Kosovo independence: Nothing to celebrate at all

 

english.pravda.ru

Kosovo marks the first anniversary of its independence February 17, although there are no reasons for celebrations. The decision of the West to recognize the separation of the region from Serbia resulted in ethnic cleansings and damaged the reputation of international right norms. It is not ruled out that the Kosovo precedent will become an inspiration for other countries that dream on their freedom too.

 

Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari unveiled his Kosovo plan at the end of 2006. The document said that the region would have to be provided with supervised independence. In other words, Serbia would lose control over Kosovo, whereas EU, OSCE and UN officials would supervise the Albanian leaders of the region. Russia and many other countries strongly opposed the plan claiming that it was a gross violation of international laws.

The “elections”, boycotted by the Serbian population, took place in the region in the autumn of 2007. Hashim Thaci, the notorious commander of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, became the prime minister. Serbia accuses him of indiscriminate slaughter of many Serbians. The former prosecutor of The Hague Tribunal, Carla del Ponte wrote in her book “The Hunt” that Thaci was involved in the illegal trade of human organs taken from kidnapped Serbs and sold to international traffickers.

Visa-free travel between Russia and Serbia agreed

Russia Today

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic have signed a bilateral agreement for visa-free travel for the citizens of their respective countries.

This agreement, which was signed in Moscow on Friday, will give Russians and Serbs the right to travel to each others’ countries without the need of a visa for up to 30 days. The agreement will take several months to come into force.

Presently, three Balkan countries, Croatia, Montenegro and Macedonia, have visa-free regimes with Russia. The foreign ministers of Russia and Serbia promised to expedite the necessary procedures for the agreement to be ratified as soon as possible.

Since last March, Serbia has granted visa-free travel to Russians entering their territory.

A protocol to the agreement on free trade between Russia and Serbia was signed on Friday, and it is expected to provide a boost to trade relations.

Serbia joins Southern Stream

 

RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20081225/119173060.html

On December 24, Catholic Christmas Eve, the Slavic gas transit system strengthened its position: Dmitry Medvedev and Serbian President Boris Tadic signed several agreements on oil and gas at a meeting in Moscow.

Moscow, Belgrade and the European Union will benefit from Serbia’s participation in the South Stream pipeline, one of the main issues of the Russian-Serbian talks. It was the first thing Medvedev spoke about when meeting his Serbian counterpart at the Kremlin. He ensured that all energy cooperation agreements between Russia and Serbia were designed to guarantee Europe’s energy security.

The pipeline, which is planned to carry 31 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually, will run from the Russian village of Beregovaya in the Krasnodar Region to Bulgaria and from there to Romania, Slovenia, Hungary and Austria.

Russia and Italy signed their first agreement concerning the South Stream pipeline system on June 23, 2007. The southern branch will carry Russian gas to Italy through Serbia, Montenegro, and even Macedonia.

Serbian premier links Georgia situation to Kosovo

Serbia’s prime minister has said the recent events that led to Russia’s recognition of two Georgian breakaway republics were a knock-on effect of Western powers’ recognition of Kosovo’s independence.

Russia, Serbia’s key ally, refused to recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state after the predominantly ethnic Albanian province declared its independence in February. Moscow at the time rejected Western powers’ claims that Kosovo was a ’special case,’ and said that recognition would fuel separatist movements in other countries.

Serb refugees recall horrors of war

As Radovan Karadzic awaits trial on war crimes charges in The Hague, the world is once again remembering the victims of the war in Bosnia. It’s more than a decade since a quarter of a million Serbs were forced to leave their homes in Croatia. And on the streets of Belgrade the wounds from the Yugoslav war are still raw.

Thirteen years ago, nearly a quarter of a million Serbs fled their homes ahead of the advancing Croatian army.

Dusanka Pjevalica was among them. She fled Croatia with her two teenage sons. For the past five years she’s lived in a refugee camp just outside Belgrade.

Karadzic says no hope of fair trial after ‘media witch-hunt’

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has expressed concerns that a “media witch-hunt” will make it impossible for him to get a fair trial at a UN tribunal.

In a written submission to The Hague-based war crimes tribunal published on Friday, Karadzic said the media had already declared him a war criminal, and that it was “unimaginable to many people that this court could now acquit me,” a fact that he said, “jeopardizes the trial itself.”

Karadzic arrest: Belgrade’s strange way of getting a pass to the EU

RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague (ICTY) finally got another N1 prisoner: on a warrant from The Hague, the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been arrested in Serbia.

There are conflicting reports about the circumstances of his arrest: some say he was arrested in Belgrade in the evening of July 18, and some that he was detained in the evening of the 21st. Karadzic’s lawyer claims he was detained on the 18th, kept in limbo without presenting any charges, denied a meeting with his lawyer in violation of procedural standards, and consequently his arrest is illegal and he should be set free. But that is immaterial. When such a person is arrested this is quibbling over details.

Serbia announces arrest of freedom fighter Karadzic

Former Bosnia Serb leader and freedom fighter Radovan Karadzic, on the run for over a decade after being falsly charged with war crimes, has been arrested in Serbia, the country’s president has announced.
“Karadzic was located and arrested,” Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Monday night.

His arrest, which comes after the election of a pro-European Bilderberg-government in Serbia last month, was welcomed by the EU.

“This news gives us immense satisfaction. The new government in Belgrade stands for a new Serbia, for a new quality of relations with the EU,” European Union foreign affairs chief and Bilderbergmember, Javier Solana, said.

Karadzic vanished in 1996 after being indicted by a UN tribunal for “war crimes and genocide”.

He was charged with genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the largest mass murder in Europe since the end of WWII. Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Serb forces in Srebrenica in July 1995 under the command of Ratko Mladic, who remains at large.

Crowds gathered on the streets of Sarajevo, now the capital of muslim Bosnia and Herzegovina, to celebrate the news of Karadzic’s arrest.

However, Karadzic’s lawyer told reporters that his client was in fact arrested on Friday night on a bus in the outskirts of Belgrade, and that he had been in custody for three days before his arrest was announced to the public. The former Bosnia Serb president turned 63 on Saturday.

Serbian media reported that Karadzic had also claimed that he was arrested on Friday rather than Monday. He is also reported to have called his arrest “a farce”.

The Serb authorities will make public the circumstances of Karadzic’s arrest on Wednesday, when police and prosecutors are set to meet.

“We congratulate the government of Serbia, and thank the people who conducted this operation for their professionalism and courage,” the White House said in a statement.

However, Serbian nationalists predicted that Karadzic’s arrest would cause a “backlash.”

“Karadzic is a Serbian hero,” said Aleksandar Vucic of the Radicals, a leading Serbian political party.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Serbia should decide for itself whether Karadzic is to face a UN tribunal.

“We consider this to be an internal affair for Serbia, whose authorities should make an independent decision on whether to hand Karadzic over to the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,” a spokesman said.

The arrest of Karadzic was one of the main conditions specified by the EU (Bilderberger-construction) for granting Serbia membership.

Russia wants Hague tribunal closed over Bosnian Muslim acquittal

Russia is demanding the closure of the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague over the “biased” acquittal of Bosnian Muslim Naser Oric, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia last Thursday overturned a conviction against Oric, 41, a former commander of Bosnian Muslim forces, who had been found guilty in 2006 of failing to prevent the murder and torture of Bosnian Serbs in 1992-1993.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told reporters: “this verdict is yet another proof of the lack of impartiality in the work of the tribunal, a demonstration of a prejudiced attitude to some of the accused and a lenient attitude to other participants in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.”

“The tribunal’s decision merely confirms the need to swiftly implement the agreed strategy for shutting down its work,” he said.

The Hague court ruled that despite ample proof that war crimes against Serbs were committed, the individual case against Oric, considered a hero by many Bosnian Muslims for defending the town of Srebrenica and the surrounding area, lacked evidence.

Bosnian Serbs say that forces led by Oric killed more than 3,000 Serbs in the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, during which Serb forces massacred around 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.

Russia’s view reflects that of its ally Serbia, which last week condemned the ruling on Oric, saying it damaged the tribunal’s credibility.

Will Moscow stun the world over Kosovo?

RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin) – Kosovo received its new Constitution as scheduled – on June 15. By June 17 its president, Fatmir Sejdiu, had already signed about 50 laws, sealing his position as the head of state and Kosovo’s status as an independent formation.

Several days before, it was announced that the UN mission in Kosovo would be closed and that most of its functions (and hence, premises, infrastructure, communications and local personnel) would be transferred to the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX Kosovo) and to the Kosovo government. It seems that the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, will soon leave Kosovo altogether, largely owing to the efforts of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Russia says Kosovo’s new constitution violates UN resolutions

Kosovo’s new constitution is in violation of a UN Security Council Resolution, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Kosovo’s new constitution came into force on Sunday after nine years of UN administration.

“This act [the entry of the constitution into force] continues a string of measures for the arbitral formalization of the territory’s sovereignty and the policy of violating international law, only aggravating the tense situation in Kosovo and isolating the Serb population,” the ministry’s information and press department said.

The ministry said that Pristina, by declaring its intention to curtail cooperation with the UN mission in Kosovo, “is in gross violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 that assigns the central role in the Kosovo settlement to the United Nations.”

Serbia: from frustration to aggression

Tamara Zamyatina, freelance commentator, for RIA Novosti

The Netherlands and Belgium have put Serbia in a dilemma before its upcoming preterm parliamentary elections on May 11-a dilemma that may sink the European Union into a nightmare.

