[Begin developing structures through which to operate as a politically self-sufficient community within an independent Kosovo, and seek international support for this] UNMIK promulgates Regulation on Kosovos Ombudsperson Institution http://www.unmikonline.org/DPI/PressRelease.nsf/0/D34CA448A7452D40C125711800 39C2F9/$FILE/pr1492.pdf OSCE Chairman urges Kosovo leaders to begin decentralization process, continue standards implementation http://www.osce.org/kosovo/item_1_18076.html MakFax: "Self-determination" http://www.balkanpeace.org/hed/archive/feb06/hed7348.shtml A Serbian referendum for Kosovo? http://news.serbianunity.net/bydate/2006/February_17/16.html Negotiating team for Kosovo examines its stance for upcoming Vienna talks http://www.srbija.sr.gov.yu/vesti/vest.php?id=20799 When solving Kosovo issue regional stability must be kept in mind http://www.srbija.sr.gov.yu/vesti/vest.php?id=20760 Rice says Kosovo negotiations have implications for neighbors http://www.serbianna.com/news/2006/01255.html ------------------
http://g2.wnd.com/ G2Bulletin - In bed with terrorists Copyright © 2005 Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin NEW WORLD DISORDER In bed with terrorists When 'the Snake' came to Washington © 2005 G2 BulletinPublishing date: 16.02.2006 19:39 Perhaps one of the main reasons why Russian President Vladimir Putin wasn't too worried about reactions to his invitation for the leaders of Hamas to come to Moscow was the fact that he could point to at least two recent instances of a political figure with a terrorist background being invited to major Western capitals. Hashim Thaci Hashim Thaci, also known as "the Snake," wartime leader of the Kosovo Albanian terrorist group KLA, and now leader of UN-administered Kosovo's second largest party, the Democratic Party of Kosovo or PDK, visited Washington Jan. 13, when he was received by U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns to "discuss the situation in Kosovo, including the status talks," according to a State Department spokesman. Even more interesting was Thaci's visit to Berlin in the first week of February, at the invitation of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation run by the German Social-Democratic Party or SPD, the second largest in Germany. The details of his program were confidential, but it was confirmed that Thaci had meetings in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Parliament in connection with "planning projects in Kosovo" according to an item in the Junge Welt daily. The last such "successful project" in Kosovo took place March 17-19, 2004, when coordinated Albanian mobs numbering more than 50,000 looted and burned several Serb towns and villages, destroying several Christian Orthodox churches and resulting in the deaths of more than 20 people and hundreds of injuries, with only an emergency deployment of U.S. troops preventing far worse carnage. Subsequent intelligence data, causing a small-scale scandal on the German political scene, showed that the German contingent in Kosovo had "advance warning" of the coming attacks but did nothing to prevent them. The New York Times reported during 1999 that Thaci was responsible for the killings of several rival commanders within the KLA. According to a dossier of the German BND intelligence agency, "Thaci . gives orders to the professional killer Afrimi," who has carried out at least 11 assassinations in Kosovo. Junge Welt reports that at the end of January, Thaci also participated at a Socialist International Conference in Athens, where his PDK is bidding for membership in that global socialist umbrella organization, "obviously under German tutorship." According to a U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee Report of March 31, 1999, the KLA was closely involved with: . The extensive Albanian crime network that extends throughout Europe and into North America, including allegations that a major portion of the KLA finances are derived from that network, mainly proceeds from drug trafficking; and . Terrorist organizations motivated by the ideology of radical Islam, including assets of Iran and of the notorious Osama bin Laden. Nevertheless, NATO entered an alliance with the KLA at that time, forged by Clinton administration figures Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke, during the bombing of Yugoslavia, looking to depose its president, Slobodan Milosevic. Western diplomatic sources fear that a repeat of the March 2004 events is being prepared as a "contingency option," of radical Albanian circles, in case U.N.-sponsored talks on Kosovo's final status don't head in the direction of giving the province full independence and secession from Serbia. Staged violence may also be used to "push the talks in the right direction" according to these sources, as a sign that the Kosovo Albanians "are becoming impatient with their unresolved status." Kosovo's Islamic extremists have learned that the way to extract concessions from the West is not in being constructive but destructive. Thus, one of the main goals in nurturing the relationship with Thaci is to minimize the potential damage to Western interests in what many expect will be a year of renewed turmoil in Kosovo. -------------------------- http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3955 International Crisis Group homepage <http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1> <http://www.crisisgroup.org/img/arrow_grey.gif> programs <http://www.crisisgroup.org/img/arrow_grey.gif> europe <http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=1162> <http://www.crisisgroup.org/img/arrow_grey.gif> balkans <http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=1239> <http://www.crisisgroup.org/img/arrow_grey.gif> kosovo <http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=1243> Click here to view the full report <http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/getfile.cfm?id=2212&tid=3955&type=pdf&l=1> as a PDF file in A4 format. For more information about viewing PDF documents, please click here <http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/> . This document is also available in MS-Word format <http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/getfile.cfm?id=2212&type=word&tid=3955&l=1> Kosovo: The Challenge of Transition Europe Report N°170 