About the Author

Dr. Srdja Trifkovic, an expert on foreign affairs, is the author of The Sword of the Prophet and Defeating Jihad.

The E.U.’s Double Game in the Balkans

by Srdja Trifkovic

April 25th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

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In theory the European Union is horrified at the prospect of the Serbian Radical Party (Srpska radikalna stranka, SRS) becoming not only the strongest party in the country’s parliament—which it already is—but also the majority partner in a new ruling coalition after the general election on May 11. In practice, the EU officials in Brussels and in Kosovo are acting as if this is the outcome they earnestly desire.

The claim that it is possible for Serbia to continue her “process of European integrations” regardless of the status of Kosovo, or of the leading EU member-states’ position on this issue, is the pillar of the election campaign by the Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS) of President Boris Tadic and his “pro-European” coalition. They claim that it is possible for Belgrade to conduct a dual-track policy, whereby the refusal of Serbia to accept Kosovo’s independence would not influence—and therefore would not hinder—the process of getting closer to EU.

That this claim is false is evident from the fact that all key EU countries except Spain have recognized Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence. With the EU heavyweights, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, opening their embassies and trade missions in “the Republic of Kosovo,” it is unthinkable that they would accept Serbia as a fully-fledged member of the Union unless Belgrade first “normalizes relations with all its neighbors”—Eurospeak for accepting the finality of Kosovo’s independence and opening an embassy in Pristina.

More importantly in the short term, the European Union—acting under an entirely self-created mandate—is attempting to insert its own “Rule of Law mission,” EULEX, into the province, to replace the one authorized by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 in 1999. The EU mission composed of two thousand police, customs officers and judicial personnel is based on the provisions of the failed Ahtisaari Plan, which was rejected by Serbia and never formally considered, let alone authorized, by the UNSC. The situation is legally and politically unprecedented: Imagine the United States deploying peacekeepers in the West Bank and Gaza in accordance with Bill Clinton’s proposed 2000 Camp David agreement . . . after that agreement was rejected by one of the parties.

If the European Union had wanted to help its friends in Serbia, who nevertheless keep swearing by their country’s “European perspective,” it would have refrained—until May 11, at least—from doing or saying anything contrary to their wishful thinking and surreal rhetoric. This would be cynical, of course, but not unprecedented: the final decision on Eulex was initially supposed to be taken on January 28, but the EU decided to postpone it in order not to undermine Boris Tadic’s chances of re-election in the second of Serbia’s presidential election on February 3. Literally hours after the election was over, on February 4, a Council Joint Action was approved, paving the way for the deployment process.

Far from helping Tadic and his Europhile coalition in the current campaign, the Brussels machine is driving them to exasperation with statements and acts that appear almost calculated to help their rivals – those political forces that have been warning of the EU’s double game in the Balkans:

On April 7 Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith, who represents the European Union in Pristina, declared that Kosovo is “an independent, sovereign state, recognized by more than 30 of the most important democracies and economies in the world.” This was remarkable for three reasons: (1) Feith had no authority to make this statement since he represents the EU as a whole, and the Union has not adopted a formal, consensual decision to recognize Kosovo; in fact, a number of EU member-countries still refuse to do so (Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Malta). (2) Nevertheless, Feith’s statement elicited no comment from Brussels — no denial, rebuke — thus implying the Commission’s back-door approval of his position. (3) The President of Serbia and his protégé, foreign minister Jeremic, far from lodging a protest with the EU or seeking clarification, studiously avoided acknowledging Feith’s outburst in any manner.
On April 8 the EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana told the European Parliament, “We have to do everything to create the impression with the people in Serbia that we want them as close as possible to us.” [emphasis added] Sr. Solana went on to say that if the Radical Party wins the election general Mladić would not be extradited to The Hague Tribunal (ICTY), and for that reason the EU should help the pro-European forces by offering the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) for signature before May 11. The EU high representative—who is best known to the Serbs for the fact that, as Secretary-General of NATO, he formally authorized the beginning of the bombing campaign against Serbia in March 1999—went on to say that he “loved Serbia, even though it was prone to looking backwards instead of forwards.” He concluded by reiterating that EULEX will be deployed all over Kosovo, regardless of Serbian objections, and repeated the old mantra that this does not set a precedent: “The European Union has said it a thousand times that Kosovo is a unique case and that is why Kosovo will remain an exception and not a rule in international relations.”
On April 17 the EU Enlargement Commissioner Ollie Rehn declared that Serbia “faces a crucial choice in the parliamentary elections on 11 May, turning either to the European future or risking self- isolation.” Addressing a conference in Brussels on civil society in South Eastern Europe that he opened together with George Soros, Rehn went on to praise “Kosovo’s commitment to a democratic and multi-ethnic society [which] is enshrined in the recent Constitution. The EU supports Kosovo to stand on its own feet and wants to help Kosovo to help itself.”
From April 17 to 19 an EU parliamentary delegation visited Kosovo. Its leader, German Christian Democrat Doris Pack, said matter-of-factly, after meeting the Albanian leaders of Kosovo’s self-proclaimed state (president, prime minister and the speaker of the assembly), that she discussed with them “the situation after the declaration of independence.” She repeated as fact their claims that the unrest in the Serb-inhabited northern part of Mitrovica on March 17 was instigated by “outsiders,” and expressed hope that the Serbs will become reconciled to the new reality after May 11.
On April 23 the International Crisis Group—a pro-independence, quasi-independent institution partly financed by Mr. Soros and formerly headed by none other than Mr. Ahtisaari of the Kosovo Plan fame—published a briefing paper which argues that the EU should not offer a Stabilization and Association Agreement or any other similar inducement to Belgrade without Serbia’s prior full co-operation with the ICTY, because “appeasement has failed in the Balkans for over a decade and a half”.
And finally, on April 24 Ollie Rehn gave an interview to the Belgrade daily “Politika” in which he stated that “Kosovo, like the rest of the western Balkans, has an European perspective.” Asked specifically if Serbia would have to recognize Kosovo’s independence in order to join the EU, he replied: “All potential member-countries have to respect good-neighborly relations.”

All of the above indicates that Brussels is following a sustained, deliberate, and more or less open policy of actively supporting Kosovo’s independent statehood, even in the absence of any formal EU document declaring this to be the case. That is exactly what Prime Minister Kostunica and his allies have been saying for months, and this is what finally caused the collapse of the coalition government in early March.

There is still no real debate in Serbia on the EU, however; and what discussion there is remains highly ideological. No matter what Messrs Feith, Solana, Rehn and others do or say, Tadic and the DS-led bloc refuse to discuss the problem. Any attempt at critical examination of the policies pursued from Brussels elicits an instantaneous “anti-European” label from their camp, just as any attempt at critical examination of the policies pursued by the communist regime two or three decades ago invited the accusation of “anti-socialist enemy propaganda.” Ironically but not surprisingly, today’s most enthusiastic pro-EU neoliberals are often the same people as yesterday’s zealous Titoists, or else their spiritual or biological heirs.

The immediate bone of contention is whether Serbia should sign the SAA, if and when it is finally offered from Brussels. Tadic and his allies insist that Article 135 of the draft agreement, initialled last fall, guarantees Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Under that article Kosovo is excluded from the application of the SAA for as long as the UNSC Resolution 1244 remains in force.

The problem is that since the SAA was initialled five months ago, the EU has taken specific political measures which contravene the letter, and especially the spirit, of that article. The Union has done this by creating Eulex and by expecting Serbia to start treating Kosovo as an independent state. As Serbia’s Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic, a Kostunica ally, explained in an interview to the daily Politika, “it remains to be seen whether the Union will initiate the process of association and stabilization with Kosovo as an independent state. Serbia needs to know this in advance, before it signs the agreement, because such political acts would invalidate upfront th contents of Article 135.”

Prime Minister Kostunica for his part has warned that anyone signing the SAA on behalf of Serbia “would become an accomplice in realizing this document’s objective – which is dismemberment of Serbia and recognition of Kosovo’s independence.” Serbian citizens see that ”things are covered up,” he added, and that something is seriously wrong with “Solana’s agreement” which is on offer: “Statements by Olli Rehn and other EU officials show that the true goal of . . . Solana’s agreement is only one – to enable them to make the subsequent claim that Serbia has recognized the fraudulent state of Kosovo.”

Tadic responds by claiming that the EU is the only framework for all Serbs to be under a single political authority. Nevertheless, the mantra that “European integrations have no alternative” is wearing thin. It has been repeated too often, and it is beginning to irritate even many “inside-the-number-two-tramline” Belgraders – urbane and by no means nationalist Serbs who had previously supported the “European course” for the country, but who look upon Sr. Solana’s professions of affection and his thinly veiled political inducements, as insulting and shameful. Over the past few weeks the results of opinion surveys in Serbia have been fairly consistent: faced with the dilemma “the EU or Kosovo,” some 70 percent of respondents opt for their country’s territorial integrity. According to the latest opinion poll by the Belgrade-based Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, CESID, the Radicals, together with the “popular block” of Prime Minister Kostunica and his junior coalition partner, Nova Srbija, may get enough votes on May 11 for a simple combined majority in the next parliament.

On current form that is exactly what Brussels and Washington want. They hope to see their “pro-European” friends defeated and their “nationalist” opponents enthroned, in order to justify, however retroactively, their illegal and self-defeating Kosovo policies. If the Radicals enter government in Belgrade in late spring or early summer 2008, it will be the explanation for encourganing Albanians not to negotiate with Belgrade in 2007, the reason for prodding them to declare independence on February 17, 2008, and the justification for recognizing their separatist entity after that date.

The precedent exists, of course. It is the manner in which Sr. Solana’s splendid little NATO war against Serbia in ’99 came to be retroactively justified by the “humanitarian disaster” in Kosovo that started after the bombing, and was caused by the bombing.

The problem Borist Tadic and his “pro-Western” allies face today in relation to the European Union is identical to the one faced by Serbia’s tiny collaborationist movement during World War II occupation (1941-1944) vis-à-vis the “New European Order.”

In both cases Serbia was treated with vindictive disdain, as an untrustworthy, disruptive and fundamentally illegitimate entity;
In both cases, large tracts of Serbian-inhabited lands were carved up and given to their marauding neighbors, such as Albanians, who were regarded as far more reliable partners of the “European” powers-that-be.
In both cases, gross mistreatment of Serbs in those lands and their mass expulsion was tolerated by “Europe,” and some of the worst offenders (Pavelic then, Haradinaj now) were treated as allies.
In both cases the supporters of the “European” project in Serbia claimed that integration was possible, and in fact inevitable, but that the main problem was with Serbia herself.
In both cases the conditions for any such future integration were left vague by “Europe” (Berlin in 1941, Brussels today) and predicated upon the Serbs constantly proving themselves worthy of such honor.
Finally, in both cases the leaders of “Europe” did little to help their self-avowed allies in Serbia, treating them with condescension or studied contempt.

The good news is that the final outcome is no more cast in stone today than it was in 1941. Yes, the “Republic of Kosova” will linger on for a few years, as an extravagant experiment costing West European taxpayers a few billion a year. Yes, it will continue developing—not as a functional economy, of course, but as a black hole of criminality and terrorism. In the end, this experiment will prove as enduring as the earlier attempt by “Europe” to create a Greater Albania, 67 years ago.

Comments

There Are 156 Responses So Far. »

1 Comment by Boba on 25 April 2008:

I congratulate you, Dr. Trifkovic on this excellent analysis . I hope that Serbian voters will see clearly how mistreated, misused and manipulated they have been not only by the West (EU, US et al.) but also by the so called “pro-western” (yellowish !) political parties all these years and that May 11 will bring some change to Serbia.
Your comparison: Nazi-time vis-à-vis current “western democratic/ humanitarian” treatment of Serbia is absolutely appropriate! Bravo!
2 Comment by patryk on 25 April 2008:

It’s amazing how that “pro-European” nonsense the EU and her proteges are trying to feed Serbs now is similair to the “pro-European” Nazis were trying to feed Serbs almost seventy years ago. Here’s a leaflet dated just that 1941:

http://michalkiewicz.pl/grafika/jak%20bylo%20w%201941.jpg

Among others, it says:

“Serbian nation will become a member of the great European community. Serbia will never be world powers’ trump card again. The fear of new wars will disappear, and the nation will devote to aspire to prosperity with the help of united Europe.”
3 Comment by Peter RV on 25 April 2008:

Mr Trifkovic,

I am baffled by this paragraf of yours :

“On current form that is exactly what Brussels and Washington want. They hope to see their “pro-European” friends defeated and their “nationalist” opponents enthroned, in order to justify, however retroactively, their illegal and self-defeating Kosovo policies. If the Radicals enter government in Belgrade in late spring or early summer 2008, it will be the explanation for encourganing Albanians not to negotiate with Belgrade in 2007, the reason for prodding them to declare independence on February 17, 2008, and the justification for recognizing their separatist entity after that date”

Isn’t it a bit too convoluted strategy for EU and Wasington to risk loosing their hard earned stooges in Belgrade and shake the EU confidence that everybody is starved to get under their table?
And risking the consequence on Republika Srpska and the Kosovo Serbs?
Wouldn’t it be more logical to interpret these provocative outbursts of european functionaries, as a simple arrogance with which the Serbs have been treated ever since the Ramboulliet ultimatum, ( a shock treatement), having been given plenty of reasons for it ,by our spineless politicians-that they are facing an equally spineless nation?
4 Comment by Jim Fellows on 25 April 2008:

ditto: Boba’s above. I agree, as usual.

Quote: “They claim that it is possible for Belgrade to conduct a dual-track policy, whereby the refusal of Serbia to accept Kosovo’s independence would not influence—and therefore would not hinder—the process of getting closer to EU.” -Dr. T. … Even though it’s false – it’s the dream but of whom, the people or just the elite?

Quote: ” Yes, the “Republic of Kosova” will linger on for a few years, as an extravagant experiment costing West European taxpayers a few billion a year. Yes, it will continue developing—not as a functional economy, of course, but as a black hole of criminality and terrorism.” -Dr. T. … That’s what they do – drain us.

Seriously – I think I’ll become a politician. Double-speak I think is always more fun… win – win … i mean for the politician. (plus the girls [have a shorter shelf-life] they like power?) Why not? The folks believe irrevocably that ‘democratic’ process serves them. … If only autocrats had a brain this may have never happened – but probably not? Inevitable. No TIME is a factor. So accepting that, why not become a pol? See? I could never be as smart as you Dr. T. & even if trying i’d collapse of boredom. ? Thanks – I realize your Actual contribution. Regards, p.s. but oh, the girls on the yacht off the south of France… they sun naked on the deck etc. And life is brief!?! … ?
5 Comment by james on 25 April 2008:

The Serbs should raise money and take legal action against EU, US and Middle Eastern states as well as Jewish groups like The Simon Wiesenthal Centre for genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide against the Serbs.
They could charge war criminals like Blair, Clinton, Kouchner, Ashdown and Hollbrooke for crimes against humanity and sponsership of terrorism.
The evidence is overwhelming and if made public would reveal who the real criminals are. The only problem is getting someone with enougth money and courage to finance the prosecution and publicise and distribute trail transcrpts and video proceedings and international media will barely cover it and put a negative spin on it (ie return to Serb nationalism blah blah blah) BBC being one of the worst.
6 Comment by R. V. M. on 26 April 2008:

“Quote: “They claim that it is possible for Belgrade to conduct a dual-track policy, whereby the refusal of Serbia to accept Kosovo’s independence would not influence—and therefore would not hinder—the process of getting closer to EU.” – Dr. T. … Even though it’s false, it’s a dream — but of whom, the people or just the elite?”

