LOCAL PRESS
Devastating rate of return of displaced persons to Kosovo (Politika)
More than 70 percent of displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija live in conditions beyond every social need, and with a joint responsibility of the international community, the Serbian government and the provisional institutions in Pristina, conditions will be created for the return of more than 200,000 displaced from Kosovo and Metohija. The return cannot be organized, over objective circumstances, for as many people who want to return to their homes, while the Serbian government will enable with the 2015 budget the return to Serb regions to be realized as much as possible. The return rate is devastating and even lower than the return rate in some African countries which experienced bloody civil conflicts. The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said this at the two-day regional conference in Skopje organized by the OSCE towards finding a lasting solution for the displaced persons from Kosovo. It was concluded at the meeting that, in cooperation with the OSCE, UNHCR, the governments in Macedonia, Montenegro, the Serbian government and the provisional Kosovo government in Pristina, working groups will be formed that will submit reports on what has been done regarding the issue of the return of displaced persons.
Joksimovic: Germany has a different approach to Serbia-EU talks (Novosti)
Serbian Minister without portfolio in charge of European integration Jadranka Joksimovic has stated that Germany is not conditioning Serbia and that is just has a different approach to the Serbia-EU talks. This is not conditioning, this is a different approach to the talks by Germany since the Bundestag adopted the declaration in which it called for opening Chapter 35 (on Kosovo) among the first ones in the talks, among other matters, Joksimovic told reporters in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. She underlined that Serbia is not rushing to meet the deadlines and is instead pursuing quality reforms, and added that signs of progress are visible. This is recognized by everyone in the EU, including Germany, she said and voiced belief that a good solution would soon be found and that the first chapter in the accession talks would open soon.
Davenport: Opening of first chapter depends on Brussels agreement (Tanjug)
“Opening of the first chapter in the negotiations with the EU depends on the progress in the implementation of the Brussels agreement, and the European Commission has recommended that one of the first chapters to be opened should be Chapter 32, which concerns public finances,” the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport saidat a press conference called to present an opinion poll about EU integrations. He said that the German parliament’s position was known – i.e., it insists that Chapters 23 and 24 (fundamental rights, justice, the fight against corruption) and 35 (Kosovo) should be opened first. The EU officials said he did not know when the first chapter will be opened. When asked whether this was conditioned by the status of Kosovo, changes to the constitution of B&H, and support for sanctions against Russia, he replied: “It is now up to the member states to decide which chapters will be opened…There has been some progress in relations between Belgrade and Pristina, but we cannot talk about full implementation. I think there is political will in Belgrade and Pristina, while the political situation in Pristina has not allowed for a renewal of the political dialogue on the highest level.”
Moro: We wish one chapter to be opened by the end of the year (Danas)
French Ambassador to Serbia Christine Moro says that her country wished one chapter in Serbia’s EU accession talks to be opened by the end of this year. As for Serbia’s balancing between Moscow and Brussels, Moro reminded of the words of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic that Serbia has opted for the EU, which is why Serbia should eventually join the European consensus. According to Moro, what is expected from Serbia at this point is to take no stands or conduct any activities contrary to the stands or policy of the EU as the community it is preparing to join soon. She also believes that the release of Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj has opened many wounds, which does not support the efforts invested in approximation in the region, which was supported by the EU. She said she hoped that all the sides involved would stay clear of the game of those who wish to put the process at risk.
Party divisions in Bujanovac (Danas)
The newly elected Chairman of the National Council of Albanians (NSA) and the leader of the Movement for Democratic Progress (PDP) Jonuz Musliu displayed the Albanian flag on the building where the NSA premises are located within the celebration of the Albanian Flag Day. Musliu displayed the flag in the presence of the Bujanovac and Presevo Mayors Nagip Arifi and Ragmi Mustafa respectfully, as well as leaders of political parties. “Changes are part of the elections so somebody can be the position and somebody the opposition. There will certainly be a different manner of the functioning of not only the Council, but of political parties in the Presevo Valley in general,” Musliu told the press. The celebration of the Flag Day, whose central celebration was held in the NSA building, was attended by the Albanian deputies in the Bujanovac and Presevo municipal assemblies, as well as the leader of the Democratic Union of the Valley (DUD) Skender Destani, who is also the deputy president of the Presevo municipality. The celebration was not attended by the Serbian MPs Riza Halimi and Saip Kamberi, whose Party for Democratic Action (PDD) remained in the minority following elections for the new NSA. The division among the Albanian political leaders in Bujanovac and Presevo occurred after the elections in October, when the majority of eight of the 15 members were won by two coalitions composed of five parties, which are the holders of the local authorities in Bujanovac and Presevo, and whose joint candidate was the NSA Chairman Jonuz Musliu. The opposition is composed of seven members from the Council from the PDD, DUD, and Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA), which had been managing all NSA bodies over the past four years.
An Albanian flag was displayed on the Bujanovac municipality building for one hour.
