparations on the ground in Kosovo. I am pleased to see that this ICO preparation team, UNMIK and the Kosovo government have intensified their cooperation by establishing a joint transition planning structure.

Although the role of a future international engagement will be critical, we should bear in mind that the major responsibility for an effective implementation of the settlement will lie with the Kosovo authorities. It will be very important that Pristina fully and formally commits itself to implementing all elements of an eventual settlement. But it will not only be an issue of political will. Pristina also has to have the necessary means and institutional capacity to implement the provisions of a settlement.

Mr. President,

From the start of the future status process, my firm and consistent view has been that the CoE should continue to play an important role in the international community's future efforts in Kosovo, following the determination of its future status. In order to prepare for this role, it is of utmost importance that the liaison and coordination at all levels between the CoE and other partners, be as effective and results-oriented as possible. In particular, I would encourage the CoE in Kosovo and the ICO transition team to cooperate closely on the ground in Kosovo.

My Office has benefited immensely from the assistance given by experts of the CoE on decentralisation, and promotion and protection of religious and cultural heritage, and on constitutional matters where we have had very good co-operation with the Venice Commission in particular. I believe that the CoE's expertise and institutional knowledge in the areas of human rights and rule of law will continue to be of considerable value for the democratic development of Kosovo. Specifically, overseeing the application of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities through the existing monitoring mechanism is a strong tool to promote full and effective equality of national minorities (communities) in Kosovo. In addition, we are currently envisaging a role for the CoE in monitoring Kosovo's implementation of the settlement with regard to the protection of the cultural and religious heritage.

As we move forward in the future status process, we are increasingly faced with the need to prepare the ground for a transition of UNMIK's powers, responsibilities and functions from UNMIK to the institutions that will be established under the political settlement, as well as to the future International Civilian Representative and broader future international engagement. I envisage that the CoE will play an important role in such a future engagement, and I look to you for your continuing support of our common efforts.

Thank you.

Serbia votes West decides

2007-01-28T09:21:00.000-05:00

The people have marked their ballots, yet the region's future is more likely to be decided in New York than Belgrade.

Philip Cunliffe

Serbia looks set for weeks of debilitating coalition-building after the results of parliamentary elections on 21 January. Although Tomislav Nikolic's ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party won the most votes, under the proportional representation system no party won an outright victory. Many Western diplomats and politicians have tried to depict the election as a decisive confrontation between the dark forces of Balkan primitivism and 'pro-European' enlightenment. The reality in Serbia itself was more prosaic, with much of the election being fought around economic questions and technocratic promises of fighting corruption.

These elections were the first since the dissolution of the Union of Serbia-Montenegro in May 2006, itself cobbled together under the auspices of European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana in 2003. One of the key issues in the election was the status of the province of Kosovo, still formally part of Serbia but in practice run as a United Nations (UN) protectorate, complete with an internationally- appointed viceroy, since 1999. Although the Serbian constitution of October 2006 declares Kosovo an integral part of Serbia, the UN is expected shortly to publish a report that would redraw Serbia's borders by advocating some form of semi-sovereign independence for the Albanian-majority province.

It was in 1999 that NATO launched what many still consider to be a 'good war' over Kosovo. NATO leaders America and Britain claimed to be intervening to liberate Kosovo from Serb domination. The continuing wrangling over territory in the region, and the West's ongoing role in shaping politics there, suggests that this 'good war' did little to herald a new era of freedom and democracy.

With the parliamentary elections in Serbia, Western powers were hoping to cajole the Serbian electorate into voting for parties that would help the West avoid the unseemly sight of having to dismember Serbia themselves. They would prefer that a Serbian government renounce the province of Kosovo and conceded to a further carving up of the region. This explains why so many international worthies, foreign ministers 'from Scandinavia to Slovenia', patronised Belgrade the week before the election, talking about how Serbs should vote 'for the future and not the past' - 'the future' in this case being pro-Western parties, principally Serbian president Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (1).

But it is hardly surprising that many Serbs have ended up spurning the instructions issued by Western diplomats and embassies. This most recent round of Western intervention is only the latest attempt in the six years since the overthrow of Milosevic in October 2000 to pressure Serbian citizens into doing what the EU and the UN want. The promises of 'European integration' sound more hollow each time (2).

The UN demonstrated the extent of its faith in the Serbian electorate in November 2006, when UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari delayed the publication of the UN report on Kosovo's future. Even though the report's recommendations are already known in advance (semi-sovereignty for Kosovo), and nobody expects its content to change whatever the results of the election, the UN still felt it best to withhold the details of the report, presumably for fear of inflaming the xenophobic instincts of the Serbian masses.

The US ambassador in Belgrade said Serbian voters should turn their backs on the 'extremists who would be happy to turn Serbia into an isolated island blinded by nationalism' (3). Actually, the Western powers have helped to isolate Serbia. Only last year, the EU suspended talks on membership with Belgrade, over the failure to deliver former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. In short, Serbia presents too many opportunities to cover up the failures of Western policy in the region, and to bolster the West's moral authority by claiming the mantle of defending human rights and prosecuting war crimes.

The Western response to the election results was best articulated by Javier Solana. Solana welcomed the results by flagging up the fact that the Radicals did not win the majority of votes: 'the majority of Serbs voted for forces that are democratic and pro-European. ' (4) But even the most ardent EU election monitor would be hard-pressed to use Solana's new measure as a way of uncovering the difference in democratic value between votes cast in the same election. What Solana really means is that what counts as democracy is what the EU decides is democratic, and the democrats are those who are anointed by the international community, regardless of who actually receives the votes.

In spite of the election results, the deciding votes that will determine the fate of the region will be cast in neither Serbia nor Kosovo, but in the UN Security Council. The real political horse-trading will not be coalition-building in Belgrade, but diplomatic intrigue in New York. Some analysts are speculating that Russia, as one of the permanent members of the Security Council, will use its power of veto to deny independence to Kosovo, prompting a diplomatic showdown in order to leverage concessions out of America and the EU. Just the possibility of this happening indicates that the real threat of instability emanates not from Serbia, but from the petty rivalries and intrigues of the major powers as they bicker over the fate of the region's peoples.

Philip Cunliffe is co-editor of Politics without Sovereignty: A Critique of Contemporary International Relations, UCL Press, 2007. Read more about the book here.

(1) Ian Traynor, Integration or isolation? Serbs go to polls with rivals neck and neck, Guardian, 20 January 2007

(2) Tara McCormack, Get Mladic, or else!

(3) Ian Traynor, Nationalists triumph in Serbian elections, Guardian, 22 January 2007

(4) BBC News, Serbian coalition struggle begins, 22 January 2007

Radicals protest in front of U.S. embassy

2006-12-02T19:07:00.000-05:00

BELGRADE -- 25,000 thousand people protested in front of the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, in support of Vojislav Šešelj.

Serb Radical Party (SRS) deputy president Tomislav Nikolić addressed the rally saying that the blame for what he dubbed “savage killing of Serbs in the Hague” lies with the American administration.

Nikolić said his party chose the protest rally venue since the U.S. embassy was the place where, according to him, both the Serbian PM and president went to get their orders and submit reports.

He also told the rally that the Radicals were set to fulfill the task Vojislav Šešelj gave them and were ready to win.

“Vojislav Šešelj has already won and entered the most precious part of the Serb history no matter what happens at the Hague. Serbia will rise and be a state of proud and carefree people. Vojislav Šešelj will last longer than we do, and children in Serbia will say his name with pride. Just as they say the names of Milan Tepić or Nikola Tesla”, Nikolić said.

The protest was supported by several public figures, including Brana Crnčević, Kosta Čavoški, Branko Rakić and Rajko Petrov Nogo.

“This act puts him on level plane with Ghandi, who fought for independence. On a level plane with Mandela, who fought against the apartheid. Vojislav Šešelj is world’s pioneer anti-globalist”, one of the speakers said said.

Meanwhile, Tanjug agency reports that Šešelj, who is still on a hunger strike at the Hague detention unit, has agreed to be examined by an independent medical team.

Refik Hodžić, the Tribunal’s spokesman, said the medical team consisting of Serbian, French and Russian doctors, will examine Šešelj on Monday.

USA rigged elections in Venezuela

2006-11-28T21:18:00.000-05:00

The U.S.-designed Plan to Overthrow Hugo Chavez in the Days Following the Election

by Chris Carlson; November 24, 2006

In 1999, when the U.S.-led bombing campaign in Serbia didn't get rid of Slobodan Milosovic, Washington changed its strategy. U.S. intelligence organized a $77 million effort to oust Milosovic through the ballot box. They sent in CIA front organizations funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Instead of guns and bombs, these U.S. forces were armed with fax machines, computers, and perhaps most importantly, sophisticated surveys done by the Washington-based polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland.(1) Their mission: to take down Milosovic by strengthening opposition groups.

Milosovic is now long gone, as the U.S. effort to mobilize the opposition and produce mass protests was successful in unseating him in the 2000 elections. This victory was a landmark for U.S. intelligence agencies. They had developed a new way to overthrow unfriendly regimes, and it was much easier than a violent overthrow, or a messy invasion. Penn, Schoen & Berland had played an important role; so important that the U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright commended them, saying "This may be one of the first instances where polling has played such an important role in setting and securing foreign policy objectives." (2) They did, indeed, secure their foreign policy objectives. Milosovic was out, and the U.S.-backed opposition took power.

Since 2000, this smooth new strategy to influence elections and topple regimes has been implemented in many other countries. Dubbed as the "post-modern coup" by Jonathan Mowat, the same brilliant techniques were used in Belarus in 2001, in Georgia in 2003, and in the Ukraine in 2004, to name a few. Although it ultimately failed in Belarus, in Georgia the U.S. effort produced the "Rose Revolution" which overthrew President Eduard Shevardnadze. In the Ukraine it was the "Orange Revolution" that installed Victor Yushchenko in 2004.(3) Each time, groups financed by the NED, and USAID worked inside the country to build popular support for the opposition candidate. Each time they constructed an appealing campaign image using the modern marketing tactics that they have perfected along the way. And each time, they used Penn, Schoen & Berland election "polls" to shape the public's perception.

In his article, "Coup D'etat in Disguise," Jonathan Mowat described how these "polls" work: "Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) has played a pioneering role in the use of polling operations, especially "exit polls," in facilitating coups. Its primary mission is to shape the perception that the group installed into power in a targeted country has broad popular support. ""...the deployment of polling agencies' "exit polls" broadcast on international television.. .give the false impression of massive vote-fraud by the ruling party, to put targeted states on the defensive."( 4)

That is, the goal is to either get enough support to sway the election in their favor, or, if that isn't possible, to give the impression that the elections were fraudulent and encourage the population to overturn them. The strategy has been so successful in overthrowing regimes, or installing the regimes that the U.S. prefers, that the operation has evolved into a blueprint to be used in countries around the world. Ian Traynor described it in the Guardian in November 2004 as follows:

"[T]he campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavory regimes...The operation - engineering democracy through the ballot box and civil disobedience - is now so slick that the methods have matured into a template for winning other people's elections"(5)

Manufacturing a "Ukrainian" in Venezuela

These days the U.S. has a new arch nemesis; Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Surely Washington would be delighted to get rid of him in the same fashion as all the rest. But there is one small problem; Hugo Chavez is no Slobodan Milosovic. He is immensely popular among the masses in Venezuela and throughout Latin America. Pro-Chavez parties have continued to win democratic elections over the last 8 years, and will most certainly win again in the December 3rd presidential contest. This time U.S. forces have their work cut out for them. They know that it is basically impossible to beat Chavez at the ballot box; he's too popular. It looks like they will have to go to plan B: a coup d'etat.

The U.S. has already set up camp in Venezuela, and all the original cast members are here. We've got NED, USAID, and yes, once again, Penn, Schoen & Berland. Just like in Serbia, or Ukraine, the objective of the U.S. forces is to remove Chavez from power. Therefore they have teamed up with major opposition groups to map out and implement their strategy. The strategy in Venezuela takes from many of the important lessons that they first learned in Serbia, and have since been carried to many other nations. The goal is to create a situation like in Ukraine in 2004: huge protests against the elections and against the government in order to cause chaos and instability. Basically, it comes in three parts.

First, they need to build up popular support for the opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales, by designing an attractive campaign. This has already been accomplished, in part, but according to most polls Rosales only has about 20 to 30 percent voter intention, compared to Chavez who hovers between 50 and 60 percent.(6) However, it appears support for Rosales has grown a few percentage points in the latest polls as the candidate has crossed the country giving speeches and making promises over the last few months. The major media, of course, gives his campaign nightly coverage, and repeats all of his campaign messages.

The campaign is U.S.-designed and uses modern marketing techniques, and catchy slogans. As shown in the 2005 documentary movie "Our Brand Is Crisis", about a U.S. team who designed the campaign of their favored candidate in Bolivia, these brilliant campaigns use sophisticated methods to create exactly the image they need for their candidate. They tend to target youth, and often include youth movements as they have with Primero Justica (Justice First) in Venezuela. The branding of the campaign with a color, and a one-word slogan is an important part of the U.S.-designed campaigns. In Serbia is the slogan was "Otpor", meaning resistance. In Georgia is was "Kmara" (Enough!). In Ukraine, "Pora", means "It's Time!", and now, in Venezuela, the brand is "Atrevete," roughly translated as "Be bold!"

The second step has been to use the mass media to create the perception that the elections are fraudulent. They have done this in a variety of ways. The NED has funded an organization, Sumate (one-word slogan that means "join up"), with the expressed goal of "achieving a high level of citizen participation in Venezuelan elections. "(7) Founded in 2002, Sumate organized the campaign for the recall referendum to revoke Chavez's presidential term. They lost the recall vote in August 2004 by a large margin, but went on to claim, with the help of Penn, Schoen, and Berland's "exit polls," that the election was fraudulent. Five other polls showed exactly the opposite and concurred with the official voting results in which Chavez won by a wide margin. PSB and Sumate, however, maintained that the opposition had won and that Chavez had committed "massive fraud" in spite of the fact that 5 of the 6 polls concurred with the official results, and that the voting process was certified by both the Carter Center and the Organization of American States.(8) Consequently, Chavez's image as a democratically elected leader was damaged both nationally and internationally. The fraud claim resonated through the major media, and planted doubts about Chavez's legitimacy.

Since the recall referendum, the campaign has been non-stop. Sumate and other opposition groups continue to attack the electoral process in Venezuela, claiming it is not transparent and unfairly controlled by the Chavez government. The major media in Venezuela have wholeheartedly supported this campaign giving coverage to Sumate, and their constant press releases denouncing problems with the electoral process. The idea is to decieve enough people into believing that the Chavez regime is not popularly supported, but is holding on to power through fraudulent elections. They have already been fairly successful in convincing a percentage of the population.

Finally, they must get enough people out into the streets in order to create a situation in which a transition of power could take place. Here is where Penn, Schoen & Berland comes in. In the recent months in the lead up to the December 2006 elections, Penn, Schoen & Berland has been instrumental in shaping public perception. In a series of election polls widely covered in the private media, the polling firm has consistently shown that Chavez's lead is shrinking, and the opposition is gaining momentum, while all of the other surveys done over the last few months show that Chavez maintains a wide lead of between 20 and 30 percent.(9)

Last week, Mr. Schoen, of Penn, Schoen & Berland, released the findings of his latest survey on the Venezuelan evening news. As expected, Penn's survey showed that Chavez's opposition, Manuel Rosales, was nearly tied in the polls with Chavez. Chavez, it showed, had only 48% support, and his opponent Manuel Rosales had gained significantly up to 42%. This poll is now being reported across all the major Venezuelan media, to a huge audience, showing that Rosales was gaining more and more everyday, and could possibly win. Mr. Schoen added his personal opinion, "The momentum is clearly with Rosales."(10)

With the help of the mainstream media, almost all of which is vehemently opposed to the popular president, these fake polls have reached a wide audience. All the newspapers, the major television channels, and internet news sites report the poll results as if they were true, valid, findings. They don't mention the fact that these findings are not supported by any other polling agency. Again, although the reality is that Rosales has almost no chance of winning in the December elections, much of the population now believes he will. The reality doesn't seem to matter, all that really matters is what the population believes. When their candidate loses by a large margin, it will be a difficult reality to deal with. If the opposition strategy works, it might be possible to produce large protests and even riots.

Two weeks ago, on Globovision, one of the major private channels in Venezuela, opposition leader Rafael Poleo called on Venezuelans to do the "Ukrainian" on the day after the elections.(11) Claiming the elections will be fraudulent, Poleo, who was involved in the 2002 coup attempt, described in detail a "plan" to remove Chavez from power after the elections. Comparing it to the "Orange Revolution", the plan calls for Venezuelans to come out en masse to protest against the Chavez government and what they call "fraudulent elections." Poleo then made a call to the high military command to back this "movement", in what basically amounts to a call to overthrow the government.

Two weeks from now, we'll see how all of this plays out. Will the popular Chavez continue to rule as the president of the masses? Or, will the U.S.-trained opposition be able to pull off a "Ukrainian" in Venezuela? The opposition's claims of fraud are totally baseless, and even from the most superficial observation, it is clear that Chavez maintains overwhelming support. But, the U.S.-organized strategy seeks to produce mass protests and perhaps military rebellion to unseat their popular enemy. With the help of Penn, Schoen & Berland, they just might get enough people in the streets to cause some trouble. For the coup planners, that's exactly what they need.

(1) John Lancaster, "U.S. Funds Help Milosevic's Foes in Election Fight," Washington Post, September 19, 2000. http://www.washingt onpost.com/ ac2/wp-dyn? pagename= article&contentI d=A13155- 2000Sep15& notFound= true

(2) Jonathan Mowat, 'Coup d'État in Disguise: Washington's New World Order "Democratization" Template', Center for Research on Globalization, 9 February 2005, http://globalresear ch.ca/articles/ MOW502A.html

(3) Michael Barker, "Regulating revolutions in Eastern Europe; Polyarchy and the National Endowment for Democracy" http://www.zmag. org/content/ showarticle. cfm?ItemID= 11311

(4) Jonathan Mowat, 'Coup d'État in Disguise: Washington's New World Order "Democratization" Template', Center for Research on Globalization, February 9, 2005, http://globalresear ch.ca/articles/ MOW502A.html

(5) Ian Traynor, "US campaign behind the turmoil in Kiev" The Guardian, November 2004 http://www.guardian .co.uk/ukraine/ story/0,15569, 1360236,00. html

(6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Venezuelan_ presidential_ election% 2C_2006#Polls

(7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Súmate

(8) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Venezuelan_ recall_referendu m_of_2004

(9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Venezuelan_ presidential_ election% 2C_2006#Polls

(10) "Venezuela Presidential Race Tightens,"? Thursday, November 16 http://youtube. com/watch?v=UT02dOmjb1s

Ahtisaari Confers With Eu Council On Kosovo

2006-11-14T00:18:00.001-05:00

Brussels. UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari conferred on Monday in Brussels with EU foreign ministers on negotiations on the future status of Kosovo and Metohija, the Serbioan Tanjug reports.

At the closed door meeting that lasted one hour, Ahtisaari informed the Council of the European Union about his decision to set out his proposal on the future status of Kosovo and Metohija after the parliamentary elections in Serbia, and not by the end of the year, as earlier announced, Tanjug's sources in the Council said.

Ahtisaari did not wish, following the meeting, to make a statement to journalists.

It was later reported that the European Union foreign ministers have backed Ahtisaari's proposal.

Minister: We warn states against recognizing Kosovo

2006-11-13T11:10:00.001-05:00

Aleksandar Popovic says Ahtisaari's postponement of Kosovo status due to Serbia's elections is an excuse.

"Ahtisaari's plan to secretly, working behind our backs, draft a paper on Kosovo's independence fell through. The real reason why it fell through is Russia's firm and principled position that UN Charter cannot be breached, and it would appear Ahtisaari understood the Russian 'no' quite clearly", science minister Aleksandar Popovic says.

Popovic, of prime minister Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), believes that the best option Martti Ahtisaari has at this time is to step down and let an impartial and objective international mediator take over.

"Our government is sending out a clear warning that any unilateral recognition of Kosovo's independence would have serious consequences. This applies to the NATO countries in particular, those that bombarded Serbia [in 1999]. In that case we would have to ask whether Serbia was in fact bombarded so that 15 percent of our territory could be taken away", Popovic told journalists.

Serbian president calls for early parliamentary

2006-11-13T11:07:00.000-05:00

Serbian President Boris Tadic on Friday called for early parliamentary elections for January, a decision to influence the future status of its U.N.-controlled Kosovo province.

"I am announcing the decision to call elections for the parliament of the Republic of Serbia for Jan. 21, 2007," Tadic told a news conference.

Tadic said that he expected democratic forces, which will enable Serbia to join the European Union and NATO, to win the general elections.

The election date could influence the timing of a decision on the fate of Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province, where the Western powers are mulling the ethnic Albanian majority's demand for independence.

Talks over Kosovo's future status are proceeding under the auspices of the United Nations. Kosovo has been governed by the U.N. mission since 1999, when a 78-day NATO bombing campaign halted a crackdown by Serbian forces on Kosovo's separatist Albanian rebels.

U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari said on Friday that he would postpone a decision on the future status of Kosovo until after the Serbian parliamentary elections. He also said that a decision on Kosovo would be made "without delay" after the elections.

My favorite column The Battle for Kosovo

2006-11-09T22:00:00.000-05:00

Here is my favorite part from the article

A Serb poet commented last year: "If Kosovo is not ours, why are they asking us to give it up? If it is theirs, why are they taking it by force? And if they can take it by force, why they are so circumspect about it?"

Read rest of The Battle for Kosovo

Amnesty International report on Kosovo

2006-11-09T21:53:00.001-05:00

The UN in Kosovo - a Legacy of Impunity

Introduction

Action must be taken to secure the human rights of the people of Kosovo before the UN body that has governed it for more than six years leaves. Failure to deliver justice for victims of some of the most grave human rights violations in Europe in the last decade has left a legacy of impunity. As European Union (EU) prepares to take over aspects of the UN's role it must ensure that it does not repeat the UN's failures. There is a pressing need to ensure that all persons in Kosovo and, particularly minority communities, are able to enjoy all their human rights, including their rights to justice and to return to their former homes in security.

Most of the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the conflict in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999 have escaped prosecution. People in all communities whose loved ones were killed, "disappeared" or abducted have not received justice. Survivors have not received reparation for acts of torture and rape. Lives are blighted in countless ways. Most members of minority communities have been unable to return to their homes or recover their property. Many still live in enclaves, unable to access jobs, education, hospital treatment and justice without risking their lives and security.

Failures by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to ensure human rights for all have been compounded by the impunity afforded to the UN and some other international organizations in Kosovo. In scant few cases has immunity from prosecution granted to UN personnel and members of the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) been lifted to allow criminal investigations into human rights violations, including the trafficking of women and girls for the purposes of forced prostitution.

UNMIK was established by the UN Security Council in July 1999 after the Kosovo conflict to administer the territory, with a key part of its mandate to protect and promote human rights and to uphold international human rights law. In June 2006 the then Special Representative in Kosovo of the UN Secretary General said that UNMIK was preparing to leave Kosovo after the final status of the province was determined. UNMIK, or any other international administration that replaces it - including the proposed EU mission - and the Provisional Institutions for Self-Government (PISG) including the Kosova Assembly, remain responsible for ensuring that Kosovo fulfils its obligations under international human rights law.

In July 2006, the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) considered UNMIK's report on its implementation of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Amnesty International' s briefing to the HRC - of which this report is a summary - highlighted its grave concerns about certain violations of human rights in Kosovo since 1999. The organization highlighted the continuing impunity enjoyed by those responsible for grave human rights violations which occurred during the conflict in Kosovo.

Amnesty International noted that UNMIK was mandated by the UN to protect and promote human rights, and considered that they had failed to protect the rights of all persons in Kosovo and had failed to abide by and uphold international human rights law including the ICCPR.

On 27 July 2006 the HRC issued its concluding observations and recommendations. It acknowledged the difficulties encountered by UNMIK in operating as both a governing and a UN body, in progressively transferring powers to a provisional governing body, and in relating to parallel Serbian government structures. However, it stressed that the protection and promotion of human rights was one of the main responsibilities conferred on UNMIK, and reiterated the responsibilities of both UNMIK and the PISG to uphold human rights.

Amnesty International' s concerns in Kosovo, documented in numerous reports and in this briefing, were reflected in the Committee's recommendations. The organization is renewing its appeals to the international community to fulfil its responsibilities to safeguard the protection of human rights in Kosovo. UNMIK must implement the legal and other reforms recommended by the Human Rights Committee to strengthen human rights protections in Kosovo, and to ensure that people whose rights have been violated by UNMIK receive prompt and adequate reparation, including redress.

This report summarizes the main areas in which UNMIK and the PISG have failed to uphold international human rights standards in issues of justice relating to the conflict and to the period of UNMIK rule.

This report summarizes and updates a 50-page document, Kosovo (Serbia and Montenegro): United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) - Conclusions of the Human Rights Committee, 86th Session, July 2006, 1 August 2006, AI Index: EUR 70/011/2006, at www.amnesty. org

1. The constitutional and legal framework

Since 1999 the major international human rights treaties have been incorporated into Kosovo's UNMIK regulations, the interim constitution and domestic laws. Despite these commitments, UNMIK said in its 2006 report to the UN Human Rights Committee that a 1999 UNMIK Regulation requiring UNMIK and the PISG to observe internationally recognized human rights standards "does not imply that these treaties and conventions are in any way binding on UNMIK".

