Citing reliable sources close to UNMIK, Zëri reports that Nebojsa Covic, head of the Coordination Centre for Kosovo, has tried to convince Serbs in Gracanica and Partesh to refuse the implementation of pilot projects for reforms in local government.
The newspaper notes that if Serbs in Gracanica and Partesh support the pilot projects of the Kosovo Government, the chances for a positive report by Ambassador Kai Eide will immediately grow. At the same time, says the paper, the eventual success in decentralisation of power in Kosovo could be the key argument of Kosovans during negotiation on final status.
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Minister Haziri: I respect Eide’s statement
In a debate held at the US Institute for Peace, Local Government Minister Lutfi Haziri was quoted as saying, ‘regarding Mr. Eide’s statement that progress is slow in Kosovo then we must acknowledge this and work with more insistence to change this pace’.
Haziri also added that the strategy of the Belgrade Government is hindering the process because they have called on Kosovo Serbs to object to decentralisation. Haziri also said the Kosovo Government would do all in its power to fulfil the tasks required by the international community.
Haziri also added that the strategy of the Belgrade Government is hindering the process because they have called on Kosovo Serbs to object to decentralisation. Haziri also said the Kosovo Government would do all in its power to fulfil the tasks required by the international community.
Friday, July 29, 2005
Calmy-Rey defends Swiss position on Kosovo
On the eve of an official visit to Kosovo, the Swiss foreign minister has defended Switzerland’s goal of achieving a form of independence for the province.
But in an interview with swissinfo, Micheline Calmy-Rey stressed that a decision on Kosovo’s future status could only be taken with the support of the government in Belgrade.
Calmy-Rey’s visit – which gets underway on Saturday - comes at a sensitive time for Swiss relations with Serbia and Montenegro.
Last month Serbian President Boris Tadic told the Swiss foreign minister in no uncertain terms that he was not open to discussion about independence for Kosovo.
Belgrade has also repeatedly called on Switzerland to remain neutral and not take a position on the province’s future.
Kosovo officially remains part of Serbia and Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia. But it has been under United Nations and Nato administration since a 78-day Nato-led air war that halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in 1999.
Before she returns to Switzerland on August 2, Calmy-Rey will celebrate Swiss National Day on Monday in the company of Swiss peacekeeping forces stationed in the province.
Swiss soldiers have been deployed as part of the multinational peacekeeping force in Kosovo since 1999.
swissinfo: What are you hoping to achieve during your visit to Kosovo?
Micheline Calmy-Rey: The purpose of my visit is to explain to the Kosovar authorities the Swiss point of view regarding the political future of Kosovo. I am also going to underline the importance of Swiss engagement in Kosovo – including financial and technical assistance - for stability and the promotion of peace.
I’d like to emphasise that Kosovo is a very important region for our country. Ten per cent of the population of Kosovo live in Switzerland. So Kosovo’s interests are also ours, especially in terms of security.
Our position is clear-cut, unbiased and unequivocal.
swissinfo: Serbia has made it clear that it is unhappy with Switzerland’s suggestion that Kosovo could move towards some form of independence. How are you going to make progress without Serbia and Montenegro's support?
M.C-R.: We will continue to communicate our position to both sides. And our position is clear-cut, unbiased and unequivocal. Our idea is that the evolution towards a form of formal independence must happen under close international monitoring as well as through negotiations with the authorities in Belgrade, upon whom this independence cannot be imposed.
On the other hand, our position on the achievement of [basic] standards in Kosovo remains unchanged. We will not give way to any compromise with regard to improvement of these standards, especially when it comes to the situation of minorities and security issues. A significant international presence [in the province] will continue to be necessary as long as these standards are not achieved. Switzerland is determined to pursue its commitment side by side with other members of the international community.
swissinfo: Serbian President Boris Tadic has said he will "never accept" an independent Kosovo and will do everything in his power to prevent secession. How do you go about convincing him otherwise?
M.C-R.: We will not push for a particular solution. All we are trying to do is convince both parties that the time has come to start a political dialogue at the highest level on the status question.
Our position on Kosovo is consistent with our general policy towards the Balkan countries.
swissinfo: Some parliamentarians in Bern have criticised your stance on Kosovo, saying it is a major foreign-policy shift and that as such it should be discussed by parliament. What is your response?
M.C-R.: [All I can say is that] our balanced position on Kosovo is consistent with our general policy towards the Balkan countries and was approved by the government last May.
swissinfo: By coming out with a clear line about the future status of Kosovo, are you not jeopardising Switzerland’s role as a neutral facilitator?
M.C-R.: In accordance with our policy of neutrality, we have always taken unequivocal positions which are based on assessments of the interests of all parties.
We have clearly expressed that it is important to take into account two equally legitimate desires. Firstly, the right of minorities to live in safety, to have the same opportunities for economic development, to have the same access to social services and education, and to exercise the right to return. And secondly, the will of the majority of the population to exercise its right to self-determination.
swissinfo-interview: Ramsey Zarifeh
But in an interview with swissinfo, Micheline Calmy-Rey stressed that a decision on Kosovo’s future status could only be taken with the support of the government in Belgrade.
Calmy-Rey’s visit – which gets underway on Saturday - comes at a sensitive time for Swiss relations with Serbia and Montenegro.
Last month Serbian President Boris Tadic told the Swiss foreign minister in no uncertain terms that he was not open to discussion about independence for Kosovo.
Belgrade has also repeatedly called on Switzerland to remain neutral and not take a position on the province’s future.
Kosovo officially remains part of Serbia and Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia. But it has been under United Nations and Nato administration since a 78-day Nato-led air war that halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in 1999.
Before she returns to Switzerland on August 2, Calmy-Rey will celebrate Swiss National Day on Monday in the company of Swiss peacekeeping forces stationed in the province.
Swiss soldiers have been deployed as part of the multinational peacekeeping force in Kosovo since 1999.
swissinfo: What are you hoping to achieve during your visit to Kosovo?
Micheline Calmy-Rey: The purpose of my visit is to explain to the Kosovar authorities the Swiss point of view regarding the political future of Kosovo. I am also going to underline the importance of Swiss engagement in Kosovo – including financial and technical assistance - for stability and the promotion of peace.
I’d like to emphasise that Kosovo is a very important region for our country. Ten per cent of the population of Kosovo live in Switzerland. So Kosovo’s interests are also ours, especially in terms of security.
Our position is clear-cut, unbiased and unequivocal.
swissinfo: Serbia has made it clear that it is unhappy with Switzerland’s suggestion that Kosovo could move towards some form of independence. How are you going to make progress without Serbia and Montenegro's support?
M.C-R.: We will continue to communicate our position to both sides. And our position is clear-cut, unbiased and unequivocal. Our idea is that the evolution towards a form of formal independence must happen under close international monitoring as well as through negotiations with the authorities in Belgrade, upon whom this independence cannot be imposed.
On the other hand, our position on the achievement of [basic] standards in Kosovo remains unchanged. We will not give way to any compromise with regard to improvement of these standards, especially when it comes to the situation of minorities and security issues. A significant international presence [in the province] will continue to be necessary as long as these standards are not achieved. Switzerland is determined to pursue its commitment side by side with other members of the international community.
swissinfo: Serbian President Boris Tadic has said he will "never accept" an independent Kosovo and will do everything in his power to prevent secession. How do you go about convincing him otherwise?
M.C-R.: We will not push for a particular solution. All we are trying to do is convince both parties that the time has come to start a political dialogue at the highest level on the status question.
Our position on Kosovo is consistent with our general policy towards the Balkan countries.
swissinfo: Some parliamentarians in Bern have criticised your stance on Kosovo, saying it is a major foreign-policy shift and that as such it should be discussed by parliament. What is your response?
M.C-R.: [All I can say is that] our balanced position on Kosovo is consistent with our general policy towards the Balkan countries and was approved by the government last May.
swissinfo: By coming out with a clear line about the future status of Kosovo, are you not jeopardising Switzerland’s role as a neutral facilitator?
M.C-R.: In accordance with our policy of neutrality, we have always taken unequivocal positions which are based on assessments of the interests of all parties.
We have clearly expressed that it is important to take into account two equally legitimate desires. Firstly, the right of minorities to live in safety, to have the same opportunities for economic development, to have the same access to social services and education, and to exercise the right to return. And secondly, the will of the majority of the population to exercise its right to self-determination.
swissinfo-interview: Ramsey Zarifeh
Kosovo PM defends progress toward negotiations
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, July 29 (Reuters) - Kosovo's government told international powers on Friday it was doing its best to improve life for its Serb minority, a main condition for talks the Albanian majority hopes will bring the province independence.
Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi met diplomats from major Western powers and Russia days after they wrote expressing concern at lack of progress in giving more local power to minorities, key to clinching "final status" talks this year.
Kosumi admitted the slow pace of reforms but said Belgrade shared the blame by blocking Serb participation in the project to create new municipalities in minority areas.
"The Kosovo government will do whatever it can to overcome these obstacles, but we cannot say that nothing has been achieved," he told reporters after meeting the Contact Group -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.
The United Nations took control of Serbia's mainly ethnic Albanian province in 1999, after 78 days of NATO bombing drove out Serb forces accused of brutal atrocities against civilians as they fought to crush a separatist insurgency.
Six years on, a U.N. envoy is expected to report by September whether the province has made enough progress to secure negotiations the 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority hopes will lead to formal independence.
The U.N. first wants progress on democracy and minority rights, particularly in decentralising powers to Serbs, who shun authorities in the capital Pristina and continue to live in isolated enclaves watched over by NATO-led peacekeepers.
That progress has been stalled by ethnic Albanians' reluctance to concede too much ahead of negotiations and by Serb complaints over the boundaries of the proposed municipalities.
In the letter to Kosumi the Contact Group said "the process to re-integrate Kosovo's minorities into communities has been too slow". Leaders must re-double their efforts since the result of the U.N. review was "not a foregone conclusion," it warned.
Serbia opposes independence for Kosovo, which Serbs regard as the sacred cradle of their nation. Analysts warn of fresh violence in the still-volatile province if talks are delayed.
Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi met diplomats from major Western powers and Russia days after they wrote expressing concern at lack of progress in giving more local power to minorities, key to clinching "final status" talks this year.
Kosumi admitted the slow pace of reforms but said Belgrade shared the blame by blocking Serb participation in the project to create new municipalities in minority areas.
"The Kosovo government will do whatever it can to overcome these obstacles, but we cannot say that nothing has been achieved," he told reporters after meeting the Contact Group -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.
The United Nations took control of Serbia's mainly ethnic Albanian province in 1999, after 78 days of NATO bombing drove out Serb forces accused of brutal atrocities against civilians as they fought to crush a separatist insurgency.
Six years on, a U.N. envoy is expected to report by September whether the province has made enough progress to secure negotiations the 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority hopes will lead to formal independence.
The U.N. first wants progress on democracy and minority rights, particularly in decentralising powers to Serbs, who shun authorities in the capital Pristina and continue to live in isolated enclaves watched over by NATO-led peacekeepers.
That progress has been stalled by ethnic Albanians' reluctance to concede too much ahead of negotiations and by Serb complaints over the boundaries of the proposed municipalities.
In the letter to Kosumi the Contact Group said "the process to re-integrate Kosovo's minorities into communities has been too slow". Leaders must re-double their efforts since the result of the U.N. review was "not a foregone conclusion," it warned.
Serbia opposes independence for Kosovo, which Serbs regard as the sacred cradle of their nation. Analysts warn of fresh violence in the still-volatile province if talks are delayed.
Kosovo Confronts Its Future
Jackson Allers - 7/29/2005
KOSOVO. It is a regular sight in the Ferizai/Urosevac municipality of Kosovo - some 50 kilometers north of the Macedonian capital of Skopje - to see U.S. servicemen parking their Humvees in front of small cafes during their regular “security” details. M-16’s strapped across their torsos, the troops snack on kebabs, washing them down with Coca-Cola, and ogle the local Albanian girls.
These GIs are part of an occupying NATO force, known as KFOR, Kosovo Protection Forces, and they are expected to be present in Kosovo for a long time to come.
The so-called Contact Group countries – United States, United Kingdom France, Italy, Russia and Germany * most involved in deciding the future of this southern province of Serbia, tout 2005 as the “year of decision” for the status of Kosovo. Six years after the United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 designated Kosovo a U.N. protectorate the beleaguered U.N. Mission administering the province is looking to exit as quickly as possible despite the fact that the U.N.-appointed envoy to the region, Norwegian Ambassador Kai Eide, says the security and freedom of non-Albanian communities is at risk.
At the forefront of this push to resolve Kosovo’s status are representatives of two U.S. presidential administrations.
During a July trip to Kosovo as the head of the Washington D.C.-based (and CIA funded) National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright commented, “I know Kosovans have a dream and people are entitled to have their dreams fulfilled.”
This sentiment is backed by Venhar Nushi, a spokesperson for the Pristina-based political think-tank, Kosovo Action for Civic Initiatives, KACI, who said, “We all know what the United States actually did for Kosovo. From my point of view, I think the U.S. came here for a task, and that’s to make Kosovo independent. Definitely.”
CLINTON’S LEGACY
But, any claim by the U.S. to "resolve" the situation in Kosovo is hobbled by the legacy of former President Bill Clinton’s decision to lead NATO in a 78-day bombing campaign of Serbia in violation of the U.N. charter. Diplomats and analysts point out that the bombing was illegal by international standards and its repercussions have been felt widely, including its invocation by the Bush administration to justify its own illegal invasion and occupation against Iraq.
What is clear, however, is that the United States has no plans of abandoning Camp Bondsteel, the 955-acre military installation described on the Camp's official homepage as being “located on rolling hills and farmland” in south-eastern Kosovo. The Pentagon has paid Halliburton subsidiary KBR more than $2 billion to construct the camp – an amount, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office, that was one-sixth of the money spent by the Pentagon on Balkan operations from 1995 to 2000.
During a visit to Kosovo in June, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns said, “The U.S. is going to remain centrally involved in Kosovo, leading the diplomatic process [to resolve status],” adding, “we will certainly maintain a military presence here, with KFOR, as a symbol of our commitment for a secure and peaceful Kosovo.”
Few ethnic Albanians question the presence of the U.S. military. The U.S. support of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the same group branded by the U.S. State Department in 1998 as a "terrorist organization," showed clearly to all ethnic groups in the disputed region that the U.S. favors the Albanians.
Political commentator, Dukagjin Gorani, Senior Editor of the Kosovo daily paper, the Express, admits, “Kosovars are not very prompt to understand the geopolitics of conspiracies. To Kosovars the existence of Bondsteel, which is now the biggest U.S. military base in Europe, is and will probably remain a sign of political stability for Albanians. In fact to most of us it is a sign that Kosovo will never again go back under the umbrella of Serbia and Montenegro.”
Gorani also suggests that the average Kosovo Albanian sees "allowing" the U.S. military presence on Kosovo soil as their contribution to the U.S. “war on terror.’
KOSOVO SERBS
But ordinary Kosovo Serbs see the United States and the international community suggesting the province move towards independence, as stealing, by military force, the cradle of Serbian civilization.
Zoran Zdravkovic is a kindergarten teacher in the main central Serbian enclave, Gracanica, who traces his family roots in Kosovo back 600 years. He says that none of his friends can imagine living under Albanian rule.
"My son graduated faculty [university]. What work can he get here now? Nothing. My daughter is about to go to faculty. What then? My youngest daughter is 11, and what schools will she attend in an independent Kosovo?"
Official statistics put the unemployment rate at 60 percent among ethnic Albanians; numbers are much higher in the ghettoized Serbian communities. Serbian schools are precariously maintained in a de facto parallel system of governance. And while the United States, the international community and the Albanian-led government all talk about ensuring the security and human rights of Kosovo's minority communities, Zdravkovic, like many Serbs, says there is little practical evidence of this.
"If we want to move anywhere in Kosovo outside of our village to village routes, we have to request NATO escorts," Zdravkovic says, adding, "if Kosovo gets independence, no matter how bad our economic conditions could be in Serbia, we will leave because we want to have peace for our children * freedom to move around and, just live.”
Belgrade's political leadership is very clear that independence is off the table as a condition of future status. The line coming from Belgrade: "Less than independence, more than autonomy."
But, as the Serbian leadership has acquiesced to earlier U.S. demands to hand over suspected war criminals to the International Court of the Former Yugoslavia in exchange for financial aid, many Kosovo Serbs are afraid that they will forgotten by Belgrade's leadership in future dealings.
Framed in a larger political context, analysts like Gorani see the resolution of status in a Muslim-dominated province as something that the Bush administration would love to put as a "positive example" of U.S. foreign policy that would allow it to continue the unilateral imposition of what it calls "democracy and human rights" through military means. But, he concedes that the verdict is still technically out as to what the future status of Kosovo will be.
Jackson Allers is the Balkan Correspondent for Pacifica Radio's Free Speech Radio News. In August, he will assume the International Media Advisor role with Kosovo's top legal watchdog, the former Polish Solidarity movement lawyer and internationally appointed Ombudsperson, Marek Antoni Nowicki. He has been published in the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Indypendent in New York City (www.indypendent.org), Relief Web, Urb Magazine, and have won or been nominated for three national awards as a radio journalist/producer/documentary audiophile. Most notably with the National Federation of Community Broadcasting's Gold Reel Awards. From July of '04 until April/May of 05', Mr. Allers was the Chief of Radio for the UN Mission in Kosovo (Unmik).
KOSOVO. It is a regular sight in the Ferizai/Urosevac municipality of Kosovo - some 50 kilometers north of the Macedonian capital of Skopje - to see U.S. servicemen parking their Humvees in front of small cafes during their regular “security” details. M-16’s strapped across their torsos, the troops snack on kebabs, washing them down with Coca-Cola, and ogle the local Albanian girls.
These GIs are part of an occupying NATO force, known as KFOR, Kosovo Protection Forces, and they are expected to be present in Kosovo for a long time to come.
The so-called Contact Group countries – United States, United Kingdom France, Italy, Russia and Germany * most involved in deciding the future of this southern province of Serbia, tout 2005 as the “year of decision” for the status of Kosovo. Six years after the United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 designated Kosovo a U.N. protectorate the beleaguered U.N. Mission administering the province is looking to exit as quickly as possible despite the fact that the U.N.-appointed envoy to the region, Norwegian Ambassador Kai Eide, says the security and freedom of non-Albanian communities is at risk.
At the forefront of this push to resolve Kosovo’s status are representatives of two U.S. presidential administrations.
During a July trip to Kosovo as the head of the Washington D.C.-based (and CIA funded) National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright commented, “I know Kosovans have a dream and people are entitled to have their dreams fulfilled.”
This sentiment is backed by Venhar Nushi, a spokesperson for the Pristina-based political think-tank, Kosovo Action for Civic Initiatives, KACI, who said, “We all know what the United States actually did for Kosovo. From my point of view, I think the U.S. came here for a task, and that’s to make Kosovo independent. Definitely.”
CLINTON’S LEGACY
But, any claim by the U.S. to "resolve" the situation in Kosovo is hobbled by the legacy of former President Bill Clinton’s decision to lead NATO in a 78-day bombing campaign of Serbia in violation of the U.N. charter. Diplomats and analysts point out that the bombing was illegal by international standards and its repercussions have been felt widely, including its invocation by the Bush administration to justify its own illegal invasion and occupation against Iraq.
What is clear, however, is that the United States has no plans of abandoning Camp Bondsteel, the 955-acre military installation described on the Camp's official homepage as being “located on rolling hills and farmland” in south-eastern Kosovo. The Pentagon has paid Halliburton subsidiary KBR more than $2 billion to construct the camp – an amount, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office, that was one-sixth of the money spent by the Pentagon on Balkan operations from 1995 to 2000.
During a visit to Kosovo in June, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns said, “The U.S. is going to remain centrally involved in Kosovo, leading the diplomatic process [to resolve status],” adding, “we will certainly maintain a military presence here, with KFOR, as a symbol of our commitment for a secure and peaceful Kosovo.”
Few ethnic Albanians question the presence of the U.S. military. The U.S. support of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the same group branded by the U.S. State Department in 1998 as a "terrorist organization," showed clearly to all ethnic groups in the disputed region that the U.S. favors the Albanians.
Political commentator, Dukagjin Gorani, Senior Editor of the Kosovo daily paper, the Express, admits, “Kosovars are not very prompt to understand the geopolitics of conspiracies. To Kosovars the existence of Bondsteel, which is now the biggest U.S. military base in Europe, is and will probably remain a sign of political stability for Albanians. In fact to most of us it is a sign that Kosovo will never again go back under the umbrella of Serbia and Montenegro.”
Gorani also suggests that the average Kosovo Albanian sees "allowing" the U.S. military presence on Kosovo soil as their contribution to the U.S. “war on terror.’
KOSOVO SERBS
But ordinary Kosovo Serbs see the United States and the international community suggesting the province move towards independence, as stealing, by military force, the cradle of Serbian civilization.
Zoran Zdravkovic is a kindergarten teacher in the main central Serbian enclave, Gracanica, who traces his family roots in Kosovo back 600 years. He says that none of his friends can imagine living under Albanian rule.
"My son graduated faculty [university]. What work can he get here now? Nothing. My daughter is about to go to faculty. What then? My youngest daughter is 11, and what schools will she attend in an independent Kosovo?"
Official statistics put the unemployment rate at 60 percent among ethnic Albanians; numbers are much higher in the ghettoized Serbian communities. Serbian schools are precariously maintained in a de facto parallel system of governance. And while the United States, the international community and the Albanian-led government all talk about ensuring the security and human rights of Kosovo's minority communities, Zdravkovic, like many Serbs, says there is little practical evidence of this.
"If we want to move anywhere in Kosovo outside of our village to village routes, we have to request NATO escorts," Zdravkovic says, adding, "if Kosovo gets independence, no matter how bad our economic conditions could be in Serbia, we will leave because we want to have peace for our children * freedom to move around and, just live.”
Belgrade's political leadership is very clear that independence is off the table as a condition of future status. The line coming from Belgrade: "Less than independence, more than autonomy."
But, as the Serbian leadership has acquiesced to earlier U.S. demands to hand over suspected war criminals to the International Court of the Former Yugoslavia in exchange for financial aid, many Kosovo Serbs are afraid that they will forgotten by Belgrade's leadership in future dealings.
Framed in a larger political context, analysts like Gorani see the resolution of status in a Muslim-dominated province as something that the Bush administration would love to put as a "positive example" of U.S. foreign policy that would allow it to continue the unilateral imposition of what it calls "democracy and human rights" through military means. But, he concedes that the verdict is still technically out as to what the future status of Kosovo will be.
Jackson Allers is the Balkan Correspondent for Pacifica Radio's Free Speech Radio News. In August, he will assume the International Media Advisor role with Kosovo's top legal watchdog, the former Polish Solidarity movement lawyer and internationally appointed Ombudsperson, Marek Antoni Nowicki. He has been published in the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Indypendent in New York City (www.indypendent.org), Relief Web, Urb Magazine, and have won or been nominated for three national awards as a radio journalist/producer/documentary audiophile. Most notably with the National Federation of Community Broadcasting's Gold Reel Awards. From July of '04 until April/May of 05', Mr. Allers was the Chief of Radio for the UN Mission in Kosovo (Unmik).
Govt stays true to proposals for boundaries for Gracanica and Partesh
Citing reliable sources, Zëri reports on the front page that the Local Government Minister and the Kosovo Government have not changed their position as far as the boundaries of pilot projects are concerned. The same sources told the paper that SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen and his Principal Deputy Larry Rossin have remained faithful to the agreement they have reached three weeks ago according to which the Government would be responsible for defining the boundaries of pilot units.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Karadzic's wife urges surrender - BBC
The wife of fugitive Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has appealed to him to surrender to the United Nations war crimes tribunal.
In an appeal shown on Bosnian Serb TV, Ljiljana Karadzic urged him to do so for the sake of his family.
Earlier this month, Mr Karadzic's son was held for 10 days by Nato troops.
Mr Karadzic and his military commander during the Bosnian civil war, Ratko Mladic, top the UN tribunal's most-wanted list.
The two men are accused of genocide over the killing of about 8,000 Muslim men during the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995.
Mrs Karadzic, who has always backed her husband during his 10-year flight from justice, said: "This is a message to my husband, Radovan Karadzic. I have to address you this way, because there is no other way.
"Our family is under constant pressure from all sides. We are being threatened in every way, our lives and our property. We are living in a constant atmosphere of concern, pain and suffering.
"That is why, between loyalty to you and loyalty to our children and grandchildren, I had to chose and I have chosen.
"I find it painful and hard to ask you, but I beg you with all my heart and soul to surrender. That will be a sacrifice for us, for our family.
"In the hope that you are alive and that you are free to make the decision yourself, I beg you to make the decision and do it for all our sakes.
"In all my helplessness and my weakness, the only thing that I can do is beg you."
Raids
Nato has unsuccessfully raided several sites where Mr Karadzic was suspected of hiding.
His son, Aleksandar, was held between 7 July and 17 July on suspicion of giving support to his father.
The family has always claimed it has had no contact with Karadzic and should be left alone.
International security agencies - speaking on condition of anonymity - told BBC Radio Four's File on Four programme this month that Mr Karadzic was believed to be in a remote part of north-west Montenegro.
Peacekeeping troops in neighbouring Bosnia cannot take action as their jurisdiction does not cover Montenegro, which is part of Serbia
In an appeal shown on Bosnian Serb TV, Ljiljana Karadzic urged him to do so for the sake of his family.
Earlier this month, Mr Karadzic's son was held for 10 days by Nato troops.
Mr Karadzic and his military commander during the Bosnian civil war, Ratko Mladic, top the UN tribunal's most-wanted list.
The two men are accused of genocide over the killing of about 8,000 Muslim men during the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995.
Mrs Karadzic, who has always backed her husband during his 10-year flight from justice, said: "This is a message to my husband, Radovan Karadzic. I have to address you this way, because there is no other way.
"Our family is under constant pressure from all sides. We are being threatened in every way, our lives and our property. We are living in a constant atmosphere of concern, pain and suffering.
"That is why, between loyalty to you and loyalty to our children and grandchildren, I had to chose and I have chosen.
"I find it painful and hard to ask you, but I beg you with all my heart and soul to surrender. That will be a sacrifice for us, for our family.
"In the hope that you are alive and that you are free to make the decision yourself, I beg you to make the decision and do it for all our sakes.
"In all my helplessness and my weakness, the only thing that I can do is beg you."
Raids
Nato has unsuccessfully raided several sites where Mr Karadzic was suspected of hiding.
His son, Aleksandar, was held between 7 July and 17 July on suspicion of giving support to his father.
The family has always claimed it has had no contact with Karadzic and should be left alone.
International security agencies - speaking on condition of anonymity - told BBC Radio Four's File on Four programme this month that Mr Karadzic was believed to be in a remote part of north-west Montenegro.
Peacekeeping troops in neighbouring Bosnia cannot take action as their jurisdiction does not cover Montenegro, which is part of Serbia
German court rejects compensation claim by victims of NATO bombing in Kosovo
Cologne: The victims of the NATO air raid on a bridge in the Serbian small town of Varvarin in 1999 have also failed in a court of appeal with their case for damages against the Federal Republic. On Thursday [28 July] the Cologne Regional Appeal Court dismissed the case brought by 35 Serb citizens, thereby confirming the ruling of the Bonn district court (Az: 7 U 8/04). The appeal court finds no sufficient basis for the claims for damages, neither in humanitarian international law nor in the basic rights of the Basic Law, nor under the German state liability law.
The group had sued the Federal Republic of Germany for payment of an indemnity in of at least 535,000 euros. The plaintiffs are 17 people severely injured in the attack, as well as 18 family survivors of the 10 people killed in the bombing. They had accused the federal government, vicariously for NATO, of having violated the provisions of the Geneva Protocol for the protection of civilians. The Varvarin bridge, on which civilians were present, had been bombed on 30 May 1999 by fighter jets during the Kosovo war.
Source: ddp news agency, Berlin, in German 0921 gmt 28 Jul 05
The group had sued the Federal Republic of Germany for payment of an indemnity in of at least 535,000 euros. The plaintiffs are 17 people severely injured in the attack, as well as 18 family survivors of the 10 people killed in the bombing. They had accused the federal government, vicariously for NATO, of having violated the provisions of the Geneva Protocol for the protection of civilians. The Varvarin bridge, on which civilians were present, had been bombed on 30 May 1999 by fighter jets during the Kosovo war.
Source: ddp news agency, Berlin, in German 0921 gmt 28 Jul 05
US Embassy to be built (Express)
Express writes on the front page that the US is going to have permanent official representation in Kosovo as it has decided to build an embassy. However, land is needed on which to put up the structure.
The US diplomatic presence in Kosovo can soon change its status and location in Kosovo. Reliable sources told the paper that they have already started to search for a location. According to the paper, the most probable location is Hajvalia, in the southeastern part of Pristina, close to the ‘international village’.
Express quotes US Office spokesperson, Larry Corwin as confirming that a feasibility study is underway. ‘Permanent representation is being explored. However I am not aware that a company has been contracted by the US Government, or whether the building will start,’ he said.
The US diplomatic presence in Kosovo can soon change its status and location in Kosovo. Reliable sources told the paper that they have already started to search for a location. According to the paper, the most probable location is Hajvalia, in the southeastern part of Pristina, close to the ‘international village’.
Express quotes US Office spokesperson, Larry Corwin as confirming that a feasibility study is underway. ‘Permanent representation is being explored. However I am not aware that a company has been contracted by the US Government, or whether the building will start,’ he said.
Govt, UNMIK call for help in refugee returns - €22 million are needed
Dailies report that the Kosovo Government and UNMIK do not have sufficient funds for the successful return of internally-displaced people.
The papers quote Killian Kleinschmidt, the head of the Office for Returns and Communities, as saying that €22 million are needed to implement current projects for IDP returns. Kleinschmidt called on donors to support UNMIK and the Kosovo Government in acquiring the necessary resources.
In spite of the delays, Kleinschmidt said the process of IDP returns was going well. ‘If you visit various parts of Kosovo, you will find families who have returned to their reconstructed homes,’ he said, adding that a better internal climate and related negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade would help in the process of returns.
Fatmir Sheholli, spokesman for the Ministry of Returns, told journalists that Belgrade was impeding the return of Serbs. He added that Serbian propaganda about the situation in Kosovo was preventing IDPs from returning to their homes.
Koha Ditore quotes Sheholli as saying, ‘We have about 70, 000 applications, 70% coming from the Serb community and the rest from other ethnic groups, which represent the will of a large number of people who want to return to Kosovo.’
Lajm quotes officials of the Ministry for Returns as confirming that they are preparing a draft law for IDP returns.
The press says that based on the information of the Ministry for Returns and Communities, 11,000 people have returned to Kosovo so far. On 19 July UNMIK and the Kosovo Government launched the strategic framework for IDPs which envisages a greater flux of returns this year and next year.
The papers quote Killian Kleinschmidt, the head of the Office for Returns and Communities, as saying that €22 million are needed to implement current projects for IDP returns. Kleinschmidt called on donors to support UNMIK and the Kosovo Government in acquiring the necessary resources.
In spite of the delays, Kleinschmidt said the process of IDP returns was going well. ‘If you visit various parts of Kosovo, you will find families who have returned to their reconstructed homes,’ he said, adding that a better internal climate and related negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade would help in the process of returns.
Fatmir Sheholli, spokesman for the Ministry of Returns, told journalists that Belgrade was impeding the return of Serbs. He added that Serbian propaganda about the situation in Kosovo was preventing IDPs from returning to their homes.
Koha Ditore quotes Sheholli as saying, ‘We have about 70, 000 applications, 70% coming from the Serb community and the rest from other ethnic groups, which represent the will of a large number of people who want to return to Kosovo.’
Lajm quotes officials of the Ministry for Returns as confirming that they are preparing a draft law for IDP returns.
The press says that based on the information of the Ministry for Returns and Communities, 11,000 people have returned to Kosovo so far. On 19 July UNMIK and the Kosovo Government launched the strategic framework for IDPs which envisages a greater flux of returns this year and next year.
Jessen-Petersen remains, UNMIK restructures (Kosova Sot)
Kosova Sot reports that the international authorities in Kosovo have entered a stage of internal restructuring. Beginning with the change of the role of international representatives in Kosovo Ministries, this process will continue with changes in UNMIK structures.
The paper quotes UNMIK spokesperson, Neeraj Singh, denying that SRSG Jessen-Petersen was leaving Kosovo at the beginning of the next month. Furthermore, Singh recalled what the SRSG has often stressed recently that ‘he has a lot to do in Kosovo’.
The role of international representatives in Kosovo Ministries has changed from the role of monitoring to liaison or supporting role.
‘With the transfer of competencies to local authorities, the role of UNMIK continues to change,’ Singh said.
The article points out that Pillar 1 will undergo changes following the establishment of two new ministries. According to the paper, OSCE will have a greater role in the upcoming stages.
The paper quotes UNMIK spokesperson, Neeraj Singh, denying that SRSG Jessen-Petersen was leaving Kosovo at the beginning of the next month. Furthermore, Singh recalled what the SRSG has often stressed recently that ‘he has a lot to do in Kosovo’.
The role of international representatives in Kosovo Ministries has changed from the role of monitoring to liaison or supporting role.
‘With the transfer of competencies to local authorities, the role of UNMIK continues to change,’ Singh said.
The article points out that Pillar 1 will undergo changes following the establishment of two new ministries. According to the paper, OSCE will have a greater role in the upcoming stages.
Corridor, Serbian condition for Kosovo’s independence (Kosova Sot)
Kosova Sot reports that Serbs in Gracanica are very open about their intention to attach Cagllavica, Llapnasella, and several other villages in Lipjan municipality and in Fushe Kosova to the new pilot municipality of Gracanica. This would create organic links with Serbia as a condition for their acceptance of Kosovo’s independence.
According to the paper, Serbs in Partesh, another pilot municipality, say if Kosovo becomes independent before implementation of decentralization, then Serbs will abandon Kosovo. However, if real decentralization is in place, Serbs may accept independence for Kosovo, provided Gracanica has organic links with Serbia through a corridor.
According to the paper, Serbs in Partesh, another pilot municipality, say if Kosovo becomes independent before implementation of decentralization, then Serbs will abandon Kosovo. However, if real decentralization is in place, Serbs may accept independence for Kosovo, provided Gracanica has organic links with Serbia through a corridor.
Kurti: The revolution will prevent war in Kosovo
In an interview with Zëri, Albin Kurti, leader of the Self-Determination Movement, said Kosovo was heading toward negotiations on status and this implies reaching a compromise or giving up on independence.
‘They can find some politicians who can sign the new formal dependence of Kosovo from Serbia, but the people will never accept this. This is the reason why I think the current political system should be changed in a radical manner and this radical change is nothing else than a revolution which will not cause war but will prevent war from happening,’ Kurti was quoted as saying.
‘They can find some politicians who can sign the new formal dependence of Kosovo from Serbia, but the people will never accept this. This is the reason why I think the current political system should be changed in a radical manner and this radical change is nothing else than a revolution which will not cause war but will prevent war from happening,’ Kurti was quoted as saying.
Coordinated pressure
Express reports that international decision-making centres are applying coordinated pressure on the institutional leaders of Kosovo to effect further progress on the eve of the decision for the start of status talks.
According to the newspaper, Prime Minister Kosumi and President Rugova have received a letter on Tuesday from the Contact Group containing a number of observations.
Express quotes Ambassador Eide as saying that he has seen lack of seriousness and is disappointed with political leaders in Kosovo.
According to the newspaper, Prime Minister Kosumi and President Rugova have received a letter on Tuesday from the Contact Group containing a number of observations.
Express quotes Ambassador Eide as saying that he has seen lack of seriousness and is disappointed with political leaders in Kosovo.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Gorani: Tale of the Standards (Express)
Express carries an op-ed by editor-in-chief Dukagjin Gorani who says Standards for Kosovo have been drafted to get UNMIK out of Kosovo, and not to solve problems.
Gorani wonders how much truth there is in a general assumption that the final status of Kosovo, that is conditional independence, depends on Eide’s report or on Solana’s reproaches against laziness and corruption of Kosovo’s political leadership.
Much like in the past, it is believed that Kosovo is facing a crucial test on which its status fate depends. However, those beliefs are in vain when it is clear that the only goal of this assessment is to provide a rationale to end UNMIK’s mandate in Kosovo.
‘Regarding the status, there is no need to waste words. Kosovo has been allocated conditional independence and this does not depend, or has never depended, on assessment reports. It is an organic process that has to be concluded, even if the country was threatened by civil war,’ Dukagjin said.
Gorani wonders how much truth there is in a general assumption that the final status of Kosovo, that is conditional independence, depends on Eide’s report or on Solana’s reproaches against laziness and corruption of Kosovo’s political leadership.
Much like in the past, it is believed that Kosovo is facing a crucial test on which its status fate depends. However, those beliefs are in vain when it is clear that the only goal of this assessment is to provide a rationale to end UNMIK’s mandate in Kosovo.
‘Regarding the status, there is no need to waste words. Kosovo has been allocated conditional independence and this does not depend, or has never depended, on assessment reports. It is an organic process that has to be concluded, even if the country was threatened by civil war,’ Dukagjin said.
Kosovo Government doesn’t share Eide’s opinion
Lajm reports that the Kosovo Government does not share the opinion of Ambassador Kai Eide on the implementation of standards. The newspaper says regardless of Eide’s statement that he is disappointed with lack of progress in Standards implementation. However political advisor to Prime Minister Kosumi says the Government has made considerable progress implementing the Standards.
‘The Kosovo Government is close to finalising the plan for Standards until the end of the year. We are also seriously thinking of preparing an action strategy for Standards that will be called ‘Standards toward Europe’, even after the resolution of Kosovo’s final status,’ said Naser Rugova, PM Kosumi’s political advisor.
The newspaper recalls that in an interview for ISN Security Watch, Ambassador Eide said he would have liked to see more progress and political maturity in Kosovo. Asked to comment on the issue, the PM’s advisor said Eide’s statement was surprising to the Government. He added that due to insufficient competencies, Kosovans cannot be expected to make major accomplishments in the area of standards.
The paper quotes former Prime Minister and senior member of the PDK, Bajram Rexhepi, as saying, ‘one can notice more words than concrete actions for standards’.
‘The Kosovo Government is close to finalising the plan for Standards until the end of the year. We are also seriously thinking of preparing an action strategy for Standards that will be called ‘Standards toward Europe’, even after the resolution of Kosovo’s final status,’ said Naser Rugova, PM Kosumi’s political advisor.
The newspaper recalls that in an interview for ISN Security Watch, Ambassador Eide said he would have liked to see more progress and political maturity in Kosovo. Asked to comment on the issue, the PM’s advisor said Eide’s statement was surprising to the Government. He added that due to insufficient competencies, Kosovans cannot be expected to make major accomplishments in the area of standards.
The paper quotes former Prime Minister and senior member of the PDK, Bajram Rexhepi, as saying, ‘one can notice more words than concrete actions for standards’.
New info on burning of Albanian civilian corpses in Mackatica
Koha Ditore reports that Belgrade-based Danas newspaper carried an interview with an anonymous source that revealed thorough details about the burning of Albanian civilian corpses in Mackatica factory in Serbia during NATO air-raids over Yugoslavia.
The witness, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Danas that during the NATO intervention, members of the Serbian State Security were ‘untouchable’ and gave the names of several Serbs who participated in the burning of the corpses.
The witness, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Danas that during the NATO intervention, members of the Serbian State Security were ‘untouchable’ and gave the names of several Serbs who participated in the burning of the corpses.
Calmy-Rey reconfirms Swiss position on Kosovo’s independence
Several dailies report that Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey will visit Kosovo from Saturday through Monday. Koha Ditore quotes the FM as saying that Switzerland will continue its discussions for the independence of Kosovo.
Zëri quotes Calmy-Rey as saying that she will also discuss ‘Standards alongside status’.
Zëri quotes Calmy-Rey as saying that she will also discuss ‘Standards alongside status’.
Moscow has idea to postpone status talks for several months? (
Citing Western diplomatic sources, Zëri reports on the front page that Moscow is thinking of postponing the start of talks on Kosovo’s status for several months. The source told the paper that Moscow had been using diplomatic channels for this purpose and during recent meetings with Western diplomats it voiced its opinions regarding the pace of resolving the Kosovo’s status.
According to the same source, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on several occasions proposed a break between the period when Ambassador Eide concludes his report and the start of the status resolution.
According to the same source, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on several occasions proposed a break between the period when Ambassador Eide concludes his report and the start of the status resolution.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Covic: Kosovo can only be taken from Serbia through use of violence
Citing information published by Belgrade’s daily newspaper ‘Kurir’, Zëri reports that the head of the Belgrade’s Coordination Center for Kosovo, Nebojsa Covic, has said that Kosovo could be taken away from Serbia only through violence.
While all the solutions are on the table, Covic said no politician in Serbia would recognize or allow the independence of Kosovo. ‘No one dares to give away a part of our territory’.
If Albanians in Kosovo have the right to declare and gain separation, then the people in Republika Srbska should have the same right, Covic said.
While all the solutions are on the table, Covic said no politician in Serbia would recognize or allow the independence of Kosovo. ‘No one dares to give away a part of our territory’.
If Albanians in Kosovo have the right to declare and gain separation, then the people in Republika Srbska should have the same right, Covic said.
Tasim Ali Osaj turns himself over to police
Dailies report that the main suspect for killing of Enver Haradinaj, Tasim Ali Osaj, handed himself over to police in Peja on Monday morning, and is now being questioned.
Koha Ditore writes that the spokesperson of regional police in Peja, Zeqir Kelmendi has confirmed that a person did surrender to the police but did not reveal the identity. However, some papers claim the person under police custody is Tasim Osaj.
Enver Haradinaj, the brother of former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, was killed on 15 April 2005. Koha also writes that the wanted person in relation to Haradinaj’s killing is one of the four brothers belonging to an armed Kosovo Albanian group ‘FARK’ who were kidnapped after the conflict. Daut Haradinaj [Enver’s brother] and four others known as ‘Dukagjin Group’ are currently serving time in prison for the kidnapping.
Lulzim Osaj said his brother Tasim was not responsible for the murder of Enver Haradinaj and that his family bore no grudges toward Haradinaj family in relation to the murder of their eldest brother, Rexhë Osaj, six years ago.
‘If Tasim had committed the murder, he could have fled to Albania or someplace else,’ Lulzim further stated.
Zëri and Lajm also cover the story.
Koha Ditore writes that the spokesperson of regional police in Peja, Zeqir Kelmendi has confirmed that a person did surrender to the police but did not reveal the identity. However, some papers claim the person under police custody is Tasim Osaj.
Enver Haradinaj, the brother of former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, was killed on 15 April 2005. Koha also writes that the wanted person in relation to Haradinaj’s killing is one of the four brothers belonging to an armed Kosovo Albanian group ‘FARK’ who were kidnapped after the conflict. Daut Haradinaj [Enver’s brother] and four others known as ‘Dukagjin Group’ are currently serving time in prison for the kidnapping.
Lulzim Osaj said his brother Tasim was not responsible for the murder of Enver Haradinaj and that his family bore no grudges toward Haradinaj family in relation to the murder of their eldest brother, Rexhë Osaj, six years ago.
‘If Tasim had committed the murder, he could have fled to Albania or someplace else,’ Lulzim further stated.
Zëri and Lajm also cover the story.
Salihaj, Tërmkolli say they won’t be removed from government
Zëri quotes senior Kosovo Government officials as saying they are not threatened with removal from the government as has been speculated in the media lately. Deputy Prime Minister Adem Salihaj said it was political speculation that he, Minister Tërmkolli and Minister Haraqiaj would soon be removed from the Government.
Asked to comment on the issue, Minister Tërmkolli was quoted as saying, ‘I will not resign… even if UNMIK calls for this, because there is no reason for me to do so.’
Express reports on the front page that UNMIK chief Søren Jessen-Petersen is ready to punish those responsible for perpetrating corrupt activities in the Kosovo Government. However, his partners from the Contact Group are trying to block any related action. Express says investigations on possible involvement of government officials in corruption and organised crime went smoothly, ‘but the break occurred when the decision for punishment had to be made’.
Unnamed sources told the paper that the UNMIK chief was ready to act according to the rule of law, but his partners from the Contact Group stopped him. ‘The English… they are obstructing the process,’ said the source.
According to the newspaper, international advisor to the Presidency and Government, Simon Haselock, is trying to prevent action. Haselock is reportedly lobbying Kosovo institutions and Contact Group members to postpone or block the investigation and punishment of senior government officials.
Express claims that the UNMIK chief promised some Kosovan political leaders a month ago that ‘it is a matter of days before someone from senior government structures to go home’.
UNMIK DPI Director Hua Jiang denies that SRSG Jessen-Petersen asked for the removal of the deputy Prime Minister and the two Ministers. She said allegations of corruption were currently being investigated and that was a police matter.
Commenting on the issue, PDK Secretary General Jakup Krasniqi said there would powerful reactions if the investigations were not completed, especially if the process suffered because of political intervention. ‘There are claims that the international administration wants to delay the investigations and punishment until autumn [when the ministries of justice and order are expected to be in place] so Kosovans could deal with the issue,’ the paper said. ‘The PDK would not accept this as it is UNMIK’s responsibility to finish the job.’
Asked to comment on the issue, Minister Tërmkolli was quoted as saying, ‘I will not resign… even if UNMIK calls for this, because there is no reason for me to do so.’
Express reports on the front page that UNMIK chief Søren Jessen-Petersen is ready to punish those responsible for perpetrating corrupt activities in the Kosovo Government. However, his partners from the Contact Group are trying to block any related action. Express says investigations on possible involvement of government officials in corruption and organised crime went smoothly, ‘but the break occurred when the decision for punishment had to be made’.
Unnamed sources told the paper that the UNMIK chief was ready to act according to the rule of law, but his partners from the Contact Group stopped him. ‘The English… they are obstructing the process,’ said the source.
According to the newspaper, international advisor to the Presidency and Government, Simon Haselock, is trying to prevent action. Haselock is reportedly lobbying Kosovo institutions and Contact Group members to postpone or block the investigation and punishment of senior government officials.
Express claims that the UNMIK chief promised some Kosovan political leaders a month ago that ‘it is a matter of days before someone from senior government structures to go home’.
UNMIK DPI Director Hua Jiang denies that SRSG Jessen-Petersen asked for the removal of the deputy Prime Minister and the two Ministers. She said allegations of corruption were currently being investigated and that was a police matter.
Commenting on the issue, PDK Secretary General Jakup Krasniqi said there would powerful reactions if the investigations were not completed, especially if the process suffered because of political intervention. ‘There are claims that the international administration wants to delay the investigations and punishment until autumn [when the ministries of justice and order are expected to be in place] so Kosovans could deal with the issue,’ the paper said. ‘The PDK would not accept this as it is UNMIK’s responsibility to finish the job.’
Serbian media say Jessen-Petersen to leave, UNMIK denies (Lajm)
Lajm quotes information published by a Serbian newspaper that SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen will leave Kosovo by the end of August and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will have to make a quick decision on a replacement for Jessen-Petersen.
Lajm also quotes UNMIK sources as denying the speculation by the Belgrade media about the early departure of Jessen-Petersen. According to UNMIK, these are fabrications as the SRSG has repeatedly said he has no plans to leave the Mission at this time.
Lajm also quotes UNMIK sources as denying the speculation by the Belgrade media about the early departure of Jessen-Petersen. According to UNMIK, these are fabrications as the SRSG has repeatedly said he has no plans to leave the Mission at this time.
'Balkan' Lazio add Kosovo-born midfielder Behrami to roster
Rome - Lazio of Rome announced Tuesday the signing of Kosovo-born Swiss midfielder Valon Behrami from second division side Verona for a reported 2.8 million euros (3.36 million dollars).
The highly-rated 20-year-old signed a five-year contract worth 300,000 euros per season, set to rise progressively to 500,000 euros. Verona agreed to sell its 50 per cent stake in the player after obtaining the consent of Genoa, which owns the other half.
Behrami will join a squad that features strikers Goran Pandev of Macedonia and Igli Tare of Albania and which local media have already nicknamed "Balkan Lazio".
The Roman club is trying to bounce back after narrowly escaping bankruptcy last year. The team will play Marseilles of France in the Intertoto competition semifinal scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
Winners of the Intertoto Cup are allowed a place in next season's UEFA Cup.
The highly-rated 20-year-old signed a five-year contract worth 300,000 euros per season, set to rise progressively to 500,000 euros. Verona agreed to sell its 50 per cent stake in the player after obtaining the consent of Genoa, which owns the other half.
Behrami will join a squad that features strikers Goran Pandev of Macedonia and Igli Tare of Albania and which local media have already nicknamed "Balkan Lazio".
The Roman club is trying to bounce back after narrowly escaping bankruptcy last year. The team will play Marseilles of France in the Intertoto competition semifinal scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
Winners of the Intertoto Cup are allowed a place in next season's UEFA Cup.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Albanian Che Guevara
Compared to the revolutionary Che Guevara, Albin Kurti says that Kosovo is heading toward an inevitable conflict which may have even more tragic consequences than the one in 1999, Lajm writes.
Kurti considers that the only way to avoid the conflict is by having a revolution aiming at toppling the ‘local-dictatorial and international-colonial’ government. He says that the first step toward this is for the citizens to join the newly-formed self-determination movement while the next step is all-out protests throughout Kosovo.
Kurti denies allegations that anarchy may overwhelm Kosovo if people acted according to his advice by expressing great faith he has on peaceful character of the people in Kosovo.
Kurti considers that the only way to avoid the conflict is by having a revolution aiming at toppling the ‘local-dictatorial and international-colonial’ government. He says that the first step toward this is for the citizens to join the newly-formed self-determination movement while the next step is all-out protests throughout Kosovo.
Kurti denies allegations that anarchy may overwhelm Kosovo if people acted according to his advice by expressing great faith he has on peaceful character of the people in Kosovo.
Thaçi: Security in Kosovo (Koha Ditore)
Koha Ditore carries an opinion piece by PDK leader Hashim Thaçi who claims that with its current coalition Government status, Kosovo is in serious danger. According to Thaçi, a right solution for Kosovo’s political status cannot be reached with the weakest and most corrupt government in the region. ‘This type of Government not only misuses the will of citizens, but has also installed fear among international friends who support independence,’ Thaçi added.