REGIONAL PRESS
Vucic and Dodik: EP resolution doesn’t contribute to regional cooperation (Oslobodjenje)
The most recent resolution adopted by the European Parliament in no way contributes to advancing cooperation among the countries and peoples of the Western Balkans, said Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and the President of the Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik. As a statement from the press office of the Serbian government reads, Vucic and Dodik, at a meeting in Belgrade, exchanged opinions on the political and economic situation in the region, and emphasized that peace, political tolerance and forbearance, as well as full stability, are conditions for progress in Serbia and the RS. During the discussion, they stated that, in accordance with the law on special and parallel links, it is essential to additionally improve economic cooperation between Serbia and the RS, the statement adds.
Dodik named Zeljka Cvijanovic prime minister-designate (Srna)
The Republika Srpska (RS) Prime minister-designate Zeljka Cvijanovic said that a new cabinet will be formed as soon as possible so that the RS could enter a new calendar and budget year without delays, problems and postponements. “I am ready to go to parliament in a few days, to present my expose and ask for support for a new cabinet,” Cvijanovic said at a press conference, where President Milorad Dodik announced that she was given a mandate to form a new cabinet. Cvijanovic, who holds the office of the RS Prime Minister at the moment, says that the present cabinet did not manage to complete some jobs, as it was hindered by disastrous floods and certain political and economic circumstances. She says she will continue to work towards the strengthening of the RS politically, economically and institutionally. “The new cabinet, just like the present one, will be at the disposal of citizens and all social partners. We will have to complete in the coming period the jobs that we have begun,” Cvijanovic said. She said that the new cabinet will add new priorities to the existing list of priorities, such as social sensitivity, which has already been demonstrated and which will be a characteristic of the new cabinet as well. “We managed in difficult and complex circumstances to demonstrate social sensitivity by increasing pensions and wages, to complete some projects, students’ dormitories, the housing program for families of fallen soldiers and military war invalids and to intervene and demonstrate that we are people’s government when the people needed this,” Cvijanovic said. Strengthening the economy, creating good circumstances and opportunities for new jobs and interventions to preserve the existing jobs are among her priorities. Cvijanovic says that unemployment was reduced in the past period. She says that the cabinet will intervene more in public sector and will take greater steps to tackle the situation in this field, and that it will introduce more order and responsibility in the work of control bodies. Cvijanovic thanked for the trust placed in her, stressing that there is nothing that is not known to her in a job she has been doing for the past year and a half, and that she knows the needs, advantages and disadvantages of the society.
Bosic: We want changes in the RS and B&H (Dnevni avaz)
The Main Board of the SDS formulated the list of candidates for the RS House of Peoples and Council of Peoples, the president of the SDS Mladen Bosic told reporters during a break in the session. “The SDS expects to have two members in the B&H House of Peoples and we will make an agreements for the best balance of power in order to get as many seats in the RS Council of Peoples,” said Bosic, who expects the SDS to have significant participation in the B&H House of Peoples and the RS Council of Peoples. Responding to a reporter’s question whether the coalition with the SNSD is possible, Bosic said that it is an end of a story and added that the SNSD President Milorad Dodik expressed his opinion about it when he together with the HDZ and SDP expelled the SDS from the parliamentary majority. “We want changes in the RS and in B&H, and if the possibility comes we will start the fight against crime and corruption, in any coalition with Milorad Dodik and SNSD, that would not be possible,” he added. Answering the speculations that Milorad Dodik said that he would accuse the SDS of treason against the RS if they enter the government at the B&H level, Bosic said that the SDS won the votes of citizens to defend their interests, not the interests of Dodik and the SNSD. “We will fulfill this duty if we join the government at the state level and we start the processes that were deliberately stalled in recent years. We have all been brought into the mud with no way out if the old structure of power remains,” said Bosic. He pointed out that the SDS has a coalition agreement with SDA and DF which is in force and expects that on the 9 or 10 December, at the first session of the House of Representatives, it will be clear how the forming of the government at that level will go. According to him, if Zeljka Cvijanovic really becomes the future president of the Government, it is clear that the RS is headed towards a “big problem, because it is the direct continuity of the Government that is responsible for the situation in RS and with it no changes for the better can be expected.”
Izetbegovic: Vojislav Seselj’s early release embarrassment for the Hague tribunal (Oslobodjenje)
Bakir Izetbegovic, the new-old Bosniak member of the B&H Presidency, who gained the confidence of voters for this function at the recent general elections in B&H, hopes that the new staff composition of the tripartite presidency as head of state will do more for the progress of the state than the previous one. Bakir noted that he had a good cooperation with Nebojsa Radmanovic, and that delays did not originate in the Presidency but in the State Parliament, he expressed hope that the newly elected member of the Serb Presidency Mladen Ivanic, is going to work on accelerating the positive process. He cited the example of Ivanic’s willingness in this respect, where all three members of the Presidency (third Dragan Covic, the Croat) would have a joint approach to foreign policy contacts with Islamic countries. As far as relations with the current Serbian establishment go, he believes that the situation is not the same as it was 20 years ago, the statements of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic speak in that favor. When asked about his opinion on Vojislav Seselj’s early release from the prison in The Hague, Izetbegovic answered that it is “an embarrassment for the Hague tribunal, because he should have been sentenced.” Izetbegovic would not disclose which names are in circulation in the SDA when it comes to the proposal for the prime minister-designate for the new federal or even state government, saying that the names should be known in December. I will personally advocate that at the federal level we have a businessman, a man who will be able to cope with economic problems. Regarding the formation of the new executive power in the RS, he does not see anything wrong with Homeland, a coalition that the SDA is a part of participating in it, and that means cooperation with Milorad Dodik. With participation of Homeland he sees the opportunity to represent the interests of Bosniaks and the other non-Serb nationalities in this entity. However, nothing is yet agreed and Homeland will participate in the RS authorities if the interests come together, he concluded, confirming that at the state level there will not be a coalition with Milorad Dodik. About the pre-election promise of a possible opening of 100,000 new jobs in B&H in ten years, Izetbegovic said that in the next four year the new government could be open about 30,000 jobs, he is optimistic of the state progress in the upcoming years.
