Security Council still deadlocked over Kosovo

"The interest that the debate stirred is evidenced by the fact that over 40 countries who are not members of the UNSC asked to watch proceedings."

This level of interest is of great significance, I believe.

Once the controversy over NATO's illegal bombing of Serbia had died down, the Kosovo story disappeared from the world's media. Only the very occasional event, such as the pogrom in March 2004, managed to penetrate the news headlines. Basically, the world retreated and focussed its attention elsewhere.

This left the stage free for the K-Albanians themselves and their supporters in the US, UK etc to set the agenda and dominate the (limited) debate. This is now changing and the world is beginning to look at Kosovo again.

And the more this happens, the more it will become apparent that the arguments of the K-Albanians are deeply flawed with unknown and potentially dangerous consequences. Let the real debate begin !

This only shows that entire world recognize the mistake made back in 1912,when international community gaved Kosovo to Serbia as a gift. The very same community is trying to improve their own mistakes, 'cause all of us beleieves that after all there must a be some justice in this world.There is no other case in history of UN(with exeption of Palestine maybe)to have so many attemption of resolvig the situation of some small, insifigant part of the Earth, like Kosovo case.I strongly believe that modalities for Kosovo indenpendance will be found in near future, giving the hoppe for all opressed nation that freedom is reacheable.
Amen.

Mika,
Your comments about a mistake being made in 1912 are laughable. Kosovo was never, ever, Albanian, nor will it ever be.
As for the 'mistake', I will refer you to the comments of Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie, when he said 'We bombed the wrong side'.

to mika and the albanian gang:

I don't know why albanianss keep repeating oppression? What kind of oppression? That is a BIG lie. Nobody was oppressing you and you were free and able to do anything you wanted in KiM. The things you were able to do in KiM - those things you would never be allowed to do in even in "democratic america." How many albanians live in Beograd today? Why are they there if you albanians hate Serbs and Serbia so much? Look at how you behave to Serbs in KiM and look at how albanians are treated in Beograd.

On the other hand YOU albanians never accepted Serbia as your home, even though we let how many of you come to our country from albania? You never tried to be good citizens of Serbia. All you did is discriminate Serbs and boycotted everything Serb. KiM was never albanian and it never will be, no matter how many lies you make up, no matter how many lies you tell to your children, no matter how you try to create a false history in your history books.

What I don't get is why there must be sessions behind closed doors???

Does someone have something to hide or what is the reason?

It would benefit both sides and all parties if there were an open debate over this, not some secret club meetings

SC and the EU will stay deadlock forever meaning that they will never reach any unified stand over Kosovo. As Vitali Tchurkin stated yesterday "No one can make a state by breaching the UNSC resolution. No need to have illusions that this is possible". He also promised that after UDI Kosovo will never enter this building, having in mind the UN building. In addition he claims that not a one decision on Kosovo cannot be brought bypassing the UNSC and that legally speaking the UN should abolish UDI.

It is also very promising and in my opinion very good the fact that 40 other countries that are not SC members were present overthere. This only means that the world is watching very closely and witness the flagrant and the IC's filthy attempts of ripping away a part of the souvereign country recognised by the UN.

Do they want the new Sudentenland in the 21. century?

"Six out of 15 UN Security Council members support Kosovo's independence, B92 has learned."

Let’s see here … this means that the majority are opposed.

Seems to me that Russia and Serbia are not in the minority.

I might take a few years for the Serb to come to the term with new reality in Balkans.
(Ilir, 17 January 2008 14:39)

Sorry to inform you, but Serbs will never accept the illegal seperation of Kosovo from Serbia -they lived through centuries of Ottoman occupation.

Dragan, I totally agree with you. I have read Gen McKenzie's book "Peacekeeper, the road to Sarajevo" and he writes in a very balanced way.

Mika, 6 out of 15 Security Council members are ready to recognize Kosovo. Does this sound like the world is ready to correct their "mistake"? I don't see a clear majority here.

Some will abstain but that doesn't mean that you have their support. I think you see what you want to see.

Playing victim will not work forever. More credible people are prepared to be on record and go against your independence and will give reasons why.

Mika, nice try and keep dreaming. Ilir, wake up and smell reality Kosovo will not be indep. John, take what you can get, indep is a no go. KS, Kosovo is Serbian, don't feed yourself lies. Albanians are not Ilyrian, Ilyrians are extinct. To the rest of Albanian camp, no "Greater Albania". Indep is a pipe dream, reality is autonomy.

to Mika and Sk and others...

there is no kosovahh... =)

and, just to inform you: Serbia got no presents in 1912...it had previously fought the ottoman empire and won important battles...and liberated it´s own land...that was occupied centuries before by the ottomans...there were no Albanians at all at that time, who could have had any historical significance.