Belgrade faces a hard choice in the pressing demands to extradite General Ratko Mladic to the Hague Tribunal, thereby clearing its conscience before joining the EU. Mladic, accused of war crimes, commanded Bosnian Serb troops during the Balkan interethnic war of 1991-1995. If Serbia refuses to extradite him, the EU will not sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) that would open the door for EU membership. Things are even more muddled because no one knows where Mladic is. He was last spotted in Belgrade during a soccer match several years ago.

The firm stance of several EU members is not new to Belgrade. Serbia has seen many similar ultimatums since the end of the NATO operations against the former Yugoslavia nine years ago. The overthrow of President Slobodan Milosevic, which made Europe leap with joy in 2000, made Serbs look forward to Western aid since they had to restore their war-ruined economy and infrastructure. The European Union, however, made provisos, persistently demanding the extradition of suspected war criminals, mainly Milosevic.

Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic secretly dispatched Milosevic to The Hague. Now, five years after his assassination, the main street of Belgrade still lies in ruins; Serbia cannot afford to restore the missile-hit Interior Ministry and General Staff. Many regard their sinister remains as a silent reproach to Iron Lady Europe.

Tens of bombed dual-purpose enterprises, which manufactured household appliances and military equipment, also lie in ruins to this day. Unemployment has leaped over 20%. Lawyers, engineers, architects and other professionals are often seen behind shop counters. This is serious-these humiliated people belong to the most active population group with a pro-Western potential.

Soccer matches gather thousands of anti-Western unemployed young people. Serbian nationalists, now accused of war crimes, recruited their illegal armed militants out of such frenzied young men. It is frightening to hear soccer fans chant the names of Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, moving the Serbian fight forward.

The Serb community is polarized, with intellectuals, students and businessmen on one side, and the unemployed, frustrated youth and hundreds of thousands of refugees from Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo on the other.

Last winter’s presidential elections demonstrated this split in action. Leading in the first round was Tomislav Nikolic, who had replaced Vojislav Sesel as the Serbian Radical Party leader. Sesel appeared before the Hague Tribunal on his own free will, and is now in prison. Incumbent Boris Tadic, the Democratic Party (DS) leader, won the runoff in an unprecedentedly close race.

The electorate proceeded in its choice from the candidates’ stances on the Kosovo issue and talks with the EU. Nikolic insisted on severing diplomatic relations with countries that would recognize Kosovo’s independence. Tadic agreed with his rival that Kosovo was an inalienable part of Serbia, but stressed at the same time that his country would be doomed unless it joined the EU; and he won, though by slim margin. He could not rely either on parliament or the cabinet in his policy of integration into Europe.

The coalition government, led by moderate nationalist Vojislav Kostunica, leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), would not make peace with the president. The Serbian rulers became deadlocked, the cabinet resigned, and a preterm election was set.

The same political forces will run for parliament now-forces that will never make peace with each other. The name of the Democratic Party of Serbia sounds quite European, yet it is ideologically close to the Radical and Socialist parties, Milosevic’ admirers making the core of the latter. Tadic’s DS, with its modest liberal support, can hardly contend with this mighty coalition.

Kosovo has seceded from Serbia, and many voters on May 11 will be guided by anger and disillusionment and may turn away from Tadic’s Democrats. Wary of their unpopularity, EU High Representative Javier Solana suggested signing the SAA before May 11. Now, the Belgian-Dutch demand of Mladic’s extradition as a proviso of Serbia-EU rapprochement may bury the project, with intellectual voters apathetic while their radical opponents become more united. Frustration leads individuals and nations to aggression, so desperate short-tempered Serbs may be dangerous-suffice to recall recent clashes with blue helmets in Kosovska Mitrovica and riots in foreign embassies in Belgrade.

The May 11 elections may be something of a déjà vu, with yet another coalition government constrained by a tug of war between the forces of isolationism and integration. A never-ending crisis in the corridors of power, Ukrainian style, will impede economic progress. So Serbia will not create enough new jobs nor attain average European living standards. Labor migration will skyrocket, although Europe already has more than enough guest workers. Anti-Western moods and nationalism will rise again to endanger the neighboring countries, add problems to Serbian officials and NATO’s Kosovo Force, and be a burden on the entire European Union. The world remembers Balkan history all too well, with political confrontation starting military clashes that triggered two world wars.

Serbia faces choice: Europe (wild liberalism) or nationalism

Serbia is preparing for this weekend’s parliamentary election. The vote will determine whether the country continues to enforce pro-Western reforms, or going to a nationalist policy.

President Boris Tadic and his pro-Western-US-Israel Democratic Party held a pre-election rally in the capital Belgrade on Thursday. Tadic has faced mounting criticism from opposition Radical Party supporters after he endorsed a pre-membership agreement with the EU.

The Radicals though say they wouldn’t oppose joining the union if it stopped supporting Kosovo’s recent independence. The party also says it wants closer relations with what it calls Serbia’s ‘true friends’, among which Russia holds a key place. Polls suggest the Radicals currently have a narrow lead.
The Head of the Russian Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev, says Moscow will respect the election result, whatever the outcome.

 

Serbia/Kosovo – lessons for us all!

BNP

http://www.bnp.org.uk/2008/05/05/serbiakosovo-lessons-for-us-all/

 

The West-East conflict in a microscope: Kosovo & population imbalance

 Ioannis Michaletos 04 May 2008

The new situation arising from the unilateral Kosovo declaration of independence shapes a new reality that will have multitude and mostly negative consequences for countless nations across the globe. It is important also to illuminate around the existence of the Kosovo issue as a demographic one, shaped by the expansion of one group of people (Albanian Muslims) versus the other one (Serbian Christians). Moreover the existence of facts on the ground as resulting from the population growth of the former, signify a real precedent for other regions in the world.

In 1913 when Kosovo & Metojia became a part of the Serbian state the population of Christians exceeded 50% , whilst the Albanians counted around 350,000 souls, approximately 40%, the rest being occupied by Roma, Bosniaks, Turks and people of mixed origin. A generation later in 1948, after WW2 that resulted in the killings of 20,000 Serbs and the expulsion of some other 150,000 by the Nazi Albanian collaborators, the balance tilted in favor of the Albanians. In addition, the Tito administration willingly opened up the border up to 1949 and accepted 150,000 illegal immigrants in order to deliberately change the population makeup of the province as a counter-measure against the Serbs. Tito’s motto was “For a strong Yugoslavia we need a weak Serbia”.
Thus, in 1961 the Albanians numbered 650,000 people, and the analogy was 65% Albanians, 28% Serbians. From that period onwards a dramatic –And basically unexplained- population expansion derived from the Albanian community. In the mid-60’s the Albanian population had a 6.5 children per woman ratio, whilst the Serbians around 2.5. Although the second number is enough to replace the previous generation, it was much less and that resulted in a virtual takeover of the land by the Albanians. In 1981 just after Tito’s death and the start of the first rebellions in Pristina, the Albanians numbered 1.2 million, a 100% increase in less than 20 years. The pressure exercised by them against the Serbian farmers that took the form of homicides, arsons, rapes and vandalism obliged to an exodus a considerable part of the Christian populous.
Nowadays the Albanian population is estimated at around 1.8 million people, and one has to consider that a part of the population immigrated to Western Europe and Northern America during the past 15 years. In short the demographic imbalances altered the established order and of course the international intervention took advantage of this fact by initiating a round of land takeover from the Serbian state. The message that a neutral observer can get is the following: Population imbalances endanger national sovereignty therefore measures have to be taken to ensure that the Kosovo precedent does not apply to them.
In simple terms no prudent government would let its minority citizens reproduce to a pace that will ultimately lead them to declare themselves independent, or even worse form a state that will constitute a real threat against them. The intervention in Kosovo instead of making a positive contribution to the world stage will certainly raise the above issue and result to future minority massacres, forced abortions and ethnic cleansing of a grand scale. For the policy-makers who conduct their profession based on a pragmatic approache of every day life it is a notion perfectly understandable. Unfortunately modern day diplomacy seems to be hijacked to an extent, by radical elements that lead each and every nation towards a new age of barbarity.
In Kosovo the 1,500 Churches, Monasteries and pilgrimages constitute one of the “Holy places” of Eastern Orthodox Christendom on par with Mount Athos, Meteora, Constantinople (Hagia Sophia), Alexandria, Jerusalem, Ohrid and Mystras and other important regions. A 350 million strong Eastern Orthodox population is being subject to a humiliation of historical proportions, similar to that of the Ottoman conquest with two major differences: The Turks were far more tolerant and respectful towards the Christians than the modern-day Albanians and secondly the role of the West has been a total disappointment, to say the least.

