Kosovo is Being Assisted in Creating a National Army: By Whom and Why?

In an interview with Sputnik Serbia, Milovan Drecun, chairman of the Serbian parliament's Committee for Kosovo and Metohija, said NATO is behind Kosovo's push to create its own army.

Earlier this week, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci sent parliament a bill on transforming the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) into a national army.

In another development, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke with Thaci and Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa via phone to express the "serious concerns of NATO allies" about Kosovo's militarization, the news website Balkan Insight reported.

"I made clear that unilateral steps such as these are unhelpful, and I urged the Kosovo authorities to remain in close contact with Serbs in Belgrade," Stoltenberg added.

NATO has approximately 4,500 troops stationed in Kosovo, which unilaterally proclaimed independence in 2008 and is recognized by over 100 UN member states. Serbia, as well as Russia, China, Israel, Iran, Spain, Greece and other countries don't recognize Kosovo's independence.

Serbian parliament members, for their part, said that they would block amendments to Kosovo' constitution that would allow the partially-recognized southeastern European country to engage in the arms build-up.

Three years ago, Kosovo made plans for a national army, but heretofore has been unable to overcome Serbian opposition within the Kosovo parliament.

In an interview with Sputnik Serbia, Milovan Drecun, chairman of the Serbian parliament's Committee for Kosovo and Metohija, specifically underscored the importance of adhering to a relevant UN resolution on the issue.

"A KFOR mission and NATO should respect UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which does not stipulate creating Kosovo's army. Meanwhile, relevant preparations have taken place for several years now, with NATO instructors training Kosovo soldiers. Actually, NATO created this army, which is why it's clear that Thaci [should] avoid making steps that would be out of line with the position of NATO and the most influential members of the alliance," Drecun said.

He added that "NATO and the US are trying to give a kind of legitimacy to Kosovo's move [to create its army], because even for them it is unacceptable that the Serbs, the second most influential national community in the province, were excluded from this process."

Drecun also said that Kosovo Serbs and Belgrade should [be engaged in] more diplomatic efforts within the UN, the EU and NATO in a bid to prevent Thaci from implementing his plans.

"It is necessary to point out to everyone that the [possible] Kosovo national army would become an additional destabilizing factor in the already destabilized situation," Drecun stressed.

Meanwhile during telephone talks with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday, Thaci warned Belgrade against interfering in the domestic affairs of the "sovereign state", but said that Vucic should make Serbian MPs support Pristina's push for creating the Kosovo army. 

In separate development, the leader of Kosovo Albanians told Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty that the future Kosovo army would not pose a threat to the Balkans.

Instead, he did not think twice before pointing the finger at "the Russia's bases, MiG fighter jets and military exercises in Serbia

Serbia Says It Won't Impose Sanctions On Russia

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic says Serbia will not impose sanctions against Russia.

 

But Vucic told a news conference in Belgrade on August 22 that Serbia was also not planning to subsidize exports to Moscow.

 

After the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions against Russian state banks and major industries last month over the crisis in Ukraine, Russia responded with a wide-ranging ban on food products imported from those countries.

 

Serbian food producers hope to take advantage of the trade row to boost exports to Russia.

 

Vucic said he had received an aide-memoire this week from an EU official in Belgrade calling on Serbia to refrain from increasing exports to Russia, as a matter of solidarity with the bloc.

 

As a candidate for membership of the EU, Serbia is under pressure to bring its foreign policy into line with that of the 28-member EU.

 

(Nothing surprising form another country of scum who carried out the worst case of mass murder and war crimes in Europe since the Nazi's)

Dutch Troops Planned to "Fight" Serbs – Mladic Lawyer

Defence alleges that before fall of Srebrenica, peacekeepers were preparing to “attack and fight” Bosnian Serb army. 

A former member of the Dutch peacekeeping battalion in Srebrenica this week described the fall of the enclave in July 1995 and his subsequent meetings with General Ratko Mladic.

Evert Rave appeared as a prosecution witness in the Hague trial of the commander of the Bosnian Serb army, which overran the town of Srebrenica in July 1995. The indictment holds Mladic responsible for the ensuing massacre of over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

Mladic is accused of responsibility for crimes of genocide, persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer which "contributed to achieving the objective of the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Bosnian Serb-claimed territory".

Rave was liaison officer and assistant commander for terrain security with the Dutch battalion of the United Nations Protection Force, UNPROFOR. He was deployed in Srebrenica from January 1995.

He is just one of several ex-officers of the Dutch battalion, or Dutchbat to appear as prosecution witnesses in the trial of Mladic.

