A new down for Kosovo?

Image via Wikipedia//Hashim Thaci

Kosovo elected the members of the legislative on December 12^th, for the first time since the declaration of independence in 2008, but the ways in which the electoral process was organized and held is raising serious questions regarding the accuracy and reliability of the vote.

According to the results, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo won more than 33 percent of the vote in a field of 29 parties. The leading opposition party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, garnered over 23 percent, while the Self-Determination Movement ran third with just over 12 percent. Prime Minister Thaci now has about 90 days to form a government. 

Independent observers were present at polling stations throughout Kosovo and called the voting process largely "effective and efficient," though there were some irregularities during the vote count in several polling locations. American Ambassador to Kosovo Christopher Dell observed 17 polling stations, including in Srbica, where he noted that the ballots in the box exceeded the number of signatures in the voters' book.  The U.S. urges the Kosovo elections commission to address the few serious irregularities that occurred. The United States also regrets the atmosphere of threats, intimidation, and violence from Serbian sources directed for weeks against Kosovo Serbs in northern Kosovo that prevented many there from exercising their democratic rights.

In 2008, the majority Muslim and ethnic Albanian territory of Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia.  Seventy-two countries, including the United States and most of its NATO allies, recognize Kosovo's independence.  Serbia, Rusia and Spain are among the most notable exceptions.

Shortly after the vote, the US State Department, considered the elections “a significant milestone in the development of their multi ethnic democracy”. Adding: “Kosovo now faces a test as the votes are counted. Kosovo’s institutions must demonstrate to the public that they’re prepared to defend the integrity of the vote. And we call on Kosovo’s authorities to take the required actions to address irregularities, process complaints and appeals fairly, as well as ensure that the final results of Kosovo’s elections accurately reflect the voters’ intent”.

What it is next? Beyond the political and ethnic instability, the country needs reliable and transparent institutions. A corruption widespread at all levels, including the prime-minister, accused recently of being part of a regional ring trading organs.

The lessons of Kosovo might be the lessons of any country who is first declaring its independence and after is trying to realize what to do and, most importantly, with whom. The national Romanticism is far away and we are soon at the end of the first decade of 2000.

With Serbia getting closer to the EU, many Kosovars might decide that the direct economic advantages and the freedom of working and travelling in the European Union is more advantageous instead of living in a no man's land rotted by institutional incapacity.

Related articles

• Premier's Party Wins Kosovo Vote (online.wsj.com)

About civil resistance in Bosnia

I attended recently a web discussion about civil resistance and civil movement in Bosnia Herzegovina. The full content can be find here, so no need to rephrase ideas and points of view already expressed.

I would like to have only a couple of remarks, on various aspects.

Foto right: Victims of the massacre from Srebenica

First of all, I am happy to remark again how interesting is to live in this 2010, and to enjoy living in a free country, including benefiting of free Internet access allowing me to listen and be part of great conversations about topics I am interested in, independently of my current geographical location.

Second, I was very happy to be part of a discussion about an area I always was very interested in. For various reasons, my interests switched recently on other areas, but I will still keep an eye to my dear South-Eastern Europe.

What this live webinar reminded me is that Bosnia and Herzegovina changed a lot in the last years, not only as a consequence of the steps forward on the road to the EU integration, but thanks to the civil society networks created shortly after the end of the Balkan wars. The initiatives started from the communities not involved directly in the public life, as it is the case of the women, and, more specifically, the relatives of victims, as was in the case of Mothers of Srebenica.

The past is complicate and you cannot simply delete the terrible memories from the time of the wars. The situation of war criminals is far of being solved - thanks to various political arrangements as well - and democracy is advancing shyly. But the determination of some organisations is vital and changing the society they used to live by now. Dosta was able to mobilize enough people - also via the 2.0 - for permanently pressing the authorities to fight corruption. And, as a consequence, a prime-minister resigned in 2009.

I would like to have more time to follow closely the complex transformations the new countries from the former Yugoslavia are going to. What I can remark is that it is under way a new form of civic involvement and a new type of civil society that we, in the West, preferred to limit to cultural action and social-environmental militantism. A new trend for a new type of society.

Spain's retreat from Kosovo raises eyebrows

Victoria Burnett
International Herald Tribune

March 24

When Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain withdrew Spanish peacekeepers from Iraq in 2004, he got the cold shoulder from former President George W. Bush. So ever since the election of Barack Obama, Mr. Zapatero has relished the prospect of working with a U.S. leader with whom he shares not only a birthday but also, in his view, a progressive agenda and a desire to resolve conflict through dialogue.

