Serbia: Return to the past?

I'd agree only to the extent that i suspect that there have always been Servs who were not blood-thirsty nationalists. But, yes, i don't believe anything has changed.

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based on...? newspaper articles, TV reports, hearsay, or just a deep rooted belief?

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Setanta wrote:

Servs in Kosovo continue to whine about "ethnic cleansing" practiced against them.

And with some reason.

Nothing compared to what was done to the Albanian Kosovars in 1998-1999, for sure. And at least the Kosovo Serbs are largely protected, if in rather untenable ways, by UNMIK, while back in the 90s the Albanian Kosovars simply faced the brunt of oppression without any kind of intermediate.

But nevertheless - the Serbs in Kosovo have, in '99 and since, been the victim of serious violence, and thats not something to just close your eyes to either.

(This kind of reminds me of what happened at the end of WW2, though obviously on a positively miniature scale, and even then in more convoluted ways. Even so, it was for decades near-taboo for anyone remotely liberal of thought to talk about the suffering of Germans who were forcibly and violently chased out of Poland, Czechoslovakia e.a. in 1945-46; after all, how could one express sympathy with the people who themselves were involved in something so much worse? Looking back, I think it was wrong to ignore their fate, to leave it only to the archconservatives of the Bund der Vertriebenen to dwell on it. A larger evil doesn't make a smaller evil OK; violently chasing people out is wrong, no matter who does it, and the fate that befell the Vertriebene was a tragedy in its own right. The logic of retribution is a dangerous one to tolerate or validate, perhaps even more so in the Balkans than anywhere else.)

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Habibi, i have little sympathy for the Servs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Croatia or Slovenia. I do understand that many are hapless victims--however, it cannot be ignored that they were "planted" in those places as a part of Tito's misguided policy which attempted, and failed, to make Yugoslavia homogenous.

The plantation of Servs throughout Yugoslavia was already casually underway during the post-Great War monarchy, and Tito accelerated it. However, the big push comes in the period after 1968 and the failed "Coratian Spring." Tito then made a point of turning over the administration of almost all districts of Yugoslavia to Servs, and of putting Servs in all key positions in the military.

I understand the point that many of the Servs outside Servia are young enough not to be blamed for what their parents participated in. However, given that the Servs have a 650 year old grudge they carry around against the Turks because of their defeat in Kosovo in the 14th century, and that its a big enough grudge that Karadzic was able to exploit the term "Turk" in his anti-Bosnian propaganda, it's a bit rich not to see that large poritions of the populations of Kosovo and Bosnia remember a time when Servs did not own all of the best farm land, and most of the small shops.

That they are getting run out of the areas they, or their parents or grandparents stole from others is unfortunate, perhaps. To call it ethnic cleansing is quite a stretch, in my never humble opinion.

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no sympathy? what is the alternative? is driving them out, denying them basic rights then justifiable? is it their fault they have ended up there? how many peoples around the world were dispersed this way? how about germans, from the 12th century on?

from this perspective the transfer of ten million germans and hundreds of thousands of hungarians after WWII seems like a perfectly just cause.

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Setanta wrote:

That they are getting run out of the areas they, or their parents or grandparents stole from others is unfortunate, perhaps. To call it ethnic cleansing is quite a stretch, in my never humble opinion.

Well, face it: in this region of Europe, there has been such a sucession of changes in state, government and private power, that almost every home or property has been dispropriated at some point or other - when noblemen took it from peasants, when the later communist state took it from landowners, when the Habsburgs took it from the locals and the subsequent nation-states took it from the Habsburgs, when in war and civil war one party, country or ethnic group swept into possession of the lands only to be driven back and replaced again by the other. To go back and try to establish who is, historically speaking, the actual "rightful" owner of a piece of land, a shop, or a city, province or country for that matter, is a fool's errand.

