Former Yugoslavia

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Videoteque

The Balkans

Articles 2009-2010

Johan Galtung, October 7, 2010
The future of what was once Yugoslavia New models for each, several and all units of that torn-apart Yugosphere

Biljana Vankovska, November 30, 2009
Newspaper column by Mr. Solana and Mr. Rehn
Is this a mafia-type proposal or just an ordinary blackmail - by these representaitves of European democracy?

Biljana Vankovska, November 27, 2009
Open Letter to Colleagues: Another European deficit: Does responsible scholarhip exist?

Håkan Wiberg, November 27, 2009
Greece and Macedonia: What's in a name?

Biljana Vankovska, Jul 23, 2009
Kosovo - current situation and bleak prospects

Jan Oberg, February 11, 2009
The Serb minority's situation in Croatia 17 years after the war broke out
International peace-prevention and Croatian nationalism in perspective
See also Oberg's
Re-visiting Croatian nationalism (Part A)
Re-visiting Croatian nationalism (Part B)

Aleksandar Mitic et.al., January 19. 2009
Kosovo Compromise
With lots of pertinent, well-researched articles on the Balkans - and a new issue of the Kosovo Compromise Journal.

Articles 2008l

Vasiliki Neofotistos, October 7, 2008
“The Balkans' Other within”: Imaginings of the West in the Republic of Macedonia
Read about her analysis in the History and Anthropology journal.

Jan Oberg, September 19, 2008
Re-visiting Croatian nationalism (A)
Or, how nationalist can a country be that wants to join the European Union?

Jan Oberg, September 19, 2008
Re-visiting Croatian nationalism (B)
Observations in text and pictures from driving around in the country

Aleksandar Mitic, Setpember 12, 2008
"Welcome to Kosovossetia"
The Kosoco Compromise Newsletter
August-September 2008

Biljana Vankovska, August 23, 2008
Kosovo - Macedonia's perspectives and dilemmas

Jan Öberg, Aftonbladet, 10:e augusti, 2008
Karadzic redan dömd - i medierna

Aleksandar Mitic, Iran's Press TV, July 28, 2008 - Video
TV talk-show: “Kosovo six months on”
Together with Dr. Dusan Relic in Berlin

Jørgen Johansen, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 24:e juli 2008
Olika inför lagen. Segrarnas dubbelmoral hindrar verklig rättvisa från at skipas.
Kring arresteringen av Radovan Karadzic.

Sören sommelius, Helsingborgs Dagblad, 22:e juli 2008
Viktig bit i fredspusslet på plats.
Om gripandet av Radovan Kradzic.

Aleksandar Mitic, Institute 4S, May 15, 2008
Kosovo Compromise 2008
The best single collection of world media clippings, analytical articles, arguments pro et con of the main issues. For those who are interested in getting behind Western political hype and mainstream media uniformity.

Aleksandar Mitic, Institute 4S, May 15, 2008
In Press.
Justifying Kosovo's recognition: Between the eccentric and the absurd...

Jan Oberg, May 15, 2008
Kosovo - what the international 'community' never understood
Six rather simple themes which - if having been managed differently - could have produced a much better Balkans than today's.

Biljana Vankovska, May 15, 2008
1. Indecent proposal to Macedonia: Give up your name to get into NATO.
One of five newspaper columns that give offer insights on how the democratic West practises democracy in small states it has earlier contributed to destroy. This one on an attempt at blackmaiing...

Biljana Vankovska, May 15, 2008
2. To be or not to be - Macedonia

Biljana Vankovska, May 15, 2008
3. Macedonia after NATO's Bucharest Summit

Biljana Vankovska, May 15, 2008
4. Macedonia and Klein's Shock Doctrine
A TV interview never broadcasted

Biljana Vankovska, May 15, 2008
5. Interview with the Italien newspaper “Left Avvienimenti" in May 2008.

Michel Chossudovsky, March 1, 2008
The UN contributed to the establishment of a Mafia-State in Kosovo

Jan Oberg, February 29, 2008
Can the EU become a peace-maker in the world? In Kosovo?

Johan Galtung, February 21, 2008
Kosova's independence - a crime against the Serbs and a crippling of the United Nations

Jan Oberg - February 20, 2008
Our experiment with the media on Kosovo's secession

Kosovo Compromise 2008
Boomerang - the effects of the unlawful recognition of Kosovo's secession

Michel Chossudovsky, February 18, 2008
EU police and military intervention to enforce secession from Serbia

Jan Oberg, February 17, 2008
Kosova's secession - Part 1
What is conveniently forgotten?

