NATO bombing commemorated 09:44 -> 10:28 March 24 B92, Beta
BELGRADE -- On today’s date seven years ago, NATO began its bombing mission in Yugoslavia, which lasted 78 days. The air raids began at about 7:30 pm, with the then government, head by Slobodan Milosevic, proclaiming a state of war. The bombing ended on June 9 with the signing of the Kumanovski Agreement and the adoption of the United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 1244. The air strikes resulted in the Yugoslav Army retreating from Kosovo, and international forces entering the region. Many industrial buildings, schools, health centres, media buildings and monuments were damaged or destroyed in the bombings and, according to estimates, in between 1,200 and 2,500 people were killed. In 43 locations around Serbia, excluding Kosovo, NATO projectiles can still be found. There are two bombs that have not exploded still in Belgrade today, according to the Defence Ministry. In order for one bomb to be removed, 100,000 euros and the hiring of an expert team for one month would be necessary.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?nav_id=34128&style=headlines

And the OTHER major issue--the one that the US is only interested in, regardless of the consequences...
Milosevic death jeopardises Mladic handover The death of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, and the outbursts of nationalism during his funeral in Serbia, make it unlikely that General Ratko Mladic will soon be handed over to the UN war crimes tribunal, Europe’s top security agency said in a report today.The EU has said that if Mladic was not handed over to the tribunal by March 31, the EU would suspend its negotiations with Serbia on joining the bloc. The next round of the negotiations was set for April 5.“Recent events do not increase the prospects that General Mladic will be delivered to The Hague by the EU-imposed deadline,” the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said in the report.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=75591506&p=7559y8x8&n=75591886#

And here is what we REALLY need to be concerned about....
SERBIA & MONTENEGRO: Unity Will Prevail, Kostunica Says
2006-03-21 20:01:52
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that the idea of unity will win and be stronger than the demand of dividing the country, because breaking up the unified community that keeps Serbia and Montenegro together represents the wrong path which cannot lead to any good. In a statement to the news agency Tanjug, Kostunica said that the idea of a common state, a common life and a common European future is a big idea that can provide long term security, stability and better life to people of different ethnic origins and all citizens of Serbia-Montenegro. “I am convinced that the idea of unity will win, be above and stronger than the demand of dividing the country and breaking up the natural community that has been created by a long history,” said Kostunica. He said that hundreds and thousands of families are connected with the state-union or, more exactly, probably there is no citizen of Serbia who does not have relatives in Montenegro or citizen of Montenegro who does not have family in Serbia. He added that that shared life, in the proper sense of the word, determines that we safeguard the state-union in which, in all truth, there is place for everyone and no one is discriminated against. Establishing an interstate border, introducing passports, dividing the country and thus breaking up the unified community that keeps Serbia and Montenegro together represents the wrong path which cannot lead to any good, said Kostunica. “The interest in breaking up the country, in establishing interstate borders between us, and division, can neither be sincere nor in the long term interest of the peoples and citizens of Serbia-Montenegro.” Kostunica stressed that it is not all the same, and it is not the same if we live in two states or in a single unified one, because that has important long term consequences in all spheres of life. “States are not made for temporary use and the decision of living together was brought a long time ago, and was affirmed by many generations, leaving it to future generations,” said Kostunica adding that from the previous unified life a lot of good was gained and no one can say that anyone lost anything because of it. “There is no doubt that a common state is where the best interests of Serbia and Montenegro can be realised,” concluded Kostunica. Source: www.reporter.gr
http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=58235&LangID=1

Once again, they make it sound as if the whole country is in mourning....
Posted on Sun, Mar. 19, 2006
Serbs glorify Milosevic at his hometown burial
FORMER PRESIDENT IS CALLED A HERO AND MAN OF PEACE
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post
POZAREVAC, Serbia-Montenegro -- Tens of thousands of Serbs gave former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic a hero's farewell and pronounced him a victim of the U.N. war-crimes tribunal, in whose custody he died a week ago.
About 15,000 supporters gathered at his burial site in Pozarevac, his hometown, and about 50,000 attended a commemoration in Belgrade, the capital. The mourners praised Milosevic, who oversaw Serbia's role in the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II, as a defender of the nation and man of peace and love...
Milosevic died in his cell of a heart attack, according to a forensic examination. Milosevic's die-hard followers have accused the tribunal of murder.
``They couldn't stand Milosevic's defense of himself,'' said Bozidar Delic, head of a Serbian group that campaigned to free Milosevic from The Hague, where he was being tried on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Saturday, Milosevic's political associates fashioned a legend of him as steadfast champion of Serbia and victim of the West.
``We are bidding farewell to the best one among us,'' said Milorad Vucelic, a Socialist Party official.
``American aggression put under occupation,'' said Alexander Vucic, head of the Serbian Radical Party, which has inherited much of the nationalist support that once belonged to the Socialists. The leader of the Radical Party, Vojislav Sesel, who is on trial at The Hague on war-crimes charges, also sent a message: ``Our Serbia will rise like a phoenix from the ashes.''
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, fresh from participation on Saddam Hussein's defense team in the war-crimes trial in Baghdad, praised Milosevic, saying ``He was a man for the ages.''
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14136768.htm?source=rss&channel=mercurynews_world

Nation & World Views From London: Lesson of Milosevic simple: Never again
Slobodan Milosevic will not be much mourned across the former Yugoslavia that he tore apart. His vision of Serb nationalism brought bloodshed from Croatia to Bosnia and then Kosovo, first through the tanks of the Yugoslav National Army, then through Belgrade-backed Serb paramilitaries and, finally, through the police squads of the Ministry of the Interior. In a few brutal years, more than a quarter-of-a-million people died in Milosevic's failed wars. But while Milosevic and his Bosnian Serb ciphers - Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic - must bear the bulk of the responsibility for the killing, an assessment of the career of Europe's last mass murderer poses uncomfortable questions for a world that let him prosecute his crimes. ...
But if Milosevic's death brings memories of a shameful period, it is also a powerful reminder of how, in belated response to political thuggery, a new doctrine of humanitarian intervention emerged. ... It was led at first by President Clinton over Bosnia, and again in Kosovo. The rationale behind those interventions was then invoked for the invasion of Iraq.
But the principle that a brutal regime does not have inalienable rights to do as it pleases within its borders, that the international community can bring an incumbent dictator to justice, is a good one. It is possible, as history has shown in the Balkans, to intervene justly in the affairs of a sovereign state. ... The international community will again need to confront charismatic leaders with inflammatory agendas. It will again be tempted to appease them. Milosevic's death is a timely reminder of the lesson burned into an older generation of Europeans scarred by genocide: never again.
-- The Observer, London, March 12

everyone is all in a tizzy because of the people who turned out for the funeral--they see it as support for Milosevic. Who goes to the funeral of someone he/she DOESN'T like? Also, there were far fewer people there than expected; that's one positive aspect.

Can Serbia deal with the past? 15:33 March 19 FoNet, Beta
WASHINGTON, BELGRADE -- Sunday - Daniel Server from the US Institute of Peace says it still remains to be seen whether Serbia is willing to part ways with the policies of the past. “People have the right to demonstrate in the streets, attend Milosevic’s funeral and declare loyalty to him, but the real issue here is whether Serbia as a whole is willing to part ways with the policies of the past. This is not yet very clear, because Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has purposefully made this issue vague, owing to the fact that his government depends on the support of the Socialists and the Radicals”, Server said. “I don’t see why Belgrade has less to lose after Milosevic’s death in dealing with the Hague Tribunal. I can understand why a verdict in the Milosevic had caused anxiety. He would probably have been found guilty for genocide, and this would have, in turn, had repercussions on the process in front of the International Criminal Court, but now that there is no verdict, is seems that one of the obstacles for co-operation should be out of the way. However, we have witnessed an emotional reaction in Serbia, accusing the Tribunal for Milosevic’s death, which I don’t comprehend. The best thing that Serbia can do for itself is to arrest Mladic and Karadzic”, Server concluded.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id=34085&order=priority&style=headlines

From William Montgomery, a fairly reasonable voice in all of this mess...
I am convinced that the worst possible alternative in Milosevic’s view was a completion of the trial with the inevitable guilty verdicts and a lifetime prison sentence far from home and far from the public spotlight...The ICTY is fully responsible for how this mess has turned out. It took less than one year at Nuremberg to try 22 Nazi defendants. Slobodan Milosevic’s trial was into its fifth year with a cost that has been put at around $200 million. Three decisions in particular were devastating: indicting Milosevic on 66 different charges, thereby requiring that each be proved by an endless list of witnesses and documentary evidence; joining the indictments for events in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Croatia together rather than having separate trials for each; and permitting him to conduct his own defense. While each of these three critical decisions had its own logic, the end result is a trial that was never finished and that due to its length and nature had done little to bring reconciliation to the Balkans and had actually increased Milosevic’s popularity in Serbia. It is not only Milosevic who died. So did the original Chief Judge, Sir Richard May, more than one year ago...

