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Macedonia: Albanian Theatre Could Bring the House Down

6.6.2007 by admin.

Albanian Theatre Could Bring the House Down

Opposition’s high-risk strategy - and government’s foolish stubbornness - putting the Ohrid deal in jeopardy.

By Ana Petruseva in Skopje (Balkan Insight, 5 Oct 06)
Macedonia’s main Albanian opposition party is doing its utmost to show the new government it made a big mistake when it left them out of the cabinet.

Some would go further, saying they have crossed the line of what a responsible political party is entitled to do in a democracy.

They are not the only ones behaving irresponsibly. The government’s stubborn attempts to outsmart the Albanian opposition party may turn out to have an equally destructive effect.

To recap, the deputies of the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, have been courting public attention for days, pulling ever-stranger stunts in the nation’s parliament.

In protest against the passage of a new law on the police, about which they say they should have been consulted, they have stormed the speaker’s podium, banged their parliamentary rule books and generally made such a brouhaha that deputies trying to work normally had to put on headphones to cut out the noise.

The situation calmed a little when the DUI antics drew criticism from international representatives in the country.

But this will not be the end of DUI’s attempts to block the work of parliament and punish the government for its failure to choose them as its Albanian partners.

In their defence, the DUI feel humiliated after the right-wing VMRO DMPNE won the general elections in July and did not invite them into government.

As they won the majority of Albanian votes, they felt entitled to re-enter the government they had shared for the past four years.

Instead, VMRO chose their Albanian rivals in the Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, as partners.

But instead of behaving responsibly, the DUI has kicked and screamed.

…………………….

http://www.iwpr.net/?p=brn&s=f&o=324448&apc_state=henpbrn

Geschrieben in Balkan (Englisch) | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

Britischer Militär Attache John Crossland: UCK war/ist eine Terror Organisation

6.6.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

Crossland: KLA’s goal was creation of second Albanian state

Beta

January 19, 2005

The former British military attaché in Belgrade, colonel John Crossland, testified today at the trial of three members of the Kosovo Liberation Army before the Hague tribunal that the goal of the paramilitary formation during the war in Kosovo was the creation of a second Albanian state.

As a prosecution witness in the trial against Fatmir Limaj, Haradin Balaj and Isak Musliju, Crossland said that the KLA “by 1996-97 was beginning to see Kosovo as a second Albanian state outside Albania”.

Limaj, Balaj and Musliju are accused of the murder of at least 22 Albanian and Serbian civilians, and the illegal detention and torture of Albanians and Serbs in an improvised KLA prison camp in the village of Lapusnik near Glogovac, on the Pristina-Pec road, from May to July 1998.

“The entire time the KLA was saying that it was trying to take those territories the Serbs were calling ‘Greater Albania’,” said Crossland, who regularly visited Kosovo in 1998-99 and send daily reports to the British ministry of defense.

Quotations from dozens of these reports cited in the courtroom in the presence of representatives of the British government by prosecutor Andrew Caley, while the witness elaborated on them.

Prosecutor Caley also read an assessment before the court from one report by general Nebojsa Pavkovic, then commander of the Yugoslav Army’s Third Army, that the goal of the KLA was “to conquer the territory of Kosovo and annex it to ‘Greater Albania’”. Witness Crossland agreed with Pavkovic’s assessment.

Colonel Crossland, who testified using witness identity protection techniques, said that since April 1998 he had information that the KLA was abducting and detaining Serbian civilians, adding that some 200 Serbs were kidnapped that year and the next.

“The Serbs were right to accuse the KLA of holding Serbian civilians, the majority of whom later vanished,” said the witness, adding that in May 1998 he heard of the existence of a prison camp near Glogovac but was unable to verify it. According to Crossland, the KLA conducted an almost uninterrupted series of abductions of Serbs in order to intimidate the Serbian population.

Crossland also described his meeting with the KLA commander called Cheliku in Malisevo on July 1, 1998, during which other members of the KLA threatened to detain him. “I answered that I was the British military attaché to Yugoslavia and that I could go where I pleased. They responded that Kosovo was no longer Yugoslavia but Albania,” said the witness.

When asked if he had ever met the accused Limaj, he answered that he had met him then if it is true that his nom de guerre was Cheliku.