Of course, governments have to take decisions to somehow approach the notion of justice, but any way they cut it someone gets unjustly robbed: this is even true for relatively straightforward questions of material restitution. Eg, when they hand land or real estate back to the former owners from before communism, they make current inhabitants who've lived or worked there for two, three generations suddenly rightless; when they divide up the collective farm amongst its peasants, the family who was ruthlessly robbed of it in 1948 never gets justice; when they sell the factory or farm complex to a foreign investor, nobody gets justice, but productivity and employment might benefit.

And thats just questions of straightforward individual property. You're talking of ethnic collectivities, of "the Serbs" having robbed lands that rightfully belonged to "the Croats" or "the Albanians". Be it thirty, sixty or ninety years ago - count the number of generations that were born and died since.

More troublingly, by putting it in such terms of course one is actually buying into the same logic that the nationalists there themselves use - the Serbs foremost. The Serbs love to point out that once upon a time, the majority of the population in Kosovo was Serb, and the Albanians only got to be 90% of the population by high birthrates (that would then be something along the lines of "breeding like rabbits"), immigration from Albania proper, and "forcing" the Serbs to leave. Sorry, but whether the history was tragic, farcical or natural, one can not build a new country, define today's rights, on the basis of deeds and misdeeds of generations back. It is a vicious cycle of ever committing new injustices in order to set the previous ones straight.

I once came across a book - the xth book in the store that year about the topic of minority issues in Central and Eastern Europe - and i almost bought it for the tite alone. It summed up, in a manner as childish as the reasoning itself is, when you bring it down to the bottom line, the logic of the nationalists on all sides fighting out these claims and counterclaims in ever new battles or population transfers. It was called: "We Were Here First".

Really. That logic will have to stop, if peace is finally to last. And the only way to cease the logic of "We Were Here First" is to draw a line at where we've been in this current time. Give those now living as refugees the right to go home, sure. But not argue with each other about whether one should restore the givens of demography and territory of thirty years ago, or sixty, or ninety - wich in the end is merely an endless trumping game of conflicting historical claims. Things are the way they are; people have come to live where they have come to live; in order to stop this cycle of violence and resentment once and for all, we have to accept that this is where we're at, and this is what we'll have to work with.

IMHO, that means - Kosovo is now 90% Albanian (more even by now, I'd gather) - so whatever the historical truth, thats how it is, and independence will have to come, one way or another. But Serbian minorities have come to live across the Western Balkans - so minority rights will have to be worked out and enforced, one way or another. Et cetera.

Mind you, you are obviously not alone in your logic. The strongest proponents of it have been the Estonian and Latvian postcommunist governments. With the Interbellum independence restored, they faced Russian "minorities" in their country of some 40% and almost 50%, respectively. Far more clearly even than in the case you sketch re: Yugoslavia, these minority populations were the direct result of a hegemonic (in this case simply: occupying) government colonialising these territories by pumping in populations from other ethnic groups, Russians foremost of course, Ukrainians too.

The Estonian and Latvian governments plain refused to accept the fait accompli and simply refused to grant anyone citizenship to the newly independent state who couldnt prove he or his (grand)parents lived there in 1939 (or 1945, I dont remember by heart which they chose as yardstick). Everyone else had to apply for citizenship just like any foreigner and succeed at a language test and other requirements.

The logic is wholly understandable. The Baltic peoples had suffered tremendously under Soviet occupation. And after the mass deportations, executions, imprisonments and torture of the first years came four decades of second-rate citizenship, as they were forced to see their green, rural, pious lands invaded by Russians and their factories, pollution, language - with nothing they could do about it. Its easy to empathise.

Yet, what did their decision yield? Historically, emotionally, it was understandable. But all it did in the end was just paste yet a new layer of personal injustice upon the previous ones. Hundreds of thousands of people who had simply come to Tallinn, Narva or Riga in search for work, when it was in their own country, people who had lived there for three, four decades or were born there, suddenly became stateless. No passport, no rights, no nothing. What had they ever done wrong? And yet suddenly there they were, washed into the drain of history, robbed of their right to vote for politicians who then robbed them of more of their rights. The execution of historical justice here once again clashed with the clear-cut injustice against individual lives that it resulted in.