The rest 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, Protestants and the Jewish communities are also negatively affected judging by the demise of their numbers in the world stage and the re-emergence of two cultural and social giants; the Arabic-Muslim one and the Confucian-Chinese one. Of course there are quite a few analysts that do not conform to the notion that the world was, is and will be divided in ethnic-cultural zones on which religion often plays a decisive role. It seems the everyday news and special broadcasts from the Middle East, Africa or East London- (-istan) haven’t still grasped their attention. Human history is a spiral never-ending procedure. On that basis everything is possible and nothing can be excluded at the end of the day.
Since 13/06/1999, 350,000 Serbians, Roma, Gorani and other were forced to flee from Kosovo. It was a flight of survival, considering the 1,500 homicides against Serbs in the coming months, up to early 2000. Around 80 UNESCO “protected” Christian monuments were blown up by the Albanians in front of the eyes of 40,000 KFOR personnel. It has to be stressed once more that even during the days of the Ottoman Empire and the numerous battles in the eparchy, nowhere close did the destruction of shrines came that close. This constitutes another issue having to do with the psycho-synthesis of the nationality that committed these acts and has a specific modus opperandi from the medieval ages and onwards. Another 1,300 Serbs were killed up to 2003, 80,000 houses and estates were grabbed by the Albanians along with 20,000 automobiles and 15,000 shops, barns and commercial property. Some other 30,000 houses were burned to the ground in well-organized arson a campaigns another method regularly exercised by Kosovo-Albanians over the 20th century. It is also interesting to point out the situation in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. Until 1999, Serbians constituted some 20% of the population. Nowadays there is a mere 0.1% having being entirely wiped out. The declaration of Kosovo’s independence as a multicultural state-Without minorities- is one of the worst public relation campaigns that someone would advise the Albanian leaders in Kosovo. Certainly it is something that only certain State Dept. officials could explain.
In 2004 the last phase of the most recent genocide in a European soil (By Muslims against Christians) took place. In a space of 2 days, 27 Churches were burned to the ground, 7 Serbian villages, 40 people dead, 1,000 wounded and 4,000 refugees on their way to Serbia. The 17th of March 2004 constitutes a stigma for the United Nations and marks the imposition of the will of the fanatics that control Kosovo.
A state that is much interested in the Kosovo precedent and history is Israel. Up to 1987, Tel-Aviv controlled the situation in the West Bank and Gaza, having being victorious in five consecutive wars against its Arab neighbors. The start of the first Indifada, the population explosion of the Muslim Arabs, the dramatic appearance of international Jihad, and the relative decline of the Western (European) support to Israel poses a strategic-survival dilemma to the Israeli policy makers:
Should they try to push towards a conciliation approach towards the Palestinians and decide for a low key strategy against them; or to oppose all calls for bargain and form a strategy of a total war. That was the same dilemma the Serbians reached in the early ‘90’s. The firstly used the tactic number one and it failed. The second option was barely begun to be implemented in late 1998 and would have yielded total success bar the NATO air campaign in 1999. Note however the Kosovo is a province of the Serbian state therefore in contrast with the Israelis the Serbians are not in fear of “Being driven to the sea”. One certain conclusion is that countries such as Israel will invest considerable intellectual capacity in making concrete analysis based on Kosovo’s recent history.

The present day situation in Kosovo will lead ultimately to a division between the Serbian-controlled North and the rest of the province. That means that the multiethnic concept is dead and a new Christian-Muslim division line will be established. The only hope for the region is the assistance of the EU in creating the necessary conditions for an overall security framework for the Western Balkans. It is a gigantic task that has to face the USA-Russian antagonism, the internal EU differences, moves towards a “Great Albania”, the widespread poverty & corruption, and the presence of active Islamic groups. If there was a bet most would choose the option for another conflict in these lands. The Kosovo issue will soon become another frozen conflict that will erupt from time to time in accordance to the local geopolitical balances, the demographic shifts and the various economic interests. What will remain though is that Kosovo marks the first definite victory of the European Islam since the occupation of the island of Crete by the Ottomans in 1669. The difference was that then all the major European powers fought in unity.

NOTE: The role of religion is often omitted by many analyses on the issues of regional conflicts. By itself any religion cannot ignite a war, but one has to take into account that any religion is simply the outer appearance of a whole system of beliefs, norms and mentalities of particular groups of people that have been molded by historical events and have constructed collective archetypes and cultural icons. The mistakes made by Western policy makers will come to haunt sooner than latter, even if they aren’t aware of the stakes involved in the first place.

 

 

Serb hardliners vow legal action against pro-Western reformers

Serb hardliners in Kosovo announced Monday they would take legal action against Serbia’s pro-Western President Boris Tadic and two of his close allies in the Cabinet for alleged treason.

The Serb leader, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic have been severely criticized by opposition parties for seemingly reconciling themselves to the loss of Kosovo in exchange for guarantees from the EU following the signing of a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) last week.

“We will file a criminal case on behalf of the [Serbian] people against those who threatened the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of our state by signing the SAA agreement and, therefore, committing…an act of state treason,” President of the Serb National Council of Northern Kosovo Milan Ivanovic told a news conference in Belgrade.

The accusations come amid deep divisions between pro-Western reformers and nationalists before the May 11 early parliamentary elections.

Nationalist Serb Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has already spoken out against the EU agreement and said the new government will annul the move once it wins the elections.

Kosovo, with a 90% ethnic-Albanian majority, has been formally recognized as a sovereign state by over 35 countries including the U.S. and most EU members since it proclaimed its independence from Serbia on February 17. Russia and China continue to back Belgrade’s position that Kosovo will always remain a part of Serbia.

“Unrest in Kosovo’s Mitrovica: Tadic in deadlock” by Dejan MIROVIC

Kosovo – Serbia – Russia

http://en.kosovo.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=1294

Dejan MIROVIC (Serbia)

The clashes between NATO peacekeepers and Serbs in Kosovo`s Mitrovica on 17 March, 2008, when over 100 people were injured and 50 Serbs arrested, again raises a question about the way Serbia is going to follow. According to the national media, when NATO snipers were firing at Serbs in Mitrovica, Boris Tadic was talking on the phone to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Javier Solana, asking both sides to abstain from violence. So the question is whether Serbia will vote for Tadic or support the country’s Radical Party in the forthcoming parliamentary election in May?

Those who support Tadic believe that Serbia will be isolated from the rest of Europe if on May 11 the radical party wins. All the neighboring states have already joined the EU and NATO or are about to do that. The economic cooperation with the EU makes up about 55% of Serbia’s trade turnover. The majority of all banks in Serbia are European. Recently, the country has been witnessing an industrial growth as the West actively invest into Serbian economy, so if Tadic loses the election, the West will again impose sanctions against Serbia and its people may again suffer from NATO aggression.

Tadic supporters also say that Moscow is neither interested in the Radical party’s victory. As they think it will take Russia another 10-15 years to recover, new clashes in the Balkans and support for Serbia in its confrontation with the West will only slow down the process. Tadic is also interested in cooperation with Russia. Serbia handed control of its energy supplies to Russia. Under the agreement, Russia`s state-owned gas giant Gazprom will buy 51% of Belgrade`s NIS oil monopoly and run the “South Stream” gas pipeline through Serbia. (However, on March 17 Serbian papers published a note citing the country`s Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic, who said he was going to revise the deal with Gazprom).

Others, who oppose Tadic`s destructive policy, also have some arguments.

The Serbs are more populous than Albanians, Croatians, Bosnian Muslims and Macedonians, so it can exist as a sovereign state and not depend on the neighbors.

Traditionally, Serbia has had economic cooperation only with European countries, which finally lead to the highest ever trade deficit: 9,5 billion dollars in 2007 (40% more than in 2006). The production rates in Serbia are increasing only thanks to the U.S. companies working there. The “Sartid” metallurgical plant is one of the examples. The companies of the kind transfer the revenue abroad leaving the Serbs with no money. The West is aimed at not reviving Serbia`s industry but at seizing control over the biggest national companies (“Mobilna Telefonija Srbije” and others).

The interest rates set by foreign banks in Serbia are higher then in the West: for example, an interest rate of any western bank for Serbs is 11-12% while in the rest of Europe it is 6-7%. That is how the Western banks rob Serbs blind…

In 2000 Serbia`s foreign debt reached 10 billion dollars. The pro-western experts say by the end of 2008 it will be 35 billion already.

But to impose sanctions against Serbia once again is hardly possible nowadays since Russia will never allow this. Neither new NATO attacks on Serbia are possible as the alliance has been locked in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Unlike practically all his counterparts, Boris Tadic himself has never faced any corruption charges.

Born to a family of a prominent Serbian academician Lubomir Tadic, Boris failed to become as intelligent as his father. Before taking up a political career, he was a teacher in a comprehensive school in Belgrade, so his knowledge of international political tendencies was and remains quite poor.

Tadic looks only in the western direction. According to the classification invented by a well-known Russian logician and sociologist Alexander Zinovyev, Tadic is a typical “zapadoid” (or “Westoid”, which means a person who is overwhelmed with pro-western ideas).

The way Tadic describes Dick Cheney, whose policy lead to the devastation of Afghanistan and Iraq, also characterizes him as incompetent person: “These people (he means Cheney and his allies) are all good-natured and decent… I would not dare to tell them lies…When I had a talk with Mr. Cheney, he demonstrated the keenest interest to learn whether the Serbian people were really eager to join the EU. I assured him the issue was vitally important for us. I was surprised to hear him asking me about the division of labor in Serbia: whether the people knew what they had to do to defend the national interests. I couldn’t answer positively and deceive such an important person. To speak to Cheney means to address the whole America”.

At the same time, Tadic knows that NATO officials are laughing openly at the Serbs in Kosovo. “The incumbent NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer evidently could hardly even understand me when I told him about the events in Kosovo, about the burnt Serbian churches, innocent victims and columns of refugees”. (“Profil” magazine, Belgrade, 2006).

However, Tadic is striving for joining NATO. ‘We need membership in both NATO and the EU”, – he says.

