Can't vouch for the accuracy, but interesting enough to pass on

CIA Blackmailed Karadzic With His Gay Porn

Karadzic was threatened he would go to the worst prison if he motioned the deal with Holbrooke.

Richar Holbrooke

Karmen Horvat

V.D.

CIA agents spoke with Radovan Karadzic a few hours before the announcement of his arrest, asking him not to reveal the deal with Holbrooke. In return, they offered him a 40-year sentence in a luxury Swedish prison, Serbian Press Online writes.

The Americans asked him not to mention the details of the deal and not to speak about his confidential contacts with people from the top of the Clinton administration. They wanted Karadzic to tell The Hague everything he knew about general Ratko Mladic and to witness against him during a possible trial.

As a counter favour, the agents guaranteed Karadzic he would get special treatment, according to which he would serve a 40-year sentence in a Swedish prison with all sorts of privileges. They guaranteed that his family would not have any problems in Serbia, the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska and Montenegro.

They also told him that if he does not agree, he would serve his sentence in the worst British prison, together with serial killers, drug dealers and rapists. They threatened him that he would be completely compromised in the Serbian public when they published edited homosexual porn footage, apart from continuing with severe pressure on his family.

Press Online confirmed this information from several independent intelligence sources. Officially, everyone decisively denies that any foreigner had such contacts with Karadzic at the time when he was arrested.

- Nobody will ever verify this, but this is more or less common practice in this region. Well, the Americans worked on Ante Gotovina after his arrest, for several days – an unnamed source points out.

Original article posted here.

Meanwhile in the rest of the world, Serbian government melts . . .

Serb PM dissolves government

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -- Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica dissolved the government Saturday and called for new elections after clashing with his pro-Western coalition partners over Kosovo and EU membership.

Vojislav Kostunica accused pro-Western ministers of failing to back his efforts to keep Kosovo in Serbia.

Kostunica said that he will convene a government session Monday that will propose to parliament that new elections be held May 11.

"The government will function in a reduced capacity until the elections are held," Kostunica said.

Kostunica accused pro-Western ministers of failing to support his efforts to preserve Kosovo as part of Serbia.

Kostunica insists that EU governments that recognized Kosovo, which declared independence last month, must rescind their decisions before Serbia resumes pre-membership talks with the 27-nation bloc.

Pro-Western President Boris Tadic opposes tying Serbia's EU membership to the issue of Kosovo, which has been recognized as an independent state by several leading EU nations, including Britain, France and Germany.

"There was no united will (in the government) to clearly and loudly state that Serbia can continue its path toward the EU only with Kosovo," Kostunica said.

Kosovo, whose population is predominantly ethnic Albanian, had been under U.N. control since 1999, when NATO launched an air war to stop Milosevic's crackdown on separatists.

Serbia, which considers the territory its historic and religious heartland, has rejected Kosovo's statehood as illegal. Russia, China and other nations support Belgrade's position.

Original article posted here.

Serbia: The problem that will not go away, and threatens to expose the EU as a toothless tiger

The Moron's Missteps: This is what happens when you destroy NATO and lose all military deterrence capability. Introducing a rising Russia

Russia threatens force over Kosovo

(CNN) -- Russia has not ruled out using force to resolve the dispute over Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia if NATO forces breach the terms of their U.N. mandate, Moscow's ambassador to NATO warned on Friday.

Serbs opposed to Kosovo's independence storm the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade Thursday in Belgrade.

"If the EU works out a single position or if NATO steps beyond its mandate in Kosovo, these organizations will be in conflict with the U.N., and then I think we will also begin operating under the assumption that in order to be respected, one needs to use force," Dmitry Rogozin said, in comments carried by Russia's Interfax news agency.

Russia, which has close ties with Serbia, has refused to recognize Kosovo's sovereignty, triggering a terse diplomatic standoff with the U.S. and several EU member states including the UK, France and Germany which have already recognized its independent status.