Of the “elite” only – their idea of “better life” is to be employed by the EU and “manage” “projects” related to “European funds” , just like their idols, the EU bureaucrats in Bosnia and Kosovo, who earn thousands of Euros for doing nothing.

The Serb people, on the other side, cannot envisage the benefits coming from those “European funds”, but still remember the hell coming from the EU/NATO bombs, destroyed houses, hospitals, bridges, killed civilians, killed Serbian children.
7 Comment by Peter RV on 26 April 2008:

Right on the money R.V.M.
One should also add that our ‘European Elite’ would be running into helicopters to escape the wrath of the impovrished people and most likely protected (on the ground) by a Blackwater bodyguard unit. This is no fantasy at all, Kharzai of Afghanistan and all other American stooges are surviving just in this manner. (Meanwhile, of course, their earnings are stashed in Swiss banks)
Serbian Poet-philosopher Njegos has issued a warning to these opportunists a long time ago: “Pij serbeta iz case sveceve a sjekiru cekaj medju usi” — “Imbibe sweet nectar from the cup of the saint and expect an axe’s blade between the ears!”
8 Comment by Marco on 26 April 2008:

Mr. Trifkovic, excellent article as usual. As an Italian with a deep love for the Serbian people and with many Serb friends, I’m to say the least enraged about what’s happening. My money is sadly funding this 17-year war on the Serbs (almost 18, since it started in 1990). All my best friends are SRS supporters and at last, May 11 should be the day of victory. However, I am also hoping that as far as the economy, the Slovakia example will be followed (a flat income tax for everybody). I once told some of my friends that my biggest wish, among many, related to the Serbs are: visiting one day Kosovo and Metohija and living long enough to see at least Kosovo and Metohija (and hopefully Republika Srpska as well) free and within the real Serbia. The Velika Srbija which is, as all educated people know, simply the sum of all the historically Serb lands. Believe or not, I may be a closer to my wish number 1 as I finally contacted the woman who’s president of an Italian NGO that keeps doing a lot for Serbs in the southern province. Happy Easter to all Serbs and keep up the great work.
9 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 26 April 2008:

To Marco: You sound like an Italian friend of mine who keeps bewailing the fact that Belgrade and Rome did not agree, in Versailles in 1919, to have a common border at Benkovac, half-way between Zara and Knin.
10 Comment by Boba on 26 April 2008:

http://europenews.dk/en/node/9654
11 Comment by underinformation on 26 April 2008:

The Balkans people can solve their problems without outside intervention but the EU and USA do not leave them alone because of the Russian influence in the region that is becoming stronger at this time.
12 Comment by Peter RV on 26 April 2008:

Mr Trifkovic,
Your (?) translation of
“Pij serbeta iz case sveceve a sjekiru cekaj medju usi”
(— “Imbibe sweet nectar from the cup of the saint and expect an axe’s blade between the ears!”) sounds almost as poetic as Njegos’s original, except for one important detail.
‘the saint’ should rather be read as ‘the prophet’( Mohammad), since Njegos was refering to those who had abandoned Christ to embrace the material advantages the Turkish occupier was offering them.
13 Comment by james on 26 April 2008:

@11underinformation

Actually EU and US have been interfering in the balkans since the very beginning starting with Bush Sr presidential envoy Zimmerman siding with the Bosnians from which we got 9/11. Russia became involved later to aid its historic ally Serbia afterwards. As mentioned in a previous Srdja Trifkovic artcle in Chronicles a negotiated settlement between Serbia and Kosovo was impossible since the US promised Kosovo independence.
14 Comment by Swede on 26 April 2008:

Dr.Trifkovic. I agree with your article, but I couldn’t figure out which alternative you think would be the best outcome of the 5/11 election. I asked another influential American-Serb blogger about the election and he too disintegrated the DS + G17 bloc. But he wasn’t in favor of the SRS either. Is there any party that WOULD be good for Serbia?

Another question is that of the serbs in Kosovo. Should they be allowed to vote in the election? It seems like UNMIK says they will not be allowed, but Belgrade says they must be allowed. If (when) they vote, do you think the EU will try to invalidate the election because of the Kosovo votes?

I personally think EU will do it. Declare the elections invalid in case the “wrong” side is victorious.
15 Comment by Bojan Ratkovic on 26 April 2008:

“To Marco: You sound like an Italian friend of mine who keeps bewailing the fact that Belgrade and Rome did not agree, in Versailles in 1919, to have a common border at Benkovac, half-way between Zara and Knin.”

Oh how I bewail that fact myself!

Great article. Did anyone see Vuk Draskovic making a come-back recently? The original Quisling.
16 Comment by Markus on 26 April 2008:

The Serbs will be better off in the long run without Kosovo. Ruling over an alien group of peoples is a prescription for trouble, and often disaster. Wouldn’t it be best if North Kosovo and the Republic of Srpska became part of Serbia, and the rest of Kosovo joined Albania. Yes, I know, there are great Serbian historical markers in the other parts of Kosovo, but just like the Jewish connection to Hebron, one must learn to let go for the greater good. In this case the greater good is uniting as many of the Serbian people together under one flag as possible.
17 Comment by jack bailey on 26 April 2008:

1. Nevertheless proeuropeans will win the upcoming elections for many reasons. But If the proeuropeans do not win, then NATO will invade within a couple of years under one pretext or another. It appears that they have planned for this contingency already.
2. You can find ways to be critical of the West ad infinitem without ever understanding their real motivation. They do not want any societies within their neighborhood that are not run by their standards.
3. Serbia is as it is right now a failed society. It cannot be accepted into Europe, nor can it really govern itself. It is run by UDBA alumni and a slew of Milosevic’s tycoon monopolists. With Radicals in power the daily life can only become intolerable
4. The present government has failed in every respect. Any citizen is as at the mercy of the political caste, his private property and ability to earn income can be withdrawn at any time by them. Not much has changed since 1945.
5. Serbia is not in a position to fight anyone. One can rationalize the injustices over and over but Russia is not coming to it’s aid. Russia only wants to make money and not waste it.
18 Comment by Nicholas Klinsman on 26 April 2008:

Mr. Trifkfovic,

Although I agree with your analysis of double standards when it comes to the treatment of Serbs, in this article I think you’ve put a little too much damned if I do, damned if I don’t for my taste.

I think the main issue here is what will move the Serbian nation forward. My recent memory of Balkan history does not show me anything that makes me think it can be Kostunica or the radicals. Moreover, if a Kostunica and radical victory is truelly what the enemies of Serbia want like you suggest, why would Serbs go along with it?

Regardless of which Serbian political bloc comes into power after the elections, I don’t see either of them recognizing Kosovo, but I also do not see either bloc being able to change the current situation there. In short, both blocs cancel themselves out on the Kosovo issue. Thus, the vote needs to be more about the future of Serbs in general, and in that case I believe Tadic is the better choice.

Christ is Risen,
19 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 26 April 2008:

“Pro-Europeans” will not win, they will lose.

There will be a DSS-SRS coalition in place by the end of May (early June at the latest), with Kostunica staying on as PM. That is the best — or at any rate the least bad — outcome for the country right now.

Far from being a “failed society,” Serbia is doing very well indeed considering the forces and resources deployed against her over the past close to two decades.

There will be no NATO invasion “in a couple of years” because
(a) Russia will not allow it — not for Serbia’s sake but for her own;
(b) The U.S. will be less able to dictate Europe’s terms than today, and far less so than in 1999; and
(c) In Europe only the British would be venal enough, and stupid enough, to follow Pres. Hillary Hussein McCain’s lead on this.
20 Comment by Boba on 26 April 2008:

#14 Jack Bailey

If Serbia is (as you said) a “failed society…run by UDBA alumni “, how would you describe Squiptar’s society in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metihija run by EURO-liberal (mafia style) bureaucrats?
21 Comment by jack bailey on 26 April 2008:

Kostunica government may happen, until Radicals decide that they do not need a fig leaf. Equally, NATO invasion may not happen in 2 years and maybe not at all. However it is impossible to agree on the second point, that Serbia is not a failed society. It is a society that is unable to free itself from its post 1945 mentality. This society is torn up between either chetnik or partisan mythology or a mixture of both, even though both of them should be irrelevant. That a handful of people were allowed to keep such immense ill-gotten wealth after 2000 is unconscionable. That original pre 1941 owners (numbering up to half a million) are still unable to claim their expropritated property (and apparently never will) is unconscionable. That nothing can happen in the country without the blessing of some portion of the political elite is unconscionable. The upcoming political turmoil, regardless of who wins will produce an army of new economic refugees for sure. People will vote with their feet since the political game is rigged against them. Radicals, the worst choice of all, are nothing but a bunch ofrecycled UDBA alumni, who could care less about stuff like that. For them, when they make it, it will be 1945 all over again! In their delusions of righteousness, they will free Djindjic’s killer and proclaim him a hero, impose some form of hidden dictatorship in order to rule, but it won’t be enough to fool NATO and that is why an intervention will follow, an intervention to which there will be no resistance. Russia will do nothing, just like the last time. Furthermore, Serbia is a failed society because it cannot reform itself regardless of who is in power, democrats or radicals, because it cannot establish simple property rights or institute capitalism without it degenerating into its worst form. And on a personal level it’s the little things that happen all the time: It is a failed society because a person cannot drive on a 100 mile highway without getting stopped by the police, or if a book is sent by mail from US as a gift the recepient has to pay $20 in import duties or when your car gets confiscated on the border on some flimsy pretext or when silver chalice dissapears during a baby’s christening. Things like that.
22 Comment by jack bailey on 26 April 2008:

BOBA. What exactly is that comparison supposed to prove? That the radicals will be great when they assume power? Europeans can afford their own delusions about Kosovo as they have plenty of money. The serbs do not. However, I understand your patriotism.
23 Comment by Dragan Dimitrijevic on 27 April 2008:

I doubt there will be a ground invasion of Serbia. The US and it’s allies are in the process of losing the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And regarding the comments about “failed society”, Belgrade still is the most culturally-vibrant, multi-ethnic city of the entire region.
24 Comment by Peter RV on 27 April 2008:

Jack Baily must be a Shiftar.
He is giving us his favourite wishes for Serbia.
Nato’s attack in case Serbs dont vote the right way ( they have to learn what the democracy is all about, don’t they?)
Russia will be just watching as Nato’s bombs fall again on Serbia.
Serbia must be a ‘failed state”, besides being run by remnants of UDBA, one can’t drive on a hundred mile highway (at any speed ?)without being stopped by the police (UDBA again?). We are also hopelessly un-capitalistic,Baily rages, and would Serbs ever learn to despise their own History which makes them so unlike Shiftars and other Europeans?(Didn’t Madlaine Albright tell us ,damn it, that ‘Kosova’ would be our model for Democracy?).
God forbid, he suggests, we elect somebody not sufficiently toady to european KulturTraeggers. Could we be so out of our minds, to give the power to someone who doesn’t adore Djindjic?
Baily shivers at the thought.
Jack Baily may be halucinating and one has to shake him out of his own delusions.
It is of no importance to us what you think of us, Baily, what is important to us is what we think of us, ourselves. And get this straight for once, Serbs are not Shiftars, Croats or Slovenes, we dont take kindly to being tutored or lectured from abroad. When humiliated we easily go for broke so don’t count too much on Nato to fulfill your wishes. Austro-Hungarians and Ottomans broke their teeth on trying to do just that.
25 Comment by Peter RV on 27 April 2008:

HRISTOS VOSKRESE !

(AND SERBS WILL TOO on MAY 11th!)
26 Comment by Goran on 27 April 2008:

Jack Bailey, I have no idea where you are getting your information about Serbia, but it is false. I have not been asked for my ID in Serbia (except in the bank) for over a decade. No society is perfect, Serbia is no perfect. But, Serbia is sick and tired of Jack Baileys or Johnnie Walkers and other prophets of doom, lies, misinformation and robbery. You say that Serbia is a failed society, that it will be invaded by NATO etc. But, have you ever thought of misfortune the US have brought to Serbia, Iraq and other peoples on the globe? How many dead Iraqis and others you want in the name of your so called democracy and real capitalism? And if NATO would try to mess abour with Serbia again, it will not get the bloody nose, but a horror film its leaders have not seen in their lives. Serbia has had enough of harrassment. That is the point: you cannot go beyond the stretching break point.

And who are you to dictate for whom the Serbian people should vote? Who am I to dictate who the American people shoul vote?

Srdja is right about the EU’s devious games. Indeed, EU would like the outcome Srdja is predicting. And he is right when he says that the Radicals and Kostunica’s DSS-NS will most probably get enough votes to form a government. Serbs will vote that way because they had enough of Boris Tadic who in fact is just yet another Jack Bailey.

You can fool some people sometimes, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Christ is Risen!
27 Comment by Boba on 27 April 2008:

#18 jack bailey

If Serbia has to choose to be ruled either by Radicals or by the EU/US , I would go with the Radicals.
The EU/US have proved not only incapable to implement the rule of law and to organize a functional society, it showed to be a dangerous, corrupt and cruel occupied force with no timeline or will ever to leave the occupied territory.
Example: Bosnia, Bulgaria, Iraq, Croatia, Afghanistan, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia (Kosovo) ect.
28 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 27 April 2008:

By the same token, AMERICA IS A FAILED SOCIETY that is unable to free itself from its post 1861 mentality. This society is torn up between either propositional or exceptionalist mythology, or a mixture of both, even though both of them should be irrelevant. As for the distribution of wealth — ill-gotten or otherwise — the top 1% have more than the bottom 55%, the widest disparity since 1928. And, of course, nothing can happen in America without the blessing of some portion of the political elite.

The upcoming political turmoil, resulting from the financial meltdown, will produce an army of new economic refugees for sure. Come November tens of millions of people will not bother to vote since the political game is rigged against them. America is a failed society because it cannot reform itself regardless of who is in power, Democrats or Republicans, because it cannot re-establish constitutional government of the Old Republic. And on a personal level it’s the little things that happen all the time, from “gun control” to anti-smoking fanatics to “hate crime” legislation and political correctitude. It is a failed society because a person cannot avoid the clutches of an all-pervasive anarcho-tyranny.
29 Comment by Goran on 27 April 2008:

Nicholas Klinsman – quote:

“Moreover, if a Kostunica and radical victory is truelly what the enemies of Serbia want like you suggest, why would Serbs go along with it?”

Serbs will not go along with the EU wishes because they want to do something against themselves. They simply do not belive Tadic’s stories any more. He and his protege Jeremic are acting suspiciosly in terms of defending Serbia’s legal interests concerning Kosovo, primarily before the ICJ. Many Serbs don’t buy Tadic’s story “we’ll get into the EU in, say, 4-5 years, and we shall then defend Kosovo from within”. I am sure you see that this story is foolish and irrational. I mean, Kosovo might become a part of Albania in that time!

Serbs feel that Tadic works for their enemies and that is the main problem. They also feel that he is not legally defending Kosovo as vigourously as he should. That will be changed after 11 May.
30 Comment by Dragan on 27 April 2008:

I wish Serbia had the luxury of saying “NO” to the EU , however if the DS party loses Serbia will also lose it’s current credit rating and hence foreign funds. This will probably result in financial meltdown. Let’s be careful what we wish for.
31 Comment by Michael Averko on 27 April 2008:

An instance where the article and comments to it are great.

Whether admitted or not, Serbia is proving to be a key component against the neocon/neolib axis of evil.
32 Comment by Michael Averko on 27 April 2008:

Vis-a-vis Chronicles, meant to read as another instance….

