[news] OSCE Mission to host conference on implementing FrameworkConvention on National Minorities
OSCE Mission to host conference on implementing Framework Convention on National Minorities Prishtinë/Pri*tina, 2 December 2004 - The implementation of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities is the topic of a conference that will be held tomorrow in Prishtinë/Pri*tina. It is organized by the Council of Europe, the United Nations and the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. Experts from the Council of Europe will explain to representatives of Kosovo's Provisional Institutions of Self Government (PISG), political parties representing smaller communities and NGOs, the process of drafting the report as required under article 2.2 of Technical Agreement by UNMiK and the Council of Europe. UNMiK - together with the PISG - will submit a formal report to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the legislative and other measures that have been taken to give effect to the principles set forth in the Framework Convention. The report is due to be submitted to the Council of Europe in February 2005. Media representatives are invited to attend the conference from 9:00 to 17:00 tomorrow on 3 December, at the OSCE Mission Headquarters (4th floor conference room) in Prishtinë/Pri*tina. --- Sven Lindholm Mission Spokesperson OSCE Mission in Kosovo Tel: +381 38 500 162 ext.260 Mob: +377 44 500 254 Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
[news] News, 02.12.2004, 17:00 Uhr UTC
Deutsche Welle English Service News December 2nd 2004, 17:00 UTC -- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Köhler Calls for More Aid for Africa Ahead of his first trip to Africa as German president, Horst Köhler has called on the international community, including Germany, to considerably increase financial help for the struggling continent. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1415396,00.html -- -- The nominees for Deutsche Welle's 2004 International Weblog Awards are ready to take the test. The BOBs -- the Best of the Blogs -- are entering the final round and now it's up to you to pick your favorite from the more than 100 finalists -- and with a little luck win a Canon digital camera. The contest is sponsored by TypePad weblog service and the Maritim Hotel Bonn. Let the voting begin! http://www.thebobs.de/bob.php?site=lottery -- Ukraine's highest court to rule on poll Outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ahead of the meeting, Putin said the crisis over the disputed presidential election in Ukraine could only be solved by the people of Ukraine themselves, adding that a rerun election would not help. The Supreme Court in Ukraine is currently ruling on alleged fraud in last month's poll. The opposition's candidate Viktor Yushchenko has contested the narrow win by his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich. On Wednesday, parliament voted to dismiss Yanukovich's government. The Prime Minister has said he will not step down and described the no-confidence motion as illegal. The government plans to contest the decision in the constitutional court. India to survey Bhopal disaster site Officials in India have announced a detailed survey of the contamination in the central Indian city of Bhopal, the site of the world's biggest industrial accident. One state minister said it would be a first step to a clean-up. Commemorations are under way in the city to mark the accident, which happened 20 years ago. Local people say their water is still contaminated. The escape of toxic gas on December 3, 1984, from the chemical factory owned by the US company Union Carbide led to one of the world's most destructive environmental disasters. According to official figures, nearly 3,000 people died on the night of the leak and there have been nearly 15,000 deaths overall related to the accident. US to boost troops in Iraq Iraqi police say insurgents have fired a mortar barrage into central Baghdad, killing at least one Iraqi and wounding 11 others. Amid the ongoing violence, the US is bolstering its forces in Iraq to their highest-ever level. The tours of some units are to be extended to cover the expansion, which is aimed at suppressing violence in the weeks before next month's election. Washington is raising overall troop numbers by 12,000, to reach 150,000, which is more than took part in the invasion. US President George W. Bush has reasserted that elections will be held as scheduled in Iraq, on January 30. IAEA wants to inspect sites in Iran Inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency are requesting access to two secret Iranian military sites. The New York Times newspaper says the UN watchdog suspects Tehran of conducted tests of high explosives at the sites. The paper quotes diplomatic sources as saying the allegations are based on satellite photographs and records of equipment purchases, and that the intelligence suggests an atomic weapons programme. This would be in violation of an agreement reached with Tehran this week to suspend its production of enriched uranium. The suspicions coincide with new allegations by an Iranian opposition group. It says it plans to release information that Iran is secretly developing a long-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. Pinochet stripped of immunity A Chilean court has stripped former military ruler Augusto Pinochet of his legal immunity over the murder of his predecessor as army chief. The decision means he can be investigated for his alleged role in the killing of General Carlos Prats, who was killed by a car bomb in 1974. Prats, a symbol of opposition to the Chilean military government, had fled to Argentina. It is the second case in which 89-yer-old Pinochet has lost his immunity. More than 3,000 people died and disappeared in political violence during
[news] NATO leaves Bosnia a million euro deficit
