The recent violence, partition and the elections

One UN policeman has been killed, and around 70 Serbs (one is in a coma) and dozens of NATO personnel injured during the recent violence in Kosovo. It seems that the regional UN chief has tendered his resignation, but that his request has been rejected. I was looking out for some biased reporting on BBC news yesterday. They devoted large amounts of time to the unrest in Tibet, which largely came out of the blue, which is further away, and which is not a result of Western foreign policy. Kosovo, which they helped annex, where their troops are stationed, which is within Europe, they didn't even mention. The 'free press' at its finest. Since I won't be in a position to update this blog regularly in the coming 2 months I recommend the following English-language websites:

http://www.byzantinesacredart.com/blog/
http://serbianna.com/

There are a couple of things I wanted to mention. Firstly, partition. I believe that the pro-EU politicians would like nothing better than such a solution. It would allow them to pretend that they won a concession, that they have achieved permanent stability and that we can then jump back onto the EU bandwagon since we all mutually recognise the new border. At the moment the EU and the Albanians are totally opposed to such an outcome, and hopefully it will stay that way. Such a settlement seems to be the only glimmer of hope for Tadic. At the moment he is trying to have his cake and eat it. The EU just amputated our territory, which he condemns, but he still wants to join the EU! Those Serbs who would consider partition to be an achievement need to be aware of a number of things. Firstly, partition would likely involve Serbia keeping 15% of Kosovo at best. Secondly, 50% of Serbs still left in Kosovo live outside the northern region. Thirdly, the vast majority of our sacred places, including (to the best of my knowledge) all the monasteries and our medieval capital Prizren, lie outside the northern region. Fourthly, whilst willingness to negotiate and to settle for less than that which is rightfully yours can be considered virtuous in some situations, this is not one of them. Giving away your spiritual heartland so that you can obtain higher living standards and join the EU is deplorable. Resistance to immoral imperialists, whose trail of blood and destruction spans half the globe, if not more, is virtuous. Only a servile puppet of those very imperialists could possibly try and sell partition as a victory. Watch out in the coming months for those domestic champions of 'territorial integrity' to suddenly start pushing for this 'lasting solution' of partition.

The other point I wanted to mention is the recent election. Tadic narrowly won the presidential runoff by a couple of percent. Now given that Hungarians, Muslims and Roma make up 6-7% of the electorate, and that they largely voted for Tadic, that tells you that the majority of Serbs didn't. What this also tells you is that the destiny of Serbia is tied up in the hands of minorities who will always vote for most liberal and least patriotic candidate. The situation also brings to mind the referendum on the independence of Montenegro. The pro-independence camp won the vote by less than 1%. Albanians, Muslims and Croats make up around 17% of the electorate. Which side do you think they voted for? And our enemies tell us that diversity and multi-culturalism are a strength!

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