Surprise! Serbs Will Not Be Serfs – OpEd

By

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 gutter Begleiter. During her trip to the region in August 2012, 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 (http://thegreygrater.blogspot.com, June, 2007). 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.

Notes:
*Daniel Serwer, “Serbian Transition Worries West,” The National Interest,
25 May 2012.
** http://www.assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2010/ajdoc462010prov.pdf

Lawrence S. Schneiderman

Lawrence S. Schneiderman is an International Consultant and Dr. of Public Policy, Vanderbilt University. The opinions expressed are the author's own.

11 thoughts on “Surprise! Serbs Will Not Be Serfs – OpEd

  • June 1, 2012 at 9:12 pm
    Permalink

    Guess what? Serbia has dig its own grave now. I personally give them credits for standing up to the West. After all they are undercover Russians , so why would they embrace the West for when they have Russia for the whole World? The truth of the matter is that even the West is not very found of them. Tito when he was in power played the double game with both of them, taking the West for a fool. I don’t think West has forgaten about that. They still think that they will fool the west again, but they are wrong. West is very sceptical of their inspiration and aspiration and understand them very well. I personally would stay away from them if I could. There is nothing optimistic coming from their side. They have dugg their trenches and now its clear of which side are they on. Leave them where they’re at and lets move ahead with other things on the table…Long live the West and its aspirations….

    Reply
  • June 2, 2012 at 12:04 am
    Permalink

    Lawrence,

    My good friend. You speak with anger and resentment. You are portraying the Serbs as victims on your blog. Let’s remind you of the atrocities committed by the Serbs in the Balkans. Rape,pillage,scotched earth, murdering snipers, ethnic cleansing, mass genocide, Serbs have committed all these atrocities on their neighbors. Germany and Austria doesn’t hate Serbia, nor does anyone. The Serbs have to come to terms that they are not the master of the Balkans. They never have and never will. After reading your article, I seriously believe that you have been sleeping for the past two decades.

    You are not very intelligent.

    Reply
  • June 2, 2012 at 2:12 am
    Permalink

    I’m not going to even bother countering idiotic comments made by Albanians… “scotched earth” [sic] ? Scorched earth is something that was used in the second world war. Get educated, Afrim and Shpetim.

    Reply
    • June 7, 2012 at 1:34 pm
      Permalink

      Actually, scorched earth was used first by William Tecumseh Sherman during the American Civil War. Maybe you should educate yourself before calling out others!
      And this article smells of communist propaganda, more than proper analysis to me: sign that it was written by a hardliner.

      Reply
  • June 2, 2012 at 12:05 pm
    Permalink

    13years after kosovo war and NATO bombing,17years after ending of wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Albanian only argument for their independence is that Serbs are murderers…if after all this time you still need to educate world about that,dont you think that argument is displaced and wornout…please made up something new,like Serbs did with organ trafficking story.Biggest treath to kosovo independence is stable and democratic Serbia and you know that…and that fact scares you…

    Reply
  • June 2, 2012 at 12:07 pm
    Permalink

    This was one very good analysis. Excellent way of explaining things to us who were not able to understand, since the official, mainstream media was absolutely injust towards the Serbs for decades, and it became obvious that “there’s something rotten” in the stories they served us concerning Bosnia, Kosovo, Croatia.

    Reply
  • June 3, 2012 at 6:40 am
    Permalink

    There were NO genocide in Srebrenica
    for better info check the movie
    “Srebrenica: A Town Betrayed”
    made by Norwegen journalists together with muslims who survived Srebrenica

    Reply
  • June 3, 2012 at 11:49 pm
    Permalink

    Thanks so much for this balanced piece.

    Reply
  • June 4, 2012 at 12:39 pm
    Permalink

    Great article. One of the few to explain the truth that a great deal of what happened in the Balkans was because of the failures of the EU and United States. I watched the Weight of Chains the other day and realize that Serbians suffered the most of any group in the former Yugoslavia.

    Reply
  • June 7, 2012 at 9:48 am
    Permalink

    You don`t understand the Global Politics. All the Nations of Balkans have good relations with each other. It is Serbia who has trouble with everyone in the region and It`s Serbia who`s keeping the region away from the European Union. Russia is keeping that part of Europe in tension through Serbia.

    Reply
  • June 16, 2012 at 1:49 am
    Permalink

    Dear all and especially those who are defending Hachim Thaci.
    In relation to being accussed but not convicted.
    I do remember, the ex Yugoslav president was also accused but was not found guilty. Death prior to a conviction does not amount to guilt.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *