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Chirol
Author

Chirol

Date

June 18th, 2007

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Brown Nosing or Policy Change?

Similar to Russia, Serbia has little attractive power and although weak, is always able to play the spoiler in the Balkans. Kosovo is an especially thorny issue which threatens to leave relations between Balkan states poor for years to come. However, in a change of course, Serbia, which has refused to cooperate with the Hague by arresting war criminals, seems to have changed its mind.

BELGRADE, Serbia, June 17 (Reuters) — A Serbian police general indicted on charges of crimes against humanity after being accused of ordering the killings of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, was arrested Sunday and sent to face the charges at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The general, Vlastimir Djordjevic, is the second Serbian fugitive to be arrested in three weeks, a change of course by Serbia’s new government after a previous record of inaction and defiance.

The arrest further raises the possibility that the tribunal’s most wanted fugitive, Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serbs’ wartime military leader, might at some point be taken into custody.

As pressure mounts to recognize Kosovo, whether through the UN or outside of it, Serbia may be looking to score a few last minute points. But, is it too little too late?

Comments to this entry

Kit
June 18, 2007
7:28 pm
I'm not particularly familiar with the Kosovo situation. Has the possibility of a federal or confederal system been discussed? Is the enmity too great to make it feasible?
a517dogg
June 18, 2007
8:15 pm
Perhaps the Serbs are trying to set the stage for their own portrayal as victims, once Kosovar Albanian violence against the Kosovar Serb minority starts.
Chief Wiggum
June 19, 2007
1:30 am
_"once Kosovar Albanian violence against the Kosovar Serb minority starts."

It's been going on for quite some time already.

From "Wikipedia":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo#Kosovo_after_the_war.
_After the war ended, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1244 that placed Kosovo under transitional UN administration (UNMIK) and authorized KFOR, a NATO-led peacekeeping force. Almost immediately returning Kosovo Albanians attacked Kosovo Serbs [2], causing some 200,000-280,000[27] Serbs and other non-Albanians[28] to flee (note: the current number of internally displaced persons is disputed,[29][30][31][32] with estimates ranging from 65,000[33] to 250,000[34][35][36]). Many displaced Serbs are afraid to return to their homes, even with UNMIK protection. Around 120,000-150,000 Serbs remain in Kosovo, but are subject to ongoing harassment, discrimination and violence."

Unfortunately, ethnic cleansing, genocide, burning churches/mosques, etc., is the way they do business there. Nothing the Serbs do will save Kosovo for them. The Russians are just waiting for the right price to sell them out. An independent Kosovo plays well at the U.N. because Muslims are gaining territory at the expense of Christians.
subadei
June 19, 2007
1:30 am
Kit, the "Western Collective" (US, EU, etc.) and the UN seem hellbent on realizing an independent Kosovo. To that end (and combined with territory of Kosovo having spent the last decade or so as a UN foster state) mutual hatreds might not matter at all.

a517dogg, I think the UN article for independence includes provisions for the 10% Serbian minority. Though I'm still a bit hazy on this issue, having not yet explored it much.

Given the generally mutual hatred between Albanians and Serbs it doesn't really make much sense to form a single state with the two territories. Small wonder the US doesn't project this wisdom onto Iraq as far as the Kurds are concerned.
Nick
June 21, 2007
11:07 am
Given the generally mutual hatred between Albanians and Serbs it doesn't really make much sense to form a single state with the two territories.

Lords knows, they did it with the Bosnians, Serbs and Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina, (see: Republika Srpska) so no wonder they're trying it again in Kosovo.
Chirol
June 21, 2007
11:54 am
Nick: Don't forget that Bosnia isn't that simple. One of the major reasons it exists is because the Muslim citizens don't have their own nation-state to be merged into. While the Croats and the Serbs could be added to Croatia and Serbia, the Muslims would have had nowhere to go. It's about time they learn to live together anyway =)

As for Kosovo, it may very well happen that the Serbian minority in the north breaks off and tries to rejoin Serbia, which Belgrade would surely encourage and then cite Kosovo's independence as precedent.
Nick
June 22, 2007
10:19 am
I don't disagree with you. The thing is to avoid a repeat of the Dayton Accords and the General Framework which, whilst doing the decent thing and ending the bloody Bosnian civil war, created a deformed federative state without effective central government and consisting of nationalist forces pulling in opposite directions. If the Serbian minority in Kosovo wants to be subsumed into Serbia proper, why not let them do it before or at the moment which Kosovo spins off from Serbia - and not after?