I am sorry, but you can´t change history!

and one thing you really should start to understand: you are NOT the descendants of the illyrians.
if you really believe in the articles of a Encyclopedia Britannica in it´s edition from 1911 (!) then one can only feel pity for you...

wake up and open your eyes to the truth!

Golly Gosh!
Tense meetings, closed doors, “unique case”, 40 voyagers and the UN Supreme Wise Man debate. If you translate this melodrama into plain English: K-Albanian separatist aspiration (despite the US/UK and “few important” EU countries) is NO GO.
Why am I so sure? Well, check the market info on you local stock exchange (ref. CityBank, gold, crude oil) and you tell me.
Anybody can “recognize” anybody – but if you are not a UM member – you can not join IMF, World Bank, etc. And without that – you are just a territory, artificially propped up by it’s mentors and kept alive as long as they are in good health.
Some analyst see crude oil up to $ 130 US / barrel by mid summer.
Telling, isn’t it!
So, why don’t we cut the agony? Those who want to “recognize independence” should do it and let us all watch how it folds up. If not – stop wasting our time.

"Six out of 15 UN Security Council members support Kosovo's independence"

- how strange that we find the US, UK, France, Italy and one can assume Belguim joined by only one other member of the UN SC in this provocative and illegal deceit! We were told it was only Russia standing in the way of the "allegedly bribed" Ahtisaari plan of Supervised Dependence!

This is has made 2008 a great year already only 3 days in (Three days for Julian) and the illegality mob are diminishing with the watchful eye of the rest of the world taking an interest!

Oh what a tangled web we weave.....

"Kosova has always been Albanian..and it will always be Albanian...sorry, no illegal Greater Serbia!!"

Has it, KS? Really? So what did you Albanians call this piece of land before it was "given" to the Serbs? Please, tell us what it was called.

Let's see,

Kosovo never gets UN membership, and the countries that do recognize it are all sending a mission to Kosovo where they set-up military bases and have veto power over Kosovo's government. On top of that Serbia gets angry and imposes a blockade against Kosovo, cuts-off Kosovo's electricity supply, stops issuing passports to Kosovo-Albanians, and stops paying Kosovo's debt to the IMF.

Serbia is in an advantageous legal position to bring all kinds of action at the ICJ. Serbia can do more to Kosovo through the courts than it ever could by having another war with the Albanians.

Since Kosovo isn't a UN member and will never be one, Serbia can sue countries who export natural resources (timber, mining etc...) from Kosovo without the consent of the Serbian government.

Serbia can also impose high import and export taxes on goods traveling to and from Kosovo and sue countries that don't pay.

Without UN membership, Serbia is the country that Kosovo's economy and international trade agreements will have to work through. There won't be international commerce in Kosovo without the agreement of the Serbian government.

Without UN membership Kosovo won't be an internationally recognized entity for the countries that do recognize it to enter into a legally binding trade agreement with. The only legal entity that anyone will be able to negotiate with will be Serbia.

(Tom O'Donoghue

I’ve listened to Mr. Tadic very carefully last night to see if he was bringing anything new to the table. Unfortunately he brought nothing to the table. Instead he repeated his offer for autonomy which has been rejected by Kosovars and by the international community. He called the NATO intervention “illegal aggression”. Imagine for a minute the western ambassadors’ reaction to this complete nonsense. His speech was full proof that Serbia is blinded by nationalism and very little has changed since the 90’s.

The Serb side has been offering pathetic arguments for autonomy that even my four year old son would reject. Kosovo had autonomy and we all know what happen to that. There is absolutely no point in talking to the Serbs anymore. Of all the conflicts that the Serbs generated in the former Yugoslavia there isn’t a single conflict a single moment where the Serb side managed to resolve anything peacefully.

Only the very occasional event, such as the pogrom in March 2004
--------------------------

Mate, you dont know what a pogrom is, yet you feel adept at airing your views, spewing forth venom against an ethnicity that is stuck between a rock and a hard place (and I am not talking about Serbs)

The New World Order starts in Kosovo!!!!

6 out of 15 is not a majority, no matter how the ethnic - Albainians count it.

Tadic's scare tactics to encourage citizens to vote for him over Nikolic will backfire as the people of Serbia have seen this tactic before from Milosovic.

Tadic is making mistake after mistake in his campaign to be re-elected. His advisor's are not serving him well at all.

