Ticket to Europe

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Zdravo, dragi drugari! Hello, dear fellows. I'm sure everyone has heard about the arrest of Gen. Ratko Mladic (actually we already discussed it here, once). Similarly to Osama bin Laden, Mladic was arrested in the most obvious place where he could be hiding. It was so obvious that it's even incredible. While Terrorist #1 was hiding in a big luxurious compound in Pakistan rather than the Bora-Bora mountains, the most wanted war criminal was detained by the Serbian security services in the house of a relative of his in the village Lazarevo, in the Vojvodina autonomous district (about 80 km north of Belgrade). He had been hiding under the name Milorad Komadic. But unlike the other big war criminal Radovan Karadzic, who was barely recognizable because he was sporting a long beard and hair, Mladic hadn't disguised himself at all, and besides he was betrayed by an informant. Then a DNA analysis followed, confirming his identity.

With his arrest Serbia is closing a page in its history. The president Boris Tadic confirmed the detention of the former military leader of the Bosnian Serbs at a briefing. "The arrest has cleared our name. All war criminals should be held to justice", he said.

In the meantime, a recent research by the National committee for cooperation with the Hague tribunal has found that 78% of the Serbs wouldn't ever betray Mladic to the authorities. Many still remember how, despite all his crimes he was still free to roam in public places even in Belgrade, he was visiting posh restaurants and even attending soccer matches. At least until his protector Slobodan Milosevic was arrested. Then he was forced to disappear from public sight. Even today, a large part of the Serbs believe that he had merely defended their national interests.

But now, after capturing him Serbia has removed a major obstacle to the coveted EU membership. Handing over Mladic who was declared a fugitive by the International Tribunal on Former Yugoslavia at the UN for committing genocide during the Bosnian war (1992-95), was a key condition for accepting Serbia to the EU.

The news of his arrest was initially spread by the local media, and later confirmed by Tadic himself, who said that an extradition procedure is underway, and he'll be held accountable for his crimes at the Hague tribunal. The Hague is already preparing to welcome him.

"A very difficult period in our history is over, we have washed the stain from Serbia's face and that of the Serbian people", Tadic said. "We have shown that we want to be in Europe and we want to increase the confidence of the international community in our integrity".

So, Mladic had been hiding ever since 1995 when charges against him were pressed from a distance by The Hague. Along with the political leader of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic, he became a symbol of the Serbian campaign for ethnic cleansing of Croats and Bosniaks. He became one of the most wanted criminals in the world, a shame for Serbia and the biggest obstacle in the relations between Belgrade and the West.

The particular case on which the Hague tribunal will be charging Mladic is the genocide in Srebrenica, where almost 8,000 Muslims, men and boys, were killed and buried in mass graves in 1995, as well as for leading the operation for the siege of Sarajevo, where over 10,000 people were killed. The Srebrenica massacre is the only episode in that bloody war which has so far been unanimously qualified a genocide - by both the Hague tribunal and the supreme court of the UN.

The charge by the Tribunal adds that Mladic is a member of a criminal organization whose purpose was to forcefully eliminate all Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats and other non-Serbian citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The guy who's seen as his mentor, Radovan Karadzic was arrested in 2008, which weakened the General's position hugely.

The prosecution claims that Karadzic and Mladic had kept thousands of people in camps with horrible living conditions at the beginning of the Bosnian war. Over 1,500 people had died in those camps due to torture and sexual abuse.

Those who survived the genocide have expressed their satisfaction with his arrest. "After 16 years of waiting, we, the families of the victims, feel a great relief", Haira Cacic from the Women's Association of Srebrenica said. Out of 8,000 killed in Srebrenica, so far 6,500 have been identified through DNA testing.

There are 15 charges against Mladic in total, including ethnic persecution, murder, deportation, inhuman actions, terror over civilians, and taking hostages. The General is accused that he personally planned, caused and ordered these atrocities. He'll be held accountable for the actions of his soldiers who were under his direct command.

In 2011 Mladic went into hiding after Milosevic was deposed. It was thought that he had been hiding somewhere in Serbia, but neither the NATO forces in Bosnia nor the Serbian police were able to capture him. In April 2005 the Serbian foreign minister Vuk Draskovic said that the Serbian intelligence services knew Mladic's whereabouts but there was a lack of political will for his arrest. The intelligence headquarters then called his allegations preposterous, but public rumors indicated that they were true.

The EU has been pressing Belgrade for 15 years to find and arrest those who are responsible for the atrocities in the 90's, which is the bloodiest conflict in Europe since WW2. Despite all their efforts to convince the European community to accept Serbia, the Serbs always met with tightly locked EU gates, and the only key was clearly the arrest of Mladic and Karadzic.

When the latter was finally captured in 2008 it was considered a very positive signal, despite all the protests within Serbia. The EU instantly granted Serbia an "EU candidate" status and kept reminding that the other big trophy was still in the wild. It was the final condition which our western neighbor had to meet. So it's no surprise that Tadic now claims that all doors to EU are wide open.