The biggest disservice that Milosevic did to the Serbian people was to take their legitimate concerns and fears and instead of advocating them in a pro-active, positive, moderate way, he inflamed them for his own political benefit. Instead of helping to quell the flames of hatred and nationalism, he deliberately used the media and government information channels to throw fuel on the fire. This has had two radically different, equally negative results. First of all, because of the violent methods which were used and counter-productive tactics (such as the shelling of Dubrovnik), the world lost sympathy for Serbia, the Serbs, and their concerns. It is worth noting that this was not initially the case. In 1990 and 91, the U.S. Administration and many Europeans were sympathetic to keeping Yugoslavia together.
Secondly, an uncomfortably large percentage of the Serbian people to this day have sympathy for Milosevic because they perceive that he was defending Serbian interests. Far too few of the Serbian political leadership has had the courage to try to separate those legitimate Serbian concerns and fears and the totally illegitimate crimes which Milosevic supported and encouraged in their “defense.” Until this link is understood and broken, the true democratic transition in Serbia cannot be completed.
http://www.b92.net/feedback/misljenja/press/william.php

ROME, March 15 — Frustrated and filled with skepticism about Slobodan Milosevic's litany of medical complaints, the tribunal at The Hague at times failed to investigate them adequately, several doctors who had recently examined Mr. Milosevic, the former Serbian leader, said this week.
"His medical condition was not good, so we asked for additional tests to evaluate his cardiac situation," said Dr. Florence Leclercq, a French cardiologist who examined Mr. Milosevic for about three hours in November. "But these investigations were never performed, and now that's a problem." A tribunal official said it was not possible to comment while an inquiry was under way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/16/international/europe/16case.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

At least they aren't going to try and convict him posthumously, much as they might like to....

THE HAGUE, March 14 — The court convened Tuesday for the last time in the war crimes trial of the former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. The court, said the presiding judge, Patrick Robinson, had been advised of the death of the accused. "His death," he said, "terminates these proceedings."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/15/international/europe/15milosevic.html

I don't believe--they actually convicted some Muslims....however, read carefully; they were convicted not of war crimes, but of failing to discipline their men for mistreating and abusing Croats and Serbs....
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - U.N. war crimes judges found two former Bosnian Muslim army commanders guilty on Wednesday of atrocities committed by their troops on Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Serb civilians during the 1992-95 war.
Judges at the Hague tribunal found former General Enver Hadzihasanovic, 56, and Brigadier Amir Kubura, 42, guilty of failing to prevent or punish atrocities by troops under their command, including foreign Islamic mujahideen fighters.
The men are among the highest-ranking Bosnian Muslims to stand trial in The Hague.
Hadzihasanovic was sentenced to five years jail and Kubura to two and a half years. Prosecutors had requested 20 years for Hadzihasanovic and 10 years for Kubura.
The tribunal said prosecutors had failed to convince the court that the men had full knowledge of the abuses and effective control over the perpetrators, in particular the mujahideen, many of whom came from North Africa and the Middle East to support fellow Muslims during the bloody conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
Hadzihasanovic and Kubura were charged with commanding forces that murdered and abused at least 200 Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat civilians during Muslim attacks on Croat forces in central Bosnia between January 1993 and January 1994.
Prosecutors said captives were forced to dig trenches under fire or used as human shields.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-warcrimes-bosnians.html

Now, for the other, equally extreme, viewpoint--the "Milosevice as hero" brigade....

IAC Statement on the Death in Prison of Slobodan Milosevic, President of Yugoslavia
The International Action Center would like to send its sincere condolences to the family, friends and comrades of President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and to the peoples of the Balkans who mourn his death at the hands of the court and prison authorities in The Hague. We join with others around the world to condemn the International Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for this crime. The full responsibility for the death of President Slobodan Milosevic lies directly with the fraudulent court created by the U.S. and NATO governments at The Hague – the ICTY. We join the also the demands for an independent investigation of the circumstances of President Milosevic’s death.
Since the illegal kidnapping of President Milosevic from Serbia in June 2001 and his forcible detention at Scheveningen prison on fraudulent war crimes charges, the court has consistently denied adequate medical care. The ICTY has held a fraudulent trial for the last four years in an attempt to blame Milosevic and Yugoslavia for NATO’s criminal war in the Balkans.
During this trial, now over four years old, the prosecution has failed to present anything like a case against Milosevic. In addition, his vigorous defense has exposed the crimes of the imperialist powers, especially the U.S. and Germany, in conspiring to destroy the Yugoslav Socialist Federation through subversion and direct military assault.
In the days before President Milosevic’s death, the IAC joined the efforts of the International Committee for the Defense of Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM), sending to the 15 ambassadors of the members of the United Nations Security Council a request that President Milosevic be transferred to Russia for medical care, given his critical medical condition. This court has now—at the very least—allowed him to die rather than exposing its own inability to build a case against this Yugoslav and Serb political leader. The ICTY was responsible for his care and is guilty in the very least of criminal neglect.
The NATO leaders--with Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder topping the list—should have been the ones on trial for war crimes. From the day of his kidnapping, President Milosevic waged a heroic defense of his own actions to defend Yugoslavia. He equally exposed the crimes of these leaders of the great powers to the world. For this the peoples of the Balkans and of the world will be indebted to him.
Sara Flounders,Co-coordinator, International Action CenterMarch 11, 2006
President Milosevic opening statement as the Trial opened is printed in full in the IAC book Hidden Agenda: The U.S./NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia. His statement to the court 2 years later as the defense finally began its rebuttal is printed in full in the IAC book The Defense Speaks – For History and the Future. Both books can be ordered directly from Leftbooks.com
International Action Center 39 West 14th St, #206, New York, NY, 10011 www.iacenter.orgiacenter@action-mail.org

Rifampicin, the apparently unprescribed antibiotic that a Dutch toxicologist said he found in former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's system earlier this year, is used together with other drugs to treat tuberculosis. It also can be used alone to treat certain bacterial infections or asymptomatic carriers of a type of meningitis.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_on_he_me/milosevic_drug_2
Russia pressed the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Monday to let its doctors examine the post mortem results of Yugoslav ex-leader Slobodan Milosevic, who died in jail soon after being refused treatment in Moscow.
Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying that Moscow was disappointed with the tribunal's rejection of Milosevic's request to undergo treatment in a Moscow clinic despite guarantees of his return.
"In the situation where we were distrusted, we also have the right to distrust," Lavrov told Russian reporters.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060313/wl_nm/warcrimes_milosevic_russia_dc_3
Serbian President Boris Tadic's office said: "The president believes a national funeral for Slobodan Milosevic would be completely inappropriate because of the role that he played in Serbia's recent history, and contrary to the direction the people of Serbia clearly showed on October 5, 2000," referring to his ouster in a popular uprising.
But officials of Milosevic's Socialist Party said they would bring down the Serbian government if it fails to comply with a demand for his funeral to be held in his homeland.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1932659,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1124-rdf
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that Milosevic had been a "malign influence" on the region.
"I hope very much that his passing will enable the people of Serbia better to come to terms with their past, which is the only way they can properly face the future," Straw said at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Salzburg.
Source: China Daily
http://english.people.com.cn/200603/13/eng20060313_250169.html
The Belgrade Courts have, in the meantime, abolished the warrant for the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic’s widow, Mirjana Markovic. According to the Reuters news agency, it has received information from a senior official of the Serbia Socialist Party that the warrant has been nullified. The Belgrade District Court has accepted a guarantee for Mira Markovic to not be arrested if she enters the country. However, if she does not voluntary report to the courts for interrogation, she will be arrested and taken into custody. The indictment for the misuse of official position against Markovic remains valid and active. The court accepted a guarantee of 15,000 euros, stating that it is an adequate guarantee which negates the possibility of Markovic avoiding her responsibilities to the Serbian courts. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that the decision to allow Mirjana Markovic to re-enter the country for her husband’s funeral will enable the family to hold the services in Belgrade. “A funeral is a civilised act which must be respected.” Kostunica said. The Prime Minister added that it is in the spirit of the Serbian tradition to behave with respect in such events.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?order=priority

