Posted on 07/22/2008 12:57:37 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
SERBIA (WABC) -- Serbia will not extradite a Serb student wanted in the United States on assault charges, the foreign minister said Monday.
Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Miladin Kovacevic would not be sent to the U.S. to face charges of severely beating a fellow university student because Serbian law does not allow extradition of its citizens.
"Kovacevic will not be extradited," Jeremic told independent B-92 television.
"Serbia is a sovereign and democratic country with an independent judiciary," Jeremic said, suggesting U.S. authorities should hand over the case file so Kovacevic could be prosecuted in Serbia.
Kovacevic, 20, had been recruited to play basketball for Binghamton University in northern New York state, but fled the U.S. in early June after being charged in the beating of Bryan Steinhauer during a May 4 bar fight. Steinhauer, 22, remains hospitalized.
"This case has dealt a serious blow to the already strained relations between Washington and Belgrade," Jeremic said, adding that next week during this visit to the U.S. he will apologize to American officials who have sought Kovacevic's return to a U.S. court to face assault charges.
Serbia's pro-Western government, which took office last month, has pledged to improve U.S.-Serbian bilateral relations that have been strained over U.S. recognition of Kosovo's independence.
Jeremic said Serbia is investigating two consulate staffers who were removed from New York after allegedly helping Kovacevic obtain emergency travel documents that helped him flee after being freed on bail.
(Excerpt) Read more at abclocal.go.com ...
He’s scum; he pounded a kid a third of his size!
Fine... if Serbia won’t extradite Serbs who commit crimes here, then we should immediately cease allowing any Serbs into the country.
Radovan Karadzic must of been released for the $5 million reward.
That's okay. We can come to you instead. Once our guys make contact with him, it should be quick. Does that work for you?
(1) Steinhauer deserved exactly what he got.
(2) In Serbia, doing the things that Steinhauer is alleged to have done would have gotten him instantly killed because of the high sense of honor possessed by the Serbs, a sense of honor which requires the immediate exaction of brutal and asymmetrical vengeance.
(3) Serbia, despite this admitted penchant for such vengeance, is "a Christian country."
I am in no way justifying what this *&^% did, but we must remember, our guys (following the orders of Clinton) already paid a visit to his country a few years ago and did quite a bit of damage. I am not surprised Serbia told us to go screw. They rescued "our guys" in WWII and got the snot bombed out of them in return.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but Serbia is merely repaying us. More damage from Clinton.
Yep.
No more tourist visas.
No more work visas.
No more student visas.
Kick out their embassies as well.
Sell off the contents of their embassy to cover any finical award given to victims of Serbian citizens by our courts when they are tried in absentia.
I can understand another country having reasons for refusing to extradite individuals due to a specific situation or for some specific crimes, but if they have a blanket ban on extradition we should only be granting visas in rare occasions.
Which of "our guys" did they rescue, exactly?
ping
It was the largest rescue of Allied airmen behind the lines in the entire war
Why not post 400 links, all referencing the exact same individual's memoirs?
Felman's account makes it clear: one of the five or six factions fighting for control of Serbia in 1944 - specifically Mihailovic's Chetnik splinter group - helped to airlift out Allied airmen.
Why did the Mihailovic column have to do this? Because other Serbs, like the Pecanac faction of the Chetniks or the Nedic VNS forces wanted to find and kill them - as did the Germans and the Italians.
"The Serbs" in general did not rescue these men. Dragoljub Mihailovic and his small group of supporters did, and he rescued them from other Serbs who would have killed them.
Thank you both for the edification. I am a history buff but there is simply not enough time in life to drill down every detail. I thoroughly enjoy having those gaps filled. My fault for painting the Serbs with a broad brush-it would only make sense that there were many factions, in almost every nation, with opposing agendas.
You’re being obtuse and trying to discredit the Serbs whom you loathe for what ever reason of any credit for helping Allies in WWII.
