By Roger Cohen
SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 2005
NEW YORK A decade ago, on June 24, 1995, I sat in the ravaged city of Sarajevo and filed a piece to The New York Times that began: "Always the stomach contracts. When, through the still air, there comes the flat boom of rending and fracture that is the sound of another shell's impact, indifference can only be feigned. Even the war-hardened of this city feel the familiar knife in the gut."
That stomach, of course, was mine, along with those of another 280,000 people in a European city that had been living for more than three years with a dirt trench around it, subjected to regular bombardment by Serbian nationalist forces intent on denying the multiethnic character of Sarajevo.
The people of the city had become crazed by that summer. They raised their hands to their necks in a gesture of self-strangulation, saying they could no longer breathe. They burned books to heat stoves to cook the rabbits they raised in cages in their bedrooms. Gravediggers took shelter from shelling in the graves they dug.
That was Europe in 1995: bleeding in its Balkan backyard as the United States and the European Union dithered. The continent's 20th-century agony had begun with the bullets fired by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914; it seemed the century might end much as it began.
But within five months the Bosnian war was over, hustled to a conclusion by the American diplomat, Richard Holbrooke. Another U.S. diplomat, Nicholas Burns, was at Dayton, Ohio, when the peace accord was signed. Because what you see, as opposed to what you merely read about, is what drives you, that presence has become significant.
Burns this year became the under secretary of state for political affairs - and the torpid graph of American attention to the Balkans blipped upward. He visited the area in May. He pledged American involvement. And he made clear his view of the Balkans: "The status quo is neither stable nor sustainable."
What is that status quo? Bosnia is at peace, but its Muslim, Serb and Croat populations remain driven by the politics of ethnic rivalry, dependent on international aid, protected by an EU-led force, and gathered in what amounts to a tenuous state.
The two Serbs most wanted for war crimes - Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic - are still at large. Until recently very few Serbs believed they had done anything wrong.
But the first real dent in the crippling Serbian denial of their crimes was made this month with the showing of a video of the execution of six - yes, six - of the more than 7,000 Muslims killed at Srebrenica in July, 1995.
For once the ironclad Serbian self-image of perennial victim was breached.
Burns is eager to build on this tentative Serbian opening. In a wide-ranging telephone conversation, he described his linked plans for Bosnia and Kosovo, where the peace is even more tenuous.
"In both places we have outstanding business from 10 years ago," Burns said. "The release of the videotape had a big effect on Serbia. It has finally convinced people this shameful massacre happened."
Both President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica of Serbia have assured Burns that they have now made the decision to arrest and turn over Mladic, who is believed to be in Serbia, and Karadzic, who may be in Serb-controlled areas of Bosnia.
"I've told them, you have to get Mladic," Burns said. "I've told them that until you do, we are your biggest problem. You're never going to get into NATO."
Referring to the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, Burns continued: "And I've made clear that they have a major anniversary coming up on July 11 and they need to atone and it would be good to get Mladic before then. I will remind them of that in the next couple of days."
Tadic has told Burns he will be at a Srebrenica ceremony, along with Svetozar Marovic, the president of the federation of Serbia and Montenegro. That in itself would be significant, a step toward Serbian confrontation with what national hysteria wrought.
The reward for Serbia would be movement toward NATO and the long-term prospect of European Union membership. The EU has assured the Bush administration that, despite its travails, it will keep the door open to Balkan countries, Burns said.
Close American-European cooperation is also envisaged in Kosovo, where Burns is anxious to move toward final-status talks this fall.
By then, Kai Eide, the Norwegian ambassador to NATO, will have completed a review in Kosovo, looking at guarantees of the rights of the area's Serb minority and other governance issues.
Kosovo's overwhelming Albanian majority is clamoring for independence from Serbia and believes America has promised to deliver it to the province, now effectively a ward of the international community. Serbia is countering with "more than autonomy, less than independence," a Delphic phrase. Burns is not pronouncing yet on the outcome, but is clear on procedure.
A leading EU politician, perhaps the former Finnish president, Martti Ahtisaari, would lead the talks, flanked by a senior American diplomat, who would probably not be Burns himself. "We might try sequestration a la Holbrooke in Dayton, or we might negotiate in some other way," Burns said.
Where would the process lead? A long-term outcome other than independence seems inconceivable when the overwhelming majority of Kosovars want that.
But the Kosovo Albanians would have to earn it - by decentralizing power, by providing real protection and rights to the Serb minority, and by accepting an international civil administration for a long transitional period.
If Serbia agrees to this, and has arrested Mladic and Karadzic, it will need prompt recognition in the form of convincingly open arms from NATO and the EU.
Two things are clear. Only America's involvement will deliver results because its credibility is unmatched. And, as Burns has said, the United States and its partners "cannot define averting disaster in the Balkans as success."
E-mail: rcohen@iht.com
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Taming the Balkans - The Economist
Taming the Balkans
Could EU accession do the trick?
FOR a gruelling decade, the world viewed the Balkans through the prism of the region's most strife-torn country, says Ivan Krastev, a Bulgarian political scientist. In the early 1990s that country was Croatia or Bosnia. By 1999 it was Kosovo, illuminated by the bombing of Belgrade. Two years later attention shifted to Macedonia, brought to the brink of civil war by ethnic tensions between Macedonians and Albanians. These successive crises promoted the image of a whole region in continuing turmoil, even though the worst was over by 1995.
This pessimistic view did at least have one redeeming quality. It allowed outsiders to hope that, when peace was restored across the region, everything else would start to come right. Economic recovery would provide the foundations on which durable and free-standing democracies could be built. But now peace has indeed been restored, and yet the good news more or less ends there. Economic recovery has been patchy, and has not yet led to irreversible and locally rooted political change in most of the region.
The International Commission on the Balkans, a non-governmental body of experts led by Giuliano Amato, a former Italian prime minister, published a report in April that gloomily reflected:
The region is as close to failure as it is to success. For the moment, the wars are over but the smell of violence still hangs heavy in the air...Economic growth in these territories is low or non-existent; unemployment is high; corruption is pervasive; and the public is pessimistic and distrustful towards its nascent democratic institutions.
The Foreign Investors' Council of Serbia sounded only slightly less bleak when it published its annual White Book on business conditions in March. On paper things might be looking better, it said, but:
The adoption of laws without implementation and enforcement achieves little...[The] momentum which Serbia's transition process had gathered in earlier years has now dissipated.
There are patches of relative optimism here and there. This year the International Monetary Fund praised as “remarkable” and “commendable” the economic performance of Albania, where real incomes have doubled since 1998. Macedonia's constitutional order has been looking more robust since voters allowed a new law on local government to pass late last year. But by and large, the coming of peace to the Balkans has merely allowed the deep problems of state weakness, and of incomplete state-building projects, to be seen more clearly.
The “open status” issues of Kosovo and Montenegro obstruct the normalisation of political life in Serbia, the western Balkans' biggest country, and thus overshadow the whole region. International talks on the future of Kosovo, which legally is still part of Serbia, are due to begin later this year and may well lead to eventual independence. The future of Montenegro may be decided by a referendum next year. The choice is between independence on the one hand and the status quo—a loose federation with Serbia—on the other.
Outsiders hoped and assumed a few years ago that peace in the Balkans would free people in the region to concentrate on economic development. Voters would push leaders to worry much more about raising living standards and much less about re-opening quixotic and violent national questions. Why have things not turned out quite that way?
Part of the problem is that, even in times of peace, the power and assets of a weak state are still up for grabs, especially if the state has been federalised and if the constitutional order has not been entrenched beyond any expectation of change. The country will be restless, communities will compete, the rule of law will be fragile, the government will be fractious, private investment will be risky. So it is across the Balkans. Whatever the final constitutional order is going to be for any of these countries, the important thing is that its finality should be obvious to everyone, and universally accepted.
No loose ends
That is one argument for giving independence to Kosovo and Montenegro now. Independence for both would have an air of finality about it which a loose federation or a special jurisdiction never could. Separation would allow those new countries, and Serbia, to concentrate on the quotidian business of economic reconstruction, and of capacity-building in government, without national questions to distract them, and with nobody else to blame for their problems.
Opinion polls show that most communities in the Balkans are ready to accept the sort of order which most western governments would like to see installed there. This would mean independence for Kosovo, probably in stages, severing it from Serbia but denying it union with Albania. It would mean independence for Montenegro. And it would mean making the best of Bosnia as a hybrid state, half run by Serbs and half by Bosniaks and Croats.
Fears that independence for Kosovo might inspire fresh independence struggles among Serbs in Bosnia and Albanians in Macedonia may be exaggerated. Polls show that Bosnia is no longer what the Amato commission calls a “highly contested state”. Most Serbs in Serbia, and almost half the Serbs within Bosnia, do not want to break Bosnia up and join its Serb half with Serbia. Across the region, there is a consensus view that Serbia and Montenegro will probably go their separate ways (even though most Montenegrins currently want to keep the status quo), and that this separation will be a good thing.
Most Macedonians strongly reject the idea of dividing Macedonia into Macedonian and Albanian statelets, and joining the Albanian part of it with Albania itself. Albanians are very slightly in favour of it, but most do not think it will happen. The one possible upset is over the question of joining Albania with an independent Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians are keen on the idea, Albanians in Albania just about in favour, and both think it is more likely to happen than not.
If the commission and its polls are right, therefore, the public mood in the Balkans may be ready for some big steps forward. The acquiescence of the Serbian government in Belgrade will be the key to a peaceful break-up of the country and its approval by the United Nations. If the government in Belgrade objects, then China and Russia will probably take its side in the UN Security Council, blocking progress and perhaps provoking fresh unrest in Kosovo. The question is how to win Serbia over. Probably the only answer is by giving it a faster track towards EU membership.
The next question is whether the EU is ready for that. If that strategic bargain can be struck, then it will become harder to deny the remaining countries of the Balkans a fast track too. Otherwise, what will be left there? A sink of countries seemingly unable to generate the hope and confidence needed to trust their own governments, let alone the neighbouring ones, and obliging the rest of the world to keep them in order and in funds. On a per-head basis, the world has put 25 times as much money and 50 times as many troops into Kosovo as it has put into post-conflict Afghanistan. The aid the EU has given to the Balkans in recent years dwarfs the amounts given to other countries on its borders (see table 3).
Croatia's credentials
The road to EU membership is currently being explored by Croatia, which finished its territorial war and its ethnic cleansing in 1995. The completion of those projects, followed by the death in 1999 of the country's veteran leader, Franjo Tudjman, allowed a line of sorts to be drawn between wartime Croatia and its post-war continuation. Croatia re-cast itself as a more or less liberal democracy where nationalism had been tamed, a country still a little rough round the edges but ready and willing in principle to form part of a peaceful and orderly Europe, a place where “moderate nationalists could provide a soft landing for exhausted or failed nationalist projects”, in the words of Jacques Rupnik, a French political scientist.
