Acquittal in The Hague Sparks Controversy

November 26, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Nov 24 (IPS) – Stojan Kovacevic spent last weekend going about his usual routine in his tiny dwelling in the village of Grocka, near Belgrade: cleaning the kitchen and bedroom, going to the local green market and watching TV.

But it was not as pleasant as it sounds. Kovacevic (55), a Serb who fled Croatia in 1995, has had no home of his own for 17 years now. He rents a tiny flat and does many odd jobs to survive.

And last Friday, a news item that came to him on his small television set has only added to his troubles.

On Nov. 16, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), based in The Hague, overturned the convictions of two 57-year-old Croatian generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, who had been sentenced in April 2011 to 24 and 18 years respectively for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The generals were pronounced guilty for their roles in the notorious Operation Storm, a four-day military offensive in August 1995 in which hundreds of Serb civilians were killed and over 200,000 expelled from the predominantly Serb region of Krajina in Croatia.

The operation ended the rebellion of Krajina Serbs against Croatia’s 1991-1995 independence drive from former Yugoslavia. It also signalled the end of centuries of Serb history in Croatia, as long columns of refugees on tractors and trucks flooded into Serbia.

That was how Kovacevic arrived in Grocka, a village 30 kilometres east of Belgrade, after putting his mother, father, sister and her three children into a small truck fleeing the Croatian artillery attacks on his hometown of Gracac.

Their home was later burned down, as were scores of others in the cities of Knin, Obrovac, and Benkovac.

Like most Krajina Serbs, Kovacevic and his family never went back.

The controversy over Operation Storm blocked Croatia’s road to membership in the European Union (EU) for years, and also impeded normalisation of relations between Croatia and neighbouring Serbia.

But the acquittal of the two generals last week suggests that the history of Operation Storm is about to be re-written; the decision led to a patriotic frenzy in Croatia and left thousands of Serbs flabbergasted.

"I have barely been able to sleep or eat since Friday, when I saw the broadcast from The Hague,” Kovacevic told IPS. "I felt a blow to the stomach and it won’t go away… My world fell apart once again and the sense of injustice will stay as long as I’m alive," he added.

As Gotovina and Markac returned to their homeland last Friday to a heroes’ welcome – with Croatian President Ivo Josipovic declaring, "The generals are innocent" – the mood in Serbia was one of shock and disbelief, with President Tomislav Nikolic calling the acquittal "scandalous".

Savo Strbac, head of the Documentation Centre ‘Veritas’, a representative group for Krajina Serbs in Belgrade, labelled the decision a “slap in the face”.

"It also looks as if everything surrounding international justice in cases of war crimes will (now) be called into question as well," Natasa Kandic, a prominent Serbian human rights activist, told IPS.

"The court ruling did not bring justice to the victims," she added.

Decision ‘undermines’ ICTY

Internal disagreements between judges within the appeals chamber have fanned the flames of controversy.

Two out of five international judges – Fausto Pocar and Karmel Agius – opposed the acquittal, standing against two important decisions made on Friday: that the indiscriminate shelling of Krajina towns was not unlawful and that there was no joint criminal enterprise (JCE) with Gotovina, Markac and the then Croatian head of state, Franjo Tudjman, to forcibly expel the Serb civilian population and settle the area with Croats.

JCE is a term established by the ICTY and represents the basis for most war crimes trials, including the trial of late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and the ongoing trials against ex-Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

More than 30 sentences by the ICTY, including one life sentence and several sentences of 35 and 40 years, used the JCE as a basis for judgements.

Judge Pocar said in his separate opinion in the appeals decision, "I fundamentally dissent from the entire appeal judgment, which contradicts any sense of justice.”

For Belgrade attorney Novak Lukic, who defends some indictees before the ICTY, "It’s unbelievable that judges could differ so much in opinion – both within the appeals chamber and in regard to the sentence pronounced previously by their colleagues."

"The ICTY has basically changed its legal postulates with this acquittal; this sentence calls into question many other sentences dealing with deportations or evictions,” he told IPS.

For Katarina Subasic, an international journalist who covers war crimes, the acquittal could impact ongoing trials, such as those of Mladic and Karadzic, who stand accused of war crimes for the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, in July 1995.

"The idea of JCE has lost ground and that will undermine any process against military and political leaders (for the charge) of war crimes before the international courts…We see what is happening in Gaza now, Syria and what happened in Libya. The acquittal will bring controversy that will remain” and have echoes in future trials, she added.

According to the prominent historian Dubravka Stojanovic, "The acquittal shows that the ICTY can no longer represent the instrument of reconciliation in the region."

"The ICTY was, for me, an instrument that could clear up some events from the wars (of the 1990s), involving all its participants (Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs),” she told IPS.

“Now it looks unwise to me; first a harsh JCE-based sentencing of 24 and 18 years, now an acquittal…the ICTY has lost credibility,” she concluded.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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Drought Dries Up Balkans Harvests

August 29, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Aug 29 (IPS) – After two months of waiting, people from the central Serbian town Valjevo followed the call of their bishop and went to local Orthodox Church to pray for rain."It wasn’t because I am religious, but because I didn’t know what else could help," said Milan Stankovic (55), who attended the Sunday service. "Half of my raspberries are gone, half of the corn as well."