On the issue of security, the PDK leader makes the following proposals -- to build as soon as possible a joint local and international committee that would identify the key problems of security in Kosovo; to create the Ministry of Order and the Ministry of Justice that would not be controlled by political entities and would be in the service of all Kosovo citizens; intensive work on making official the Kosovo Intelligence Service, which should be apolitical, professional, multiethnic and according to Western standards; effective management of Kosovo Consolidated Budget funds for the return of refugees The PDK leader also proposed to draft a project in cooperation with local authorities in Mitrovica for the return of IDPs from both parts of the town, for the reconstruction of damaged houses and especially for opening Mitrovica Hospital, faculties and high schools for all citizens; to use government funds to build a neighbourhood for Romas in a proper part of the town and not continue to endanger them on the banks of the River Ibër; to launch reforms in local government that would correspond with the requirements for decentralisation according to European standards; and civic principles.
Thaçi also criticised current Government officials for involvement in misuse of the budget. ‘Such a situation is intolerable. We must all put an end to this situation, so we can build a democratic state, with functioning institutions, with the rule of law and with civic democracy,’ Thaçi concluded.
On the issue of security, the PDK leader makes the following proposals -- to build as soon as possible a joint local and international committee that would identify the key problems of security in Kosovo; to create the Ministry of Order and the Ministry of Justice that would not be controlled by political entities and would be in the service of all Kosovo citizens; intensive work on making official the Kosovo Intelligence Service, which should be apolitical, professional, multiethnic and according to Western standards; effective management of Kosovo Consolidated Budget funds for the return of refugees The PDK leader also proposed to draft a project in cooperation with local authorities in Mitrovica for the return of IDPs from both parts of the town, for the reconstruction of damaged houses and especially for opening Mitrovica Hospital, faculties and high schools for all citizens; to use government funds to build a neighbourhood for Romas in a proper part of the town and not continue to endanger them on the banks of the River Ibër; to launch reforms in local government that would correspond with the requirements for decentralisation according to European standards; and civic principles.
Thaçi also criticised current Government officials for involvement in misuse of the budget. ‘Such a situation is intolerable. We must all put an end to this situation, so we can build a democratic state, with functioning institutions, with the rule of law and with civic democracy,’ Thaçi concluded.
Editorial: Unhappy with the world
Kosova Sot carries an editorial on the front page saying that the repeated boycott of decentralization by the Serbian List is likely to slow down the processes.
Participation in the pilot projects of the Serbian representatives was considered a victory for efforts to include Serbs in the process. However, despite the fact that the SRSG allowed adding more cadastral zones to the municipal units, something that was opposed by Local Government minister, Lutfi Haziri, Serbian politics orchestrated by Belgrade have found other reasons to impede implementation of the projects.
Serbs continue to remain the biggest obstacle for implementing the reform and for political stability in the country.
It will be difficult to even think of succeeding in areas inhabited by Serbs, if they do not want to support the process. Therefore, from now we can foresee a failure, which will be detrimental to the process and will affect Eide’s report. Although Albanians are not to blame, the responsibility for success falls on them as they control the governance structures. Serbs should consider it a smart move to become once again involved in the working groups, the editorial concludes.
Participation in the pilot projects of the Serbian representatives was considered a victory for efforts to include Serbs in the process. However, despite the fact that the SRSG allowed adding more cadastral zones to the municipal units, something that was opposed by Local Government minister, Lutfi Haziri, Serbian politics orchestrated by Belgrade have found other reasons to impede implementation of the projects.
Serbs continue to remain the biggest obstacle for implementing the reform and for political stability in the country.
It will be difficult to even think of succeeding in areas inhabited by Serbs, if they do not want to support the process. Therefore, from now we can foresee a failure, which will be detrimental to the process and will affect Eide’s report. Although Albanians are not to blame, the responsibility for success falls on them as they control the governance structures. Serbs should consider it a smart move to become once again involved in the working groups, the editorial concludes.
Media coverage on decentralization
All dailies pay considerable attention to developments regarding decentralization following the signing of the administrative direction by the SRSG to launch the establishment of the first pilot municipalities.
Dailies focus on the issue of borders of the new municipalities, which according to them have not been clearly defined as the new administrative direction allows more than one cadastral zone in one pilot unit.
Hajvalia, Caglavica, and Llapnasela want to join Gracanica, is the front page headline in Koha Ditore. According to the paper, these areas want to join mainly for patriotic reasons -- Hajvalia, so it would not be considered an enclave, while the latter two want to be part of an exclusive Serbian municipality.
Zëri writes on the front page that now the SRSG has signed the AD, the Government of Kosovo is expected to decide on Tuesday when to start with forming municipal assemblies for the new pilot units. However, the paper quotes its sources that definition of municipal borders has remained an obstacle and could lead to postponing of the decision.
Zëri also carries an opinion piece on the issue saying that the SRSG did not manage to achieve a consensus over the last few months between the Government and opposition on decentralization. The editorial further says although the SRSG agreed sometime ago for the Government to be in charge of defining borders of pilot municipalities, which they call a capital segment, he is now becoming more authoritative in dealing with the issue.
Kosova Sot reports on the front page that Gracanica is risking its status as a pilot municipality. According to the paper, head of Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija
This media summary consists of selected local media articles for the information of UNMIK personnel. The public distribution of this media summary is a courtesy service extended by UNMIK on the understanding that the choice of articles translated is exclusive, and the contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership. The inclusion of articles in this summary does not imply endorsement by UNMIK.
Oliver Ivanovic has threatened to withdraw his representatives from the working groups on decentralization if more cadastral zones are not included in pilot municipalities.
Decentralization to be discussed in US, is the front-page headline in Express. The paper reports that Kai Eide is in Washington where he is expected to meet with high-ranking US and UN officials and decentralization will be one of the topics. Minister for Local Governance Lutfi Haziri is also there.
Lajm writes that while the AD signed by the SRSG will allow Caglavica and Llapnasela to join Gracanica, the problem is with Partesh, which, according to Fehmi Mujota from the Local Government Ministry, could create a problem area as well as a national territorial strip that will try to link with other central parts in Kosovo.
Dailies focus on the issue of borders of the new municipalities, which according to them have not been clearly defined as the new administrative direction allows more than one cadastral zone in one pilot unit.
Hajvalia, Caglavica, and Llapnasela want to join Gracanica, is the front page headline in Koha Ditore. According to the paper, these areas want to join mainly for patriotic reasons -- Hajvalia, so it would not be considered an enclave, while the latter two want to be part of an exclusive Serbian municipality.
Zëri writes on the front page that now the SRSG has signed the AD, the Government of Kosovo is expected to decide on Tuesday when to start with forming municipal assemblies for the new pilot units. However, the paper quotes its sources that definition of municipal borders has remained an obstacle and could lead to postponing of the decision.
Zëri also carries an opinion piece on the issue saying that the SRSG did not manage to achieve a consensus over the last few months between the Government and opposition on decentralization. The editorial further says although the SRSG agreed sometime ago for the Government to be in charge of defining borders of pilot municipalities, which they call a capital segment, he is now becoming more authoritative in dealing with the issue.
Kosova Sot reports on the front page that Gracanica is risking its status as a pilot municipality. According to the paper, head of Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija
This media summary consists of selected local media articles for the information of UNMIK personnel. The public distribution of this media summary is a courtesy service extended by UNMIK on the understanding that the choice of articles translated is exclusive, and the contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership. The inclusion of articles in this summary does not imply endorsement by UNMIK.
Oliver Ivanovic has threatened to withdraw his representatives from the working groups on decentralization if more cadastral zones are not included in pilot municipalities.
Decentralization to be discussed in US, is the front-page headline in Express. The paper reports that Kai Eide is in Washington where he is expected to meet with high-ranking US and UN officials and decentralization will be one of the topics. Minister for Local Governance Lutfi Haziri is also there.
Lajm writes that while the AD signed by the SRSG will allow Caglavica and Llapnasela to join Gracanica, the problem is with Partesh, which, according to Fehmi Mujota from the Local Government Ministry, could create a problem area as well as a national territorial strip that will try to link with other central parts in Kosovo.
Ethnic head tells French chief Serbs will refuse to live in independent Kosovo
Gracanica, 25 July: The head of the French office in Pristina, Thierry Reynhard, has told Kosovo County head Srdjan Vasic that Kosovo will become independent, adding that the Contact Group and the UN are behind this project.
Vasic told SRNA that Reynhard had told him that the Serbian monasteries and churches, which have been proclaimed world heritage and are under UNESCO protection, would be exempt from this status.
Vasic warned Reynhard that Serbs would refuse to live in an independent Kosovo.
"If Kosovo becomes independent, we will witness a new wave of refugees and the province will become a monoethnic community without the Serbs and others who are currently striving for a multiethnic and democratic Kosovo-Metohija as part of Serbia," Vasic said.
He warned that the Serbs will not accept nor participate in the realization of a project creating a Gracanica municipality as part of the Gracanica local community unit.
Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1021 gmt 25 Jul 05
Vasic told SRNA that Reynhard had told him that the Serbian monasteries and churches, which have been proclaimed world heritage and are under UNESCO protection, would be exempt from this status.
Vasic warned Reynhard that Serbs would refuse to live in an independent Kosovo.
"If Kosovo becomes independent, we will witness a new wave of refugees and the province will become a monoethnic community without the Serbs and others who are currently striving for a multiethnic and democratic Kosovo-Metohija as part of Serbia," Vasic said.
He warned that the Serbs will not accept nor participate in the realization of a project creating a Gracanica municipality as part of the Gracanica local community unit.
Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1021 gmt 25 Jul 05
Local Government Reform Launched in Kosovo
The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has approved new legislation on reform of local government, a step that is vital if Kosovo is be certified as meeting the standards necessary for talks on its final status to start. The new local government system will be piloted in five areas - of which two are Kosovo-Serb enclaves - before being gradually extended to the rest of Kosovo. The new local governments will have powers in the field of housing, hospitals and schools, among other things. There will - at least initially - be no elections to the provisional assemblies in the new units, however; they will be selected by the Ministry of Local Government, taking into account the views of residents, and approved by UNMIK head, Soeren-Jessen Petersen.
Significance: A significant amount of faith is being placed in the increased powers of local governments as a way of bringing a more peaceful Kosovo, and the trial schemes will be closely watched. The plans do not tally with the suggestions put forward by the Serbian government, however - which consisted essentially of autonomy for local governments within a Kosovo that would be an autonomous part of Serbia - and there is still much resistance to Serbs taking part in Kosovo institutions. However, those Serbs who live in enclaves and their leaders, as opposed to those in the more solidly Serb areas north of the Ibar river, are much more in favour of co-operation with the Kosovo authorities. Disagreements over the boundaries of the new municipalities, among other things, may yet cause problems with their implementation.
Significance: A significant amount of faith is being placed in the increased powers of local governments as a way of bringing a more peaceful Kosovo, and the trial schemes will be closely watched. The plans do not tally with the suggestions put forward by the Serbian government, however - which consisted essentially of autonomy for local governments within a Kosovo that would be an autonomous part of Serbia - and there is still much resistance to Serbs taking part in Kosovo institutions. However, those Serbs who live in enclaves and their leaders, as opposed to those in the more solidly Serb areas north of the Ibar river, are much more in favour of co-operation with the Kosovo authorities. Disagreements over the boundaries of the new municipalities, among other things, may yet cause problems with their implementation.
New York Times Article
By NICHOLAS WOOD
PRISTINA, Kosovo, July 22 - In the six years since NATO bombers forced Yugoslav troops out of this troubled province, progress toward resolving the entrenched enmity here between Serbs and ethnic Albanians has been slow. The United Nations, which has been administering Kosovo, now wants to broker a deal and step aside.
The negotiations are bound to be painful. Serbs are determined to keep Kosovo, their religious heartland, while ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the population, demand independence after suffering years of ethnic violence that culminated in the war of 1998 to 1999.
In one unusual peacemaking effort, a group backed by the British government has brought together eight politicians from two opposing camps - former Albanian guerrilla leaders on one side, and minority Kosovar Serbs on the other - for some exercises in getting along.
The group was divided into pairs, an Albanian and a Serb in each. Every day began with 15 minutes of staring into each other's eyes. Then they performed exercises - including climbing trees together and falling backward into each other's arms.
"We were trying to break their barriers down," said Scarlett MccGwire of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, the group that organized the meeting.
They wanted to challenge the participants to see one another not as "terrorist" or "oppressor," but as human beings, Ms. MccGwire said.
To a surprising degree, the effort worked.
Xhavit Haliti, a founding member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, attended the encounter and found himself won over. "I would recommend it for all the party leaders," he said. By the end of the week, he said, he and his Serbian counterparts were going out to restaurants together and even shared a sauna.
But as successful as these exercises were, they also point to the tough road ahead in Kosovo, where the majority of each community still barely acknowledges the other.
Serbs face the possibility of living in an independent Albanian-dominated state. Diplomats say that if Albanians want to achieve anything like independence they will have to give the Serbs basic rights, like freedom of movement, as well as the right of those refugees who fled the region to return from Serbia.
The framework for the negotiations is still far from clear. The United Nations has commissioned a report to study if and when talks can start. Most diplomats expect the negotiations to begin by early October. The talks would involve local Albanian and Serb leaders, the Serbian government and representatives of leading industrial democracies.
While many Western officials privately acknowledge that independence is perhaps the only solution the Albanian population will accept, the Serbian government is hoping Kosovo will remain within Serbia, but be granted substantial autonomy.
Any resolution has to grapple with Kosovo's nearly complete division along ethnic lines, a rupture that goes back to June 1999, the month the Serb-dominated Yugoslav forces who were accused of committing atrocities against Albanians were forced by NATO troops to withdraw. As the soldiers left, the returning ethnic Albanian refugees sought revenge on their Serb neighbors, and forced up to 200,000 to flee.
Those Serbs that stayed in Kosovo - their numbers are seasonal and fluctuate between 70,000 and 130,000 according to local aid agencies - have led volatile lives.
Ethnic violence, which can dissipate for months on end, often reappears without warning. In March last year, 50,000 Albanians rioted across the province, attacking Serbs and other minorities and forcing 4,000 from their homes. Few Serbs remain in Kosovo's cities, with the exception of Mitrovica, which is divided down the middle along ethnic lines. Instead, most Serbs live in rural enclaves like Gracanica, the largest such enclave with a population of 5,000, just two miles south of Pristina.
Gracanica, like most Serbian villages across Kosovo, retains links with the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Serbia provides such basic services as health and education, and some documentation, like passports and birth and marriage certificates, services that rankle Albanians who regard the United Nations and their regional government as the only rightful authorities in the province.
"We live in two separate worlds," said Sasa Sekulic, a Serbian business owner in Gracanica. Forced to leave his home in Pristina by ethnic Albanian looters, Mr. Sekulic set up a small business making candy. He planned to sell it in Kosovo, but while Albanians are happy to sell him the ingredients, Albanian shops refused to stock his products after a television news show disclosed they were made in Gracanica.
Without the international community there to protect them, he said, most Serbs do not see a future in a Kosovo dominated by Albanians.
"You won't find us here," he said. "We don't want to live in an independent Kosovo."
Talks on Kosovo's final status are seen as inevitable, though. United Nations and NATO officials have concluded that the longer negotiations are put off, the higher the risk for more unrest.
The report on whether talks go ahead was commissioned by Secretary General Kofi Annan, and is being undertaken by the Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide. Mr. Annan is expected to make a recommendation to the Security Council next month.
Many Albanians see Kosovo's independence as a foregone conclusion, and one in which the Serbian government in Belgrade should have no say. Graffiti sprayed on the walls of the United Nations administrative headquarters in Pristina and elsewhere across the capital reflect that view. The slogan reads simply, "No negotiation, self-determination."
While the Albanian-dominated government is aware of the necessity of reassuring the Serbs, critics outside of Serbia and even some local politicians say government officials have been reluctant to turn their words into deeds.
"I think Kosovo's institutions are obliged to guarantee a good life the for the Serbs of Kosovo, to create the space for them to lead a better life," said Xhavit Haliti, the former guerrilla fighter, now a politician. "That is not happening." NY Times
PRISTINA, Kosovo, July 22 - In the six years since NATO bombers forced Yugoslav troops out of this troubled province, progress toward resolving the entrenched enmity here between Serbs and ethnic Albanians has been slow. The United Nations, which has been administering Kosovo, now wants to broker a deal and step aside.
The negotiations are bound to be painful. Serbs are determined to keep Kosovo, their religious heartland, while ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the population, demand independence after suffering years of ethnic violence that culminated in the war of 1998 to 1999.
In one unusual peacemaking effort, a group backed by the British government has brought together eight politicians from two opposing camps - former Albanian guerrilla leaders on one side, and minority Kosovar Serbs on the other - for some exercises in getting along.
The group was divided into pairs, an Albanian and a Serb in each. Every day began with 15 minutes of staring into each other's eyes. Then they performed exercises - including climbing trees together and falling backward into each other's arms.
"We were trying to break their barriers down," said Scarlett MccGwire of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, the group that organized the meeting.
They wanted to challenge the participants to see one another not as "terrorist" or "oppressor," but as human beings, Ms. MccGwire said.
To a surprising degree, the effort worked.
Xhavit Haliti, a founding member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, attended the encounter and found himself won over. "I would recommend it for all the party leaders," he said. By the end of the week, he said, he and his Serbian counterparts were going out to restaurants together and even shared a sauna.
But as successful as these exercises were, they also point to the tough road ahead in Kosovo, where the majority of each community still barely acknowledges the other.
Serbs face the possibility of living in an independent Albanian-dominated state. Diplomats say that if Albanians want to achieve anything like independence they will have to give the Serbs basic rights, like freedom of movement, as well as the right of those refugees who fled the region to return from Serbia.
The framework for the negotiations is still far from clear. The United Nations has commissioned a report to study if and when talks can start. Most diplomats expect the negotiations to begin by early October. The talks would involve local Albanian and Serb leaders, the Serbian government and representatives of leading industrial democracies.
While many Western officials privately acknowledge that independence is perhaps the only solution the Albanian population will accept, the Serbian government is hoping Kosovo will remain within Serbia, but be granted substantial autonomy.
Any resolution has to grapple with Kosovo's nearly complete division along ethnic lines, a rupture that goes back to June 1999, the month the Serb-dominated Yugoslav forces who were accused of committing atrocities against Albanians were forced by NATO troops to withdraw. As the soldiers left, the returning ethnic Albanian refugees sought revenge on their Serb neighbors, and forced up to 200,000 to flee.
Those Serbs that stayed in Kosovo - their numbers are seasonal and fluctuate between 70,000 and 130,000 according to local aid agencies - have led volatile lives.
Ethnic violence, which can dissipate for months on end, often reappears without warning. In March last year, 50,000 Albanians rioted across the province, attacking Serbs and other minorities and forcing 4,000 from their homes. Few Serbs remain in Kosovo's cities, with the exception of Mitrovica, which is divided down the middle along ethnic lines. Instead, most Serbs live in rural enclaves like Gracanica, the largest such enclave with a population of 5,000, just two miles south of Pristina.
Gracanica, like most Serbian villages across Kosovo, retains links with the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Serbia provides such basic services as health and education, and some documentation, like passports and birth and marriage certificates, services that rankle Albanians who regard the United Nations and their regional government as the only rightful authorities in the province.
"We live in two separate worlds," said Sasa Sekulic, a Serbian business owner in Gracanica. Forced to leave his home in Pristina by ethnic Albanian looters, Mr. Sekulic set up a small business making candy. He planned to sell it in Kosovo, but while Albanians are happy to sell him the ingredients, Albanian shops refused to stock his products after a television news show disclosed they were made in Gracanica.
Without the international community there to protect them, he said, most Serbs do not see a future in a Kosovo dominated by Albanians.
"You won't find us here," he said. "We don't want to live in an independent Kosovo."
Talks on Kosovo's final status are seen as inevitable, though. United Nations and NATO officials have concluded that the longer negotiations are put off, the higher the risk for more unrest.
The report on whether talks go ahead was commissioned by Secretary General Kofi Annan, and is being undertaken by the Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide. Mr. Annan is expected to make a recommendation to the Security Council next month.
Many Albanians see Kosovo's independence as a foregone conclusion, and one in which the Serbian government in Belgrade should have no say. Graffiti sprayed on the walls of the United Nations administrative headquarters in Pristina and elsewhere across the capital reflect that view. The slogan reads simply, "No negotiation, self-determination."
While the Albanian-dominated government is aware of the necessity of reassuring the Serbs, critics outside of Serbia and even some local politicians say government officials have been reluctant to turn their words into deeds.
"I think Kosovo's institutions are obliged to guarantee a good life the for the Serbs of Kosovo, to create the space for them to lead a better life," said Xhavit Haliti, the former guerrilla fighter, now a politician. "That is not happening." NY Times
Friday, July 22, 2005
Doris Pack: Kosovo’s future is in the European Union (Zëri/Lajm)
Zëri quotes member of the European Parliament, Doris Pack, as saying that the future of Kosovo is in the European Union. ‘Integration in the EU will be impossible without regional cooperation. The times of war are over and now it is time to build. The countries of the Balkans and Kosovo will have the EU’s support in achieving the necessary goals, but no one will do your job. Therefore, your fate is in your hands,’ said Pack.
Lajm quotes Pack as saying that the youth of Kosovo should apply pressure on politicians to move processes forward.
Lajm quotes Pack as saying that the youth of Kosovo should apply pressure on politicians to move processes forward.
Assembly calls on US and EU to apply pressure on Serbia for the missing
All daily newspapers cover yesterday’s session of the Kosovo Assembly which focused on the issue of missing persons. The press reports that Prime Minister Kosumi said the issue was a humanitarian and not a political issue. However, representatives of the opposition reacted by saying that it is a completely political issue and called for the issue to be the first point of future talks with Belgrade.
KOSOVO SERBS ANNOUNCE BREAK WITH BELGRADE
Serbia’s policy of urging Kosovo Serbs to boycott the Kosovo government is creating resentment among local Serb leaders.
By Arben Qirezi in Pristina (BCR No 566, 22-Jul-05)
A gap has opened up between the Serbian government and Kosovo Serb leaders after one of the latter said he will join the Albanian-dominated local assembly in defiance of Belgrade.
Serbia’s position is clear-cut: no participation without extra guarantees. As Serbia’s president, Boris Tadic, put it recently, "Serbia is asking for a more active policy by the international community and for guarantees for the Serbs from the local authorities. Without this, Serb participation in Kosovo institutions would make no sense.”
Tadic was speaking after meeting the UN envoy, Kai Aide, who vainly urged Serbia's leadership to start persuading Kosovo Serbs to join local institutions.
But Oliver Ivanovic, head of the Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija, SLKM, now says he fears that Serbia is using the issue as a political football, to the detriment of the real interests of Kosovo Serbs.
“Everything is being done … for internal wrangling,” he announced this week. “These calculations may cost a lot to the more than 100,000 Serbs who have decided to stay in Kosovo."
Ivanovic announced that his group will now take up the eight seats that it holds, but has not occupied, in the Kosovo Assembly, and will formally announce a decision to join the government over the next few days.
The announcement marks a sharp break with SLKM policy, which was earlier characterised by a willingness to leave all the big policy decisions to Belgrade.
On the urging of the Serbian government, most Kosovo Serbs boycotted the elections to the assembly last October.
With less than 1,000 Serb voters casting their ballot, the SLKM and the Civic List Serbia, CLS, took the 10 seats that had been allocated to the Serb community, irrespective of the number of votes cast.
The CLS, with two of the 10 seats, led by Nebojsa Petkovic, immediately joined the assembly and took over the ministry of returns and communities.
With the Kosovo government focusing hard on returnee programmes, Petkovic found himself managing the biggest single ministerial budget, worth 14 million euro in 2005 alone.
The ministry of agriculture, which is also reserved for Kosovo Serbs, remained without a minister, however, because the SLKM decided to continue with the Belgrade-inspired boycott.
Although the UN’s framework for governing the territory, the Constitutional Framework of Kosovo, says representatives who fail to appear at assembly meetings for more than six months should be dismissed, the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, declined to enforce this provision, clearly hoping the SLKM would eventually change its mind.
In the meantime, Petkovic criticised UNMIK for giving so much importance to the SLKM, instead of allowing the CLS, "which has shown good will to work within the institutions, to take over the remaining vacant seats in the assembly and the government".
Ivanovic's previous position, that the SLKM could not make any decision on participation in Kosovo institutions without Serbia’s support, was a calculated tactic, some observers said, aimed at maximising the Serb position and at ensuring Belgrade was granted a major role in any final-status negotiations.
"Belgrade counted that a continuous boycott of Kosovo Serbs would enforce the argument that Serbs need their own self-government within Kosovo,” said Bekim Kastrati, a political analyst from Pristina.
“On the other hand, as a Belgrade-sponsored political group, the SLKM lacked the internal strength to take decisions on its own."
But Ivanovic’s latest statements suggest these calculations have lost much of their original force.
Serbia suffered a major loss of prestige last year after the international community rejected its plan to set up five autonomous Serb regions in Kosovo, linked to each other by corridors.
In the ongoing deadlock, a view has clearly emerged in Kosovo that Belgrade is now simply reinforcing its own position at the expense of the Kosovo Serbs, whose dependence on Belgrade has left them without a credible voice.
Arben Qirezi is IWPR/BIRN Kosovo editor.
By Arben Qirezi in Pristina (BCR No 566, 22-Jul-05)
A gap has opened up between the Serbian government and Kosovo Serb leaders after one of the latter said he will join the Albanian-dominated local assembly in defiance of Belgrade.
Serbia’s position is clear-cut: no participation without extra guarantees. As Serbia’s president, Boris Tadic, put it recently, "Serbia is asking for a more active policy by the international community and for guarantees for the Serbs from the local authorities. Without this, Serb participation in Kosovo institutions would make no sense.”
Tadic was speaking after meeting the UN envoy, Kai Aide, who vainly urged Serbia's leadership to start persuading Kosovo Serbs to join local institutions.
But Oliver Ivanovic, head of the Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija, SLKM, now says he fears that Serbia is using the issue as a political football, to the detriment of the real interests of Kosovo Serbs.
“Everything is being done … for internal wrangling,” he announced this week. “These calculations may cost a lot to the more than 100,000 Serbs who have decided to stay in Kosovo."
Ivanovic announced that his group will now take up the eight seats that it holds, but has not occupied, in the Kosovo Assembly, and will formally announce a decision to join the government over the next few days.
The announcement marks a sharp break with SLKM policy, which was earlier characterised by a willingness to leave all the big policy decisions to Belgrade.
On the urging of the Serbian government, most Kosovo Serbs boycotted the elections to the assembly last October.
With less than 1,000 Serb voters casting their ballot, the SLKM and the Civic List Serbia, CLS, took the 10 seats that had been allocated to the Serb community, irrespective of the number of votes cast.
The CLS, with two of the 10 seats, led by Nebojsa Petkovic, immediately joined the assembly and took over the ministry of returns and communities.
With the Kosovo government focusing hard on returnee programmes, Petkovic found himself managing the biggest single ministerial budget, worth 14 million euro in 2005 alone.
The ministry of agriculture, which is also reserved for Kosovo Serbs, remained without a minister, however, because the SLKM decided to continue with the Belgrade-inspired boycott.
Although the UN’s framework for governing the territory, the Constitutional Framework of Kosovo, says representatives who fail to appear at assembly meetings for more than six months should be dismissed, the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, declined to enforce this provision, clearly hoping the SLKM would eventually change its mind.
In the meantime, Petkovic criticised UNMIK for giving so much importance to the SLKM, instead of allowing the CLS, "which has shown good will to work within the institutions, to take over the remaining vacant seats in the assembly and the government".
Ivanovic's previous position, that the SLKM could not make any decision on participation in Kosovo institutions without Serbia’s support, was a calculated tactic, some observers said, aimed at maximising the Serb position and at ensuring Belgrade was granted a major role in any final-status negotiations.
"Belgrade counted that a continuous boycott of Kosovo Serbs would enforce the argument that Serbs need their own self-government within Kosovo,” said Bekim Kastrati, a political analyst from Pristina.
“On the other hand, as a Belgrade-sponsored political group, the SLKM lacked the internal strength to take decisions on its own."
But Ivanovic’s latest statements suggest these calculations have lost much of their original force.
Serbia suffered a major loss of prestige last year after the international community rejected its plan to set up five autonomous Serb regions in Kosovo, linked to each other by corridors.
In the ongoing deadlock, a view has clearly emerged in Kosovo that Belgrade is now simply reinforcing its own position at the expense of the Kosovo Serbs, whose dependence on Belgrade has left them without a credible voice.
Arben Qirezi is IWPR/BIRN Kosovo editor.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
UNMIK chief says Serb boycott of Kosovo institutions is "mistake"
f report in English by independent internet news agency KosovaLive
Prishtina [Pristina], 21 July: The chairman of the Serb List for Kosova [Kosovo] and Metohija [SLKM] Oliver Ivanovic, said that the list has made it clear to the EU high representative for the common foreign and security policy, Javier Solana, that, under the current circumstances, Serbs cannot join the institutions of Kosova.
Ivanovic made these comments after a meeting between Serb political representatives and Solana and a party meeting.
Explaining the SLKM's decision, Ivanovic said that Serbs' lives have not improved at all since the boycott began.
"UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] has provided only superficial support and not in practice. It has done nothing for decentralization, and Kosovar institutions are demonstrating that they know more about talking than working," he said.
Ivanovic stressed that SLKM members are aware that the decision is very risky. But he said that Belgrade - having discouraged Kosovar Serbs from participating in Kosovar institutions - will bear the consequences.
After meeting with Solana, UNMIK Chief Administrator Soeren Jessen-Petersen voiced his surprise at the SLKM's accusations.
"Even when Serbs were not participating in the institutions, we conveyed their concerns [to the Kosovar institutions] and were in touch with them. I believe that choosing not to participate is a mistake," he said.
Source: KosovaLive website, Pristina, in English 21 Jul 05
Prishtina [Pristina], 21 July: The chairman of the Serb List for Kosova [Kosovo] and Metohija [SLKM] Oliver Ivanovic, said that the list has made it clear to the EU high representative for the common foreign and security policy, Javier Solana, that, under the current circumstances, Serbs cannot join the institutions of Kosova.
Ivanovic made these comments after a meeting between Serb political representatives and Solana and a party meeting.
Explaining the SLKM's decision, Ivanovic said that Serbs' lives have not improved at all since the boycott began.
"UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] has provided only superficial support and not in practice. It has done nothing for decentralization, and Kosovar institutions are demonstrating that they know more about talking than working," he said.
Ivanovic stressed that SLKM members are aware that the decision is very risky. But he said that Belgrade - having discouraged Kosovar Serbs from participating in Kosovar institutions - will bear the consequences.
After meeting with Solana, UNMIK Chief Administrator Soeren Jessen-Petersen voiced his surprise at the SLKM's accusations.
"Even when Serbs were not participating in the institutions, we conveyed their concerns [to the Kosovar institutions] and were in touch with them. I believe that choosing not to participate is a mistake," he said.
Source: KosovaLive website, Pristina, in English 21 Jul 05
Kosovo minister calls on Serbs to "quit self-isolation", return to Mitrovica
Text of report in English by independent internet news agency KosovaLive
Mitrovice [Kosovska Mitrovica], 20 July: Culture, Youth, Sports and Non-residential Affairs Minister Astrit Haracia called on the Serbs from the village of Svinjare in Mitrovice "to return to their homes and to quit self-isolation".
Haracia made this comment during a visit to this village, accompanied by the representative of the [UNMIK, UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, chief] Jessen-Petersen's Office for Return, Kilian Kleinschmidt and UNMIK police Deputy Commissioner Hans Martin Zimmermann.
Milorad Radivojevic told guests that the Serbs from Svinjare were not satisfied with the construction process, or with the compensation provided for reconstruction of other premises. He also said that security conditions have not been created for the return to the village.
"We had cases of cattle being stolen, and recently someone even stole trucks provided to the returning families. Not a single person has been unveiled [discovered] that participated in last March riots when homes in the village were ruined nor have thieves of cows and the trucks been arrested," said Radivojevic.
A total of 37 families, numbering 70 persons, have returned, according to him, but 26 of them left the village again after recent robberies, returning to collective shelters in the northern part of Mitrovice and in Zvecan.
Minister Haracia told Serb representatives that he visited village of Svinjare in order to identify problems related to the reconstruction of houses and the return of the displaced citizens to their properties.
"So far I have visited 20 villages of Kosova [Kosovo], where Serbs, Ashkali and so on live. Statistical data indicate that the Inter-ministerial Committee has finished the construction of 879 houses for Serbs and families of other communities, whose houses were damaged in last March riots, and owners of 90 per cent of the houses have signed trilateral contracts," said Haracia.
Minister Haracia told the Serbs in the village Svinjare that they can discuss any of their problems, but there is no reason whatsoever for this village to be privileged from other villages in Kosova. He has guaranteed them that the directions for the reconstruction of the homes given by the Commission headed by former minister Brajshori have been fully respected.
Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 20 Jul 05
Mitrovice [Kosovska Mitrovica], 20 July: Culture, Youth, Sports and Non-residential Affairs Minister Astrit Haracia called on the Serbs from the village of Svinjare in Mitrovice "to return to their homes and to quit self-isolation".
Haracia made this comment during a visit to this village, accompanied by the representative of the [UNMIK, UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, chief] Jessen-Petersen's Office for Return, Kilian Kleinschmidt and UNMIK police Deputy Commissioner Hans Martin Zimmermann.
Milorad Radivojevic told guests that the Serbs from Svinjare were not satisfied with the construction process, or with the compensation provided for reconstruction of other premises. He also said that security conditions have not been created for the return to the village.
"We had cases of cattle being stolen, and recently someone even stole trucks provided to the returning families. Not a single person has been unveiled [discovered] that participated in last March riots when homes in the village were ruined nor have thieves of cows and the trucks been arrested," said Radivojevic.
A total of 37 families, numbering 70 persons, have returned, according to him, but 26 of them left the village again after recent robberies, returning to collective shelters in the northern part of Mitrovice and in Zvecan.
Minister Haracia told Serb representatives that he visited village of Svinjare in order to identify problems related to the reconstruction of houses and the return of the displaced citizens to their properties.
"So far I have visited 20 villages of Kosova [Kosovo], where Serbs, Ashkali and so on live. Statistical data indicate that the Inter-ministerial Committee has finished the construction of 879 houses for Serbs and families of other communities, whose houses were damaged in last March riots, and owners of 90 per cent of the houses have signed trilateral contracts," said Haracia.
Minister Haracia told the Serbs in the village Svinjare that they can discuss any of their problems, but there is no reason whatsoever for this village to be privileged from other villages in Kosova. He has guaranteed them that the directions for the reconstruction of the homes given by the Commission headed by former minister Brajshori have been fully respected.
Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 20 Jul 05
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Borut Grgic: Engage Europe now (Koha Ditore)
The following article by Borut Grgic, director of Ljubljana-based Institute for Strategic Studies appeared in yesterday’s edition of Koha Ditore. The original copy in English was provided by the newspaper.
“With the US back in the game, the Kosovar leadership may feel comfortable about its position just before the opening of the status talks. Many, it seems, are linking US political re-engagement with independence, drawing an equal sign between the two.
While Kosova’s independence is the most-likely end result, it is by no means a predetermined fact. Washington has been explicit in its support of having the negotiations start this fall, but has been careful so as not to endorse any end solution. While on his trip to the region, Nicholas Burns refused to even speculate. This means Pristina needs to prepare for a tough negotiation which it will conduct directly with Belgrade, and not through the US or the EU.
If the Kosovar side stumbles during the actual negotiations process – i.e. if they are outfoxed by Belgrade – independence may become unattainable. It will be difficult to get international support (even US support) for independence once the negotiations conclude.
Serbs are excellent negotiators, let’s not forget that. They have outsmarted the international community on a number of occasions, and Kosovars already have experience with them from Rambouillet. Above all, there is an urgent need for a united domestic front in Kosovo. It will be difficult to do the negotiations, and make some of the tough compromises if divided at home. In fact, Kosova would be better off stalling the beginning of talks until this unity on the domestic front is attained. The chief of UNMIK, Mr. Søren Jessen-Petersen, is right to urge a grand coalition ahead of negotiations.
Second, stacking all the chips behind the US is close to a tactical error. The US is important, but so is Europe. Kosova needs to do more to engage the various European capitals on the highest political level, and even more on the Track II (expert and academic) level. Many in key European capitals not only think Kosova’s independence is a bad idea, but outright oppose it. The argument one often hears when traversing through conferences on the Balkans organized in Europe is that Kosovo lacks the capacity to be an independent state. They fear that if independent, Kosovo will amount to a failed state.
While these are obviously remarks based on poor judgment and understanding, Europe is not entirely to blame. The success which the Kosovars have had in terms of wining US Congressional sympathy is partly due to a comprehensive lobbying and explaining strategy set forth by the Kosova Diaspora living in the US. Second, Washington has been the favorite destination for Kosovar political leaders for year now.
The same commitment is missing across Europe. It should not come as a surprise then that EU governments generally tend to be skeptical vis-à-vis Kosovo’s independence. More can and must be done by Pristina to establish a comprehensive Track II engagement in Europe.
Aside form the fact that the EU will be a main ‘supervisor’ of the final status talks, the US despite its most recent diplomatic push, is slowly disengaging from the region. While US commitments grow bigger elsewhere – like in the Middle East – Europe is assuming increasing responsibility for stability and transition in the Balkans. Explaining to the US legislators and the Pentagon why the US presence in the Balkans is still necessary is becoming increasingly difficult. So rather than struggling to keep a power that does not want to stay committed, Kosovar leadership should engage with the EU. It the latter dimension that is presently fully missing.
The task for Prime Minister Kosumi is thus two fold. One the one hand, he should work to forge a sense of national unity before the start of the negotiations in order to maximize Kosovo’s political power at the actual negotiating table. Second, he should network aggressively across Europe, starting with countries closest to the region. It is paramount for Europe to better understand Kosovo – not least also because of the present internal crisis which has made many in the EU hypersensitive (in a negative way) to the Balkans. Second, the Serbs have made sure that Europe has heard their side of the story. Belgrade intellectuals are regular guests at conferences, and Serbian politicians visit with their European counterparts frequently. As a result, European perceptions may be skewed come negotiations time.
Only the US matters strategy will not work for the Kosova Albanians. It is too simplistic in light of the complexities surrounding final status talks.”
“With the US back in the game, the Kosovar leadership may feel comfortable about its position just before the opening of the status talks. Many, it seems, are linking US political re-engagement with independence, drawing an equal sign between the two.
While Kosova’s independence is the most-likely end result, it is by no means a predetermined fact. Washington has been explicit in its support of having the negotiations start this fall, but has been careful so as not to endorse any end solution. While on his trip to the region, Nicholas Burns refused to even speculate. This means Pristina needs to prepare for a tough negotiation which it will conduct directly with Belgrade, and not through the US or the EU.
If the Kosovar side stumbles during the actual negotiations process – i.e. if they are outfoxed by Belgrade – independence may become unattainable. It will be difficult to get international support (even US support) for independence once the negotiations conclude.
Serbs are excellent negotiators, let’s not forget that. They have outsmarted the international community on a number of occasions, and Kosovars already have experience with them from Rambouillet. Above all, there is an urgent need for a united domestic front in Kosovo. It will be difficult to do the negotiations, and make some of the tough compromises if divided at home. In fact, Kosova would be better off stalling the beginning of talks until this unity on the domestic front is attained. The chief of UNMIK, Mr. Søren Jessen-Petersen, is right to urge a grand coalition ahead of negotiations.
Second, stacking all the chips behind the US is close to a tactical error. The US is important, but so is Europe. Kosova needs to do more to engage the various European capitals on the highest political level, and even more on the Track II (expert and academic) level. Many in key European capitals not only think Kosova’s independence is a bad idea, but outright oppose it. The argument one often hears when traversing through conferences on the Balkans organized in Europe is that Kosovo lacks the capacity to be an independent state. They fear that if independent, Kosovo will amount to a failed state.
While these are obviously remarks based on poor judgment and understanding, Europe is not entirely to blame. The success which the Kosovars have had in terms of wining US Congressional sympathy is partly due to a comprehensive lobbying and explaining strategy set forth by the Kosova Diaspora living in the US. Second, Washington has been the favorite destination for Kosovar political leaders for year now.
The same commitment is missing across Europe. It should not come as a surprise then that EU governments generally tend to be skeptical vis-à-vis Kosovo’s independence. More can and must be done by Pristina to establish a comprehensive Track II engagement in Europe.
Aside form the fact that the EU will be a main ‘supervisor’ of the final status talks, the US despite its most recent diplomatic push, is slowly disengaging from the region. While US commitments grow bigger elsewhere – like in the Middle East – Europe is assuming increasing responsibility for stability and transition in the Balkans. Explaining to the US legislators and the Pentagon why the US presence in the Balkans is still necessary is becoming increasingly difficult. So rather than struggling to keep a power that does not want to stay committed, Kosovar leadership should engage with the EU. It the latter dimension that is presently fully missing.
The task for Prime Minister Kosumi is thus two fold. One the one hand, he should work to forge a sense of national unity before the start of the negotiations in order to maximize Kosovo’s political power at the actual negotiating table. Second, he should network aggressively across Europe, starting with countries closest to the region. It is paramount for Europe to better understand Kosovo – not least also because of the present internal crisis which has made many in the EU hypersensitive (in a negative way) to the Balkans. Second, the Serbs have made sure that Europe has heard their side of the story. Belgrade intellectuals are regular guests at conferences, and Serbian politicians visit with their European counterparts frequently. As a result, European perceptions may be skewed come negotiations time.
Only the US matters strategy will not work for the Kosova Albanians. It is too simplistic in light of the complexities surrounding final status talks.”
Profitable patriotism
BELGRADE -- Wednesday – The Serbian Government has approved financial assistance of almost half a million euros the former commander of the Yugoslav Army’s Pristina Corps, Vladimir Lazarevic, in return for his surrender to the Hague Tribunal, the Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights has revealed.
The Committee for Human Rights Lawyers’ Milan Antonijevic said today that the information on the payment earmarked for Lazarevic had been obtained from the Ministry of Finance under the Freedom of Information Act.
“On the basis of this information, the committee has asked the Finance Ministry where the resources for paying assistance to Hague Tribunal indictees and their families comes from and how much as been allocated, but not yet paid, for this during 2004 and to July 2005 for voluntary surrenders to the Hague Tribunal,” said Antonijevic.
“The committee received a reply, signed by Minister Dinkic, that funds had not been planned for the assistance of indictees in the 2004 and 2005 budgets, but that on the basis of Decision 06-621/2005 of February 2005, Government Ruling 401-685/2005, funds of 40 million dinars (about 500,000 euros) had been allocated from current budget reserves for securing the needs of assistance to General Vladimir Lazarevic on the occasion of his voluntary surrender to the Tribunal in The Hague,” he said, adding that the funds had not yet been paid.
“The committee was surprised by this reply from the Finance Ministry and we believe that it is our responsibility to inform the public,” said Antonijevic.
Lazarevic is charged with war crimes against Kosovo Albanians.
Following a number of “voluntary” surrenders to the tribunal at the beginning of the year, unconfirmed reports emerged that each surrender had involved major compensation for the indictees’ families. At the same time there were several cases of Bosnian Serb indictees choosing to surrender from Serbia rather than from the Republic of Srpska. Unofficial sources said at the time that, depending on their rank and the significance of their surrender, some of these indictees received assistance of hundreds of thousands of euros.
In a statement released after a meeting between Lazarevic and the government at the end of January, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that he personally, the Cabinet and the state greatly respected Lazarevic’s patriotic, moral and honourable decision to surrender. The government also described the decision as an act of patriotism.
Lazarevic himself said at the time that his decision to surrender had been motivated by his desire to honour his country, the Serbian people and Kosovo.
The mayor of the former general’s home town of Nis, Smiljko Kostic hosted a reception for Lazarevic prior to his departure, describing him as a “Serbian hero” and presenting his family with the gift of a motor vehicle.
The Committee for Human Rights Lawyers’ Milan Antonijevic said today that the information on the payment earmarked for Lazarevic had been obtained from the Ministry of Finance under the Freedom of Information Act.
“On the basis of this information, the committee has asked the Finance Ministry where the resources for paying assistance to Hague Tribunal indictees and their families comes from and how much as been allocated, but not yet paid, for this during 2004 and to July 2005 for voluntary surrenders to the Hague Tribunal,” said Antonijevic.
“The committee received a reply, signed by Minister Dinkic, that funds had not been planned for the assistance of indictees in the 2004 and 2005 budgets, but that on the basis of Decision 06-621/2005 of February 2005, Government Ruling 401-685/2005, funds of 40 million dinars (about 500,000 euros) had been allocated from current budget reserves for securing the needs of assistance to General Vladimir Lazarevic on the occasion of his voluntary surrender to the Tribunal in The Hague,” he said, adding that the funds had not yet been paid.
“The committee was surprised by this reply from the Finance Ministry and we believe that it is our responsibility to inform the public,” said Antonijevic.
Lazarevic is charged with war crimes against Kosovo Albanians.
Following a number of “voluntary” surrenders to the tribunal at the beginning of the year, unconfirmed reports emerged that each surrender had involved major compensation for the indictees’ families. At the same time there were several cases of Bosnian Serb indictees choosing to surrender from Serbia rather than from the Republic of Srpska. Unofficial sources said at the time that, depending on their rank and the significance of their surrender, some of these indictees received assistance of hundreds of thousands of euros.
In a statement released after a meeting between Lazarevic and the government at the end of January, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that he personally, the Cabinet and the state greatly respected Lazarevic’s patriotic, moral and honourable decision to surrender. The government also described the decision as an act of patriotism.
Lazarevic himself said at the time that his decision to surrender had been motivated by his desire to honour his country, the Serbian people and Kosovo.
The mayor of the former general’s home town of Nis, Smiljko Kostic hosted a reception for Lazarevic prior to his departure, describing him as a “Serbian hero” and presenting his family with the gift of a motor vehicle.
Kosovo Moving Closer to Final Status Negotiations
By Barry Wood
Pristina
19 July 2005
Kosovo, the United Nations-administered south Serbian province, is slowly moving closer to final status negotiations. Analysts in the 90 percent Albanian-populated territory believe status talks are likely to begin in October.
Norwegian envoy Kai Eide is preparing a report reviewing developments in Kosovo and assessing the territory's implementation of standards of good governance. Analysts say that document, expected to be ready in September, is likely to conclude that the time has come for the United Nations to resolve Kosovo's final status.
The landlocked territory of two million inhabitants has been under U.N. control since 1999, when sustained NATO bombing in support of ethnic Albanians drove Serb troops out of Kosovo. NATO-led peacekeepers are posted throughout Kosovo.
Alex Anderson, the Pristina representative of the non-government International Crisis Group, says the final status negotiations, once they begin, will be exceedingly difficult. It will, he says, be a huge challenge to craft an agreement acceptable to both ethnic Albanians and the Serbian government.
"I don't think there is any good solution for Kosovo," he said. "It is such a contested territory that whatever solution is found is not going to leave everybody happy."
Mr. Anderson believes what is likely to emerge, perhaps within 12 months, is a plan for a kind of conditional independence.
Enver Hoxhaj, a member of the Kosovo parliament and a philosophy professor at Pristina University, believes a solid timetable for concluding the final status negotiations is needed. Mr. Hoxhaj rejects the idea that Serbia needs to agree on Kosovo's final status.
"I don't think that Belgrade [Serbia] should be asked concerning the final status issue," he said. "Belgrade has the right, actually, to be interested in the position of the Kosovo Serbs here, regarding the position of the [Orthodox church] religious sites. And I think everybody has an understanding for that. But regarding the status issue, Belgrade simply doesn't have the legitimacy."
Other analysts say to assure regional stability, it is essential that a Kosovo settlement be acceptable to Serbia. Kosovo Albanians want nothing less than independence, an outcome opposed by Serbia.
Kosovo's Serbs, who comprise well under ten-percent of the population, were targets for ethnic Albanian rioting 16 months ago. Mr. Anderson believes renewed ethnic violence would set back final status negotiations.
"I think it is widely understood that another collapse into violence like we saw in March of last year would be rather disastrous in terms of the international community's judgment on Kosovo," he said.
By almost all accounts there has been progress in Kosovo over the past year. Ethnic relations have improved. There is increased tolerance of minorities. More powers have been handed over to local authorities. However, the economy remains weak with unemployment approaching 50 percent of the work force.
Once the United Nations determines that final status talks can begin, a senior European Union diplomat, assisted by an American, is expected to guide the negotiations.
Pristina
19 July 2005
Kosovo, the United Nations-administered south Serbian province, is slowly moving closer to final status negotiations. Analysts in the 90 percent Albanian-populated territory believe status talks are likely to begin in October.
Norwegian envoy Kai Eide is preparing a report reviewing developments in Kosovo and assessing the territory's implementation of standards of good governance. Analysts say that document, expected to be ready in September, is likely to conclude that the time has come for the United Nations to resolve Kosovo's final status.
The landlocked territory of two million inhabitants has been under U.N. control since 1999, when sustained NATO bombing in support of ethnic Albanians drove Serb troops out of Kosovo. NATO-led peacekeepers are posted throughout Kosovo.
Alex Anderson, the Pristina representative of the non-government International Crisis Group, says the final status negotiations, once they begin, will be exceedingly difficult. It will, he says, be a huge challenge to craft an agreement acceptable to both ethnic Albanians and the Serbian government.
"I don't think there is any good solution for Kosovo," he said. "It is such a contested territory that whatever solution is found is not going to leave everybody happy."
Mr. Anderson believes what is likely to emerge, perhaps within 12 months, is a plan for a kind of conditional independence.
Enver Hoxhaj, a member of the Kosovo parliament and a philosophy professor at Pristina University, believes a solid timetable for concluding the final status negotiations is needed. Mr. Hoxhaj rejects the idea that Serbia needs to agree on Kosovo's final status.