But Spain's unexpected announcement last week that it would withdraw its troops from the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo has marred the nascent relationship with the Obama administration and raised questions about Spain's reliability as an ally, diplomats and foreign policy experts say.

Spain informed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and U.S. officials of the decision less than 24 hours before Carme Chacón, the Spanish defense minister, announced it during a visit Thursday to a Spanish military base in Kosovo.

A State Department spokesman, Robert Wood, said that the United States was "deeply disappointed" by the announcement an unusually strong reproach to an ally. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the NATO secretary general, also expressed disapproval, saying that any decision to withdraw from the Kosovo force should be made within the alliance, according to news reports.

Spain has just over 600 troops stationed in Kosovo as part of the NATO-led force of 15,400 soldiers. But the Spanish government, which is trying to curb regional nationalism in Catalonia and the Basque Country, does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign nation.

The problem, analysts and experts said, was not so much Spain's decision to withdraw troops as the abrupt way it was announced. According to a report in the newspaper El País, Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos was one of several senior diplomats who were unaware of the decision before it became public. On Monday, in a show of unity, Moratinos said that the whole government backed the Kosovo withdrawal.

But diplomats and experts said they were baffled by Mr. Zapatero's decision to announce a potentially controversial decision just before the Group of 20 meeting in London on April 1-2 and the NATO summit meeting in Strasbourg a day later meetings that are keenly anticipated in Zapatero's inner circle as an opportunity to work with Mr. Obama.

While the decision to pull out of Kosovo was logical for Spain, they said, it was not urgent. Spain has made clear that as the mission in Kosovo turns to building national institutions, it will no longer have a role there.

Jordi Vaquer i Fanés, director of the Center for International Relations and Development Studies in Barcelona, said the handling of the announcement made the government look amateurish at a time when Mr. Zapatero was hoping to burnish his international credentials.

Mr. Vaquer said the incident reflected Mr. Zapatero's lack of understanding "of how these organizations work," adding, "What we have done here is to lose weight within the European Union and NATO."

Several newspaper columnists and analysts noted that the announcement had echoes of Spain's 2004 pullout from Iraq. "Kosovo is not Iraq, but two withdrawals are more than a coincidence," José Ignacio Torreblanca, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Madrid, wrote in El País. "Some will ask, what is the problem with Spain?"

Mr. Zapatero scored a victory when he won a seat at the G-20 meeting of industrialized and emerging economies in Washington in November. At the time, Spain's conservative banking practices and tough regulation were admired as a possible blueprint for other countries in the wake of the financial crisis, though they did not prevent some of Spain's leading banks from getting into trouble.

But some analysts and critics have said the Spanish prime minister does not always navigate diplomatic waters well. Still, the damage does not appear to be irreparable. Spain could still prove itself an effective partner for the United States on issues such as Afghanistan, Guantánamo and Cuba.

Spain has resisted calls to increase its force of nearly 800 troops in Afghanistan, and officials close to Mr. Zapatero indicate that he is inclined to provide civilian help, for example, to train the police. But press reports indicate that Ms. Chacón is open to sending more troops if the United States presents a convincing Afghan strategy.

Mr. Vaquer said: "The Kosovo thing is not a major, major mistake. Our credibility has been damaged, but we can recover from this."

Two Anniversaries, Two Legacies -- Which Will Bosnia Choose?

A cemetery for those who died in the siege of Sarajevo, built on a football pitch in front of the Zetra Olympic hall in Sarajevo (file photo)

Gordana Knezevic
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
February 11

In Sarajevo, February is not the shortest month. At least it doesn't seem that way. There are simply too many anniversaries to honor, mourn, or celebrate.

It's been 25 years since the 1984 Winter Olympics, when for a fleeting moment the entire city was transformed into the world's sports capital. That February, every citizen of Sarajevo seemingly believed he or she had personally contributed to each medal won in the giant slalom, bobsled, or ski jump, or simply felt immeasurable pride at being a perfect host.

Eight years later, Sarajevo was back in the world's headlines when it was attacked by Serbian artillery forces. One of the worst massacres of the war that ensued took place on February 5, 1994, when a single shell killed more than 60 people and severely wounded 200 more in what came to be known as the Markale market massacre. February 5 was declared a day of remembrance for victims of the war, including 12,000 Sarajevans, many of whom are buried at former Olympic sites hastily converted to graveyards during the conflict.