But Croatia exaggerated the depth of its transformation for foreign consumption, and perhaps ended up believing some of its own publicity. It thought, wrongly, that other European countries were so keen to put the ghosts of the Balkan wars behind them that they would forgive Croatia's failure to co-operate fully with the United Nations war-crimes tribunal in The Hague. The tribunal's most wanted fugitives include Ante Gotovina, a Croat general charged with ethnic cleansing during Croatia's war with the Serbs. Carla del Ponte, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, said the Croats could do much more to help find him; the Croats said they had no idea where he was.
That was enough to derail Croatia's hopes of opening talks with the EU in mid-March. The EU postponed them the day before they were due to start, mainly at the urging of Britain, and over the objections of Austria and Hungary. The right outcome would be a reform of Croatia's intelligence services and special police to sack or demote those responsible for shielding Mr Gotovina. Even if that does not produce the man himself, it would at least show that the elected government had gained full authority over the state security services, which in March was still far from clear.
Croatia can scarcely afford to drag its feet. The job of reforming its public administration and its economy looks like at least five years' hard work. The state controls too much and delivers too little. Public spending accounts for fully half of GDP. Public debt rose from 30% of GDP in 1995 to 55% in 2003. External debt doubled from 41% of GDP in 1997 to 82% in 2003. Key health indicators are far below EU averages. Half the beneficiaries of social assistance are able-bodied but unemployed. Only 60% of adults have had more than eight years of schooling.
Working in Croatia's favour are two main factors. By the standards of EU candidates it is relatively rich, with a GDP per head of $7,700 last year, more than twice the level in Bulgaria or Romania. And it has a beautiful Adriatic coastline, making it a favourite holiday destination for millions of Europeans, a sentimental factor not to be underestimated. It can be hopeful of EU entry by, say, 2010 if only it can solve the Gotovina problem (and, of course, if the EU is still in business then).
But the graduation of Croatia from the badlands of the Balkans to the safe haven of the EU will only increase the sense of isolation and abandonment across its hinterland. The International Commission on the Balkans proposes a general solution that is admirable in its detail and its directness. It says that Kosovo should be launched on a phased transition towards full independence and sovereignty, for the first few years of which the international community would reserve powers over human rights and minorities. Once that was agreed, and Montenegro had decided whether to stay with Serbia or go it alone, the EU should convene a Balkan conference in 2006 and give each country its road map to membership.
Macedonia would be invited to start EU accession talks by the end of that year. Serbia and Montenegro, as one or two countries, would also be invited to start negotiations or, failing that, would be offered a “Europe Agreement” similar to those given to central European countries before they began negotiations. Albania would be offered the same sort of deal, and invited to join NATO. The powers of the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia would be transferred to the European Commission in Brussels, and vested in an EU accession negotiator there. The hope would be that all these processes could be completed, and the EU enlarged into the Balkans, by 2014. Europe's present mood does not favour that outcome, but it is hard to think of one that might work better.
The solution proposed by the Amato commission mixes practicality with romance, optimism and desperation. Probably all those things are needed in equal measure if the Balkans are ever to be helped to help themselves.
Could EU accession do the trick?
FOR a gruelling decade, the world viewed the Balkans through the prism of the region's most strife-torn country, says Ivan Krastev, a Bulgarian political scientist. In the early 1990s that country was Croatia or Bosnia. By 1999 it was Kosovo, illuminated by the bombing of Belgrade. Two years later attention shifted to Macedonia, brought to the brink of civil war by ethnic tensions between Macedonians and Albanians. These successive crises promoted the image of a whole region in continuing turmoil, even though the worst was over by 1995.
This pessimistic view did at least have one redeeming quality. It allowed outsiders to hope that, when peace was restored across the region, everything else would start to come right. Economic recovery would provide the foundations on which durable and free-standing democracies could be built. But now peace has indeed been restored, and yet the good news more or less ends there. Economic recovery has been patchy, and has not yet led to irreversible and locally rooted political change in most of the region.
The International Commission on the Balkans, a non-governmental body of experts led by Giuliano Amato, a former Italian prime minister, published a report in April that gloomily reflected:
The region is as close to failure as it is to success. For the moment, the wars are over but the smell of violence still hangs heavy in the air...Economic growth in these territories is low or non-existent; unemployment is high; corruption is pervasive; and the public is pessimistic and distrustful towards its nascent democratic institutions.
The Foreign Investors' Council of Serbia sounded only slightly less bleak when it published its annual White Book on business conditions in March. On paper things might be looking better, it said, but:
The adoption of laws without implementation and enforcement achieves little...[The] momentum which Serbia's transition process had gathered in earlier years has now dissipated.
There are patches of relative optimism here and there. This year the International Monetary Fund praised as “remarkable” and “commendable” the economic performance of Albania, where real incomes have doubled since 1998. Macedonia's constitutional order has been looking more robust since voters allowed a new law on local government to pass late last year. But by and large, the coming of peace to the Balkans has merely allowed the deep problems of state weakness, and of incomplete state-building projects, to be seen more clearly.
The “open status” issues of Kosovo and Montenegro obstruct the normalisation of political life in Serbia, the western Balkans' biggest country, and thus overshadow the whole region. International talks on the future of Kosovo, which legally is still part of Serbia, are due to begin later this year and may well lead to eventual independence. The future of Montenegro may be decided by a referendum next year. The choice is between independence on the one hand and the status quo—a loose federation with Serbia—on the other.
Outsiders hoped and assumed a few years ago that peace in the Balkans would free people in the region to concentrate on economic development. Voters would push leaders to worry much more about raising living standards and much less about re-opening quixotic and violent national questions. Why have things not turned out quite that way?
Part of the problem is that, even in times of peace, the power and assets of a weak state are still up for grabs, especially if the state has been federalised and if the constitutional order has not been entrenched beyond any expectation of change. The country will be restless, communities will compete, the rule of law will be fragile, the government will be fractious, private investment will be risky. So it is across the Balkans. Whatever the final constitutional order is going to be for any of these countries, the important thing is that its finality should be obvious to everyone, and universally accepted.
No loose ends
That is one argument for giving independence to Kosovo and Montenegro now. Independence for both would have an air of finality about it which a loose federation or a special jurisdiction never could. Separation would allow those new countries, and Serbia, to concentrate on the quotidian business of economic reconstruction, and of capacity-building in government, without national questions to distract them, and with nobody else to blame for their problems.
Opinion polls show that most communities in the Balkans are ready to accept the sort of order which most western governments would like to see installed there. This would mean independence for Kosovo, probably in stages, severing it from Serbia but denying it union with Albania. It would mean independence for Montenegro. And it would mean making the best of Bosnia as a hybrid state, half run by Serbs and half by Bosniaks and Croats.
Fears that independence for Kosovo might inspire fresh independence struggles among Serbs in Bosnia and Albanians in Macedonia may be exaggerated. Polls show that Bosnia is no longer what the Amato commission calls a “highly contested state”. Most Serbs in Serbia, and almost half the Serbs within Bosnia, do not want to break Bosnia up and join its Serb half with Serbia. Across the region, there is a consensus view that Serbia and Montenegro will probably go their separate ways (even though most Montenegrins currently want to keep the status quo), and that this separation will be a good thing.
Most Macedonians strongly reject the idea of dividing Macedonia into Macedonian and Albanian statelets, and joining the Albanian part of it with Albania itself. Albanians are very slightly in favour of it, but most do not think it will happen. The one possible upset is over the question of joining Albania with an independent Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians are keen on the idea, Albanians in Albania just about in favour, and both think it is more likely to happen than not.
If the commission and its polls are right, therefore, the public mood in the Balkans may be ready for some big steps forward. The acquiescence of the Serbian government in Belgrade will be the key to a peaceful break-up of the country and its approval by the United Nations. If the government in Belgrade objects, then China and Russia will probably take its side in the UN Security Council, blocking progress and perhaps provoking fresh unrest in Kosovo. The question is how to win Serbia over. Probably the only answer is by giving it a faster track towards EU membership.
The next question is whether the EU is ready for that. If that strategic bargain can be struck, then it will become harder to deny the remaining countries of the Balkans a fast track too. Otherwise, what will be left there? A sink of countries seemingly unable to generate the hope and confidence needed to trust their own governments, let alone the neighbouring ones, and obliging the rest of the world to keep them in order and in funds. On a per-head basis, the world has put 25 times as much money and 50 times as many troops into Kosovo as it has put into post-conflict Afghanistan. The aid the EU has given to the Balkans in recent years dwarfs the amounts given to other countries on its borders (see table 3).
Croatia's credentials
The road to EU membership is currently being explored by Croatia, which finished its territorial war and its ethnic cleansing in 1995. The completion of those projects, followed by the death in 1999 of the country's veteran leader, Franjo Tudjman, allowed a line of sorts to be drawn between wartime Croatia and its post-war continuation. Croatia re-cast itself as a more or less liberal democracy where nationalism had been tamed, a country still a little rough round the edges but ready and willing in principle to form part of a peaceful and orderly Europe, a place where “moderate nationalists could provide a soft landing for exhausted or failed nationalist projects”, in the words of Jacques Rupnik, a French political scientist.
But Croatia exaggerated the depth of its transformation for foreign consumption, and perhaps ended up believing some of its own publicity. It thought, wrongly, that other European countries were so keen to put the ghosts of the Balkan wars behind them that they would forgive Croatia's failure to co-operate fully with the United Nations war-crimes tribunal in The Hague. The tribunal's most wanted fugitives include Ante Gotovina, a Croat general charged with ethnic cleansing during Croatia's war with the Serbs. Carla del Ponte, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, said the Croats could do much more to help find him; the Croats said they had no idea where he was.
That was enough to derail Croatia's hopes of opening talks with the EU in mid-March. The EU postponed them the day before they were due to start, mainly at the urging of Britain, and over the objections of Austria and Hungary. The right outcome would be a reform of Croatia's intelligence services and special police to sack or demote those responsible for shielding Mr Gotovina. Even if that does not produce the man himself, it would at least show that the elected government had gained full authority over the state security services, which in March was still far from clear.
Croatia can scarcely afford to drag its feet. The job of reforming its public administration and its economy looks like at least five years' hard work. The state controls too much and delivers too little. Public spending accounts for fully half of GDP. Public debt rose from 30% of GDP in 1995 to 55% in 2003. External debt doubled from 41% of GDP in 1997 to 82% in 2003. Key health indicators are far below EU averages. Half the beneficiaries of social assistance are able-bodied but unemployed. Only 60% of adults have had more than eight years of schooling.
Working in Croatia's favour are two main factors. By the standards of EU candidates it is relatively rich, with a GDP per head of $7,700 last year, more than twice the level in Bulgaria or Romania. And it has a beautiful Adriatic coastline, making it a favourite holiday destination for millions of Europeans, a sentimental factor not to be underestimated. It can be hopeful of EU entry by, say, 2010 if only it can solve the Gotovina problem (and, of course, if the EU is still in business then).