Enough with the historical justice already. The rights of the individual should go above that of any ethnic collective's historical claims. If we don't finally start holding true to the supremacy of individual rights in Europe, these wars of ethnic and historical resentment will just feed off each other in an endless loop.

<stares, looks down at soapbox, steps off it>

Ehm ... yeah, sorry bout that - got a bit carried away there. But you get the point ;-)

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dagmaraka wrote:

no sympathy? what is the alternative? is driving them out, denying them basic rights then justifiable? is it their fault they have ended up there? how many peoples around the world were dispersed this way? how about germans, from the 12th century on?

from this perspective the transfer of ten million germans and hundreds of thousands of hungarians after WWII seems like a perfectly just cause.

Nonsense. The acceptance of a contention of "ethnic cleansing" being carried out against Serv communities which squat on territory they took from others in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and an attempt to protect those communities now is effectively, for whatever the intent, a ratification of the "ethnic cleansing" of the Tito Era, even if it were not so described then.

People alive today, a great many people, remember when that land was their land, and remember when it was taken from them. This is not a call for a rectification of injustices committed in centuries gone by, but within the lifetimes of many, and arguably most, people still living in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro.

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Habib is clever enough to apply my objections to Dag's post to his post.

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Setanta wrote:

dagmaraka wrote:
no sympathy? what is the alternative? is driving them out, denying them basic rights then justifiable? is it their fault they have ended up there? how many peoples around the world were dispersed this way? how about germans, from the 12th century on?

from this perspective the transfer of ten million germans and hundreds of thousands of hungarians after WWII seems like a perfectly just cause.

Nonsense. The acceptance of a contention of "ethnic cleansing" being carried out against Serv communities which squat on territory they took from others in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and an attempt to protect those communities now is effectively, for whatever the intent, a ratification of the "ethnic cleansing" of the Tito Era, even if it were not so described then.

People alive today, a great many people, remember when that land was their land, and remember when it was taken from them. This is not a call for a rectification of injustices committed in centuries gone by, but within the lifetimes of many, and arguably most, people still living in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro.

Well, nonsene right back at you. It may be within lifespan of some, but many more were born into this situation. You can't punish Tito. Or Milosevic. You could only punish those that remain in these territories - mostly innocent people.
This Israel, Slovak border territories, Poland after WWII, Australia, New Zealand... - many many situations were victors, or incomers usurped land from those they ousted. All well within the last 60-70 years. Today their descendants have lived there for decades and consider the land theirs. Should they be punished for what their predecessors did? On the basis of collective guilt? Where do we stop? Who do we expell and who not? Will you dare to set the cutt off line?

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In none of the situations to which you refer do you have the example of people deliberately placed in a position to overawe or dominate the native population. You continue to refer to events which took place well over fifty years ago, and in the memories and lifetimes of only the oldest people. In the specific case of Kosovo, the plantation of Serv populations has occurred only since Tito died--not 60 or seventy years, not fifty years ago, and not even forty years ago--within the lifetimes of more than half the population of the region.

In the case of the Servs, you also have an example unique for another reason. The Servs have had a chip on their shoulder for centuries, and have complained of their misfortunes for centuries, but refuse to acknowledge that sauce for the goose makes sauce for the gander. Since at the least, 1878, and continuously right up to the present, the Servs have been a destabalizing force in eastern Europe, and all because of their intention to take and dominate as much territory as they possibly could, and the devil take the hindmost.

I repeat, i have no sympathy for the Servs when they whine about "ethnic cleansing."

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For those who, like me <blushes>, had missed the news last week:

Milosevic held guilty in Serbian Supreme Court case on murder of Stambolic, assassination attempt on Draskovic

URL: July 5 (IPS)

(My) summary:

Quote:

The Serbian Supreme Court has finally confirmed that former president Milosevic did order the execution of his political opponents. The verdict on Milosevic came while the Court confirmed long prison sentences against eight secret service policemen for the abduction and assassination of Milosevic's predecessor Ivan Stambolic in 2000.