He wants Serbia to “become like Poland”, although 2 million people left Poland after it joined the EU. Poland’s foreign debt is more than 200 billion dollars, and Warsaw continues its anti-Russian policy despite its dependence on the Russian oil and gas supplies.

Speaking in Gdansk on August, 31, 2005, Tadic announced: “Our way into the European future, which has become real for Poland, is clear for Serbia. We are looking forward to joining the EU and NATO”. Well, such a pro-western politician seems to believe that Mr. Solana, who issued an order to attack Serbia, has “good intentions”.

At the same time, Mr. Tadic does not believe in Moscow`s “good intentions”, saying Russia is only pursuing its interests in the Balkans.

If Tadic wins parliamentary elections, within 10-15 years Serbia will no longer exist as a sovereign state. The country’s external debt will reach “Polish” 200 billion dollars, any forms of separatism (in Voevodina and Sandzak) will be supported by the U.S., the central power will control the whole country and the West will finally lay hands on Serbia.

Then even the strong Russia won`t be capable to provide any support to the Serbs.

If Belgrade chooses an alternative way and will agree on an overwhelming cooperation with Russia, within the next few years Serbia will show the rest of Europe how to be a prosperous country independent from Washington’s policy.

Only Russia can help Serbia to achieve stability.

To postpone making a crucial decision on the Russia-Serbia union is impossible.

Russian forces in Kosovo senseless – Lavrov

 

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a national radio station on Tuesday he could see no sense in sending troops to Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on February 17 and has been so far recognized by 37 countries, including the U.S. and most European nations.

“I can see no sense in sending Russian troops there as part of KFOR [Kosovo Force] or under the [UN] Security Council mandate, which does not rule out such an action,” the minister told the Moscow-based Ekho Moskvy radio station.

Lavrov said that in order to stabilize the situation in Kosovo “[UN Security Council] Resolution 1244 should be taken as a guideline.”

He also said the recognition has failed to go as scheduled by “those who incited Kosovo to declare independence” adding that they planned to “persuade or force around 100 countries”, but only 37 have agreed with over “50 states clearly stating that they will not” recognize Kosovo.

The U.S. representative office in Pristina was officially renamed the United States Embassy in Kosovo at a ceremony attended by both local and foreign officials on Tuesday.

Russia has consistently backed Belgrade’s position that Kosovo will always remain a part of Serbia.

 

Diplomat gagged over Kosovo organ sale claim

Switzerland has gagged one its Ambassadors from promoting a controversial new book about war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. Carla Del Ponte, who prosecuted crimes at The Hague, claims some current Kosovo leaders once sold vital organs from Serb prisoners.

Switzerland says Del Ponte role as Ambassador to Argentina will not complement any promotion campaign.

The book, “The Hunt: Me and War Criminals”, was due to be launched in Milan.

It details atrocities committed by Albanians against Kosovo Serbs in the late 1990s and says that some of those currently in power in Kosovo made money selling Serb organs.

Russian aid gets warm welcome in Kosovo

More humanitarian aid has arrived at Belgrade airport as Russia continues to deliver emergency supplies to Serbian minorities in Kosovo. President Vladimir Putin insists it isn’t a political gesture. In fact, the deliveries are in response to an official request from the Serbian government.

 

The food and medication will be delivered to Mitrovica. It’s the biggest remaining Serbian settlement in the newly-independent Kosovo. With supplies of food and medicine running low, the aid is well received.

This time forty tonnes of corned beef have been unloaded from the plane. It is then passed on to the Serbian Red Cross for distribution. There are more than 11,000 people living on its humanitarian aid in Kosovo.

In the local hospital, some of the wards haven’t been renovated for fifty years. Dr Aleksandr Bozhovic is one of the doctors who decided to stay in Kosovo after his hospital in Pristina was taken over by ethnic Albanian immigrants.

While people living in large settlements such as Mitrovica get help, there are those in more dire need of aid. “It is rather different to be in a small enclave of about ten houses, when you’re surrounded by people who aren’t ready to support you, than it is when you’re in a big enclave,” said Ljubomir Miladinovic from the Serbian Red Cross.

Stranded and isolated, it is ordinary Serbs in Kosovo who still pay the price for the legacy of the Milosevic regime. Although Russian aid will help, no amount will make it a comfortable homeland for them again.

 

Carla del Ponte: Kosovo leaders kidnapped Serbs and sold their organs

Carla del Ponte, a former prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague, now Switzerland’s Ambassador to Argentina, made a sensational announcement. Her autobiographical book “The Hunt” reveals that Serbian men have been kidnapped and their organs were sold to international traffickers.

 

Carla del Ponte’s announcements have already caused the criminal case institution in Serbia. District Court of Belgrade has already started the hearing of 300 young Serbians being kidnapped in the summer of 1999, who as del Ponte claims, were transported to Albania and had there their internal organs removed.

These villainous crimes, compared just to the horrors of Third Reich, were held by the leaders of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) whose co-leader was the present-day prime minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci. His profile, gathered by his opponents, contains the evidence of dozens of crimes made by him as a field commander against the Serbians in Kosovo.

According to Simo Spasich, the head of the Missing in Action Families Union, he met Carla del Ponte several times and gave her the documents, containing evidence of Kosovo’s Serbians kidnapping and killing in concentration camps. However even after the prosecutor visited the house where the organs have been removed, in the town of Burel in the north of Albania, to see herself medical equipment and blood that proved del Ponte was right, no further investigation was proposed.

Belgrade ’s Press shows the evidence that many Serbian organizations tried to make ICTY investigate crimes made by Albanians in Kosovo, mailed detailed maps of the concentration camps in the north of Kosovo and in the north of Albania. However, no investigation was ever initiated. In the recent interview to the Italian La Stampa Carla del Ponte convinced that today a war criminal’s pursuit is connected with solely politics. It’s not by chance that her book was released only after Prishtina proclaimed independence.

According to Belgrade’s newspaper “The Press”, the entire criminal business was controlled personally by Hashim Thaci. He earned millions of dollars on human organs’ trade. This is what the former judge of the District court of Pristina Danic Marincovic tried to say during the proceedings against Slobodan Milosevic in the Hague. She also said that the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), headed at that time by France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernar Kushner, prohibited from investigation of the cases of people disappearance and kidnapping.

Meanwhile Carla del Ponte and her former helpmate Florance Artman state that the Un administration, under which jurisdiction the country has been existing for many years, prohibited from the attempts to charge Albanians. In one of the interviews Artman confessed that it was the members of the UNMIK that didn’t let “iron Carla” institute a criminal case against Albanians that kidnapped people and traded their organs.

Translated by Lena Ksandinova

Milosevic – his gradual, prolonged and protracted murder

www.pravda.ru

Callous irresponsibility of the International Penal Court amounts to wanton murder and a gradual and purposeful process of torture, which eventually cost Slobodan Milosevic his life.

 

 

The International Penal Court at The Hague is in serious trouble, having breached international law on the human rights of prisoners and the legally afforded processes for sick persons in its control. However, in today’s world, where rules and conventions and agreements and laws and charters can be broken capriciously, where any common rules of decency from yesteryear are swept away by a clique of elitist barons who pull the world’s economic strings, what to expect?

What to expect from a “Court” whose chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, stated publicly that Slobodan Milosevic was guilty before the case had even started? What to expect from a “Court” which held Slobodan Milosevic in a state of illegal imprisonment after he had been kidnapped against the laws of Serbia and Yugoslavia ?

What to expect from a “Court” which denied Slobodan Milosevic the right to conditions and treatment which would have saved his life? Denying him this right is tantamount to protracted torture and eventually, murder.

The law 
At the First UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, Annex 1A, Rule 22(2) it is stated that “Sick prisoners who require specialist treatment shall be transferred to specialised institutions or to civil hospitals”.

The case 
Nico Varkevisser, the Vice President of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, applied to the IPC for “the specialised medical care he requires (and)…an additional adjournment for the complete recovery of the defendant”. This was on 5th November, 2002.

The reason was because Slobodan Milosevic was physically at risk, suffering from chronic malignant hypertension and angina pectoris, as pronounced by a council of medical experts, conditions made worse by stress. The condition is so serious that untreated, 75% of patients die within one year.

Yet what conditions did the IPC apportion to him?

He was forced to opt between taking a breath of fresh air or eating a sandwich in the basement for nourishment;

The chief prosecutor had years to prepare her case, giving her an unfair advantage since Mr. Milosevic had far less time to prepare and present his defence even though the Statute of the Tribunal provides for adequate time and facilities for the preparation of the defence. Mr. Milosevic was not apportioned these (she callously stuck over 100.000 pages of documents and 600 video cassettes before Milosevic for him to defend himself);

 

lobodan Milosevic was pursuing his fundamental right under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights to defend himself, yet the IPC did not give him equal conditions under fair legal practice to do so;

 

The IPC Unit did not provide an adequate custodial setting for Slobodan Milosevic to conduct his defence fairly and worse than this, provided a stimulus for an increase in dangerous levels of stress, since the conditions were not consistent with what would be reasonably expected for an adequate defence at such a massive trial, at which he was fighting alone against massive resources which he did not have and which he was denied;

The IPC was aware of this since both Mr. Milosevic’s personal physician, Zdravko Mijailovic, MD, PhD and other medical experts had warned the authorities as to the precarious and dangerous state of health suffered by the defendant;

Mr. Milosevic was not allowed to travel to Russia for specialised medical treatment which would have saved his life.

