Call for Bosnia Serb referendum
By Neil MacDonald Published: May 30 2006 03:00 Last updated: May 30 2006 03:00
In the wake of Montenegro's vote to separate from Serbia, the prime minister of the ethnic-Serb mini-state inside neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina says his republic should also be allowed to hold a referendum for independence. Milorad Dodik said the Serb republic, which takes up almost half of Bosnia-Herzegovina's territory, should form a two-part "federal union" with the patchwork federation of Croat and Bosniak-Muslim cantons that cover the rest. This way, Bosnian Serbs could break away peacefully, just as Montenegrins have chosen to do from Serbia, he argued. But the republic Mr Dodik leads from the northern city of Banja Luka had no prior existence until ethnic-Serb soldiers and militiamen carved it out through intimidation and mass murder against the other two ethnic groups during the 1992-95 war.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/4e8e7a72-ef79-11da-b435-0000779e2340.html
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Good gravy, now anyone who doesn't criticize the Serbs is going to be persecuted! Better watch out....
German politicians to block prize for Milosevic sympathizer
1 hour, 45 minutes ago
German politicians said they would not allow an important literature prize to go to Austrian writer Peter Handke because of his Serbian nationalist sympathies.
The coalition heading the city council in Duesseldorf, western Germany, plans next week to vote down a decision to give Handke the Heinrich Heine prize, according to Greens member of the council, Karin Trepke.
Handke was named as the winner by a jury last week but the council, which gives the prize money of 50,000 euros (64,000 dollars), must approve their decision.
The move to honour Handke came just a month after France's foremost theater company decided not to stage one of his plays because of a eulogy he delivered for late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
The renowned Austrian writer paid tribute to Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president and alleged war criminal who died earlier this year, as "a man who defended his people".
It has sparked a heated debate in Germany.
The leader of the Greens in the federal parliament, Fritz Kuhn, has said it was a "scandal" to give the prize to Handke and a slap in the face of those who suffered under Milosevic.
The Social Democrats, which is part of Germany's ruling coalition, have agreed.
The administrator of the Paris theater Comedie Francaise, Marcel Bozonnet, cancelled the 2007 season of the Handke play "Voyage to the Sonorous Land or the Art of Asking" in response to the author's eulogy.
Bozonnet's decision was condemned in art circles in France, where Handke lives, and farther afield, including by German publishing house Suhrkamp and one of Berlin's foremost theaters.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060530/en_afp/afpentertainment_060530152002
German politicians to block prize for Milosevic sympathizer
1 hour, 45 minutes ago
German politicians said they would not allow an important literature prize to go to Austrian writer Peter Handke because of his Serbian nationalist sympathies.
The coalition heading the city council in Duesseldorf, western Germany, plans next week to vote down a decision to give Handke the Heinrich Heine prize, according to Greens member of the council, Karin Trepke.
Handke was named as the winner by a jury last week but the council, which gives the prize money of 50,000 euros (64,000 dollars), must approve their decision.
The move to honour Handke came just a month after France's foremost theater company decided not to stage one of his plays because of a eulogy he delivered for late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
The renowned Austrian writer paid tribute to Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president and alleged war criminal who died earlier this year, as "a man who defended his people".
It has sparked a heated debate in Germany.
The leader of the Greens in the federal parliament, Fritz Kuhn, has said it was a "scandal" to give the prize to Handke and a slap in the face of those who suffered under Milosevic.
The Social Democrats, which is part of Germany's ruling coalition, have agreed.
The administrator of the Paris theater Comedie Francaise, Marcel Bozonnet, cancelled the 2007 season of the Handke play "Voyage to the Sonorous Land or the Art of Asking" in response to the author's eulogy.
Bozonnet's decision was condemned in art circles in France, where Handke lives, and farther afield, including by German publishing house Suhrkamp and one of Berlin's foremost theaters.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060530/en_afp/afpentertainment_060530152002
Independence for Kosovo means trouble, Serbia says
By Douglas HamiltonTue May 30, 11:21 AM ET
Granting independence to Serbia's southern province of Kosovo against the will of Serbia would destabilize the Balkans, Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic warned on Tuesday.
The United Nations is mediating talks on Kosovo's future status, which Western diplomats say are likely to conclude with a form of independence by the end of the year. Serbia is adamantly opposed to such an outcome.
"I am very afraid of the possible imposed solution against the will of Belgrade of turning Kosovo into a state," Draskovic told a news conference. "The whole region would inevitably face turbulence."
The warning comes in the wake of Montenegro's vote on May 21 to end its union with Serbia, which the European Union last year opposed, fearing further fragmentation in the Balkans.
