Serbs not cooperating in Kosovo

Kosovo Serbs seize UN courthouse
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7296262.stm





Serbia 'retakes' Kosovo rail line
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7274826.stm

what all those un troops and police doing, why aren't they protecting the courthuose etc are they holding back to let the serbs blow off some steam?

We were letting them 'blow off some steam' - that would look good in a report! I think you're right though, the UN are never in hurry to fight and if this could be resolved without bloodshed then it would clearly be better.

I don't think this is an organised strategy from Belgrade. Both the courthouse and the railway were done by people directly affected. The railway takeover was claimed by Belgrade but doesn't seem to have come to much.

Probably has more to do with the ongoing massive ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo under NATO rule. It's understandable that they'd be worried about their future within an 'independent' Kosovo.

Of course the MSM portray it as a Serbian occupation. {sigh}

Edward Herman: The New York Times on the Kosovo Crisis
http://www.medialens.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2715

Quote :

"....
For example, the editorial recognizes that the Serbs remaining in
Kosovo have a “legitimate fear of persecution.” But they don’t explain
why this is so or give it any context. The fact is that following
NATO’s victory over Yugoslavia and occupation of Kosovo, there then
transpired the “largest ethnic cleaning in the Balkans [in
proportionate terms]” (Jan Oberg), with some 150,000 Serbs put to
flight along with thousands of Roma—with thousands of Roma suffering
the loss of houses torched by the returning Kosovo Albanians. All this
was done under NATO authority. The fear, tensions, separation, and
ghettoization continue today, and Roma spokespersons believe that
“independence” will be followed by a complete exodus of Roma from
Kosovo. ..."

So why did Serbia claim it had retaken the rail line?

Herman's argument is hard to take seriously. Is he seriously proposing that "The further integration of Serbia into the EU will also involve a further dose of neoliberalism that will make that country more dependent and less able to revive what was once a more egalitarian and humane polity. More resistance to U.S. and EU bullying and blandishments will very possibly help Serb public welfare as well as pride.".

Erm... two crucial points he seems to ignore. Firstly Serbia, when part of the FRY, was perhaps arguably difficult to be sure, a more egalitarian and humane polity. Very difficult to sustain that argument during the Milosevic. So when precisely was this golden age? Secondly, is it seriously suggested that the EU is such a neo-liberal hell-hole - it's fascinating for example to read about comparative welfare structures within the EU, etc at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/missoc_tables_en.htm.

Looking further I see there have been at least four seperate privatisation waves in Serbia since 1989. Now, that sounds to me to be more neo-liberal than the EU situation, but without hard comparative data it's difficult to tell (and of course there is the issue of differences between states moving from command economies of which the FRY was arguably closer to and states with mixed economies further liberalising).

As regards the situation in Kosovo concerning Serbs within the province/nation (I can't work out which it is, so perhaps it's both), well there was indeed massive flight from Kosovo, but the article completely ignores the period prior to that and the years where Kosovo autonomy was stripped by Milosevic from the 1980s onwards (in clear violation of the FYR Constitution). That this was a clear generator of a dynamic towards independence amongst Kosovon Albanians is ignored instead of a year zero ahistorical approach as regards NATO and the US. I don't deny that they didn't assist the problem. But nor can it be stated with any degree of certainty that they made it worse.

Finally the tears shed over Yugoslavia (a state I supported and in some senses continue to support despite its demise) and the brickbats hurled at the EU seem odd, considering that it was easily as arguably artificial a construct as the EU.