If the economy is the number one issue in Serbia then Tadic has lost this race simply because his solution to the economy problem is simply joining the EU which is not a fix to the problem at all, and in fact such a move at this time for Serbia would only increase the cost of living for the average Serbian as evident from just analyzing the cost of living in Bulgaria and Romania who are in the EU.

I think that more people than anyone suspects will vote for one of the other 7 candidates which will ultimately result in Nikolic's victory since he by far has a stronger hard core support group than Tadic.

I use to think that there will be a run off vote in February but the more I follow these campings the more I realize that in fact Nikolic will get more than 50% of the votes this Sunday thus eliminating the need for a run off vote.

Nikolic is being grossly underestimated by many so called experts who think they know the hearts and minds of the Serbian people.

Nikolic will win simply because people want change, not because of Kosovo or because they honestly believe that Nikolic can delver a better economy but instead because they want someone fresh in office, Tadic simply has not delivered much of what he had promised since he won the elections last time.

Nikolic's win will completely extinguish whatever glimmer of hope Kosovo really has to becoming independent. The EU will not play hardball with Nikolic since it will just encourage the Russians to support Nikolic even more.

Kosova has always been Albanian..and it will always be Albanian...sorry, no illegal Greater Serbia!!

Joe,

Would you grow up.

Srboslav, bmrusila and Tom O'Donoghue

by keeping the situation at UN SC dradlocked you are not doing any favour to your country man in Serbia. Do you realy think that if Kosova issue is not solved Serbs in Serbia would be better of. I think you would be lying yourselves only.
Anyhow, K-Alanains are going to do another favour to Serbs and declare the Independece. Serbia and Russia and will not recognise it at first but in couple years Tadic DS and LDS will form a coalition and they will recognise it. This way, Serbia would go out of total isolation and kosova would be recognised at UNSC.
Guys, I am sorry but in Serbia you are in minority and that where you should stay.

Mr Churkin goes over the board to say that Kosovo will not be able to join nither UN nor other international organizations. In my view he forgets that Russia's veto in the UNSC won't prevent Kosovo to join, for instance, NATO, the most important political and military organization in the world. In my opinion, Serbian political elite ought to be less enthusiatic about Russia's tendency to gain prominence by exploiting the issue of Kosovo's status. In the long term such a behaviour may be detrimental to Serbia. Everyone knows that Kosovo was treated as a Colony during the 20'th century, everyone should know that colonial era is long gone. India made up more than 98% of british teritories, yet was let free. In this regard Serbian Prime minister mast not cry out for the 15% of Serbian territory which does not belong to Serbia anyway.

Only 6 out of 15 support independence now? What happened to the majority that they claimed last year? Somebody has been lying to us all of this time....

The debate regarding Kosovo independence I believe is over.. The question is when not if !!!
Russia is using Kosovo as a tool to show their teeth to the west and try to push the west to the limit, to see how far they can go.
Countries like Rumania, Cyprus or Slovakia have major internal problems regarding their population and it is nothing to do with Kosovo independence.
Spain has already made clear that it will not come against the EU .
I should mention the handshake between the president of Serbia and Prime Minister of Kosovo last night.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo said: "It's a handshake between the leaders of two independent countries."
Of course I do not believe that Serbia will recognize Kosova independent or for that matter neither Russia or any of the countries that I mentioned above.
However it is important that the both parties realize that they don’t have to like each other, but they can live peacefully among them.
I might take a few years for the Serb to come to the term with new reality in Balkans.

"Six out of 15 UN Security Council members support Kosovo's independence, B92 has learned."

Why doesnt B92 post who els is against Kosovas Independence, since only 6 seems to be pro-Independence. I bet you learned who was against too, (exclude Russia)


thanks!

Mr Churkin goes over the board to say that Kosovo will not be able to join nither UN nor other international organizations. In my view he forgets that Russia's veto in the UNSC won't prevent Kosovo to join, for instance, NATO, the most important political and military organization in the world. In my opinion, Serbian political elite ought to be less enthusiatic about Russia's tendency to gain prominence by exploiting the issue of Kosovo's status. In the long term such a behaviour may be detrimental to Serbia. Everyone knows that Kosovo was treated as a Colony during the 20'th century, everyone should know that colonial era is long gone. India made up more than 98% of british teritories, yet was let free. In this regard Serbian Prime minister mast not cry out for the 15% of Serbian territory which does not belong to Serbia anyway.
(George, 18 January 2008 02:59)

Wrong. To have NATO membship, one is required to be a souverign nation under the UN guidelines.

george,

kosovo will (if tadic is elected) never enter eu, nato, un, imf, world bank, or anything else!

just cause russia said so, or greece, or bulgaria, or romania or spain or turkey.

what do you think, a third of the eu-countries and a few nato-countries won´t acknowledge indiependence, but surley allow them to enter eu or nato???

btw. the most powerful military aliance isn´t nato!

not just because nato doesn´t win wars!

don´t let us get too childish and wishful in here!

not to mention that the usa had 8 years to build up a kosovo army, but they didn´t! why should they endanger a pseudo-state of their own by arming them? does puerto rico have indiependence or an army?