"I don't think that Belgrade [Serbia] should be asked concerning the final status issue," he said. "Belgrade has the right, actually, to be interested in the position of the Kosovo Serbs here, regarding the position of the [Orthodox church] religious sites. And I think everybody has an understanding for that. But regarding the status issue, Belgrade simply doesn't have the legitimacy."
Other analysts say to assure regional stability, it is essential that a Kosovo settlement be acceptable to Serbia. Kosovo Albanians want nothing less than independence, an outcome opposed by Serbia.
Kosovo's Serbs, who comprise well under ten-percent of the population, were targets for ethnic Albanian rioting 16 months ago. Mr. Anderson believes renewed ethnic violence would set back final status negotiations.
"I think it is widely understood that another collapse into violence like we saw in March of last year would be rather disastrous in terms of the international community's judgment on Kosovo," he said.
By almost all accounts there has been progress in Kosovo over the past year. Ethnic relations have improved. There is increased tolerance of minorities. More powers have been handed over to local authorities. However, the economy remains weak with unemployment approaching 50 percent of the work force.
Once the United Nations determines that final status talks can begin, a senior European Union diplomat, assisted by an American, is expected to guide the negotiations.
UNMIK submits to PISG drafts for two ministries
All daily newspapers report that SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen has submitted to Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi the draft for the creation of two new ministries – the Ministry of Order and the Ministry of Justice.
‘We have discussed this issue earlier, and today he has officially received the plan,’ said the UNMIK chief.
Koha Ditore quotes the SRSG as saying that the creation of the two ministries would resolve the problems with parallel intelligence services among some political parties in Kosovo. ‘What we need to do now is pledge that we will create an apolitical judicial system that will treat all Kosovo citizens equally,’ added Jessen-Petersen.
According to Zëri, the two new ministries are expected to be created by the end of the year. Until then, says the paper, Jessen-Petersen has called for a debate on all security issues, including parallel structures and the so-called intelligence services in the political parties.
‘We have discussed this issue earlier, and today he has officially received the plan,’ said the UNMIK chief.
Koha Ditore quotes the SRSG as saying that the creation of the two ministries would resolve the problems with parallel intelligence services among some political parties in Kosovo. ‘What we need to do now is pledge that we will create an apolitical judicial system that will treat all Kosovo citizens equally,’ added Jessen-Petersen.
According to Zëri, the two new ministries are expected to be created by the end of the year. Until then, says the paper, Jessen-Petersen has called for a debate on all security issues, including parallel structures and the so-called intelligence services in the political parties.
SRSG outlines steps ahead for Kosovo at Pristina University forum
PRISTINA – SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen on Tuesday 19 July participated in a public forum on Kosovo in 2005 organized by Pristina Summer University. Following is the text of his speech:
Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to thank the organizers of the Pristina Summer University for getting us together for this event. I am pleased to be here with my friends the Prime Minister and the Commander of KFOR, General de Kermabon. I would also like to thank the Prime Minister for his comments – some of which I will try to pick up on in the course of my speech.
I have been asked today to have a look at the way forward for Kosovo. I think that this way forward can be broken down into three distinct phases: the short term of standards implementation; the medium term of the settlement of Kosovo’s status; and the long term of Europeanisation. I hope to show that these three phases are not only inter-related. They are inseparable.
CURRENT SITUATION
In most of my speeches this year I believe that I have made the point that this is a “crucial year” for Kosovo. So it is. The comprehensive review of progress on standards, led by Ambassador Eide, which the Prime Minister referred to, is ongoing at the moment. On this basis, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, will consider, in September or October, whether to recommend beginning of the process of settling Kosovo’s future status. The issues don’t get much bigger than this.
The standards policy is one that will be familiar to everyone here. The progress in implementation of standards that we noted in our regular quarterly review of the policy, and reported to the United Nations Security Council in May was the basis for the Secretary General’s decision to launch the comprehensive review.
There is a common perception among Kosovo-skeptics that nothing has moved on here since the international intervention in 1999. Our regular reviews of standards implementation have proven this to be wrong, and have noted progress in all eight standards. The economic, social and political life of Kosovo has become clearly better over time including for minority communities. But progress must be continual. Our regular reviews of progress take place four times a year and a new one is ongoing at the moment. This needs to show improvement too – the standards process is not one that allows anyone to rest on their laurels.
Because our assessment also shows that none of the eight standards has been fully implemented, some familiar challenges remain. Top of this list are minority rights (especially freedom of movement), the return of displaced persons, and, although not actually a standard as such, decentralization.
What should by now be clear is that improvements in these areas will also improve the lives of all citizens of all communities in Kosovo. The returns process is closely linked to better enforcement of property rights. This is not something which concerns only ethnic Serbs, Roma or Ashkali – it is the foundation stone of a functioning market democracy, and the sooner property rights are fully and consistently enforced, the better for everyone.
The recognition and enforcement of minority rights is also something that benefits all – everybody – in Kosovo, though the gains that it provides are more intangible: diversity is a strength – and one that is witnessed both by the European Union itself, despite recent doubts, and by a great many member states of the Union. These member states have ensured that minorities are a fully-integrated, but fully distinct, part of the social mixture that makes up their polity – and they have found that this embracing of difference has brought with it social, political and economic vibrancy.
Finally, decentralization also brings benefits to all, by devolving power – and therefore responsibility and accountability – down to the lowest possible local level, which in turn allows voters to judge politicians and political parties on the basis of concrete actions, or the lack of actions, before their very eyes. It is regrettable that decentralization has come to be seen only as a minority rights issue – it is not, it is a democracy issue and one that brings government closer to all.
I have tried to outline the benefits that derive only from the three items highest on the political agenda at the moment. But this is not to downplay the importance of the remaining standards challenges, or to downplay the amount of work that remains to be done.
As I have said many times – and the Prime Minister has said the same – the standards framework provides above all the opportunity and responsibility of all the people of Kosovo – of all of you – to build a stable, multiethnic and democratic society. The kind of society that we all want to live in.
STATUS
When Ambassador Eide completes his report on progress in implementing standards it will, as I mentioned, be presented to the Secretary General of the United Nations, whose recommendations will inform the Security Council’s decision about beginning the process of settling Kosovo’s status.
The outcome of the comprehensive review is not a foregone conclusion. At the same time, there is a growing recognition that an early launch of status talks, although difficult and at times tense, is in the interest of normalization and stabilization in Kosovo itself and in the region as a whole.
So while continuing to push standards implementation, we must also prepare now for the next step. Or rather, I should say, the PISG, the political parties, the people of Kosovo, must also prepare for the next step. On one level, of course, the process of standards implementation itself is preparation for the status process. But there will also need to be discussions – the exact format of which remains to be decided, of course, but discussions nonetheless. And these discussions on status will very likely be detailed. Whatever outcome is desired at the end of the process, it is not enough to state that at the beginning and wait for the process to deliver. Engagement will be necessary on a wide variety of complicated issues. For this preparation should already have started – and if it hasn’t, it needs to begin as soon as possible.
The issue of preparation for future status talks has been on the agenda of the Kosovo Forum from its first meeting in early June, and it is on the agenda again when the Forum meets this Thursday. I hope that at this meeting the participants will deal with concrete proposals for how the work of status preparations can and should be managed in the coming weeks. Preparation for the status process is a responsibility of all the political institutions in Kosovo. The Forum can help to provide impetus for these preparations, and help the political parties to reach consensus on the way forward. But clearly in the future the Assembly of Kosovo will need to assume its rightful responsibilities also on status preparations.
That this will involve intensive work is plain enough – but this is doubly true when taking into account my earlier point that standards implementation must remain on course and not be deflected by other political priorities.
Though I know that all political leaders in Kosovo see the urgency of the approaching status issue, I am not sure that all see its range and its complexity. I would advocate getting down to details – something that has worked, and is working, in the standards process. But when it comes to status preparations the political leadership in Kosovo must manage without UNMIK’s help. My mandate is to facilitate status preparations, but not to participate in them. Assistance in the preparations for future status is not something that my mission has the mandate to provide. Nor should it. This is the job of Kosovo’s leadership – your politicians. But this is also a process in which all the citizens of Kosovo must play a part. The Prime Minister rightly talked about the role of civil society and as Kosovo prepares for future status talks, civil society has a vital role to play.
EUROPEANISATION
On what Kosovo’s status will be I will offer no comment – which I am sure you will understand. But what happens after status? For me, the answer is Europe. Europe happens after status. Not straight away, of course, not immediately, but eventually. The EU Council of Ministers made clear on 17 June that the offer of a European perspective made to the Western Balkans at Thessaloniki in 2003, saying that all the countries of the Western Balkans had a future in the Union – this offer remains. This includes Kosovo, regardless of the outcome of the status process. But again, it is important to go back and look at what has to be achieved in order to move into Europe. If we do this, then it is clear that just as the standards process is essential to Kosovo now, and essential to Kosovo in terms of the status process – the standards process is also essential to Kosovo in terms of its long-term European future. All that is achieved by Kosovo in standards implementation today, is one fewer thing to be achieved by Kosovo in the Europeanisation process tomorrow.
So the way forward for Kosovo is, in my mind clear – a process of reform, within the standards framework, which delivers measurable benefits to everybody in Kosovo, and paves the way for talks on the settlement of Kosovo’s status – a status which itself will be decided within a European context, and with a European future built-in from the beginning.
CONCLUSION
I hope my message is clear – Kosovo’s future is better mapped than is often supposed. Status is a vital issue – and an emotional one for obvious reasons – but it is not the only one, no matter that it often appears to be so. The standards process provides that map for you and for your politicians to follow in order to achieve both a settlement of status and a European future – that is to say a future marked by peace, prosperity, democracy and multi-ethnicity. Throughout this process you will be able to count on the support of your friends in the international community, including UNMIK, and of course with the European Union taking an increasingly central role. Through this process, too, for as long as its presence is required I know you can rely on the stabilizing role of NATO in the form of KFOR. So I would like now to turn to my friend and colleague, Yves de Kermabon, not only to thank him for his contribution to stability here, but also, and this is really your job Mr. Chairman, for his contribution to this debate – and I look forward to your questions to all of us in due course.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to thank the organizers of the Pristina Summer University for getting us together for this event. I am pleased to be here with my friends the Prime Minister and the Commander of KFOR, General de Kermabon. I would also like to thank the Prime Minister for his comments – some of which I will try to pick up on in the course of my speech.
I have been asked today to have a look at the way forward for Kosovo. I think that this way forward can be broken down into three distinct phases: the short term of standards implementation; the medium term of the settlement of Kosovo’s status; and the long term of Europeanisation. I hope to show that these three phases are not only inter-related. They are inseparable.
CURRENT SITUATION
In most of my speeches this year I believe that I have made the point that this is a “crucial year” for Kosovo. So it is. The comprehensive review of progress on standards, led by Ambassador Eide, which the Prime Minister referred to, is ongoing at the moment. On this basis, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, will consider, in September or October, whether to recommend beginning of the process of settling Kosovo’s future status. The issues don’t get much bigger than this.
The standards policy is one that will be familiar to everyone here. The progress in implementation of standards that we noted in our regular quarterly review of the policy, and reported to the United Nations Security Council in May was the basis for the Secretary General’s decision to launch the comprehensive review.
There is a common perception among Kosovo-skeptics that nothing has moved on here since the international intervention in 1999. Our regular reviews of standards implementation have proven this to be wrong, and have noted progress in all eight standards. The economic, social and political life of Kosovo has become clearly better over time including for minority communities. But progress must be continual. Our regular reviews of progress take place four times a year and a new one is ongoing at the moment. This needs to show improvement too – the standards process is not one that allows anyone to rest on their laurels.
Because our assessment also shows that none of the eight standards has been fully implemented, some familiar challenges remain. Top of this list are minority rights (especially freedom of movement), the return of displaced persons, and, although not actually a standard as such, decentralization.
What should by now be clear is that improvements in these areas will also improve the lives of all citizens of all communities in Kosovo. The returns process is closely linked to better enforcement of property rights. This is not something which concerns only ethnic Serbs, Roma or Ashkali – it is the foundation stone of a functioning market democracy, and the sooner property rights are fully and consistently enforced, the better for everyone.
The recognition and enforcement of minority rights is also something that benefits all – everybody – in Kosovo, though the gains that it provides are more intangible: diversity is a strength – and one that is witnessed both by the European Union itself, despite recent doubts, and by a great many member states of the Union. These member states have ensured that minorities are a fully-integrated, but fully distinct, part of the social mixture that makes up their polity – and they have found that this embracing of difference has brought with it social, political and economic vibrancy.
Finally, decentralization also brings benefits to all, by devolving power – and therefore responsibility and accountability – down to the lowest possible local level, which in turn allows voters to judge politicians and political parties on the basis of concrete actions, or the lack of actions, before their very eyes. It is regrettable that decentralization has come to be seen only as a minority rights issue – it is not, it is a democracy issue and one that brings government closer to all.
I have tried to outline the benefits that derive only from the three items highest on the political agenda at the moment. But this is not to downplay the importance of the remaining standards challenges, or to downplay the amount of work that remains to be done.
As I have said many times – and the Prime Minister has said the same – the standards framework provides above all the opportunity and responsibility of all the people of Kosovo – of all of you – to build a stable, multiethnic and democratic society. The kind of society that we all want to live in.
STATUS
When Ambassador Eide completes his report on progress in implementing standards it will, as I mentioned, be presented to the Secretary General of the United Nations, whose recommendations will inform the Security Council’s decision about beginning the process of settling Kosovo’s status.
The outcome of the comprehensive review is not a foregone conclusion. At the same time, there is a growing recognition that an early launch of status talks, although difficult and at times tense, is in the interest of normalization and stabilization in Kosovo itself and in the region as a whole.
So while continuing to push standards implementation, we must also prepare now for the next step. Or rather, I should say, the PISG, the political parties, the people of Kosovo, must also prepare for the next step. On one level, of course, the process of standards implementation itself is preparation for the status process. But there will also need to be discussions – the exact format of which remains to be decided, of course, but discussions nonetheless. And these discussions on status will very likely be detailed. Whatever outcome is desired at the end of the process, it is not enough to state that at the beginning and wait for the process to deliver. Engagement will be necessary on a wide variety of complicated issues. For this preparation should already have started – and if it hasn’t, it needs to begin as soon as possible.
The issue of preparation for future status talks has been on the agenda of the Kosovo Forum from its first meeting in early June, and it is on the agenda again when the Forum meets this Thursday. I hope that at this meeting the participants will deal with concrete proposals for how the work of status preparations can and should be managed in the coming weeks. Preparation for the status process is a responsibility of all the political institutions in Kosovo. The Forum can help to provide impetus for these preparations, and help the political parties to reach consensus on the way forward. But clearly in the future the Assembly of Kosovo will need to assume its rightful responsibilities also on status preparations.
That this will involve intensive work is plain enough – but this is doubly true when taking into account my earlier point that standards implementation must remain on course and not be deflected by other political priorities.
Though I know that all political leaders in Kosovo see the urgency of the approaching status issue, I am not sure that all see its range and its complexity. I would advocate getting down to details – something that has worked, and is working, in the standards process. But when it comes to status preparations the political leadership in Kosovo must manage without UNMIK’s help. My mandate is to facilitate status preparations, but not to participate in them. Assistance in the preparations for future status is not something that my mission has the mandate to provide. Nor should it. This is the job of Kosovo’s leadership – your politicians. But this is also a process in which all the citizens of Kosovo must play a part. The Prime Minister rightly talked about the role of civil society and as Kosovo prepares for future status talks, civil society has a vital role to play.
EUROPEANISATION
On what Kosovo’s status will be I will offer no comment – which I am sure you will understand. But what happens after status? For me, the answer is Europe. Europe happens after status. Not straight away, of course, not immediately, but eventually. The EU Council of Ministers made clear on 17 June that the offer of a European perspective made to the Western Balkans at Thessaloniki in 2003, saying that all the countries of the Western Balkans had a future in the Union – this offer remains. This includes Kosovo, regardless of the outcome of the status process. But again, it is important to go back and look at what has to be achieved in order to move into Europe. If we do this, then it is clear that just as the standards process is essential to Kosovo now, and essential to Kosovo in terms of the status process – the standards process is also essential to Kosovo in terms of its long-term European future. All that is achieved by Kosovo in standards implementation today, is one fewer thing to be achieved by Kosovo in the Europeanisation process tomorrow.
So the way forward for Kosovo is, in my mind clear – a process of reform, within the standards framework, which delivers measurable benefits to everybody in Kosovo, and paves the way for talks on the settlement of Kosovo’s status – a status which itself will be decided within a European context, and with a European future built-in from the beginning.
CONCLUSION
I hope my message is clear – Kosovo’s future is better mapped than is often supposed. Status is a vital issue – and an emotional one for obvious reasons – but it is not the only one, no matter that it often appears to be so. The standards process provides that map for you and for your politicians to follow in order to achieve both a settlement of status and a European future – that is to say a future marked by peace, prosperity, democracy and multi-ethnicity. Throughout this process you will be able to count on the support of your friends in the international community, including UNMIK, and of course with the European Union taking an increasingly central role. Through this process, too, for as long as its presence is required I know you can rely on the stabilizing role of NATO in the form of KFOR. So I would like now to turn to my friend and colleague, Yves de Kermabon, not only to thank him for his contribution to stability here, but also, and this is really your job Mr. Chairman, for his contribution to this debate – and I look forward to your questions to all of us in due course.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Was Bosnia Worth It?
By Richard Holbrooke
Post
Tuesday, July 19, 2005; A21
If you wonder whether the 1995 American intervention in Bosnia was the right decision, go to a really horrible place, one whose name has become synonymous with genocide and Western failure. Go to Srebrenica.
Ten years after Bosnian Serbs under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic murdered 7,000 Muslims there, I found myself back in that valley of evil as part of the official American delegation representing President Bush and the nation. We walked across muddy fields, under leaden skies, through a vast throng of victim families who were burying more than 600 of their loved ones, their grief and personal hatred of those who had done this undiminished by the passage of a decade.
But even in Srebrenica, there has been progress since my last visit, five years ago. Then, only 10 brave -- one might say recklessly brave -- Muslim families had returned to their homes, and they lived in constant fear among 12,000 Serbs. Today 4,000 Muslims have returned, and one-third of the Serbs have already left. This is astonishing, and more of the same seems certain if the international community -- and especially the United States, the most respected nation in the Balkans -- remains involved; in this regard, Bush's strong words of support at the ceremony -- read by the head of his delegation, Ambassador for War Crimes Pierre Prosper -- were welcomed. There was also an important effort at reconciliation: Top leaders from Serbia and the Serb part of Bosnia came to lay wreaths, an important acknowledgment of Serb responsibility for what happened.
Things have improved even more in the rest of Bosnia. Above all, there is peace and not simply a cease-fire; this war will not resume. Nor has Bosnia become two separate states, as many critics of the Dayton Peace Agreement predicted. Although many (including in the Pentagon) predicted a Korea-like demilitarized zone between Serbs and Muslims, there are no barriers between the regions, and there are growing economic and political ties between ethnic groups. More than a million refugees have returned to their homes, many, like those in Srebrenica, to areas where they are in a minority. Both the European Union and NATO are beginning talks that could lead to association agreements between Bosnia and Brussels.
So there is good news (which often means "no news" to editors) from Bosnia. But not nearly enough. From the beginning, implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement was insufficiently aggressive. The most important failure was not capturing the two most wanted war criminals in Europe, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. This is a story unto itself of missed opportunities and poor intelligence. Mladic is, after all, in Serbia, and has been seen in public. I would guess that Karadzic has trimmed his trademark gray pompadour, grown a beard, and is hiding in some monastery in the deep mountains of eastern Bosnia or Montenegro. If Karadzic and Mladic are not brought to justice, the international security force (now a European Union force, with NATO reduced to a small office and fewer than 200 American troops) will never be able to leave, and Bosnia's return to a multiethnic society (and the institutions of Europe) will be delayed or prevented.
It is by now universally understood that a great crime was committed in Srebrenica. As assistant secretary of state for European affairs at the time, I argued, unsuccessfully, that we needed NATO airstrikes to stop the Bosnian Serbs -- bullies who preferred long-range artillery and short-range murder to anything resembling a real military operation. But Britain, France and the Netherlands had troops deployed, as part of the United Nations' peacekeeping force, in three extremely exposed enclaves in eastern Bosnia, including Srebrenica. Facing the brutal threats of Mladic, they refused to consider airstrikes until the Dutch troops were ignominiously escorted out of Srebrenica. By then it was too late.
From 1991 to 1995 the United States had been reluctant to act in Bosnia. But after Srebrenica, President Bill Clinton knew that although the American people would not like it, the United States could no longer avoid involvement there. Thus began the diplomatic and military policy that led to the Dayton accords, to peace in Bosnia and, four years later, to the liberation of the Albanian people in Kosovo from Slobodan Milosevic's oppression.
Sending 20,000 American troops to Bosnia as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping contingent to enforce Dayton took real political courage. There were widespread predictions that it would fail, and there was opposition from most of Congress and the foreign policy elite. In a poll at the time, Clinton's decision was supported by only 36 percent of the American public, who expected heavy U.S. casualties. As it turned out, that expectation was misplaced; in the 10 years since Dayton, no -- repeat, no -- American or NATO military personnel have been killed by hostile action in Bosnia. It is a mark of the respect in which NATO -- that is, the United States -- is held.
This was Clinton's most important action in regard to Europe -- an action opposed, incidentally, by most of his political advisers. It was a classic commander-in-chief decision, made alone, without congressional support and with only reluctant backing from the Pentagon. But it worked: Without those 20,000 troops, Bosnia would not have survived, 2 million refugees would still be wandering the face of Western Europe, a criminal state would be in power in Bosnia itself -- and we would probably have had to pursue Operation Enduring Freedom not only in Afghanistan but also in the deep ravines and dangerous hills of central Bosnia, where a shadowy organization we now know as al Qaeda was putting down roots that were removed by NATO after Dayton.
Was Bosnia worth it? As we approach the 10th anniversary of Dayton, there should no longer be any debate. Had we not intervened -- belatedly but decisively -- a disaster would have taken place with serious consequences for our national security and the war on terrorism. Dayton reasserted an American leadership role in Europe after a period of drift and confusion. But the job is not yet finished, and it is encouraging to see President Bush and the new team at State recommit the nation, as they did last week at Srebrenica.
Richard Holbrooke was the chief architect of the Dayton Peace Agreement. He writes a monthly column for The Post.
Post
Tuesday, July 19, 2005; A21
If you wonder whether the 1995 American intervention in Bosnia was the right decision, go to a really horrible place, one whose name has become synonymous with genocide and Western failure. Go to Srebrenica.
Ten years after Bosnian Serbs under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic murdered 7,000 Muslims there, I found myself back in that valley of evil as part of the official American delegation representing President Bush and the nation. We walked across muddy fields, under leaden skies, through a vast throng of victim families who were burying more than 600 of their loved ones, their grief and personal hatred of those who had done this undiminished by the passage of a decade.
But even in Srebrenica, there has been progress since my last visit, five years ago. Then, only 10 brave -- one might say recklessly brave -- Muslim families had returned to their homes, and they lived in constant fear among 12,000 Serbs. Today 4,000 Muslims have returned, and one-third of the Serbs have already left. This is astonishing, and more of the same seems certain if the international community -- and especially the United States, the most respected nation in the Balkans -- remains involved; in this regard, Bush's strong words of support at the ceremony -- read by the head of his delegation, Ambassador for War Crimes Pierre Prosper -- were welcomed. There was also an important effort at reconciliation: Top leaders from Serbia and the Serb part of Bosnia came to lay wreaths, an important acknowledgment of Serb responsibility for what happened.
Things have improved even more in the rest of Bosnia. Above all, there is peace and not simply a cease-fire; this war will not resume. Nor has Bosnia become two separate states, as many critics of the Dayton Peace Agreement predicted. Although many (including in the Pentagon) predicted a Korea-like demilitarized zone between Serbs and Muslims, there are no barriers between the regions, and there are growing economic and political ties between ethnic groups. More than a million refugees have returned to their homes, many, like those in Srebrenica, to areas where they are in a minority. Both the European Union and NATO are beginning talks that could lead to association agreements between Bosnia and Brussels.
So there is good news (which often means "no news" to editors) from Bosnia. But not nearly enough. From the beginning, implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement was insufficiently aggressive. The most important failure was not capturing the two most wanted war criminals in Europe, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. This is a story unto itself of missed opportunities and poor intelligence. Mladic is, after all, in Serbia, and has been seen in public. I would guess that Karadzic has trimmed his trademark gray pompadour, grown a beard, and is hiding in some monastery in the deep mountains of eastern Bosnia or Montenegro. If Karadzic and Mladic are not brought to justice, the international security force (now a European Union force, with NATO reduced to a small office and fewer than 200 American troops) will never be able to leave, and Bosnia's return to a multiethnic society (and the institutions of Europe) will be delayed or prevented.
It is by now universally understood that a great crime was committed in Srebrenica. As assistant secretary of state for European affairs at the time, I argued, unsuccessfully, that we needed NATO airstrikes to stop the Bosnian Serbs -- bullies who preferred long-range artillery and short-range murder to anything resembling a real military operation. But Britain, France and the Netherlands had troops deployed, as part of the United Nations' peacekeeping force, in three extremely exposed enclaves in eastern Bosnia, including Srebrenica. Facing the brutal threats of Mladic, they refused to consider airstrikes until the Dutch troops were ignominiously escorted out of Srebrenica. By then it was too late.
From 1991 to 1995 the United States had been reluctant to act in Bosnia. But after Srebrenica, President Bill Clinton knew that although the American people would not like it, the United States could no longer avoid involvement there. Thus began the diplomatic and military policy that led to the Dayton accords, to peace in Bosnia and, four years later, to the liberation of the Albanian people in Kosovo from Slobodan Milosevic's oppression.
Sending 20,000 American troops to Bosnia as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping contingent to enforce Dayton took real political courage. There were widespread predictions that it would fail, and there was opposition from most of Congress and the foreign policy elite. In a poll at the time, Clinton's decision was supported by only 36 percent of the American public, who expected heavy U.S. casualties. As it turned out, that expectation was misplaced; in the 10 years since Dayton, no -- repeat, no -- American or NATO military personnel have been killed by hostile action in Bosnia. It is a mark of the respect in which NATO -- that is, the United States -- is held.
This was Clinton's most important action in regard to Europe -- an action opposed, incidentally, by most of his political advisers. It was a classic commander-in-chief decision, made alone, without congressional support and with only reluctant backing from the Pentagon. But it worked: Without those 20,000 troops, Bosnia would not have survived, 2 million refugees would still be wandering the face of Western Europe, a criminal state would be in power in Bosnia itself -- and we would probably have had to pursue Operation Enduring Freedom not only in Afghanistan but also in the deep ravines and dangerous hills of central Bosnia, where a shadowy organization we now know as al Qaeda was putting down roots that were removed by NATO after Dayton.
Was Bosnia worth it? As we approach the 10th anniversary of Dayton, there should no longer be any debate. Had we not intervened -- belatedly but decisively -- a disaster would have taken place with serious consequences for our national security and the war on terrorism. Dayton reasserted an American leadership role in Europe after a period of drift and confusion. But the job is not yet finished, and it is encouraging to see President Bush and the new team at State recommit the nation, as they did last week at Srebrenica.
Richard Holbrooke was the chief architect of the Dayton Peace Agreement. He writes a monthly column for The Post.
UN To Hand Over Police,Justice Role To Kosovo By Year End
PRISTINA (AP)--The U.N. mission in Kosovo plans to hand over duties in the fields of police and justice in the hands of the province's government by the years end, the head of the U.N. mission to Kosovo says.
Soeren Jessen-Petersen said that the new duties will be conditioned on effective monitoring, vigorous accountability and capacity building while the U.N. will remain the ultimate authority in the province's affairs.
According to the plan, two new ministries of justice and police will be created in coming months, with the rest of responsibilities to be handed over gradually by the years end, Jessen-Petersen said. Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. since 1999.
Soeren Jessen-Petersen said that the new duties will be conditioned on effective monitoring, vigorous accountability and capacity building while the U.N. will remain the ultimate authority in the province's affairs.
According to the plan, two new ministries of justice and police will be created in coming months, with the rest of responsibilities to be handed over gradually by the years end, Jessen-Petersen said. Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. since 1999.
Donor funding still needed for mine-clearance operations in Kosovo - UN
19 July 2005 – Six years after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) drove Yugoslav troops out of Kosovo amid ethnic fighting between Albanians and Serbs, unexploded mines are still claiming victims in the United Nation-administered province and continued donor funding is needed for clearance operations.
Repeating warnings from the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) to the public not to go into areas marked with tape or mine signs or approach suspicious objects, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) noted today that so far this year two people had been killed and seven seriously injured in such accidents.
Since April when de-mining activities resumed, over 1,200 mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) have been located and destroyed, and over 2 million square metres of land cleared.
Last year, one person was killed and 13 seriously injured in 11 accidents, over 4,000 items of mines and UXO were located and destroyed and over 4 million square metres of land cleared.
Continued donor funding is needed for the on-going operations of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and training of KPC teams, which together have some 250 people involved in the day-to-day clearance of mines and UXO, UNMIK said.
The NGOs active in Kosovo are the Halo Trust, Handicap International and the Mines Awareness Trust.
Repeating warnings from the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) to the public not to go into areas marked with tape or mine signs or approach suspicious objects, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) noted today that so far this year two people had been killed and seven seriously injured in such accidents.
Since April when de-mining activities resumed, over 1,200 mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) have been located and destroyed, and over 2 million square metres of land cleared.
Last year, one person was killed and 13 seriously injured in 11 accidents, over 4,000 items of mines and UXO were located and destroyed and over 4 million square metres of land cleared.
Continued donor funding is needed for the on-going operations of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and training of KPC teams, which together have some 250 people involved in the day-to-day clearance of mines and UXO, UNMIK said.
The NGOs active in Kosovo are the Halo Trust, Handicap International and the Mines Awareness Trust.
Jessen-Petersen and Kosumi to launch today framework for returns
Quoting information released by the Government’s Press Office, Zëri reports that the head of UNMIK and the Prime Minister of Kosovo have invited political leaders, Contact Group Representatives, heads of UNMIK Pillars and other international representatives to take part in today’s meeting of the Working Group on Returns, when a strategy on returns and communities will be announced.
Today’s meeting, according to the paper, will serve as a platform for launching the strategy and an opportunity to discuss it at the highest level.
Today’s meeting, according to the paper, will serve as a platform for launching the strategy and an opportunity to discuss it at the highest level.
Parliamentary and local elections in spring 2007?
Zëri carries an editorial as a lead story on the front page on preparations of the OSCE for the post-status situation in Kosovo. The OSCE is favouring rescheduling of elections in Kosovo. Therefore the third local elections planned for 2006 are likely to be postponed until 2007 when there will be joint parliamentary and local elections, the editorial says.
The first reason is the process of solving the Kosovo’s status, which according to the paper, is expected to last from 6 to 9 months. In any scenario, the UN Security Council is expected to adopt a new resolution on Kosovo no later than December next year to confirm agreement reached on the status. According to the paper, those developments would overshadow the local elections.
Other reasons for the delay are the reorganization of the elections system and that political parties will have a clearer perspective after the solution of the final status.
The first reason is the process of solving the Kosovo’s status, which according to the paper, is expected to last from 6 to 9 months. In any scenario, the UN Security Council is expected to adopt a new resolution on Kosovo no later than December next year to confirm agreement reached on the status. According to the paper, those developments would overshadow the local elections.
Other reasons for the delay are the reorganization of the elections system and that political parties will have a clearer perspective after the solution of the final status.
Govt: Political dialogue with Belgrade speeds up independence
Koha Ditore reports on the front page that according to the Kosovo Government, political dialogue with Belgrade, which is one the main conditions set forward by the international community, could start in autumn.
‘The meeting [between the PISG and Serbian Government] will most probably take place in autumn,’ said Government spokesman Daut Dauti. ‘This meeting would speed up the recognition of Kosovo’s status – independence.’
‘The meeting [between the PISG and Serbian Government] will most probably take place in autumn,’ said Government spokesman Daut Dauti. ‘This meeting would speed up the recognition of Kosovo’s status – independence.’
Monday, July 18, 2005
Army veteran tops U.K. single, album charts
LONDON (Reuters) - Ex-British army officer James Blunt secured his first U.K. No. 1 single Sunday with his ballad "You're Beautiful," and logged a second week atop the albums chart, the Official UK Charts Company said.
Blunt, who was stationed in Kosovo with the army in 1999, had spent seven weeks in the charts with the track from his debut album "Back to Bedlam" before moving to the top spot.
The single forced "Ghetto Gospel" by dead American rapper 2Pac and Elton John to No. 2, and Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" to No. 3.
John's "Electricity" was one of two new entries in the top 10, bowing at No. 4. House track "Nasty Girl" by Inaya Day opened at No. 9.
Welsh soprano Charlotte Church's "Crazy Chick" dropped one place to No. 5. Her album, "Tissues and Issues," was the highest new entry on the albums chart, debuting at No. 5.
The first four albums were unchanged from last week: Blunt was followed by Coldplay's "X&Y," Faithless' "Forever Faithless," and Kaiser Chiefs' "Employment."
Reuters/VNU
Blunt, who was stationed in Kosovo with the army in 1999, had spent seven weeks in the charts with the track from his debut album "Back to Bedlam" before moving to the top spot.
The single forced "Ghetto Gospel" by dead American rapper 2Pac and Elton John to No. 2, and Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" to No. 3.
John's "Electricity" was one of two new entries in the top 10, bowing at No. 4. House track "Nasty Girl" by Inaya Day opened at No. 9.
Welsh soprano Charlotte Church's "Crazy Chick" dropped one place to No. 5. Her album, "Tissues and Issues," was the highest new entry on the albums chart, debuting at No. 5.
The first four albums were unchanged from last week: Blunt was followed by Coldplay's "X&Y," Faithless' "Forever Faithless," and Kaiser Chiefs' "Employment."
Reuters/VNU
Key Kosovo Bridge Opens Linking Albanians, Serbs
PRISTINA (AP)--A key Kosovo bridge symbolizing the ethnic divide opened for traffic Monday, police said.
The bridge over the Ibar river in the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica will remain permanently open in an attempt to bring the divided communities together, said Larry Miller, a spokesman for the U.N. police.
The bridge has in the past six years been the scene of periodic violent clashes between the ethnic Albanian majority, which lives south of the river, and Serb minority, which lives north of it. Last month the NATO peacekeepers handed over control of the bridge to the U.N. police, which prompted protests by the local Serbs.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
The bridge over the Ibar river in the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica will remain permanently open in an attempt to bring the divided communities together, said Larry Miller, a spokesman for the U.N. police.
The bridge has in the past six years been the scene of periodic violent clashes between the ethnic Albanian majority, which lives south of the river, and Serb minority, which lives north of it. Last month the NATO peacekeepers handed over control of the bridge to the U.N. police, which prompted protests by the local Serbs.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Unserious (Express)
Express quotes Skender Hyseni, advisor to Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, as saying there are many reasons why the meeting between Rugova and his Serbian counterpart Boris Tadic will happen neither in Pristina nor in Belgrade. Hyseni also said that there have been no serious offers ever since Tadic turned down the offer to meet in Geneva.
Differences bet internal and public approach of West toward Kosovo?
Zëri carries an exclusive article on the front page on ‘confidential detailed notes’ from the last three meetings of the Contact Group Plus with SRSG Jessen-Petersen, COMKFOR, Yves de Kermabon and Ambassador Kai Eide.
It reports that in the last meeting of CGP in Pristina, Jessen-Petersen said although it was very important to go ahead and implement local government reform, the issue of borders of pilot-municipalities should be dealt with cautiously. Jessen-Petersen warned that there could be reactions in places such as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia where borders of several municipalities changed. Furthermore, the creation of two new ministries later would also influence these projects, said the SRSG according to the paper.
COMKFOR Yves de Kermabon stressed during the meeting that the period when Kosovo’s political status will be discussed could be more problematic than the current situation of ‘fragile stability’.
UN Special Envoy for assessing Standards implementation, Kai Eide described his mission as independent, with wide competencies and without time limits.
It reports that in the last meeting of CGP in Pristina, Jessen-Petersen said although it was very important to go ahead and implement local government reform, the issue of borders of pilot-municipalities should be dealt with cautiously. Jessen-Petersen warned that there could be reactions in places such as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia where borders of several municipalities changed. Furthermore, the creation of two new ministries later would also influence these projects, said the SRSG according to the paper.
COMKFOR Yves de Kermabon stressed during the meeting that the period when Kosovo’s political status will be discussed could be more problematic than the current situation of ‘fragile stability’.
UN Special Envoy for assessing Standards implementation, Kai Eide described his mission as independent, with wide competencies and without time limits.
Intl community to increase pressure on Belgrade and Pristina
The leading article in Koha Ditore notes that the attention has returned to Kosovo, as there are only several months until the completion of the assessment of standards that could lead to talks on Kosovo’s final status. Citing diplomatic sources in Brussels, the paper says next week Pristina and Belgrade could be put under a new wave of international pressure.
The paper notes that EU and NATO officials have reiterated their calls for Pristina and Belgrade to be more serious about the importance of the current situation. Scheffer and Solana call on Belgrade to give the green light for Kosovo Serbs to return to Kosovo institutions. Solana will visit Pristina on Wednesday and remind Kosovan leaders that the assessment of standards is not a foregone conclusion and that dialogue with Belgrade and decentralisation cannot wait much longer.
The paper notes that EU and NATO officials have reiterated their calls for Pristina and Belgrade to be more serious about the importance of the current situation. Scheffer and Solana call on Belgrade to give the green light for Kosovo Serbs to return to Kosovo institutions. Solana will visit Pristina on Wednesday and remind Kosovan leaders that the assessment of standards is not a foregone conclusion and that dialogue with Belgrade and decentralisation cannot wait much longer.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Pensions For War Criminals - Newsweek
They're facing trial, but they're not going poor.
By Rod Nordland
Newsweek
July 25 issue - In the Balkans, war crime pays. This year, a record 20 accused war criminals have been turned over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, compared with only three in 2004. But NATO troops didn't nab these fugitives in daring dawn raids. Negotiators did much of the work, offering generous financial incentives. "Everybody here in Serbia believes the government gives big money to indictees," says Natasa Kandic, head of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade. "If you want to go to The Hague, you'll be rewarded and your family will have a very good life."
Some of the incentives are legally mandated. Serbia passed legislation last year to provide pensions to its indicted war criminals. The law gives indictees a full salary, plus unspecified "compensation" for family and legal expenses. In the Republic of Srpska, the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia, benefits are even more generous: a full salary to the indictee himself, a double salary paid to his family, plus 80 euro a month to each of his school-age children. (A typical Bosnian Serbian salary is only 200 euro a month.) Family members also get four expense-paid trips a year to The Hague to visit indicted loved ones. And last year Srpska added a cash bonus of 25,000 euro for anyone who surrenders.
Still more generous inducements are offered to the really big fish. According to Serbian media reports, Gen. Vujadin Popovic got a bonus of $1 million when he turned himself on April 14. Popovic was the commander of the Drina Corps in Bosnia, which conducted some of the worst ethnic-cleansing campaigns in the region. Serbian government officials have told human-rights activists that Gen. Ratko Mladic, the accused architect of the Srebrenica massacre, was offered $5 million to turn himself in, although in the end he decided to stay on the run. (The U.S. government still has a $5 million reward for his capture.)
Why the largesse? Serbia desperately wants to begin talks to join the European Union, but progress on turning in war criminals is a precondition. Reports that generals like Mladic were living openly in Belgrade did not sit well with the Europeans; Mladic's family even drew his state pension on his behalf until last year. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has publicly supported indicted war criminals, but his coalition partners want to see progress on EU accession. So when Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic, wanted for war crimes in Kosovo, turned himself in last January, he was praised by Kostunica as a patriot and received by the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch. In Nis, the mayor gave Lazarevic a new car for his family at a ceremony attended by government ministers.
Part of the reason the international community created the war-crimes tribunal was to show that atrocities would be punished rather than rewarded. Instead, "we celebrate our war criminals as heroes," says Branko Todorovic, of the Helsinki Committee in the Republic of Srpska. James Lyon, director of the International Crisis Group in Belgrade, fumes that "the government of Serbia has made financial arrangements for war criminals, but has yet to make any legal provision to take care of the victims of these crimes... It's morally reprehensible." Last week some 30,000 Muslim refugees returned to Srebrenica for the 10th anniversary of that massacre, where 7,800 men and boys were captured and executed by Serb forces. For the first time, Serbia's president attended, though his government has yet to apologize for its role in the massacres. Many of the Muslims there booed him. As long as the Serbs are rewarding their indicted war criminals with handsome pension plans, reconciliation remains a long way off.
With Zoran Cirjakovic in Belgrade
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
By Rod Nordland
Newsweek
July 25 issue - In the Balkans, war crime pays. This year, a record 20 accused war criminals have been turned over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, compared with only three in 2004. But NATO troops didn't nab these fugitives in daring dawn raids. Negotiators did much of the work, offering generous financial incentives. "Everybody here in Serbia believes the government gives big money to indictees," says Natasa Kandic, head of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade. "If you want to go to The Hague, you'll be rewarded and your family will have a very good life."
Some of the incentives are legally mandated. Serbia passed legislation last year to provide pensions to its indicted war criminals. The law gives indictees a full salary, plus unspecified "compensation" for family and legal expenses. In the Republic of Srpska, the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia, benefits are even more generous: a full salary to the indictee himself, a double salary paid to his family, plus 80 euro a month to each of his school-age children. (A typical Bosnian Serbian salary is only 200 euro a month.) Family members also get four expense-paid trips a year to The Hague to visit indicted loved ones. And last year Srpska added a cash bonus of 25,000 euro for anyone who surrenders.
Still more generous inducements are offered to the really big fish. According to Serbian media reports, Gen. Vujadin Popovic got a bonus of $1 million when he turned himself on April 14. Popovic was the commander of the Drina Corps in Bosnia, which conducted some of the worst ethnic-cleansing campaigns in the region. Serbian government officials have told human-rights activists that Gen. Ratko Mladic, the accused architect of the Srebrenica massacre, was offered $5 million to turn himself in, although in the end he decided to stay on the run. (The U.S. government still has a $5 million reward for his capture.)
Why the largesse? Serbia desperately wants to begin talks to join the European Union, but progress on turning in war criminals is a precondition. Reports that generals like Mladic were living openly in Belgrade did not sit well with the Europeans; Mladic's family even drew his state pension on his behalf until last year. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has publicly supported indicted war criminals, but his coalition partners want to see progress on EU accession. So when Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic, wanted for war crimes in Kosovo, turned himself in last January, he was praised by Kostunica as a patriot and received by the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch. In Nis, the mayor gave Lazarevic a new car for his family at a ceremony attended by government ministers.
Part of the reason the international community created the war-crimes tribunal was to show that atrocities would be punished rather than rewarded. Instead, "we celebrate our war criminals as heroes," says Branko Todorovic, of the Helsinki Committee in the Republic of Srpska. James Lyon, director of the International Crisis Group in Belgrade, fumes that "the government of Serbia has made financial arrangements for war criminals, but has yet to make any legal provision to take care of the victims of these crimes... It's morally reprehensible." Last week some 30,000 Muslim refugees returned to Srebrenica for the 10th anniversary of that massacre, where 7,800 men and boys were captured and executed by Serb forces. For the first time, Serbia's president attended, though his government has yet to apologize for its role in the massacres. Many of the Muslims there booed him. As long as the Serbs are rewarding their indicted war criminals with handsome pension plans, reconciliation remains a long way off.
With Zoran Cirjakovic in Belgrade
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Kosovo: UNMIK head wants status talks to begin as soon as possible
Text of report in English by Belgrade-based Radio B92 text website on 15 July
Pristina, 15 July: UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] head Soren Jessen-Petersen has said that he wants the discussions for the final status of Kosovo to begin as soon as possible. After returning from a trip around Europe, Petersen told reporters in Pristina that the more Kosovo prepared ahead of time for the discussions, the more prepared it would be to deal with the challenges which awaited it. Petersen added that the talks needed to begin as soon as possible because when the international institutions leave, they will be replaced with the Kosovo institutions. The UNMIK chief added that the European institutions were following the progress of standard implementation in Kosovo and that some worries existed. "Decentralization is not coming along as we would have liked it to and this is why there are many European nations who are worried. Everyone wishes to see greater progress with the return of refugees. In order to reach these goals, besides the Albanian majority, Serbs must be engaged in the process as well," Petersen said.
Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 0900 gmt 15 Jul 05
Pristina, 15 July: UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] head Soren Jessen-Petersen has said that he wants the discussions for the final status of Kosovo to begin as soon as possible. After returning from a trip around Europe, Petersen told reporters in Pristina that the more Kosovo prepared ahead of time for the discussions, the more prepared it would be to deal with the challenges which awaited it. Petersen added that the talks needed to begin as soon as possible because when the international institutions leave, they will be replaced with the Kosovo institutions. The UNMIK chief added that the European institutions were following the progress of standard implementation in Kosovo and that some worries existed. "Decentralization is not coming along as we would have liked it to and this is why there are many European nations who are worried. Everyone wishes to see greater progress with the return of refugees. In order to reach these goals, besides the Albanian majority, Serbs must be engaged in the process as well," Petersen said.
Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 0900 gmt 15 Jul 05
Friday, July 15, 2005
Kosovo, European agency draw up plan to improve business environment
Prishtina [Pristina], 14 July: The Kosova [Kosovo] Chamber of Commerce [OEK] and the European Agency for Reconstruction [EAR] have composed a strategic plan that aims at creating a better environment for Kosovar businesses.
The plan outlines changes that will make the OEK more efficient in providing services, advice and representation to businesses.
OEK head Ismail Kastrati said that the plan follows parliament's approval of the law calling for changes in the OEK operations and development of the strategy. He believes that the OEK operates in accordance with the law and in an institutional way.
Kastrati said that the OEK hopes to raise its staff capacities so that it can better help businesses. "We want to improve the OEK in order to better represent businesses in government structures and provide services and advice, as well as to raise the OEK's ability to face future phases of European integration," Kastrati said.
OEK representatives said that they will focus especially on increasing their ability to provide good services for businesses and on improving business management, analysis and marketing. [Passage omitted]
OEK representatives discussed the establishment of the Privatization Fund as part of the OEK or as a special fund alongside the OEK. They reported that no decisions have been finalized.
According to officials, the Fund would allow many small and medium-size enterprises to unite their shares and compete as joint ventures to buy Socially Owned Enterprises [SOEs].
Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 14 Jul 05
The plan outlines changes that will make the OEK more efficient in providing services, advice and representation to businesses.
OEK head Ismail Kastrati said that the plan follows parliament's approval of the law calling for changes in the OEK operations and development of the strategy. He believes that the OEK operates in accordance with the law and in an institutional way.
Kastrati said that the OEK hopes to raise its staff capacities so that it can better help businesses. "We want to improve the OEK in order to better represent businesses in government structures and provide services and advice, as well as to raise the OEK's ability to face future phases of European integration," Kastrati said.
OEK representatives said that they will focus especially on increasing their ability to provide good services for businesses and on improving business management, analysis and marketing. [Passage omitted]
OEK representatives discussed the establishment of the Privatization Fund as part of the OEK or as a special fund alongside the OEK. They reported that no decisions have been finalized.
According to officials, the Fund would allow many small and medium-size enterprises to unite their shares and compete as joint ventures to buy Socially Owned Enterprises [SOEs].
Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 14 Jul 05
Full freedom of movement in 92 % of Kosovo’s territory, says Gvt.
Zëri writes on the front page that the government and UNMIK are continuing their joint work on assessing progress on Standards implementation.
Standard on Freedom of movement is being hindered by parallel structures active in northern part of Kosovo, according to Minister of Local Government Lutfi Haziri quoted by the paper.
Standard on Freedom of movement is being hindered by parallel structures active in northern part of Kosovo, according to Minister of Local Government Lutfi Haziri quoted by the paper.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Picture of the Day - Great Britain We Are With You - People of Kosova
A boy walks in front of a billboard in the Kosovo capital Pristina expressing support for Britain after last week's bomb attacks on London, July 14, 2005. The British capital led the tributes on Thursday as millions of people across Europe joined a two-minute silence to mark the July 7 London bombings that claimed at least 52 victims. REUTERS/Hazir Reka.
Kosovo Picks Provisional Winners in Fifth Privatisation Wave
The Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA), charged with the sale of hundreds of state-owned companies in the U.N.-run Serbian province, said on Thursday it picked provisional buyers for the firms, included in the fifth privatisation wave.
"KTA is now working to finalise all sale contracts," KTA said in a statement.
Under KTA's rules the names of the buyers can be disclosed only after a sale contract is signed. There is no timeframe to close the deals.
The fifth privatisation wave list included 28 companies. No bids were placed for three of them - Hydrotechnika, Parcella and Makermal, KTA ( www.kta-kosovo.org ) said.
The highest price offer, 3.25 million euro ($3.93 million), was placed for the Pristina-based drug distributor Farmed.
"The government and the KTA board is committed to the privatisation process. We would like to keep up the momentum that the process has taken now to complete our goal to finish it with success," Bujar Dugolli, Kosovo's Minister of Trade and Industry and deputy chairman of KTA board, told a news conference after the opening of the offers.
Kosovo, a Serbian province of two million people, is legally part of the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro, which succeeded rump Yugoslavia in 2003. The province was put under U.N. administration in 1999 after NATO bombed Serbia aimed to halt repression of the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo by Belgrade.
($ = 0.8269 euro)
"KTA is now working to finalise all sale contracts," KTA said in a statement.
Under KTA's rules the names of the buyers can be disclosed only after a sale contract is signed. There is no timeframe to close the deals.
The fifth privatisation wave list included 28 companies. No bids were placed for three of them - Hydrotechnika, Parcella and Makermal, KTA ( www.kta-kosovo.org ) said.
The highest price offer, 3.25 million euro ($3.93 million), was placed for the Pristina-based drug distributor Farmed.
"The government and the KTA board is committed to the privatisation process. We would like to keep up the momentum that the process has taken now to complete our goal to finish it with success," Bujar Dugolli, Kosovo's Minister of Trade and Industry and deputy chairman of KTA board, told a news conference after the opening of the offers.
