New Kosova Report

Serbia's flirtation with EU

By Albin Kurti

Friday, 25 July 2008

On the same day that Kosovo’s leaders met with the US President and just four days before the next meeting of the Security Council, Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Serbia.

Karadzic was the leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the war and responsible for the massacre at Srebrenica. In giving him up, Serbia has made a concession at the time of her choice and when it is strategically most beneficial for her, not for anyone else. Karadzic has been allowed to walk free for nine years by consecutive Serbian governments, denying the right of the Bosnian people to justice for their terrible loss. His arrest and that of Ratko Mladic were meant to precede the signing of the SAA, but instead have followed it.

The international media and diplomats have been quick to argue that this demonstrates that the new government is pro-European and moderate. There is talk of Serbia being offered candidate status for the EU next year. Meanwhile Serbia’s policies in Kosova are being quietly ignored.

The new government has confirmed its support for the Serb parallel structures operating in Kosovo- a creation of Serbia’s illegal elections in Kosovo. It has succeeded in ensuring that if the new EU mission, EULEX comes to Kosovo; it will come as a ‘status-neutral’ mission on the basis of Resolution 1244. It is taking Kosova to the international court to challenge the declaration of independence. It is now seeking to institutionalize and legalize the ethnic and functional partition of Kosovo through negotiations with UNMIK’s new chief.

Serbia’s policy towards Karadzic may have changed, but it has not shifted an inch towards Kosovo.

Albin Kurti is the leader of Vetevendosje! (Selfdetermination) movement, which opposes the international administration of Kosovo.

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Work Time said:

...
The timing of Karadzic's arrest was more likely a function of the installation of a new head of BIA than of any Serbian plan to divert the West's attention from Kosova. In fact, the arrest and trial of Karadzic may prove most helpful to Kosova if Serbia goes through with its plans to go to the ICJ for an advisory ruling on the legality of Kosova's declaration of independence.

A review of Serbia's behavior in the 1990s in the press, in particular the horrors of Srebrenica, can only remind the world - and the judges at the court - exactly why Kosova has no intention of ever returning to Serbian rule. The current Serbian government says all the right things about autonomy and human rights, but if those demonstrating in the streets against Karadzic's arrest ever come to power you can be sure any fine promises would be soon be forgotten.

July 27, 2008
Votes: -4

Sebaneau said:

	... "Panicked at the prospect of Washington's frustrating their designs on Kosovo, the Serbs sought to create a distraction and some good press in the West by sacrificing one of the villains of the bloody Bosnian war. They shouldn't get away with it." http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/353pgsbk.asp
	report abuse vote down vote up

July 27, 2008
Votes: +1

alban bytyqi said:

	... Knowing Albin Kurti's ability to write and communicate his concerns, I feel he has just failed to actually analise anything beyond what everyone seems to be able to construct by viewing the media outlets. Albin, buri i dheut, this little writing is to little and too simple for your standards. Me respekt Alban
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July 27, 2008
Votes: +2

bluerose799 said:

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This s a typical North Mitrovica story
Her house is in the north of the city, she is Albanian and had managed to live there with her family in the now almost entirely Serbian area for five years after the war. Eventually in March 2004 after some persistent violence, including grenade attacks, she told her father, who had built the family home and did not want to leave, that the home and its belongings could be replaced but not the lives of her two young children. They left everything behind and went to the south. Since then she has returned to see the family home, accompanied by two police officers. She found it occupied by three Serbian families. They told her…“do not bother us, do not come here”, but “this is my home,” she told them….“this is Serbia now and you cannot live here, forget this place” they ordered. The police do nothing for fear of ethnic violence. She has not been back and now lives in a rented house on the south side.
Shala: Water supply and Resolution 1244 (Zëri)
The paper’s publisher, Blerim Shala, in a front-page editorial writes about the recent incident in the northern part of Kosovo, Suhodoll, where there was clash between local Serbs and Albanians who were working on a water supply project. Shala says that the increasing appearance of Mitrovica mayor, Bajram Rexhepi, in the media is a clear indicator that there is an unsolved problem with the north of Kosovo and is a threat for territorial partition of Kosovo.
Shala says the incident in Suhodoll is only a warning of what could happen in the north where, according to him, there is no UNMIK or Resolution 1244.
This is happening because Serbs in KOSOVA can defeate UNMIK and NATO Forces only with STICKS and ROCKS. Maybe this is a silent agreement and a complicity of EU with Serbia. ONLY TIME WILL TELL THE TRUTH.