"the world is beginning to look at Kosovo again"

Does it mean Ireland and similar trend-setting important countries?

SRBOSLAV, the reason why a part of the session was closed is because Serbia and Russia do not want the world to see when Joachim Ruecker of UNMIK and Primeminister Thaci of Kosova address the UNSC.
SRBOSLAV, since you asked "does someone have something to hide..." The answer is that your serbian government has something to hide from the world.
The fact that Serbia requested that The world should not see this makes it very easy to understand that in fact Serbia has something to hide.
As you see, you as a serb disagree with what the serbs and russians asked. If you and your serb friends put yourselves more often into a neutral zone and think based on reality, you will realize that the serb government is doing way too many mistakes.
In this case you have put yourself outside of the serb propaganda and you have realized the mistake of serb requests right away when they requested that Kosovar Primeminister Thaci and UNMIK's Joachim Ruecker should not address the UNSC in open session.
Thank you.

To all of the participants who mentioned my nick: I respect your thoughts, but real true is far away from your statements. Serbians fought against Ottomans in 1389(like all other Balkanian nations), but they never liberated Kosovo from Turks, they didn't even fight against them in 1912('cause like today they were only minority in Kosovo). Kosovo was liberated by Albanians, which liberated even Skopje from Turks. Serbians came in Kosovo after there were no Ottoman forces and made terrible masacres against civilians.
Nevertheless,those years are far away from us, we must look forward and resolve this problem caused by Serbian aspiration for territory of their neighbors. Ahtisari plan is not perfect, but we will move forward with it , until we reach our main goal: Indenpendance, then feel free all of you to came in Prishtina for drinkink the coffee with me ( this is an invitation ).

Ratko, this is very serious forum, please dont sound funny..

You are right Dragan.
Kosovo was never Albanian and will never be!
It was DARDANIA and that’s what it will be!

" Albanians are not Ilyrian, Ilyrians are extinct.
(Delije, 17 January 2008 23:19)
Really? How come then all our neighbours (including Serbs) call us with the name of an Illyrian tribe - Albanoi? We don't call ourselves Albanians, but Shqiptar (Sons of Eagles. South Slavs did really a good job on the extinction and assimilating Illyrians, but not the perfect job though. Some of them survived until today. Those one that you call Albanians. Don't blame the albanian "propaganda", blame your ancestors who named us!

Only 6 for the rest were against or abstained. Funny not a single other news agency or govt diplomat reported any kind of vote at the UNSC. Extremely good "investigative" or "creative" journalism by the B92 staff.

Once the controversy over NATO's illegal bombing of Serbia had died down, the Kosovo story disappeared from the world's media. Only the very occasional event, such as the pogrom in March 2004, managed to penetrate the news headlines. Basically, the world retreated and focussed its attention elsewhere.

This left the stage free for the K-Albanians themselves and their supporters in the US, UK etc to set the agenda and dominate the (limited) debate. This is now changing and the world is beginning to look at Kosovo again.

And the more this happens, the more it will become apparent that the arguments of the K-Albanians are deeply flawed with unknown and potentially dangerous consequences. Let the real debate begin !
(Tom O'Donoghue, 17 January 2008 11:24)

-Are you suggesting Zimbabwe for example will make US and EU change their minds?

Serbia will have no choice but to recognise Kosovo eventually otherwise is can say goodbye to EU membership. Brussels will not make the same mistake as with Cyprus. With Serbias recognition Kosovo can join UN as well.

Kosova was never albanian and never will be , use to be Dardania an illirian tribe and they are albanians, Kosova will never exist as a made up name from serbs, Kosovo pertrain to its original name, REpublic of Dardania, and it will be indipendent not more then two weeks from now. Just wait and watch ,, you will remember me. Dardania , will be the newest created country in the world. Sadly because they are albanians but they just could not join albania right away, one day they certanly will.

Jovan you belittle me by calling me SK instead of KS just because I hold a different opinion than yours.

This shows the Serb Camp (not Serbia or Kosovar-Serb) tactics. I hope we can have more intellectual and productive discussions /debates in the future.

I just thought I'd let you know how I feel about the third grade tactics.