Recently Serbia was harshly criticized in Brussels for not putting enough effort to find Mladic. So many observers believe that his arrest was a well calculated move, which came as a result from a political deal which was struck in a very convenient moment.

After the arrest, the security expert Zoran Dragisic told the independent B92 television, "This arrest did not surprise me at all, considering that the government is pressed against the wall. There had been pressure before, but this time it was evident that, given all the political circumstances, Mladic was a big burden for the ruling coalition. It was clear that it's 11:55 o'clock and this business had to be finished already". Similar opinions were heard earlier at the time of Karadzic's arrest, which also came in a very delicate political moment.

When asked by a BBC reporter if it was just a mere coincidence that Mladic was captured exactly at a time when the EU was reviewing Belgrade's membership bid, Tadic answered that Serbia had "never calculated anything in searching the General", and it had always been "most determined to get him".

Whether the EU will reward the relinquishing of a war criminal who's considered a national hero by his people, is still unclear. Now the ball is in Brussel's court.

And let's not forget that there are a total of 161 people accused by The Hague in crimes during the wars in Yugoslavia. There's still one important war criminal to be found and captured - Goran Hadzic. The 52 year old Hadzic is the former president of the unrecognized Republika Srpska Krajna - a territory occupying nearly 1/3 of Croatia, which was invaded by ethnic Serbs during the wars and self-proclaimed as an independent country. Hadzic mysteriously disappeared from his home in Serbia in 2004, just a month after the Tribunal issued a prosecutor's charge against him. In the document there are 14 charges for war crimes, crimes against humanity, etc. It is believed that Hadzic is directly responsible for the death of hundreds of civilian Croats in the 1991-95 wars. It's now the perfect moment for Serbia to show the guts and competely finish this shameful chapter in its history, and move on.

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

While it would be the perfect moment for Serbia *to* do this, is there a possibility it *will* do this? I mean there's a lot of German war criminals who got off scott-free, would the Serbs be any different with theirs?

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

I hope so. They should snatch the momentum and do it right this time. It's amazing how much better they've always been economically and socially compared to us, who *are* already EU members for quite some time. The only obstacles for their membership are political.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I'd hope so, too, though I try not to have too much hope. That tends to be disappointed and that makes me sad when I'm disappointed.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the international community would be as strict when it comes to handling the Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia.

http://de-construct.net/?p=4360
http://de-construct.net/?p=5064
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/04_april/09/kosovo.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Liberation_Army_(Albanians_of_Macedonia)#War_Crimes
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2001/08/10/torture-kidnappings-albanians-macedonia
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/aug/21/balkans1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1881817.stm

Oh wait, I guess they won't. Why? Because...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/DOM204A.html

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

This hasn't been the first time CIA has sided with the Mujahideen, has it? Neither is it the second (http://www.nationalismtoday.com/?p=386).

The reason (http://www.copvcia.com/free/regional/KLA1.html)? Simple (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/mar/13/balkans).

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Remember the Realpolitik doctrine - there are no permanent friendships. Just temporary interests.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

As strict as they've been with the Armenian treatment of Azerbaijan.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Yes. Any guess why that is?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The Azerbaijanis are Muslims. The Armenians are Christians. A few thousand Christians matter more than 1 million Muslims expelled from their own soil. Where here it was the reverse, the Serbians embarked on a genocidal war and lost, the Albanians won, so the winners will be punished less than the losers.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

I'd say the factors are geopolitical rather than religious. As you can see, it makes no difference if the Mujahideen were Muslim extremists as long as they fought against the Ruskies. And it doesn't matter that the Kosovars are Muslims as long as they facilitate drug and arms trade and money laundering. In both cases they're doing their part in the game, and playing their role just fine. Their religion is of secondary importance.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

No, what made no difference was that Mujies were able to fight against the Russians and win. The USA was backing Saddam against Khomeini (and also arming Khomeini) so it's not that the USA is particularly bothered by siding with bad guys. To claim that either case is typical US policy is something different, the USA to put it crudely doesn't give a shit if Muslims die in carload lots and then wonders why some Muslims are very vocally anti-American.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

So we do actually converge on the premise that religion is largely irrelevant in the world of realpolitik. Maybe it was a major factor around the turn of the 19/20th century, but now it's the 21st century. Siding with Saudi Arabia and Turkey and Iraq and the Albanians hasn't seemed to be much of a moral conundrum, after all.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

No, it's still relevant today. That's why Armenia and Russia get away with outright genocidal methods used against Muslims, though for instance Israel can get away with white phosphorous used on civilians. Religion is always a factor in geopolitics. It's never the sole determining factor as simplistic analyses make it out to be. To say it's no factor at all is also overly simplistic.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

To put things another way, if it had been Azerbaijan expelling a lot of Armenians it would have produced a massive hue and outcry and sanctions, if not outright warfare launched against them. If Muslims had been ethnically cleansing southern Russia, instead of Russians turning Grozny into 1945 Berlin, then it'd have been the same thing.