New laws and regulations introduced by UNMIK and the PISG have sometimes failed to specify which provisions of formerly applicable laws were being replaced. Officials and police officers have lacked knowledge of current laws and procedures, resulting in a lack of legal certainty about the rights of both victims and suspected criminals.

Two gay men, G.P. and L.B, assaulted on 31 December 2005 in a village outside Pristina, were taken to hospital by members of the Kosovo police and were asked to file a complaint. However, after discovering the men's sexual orientation, police officers later subjected them to insulting and degrading abuse and told them that homosexuality was unlawful in Kosovo. Following a complaint, one officer was reportedly removed from his post and others given training in the law in early 2006.

The law criminalizing homosexuality, although repealed in Serbia in 1994, appeared to remain in force, despite the prohibition of discrimination on any grounds under the 2001 Constitutional Framework and on the grounds of sexual orientation under a 2004 Kosovo Assembly law.

Legal uncertainty and an absence of human rights protection has also resulted from the failure to establish UNMIK or PISG rule in the north of Kosovo - the municipalities of north Mitrovicë /Kosovska Mitrovica (hereafter Mitrovica/ë), Zubin Potok and Zvecan - and its continued control by the Serbian authorities. The Kosova Police Service (KPS) police, introduced in the north only in 2005, have remained ineffective and subject to intimidation, including from a parallel Serbian police force that reportedly handles around 50 per cent of criminal complaints.

Although an UNMIK court operates in north Mitrovica/ë in the continuing absence of a Serbian judiciary, it is mainly used by ethnic Albanians from south Mitrovica/ë brought in by coach. North of the river Ibar dividing Mitrovica/ë, Serbian authorities and parallel courts provide services to ethnic Serbian residents. The ethnic Albanian minority rely on the courts in the south. Travellers from south of the Ibar have to remove their Kosovo number plates or else be turned back, intimidated or harassed. Ethnic Albanians displaced from their homes in the north are unable to reclaim property lost during the conflict, as the KPS have been unwilling to enforce decisions by Kosovo officials and courts.

2. No effective redress

People in Kosovo have been unable to obtain a remedy or redress for offences committed by personnel of UNMIK or KFOR, including civilian police and contractors. This is a consequence of the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by UNMIK personnel, and their consequent lack of accountability before the Kosovo courts. Such immunity is routinely afforded to UN mission personnel for acts carried out in the course of the mission. However, the requirement on the UN Secretary General to waive such immunity if it impedes the interests of justice has rarely been met in the case of UNMIK officials, and only once in the case of KFOR officials.

There is also no impartial or independent human rights oversight institution which can examine complaints against UNMIK, or any international successor authority, or can guarantee access to a remedy. The jurisdiction of the Ombudsperson over UNMIK personnel was revoked in February 2006.

The office of the international Ombudsperson, established by UNMIK in 2000, had in its final report in 2005 remarked positively on increased cooperation from the UNMIK police and usually prompt and thorough investigations into allegations of human rights violations. However, it also noted continued delays in responses from UNMIK and PISG. The retention of an international Ombudsperson was recommended by the outgoing post-holder, by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and by the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Comprehensive Review of Kosovo.

The new Ombudsperson to be appointed by the Kosovo Assembly will have jurisdiction over Kosovo institutions, but only over UNMIK with the agreement of the head of UNMIK, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG). No provisions have yet been made regarding mechanisms to ensure the accountability the planned EU mission, its organs and personnel.

In March 2006, UNMIK established a Human Rights Advisory Panel of international jurists nominated by the President of the European Court of Human Rights, which could hear complaints against UNMIK personnel. However, the SRSG can take the UN's interests into account when deciding the extent of cooperation with requests for the appearance of personnel or for UNMIK documentation and can also ignore its findings. To date, the panel has not been convened.

3. Violence against women

The UNMIK authorities have failed to take sufficient action to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, including the trafficking of women and girls for the purposes of forced prostitution (see section 7, below).

In 2005, UNMIK assisted some 52 individuals in rape or attempted rape cases, and some 592 others in cases of domestic violence. However, despite a daily average of between one and three reports to the police of domestic or other violence within the family, no statistics appear to be available on the incidence, investigation, prosecution or punishment of domestic violence. Provisions for the protection of women from violence in the home are not always enforced or available to all.

An ethnic Albanian woman seeking international protection was returned to Kosovo from Finland in October 2004. Fearing that she would be deported with her husband, who allegedly beat her repeatedly, she first tried and failed to go into hiding, then applied for and was refused asylum on the grounds that she would not be safe in Kosovo because of her husband's violence. Back in Kosovo, she was turned away at a "safe house" for women because it was full and because she had not previously reported the violence to the Kosovo police, a precondition for access to a shelter. She went into hiding. Her family reported death threats from her husband and the police arrested him, but he was released without charge the following day. A court application for a restraint order was adjourned. After an attempted kidnap, the woman gained access to a shelter, for one week only, but the police took no action.

Impunity for war crimes involving rape or other forms of gender-based violence continues. No prosecutions have been brought in the Kosovo courts against either Serbian or ethnic Albanian perpetrators.

The case of an ethnic Serb woman who said she had been abducted, beaten and repeatedly raped was not prosecuted, despite a medical certificate testifying to her injuries and identification of some of her attackers. The woman said that four uniformed men wearing the insignia of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted her on 16 June 1999, tied her to a radiator, and asked her the whereabouts of a Serb paramilitary leader and to identify photographs of Serbian police officers. When she did not reply, she was reportedly beaten and punched all over her head and body, forced to witness a woman friend being sexually abused, and was herself repeatedly raped. She said she was released after four days and was threatened with death if she told the police. In July 1999 the Gjilan/Gnjilanë police opened an investigation but no further action was taken.

4. War crimes

By April 2006 only 23 prosecutions for war crimes had taken place in the Kosovo courts since 1999, according to the UNMIK Department of Justice. For most of the thousands of war crimes committed during the conflict, including killings and rapes, enforced disappearances and abductions, the UNMIK authorities have failed to open prompt, thorough and impartial investigations, to bring those responsible to justice, or to provide adequate reparation to the victims.

The trials of more than 17 Serbs accused of war crimes against the ethnic Albanian population were eventually tried by international panels of judges after courts headed by ethnic Albanian judges were deemed insufficiently impartial. However, the Supreme Court still overturned eight out of 10 verdicts passed by these courts for insufficient evidence and failure to call defence witnesses. Retrials resulted in acquittals or convictions for lesser offences. Very few of the war crimes trials involved non-Albanian victims.

In one case, three ethnic Albanian defendants were convicted of abducting some 14 ethnic Albanian civilians and detaining them in inhumane conditions in a detention centre under the control of the KLA. In another, four KLA members were released in July 2005 after the Supreme Court annulled their conviction and ordered a retrial. They had been convicted of detaining and torturing ethnic Albanians and one Serb suspected of collaborating with the Serb authorities.

Further war crimes prosecutions are not expected. Despite this lack of progress, in 2006 the SRSG reportedly challenged the jurisdiction of the Belgrade War Crimes Chamber over proceedings against a former KLA member, Anton Lekaj.

Anton Lekaj, arrested in August 2004 in Montenegro (until 2006 part of the state of Serbia and Montenegro), was brought to trial in Serbia in November 2005 on charges of war crimes in June 1999. He was allegedly responsible for the detention and killing of three men, the torture or ill-treatment of three others, and the rape of a Roma girl. In September 2006 he was convicted and sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment after a trial that was reportedly conducted in accordance with international standards.

Amnesty International considers that, irrespective of whether UNMIK recognizes some of Serbia's courts (the indictment was by a court removed when the Serbian authorities withdrew from Kosovo in July 1999 and recreated in Serbia proper), Serbia is obliged under international law to exercise universal jurisdiction when a war crimes suspect is in its territory.

"Disappearances" and abductions

The investigation of enforced disappearances and abductions - which are a flagrant violation of fundamental human rights - has been given low priority by the UNMIK police, who along with international prosecutors have not conducted thorough, impartial and independent investigations into abductions of members of minority communities or brought those responsible to justice. There have been no prosecutions of members of the KLA or other ethnic Albanian armed groups believed to have abducted members of Serb, Roma and other minority communities, with the exception of proceedings involving the abduction of one Serb. No information on their fate or whereabouts has been provided to relatives of the "disappeared" or the abducted, who have also received no reparation or compensation.

Some 2,464 persons (1,774 ethnic Albanians and 690 non-Albanians) were still reported missing in December 2005 by UNMIK's Office of Missing Persons and Forensics. About 2,700 cases were reported to have been closed, including over 1,500 cases in which the mortal remains of ethnic Albanians had been found (including some 679 from Serbia). No prosecutions of perpetrators were known to have been opened in any of the closed cases.

5. Ethnically motivated abuses

Despite marked improvements in security for minorities since 2000, and the decline in the intensity and frequency of violent attacks, UNMIK's failure to bring perpetrators of ethnically motivated killings to justice fuels the pervasive climate of impunity for inter-ethnic crimes.

The office of the international Ombudsperson in Kosovo has concluded that the authorities have not exercised proper diligence in their investigations. UNMIK has consistently been unable to provide adequate and timely information on the numbers of arrests, trials, convictions and appeals in cases of ethnically motivated killings and other crimes.

As a result of the remote-controlled bombing of the lead bus in a convoy travelling from Nis in Serbia to Gracanica in Kosovo on 16 February 2001, 12 Serbs died and over 40 were injured. Suspect Florim Ejupi, who escaped from custody in May 2001, was later arrested in Albania in 2005. He was charged in April 2005 in connection with the bombing and a separate incident in which UNMIK and police officers were murdered. As of May 2006 he had yet to be tried. UNMIK reportedly had insufficient resources for the investigation, which was obstructed by KFOR's failure to provide evidence. No outcome has yet been reported in the victims' compensation claim, which has alleged that KFOR soldiers negligently failed to search the road.

In inter-communal violence across Kosovo in March 2004, UNMIK and KFOR took no action to protect the lives and property of minority communities. UNMIK's subsequent failures in conducting investigations and protecting witnesses resulted in most of the perpetrators escaping justice.

Inter-ethnic violence in March 2004 - in which 19 persons were killed, over 900 seriously injured and over 4,100 persons forcibly displaced - erupted following reports that an 18-year-old Serb was seriously injured in a drive-by shooting near Pristina and that three ethnic Albanian children had drowned near Mitrovica/ë while fleeing Serbs. Albanians attacked Serb enclaves and other minority communities in Kosovo. Of the thousands involved, only 426 individuals were charged and only a handful of those convicted. Investigations were not thorough and witnesses were not protected. Of the 56 most serious cases, handled by international prosecutors and judges, only 13 trials had concluded by May 2006. Most had not reached pre-trial investigations or had been closed.

Some KFOR national contingents, for example those under French and German command, interpreted their mandates as solely the protection of people not property.

On 18 March 2004, despite two hours' warning, a small group of UNMIK police and Moroccan KFOR forces under French command reportedly did nothing to prevent some 500 Albanians from systematically burning the Serb Orthodox Church in South Mitrovica/ë and homes in the Serbian village of Svinjare/Frashë r. When French KFOR personnel arrived on the scene, they merely evacuated the villagers to the KFOR camp overlooking the village.

UNMIK and PISG have perpetuated discriminatory treatment of members of minority groups, failing to protect the lives and health of a community of displaced people in at least one notable instance.

Displaced people of Romani, Ashkali and Egyptian origin, living in camps in lead-polluted areas in north Mitrovica/ë from 1999, were only moved to alternative sites in January 2006. Sick KFOR and UNMIK personnel were repatriated at an early stage. However, even after the World Health Organization in 2004 suggested that children be removed from the area within weeks, no urgent action was taken. The site to which the community was eventually relocated was still 100 metres from a contaminated site. The people affected received inadequate medical follow-up care and children continued to have unacceptably high blood lead levels.

6. Torture and excessive use of force

Both the UNMIK and Kosovo police are reported to have contravened international standards on the use of force and firearms. Kosovo police regulations specifically prohibit the use of firearms against a moving vehicle. On 19 April 2005 a Kosovo police officer in Prizren used his service pistol weapon in an apparent attempt to stop a suspect from driving away in his vehicle. On 23 May 2005 an off-duty officer in Pristina used his official pistol when he was assaulted, wounding one man. The weapon was subsequently confiscated. An officer at Pec/Peja police station who shot and killed a male suspect in custody on 2 January 2006 was arrested and charged with murder.

However, disciplinary measures or criminal proceedings are rare in such cases. Credible allegations were made that Kosovo police officers acted in conjunction with ethnic Albanians in attacks on minority communities, in particular in violence against the Ashkali community in Vucitrn/Vushtrri in March 2004. One eyewitness reported police complicity in an attack on his home:

"The crowd of 300-400.started to smash the windows of the cars in the yard and break the house windows. They then tried to get inside the house using a small axe, metal bars and pieces of wood, and hit [my son] on the forehead with a hoe. After 20-25 minutes the police came. Some of the crowd had dispersed but when they saw the police arrive they came back again. I saw the KPS [Kosovo Police Service] officers talking with the crowd and how they brought the demonstrators back.When the police came in they immediately started to arrest my family." His son said that police had assaulted him and his wife as he was led away in handcuffs. Police officers were also alleged to have thrown petrol bombs into Ashkali homes.

Nearly 70 criminal investigations were opened against an unspecified number of police officers in connection with the March 2004 violence, but no prosecutions followed because of inconsistent witness statements or the apparent failure of witnesses to appear. After disciplinary investigations by the UNMIK police, 12 officers were initially suspended and seven reinstated in September 2005.

There have also been few disciplinary or criminal proceedings against UNMIK, KFOR or Kosovo police officers alleged to have used excessive force against protesters or criminal suspects, even in cases in which individual officers were identified. During a demonstration in Peja/Pec in August 2005, in which a rock was thrown at a police officer by a resident unconnected with the protest, the police allegedly used pepper spray against non-violent demonstrators who had offered no resistance. Five people taken for medical treatment were subsequently arrested at the hospital.

UNMIK police allegedly beat and tear gassed women and children in the village of Krusha e Vogël/Mala Krusa on 25 May 2006. At 9.15 that morning a convoy of 12 armoured UNMIK police vehicles arrived, unannounced, at the village. They were escorting defence lawyers from the Tribunal acting for Dragoljub Ojdanic, accused of responsibility for the murder of over 100 men and boys in the village in 1999, and two witnesses - Serb women believed to be former residents of the village. As the women gathered around the vehicles, a community leader asked UNMIK police if they could speak with their former Serb neighbours, and ask what had happened to the bodies of their husbands and children. The UNMIK police refused their request, and the women sat in the middle of the road - preventing the UNMIK armoured vehicles from moving forward. UNMIK police officers tried to move them by grabbing the women by the shoulders and arms, forcibly moving them from the road. When the women struggled, the police officers reportedly began to use riot batons. The women then reportedly responded by throwing stones at the UNMIK police officers and vehicles. Reportedly UNMIK police officers continued to hit them with riot batons and gun butts, and then left the village throwing tear gas from the moving vehicles as they drove off. Some 33 women and three men required hospital treatment, and some 20 children treatment for exposure to tear gas. Although the SRSG admitted that "the operational planning was made on the basis of inadequate information on the sensitivity of the visit and the history of the village," no investigations are known to have taken place into the use of force.

Investigations into the fatal shooting of a rioter by an UNMIK police officer during the violence of March 2004 found that the officer had acted in self-defence. However, the results of inquiries into three deaths during a KFOR operation in the same period have not been made public. Only in one state that has contributed KFOR troops has such a case come before the national judiciary, and it illustrates the defects in the NATO system of investigating human rights abuses by its troops.

On 7 April 2004 the UK High Court ruled in civil proceedings that the UK government should pay compensation to Mohamet and Skender Bici. In 1999 UK KFOR troops opened fire on their car, killing Fahri Bici and Avni Dudi. The UK Royal Military Police had cleared the three soldiers responsible, but the court found they had deliberately and unjustifiably caused the injuries.

7. Trafficking into forced prostitution

The presence of KFOR and UNMIK personnel since July 1999 has been a major factor in Kosovo's development into a destination for women and girls trafficked into forced prostitution. Women and girls have been subjected to torture, including rape, beatings, degrading sexual acts and threats. If detained by the authorities, some were denied information about their rights and access to lawyers and interpreters, and effectively the presumption of innocence. In addition to women trafficked into Kosovo, predominantly from Moldova, Bulgaria and Ukraine, an increasing number of ethnic Albanians - the majority of them believed to be minors - have been internally trafficked.

Despite special legal provisions and the formation of a dedicated UNMIK police unit, trafficking and the use of trafficked women have reportedly remained widespread. Premises designated "off limits" to members of the international community have more often been closed under health and employment legislation than as a result of criminal prosecutions. Allegations of official complicity have continued and few convictions have been reported.

In October 2005 immunity from prosecution was lifted and a senior UN official was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for the sexual abuse of a minor and falsifying official documents. Trafficking charges were dropped. Charges were not brought following the arrest of three UN police officers and four foreign citizens in August 2005 in connection with trafficking. In 2005, three Albanian nationals were convicted of trafficking in persons, rape, falsification of documents and facilitating prostitution, and were sentenced to prison terms of between 10 and 12 years.

An UNMIK and PISG Action Plan to Combat Trafficking was agreed in May 2005, but little has been implemented. It remains dependent on donor funding to provide, for example, effective witness protection and enhanced court security for legal professionals and witnesses. The plan also fails to ensure that trafficked women and girls have an automatic right to protection and assistance, legal counsel, victim friendly forensic interview rooms, and sexual and reproductive health care. Until September 2006 there was no specific Standard Operating Procedure for internally trafficked children.

8. Detention

Detentions by KFOR, UNMIK and the PISG have all contravened detainees' human rights to freedom from arbitrary detention. Detentions authorized by the Commander of KFOR under Detention Directive 42 have been arbitrary. The detention procedures have not been prescribed by law; the detentions are without judicial oversight; and detainees do not have recourse to a court to challenge their detention.

Following a wave of violence in Mitrovica/ë in February 2000, some 46 people were unlawfully detained by French KFOR troops in a gymnasium for up to five days. Between 2000 and 2003, over 3,500 people were detained at the KFOR-run Bondsteel Detention Facility in connection with internal conflict in Macedonia and inter-ethnic violence in southern Serbia in 2001. They were held without judicial authority or legal recourse.

Three foreign staff of two Islamic humanitarian organizations were arrested on 12 December 2001 by Italian KFOR forces and allegedly ill-treated. They were not informed of the reasons for their arrest or their legal rights to challenge their detention. Nor were they provided with an interpreter or lawyer. They were released without charge on 21 January 2002.

KFOR's detention powers derive from its responsibility, under a 1999 UN Security Council resolution, for "ensuring public safety and order until the international civilian presence can take responsibility for this task". However, there is no procedure allowing legal challenge of KFOR detentions or enforcement of rights of reparation for those unlawfully detained. Similar failings apply to detentions by executive order of the SRSG. None are known to have been authorized since December 2001.

Where detainees are charged with criminal offences before the courts, release on bail is rare. Courts do not provide full reasons for decisions to keep suspects in pre-trial detention, often simply citing the wording of the relevant law. In some cases, the excessive length of pre-trial custody may violate the right of defendants to trial within a reasonable time.

On 23 February 2006 a woman and her husband were detained with three others on suspicion of smuggling immigrants and organized crime. Their two young children were placed in a children's home. The woman had initially given a statement on 23 February 2006, but was not interviewed by the prosecutor until 15 June 2006. No attempts have been made by the prosecution to secure more evidence. They remain in detention at the time of writing. In 2004 UNMIK guaranteed access to its detention facilities by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). However, the CPT had been unable to reach similar agreement with NATO in respect of KFOR detention facilities until July 2006.

9. Discrimination against minority communities

Displaced people have not received the security and support needed to recover their former homes and land, and their rate of return to Kosovo remains slow. Restrictions on the freedom of movement of minority communities continue to prevent their access to employment, justice and services such as education and health care. Discrimination against minorities denies them meaningful involvement in public affairs.

The failure of UNMIK and KFOR to ensure a safe and secure environment so that displaced people can return to their former homes in safety and dignity has had the most widespread impact on minority communities. Although most of the 850,000 displaced ethnic Albanians have returned to their homes, their return to areas where they are in a minority has also remained slow. Following the return of Albanian refugees and displaced persons after July 1999, an estimated 240,000 ethnic Serbs, Roma and other minorities were either displaced or fled, the majority to Serb enclaves within Kosovo, the northern municipalities of Kosovo or into Serbia and Montenegro. A further 4,000 were forced from their homes after the inter-communal violence of March 2004, most of them ethnic Serbs. Over 12,000 members of minority communities have returned to Kosovo since 2000, but not all to their former homes.

From 2005, UNMIK has provided returnees with the option of returning to another town or municipality if they are unable to return to their place of origin, often resulting in the overcrowding of mono-ethnic enclaves. However, many have not returned to their homes because of continuing widespread discrimination against minority communities. Many returnees or would-be returnees have been unable to secure legal rights to their property or receive compensation for damage, often because of case backlogs, the absence of affordable legal aid and difficulties in obtaining the documentation to re-establish rights of residence.

It took a year for one Roma returnee to prove her date of birth and place of residence, enabling her to return to her home in Ferizaj/Urosevac municipality. Over 40 years of age, her birth had not been registered, she had never attended school, and her marriage had not been registered. Access to the courts in some areas is only possible under police escort, or through written requests carried by the police or court clerks. The threat of ethnically motivated attacks persists.

In late 2005, while Randel Nojkic, a community rights leader, was driving home in a car with Serbian number plates, an object was thrown from a vehicle bearing Kosovo number plates that caused him to swerve into the ditch. He reported the incident to the Kosovo police but, although his three passengers were later interviewed, he himself was not contacted by the prosecutor or informed by the court of his right to request an international prosecutor on the grounds that it was a suspected racist attack. No further action was taken by the authorities.

Minority communities are excluded from meaningful participation in public life. UNMIK and the PISG have failed to encourage the participation of representatives of minority communities in the negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, either as delegates or on working groups. Instead, one senior ethnic Albanian politician has been appointed to represent all minorities. A coalition of minority groups reported to the Council of Europe the dissatisfaction and disconnection from the talks felt by their communities.

The Anti-Discrimination Law adopted in Kosovo in 2004 provides guarantees against direct and indirect discrimination by public and private bodies and individuals, and gives rights of adjudication before administrative bodies, competent courts and the Office of the Ombudsperson. However, the PISG has been slow to implement the law, and both UNMIK and the PISG have failed to publicize the law as a means of redress against discrimination. It has rarely been invoked in complaints to the Ombudsperson or the courts.

Discrimination is also faced by forcible returnees to Kosovo, who are not provided with assistance by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or any of their implementing partners. People forcibly returned to Kosovo, who include people with medical conditions that cannot be appropriately treated there, do not receive assistance from the UNHCR because the UNHCR opposes forcible return. They receive only limited assistance from a local non-governmental organization (NGO). As talks proceed on the final status of Kosovo, an increasing number of European Union (EU) and Council of Europe states have indicated intentions to forcibly return members of both minority and majority communities to Kosovo. To date such forcible returns have been limited through official Memoranda of Understanding between some EU states and UNMIK. However, unless these are renewed by the PISG, which has taken over responsibility for returns from UNMIK, large numbers of returnees forcibly sent back to Kosovo will leave local institutions unable to cope.

10. Right to fair trial

Violations of the right to a fair trial have been extensively documented by the OSCE Legal Systems Monitoring Service in a series of reports from 1999 to 2006. In this context Amnesty International notes that the right to fair trial was threatened by failures to ensure the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. Neither the international nor the local judiciary may be considered fully independent from the executive, in particular due to the lack of separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary, which Amnesty International considers unacceptable in terms of judicial independence.

Recruited on short-term contracts subject to renewal by UNMIK, international judges are not independent of the executive, a key safeguard of judicial independence. (1) Individual judges have alleged that their independence has been further undermined by UNMIK interference in the allocation and progress of cases. Despite denials by UNMIK of allegations of interference in the allocation and progress of cases, international judges also informed Amnesty International of cases where pressure had been placed on them by the Department of Justice to adopt a specific course of action. International judges and prosecutors in Kosovo remain unaccountable to any regulatory body which might investigate allegations of misconduct.

In December 2005 measures introduced to appoint, regulate and discipline members of the local judiciary were not made applicable to international judges or prosecutors; while the UNMIK Office of Legal Affairs reportedly considered the Kosovo Judicial Council to be an appropriate regulatory body, the UNMIK Department of Justice did not consider it appropriate. However, measures to ensure the impartiality of the domestic judiciary have not been put in place either. One member of the Kosovo Judicial Council is the PISG Minister of Justice.

The ethnic Serb community continues to question the impartiality of the predominantly ethnic Albanian judiciary in cases involving Serb defendants. On the other hand Albanian judges have reportedly requested Serb judges to take on cases including trafficking and organized crimes involving Albanian perpetrators, fearing threats of violence and corruption. Low pay and irregular payment of salaries leaves local judges vulnerable to such pressures.

Neither has UNMIK taken measures to address structural problems within the judiciary - including the lack of legal aid and a backlog of cases in the courts - or to build confidence in the judicial system by members of minority communities.