Rave has previously testified before the Hague tribunal in the 2000 trial of Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic, who was found guilty of aiding and abetting genocide and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment; and in the trial of General Zdravko Tolimir, convicted of genocide late last year and given a life sentence. He appeared in the ongoing trial of wartime Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic in late 2011.

In court this week, Rave described accompanying Dutchbat commander Thomas Karremans to a meeting with Mladic and other officials at the Hotel Fontana in Bratunac on the evening of July 11, 1995. Earlier that day, the Srebrenica enclave had fallen to Bosnian Serb forces, and thousands of civilians were fleeing to the UN compound in nearby Potocari.

Rave said Mladic was “very upset” about NATO air strikes on his troops earlier in the day, and he demanded to know whether Dutchbat commanders were responsible for calling them in.

“[Mladic] remained upset after we told him we weren't [responsible], and I wondered if we would be taken outside and shot. Mladic then said that if air attacks on his forces continued, he would retaliate by shelling the Potocari combat of Dutchbat and killing Dutch hostages currently under his custody,” the witness said.

In his statement, Rave said he witnessed Bosnian Muslim men being separated from their families in Potocari on July 12, and later hearing gunshots after the separation took place.

"General Mladic was aware of the separation of men, as it took place while he was in Potocari. When he was walking towards a blockade on the road [from Potocari], I saw that a large number of separated Muslim men were already in a house on the road and others were being led there, so it was impossible for him not to see them,” Rave said.

During the defence’s cross-examination, Mladic's lawyer Branko Lukic suggested to the witness that the Bosnian government army and UNPROFOR planned to "jointly attack and fight” the Bosnian Serb army. He further claimed that there was "a tactical attempt by the Bosnian Muslims in May 1995 to test Dutchbat and see what their true intentions were, and whether they would help fight the Serbs".

The witness answered that he was aware of some "tactical games" going on when he arrived in Srebrenica. However, he said, while the Bosnian government army may have "attempted to determine the direction of Dutchbat and to see how far we would go", one could not speak of any "joint attempt".

Lukic, however, went on to claim that there were clear orders for UNPROFOR to "fight” the Bosnian Serb army.

He cited the so-called “green light” order from Dutchbat deputy commander Robert Franken. According to Lukic, on July 9 – shortly before Srebrenica fell – Franken ordered his troops to "use all available means" to defend Srebrenica. This did not adhere to the “restrictions imposed by the UN mandate", Lukic said, calling it an open declaration of war on the Bosnian Serb army.

"We were attacked, as if we were at war ourselves, and were trying to use whatever we could to defend ourselves. It was the situation we were brought into", Rave said.

Lukic then asked the witness why UNPROFOR did not do more to demilitarise Bosnian Muslim soldiers in the enclave, to which the witness replied that Dutch forces did "take weapons away whenever weapons were found". He added that the same applied to "both sides".

The lawyer asked the witness whether he was aware that Bosnian Muslim troops boasted of having cheated the Serbs. He claimed that Naser Oric, who commanded Bosnian government forces in Srebrenica, said in an interview that he gave Dutchbat “only useless old weapons, but kept all the good ones and the ones [they] couldn't find".

"There were weapons, yes; there were armed civilians on both sides as well. In addition, in such a big area, it is not difficult to hide weapons. But it was also impossible to know they had weapons [that] they told us nothing about, you see,” Rave said.

The trial will continue next week.

UPDATE: Iskander Missiles and Russian fighter bomber squadrons in Serbia?

“The military presence of Russia in the Balkans can be the answer to the U.S. system PRO in Europe,” wrote Nezavisimaya Gazeta. After informing about the meeting between Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, they stated that meeting ended with mutual expressed hope for closer Russian-Serbian military cooperation.

The Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted “experts” who stated that joining of Serbia to ODKB (as observer) is considered “breakthrough achievement of Russia and its allies in achieving its geopolitical interests in the south of Europe.”

The thing is that the Russian Defence League “ODKB” to this point only included the countries of the former Soviet Union, and now has two countries that have expressed interest in its functioning outside that circle – Serbia and Afghanistan.

They also stated that ODKB “within NATO and international community has no high rating” but ODKB is “recently experiencing a transformation,” and claims the “new geopolitical tasks facing Europe,” and situation changes significantly, says Russian newspaper.

It follows from the text that Serbian stand even surprised Russia itself, even though Serbia has been in negotiations for observer status for some time. Even official Russian leadership have not taken the idea seriously, because “Serbia in 2007 declared neutrality in relation to all blocks and alliances.”