While some European Union countries prefer to keep the door open to give Serbian reformers some hope of reaching their goal of bringing the country closer to the rest of Europe, the United States and Carla Del Ponte, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, are insisting that the European Union should not start any formal talks for a "stabilization and association agreement," a step toward eventual membership, until the two men have been handed over.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/international/europe/13belgrade.html
The autopsy result was disclosed as new evidence emerged that Mr. Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president found dead in his prison cell bed on Saturday, had been taking medicine not prescribed by his physicians, including an antibiotic known to diminish or blunt the effect of the medicines he had been taking for heart and blood-pressure problems.
It was unclear why he had taken that antibiotic, but one of Mr. Milosevic's legal advisers said Sunday that Mr. Milosevic knew something was wrong, and had expressed fear in a letter written one day before he was found dead that someone had been trying to poison him. The United Nations tribunal has dismissed the poisoning speculation.
Dr. Donald Uges, a top toxicologist in the Netherlands who had consulted on the case earlier at the request of the tribunal, said today that he thought Mr. Milosevic had taken the drugs to undermine his health to support his plea for a medical transfer to Moscow, where his family now lives.
"I don't think he took his medicines for suicide, only for his trip to Moscow," Dr. Uges told Reuters. "I think that was his last possibility to escape the Hague. I am so sure there is no murder."
Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor at the tribunal, said at a news conference on Sunday before the autopsy result was released that she did not rule out suicide. She also said Mr. Milosevic had been thoroughly monitored by medical aides, and that it was "very strange, even if it is of course possible, that he should have died so suddenly without these medics having noticed a worsening of his condition."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/international/europe/13cnd-milosevic.html

These are entire articles taken from the following online forum on Kosovo--last posts, 2004. I recommend you check out the forum, too; it is an excellent example of how unwilling people are to have dialogue about the situation in Kosovo and how willing they are to engage in inflammatory rhetoric. I have no idea how long the links to the forum will remain operational.
http://www.kosovo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42&sid=8a5884422667ecf92685cbcbda28f082

IN YUGOSLAVIA, RISING ETHNIC STRIFE BRINGS FEARS TO WORSE CIVIL CONFLICT By DAVID BINDER, Special to the New York Times The New York Times November 1, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition Section 1; Part 1, Page 14, Column 1; BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Portions of southern Yugoslavia have reached such a state of ethnic friction that Yugoslavs have begun to talk of the horrifying possibility of "civil war" in a land that lost one-tenth of its population, or 1.7 million people, in World War II. The current hostilities pit separatist-minded ethnic Albanians against the various Slavic populations of Yugoslavia and occur at all levels of society, from the highest officials to the humblest peasants. A young Army conscript of ethnic Albanian origin shot up his barracks, killing four sleeping Slavic bunkmates and wounding six others. The army says it has uncovered hundreds of subversive ethnic Albanian cells in its ranks. Some arsenals have been raided. Vicious Insults Ethnic Albanians in the Government have manipulated public funds and regulations to take over land belonging to Serbs. And politicians have exchanged vicious insults. Slavic Orthodox churches have been attacked, and flags have been torn down. Wells have been poisoned and crops burned. Slavic boys have been knifed, and some young ethnic Albanians have been told by their elders to rape Serbian girls. Ethnic Albanians comprise the fastest growing nationality in Yugoslavia and are expected soon to become its third largest, after the Serbs and Croats. Radicals' Goals The goal of the radical nationalists among them, one said in an interview, is an "ethnic Albania that includes western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, part of southern Serbia, Kosovo and Albania itself." That includes large chunks of the republics that make up the southern half of Yugoslavia. Other ethnic Albanian separatists admit to a vision of a greater Albania governed from Pristina in southern Yugoslavia rather than Tirana, the capital of neighboring Albania. There is no evidence that the hard-line Communist Government in Tirana is giving them material assistance. The principal battleground is the region called Kosovo, a high plateau ringed by mountains that is somewhat smaller than New Jersey. Ethnic Albanians there make up 85 percent of the population of 1.7 million. The rest are Serbians and Montenegrins. Worst Strife in Years As Slavs flee the protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationalists have been demanding for years, and especially strongly since the bloody rioting by ethnic Albanians in Pristina in 1981-an "ethnically pure" Albanian region, a 'Republic of Kosovo' in all but name. The violence, a journalist in Kosovo said, is escalating to "the worst in the last seven years." Many Yugoslavs blame the troubles on the ethnic Albanians, but the matter is more complex in a country with as many nationalities and religions as Yugoslavia's and involves economic development, law, politics, families and flags. As recently as 20 years ago, the Slavic majority treated ethnic Albanians as inferiors to be employed as hewers of wood and carriers of heating coal. The ethnic Albanians, who now number 2 million, were officially deemed a minority, not a constituent nationality, as they are today. Were the ethnic tensions restricted to Kosovo, Yugoslavia's problems with its Albanian nationals might be more manageable. But some Yugoslavs and some ethnic Albanians believe the struggle has spread far beyond Kosovo. Macedonia, a republic to the south with a population of 1.8 million, has a restive ethnic Albanian minority of 350,000. "We've already lost western Macedonia to the Albanians," said a member of the Yugoslav party presidium, explaining that the ethnic minority had driven the Slavic Macedonians out of the region. Attacks on Slavs Last summer, the authorities in Kosovo said they documented 40 ethnic Albanian attacks on Slavs in two months. In the last two years, 320 ethnic Albanians have been sentenced for political crimes, nearly half of them characterized as severe. In one incident, Fadil Hoxha, once the leading politician of ethnic Albanian origin in Yugoslavia, joked at an official dinner in Prizren last year that Serbian women should be used to satisfy potential ethnic Albanian rapists. After his quip was reported this October, Serbian women in Kosovo protested, and Mr. Hoxha was dismissed from the Communist Party. As a precaution, the central authorities dispatched 380 riot police officers to the Kosovo region for the first time in four years. Officials in Belgrade view the ethnic Albanian challenge as imperiling the foundations of the multinational experiment called federal Yugoslavia, which consists of six republics and two provinces. 'Lebanonizing' of Yugoslavia High-ranking officials have spoken of the "Lebanonizing" of their country and have compared its troubles to the strife in Northern Ireland. Borislav Jovic, a member of the Serbian party's presidency, spoke in an interview of the prospect of "two Albanias, one north and one south, like divided Germany or Korea," and of "practically the breakup of Yugoslavia." He added: "Time is working against us." The federal Secretary for National Defense, Fleet Adm. Branko Mamula, told the army's party organization in September of efforts by ethnic Albanians to subvert the armed forces. "Between 1981 and 1987 a total of 216 illegal organizations with 1,435 members of Albanian nationality were discovered in the Yugoslav People's Army," he said. Admiral Mamula said ethnic Albanian subversives had been preparing for "killing officers and soldiers, poisoning food and water, sabotage, breaking into weapons arsenals and stealing arms and ammunition, desertion and causing flagrant nationalist incidents in army units." Concerns Over Military Coming three weeks after the ethnic Albanian draftee, Aziz Kelmendi, had slaughtered his Slavic comrades in the barracks at Paracin, the speech struck fear in thousands of families whose sons were about to start their mandatory year of military service. Because the Albanians have had a relatively high birth rate, one-quarter of the army's 200,000 conscripts this year are ethnic Albanians. Admiral Mamula suggested that 3,792 were potential human timebombs. He said the army had "not been provided with details relevant for assessing their behavior." But a number of Belgrade politicians said they doubted the Yugoslav armed forces would be used to intervene in Kosovo as they were to quell violent rioting in 1981 in Pristina. They reason that the army leadership is extremely reluctant to become involved in what is, in the first place, a political issue. Ethnic Albanians already control almost every phase of life in the autonomous province of Kosovo, including the police, judiciary, civil service, schools and factories. Non-Albanian visitors almost immediately feel the independence - and suspicion - of the ethnic Albanian authorities. Region's Slavs Lack Strength While 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins still live in the province, they are scattered and lack cohesion. In the last seven years, 20,000 of them have fled the province, often leaving behind farmsteads and houses, for the safety of the Slavic north. Until September, the majority of the Serbian Communist Party leadership pursued a policy of seeking compromise with the Kosovo party hierarchy under its ethnic Albanian leader, Azem Vlasi. But during a 30-hour session of the Serbian central committee in late September, the Serbian party secretary, Slobodan Milosevic, deposed Dragisa Pavlovic, as head of Belgrade's party organization, the country's largest. Mr. Milosevic accused Mr. Pavlovic of being an appeaser who was soft on Albanian radicals. Mr. Milosevic had courted the Serbian backlash vote with speeches in Kosovo itself calling for "the policy of the hard hand." "We will go up against anti-Socialist forces, even if they call us Stalinists," Mr. Milosevic declared recently. That a Yugoslav politician would invite someone to call him a Stalinist even four decades after Tito's epochal break with Stalin, is a measure of the state into which Serbian politics have fallen. For the moment, Mr. Milosevic and his supporters appear to be staking their careers on a strategy of confrontation with the Kosovo ethnic Albanians. Other Yugoslav politicians have expressed alarm. "There is no doubt Kosovo is a problem of the whole country, a powder keg on which we all sit,"said Milan Kucan, head of the Slovenian Communist Party. Remzi Koljgeci, of the Kosovo party leadership, said in an interview in Pristina that "relations are cold" between the ethnic Albanians and Serbs of the province, that there were too many "people without hope." But many of those interviewed agreed it was also a rare opportunity for Yugoslavia to take radical political and economic steps, as Tito did when he broke with the Soviet bloc in 1948. Efforts are under way to strengthen central authority through amendments to the constitution. The League of Communists is planning an extraordinary party congress before March to address the country's grave problems. The hope is that something will be done then to exert the rule of law in Kosovo while drawing ethnic Albanians back into Yugoslavia's mainstream.
Copyright 1987 The New York Times Company
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HEADLINE: IN ONE YUGOSLAV PROVINCE, SERBS FEAR THE ETHNIC ALBANIANS April 28, 1986, Monday, Late City Final Edition SECTION: Section A; Page 13, Column 1; Foreign Desk By HENRY KAMM, Special to the New York Times The ethnic Albanian majority in the autonomous province of Kosovo is feared by the minority population of Serbs and Montenegrins, who believe the Albanians are seeking to drive them out of the province. A 1981 fire that gutted the medieval nunnery of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate in Pec, a center of Serbian national feeling, has been officially ascribed to bad construction. An aged nun at the Patriarchate said she and her sisters were convinced that the fire had been set to chase them from Kosovo. But she said the nuns would never leave, and three Serbian or Montenegrin visitors agreed with her. The provincial leadership, dominated by ethnic Albanians, has said it believes that a Serb grossly mutilated last May by a broken bottle inflicted his injuries himself while performing an auto-erotic act. The maiming of Djordje Martinovic, a 56-year-old farmer and father of three, has become the most widely discussed Yugoslav criminal case in years, debated in Parliament and covered in full detail by television and the press. Yugoslavs Blame the Albanians The case remains unsolved, but Yugoslavs' minds seem mainly made up on both incidents. They blame ethnic Albanians. They also blame them for continuing assaults, rapes and vandalism. They believe their aim is to drive non-Albanians out of Kosovo. ''A legitimized genocide against the Serbian people is being carried out in Kosovo,'' said Dobrica Cosic, a dissident novelist published here and in the United States, in an interview in Belgrade. ''More than 200,000 Serbs have been forced to leave their home in the last 10, 20 years.'' A steady exodus continues. Since Albanian nationalists went on a rampage in 1981, leaving at least nine people dead, the level of violence has declined. But enough agitation continues, punctuated by acts of violence, to make a burning issue of the antagonism between the 1.4 million ethnic Albanians and the little more than 200,000 Serbs. Under the federal Constitution, Kosovo is part of the Serbian Republic. In effect, it is as self-governing as the six republics of the nation. It is also the poorest region of Yugoslavia. Men in their 20's line the main street of Pristina - a stretch of grandiose modern buildings that separates near-slums on either side - offering to shine the shoes of passers-by who can hardly afford such luxury. Begging children accost diners in restaurants. Use of Funds Criticized The overambitious buildings, such as a recent, prematurely rundown, 300-room hotel with 3 restaurants in a little-visited town of 100,000, sustain criticism of the provincial leadership a a misuse of federal development funds. To many, the aid represents a futile effort to solve an intractable problem through financial bounty. Mohammed Mustafa, director of the Provincial Economic Planning Instititute, said there were 115,000 registered unemployed out of a potential work force of 804,000. The economic growth rate has been 1.5 percent a year since 1980, while the population is growing at 2.5 percent, he said. The average wage is 20 percent below the national average. ''Kosovo is Yugoslavia's single greatest problem,'' said a Western diplomat. ''They can pay off their huge debt, but Kosovo defies solution.'' Serbs and Montenegrins feel beleaguered. Communists and non-Communists express distrust of the provincial leadership and chagrin over the federal and Serbian authorities who in their opinion do nothing to halt increasing Albanian domination over a multi-national population and lands that are historically inseparable from Serbian national identity. Restrictive Atmosphere Non-Albanian Yugoslav residents and visitors characterize the atmosphere of Kosovo as frighteningly restrictive and its Communist leadership as so dogmatic as to resemble the rigorously Stalinist regime that holds power in nearby Albania. In contrast to officials elsewhere in Yugoslavia, who readily acknowledge problems and errors and de-emphasize ideology in favor of pragmatism, a leading Kosovo official, Ekrem Arifi, offered an entirely ideological explanation of Kosovo's problems. In prepared statements that took the place of replies to questions, he blamed outside forces for all difficulties -agents of Albania and emigres in the West. Mr. Arifi, executive secretary of the provincial party, spoke in Albanian and in stock phrases long out of use in Yugoslavia, such as ''proletarian internationalism,'' ''the class enemy'' or ''the solidarity of the working class.'' They are not echoed by the non-Albanian population. Asked whether the nuns felt safe in their rebuilt convent, the old nun replied, ''Yes, with God's help.''