Crossland also emphasized that the KLA was constantly growing and arming itself from Albania through smuggling channels originating from the training camps in Bajram Curri, Kuks and Tropoi.

The witness also confirmed that he met on several occasions with Ramush Haradinaj, the KLA commander in the border areas around Decani and Djakovica.

He also related that in August 1998 near the village of Rznic in Haradinaj’s area of responsibility he saw a mass grave containing eight to twelve bodies Serbian officials claimed were victims of the KLA.

“The Serbs claimed 40 people had been killed because that’s how many were missing but in the ditch we saw eight to twelve bodies. In the same location we also found empty cartridges of Chinese origin, which potentially implicates the KLA. According to this evidence, the Serbs were telling the truth,” said Crossland, adding that he then brought the British ambassador and Paddy Ashdown, who was visiting Kosovo, to the scene of the crime.

He indicated that in summer 1998 Serbian security forces launched a major campaign against the KLA, during the course of which they unselectively destroyed many villages and caused the mass displacement of tens of thousands of Albanian civilians.

“After the Milosevic-Holbrooke agreement in October, the Yugoslav Army withdraw three combat groups to their barracks. I warned in my reports to London and NATO headquarters that the KLA would take over the positions from which the Yugoslav Army had withdrawn, which is in fact what happened,” said the witness.

During the autumn, continued Crossland, the KLA received further shipments of modern weapons from Albanians, followed by attacks on police patrols and new abductions of Serbs on the main roads.

He testifed that he was shown newly arrived modern weapons and Panzer antitank grenade launchers in Haradinaj’s headquarters near Decani in the same period that three Serbian policemen were killed not far away with an antitank grenade in November 1998.

Colonel Crossland testified earlier as a prosecution witness before the Hague tribunal in the trial of former Serbian and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia president Slododan Milosevic, who is accused, among other things, for crimes against the Kosovo Albanians.

http://news.suc.org/bydate/2005/January_19/30.html

“According to Crossland, the KLA conducted an almost uninterrupted series of abductions of Serbs in order to intimidate the Serbian population. ”

Und Colonel begegnete ebenso diesen Afghanistan Veteranen von Bin Laden, welche mit Hilfe der www.mpri.com bei den Albanern aus Ausbildern waren.

“There he found
between 150 and 200 uniformed men carrying small arms, including a
person who he concluded was of �Middle Eastern origin�.”

http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/tri/tri_389_4_eng.txt 

23.02.2007

Germinal Civikov
Der Mann ohne Gesicht

MILUTINOVIC-PROZESS IN DEN HAAG*Zeuge John Crossland, einst britischer Militärattaché in Belgrad, erklärt die UÇK zur terroristischen Vereinigung und vergleicht sie mit der IRA

Die so genannte Kosovo-Befreiungsarmee, besser bekannt als UÇK, sei ein Instrument der USA gewesen, um den Präsidenten Slobodan Milosevic zu stürzen. US-Präsident Bill Clinton, seine Außenministerin Albright und Richard Holbrooke, US-Chefunterhändler für das Kosovo, hätten 1998 nun einmal beschlossen, in Belgrad einen Regimewechsel zu erzwingen, und deshalb jede Zurückhaltung gegenüber einer terroristischen Organisation fallen gelassen. Man habe die UÇK kräftig unterstützt, obgleich man über ihren Charakter und ihre Führer bestens informiert gewesen sei. Auch die westlichen Medien seien mit von der Partie gewesen, indem sie die UÇK als Befreiungsarmee gefeiert hätten.

Manch einer wird meinen, man höre wieder eine der Verschwörungstheorien, wie sie “die Serben” gern kolportieren, die bekanntlich stets behauptet haben, die UÇK sei von den USA und von Deutschland aufgepeppt worden, auf dass der restjugoslawische Staat zerschlagen werde. Die eingangs zitierten Aussagen freilich formulierte ein Zeuge der Anklage im Haager Prozess gegen die einstige serbisch-jugoslawische Führung: Oberst John Crossland, britischer Militärattaché in Belgrad zwischen 1996 und 1999. Er wird im Milosevic-Nachfolgeprozess, auch “Prozess gegen die Amselfelder Sechs” (s. Freitag 30/06) genannt, zur Sache gehört. Angeklagt sind der serbische Ex-Präsident, Milan Milutinovic, der ehemalige Vizepremier Nikola Sainovic sowie die Generäle Dragoljub Ojdanic, Nebojsa Pavkovic, Vladimir Lazarevic und Sreten Lukic, 1998/99 Kriegsverbrechen gegen die Kosovo-Albaner begangen und etwa 800.000 von ihnen vertrieben zu haben.
……….
http://www.freitag.de/2007/08/07080901.php

Geschrieben in Geschichte - History, Balkan | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

Sex And Power In Turkey.Feminism, Islam And The Maturing Of Turkish Democracy

6.6.2007 by Lupo.

Sex And Power In Turkey.
Feminism, Islam And The Maturing Of Turkish Democracy

http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/esi_document_id_90.pdf

In 2005 ESI published its first analytical report on Turkey: Islamic Calvinists – Change and Conservatism in Central Anatolia.

We hoped at the time that it would contribute to a better understanding of Turkey in Europe. However, the response to the report surprised us. Islamic Calvinists was discussed in media from New York to Shanghai, London, Paris, Barcelona, Munich, Brussels, Prague. It also triggered an intense debate in Turkey about the relationship between modernisation and religion. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül declared himself to be an “Islamic Calvinist”.

Obviously there was a large interest in empirically based analyses of today’s changing Turkey.

Turkey’s feminine revolution

The publication of our most recent report – Sex and Power in Turkey – Feminism, Islam and the Maturing of Turkish Democracy – also takes place at a time of vigorous debate about Islam, secularism and democracy. However, our research on this topic started a long time ago.

Over the past 18 months, a team of ESI analysts has been researching the changing reality of women in Turkey. This took us from women’s shelters in wealthy areas of Istanbul, through the growing urban centres in Turkey’s southeast, to small towns near the Iranian border. We sought to answer two questions: what are the root causes of Turkey’s vast gender gap? And what is being done by Turkish political actors to try to close it?

Today, Turkey lags behind every other European country in almost every measure of gender equality. It has the lowest number of women in parliament, the lowest share of women in the workforce and the highest rates of female illiteracy. The perception that, in this highly sensitive area, Turkey is out of step with other European societies has become central to European debates on Turkey’s EU accession.

Our findings make the direction of recent changes in Turkey obvious:

“In the history of the Turkish Republic, there have been two periods when major improvements were made to the status of women. One was the 1920s, the early years of the Republic, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk outlawed polygamy and abolished Islamic courts in favour of secular institutions. The second major reform era has been the period since 2001 which saw the most radical changes to the legal status of Turkish women in 80 years. As a result, for the first time in its history, Turkey has the legal framework of a post-patriarchal society.”

On the basis of our research we conclude:

“There are some who fear that Turkey may be turning its back on its secular traditions. Some of the loudest voices come from Kemalist women, who insist that the rise of ‘political Islam’ represents an acute threat to the rights and freedoms of Turkish women. There have even been calls for restrictions to Turkish democracy, to protect women’s rights. Yet such an ‘authoritarian feminism’ is out of touch with the reality of contemporary Turkey and the achievements of recent years.”

In addition to our report there is more background information on our website: core statistics, key documents.

We also recommend an extremely interesting recent publication by Richard Rose and Yusuf Ozcan on the Quality of Life in Turkey (2007).

In coming weeks we will add more material to this section of our website to support readers and researchers who want to explore this vital issue further.
Nebahat Akkoç Karita Bekkemellem Emine Bozkurt Hidayet Şefkatli Tuksal Nigar Goksel (ESI)

Akkoc

Bekkemellem

Bozkurt

Tuksal

Nigar Goksel

Imagine a new world

ESI Senior Analyst and editor of Turkish Policy Quarterly Nigar Goksel has put together a special issue of TPQ dedicated to the topic of women in Turkey.

Emine Bozkurt, Member of the European Parliament, writes about “Women’s human rights” on Turkey’s way to Europe.

“For the countries that want to be accepted as member of the EU, like Turkey, compliance with the gender equality principle is a pre-condition of membership. In this respect, gender equality and women’s rights is one of the major areas of Turkey’s accession process to the EU.”

