<http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews+articleid_2421777&title =Karadzics_Arrest_Wont.html> http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews+articleid_2421777&title= Karadzics_Arrest_Wont.html
Karadzic's Arrest Won't Help Serbia Join EU - Russian Pundit Tuesday, July 22, 2008 1:54 PM Excerpt from report by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti Moscow, 22 July: The arrest of Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, will not help Serbia join the European Union and will lead to an escalation of tension in the country and increase confrontation between the ruling pro-Western bloc and the opposition, Sergey Markov, State Duma deputy and director of the Institute of Political Studies, has said. [Passage omitted] "Politicians in the person of (Serbian President Boris) Tadic, who, so to speak, have arrested Karadzic and will extradite him, will be reproached for this, which will lead to an escalation of tension in Serbia between the allies of the opposition [Serbian] Radical Party and representatives of Tadic's pro-Western group," Markov said in his interview to RIA Novosti on Tuesday [22 July]. According to Markov, the desire of the new Serbian leadership to join the European Union will be hampered by constitutional reform initiated by FrenchPresident Nicolas Sarkozy. [Passage omitted] Markov believes that the French will not vote for Serbia's accession to the EU owing to anti-Serbian sentiments prevailing in the West. "The French do not want anyone new to join the EU. In addition, there are different anti-Serbian prejudices in the European public opinion, and France is not an exception. They simply don't like the Serbs there," Markov says. "It seems that the Serbs will be endlessly sitting exams to join the EU. The exams at which, according to their professor examiners, the Serbian students will always fail," Markov said. He believes that Karadzic's arrest will also provoke a new debate on the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). "Russia has long had reservations about the tribunal which convicts Serbs - there were indeed war criminals murdering non- Serbs among them - but at the same time finds those who murdered Serbs - criminals of ethnic Albanian or Croatian origin - not guilty," Markov said. He believes that the majority of the tribunal's judges represent countries that are political allies of the USA - South Korea, Australia and Pakistan. "One can say that the court is not so much international as an American one. The Americans initiated a punitive and aggressive operation against the Serbs and now they are putting them on trial," he said. [Passage omitted] Originally published by RIA Novosti news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1046 22 Jul 08.