BTW, shame on a joint East-West media event in Kazakhstan which had representatives from Kosovo Albanian separatist media and Western NGO propped Serb media outlet B92. Absent were reprersentaives from the disputed former Soviet bloc territories (Pridnestrovie, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagorno Karabakh) and a Serb media view opposite of the B92 slant.
33 Comment by M. on 27 April 2008:

Dr. Trifkovic is right: “Pro-Europeans” will not win, they will lose.
34 Comment by Vitamin on 27 April 2008:

Another great article by Srdja.

Interestingly, his valid observations about the nature of the EU should be as alarming to the citizens of the EU as to Serbs, that the process of EU policy making is a sham.

There is it seems, as Srdja has identified, an EU policy direction not ostensibly ratified by its members. So where is the supposed democracy at the heart of the EU, and who is really in charge? And with respect to ‘who’, are we even talking about nation states anymore, or have trans-national players demonstrated their presence and influence?
35 Comment by M. on 27 April 2008:

Remember Orthodox Easter – 64 years ago

http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/after-ww2/Easter-1944.html

“The American and British air force bombed Belgrade on Sunday April 16, 1944, during Christian Serb holiday of Easter. The bombing was performed in a fashion more savage than Hitler did it three years earlier on Sunday, April 6, 1941 … …”
36 Comment by Michael Averko on 27 April 2008:

Regarding some points made at this thread about the Brits and Americans, I recall what Tom Friedman said on Charlie Rose awhile back.

He compared the Brits to the Americans with how Scottie Pippen was to Michael Jordan. Perhaps one of Friedman’s more lucid points.

Fortunately, there’re reasoned folks in the UK and US (like John Laughland and many of those tending to like Chronicles and Antiwar.com), who seek a better alliance between the two countries.
37 Comment by michael warning on 28 April 2008:

how ’bout a civil war in serbia?
38 Comment by Goran on 28 April 2008:

@Michael Warning

And how ’bout you going to church and praying to God to give you a bit of common sense and positivity?
39 Comment by NGPM on 28 April 2008:

And yet here in France, even with the showdown commencing on Europe’s own soil, schoolchildren continue to be brainwashed into proclaiming through word and (off-key and poorly written) song that we can build a brighter future on the intellectually and morally bankrupt ideals of the last two centuries. Very soon the world will wake up to the painful contrary reality. One can only hope there is something wholesome left to salvage.
40 Comment by michael warning on 28 April 2008:

@ Goran:

“Serbs feel that Tadic works for their enemies and that is the main problem. They also feel that he is not legally defending Kosovo as vigourously as he should. That will be changed after 11 May.”

And if nothing changes after May 11th elections….then what? What is the option for a Pro-eastern Serb against the pro-western Serbs? What do you do….?
41 Comment by james on 28 April 2008:

I think my idea is the best where Serbs sue the NWO for genocide and terrorism in a highly publicized, televised international court then the Serbs will have public opinion on there side as the truth about the Balkans wars in the 90’s will be presented without media bias this is there only defence and real solution. Serbia is land locked without any neighbouring allies so armed resistance would be foolish and lead to a lot of dead Serbs.
42 Comment by robert m. peters on 28 April 2008:

Vitamin @ 34

Many of my German friends, particularly those of Bavaria and Franconia, are are anti-EU as their ancestors were the Bismark-imposed “unification” in 1871. They do not see the EU as “democratic,” and certainly do not feel that they have a voice. They view the political parties, particularly the CDU/CSU and the SPD, as mere opposite sides of the same coin and without objective correlative to the people whom they allegedly represent. Ironically, some of the most outspoken of these friends are rank-and-file SPD members.
43 Comment by Eagle on 28 April 2008:

Dr. Trifkovic,

It seems that the DSS is the best of the parties in Serbia in its patriotism balanced with its European perspectives and Russian-friendliness. Why is it that they only receive 10-15% of the vote? Do they not field parliamentary candidates across the country?

And, while I agree with your analysis 100%, I would add, as I have in past posts, that it is important, particulary for Americans, to understand that additional explanation behind the EU’s drive to alienate Serbia. Yes, the marxist bureakooks (embodied in the repulsive lizard called “Solana”) will use retroactive explanations vis-a-vis Kosovo when more patriots come to political power in Serbia. But I also continue to sense the hand of Washington “guiding” its power partners there (Britain, of course, but also France and Germany). And the US rationale for destroying Serbia is predominantly driven by its desire to provoke Russia to some “extreme” action and that would thereby “discredit” her in the eyes of America’s power partners that are increasingly disillusioned by worldwide American meddling (again, France and Germany). The game is to ‘woo’ those intermediate powers who could “tip the scales” or bring a different power balance to the world.

It would appear that a threatened or wholly mobilized invasion of Serbia by NATO may be the game of “chicken” we are heading towards, regardless of the rationale…though certainly it seems putting so-called “nationalists” into power is a step in that direction. Most Serbs will hope that Dr. Trifkovic is correct in that Russia would, at that point, be forced to act in preventing such an invasion. Though, it should be added that such counter-action on Russia’s part would likely lead to a European conflict very much like the one that began nearly a century ago, in terms of scale and scope. That is neither good nor desirable for Serbia nor Europe at large.

As always, we should pray for a more sensible and humble American foreign policy to prevail. This does not appear to be on the horizon.
44 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 28 April 2008:

It is ridiculous to assume — wishful thinking of Messrs Burns, Fried & Co. notwithstanding — that ANY Serb would fight another Serb in a “civil war” on behalf of Messrs Javier Solana, Boris Tadic, Olli Rehn, Ceda Jovanovic, Pieter Feith et al. A civil war cannot happen unless there are two sides ready to die for a meaningful, ideologically self-justifying and personally appealing vision of their country (e.g. England in the 1640s, Spain in 1936-39, but deucedly not the U.S. in 1861-1865).

The Solana-Tadic-Rehn “vision” internalized by Serbia’s “elite class” and its fellow-travellers, and instrumentalized by the leaders of some non-Serb minorities — maximum one-third of the electorate — is unlikely to inspire a latter-day Gavroche to grab the Blue Banner with Yellow Stars and fall for the cause of the Lisbon Treaty and the Euro Zone.

Enjoying somewhat less stringent Schengen visa application process by 2012 (at the earliest), and striving for the elusive and ultimately self-defeating chimera of “Living-Like-All-Other-Normal-People-Live”, may motivate a few thousand degenerate Belgraders to smother their backsides with vaseline and wed their firstborn daughters to KLA pimps. . . but FIGHTING? And dying with “Viva Javier, viva Boris!” on their lips?
45 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 28 April 2008:

Eagle: You’re right re. “our” lizards’ motives, but the trouble is that their Euro-lickspitles need no prodding at all. They are merely another side of the postmodern coin, Christophobic, Slav-hating, multi-culturalist, Serbophobic, anti-American, Russophobic, and Frankfurtian cultural-Marxist to boot
46 Comment by Eagle on 28 April 2008:

Alas, that is the depressing reality that I keep desperately trying to avoid and stepping in no matter which direction I traverse.

Your example of Ms. Doris Pack was very instructive. I read the link you inserted and found that she really proved herself as stupid as I feared. You see, that 60 year old Serbian woman near Pristina, that MP Pack met, fears going to the cemetary to visit her husband’s grave because she is irrational and has not been educated by the requisite amount of NGOs “on the ground” – it has nothing to do with the, shall we say, “empirical” evidence of dead Serbs at the hands of the Albanians that has piled up around her that has influenced her in the least… It would be interesting to meet and ask MP Pack what precisely defines her as either “German”, “Christian”, or “Democrat”….or “sane”, for that matter.
47 Comment by Jim Fellows on 28 April 2008:

http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/?p=568#comments

seriously – go to the above link (to a board at this site) and read posts #75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80 … to begin to understand and appreciate how philosophy yet DICTATES how people perceive and thus what they *do – even I’m learning from this particular board in Europe… i.e. older’wiser-Europe?!? Funny.

The point being modern and especially post-modern mankind *’believes’ it’s beyond philosophy and actually “thinking” and rooted in science. Philosophy rules *more so than ever, since in our denying it – that has made our philosophy of the moment’s preeminent influence upon us – invisible, to us. So it’s ALL the more powerful an influence.

In Fact, philosophy itself historically – has not yet been completed, and so we are in its clutches prior to either its completion or perfection… In this case (in the imperfect world) at least its completion *would be its perfection… … *Post moderns on the other hand precisely because of the philosophy currently ruling their perspective and thus activity are in Fact NEITHER thinking nor rooted in science, precisely what they ‘believe’ they ARE doing.

Freaking – Hilarious.

again: http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/?p=568#comments

posts 75 thru 80 inclusive. Look at it yourselves too – l’est with eyes closed you may not know you’re still in the dark?
48 Comment by Peter RV on 28 April 2008:

Michael,
If I may answer your question for Goran :
And if nothing changes after May 11th elections….then what? What is the option for a Pro-eastern Serb against the pro-western Serbs? What do you do….?

Of course, there will be a change, only a blind cannot see it coming.
‘Pro-eastern Serbs ( the real Serbs) will take over and will issue
passports to the ‘Pro-western ones (a hodge-podge of stooges and minorities beloved by the West) so they could leave for the lands of their dreams.
And, everybody will live happily forever after.
49 Comment by Grumpy Old Man on 28 April 2008:

How much of the American stance is motivated by the construction of “Bondsteel,” the huge US base in Kosovo?

Presumably if we have a basket case of a client state they will have little choice but to go along.
50 Comment by M. on 28 April 2008:

-

From Serbian Patriarch on Easter.

” … we live in a hard and critical time of globalization, in a time of the abolishing of basic human rights: the right of man to life; the right of a baby to be born; the right of parents to raise and guide their children; the right of a mother to be a loving and caring mother of her children and a wife to her husband, the right of man to be a man!

A strange civilization of globalization is being created according to the measure of deformed moral values, that is, immorality, without the yeast which gives human life eternal meaning. Such a civilization which is in direct opposition to the Resurrected Christ and His Gospel cannot survive.

Being mindful of this, let us be wise and cautious when we approach this strange table of worldly offers and delights. Let us choose wisely only that which is worthy of Christ; let us choose that which is worthy of our calling and dignity.

Let us refuse all that is of pseudo-civilization, distorted and inhuman, just as Christ refused all the offers of the Devil: if you bow down to me all this that you see will be yours! We know the true answer: It is written: serve only God, and to Him only bow down! … ”

http://www.spc.yu/eng/serbian_orthodox_church_her_spiritual_children_pascha_2008
51 Comment by Roy Tripp on 28 April 2008:

Serbia and the Serbian People are sick! They are far from God. Most of them have abandon God. Communism has done more to destroy Serbia then 500 years of Ottoman rule. But they are not dead! This is a miracle in anyone’s eyes. This is the main difference between Serbia and other EU countries; Serbia is still putting up that last fight with its last breath. The Serbian nation while in the dark, sense that all is not right in the world. This is purely due to the goodness of God. Other EU nations are so full of the their own greatness and the pleasures of this world that they are so dead to anything eternal and especially God. While this struggle continues the Serbian people still have a chance to be a notion looking towards heaven rather then to the world.

Only through God’s mercy can the nation and its people be saved.
52 Comment by jack bailey on 28 April 2008:

I have no problem with Dr. Trifkovic in general and his analyses are often brilliant and so is this one. However, I do have a problem with the conclusion of this last article in this case and it’s a biggie. According to him and later in the blog, Mrs. Boba and other friends, since the World is so rotten to the Serbs the Serbs need to elect the Radicals into power once more. This is aburd. Serbia is in the condition that it is in because people like the Radicals have been in power almost intermittently since 1945. One could also call them the UDBA alumni. These are people that want all the power but none of the responsibility that goes with it. It is all about sinecure jobs and choice kleptocratic assignments. These are people with no productive skills or talents. Instead they could be most aptly described as a tribal mafia. They may want to use the poor Mr. Kostunica as their front man once again for him to do all the work while they party. It is equally absurd to talk about how rotten the Democrats are in comparison with the Radicals and that all the Democrats are just gonna have to be killed or exiled since they want to be a part of the European liberalism! Granted that the Democrats are also part of the privileged political caste and therefore part of problem b utthe real reason why the are so hated by the Radicals is that they want to eventually abolish the sick political tradition that exist! It is not about Europe at all! This is what the Radicals really mean when they are accusing them of selling out to the opressor Europe and of being Soros stooges. They want to keep it the way it is or rather the way it was. Dr. Trifkovic should know this. This is also why I was dissapointed to find an article of his on the site Serbian Politics, (unfortunately it is only in Serbian and I have only read it through a private translation and therefore I cannot verify it’s accuracy 100%), where he feels that the rhetoric from the 90s has to be revived in order to intimidate these pro-European Serbs. If this is true, it’s so sad. These poor people have been opressed by the Bolsheviks for all this time, now the Bolsheviks call themselves Radicals (and also now they call themselves the “real Serbs” as opposed to the phony pro-European ones), but in effect they are just Mafiosi forever and they want it some more. Why Dr. Trifkovic? It is all well and good to support Dr. Kostunica, but to rehabilitate and give credibility to a bunch of no-gooders, whose basketcase leader is in a Hague jail ostensibly so that he would stop harming everyone around himself? The Radicals and UDBA alumni are incapable of governance no matter how they perceive it. They have shown this over and over again.They should have been declared illegal and put in jail a long time ago. There is plenty of evidence against them that no prosecutor dares to touch, not the least of which is the murder of the premier. That they have not been prosecuted is just a testimony of the failed legal system and yes, a failed society.
53 Comment by JJ on 29 April 2008:

@52 jack bailey

Excellent post Mr. Bailey. As a Serb, living outside Serbia for a number of years now, I am impressed by your analysis and do agree with it.

@44 srdja trifkovic

Dr. Trifkovic, your articles are always well written and appreciated, but this:

“… may motivate a few thousand degenerate Belgraders to smother their backsides with vaseline and wed their firstborn daughters to KLA pimps. . . ”

was disappointing and perhaps indicative of your own psychological issues.
54 Comment by Daniel on 29 April 2008:

@ #30 Dragan

“if the DS party loses Serbia will also lose it’s current credit rating and hence foreign funds. This will probably result in financial meltdown. Let’s be careful what we wish for.”

The way I see it, the entire west is headed for a financial and cultural meltdown anyway, so why try jump on a giant sinking ship. I would take my chances on the tiny life raft.
55 Pingback by News | Serbian Unity Congress » Monstrous KLA and the Kangaroo Court, Byzantine Blog on 29 April 2008:

[...] The E.U.’s Double Game in the Balkans, by Srdja Trifkovic [...]
56 Comment by Goran on 29 April 2008:

@michael warning, Bailey and other Tripps:

Things will change on 11 May and they will change for the better. EU has now given Tadic a straw with the SA Agreement, and that is the clear sign that they sense the outcome of the fortcoming elections. But, signing that agreement will not help Tadic; on the contrary, most Serbs will see that he was planted a cookoo egg because most states of the EU have recognized the illegal independence of Kosovo, meaning that Tadic signed the Agreement for Serbia excluding Kosovo. His legal advisors are real bad.

And as far as Jack Bailey is concerned, I am sickened about his ‘Bolshevick stories’. Frankly, I have no idea or knowledge of a single Serb who supports Bolshevik ideas. I have already said that I have no idea where Bailey is getting his ideas from. Mr. Bailey, listen to me please: you, the West, have caused 60 billion $ damage by the bombardment of Serbia (the Economist Intelligence Unit data), now you want to steal 500-600 billion $, which is the economic value of Serbian Kosovo. Don’t you think that is a common, primitive robbery? So, will you please stop giving us the lessons of yours and understand that to rob and destroy other peoples land is THE shameful acitivity. Will you shut up about some non-existing Bolshevicks and face the reality of criminal deeds committed against Serbia by the US, UK etc. By your country, by the government you voted for! To steal for Bondstill is a simple theft! Check your own morality first!
57 Comment by Goran on 29 April 2008:

@Jack Bailey and his quotes:

Quote 1/ ‘It is equally absurd to talk about how rotten the Democrats are in comparison with the Radicals and that all the Democrats are just gonna have to be killed or exiled since they want to be a part of the European liberalism!’