Nebahat Akkoç, founder of KAMER (Women’s Center) in South East Anatolia, is one of the outstanding advocates of women’s rights in Turkey today. In TPQ she imagines “a new world” without violence against women.

“In recent years, violence against women, and especially physical violence and violence that results in murder, has been brought to the agenda. The efforts of women’s organizations and Turkey’s EU candidacy process have been effective in this sense.”

Hidayet Şefkatli Tuksal, head of the NGO Capital City Women’s Platform, challenges the “unethical disqualification of women wearing the headscarf in Turkey”. TPQ features an interview with Karita Bekkemellem, Minister of Children and Equality in Norway, about “gender equality in the workforce”. And EU Commissioner and former Czech Prime Minister Vladimír Špidla writes about “Empowering women in Turkey” as a priority in the EU pre-accession process. He also notes:

“The role of women’s associations has been recognized by the Turkish Government. Together with social services and the Directorate General for the Status of Woman, they need to become fully-fledged partners in implementing the relevant legislation and initiatives.”

Additional TPQ articles on this issue will be put online within the next week.

We hope our new report and these articles interest you and look forward to your feedback.

Best regards,

Gerald Knaus

Gerald Knaus
Further reading

* ESI REPORT - Sex and Power in Turkey
* Background Documents
* Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Sex and Power in Turkey
* New TPQ on Women in Turkey
* European Foundation for the improvement of living and working conditions: Quality of life in Turkey (Richard Rose / Yusuf Ozcan)
* Public Debate on ESI’s Islamic Calvinists
* About Us – The ESI Picture Story

SZ 2.7.07 Die Frau als Besitz des Mannes

http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/esi_women_turkey_reactions_id_1.pdf

Geschrieben in Welt News Spezial, Balkan (Englisch) | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

Roberto Calvi: 5 cleared in ‘God’s banker’ trial

6.6.2007 by Lupo.

5 cleared in ‘God’s banker’ trial
Story Highlights
• Two convicted mobsters and three others acquitted in Roberto Calvi murder trial
• Head of Banco Ambrosiano was found hanging under a London bridge in 1982
• Calvi was known as “God’s banker” because of Vatican links
• Rome court found there was insufficient evidence against those charged

ROME, Italy (Reuters) — Two Italian mobsters, a bodyguard, a financier and his girlfriend were acquitted on Wednesday of the 1982 murder of Roberto Calvi, known as “God’s banker” for his Vatican links, who was found hanging from a London bridge.

The head of the collapsed Banco Ambrosiano was found weighed down with bricks, with $15,000 in his pockets, dangling from a noose under Blackfriars Bridge in central London. First ruled a suicide, the case was reopened in 2003 as a murder inquiry.

The prosecution wanted life sentences for four of those charged, but a Rome court said there was insufficient evidence.

The prosecution portrayed it as a mafia revenge killing for Calvi’s theft of Cosa Nostra money he was meant to launder, as well as money stolen from Licio Gelli of the P2 Masonic lodge.

It presented forensic evidence that he was strangled and his suicide staged in a manner suggesting mafia or Masonic ritual.

An investigator hired by Calvi’s son Carlo, who has never believed it was suicide, was disappointed but not surprised.

“These were people who didn’t put the rope around his neck or order it, they were just facilitators so it doesn’t surprise me altogether that they weren’t found guilty,” said Jeff Katz, head of London corporate investigators Bishop International.

“It’s a big disappointment for the family and will be for the magistrates too,” he told Reuters by phone from London.

The court acquitted mafia “treasurer” Pippo Calo, serving life for another murder; Sardinian financier Flavio Carboni; Rome crime boss Ernesto Diotallevi; and Calvi’s bodyguard Silvano Vittor. Carboni’s Austrian girlfriend Manuela Kleinszig was cleared of all suspicion, as the prosecution had requested.

Despite a quarter of a century’s wait, many questions have never been answered about Calvi, who has even been linked by authors to the untimely death of Pope John Paul I in 1978.

Carlo Calvi, now a banker in Canada, hired Katz to look for evidence of foul play. With forensic experts Katz reconstructed the scaffolding from which Calvi was hanged to show his shoes would have had traces of rust had he climbed it to hang himself.

