Serbs Do Us a Favor and Burn Our Embassy

Quite simply, we never should have been involved with Kosovo for any reason. Kosovo is part of Serbia as New Mexico is to the US. No American President to date would tolerate a European country getting involved in a Mexican led move to encourage New Mexico to declare freedom and secede from The United States. It was a stupid decision by the Clinton Administration to have bombed Serbia over Kosovo.

If the Serbian government cannot find the police or troops to protect the US Embassy, leave it closed. What loss is there to the US if Serbs or Kosovars have a more difficult time coming to the United States?

I have felt for some time that the next Muslim attack on the US would come from white European Muslims and the region of former Yugoslavia is loaded with Islamic militants. There are also Serbian nationalists who despise the US and could be another source of terror. The entire region is a problem that we do not need. It is a good place to start a review on where true US interests are. Not there.

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Serb Protesters Storm Vacant U.S. Embassy
NPR

Serbian nationalists opposed to Kosovo's independence storm the United States embassy in Belgrade, after a massive rally in the Serbian capital. Several hundred young men dressed in hooded sports tops and scarfs had broken into the premises on the main boulevard of Kneza Milosa. The embassy was not staffed at the time of the attack.

Angry demonstrators broke into an empty U.S. embassy in Belgrade on Thursday, setting fire to its facade and tossing documents out of windows to protest Washington's apparent support for Kosovo's independence.

Serbian police stood by as black smoke billowed from the embassy compound, which had been boarded up after rioters threw stones at the structure earlier in the week. Papers and chairs were thrown out of the windows, with doors wedged into burning window frames.

Protesters were later seen removing the embassy's American flag.

The attack follows a day in which an estimated 150,000 demonstrators protested against Kosovo's weekend declaration of independence from Serbia. Protesters waved Serbian flags and carried signs reading "Stop USA terror".

The subject of Kosovo's independence is extremely sensitive for Serbs, who consider the breakaway region the cradle of their medieval nationhood.

Serbia Puts Down a Marker: No to US and UK.

Serbia bans US and British election monitors
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade Independent
Published: 12 January 2008

Serbia's electoral commission has barred US and British observers from monitoring its presidential elections in protest over the countries' support for Kosovan independence.

A member of the commission from the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), Slavoljub Milenkovic, said yesterday that the US and Britain would be prevented from sending monitors for the 20 January elections "because their countries want to destroy us and grab Kosovo away from Serbia".

The US and most EU nations back independence for Kosovo, which is populated by some two million ethnic Albanians. It has been run by the UN since 1999, when a Nato bombing campaign forced Belgrade to end its crackdown on an armed insurgency of Kosovan Albanians.

After more than two years of internationally sponsored negotiations, Serbia, backed by Russia, still fiercely opposes the imminent independence of Kosovo and has refused any solution other than broad autonomy. Belgrade did not react yesterday to a report in The New York Times that claimed the US and Germany have agreed to recognise the independence of Kosovo, and will push the rest of the EU to follow suit after the outcome of the Serbian presidential elections, the second round of which is to be held on 3 February.

Senior EU officials told the paper that the US President, George W Bush, and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, had agreed that it was imperative to secure the stability of the western Balkans by coordinating the recognition of Kosovo between the US and the EU.

Nationalism and anti-Western sentiment are growing in Serbia as it seeks to keep Kosovo from breaking away. The issue of Kosovan independence, which had been on the back-burner since 1999, came into sharp focus after international negotiations over the province began in 2005. Those efforts finally collapsed at the end of last year, prompting the Kosovan government-elect to warn that it would go ahead and declare independence in early 2008.

It provided a further opportunity for the conservative, nationalist government of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica to rally Serbs, most of whom consider Kosovo to be the cradle of their medieval state and religion. His harsh rhetoric on Kosovo has created an atmosphere resembling the nationalist era of former leader Slobodan Milosevic.

Mr Kostunica's frequent diatribes against the EU and its planned mission for Kosovo are pushing Serbia away from signing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, which would give Serbia freer trade access to the European Union. Alongside this, Serbia's reluctance to hand over the remaining war crimes indictees is also not helping relations.

Mr Kostunica's insistence on closer ties with Russia also worries many. Serbs are deeply split over the issue, as no significant aid has ever been forthcoming from Russia in the recent past. No major Russian investments have been allowed since the fall of Milosevic in 2000.

However, Mr Kostunica's government now seems ready to sell the family jewellery, Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS), to Gazprom, Russia's state-run energy giant, in a murky deal for a knockdown price of €400m (£300m) by the end of next week, a move that anaylsts say could further endanger Serbia's access to the EU.

The European Commission yesterday voiced concern over the sale of NIS. Spokesman Krisztina Nagy said: "The Commission hopes that the sale of an important asset such as the Serbian oil company will be open and driven by objective, commercial and economic interests."

Serbia finds itself at a crossroads over the conflicting issues of Kosovo, the EU and relations with Russia just days before the presidential elections, which are considered crucial for the country. Voters are to chose between the reformist and pro-Western President Boris Tadic, and the ultranationalist SRS candidate Tomislav Nikolic. With their choice, they will also decide if Serbia will continue down the road of EU integration or return to its nationalist, isolationist past.

Kosovo, Will the Cesspool of Europe Overflow, Again?

The Russians just want to be helpful.

Kosovo: the heat is on
Posted by Harry de Quetteville on 25 Oct 2007 at 14:51 Telegraph

Kosovo is bubbling up again. It's easy to write it off as a grim wasteland of economic gloom, bureaucratic stagnation and seemingly the world's entire collection of discarded plastic bags.

But it's worth remembering that this is in the centre of Europe, a two and a half flight from London. There are still 17,000 NATO soldiers there, keeping the peace. Come December they might really have to start earning their corn.

December 10th is the deadline for the last, of last ditch, final (honestly) talks between Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership to sort out a future for the place.

You will remember that though ethnically Kosovo is 9/10ths Albanian, it is a province of Serbia. And a cherished province at that. Kosovo separatist and Serb forces dispatched by Slobodan Milosevic fought a war there in 1999 until NATO jumped in and drove out the Serbs.

Since then it’s been administered mostly by the UN. And nothing has happened, nothing has changed. The Serbs are willing to let Kosovo be autonomous, the ethnic Albanians want nothing short of independence. There is no deal.

What is the difference between autonomy and independence? Not a huge amount, but, crucially, combustible notions like pride, history, and nationhood.

The ramifications of failure are huge.

A poll this week suggests Serbia's government will collapse over Kosovo. Now the current Serbian government, filled with 'moderate hardliners' (I love that phrase) like Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica may not seem very appetising. But it is a lot better than the hardline hardliners, like Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the Radical party.

To give you a sense of nationalist sentiment in Serbia, The Radicals won elections earlier this year. It's the biggest party, but isn’t in power because it couldn't form a majority government. Nikolic is only in charge because official leader Vojislav Šešelj is in the Hague charged with war crimes.

Then there is Russia, which backs its traditional ally Serbia in wanting to keep Kosovo. Earlier this week a Russian diplomat said that independence for Kosovo would set a "precedent" which could see Abkhazia and South Ossetia break away from rival Georgia.

Instability in the Balkans and instability in the Caucasus can be a recipe for hundreds of thousands of deaths.

So hold on to your hat. Kosovo may seem boring now, as the diplomats shuttle around for yet more negotiations. But it might get pretty interesting soon.

Dangerously so.