Author: Nebojsa Malic

AP reports that Ramush Haradinaj, the “Prime Minister” of the “provisional institutions of self-government” in the occupied Serbian province of Kosovo, has resigned upon receiving the ICTY indictment against him, and is scheduled to fly to The Hague tomorrow. All over the province, NATO troops and UN police are on high alert, anticipating violence from pro-KLA Albanians, who reportedly consider Haradinaj a hero.
Some 500 UK troops arrived in Kosovo yesterday, in addition to the 600 Germans deployer earlier, in a show of force intended to prevent a repeat of last year’s pogrom. Continue reading “Kosovo PM Indicted, Resigns”

Columns, that is. Tomorrow’s edition will be the 200th appearance of my exclusive column for Antiwar.com. It began in the fall of 2000, in the aftermath of Serbia’s “October revolution,” and has chronicled events in the former Yugoslavia ever since: the Presevo insurgency, the Djindjic assassination, the uncivil war in Macedonia, the pogrom in Kosovo, the Hague show trials, many elections, anniversaries and transitions. On several occasions it revisited history, both recent and distant, and even addressed language issues.
This isn’t the end – far from it! I intend to keep writing for as long as the situation in Yugoslavia’s successor states merits attention. Unfortunately for the people living there, that looks to be a long-term prospect.
It turned out – not surprisingly – that Slobodan Milosevic wasn’t the sole source of trouble in the region (well, there goes that conspiracy theory!), and his fall from power in 2000 didn’t do a damn thing to resolve the ongoing conflicts. Ultimately, the present crisis has roots in the demise of Yugoslavia, and until the circumstances of that murder – for that’s what it was – are addressed, the various parties involved will continue fighting over what they believe is rightfully theirs. So it looks like there will be a job chronicling that conflict for a good long time. Continue reading “Balkan Express turns 200”

Serbian president Boris Tadic visited Kosovo this week, touring besieged Serbian enclaves and opposing the occupied province’s independence. The visit was met with mixed sentiments by the Imperial press, largely depending on the degree of their Albanian favoritism. Unsurprisingly, Albanians themselves met it with open hostility. From Viceroy Jessen-Petersen’s statements, the impression is that UNMIK hoped Tadic would continue to pressure local Serbs to collaborate – which did not turn out to be the case.
The visit merits a more detailed analysis, but for the time being, here is an excerpt from a special communique of the Serbian Orthodox Church regarding Tadic’s visit, dispelling the myth of Albanian “frustration” with “Serb provocations” (such as, oh, existing):

“Kosovo still remains very explosive with high potential for ethnic violence. This violence emanates not so much from social problems of Kosovo Albanians (which exist elsewhere in the Balkans) but rather from the surprising lack of basic tolerance for others who live beside them, share different culture and religion.”

In a commentary for Wall Street Journal yesterday (February 1, 2005; Page A12), pretentiously titled “Set Kosovo Free,” none other than the real Butcher of Belgrade, ex-General Wesley Clark, stumped for the latest outrage by his employer, the International Crisis Group.
(Like other content from the War Street Journal, Clark’s editorial isn’t online.) Continue reading “Wesley Clark and “Free Kosovo””

In responding to Sophie Johnson’s letter yesterday, I said that Vojvodina was ceded to Yugoslavia by the Treaty of Trianon (1920). A fellow historian wrote me yesterday to say that while this is technically correct, Serbia’s claim to this territory is even stronger: a popular assembly of Serbs – but also Slovaks, Ruthenians, Wallachs and others – living in areas of Baranja, Backa and Banat voted on 26 November 1918 to join the Kingdom of Serbia. Another area within today’s Vojvodina, Srem, had a similar assembly a day earlier. (Parts of Baranja and Srem were given to Croatia by the Communists after 1945). The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) – a union between the Kingdom of Serbia and the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (teritories formerly ruled by Austria-Hungary, with the exception of Vojvodina) was established on 1 December 1918. Yugoslavia was therefore not created by the Treaty of Versailles, but recognized therein as an independent state. This is obvious from the text of the Treaty of Trianon, which explicitly mentions the “Kingdom of the Serbs, the Croats and the Slovenes.”

At the midnight liturgy on Christmas Eve in Belgrade, president Tadic appeared in the first row of worshippers, right next to Prince Alexander Karadjordjevic. Technically, the prince was all chummy with the man who usurped his birthright, since the republic was originally established by Communists at the expense of his father’s crown. The irony was apparently lost on both him and Tadic, as well as the TV commentators.
Absent was Prime Minister Kostunica. The following morning, Serbia found out why – he was in Kosovo, attending the liturgy in Pec served by the Serbian Patriarch.
But Serbia doesn’t have anything approaching the American political spin machine; most of its political propaganda is downright crude. Kostunica, apprarently, doesn’t even have a media manager. His visit – intensely symbolic and portentuous – had very little media impact in Serbia. Continue reading “Kostunica in Kosovo”