Byzantine Blog

SAA is One Sentence Short

Vecernje Novosti reported Wednesday that ministers of Premier Kostunica's DSS (Democratic Party of Serbia) will officially request on one of the upcoming government sessions that the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) EU intends to offer to Serbia be amended with one sentence: Kosovo province is an integral part of Serbia.

According to the report, DSS-NS ministers will not issue a formal request for revoking the Vice Premier Bozidar Djelic's authorization to sign the SAA as is (without the key sentence), because he already has no right to sign the Agreement in the present form.

Premier Vojislav Kostunica reiterated on Wednesday he will support the signing of the agreement with the EU only if it is amended with the sentence which confirms that Kosovo-Metohija province is "the integral and inalienable part of Serbia".

"The good way to resolve relations between Serbia and the EU exists. It requires that only one sentence be added to the text of the Agreement, confirming that Kosovo is Serbia. This is the best solution and such agreement will receive the overwhelming support in Serbia," Kostunica told Novosti.

The initiative of the DSS leaders has already received support by the Serbian Radical Party [SRS] and the Socialists [SPS], alongside DSS coalition partners, the New Serbia party [NS], but it has been criticized by Kostunica's former coalition partners, Tadic's Democratic Party [DS] and Dinkic's G17.

"Our stand is completely in line with the Parliamentary Resolution which clearly states that Serbia will not sign a single document unless it unequivocally denotes Serbia with Kosovo-Metohija within its borders. SAA is not our priority, but if the sentence that Kosovo is Serbia is added to it, the agreement would be acceptable for the state," SRS Vice President Dragan Todorovic said.

Zarko Obradovic, deputy president of the Serbian Socialist Party, said that the EU has to state whether it accepts Serbia as a whole, prior to signing the SAA.

"Socialists requested that Brussels responds to this question a month ago. If the EU includes the statement that Kosovo is part of Serbia in the agreement, SAA would be entirely acceptable for us," Obradovic said.

Dinkic's liberals appeared to have suffered a nervous breakdown over the request, so they resorted once again to the good old smear/intimidate tactic, threatening that "such statements lead the country to isolation" and, once again, under the same breath, that the state "will be isolated, economically impoverished, with the citizens left without a perspective."

Solana's Agreement Won't Bear Serbia's Signature

Discussing the question whether anyone has the authority to sign the SAA in the present form, if offered for signing ahead of the elections as announced, Kostunica said that United States and NATO have been thus far leading the policy of force and exerting fierce pressure to force Serbia and the EU to sign the agreement which would then be interpreted as Serbia's recognition of the fake state on its territory.

"It is for that same reason that Solana's Agreement is being offered for signing on Pascha. The coalition [Canak, DS, G17] which wants to sign such agreement despite the warnings can only offer the signature of their political parties, but in no way can it give Serbia's signature, because this is expressly prohibited by the Serbia's National Assembly Resolution from December 26, 2007," Kostunica said.

"NATO needs to know in advance that Solana's agreement will not bear Serbia's signature, and that USA and NATO cannot count on that signature as Serbia's recognition of Kosovo as the first NATO state," prime minister said.

Slovenia's Rupel, Washington's Vaseline Boy

Political commentator and historian Srdja Trifkovic told Glas Javnosti that Slovenian Foreign Affairs Minister Dimitrij Rupel was given an honorary role of a Vaseline Boy by Washington and Brussels, which Rupel appears to have accepted with humbleness, gratitude and determination to carry it out with an unmistakable Alpine pride.

According to the Belgrade daily, "the souvenirs Slovenian FM Dimitrij Rupel has brought after the meeting with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, starting with the sweet talk about the new negotiations on Kosovo-Metohija solution, down to the announcement of a 'surprise' the EU prepared for the pre-electoral appetites of the Serbian voters are simply an introduction to another round of sham negotiations, after which Serbia would sign what no one sane would."

"The role of Rupel and Slovenia as the EU-presiding state is to rub Serbia with the Vaseline, so it gets easier raped by those who want to finish the Kosovo independence business," said Trifkovic, foreign-affairs editor of The Chronicles Magazine of Rockford Institute.

The only "harmonious solution" Rupel is suddenly talking about shouldn't be interpreted as reconciling the divergent stands, but in the sense of Ban's, or Korean and Japanese philosophy that "the harmonious solution is the one which was accepted as such", said Trifkovic.

"This is why Ban, or Rupel, is not announcing the new negotiations without prejudging the status, but the new mirage. Washington believes Serbia is on its knees and that its resistance, regardless of the outcome of the elections, is insignificant. Talks about new negotiations are only another deceptive little carrot, so that, through another forum, Serbia is offered and signs what no one sane would," said Trifkovic, adding that it is "inconceivable for the US to send Ban to talk about the real negotiations, because that would mean that the Shiptars [ethnic Albanians] are accepting the relativization of the situation until they reach solution with Belgrade".

"Therefore, we need to look at the problem with the clear heads, realizing that UN secretary general does nothing without consulting the White House and that the only solution for Serbia is to reclaim its authority by force, once the US is no longer able or willing to dictate the Balkan policy. And that will happen in 20-25 years," Trifkovic concluded.