A More Balanced Report by Reuters
Western Mainstream Media Changes Tune
September 20 article by Reuters’ Ellie Tzortzi represents a fresh approach by one of the pillars of Western mainstream media to the problem of Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohija, which Western news agencies and mainstream media in general have thus far treated with militant anti-Serbian bias, coupled with appalling ignorance or outright lies.
For the first time in the past decade or so, Reuters actually allows a sincere insight into the Serbian position, without the obligatory condemnation and negative frame, without the cynicism and mockery, and without the reporter tearing the Serbian official’s views down before they have a chance to land on the page.
The article is built around the interview with Seriba’s Kosovo Metohija Minister Slobodan Samardzic, who explained Belgrade is doing its best to approach the issue realistically and pragmatically:
“They [Albanian separatists in Kosovo province] are looking for independence. They cannot get it as far as Serbia is concerned. So we must find a middle ground,” Samardzic said.
“The European experience is to resolve these issues through compromise solutions which are all different, like South Tyrol and the Basque country,” he told Reuters, adding that Serbia proposes “the highest level of autonomy on offer anywhere in Europe, maybe even in the world,” and not seeking an “absolute victory.”
Reuters reporter spoke to Minister Samardzic after he visited London to set out the proposal for the troika of Russian, United States and European Union Kosovo mediators. According to the report, Belgrade offers Albanians in southern Serbian province “loose integration for 10-20 years,” in the form of substantial autonomy.
Serbia’s Offer More Affordable for Europe than Another 30 Years of Clashes
Samardzic, who has visited Kosovo twice under U.N. escort, acknowledged the Albanians would likely remain a “hostile population” for some time, so the question of who would actually man border posts would have to be answered pragmatically.
He said it was primarily up to the international community to guarantee the settlement, “in the form of a civilian and military mission for some period, to keep the peace”.
“The EU is ready to pay,” Samardzic said. “....maybe it’s cheaper than 30 years of clashes.”
NATO bombed Serbia for 11 weeks in 1999 [...] Serb troops were forced to pull out and the U.N. took over. Over 100,000 Serbs fled, fearing Albanian revenge attacks [the actual number of Serbs and other non-Albanians who fled the province since June 1999 is over 250,000; they did not leave merely “fearing revenge”, but were forced to flee through constant attacks, torching, looting and intimidation which included 155 Serbian churches that were razed to the ground during the past eight years. But Reuters certainly can’t be expected to start telling the full truth overnight, after a decade of lies].
“Independence is just a magic word,” Samardzic said. “They get empty symbolism, and they will be a black hole in Europe.”
“We are looking for a historical compromise that will satisfy both legitimate interests,” he stressed. “If one side imposes a solution on the other, we are only postponing our conflict, and it will last decades.”
“I think our solution is conciliatory, it’s not about absolute victory.”
Cartoon by Miodrag Velickovic (Serbia)
Comments
The Serbs could make the argument that giving Kosovo 'independence' is the equivalent of ordering Czechoslovakia to bow to Nazi Germany's demands to give special status to its german minority, as the big powers were too terrified to stand up to Hitler.
Of course know, that giving Czechoslovakia to the Nazis only made Hitler more convinced that the others would not stand up to him and so proceeded to take other countries. The same with the Albanians and their plan for a 'Greater Albania'.
1st stop Kosovo, then Macedonia, then Montenegro, and finally Greece (the toughest nut to crack). The Media now, like then, is 'sympathetic' to the grievances of the poor undertrodden Albanians (germans).
It's not just total political cowardice, dressed up as saving Europe from another war, but the fascist sympathies of the Media (which often escape scrutiny). A Greater Albanian will be the 'Greater Albanian Blackhole'. Where as now, there is at least some moderate stability (arguable) in both Macedonia and Montenegro, despite the problems of poverty in an under developed region, the Greater Albanian Blackhole will suck many more people into its center.
One of the few really big questions (at least I think it is), is what if the Albanian's greatest dreams of a Greater Albania are realized, who's going to be in charge? Will those thugs and druglords who run Kosovo bow to Tirana and hand over power? What of those in Macedonia nad Montenegro. It is far more likely that they will fight to keep hold of their personal, clan-based fiefdoms, depending on political assassinations (sorry, I mean 'traditional canons of justice'). Add to that the division between albanian gheg and tosk tribes, it it could get rather fruity.
Either way, its going to be a big mess and such a place would be the last territory that foreign investors would put money in to (though the EU might think it prudent to do so at a minimal level to stop it imploding).
One other though arises. What of the position of minorities in Albania proper? Could widened conflict in Kosovo, Macedonia etc. blow-back in attacks against minority albanians themselves (after all, someone has to be to blame, and it is always better that it is some 'other'). Imagine pictures of NATOE transports flying out the albanian minority en masse from albanian airfields (or by road convoy) under the heavy 'protection' of NATOE troops... Still, it's all too easy to have these apocalypic visions.
P.S. the Vuk Jeremic interview by the Beeb is online (The Interview): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/station/worldservice/
I only caught the last 15 minutes this morning, but he did say some seriously cretinous things such as 'people in Serbia didn't know what was going on. The Serbian government had total control over the Media. They didn't take the threat of bombing seriously'.
What a load of crap. Serbia isn't Iran where the religious police every few months go around and remove home made satellite dishes. Radio transmissions weren't blocked, neither were satellite feeds (only by NATOE of course) etc. etc. and most Serbs that the West would bomb if they felt like it and recognized that there was nothing that could be done about it. Jeremic, obviously spent far too much time out of the region and was the perfect target for the western propaganda. He swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
Still, he made a number of good comments about Kosovo, "why didn't the West give the albanians indpendence in 1999 then?" to which the cretinous BBC interviewer said "the question is not about the inconsistency(!) of the West's position". Jeremic also pointed out that the Badinter Commission's conclusions, that were accepted by the UN said that the SFRY could only be split along the administrative frontiers, and is the West now saying that the UN is wrong here also.
It would be nice if they did a transcript though..
Right, I'm off for a beer.
Posted by: Aleks | September 22, 2007 12:02 PM
Well said! I fully support your argument.
I got very thirsty reading it, can I join you for a beer? :-)))
Posted by: brian | September 23, 2007 06:30 PM