Serbia told to drop "negative" influence on Kosovo

Yahoo News ^ | Thu Jun 8, 2006

[A. Pole]

PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - Serbia must drop its "negative" influence on Serbs in Kosovo and tell them to re-engage with the ethnic Albanian majority, the major powers said on Thursday, as a decision nears on the province's fate.

[...]

The West holds Belgrade responsible for a Serb boycott of political life in the United Nations-run province, which it says is complicating efforts to decide Kosovo's future this year in U.N.-led talks.

[...]

Diplomats say the West favors independence. But with a decision due within the year, signs of resistance among the Serb minority are growing, with the explicit backing of Belgrade.

Leaders of 50,000 Serbs in the north, which runs adjacent to central Serbia, said last week they had cut ties with the capital Pristina over a spate of shootings they blame on ethnic Albanians.

The 17,000-strong NATO peace force plans to reopen an old base in the north to bolster mobile units, reflecting growing concern that Serb resistance there could escalate into a unilateral bid to partition the province.

[A. Pole]

The West holds Belgrade responsible

So they do not blame Milosevic anymore?

[Incorrigible]

What about Ratko? Has "The West" forgotten this bogeyman already?

[Hoplite]

So they do not blame Milosevic anymore?

With his ouster in 2000, he hasn't been in a position to be blamed for anything except goings on at his ICTY trial, and thanks to his Moscow gambit going fatally awry on him, he's no longer anybody's concern outside of his fan club.

This latest fiasco is simply Belgrade politicians staking out maximalist positions to curry favor with the electorate in Serbia, rather than realistic positions to help Kosovo's Serbs in the transition to Kosovo's independence.

[Hoplite]

Ratko Who?

[Incorrigible]

They seek him here...
They seek him there...
The ICTY seeks him everywhere!
Is he in Belgrade or is he in Kragujevic?
That damned, elusive Ratko Mladić!

 

[Incorrigible]

And for what it's worth Hoplite, I know you don't like me to ping you to threads but I'm glad that you've found it fit to continue posting and persevere despite the way over the line heaping of scorn you receive on a regular basis.  You and I don't agree on the Balkans but we do on threads of other subjects.

Alas, I guess there's no point in stirring the pot with the FREE SLOBO pictures anymore but I'm sure something just as instigating will come along again.

 

[StJacques]

Kosovo is an extremely difficult situation with no easy answers.

The West promised Serbia that the sovereignty over the entire province will remain Serbian and we must honor that promise.

Ethnic Albanians within Kosovo, who we are there to protect, have taken advantage of our goodwill to promote a separatist agenda of their own, including violence against the ever-shrinking Serb minority. I do not think the West has held these ethnic Albanians to account to any significant degree, certainly not to the degree we should have.

And we now face the unusual situation in which ethnic Serbians living in Kosovo, who are apparently "giving up" on any chance that the province will ever be returned to Serbia, may be seeking a partition so that they can "hang on" to whatever they can get.

I think the West must be as hardheaded as it can be that the sovereignty over the entire province must remain Serbian. And we will not convince ethnic Albanians of this unless we stand up to the separatists.

We must keep the promise we made to keep Kosovo within Serbia.

[Hoplite]

What's this? Civil rapprochement?

<looks behind, expecting someone sneaking up with a baseball bat. Sees nothing.>

Well, that's mighty civil of you, Incorrigible. I expect around here we've all got more in common than not, but it's more fun to, um, explore our differences than have a big ol' intellectual group hug.

Regards.

[hauerf]

The US bungled in on the wrong side in this matter.

[Hoplite]

You might want to check UNSCR 1244 on that.

In summary, while the interim institutions were in place, as is the case now, Kosovo would be a part of the FRY, albeit one with "substantial autonomy".

Those interim institutions and Serbia's limited jurisdiction would only be in effect until the final status was determined.

And everybody, save for a sizeable portion of the Serbian electorate, has recognized that the final status will be in the form of independence.

Hence Serbia's politicians being unable to act pragmatically in regards to Kosovo, and the Contact Group getting in their faces about it.

[eleni121]

Somebody had better remind the "west" that undermining civil society in favor of a narco terrorist state does not bode well for the future well being of Europe.

Let Serbia and those who have assumed power in the kosovo region decide what is best. The "west" seems to be pushing elections all over...why not in the matter of kosovo. Let there be a free and fair referendum to decide its political fate...with all Serbians and those Albanians residing in the Kosovo region participating.

[StJacques]

"Can I be so bold as to say we fought on the wrong side of that war? All because they were fighting against terrorism on their own soil, no less. . . ."

I disagree, Serbia went way too far. But we have not been the diligent brokers of the peace as we promised.

[MrCruncher]

Unbelievable.

[MrCruncher]

Hello there, SOROS boy.

[MrCruncher]

Serbs have a long memory.

[MrCruncher]

The murderous Albanian muslims went "way too far."

[Torie]

I think the three cantons in the north that are now almost all Serb should be sliced off. Why not?