The defense of Sarajevo was heroic. People of different ethnic backgrounds fought side by side to protect their right to live together -- only to see their country divided, once the war was over, into an ethnically identified Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) and a Muslim-Croat Federation.


Undoing Dayton?


The U.S.-brokered Dayton peace agreement in 1995 was praised for forcing all sides to the table to end nearly 3 1/2 years of fighting. But it was a shotgun wedding that failed to deliver the constitutional framework needed for Bosnia's future.

A Sarajevan family mourns a victim of the city's February 1994 marketplace massacre. The shelling, which killed 68 people, did not discriminate between Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats.

One of Dayton's legacies is the Office of the High Representative, an international post established to supervise the postwar normalization. Since December 1995, the world has sent six of its most prominent diplomats to babysit the fragile Bosnian peace. The post came with almost unlimited powers. But each time, the high representative left Bosnia frustrated at his inability to move the country forward, toward real stability.

The latest such case is High Representative Miroslav Lajcak, who is leaving in favor of a post as Slovak foreign minister. Lajcak signaled his intention to leave in late January; his successor has yet to be named. Local political leaders, reasoning that Lajcak is unlikely to use his final weeks in office to play disciplinarian, have seized on this window of opportunity, using the current power vacuum to propose that Bosnia be divided into four separate regions.

Despite the locals' protestations that the plan would create "sustainable economic units," this is hardly regionalism as it is understood in Europe. Rather, it is a throwback to the early 1990s, when Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic presented a scheme to divide Bosnia into four cantons -- one Serb, one Croat, and one Muslim, with Sarajevo thrown in as a separate entity to convince the international community the division was truly administrative in nature, and not a split along ethnic lines.

In the months leading up to the war, the leaders of Bosnia's three national parties secretly drew and redrew the maps in an attempt to formalize Karadzic's proposal. Many of those maps ended up in the dustbin; but psychologically they laid the groundwork for the ethnic cleansing that followed.


Old Goals


Once again, the maps are being privately redrawn. History does not repeat itself, and the current four-unit proposal does not mean Bosnia is once again teetering on the brink of war. If anything, the leaders of the three major national parties believe the time has come to achieve their wartime goals -- albeit through peaceful means.

Even Dayton, the treaty that brought peace to Bosnia, has become a weapon in the mounting tensions. It has been nearly 14 years since the ink dried in Paris, but Bosnia's national leaders have yet to comply with one of its basic demands -- that they sit together and produce an official constitution. Without that step, Bosnia cannot move ahead on European integration or NATO membership.

But attempts to introduce a new constitution have failed repeatedly. When a preliminary document was finally cobbled together in 2007, Haris Silajdzic, the Bosniak member of the country's tripartite presidency, blocked the deal, saying it didn't go far enough. In truth, he has called for the dissolution of Republika Srpska, and has no inherent interest in carrying out Dayton to the letter. (Silajdzic was one of the key Bosniak negotiators in the Dayton talks but is now its chief critic inside the Muslim-Croat Federation.)

What has been completely lost in Bosnia is a sense of reality. Each ethnic group clings to its own narrative of the recent past.

Similarly, Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of Republika Srpska, have no personal stake in seeing a constitution approved. Officials in Banja Luka, the capital of Republika Srpska, are pushing for secession from the Muslim-Croat Federation, and have traditionally refused to countenance the three-party negotiations prescribed by Dayton.

Dodik has hired an American law firm to advise his government on any further negotiations with the international community and on other legal issues. As Russia's money and Belgrade's influence in the region grow, Dodik is increasingly flexing his muscles. He is ready to use any legal loophole or marketing trick to block constitutional changes.

In Dodik's view, the future of Republika Srpska is safe -- it is Bosnia that will not last. His arrogance is not simply poor manners. It is an intentional jibe meant to annoy his political partners and force Muslim and Croat leaders to ask for an ethnic "divorce" -- a division of the country along ethnic lines.


New Element


To add to the turmoil, the religious head of Bosnia's Islamic community, Mustafa Ceric, last week defended the country's Wahabbist movement during Friday prayers. He rejected any division between "old" and "new" Muslims, invoking specters of "Islamophobia" and "genocide" that haunt all of Bosnia's Muslims.