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1click_id=29art_id=qw110193858042B21 2 IOL (SOUTH AFRICA) 'Nato' leaves Bosnia a million euro 'deficit' December 02 2004 at 02:11AM Banja Luka - Five robbers dressed as Nato peacekeepers, have stolen over one million euros (R7,73-million) belonging to an Austrian bank on the eve of the handover of the mission to an European Union (EU) force, police said on Wednesday. Five unknown perpetrators dressed in (Nato-led Stabilisation Force) SFOR uniforms stopped an armoured vehicle transporting Raiffeisen Bank's money to the central Bosnian treasury and stole 2 047 million convertible marks, police spokesperson Rade Mutic told AFP. He added that the 'soldiers' had built a checkpoint in the village of Ljubacevo and had flagged down the bank's vehicle, claiming to be peacekeepers. They then stole the money, locking guards inside the vehicle. Police were investigating the incident, Mutic said. The European Union's biggest military operation begins in Bosnia on Thursday when the 25-nation community takes over peacekeeping duties from Nato, nine years after the end of the bitter inter-ethnic war in Bosnia. SFOR's 7 000-strong force will be replaced on December 2, by a similar European force. - Sapa-AFP Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
[news] DIVAC TO RECEIVE IOCC AWARD FOR HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS
http://www.hellenicnews.com/readnews.html?newsid=2703lang=US HELLENIC NEWS OF AMERICA December 1, 2004 DIVAC TO RECEIVE IOCC AWARD FOR HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS Baltimore (IOCC) - Vlade Divac, star center for the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and native of the former Yugoslavia, will receive the Good Samaritan Award from International Orthodox Christians Charities (IOCC) at 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5, for his years of distinguished service in support of IOCC's humanitarian mission. A leader on and off the basketball court, Divac has helped IOCC, the humanitarian aid agency of Orthodox Christians, provide half a million dollars in humanitarian assistance in his homeland since 1997. Divac will receive the Good Samaritan Award at an IOCC fund-raising banquet at St. Steven's Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, 1621 W. Garvey Ave., Alhambra, Calif. Among those present will be His Grace Bishop Longin of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Diocese of Western America; Fr. Nicholas Ceko, dean of the cathedral; IOCC co-founder Charles Ajalat; and IOCC Board member Elizabeth Oldknow Skouras Huttingter. Vlade has consistently been voted one of the NBA's good guys, said IOCC Executive Director Constantine M. Triantafilou. He has earned that reputation through, among other things, his longtime collaboration with IOCC to bring hope and opportunity to the children of the former Yugoslavia. In partnership with the Vlade Divac Group 7 Children's Foundation, IOCC has given clothing sets to 3,350 children living in refugee shelters in Serbia; distributed school-supply kits and winter shoes to children in Montenegro; and delivered food parcels to 3,210 refugee families in Serbia. In 2004, Divac partnered with IOCC to bring students in Serbia-Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina together through the Internet. Initiated by Group 7 and IOCC, the Connecting Kids project uses information technology as a tool to strengthen education in Serbian and Bosnian schools and to foster dialogue between students in Serbia and students in Bosnia. These days, technology is integral to a good education, and a good education is the key to a brighter future for students in my homeland, Divac said. I'm excited about this project because it uses computers creatively - to increase learning, spark dialogue and spread tolerance. Computer centers are being established in 17 rural and suburban schools - nine in Serbia and eight in Bosnia - to provide basic computer training and classroom support to 160 teachers and 800 students and to connect youth in Serbia and Bosnia through interactive, Web-based curricula. Connecting Kids further extends the collaboration between IOCC and Group 7, founded by Divac and six other members of the Yugoslavian national basketball team to help children living in post-war Yugoslavia. From 2001-2003, Divac supported IOCC's Healthy Teeth-Beautiful Smiles project. The dental hygiene education and awareness campaign reached more than 24,000 elementary school children in Serbia's eight largest cities, providing them with dental kits and training, and encouraging them to make healthy lifestyle choices. The project also provided data on the dental health of children in Serbia that has been used to study and target dental health services. This effort continues today through the country's Ministry of Health. To learn more about IOCC humanitarian programs in the former Yugoslavia, please visit www.iocc.org. Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
[news] WEST IS BEHIND MANY DEVELOPMENTS IN UKRAINE - PRIMAKOV
WEST IS BEHIND MANY DEVELOPMENTS IN UKRAINE - PRIMAKOV THE HAGUE, December 1, (RIA Novosti's Andrei Poskakukhin) - Yevgeny Primakov, chairman of Russia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, believes that the West is behind many developments in Ukraine. In a RIA Novosti interview, Primakov described as thoughtless the position of those who dismiss the opinion concerning the presidential poll prevailing in Ukraine's eastern part. The part of Ukraine which accounts for more than 79% of GDP is totally disregarded in their conclusions by those who claim to be able to resolve things in a fair way, he thinks. It seems to me that this is a rash position, which, unfortunately, is backed by the West, Primakov said. In his opinion, those who stick to this point of view fail to understand that such a stand may trigger not only a split of Ukraine, but also have a negative impact on Russia. At the same time, differences between Russia and the West are intensifying. Who needs it all? he added. Primakov also pointed out that he would not