I think the Serbs have been shat upon by the West
and here’s why:
Slavs in that part of the Balkans were quite instrumental for centuries in plugging the muslim entry point to eatern Europe..thank God.
Serbs were for the most part but not all against the Nazis in WWII.
Serbs were our Allies in WWI.
Bosnians(not all) were mostly Nazi allies in WWII.
Croats (not all) were mostly Nazi Allies in WWII.
Albanians were Nazis allies in WWII.
That whole neighborhood has a history of brutality and to single out the Serbs and ignore others is dishonest.
Our media and most PC western governments frown on the Serbs because of many reasons I guess but in the end they hold them to a higher standard of behavior than others...why?, maybe because they are fellow Europeans and ostensibly Christian as you sarcastically pointed out upthread...which is rather ironic since in the PC world, being white and Christian is not much to be respected anymore and does this mean that non White, non Christian cultures can act like savages and get away with it? (Darfur, Somalia)
Myself, I tend to favor them because I think they understand the threat of Islam in the Balkans better than we do.
Btw...do you consider Feldman a liar or did these Serbs rescue over 500 Allied airmen or not?
I don't loathe "The Serbs." I definitely dislike the obnoxious Serbian and Russian nationalists on FR for whom all Serbs are simon-pure heroes - especially those who assert that Americans should bow and scrape to Serbians and beg their forgiveness for ending the Milosevic regime.
I think the Serbs have been shat upon by the West
I do not.
Slavs in that part of the Balkans were quite instrumental for centuries in plugging the muslim entry point to eatern Europe..thank God.
It wasn't just Serbs or Slavs fighting Islam in the Balkans. It was also Greeks, Venetians, Albanians, Poles, Bulgars, Croats, Hungarians, Rumanians, etc. And they fought out of necessity, not to do Western Europe any favors.
Serbs were for the most part but not all against the Nazis in WWII.
The Nedic government of Serbia was pro-Nazi. The Royalists were split into factions, one being pro-Nazi, the other pro-Britain. The Partisans were pro-Soviet and only opportunistically anti-Nazi or pro-Western.
Serbs were our Allies in WWI.
A very interesting way of putting it, seeing as how the war was sparked by a Serb nationalist three years before America entered the war. The Serbs fought alongside the French in the Balkans against the Bulgarians, not alongside the US in France against the Germans.
Bosnians(not all) were mostly Nazi allies in WWII. Croats (not all) were mostly Nazi Allies in WWII. Albanians were Nazis allies in WWII.
I'm not here to sing the praises of the Bosnians, Croatians or Albanians.
That whole neighborhood has a history of brutality and to single out the Serbs and ignore others is dishonest.
We're not talking about the deeds of past generations. We're talking about the deeds of the last 15 years - the ones whose witnesses are still alive, whose perpetrators are still alive, the deeds for which justice can actually be done right now and not in historical hindsight. And in the last 15 years the Serbs have done some pretty objectionable things.
Our media and most PC western governments frown on the Serbs because of many reasons I guess but in the end they hold them to a higher standard of behavior than others...why?, maybe because they are fellow Europeans and ostensibly Christian as you sarcastically pointed out upthread...which is rather ironic since in the PC world, being white and Christian is not much to be respected anymore and does this mean that non White, non Christian cultures can act like savages and get away with it? (Darfur, Somalia)
(1) The Serbs are not held to a higher standard. Not only Serbs have been indicted for war crimes in Bosnia.
(2) No one is arguing that the slaughter in Darfur is acceptable.
Myself, I tend to favor them because I think they understand the threat of Islam in the Balkans better than we do.
I was in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. I understand the threat of Islam as well as any man alive.
Btw...do you consider Feldman a liar or did these Serbs rescue over 500 Allied airmen or not?
Mihailovic rescued US airmen, unquestionably. Did Felman know exactly how many? No. Did Felman have an understandable hero worship for Mihailovic? Absolutely. Did Felman tell any deliberate untruths? Absolutely not. Hence the tendency for the number to keep increasing over time.