The eight have also been convicted by a district court for an assassination attempt on Vuk Draskovic, then opposition leader. Prosecution is now seeking tougher sentences in this case.

Two of those found guilty were members of the Special Operations Units (JSO) of the secret Serbian police in Milosevic's era. The JSO group is also on trial for a 1999 assassination attempt on Draskovic. On Milosevic's orders they staged a car crash near Belgrade in which four of Draskovic's aides died. Several JSO members are on a separate trial for the assassination of first post-Milosevic prime minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003.

The Supreme Court case established that the group was provided helicopter transportation to and from the 2000 assassination attempt on Draskovic by the army, and that the Stambolic and Draskovic assassinations were discussed at official meetings of the ruling Socialist Party. The Court sentenced former head of the secret police Rade Markovic to 15 years in prison. "The pyramid of evil has been indisputably established and proven by Serbian courts," said lawyer and first post-Milosevic interior minister Bozo Prelevic.

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Quote:

Serbs protest street named for Milosevic

September 1
Yahoo! News

[My] summary:

Quote:

Thousands protested in Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city, against naming a boulevard in the city after late President Milosevic. The initiative to name one of the main streets after him was made by the Socialists and Radicals, who control the local government. They also have proposed that the city change the name of another street, named after former Prime Minister Djindjic.

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Del Ponte submits negative report on Serbia to EU, SAA talks to remain frozen

17 October 2006
Southeast European Times

Summary:

UN chief prosecutor del Ponte presented her report on Serbia's co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to the EU Troika, saying there is no political will in Serbia to meet its international obligations, particularly the requirement to hand over Ratko Mladic. EU Enlargement Commissioner Rehn later confirmed that Stabilisation and Association Agreement talks with Serbia would not resume, due to the lack of war crimes co-operation.

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Serbs Want to Hand Kosovo an Independence Invoice
IPS News
2007-02-20

Summary:

Quote:

As Kosovo inches towards independence, nationalist Serbs are raising an economic obstacle. Government and media are asserting that state and other property in Kosovo mostly belongs to Serbia, and the province cannot just walk away pocketing Serb money that has gone into it. A favourite argument is that "Serbia has invested more than 30 billion dollars in Kosovo since World War II," with the media flooded with reports listing property the UN is ready to "give away to Kosovo for free."

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Can a country be guilty of genocide?
Can a country be guilty of genocide?

Setanta wrote:

[..]
I understand the point that many of the Servs outside Servia are young enough not to be blamed for what their parents participated in.
[..]

Quote:

Court clears Serbia of genocide

The UN's highest court has cleared Serbia of direct responsibility for genocide during the 1990s Bosnian war.

But the International Court of Justice did rule that Belgrade had violated international law by failing to prevent the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica.

Bosnia brought the case and would have sought billions of dollars from Serbia in compensation if successful.

The case is the first of a state being charged with genocide. Individuals have been convicted of genocide in Bosnia.

The Bosnian Muslim leader expressed disappointment at the ruling, which was welcomed both in Serbia and the Bosnian Serb Republic.

At least 100,000 people died in the 1992-1995 war, triggered by the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Bosnia's Muslims and Croats wanted to cut ties with Belgrade, a move opposed by Bosnian Serbs.

No reparations

The case, Bosnia and Herzegovina versus Serbia and Montenegro, began a year ago and a panel of judges has been deliberating since hearings ended in May 2006.

Quote:

INTERNATIONAL COURT
UN's highest legal body, resolving disputes between states
Based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, began work in 1946
The court has 15 judges of different nationalities elected to nine-year terms of office
If one state fails to comply with a ruling, the other party can take the issue to the UN Security Council

Bosnia argued that Belgrade incited ethnic hatred, armed Bosnian Serbs and was an active participant in the killings.