Jan Oberg, February 17, 2008
Kosova's secession - Part 2
What can happen after this?
17 possibilities - and when will they ever learn?

Radmila Nakarada, February 17, 2008
A non-European answer to a European problem

Biljana Vankovska, February 17, 2008
So hypothetical about Kosovo: A view from Macedonia

Aleksandar Mitic, February 17, 2008
The Kosovo Compromise 2008

Kosovo Compromise must-see online CD Rom

Tamara Tsikhistavi, February 17, 2008
Thoughts on Kosovo: Are we seeing a new world map with lots of new borders and states?

Michel Chossudovsky, February 12, 2008
Kosovo: The US and the EU support a political process linked to organized crime - Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is part of a criminal syndicate

Articles 2007

Jan Oberg, November 22, 2007
Kosovo - failed international conflict-management.
Why we will soon see a new chapter in the tragedy called Kosovo and why it is not predominantly the fault of the local parties. Will the media do it differently this time?
With links to must-read resources.

Jan Øberg, 22. november 2007
Den kommende tragedie i Kosovo - forfejlet konflikthåndtering. (Med resourcer til forståelse)
Det kan på ingen måde gå godt i regionen i de næste få måneder og du vil måske gerne kende nogle af årsagerne hertil. Fremtiden har brug for én ting fremfor noget andet; en anerkendelse af at det internationale samfund selv er medansvarlig for den frygtelige situation i Kosovo og Bosnien og at det dybest set har sat sig selv i politisk fængsel begge steder. En ny begyndelse baseret på en række åbne, ærlige lærdomme er en nødvendighed. Jeg frygter det ikke sker.

Aleksandar Mitic, October 1, 2007
Kosovo Compromise
Brand new homepage on Kosovo's future status and what happens in the negotiation process. Q & A of the most important themes and daily updates from the world press.

Aleksandar Mitic, In Press, September-October 1, 2007
Kosovo Status Crisis - Why Negotiate (PDF)
Leading newsletter about Kosovo from the S4 Institute.

Aleksandar Mitic & Jan Oberg, July 19, 2007
A new beginning for Kosovo
During the last almost 20 years, the Kosovo conflict has been handled by the international community on the basis of three counterproductive assumptions. One, it was believed that it could be dealt with as a special case. Two, it was seen as a political power issue rather than a case for professional conflict-resolution. Three, there was a belief that the lack of mediation could be covered up by NATO’s “peacemaking” bombings in 1999. Albanians and Serbs have all reason to feel cheated by the international community. It must now make a new beginning.
See interview with the authors at "Telepolis" - Zeit für einen Neubeginn.
Also on the EUobserver.

Biljana Vankovska, July 12, 2007
The framework Ohrid Agreement as a cradle of federalization
For a person who grew up in a federation (in its ‘golden years’ bought with foreign credits and loans from IMF), I can’t see why I should be scared of federalization - except for the still strong association with the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia. ‘Badinter’ is nothing that should bother either ethnic Macedonians or Albanians. But let’s finally invite the real Mr. Badinter to Macedonia and let’s ask for his opinion about perspectives of the country in which he is called on literally every day!

Jan Oberg, June 20, 2007
Why "unique" Kosovo must become independent
Look back a bit to the 1990s and you will understand the incredibly biased articles by the bombing enthusiasts of 1999.

Sören Sommelius, 15:e juni 2007
Resa i efterkrigstidens Bosnien och Kroatien (2):
Jasenovac - Jugoslaviens Auschwitz

Sören Sommelius, 4:e juni 2007
Resa i efterkrigets Bosnien och Kroatien (1)
Biscani, Priejor, Omarska

Johan Galtung, Jan Oberg and Hakan Wiberg, May 11, 2007
Ahtisaari's Kosovo proposal: Unfair and peace-preventing
The western world has a free press, and a free press can have many perspectives. Why, then, has the story of Kosovo been so uniform the last 15 years? And why is Martti Ahtisaari’s so-called mediation of Kosovo’s future status – and the media coverage of it – so partial and non-objective?
The article contains a quiz and we invite your answers and comments about the article as well as the way media deal with conflicts and peace.

Aleksandar Mitic, 11:e maj 2007
Europa har förlorat inflytande i Kosovo
EU ser ut att stå inför stora risker när det gäller Kosovo: I säkerhetsrådet är läget låst, inom EU råder delade meningar och det finns inte minsta spår av att Serbien skulle godta Martti Ahtisaaris plan att stycka av Kosovo från Serbien.

