Surprise! Serbs Will Not Be Serfs – OpEd
By Lawrence S. Schneiderman
In a recent opinion piece*: "Serbian Transition Worries West," by Daniel Serwer, Professor of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University. He writes:
"What Brussels and Washington need to do now is draw clear red lines that both can support wholeheartedly. Once the new parliamentary majority is formed and the government appointed, they should ask Belgrade—which will seek a date to begin negotiations for European Union membership—to end its resistance to Kosovo's independence, push the Bosnian Serbs toward full acceptance of the Sarajevo government, and begin deep reform of the security services. There is no reason to coddle Nikolic, who in the past has proven himself pragmatic when faced with clear and forceful requirements."
Professor Serwer is in guter Begleitung. During her trip to the region in August 2011,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel made it clear that if Serbia wanted to join the
EU, it must be prepared to relinquish northern Kosovo and recognize Kosovo’s
independence. That was reaffirmed when Austria’s minister for European and International
Affairs, Wolfgang Waldner, told Serbia that setting the date for talks about
Serbia’s entrance into the EU would depend largely on Belgrade sorting out
“territorial conflict with neighboring countries.”
Are they serious?
We know that Germany and Austria are historic enemies of Serbia. I suspect the Austrians have not gotten over their defeat at the hands of the Serbs in World War I. So, we can understand their animosity towards Serbia.
As for the professor, given this election and
current events in Europe, his analysis contradicts every reality. The West
should be worried, but they have no one to blame but themselves.
The Serbian people elected a new President,
Tomislav Nikolic, in a "surprise victory." Surprise to whom –
apparently to western journalists and tendentious pollsters. The Serbian people
are telling the EU imperialist technocrats that they had enough of their
baloney. Serbs will not be serfs.
Serbia has done
everything asked of them by the West. Turning over every war criminal the West
has indicted. First, former Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic, was turned
over to the International Criminal Tribal for the Former Yugoslavia (in The
Hague) on June 28, 2001, (St. Vidus Day) for trial. Then they handed over indicted
war criminal Radovan Karadzic on July 21, 2008. Finally, on May 26, 2011 the
Serbian authority arrested wanted war criminal Ratko Mladic, and have handed
him over to authorities in The Hague.
Meanwhile, Albanian war
criminals from Kosovo and Albania go free. Including, Hashim Thaçi, the Prime
Minister of Kosovo!
In a report** by Mr.
Dick Marty, of Switzerland, dated December 12, 2010, entitled, "Inhuman
treatment of people and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo," the findings confirm that
some Serbians and some Albanian Kosovars were held prisoner in secret places of
detention under KLA control in northern Albania, and were subjected to inhuman
and degrading treatment, before ultimately disappearing. This included the
inhuman harvesting of their organs for illicit transplantation.
Serbia will look eastward toward Russia, because
the West, including the US, has pushed it there. In his first foreign trip as
President, Tomislav Nikolic, on May 26, met with Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, his
Russian counterpart.
There is a larger issue here. And, it is serious. Naïve
and foolish foreign policy cost lives. People die. Don’t expect Mr. Obama to
rush into another Balkan war. Without American firepower, Serbia would be a formidable
foe to any continental military force. And, one cannot predict that Russia will
sit on the sidelines this time after their humiliation in the aftermath of the
last Kosovo War.
Kosovo independence was folly. Lady Ashton, the EU’s foreign minister, and the other EU technocrats
want a foreign policy success, and think Kosovo is the place to find it. They
better keep looking, because Kosovo is a failed state. Perhaps, the professor
should think again about those clear red
lines he so fervently proffers.
Engagement, not confrontation
should be American and European foreign policy with Serbia.
*Daniel Serwer, “Serbian
Transition Worries West,” The National Interest, 25 May 2012.
**http://www.assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2010/ajdoc462010prov.pdf