But the graduation of Croatia from the badlands of the Balkans to the safe haven of the EU will only increase the sense of isolation and abandonment across its hinterland. The International Commission on the Balkans proposes a general solution that is admirable in its detail and its directness. It says that Kosovo should be launched on a phased transition towards full independence and sovereignty, for the first few years of which the international community would reserve powers over human rights and minorities. Once that was agreed, and Montenegro had decided whether to stay with Serbia or go it alone, the EU should convene a Balkan conference in 2006 and give each country its road map to membership.
Macedonia would be invited to start EU accession talks by the end of that year. Serbia and Montenegro, as one or two countries, would also be invited to start negotiations or, failing that, would be offered a “Europe Agreement” similar to those given to central European countries before they began negotiations. Albania would be offered the same sort of deal, and invited to join NATO. The powers of the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia would be transferred to the European Commission in Brussels, and vested in an EU accession negotiator there. The hope would be that all these processes could be completed, and the EU enlarged into the Balkans, by 2014. Europe's present mood does not favour that outcome, but it is hard to think of one that might work better.
The solution proposed by the Amato commission mixes practicality with romance, optimism and desperation. Probably all those things are needed in equal measure if the Balkans are ever to be helped to help themselves.
Independence of Kosovo – possible
Express reports that UN SG’s representative for displaced persons Walter Kaelin said that independence of Kosovo and secession of Montenegro are possible and called for more attention toward IDPs. ‘It is difficult to predict the future status of Kosovo and Montenegro. The option of independence is not excluded, but in this case we should be careful because such a solution may have a negative impact on the will of the displaced to return to their homes’, Kaelin is quoted to have said while visiting Belgrade.
Friday, June 24, 2005
SERB ASSEMBLY REJECTS SREBRENICA DECLARATION - IWPR
Fears that Serbia might have to pay war reparations sinks plans to
condemn 1995 slaughter.
By Danica Vucenic in Belgrade (BCR No 561, 23-Jun-05)
Serbia's parliament has backed away from plans to formally condemn war
crimes in Srebrenica, in what observers said is another sign of
Serbian unwillingness to accept responsibility for the past.
Observers believe parliament was afraid a declaration on Srebrenica
might affect the ongoing suit at the International Court of Justice,
ICJ, which Bosnia and Hercegovina brought against the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia in 1993.
In the case, Sarajevo accused the Belgrade government of being an
accomplice to genocide. If Bosnia wins the case, Serbia and
Montenegro, as the successor state to the old Yugoslavia, will have to
pay reparations.
Officially, however, parliament did not condemn the killing of up to
8,000 Bosniaks in the town in July 1995 because the various
parliamentary factions could not agree on what the declaration should
say.
Some deputies wanted the text to specifically mention Srebrenica,
while others argued for a more general statement.
Many NGOs and political activists attacked the inaction as further
proof of Serbia's inability to make a clean break with the regime of
Slobodan Milosevic.
One activist said he was not surprised by the failure, as "an
acknowledgement of the Srebrenica crimes would implicate those parties
who sit in the parliament".
The minority government of Vojislav Kostunica governs with the support
of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, SPS, while the strongest
opposition party, with 83 deputies in the 250-seat assembly, is the
Serbian Radical Party, SRS, whose leader Vojislav Seselj is in the
Hague alongside Milosevic.
The original declaration, submitted several weeks ago, was the
initiative of eight NGOs and two deputies in parliament, Natasa Micic
and Zarko Korac.
Biljana Kovacevic Vuco, president of the Human Rights Lawyers
Committee, which drafted the text of the NGOs' declaration, told
Balkan Crisis Report, BCR, what they had hoped to see.
"The declaration suggested that the Serbian state should clearly
disavow the Srebrenica genocide and everything done in Serbia's name
in unambiguous terms," she said.
Andrej Nosov, of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, one of the
NGOs, said its adoption would have meant that Serbia admitted it
"conducted a policy of genocide, lost the war, was an aggressor, and
hence, had to accept moral and political responsibility".
Their initiative might have sunk without trace had it not been for the
recent release of shocking television footage showing members of a
Serbian paramilitary unit, the Scorpions, shooting dead several young
Muslim prisoners from Srebrenica in 1995.
The video, which shook Serbian public, was revealed at The Hague and
shown on Serbia's B92 television station in early June.
The first reaction came from the SRS, which tabled a draft resolution
condemning all war crimes committed on the territory of former
Yugoslavia, but without specifically mentioning Srebrenica.
Under pressure from the international community and the Serbian
public, Predrag Markovic, speaker of parliament, also took up the
initiative.
Others also weighed in, leaving parliament with four different
versions of the declaration to consider.
Not surprisingly, disagreements soon arose about which should be adopted.
Kostunica's party, the Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS, and the SPS,
made it clear they wanted only a blanket condemnation of all crimes,
regardless of who perpetrated them.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, DS, led by the Serbian President,
Boris Tadic, and the Serbian Renewal Movement, SPO, led by the state
union foreign minister, Vuk Draskovic, wanted to stress the crime in
Srebrenica.
Many observers, however, believe the real reason parliament abandoned
the declaration was not a failure to agree on the document's wording
but for purely financial reasons relating to the ongoing suit at the
ICJ.
Bosnia brought the charges following the discovery in 1993 of Serb-run
detention camps at Omarska and Keraterm, where numerous Bosniaks were
killed.
Kovacevic Vuco believes a resolution would have little effect on the
eventual outcome of the case.
"If the International Court of Justice rules in favour of Bosnia and
Hercegovina… we will have to pay reparations … and we cannot avoid it
by denying or refusing to adopt the declaration," she said.
Vojin Dimitrijevic, an expert in international law and director of the
Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, agreed, saying a Srebrenica
declaration would have been "is a moral act, which could not be used
in the International Court of Justice".
He said Bosnia's case will only succeed if it established a direct
link between the Srebrenica killings and the Yugoslav state apparatus
and proved that Belgrade not only provided financial support but that
its army and police also took part.
Zarko Korac, who submitted the NGO declaration to the parliament, said
it was shameful that Serbia was lagging behind the Bosnian Serb
entity, the Republika Srpska, RS, when it came to acknowledging the
significance of the massacre.
"This policy, which resulted in the massacre of 7,800 Bosniaks in
Srebrenica, was created in Belgrade," Korac told BCR.
"That is why it is so difficult [for us] to accept responsibility and
offer an apology - from the place where the whole project was
devised."
Danica Vucenic is a journalist for B92
condemn 1995 slaughter.
By Danica Vucenic in Belgrade (BCR No 561, 23-Jun-05)
Serbia's parliament has backed away from plans to formally condemn war
crimes in Srebrenica, in what observers said is another sign of
Serbian unwillingness to accept responsibility for the past.
Observers believe parliament was afraid a declaration on Srebrenica
might affect the ongoing suit at the International Court of Justice,
ICJ, which Bosnia and Hercegovina brought against the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia in 1993.
In the case, Sarajevo accused the Belgrade government of being an
accomplice to genocide. If Bosnia wins the case, Serbia and
Montenegro, as the successor state to the old Yugoslavia, will have to
pay reparations.
Officially, however, parliament did not condemn the killing of up to
8,000 Bosniaks in the town in July 1995 because the various
parliamentary factions could not agree on what the declaration should
say.
Some deputies wanted the text to specifically mention Srebrenica,
while others argued for a more general statement.
Many NGOs and political activists attacked the inaction as further
proof of Serbia's inability to make a clean break with the regime of
Slobodan Milosevic.
One activist said he was not surprised by the failure, as "an
acknowledgement of the Srebrenica crimes would implicate those parties
who sit in the parliament".
The minority government of Vojislav Kostunica governs with the support
of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, SPS, while the strongest
opposition party, with 83 deputies in the 250-seat assembly, is the
Serbian Radical Party, SRS, whose leader Vojislav Seselj is in the
Hague alongside Milosevic.
The original declaration, submitted several weeks ago, was the
initiative of eight NGOs and two deputies in parliament, Natasa Micic
and Zarko Korac.
Biljana Kovacevic Vuco, president of the Human Rights Lawyers
Committee, which drafted the text of the NGOs' declaration, told
Balkan Crisis Report, BCR, what they had hoped to see.
"The declaration suggested that the Serbian state should clearly
disavow the Srebrenica genocide and everything done in Serbia's name
in unambiguous terms," she said.
Andrej Nosov, of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, one of the
NGOs, said its adoption would have meant that Serbia admitted it
"conducted a policy of genocide, lost the war, was an aggressor, and
hence, had to accept moral and political responsibility".
Their initiative might have sunk without trace had it not been for the
recent release of shocking television footage showing members of a
Serbian paramilitary unit, the Scorpions, shooting dead several young
Muslim prisoners from Srebrenica in 1995.
The video, which shook Serbian public, was revealed at The Hague and
shown on Serbia's B92 television station in early June.
The first reaction came from the SRS, which tabled a draft resolution
condemning all war crimes committed on the territory of former
Yugoslavia, but without specifically mentioning Srebrenica.
Under pressure from the international community and the Serbian
public, Predrag Markovic, speaker of parliament, also took up the
initiative.
Others also weighed in, leaving parliament with four different
versions of the declaration to consider.
Not surprisingly, disagreements soon arose about which should be adopted.
Kostunica's party, the Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS, and the SPS,
made it clear they wanted only a blanket condemnation of all crimes,
regardless of who perpetrated them.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, DS, led by the Serbian President,
Boris Tadic, and the Serbian Renewal Movement, SPO, led by the state
union foreign minister, Vuk Draskovic, wanted to stress the crime in
Srebrenica.
Many observers, however, believe the real reason parliament abandoned
the declaration was not a failure to agree on the document's wording
but for purely financial reasons relating to the ongoing suit at the
ICJ.
Bosnia brought the charges following the discovery in 1993 of Serb-run
detention camps at Omarska and Keraterm, where numerous Bosniaks were
killed.
Kovacevic Vuco believes a resolution would have little effect on the
eventual outcome of the case.
"If the International Court of Justice rules in favour of Bosnia and
Hercegovina… we will have to pay reparations … and we cannot avoid it
by denying or refusing to adopt the declaration," she said.
Vojin Dimitrijevic, an expert in international law and director of the
Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, agreed, saying a Srebrenica
declaration would have been "is a moral act, which could not be used
in the International Court of Justice".
He said Bosnia's case will only succeed if it established a direct
link between the Srebrenica killings and the Yugoslav state apparatus
and proved that Belgrade not only provided financial support but that
its army and police also took part.
Zarko Korac, who submitted the NGO declaration to the parliament, said
it was shameful that Serbia was lagging behind the Bosnian Serb
entity, the Republika Srpska, RS, when it came to acknowledging the
significance of the massacre.
"This policy, which resulted in the massacre of 7,800 Bosniaks in
Srebrenica, was created in Belgrade," Korac told BCR.
"That is why it is so difficult [for us] to accept responsibility and
offer an apology - from the place where the whole project was
devised."