And the rain fell in the night between Sunday and Monday all over the Balkans, bringing a little relief to a region where hundreds of thousands of farmers spent most of the summer looking at the sky through four heat waves since Jun. 1.

"All over the Balkans farmers are listing damage," analyst Misa Brkic told IPS. "But nations of the region should admit they are doing almost nothing in regard to agricultural strategy…governments put agriculture high on their lists of priority, but only in words."

The Commercial Chamber of Serbia (PKS) has put the damage from drought at 2.1 billion dollars. "Half of total plant production of Serbia was destroyed by this year’s drought," PKS agriculture expert Vojislav Stankovic told journalists. This goes for corn, soy, wheat, fruit and vegetables.

Stankovic said Serbia, the biggest agricultural producer in the region, needs to invest 2 billion dollars in the irrigation systems that currently cover only 200,000 hectares, or four percent of arable land. The coverage needs to be taken up to two million hectares, he said.

Agriculture is Serbia’s most profitable export branch, and netted in 2 billion dollars in 2011.

"That substantially supported the national budget, but this year will see nothing alike," Brkic said.

"Harvest losses do not mean only that we’ll have to be careful with use of agricultural produce," head of the Product Exchange, Zarko Galetin, told IPS. "Those losses transfer into reduced produce of meat, eggs, milk etc., and higher prices of food."

Consumers in Serbia have already felt the impact, with two hikes in the price of meat of about five percent each in just the past two weeks.

Irrigation has proved difficult. "Our wells have lower levels," said Mirjana Kiric (35), a vendor at the biggest open air green market Kalenic in Belgrade. "We use old pumps and can almost hear the ground slurping the water."

In neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina, comprising the Croat-Muslim Federation and the Serb dominated Republic of Srpska, there is no joint agriculture ministry. Soil temperatures in the south have hit 47 degrees Celsius, and the government has estimated damage to crops at almost a billion dollars. Farming accounts for 20 percent of employment in the country, where unemployment stands at 48 percent.

"The situation has not been this bad since the end of the (1992-95) war," Jovan Jankovic (65) from Ljubovija told IPS over the phone. "Corn will be as rare as gold here."

The World Bank (WB), which in May approved a 40 million dollars loan to improve the irrigation system in Bosnia, said then that the countries of the Balkans had "huge agricultural potential, but lacked the infrastructure and strategy."

"Former Yugoslavia used to have one of the most advanced irrigation and drainage systems,"

said Holger Kray, the WB’s lead official for agriculture and rural development in Europe and Central Asia. "Unfortunately, these systems have degraded, eroded," Kray told Belgrade media.

In Croatia, less than one percent of arable land (16,000 hectares) is being irrigated. Agriculture Minister Radimir Cacic admitted to local media last week that the country’s approach to agriculture is like that of "primitive tribes".

"If there’s rain, there will be crops, there will be electricity. If there is drought, there’ll be nothing. This has to change," he told Croatian Radio Television (HRT).

So far little has been done in that direction. The only ray of hope for Croatia is the European Union (EU) funds that will become available when it becomes the 28th EU member in July next year.

The drought has had a severe impact on energy production. Hydropower plants have had to scale down due to low water levels. In Serbia, electricity production has fallen 20 percent.

Low river levels have led to a slowdown in international shipment on the Danube and Sava rivers.

Fires as a result of the drought have destroyed large tracts of forests and bush in Bosnia, on the Croatian Adriatic coast, and in Montenegro and Serbia. Some of the fires raging on the border between Serbia and Kosovo are still beyond control because mines left over from the war over the former Serbian province make the area inaccessible.

"Whoever we have to thank for the rain, we do," Milan Stankovic told IPS. "But it came too late and in such small quantities that it was of little consolation."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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Once, There Was Yugoslavia

June 26, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Jun 24, 2011 (IPS) – For decades, the former Yugoslavia was a communist country with a human face, whose nations enjoyed high standards of living compared to other Eastern Europeans, visa-free travel abroad, and participatory government. Twenty years ago, on Jun. 25, all that ended.

It ended for a country where private property was allowed, be it homes or small business. Education and healthcare were free, jobs were secure, and Yugoslavia had a firm reputation as one of the leaders of the non-aligned movement.

On Jun. 25, 1991, the most developed republics of Croatia and Slovenia made unilateral declarations of independence. They saw the Serbian leader at the time, Slobodan Milosevic, as the incarnation of evil who wanted their nations to remain under what they saw as the iron rule of Belgrade in a world that had changed after the fall of Berlin wall in 1989.

Milosevic was acting as the protector of all Serbs, who lived outside present day Serbia in hundreds of thousands in Croatia and Bosnia. He publicly declared "the need for all Serbs to live in one country."

