NSPM IN ENGLISH http://www.nspm.org.yu/in_english.htm Council Conclusions on Western Balkans<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_eu1.htm>
The Council adopted the following conclusions: "Serbia The Council agreed on the text of the invitation at annex." Visa facilitation and readmission agreements The Council welcomed the entry into force of the visa facilitation and readmission agreements with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on 1 January 2008. They will foster more people-to-people contacts and increase the economic ties between the EU and the region. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_eu1.htm> Bogdana Koljević: Voices from Afar: Serbia Votes<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_koljevic1.htm> On January 20, 2008, Serbia held presidential elections. While it was expected that no one candidate would win enough votes in the first round (and there weren't surprises in how the first round votes were distributed among the candidates), the turnout was unexpectedly high—62 percent (4.1million voters). This again demonstrated the high degree of interest in politics among Serbs and testifies to the democratic credentials of the country—it was a free and fair vote with all political forces represented. >>full text <http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_koljevic1.htm> Austin Bay: From Kosovo war to Cold War?<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_bay1.htm> The Kosovo war isn't over. At the moment, Serbian ballots take precedence over bullets; democratic electoral politics are a blessing in Serbia and Kosovo, just like they are in Iraq. But make no mistake: Sunday's first-round 2008 presidential vote in Serbia was another battle in the Kosovo War, and it will not be the last. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_bay1.htm> New York Times: Russia: No Peacekeepers to Kosovo<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_russia1.htm> President Vladimir Putin's newly appointed envoy to NATO emphasized Moscow's opposition to Kosovo's independence bid Thursday, but said Russia would not send peacekeepers to the Serbian province. Former nationalist lawmaker Dmitry Rogozin also suggested ex-Soviet republics Georgia and Ukraine have no hope of joining NATO soon and called for further revision of a European arms treaty that is a sharp bone of contention between Russia and the Western alliance. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_russia1.htm> Kosovo's Future - Correspondence between Dimitri K. Simes and Frank G. Wisner<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_sajms_wis1.htm> Dimitri K. Simes' article "The Consequences of Inflexibility" appeared in the December 27, 2007 edition of the *International Herald Tribune *and is reprinted with permission. Ambassador Wisner sent his response to our offices as a part of a mass mailing and makes clear in the text that he was seeking wider distribution, making it a public document. In view of Ambassador Wisner's key role representing the United States in talks in the so-called Troika (the United States , the European Union, and Russia ) on the future status of Kosovo, we thought our readers would be interested in the exchange. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_sajms_wis1.htm> Neil Clark: It's time to end Serb-bashing<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_clark1.htm> The Serbs' great "crime" was not reading the script. Out of all the groups in the former Yugoslavia, the Serbs, whose population was spread across the country, had most to lose from the country's disintegration. At a meeting at The Hague in October 1991, the leaders of the six constituent republics were presented with a paper entitled "The End of Yugoslavia from the International Scene" by European Community "arbitrators". Only one of them - the Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic - refused to sign his country's death certificate. " Yugoslavia was not created by the consensus of six men and cannot be dissolved by the consensus of six men," he declared. >>full text <http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_clark1.htm> Daniel Serwer: Exorcising Balkan ghosts<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_serwer1.htm>(Daily Times) Serbia, which traded violent nationalism for non-violent nationalism when Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown eight years ago, has done all it can to impede resolution of these issues, with strong support from Vladimir Putin's Russia. Serbia wants as much independence as possible for the Serb Republic , while asserting its own sovereignty over Kosovo. Serbs governed only by Serbs on their own territory is still Serbia 's goal. The United States and the European Union are committed to a different vision: democratic transition and integration of all of the Balkans into NATO and eventually the EU. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_serwer1.htm> Dan Bilefsky: U.S. and Germany Plan to Recognize Kosovo<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_bilefsky1.htm>(New York Times) The United States and Germany have agreed to recognize Kosovo after it declares independence and to urge the rest of Europe to follow suit, say senior European Union diplomats close to negotiations over Kosovo's future. In a recent conversation about Kosovo, a Serbian province that has been under United Nations administration since 1999, President Bush and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany agreed it was vital to recognize Kosovo to stabilize the western Balkans, European officials said Wednesday evening. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2008_bilefsky1.htm> Brooke Leonard: Calamity over Kosovo?<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_leonard1.htm> With Kosovo's declaration of independence looming on the horizon, the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations held a timely, on-the-record discussion, "Independence in Kosovo?: Managing the Consequences." Moderator Paul B. Stares, director of the Center, invited panelists to discuss the implications of Kosovo's independence in the Balkan region, the ramifications of its recognition for world politics and measures that might be taken now to prevent major outbreaks of violence and fallouts in international politics. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_leonard1.htm> Elena Guskova: Does Russia Have an Action Plan for the Balkans?<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_guskova1.htm> The negotiations process in 2007 between Belgrade and Pristina has ended. Its results are reported to UN General Secrtetary. Until December 19, 2007, when the member-states of the Security Council must solve the complicated issue of whether Kosovo is granted independence or a continuation of negotiations is recommended to either side. There is almost no time left. Kosovo's independence is for Americans a settled issue. Washington expected that to happen as early as the end of 2006. Russia was allegedly to blame for "the delay." >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_guskova1.htm> Vojin Joksimovich: Part II: 2008 Kosovo secession<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_joksimovic2.htm> The EU/U.S./Russia troika report was submitted to the UN Secretary General ahead of the December 10 schedule. Even I had an access to the report on December 8. The report contains no more than 20 pages. The summary contains only two paragraphs. The first one asserts that the negotiations were conducted within the framework of UN Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) and the "Guiding Principles" of the Contact Group. "The parties discussed a wide range of options, such as full independence, supervised independence, territorial partition, substantial autonomy, confederal arrangements even a status silent agreement to disagree." >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_joksimovic2.htm> Vojin Joksimovich: Kosovo Secessions: 2006--No, 2007--No, 2008—Uncertain<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_joksimovich1.htm> Pierre Marti, a Belgian economist, convinced me that the term independence used by the Western governments and the mainstream media should be dropped in favor of secession. He wrote: " Independence is not something that can be merely proclaimed; it is something that can and must only be achieved...The Albanian minority of Serbia may proclaim the secession of Kosovo and Metohija; however, it will not achieve independence at any time in foreseeable future. First, the Albanian minority of Serbia is not a sovereign people: It is an irredentist diaspora of the Republic of Albania, honoring that country's flag, national day, and a political vision of a greater Albania. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_joksimovich1.htm> Nikolas Gvosdev: Democracy in Serbia and Kosovo issue<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_gvozdev1.htm> Future diplomatic historians looking back at U.S. policy toward Kosovo are going to be puzzled. In almost every other case where a new democratic state has faced a question of ethnic separatism, Washington has always opted for a compromise solution: ensuring territorial integrity of the country as a whole while promoting maximum autonomy for the disaffected regions in question. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_gvozdev1.htm> Obrad Kesić: Getting to a Common Serbia: The State of Serbian Political Divisions and the Possibility for Building Consensus<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_kesic1.htm> Serbia is a country with deep divisions between its people and throughout society. These divisions are economic, social, political, ethnic, religious, and ideological. At times Serbia appears to be a country at war with itself. Tolerance, compromise and understanding have especially been hard to come by in Serbia 's messy and fractional political arena, where the battle over power is often dominated by historic images, stereotypes, and deeply felt feelings of victim hood. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_kesic1.htm> Steven E. Meyer: Serbia: Democratization, External Pressure, and NATO<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_mejer1.htm> Serbia has struggled to build a democratic society, governed by a democratic state, ever since the fall of Milosevic in 2000. Serbia's difficult history, especially the damaging legacy of Milosevic, the still unresolved issue of Kosovo-Metohija, internal political divisions and upheaval, the charge that Serbia is harboring indicted war criminals, and, perhaps most of all, the country's negative image in the West have combined to make the journey to democracy difficult and, at times, even torturous. >>full text <http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_mejer1.htm> *Gordon N. Bardos*: *Serbia's Democratic Transition: A Comparative Perspective* In retrospect, what happened in Belgrade on October 5 th, 2000 seems like a minor miracle. That most of Serbia 's notoriously quarreling opposition leaders could drop their differences long enough to unite in their efforts to defeat Slobodan Milošević at the polls was difficult to imagine; Milošević himself certainly did not expect it. That a regime at the center of a decade of bloodshed in the Balkans would be toppled almost bloodlessly was difficult to imagine as well. Most remarkable of all, perhaps, is that despite the disadvantages, setbacks and wrong turns Serbia has made and had to confront since 1945 there is any democracy to speak of in the country at all. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_bardos1.htm> *Doug Bandow:* Creating Crisis: Another War in the Balkans?<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_bandow1.htm> The Bush administration has badly botched U.S. foreign policy. But the administration isn't finished: Another potential crisis looms in Kosovo. The latest negotiating round over Kosovo's final status has finished. The ethnic Albanians plan to declare independence from Serbia. Chaos and conflict could follow. In 1998 the territory, the historic heartland of Serbia , was suffering through a bitter guerrilla campaign directed against the ruling Serbs. It was an awful civil war, but one like many others around the globe and of no policy interest to the U.S. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_bandow1.htm> Djordje Vukadinović: Kosovo Rubicon<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_djv_1.htm> Kosovo crisis has already proven as a true tomb for numerous, allegedly reliable political assessments and prognoses. Let's remember how many times and with how much sureness it has been published that it would all be finished before the end of 2006! Then again in January, March, May, June, September, and December 2007. How much talks were there about the session of the Security Council where a "new resolution, based on Marty Ahtisary's proposal" would be adopted? That is why today even the persons familiar with Serbian political circumstances usually do not dare make development prognoses after 10 December. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_djv_1.htm> Slobodan Antonić: Kosovo as an asymetrical condominium<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_ant_1.htm> Condominium is division of sovereignty over a territory by two States. The author presents a model whereby the Kosovo issue could be resolved by the establishment of a condominium over Kosovo by Serbia and EU. It would be called asymmetrical condominium because EU is not a State. Serbia and EU would jointly appoint a high representative in Kosovo. The citizens of Kosovo might opt to have a Serbian citizenship along with the citizenship of the condominium. They could also choose to be a part of the Serbian education, health-care or social system and pay taxes to Serbia . Serbia and Kosovo would be joining EU separately. Kosovo's final status would be resolved before Kosovo joins EU. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_ant_1.htm> * * Dušan Proroković: Neutral Serbia<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_prorokovic1.htm> Advocating a new war against the entire world; the return of Serbia to the 1990s; abandoning the European path; inevitability of new political and diplomatic isolation and economic and trade sanctions; sending a wrong message on Serbia ... These are just some of the allegations leveled against the Democratic Party of Serbia, headed by the current Prime Minister of Serbia Vojislav Koštunica. These allegations are triggered in the wake of the party's adoption of a new program in which a reference is made to the commitment of Serbia 's future military neutrality. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_prorokovic1.htm> Dejan Vuk Stanković: Kosovo and Serbian political scene<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_dejan_vuk1.htm> Serbian political scene at the end of 2007 is characterized with two major events – the outcome of Kosovo-Metohian crisis and forthcoming election. The approaching 10 December, designated among the prevailing portion of the international community as *D Day *for the resolution of the Kosovo-Metohian problem and most probable date of election (the period from the first week of January until March 2008) undoubtedly suggests that the course of the coming campaign and prospects of some presidential candidates would be directly connected to their attitudes and positions during the resolving of Kosovo-Metohian crisis. >>full text<http://www.nspm.org.yu/Prikazi/nspm_on_english/2007_dejan_vuk1.htm> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