Croatian PM Zoran Milanovic arrives in Sarajevo (Oslobodjenje)
Zoran Milanovic, prime minister of Croatia, arrived in Sarajevo, where he begins a two-day working visit to B&H. Including Sarajevo, he will visit six cities in central Bosnia inhabited by Croats. A well-placed source in the Croatian government informs our paper that the visit by Prime Minister Milanovic is a continuation of the government’s policy and that of the prime minister himself to take care of Croats who live in Croatia, but also an expression of the Croatian government’s strong support for B&H’s Euro-Atlantic integrations. The Croatian government decisively supports the Euro-Atlantic path of all countries in Southeast Europe, however, as we heard unofficially from our source from the prime minister’s office in Sarajevo, Milanovic’s favorite is in fact B&H. The two-day working visit by the Croatian prime minister is the most comprehensive thus far. Milanovic will visit Sarajevo, Vares, Kresevo, Nova Bila, and Vitez, and on Tuesday will visit Zepce and Jajce, areas where many Croats live, and in which the Croatian state, in accordance with the constitution and through the state budget supports cultural, health, and education institutions. Milanovic’s visit to B&H starts in Sarajevo with a working meeting with Vjekoslav Bevanda, chair of the Council of Ministers, after which Milanovic and Bevanda will open the Dr. Dragutin Dujmusic student home in the Sarajevo suburb of Stup. The student home is mostly completed, and in its construction and equipping to date has been invested a total of €4.5 million. From 2012 to now, Croatia on several occasions has donated half a million euros to construction and equipping of this student dorm, and is in the course of another public tender worth around €100,000. Milanovic will also meet with Cardinal Vinko Puljic, archbishop of Vrhbosna, and Monsignor Pero Sudar, auxiliary bishop of Vrhbosna, and visit the student dorm to speak with students. Our source in the Croatian government points out that Prime Minister Milanovic’s frequent visits to B&H also express his strong support to B&H’s Euro-Atlantic integrations. The Croatian government expresses satisfaction that a large part of the EU’s initiative for B&H contains points and proposals initiated by the Croatian government, our source says.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo and the Rights of the Serbian Minority: Ten Years After The “March Pogrom 2004″ (Global Research, by Vladislav B. Sotirovic, 29 November 2014)
This article deals with the question of political and human/minority rights in the region of Kosovo & Metohija ten years after the „March Pogrom 2004“ and fifteen years after the NATO’s military aggression on Serbia and Montenegro and occupation of the region. An importance of this research topic is in a fact that for the first time in the European history a terrorist-style and mafia-ruled (quasi)independent state was created by a full diplomatic, political, economic, military and financial sponsorship by the West under the umbrella of the NATO’s and the EU’s protective administration. The precedence of Kosovo’s self-proclaimed independence in February 2008 already had several negative „domino effect“ consequences elsewhere in Europe (the Caucasus, the Crimean Peninsula…). The aim of the paper is to present a current situation in Kosovo & Metohija and possible consequences of the Kosovo case for the international relations and the post-Cold War world’s order.
Global Pax Americana and post-modern colonialism
It passed ten years after the „March Pogrom 2004“ in Kosovo & Metohija against the local Serbs organized and done by Kosovo Albanians, led by the veterans from the Kosovo Liberation Army – the KLA and logistically suported by the NATO’s occupation troops in Kosovo & Metohija under the name of the Kosovo Forces – the KFOR. That was simply a continuation of the last stage (up to now) of dismemberment of ex-Yugoslavia – the Kosovo War (1998-1999) and the NATO’s military intervention (March 24th–June 10th, 1999) against and aggression on Serbia and Montenegro (at that time composing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – the FRY) by violating the international law. In this context, we can say that at the end of the 20th century the fate of ex-Yugoslavia was being determined by several international organizations, but not decisively by the Yugoslavs themselves.
The NATO’s military intervention against the FRY in March-June of 1999 (led by the USA) for the formal reason of protection of the human (Albanian) rights in Kosovo, marked a crucial step toward finishing the process of creation of the global „Pax Americana“ in the form of the NATO’s World Order – the NWO. As the NATO used force against the FRY without the UN Security Council sanctions and permission and also without an official proclamation of the war we can call this military intervention in fact as a pure „aggression“ against one sovereign state. In the Balkans NATO acquired not only a big military experience and an opportunity to exhaust old and use new weapons, but also managed to enhance its activities, making its way to a global organization.