Kosovo, a Serbian province of two million people, is legally part of the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro, which succeeded rump Yugoslavia in 2003. The province was put under U.N. administration in 1999 after NATO bombed Serbia aimed to halt repression of the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo by Belgrade.
($ = 0.8269 euro)
Prostitution – a multiethnic business blooming in Mitrovica (Koha Ditore)
Koha Ditore reports on the front page that court cases in the divided town of Mitrovica give indications of ‘an organized multiethnic network’ dealing with trafficking of girls for prostitution purposes.
Earlier police operations in the northern part of the town resulted in finding a number of young girls, mainly from abroad, working in bars as ‘waitresses’, writes the paper.
The article quotes a report issued by the Center for Protection of Women saying that the number of local victims has increased throughout Kosovo.
Apart from the nightclubs, private flats and houses are also used thanks to ‘multiethnic cooperation’.
According to paper’s sources, a brothel in the northern part is a joint enterprise of a Serb nicknamed Tarzo and an Albanian nicknamed Elka.
Earlier police operations in the northern part of the town resulted in finding a number of young girls, mainly from abroad, working in bars as ‘waitresses’, writes the paper.
The article quotes a report issued by the Center for Protection of Women saying that the number of local victims has increased throughout Kosovo.
Apart from the nightclubs, private flats and houses are also used thanks to ‘multiethnic cooperation’.
According to paper’s sources, a brothel in the northern part is a joint enterprise of a Serb nicknamed Tarzo and an Albanian nicknamed Elka.
Demaçi: It will be worse than March 17 (Epoka e Re)
Epoka e Re reports that in an interview with Belgrade-based Blic daily newspaper, political analyst and human rights activist Adem Demaçi warned about a new wave of violence against Serbs in Kosovo.
‘The Albanian majority has realised that no one is interested in its demands. There is unemployment, crime and other kinds of dissatisfaction in Kosovo. Everyone is talking about decentralisation and the interests of 7 to 8 per cent of Serbs. The people are blinded and they think that Serbs are to blame, and not Belgrade and UNMIK,’ said Demaçi, adding that violence could also be channelled to corrupted Albanian leaders.
Demaçi said a new wave of violence could be launched against Kosovo Serbs, ‘in dimensions that would make one forget about 17 March 2004’. According to Demaçi, the only way to prevent the bloodshed is for Kosovo to be granted its independence.
Commenting on Demaçi’s predictions, a retired Serbian general Ninoslav Krstic told Blic that there is a risk that the situation could get out of control on the eve of status talks. Krstic also warned that cases of individual violence could turn into mass violence if not quickly prevented by KFOR troops.
‘The Albanian majority has realised that no one is interested in its demands. There is unemployment, crime and other kinds of dissatisfaction in Kosovo. Everyone is talking about decentralisation and the interests of 7 to 8 per cent of Serbs. The people are blinded and they think that Serbs are to blame, and not Belgrade and UNMIK,’ said Demaçi, adding that violence could also be channelled to corrupted Albanian leaders.
Demaçi said a new wave of violence could be launched against Kosovo Serbs, ‘in dimensions that would make one forget about 17 March 2004’. According to Demaçi, the only way to prevent the bloodshed is for Kosovo to be granted its independence.
Commenting on Demaçi’s predictions, a retired Serbian general Ninoslav Krstic told Blic that there is a risk that the situation could get out of control on the eve of status talks. Krstic also warned that cases of individual violence could turn into mass violence if not quickly prevented by KFOR troops.
Sami Lushtaku: Security in Kosovo (Koha Ditore)
Koha Ditore carries the speech that KPC General Sami Lushtaku gave to a seminar on future options for Kosovo held in Wildbald Kreuth, Germany.
Lushtaku said during his speech that everybody in Kosovo was aware of the international presence and they recognized UN SC Resolution 1244. However, delaying this presence without a clear vision about the future affected security in Kosovo. It affected Albanians, who only viewed one option as legitimate – Kosovo’s independence.
Lushtaku said Kosovo’s independence would definitely improve security situation.
Lushtaku said during his speech that everybody in Kosovo was aware of the international presence and they recognized UN SC Resolution 1244. However, delaying this presence without a clear vision about the future affected security in Kosovo. It affected Albanians, who only viewed one option as legitimate – Kosovo’s independence.
Lushtaku said Kosovo’s independence would definitely improve security situation.
Agron Bajrami: Special war (Koha Ditore)
In an editorial in Koha Ditore, Agron Bajrami comments on a press release issued by the Coordination Centre for Kosovo and broadcast by Tanjug news agency, which claimed that a well-organised campaign was underway in all of Kosovo to discredit and intimidate remaining Serbs in Kosovo. The CCK had claimed that even some Albanian media, namely Koha Ditore, were involved in this campaign. Bajrami calls this a planned fabrication to hurt Kosovo on the eve of the status process. Bajrami also criticizes UNMIK media monitoring for including this information in its reports.
“Covic’s Coordination Centre, broadcast by Serbian state agency Tanjug, has launched another planned lie to hurt Kosovo on the eve of the start of the status process.
The scandalous ‘news’, distributed even by UNMIK media monitoring says the following, a comprehensive well-organized action is underway throughout Kosovo, especially in the region of Pristina and Gjakova, aimed at discrediting and intimidating the respectable Serbs who have remained in the southern province, the CCK said in a statement, quoting reliable information. There are enormous posters on some buildings in Gjakova and Pristina with 650 Serb names claimed by instigators of the campaign to be murderers reads the statement. Some Albanian media have also been included in the campaign -- first of all Koha Ditore -- which asserts that Albanians will be arresting and trying these Serbs when UNMIK chief Søren Jessen-Petersen soon hands over the police and judiciary to them, reads the statement.
It is not news that the Serbian Government team, under Covic’s leadership and with support from Tanjug, issues disinformation about Kosovo.
Similarly, Serbian Government services have continuously targeted Koha Ditore. To believe the lies of alleged anti-Serb conspiracy in Kosovo, false quotations of Koha Ditore was important and often essential to the manipulations of Serbia since 1997.
The truth has always been irrelevant in this special war Serbia is waging. Belgrade’s propaganda experts have by now mastered manipulation of events and of the public by fabricating ‘facts’ and quoting nonexistent articles.
All of this, then, is neither a mistake nor negligence. It is calculated slander. It is an intentional incitation for conflict. It is part of Serbian official policy against Kosovo. It is a premeditated act of hostility, which is not surprising.
The episode with Covic’s Centre and the ‘news’ about Albanian ‘plans’ to use the pre-announced transfer of competencies of police and judiciary to arrest ‘respectable Serbs’, would not even be worthy of a commentary.
The lie was also included in UNMIK’s media monitoring reports. This report is disseminated to many international UNMIK officials as well as to several others, including in liaison offices and civilian and military international missions, to journalists worldwide who are interested in developments in Kosovo, to diplomats and human rights activists in the region, and it may even reach Kai Eide and the Contact Group.
A note to the editors of media monitoring in UNMIK, I hope that (unlike the articles on Serb crimes in Srebrenica or reports from Milosevic’s trial at The Hague) this article will be translated and included in your report because the people who were misinformed by Tanjug’s ‘news’ in your report deserve to know that this is intentional fabrication especially when UNMIK does not react to such misinformation.”
“Covic’s Coordination Centre, broadcast by Serbian state agency Tanjug, has launched another planned lie to hurt Kosovo on the eve of the start of the status process.
The scandalous ‘news’, distributed even by UNMIK media monitoring says the following, a comprehensive well-organized action is underway throughout Kosovo, especially in the region of Pristina and Gjakova, aimed at discrediting and intimidating the respectable Serbs who have remained in the southern province, the CCK said in a statement, quoting reliable information. There are enormous posters on some buildings in Gjakova and Pristina with 650 Serb names claimed by instigators of the campaign to be murderers reads the statement. Some Albanian media have also been included in the campaign -- first of all Koha Ditore -- which asserts that Albanians will be arresting and trying these Serbs when UNMIK chief Søren Jessen-Petersen soon hands over the police and judiciary to them, reads the statement.
It is not news that the Serbian Government team, under Covic’s leadership and with support from Tanjug, issues disinformation about Kosovo.
Similarly, Serbian Government services have continuously targeted Koha Ditore. To believe the lies of alleged anti-Serb conspiracy in Kosovo, false quotations of Koha Ditore was important and often essential to the manipulations of Serbia since 1997.
The truth has always been irrelevant in this special war Serbia is waging. Belgrade’s propaganda experts have by now mastered manipulation of events and of the public by fabricating ‘facts’ and quoting nonexistent articles.
All of this, then, is neither a mistake nor negligence. It is calculated slander. It is an intentional incitation for conflict. It is part of Serbian official policy against Kosovo. It is a premeditated act of hostility, which is not surprising.
The episode with Covic’s Centre and the ‘news’ about Albanian ‘plans’ to use the pre-announced transfer of competencies of police and judiciary to arrest ‘respectable Serbs’, would not even be worthy of a commentary.
The lie was also included in UNMIK’s media monitoring reports. This report is disseminated to many international UNMIK officials as well as to several others, including in liaison offices and civilian and military international missions, to journalists worldwide who are interested in developments in Kosovo, to diplomats and human rights activists in the region, and it may even reach Kai Eide and the Contact Group.
A note to the editors of media monitoring in UNMIK, I hope that (unlike the articles on Serb crimes in Srebrenica or reports from Milosevic’s trial at The Hague) this article will be translated and included in your report because the people who were misinformed by Tanjug’s ‘news’ in your report deserve to know that this is intentional fabrication especially when UNMIK does not react to such misinformation.”
Srebrenica, an Obligation Unfulfilled
Ten years ago, during the war in Bosnia, ethnic Serb forces murdered more than 7,000 men and boys in Srebrenica, almost every Muslim male in the city. That genocide stands as the worst atrocity against civilians in Europe since World War II, and as a tragic symbol of the inability of United Nations peacekeepers to protect civilian populations. A decade later, the two men with ultimate responsibility for the massacre remain free. And despite the parallel tragedy of Rwanda, the major powers that run the U.N. Security Council have yet to make peacekeeping operations more credible and effective.
The survivors of Srebrenica honored the anniversary of the massacre on Monday by burying 610 of their sons and brothers and fathers, the latest to have been identified through DNA tests of bones dug up from mass graves. So far, only 2,000 people have been identified and properly buried. As Muslim children dressed in white stood amid rows of coffins, Serb policemen stood by respectfully. The president of Serbia, Boris Tadic, attended the ceremony.
But shovels of dirt will not lay this infamy to rest. The men of Srebrenica were murdered after the world betrayed them in the bloody war that raged in Bosnia, a fragment of the former Yugoslavia. The ethnic Serbs who terrorized the Srebrenica region were bent on killing or driving away every Muslim Bosnian. United Nations commanders, knowing that a Serb assault on Srebrenica was imminent, rejected calls from local peacekeepers for airstrikes on Serb positions. The United Nations disarmed the people of the town and declared it a "safe area." But the 370 Dutch peacekeepers assigned there had only light weapons and orders to use them only in self-defense. The United Nations allowed Serb soldiers to round up the men and boys, and to take them away and kill them.
That same year, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the top political and military leaders of Bosnia's Serbs during the war, were indicted on charges of genocide by the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. But they remain free, hiding in different parts of the still-divided region. Even when NATO had 60,000 troops in Bosnia supposedly charged with arresting wanted men, the two Bosnian Serbs moved with relative impunity. NATO governments, principally Washington, did not want to risk their troops by trying to arrest either man.
Today, 7,000 European Union troops patrol Bosnia, apparently unable to find Mr. Karadzic, who is protected by his followers and is still a hero to many of his fellow Serbs. The European troops patrolling Bosnia must make Mr. Karadzic's capture their top priority, and international pressure to arrest Mr. Mladic must increase on neighboring Serbia, where he has taken refuge and finds great sympathy among members of the army.
In the Serb Republic carved out of Bosnia, Mr. Karadzic is still perhaps the most powerful figure in the ruling party. He runs a smuggling network that controls patronage for thousands. As long as Mr. Karadzic is in control, reconciliation among Serbs, Croats and Muslims in Bosnia is a far-off dream. Capturing Mr. Karadzic and Mr. Mladic is not just a way to keep faith with the dead - it is the only way to move these regions into the modern world.
The survivors of Srebrenica honored the anniversary of the massacre on Monday by burying 610 of their sons and brothers and fathers, the latest to have been identified through DNA tests of bones dug up from mass graves. So far, only 2,000 people have been identified and properly buried. As Muslim children dressed in white stood amid rows of coffins, Serb policemen stood by respectfully. The president of Serbia, Boris Tadic, attended the ceremony.
But shovels of dirt will not lay this infamy to rest. The men of Srebrenica were murdered after the world betrayed them in the bloody war that raged in Bosnia, a fragment of the former Yugoslavia. The ethnic Serbs who terrorized the Srebrenica region were bent on killing or driving away every Muslim Bosnian. United Nations commanders, knowing that a Serb assault on Srebrenica was imminent, rejected calls from local peacekeepers for airstrikes on Serb positions. The United Nations disarmed the people of the town and declared it a "safe area." But the 370 Dutch peacekeepers assigned there had only light weapons and orders to use them only in self-defense. The United Nations allowed Serb soldiers to round up the men and boys, and to take them away and kill them.
That same year, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the top political and military leaders of Bosnia's Serbs during the war, were indicted on charges of genocide by the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. But they remain free, hiding in different parts of the still-divided region. Even when NATO had 60,000 troops in Bosnia supposedly charged with arresting wanted men, the two Bosnian Serbs moved with relative impunity. NATO governments, principally Washington, did not want to risk their troops by trying to arrest either man.
Today, 7,000 European Union troops patrol Bosnia, apparently unable to find Mr. Karadzic, who is protected by his followers and is still a hero to many of his fellow Serbs. The European troops patrolling Bosnia must make Mr. Karadzic's capture their top priority, and international pressure to arrest Mr. Mladic must increase on neighboring Serbia, where he has taken refuge and finds great sympathy among members of the army.
In the Serb Republic carved out of Bosnia, Mr. Karadzic is still perhaps the most powerful figure in the ruling party. He runs a smuggling network that controls patronage for thousands. As long as Mr. Karadzic is in control, reconciliation among Serbs, Croats and Muslims in Bosnia is a far-off dream. Capturing Mr. Karadzic and Mr. Mladic is not just a way to keep faith with the dead - it is the only way to move these regions into the modern world.
KFOR: There will be no exercises with Serb Army in Kosovo
‘It has never been planned that KFOR and the Army of Serbia and Montenegro would have joint exercises in Kosovo’s territory. There have been some speculations spread but there is no truth in it’, is the response of KFOR-s spokespersons, Charles de Kersabiec to concerns of the people about the ‘return’ of Serb army.
Last week’s joint exercises were held within territory of Serbia and had medical purposes, the KFOR official clarified, according to Zëri.
Last week’s joint exercises were held within territory of Serbia and had medical purposes, the KFOR official clarified, according to Zëri.
Kosumi: Germany and other key European countries are looking at possibilities how to achieve Kosovo’s independence
All dailies highlight that the Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi has come back from Germany with the hope that this country could recognize Kosovo’s independence.
‘Independence from Germany’, is headline in Express. Germany making steps towards Kosovo’s independence is Koha Ditore’s lead headlined. Koha Ditore reports that PM Kosumi comes back happy from Germany. ‘Yes, yes. I think that not only Germany, but other key European countries too are looking into possibility how to achieve Kosovo’s independence’, Kosumi said according to the paper.
‘Independence from Germany’, is headline in Express. Germany making steps towards Kosovo’s independence is Koha Ditore’s lead headlined. Koha Ditore reports that PM Kosumi comes back happy from Germany. ‘Yes, yes. I think that not only Germany, but other key European countries too are looking into possibility how to achieve Kosovo’s independence’, Kosumi said according to the paper.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Thaçi: 1244 is not a Bible or Koran, it can be changed
In reaction to the recent statement of Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Aleksandar Aleksijev that UN SCR 1244 represent a word of God, PDK leader Hashim Thaçi said that everyone is convinced things are changing in Kosovo and this means ‘the resolution should be changed as well’. He also said UN SCR 1244 shows that transition process has been successfully overcome and that the ‘perspective for solving the final status of Kosovo is now opened’. Thaçi made these remarks after meeting head of Russian Office in Pristina, Sergey Bazdnikin.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
We can live together, Ministers tell Serb hosts
Dailies report that the Kosovo Government officials are planning to spend two months visiting Serb areas to promote better communication between ethnic communities.
The programme is an effort by the Ministry of Local Government, which is a coordinator of the third and the fourth Standards dealing with the ‘freedom of movement’ and ‘sustainable returns’.
‘The visits aim to create an environment that promotes tolerance, respect for diversity, freedom of movement, human rights, property rights and is a call for the integration and employment of minorities,’ reads a Government programme.
Kosovo Government leaders will be split in three groups; each comprising four ministers, who will visit different regions inhabited by Serbs.
The programme is an effort by the Ministry of Local Government, which is a coordinator of the third and the fourth Standards dealing with the ‘freedom of movement’ and ‘sustainable returns’.
‘The visits aim to create an environment that promotes tolerance, respect for diversity, freedom of movement, human rights, property rights and is a call for the integration and employment of minorities,’ reads a Government programme.
Kosovo Government leaders will be split in three groups; each comprising four ministers, who will visit different regions inhabited by Serbs.
Kai Eide’s review mission enters a new stage
According to Koha Ditore, UN Special Envoy for the assessment of Standard implementation Kai Eide said in Belgrade that ‘now we need to enter a new stage in our mission, in which we need to systematically deal with key problems we are facing in Kosovo’.
Kai Eide and Foreign Minister of Serbia and Montenegro Vuk Draskovic agreed on Monday that it was necessary to defend the rights of Serbs in Kosovo, but Serbs must also participate in the work of Kosovo institutions.
During his stay in Belgrade, Eide also met with PM Kostunica and was scheduled to meet President Tadic today.
Eide said that he went to Belgrade to listen to the stances of authorities there on the issues that needed to be addressed. In this regard, he mentioned decentralization and participation of Kosovo Serbs in processes in Kosovo.
Following meetings in Pristina and Belgrade, Eide is going to visit international organizations involved in Kosovo; OSCE, NATO, EU and the Council of Europe. Afterwards he will consult with Contact Group representatives and around the end of July he will travel to UN HQ in New York. He will be back to Kosovo and Belgrade around mid-July to start work on the report.
Kai Eide and Foreign Minister of Serbia and Montenegro Vuk Draskovic agreed on Monday that it was necessary to defend the rights of Serbs in Kosovo, but Serbs must also participate in the work of Kosovo institutions.
During his stay in Belgrade, Eide also met with PM Kostunica and was scheduled to meet President Tadic today.
Eide said that he went to Belgrade to listen to the stances of authorities there on the issues that needed to be addressed. In this regard, he mentioned decentralization and participation of Kosovo Serbs in processes in Kosovo.
Following meetings in Pristina and Belgrade, Eide is going to visit international organizations involved in Kosovo; OSCE, NATO, EU and the Council of Europe. Afterwards he will consult with Contact Group representatives and around the end of July he will travel to UN HQ in New York. He will be back to Kosovo and Belgrade around mid-July to start work on the report.
Kosovo Jan-April Trade Gap Widens by 10.7% Y/Y- Table
PRISTINA (Kosovo), July 12 (SeeNews) - The trade balance of the U.N.-run province of Kosovo showed a deficit of 308.6 million euro ($372.54 million) through April, up from 275.3 million euro in the same four-month period of 2004, the Kosovo Statistics Office said on Tuesday.
KOSOVO JAN-APRIL TRADE BALANCE (in millions of euro)
................Jan-April'05......y/y pct change.....April'05…….April'04
Exports.........14.1.............+4.4........................4.1...............4.3
Imports.......322.7............+3.9.....................100................87.87
Balance......-308.6............+10.7....................-95.9...........-83.5
NOTE: Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since 1999.
($=0.8284 euro)
KOSOVO JAN-APRIL TRADE BALANCE (in millions of euro)
................Jan-April'05......y/y pct change.....April'05…….April'04
Exports.........14.1.............+4.4........................4.1...............4.3
Imports.......322.7............+3.9.....................100................87.87
Balance......-308.6............+10.7....................-95.9...........-83.5
NOTE: Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since 1999.
($=0.8284 euro)
So long +381 (Express)
Express cites sources as saying that the ITU has agreed to allocate a telephone international code for Kosovo and that the new code will be 988. The paper writes that UNMIK and PTK do not know anything about this.
PM Bajram Kosumi to meet German FM Joschka Fischer
Zëri reports that Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi has said that the main topics he will discuss with Fischer are; the status of Kosovo, German investments in Kosovo and the repatriation of Kosovar asylum seekers.
Kosumi will hold a lecture at the German Foundation for Science and Politics in front of German experts and analysts for Southeastern Europe.
Kosumi will hold a lecture at the German Foundation for Science and Politics in front of German experts and analysts for Southeastern Europe.
Jessen-Petersen: Kosovo status talks should not last long
Zëri carries an interview SRSG Jessen-Petersen gave to Swiss daily ‘Tages-Anzeiger’.
SRSG said during the interview that most of the Contact Group countries agree that negotiations for solving the Kosovo’s status should not drag for a long time. Therefore, the era of UNMIK will end in 24 months to come, said Jessen-Petersen.
SRSG said during the interview that most of the Contact Group countries agree that negotiations for solving the Kosovo’s status should not drag for a long time. Therefore, the era of UNMIK will end in 24 months to come, said Jessen-Petersen.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Past finally catches up with Serb slaughterers
Sometimes diplomats can be very stupid. For the past few weeks, British diplomats in the Balkans pushed the notion that Monday's commemoration of the massacre of 8000 Muslim men and boys by Serbian and Bosnian Serb troops at Srebrenica 10 years ago was an ideal opportunity for everybody there - including Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian Muslim leaders - to make a joint declaration of "reconciliation and apology".
To their surprise, the victims didn't think this was such a good idea.
What happened at Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, was an act of genocide carried out with meticulous attention to detail by Serbian and Bosnian Serb troops after the Dutch military force that was supposed to defend the United Nations-declared "safe area" delivered almost the entire Muslim population of the town into their hands without a fight. Neither Muslims nor Croatians had any reason to apologise for the horrors at Srebrenica.
It is the Serbs and the Dutch who need to apologise - but most Serbs are still in deep denial.
In recent weeks, the Serbian Parliament in Belgrade and the Serbian caucus in the Bosnian Parliament have refused to adopt or vote down proposed declarations that would have denounced the Srebrenica massacre. Somebody even planted two powerful bombs near the memorial centre in Srebrenica, although they were discovered and disarmed.
Reformist Serbian President Boris Tadic insisted on showing up for the ceremony, but his presence was condemned equally by Muslim survivors and by fellow Serbs.
Forgiveness and reconciliation must happen one day, but it cannot even get on the agenda while the chief organisers of the Srebrenica genocide - former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief, General Ratko Mladic - are still free and still seen as heroes by many other Serbs.
Both men have been on the run since Nato forces imposed a ceasefire and a kind of UN trusteeship in Bosnia in 1995, but they moved freely around Serbia until their patron, Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, was overthrown and delivered into the hands of the UN in 2001. Even now, they are hidden by many willing Serbs.
Although they were both indicted for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague 10 years ago, they have thumbed their noses at international law for a decade because Nato troops either couldn't find them or didn't try to break through their rings of bodyguards and arrest them because the casualties would be too high.
Now, however, the tectonic plates are finally beginning to shift in the geographical space that used to be Yugoslavia - now splintered into Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo - because the European Union has finally started to use its leverage.
It is more carrot than stick. The real inducement for these countries to turn themselves into law-abiding democracies is that they have been led to believe that they might then qualify for EU membership, with all the prosperity and security that that would bring.
But law-abiding democracies hand over indicted war criminals to international courts when asked, so suddenly the mass murderers who carried out atrocious acts of "ethnic cleansing" become a liability for the governments that had been protecting them as war heroes.
In 1998, five years after the war crimes tribunal was set up, the detention centre in The Hague held only five prisoners. Now there are 62, including a former president, a former prime minister, a former defence minister and a former interior minister. Eighteen more are on bail pending trial and 56 others have been convicted and moved to other prisons to serve their sentences.
"This is without doubt the most active and productive period in the life of the tribunal thus far," Judge Theodor Meron, president of the tribunal, told the UN Security Council last month.
Twenty men, some of them very senior officials, have surrendered to the tribunal in the past six months, cutting the list of those still wanted to only 10. The missing 10 include all three of the biggest fish - Karadzic, Mladic and Croatian General Ante Gotovina - but even they may soon be arriving in The Hague.
The EU's refusal to continue with Croatia's entrance negotiations has transformed Zagreb's willingness to co-operate with the tribunal. Its refusal even to open talks with Serbia-Montenegro until Belgrade stops stalling has had a similar result.
In April, General Nebojsa Pavkovic, former head of the Serbian army, surrendered in The Hague. There is suspicion that his and other waves of "surrenders" were eased by cash payments by the Serbian Government to the families of the indicted men - but the point is that it is happening.
There is even hope that Karadzic and Mladic may soon be delivered to the tribunal. Last week, Karadzic's son Aleksandar was arrested by Nato troops in Pale, his father's former capital, and taken away for questioning.
Nothing will bring the victims of the genocide back to life, but the hunt is closing in on the killers.
* Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.
To their surprise, the victims didn't think this was such a good idea.
What happened at Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, was an act of genocide carried out with meticulous attention to detail by Serbian and Bosnian Serb troops after the Dutch military force that was supposed to defend the United Nations-declared "safe area" delivered almost the entire Muslim population of the town into their hands without a fight. Neither Muslims nor Croatians had any reason to apologise for the horrors at Srebrenica.
It is the Serbs and the Dutch who need to apologise - but most Serbs are still in deep denial.
In recent weeks, the Serbian Parliament in Belgrade and the Serbian caucus in the Bosnian Parliament have refused to adopt or vote down proposed declarations that would have denounced the Srebrenica massacre. Somebody even planted two powerful bombs near the memorial centre in Srebrenica, although they were discovered and disarmed.
Reformist Serbian President Boris Tadic insisted on showing up for the ceremony, but his presence was condemned equally by Muslim survivors and by fellow Serbs.
Forgiveness and reconciliation must happen one day, but it cannot even get on the agenda while the chief organisers of the Srebrenica genocide - former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief, General Ratko Mladic - are still free and still seen as heroes by many other Serbs.
Both men have been on the run since Nato forces imposed a ceasefire and a kind of UN trusteeship in Bosnia in 1995, but they moved freely around Serbia until their patron, Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, was overthrown and delivered into the hands of the UN in 2001. Even now, they are hidden by many willing Serbs.
Although they were both indicted for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague 10 years ago, they have thumbed their noses at international law for a decade because Nato troops either couldn't find them or didn't try to break through their rings of bodyguards and arrest them because the casualties would be too high.
Now, however, the tectonic plates are finally beginning to shift in the geographical space that used to be Yugoslavia - now splintered into Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo - because the European Union has finally started to use its leverage.
It is more carrot than stick. The real inducement for these countries to turn themselves into law-abiding democracies is that they have been led to believe that they might then qualify for EU membership, with all the prosperity and security that that would bring.
But law-abiding democracies hand over indicted war criminals to international courts when asked, so suddenly the mass murderers who carried out atrocious acts of "ethnic cleansing" become a liability for the governments that had been protecting them as war heroes.
In 1998, five years after the war crimes tribunal was set up, the detention centre in The Hague held only five prisoners. Now there are 62, including a former president, a former prime minister, a former defence minister and a former interior minister. Eighteen more are on bail pending trial and 56 others have been convicted and moved to other prisons to serve their sentences.
"This is without doubt the most active and productive period in the life of the tribunal thus far," Judge Theodor Meron, president of the tribunal, told the UN Security Council last month.
Twenty men, some of them very senior officials, have surrendered to the tribunal in the past six months, cutting the list of those still wanted to only 10. The missing 10 include all three of the biggest fish - Karadzic, Mladic and Croatian General Ante Gotovina - but even they may soon be arriving in The Hague.
The EU's refusal to continue with Croatia's entrance negotiations has transformed Zagreb's willingness to co-operate with the tribunal. Its refusal even to open talks with Serbia-Montenegro until Belgrade stops stalling has had a similar result.
In April, General Nebojsa Pavkovic, former head of the Serbian army, surrendered in The Hague. There is suspicion that his and other waves of "surrenders" were eased by cash payments by the Serbian Government to the families of the indicted men - but the point is that it is happening.
There is even hope that Karadzic and Mladic may soon be delivered to the tribunal. Last week, Karadzic's son Aleksandar was arrested by Nato troops in Pale, his father's former capital, and taken away for questioning.
Nothing will bring the victims of the genocide back to life, but the hunt is closing in on the killers.
* Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.
Thousands Mark Srebrenica Massacre Date - The Washington Post
By SAMIR KRILIC
The Associated Press
Monday, July 11, 2005; 10:07 AM
SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- World leaders joined 50,000 people Monday to remember the victims of Europe's worst massacre since World War II _ the death of nearly 8,000 Muslims 10 years ago when Serbs overran the U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica.
The sound of Muslim prayer echoed through a loudspeaker as relatives wandered among 610 caskets containing newly identified remains. The remains were buried alongside other victims in the cemetery that is part of the Memorial Center in Srebrenica.
A Bosnian Muslim woman walks at Potocari cemetery, outside Srebrenica on the 10th anniversary of Srebrenica massacre, Monday July 11, 2005. Nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed toward the end of Bosnia's 1992-95 war when Bosnian Serbs troops overran the eastern Bosnian enclave.(AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) (Darko Vojinovic - AP)
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Fatima Budic huddled over the coffin of her son, alone in her grief.
"They killed my entire life and the only thing I want now is to see the guilty ones pay for it," sobbed Budic, next to the coffin of her 14-year-old son, Velija. Budic's husband and Velija's 16-year-old brother have never been found.
Government leaders and dignitaries were among the crowd gathered to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the killings that began July 11, 2005, when Bosnian Serb soldiers overran Srebrenica _ a U.N. "safe zone." Outmanned and outgunned Dutch U.N. troops watched. The males were led off and slaughtered, and their bodies dumped in mass graves throughout eastern Bosnia.
Forensics experts have exhumed more than 5,000 bodies, and identified 2,032 through DNA analysis and other techniques. More than 1,300 Srebrenica victims are already buried at the cemetery that is part of the memorial center. In all, nearly 8,000 were killed.
While the slaughter spurred the NATO bombings of Serb positions across Bosnia that forced the Serbs to seek peace, government leaders and their representatives on Monday acknowledged the world's failure to stop the killing _ and expressed regrets in deeply personal terms.
"It is to the shame of the international community that this evil took place under our noses and we did nothing," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "I bitterly regret this and I'm deeply sorry for it."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed "solidarity" with the relatives in a message read out at the ceremonies and drew parallels between the ethnic intolerance that spurred the Bosnian war and the terrorist bombings in London on Thursday.
"The bombers seek to provoke hatred between religions and cultures," he said. "It is our duty to humanity to ensure they never succeed."
Paddy Ashdown, Bosnia's international administrator, described Srebrenica as the "worst crime to take place in Europe in the latter part of the 20th century" _ and the international community's failure to stop as "our greatest shame."
He and other officials viewed a nearby mass grave containing the jumbled bones of some 30 victims.
Outside, families of the dead hoisted a huge banner that read: "Europe's shame _ genocide."
The Srebrenica victims were among some 250,000 people killed in the 1992-95 war among Bosnian Muslims, Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs. About 16,500 bodies have been exhumed from more than 300 mass graves.
The alleged masterminds of the July 11, 1995, massacre _ Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic _ have been indicted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for genocide and crimes against humanity. Both are still at large.
Serbian President Boris Tadic attended the service _ a significant gesture given Serbia's backing of the Bosnian Serbs during the war under former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Ahead of Monday's ceremony, Tadic said he would come to "pay tribute to the innocent victims of the crime committed there."
"It is necessary to establish full trust and cooperation in the region," he said. "We have to break the circle of evil on the Balkans."
The Associated Press
Monday, July 11, 2005; 10:07 AM
SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- World leaders joined 50,000 people Monday to remember the victims of Europe's worst massacre since World War II _ the death of nearly 8,000 Muslims 10 years ago when Serbs overran the U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica.
The sound of Muslim prayer echoed through a loudspeaker as relatives wandered among 610 caskets containing newly identified remains. The remains were buried alongside other victims in the cemetery that is part of the Memorial Center in Srebrenica.
A Bosnian Muslim woman walks at Potocari cemetery, outside Srebrenica on the 10th anniversary of Srebrenica massacre, Monday July 11, 2005. Nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed toward the end of Bosnia's 1992-95 war when Bosnian Serbs troops overran the eastern Bosnian enclave.(AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) (Darko Vojinovic - AP)
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Fatima Budic huddled over the coffin of her son, alone in her grief.
"They killed my entire life and the only thing I want now is to see the guilty ones pay for it," sobbed Budic, next to the coffin of her 14-year-old son, Velija. Budic's husband and Velija's 16-year-old brother have never been found.
Government leaders and dignitaries were among the crowd gathered to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the killings that began July 11, 2005, when Bosnian Serb soldiers overran Srebrenica _ a U.N. "safe zone." Outmanned and outgunned Dutch U.N. troops watched. The males were led off and slaughtered, and their bodies dumped in mass graves throughout eastern Bosnia.
Forensics experts have exhumed more than 5,000 bodies, and identified 2,032 through DNA analysis and other techniques. More than 1,300 Srebrenica victims are already buried at the cemetery that is part of the memorial center. In all, nearly 8,000 were killed.
While the slaughter spurred the NATO bombings of Serb positions across Bosnia that forced the Serbs to seek peace, government leaders and their representatives on Monday acknowledged the world's failure to stop the killing _ and expressed regrets in deeply personal terms.
"It is to the shame of the international community that this evil took place under our noses and we did nothing," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "I bitterly regret this and I'm deeply sorry for it."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed "solidarity" with the relatives in a message read out at the ceremonies and drew parallels between the ethnic intolerance that spurred the Bosnian war and the terrorist bombings in London on Thursday.
"The bombers seek to provoke hatred between religions and cultures," he said. "It is our duty to humanity to ensure they never succeed."
Paddy Ashdown, Bosnia's international administrator, described Srebrenica as the "worst crime to take place in Europe in the latter part of the 20th century" _ and the international community's failure to stop as "our greatest shame."
He and other officials viewed a nearby mass grave containing the jumbled bones of some 30 victims.
Outside, families of the dead hoisted a huge banner that read: "Europe's shame _ genocide."
The Srebrenica victims were among some 250,000 people killed in the 1992-95 war among Bosnian Muslims, Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs. About 16,500 bodies have been exhumed from more than 300 mass graves.
The alleged masterminds of the July 11, 1995, massacre _ Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic _ have been indicted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for genocide and crimes against humanity. Both are still at large.
Serbian President Boris Tadic attended the service _ a significant gesture given Serbia's backing of the Bosnian Serbs during the war under former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Ahead of Monday's ceremony, Tadic said he would come to "pay tribute to the innocent victims of the crime committed there."
"It is necessary to establish full trust and cooperation in the region," he said. "We have to break the circle of evil on the Balkans."
Fugitives in Bosnia - The International Herald Tribune
The Boston Globe
TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2005
On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs massacred more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica, which was under UN protection as a safe haven. The failure of Dutch soldiers in a UN peacekeeping contingent to protect the victims left a stain on the reputation of the United Nations. What has become yet more of a humiliation for the international community is the failure, after a decade, to arrest the two men responsible for the slaughter and deliver them to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where they stand accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The troops doing the killing were led by General Ratko Mladic, acting under orders from the Bosnian Serb government headed by Radovan Karadzic. As long as Mladic and Karadzic remain at large, genocidal killers elsewhere - like members of the Sudanese government behind the continuing genocide in Darfur - may assume that they, too, can expect impunity. Muslims around the world will be tempted to regard the two fugitives as evidence that the West is not serious about enforcing a universal standard for the punishment of crimes against humanity, particularly when the victims are Muslim.
Within Bosnia, signs that influential military and civilian Serbs are still able to shelter Mladic and Karadzic stir deep fears among Muslims. Only 3,000 of 29,000 uprooted Muslims from Srebrenica have returned to their homes, and the refugees are said to fear a repetition of what happened 10 years ago.
Postponement of a trial for the indicted fugitives also threatens to become a thwarting of justice, since the tribunal is not empowered to bring prosecutions after 2008.
There are heartening signs that time may be running out for Mladic and Karadzic. A video shown recently on Serb TV of Mladic at the scene of cold-blooded executions in Srebrenica has brought home to some Bosnian Serbs the justification for the indictments in The Hague. A petition sponsored by Physicians for Human Rights and others has called for the immediate arrest of Mladic and Karadzic. And there have been parallel resolutions in the U.S. House and Senate as well as mounting pressure on the Bosnian Serb authorities from the European Union.
That pressure must be sustained. Prevention of future genocide requires punishment for the perpetrators of past genocides.
TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2005
On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs massacred more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica, which was under UN protection as a safe haven. The failure of Dutch soldiers in a UN peacekeeping contingent to protect the victims left a stain on the reputation of the United Nations. What has become yet more of a humiliation for the international community is the failure, after a decade, to arrest the two men responsible for the slaughter and deliver them to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where they stand accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The troops doing the killing were led by General Ratko Mladic, acting under orders from the Bosnian Serb government headed by Radovan Karadzic. As long as Mladic and Karadzic remain at large, genocidal killers elsewhere - like members of the Sudanese government behind the continuing genocide in Darfur - may assume that they, too, can expect impunity. Muslims around the world will be tempted to regard the two fugitives as evidence that the West is not serious about enforcing a universal standard for the punishment of crimes against humanity, particularly when the victims are Muslim.
Within Bosnia, signs that influential military and civilian Serbs are still able to shelter Mladic and Karadzic stir deep fears among Muslims. Only 3,000 of 29,000 uprooted Muslims from Srebrenica have returned to their homes, and the refugees are said to fear a repetition of what happened 10 years ago.
Postponement of a trial for the indicted fugitives also threatens to become a thwarting of justice, since the tribunal is not empowered to bring prosecutions after 2008.
There are heartening signs that time may be running out for Mladic and Karadzic. A video shown recently on Serb TV of Mladic at the scene of cold-blooded executions in Srebrenica has brought home to some Bosnian Serbs the justification for the indictments in The Hague. A petition sponsored by Physicians for Human Rights and others has called for the immediate arrest of Mladic and Karadzic. And there have been parallel resolutions in the U.S. House and Senate as well as mounting pressure on the Bosnian Serb authorities from the European Union.
That pressure must be sustained. Prevention of future genocide requires punishment for the perpetrators of past genocides.
Bosnian grief, Western regret at Srebrenica
Bosnia: Explosives Found
Top News
Hurricane Dennis heads north after hammering coast
No quick breaks expected in bomb probe -UK
Iraqi soldiers killed in checkpoint battle
MORE
By Daria Sito-Sucic and Maja Zuvela
SREBRENICA, Bosnia (Reuters) - Families grieved over the skeletal remains of Srebrenica victims on Monday at the 10th anniversary of the massacre, as the West acknowledged its failure to prevent Europe's worst atrocity in 50 years.
Women in white headscarves wept and touched some of the 610 green-draped coffins lined up under a gray sky at the Potocari cemetery, now a muddy field after an overnight storm.
The dead had lain for years in hidden pits where they were flung by Bosnian Serb troops in July 1995 after the systematic slaughter of 8,000 unarmed Muslim men and boys taken from what was supposed to be a U.N.-protected "safe area."
Identified by DNA analysis, their bones came home for burial in narrow, cylindrical boxes tagged with a number and a name.
"Srebrenica was the failure of NATO, of the West, of peacekeeping and of the United Nations. It was the tragedy that should never be allowed to happen again," said former U.S. Balkans envoy Richard Holbrooke.
A message from U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan repeated that Srebrenica would haunt the world body forever. Some 400 lightly armed Dutch troops guarding Srebrenica's Muslims were swept aside by Bosnia Serb forces while the U.N. rejected appeals for air strikes by NATO to halt their advance.
"The victims had put their trust in international protection. But we, the international community, let them down," said a message from European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "This was a colossal, collective and shameful failure."
MORE AWAIT BURIAL
"The truth cannot be forgotten, it cannot be denied. The evil must be spoken about for the evil not to be forgotten," said Mustafa efendi Ceric, Bosnia's chief Islamic priest.
But the evidence of massacre has little impact on hardline Serbs who insist any killing was simply a hard fact of war or a justifiable act of revenge, or who deny the massacre outright.
Serbia's President Boris Tadic attended the memorial, although some Muslims said they do not welcome him and Serb nationalists objected, saying he should come to their rival memorials for Serb war dead this week. A choir sang the mournful "Srebrenica Inferno" as families walked the rows of freshly dug graves looking for the final resting place of their fathers, husbands and sons. Tens of thousands turned to Mecca and knelt for prayers.
"Our pain continues, every year we come to bury someone else," said Hajrija Mujic, who was burying her father-in-law. Her husband's remains were identified too late for burial today.
The massacre, in the final months of a 43-month war that claimed 200,000 lives, aimed to ensure there were no Muslims to fight back or reclaim Serb-occupied land or homes in the future.
Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic and his political master Radovan Karadzic are indicted for genocide for the atrocity. To the anger of Bosnians and the embarrassment of Western powers who intervened belatedly, both remain at large.
"The failure to arrest them is a great failure which we all regret. They must be caught," said Holbrooke.
Srebrenica today is a dismal, half-empty town in the "Republika Srpska," or Serb Republic half of Bosnia, which last year had to be coerced into acknowledging the massacre. The only visitors come to tend to the graves at the Potocari cemetery.
Monday's funerals will raise the number of identified and buried Srebrenica victims to about 2,000. There are 7,000 more body bags with partial remains still awaiting identification and 20 more mass graves awaiting excavation.
Top News
Hurricane Dennis heads north after hammering coast
No quick breaks expected in bomb probe -UK
Iraqi soldiers killed in checkpoint battle
MORE
By Daria Sito-Sucic and Maja Zuvela
SREBRENICA, Bosnia (Reuters) - Families grieved over the skeletal remains of Srebrenica victims on Monday at the 10th anniversary of the massacre, as the West acknowledged its failure to prevent Europe's worst atrocity in 50 years.
Women in white headscarves wept and touched some of the 610 green-draped coffins lined up under a gray sky at the Potocari cemetery, now a muddy field after an overnight storm.
The dead had lain for years in hidden pits where they were flung by Bosnian Serb troops in July 1995 after the systematic slaughter of 8,000 unarmed Muslim men and boys taken from what was supposed to be a U.N.-protected "safe area."
Identified by DNA analysis, their bones came home for burial in narrow, cylindrical boxes tagged with a number and a name.
"Srebrenica was the failure of NATO, of the West, of peacekeeping and of the United Nations. It was the tragedy that should never be allowed to happen again," said former U.S. Balkans envoy Richard Holbrooke.
A message from U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan repeated that Srebrenica would haunt the world body forever. Some 400 lightly armed Dutch troops guarding Srebrenica's Muslims were swept aside by Bosnia Serb forces while the U.N. rejected appeals for air strikes by NATO to halt their advance.
"The victims had put their trust in international protection. But we, the international community, let them down," said a message from European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "This was a colossal, collective and shameful failure."
MORE AWAIT BURIAL
"The truth cannot be forgotten, it cannot be denied. The evil must be spoken about for the evil not to be forgotten," said Mustafa efendi Ceric, Bosnia's chief Islamic priest.
But the evidence of massacre has little impact on hardline Serbs who insist any killing was simply a hard fact of war or a justifiable act of revenge, or who deny the massacre outright.
Serbia's President Boris Tadic attended the memorial, although some Muslims said they do not welcome him and Serb nationalists objected, saying he should come to their rival memorials for Serb war dead this week. A choir sang the mournful "Srebrenica Inferno" as families walked the rows of freshly dug graves looking for the final resting place of their fathers, husbands and sons. Tens of thousands turned to Mecca and knelt for prayers.
"Our pain continues, every year we come to bury someone else," said Hajrija Mujic, who was burying her father-in-law. Her husband's remains were identified too late for burial today.
The massacre, in the final months of a 43-month war that claimed 200,000 lives, aimed to ensure there were no Muslims to fight back or reclaim Serb-occupied land or homes in the future.
Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic and his political master Radovan Karadzic are indicted for genocide for the atrocity. To the anger of Bosnians and the embarrassment of Western powers who intervened belatedly, both remain at large.
"The failure to arrest them is a great failure which we all regret. They must be caught," said Holbrooke.
Srebrenica today is a dismal, half-empty town in the "Republika Srpska," or Serb Republic half of Bosnia, which last year had to be coerced into acknowledging the massacre. The only visitors come to tend to the graves at the Potocari cemetery.
Monday's funerals will raise the number of identified and buried Srebrenica victims to about 2,000. There are 7,000 more body bags with partial remains still awaiting identification and 20 more mass graves awaiting excavation.
Bosnian Muslims Retrace Final Day of '95 Victims - The New York Times
KONJEVIC POLJE, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 10 -About 500 Bosnian Muslim men set out on foot at 7:30 a.m. Sunday from this quiet farming village in eastern Bosnia on the third and final day of their re-enactment of the "march of death" a decade ago this week.
Enlarge This Image
Andrew Testa for The New York Times
A young Bosnian boy prayed over one of nearly 600 coffins stored at a battery factory for burial Monday, 10 years after the Srebrenica massacre.
Bearing Bosnian and Bosnian-Muslim flags, the men completed their solemn retracing of the route taken by an estimated 15,000 Muslim men during the war in Bosnia. They had fled the town of Srebrenica in panic in July 1995, after lightly armed United Nations peacekeepers failed to protect them from advancing Serb forces. The Serbs killed more than 7,000 of the fleeing Muslims in ambushes and mass executions that war crime judges later declared genocide.
On Sunday, the column of Muslims marching through the woods here were again surrounded by hundreds of armed Serbs, but on this day the Serbs were police officers assigned to protect the marchers.
Zoran Rosuljas, a Serb policeman who shook hands with one of the marchers along the route, said it was "no problem" guarding Muslims 10 years after the three-year war that killed more than 200,000 people. Asked if he felt comfortable with his former enemies, he swiftly responded. "Why not?" he said. "Why not?"
That handshake was just one of curious scenes on the final day of the 40-mile march to protest the failure to arrest the two Serbian leaders indicted on charges of genocide in the killings, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. As many as 50,000 people are expected to attend ceremonies on Monday marking the 10th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica. The bodies of 610 men exhumed from mass graves and identified through DNA testing will be laid to rest.
As they began their final leg Sunday morning - actually a reverse tracing of the original march, to end in Srebrenica - the men first passed through the village of Nova Kasaba, the site of two mass graves dug by Serb soldiers. Beginning in 2001, Muslim families moved back into this area under the protection of American military forces that patrolled this part of Bosnia until 2004.
Mehmet Muharemovic, 50, a farmer in the village, said he had encountered no problems with local Serbs or Serb police. Asked about a chicken coop that had been built on top of one of the mass graves after it was exhumed, he said it belonged to another returning Muslim farmer. "It's no problem," he said, with a shrug, a cigarette dangling from his lips. "Everyone lost someone. What can you do about it?"
As the men made their way up dirt roads and mountain paths that, a decade ago, were filled with thousands of panicked Muslims, they spoke calmly. Ali Hodzic Naziv, the man who shook hands with the Serb policeman, said he was marching in memory of his two teenage sons, who disappeared somewhere in these forests.
Mr. Naziv, 53, a burly man who was evacuated from Srebrenica for medical treatment after he was shot in the left leg in 1993, was in pain after two days of walking. But he said it would make him feel better to see the route his sons, who stayed behind, took during their final hours.
"I have to hold on for my sons," he said as he struggled up a muddy path. "I will make it, if God lets me."
Amir Halicic, a wiry 20-year-old, said he was walking to understand what his father experienced when he successfully fled in 1995. He said his father told him he was too frightened to march, that he never wanted to walk through those forests again.
Mr. Halicic, 10 when Srebrenica fell, said he fled separately with his mother and grandfather. Two of them survived. "I didn't have a childhood," he said. "My grandfather was killed right in front of my eyes."
Near the front of the column was a tall, sunburned man who said he was returning to Srebrenica for the first time in 10 years. That man, Gary Kremer, had been a surgeon with the Dutch peacekeepers who were overwhelmed by Serb forces here in 1995. He said a Muslim he befriended during the war had invited him to march. Survivors from Srebrenica, who have bitterly complained that the Dutch did not do enough to protect them, seemed to treat him well.
Change was evident. When skull fragments were found at a spot where the column stopped to remember those killed in a large ambush, Muslim men came forward to photograph the remains with the cameras in their cellphones. Along most of the route, rebuilt homes and mosques, and newly planted fields, abound in what was a deserted no man's land of burned houses in 1995.
But the reality of what occurred here, and Bosnia's continuing struggles, sunk in as the march ended. The march stopped by a partially exhumed mass grave near Srebrenica. Staring down at exposed femurs, skulls and tibias, some of the exhausted marchers wept.
Enlarge This Image
Andrew Testa for The New York Times
A young Bosnian boy prayed over one of nearly 600 coffins stored at a battery factory for burial Monday, 10 years after the Srebrenica massacre.
Bearing Bosnian and Bosnian-Muslim flags, the men completed their solemn retracing of the route taken by an estimated 15,000 Muslim men during the war in Bosnia. They had fled the town of Srebrenica in panic in July 1995, after lightly armed United Nations peacekeepers failed to protect them from advancing Serb forces. The Serbs killed more than 7,000 of the fleeing Muslims in ambushes and mass executions that war crime judges later declared genocide.
On Sunday, the column of Muslims marching through the woods here were again surrounded by hundreds of armed Serbs, but on this day the Serbs were police officers assigned to protect the marchers.
Zoran Rosuljas, a Serb policeman who shook hands with one of the marchers along the route, said it was "no problem" guarding Muslims 10 years after the three-year war that killed more than 200,000 people. Asked if he felt comfortable with his former enemies, he swiftly responded. "Why not?" he said. "Why not?"