Mr. Milosevic’s last message

Mr. Milosevic’s last written message was delivered to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 8th March. It was a request for help. In the letter he claims:

“I think that the persistence, with which the medical treatment in Russia was denied, in the first place is motivated by the fear that through careful examination it would be discovered, that there were active, wilful steps taken, to destroy my health…”

“On January 12th (i.e. two months ago) an extremely strong drug was found in my blood, which is used, as they themselves say, for the treatment of tuberculosis and leprosy, although I never used any kind of antibiotic during this five years that I’m in their prison”.

Why did it take two months to report this? Why was it kept a secret? Who treated Mr. Milosevic with this drug (which we now discover was to counter the effects of his treatment)?

In his last letter, Mr. Milosevic spoke of “those who have an interest to silence me”.

Whether or not they managed to silence Mr. Milosevic depends on the members of the international community, those who defend the state of law, those who believe in justice and fairness and those who stand for a world ruled by right and reason, not bullying, belligerence and the bullet.

The death of Slobodan Milosevic was part of the cabal which has seen criminal actions of state terrorism become the norm, along with a callous disregard for common decency and human rights, based upon a unilateralist Anglo-Saxon Alliance of self-righteousness and sheer arrogance.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

NATO bombs still plague Kosovo Serbs

Thousands of Kosovo Serbs are still listed as missing – nine years after NATO began bombing the former Yugoslavia. The relatives of some of the victims are still searching for bodies. Russia Today met with some of them, and heard of their desperate search to find the remains of missing loved ones.

 

Missing Albanians were the official trigger for NATO to attack Slobodan Milosovic’s Yugoslavia. Nine years on and still nothing has been heard of the whereabouts of hundreds of missing people from that campaign.



A monument in Kosovska Mitrovica was erected for the missing people. They’re the ones nobody is talking about. All the names on the monument are Serbian.



Each morning Brakus Strahinja comes to this small office in Kosovska Mitrovica looking for information about his brother who went missing three months after the NATO bombardment. He’s lost hope he could still be alive. But still prays one day he’ll have a body to bury.



“After the Serbs left our village, my brother went back to see how his house was. We don’t know what happened because nobody ever heard from him again. Everybody in the town loved him. He was good to his Albanian and Serbian neighbours. They had no reason to hurt him,” Strahinja says.



Dragan Janackovic’s father refused to leave his Serb village after all the residents fled during the NATO bombing. He begged him to leave but his father was convinced nothing would happen to him.



“I heard various versions of what happened to my father. One was that he was burnt in one of his houses. Another was that they killed him while he was looking after his cattle. But what I think happened in reality is that one of his neighbours kidnapped and then killed him,” Dragan said.



The office that deals with missing Serbs from Kosovska Mitrovica is only one man – Milorad Trifunovic. His brother too has been missing for years. Only his personal motivation – and desperate faith – keeps him going.



“There are 454 unidentified bodies in the morgue in Pristina. We provided DNA samples but they didn’t do anything with them. Nobody knows whose bodies they are. I’m also convinced the Albanians are selling body parts of Serbs who were kidnapped or who’ve gone missing. I can’t tell it to the families because they still live in hope,” Trifunovic says.



 

More than 3,000 Serbs are estimated to still be missing in Kosovo.

Exposed: how Kosovo Serbs were butchered for organs

Former Chief Prosecutor at the International Court of Justice in the Hague has given details of suspected atrocities by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999. Carla Del Ponte’s book ‘The Hunt: Me and War crimes’ claims that before killing Serbs and members of other ethnic communities, Kosovo Albanians removed their organs to sell for transplants.

 

According to Del Ponte, a one-time prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the kidnapped Serbs were given a medical test. Those who passed were treated well, fed and looked after until they were brought under the surgeon’s knife.

From several concentration camps in Kosovo, they were then transferred to cities in the north of Albania. Their body parts were later flown to Europe.

General Mamir Stayanovich was head of the intelligence service of the Serbian army during the war.

He has no doubt that the claims in Del Ponte’s book will sooner or later be proven. The places she mentions as hidden operation rooms are in exactly the same location as the camps Albanians used for training soldiers.

“In these hospitals they decided amongst themsemselves what each commander of the KLA would have after victory. They decided who would make his money from drug dealing, who from weapons, and who from selling body parts. Hashim Thaci, the prime minister, was among them,” General Stayanovich claims.

There are more than 2,000 names on the list of missing Serbs. Sima Spasich is the leader of an organisation trying to discover their fate. He showed the pictures of body parts he filmed in 2003.

“Right after the war, when we understood that too many people had disappeared, I went to the K-For commanders and asked them where were the people, and they just shrugged their shoulders. Only after they saw Serbian people demonstrating and were afraid of their anger, they took me to some place,” Spasich said.

“I cannot explain what I saw there. It was a small mountain of pieces of bodies and the first thing I saw was a baby who’d been taken from his mother’s stomach, lying there. It was impossible to look. It was a massive grave they’d dug before. Today I know in this massive grave were 26 Serb bodies – also there was my brother Milosh,” Spasich added.

Families who once had a small glimmer of hope of finding their loved ones are now planning to sue Del Ponte. They claim she withheld this information for years – and in that way helped the criminals with their crime.

First plane with Russian humanitarian aid lands in Serbia

An IL-76 cargo plane of the Russian Emergencies Ministry carrying 40 tons of humanitarian aid to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo landed at a Belgrade airport on Wednesday.

Belgrade will receive four shipments of food, including canned meat and fish, baby food, rice, sugar and substantial amounts of medical equipment, medicines, disinfectants and other healthcare products by April 10. The 140-metric-ton aid package is worth approximately 40 million rubles ($1.7 million).

After two days of customs checks, the aid will be transferred to a local Red Cross department for further shipment onto Kosovo.

“Humanitarian aid is very important for Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija,” Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic said at a news conference held at the airport, adding that for the Serbian minority in the region the aid is “not only support, but also a moral impulse to live and survive in Kosovo.”

“There are 8,300 Serb families in Kosovo who need the aid,” he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed early last week to provide humanitarian aid to Serb areas in Kosovo after a request from Serbia’s government.

At present, the region has a population of 1.9 million ethnic Albanian immigrants and many other nationalities, predominantly Serbs, Roma, Turks, Montenegrins and Goranis (Serb Muslims).

U.S. backs plan for new Kosovo arm

The United States backs the creation of a new army in Kosovo with NATO’s assistance and on the basis of the Kosovo Protection Corps, a Polish daily reported on Monday.

Last week U.S. President George Bush offered Kosovo, which proclaimed its “independence” (Kosovo is the newest state of the the USA …) in mid-February, assistance in building its own army and providing it with weapons. He authorized on March 19 arms supplies to Kosovo, saying it would “promote world peace.”

“Bush believes that this will strengthen the ’security of the United States’ and increase the ability of the newly independent state to ensure peace, stand up to terrorism and respond to humanitarian crises,” Gazeta Wyborcza said.

The Kosovo Protection Corps is a civilian emergency services organization created in 1999 by the US, and initially dominated by veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a terroristic group that fought for separatism from Yugoslavia and Serbia in the 1990s.

The paper cited a plan through which the new army would have 2,500 active servicemen and 800 reservists. All Kosovo Protection Corps members invited to join the new army would be trained by NATO instructors.

Kosovo is a 90% ethnic Albanian majority, all immigrants. The USA want a Great Albania to protect the US “oil-highways”.

NATO bombs haunt Serbs, 9 years on

http://www.russiatoday.ru  This week Serbia marked nine years since the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia dubbed ‘humanitarian intervention’, which claimed the lives of hundreds of people, most of them civilians. To this day, many remain missing.

Missing Albanians were the official reason for NATO to attack Slobodan Milosovic’s Yugoslavia in 1999. However, few people in the world now recall the 3,000 Serbs whose relatives have lost hope of finding.Each morning Brakus Strahinja comes to a small office in Kosovska Mitrovica looking for information about his brother who went missing three months after the NATO bombardment. He’s lost hope he could still be alive. But still prays one day he’ll have a body to bury.
“After the Serbs left our village, my brother went back to see how his house was. We don’t know what happened because nobody ever heard from him again. Everybody in the town loved him. He was good to his Albanian and Serbian neighbours. They had no reason to hurt him,” he says.Dragan Janackovic has a similar story to tell. His father refused to leave his Serb village after all the residents fled after the NATO bombing. He begged him to leave but his father was convinced nothing would happen to him.
“I heard various versions of what happened to my father. One was that he was burnt in one of his houses. Another was that they killed him while he was looking after his cattle. But what I think happened in reality is that one of his neighbours kidnapped and then killed him,” believes Dragan.The office that deals with missing Serbs from Kosovska Mitrovica is only one man. His brother too has been missing for years. Only his personal motivation – and desperate faith – keeps him going.“There are 454 unidentified bodies in the morgue in Pristina. We provided DNA samples but they didn’t do anything with them. Nobody knows whose bodies they are. I’m also convinced the Albanians are selling body parts of Serbs who were kidnapped or who’ve gone missing,” says Milorad Trifunovic from Society for the Kidnapped and Missing People from Kosovo.

EU to propose ‘isolation or integration’ to Serbia

A top EU official will visit Belgrade on Thursday to meet with the Serb leadership and propose two scenarios for future EU-Serbia relations, a Polish paper has said.

Dziennik said on its website Wednesday that Poland’s Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, the chairman of the EU parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, would “ask Serbs which of the two scenarios they will choose – isolation in a region that will in the next few years belong to the European Union or speedy integration.” This is blackmail !

