Montenegro: Happy Birthday
May 21st, 2007 by mavander
The world’s youngest state marks its one-year anniversary today.
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Archive for May, 2007
More stick, less carrot?
May 20th, 2007 by mavander
Via YakimaGulagLiteraryGazett I came across this op-ed piece by Natasha Kandic, director of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, and Mabel van Oranje of the Open Society Institute.
Kandic and van Oranje berate the EU for its accommodation toward Serbia despite its failure to cooperate with the the Hague, handover war criminal Ratko Mladic, and the continued reality of nationalist politics plaguing the country.
But the EU seems ready to ignore Serbia’s disdain for international law. The EU is understandably eager to support a pro-European government in Serbia, for this might pave the way for Serbia to swallow the prospect of Kosovo’s independence. That explains why some EU member states are keen to resume the negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, which were suspended a year ago due to Serbia’s failure to cooperate fully with the ICTY. The proposed u-turn by the EU means that Mladic’s arrest and transfer to The Hague is no longer a condition for restarting talks.
Of course, argue Kandic and van Oranje, this “all carrot and no stick” approach will ultimately have negative consequences because,
It will not strengthen democratic forces in Serbia. Just last week, caretaker Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, once hailed by Europe as a great democrat, showed his true colours. He went so far as to support the election of an extreme nationalist, Tomislav Nikolic, who was an old ally of Milosevic’s, as the Speaker of the Serbian Parliament. The head of Nikolic’s party, Vojislav Seselj, is in the dock in The Hague facing trial for war crimes.
I believe the authors are spot-on. The problem is that given the reticence toward enlargement, the EU really doesn’t even hold that much in the way of “carrot” for the Serbs. After the electoral success of the nationalists earlier this year, The EU has good reason for concern. Given the UN Security Council debates over the “final” or “future” status of Kosovo, this all comes at a very bad time. One thing is sure: the International Community needs a concerted approach to Serbia to provide it with as much leverage as possible.
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Language Games
May 16th, 2007 by mavander
I often joke that I will one day speak four languages: “Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian” while only having studied one.
So this piece of news about language developments in Montenegro caught my attention. Since Montenegro declared its independence in 2006 (and sometime before that), there has been something of a controversy over whether or not “Montenegrin” constitutes a separate language from “Serbian.” The ruling coalition in Montenegro, it seems, have arrived at a compromise on the “language question.” The Montenegro official state language will be … “Montenegrin-Serbian.”
In a perfectly postmodern moment, language names (not content, even) are determined by political entities.
So, here’s the mouthful we may one day see: “Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian-Serbian.”
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Belgrade or Bust in 2008?
May 14th, 2007 by mavander
Serbia’s Marija Šerifović took the cake at the annual pop song contest held this year in Helsinki. Šerifović won on Saturday with her hit song “Molitva” (prayer). No kidding–a song sans English lyrics won!
Given the politically charged atmosphere in Belgrade these days (and here, in Serbian), this is good news indeed. The BBC points out that Serbia’s success was, in part, due to heavy voting from its neighbors in the former Yugoslavia:
Once deadly enemies, or at least suspicious neighbors, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro all delved into their voting sacks, and all came up with the crucial “douze points” for Serbia.
So is this the rapprochement, the reconciliation that international political leaders have been striving for in the former Yugoslavia for the past 20 years?
The BBC seems to forget that, despite fewer than 10 years of civil war during the 1990s, these (now) sovereign states were part of a single country for over 40 years.
Here, I only offer my congratulations. Well done, Marija!
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Whirlwind Update
May 11th, 2007 by mavander
Much has been happening in the Balkans and this blog, for one, has been woefully silent. With an eye to bringing “Balkanizer” up to speed without rehashing old news, I mention the following only in passing:
1. The former Prime Minister of Croatia Ivica Racan died on April 29. The former leader of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) suffered from a tumor in his shoulder he announced in January. You can read about his memorial service from Croatian news site Javno and a Croatian review of the Western media reaction here.
2. Arguments in the trial over the 2003 assassination of former Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic have wrapped up. Milos Vasic offers an excellent commentary of what the trial did, and did not show at BIRN.
3. The UN Security Council made an exploratory house call to Belgrade and Pristina to see what they could see. As the Serbian news magazine Vreme reports, “They Came, They Saw, They Left” [in Serbian]. The visit was taken upon the request of the Russians in advance of Kosovo “final status” talks on the agenda for Security Council discussion. The Russians continue to insist that more time for negotiations is needed and any solution must be acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina. There has been (and will be over the next weeks) a flood of news stories with similar subtitles: “what to do about Kosovo” (see, the Independent’s article ”It’s time to cut the knot over Kosovo“). With some exception, the attitude in the West is typically to raise the banner of “national self-determinism” and argue that Kosovo independence, with the caveat of internationally-guaranteed minority protection, is the only viable solution for stability “in the region.”
4. Leading nationalist and successor to Hague-incarcerated Vojislav Seselj, Tomislav Nikolic, has been elected to head Serbia’s parliament. Thus ends three months of haggling over how to form a new government after the most recent election in which the Radicals received such a strong showing. This is a developing story, of course, but as most of Serbia’s media reports, it likely signals a new round of elections [in Serbian].
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