"Those two things set the stage for the wars of the 90s," historian Predrag Markovic tells IPS. "After the human loss of some 150,000 people and enormous economic losses, it is hard to say what the benefit of independence was for some 24 million people who lived in former Yugoslavia. Yes, they are proud of having their own countries, but the essential substance of serious states is lacking in almost all when compared to former federation."

Slovenia with a population of two million, Croatia with 4.6 million, Bosnia-Herzegovina 4.2 million, Serbia 7.5 million, Montenegro 650,000 and Macedonia with two million people are quite different places now. The three leaders that led nations in wars of the 90s, Croatian president Franjo Tudjman, Bosniak leader Alija Izetbegovic and Milosevic are all dead.

The most developed Slovenia is so far the only member of the European Union (EU), since 2004. Croatia stands next in line for membership in 2013. Montenegro and Macedonia are candidates; Serbia awaits its status by the end of the year, while Bosnia-Herzegovina is unable to recover from the 1992-95 wars.

"The EU was our only and natural choice," Slovenian economist Joze Mencinger tells IPS. "But we have a tiny say in the EU, smaller than ever in former Yugoslavia."

Apart from human losses and direct war damages in the 1991-95 period, sociologist Milan Nikolic singles out "the collapse of values such as empathy, solidarity, intolerance of crime – organised or other etc…But the world has also changed so much since 1991. We all have to look into future."

Of the many devastating effects of the disintegration of former Yugoslavia, the economic crisis is striking. The debt crisis is hitting all former Yugoslav nations hard due to the economic consequences of the war (particularly in Bosnia), as production is low, imports are high and transition into a market economy has taken its toll in a massive loss of jobs. A lack of substantial foreign investments since the global economic crisis is also hitting hard.

Unemployment in Slovenia is the lowest – around 10 percent. It reaches a staggering 40 percent in Bosnia.

The foreign debt of the six new nations is 171 billion dollars, compared to former Yugoslavia’s debt of 24 billion dollars. Macedonia has the lowest, 2.5 billion dollars, and Croatia the highest, 64 billion dollars.

Production level (except in Slovenia) has not reached the level of 1989, the best year prior to wars. All former Yugoslav statisticians use that as a benchmark.

"Had we not fought in wars, Yugoslavia would have been in the EU long ago and the development level could have been at least double compared to 1989," Nikolic says.

But for many people, such ideas mean little. Many young people are almost unaware there was a Yugoslavia once, as history books differ and give only a superficial overview of the past.

"I don’t know what Dubrovnik is," 22-year-old Bojan Stancic from Kraljevo in Serbia tells IPS, when asked about the most prominent tourist spot on the Croatian Adriatic coast. "It’s Croatia? Well, that’s a foreign country I plan to visit one day."

Many older people still have connections that date to the days of former Yugoslavia.

"I have family in Belgrade and we go to visit," says Dara Buncic (65), a pensioner from Zagreb in Croatia. "It still has the outlines of the capital of a big country. We are all small now (new nations) but I tell friends to go and see it (Belgrade)…it’s part of our common history no matter how proud we are being independent Croatia."

"Until 20 years ago, I spent two months each year on Croatian coast since the age of two," says Belgradian Sasa Jaksic (55). "We had family there. So, in the 35 years of former Yugoslavia I can say I spent a total of almost six years living in Croatia. No one can take that from me, or the memories of good times we had in former Yugoslavia."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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Arrest Takes Serbia Towards Reconciliation, and the EU

May 26, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, May 26, 2011 (IPS) – "Nothing can bring back our husbands or children, but this means so much for us; the man who ordered them killed is finally going to face justice," says Hajra Catic, head of the Women of Srebrenica Association, following the arrest in Serbia of the former head of the Bosnian Serb army Ratko Mladic.

Mladic, the most wanted fugitive from the wars of the nineties in the Balkans, had been indicted by the United Nations-founded International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) based in The Hague for genocide and war crimes. He was indicted for the massacre of 7,500 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 and for the three-and-a-half year siege of Bosnian capital Sarajevo that took 10,000 lives in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.

Hajra Catic told IPS that she and other women in the Association only believed that Mladic had been arrested when they saw Serbian President Boris Tadic address a press conference in Belgrade, aired by almost all television channels in former Yugoslavia.

Tadic revealed few details on Mladic’s arrest in Lazarevo village in the northern Serbian province Vojvodina. He said the extradition process to the ICTY was already "under way".

"Today we closed one chapter in our recent history that will bring us one step closer to full reconciliation in the region," Tadic said. "We have also met all the expectations from the European Union (EU). All its expectations."

Tadic was referring to two different issues that burden Serbia. One is the slow reconciliation process, burdened by the shadow of atrocities against non-Serbs that left about 150,000 dead. The fact that Mladic had escaped arrest for 16 years limited reconciliation.

The other is Serbia’s ambition of EU membership since the toppling of the warmongering regime of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

"Now we see Serbia opening doors in two directions with the arrest of Mladic," professor of international law Vojin Dimitrijevic told IPS. "One is the badly needed reconciliation, if the region wants to move further. The other is the EU membership prospect. One can only salute such developments."