“There was no trace on his shoes, so if he didn’t walk on the scaffolding someone must have put him there,” said Katz.

The mysterious circumstances of Calvi’s death cast a long shadow over the Vatican, which was implicated financially in the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano.

The Vatican Bank owned a small part of Ambrosiano and it was found partly responsible for the $1.3 billion in bad debts left by its failure. Calvi was appealing against a four-year sentence when he secretly flew to London in 1982 with a case of papers.

Katz believes Calvi was lured onto a boat on the Thames with the promise of meeting shadowy financiers who could help him save Ambrosiano, when he was murdered and his suicide staged.

The motive, Katz believed, was that Calvi had threatened to squeal on his powerful clients if they let him go to jail.

“Who could Calvi damage most in 1982? The political establishment had most to lose because of the payments being funneled illegally to them by corporations,” he said. “I think the powers that be were trying to send a very strong message.”

Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/06/06/italy.calvi.reut/index.html

Geschrieben in Welt News Spezial, Balkan (Englisch) | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

Serbia tobacco action plan leads to CEFTA ratification in September

6.6.2007 by admin.

Serbia tobacco action plan leads to CEFTA ratification in September

06/06/2007

After adopting an action plan to regulate domestic tobacco laws earlier this year, Serbia has now cleared the way to ratify the CEFTA treaty with the rest of the region.

By Davor Konjikusic and Georgi Mitev-Shantek for Southeast European Times in Belgrade — 06/06/07

photoThe main goal of CEFTA is to develop economic relations among member countries. [CEFTA]

The Serbian Economy Ministry announced earlier this week that the country would ratify the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) in September, ending its status as the only country in the region not to have done so.

Serbian State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development Jasna Matic said on Monday (June 4th) that with the removal of the obstacles between Serbia and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia — which included import and export taxation — Parliament can adopt the bill needed to ratify the agreement.

According to the agreement, CEFTA’s main goal is to “establish a free trade area by gradual liberalisation of mutual trade relations, and by the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade during a transitional period.”

“By becoming a member of CEFTA, Serbia will benefit the most from a so-called diagonal accumulation principle that enables privileged export regime into the EU market of goods produced in more than one of the CEFTA member states,” Matic said.

In light of the export market, the CEFTA members — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Kosovo — have agreed to the Serbian government’s action plan for the tobacco industry, which was adopted in March.

The plan envisions equalising the excise duty on domestic and foreign cigarettes from January 1st, 2008, increasing the customs duty from 15% to 57.6%, and will run from 2008 to 2012 to regulate relations between the state and the tobacco industry. The document aims to improve the agricultural tobacco industry, increase exports of tobacco products and improve agricultural tobacco production.

The plan abolishes discriminatory excise taxation, providing the same treatment for domestic and foreign brands of cigarettes. It also eases the present obligation to buy domestic tobacco — companies can purchase up to 20% of their tobacco from abroad.

Tobacco factories in Serbia are satisfied by the move, saying it encourages continued investment in Serbia. Eugenio Sidoli, general manager of the DIN cigarette plant in Nis, owned by Philip Morris, said the plan will be more costly to cigarette makers, but the costs will be offset by the introduction of market conditions and business policy changes.

“The aim is to earn a considerable excise revenue profit by 2012, as there should be an increase of the export in the tobacco industry, and encourage farmers to grow larger tobacco quantities and manufacture better tobacco leaves,” Minister for Economic Affairs Milan Parivodic said.

Since 2003, four tobacco companies have invested about 1 billion euros in Serbia’s tobacco industry.

Parivodic said the plan allows the ratification of CEFTA, and lets the country open negotiations on joining the World Trade Organisation.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2007/06/06/feature-02

Geschrieben in Economy - Wirtschaft | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

TURKEY EXPANDS ROLE IN KOSOVO AS BUSH PREPARES TO VISIT ALBANIA

6.6.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

TURKEY EXPANDS ROLE IN KOSOVO AS BUSH PREPARES TO VISIT ALBANIA

By John C.k. Daly

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Today, June 5, Turkish NATO forces in Kosovo assume a one-year command of NATO’s Multinational Task Force South (MNTF-S), one of NATO’s five regional commands of Kosovo Force (KFOR), responsible for establishing and maintaining security in the disaffected Serbian province. NATO peacekeepers have been deployed in Kosovo since 1999 under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.