Danica Vucenic is a journalist for B92
Srebrenica Video Vindicates Long Pursuit of Serb Activist - The Washington Post
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 25, 2005; A15
BELGRADE -- Human rights sleuth Natasa Kandic, a wisp of a woman with a boyish haircut, spent hours in the cafes of Sid, a town in northern Serbia, listening to whispered tales of Balkan war killings. Then one day, she heard about the videotape.
It showed the summary executions in 1995 of six Muslim men and boys from the Bosnian city of Srebrenica. It had been passed around as a war souvenir among members of a shadowy Serb military unit called the Scorpions. Its commander had ordered copies destroyed, but one, she was told, still existed, held by a dissident member of the unit.
Since that day in 2003, she searched until she found the video. She gave it to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is on trial, and to television stations in Serbia, where it triggered a sudden self-examination in a society that viewed itself as the prime victim of the Balkan war atrocities of the 1990s.
On the tape, burly Serbs dressed in camouflage, with cigarettes dangling from their lips, order bound prisoners into a small meadow, then shoot four of them in the back, at a time. The remaining two are ordered to carry the corpses into a wrecked white house. "You're the winners," one Scorpion barks at the body bearers, who are then also gunned down.
The broadcasts on June 2 ripped away the veil of secrecy and denial of Serbian military operations in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war, particularly the massacre of as many as 8,000 Muslim men and boys in and around Srebrenica. No longer was it possible to label atrocity tales as Bosnian Muslim propaganda amplified by inventive foreign correspondents, as many Serbs had done for a decade. The cold, relaxed pace of the executions undermined the common opinion that whatever happened in the Balkans was done in the chaos of war.
For Kandic, the video was a vindication. For almost 15 years, she labored to uncover atrocities committed by all sides in the Balkan wars, but most notably, crimes committed by her own people. During the 1990s, when Serbs fought wars in Croatia, Bosnia and the Serbian province of Kosovo, newspapers and officials variously labeled her as a prostitute, spy, traitor and lunatic.
These days, she gets phone calls from strangers praising her work. Police rounded up eight Scorpion suspects a day after the video was broadcast. A ninth was later detained in Croatia. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called the executions a "brutal, callous and disgraceful crime against civilians."
Speaking last week in Washington, the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor for the Balkans, Carla del Ponte, said that during her recent visit to Serbia, she "could feel the impact of this video on all elements of Serbian society."
Kandic exudes little joy. A debate in parliament over a war crimes resolution last week degenerated into a dispute over whether Serbs were the main victims of atrocities, she noted. Moreover, the broadcast of the video has yet to result in the arrest of Ratko Mladic, the Serb general directly in charge of the Srebrenica operation. U.N. officials have repeatedly charged that he is hiding in Serbia.
"This government refuses to break with Milosevic's criminal state," Kandic said.
Kandic spoke on the balcony of a small Belgrade restaurant, chain-smoking and answering frequent calls on her cell phone. She travels around the city without bodyguards, though she acknowledges that someone might want to take revenge for the Scorpion arrests. Her activism is nothing new.
Before the wars, she was a sociologist. After hostilities began in 1991, she decided to research human rights abuses connected with the fighting. She founded the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, organized candlelight antiwar vigils and mounted petition drives to protest the use of Serbian troops in the conflict with Croatia. "I documented abuses against Croats and was called a traitor," she said. "Then against Muslims. The same reaction. When I documented abuses against Serbs, there was silence."
During the conflict in Kosovo in 1999, she said, she traveled by taxi to the provincial capital, Pristina. Ethnic Albanians were being expelled or fleeing in fear from towns and villages. Serbian police looted and burned their homes. At police checkpoints, Kandic convinced guards that she was on her way to rescue Serb relatives, and they let her pass.
Kandic dodged NATO bombs as she traveled from town to town. She collected testimony on expulsions and mass killings. Once, security agents detained her for eight hours on the way to the southern city of Prizren. "First, they said: 'We know who you are. You could be disappeared.' But they let me go," she recalled. "Look at me. I'm little. I'm a woman. I'm not a scary person."
Kandic, 59, considers the waning years of Milosevic's rule, which ended in 2000, the most dangerous period of her career. It was a time of assassinations and roundups of journalists, opposition activists and student protesters. "Until then, Milosevic ignored us," she said. "We were few and served one purpose. He could point to us as proof of democracy."
In 2000, Col. Svetozar Radisic, then the Yugoslav army spokesman, told reporters that Kandic "should be sentenced for what she is doing. A person who puts forth such allegations might be a psychiatric case." She remained free even as she organized legal defenses for Kosovo Albanians held in Serbian jails.
In Sid, she was looking into a mass killing during the Kosovo war when she heard about the Srebrenica tape. Originally, 20 copies were made, she said. Later the Scorpions' commander realized the images could be used against him and ordered them destroyed. However, one Scorpion, who was at odds with his comrades and was not present at the executions, made an extra copy for himself. Fearful, he hid the tape with confidants in Bosnia, Kandic said. She set out to find it.
Other Scorpions, who had learned she was looking for a copy, began to scour Sid for it and harassed anyone they thought might have it. Finally, Kandic found the tape in Bosnia. She agreed to publicize it only when the owner and other informants were out of Serbia. That was accomplished on May 20.
The Scorpion tale provides a key to proving high-level Serbian responsibility for war crimes, Kandic said. "The Scorpions just didn't wander around on their own. They were ordered from place to place. . . . They were integrated into the war machine."
The Scorpions were first dispatched to guard oil fields in Croatia and to fight. They later took part in the siege of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. When Mladic launched an assault on Srebrenica in July 1995, he used Scorpions to evacuate and kill Bosnian prisoners, Kandic said.
The Scorpions also appeared in the Kosovo town of Podujevo on March 28, 1999, and massacred a group of 14 women and children in the walled garden of a small house. The local commander of the Scorpions unit in Podujevo, Sasa Cvjetan, stood trial in Serbia last year for the killings. He was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison -- a sentence imposed again last week after a retrial. Kandic was deeply involved in bringing the Podujevo case to trial and was on its trail in Sid when the story of the Srebrenica tape surfaced.
The video begins with the Scorpions taking blessings from a Serbian Orthodox priest in Sid, then traveling through the Balkan countryside and sleeping in a wood. Six bound prisoners are shown being transported in a truck. Later the Scorpions force them to lie face down on the roadside. The captors taunt them.
"Did you ever have sex?" asks one commando. "Never?"
"You're innocent?" asks another. "I'd be innocent, too."
There is discussion about whether the video camera has sufficient battery power to record the whole scene and whether the tape needs changing. When all the bodies are in the house, one Scorpion demands permission to fire three more bullets at the corpses.
The tape ends with a pig roast.
Kandic wrapped up the interview after a caller told her the Serbian government was willing to open a war crimes investigation in another case she had worked on. A Serb paramilitary commander named Nebojsa Minic, who allegedly killed numerous civilians in western Kosovo when he ran a unit called Lightning, was under arrest in Argentina. She had fingered him as a culprit.
"All these cases are important," Kandic said and rushed off.
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 25, 2005; A15
BELGRADE -- Human rights sleuth Natasa Kandic, a wisp of a woman with a boyish haircut, spent hours in the cafes of Sid, a town in northern Serbia, listening to whispered tales of Balkan war killings. Then one day, she heard about the videotape.
It showed the summary executions in 1995 of six Muslim men and boys from the Bosnian city of Srebrenica. It had been passed around as a war souvenir among members of a shadowy Serb military unit called the Scorpions. Its commander had ordered copies destroyed, but one, she was told, still existed, held by a dissident member of the unit.
Since that day in 2003, she searched until she found the video. She gave it to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is on trial, and to television stations in Serbia, where it triggered a sudden self-examination in a society that viewed itself as the prime victim of the Balkan war atrocities of the 1990s.
On the tape, burly Serbs dressed in camouflage, with cigarettes dangling from their lips, order bound prisoners into a small meadow, then shoot four of them in the back, at a time. The remaining two are ordered to carry the corpses into a wrecked white house. "You're the winners," one Scorpion barks at the body bearers, who are then also gunned down.
The broadcasts on June 2 ripped away the veil of secrecy and denial of Serbian military operations in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war, particularly the massacre of as many as 8,000 Muslim men and boys in and around Srebrenica. No longer was it possible to label atrocity tales as Bosnian Muslim propaganda amplified by inventive foreign correspondents, as many Serbs had done for a decade. The cold, relaxed pace of the executions undermined the common opinion that whatever happened in the Balkans was done in the chaos of war.
For Kandic, the video was a vindication. For almost 15 years, she labored to uncover atrocities committed by all sides in the Balkan wars, but most notably, crimes committed by her own people. During the 1990s, when Serbs fought wars in Croatia, Bosnia and the Serbian province of Kosovo, newspapers and officials variously labeled her as a prostitute, spy, traitor and lunatic.
These days, she gets phone calls from strangers praising her work. Police rounded up eight Scorpion suspects a day after the video was broadcast. A ninth was later detained in Croatia. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called the executions a "brutal, callous and disgraceful crime against civilians."
Speaking last week in Washington, the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor for the Balkans, Carla del Ponte, said that during her recent visit to Serbia, she "could feel the impact of this video on all elements of Serbian society."
Kandic exudes little joy. A debate in parliament over a war crimes resolution last week degenerated into a dispute over whether Serbs were the main victims of atrocities, she noted. Moreover, the broadcast of the video has yet to result in the arrest of Ratko Mladic, the Serb general directly in charge of the Srebrenica operation. U.N. officials have repeatedly charged that he is hiding in Serbia.
"This government refuses to break with Milosevic's criminal state," Kandic said.
Kandic spoke on the balcony of a small Belgrade restaurant, chain-smoking and answering frequent calls on her cell phone. She travels around the city without bodyguards, though she acknowledges that someone might want to take revenge for the Scorpion arrests. Her activism is nothing new.
Before the wars, she was a sociologist. After hostilities began in 1991, she decided to research human rights abuses connected with the fighting. She founded the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, organized candlelight antiwar vigils and mounted petition drives to protest the use of Serbian troops in the conflict with Croatia. "I documented abuses against Croats and was called a traitor," she said. "Then against Muslims. The same reaction. When I documented abuses against Serbs, there was silence."
During the conflict in Kosovo in 1999, she said, she traveled by taxi to the provincial capital, Pristina. Ethnic Albanians were being expelled or fleeing in fear from towns and villages. Serbian police looted and burned their homes. At police checkpoints, Kandic convinced guards that she was on her way to rescue Serb relatives, and they let her pass.
Kandic dodged NATO bombs as she traveled from town to town. She collected testimony on expulsions and mass killings. Once, security agents detained her for eight hours on the way to the southern city of Prizren. "First, they said: 'We know who you are. You could be disappeared.' But they let me go," she recalled. "Look at me. I'm little. I'm a woman. I'm not a scary person."
