Published Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 18:08
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (74 views and 2 comments)
Published Monday, December 8, 2008 at 01:37
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (375 views and 0 comments)
Resent ethnic tensions in Bosnia-Herzegovina are partly explained by rising radical Islam and the same one may see also in Kosovo after March 2004. (more in my article “Radical Islamists arming their selves in Balkans”). Even Radical Islam came few years later to Kosovo than to Bosnia it creates much more bigger potential risk for society because it is not isolated inside province nor individual and local small scale violence.
Wahhabi invasion
Since the late 1990s, incidents involving Wahhabi groups have extended beyond the borders of Bosnia-Herzegovina, increasing in frequency in neighbouring states such as Serbia (including Kosovo and Serbian Sandžak), Montenegro (Montenegrin Sandžak), and Macedonia.
In Kosovo for example 24 Wahhabi mosques and 14 orphanages have been built in since 1999, along with 98 primary and secondary Wahhabi funded schools. Though the number of Wahhabis in majority secular Kosovo is small this development is cementing an al-Qaeda presence in Albanian inhabited areas, because “hard line” and intolerant Wahhabi structures are the main source for terrorist acts and operations.
Organized crime
(Kosovo) Albanian organized crime organizations have already gained remarkable role in Europe. It is estimated that they are the...
read morePublished Friday, November 21, 2008 at 10:18
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (486 views and 0 comments)
Some 5.000 to 10.000 Kosovo Albanians protested on Wednesday in Pristina against the UN plan on the reconfiguration of Unmik. Last week, the United Nations put forward an amended 6-point plan for the deployment of the EU's EULEX mission. The United Nations’ six-point plan, negotiated between the UN Secretary General, Serbia and the European Union has been rejected by Kosovo leaders who argue it compromises Pristina’s sovereignty. On 18th Nov.2008 Kosovo’s separatist government offered own 4-point plan, saying final "no" on 6-points.
Background
Straight after Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence EU launched its rule and law mission EULEX. The idea was to deploy a new civilian mission in Kosovo to replace the UN administration. However UNSC did not replace resolution 1244 - which was adopted in 1999 when the international administration and peacekeepers enter the province and confirms Serbia’s sovereignty over the province - so new mission’s legal base was in doubt.
Six-point-plan
To deploy EULEX the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon of UN proposed on July 2008 technical negotiations between UN and Belgrade and Pristina authorities over six issues – police, customs, judicial system, traffic-infrastructure, borderline and Serbian cultural heritage.
Serbia outlined three conditions under which it would accept deployment - that
... read morePublished Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 02:47
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (434 views and 0 comments)
Published Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 00:44
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (380 views and 0 comments)
Background of this post
Bloggers Unite is an attempt to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By asking bloggers to write about a particular subject on 1 day of the month, a single voice can be joined with thousands to help make a difference. This time, because of our work to increase human rights awareness, many members chose to go one step further to raise awareness for refugees — people who are impacted by these issues. So, on Nov. 10, thousands of bloggers will write about the various challenges faced by the 11 million people who have no country to call home and the 40 million more who have been displaced because of war and natural disasters. (More about this campaign here.)
Refugees and IDPs in West Balkans
This theme is of paramount importance in Balkans. Beginning 1991, political upheavals - such as the breakup of Yugoslavia - displaced millions of people....
read morePublished Friday, November 7, 2008 at 01:31
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (372 views and 0 comments)
On 5 November 2008 the Commission adopted its annual strategy
document explaining its policy on EU enlargement. Furthermore,
the 2008 progress reports were published on the same date, where
the Commission services monitor and assess the achievements of
each of the candidate and potential candidates over the last
year. Regarding Serbia and Kosovo the reports are giving quite
different picture, even bigger gap is visible if EU’s input and
achievements are added to the same context.
The EU input...
After Kosovo conflict European Union has invested some 4.000
million euro for capacity building of Kosovo administration at
local, regional and central levels, to some infrastructure
investments etc. In addition Kosovo security system has enjoyed
services (or consumption) of remarkable Kfor troops. In fact
Kosovo has got more money per capita than any other mission
country in the world.
