Published Friday, November 21, 2008 at 10:18
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (245 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 Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 21:59
by
Ari Rusila
in Debate (493 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 (481 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 (643 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...
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