Recommendations

In their concluding recommendations, (2) many of which reflected concerns expressed by Amnesty International, the UN Human Rights Committee called on UNMIK and the PISG to:

Constitutional and legal framework a.. Ensure that a.. any new law or regulations specifies which formerly applicable laws or provisions are being replaced. b.. laws and regulations are made accessible to the public in all official languages of Kosovo through the Official Gazette and the internet. c.. former Yugoslav laws that continue to be applicable can be consulted easily. b.. Designate a competent body to determine which of the former Yugoslav laws and provisions continue to be applicable. c.. Address the issue of parallel Serbian court and administrative structures in parts of Kosovo.

No effective redress

a.. Retain the post of international Ombudsperson with jurisdiction over international authorities for so long as they remain in Kosovo, and cooperate fully with the new Ombudsperson to be appointed by the Kosovo Assembly.

Violence against women

a.. Take steps to a.. achieve equal representation of women in public offices, and intensify training for judges, prosecutors and police. b.. implement existing laws against gender discrimination and domestic violence. c.. facilitate the reporting of gender-related crimes and the obtaining of protection orders against perpetrators. d.. enhance victim assistance programmes and ensure effective remedies.

War crimes

a.. Investigate all outstanding cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnically motivated crimes committed before and after 1999, including where the perpetrators may have been Kosovo Albanians. b.. Ensure that the perpetrators of such crimes are brought to justice and that victims are adequately compensated. c.. Ensure that the relatives of "disappeared" and abducted persons have access to information about the fate of the victims, as well as to adequate compensation. d.. Provide effective witness protection programmes, including by means of witness relocation. e.. Extend full cooperation to prosecutors of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Ethnically motivated abuses

a.. Ensure that the inhabitants of lead-contaminated camps for the displaced and those who have been relocated nearby are relocated to environmentally safe areas, following their consultation in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. b.. Provide the victims of lead contamination with adequate medical treatment and access to effective remedies to seek and obtain compensation for any damage caused to their health.

Torture and excessive use of force

a.. Ensure, in cooperation with the PISG and KFOR, that complaints about excessive use of force by police or military personnel in Kosovo are investigated by a competent body and that victims receive adequate compensation. b.. UNMIK and KFOR should seek the cooperation of the countries of origin of those personnel to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.

Trafficking into forced prostitution

a.. Ensure the effective investigation and prosecution of people involved in trafficking, including UNMIK and KFOR personnel. b.. Ensure protection as well as adequate access by victims to lawyers and interpreters, health care and counselling, and to other forms of assistance and support. c.. Review the Action Plan to Combat Trafficking to ensure it meets international human rights standards.

Detention

a.. UNMIK and KFOR should revoke the detention powers of the SRSG and KFOR Commander. b.. Ensure that all people arrested by the UNMIK police or under a court order are informed of the reasons for their arrest and of any charges against them, brought promptly before a judicial authority, granted access to a lawyer and to proceedings before a court to determine the lawfulness of their detention, and are tried without undue delay.

Discrimination against minority communities

a.. Intensify efforts to ensure safe conditions for the sustainable return of displaced people, in particular those belonging to minorities. b.. Ensure that displaced people recover their property and receive compensation for damage done. c.. Ensure freedom of movement and access to essential services to minority communities, including those living in enclaves. d.. Ensure the effective participation of all minorities in the conduct of public affairs, including in the negotiations on the future status of Kosovo.

Right to fair trial

a.. Establish independent procedures for the recruitment, appointment and discipline of international judges and prosecutors. b.. Ensure adequate terms and conditions for local judges and prosecutors to shield them from corruption. c.. Increase the representation of ethnic minorities in the judiciary and assign additional judges to courts with case backlogs.

People of Serbia want to join EU

2006-11-08T20:48:00.000-05:00

A latest survey shows that two thirds of Serbian citizens support the country to enter the European Union, but most are not willing to make corresponding changes on their living and working habits, the local Beta news agency reported Wednesday.

The survey, conducted by the Strategic Marketing agency for the Office for Association with the EU, aimed at acquiring the European orientation of people in Serbia. The results show, if a referendum on Serbia's EU membership were held tomorrow, 69.9 percent of the Serbian citizens would vote "yes," 12.3 percent would vote "no," while 17.8 percent would not vote at all.

The survey shows that 34.5 percent of respondents say Serbia will join the EU between 2010 and 2014, but many (32.4 percent) hope that this could happen as soon as next year. Besides, 39.4 percent of the respondents have a positive image of the EU, 22 percent have a negative one, while 38.5 percent are undecided.

These results are believed to show that Serbian citizens still view the EU as one of the most prestigious international institutions, yet the number of undecided respondents is rising because EU suspended its membership talks with Serbian in May, accusing the latter of not cooperating with the Hague tribunal properly by handing in the top war crimes suspect Radko Mladic.

Nearly half, or 46.6 percent, of respondents believe the talks will resume next year, 27.2 percent think this will happen by the end of the year, while 25.2 percent say they will be resumed later.

For the Serbian people, being a citizen of the EU primarily means being able to work in any EU member state (73 percent), the possibility to study there (54 percent) and the right to permanent residence in the EU (49 percent older than 30 and 59 percent of the youth).

However, it is especially worrying that 40.6 percent of respondents are not prepared to change their working habits, while 38 percent do not want to change their living habits. Only a little over 34 percent are ready to make corresponding changes on these habits.

Russia says no to independent Kosovo

2006-11-08T14:56:00.000-05:00

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica met with a delegation of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, led by first vice-speaker of the State Duma and head of the Russian delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Lyubov Sliska.

Sliska said at the meeting that the principled position of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the State Duma is that the fundamental principles of the UN should not be violated while resolving the issue of the future status of Kosovo-Metohija, neither should exceptions be made in the international order. She reiterated that Russia will consistently hold to principled politics.

She pointed to the fact that Russia is against declarations that the issue of Kosovo-Metohija should be resolved by the end of this year, and added that the process of seeking a solution is not over.

Sliska stressed that the result of the referendum, at which the majority of Serbs supported the Constitution, which states that Kosovo-Metohija is an integral part of Serbia, must be taken into account while deciding the future status of Kosovo-Metohija.

Kostunica said that Serbia greatly values the principled position of President Putin and the State Duma that international law must be respected and there can be no one-sided decision to change state borders.

The Serbian Prime Minister warned that any attempt to impose a solution would set a dangerous precedent and have far reaching and unpredictable consequences.

Kostunica stated that Serbia has confirmed her commitment to upholding basic principles of international law through the new Constitution, in the Preamble which states that Kosovo-Metohija is an integral part of the territory of Serbia.

The participants of the meeting stressed that Russia and Serbia cherish traditionally close friendly ties, and emphasized that cooperation between parliaments of the two countries is exceptionally good, adding that there is a great scope for further improving economic cooperation.

Serbian Operators Fight Network Dismantling in Kosovo

2006-10-31T13:02:00.000-05:00

Following last weeks announcement that the Kosovo telecoms regulator would start dismantling base stations of Serbian operators, Serbia's Telekom Srbija has retorted that its operations are fully legal within the Kosovo region.

Telekom Srbija says that it operates entirely legally and legitimately renders its services at the territory of the whole Republic of Serbia, including Kosovo and Metohija, for which it owns the proper licence and other needed permits of the authorized state bodies. The company says that it renders its services to all the citizens of Kosovo and Metohija, regardless of their national and religious orientation.

The company concluded by warning that the latest threats of Kosovo Telecommunications Agency are not just direct attack on the property of Telekom Srbija, but they also gravely endanger the safety and further survival of Serbs and other non-Albanian communities on Kosovo and Metohija.

Incumbent operator in Kosovo, Vala900 claimed that the Serbian operators were affecting its own network. The information that Vala900 has provided shows that MTS operator operates in more than 28 units all over the territory of Kosovo through transmission on 46 channels (from 71 GSM Vala900 channels), all of these parts of Vala900 frequency band.

Ericsson to supply Telekom Srbija with 3G WCDMA network

2006-10-31T12:58:00.000-05:00

Ericsson and Serbian operator, Telekom Srbija, have signed the first contract on the Serbian market for supply and implementation of a 3G network with HSPA functionality and associated services. This 3G network will be connected to Telekom Srbija's existing core network, also supplied by Ericsson

The contract is the result of a successful Ericsson 3G network trial in Serbia and deliveries will commence immediately. With this contract, Telekom Srbija will be the first to implement a commercial 3G network in Serbia and will be able to offer advanced multimedia and mobile broadband services in the market.

Vladimir Lucic, Director Mobile Division, Telekom Srbija, said: "Ericsson and Telekom Srbija are long-term partners and this contract is a further recognition of our successful cooperation. We are very proud to be the first in the market to offer commercial 3G services."

Bo Andersson, President, Ericsson Serbia, said: "Ericsson is honored to have been selected by Telekom Srbija for the supply of the first commercial 3G network in the Serbian market. With this contract, Ericsson further strengthens its good partnership with Telekom Srbija. With our solutions, Telekom Srbija will be able to offer its customers state-of-the-art commercial 3G services."

As of October 2006, Ericsson is powering 30 commercially launched HSPA networks around the world. Of the 109 commercial WCDMA networks worldwide, Ericsson is a supplier to 60.

Serbia stronger with new constitution

2006-10-30T14:39:00.000-05:00

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica Sunday hailed his people's approval of a new constitution which affirms that the disputed ethnic-Albanian majority province of Kosovo is part of Serbia, saying it strengthened his nation.

"This is the moment in which Serbia clearly approves its unity, that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia," Kostunica told Serbian state television RTS shortly after the vote was deemed valid by independent observers.

"Serbia is stronger with the constitution, which once again declares that Kosovo is an integral part of it," he said, claiming that the new constitution was "a proof of Serbia's strength, maturity and responsibility. "

A total of 51.6 percent of Serbia's 6.6 million-strong electorate supported the new constitution, said Zoran Lucic of the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, which monitors polls throughout the former Yugoslavia.

The new constitution claims disputed Kosovo as an "integral" part of Serbia, in an apparent bid to pre-empt UN-backed talks on the province's status, which are widely expected to lead to a form of independence by the year's end. "My first impressions (after the vote) are exceptional, " Kostunica said.

"This is a historic moment, the beginning of Serbia's new development. Serbia is happy, and with reason, for we have done a huge job together." Kosovo's independence- seeking ethnic Albanians who form the majority in the province ignored the vote, as they have done with all Serbian polls since 1990.

Serbia faces the prospect of losing Kosovo as UN-backed negotiations on the future of the southern province -- now in their eighth month -- falter, with Belgrade and Pristina far apart on most issues.

Serbian President Boris Tadic had earlier called on electoral officials to "give their utmost in order to avoid even the slightest doubt on the referendum vote" during the vote count. "Citizens of Serbia have decided to support the European Serbia," Tadic said.

"Our political goal is not only the new constitution, but European standards for our citizens and, finally, membership of the European Union," Tadic told RTS.

The new constitution was unanimously backed by the Serbian parliament on September 30, in a rare show of political unity in this former Yugoslav republic.

Russian diplomats attacked in Macedonia

2006-10-30T14:37:00.000-05:00

Russia lodged a protest with Macedonia on Monday over an attack on four Russian diplomats at the weekend, asking Skopje to conduct a swift and objective investigation into the incident, reports reaching here from Skopje reported.

"The Russian ambassador has passed a note regarding the incident to the Macedonian side and demanded that the attackers be immediately found and punished, and that the embassy be informed about the outcome of the investigation, " the Russian embassy's press secretary told reporters.

Macedonian media reported that the attack happened on Saturday night when the four Russian diplomats emerged from a cafe at a central square of Skopje, the capital city of Macedonia.

Macedonian police said that in the early hours of Sunday morning, there was an argument between dozens of people at a bar and it continued onto the pavement later. Then six to seven still unknown assailants attacked the four diplomats.

The diplomats were injured and taken to hospital. After receiving medical treatment, they were released home, the reports said.

It is still not known why they had been attacked. Some speculated that the fight had been over a young woman, and some suggested it had simply been a drunken brawl.

The Macedonian Interior Ministry said it was doing all it could "to find and apprehend the attackers."

Serbia adopts new constitution

2006-10-30T14:36:00.000-05:00

Serbian voters approved the country's new constitution in a referendum held on Saturday and Sunday, the republican Electoral Commission said.

According to preliminary results cited by the commission, 51.46 percent of the electorate voted in favor of the constitution reaffirming Serbian sovereignty over the breakaway province of Kosovo.

Total turnout in the two-day referendum was 53.66 percent, the commission said. Final official results of the referendum will be made public on November 2, the commission said.

Kosovo the big issue in Serbia referendum

2006-10-27T01:06:00.000-04:00

BELGRADE The leaders of Serbia, normally riven by deep political rivalries, have shown a surprising degree of unity this month.

The country's ultranationalists and its advocates for change, who are more democratically minded, have joined to support a recently drafted constitution that will be voted on in a referendum Thursday and Friday.

The problem, according to critics, is that the draft constitution is deeply flawed and was drawn up more to prove politicians' credentials on the issue of Kosovo than to set the country on the course to a true democracy.

One of the most high-profile provisions of the draft says Kosovo is an "integral part" of Serbia.

The draft constitution will not have any effect on Kosovo's future, since the United Nations Security Council is expected to vote within the next several months on whether Kosovo can break away from Serbia. But the country's leaders see the provision as a way of assuring Serbians that they are doing everything they can to hold on to the province.

Many advocates of change in the legislature went along with the draft - although they dislike some of its undemocratic features - because they wanted to show support for keeping Kosovo. They fear that the UN vote will create a backlash that could lead to gains for the Serbian Radical Party, the leading nationalist party. They also agreed to rush through the drafting of the constitution so that it could be in place before the UN vote.

"This is the most important piece of paper that has been decided on in Serbia in years, yet it is being used for completely tactical reasons," said a Western diplomat, who requested anonymity because he was not permitted to comment publicly on the matter.

The new constitution is intended to replace one drawn up in 1990 by the government of Slobodan Milosevic, the autocratic ruler who was removed in the 2000 Yugoslav presidential election by Vojislav Kostunica, who is now prime minister.

Kostunica, a moderate nationalist who favors the integration of Serbia with the European Union, has long promised a more reform-minded constitution. He supports the draft document and is touring the country promoting it. A government-financed campaign is also urging people to vote yes.

"Some provisions are revolutionary in a way," Kostunica said in a recent interview with Politika, a conservative newspaper in Belgrade.

But many politicians and constitutional experts say the new document in some cases turns back reforms passed since Milosevic left power. One area that is particularly worrisome for critics is the amount of power the government will have over the judiciary.

For instance, under the current constitution, Parliament has the final say on who becomes a judge, but an independent council of judges, the High Judicial Council, controls who is promoted to higher courts. Under the new system, Parliament will retain the power to name judges, but will also appoint the majority of the members of the council.

"All the protections of the judiciary enshrined in the constitution are put into question by the way the High Judicial Council is appointed," said Omer Hadzimerovic, a district court judge and the president of the bar association of Serbia. He also noted that the judiciary's funding was still going to be decided by the Finance Ministry.

Another area of concern is the amount of control the central government will have over local government leaders. The national government will be able to fire democratically elected local officials. The new constitution would also give it the power to name mayors to city assemblies, which are beholden to the country's major political parties. Since 2004, mayors have been elected.

The constitution would also spell out that amendments be made to international treaties signed by Serbia to ensure that they are in compliance with the document. That might derail Serbia's hopes for membership in the European Union.

In addition, Parliament would gain the right to dismiss the president with a two-thirds majority, although the president, largely a symbolic post, is elected by popular vote. That constitutional change, among others, has prompted accusations that Serbia's leading political parties are seeking to sustain the substantial powers garnered by Milosevic's Socialist Party, rather than to establish a state with complete separation of powers.

"We inherited this system from Milosevic and the Communists - this desire to have control over everything," said Goran Jesic, the mayor of Indija, near Belgrade, who will lose his job if the new constitution is approved.

Critics also say that the constitution is fundamentally undermined because Albanians - the majority in Kosovo - cannot vote on it.

Chris Wallace Interview: Clinton's Kosovo

2006-09-30T18:39:00.000-04:00

Former President Bill Clinton was in business of ruining other countries. Current President George W. Bush is in business to ruin both other countries and the United States of America.

This article is from http://www.aim.org

Clinton's bombing of the former Yugoslavia killed more people than died in this "genocide."

Of all the whoppers told by former President Clinton in his Chris Wallace interview, perhaps the most outrageous was his claim that he was involved in "trying to stop a genocide in Kosovo..." In fact, Clinton's bombing of the former Yugoslavia killed more people than died in this "genocide." And his policy benefited Osama bin Laden and the global Jihad.

In the year before the bombing, some 2,000 people had been killed in a civil war in Kosovo. A conservative estimate is that 6,000 were killed by U.S. and NATO bombs.

It's strange as well that Clinton complained to Wallace about the "neocons" attacking him when many of the same neocons in 1999 supported Clinton's war on Yugoslavia. The war was never approved by the U.N. or the U.S. Congress, and in fact violated the War Powers Act. The main beneficiary of the intervention was a Muslim terrorist group, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), with links to bin Laden, who had declared war on America in 1996, bombed our embassies in Africa in 1998, and would later, of course, orchestrate 9/11.

When former CIA official Michael Scheuer says that the Clinton Administration "had eight to ten chances" to kill bin Laden and "they refused to try," he is making a statement that goes far beyond acknowledging Clinton Administration incompetence or a lack of will. The fact is that Clinton had a pro-Muslim foreign policy that actually benefited bin Laden and facilitated 9/11. Most Republicans don't mention this because too many of them were duped into backing Clinton's misguided policy in Kosovo. President Bush, then a candidate, even backed U.S. military intervention there through NATO.

Scheuer's CIA also has a lot to answer for. It is noteworthy that the CIA issued a January 2000 report that essentially whitewashed the nature of the KLA and claimed it was pro-American. The only public release of this dubious report came through Rep. Elliot Engel, in a posting on the website of the National Albanian American Council, which supports an Albanian Muslim takeover of Kosovo.

That report was prepared under CIA Director George Tenet, who on February 2, 1999, gave testimony referring to the Serb "massacre at Raçak," which provided the pretext for NATO intervention against Serbia but which turned out to be a hoax. Tenet was, of course, kept on by President Bush. Not only were Tenet's fingerprints all over the failed and deceptive policy in Kosovo, he told Bush that finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was a slam dunk.

Interestingly, Al-Jazeera celebrated the fifth anniversary of 9/11 by airing several al-Qaeda videos, one of which showed two of the 9/11 hijackers saying their actions were designed to avenge the suffering of Muslims in Bosnia and Chechnya. Nothing demonstrates the bankruptcy of the Clinton policy more than that. Not only did Clinton order the CIA to help the KLA in Kosovo, he approved Iranian arms shipments to the Bosnian Muslims, in order to help them establish a Muslim state in Bosnia. Still, that wasn't good enough for the Jihadists. Nothing appeases them.

The Clinton policy of supporting the same extremist Muslim forces in Europe that subsequently attacked us on 9/11 is far more controversial than the policy of regime change in Iraq, which was officially a policy of Clinton, Bush and the Congress. Kosovo was never a threat to the U.S., and Serbia didn't even pretend to have weapons of mass destruction.

At least in Iraq, despite some questionable intelligence, the cause is just. The U.S. removed a dictator and is fighting for democracy and against the terrorists. The neocons got it right here. Such a policy may in the short term provoke a strong anti-American reaction, as Al-Jazeera rallies the foreign fighters to Iraq to kill Americans, but it is vastly preferable to the Clinton policy of helping Muslim radicals come to power in places like Bosnia or Kosovo. What's more, as the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) acknowledges, in a statement that has been curiously played down by most of the media, a victory in Iraq would deflate the forces of global Jihad.

Our media like to talk about Iraq, because they think the issue will damage Bush, but Kosovo gets no mention, except when Clinton himself or former officials of his administration bring it up and claim it as a foreign policy success. There is no coverage of the anti-Christian Jihad underway there. But seven years after the illegal Kosovo intervention, the September 15 Washington Post reports on a new World Bank study on fragile or failing states that "can breed terrorism." One of them is listed as Kosovo, which is not a state-not yet. Actually, in the report itself, Kosovo is identified as a "territory," not a province of Serbia, but the point remains valid. Kosovo is identified as being "outside the control of a recognized and reputable government," offering "fertile soil on which terrorism could thrive." Terrorism is thriving there, of course, because it was Clinton's official policy to support the terrorist KLA and remove Kosovo from Serbian control.

The result was captured by the summer 1999 U.N. Association newsletter, The Interdependent, which showed Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the cover with her thumb in the air. The headline was: "Kosovo: The U.N. Takes Charge."

Seven years later, the U.N. is still in charge.

The growing danger in Kosovo is compounded by the fact that the problem gets almost no attention in our media, which reported the false charges of genocide that provided the pretext for the military intervention in the first place but still refuse to correct the record and hold Clinton, Albright and then-NATO Commander, General Wesley Clark, responsible for what they have done.

The media blackout is what enables Albright, in a lecture on religion and international affairs at Georgetown University on September 18, to declare, "Of all that we accomplished during my time in office, I'm proudest of what we did in Kosovo because we stopped the killing, and people are back in Kosovo living a free life."

A free life when Christian Serbs are fleeing and their homes and churches in Kosovo are being destroyed? Albright's outrageous comments provide the answer in stark terms to the question: Whose side was the Clinton Administration on in the clash of civilizations between Islam and the West? All of the "missed opportunities" to kill bin Laden, and the interventions on behalf of Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo, didn't give us anything but more anti-American attacks, more terrorism, and finally, 9/11.

Compounding the failure of the Clinton policy in Kosovo, the George Soros-funded International Crisis Group recently released a report saying that the international community "must avoid creating a weak state" and that the territory must have its own army. Left unsaid is that it would be an army dominated by former members of the KLA. That would be the ultimate reward for terrorism. The terrorists would become the official army of Kosovo.

Buried in the report, on page 8, you will find an interesting piece of information. It states that "A tiny but growing minority is turning to Wahhabi Islam," the dangerous brand of Sunni Islam underwritten by Saudi Arabia, which is also financing the building of many mosques in Kosovo. But this should come as no surprise. That element was always there, nurtured by the Clinton policy. Now it gathers force again, just as it did before 9/11.

Serbian President Boris Tadic was in the U.S. recently, on the eve of the anniversary of 9/11, but failed to make any public comments about the status of Kosovo in the context of the global war against radical Islam. That was a glaring oversight. He failed to educate the American people about the stakes involved in the proposed dismemberment of the Serbian Republic. His article in the Washington Post, "Justice for Serbia," was similarly flawed in this respect, focusing on the admittedly important issue of Serbian sovereignty but ignoring the religious dimensions of this conflict.

It won't be enough to oppose independence for Kosovo. The terrorism problem will remain regardless of whether it is a province, territory or a state. But a U.S. position against independence will at least reflect belated recognition that the Clinton policy of encouraging terrorism in Kosovo has finally come to an end. The Bush Administration must side with Serbia in this important chapter in the clash of civilizations.

Hague tribunal confirms it's anti-Serb bias

2006-09-30T16:15:00.000-04:00

The 27-year prison term handed down on Wednesday to former Bosnian Serb wartime leader Momcilo Krajisnik by the United Nations' Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, has shocked local Serbs and reignited polemics with majority Muslims. Dragan Cavic, president of the Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska (RS) was one of the first to react, saying he was "shocked," and that the verdict was a "manifestation of the political character" of the tribunal.

"Krajisnik, as president of the People's Assembly of the RS from its very founding in the difficult war years [1992-1995], was first among equals," said Cavic. "Therefore, any judgements pronounced on him are judgements pronounced on the People's Assembly," Cavic added.

He said the Bosnian Serb parliament during the war did not pass "a single act which would be contrary to the norms of war humanitarian law or any part of the international law," which he claimed made Krajisnik's sentence all the more absurd.

Cavic compared Krajisnik's harsh sentence to the one passed on Muslim war commander of the eastern town of Srebrenica, Naser Oric, who was sentenced to only two years for crimes against Serb civilians and has since been released. Other Muslim and Croat military commanders have never even been tried by the UN tribunal, he pointed out.

"All this, compared with the trial against Krajisnik and the verdict pronounced, points to the political campaign which is being waged not against individuals, but in the final instance against the RS," said Cavic.

Sulejman Tihic, a Muslim member of Bosnia's three-man rotating state presidency, said the Krajisnik verdict confirmed "the RS authorities participated in a joint criminal undertaking of persecution, obliteration, murder, deportations and forcible resettlement of the non-Serb population."

"This verdict shows that RS entity was created by a criminal undertaking, aimed at changing the ethnic composition of Bosnia," Tihic stated. He and other Muslim leaders have stepped up their demands for the RS's abolition, saying it arose from genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Several Bosnian Serb generals have been sentenced by the Hague tribunal on charges of genocide for the murder of up to 8,000 Muslim civilians in Srebrenica in July 1995, after Serb forces overran the town. But Bosnian foreign minister Mladen Ivanic, a Serb, said the fact that Krajisnik was acquitted on charges of genocide, "removes any possibility of accusing the Serbian people and RS leaders of genocide."

Washington-based political analyst of Serbian origin, Obrad Kesic, told the media the timing of Krajisnik's sentencing - three days before Bosnian elections on Sunday - had been bad. Pointing out that Krajisnik was also arrested on the eve of the elections in April 2000, Kesic said his sentence would impact "on emotions" and on how people vote.

