Ariel Rusila's Conflicts [Ex-BalkanPerspective]

Last week top level European politicians have awaken to reality concerning the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina, namely that this artificial creature made by Dayton agreement is starting to collapse. This in spite of hundreds of millions of euros which e.g. EU has thrown away to build some kind of multi-ethnical ideal. Dayton Agreement was made 1995 after bloody war (1992-95) had almost finished ethnic cleansings/transfer of populations so that it was possible to draw administrative boundaries according ethnical groups. The agreement split Bosnia into two semi-independent entities – the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation and three ethnic groups – Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks – are trying to lead state together and separately. Entities are unitedby weak central institutions, administration is quite heavy loaded with some 170 ministers and whole system is supervised by international presence. ( Note: Dayton Agreement one may find from here. ) Dayton designer and former Bosnia ad...

After “Cold War” US has all the while expanded its influence post-Soviet territory with aim to guide those region’s natural resources under US companies. As stakes have been control over the oil and gas of the Caspian Sea/Black Sea/Caucasus basin, and the control of multiple key energy pipelines criss-crossing the region. Economical interests have been linked to political game e.g. Nato enlargement. While EU has been more bystander Russia has during last couple of years weight down the scale in favour of its own interests by series of successful operations. GUUAM & SRS GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova) Group was founded 1999 with help of US to foster favourable conditions conducive to economic growth through development of an Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor. GUUAM was dominated by Anglo-American oil interests, ultimately purports to exclude Russia from oil and gas deposits in the Caspian area, as well as isolating Moscow politically. From its...

Former Italian FM Lamberto Dini says the 1999 NATO military intervention against Serbia could have been avoided. According to this, the 78 days of attacks would have been averted "if a single word had been removed from the agreement which was offered at the Rambouillet conference". The problem was one adjective and Serbia insisted that the word “military” be taken out of the agreement leaving only “international presence” in Kosovo, but the United States insisted that the NATO gets permission to enter the province, Dini said while addressing students at the Bocconi University in Milan. (Sources Tanjug and B92 Oct.28th2008) Rambouillet Rambouillet negotiations were the decisive moment to go either for peace or war in Kosovo. The Rambouillet Agreement - Interim Agreement for Peace and Self-Government in Kosovo - includes two parts – the political part and the implementation part. The later part has two appendix A and B. By the end of the first round of Rambouillet in Febru...

Former Kosovo PM Agim Ceku told reporters on Sunday 26th Oct. 2008, that the government in Priština should declare the northern part of Kosovo "a zone of special interest". "If this part of Kosovo is declared a zone of special interest, that means presence of state officials of Kosovo must be secured there. Those officials would work there and be the state authority of Kosovo,..., such measures in the Serb-dominated north which rejects Priština's authority would be "temporary". Ceku, who is the leader of the Social Democratic Party, said the Thaci government has no concrete plan to spread its authority in the north. For his part, Ceku did no rule out using force to achieve this. "Use of force is the task of every security organ. I would not say use of violence, but of force, if necessary. The functioning of the state and government in every part of the country is the task of institutions, which have their instruments and powers. Force is one of those...

Recently I wrote here an article named ” Competitiveness of Balkans ” where I sited a comprehensive annual survey “Global Economic Competitiveness Report 2008-2009” published by the World Economic Forum. (Article and report can be found from here ). The report has calculated sc. “Global Competitiveness Index Rankings” (GCI) 134 countries poled. Now I was reading a report of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP about a ranking of attractive emerging markets, which approach some Balkan countries from different angle. PricewaterhouseCoopers – one of the leading global companies on its field of activities – published now the second year of its EM20 Index (‘the PwC EM20 Index’) generated by PwC’s innovative Risk & Reward Model. Report can be found from here . PwC EM20 In order to be considered for inclusion in the PwC EM20 Index, countries needed to meet certain criteria associated with emerging market status. These were as follows: GDP per capita in 2007 less than $1...

Some of you may have been reading my earlier column " Do you hear Mr. Nobel rolling in his grave ? on 12th Oct.2008. Now I was reading an shocking article " How the Nobel Peace Prize Was Won " by Gregory Elich at CounterPunch. Original article can be found from here. One of the main points highlights Ahtisaari's mediator tactics when he is threatening President Milosevic that those whom Ahtisaari represented were willing to flatten Belgrade and to kill 500.000 people in a week unless President Milosevic does not sign his offer. Sign or get 500.000 bodies! “Ahtisaari opened the meeting by declaring, “We are not here to discuss or negotiate,” after which Chernomyrdin read aloud the text of the plan. Ahtisaari says that Milosevic asked about the possibility of modifying the plan, to which he replied, “No. This is the best that Viktor and I have managed to do. You have to agree to it in every part.” Ristic reports that as Milosevic listened to the reading of the tex...

Forensic dentist Helena Ranta says that officials of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs had tried to influence the content of her reports in 2000, when Ranta was commissioned by the European Union to investigate the events of Racak in Kosovo. Ranta put forward her allegations on Wednesday October 15th at the publication of her biography in Helsinki. More than 40 Albanians were killed in the village of Racak in January 1999. The investigation by Ranta’s working group was very charged from the beginning. It was commonly assumed that Serb forces had perpetrated a massacre, which helped persuade NATO to launch bombings of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999. According to Ranta, in the winter of 1999 William Walker, the head of the OSCE Kosovo monitoring mission, broke a pencil in two and threw the pieces at her when she was not willing to use language about the Serbs.sufficiently strong language about the Serbs. ( Source HS 15/10/2008) There is a widespread belief, that Walker's role in...