Whoever said that Democrats are ‘rotten’ or that they would be ‘killed or exiled?’ What are you talking about Mr. Bailey?

Quote 2/ ‘There is plenty of evidence against them (Radicals) that no prosecutor dares to touch, not the least of which is the murder of the premier. That they have not been prosecuted is just a testimony of the failed legal system and yes, a failed society.’

I am not a member of ANY party, but have no idea where did you get this from. I am not member of any party, but want to preserve my Kosovo and see it defended legally. The DS are not doing it.

Mr. Bailey, please tell me: whoever sent Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague illegally, against the law, and in contravention of the Constitutional Court of Yugoslavia interim injunction in force forbiding it?

And, did you read the new Carla Del Ponte book? What does she say in it, who was the one who said this to her at the Amsterdam Airport: ‘Take Seselj to the Hague and don’t send him back to us (Serbia)?’

You do not know? If you do, tell us, we would like to hear it from your mouth!

Was not to send the two main political opponents to The Hague enough for the democratic forces of Serbia? Was not that enough to prove the defeat of their political opponents, meaning not just to beat them in the elections, but also to send them to jail thousands miles away from home?

And, is that not enough for you? What else do you want? Hanging live on CNN? Shot to the head live on CNN? You see, this little analysis proves that your views are not democratic, but simple Stalininist autocratic/apsolutists tyrade.
58 Comment by Goran on 29 April 2008:

And finally, Jack Bailey, I am for the EU, I want to see Serbia in the EU asap, but I want to see RESPECT for my country. What I see instead is the roberry which likes of you dress up nicely into the stinking robe of deception and then call it ‘democracy’. YOU CANNOT CALL YOURSELF A DEMOCRAT AND CALL FOR A BAN ON ANY POLITICAL PARTY UNLESS IT OPENLY CALLS FOR RACIAL, RELIGIOUS OR NATIONAL HATRED. No party in Serbia does that.

I see all the main parties in Serbia, meaning the Radicals, DS, DSS and SPS as being democratic ones. The main issue of contention between them is the difference in terms of defending Kosovo and whether one of these parties in fact do not care about it.

Look at the EU SA Agreement that Tadic signed today: it is conditional. It will not fully enter into force until Serbia extradite Ratko Mladic to The Hague. And all of those signatories, including Tadic, well know that Ratko Mladic is not in Serbia. So, it is obvious that that cookoo’s egg will not enter into force, but it was designed to deceive Serbia and help Tadic on 11 May. How selfish that of him is!

But that Agreement will not be ratified in the new Government after 11 May anyway.

The only point that you have is that the judiciary in Serbia is not functioning properly, but not for the reasons that you put forward. The present Minister of Justice is from Tadic’s DS anyway. Why does not he make the judiciary function effectively and do his utmost for those Radicals who you claim to be responsible for the assassination of the premier to be arrested and jailed? And we have seen that those ‘democrats’ are very good at that alrady.
59 Comment by Eagle on 29 April 2008:

While I follow events, I do not completely understand what is happening in Serbia. But Mr. Bailey, in order to put your very strident comments into context, please let us all know:

1. When were you last in Serbia?

2. With whom did you speak there and/or which persons did you observe in order to ascertain the knowledge put forth here?

3. Are you a fluent speaker of Serbo-Croatian?

4. What are your sources of news and current events in Serbia?

5. What is the basis of knowledge of your history of Serbia and the region (which books have you read, which lectures influenced you, etc… in order to make connections back to 1945)?

6. What is your basis of knowledge of broader European history, constitutional theory, comparative institutional analysis, history of the Church, and so forth, on which you base the claims of a “failed society”?

7. Are you a proponent of, or aware of, the methods of “critical theory”?

You may well have valid insights, but I personally would like to test the believability and validity of those claims.
60 Comment by Bojan Ratkovic on 29 April 2008:

The foreign agents in Serbia’s government have clearly been instructed to sabotage all agreements with Russia while de-facto recognizing Kosovo independence with the signing of the EU Stabilization and Association Agreement. A dark day for Serbia, Serbs, and the Christian Faith.

I wonder if execution by firing squad for the crime of high treason is in accordance with EU standards?
61 Comment by Peter RV on 29 April 2008:

@ Goran,
The people like Baily,Tripp or JJ are simply hecklers ,which means they are there to make noise, to drown the voices of reason on this thread. They have no arguments, they use fraudulent facts.
They know nothing and they feel nothing about the Serbs but a hatred which they are determined to spread by parroting it in a Goebbelsian manner. All the rubbish we have heard so many times before.
Who are they and who pays them for that (Soros?), is really irrelevant, what is important is to identify them at an early stage, then, either ignore them or tease them.
That “Serbs are sick people”or “bolshevik run “or “have to be re-educated “,”reformed” comes straight out of Soros’ arsenal of slogans to which we have become accustomed during the last two decades.
These dopes just do not understand that Serbs have toughened under the bombings and the incessant, shameless adverse propaganda from the West. They are trying to blackmail us about joining the EU at the moment when we are already sick of the West, its agents and stooges ,its degenerate culture of deceit and pornography.
May 11th might just be our new National Liberation Holiday.
62 Comment by Grumpy Old Man on 29 April 2008:

The concept of treason is incomprehensible to people who are convinced there is nothing worth fighting for.
63 Comment by Goran on 29 April 2008:

@Grumpy Old Man

If I may modestly add to your wisdom: yes, but they still do what they are doing. The mens rea is not excluded.

For people that your wisdom pertains to, cliinical psychology has established the diagnosis of moral insanity.

People in that category are always able to convince themselves that whatever they are doing is “all right”. If they have influence over massess, things get much worse. They try, and unfortunatelly often succeed, to transfer their moral insanity to them. Examples in the recent history: Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, now Boris Tadic…

Tadic has had only two weeks to wait and see what his people would say to the proposed signing… but he decided to demean them and decide that they are stupid, and that he knows better than them. I sincerely hope and believe that he will be punished for that at the forthcoming elections.

The guy who actually signed the agreement, Djelic, does not hide having 11M Euros ($17M) in asssets, claiming that that was the result of his 3-4 years’ work for the Credit Agricole Bank where he was SE Europe Director. How come you earn that sort of money as “salary” in 3-4 years?
64 Comment by Roy Tripp on 29 April 2008:

Putting your trust in any man and not God is a great mistake. The Serbs need to find their Christian roots again, they need to turn back to God only then will they find a impasse out of their current situation. Trusting politicians is a dangerous thing. But in the end we all live in the world and need to choose the lesser of the two evils. In this case I believe that we need to judge each party or politician by his or her actions. I don’t know which party is best for Serbia at the moment; there is so much disinformation that it’s hard to find the truth anywhere. But what I can say is that those politicians that have sold out the Serbian people for their own interests are everywhere. From my perspective Koštunica seems least likely to sell Serbia out to the EU and it’s dead nation states.
65 Comment by Peter RV on 29 April 2008:

Tadic ,if I recall right, got his presidency with the beneplacit of our very Vojislav Kostunica. Twice. First time with his direct endorsement ,and the second, with his sitting on the fence and playing Hamlet (”I’d like to support Tadic, but..”). He was anxious then to please the EU audience which, at that time, was still granting him a status of “moderate” nationalist (no more, he’s now “ultra”, whilst Nikolic has been moved to the “extreme”)
It is amazing that Kostunica didn’t see through the men like Tadic&Co after all their trecherous activities. That he never sensed (untill now)that he was being manipulated by the people who were , most obviously-the foreign agents. He exasperated his supporters who simply moved to the Radicals.
How disappointing a performance from a man who had everything going for him when he appeared first on the scene.
Kostunica is beggining to speak finally as a Serbian Leader instead a European caretaker of Serbia.
Better late than never.
66 Comment by M. on 29 April 2008:

Dr. Trifkovic:

Today’s news.bbc.co.uk triumphantly reports “Serbia and EU sign pact on ties”, complete with a pic of smiling Javier the Lizard, Tadic et al. What is the significance of this document? I thought that Serbian government was “on hold” until 11 May parliamentary elections, but apparently, I was mistaken… Or was I?…

Would you please comment?
67 Comment by Michael Averko on 29 April 2008:

This Tadic-EU signing seems to be much about nothing.

Both sides have loopholes as an out.

No date for EU membership is specified and there’s a subjective clause about Serbia having to comply with the anti-Serb NATO kangaroo court. Serbia’s borders are also not confirmed.

There’s nothing in the agreement that would appear to woo both anti-Tadic and politically on the fence Serbs to the DS side.
68 Comment by Michael Averko on 29 April 2008:

Number 66

Yeah I understand that to be the case. VK is on record for indicating such.
69 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 30 April 2008:

Re #66: Tadic claims that the decision to sign the SAA was made last fall by the coalition government that inlcuded Kostunica’s DSS and that no additional authorization is therefore required. VK is adamant that the EU has created an altogether new situation by establishing EULEX and acting as a de facto facilitator of Kosovo’s independence: signing the SAA without a clause recognizing Serbia’s territorial integrity is therefore tantamount to tacit recognition. The EU for its part says that the SAA will be applied only after Mladic and Karadzic are arrested — which makes the whole charade perfectly meaningless in practical terms. This is an exercise in pro-EU propaganda by Tadic and his team calculated to create the “impression” that Serbia is a step closer to membership, as per Solana’s memorable quote. It is a reckless gamble that will backfire badly on May 11. The new government will have the grounds for Tadic’s impeachment.
70 Comment by Boba on 30 April 2008:

It is also worth noticing that the EU was as eager to sign the deal with Serbia as was Tadic’s ilk! Why?
71 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 30 April 2008:

So that they can wave this piece of paper as proof positive that Serbia is coming to terms with the inevitable and that Belgrade is beginning to cave in…
72 Comment by Peter RV on 30 April 2008:

SAA loks literally like a pre-Contract between a Master and his Servant. Everything is conditioned on good behaviour of the humble employee, that is, if he is proves to be devouted enough to his ‘Massa”.
Apart from the fact that Serbia can’t join the blessed EU for another half a century, one can easily guess the mechanisms
of the disciplinary actions that would be applied to her for failing to dance to the tune.
Serbia will never be able to prove she delivered all her “war criminals” (impossible for a nation everybody knows as criminal) simply because she would be at the mercy of some of the twenty seven stooge countries.( by that time even ‘Kosova’ might be on the list)) .It is enough that Lithvania or Lichtenstein’s foreign ministers declare not satisfied with Serbia’s compliance with the Hague court( or that Serbia won’t permit them to rampage through her economy) and Serbs would be again in the european doldrums.
All this, of course , can last easily through to twenty second century.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is exactly what Tadic and his troupe of ‘hohstaplers’ are offering Serbs.

It is unacceptable that once a proud nation would permit such a suicidal degradation.
73 Comment by Boba on 30 April 2008:

KOSTUNICA IS TALKING RIGHT!

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica today rejected the claims by EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Safety Javier Solana that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU is status-neutral to Kosovo-Metohija….

“On the basis of Javier Solana’s statement, one could conclude that he is pleading for Serbia and for Kosovo to remain within Serbia and that I am against it. And Solana’s main argument is that the SAA is status-neutral to Kosovo-Metohija.
…”..If we look at it without deception, we will see that the true answer to these questions is well-known. Perhaps Solana does not know it, but every Serbian citizen knows it. Just as every Serb knows that Solana’s decision to bomb Serbia was not neutral but utterly senseless. Just as every Serb knows that the decision to set up Bondsteel base is not status-neutral, but that it meant the construction of the capital city of the first NATO state which Solana began creating by bombing Serbia. And we all know very well that Ahtisaari’s plan, implemented by the EULEX mission, is also not status-neutral but that it affirms that NATO is the supreme authority in Kosovo.

Solana should know that a number of still visible ruined facilities throughout Serbia are his doing. If not for anything else, then least of all because it is not appropriate to compare who loves Serbia more, me or him”, reads the Prime Minister’s statement.
74 Comment by Goran on 30 April 2008:

Srdja has it absolutely right @69.

I would add that a massive legal mish-mash has been created.

While Serbia has a massive international law dispute with states that regognized Kosovo, now the new dispute has been created: whether the SAA pertains to Serbia with or without Kosovo.

Solana well knows that if Tadic’s DS would win on 11 May, no legal action before the ICJ would be brought against those states which have recognized Kosovo in contravention of international law. Then he gave him to sign the SAA in the attempt to prevent any legal boat being shaken in that respect.

But then again, Solana knows that most of the EU states had recognized Kosovo and he can always claim that Tadic (Djelic)knew that when they signed. Thus, he gave the ICJ some legal arguments against Serbia. Tadic should have been aware of this.

It is interesting to note that while present at the signing, Tadic did not do it, but left it to Bozidar Djelic. Why? Why the Chief of State allows the Agreement to be signed by the Under-President of the Government? What is Tadic afraid of? Why did he not he sign it as the President of the State? That is the essence of the Srdja’s last sence in his answer @69.

It is good that Kostunica is finally barking out at Solana. That lizard has brought so much misfortune to Serbia, that he should be banned of ever coming to Belgrade again.

The SAA is yet another trap for the Serbian electorate. It will be implemented and ratified by EU states when Serbia arrests Mladic who is who knows where. I sincerely hope the Serbs will not fall into the trap on 11 May.
75 Comment by Boba on 30 April 2008:

Apparently, Tadic decided not to sign the SAA (but let Djelic sign it instead), because Radicals threatened him with immediate impeachment in Parliament if he put his signature onto this piece of paper.
76 Comment by JJ on 30 April 2008:

Recent poll

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?
yyyy=2008&mm=04&dd=30&nav_id=49871

reports that 66% of Serbian citizens support signing of SAA.

Is this something to be taken into account in our discussions here?
77 Comment by Tomislav Milosevic on 30 April 2008:

SSDD, the American term perfectly fitting this moment in History as far as Serbia is concerned. The Great Evildoer, along with complete entourage of captains and lieutenants, continues trying to define laws of anything and everything. From Justice to Physics. Those miserable excuses for “human beings” obviously hope that soon will come the time that they can throw the stone in the air and it stays there until “further notice”.

How incompetent can anyone, respect worthy, be, after two decades of open malice senza frontiere against one tiny Nation resulting in failure on every step of the way?

If GE would be capable of self examining I am sure that suicide would ensue. Just the fact that “things” depend on what happens in Belgrade on May 11. tells volumes about above mentioned “competence”.

Too bad that Serbia is in question here. I would laugh for decades.
78 Comment by Marko K. on 1 May 2008:

If I can ask Dr. Trifkovic a question, since you have spoken to PM Kostunica, and may have better sources of information then some of us who are trying to piece everything together through media reports.

Why is it that Kostunica chose to have these elections? At the moment it seems inconceivable that he could form a government with Canak-Dinkic-Draskovic-Tadic, so why didn’t he form a unity gov’t with the Radicals? Serbia is in a serious crisis and didn’t need to waste time with elections and campaigning. It is especially risky knowing that Tadic and his backers in the West control much of the media in Serbia and are capable of pulling dirty tricks like the SAA signing (which have unfortunately worked on the Serb population in past elections)?

