Free Republic

fighting wordsThe Serbs' Self-Inflicted Wounds With Kosovo independent, Yugoslavia is finally dead.By Christopher HitchensPosted Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, at 12:51 PM ET Someone with a good memory of the conversation once told me how Lord Carrington, then one of the "mediators" of the incipient post-Yugoslavia war, came to the conclusion that Slobodan Milosevic was a highly dangerous man. Well-disposed toward Serbia (as the British establishment has always been), Carrington told the late dictator that he understood Serb concerns about significant Serbian minorities in Bosnia and Croatia. But why did Milosevic also insist on exclusive control over Kosovo, where the Albanian...

Prague- Czech President Vaclav Klaus is concerned about the development in Kosovo, which declared its independence of Serbia on Sunday, Klaus writes on his website today in reaction to a letter by Communist (KSCM) leader Vojtech Filip. Klaus writes he understands the frustration and disillusionment of Serbs and that is he concerned about the impacts that Kosovo's declaration of independence can have on other countries both in Europe and in the world. The position of the Czech Republic must not sharpen the already tense situation in the area, Klaus writes. "Our reaction must be formulated and timed in such a...

Serbian prosecutors said Saturday they were hunting rioters who targeted the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade leaving one person dead while a senior Serbian minister blamed Washington for the violence triggered by Kosovo's breakaway. Authorities said they had arrested nearly 200 rioters who took part in the violence on Thursday that prompted the United States to evacuate non-essential embassy staff and warn Serbia it would be held responsible. "We are collecting evidence and are identifying the culprits," Slobodan Radovanovic said in a statement, according to The Associated Press. Serbia's Kosovo minister Slobodan Samardzic said Saturday that the U.S. -- which backed...

VATICAN CITY, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Serbia took its campaign against Kosovo's independence to the Vatican on Thursday when its ambassador told Pope Benedict that "moral principles" alone showed it was an injustice. But the Pontiff, receiving Serbia's ambassador to the Holy See, steered clear of the dispute and renewed his call for all sides to show restraint. "With regard to the current crisis in Kosovo, I call upon all interested parties to act with prudence and moderation, and to seek solutions that favour mutual respect and reconciliation," the Pontiff said. Sunday's declaration of independence by Kosovo, which has a...

Kosovo: Islamism's New Beachhead?   By Julia GorinFrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, February 22, 2008 As Americans look quizzically at their TV sets while non-Muslim protestors in Europe torch a U.S. embassy, they should know that yesterday’s 200,000-person protest in Belgrade (whose members are separate from the fire starters) is the first time in two decades that Serbs are showing a glimmer of rational behavior--amid 20 years of the “free world” foisting terrorist neighbors upon them.To put this in perspective, with advance apologies to any offended ethnic groups: How would Americans react if Latino gangs started ambushing police and killing government...

Kosovo's breakaway from Serbia provoked fresh unrest Friday as U.N. police were attacked by ethnic Serb demonstrators in northern Kosovo a day after angry demonstrations in the Serbian capital Belgrade left one person dead. art.embassy.afp.gi.jpg Serbian riot policemen guard the entrance to the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade on Friday. more photos » The Associated Press said protesters among a crowd of 5,000 trying to cross a key bridge in the divided city of Mitrovica, hurled empty bottles and stones at the police. It was initally thought that the police retaliated with canisters of tear gas but AP later said this...

Israel will not recognize Kosovo's independence at this time, and is watching developments in Brussels and elsewhere before it makes a final decision on the issue, officials in Jerusalem told The Jerusalem Post on Monday, a day after Kosovo's parliament declared independence from Serbia. "We haven't decided when we're going to decide, and instead will monitor events and consider the issue," said an Israeli official who deals with the Balkans.

By James George Jatras Abraham Lincoln was fond of asking the rhetorical question: "If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have? Five? No, calling a tail a leg don't make it a leg." That pretty much sums up the recent unilateral declaration of independence by Albanian Muslims in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Several countries, disgracefully led by the United States, have recognized Kosovo. Major media have hailed creation of the "world's newest country." But calling Kosovo a country doesn't make it one. Serbia has denounced the move as the illegal creation of a...

Leaders of about 400 members of the Minnesota National Guard who have been deployed to Kosovo as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force describe the atmosphere there as "energized, well-mannered and tense" after the former Yugoslavian province declared independence on Sunday. "The next few days are likely to be tense for Kosovo as the new country awaits international recognition," said Lt. Col. Michael Funk, commander of 2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry, a Mankato-based unit. Minnesota troops are largely stationed in a southeastern portion of Kosovo, where independence demonstrations were described as peaceful and limited to some sporadic celebratory gunfire. But...