This only shows that entire world recognize the mistake made back in 1912,when international community gaved Kosovo to Serbia as a gift. The very same community is trying to improve their own mistakes, 'cause all of us beleieves that after all there must a be some justice in this world.There is no other case in history of UN(with exeption of Palestine maybe)to have so many attemption of resolvig the situation of some small, insifigant part of the Earth, like Kosovo case.I strongly believe that modalities for Kosovo indenpendance will be found in near future, giving the hoppe for all opressed nation that freedom is reacheable.
Amen.

The debate regarding Kosovo independence I believe is over.. The question is when not if !!!
Russia is using Kosovo as a tool to show their teeth to the west and try to push the west to the limit, to see how far they can go.
Countries like Rumania, Cyprus or Slovakia have major internal problems regarding their population and it is nothing to do with Kosovo independence.
Spain has already made clear that it will not come against the EU .
I should mention the handshake between the president of Serbia and Prime Minister of Kosovo last night.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo said: "It's a handshake between the leaders of two independent countries."
Of course I do not believe that Serbia will recognize Kosova independent or for that matter neither Russia or any of the countries that I mentioned above.
However it is important that the both parties realize that they don’t have to like each other, but they can live peacefully among them.
I might take a few years for the Serb to come to the term with new reality in Balkans.

Kosova has always been Albanian..and it will always be Albanian...sorry, no illegal Greater Serbia!!

(Tom O'Donoghue

I’ve listened to Mr. Tadic very carefully last night to see if he was bringing anything new to the table. Unfortunately he brought nothing to the table. Instead he repeated his offer for autonomy which has been rejected by Kosovars and by the international community. He called the NATO intervention “illegal aggression”. Imagine for a minute the western ambassadors’ reaction to this complete nonsense. His speech was full proof that Serbia is blinded by nationalism and very little has changed since the 90’s.

The Serb side has been offering pathetic arguments for autonomy that even my four year old son would reject. Kosovo had autonomy and we all know what happen to that. There is absolutely no point in talking to the Serbs anymore. Of all the conflicts that the Serbs generated in the former Yugoslavia there isn’t a single conflict a single moment where the Serb side managed to resolve anything peacefully.

"the world is beginning to look at Kosovo again"

Does it mean Ireland and similar trend-setting important countries?

Srboslav, bmrusila and Tom O'Donoghue

by keeping the situation at UN SC dradlocked you are not doing any favour to your country man in Serbia. Do you realy think that if Kosova issue is not solved Serbs in Serbia would be better of. I think you would be lying yourselves only.
Anyhow, K-Alanains are going to do another favour to Serbs and declare the Independece. Serbia and Russia and will not recognise it at first but in couple years Tadic DS and LDS will form a coalition and they will recognise it. This way, Serbia would go out of total isolation and kosova would be recognised at UNSC.
Guys, I am sorry but in Serbia you are in minority and that where you should stay.

You are right Dragan.
Kosovo was never Albanian and will never be!
It was DARDANIA and that’s what it will be!

What I don't get is why there must be sessions behind closed doors???

Does someone have something to hide or what is the reason?

It would benefit both sides and all parties if there were an open debate over this, not some secret club meetings

SC and the EU will stay deadlock forever meaning that they will never reach any unified stand over Kosovo. As Vitali Tchurkin stated yesterday "No one can make a state by breaching the UNSC resolution. No need to have illusions that this is possible". He also promised that after UDI Kosovo will never enter this building, having in mind the UN building. In addition he claims that not a one decision on Kosovo cannot be brought bypassing the UNSC and that legally speaking the UN should abolish UDI.

It is also very promising and in my opinion very good the fact that 40 other countries that are not SC members were present overthere. This only means that the world is watching very closely and witness the flagrant and the IC's filthy attempts of ripping away a part of the souvereign country recognised by the UN.

Do they want the new Sudentenland in the 21. century?

to mika and the albanian gang:

I don't know why albanianss keep repeating oppression? What kind of oppression? That is a BIG lie. Nobody was oppressing you and you were free and able to do anything you wanted in KiM. The things you were able to do in KiM - those things you would never be allowed to do in even in "democratic america." How many albanians live in Beograd today? Why are they there if you albanians hate Serbs and Serbia so much? Look at how you behave to Serbs in KiM and look at how albanians are treated in Beograd.

On the other hand YOU albanians never accepted Serbia as your home, even though we let how many of you come to our country from albania? You never tried to be good citizens of Serbia. All you did is discriminate Serbs and boycotted everything Serb. KiM was never albanian and it never will be, no matter how many lies you make up, no matter how many lies you tell to your children, no matter how you try to create a false history in your history books.

