Say WHAT?
Across my desk yesterday came this policy brief, in which the Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies in Belgrade appeals to the international community
to consider our invitation to Serbian authorities to release citizens of northern Kosovo from the mandatory presence at the barricades disguised as a compulsory service
Say WHAT? Serb citizens of northern Kosovo are being obligated by the local authorities (who report to Belgrade, not Pristina) to man the barricades as “compulsory service”? I’ll be glad if someone can tell me definitively that this is not true, that in fact they do it purely out of (misguided) personal passion and commitment. But otherwise it is pure outrage. If the organs of the Serbian state, established in contravention of UN Security Council resolution 1244 on the territory of Kosovo, are requiring citizens to man protests against those charged with implementing 1244, we are truly beyond the realm of the reasonable. That is not behavior worthy of a European state, or of one that aspires to be a candidate.
The barricades in question have been blocking roads in northern Kosovo, where the local population is resisting the authority of NATO, EULEX and Pristina, fearing that they will enable collection of customs duties at the Serbia/Kosovo boundary/border.
That is certainly something they intend to do, and should do. As Ambassador Rosemary Di Carlo said at the UN Security Council Tuesday:
we echo the Secretary-General’s call for KFOR to continue its efforts to ensure freedom of movement throughout Kosovo. This Council has affirmed that Kosovo is a single customs space. This is fully in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1244 and was a key point in the Secretary General’s November 2008 report on UNMIK, a report that the Council welcomed in its presidential statement of November 26, 2008. Kosovo therefore has the right to control its borders and uphold rule of law in full cooperation with the international community. It cannot be considered unilateral action for Kosovo to enforce its customs controls. Moreover, Kosovo also coordinated its activities with the international community, including KFOR and EULEX.
It is time for Belgrade to end behavior that puts its own aspirations for European Union membership, which are supposed to be decided December 9, seriously in doubt.
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Are we seeing “crocodile outrage” here? Surely you know by now that it is not compulsory service that keeps the northern Kosovo Serb community on the barricades? A perusal of the many videos and pictures of people on the barricades – available despite the lack of on-the-spot reporting by the Western media – will show a good slice of reality. Men & women, old & young even in the cold. They laugh and joke and sing and huddle around fires. They take shifts and indeed many of those with jobs are let out of work. They respond to social media alerts and sirens and flock to the barricades voluntarily when KFOR tries again to remove them. The charge they are compelled is a simple canard to avoid recognizing the politically relevant fact that the majority of the people in the north simply will not except imposition of Pristina rule and of Kosovo customs.
As to customs, no matter how hard and often Pristina and friends assert a “legal” right to collect Kosovo customs at the northern gates, that remains a disputed question. Nothing in UNSCR 1244 gives the government in Pristina, established through its UDI, the right to claim the “single customs space” of Kosovo. They have claimed that right but it is disputed by Serbia and the northern Kosovo Serbs. The ICJ did not rule that Pristina’s claim of independence means it over-rides 1244. The ICJ did reaffirm the legality of UNMIK. It is UNMIK alone that can assert “ownership” of the single customs space.
The EU is placing maximal pressure on Serbia now. In the end, however, it will be the EU that must either back down or lose its opportunity to be part of the Kosovo solution rather than a big part of the problem.
The on-line postings at B92 and Blic etc have mentioned this “work requirement,” as well as the presence of 1389 members down from Belgrade to help out. (They were given a house to using for planning their operations, says one poster.) KFor troops are getting ready for duty in Kosovo by practicing crowd control using German civilians and American retirees as stand-ins for KSerbs – maybe not good preparation for handling football hooligans. After all, Dacic claimed the Pride parade should be cancelled because his MUP could not deal with them. A couple of members of one of the fan clubs wanted for killing a member of a rival fan club are also reported to have decamped to Kosovo – a safe no-man’s land at the moment.
Is the government in Belgrade really willing to be made a fool of, I wonder, calling for the barricades to come down but unable to do anything to make it happen? Stopping salaries ought to be enough. Removing the piles of rubble on the Serbian side of the border might be a first step, to show good faith to the Europeans who are to decide on their rate of approach to the EU. Simply wringing their hands and saying “we can’t do a thing with them” will merely make them look either pathetic or hypocritical, or maybe both.
Dear Amer(ican), why don’t you say who you are? Your views suggest some knowledge, hidden away in snide-ness.
But taking you seriously for a moment, Tadic cannot cut off the northern Kosovo Serbs because that would clearly amount to abandoning them and Kosovo to gain only some possible entry into a Union (in 2018 or further out) that might not even exist by then. It would be political suicide. Better, perhaps, to have Merkel pull the lever that drops him from the rope.
The EU could have found a way to provide Tadic something – even just candidacy with no date or a more distant one – and allowed him room to do what he so clearly wanted, to put Kosovo behind him over time. But the EU was either listening to the Amer(icans) or Germany simply does not want any more members to have to carry.
it’s “work obligation” something similar we had during the wars for persons who weren’t wearing the uniform but were in civil institutions. however those “work obligations” were entered into military record as part of military service.
as for the rest. serb leadership should seek for best possible status of all the serbs in kosovo. help them get political power in kosovo. propery protection and return of property. that’s the way to go. serbian desire to rip apart other countries started all the mess to begin with 20 years ago.
