Over at Teekay’s

2 reasons: we’re moving to Germany (do they have internet there?) and I dislocated my shoulder. Rather slow typing with my left only. Expect news towards end next week.

A while ago I was heaping scorn on Del Ponte’s threat that whoever didn’t surrender soon would have to face local courts.

Well, her threat seems to have worked up to a point, for a very specific reason that I hadn’t considered. On a local TV program last night, human rights lawyer Senka Nozica pointed out that the sentencing in Bosnia would be much stricter, with higher sentences and less leeway for judges, than is the case in The Hague.

It makes sense to prefer eight years in a Swedish prison to twelve in a Bosnian one.

The Bosnian court just opened its war crimes chamber last week and is expected to be rather busy rather soon.

Technorati Tags: Balkania

From a press release of 10 March by the Council of Europe, a human-rights watchdog:

The efficiency and rationality of current constitutional arrangements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting from the Dayton Peace Agreement, are the subject of a comprehensive document to be adopted by the [Venice] Commission [1]. This opinion will outline major changes required if the country wants to make further progress, and examine whether the present practice of decisions by the High Representative is compatible with European standards. A further opinion on Bosnia and Herzegovina concerns the responsibility of the United Nations for the dismissal of former police officers.

I’m wondering whether this might have anything to do with the recent formation by the Office of the High Representative (OHR) of an internal commission to review decisions to remove local officials?

HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ANNOUNCES REVIEW OF DISMISSAL OF BOSNIAN OFFICALS. High Representative Paddy Ashdown told a news conference on 4 March that his office is to begin reviewing its decisions to remove officials from office or participation in public life for obstructing the peace process and the administration as a whole between 1998 and 2003, according to a statement by Ashdown’s office. Ashdown stressed that initially only a very small number of sacked officials will be included in the process. During the review, it will be asked whether the removed officials are likely to obstruct the administration again and whether the reasons for their removal are still in place. The review process does not pertain to decisions to remove officials taken by SFOR, EUFOR, or the UN police forces, Ashdown said (“RFE/RL Balkan Report,” 21 January 2005). UB
Source: RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 43, Part II, 7 March 2005

Just a wild guess. The Venice Commission will meet on 11-12 March; the OHR announcement came on 4 March.

Instead of having his knuckles rapped, the High Rep can now say, “Oh, we’re aware of the need to be accountable and have already, without any pressure, formed a panel to ensure that all dismissals were appropriate and legal.”

Expect immediate reinstatements soon!

[1] The Venice Commission is an advisory body reviewing constitutional issues arising in COE member states. These guys sure know how to enjoy life — why not the “Hull Commission” or the “Essen Commission?”

Technorati Tags: Balkania

There are very few things I hate more than bad copy. From a job ad I saw today:

Successful candidates will have 5+ years of relevant international experience designing performance monitoring and reporting systems to track project progress for USAID funded projects, a graduate degree, and one or more foreign language skills.

How about having just one language skill but actually applying it?

We’re going to Belgrade Sunday through Wednesday. Here’s the forecast:

(Courtesy of Qwikcast.com)

And here’s what WeatherPop (which frequently lies but seems to be about right today, except that there’ s about ten inches of snow, still snowing, and no sun nowhere to be seen) says about the lovely city where I reside:

Dude, I’m so sick of this snow! I want SPRING!!!

Update: Also note how WeatherPop lists Tuesday twice, with different temperatures…. at least it’s transparent in its lies.

Sorry to be boring. The beauty is, if you’re just following my rants on my blog you can simply opt out, close your browser, disconnect. (I realize the last one is very 1990s but we’re still on dial-up here.)

Nicholas Kristof has been rather dogged in bringing this up again and again. From his column in today’s Times:

If President Bush wants to figure out whether the U.S. should stand more firmly against the genocide in Darfur, I suggest that he invite Mr. Steidle to the White House to give a briefing. Mr. Steidle, a 28-year-old former Marine captain, was one of just three American military advisers for the African Union monitoring team in Darfur - and he is bursting with frustration.

“Every single day you go out to see another burned village, and more dead bodies,” he said. “And the children - you see 6-month-old babies that have been shot, and 3-year-old kids with their faces smashed in with rifle butts. And you just have to stand there and write your reports.”

This is awful, but it’s not more awful than the stuff we’ve know for what, a year now? And has anything really moved, other than that we now have observers who monitor the slaughter? But as angry as I am about all this, I’m also a bit disturbed by the cavalierly attitude Kristof seems to be taking to the question whether this is genocide:

So is it really genocide?

“I have no doubt about that,” Mr. Steidle said. “It’s a systematic cleansing of peoples by the Arab chiefs there. And when you talk to them, that’s what they tell you. They’re very blunt about it. One day we met a janjaweed leader and he said, ‘Unless you get back four camels that were stolen in 2003, then we’re going to go to these four villages and burn the villages, rape the women, kill everyone.’ And they did.”

That doesn’t sound like genocide to me. I’m not saying what’s going on in Darfur isn’t; I’m saying this specific incident, and what the dude with the gun tells Steidle, doesn’t sound like it to me. This sounds like a local grievance — genuine or cynically opportunistic — that finds room to grow into murder and pillage and rape because the conditions in Sudan, perhaps created on purpose, allow for it. In order to determine whether this is genocide, we would need to know who created these conditions and with what intention.

Today is a holiday in Bosnia. It marks the day when the country decided to seek independence from Yugoslavia.

Or rather, today is a holiday in the (mainly Muslim-Croat) Federation, one of two statelets that make up Bosnia. It marks the day when most Bosnian Serbs boycotted a referendum on whether to seek independence from Yugoslavia.

BBC Monitoring carries this report, from a local wire service:

Bosnia-Hercegovina Presidency chairman Borislav Paravac said he does not consider 1 March, the BiH Day of Independence, a state holiday, due to the “fact that it is a day that evokes negative memories of the anti-Serb referendum, when a decision was passed on the separation of BiH from former Yugoslavia, without prior consent from Serbs”.

“We should focus on values that contribute to progress and tolerance,” Paravac said sarcastically.

Question to Mr President: how could BiH seek separation from Yugoslavia if Yugoslavia was, in his words, already “former” at the time?

Technorati Tags: Balkania

I’ve just finished the first part of the book I’m co-authoring (reason for scarce posting over the last week). Because this is the key part, where we survey the field, set out the theoretical stakes, and build up our framework, I feel that the most difficult job is now behind us, even though it’s less than 30,000 words (around 80 pp in print). (If you are my publisher: we’ve got much more than that — in fact, the book is almost done, we just need to fine-tune some stuff! Will be done in no time!! We’ll keep all deadlines!!!)