“Everything changed when, in the autumn of 2012 President of the Supreme Council of United Russia, Boris Gryzlov visited Serbia ” whose subsequent statements indicate a possible new Russian angle of looking at things, no matter that “official Belgrade remained silent.”

However, Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted the secretary general of ODKB, who said that it is too early to talk about the full membership of Serbia in the Russian military alliance, and explained that “the status of observer in the ODKB practical terms means the participation of the country (the observer) in activities (organization)” and that “Serbia will not be for such status.”

On the other hand, Gen. Leonid Ivashov believes that the full participation of Serbia in ODKB is “very probably to be expected, that it will help the country to strengthen its position in the Balkans, and in solving the problem of Kosovo.” Ivashov even says “that agreement will allow the presence of the peacekeeping contingents of ODKB in Serbia, and also to provide military assistance, as it applies to all members of the organization,” He also noted that “It would be desirable to education in the armed forces of Serbia also, the main military adviser appliances that would strengthen the defensive power of the Republic. ”

Asked about the Serbian-Russian military theme, the captain Konstantin Sivkov, (ex Center of military-strategic research) believes that “the goals of Russia in the Balkans are far broader.” Referring to the U.S. military base in Kosovo, Sivkov says “deployment of Russian military facilities in Serbia (Military Air Force bases, tactical missiles ‘Iskander’, and so on.), would surely strengthen Serbia’s sovereignty and become one of the factors of restraint.”

“… Russian military presence is possible in Serbia, and could become one of the asymmetric arrangement of the system in response to the U.S. PRO in Europe,” quoted the captain.

At the conclusion of a long article, the Russian NG mentions meeting Dacic and Shoigu, the agreement on the activation of military-technical cooperation between the two sides, and the detail that a Russian military delegation will soon arrive in Belgrade on the occasion of the signing of documents about it. In May, Moscow is also expected to visit the Chief of the General Staff of Serbia.

As Vestinet reported on April 15th,  Serbia officially joined the military alliance ODKB as observer. Parliamentary Assembly of the ODKB Council in St. Petersburg decided to give Serbia observer status.

Serbian pilot goes down with plane to avoid hitting houses

A Serbian air force pilot died after staying with his crashing plane to make sure it missed houses in a small town near Belgrade today, officials said.

A second crew member aboard the Lasta (Swallow) basic trainer was injured after ejecting when the aircraft got into difficulties over Nova Pazova, some 20 kilometesr northwest of the capital, the defense ministry said.

The plane eventually crashed in the yard of a house without causing any casualties on the ground.

"There is practically no material damage except to the plane itself. One pilot ejected while another remained in the plane until the very last moment in order not to hit any houses in this inhabited area," Nova Pazova mayor Djordje Radinovic was quoted by broadcaster B92 as saying.

The military opened a probe into the incident, the fifth involving Serbian air force planes since 2006. Three people were killed in the previous crashes.

Kosovo granted full sovereignty

Kosovo has won full sovereignty from the international community, four years after it declared independence. Serbia has dismissed the announcement as meaningless, as Kosovar Prime Minister calls the decision as a ‘historic turnaround,’ but also admits that many challenges await, including the integraton of Serbs in the north

Members of Kosovo’s Security Force march with a flag of Kosovo before the arrival of former Finnish President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari at Pristina international airport.

Western powers in the International Steering Group (ISG), which has overseen Kosovo since its 2008 unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia, have ended their supervision over the territory.

The Kosovar leadership welcomed what it called a “historic turnaround” but also recognized the challenge of trying to integrate ethnic Serbs in the north that are fiercely opposed to the notion of an independent Kosovo.

“The supervision of Kosovo is finished,” Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith, the highest international representative in Kosovo, told a press conference.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi called the decision a “historic turnaround” for Kosovo. “This is an international success for Kosovo which confirms that the international community respects Kosovo,” he said at a joint press conference with Feith.

Serbia, which has never accepted Kosovo’s Feb. 17, 2008, declaration of independence, dismissed the sovereignty announcement as meaningless. “For us, the question of Kosovo is not resolved until it becomes Serbia,” Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said. He dismissed as “nonsense” speculation that the European Union had set recognition of Kosovo as independent as a precondition for Serbia’s progress toward membership of the bloc.

The oversight will continue in the form of 6,000 NATO peacekeepers and over 1,000 EU police officers, prosecutors and judges tasked with tackling deep-rooted corruption and sporadic ethnic violence.

“Many challenges await Kosovo, among them, the integration of the Serbs in the north,” Agence France-Presse quoted Thaçi as saying.