That handshake was just one of curious scenes on the final day of the 40-mile march to protest the failure to arrest the two Serbian leaders indicted on charges of genocide in the killings, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. As many as 50,000 people are expected to attend ceremonies on Monday marking the 10th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica. The bodies of 610 men exhumed from mass graves and identified through DNA testing will be laid to rest.
As they began their final leg Sunday morning - actually a reverse tracing of the original march, to end in Srebrenica - the men first passed through the village of Nova Kasaba, the site of two mass graves dug by Serb soldiers. Beginning in 2001, Muslim families moved back into this area under the protection of American military forces that patrolled this part of Bosnia until 2004.
Mehmet Muharemovic, 50, a farmer in the village, said he had encountered no problems with local Serbs or Serb police. Asked about a chicken coop that had been built on top of one of the mass graves after it was exhumed, he said it belonged to another returning Muslim farmer. "It's no problem," he said, with a shrug, a cigarette dangling from his lips. "Everyone lost someone. What can you do about it?"
As the men made their way up dirt roads and mountain paths that, a decade ago, were filled with thousands of panicked Muslims, they spoke calmly. Ali Hodzic Naziv, the man who shook hands with the Serb policeman, said he was marching in memory of his two teenage sons, who disappeared somewhere in these forests.
Mr. Naziv, 53, a burly man who was evacuated from Srebrenica for medical treatment after he was shot in the left leg in 1993, was in pain after two days of walking. But he said it would make him feel better to see the route his sons, who stayed behind, took during their final hours.
"I have to hold on for my sons," he said as he struggled up a muddy path. "I will make it, if God lets me."
Amir Halicic, a wiry 20-year-old, said he was walking to understand what his father experienced when he successfully fled in 1995. He said his father told him he was too frightened to march, that he never wanted to walk through those forests again.
Mr. Halicic, 10 when Srebrenica fell, said he fled separately with his mother and grandfather. Two of them survived. "I didn't have a childhood," he said. "My grandfather was killed right in front of my eyes."
Near the front of the column was a tall, sunburned man who said he was returning to Srebrenica for the first time in 10 years. That man, Gary Kremer, had been a surgeon with the Dutch peacekeepers who were overwhelmed by Serb forces here in 1995. He said a Muslim he befriended during the war had invited him to march. Survivors from Srebrenica, who have bitterly complained that the Dutch did not do enough to protect them, seemed to treat him well.
Change was evident. When skull fragments were found at a spot where the column stopped to remember those killed in a large ambush, Muslim men came forward to photograph the remains with the cameras in their cellphones. Along most of the route, rebuilt homes and mosques, and newly planted fields, abound in what was a deserted no man's land of burned houses in 1995.
But the reality of what occurred here, and Bosnia's continuing struggles, sunk in as the march ended. The march stopped by a partially exhumed mass grave near Srebrenica. Staring down at exposed femurs, skulls and tibias, some of the exhausted marchers wept.
50,000 mourn Srebrenica dead - CNN
SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Some 50,000 people gathered Monday to remember the victims of the slaughter that ensued when Serbs overran the U.N.-protected Muslim enclave of Srebrenica during the war in Bosnia in July 1995.
Nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in Europe's worst massacre of civilians since World War II.
The sound of Muslim prayer echoed through a loudspeaker as relatives wandered among 610 caskets containing newly identified remains.The remains were to be buried alongside other victims in the cemetery that is part of the Memorial Center in Srebrenica.
"They killed my entire life and the only thing I want now is to see the guilty ones pay for it," said Fatima Budic, 60, as she wept next to the coffin of her son Velija, who was only 14. Her husband Ohran and another son, who was 16, have never been found.
The killings in what was then a U.N.-protected zone came shortly before the end of the 1992-95 war. The bodies were dumped in mass graves across the countryside and are still being found. Thousands are still missing.
"The worst crime to take place in Europe in the latter part of the twentieth century took place here. The world's failure to protect the people of this country and the people in Potocari in particular is our greatest shame," said Bosnia's top international official, Paddy Ashdown.
Apart from the survivors and local guests, the 10th anniversary of the massacre was being attended by presidents of countries in the region and by foreign ambassadors -- including the U.S. architect of the peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia, Richard H. Holbrooke.
The dignitaries visited a recently opened mass grave near Srebrenica, where they saw a mixture of bones of some 30 victims who were buried there after being shot at a nearby warehouse.
"That's where between 1,000 to 1,200 Bosnian Muslims were shot in two or three hours. We are talking about a mass execution with automatic weapons," said Amor Masovic, head of the Muslim Commission for Missing Persons.
A Srebrenica survivor, Hana Avdic, 41, who now lives in Charlotte, N.C., came to bury her brother Ahmo, who was 36 when he was killed. "This is the first time I have come back to Srebrenica since then. I always wanted to come back, but not for such a sad occasion," she said.
Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, have been indicted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for genocide and crimes against humanity at Srebrenica and elsewhere. Both are still at large.
Serbian President Boris Tadic was expected to attend the service, a significant gesture given Serbia's political and military backing of the Bosnian Serbs during the war.
Among other officials attending were members of Bosnia's three-person presidency, which governs the country divided by the U.S.-brokered peace agreement into a Bosnian Serb mini state and a Bosnian-Croat Federation, as well as the Croatian President, Stipe Mesic, and the head of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz.
Forensics experts so far have exhumed more than 5,000 bodies, 2,032 of which have been identified through DNA analysis and other techniques. More than 1,300 Srebrenica victims are already buried at the cemetery, which is part of the memorial center.
Some 250,000 people were killed in the war between Bosnian Muslims, Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs.
Nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in Europe's worst massacre of civilians since World War II.
The sound of Muslim prayer echoed through a loudspeaker as relatives wandered among 610 caskets containing newly identified remains.The remains were to be buried alongside other victims in the cemetery that is part of the Memorial Center in Srebrenica.
"They killed my entire life and the only thing I want now is to see the guilty ones pay for it," said Fatima Budic, 60, as she wept next to the coffin of her son Velija, who was only 14. Her husband Ohran and another son, who was 16, have never been found.
The killings in what was then a U.N.-protected zone came shortly before the end of the 1992-95 war. The bodies were dumped in mass graves across the countryside and are still being found. Thousands are still missing.
"The worst crime to take place in Europe in the latter part of the twentieth century took place here. The world's failure to protect the people of this country and the people in Potocari in particular is our greatest shame," said Bosnia's top international official, Paddy Ashdown.
Apart from the survivors and local guests, the 10th anniversary of the massacre was being attended by presidents of countries in the region and by foreign ambassadors -- including the U.S. architect of the peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia, Richard H. Holbrooke.
The dignitaries visited a recently opened mass grave near Srebrenica, where they saw a mixture of bones of some 30 victims who were buried there after being shot at a nearby warehouse.
"That's where between 1,000 to 1,200 Bosnian Muslims were shot in two or three hours. We are talking about a mass execution with automatic weapons," said Amor Masovic, head of the Muslim Commission for Missing Persons.
A Srebrenica survivor, Hana Avdic, 41, who now lives in Charlotte, N.C., came to bury her brother Ahmo, who was 36 when he was killed. "This is the first time I have come back to Srebrenica since then. I always wanted to come back, but not for such a sad occasion," she said.
Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, have been indicted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for genocide and crimes against humanity at Srebrenica and elsewhere. Both are still at large.
Serbian President Boris Tadic was expected to attend the service, a significant gesture given Serbia's political and military backing of the Bosnian Serbs during the war.
Among other officials attending were members of Bosnia's three-person presidency, which governs the country divided by the U.S.-brokered peace agreement into a Bosnian Serb mini state and a Bosnian-Croat Federation, as well as the Croatian President, Stipe Mesic, and the head of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz.
Forensics experts so far have exhumed more than 5,000 bodies, 2,032 of which have been identified through DNA analysis and other techniques. More than 1,300 Srebrenica victims are already buried at the cemetery, which is part of the memorial center.
Some 250,000 people were killed in the war between Bosnian Muslims, Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs.
The Wages of Denia - The New York Times
Washington -- TEN years ago this week, Serbian forces slaughtered more than 7,000 Muslim men in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Despite the efforts of a dedicated few in Serbia, and despite the war crimes prosecutions at The Hague, Serbia is no closer today than it was a decade ago to reckoning with its war guilt.
For years Belgrade has denied involvement by its citizens in Srebrenica and other massacres of the 1990s. The recent broadcast of a graphic video that showed Serbian paramilitary police executing six young men from Srebrenica should have made it very hard to sustain that revisionism. Amazing as it seems, however, the video was not enough to shatter what Serbian human rights activist Sonja Biserko has described as the country's ''state of collective denial.''
Fewer than half of Serbs polled last spring believed the Srebrenica massacre took place. And while much has been made of the video's effects on a shocked Serbian public, it remains to be seen where that public will stand once the furor recedes. The Radical Party, which won 27 percent of the popular vote in the last national elections, making it the largest party in Parliament, has already criticized what it sees as the anti-Serb hysteria that ''wishes at all costs to put the burden of all crimes on Serbia.'' Graffiti has appeared in several cities praising the ''liberation'' of Srebrenica. Rumors circulate that the video was doctored, or that the men committing the crimes were acting independently.
Instead of coming to terms with its past, Serbia has circumvented the issue with the narrative skills befitting a psychopath. For example, a debate on Srebrenica at the Belgrade Law Faculty earlier this year was initially titled ''10 Years After the Liberation of Srebrenica.'' In response to the video, Serbia's president, Boris Tadic, said, ''Serbia is deeply shocked'' that ''the killers had walked freely among us.'' But Mr. Tadic's government surely knows that the killers in the video are but a small fraction of the number who continue to walk the streets of Serbia and Montenegro as free men.
A fairy tale has passed for public memory until now in Serbia and Montenegro and it is conspicuous in its omission of Serb atrocities in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, which left hundreds of thousands dead. The Serbian version of that history denies the fact that President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and those like him enjoyed overwhelming popular support in Serbia during the war, despite the evictions, rapes and unchecked slaughter by Yugoslav troops and irregulars. It suggests that Belgrade today has nothing to do with Belgrade as it was 10 years ago. It aims at an absurd relativism, placing Serbian atrocities within the context of crimes committed by other ethnicities (in fact, the C.I.A. has reported that Serbs were responsible for 90 percent of all atrocities committed in Bosnia). Mr. Tadic was quoted as saying, ''Crimes are always individual.'' All of this is fiction.
At the end of the Second World War, Allied troops forced German citizens to walk through Nazi death camps. They were confronted by crimes committed in their name, in order to ensure that those crimes could not be denied or minimized later. The people of Serbia and Montenegro, by contrast, have never been forced to acknowledge the crimes committed in their name.
There are those who refuse to whitewash Serbia's recent past. The Helsinki Human Rights Committee in Serbia and the independent broadcaster Radio B92 are admirable examples. People like Natasa Kandic, chairwoman of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, have spent years fighting for the truth, often at great personal risk. Extremists threatened to lynch Ms. Kandic at the law school debate on Srebrenica, and one of them spat in her face.
Eight of Serbia's human rights groups have drafted a declaration on Srebrenica that would obligate the country's government to confess to the massacre and to ''expose and punish any ideological justification of crime.'' But the daily newspaper Blic reported that the majority of parties in Serbia's Parliament refused not only to endorse the declaration but also to debate it.
Serbia must relinquish the fairy tale that its own wartime suffering was equivalent to the devastation it visited on others. Adopting an honest declaration on Srebrenica would have been an important first step, and the Serbian Parliament should have taken it. For as long as Serbia's people deny complicity in war crimes, they undercut any hope for justice and cheat their country out of any decent future. The Western aid money that has poured into Serbia may help rebuild the country's infrastructure, but it will do nothing to cut out the cancer that riddles the country's heart.
Western governments are anxious for reconciliation in the Balkans, which would ensure future stability in the region. They are pushing hard for the arrests of people like Radovan Karadzic, the architect of the genocide, and Ratko Mladic, who carried it out, and they lauded the speed with which the Serbian government detained those suspected of being the killers shown on the video. But those arrests will not be nearly enough.
Such men were not exceptions, nor were they acting independently, and Serbia must acknowledge this truth, rather than denying or minimizing it. That means surrendering all war crimes suspects to The Hague and paying reparations to the victims of war. The West should ask for no less than this when it considers Serbian requests for aid.
Drawing (Drawing by Owen Smith)
Courtney Angela Brkic is the author of ''Stillness: And Other Stories'' and ''The Stone Fields,'' an account of her work excavating mass graves outside Srebrenica.
For years Belgrade has denied involvement by its citizens in Srebrenica and other massacres of the 1990s. The recent broadcast of a graphic video that showed Serbian paramilitary police executing six young men from Srebrenica should have made it very hard to sustain that revisionism. Amazing as it seems, however, the video was not enough to shatter what Serbian human rights activist Sonja Biserko has described as the country's ''state of collective denial.''
Fewer than half of Serbs polled last spring believed the Srebrenica massacre took place. And while much has been made of the video's effects on a shocked Serbian public, it remains to be seen where that public will stand once the furor recedes. The Radical Party, which won 27 percent of the popular vote in the last national elections, making it the largest party in Parliament, has already criticized what it sees as the anti-Serb hysteria that ''wishes at all costs to put the burden of all crimes on Serbia.'' Graffiti has appeared in several cities praising the ''liberation'' of Srebrenica. Rumors circulate that the video was doctored, or that the men committing the crimes were acting independently.
Instead of coming to terms with its past, Serbia has circumvented the issue with the narrative skills befitting a psychopath. For example, a debate on Srebrenica at the Belgrade Law Faculty earlier this year was initially titled ''10 Years After the Liberation of Srebrenica.'' In response to the video, Serbia's president, Boris Tadic, said, ''Serbia is deeply shocked'' that ''the killers had walked freely among us.'' But Mr. Tadic's government surely knows that the killers in the video are but a small fraction of the number who continue to walk the streets of Serbia and Montenegro as free men.
A fairy tale has passed for public memory until now in Serbia and Montenegro and it is conspicuous in its omission of Serb atrocities in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, which left hundreds of thousands dead. The Serbian version of that history denies the fact that President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and those like him enjoyed overwhelming popular support in Serbia during the war, despite the evictions, rapes and unchecked slaughter by Yugoslav troops and irregulars. It suggests that Belgrade today has nothing to do with Belgrade as it was 10 years ago. It aims at an absurd relativism, placing Serbian atrocities within the context of crimes committed by other ethnicities (in fact, the C.I.A. has reported that Serbs were responsible for 90 percent of all atrocities committed in Bosnia). Mr. Tadic was quoted as saying, ''Crimes are always individual.'' All of this is fiction.
At the end of the Second World War, Allied troops forced German citizens to walk through Nazi death camps. They were confronted by crimes committed in their name, in order to ensure that those crimes could not be denied or minimized later. The people of Serbia and Montenegro, by contrast, have never been forced to acknowledge the crimes committed in their name.
There are those who refuse to whitewash Serbia's recent past. The Helsinki Human Rights Committee in Serbia and the independent broadcaster Radio B92 are admirable examples. People like Natasa Kandic, chairwoman of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, have spent years fighting for the truth, often at great personal risk. Extremists threatened to lynch Ms. Kandic at the law school debate on Srebrenica, and one of them spat in her face.
Eight of Serbia's human rights groups have drafted a declaration on Srebrenica that would obligate the country's government to confess to the massacre and to ''expose and punish any ideological justification of crime.'' But the daily newspaper Blic reported that the majority of parties in Serbia's Parliament refused not only to endorse the declaration but also to debate it.
Serbia must relinquish the fairy tale that its own wartime suffering was equivalent to the devastation it visited on others. Adopting an honest declaration on Srebrenica would have been an important first step, and the Serbian Parliament should have taken it. For as long as Serbia's people deny complicity in war crimes, they undercut any hope for justice and cheat their country out of any decent future. The Western aid money that has poured into Serbia may help rebuild the country's infrastructure, but it will do nothing to cut out the cancer that riddles the country's heart.
Western governments are anxious for reconciliation in the Balkans, which would ensure future stability in the region. They are pushing hard for the arrests of people like Radovan Karadzic, the architect of the genocide, and Ratko Mladic, who carried it out, and they lauded the speed with which the Serbian government detained those suspected of being the killers shown on the video. But those arrests will not be nearly enough.
Such men were not exceptions, nor were they acting independently, and Serbia must acknowledge this truth, rather than denying or minimizing it. That means surrendering all war crimes suspects to The Hague and paying reparations to the victims of war. The West should ask for no less than this when it considers Serbian requests for aid.
Drawing (Drawing by Owen Smith)
Courtney Angela Brkic is the author of ''Stillness: And Other Stories'' and ''The Stone Fields,'' an account of her work excavating mass graves outside Srebrenica.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Unfinished Balkan Business - The Washington Post
By R. Nicholas Burns
Sunday, July 10, 2005; Page B07
Ten years ago this month, United Nations peacekeepers in Bosnia were chained to bridges by Bosnian Serbs, humiliated and unable to do anything to defend a helpless population. The entire international community was held hostage, incapable of summoning the will to stop the carnage. The region was in catastrophic conflict. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people had been killed. Millions more were displaced as Yugoslavia disintegrated. The Balkans were our top foreign policy priority, just as the war on terrorism is today, and for a fundamentally similar reason: the need to stop savage human rights abuses, stand against tyranny and defend the values at the heart of our democracy.
The Balkan wars ended because the United States and NATO finally acted. But 10 years later the region has still not secured the full peace and security needed to put its bloody past behind it. The United States has an opportunity this year to help the people of Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia take the final steps to a full peace. They want and need American diplomatic energy and leadership to help them get there.
Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica. The United States is sending a presidential delegation to mourn the victims of this war crime. An important question is, who will represent the Serbs? Serbian President Boris Tadic has offered to attend, along with leaders of his country. A clear statement of contrition on behalf of the Serbs would be the best step toward regional reconciliation. An even more dramatic and fitting gesture would be the arrest and extradition to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague of Gen. Ratko Mladic, who ordered the murders. I told President Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica in Belgrade recently that the United States is prepared to undertake a new and expanded relationship if they capture Mladic. They say they are willing. Let us all hope so. I also told them that until he is brought to justice in The Hague, the United States will not support their wish to join NATO's Partnership for Peace. The Balkans cannot return to normality until the stain of Srebrenica is wiped away.
Later this year there will be another significant anniversary for the region. It was in November 1995 that the U.S.-inspired Dayton Accords were signed, in effect ending the war in Bosnia. That brilliant achievement of Richard Holbrooke, Chris Hill and other American officials was a diplomatic triumph. We hope all Bosnians will mark the anniversary by accelerating their efforts to overcome remaining differences and build a secure and durable state. The Dayton Accords have helped keep the peace for a decade and can serve the people of Bosnia well into the future.
But the Bosnian Serbs will not be able to put the past behind them until they find and extradite to The Hague another man responsible for unleashing hatred and war: Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. The Bosnian Serbs also need to put aside their obstructionism on defense and police reform. Bosnia-Herzegovina is today a more peaceful and hopeful place than 10 years ago, but it is still in need of greater tolerance and a commitment to create a truly multiethnic state.
The year 2005 is not just about remembering the past; it must also be a year of change and progress in Kosovo. Six years after the United States and NATO intervened there to stop Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansing, the status quo is no longer sustainable. Kosovars have been living as wards of the international community. They have been given no realistic vision of what their future holds. If the U.N. envoy, Kai Eide, determines this summer that Kosovo has made sufficient progress in meeting standards of responsible self-governance, the United States will support U.N.-sponsored final-status talks to determine its future. We will continue to insist that any possible solution must be one that promotes regional stability and allows all minorities to live in a multiethnic society.
In 1999 the United States intervened to stop Serb ethnic cleansing. Now it is time to show tolerance for the dwindling numbers of Kosovar Serbs, who have every right to stay. If progress is to be made this year, the Albanian majority must signal that a future Kosovo will be tolerant and open to all minorities who still call it home.
President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are working with our European allies to fit the last piece of the puzzle -- a peaceful Balkans -- into our larger aim of a democratic peace in Europe. We are committed to use American determination to push for peace.
Sunday, July 10, 2005; Page B07
Ten years ago this month, United Nations peacekeepers in Bosnia were chained to bridges by Bosnian Serbs, humiliated and unable to do anything to defend a helpless population. The entire international community was held hostage, incapable of summoning the will to stop the carnage. The region was in catastrophic conflict. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people had been killed. Millions more were displaced as Yugoslavia disintegrated. The Balkans were our top foreign policy priority, just as the war on terrorism is today, and for a fundamentally similar reason: the need to stop savage human rights abuses, stand against tyranny and defend the values at the heart of our democracy.
The Balkan wars ended because the United States and NATO finally acted. But 10 years later the region has still not secured the full peace and security needed to put its bloody past behind it. The United States has an opportunity this year to help the people of Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia take the final steps to a full peace. They want and need American diplomatic energy and leadership to help them get there.
Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica. The United States is sending a presidential delegation to mourn the victims of this war crime. An important question is, who will represent the Serbs? Serbian President Boris Tadic has offered to attend, along with leaders of his country. A clear statement of contrition on behalf of the Serbs would be the best step toward regional reconciliation. An even more dramatic and fitting gesture would be the arrest and extradition to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague of Gen. Ratko Mladic, who ordered the murders. I told President Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica in Belgrade recently that the United States is prepared to undertake a new and expanded relationship if they capture Mladic. They say they are willing. Let us all hope so. I also told them that until he is brought to justice in The Hague, the United States will not support their wish to join NATO's Partnership for Peace. The Balkans cannot return to normality until the stain of Srebrenica is wiped away.
Later this year there will be another significant anniversary for the region. It was in November 1995 that the U.S.-inspired Dayton Accords were signed, in effect ending the war in Bosnia. That brilliant achievement of Richard Holbrooke, Chris Hill and other American officials was a diplomatic triumph. We hope all Bosnians will mark the anniversary by accelerating their efforts to overcome remaining differences and build a secure and durable state. The Dayton Accords have helped keep the peace for a decade and can serve the people of Bosnia well into the future.
But the Bosnian Serbs will not be able to put the past behind them until they find and extradite to The Hague another man responsible for unleashing hatred and war: Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. The Bosnian Serbs also need to put aside their obstructionism on defense and police reform. Bosnia-Herzegovina is today a more peaceful and hopeful place than 10 years ago, but it is still in need of greater tolerance and a commitment to create a truly multiethnic state.
The year 2005 is not just about remembering the past; it must also be a year of change and progress in Kosovo. Six years after the United States and NATO intervened there to stop Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansing, the status quo is no longer sustainable. Kosovars have been living as wards of the international community. They have been given no realistic vision of what their future holds. If the U.N. envoy, Kai Eide, determines this summer that Kosovo has made sufficient progress in meeting standards of responsible self-governance, the United States will support U.N.-sponsored final-status talks to determine its future. We will continue to insist that any possible solution must be one that promotes regional stability and allows all minorities to live in a multiethnic society.
In 1999 the United States intervened to stop Serb ethnic cleansing. Now it is time to show tolerance for the dwindling numbers of Kosovar Serbs, who have every right to stay. If progress is to be made this year, the Albanian majority must signal that a future Kosovo will be tolerant and open to all minorities who still call it home.
President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are working with our European allies to fit the last piece of the puzzle -- a peaceful Balkans -- into our larger aim of a democratic peace in Europe. We are committed to use American determination to push for peace.
Srebrenica 10 Years On: Tormenting Memories - The New York Times
By DAVID ROHDE
SREBRENICA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 9 - A decade ago here in eastern Bosnia, Camila Omanovic tied a rope around an iron pipe in an abandoned factory. She asked God to forgive her and tried to hang herself.
Days earlier, Bosnian Serb soldiers had overwhelmed 370 poorly armed Dutch peacekeepers protecting Srebrenica, a pocket of 40,000 Bosnian Muslims that had been declared a "safe area" under United Nations protection. In the final and most brutal chapter of four years of ethnic war - and the worst massacre in Europe since World War II - the Serbian forces rounded up and killed more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys. Ms. Omanovic's husband was among them.
Convinced that she faced rape, torture and death, Ms. Omanovic decided on suicide. But two teenage boys saw her, called for help, and peacekeepers came and pulled her to the ground.
With as many as 50,000 people expected to gather here on Monday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the killings - which war crimes judges ruled genocide - and the forced expulsions of more than 30,000 Muslim women and children, three lives reflect how Srebrenica has changed, and how the effects of its horror live on.
A Bosnian Serb who arrived in Srebrenica the day after the town fell and helped save two Srebrenica Muslims has sunk into a life shadowed by an anemic economy, criminal mafias and a stubborn denial of the scope of the slaughter here. A Dutch soldier still serves his unit but remains haunted by Srebrenica. Ms. Omanovic and 2,900 other Muslims have returned to the town, intent on reversing the Serbian goal of creating an "ethnically pure" Serbian state in Bosnia. "No one said we would ever be able to come back," said Ms. Omanovic, her face flushed with pride. "I'm not afraid."
The Pull of a Husband's Grave
Today, Ms. Omanovic is a woman transformed.
A shaken and fragile figure when interviewed just after the town's fall a decade ago, she was assertive and animated on a recent Friday night as she sat in her brother's new Srebrenica guesthouse. She laughed, waved her hands in the air and shook her head in disbelief as she explained how she found the courage to journey home.
"Everyone is afraid to come back because everyone has bad memories," she said, surrounded by old Muslim friends. "I thought I would never return."
Her homecoming is part of a $21 million American, European and Canadian effort to move Muslims back to the Srebrenica area and rebuild the town. Progress has been slow, and some Srebrenica survivors accuse the United States and Europe of making a tepid effort. Muslims are returning, they say, because they are impoverished and have nowhere else to go. The two Serbian leaders indicted on charges of genocide in the killings, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, remain free.
For Ms. Omanovic, every Muslim who returns here is a victory. The area's population is now 40 percent Muslim. The town's mayor is a Muslim. Forty percent of its police force is Muslim. Forty Muslim children attend high school with 600 Serbs.
Ms. Omanovic works as a bookkeeper in the same factory where she tried to kill herself. Now it holds the administrative offices of the sprawling local memorial to Srebrenica's dead. One of the teenage boys who helped save her is a town policeman; the other is a guard at the memorial. After being expelled from Srebrenica, Ms. Omanovic lived in Muslim-controlled central Bosnia. Last year, she was offered the bookkeeping job at the memorial. She could not sleep for three nights. Visions of the war, as well as an unexpected longing for Srebrenica, filled her. Something else also drew her back: her husband's grave.
DNA tests have identified the remains of 2,070 Muslims found in forests and mass graves. Searchers discovered the body of Ms. Omanovic's husband, an engineer she calls "my beloved Ahmet," at an ambush site. His head and one of his hands were missing.
"It's the contentment of the soul," she said. "I feel close to him. I go to the grave."
Ms. Omanovic lives on a street of mostly abandoned houses. Her neighbors are eight other Muslim widows.
Ignoring rumors that the town is haunted, the women have restarted a competition from before the war that honors Srebrenica's most beautiful garden. Amid the abandoned houses of the dead, pockets of carefully nurtured red roses, white lilies and yellow carnations bloom.
"I would like this town to be like it used to be," Ms. Omanovic said.
When she met her husband's former assistant, a Serbian woman, they embraced. The Serb trembled and wept. In line at the local bank, Serbs wave Ms. Omanovic to the front.
But she and other residents say the town's Muslims and Serbs inhabit parallel worlds. They rarely socialize. Both sides, they say, hide their true emotions.
"They are very polite, they kiss me," she said. "After everything that happened, I know it's just acting."
Muslims' Savior Is Bitter
About a mile north of the Omanovic family's new guesthouse is the home of a former Serbian soldier who grew up in Srebrenica. The former soldier, a middle-aged man, asked to speak on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation if Serbian nationalists learned that he saved two Muslims after the town's fall.
At the time of the massacre, he was an army soldier who was ordered to separate a group of mostly elderly Muslim men from a crowd of refugees and load them onto a truck, he said. He spotted two elderly Muslim men who had treated him kindly as a youth: the longtime maître d'hôtel of the local hotel restaurant and his favorite high-school teacher.
Defying a Serb who outranked him, he told the two they could stay with the women.
In a separate interview, the Muslim teacher confirmed that the man had saved his life and that of the hotel worker.
Today the former soldier is more bitter and less confident. He complained that Muslims have more jobs in the town's government, police force and factories.
Like other local Serbs, he begrudges the changes in Srebrenica and minimizes the massacre, and Serbian responsibility for it. He dismisses the vast amounts of forensic evidence and two confessions from Serbian military officers in war crimes trials, and questions the number of dead.
"Islam is financing all that," he said.
In interviews a decade ago, he expressed confidence that Bosnia's Serbs would have a separate country. But while the Muslims have returned to Srebrenica, the Serbian population has dwindled to 4,000, just a third of what it was after the war. He said the international community was forcing Serbs to live with Muslims. "We all are aware what is imposed," he said. "We are not that stupid. We understand."
He says peacekeepers will have to stay in Bosnia until a strong economy eases tensions.
But he is cynical, too, about Serbian nationalists. At one point after the war, he was shot when he tried to break up a fight involving a Serb. Western diplomats have said the Serb is a member of one of the Serb nationalist mafias flourishing in the country.
The former soldier predicted that the man would never be punished.
"We were fighting for a system," he said, meaning a well-governed Serbian state. "This is what we get."
Dutch Soldier Can't Forget
Eight hundred miles northwest of Srebrenica, in the Netherlands, Sgt. First Class Theo Lutke, 34, thinks about the fall of the town "almost every day."
"I think I have a rucksack of experiences," he said. "This experience will always stay in the backpack."
He and other Dutch peacekeepers tried to serve as unarmed escorts for the busloads of Muslim women and children expelled from the area. But Serbian soldiers stole their blue United Nations helmets and flak jackets at gunpoint and used them to trick Muslims into surrendering. One Dutch peacekeeper was forced to climb onto a stolen United Nations vehicle, was given a rifle and taken "Muslim hunting" by the Serbs. No Muslims were found.
"I didn't know if I would come home ever," said Sergeant Lutke, who is one of a few dozen Srebrenica veterans still in the Dutch Army.
After the scale of the massacre emerged, Srebrenica became a national scandal in the Netherlands. An exhaustive investigation forced the resignation of the country's prime minister in 2002. The commander of the Dutch battalion said he moved to Spain because people in the Netherlands shouted "coward" at him on the street.
Sergeant Lutke went through his own soul-searching. "I looked in the mirror and asked myself, 'Did I do everything I could?' " He believes he did. He blames Serbian nationalists.
The Dutch government has continued deploying peacekeepers, sending troops to Macedonia, Albania, Ethiopia, Liberia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
In June 2004, the Dutch unit that served in Srebrenica was sent to southern Iraq. Four Apache attack helicopters backed the unit, firepower that Dutch military officials say could have slowed or stopped the Serbian advance on Srebrenica. A Srebrenica veteran commanded; Sergeant Lutke led a squad.
"You feel like a soldier again," he said. Yet after his patrol killed two suspected suicide bombers, flashbacks of Srebrenica filled his mind. He returned home early.
"It exploded inside me," he said, referring to the reawakened memories. "I wanted to sleep. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't."
Nicholas Wood contributed reporting from Bosnia for this article.
SREBRENICA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 9 - A decade ago here in eastern Bosnia, Camila Omanovic tied a rope around an iron pipe in an abandoned factory. She asked God to forgive her and tried to hang herself.
Days earlier, Bosnian Serb soldiers had overwhelmed 370 poorly armed Dutch peacekeepers protecting Srebrenica, a pocket of 40,000 Bosnian Muslims that had been declared a "safe area" under United Nations protection. In the final and most brutal chapter of four years of ethnic war - and the worst massacre in Europe since World War II - the Serbian forces rounded up and killed more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys. Ms. Omanovic's husband was among them.
Convinced that she faced rape, torture and death, Ms. Omanovic decided on suicide. But two teenage boys saw her, called for help, and peacekeepers came and pulled her to the ground.
With as many as 50,000 people expected to gather here on Monday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the killings - which war crimes judges ruled genocide - and the forced expulsions of more than 30,000 Muslim women and children, three lives reflect how Srebrenica has changed, and how the effects of its horror live on.
A Bosnian Serb who arrived in Srebrenica the day after the town fell and helped save two Srebrenica Muslims has sunk into a life shadowed by an anemic economy, criminal mafias and a stubborn denial of the scope of the slaughter here. A Dutch soldier still serves his unit but remains haunted by Srebrenica. Ms. Omanovic and 2,900 other Muslims have returned to the town, intent on reversing the Serbian goal of creating an "ethnically pure" Serbian state in Bosnia. "No one said we would ever be able to come back," said Ms. Omanovic, her face flushed with pride. "I'm not afraid."
The Pull of a Husband's Grave
Today, Ms. Omanovic is a woman transformed.
A shaken and fragile figure when interviewed just after the town's fall a decade ago, she was assertive and animated on a recent Friday night as she sat in her brother's new Srebrenica guesthouse. She laughed, waved her hands in the air and shook her head in disbelief as she explained how she found the courage to journey home.
"Everyone is afraid to come back because everyone has bad memories," she said, surrounded by old Muslim friends. "I thought I would never return."
Her homecoming is part of a $21 million American, European and Canadian effort to move Muslims back to the Srebrenica area and rebuild the town. Progress has been slow, and some Srebrenica survivors accuse the United States and Europe of making a tepid effort. Muslims are returning, they say, because they are impoverished and have nowhere else to go. The two Serbian leaders indicted on charges of genocide in the killings, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, remain free.
For Ms. Omanovic, every Muslim who returns here is a victory. The area's population is now 40 percent Muslim. The town's mayor is a Muslim. Forty percent of its police force is Muslim. Forty Muslim children attend high school with 600 Serbs.
Ms. Omanovic works as a bookkeeper in the same factory where she tried to kill herself. Now it holds the administrative offices of the sprawling local memorial to Srebrenica's dead. One of the teenage boys who helped save her is a town policeman; the other is a guard at the memorial. After being expelled from Srebrenica, Ms. Omanovic lived in Muslim-controlled central Bosnia. Last year, she was offered the bookkeeping job at the memorial. She could not sleep for three nights. Visions of the war, as well as an unexpected longing for Srebrenica, filled her. Something else also drew her back: her husband's grave.
DNA tests have identified the remains of 2,070 Muslims found in forests and mass graves. Searchers discovered the body of Ms. Omanovic's husband, an engineer she calls "my beloved Ahmet," at an ambush site. His head and one of his hands were missing.
"It's the contentment of the soul," she said. "I feel close to him. I go to the grave."
Ms. Omanovic lives on a street of mostly abandoned houses. Her neighbors are eight other Muslim widows.
Ignoring rumors that the town is haunted, the women have restarted a competition from before the war that honors Srebrenica's most beautiful garden. Amid the abandoned houses of the dead, pockets of carefully nurtured red roses, white lilies and yellow carnations bloom.
"I would like this town to be like it used to be," Ms. Omanovic said.
When she met her husband's former assistant, a Serbian woman, they embraced. The Serb trembled and wept. In line at the local bank, Serbs wave Ms. Omanovic to the front.
But she and other residents say the town's Muslims and Serbs inhabit parallel worlds. They rarely socialize. Both sides, they say, hide their true emotions.
"They are very polite, they kiss me," she said. "After everything that happened, I know it's just acting."
Muslims' Savior Is Bitter
About a mile north of the Omanovic family's new guesthouse is the home of a former Serbian soldier who grew up in Srebrenica. The former soldier, a middle-aged man, asked to speak on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation if Serbian nationalists learned that he saved two Muslims after the town's fall.
At the time of the massacre, he was an army soldier who was ordered to separate a group of mostly elderly Muslim men from a crowd of refugees and load them onto a truck, he said. He spotted two elderly Muslim men who had treated him kindly as a youth: the longtime maître d'hôtel of the local hotel restaurant and his favorite high-school teacher.
Defying a Serb who outranked him, he told the two they could stay with the women.
In a separate interview, the Muslim teacher confirmed that the man had saved his life and that of the hotel worker.
Today the former soldier is more bitter and less confident. He complained that Muslims have more jobs in the town's government, police force and factories.
Like other local Serbs, he begrudges the changes in Srebrenica and minimizes the massacre, and Serbian responsibility for it. He dismisses the vast amounts of forensic evidence and two confessions from Serbian military officers in war crimes trials, and questions the number of dead.
"Islam is financing all that," he said.
In interviews a decade ago, he expressed confidence that Bosnia's Serbs would have a separate country. But while the Muslims have returned to Srebrenica, the Serbian population has dwindled to 4,000, just a third of what it was after the war. He said the international community was forcing Serbs to live with Muslims. "We all are aware what is imposed," he said. "We are not that stupid. We understand."
He says peacekeepers will have to stay in Bosnia until a strong economy eases tensions.
But he is cynical, too, about Serbian nationalists. At one point after the war, he was shot when he tried to break up a fight involving a Serb. Western diplomats have said the Serb is a member of one of the Serb nationalist mafias flourishing in the country.
The former soldier predicted that the man would never be punished.
"We were fighting for a system," he said, meaning a well-governed Serbian state. "This is what we get."
Dutch Soldier Can't Forget
Eight hundred miles northwest of Srebrenica, in the Netherlands, Sgt. First Class Theo Lutke, 34, thinks about the fall of the town "almost every day."
"I think I have a rucksack of experiences," he said. "This experience will always stay in the backpack."
He and other Dutch peacekeepers tried to serve as unarmed escorts for the busloads of Muslim women and children expelled from the area. But Serbian soldiers stole their blue United Nations helmets and flak jackets at gunpoint and used them to trick Muslims into surrendering. One Dutch peacekeeper was forced to climb onto a stolen United Nations vehicle, was given a rifle and taken "Muslim hunting" by the Serbs. No Muslims were found.
"I didn't know if I would come home ever," said Sergeant Lutke, who is one of a few dozen Srebrenica veterans still in the Dutch Army.
After the scale of the massacre emerged, Srebrenica became a national scandal in the Netherlands. An exhaustive investigation forced the resignation of the country's prime minister in 2002. The commander of the Dutch battalion said he moved to Spain because people in the Netherlands shouted "coward" at him on the street.
Sergeant Lutke went through his own soul-searching. "I looked in the mirror and asked myself, 'Did I do everything I could?' " He believes he did. He blames Serbian nationalists.
The Dutch government has continued deploying peacekeepers, sending troops to Macedonia, Albania, Ethiopia, Liberia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
In June 2004, the Dutch unit that served in Srebrenica was sent to southern Iraq. Four Apache attack helicopters backed the unit, firepower that Dutch military officials say could have slowed or stopped the Serbian advance on Srebrenica. A Srebrenica veteran commanded; Sergeant Lutke led a squad.
"You feel like a soldier again," he said. Yet after his patrol killed two suspected suicide bombers, flashbacks of Srebrenica filled his mind. He returned home early.
"It exploded inside me," he said, referring to the reawakened memories. "I wanted to sleep. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't."
Nicholas Wood contributed reporting from Bosnia for this article.
Famous quotes about the 1995 Srebrenica massacre
SREBRENICA, Bosnia, July 10 (Reuters) - Following are famous quotes about the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys taken by Bosnian Serb troops from the U.N. "safe area" of Srebrenica. The massacre is commemorated on Monday.
BOSNIAN SERB WARTIME ARMY COMMANDER AND GENOCIDE SUSPECT RATKO MLADIC TO SREBRENICA RESIDENTS ON JULY 12, 1995, A DAY AFTER HIS TROOPS CAPTURED THE TOWN:
"All who wish to go will be transported, large and small, young and old. Don't be afraid, just take it easy. Let the women and children go first ... No one will harm you."
SADIK SELIMOVIC, WOUNDED BOSNIAN MUSLIM FIGHTER WHOSE THREE BROTHERS AND FATHER LATER WENT MISSING, RECOUNTING WHAT MLADIC TOLD HIM IN SREBRENICA ON JULY 13, 1995:
"Mladic literally said these words: They would kill all the men and throw them in the Drina river to feed fish, and these men would never again kill Serb children in the Serb Drina valley. But they would let the women go so they can suffer."
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL JUDGE FOUAD RIAD AFTER CONFIRMING THE SREBRENICA INDICTMENT OF MLADIC AND BOSNIAN SERB WARTIME LEADER RADOVAN KARADZIC ON NOV. 16, 1995:
"Thousands of men executed and buried in mass graves, hundreds of men buried alive, men and women mutilated and slaughtered, children killed before their mothers' eyes, a grandfather forced to eat the liver of his own grandson. These are truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history."
UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN ON JULY 11, 2000.
"The tragedy of Srebrenica will forever haunt the history of the United Nations."
BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC'S PRESIDENT DRAGAN CAVIC ON JUNE 22, 2004, IN THE FIRST OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF THE MASSACRE:
"After all of this, first as a man and a Serb, then as a father, brother and son, and only then as the president of the Serb Republic, I have to say that these nine days of July of the Srebrenica tragedy represent a black page in the history of the Serb people."
BOSNIAN SERB WARTIME ARMY COMMANDER AND GENOCIDE SUSPECT RATKO MLADIC TO SREBRENICA RESIDENTS ON JULY 12, 1995, A DAY AFTER HIS TROOPS CAPTURED THE TOWN:
"All who wish to go will be transported, large and small, young and old. Don't be afraid, just take it easy. Let the women and children go first ... No one will harm you."
SADIK SELIMOVIC, WOUNDED BOSNIAN MUSLIM FIGHTER WHOSE THREE BROTHERS AND FATHER LATER WENT MISSING, RECOUNTING WHAT MLADIC TOLD HIM IN SREBRENICA ON JULY 13, 1995:
"Mladic literally said these words: They would kill all the men and throw them in the Drina river to feed fish, and these men would never again kill Serb children in the Serb Drina valley. But they would let the women go so they can suffer."
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL JUDGE FOUAD RIAD AFTER CONFIRMING THE SREBRENICA INDICTMENT OF MLADIC AND BOSNIAN SERB WARTIME LEADER RADOVAN KARADZIC ON NOV. 16, 1995:
"Thousands of men executed and buried in mass graves, hundreds of men buried alive, men and women mutilated and slaughtered, children killed before their mothers' eyes, a grandfather forced to eat the liver of his own grandson. These are truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history."
UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN ON JULY 11, 2000.
"The tragedy of Srebrenica will forever haunt the history of the United Nations."
BOSNIAN SERB REPUBLIC'S PRESIDENT DRAGAN CAVIC ON JUNE 22, 2004, IN THE FIRST OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF THE MASSACRE:
"After all of this, first as a man and a Serb, then as a father, brother and son, and only then as the president of the Serb Republic, I have to say that these nine days of July of the Srebrenica tragedy represent a black page in the history of the Serb people."
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Bystanders To a Massacre - The Washington Post
How the U.N. Failed Srebrenica
By Edward P. Joseph
Post
Sunday, July 10, 2005; B04
In the video, the Serbs take their time, cracking jokes and taunting the Muslim men they've trucked to a field outside a small hamlet in Eastern Bosnia. Then the joking stops. One by one, the victims, their hands tied behind their backs, are shot at close range -- all but two. "You're the winners," the Serbs tell this pair, and order them to carry the bodies of their comrades into a house. Then the Serbs gun them down, too.
The recently discovered video, broadcast last month in Serbia, is sickening proof of what happened to the Muslim men of Srebrenica 10 years ago. Tomorrow, world leaders and dignitaries will gather to remember the approximately 7,800 men and boys who were murdered there by Serbian troops in the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II. And once again, they'll be asking themselves why it happened -- and offering incomplete answers.
Srebrenica is unforgettable not only for its scale, but because, unlike the present genocide going on in Sudan's Darfur region, it happened while the international community and the world media were deeply engaged in Bosnia. The United Nations had declared Srebrenica a "safe area" -- a specially protected site backed up by U.N. peacekeepers on the ground and NATO strike planes in the air. Yet the Serbs managed to seize it anyway. The question that has haunted Srebrenica ever since -- as it haunts other places where officials watch as victims suffer -- is: Why was there no will to act to prevent the tragedy?
Understandably, the blame has focused on high-level organizational and governmental leaders. Kofi Annan, then the head of the U.N.'s Department of Peacekeeping Operations, released a scathing report in 1999 and apologized on behalf of the organization for its failure in Srebrenica. European leaders and officials who will beat the 10th anniversary commemoration will almost certainly acknowledge how much more their countries might have done to avert the tragedy. A chorus of speakers will decry Serbia's failure, even after release of the video, to apologize for the crimes, and NATO's failure to arrest the war-time Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
But preventing another tragedy means understanding where and how not just organizations, but also individuals -- at all levels -- have failed. What about the critical layer of mid-level U.N. officials who helped perpetuate a policy in Bosnia that was steadfast only in its opposition to NATO intervention and culminated in a catastrophe that remains a permanent stain on the institution? Did those officials believe in the policy? Or did many of them just go along? Why have so few expressed regret or shame at what happened on their watch (as the Canadian peacekeeper in Rwanda, Col. Romeo Dallaire, has done)? Given what we saw in Bosnia and Rwanda, can we believe or hope that a U.N. force sent to Darfur would really act to stop the genocide there?
I have thought about these questions more than most. I served as a U.N. civil affairs officer in Bosnia for much of the 3 1/2 years of war. My colleagues and I received the waves of women and children expelled from Srebrenica before their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons were executed. About a week later, I found myself in Srebrenica's neighboring enclave of Zepa, face to face with Mladic, an architect of the massacres. While his forces were finishing the slaughter in Srebrenica, he had turned his sights on Zepa's Muslim men. The Muslim commander, Col. Avdo Palic, saved his soldiers by hiding them in the forests while he stayed behind to negotiate with Mladic. A colleague and I watched and protested, vainly, as Palic was seized by Serb troops from our collapsed U.N. compound and taken away (and likely killed). Because of this experience, and my feelings of responsibility toward Palic, I continue to ask why we let Srebrenica happen, and why we don't act to prevent other tragedies. Over time, I've come up with three answers.
First, not all those who enter the world of peacekeeping and nation building do so out of noble motives. The U.N. is hardly the only international organization that attracts people (particularly from countries with limited opportunities) who are motivated, instead, by the pay, which is reliable and relatively high. Even Westerners often decide whether to join a U.N. or other mission after checking out the level of the per diem, which is often taken as tax-free income. Someone who is primarily interested in financial or career gains is unlikely to rock the boat, even if it's flagrantly off course. Inevitably, some U.N. staffers who knew, after three years of Serb defiance, that the Bosnia policy was wrong still went along with it. It will always be difficult to find people willing to go to remote and dangerous places. But overdoing the incentives can attract the wrong kind of staff and reinforce the wrong kind of motivations.
Second, even the vast majority who are motivated by the desire to do good may still find their principles compromised or confused by organizational loyalty. Many on the staff of the senior U.N. official in the former Yugoslavia, the Japanese diplomat Yasushi Akashi, internalized his overarching priority: to protect the U.N.'s neutrality and "even-handedness" by avoiding the use of force against the Serbs. Consistently, they rebuffed those who did advocate force (like the U.N.'s military commander in Bosnia, Gen. Rupert Smith), and toned down reports sent to New York to maintain the premise that "all sides were equally guilty."
In one case, a zealous mid-level U.N. official even tried to block the deployment of peacekeepers to protect a hospital in Bihac, another collapsing "safe area" in which I served. As approaching Serb forces lobbed artillery shells at the hospital, we urged the U.N. mission headquarters to let us send a unit to defend the patients, noting that hospitals were protected areas under the Geneva Conventions. The responding official, scrupulously adhering to policy, argued that we had no basis to deploy because the U.N. itself is not a party to the Geneva Conventions. (Fortunately, the U.N. commander ignored the specious reasoning and dispatched the peacekeepers. The Serbs immediately ceased firing on the hospital.)
Like so many on the U.N. staff, the headquarters official had put protecting the organization above protectingcivilians. Ironically, such action instead left the U.N.'s reputation in tatters. Unfortunately, senior U.N. officials still peddle the line that the Secretariat was merely the "servant" of a divided Security Council that failed to provide the U.N. with enough resources in Srebrenica. In fact, the Secretariat independently resisted any use of force in Bosnia, including NATO airpower that could have more than compensated for shortfalls on the ground. For the sake of current and future U.N. missions, it is essential that the organization not turn explanations about Srebrenica into excuses.
The third and least understood factor in collective passivity toward evil is the prevalent taboo against "getting emotional" about death and tragedy. While there is always a risk of rushing to judgment or allowing particularly graphic evidence to cloud decision-making, the greater risk is from exaggerated clinical detachment. Without a sense of guided outrage, of empathy for the victims of abuse, organization staff, even human rights workers, are prone to "move on" and accept it when bureaucracies shrug their shoulders.
For much of the war in Bosnia, U.N. mission staff were based in the Croatian capital of Zagreb -- physically and emotionally distanced from the suffering of the Bosnian people. From the time I first found myself in the war zone of Sarajevo in the summer of 1992, I was stunned by the bland demurral that headquarters reflexively issued when we sought action from the peacekeepers: "It's not in our mandate." After the war, officials frequently declined to investigate alleged abuses with a new mantra: "We can't deal with individual cases."
But mandates (which are often vague and subject to interpretation) or resource limitations (which depend on effort and imagination as much as equipment or staff) rarely impose an absolute bar against getting involved. An egregious example occurred in Macedonia in 2002, after a police death squad gunned down seven Pakistani migrants. Macedonian officials tried to present the victims as international terrorists intercepted on a failed bid to blow up the U.S. Embassy. The case immediately raised suspicion. Yet the lead international entity on police matters in Macedonia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, declined to investigate, splitting hairs over whether or not it had a human rights mandate. Clearly, it is important to maintain a cool head in a crisis, but excising all emotion leads to bureaucratic disinterest, injustice and tragedy.
War-time intervention and postwar nation building can present excruciatingly difficult challenges and choices. Conflicts, even in the same region, can differ greatly and defy categorization, making it hard to transplant lessons and foolhardy to impose doctrine. And it will always be tempting to put protecting the organization ahead of protecting the local populace. But the colossal failure in Srebrenica is a reminder that where lives are in peril, officials, at all levels, must honestly examine their motives and priorities -- and those of their leaders. After Srebrenica, following the company line can never again be an excuse.