However I don't buy the larger argument that just because an individual Serb military commander rescued Americans 60 years ago (and was later murdered by pro-Soviet, anti-American fellow Serbs for engaging in similar activity) a young thug from Serbia today should be allowed to beat an American kid into a coma if he feels like it and get away with it.
No more Israei visitors to the US, then- Israeli law does not allow extradition of Israeli citizens.
I think this case with this Serbian guy is a travesty- it appears that Serbian embassy officials aided him in fleeing the country, despite the Serbian government's agreement not to give him a replacement passport. There has to be a loophole to the relevant law.
You have a point. I guess I had a bit to learn about extradition policies.
At least with Israel we have a reasonable hope that criminals can be tried in Israel for serious crimes they committed here.
I guess a more reasonable expectation is to take the passports of criminal suspects and forbid them to leave the country.
If in this case the Serbian embassy aided this guy in fleeing the country, then the embassy officials involved should at a minimum be thrown out of our country and never be allowed to return. We should also be looking at if their actions are within the immunity from prosecution they have been granted, or if they should be criminally prosecuted for their actions.
The state department will object strongly to doing either because they fear that our foreign service officials might face prosecution in other countries. More accurately the State Department fears actually doing anything that might upset another country even if it is justified.
If the state department isn't able to arrange extradition, they have failed in their part, and their objections should be ignored if our laws and agreements allow prosecution of their embassy officials.
The question you asked that I answered was who did they rescue in WWII.
I provided ample proof that between 500-700 Allied Airmen were rescued by Serbian paramilitary during WWII. That is irrefutable.
You then proceed to parse and equivocate everything positive the Serbs have basically done in the modern era given your extreme dislike for their recent nationalistic excesses.
That is your perspective then fine.
I lived in Manhattan for 8 years myself and knew “of” folks killed in 9-11 but that’s really besside the point. One needn’t be a heart surgeon to have an opnion on heart surgery.
History shall judge the Serbs. I see them as targets of political correctness today much like South Africans, Rhodesians, Latino Bourgeoisie, and Southerners and your views on them substantiate that to a degree.
(course you can say fairly that I am a reactionary compared to you on racial-ethnic issues and my defense of them doesn’t surpise you either....and that would be fair enough admittedly)
Have a nice evening.
I give you credit and gratitude for always thorough replies.
In WWII the vast majority of Serbs supported either Stalin or Hitler, not the US or the UK (unless Stalin told them they had to).
To say that "the Serbs" rescued US airmen implies that this was some kind of national policy that reflected Serbian national sentiment.
In reality, Mihailovic was a member of a tiny minority of Serbs, a minority that was quickly and ruthlessly liquidated by their fellow Serbs after the war.
History shall judge the Serbs. I see them as targets of political correctness today much like South Africans, Rhodesians, Latino Bourgeoisie, and Southerners and your views on them substantiate that to a degree.
Except for the vague "Latino bourgeoisie" the South Africans, the Rhodesians and the Confederates (not the Southerners) deserve opprobrium for their insistence on denying their fellow human beings their most basic political and civil rights. They enacted policies on a very short-sighted basis and when the flaws in their systems put them into a hole, they kept digging.
There is a point when people are targets of political correctness, but there is a point where they are clearly asking for it.
Here's the difference: there are no advocates of Serbia here who say: "Yes, some Serbs have done some pretty horrible things recently and Serbian policy in the Balkans has been disastrous and bloody. However, not all Serbs agree with these policies and the Serbs themselves have legitimate grievances with the KLA, who are just as guilty of atrocities as Serbian paramilitaries."
What they do say is variations on a theme like: "The Serbs are always sinned against and never sinning. All those stories of Serb atrocities are complete lies and, if they are true, the victims deserved to be killed anyway. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Blood for blood. We're all really devout Christians too."
It is impossible to take the latter type of argumentation seriously.
I give you credit and gratitude for always thorough replies.
Very gracious of you to say so.
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