Nullifying Kosovo's Independence May Pay Off?

Shortly after Kosovo declared independence on February 17th, Serbia's economic minister, Mladjan Dinkic, declared that the Serbian government would cease to pay Kosovo's foreign debt of over $1 billion. However, as of this morning it has come to their attention that this goes against the Serbian nullification of Kosovo's indepedence.

Despite having lost much of their control over the province in 1999, Serbia continued to pay of Kosovo's debt at a rate of $150 million each year. And if Kosovo is still part of Serbia according to the Serbian government, why stop now? This decision is also seen as a political move to maintain Serbia's claim on the breakaway region.

This report just in from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7344877

EU Withdraws from Kosovo (Weren't you people supposed to support this new nation? Oops!)

I found this article from the telegraph, posted in the middle of last night.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/24/wserbia124.xml


It's not optimistic though. The United States "backs Kosovo's independence" but with what? The United States withdrew staff from their embassy in Belgrade in fear of protest violence, followed by EU withdrawal from northern Kosovo. The EU was meant to be taking over control of stability and security in Kosovo from the United Nations, but instead they've balked at the earliest signs of violence so where does this leave Kosovo?

Ok and this time there's a picture:


U.S. and NATO forces stand guard a border checkpoint.

Migration: Serbia is Looking to Become a White Schengen Nation

The EC has stated the possibility of abolishing visas by the end of this year, and making Serbia part of the white Schengen list. Serbia has already met three of the five criteria. The two remaining are concerned with illegal immigration and matters of public order and peace. The recent violence surrounding the independence of Kosovo may prove to be a major setback. It will be interesting to see how the EU or EU member countries will treat Kosovar migrants in the future, especially if violence continues.

Here's a full article on the issue from early February. Oh yeah, and sorry there's no exciting picture for this post...I will try to have one next time!

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=02&dd=09&nav_id=47580

The First Body

As a result of the riots against Kosovo's independence, the first victim of the conflict has been claimed. An unidentified charred body was recovered from the U.S. Embassy today.

Checkpoints Ablaze in Protest

Kosovar Serbs set fire to two border checkpoints between Kosovo and Serbia, although as of yet there are no reports of injury. Will this escalate into violence?

More details:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7252874.stm

Wikipedia's "Serbia" article suspended

Editing of this article by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled until February 23, 2008 (UTC). If you cannot edit this article and you wish to make a change, you can discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or create an account.

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(February 2008) Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

This article is related to a current event: 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses. We'll see what happens when the page goes back up. Who thinks this will be all worked out by February 23rd? hmmmm

Serbia Declares Kosovo's Independence "criminal"

Kosovo Albanian leaders are charged with "organising the proclamation of a phoney state on Serbian territory". Serbian leaders say Kosovo's independence is a violation of international law, its constitution, the UN Charter and UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

"Resolution 1244, adopted at the end of the Kosovo conflict, gave the territory "substantial autonomy" under Serbian sovereignty and put in place the UN mission and NATO-led peacekeepers." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/18/2166065.htm?section=world

History in the Making

Serbia insists that Kosovo is a "false" state. Backed by Russia, Serbia condemns Kosovo's independence. Here's an article about it from just a few hours ago.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL1743063

New Links

"Useful Links" are now up and running. As noted, Wikipedia is probably more accurate for demographic information etc. than CIA World Factbook because it is updated more frequently. The ministry of defense has it's own site which is pretty neat too!

EXIT music festival (music blends with protest...very cool!)

embedding was disabled upon request? (weird.) but here's a link to this cool news report on the EXIT music festival. It looks like a great project and it actually started as protest against conflict in the former Yugoslavia, but now it's grown and taken on other issues. i also thought it was pretty interesting that it's sponsored by MTV. The EXIT festival won the UK Festival Award for best European festival in 2007.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8290202588705300622


Plans are underway for EXIT 08 and the Sex Pistols are confirmed to be perfoming on July 13th. Rock on...

Serbia's Stance on Kosovo: It's not over til it's over!

President Tadic insists Serbia will not accept Kosovo's independence, and Serbia-EU relations are strained. Russia is also in the fray having blocked a UN agreement on the independence decision.

Here's the link for more info!!

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/02/a7d12b47-f449-45b7-af32-7b1ec88d2030.html

Kosovo Moves Toward Declaring Independence

With newly elected president Boris Tadic (who won in a rather close election 50.5% to 47% for nationalist opponent Tomislav Nikolic), the EU as moved to improve relations with Serbia, and Kosovo is expected to declare independence soon. At a critical time, the election of Tadic is seen as an indication that Serbia is moving towards more democracy and closer relations with the European Union, including the possibility of future admittance into the folds of the organization. at the same time, Kosovo is about to declare it's independence, WITHIN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS. WOAH! Actually, no launch date has been decided as yet for the launch of EU police and legal officials to provide stability during the changeover but one is expected to be decided by EU foreign ministers on the 18th of February. The NATO forces currently stationed in Kosovo are also expected to remain.

History is in the works! Here's the link to an entire article about it from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7226959.stm

Some Snazzy YouTube Slideshow

woot.

On the Map!

Land-locked between several other countries, Serbia is located on the Balkan peninsula. It is at the crossroads of Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. The Danube flows through the northern part of the country and it is bordered on the east by the Carpathian Mountains.


This map provides a better view of where Serbia is situated in Europe.