Aleksandar Mitic & Jan Oberg, May 9, 2007
Kosovo's Pandora Box
One of the most dangerous and unrealistic ideas circulating today in international politics consists of considering the Serbian province of Kosovo as a “unique” case. Under such thinking, Kosovo’s independence should be imposed on Serbia in breach of all international laws and UN SC 1244.

Aleksandar Mitic, May 2, 2007
The EU has long lost its leverage in Kosovo
One thing is now clear: there will be no UN Security Council resolution based on the core of Ahtisaari's proposal because there is simply no agreement on why Kosovo should be the first case in the 62-year long history of the UN in which the body legitimizes a dismemberment of a member country.

Jan Öberg, 1:e maj 2007
Kosovo behöver en lösning som alla kan leva med
Refuserad debatt-artikel till Sydsvenska Dagbladet...

Richard Falk, April 6, 2007
The Genocide in Bosnia: Lawyers' justice versus justice
Widespread disappointment has greeted the near unanimous decision of the World Court in The Hague, formally known as the International Court of Justice, to the effect that Serbia was not guilty of genocide in Bosnia during the 1990s. The outcome although troubling in some aspects should not be viewed as a
defeat for the Bosnian side.

Sören Sommelius, 22:a mars
Balkan i ögonhöjd
Recension av boken "Balkan – gi meg en dag … skildringer fra Balkan.

Johan Galtung, Jan Öberg & Håkan Wiberg,
Aftonbladet, 5:e mars 2007
"Ohållbart om Kosovo"
Ahtisaaris plan är orättvis och kommer att leda till ökat våld. Varför är Martti Ahtisaaris så kallade medling om Kosovo och presstäckningen av denna så partisk och så lite objektiv?

Ett litet stycke svensk Kosovo-historia från 1999...

Aleksandar Mitic, February 2007
In Press Journal - a lot about Kosovo, 1.2 mb

Galtung, Øberg & Wiberg,
Jyllands-Posten, 28. februar 2007
En uholdbar plan
Martti Ahtisaaris forslag til Kosovo-provinsens fremtidige status er fredsforhindrende, mener forfatterne, der er tilknyttet den Transnationale Stiftelse for Freds- og Fremtidsforskning, TFF. De har fulgt udviklingen på Balkan i over 30 år.

Aleksandar Mitic & Jan Oberg
The International Herald Tribune, February 22, 2007
The Kosovo example
A much shortened version - but accompanied by many letters in the paper as well as a pro-independence editorial.

Soren Sommelius, February 9, 2007
Revisiting Pakrac, Croatia - the town where the war began in 1991
A connoisseur's sad account 16 years later. When reading his account and seeing his pictures, you wonder why the war broke out and whether it brought anything good to anyone...

Jake Lynch, February 6, 2007
Defining independence is critical to new statehood
Discusses what it means to be independent, in the wake of the Ahtisaari report on Kosovo's future. It's also a moment of truth for a famous or infamous bit of coercive diplomacy from Washington.

Sören Sommelius, 6 januari 2007
Besök i Pakrac i Kroatien där kriget började i 1991
En kännares trista besök 16 år senare. Texten o bilderna får läsaren att undra: Varför började kriget här och kom det överhuvudtaget något positivt ut av det för någon?

Articles 2006

Vasiliki Neofotistos, December 13, 2006
Beyond stereotypes: Violence and the porousness of ethnic boundaries in the Republic of Macedonia
The processes that are described in this article shed light on how so-called "inter-ethnic tensions" can be negotiated in daily life and how local society, at first sight fraught with negative ethnic stereotypes, can prove resilient towards ethnic violence. It is published in History and Anthropology, Volume 15, Number 1, March 2004, pp. 1-36(36).

Håkan Wiberg & Jan Oberg, TFF, September 22, 2006
Montenegro - A state is born
Gives a historical account and analyses the independence as a result of re-defining identities, re-writing history, of the international game with Milosevic, of strange voting rules and referendum criteria. It may go well for Montenegro, but there is no guarantee.

Aleksandar Mitic, TFF Associate, September 21, 2006
Kosovo: The power of compromise
A concise argument in favour of fairness and international law, not the least UNSC 1244. He also guides you through the intellectually poor views of the mediator, Mr. Ahtisaari, and the Contact Group. Mitic outlines a win-win solution that will last longer than the present idea of imposing independence on Serbia.