Leading human rights activist in Serbia Natasa Kandic says the arrest of Mladic is "one of the most important historic, political and judicial events in the recent past.

"There has been no more important event than this," Kandic told IPS. "The fact that the President has announced it, that he said he was proud of it, speaks about its significance. This will open the doors for reconciliation, the message that supports justice and need for justice among families of victims."

Kandic believes the arrest will have a long-term effect in changing relations between Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia.

Security analyst Zoran Dragisic says the arrest of Mladic had been expected. "It happened at the almost calculated right time – when the EU said Serbia cannot join the EU without Mladic being sent to The Hague, and when the chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said his report on Serbia’s cooperation with the ICTY was negative.

"But if Mladic decides to testify before the tribunal, maybe we’ll hear some different views and descriptions of wars," he told IPS.

Croatian analyst Zarko Puhovski says the developments after the arrest of Mladic will mean a different political position for Serbia. In an interview with the B92 radio and TV station, Puhovski said that "Serbia obtained many positive points" and that "Tadic has enforced his influence in the region.

"Croatia is due to join the EU in 2013, and after that Serbia will become the leader here in the region," Puhovski said. "The arrest of Mladic removes so many obstacles in relations between nations here."

But the arrest of Mladic brought no joy to Serbian nationalists, who still regard Mladic as a war hero who defended Serbs in Bosnia.

Commenting on possible protests by such nationalists, Tadic said "everything will be done in order for Serbia to remain a stable country."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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BALKANS: Rising Anti-EU Sentiment

February 23, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Feb 23, 2011 (IPS) – Anti-European Union (EU) sentiment is growing across the Balkan countries that have proclaimed membership in the European family of nations as their highest political goal during the past decade. It is caused by prolonged economic hardships that still bite hard, failure of authorities to fight widespread corruption and political deadlock in creating stable governments.

"The promise of joining the EU is no longer attractive," Serbian economic analyst Misa Brkic told IPS. Recent surveys show support for EU membership in Serbia has fallen below 60 percent for the first time since 2000.

"People are really nervous and the government is indifferent," Brkic says. "People want jobs, social security and improvement in all areas, and they don’t see it in near future; they just see incapable governments."

On Feb. 12, Serbia saw the biggest political demonstration since the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. More than 55,000 people, led by the opposition Serbian Progressive Party, gathered calling for social change. Speakers insisted on rise of employment, better social care for poor, and an end to the corruption which has, in their words, "porously infected all segments of society and power".

Serbia, a nation of 7.4 million, has lost some 400,000 jobs since the beginning of global downturn in 2008. Total unemployment now stands at 750,000.

In real terms, average salaries for the employed have dropped from almost 500 dollars to 300 since the local currency has been losing its value. In February, thousands of teachers, policemen and workers from bankrupt firms protested in Belgrade over many days, demanding higher salaries and social aid.

The situation is almost similar in neighbouring Croatia, a nation of 4.4 million. Croatia is closest to the EU membership – expecting membership by the end of 2012. A recent poll there shows that support for the EU has dropped to 49.4 percent – the lowest ever. Only 25 percent saw membership as a positive economic step.

"The government is trying to convince people that the EU membership will mean solution of all problems immediately," Croatian economic analyst Zarko Modric told IPS. "It doesn’t work any more in real life, as 350,000 are unemployed and 70,000 do work but haven’t been paid for months. When government says ‘painful reforms are still due’, people translate it immediately [as] ‘more and more job losses’ in the already hard times".

In order to completely finish its membership process, Croatia has, besides the vague ‘painful reforms’, to make a very painful real move – solve the problem of five shipyards that the EU demands to be privatised or closed. They employ more than 15,000 people who support another 20,000 family members. They also provide jobs for another 10,000 people who work in factories supplying the shipyards. So far, privatisation has failed and only state subsidies keep them afloat.

Croatia is also hit hard with a corruption scandal, as its former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader was arrested in Austria and charged with a multimillion-dollar fraud involving Austrian and Croatian banks. Two former vice prime ministers are also awaiting trial for corruption charges.

The long-term political plan of Bosnia-Herzegovina to join the EU has to be shelved for a while as well. The country, made up of Republic of Srpska – a Serb entity – and the Muslim-Croat Federation, has not been able to constitute the central government since October elections. Political stalemate is the result of rivalries between the two entities and no good will on the Serbian side to recognise Sarajevo as the central authority.

Without a government that represents the country as a whole before the international community, there is no way to come any closer to EU negotiations.

Albania is also in crisis, as the opposition has refused to recognise the results of June 2009 parliamentary elections. Tensions boiled over last month there when clashes between security forces and anti-government protestors left four people dead in the capital Tirana. Long proclaimed EU membership has been put on hold for now.

In Kosovo, Hashim Thaci was barely able to form a coalition government this month, after December elections. Although he remains the most prominent politician, his reputation is in question following allegations linking him to organised crime and organ trafficking in a report of European Parliament Member Dick Marty.

