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In The Result Of The Meeting, Serbian Papers Are Reporting That 2 States Which Had So Far Been Accepted To Have Recognized Kosovo, Now Say That Actually , They Didn't.
The first major working week after the summer holidays has already produced a plethora of stories here in the western Balkans. Some are way more serious than others, unless you live here, when they're all very serious. Here's a roundup of some of them.
Outside of the old Yugoslav Fed Parliament building in the Serbian capital they're rolling up the red carpet which had been unrolled to greet representatives to the 50th birthday bash of the Non-Aligned Movement, which I've written about here. Serbia, which hosted the gathering, isn't an affiliate, but never mind that. It finds it handy to lobby over the Kosovo issue and for business.
In the result of the meeting, Serbian papers are reporting that 2 nations which had hitherto been accepted to have recognised Kosovo, now say that in fact they didn't. Oman explains it just, kind of, um ah, kind of said it wanted Kosovo in the United Nations, but that's completely different. The West African state of Guinea Bissau claims that recognition was held up in parliament.
Vuk Jeremic, Serbia's foreign minister adds that a criminal inquiry has started in one African country against a senior official. He said :
"There are founded suspicions that he was given a bribe from an Albanian businessperson from Kosovo so as to start the procedure to recognise Kosovo independence. If that investigation gives results we predict, this country will also withdraw its recognition of Kosovo independence."
In the piece I wrote in this week's print edition I noted that many nations find the Non-Aligned Movement's meetings handy because they enable nations to lobby and network. However in a stinging commentary (behind a paywall,) at Balkan Discernment Milan Misic, the Washington journalist of the Serbian daily Politika, disagrees that the full shebang was mounted because Belgrade "needed something to lift its confidence". It was just a show of nostalgia for all its partakers disagrees Mr Misic and "dwelled on the past achievements of the movement. "
At the meeting the ex-Yugoslavs all sat together. They had better be careful. Folk (particularly Croatia's Nova TV) are asking questions. Why Ivo (Josipovic, the president of Croatia) was spending so much time with Boris (Tadic, the president of Serbia). Two men of the same age, same background, same roles, same Problems, what a scandal...
Meanwhile, as some Croatian journalists were obsessing about Ivo and Boris a small Croatian paper, the Makarska Kronika, appears to have a world-beating scoop, if true for course. In Feb I wrote about the close connections between the former Yugoslavia and Colonel Qaddafi. The press then wrote that his other half Safiya was initially Sofija Farkas, a Croat with Hungarian roots from Mostar in Hercegovina. According to the paper, Mrs Qaddafi has recently been trying to buy land and property in Igrane on the Croatian Adriatic coast not far away from Mostar.
Mrs Qaddafi and some of the family are now in Algeria. This summer the Balkan press has been full of stories of diverse celebrities in various stages of inebriation or disrobe, from Prince Harry to Beyonc, who've been taking a vacation in Croatia. Whether Mrs Qaddafi fits the profile the Croats desire, I am not sure, but , if she is really a Bosnian Croat she has every right to a Croatian passport and hence visa free travel through Europe.
On a sombre note, Dimitar Bechev of the Sofia office of the Western european Council on Foreign Relations writes about the "protracted death of democratic Albania." Talking about the political conflict which has paralysed Albania for the last 2 years he is saying that both Edi Rama, the leader of the opposition Socialists and Sali Berisha, the prime minister are at fault. However Mr Berisha "must take the lion's share." He's hell bent, says Mr Bechev, on gaining control over all of the Albanian establishments which still remain beyond his grip.
Why are normal Albanians willing to allow such de-democratisation? One reason might be that, unlike any other previous Red states, standard people see in the ECU nothing different from Albania. To the side, across the Mediterranean, is Italy, with its unique type of game-show politics ; to the south, over the mountain ranges, lies broke Greece. If this is what it suggests to be an EU state, many Albanian politicians can be excused for thinking they already live in one, or should qualify for membership."
Not quite as dramatic, but still, alarm bells have begun to ring in Montenegro too. Thomas Roser, of the Austrian daily Die Presse has written about the crop of attacks on cars belonging to Vijesti, one of the states main dailies. 4 have been torched in the last few months. Zeljko Ivanovic, the paper's managing editor says that the media situation in the country is appalling and so the attacks are messages from people attached to orgainised crime which in Montenengro have consistently been assumed to overlap with political interests that "they are stronger than the state" and so Vijesti's reporting about issues like this is purposeless. Who cares about the world economy when you can fret about media liberty in Montenegro. Watch this space, writes tagza.com.
Eleanor Powell - Western Rope Dance