I don’t believe any outside power (Putin and his cronies, EU, America) were or are capable of preventing this. So again, why is Kostunica going through all this when the desired result could have been secured earlier?
79 Comment by JJ on 1 May 2008:

Is it of any importance that 66% of Serbian citizens support signing of SAA with EU?

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=04&dd=30&nav_id=49871
80 Comment by Goran M on 1 May 2008:

Reply 79 JJ

B92 is not really known for its accurate reporting, but if it was true that 66% of Serbian citizens support the signing of SAA, the signing itself was an illegal & unconstitutional.

B92 also forgets to mention that the signing of the SAA, does not mean that Serbia will get any new loans or benefits, but only that the EU has shown its intent to include Serbia in its fold.

Does anyone find it a bit suspicious that this signing happened 10 days before the Serbian parlementary elections?
81 Comment by Goran on 1 May 2008:

@JJ, quote:

“Is it of any importance that 66% of Serbian citizens support signing of SAA with EU”?

JJ, that estimate is false. For instance, I have just checked the Belgrade biggest daily’s “Politika” site where there is nearly 400 readers’ comments on SAA and going up. I can tell you that my most conservative estimate is that the real state of affairs is exactly the opposite: two thirds of commentators are disgusted by the Tadic-Djelic signature, while (at most) one third are welcoming it.

The commentators are especially disgusted by the fact that immediatelly after the signing the Dutch and Belgian Foreign Ministries respecively declared that the SAA is suspended until the main condition under which it was signed is met. That condition is the full co-operation of Serbia with the Hague Tribunal. That is the same very Tribunal that recently cleared Ramush Haradinaj of all charges, although it is well known that he is a war criminal. This means that the SAA is NOT in force yet, that will enter into force some time in the future, if ever. Most Serbs immediatelly understood the this.

There is a commentator from Kosovo, obviously a Kosovo Albanian, who humorously congratulated Tadic on “Serbia becoming the 41st state recognizing the independence of Kosovo”.

Commentators also deal with the estimate that you are quoting here, calling it clearly “false” or directly – a Strategic Marketing pre-election set-up.

But, the main realization of the commentators is as follows: if the SAA will not enter into force until Serbia fully colaborates with the Hague, what would happen if Serbia does not manage to extridite Ratko Mladic in, say , 20 years? Is he in Serbia at all?Does it mean that the SAA will not enter into force for 20 years? Simply, people realized the Solana’s legal trap that Tadic and Djelic have fallen into.

Bearing in mind that many “Politika’s” commentators the signing of the SAA brand as a “treason”, that the estimate you quote is definately not correct, all likelihood is that Tadic will loose the election on 11 May. Bear in mind that Kostunica’s DSS, Radicals and SPS have severly criticized, or rather attacked, Tadic for his actions threatening with impeacment. And note that Tadic has no chance of getting 50% of the vote on 11 May.

The new government that Tadic himself cemented will obviously declare the the SAA nul and void. That must be done irrespective of party affiliation simply because the newly inserted clause providing that the SAA will enter into into force “who knows when” is not only open ended, but also legally dirty one. It basically provides the black letter basis for Serbia NOT becoming a EU member for years to come. I mean, what sort of agreement is that? What sort of agreement is signed and then immediatelly suspended indefinately?

I do not know who Tadic’s legal advisors are, but they obviously are not from this world. In any case, Tadic either have no legal advisors or he is doing this damage on purpose. May be that is the reason he did not sign the SAA personally, but left that “honour” to his “naive” colleague Djelic.

Do you now see where the deception is, why the SAA can be sold to naive people only and why 11 May will be the debacle for Tadic?
82 Comment by Goran on 1 May 2008:

@JJ

Ah, JJ. I just forgot. That estimate of yours if from Soros’ B92? Forget it!
83 Comment by M. on 1 May 2008:

Marko K. @ 78

“… why is Kostunica going through all this when the desired result could have been secured earlier?”

An excellent question.

(P.S. For those who have not been following the events since breakup of Yugoslavia: “B92″ is a well-known CIA setup, a notorious outlet financed through Soros; its “polls” (”Strategic Marketing Agency” ) are but a minor part of the ongoing psy operations.)
84 Comment by Goran on 1 May 2008:

@Marko K and M.

Kostunica answered that question several days ago: he stated that he wanted to give his mandate back to the people, that he wanted to check the will of the people, rather then creating a non-elected coallition with anyone.
85 Comment by Peter RV on 1 May 2008:

@ JJ
This was most likely the result of survey on the B92 staff, itself, which could very well,correspond to reality.
Meanwhile, keep your shirt on. On May 11th your trauma will be over.
86 Comment by Michael Averko on 1 May 2008:

Forgive me for repeating myself.

It’s really disgusting to see a recent East-West wonk gathering in Kazakhstan, which featured representatives of Kosovo Albanian separatist media and B92. Missing from that panel were representatives of mainstream Serb views and media from disputed former Soviet bloc territories (Pridnestrovie, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagorono Karabakh).

For more see:

http://www.russiablog.org/2008/04/eurasian_media_forum_2008_alma.php

Russia Today, the Russian government funded 24/7 English language TV news station seemed to have a high profile role at that event.

Russia continues to fall short in providing the best possible alternatives to the existing English language mass media biases.

This is constructive criticism of Russia. The type that many don’t seem to want to be heard.
87 Comment by JJ on 1 May 2008:

@ 80, 81, 82

The poll quoted (in #79) may not be accurate, but this can only be confirmed if compared with other, independent ones (and by this I don’t mean readers’ comments).

Has anyone got anything of such kind?

Thanks.
88 Comment by Goran on 1 May 2008:

@JJ.

Anyway JJ, you will get the score on 11 May anyway. Why talk about the polls anymore? Obviously, you do not believe to anything else anyway, even to the first hand info.

I would be happy to discuss the outcome of the election on this thread with you in 10 days time. OK? You will see that the polls you are quoting are false.
89 Comment by JJ on 1 May 2008:

@ 86 Goran

You are right – elections should provide the answers, but perhaps not conclusive in this matter, as the party votes may not directly correlate with the EU attitude. In my opinion, it would still be usefull to have a reliable poll on latter.
90 Comment by Michael Warning on 1 May 2008:

@ Goran

“Things will change on 11 May and they will change for the better.”

Of course one can only hope. But what you may consider better, Albania & Kosovo would consider Serbian folly. On May 11th the headlines will read?

1. Serbian riots erupt over election results.
2. Internal dissension causes massive upheavals among Serb population.
3. or fill in the blank…..

Either way Serbia will be too pre-occupied with internal matters after the next election to give a second look at Kosovo. Serbs brought it upon themselves.
91 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 1 May 2008:

Mike #84: What happened in Kazakhstan does not matter either way. Yes, it is indicative of the chronic inability of Kostunica’s camp in Belgrade to get its act together, and of Russia’s curious inability to stage-manage such events (especially in view of some decades of AgitProp experience). Nevertheless, it is not going to impact the course of either Western or Russian debate on Kosovo & frozen conflicts by one tenth of one percent. The”media workers” present in such meetings do not make or manage the news, they transmit and serve them as ordered.
92 Comment by M. on 1 May 2008:

Goran @83

“Kostunica answered that question several days ago: he stated that he wanted to give his mandate back to the people, that he wanted to check the will of the people, rather then creating a non-elected coalition with anyone.”

True. Except that:

1) The 11 May elections are for parliament members, and not coalitions.

2) The existing parliament is an elected one (21 January 2007), thus representing the will of the people. Therefore, Dr. Kostunica already obtained the right to form a coalition with Radicals. So, why didn’t he? No way to avoid that question.

Of course, if (when) this time SRS gets an *absolute* majority, things will be different (including for our Dr. Kostunica).
93 Comment by Tomislav Milosevic on 1 May 2008:

I cannot believe that anyone regards Mr. Kostunica as a “player” in all this. The man is “just there”. Serb Power is entirely elsewhere. As soon as this is understood, we can talk.

Read your History again.

Brits, Ammos, Frenchies. Germanos……….they all thought they KNOW.

Do they?

Did they?

Do you?
94 Comment by M. on 1 May 2008:

Tomislave (@77):

“Those miserable excuses for “human beings” obviously hope that soon will come the time that they can throw the stone in the air and it stays there until “further notice”.”

Right. “They” think everything can be bought – culture, history, nations, laws of nature, anything under the Sun…

(Digressing a bit… Reminded me of that wealthy American who came to Ireland to purchase the bones of St. Patrick for a giga-$ shrine that he was building him back in the States. Naturally, he asked the first Irishman he met on street as of the sacred bones whereabouts. “St. Patrick?” the old man replied, “why, I got him buried right here in my back yard!” Upon a mega-$ transaction took place and the wealthy American happily returned to the Sates with the bones, the old man, busy counting the greenbacks, said to his wife: “My dad’s dream finally came true, he always wanted to go to America.”)
95 Comment by Goran on 2 May 2008:

@M.

Well, you are right. But, can’t we agree that this way might be better? More fair. Let’s say that things might have changed a bit since January 2007. At the same time, the local elections were to be held on 11 May anyway.

I mean, Kostunica could have done it either way, he chose the one he did. I ma sure he thought it well over. Who knows, may be he wanted to avoid being accused of betraying his former coalition partners from DS? Or, may be he wanted to avoid accusations of being a power hungry politician? And finally, who knows, may be it is better to start afresh, to clear the air a bit.

And now with the DS SAA blunder it might be just better this way in terms of checking the will of the people? What do you think?

PS. Please note that Belgrade was overnight covered by posters with the picture of Tadic and Djelic in Brussels and the stamp over it reading: “The Enemies of the State.” The prosecutors are surching for the authors who signed themselves as “The Family of Serbian Supporters!
96 Comment by Goran on 2 May 2008:

@Michael Warning

Unfortunately, you are wrong as ever. The air will clear up after 11 May and Serbia will go into the right direction, meaning defending her legal rights firmly and properly.
97 Comment by M. on 2 May 2008:

Gorane:

“What do you think?”

You may be right. The bottom line is, as you said

“… you will get the score on 11 May anyway”,

“… Belgrade was overnight covered by posters with the picture of Tadic and Djelic in Brussels and the stamp over it reading: “The Enemies of the State.” …”

being indicative of what to expect.

(P.S. I liked the answers to Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose. Come to think, I remember that WWII GI’s were actually quite amused by those broadcasts – and quite unaffected )
98 Comment by M. on 2 May 2008:

Gorane (@#95):

“… Belgrade was overnight covered by posters with the picture of Tadic and Djelic in Brussels and the stamp over it reading: “The Enemies of the State.” The prosecutors are searching for the authors who signed themselves as “The Family of Serbian Supporters! …”

The more I read it the more I love it

BTW, at the time the elections were slated for 11 May, Nikolic made a comment, if I recall correctly, to the effect that the constitution required the results to be *certified* by 11 May, and that he was not sure of the technical feasibility fitting that tight schedule. Is that indeed so?
99 Comment by Peter RV on 3 May 2008:

I have to tell everybody a short story of a very recent posting of mine on the B92 . It says a lot about the joint.
There was the message of this bloke who was so indignant about the Serbs as a nation ,for voting so massively for the SRS, the party unrepented towards serbian atrocities towards Bosniaks, Croats etc
Since this was an obvious case of a closed mind , it called for a proper treatment in his own terms.
Well, I answered, the Serbs are perhaps watching Americans and Brits kill well over one million Iraquies (so far), and the Jews murdering, only God knows how many Palestinians (so far)- all this going on without batting an eyelash of regret or sorrowful repentence. Perhaps, the nasty Serbs concluded ,watching all this spectacle, this must be a manifestation of the “European and American Values” in action. And, we all want to be emancipated European and Weaterners , don’t we ?.

This, of course, was a ‘no-no’ for B92 ,so they cut my answer in half leaving only a part which ceased to have any sense.
I must have deeply offended someone comparing our un-civilized Balkan slaughters with enlightened methods of the Torchbearers of Global Democratization, Freedom,Human Rights, Prosperity,Tolerance, Justice, Free Speech, etc…etc…
Some beacon of Europeanism ,this B92.
100 Comment by Michael Warning on 3 May 2008:

@goran & others

Pro-western Serbs are now the “Enemies of the State”?

All talk? Or do youse guys pro-eastern Serbs take action?

Aristotle said that another cause of civil war is fear. Either men have committed wrong, and are afraid of punishment, or they are expecting to suffer wrong and are desirous of anticipating their enemy.

Thus at Rhodes the notables conspired against the people through fear of the suits that were brought against them.

Pro-western Serbs will most likely take the above name calling as an indication of what action is to be expected from the Pro-eastern Serbs.
101 Comment by Tomislav Milosevic on 3 May 2008:

Mr. Warning,

How about pro-Serbian Serbs and other non-Serb citizens of that land?

Do they count in present mathematics or they should continue being ignored regardless the fact that they represent overwhelming majority there?

When I earlier referred to Great Evildoer’s incompetence and real Power of Serbs I had importance of these people in mind.

As I see it, their mindset made all the difference in terms of survival of that Nation throughout History. In particular or collectively, mentality of inhabitants of those lands always was deciding factor of the outcomes of any Situation presented to them. Those Situations, as we know, they had plenty indeed. We also know that very process leading to these outcomes differed very much from from planned or predicted by any other but pro-Serbian. Locally or globally. Serbia lives by proverbs. One says: you can play whatever you want, I dance kokonjeste (a particular dance like Sitraki or so).

I have reason to believe that being a “Serb” is actually a title or rank that one can only earn/deserve/become and that genetics just help a little. Archibald Reis, Elsie Inglis, Geca Kon or Branislav Nusic/Ben Akiba are pretty good example.
102 Comment by Boba on 3 May 2008:

Re: 99 Michael Warning

It is wrong to divide Serbian people into pro-western or pro-eastern.
You would be more accurate to characterize American politicians as pro-Islamic and anti-Christian.

What we have in Serbia today is an attempt by Tadic’s ministers to completely destroy Serbia – yes, I would say they are traitors and conspirators against the Serbian people. List of their mistakes is long and painful to evoke.

Here is the latest one from today: … “ He [PM Kostunica] once again raised the issue of the identity of Tadić’s special envoy that Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen recently said told him it was Koštunica who was blocking the Hague cooperation. “I don’t know who the special representative is, that’s why I’m asking the question publicly. It’s a disgrace for a county to have the president’s special envoy appraise and inform about the prime minister to a foreign country, without any basis in fact whatsoever,” Koštunica said. “This is not about [Nenad] Čanak, this is about our common policy ceasing to exist at one point, and it was for this reason that I suggested new elections,” he said of the coalition with the DS and G17 Plus in the now caretaker government.
I would like to see Serbia vote for Kostunica’s DSS [Demokratska Stranka Srbije] on the next May 11 elections even if you’d call her pro-eastern!
103 Comment by Michael Warning on 3 May 2008:

“What we have in Serbia today is an attempt by Tadic’s ministers to completely destroy Serbia – yes, I would say they are traitors and conspirators against the Serbian people. List of their mistakes is long and painful to evoke. ”

Ok, Boba What does a nation do to traitors and conspirators? If these traitors and conspirators remain in power what happens to you and the like minded?

If these traitors and conspirators lose the election do they get a one-way ticket out of Serbia?