The “work obligation” is alive and well, at least on the books, in case of a return to war. B92 today has an article-on-an-article published in Novosti (not sure when it was published, I couldn’t find it at today’s site). Not only are bakers and gas-station attendants and other persons vital to the functioning of the economy required to go to work in case of war, but cars and all other vehicles are subject to requisition. There’s an ongoing register of all personal vehicles run by the Ministry of Defense for use in case of necessity. Horses and draft animals are also included. As one caustic/snide commenter asked, “What about asses?”
As for my “nick,” since I’ll be using it here: “Amer” is an informal (not particularly respectful) name for an American in Serb – I didn’t think anybody reading the Balkan-related articles here at Peacefare would consider it anything but a simple description, or in need of decoding. In a way, it’s a negative description, since I have no connection of any sort with any Albanian or Serbian, living or dead (to the best of my knowledge). At B92 I was regularly accused of not being an American but some kind of Albanian troll/lobbyist/spy/…. and for years my explanation was routinely blocked by the censor/moderator. (Finally they gave up, or missed it.) It’s good for an American’s soul occasionally to be subject to what other people have to live with continually – not being allowed to speak a simple truth, for example. (I never even expected them to post that last observation, of course, though I sent it anyway, just to be bratty.)
Gee, maybe I got this wrong. I thought that was you James.
Anyway, re your comments below. Has the case of the murdered Serb been solved? (A few more southern K-Serbs have been shot and no one arrested.) As to “kneecapped” – was it not one politician not “politicians?” And as to destroying telecoms infrastructure, did not the K-As do it first with EULEX support?
Point is not to justify any of this but to note that in the Balkans, one can pick and choose from bad events to make a point. Point really is that most northern Kosovo Serbs are on the barricades to protect their lives and community. At least in their view. And that requires a certain level of understanding from everyone, especially the peacekeepers.
Mr. Serwer, it unfortunately is true. On several occasions there have already been reports from very reliable sources in the north that, for example, directors of some schools are compelling the employees (teachers, professors, etc.) to stand at the barricades, threatening them with being fired if they disobey.
On the other hand, it’s also true that most of ordinary Serbs in the north are categorically opposing any idea of being incorporated into Kosovo as an independent state, no matter how favourable conditions they are offerred in return. So, even though some of those at the barricades are undoubtedly being there against their will, it still appears that most are voluntarily participating in the “log-revolution”.
But probably the worst of all in this whole mess is the fact that those northern Serbs who are willing to make an accomodation with the government in Pristina are fearing to even mention such an idea, let alone propose it, because they would be virtually lynched by others. However tiny the minority they constitute is, it is completely unacceptable that in XXI century, on the European soil – since Balkan is, officially at least, still part of Europe, however odd that may sound – people cannot express their opinion freely.
“… because they would be virtually lynched by others. ”
Why the “virtually”? A Serb who was willing to help organize elections run by Prishtina and was photographed shaking hands with Hillary Clinton when she toured the country was later shot dead (in front the same door where he had posed with Sec. Clinton). Serb houses hosting Kosovo cell-phone towers have been attacked with explosives. Politicians who have shown any sign of cooperating have been shot (kneecapped?) in the street by persons who “disappeared in an unknown direction.” It sounds like there is more than the threat of social disapproval at work here.
If what Mr. Serwer and the “Albanian” block are saying is true regarding UN1244, and I wouldn’t know anyway, haven’t had the insanity to go and read through it, then I don’t see why Tadić has tied the noose around his neck and gave anyone the opportunity to hang him? He should have just published UN1244 in full version in Politika, and had it translated to simple language.
Clearly, if #Kosovo has been wrangled from the hands of Serbia through the use of ambiguity of the English language, then that’s it. Game over. Move on.
But somehow I feel that although there are attempts to obfuscate things (and I smell that manure as soon as it approaches me) many do not feel inclined to allow to be fooled into this. Chinese and Russians included.
And really… What kinder-garden psychology is this to not speak clearly but to BS your way around things and plant deceit?
That’s right, there is no honor or moral in politics, is there? Makes even prostitutes blush, doesn’t it?
Epic fail.
It’s not only 1244 that’s a mystery to the Serbian public, but the agreements being reached at Brussels. (People say they have to find out what gospođa Tahiri has said to learn what’s going on.) The headman in one of the eastern Kosovo towns says that the Serbian police are refusing to allow ethnic-Serbs (or anybody else, I imagine) with the KS license plates supposedly agreed to at the talks to enter Serbia. Nobody has any information, the Serbian ministry for KiM isn’t providing any guidance, and just what is he supposed to tell his constituents? This of course makes it easier for the government in Belgrade to put its own spin on what was agreed to, but certainly shows no respect for the people it represents.
drazha: it’s not it. kostunica has made his move tying his hands by additions to the serbia’s constitution introduced in a questionable way. tadic’s hands are tied by it until the constitution changes.