NATO has led a 15,000-strong peacekeeping operation -- known as KFOR -- in Kosovo since 1999 under the terms of a U.N. Security Council mandate authorized following a 78-day bombing campaign by the military alliance against Serbia.

Following Kosovo's declaration of independence last weekend, NATO Secretary-General said KFOR would "respond swiftly and firmly against anyone who might resort to violence in Kosovo."

Police were guarding the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade on Friday, one day after a charred body was found and dozens of people were reportedly injured in an attack by angry demonstrators protesting Kosovo's independence from Serbia.

The Embassy's consular section remained closed on Friday as officials were advised to remain in their residences and avoid movement amid continuing fears over anti-Western protests, according to a statement on the U.S. Embassy Web site.

The Embassy warned American citizens to avoid areas of demonstration and to exercise "extreme caution."

Throwing rocks, breaking windows and setting fires, the protesters capped a day of mass protest against Western support for an independent Kosovo.

Thursday's violence was part of a much bigger, peaceful demonstration where up to 150,000 people chanted "Kosovo is Serbia," and vowed to never accept the province's independence.

The larger group of protesters marched to the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, where a huge outdoor prayer service was held.

Serbian TV showed someone trying to set fire to the U.S. flag at the embassy, which was closed and unstaffed when the masked protesters attacked.

Riot police fired tear gas at the rioters and lines of armored vehicles were on the streets before the embassy perimeter was secured.

Kosovo declared independence last Sunday and the United States was among the first countries to offer official recognition of its split from Serbia. Watch a discussion on the history of tense relations between Serbia and Kosovo »

One charred body -- a male protester -- was found in the U.S. Embassy compound, embassy spokesman in Belgrade William Wanlund said.

"I can tell you that it was not an American," said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. All Americans were safe and accounted for, McCormack said. Watch McCormack discuss U.S. embassy security precautions »

Belgrade fire officials said the body was found in an "unoccupied area" of one of the embassy buildings, he said, around the same area as that reached by the demonstrators.

Bratislaw Grubacic, chief editor of VIP magazine in Belgrade, said police reported 32 people injured, including 14 police officers. Watch as a protester tries to set fire to the embassy flag »

Teresa Gould, a translator for Belgrade TV, said the Croatian Embassy next door also was attacked. Police quickly rounded up the demonstrators, witnesses said.

Nikola Jovanovic, a political writer for the newspaper Blic, said two floors of the embassy were burned. He estimated about 50 people, including 15 police officers, were injured.

Serbian media, however, estimated that between 96 and 107 people were injured in the protests, up to 35 of them police officers.

Smaller groups attacked police posts outside the Turkish and British embassies in another part of the city, but were beaten back, The Associated Press reported. See photos of the chaos »

"The fact that (independence has) not happened as peacefully as people had hoped is the direct result of the incitement to violence by extremist elements in Belgrade, implicitly and privately supported by the Russians," said Richard Holbrooke, a former negotiator in the Balkans under former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

The U.S. has received assurances from Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica "that there would not be a repeat of this episode, and we will hold them to that," State Department spokesman McCormack said.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, said: "Those scenes that we saw are regrettable. The Serbian government has repeated time and time again that any solution to the Kosovo problem -- other than peaceful and mutually accepted a compromise solution -- would lead to instability in the region. Unfortunately, this fell on deaf ears."

Kostunica, who earlier addressed the larger peaceful rally, said "Kosovo is Serbia's first name." He called the declaration of independence last Sunday illegal and said he would do all he can to get it annulled.

Tensions also erupted at the Kosovo border checkpoint in Merdare -- about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Kosovo's capital Pristina -- as several hundred Serbian army reservists clashed with NATO-led peacekeepers and police, AP said.

U.N. police said the demonstrators had come by bus from the Serbian town of Kursumlija and were largely army veterans who had fought with the Serbian side in Kosovo's 1998-1999 war, AP reported. Following the clashes, the demonstrators returned to the Serbian side of the checkpoint.Meanwhile, several hundred Bosnian Serbs rallied in the Bosnian city of Banja Luka and in the Sarajevo suburb of Lukavica, AP said.