Look if any one is causing divison in Serbia it is the Pro-Eastern Serbs.
104 Comment by Peter RV on 3 May 2008:

I would like the SRS to win.
It is not out of any sympathy for Nikolic or Seselj but for the fact that this would represent a spit in the face to the EU and its minions. It would be an act of courage the Serbs would display towards their vicious tutors and torturers which would also be greatly appreciated by the Serbs everywhere.
Indeed, many Serbs foolishly believe they can join happily this new Austro-Hungary with dignity, without realizing there is a rigid unwritten hierarchy among its members. There are masters, there are caretakers,there are servants, there are beggars and there are -dogs.
Europe is no place for nations that appreciate dignity, it is a doghouse for the complexed midget peoples who are starved to play the role of attack dogs for their masters. Let them go to Afganistan or Iraq to torture the unfortunate populations, Serbs have no business to participate in the occupation of Muslim lands.
Besides,when we were fighting Muslims the Europe bombed us into smitherns so, this war is ,as from now on – theirs, not- ours.
Also,it is simply an intolerable thought that Holland could become a tutor of Serbia.
105 Comment by Goran on 3 May 2008:

@M.

Thanks for the Smiley.

My feeling is that the Serbs are so embittered by the Tadic-Djelic “deal” that now there is now doubt that they will fall on 11 May.

Although, at the first sight, the EU offer to Tadic to sign the SAA should have undermined the main postulates of Srdja’s article that we are commenting on, now, once the dust has settled a bit, Srdja’s article proves to be “righter than the right”. Why? Because Solana peddled the cookoo’s egg to Tadic, knowing that the Serbs would suss it out. And they did. Indeed, Solana is pushing for Kostunica-Nikolic (and probably SPS) coalition. I mean, only an idiot would NOT see what is going on.

All indications are that Tadic will fall, the relations between him and Kostunica are non existent and when the election results come out on 11 May evening there will be a coalition between DSS-SRS and probably SPS – the much desired Solana’s outcome. But, that is the best Serbia can do. As to Solana? I don’t care.

The relations between Tadic and Kostunica are so embittered that I do not think that the new Government will take long to be created. It seems that The National Assembly will be in function in no time after the elections.

I wanted to give an answer to your question and thank you for the smiley asap. I have not read the previous MW comments as yet, but it seems that he is commenting on the posters that appeared in Belgrade. Well, the state prosecutors are already in action and looking for the perpetrators of this act. What else does MW want? Hanging live on CNN?

Whoever created that evil Serb-hating lodger of this site, not to use stronger terms!
106 Comment by Goran on 3 May 2008:

@Michael Warning

Are you getting enough of that cuddly thing?
107 Comment by Goran on 3 May 2008:

To clarify: wisdom is the cuddliest thing in the world.
108 Comment by james on 3 May 2008:

Does nobody think legal action is the best possible course as stated in my previous comments?
109 Comment by Michael Warning on 3 May 2008:

Goran “To clarify: wisdom is the cuddliest thing in the world.”

Nobody taught by Lady Wisdom refers to Lady Wisdom as cuddly.
110 Comment by Peter RV on 3 May 2008:

So, according to this Goran-Trifkovic thesis ,Solana has carefully organized the whole show just to bring his enemies to power
in Serbia:
“Indeed, Solana is pushing for Kostunica-Nikolic (and probably SPS) coalition. I mean, only an idiot would NOT see what is going on.”
Are you gentlemen suggesting that Solana is somehow in cohoots with Kostunica and Nikolic, or that these two are stupid in trying to win this election, when only Solana can proffit from it?
This, frankly boggles the mind.
I am afraid I belong to the class of Goran’s ‘idiots’.
111 Comment by Goran on 3 May 2008:

@Michael Warning

So, basically, you are taught by Lady Wisdom and you are getting nothing cuddly? Is that what you are trying to say?
112 Comment by M. on 3 May 2008:

James:

“Does nobody think legal action is the best possible course as stated in my previous comments?”

Of course, legal action should be one of the first steps of the new government.
113 Comment by Tomislav Milosevic on 3 May 2008:

the hills are alive with the sound of muzak
114 Comment by Boba on 4 May 2008:

# 103 M. Warning …”..Look if any one is causing division in Serbia it is the Pro-Eastern Serbs.”
Wrong!
If any one is causing division in Serbia it is the pro-Islamic American and EU merciless, self-styled, out-of-touch and self-adoring bureaucrats, who do not belong to any nation yet come (in great numbers) from the USA and western Europe. They are followed in Serbia by the pitiful apparatchiks such as Tadic, Jeremic, Djelic, Sutanovic et al. whose main task is to convince Serbians that bombing of Serbia by the US led NATO is OK. Solana has done it out of love for Serbs only Serbs have not realized it. The same goes for selling every available state asset and of course stealing of KOSOVO!! I see the majority ministers in Serbian government (who happened to belong to DS) as “cleaners” of the US/EU/NATO dirty and criminal exertion against Serbia’s population and land. As such they are equally guilty of despicable crimes.
Unfortunately, they’ll never face justice. Just like their masters Clintons, Bush, Albright, Sloana, W. Clark, Blair and countless more who continue polluting our everyday lives with their political present. To see them gone in disgrace from the political spectrum would be a punishment enough for me.
By the way, almost every Tadic’s minister is a citizen of some of western countries.
115 Comment by JJ on 4 May 2008:

Nations that are not able to come up with their own model of sovereignty are destined to become protectorats.

In Serbia’s case, the question seems to be: whose protectorat will it be?

The battle is between the Western and the Eastern option. Eventually, the one with the bigger brute-force threat/action will prevail.

The fact that participants in this contest are resorting to the concepts of “treason” and “firing squads” clearly illustrates the suicidal and necrophilic streak in Serbian mentality which, as history teaches us, can bring nothing good to the nation.

It is all sad, disappointing and, at least, worrying.
116 Comment by Boba on 4 May 2008:

# 115 – JJ –

Serbia bishop Petar II Petrovic Njegos has said:
“Kome zakon lezi u topuzu tragovi mu smrde necovjestvom!!”
117 Comment by M. on 4 May 2008:

#110, Peter RV:

“… or that these two are stupid in trying to win this election, when only Solana can profit from it?
This, frankly, boggles the mind …”

It certainly does.

“Retroactive justification” might even be a new concept in political science, but it lies outside the realm of common sense.
118 Comment by Boba on 4 May 2008:

115 -jj

Serbia had had its model of sovereignty throughout centuries. It is defended in Kosovo and Metohija currently!

To say that sovereignty is best defended by being subjugated and democracy is best served by bombing other nations into Stone Age from 15,000 feet speaks about a barbaric and twisted set of mind incapable of grasping reality.

Two chilling examples of such behaviour in contemporary history are: Jasenovac Croatian Nazi concentration camps and the American sponsored Kosovo of today.

At least Serbs have a sane leader to vote for in the upcoming elections on May 11 – it is VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA.

Unfortunately, I cannot say that about any of the American presidential candidates.
119 Comment by Goran on 4 May 2008:

JJ, why do you pervert the words written on this thread? It is not the Serbs who organized the live hanging of Sadam. It was you in the US who obviously enjoyed the show. It is not the Serbs who deal with anybody by a firing squad beamed live. There is no Serbian leader who ever said that he hoped that Kastro would meet Karl Marx soon. It was Bush and McCain, spreading that, and all the above mentioned, newly discovered peaks of civilized and ‘cultured’ behaviour.

It is rather obvious from my posts that I am firmly against any savagery of the sort, yet you in your post are trying to pervert what had been said.

For those who believe that Tadic’s Serbia is a democracy, I will say that what in fact is at work is a dictatorship of a quasi-democrats. Once this is understood, our differences here will disappear.

Peter RV, I really don’t think that anyone in Serbia is playing a game in order to satisfy Solana. I think your posts are great, they are very much familiar to my way of thinking and I think that your post @104 is brilliant. It is only that it seems that the moves from Europe are designed to undermine Tadic and directly influence the election result. Well, if Tadic is not aware that Solana is setting him up, tough luck. But, I really do not think that Kostunica and Nikolic pay attention to Solana, that they are doing whatever they are doing in order to fall into some pre-determined Solana’ plan. They don’t give a damn about Solana. But, even Obrad Kesic recently noticed that the moves from Europe indicate that they for some reason really wish for what Srdja is contemplating in his article.

It is Solana’s games that showed to the Serbs that Tadic is simply easy pray to the sharks. Tadic is either naive or stupid. At the end of the day, the best he can do is to get 38% of the vote. Not more. But, it is absolutely unclear who would he create a coalition with in order to create a Government majority. He is lost, set up by Solana. Nobody of the majors wants to deal with him.

I wish to make it clear to you with all my sincerity that I am convinced that the Serbia will vote for Serbia not because of Solana, but because people themselves know and feel that the best for them is exactly that what is brilliantly expressed in your post@104. God Bless!
120 Comment by Peter RV on 4 May 2008:

@Goran #119
I still don’t understand your point, when you say:

“It is only that it seems that the moves from Europe are designed to undermine Tadic and directly influence the election result. Well, if Tadic is not aware that Solana is setting him up, tough luck.”

frankly ,again -you lose me completely.

To the contrary, all what I see is that Solana &Co are desperately trying to control the damage done to Tadic &Co for declaring ‘Kosova’ independent, by signing this SAA and promising Serbia a rapid way to join the EU.
In my view even Solana and the EU governments are simply stooges of the cabal which rules Washington. These are the NeoCons plus the remnants of Clinton’s mafia whose Balkan policies have been inherited and adopted- intact- by Bush.
( the hard core of these Serbophobe ideologues has continued to influence the administration despite the change in presidency , something lots of Serbs still don’t see)
Their marionette Bush has ‘decided’ that Kosovo problem had to be solved by the end of 2007. No more negotiations, he said, and lo’ and behold, Europe chimed in, against its own interest. The same way Clinton handled Europe in 1999. ( and Tadic is promising the fools that he will change the things from ‘inside’ the EU)

Solana, of course, plays the same role of poodle to these people ,as Tadic does to Solana ( so our Boris is really a poodle’s poodle) and they both have to justify their wages and hush money. And make no mistake,they are followed by some highly trained (and ugly) propagandist troops, specialized in subverting the will of a nation, backed by enormous amounts of money-all veterans of those ‘coloured revolutions’. They must not be underestimated.
Serbs will get rid of their collaborators – in spite of- and not at all -with the help of Solana.
121 Comment by james on 4 May 2008:

Does anyone know how much of the Serbian media is run by foriegn NGO’s I know that worm George Soros funded the so called alternative media during the 90’s.

I heard there going to erect a honourary statue of Bill Clinton in Pristina. Is the US trying to P**s off the Serbs as much as possible? As far as foriegn policy goes in Europe Bill Clinton was the worst after Woodrow Wilson.
122 Comment by Peter RV on 5 May 2008:

james (#121)
Can’t answer your question. but
After May 11th the Government of Serbia must introduce a law obliging all Serbian NGOs and News Media to declare their financial support from abroad. It would be ridiculous to accept the foreigners to organize our oposition
As far as Bill Clinton’s well deserved statue in Pristina, that is one more of them to be pulled down, after throwing the corpse of our “ljubicica bjela” in the Danube.
123 Comment by Goran on 5 May 2008:

@Peter RV, quote:

“To the contrary, all what I see is that Solana &Co are desperately trying to control the damage done to Tadic &Co for declaring ‘Kosova’ independent, by signing this SAA and promising Serbia a rapid way to join the EU.”

Yes, right, but people in Serbia have realized that SAA is not in force, that it has been suspended from the moment it was signed and that it will (?) enter into force only once Serbia has fully collaborated with the Hague.

It is difficult for me to imagine that Solana did not know that the Serbs would smell the rat when he set up Tadic to signi it.

@ james

I think that Soros owns something like 30-40 percent of the B92 actions. I am sure somebody else will know the precise percentage.
124 Comment by Peter RV on 5 May 2008:

Goran #123

“It is difficult for me to imagine that Solana did not know that the Serbs would smell the rat when he set up Tadic to signi it”

Not really. It was the Tadic’s work which convinced Solana &Co
they can get away with murder in Serbia. It is enough to remember that after the assasination of Djindjic they got away with the State of Exception, a totally unjustified act that permitted them to cleanse the Government apparatus of all patriotic elements. And Serbs didn’t rebel ,did they?
As I recall Collin Powell came to Belgrade precipitously after Djindjic’s demise, perhaps to give instractions how to install a Serbian Mousharaf.
Besides, can we really be sure that Solana-Tadic axis didn’t contemplate some other spectacular event to put Serbia again in a straight jacket? Political murders play an important part in the strategy of “change of the regime” in imperial plans. They serve as detonators for the upheevals. Of course, the plan “A” doesn’t always work out as expected, so there is always a plan “B”.
125 Comment by james on 5 May 2008:

@122Peter RV

I was thinking the same thing tear it down like the Saddam statue.

It would be good if Srdja Trifkovic wrote a future article detailing all the NGOs involved in the Balkans. Adbullah Bin Laden whos NGO The Benevolence Fund helped finance the accomadation of the 9/11 hijackers in the US is still running Chechen terror camps today in Bosnia today under different NGOs.

Carla Del Ponte chief Hague war crimes is alligned with NED (National Endowment for Democracy) a notorious CIA front.
126 Comment by M. on 6 May 2008:

Regarding

“Belgrade was overnight covered by posters with the picture of Tadic and Djelic in Brussels and the stamp over it reading: “The Enemies of the State.” The prosecutors are surching for the authors who signed themselves as “The Family of Serbian Supporters!”

here is a photo of that poster:

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44630000/jpg/_44630186_serbiaeuafp_226b.jpg

(”ДРЖАВНИ НЕПРИЈАТЕЉИ” is Serbian for “The Enemies of the State”)
127 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 9 May 2008:

First time ever that I witness Dr. Trifkovic doing something (slightly) underhanded. When replying to a postulate of Serbia as a “failed society”, he resorts to the examples of Civil wars (Spain, USA, England, etc.) – that is not the failure of today’s Serbia demise.

Serbia is a failed society to a far greater extent then the United States (Dr. Trifkovic’s second play on words) – yes, almost every society is failed since there is no Utopia – hence the entire world and all the societies in it, are indeed failed – BUT, Serbia’s failure is composed of a most self destructive element any society can have: Serbia has never owned up to the Communist following (particularly strong in Serbia and Montenegro) in spite of the fact that Communism’s main goal was to weaken (Serbian hegemony – a misnomer they liked to use, is spite of being Serbian themselves). We Serbians were (and remain) stupid not to see the forest from the tree. For Serbia to live – communism had to die. Serbians never owned up to their strong communist past – which I claim would have been a catharctic purgative element sufficient to start a healthy society forming. Without this purgative element, we Serbs shouold remain exactly as failed as we are today. Let’s not kid ourselves – Serbia is a very failed society – not that outter Mongolia isn’t failed, while the United States is perpetualy failed but functional beyond any economist’s/sociologist’s wildest dream. Only after we own up to our prior ills (sins) – confession, we can begin to atone (heal) and after the sincere atonment, we shall begin to grow (both spiritualy and economically). The division of the Church and state was best explained in the example of Petar Petrovic II Njegos who was a statesman and a bishop of Montenegro. As my above curative suggestion stipulates, the very cure takes a very strong Christian overtone to arrive at the point of healing and/or success as a society. Everything that I saw in Belgrade in the last 10 years (after NATO’s barbarism) suggests that Serbia is not a society on the way to recovery. A good 12 step program would be a good start – on a collective basis, as a nation. Kill communism, disown any part of it. I still hear Serbians complaining of what “society owe them” – a hill of beans at best in a healthy structure or plenty of nothing, but they wail, they strike, they blackmail their universities for higher grades, the work stopages manage to paralyze roads, public transport, city trash removal (yes much like in New York and Chicago), with a huge difference being the union’s drive towards higher wages, while in Serbia this a chaotic anti-government expression of discontent, where granting higher wages to the trash collectors will lead to intermitent electrical use in the ensuing months (frivolous example, but the one that has happened often in the past, even before the graphite bombs used by NATO on Serbian electrical substations). I know what I wanted to say, but I’m not too sure that I was clear enough – not even to me. In the end let’s agree that we were poisoned by communism and some of our children born long after the fall of communism retain some of our warped views – while the positive change will NOT ensue before we go through some form of owning up to the errors of our ways, atonement and catharsis. That should take place rather quickly – 20 to 30 years – our children’s children.
128 Comment by Peter RV on 9 May 2008:

Iliya Pavlovic (#127)is up to make the Serbs guilty of just about everything, even more than what Tadic and Solana would agree with him.

