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Fri, Feb 10 2012
Serbia, Kosovo welcome EC reports
European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.
The European Commission’s "enlargement package" report on October 14 2009 had to tread carefully in its pronouncements on Serbia and Kosovo, and first reactions from Belgrade and Pristina seemed to indicate that the EC had pulled off its balancing act.
Serbian leaders welcomed the report, one of the key points of which was to recommend that the EU unblock its interim free trade agreement with Serbia.
Serbian president Boris Tadic hailed the EC report as "the most positive one so far" and said that his country would continue making progress in all areas key to European integration.
Serbian deputy prime minister Bozidar Djelic used similar language, also describing the report as the most positive so far and saying, according to a Radio Srbija report, that he expected that the interim trade agreement would be unblocked in December.
The EC recommendation on the trade agreement was, Djelic said, proof that the Commission was a strong ally of Serbia on its European path.
All that remained to be achieved was complete consensus within the EU, he said.
If consensus is not reached at the EU Council of Ministers in late October, we expect this to happen during the European Summit in December, after the new report of Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz, Djelic said.
Countries, notably the Netherlands and Belgium, have been blocking Serbia’s EU integration pending satisfactory proof that Belgrade is co-operating with the ICTY.
Serbian agency FoNet reported foreign minister Vuk Jeremic as saying that he was "satisfied" with the EC report.
He said that, for the first time, the report had not assessed whether the political will for EU membership existed, but rather what had been done in the European integration process.
The EC report included a section on Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.
The EC proposed, rather than the path used for other countries, a dialogue with Kosovo on the stabilisation and association process, and for Kosovo to enter into a trade agreement with the EU. However, the EC said that Kosovo does not presently fulfil the conditions for a trade agreement.
Kosovo daily Koha Ditore reported on October 15 that it had asked European Enlargement Commissioner why the EC could not propose a more concrete option of Kosovo.
According to the daily, Rehn said: "You have a negative view; however, I have to admit that we are facing a situation where 22 (EU states) have recognised Kosovo, while five others have not."
This meant that the EU was forced to work from a status-neutral position, Rehn was quoted as saying.
Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaçi said the progress report and study on Kosovo were of "historic importance" to Kosovo and that they recognised the progress achieved.
He said that the reports noted good governance while the challenges presented in the two documents had also been raised earlier by the Kosovo government.
Serbian leaders welcomed the report, one of the key points of which was to recommend that the EU unblock its interim free trade agreement with Serbia.
Serbian president Boris Tadic hailed the EC report as "the most positive one so far" and said that his country would continue making progress in all areas key to European integration.
Serbian deputy prime minister Bozidar Djelic used similar language, also describing the report as the most positive so far and saying, according to a Radio Srbija report, that he expected that the interim trade agreement would be unblocked in December.
The EC recommendation on the trade agreement was, Djelic said, proof that the Commission was a strong ally of Serbia on its European path.
All that remained to be achieved was complete consensus within the EU, he said.
If consensus is not reached at the EU Council of Ministers in late October, we expect this to happen during the European Summit in December, after the new report of Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz, Djelic said.
Countries, notably the Netherlands and Belgium, have been blocking Serbia’s EU integration pending satisfactory proof that Belgrade is co-operating with the ICTY.
Serbian agency FoNet reported foreign minister Vuk Jeremic as saying that he was "satisfied" with the EC report.
He said that, for the first time, the report had not assessed whether the political will for EU membership existed, but rather what had been done in the European integration process.
The EC report included a section on Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.
The EC proposed, rather than the path used for other countries, a dialogue with Kosovo on the stabilisation and association process, and for Kosovo to enter into a trade agreement with the EU. However, the EC said that Kosovo does not presently fulfil the conditions for a trade agreement.
Kosovo daily Koha Ditore reported on October 15 that it had asked European Enlargement Commissioner why the EC could not propose a more concrete option of Kosovo.
According to the daily, Rehn said: "You have a negative view; however, I have to admit that we are facing a situation where 22 (EU states) have recognised Kosovo, while five others have not."
This meant that the EU was forced to work from a status-neutral position, Rehn was quoted as saying.
Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaçi said the progress report and study on Kosovo were of "historic importance" to Kosovo and that they recognised the progress achieved.
He said that the reports noted good governance while the challenges presented in the two documents had also been raised earlier by the Kosovo government.
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Belgrade sends Ratko Mladic’s diaries to ICTY
The Hague tribunal receives Mladic diaries, upholds Serb party leader Vojislav Šešelj’s conviction for contempt and confirms the 2008 conviction of Johan Tarculovski for murders and other actions in Macedonia.
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Serbia, IMF ‘close to agreement’ on fiscal policies for 2010
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Serbia must have the last word on Kosovo – Russian president Medvedev
On the eve of his October 20 2009 visit to Belgrade, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev says that joint energy projects will be on an agenda geared to build further co-operation between Russia and Serbia.
Serbia slams Macedonia’s establishment of diplomatic relations with Kosovo
Move will bring additional tensions to the already fragile relations between Serbia and Macedonia, Belgrade says.
Kosovo debated in UN Security Council
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‘Political de-mining in the Western Balkans’ – Rehn
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‘Year of progress’ in Western Balkans, says European Commission
Croatia could complete accession negotiations in 2010, Serbia's interim agreement should be implemented, while key reforms are needed in other countries.
Bulgaria to take part in World Court hearings on Kosovo
Public hearings at the World Court on the question on Kosovo’s independence start on December 1, with 30 countries and Kosovo scheduled to take part, the court says.
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This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained off-topic content
I would guess the figures of a "professional statician" would be determined by who pays his salary.
The most recent population records for Srebrenica were from 1991, when the municipality (the town and the many villages in the surrounding area) of Srebrenica had 37,211 inhabitants, of which 27,118 were Muslims (72.8 percent) and 9,381 Serbs (25.2 percent).
"It is immensely significant that one of the judges in the Krstic case, Judge Patricia Wald, estimated the total pre-fall population of Srebrenica at 37,000 when writing an account of the Krstic case for the [...]
Read the full comment Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. (The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics Spring 2003, SECTION: Vol. 16, No. 3; Pg. 445; ISSN: 10415548, HEADLINE: General Radislav Krstic: A war crimes case study, BYLINE: PATRICIA M. WALD)"
“Prior to the attack, Srebrenica was a village of some 37,000 inhabitants.”
UNMO Deputy Chief Operations Officers of UNPF
"If there had been a premeditated plan of genocide, instead of attacking in only one direction, from the south to the north - which left the hypothesis to escape to the north and west, the Serbs would have established a siege in order to ensure that no one escaped. The UN observation posts to the north of the enclave were never disturbed and remained in activity after the end of the military operations. There are obviously mass graves in the outskirts of Srebrenica as in the rest of ex-Yugoslavia where combat has occurred, but there are no grounds for the campaign which was mounted, nor the numbers advanced by CNN.
The mass graves are filled by a limited number of corpses from both sides, the consequence of heated battle and combat and not the result of a premeditated plan of genocide, as occurred against the Serbian populations in Krajina, in the Summer of 1995, when the Croatian army implemented the mass murder of all Serbians found there. In this instance, the media maintained an absolute silence, despite the fact that the genocide occurred over a three month period. The objective of Srebrenica was ethnic cleansing and not genocide, unlike what happened in Krajina, in which although there was no military action, the Croatian army decimated villages."
"Alijah Izetbegovic was fully prepared to sacrifice Srebrenica in exchange for total US support; he gained the additional benefit that he could redeploy several thousand troops from Srebrenica to other fronts such as the Bihac pocket. By the same token, the Clinton government was delighted to be furnished with a propaganda coup that enabled them to give the green light to Croatia’s Operation Storm in Krijina and to pressgang Yugoslavia to the Dayton negotiations."
That how I describe the official version...b*ll*x. srebrenica was highly inflated in order to justify NATO intevention, and somehow justify the WORST act of ethnic cleansing throughout the civil war...the 200000 Krajina Serbs.
A professional statistician would say "bollocks" to your lengthy argument. Recalculate your "standard error", "sampling error", "degrees of freedom", and plain "bollox" factor on data collection, and then re-present your case...preferably with a professional statistician at your side.
