The Agonist - Balkans

General Assembly refers Kosovo independence to world court

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:12:56 -0700

United Nations | Oct 9

AFP - The UN General Assembly voted Wednesday to ask the International Court of Justice to rule on Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia in February, as Western nations argued that independence is irreversible.

The vote in the 192-nation assembly on a Serbian resolution seeking support for the referral was 77 in favor, with six against and 74 abstentions.

The ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations and based in The Hague, rules on disputes between sovereign states.

The resolution requests the ICJ to render an advisory opinion on the question: "Is the unilateral declaration of independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo in accordance with international law?"

Slovenians Vote In Tight General Election

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:41:42 -0700

Ljubljana | Sept 21

Reuters -
Slovenians are voting for a new government on Sunday, hoping to maintain the prosperity the small Alpine country has achieved since independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.

Most polls suggest that Prime Minister Janez Jansa's ruling conservative Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) might retain its edge and get another 4-year mandate.

However, recent surveys show the opposition centre-left Social Democrats (SD) and their allies, who promise better welfare for the country's 2 million people, could together get more seats in parliament than the SDS and its partners.

Chuck Hagel Pays Attention

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 02:15:32 -0700

Someone in Washington actually is paying attention and knows what the game is about. That man is Chuck Hagel and this letter is exhibit A that should Obama win in November and should he wish to have a bi-partisan, unity-porn, government of national unity he could do no better than to nominate Chuck Hagel as Secretary of State.

You may not like his domestic positions, but his foreign policy ones are tempered by a serene and sober sense of realism and an understanding of what our capabilities are versus our desires. Hagel is no neo-con. He's a pragmatist and realist in the best senses of those words. It's time for prudence and thoughtful policy-making.

A nomination of Richard Holbrooke would be just one more neo-con in Democratic drag.

Revisionist Powers, Kosovo and Russia

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:29:04 -0700

The Editors maintain a listserve as a way of communicating with each other. Most of the time the conversations are mundane, pedestrian site-administration stuff. But every now and then someone posts a news article and an interesting discussion ensues. This evening is a case in point. Tina posted this article about Russia, the Black Sea Fleet and the Ukraine. Ian quickly chimed in with this:

I wouldn't give Sevastopol back in 2017 if I were the Russians. The Ukrainians can sign another deal, or they can lose the Crimea. Their choice.

And then I replied: "I'm with Ian. The Ukrainians f**k with Russia at their own peril."

And then Ian shot back:

More after the jump

NATO must show it ready to defend Baltics - US envoy

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:29:22 -0700

Brussels | Sept 3

Reuters - NATO must show it is prepared to defend its Baltic members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from any attack after Russia's intervention in Georgia, the U.S. ambassador to NATO was quoted as saying.

U.S. envoy Kurt Volker said in Wednesday's Financial Times that the 26-nation Western military alliance must send signals through "planning and exercises" that it intends to help shore up the Baltic states.

"Those countries are members of NATO; so if there is any attack on those countries, we will respond," Volker told the paper in an interview.

"They are feeling a little rattled by seeing Russia use military force to invade a sovereign, small neighbouring country. We need to send signals to shore them up a little bit.

"We will have to make sure ... that the Article 5 commitment is realisable, not just as a political matter, but as a military matter too," he said.

NATO's Article 5 guarantees defence of a NATO member by other members of the alliance in the event of attack.

Karadzic refuses to enter war crimes pleas at UN tribunal

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:59:55 -0700

an Traynor | Aug 29

The Guardian - Radovan Karadzic today accused the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague of being a "Nato court" that intended to "liquidate" him and refused to enter pleas on the 11 charges against him.

The Bosnian Serb genocide suspect - who was arrested last month in the Serbian capital after 13 years as Europe's most wanted war crimes fugitive - challenged the legitimacy of the court, and, as expected, refused to enter pleas on any of the 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes he is charged with.

He insisted again at today's pre-trial hearing that he would defend himself in the case.

Did Karadzic make a deal with Holbrooke?

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:58:47 -0700

As reported by the BBC:

Mr Karadzic wanted to read out a four-page speech which included details about an alleged deal with the former US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke for him to withdraw from public and literary life.

Mr Karadzic said he had wanted to appear before the tribunal when first indicted in 1996 - but was in fear of being "liquidated" if he did so, under the terms of the "deal".

The judge stopped him and said these were not matters for the initial hearing and he would get ample opportunity to explain them to the tribunal.

Serbia captures fugitive Karadzic

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:35:31 -0700

July 21

BBC - Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic has been arrested in Serbia, presidential and government sources in Belgrade say.

The Bosnian Serb wartime political leader disappeared in 1996 and was subsequently indicted by the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

He is accused of war crimes and genocide over the massacre of 7,500 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

His wartime military leader, Ratko Mladic, remains at large.

Tenacious custom of feuding isolates Albanian families

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:06:36 -0700

Dan Bilefsky | Shkoder, Albania: | July 10

IHT - Under the Kanun, an Albanian code that has been passed on for more than 500 years, "blood must be paid with blood." As a result, male relatives of the killer are prisoners in their own homes, afraid to step outside.