Turkey currently maintains 800 soldiers in KFOR. MNTF-S consists of 4,000 troops from eight NATO member countries, most come from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Netherlands (Anadolu Ajansi, May 29). France has 2,800 troops in the northern part of the province. Prior to the handover, German officers commanded MNTF-S. Overall KFOR strength in Kosovo is 16,500, ensuring security for the province’s two million inhabitants, an estimated 88% of whom are ethnic Albanian.

Turkish Brigadier General Ugur Tarcın will command MNTF-S, which also includes Azerbaijani and Georgian teams. Ankara is to send an additional 300 soldiers to reinforce the contingent. In a collateral “hearts and minds” initiative, a Turkish medical unit within the battalion will also provide health services for Kosovar civilians. Turkey will hand over command of the Task Force to Austria in May 2008. At this year’s transfer ceremony Tarcin said, “We will be putting another stone to ensure and to improve security and stability. I believe that everyone knows how necessary a safe atmosphere is for the reconstruction and development of Kosovo.” It seems most unlikely that Belgrade will be pleased with the deployment, especially given the historic Turkish presence in the province.

Turkey has a longstanding presence in Kosovo, having ruled it for nearly six centuries following the battle of Kosovo in 1389, when Ottoman forces defeated the Serbian army of Prince Lazar. The current deployment suggests that NATO has concluded that Turkey, the sole Muslim member of the alliance, has a unique peacekeeping role to play in Muslim areas of NATO operations; last month Turkey also assumed command of NATO’s Kabul Command, part of its Afghan International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO largest ground operation in its history.

Ankara’s effort has a larger agenda and seeks greater international rewards. According to an announcement about the deployment of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), “The TSK is taking on this mission in a period which is significant for the future of Kosovo. This once again emphasizes the importance that Turkey attaches to the restoration of peace and stability in the Balkans. It also confirms that we will continue to meet our commitments regarding international security within the context of Turkey’s candidacy for the UN Security Council for the 2009-2010 term.”

The potential stumbling block to UN resolution of the province’s status is Security Council permanent member Russia, which has consistently supported Serbian objections to Kosovar independence. The Croatian press, however, has reported that a potential compromise among Russia, the European Union, and Washington may be accomplished if Washington is willing to be flexible (Jutarnji List, May 28). The newspaper, quoting sources “close to the Russian leadership,” stated, “If Moscow shows readiness to accept the plan…then Brussels and Washington, would in exchange, accept a two-year moratorium on Kosovo’s membership in the UN.” Other conditions proposed by Moscow include guarantees for the non-Albanians in Kosovo and the permanent stationing of Russian peacekeepers in the province. The deadlock and posturing over the province’s final disposition continues, however, as on June 1 Russian UN representative Vitaly Churkin rejected a new draft UN resolution from Britain supporting “internationally supervised independence,” stating, “The introduction of this updated version of the draft has not changed anything as far as we are concerned.”

U.S. President George W. Bush is about to hear a great deal about Kosovo firsthand. Following visits to the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, and Bulgaria after a Group of Eight (G-8) summit June 6-8 in Germany, Bush will visit Albania on June 10. Bush will be the first U.S. president to visit the small Balkan country. As a front-line border state with Kosovo, issues regarding the province will doubtless dominate the agenda. Presidential safety is also a prime concern on the trip; while security for the impending visit is tight, an unexplained explosion near the U.S. embassy in Tirana on May 16 and two munitions seizures on May 30, for which no groups have yet claimed responsibility, have increased security concerns. During the May 30 incidents Albanian security forces located a plastic bag containing several grams of explosives at Tirana University’s economics faculty near the U.S. embassy, and shortly afterwards, a package with an ounce of explosives was located in Mother Teresa Square, near Albanian President Alfred Moisiu’s offices (Focus news agency, May 31).