"The tribunal has once again demonstrated its bias on ethnic grounds," said Kesic, claiming it was also seeking to intervene directly in Bosnia's electoral process.

The UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday sentenced Krajisnik to 27 years in jail for crimes against humanity, persecution, extermination, murder, deportation and forcible resettlement of local Muslims and Croats.

Krajisnik - considered one of the architects of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia - was acquitted, however, on charges on genocide and breaking the laws and the rules of war.

Russian Orthodox Church calls for pan-Christian alliance

2006-09-30T16:12:00.000-04:00

Rodos, Greece, September 29, Interfax - The Moscow Patriarchate has voiced concern about differences between various churches and has called for the creation of a strategic alliance between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches to defend traditional Christianity, primarily in Europe.

"The fact that the Russian Orthodox Church has already severed dialogue with the Episcopal Church [The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America] and the Church of Sweden [due to its approval of same-sex marriages] show that Christian society has begun to disintegrate, " the Moscow Patriarchate' s representative at European and international organizations, Bishop Ilarion of Vienna and Austria said at the Dialogue of Civilizations forum being held at Rodos, Greece.

It is becoming more and more difficult to speak about Christianity as a unique system of values shared by all Christians of the world or, at least, by the majority of Christians. "The existing abysm divides traditionalists and liberals rather than Orthodox and Catholics, Catholics and Protestants, " he said.

In this situation it is necessary to consolidate the efforts of all Churches that consider themselves to be "Churches of Tradition," that is Catholics and Orthodox including pre-Chalcedonian [ancient Eastern] Churches, he said.

"I am not speaking about the serious dogmatic differences that exist between these Churches and which should be discussed in terms of bilateral dialogue. I am speaking about the need to conclude a certain strategic alliance, a pact, a union for between these Churches defending traditional Christianity - a defense against the challenges of modern times, be it militant liberalism or militant atheism," he said.

related: Seeking unity among christians

CNN "What Are We Becoming?"

2006-09-30T16:01:00.000-04:00

I was really surprised that CNN is able to show something like this. I believe better question is what got into CNN all of sudden, this kind of idioclacy has been happening since Bush took office in 2001.

Roman Catholic, Orthodox Church Dignitaries Seek Unity in Belgrade

2006-09-19T06:40:00.000-04:00

BELGRADE, Serbia - Top Roman Catholic and Orthodox dignitaries declared Monday that the time has come to close the ages-old rifts between the ancient branches of Christianity and bring East and West closer together.

Representing the world's 1.1 billion Catholics and more than 250 million Christian Orthodox, sixty bishops, metropolitans and cardinals - 30 from each side - convened in the Serbian capital Belgrade for a renewed "theological" dialogue while acknowledging that much wider issues are involved.

"East and West have been estranged from each other since the 11th century," said Orthodox Metropolitan John Zizioulas, referring to the historic schism in 1054 when the spiritual leaders in the Vatican and in Constantinople - now Istanbul, Turkey - severed ties over the rising influence of the papacy.

That split was sealed then with an exchange of anathemas - spiritual repudiations, which were lifted in the 20th century but only with halting progress toward restoring bonds.

"We experience in our time that European nations unite and create one family," he said. "It is time to recover the ancient unity. ... East and West meet now not only on the theological level, but also on the political level."

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's most senior figure on Christian unity, said the long-separated branches should turn to their "unity in God, one faith, one baptism."

"We look to the future to build unity for Europe," he added. The week-long gathering in Belgrade is intended to re-start the top-level dialogue after formal talks broke off six years ago.

It is also a fresh start under Pope Benedict XVI, who has appealed to all Christians to unite against what he considers rampant secularism and declining faith in the West.

The Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox, however, have a long history of disputes and rivalry. Issues include the extent of papal authority and alleged attempts by Vatican to poach followers and encroach on historically Orthodox territory, particularly Ukraine and other areas of the former Soviet Union.

"As Christians, we ask our Lord to give us strength to put behind the past," Zizioulas said.

Cardinal Kasper responded praising "forgiveness, purification of our memory of bad things, from both sides."

The last such dialogue was in Emmitsburg, Maryland, in 2000, when the representatives put together a draft document examining the issues. That effort, however, fell apart and the text was never formally debated. The venue of the present talks, the participants said, has symbolic importance. Belgrade was the capital of the former Yugoslavia, which broke up violently in the 1990s, including battles between Roman Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs. But its ethnic groups now strive for reconciliation.

"We have gathered in a country which is recovering from great difficulties, a country that is trying to resurrect itself," Zizioulas said after Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica greeted the guests at the opening ceremony.

Gere closes shops in Sarajevo

2006-09-18T15:55:00.000-04:00

Sarajevo - Actor Richard Gere, who is a Buddhist and a vegeterian, became ill from the smell of cevapi [trans. note: small grilled sausages, a traditional dish] in the Sarajevo quarter of Bascarsija.

The hospitable restaurant operators were forced to close their shops during filmining in Bascarsija because of Gere, even though they made an effort and brought him the very best cevapi to be had, writes the Sarajevo press.

The famous Hollywood star is in Sarajevo filming "Holiday in Bosnia". Gere's arrival in the Bosnia-Herzegovina capital has not been well-received for a number of reasons, including his muscular security guards who have been tough with photo journalists.

Greece urges caution on Kosovo

2006-09-18T15:51:00.000-04:00

Greece's foreign minister urged caution in setting tight deadlines on the future of Kosovo, a Serbian province, so that solving one Balkan controversy would not create another.

"Whatever decisions are made on Kosovo must be decisions which are the product of broader agreement in the region," Dora Bakoyannis, in New York for a high-level U.N. General Assembly session, said in an interview late on Saturday.

U.N. negotiations on the future of Kosovo, known as final status talks, are conducted by Martti Ahtisaari, a Finish statesman. A plan is expected to be presented to the U.N. Security Council for approval by the end of the year.

"That means also Serbia and the neighboring countries. One must be very careful that whatever decisions are made do not solve one problem and create another," she said.

"If we need a few more months for the decision we must not hasten a decision which might not be fully prepared," Bakoyannis said. She would not say what kind of a solution she preferred, adding the devil was in the detail of any plan.

KOSOVO IS SERBIA from the Izetbegovic

2006-09-18T15:48:00.000-04:00

KOSOVO IS SERBIA

The son of Alija Izetbegovic and vice-president of the Bosnian Party of Democratic Action Bakir Izetbegovic says the secession of Kosovo would set a dangerous precedent
Bakir Izetbegovic, the vice president of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the son of the late leader of that party, Alija Izetbegovic, sharply opposes the secession of Kosovo from Serbia and the proclamation of the independence of the southern Serbian province. In a statement for "Kurir" Izetbegovic assessed that "it would be better if Kosovo did not secede because this would set a precedent for Europe".

"It would not be good for something like that to happen because it would lead to a series of separatisms, which would encourage secessionists in all countries, and that would not be good," believes Izetbegovic.

When asked whether his position resulted from the fear that in the event of the proclamation of an independent Kosovo the same thing would happen in Republika Srpska or whether it was based on principle, the SDA vice-president did not wish to answer directly.

"Principles exist in order to be respected and they should be adhered to. In all honesty, the Albanians in Kosovo went through all sorts of things but the principles of inviolability of territory must be respected, and that is why the problem of Kosovo should not be resolved by proclaiming independence, " says Izetbegovic. He repeated his position stated two days ago on Sarajevo's OBN TV, where he said that Kosovo should remain a part of Serbia.

"Kosovo should have the status of broad autonomy but within Serbia because every re-tailoring of borders could encourage other regions to go the same way," assessed Izetbegovic.

Republika Srpska premier Milorad Dodik was the first to stir up passions on both sides of the Drina by comparing the status of Kosovo and Republika Srpska. Dodik warned that "if the independence of Kosovo should occur, it will invigorate the thoughts of people here about the same right to something like that". At the same time, Dodik rejected a referendum on the independence of Republika Srpska any time in the near future, as well as its annexation to Serbia.

"Now is not a good time for a referendum because Serbia could not support it due to its internal problems. However, when the issue of Kosovo is resolved and a few other problems, we can discuss the matter at that point," said Dodik recently. He noted that the referendum would not have to be on the independence of Republika Srpska but could involve a greater independence for it within Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Dodik also recently assessed that the possibility of annexing Republika Srpska to Serbia was "foiled earlier". He explained this position by saying that it is necessary to have "realistic policies" instead of "failed projects [like] Serbia to Karlovac or wherever". Dodik's assessments have provoked serious reactions in Europe. The London "Guardian" even went so far as to state that Dodik's call for a referendum on the independence of Republika Srpska could "launch a new war and mean the end of the Bosnian state".

Muslim pilgrim from the shadows

Even though he is formally the vice-president of the SDA, many people in Bosnia-Herzegovina consider Bakir Izetbegovic the most powerful man in the party, and in certain circles he is even considered the most influential Muslim politician in Bosnia. As well, Croatian and Bosnian media describe him as a gray presence in various developments, scandals and internal Bosnian Muslim political upheavals in the last decade. He rarely gives interviews, especially to independent media. He is an architect by profession, and was at one time the director of the Institute for Urban Construction.KOSOVO IS SERBIA

The son of Alija Izetbegovic and vice-president of the Bosnian Party of Democratic Action Bakir Izetbegovic says the secession of Kosovo would set a dangerous precedent

BELGRADE - Bakir Izetbegovic, the vice president of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the son of the late leader of that party, Alija Izetbegovic, sharply opposes the secession of Kosovo from Serbia and the proclamation of the independence of the southern Serbian province. In a statement for "Kurir" Izetbegovic assessed that "it would be better if Kosovo did not secede because this would set a precedent for Europe".

"It would not be good for something like that to happen because it would lead to a series of separatisms, which would encourage secessionists in all countries, and that would not be good," believes Izetbegovic.

When asked whether his position resulted from the fear that in the event of the proclamation of an independent Kosovo the same thing would happen in Republika Srpska or whether it was based on principle, the SDA vice-president did not wish to answer directly.

"Principles exist in order to be respected and they should be adhered to. In all honesty, the Albanians in Kosovo went through all sorts of things but the principles of inviolability of territory must be respected, and that is why the problem of Kosovo should not be resolved by proclaiming independence, " says Izetbegovic. He repeated his position stated two days ago on Sarajevo's OBN TV, where he said that Kosovo should remain a part of Serbia.

"Kosovo should have the status of broad autonomy but within Serbia because every re-tailoring of borders could encourage other regions to go the same way," assessed Izetbegovic.

Republika Srpska premier Milorad Dodik was the first to stir up passions on both sides of the Drina by comparing the status of Kosovo and Republika Srpska. Dodik warned that "if the independence of Kosovo should occur, it will invigorate the thoughts of people here about the same right to something like that". At the same time, Dodik rejected a referendum on the independence of Republika Srpska any time in the near future, as well as its annexation to Serbia.

"Now is not a good time for a referendum because Serbia could not support it due to its internal problems. However, when the issue of Kosovo is resolved and a few other problems, we can discuss the matter at that point," said Dodik recently. He noted that the referendum would not have to be on the independence of Republika Srpska but could involve a greater independence for it within Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Dodik also recently assessed that the possibility of annexing Republika Srpska to Serbia was "foiled earlier". He explained this position by saying that it is necessary to have "realistic policies" instead of "failed projects [like] Serbia to Karlovac or wherever". Dodik's assessments have provoked serious reactions in Europe. The London "Guardian" even went so far as to state that Dodik's call for a referendum on the independence of Republika Srpska could "launch a new war and mean the end of the Bosnian state".

Muslim pilgrim from the shadows

Even though he is formally the vice-president of the SDA, many people in Bosnia-Herzegovina consider Bakir Izetbegovic the most powerful man in the party, and in certain circles he is even considered the most influential Muslim politician in Bosnia. As well, Croatian and Bosnian media describe him as a gray presence in various developments, scandals and internal Bosnian Muslim political upheavals in the last decade. He rarely gives interviews, especially to independent media. He is an architect by profession, and was at one time the director of the Institute for Urban Construction.

Martti Ahtisaari patron of Nazi SS

2006-09-15T16:30:00.000-04:00

I've long considered Martti Ahtisaari of Finland a Serbophobe simply because he was an agent of the Empire in 1999 and subsequently a Board member of the International Crisis Group. His statement that Serbs bore collective guilt for what (allegedly) happened in 1999 - and, by obvious implication, that Albanians bore no guilt whatsoever, collective or individual, for what has happened since - did not surprise me much.

According to Carl Savich of Serbianna.com, however, there's another reason Ahtisaari is a Serbophobe: during his presidency, he sponsored a monument to Nazis! Savich writes that Ahtisaari's government bankrolled a monument to the Finnish Waffen SS volunteers, some 1400 members of the Waffen-SS division "Wiking." This is in addition to the Finnish troops who fought against the Soviet Union between 1940 and 1945, as allies of Nazi Germany.

Retired NY Times reporter David Binder wrote that Ahtisaari was one of the Finns displaced by the Soviet invasion of Karelia during the 1940 Winter War. So, it stands to reason he would have anti-Soviet (and anti-Russian, by extension) sentiments. A lot of the early 1990s Serbophobic propaganda endeavored to present Serbs as "Russians lite." Ahtisaari would have absorbed this propaganda when he was involved in the early EU efforts to mediate the conflict between Yugoslav republics - efforts that failed miserably when Germany strongarmed the rest of EU countries into recognizing the unilateral secession of Slovenia and Croatia.

So, Ahtisaari has a family history of being displaced by Russians; his country was allied with Hitler in WW2; he sponsored a monument to Waffen SS during his presidency, and he was in position to acquire anti-Serb bias as a diplomat involved in Yugoslav affairs in the early 1990s. I'm no psychologist, but I can see how all that would predispose him towards, say, Kosovo Albanians - who were actually allied with Hitler themselves, but claimed they were victims of "Serb Nazis," and came up with horror stories accusing the Serbian authorities of the most heinous crimes. Although these stories have never been substantiated, they served as the propaganda justification for NATO's invasion, so anyone involved in that enterprise cannot afford to disavow them. And Ahtisaari was very much involved.

But the issue here isn't whether Ahtisaari is biased. That's been obvious even without these background details that have recently emerged. The issue is what to do about him? Would his sponsorship of the Waffen SS be enough of a political tarnish to have him removed? Or are charges of sympathy for the Nazis taken seriously only when their target is an enemy of the Empire, not its agent?

Source: Gray Falcon

Russian U.N. veto

2006-09-12T19:17:00.000-04:00

Serbia's government has said it is cheered by Russia's premier Vladimir Putin's recent comments apparently hinting his country could veto any "unacceptable" United Nations Security Council resolution, such as one backing independence for the breakaway province of Kosovo. Serbian government spokesman Srdjan Djuric hailed Putin's statement as a "principled stand, in harmony with the highest principles of international law," on the inviolability of the existing state borders.

Belgrade's press on Tuesday ran banner headlines hailing Serbia's "Russian brothers." Former foreign minister, Goran Svilanovic, called for caution, however. He said the issue would never come before the UN Security Council - the organisation' s top decision-making body - unless the decision was first agreed upon in the so-called Contact Group for Kosovo, which includes the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.

UN special envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, was due to present a report on progress in negotiations between Serbs and majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo during a meeting of the Contact Group on Monday through Tuesday.

Elena Guskova, a Russian academic and an expert on Balkans, told Belgrade media it was too early to say what the Russian position on Kosovo might ultimately be. On one hand, Kosovo's independence would grant the same rights to the people of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. But on the other hand, it could boost separatist movements in Russian republics such as Chechnya, she said.

Putin - whose country is one of the UN Security Council's permanent five veto-wielding members, along with Britain, France, the US and China - was quoted on Monday by Britain's Financial Times newspaper as saying: "If we find the solution for Kosovo unacceptable, we will not hesitate to use our veto right in the UN Security Council."

Putin's allegedly made the remarks last last Saturday at a dinner with a group of American and Russian journalists and businessmen at his residence in Moscow. But a Russian government official neither confirmed nor denied the statement, saying only he couldn't recall the word "veto" being used.

Putin reportedly said that the same yardstick should be applied to Kosovo and the former Soviet republics. "If a precedent is set, it will negatively reflect on the post-Soviet region and it will be difficult to explain to the peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia why Albanians (in Kosovo) can breakaway from Serbia and they cannot," he stated, quoted in the Financial Times.

National Bank of Greece buys Serbia's Vojvodjanska Banka

2006-09-12T19:10:00.000-04:00

BELGRADE, Serbia-National Bank of Greece SA on Tuesday bought Serbia's Vojvodjanska Banka for 385 million Euros($489.5 million), the official Tanjug news agency reported.

Serbia's Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic, who signed the deal with the Greek bank, said that the sale wraps up the reform of the republic's banking system following privatization of other state-owned banks.

Vojvodjanska Banka is one of Serbia's largest banks. Media reports said that the Greek bank was the only bidder that agreed to buy 99.4 percent of the Vojvodjanska Banka capital, as was requested by the authorities.

Serbia sign Status of Forces Agreement with United States

2006-09-08T15:24:00.000-04:00

A Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) is an agreement between a country and a foreign nation stationing military forces in that country. Source: Wikipedia.com

The United States and Serbia signed a Status of Forces Agreement on Thursday in Washington, opening the door to military partnerships between two countries that just seven years ago were at war. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Serbian President Boris Tadic signed the agreement in a formal morning ceremony held in the State Department's historic Treaty Room.

The SOFA is an important step in the ongoing normalization of relations between the two countries, and a sign of the increasingly warm relationship between the two militaries, according to Maj. Gen. Zdravko Ponos, chief of staff of the Serbian army.

"We've already made good progress in the last few years," with initial exchanges of a few students at military academies in each country, last month's donation of $1.2 million worth of flood-control equipment by the U.S. European Command, and a new partnership between the Serbian army and the Ohio National Guard, Ponos told Stars and Stripes in a Thursday interview in Washington.

"Having a SOFA means that we can conduct joint exercises" and otherwise expand those initial cooperative efforts, Ponos said. On Friday, Ponos will travel to Ohio to meet with its adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Gregory Wayt, and discuss the possibility of bringing some guardsmen to Serbia for a small exercise, he said.

In return, Wayt is scheduled to visit Serbia at the end of September to visit some troops and make further plans. A joint exercise "could even be this year - it depends on the Ohio National Guard," Ponos said. "We are ready for any size [unit] and we will appreciate it."

Before heading to Ohio, Ponos was also scheduled to meet with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Navy Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, NATO's transformation commander and commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va. Asked what the Serbs are asking the Pentagon for, Ponos promptly replied, "education."

"It's good to have equipment and money, but more important is education and experience," Ponos said. "Some day, equipment gets old, and money, you can spend." "We want to become partners, and develop interoperability, " Ponos said. "If you are drawing campaign maps using different colors and symbols and can't understand each other's [maps], it's difficult to have joint exercises." Military education has other benefits, Ponos said.

In times of tight budgets, "it is not expensive and it shows good political will. It can help us in changing mind-sets" on both sides, Ponos said. Changing U.S. military's perception of Serbia is very important to Ponos. "So many American soldiers served in the Balkans, but have not visited Serbia," he said. "Many of them have some prejudice, unfortunately. We want to give them opportunities to visit Serbia and Belgrade, and see the other side.

"Serbia today is not Serbia 10 years ago."

Serbs present new evidence of Dudakovic's war crimes

2006-09-06T13:24:00.000-04:00

Bosnian Serbs, the second largest ethnic group in the country, have presented fresh evidence of crimes allegedly committed by the Bosnian Muslim army during the 1992-1995 civil war. The Centre for Public Security (CPS) in Banjaluka, the capital of Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska, has said it submitted evidence to the Bosnian public prosecutor against 20 individuals for crimes committed against the civilian population and prisoners in western Bosnia.

The crimes were allegedly perpetrated against Serbs, but also against a rebel Muslim group headed by Fikret Abdic, who opposed Muslim wartime leader Alija Izetbegovic, the CPS claims. It says they were committed in 1994 and 1995 by the Fifth corps of the Bosnian Muslim army, led by general Atif Dudakovic.

A total 800 people were killed in the Fifth corps offensive, including 350 civilians, and 100,000 people were displaced, mostly Abdic's Muslim supporters, according to the CPS report. A video that appeared to show Dudakovic's forces killing civilians and burning villages was recently shown by Serbian television. But Dudakovic rejected the accusations, saying he only "defended his country."

Bosnian Serb officials have said they submitted evidence against Dudakovic to the United Nations' Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. But the tribunal, which plans to complete its work by 2008, is not accepting new cases and is referring them to local courts. Most of the 150 individuals indicted by the UN's Hague tribunal are Serbs, which has prompted accusations from Serbia that the court was practising "selective justice" and trying only Serbs.

Bosnian Muslim leaders, including Sulejman Tihic, Muslim member of Bosnia's three-man rotating state presidency, have rushed to Dudakovic's defence. Tihic said he was "proud of Dudakovic's war record," describing him as a hero. In a related development, the Banjaluka Alternative Television channel late on Tuesday aired another video apparently showing one of Dudakovic's commanders, Hamdija Delalic, ordering his soldiers near the western town of Cazin to use all means to retake the lost positions.

"We must break through - kill everything that comes in your way," Delalic is heard telling his soldiers. "I approve and order the destruction of the enemy by all means - knives, bombs, teeth," he says. Asked by soldiers whether rape was allowed too, he is heard replying: "You have the right to do everything."

Apart from murder, looting and burning of villages, many women were raped as a result of Delalic's orders, Esad Covic the Muslim president of western Bosnia's war prisoners' association, told Banjaluka Alternative Television. He cited the case of a Muslim woman, now living in the United States, who suffered a nervous breakdown after repeated rapes. "Unfortunately, she will never be a person to whom one could talk again," he said. Covic said his the western Bosnia's war prisoners' association sent the documentation on the crimes of the Fifth corps to Hague in 1999, but never received a reply from the tribunal.

Serbian trumpet festival attracts 400,000 revellers

2006-09-06T13:01:00.000-04:00

The growing popularity of an annual Roma trumpet festival has drawn hundreds of thousands of revelers to Serbia over the past few days.

The majority of the 1,500 participants of the 46th festival in Guca, about 160 kilometers (about 96 miles) south of the Serbian capital Belgrade, are Roma from around the region. But as the word spreads further west, the festival has been attracting an increasing number of foreigners, boosting the attendance numbers to an estimated 400,000 this year.

At the main stage, standing not far from the village's Orthodox church, Ludovic Delomme effortlessly carries a 13-kilogram (28-pound) sousaphone and is welcomed by a vociferous crowd. Delomme is a member of "Tzi Slav Orkestar Paris" -- a French brass outfit formed in 2000 and attending Guca for the third year.

"They don't play too badly," says Julie Del Toro, a 25-year-old from Toulouse in southern France, as the band warmed up for the "Golden Trumpet" competition. "If such a festival was held in France, I'm not sure it would be as successful," she adds, referring to the uninhibited behavior of the young spectators.

In Guca, they jump onto tables to strut their stuff and show their appreciation for their favorite bands. Played by up to 50 or even 60 musicians at the same time, the melodies are transformed into a kind of deafening, higher sound.

Founded as a local trumpet competition in 1961 by musicians who earned a living by playing at baptisms, marriages and other family ceremonies, the festival gained its renown in the '90s. Nowadays, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who attended the final day of the festival on Sunday, speaks of it as having become a "national label" that his country contributes to world heritage.

For the organizers, it has become "the most important trumpet event in the world" -- a phrase that wouldn't surprise the greats of music like Miles Davis.

"I didn't know you could play the trumpet that way," the famous late American jazz musician said once after a pilgrimage to Guca. The trumpet festival, which offers visitors free entry, is well on the way to becoming a commercial event.

Serbian brewery MB, the main sponsor of this year's festival, reported beer sales of 4,000 hectoliters, or more than 700,000 British pints. The event has also become lucrative for various travel agencies.

A representative of a Berlin-based travel agency, Snezana Knoepffler, a former refugee of Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, hopes to attract more and more Germans seeking a music festival with a difference. "There used to be a hatred of Serbs, and it takes time to overcome this," says Knoepffler.

German student Jelena Kleisler said that like her, many young foreigners come to the festival in Guca attracted by music "that has a heart." The festival is also to be immortalized in a film, organizers said. "Guca -- Distant Trumpet" is in the tradition of Emir Kusturica, the Balkan director who first introduced the world to the cacophonous sound of the region's "Gypsy music" through a string of award-winning movies.

Written and directed by Dusan Milic, the new feature-length film is a history of love surrounding Marko Markovic, the young, talented son of Serbia's best known trumpet player, Boban Markovic.

Milic hopes to unveil the film soon after the latest edition of the festival in Guca, a tiny village in southern Serbia, with the soundtrack already released ahead of the celebration of trumpet music.

Boban and Marko Markovic attended the latest version of the Guca festival, where they were seen sauntering among dozens of the shiny brass instruments, chatting about music together in both Serbian and Romany.

Boban prefers the traditional Austro-Hungarian bugle, while Marko is a virtuoso of the valve trumpet, best known for its use in jazz music.