Population of Srebrenica approximately 40000
Yossef Bodansky, Staff Director for the Republican Task Force on Terrorism & Unconventional Warfare, US House of Representatives who has written several books on the war in Yugoslavia and also serves as Research Director of ISSA, calls the 7,000 figure "disinformation" and notes that "all independent forensic evidence points to Muslim casualties in the hundreds, possibly the low hundreds. Continued emphasis on such allegedly high numbers of Muslim deaths at Srebrenica also obfuscates the Muslim murders in that city, earlier, of Serb civilians."
While the capture of Srebrenica was reported in [...]
Read the full comment July 1995, as it unfolded, an international outcry only took place a month later, after Madeleine Albright, then US representative to the UN, held up a photo which she said provided evidence that thousands of Muslim victims had been buried at field near Nova Kasaba, 19 kilometers from Srebrenica. Excavations which took place following the war, however, yielded 33 bodies at Nova Kasaba. Two years after the event, a total of 400 bodies had been found at 20 sites near Srebrenica, an area which had seen bloody fighting over a three year period. Instead of acknowledging that there was no support for the original figures, a various means were used to prop up the official story."
Former BBC journalist Jonathan Rooper, who has researched the events in Srebrenica since 1995, says "that the region was a graveyard for Serbs as well."
"By 1998, thousands of bodies excavated from all across Bosnia were stored at the Tuzla airport. Despite state of the art DNA testing, only 200 bodies have been linked to Srebrenica. Around 3,000 names on a list of Srebrenica victims compiled by the Red Cross matched voters in the Bosnian election in 1996. "I pointed out to the OSCE that there had either been massive election fraud or almost half the people on the ICRC missing list were still alive," says Rooper "The OSCE finally responded that the voting lists had been locked away in warehouses and it would not be possible for them to investigate."
George, I think you are perverting Jan Hus's splendid dictum "PRAVDA VITEZI" (Truth Shall Overcome. Prague, 1414 AD) to suit your own ends.
One detail - when you say:
<<That gives us 37,632 survivors plus the 2,000 combat deaths, which would require the prewar population of Srebrenica to have been 48,000 if 8,000 were executed, whereas the population before July was more like 37-40,000." >>
..there is no discrepancy at all. By Balkan standards of population surveys and demographics, 48,000 and 40,000 are pretty close, within the same [...]
Read the full comment statistical estimation error (use the Khi-Squared formula if you don't believe me.)
Far from sowing doubt in my mind, the proximity of these two figures suggests that one or other of them is very probably true (or else the mid-point of 45,000)
Balkan Justice says
Your statement that "Mladic was instrumental in helping Serbs battle against an islamic takeover" is completely false and it is akin to stating that "Hitler was instrumental in helping the Germans battle against a Jewish takeover" which is nonsense.
Izetbegovic's book, "Islamic Declaration":
"...There can be no peace or coexistence between the 'Islamic faith' and non-Islamic societies and political institutions. ... Islam clearly excludes the right and possibility of activity of any strange ideology on its own turf…and the state should be an expression …of [...]
Read the full comment the religion. ..."
These ar not claims but these are FACTS, there is sufficient evidence from the western media supporting that thousands of muhajudeen fighters arrived in Bosnia to wage a jihad. Many of these fighters are linked to islamic terrorist organizations. These muslim forces committed many atrocities against Serb men, women and children including Bosnian muslims who refused to join their kind of islamic extremism. There is growing evidence that these same fighters are linked to the most recent acts of terrorism including 9/11, madrid bombings, 7/7. Your failure to acknowledge these FACT proves your ignorance on the subject or blatant disregard for the TRUTH.
The lies and propaganda are easily debunked with evidence that supports a mere 2000 muslim fighters were killed during the battle of Srebrenica.
"The 8,000 figure is also incompatible with the basic arithmetic of Srebrenica numbers before and after July 1995. Displaced persons from Srebrenica--that is, massacre survivors-- registered with the World Health Organization and Bosnian government in early August 1995, totalled 35,632. Muslim men who reached Muslim lines "without their families being informed" totaled at least 3,000, and some 2,000 were killed in the fighting. That gives us 37,632 survivors plus the 2,000 combat deaths, which would require the prewar population of Srebrenica to have been 48,000 if 8,000 were executed, whereas the population before July was more like 37-40,000."
"Even now the exact number of Muslim killed (in Srebrnica) has not been established because the authorities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina refuse to carry out a census."