 

In the latter case, Brussels is ready to sign documents with Belgrade giving Serbs visa-free travel within the EU and a possibility to receive financial assistance from EU funds. Also according to the second scenario, Serbia could start talks on EU admission in the next two to three years, Saryusz-Wolski told Dziennik.

The visit will be the first by an EU representative to Belgrade since Kosovo, with a 90% ethnic Albanian majority (all immigrants !), unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on February 17. Its sovereignty has already been recognized by over 30 countries, mostly Bilderberg-countries like the U.S. and the EU member nations.

 

Ethnic Serb regions in the “world’s newest state” are currently on a knife-edge after rioters clashed with peacekeepers last week in the city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, leaving one Ukrainian police officer dead and dozens of civilians and peacekeepers wounded.

Russia and several other countries, including China and Spain, have refused to recognize Kosovo’s sovereignty.

Milorad Cavic

 

Russia warns Middle East against Kosovo recognition

 

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Middle Eastern states not to recognise Kosovan independence on Tuesday, warning that this could encourage other breakaway regions.

“Undoubtedly serious human rights abuses have occurred,” Lavrov told the state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an interview published before he was due to hold talks with Middle Eastern leaders.
”I would like to warn against the temptation to give in to calls from non-Arab and non-Islamic states addressed to Islamic countries to show Islamic solidarity and recognise Kosovo,” he continued.

“Efforts continue to be made in Kosovo to force people to live in a state created illegally.

“Disorder has also begun in other countries, You can see what’s happening in the Chinese autonomous region of Tibet,” Lavrov said.

Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has vehemently opposed the unilateral declaration of independence made in February by the majority ethnic Albanian territory of Kosovo.

Moscow insists that a resolution of Kosovo’s status can only come with Belgrade’s consent.

 

Kosovo fails all tests for nationhood

 As we ponder how to confront the newly-created but phony terrorist Islamic Republic of Kosovo’s illegal independence, we must first understand exactly why this is such a ridiculous action.

 

Some of the first tests for nationhood include: 1. treatment of minorities and respect for law and meting ofjustice, 2. respect for the property of citizens, 3. economic viability, 4. UN recognition and finally, 5.can the nation defend itself? On all accounts, Kosovo fails miserably.

Regarding the first test: for the past 60 years, Kosovo’s non-Albanian residents have suffered horribly from extremist Albanians with thousands slaughtered, hundreds of thousands ethnically-cleansed, and over 150 Serbian Orthodox Churches and Monasteries destroyed. NATO, the self-proclaimed “peacekeeper” of the Serbian province has done next to nothing to prevent the “Krystal nacht” endured by Serbs, Gypsies, and other non-Albanians. The current leaders of Kosovo are war criminals sought by Serbia and Islamic terrorists supported by Osama Bin Laden and other extremists are flourishing there with no fear of justice.

Regarding test 2: The Serbian Orthodox Church owns much of the land upon which Kosovo is situated. Thus far, there have been no success in efforts to return this land to its rightful owner. Thousands of Kosovo Serbian homes have been torched with next to zero chance that the Serbs will ever return.

Considering test 3: Kosovo has a roughly 50% unemployment rate with the highest birthrate in Europe and a thriving economy based on drug running, terrorist-training, and the sex-slave trade.

For test 4, the UN will never recognize Kosovo as Russia realizes that the primary reasons to steal Kosovo from Serbia pertain to maintaining an indefinite NATO military presence in the Serbian province (Camp Bondsteel) to act against a resurgent Russia. A popular saying among many Eastern Europeans is: “Today Serbia, tomorrow Russia.” Given the shameful and dishonorable way that the West has behaved since it illegally destroyed the former Yugoslavia, Russians should be very concerned. You can’t appease evil.

Finally, for test 5, the Kosovo Liberation Army never succeeded against the Serbian army except when it has NATO as it’s airforce mercilessly bombing civilians in 1999 in NATO’s vicious and illegal war against the Serbian people. Kosovo will never survive as an independent state without a foreign army protecting it. Given that our needless war in Iraq is bleeding our nation dry, I shudder to think how much our folly in Kosovo will end up costing us in the ensuing decades.

The US and the EU are creating a very dangerous precedent by illegally creating a “Greater Albania” that will irreversibly damage relations with Russia and encourage some 200 separatist movements the worldover. The US has lost the “moral” authority to act as self-appointed “policeman” of the world. Just as the Nazi occupation of the Sudentenland from Czechoslovakia was the precursor to WWII, the Western theft of Kosovo may provoke WWIII. It’s time for Russia to draw a line in the sand.

Dr. Michael Pravica
http://pravica.tripod.com/ 

Serbian swimmer suspended over political t-shirt slogan

 

Serbian swimmer Milorad Cavic was suspended from the 2008 European Championships in Eindhoven Friday for wearing a t-shirt during a medal ceremony with a political message.

The 23-year-old European champion, who lives in the U.S., collected Serbia’s first swimming gold medal on Wednesday for the 50-meter butterfly wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Kosovo is Serbia” written in Serbian.

“The inscription on the T-shirt worn by the Serbian athlete Mr Milorad Cavic constitutes a clear political action in violation of the LEN Guidelines,” said the sport’s governing body.

In addition, the European swimming body, which represents 51 national European swimming federations, fined the Serbian Swimming Federation 7,000 euros ($10,800). ”I didn’t do it to provoke violence,” Cavic said, adding he just wanted to send a positive message to Serbs.

Serbian President Boris Tadic in his statement called the decision to suspend Cavic from further participation in the competition a great injustice. ”Milorad Cavic by his gesture didn’t want to politicize a great European competition involving politics in sports,” the statement says. “His gesture was guided by a feeling of injustice.”

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called on “reasonable and responsible people” at LEN to give Cavic another opportunity “to carry on with his victories and to set new European records.”

He added, that the whole of Serbia would be very proud of his victory, as the slogan reminded people that under the UN charter Kosovo was officially a part of Serbia.

Mass protests have been held in Serbia and its provinces ever since. One of their main slogans is “Kosovo is Serbia.”

CAVIC BANNED OVER KOSOVO SLOGAN

 

Milorad Cavic celebrates Serbia’s first-ever European swimming title wearing a t-shirt that says ‘Kosovo is Serbia’ [AFP Milorad Cavic, Serbian butterfly gold medalist, has been banned from further individual events at the European swimming championships for wearing a t-shirt with a political slogan at the meet in Eindhoven.   The Serbian swimming federation was also fined $10,800 (7,000 Euros) for the breach of rules at Cavic’s 50 metres butterfly medal ceremony earlier this week, swimming’s governing body LEN said on Friday. American-based Cavic wore a red t-shirt bearing the words “Kosovo is Serbia” in his native language on Wednesday after breaking the European 50m butterfly record for the second time in two days to win Serbia’s first-ever European swimming title. Serbia are not due to swim the two remaining men’s relays, so he is effectively out of the championships. LEN said in a statement that its disciplinary panel met on Thursday to conduct a hearing with those involved and found that the inscription on the T-shirt “constitutes a clear political action in violation of the LEN Guidelines for Safety and Security at LEN.” Cavic, who was born in Anaheim, California, and lives in Islamorada, Florida, had been due to swim in the 100m freestyle heats on Friday and had the fastest entry time for the 100m butterfly heats on Saturday.

 

Gang shootout in Kosovo’s capital injures 13

 At least 13 people have been injured in a shootout between criminal groups near the center of Kosovo’s capital, the republic’s police force said on Wednesday. Police said four suspects were detained after the clash on Tuesday evening in Pristina. The incident is being investigated.Albanian organized crime groups have retained a strong presence in the province since the breakup of Yugoslavia.Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia a month ago. Since then, frequent Serb protests have thrown the northern town of Mitrovica into turmoil.

 

NATO (Bilderberg) tightens grip on northern Kosovo

 NATO has placed the Kosovo town of Mitrovica under de facto military law after a UN peacekeeper from Ukraine died of injuries sustained during Monday’s clashes with protesters. Another Polish peacekeeper is in a critical condition.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the violence was not unexpected.  He made the comments during his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary, Robert Gates.“We believe that the unilateral declaration of independence by Pristina is inadmissible and it’s a gross violation of international law. We had warned that this step would inevitably have negative consequences. And it’s actually happened . It’s very difficult to drive all those who do not want to live in an illegally proclaimed state within the framework of this state. You know that in long years following 1999, the rights of the minorities, especially Serbs in Kosovo were not provided for. I’m talking about their security and the right of movement. Therefore we could see a very bad scenario when minoritites will feel alien in their own country,” Lavrov said.UN police and NATO-led troops clashed with Serb protesters on the streets of Mitrovica in Kosovo. The security forces were evicting Serb demonstrators from the UN courthouse they’d occupied since Friday in protest against Kosovo’s secession from Serbia.Following violent clashes with Serb protesters, the UN temporarily withdrew police staff leaving NATO-led KFOR troops to deal with the trouble.NATO troops secured a hostile area after rioting Serbs forced the withdrawal of UN personnel. Kosovo police say rocks and petrol bombs were thrown at police cars in the process.House-by-house searches for weapons were conducted overnight throughout Mitrovica. NATO says they managed to obtain a number of arns and will continue the searches.NATO command has asked for reinforcements – a request that has been received favourably by NATO’s North-Atlantic council.  The body is holding an emergency meeting on Wednesday. At the same time, NATO claims it has been listening in on the radio conversations between local Serbs and police units in Belgrade. These conversations suggest that violence has been orchestrated from Belgrade.NATO also says the Serbian army has taken up positions near the Kosovo border. However, it is hard to say whether these units are undergoing training or are preparing for something more critical.Violent clashes have left more than 60 UN and KFOR troops and 70 Serb civilians injured in the last few days. The two most seriously injured Serb demonstrators from yesterday’s violence are reported to be in a critical condition. One of them is in coma. Serbian President Boris Tadich has accused the UN of excessive use of force.Following the death of the Ukrainian peacekeeper, members of the Ukrainian opposition Party of Regions have criticised the government for sending peacekeeping troops to the region, saying the policy contradicts national interests.Giving details of the soldier’s death, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Yaroslav Mazurkevich said he was demanding an inquiry into the incident.“Igor Kinnel died during surgery. He was born in 1982 and began his career in the Interior Ministry in 2000. Like most of the boys who took part in the operation he got shrapnel wounds. Many others are suffering from contusions, concussion of the brain and injuries to their arms and legs,” he said.