The appearance of religion in an already tumultuous ethnic debate is a bad sign. And as long as politicians hold the people of Bosnia hostage to their ethnic or religious identities, no one will be asking the questions that really matter: Why are more than 40 percent of Bosnians unemployed? What is the average salary still below $600? What has happened to the millions of dollars and foreign aid that has poured into the country since the end of the war? Why have reforms aimed at European integration not been introduced?

What has been completely lost in Bosnia is a sense of reality. Each ethnic group clings to its own narrative of the recent past. Most Muslims consider Republika Srpska an entity created through genocide. Many inhabitants of Republika Srpska, meanwhile, deny that events like the Markale massacre ever happened.

Nationalism in Bosnia is a strong drug that keeps the country deeply divided.

Independent voices are not being heard.

Where is the global city of Sarajevo that hosted the Olympic Games?


Gordana Knezevic is director of RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Services. The views expressed in this commentary are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.

Wars in the Balkans, the sport version

Violence at Australian Open during match between Novak Djokovic and Amer Delic

Insults, punches and then chairs were thrown at Melbourne Park on Friday during fighting between Serbian and Bosnian spectators after the third-round match of the Australian Open between Serbian Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, and Amer Delic, a Bosnian-born American.

Mark Hodgkinson, Melbourne

The Telegraph

January 23

Two men were arrested and 30 spectators thrown out of the grounds after the fighting, which saw one woman knocked out after being struck by a flying chair.

It is the third year in succession that there has been crowd unrest at the Australian Open, following the running battles between Croatian and Serbian supporters during the 2007 tournament and last year's incident when police used pepper-spray on some Greek fans.

The police had hoped that they had the security measures in place for this year's Australian Open to prevent a repeat of the crowd violence.

The French Open is known for being oh so terribly chic, Wimbledon is famed for its strawberry-and-cream traditions, and the US Open prides itself on being the loudest party in the sport, but now the Australian Open has developed a reputation for being the Fight Club of the tennis world, for being the place where age-old Balkan enmities come alive in the garden area.

Earlier this week, two fans were ejected from Melbourne Park after scuffles that followed Croatian Marin Cilic's second-round victory over Janko Tipsarevic, of Serbia.

Before the match against Djokovic, Delic had posted a message on his website asking his supporters not to cause any unrest. "As we all know, Bosnians and Serbs have had some differences in the past," said Delic.

"However, this is not the time to settle these differences. Novak and I are tennis players in one of the greatest settings in the world of tennis. I am hoping for a fair fight that all the fans will enjoy, with the key word being 'enjoy'. That's what we are all here for, to enjoy moments like these."

Inside the Rod Laver Arena, the Bosnian and Serbian spectators were generally well behaved. But outside, around the garden square area of Melbourne Park, it was a different story.

About the Serbian tennis, see also International Herald Tribune

Kosovo launched its security force

The Kosovo is having an Army-like structure, move considered by Serbia as another "threat" to an already volatile stability in the area. By now, Kosovo is recognized by 50 countries, mostly EU members, but not all of them. Little by little it's starting to behave as a full empowered country, even the resources - especially human - are problematic. Serbia is desperately trying to strengthen its ties to NATO and EU, a long time process but which will focus the most part of the efforts of the authorities from Belgrade towards building up stability and coherent economic plans. And sooner or later, the situation of its neighbourhood would be set up, as a main condition of starting the negotiation process with the two organizations.



See also:

The official page of EULEX, the EU mission launched last December, with a significant delay, aiming to strengthen the rule of law in Kosovo - http://www.eulex-kosovo.eu/

NATO for suspension of security zone in Kosovo - Blic

Russia is using again the gas weapon

On another fronts, the dispute between Russia and Ukraine over the gas supplies is affecting seven European and Balkan countries.

"We don't have any trace that leads to Mladic, unless a miracle happens"

Where is Radko Mladic? The Belgrad authorities are saying they do their best, but a miracle is needed, NATO is trying to find some connections with 13 years haunted fugitive Radovan Karadzic, whose trial is scheduled to start end January 2009, according to officials from the Hague Tribunal. How he was able to hide for such a long time, despite constant and systematic searches all over the Balkans- mainly from the part of NATO? Hiding under new identity and look, Karadzic used to sip regularly his red wine at the Belgrad's pub "Madhouse".

The wars in the Balkans were a profitable business, some of direct beneficiaries being helpful later, in hard times. Zoran Djindjici's killers were former "Red Berets" squad members, reconverted into the mafia businesses of the Zemun gang. And the explanation of the murder is not clear at all.