BELGRADE -- Vuk Drašković will travel to South Africa on Tuesday in a bid to secure that country’s support over Kosovo in the Security Council.
Source: B92, FoNet
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Other nine members include Belgium, Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, Italy, Panama, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia.
The visit comes at a time when it is insufficiently clear either how well-acquainted with Kosovo the non-permanent council members are, or how they might choose to vote should a new Kosovo resolution be put up at the UN.
The foreign ministry said in a press release Drašković will ask his hosts to reject UN special Kosovo envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s plan that would destroy Serbia’s territorial integrity.
The press release also said Drašković will emphasize the potential damage to nearly all African countries’ territorial integrity should the UN adopt a resolution in breach of its own Charter.
Indonesia, Kosovo, Ahtisaari
In a recent article published in the Balkan Insight, Tim Judah, one of the leading Balkan commentators, says that while the European and Russian diplomats “stand to learn nothing new about the province,” from the announced UN fact-finding mission to Kosovo, “that is not the case with the diplomats representing the non-permanent members of the Security Council, whose votes are needed to pass or block any resolution.”
“Indonesia is another non-permanent member of the Security Council with pronounced views about secessionists,” Judah writes.
“Its diplomats may not know much about Kosovo but they are very well acquainted with Ahtisaari. In what was widely regarded as a diplomatic triumph in 2005, the former Finnish president brokered an end to the 30-year rebellion in Indonesia’s secessionist Aceh province.”
“There, the Aceh rebels were persuaded to end their struggle for independence in exchange for broad autonomy. Indonesia, which remains wary about secessionist regions in general, is deeply skeptical about the Ahtisaari plan for Kosovo,” Judah continues.
“In an interesting twist, the Ahtisaari plan for Aceh was monitored by an EU-led body headed by the Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith. He is now tipped to lead the proposed EU-dominated International Civilian Office, ICO, which would play a major role in running any post-resolution Kosovo.”
“Clearly, Ahtisaari has a lot of explaining to do if he is to persuade countries like Indonesia and Congo to back his plan for Kosovo,” Tim Judah concludes.
Drashkoviq is wasting his time in Pretoria and I tell you WHY: Pretoria was occupying Namibia, which they use to call it South-West Afrika. It is the same for serbia, because they occupied Kosova, which they use to call it Kosovo Metohija. I am sure that you all understand the meaning of my coment.The truth and nothing but the truth.
(Ahmet Isufi, 9 April 2007 14:02)
I'm wondering what is he going to tell there, something like this: In the Balkans we had White-black people (albanians). We did not allow them to speak their language, learn in their schools, killed 12.000 of them, and now there is freedom (thanks to USA, GB, France, Germany and almost the rest of the wold excl. Russia). This thing freedom (so they call it) is not good for our white-black people (albanians), so please dear South-African friends help us, be against freedom - you should know what it is to be slaves ...
Apartheid is a good thing, there should be a diference between nations (good and bad guys, black and white, srbian and albanian).
SA knows what it means to fight for freedom, thy will allways choose albanian side.
This is just another stupid desission of the srbian government, nothing else.
(n/a, 9 April 2007 16:01)
Oh my God, how naive can the Serbian population be? Can't they tell that this is just political grandstanding on the part of Draskovic, in an attempt to make it seem like he is fighting for Kosovo? He is just doing it for his own political gain back home. Everyone knows that it only takes one phone call from President Bush, or Secretary Rice to these countries to have them vote pro-independence with no reservation. You think South Africa will risk upsetting the USA & Britain, its biggest trading partners as well as military allies and aid donors, in an effort to please a country it has absolutely no relation with called Serbia? How naive indeed.
(Sidi, 9 April 2007 16:11)
Serbia has to keep the dialogue up with this crucial countries who have values and whose rights have been violated by Ahtisaari as well. Kosovo will be channel to voice a big 'NO!' when it comes to violating peoples and states rights.
(Vojvoda, 9 April 2007 17:41)
N/A: Who is the one living in Ghettos or having bombs being thrown at them? Who cannot speak their own language without fear of being shot (such as a Bulgarian who was killed for asking "what time is it" in Serbian)
If this is your version of "freedom", then i believe the South Africans will very much so disagree with you.
Btw, Serbia is offering you the right to speak your own language, the right to have your own schools, the right to do whatever you wish, except break the law by carving out a second Albanian state on the territory of Serbia which NEVER existed before.
I hope that anyone reading your article has enough common sense to check the FACTS, and not the FALSE statements repeated here by Albanians.
How many times must we tell you that Kosovo is Serbia. Always has been, always will be.
One more thing... 12,000 dead? Where did you get that info? During the war, it was 100,000 dead, then that changed to 10,000 after the conflict. Further independent studies reduced it down to 3,000. Now we're back up to 12,000. Are you counting dead Serbs in this figure of yours? Or those Albanians which the KLA deemed "collaborators"? Combatants? Please specify where you get this number from as you should be ashamed of yourself for using the deaths of the 2 children swimming in the river, the 16 farmers who had their throats slit, or any of the countless other Serb hate killings for championing your cause for independence.
After reading all the Albanian comments it's clear how desperate they are now that they realise that Kosovo will not become independednt (by legal means at least)
(PB, 9 April 2007 21:22)
I find it interesting that everybody has something slanderous to say about the population of Serbia for supporting a Serb diplomat in attempting to get his viewpoint out on the international table. Albanians have had quite the head start by forming an extremely powerful lobby in Washington, funded by drug trafficking. What harm does it do for Draskovic or whoever to present Serbia's view on the issue. Kosovo is currently part of Serbia and it is obvious that Ahtisari's plan is heavily flawed. Therefore, the Serbs can present their quite convincing case to the international community all they want, and the citizens of the country should not be criticized for attempting to keep their cultural heritage, given that they have no desire to rule the Albanians affairs whatsoever.
We talk about the need for tolerance and multiethnic co-existence, but it seems as though the Serb side is the only one willing to envision such a scenario. The serbo-phobic independance seekers fail to realize that Milosevic is long gone, and if the whole region is to be integrated into the EU, than old hatred needs to be buried. Enforcing further division in the region will only brew more potential for violence in the future.
(Mark, 9 April 2007 22:40)
I agree with Sidi that Draskovic is only there for his domestic gain.
But just listen to this guy:
"We did not allow them to speak their language, learn in their schools, killed 12.000 of them"
Fact are: Albanians were allowed to used their language that was still official in Kosovo, and could have been used in the court. There were schools in Albanian language that were boycoted because it was no longer okey to teach kids that their country is Albania, etc.
12 000 killed? This doesn't deserve any comments any more.
Is this what you are teaching your children today?
Wow.
(sreten, 10 April 2007 07:20)
You asked for numbers and facts about 10.000 killed in Kosovo. Read the following statement with the facts. If you dont believe this (witch I assume) than follow the links at the end of the page or else try the ICTY pages, you can find all the cases with numbers and names of killed, raped, ....
[link]
You can also try the Wikipedia, or any respectable news agency. Key word: Kosovo, and follow the links. You will find out that there are at least 10.000 albanians murdered during the war in Kosovo.
(..., 10 April 2007 21:44)