Although Kosovo has no EU aspirations for now, support there for EU membership is the highest in the region, standing at 87 percent.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Economic Policy, Featured, Foreign Affairs, Politics, Trade Tagged With: , ,

BALKANS: Kosovo Talks Bring Hope

September 24, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Analysis by Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Sep 24, 2010 (IPS) – Serbia has lost all its military and legal battles over Kosovo, but there is hope that the internationally sponsored talks between Belgrade and Pristina in October may bring some normalisation in relations between Serbia and its breakaway province.

"The talks are a big step forward, after so many years of direct or political conflict," international law professor Vojin Dimitrijevic told IPS. And professor of political science Predrag Simic says "it’s now the right moment for talks on status of Serbs in Kosovo."

The talks will be held under the auspices of the European Union (EU), and will deal with several issues of vital importance between the two. Independence of Kosovo, long opposed by Serbia, will not be discussed.

Earlier this month, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution calling for such talks, after the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the top legal body of the UN, ruled in July that secession of Kosovo from Serbia in 2008 was not an illegal act.

Putting aside the usually passionate rhetoric of many Serbs who still regard Kosovo as a part of Serbia, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic is focusing on organised crime, over which there is substantial cooperation among the nations that went to war in the 90s. But many issues remain.

Some 80,000 Serbs remain in Kosovo, living in the north and in scattered enclaves around some 1,300 Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries, dating back to the 12th century. Serbs lost their independence in 1389 in a battle with Turks. They always regard the region as the cradle of their medieval state and of Orthodox identity.

In the course of centuries, Serbs became a minority in Kosovo, and are now living among two million ethnic Albanians. Belgrade revoked the broad autonomy of Kosovo Albanians in 1990 and introduced direct rule. That meant that in cooperation with Belgrade, Kosovo Serbs held all the power in the province.

Ethnic Albanian armed rebellion aimed at independence, and Serbia’s repression led to 11 weeks of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing of Serbia in 1999. After that, Kosovo was ruled by the UN, and proclaimed independence in 2008. Serbia vowed never to recognise it.

Dimitrijevic and Simic say the coming talks should focus on broad autonomy for Serbs, and property issues for those who fled in 1999, and whose homes and land have been grabbed by Kosovo Albanians since. Serbs within Kosovo also want a locally run Serbian administration, and close ties with Belgrade in education and healthcare.

"That is the maximum Serbia can get," a top Serbian diplomat told IPS.

European Union (EU) Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele has given Serbia a proposed agenda for talks that covers "cooperation in border protection, customs, trade and economy, transport, telecommunications, care for historical and cultural heritage and the fight against organised crime." If it is cooperative, Belgrade will see its EU candidacy accepted by the end of the year.

Kosovo is looking for an end to the Serbian blockade on passage of goods, in force since 1999. Ethnic Albanians who worked for Serbian firms, and whose pensions were revoked in 1999, are looking to reclaim the pensions.

The railway through Kosovo has been idle since 1999. Travel through Serbia with Kosovo passports or a Kosovo licence plate is also banned. The transport lines are through Albania or Macedonia, making exports more expensive.

A test of Kosovan cooperation will be the taking over of the new head of the Church, Patriarch Irinej, on Oct. 3. His official seat is in the Patriarchate of Pec in Kosovo. The Patriarch has said the Church wants "dialogue that will bring good to all the people in Kosovo."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Diplomacy, Europe, Peace, Report Tagged With: , ,

BALKANS: Serbia Prepares a New Case Over Kosovo

August 18, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Aug 18, 2010 (IPS) – Serbia is preparing to go before the United Nations next month to renew negotiations over the future of Kosovo, its southern breakaway province that has declared independence and been recognised by a number of countries.

Serbia is planning its next steps after it was clearly taken aback with the decision Jul. 22 by the top United Nations (UN) legal body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo from Serbia back in 2008 was within international law.

"The court considers that general international law contains no applicable prohibition of declaration of independence," Judge Hisashi Owada, president of the ICJ, said in his ruling. "Accordingly it concludes that the declaration of independence of the 17th of February 2008 did not violate general international law."

The decision is non-binding and only an advisory opinion.

"This was a very hard decision for Serbia," Serbian President Boris Tadic told reporters. "But Serbia will continue its battle for the status of Kosovo with peaceful, diplomatic means." He added: "Serbia will never recognise the independence of Kosovo."

A vital issue is the status of about 100,000 Serbs in Kosovo. They are loyal to Belgrade, and in the north of the province and in several enclaves they do not recognise Pristina and its authority.

Serbia will need the backing of allies such as Russia and China, and nations under their influence. It is also sending envoys to 55 nations with a letter from Tadic, seeking support for Serbia’s new effort in the UN General Assembly.

So far, 69 nations, including 22 members of the European Union and the U.S. have recognised the independence of Kosovo.

Serbia had taken the issue of unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo to the ICJ last year, believing that the court’s advisory opinion will back its claim that such a move was contrary to international law. Kosovo declared independence in 2008 after being under UN administration since June 1999.

The ICJ ruled that Serbia lost its jurisdiction over Kosovo with the introduction of the UN administration.