From the NYTimes and Roger Cohen:

To the last, a solitary death yesterday in a United Nations cell near an international court he derided, Slobodan Milosevic clung to the notion that all the Balkan destruction he ignited and presided over was no more than a response to aggression against his long-suffering Serbian people..."Nobody should dare to beat you," Mr. Milosevic declared in Kosovo on April 24, 1987, to thunderous cries of "Slobo" from the Serbian crowd. "Your ancestors would be defiled," he said, if Kosovo Albanians had their way. I really wish that people would research the accurate context for this speech before hauling it again to help support their--wrong--assertions.
The words had a ring to them and set a bloody tide in motion. But it is precisely the past noble deeds of Serbs — not least those during World War I that led to the very creation of Yugoslavia — that have been most defiled by Mr. Milosevic's crushing defeat and failure in the name of a terrible but persistent Serbian illusion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/international/europe/12assess.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Can we PLEASE stop painting everyone in the country with the same GDMF brush?
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-milosevic12mar12,0,6670060.story?track=tothtml
From the Los Angeles Times
Milosevic's Death Kindles Old Tensions
The former Serbian leader, on trial since 2002, dies in prison. Backers suspect foul play, but victims say justice has been denied.
By Alissa J. Rubin and Zoran CirjakovicSpecial to The TimesMarch 12, 2006BELGRADE, Serbia and Montenegro — Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was found dead Saturday in the prison cell where he had spent his final years facing trial on genocide and war crimes charges for his role in the nationalist wars that racked the Balkans in the 1990s.His death in the Netherlands before the long-running trial could end is certain to haunt the region: His victims believe that justice has been thwarted, and his fellow Serbs are divided between those who want to forget the past and those who think Milosevic was himself a victim of an unfair international court.Within hours of his death, apparently of natural causes, Serbian radio and television aired an interview with his lawyer, who said that Milosevic believed he was being poisoned.The assertions made it all but inevitable that the Serbs' sense of victimhood will continue to shadow the region and make unlikely any full reckoning with the past.

Funny, most of the Serbs that I know fall into none of these categories. Who are these idiots interviewing--people on delPonte's payroll?

Here's the "official" line...
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The chief UN war crimes prosecutor said on Sunday it was possible Slobodan Milosevic had committed suicide and his death made it all the more urgent to catch others blamed for the horrors of the Balkan wars.
Carla del Ponte said the former Yugoslav president might have wanted to thwart the impending verdict in his marathon war crimes trial, which she said she expected to be one of guilty, followed by a life sentence.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060312/ts_nm/warcrimes_milosevic_dc

The plot thickens, so to speak...
Traces of a drug used to treat leprosy and tuberculosis were found in a blood sample taken in recent months from former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a Dutch news report said, citing an unidentified "adviser" to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.
The report came hours after Milosevic's legal adviser showed journalists a letter the late Serb leader wrote Friday, one day before his body was discovered in prison, alleging that he was being poisoned.
The report was on the text service of the Dutch state broadcaster, NOS. It did not identify its source further...The NOS report did not identify the drug found in Milosevic's blood "in a test done in recent months," but said it could have had a "neutralizing effect" on his other medications.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060312/ap_on_re_eu/milosevic&printer=1;_ylt=AmDOtwzHoo5cQjr4eA7WNCJbbBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Milosevic carried his defiance to the end
By Douglas Hamilton Sat Mar 11, 9:10 AM ET
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Intelligent, ruthless and compulsively defiant,
Slobodan Milosevic carried his momentous gambles to the brink of disaster and beyond during a decade of useless wars, vainly resisting the breakup of Yugoslavia.
When they landed him in The Hague, accused of masterminding ethnic cleansing in the Balkans in the 1990s, Milosevic snarled like a beast at bay. "That's your problem," he rasped at the judges vainly trying to persuade him to enter a plea.
The former Serbian and Yugoslav president dismissed the UN war crimes tribunal as a venue for "victor's justice." But that did not stop him jousting with witnesses and prosecutors.
It was rather like his first love, politics. Stubbornly conducting his own case he grew more and more ill. After frequent bouts of high blood pressure and heart problems, his doctors tried to have him moved to Moscow for treatment, but the Hague tribunal last month turned down the request.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060311/ts_nm/warcrimes_milosevic_obituary_dc&printer=1;_ylt=At6zfTytTbcniQOhdDhOrKVg.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