Author's e-mail:
edwardpjoseph@yahoo.com
Edward Joseph served in the Balkans from 1992 to 2003, on active duty with the U.S. Army and with the United Nations, the International Crisis Group and several relief agencies.
By Edward P. Joseph
Post
Sunday, July 10, 2005; B04
In the video, the Serbs take their time, cracking jokes and taunting the Muslim men they've trucked to a field outside a small hamlet in Eastern Bosnia. Then the joking stops. One by one, the victims, their hands tied behind their backs, are shot at close range -- all but two. "You're the winners," the Serbs tell this pair, and order them to carry the bodies of their comrades into a house. Then the Serbs gun them down, too.
The recently discovered video, broadcast last month in Serbia, is sickening proof of what happened to the Muslim men of Srebrenica 10 years ago. Tomorrow, world leaders and dignitaries will gather to remember the approximately 7,800 men and boys who were murdered there by Serbian troops in the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II. And once again, they'll be asking themselves why it happened -- and offering incomplete answers.
Srebrenica is unforgettable not only for its scale, but because, unlike the present genocide going on in Sudan's Darfur region, it happened while the international community and the world media were deeply engaged in Bosnia. The United Nations had declared Srebrenica a "safe area" -- a specially protected site backed up by U.N. peacekeepers on the ground and NATO strike planes in the air. Yet the Serbs managed to seize it anyway. The question that has haunted Srebrenica ever since -- as it haunts other places where officials watch as victims suffer -- is: Why was there no will to act to prevent the tragedy?
Understandably, the blame has focused on high-level organizational and governmental leaders. Kofi Annan, then the head of the U.N.'s Department of Peacekeeping Operations, released a scathing report in 1999 and apologized on behalf of the organization for its failure in Srebrenica. European leaders and officials who will beat the 10th anniversary commemoration will almost certainly acknowledge how much more their countries might have done to avert the tragedy. A chorus of speakers will decry Serbia's failure, even after release of the video, to apologize for the crimes, and NATO's failure to arrest the war-time Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
But preventing another tragedy means understanding where and how not just organizations, but also individuals -- at all levels -- have failed. What about the critical layer of mid-level U.N. officials who helped perpetuate a policy in Bosnia that was steadfast only in its opposition to NATO intervention and culminated in a catastrophe that remains a permanent stain on the institution? Did those officials believe in the policy? Or did many of them just go along? Why have so few expressed regret or shame at what happened on their watch (as the Canadian peacekeeper in Rwanda, Col. Romeo Dallaire, has done)? Given what we saw in Bosnia and Rwanda, can we believe or hope that a U.N. force sent to Darfur would really act to stop the genocide there?
I have thought about these questions more than most. I served as a U.N. civil affairs officer in Bosnia for much of the 3 1/2 years of war. My colleagues and I received the waves of women and children expelled from Srebrenica before their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons were executed. About a week later, I found myself in Srebrenica's neighboring enclave of Zepa, face to face with Mladic, an architect of the massacres. While his forces were finishing the slaughter in Srebrenica, he had turned his sights on Zepa's Muslim men. The Muslim commander, Col. Avdo Palic, saved his soldiers by hiding them in the forests while he stayed behind to negotiate with Mladic. A colleague and I watched and protested, vainly, as Palic was seized by Serb troops from our collapsed U.N. compound and taken away (and likely killed). Because of this experience, and my feelings of responsibility toward Palic, I continue to ask why we let Srebrenica happen, and why we don't act to prevent other tragedies. Over time, I've come up with three answers.
First, not all those who enter the world of peacekeeping and nation building do so out of noble motives. The U.N. is hardly the only international organization that attracts people (particularly from countries with limited opportunities) who are motivated, instead, by the pay, which is reliable and relatively high. Even Westerners often decide whether to join a U.N. or other mission after checking out the level of the per diem, which is often taken as tax-free income. Someone who is primarily interested in financial or career gains is unlikely to rock the boat, even if it's flagrantly off course. Inevitably, some U.N. staffers who knew, after three years of Serb defiance, that the Bosnia policy was wrong still went along with it. It will always be difficult to find people willing to go to remote and dangerous places. But overdoing the incentives can attract the wrong kind of staff and reinforce the wrong kind of motivations.
Second, even the vast majority who are motivated by the desire to do good may still find their principles compromised or confused by organizational loyalty. Many on the staff of the senior U.N. official in the former Yugoslavia, the Japanese diplomat Yasushi Akashi, internalized his overarching priority: to protect the U.N.'s neutrality and "even-handedness" by avoiding the use of force against the Serbs. Consistently, they rebuffed those who did advocate force (like the U.N.'s military commander in Bosnia, Gen. Rupert Smith), and toned down reports sent to New York to maintain the premise that "all sides were equally guilty."
In one case, a zealous mid-level U.N. official even tried to block the deployment of peacekeepers to protect a hospital in Bihac, another collapsing "safe area" in which I served. As approaching Serb forces lobbed artillery shells at the hospital, we urged the U.N. mission headquarters to let us send a unit to defend the patients, noting that hospitals were protected areas under the Geneva Conventions. The responding official, scrupulously adhering to policy, argued that we had no basis to deploy because the U.N. itself is not a party to the Geneva Conventions. (Fortunately, the U.N. commander ignored the specious reasoning and dispatched the peacekeepers. The Serbs immediately ceased firing on the hospital.)
Like so many on the U.N. staff, the headquarters official had put protecting the organization above protectingcivilians. Ironically, such action instead left the U.N.'s reputation in tatters. Unfortunately, senior U.N. officials still peddle the line that the Secretariat was merely the "servant" of a divided Security Council that failed to provide the U.N. with enough resources in Srebrenica. In fact, the Secretariat independently resisted any use of force in Bosnia, including NATO airpower that could have more than compensated for shortfalls on the ground. For the sake of current and future U.N. missions, it is essential that the organization not turn explanations about Srebrenica into excuses.
The third and least understood factor in collective passivity toward evil is the prevalent taboo against "getting emotional" about death and tragedy. While there is always a risk of rushing to judgment or allowing particularly graphic evidence to cloud decision-making, the greater risk is from exaggerated clinical detachment. Without a sense of guided outrage, of empathy for the victims of abuse, organization staff, even human rights workers, are prone to "move on" and accept it when bureaucracies shrug their shoulders.
For much of the war in Bosnia, U.N. mission staff were based in the Croatian capital of Zagreb -- physically and emotionally distanced from the suffering of the Bosnian people. From the time I first found myself in the war zone of Sarajevo in the summer of 1992, I was stunned by the bland demurral that headquarters reflexively issued when we sought action from the peacekeepers: "It's not in our mandate." After the war, officials frequently declined to investigate alleged abuses with a new mantra: "We can't deal with individual cases."
But mandates (which are often vague and subject to interpretation) or resource limitations (which depend on effort and imagination as much as equipment or staff) rarely impose an absolute bar against getting involved. An egregious example occurred in Macedonia in 2002, after a police death squad gunned down seven Pakistani migrants. Macedonian officials tried to present the victims as international terrorists intercepted on a failed bid to blow up the U.S. Embassy. The case immediately raised suspicion. Yet the lead international entity on police matters in Macedonia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, declined to investigate, splitting hairs over whether or not it had a human rights mandate. Clearly, it is important to maintain a cool head in a crisis, but excising all emotion leads to bureaucratic disinterest, injustice and tragedy.
War-time intervention and postwar nation building can present excruciatingly difficult challenges and choices. Conflicts, even in the same region, can differ greatly and defy categorization, making it hard to transplant lessons and foolhardy to impose doctrine. And it will always be tempting to put protecting the organization ahead of protecting the local populace. But the colossal failure in Srebrenica is a reminder that where lives are in peril, officials, at all levels, must honestly examine their motives and priorities -- and those of their leaders. After Srebrenica, following the company line can never again be an excuse.
Author's e-mail:
edwardpjoseph@yahoo.com
Edward Joseph served in the Balkans from 1992 to 2003, on active duty with the U.S. Army and with the United Nations, the International Crisis Group and several relief agencies.
PICTURE OF THE DAY - KOSOVO SHOWS SOLIDARITY WITH LONDON
A Kosovo Albanian child lights a candle in Kosovo's capital Pristina on Friday, July 8, 2005 in a show of solidarity with the people of London following Thursday's explosions in the underground trains and a double-decker bus. More than 50 people died in four terrorist bombings in London, but emergency workers have not been able to reach some of the dead deep underground in a subway car because of fears the tunnel could collapse, the city's police chief said Friday..(AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Hardline Serbs defiant before Srebrenica memorial
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Several thousand hardline Serbian nationalists gathered on Saturday to commemorate Serb victims of the Yugoslav wars in a defiant gesture ahead of the anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims.
Led by the ultra-nationalist Radical Party and the top ranks of the Orthodox Christian church, they packed a convention center on the banks of the Sava river to listen to patriotic speeches and watch a documentary of Serb suffering in the wars.
Seated in the two front rows were well-known defenders of Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic as well as supporters of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serb leader now on trial for genocide in The Hague.
Senior Radical Party official Aleksanadar Vucic read out a letter to the rally from party leader Vojislav Seselj, who is in detention in The Hague awaiting trial on war crimes charges.
"With this film about crimes against Serbs we are showing who were the real victims in this war," Vucic told the Belgrade tabloid Srpski Nacional.
"We are in an absurd situation where no one talks about crimes against Serbs. We offered this film to TV stations but they refused to show it, while they looped film about Srebrenica day in and day out."
The documentary, entitled "The Truth," was a compilation of old images, much of it familiar state propaganda from the Milosevic era. Richard Wagner's 'Ride of the Valkyries' and Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana' provided a dramatic musical background.
The event was broadcast live by three television channels, including Belgrade-based BK television which has a nationwide coverage. State television showed nothing.
Serbia was embarrassed internationally in June when parliament failed to adopt a resolution on the 10th anniversary of Srebrenica. Hardliners refused to single out the massacre, insisting the war crimes committed by all sides were equal.
The Radicals dispute the finding of independent historians that Serb forces were responsible for the majority of civilian deaths and atrocities in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo between 1991 and 1999. Some deny a massacre even took place. Former Bosnian Serb 'president' Karadzic and his army commander General Mladic are indicted for the Srebrenica slaughter in mid-July 1995, in the final months of the war.
In Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, Muslim males captured when Serb forces overran the U.N. "safe area" in eastern Bosnia were executed systematically over a period of several days and bulldozed into mass graves.
Led by the ultra-nationalist Radical Party and the top ranks of the Orthodox Christian church, they packed a convention center on the banks of the Sava river to listen to patriotic speeches and watch a documentary of Serb suffering in the wars.
Seated in the two front rows were well-known defenders of Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic as well as supporters of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serb leader now on trial for genocide in The Hague.
Senior Radical Party official Aleksanadar Vucic read out a letter to the rally from party leader Vojislav Seselj, who is in detention in The Hague awaiting trial on war crimes charges.
"With this film about crimes against Serbs we are showing who were the real victims in this war," Vucic told the Belgrade tabloid Srpski Nacional.
"We are in an absurd situation where no one talks about crimes against Serbs. We offered this film to TV stations but they refused to show it, while they looped film about Srebrenica day in and day out."
The documentary, entitled "The Truth," was a compilation of old images, much of it familiar state propaganda from the Milosevic era. Richard Wagner's 'Ride of the Valkyries' and Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana' provided a dramatic musical background.
The event was broadcast live by three television channels, including Belgrade-based BK television which has a nationwide coverage. State television showed nothing.
Serbia was embarrassed internationally in June when parliament failed to adopt a resolution on the 10th anniversary of Srebrenica. Hardliners refused to single out the massacre, insisting the war crimes committed by all sides were equal.
The Radicals dispute the finding of independent historians that Serb forces were responsible for the majority of civilian deaths and atrocities in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo between 1991 and 1999. Some deny a massacre even took place. Former Bosnian Serb 'president' Karadzic and his army commander General Mladic are indicted for the Srebrenica slaughter in mid-July 1995, in the final months of the war.
In Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, Muslim males captured when Serb forces overran the U.N. "safe area" in eastern Bosnia were executed systematically over a period of several days and bulldozed into mass graves.
Discomfort over Serb visit to site of massacre
By Eric Jansson in Belgrade
Published: July 9 2005 03:00 | Last updated: July 9 2005 03:00
When Bosnians gather in Srebrenica on Monday to remember the most gruesome atrocity seen in Europe since the second world war, many will pay close attention to the words of a controversial guest.
ADVERTISEMENT
Boris Tadic, the reformist president of neighbouring Serbia, is due to become the first leader from Belgrade to visit the eastern Bosnian town since Serb security forces slaughtered an estimated 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys there under the protection of United Nations peacekeepers, 10 years ago to the day.
Mr Tadic's aides say he plans to "pay tribute to the innocent victims" - an uncontroversial step already taken two years ago by Bosnian Serb leaders at the eight-year anniversary of the killings.
But the precedent provides limited relief - Mr Tadic's presence and the whole commemoration itself is guaranteed to generate deeply uncomfortable feelings for those attending and many more watching on television in the former Yugoslavia, for whom the mere mention of Srebrenica conjures up shameful memories.
Abdurahman Malkic, Srebrenica's mayor, has extended an unambiguous welcome to Mr Tadic. The president's plan to visit "shows that he is distancing himself from the policy personified by his predecessors", he told Bosnian state radio.
Mr Malkic draws a clear distinction between the views of Mr Tadic, whose previously conciliatory gestures toward Bosnia include a repentant visit to Sarajevo, and the wartime policies of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president on trial in The Hague for war crimes committed in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
Whereas Mr Tadic has apologised for Serbia's role in the massacre and expresses outrage at mounting evidence showing Serb forces took part, Mr Milosevic even now lays the blame on "foreign agents".
But Mr Malkic's moderacy has not spared him from the anger of local victims' rights groups - including the influential Mothers of Srebrenica - who have branded his plan a "deliberate provocation". They accuse him of a nationalist plot to incorporate Srebrenica into "Serb holy land".
The disagreement highlights how shattered Srebrenica remains a decade after the killings. Its ethnic balance has been altered, apparently irrevocably. Before the war, the town was home to more than 36,000 people including a majority of Bosnjaks, as traditionally Muslim Bosnians are known. Today some 6,000 Serbs comprise the largest element.
Bosnians complain frequently that the Dayton accords, signed to end the Bosnian war just months after the killings, froze the results of "ethnic cleansing" on all sides.
When Mr Tadic arrives in the town, he faces an uphill battle speaking to Bosnjaks frustrated by their losses and by continued failures to apprehend Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, inndicted for Bosnian Serb war crimes.
Maximising the drama, international prosecutors at The Hague last month released a videotape showing members of the Scorpions, a wartime unit attached to Serbian police in Belgrade, summarily executing six Bosnjak prisoners, identified as men and boys from Srebrenica.
The footage appeared to obliterate Mr Milosevic's claim that Belgrade was not involved, though the former president has clung to his case. Serbs were shocked, but not because Mr Milosevic's credibility again came under attack, says Ljiljana Smajlovic, chief correspondent for the independent Belgrade magazine NIN. "They were shocked to see Serbs behave as cowardly thugs, chewing gum and shooting 16-year-olds in the back."
Unless his trip is called off, Mr Tadic risks paying a heavy political price. Merely emerging unscathed will constitute victory.
Published: July 9 2005 03:00 | Last updated: July 9 2005 03:00
When Bosnians gather in Srebrenica on Monday to remember the most gruesome atrocity seen in Europe since the second world war, many will pay close attention to the words of a controversial guest.
ADVERTISEMENT
Boris Tadic, the reformist president of neighbouring Serbia, is due to become the first leader from Belgrade to visit the eastern Bosnian town since Serb security forces slaughtered an estimated 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys there under the protection of United Nations peacekeepers, 10 years ago to the day.
Mr Tadic's aides say he plans to "pay tribute to the innocent victims" - an uncontroversial step already taken two years ago by Bosnian Serb leaders at the eight-year anniversary of the killings.
But the precedent provides limited relief - Mr Tadic's presence and the whole commemoration itself is guaranteed to generate deeply uncomfortable feelings for those attending and many more watching on television in the former Yugoslavia, for whom the mere mention of Srebrenica conjures up shameful memories.
Abdurahman Malkic, Srebrenica's mayor, has extended an unambiguous welcome to Mr Tadic. The president's plan to visit "shows that he is distancing himself from the policy personified by his predecessors", he told Bosnian state radio.
Mr Malkic draws a clear distinction between the views of Mr Tadic, whose previously conciliatory gestures toward Bosnia include a repentant visit to Sarajevo, and the wartime policies of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president on trial in The Hague for war crimes committed in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
Whereas Mr Tadic has apologised for Serbia's role in the massacre and expresses outrage at mounting evidence showing Serb forces took part, Mr Milosevic even now lays the blame on "foreign agents".
But Mr Malkic's moderacy has not spared him from the anger of local victims' rights groups - including the influential Mothers of Srebrenica - who have branded his plan a "deliberate provocation". They accuse him of a nationalist plot to incorporate Srebrenica into "Serb holy land".
The disagreement highlights how shattered Srebrenica remains a decade after the killings. Its ethnic balance has been altered, apparently irrevocably. Before the war, the town was home to more than 36,000 people including a majority of Bosnjaks, as traditionally Muslim Bosnians are known. Today some 6,000 Serbs comprise the largest element.
Bosnians complain frequently that the Dayton accords, signed to end the Bosnian war just months after the killings, froze the results of "ethnic cleansing" on all sides.
When Mr Tadic arrives in the town, he faces an uphill battle speaking to Bosnjaks frustrated by their losses and by continued failures to apprehend Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, inndicted for Bosnian Serb war crimes.
Maximising the drama, international prosecutors at The Hague last month released a videotape showing members of the Scorpions, a wartime unit attached to Serbian police in Belgrade, summarily executing six Bosnjak prisoners, identified as men and boys from Srebrenica.
The footage appeared to obliterate Mr Milosevic's claim that Belgrade was not involved, though the former president has clung to his case. Serbs were shocked, but not because Mr Milosevic's credibility again came under attack, says Ljiljana Smajlovic, chief correspondent for the independent Belgrade magazine NIN. "They were shocked to see Serbs behave as cowardly thugs, chewing gum and shooting 16-year-olds in the back."
Unless his trip is called off, Mr Tadic risks paying a heavy political price. Merely emerging unscathed will constitute victory.
Why has Jessen-Petersen blocked the start of pilot-projects?
Citing ‘reliable sources’, Zëri reports on the front page that the SRSG has not been willing to sign the administrative order for the start of pilot projects on decentralisation. Mentioning some of the reasons of such a position, the paper says that first of all the UNMIK chief hasn’t managed to include Kosovo Serb politicians in this process. Belgrade has constantly refused Jessen-Petersen’s offer for Serbian politicians to participate in the working groups as advisors or experts. The Serbian Government on several occasions has called on Kosovo Serb politicians to boycott the process.
Another problem, according to the paper, is that the residents of the areas foreseen as pilot projects must agree with the proposal of the Kosovo Government to be part of the project. While the residents of Partes (in Gjilan municipality) have embraced the offer, the residents of Gracanica have not done so.
Zëri says that the SRSG seems to have taken into consideration the problems in the political relations between the government and the opposition. According to the paper, there is uncertainty even within the government about the initial number of pilot projects. In fact, says the newspaper, PM Kosumi has announced that two pilot projects would be implemented in the beginning (Gracanica and Hani i Elezit), whereas the Local Government Ministry has sent proposals for five pilot projects to the SRSG
Another problem, according to the paper, is that the residents of the areas foreseen as pilot projects must agree with the proposal of the Kosovo Government to be part of the project. While the residents of Partes (in Gjilan municipality) have embraced the offer, the residents of Gracanica have not done so.
Zëri says that the SRSG seems to have taken into consideration the problems in the political relations between the government and the opposition. According to the paper, there is uncertainty even within the government about the initial number of pilot projects. In fact, says the newspaper, PM Kosumi has announced that two pilot projects would be implemented in the beginning (Gracanica and Hani i Elezit), whereas the Local Government Ministry has sent proposals for five pilot projects to the SRSG
Contact Group calls on Government to step up decentralisation
Koha Ditore reports on the front page that the Kosovo Government and the UN have decided to step up the implementation of pilot projects for decentralisation after constant pressure by Western diplomats. The paper notes that this was announced after a meeting held yesterday between PM Kosumi and PDSRSG Rossin.
Several dailies report on the front pages that US Under-Secretary of State Nicholas has telephoned PM Kosumi yesterday calling on him to step up the process of decentralisation.
Government spokesman Daut Dauti told the media that Western diplomats have sent a clear message that ‘the time has come to start the process as soon as possible.’
According to Zëri, PM Kosumi and Local Government Minister Haziri will meet today with the SRSG to discuss the preliminary modalities of the first two pilot projects.
According to Express, the government is having difficulties to find people from the minority communities to work in the councils of the new municipalities. EU representatives, claims the paper, have called for the involvement of Oliver Ivanovic or at least Randjel Nojkic in this matter.
Epoka e Re claims that the government is on the eve of failure regarding the pilot projects. ‘The government is caught in the crossfire. On the one hand, there is growing international pressure to start the implementation of pilot projects, whereas on the other hand, the opposition is attacking it for surpassing its competencies and for endangering the future of the country,’ the paper elaborates.
Epoka e Re also carries a column which criticizes PM Kosumi for signing decisions that ‘damage Kosovo and the absolute majority’.
Several dailies report on the front pages that US Under-Secretary of State Nicholas has telephoned PM Kosumi yesterday calling on him to step up the process of decentralisation.
Government spokesman Daut Dauti told the media that Western diplomats have sent a clear message that ‘the time has come to start the process as soon as possible.’
According to Zëri, PM Kosumi and Local Government Minister Haziri will meet today with the SRSG to discuss the preliminary modalities of the first two pilot projects.
According to Express, the government is having difficulties to find people from the minority communities to work in the councils of the new municipalities. EU representatives, claims the paper, have called for the involvement of Oliver Ivanovic or at least Randjel Nojkic in this matter.
Epoka e Re claims that the government is on the eve of failure regarding the pilot projects. ‘The government is caught in the crossfire. On the one hand, there is growing international pressure to start the implementation of pilot projects, whereas on the other hand, the opposition is attacking it for surpassing its competencies and for endangering the future of the country,’ the paper elaborates.
Epoka e Re also carries a column which criticizes PM Kosumi for signing decisions that ‘damage Kosovo and the absolute majority’.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Albania vote keeps EU door ajar - BBC
By Paulin Kola
BBC News
The elections were not a trauma this time
Regardless of the colour and hue of Albania's next government, it is now quite clear that the Balkan country has voted for change.
And the magnitude of this change is more significant than a mere rotation of governing parties and leaders.
The first litmus test came on Monday morning when - palpably relieved - voters went to work instead of flooding the streets to protest or watching apprehensively from behind window curtains.
"It's business as usual," analyst Lutfi Dervishi told BBC News as he left Tirana to train young journalists in southern Albania.
This is a man who has spent many a long night reporting on post-election chaos and outright violence.
Stark message
But this is a post-election scene Albanians are not used to.
Each of the previous polls produced turmoil - the losers unable to accept defeat and the winners thumbing their noses after an often rigged, violated and tainted ballot that set them on course towards enjoying the spoils of power.
This time both sides have pledged to accept the verdict of the electorate - and, more importantly, this verdict appears to reflect the will of the people.
This is no mean achievement in a country that risked being daubed in a permanent marker as master fraudster.
Many will be trying to gauge if the change in the man [Berisha] is real and long-lasting.
The persistent and pronounced lack of political will to hold a free election had forced the European Union to be crudely undiplomatic in threatening to close the door to Albania's Stabilisation and Association Agreement - the antechamber to club membership.
Prime Minister Fatos Nano could not afford to ignore so stark a message - and neither could his eternal nemesis, former President Sali Berisha. Despite the raised tones of the campaign, both men clearly instructed their followers to show restraint.
Both men then went on to break the law by claiming early victory - even though Mr Nano went on to say: "Meeting the standards in this election is more important than the results.
"The winner of this election is democracy itself. I am delighted that Albania... opened the last door to association and integration into the EU and Nato."
But as has often been the case, the two sides met half way through.
International election observers did not have glowing praise for the poll that complied "only partially" with agreed democratic standards.
Polling day itself "showed only limited progress over previous elections", the observers said in their preliminary report - noting the incident in central Tirana where a local monitor was shot dead.
Berisha 're-invented'
Early results suggest Albania's next government may be led by opposition leader Sali Berisha, the man forced out of the office of president in 1997 when Albania imploded in violence after the collapse of pyramid investment schemes - set up with Mr Berisha's blessing.
Since then, he has led a vociferous opposition to Mr Nano's government, slowly moving from his trademark charisma and aggressive demeanour to more muted tones.
Albania has changed much under Mr Nano - it is no longer the poorest country in Europe, the economy has done well, and there is generally a more open and liberal society.
Mr Berisha's behaviour will be closely watched by the man holding the EU door ajar - Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana
But the prime minister's campaign tilted disproportionately towards the negative - Mr Nano banked too much on reminding Albanians of the painful memories of 1997.
For his part, the opposition leader was keen to stress he had changed - he told the BBC his target was to "overcome myself".
He won plaudits and votes after co-opting young professionals to work out a government programme and submit it to the electorate - another first for Albania.
And he followed this with re-opening the door to fellow founders of his Democratic Party who had been forced out by what they saw as Mr Berisha's stubborn autocracy.
Many will be trying to gauge if the change in the man is real and long-lasting.
If he becomes prime minister, the more anxious civil service will wait to see whether a partisan purge begins like in the past.
Nano and Berisha have been sworn enemies all along
More widely, voters will want to observe whether the autocracy that came into existence during Mr Berisha's previous tenure and which instilled great fear among political opponents is revived.
Mr Nano's immediate fate will be closely watched - not least in Western capitals. Mr Berisha has vowed to root out corruption - as well as to punish the prime minister he accuses of sitting at its top.
A previous Berisha administration jailed Mr Nano in 1993 in what was seen as political witch-hunt that backfired.
The Democratic leader may want to think twice about a repetition of history.
But he may be well advised to keep his promise to root out corruption - Albania's cancer that has spread through its weakened limbs.
In any event, Albania's next prime minister will be closely watched by the man holding the EU door ajar - Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana.
At the moment, Mr Solana does not appear to be overly impressed.
After all, the election process ran aground in the final counting period - a clear violation of the law - sparking off traditional bickering and accusations of interference with the free vote and preparing the ground for contesting the result.
This will not win the country any brownie points in Brussels and its leaders will have to work a lot harder to push that EU door open.
BBC News
The elections were not a trauma this time
Regardless of the colour and hue of Albania's next government, it is now quite clear that the Balkan country has voted for change.
And the magnitude of this change is more significant than a mere rotation of governing parties and leaders.
The first litmus test came on Monday morning when - palpably relieved - voters went to work instead of flooding the streets to protest or watching apprehensively from behind window curtains.
"It's business as usual," analyst Lutfi Dervishi told BBC News as he left Tirana to train young journalists in southern Albania.
This is a man who has spent many a long night reporting on post-election chaos and outright violence.
Stark message
But this is a post-election scene Albanians are not used to.
Each of the previous polls produced turmoil - the losers unable to accept defeat and the winners thumbing their noses after an often rigged, violated and tainted ballot that set them on course towards enjoying the spoils of power.
This time both sides have pledged to accept the verdict of the electorate - and, more importantly, this verdict appears to reflect the will of the people.
This is no mean achievement in a country that risked being daubed in a permanent marker as master fraudster.
Many will be trying to gauge if the change in the man [Berisha] is real and long-lasting.
The persistent and pronounced lack of political will to hold a free election had forced the European Union to be crudely undiplomatic in threatening to close the door to Albania's Stabilisation and Association Agreement - the antechamber to club membership.
Prime Minister Fatos Nano could not afford to ignore so stark a message - and neither could his eternal nemesis, former President Sali Berisha. Despite the raised tones of the campaign, both men clearly instructed their followers to show restraint.
Both men then went on to break the law by claiming early victory - even though Mr Nano went on to say: "Meeting the standards in this election is more important than the results.
"The winner of this election is democracy itself. I am delighted that Albania... opened the last door to association and integration into the EU and Nato."
But as has often been the case, the two sides met half way through.
International election observers did not have glowing praise for the poll that complied "only partially" with agreed democratic standards.
Polling day itself "showed only limited progress over previous elections", the observers said in their preliminary report - noting the incident in central Tirana where a local monitor was shot dead.
Berisha 're-invented'
Early results suggest Albania's next government may be led by opposition leader Sali Berisha, the man forced out of the office of president in 1997 when Albania imploded in violence after the collapse of pyramid investment schemes - set up with Mr Berisha's blessing.
Since then, he has led a vociferous opposition to Mr Nano's government, slowly moving from his trademark charisma and aggressive demeanour to more muted tones.
Albania has changed much under Mr Nano - it is no longer the poorest country in Europe, the economy has done well, and there is generally a more open and liberal society.
Mr Berisha's behaviour will be closely watched by the man holding the EU door ajar - Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana
But the prime minister's campaign tilted disproportionately towards the negative - Mr Nano banked too much on reminding Albanians of the painful memories of 1997.
For his part, the opposition leader was keen to stress he had changed - he told the BBC his target was to "overcome myself".
He won plaudits and votes after co-opting young professionals to work out a government programme and submit it to the electorate - another first for Albania.
And he followed this with re-opening the door to fellow founders of his Democratic Party who had been forced out by what they saw as Mr Berisha's stubborn autocracy.
Many will be trying to gauge if the change in the man is real and long-lasting.
If he becomes prime minister, the more anxious civil service will wait to see whether a partisan purge begins like in the past.
Nano and Berisha have been sworn enemies all along
More widely, voters will want to observe whether the autocracy that came into existence during Mr Berisha's previous tenure and which instilled great fear among political opponents is revived.
Mr Nano's immediate fate will be closely watched - not least in Western capitals. Mr Berisha has vowed to root out corruption - as well as to punish the prime minister he accuses of sitting at its top.
A previous Berisha administration jailed Mr Nano in 1993 in what was seen as political witch-hunt that backfired.
The Democratic leader may want to think twice about a repetition of history.
But he may be well advised to keep his promise to root out corruption - Albania's cancer that has spread through its weakened limbs.
In any event, Albania's next prime minister will be closely watched by the man holding the EU door ajar - Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana.
At the moment, Mr Solana does not appear to be overly impressed.
After all, the election process ran aground in the final counting period - a clear violation of the law - sparking off traditional bickering and accusations of interference with the free vote and preparing the ground for contesting the result.
This will not win the country any brownie points in Brussels and its leaders will have to work a lot harder to push that EU door open.
Late 2005 Seen as Critical Time for Kosovo Independence - VOA
By Barry Wood
Sarajevo
08 July 2005
The remainder of 2005 is regarded as a critical period for making progress in resolving the final status of Kosovo, the southern Serbian province that has been under United Nations administration since 1999.
The international community is in the midst of evaluating whether Kosovo should be put on a path that could lead to independence. A determination on whether to move forward will be made in the next few months. The territory's 90 percent Albanian population wants full independence, something opposed by Serbia. Steven Meyer, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst now a professor at Washington's National Defense University, says with the United States focused on bigger security issues in Afghanistan and Iraq, wants to pull back from its decade long military involvement in the Balkans.
"The Bush administration, clearly, by its own admission, wants out of this part of the world," said Mr. Meyer. "They want to turn it over to the Europeans. They've said that many times. And there is an interesting undelie to that. And that is, we turn this over to someone else. We don't turn it over to the people in the region. We turn it over to the west Europeans. So, once again, what we're talking about is we're turning from one great power sitting on the region to another great power sitting on the region."
Phillip Henderson, Washington director of the German Marshall Fund, which is playing a policy advocacy role in the Balkans, has a more positive assessment. He believes it is possible to craft a settlement that would be grudgingly accepted by both Kosovo's Albanian population and Belgrade. Mr. Henderson says the most important incentive Europe can offer the Balkans is the prospect of eventual membership in the European Union.
"Some sort of measured independence for Kosovo with a strong international monitoring or a strong international presence sustained over the medium term is both necessary and likely," said Mr. Henderson. "I think it will only become clear once the European Union sorts out its own internal problems, what their posture ends up being towards having the appetite for further enlargement."
Even though French and Dutch rejection of the proposed European Union constitution has called ambitious EU plans to extend membership to the entire Balkan region into question, it does seem likely that Bulgaria and Romania will enter the EU by 2008. Mr. Henderson believes that development will offer strong encouragement to the western Balkans.
"I view the Balkans as including not just the western Balkans where look at the former Yugoslavia and all the problems there, but including Romania and Bulgaria. And certainly those are two success stories that can have positive influence beyond their borders," he added.
While there is some optimism concerning Kosovo, there is little hope that nearby Bosnia-Herzegovina will soon become a viable nation. Since an accord reached in Dayton, Ohio ten years ago ended ethnic warfare there, Bosnia has remained a divided state under international control. Serbs, Muslims and Croats are no longer fighting, but relations between the ethnic groups remain difficult. Steven Meyer of the National Defense University says Bosnia suffers from not having a government that is able to impose its authority and remains dependent on international assistance.
"So when you look at a lot of the dynamics-social, military, economic, political-there is very little integration within Bosnia as a state. It remains, in my opinion, one of the colossal failures of American diplomacy," noted Mr. Meyer.
Next door, Serbia itself is still recovering from the wars associated with its former leader Slobodan Milosevic, who is on trial for war crimes in the Hague. The democratic reformers who currently lead Serbia speak only tentatively of Serbia's responsibility for the wars that tore apart Yugoslavia. While the government of Vojislav Kostunica has significantly boosted cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal and turned over several indictees, it still has not apprehended Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general thought to be responsible for the murder of at least seven thousand Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica exactly ten years ago.
General Mladic is believed to have eluded capture thus far, in part, because he has been protected by elements of the Serbian army. Serbian leaders have been told by the United States and the European Union that Serbia will not fully be accepted into the community of nations until the perpetrators of the Srebrenic massacre are brought to justice.
Sarajevo
08 July 2005
The remainder of 2005 is regarded as a critical period for making progress in resolving the final status of Kosovo, the southern Serbian province that has been under United Nations administration since 1999.
The international community is in the midst of evaluating whether Kosovo should be put on a path that could lead to independence. A determination on whether to move forward will be made in the next few months. The territory's 90 percent Albanian population wants full independence, something opposed by Serbia. Steven Meyer, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst now a professor at Washington's National Defense University, says with the United States focused on bigger security issues in Afghanistan and Iraq, wants to pull back from its decade long military involvement in the Balkans.
"The Bush administration, clearly, by its own admission, wants out of this part of the world," said Mr. Meyer. "They want to turn it over to the Europeans. They've said that many times. And there is an interesting undelie to that. And that is, we turn this over to someone else. We don't turn it over to the people in the region. We turn it over to the west Europeans. So, once again, what we're talking about is we're turning from one great power sitting on the region to another great power sitting on the region."
Phillip Henderson, Washington director of the German Marshall Fund, which is playing a policy advocacy role in the Balkans, has a more positive assessment. He believes it is possible to craft a settlement that would be grudgingly accepted by both Kosovo's Albanian population and Belgrade. Mr. Henderson says the most important incentive Europe can offer the Balkans is the prospect of eventual membership in the European Union.
"Some sort of measured independence for Kosovo with a strong international monitoring or a strong international presence sustained over the medium term is both necessary and likely," said Mr. Henderson. "I think it will only become clear once the European Union sorts out its own internal problems, what their posture ends up being towards having the appetite for further enlargement."
Even though French and Dutch rejection of the proposed European Union constitution has called ambitious EU plans to extend membership to the entire Balkan region into question, it does seem likely that Bulgaria and Romania will enter the EU by 2008. Mr. Henderson believes that development will offer strong encouragement to the western Balkans.
"I view the Balkans as including not just the western Balkans where look at the former Yugoslavia and all the problems there, but including Romania and Bulgaria. And certainly those are two success stories that can have positive influence beyond their borders," he added.
While there is some optimism concerning Kosovo, there is little hope that nearby Bosnia-Herzegovina will soon become a viable nation. Since an accord reached in Dayton, Ohio ten years ago ended ethnic warfare there, Bosnia has remained a divided state under international control. Serbs, Muslims and Croats are no longer fighting, but relations between the ethnic groups remain difficult. Steven Meyer of the National Defense University says Bosnia suffers from not having a government that is able to impose its authority and remains dependent on international assistance.
"So when you look at a lot of the dynamics-social, military, economic, political-there is very little integration within Bosnia as a state. It remains, in my opinion, one of the colossal failures of American diplomacy," noted Mr. Meyer.
Next door, Serbia itself is still recovering from the wars associated with its former leader Slobodan Milosevic, who is on trial for war crimes in the Hague. The democratic reformers who currently lead Serbia speak only tentatively of Serbia's responsibility for the wars that tore apart Yugoslavia. While the government of Vojislav Kostunica has significantly boosted cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal and turned over several indictees, it still has not apprehended Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general thought to be responsible for the murder of at least seven thousand Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica exactly ten years ago.
General Mladic is believed to have eluded capture thus far, in part, because he has been protected by elements of the Serbian army. Serbian leaders have been told by the United States and the European Union that Serbia will not fully be accepted into the community of nations until the perpetrators of the Srebrenic massacre are brought to justice.
U.N. moves quickly to calm Kosovo after drownings
By Branislav Krstic
MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - The United Nations moved quickly to calm Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority on Friday after three children drowned in a village where a similar incident last March sparked deadly riots.
"This was an accidental drowning. There was no foul play," U.N. police spokesman Larry Miller said just an hour after the deaths of the Albanian children were reported.
He spoke to Kosovo's public radio and television, which also reported Monday's deaths as an accident. The U.N. mission later issued a statement stressing no foul play was suspected.
All three children were under the age of five. They were playing unattended in a water-filled pit behind their home in the northern village of Cabra, near Mitrovica, Miller said.
In March 2004, the drowning of three children from the same village in the nearby Ibar River lit the fuse for two days of devastating riots triggered by reports that Serbs with a dog had chased the children into the river.
U.N. police said there was no evidence to substantiate the charge, but their assurances came too late and 19 people died as Albanian mobs overran Serb enclaves in an orgy of looting and arson -- the worst violence since the 1998-99 war.
A report later strongly criticized the U.N. and NATO peacekeepers for failing to realize how explosive the incident was and take action to head off rumors that triggered the wave of anger.
The United Nations is on the alert for any unrest in Kosovo as it reviews whether enough progress has been made on security and minority rights for negotiations to begin on its "final status" -- independence, as Albanians want, or some high degree of autonomy acceptable to Serbia.
The province of two million people became a de facto U.N. protectorate in 1999 after 11 weeks of NATO bombing drove out Serb forces accused of atrocities against ethnic Albanian civilians as they battled to crush a separatist insurgency. (Additional reporting by Matthew Robinson)
MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - The United Nations moved quickly to calm Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority on Friday after three children drowned in a village where a similar incident last March sparked deadly riots.
"This was an accidental drowning. There was no foul play," U.N. police spokesman Larry Miller said just an hour after the deaths of the Albanian children were reported.
He spoke to Kosovo's public radio and television, which also reported Monday's deaths as an accident. The U.N. mission later issued a statement stressing no foul play was suspected.
All three children were under the age of five. They were playing unattended in a water-filled pit behind their home in the northern village of Cabra, near Mitrovica, Miller said.
In March 2004, the drowning of three children from the same village in the nearby Ibar River lit the fuse for two days of devastating riots triggered by reports that Serbs with a dog had chased the children into the river.
U.N. police said there was no evidence to substantiate the charge, but their assurances came too late and 19 people died as Albanian mobs overran Serb enclaves in an orgy of looting and arson -- the worst violence since the 1998-99 war.
A report later strongly criticized the U.N. and NATO peacekeepers for failing to realize how explosive the incident was and take action to head off rumors that triggered the wave of anger.
The United Nations is on the alert for any unrest in Kosovo as it reviews whether enough progress has been made on security and minority rights for negotiations to begin on its "final status" -- independence, as Albanians want, or some high degree of autonomy acceptable to Serbia.
The province of two million people became a de facto U.N. protectorate in 1999 after 11 weeks of NATO bombing drove out Serb forces accused of atrocities against ethnic Albanian civilians as they battled to crush a separatist insurgency. (Additional reporting by Matthew Robinson)
Remembering Srebrenica
Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees
SREBRENICA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 8 (UNHCR) – The view from Jasmin Muminovic's home across the Drina River is one of the most spectacularly beautiful panoramas in the Balkans. But the 33-year-old former soldier sees only nightmares.
Jasmin was severely wounded while serving as a soldier in the national army in the very early days of a series of wars which ripped apart the old Yugoslav Republic in the 1990s and created a series of new countries.
Invalided from the front in the newly declared independent state of Croatia to his native village, he discovered that his own homeland in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina had also plunged into war. Within days, he and nearly 50 fellow Muslims, or Bosniaks, were rounded up by their old neighbours and new enemies, ethnic Bosnian Serb troops.
The majority of the Bosniak male prisoners were summarily executed. Jasmin was spared by a fluke of war at the last moment when his captors spotted his old Yugoslav army pack and freed him in a moment of mercy.
Further tragedy befell the Muminovic family, however, when Jasmin's brother was killed as the fighting continued. Jasmin eventually ended up defending an obscure village tucked snugly into the hills of eastern Bosnia which would soon become a worldwide symbol of the depravity of the conflict, the emergence of a chilling tactic of war which became known as 'ethnic cleansing,' and the failure of the international community to protect an innocent civilian population despite solemn promises to do just that.
Ultimately, the impending catastrophe also hastened the intervention of U.S. and NATO forces, an end to the fighting and the start of attempts to patch the region together again.
Genocide
Srebrenica entered the world's conscience during its darkest moment. On July 11, 1995, Serb units which had besieged the region for months – an area the U.N. had declared a protected zone – overran the town. Jasmin and thousands of other men escaped through the surrounding forests and hills. After seven days of running a gauntlet of ambushes, feints, hand-to-hand fighting, eating only unripe fruits and leaves along the escape trail, Jasmin reached safety and, as he described it recently, "I escaped from hell to heaven in a few short seconds." Many of his colleagues were cut down in the fighting or were captured and executed.
In Srebrencia, women and children and the men who stayed behind fled in panic as the Serbs advanced, down the only road out of town to the headquarters of a battalion of Dutch soldiers who were there obstensibly to protect them. As the outnumbered U.N. blue berets watched haplessly, men and young boys were ruthlessly separated from the females, marched away and subsequently massacred over a five-day period.
Nearly 8,000 civilians were slaughtered in the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague last year judged the action as genocide.
On Monday, July 11, the town and a chastened international community commemorate the 10th anniversary of the massacre. Some 1,326 victims exhumed from more than 60 mass graves and whose remains were identified by DNA testing have already been buried at a memorial site a few miles down the valley from Srebrenica at a place called Potocari, directly opposite the brooding and abandoned headquarters of the Dutch troops in a former battery factory.
A further 610 victims are being buried during the remembrance service on Monday, expected to attract as many as 30,000 people, including surviving wives, daughters and children of the dead men, regional and international diplomats and statesmen.
Jasmin will not attend, left instead to brood with his own nightmares at his home, gazing across the Drina into neighbouring Serbia.
"I dream of dead bodies," he said. "I dream of dead friends, of endless war, of blood, of being hunted down."
A tragic symbol
Srebrenica is not only a symbol of the Balkans recent blood past, but also a gauge of how much progress, or lack of progress in the eyes of some analysts, has been made since the guns fell silent and the Dayton Peace Accord was initialled 10 years ago this coming November.
Physically, the town, a narrow strip of buildings running along a valley floor and surrounded by blood-soaked hills, still has the appearance of a battered ghost town. More than 6,000 buildings were destroyed in the municipality, and many remain gutted.
Security has improved, but remains fragile. Only days before the official commemoration, a large amount of explosives and detonators were discovered near to the burial site.
Before the war, 37,000 people lived in Srebrenica, 73 percent of them Bosniaks and 23 percent ethnic Serbs. Today, 6,000 Serbs and 4,000 Muslims live there, reflecting both the precipitous drop in the overall population and a major change in its ethnic makeup.
Survivors have been painfully slow to return.
"In 2001 we couldn't help any civilians because there were virtually no returnees to Srebenica to help," according to Udo Janz, the representative of the U.N. refugee agency in Bosnia. "We could count them on one hand."
Since then, the pace of return, both to Srebrenica and across Bosnia and Herzegovina, has picked up. Despite setbacks and an uncertain future, Janz insists that "what has happened in Bosnia and Srebrenica is, in many ways, a modest miracle."
Following a war in which at least 200,000 persons were killed, 2.2 million made homeless and an entire population deeply traumatized, "more than 1 million people in Bosnia have gone home in the last 10 years, even to a place where genocide took place," he said.
Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative of the international community, also used the word 'miracle' to describe an admittedly delicate situation: "The miracle in Bosnia is how much has been done in 10 years," he said. "A sixteenth of the population was killed, more than in France after World War II, half the population made homeless, 90 percent of the buildings destroyed. We have lost touch with how long it takes; healing is always measured in decades."
Jasmin Muminovic agrees that reconciliation will take a very, very long time.
"Not in my lifetime," he said. "Maybe in the lifetime of my grandchildren who will be able to forget what happened."
A major role
UNHCR has been involved in the Balkan crisis from its very earliest days. Along with other humanitarian agencies, it was helping as many as 3.5 million people throughout the entire region at the height of the crisis.
To feed its citizens, UNHCR launched a 3½-year airlift into the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo which eventually became the longest-running humanitarian air bridge in history.
After the Dayton Peace Accord was initialled on November 21, 1995, the refugee agency began to assist the huge population of civilians who had been uprooted in their own countries or who had fled as refugees to neighbouring states to go home.
In September last year, the agency officially announced that more than 1 million uprooted persons had returned to Bosnia, including nearly half a million to regions where they were in a minority and thus both more vulnerable and in need of more assistance and protection.
Several hundred thousand other displaced persons permanently settled overseas and dropped off the monitoring screens of agencies such as UNHCR.
Across Bosnia, around half of the estimated 500,000 homes damaged or destroyed during the fighting have been repaired, according to Janz, as an estimated $5 billion in international aid flooded into the country.
The U.N. refugee agency itself spent an estimated $500 million since Dayton came into effect on housing reconstruction, de-mining programmes, essential infrastructure repair, establishing a legal aid network, the provision of basic humanitarian assistance, and other quick support projects.
The number of troops from the United States, Europe and other countries sent to enforce security dropped from a high of 69,000 to a current level of around 7,000 as the overall situation improved.
But the situation remains fragile. Nearly 300,000 civilians are still waiting to go home, though Bosnia and neighbouring Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro earlier this year agreed to try to get everyone back to their towns and villages by the end of 2006.
UNHCR has been reducing its own presence and programmes for the last several years and will continue to do so.
The massive inflow of international aid is steadily declining and the economy is barely limping along. The national unemployment rate is around 40 percent and up to 50 percent of the population live at or below the poverty line.
"A couple of years ago the overriding issue was security, security, security," Udo Janz said. "Today it is the economy, stupid."
The new buzz word in Bosnia is 'sustainability' – whether the gains achieved in the last few years can be maintained in such an unfavorable economic climate or whether the country could begin to backslide.
If overall security has improved immeasurably, some 10,000 suspected war criminals remain at large and true closure may never be achieved until at least many of them are called to answer for their crimes.
At the Srebrenica memorial, a marble obelisk spells out both a hope and a warning to future generations:
May grievance become hope
May revenge become justice
May mothers' tears become prayers
That Srebrenica
Never happens again
To no one and nowhere
At the foot of the plinth, a large bunch of red roses lie wilted in the warm summer sunshine.
By Ray Wilkinson
in Srebrenica
SREBRENICA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 8 (UNHCR) – The view from Jasmin Muminovic's home across the Drina River is one of the most spectacularly beautiful panoramas in the Balkans. But the 33-year-old former soldier sees only nightmares.
Jasmin was severely wounded while serving as a soldier in the national army in the very early days of a series of wars which ripped apart the old Yugoslav Republic in the 1990s and created a series of new countries.
Invalided from the front in the newly declared independent state of Croatia to his native village, he discovered that his own homeland in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina had also plunged into war. Within days, he and nearly 50 fellow Muslims, or Bosniaks, were rounded up by their old neighbours and new enemies, ethnic Bosnian Serb troops.
The majority of the Bosniak male prisoners were summarily executed. Jasmin was spared by a fluke of war at the last moment when his captors spotted his old Yugoslav army pack and freed him in a moment of mercy.
Further tragedy befell the Muminovic family, however, when Jasmin's brother was killed as the fighting continued. Jasmin eventually ended up defending an obscure village tucked snugly into the hills of eastern Bosnia which would soon become a worldwide symbol of the depravity of the conflict, the emergence of a chilling tactic of war which became known as 'ethnic cleansing,' and the failure of the international community to protect an innocent civilian population despite solemn promises to do just that.
Ultimately, the impending catastrophe also hastened the intervention of U.S. and NATO forces, an end to the fighting and the start of attempts to patch the region together again.
Genocide
Srebrenica entered the world's conscience during its darkest moment. On July 11, 1995, Serb units which had besieged the region for months – an area the U.N. had declared a protected zone – overran the town. Jasmin and thousands of other men escaped through the surrounding forests and hills. After seven days of running a gauntlet of ambushes, feints, hand-to-hand fighting, eating only unripe fruits and leaves along the escape trail, Jasmin reached safety and, as he described it recently, "I escaped from hell to heaven in a few short seconds." Many of his colleagues were cut down in the fighting or were captured and executed.
In Srebrencia, women and children and the men who stayed behind fled in panic as the Serbs advanced, down the only road out of town to the headquarters of a battalion of Dutch soldiers who were there obstensibly to protect them. As the outnumbered U.N. blue berets watched haplessly, men and young boys were ruthlessly separated from the females, marched away and subsequently massacred over a five-day period.
Nearly 8,000 civilians were slaughtered in the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague last year judged the action as genocide.
