Posted on 05/24/2008 2:49:18 PM PDT by kronos77
24 May 2008 | 22:42 | FOCUS News Agency
Prague. President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus is ‘ashamed’ of the decision of the right-centrist government to acknowledge the independence of Kosovo, AFP reports. The government of PM Mirek Topolanek officially recognized Kosovo on Wednesday, three months after the state declared its independence. As a result, Serbia recalled its ambassador to Prague. ‘It is not a secret and I could not accept the recognition of Ksovo’, Kaus said before the media.
ping
Well, then, let me start by asking the fundamental question: Why did they do it?
Here’s a longer article on it from B92
PRAGUE — Czech President Vaclav Klaus described his meeting with Serbia’s Ambassador Vladimir Vereš in an article published by a Prague newspaper today.
Klaus received Vereš Friday ahead of his return to Belgrade, after the Czech government decided to recognize the Kosovo Albanian’s unilateral declaration of independence earlier this week.
“I was very upset by the words of Ambassador Vereš, who said that Serbs did not take personally Kosovo recognitions by countries such as Finland, Holland or Germany, but that the Czech government’s move hurt them,” Klaus wrote in an article for Mlada Fronta Dnes daily, which he entitled, “How ashamed I was”.
The Czech president reminded that he personally cannot be at peace with the recognition, and that for this reason he decided to receive Vereš, which the diplomats describe as a highly unusual move, according to the state protocol.
“I thought that this accelerated invitation to the Serb ambassador ahead of his unwanted departure will give at least a small signal to our people and people in Serbia that nothing changes in the relationship Czechs have with Serbs,” Klaus wrote.
He added that Vereš reminded him of several key moments in the common history of the two nations.
One is the fact that the first Czechoslovakian president, Tomaš Garrigue Masaryk, could only travel in Europe during the First World War because Serbia issued him with a passport, and that the German Gestapo persecuted Masaryk’s followers in occupied Yugoslavia during the Second World War.
“The ambassador’s father studied in Prague after the war, to be sent home by our authorities after 1948, because he would not renounce Tito in favor of Stalin,” Klaus continued.
He reminded the readers of the Czech Republic’s most influential newspaper that as the Warsaw Pact troops entered Czechoslovakia in 1968, Yugoslavia was the only country to declare its own mobilization.
Meanwhile, the Czech foreign minister expressed regret over the Serbian ambassador’s departure, but added his government had no choice but to recognize the secession.
“I respect the president’s opinion. I, too, am sorry that the Serbian ambassador is leaving, but our government could make no other decision but to recognize Kosovo,” Karel Schwarzenger told Mlada Fronta Dnes.
Prime Minister Miroslav Topolanek said he hoped “Serbia’s move would not disturb the relations between the two countries”. He was referring to the recall of the ambassador, something done with previous recognitions as well.
Topolanek said via his spokeswoman that the Czech Republic “continues to support Serbia’s integration into EU structures”.
The Czech government’s decision to recognize the unilateral independence, which Serbia rejects as illegal, has caused a storm in the local political scene, which continues unabated for the third day.
The decision will have to be justified in parliament at the start of June, but the jurisdiction to make the recognition remains with the cabinet.
The leader of the Czech communists, Vojteh Filip, said last night that his party will propose a law that will in the future make the parliament the institution with this jurisdiction.
“Legally, the Czech decision to recognize Kosovo will be finalized once the presidents appoints the Czech ambassador to Priština. We have asked Vaclav Klaus to block the appointment of Janjina Hžebikova,” Filip explained.
The Kosovo outcome so far has been a fiasco of historic proportions. Klaus is decent man but his objections to this travesty mean nothing...and he knows it.
What a amoral and self defeating blot on this Bush administration and the previous one of Clinton’s..and we can go back further when it comes to describing the failed policies of the US in the Balkans and the middle east.
They did this after strong arm-twisting by Muslim assclown Bush, who for some insane reason has become the chief Western cheerleader for the Kosovo terror state.
22 May 2008 | 14:05 | Source: Beta
PRAGUE -- A bus from the Czech Republic carrying humanitarian aid to the Kosovo Serbs has been stoned near Dečani, Czech radio reports.
An informal Czech group called the Petition Board Against Recognizing Kosovo’s Independence organized a visit by a group of 20 students to visit Kosovo and bring aid to the Serbs living in Kosovo.
Czech radio confirmed that on their way to High Dečani monastery, Albanian youths threw stones at the bus bearing Czech license plates. It was also confirmed that no-one was injured during the incident.
“The fact that the Czech government recognized Kosovo’s independence, of which I am deeply ashamed, has meant nothing to those ‘peace loving’ and ‘democratic’ Albanians”, said Jaroslav Foldina, regional leader of the Czech Social Democrats, in a statement given to the online edition of daily Pravo. Foldina was one of the passengers on the bus.
"We’re talking a lot with people in Kosovo, and everyone kept asking about it (yesterday’s recognition of Kosovo by the Czech government). I kept repeating the same answer: Serbia was not betrayed by the Czech people, but by the Czech government. The people have always been the same”, he insisted.
Following distribution of the humanitarian aid, the students and the Petition Board intend to organize demonstrations in Kosovska Mitrovica in protest at the Czech government’s decision to recognize Kosovo’s independence.
The Kosovo Police Service (KPS) has not received any information about any attack on the the bus.
KPS spokesman Veton Elshani told the Beta News agency that they had received no reports or information about a bus with Czech license plates, nor any other bus for that matter, being attacked yesterday.
“No one reported any attack on a bus to the police", said Elshani.
He added that since the beginning of this year, four Serb families had been living in Dečani, and that, so far, they had reported no problems.
22 May 2008 | 14:05 | Source: Beta
PRAGUE -- A bus from the Czech Republic carrying humanitarian aid to the Kosovo Serbs has been stoned near Dečani, Czech radio reports.
An informal Czech group called the Petition Board Against Recognizing Kosovo’s Independence organized a visit by a group of 20 students to visit Kosovo and bring aid to the Serbs living in Kosovo.
Czech radio confirmed that on their way to High Dečani monastery, Albanian youths threw stones at the bus bearing Czech license plates. It was also confirmed that no-one was injured during the incident.
“The fact that the Czech government recognized Kosovo’s independence, of which I am deeply ashamed, has meant nothing to those ‘peace loving’ and ‘democratic’ Albanians”, said Jaroslav Foldina, regional leader of the Czech Social Democrats, in a statement given to the online edition of daily Pravo. Foldina was one of the passengers on the bus.
"We’re talking a lot with people in Kosovo, and everyone kept asking about it (yesterday’s recognition of Kosovo by the Czech government). I kept repeating the same answer: Serbia was not betrayed by the Czech people, but by the Czech government. The people have always been the same”, he insisted.
Following distribution of the humanitarian aid, the students and the Petition Board intend to organize demonstrations in Kosovska Mitrovica in protest at the Czech government’s decision to recognize Kosovo’s independence.
The Kosovo Police Service (KPS) has not received any information about any attack on the the bus.
KPS spokesman Veton Elshani told the Beta News agency that they had received no reports or information about a bus with Czech license plates, nor any other bus for that matter, being attacked yesterday.
“No one reported any attack on a bus to the police", said Elshani.
He added that since the beginning of this year, four Serb families had been living in Dečani, and that, so far, they had reported no problems.
Agreed. It’s inexplicable.
This seems to have taken many, if not most Czechs by surprise -- including many in the government.
This strong armed pressure by us over Kosovo is going to come back to bite us when we really do need something from these governments. Governments don't like humiliating themselves and betraying the will of their people, just to knuckle under to us over issues like this.
Sad!
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