A victim's family is authorized to avenge a slaying by killing any of the killer's male relatives. The Kanun's influence is waning, but it served as the country's constitution for centuries, with rules governing issues including property ownership, marriage and murder.
..
Blood feuds all but disappeared in Albania during the 40-year rule of Enver Hoxha, the Communist dictator who outlawed the practice, sometimes burying those who disobeyed alive in the coffins of their victims. But legal experts in Albania say the feuds erupted again after the fall of Communism ushered in a new period of lawlessness.

UN: Balkans 'one of the safest' parts of Europe

Thu, 29 May 2008 08:13:20 -0700

Dusan Stojanovic | Belgrade, Serbia | May 29

AP - A United Nations report released Thursday says the Balkans, a region once known as a hotbed of crime and violence, has become one of the safest zones in Europe.

"The vicious circle of political instability leading to crime, and vice versa, that plagued the Balkans in the 1990s has been broken," said Antonio Maria Costa, head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which compiled the report.

The region includes 10 countries: Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in January.

The report says that the levels of crime against people and property, like homicide, robbery, rape, burglary and assault, are now lower in the Balkans than in Western Europe.

To read the report click here (PDF)

A surprising victory

Sun, 11 May 2008 17:29:14 -0700

May 12

BBC News - I'm always happy to get pleasantly surprised.
And indeed, the victory of the pro-European reform movement at the parliamentary elections in Serbia today is not only a pleasant, but a formidable surprise. Even if radical elements in the future coalition in Belgrade having some say can't be outright avoided, it's a great night for the Serbian people, who have forcefully rejected the ghosts of the past.
My criticism of the EU's policy towards Serbia, however, does not change a iota by this unexpected, but most gratifying development.

From the BBC:

Serbian reformers claim victory

Serbian President Boris Tadic has claimed victory in the general election with early results suggesting a big lead for his pro-Western alliance. Mr Tadic said Serbs had chosen the path of integration with Europe but he vowed his new government would not recognise Kosovo as an independent state.

As Serbia Votes, EU Acts as an Advance Man for Radicals

Fri, 09 May 2008 06:17:08 -0700

By Hannes Artens

No doubt, this Sunday's parliamentary elections in Serbia are the most decisive in the country's short but turbulent democratic history. Never since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic the stakes have been so high and prospects so ominous. In two days, the Serbian people will decide on whether they still envision a future in the European family of nations for their nation or decay into self-inflicted isolation and the status of a Trojan Horse for Russian great power aspirations. For the European Union, the elections will determine whether it can count on having an interlocutor in Belgrade to negotiate with past May 11, or face up to a nationalist Serbia acting as a permanent spirit of discord for the entire Western Balkans.

The unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo on February 17, sent shockwaves through the country that not only culminated in the ravage of several Western embassies and brought the government down, but also dominates this election campaign right down to the last comma on every stump. The collective national trauma of having ultimately lost the very territory mystified as the cradle of the Serbian nation and the impolitic signals the EU sent out over the last weeks render a radical-nationalist landslide a given. According to most recent polls, the nationalist bloc could bank on winning a super-majority of 55%, relegate all reform-minded powers into opposition, and set off to permanently disengage Serbia from Europe.

The Archimedes Codex unpeeled by modern technological sleuthing

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:03:24 -0700

Richard O'Mara | Baltimore, MD | April 15

CSM - Deciphering latent script on ancient parchment makes curator Will Noel's job an Indiana Jones-style adventure

This is about an ancient book called The Archimedes Codex, bought for $2.2 million in October, 1998, at an auction in New York City by an anonymous collector who sent it to the Walters Art Museum, here to be restored, conserved, and probed for its content. It was thought to contain mathematical theses conceived by the genius of Syracuse (287-212 BC), whose name it bears, ideas not found anywhere else in the world.

Serbia asks UN for partitioning of Kosovo

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:56:07 -0700

Ian Traynor | March 25

The Guardian - Serbia has formally proposed partitioning Kosovo along ethnic lines for the first time, asking the United Nations to ensure that Belgrade can control key institutions and functions in areas of the newly independent country where Serbs form a majority.

In a document sent to the UN in New York, proposed to the UN in Kosovo last week and published in the Belgrade press yesterday, the government in Belgrade insists that Serbia be allowed to control the police, the courts, the judiciary and customs in the Serbian enclaves in Kosovo and in the northern strip around the tense Serb-controlled town of Mitrovica.

Described as a blueprint for the "functional division of Serbs and Kosovo Albanians" by the Serbian minister pushing the policy, the proposal is the nearest Serbia has come to calling openly for partition, although it is working on the ground on Kosovo to make the division a reality.

Serb minister details Kosovo division proposal

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 10:51:01 -0700

Belgrade | March 22

Reuters - Serbia has proposed a plan for the "functional division of Serbs and Kosovo Albanians" in Kosovo, Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic was quoted on Saturday as saying.

He said the plan referred to all of Kosovo and was part of the government's action plan to reject Kosovo's independence, declared with Western support on February 17.

Diplomats said it amounted to a plan for partition which the West rejects.

Samardzic said Serbia respected a U.N. resolution on Kosovo which turned the province over to U.N. administration and NATO protection in 1999, and the mission that has run it ever since, known as UNMIK.