After the Kosovo War the UN’s Security Council Resolution 1244 (from June 1999) gave the mandate for the effective protection of the universal human and minority rights values of all inhabitants on the territory of the southern Serbia’s Autonomous Region of Kosovo & Metohija (in English language known only as Kosovo). At such a way, the responsibility for protection of human lives, freedom and security in Kosovo was thus transferred to the “international” public authorities, but in fact only to the NATO: the administration of the United Nations’ Mission in Kosovo – the UNMIK, and the “international” military forces – (the KFOR, Kosovo Forces). Unfortunately, very soon this responsibility was totally challenged as around 200.000 ethnic Serbs and members of other non-Albanian communities were expelled from the region by the local ethnic Albanians led by the KLA’s veterans. At any case, mostly suffered the ethnic Serbs. It left today only up to 3% of the non-Albanians in Kosovo in comparison to the pre-war situation out of a total number of the non-Albanians in this province that was at least 12%. Only up to March 2004 around 120 Serb Orthodox Christian religious objects and cultural monuments were devastated or destroyed.
However, the most terrible in the series of Kosovo Albanian eruptions of violence against the Serbs living in this region was organized and carried out between March 17th-19th, 2004, having all the features of the Nazi-style organized pogroms. During the tragic events of the “March Pogrom 2004”, in a destructive assault of tens of thousands by Kosovo Albanians led by armed groups of redressed the KLA’s veterans (the Kosovo Protection Corpus – the KPC, a future Kosovo Albanian regular army), a systematic ethnic cleansing of the remaining Serbs was carried out, together with destruction of houses, other property, cultural monuments and Serbian Orthodox Christian religious sites. Nevertheless, the international civil and military forces in the region have been only “stunned” and “surprised” what was going on. The “March Pogrom 2004”, which resulted, according to the documentary sources, in the loss of several tens of lives, several hundreds of wounded (including and the members of the KFOR as well), more than 4.000 exiled ethnic Serbs, more than 800 Serbian houses set on fire and 35 destroyed or severely damaged Serbian Orthodox Christian churches and cultural monuments, surely revealed the real situation on the ground in Kosovo even 60 years after the Holocaust during the WWII. Unfortunately, the attempts of the Serbs and especially by the government of Serbia at that time led by dr. Vojislav Koštunica (a leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia) to call an international attention to the human and minority rights violation situation in this region proved to have been both unsuccessful and justified.
It is thus necessary to reiterate that ethnic cleansing of the Serbs (and other non-Albanian population) in the region of Kosovo by the local Albanians after the mid-June 1999 means putting into practice the annihilation of a Serbian territory of exquisite historic, spiritual, political and cultural top-level significance in terms of the Serbian nation, state and the Church, and its every-day visible transformation into another Albanian state in the Balkans with a real wish and possibility to unify it with a neighboring motherland Albania. At such a way, the main geopolitical goal of the First Albanian Prizren League from June 1878 is being brought to its attainment, including its implications for the Preševo Valley in South-East Serbia, Western Macedonia up to the River of Vardar, a Greek portion of the Epirus province and the Eastern Montenegro. It is known that the Albanian political workers required within a framework of the First Albanian Prizren League (1878-1881) a creation of a Greater Albania as an autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire composed by “all Albanian ethnic territories”. More precisely, it was required that four Ottoman provinces (vilayets) of Scodra, Ioannina, Bitola and Kosovo would be combined into a single Albanian national Ottoman province of Vilayet of Albania. However, in two out of four required “Albanian” provinces – Bitola and Kosovo, the ethnic Albanians did not compose even a single majority at that time. Nevertheless, such a Greater Albania with a capital in Tirana existed during the WWII under Mussolini’s and Hitler’s protectorate.
The Albanian national movement, established in accordance with the program of the First Albanian Prizren League in 1878, is keeping on with its terrorist activities up today. It was particularly active in the period of Italian and German supported Greater Albania from April 1941 to May 1945, when it undertook the organization of the Albanian Quisling network of agents. During this period of time around 100.000 Serbs from Kosovo & Metohija have been expelled from their homes to addition of around 200.000 expelled during Socialist Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1980 lead by Josip Broz Tito who was of Slovene and Croat ethnic origin born in Croatia and notorious anti-Serb. The process of articulation of the Albanian secessionist movement in Kosovo & Metohija continued during the post-WWII Yugoslavia and was carried out by Kosovo Albanian anti-Serb communist partocracy. The process became particularly intense and successful in the period between 1968-1989. For instance, only from 1981 to 1987 there were 22.307 Serbs and Montenegrins who were forced to leave Kosovo & Metohija. The entrance of the NATO’s troops in the region in June 1999 marks the beginning of the last stage of the Albanian-planned and carried out the “Final Solution” of the Serbian Question on the territory of Kosovo & Metohija – a historical and cultural cradle of the Serbian nation, but in which only the ethnic Albanians have to live in the future.
In the light of the main Albanian goal – to establish ethnically pure Greater Albania – it is “understandable” why it is so important to destroy any Serbian trace on the territory defined by the aspirations. The Albanian terrorism has been developing for more than two centuries. It has the profile of ethnically, i.e. the Nazi-racist style motivated terrorism (like the Croat one), marked by excessive animosity against the Serbs. Its principal features are the following:
- All kinds of repressive measures directed against the Serbian population.
- Carrying practical actions to force the Serbs to leave their homes.