Kandic, 59, considers the waning years of Milosevic's rule, which ended in 2000, the most dangerous period of her career. It was a time of assassinations and roundups of journalists, opposition activists and student protesters. "Until then, Milosevic ignored us," she said. "We were few and served one purpose. He could point to us as proof of democracy."
In 2000, Col. Svetozar Radisic, then the Yugoslav army spokesman, told reporters that Kandic "should be sentenced for what she is doing. A person who puts forth such allegations might be a psychiatric case." She remained free even as she organized legal defenses for Kosovo Albanians held in Serbian jails.
In Sid, she was looking into a mass killing during the Kosovo war when she heard about the Srebrenica tape. Originally, 20 copies were made, she said. Later the Scorpions' commander realized the images could be used against him and ordered them destroyed. However, one Scorpion, who was at odds with his comrades and was not present at the executions, made an extra copy for himself. Fearful, he hid the tape with confidants in Bosnia, Kandic said. She set out to find it.
Other Scorpions, who had learned she was looking for a copy, began to scour Sid for it and harassed anyone they thought might have it. Finally, Kandic found the tape in Bosnia. She agreed to publicize it only when the owner and other informants were out of Serbia. That was accomplished on May 20.
The Scorpion tale provides a key to proving high-level Serbian responsibility for war crimes, Kandic said. "The Scorpions just didn't wander around on their own. They were ordered from place to place. . . . They were integrated into the war machine."
The Scorpions were first dispatched to guard oil fields in Croatia and to fight. They later took part in the siege of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. When Mladic launched an assault on Srebrenica in July 1995, he used Scorpions to evacuate and kill Bosnian prisoners, Kandic said.
The Scorpions also appeared in the Kosovo town of Podujevo on March 28, 1999, and massacred a group of 14 women and children in the walled garden of a small house. The local commander of the Scorpions unit in Podujevo, Sasa Cvjetan, stood trial in Serbia last year for the killings. He was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison -- a sentence imposed again last week after a retrial. Kandic was deeply involved in bringing the Podujevo case to trial and was on its trail in Sid when the story of the Srebrenica tape surfaced.
The video begins with the Scorpions taking blessings from a Serbian Orthodox priest in Sid, then traveling through the Balkan countryside and sleeping in a wood. Six bound prisoners are shown being transported in a truck. Later the Scorpions force them to lie face down on the roadside. The captors taunt them.
"Did you ever have sex?" asks one commando. "Never?"
"You're innocent?" asks another. "I'd be innocent, too."
There is discussion about whether the video camera has sufficient battery power to record the whole scene and whether the tape needs changing. When all the bodies are in the house, one Scorpion demands permission to fire three more bullets at the corpses.
The tape ends with a pig roast.
Kandic wrapped up the interview after a caller told her the Serbian government was willing to open a war crimes investigation in another case she had worked on. A Serb paramilitary commander named Nebojsa Minic, who allegedly killed numerous civilians in western Kosovo when he ran a unit called Lightning, was under arrest in Argentina. She had fingered him as a culprit.
"All these cases are important," Kandic said and rushed off.
Prison Changes Milosevic, but Not His Version of Events - NY Times
By MARLISE SIMONS
THE HAGUE - Four years behind bars have inevitably changed Slobodan Milosevic. His white hair has receded, his stomach is bulkier, his English has improved. Since he arrived, handcuffed, at the United Nations jail in The Hague on June 28, 2001, he has also become less blustery, perhaps the result of blood-pressure medication or the sheer drudgery of his long trial on an array of war crimes charges.
Once given to bursting into tirades and dismissing his indictment as a fake and his trial as a farce, Mr. Milosevic, the former Serbian president, has now become steeped in the case's 200,000 pages. These days, he sits in the dock flanked by carts full of binders, which he frequently consults. He addresses his three judges sitting high on the dais, rather than turning to the public gallery, which has been mostly empty.
But Mr. Milosevic's old mind-set remains intact.
Day after day, he has tenaciously stuck to his own version of what happened during his 13 years in power, which led to three wars and killed more than 250,000. Serbs were not responsible for the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, he contends, but were forced to defend themselves from aggression.
Contrary to charges in his indictment, Mr. Milosevic says there was no plan to create a larger country for all Serbs and no atrocities were committed. Yes, people died, but they were fighting, or were bombed by NATO. This view of history has been much on display in the months since Mr. Milosevic began calling his own witnesses to defend not just himself, but also the Serbian national cause. The prosecution rested its case last year after bringing 114 witnesses to the court and presenting written testimony from 240 additional witnesses to buttress its lengthy charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The trial, which began in February 2002, has already set a record for longevity in international law and the end is not in sight.
So far, Mr. Milosevic, who acts as his own lawyer, has presented close to 30 witnesses, among them former aides, old Communist Party friends, historians and a forensic specialist, as well as outsiders including a French Army colonel and several senior Russian politicians. He has used almost 40 percent of the 150 days allotted to him, but his lawyers say he plans to call dozens more witnesses. "You can expect I will be asking for a prolongation," Mr. Milosevic told the judges at a recent hearing. "My aim is to present the truth, and that takes time."
The judges apparently believe he is stalling. They often instruct Mr. Milosevic to stop asking leading questions, and not to waste time with repetitive and irrelevant evidence. "I'm disgusted with your performance," Patrick Robinson, the presiding judge, said at one point, abruptly cutting off the microphone.
Fearing that it will take months before Mr. Milosevic addresses the war in Bosnia, a crucial part of the case, judges have also suggested sitting for longer hours or four times a week, rather than the current three. But that drew quick objections from Mr. Milosevic, who argued that his chronic heart disease would not allow it. If his condition improved, he said, "then this place should be advertised as a kind of spa for treating health problems."
The trial's current focus is the 1999 war in the Serbian province Kosovo. Mr. Milosevic has devoted much time and effort to that conflict because, as president of Serbia at the time, he can be held directly accountable for any proven atrocities by its security forces.
"We want to show that yes, there were crimes, but it was not our policy and the authorities reacted and punished them," said Branko Rakic, a legal adviser to Mr. Milosevic.
Gen. Obrad Stevanovic, the deputy interior minister in charge of the police and the highest ranking Serb official to appear, has testified for the past month without shedding much light except on his loyalty to his former boss. He gave lengthy accounts of police rules, weaponry and ammunition, and said repeatedly that the police could not have committed any crimes because their role was to uphold the law.
His constant denials that the police killed civilians in Kosovo infuriated the lead prosecutor, Geoffrey Nice. Explain to this court, Mr. Nice said, how bodies of Kosovar families came to be buried in a police compound and were then moved to another police compound. The general said he had no knowledge of that.
Mr. Nice quoted from a letter from a Serbian Army general, Nebojsa Pavkovic, complaining that the Serbian police were committing "murder, rape, plunder, robbery," while attributing the crimes to the army. General Stevanovic: "These are serious allegations by the army against the police which I was not aware of."
The routine of examination and cross-examination was suddenly upset on June 1 after General Stevanovic acknowledged that the Serbian police had been on duty in Bosnia and Croatia, but performed only common tasks, such as "traffic control and crime prevention." Mr. Nice then showed a videotape depicting the execution of six Muslim men by a Serbian paramilitary police unit as part of the Srebrenica massacre of 1995. He asked General Stevanovic if he recognized anyone in the unit, known as the Scorpions. No, the general said, they were not part of the regular Serbian police force. Prosecutors say that in 1995, the Scorpions were part of the secret police.
Since the videotape was shown, the Serbian authorities say, six men appearing in it have been arrested.
Many commentators have called the videotaped executions "the smoking gun," but any link to Mr. Milosevic, as head of the police forces, has yet to be established. Prosecutors obtained the videotape only recently and they cannot enter it into evidence until they reopen their case and show the provenance and authenticity of the images. Mr. Milosevic said the film had been tampered with.
The day the film of the executions was shown in court, Mr. Milosevic returned to the jail looking dejected. Rather than socializing with fellow inmates, as he usually did, he withdrew into his cell and did not reappear that night, lawyers visiting the jail said.
Asked why Mr. Milosevic was disturbed, Mr. Rakic, his lawyer, offered this explanation: "This is clearly part of a media campaign. We think this film was designed to shock the public, not to prove something."
THE HAGUE - Four years behind bars have inevitably changed Slobodan Milosevic. His white hair has receded, his stomach is bulkier, his English has improved. Since he arrived, handcuffed, at the United Nations jail in The Hague on June 28, 2001, he has also become less blustery, perhaps the result of blood-pressure medication or the sheer drudgery of his long trial on an array of war crimes charges.
Once given to bursting into tirades and dismissing his indictment as a fake and his trial as a farce, Mr. Milosevic, the former Serbian president, has now become steeped in the case's 200,000 pages. These days, he sits in the dock flanked by carts full of binders, which he frequently consults. He addresses his three judges sitting high on the dais, rather than turning to the public gallery, which has been mostly empty.
But Mr. Milosevic's old mind-set remains intact.
Day after day, he has tenaciously stuck to his own version of what happened during his 13 years in power, which led to three wars and killed more than 250,000. Serbs were not responsible for the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, he contends, but were forced to defend themselves from aggression.
Contrary to charges in his indictment, Mr. Milosevic says there was no plan to create a larger country for all Serbs and no atrocities were committed. Yes, people died, but they were fighting, or were bombed by NATO. This view of history has been much on display in the months since Mr. Milosevic began calling his own witnesses to defend not just himself, but also the Serbian national cause. The prosecution rested its case last year after bringing 114 witnesses to the court and presenting written testimony from 240 additional witnesses to buttress its lengthy charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The trial, which began in February 2002, has already set a record for longevity in international law and the end is not in sight.
So far, Mr. Milosevic, who acts as his own lawyer, has presented close to 30 witnesses, among them former aides, old Communist Party friends, historians and a forensic specialist, as well as outsiders including a French Army colonel and several senior Russian politicians. He has used almost 40 percent of the 150 days allotted to him, but his lawyers say he plans to call dozens more witnesses. "You can expect I will be asking for a prolongation," Mr. Milosevic told the judges at a recent hearing. "My aim is to present the truth, and that takes time."
The judges apparently believe he is stalling. They often instruct Mr. Milosevic to stop asking leading questions, and not to waste time with repetitive and irrelevant evidence. "I'm disgusted with your performance," Patrick Robinson, the presiding judge, said at one point, abruptly cutting off the microphone.
Fearing that it will take months before Mr. Milosevic addresses the war in Bosnia, a crucial part of the case, judges have also suggested sitting for longer hours or four times a week, rather than the current three. But that drew quick objections from Mr. Milosevic, who argued that his chronic heart disease would not allow it. If his condition improved, he said, "then this place should be advertised as a kind of spa for treating health problems."
The trial's current focus is the 1999 war in the Serbian province Kosovo. Mr. Milosevic has devoted much time and effort to that conflict because, as president of Serbia at the time, he can be held directly accountable for any proven atrocities by its security forces.
