Serbia appears to have resumed progress towards European integration.
This emerges from the fact that the European Union and Serbia restarted association talks on June 17.
Talks were suspended in May last year because of Belgrade’s failure to deliver fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
The recommencement of talks between the two sides is probably a result of a recently seen positive trend in capturing and sentencing by Serbian authorities of people wanted by the Hague.
On June 17, Serbian police general Vlastimir Djordjevic, wanted by the Hague tribunal for war crimes, was arrested. He was captured in the Montenegrin coastal town of Budva, where he had been making a living as a construction worker for the past two and a half months, Beta news agency reported.
Refik Hodzic, spokesperson for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), said that Djordjevic’s arrest was carried out in close co-operation between the ICTY Prosecution and Serbian and Montenegrin authorities.
Djordjevic (58) is one of six people wanted by the Hague Tribunal. He is accused of the expulsion of 800 000 ethnic Albanians in 1999, when he headed the Serbian interior ministry’s public security service, and also served as a deputy minister. He disappeared from Serbia in 2002.
As talks between Serbia and the EU resumed, Serbian deputy premier Bozidar Djelic said that Belgrade had demonstrated its commitment to co-operate with the UN war crimes tribunal by transferring to The Hague another suspect on the court’s list, former top Bosnian Serb general, Zdravko Tolimir. Tolimir, who is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity by the war crimes tribunal, was arrested on May 31 on the Bosnia-Serbia border.
As reported earlier, on May 23 a court in Belgrade convicted 12 men accused of involvement in the murder of Serbia’s first reformist prime minister Zoran Djinjic. Among the 12 were Zvezdan Jovanovic and Milroad Ulmek, two of the main suspects in the assassination, who were given the maximum 40-year prison sentence.
On June 18, Hague tribunal chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte told the UN Security Council that the arrest of generals Zdravko Tolimir and Vlastimir Djordjevic showed Serbia’s dedication to full co-operation with the tribunal. Nonetheless, she insisted on full co-operation, arrest and extradition to The Hague of the four remaining indictees, particularly Ratko Mladic. In the coming weeks, The Hague prosecution will monitor closely the extent of Serbia’s co-operation, Del Ponte said, as quoted by B92 news agency.
During an official meeting in Luxembourg, also on June 18, foreign ministers from around the EU hailed the resumption of the stabilisation and association talks between Serbia and the EU and praised Serbia’s progress in co-operation with the tribunal. The ministers emphasised that Serbia’s future was in the EU and that the EU was determined to work together with Serbia on reaching that goal, but requested that Belgrade should ensure the extradition of the remaining indictees to the tribunal, Beta said. According to EU sources, at the June 21 and 22 sessions in Brussels the EU member states’ presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers will aim to harmonise the EU stand on further efforts at reaching an acceptable solution for Kosovo.
As to Kosovo, there have been a series of developments related to its envisaged future.
By June 27, Kosovo must come up with a decision on a new national flag and anthem. Proposals are currently being gathered after Kosovo’s government announced on June 13 a competition open to local residents as well as to foreigners. The winner of the contest will be awarded 10 000 euro, the runner-up will get 7000 euro, while third place wins 5000 euro.
New state symbols are necessary under the UN envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari’s plan for Kosovo’s independence. Apart from “internationally supervised independence”, the plan envisages that Kosovo should have its own distinctive national symbols, including “a flag, seal and anthem reflecting its multi-ethnic character.”
After Nato’s 78-day bombing campaign in 1999, after which Kosovo came under UN protection, ethnic Albanians in Kosovo (90 per cent) have been using Albania’s flag, and the minority Serb community, the Serbian flag.
The criteria set by the Unity Team say that the flag and emblem must have a simple design and colour scheme without words, slogans or mottos. The symbols of statehood must be “unique and original, easily recognisable and reflect the aspirations of the people of Kosovo for integration into Europe and Euro-Atlantic institutions,” the published criteria read, as quoted by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).
Also according to the requirements, the design of Kosovo’s new flag “must not utilise the representation of any eagle symbol, particularly with regard to such depictions in the symbols of other states, and must not exclusively use a red and black colour scheme, or a red, white and blue colour scheme.” Thus, Kosovo’s flag is not to resemble in any way Albania’s or Serbia’s flags.
The requirements for new state symbols have spurred mixed reactions in Kosovo with some people approving of having new flag and anthem and others wanting to keep using the Albanian.
“Identity is very important and the creation of the state of Kosovo will not leave the Kosova Albanians, Serbs and others without their ethnic identities. But the state of Kosova needs its own symbols as a new European state. We have made it clear that Kosova will not be Albania Number Two but it will be a state of Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Roma, Croats and others that live here. As such, the new state symbols of Kosova will be unique,” Dardan Velija, advisor to Kosovo prime minister Agim Zeku, told The Sofia Echo.
In support of new state symbols was also Jeta Xharra, a BIRN journalist. According to her, Kosovo needs new state symbols on its road to becoming a new country.
“I believe Kosovo needs a new image and identity with which all the people living in Kosovo will identify, not only Albanians but its other communities such as Serbs, Turks, Roma and Gorani communities,” she told The Sofia Echo.
Xharra said that interesting debates were going on among people in Kosovo. Some people, she said, want to keep the black double eagle on a red background as it is the ethnic Albanian flag. Others say even Albania should now (because of Kosovo) choose a new flag to represent the state of Albania since the black double-eagle flag is considered a flag of Albanians everywhere, not only of those in Albania. “I am sure this is unlikely to happen but I think this would be an excellent idea too - not only for Kosovo to have a new flag, but Albania too,” Xharra said.
Alban Bokshi, of the COHU Organisation for Anticorruption expressed a different view to The Sofia Echo.
He has never identified himself as a Kosovar, except when communicating with Albanians from other regions. He firmly prefers using Albanian symbols.
“I am an Albanian, I identify myself as an Albanian, I was raised and taught that I am an Albanian. Therefore, I identify myself with the double-headed eagle in a red background flag and the current national anthem,” Bokshi said.
He strongly disagrees with Kosovo using different symbols, and says that this has been imposed on Kosovars by the UN. Kosovar Albanians are deprived of the right to decide about their future symbols, whether in a referendum or in any other democratic form, he said.
New Kosovo symbols will not mean anything to him, especially in the beginning, Bokshi said. In his opinion, it will be easier for younger generations (particularly those born after the 1999 war) to identify themselves with the new Kosovo symbols, because they will be taught to be Kosovars first and Albanians second.
