Guess who has crawled out from under her rock to hurl more insults at Serbia for not having arrested Mladic yet....
Mon Oct 16, 2:09 PM ET
UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte lashed Serbia for failing to arrest former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, and urged the EU not to resume talks on closer ties with Belgrade.
"It is almost a smokescreen that they are describing and showing us, it is not real political will and investigative will to locate and arrest Mladic," she told journalists after talks with senior European Union officials.
"They have no strategy, they are not showing us the results of the work they are doing. It's an inquiry that heads off in all directions and achieves nothing," she said.
In May, Brussels suspended talks with Belgrade on a stabilisation and association agreement -- a first step toward joining the EU -- for failing to fully cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
The chief reason was that Serbia had not arrested Mladic, who has been indicted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. He was believed to have been hiding in Serbia.
"I hope the decision will be the confirmation of the suspension of negotiations," Del Ponte said, after talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061016/wl_afp/euenlargeserbia_061016180904
Monday, October 16, 2006
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Serbian PM Urges Voters To Approve New Constitution
BELGRADE (AP)--Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica urged his country Friday to overwhelmingly approve a new constitution that declares independence- seeking Kosovo an integral part of Serb territory.
Kostunica said in an interview published in the pro-government daily, Politika, that Serbian voters approving the charter in a nationwide referendum slated for Oct. 28-29, was more important to him than winning early parliamentary elections, expected in December.
Parliament approved the draft constitution this month.
Kostunica's comments reflect the government's intensified pro-referendum campaign in the face of criticism by several political figures here who have urged a boycott of the balloting.
The new constitution also defines the country as independent for the first time since the bloody breakup of the former, six-republic federation of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
"I am convinced this constitution will get sweeping approval by the citizens," Kostunica said in the interview, dismissing criticism that his Cabinet hastily drew up the draft and that there was no nationwide debate on the issue.
"I stand ready to lose (my post), as long as Serbia gets a new constitution," said Kostunica, who has seen waning support in Serbia.
More than half of Serbia's 6 million voters must approve the draft in the referendum before the new constitution can take effect.
The charter is likely to set Belgrade on another collision course with the West, for declaring the ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo an inalienable part of Serbia.
It comes at a sensitive time, as U.N.-led negotiations between Belgrade and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders on Kosovo's final status are entering a critical phase.
Earlier this month, U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey rejected the Serbian parliament's approval of the constitution, saying the future of the rebellious, U.N.-run province will not be "decided unilaterally" but through a " negotiated process."
Among the loudest criticism, parliament speaker Bojan Kostres in Serbia's northern Vojvodina province called this week for a referendum boycott, claiming the charter didn't grant sufficient autonomy to Vojvodina - Serbia's breadbasket and richest region.
Some political parties from the Hungarian minority, which lives predominantly in Vojvodina, also back a boycott, as do several liberal groups.
Ethnic Albanians living in southern Serbia close to Kosovo said they would stay away. Serbian officials have said Kosovo's 2 million ethnic Albanians won't be invited to vote on the draft constitution.
Kostunica said it was important the constitution "clearly defines Kosovo...integral within Serbia" and that the Kosovo Albanians' demand for independence was an "unjustifiable wish." (END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-13-060659ET
Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20061013%5cACQDJON200610130659DOWJONESDJONLINE000536.htm&
BELGRADE (AP)--Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica urged his country Friday to overwhelmingly approve a new constitution that declares independence- seeking Kosovo an integral part of Serb territory.
Kostunica said in an interview published in the pro-government daily, Politika, that Serbian voters approving the charter in a nationwide referendum slated for Oct. 28-29, was more important to him than winning early parliamentary elections, expected in December.
Parliament approved the draft constitution this month.
Kostunica's comments reflect the government's intensified pro-referendum campaign in the face of criticism by several political figures here who have urged a boycott of the balloting.
The new constitution also defines the country as independent for the first time since the bloody breakup of the former, six-republic federation of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
"I am convinced this constitution will get sweeping approval by the citizens," Kostunica said in the interview, dismissing criticism that his Cabinet hastily drew up the draft and that there was no nationwide debate on the issue.
"I stand ready to lose (my post), as long as Serbia gets a new constitution," said Kostunica, who has seen waning support in Serbia.
More than half of Serbia's 6 million voters must approve the draft in the referendum before the new constitution can take effect.
The charter is likely to set Belgrade on another collision course with the West, for declaring the ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo an inalienable part of Serbia.
It comes at a sensitive time, as U.N.-led negotiations between Belgrade and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders on Kosovo's final status are entering a critical phase.
Earlier this month, U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey rejected the Serbian parliament's approval of the constitution, saying the future of the rebellious, U.N.-run province will not be "decided unilaterally" but through a " negotiated process."
Among the loudest criticism, parliament speaker Bojan Kostres in Serbia's northern Vojvodina province called this week for a referendum boycott, claiming the charter didn't grant sufficient autonomy to Vojvodina - Serbia's breadbasket and richest region.
Some political parties from the Hungarian minority, which lives predominantly in Vojvodina, also back a boycott, as do several liberal groups.
Ethnic Albanians living in southern Serbia close to Kosovo said they would stay away. Serbian officials have said Kosovo's 2 million ethnic Albanians won't be invited to vote on the draft constitution.
Kostunica said it was important the constitution "clearly defines Kosovo...integral within Serbia" and that the Kosovo Albanians' demand for independence was an "unjustifiable wish." (END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-13-060659ET
Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20061013%5cACQDJON200610130659DOWJONESDJONLINE000536.htm&
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