Ariel Rusila's Conflicts [Ex-BalkanPerspective]

Radical Islam is again in headlines thanks for recent attack in Mumbai. Already during battle discussion had started about foreign connections of terrorists. Besides Pakistan also British and Bosnian connections were mentioned. The question is mostly related to Muslim immigrants living in West. As far as Bosnia or western Balkans is concerned the core problem is created after mid-90s when region started to transform to safe haven for radical Islam. Background In my article “ Radical islamist network spreading in Balkans ” (28/09/2008) I summarized that Radical Islam has enforced and widened their activities in Balkans last 15 years. During Bosnian war many foreign Islamists came to fight in mujahedeen brigade also many Al Quida figures - including Osama bin Laden - were supporting Bosnian Muslims 1990's. Later they gave their support to KLA/UCK (Kosovo) which leaders now are leading Kosovo province based on US and EU support. After bombing campaign 1999 radical Islam has b...

A week ago I wrote here an article “UN deciding over plan for Kosovo – which plan to select?”. On the table was a 6-point plan negotiated between UN and Serbia, and a 4-point plan, a declaration by Kosovo’s separatist government. Now we know the answer – 6-point plan was selected unanimously in UNSC. Next question would be the consequences of decision. The Decision The UN Security Council on Wednesday 26 th Nov. 2008 in New York unanimously adopted the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's report on the reorganization of the civil mission in Kosovo. Ban’s spokesman Brenden Varma told B92 earlier today that the secretary-general’s report welcomes the positive outcome of the talks on the six points of the UNMIK reorganization and Belgrade’s decision to accept the agreement. Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić welcomed Ban's Kosovo report, saying "The explicit language of the report confirms the status neutrality of EULEX's engagement, which is a guarantee th...

One of the most macabre recent war crime is harvesting organs from captured Serbs by Kosovo Albanian guerrillas during Kosovo conflict 1998-99. The story was kept undercover by western mainstream media until last April 2008 before former UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte opened her mouth. New reportages was made e.g. by German Der Spiegel magazine and justice departments from Albania and Serbia have started high level cooperation for case. Council of Europe has decided to re-examine the case, which maybe has also link to illegal organ transplant clinic raided in Pristina, Kosovo, early November 2008. The Guardian article A new article by Paul Lewis appeared in the Guardian on Nov. 25 th 2008 giving a quite complementary picture of events. His story includes also a video clip over trip of Mr. Lewis to “slaughterhouse” a country house in northern Albania's mountain region near town Burrel. Here a comprehensive quote about background: Of all the many atrocities that...

When I sometimes in my blogs wrote about Transdnistria (officially Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic – PMR) the most common feedback has been following: “ Transnistria is a refuge for the criminal organizations being engaged in the illegal sale of weapons, in the contraband and in the money laundering, its also a rogue state.” One could conclude that for western public has quite a bad if any image of Transdnistria. Having criticised earlier western mainstream media picture about Balkan events I wanted to check if the tradition is repeating itself same way in case Transdnistria. Transdnistria (Map Source - http://pridnestrovie.net) Nato Nato Parliamentary Assembly’s sub-committee on east-west economic co-operation and convergence published 7 th October 2007 its report over Moldova and stated: Transnistria remains a haven for organised criminal groups, which are engaged in illegal arms sales, smuggling, and money laundering. It hosts the largest post-Soviet army depot in Kol...

I was just reading an article "Nato Still killing People in Kosovo" related to an issue of use depleted uranium during Nato bombings against Serbia. This topic was discussed years ago when e.g. I was working in Kosovo, however any proof then did not came to my hands. I also do not know if depleted uranium is used other conflicts in Balkans or elsewhere. Anyway if this is not a war crime so what is? Now we can have more information and I was so upset about that article published in Croatian "Javno" News portal that I quate it as such here without more comments: NATO Still Killing People in Kosovo Back in 1999 NATO carried out a 78-day shelling of Serbia and Kosovo. They allegedly used depleted uranium which continues to kill people. Nine years after NATO’s bombing of Serbia, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is still taking lives in Kosovo, Serbia’s Pressonline reported. The NATO allegedly used shells with depleted uranium which are still today causi...

I just took a glance at very interesting new report published on 21 st November 2008 by the United States National Intelligence Council - Washington's main intelligence body. The report, Global Trends 2025: A World Transformed , is published every four years to give U.S. leaders insight into looming problems and opportunities. This agency of agencies, formed in 1979, brings together analysis from each of America's multiple intelligence organizations to develop mid- to long-term strategic thinking for the country's security community. Highlights Here only few highlights of this 120 pages analysis: The whole international system—as constructed following WWII—will be revolutionized. Not only will new players—Brazil, Russia, India and China— have a seat at the international high table, they will bring new stakes and rules of the game. "Europe by 2025 will have made slow progress toward achieving the vision of current leaders and elites: a cohesive, integrated, and in...

Some 5.000 to 10.000 Kosovo Albanians protested on Wednesday in Pristina against the UN plan on the reconfiguration of Unmik. Last week, the United Nations put forward an amended 6-point plan for the deployment of the EU's EULEX mission. The United Nations’ six-point plan, negotiated between the UN Secretary General, Serbia and the European Union has been rejected by Kosovo leaders who argue it compromises Pristina’s sovereignty. On 18 th Nov.2008 Kosovo’s separatist government offered own 4-point plan, saying final "no" on 6-points. Background Straight after Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence EU launched its rule and law mission EULEX. The idea was to deploy a new civilian mission in Kosovo to replace the UN administration. However UNSC did not replace resolution 1244 - which was adopted in 1999 when the international administration and peacekeepers enter the province and confirms Serbia’s sovereignty over the province - so new mission’s legal base was in...

Last century was marked deep ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs. These tensions erupted most violent way during WWII and Yugoslavia’s breakup wars early 1990s. Now this brutal past is going on tables of international courtrooms while Croatian lawsuit against Serbia and Serbia’s countersuit will be heard in Haague. ICJ The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on Tuesday 18 th Nov. 2008 that it can hear a Croatian lawsuit filed against Serbia for genocide during the war in the early 1990s. The verdict of the 17-member trial chamber at the United Nations’ highest court was delivered by Court President Rosalyn Higgins at a public session. The trial chamber officials voted 10 to seven in favour of Croatia. Earlier Belgrade claimed that the International Court of Justice has no authority in the case. However the court ruled that Belgrade recognised the jurisdiction of the ICJ during the 1990s by responding to suits filed against it by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, and b...

New Kosova Report - a non-profit information portal about Kosovo/a - got hold a secret facsimile from the former UNMIK chief Joachim Rücker sent to the United Nations' Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno on 15 October 2007. The letter describes how the Serb government was increasingly building parallel structures/services while the province was meant to be under authority of international administration according UN resolution 1244. From my point of view Rücker’s letter highlights some aspects of recent Kosovo administration such as colonial attitude, ineffectiveness and contradictory actions of international community. Partition with help of parallel structures Rücker states that accelerating partition prejudices ongoing political developments by creating a fait accompli where the K-Serbian-inhabited areas of Kosovo are both separated from the rest of Kosovo and made increasingly reliant on Belgrade. At the current pace, areas inhabited ...

In Kosovo fifteen movements and different non-governmental organizations have announced a demonstration for Wednesday (19/11/2008) in Priština against the six-point Serbia-UN plan, which basic idea is to agree EULEX mission deployment to Kosovo. " We invite all citizens of Kosovo to join us an in a demonstration and oppose in a peaceful way the six points which affect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kosovo," reads the joint statement. "The six points proposed by the UN and modified for Serbia , aim to divide Kosovo in two: 1/3 of the territory will be given to Serb parallel structures, which means effective control by Serbia. These points reduce Kosovo's institutional development by deploying Serb parallel institutions in the elements most important for the working of state sovereignty, especially in policing, courts and customs. This is unacceptable", the statement said. KLA considering violent actions A bit more harder line represents former Al...

EU summit meeting with Russia in France is designed to reopen talks on a pact of cooperation after the crisis in relations caused by the Georgia conflict on August 2008. Before meeting hard words have been changed over Kaliningrad missiles, Nato radars and EU/OSCE monitors in Georgia. However the core question can be the energy game. A day before summit EU came out with its supergrid plan and Russia questioning Baltic Pipe. Southern energy corridor is an other battleground. Power supergrid plan EU’s Power supergrid plan is partly designed to decrease EU’s dependence about Russian gas. The Timesonline got look about plan and describes it as follows (Source: Timesonline ): The building blocks of the proposed supergrid would be new cables linking North Sea wind farms, and a network patching together the disparate electricity grids of the Baltic region and the countries bordering the Mediterranean, according to a blueprint drawn up by the European Commission. EU states will also be aske...

Bosnia-Herzegovina as independent state was created by the Dayton peace agreement 1995 after bloody Bosinian war 1992-95. Besides ending war the aim of Deaton agreement was to build strong state institutions for newcomer and international community indeed has invested billions of euro for this capacity building. The outcome of this huge aid – compared that population in Bosnia is some 4 million – however is poor. Instead of strong state institutions the state itself is tumbling down. The causes of potential collapse are at least the background before Dayton agreement, the agreement itself, culmination of ethnic and religious tensions during and after the war and today’s (geo)political situation in West Balkans. One factor not to be underrated is also the lack of national Bosnia-Herzegovina identity. The background When nazi-Germany occupied Yugoslavia on 1941, Bosnia-Hezegovina came under Croatian Ustasha movement. Part of Bosnian Muslims supported this ultran...

I was watching Friday (7th November 2008) news from Georgia's capital Tbilisi where some 10.000 demonstrators were marching against current political leadership and demanding early presidential and parliamentary elections. They were gathering also on the national parliament and the presidential residence to commemorate the events of last year, when a similar rally was violently dispersed by police. Same time also anglo-american mainstreammedia has widely published new reports about how events started on August 7th 2008. Both of these events are not very favorable to Georgia's President Saakashvili. Demonstrators and supporters of Georgian opposition parties wanted an investigation into the August war in South Ossetia, freedom of speech and press, and the release of political prisoners. They also want the former independent television station – Imedi TV – to be returned to its rightful owners, the family of Badri Patarkatsishvili who died in London in February this year. Li...

The future status of Transdnistria – or Pridnestrovie - is again, inspired maybe the events in Georgia on August 2008, coming to negotiation tables. With local stakeholders there is some readiness to discuss further to solve this frozen conflict, however the outsiders are twisting arms about formalities. What is the content of number games 5, 5+2, 3+2, 2+1 is also designing the outcome - e.g. alternative solutions - of negotiations. In 1992, the Moldovan government engaged in a short war with authorities in Transdnistria. Hostlities ended after a Russian military intervention by the then Russian 14 th army stationered in Transdnistria. Since then Transdnistria has de facto been on its own like independent state. The original 5 The format created after war was 5, which always consisted of the five “full” participants: Moldova and Transdniestria as the parties to the conflict; Ukraine and Russia as mediators and also guarantor states, guaranteeing to both parties to the confl...