Give it some time. Two years ago, it was only $13 billion. Inflation is under 7%, which is amazing for an emerging economy. Foreign trade is up 26% from a year ago. And this is a country that had half of its industry carpet-bombed 6 years ago, and a country that spent 10 years in economic isolation. I think Serbia's doing quite well, given the circumstances. A 6.4% growth per annum is good enough.
with a population of 10.8 million people (in comparison: Croatia has a GDP of $50.33 billion with a population of 4.5 million people).
Serbia's unimpressive economic numbers are due to Kosovo being a lawless black hole (unemployment is at about 70%!). Kosovo cannot be considered part of Serbia's economy as it is under international occupation, but the numbers you got from the CIA Factbook website don't mention that.
Even the Albanians are a much richer nation than Serbia in the meantime!
Maybe you should go to Albania and walk the streets before you draw your conclusions. Greece and Italy send Albania half a BILLION annually, to compensate for the staggering foreign trade deficit (currently at about 50% of Albania's GDP).
As long as Mladic and Karadzic are not killed or imprisioned in the Hague, the EU will not give Seriba the privelege to join into the free trade area inside the EU.
Couldn't care less for the EU membership. After all, it's the EU members who are interested in Serbian products and labour market, not vice versa. They are flocking to Serbia because Serbia has a free-trade deal with Russia (no duty). The longer Serbia stays out of the EU, the better. Again, Mladich and Karadzich are innocent until proven guilty (or have you guys in the EU ditched that principle?) in a court of law - and that ain't the one in the Hague.
Furthermore Serbia has to meet the fact, that all European countries see the Hague as the only court that is qualified to give Serbia's war-criminals a suitable lawsuit.
Again, there are no "war criminals", only suspects. The Hague Tribunal, legally, has no leg to stand on. Who and according to what law set it up? The way I see it, the Hague Tribunal is a puppet in the hands of certain powers that had bloodied their hands during the 90s. Serbian War Crimes Court is more than capable of trying any and all Serbian war crimes suspects.
It is not a decision of the Serbian people or the Serbian gouvernment.
That's why it's good to always keep an AK47 handy. You never know who's gonna be dropping by to make your own decisions for you.
My own country, Germany, had to stand the Nuernberg trials too. It was not comfortable, but a nessecary step to enter the community of civilized nations again. Serbia has also the chance of doing so. They will be welcome and they will get help if they work up their dark history.
Your country murdered 6 million Jews without so much as a blink of an eye. Add some 7-8 million others throughout Europe and Russia. Please do not compare it to Serbia, who lost 4 million men fighting -- and defeating -- Germany and your ass monkey allies on two occassions. It is an insult of the highest order to have your country compared to WWI-, pre- and WWII-era Germany. Having said that, Serbia has no "dark history". We don't build empires, we bury them.
Have a good one...
You are for sure right that Serbia has great potential, but it is completely dependent on its economic ties with the EU, since Russia obviously doesn't play a real role:
Exports - partners of Serbia:
Italy 30.1%, Germany 16.6%, Austria 7.4%, Greece 7.1%, France 5.3%, Slovenia 4.2%, US 4.1% (2004)
Imports partners of Serbia:
Germany 20.2%, Italy 18.1%, Austria 9%, Slovenia 6.1%, France 5.1%, Netherlands 4.4%, Bulgaria 4.3%, Greece 4.2% (2004)
It is up to Serbia if they will continue to be a a political paria or not. The gouvernment under Dinjic was originally a good start that ended tragically. Anyway this is the point where Serbs and Serbia should start again.
BTW - Serbia is not able to join the EU anyway, since it wouldn't be accepted. In the moment it is much too weak and much too instable for being a member inside the European family. Therefore it would be a substantial progress for Serbia if its most important partners would concede them free trade. If Serbia is not allowed to export its goods without taxes into the EU, it will stay the world's largest exporter of frozen berries (sarcasm). As I already said - Serbia has great potential (no sarcasm) but they still waste time and a huge amount of money with their patriotic BS. If they continue, nobody will give them the chance that they are in need so badly.
P.S. There is no doubt that the "amount" of guilt between Nazi-Germany and Milosewic-Serbia is not comparable. Both countries are completely different, the circumstances were different and the dimension was different. Nevertheless there is also no doubt, that Serbs and Serbia is guilty in genocide, murder, mass raping, expulsion and violence in numerous occaisions. Furthermore it is clear that the individual guilt of some Serbian war-criminals is on the same level as the guilt of their Nazi colleagues. Therefore it is neccesary, that guilty criminals have to pay. I doubt that this could happen in front of Serbian courts, since they are obviously biased. It will be a cleaning for all those spotless and singlehearted Serbian people, who have nothing to do with such crimes. They need the chance to get rid of this kind of scum.
The only solution where Serbia does not lose its face is to kill Mladic and Karadzic fast. No EU-legislation, but a littlebit justice for all those victims of Serbia.
The whole "Karadzic and Mladic must pay" thing is a great accomplishment of the "Serbs are demons" machine. Their souls may be black, but ya gotta hand it to them for their persistence. It seems to have really payed off.