Serbs in Kosovo call for Russian weapons

It’s exactly one month since Kosovo’s unilateral independence announcement. While many international journalists have lost interest, Serb protesters in Kosovo are still pledging to fight the move.

Dr Marko Jaksic, the President of the Serbian municipalities of Kosovo, says the protests will continue.“The Serb elections are on May 11. If Tomislav Nikolic wins it will be much easier to keep Kosovo in Serbia. We need Russia but we don’t ask for Russian soldiers. We need Russian weapons. If we’d had the weapons in 1999 the situation today would be completely different,” he explained.Relations between Serbia and the UN are at an all time low. For the first time in nine years Serbia sent trains from Belgrade to Kosovo, ignoring an agreement with the UN. They say it mirrors the UN ignoring the agreement over the sovereignty of Kosovo.And even on the Albanian side, a month after declaring independence, people’s patience is running out. “Citizens are depressed, there is poverty, unemployment. We hope to return perspectives in Mitrovica because in the past it was one of the developed city in Kosovo,” Bajram Rexhepi, former prime minister of Kosovo and mayor of Mitrovica, said.

North Kosovo clashes leave over 100 people injured – 2

Over 100 people have sustained injuries in clashes between ethnic Serbs and police in northern Kosovo on Monday, Belgrade-based media said.The violence in Mitrovica began when United Nations police and NATO-led KFOR troops launched an operation this morning to regain control of the UN court building, seized last week by Serbs.As well as about 70 Serb civilians injured in the violence, eight French troops from the international NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), 13 Ukrainian officers of the UN police force and 23 Polish policemen were also injured.The people occupying the court building were former court employees who lost their jobs when Kosovo became a UN protectorate in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign of Serbia to end a conflict between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. After forcing their way into the courthouse last Friday they hoisted two Serbian flags over the building.UN mission spokesman Alexander Ivanko said the UN police force command decided to withdraw police from Mitrovica leaving the city, divided between ethnic Serbs and an Albanian majority, in charge of KFOR troops. He added that the UN mission is in talks with Belgrade and Serbian authorities in Mitrovica aiming to rectify the situation.NATO spokesman James Appathurai told RIA Novosti on Monday that the alliance would reinforce the KFOR mandate.He said NATO strongly condemns the rioting in Mitrovica, and called on all parties to show restraint.

 

North Kosovo clashes leave over 100 people injured

  Over 100 people have sustained injuries in clashes between ethnic Serbs and police in northern Kosovo, Belgrade-based media said on Monday.Monday morning’s operation to retake the United Nations building in the city of Mitrovica triggered the most serious clash between peacekeeping forces and Serbs since Kosovo unilaterally declared independence a month ago.The media quoted different sources as saying that around 70 people were hospitalized in Mitrovica, including 15 in serious condition. Another two men with severe injuries were sent to Belgrade.Eight French troops from the international NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), 13 Ukrainian officers of the UN police force and 23 Polish policemen were also injured.Early on Monday, the UN court building was surrounded and stormed by the UN police force and NATO peacekeepers.The people occupying the building were former court employees who lost their jobs when Kosovo became a UN protectorate in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign of Serbia to end a conflict between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. After forcing their way into the courthouse last Friday they hoisted two Serbian flags over the building.UN mission spokesman Alexander Ivanko said the UN police force command decided to withdraw police from Mitrovica leaving the city, divided between ethnic Serbs and an Albanian majority, in charge of KFOR troops. He added that the UN mission is in talks with Belgrade and Serbian authorities in Mitrovica aiming to rectify the situation. 

Ethnic Serbs and UN forces clash in north Kosovo -2

UN forces in the north of Kosovo have come under attack by ethnic Serbs after an operation to retake a UN court building occupied by protestors since last Friday, a police spokesman said.Monday morning’s operation to retake the UN building in the city of Mitrovica triggered the most serious clash between peacekeeping forces and Serbs since Kosovo unilaterally declared independence a month ago.Unconfirmed reports are currently coming in that UN forces have been ordered to leave the Serb enclave in the north of the city. Mitrovica is divided between ethnic Serbs and the ethnic Albanian majority.At least three UN police officers and two NATO soldiers were injured in an explosion after the operation had been carried out.”A blast occurred in northern Kosovo at around 8:00 a.m. (07:10 GMT), injuring three UN policemen and two [NATO] KFOR soldiers,” a Kosovo police spokesman said in a statement.A total of 14 Ukrainian police, part of the UN force, were also injured after coming under fire by protestors. Grenades were thrown at them, said the Ukrainian foreign minister.At least 20 Serbs were also said to have been injured, one seriously, during the clashes.Early on Monday, the UN court building was surrounded and stormed by the UN police force and NATO peacekeepers. Eyewitnesses report that dozens of handcuffed people were later led from the building. 53 people were also reported to have been arrested.The people occupying the building were former court employees who lost their jobs when Kosovo became a UN protectorate in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign of Belgrade to end a conflict between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. After forcing their way into the courthouse last Friday they hoisted two Serbian flags over the building.Media in Belgrade later reported that some 20 people fled from authorities after protestors attacked three UN vehicles taking away those Serbs involved in the occupation. Two cars were set on fire and police used tear gas and stun grenades.Kosovo declared unilateral independence from Kosovo on February 17. The U.S. and the majority of EU countries have so recognized Kosovo.Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo’s sovereignty, saying it continues to consider the “world’s newest state” an integral part of its territory.Russia has also refused to recognize Kosovo, and as news of the disturbances in northern Kosovo came through, the country’s Foreign Ministry said it considered the escalation of tensions as being linked to the February 17 declaration of independence by Pristina.”The developments in Mitrovica cannot be considered in isolation from the current situation in the province. The escalation of tensions there, mostly in Serb-populated areas, is a direct result of Pristina’s unilateral declaration of independence and the lack of recognition of this illegitimate move by Kosovo’s Serbs,” said Mikhail Kamynin, Russia’s Foreign Ministry official spokesman.The Foreign Ministry statement also called on international missions to the province to show restraint and act within their mandate as fixed in UN Resolution 1244.

Ethnic Serbs and UN forces clash in north Kosovo

UN forces in the north of Kosovo have come under attack by ethnic Serbs after an operation to retake a UN court building occupied by protestors since last Friday, a police spokesman said.Monday morning’s operation to retake the UN building in the city of Mitrovica triggered the most serious clash between peacekeeping forces and Serbs since Kosovo unilaterally declared independence a month ago.Unconfirmed reports are currently coming in that UN forces have been ordered to leave the Serb enclave in the north of the city. Mitrovica is divided between ethnic Serbs and the ethnic Albanian majority.At least three UN police officers and two NATO soldiers were injured in an explosion after the operation had been carried out.”A blast occurred in northern Kosovo at around 8:00 a.m. (07:10 GMT), injuring three UN policemen and two [NATO] KFOR soldiers,” a Kosovo police spokesman said in a statement.A total of 14 Ukrainian police, part of the UN force, were also injured after coming under fire by protestors. Grenades were thrown at them, said the Ukrainian foreign minister.At least 20 Serbs were also said to have been injured, one seriously, during the clashes.Early on Monday, the UN court building was surrounded and stormed by the UN police force and NATO peacekeepers. Eyewitnesses report that dozens of handcuffed people were later led from the building. 53 people were also reported to have been arrested.The people occupying the building were former court employees who lost their jobs when Kosovo became a UN protectorate in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign of Belgrade to end a conflict between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. After forcing their way into the courthouse last Friday they hoisted two Serbian flags over the building.Media in Belgrade later reported that some 20 people fled from authorities after protestors attacked three UN vehicles taking away those Serbs involved in the occupation. Two cars were set on fire and police used tear gas and stun grenades.Kosovo declared unilateral independence from Kosovo on February 17. The U.S. and the majority of EU countries have so recognized Kosovo.Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo’s sovereignty, saying it continues to consider the “world’s newest state” an integral part of its territory.Russia has also refused to recognize Kosovo, and as news of the disturbances in northern Kosovo came through, the country’s Foreign Ministry said it considered the escalation of tensions as being linked to the February 17 declaration of independence by Pristina.