What does one make of this:

“I still hear Serbians complaining of what “society owe them” – a hill of beans at best in a healthy structure or plenty of nothing, but they wail, they strike, they blackmail their universities for higher grades, the work stopages manage to paralyze roads, public transport, city trash removal (yes much like in New York and Chicago), with a huge difference being the union’s drive towards higher wages, while in Serbia this a chaotic anti-government expression of discontent, where granting higher wages to the trash collectors will lead to intermitent electrical use in the ensuing months (frivolous example, but the one that has happened often in the past, even before the graphite bombs used by NATO on Serbian electrical substations). I know what I wanted to say, but I’m not too sure that I was clear enough – not even to me”

Niether to the rest of us Mr Pavlovic, but take a deep breath and start it all over again, if you want us to figure you out on this.

The only thing which comes through clearly is his reccuring theme that Serbs are constantly wailing.
The following paragraph of his, however, discloses something significant about him, which perhaps explains his way of thinking:

“In the end let’s agree that we were poisoned by communism and some of our children born long after the fall of communism retain some of our warped views – while the positive change will NOT ensue before we go through some form of owning up to the errors of our ways, atonement and catharsis. That should take place rather quickly – 20 to 30 years – our children’s children”

Here, we are in presence of a ‘European activist’ and/or perhaps of an ancient Serbian emigrant who has lost the touch with the fatherland. The former and the latter, both have ,or pretend to have, this obssession about the communist heretage which had , supposedly damaged the Serbian soul irreparably, or at least for a long time (20-30 years). The obvious advice for the Serbs is – repent yourselves s.o.b.s, and -on your knees.
All of this Pavlovich’s wailing over our ‘post-communist trauma’,is, of course-a complete rubbish.
The communism has completely disappeared in Serbia , practically without a trace, and whatsmore without anybody being sorry for it. (just as Milovan Djilas predicted few years back). Sure, the ex-communists exists, how couldn’t they, after half a century of their regime. Does Mr Pavlovich suggest that we execute them in order to demonstrate our catharsis to the Pures of Europe? ( In that case Tadic and Draskovic and many others would have to go -and how about the memory of our ‘democratic martyr’ Zoran Djindjic who even went abroad to study Marxism under Herbert Marcuse?)
Serbs are not poisoned by communism Mr. Pavlovic, they are being poisoned only by the propaganda that they are- it is a filthy accusation since there is no way to prove the contrary. It has also become a standing rule of intimidation of the West for promoting the grab of natural resources of any country that resists it.
I don’t know if you are conscious of it, Mr Pavlovic(h) but you are playing exactly the cards of our enemies. It is easy and lucrative business today, to blame the Serbs for everything, there is a whole international propaganda machine geared for just that.
Instead of psycho-analysing your(?) Nation, can you defend it?
129 Comment by M. on 9 May 2008:

Some good news:

“…
Tomislav Nikolic, the acting Radicals leader, told another daily newspaper he was confident his party would link up with Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS).

“The DSS and SRS will create a government very soon,” Nikolic said.

“I expect to begin negotiations with Kostunica on a new coalition as early as May 12 and to form a government in the shortest possible period.

“The most important thing for me is that the SRS and DSS form a government and put into effect a programme which has already become our joint ideology,” Nikolic said.
…”

(from http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8E176669-4024-4432-99E1-F138A24C7409.htm
)
130 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 10 May 2008:

Pardon my mistycism. “What society owes here and there” is a clumsly translation of the verbatim saying that took root during the communist years – where the well-being of an indvidual was subjected to the well-being of the country (NOT A NATION). During those times people were “owed” and given:
a) free education
b) free medical, dental, etc.
c) paid maternity leave, etc.

The above three illustrate what the society owed to the people. To my chagrin many people still believe they are “owed this or that” – which is the product of communist mind construct. No, Iliya Pavlovich does not think Serbia is guilty of ANYTHING, except the fate that has befallen it due to its own negligence. If Serbia does not own up to the HUGE, VAST, LARGE, ENORMOUS, ERRORS of allowing some Serbs (Aleksandar Rankovic – I don’t know how many of you met him personaly, but I did), who was a very bright man to peddle himself a “guardian of Serbs, while the Goli Otok was populated by 40% of people he handpicked amongst the Serbs – I had friends there too. I am not a young man but I managed to sit on both sides of the fence before the smoke cleared and before my American citizenship was approved, without ever doing anything unethical on behest of any party, organisation, goverment or any other interest. As a matter of fact 1968 and 1969 (August of both years) I was in Czechoslovakia, and witnessed the Russian “brotherly help” to the sadly mistaken Alexander Dubchek.

If we, Serbians never accept the fact that we allowed communism to prosper among us – we’ll never be rid of idiotic thinking patterns which are evident to this day. I don’t hate Serbia, but no Serbia (nor any other nation) will find it’s way out of the thorny woods (which rends with the thorns and is RENT by the thorns) – there is a consequence for all human actctions and the consequences or having accepted communism (including Slobodan Milosevic) were/ARE tragic. To be rid of it – we must accept that we tolerated it and allowed it to prosper. Before we kill off the last germ or communism we’d better own up to the errors of our ways (in the past) preciesely and only referring to being a nation inclined to believe and accept/proliferate communist propaganda. Not one Serbian source has ever accepted blame for the millions who died as a result of being anticommunist. I have members of my own family who escaped to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, UK just to avoid the infamous Goli Otok, while my own father served a short (but undeserved sentence), and my mothers family which was deeply (and for generations) recruited into priesthood. It is for the mental good of my old home that I wish Serbia to prosper once it sheds the follies of communism (you’re sadly mistaken if you fail to find traces of communism this very day).

DAMAGED IRREPARABLY? Very much so. How EVER did you guess? How many of your family was exiled or had to get smugle into Austria’s red cross through Celovec/Klagenfurt? NONE? What a shame. I lived through the terror and the post terror that lived in our children. Yes catharsis can only come after atonement – I wish I was the originator of that but Christ precedes my birth by almost 2000 years. There is no salvation but through me. There you can witness the priestly side of my mother’s family, deeply ingrained in my thoughts without ever having attended a single bible class but kissing the hand of every Orthdox priest on every ocassion – sue me but that’s how I was taught, and that’s exacly why half of my family had to flee. I was damaged irreparably by the toxins of communism as well and I want somebody to admit – WE SERBS COMMITTED A MASS SUICIDE BY FOLLOWING THE BROZ SCHEME OF COMMUNIST EQUALITY AND OTHER UTOPIAN RACQUETEERING.
131 Comment by M. on 10 May 2008:

Iliya Pavlovich @130:

Your disdain for

“…
a) free education
b) free medical, dental, etc.
c) paid maternity leave, etc.
…”

is truly beyond any comprehension. These are not “communist-owned” concepts, but basic humanitarian ones, that have matured through centuries of European enlightenment.

Indeed, your “a), b), c)” are applied throughout the countries of Western Europe today (!) and are considered to be basic rights of its citizens.

As for your personal embitterment with the Eastern European “communism”, I understand you perfectly. I too fled Tito’s “paradise”, for exactly the same reasons you did and at about the same time, 1967 to wit (I am an old-timer too). The basic problem with “communism” was its thorough nightmarish corruption (described in Milovan Djilas’ book “The New Class”, perhaps the best “insider” account on the topic ever written). Of course, this does not say that there “could” be a “communist system” (whatever the precise meaning…) that is “workable” (there has never been one), quite the contrary (cf. Djilas’ book).

However, you should not confuse this historic abomination with positive achievements of enlightenment.

As Peter RV said, “The communism has completely disappeared in Serbia, practically without a trace, and whatsmore, without anybody being sorry for it”. Let us turn our eyes towards tomorrow – literally – 11 May 2008 is the big day in our Serbia.
132 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 10 May 2008:

Are you slow? Or are you only acting slow?

The three “out of the hat samples” are only listed as a reply to the “knowledgable source” claiming there is no communism in today’s Serbia. The three chosen symptoms:

“a) free education
b) free medical, dental, etc.
c) paid maternity leave, etc.”

…are all well, nice and dandy. But their existence clarifies what somebody claimed was not understandable when I listed the prevalent attitude of the large population segments being OWED things, services. Even today’s children from my generation (including a few grandchildren) are proliferating this “communist born germ” – as an achivement, you’re just plain acting stupid. The French revolution brought a lot of positive changes but we can’t look at it so one-sidedly and forget the ensuing bloodbath, Danton, Marrat and the brutality evidenced in Reign of Terror
A ten-month period of oppression and execution from late 1793 to mid-1794, organized by Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety to suppress any potential enemies of the radical Revolution. Also known as Jacobins. Our bloodbath was a lot longer and was almost exclusively targeted against Serbians. Going back to 1918, Nikola Pasic, encouraged by Svetozar Markovic, Ante Trumbic and Frano Supilo (the last two Croatians) created the nightmare for Serbians to keep dying in. Disdain is for communism and all things it brought (including the good ones which loose all of its value when caompared to the loss of Serbian blood that communism perpetuated. In spite of all of that – no Serbian ever owned up to the foolish, ongoing and self-destructive embrace for this terrible illness.

As in all other disorders, people fight it by deployment of denial, instead of owning up to the errors, confession, atonement and finally catharsis. Please don’t put words in my mouth. If you don’t understand something (or pretend you don’t understand something) say so. I never blamed free education as the exclusive communist ill.

Has anyboedy lost the site of my key statment that Serbians should own up to their communist past and bloodbaths that ensued?

Statement that there is no trace of communism in today’s Serbia is both untrue and impossible. Read the platform of the Radical Party, listen to the Kostunica brilliance, watch Tadic talk from both sides of his mouth.
133 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 10 May 2008:

It is exactly people like “M” who are a proof positive that denial is not only a river in Egypt. Djilas, like the other communists can not be trusted – could not be trusted. The root problem of the welfare state created the mindset where the populus feels many of the “entitlements” not being delivered by the state – hence “we are owed: free health care; dental; maternity leave; education” – DOES exist in Serbia and it is nothing but a germ of communism that has now (yet again) caught root within an otherwise shaky society. The buildings on my street were last painted when “Marshall Tito” came to cut the ribbon for the 25th May Sports Center – that was over 30 years ago. Do you know the painful lack of infrastructure in Serbia? How will any government like that entertain the “you owe us…” without alienating itself and leaving a vacuum for the foreign interests to place themselves as “Serb lovers” – (the George Soros type). See how the benign
“a) free education
b) free medical, dental, etc.
c) paid maternity leave, etc.”

leads to greater and more dysfunctional society, as long as all communist born bacteria has not been pasturized, exterminated, by hook or by crook. Ray Charles would have seen these problems and witnissed their presence in today’s Serbia. There is no cure for an illness which remains undiagnosed and unrecognised, after that comes an honest deep confession, atonement (and with God’s help) recovery and healing. Gavrilo Princip may have pulled the trigger on june 28th, 1914, but the Archduke certainly must have known that he’s visiting a predominantly Serbian land on the holliest of their holidays. If Hitler had expelled all the Jews working in American institutions from 1933 to 1941 precisely on July 4th, FDR wouldn’t have waited for Pearl Harbor to enter the WW2.

It does require a fairly profound knowledge of sociology, history, collective psychology, etc. to grasp the concept of wellness when it comes to a whole nation, but above all else it requires honesty.
134 Comment by Michael Averko on 11 May 2008:

Ilya:

Among now former Yugoslavs, Serbs didn’t have a monopoly on Communists.

Keep in mind that many of them were Communists for the same reason that a good number of folks have decided to join either the Republican or Democratic parties; for reasons having to do with whichever of the two parties carry influence in the given American municipality.

I think that we can all agree that constructive self criticism of the past and present is a perfectly earnest position.

At the same time, let’s not criticize in a way that lets others off the hook.

Nazism’s successes were the result of many non-Germans. Likewise, Soviet successes involved many non-Russians.

You get my drift?
135 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 11 May 2008:

Good point Mr. Averko. Well taken. I never meant to isolate Serbs as the only culprits of communism but I retain the pesmism of post-communist undercurrents in a society “obsessed with benefits, or some illusion of a social program” in a country without much basic infrastructure. Many of us (Serbians) have been so deeply indoctrinated (directly or indirectly) into the quicksand of communism that some of our children today (I speak to my elementary school friends and their kids) often times pronound a perfect phrase from the bad old days – which makes me fear when will the true deep healing ever begin? Not before we own up to the fact that many of us were participatns (willing or unwilling) and we publically disown any thought rooted in communist (socialist was their preferred euphemism) thought. What of atonement, what of finality? What of cure?

Your above posts reminds strongly of George S. Patton Jr.’s reason for being put on ice in 1944 or 1945 during his stay in the U.K. That small part was inaccurate in the 1940s as it is inaccurate today. Communism required a good degree of sociological canibalism – unlike any other thought on Earth. Living in denial seems to be the only psychological salvation for many of the Serbs. I will openly hate and seek all traces of post communist euphemisms to “nip them in the bud”, as long as I live. Much of my own family perished or was forced into exile because of this unfathomable evil. I am not yet convinced that most Americans have the first clue how bad it was when you’re openly expected to rat on your uncle, brother, sister, best friend, etc. – that being the only way to get the highly rationed food stamps (those were called “dots” after WW2). American Civil War was a laughable compared to deeply seeded treachery within each family, each group of workers, each building’s self-managing board, etc. There is nothing around you but danger. God forbid you mention God (half of my family were all priests), in public and question any of the Politburea’s “directions”/”suggestions”. The 29th November main police station for the city of Belgrade (and the whole contry in the 1950s was only a few blocks from where I lived – there continuous nights of grown men wailing, crying, cursing, thumps, sounds like those you can imagine only in Hell – because true Hell is exactly what it was. SRS platform has a stron pro-nationalistic tendencies but in many ways it reminds me of Mein Kampf’s National Socialism. The DSS party platform promisses a communist-like utopia which can not be achived if every stone turned to gold overnight. Communism still lives there – in many different and well robed forms of different colors. As a Serb, myself I hate to see other Serbs pay the same price twice (again in Patton’s words “I don’t like to pay twice for the same real-estate”)
136 Comment by M. on 11 May 2008:

“I know what I wanted to say, but I’m not too sure that I was clear enough – not even to me” — Iliya Pavlovic

Peter RV has already responded to that, no?
137 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 11 May 2008:

No need to act stupid in additiion to having been stupid beforehand. Won’t you take out the word aliegence and put a pork loin in the US pledge of alliegence and see what outcome you get? Same as mounting wings on a pig – it probably won’t fly. There was no such quote by me and my name is always signed with an H at the end. So quit your UDBA games on me, I won’t fall for it. Perhaps Stasi, Chekka or Mossad may buy into it as a pre-requisite for 10 olds.
138 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 11 May 2008:

Do any of these Egyptians (since they live in denial) know what functions were held by Aleksandar Rankovic? Koca Popovic? Slobodan Penezic – Krcun? Were they not Serbs too? Were the not in the executive branch of the UDBA or even heading it (like Rankovic did)?
139 Comment by M. on 11 May 2008:

“I know what I wanted to say, but I’m not too sure that I was clear enough – not even to me” — Iliya Pavlovich (@127)

“There was no such quote by me” — Iliya Pavlovich (@137)

“Pork loin”, “pig … won’t fly”, “US pledge of alliegence [sic]“, “UDBA”, “Krcun”, “Stasi”… … … You are out of your marbles…
140 Comment by Peter RV on 11 May 2008:

Iliya Pavlovic,
is certainly hallucinating but he discloses quite a bit about himself in doing so.
Just consider this latest rant of his:

“If Serbia does not own up to the HUGE, VAST, LARGE, ENORMOUS, ERRORS of allowing some Serbs (Aleksandar Rankovic – I don’t know how many of you met him personaly, but I did), who was a very bright man to peddle himself a “guardian of Serbs, while the Goli Otok was populated by 40% of people he handpicked amongst the Serbs – I had friends there too. I am not a young man but I managed to sit on both sides of the fence before the smoke cleared and before my American citizenship was approved, without ever doing anything unethical on behest of any party, organisation, goverment or any other interest. As a matter of fact 1968 and 1969 (August of both years) I was in Czechoslovakia, and witnessed the Russian “brotherly help” to the sadly mistaken Alexander Dubchek.”