On Monday, July 11, the town and a chastened international community commemorate the 10th anniversary of the massacre. Some 1,326 victims exhumed from more than 60 mass graves and whose remains were identified by DNA testing have already been buried at a memorial site a few miles down the valley from Srebrenica at a place called Potocari, directly opposite the brooding and abandoned headquarters of the Dutch troops in a former battery factory.
A further 610 victims are being buried during the remembrance service on Monday, expected to attract as many as 30,000 people, including surviving wives, daughters and children of the dead men, regional and international diplomats and statesmen.
Jasmin will not attend, left instead to brood with his own nightmares at his home, gazing across the Drina into neighbouring Serbia.
"I dream of dead bodies," he said. "I dream of dead friends, of endless war, of blood, of being hunted down."
A tragic symbol
Srebrenica is not only a symbol of the Balkans recent blood past, but also a gauge of how much progress, or lack of progress in the eyes of some analysts, has been made since the guns fell silent and the Dayton Peace Accord was initialled 10 years ago this coming November.
Physically, the town, a narrow strip of buildings running along a valley floor and surrounded by blood-soaked hills, still has the appearance of a battered ghost town. More than 6,000 buildings were destroyed in the municipality, and many remain gutted.
Security has improved, but remains fragile. Only days before the official commemoration, a large amount of explosives and detonators were discovered near to the burial site.
Before the war, 37,000 people lived in Srebrenica, 73 percent of them Bosniaks and 23 percent ethnic Serbs. Today, 6,000 Serbs and 4,000 Muslims live there, reflecting both the precipitous drop in the overall population and a major change in its ethnic makeup.
Survivors have been painfully slow to return.
"In 2001 we couldn't help any civilians because there were virtually no returnees to Srebenica to help," according to Udo Janz, the representative of the U.N. refugee agency in Bosnia. "We could count them on one hand."
Since then, the pace of return, both to Srebrenica and across Bosnia and Herzegovina, has picked up. Despite setbacks and an uncertain future, Janz insists that "what has happened in Bosnia and Srebrenica is, in many ways, a modest miracle."
Following a war in which at least 200,000 persons were killed, 2.2 million made homeless and an entire population deeply traumatized, "more than 1 million people in Bosnia have gone home in the last 10 years, even to a place where genocide took place," he said.
Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative of the international community, also used the word 'miracle' to describe an admittedly delicate situation: "The miracle in Bosnia is how much has been done in 10 years," he said. "A sixteenth of the population was killed, more than in France after World War II, half the population made homeless, 90 percent of the buildings destroyed. We have lost touch with how long it takes; healing is always measured in decades."
Jasmin Muminovic agrees that reconciliation will take a very, very long time.
"Not in my lifetime," he said. "Maybe in the lifetime of my grandchildren who will be able to forget what happened."
A major role
UNHCR has been involved in the Balkan crisis from its very earliest days. Along with other humanitarian agencies, it was helping as many as 3.5 million people throughout the entire region at the height of the crisis.
To feed its citizens, UNHCR launched a 3½-year airlift into the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo which eventually became the longest-running humanitarian air bridge in history.
After the Dayton Peace Accord was initialled on November 21, 1995, the refugee agency began to assist the huge population of civilians who had been uprooted in their own countries or who had fled as refugees to neighbouring states to go home.
In September last year, the agency officially announced that more than 1 million uprooted persons had returned to Bosnia, including nearly half a million to regions where they were in a minority and thus both more vulnerable and in need of more assistance and protection.
Several hundred thousand other displaced persons permanently settled overseas and dropped off the monitoring screens of agencies such as UNHCR.
Across Bosnia, around half of the estimated 500,000 homes damaged or destroyed during the fighting have been repaired, according to Janz, as an estimated $5 billion in international aid flooded into the country.
The U.N. refugee agency itself spent an estimated $500 million since Dayton came into effect on housing reconstruction, de-mining programmes, essential infrastructure repair, establishing a legal aid network, the provision of basic humanitarian assistance, and other quick support projects.
The number of troops from the United States, Europe and other countries sent to enforce security dropped from a high of 69,000 to a current level of around 7,000 as the overall situation improved.
But the situation remains fragile. Nearly 300,000 civilians are still waiting to go home, though Bosnia and neighbouring Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro earlier this year agreed to try to get everyone back to their towns and villages by the end of 2006.
UNHCR has been reducing its own presence and programmes for the last several years and will continue to do so.
The massive inflow of international aid is steadily declining and the economy is barely limping along. The national unemployment rate is around 40 percent and up to 50 percent of the population live at or below the poverty line.
"A couple of years ago the overriding issue was security, security, security," Udo Janz said. "Today it is the economy, stupid."
The new buzz word in Bosnia is 'sustainability' – whether the gains achieved in the last few years can be maintained in such an unfavorable economic climate or whether the country could begin to backslide.
If overall security has improved immeasurably, some 10,000 suspected war criminals remain at large and true closure may never be achieved until at least many of them are called to answer for their crimes.
At the Srebrenica memorial, a marble obelisk spells out both a hope and a warning to future generations:
May grievance become hope
May revenge become justice
May mothers' tears become prayers
That Srebrenica
Never happens again
To no one and nowhere
At the foot of the plinth, a large bunch of red roses lie wilted in the warm summer sunshine.
By Ray Wilkinson
in Srebrenica
Srebrenica: Lessons of a terrible blunder- The International Herald Tribune
Alexander Ivanko International Herald Tribune
SATURDAY, JULY 9, 2005
VIENNA Monday is the 10th anniversary of the greatest European tragedy since World War II, the fall of a Bosnian Muslim enclave called Srebrenica to Bosnian Serbs, who went on to massacre thousands of men and boys.
At the time I was the UN spokesman in Sarajevo. That spring our military analysts had predicted the fall of the three eastern enclaves still held by the Muslims - Gorazde, Srebrenica and Zepa - which had been declared "UN safe areas" and were surrounded by Bosnian Serb troops.
The reason was clear: the Bosnian Serb army could no longer sustain control of these enclaves, continue the siege of Sarajevo and fight off attacks in Bihac in Western Bosnia, another UN safe area. The expected scenario: the Serbs would close down the eastern enclaves.
The UN Protection Force - several dozen contingents, some of them more loyal along national rather than international command lines, with a mixed bag of mandates, often contradictory - had to choose between major military operations against the Bosnian Serb army or trying to wiggle its way through with half-measures, some of them bordering on appeasement, to prevent a disaster.
The United Nations - all of us working then in Sarajevo - failed. No question about it.
The first reports that something awful had happened in Srebrenica began reaching the UN headquarters in Sarajevo after several days. They came from women who had reached Tuzla in eastern Bosnia and who told horror stories of being separated from their men, and of rumors of mass executions of the men.
We knew what the Bosnian Serb army was capable of. However even to the most hardened UN officials these reports seemed highly exaggerated. How wrong we were.
Many reports - by the UN, other international organizations, academics and the press - have written about the genocide in Srebrenica. Serbia has also started coming to terms with this crime. But what are the lessons learned? What should we do to prevent this from happening again? Darfur happened after Srebrenica. How do we deal with the genocidal instincts that just don't seem to go away?
One clear lesson is that at no point in the future should a peacekeeping force be sent to an ongoing conflict where it ends up trying to separate warring factions, deliver humanitarian aid, police safe areas, organize exchanges of bodies and prisoners, and perform many other functions. With so many tasks and too few resources, it is no wonder the UN failed.
If there is a need to send an international force into a war zone, let us leave this, excuse the expression, to coalitions of the willing, and not the wary. To forces equipped and trained to do the job, with rules of engagement more robust than those of the UN.
Such a force would have a much easier time apprehending war criminals such as Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb masterminds behind the Srebrenica genocide. It is incredible that thousands of NATO troops have failed for a decade to locate two individuals whose faces are well known worldwide. I hope they will be finally delivered to the International Tribunal in The Hague this year. One suggestion to tribunal officials: make sure that the bullet-proof glass that they will be sitting behind is very, very thick.
The United Nations, for its part, can offer assistance by pointing in the right direction: expect the next conflict to erupt here, watch out for an insurgency there. The information can be gathered at the many UN field operations, analyzed and fed to the force commanders.
One possibility is to establish a UN conflict prevention center which would unite under one umbrella the operational, intelligence and analytical capabilities of the UN.
Whatever we do, let us just make sure that we do not allow another such tragedy to happen. We have the resources. Let's use them and not look the other way again when a hideous crime is committed by one nation against another.
(Alexander Ivanko, a Russian journalist, was the UN spokesman in Sarajevo during the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.)
SATURDAY, JULY 9, 2005
VIENNA Monday is the 10th anniversary of the greatest European tragedy since World War II, the fall of a Bosnian Muslim enclave called Srebrenica to Bosnian Serbs, who went on to massacre thousands of men and boys.
At the time I was the UN spokesman in Sarajevo. That spring our military analysts had predicted the fall of the three eastern enclaves still held by the Muslims - Gorazde, Srebrenica and Zepa - which had been declared "UN safe areas" and were surrounded by Bosnian Serb troops.
The reason was clear: the Bosnian Serb army could no longer sustain control of these enclaves, continue the siege of Sarajevo and fight off attacks in Bihac in Western Bosnia, another UN safe area. The expected scenario: the Serbs would close down the eastern enclaves.
The UN Protection Force - several dozen contingents, some of them more loyal along national rather than international command lines, with a mixed bag of mandates, often contradictory - had to choose between major military operations against the Bosnian Serb army or trying to wiggle its way through with half-measures, some of them bordering on appeasement, to prevent a disaster.
The United Nations - all of us working then in Sarajevo - failed. No question about it.
The first reports that something awful had happened in Srebrenica began reaching the UN headquarters in Sarajevo after several days. They came from women who had reached Tuzla in eastern Bosnia and who told horror stories of being separated from their men, and of rumors of mass executions of the men.
We knew what the Bosnian Serb army was capable of. However even to the most hardened UN officials these reports seemed highly exaggerated. How wrong we were.
Many reports - by the UN, other international organizations, academics and the press - have written about the genocide in Srebrenica. Serbia has also started coming to terms with this crime. But what are the lessons learned? What should we do to prevent this from happening again? Darfur happened after Srebrenica. How do we deal with the genocidal instincts that just don't seem to go away?
One clear lesson is that at no point in the future should a peacekeeping force be sent to an ongoing conflict where it ends up trying to separate warring factions, deliver humanitarian aid, police safe areas, organize exchanges of bodies and prisoners, and perform many other functions. With so many tasks and too few resources, it is no wonder the UN failed.
If there is a need to send an international force into a war zone, let us leave this, excuse the expression, to coalitions of the willing, and not the wary. To forces equipped and trained to do the job, with rules of engagement more robust than those of the UN.
Such a force would have a much easier time apprehending war criminals such as Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb masterminds behind the Srebrenica genocide. It is incredible that thousands of NATO troops have failed for a decade to locate two individuals whose faces are well known worldwide. I hope they will be finally delivered to the International Tribunal in The Hague this year. One suggestion to tribunal officials: make sure that the bullet-proof glass that they will be sitting behind is very, very thick.
The United Nations, for its part, can offer assistance by pointing in the right direction: expect the next conflict to erupt here, watch out for an insurgency there. The information can be gathered at the many UN field operations, analyzed and fed to the force commanders.
One possibility is to establish a UN conflict prevention center which would unite under one umbrella the operational, intelligence and analytical capabilities of the UN.
Whatever we do, let us just make sure that we do not allow another such tragedy to happen. We have the resources. Let's use them and not look the other way again when a hideous crime is committed by one nation against another.
(Alexander Ivanko, a Russian journalist, was the UN spokesman in Sarajevo during the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.)
10 Years After Massacre, 2 Top Bosnian Serbs Still Hunted - The New York Times
By NICHOLAS WOOD and DAVID ROHDE
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 7 - With as many as 50,000 people expected to gather in Bosnia on Monday to mark the 10th anniversary of the killing of at least 7,000 Muslim men and boys in the Srebrenica area during the Bosnian war, Western diplomats and military officials are struggling to explain why the two Bosnian Serb leaders indicted in the killings remain at large.
For close to a decade, Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and his military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, have evaded capture in a compact area - Bosnia is half the size of Kentucky.
They are regarded as the two most wanted people in Europe since the end of World War II. Both are accused of genocide for seeking to exterminate large parts of Bosnia's Muslim population during the civil war of 1992 to 1995.
The failure to capture either man, despite the presence of thousands of peacekeepers in the region, has prompted indignation from Bosnian survivors as well as war crimes prosecutors. "You have a military alliance in Europe whose job it was to do so," said Michael Johnson, the former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, referring to NATO. "Why not?"
Mevludin Oric, who survived one of the mass executions at Srebrenica by hiding under his cousin's body for hours, said that as long as the two men remained free, the effort to prosecute war criminals in the Balkans would be a failure. "What kind of progress can it be when Karadzic and Mladic are still walking around 10 years later?" he said.
American and European commanders contend that they are getting closer to tracking down Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic and have carried out about 20 raids in the last six months on individuals and businesses suspected of helping war criminals hide. On Thursday, NATO forces detained Dr. Karadzic's son, Aleksander, on the ground that he had provided support to a war criminal, a spokesman said.
"It's terribly important to get these two guys, plus the others," said Douglas L. McElhany, the United States ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. "This is the major reason things can't go faster, if only in terms of on-the-ground reconciliation between Croatians, Bosnians and Serbs," the country's three ethnic groups.
But war crimes investigators and some NATO officials say the hunt continues to be held back by a lack of detailed and accurate intelligence.
"Myself, I evaluate it was not enough intelligence," said Carla Del Ponte, the current chief prosecutor at the war crimes tribunal, which has charged both men with genocide. She said further support from the United States was essential to arresting Dr. Karadzic in particular.
A NATO official based in Bosnia said cooperation among the military intelligence agencies of the various countries involved in the peacekeeping operation was poor. "They do complain bitterly that no one put the pieces together," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being reprimanded by his superiors.
Some Western diplomats contend that the best American intelligence assets have been focused on Iraq and Afghanistan and that private contractors have been used as part of the American intelligence-gathering operation in Bosnia.
"Their best assets are certainly not in Bosnia right now," said a European official who works closely with the international tribunal and who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared being reprimanded.
While hopes have risen recently that General Mladic, who is thought to be in Serbia, might surrender because of heightened political pressure on Serbian officials, which has led them to turn over a number of other men accused in the Srebrenica killings, there has been little headway on Dr. Karadzic.
The continued ability of Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic to remain at large is seen as holding back development in the countries formed by the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990's. American and European officials have made it clear that no country in the region will be allowed to join NATO or the European Union until they transfer all war crimes suspects to the tribunal, which is in The Hague.
The military effort to arrest the two men has been plagued by problems from the beginning. After 60,000 American and European troops were sent to Bosnia to enforce the Dayton peace agreement of 1995, Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic continued to move freely about the country. But divisions within NATO and fear of casualties ensured that no efforts were made to arrest them.
"At the beginning there was not the will to arrest them," Ms. Del Ponte said. "After, it changed a little bit, but it was a fear to have conflict - a confrontation with bodyguards, to have problems with soldiers, who could be killed."
While efforts were stepped up beginning in 1997, Dr. Karadzic showed little fear of being caught.
Copies of a half-dozen letters said to have been written by him, while in hiding, to his wife between April 2001 and December 2002 describe repeated visits by his wife and a planned visit with his daughter, both of whom have long been presumed to be under NATO surveillance.
The letters, which were seized by Western military forces and which war crimes investigators say they believe are authentic, were provided to The New York Times by an international official working to secure his arrest. Excerpts have also been published by Balkan and British news organizations.
In a letter dated June 21, 2002, a reference is made to NATO's seeming failure to realize that Dr. Karadzic's wife was visiting him. "They saw you before, but nobody made a connection before that you travel here and there," it says.
In a Sept. 6, 2002, letter he appears to caution her about the use of the telephone but said he was well protected. "Of course, caution is necessary," the letter says, "but there is no need for such fear and paranoia."
He also describes receiving phone calls, cards and gifts from his supporters and his wife. "The colored shirts are O.K., although they could be a little big," said a letter dated Dec. 18, 2002. "I also have sufficient socks for now."
About 7,000 peacekeeping troops remain in Bosnia, but in the last nine months, military officials and diplomats say, increased political pressure on Bosnia and on Serbia and Montenegro to cooperate with the tribunal has fundamentally changed the atmosphere.
Negotiation deadlines for Serbia to seek European Union membership and for Bosnia to join NATO have prompted the transfer of 23 war crimes suspects to The Hague in nine months. Both governments say they are working actively to turn General Mladic over to The Hague.
The European official who works closely with the tribunal said hopes for General Mladic's surrender were high, as he is thought to be hiding in Serbia, which wants to start negotiations for closer ties with the European Union. But there is little mention of Dr. Karadzic, whose whereabouts are unknown.
"Frankly, we don't expect much," the official said.
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 7 - With as many as 50,000 people expected to gather in Bosnia on Monday to mark the 10th anniversary of the killing of at least 7,000 Muslim men and boys in the Srebrenica area during the Bosnian war, Western diplomats and military officials are struggling to explain why the two Bosnian Serb leaders indicted in the killings remain at large.
For close to a decade, Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and his military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, have evaded capture in a compact area - Bosnia is half the size of Kentucky.
They are regarded as the two most wanted people in Europe since the end of World War II. Both are accused of genocide for seeking to exterminate large parts of Bosnia's Muslim population during the civil war of 1992 to 1995.
The failure to capture either man, despite the presence of thousands of peacekeepers in the region, has prompted indignation from Bosnian survivors as well as war crimes prosecutors. "You have a military alliance in Europe whose job it was to do so," said Michael Johnson, the former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, referring to NATO. "Why not?"
Mevludin Oric, who survived one of the mass executions at Srebrenica by hiding under his cousin's body for hours, said that as long as the two men remained free, the effort to prosecute war criminals in the Balkans would be a failure. "What kind of progress can it be when Karadzic and Mladic are still walking around 10 years later?" he said.
American and European commanders contend that they are getting closer to tracking down Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic and have carried out about 20 raids in the last six months on individuals and businesses suspected of helping war criminals hide. On Thursday, NATO forces detained Dr. Karadzic's son, Aleksander, on the ground that he had provided support to a war criminal, a spokesman said.
"It's terribly important to get these two guys, plus the others," said Douglas L. McElhany, the United States ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. "This is the major reason things can't go faster, if only in terms of on-the-ground reconciliation between Croatians, Bosnians and Serbs," the country's three ethnic groups.
But war crimes investigators and some NATO officials say the hunt continues to be held back by a lack of detailed and accurate intelligence.
"Myself, I evaluate it was not enough intelligence," said Carla Del Ponte, the current chief prosecutor at the war crimes tribunal, which has charged both men with genocide. She said further support from the United States was essential to arresting Dr. Karadzic in particular.
A NATO official based in Bosnia said cooperation among the military intelligence agencies of the various countries involved in the peacekeeping operation was poor. "They do complain bitterly that no one put the pieces together," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being reprimanded by his superiors.
Some Western diplomats contend that the best American intelligence assets have been focused on Iraq and Afghanistan and that private contractors have been used as part of the American intelligence-gathering operation in Bosnia.
"Their best assets are certainly not in Bosnia right now," said a European official who works closely with the international tribunal and who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared being reprimanded.
While hopes have risen recently that General Mladic, who is thought to be in Serbia, might surrender because of heightened political pressure on Serbian officials, which has led them to turn over a number of other men accused in the Srebrenica killings, there has been little headway on Dr. Karadzic.
The continued ability of Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic to remain at large is seen as holding back development in the countries formed by the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990's. American and European officials have made it clear that no country in the region will be allowed to join NATO or the European Union until they transfer all war crimes suspects to the tribunal, which is in The Hague.
The military effort to arrest the two men has been plagued by problems from the beginning. After 60,000 American and European troops were sent to Bosnia to enforce the Dayton peace agreement of 1995, Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic continued to move freely about the country. But divisions within NATO and fear of casualties ensured that no efforts were made to arrest them.
"At the beginning there was not the will to arrest them," Ms. Del Ponte said. "After, it changed a little bit, but it was a fear to have conflict - a confrontation with bodyguards, to have problems with soldiers, who could be killed."
While efforts were stepped up beginning in 1997, Dr. Karadzic showed little fear of being caught.
Copies of a half-dozen letters said to have been written by him, while in hiding, to his wife between April 2001 and December 2002 describe repeated visits by his wife and a planned visit with his daughter, both of whom have long been presumed to be under NATO surveillance.
The letters, which were seized by Western military forces and which war crimes investigators say they believe are authentic, were provided to The New York Times by an international official working to secure his arrest. Excerpts have also been published by Balkan and British news organizations.
In a letter dated June 21, 2002, a reference is made to NATO's seeming failure to realize that Dr. Karadzic's wife was visiting him. "They saw you before, but nobody made a connection before that you travel here and there," it says.
In a Sept. 6, 2002, letter he appears to caution her about the use of the telephone but said he was well protected. "Of course, caution is necessary," the letter says, "but there is no need for such fear and paranoia."
He also describes receiving phone calls, cards and gifts from his supporters and his wife. "The colored shirts are O.K., although they could be a little big," said a letter dated Dec. 18, 2002. "I also have sufficient socks for now."
About 7,000 peacekeeping troops remain in Bosnia, but in the last nine months, military officials and diplomats say, increased political pressure on Bosnia and on Serbia and Montenegro to cooperate with the tribunal has fundamentally changed the atmosphere.
Negotiation deadlines for Serbia to seek European Union membership and for Bosnia to join NATO have prompted the transfer of 23 war crimes suspects to The Hague in nine months. Both governments say they are working actively to turn General Mladic over to The Hague.
The European official who works closely with the tribunal said hopes for General Mladic's surrender were high, as he is thought to be hiding in Serbia, which wants to start negotiations for closer ties with the European Union. But there is little mention of Dr. Karadzic, whose whereabouts are unknown.
"Frankly, we don't expect much," the official said.
Kosovo Enterprise Sale Being Attempted
PRISTINA, (AP) - Authorities in Kosovo put a winery, a road construction company and more than a dozen other enterprises up for sale Friday, hoping to boost productivity and create jobs in this economically depressed province.
This is the seventh time the Kosovo Trust Agency has tried to sell the enterprises, which were once owned by their workers and managers under the system set up during communist-era Yugoslavia. The privatization agency is hoping 27 new companies will be created when the sales are complete.
Privatization is among the most sensitive issues in Kosovo, which was placed under U.N. administration in 1999 following NATO air strikes that ended a Serb crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
Authorities are eager to sell assets and companies to open investment opportunities in the impoverished province.
The Kosovo Trust Agency, the U.N. entity responsible for privatizing the enterprises and putting them on a solid legal footing, wants private entrepreneurs to assume the risk of modernizing the industries. The enterprises are inefficient and dilapidated after years of neglect.
Past efforts at selling such assets have been stymied because it is still unclear whether Kosovo will become independent or remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, the successor state of Yugoslavia. Serbia's authorities have fiercely opposed the privatizations, and some of the past sales have failed because private industry has expressed fears that the ownership will be disputed.
Earlier this year, the U.N. mission set new rules for the privatization process. With the new rules, the agency has earned the legal right to sell and determine the new owners of the companies.
The agency hopes the new powers will avert concerns from investors concerned that a change in the political landscape would rob them of their assets
This is the seventh time the Kosovo Trust Agency has tried to sell the enterprises, which were once owned by their workers and managers under the system set up during communist-era Yugoslavia. The privatization agency is hoping 27 new companies will be created when the sales are complete.
Privatization is among the most sensitive issues in Kosovo, which was placed under U.N. administration in 1999 following NATO air strikes that ended a Serb crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
Authorities are eager to sell assets and companies to open investment opportunities in the impoverished province.
The Kosovo Trust Agency, the U.N. entity responsible for privatizing the enterprises and putting them on a solid legal footing, wants private entrepreneurs to assume the risk of modernizing the industries. The enterprises are inefficient and dilapidated after years of neglect.
Past efforts at selling such assets have been stymied because it is still unclear whether Kosovo will become independent or remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, the successor state of Yugoslavia. Serbia's authorities have fiercely opposed the privatizations, and some of the past sales have failed because private industry has expressed fears that the ownership will be disputed.
Earlier this year, the U.N. mission set new rules for the privatization process. With the new rules, the agency has earned the legal right to sell and determine the new owners of the companies.
The agency hopes the new powers will avert concerns from investors concerned that a change in the political landscape would rob them of their assets
A chronicle of deaths foret - The Economist
As the tenth anniversary of the Balkan war's ghastliest episode is remembered, some hard questions still remain for the western powers
LIKE all monuments to great pain, the memorial and cemetery at Potocari, on the north side of Srebrenica, have an aura of their own. Their desolate dignity transcends every attempt to use them for political point-scoring. In the long, flat expanse of a former cornfield, with verdant hills rising on either side, lie a small flower-bed, a simple, open pavilion topped by a tiny Islamic crescent, and a plain stone slab inscribed with a Muslim invocation: “May revenge be turned into justice, may mothers' tears be turned into prayers that there should be no more Srebrenicas.”
Then there are the graves: about 1,300 of them so far, and space for many more as bodies are exhumed and identified. Rough mounds of earth, each with a tapering green headstone, with a name and date of birth: horribly often, the victims are teenage boys. Not many graves bear flowers, or signs of recent tending. In this place, where every other woman lost a husband, a father, and often several sons, most of the bereaved now live too far away (in Sarajevo, or even America) to come often.
Horror tales from Bosnia
Jul 7th 2005
Quarrels and memories still cloud Bosnia's future
Jun 9th 2005
NATO has background on the stabilisation force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Centre for Balkan Development has information about events related to the anniversary of Srebrenica. See also the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serbian government.
In the coming days, the cornfield will be thronged with people. Not only the families of the dead, but also dignitaries from all over the world will mark the tenth anniversary, on July 11th, of Europe's worst mass-killing since the second world war: the murder of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces, overseen by their commander, General Ratko Mladic. (The war-crimes court in The Hague has indicted 19 people for the massacre in Srebrenica, including General Mladic, one of three suspects who has so far eluded capture.) After the speeches at the cemetery, the important guests will disperse, and relatives will start digging a fresh round of graves for newly identified remains.
This hitherto tranquil area grabbed the world's attention in mid-1992, when Serb forces swept across east Bosnia, expelling, capturing or killing the non-Serbs in their path. Srebrenica was one of six towns which the United Nations, in a fudged response, vowed to keep safe and demilitarised. The town's capture by the Bosnian Serbs on July 11th 1995, followed by the slaughter of men and boys over the next five days, marked the end of a ramshackle UN peacekeeping operation and ushered in the final phase of the war, in which the Serbs were driven back to a point where peace terms seemed conceivable.
The region remains sullen and depressed. Its population is now about 10,000, down from 37,000 before the war: 6,000 are Serbs (some displaced from other parts of Bosnia) and 4,000 Muslim. Most Muslims are recent returnees to farms or flats from which they were ousted in 1992. Many of the area's villages were ruined by war and may never revive.
Muslims and Serbs continue, too, to nurse diametrically opposing versions of history. Take, for example, the nearby village of Kravica. In Muslim memory, the place is notorious because of an agricultural warehouse where, in July 1995, scores of men were killed with bullets and grenades. This was one of at least half a dozen places—along with a soccer field, a school, a quiet riverside, a bend in the road—where mass executions took place between July 12th and 17th. But local Serbs remember Kravica for a different reason. There, in January 1993, on the Orthodox Christmas Day, Muslim forces killed at least 30 people, some say 100. In deep denial of the crimes committed in their name, and dismayed by the world's apparent indifference to their own losses, they are erecting a concrete cross to commemorate their Christmas massacre.
The mayor of Srebrenica, Abdurahman Malkic, a young, jaunty Muslim politician, appears free of personal bitterness, despite his own narrow escape from death in 1995. He too, however, seems doubtful whether this bit of Bosnia can ever revert to its pre-war state. As he grumbles, only a fifth of the region's industrial capacity (based on mining, timber and food processing) is now being used. And it is hard to imagine that this can ever again be the sleepy, moderately prosperous land of hills and lakes where Christian and Muslim youngsters prayed separately but could still fish and flirt together.
Srebrenica's present doldrums are a microcosm of Bosnia as a whole, whose peace settlement imposes a dauntingly elaborate structure to balance ethnic interests. The town is part of the Serb republic (RS) which comprises just under half Bosnia's land, leaving the rest to a federation dominated by Muslims and Croats. Despite the efforts of Bosnia's international overlords, the pan-Bosnian institutions (grouping both the federation and the Serbs) are relatively toothless. As a place led locally by Muslims, Srebrenica gets little aid from the RS, and the other levels in Bosnia's hierarchy have no power to help.
Reliving horrors
In Srebrenica and the area north of it, almost every building tells a story. Many remain wrecked, or scarred by bullets and shells. Opposite the cemetery is the notorious car-battery factory which served as a base for 600 Dutch soldiers wearing the blue helmets of the UN. That was where thousands of terrified townsfolk headed on July 11th after the town was captured by the Serbs.
Reuters
Footage of hell
A few miles to the north lies the town of Bratunac, then and now a Serb stronghold. The Hotel Fontana is still doing decent business. That is where Serb generals engaged in ruthless, deceitful exchanges with Bosnian and UN leaders—with some captive Dutch soldiers sitting nearby to concentrate people's minds.
Thanks to hundreds of hours of testimony before the war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, it is now possible to piece together the outlines, at least, of what happened in these places. Momir Nikolic, a senior Serb soldier, has given a succinct and plausible version of events. On the morning of July 12th, he attended a meeting outside the Fontana with some fellow officers who told him what was now proposed:
The thousands of Muslim women and children in Potocari would be transported out of Potocari towards Muslim-held territory, [while] the able-bodied Muslim men within the crowd of Muslim civilians would be separated from the crowd, detained temporarily in Bratunac, and killed shortly thereafter.
Once the task had been made clear, certain details had to be discussed: where in Bratunac to keep the men before their execution, and then where to kill them. Nikolic suggested two schools and a hangar as detention centres, and for the killings he proposed a factory and a mine.
So much for the 2,000 or so men who were part of the crowd that was foolish enough to place itself under Dutch protection. The remainder of Srebrenica's victims were members of a 15,000-strong group of men and boys who began a desperate walk out of the town on the night of July 11th, once it became clear that the expected NATO bombs would not come.
AP
A continuing task
Using many tricks (including putting on stolen Dutch uniforms, which convinced some Muslims they were surrendering to the UN), the Serbs managed to capture several thousand of these fleeing men—and then kill them.
In mitigation, it is sometimes pointed out that over the previous three years the Muslim defenders of the enclave had made many forays into Serb villages, killing hundreds of people. These raids were led by Naser Oric, a local warlord who now faces war-crimes charges.
Hence, people argue, there was a strong desire on the part of ordinary Bosnian Serbs to take revenge for these killings. That is true, but it does not take away from the monstrosity of the Srebrenica slaughter. Far from being a flash of rage, the murders were ordered and carried out in a clinical, almost industrial manner—and filmed, for good measure. Then, in September, there was an equally well-organised operation to cover up the crime by burying the remains in fresh graves, sometimes breaking the bodies in the process. In the words of Jean-René Ruez, a French investigator, “The massacres took place over three days, July 14th, 15th and 16th, in a perfectly organised procedure, and on July 17th, all the graves were filled in.”
The horrors of Srebrenica accelerated a series of diplomatic and military events that brought the conflict to an end. Three weeks after the massacre, Croatia's American-trained army drove rebel Serb forces (and over 150,000 Serb civilians) out of its territory. That helped free the town of Bihac in north Bosnia from a Serb stranglehold. In late August, NATO began three weeks of air strikes against the Bosnian Serbs, while British and French artillery pounded Serb positions. That helped Bosnian forces break the siege of Sarajevo and, in partnership with Croat forces, roll back the Serbs until their share of Bosnian land had been cut from two-thirds to about half. For westerners, what followed Srebrenica seemed to change a vicious circle into a virtuous one.
The haunting questions
Yet wide-open questions remain about the massacre. Above all, could it have been avoided? To those who were closely involved, the Srebrenica events were in some respects a ghastly surprise, in other ways entirely predictable.
For the previous three years, the world's response to the Bosnian war had been an elaborate effort to dampen the fighting and mitigate its effects without actually intervening. This took the form of a UN operation which policed local ceasefires and distributed aid: a mission which had its own logic, and undoubtedly saved lives, but could not go on indefinitely. In spring 1995, signs appeared that a ruthless end-game was about to begin.
Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian-Serb leader (who is also wanted for war crimes by the tribunal in The Hague, but has vanished), issued a “presidential directive” calling for an attack on Srebrenica, designed to reduce its size and make life there intolerable. Rupert Smith, the British commander of UN forces in Bosnia, gave a semi-public warning in March 1995 that a stance based on mere peacekeeping would soon become untenable. Realising that the Dutch unit's role in Srebrenica risked becoming worse than useless, General Smith urged the Netherlands to consider two options: either standing firmer in defence of the enclave, or extracting its troops. Neither option was acceptable to the Dutch government.
The UN secretariat, in one of its more honest moments, said the defence of the so-called safe areas would be impossible unless member states contributed more troops. In another telling portent, the Bosnian government itself gave signals that it was open to territorial swaps, as part of a final settlement: for example, Srebrenica would be handed over to the Serbs in return for some other territorial prize, such as the Sarajevo suburb of Vogosca. Perhaps the most mysterious event in spring 1995 was the withdrawal from Srebrenica of its chief defender, Naser Oric.
Yet despite all these omens, the ease with which the town fell to the Serbs amazed even the best-informed of observers. They met no resistance on the ground or in the air. Even a modest show of force by NATO would have saved many lives; and a modest attempt by the town's local defenders to keep the attackers at bay would have bought some time, enough time to shame the world into intervening. Why did neither thing happen? The Bosnians held off from active defence because they thought NATO would provide air support; the UN refrained from seeking NATO support, at least in part, because it feared for the lives of the Dutch soldiers.
The Dutch have reluctantly blamed themselves, and been blamed by others, for failing to use whatever limited room for manoeuvre they had. A similar exercise in self-criticism was undertaken by the UN secretariat, and the diplomats and generals who acted in the UN's name, in the final days of its peace mission.
Whose responsibility?
But placing excessive blame on the UN as an institution is surely to miss the point. Especially in times of acute crisis, the UN tends to lose any collective identity of its own; everyone involved thinks first and foremost as a national of his or her own country. Whatever failed in Srebrenica, it was not the UN but its member governments, which might have intervened to save the menfolk of the town, but did not.
As insiders vividly recall, the Srebrenica crisis triggered a virtual breakdown in the UN's esprit de corps: General Bernard Janvier, the French head of UN operations in ex-Yugoslavia, was taking orders from Paris rather than UN headquarters in New York. If the French (both military and political) were reluctant to strike the Serbs, it was partly because they had worked very closely with the Serbian security chief, Jovica Stanisic, to secure the release of French and other UN soldiers taken hostage by the Bosnian Serbs in May. Meanwhile, General Cees Nicolai, the acting UN commander in Sarajevo, was thinking first as a Dutchman, with Dutch lives his main consideration.
Perhaps the hardest question of all is how much western governments knew, and when. The savviest Bosnians will tell you that from the moment Serb forces marched, unopposed, into Srebrenica, it was a chronicle of deaths foretold: an orgy of killing was entirely to be expected, and the Dutch (and other western governments) were being culpably naive when they accepted Serb promises to abide by the Geneva conventions on the treatment of prisoners-of-war and civilians.
If locals relying on their street-sense knew the score so well, how was it that western governments, with their panoply of signals intelligence, satellite photography and military observers, did not know what was going on—and if they did know, why was there such a deafening silence from western capitals during the five days after the enclave's capture, when the massacres were in progress? Is it too conspiratorial to suggest a link between the “usefulness” of Srebrenica's fate, and the fact that it was allowed, over five days, to unfold?
For many Bosnians, there are hard questions not just about the inaction of western governments, but about their own government's weakness of will. As a veteran of the Bosnian army who escaped death only by scrambling through the hillsides, with four companions, for a terrifying week, Mayor Malkic gives a disarmingly frank answer to these dilemmas. If Bosnian Muslims bear some blame for failing to protect Srebrenica, then the responsibility lies as heavily on people like himself, who were actively involved in its defence, as it does on the Sarajevo authorities. Having said that, “the Bosnian government bears a responsibility that cannot be avoided...[And] of course the main culprits are the aggressors, the Serbs.”
Visiting the cemetery in September 2003, Bill Clinton also gave a remarkably blunt, and politically astute, analysis of the political effects of the massacre. “Srebrenica”, he said, “was the beginning of the end of genocide in Europe. It enabled me to secure NATO support for the bombing that led to...peace.” In other words, without Srebrenica, America could not have won the support of its European allies for a sharp switch to a war-fighting (and thus war-ending) strategy in Bosnia.
On this reading, at least, Srebrenica was a sort of genocide to end all genocides (in one part of the world, anyway). It was also a necessary prerequisite to the dropping of the “bombs for peace”—which, by triggering a final, vast wave of forced population movement, left Bosnia's military balance, and above all its ethnic balance, in a state acceptable to the region's power-brokers.
For the bereaved mothers and widows who gather at the cemetery this week, that surely raises a hard question: was the shock of a massacre the only thing that could make the western powers change policy, and settle their own differences? Was there no other way?
LIKE all monuments to great pain, the memorial and cemetery at Potocari, on the north side of Srebrenica, have an aura of their own. Their desolate dignity transcends every attempt to use them for political point-scoring. In the long, flat expanse of a former cornfield, with verdant hills rising on either side, lie a small flower-bed, a simple, open pavilion topped by a tiny Islamic crescent, and a plain stone slab inscribed with a Muslim invocation: “May revenge be turned into justice, may mothers' tears be turned into prayers that there should be no more Srebrenicas.”
Then there are the graves: about 1,300 of them so far, and space for many more as bodies are exhumed and identified. Rough mounds of earth, each with a tapering green headstone, with a name and date of birth: horribly often, the victims are teenage boys. Not many graves bear flowers, or signs of recent tending. In this place, where every other woman lost a husband, a father, and often several sons, most of the bereaved now live too far away (in Sarajevo, or even America) to come often.
Horror tales from Bosnia
Jul 7th 2005
Quarrels and memories still cloud Bosnia's future
Jun 9th 2005
NATO has background on the stabilisation force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Centre for Balkan Development has information about events related to the anniversary of Srebrenica. See also the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serbian government.
In the coming days, the cornfield will be thronged with people. Not only the families of the dead, but also dignitaries from all over the world will mark the tenth anniversary, on July 11th, of Europe's worst mass-killing since the second world war: the murder of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces, overseen by their commander, General Ratko Mladic. (The war-crimes court in The Hague has indicted 19 people for the massacre in Srebrenica, including General Mladic, one of three suspects who has so far eluded capture.) After the speeches at the cemetery, the important guests will disperse, and relatives will start digging a fresh round of graves for newly identified remains.
This hitherto tranquil area grabbed the world's attention in mid-1992, when Serb forces swept across east Bosnia, expelling, capturing or killing the non-Serbs in their path. Srebrenica was one of six towns which the United Nations, in a fudged response, vowed to keep safe and demilitarised. The town's capture by the Bosnian Serbs on July 11th 1995, followed by the slaughter of men and boys over the next five days, marked the end of a ramshackle UN peacekeeping operation and ushered in the final phase of the war, in which the Serbs were driven back to a point where peace terms seemed conceivable.
The region remains sullen and depressed. Its population is now about 10,000, down from 37,000 before the war: 6,000 are Serbs (some displaced from other parts of Bosnia) and 4,000 Muslim. Most Muslims are recent returnees to farms or flats from which they were ousted in 1992. Many of the area's villages were ruined by war and may never revive.
Muslims and Serbs continue, too, to nurse diametrically opposing versions of history. Take, for example, the nearby village of Kravica. In Muslim memory, the place is notorious because of an agricultural warehouse where, in July 1995, scores of men were killed with bullets and grenades. This was one of at least half a dozen places—along with a soccer field, a school, a quiet riverside, a bend in the road—where mass executions took place between July 12th and 17th. But local Serbs remember Kravica for a different reason. There, in January 1993, on the Orthodox Christmas Day, Muslim forces killed at least 30 people, some say 100. In deep denial of the crimes committed in their name, and dismayed by the world's apparent indifference to their own losses, they are erecting a concrete cross to commemorate their Christmas massacre.
The mayor of Srebrenica, Abdurahman Malkic, a young, jaunty Muslim politician, appears free of personal bitterness, despite his own narrow escape from death in 1995. He too, however, seems doubtful whether this bit of Bosnia can ever revert to its pre-war state. As he grumbles, only a fifth of the region's industrial capacity (based on mining, timber and food processing) is now being used. And it is hard to imagine that this can ever again be the sleepy, moderately prosperous land of hills and lakes where Christian and Muslim youngsters prayed separately but could still fish and flirt together.
Srebrenica's present doldrums are a microcosm of Bosnia as a whole, whose peace settlement imposes a dauntingly elaborate structure to balance ethnic interests. The town is part of the Serb republic (RS) which comprises just under half Bosnia's land, leaving the rest to a federation dominated by Muslims and Croats. Despite the efforts of Bosnia's international overlords, the pan-Bosnian institutions (grouping both the federation and the Serbs) are relatively toothless. As a place led locally by Muslims, Srebrenica gets little aid from the RS, and the other levels in Bosnia's hierarchy have no power to help.
Reliving horrors
In Srebrenica and the area north of it, almost every building tells a story. Many remain wrecked, or scarred by bullets and shells. Opposite the cemetery is the notorious car-battery factory which served as a base for 600 Dutch soldiers wearing the blue helmets of the UN. That was where thousands of terrified townsfolk headed on July 11th after the town was captured by the Serbs.
Reuters
Footage of hell
A few miles to the north lies the town of Bratunac, then and now a Serb stronghold. The Hotel Fontana is still doing decent business. That is where Serb generals engaged in ruthless, deceitful exchanges with Bosnian and UN leaders—with some captive Dutch soldiers sitting nearby to concentrate people's minds.
Thanks to hundreds of hours of testimony before the war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, it is now possible to piece together the outlines, at least, of what happened in these places. Momir Nikolic, a senior Serb soldier, has given a succinct and plausible version of events. On the morning of July 12th, he attended a meeting outside the Fontana with some fellow officers who told him what was now proposed:
The thousands of Muslim women and children in Potocari would be transported out of Potocari towards Muslim-held territory, [while] the able-bodied Muslim men within the crowd of Muslim civilians would be separated from the crowd, detained temporarily in Bratunac, and killed shortly thereafter.
Once the task had been made clear, certain details had to be discussed: where in Bratunac to keep the men before their execution, and then where to kill them. Nikolic suggested two schools and a hangar as detention centres, and for the killings he proposed a factory and a mine.
So much for the 2,000 or so men who were part of the crowd that was foolish enough to place itself under Dutch protection. The remainder of Srebrenica's victims were members of a 15,000-strong group of men and boys who began a desperate walk out of the town on the night of July 11th, once it became clear that the expected NATO bombs would not come.
AP
A continuing task
Using many tricks (including putting on stolen Dutch uniforms, which convinced some Muslims they were surrendering to the UN), the Serbs managed to capture several thousand of these fleeing men—and then kill them.
In mitigation, it is sometimes pointed out that over the previous three years the Muslim defenders of the enclave had made many forays into Serb villages, killing hundreds of people. These raids were led by Naser Oric, a local warlord who now faces war-crimes charges.
Hence, people argue, there was a strong desire on the part of ordinary Bosnian Serbs to take revenge for these killings. That is true, but it does not take away from the monstrosity of the Srebrenica slaughter. Far from being a flash of rage, the murders were ordered and carried out in a clinical, almost industrial manner—and filmed, for good measure. Then, in September, there was an equally well-organised operation to cover up the crime by burying the remains in fresh graves, sometimes breaking the bodies in the process. In the words of Jean-René Ruez, a French investigator, “The massacres took place over three days, July 14th, 15th and 16th, in a perfectly organised procedure, and on July 17th, all the graves were filled in.”
The horrors of Srebrenica accelerated a series of diplomatic and military events that brought the conflict to an end. Three weeks after the massacre, Croatia's American-trained army drove rebel Serb forces (and over 150,000 Serb civilians) out of its territory. That helped free the town of Bihac in north Bosnia from a Serb stranglehold. In late August, NATO began three weeks of air strikes against the Bosnian Serbs, while British and French artillery pounded Serb positions. That helped Bosnian forces break the siege of Sarajevo and, in partnership with Croat forces, roll back the Serbs until their share of Bosnian land had been cut from two-thirds to about half. For westerners, what followed Srebrenica seemed to change a vicious circle into a virtuous one.
The haunting questions
Yet wide-open questions remain about the massacre. Above all, could it have been avoided? To those who were closely involved, the Srebrenica events were in some respects a ghastly surprise, in other ways entirely predictable.
For the previous three years, the world's response to the Bosnian war had been an elaborate effort to dampen the fighting and mitigate its effects without actually intervening. This took the form of a UN operation which policed local ceasefires and distributed aid: a mission which had its own logic, and undoubtedly saved lives, but could not go on indefinitely. In spring 1995, signs appeared that a ruthless end-game was about to begin.
Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian-Serb leader (who is also wanted for war crimes by the tribunal in The Hague, but has vanished), issued a “presidential directive” calling for an attack on Srebrenica, designed to reduce its size and make life there intolerable. Rupert Smith, the British commander of UN forces in Bosnia, gave a semi-public warning in March 1995 that a stance based on mere peacekeeping would soon become untenable. Realising that the Dutch unit's role in Srebrenica risked becoming worse than useless, General Smith urged the Netherlands to consider two options: either standing firmer in defence of the enclave, or extracting its troops. Neither option was acceptable to the Dutch government.
The UN secretariat, in one of its more honest moments, said the defence of the so-called safe areas would be impossible unless member states contributed more troops. In another telling portent, the Bosnian government itself gave signals that it was open to territorial swaps, as part of a final settlement: for example, Srebrenica would be handed over to the Serbs in return for some other territorial prize, such as the Sarajevo suburb of Vogosca. Perhaps the most mysterious event in spring 1995 was the withdrawal from Srebrenica of its chief defender, Naser Oric.
Yet despite all these omens, the ease with which the town fell to the Serbs amazed even the best-informed of observers. They met no resistance on the ground or in the air. Even a modest show of force by NATO would have saved many lives; and a modest attempt by the town's local defenders to keep the attackers at bay would have bought some time, enough time to shame the world into intervening. Why did neither thing happen? The Bosnians held off from active defence because they thought NATO would provide air support; the UN refrained from seeking NATO support, at least in part, because it feared for the lives of the Dutch soldiers.
The Dutch have reluctantly blamed themselves, and been blamed by others, for failing to use whatever limited room for manoeuvre they had. A similar exercise in self-criticism was undertaken by the UN secretariat, and the diplomats and generals who acted in the UN's name, in the final days of its peace mission.
Whose responsibility?
But placing excessive blame on the UN as an institution is surely to miss the point. Especially in times of acute crisis, the UN tends to lose any collective identity of its own; everyone involved thinks first and foremost as a national of his or her own country. Whatever failed in Srebrenica, it was not the UN but its member governments, which might have intervened to save the menfolk of the town, but did not.
As insiders vividly recall, the Srebrenica crisis triggered a virtual breakdown in the UN's esprit de corps: General Bernard Janvier, the French head of UN operations in ex-Yugoslavia, was taking orders from Paris rather than UN headquarters in New York. If the French (both military and political) were reluctant to strike the Serbs, it was partly because they had worked very closely with the Serbian security chief, Jovica Stanisic, to secure the release of French and other UN soldiers taken hostage by the Bosnian Serbs in May. Meanwhile, General Cees Nicolai, the acting UN commander in Sarajevo, was thinking first as a Dutchman, with Dutch lives his main consideration.
Perhaps the hardest question of all is how much western governments knew, and when. The savviest Bosnians will tell you that from the moment Serb forces marched, unopposed, into Srebrenica, it was a chronicle of deaths foretold: an orgy of killing was entirely to be expected, and the Dutch (and other western governments) were being culpably naive when they accepted Serb promises to abide by the Geneva conventions on the treatment of prisoners-of-war and civilians.
If locals relying on their street-sense knew the score so well, how was it that western governments, with their panoply of signals intelligence, satellite photography and military observers, did not know what was going on—and if they did know, why was there such a deafening silence from western capitals during the five days after the enclave's capture, when the massacres were in progress? Is it too conspiratorial to suggest a link between the “usefulness” of Srebrenica's fate, and the fact that it was allowed, over five days, to unfold?
For many Bosnians, there are hard questions not just about the inaction of western governments, but about their own government's weakness of will. As a veteran of the Bosnian army who escaped death only by scrambling through the hillsides, with four companions, for a terrifying week, Mayor Malkic gives a disarmingly frank answer to these dilemmas. If Bosnian Muslims bear some blame for failing to protect Srebrenica, then the responsibility lies as heavily on people like himself, who were actively involved in its defence, as it does on the Sarajevo authorities. Having said that, “the Bosnian government bears a responsibility that cannot be avoided...[And] of course the main culprits are the aggressors, the Serbs.”
Visiting the cemetery in September 2003, Bill Clinton also gave a remarkably blunt, and politically astute, analysis of the political effects of the massacre. “Srebrenica”, he said, “was the beginning of the end of genocide in Europe. It enabled me to secure NATO support for the bombing that led to...peace.” In other words, without Srebrenica, America could not have won the support of its European allies for a sharp switch to a war-fighting (and thus war-ending) strategy in Bosnia.
On this reading, at least, Srebrenica was a sort of genocide to end all genocides (in one part of the world, anyway). It was also a necessary prerequisite to the dropping of the “bombs for peace”—which, by triggering a final, vast wave of forced population movement, left Bosnia's military balance, and above all its ethnic balance, in a state acceptable to the region's power-brokers.
For the bereaved mothers and widows who gather at the cemetery this week, that surely raises a hard question: was the shock of a massacre the only thing that could make the western powers change policy, and settle their own differences? Was there no other way?
Engel: Kosovo will be independent very soon
All dailies cover the visit of US congressman and Albanian lobbyist Elliot Engel to Kosovo. Dailies highlight Engel’s quote that Kosovo will be independent very soon and that independence is the only future for Kosovo.