Once again Serbia should demand a census before forging any ties with the EU. Serbia must persue an aggressive policy to seek and demand justice for the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Serbian people. The west supported these war crimes against the Serbian people which immediately makes the west an accomplice. The TRUTH cannot be buried forever, the TRUTH will come out.
George:
Your statement that "Mladic was instrumental in helping Serbs battle against an islamic takeover" is completely false and it is akin to stating that "Hitler was instrumental in helping the Germans battle against a Jewish takeover" which is nonsense.
Your attempts to justify and glorify the Srebrenica Genocide are craven and insulting. The cold-blooded murder of innocent defenseless civilians can never under any circumstance be justified by you or by anybody else. It is simply inexcusable and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
Mladic made [...]
Read the full comment the choice to target innocent defenseless Bosniak civilians when the orchestrated the Srebrenica Genocide. Now it is time for him to pay for his monstrous crimes and for justice to be served.
Serbia needs to arrest the war criminal Ratko Mladic the man most responsible for orchestrating the Srebrenica Genocide before they are allowed to forge closer ties with the EU. The EU needs to have a firm stance regarding this issue so that justice can finally be served for the countless victims of Mladic's savage brutality. We should all be grateful that the Netherlands has had such a firm, principled, and moral stance on this issue on behalf of all EU citizens that want to see a world in which war criminals who committed genocide are punished for their crimes so [...]
Read the full comment that justice can be delivered to the victims of the genocide and their family members. The EU needs to keep the pressure on Serbia to fulfill it's moral and legal international obligations by arresting and extraditing Mladic.
Mladic was instrumental in helping Serbs battle against an islamic takeover, mujahideen fighters came from the Muslim world to fight Christians in their own back yards. As for the hague, Serbs are very farmiliar with western bias on court rulings. The hague has on numerous occations left a foul impression of the tribunal's double standards.
George - so Ratko Mladic is how a hero, is he ? Pity he doesn't turn up at The Hague to say so.....he has certainly had an invitation.
This comment has been hidden by the moderator because it contained квалификации.
TSE Moderator, well done in cracking the whip. Some people don't bring anything to the discussion apart from insults.
Hopefylly 1 won't be back under another name. It's been done before.
BalkanJustice
What "has been proven beyond doubt" is that there are many unanswered questions. I am intentionally spreading the facts about the lies of the "official version" in order to educate the uneducated, uninformed masses who rely on information reported by corporate media.
Question Everything....
A representative in the Bosnian and Federal Parliaments, Ibran Mustafic, Aug. 15, 1996, to Slobodna Bosnia ("Free Bosnia," A Sarajevo newspaper). Mustafic was quoted “The scenario for the betrayal of Srebrenica was consciously prepared. Unfortunately the Bosnian presidency and the Army command were involved in this business … Had I received orders to attack the Serb army from the demilitarized zone, I would have rejected to carry out that order without thinking and would have asked the person who had issued that order to bring his family to Srebrenica so that I can give him a gun let him stage [...]
Read the full comment attacks from the demilitarized zone. I knew that such shameful, calculated moves were leading my people to catastrophe. The order came from Sarajevo”
Yasushi Akashi, former UN Representative in Bosnia, admitted in the Washington Times of 1 November 1995, that "it is a fact that the Bosnian government forces have used the 'safe areas' of not only Srebrenica, but Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bihac, Gorazde for training, recuperation and refurbishing their troops."
"Yossef Bodansky, Staff Director for the Republican Task Force on Terrorism & Unconventional Warfare, US House of Representatives, writes in his book, "Offensive in the Balkans" that "The UN concluded that a special group of Bosnian Muslim forces, many of whom had served with Islamic terrorist organizations, committed a series of atrocities, including 'some of the worst recent killings,' against Bosnian Muslim civilians in Sarajevo [another designated "safe area"] as a propaganda ploy to win world sympathy and military intervention. These attacks escalated into premeditated attacks and atrocities committed against Bosnian Serb civilians trying to flee contested areas." Furthermore, Michael Evans and Michael Kallenbach write in the Times (1995), "Thousands of 'missing' Bosnian Muslim soldiers from Srebrenica who have been at the centre of reports of possible mass executions by the Serbs, are believed to be safe in the northeast of Tuzla.""