"We want to show that yes, there were crimes, but it was not our policy and the authorities reacted and punished them," said Branko Rakic, a legal adviser to Mr. Milosevic.
Gen. Obrad Stevanovic, the deputy interior minister in charge of the police and the highest ranking Serb official to appear, has testified for the past month without shedding much light except on his loyalty to his former boss. He gave lengthy accounts of police rules, weaponry and ammunition, and said repeatedly that the police could not have committed any crimes because their role was to uphold the law.
His constant denials that the police killed civilians in Kosovo infuriated the lead prosecutor, Geoffrey Nice. Explain to this court, Mr. Nice said, how bodies of Kosovar families came to be buried in a police compound and were then moved to another police compound. The general said he had no knowledge of that.
Mr. Nice quoted from a letter from a Serbian Army general, Nebojsa Pavkovic, complaining that the Serbian police were committing "murder, rape, plunder, robbery," while attributing the crimes to the army. General Stevanovic: "These are serious allegations by the army against the police which I was not aware of."
The routine of examination and cross-examination was suddenly upset on June 1 after General Stevanovic acknowledged that the Serbian police had been on duty in Bosnia and Croatia, but performed only common tasks, such as "traffic control and crime prevention." Mr. Nice then showed a videotape depicting the execution of six Muslim men by a Serbian paramilitary police unit as part of the Srebrenica massacre of 1995. He asked General Stevanovic if he recognized anyone in the unit, known as the Scorpions. No, the general said, they were not part of the regular Serbian police force. Prosecutors say that in 1995, the Scorpions were part of the secret police.
Since the videotape was shown, the Serbian authorities say, six men appearing in it have been arrested.
Many commentators have called the videotaped executions "the smoking gun," but any link to Mr. Milosevic, as head of the police forces, has yet to be established. Prosecutors obtained the videotape only recently and they cannot enter it into evidence until they reopen their case and show the provenance and authenticity of the images. Mr. Milosevic said the film had been tampered with.
The day the film of the executions was shown in court, Mr. Milosevic returned to the jail looking dejected. Rather than socializing with fellow inmates, as he usually did, he withdrew into his cell and did not reappear that night, lawyers visiting the jail said.
Asked why Mr. Milosevic was disturbed, Mr. Rakic, his lawyer, offered this explanation: "This is clearly part of a media campaign. We think this film was designed to shock the public, not to prove something."
Belgrade Says It Is Working Toward Surrender of Bosnian Serb - NY Times
BELGRADE, Serbia, June 21 - The Serbian government gave its clearest indication this week that it was seeking the surrender of Gen. Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb Army commander wanted for orchestrating the killing of at least 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica nearly a decade ago.
For the first time, government officials on Tuesday confirmed that they had sought contact with the secret support network that has helped to keep General Mladic in hiding for at least eight years.
Their hope, they say, is to secure his voluntary surrender to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, as was the case with the 14 other Serb war crimes suspects that have been sent to the court from Serbia this year.
If Serbia succeeds in transferring General Mladic to The Hague, it will be a substantial victory for the moderate nationalist Vojislav Kostunica, who has refused to adopt a policy of openly arresting war crimes suspects.
Speculation has intensified over the last two weeks as the 10th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica, on July 11, 1995, approaches, but the government has denied that it is conducting negotiations.
However, in an interview, Serbia's chief government spokesman, Srdjan Djuric, conceded that efforts were being made to reach members of the Mladic support network to secure a possible surrender.
"Considering how highly sensitive this is, the Serbian government does not announce results before they have happened," Mr. Djuric said. "Any detail could jeopardize the whole process."
A senior American official in Washington said he had learned from Serbian officials that they contacted supporters of General Mladic after a videotape appeared in June showing paramilitaries from Serbia executing six Bosnian Muslim prisoners from Srebrenica.
"There is a lot of very detailed work on it," said the American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be perceived as speaking for officials in Belgrade.
Serbian officials said they had been pressuring the general's supporters to reveal his whereabouts, or to persuade him to surrender, the official said.
For most of the last decade General Mladic has been hiding in Serbia and has spent most of his time on military bases, Serbian officials say. Serbian officials recently told the American official that for the last year General Mladic had been sheltered by a shadowy network of military and civilian supporters, the same tactic used by the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, in neighboring Bosnia, who is also wanted by the Hague tribunal.
Diplomats and government officials in Belgrade said the most recent sighting of General Mladic was in May 2003, at a Serbian Army barracks.
It is not known whether General Mladic is still in Serbia.
The leading Serbian rights advocate, Natasha Kandic, whose Humanitarian Law Center monitors war crimes cases, said General Mladic had two support networks, one consisting of former members of the Yugoslav military intelligence service, the other of Bosnian Serbs.
American officials have been telling Serbia's leaders since 2002 that Serbia is responsible for General Mladic's surrender and that their country will "never be allowed" to join NATO as long as the fugitive general remains free, R. Nicholas Burns, the American under secretary of state for political affairs, said in a telephone interview from Washington. "Our view is they want to find him for the first time in 10 years," said Mr. Burns, who visited Belgrade on June 9.
Official to Skip Ceremony
THE HAGUE, June 23 (Reuters) - The chief United Nations war crimes prosecutor said Thursday that she was too ashamed to attend the 10th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica next month because the two main suspects were still at large.
The prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, told diplomats at The Hague that she could not show her face at the commemoration in Bosnia on July 11 because Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic were still on the run.
Nicholas Wood reported from Belgrade for this article, and David Rohde from Boston.
For the first time, government officials on Tuesday confirmed that they had sought contact with the secret support network that has helped to keep General Mladic in hiding for at least eight years.
Their hope, they say, is to secure his voluntary surrender to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, as was the case with the 14 other Serb war crimes suspects that have been sent to the court from Serbia this year.
If Serbia succeeds in transferring General Mladic to The Hague, it will be a substantial victory for the moderate nationalist Vojislav Kostunica, who has refused to adopt a policy of openly arresting war crimes suspects.
Speculation has intensified over the last two weeks as the 10th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica, on July 11, 1995, approaches, but the government has denied that it is conducting negotiations.
However, in an interview, Serbia's chief government spokesman, Srdjan Djuric, conceded that efforts were being made to reach members of the Mladic support network to secure a possible surrender.
"Considering how highly sensitive this is, the Serbian government does not announce results before they have happened," Mr. Djuric said. "Any detail could jeopardize the whole process."
A senior American official in Washington said he had learned from Serbian officials that they contacted supporters of General Mladic after a videotape appeared in June showing paramilitaries from Serbia executing six Bosnian Muslim prisoners from Srebrenica.
"There is a lot of very detailed work on it," said the American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be perceived as speaking for officials in Belgrade.
Serbian officials said they had been pressuring the general's supporters to reveal his whereabouts, or to persuade him to surrender, the official said.
For most of the last decade General Mladic has been hiding in Serbia and has spent most of his time on military bases, Serbian officials say. Serbian officials recently told the American official that for the last year General Mladic had been sheltered by a shadowy network of military and civilian supporters, the same tactic used by the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, in neighboring Bosnia, who is also wanted by the Hague tribunal.
Diplomats and government officials in Belgrade said the most recent sighting of General Mladic was in May 2003, at a Serbian Army barracks.
It is not known whether General Mladic is still in Serbia.
The leading Serbian rights advocate, Natasha Kandic, whose Humanitarian Law Center monitors war crimes cases, said General Mladic had two support networks, one consisting of former members of the Yugoslav military intelligence service, the other of Bosnian Serbs.
American officials have been telling Serbia's leaders since 2002 that Serbia is responsible for General Mladic's surrender and that their country will "never be allowed" to join NATO as long as the fugitive general remains free, R. Nicholas Burns, the American under secretary of state for political affairs, said in a telephone interview from Washington. "Our view is they want to find him for the first time in 10 years," said Mr. Burns, who visited Belgrade on June 9.
Official to Skip Ceremony
THE HAGUE, June 23 (Reuters) - The chief United Nations war crimes prosecutor said Thursday that she was too ashamed to attend the 10th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica next month because the two main suspects were still at large.
The prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, told diplomats at The Hague that she could not show her face at the commemoration in Bosnia on July 11 because Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic were still on the run.
Nicholas Wood reported from Belgrade for this article, and David Rohde from Boston.
Kosovo Government reacts to CoE Resolution on Kosovo
Zëri carries the reaction of Kosovo Government officials after the adoption of CoE resolution on Kosovo, which says that Kosovo is part of Serbia and Serbia and Montenegro. Kosovo officials say the CoE has been influenced by the Serb delegation and this way they have comopromised their authority.
‘The real situation shows that Kosovo is now far away from Serbia and Montenegro, so that there is no way to bring these two countries closer. Kosovo has its own independent political, economic and cultural system. Kosovo adopts laws and implements them,’ the paper quotes Government’s spokesperson, Daut Dauti, as saying.
‘The real situation shows that Kosovo is now far away from Serbia and Montenegro, so that there is no way to bring these two countries closer. Kosovo has its own independent political, economic and cultural system. Kosovo adopts laws and implements them,’ the paper quotes Government’s spokesperson, Daut Dauti, as saying.
Kosovo Serbs to get back to Assembly on 6 July
Koha Ditore reports on the front page that Kosovo Serbs have decided to put an end to the ‘political marathon’ and join Kosovo institutions although Belgrade has not given the green light for it.
‘The green light from Belgrade is needed, however, all members of the Serb List are in favor of joining central institutions. There are differences in our political entity, but the majority has decided to stop boycotting, so we expect this to happen on 6 July’, Randjel Nojkic, a member of Serbian List for Kosvoo and Metohija is quoted as saying.
‘The green light from Belgrade is needed, however, all members of the Serb List are in favor of joining central institutions. There are differences in our political entity, but the majority has decided to stop boycotting, so we expect this to happen on 6 July’, Randjel Nojkic, a member of Serbian List for Kosvoo and Metohija is quoted as saying.
UNMIK ready to set up ministries of justice and order
Dailies cover the participation of the SRSG at the ceremony to transfer competencies to Prizren Regional KPS Headquarters.
The SRSG said the handover showed ‘how far the KPS has advanced along the path towards taking full responsibility for policing throughout Kosovo. It also reflects UNMIK’s commitment to transferring responsibility in the whole field of security, a process which will ultimately result in the establishment of two new ministries, of Justice and Public Order, by the end of the year,’ the SRSG stated.
The SRSG said the handover showed ‘how far the KPS has advanced along the path towards taking full responsibility for policing throughout Kosovo. It also reflects UNMIK’s commitment to transferring responsibility in the whole field of security, a process which will ultimately result in the establishment of two new ministries, of Justice and Public Order, by the end of the year,’ the SRSG stated.
Kosovo Assembly debates Standards implementation
‘Standards for Kosovo’ will enter a new stage at the end of this year ‘Standards towards Europe’ is the quote of PM Kosumi that all dailies highlight.
Koha Ditore writes on the front page that during the debate, while Kosumi was praising his cabinet, Jakup Krasniqi from PDK was praising Bajram Rexhepi’s cabinet.