Child trafficking on the rise in Kosovo

2006-09-04T13:15:00.000-04:00

Child trafficking in the countries of southeast Europe, particularly in Serbia's Kosovo province, has been on rise and is reaching worrying proportions, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Wednesday. In a report, Action to Prevent Child Trafficking in South-Eastern Europe, released in London, UNICEF stated that said that many children were smuggled from southeast Europe into west European countries, "to be used in the sex trade, slavery or for begging". It noted that 1.2 million children were trafficked across the world annually, while 246 million kids world-wide were involved in illegal child labour.

"We know that child trafficking within Kosovo borders is on rise," said UNICEF regional director for southeast Europe, Maria Kalavis. "Children are being recruited for certain jobs and forms of exploitation, " she added. After visiting Romania, Moldova, Albania and Kosovo, the countries most frequently named in child trafficking, one of the reports' authors, Mike Dottridge, said that the trafficking could be fought only by "addressing root causes of the problem. The traffickers themselves are very well organized, very flexible and very ruthless, yet the systems that are in place to deal with them are inflexible and unharmonized, " he added.

Kalavis told the BBC it was absurd that UNICEF's presence in Kosovo wasn't felt more strongly, despite the fact that the province, whose majority ethnic Albanians demand independence, has been under United Nations control since 1999. "Kosovo's priorities have been so far the establishment of the rule of law and the reform of institutions" and we, "as UN agency caring for children want to point out that this area of protection has been neglected", said Kalavis.

Kalavis praised Serbia's efforts in preventing child trafficking. "Serbia is a good example how to prevent child trafficking, because they are eliminating causes which make the children vulnerable," Kalavis concluded.

Two albanians rape 5 year old girl

2006-09-04T13:11:00.000-04:00

BERN (AP) -- Switzerland remained shocked Wednesday the shortly after the advertisement of the rape of a five year old young girl by schoolboys of 11 and 13 years made in June in the Grison commune of Rhazuns. "It is alarming. One forever considering that", declared the Minister for Justice, confirming that the two authors were of the Albanians of Kosovo.

For Christophe Blocher, who expressed itself in front of the press, it is about a "frightening event" and all must be implemented to prevent other sexual abuse this kind.

The federal Office of the migrations will examine under which conditions the two children rapists lived. It will also be necessary to examine whether sexual reasons are really at the origin of this act, continued the minister.

The business of Rhazuns was approached Wednesday by the federal Council (government) in margin of his meeting.

According to newspapers' alemenic "Blick" and "Sudostschweiz" , which made the public affair, the young girl was attracted in the neighbourhoods of a place of park and was sexually deceived by the two schoolboys. Young person the small victim would have retained while the 13 year old teenager violated it. It would have then also misused it.

All three lived Rhazuns and knew each other. The prosecutor for the minors of the canton of the Grisons, Albert Fausch, stated Tuesday that measures had been taken against the two boys, who do not attend any more the local school.

The procedure against the two boys is always in hand. For the punishable acts made by children of less than 15 years, the Swiss penal code envisages educational measurements. The authority of judgement can order the educational welfare, the family placement or the sending in a house of education. Disciplinary measurements, like the obligation with a school work or stops, are also possible. AP

Richard Gere's film about Karadzic

2006-09-04T13:03:00.000-04:00

Hollywood actor Richard Gere will start searching for war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic in a new film due to start shooting in Bosnia this month, a local production company said on Friday.

Richard Shepard's light-hearted thriller "Flak Jacket" will also star U.S. actors Jesse Eisenberg and Terrence Howard, who along with Gere play reporters heading to post-war Bosnia on an unauthorised mission to locate Karadzic.

The film is based on an article written by Scott Anderson, a journalist who reported on the Bosnian war for Esquire magazine.

Edo Sarkic of the Sarajevo-based Scout Film production company said the first 10 days of shooting would be done in Bosnia and the remainder in Croatia.

"We have completed the technical scouting and selected several shooting locations in and around Sarajevo and the 160-member crew will start making the film on September 12," Sarkic told Reuters.

He could not disclose who would play Karadzic.

Bosnian Serb wartime leader Karadzic is wanted along with his military chief Ratko Mladic by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims by the Bosnian Serb forces and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo.

His staying at large represents an embarrassment for the international community, NATO and regional leaders.

Killing in the Name of Democracy

2006-09-04T12:52:00.000-04:00

President George W. Bush perpetually invokes the goal of spreading democracy to sanctify his foreign policy. Unfortunately, he is only the latest in a string of presidents who cloaked aggression in idealistic rhetoric. Killing in the name of democracy has a long and sordid history.

The U.S. government's first experience with forcibly spreading democracy came in the wake of the Spanish-American War. When the U.S. government declared war on Spain in 1898, it pledged it would not annex foreign territory. But after a swift victory, the United States annexed all of the Philippines. As Tony Smith, author of America's Mission, noted,

Ultimately, the democratization of the Philippines came to be the principal reason the Americans were there; now the United States had a moral purpose to its imperialism and could rest more easily. William McKinley proclaimed that in the Philippines the U.S. occupation would "assure the residents in every possible way [of the] full measure of individual rights and liberties which is the heritage of a free people, substituting the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary rule." He also promised to "Christianize" the Filipinos, as if he did not consider the large number of Filipino Catholics to be Christians. McKinley was devoted to forcibly spreading American values abroad at the same time that he championed high tariffs to stop Americans from buying foreign products.

The "mild sway of justice" worked out very well for Filipino undertakers. The United States Christianized and civilized the Filipinos by authorizing American troops to kill any Filipino male 10 years old and older and by burning down and massacring entire villages. (Filipino resistance fighters also committed atrocities against American soldiers.) Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos died as the United States struggled to crush resistance to its rule in a conflict that dragged on for a decade and cost the lives of 4,000 American troops.

Despite the brutal U.S. suppression of the Filipino independence movement, President Bush, in a 2003 speech in Manila, claimed credit for the United States's having brought democracy to the Philippines:

America is proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino people. Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines from colonial rule. Perhaps Bush believes that subservience to the U.S. government is the highest freedom that any foreign people can attain. His comments illustrated the continual "1984"-style rewriting of American history.

Latin American interventions

Woodrow Wilson raised tub-thumping for democracy to new levels. As soon as he took office, he began saber-rattling against the Mexican government, outraged that the Mexican president, Victoriano Huerta, had come to power by military force (during the Mexican civil war that broke out in 1910). Wilson announced in May 1914,

They say the Mexicans are not fitted for self-government; and to this I reply that, when properly directed, there is no people not fitted for self-government. This is almost verbatim what Bush has said about Iraqis and other Arabs. And as long as a president praises self-government, many Americans seem oblivious when he oppresses foreigners.

Wilson summarized his Mexican policy: "I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men!" U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain Walter Hines Page explained the U.S. government's attitude toward Latin America:

The United States will be here 200 years and it can continue to shoot men for that little space until they learn to vote and rule themselves. In order to cut off the Mexican government's tariff revenue, Wilson sent U.S. forces to seize the city of Veracruz, one of the most important Mexican ports. U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of Mexicans (while suffering 19 dead) and briefly rallied the Mexican opposition around the Mexican leader.

In 1916, U.S. Marines seized Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. After the United States could not find any Dominican politicians who would accept orders from Washington, it installed its own military government to run the country for eight years. The previous year, the U.S. military had seized control of Haiti and dictated terms to that nation's president. When local residents rebelled against U.S. rule in 1918, thousands of Haitians were killed. Tony Smith observes,

What makes Wilson's [Latin American] policy even more annoying is that its primary motive seems to have been to reinforce the self-righteous vanity of the president. World War I and II

After Wilson took the nation into World War I "to make the world safe for democracy," he acted as if fanning intolerance was the key to spreading democracy. He increasingly demonized all those who did not support the war and his crusade to shape the postwar world. He denounced Irish-Americans, German-Americans, and others, declaring, "Any man who carries a hyphen about him carries a dagger which he is ready to plunge into the vitals of the Republic." Wilson urged Americans to see military might as a supreme force for goodness, appealing in May 1918 for "force, force to the utmost, force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall make Right the law of the world." As Harvard professor Irving Babbitt commented,

Wilson, in the pursuit of his scheme for world service, was led to make light of the constitutional checks on his authority and to reach out almost automatically for unlimited power. Again, the parallels with Bush are almost uncanny. And many of the same intellectuals who currently praise Wilson for his abuses in the name of idealism also heap accolades on Bush's head.

The deaths of more than 100,000 Americans in World War I did nothing to bring Wilson's lofty visions to Earth. The 1919 Paris peace talks became a slaughter pen of Wilson's pretensions. One of his top aides, Henry White, later commented, "We had such high hopes of this adventure; we believed God called us and now we are doing hell's dirtiest work." Thomas Fleming, the author of The Illusion of Victory, noted, "The British and French exploited the war to forcibly expand their empires and place millions more people under their thumbs." Fleming concluded that one lesson of World War I is that "idealism is not synonymous with sainthood or virtue. It only sounds that way." But it did not take long for idealism to recover its capacity to induce political delusions.

During the 1920s and 1930s, U.S. military interventions in Latin America were routinely portrayed as "missions to establish democracy." The U.S. military sometimes served as a collection agency for American corporations or banks that had made unwise investments or loans in politically unstable foreign lands. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler bitterly lamented of his 33 years of active service,

I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.. .. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. Franklin Roosevelt painted World War II as a crusade for democracy - hailing Joseph Stalin as a partner in liberation. Roosevelt praised Stalin as "truly representative of the heart and soul of Russia" - as if the lack of bona fide elections in Russia was a mere technicality, since Stalin was the nation's favorite. Roosevelt praised Soviet Russia as one of the "freedom-loving Nations" and stressed that Stalin was "thoroughly conversant with the provisions of our Constitution. " Harold Ickes, one of Roosevelt's top aides, proclaimed that communism was "the antithesis of Nazism" because it was based on "belief in the control of the government, including the economic system, by the people themselves." The fact that the Soviet regime had been the most oppressive government in the world in the 1930s was irrelevant, as far as Roosevelt was concerned. If Stalin's regime was "close enough" to democracy, it is difficult to understand why Roosevelt is venerated as an idealist.

Cold War interventions

Dwight Eisenhower was no slacker in invoking democracy. In 1957, he declared,

We as a nation ... have a job to do, a mission as the champion of human freedom. To conduct ourselves in all our international relations that we never compromise the fundamental principle that all peoples have a right to an independent government of their own full, free choice. He was perfectly in tune with the Republican Party platform of 1952, which proclaimed,

We shall again make liberty into a beacon light of hope that will penetrate the dark places.... The policies we espouse will revive the contagious, liberating influences which are inherent in freedom. But Eisenhower's idealism did not deter the CIA, dreading communist takeovers, from toppling at least two democratically elected regimes. In 1953, the CIA engineered a coup that put the shah in charge of Iran. In 1954, it aided a military coup in Guatemala that crushed that nation's first constitutionally based government.

The elected Guatemalan government and the United Fruit Company could not agree on the value of 400,000 acres that the Guatemalan government wanted to expropriate to distribute to small farmers. The Guatemalan government offered $1.2 million as compensation based on the "taxed value of the land; Washington insisted on behalf of United Fruit that the value was $15.9 million, that the company be reimbursed immediately and in full, and that [President Jacobo] Arbenz's insistence on taking the land was clear proof of his communist proclivities, " as America's Mission noted.

Yet, at the same time, the federal government in the United States was confiscating huge swaths of private land throughout American inner cities for urban renewal and highway projects, often paying owners pittances for their homes. There was no foreign government to intervene to protect poor Americans from federal redevelopment schemes. The fact that the U.S. government got miffed over a 1954 Guatemalan government buyout offer helped produce decades of repressive rule and the killing of hundreds of thousands of Guatemalan civilians.

Since the Eisenhower era, U.S. government bogus efforts to spread democracy have sprouted like mushrooms. Especially with the creation of the National Endowment for Democracy in 1983, all limits were lifted on how many democratic cons that the U.S. government could bankroll abroad. The U.S. government is currently spending more than a billion dollars a year for democracy efforts abroad. But Thomas Carothers, the director of the Carnegie Endowment's Democracy and Rule of Law Project, warns that Bush policies are creating a "democracy backlash" around the globe.

The greatest gift the United States could give the world is an example that serves as a shining city on a hill. As University of Pennsylvania professor Walter McDougall observed, "The best way to promote our institutions and values abroad is to strengthen them at home." But there is scant glory for politicians in restraining their urge to "save humanity." The ignorance of the average American has provided no check on "run amok" politicians and bureaucrats.

September 1, 2006

James Bovard [send him mail] is the author of the just-released Attention Deficit Democracy, The Bush Betrayal, and Terrorism & Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil. He serves as a policy advisor for The Future of Freedom Foundation.

SERB REFUGEES NOT WANTED IN KOSOVO

2006-08-20T11:55:00.000-04:00

Local Albanian authoritiies in the village of Obilic near Pristina have forbidden Serb refugees access to portable buildings intended to house the most at-risk families, advised the Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija.

About ten portable buildings put up in the village of Plemetina to ensure basic housing for the most at-risk Serb families have been sealed shut on the basis of a decision by local Albanian authorities.

Local authorities in Obilic claim that "there is no need for this type of housing", while local Serbs see the move by Albanian authorities as yet another form of pressure on minority communities.

The portable buildings were brought to Plemetina last week under the auspices of the Serbian government and the Coordinating Center for Kosovo to provide housing for Serbs who were expelled from their homes during rampaging by Albanian demonstrators in 2004.

Of the 7,500 Serbs who lived in Obilic and surrounding villages before the outbreak of the conflict between Serbian security forces and Albanian guerrillas in 1999, today only some one hundred remain.

Refugee returns and minority rights are the primary prerequisites the international community has given the Kosovo Albanians in response to their demands for the proclamation of the province's independence.

Mujaheddin a threat to Bosnia security

2006-08-20T11:53:00.000-04:00

Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) deputies in the lower chamber of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Parliament have announced that they will vote against the Law amending the law on citizenship, which foresees the acquisition of B-H citizenship by naturalization.

The adoption of this law would result in several thousand mujaheddin from Islamic countries gaining B-H citizenship despite the fact that during the war they committed horrific war crimes against the Serbs while fighting under the wing of the Bosnian Muslim B-H Army, warned SDS deputies.

"Instead of these crimes being condemned and the criminals (who committed them) being brought to justice now there is a desire to make it possible for these warriors of jihad to acquire B-H citizenship," said SDS official Cvijetin Nikolic.

The SDS is demanding accountability on the part of everyone who made it possible for mujaheddin to stay in B-H because they represent a great threat to peace and stability in the region.

"This situation makes the whole region unsafe for investment and prevents the creation of a more favorable visa regime," said Marija Perkanovic, a woman SDS deputy in the lower chamber of the B-H Parliament.

The SDS thinks that all mujaheddin should be urgently deported from B-H because that is the main prerequisite for this region to have the possibility of greater peace.

Croatia's fan form a human swastika

2006-08-17T12:32:00.000-04:00

WORLD champion Italy began life under new coach Robert Donadoni with a shock 2-0 friendly defeat by Croatia today (AEST).

Donadoni, who replaced Marcello Lippi after last month's World Cup triumph, picked only one player from the Germany squad, but it was hardly an auspicious homecoming for the Azzurri.

Croatia's victory was overhadowed by unsavoury scenes at the beginning of the match, when its fans formed a human swastika in the stand, which is even more pointed given the "Ultra" Livorno fans are known for their left-wing political leanings.

The home fans responded by chanting tributes to the thousands of Italians who were massacred by the Yugoslav partisans, led by Marshal Tito, during World War II.

On the pitch the Croats had the match wrapped up by half-time, goals by Brazil-born striker Eduardo and midfield player Luka Modric giving new coach Slaven Bilic a dream start against an inexperienced Italy side.

But Donadon did not blame his players for the defeat.

"I cannot blame the players," said the 43-year-old, whose previous coaching post was with Livorno.

"They did what they could at this stage of the season.

"We knew that the Croats would be in a lot better shape than us

"I am disappointed to have lost, but I am not disappointed by the performances of the players. They all did their best and they paid for two mistakes."

Source

Unpunished crimes against Serbs in Kosovo

2006-08-15T10:41:00.000-04:00

The list comprising these crimes was sent to UNMIK, together with a repeated request that the perpetrators are apprehended and brought to justice

The list of most heinous crimes committed against the Serbian population in Kosovo and Metohija following the arrival of international civil and military presences, that remained unpunished to this day

The Results of Ethnic Cleansing in March 17th-19th 2004

* 8 Killed Serbs * 143 Wounded Serbs * Approximately 5,000 Serbs Expelled * Torched 935 Homes Belonging to the Serb Owners * Destroyed 10 Health and Education Facilities Belonging to Serbs * Ethnically Cleansed Additional 6 Towns and 9 Villages * Burnt Down Additional 35 Orthodox Religious Edifices (Churches and Monasteries) * Desecrated Additional 3 Orthodox Cemeteries

1999

1. 22 July 1999 - 14 Serbian villagers were killed in a field near the village Staro Gracko, municipality of Lipljan. Natives of this village confirmed that massacred bodies of the harvesters had been found. The following persons were killed: Andrija Odalovic, brothers Radovan and Jovica Zivic, Novica Janicijevic and his father Momcilo, his uncle Mile and his cousin Slobodan Janicijevic, Bozidar and Stanimir Djekic, Sasa Cvejic, Ljubisa Cvejic, Miodrag Tepic, Nikola Stojanovic and Milovan Jovanovic. The international investigating authorities brought in four suspects of Albanian nationality, but after a while they were released.

2000

2. 3 February 2000 - Near Cubrelj village, 15 kilometres southeast of Kosovska Mitrovica, an anti-tank guided missile was fired to a bus carrying a clear UNHCR sign with 49 persons of Serbian nationality in it. In this terrorist attack Plana Rajkovic from Banje village and Budimir Jovanovic from Rudnik village were killed, while five persons were seriously wounded. In the moment of the attack there were many women and children in the vehicle. The bus operated from northern Kosovska Mitrovica to the villages of Banje and Suvo Grlo and this line was used exclusively by the Serbs. The attacked vehicle was accompanied by KFOR.

3. 3 February 2000 - A bomb explosion in Kosovska Mitrovica wounded about ten young men of Serbian nationality who were immediately transferred to a hospital. The attack occurred about nine o'clock p.m., when an explosive device was dropped to a catering establishment "Belami" in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, where a bigger group of young people stayed. As in previous bombing attacks, the attackers ran away from the spot. This act of terrorism caused a revolt of citizens who gathered in a large number first in front of the hospital entrance and than in the hospital area.

4. 8 March 2000 - In a series of terrorist attacks in a settlement called Bosnjacka Mahala in the northern Kosovska Mitrovica 22 Serbs and 14 members of KFOR French forces, one of which was an officer, suffered from severe or lighter wounds. The attacks started some time before noon and lasted almost for two hours. During that time several bombs were dropped and light and heavy weapons were used to attack a group of Serbs, mostly high school students. The attack was initiated by Albanian Ljuan Miftari, who rushed with a metal rod at Serbian young men without any reason. After that a fire was opened at Serbs from a nearby Albanian house called Kratez. The attack continued with bombs. All this happened in sight of KFOR members of German contingent who did nothing about it. French soldiers tried to protect Serbs by forming a cordon, but two bombs were also thrown at them. Later on it was announced that four Albanians were arrested on reasonable suspicion of participating in these terrorist attacks, but no information can be found on their conviction for such acts.

2001

5. 17 February 2001 - near Livadice village, municipality of Podujevo, a planted bomb blew apart a bus of the company Nis-express causing death of 11 Serbs (two of which were children) and wounding 40 people. The bus with number plate NI 117-61 was accompanied by KFOR in a convoy of vehicles transferring 250 Serbs towards Gracanica. Despite the arrest of several suspects after the investigation, they were all released except Florim Ejupi who was found directly connected to Albanian organized crime and circles of former OVK (Kosovo Liberation Army). For the "safety reasons" Ejupi was transferred to American military camp "Bondsteel", out of where he managed to escape after a while. This tragic day for Serbs from Kosovo could have been even more tragic. On the other side of Kosovo the Ukrainian KFOR soldiers stopped near Rudar a convoy of Serbs who were travelling for Strpce. The convoy was stopped and returned because six [remote activated] explosive devices were discovered on the road and dismantled.

2003

6. 4 June 2003 - A three-member family Stolic, natives of Obilic, were killed in their village. Slobodan and Radmila Stolic (80 years of age both) and their son Ljubinko (50 years of age) were killed. Having killed them the assailants massacred their bodies and set their house on fire. Although UNMIK chief Michael Steiner offered 50,000 Euros for information which would enable the arrest of the committers, the investigation ended up without a result.

7. 11 August 2003 - Dragan Tonic (45) from Skulanevo in the municipality of Lipljan deceased today having suffered wounding in the head. Two unidentified assailants shot Tonic in his mouth while he was fishing on the River Sitnica in the late afternoon. Tonic was given first aid in Kosovska Mitrovica where he was operated. Due to a critical condition he was transferred to Belgrade on 13 August for further treatment, but despite all efforts made by doctors he succumbed to his wounds. Ever since the international forces came to Skulanevo near Lipljan, where 350 Serbs live, Dragan Tonic is the third victim, while five persons have been wounded, three of them children. None of the committers of these murders was ever found.

8. 13 August 2003 - unknown persons opened fire from automatic weapon on Serbian children who were having a swim in the River Bistrica in the village Gorazdevac near Pec. Pantelija Dakic (10) and Ivan Jovovic (19) were killed in the assault, while Bogdan Bukumiric (15), Dragana Srbljak (14), Djordje Ugrenovic (20) and Marko Bogicevic (15) were injured. As in previous cases when victims were Serbs, the investigation showed no results and the [perpetrators] of this terrorist crime were not found.

9. 31 August 2003 - In a bombing attack on a shop owned by a Serb in Cernica near Gnjilane, Miomir Savic was killed, and Bosko Dinic, Milos Petrovic, Novica Trifunovic and Ljubisa Simic suffered light wounds. Savic, who got killed and the wounded inhabitants of Cernica were sitting in front of the village shop in the Serbian part of the village when a bomb was thrown at them.

2004

10. 9 February 2004 - In a terrorist attack near Lipljan Zlatomir Kostic (36) from Kosovo Polje and Milijana Markovic (24) from Staro Gracko were killed. Their bodies were found near a fire station, on the outskirts of the town. According to investigating authorities' statement they were killed on a transit road while being in Kostic's car. They were ambushed near the fire station in Lipljan.

11. 17 March 2004 - Father and son Stolic were shot on the very doorstep of their home in Drajkovce, a village in the municipality of Strpce, where they lived after the exile from Urosevac. D. Stolic (1955) and B. Stolic (1984) lived in the village bordering on the neighbour Albanian villages.

2005

12. 27 August 2005 - In the terrorist attack to a bus on the line Belgrade - Strpce, near Albanian villages Firaja and Brod, Staja Ilic from Strpce was shot to death by a fire-arm. A sharp bursts of machine gun fire directed to the bus caused severe wounds to Radoslav Dabic, a refugee from Urosevac, Dragan Veljkovic from Stpce and one more person.

13. 29 August 2005 Young men Ivan Dejanovic and Aleksandar Stankovic from Novo Naselje near Lipljan got killed, and Aleksandar Janicijevic and Nikola Dukic wounded in an armed assault in Banjica, on the road Urosevac - Strpce in Kosovo, which occurred late Saturday night. About nine o'clock p.m. four young men took a car, "golf" model, with a number plate from Pristina, and went from Lipljan to Strbac. They noticed that they were followed by a "Mercedes". Then, near the village Banjica, the four Serbs heard a shot and that they had a flat tyre. When they pulled over to change the tyre, the fire opened once more from the "Mercedes", which was still following them. Dejanovic and Stankovic were shot to death, and Janicijevic and Dukic were wounded. The attackers ran away from the spot.

14. 26 October 2005 - On the road Urosevac - Strpce, near the place called Doganovic, a fire was opened at a vehicle of Kosovo police. The armed assault begun around 20.00, but neither of three police officers from the vehicle was hurt. Although the vehicle received several shots, the driver managed to continue towards Strpce, where the vehicle was examined. These were Serbian policemen in their service vehicle returning from their duty on the border crossing "Djeneral Jankovic" towards Macedonia. It was the second assault on policemen of Serbian nationality in last month and a half on the road from Urosevac to Strpce. One Serbian policeman was wounded in a previous assault near the village Brod in the municipality of Strpce.

15. 11 November 2005 at 01.25 in the village Suvi Do, municipality of Kosovska Mitrovica, an unknown person of Albanian nationality opened fire on Ilija Petronijevic. About 01.20 Petronijevic heard some movements around his house, so he turned on the light in his courtyard, got out and spotted an unknown Albanian who, having seen Petronijevic shouted something in Albanian and started running towards Ibar River. Afterwards, several unidentified persons fired about 15 shots from an automatic rifle in short bursts and 5-6 shots from a pistol, and went away towards a nearby Albanian village on Ibar River.

16. 26 December 2005 around 01.30 in Kosovska Mitrovica - northern part of the town- in John Kennedy Street, in the courtyard of "Branko Radicevic" primary school, where containers and mechanization of a public enterprise "Vodovod" were, [an identified assailant] performed an armed assault on Branislav Antovic, son of Ratomir, from Kosovska Mitrovica (security officer). During the assault [the assailant] fired four shots from a fire-arm - 7.62 mm pistol, of which two shots hit Antovic in his abdomen. He was transferred to a hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica where doctors concluded injuries of liver and large intestine. Antovic was operated, but the wounds put his life in jeopardize. Four 7.62 mm cases were found on the spot.