The UN administration was introduced after 11 weeks of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing of Serbia due to Belgrade’s repression against two million Kosovo Albanians. Under the regime of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, Belgrade put an end to decades of broad autonomy for Kosovo Albanians in 1990 and introduced direct rule in the province, where minority Serbs led all institutions.

Calls for renewal of autonomy by ethnic Albanians were rejected. This led to armed rebellion by Kosovan Albanian groups, followed by stern Serbian repression in 1998 and 1999. International response came by way of 11 weeks of NATO bombing of Serbian installations.

Kosovo is important for Serbia because the first medieval Serbian state was created there, and because it is the cradle of the Serbian Orthodox Church. But over the centuries the ethnic structure has changed, and few Serbs remain in Kosovo now.

"The court has elegantly avoided definition of the line between the right to self-determination and the declaration of independence which is not illegal per se; it also did not tackle the issue of territorial integrity that Serbia insists upon," professor of international law Vojin Dimitrijevic told IPS. "This is a precedent, as each and every movement strong enough can go down sucha road (as Kosovo) — and there are dozens of separatist movements abroad."

And almost immediately, Serb officials in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina declared that the Serb part of Bosnia can now vote itself out of the country consisting of Serb and Muslim-Croat entities.

Milosevic-era opposition leader Vuk Draskovic has called for realism. "The court has clearly put national and human rights above authority and sovereignty, and that should be a strong basis for Serbia’s demands for historic and national monuments’ protection in Kosovo," Draskovic told Belgrade B92 Radio. "Serbs in Kosovo can now be a protected minority, economically and in many other ways connected to their motherland Serbia, and search for reconciliation with their (ethnic) Albanian neighbours."

A Serbian diplomat who insisted on anonymity said the new move in the UN would call for broad autonomy for Serbs in the northern part of Kosovo and in scattered enclaves around Orthodox monasteries in the province, with provision of special ties to Belgrade.

"We are led by the principle that one side should not get everything (Kosovo) and the other (Serbia) lose everything after the ICJ ruling," he said.

The diplomat declined to comment on demands in nationalist media for partition of Kosovo into Serbian (north) and Albanian areas. "That is wishful thinking by some, but it is not realistic."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Europe, Geopolitics, Politics, Report Tagged With: ,

BALKANS: The Turks Return

August 11, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Aug 11, 2010 (IPS) – It’s not often that the leading Belgrade daily Politika devotes two of its four foreign pages to the praise of one nation, but it did so for the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month.

Turkey was complimented as "one of the most important" partners of Serbia and the Balkans region. The paper detailed accounts of Turkish economic success and investments in the area, such as a billion euros (1.29 billion dollars) in Albania, or hundreds of millions in neighbouring Bosnia- Herzegovina.

Turkey’s membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was praised, and its candidacy for European Union (EU) membership supported — a common goal with Serbia in this decade.

The visit brought the opening of the first Turkish cultural centre Ataturk in the southern Serbian city Novi Pazar by Serbian President Boris Tadic and Erdogan.

The city is in Sandzak region, with a predominantly Bosniak Muslim population. After 500 years of Turkish, or Ottoman rule in the Balkans, which ended at the end of the 19th century, the region was divided between Bosnia and Serbia.

But as official media and papers such as Politika praised cooperation with Turkey, Serb nationalists warned in their media outlets of the danger of the "new arrival of Turkey into the Balkans," and spoke of the "dark Ottoman rule here that sidetracked us (Christian Serbs) from Europe."

Many analysts see the arrival of Turkey as logical. "Turkey is involved in a pragmatic political project that it must have an active role in the international scene," Prof. Darko Tanaskovic from Belgrade University told IPS. Tanaskovic is an expert on Islam in the region, and former Serbian ambassador to Turkey.

Tanaskovic said modern Turkey is a "skilfully disguised sternly Islamic nation" that wants influence in large areas of the former empire from the Balkans to Asia, leaving behind the secular ideology of Kemal Ataturk, the father of the modern nation who took over after the dismantling of the Ottoman empire after World War I.

In neighbouring Bosnia and its capital Sarajevo, Turkey has provided religious and financial support to Bosniaks, the biggest victims of the war with Serbs in 1992-95. Turkey is not the only one. Saudi Arabia built the vast King Fahd’s Mosque and adjoining cultural centre in the Sarajevo suburb Alipasino Polje.

A number of Islamic charities from Indonesia and Malaysia, besides Saudi Arabia, have provided financial support to families whose breadwinners died in the war, demanding strict adherence to religion, including introduction of veils.

"We get 400 euros (508 dollars) a month to remain devout Muslims," said Fuada (54) a Sarajevo teacher who lost her husband and son in the war. "It’s enough for me and my daughter." But they cannot find work.

Fuada spoke to the IPS insisting on anonymity, afraid she might lose the income if her full name is revealed. Fuada’s daughter Enisa graduated from a Saudi financed Islamic high school for female assistants in practising religious customs in families.