- Devastation of the Serbian Orthodox Christian religious objects and other cultural monuments belonging to the Serbian nation which are clearly testifying ten centuries long presence of the Serbs in Kosovo & Metohija.
- Destruction of the complete infrastructure used by the members of the Serbian community.
- Destruction of the Serbian cemeteries what means de facto destruction of the historical roots of the Serbs in the region.
A long standing Muslim Albanian oppression and terror against the Christian Orthodox Serbian community in Kosovo & Metohija is a specific phenomenon with the grave consequences not only for the local Serbs. It became, however, clear that sooner or later it will bring about severe problems for the rest of Europe as well.
Ten years have passed from the „March Pogrom 2004“ and fifteen years since the NATO’s military aggression against a sovereign European state of the FRY. At the moment, the crucial questions are:
1) What goals did NATO pursue?
2) Whether it managed to cope with its tasks in the following (15) years?
3) What did these years bring to those who threw bombs and those who were attacked?
It has to be made clear that during the Kosovo War the NATO did not achieve a military victory as it failed to destroy the army of the FRY and the soldiers’ morale. However, a campaign of bombing got the right political atmosphere for destroying Serbia (purposely not so much Montenegro) and for imposing their conditions on the Serbian government, including the rules of the cooperation with the EU, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (in the Hague) and with the NATO as well. After June 1999 Serbia lost almost all opportunities to control its own state’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security becoming in a pure sense of meaning a western political and economic colony. After several years of injustice and punishment by the West before 1999 the Serbs as a nation lost the will to fight, to resist as they were practically alone when tried to repel the attack of the powerful western military alliance in March-June 1999. As a consequence, after June 1999 it became much easier for the West to continue a process of destruction of Yugoslavia and to carry out a policy of transforming the region into its own colonial domain with occupied Kosovo & Metohija as the best example of „die rückkehr des kolonialismus“.
In October 2000 Slobodan Milosević, who was a head of Serbia for ten years, was ousted by the street revolution putsch-style like it was done with Ukrainian president Viktor Janukovich in Kiev in February 2004. At first sight, the move came as unexpected, easy and legal, in the other words – Yugoslavia’s home affair. However, the „Revolution of the Fifth October 2000“ in Belgrade, in fact, had been very thoroughly prepared by special divisions („Otpor“ or „Resistance“) sponsored by the West, especially by the CIA. The method proved to be so successful that, according to one western documentary movie based on the testimonies by the members of the Serbian “Otpor“ movement, it was later used in Georgia (the „Rose Revolution“ in November 2003) and Ukraine (the „Orange Revolution“ from late November 2004 to January 2005 and finally in 2013/2014), but failed in Moldova and Iran in 2009. The same source claims that the Georgian opposition were taught in Serbia, while their Ukrainian colleagues of the „Orange Revolution“ were drilled also in Serbia and in Georgia.
From the time of the end of the Cold War (1989) Serbia remained as a symbol of independence and disobedience to the NATO’s World Order in Europe. However, the new authorities in Serbia after October 2000 obeyed to the NATO’s World Order and everything went smoothly. The dismemberment of the FRY started when having arrived in Belgrade in February 2003, Javier Solana, a top the EU representative and official, suggested to a group of officials from Serbia and Montenegro to admit that the FRY ceased to exist, and adopt the Constitution charter, written in Brussels. Its text was proclaiming, for the beginning, the appearance of a new country. Solana did not face any resistance. Consequently, the FRY was renamed to the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, and officially abolished the name ”Yugoslavia” that was in official use from 1929. In 2006 Montenegro and Serbia declared independence, thereby ending the common South Slavic state (only Bulgarians have been out from this state as the South Slavs) established in 1918 under the original name of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (this name was used till 1929). It was Javier Solana who did it regardless the fact that he up today remains a war criminal for majority of the Serbs as he bombed their country in 1999 as the General Secretary of the NATO killing 3.500 citizens of Serbia including and children and women with a material damage to the country around 200.000 billion US $.
After the year of 2000 it was easier to implement the NATO’s plans which seemed simply fantastic under Slobodan Milošević as president of Serbia and later the FRY. The last Yugoslavia (Serbia & Montenegro) was undermined, its integration slowed down till final dissolution in 2006 and Serbia’s strength exhausted. What the NATO, USA and EU failed to achieve in the castle of Rambouillet (in France) in 1998/1999 (during the ultimatum-negotiations with S. Milošević on Kosovo crisis) and through 78 days of cruel and inhuman bombing in March-June 1999, they got on July 18th, 2005, when Serbia and Montenegro signed a deal with the NATO “On the Lines of Communication”. This was a technical agreement which allows the NATO’s personnel and equipment to transit through the country. Under the deal, the NATO could enjoy such opportunities for quite a long time – “until all peacekeeping operations in the Balkans are over”. Thus the NATO was given the green light to enlarge its presence in the region and control the army of both Serbia and Montenegro. On April 1st, 2009 Albania and Croatia have completed the accession process, and have joined the NATO as full members and at a such a way surrounding Serbia and Montenegro by NATO members from all sides except from Bosnian-Herzegovinian. Today the Balkans are NATO’s permanent military base. For instance, in October 2008 Serbia’s defence minister and the NATO’s officials signed agreement on information security, which allows the NATO to control everyone who deals with their documents or just cooperates with them. For the very reason the NATO insisted on secrecy of the negotiations with Serbia.