Belgrade said the conflict was an internal war between Bosnia's ethnic groups and denied any state role in genocide.

In the ruling, the president of the court, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, said: "The court finds that the acts of genocide at Srebrenica cannot be attributed to the respondent's (Serbia) state organs."

However the court added that the leaders of Serbia failed to comply with its international obligation to prevent the killings and punish those responsible.

The court also rejected Bosnia's claim for reparations.

"Financial compensation is not the appropriate form of reparation," the ruling said.

The war crimes tribunal in The Hague has already found individuals guilty of genocide in Bosnia and established the Srebrenica massacre as genocide.

Stalled talks

Under a 1995 peace accord, Bosnia remained a single state, but power was devolved to a Muslim-Croat federation and a Bosnian Serb Republic.

Quote:

HAVE YOUR SAY
I don't understand why the country should be held accountable
Peter, Toronto

The BBC's Nicholas Walton in Sarajevo says many Bosnian Muslims were hoping for a clear ruling that Serbia as a state was responsible for pursuing a genocide in Bosnia during the 1990s.

The Bosnian Muslim member of the country's tripartite presidency, Haris Siladzic, told the BBC there was "disappointment" at the outcome.

However he welcomed the fact that the court had "ruled that Serbia and Montenegro had violated the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by not preventing or punishing the perpetrators of the genocide".

In the Serb Republic, Krstan Simic, a senior member of the governing ruling Union of Independent Social-Democrats, said he was pleased that the judges had taken "real facts " into account.

In Serbia itself, President Boris Tadic welcomed the judgement and urged parliament to pass a declaration "condemning the crime in Srebrenica without any doubt".

The German presidency of the European Union urged Serbia "to use today's judgment as a further opportunity to distance itself from the crimes committed by the Milosevic regime".

The ruling comes with Serbia still facing challenges linked to the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

Admission talks with the EU have been stalled over Belgrade's failure to hand over war crimes suspects for trial.

Link:
Court clears Serbia of genocide
Story from BBC NEWS
Published: 2007/02/26 17:06:24 GMT

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Re: Can a country be guilty of genocide?

SerSo wrote:

Can a country be guilty of genocide?

There was a separate thread on that:

World court: Serbia cleared of genocide, but not innocent

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I neglected this thread, even though developments have been tumultuous.

In January, there were elections. Which were won by the Radicals - an ultranationalist party - but not by enough for them to be able to form a government.

Instead, the obvious choice for government seemed a coalition of the liberal, pro-Western Democratic Party (DS) of President Tadic, and the moderately nationalist, conservative Serbian Democrats (DSS) of Prime Minister Kostunica.

Problem is, these two parties dont gel well together. And they have serious differences of opinion: Kostunica is fiercely opposed to co-operating with the Hague war crimes tribunal, and is opposed to any deal whatsoever over Kosovo. The DS is in favour of co-operation with The Hague, and is more focused on economical issues than Kosovo.

Not to mention suggestions that Kostunica and his officials were complicit parties in the 2003 assassination of former Prime Minister and DS-leader Zoran Djindjic.

So for months the negotiations dragged on without definite outcome, to the exasperation of the EU and economic investors.

Meanwhile, the court case over Djindjic's assassination reached its verdicts - establishing the guilt of the actual perpetrators, but leaving the question who instigated them open.

Then, early this month, many MPs of the DSS voted along with the Radicals and Slobodan Milosevic's old party to elect a Radical as parliament Speaker. The man promptly announced he wanted to introduce a state of emergency. The stock market went into a tailspin, and the EU and US were alarmed, and exerted whatever pressure they could.

A few days later, the DS and DSS, together with a minor ally, formed a coalition government after all.

Perhaps now work can finally start.

See the news articles below - all summaries are mine.

Quote:

Ultra-Nationalists Win Serbian Vote But Pro-West Coalition Likely

2007-01-22
Deutsche Welle

The ultra-nationalist Radical Party claimed victory in crucial Serbian general elections on Sunday, but conceded it had failed to get an outright majority and was unlikely to form a government.