17 February 2006 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS The key issue in the current final status process is the creation of a Kosovo that will have the greatest chance of lasting stability and development. While agreement between Belgrade and Pristina remains desirable in theory, it is extremely unlikely that any Serbian government will voluntarily acquiesce to the kind of independence, conditional or limited though it may be, which is necessary for a stable long-term solution. The international community, and in particular the UN Special Envoy charged with resolving the status process, Martti Ahtisaari, must accordingly prepare for the possibility of imposing an independence package for Kosovo, however diplomatically painful that may be in the short term, rather than hoping to finesse Pristina and Belgrades differences with an ambiguous solution, or one in which key elements are deferred. None of this removes any responsibility from Kosovos Albanian majority. They must offer packages of rights for Kosovos Serb and other minorities in at least three areas: central institutions, decentralisation and religious and cultural heritage. Details of inclusion and representation in core governing institutions, with arrangements for involvement of the relevant mother country in fields such as culture, education and possibly more, should be negotiated with not only Kosovos Serb minority but also its Turks, Bosniaks and others. An agreement on decentralisation, to be brokered in the first instance by Ahtisaari and his team, could then be implemented under international oversight for three years, as was done with the Ohrid Agreement in Macedonia. Pristinas negotiators should also immediately start direct negotiation with the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo on a package of protection arrangements for it and its sites. Only once this groundwork has been done should the Contact Group be prepared to make concerted, formal moves toward recognising Kosovos independence. The independence package the international community settles upon Kosovo should prioritise its social and economic development. Crafting it should be an opportunity for the European Union and its member states in particular to expand their commitment, including resources, to the Western Balkans generally. A generous education assistance program and visa liberalisation are needed, as is assistance for rural development. The EU must not end up spending more on its own post-status mission costs in Kosovo than it does on pre-accession structural funds for the new country. While a new UN Security Council resolution will be vital to set Kosovo on a course of independence from Serbia, any new international mission there should desirably be based on agreement with the new state, preferably founded in its constitution. This international presence should have fewer powers than the High Representative has enjoyed in Bosnia. EU institutions properly emphasise that they want a Kosovo which can be treated in most respects as a normal country, with politicians answerable to their own electorates. But there is one area where the international community should consider a more intrusive mission: northern Kosovo, and Mitrovica in particular, where Serb parallel structures defy UNMIK and the provisional government (PISG) alike. Leaving a new Kosovo government to try to incorporate the north would invite a violent breakdown. A transitional international authority there is the only sensible answer. RECOMMENDATIONS To Kosovo-Albanian negotiators: 1. Produce a plan for forging an inclusive, multi-ethnic state identity for Kosovo, as a tool with which to engage minority communities and the European Union. 2. Seek opportunities such as the Basic Principles document published by the Orthodox Church to engage Kosovo Serbs in negotiation, not using Belgrades sidelining of them as an excuse for passivity. To Serbian negotiators: 3. Negotiate: (a) the maximum degree of protection for the rights of Kosovos Serbs; (b) more development assistance both for Kosovos Serbs and Serbia; and (c) international and Kosovo-Albanian agreement to an appropriate range of institutional links between Serbia and Kosovos Serbs. 4. Refrain from sensationalist and nationalist rhetoric. To Kosovo Serbs: 5. Begin developing structures through which to operate as a politically self-sufficient community within an independent Kosovo, and seek international support for this. To UNMIK: 6. As the mission winds down, maintain and preferably augment staff and resources in the Mitrovica region in particular and engage the Contact Group and European Union in planning for a new transitional international authority for north Kosovo. To UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari: 7. Go earlier rather than later to the UN with a recommendation for imposing a conditional independence package, if Kosovos Albanians have conscientiously made good offers on minorities, covering inclusion in central institutions, decentralisation and protection of religious heritage, rather than hold out for an ambiguous solution, or one in which key elements are deferred in order to keep Belgrade on board. To the Contact Group: 8. Be prepared to indicate how Kosovo might become independent, including how this might be implemented in the event of Belgrades refusal to agree, once Albanians have made serious offers to minorities, engaging with them on inclusion in central institutions, decentralisation and protection of religious heritage. 9. Discuss and plan for a north Kosovo transitional international authority. To the European Union: 10. Plan for social and economic development in post-status Kosovo, with particular emphasis on education and visa liberalisation and agricultural development, rather than adopting a purely policing and security agenda. Pristina/Belgrade/Brussels, 17 February 2006 read media release <http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3955&m=1> =============== Group Moderator: [EMAIL PROTECTED] page at http://magazine.sorabia.net for more informations about current situation in Serbia http://www.sorabia.net Slusajte GLAS SORABIJE nas talk internet-radio (Serbian Only) http://radio.sorabia.net Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sorabia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