Students in Lukavica were seen waving Serbian flags and singing Serbian patriotic songs while police in Banja Luka were stopping demonstrators from marching on the U.S. consulate there.

Original article posted here.

Courting disaster

Kosovo to declare independence, Serbia claims

Mark Tran

Kosovo is set to declare independence from Serbia next week, the Serbian government claimed today, amid fears that the move will trigger renewed instability in the region.

As speculation mounts about the timing of Kosovo's secession, the Serbian minister for Kosovo said his government has information that the breakaway province will declare independence on February 17.

Slobodan Samardzic said in a statement that "the government of Serbia is receiving relevant information" that Kosovo's government will "illegally declare the unilateral independence of Kosovo on Sunday, February 17".

Article continues
Samardzic's statement was issued after a meeting with a senior EU official, Stefan Lehne, who was in Belgrade to clarify EU plans to send a European policing and administrative mission to Kosovo.

Serbia has rejected the EU mission, saying it would be a prelude to the province's independence. Samardzic said that Serbia will not sign any cooperation agreement with the EU, arguing it would amount to "the signature for the independence of Kosovo".

Kosovo has been under UN administration since Nato expelled Serbian forces in an air campaign in 1999. Albanians, who form 90% of the province's population of 1.9 million, have been clamouring for independence.

Kosovo's prime minister, Hashim Thaci, said about 100 countries are ready to recognise the province's independence as soon as it is declared.

"We have confirmation that about 100 countries are ready to recognise Kosovo's independence immediately after we declare it. We will have a powerful and massive recognition," he told a news conference.

Thaci was speaking after his regular weekly meeting with Joachim Ruecker, head of the UN's Kosovo mission. Thaci did not name any countries or specify when he plans to declare independence.

The issue of Kosovan independence has been a source of considerable anxiety for European diplomats who fear it will mean a return to instability in the Balkans.

Serbia has warned the west of serious consequences to secession, suggesting that Kosovo could be partitioned, as Serbs in the north of the province align themselves with Belgrade, steeling Bosnian Serbs to do the same and seek independence, creating a Serbian republic, or "Republika Srpska", in Bosnia.

The Serbian government has ruled out the threat of military action against Kosovo, but experts have warned of destabilisation efforts as "volunteers" - a euphemism for paramilitaries - from Serbia proper would go to "help" the Kosovo Serbs.

Pro-western politicians in Belgrade, who oppose Kosovo's independence, have also raised the prospect of Serbia lurching further to the right as their more nationalist counterparts seek a closer alliance with Russia.

The prospect of independence has already led to arguments in Serbia. This week, Serbia's nationalist prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, blocked the signing of a pact between Belgrade and the EU in an attempt to delay what seems like Kosovo's inevitable secession. The EU has been trying to soften the blow of Kosovo's independence from Serbia by promising Belgrade EU membership.

Senior EU officials are furious that Kostunica refuses to allow pro-European members of his government to travel to Brussels to sign a pact that would lead to trade and travel liberalisation and encourage Serbia's EU membership ambitions, an aim supported by most Serbs.

Olli Rehn, the EU commissioner for enlargement, said Kostunica had broken a promise to him and said that politicians in Belgrade were filing for divorce between Serbia and the EU before they had even been married.

Kostunica's decision to veto the signing ceremony in Brussels is likely to bring down his government only days after a pro-European, Boris Tadic, was elected Serbian president.

Kostunica has abandoned his pro-western Democratic party coalition allies in favour of an impromptu alliance with the extreme nationalist opposition, the Serbian Radical party.

Original article posted here.

Bush's destruction of US military power and rising Russia now threaten to destabilize Europe and risk possible war

Serbia threatens to use force if West recognizes Kosovo

By Nicholas Wood

BELGRADE: Serbia is ready to use force to prevent Western nations from recognizing Kosovo as an independent state, a senior Serbian official warned Wednesday.