17. 2. December 2005. About 19.00 in the village Malo Rudare, municipality of Zvecan, unknown persons dropped an explosive device (most probably hand-grenade) on the houses owned by Vlado Antanasijevic and Djura Markovic. The attackers approached the houses from the main road Kosovska Mitrovica - Zvecan, which was 40 metres away from the houses. That is the spot they threw the explosive device from, which fell in the courtyard of Vlado Antanasijevic's house. The explosion made a smaller crater and shrapnel broke one window on the front side of the house and made damage to the façade. The owners of the houses spotted a vehicle which went away after the attack towards the village Lipa, municipality of Zvecan, inhabited by Albanian people.

2006.

18. 12 March 2006 - About 20.45 in Klina, Drini Bardh Street, an explosion occurred in the courtyard of an empty house owned by Branko M. Mazic. In the moment of the explosion the owner was in a bedroom of the other house. The incident was reported to UNMIK police on 13 March 2006. According to eyewitnesses' statements, two windows on the house where nobody lived were broken in the explosion. A police patrol with a forensic unit made on-the-spot investigation. A detonator needle wrapped in a tape was found in the courtyard where the device exploded.

19. 1 June 2006 - About 02.30 Miljan Veskovic, a Serb from Zitkovac, was killed on a local road Zvecan - Zitkovac. On that local road the unknown committers made an improvised road block made of broken branches, and when Veskovic stopped his vehicle in front of it, a fire from automatic rifles was opened.

20. 27 July 2006. - About 23.45 in Dragas, municipality of Gora, an explosive device was placed and activated by unknown persons in front of the entrance door of a family house of a [Goran] Rustem Agus, son of Ramiz, born on 13 December 1955 in Dragas, residing in Belgrade. In the time of the explosion no persons were harmed, but the house was severely damaged. In the house of Agus Rustem there was another explosive device placed two years before also by unknown persons.

The Balkan Mirror

2006-08-15T10:38:00.000-04:00

Together with the Middle East, the border lands of southeast Europe known as the Balkans have been a region of the world where seminal events and trends in human history have taken place. It has been called many names, including "the powder keg of Europe" or "the graveyard of empires." The conflicts in the region have also been a mirror of history.
Long before Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations," in the period between the 14th and 19th centuries, the incessant ebb and flow in the conflict between Islam and the West took place in the Balkans. Early in the 20th century, Serbian gun shots in Sarajevo ushered in World War I, Communism and Nazism. At the end of the century, Bosnian Muslim fundamentalists fired gun shots in Sarajevo, killing several Christian Serbs at a wedding party and began a bloody war in Bosnia among Christian Serbs and Croats and Muslims. This war may have well reflected in earnest the renewed clash of civilizations.
The Berlin Wall fell at the end of 1989. The Soviet Union imploded and the end of Communism as a global force followed. Balkan countries joined the trend. However, the pivotal and largest state, Yugoslavia, rapidly descended into a bloody civil-religious war and dissolution. This decade-long war at the end of 20th century mirrored a number of important political, legal, religious and geopolitical precedents for the post-Communist world. Of particular significance are those involving America, the European Union and the United Nations.
At first, the United States favored the preservation of Yugoslavia, or at least its peaceful and orderly dissolution. Changing this position abruptly, America did not oppose Germany's drive for the dismemberment of Yugoslavia and then sided with Islamists in Bosnia. Secretary of State James Baker said "we have no dog in this fight" -- but in the end America was the top dog in the fight.
The international community's engagement in the Balkans have so far been a textbook illustration of the dangers of contradictory policies, chronic indecisions, confusion and ignorance about historical forces in play, double standards and flawed precedents. America was not prepared for the peace and the role of the only superpower in the world. Our leadership has failed in this task so far.
Apparently, not much has been learned from this experience. We could replace the location, inserting Iraq instead of the Balkans, and the aforementioned assessment would be similar today.
The Balkan mirror also shows the impotence and irrelevance of the United Nations. Any country and any people would be foolhardy to place their destiny in the hands of this inept institution. With America's complicity, the United Nations did nothing when its embargo on arms shipments was violated by Iran sending planeloads of arms to Bosnian Muslims. Subsequently, when veteran jihadists came to the country to fight Serbs, the West was also supportive.
The Serbian province of Kosovo has been ethnically cleansed from Serbs, Roma and other non-Albanians while 150 churches and many medieval monasteries have been destroyed during 10 years of U.N. governance.
The mirror showed the duplicitous methods by which world media influenced world opinion. With few exceptions, it has abused its power and professional responsibility, failing to heed Ed Murrow's admonition to examine all sides of a story and aim to elucidate, not advocate. It did the latter and in general continues to advocate an Islamic agenda in Bosnia and Kosovo.
The Balkan realities also show a great adaptability of Islamists to present a worldly, democratic face. Readily accepted by the West, Bosnian leader and fundamentalist Islamist Alija Izetbegovic was tolerated and praised as a democrat. Nevertheless, in his book "The Islamic Declaration" Izetbegovic asserted absolute validity of dominance of Islam: "There can be neither peace nor coexistence between Islamic religion and non-Islamic social and political institutions," he wrote. Later in the war, Mr. Izetbegovic was influenced and financially and militarily supported by fundamentalist Islamists (including Osama bin Laden). Similarly, some Kosovo leaders, previously called terrorists and thugs by U.S. special envoy Robert Gelbard, are now afforded respect in the United Nations and elsewhere.
The ugliest and most dangerous reflection in the mirror is that of double-standards. As we are facing challenges and dangers of radical Islam and terrorism worldwide, let's not dismiss the Balkan experience. Our policies must contain moral dimensions. International agreements, legal precedents and evenhanded treatment of warring people were not followed in the Yugoslav tragedy. If we are to get out of the Middle East quagmire we must change these policies. Failing to realize that by endeavoring to resolve complex problems by double standards, we more often than not double them in the end.
In addition, the Balkan Mirror has provided important and troubling reflections upon Islam and the new world (dis)order.

Michael Djordjevich, an American of Serbian origin, founded and was the first president of the Serbian Unity Congress.

Kosovo's sex trade connections

2006-08-14T14:33:00.000-04:00

Slave trade that feeds Europe's appetite for sex

Louisa Waugh recounts her harrowing journey along the continent's human trafficking routes

When anybody asks what made me decide to write a book on human trafficking, the only answer I can give is that it was a gut-level response to press reports on modern-day slavery.

They described young women and girls from the Balkans being sold to pimps across Europe and other indebted migrants being bullied and beaten into working long hours for almost no pay.

I was immediately fascinated, appalled and wanted to know more. I contacted Anti-Slavery International, spent a week immersed in its sober south London library and emerged determined to write a book about the experiences of trafficked people.

I visited villages in Moldova that had been emptied of people who had left in search of any kind of paid work; some had almost no young people. Others had become infamous for the number of young women who'd gone missing or the number of men who had resorted to "donating" a kidney for a few thousand US dollars. While a few Moldovans were raking in the cash through crime, the poor were desperately trying to get out of the country.

I interviewed two Moldovan women who had been trafficked. They had left home to work abroad because they needed to support their children. Anna was bought by a Macedonian pimp, sold on so many times she lost track of how many men had "owned" her and ended up in Albania. Olga was taken to Kosovo where she spent two years forced to work as a prostitute in a local bar. She was beaten about the head so savagely she was almost blinded.

I then followed the trafficking routes they had taken. Many Albanian women are trafficked by people they know, often a relative or "friend" who offers them work in Italy or Greece.

Across the mountains, in Kosovo, there is 60% unemployment and small brothels are strung along the back streets of almost every town. There, United Nations and Nato peacekeepers have a lot to answer for. Trafficking escalated as soon as they arrived and though the situation has improved, the brothels I visited were full of women for rent.

Reading a trafficking report in a newspaper is one thing, listening to a woman explaining how she has survived being raped and beaten on a daily basis is profoundly different. Some women will never recover from what they've been through. Others are angry about what has been done to them and want justice.

In the Balkans, many trafficked women are supported in refuges run by fierce and inspiring local women who have dedicated their lives to taking on traffickers within their communities.

These women are titans. They refuse to be cowed by threats or lack of money and deserve far more support than they receive.They talked to me about the chronic poverty, unemployment and domestic violence that "push" women and girls into prostitution. Though some women have been tricked into sex work, many agree to prostitute themselves because they believe they'll be able to choose who they have sex with and make decent money.

Traffickers are ruthless businessmen and women who know that when people live in relentless poverty they make hard choices and take risks. When trafficked women are deported from destination countries such as the UK, they face the very real danger of being immediately re-trafficked.

With this in mind I attempted to unravel the scale of the sex industries in England and Scotland, child trafficking into this country and migrants forced to work in industries such as agriculture, construction and food processing.

The majority of sex workers in Britain are migrant women, though nobody knows how many have been trafficked. Here in Scotland the police admit they have scant intelligence on trafficking into sex work, though women from 28 countries have been identified working in Glasgow saunas and the off-street sex industry is apparently "flourishing".

Bronagh Andrews, who is assessing the scale of trafficking into Scotland for the executive, says that over the past couple of years "a small number" of trafficked women have been given sanctuary by Glasgow social services.

Operation Pentameter recently highlighted that women and girls are being trafficked across the UK. Five trafficked women were identified in Scotland during the operation and four people are being held on suspicion of trafficking offences. If successfully prosecuted they will be the first to be convicted here.

In terms of "rescuing victims", Pentameter was a success. It failed, though, to address the controversy of women being deported if they do not immediately identify themselves to the authorities. Women and girls are still being removed from other parts of the UK even if they have been trafficked.

The Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings guarantees at least 30 days' "recovery and reflection" for people who have been trafficked. This period applies whenever "there are reasonable grounds to believe the person is a trafficking victim".

Under current British legislation it is almost impossible to prosecute a trafficker without a "victim" testifying in court. We need these victims to testify so their traffickers can be locked up and stripped of their assets, making it clear to others that the UK is not a good place for their business.

The very least these women and girls deserve is legal protection, physical sanctuary and an assurance their ordeal is over.

Selling Olga: stories of human trafficking and resistance by Louisa Waugh is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on August 24. The author will be reading at the Edinburgh International Book Festival at 10.30am on Friday

The Largest Heroin Depot is in Kosovo

This comes from same people that captured Spain's terrorists that bombed trains.
Belgrade. The largest heroin depot is in Kosovo, says Dusan Bogosavlevic, director of the Anti-drugs department with the Serbian Office for Combating Organized Crime, Blic newspaper reports. Bogosavlevic explained that there were three different roads for drugs.

"Cocaine from South America reaches two destinations in Europe - Spain and Portugese Island. Then it is transferred to Western European countries", he explained. In his words cocaine from Spain arrives in Serbia and 20% of it remains there, while the rest 80% goes to Italy, Germany, etc.

Bogosavlevic stresses that there were two ways for distribution of heroin - one from Afghanistan through Turkey, and the other - from Afghanistan through the countries from the former Soviet Union to Western Europe. Marihuana is the third kind of drugs that is distributed on Serbian market from Albania through Skadarsko Lake and Montenegro.

New Yorker - Bush Planned Lebanon War Months Before

2006-08-14T14:07:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe I am seeing this on CNN.

"You Did It Too:" Israel's Kosovo Redux

2006-08-14T12:00:00.000-04:00

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - So it's come back? Israel sniped this past week at the growing chorus coming out of civilized Europe against their murder spree in Lebanon, and continued practice of routine atrocity in Gaza and the West Bank, with a tart retort to the Germany's, France's, and lesser's, of their own complicity in the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo not so many years ago. The implication is simple enough to see, as is its logical presumption: "My evil is no greater than yours.

" Well, then: Bombs away!

How fitting Israel should retaliate European criticism of its murderous rampage, currently burning nicely, with its most lethal, but rarely used, diplomatic Weapon of Sass Destruction: The Truth. Europeans, at least those that rule over the major, and aspiring nations, of Europe are complicit in the abortion of justice and abrogation of the duty to Humanity during that was the NATO scourge of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. Fitting for the lessons learnt, and practiced with precedent impunity in Lebanon, and elsewheres.

Apt, when considering the use of cluster bombs, and depleted uranium munitions, drones, and satellites, missiles, and smart bombs, and on, and on, combined as it is with the systematic brutalisation of prisoners, and the deliberate targeting of essential civic services; services like: Water, and sewage; power, and communications; transit routes, and hospitals; houses, schools, fire and police stations; ambulances, fire trucks, and now "any vehicle" with the temerity to be piloted by one so desperate to risk flight 'neath the IDF terror being wreaked about her's, and her children's ears.

Yes, it sounds as lot like the "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovo.

Appropriate too remembering the involvement of Osama, his crew, his then-C.I.A. paymasters, and the carnage leading to that particular conflagration loosed on largely the citizenry. All done then, Israel implies now, with the official primatur of both NATO, and the UN.

Just so! Amazingly, Israel - and, I beg pardon of those Arab and "fringe" Israeli's opposing the fanatical fascism currently made most starkly visible, hath spake two truths in a single day!

But, the amazing parallels well exceed that, when looking a little more deeply into the goings-on, both today, and in those benighted days in the Balkans. In those dark times, an entire people, identify racially, were driven from the land they'd lived upon for millennia; driven wholesale from their purchase. These same were sent, they survivors the on-slaughts, to the winds; scattered to find some new landing, the only certainty being they could not now, nor perhaps ever, go home.

They speaking for the so-called Israeli nation have put on notice all that would dare oppose naked, military conquest, and their neighbours. In Lebanon, Robert Fisk reports today, leaflets falling the heavens, each one an identical indictment of international criminality; each an admission of the abandonment of Geneva Convention, the rules that have ostensibly guided the world in this unprecedented time.

Israel's blood-stained ministers are correct in their condemnation of NATO, its members, and the pulbic that allowed the destruction of a nation, all conducted in the name of justice, and based on lies and blatant, criminal deception. They are correct too in wondering: "Why complain of we when doing your dirty business?"

And, that is the heart of it.

The dichotomy is an illusion: "Israel" and "America" are a single entity. This is no news to those living beneath the boot of the rising tide of oppression in those far-flung places. It seems only in the United States, where the results of a recent poll - if you believe in such things - claimed: More than half of "Americans" asked didn't know which year the rather well publicized 9/11 attacks occurred. This of course played in conjunction with the ceaseless 24/7 "news" cycle reportage of the next, newest "terrorist plot;" a convenient distraction from military reversals in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the continuing hammering of the populace in Occupied Palestine.

What differs, during the most recent outrages against humaneness is the Israeli Stete's literal declarations of war against a civil population has not been seen since the Nazi occupation of Greece. Collective Punishment of civilians is clearly indicated upon the thousands of leaflets dropped before the bombs in Lebanon; as the most knowing English-language reporter from the scene, Robert Fisk reports.

These are clearly open declarations, on the part of the current Israeli leadership, of defiance to any and all conventions yet constructed in hopes of making of this world a more equitable place. And, the lack of effective reaction to these obvious transgressions, on the part of the "world" community, and are a damnation of collusion in ethnic cleansing; a cleansing some already are calling "Holocaust."

Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host of Gorilla Radio, a weekly exploration of the muck and mire comprising what is today, laughingly referred to as civilization.

Russia supports Serbia's Kosovo solution

2006-08-08T00:48:00.000-04:00

A Russian government minister said Monday Moscow supports Serbia's stand to keep Kosovo as an autonomous Serbian province.

Sergey Shoygu, the Russian minister for civil defense and emergency situations, told Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica the position of Russia and President Vladimir Putin is that Kosovo's future status must not be imposed, nor should talks about Kosovo's future have a time limit.

Shoygu said the best solution for Kosovo is to remain an autonomous province within Serbia's borders, the RTS Serbian radio-television reported.

Kostunica applauded Putin's stand on Kosovo and said the Serbian government's position is based on the fact that Kosovo has been and should remain part of Serbia forever. Kosovo was a part of the Kingdom of Serbia until it was annexed under the Ottoman Empire and many of its Albanians converted to Islam. It was reunited with Serbia at the dawn of World War I.

U.N.-led talks between Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority on who shall govern the province once the United Nations and NATO troops leave have been held in Vienna since February. But no major breakthrough has been reached.

The Serbian government in Belgrade, representing Kosovo's 100,000 Serbs, insists no independent Kosovo is acceptable, while leaders of ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population, insist on a Kosovo independent of Belgrade.

Bosnia: Muslims and Serbs in rift over bridge on Sava

2006-08-03T13:31:00.000-04:00

The newly signed agreement between Serbia and the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS) to build a new bridge linking the two has become a bone of contention between Bosnian Muslim and Serb leaders. Muslim member of Bosnia-Hezegovina's three-man rotating state presidency, Sulejman Tihic. has slammed the deal terming it illegitimate and a conspiracy against Muslims. It was signed last week by RS prime minister, Milorad Dodik, and Serbian premier Vojislav Kostunica.

Tihic said Dodik had no right to sign the agreement to build a modern bridge over the Sava River near the town of Sremska Raca northwest of Belgrade. The new bridge, which Serbia has offered to construct at its own expense, is intended to facilitate the flow of people and goods between the two countries, and clear a decades-old bottleneck that causes long tailbacks of vehicles at the border crossing.

Dodik has dismissed Tihic's allegations of an anti-Muslim plot and claims the RS received clearance to sign the Sava bridge agreement from the central Bosnian authorities. He has accused Tihic of using the bridge as political tool to coalesce the Muslim vote ahead October parliamentary elections.

"Instead of touring Arab countries and collecting money to build mosques, Tihic would do better if he collected money for at least one bridge," Dodik commented.

Bosnian transport minister Branko Dokic, a Serb, said his ministry backs the deal, claiming that it is in the best interest of Serbia and the RS. "Bosnia-Herzegovina should be grateful to Serbia for such an important donation, because even in Andric's stories, bridges brought people together rather than dividing them," said Dokic.

He was referring to Yugolslav Nobel laureate Ivo Andric (1892-1975), who claimed that bridges best symbolised closeness and brought people closer. His novel 'The Bridge on the Drina', for which he won the 1961 Nobel prize for literature, describes relations between Serbs and Muslims over four centuries of occupation under the Ottoman Empire. The Drina River is in Visegrad, now eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Under the Dayton peace accord which ended the 1992-1995 civil war, Bosnia was divided into two entities, a Muslim-Croat federation and the RS. Animosities between Serbs, Croats and Muslims still run high in Bosnia and can surface over such apparently benign issues as the building of a bridge.

Serbian police, gear available for rent

2006-08-03T13:30:00.000-04:00

Serbia's Interior Ministry says it will rent out its police officers and equipment, including helicopters and horses, in a bid to raise money.

The ministry published a list of rental prices that drew criticism from private security companies complaining the police represent unfair competition, Belgrade media reported Wednesday.

Riding a police horse will cost $36.70 per day, walking a dog $27.50 and wearing a police uniform $18.30 per day. The ministry has not announced conditions under which citizens would be allowed to rent police personnel and equipment.

Pressure to Surrender Kosovo Grows

2006-08-02T12:05:00.000-04:00

Over on antiwar.com Nebojsa Malic has posted his regular weekly column. Here is small excert:

Belgrade is not insisting on capture and trial of Albanian terrorists charged with gruesome crimes against civilians – Albanian, as well as Serb, Roma, Turk, and other. Nor is it demanding the full and unqualified "reintegration" of Kosovo into the Serbian constitutional order, the way Franjo Tudjman's Croatia did in Dayton, concerning the last Serb enclave his troops had not managed to ethnically cleanse. It is not even demanding the full implementation of UNSCR 1244, which provided for deployment of Serb police and military on Kosovo's external borders – something the province's occupiers never bothered to enforce, along with other burdensome duties explicitly required in that document, such as protecting the lives and property of non-Albanians. Kostunica and Tadic are merely demanding that the "international community" obey its own laws and desist from its efforts to carve out 15 percent of Serbia's territory.

Vassil Bozhkov Runs Casino in Kosovo

2006-08-02T12:01:00.000-04:00

Vassil Bozhkov Runs Casino in Kosovo

Vassil Bozhkov, owner of the CSKA FC, and an Albanian businessman have taken a casino in Kosovo. The gambling boss, who is one of the richest Bulgarians, intends to develop this activity in the Serbian province. The personnel of the casino will consist of local people who will get high salaries.

Nove Holding, owned by Bozhkov, haven't commented the news. The former Yugoslav republics have turned into a kind of Klondike for the Bulgarian businessmen who buy plants and develop construction business there.

Casino in Kosovo? With unemployement rate of 50% and more, people have all the time to gamble, but what did they gamble with? Maybe casino is for UNMIK employees and KFOR?

Superman for Secretary of State

2006-08-02T11:59:00.000-04:00

Herbert London, president of the Hudson Institute, say the new "Superman Returns" movie is politically correct in that the man of steel has come back not to protect the American way of life but to save the world. Superman, London says in a Washington Examiner column, "has been converted into a transnationalist. I suspect that in a sequel, Superman will be employed by the United Nations."

One might say, if that was the case, the world body might actually get something constructive done, rather than sexually abuse kids and spread AIDS through its "peacekeepers."

London goes on to say, "Superman is a symbol of extraordinary actions, actions-I should note-that only the United States can perform. If the day comes when American military forces are obliged to wear a U.N. insignia, the United States' stature on the world stage will be in decline."

Well, I've got news for him: that day has come. It occurred under the Clinton Administration when Army Specialist Michael New was ordered to wear a U.N. uniform, including a U.N. insignia. New was given a bad-conduct discharge for refusing to carry out this illegal and unconstitutional order. The additional tragedy is that the Bush Administration has continued the Clinton policy of putting our troops under U.N. command and in U.N. uniforms, despite the campaign pledge of George W. Bush not to do so.

Attorneys for Michael New have fought this case in the courts for over 10 years. Most recently they filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on the Fourth of July, for an en banc hearing on his recent dismissal by a three-judge panel from the same court.

"By the current Uniform Code of Military Justice," their press release points out, "President Bill Clinton should have been either court-martialed, or impeached, for attempting to change the U.S. uniform in direct contradiction of the Army Regulations then existing."

The Bush Administration's continuation of the Clinton policy reflects one of the key failings of the President-his inability or unwillingness to reform federal bureaucracies in order to carry out his campaign promises.

Despite the welcome nomination of John Bolton as Ambassador to the world body, U.S. policy toward the U.N. is being handled largely by Nicholas Burns, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and a Clinton Administration holdover. He has engineered several moves to appease the anti-American majority at the U.N., such as the recent decision by the U.S. to drop insistence on a budget cap in order to force the adoption of reforms. A career senior foreign service officer, Burns was Spokesman for the Department of State and Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Secretary Madeleine Albright during the Clinton Administration.

Burns, who was recently on all of the Sunday interview shows discussing the North Korean problem, is also the architect of the Bush/Clinton Administration policy on Kosovo, which anticipates the dismemberment of Serbia and the establishment of an independent Muslim state in its province of Kosovo.

But like his policy toward the U.N., this approach is running into several problems. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that if Kosovo becomes independent, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia should similarly become independent.

In a BBC interview, Burns protested that "Kosovo is unique." Because a "major international war was fought there," he insists, "Kosovo's sovereignty needs to be determined and agreed by all of us in the international community."

But that war, waged by the Clinton Administration, was never approved either by the U.S. Congress or the U.N.!

Letting the "international community" decide the national sovereignty of a country under these circumstances is not only unique but unprecedented and dangerous. This kind of diplomatic doublespeak opens the door for more U.N. authority and control over the nations of the world.

Notwithstanding the failure of the U.N. force in Lebanon, U.N. chief Kofi Anan is now calling for another U.N.-backed force to help restore Lebanon's sovereignty. It demonstrates how the world body exploits its own failures to grow in size and influence.

Will Rice back a U.N. role in Lebanon? She should make a break with Burns. CRO

Cliff Kincaid, serves as editor of the Accuracy in Media (AIM) Report.

Telenor wins auction for Serbia's biggest mobile firm

2006-07-31T22:35:00.000-04:00

Telenor of Norway has won an auction for Serbia's biggest mobile operator Mobi 63 with a bid of 1.513 billion euros (1.93 billion dollars) in one of the Balkan country's largest privatisations.

The Telenor Group saw off competition from Mobilkom Austria and Orascom Telecom of Egypt in the auction, which was televised live on state-run RTS television, for a 70-percent stake in Mobi 63.

With the winning bid, Telenor also secured a renewable 10-year operating licence to run Mobi 63, the company formerly named Mobtel which has an estimated two million subscribers.

"We are naturally excited at expanding our footprint and adding this new company to the Telenor Group," the Norwegian company's president and chief executive, Jon Frederik Baksaas, said in a statement received on Monday.

"Serbia has long been an interesting market for us. Telenor first entered the Balkan region more than 10 years ago and we currently have mobile operations in a number of neighbouring countries," said Baksaas.

"The acquisition of Mobi 63 will allow us to further our aim of creating a strong Telenor operational hub in this prioritised geographic area with long-term synergies across the companies," he added.

Telenor, Mobilkom and Orascom won the right to bid for Mobi 63 last week after the Serbian government eliminated seven other companies including France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, as well as firms from Abu Dhabi, Israel, Russia and two from Sweden.

The bidding on Monday began at 1.373 billion euros, which was the starting price based on Telenor's pre-auction offer. The amount prompted Orascom to immediately withdraw from the rest of the auction.