Just like how China repressing Tibetans is the epitome of PRC evil, it doing that to Uighurs is more "meh, who gives a damn". For some reason now as in the 19th Century when Balkans Muslims and Circassians were ethnically cleansed on a grand scale the Great Powers do not value Muslim lives very much.

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

It's not like the Serbs are just cold murderers who dream of genocide whenever given a chance. How many countries would not try to protect their territories and majority population from secession and social rebellion? That leads to civil war as the troops will usually attempt to defend the status quo in spite of what the UN said. I don't see the UK giving the secessionist catholics in northern ireland a free pass either. It's sad, but once NATO started intervening, the carnage ensued. That's not to say that Serbia should not be given a fair chance at EU adhesion, much more so than countries like Turkey who can always chembomb a few thousand Kurds without NATO and the EU bombing the hell out of its population.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

As I recall, the Serbs justified their genocide by pointing to the Ustase of WWII, overlooking that the Ustase had done that decades ago and that one genocide does not justify another. As far as the other goes, sure, the PKK (which I might note is not all the Kurds) does get bombed by the Kurds. Kurdistan's as likely to show up as Grossdeutschland and it's the PKK's fault for not bothering to realize it. It has as much chance to win that war as Hamas and Hezbollah do a conventional one with Israel.

And I might recall, too, that Turkey is not going to enter the EU and it's nothing to do with its treatment of the PKK but because a large Muslim country with an economy more solid than some EU members would threaten the Franco-German monopoly on control of the EU.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's how bad the logic of "but, but, they did it first!" works.

If you recall (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/211129.html),

9) Well the [insert group] did it back in [insert date or time frame from the past]! An attempt at finding an excuse for otherwise an unexcusable thing.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Nope, that's how the logic of "human rights matter so much we'll admit Romania which has worse human rights than Turkey *and* a worse economy but Turks are BAD" works.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

I still think it's how the "Excusing the inexcusable with someone else doing it first" logic works.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

It is. However when it's established fact in geopolitics, that gives it a bit more than that. I see no reason for the EU to admit the likes of Romania but not do so with Turkey. What exactly does Romania contribute that Turkey would not?

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

We have very good food and drinks but of course the EU cannot deal with anything that's not mass-produced in hyper-farms. What does any EU country provide that we couldn't live without?

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

Stop hating on Romania, we have to deal with 2 million gypsies and I don't remember any of them getting chembombed like the kurds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

The PKK can go to hell AFAIC. I doubt that Turkey's economy would provide anything new that we couldn't afford even without EU free trade.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I might note that if human rights issues were all it took to disbar people from the EU, that quite a few former Warpac nations now in the EU should not be in it. Nor should Spain, Portugal, or Greece. That's if human rights actually matter and aren't a pretext to avoid being blatantly Turkophobic.

[deborahkla.livejournal.com]

Excellent point. And I couldn't agree with you more that religion still plays a formidable role in geopolitics.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Good thing the US will never apply for EU membership. ;)

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Oh you!

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

Right, because 500 years of Ottoman occupation of central europe is not even worse than the crusades or the inquisition or whatever the southern countries are guilty of (Spanish civil war nonwithstanding). And Turkey's not even in Europe, if we don't care we might as well have Israel join the EU, their economy is probably stronger than Bulgaria's lets say.

Mexico should also become part of the US, part of it is already there in numbers and supporting the economy.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

I look forward to Serbia stepping into the 21st Century, but goose-stepping is not the way to do it.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of this...

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

"Drop us an e-mail if you get any info about these two guys, and you'll be rewarded 5 million bucks".

LOL. Almost sounds like one of those Nigerian letters. :-)

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Well, its a DSS initiative after all. Whether it has shown results is another question, but at least it demonstrates some willingness ;)

[telemann.livejournal.com]

The network news here showed video clips of Patko after he captured Srebrenica, and he was with some of the boys, tossling their hair and telling them, "Oh, don't worry, everything will be ok. We'll reunite you with your families in good time."

:-/

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Hehe, you said Patko. Curiously, this word means 'duck' in his language. And you used a duck icon. :-)

Meanwhile, Patka could also mean 'dick'. :-))

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Eeeek :P

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

What may look like a P in Cyrillic is actually R :)

[deborahkla.livejournal.com]

Absolutely right. And it would probably be pronounced "Ratkah."

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Usually in Slavonic languages everything is pronounced exactly as it is written.

R-A-T-K-O.

:-)

[deborahkla.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's the rule, but it isn't always strictly followed. :-) Спасибо/spa-SEE-bah means "thank you" in Russian, but the "O" at the end is typically pronounced "ah", as in the phonetic version I've provided. And sometimes the Russian "Г" (Geh, the equivalent of our hard "G") is pronounced like a "V" as in ничего (NYEE-cheh-vah) which means "nothing" or "not bad". Every language has its little quirks, it seems! ;-D

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

Good timing to catch the bastard, as Serbia needs a fresh EU accession path. And they deserve one, in spite of a total breakup and a lost war. The old guard has to go and be forgotten.