The death of Slobodan Milosevic does not change the need for Serbia and Montenegro to come to terms with its past, the Austrian presidency of the European Union said.
"This does not change or alter in any way the need to come to terms with the past, with the legacy of which Slobodan Milosevic has been a part," said Ursula Plassnik, foreign minister of Austria, which holds the rotating EU chair.
"This will be one of the big challenges ahead for the region in order to reach what is the ultimate goal we are all working on, and this is lasting peace and reconciliation," she said at a news conference during an EU foreign minister meeting.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/eu-says-serbia-must-still-come-to-terms-with-past/2006/03/12/1141701742519.html#
All the Serbs are sad, apparently....
In Milosevic's homeland, Serbia, the former president's supporters declared his death a "huge loss" for the Balkan country and its people, and blamed it on the UN tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, where he was being tried for genocide.
but everyone else isn't....
However, in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, which were ravaged by the conflicts masterminded and fuelled by Milosevic, officials and ordinary citizens alike said his death brought some justice to the victims.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/03/11/pf-1483219.html

Kosovo's parliament elected Agim Ceku, a former guerrilla commander whom Serbia accuses of war crimes, as the province's prime minister...Ceku, who led ethnic Albanian rebels against Serbian forces during Kosovo's 1998-1999 war, was nominated prime minister last week after Bajram Kosumi was forced into resigning by his own party...The international community has insisted Kosovo's political changes were an internal matter, but Ceku won the key support of Western diplomats because they believe he is the man that can best push through democratic reforms in the province. Funny how things become "internal matters" when it is convenient to the West's agenda, isn't it?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060310/wl_afp/kosovopolitics_060310162002&printer=1;_ylt=Al8zViRz0RTkgjzNFSTIDNCROrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

And we punish an entire country for genocide HOW? Remember WWII, anyone?
World Court launches Bosnia genocide case
27/02/2006 19:30
By Emma Thomasson
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Bosnia accused Serbia and Montenegro of taking non-Serbs on a "path to hell" in the 1992-95 Bosnian war as the highest U.N. court launched its first hearings on Monday into state-sponsored genocide...
"The armed violence which hit our country like a man-made tsunami in 1992 ... destroyed the character of Bosnia and Herzegovina and certainly destroyed a substantial part of its non-Serb population," Bosnia lawyer Sakib Softic told the court.
"The Belgrade authorities have knowingly taken the non-Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina on a path to hell, a path littered with dead bodies, broken families, lost youths, lost future, destroyed places of cultural and religious worship."
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/news/newswire.php/news/reuters/2006/02/27/world/worldcourtlaunchesbosniagenocidecase.html

Serbia-Montenegro uses “civil war” argument 16:36 March 10 Beta
THE HAGUE -- Friday – In the continuation of Serbia-Montenegro’s defence against charges of genocide filed by Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Serbia-Montenegro legal team argued that the war in Bosnia was not a result of outside aggression, but rather, a civil war between three ethnic communities... Stojanovic said that the goal of the war on all sides was to take and control territory that each side thought had belonged to them. Muslims believed that they had the rights to all of Bosnia-Herzegovina while Serbs and Croats maintained that the regions in which they were the majority group, were rightfully theirs, Stojanovic said.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id=34021&order=priority&style=headlines

Deputy leader of the Serbian Radical Party Tomislav Nikolic said that someone made a decision that Serbs at the Hague Tribunal have no rights. "Serbs at the Tribunal are not people. Someone decided to keep Milosevic at the Hague Tribunal, even if it meant that he would die. This opens up many questions, especially the question of two consecutive deaths, first Milan Babic and now Slobodan Milosevic, what is actually happening at the Hague Tribunal, and what will happen to the rest of the prisoners in the future. I am very concerned for their futures." Nikolic said.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?version=print&order=priority

This argument is an interesting one--true, Milosevic was definitely corrupt, but the Tribunal has certainly focused more on Serbs than Croats or Bosnians. A bit extreme in the language, but worth thinking about....

Ding, dong, the witch is dead....

I knew it would take a big event to get my attention. All of the recent posturing over "give us Mladic" had gotten old. Well, my wish was granted.

Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, the so-called "butcher of the Balkans" being tried for war crimes after orchestrating a decade of bloodshed during his country's breakup, was found dead Saturday in his prison cell. He was 64.
Milosevic, who suffered chronic heart ailments and high blood pressure, apparently died of natural causes and was found in his bed, the U.N. tribunal said, without giving an exact time of death.
He had been examined following frequent complaints of fatigue or ill health that delayed his trial, but the tribunal could not immediately say when his last medical checkup was. All detainees at the center in Scheveningen are checked by a guard every half hour.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060311/ap_on_re_eu/milosevic&printer=1;_ylt=At7JnUsHmK9HACViLlp8OHpbbBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

His trial, which has continued in fits and starts since it began in February 2002, recessed just last week while the court weighed whether to grant his request to subpoena former President Bill Clinton as a witness.
Mr. Milosevic had complained in recent weeks that his health was worsening, and he pressed the court to allow him to seek treatment at the Bakoulev Scientific Center for Cardiovascular Surgery in Moscow, where his wife and son live. But the court denied his request, saying there was no reason that Russian doctors could not come to The Hague to treat him — a decision the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized Saturday after Mr. Milosevic's death.
On Saturday, one of his lawyers, Steven Kay, said he had recently talked with Mr. Milosevic about whether he had been thinking about suicide.
"He said to me a few weeks ago, 'I haven't fought this case for as long as I have with any intention to do any harm to myself,' " BBC television quoted Mr. Kay as saying. "He has a history of suicide in his family — both his parents — but as far as he was concerned, his attitude to me was quite the opposite from that. He was determined to keep fighting his case."
Less than a week ago, a crucial witness in Mr. Milosevic's trial, the former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, who was a serving a 13-year sentence in the same prison, committed suicide in his cell.
The tribunal said Saturday that it would not give a news conference about Mr. Milosevic's death, continuing a recent pattern of only terse communication that brought criticism after Mr. Babic killed himself.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/international/europe/12hague.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Law and Order: CI

Just watched an episode of Law and Order: CI, yesterday in which the ultimate bad guy was your typical "Serb": member of a paramilitary group who raped women for fun. The irony: one of the headline articles in the file that they used to condemn him said "Rape of Serbian Women"--now, why would so-called "bad Serbs" be raping their own?

I am getting tired of this.

This little story almost got past me--thank God for Yahoo! news alerts:

From the NYT--30 August, 2005
When two Serbs were killed last weekend in a shooting in Kosovo, Kostunica and Boris Tadic, the Serbian president, rushed to issue statements of outrage. In essence, their message was that the incident demonstrated how far Kosovo remains from the basic standards Europe and the United States demand of any community with ambitions to self-governance. They had a point.
The problem, however, is that Serbia, ever quick to denounce ethnic Albanian "terrorism" in Kosovo, has scarcely begun to confront the crimes it committed on a vast scale in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s.
A video of Serbs killing Muslims at Srebrenica, shown in June at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, provoked a shock here. That was salutary. It was also a terrible indictment of the degree of Serbian ignorance a decade after the Bosnian war. Six Bosnian Muslims being shot in 1995 were shown in the video. Six! In the early months of the Bosnian war in 1992, tens of thousands of Muslims were driven from their homes, herded into camps and selectively killed. Over that murderous campaign silence reigns. From Kostunica down, obfuscation of the "They-killed-us-we-killed-them" variety is still encouraged....
Within the army, younger officers, with an eye on potential NATO membership, favor Mladic's handover. But older officers cannot accept his capture. "They say they will never accept the arrest of a man with whom they fought in Bosnia," said the army member.
That's interesting. One of Serbia's, and Milosevic's, many fictions is that the Yugoslav Army never fought in Bosnia and the campaign there had nothing to do with Belgrade. Nonsense, of course, but Serbia remains ambivalent about reality. Maybe the real question is just whose reality they are supposedly ambivalent about. There are several so-called "realities" in my own country which don't exactly thrill me to the marrow of my bones--am I supposed to embrace them as gospel because someone in power tells me to?
http://www.nytimes.com/iht/2005/08/31/international/IHT-31globalist.html?pagewanted=print

Sorry--been a busy couple of weeks. However, nothing has changed much, news-wise....