The Norwegian and Austrian companies continued to take part in the auction, and both remained in the bidding until it surpassed the sum of 1.513 billion euros, with both of them turning down the next offer of 1.533 billion euros.

The winning bid was then reverted to Telenor because the company had made the largest initial offer before the start of the auction.

The 1.513 billion-euro price-tag is one of the biggest sums paid for a Serbian company in a privatisation.

Mobi 63 was set up in 1994 by Bogoljub Karic, a tycoon who amassed his fortune during the era of late former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic.

But the Serbian government revoked its licence in December, citing allegedly illegal deals in the UN-run Serbian province of Kosovo. The company had since been run by the state operator Telekom Srbija.

The Austrian investment group Holdenhurst, which owns the remaining 30-percent stake in Mobi 63, could also sell its share.

Telenor -- with ownership interests in 12 mobile operators across Asia and Europe, including Hungary and Montenegro -- had 82.7 million subscribers at year-end 2005, according to the company's website.

Serbo Journal

Skopje: New High-Tension Power Line of the Balkans

2006-07-31T22:31:00.000-04:00

Recently the Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivaylo Kalfin stated that his country would not support unconditionally the EU integration of Macedonia. In the framework of the "historiography clash" between the two countries, this statement becomes extremely disturbing. Does Macedonia have to name its nation "western Bulgarians" and its language "Bulgarian" in order to join the EU? Why did Bulgaria wait for this moment to show its teeth...

Neighbours often quarrel about the paternity of some of their "authentic" products like food, music, etc. For example, Greece and Turkey often had and have such petty quarrels.

When Greece won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Number One" in 2005, its neighbour Turkey, which was absolutely delighted with the song otherwise, indulged itself in a rather sterile quarrel about the paternity of the "kemancha", which the Greek team played on stage. According to Turkey, the "kemancha" is an authentic instrument of the Turkish Anatolian Black Sea region. Again, while the "döner" is famous in Germany as "Turkish sandwich", France knows this meal as "Greek sandwich". It is literally forbidden to order a "Turkish coffee" in Greece, for there this coffee is called "kafes ellinikos".

The dispute between Macedonia and Bulgaria is not that petty, however. Indeed neither Greece nor Turkey would ever like to give up on the paternity of "kemancha", "döner" or "Turkish coffee". However, even if they did so, they would not have lost their entire national identity.

Macedonia - hostage of its EU aspirations

On 24th July, the Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivaylo Kalfin stated that his country would not support unconditionally the EU integration of Macedonia. In the framework of the "historiography clash" between the two countries, Kalfin's statement becomes extremely disturbing.

Although Bulgaria was the first to recognise Macedonia after its independence in 1991, it did only recognise the Macedonian state, not the nation and its language. According to Sofia, Macedonia is no more than a geographical term, and the Macedonians are no more than "lost Bulgarians" through "historical accidents".

The chairman of the nationalist Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation- Bulgarian National Movement (IMRO-Bulgaria), Krasimir Karakachanov commented on Ivaylo Kalfin's statement quite explicitly: "For the last 15 years IMRO-Bulgaria has been saying that we must lend a hand to Macedonia but by helping it we must also help it part with its false past and not assist it to become a state based on anti-Bulgarian feelings. We can start by the fact that it falsifies and appropriates a big part of Bulgarian history and we can end by saying that it attacks Bulgaria every chance it gets and pretends to have some made-up minorities".

Krasimir Karakachanov was the first, who stressed that Bulgaria should put conditions to Macedonia, and only then support its accession to the EU. According to the IMRO-Bulgaria leader, one of those conditions must be the "re-writing of the Macedonian history".

Macedonian institutions and media vehemently reacted to this rather unexpected statement of the Bulgarian Minister. That Bulgaria will be an EU member in January 2007 makes out of this vague statement a serious "warning".

It seems that Macedonia will be the "hostage" of the neighbouring EU member-states in the future. While Greece disputes Macedonia's name, Bulgaria questions the authenticity of the Macedonian nation and language. Does Macedonia have to name its land "Skopje", its nation "western Bulgarians" and its language "Bulgarian" in order to join the EU?

Some EU member-states abuse their privileged position over their neighbours. And this politically short-sighted policy of blackmailing ruins the long-term peace strategy of the EU in the western Balkans.

Macedonia is the key to the pacification of the whole Balkan region. However Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, which respectively dispute the name, the nation, the language and the church of the country, do not help much their neighbour. Especially in a period when an independent Kosovo is in the making, it is very dangerous to insinuate that Macedonia is an "artificial creation of History". The large Albanian minority of Macedonia could get the "message".

Interesting timing

The statement of the Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs happened to coincide with three major events in Macedonia:

- Just weeks before the general elections in Macedonia, Vlado Buckovski and Ljubco Georgievski, the two former prime ministers, proposed to celebrate the Ilinden Uprising together with Bulgaria. The nationality of those, who had participated in this famous Uprising of 1903, is now subject to a serious dispute between Macedonia and Bulgaria. This is what makes the two former premiers' proposal so special.

- Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation - Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) triumphed at the 5th July elections in Macedonia. VMRO-DPMNE is known for its pro-Bulgarian attitude.

- Ljubco Georgievski, former premier and current leader of VMRO-Narodna and one of the most fervent Macedonian nationalist, obtained the Bulgarian citizenship. This provoked a hot scandal in the Macedonian public opinion.

The outgoing Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski's proposal might be an electoral manoeuvre. Foreseeing the victory of the pro-Bulgarian VMRO-DPMNE, he might have tried to loosen his party's firm attitude towards Bulgaria at the very last minute.

Right after the victory of Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE, the leader of the Bulgarian ultra-nationalist coalition ATAKA, Volen Siderov labelled the outcome of the Macedonian elections as a "victory against the foreign economic influence of Greece". According to Siderov, the Macedonian economic space should be taken by larger part of Bulgarian companies since that was historically justified.

When the main spokesman of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria, United Macedonian Organisation (OMO Ilinden-Pirin) was prohibited in February 2000 by the Bulgarian Constitutional Court, the then ruling party of Macedonia, VMRO-DPMNE remained stragely inert. The government was then accused of "unwillingness to protect its fellow-countrymen in Bulgaria" by the Macedonian mass media and the opposition. At that time, the leader of VMRO-DPMNE and prime minister was Ljubco Georgievski. And the opposition party was no other than Vlado Buckovski's Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM).

Macedonia's future prime minister Nikola Gruevski has made public his party's mainly economic platform, "Renaissance in 100 steps". Gruevski's priority is the improvement of Macedonia's poor economic situation: fight against corruption and high rate of unemployment, increase of the foreign investment, etc.

Only the economic renaissance can stop the massive immigration to Bulgaria. It is known that tens of thousands of Macedonians have applied for Bulgarian citizenship, and at least 7000 of them have already been approved. As one young Macedonian farmer from Staro Konjarevo pointed out, "There's no money in being a patriot".

As the future member of the EU, Bulgaria is a "poisoned ivy" for the Macedonian youth. The Bulgarian officials are aware of that fact. And the statement of the Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs probably signals that Bulgaria will use that trump card whenever it can. That is why a very tough test of regional diplomacy is waiting for the new Macedonian government.

Unless being an ominous Cassandra, one can predict that the current uneasy relations between Macedonia and Bulgaria hint at the creation of a new "high-tension power line" in the Balkans.

from axisglobe.com

The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil

2006-07-30T15:08:00.000-04:00

I was surfing over on Balkan Scissors when I came upon interesting article. The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil.

Exception to right of self-defense

2006-07-30T14:58:00.000-04:00

Oliver North explored the subject of self-defense in his July 23 column: " 'As a sovereign nation, Israel has every right to defend itself from terrorist activities,' said President Bush. 'I fully support Israel's right to defend itself,' said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat. 'Israel must defend itself, and it had the right to do so,' said French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy."

Apparently, the right to defend one's sovereignty applies to everyone except the Serbs.
Where were these words and sentiments when NATO, led by former President Clinton, who -- in violation of international law, the NATO charter and without the approval of Congress -- bombed tiny, sovereign Yugoslavia that had no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), never attacked us and was never a threat to this country? While the Clinton administration supported the Bosnian Muslim government of Alija Izetbegovic, the Bosnian Embassy in Vienna issued a passport to Osama bin Laden that enabled him to make three visits to Bosnia and Kosovo.

Because of Mr. Clinton's flawed Balkans policy (based on self-inflicted atrocities by Bosnian Muslim forces), Bosnia has become al Qaeda's corridor into Europe. This was evident as far back as 1992 when authors Yossef Bodansky and Vaughn S. Forrest wrote a report for the House Republican Research Committee on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare titled, "Iran's European Springboard?" That report said, "Thus, Tehran and its allies are using the violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina as a springboard for the launching of a jihad in Europe.... Bosnia-Herzegovina's Muslims have long been considered by the Islamist leadership in the Middle East to be ripe as a vehicle for the expansion of Islamic militancy into Europe."

A 1997 report for the Senate Republican Policy Committee titled, "Clinton-Approved Iranian Arms Transfers Help Turn Bosnia into Militant Islamic Base," identifies Bosnia as "a steppingstone" into Western Europe. These predictions have been borne out by reports the explosives in London subway bombings and Madrid train bombings have been traced back to the Balkans.

Even more dire is the fact that some members of Congress support ceding Serbia's Jerusalem to the rule of indicted Muslim war criminals, thereby creating another mini-Afghanistan in the heart of the Balkans. An independent Albanian Kosovo would guarantee the eradication of Serbia culture, language and religion there. What else can be expected, given the track record of destruction and desecration of Serbian churches and the beatings, murder and ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Roma and other non-Muslims since 1999, all under the watchful and impotent eye of U.N. administrators?
The real tragedy is that the Serbs were once the majority in Kosovo until ethnically cleansed by Adolf Hitler's Nazis, then by communist dictator Josip Broz Tito. The latter, in his hatred for the Serbs, encouraged Muslim Albanians to cross illegally into Christian Kosovo as easily as illegals today -- including possible terrorists -- cross our borders from Canada and Mexico.
Former UNPROFOR commander in Bosnia, Canadian Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie summed it up best when he said, "The Kosovo-Albanians have played us like a Stradivarius. We have subsidized and indirectly supported their violent campaign for an ethnically pure and independent Kosovo. We have never blamed them for being the perpetrators of the violence in the early 1990s and we continue to portray them as the designated victim today in spite of evidence to the contrary. When they achieve independence with the help of our tax dollars, combined with those of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, just consider the message of encouragement this sends to other terrorist-supported independence movements around the world."

The bottom line is that independence for Kosovo is not just a Serbian issue; it is a decision that would be not only detrimental to the area's security but also set a precedent that an ethnic group that attains majority status in a geographical region of a sovereign country has the right to declare independence -- a precedent that would not be in the best interest of the United States and other countries with growing ethnic minorities.

After September 11, 2001, President Bush declared we would do whatever it takes to defend this country against [Muslim] terrorists. The president has now taken his "war on terror," worldwide. And just as Israel, like any other nation, has the right to defend its sovereignty, the Serbian people should have had the right to defend their sovereignty against the same Muslim terrorists who threaten the world today. Unfortunately, that right was denied to them and we are witnessing the consequences today.

For the sake of reason, we must all encourage our representatives to say "No to Kosovo Independence." For granting that independence would open a Pandora's Box of breakaway states and establish another rogue nation.

STELLA L. JATRAS
Camp Hill, Pa.

Bosnia Reborn

2006-07-30T14:42:00.000-04:00

NEWSWEEK (USA)

Bosnia Reborn

Europe's one time wasteland, devastated by war, ideology and ethnic hatred, is staging one helluva comeback.

By Ginanne Brownell Newsweek International

August 7, 2006 issue - Elvir Causevic left sarajevo in 1990, just before the war engulfed Bosnia and smashed it to smithereens. Now 33 and educated in America, a member of Yale University's research staff, he recently moved back â€”and continues to be amazed at the town's transformation. The city he had seen so often on TV during the dark years was devastated, full of scarred and burned-out buildings, bereft of its once vibrant cosmopolitanism.

But no more. Sarajevo today is the very image of a thriving European capital, chockablock with chic restaurants and upscale art galleries. Cranes punctuate the skyline, erecting offices and putting a new face on, among many other things, Bosnia's postmodern Parliament, ruined during the war. Strolling the cobbled streets of the capital's ancient Old Townâ€”a twisty maze of bars and tourist shops selling everything from Turkish coffee sets to T shirts reading i'm muslim, don't panicâ€”Causevic is positively boosterish. "Now is the time for this country," he exults. His plan: to set up branches of his New York medical-instruments company in Sarajevo and Tuzlaâ€”a great investment, he thinks, because of Bosnia's strong engineering tradition and still inexpensive work force. He's already hired 12 employees and expects to grow to 100 within a couple years. "I see a real enthusiasm here," he concludes, reflecting national optimism.

It's hard to believe this is Bosniaâ€”the place that introduced the world to the term "ethnic cleansing." A decade after its brutal war ended, the country is finally emerging from the wilderness. A recent World Bank report touts it as "a post-conflict success story." And it certainly looks that way. "Our economy used to be entirely dependent on international aid," Prime Minister Adnan Terzic tells NEWSWEEK. But these days, he enthuses (somewhat nerdily), the signs all point to "serious sustainability." Bosnia's GDP has tripled in the last decade. Exports, including steel and timber, are up by 50 percent. The government has successfully privatized banks. Foreign direct investment has tripled since 1999 to â‚¬750 million in 2004â€”and the trend is fast accelerating upward. Unlike neighboring Croatia and Serbia, also part of the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia has practically no external debt. At 2 percent, inflation is lower than Britain's. "I think boardrooms would be well advised to have a look at Bosnia," says Dirk Reinermann, the World Bank's country director.

It's been a long time since boardrooms bothered with Bosnia, a country roughly the size of Denmark with a population of 4 million. The fighting that raged from 1992 to 1995 killed 200,000 people, made refugees of 2 million more and destroyed almost 90 percent of the country's infrastructure. War damage totaled more than $60 billionâ€”a magnitude of collapse not seen in Europe since World War II. Bosnia's three main ethnic groups (Roman Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosnians, more commonly known as Bosniaks) turned on each other savagely, despite decades of intermarriage and living peaceably together. Rape, torture, mass killingsâ€”Bosnia was a Balkan slaughterhouse, ending only with the U.S.- brokered 1995 Dayton peace accords. That agreement became the country's constitution and set up two quasi-autonomous "entities"â€”the Republika Srpska (usually referred to as the RS) and the Federation, a shaky alliance between Bosnia's Croats and Muslims. A weak national government is overseen by a U.N.-appointed High Representative.

As those awkward arrangements suggest, Bosnia's troubles are hardly over. In the central and southeastern parts of the country, Muslim schoolchildren are segregated from Catholic kids in 52 schools. (When administrators in one such district tried to integrate a school playground, they received so many threatening phone calls that they scrapped the plan.) In the RS, whose population is 90 percent Serb, there have been rumblings of holding a referendum on independence. (With United Nations negotiations underway in Vienna on Kosovo's independence, this isn't an entirely idle threat.) Even beer drinking can still become political. In north-central Vitez, whether you order a pint of Bosnian-brewed Sarajevska or a Croatian Karlovacko depends on which part of town you live in. With 20 percent of the country's population living below the poverty line, those in rural areas barely scrape out a living. Drug trafficking, organized crime and illegal logging are epidemic. Membership in NATO will remain a pipe dream until war criminals Radovan Karadic and Ratko Mladic, who may be hiding in the RS, are arrested.

Nonetheless, by the end of the year, Bosnia is expected to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement, a big step toward EU eligibility. For most of the past decade, each of its factions had their own courts, customs and tax services; now the federal government has taken control. Three years ago, according to a Western diplomat, "Serbs would have laughed you out of the room if you told them they'd be serving in an integrated army." Today, they're doing just that. In June, Bosnia was awarded control of its airspace for the first time in more than a decade.

In Sarajevo, especially, you can see the country's ethnic groups reknitting old tiesâ€”not necessarily warmly, but with a heartening mutual acceptance. Many of the Serbs who fled the capital during the war are returning to visit. The ski slopes of Mt. Igman (remember the 1984 Olym-pics?) are becoming more culturally mixed, as are Sarajevo's packed cafÃ©s and concert halls. Earlier this summer, throngs came out to hear a popular Serbian turbo-folk singer, Jelena Karleusa. Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim religious leaders meet regularly and often go on walkabouts together in towns across Bosnia. "It is a much more pragmatic and much less ideologically nationalistic country than it was several years ago," says journalist Allan Little, coauthor of "The Death of Yugoslavia."

The picture is harsher outside the capital. Along the road from Sarajevo to Zenica (a new four-lane highway is slowly being built) the scars of war are still evident: carcasses of burned houses, villages that feel far emptier than they should. Yet the signs of progress are obvious here too. The vast majority of Bosnia's battered towns and villages have been rebuilt; according to government figures, 98 percent of properties illegally seized during the fighting have been returned to their rightful owners or their surviving kin. The ethnic mix of some places has changed. Many Serbs, Croats or Muslims have sold houses in areas where they might feel uncomfortable and bought another where they are in the ethnic majority. But others have returned to places they were driven from, if only because they are their homes.

Visit the Bosniak village of Ahmici, reduced to rubble by Croat forces in April 1993. The local mosque's white minaret, toppled during a massacre that claimed 118 lives, is back. A high-tech stereo blasts the call to prayer five times daily. A second mosque, up the hill from the outdoor basketball court, is being built. Its skeletal bricked interior is a Sunday-evening hangout for preteen girls, some wearing fashionable head scarves and flirting with boys. Along the curving, pine-forested roads of the RS, where signs are infrequent and marked only in Cyrillic, minarets and Catholic crosses can be glimpsed rising in the distance.

If any place testifies to how far Bosnia has come, it is the northern town of Brcko, hard on the Serbian and Croatian borders. This heavily contested bit of territory was the "bridge" linking the western reaches of the RS to the east and Serbia proper. To this day, Brcko is administered separately from the other Bosnian entities, with an American supervisor appointed by the U.N. The region experienced some of the most intense fighting of the warâ€”and some of its fiercest ethnic hatred. Yet former Army barracks have been transformed into a grassy quad of brightly painted government buildings. Citizens have moved forward, together. Unlike much of the rest of the country, schools in Brcko are mixed. So are the police force and the District Assembly. "Most people here wanted to live again in a multiethnic society, so we all fought really hard to make Brcko work," says Ivan Krndelj, the Croat deputy speaker of the Assembly.

You readily see that at Zitopromet, a food-processing firm with an ethnically mixed staff who work together in two shifts baking 10,000 loaves of bread and pastries a day. In offices fragrant with the smell of croissants, the company's Bosniak director, Bahrija Agic, says he was surprised how quickly people came together. "In the beginning, two employees left, saying they had problems working for a Muslim manager," he told NEWSWEEK. "But there just aren't tensions like that anymore."

More and more, that describes the atmosphere across Bosnia. British Brig. Nigel Alwyn-Foster, deputy commander of the 6,200 troops of the European Union Force that took over from NATO in 2004, describes his theater of operations as "calm and stable." The garrison atmosphere of the immediate postwar years has disappeared. Bases have shut down and many EUFOR troops are living in local accommodations among the people. In leafy Bihac, to the west, Canadian M/Cpl. Tom Robinson is on his third tour of Bosnia. He's amazed by how much has changed. "In 1996 Bihac was a ghost town," he says, strolling past a new multiplex cinema showing the latest Hollywood flicks. "My time here has gone from being like a parent saying 'No, you can't do that' to being like an older sibling standing on the sidelines offering advice when asked." The city, which saw heavy fighting, has a trendy new mall with clothing shops like Stefanel. Its border crossing with Croatia is a modern complex equipped with the latest EU customs technology.

That's a metaphor. Bosnia is clearly prepping for EU membership. The country's newest high representative, German diplomat Christian Schwarz-Schilling, recently announced that he would also be the last. Next summer, he will relinquish his role as Bosnia's de facto head of state and become the mere "EU representative" to Bosniaâ€”a job that's essentially monitoring Bosnia's progress toward joining Europe and that returns full responsibility for the country's affairs to the central Bosnian government. "This is a serious change of the political agenda," says Schwarz-Schilling.

There are other signs of political maturation. In April, the Bosnian Parliament, usually split ethnically, rejected reforms to the Constitution that would have strengthened the central government. The good news is that the measure lost by only two votes. Says NATO's senior officer in Bosnia, U.S. Brig. Gen. Louis Weber: the fact that parties sat down together to reach consensus is huge. "In every sphere you want to measure Bosnia, from the military to the social to the political, it is on a positive slope."

Perhaps most noteworthy is the way Bosniansâ€”Muslim, Croat and Serbâ€”are slowly coming to terms with the past. This spring, a Sarajevan movie named "Grbavica" won top honors at the Berlin Film Festival. Directed by Jasmila Zbanic, it portrays a Bosniak woman, raped by Serb soldiers, who is forced to tell her daughter how she was conceived. The movie has helped drive forward legislation for things like compensation and health care for civilian victims of war. Pirated copies have been selling like hot cakes in the RS capital, Banja Luka. In June, after a tip-off by locals in the Serbian village of Serovici about a nearby mass grave containing the remains of 35 menâ€”probably Muslims killed during the infamous massacre at Srebrenicaâ€”the RS and Federation officials have been working together to solve the crime. That wouldn't have happened just a short time ago, says Tuzla prosecutor Emir Ibrahimovic, watching as pathologists carefully unearthed clothed skeletons from the sodden dirt. "These days, we're seeing lots of cooperation."

Biljana Josic, a fashionably dressed Serb translator who works for the European force, sits in a cafÃ© in Banja Luka. "I love this country," she says. "Change takes time but we are getting there." Back in Sarajevo, Elvir Causevic stops outside Hacienda, a Tex-Mex bar throbbing with Europop music. "Look, we're transforming into a market economy, dealing with the legacy of a horrific war and learning how to be an independent country all at the same time." Hitting that trifecta, today Bosnia has become a different kind of model for Europeâ€”and the world.

The World Map of Happiness

2006-07-29T07:27:00.000-04:00

The World Map of Happiness. Not particularly happy about Serbia's happiness.

Del Ponte tells of admiration for Milosevic

2006-07-29T07:04:00.000-04:00

The chief prosecutor for war crimes in former Yugoslavia yesterday voiced admiration for and fascination with her most formidable opponent, Slobodan Milosevic.

Carla Del Ponte, whose mission is to bring the worst criminals from the Yugoslav wars to justice and who spent more than four years trying Milosevic, paid tribute to the late Serbian leader, declaring him superior to the dozens of other suspects who have been in the dock at the tribunal in The Hague.

"The way he questioned certain witnesses was fascinating," she told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "He really knew how to deal with people. I admired that. He was the only accused who mounted his own defence alone ... Milosevic always spoke out. He had been the president of Yugoslavia. He was head and shoulders above the rest."

Milosevic died in custody in his cell outside The Hague earlier this year, almost five years after being flown there following his overthrow in Belgrade.

The death was a major blow to the tribunal, as it deprived the former Yugoslavia of a verdict in the biggest and longest trial before the court. The death spawned multiple conspiracy theories and also triggered strong criticism of the manner in which the tribunal operates.

In contrast to her admiration for Milosevic, Ms Del Ponte rounded on his successor, Vojislav Kostunica, whom she accused of having protected another key genocide suspect, General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander still on the run more than 10 years after being indicted for genocide in Bosnia. "Kostunica knows exactly where Mladic was until February this year. Kostunica knows that he even protected Mladic until 2002 ... until recently he didn't want to have him arrested. He was sure that [Mladic] could be persuaded to give himself up."

At Ms Del Ponte's recommendation, the EU has frozen integration talks with Serbia because of its failure to capture Mladic. "We're concentrating now on Mladic because we know where he is," she said. "And we know that Belgrade can deliver him to us."

UNSC Letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the Security Council - Monthly report of KFOR

2006-07-28T12:21:00.000-04:00

Letter dated 24 July 2006 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council - Monthly report of the Kosovo Force (KFOR), covering the period 1 to 31 May 2006 (S/2006/574)

Pursuant to Security Council resolution 1244 (1999), I have the honour to transmit the attached report on the international security presence in Kosovo covering the period from 1 to 31 May 2006 (see annex).

I should be grateful if you would bring the present letter and its annex to the attention of the members of the Security Council.

(Signed) Kofi A. Annan

Annex

Monthly report to the United Nations on the operations of the Kosovo Force

1. This report covers the period from 1 to 31 May 2006.

2. As at 31 May 2006, the total number of troops in theatre was 16,130, which included 2,708 troops from non-NATO countries.

3. There was no change to the status of partner/non-NATO country contributions.

Security

4. The overall security situation remains calm but tense. On the political front, three more rounds of direct talks between Belgrade and Pristina were held successively on 4, 23 and 31 May 2006 in Vienna. On 4 May, the parties discussed again issues related to decentralization, including the definition of criteria to establish the municipal borders, the formation of new municipalities with a Serb majority, and the resolution of the Mitrovica issue. The talks were difficult owing to the unwillingness of either side to compromise. At the meeting on 23 May, discussions focused on the protection of religious sites and cultural heritage in Kosovo. In a constructive atmosphere, the parties agreed on the need for a continued international military presence to protect the sites and on the legal status of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Despite some convergence on a number of practical issues, the parties remain diametrically opposed on substantive issues. On 31 May, the negotiating parties discussed economic issues, including external debt and property. Belgrade challenged and requested the immediate halting of the ongoing privatization process in Kosovo, whereas Pristina focused on the issue of payment of war damages and external debt repayment.