Only the very occasional event, such as the pogrom in March 2004
--------------------------

Mate, you dont know what a pogrom is, yet you feel adept at airing your views, spewing forth venom against an ethnicity that is stuck between a rock and a hard place (and I am not talking about Serbs)

The New World Order starts in Kosovo!!!!

"Six out of 15 UN Security Council members support Kosovo's independence, B92 has learned."

Why doesnt B92 post who els is against Kosovas Independence, since only 6 seems to be pro-Independence. I bet you learned who was against too, (exclude Russia)


thanks!

Once the controversy over NATO's illegal bombing of Serbia had died down, the Kosovo story disappeared from the world's media. Only the very occasional event, such as the pogrom in March 2004, managed to penetrate the news headlines. Basically, the world retreated and focussed its attention elsewhere.

This left the stage free for the K-Albanians themselves and their supporters in the US, UK etc to set the agenda and dominate the (limited) debate. This is now changing and the world is beginning to look at Kosovo again.

And the more this happens, the more it will become apparent that the arguments of the K-Albanians are deeply flawed with unknown and potentially dangerous consequences. Let the real debate begin !
(Tom O'Donoghue, 17 January 2008 11:24)

-Are you suggesting Zimbabwe for example will make US and EU change their minds?

Serbia will have no choice but to recognise Kosovo eventually otherwise is can say goodbye to EU membership. Brussels will not make the same mistake as with Cyprus. With Serbias recognition Kosovo can join UN as well.

Kosova was never albanian and never will be , use to be Dardania an illirian tribe and they are albanians, Kosova will never exist as a made up name from serbs, Kosovo pertrain to its original name, REpublic of Dardania, and it will be indipendent not more then two weeks from now. Just wait and watch ,, you will remember me. Dardania , will be the newest created country in the world. Sadly because they are albanians but they just could not join albania right away, one day they certanly will.

"The interest that the debate stirred is evidenced by the fact that over 40 countries who are not members of the UNSC asked to watch proceedings."

This level of interest is of great significance, I believe.

Once the controversy over NATO's illegal bombing of Serbia had died down, the Kosovo story disappeared from the world's media. Only the very occasional event, such as the pogrom in March 2004, managed to penetrate the news headlines. Basically, the world retreated and focussed its attention elsewhere.

This left the stage free for the K-Albanians themselves and their supporters in the US, UK etc to set the agenda and dominate the (limited) debate. This is now changing and the world is beginning to look at Kosovo again.

And the more this happens, the more it will become apparent that the arguments of the K-Albanians are deeply flawed with unknown and potentially dangerous consequences. Let the real debate begin !

Tadic's scare tactics to encourage citizens to vote for him over Nikolic will backfire as the people of Serbia have seen this tactic before from Milosovic.

Tadic is making mistake after mistake in his campaign to be re-elected. His advisor's are not serving him well at all.

If the economy is the number one issue in Serbia then Tadic has lost this race simply because his solution to the economy problem is simply joining the EU which is not a fix to the problem at all, and in fact such a move at this time for Serbia would only increase the cost of living for the average Serbian as evident from just analyzing the cost of living in Bulgaria and Romania who are in the EU.

I think that more people than anyone suspects will vote for one of the other 7 candidates which will ultimately result in Nikolic's victory since he by far has a stronger hard core support group than Tadic.

I use to think that there will be a run off vote in February but the more I follow these campings the more I realize that in fact Nikolic will get more than 50% of the votes this Sunday thus eliminating the need for a run off vote.

Nikolic is being grossly underestimated by many so called experts who think they know the hearts and minds of the Serbian people.

Nikolic will win simply because people want change, not because of Kosovo or because they honestly believe that Nikolic can delver a better economy but instead because they want someone fresh in office, Tadic simply has not delivered much of what he had promised since he won the elections last time.

Nikolic's win will completely extinguish whatever glimmer of hope Kosovo really has to becoming independent. The EU will not play hardball with Nikolic since it will just encourage the Russians to support Nikolic even more.

Mika,
Your comments about a mistake being made in 1912 are laughable. Kosovo was never, ever, Albanian, nor will it ever be.
As for the 'mistake', I will refer you to the comments of Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie, when he said 'We bombed the wrong side'.