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Kosovo's independence will strengthen a bid by the Armenian-backed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh to be recognized as a state, Armenia's prime minister Serzh Sarksyan told Reuters in an interview. Sarksyan drew a link between the Serbian province which will declare independence on Sunday and Nagorno-Karabakh, where ethnic Armenian separatists broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s but have failed to win international recognition. "We are getting a rather favorable position," said Sarksyan, front-runner in the February 19 Armenian presidential election. "Recognition of Kosovo's independence can be welcomed by us. "If countries recognize the independence...

Just like uncountable times before, the Church is announcing once more today, that Kosovo and Metohija was and must remain an integral part of Serbia, in accordance to the Charter of the United Nations, Security Council Resolution 1244, as well as according to all relevant international conventions on human rights, the rights of peoples and on the inviolability of internationally recognized borders. Any solution other than that reprents a violation of God's justice and of human justice, it represents an act of violence with long-term repercussions, both for the Balkans and the whole of Europe. All internationally recognized and ratified...

European Union foreign ministers have ended talks on Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia with member states divided on recognition. While France confirmed that it would recognise independence, as expected, several member states led by Spain made clear their legal concerns. US President George W Bush said Kosovo's people were "independent" but stopped short of formal recognition. Russia has backed Serbia in its refusal to recognise Kosovo's secession. About 10,000 students protested in Belgrade on Monday, and thousands of the city's taxi-drivers went on strike in protest at the declaration of independence, while thousands of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo's enclaves...

President Bush on Monday hailed Kosovo's bold and historic bid for statehood, saying "The Kosovars are now independent."

MOSCOW - Russia denounced Kosovo's independence declaration Sunday, warning that the move threatened to ignite a new conflict in the Balkans and calling on NATO and U.N. officials in the territory to nix the decision. Russia requested a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which held closed-door talks Sunday afternoon. Russia, which has veto power on the council, wants the council to renew efforts — long-since pronounced dead by the U.S. and other Western nations — to reach a negotiated settlement of Kosovo's status. Kosovo's parliament approved the declaration of independence from Serbia, backed by the U.S. and European allies....

Excerpt - BELGRADE, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Angry Serbs stoned the U.S. embassy in Belgrade to protest at Kosovo's declaration of independence on Sunday, smashing windows before riot police appeared to regain the upper hand. "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia," many shouted as up to 2,000 demonstrators, mostly young men, surrounded the embassy, which was guarded by more than 500 police in full riot gear. Washington has strongly backed Kosovo's bid for independence. Protesters chanting patriotic songs ripped up paving stones and prised concrete and tiles from nearby buildings to throw them at the police along with bottles, firecrackers...

A new country limped onto the world's stage on Feb. 17. It is Kosovo. And, true to its Balkan heritage, Kosovo is a problem for most of Europe and Russia. It is also a problem for the United States, which is expected to recognize Kosovo, though mutedly. Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia has infuriated Russia, which immediately called for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council. Some European countries, including Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia, have told the European Union that they will not recognize Kosovo – in essence a successful separatist movement in Europe.

How the mainstream press has missed the single most important angle to what’s happening in Kosovo. On back-to-back days in December 1991, the New York Times published two separate articles highlighting Germany’s alarming and audacious decision to recognize and legitimize the efforts of Slovenia and Croatia to break away from Yugoslavia. Both articles (you can read them here and here) are refreshingly honest and hold little back in their analysis of Germany’s seminal role in the violent fragmentation of Yugoslavia. In this article, Paul Lewis cites European diplomats who warned that Germany’s decision to support Croatia and Slovenia, despite opposition...

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanians will proclaim independence from Serbia on Sunday, ending a long chapter in the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia but cementing a bitter ethnic frontline in the Balkans. Kosovo will be the 6th state carved from the Serb-dominated federation since 1991, after Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro, and the last to escape Serbia's embrace. The Serbs vow never to give up the land where their history goes back 1,000 years. They will reject independence in defiance of the Albanians and their Western backers and will keep their grip on strongholds in northern Kosovo, making the ethnic...

PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Kosovo's parliament declared the territory a nation on Sunday, mounting a historic bid to become an "independent and democratic state" backed by the U.S. and European allies but bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia.....

BELGRADE -- The government has information suggesting that Hashim Thaci will declare Kosovo independence on February 17. In talks with EU High Representative Javier Solana’s adviser Stefan Lene, Kosovo Minister Slobodan Samardžić said that the EU could not expect Serbia to sign off Kosovo’s independence, right before a unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence, said the Kosovo Ministry. At this moment in time, by signing any sort of agreement with the EU, Serbia would be giving its consent and justification to creating a fake state on its territory, Samardžić reiterated, adding that Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica “will not sign such an...