Iliya is claiming for himself some authority on communism by stating that he “personnally” met Aleksandar Rankovic , which is quite an achievement, considering that he presents himself as an ardent anti-communist (to those who do not know, this individual was a Tito’s secret police henchman responsible for thousands of tortured and executed for being precisely-anticommunists. It is like saying that some Jew met personally Himmler). In the very same paragraph, Iliya confirms this suspicion by bringing in his Goli Otok bit.
Well, it is a very well known fact that on this island of Adriatic, there was a macabre concentration camp (a predecessor of Guantanamo) but exclusively for the un-repented Stalinists, remnants of the Cominform partizans which Tito tried to’re-educate’. Iliya had ‘ friends’ there- but an enormous majority of the Serbs -didn’t.
Iliya also refuses to distinguish a bolshevik Soviet Union from Russia (Russian ‘brotherly help’ to the Czecs in 1968,he says) .
He seems to be proud of this ability of his, not to discern these trivialities. No wonder ‘his’ Serbs can’t be redeemed.
Once a communist for him, always a communist
(Does this idiot have any idea about the massive executions of the Serbian anti-communists just after the WWII. How does he think the communists came to power in Serbia and Montenegro if not with the Serb bloodbath? . No other ethnic group, except Russians, have suffered so much)

It is rather a typical syndrome of the ex-communists (and the ex-nazists)in seeking to prove their repentence, to attack his ex-compañeros. Like all new converts, they need to be more catholic than the Pope. It is a sort of therapy to soothe their bad consciences.
141 Comment by Goran on 12 May 2008:

Serbian elections: my prediction on this thread was that Tadic’s lot will take about 38%. That’ what happened yesterday.

The rest (SRS -DSS-SPS) can form the Government without him with 127 MPs. What will happen?
142 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 12 May 2008:

For some “Yugoslavs”/”Serbs” meeting Aleksandar Rankovic is unfathomable, but my best friends mother was a coleague of Slavka Rankovic (Aleksandar’s wife), while she was born in UB/Umka region just 20 miles west of Belgrade while his parents and my elementary school classmate’s parents shared the water source with his family – hence – A MIRACLE. Aleksandar Rankovic was (at his Dedinje vila) quite unassuming and I was a teenager who was just told that we’re going to Chika Leka and I should be on my good behavior since he too had two sons about my age, so that I would not ashame my friend his parents since “chika Leka” is a very powerful man.

If you Peter RV grew up on top the Durmitor and never had indoor plumbing I can understand how hard can it be for you to imagine why a trolley car has rails, and how airplanes made of steel can stay aloft – but that is not my problem. Rather these brief recent exchanges illustrate precisely how some Serbs are opposed to admitting their following of the Serb murderous set of mistakes which resulted in death of many other Serbs.

Goli Otok was not strictly populated by penalized Serbians, there Serbian Bosanci, Serbian Hrvati and Serbian Makedonci as well. Or anybody else that displeased some goverment appointed commitee head for the local city, borough, factory. There were many opportunities to end up on Goli Otok – I never claimed it was only used for Serb occupants. Thank you for proving me right beyond my wildest dreams, even using the UDBAstic scheme of “qouting” words I never used nor said.

As a teenager I was not such an overt anticommunist simply because I thought my family members were leaving Belgrade on their own volition, or in pursuit of work – most of us (kids in the 1950s don’t remember clearly the rationed “dots” – now did any of us at the age of 13, 14 had a well formed political opinion.

Just as it is obvious in these exchanges, my overtly hostile stand against communism and communist left-over thoughts in today’s Serbia have now been solidly confirmed by several Serbian names – exactly by using the communist farces, which were routinely used for decades while many of us were too dumb to notice (also attested by the above comments).
143 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 12 May 2008:

In spite of the many typos and many attempts to take one sentence out of context – what we all witnissed is called writing which is lucid, unconquerable, unbeatable, invulnerable, indisputable – since the point crystalized itself and prooved its own existence. Look how many “non-communists” have stood up in defending communism, while fidgeting “it’s not only Serbians” – “it’s Stalinist followers” – “before/after Guantanamo” – who cares?… etc. Those peripheral issues were not the topic it was only a testament to the ongoing extermination of Serbs (and I further claim it continues unabated).

Thanks for your help and concurring (as unwillingly or as unknowingly – as it may happened).
144 Comment by M. on 12 May 2008:

Goran (@141):

“The rest (SRS -DSS-SPS) can form the Government without him with 127 MPs. What will happen?”

I am glad you asked the question, it is on everyone’s mind. Hope Dr. Srđa Trifković will write about it here. My feeling is that the “127″ coalition agreement will come quite soon; wait & see…
145 Comment by M. on 12 May 2008:

(Excerpts from today’s DSS web site [my translation])

http://www.dss.org.yu/newsitem.php?id=6052

12 May 2008

Kostunica will not compromise on governmental politics for which his coalition stood during the campaign, and surmised that there are insurmountable political differences between DSS-NS and the coalition around DS …

=======

http://www.dss.org.yu/newsitem.php?id=6050

12 May 2008

The leader of the DSS-NS coalition Vojislav Kostunica and the deputy president of SRS Tomislav Nikolic today discussed forming the future government … DSS considers that the government “should be formed as soon as possible” … “we shall talk with SRS, SPS and the parties gathered around Sulejman Ugljanin’s Party of Democratic Action” …
146 Comment by Peter RV on 13 May 2008:

An advice to Iliya Pavlovich

1. A constant talk about yourself makes a boring conversation. We all have our personnal stories but refrain from counting them for that very reason.
2. one has to have some idea on what the subject of conversation is. You don’t seem to have any.
3. one has to be articulate to certain extent. You fall very short of that. You have an obvious difficulty to connect correctly a sentence.(you sound like a George W’s disciple)
4. Just because a discussion is incomprehensible to you, doesn’t mean that your incomcomprehensible contributions will make you
any more comprehensible in the eyes of others.
5. When you write something, read it over again before sending it, because it stays registred. It is a poor practice to deny the obvious for that makes you sound even more ridiculous.
6. If you read carefully the postings on this blog. There are some excellent contributions from which you can learn a lot.

P.S. BTW, we from Durmitor always knew that airplanes are not made of steel but of some other metal.( if you don’t appologize to the people of Durmitor I won’t tell you of which one)
147 Comment by M. on 13 May 2008:

(Headlines from today’s DSS web site http://www.dss.org.yu [my translation])

13 May 2008
DSS-NS coalition and SRS adopted today a draft agreement on the character and goals of the “new national government of Serbia”, stated today the DSS spokesman Andreja Mladenović and announced tomorrow’s meeting with the coalition gathered around SPS.

13 May 2008
The identical positions of DSS and SRS on Kosovo and Metohija problem are basis for programmatic union of the two parties and the formation of a new government, stated DSS official Slobodan Samardžić.
148 Comment by M. on 13 May 2008:

Peter RV (@146): Indeed. ;-(
149 Comment by Peter RV on 13 May 2008:

The Serbs ( the real ones, that is) have now a unique chance
to form a government which responds to the feelings of the Nation, and clean from it the foreign scum that has been infiltrating it now for a decade.
If DSS-NS,SRS and SPS miss this opportunity to re-orient our
desafortunate shipwreck, we may as well sink- to get it over with.
Our future is with Russia and not with a new edition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire aka the EU.
150 Comment by jack bailey on 14 May 2008:

Mr. Pavlovich, as you can see the children of the “New Class” are alive and well, loud as ever and determined to rule at any cost, in their new edition as “Uncompromising Serb Patriots” however they fall short because they do not fit the profile of a true patriot. Just for fun and for their education so they can start posing as such, here is the profile of a true Serb patriot (Perhaps it’s someone you know, but this is also a profile of many such men):
1. His grandfather was killed in the first world War. All his granduncles were fighting in the Balkan wars as well.
2. His father was an officer in the king’s army a declared Yugoslav.
3. During the World War II, his father was a prisoner in Germany, one of the 300.000. His uncle was a fighter with the Chetniks
4. Although many of the officers returned from the camp and joined the victorious Partisans, the principled ones did not. His father joined the exiled communities and worked on the newspaper “Our Word”. During those years, one of his best friends was murdered by UDBA in Chicago.
5. His children were persecuted in Tito’s Yugoslavia and were forced to immigrate, after spending years in jails (and being defended by such mavericks lawyers as Dusan Jovanovic and Serge Popovic, who these “new patriots” now wanna label as traitors-this is how ignorant they are!)
Now for the important part:
6. During the recent wars nobody in his now large extended family ever felt that the civil war in Yugoslavia was anything but a communist ruse.
7. His father returned to Serbia where he helped with the formation of DOS and had since died.

The “new patriots” on the other hand:
1. Have no roots pre WW2. After the war, their fathers and grandfathers have arrived from ther mountain villages into Serbia and literally threw people out of their homes and moved in and assumed power over everything
2. Some of their offspring has managed to do quite well. Like the repentant Dr. Djindjic, some were able to accept the responsibility and commited to correct the intolerable legacy of their parents brutality.
3. Others became gangsters like their parents. In the early 70s, they joined UDBA dominated enterprises like Genex. This was the beginning of the tycoons, who in the first stage (UDBA was dominated by Serb kadres) started ripping off other Yugoslav republics. ( The Agrocomerc affair for example) Tito, who was against this, but being too old and tired of killing, was unable to stop it. Naturally the UDBAs of other republics became resentful and started to fight back. The only way to fight back was with separatism and anti-serbism
4. because of this the Yugoslav idea became compromised, while UDBA did everything to stay in power regardless of cost and continued to foster the divisions. For this they created thier biggest weapon, the formidable Dr. Seselj.
5. The misuse of Serbian nationalism by these people is an incredible tragedy. And sometimes it’s the theater of absurd. For example, the Serb flag now has a crown on it, but they won’t let the king and monarchy come back, the only true indispensible and undisputable institution that has a full claim as the protector of the Serbian nation. But they will never restore the monarchy because to them only UDBA, this secret society and fraternity is forever. In their minds only UDBA is the true voice of Serbian nationalism.
6. This brings us to where we are, to this meaningless election and to the ensuing impasse as the Serb nation continues to be a failed society. Radicals-DDS have lost but DS did not win, as they were supposed to. However one can feel that UDBA has won once again as that only UDBA is forever. This failed society continues to go nowhere.
151 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 14 May 2008:

Mr. Baily, spoken like true Serbian. I concur. Much of today’s Serbia is a proof positive that the dismal downward spiral in more than just economy, politics, proliferation of NGOs with dubious goals and more dubious persons heading them. UDBA, OZNA, BIA or any other set of capital letters that is more fashionalbe today. All of it attesting that communism is not entirely disrooted from Serba. Why else would there be so many appologists for communist actions perpetrated by Serbs.

I am a Serb by birth – but most similar to most native born Americans – I have a pronounced sense for true democracy, truth, freedom, acceptance, etc. – and as a Christian man, I accept the cross that must cary for the rest of my life – even if my cross is composed of the deeds of my uncles and grandfathers – as a seed of their efforts I too bear my guilt that I first must accept, confess, atone for, and be rid of it only afterwards and in front of God Almighty – not to be judged by Pilates who are the today’s ever changing chameleons (DOS, DSS, SRS, etc.) robed in blue, yellow, red, green. Matthew 16:24 “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” – says it all for me.
152 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 14 May 2008:

Forgive me, I forgot another source from those that have a little faith in God:

“Vuk na ovcu svoje pravo ima
ka tirjanin na slaba čovjeka.
Al’ tirjanstvu stati nogom za vrat,
dovesti ga k poznaniju prava,
to je ljudska dužnost najsvetija!”

Petar II Petrovic Njegos 1913-1851

Poor translation (by me):
A wolf’s right to slaughter a sheep is understood,
just as tyrant’s right against feeble men.
But to stand on tyrant’s neck til he understand the right from wrong – is every man’s highest office.

To my Durmitor communists: Read up man, cleanse your soul, not by me, not by any man, but by your own actions. Doubters have never been in short supply. If you couldn’t be invited to the Ranovic villa does not mean that no Serb ever stepped inside. Is my writing now “a little more clear”? Get the drift? Averko and Baily cought on to it faster than the Serbs. Is it possible that it takes a non-Serb to see what Serbs decline to see and as in Roman times you (other Serbs) kill the messinger?
153 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 14 May 2008:

Sorry Durmitore, Njegos birth year 1813 – pure typo don’t shoot me (yet).
154 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 14 May 2008:

Neener, neener, neeeeeeenerrrr.

As abrasive, coarse, unclear and reptetitious as I am – I managed to disrobe a few communist sympathizers (in this blog at least). Not such chump change, considering their “pro-Serbian rhetoric. Well done, Iliya Pavlovich, who was forced into personal examples by you the “neysayers” since the properly educated communists always insisted on dialectics (and materialism), I had to produce empirical evidence. If you need times, dates, names of my dead or living uncles, fire away – I know full well how much dust there “pro-Serbian facade”.
155 Comment by M. on 14 May 2008:

Semi-officially, according to Belgrade news daily POLITIKA (http://www.politika.co.yu ) and the DSS web site:

1) The SPS-led coalition (Socialists, United Pensioners, and United Serbia) on Wednesday had very good talks with DSS and SRS (Kostunica present, Nikolic absent however).

2) The SPS coalition wanted stronger laws guaranteeing social justice.

3) The talks will continue Thursday (with Nikolic joining in).

4) The three parties, SPS, DSS and SRS, have already agreed on forming a coalition governing the capital city, Belgrade (observers consider this as a strong sign that a coalition government of Serbia is in the making).

5) The leader of United Serbia (part of the SPS-led coalition) estimates that the negotiations will be concluded “within five days”.

6) The leader of SPS strongly denied rumors that Javier the Lizard Solana had invited him for talks in order to convince him to join Tadic’s DS
156 Comment by M. on 15 May 2008:

(Headline from today’s DSS web site http://www.dss.org.yu [my translation])

15 May 2008

In today’s meeting DSS-NS, SRS and SPS-PUPS-JS finalized the agreement on principles for formation of the national Government of Serbia.

Based on this agreement further talks will continue on finalizing the coalition agreement for constituting the parliamentary majority and forming the Government of Serbia.

———–

DSS = Democratic Party of Serbia
SRS = Serbian Radical Party
NS = New Serbia
SPS = Socialist Party of Serbia
PUPS = Party of United Pensioners of Serbia
JS = United Serbia

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