The three Dutch military historians and Ambassador Bissett recalled that Serbian General Radko Mladic has protested the misuse of the so-called "safe haven" of Srebrenica by Oric and warned that continued attacks on surrounding villages would bring a response from the Serbian forces.
"the brutal mass murder - using axes,knives,daggers,sledgehammers,
iron bars,flamethrowers and explosives - of 3,870 Serbian elderly men, women and young children in and around the town of Srebrenica and its adjoining villages"
"At the Hague. Mr. Oric was recently freed by the NATO owned Hague ICTY on Friday, June 30, 2006, after being given a mere 2 year sentence - for murdering 3,870 innocent civilians in and around the Bosnian town of Srebrenica over a 3 year period from April 1992 to July 1995"
"The 8,000 figure is also incompatible with the basic arithmetic of Srebrenica numbers before and after July 1995. Displaced persons from Srebrenica--that is, massacre survivors-- registered with the World Health Organization and Bosnian government in early August 1995, totalled 35,632. Muslim men who reached Muslim lines "without their families being informed" totaled at least 3,000, and some 2,000 were killed in the fighting. That gives us 37,632 survivors plus the 2,000 combat deaths, which would require the prewar population of Srebrenica to have been 48,000 if 8,000 were executed, whereas the population before July was more like 37-40,000."
Even now the exact number of Muslim killed (in Srebrnica) has not been established because the authorities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina refuse to carry out a census. Serbia has been asking for a census, Serbia has nothing to hide, but many other self serving interest do!
"1" has found himself banned for insulting others.
please keep these discussions to the point and try to provide arguments and facts, not insults.
This comment has been hidden by the moderator because it contained квалификации.
The Serbian authorities have repeatedly promised to arrest the war criminal Ratko Mladic and to extradite him to the Hague. The EU has repeatedly stated that Serbia has to arrest and extradite Mladic if it want to form closer ties with the EU. All in all it is clear what Serbia has to do and it is the duty of Serb politicians to fulfill their international obligations.
To George:
You state a lot of things with no evidence to back them up whatsoever. You are intentionally spreading lies do deny the Srebrenica Genocide. The Srebrenica Genocide has been proven beyond doubt and you lies and deceptions will only fool other uneducated dimwits such as yourself.
This comment has been hidden by the moderator because it contained квалификации.
"According to the daily, Rehn said: "You have a negative view; however, I have to admit that we are facing a situation where 22 (EU states) have recognised Kosovo, while five others have not."
This meant that the EU was forced to work from a status-neutral position, Rehn was quoted as saying."
So EU has a body has not recognised Kosovo and cannot. Lisbon treaty is not going to impact on this rule.
To 1, If you don't agree with someone's opinion you should argue your point with [...]
Read the full comment facts and try to disprove their statement. You do not tell people to go to hell as a result. This is not an argument at all but just your frustration at not being able to debate.
When you have an opinion on a subject please do come back and share it. Until then, perhaps you might want to take your own adivce.
This comment has been hidden by the moderator because it contained квалификации.
Bosnian Serb army fought against Naser Oric and his muslim fighters who were massacring Serb civilians in the most genocidal ways. These muslim forces were launching attacks from the UN safe haven of Srebrenica and the Serbs were out to get this cutthroat warlord and his forces.
2,000 Bosnian Muslim fighters were killed in battle for Srebrenica and that is the number of bodies Hague investigators were able to find. Most of the so called muslim's who are claimed
to have been killed died prior to 1995, went abroad or a still alive. Serbia should not [...]
Read the full comment join the EUSSR, so they shouldn't hand over Mladic who protected the Serbs from islamic extremists and the muhajadeen who were funded by Al-Queida under US protection.
Serbia needs to arrest the war criminal Ratko Mladic the man most responsible for orchestrating the Srebrenica Genocide before they are allowed to forge closer ties with the EU. The EU needs to have a firm stance regarding this issue so that justice can finally be served for the countless victims of Mladic's savage brutality. We should all be grateful that the Netherlands has had such a firm, principled, and moral stance on this issue on behalf of all EU citizens that want to see a world in which war criminals who committed genocide are punished for their crimes so [...]
Read the full comment that justice can be delivered to the victims of the genocide and their family members. The EU needs to keep the pressure on Serbia to fulfill it's moral and legal international obligations by arresting and extraditing Mladic.