Zëri writes that while coalition parties assessed there had been progress in implementation of the Standards, Assembly members from the opposition mainly focused on presenting weaknesses of the Government. However, all agreed that implementation of the Standards was of strategic importance for the future of Kosovo.
Epoka e Re covers the Assembly meeting under the headline, ‘Accusations for the Government and Daci’, and reports that while Government was mentioning successes the opposition talked about violations and shortcomings.
Koha Ditore writes on the front page that during the debate, while Kosumi was praising his cabinet, Jakup Krasniqi from PDK was praising Bajram Rexhepi’s cabinet.
Zëri writes that while coalition parties assessed there had been progress in implementation of the Standards, Assembly members from the opposition mainly focused on presenting weaknesses of the Government. However, all agreed that implementation of the Standards was of strategic importance for the future of Kosovo.
Epoka e Re covers the Assembly meeting under the headline, ‘Accusations for the Government and Daci’, and reports that while Government was mentioning successes the opposition talked about violations and shortcomings.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Surroi: Three gears
Koha Ditore carries an opinion piece by ORA leader Veton Surroi who says that Kosovo has now entered the stage of Standards after the status; it is just that most Kosovans are unaware of this fact.
We first had the principle ‘standards before status’, afterwards ‘standards and status’ and for several weeks now we have entered the stage of ‘standards after status’. The third stage implies, according to Surroi, that any delay in Standards implementation should not hinder the opening of the status definition process.
There are three stages in approach to Kosovo’s status.
First, the international community has reached the stage of Standards after the status, and views the coming autumn for launching the negotiation process on the status.
Authorities in Kosovo are moving with a slower ‘speed’ than the international community. They are stuck with ‘Standards with the status’ and have dedicated all their attention to implementing the priority Standards.
Kosovo Serbs, such as in Belgrade, are using an even lower speed than the Kosovar authorities. They are still at the stage of ‘Standards before status’.
We first had the principle ‘standards before status’, afterwards ‘standards and status’ and for several weeks now we have entered the stage of ‘standards after status’. The third stage implies, according to Surroi, that any delay in Standards implementation should not hinder the opening of the status definition process.
There are three stages in approach to Kosovo’s status.
First, the international community has reached the stage of Standards after the status, and views the coming autumn for launching the negotiation process on the status.
Authorities in Kosovo are moving with a slower ‘speed’ than the international community. They are stuck with ‘Standards with the status’ and have dedicated all their attention to implementing the priority Standards.
Kosovo Serbs, such as in Belgrade, are using an even lower speed than the Kosovar authorities. They are still at the stage of ‘Standards before status’.
Shala: Lesson from CoE Parliamentary Assembly
Blerim Shala, Zëri’s publisher, comments on the last meeting of the CoE Parliamentary Assembly.
What happened with the resolution of the Assembly, which was drastically changed from its first proposal, proves how urgent it is for Kosovo to organize and prepare for the stage of deciding its final status.
According to the text of the resolution, the Parliamentary Assembly tends to take on a political role it neither has nor can have, says Shala.
The good thing about the example in CoE is that it has made it clear to Kosovo’s political authorities that they should take important decisions over the weeks to come and that the coming period will be crucial for the fate of Kosovans.
What happened with the resolution of the Assembly, which was drastically changed from its first proposal, proves how urgent it is for Kosovo to organize and prepare for the stage of deciding its final status.
According to the text of the resolution, the Parliamentary Assembly tends to take on a political role it neither has nor can have, says Shala.
The good thing about the example in CoE is that it has made it clear to Kosovo’s political authorities that they should take important decisions over the weeks to come and that the coming period will be crucial for the fate of Kosovans.
UNMIK introduces new entry policy for foreigners in Kosovo
All dailies cover the decision made by the international administration to introduce a new policy for the entrance of foreigners in Kosovo.
Koha Ditore notes that the UN Mission has refused to refer to the new measures as a visa regime. According to the regulation for better control of Kosovo’s borders, all foreign nationals must ask for an authorisation to stay in Kosovo.
Zëri quotes Head of the Legal Policy Unit in the Department of Justice, Annamyriam Roccatello, as saying that from 1 July, the border police will ask every person who is not a resident of Kosovo about the purpose of their visit to Kosovo.
Roccatello also said the violation of the provisions of the Regulation will constitute a minor offence punishable by a fine up to 1,000 euros, a term of imprisonment of up to 30 days and/or an order to leave Kosovo for a period of 6 months to 3 years.
On the same issue, Express says, ‘it will be similar to a visa but will be called a stamp of the international administration that will be placed in the passports of foreign nationals that enter Kosovo from 1 July’.
The paper also notes that the new border regime does not apply to residents of Albania and Macedonia, staff members of international organisations and diplomatic liaison offices in Kosovo.
‘This new legislation introduces measures aimed at improving border controls primarily directed at combating organized crime operations and human trafficking. It is not meant to create obstacles for legitimate travelers and will simply formalize the practice adopted by UNMIK border police until now,’ Roccatello is quoted as saying in the press.
The front-page headlines in Epoka e Re and Express say that entry to Kosovo will become complicated from 1 July.
Koha Ditore recalls that the issue of better border management was misunderstood by Macedonian media and triggered a debate between Macedonian and Kosovan authorities because it was viewed as a visa regime. The Macedonians had warned that they would review their position toward Kosovo and apply even harsher measures for Kosovans, however, this was avoided.
Asked to comment on the differences with Macedonian authorities, Roccatello was quoted as saying, ‘Several meetings have been held and contacts established with the Macedonian authorities to clarify the implementation of the regulation and I trust that there is no problem on that side. As I said, Macedonian citizens will be entering Kosovo on the sole basis of their passports.’
Koha Ditore notes that the UN Mission has refused to refer to the new measures as a visa regime. According to the regulation for better control of Kosovo’s borders, all foreign nationals must ask for an authorisation to stay in Kosovo.
Zëri quotes Head of the Legal Policy Unit in the Department of Justice, Annamyriam Roccatello, as saying that from 1 July, the border police will ask every person who is not a resident of Kosovo about the purpose of their visit to Kosovo.
Roccatello also said the violation of the provisions of the Regulation will constitute a minor offence punishable by a fine up to 1,000 euros, a term of imprisonment of up to 30 days and/or an order to leave Kosovo for a period of 6 months to 3 years.
On the same issue, Express says, ‘it will be similar to a visa but will be called a stamp of the international administration that will be placed in the passports of foreign nationals that enter Kosovo from 1 July’.
The paper also notes that the new border regime does not apply to residents of Albania and Macedonia, staff members of international organisations and diplomatic liaison offices in Kosovo.
‘This new legislation introduces measures aimed at improving border controls primarily directed at combating organized crime operations and human trafficking. It is not meant to create obstacles for legitimate travelers and will simply formalize the practice adopted by UNMIK border police until now,’ Roccatello is quoted as saying in the press.
The front-page headlines in Epoka e Re and Express say that entry to Kosovo will become complicated from 1 July.
Koha Ditore recalls that the issue of better border management was misunderstood by Macedonian media and triggered a debate between Macedonian and Kosovan authorities because it was viewed as a visa regime. The Macedonians had warned that they would review their position toward Kosovo and apply even harsher measures for Kosovans, however, this was avoided.
Asked to comment on the differences with Macedonian authorities, Roccatello was quoted as saying, ‘Several meetings have been held and contacts established with the Macedonian authorities to clarify the implementation of the regulation and I trust that there is no problem on that side. As I said, Macedonian citizens will be entering Kosovo on the sole basis of their passports.’
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Kosovo gets ceremonial guard, dreams of future army - San Diego Union-Tribune
By Shaban Buza
REUTERS
6:40 a.m. June 22, 2005
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro – Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi Wednesday took the first salute from a new "ceremonial guard" of ex-guerrillas from the force he says will soon make up the army of an independent Kosovo.
Dressed in black with yellow braid and belts, the 80-strong guard saluted stiffly at the headquarters of the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), the civil emergency force formed in 1999 from the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
Advertisement
"We see the KPC as the nucleus of the army of the state of Kosovo," Kosumi told reporters after meeting Corps commander Agim Ceku, who twice fought against Serb forces during the 1991-95 Croatian war and later in Kosovo in 1998-99.
"Kosovo in the future needs an army, small in number but well-equipped and founded on European standards," he said.
The ceremonial guard will honor foreign dignitaries visiting Kosovo as diplomacy accelerates toward a decision in the next 12 months on the Albanians' drive for independence from Serbia.
Serb leaders were likely to see it as yet another Albanian attempt to pre-empt talks by setting up as many trappings of statehood as possible before negotiations start.
The 3,000-strong KPC was created in 1999 from the ranks of the guerrilla army that waged a two-year war against Serb forces, eventually aided by NATO which bombed Serbia for 11 weeks to force Belgrade to withdraw its troops.
The United Nations took control of Serbia's southern province and the KLA was transformed into an unarmed disaster response force. But its officers and Kosovo's political leaders have never hidden their intention to make it Kosovo's army.
Serbia says independence is out of the question and has dismissed the KPC as a band of "terrorists."
REUTERS
6:40 a.m. June 22, 2005
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro – Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi Wednesday took the first salute from a new "ceremonial guard" of ex-guerrillas from the force he says will soon make up the army of an independent Kosovo.
Dressed in black with yellow braid and belts, the 80-strong guard saluted stiffly at the headquarters of the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), the civil emergency force formed in 1999 from the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
Advertisement
"We see the KPC as the nucleus of the army of the state of Kosovo," Kosumi told reporters after meeting Corps commander Agim Ceku, who twice fought against Serb forces during the 1991-95 Croatian war and later in Kosovo in 1998-99.
"Kosovo in the future needs an army, small in number but well-equipped and founded on European standards," he said.
The ceremonial guard will honor foreign dignitaries visiting Kosovo as diplomacy accelerates toward a decision in the next 12 months on the Albanians' drive for independence from Serbia.
Serb leaders were likely to see it as yet another Albanian attempt to pre-empt talks by setting up as many trappings of statehood as possible before negotiations start.
The 3,000-strong KPC was created in 1999 from the ranks of the guerrilla army that waged a two-year war against Serb forces, eventually aided by NATO which bombed Serbia for 11 weeks to force Belgrade to withdraw its troops.
The United Nations took control of Serbia's southern province and the KLA was transformed into an unarmed disaster response force. But its officers and Kosovo's political leaders have never hidden their intention to make it Kosovo's army.
Serbia says independence is out of the question and has dismissed the KPC as a band of "terrorists."
Rupel says there has been an order set for the international activities on Kosovo’s status
Zëri reports that the chief of Slovenian diplomacy, Dimitrij Rupel, who is also OSCE chairman, said the order has already been set by the international community regarding the future status of Kosovo.
Rupel reiterated that the international community was determined to reach a sustainable solution to ensure that it guaranteed stability and progress in the region.