Golly Gosh!
Tense meetings, closed doors, “unique case”, 40 voyagers and the UN Supreme Wise Man debate. If you translate this melodrama into plain English: K-Albanian separatist aspiration (despite the US/UK and “few important” EU countries) is NO GO.
Why am I so sure? Well, check the market info on you local stock exchange (ref. CityBank, gold, crude oil) and you tell me.
Anybody can “recognize” anybody – but if you are not a UM member – you can not join IMF, World Bank, etc. And without that – you are just a territory, artificially propped up by it’s mentors and kept alive as long as they are in good health.
Some analyst see crude oil up to $ 130 US / barrel by mid summer.
Telling, isn’t it!
So, why don’t we cut the agony? Those who want to “recognize independence” should do it and let us all watch how it folds up. If not – stop wasting our time.

Ratko, this is very serious forum, please dont sound funny..

Mr Churkin goes over the board to say that Kosovo will not be able to join nither UN nor other international organizations. In my view he forgets that Russia's veto in the UNSC won't prevent Kosovo to join, for instance, NATO, the most important political and military organization in the world. In my opinion, Serbian political elite ought to be less enthusiatic about Russia's tendency to gain prominence by exploiting the issue of Kosovo's status. In the long term such a behaviour may be detrimental to Serbia. Everyone knows that Kosovo was treated as a Colony during the 20'th century, everyone should know that colonial era is long gone. India made up more than 98% of british teritories, yet was let free. In this regard Serbian Prime minister mast not cry out for the 15% of Serbian territory which does not belong to Serbia anyway.

Joe,

Would you grow up.

I might take a few years for the Serb to come to the term with new reality in Balkans.
(Ilir, 17 January 2008 14:39)

Sorry to inform you, but Serbs will never accept the illegal seperation of Kosovo from Serbia -they lived through centuries of Ottoman occupation.

"Six out of 15 UN Security Council members support Kosovo's independence, B92 has learned."

Let’s see here … this means that the majority are opposed.

Seems to me that Russia and Serbia are not in the minority.

"Kosova has always been Albanian..and it will always be Albanian...sorry, no illegal Greater Serbia!!"

Has it, KS? Really? So what did you Albanians call this piece of land before it was "given" to the Serbs? Please, tell us what it was called.

SRBOSLAV, the reason why a part of the session was closed is because Serbia and Russia do not want the world to see when Joachim Ruecker of UNMIK and Primeminister Thaci of Kosova address the UNSC.
SRBOSLAV, since you asked "does someone have something to hide..." The answer is that your serbian government has something to hide from the world.
The fact that Serbia requested that The world should not see this makes it very easy to understand that in fact Serbia has something to hide.
As you see, you as a serb disagree with what the serbs and russians asked. If you and your serb friends put yourselves more often into a neutral zone and think based on reality, you will realize that the serb government is doing way too many mistakes.
In this case you have put yourself outside of the serb propaganda and you have realized the mistake of serb requests right away when they requested that Kosovar Primeminister Thaci and UNMIK's Joachim Ruecker should not address the UNSC in open session.
Thank you.

To all of the participants who mentioned my nick: I respect your thoughts, but real true is far away from your statements. Serbians fought against Ottomans in 1389(like all other Balkanian nations), but they never liberated Kosovo from Turks, they didn't even fight against them in 1912('cause like today they were only minority in Kosovo). Kosovo was liberated by Albanians, which liberated even Skopje from Turks. Serbians came in Kosovo after there were no Ottoman forces and made terrible masacres against civilians.
Nevertheless,those years are far away from us, we must look forward and resolve this problem caused by Serbian aspiration for territory of their neighbors. Ahtisari plan is not perfect, but we will move forward with it , until we reach our main goal: Indenpendance, then feel free all of you to came in Prishtina for drinkink the coffee with me ( this is an invitation ).

Only 6 for the rest were against or abstained. Funny not a single other news agency or govt diplomat reported any kind of vote at the UNSC. Extremely good "investigative" or "creative" journalism by the B92 staff.

Let's see,

Kosovo never gets UN membership, and the countries that do recognize it are all sending a mission to Kosovo where they set-up military bases and have veto power over Kosovo's government. On top of that Serbia gets angry and imposes a blockade against Kosovo, cuts-off Kosovo's electricity supply, stops issuing passports to Kosovo-Albanians, and stops paying Kosovo's debt to the IMF.

Serbia is in an advantageous legal position to bring all kinds of action at the ICJ. Serbia can do more to Kosovo through the courts than it ever could by having another war with the Albanians.

Since Kosovo isn't a UN member and will never be one, Serbia can sue countries who export natural resources (timber, mining etc...) from Kosovo without the consent of the Serbian government.

Serbia can also impose high import and export taxes on goods traveling to and from Kosovo and sue countries that don't pay.