"The Turks are more welcome, as they do bring jobs and do not insist strictly on religious matters," Zijad Jusufovic (45) who works as a tourist guide told IPS recently in Sarajevo. "They’ve opened some 300 firms in the past couple of years here and that is what people yearn for — work and prosperity," he added.

Turkey has invested in education in Bosnia as well. There are two Turkish- founded universities in Sarajevo, the International University of Sarajevo (IUS), set up by a group of Turkish businessmen and public figures and their Bosnian counterparts, and the International Burch University (IBU). The IBU’s founder is the Istanbul-based Foundation of Journalists and Writers, established among others by Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Followers of Gulen, who has pursued a view that Muslims should not reject modernity but embrace business and the professions, have created a network of private schools and universities across Turkey, the central Asia and the Balkans.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Europe, Foreign Affairs, Report Tagged With: , ,

ECONOMY-BALKANS: ‘How Did We Become So Poor?’

May 19, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, May 18  (IPS)  – Almost two decades after Yugoslavia fell apart, the majority of the defunct socialist country’s people are insecure and uncertain for their future with the booming economy and rapid development that capitalism promised remaining a pipe dream.

‘How did we become so poor?’ is the one question that is heard all over the region. Millions have slipped into poverty and perhaps two or three percent of the population is statistically recognised as rich.

Experts and analysts agree that the region, now comprising the newly independent nations or territories of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro, went through a  ”painful transition” into market economy.

It began more or less at the time when the 1991-95 wars of disintegration tore the country apart and ended a  brand of relaxed socialism that had existed since the end of WW II.

Except for Slovenia, once the most developed part of former Yugoslavia and which became a member of the European Union (EU) in 2004, the economic performances of the rest are dismal  when compared to 1989, a benchmark for the region.

Experts say that the processes of privatisation and transition to market economy here differed profoundly from what happened in the former East European nations after the Berlin wall fell in 1989 and that today’s poverty is not a sudden event caused by recent global downturn.

”We did not see former cunning communist managers or murky international businesses being engaged in privatisation,” economy analyst Misa Brkic told IPS in an interview.

”We had devastating wars, used by local elites to grab power and introduce people close to them into economy, where, as the time went by in the 90s and in this decade, they did not and could not play by market rules.”

The wars left more than 120,000 people dead and economic damage worth tens of billions of dollars in devastated factories, companies, state or privately owned real estate, and in production and export losses of the former common market that collapsed.

The devastation of industry and infrastructure in Serbia stood at more than 17 billion dollars during the NATO bombing in 1999, due to the regime of repression of former leader Slobodan Milosevic against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

According to Brkic, the overall situation discouraged big international business from wider investment in the region, and what has happened since 2008 and global recession ”is only the inevitable outcome of the combination.”

Economic inactivity has become the trademark, with people wanting more and more financial help from the state. Unemployment has reached about 20 percent in Serbia and Croatia, with the grey economy in the former estimated at 40 percent of activity. In Bosnia-Herzegovina,  unemployment stands at more than 45 percent.

”Old socialist mentality dies hard,” Brkic says. ”That is why in Serbia people demand help from the state. Here, we have never adopted the credo that there’s a relationship between quantity of work and quality of life. That is why we have daily protests before the government buildings, with workers demanding salaries and work from the state.”

The older population relies on pensions, which have fallen to a few  hundred dollars a month, as state funds dwindle due to inefficient taxation of stalled economies and little income from privatisation.

”Croatian industry and trade fell victim to the crazy idea of Franjo Tudjman [who led the country to independence] to create 200 wealthy tycoon families that would start up ‘successful’ economy,” prominent economy analyst Zarko Modric told IPS. ”But only his aides could get funds for such privatisation. Once successful production and export companies were sold for small amounts to people who had no knowledge of how to run them.”

Apart from that, Modric adds, the easiest solution for the state when the war ended in 1995 was to retire hundreds of thousands of veterans whose companies were destroyed either by artillery in war zones or by murky privatisation.

”That is why the number of pensioners is only a bit smaller than the number of employed people in Croatia. Pensions and other social categories eat the state budget. The state takes credits abroad, but under more and more severe conditions. So, the accumulated foreign debt of Croatia is now equal to its gross domestic product, 55 billion dollars. The state has fallen into debt bondage”.

Croatia and its 4.3 million people reached 69 percent of its 1989 GDP in 2003, while Serbia and its 7.3 million reached the same point only in 2009.

As for Bosnia-Herzegovina with an estimated population of 3.5 million, and its specific post-war construction of two entities, Republic of Srpska, the Serb entity, and Muslim-Croat Federation, things stand definitely worse.

The latest 2009 study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), under the title ‘Privatisation of State Capital in Bosnia-Herzegovina’, named corruption, lack of rule of law, brain drain and ethnic divisions between Bosniak Muslims, Croats and Serbs, ”entrenched in their entities” as the main reasons for nation’s economic impasse.

The long study describes in detail the process of reconstruction phase, after the war ended in 1995 until 2000, and then the privatisation and transition to market economy until 2009.

Much like Serbia or Croatia, Bosnia became ”a hostage state”, as the UNDP says, where people in power enabled criminal or ”mafia networks” to openly breach the laws, and make profits ”through corruptive transactions with public officials and politicians in power”.