Slovenia as current OSCE Chairman and an EU member will engage in ensuring a harmonized approach to Kosovo’s issue among all main actors of the international community, including the OSCE and EU.
Rupel further said it was important to prevent repetitive efforts and competition between different organizations as this could prove unproductive.
Rupel reiterated that the international community was determined to reach a sustainable solution to ensure that it guaranteed stability and progress in the region.
Slovenia as current OSCE Chairman and an EU member will engage in ensuring a harmonized approach to Kosovo’s issue among all main actors of the international community, including the OSCE and EU.
Rupel further said it was important to prevent repetitive efforts and competition between different organizations as this could prove unproductive.
Implementation of Standards "proceeding well" - Kosovo official
Excerpt from report in English by independent internet news agency KosovaLive
Prishtina [Pristina], 21 June: Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi will report to the parliament on Thursday [23 June] about the implementation of the Standards, government coordinator for Standards Avni Arifi told KosovaLive today. The report will be comprehensive and will address the entire process. [Passage omitted]
The implementation of Standards is proceeding well, he said. He stressed that much progress has been marked, but work still remains. He also said that the greatest achievements were made in the area of "priority Standards" which were set by the international community and accepted by the government.
"We have a growing cooperation with UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] in the implementation of Standards concerning the rule of law and economy, which are the responsibilities of the first and fourth pillars of UNMIK," Arifi said. He added that local and central government institutions in Kosova have made "progress in the Standard of returns and that of freedom of movement".
Arifi said that, based on these achievements, the Kosova [Kosovo] government is optimistic about the evaluation that will be made by Kai Eide, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for the evaluation of the Standards. "We are aware that Standards will not be completely implemented by the end of this summer or by the end of next summer," said Arifi. Prerequisites for the commencement of dialogue on Kosova's final status, however, will be met on time, he said. [Passage omitted]
Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 21 Jun 05
Prishtina [Pristina], 21 June: Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi will report to the parliament on Thursday [23 June] about the implementation of the Standards, government coordinator for Standards Avni Arifi told KosovaLive today. The report will be comprehensive and will address the entire process. [Passage omitted]
The implementation of Standards is proceeding well, he said. He stressed that much progress has been marked, but work still remains. He also said that the greatest achievements were made in the area of "priority Standards" which were set by the international community and accepted by the government.
"We have a growing cooperation with UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] in the implementation of Standards concerning the rule of law and economy, which are the responsibilities of the first and fourth pillars of UNMIK," Arifi said. He added that local and central government institutions in Kosova have made "progress in the Standard of returns and that of freedom of movement".
Arifi said that, based on these achievements, the Kosova [Kosovo] government is optimistic about the evaluation that will be made by Kai Eide, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for the evaluation of the Standards. "We are aware that Standards will not be completely implemented by the end of this summer or by the end of next summer," said Arifi. Prerequisites for the commencement of dialogue on Kosova's final status, however, will be met on time, he said. [Passage omitted]
Source: KosovaLive web site, Pristina, in English 21 Jun 05
CoE calls on Belgrade and Pristina to talk on Kosovo’s status
Koha Ditore reports that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has called on Pristina and Belgrade to start dialogue on resolving the future status of Kosovo. A resolution adopted by the Assembly says ‘such dialogue is necessary to reach a calm and acceptable solution for both parties’.
The resolution notes that the unresolved status of Kosovo affects the further destabilisation of the region, the future of European integration and economic development.
Epoka e Re reports that the CoE Parliamentary Assembly has called on all political parties in Kosovo to consider the proposal of UNMIK chief Søren Jessen-Petersen for establishing the political forum. The Assembly also called on Kosovo Serb representatives to join the work of provisional institutions and other political processes.
Zëri quotes Mariane Tritz, member of the Parliamentary Assembly, as saying, ‘Neither organised crime nor corruption should be bypassed. It is unacceptable that political parties have intelligence services and are using them to control the political life in Kosovo’.
The resolution notes that the unresolved status of Kosovo affects the further destabilisation of the region, the future of European integration and economic development.
Epoka e Re reports that the CoE Parliamentary Assembly has called on all political parties in Kosovo to consider the proposal of UNMIK chief Søren Jessen-Petersen for establishing the political forum. The Assembly also called on Kosovo Serb representatives to join the work of provisional institutions and other political processes.
Zëri quotes Mariane Tritz, member of the Parliamentary Assembly, as saying, ‘Neither organised crime nor corruption should be bypassed. It is unacceptable that political parties have intelligence services and are using them to control the political life in Kosovo’.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
For Serbs, a slow road back to Kosovo - The Christian Science Monitor
Six years after the war, only 10 percent have returned to their hometowns, to live side by side with Albanians.
By Eleanor Beardsley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
KLINA, KOSOVO – Milorad Pavlovic took only five minutes to make the decision to leave Kosovo in June of 1999. But it has taken him six years to come back home.
Today, Mr. Pavlovic, his wife, Milorada, and mother, Jelena, are one of just two Serb families who have returned to their homes in the western Kosovo town of Klina.
During that summer of 1999, an estimated 180,000 Serbs like Pavlovic fled Kosovo as NATO troops poured in to the province and 800,000 Albanians returned from their exile. Despite the United Nations' efforts to help Serbs return, fewer than 10 percent have done so.
Klina is a case in point. While 60 percent of the town's properties used to belong to Serbs, Klina today has become an Albanian town. Serbian is no longer heard on the streets and a large mural glorifying the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army adorns the front of the community center.
In the years of their absence, squatters took the Pavlovics' belongings, and today, their apartment walls are still bare. The family sits drinking coffee on a few sparse pieces of furniture. But none of that matters, says Pavlovic.
"We are just glad to be home again," he says. "This is our house and Kosovo is our fatherland. My ancestors have been here for 600 years. Everything I own and everything I am is here, nowhere else."
Before the war, Pavlovic worked as a company driver and claims most of his clients and friends were Albanian. Life was "terribly good" then, he says.
But things are different now.
A dusty, one-street town, Klina suffered significant damage during the war. Despite a building frenzy, its town hall remains a bombed-out shell. But it is the invisible damage that prevents the town from healing. Thousands of Klina Albanians were killed by Serb forces in the conflict and more than 100 people are still missing.
Klina native Seremb Gjergi says that the town's missing Albanians have been a real impediment to the return of Klina's Serbs.
"There are a number of families that have more than one relative missing," says Mr. Gjergi.
"And this is blocking the part of the town that says we must reconcile. When you talk to someone else who has a missing relative they say listen, I'd love to help on reconciliation, but I don't know where my son is. First, I want to know where my son is."
But Gjergi says the Pavlovic's return is a big step. David Hally, an American who works with the UN Office of Returns here, agrees. He says the biggest obstacle to bringing Serbs back to Kosovo is not Serb fear, but Albanian fear. "Albanians were afraid that we weren't just going to bring Serbs back, but that we were going to bring Serbia back to Kosovo," says Mr. Hally. "But when people began to understand the distinction, some of the resistance went down."
This is not the first time the family has tried to come home. In October 2003 they returned to another one of their three properties. When they found a squatter there, they told him he couldstay and were even willing to give him his own room. But within a few hours, crowds gathered around the house and began to throw stones.
"Helicopters were circling overhead and the internationals were urging us to go," says Pavlovic. At first the family refused, but they finally acquiesced when an Italian military commander came to the house to convince them.
In April of this year the Pavlovics' made their second attempt - this time to Klina. So far there have been no problems. As Pavlovic heads out to buy milk, he points to the houses of his former Serb neighbors. While he hopes they will return someday, for now, Pavlovic says he's ready to build a new life with his Albanian neighbors. Fluent in Albanian, he stops to engage an astonished shop boy in conversation. "Many people don't want to talk to us," he says. "But from what I hear, this is normal. The ice has to be broken and this can't happen overnight. We do understand this."
By Eleanor Beardsley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
KLINA, KOSOVO – Milorad Pavlovic took only five minutes to make the decision to leave Kosovo in June of 1999. But it has taken him six years to come back home.
Today, Mr. Pavlovic, his wife, Milorada, and mother, Jelena, are one of just two Serb families who have returned to their homes in the western Kosovo town of Klina.
During that summer of 1999, an estimated 180,000 Serbs like Pavlovic fled Kosovo as NATO troops poured in to the province and 800,000 Albanians returned from their exile. Despite the United Nations' efforts to help Serbs return, fewer than 10 percent have done so.
Klina is a case in point. While 60 percent of the town's properties used to belong to Serbs, Klina today has become an Albanian town. Serbian is no longer heard on the streets and a large mural glorifying the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army adorns the front of the community center.
In the years of their absence, squatters took the Pavlovics' belongings, and today, their apartment walls are still bare. The family sits drinking coffee on a few sparse pieces of furniture. But none of that matters, says Pavlovic.
"We are just glad to be home again," he says. "This is our house and Kosovo is our fatherland. My ancestors have been here for 600 years. Everything I own and everything I am is here, nowhere else."
Before the war, Pavlovic worked as a company driver and claims most of his clients and friends were Albanian. Life was "terribly good" then, he says.
But things are different now.
A dusty, one-street town, Klina suffered significant damage during the war. Despite a building frenzy, its town hall remains a bombed-out shell. But it is the invisible damage that prevents the town from healing. Thousands of Klina Albanians were killed by Serb forces in the conflict and more than 100 people are still missing.
Klina native Seremb Gjergi says that the town's missing Albanians have been a real impediment to the return of Klina's Serbs.
"There are a number of families that have more than one relative missing," says Mr. Gjergi.
"And this is blocking the part of the town that says we must reconcile. When you talk to someone else who has a missing relative they say listen, I'd love to help on reconciliation, but I don't know where my son is. First, I want to know where my son is."
But Gjergi says the Pavlovic's return is a big step. David Hally, an American who works with the UN Office of Returns here, agrees. He says the biggest obstacle to bringing Serbs back to Kosovo is not Serb fear, but Albanian fear. "Albanians were afraid that we weren't just going to bring Serbs back, but that we were going to bring Serbia back to Kosovo," says Mr. Hally. "But when people began to understand the distinction, some of the resistance went down."
This is not the first time the family has tried to come home. In October 2003 they returned to another one of their three properties. When they found a squatter there, they told him he couldstay and were even willing to give him his own room. But within a few hours, crowds gathered around the house and began to throw stones.
"Helicopters were circling overhead and the internationals were urging us to go," says Pavlovic. At first the family refused, but they finally acquiesced when an Italian military commander came to the house to convince them.
In April of this year the Pavlovics' made their second attempt - this time to Klina. So far there have been no problems. As Pavlovic heads out to buy milk, he points to the houses of his former Serb neighbors. While he hopes they will return someday, for now, Pavlovic says he's ready to build a new life with his Albanian neighbors. Fluent in Albanian, he stops to engage an astonished shop boy in conversation. "Many people don't want to talk to us," he says. "But from what I hear, this is normal. The ice has to be broken and this can't happen overnight. We do understand this."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)