The aftermath of the 1999 aggression on Serbia and Montenegro for the NATO was the most favourable. Nobody condemned NATO and they felt even more confident in global perspective (Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003…). In the recent years the world has witnessed that the NATO was making several attempts of its own expansion. Currently, the NATO’s military bloc is occupying more positions at the Balkans, using old and building new military camps with attempt to include into its organization Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina (the later one after cancellation of the Republic of Srpska). Still existing a huge NATO’s military camp „Bondsteel“ in Kosovo & Metohija is the best proof that the region is going to be under the US/NATO’s dominance for a longer period of time if the balance between the Great Powers (the US/Russia/China) will not be changed. However, the current crisis over Ukraine is the first herald of such change, i.e. of the beginning of the new Cold War era.
The most disappointed fact in the present post-war Kosovo reality is for sure an ethnic and cultural cleansing of all non-Albanians and not-Albanian cultural heritage under the NATO/KFOR/EULEX/UNMIK umbrella. The proofs are evident and visible on every corner of Kosovo territory, but purposely not covered by the western mass media and politicians. For instance, on the arrival of the KFOR (an international, but in fact the NATO’s „Kosovo Forces“) and the UNMIK (the „United Nations’ Mission in Kosovo“) to Kosovo & Metohija in 1999, all names of the towns and streets in this province were renamed to have the (Muslim) Albanian forms or new names. The monuments to Serbian heroes like the monument devoted to duke Lazar (who led the Serbian Christian army during the Kosovo Battle on June 28th, 1389 against the Muslim Turks) in the town of Gnjilane, were demolished. The Serbs were and are getting killed, assassinated, wounded and abducted, their houses burned to the ground. As we mentioned earlier, the most infamous ethnic cleansing was done between March 17th and 19th 2004 – the „March Pogrom“.
As of today, a number of the Serbs that were killed or went missing in Kosovo & Metohija from June 1999 onward (after the KFOR arrived), is measured in thousands, the number of demolished Serbian Christian Orthodox churches and monasteries is measured in hundreds, and the number of burned down Serbian houses in tens of thousands. Even though the KFOR had as much as 50.000 soldiers in the beginning as well as several thousand of policemen and civilian mission members, mainly none of the above mentioned crimes have been solved. In fact, murdering a Serb in Kosovo is not considered as a crime, on a contrary, the murderers of children and the elderly are being rewarded as heroes by their ethnic Albanian compatriots. The province is almost ethnically cleaned like Albania and Croatia. For the matter-of-fact, according to the last pre-war official Yugoslav census of 1991 there were 13% of non-Albanians in Kosovo & Metohija (in reality surely more). However, it is estimated that today 97% of Kosovo & Metohija’s population is only the ethnic Albanian. In the light of the main national goal by the Albanians – the establishment of another Albanian state in the Balkans and Europe, as the first step towards the pan-Albanian state unification – we can „understand“ why it is important to destroy any Serbian trace in the „territory defined by the aspirations“.
In the name of a Greater Albania
The final stage of cutting of Kosovo & Metohija from their motherland of Serbia came on February 17th, 2008 when Kosovo Albanians received Washington’s permission to proclaim its formal (quasi)independence what happened in fact later than expected by Russia and China. At the UN Security Council Moscow said „no“ to Kosovo’s independence as Russia respects interests of Serbia and officially condemns all attempts to impose decisions on other members of the international community by breaking the international law (in the Kosovo & Metohija case it is the UN Resolution 1244). The fact is that the Serbs have not forgotten Kosovo, but have not done much about it either. Now there are some 80 states that recognized Kosovo independence, including 23 EU and 24 NATO members (out of 192 UNO members). Almost all of them are the neighbours of Serbia and with the exception of Bosnia-Herzegovina all the ex-Yugoslav republics have recognized Kosovo. Bosnia-Herzegovina did not recognize it for the very reason: the Republic of Srpska, still as an autonomous political unit within Bosnia-Herzegovina alongside with the Muslim-Croat Federation according to the Dayton/Paris Peace Agreement in 1995, has and use the veto right. At the moment, in Kosovo there is the EULEX (European civil mission) and the Kosovo issue is gradually being moved out of the UNO jurisdiction and out of reach of the Russian veto in the UN Security Council becoming more and more the NATO and the EU governed territory. There is and the so-called Kosovo Security Forces (in fact the redressed members of the KLA, which is formed according to Martti Ahtisaari’s plan with active support from the NATO to be in the next years transformed into the regular Army of the Republic of Kosovo.