Serbia has also got some aid, but less than half per capita and
without extra services or money of foreign troops.
Advisers and experts around the globe have been developing Kosovo
administration and economy towards highest EU standards same time
when Serbia was trying do some progress on its own.
...and the outcome
A) Serbia
Like earlier reports also the latest one states that Serbia has
good capacity in its public administration. European integration
structures were strengthened...
Published Saturday, October 18, 2008 at 14:21
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (645 views and 0 comments)
Published Saturday, October 11, 2008 at 16:37
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (886 views and 6 comments)
Published Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 21:59
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (643 views and 0 comments)
Coming week will be show again one significant step in international politics and especially in Western Balkans. 1st at its plenary session called for 8th October, the 192-member UN General Assembly is to debate Serbia’s draft resolution calling for an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice on Kosovo’s unilaterally declared independence. 2nd EU tries again find some common position about Kosovo case and the forecast is that EU member-states will probably abstain from the vote at the UN. 3rd Portugal, Macedonia (FYR) and Montenegro are under huge pressure to recognize Kosovo independence.
UDI and ICJ in UN
Serbia has filed a draft resolution in which it asks from the UN General Assembly to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on the legality of the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) of Kosovo. Belgrade has proclaimed two objectives with this initiative. The first, immediate goal is to have the ICJ provide its stand on the UDI and to stop the recognition of Pristina’s act by UN members. The second, mid-term objective is to have Belgrade and Pristina go back to the negotiating table on the status question.
Last week a trial vote revealed 120 of the 192 members gave their backing to Serbia's request to refer the matter to the ICJ, reported the German daily Handelsblat.
Why they say “no” to Kosovo’s...
read morePublished Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 10:30
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (620 views and 0 comments)
Partition
Although Tadic did not specify where the line of partition would run, it is most likely to include the municipalities of Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok as well as the northern half of the flashpoint town of Mitrovica. This area in northern Kosovo is overwhelming ethnic Serb and Pristina’s influence holds little weight here.
However just half of the 100,000 Serbs living in Kosovo actually live in northern areas while the rest are in isolated enclaves that dot the former province. One should also remember that about 100,000 - 206,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Kosovo is living in Serbia.
Kosovo Serbs pro and against
Senior Kosovo Serb politicians claimed President Boris Tadic’s declaration had sent...
read morePublished Monday, September 8, 2008 at 01:26
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (763 views and 4 comments)
During last conflicts in Caucasus and before in Balkans there has been discussion about EU's position between conflicting parties -between east and west. I can agree with those who advise that EU should not take sides but rather balance its criticism with conflicting parties. From my point of view this could mean an approach with keywords such as understanding, dialogue and multi-polar world.
The Balkans have been the focus of extensive public attention for a long time yet not many people can honestly claim to have a firm understanding of the region, its history or the complexity of the problems. The same one can say about Caucasus. I would like to claim that one factor has its share 1st creating problems and 2nd making difficult to manage them. This factor is lack of dialogue, which in both regions has created one-sided picture in western mainstream media and peoples mind.
In dialogue, one listens to the other side in order to understand, find meaning, and find agreement. In debate, one listens to the other side in order to find flaws and to counter its arguments. Dialogue assumes that many people have pieces of the answer and that together they can put them into a workable solution. Debate assumes that there is a right answer and that someone has it. Debate can have maybe better headlines in news but it is not for sustainable solutions.
Few days ago the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, outlined his country's national interests in a set of...
read morePublished Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 14:53
by
arktika 
in Debate (820 views and 2 comments)
Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, is backing independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - Georgia's two rebel provinces. The vote came after a brief war between Russia and Georgia following Georgia's assault on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali Aug. 7. Both countries won de-facto independence in the 1990s after wars with the government in Tbilisi. The road which started from Kosovo UDI seems to continue long because it is estimated that there is about five thousend ethnic groups on globe.
