Byzantine Blog

Are-We-There-Yet Campaign

For some reason the “EU Troika” (apparently, they turn Russian from time to time) seems to think that plain nagging can replace reason and even has the magical power to wear the best arguments down. One would expect EU’s highest officials, Solana, Steinmeier and Ferrero-Waldner would have something more substantive to say to Russia when arguing for the secession of Serbian Kosovo province they support than “are-we-there-yet?” but one would be very disappointed — that’s all they have to say, really.

Where Russian Federation was expected to show the signs of cracks when asked regarding Kosovo-Metohija province “are-we-there-yet?” once again today in Luxembourg, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has merely reiterated the firm, principled position: “Implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 that would allow continuation of negotiations is essential in order to resolve the Kosovo-Metohija issue. The solution accepted by both sides will remove the risk of further destabilization and reaching it is entirely possible, as long as there are no attempts to impose a unilateral solution.”

“There should be no unilateral efforts to impose solutions because these Balkan nations need to live together in the future,” Lavrov said. “We need a stable resolution. We shouldn’t plant a delayed action land mine under the Kosovo process.”

Meaning: No, we’re nowhere near.

250,000 Serbs and Non-Albanians Purged from Kosovo Province, Serbia’s Main Concern

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Monday that with the arrival of the UN Security Council mission to Serbia, we are entering a completely new cycle in the resolution of the future organization of Kosovo-Metohija province.

“We are leaving the failed Ahtisaari’s plan behind, and the Russian initiative that a Security Council mission begins an overall evaluation of the realization of standards is turning into a realistic ground for a new negotiation process,” Kostunica assessed in an interview for Tanjug.

Prime Minister added that the Serbian government puts an accent on the issue of return of 250,000 expelled Serbs and non-Albanians, a problem that cannot be further postponed.

“We have to begin with the most simple question — why is it that 40,000 Serbs cannot return to Pristina and live normally in their houses. The Security Council mission has to, above all, give an answer to this question and ensure that in new negotiations the issue of return of all expelled persons is resolved first,” he pointed out.

Kostunica underlined that “there is only one answer to the threats of terrorists that they will cause violence if the province does not get independence, which should represent a joint stand of Serbia, Russia and all other Security Council member states, the non-permanent ones in particular, being that the international community is stronger than the terrorists’ blackmailing and threats, and that it is capable and determined to ensure peace in the province and punish all those who may dare to use violence.”

The UN Security Council mission, which will obtain facts on the real situation in Kosovo, the fulfillment of international standards and implementation of Security Council Resolution 1244, will stay in Belgrade and Pristina from April 25 to 28.

Expelled Serbs Will Meet the UN Security Council Members

On the occasion of the arrival of the UN Security Council mission to the province, a number of Serbs expelled from Kosovo-Metohija will organize a mass gathering at the Jarinje border crossing on April 26-27, Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija stated at a news conference in Belgrade on Friday.

Council’s President Milan Ivanovic clarified that the initiative was launched by a large number of displaced and expelled Serbs, around 10,000 of them, who will gather at the Donje Jarinje administrative line, on the Raska-Kosovska Mitrovica road, in order to show that the situation in southern Serbian province is far from rosy as it keeps being described by KFOR and UNMIK in their reports.

“According to the information we have, not even one percent of the Serbs or members of other non-Albanian ethnic communities have returned to Kosovo-Metohija province over the past eight years,” said Ivanovic, underscoring that “the Mission is headed by a man from a country that supports severing of Serbian province.” The country is Belgium, and the man in question is Belgian Ambassador at the UN Johan Verbeke.

He called on the Mission to visit the Serb enclaves in Kosovo and Metohija and to see for themselves the difficult life and hopeless position of the Serbs there, emphasizing that compromise is the only possibility to solve the problem in the interest of all.

Serbs want to inform the mission about their problems in the province during the past eight years, in order to see for themselves that UN Security Council Resolution 1244 is being violated, Vice-President of the Association of the Serbs expelled from Kosovo and Metohija Goran Savovic said.

Pointing out that the gathering is a result of a democratic and civic initiative, he expressed readiness of the Serbs to return to southern Serbian province if their apartments, houses and land are freed.

Director of the Obilic-based company Povrsinski Kopovi Dragan Radakovic said that 8,000 workers of Elektroprivreda Kosova had also backed the democratic and civic initiative to gather at Jarinje crossing, stressing that 14.7 billion tons of coal — 76% of Serbia’s total supplies of coal — are in Kosovo-Metohija.

Serbia to Raise Issue of Its Property in Kosovo-Metohija

Martti Ahtisaari’s proposal is unacceptable to Serbs for a number of reasons, not least of which is that it legalizes the theft and plunder of Serbian property in Kosovo-Metohija. Serbian officials, including President Boris Tadic, have announced that they would raise the issue of ownership in the forthcoming negotiations on Kosovo province’s status.

According to the Ahtisaari draft, all movables and immovables belonging to Serbia, which are situated in the territory of Serbia’s southern province, should become the property of the proposed new ‘Kosovo state,’ thereby stealing Serbian property valued at astronomical sums by a simple decree.

According to the Coordination Center for Kosovo-Metohija, Serbian business enterprises own some 1,400 facilities in the province. Among them, the property of Serbian Electric Power Company (EPS) alone is worth nearly three billion euros (over 4 billion dollars), while the value of the private property of more than 30,000 Serbian families who left the province before the arrival of international troops in 1999 is assessed to be worth at least another 3 billion euros, or more than four billion dollars.

As for the ownership structure of enterprises, 30 percent is state-owned, 15 percent is the capital of the Kosovo Development Fund, 10 percent belongs to enterprises based outside the province, five percent belongs to owners from other republics of the former FR Yugoslavia, while the remaining 40 percent is the socially owned capital.

The value of immovables — farm and construction land, forests, institutional premises, office and residential buildings and state-owned special purpose facilities in Kosovo-Metohija province — was estimated at 162 million euros, or 220 million dollars in 2003, while the property of the military airfield near Pristina was assessed at 95 million euros, or 130 million dollars.

Head of the Serbian government’s economic team Nenad Popovic said previously that Serbia’s investments in the province between 1960 and 1990 amounted to approximately 12.5 billion euros, or 17 billion dollars.

He added that the foreign debt of Kosovo-Metohija enterprises amounted to about 1.2 billion dollars and that state of Serbia has been paying it off regularly, for years. Last year alone, Serbia paid 217.60 million dollars of the debt, or 120,000 dollars per day, and it did not collect taxes and contributions from enterprises in Kosovo-Metohija province.

By suggesting that its property in Kosovo-Metohija be simply snatched away, Ahtisaari and his handlers are advocating ripping off the Electric Power Company of Serbia of at least 1.5 billion euros (over 2 billion dollars). The suggested loss of other property, both state and privately owned is astronomical and entirely unacceptable.

Cartoon by Zoran Mihailovic (Serbia)