draw any parallels between the events of the 1990s in Yugoslavia and current developments in Ukraine. In his view, Yugoslavia collapsed mainly because in 1990 elections the Communist League of Yugoslavia suffered a setback in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia. These four republics were poised to withdraw from Yugoslavia under the flags of other parties, Primakov indicated. The Communist League retained its positions in Serbia and Montenegro. This, he believes, was the reason for an ideological approach to Slobodan Milosevic. Another distinctive feature of the Yugoslav events, Primakov believes, was that Yugoslavia was split as a state, which was not set up around one people. The processes going on in Ukraine are entirely different, he stressed. Primakov on Tuesday appeared as a witness for defence at an International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia trial of Slobodan Milosevic. http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160msg_id=5154960startrow=1date=2 004-12-01do_alert=0 Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
[news] SERBIAN NATIONAL SHIELD SOCIETY OF CANADA // Letter to CBC
SERBIAN NATIONAL SHIELD SOCIETY OF CANADA GLAS KANADSKIH SRBA/VOICE OF CANADIAN SERBS November 29, 2004 Hemispheres CBC Television [EMAIL PROTECTED] This weekend your Hemispheres program Living with the killers repeated the same one-sided story about Serbian atrocities in Bosnia with no coverage of the atrocities perpetrated by the Bosnian Muslims against the Bosnian Serb population, as though the Serbs suffered no losses, as though Serbian mothers are not crying for lost sons and husbands. It appears sensitivity and objectivity is applied to all groups from war zones, except the Serbs. Some of your omissions which would have made a balanced report are below: 1) In 1992, before the Srebrenica tragedy, the New York Times brought an explicit photo and article of the expulsion of Serbs from Srebrenica. 2) The Srebrenica tragedy occurred after more than a year of commando raids and killings of Serbs by Nasir Oric and his Muslim gangs who ventured from that 'militarized safe haven' used as a staging area to attack nearby Serbian villages, burn homes and kill hundreds of Serbs. Oric even invited the Western media to show off his war trophies - videos of Serbian heads! Bill Schiller describes this in the Toronto Star, July 16, 1995. Your report makes it appear that the Serbs were only initiating, and not reacting to, attacks against them from inside a 'safe haven'. The killings at Srebrenica, reaction to the murderous operations and provocations of Oric and company, are not viewed as 'revenge', but as genocide. The omission of Oric's murderous actions makes the argument of genocide believable to the uninformed. The Bosnian Serbs are also living with killers - Oric, one of the primary killers and ringleaders still living with the Serbs, has not been brought to justice. 3) The Red Cross (ICRC report #37 of Sept. 13, 1995) states that 5000 Srebrenica Muslim troops left the enclave prior to its fall and Izetbegovic's government admitted that these men were reassigned elsewhere. They were then listed as missing. Michael Evans and Michael Kallenbach write in the Times (1995) 'Thousands of missing Bosnian Muslim soldiers from Srebrenica are believed to be safe in the northeast of Tuzla. So what were Muslim soldiers doing in a supposedly demilitarized 'safe haven'? 4) Ibran Mustafic, a representative in the Bosnian parliament, said in an interview Aug. 15, 1996 said that the betrayal of Srebrenica was consciously prepared and that the Bosnian president and the army command were involved in this business and that was to sacrifice Srebrenica in order to gain the sympathy of the West. 5) The spark which ignited the Bosnia war in April 1992 was the killing of a Serbian wedding party by Bosnian Muslims. But the media chose a pro-Muslim line and the anti-Serbian reporting, tantamount to propaganda, has not ceased to this day. 6) The war in Bosnia-Hercegovina was a civil war among three groups: Serbs, Croats and Muslims. All were affected, but you omit the crimes committed by the other two groups. Alija Izetbegovic, Franjo Tudjman and Radovan Karadzic were the leaders during the civil war, yet the world did not seek to try the Muslim and Croat leaders, now deceased, only the Serbian one. 7) You have not highlighted the criminal actions sanctioned by Tudjman and Izetbegovic (including the importation of Muslim mujahedins affiliated with Al-Qaida). America is now hunting those Muslim militants in Bosnia. The massive support Bosnian Muslims received from Saudi Arabia was not delivered in the name of multiethnicity! 8) In both world wars the Serbs were on the side of the Allies (Canada and the US) while the Croats and Bosnian Muslims were on the side of Austro-Hungary and Hitler. You also omit the crimes committed against hundreds of thousands of Serbs of Bosnia and Croatia by the many Bosnian Muslims who were in Hitler's SS divisions or by the Croatian Nazi Ustashi whose crimes against the Serbs even revolted the German Nazis. The first ethnic cleansing occurred in the WWII Croatian Nazi state (which included Bosnia-Hercegovina) which passed a law to kill one third of the Serbs, expel one third and forcibly convert one third. What about the stories about: almost 1 million permanent Serbian refugees (UNHCR figures) from Bosnia and Croatia living in camps inside Serbia; or the August 1995 weekend expulsion of the entire Serbian population from Krajina in Croatia with the help of the US; or the 250,000+ Serbs permanently driven out of Kosovo by Albanians after the NATO bombing; or the missing Serbian children of Kosovo; or the use of depleted uranium bombs dropped by NATO on Serbian soil; or the terrible March pogrom of the Albanians against Kosovo Serbs and the destruction of some 150 ancient Serbian churches and monasteries in Kosovo? Are these stories not worthy of your time and consideration? As Canadians of Serbian