Without UN membership, Serbia is the country that Kosovo's economy and international trade agreements will have to work through. There won't be international commerce in Kosovo without the agreement of the Serbian government.

Without UN membership Kosovo won't be an internationally recognized entity for the countries that do recognize it to enter into a legally binding trade agreement with. The only legal entity that anyone will be able to negotiate with will be Serbia.

Dragan, I totally agree with you. I have read Gen McKenzie's book "Peacekeeper, the road to Sarajevo" and he writes in a very balanced way.

Mika, 6 out of 15 Security Council members are ready to recognize Kosovo. Does this sound like the world is ready to correct their "mistake"? I don't see a clear majority here.

Some will abstain but that doesn't mean that you have their support. I think you see what you want to see.

Playing victim will not work forever. More credible people are prepared to be on record and go against your independence and will give reasons why.

"Six out of 15 UN Security Council members support Kosovo's independence"

- how strange that we find the US, UK, France, Italy and one can assume Belguim joined by only one other member of the UN SC in this provocative and illegal deceit! We were told it was only Russia standing in the way of the "allegedly bribed" Ahtisaari plan of Supervised Dependence!

This is has made 2008 a great year already only 3 days in (Three days for Julian) and the illegality mob are diminishing with the watchful eye of the rest of the world taking an interest!

Oh what a tangled web we weave.....

6 out of 15 is not a majority, no matter how the ethnic - Albainians count it.

Mika, nice try and keep dreaming. Ilir, wake up and smell reality Kosovo will not be indep. John, take what you can get, indep is a no go. KS, Kosovo is Serbian, don't feed yourself lies. Albanians are not Ilyrian, Ilyrians are extinct. To the rest of Albanian camp, no "Greater Albania". Indep is a pipe dream, reality is autonomy.

to Mika and Sk and others...

there is no kosovahh... =)

and, just to inform you: Serbia got no presents in 1912...it had previously fought the ottoman empire and won important battles...and liberated it´s own land...that was occupied centuries before by the ottomans...there were no Albanians at all at that time, who could have had any historical significance.

I am sorry, but you can´t change history!

and one thing you really should start to understand: you are NOT the descendants of the illyrians.
if you really believe in the articles of a Encyclopedia Britannica in it´s edition from 1911 (!) then one can only feel pity for you...

wake up and open your eyes to the truth!

Mr Churkin goes over the board to say that Kosovo will not be able to join nither UN nor other international organizations. In my view he forgets that Russia's veto in the UNSC won't prevent Kosovo to join, for instance, NATO, the most important political and military organization in the world. In my opinion, Serbian political elite ought to be less enthusiatic about Russia's tendency to gain prominence by exploiting the issue of Kosovo's status. In the long term such a behaviour may be detrimental to Serbia. Everyone knows that Kosovo was treated as a Colony during the 20'th century, everyone should know that colonial era is long gone. India made up more than 98% of british teritories, yet was let free. In this regard Serbian Prime minister mast not cry out for the 15% of Serbian territory which does not belong to Serbia anyway.
(George, 18 January 2008 02:59)

Wrong. To have NATO membship, one is required to be a souverign nation under the UN guidelines.

" Albanians are not Ilyrian, Ilyrians are extinct.
(Delije, 17 January 2008 23:19)
Really? How come then all our neighbours (including Serbs) call us with the name of an Illyrian tribe - Albanoi? We don't call ourselves Albanians, but Shqiptar (Sons of Eagles. South Slavs did really a good job on the extinction and assimilating Illyrians, but not the perfect job though. Some of them survived until today. Those one that you call Albanians. Don't blame the albanian "propaganda", blame your ancestors who named us!

Only 6 out of 15 support independence now? What happened to the majority that they claimed last year? Somebody has been lying to us all of this time....

Jovan you belittle me by calling me SK instead of KS just because I hold a different opinion than yours.

This shows the Serb Camp (not Serbia or Kosovar-Serb) tactics. I hope we can have more intellectual and productive discussions /debates in the future.

I just thought I'd let you know how I feel about the third grade tactics.

george,

kosovo will (if tadic is elected) never enter eu, nato, un, imf, world bank, or anything else!

just cause russia said so, or greece, or bulgaria, or romania or spain or turkey.

what do you think, a third of the eu-countries and a few nato-countries won´t acknowledge indiependence, but surley allow them to enter eu or nato???

btw. the most powerful military aliance isn´t nato!

not just because nato doesn´t win wars!

don´t let us get too childish and wishful in here!

not to mention that the usa had 8 years to build up a kosovo army, but they didn´t! why should they endanger a pseudo-state of their own by arming them? does puerto rico have indiependence or an army?