Aleksandar Mitic, TFF Associate
Kosovo 2006: The Making of a Compromise
A brand new CD on a) Kosovo Yesterday. A Disputed Land; b) Kosovo Today. UNMIK Titanik and c) Kosovo Tomorrow. The Making of a Compromise. If you want to inform yourself about the main story developing in European affairs this autumn - the future of Serbia and Kosovo - this is where you should begin. At Cafe Babel you find the first introduction. And more here about Mitic.

Aleksandar Mitic, June 26, 2006
End Balkanization now!
About independence for Montenegro and, perhaps, Kosovo. Mitic argues that this can be dangerous for the region as well as stimulate separatism elsewhere. Why is there so little interest in the media... "Can there be any more "taboos" if there are no more principles?" - he asks.

Biljana Vankovska, June 26, 2006
The ageing EU Lady's hormonal problems: Human Security for chameleons
An impassioned discussion of the EU (Venus) and US (Mars), the militarization fo the EU disguised as 'human security' and what could be in it - if anything - for Macedonia and other Balkans countries. Since governments can't and won't, we better create human security ourselves, warns the author.

Biljana Vankovska, April 6, 2006
The role of the Ohrid Framework Agreement and the peace process in Macedonia - A reality check
The Macedonian case of conflict mitigation could and should indeed be taken as a paradigmatic and very didactic one. One could easily learn a lot on how not to carry out conflict prevention, and even more - on how not to rush into claiming a fantastic success story in post-conflict reconstruction. But the international community so-called really needs some success stories...

Jan Oberg, March 13, 2006
The real story: How Milosevic was much more evil than you ever knew
The media call him a butcher and compare him with Stalin, Mao and Hitler. That's right, but they don't give us the the broader picture. At his death I choose to tell you how I believe he alone caused all the troubles - and I have met him. The evil of Milosevic is grossly understated by Western politicians, diplomats and media. Indeed, I've found reasons to believe that he can be tied to the genocides in Rwanda and Burundi too.
I've been a witness. These are my findings. I can no longer keep silent.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Kai Frithjof Brand-Jakobsen, March 1, 2006
Romanian and U.S. militarism increases insecurity in South Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region
The agreement recently signed between Romania and the United States represents one of the greatest political failures in Romania in recent decades. It is rooted in the absence of responsible politics and a reliance on increasing militarism and aggressive military engagement in a broader US dependent alliance. The author gives you the criticism as well as the alternative: a peace policy program.

Archive 1991-2005
Use the search engine to access pre-2006 articles. Later we shall list them neatly here by years.

Articles on Macedonia 1999-2004

Features
Quality articles - thought-provoking, informative, or "different"- written by people who are not TFF Associates. We recommend and share them with our readers.

 

The TFF Former Yugoslavia
Theme and Action Group, TAG
Aleksandar Mitic, TAG leader
Jan Oberg, Co-ordinator
Peter Jarman
Radmila Nakarada
Soren Sommelius
Kerstin Schultz
Svetozar Stojanovic
Biljana Vankovska
Håkan Wiberg
Johan Galtung
Vasiliki Neofotistos

 

Videoteque
The Balkans

 

Activities 2006-2007

• Brand new homepage in October 2007
Kosovo Compromise

• Re-publish a number of earlier articles on Kosovo, e.g. the Kosovo Solution Series (2005) as Kosovo will hit the headlines in autumn 2006.

• Produce a few analyses about Kosovo/a, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia in particular (depending on developments there).

• Promote Mitic's seminal CD "Kosovo 2006: The Making of a Compromise".

• Write articles about Kosovo/a for leading international media on why compromise in Kosovo/a is both possible and better than complete independence or re-integration into Serbia.

• Monitor UN meetings and Serb-Albanian negotiations in Vienna among the parties.

• Galtung, Wiberg and Oberg work on their book "Yugoslavia - What Could Have Been Done?"

• Explore Peace Journalism options in this case. One possibility is to focus on/give a course on PJ (with other TFF Associates of course), web-based, a co-operative effort between Mitic' S4 Institute and TFF and possibly others.

• Produce something graphical and educational for our respective websites, e.g. highlighting human security issues, perhaps make a human security map for the Balkans...

• Place Kosovo and the surrounding issues in the context of EU policies, beginning with the wide circulation of Jan Oberg's booklet "Does the European Union Promote Peace? Analysis, critique and alternatives"

• Continue to publish articles and other materials by TFF Associates relevant to the former Yugoslav region.

Aleksandar Mitic & Jan Oberg
The International Herald Tribune, February 22, 2007
The Kosovo example

Jan Oberg & Aleksandar Mitic, IHT
December 4, 2005
The status of Kosovo
International Herald Tribune