What is true about today political reality in Kosovo & Metohija is a fact that this territory in a form of a client (quasi)state is given to be administered by the members of the KLA – a military organization which was in 1998 proclaimed by the US administration as a terrorist one. Anyway, the KLA is the first successful rebellious movement and terrorist organisation in Europe after the WWII. The movement was originally developed from a tiny Albanian diaspora in Switzerland in the second half of the 1980s to around 18.000 soldiers financed and clearly supported by all means by the US administration. In order to realize its own crucial political task – a separation of Kosovo & Metohija province from the rest of Serbia with a possibility to unite it with Albania, the KLA was allied with the NATO between 1997-1999. The KLA’s strategy of the war terror was based on a long tradition of the Albanians to oppose by arms any organized authority in a form of a state from the Ottoman time up today. However, the military intervention by the NATO in 1999 against Serbia and Montenegro over the Kosovo question was portrayed in the American and the West European media as a necessary step to prevent the Serbian armed forces from repeating the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. But the truth was that Serbia trained its military on Kosovo & Metohija because of an ongoing armed struggle by the KLA’s terrorist and separatist organization to wrest independence from Serbia for the sake of creation of a Greater Albania with ethnically pure Kosovo & Metohija and later on the western parts of the FYR of Macedonia, the Eastern Montenegro and the Greek Epirus.
Nevertheless, an active US President Barrack Obama congratulated at the very beginnig of his presidential mandate the leaders of the „multiethnic, independent and democratic Kosovo“ regardless to the facts that those leaders (especially Hashim Tachi – the „Snake“ and Ramush Haradinay) are proved to be notorious war criminals, that the region (state?) is not either multicultural, nor really independent and particularly not democratic one. However, there are several official EU’s declarations and unofficial political statements encouraging Belgrade and Priština to cooperate and „develop neighbourly relations“ what practically means for Serbia that Belgrade has firstly to recognize Albanian Kosovo independence in order to become the EU member state after the years or even decades of negotiations. The another fact is that the process of international recognizing of the Kosovo’s independence is much slower that Priština and Washington expected at the beginning. From the time of Kosovo’s self-proclamation of independence Serbia’s greatest diplomatic „success“ is the majority of votes in 2008 of the UNO General Assembly supporting the decision that the case of Kosovo independence should be considered by the International Court of Justice in the Hague (established in 1899). On the one hand, the Court’s decision on the issue in July 2010 was very favourable for Kosovo’s Albanian (the KLA’s) separatists and terrorists as it was concluded a verdict that an unilateral proclamation of Kosovo’s independence in February 2008 was done within a framework of the international law. However, on the other hand, the Court’s verdict in 2010 already became also very favourable for separatism movements elsewhere like in March 2014 for the separatists in Crimean Peninsula or maybe soon for their colleagues from Catalonia, Scotland, the Northern Italy (Lega Nord)… Kosovo’s self-proclamation of independence has a direct domino effect only a few months later when in August 2008 the South Ossetia and Abkhazia did the same from Georgia.
The (murky) reality in the present day Kosovo & Metohija, on the other side, is that there is not a single ethnic Albanian party at the deeply divided Kosovo’s political scene which would be ready to accept a „peaceful reintegration“ of the region into Serbia’s political sphere and there is no a single ethnic Albanian politician who is not concerned about the danger posed by the „division of Kosovo“ to the Albanian (major) part and Serbian (minor) part and does not oppose slightest suggestions of the Serbian autonomy for the northern portion of Kosovo & Metohija. However, what is more important: Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders and even the citizens of the Albanian ethnic origin do not even consider national dilemma like „Europe or independence!“ There is no doubt what their answer is going to be in that case. On the other side, what is going on about and in Serbia? The answer is that a nation unable to make a choice between a territorial integrity on the one side, and a membership in an international association (although an important one) on the other, i.e. a nation who cannot choose between these two „priorities“ really deserves to lose both.
At the end, if the international law and fixed order are broken on the one side of the globe (ex. Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq) it is nothing strange to expect that the same law and order are going to be broken somewhere else (ex. at the Caucasus, Ukraine, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, France…) following the logic of the so-called „domino effect“ reaction in the international relations. Finally, it has to be noted that if the Albanian extremism is not stopped, the FYR of Macedonia and Montenegro will have to give parts of their territories populated by the ethnic Albanians (the Western Macedonia and the Eastern Montenegro). In this case, Europe will have to decide how to discuss the issue of the borders’ revision and how to recognize a new enlarged state of a Greater Albania.
Assoc. Professor Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic, Mykolas Romeris University, Institute of Political Sciences,
Hague Prosecutors Demand Seselj’s Return to Jail (BIRN, by Denis Dzidic, 1 December 2014)
Prosecutors at the international war crimes court asked for Serbian nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj, released for cancer treatment, to be returned to custody after his hardline rhetoric sparked anger.
Chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in the motion that the court’s “trust in Seselj’s conduct was without foundation”. “He has clearly demonstrated that his health condition is no barrier to making unacceptable public statements that are inflammatory and insulting to victim communities. He has also made public statements that call into question the trial chamber’s assessment of the extremity of his health situation,” said Brammertz. The Tribunal ordered Seselj’s temporary release of Seselj last month on humanitarian grounds, because of his poor health, but since returning to Belgrade, he has led nationalist protests andmade a series of hardline statements that have angered war victims. Brammertz said that Seselj should be returned to The Hague, then a hearing should be held to discuss “stringent conditions to regulate the terms of any future provisional release”.
Serbia and Croatia Row Over Seselj
Serbian officials have hit back at Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic after he cancelled his visit to Belgrade for an upcoming economic summit, citing the Serbian authorities’ alleged failure to adequately condemn Vojislav Seselj’s nationalist rhetoric since his release.
“Everybody knows that the Serbian authorities are not fond of such [nationalist] ideas [about a ‘Greater Serbia’], so there is no need to condemn it officially, because Croatia does not do that either,” Serbian labour minister Aleksandar Vulin said on Sunday. “We do not believe that Croatian government is Ustasa [WWII-era Nazi-allied Croatian nationalist regime] because there are many people in Croatia who consider themselves to be Ustasa and wear Ustasa symbols, and the Croatian government does not disassociate itself from them,” Vulin said. Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said meanwhile that Zagreb’s foreign policy towards Belgrade will remain the same, but argued that the Serbian authorities should condemn Seselj’s hate speech. Pusic said that the Milanovic visit was cancelled “in order not to fuel that kind of talk”. “Bearing in mind the history of our region, it would be wise, helpful and good if the Serbian authorities distanced themselves from that kind of public speech,” Pusic said on Saturday, adding that it was known that Seselj’s temporary release was not Belgrade’s decision.
Milka Domanovic
Seselj said after his release that he would not voluntarily return to the UN-backed court in The Hague for the verdict in his trial and would stage protests against any attempt to send him back.
“There will be no voluntary return to The Hague for me,” he said. The European parliament last week adopted a resolution urging the Tribunal to rethink its decision to temporarily release Seselj. “The European parliament strongly condemns Seselj’s warmongering, incitement to hatred and encouragement of territorial claims and his attempts to derail Serbia from its European path,” said the resolution adopted by lawmakers in Strasbourg on Thursday. Croatia has also condemned his release and called for him to be returned to The Hague. Seselj had been in custody since 2003, when he voluntarily surrendered. He is on trial for wartime crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. The verdict in his case was scheduled for October last year, but was postponed after one of the judges in the trial was removed for alleged bias. The new judge is expected to take until at least the end of June 2015 to familiarise himself with details of the case, causing yet another delay in the marathon trial.
EU Slows Macedonia Plan for Tax Haven (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 1 December 2014)
Proposed constitutional changes will have to wait until after New Year because of Brussels’ caution about a controversial amendment that will allow the establishment of a tax haven.
Macedonian Justice Minister Adnan Jashari said that Brussels’ call for Skopje to not rush into its plan to establish a tax haven will postpone but not stop the government-backed package of constitutional reforms. Jashari, whose ministry this summer proposed the package of seven constitutional changes, said that the government is holding close consultations with Brussels about the plan to set up an “international financial zone” – in effect a tax haven. “We are now preparing and aligning the draft with European regulations. The law will regulate many details about the international financial zones. Off course, Brussels is requesting information about the law and that is why we are late with the constitutional amendments,” said Jashari. Originally the changes were planned to pass through parliament this autumn. In August, Macedonia’s Justice Ministry requested an opinion from the European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, about the changes, one of which tackles the establishment of the ‘international financial zone’. The establishment of the zone is intended to encourage wealthy companies to move operations to Macedonia. However, some economists feared this could turn Macedonia into a destination for criminal money. In its reply in October, the Venice Commission advised Macedonia not to rush ahead with the adoption of the changes while the country’s opposition MPs are absent from parliament. Similar remarks came from the European Commission. The Venice Commission and the EC contested the need to change the constitution over this matter, suggesting it could be regulated by a law. They also warned that that the way the amendment is worded could lead to a creation of a “state within a state” where Macedonia will not exercise full sovereignty in the. “If all laws (other than criminal laws) are to be enacted and enforced by a managing body rather than the constitutionally-recognised lawmaker and executive, this zone becomes a sort of a ‘state within a state’, separate from the existing constitutional structure,” the Venice Commission wrote in October. “This, in turn, endangers the unity of the state, which is guaranteed by the constitution,” it said. “The amendment on the international financial zone is not sufficiently precise and, in places, does not seem compatible with the constitutional order of the republic,” it added. “Furthermore, nearly total exclusion of this zone from the legal order of the State is not compatible with the European constitutional heritage,” the Commission concludes. Minister Jashari said that the authorities were taking all these remarks into account to improve the draft. The constitutional change regarding the international financial zones will “most probably have two paragraphs. The first will allow establishment of such zones and the second will say that further issues regarding their establishment, organisation and financing will be regulated by a law”, Jashari said. Talks with the European Commission opened a month ago in Brussels when Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gguevski and his team met with the then EU Commissioner Stefan Fuele and the Director General for Enlargement, Christian Danielsson. “We have explained many of our stances and I have a feeling that we are making our position closer with the EC,” Gruevski said then. Another problematic constitutional change concerns the intent of the socially conservative government of Prime Minister Gruevski to define not only marriage in strictly heterosexual terms but non-marital unions as well. This was criticised human rights NGOs. Another change removes the Justice Minister from the Court Council, the body that appoints judges, as a way of reducing political influence on the courts. Further changes limit the rate of public debt to 60 per cent of GDP and the budget deficit to three per cent of GDP, and introduce a so-called ‘constitutional complaint’ mechanism whereby people or institutions can file complaints against the authorities.The opposition, led by the Social Democrats, SDSM, does not back the changes. They have been boycotting parliament since the April general and presidential elections, accusing Gruevski and his party of using electoral fraud to win them.
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