In Bosnia, this also led to murky privatisation where companies were sold for nominal sums of a few euro and the new owners mostly did nothing with them.

”Such practice led to discrimination of foreign investors and resulted in complete lack of resulting funds in 2009,” the study says. The budget was deprived of privatisation income, thus further reducing the already meagre pensions and social care benefits for many.

”When people all over [former Yugoslavia] complain that they’ve never lived so poorly I’d say they cannot understand what happened although they witnessed it all,” Brkic says.

”Many still believe that we don’t have to work much in order to live well. But the reality is harsh and spares no one. Transition is painful, but it should be quick in order not to hurt much. However, people all over are living in it for almost 20 years and it’s for the political, intellectual and expert elite to reach consensus and speed up the process now,” Brkic said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Economic Crisis, Europe, Featured, Poverty, United States Tagged With: ,

BALKANS: Farming Prospers as Farmers Suffer

March 16, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Mar 16  (IPS)  – Official statistics put Serbian agriculture as the single most productive branch of the economy and one that not only survived the financial meltdown but chalked up a record trade surplus of almost a billion US dollars in 2009.

With the start of the new cropping season in March, Serbian agriculture minister Sasa Dragin has announced that subsidies for individual farmers will be increased from 10,000 dinars (130 dollars) to 14,000 dinars (180 dollars) per hectare of cultivated land, to further boost production of such staples as wheat, corn and vegetables.

Yet, despite the successes,  most Serbian farming households – that typically own between 10 and 20 hectares of arable land – are in dire straits and struggling to survive the transition to a market economy.

”The good results of agriculture come mostly from combined production that is in the hands of several major privately-owned or even internationally-owned companies that have come up since 2000,” Vojislav Stankovic from Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SCC) told IPS.

”They have taken to the concept of integrated production, obtaining resources cheaply from individual producers and turning them into good products that bring in good financial results. But for individual producers, times remain as hard as ever and there should be an overall effort to help them in future,” he added.

Serbia has some 4.8 million hectares of arable land and official statistics say that half of its 7.4 million people that live in 4,512 villages, form the basis for agricultural production. Some 40 percent of Serbian youth live in those villages.

The most recent study of the status of farmers in Serbia, called ‘Social Exclusion in Rural Areas of Serbia’, by the non-governmental organisation (NGO), Group for Social Initiative (SECONS), with support from the European Commission (EC) and the United Nations Development Programme, showed that some 37.8 percent of village households in were on the verge of poverty with incomes of around 9,296 dinars (129 dollars) a month.

”We can say with certainty that 27.8 percent out of 1,621 farming households we surveyed have been living in poverty for years now,” Mina Petrovic from the SECONS told IPS at the release of the study last month.

The study comprised several dimensions of social exclusion, such as financial poverty, employment opportunities, education and healthcare, material deprivation and social and cultural participation.

”We can also say that villages are being deserted by the young people as few of them see any opportunity for improved lives,” Petrovic added.  ”They sell their crops, fruits and vegetables cheaply and it’s only the big production complexes that see good profits in the end”.

Separate estimates by the NGO as well as the SCC say that due to depopulation, some 700 out of Serbia’s 4,512 villages will cease to exist in 15 years. They estimate that more than 200,000 men aged above 40 in these villages may never marry because all the eligible girls have migrated to the big towns in search of a better life.

”Young people in the villages are de-motivated to continue their education and 44 percent never finish secondary schools,” Marija Babovic from the SECONS told IPS. ”By tradition, men remain to keep their households ‘alive’, but young women leave for the big towns, trying to find jobs and escape the hard life on the farms. The result is a growing number of single and impoverished village households.”

Serbia, like much of former Yugoslavia, needs a strategy of rural development.

Vice-president of Serbian Chamber of Commerce Stojan Jevtic told IPS that there can be no development for villages and farms ‘’unless a critical intellectual mass is created through real strategy”.

”Such a critical mass would be made out of experts who are ready to move to rural areas, work and live there. On its side, the state could help development of infrastructure for better life in villages. But that will take a lot of time,” he added.

Meanwhile the Serbian government has announced plans to encourage  households involved in the cultivation of certified brands of grapes, wine and fruits for export. A stimulus of 650 dollars per household will be paid after the autumn harvest.

Apart from that, the funds coming from the European Union (EU) will be used for modernisation of the existing fleet of 700,000 tractors and other basic agriculture machinery. The EU has invested almost 91 million dollars in Serbian agriculture since 2000 and more funds worth 33 million dollars are expected in 2010 and 2011.

Part of the EU funds will be invested in irrigation systems, that  are used on 30-40,000 hectares,  or less than one percent of  Serbia’s arable land.

”I’d love to see investment into that,” Marko Stanisavljevic (58) from the  village of Azanja, some 100 km south of Belgrade and known as one of the most productive, best looking and orderly villages of Serbia.

”It’s odd to look at the skies in the 21st century and worry about whether it’s going to rain on time or not,” he added.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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