A US war crimes envoy yesterday again urged Serbia to arrest the two top Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitives sought by a UN tribunal. US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, Pierre Richard Prosper, said that Serbia-Montenegro cannot move forward into the European Union and NATO without the capture of wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander General Ratko Mladic.
http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=56387&LangID=1
Blah, blah, blah...Mladic...blah...blah...Karazdic+
Well, there was that whole bit with Marko Milosevic getting pardoned. THAT really pissed some people off.

Leskovac, 24 August: Archaeologist teams have discovered three massive objects made of iron, which date back to the end of the 14th century BC, at the Hisar hill near Leskovac.
http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=219485
Wonder how long it will be until they link those "objects" to something bad?

Why don't I like the sound of this?

US seeks military base in Serbia 11:13 August 12 B92
BELGRADE -- Friday – The US is seeking an agreement to base troops in Serbia-Montenegro. The draft agreement was presented yesterday by US Ambassador Michael Polt under the guise of “an agreement on security cooperation”. The draft deal sets out details of the rights of US troops who would be stationed in Serbia-Montenegro. In return the US is dangling the carrot of membership in NATO Lite, the Alliance’s Partnership for Peace program. The other condition for membership of the program is the extradition of Hague Tribunal defendant Ratko Mladic.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php

Another un-Wanted representation

Last night, on the new TNT series Wanted, the plot centered around three Bosnian Serbs who were sent to execute a man living in the US who was going to testify against one of Milosevic's generals at the Hague. A logical, contemporary plot, right? So, what was so troubling? These three guys, as part of their actions, shot up a bank, killed a woman passerby and her baby (in its stroller), emptied an entire clip from a modified automatic M-6 into the face of the guy they were there to kill, then went to the house of the dead guy's daughter (who had no other relationship to the plot--she came in out of the blue) and killed her, her husband, and her 14-year old daughter. Basically, everyone these guys came in contact with, they killed.

Now, Wanted's entire premise centers around extremely violent criminals, and they play the "kids getting hurt" card because the lead has kids and it gives motivation for character-building scenes. However, I find this type of representation of "the Serb" to be more of the same-old, same-old in terms of stereotypes. The "Muslim terrorists" on 24 in season three killed as many people in the entire season as these three guys did in an hour. That seems to me to be a bit excessive.

Operation Storm--Ten Years Later
Hague Tribunal Representative Aleksandra Milenov, speaking at a Serb refugee camp outside Belgrade, on the indictment of Croats responsible for war crimes during Operation Storm (whose anniversary is today):
“The Tribunal, unfortunately, cannot issue indictment for all war criminals. The Tribunal focuses on those that it feels are most responsible.” Milenov said.
?????
Seventy percent of the refugees living in these camps in Serbia are from Croatia.

Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said that Croatia had every right, according to UN resolutions, to implement the Storm operation. “This action was exceptionally prepared, under all guidelines of war, and was implemented to quickly break the resistance of the aggressor and was carried out while following all international conventions. Unfortunately, after the operation, there were excesses, war crimes and robberies. This was already taken care of in court, but was not completed and now is the time to do so.” Mesic said.
Ten years after the Storm 15:16 -> 20:50 August 04 B92
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php

They seem so sure....

Ilic awaits Karadzic’s surrender 14:42 August 01 B92

BELGRADE, LONDON -- Monday – Serbian Capital Investments Minister Velimir Ilic expects that Hague fugitive Radovan Karadzic will soon turn himself in to The Hague Tribunal.

Ilic also reiterated the Serbian government’s stance that it truly does not know where Ratko Mladic is hiding, and therefore, is not negotiating a surrender with him.

The Republic of Srpska’s Internal Affairs Ministry official Radovan Pejic could not confirm if any new advances have been made in the search for Karadzic since his wife Ljiljana Zelen Karadzic made a plea last week for Radovan to surrender himself to the authorities for the sake of their family. Pejic did however restate that full cooperation with The Hague Tribunal is of utmost importance.

The British daily Independent writes that Radovan Karadzic’s days of freedom are numbered.

A well-informed source claims that his wife’s call on him to surrender could end his eight years of hiding and have him in the custody of the Tribunal by as soon as the end of this week.

Political analysts and officials say that there is more than one reason behind Ljiljana Zelen’s statement made last week, who has until now, always shown full support for her husband and his fugitive status. Some believe that the family’s poor financial situation is most responsible for her move, since the many years of hiding Karadzic definitely cost the family a lot of money, said the source of the daily, adding that the web of people which has been helping Karadzic hide is beginning to collapse.

An anniversary to remember:

On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. World War I began as declarations of war by other European nations quickly followed.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0728.html#article

When all else fails, call in the family....
Karadzic’s wife calls for surrender 22:17 Beta
PALE -- Thursday – Radovan Karadzic’s wife Ljiljana has called on her husband to surrender himself to The Hague Tribunal “for their family’s sake.”

Ljiljana Zelen Karadzic, who has been helping hide her husband for the last ten years, gave an exclusive interview to the Associated Press from her home in Pale.

“Our family is under constant pressure from all sides. Our lives and existence are in constant danger.” she said.

We are living in a state of worry, pain and suffering. This is why I had to choose between loyalty towards you and the family. It is very hard for me to ask you, but I am asking you with all my heart and soul to turn yourself in.” Ljiljana told the AP.

“This will be a sacrifice for us and our family. In hopes that you are alive and can decide on your own, I beg you to make a decision and do it for our sake. In all my helplessness, all I can say to you is: I beg you.” she said.

Karadzic’s brother Luka said that he does not agree with Ljiljana Zelen Karadzic’s call for Radovan to surrender and believes that it is a result of pressure being put on the family to do so.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?order=priority

The Germans report on Karazdic's wife's plea: "Es ist schmerzhaft und schwierig, dich dazu aufzufordern, aber ich bitte dich dennoch von ganzem Herzen, dich dem Tribunal zu stellen", sagte Karadzics Frau, die ganz in Schwarz gekleidet war. Ihr Mann solle dieses "Opfer" für seine Familie bringen. Ohne Einzelheiten zu nennen, sagte Ljiljana Karadzic, die Familie sei in Gefahr, sie lebe in einer "Atmosphäre ständiger Beunruhigung". http://de.news.yahoo.com/050728/286/4mpq4.html

In case you weren't aware....

In 1997, Osama bin Laden visited Albania to help establish the Kosovo Liberation Army. He provided between $500 million to $700 million and – according to an upcoming book by Paul L. Williams, "The Al Qaeda Connection" – 500 seasoned Arab Afghan troops to train KLA recruits at the al-Qaida headquarters in Albania and at another camp in Macedonia.

Understand the KLA was, from its creation by bin Laden, a jihadist terrorist group.

Here's how Williams tells the story from here:

At this point in the twisted history of Kosovo, the CIA and the Clinton administration began to view the KLA as an army of 'freedom fighters' and offered aid in the form of military training and field advice. The United States, unbeknown to the American people, was now in league with a group that contained enemies who were intent upon its destruction. They were generally not the innocent people who had been targeted and attacked by the Serbs.

A year later, with help from both al-Qaida and the United States, the KLA had an army of 30,000 with sophisticated weaponry, including anti-tank rocket launchers, mortars, recoilless rifles and anti-aircraft machine guns. Naturally, they began to use them – conducting hit-and-run attacks on Serbian special-forces police units.

Slobodan Milosevic, the president of Serbia, responded by burning homes and killing dozens of ethnic Albanians. Soon, there was a little war raging – "culminating," Williams writes, "in the infamous 'Racak Massacre' of Jan. 15, 1999, when the bodies of 45 Albanians were discovered in a gully within the village of Racak."

Milosevic insisted the bodies had been placed there by the KLA to implicate the Serbs and justify Western intervention. In fact, European papers found his claim was supported by the unnatural position of the bodies, the absence of cartridge shells and the inability of Racak villagers to identify the bodies.

But, this time, Clinton wasn't going to sit on the sidelines and watch a genocide take place as he had done in Rwanda. On the basis of this "evidence" and amid international outcries of ethnic cleansing, the United States and its European allies became militarily involved – not as "peacemakers," mind you, but as partisans in an ethnic and religious conflict initiated by al-Qaida.

At a cost exceeding $4 billion, NATO forces soon reduced Kosovo to rubble, flying 37,465 missions, destroying 400 Serbian artillery positions, 270 armored personnel carriers, 150 tanks, 100 planes, killing 10,000 Serbian soldiers and causing 1.4 million Kosovars to flee for their lives. Williams calls it "the greatest mass migration since World War II."

