Olli Rehn (EU commissioner for the Balkans) of course immediately declared that the current troubles in Macedonia and tension in Bosnia* do not relate at all with the process of declaring independence of Kosovo. Kosovo is a unique case, with very particular history and getting independence does not affect any other problem regions, be it Abhaziia or Bosna. He is repeating after Condi Rice like a parrot. It is the most amusing part of the story: The Americans said to the Albanians (despite Bush's stolen watch) - we will be happy if your guys declare independence unilateraly when deadlines expire in December. We will recognise you despite the UN. Ok, for some years now the EU wants to show it can finally muster independent and united foreign policy. Of course, first of all they have to have an opinion on whats going on next to their borders. They are hosting negotiations between Albanians and Serbs to reach a compromise. But after promise from USA albanians dont care anymore, they just decline any compromise proposals. They wait December to come. So what can EU do? They cant possibly have the same opinion as Russia the Perpetual Villain! They cant pressure the americans to show moderation (too much of a friends and allies) or it is too late for that because the spirit is out of the bottle. They cant disapprove of the Kosovar rebellion when it happens. It will look like the EU is having no policy! (if they are against it and consistent they have to stop money, or even use their troops which unfortunately are already stationed there!) So EU will quickly recognise Kosovo because it wants to pretend it is deciding something in its own neighbourhood. (although it isnt really). Now the big guys, UK, Germany, France L'Americaine, who dont care that much whats cooking down here, are secretly kicking and cajoling those who do - Slovakia, Greece, Romania - to sit down and vote along when the moment comes. Lets see if they will succeed. [They didnt have to try for the Bulgarians owing to our perpetual ingrained lackeyism - no matter if we are with the Germans, Soviets or Europeans we always have some urge to be the most devoted servant] Indeed, USA played their cards perfectly - put the EU in a corner and forced them in a very old type of relationship between the european countries: The big guys are striving to win their big world games and get angered that all these little countries in the South-East short-sightedly care only about their local circumstances. The small countries on the other hand feel absolutely manipulated by "the Great Powers" and hate them thoroughly. It was the same during WWI and WWII, on both sides. The US government, at least in relation with its potential EU competitor, seems to be quite crafty. The game with the missile shield is another very successful in sawing disunity. Again the Western countries cant state publicly "we wont allow any missile shield on EU territory" because that will be too anti-american. They can just bear the anger of Russia and secretly piss off at "new Europe".
*The croat and serb parts of Bosnia are very wary of any integration process that is pushed by the international delegations, and recently they've been talking louder about seceding from Bosnia. basically, the muslims are the largest group in Bosnia, their political class would like to see the country reintegrated into one so that in an electoral democracy they will always have the majority vote and be able to dictate policies onto the other groups. the latter are of course quite scared of such prospect (thats why the war started on the first place). The "international community" (i.e. western powers) are pressing hard for further Bosnian integration. Every now and then on british newspapers appear articles how the bosnian serbs are stalling this process, implying they want to go back to hatred and war as is their custom. It is not clear however why the western diplomacy again picks one side (bosnian muslims) and unconditionally supports its position against the others. Their stance on Kosovo indicates it cant be because of upholding traditional "sanctity of borders" principle. Bosnian politics has worked so far mainly because if they split they will remain unrecognised and international money will stop as well as promises for EU membership. But the talk is that people are becoming ever more disillusioned about it. Some politicians in Belgrade have suggested recently that recognising Republika Srpska as independent could be a response to Kosovo.
Blame everyone else, if it makes you happy. You can't boogie in a body bag. SHUT THE FUCK UP and get to work, normal work. Make something of the hole you inhabit.
I am well going to do. (or to try) It is easy to believe that when you are born in Canada, USA or UK. Little depends on the people of small countries. We will shut up if it is so convenient for your peace of mind, sir.