Quote:

Serbia: Democrats trump radical win

2007-01-23
ISN Security Watch

The Radicals take home the most votes in the elections, but a coalition of democrats could save Serbia from isolation. Lengthy negotiations will ensue, with the two main democratic parties wrangling over the post of prime minister, as Kosovo's status hangs in the balance. Even President Tadic, leader of the Democratic Party, said on Sunday "loud and clear, the answer is no" on Kosovo's independence.

Quote:

Comment: Djindjic Trial Never Really Explained The Motives

2007-04-30
Balkan Insight

The three-year trial of the conspirators accused of assassinating Serbia's former prime minister is almost over. The evidence that was presented looked solid, the court was as independent as could have been expected and the verdict is predictable. After three years almost everything is clear - except who actually instigated the assassination.

Quote:

Serb police detain former Scorpions members over attack on journalist

2007-05-10
Southeast European Times

Former members of the Scorpions paramilitary unit are being questioned over a grenade attack on the home of Vreme reporter Dejan Anastasijevic. The attack prompted the Independent Association of Journalists to broadcast daily appeals for action; "it must not become another unsolved mystery," says Djordje Vlajic. There have been 111 politically motivated assaults in the past three months, and hate speech is increasing in media and politics.

Quote:

SERBIA: A Government At Last

2007-05-11
IPS

Serbian leaders finally reached agreement on a new government. Outgoing PM Kostunica will keep his post, while President Tadic will take over the National Security Council, which controls the security services. They agreed to remove Tomislav Nikolic as parliament speaker, who had been elected just last week. Within 48 hours of being elected, the ultranationalist had announced he would suggest "introducing a state of emergency in the country."

Quote:

Serbian right-wing leader resigns

2007-05-14
Yahoo! News

Serbian ultranationalist Tomislav Nikolic resigned as parliament speaker after only five days in the post, averting immediate fears that Serbia was returning to its warmongering past. He had been elected thanks to deputies loyal to Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS). But under pressure from the EU and US, the DSS and President Tadic's Democrats reached a last-minute deal to form a coalition government.

Quote:

Comment: Serbian Cabinet Deal Clears Way for Security Service Reform

2007-05-15
Balkan Insight

The belated government deal by Serbia's democratic parties has opened the way for overdue reforms to the security agencies. Kostunica'S DSS will retain the interior ministry, while Tadic's DS will control the defence ministry and military intelligence agencies, which are believed to have aided Hague fugitives like Ratko Mladic. The two will share control of the civilian security agency BIA, which under Milosevic was used to assassinate dissidents and liaise with the underworld, and was associated with the 2003 assassination of PM Djindjic. In the past seven years, political leaders have used the BIA to pursue political feuds and survey rivals.

Quote:

Political woes play havoc with economic stability in Serbia

2007-05-17
Southeast European Times

A last-minute government coalition deal ended six months of political limbo in Serbia, but experts say this year is lost as far as Serbia's economic growth is concerned. The six days that hardline nationalist Tomislav Nikolic spent in office as parliament speaker cost the National Bank 75m euros, as it rushed to slow the currency's resulting decline.

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Quote:

Extremism Rears its Head in Serbia

BIRN Balkan Insight
03 10 2007

Summary:

Quote:

Amid crucial Kosovo talks, racial prejudice and ultra-nationalism seem to be rising in Serbia.

Last week, a government party MP insulted the Roma community, while neo-Nazi activists threatened to defy a police ban and march in Novi Sad, and a popular daily attacked a Serb actress as "continuously walking along an anti-Serb path" for playing the role of an Albanian boy's mother.

A lack of institutional reaction to cases of bigotry may encourage extremism.

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Well, as you may have read, the awkward government coalition of DS and DSS fell apart over Kosovo, and last week new elections were held.