For the full article, go to

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45446

This is an interesting little story:


Serbia’a Image in the World


EXIT festival gathers young people from all over the world The image of Serbia in the European countries and the US is chiefly related to war, poverty and instability, and there is a stereotyping of Serbs as aggressive and war-mongering nation, show the results of a poll conducted by “Exit Team” and “TraNSfer” Club od Psychology Students during the EXIT 05 Music Festival. The poll was conducted on a sample of 900 Serbian and foreign citizens that visited “EXIT”. Among the foreign nationals, the majority came from the former Yugoslavia republics. The image of Serbia in Croatia is very negative and is related to the consequences of war and the “Chetnik” movement, which is an opinion of 70% of the polled Croatians. The opinions of the B&H citizens are divided, with 25% holding Serbia in positive regard. In Macedonia and Slovenia, the perception of Serbia is very positive, and the polled Macedonians and Slovenians believe that the Serbs, in general, are very friendly people. Positive view of Serbia is held by the other Eastern countries (Greece, Bulgaria and Romania) and their citizens cite the similar behaviour and worldview as the most positive feature. The “Exit” release for the media says that the visitors from Western Europe and the US often think that the war has never stopped in the region, although there are those who think that Serbia’s image in the world follows a positive trend and is improving. Almost one half of “EXIT” visitors are from the city of Novi Sad, and one in ten is a foreign national. One half of the foreigners are citizens of the states of former Yugoslavia. Over 80 percent of the visitors are young people between 20 and 30 years of age; 13 percent are younger than 20, shows the poll.
http://see.oneworld.net/article/view/115964/1/

Is they is or is they ain't negotiating with Mladic? First, we have this story:
“Negotiations under way” with Mladic 11:42 July 22 B92
BELGRADE -- Friday – Negotiations are between conducted for the surrender of Hague Tribunal fugitive Ratko Mladic, the director of the Humanitarian Law Centre said today. Natasa Kandic, speaking on TV B92, said that the negotiations were either being conducted directly or by someone authorised by the Cabinet to negotiate with Mladic’s associates. The open question, she said, was whether the decision would for Mladic to completely disappear or to receive money in return for his surrender. She claims that Mladic’s people “are counting on the five million dollar reward which the US Government has pledged for information on Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, and one condition sought is the place where Mladic’s prison sentence will be served”. Kandic says that she does not believe anyone from the present government who says they don’t know where the former Bosnian Serb military commander is. “I think that the situation is such that the authorities could repeat from morning to night that they have no information on the whereabouts of Mladic and Karadzic, but the question is who will believe it. It’s so obvious, that know they’re claiming they don’t know, he was here somewhere nearby, it’s easy to see where he was,” she said. During Boris Tadic’s period as defence minister he knew where Mladic was, Kandic believes: “I think that Tadic was in some situations where he could not talk about what he knew. I believe that even he knew where Mladic was and under whose protection. I don’t believe that the late prime minister Zoran Djindjic didn’t know. Everyone had at least some information about where Mladic was located,” she added. Meanwhile, the press representative of the Hague Tribunal Prosecution says that Mladic is in Serbia and that because of this is it is unacceptable that he has not been arrested. Florence Hartman told Belgrade daily Danas that Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte had told the UN Security Council that the political will in Serbia for voluntary surrenders was limited. “It’s now the case that there are no more voluntary surrenders,” she added.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?dd=22&mm=7&yyyy=2005

Then, we get this story:
“We know nothing” 13:29 July 25 Beta
BELGRADE -- Monday – Serbian Human Rights Minister Rasim Ljajic said that the government is not negotiating with Hague fugitive Ratko Mladic and that it has no information regarding his whereabouts. Ljajic, who is also president of the National Hague cooperation council, said that the government has never worked more intensively on trying to locate Mladic. “Among the locations we will be checking in looking for Mladic will be several security structures of the international community.” Ljajic said. “It is not true that Prime Minister Kostunica is the only one responsible for the fact that Mladic is still at large, the entire Democratic Opposition of Serbia knew where he was at one point. It is possible that there are individuals who are still helping to protect Mladic, but there is no organized structure within the military that is helping him hide.” Ljajic told daily Blic.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?dd=25&mm=7&yyyy=2005

Wonder who started THAT little rumor?

???? Now we are going to start THIS?
List of Serbs wanted in Croatia published 16:59 July 19 B92 PODGORICA, BELGRADE -- Tuesday – Podgorica daily Dan has published a list of Serbia-Montenegro citizens sought by Croatia on suspicion of being responsible for war crimes. There are 1,993 names on the list, which Dan quotes Belgrade’s ambassador to Zagreb as saying fall into three categories – people under investigation, people charged and convicted people. Meanwhile the political advisor to the Croatian ambassador to Belgrade, Romana Vlahutin, has denied the authenticity of the list saying that in f act there are less than a thousand people involved. http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id=32478&order=priority&style=headlines

Well, well--here's something you don't see every day:
Tue Jul 19, 2:12 PM ET
A former Bosnian Croat special forces soldier pleaded guilty Tuesday to war crimes at the Yugoslav tribunal as part of a deal with prosecutors.
"I'm guilty, and I honestly regret it," Miroslav Bralo told the court as eight separate counts were read aloud by the judge. Prosecutors agreed to reduce the number of counts in his indictment from an initial 21, but added additional charges of persecution and unlawful confinement of prisoners.
Bralo, 37, confessed to rape, torture, murder and using prisoners as human shields to protect Bosnian Croat soldiers from sniper fire...The arrangement enables the court to skip the usually lengthy trial stage and go directly to sentencing. Bralo could face a maximum life sentence under the court's guidelines but is unlikely to do so because he confessed guilt and expressed remorse.
How lucky for him....
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050719/ap_on_re_eu/bosnia_war_crimes_2

Then again,
After a yearlong trial, a special court in Belgrade on Monday found Milorad Lukovic, one of Milosevic's senior paramilitary commanders, and Rade Markovic, a former head of Serbia's secret service, guilty of planning and carrying out the August 2000 assassination, along with five others...Human rights activists and former opponents of Milosevic's autocratic rule said that the trial had exposed to the Serbian public, in unparalleled detail, the ruthlessness with which the former Yugoslav strongman had sought to remain in power.
Somehow, I wonder if they didn't already know that....
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/19/news/serbs.php

Wait! What's it really all about, though? MONEY.
2005-07-19 16:29:09
Authorities in Kosovo put a winery, a road construction company and more than a dozen other enterprises up for sale , hoping to boost productivity and create jobs in this economically depressed province, Forbes reported.
http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=56062&LangID=1

Great, just what we needed, more NATO:

B92
News by priority, July 18, 2005 - page 1
Scheffer and Draskovic today signed an agreement for NATO forces to lay communication lines across the territory of Serbia-Montenegro. “This agreement makes it possible for NATO forces, including KFOR, to respond wherever needed in the region if human rights and peace are endangered. If there is new violence in Kosovo, this agreement makes it easier for NATO forces to react,” said the foreign minister. Scheffer described the agreement as being of the greatest significant for NATO which, as already announced will stay in Kosovo, because the province will be a long-term responsibility of NATO. A further agreement is to be signed in the near future between NATO and Serbia-Montenegro on the exchange of confidential and security information.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?version=print&

And it isn't even a Serb who says it, this time--I bet somebody out there is VERY unhappy....
No genocide in Srebrenica? 19:15 July 15 Beta, Blic
BELGRADE -- Friday – Former commander of the international peace forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lewis MacKenzie, said that “not even close” to 8,000 Muslims were killed in Srebrenica. According to daily Blic, the Canadian general claims that the armed forces of Naser Oric killed several thousands of Serbian civilians. MacKenzie said that Oric “is responsible for the deaths of as many Serb civilians in the Srebrenica region as the Bosnian Serbs are responsible for killing Muslims in Srebrenica.” MacKenzie said that the actual events in Srebrenica in July 1995 are far from what the media has been claiming to have happened. “I was there, I know what was happening and I wanted to show that it’s not all black and white, that the ‘bad people’ did not show up all of a sudden and kill the ‘good people.’ The situation was a lot more complex than that.” MacKenzie said. He added that he has no problem with accusing Ratko Mladic for war crimes against Muslim civilians but believes that those who committed crimes against Serbian civilians must be prosecuted as well.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php

July 15 - War makes the winners right and the losers wrong. That's especially true in a civil war, where the winners will get to write the history books, and the losers will have to send their kids to schools that teach from them. But what happens when such a war ends without a victory, as happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 years ago? There each of the three sides, Muslim, Croat and Serb, have created their own versions of history and their own monuments to competing heroes. That makes for a pretty ugly bronze landscape under the postwar pigeon-droppings. In Bosnia today, one side's indicted war criminal is likely to be another side's war hero.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8586621/site/newsweek/