Kosovo’s independence has been recognized by some 90 countries, including most EU nations, but is rejected by Belgrade, Russia and Kosovo’s own ethnic Serbs, who make up about 6 percent of the population, living mainly in the north. In a statement issued by the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama said the country of 1.7 million people had made “significant progress,” but added, “There is more work to be done, as Kosovo’s leaders now assume full responsibility for ensuring that the principles enshrined in its declaration of independence and constitution are realized for every citizen.”

Ground conditions

The ISG, made up of 23 European Union members, Turkey and the United States, had overseen Kosovo for the last four years. In July the ISG said the end of supervision would mean Kosovo would gain “full sovereignty.” However, on the ground Pristina has no effective control over Serb-majority northern Kosovo which rejects the ethnic Albanian authorities.

“To celebrate without the north, for me, is insane,” said Kosovar analyst Lumir Abdixhiku of the Riinvest research institute. “A very big part of the Kosovo territory is beyond all Kosovo institutions. Kosovo does not control an army, Kosovo does not control its judicial system, so in many aspects Kosovo does not decide for itself.”

Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek attended the meeting in Pristina on behalf of Ankara and visited Turkish citizens who live in the city.

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WHAT NEXT FOR NEIGHBOURS?

The EU hopes Kosovo and Serbia will gradually work out their dispute, lured by the prospects of membership in the bloc. There has been some progress, so Kosovo citizens can travel to Serbia with their own ID card, but not with Kosovo car plates. Serbia has agreed to accept Kosovo university diplomas if they are certified by a third party, but won’t sit at regional meeting alongside a Kosovo delegation unless there is an asterisk on the Kosovo name that refers to a note about its international position.

Turkey condems Srebrenica massacre on 17th anniversary

Bosnia commemorates the 17th anniversary of Srebrenica massacre and cries for hundreds of victims. 

Bodies of victims found in mass graves are laid to rest

 Women weep over caskets at the Potocari Memorial Center during the funeral in Srebrenica, where 520 newly-identified Bosnian Muslims were buried. A man places Bosnian coffee cups, each of them symbolizing the victims of the Srebrenica massacre, during a memorial ceremony mark the 17th anniversary of the massacre in Istanbul.

Bosnians yesterday buried 520 newly-identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, with the two alleged masterminds of the slaughter finally on trial for genocide.

Some 30,000 Muslims traveled to a memorial center in Srebrenica, Bosnia, yesterday to bury the victims – from among the 8,000 Muslim men and boys slaughtered in July 1995 by Serb forces.

After speeches and the Muslim prayer for the dead, people began hoisting the simple coffins covered in green cloth to carry them to the freshly dug graves.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday that Turkey would never forget the Srebrenica massacre that had happened at the heart of Europe, during a speech at his party’s meeting in Ankara. Recalling that Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ attended the ceremony in Bosnia-Herzegovina representing Turkey, Erdoğan said Turkey was committed to protecting the Bosnians.

Memorial ceremonies mark 17th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre

Turkey condemns massacre

Bozdağ visited the Potocari Memorial Center and a nearby museum. Bozdağ said that July was “the month of sorrow” for Bosnia-Herzegovina. “We are here to share pain of our brothers and sisters in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” he said. In a statement yesterday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry also condemned attempts to deny or underestimate the significance of the massacre. A group from the Young Bosnians Association also held a memorial ceremony in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, filling cups with coffee to represent those killed in Srebrenica.

Srebrenica was a U.N.-protected Muslim town in Bosnia besieged by Serb forces throughout Bosnia’s 1992-95 war. Serb troops, led by Gen. Ratko Mladic overran the enclave in July 1995, executed 8,372 men and boys in just a few days. Dutch troops stationed in Srebrenica as U.N. peacekeepers were failed to stop the slaughter. The bodies of the victims are still being found in mass graves throughout eastern Bosnia. So far 5,325 Srebrenica massacre victims found this way have been laid to rest. Mladic and political leader Radovan Karadzic have gone on trial at the U.N. war crimes court.

World leaders also rejected any moves to down play the scale of the massacre. “The U.S. rejects efforts to distort the scope of this atrocity, rationalize the motivations behind it, blame the victims, and deny the indisputable fact that it was genocide,” U.S. President Barack Obama said in statement. His remarks were a clear swipe at Serbia’s new President Tomislav Nikolic, who said last month that the killings constituted “grave war crimes” but not genocide. But for many survivors and relatives in Srebrenica, the trials at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are too little, too late. They fear Karadzic, 67, and Mladic, 70, could die before any verdict is delivered.