After Georgia's separatists my bet is that in Europe Transnistria could be the next breakaway province. Let's look this maybe next new state closer:
Pridnestrovie - also known by the unofficial name, Transnistria - is a new and emerging country in South Eastern Europe, sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine. Although widely seen as part of Moldova, historically, Pridnestrovie and Moldova were always separate. Throughout 2500 years of history, the Dniester River forming the current border has been a traditional border between Slav lands (Scythia, 450 B.C.) to the East and Romanian lands (Dacia) to the West.
The population is some 550.000. The inhabitants of Pridnestrovie are for the most part Slavic. This is in stark contrast to Moldova, on the other side of the Dniester River, where 4/5ths of the population are of Romanian descent and...
read morePublished Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 14:53
by
arktika
in Debate (967 views and 3 comments)
During last
twenty years war for humanitarian reasons has came quite popular
in political vocabulary e.g. in Balkans and now with Georgia
case. The ideal to use power in the service of ethics is good.
The problem is the low level of ethics when US is using her power
in world. I remember their actions in Chile to establish
dictatorship, their support to killing squads in middle and south
America. In 1983, U.S. troops invaded Grenada because it – a tiny
island with 110,000 inhabitants - represented a military threat
to the USA. In Balkans US made alliances first with Serb leaders
(who later came ICTY wanteds) and after with KLA (which before
was described as terror organization), al Quida (1st
ally then one element in “axis of terror”) etc.
US started to bomb Serbia – without UNSC approval and based purpose-oriented reports from field - supporting separatist movements. Later US repeated the same in Afghanistan and Iraq (again based false reports). Before 9-11, the US was supportive of the Chechen rebels, suddenly after 9-11 radical Islam, was the new enemy. This is regardless of whatever Chechen terrorists were doing to Russia on their own.
In Europe the Kosovo question highlights the core problem of EU - uncritical following of US foreign (cowboy)...
read morePublished Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 15:31
by
arktika
in Debate (1101 views and 0 comments)
As today’s headlines were dominated by news that the European Commission is to withdraw hundreds of millions of euros worth of EU funding to Bulgaria and to withhold their right to manage such funds, Ari Rusila asks how much of the misuse of EU funds is really down to corruption and organised crime?
Ari claims that perhaps the real crime is preoccupation with details and bureaucracy, and that EU officials are the culprits.
The European Commission is set to withdraw the
accreditation of two Bulgarian agencies and bar them from using
EU funds after details of a European Commission report on
Bulgaria’s fight against corruption and
organised crime will be officially issued on
July 23. Two agencies under the Ministry of Regional Development
and Public Works and the Finance Ministry will lose their permits
to operate with EU funding under the bloc’s
pre-accession programme PHARE. This
could deprive Sofia of about €600 million. Two other
agencies/programmes could meet the same fate.
The average reader may think that some clever crocks have
pocketed a nice sum because the report highlights corruption,
organized crime and economical fraud activities in Bulgaria.
Undoubtedly these kinds...
Published Friday, July 11, 2008 at 17:46
by
Editor
in Debate (1299 views and 2 comments)
The last war on Iraq
showed until which extent Europeans may become divided when it
comes to external policy. Core theme of the manifesto, “Europe in
the World” was also one of the topics discussed in one of the
sessions during the Vienna Forum!
Jean Asselborn (LSAP, Luxembourg), key-note speaker, stressed the role played by the Balkan region to stabilize Europe. The region must be stabilized in the frame of a peaceful Europe. Moreover, the failure of the “Balkan project” will have as a consequence the failure of Europe as a peace project.
Asselborn defended that the EU must assume a role in the Middle East. On the one hand Israel has the very right to exist, but it must stop its settlement policy and the blockade of the West Bank. The key to world peace lies in this region of the globe.
Piero Fassino (DP, Italy), the second key-note speaker on this session, underlined that what is lacking in Europe is not transparency – the procedures are very clear – but democracy! Citizens feel that they do not participate in the construction process of the EU.
Additionally, immigration will increase in the...
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