More reflections on Srebrenica from the Christian Science Monitor:
Now 10 years later, many witnesses and survivors are eager to remind the world that Srebrenica was not, as it is sometimes presented, an isolated horror conducted by a clutch of crazy hillbillies - nor simply the worst slaughter in Europe in 50 years.
Rather, they see it as an extension of a racial superiority campaign, and sparked by sophisticated Serb hate propaganda in Belgrade that acted like a blowtorch on a bale of hay in the Balkans.
*************************
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by the UN Security Council in 1993. Former president Slobodan Milosevic's trial is ongoing, but 10 key suspects remain at large.
The ICTY has successfully handled dozens of cases. The maximum sentence that can be imposed is life imprisonment.
Tribunal Indictments to date: 162
Judgments rendered: 55
Sentenced: 37
Acquitted: 2
Not Guilty: 3
Appealing: 13
Recused: 2
Source: ICTY
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/csm/20050714/wl_csm/ojusticex_1

Because, in the end, it's all about one bankrupt nation extracting money from another bankrupt nation while nations with money watch:
Bosnia-Herzegovina does not have enough money to lead a case against Serbia-Montenegro in front of the International Court of Law in The Hague.
http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=56031&LangID=1

Serbs only recently began to recognize this orchestrated massacre, one that triggered the US-led end to the 1992-95 Bosnia war. It's taken a long time for Serbs to break through their nationalist fervor built up by deposed strongman Slobodan Milosevic. While many Serbs were also victims in the war, the slaughter at the Bosnian town of Srebrenica was in a league by itself as a war crime.
from the July 12, 2005 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0712/p08s03-comv.html

Not much else in the papers today...what did I tell you?

After yesterday’s ten-year commemoration for the Muslim victims of Srebrenica, tribute will be paid today to Serbian civilians who lost their lives in Bratunac. The ceremony took place at a military cemetery and a church service was given for Serbs who lost their lives in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the regions of Srebrenica, Bratunac and Milic. The service was attended by political leaders from the Republic of Srpska, Serbian officials from the Bosnia-Herzegovina government, a delegation from Serbia, and several thousands onlookers. There were no international officials present even though invitations were sent out to all embassies in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Serbian victims commemorated 12:58 July 12 B92, Beta
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php

The irony of the date is not lost on me--and could perhaps have been intentional? Could the lawyers not have known what he was going to say? What better way to fan the flames?
A defence witness at the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic denied on Monday that Bosnian Serb forces slaughtered 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica 10 years ago.
Bozidar Delic, a retired Yugoslav army general..."That's your observation. I do not accept that," Delic told the court. "I accept that two to three thousand Serbs were killed in the Srebrenica area and several thousand Muslims, but most of them were killed in fighting."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11306288.htm

Glad to see that the Brits can remain objective and non-inflammatory in their language:
"What's all the fuss about?" shrugged the young Srebrenica Serb yesterday as the town swelled with Bosnian mourners...
"This is all just a publicity stunt," snorted Mando, 28. "Sure, people were killed, but why make all this noise? There were 3,600 Serbs killed here. Some say 8,000 Muslims were killed, that it was genocide. But the figures are exaggerated. No one knows the truth. That's a game for kids. All this fuss just gives me a sore head."
Like many of the Serbs of Srebrenica, Mando still cannot face the truth about his small home town a decade after the Serbs murdered up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim males within a week in what many see as the gravest political massacre in Europe in the second half of the 20th century...
In what western diplomats in the Serbian capital described as a disgrace, the Serbian parliament was unable to agree on a statement condemning the crime.
Last week the government of prime minister Vojislav Kostunica finally released a statement deploring war crimes and equating the Srebrenica massacre with the killings of Serbs in the region during the Bosnian war.
The aim was not to excuse or justify Srebrenica, but to relativise and belittle a crime which judges in The Hague have classified as genocide, the sole such event in the Yugoslav wars of the 90s to warrant that category.
"Ach, genocide," snorts Mando. "Who knows?"
At the weekend in Belgrade thousands of Serbs gathered in a conference hall to watch a film called The Truth with a Wagner soundtrack and to claim that the Serbs were the real victims. A Belgrade newspaper recently published a 16-page supplement entitled The Book of the Dead, listing 3,287 Serbs from the Srebrenica region who died during the Bosnian war.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/yugo/article/0,2763,1525853,00.html?gusrc=rss

Various articles about the commemoration:
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the massacre as many as 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica — Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. And although the anniversary finds most of Serbia, in whose name it was committed, still avoiding a true accounting of was perpetrated at Srebrenica and by whom, there are encouraging signs that the façade of denial may have suffered irreparable cracks.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1081303,00.html?promoid=rss_top

"When condemning crimes, it is of decisive importance not to distinguish between innocent victims according to their nationality or faith. The Serbian government strongly condemns all war crimes committed during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia."

In this recent statement, Belgrade did not single out the Srebrenica massacre as the worst war crime committed on European soil since the end of World War II as many had hoped. Instead, it called it a "serious crime" along with atrocities against ethnic Serbs during the war.

It's a sign that the Balkan country is still struggling to come to terms with its past despite recent signs that the war's worst criminals might finally be brought to justice.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1644313,00.html

Interesting, isn't it, that on a day meant to commemorate the victims of Srebrenica, all the press seemed able to do was talk about the perpetrators...

The NYT published a pitifully short article--the event wasn't even worthy of a major headline. The possibility of getting North Korea to the bargaining table and yet more information about the Israeli wall were apparently more important stories than the 10-year anniversary. Funny, isn't it? Srebrenica is big news whenever the West wants to put it to the Serbs, but invisible when it comes time for someone else to pay the piper....here's the link
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/international/europe/12bosnia.html?

That's enough for today--let's see who cares about Srebrenica, or Bosnia, or Serbia, for that matter, tomorrow. No fancy anniversaries to celebrate.

Srebrenica picture from Washington Post

Here's a link to an article (in Serbian) that claims the Srebrenica video is a hoax. It's published on the ICDSM Irish branch's site. The ICDSM as an organization is devoted to covering Milosevic's trial and defending him (and has made some good points about Western aggression and propoganda during the 1999 bombing). They tend to cast Milosevic as a hero, standing tall against Western imperialism, which is a bit much for me, but the article is interesting in itself. Lots of video analysis and discussion of filmaking techniques....

http://www.icdsmireland.org/resources/background/2005/srebrenica-video.htm

Also, here's a link to a Washington Post story which explains how the video came to light:

Human rights sleuth Natasa Kandic, a wisp of a woman with a boyish haircut, spent hours in the cafes of Sid, a town in northern Serbia, listening to whispered tales of Balkan war killings. Then one day, she heard about the videotape.
It showed the summary executions in 1995 of six Muslim men and boys from the Bosnian city of Srebrenica. It had been passed around as a war souvenir among members of a shadowy Serb military unit called the Scorpions. Its commander had ordered copies destroyed, but one, she was told, still existed, held by a dissident member of the unit.
Since that day in 2003, she searched until she found the video. She gave it to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is on trial, and to television stations in Serbia, where it triggered a sudden self-examination in a society that viewed itself as the prime victim of the Balkan war atrocities of the 1990s.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/24/AR2005062401501.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/srebrenica-10-years-on-a-wound-still-bleeds/2005/07/10/1120934123817.html?oneclick=true#
Today the world marks the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre - the event commonly viewed as the single largest act of genocide in Europe since the Holocaust.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/07/10/pf-1125508.html
A tear rolls down Sabaheta Fejzic's cheek as she twists open the blue tin of hand cream and gazes at the fingertip tracks left by her son. The 17-year-old and his father haven't been seen since they were taken away to the factory where Europe's worst massacre since the Second World War was being perpetrated.

Tomorrow's the day--10-year anniversary of Srebrenica--see what the NYT has to say:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/international/europe/10bosnia.html?

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AFP) - Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was presented with a 'Golden Medal of Liberty' during a ceremony in the Kosovo capital Pristina.
President Ibrahim Rugova presented the medal in honour of Albright's efforts to end a Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in the breakaway Serbian province in 1998-1999.
The war ended after a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian forces under then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw. Kosovo is now a UN protectorate but its ethnic Albanian majority still demands independence.
"She will always be respected and loved," Rugova told reporters Tuesday, after the decoration ceremony.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/050705/19/uzeh.html

What the F**K?

Bosnian Serb police have discovered explosives at the site of a memorial to the up to 8,000 victims of the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica. The explosives were uncovered early Tuesday as preparations were underway for commemoration services to mark the 10th anniversary of the killings.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-07-05voa109.cfm

Why I do this to myself I will never know.