Message for Kai Eide
Express reports that the Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi has asked Kai Eide during a meeting with the Standards implementation working groups that his report reflects the achievements so far.
‘Mr. Eide has a very busy agenda and has many meetings. My request to him covers two issues; that the report is independent, objective and realistic and that it reflects achievements so far in Kosovo,’ said Kosumi.
Kosumi has also called on the working groups to try their best to achieve concrete results in the technical dialogue with Belgrade.
It was noted after the meeting that there has been significant progress in all of the Standards, however, the Standards on returns and property rights remain the most problematic.
‘Mr. Eide has a very busy agenda and has many meetings. My request to him covers two issues; that the report is independent, objective and realistic and that it reflects achievements so far in Kosovo,’ said Kosumi.
Kosumi has also called on the working groups to try their best to achieve concrete results in the technical dialogue with Belgrade.
It was noted after the meeting that there has been significant progress in all of the Standards, however, the Standards on returns and property rights remain the most problematic.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Kosovo leaders sent the condolences to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and to the people of Great Britain for today’s explosions in London.
Croatian president says citizens should decide on Kosovo status
Pristina, 7 July: Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Thursday [7 July] arrived in Pristina where he held talks with the first deputy of the UN Civil Administrator of Kosovo, Lawrence Rossin, who was his host given that Administrator Soeren Jessen Petersen was on an official leave.
After the talks, the Croatian head of state said that citizens of Kosovo and its institutions should be those that would decide on the status of Kosovo. [Passage omitted]
Mesic told reporters that he would like to see that his visit would contribute to better understanding in the region, which is, he added, in the interest of Croatia, too.
"An unstable Kosovo means the unstable region, but we want the region to turn towards Europe," he said.
The Croatian head of state said that citizens and institutions of Kosovo should be those that would decide on Kosovo's status, and that a solution should be sought in negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade with the assistance of the international community.
Asked by a reporter whether he supported the independence of Kosovo, Mesic said that citizens of Kosovo should give an answer to this question.
In this context he stressed that no solution should be imposed by force. [Passage omitted]
Source: HINA news agency, Zagreb, in English 1100 gmt 7 Jul 05
After the talks, the Croatian head of state said that citizens of Kosovo and its institutions should be those that would decide on the status of Kosovo. [Passage omitted]
Mesic told reporters that he would like to see that his visit would contribute to better understanding in the region, which is, he added, in the interest of Croatia, too.
"An unstable Kosovo means the unstable region, but we want the region to turn towards Europe," he said.
The Croatian head of state said that citizens and institutions of Kosovo should be those that would decide on Kosovo's status, and that a solution should be sought in negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade with the assistance of the international community.
Asked by a reporter whether he supported the independence of Kosovo, Mesic said that citizens of Kosovo should give an answer to this question.
In this context he stressed that no solution should be imposed by force. [Passage omitted]
Source: HINA news agency, Zagreb, in English 1100 gmt 7 Jul 05
Kosovo premier calls on displaced persons to return home
rom report in English by independent internet news agency KosovaLive
Prishtina [Pristina], 6 July: Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi and the mayors of Kosova [Kosovo] have released a joint statement urging all displaced persons, regardless of their ethnic background, to return to their homes and possessions and to help build the country's future.
The statement was released after a meeting between Kosumi and the mayors of Kosova. It emphasizes that the cultivation of tolerance, understanding, and respect is very important at this moment.
Kosumi and the mayors also said that concrete results in this direction would be the most important indicator of Kosovar citizens' respect for the law. [Passage omitted]
"Kosova is establishing a democratic legal framework. This legislation guarantees effective protection of freedoms and human rights, both individual and collective. We are building a democratic society in which all Kosovar citizens will respect the rule of law," reads the statement's conclusion.
Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 6 Jul 05
Prishtina [Pristina], 6 July: Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi and the mayors of Kosova [Kosovo] have released a joint statement urging all displaced persons, regardless of their ethnic background, to return to their homes and possessions and to help build the country's future.
The statement was released after a meeting between Kosumi and the mayors of Kosova. It emphasizes that the cultivation of tolerance, understanding, and respect is very important at this moment.
Kosumi and the mayors also said that concrete results in this direction would be the most important indicator of Kosovar citizens' respect for the law. [Passage omitted]
"Kosova is establishing a democratic legal framework. This legislation guarantees effective protection of freedoms and human rights, both individual and collective. We are building a democratic society in which all Kosovar citizens will respect the rule of law," reads the statement's conclusion.
Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 6 Jul 05
Petkovic: Marko Jaksic behind bomb attack in Zubin Potok
‘According to private information that I have the Serb National Council in the north of Kosovo is behind the bomb attack, namely Marko Jaksic. I will ask the international police to declare the SNC as a terrorist organization’, papers quote the Minister for Returns and Communities, Slavisa Petkovic, as saying.
Madeline Albright gives interviews to Koha Ditore, Zëri and Express
In an interview for Koha Ditore, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said: ‘I know Kosovans have a dream and people are entitled to have their dreams fulfilled.’
‘I think there has been delay in the process by the international community. But I now have the feeling that the international community has realized the need to use this year – the year of status – in a very important way,’ Albright added.
The leading front-page headline in Zëri says Albright is encouraged that the US is again taking an active position on Kosovo’s status. ‘Under-Secretary Burns has emphasized the importance for this process to function. I have talked to him before coming to Kosovo. He is energetic and I believe this is a very important year. This is the year of status and many decisions and it clearly seems that there will be international representatives who will play a role in this process, but they also need to consult Kosovans regarding this process,’ said Albright.
‘I love the people of Kosovo, but friends make honest criticism. Corruption ruins democratic societies. Foreign investors can lose their interest if they are suspicious about the management of tenders,’ Albright is quoted as saying on the front of Express.
In a meeting with journalists in Pristina, Albright said standards should move along with status and status should not be a blockade to the economic development and regional cooperation.
‘I think there has been delay in the process by the international community. But I now have the feeling that the international community has realized the need to use this year – the year of status – in a very important way,’ Albright added.
The leading front-page headline in Zëri says Albright is encouraged that the US is again taking an active position on Kosovo’s status. ‘Under-Secretary Burns has emphasized the importance for this process to function. I have talked to him before coming to Kosovo. He is energetic and I believe this is a very important year. This is the year of status and many decisions and it clearly seems that there will be international representatives who will play a role in this process, but they also need to consult Kosovans regarding this process,’ said Albright.
‘I love the people of Kosovo, but friends make honest criticism. Corruption ruins democratic societies. Foreign investors can lose their interest if they are suspicious about the management of tenders,’ Albright is quoted as saying on the front of Express.
In a meeting with journalists in Pristina, Albright said standards should move along with status and status should not be a blockade to the economic development and regional cooperation.
Jessen-Petersen: Ultimate peace in Kosovo only with solution of final status
Dailies carry the address of the SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen to a conference on peace-building at the Centre for Security Policy in Geneva.
‘Solution of the Kosovo status should be an objective to normalize and stabilize Kosovo, but it should equally be a goal to normalize and stabilize the Western Balkans’, Zëri quotes the SRSG as saying in the conference.
‘Only the start of status talks should be considered as the real beginning and the end of the process of peace-building in Kosovo and the region’, is another quote dailies highlight.
SRSG Jessen-Petersen spoke about the current situation in Kosovo, security, returns, freedom of movement, decentralization, the work of the PISG and implementation of the Standards.
‘Solution of the Kosovo status should be an objective to normalize and stabilize Kosovo, but it should equally be a goal to normalize and stabilize the Western Balkans’, Zëri quotes the SRSG as saying in the conference.
‘Only the start of status talks should be considered as the real beginning and the end of the process of peace-building in Kosovo and the region’, is another quote dailies highlight.
SRSG Jessen-Petersen spoke about the current situation in Kosovo, security, returns, freedom of movement, decentralization, the work of the PISG and implementation of the Standards.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Kosovo Serb MPs keen to join parliament
Wednesday – Kosovo Serb politician Randjel Nojkic says that most elected Serb MPs in the province are ready to take their seats in the parliament regardless of Belgrade’s opinion.
Nojkic, a member of the Serbian Ticket for Kosovo, said that they will be in the parliament at the next sitting, adding that the delegates had already waited a long time for Belgrade to make a final decision on the issue.
Nojkic says he is convinced that only by becoming fully involved in the institutions of the system can Serbs be informed of all the intentions of the other side.
The leader of the Kosovo branch of the Democratic Party, Goran Bogdanovic, said that delegates belonging to that party would obey instructions from Belgrade. However, he said, Serbs could protect their interests only by involvement in the institutions of the system, but added that the decision must be made by Belgrade.
Nojkic, a member of the Serbian Ticket for Kosovo, said that they will be in the parliament at the next sitting, adding that the delegates had already waited a long time for Belgrade to make a final decision on the issue.
Nojkic says he is convinced that only by becoming fully involved in the institutions of the system can Serbs be informed of all the intentions of the other side.
The leader of the Kosovo branch of the Democratic Party, Goran Bogdanovic, said that delegates belonging to that party would obey instructions from Belgrade. However, he said, Serbs could protect their interests only by involvement in the institutions of the system, but added that the decision must be made by Belgrade.
Kosovo government allocates funds for KLA war veterans
Prishtina [Pristina], 5 July: During today's meeting, the government decided to allocate 50,000 euros for war veterans of the Kosova [Kosovo] Liberation Army [KLA; UCK in Albanian].
This decision follows the request of the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Ibrahim Selmanaj.
Selmanaj had requested 25,000 euros but the government decided to double the amount.
After the meeting, government spokesperson Daut Dauti told the media that all ministries would contribute to the fund.
He also said that distribution would take place through associations of war veterans.
The government did not decide today about the allocation of 200,000 euros for the construction of houses for Roma in Mitrovice [Kosovska Mitrovica]. Dauti said that the decision has been postponed until sources for the fund have been found.
Dauti also reported that pilot projects for the creation of new municipalities will begin as soon as the documentation is completed.
"It will start soon. SRSG [Special Representative of the Secretary General] Soeren Jessen-Petersen must still sign a document and he is expected to do so in a few days," Dauti said.
This decision follows the request of the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Ibrahim Selmanaj.
Selmanaj had requested 25,000 euros but the government decided to double the amount.
After the meeting, government spokesperson Daut Dauti told the media that all ministries would contribute to the fund.
He also said that distribution would take place through associations of war veterans.
The government did not decide today about the allocation of 200,000 euros for the construction of houses for Roma in Mitrovice [Kosovska Mitrovica]. Dauti said that the decision has been postponed until sources for the fund have been found.
Dauti also reported that pilot projects for the creation of new municipalities will begin as soon as the documentation is completed.
"It will start soon. SRSG [Special Representative of the Secretary General] Soeren Jessen-Petersen must still sign a document and he is expected to do so in a few days," Dauti said.
Don't Close the Door: Stopping Enlargement Would be Playing Into Moscow's Hand and Risking Chaos in Europe
English
Copyright © PNB Company Ltd. 2005. PNB is a non-profit organisation publishing a daily digest of the Polish press. No legal responsibility is accepted for any errors or omissions or misleading statements, however caused, in either source or final texts.
The worst thing the EU could do now would be to announce the end of enlargement and the closing of Europe's doors. True, the results of the failed referenda in France and the Netherlands can be interpreted as the "old" Europe's protest against the admission of as many as 10 new member states last year. All that has been compounded by the fiasco of the June budget summit. But the shock will eventually pass away, and Europe will remain with new, self[-provoked problems, writes commentator and former Moscow correspondent Slawomir Popowski in Rzeczpospolita.
Unfortunately, judging by politicians' and experts' statements, that is precisely what is happening. Many are questioning the European aspirations of not only Ukraine but also the Balkan states, and even Bulgaria and Romania, which are preparing for accession in 2007. That is putting these countries in an extremely awkward position. The consequence may be a destabilisation of the political situation on the whole continent, with all the consequences of that.
It is no accident, writes Popowski, that the Ukrainian orange revolution has been perceived as one of last year's most important political developments. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians went to the Independence Square to protest against elections rigged by the ruling elite and Moscow. In fact, it was a revolt against an attempt to subordinate a sovereign state, and at the same time a powerful voice for Ukraine's "European choice."
Ukraine, as an independent state, cannot exist in suspension between two worlds: the European one and the Russian one, and that is in fact how, irrespective of the slogans saying otherwise, the continent is divided today. Kiev could for some time stick to a policy of "multi-polarity," zigzagging between Moscow and the West, but now, when neo-imperial ambitions have been revived in the Kremlin, Ukraine does not have much of a choice. In the longer-term, it can be either "Russian" or "European." The chances that some alternative third scenario would succeed are minimal.
Another example are the Balkans. Europe involved itself directly in regulating the conflicts that, following the collapse of Yugoslavia, convulsed the whole region. It success was partial at best. The wars caused by the conflict of the Serbian, Croatian, and Albanian nationalisms were stopped, but the Balkan pot is threatening to boil over again.
If it has not done so already, it is not only because of Nato soldiers in Kosovo or Sarajevo. Also because Slovenia's accession and the expected opening of entry talks with Croatia have created a prospect of accession for each of the Balkan states. Thwarting those expectations and aspirations, in a situation where the conflict in Kosovo remains unsolved, where the situation of Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia remains unclear ? would invite the return of violent nationalisms.
Moscow Relieved
In this situation, can the EU now say: let not anyone expect to ever find itself among us? Of course it can, says Popowski, but it should not. It will not escape the problem anyway. Whether the EU likes it or not, it has become a centre of integration for the states and societies directly neighbouring with it. Shutting the doors would also be inconsistent with the very idea of the EU. It may have done that when it was still the Coal and Steel Community, or even the Common Market. But not today, when it has become an important player on the global stage.
The EU's firm "no" to Kiev's European aspirations means a "yes" for Moscow's attempts to regain the status of a global power. The result would be a completely changed geopolitical situation in Europe. It is no accident that Moscow reacted with joy and relief to the fiasco of the French and Dutch referenda, and then to the failed Brussels summit. All because, many Russian commentators were saying, the EU had hurried too much with the admission of the new members and would now think twice before making another step to the east.
Such a reaction is understandable. Russia needs the EU, the European markets and investment from Europe, and at the same time fears it and perceives as a rival. An EU enlarging and competing with Moscow in the post-Soviet space is a dangerous prospect. Even more dangerous than the Nato, for though the EU does not pose a military threat, it offers a much more attractive development model. Ukraine, Moldova, or even Belarus ? if they found themselves in the EU ? would be lost for Moscow forever, and without them, Russia, even with its nuclear arsenal, could at best be a regional power, something it refuses to accept.
The European order that suits Moscow best is one based on the concert of powers. Hence the attempts to develop special relationships with Germany and France, as well as overt attempts to treat the "old" member states differently than the new ones. A united EU, with a common policy towards Russia, would be a far more difficult partner. And that is likely the main factor behind Moscow's intense diplomatic efforts aimed at causing the new member states, including Poland, to be deprived of any say over that policy. In practice, the success of the Russian strategy would mean a return to the 19th-century model, with its well known historical consequences.
Real Threat of Destabilisation
From that point of view, notes Popowski, one can hardly understand the enthusiasm of the eurosceptics feting today the defeat of the "Brussels bureaucracy." If they believe that the constitution's fiasco and the EU's deepening internal crisis will make possible a return to the past, a reduction of the EU's role to that of a common market, they are seriously wrong. Such a return is impossible because, whether we want it or not, the EU is, even in its present imperfect shape, a geopolitical subject.
The internal crisis stems precisely from the fact that the EU has been unable to give a proper institutional form to that. That, being a great political project, it has been unable, due, among other things, to conflicting interests, to develop a clear vision of its own future. Its last truly great project was the decision to admit the 10 new member states, and today the EU seems to have grown frightened of the opportunities presenting themselves before it and its own greatness.
That is why the calls for shutting Europe's doors and ending enlargement are dangerous. True, calls for the contrary are not very popular today, and can even evoke an ironic smile. Only few politicians, like Aleksander Kwasniewski recently in Germany, have had the guts to say that, in the face of such a severe crisis, Europe should "remain faithful to its vision," and that "further enlargement is not a threat but an opportunity." Nonetheless, it is them who are right.
No one is saying that Ukraine, Moldova or even Serbia and Belarus will be able to start their accession talks shortly. That may take 10 or 20 years. But they have to know the possibility exists and be offered a clearly defined path towards it. Otherwise, the EU itself will complicate the situation on its borders. And the period of 10 or 20 years should be enough to straighten the situation and "digest" the first great wave of enlargement.
The European Union is a great political project, unique on a global scale. And it should remain that. Its failure, a fiasco of the idea of European solidarity and the victory of national egoisms, could become the beginning of new upheaval in Europe. The threat is quite real.
Copyright © PNB Company Ltd. 2005. PNB is a non-profit organisation publishing a daily digest of the Polish press. No legal responsibility is accepted for any errors or omissions or misleading statements, however caused, in either source or final texts.
The worst thing the EU could do now would be to announce the end of enlargement and the closing of Europe's doors. True, the results of the failed referenda in France and the Netherlands can be interpreted as the "old" Europe's protest against the admission of as many as 10 new member states last year. All that has been compounded by the fiasco of the June budget summit. But the shock will eventually pass away, and Europe will remain with new, self[-provoked problems, writes commentator and former Moscow correspondent Slawomir Popowski in Rzeczpospolita.
Unfortunately, judging by politicians' and experts' statements, that is precisely what is happening. Many are questioning the European aspirations of not only Ukraine but also the Balkan states, and even Bulgaria and Romania, which are preparing for accession in 2007. That is putting these countries in an extremely awkward position. The consequence may be a destabilisation of the political situation on the whole continent, with all the consequences of that.
It is no accident, writes Popowski, that the Ukrainian orange revolution has been perceived as one of last year's most important political developments. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians went to the Independence Square to protest against elections rigged by the ruling elite and Moscow. In fact, it was a revolt against an attempt to subordinate a sovereign state, and at the same time a powerful voice for Ukraine's "European choice."
Ukraine, as an independent state, cannot exist in suspension between two worlds: the European one and the Russian one, and that is in fact how, irrespective of the slogans saying otherwise, the continent is divided today. Kiev could for some time stick to a policy of "multi-polarity," zigzagging between Moscow and the West, but now, when neo-imperial ambitions have been revived in the Kremlin, Ukraine does not have much of a choice. In the longer-term, it can be either "Russian" or "European." The chances that some alternative third scenario would succeed are minimal.
Another example are the Balkans. Europe involved itself directly in regulating the conflicts that, following the collapse of Yugoslavia, convulsed the whole region. It success was partial at best. The wars caused by the conflict of the Serbian, Croatian, and Albanian nationalisms were stopped, but the Balkan pot is threatening to boil over again.
If it has not done so already, it is not only because of Nato soldiers in Kosovo or Sarajevo. Also because Slovenia's accession and the expected opening of entry talks with Croatia have created a prospect of accession for each of the Balkan states. Thwarting those expectations and aspirations, in a situation where the conflict in Kosovo remains unsolved, where the situation of Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia remains unclear ? would invite the return of violent nationalisms.
Moscow Relieved
In this situation, can the EU now say: let not anyone expect to ever find itself among us? Of course it can, says Popowski, but it should not. It will not escape the problem anyway. Whether the EU likes it or not, it has become a centre of integration for the states and societies directly neighbouring with it. Shutting the doors would also be inconsistent with the very idea of the EU. It may have done that when it was still the Coal and Steel Community, or even the Common Market. But not today, when it has become an important player on the global stage.
The EU's firm "no" to Kiev's European aspirations means a "yes" for Moscow's attempts to regain the status of a global power. The result would be a completely changed geopolitical situation in Europe. It is no accident that Moscow reacted with joy and relief to the fiasco of the French and Dutch referenda, and then to the failed Brussels summit. All because, many Russian commentators were saying, the EU had hurried too much with the admission of the new members and would now think twice before making another step to the east.
Such a reaction is understandable. Russia needs the EU, the European markets and investment from Europe, and at the same time fears it and perceives as a rival. An EU enlarging and competing with Moscow in the post-Soviet space is a dangerous prospect. Even more dangerous than the Nato, for though the EU does not pose a military threat, it offers a much more attractive development model. Ukraine, Moldova, or even Belarus ? if they found themselves in the EU ? would be lost for Moscow forever, and without them, Russia, even with its nuclear arsenal, could at best be a regional power, something it refuses to accept.
The European order that suits Moscow best is one based on the concert of powers. Hence the attempts to develop special relationships with Germany and France, as well as overt attempts to treat the "old" member states differently than the new ones. A united EU, with a common policy towards Russia, would be a far more difficult partner. And that is likely the main factor behind Moscow's intense diplomatic efforts aimed at causing the new member states, including Poland, to be deprived of any say over that policy. In practice, the success of the Russian strategy would mean a return to the 19th-century model, with its well known historical consequences.
Real Threat of Destabilisation
From that point of view, notes Popowski, one can hardly understand the enthusiasm of the eurosceptics feting today the defeat of the "Brussels bureaucracy." If they believe that the constitution's fiasco and the EU's deepening internal crisis will make possible a return to the past, a reduction of the EU's role to that of a common market, they are seriously wrong. Such a return is impossible because, whether we want it or not, the EU is, even in its present imperfect shape, a geopolitical subject.
The internal crisis stems precisely from the fact that the EU has been unable to give a proper institutional form to that. That, being a great political project, it has been unable, due, among other things, to conflicting interests, to develop a clear vision of its own future. Its last truly great project was the decision to admit the 10 new member states, and today the EU seems to have grown frightened of the opportunities presenting themselves before it and its own greatness.
That is why the calls for shutting Europe's doors and ending enlargement are dangerous. True, calls for the contrary are not very popular today, and can even evoke an ironic smile. Only few politicians, like Aleksander Kwasniewski recently in Germany, have had the guts to say that, in the face of such a severe crisis, Europe should "remain faithful to its vision," and that "further enlargement is not a threat but an opportunity." Nonetheless, it is them who are right.
No one is saying that Ukraine, Moldova or even Serbia and Belarus will be able to start their accession talks shortly. That may take 10 or 20 years. But they have to know the possibility exists and be offered a clearly defined path towards it. Otherwise, the EU itself will complicate the situation on its borders. And the period of 10 or 20 years should be enough to straighten the situation and "digest" the first great wave of enlargement.
The European Union is a great political project, unique on a global scale. And it should remain that. Its failure, a fiasco of the idea of European solidarity and the victory of national egoisms, could become the beginning of new upheaval in Europe. The threat is quite real.
18 licenses issued to mineral industries in Kosovo
"The mineral industry in Kosovo is one of the main pillars for the economic development of the country. The market value of the licensed mines is estimated at 6 billion euro," said Joachim Ruecker
Prishtina, July 6, 2005 - There will be no more obstacles to starting the work at the "Trepca" mines. After more than six years of being blocked, "Trepca" and some other mines obtained licenses from the Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals of Kosovo (ICMM).
In addition to the five "Trepca" mines, licenses have also been issued to "Ferronikeli", "Boksitet e Kosovës" in Vllojake and ten other sand and gravel exploration companies.
“This is an important day for the mineral industry of Kosovo,” said UNMIK Pillar IV Chief Joachim Ruecker. According to Ruecker, this is a big step that will move forward the revitalization of mineral sector of Kosovo. Ruecker stressed that the license for Trepca and Ferronikeli are of special importance.
“The Mineral industry in Kosovo is one of the main pillars for the economic development in Kosovo,” said Ruecker, adding that the market value of the licensed mines is estimated at 6 billion euro.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Energy and Mining, Ethem Ceku, said that the licensing of Trepca and Ferronikeli is very important for Kosovo’s Budget and its economic development. “We hope that the energy and mining industry will have a great impact on Kosovo’s economic development, on the improvement of living standards, and on Kosovo’s integration into Europe,” said Ceku.
Ceku expressed the Ministry’s gratitude to UNMIK, in particular to Ruecker for their contribution to licensing mineral industries.
Miftar Hyseni, Trepca Manager, told Koha Ditore that the Stanterg mine would be the first to start working on July 25.
The 18 licensed mines are: Belo Brdo, lead zinc mine, Leposavic/Leposaviq, Trepca Crnac, lead zinc mine, Leposavic/Leposaviq, Stanterg, lead zinc mine, Mitrovice/Mitrovica, Te Aleni, construction material, Istog/Istok, N.T.P. Guri, construction material, Istog/Istok, N.U.Sh. Ferronikel, industrial minerals, Gllogoc/Glogovac, Boksitet e Kosoves”, bauxite mines, Kline/Klina, Sh.A. Trasing, construction material, Gllogoc/Glogovac, Trepca Hajvalija, lead zinc mine, Prishtine/Pristina, Trepca Artana, lead zinc mine, Novoberde/Novo Brdo, Beta Commerc, construction material, Gjilan/Gnjilane, N.T.P. Fertaxi, construction material, Shtime/Stimlje, N.T.P.N. Fasada, construction material, Shtime/Stimlje, Graniti F, construction material, Viti/Vitina, KAG Asfalt, construction material, Prizren, N.P.P. 7 Shtatori, construction material, Kacanik, New Lepenci Sh.P.K., construction material, Kacanik, Sharr Beteiligungs GmbH, construction material/cement, Kacanik.
Prishtina, July 6, 2005 - There will be no more obstacles to starting the work at the "Trepca" mines. After more than six years of being blocked, "Trepca" and some other mines obtained licenses from the Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals of Kosovo (ICMM).
In addition to the five "Trepca" mines, licenses have also been issued to "Ferronikeli", "Boksitet e Kosovës" in Vllojake and ten other sand and gravel exploration companies.
“This is an important day for the mineral industry of Kosovo,” said UNMIK Pillar IV Chief Joachim Ruecker. According to Ruecker, this is a big step that will move forward the revitalization of mineral sector of Kosovo. Ruecker stressed that the license for Trepca and Ferronikeli are of special importance.
“The Mineral industry in Kosovo is one of the main pillars for the economic development in Kosovo,” said Ruecker, adding that the market value of the licensed mines is estimated at 6 billion euro.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Energy and Mining, Ethem Ceku, said that the licensing of Trepca and Ferronikeli is very important for Kosovo’s Budget and its economic development. “We hope that the energy and mining industry will have a great impact on Kosovo’s economic development, on the improvement of living standards, and on Kosovo’s integration into Europe,” said Ceku.
Ceku expressed the Ministry’s gratitude to UNMIK, in particular to Ruecker for their contribution to licensing mineral industries.
Miftar Hyseni, Trepca Manager, told Koha Ditore that the Stanterg mine would be the first to start working on July 25.
The 18 licensed mines are: Belo Brdo, lead zinc mine, Leposavic/Leposaviq, Trepca Crnac, lead zinc mine, Leposavic/Leposaviq, Stanterg, lead zinc mine, Mitrovice/Mitrovica, Te Aleni, construction material, Istog/Istok, N.T.P. Guri, construction material, Istog/Istok, N.U.Sh. Ferronikel, industrial minerals, Gllogoc/Glogovac, Boksitet e Kosoves”, bauxite mines, Kline/Klina, Sh.A. Trasing, construction material, Gllogoc/Glogovac, Trepca Hajvalija, lead zinc mine, Prishtine/Pristina, Trepca Artana, lead zinc mine, Novoberde/Novo Brdo, Beta Commerc, construction material, Gjilan/Gnjilane, N.T.P. Fertaxi, construction material, Shtime/Stimlje, N.T.P.N. Fasada, construction material, Shtime/Stimlje, Graniti F, construction material, Viti/Vitina, KAG Asfalt, construction material, Prizren, N.P.P. 7 Shtatori, construction material, Kacanik, New Lepenci Sh.P.K., construction material, Kacanik, Sharr Beteiligungs GmbH, construction material/cement, Kacanik.
Russia is Against Rashly Proclaiming Kosovo Independence
Moscow. Moscow is against rashly proclaiming of Kosovo independence, announced the Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Chizov, cited by RIA Novosti. “There is a whole process going on for the realization of the Kosovo standards. I do not know how long it’ll take but the Russian side is against the rashly haste and cooperation for this process. When it is ready, the issue will be discussed in the Contact Group for Kosovo and the UN Security Council. The biggest anxiety comes from the situation of non Albanian population of the province and the return of the refugees”, said Chizov.
An explosive message
Express reports that an eleven-part SMS message sent to the editorial office of the paper provides a detailed description of the course of and reason for the explosions.
The full message, claims the newspaper, is a reaction to the possible versions of the occurrence of explosions published in yesterday’s edition of Express.
Referring to the report in Express that the explosive device was planted opposite the OSCE building so that the cameras of the building would not record the authors of the explosion, the message started by saying that the OSCE was not a target. A travel agency, Eurokoha, not the OSCE, was the target of the explosion as ‘no one has the right to throw the national flag on the ground in European boxing matches’. [In a recent boxing match between Luan Krasniqi and Whitaker, Krasniqi waved the President’s flag and not the Albanian national flag.]
Regarding the other two explosions, the sender warned members of the Kosovo Assembly that they would suffer grave consequences if their decisions affected the ‘statehood’ of Kosovo.
According to the message, 12 persons were part of the operation. The drafter of the message expressed dissatisfaction with political developments in Kosovo, especially with the international administration.
‘Kosovo has sons that will die for it. You can show your force with Albin Kurti and Albanian journalists who are offending your friend Vojvoda Beli Orlovi (Vojislav Sesel’s nickname), the author of Chetnik Knives (Vuk Draskovic), the friend of Serbian Army that killed and burned in Kosovo. This is a threat against the international administration in Kosovo.’
The message was also being sent in commiseration with the KPC Ceremonial Guard, which because of some ‘unwise’ statements by its leaders was punished with three months suspension of ceremonial duties. According to its author, three ‘targets’ were controlled to avoid casualties and 800 grams of TNT were used. What is more indicative, the article says, is the effort of the message to explain that on the same day, Saturday, similar electronic messages were sent to cell phones of three KPS spokespersons.
As far as KPS spokesman Refki Morina is concerned, a related message was never sent to his mobile phone. ‘Neither myself nor anyone else in the KPS Information Office received such a message. It is a lie,’ Morina told Express on Tuesday.
Furthermore, the drafter of SMS says the explosions on Saturday are only the beginning. ‘We will fulfill our duties and we will place a van with a ton of TNT in front of 92 Station in the centre of Pristina’.
In conclusion, the symbolic numbers 11.03.1981 are provided. This is the date of the first student demonstrations in Pristina, which engendered a new era of political resistance by Albanians in Kosovo.
The message ends with a call not to make the numbers [mobile phone numbers guesses Express] public because ‘they might be misused by UNMIK itself’.
The full message, claims the newspaper, is a reaction to the possible versions of the occurrence of explosions published in yesterday’s edition of Express.
Referring to the report in Express that the explosive device was planted opposite the OSCE building so that the cameras of the building would not record the authors of the explosion, the message started by saying that the OSCE was not a target. A travel agency, Eurokoha, not the OSCE, was the target of the explosion as ‘no one has the right to throw the national flag on the ground in European boxing matches’. [In a recent boxing match between Luan Krasniqi and Whitaker, Krasniqi waved the President’s flag and not the Albanian national flag.]
Regarding the other two explosions, the sender warned members of the Kosovo Assembly that they would suffer grave consequences if their decisions affected the ‘statehood’ of Kosovo.
According to the message, 12 persons were part of the operation. The drafter of the message expressed dissatisfaction with political developments in Kosovo, especially with the international administration.
‘Kosovo has sons that will die for it. You can show your force with Albin Kurti and Albanian journalists who are offending your friend Vojvoda Beli Orlovi (Vojislav Sesel’s nickname), the author of Chetnik Knives (Vuk Draskovic), the friend of Serbian Army that killed and burned in Kosovo. This is a threat against the international administration in Kosovo.’
The message was also being sent in commiseration with the KPC Ceremonial Guard, which because of some ‘unwise’ statements by its leaders was punished with three months suspension of ceremonial duties. According to its author, three ‘targets’ were controlled to avoid casualties and 800 grams of TNT were used. What is more indicative, the article says, is the effort of the message to explain that on the same day, Saturday, similar electronic messages were sent to cell phones of three KPS spokespersons.
As far as KPS spokesman Refki Morina is concerned, a related message was never sent to his mobile phone. ‘Neither myself nor anyone else in the KPS Information Office received such a message. It is a lie,’ Morina told Express on Tuesday.
Furthermore, the drafter of SMS says the explosions on Saturday are only the beginning. ‘We will fulfill our duties and we will place a van with a ton of TNT in front of 92 Station in the centre of Pristina’.
In conclusion, the symbolic numbers 11.03.1981 are provided. This is the date of the first student demonstrations in Pristina, which engendered a new era of political resistance by Albanians in Kosovo.
The message ends with a call not to make the numbers [mobile phone numbers guesses Express] public because ‘they might be misused by UNMIK itself’.
Albright: Future depends on you – this is a crucial year
All daily newspapers provide extensive coverage of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s address before the Kosovo Assembly yesterday.
‘The future of Kosovo is in your hands,’ Albright told Assembly members and promised continuous support of the US for Kosovo. ‘I always consider myself a Kosovan and I hope that Kosovo prospers in freedom and peace.’
Albright also said Kosovo needs economic development, to become a society ruled by law and offer equal opportunities for all Kosovans. The former Secretary of State advised Kosovan leaders to work together ‘because the time for realizing the dream of Kosovans is close’.
‘After six years of peace in Kosovo, its leaders are obliged to ask themselves what are their tasks and how they can help in creating an advanced Kosovo,’ said Albright.
‘The future of Kosovo is in your hands,’ Albright told Assembly members and promised continuous support of the US for Kosovo. ‘I always consider myself a Kosovan and I hope that Kosovo prospers in freedom and peace.’
Albright also said Kosovo needs economic development, to become a society ruled by law and offer equal opportunities for all Kosovans. The former Secretary of State advised Kosovan leaders to work together ‘because the time for realizing the dream of Kosovans is close’.
‘After six years of peace in Kosovo, its leaders are obliged to ask themselves what are their tasks and how they can help in creating an advanced Kosovo,’ said Albright.
Unnamed Group Says Behind Kosovo Blasts
PRISTINA (AP)--An unnamed group has claimed responsibility for weekend bombings in Kosovo that targeted a U.N. headquarters and a government building, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
A series of 11 short cell phone text messages were sent to the Kosovo daily Express, in which the group - which didn't identify itself by name - claimed it was is behind the Saturday blasts and threatened more attacks.
The messages contained no clear demands. But the group warned Kosovo's institutions not to compromise on ethnic Albanian demands for independence as the province nears talks to determine its future status, the newspaper report said.
The messages also mentioned the dire economic situation in the province, lack of job opportunities for the young and last week's visit by Serbia-Montenegro's foreign minister as being among its reasons for staging the blasts.
No one was injured in the three explosions, which targeted buildings housing the U.N., the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and a Kosovo government office. The group claimed to have warned passers-by before the blasts, Express reported.
The province's institutions and Western diplomats have condemned the attacks.
Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. since the end of the war in 1999. It has an elected parliament, president and government but the ultimate responsibility remains with the U.N. overseers.
A series of 11 short cell phone text messages were sent to the Kosovo daily Express, in which the group - which didn't identify itself by name - claimed it was is behind the Saturday blasts and threatened more attacks.
The messages contained no clear demands. But the group warned Kosovo's institutions not to compromise on ethnic Albanian demands for independence as the province nears talks to determine its future status, the newspaper report said.
The messages also mentioned the dire economic situation in the province, lack of job opportunities for the young and last week's visit by Serbia-Montenegro's foreign minister as being among its reasons for staging the blasts.
No one was injured in the three explosions, which targeted buildings housing the U.N., the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and a Kosovo government office. The group claimed to have warned passers-by before the blasts, Express reported.
The province's institutions and Western diplomats have condemned the attacks.
Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. since the end of the war in 1999. It has an elected parliament, president and government but the ultimate responsibility remains with the U.N. overseers.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Albright honoured with medal in Kosovo
PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AFP) - Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was presented with a 'Golden Medal of Liberty' during a ceremony in the Kosovo capital Pristina.
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President Ibrahim Rugova presented the medal in honour of Albright's efforts to end a Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in the breakaway Serbian province in 1998-1999.
The war ended after a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian forces under then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw. Kosovo is now a UN protectorate but its ethnic Albanian majority still demands independence.
"She will always be respected and loved," Rugova told reporters Tuesday, after the decoration ceremony.
Albright also addressed the provincial assembly Tuesday as part of her visit to promote democratic values.
"Your name commands respect throughout Kosovo. Without you the world would be completely different and Kosovo wouldn't have brought its dream to fruition," parliamentary speaker Nexhat Daci said in his introductory remarks.
Albright stressed economic stability, the rule of law and minorities' rights as the biggest challenges that Kosovo would face in the coming years.
"Six years ago you gained your liberty. In the time since, you have made good use of that freedom and in the years to come you will be tested continually by the demands of democracy," she said.
"Your future is up to you, as it should be," she added in the speech which was broadcast live by Kosovo's two main television channels.
It is Albright's first visit to Kosovo since 1999 and she would have been impressed by the Kosovo Albanians' lingering affection for former US president Bill Clinton, whose name adorns everything from hotels to shopping malls.
Kosovo Albanians see Albright's efforts as crucial to the international intervention, which went ahead without United Nations approval and in the face of opposition from Russia.
Albright arrived Monday on a three-day visit to the province in her capacity as chairwoman of the National Democratic Institute, a non-profit US-based organization.
Six years after the UN took control of Kosovo the province remains economically paralysed and wracked by ethnic hatreds, with the Serb minority in need of constant protection from NATO peacekeepers.
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President Ibrahim Rugova presented the medal in honour of Albright's efforts to end a Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in the breakaway Serbian province in 1998-1999.
The war ended after a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian forces under then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw. Kosovo is now a UN protectorate but its ethnic Albanian majority still demands independence.
"She will always be respected and loved," Rugova told reporters Tuesday, after the decoration ceremony.
Albright also addressed the provincial assembly Tuesday as part of her visit to promote democratic values.
"Your name commands respect throughout Kosovo. Without you the world would be completely different and Kosovo wouldn't have brought its dream to fruition," parliamentary speaker Nexhat Daci said in his introductory remarks.
Albright stressed economic stability, the rule of law and minorities' rights as the biggest challenges that Kosovo would face in the coming years.
"Six years ago you gained your liberty. In the time since, you have made good use of that freedom and in the years to come you will be tested continually by the demands of democracy," she said.
"Your future is up to you, as it should be," she added in the speech which was broadcast live by Kosovo's two main television channels.
It is Albright's first visit to Kosovo since 1999 and she would have been impressed by the Kosovo Albanians' lingering affection for former US president Bill Clinton, whose name adorns everything from hotels to shopping malls.
Kosovo Albanians see Albright's efforts as crucial to the international intervention, which went ahead without United Nations approval and in the face of opposition from Russia.
Albright arrived Monday on a three-day visit to the province in her capacity as chairwoman of the National Democratic Institute, a non-profit US-based organization.
Six years after the UN took control of Kosovo the province remains economically paralysed and wracked by ethnic hatreds, with the Serb minority in need of constant protection from NATO peacekeepers.
Albright: I have worked for Kosovo’s dream
All daily newspapers give front-page coverage to the visit of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Kosovo. Most dailies highlight Albright’s quote that she has worked for the achievement of the dream of the people of Kosovo.
‘It is very important for the democratic process to continue, for the people to take part in this process, for minority rights to be respected. We have a good opportunity for Kosovo to get the place it deserves,’ Albright is quoted as saying.
The daily press reports that Albright will stay in Kosovo for several days to get first-hand information on the general situation and to discuss the future of Kosovo.
Koha notes that Albright enjoys extraordinary respect among Kosovan citizens, especially Albanians, who see her as their saviour.
Dailies also report that today Albright is expected to give a speech before the members of the Kosovo Assembly.
‘It is very important for the democratic process to continue, for the people to take part in this process, for minority rights to be respected. We have a good opportunity for Kosovo to get the place it deserves,’ Albright is quoted as saying.
The daily press reports that Albright will stay in Kosovo for several days to get first-hand information on the general situation and to discuss the future of Kosovo.
Koha notes that Albright enjoys extraordinary respect among Kosovan citizens, especially Albanians, who see her as their saviour.
Dailies also report that today Albright is expected to give a speech before the members of the Kosovo Assembly.
SRSG gives green light for security sector review to start
Daily newspapers report that SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen has sent a letter to the media and interested institutions announcing his support for the start of the internal security sector review. The beginning of the review is a recommendation of the advisory group from the British Government that prepared a report on the internal security sector and submitted it to UNMIK HQ and Kosovo institutions early this month.
Zëri reports that the SRSG has stated that the report will form the basis for the project to establish the internal security sector in Kosovo.
Koha Ditore quotes Jessen-Petersen as saying that the three aims of the security sector review are: it will be Kosovan-led, it will help develop security policies in Kosovo and will be a long-term development plan for this sector.
Jessen-Petersen is also quoted on the front page of Epoka e Re as saying, ‘The Secretariat for Security should start work as soon as possible.’
Zëri reports that the SRSG has stated that the report will form the basis for the project to establish the internal security sector in Kosovo.
Koha Ditore quotes Jessen-Petersen as saying that the three aims of the security sector review are: it will be Kosovan-led, it will help develop security policies in Kosovo and will be a long-term development plan for this sector.
Jessen-Petersen is also quoted on the front page of Epoka e Re as saying, ‘The Secretariat for Security should start work as soon as possible.’
Monday, July 04, 2005
Details of Srebrenica Emerge as Hague Prepares for a Trial - New York Times
Details of Srebrenica Emerge as Hague Prepares for a Trial
By MARLISE SIMONS
THE HAGUE - To carry out mass murder in Bosnia, the organizers devised an elaborate ruse. They stole the blue helmets and white vehicles of United Nations peacekeepers so they could trick and capture their victims. They blocked access roads to keep away outsiders like Red Cross workers and journalists.
On July 11, 1995, as gunshots rang in the night, the Bosnian Serb military leader, Gen. Ratko Mladic, met in a local hotel with a man summoned to speak for the frightened people in the mountain town of Srebrenica. "I guarantee that all those who surrender their weapons will live," the general said. "I need a clear answer so I can decide both as a man and as a commander."
But the next morning, a five-day killing frenzy began. By the time it was over, the Bosnian Serb Army and police forces had systematically tracked down and executed close to 8,000 boys and men.
General Mladic and the Bosnian Serb political leader, Radovan Karadzic, who were indicted as the main architects of Europe's worst massacre since World War II, have evaded capture. But many men from their inner circle are now in jail.
Prosecutors at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague are preparing a joint trial of nine of the highest-ranking officers accused of playing integral roles in the Srebrenica killings. Such a large joint trial would dwarf any other proceedings the court has held.
All nine men face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and five of them are accused of complicity to commit genocide.
A joint trial is possible because eight of the generals and senior officers from the Bosnian Serb Army have arrived in The Hague in recent months, their "voluntary surrender" largely a result of international pressure on the Serbian authorities. One remains at large.
Judges at the tribunal that deals with the former Yugoslavia must still approve prosecuting the men as a group, and no trial date has been set. Some lawyers who follow the court have said they fear that a joint trial could become a management nightmare, involving at least 18 defense lawyers and many prosecutors. Several defense lawyers have already objected to a joint trial.
But prosecutors argue that trying the men together would avoid much duplication, minimize hardship for victims and witnesses and ensure consistency in dealing with crimes committed during the same campaign.
Prosecutors also say their case has been strengthened by a cache of documents that NATO troops obtained recently from the archives of one of the main military entities, the Drina Corps. The archives are said to include statements and papers signed by several of the accused.
Until now, the trials dealing with the wars of the 1990's that tore up Yugoslavia have been short on a paper trail and have had to rely heavily on witnesses' testimony.
Much of what happened at Srebrenica, which had been a United Nations protectorate, is now known. Crucial details came out during two trials of three high-ranking officers who are now serving long sentences. Another three men - two senior officers and a soldier in a firing squad - pleaded guilty and provided lengthy testimony.
The picture painted during those many hours in court shows that the capture and killing of the men and boys of Srebrenica were coordinated by the military security and intelligence branch of the Bosnian Serb Army and militarized police. The forces were supplied and paid by a special department of the Serbian government in Belgrade, whose president was Slobodan Milosevic. His war crimes trial here is now in its fourth year.
The killing at Srebrenica began soon after General Mladic's troops had overwhelmed the 300 United Nations peacekeepers protecting about 40,000 people who had sought refuge in the town or already lived there.
The Bosnian Serb troops immediately separated more than 1,000 unarmed Bosnian Muslim men and boys from the families that had fled to the town. Several thousand others, former fighters as well as civilians, were ambushed as they tried to escape though the woods. Others unknowingly surrendered to Serbs disguised as United Nations peacekeepers, witnesses have testified.
The captives were executed at various places in the area, at a warehouse, on a farm, near a dam, on the banks of a river. Many bodies were later found in mass graves with their hands tied behind their backs. The Red Cross list of the missing has close to 8,000 names.
"It was a huge logistical undertaking, moving prisoners, then moving bodies and to do all of this out of sight of the U.N. and the press," said a prosecutor who has long worked on the case. Under tribunal rules, only official spokesmen, not prosecutors, can speak for publication.
If the group trial goes forward, the accused will include those thought to be "the real hands-on guys, the guys on the ground that made all this possible," the prosecutor said. Among them are Ljubomir Borovcanin, a police commander charged with capturing and killing fleeing men. In court, prosecutors have shown a photograph of him during the operation, wearing a United Nations helmet.
Two of the other defendants from General Mladic's inner circle are Col. Ljubisa Beara, the security and intelligence chief of the army's main staff, and one of his deputies, Lt. Col. Vujadin Popovic. Their indictment says they supervised the deportation of women and children and saw to it that men and teenage boys were rounded up, put in temporary holding facilities and taken to the killing fields.
A radio intercept from July 15, during the killing, seems to record
By MARLISE SIMONS
THE HAGUE - To carry out mass murder in Bosnia, the organizers devised an elaborate ruse. They stole the blue helmets and white vehicles of United Nations peacekeepers so they could trick and capture their victims. They blocked access roads to keep away outsiders like Red Cross workers and journalists.
On July 11, 1995, as gunshots rang in the night, the Bosnian Serb military leader, Gen. Ratko Mladic, met in a local hotel with a man summoned to speak for the frightened people in the mountain town of Srebrenica. "I guarantee that all those who surrender their weapons will live," the general said. "I need a clear answer so I can decide both as a man and as a commander."
But the next morning, a five-day killing frenzy began. By the time it was over, the Bosnian Serb Army and police forces had systematically tracked down and executed close to 8,000 boys and men.
General Mladic and the Bosnian Serb political leader, Radovan Karadzic, who were indicted as the main architects of Europe's worst massacre since World War II, have evaded capture. But many men from their inner circle are now in jail.
Prosecutors at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague are preparing a joint trial of nine of the highest-ranking officers accused of playing integral roles in the Srebrenica killings. Such a large joint trial would dwarf any other proceedings the court has held.
All nine men face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and five of them are accused of complicity to commit genocide.
A joint trial is possible because eight of the generals and senior officers from the Bosnian Serb Army have arrived in The Hague in recent months, their "voluntary surrender" largely a result of international pressure on the Serbian authorities. One remains at large.
Judges at the tribunal that deals with the former Yugoslavia must still approve prosecuting the men as a group, and no trial date has been set. Some lawyers who follow the court have said they fear that a joint trial could become a management nightmare, involving at least 18 defense lawyers and many prosecutors. Several defense lawyers have already objected to a joint trial.
But prosecutors argue that trying the men together would avoid much duplication, minimize hardship for victims and witnesses and ensure consistency in dealing with crimes committed during the same campaign.
Prosecutors also say their case has been strengthened by a cache of documents that NATO troops obtained recently from the archives of one of the main military entities, the Drina Corps. The archives are said to include statements and papers signed by several of the accused.
Until now, the trials dealing with the wars of the 1990's that tore up Yugoslavia have been short on a paper trail and have had to rely heavily on witnesses' testimony.
Much of what happened at Srebrenica, which had been a United Nations protectorate, is now known. Crucial details came out during two trials of three high-ranking officers who are now serving long sentences. Another three men - two senior officers and a soldier in a firing squad - pleaded guilty and provided lengthy testimony.
The picture painted during those many hours in court shows that the capture and killing of the men and boys of Srebrenica were coordinated by the military security and intelligence branch of the Bosnian Serb Army and militarized police. The forces were supplied and paid by a special department of the Serbian government in Belgrade, whose president was Slobodan Milosevic. His war crimes trial here is now in its fourth year.
The killing at Srebrenica began soon after General Mladic's troops had overwhelmed the 300 United Nations peacekeepers protecting about 40,000 people who had sought refuge in the town or already lived there.
The Bosnian Serb troops immediately separated more than 1,000 unarmed Bosnian Muslim men and boys from the families that had fled to the town. Several thousand others, former fighters as well as civilians, were ambushed as they tried to escape though the woods. Others unknowingly surrendered to Serbs disguised as United Nations peacekeepers, witnesses have testified.
The captives were executed at various places in the area, at a warehouse, on a farm, near a dam, on the banks of a river. Many bodies were later found in mass graves with their hands tied behind their backs. The Red Cross list of the missing has close to 8,000 names.
"It was a huge logistical undertaking, moving prisoners, then moving bodies and to do all of this out of sight of the U.N. and the press," said a prosecutor who has long worked on the case. Under tribunal rules, only official spokesmen, not prosecutors, can speak for publication.
If the group trial goes forward, the accused will include those thought to be "the real hands-on guys, the guys on the ground that made all this possible," the prosecutor said. Among them are Ljubomir Borovcanin, a police commander charged with capturing and killing fleeing men. In court, prosecutors have shown a photograph of him during the operation, wearing a United Nations helmet.
Two of the other defendants from General Mladic's inner circle are Col. Ljubisa Beara, the security and intelligence chief of the army's main staff, and one of his deputies, Lt. Col. Vujadin Popovic. Their indictment says they supervised the deportation of women and children and saw to it that men and teenage boys were rounded up, put in temporary holding facilities and taken to the killing fields.
A radio intercept from July 15, during the killing, seems to record