When will world confront the undead of Croatia? BY JULIA GORIN ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JANUARY 16, 2007 LAS VEGAS // President Bush recently echoed Vice President Dick Cheney's support for Croatia to join the European Union, a bid that has been stalled because of the former Yugoslav republic's slowness to own up to and prosecute its 1990s war crimes and its failure to ensure protections and rights for minorities, including returning Serb refugees. Croatia also faces the possibility of being excluded from the 2008 European soccer championship because when an Italian team's fans taunted the Croatian team's fans at a match in August by waving Yugoslavia's old communist flag, the other side took great offense and showed the competition what it was really made of: They formed a giant human swastika and gave Nazi salutes. Old habits are hard to break. "In World War II, Hitler had no executioners more willing, no ally more passionate, than the fascists of Croatia," A. M. Rosenthal wrote in The New York Times in 1998. "They are returning, 50 years later, from what should have been their eternal grave, the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Western Allies who dug that grave with the bodies of their servicemen have the power to stop them, but do not." In 1995, The London Evening Standard's Edward Pearce wrote that "you can understand Croatia best by saying flatly that if there is one place in the world where a statue of Adolf Hitler would be revered, it would be Zagreb," Croatia's capital. And The Washington Times reported: "A German tank rolls through a small village, and the peasants rush out, lining the road with their right arms raised in a Nazi salute as they chant, 'Heil Hitler.' Mobs chase minorities from their homes, kicking them and pelting them with eggs as they flee into the woods. Europe in the 1940s? No. Croatia in the 1990s." Last month Croatian TV broadcast video of a speech made 10 years ago by Stjepan Mesic, now Croatia's president. Mr. Mesic is seen saying, "This thing they're asking Croats to do: go kneel in [Croatian concentration camp] Jasenovac ... we have no reason to kneel anywhere. We Croats have won twice in World War II, while all the others did it only once. We won on April 10, when the Axis powers recognized Croatia's independence, and we won after the war since we once again found ourselves with the victors." Such were the "allies" to whom retired American generals were dispatched in the 1990s to train against the Serbs and help restore Croatia to its Hitler-defined borders. (We later did the same for Kosovo, whose independence we continue to push for.) One has to wonder at the ubiquitous "Nazi" analogies hurled at the Serbs - the designated villains of the Balkans - considering that this analogy was started by a former Nazi state that in 1995 ethnically cleansed 350,000 Serbs and by its Muslim former apprentices who helped kill hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and other undesirables in 40 of Croatia's World War II concentration camps. One has to wonder also because Croatia (along with Bosnia and Kosovo) hired American PR firms to make the analogy stick. Sure enough, our policymakers and our media - on the same page when it comes to the Balkans - bought it and recycled the propaganda to us, and continue to do so today. This despite the fact that our ally, President Franjo Tudjman - the "Father of Croatia" - was about to be hit with a war crimes indictment that was finally, slowly and quietly being prepared by the United Nations, allowing him to die a free man. (As was the case with wartime Bosnian-Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic, a fundamentalist who asked to be buried "next to the martyrs.") To placate the European powers, Croatia has finally apprehended two of its most notorious criminals from the Balkan wars, Ante Gotovina and Branimir Glavas - despite the move being very unpopular because, as with Bosnian and Albanian Serb-killers, Croatian Serb killers are national heroes. While to the world, "Serb" is synonymous with "war criminal," Croatians, Albanians and Bosnians accused of war crimes get acquitted, or get convicted and released to a hero's welcome, or go unpunished and pursue political careers, as is the case with indicted war criminal and Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku (and Ramush Haradinaj before him). All the while, we refuse to admit our 1990s alliance in Croatia with Nazi sympathizers, and in Bosnia and Kosovo with forces supplied and trained by al-Qaida, Iran and others. A recent breakthrough occurred in October, when Zarko Puhovski, the Croatian president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, said on a radio program that war crimes in the Croatian town of Osijek are still unsolved because 1990s Croatia was a place where killing Serbs was normal. "In the first few years it was normal to kill Serbs, then it was normal to forget they had been killed, and now we finally talk about it," he said. The Serbs weren't angels, but they are the only Balkans players to have admitted as much and actively done something about it. The media, our policymakers and our filmmakers still refuse to take the messier but more accurate view of the Balkans. For it is the more daunting task, one that could force the realization that the Serbs weren't just fighting their enemies; they were fighting ours. Nazism is not "part of the ugly past." It was not a bout of madness that has been straightened out. The undead are among us.
i didnt like croatians either - hitch-hiking was terrible there. only got picked up by german drivers after days of waving. sorry