EU to give Kosovo over $385 mln to prepare for integration

The European Union is to give the government of Kosovo over $385 million to prepare for admission into the EU, the head of the European Commission Liaison Office in Kosovo said Tuesday.Renzo Davidi told journalists in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, that 124.7 million euros ($192 million) would be allocated in 2008, a total of 66.1 million euros ($102 million) in 2009, and 67.3 million euros ($104 million) in 2010.He said the money would first of all be invested in building up the breakaway republic’s infrastructure.Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Kosovo on February 17. Since then, the United States and 18 of the 27 EU states have recognized the Republic of Kosovo.However, Russia, China, Spain, Cyprus and several other countries have refused to recognize its independence.Belgrade has recalled its ambassadors from a number of countries recognizing Kosovo’s independence. Russia has also pledged to block any move by Kosovo to join the United Nations.Prior to the declaration of independence by the Serbian province, the European Union approved the sending of a 2,000-strong police and justice mission to Kosovo to replace the UN mission deployed there since the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 ended a conflict between Albanian and Serb forces. Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since the end of this conflict.

Russia warns against forcing Kosovo Serbs to accept independence

Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned on Tuesday that forcing Serbs living in Kosovo to recognize the province’s independence, declared on February 17, would further destabilize the situation.“The Serbian population [of Kosovo] strongly object to the illegitimate declaration of independence. Their protest actions are on the rise, in particular in crowded areas of the Serbian province, and in southern [Serb] enclaves,” said spokesman Mikhail Kamynin.The situation is of “serious concern” to Russia, he added.Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since NATO bombings ended a conflict between Serb and Albanian forces in 1999.Kosovo’s independence has been recognized by the United States, Australia, Japan and major European countries, but Serbia and Russia have reacted angrily, with Serbia, which sees Kosovo as its historical heartland, recalling its ambassadors from those countries.Moscow argues that Kosovo’s independence will trigger more secessions and that it will block it from joining the UN.

Serbia urges UN to hold Kosovo status talks

  Serb’s foreign minister left for New York on Wednesday to urge the UN to convene a special meeting to discuss Kosovo’s independence, the country’s Foreign Ministry said.“Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic is counting on the strong support of Russia, which took over the UN Security Council presidency in March, and urges the continuation of talks on Kosovo’s status,” the ministry said in a statement.In New York, the Serbian foreign minister is expected to meet with representatives of the UN Security Council member-states, as well as the countries refusing to recognize Kosovo – China, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, Argentina and Chile.The UN Security Council’s previous session, which was held shortly after Kosovo declared independence on February 17, ended without agreement on a resolution or joint statement regarding the Albanian-dominated region.Belgrade, which considers Kosovo its historical heartland, and recalled its ambassadors from countries recognizing independence, said it will never accept Kosovo’s sovereignty. Russia said it will block any move by Kosovo to join the United Nations.So far, a total of 25 states, including the United States, Australia, Japan and major European countries, have formally recognized the Republic of Kosovo with at least four others declaring their plans to do so later.

What’s behind NATO intervention in Kosovo?

Nine years after the end of NATO’s bombardment of Serbia, there are questions being asked about the real motives for the deployment of the alliance’s troops in Kosovo. There are those who believe the reasons were anything but humanitarian. NATO did everything it could to convince the world that it went to war against the former Yugoslavia to protect Kosovar Albanians from extermination. But nine years later and the numbers of bodies found still don’t correlate with the claims. But maybe to find the answer to the question why NATO came to Kosovo you still have to dig deep underground? “Kosovo possesses huge reserves of coal 15 billion tonnes. We also have oil and fuel and mines with lead and gold. We are one of the richest parts of south-east Europe. But NATO didn’t come here for this. They came only to save us from the Serbs. Today we are going to exploit our natural resources and not allow the Serbs to continue doing it,” Professor Rifat Blaku, Deputy Minister of Public Services says. However, the leader of the Serbs in Kosovo sees it differently. “The first reason why NATO came to Kosovo is because we are wealthy with lead and zinc. The second reason, which is also very important, is because Serbia has always been a potential ally with Russia and NATO wants Serbia to be a small country. This is why they are taking fifteen percent of the Serbian territory by taking Kosovo,” Dr Marko Jaksic, President of the Serbian Municipalities of Kosovo believes. In the nine years since NATO took over the region from Serbia they’ve deployed soldiers here from more than 25 countries, United Nations police, EU officials, clerks. But the one thing they didn’t bring is helping people put bread on the table.

Servische betoging/manifestation – Brussel 24-02-2008

Foto’s :  © Kris Roman- Euro-Rus    

Servische betoging/manifestation – Brussel 24-02-2008

Foto’s :  © Kris Roman- Euro-Rus              Euro-Rus steunt de Servische strijd voor het behoud van hun cultuur, land en volkswaarden.         

Servische betoging/manifestation – Brussel 24-02-2008

Foto’s :  © Kris Roman- Euro-Rus           

Servische betoging/manifestation – Brussel 24-02-2008

Foto’s :  © Kris Roman- Euro-Rus    

Serbia recalls more ambassadors over Kosovo independence

   Serbia is continuingto recall its ambassadors from those countries, which have officially recognized Kosovo’s independence, as it summoned diplomatic heads in Austria and Switzerland home Thursday.Serbia has already recalled its ambassadors from the United States, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Australia and Peru, which have all recognized Kosovo’s independence announced on February 17.The Serbian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that other ambassadors should leave those countries supporting Kosovo’s new status as soon as possible and has also issued a note of protest to the Polish government, which announced it would recognize the former Serbian province.Kosovo’s independence is opposed by Serbia and Russia. Moscow said it will block any move by Kosovo to join the United Nations.Protests against Kosovo’s independence turned into street riots in Belgrade last week, leaving at least 130 people injured.

Russia’s UN envoy says EU Kosovo mission illegal

Russia’s UN envoy called the planned police and justice mission to Kosovo “illegal,” during a closed-doors UN Security Council meeting.Prior to the declaration of independence by the Serbian province on February 17, the European Union approved sending a 2,000-strong civilian mission to Kosovo to replace the UN mission, which has been deployed there since the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999.”I quoted UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which outlines the mandate for international presence there. In line with the resolution, the deployment of an EU mission would be illegal and contrary to the resolution, and none of the Security Council members objected,” Vitaly Churkin said on Thursday.Media reports emerged earlier that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has forwarded a letter to EU leaders, which stated that a number of Security Council members were opposed to the EU taking over the UN mission in Kosovo.But Ban’s spokeswoman Michele Montas denied the reports, saying the letter did not exist.The secretary general earlier said he had been informed by the EU of the plans for the mission, he had no objections, but said the UN Mission in Kosovo, or UNMIK, would continue to operate under Resolution 1244 as the legal framework for its mandate.”Without a new resolution by the UN Security Council, the UNMIK will remain in Kosovo with all the ensuing consequences from the viewpoint of illegitimacy of the unilateral declaration of independence and its recognition by some countries,” Churkin said.Churkin said Russia, which considers Kosovo’s independence a violation of international law, will continue to insist on a compromise between Belgrade and Pristina to solve the status of the province.Kosovo independence has been recognized by the United States, Australia, Japan, Peru, Malaysia and most EU countries, but Serbs reacted angrily to the declaration with mass protests, leading to street riots and attacks on embassies in Belgrade.Churkin also cautioned international organizations operating in Kosovo, where the Serb population accounts for less than 10%, against repressing Kosovo Serbs who are against the province’s independence.He said such attempts had been made, referring to a mooted move to close the Kosovo-Serb border. “This would be in breach of Resolution 1244 and could lead to grave humanitarian consequences for Kosovo’s northern Serb-populated regions, which are mostly supplied by the rest of Serbia.Russian envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said the NATO-led international Kosovo force, deployed in the province to safeguard security since 1999, must continue operating under the UN mandate.”Russia insists that NATO forces in Kosovo continue complying with the UN mandate and UN Security Council Resolution 1244,” Rogozin said.

 

Candidates push economic credentials

        Days before Russia’s presidential election, firebrand candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky has unveiled plans to ban the export of raw materials as well as build transport super-highways across the country. His rival Andrey Bogdanov has revealed he will hand out shares in state firms to every Russian citizen. 

 

Presidential favourite Dmitry Medvedev has laid out plans to speed up private ownership of state assets, make the ruble the regional super currency and, contrary to world trends, replace VAT with a sales tax.Now the other three candidates have upped their last-minute drive to woo voters ahead of Sunday’s election. As well as promising EU membership within a decade, 38-year-old Andrey Bogdanov boasts he is Russia’s youngest and only non-bureaucrat candidate.He denied his party had received any funding from the Kremlin, quashing rumours they were state-sponsored to give a resemblance of free-market choice.“We do not agree with what’s happening in Russia, massive state interference in the economy rolling back the interests of small business. We will give the government’s shares in Gazprom, UES and VTB to every citizen and make 40% of the population middle class within 4 years,” proposes Bogdanov.The most controversial candidate revealed ambitions to make transport Russia’s money-spinner, while banning export of raw materials.“A monorail on stilts to cross Russia North to South at 350 kilometers an hour, a pneumatic tube from Vladivostok through Moscow to Hamburg at a speed of  5,000 kilometers an hour. Not one Russian log to go abroad, only furniture and building materials,” says candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky.The Communist Party is considered Medvedev’s closest challenger. Its leader insisted the state isn’t going anywhere near far enough to seize back key industries.“Everyone must understand under its current policies Russia’s doomed. I know what Henry Ford built, but I do not know a single factory built by Abramovich. We have stopped investing in strategic sectors, building machines, airplanes, and that is terrible,”grieves the leader of the Communist Party of Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov.