While it's nice to see that good things may be happening, let us not forget what the West considers to be the only important issue with regards to Serbia and its current status:

BELGRADE (AP)--Serbia's prime minister said resumption of pre-entry talks with the European Union would speed up the arrest of top U.N. war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic.
Vojislav Kostunica told Serbian state television in an interview late Thursday the E.U. decision earlier this year to freeze the negotiations with Belgrade over Serbian failure to capture Mladic only made it harder for the country to hand him over. The fugitive general is wanted on genocide charges by the U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands.
"Had the talks continued, then the obligation to detain and transfer Ratko Mladic to The Hague would have been more easily fulfilled in an atmosphere of cooperation," Kostunica said.
Kostunica didn't explain how restarting E.U. talks would help in hunting down Mladic, insisting his government isn't aware of the general's whereabouts. He, however, said "it was very important not to suspend those talks."
There was no immediate comment from the E.U.
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20061229%5cACQDJON200612290649DOWJONESDJONLINE000336.htm&

Here's a link to some background on the Jugoremedija situation:
http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/Content/2006-07/16grubacic.cfm

Major Victory for Worker Recovered Factory "Jugoremedija" in SerbiaAnonymous, Thursday, December 28, 2006 - 02:36 (Communiqués Solidarite internationale)
First paragraph (Teaser):
A major victory for worker's rights and struggles in Serbia has been won following a 9 month factory occupation and a 2 and a half year strike by the workers of Jugoremedija in Zrenjanin, Serbia. On December 14, 2006, the Belgrade Higher Economic Court reaffirmed the June 2006 ruling of the Zrenjanin Economic Court that the recapitalization of the Zrenjanin-based pharmaceutical factory Jugoremedija be repealed because it was carried out illegally through the illegitimate manoeuvres of businessman Jovica Stefanovic Nini to attempt to gain majority ownership. This means that the ownership of the workers has now been restored to their rightful 58% of the company shares. With this decision, Jugoremedija is set to become the first factory amongst the "transition" countries in Eastern Europe undergoing neoliberal privatization to be recovered and controlled by its workers.
http://www.cmaq.net/en/archive/2006/12/28

13 Dec 2006 14:01:28 GMT13 Dec 2006 14:01:28 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove-->
Source: Human Rights Watch
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

(New York, December 14, 2006) ? The trial of Slobodan Milosevic, which ended with his death before a verdict could be rendered, has provided important evidence about the role of Belgrade in pursuing the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. "Although Milosevic was never convicted, evidence exposed at his trial showed how Belgrade orchestrated the vicious wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo," said Sara Darehshori, senior counsel in the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. "The Milosevic trial also shows how to manage ? or not ? future prosecutions of high-ranking officials for crimes of huge magnitude."
The 76-page report, "Weighing the Evidence: Lessons of the Slobodan Milosevic Trial," examines key evidence introduced at trial, the most comprehensive account to date of the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The report finds that the trial revealed how leaders in Belgrade and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia financed the wars; how they provided material to Croatian and Bosnian Serbs; and how they created administrative and personnel structures to support the Croatian Serb and Bosnian Serb armies. The report traces the mechanisms, some of which were previously secret, by which Belgrade fueled the conflicts.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/d873fa58ecad6778a58f96b5eade21e8.htm

NEWSMAKER-Seselj 'ready to die' in name of Serbia
06 Dec 2006 17:41:52 GMT06 Dec 2006 17:41:52 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove-->
Source: Reuters
By Ellie Tzortzi
BELGRADE, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Firebrand Serb nationalist Vojislav Seselj says he is determined to take his defiance of the Hague war crimes tribunal to the bitter end by starving himself to death in detention....
The bespectacled, burly former politics lecturer has been an explosive figure in Serbian politics for over two decades.
He served two years in prison for anti-communist dissident activities in old socialist Yugoslavia in the 1980s, and went on hunger strike for 48 days.
In 1990 he was jailed twice, for organising volunteers to go fight with the rebel Serb minority in Croatia, and for selling books on the Chetniks, a World War Two Serb resistance group.
A prolific author of among others "The ideology of Serbian nationalism" and "Devil's apprentice: the criminal Roman Pope John Paul II", Seselj is known for passionate speeches, a short temper and aphorisms such as threatening Serb enemies he would "gouge out their eyes with rusty spoons".
He once brandished a gun threateningly outside Serbia's parliament, and spat on the speaker. He was expelled from Montenegro in 1994 for insulting its government, and had to be physically carried onto the plane back to Belgrade.
Seselj was close to the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. Before Milosevic's death in detention at the Hague this March, the two men were frequent chess partners, and consulted each other on how to conduct their defence.
VOLUNTARY SURRENDER
Seselj voluntarily flew to the United Nations tribunal in 2003 to face charges of war crimes during the 1990s Balkan wars....
He stopped eating on Nov. 10 after the court assigned him a defence lawyer against his wishes. He has taken only water since and is now wasting away, confined to his prison bed.
At the weekend, he issued an edict to his Radical party in the form of a "last will and testament", ordering it to uphold the dream of "Greater Serbia" on Bosnian and Croatian land.
"I demand that you never give up our strong national ideology, and fight for the union of all Serb lands," he wrote.
"You should continue to vehemently oppose globalisation and all attempts to bring Serbia into NATO and the European Union, because all of Serbia's traditional enemies are gathered there."
His party, which bases its campaign for January elections on Seselj's plight, has said its leader would either beat the tribunal and defend himself, or fast to death.
Seselj later said he wanted no more visits, from friends or doctors, and was determined to fast to death in prison unless his demand to represent himself in court was recognised.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L05669948.htm

Report: Serbia's Gypsies have few rights
BELGRADE, Serbia, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Nearly half of Gypsies living in Serbia do not enjoy the rights to education, employment and healthcare, a minority rights official said Tuesday.
A recent survey among a group of 36,000 Gypsies, showed 46 percent of them could not register their residence addresses as they live in cardboard shanties, often without water or electricity. With no address they cannot get ID cards, which are needed in communications with any state body.
Petar Antic, of the Serbian Center for Minority Rights, said Gypsies live in a parallel world beyond Serbia's system, Belgrade's B92 radio reported. Antic warned if this problem is not solved, in the next 10 years Serbia will have the biggest security-threatening ghetto in Europe, the radio said.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061212-090947-7334r