5. During the month of May, no significant inter-ethnic incidents were reported.

6. No significant incidents against KFOR were recorded.

7. A total of 350 incidents related to unexploded ordnance, illegal weapons possession, weapon and ammunition findings, drugs, human trafficking and counterfeit currency were reported during the past month, compared to 409 incidents in the previous month. Weapons seizures made up the vast majority of incidents during this month, whereas the number of reported incidents of unexploded ordnance decreased. Smuggling activities will continue to be one of the highest threats to a safe and secure environment and KFOR troops in Kosovo. Confrontations could occur if KFOR troops cross paths with smugglers. Most of the Kosovo border is affected by smuggling activity; however, most of the smuggling is concentrated in the eastern area, on the border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.(a) Despite the frequent seizures of illegal weapons, there is no proof that the weapons were intended for extremist or criminal groups. Most of the weapons found are probably intended for hunting or personal protection. Drug trafficking is still considered to be one of the most profitable criminal businesses for local organized crime groups. The limited number of reported smuggling-related incidents is assessed to be the result of efforts made by KFOR and UNMIK to fight illegal trafficking along the borders. However, this can also be an indicator that the smugglers are finding new ways to avoid detection by UNMIK and KFOR. As the weather conditions improve, no significant increase in reported criminal acts is expected. The criminal threat to KFOR is assessed as low.

8. KFOR continues operations to prevent ethnic violence and protect patrimonial sites and remains vigilant to deter possible threats directed against international organizations and military bases. The Force continues to improve its crowd and riot control capabilities in order to be better prepared to counter any resurgence in violence.

Compliance by the Federal Army of Serbia and Montenegro and the Ministry of Internal Affairs Special Police

9. There is nothing to report.

Kosovo Protection Corps

10. Ten cases of non-compliance have been opened.

11. The KFOR Inspectorate for the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) ensures compliance through the day-to-day supervision of KPC using unannounced roll calls and inspections. During May the consolidation of the KFOR Kosovo-wide assessment reflecting KPC fulfilment of Standard 8 Goals was finalized. Parts of the KFOR assessment were presented at the public standards meeting and in the KPC Development Group on 31 May 2006. Furthermore, KFOR headquarters and each Multinational Task Force has finalized the additional training programme for KPC in support of the directive of the Joint Force Command.

12. The current active personnel establishment is 3,038. There are 203 (6.69%) active ethnic minority members (178 male, 25 female): 34 Ashkall, 4 Roma, 11 Egyptian, 17 Croat, 32 Bosniac, 14 Muslims, 36 Turk, 2 Goran and 53 Serbs. The total number of ethnic minorities decreased by four from last month. The recruitment of minorities remains a KPC priority. Currently, the percentage of minorities within KPC still remains short of the goal of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and there are 22 open slots left in the active personnel establishment list. The reserve list includes 2,000 positions, 1,883 filled, of which the ethnic minority number is 50 (2.65%). Multinational Task Forces and KFOR Inspectorate headquarters carried out 46 roll calls; 1,027 (69.8%) of 1,470 checked KPC members were on duty in their barracks and 212 (14.4 per cent) were on duty elsewhere. The total of 1,239 active duty strength (duty in barracks and duty elsewhere) shows that an average of 84.2 per cent of KPC personnel attended work schedules. Roll calls show a slight decrease in the number of personnel reported absent without permission.

13. KPC conducted 12 training courses with 171 attendees.

14. Nine ceremonies were held during May 2006. A total of 711 KPC members and approximately 3,500 civilians were involved.

Conclusion

15. The overall situation in Kosovo will remain tense because of the ongoing status talks, particularly the start of the high-level discussions between Belgrade and Pristina on the future status of Kosovo, as well as the potential increase in interethnic tension as weather conditions improve. The threat level against UNMIK and other international community facilities remains medium, and the threat level against KFOR is low.

Note

(a) Turkey recognizes the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name.

Serbia plans $800m Gazprom gas project

2006-07-28T12:19:00.000-04:00

Serbia plans $800m Gazprom gas project Published: 28 July 2006

BELGRADE: Serbia will build a 400km cross-country gas pipeline together with Russia's Gazprom, a project worth more than $800 million, the government said yesterday.

The deal between Serbia, its gas monopoly Srbijagas and Russia's Gazprom-Gazexport would make Serbia "one of the key regional participants in gas transport," the government said in a statement after its weekly session. A source in the government said a memorandum of understanding was due to be signed within weeks, after ministers return from their summer holiday.

Sources familiar with the plan said the pipeline in Serbia would ultimately be linked to the Bluestream pipeline - running from Russia to Turkey under Black Sea.

"The Serbian pipeline is to be built south of the Sava and the Danube rivers. Pipes should run from Dimitrovgrad to Nis and on towards Croatia and Bosnia," a source in the government said.

"The pipes will have a capacity of 20 billion cubic metres." Another source familiar with the plan said the deal would help Serbia repay a debt to Kuwait.

"Gazprom has agreed to take over Serbia's $370m debt to Kuwait," the source said. "Serbia would start repaying the debt to Gazprom once the gas starts flowing, getting 25 per cent of transit fees and spending it on debt servicing. That means there will be no threat to the liquidity of the budget," the source added. "But it also sends a signal to the authorities that Gazprom wants control of Srbijagas once it is ripe for sale," he said.

Radical leader says Serbia will fight for Kosovo in case of independence

2006-07-28T12:15:00.000-04:00

BELGRADE, Serbia-Serbia's ultranationalists warned Thursday that they will "fight for Kosovo" in case the contested province gains independence at ongoing U.N.-brokered talks.

Tomislav Nikolic, the leader of the increasingly popular Serbian Radical Party, said that no leader in Serbia will accept Kosovo's independence.

"The whole world must know that," Nikolic declared. "Serbia will fight for Kosovo." He did not elaborate.

Serbian and ethnic Albanian officials were not immediately available for comment.

Kosovo is formally part of Serbia, but the province has been run by the United Nations since a 1999 NATO air war forced Belgrade to stop attacks against ethnic Albanian separatists and pull out of the region.

The talks to decide Kosovo's future status started early this year. Most analysts have predicted that Kosovo might gain some form of independence, despite Serbia's opposition.

Nikolic acknowledged that "if they want to take away Kosovo ... from us," Belgrade cannot prevent that. He added that "Serbia will be peaceful and stable as long as the talks are going on," but could explode in unrest in case of Kosovo independence.

Serbia's President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica took part early this week in a face-to-face meeting with ethnic Albanian leaders in Vienna, Austria, as part of U.N.-brokered negotiations.

Both face a mounting challenge from the Radicals, who ruled together with late ex-nationalist leader, Slobodan Milosevic, in the next election in Serbia in 2007.

Also this week, the U.S. envoy for Kosovo talks, Frank Wisner, urged both Serbia and the ethnic Albanians to be more flexible and work together to find a compromise on Kosovo.

Carlos Westendorp: working for a transatlantic balance and Kosovo question

2006-07-25T12:48:00.000-04:00

Domènec Ruiz Devesa - Washington - 24.7.2006

Carlos Westendorp: working for a transatlantic balance

Spanish ambassador to the United States and a staunch socialist, Carlos Westendrop has an innate understanding of diplomacy. Here he gives us an insight into transatlantic relations and the situation in the Balkans

Carlos Westendorp, transatlantic man (Domenec Ruiz Devesa)

Carlos Westendorp, ambassador and former Spanish minister of foreign affairs, greets me and invites me to follow him into his spacious office on Pennsylvania Avenue, not far from the White House. Though he is a seasoned diplomat, Mr. Westendorp does not value protocol very highly. Quite contrary to my expectations of a diplomat, he seemed open and welcoming - the type of person who likes to go straight to the point. The simplicity and humanity of the Spanish ambassador does not correspond to the cliché of the strained, aristocratic diplomat.

The Atlantic air

Once my interviewee is comfortably seated in his armchair, I begin the discussion with the thorny issue of Iraq and the ambassador's influence on transatlantic relations. But it was impossible to unnerve this grandson of a Dutch engineer who immigrated to Spain to work in the railroad company. "Transatlantic relations emerged from a common fight against the Soviet Union and some claim they have weakened since the end of the Cold War. But such an interpretation does not hold true. Our leaders have continued to work together to tackle present day issues of great importance. Unfortunately, the conflict in Iraq had led to a cooling of relations between the United States and much of Europe. Though the president of the United States does not offer any concessions in the Middle East, we have to overcome our differences to find a solution to the extremely violent crisis that threatens the region,' explains Westendorp with a conciliatory tone rendered smooth by years of service.

Taking his time to answer my questions with great care, Westendorp shows that he does not want to rush me through the interview. When I ask him whether he believes NATO or the UE should be instrumental in bringing Europe and the United States together, he answers categorically: "The EU must develop a strong foreign policy if it wishes to relate to the US on equal terms." It is also essential to "Radically reform NATO, to redefine its mission and to work towards establishing an efficient European Defence and Security Identity." As a staunch supporter of the European idea, Westendorp is convinced that if "The member states of the EU at last managed to speak with one voice, they would be able to stand up to the US and improve the balance of power within the organisation." Westendorp insists that decisions must be taken unanimously within NATO and that the US pre-eminence is only relative.

What did he think of the recent proposition by José-Maria Aznar and the Spanish foreign minister Ana Palacio to create and promote a transatlantic market? "I sometimes have the impression that certain demagogues, and I include Aznar and Palacio in this list, are only just discovering the Mediterranean basin," he says with a hint of irony in his voice. "But the idea is excellent," he continues. "Not that it is a new idea - it has been a possibility since at least 1995. The major obstacle to the realisation of this project is that a number of sectors in America continue to be protected, this is not the case in Europe, aside from agriculture of course."

Kosovo´s future

The discussion moved to the Balkans, an area where Westendorp has a great deal of expertise, having been the International High Commissioner in Bosnia before he became the Spanish ambassador in America.

"We have not lost hope in the Balkans, on the contrary" he remarks with optimism. "Today Bosnia is peaceful, even if it is the case that there are still international troops stationed in the country. That said, it is evident that the wounds left by the war will not vanish overnight. Nevertheless, the major problem the country must face is an economic crisis" Westendorp analyses. He then explains to me that he had been in charge of conceiving of the national symbols, like the flag and national hymn. "The country suffers badly from the absence of an enterprise culture. It is not the role of the United Nations to help develop this sector," he concludes ironically. He also worries that to hold the Serbs at arms length from the Kosovan negotiating process would risk destabilising the entire region. Westendorp has his own perspective on the question. "I would just like to show that the independence of Kosovo would not, by any stretch of the imagination be a miracle cure for the region."

The European constitution and the alliance of civilisations

Westendorp proudly shows me the cover of a recent Newsweek, which shows a picture of José Luis Zapatero with the title "Making Socialism Work". "I have put it on display in my office in such a position that I can be sure all my North American colleagues will be able to see" he tells me. Without Zapatero in power, there is a strong chance that the Spanish would not have voted massively in favour of the European Constitution. His influence has also been decisive in the creation of the Alliance of Civilisations. In terms of the Constitution Westendorp says: "Even if Europe has not stopped evolving, we would have liked to see it ratified. It would nevertheless have been difficult to have adopted all the measures in the constitution, especially if we think of the European social model and all the concessions that member states would have to make. Spain, for instance, would have had to renounce the power it had had conferred on it by the treaty of Nice in the European Council. There will now not be any major changes to the constitution until after the French presidential elections in 2007. It would be thus be premature to launch the debate again at this present moment," he concludes.

Iran: "It is time for diplomacy"

I began to ask Westendorp about Iran. He responded immediately: "We will not necessarily be able to indefinitely avoid the recourse to force, because there is nobody who wants Iran to develop a military nuclear program. But we are not yet at this point. For the moment we must try to find a diplomatic answer to the crisis. We cannot affirm with certainty that Iran is looking to enrich uranium for military purposes." With these words the ambassador finishes the interview. He will shortly fly to Boston, where he will give a series of lectures on transatlantic relations.

An alternative view of Israel's attack on Lebanon

2006-07-24T12:16:00.000-04:00

Whenever the United States needs assistance in establishing full military control over the oil-rich Middle East, it can always depend on Israel, its faithful attack dog. The United States desperately wants to control Iran. Iran is rich in oil and lies directly between the permanent US military bases and huge fortified US embassy now under construction in Iraq and the US and NATO bases in Afghanistan. Also, unlike Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Iran has a government which does not follow Washington's orders.

Under the previous despotic police state of the Shah, Iran did follow US desires and privatized the oil resources, allowing American and British oil companies to make huge profits. However, the Shah was overthrown in 1953 and Mossadegh nationalized the oil. This is an intolerable act to the US government, so strongly influenced by the political power of some of the richest corporations on Earth. The CIA organized a coup which overthrew Mossadegh and brought the Shah back to power. Naturally, the oil was once again privatized. Unfortunately for the oil companies, the Shah was overthrown again by a growing fundamentalist Islamic movement led by Ayatollah Khomeini. Once again the oil was nationalized and relations between the US and Iran have been hostile ever since that time.

One should analyze why the nationalization of oil is so important to the United States and to the large oil companies. When John D. Rockefeller built his empire on oil, he realized that the most profit could be made by having a vertical monopoly. That is, the oil companies should own all the operations from the oil rigs through the refineries to the distribution and sales operations. When oil is nationalized it eliminates one of these profit-making steps and foreign governments profit from the sale of their oil. If it is a country like Saudi Arabia, which spends these profits on supporting the US stock and bond markets and helping to finance the growing US deficits caused by wars and military spending, there is little US protest. On the contrary, if the country is Venezuela and utilizes the sale of its nationalized oil to benefit Venezuela's poor people by bringing them medical care, building schools, providing clean drinking water and sanitation and elevating their standard of living, the US government grows very upset, the CIA plans coups against Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and a torrent of derogatory corporate propaganda is launched against him. He becomes a communist, another of those corporate bogeymen like terrorists.

Air America commentator Randi Rhodes believes that the reason for the Iraq war was that Saddam Hussein intended to trade oil for Euros instead of the dollar and also that the large oil companies wanted to keep Iraqi oil off the market for a time to substantially increase its price. I don't disagree with this theory, but when this oil is eventually sold, companies like Exxon-Mobil, Shell, British Petroleum, Chevron and others want ownership and a vertical monopoly to increase their profits. They hate nationalized oil with a passion.

The hostility toward Iran has nothing to do with its fundamentalist Islamic leadership. The CIA used fundamentalist Islamic groups like Al-Oaeda to drive the Soviet Union from Afghanistan and to fight the Serbs in Bosnia. The US also is very friendly toward an exceedingly fundamentalist, undemocratic regime in Saudi Arabia. The most ridiculous thing in the world is when George W. Bush talks about bringing democracy to the Middle East. He even lectured Vladimir Putin about Russia becoming democratic like Iraq. Notice that when a group which is a hindrance to US and Israeli influence comes to power in democratic elections, as Hamas and Hezbollah did, all this talk about democracy flies out the window.

In the spring of 2006, columnist Seymour Hersch revealed US plans for an attack on Iran. However, the weapons of mass destruction excuse used for the Iraq invasion was not so easily accepted by European governments, Russia and China in relation to Iran. One can easily see the double standard in allowing the despotic regime in Pakistan, which came to power in a coup, to possess nuclear weapons, while complaining and threatening sanctions and war over any nuclear development by Iran. Of course, Pakistan follows orders from Washington, DC and Iran does not. It makes a world of difference.

Israel has now massively bombed the cities of Lebanon, supposedly over the capture of two Israeli soldiers. The problem is that these captures have occurred many times in the past and have simply resulted in prisoner exchanges with Hezbollah. What was different this time? It is obvious that this operation had been planned long in advance by Israel. History if full of examples of nations using either fabricated incidents or actual minor hostilities for the start of wars planned for completely different reasons than the stated ones. Now, all the American news channels, especially Fox, are blaming Hezbollah for the destruction of Lebanon and always state that Syria and particularly Iran are backing Hezbollah. Notice that after all the death and destruction in Lebanon, this provides an additional excuse for either Israel or the US or both to attack Iran and Syria besides the supposed nuclear program in Iran. Nothing is mentioned about the large shipments of American weapons to Israel and Turkey, only the aid to Hezbollah from Iran. In fact, the United States has been recently shipping large numbers of bunker-busting bombs to Israel, undoubtedly those with depleted uranium warheads, which will add to the devastation of the region. This could escalate to a situation where just before the congressional elections in November, George W. Bush launches a war against Iran and depends on American patriotism to get his Republican cronies reelected and improve his poll ratings. I hope I am completely wrong because Iran has some advanced weapons and could probably sink American warships. If that happened, would the United States use nuclear weapons? It is a very frightening scenario.

It is exceedingly ironic and sad that Israel is using two techniques that the Nazis used against them and other occupied people in World War II. One of these war crimes is bombing civilian infrastructure and denying water, electricity, medical care and sanitation to people. The other crime that was practiced by the Nazis and now by Israel is collective punishment. All Lebanese are paying dearly for the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. When two Czech exiles executed the Gestapo chief Reinhard Heydrich, also called "Hangman Heydrich," the whole village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia was obliterated from the face of the Earth by the Nazis. It seems Israelis do not learn any more lessons from their own history than do Americans. Of course, Israel denies it is attacking civilians, just as the United States denied using white phosphorus on Fallujah and bombing the city into rubble or torturing prisoners at Guantanamo. These criminals and their lackeys in the corporate media lie like they breath.

The United States is so powerful over Israel that it could end this slaughter in Lebanon with a phone call. Israel is accomplishing aims which are in accordance with the objectives of the administration of George W. Bush. Notice how Condoleeza Rice is proceeding at such a leisurely pace to the Middle East. Does anyone remember the last time something like this happened? When Israel invaded the refugee camps on the West Bank like Jenin and was conducting a mass slaughter of Palestinians and bulldozing houses, Colin Powell stalled and stalled on his way to the area in order that Israel be allowed to accomplish all its murderous objectives. I doubt if any Americans remember this bit of history. As Gore Vidal states: "It is the United States of Amnesia."

When I see the world being driven to the precipice of disaster by the greed of a very few oil barons and their responsibility for the pictures of wounded and burned children and a thousand other crimes, I am furious, but also despondent. I realize most people don't understand the world as I do and are completely deceived by corporate propaganda and the attractive news models who tell lie after lie with a smiling face. I wonder if these corporate whores ever think what repeating everything put in front of them is costing their children. Probably not-that requires intelligence. I am also depressed by the lack of outrage among people who are dissidents in this nation. It is as if the CIA sprayed a vast cloud of valium all over the country.

There should be hundreds of thousands of people in the streets protesting these Israeli atrocities and there aren't. The corporate propagandists have turned reality upside down. By their arguments, it is not the United States, Britain and Israel who are the imperialists, but Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. Those fighting imperialism have been transformed into imperialists. I would like to think it is just the heat, but I am afraid Zionist propaganda has had an effect. I would change some of the words of the Communist Manifesto to "Working people of the world unite. Before we allow ourselves and the environment to be destroyed and commit an unpardonable sin against future generations."

Serbia: Between Empire of Heaven and Empire of Earth Again

2006-07-24T12:03:00.000-04:00

Serbia: Between Empire of Heaven and Empire of Earth Again

by: Can Karpat

Tomorrow the Kosovo final status talks enter a brand new phase. For the first time since the war, the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia meet in order to present their positions on status of Serbia's breakaway province. There is no reason to believe that while seven purely technical rounds have failed, these new highly political rounds would succeed. Does it mean that the international community has switched to the Plan-B, namely the "Diktat solution"? Is this the beginning of the end for Serbia...

Serbia's choice

"The Downfall of the Serbian Empire" is one of the best known Serbian epic songs, which tells the choice of Knez Lazar on the eve of the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. "Lazar, glorious Emperor, which is the empire of your choice? Is it the empire of heaven? Is it the empire of the earth?" If Lazar chose the empire of the earth, the Ottoman army would all perish. However, the empire of the earth would be nothing but temporal. If Lazar chose the empire of heaven, he and his men would all die, but ensured their place in heaven. "And the emperor chose the empire of heaven above the empire of the earth". Because the empire of the earth is eternal.

For centuries long this song on Lazar's choice had been a sweet consolation for the Serbs, who had been defeated by the Turks in the Battle of Kosovo. It comforted the Serbian psyche: They were not defeated; they chose to be defeated, for no less than a secure place in heaven.

The Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica should better prepare himself for such a fatidic choice today. When Kosovo will be a lost cause for Serbia, Prime Minister should be able to tell his people that heaven is waiting for them to sooth their wounded pride. This time heaven may not be that spiritual, however, as it was in case of Prince Lazar. EU membership would be Serbia's earthly compensation.

Today the Kosovo final status talks enter a new top-level phase. Kosovo Albanian and Serbian high-level leaders are to meet face-to-face in order to present their positions on the future of Serbia's breakaway province.

The Serbian President Boris Tadic will sit opposite Fatmir Sejdiu, the President of the province that still, though de facto, belongs to Serbia. And Vojislav Kostunica will sit in front of his counterpart Agim Ceku, whom Serbia has been accusing of serious war crimes for years.

One must not be a clairvoyant to guess the outcome of this new second phase: dialogue of the deaf and failure.

The beginning of the end

There is no reason to believe that while seven purely technical rounds have failed, these new highly political rounds would succeed. From now on, the two sides will discuss the future status of Kosovo, and not the peripheral issues like decentralization, the economy or protection of the Serbian cultural heritage and religious sites in the province.

Not even the question of the protection of the Serbian culture in Kosovo, definitely one of the softest issues on the agenda, could be resolved during the seven rounds of talks.

Even the Special Envoy for the Kosovo Future Status Process Martti Ahtisaari stated that he did not expect the talks to generate any concrete results and added that this would likely have to wait until after the next UN General Assembly session in September.

Thus Martti Ahtisaari confirmed the general belief that the talks are only a necessary transition period, which will serve as a confirmation of the failed status talks. As soon as the failure of the second phase of the talks is totally confirmed, the Kosovo case will be transferred to the UN Security Council (UNSC), which will probably impose its decision as an "international Diktat" to the two sides.

The attitude of Russia and China, the two permanent members of the UNSC, will be decisive since all the others are in favour of some form of independence for Kosovo. However, as long as Russia is concerned, the international community receives highly contradictory signals from Moscow.

Until very recently Russia has totally backed the Serbian cause. However, now, Moscow is keen to change its policy on Kosovo in light of the precedent it would set for other regions like, not unexpectedly, Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and Moldova's breakaway region of Transdnestria.

The USA and Great Britain insist that a comparison cannot be drawn between Kosovo and Georgia and Moldova. However, sooner or later they will have to assure Russia's vote in the UNSC. And the price of the Russian vote is now well known. Since according to the Western powers Kosovo's independence will be the key to the total pacification of the Balkans, it would be not a big surprise if, at the end of the day, Russia gets at least some kind of assurance for a similar deal for South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transdnestria.

The elections of the year

Meanwhile party leaders in Serbia are discussing possible dates for the next general elections. While Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) prefers elections left to next spring, Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (DS) prefers this autumn. In any case, the elections will be held probably before the Kosovo issue is resolved.

Vojislav Kostunica's minority government is losing blood every day, namely its working majority in Parliament. On the one hand, since the death of their leader, Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) has threatened to withdraw their support from the government if any other forcible extraditions take place. On the other hand, the Europhile-technocrat liberal party G 17 Plus warns the government that they will pull out of the coalition by October if pre-accession talks with the EU are not resumed.

Serbia goes through an extremely difficult year. On 3rd May the EU suspended pre-accession talks with Serbia after Belgrade failed to deliver General Ratko Mladic to The Hague. On 21st Montenegro seceded from its state union with Serbia and became independent. The Presevo Valley, Sandzak and Vojvodina may be the next regions, which would bedevil the political atmosphere in Serbia. And of course, Kosovo.

Unsurprisingly the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) exploits this situation to the extreme. No less than 37 percent of the Serbian people support this party at the public surveys. A particularly sad picture since nothing but the mentality of SRS and alike were responsible for this desperate no-way-back situation in Kosovo in the first place.

Very hard times are waiting for moderate nationalist Vojislav Kostunica. How will he persuade his voters that he is the reasonable Prince Lazar, and not the treacherous Vuk Brankovic, whose betrayal, so the Serbs like to believe, supposedly condemned the Serbian kingdom to defeat before the Turks in 1389? How will the new epic song look like?

In his open letter on 13th July, Vojislav Kostunica himself made this point clear: "Can such a country, by any measure a democratic one, survive the forcible taking of 15 percent of its territory? What democratically elected government could explain to its voters after such an act that they should continue to believe in the principles of tolerance, liberalism and the sacrosanct will of the people - the values of enlightened Western civilization, in the name of which they toppled an evil, authoritarian regime?"

Unlike DS, DSS and other pro-Western parties, SRS is able to give its supporters very simple and clear messages. And in times of political suffocation people, who lost their confidence even in themselves, often prefer this kind of simple and clear messages. Sad but history can testify to this.

The general elections in Serbia will be by far the most important elections in the Balkans this year. If the two major Serbian parties DS and DSS cannot find a common ground to cooperate, not only Serbia would stray from the path that leads towards democracy, but the Western powers would also have to deal henceforth with negotiators that they never dreamt of in their worst nightmares at the status talks in Vienna.