On Monday there were signs its fears were not unjustified. Serb nationalists seeking independence for the Bosnian Serb republic from Bosnia said the Montenegro referendum was a precedent and possible template for their own campaign.
The demand was quickly rejected by Western officials, who warned that major powers would not tolerate any threat to Bosnia's integrity as a state. Bosnian Serb premier Milorad Dodik was chastised for seeming to consider the idea.
NO LEGAL PARALLEL
Legally, the cases of Kosovo, Montenegro, and the Bosnian Serb Republic are different.
Montenegro's vote for independence dissolved what was left of Yugoslavia, destroyed by war in the 1990s. Montenegro was one of six federal republics with a legal right to secession, which it retained in the looser Serbia-Montenegro union that was formed with EU encouragement in 2003.
If nationalist feelings were aroused, Draskovic warned, the legal distinctions might be ignored.
Dodik's office on Tuesday again blamed the media for playing up remarks by him linking Kosovo and the Bosnian Serb Republic. An aide it was a "theoretical" comment and the issue was closed.
But after talks with the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency in Sarajevo on Monday, it was the turn of Kosovo Serb leader Milan Ivanovic to insist there was a clear parallel.
"How can a national minority be given the right to self-determination but a 'constituent people' a solution which is less than that?" Ivanovic demanded, referring to the Albanians of Kosovo versus the Serbs of Bosnia.
Kosovo has been policed by NATO's largest peacekeeping force and run by the United Nations since 1999, when a bombing war by the alliance drove Serb forces out to halt killings and ethnic cleansing by Serbs in their war against Albanian separatists.
Its population of 2 million is 90 percent Albanian. They are impatient after years in limbo and want independence this year.
Serbia is offering Kosovo Albanians a 20-year deal under which it would retain control over foreign policy, borders and customs, human rights, monetary policy and religious sites.
Western diplomats say the Serbian government is in denial, unable or unwilling to grasp the realities of the Kosovo situation and the will of 90 percent of its people.
But Draskovic said granting independence could bring ultranationalists to power and turn Serbia against the EU.
"The European lights in Serbia may be extinguished only by a forcible decision to declare an internationally recognized state of Kosovo within ... the borders of Serbia," he said.
Creating "yet another Albanian state in the Balkans" was a dangerous scenario that Serbia hopes will be "thwarted" at the last minute, he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060530/wl_nm/serbiamontenegro_kosovo_dc_2
By Douglas HamiltonTue May 30, 11:21 AM ET
Granting independence to Serbia's southern province of Kosovo against the will of Serbia would destabilize the Balkans, Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic warned on Tuesday.
The United Nations is mediating talks on Kosovo's future status, which Western diplomats say are likely to conclude with a form of independence by the end of the year. Serbia is adamantly opposed to such an outcome.
"I am very afraid of the possible imposed solution against the will of Belgrade of turning Kosovo into a state," Draskovic told a news conference. "The whole region would inevitably face turbulence."
The warning comes in the wake of Montenegro's vote on May 21 to end its union with Serbia, which the European Union last year opposed, fearing further fragmentation in the Balkans.
On Monday there were signs its fears were not unjustified. Serb nationalists seeking independence for the Bosnian Serb republic from Bosnia said the Montenegro referendum was a precedent and possible template for their own campaign.
The demand was quickly rejected by Western officials, who warned that major powers would not tolerate any threat to Bosnia's integrity as a state. Bosnian Serb premier Milorad Dodik was chastised for seeming to consider the idea.
NO LEGAL PARALLEL
Legally, the cases of Kosovo, Montenegro, and the Bosnian Serb Republic are different.
Montenegro's vote for independence dissolved what was left of Yugoslavia, destroyed by war in the 1990s. Montenegro was one of six federal republics with a legal right to secession, which it retained in the looser Serbia-Montenegro union that was formed with EU encouragement in 2003.
If nationalist feelings were aroused, Draskovic warned, the legal distinctions might be ignored.
Dodik's office on Tuesday again blamed the media for playing up remarks by him linking Kosovo and the Bosnian Serb Republic. An aide it was a "theoretical" comment and the issue was closed.
But after talks with the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency in Sarajevo on Monday, it was the turn of Kosovo Serb leader Milan Ivanovic to insist there was a clear parallel.
"How can a national minority be given the right to self-determination but a 'constituent people' a solution which is less than that?" Ivanovic demanded, referring to the Albanians of Kosovo versus the Serbs of Bosnia.
Kosovo has been policed by NATO's largest peacekeeping force and run by the United Nations since 1999, when a bombing war by the alliance drove Serb forces out to halt killings and ethnic cleansing by Serbs in their war against Albanian separatists.
Its population of 2 million is 90 percent Albanian. They are impatient after years in limbo and want independence this year.
Serbia is offering Kosovo Albanians a 20-year deal under which it would retain control over foreign policy, borders and customs, human rights, monetary policy and religious sites.
Western diplomats say the Serbian government is in denial, unable or unwilling to grasp the realities of the Kosovo situation and the will of 90 percent of its people.
But Draskovic said granting independence could bring ultranationalists to power and turn Serbia against the EU.
"The European lights in Serbia may be extinguished only by a forcible decision to declare an internationally recognized state of Kosovo within ... the borders of Serbia," he said.
Creating "yet another Albanian state in the Balkans" was a dangerous scenario that Serbia hopes will be "thwarted" at the last minute, he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060530/wl_nm/serbiamontenegro_kosovo_dc_2
Monday, May 22, 2006
Montenegro voted by a slim margin to secede from Serbia and form a separate nation, erasing the last vestiges of the former Yugoslavia, according to the results Monday of its referendum.
With nearly all ballots counted, 55.4 percent of voters chose to dissolve Montenegro's 88-year union with its much larger and sometimes overbearing Balkan neighbor. That is just over the 55 percent threshold needed to validate Sunday's referendum under rules set by the European Union.
The pro-Serb camp in Montenegro demanded a recount. "The preliminary results of the referendum process should be double-checked and ballots from all the polling stations should be recounted," said a statement signed by four main leaders of the unionist bloc.
Hours before the official results were announced, independence supporters flooded streets of the capital Podgorica and other towns, even though their victory did not appear at all certain at that point.
"I congratulate you on your state," said the pro-independence prime minister, Milo Djukanovic. "Today, the citizens of Montenegro voted to restore their statehood."
In Podgorica, people fired celebratory shots in the air and drove up and down the main street, honking and waving the eagle-emblazoned flag used when Montenegro last enjoyed independence, from 1878-1918.
In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, officials urged calm. Ethnic Serbs make up 30 percent of the population and many strongly oppose separation from Serbia. Serbia did not want separation, but has said it will respect the decision.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060522/ap_on_re_eu/montenegro_referendum_11
With nearly all ballots counted, 55.4 percent of voters chose to dissolve Montenegro's 88-year union with its much larger and sometimes overbearing Balkan neighbor. That is just over the 55 percent threshold needed to validate Sunday's referendum under rules set by the European Union.
The pro-Serb camp in Montenegro demanded a recount. "The preliminary results of the referendum process should be double-checked and ballots from all the polling stations should be recounted," said a statement signed by four main leaders of the unionist bloc.
Hours before the official results were announced, independence supporters flooded streets of the capital Podgorica and other towns, even though their victory did not appear at all certain at that point.
"I congratulate you on your state," said the pro-independence prime minister, Milo Djukanovic. "Today, the citizens of Montenegro voted to restore their statehood."
In Podgorica, people fired celebratory shots in the air and drove up and down the main street, honking and waving the eagle-emblazoned flag used when Montenegro last enjoyed independence, from 1878-1918.
In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, officials urged calm. Ethnic Serbs make up 30 percent of the population and many strongly oppose separation from Serbia. Serbia did not want separation, but has said it will respect the decision.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060522/ap_on_re_eu/montenegro_referendum_11
Friday, May 12, 2006
FINALLY, a voice of reason--and from the NYT, of all places....the whole editorial is excellent, so here it is. I just hope someone listens to this man.
May 12, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Why Insist on the Surrender of Ratko Mladic?
By TIMOTHY WILLIAM WATERS
I DON'T think Europe should insist on arresting Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general accused of war crimes. That's hardly the side of the debate one wants to be assigned, because General Mladic — described as the engineer of ethnic cleansing at Srebrenica and Sarajevo in the 1990's — should be arrested and handed over to the United Nations' war crimes tribunal. But why might it not be a good idea for Europe to insist on it?
There are good arguments for linking Serbia's entry into the European Union to General Mladic's arrest, but the union isn't making them. Instead of having an open-eyed debate about the benefits and costs of arrest, Europe is making three lazy assumptions about the role of international justice in transforming societies.
The first is that arresting a war criminal is a small price to pay for European integration. But try this out: not arresting a war criminal is a small price to pay for European integration. The difference is who pays. If Europe wants integration, it could help Serbia make progress on reforms by not insisting on linkage.
Linkage might compel General Mladic's arrest and jump-start normal politics in Serbia, but it also risks backlash and delay; in fact, talks have now been suspended. How important is General Mladic's arrest balanced against the integration of 8 million people in a region that badly needs stability? Against the decisions that must be made regarding independence and constitutional reform in Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia, in which Serbia's role is critical? It is possible that insisting on "Mladic or bust" will make bust more likely.
The second assumption: General Mladic's arrest is necessary to prove that Serbia is serious about transforming itself. But is extracting General Mladic under pressure going to change Serbian values?
Rather than linking talks to one arrest, the European Union should ask if a deeply brutalized society like Serbia's is a worthy partner for integration, regardless of the disposition of any one war criminal. Making General Mladic a totem for what Europe really needs — Serbia's transformation — stunts the union's ability to understand and encourage that process.
Fixation on General Mladic is of a piece with the naïve thinking behind much Western foreign policy from the Balkans to Baghdad. Similarly optimistic claims were made when former President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested, but five years later, Serbia's politics still haven't advanced enough. Oh — maybe that's because we haven't gotten General Mladic.
Then there are the advantages to not insisting. Negotiated reforms could begin in earnest, and integration might make the Serbs eventually turn their backs on General Mladic and what he represents. How much better for reconciliation if the Serbs spit out General Mladic on their own, in shame and disgust, not because they see his surrender to The Hague as the only way to get their hands on 30 euros of silver.
A third assumption underlies the other two: that Europe's demands are natural and uncontroversial and only recalcitrant Serbian nationalists don't get it.
But denying the discretionary nature of these demands stifles debate about real costs. Europe claims that it is Serbia that is choosing isolation and stagnation, but these costs are determined by Europe. For reasons most Europeans do not agree with, General Mladic's arrest is controversial in a Serbia otherwise eager to integrate. Is one war criminal's arrest really worth pushing Serbia back into the dark? There's no easy formula for deciding where to draw the line, but the calculation is not helped by soporifically pious pronouncements about the necessity of linking a nation's fate to one man's, nor by pretending that Europe is not imposing the terms, however just.
Serbia's integration into Europe is vital, and that is precisely why Europe needs a rational debate about what it should and should not ask of Serbia. The effect of the present policy is uncertain: Serbia's normalization might be set back by General Mladic's arrest or, as has now happened, by a too hasty insistence on it by outsiders. Precisely because Serbia's integration is vital, both to Serbia and to Europe, Europe should consider if it really must be delayed.
The mania for General Mladic partly comes of our need for a war criminal because the last one, Mr. Milosevic, so recently and inconveniently died. General Mladic's arrest had already been on the agenda, but the chief Balkan butcher's departure added a certain frisson to calls for the next-worst-thing's incarceration. It's not clear what that has to do with changing Serbia, but it's worth asking what we want General Mladic for.
Because we want a war criminal, badly. And it doesn't matter what it might cost.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/opinion/12waters.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
May 12, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Why Insist on the Surrender of Ratko Mladic?
By TIMOTHY WILLIAM WATERS
I DON'T think Europe should insist on arresting Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general accused of war crimes. That's hardly the side of the debate one wants to be assigned, because General Mladic — described as the engineer of ethnic cleansing at Srebrenica and Sarajevo in the 1990's — should be arrested and handed over to the United Nations' war crimes tribunal. But why might it not be a good idea for Europe to insist on it?
There are good arguments for linking Serbia's entry into the European Union to General Mladic's arrest, but the union isn't making them. Instead of having an open-eyed debate about the benefits and costs of arrest, Europe is making three lazy assumptions about the role of international justice in transforming societies.
The first is that arresting a war criminal is a small price to pay for European integration. But try this out: not arresting a war criminal is a small price to pay for European integration. The difference is who pays. If Europe wants integration, it could help Serbia make progress on reforms by not insisting on linkage.
Linkage might compel General Mladic's arrest and jump-start normal politics in Serbia, but it also risks backlash and delay; in fact, talks have now been suspended. How important is General Mladic's arrest balanced against the integration of 8 million people in a region that badly needs stability? Against the decisions that must be made regarding independence and constitutional reform in Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia, in which Serbia's role is critical? It is possible that insisting on "Mladic or bust" will make bust more likely.
The second assumption: General Mladic's arrest is necessary to prove that Serbia is serious about transforming itself. But is extracting General Mladic under pressure going to change Serbian values?
Rather than linking talks to one arrest, the European Union should ask if a deeply brutalized society like Serbia's is a worthy partner for integration, regardless of the disposition of any one war criminal. Making General Mladic a totem for what Europe really needs — Serbia's transformation — stunts the union's ability to understand and encourage that process.
Fixation on General Mladic is of a piece with the naïve thinking behind much Western foreign policy from the Balkans to Baghdad. Similarly optimistic claims were made when former President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested, but five years later, Serbia's politics still haven't advanced enough. Oh — maybe that's because we haven't gotten General Mladic.
Then there are the advantages to not insisting. Negotiated reforms could begin in earnest, and integration might make the Serbs eventually turn their backs on General Mladic and what he represents. How much better for reconciliation if the Serbs spit out General Mladic on their own, in shame and disgust, not because they see his surrender to The Hague as the only way to get their hands on 30 euros of silver.
A third assumption underlies the other two: that Europe's demands are natural and uncontroversial and only recalcitrant Serbian nationalists don't get it.
But denying the discretionary nature of these demands stifles debate about real costs. Europe claims that it is Serbia that is choosing isolation and stagnation, but these costs are determined by Europe. For reasons most Europeans do not agree with, General Mladic's arrest is controversial in a Serbia otherwise eager to integrate. Is one war criminal's arrest really worth pushing Serbia back into the dark? There's no easy formula for deciding where to draw the line, but the calculation is not helped by soporifically pious pronouncements about the necessity of linking a nation's fate to one man's, nor by pretending that Europe is not imposing the terms, however just.
Serbia's integration into Europe is vital, and that is precisely why Europe needs a rational debate about what it should and should not ask of Serbia. The effect of the present policy is uncertain: Serbia's normalization might be set back by General Mladic's arrest or, as has now happened, by a too hasty insistence on it by outsiders. Precisely because Serbia's integration is vital, both to Serbia and to Europe, Europe should consider if it really must be delayed.
The mania for General Mladic partly comes of our need for a war criminal because the last one, Mr. Milosevic, so recently and inconveniently died. General Mladic's arrest had already been on the agenda, but the chief Balkan butcher's departure added a certain frisson to calls for the next-worst-thing's incarceration. It's not clear what that has to do with changing Serbia, but it's worth asking what we want General Mladic for.
Because we want a war criminal, badly. And it doesn't matter what it might cost.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/opinion/12waters.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
And what does SHE have to say about all this? Hasn't this court already been cited for being ineffective its own wonderful self?
Speaking after being briefed by telephone by chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte, European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said her assessment was negative.
"It is disappointing that Belgrade has been unable to locate, arrest and transfer Ratko Mladic to the Hague," Rehn said. "The Commission therefore has to call off the negotiations on the Stabilization and Association Agreement.
Del Ponte said Serbia had misled her.
"The obvious conclusion is that I have been misled when I was told at the end of March that the arrest of Mladic was a matter of days or weeks," Del Ponte told a news conference.
If you can do better, come and try, why don' you, C? You seem to have all the answers from up there in the Hague....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060503/wl_nm/serbiamontenegro_eu_dc_4
Speaking after being briefed by telephone by chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte, European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said her assessment was negative.
"It is disappointing that Belgrade has been unable to locate, arrest and transfer Ratko Mladic to the Hague," Rehn said. "The Commission therefore has to call off the negotiations on the Stabilization and Association Agreement.
Del Ponte said Serbia had misled her.
"The obvious conclusion is that I have been misled when I was told at the end of March that the arrest of Mladic was a matter of days or weeks," Del Ponte told a news conference.
If you can do better, come and try, why don' you, C? You seem to have all the answers from up there in the Hague....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060503/wl_nm/serbiamontenegro_eu_dc_4
Here we go again....of course, this issue makes the NYT. Other stuff isn't important; only that information which reinforces how "bad" the "Serbs" are....
Europe Cancels Talks With Serbia Over Fugitive
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: May 3, 2006
The European Union called off negotiations today on closer ties with Serbia because it failed to find, arrest and transfer the former military chief Ratko Mladic to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
"This issue is about the rule of law," Olli Rehn, enlargement commissioner for the European Union, said in a statement. "Serbia must show that nobody is above the law, and that anyone indicted for serious crimes will face justice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/world/europe/03cnd-serbia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Europe Cancels Talks With Serbia Over Fugitive
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: May 3, 2006
The European Union called off negotiations today on closer ties with Serbia because it failed to find, arrest and transfer the former military chief Ratko Mladic to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
"This issue is about the rule of law," Olli Rehn, enlargement commissioner for the European Union, said in a statement. "Serbia must show that nobody is above the law, and that anyone indicted for serious crimes will face justice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/world/europe/03cnd-serbia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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