Monday, June 11, 2007

Blah, Blah

The politicians continue to "blah, blah" about Kosovo.  President Bush in his European tour to Albanian stated that "sooner, rather than later, you've got to say enough is enough, Kosovo is independent".  Bush also stated that he was worried that the expectations of Albanians in Kosovo were not being met and went on to say that there should be a deadline for the UN resolution or else the US would push forward the process in some undetermined way.  He later backtracked a bit on the idea of a deadline and seemed to not remember exactly what he had said in Tirana.
However, Serbia's government issued a statement that Kosovo's future is in the hands of the UN Security Council, not the US and that Belgrade is enjoying the firm backing.  Russia stated they was pleased that now the other G8 countries were taking its arguments seriously and perhaps now realizing that Russia was serious about using its veto powers.

Meanwhile, Kosovo politicians are under pressure to unilaterally declare independence and deliver on the promises that they've made to the citizens over the past years.  The radical Vetevendosje group has called for protests on 30 June because of the delays in the status settlement.

The French plan proposed by President Sarkozy was rejected by most of the G8 countries so there will be no six month plan for delay...but with the continued distance between positions, it would be no great surprise if the status was delayed for that period of time or longer.  Russian president Vladimir Putin will visit Bush in Maine on 1 July.  Kosovo is likely to be a hot topic of discussion.

The alleged mass grave in Serbia has turned out to be not as expected.  Initial reports were that there were 350-500 bodies buried in an abandoned rock quarry in Serbia but after four days of digging, crews have not come across any signs of a mass grave and the government has called off the search in that section of the quarry.  The investigator are still looking in other parts of the rock quarry as witness statements are that four trucks dumped what were believed to be Albanian bodies in the rock quarry.