Dusan Prorokovic, Serbia's state secretary for Kosovo, outlined an array of tough measures to squeeze Kosovo - including the possible deployment of Serbian forces to the province, the sealing of its borders and a trade embargo - that he said Serbia was ready to take in the event that Kosovo's Albanian-dominated government declared independence and was recognized by Western governments.

The potential steps are the harshest outlined so far by the government here and come as negotiations between the two sides and overseen by Russia, the European Union and United States appear to be deadlocked. The United Nations has set a Dec. 10 deadline for the conclusion of the talks, after which the United States has indicated it will recognize Kosovo unilaterally.

International officials in Kosovo, regional analysts and Albanian politicians have repeatedly said that a return of Serbian troops would spark a renewed conflict in the region.

Until now Serbia has shied away from making any threats that could associate it with the repressive response by its security forces to an ethnic Albanian insurgency during the 1990s, when Slobodan Milosevic was the president of Yugoslavia.

In an interview in the Serbian capital, Prorokovic warned that unilateral recognition by Western states would give Serbia the right to return its troops to the region, and to annul an eight-year agreement between NATO and the then-Yugoslav government regulating their exclusion. Prorokovic is also a senior member of Prime Minister Kostunica's Serbian Democratic party.

"In case of self-proclamation, it is not an active paper anymore," Prorokovic said, referring to the Kumanovo military accord. "Without Kumanovo our army can go back without any legal limits. It can cross the boundary and go everywhere in Kosovo without any legal problems."

Serbian-dominated forces were forced to withdraw from Kosovo in June 1999 after a 78-day NATO-led bombing campaign. Since then the United Nations has administered the region. UN officials estimate that as many as 10,000 ethnic Albanians lost their lives in the conflict. Prorokovic said the redeployment of the Serbian Army was one of up to 16 options Serbia was considering if Kosovo declared independence. He also reinforced his government's stance that continued talks on Kosovo's future were the only option worth considering.

"We do not have an alternative," he said.

If Kosovo Albanian leaders proceeded with their plans to declare unilateral independence at the end of current talks, Prorokovic said, Serbia would launch a trade embargo on the province, which relies on Serbia for much of its imports, and seal its boundaries with Serbia.

"We will block every kind of commercial activity and every kind of route," he said. The warning come ahead of the announcement of a detailed package offered to the ethnic Albanians during the negotiations in Vienna last week. It will be made public Monday.

A foreign policy adviser to Kosovo's prime minister, Agim Ceku, said Prorokovic's statement would not deter the Kosovo Albanian leadership from seeking recognition after negotiations finish in December.

"How do they a walk over NATO troops in the region, and what do they do when they are exposed to open conflict?" said the adviser, Borut Grgic. "Occupation is out of the question. The international community would block it."

But Grgic conceded that the region was likely to face the possibility of renewed tension by the end of the year as Kosovo's Albanian leaders move ever closer to proclaiming their own state.

"No matter what happens, there will be a period of high instability and potential for conflict," said Grgic, who is also director the Institute for Strategic Studies, a foreign policy research group based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. "This will come after December; there will be a period of six months of uncertainty, and you will have a lot of actors who want assert themselves and stake their claim," he said in a telephone interview.

One leading political commentator in Belgrade said Serbia's increasingly tough stance on Kosovo, bolstered by Russia's refusal to accept recognition of the province within the UN Security Council, may test the nerves of European states that are divided over the region's future.

The Serbs "know that security is not fantastic in Kosovo," said the commentator, Bratislav Grubacic, editor of VIP News.

"In a way they are threatening the others. You know the situation is not great," he said, referring to the possible deployment of Serbian troops in the region.

Most European states have troops deployed with the 17,000-strong NATO force in the province. The European Union has also agreed to lead a new mission to supervise the region once the UN administration leaves the province.

Several European states, including Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia, have said they will not recognize Kosovo's independence without a un resolution. "Disunity of Europe," Grubacic said, "is the one of the Serbs' main weapons in their negotiations."

Original article posted here.