Quote:

Serbia nationalist, pro-West forces battle for power

May 12
Associated Press

Summary:

Quote:

A pro-Western coalition determined to bring Serbia into the EU won parliamentary elections with a surprisingly strong showing, but it faces a protracted power struggle with rivals who vowed to join forces. President Tadic's pro-EU coalition won a 10% lead over the ultranationalist Radical Party. But if the Radicals joined forces with PM Kostunica's conservative coalition and the Socialists, they would have a 1-seat majority in parliament.

***

How are the negotiations working out? Things are looking very grim:

Quote:

Serbia: Is Nationalist-Socialist Coalition Ready To Take Power?

Friday, May 16, 2008
RFE/RL

Political uncertainty continues in Serbia with an anti-Western coalition of nationalists and socialists announcing that they are close to forming a government. The announcement follows a failed effort earlier in the week by pro-European reformers to form a ruling coalition.

Socialist leader Ivan Dacic announced on May 15 that his party, the ultranationalist Radical Party, and the conservative Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) had "agreed on the principles" of forming a coalition government.

That marked a sharp reversal from reports days earlier that Dacic's Socialists -- the former party of the late Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic -- were close to forming a government with a pro-Western coalition led by Serbian President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party. [..]

Tadic said a nationalist-socialist coalition would be "a short trip on the Titanic" and vowed to try to block it. [..]

Quote:

Talk turns ugly as Serb parties vie for power

Fri May 16, 2008
Reuters

The nationalist Serb Radical Party warned President Boris Tadic on Friday to keep his party's "Mafioso, thieving, criminal" hands off its talks to form a coalition with Socialists.

Tadic's Democratic Party said Serbia did not vote in last Sunday's parliamentary election for "sickening post-election mathematics with which to betray the will of the citizens and dramatically change the strategic course of the country".

The insults flew as leaders of two diametrically opposed camps wrestled to form a coalition with a governing majority [..].

The nationalist parties want Serbia to shun the European Union because a majority of EU states recognize the independence of Kosovo [..]. Tadic's pro-EU bloc says Serbia must pursue EU membership, a goal favored by most Serbs which they say does not imply accepting the loss of Kosovo. [..]

Both blocs are battling for support from the Socialist Party of the late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, which shrank dramatically after he lost power in 2000 and became widely discredited.

But the Socialists made gains in Sunday's election and will have 20 crucial seats in the next parliament. So far they have done most of their coalition talking with the Radicals and nationalist DSS-NS of former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica.

Analysts say the Socialists and small allied parties are split on which way to jump.

Tadic's party said Kostunica had deceived the electorate [..]. "It is highly irresponsible for Vojislav Kostunica to let bitterness and anger be his motivation for turning to a coalition with Seselj, leading the people of Serbia towards damaging Radical policy and the hell of the 1990s."

Radicals president Vojislav Seselj is on trial at the United Nations tribunal in The Hague on charges of war crimes including incitement to hatred and violence during the 1990s wars with Croatia and Bosnia. [..]

***

The future of democratic governance in Serbia in the hands of a small group of Milosevic supporters... history can be sickeningly ironic.

No wonder that the erstwhile revolutionaries of Otpor look back with regret:

Quote:

Serbia's veteran revolutionaries see their democracy uprising under threat

International Herald Tribune
May 7, 2008

Summary:

Quote:

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Quote:

Serbia captures fugitive Karadzic

Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, one of the world's most wanted men, has been arrested in Serbia after more than a decade.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7518543.stm

~~~

http://www.wtvm.com/Global/story.asp?S=8699143&nav=8fap2Qxh

Quote:

Also in Sarajevo, several hundred women are protesting the U.N. war crimes tribunal's decision not to add rape to the charges against two Bosnian Serbs. The women claim the defendants organized rape camps for Serb soldiers during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Also today, forensic experts say they have exhumed 66 victims of a 1995 massacre from a mass grave in eastern Bosnia. Some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men were killed after Bosnian Serb troops overran Srebrenica (sreh-breh-NEET'-sah).

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Serbia: Return to the past?

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