In light of Bush’s impending visit, on May 31 the Law and National Security Commission of Albania’s parliament implemented a law allowing U.S. security forces to accompany Bush despite current Albanian laws preventing foreign troops from entering Albanian territory (ATA, May 31). Albanian security officials remain concerned about the possibility of attacks by Islamic extremists in Albania and Kosovo, as Albania’s borders with Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro remain still largely unsecured. Earlier this year an Albanian newspaper reported that “Wahhabis” were operating in Albania (Shqip, February 6). In 1999 U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen and President Bill Clinton both canceled visits to Albania because of threats from a local terrorist cell.

Relations between the United States and Russia are at their lowest ebb in many years, yet cooperation is essential if the Kosovo issue is to be resolved. In the interim, Turkey is putting its peacekeepers where its rhetoric is, a point that should not be lost on policymakers in either Moscow or Washington.

 
http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2372208 

Geschrieben in Balkan (Englisch) | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

Politische Turbulenzen lassen Investoren in Osteuropa kalt

6.6.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

05.06.2007 | 18:27 |   (Die Presse)

In Südosteuropa wurden starke Geldzuflüsse verzeichnet.

(c) Reuters WIEN (mk). Es gab im vergangenen Jahr ausreichend Gründe für einen Rückgang bei den Direktinvestitionen: Die unsichere politische Zukunft in der Ukraine beispielsweise, der ewige Koalitionspoker in Serbien, die wackelige Regierung in Tschechien oder eher investorenunfreundlich agierende Politiker in Polen. Doch das alles machte nichts aus. Die Osteuropa-Investitionen legte im Vorjahr neuerlich um ein Drittel auf 77 Mrd. Euro zu. Dies geht aus einer Statistik des Wiener Instituts für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche (WIIW) hervor.

„Die wirtschaftlichen Probleme haben – mit Ausnahme des Kosovo – keine Auswirkungen auf die wirtschaftliche Stabilität und die Geldflüsse“, sagt Gábor Hunya vom WIIW. Er rechnet bei „konservativer Schätzung“ damit, dass heuer das Niveau des Vorjahres gehalten werde.

Betrachtet man die Statistik genauer, so sind gleich mehrere Punkte interessant:
•Schwerpunkt der Investitionen wird immer mehr Südosteuropa. Vor allem die beiden jüngsten EU-Staaten Rumänien und Bulgarien zogen im Vorjahr viele Geldgeber an. Überraschend stark war auch das Interesse an Polen. Hier fanden zahlreiche Investitionen auf der „grünen Wiese“ statt.
•Die südosteuropäischen Länder des Westbalkans – Ex-Jugoslawien und Albanien – erhielten 2006 doppelt so viele Direktinvestitionen wie im Jahr zuvor. Speziell Kroatien, Montenegro und Serbien profitierten von hohen Zuflüssen auf Grund großer Privatisierungsprojekte.
•Die meisten Direktinvestitionen in Russland stammen aus Zypern, wo einige Oligarchen aus steuerlichen Gründen eine zweite Heimat gefunden haben. Umgekehrt flossen die meisten Direktinvestitionen der Russen ebenfalls nach Zypern. Allerdings würden sich in Russland die Statistiken von Notenbank und Statistikamt stark unterscheiden, sagt Hunya.
•Immer mehr osteuropäische Unternehmen investieren selbst im Ausland. Vor allem Polen, Ungarn und Slowenen tretet international als Investoren auf – vor allem in Südosteuropa.
•Österreich unterscheidet sich von anderen Investorenländern dadurch, dass es vor allem in kleinen Nachbarländern investiert und dass ein Großteil der Gelder von Banken, im Handels- und Bausektor ausgegeben wird.
•Österreich ist hinter den Niederlanden (wozu auch die Antillen gezählt werden, wo der Stahlkonzern ArcelorMittal seinen Sitz hat) und Deutschland der drittwichtigste Investor in den neuen EU-Ost-Mitgliedstaaten (ohne das Baltikum). In Südosteuropa ist Österreich der führende Investor. Ein Viertel aller Direktinvestitionen in diesen Ländern stammt aus Österreich.
•Erkennbar ist auch, dass Einkünfte aus den Investitionen verstärkt zu den Geberländern zurückfließen. Allerdings wagt es Hunya nicht zu prognostizieren, ob dieser Trend sich fortsetzt oder abschwächt.

(”Die Presse”, Print-Ausgabe, 06.06.2007)

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