European Politics > Serbian-Kosovo Tensions Flare Again - Serb Military on High Alert

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U.S, EU call for calm amid Serbian-Kosovo tensions

Tensions are escalating in a region that was the scene of bloody conflict in the 1990s.

By Daniel J. Graeber

   

The United States and European Union on Wednesday urged restraint from Serbia and Kosovo a day after

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic put military forces on high alert. Photo by Andrej Cukic/EPA-EFE

Dec. 28 (UPI) -- The European and U.S. governments on Wednesday said they were concerned about escalating tensions between Serbia and Kosovo and called on all parties to exercise maximum restraint.

One day after the Serbian president put his forces on high alert, the two Western governments expressed concern over tensions in the region.

"We call on everyone to exercise maximum restraint, to take immediate action to unconditionally de-escalate the situation, and to refrain from provocations, threats, or intimidation," they said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic put military forces on high alert on Tuesday amid increasing tensions with Kosovo, which is not recognized as an independent country by Belgrade.

Belgrade said that ethnic Serbs had come under attack during recent tensions with Kosovo. Both countries have been at loggerheads since the Soviet Union dissolved in the 1990s, though renewed and heightened tensions are a cause for regional concern given the geopolitical implications of Russia's war on Ukraine, a former Soviet republic.

The NATO-led peacekeeping Kosovo Force reported it was the target of gunfire in northern Kosovo during the weekend. NATO has some 3,700 peacekeeping troops in Kosovo.

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization - has been heavily embedded in Serbia and Kosovo for nearly 20 years now even though neither country has an Atlantic coast. In the 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed, NATO was frantically looking for a raison d'etre. They found it in this region, far from the Atlantic Ocean. Weapons manufacturing countries were only too glad to have a new market open up for their war inventories. 

Are the weapons-manufacturing oligarchs behind this escalation in tensions? Are they afraid Russia and Ukraine might actually make a peace deal?

The EU and U.S. governments added they were working with President Vucic and his prime minister, Albin Kurti, to find a political solution to the crisis.

"We welcome the assurances of the leadership of Kosovo confirming that no lists of Kosovo Serb citizens to be arrested or prosecuted for peaceful protests/barricades exist," their joint statement read. "At the same time, rule of law must be respected, and any form of violence is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

Unless, of course, NATO benefits from it!

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the 10-year Kosovo War, which ended in the late 1990s. Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was put on trial at a U.N. tribunal for crimes against humanity in Kosovo.

European Politics > Serbia - Kosovo Ink Deal; Europe's Record Gas Prices; Emigration Doubles in Lebanon; Eurozone Inflation Highest Since 2008

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Serbia inks deal with breakaway Kosovo region to end spat

that featured jet flyovers and tanks at border

30 Sep, 2021 13:54

Kosovo special police with armoured vehicles are pictured as hundreds of Kosovo Serbs protest against a government ban on entry of vehicles with Serbian registration plates in Jarinje, Kosovo, September 20, 2021. © Reuters / Laura Hasani

Chief negotiators for Serbia and Kosovo have formally reached agreement to conclude the latest round of escalation. “We have a deal,” tweeted EU special representative Miroslav Lajcak after two days of “intense negotiations.”

The recent disagreement had seen Kosovo order its police to force any cars attempting to cross the border to remove Serbian license plates, arguing that a 10-year-old deal between the nations had expired. Serbia had responded by sending military planes to fly near the border, while footage from the area showed tanks and military vehicles deployed to the area.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had previously urged the two sides to work to “de-escalate” and “return to the negotiation table to find a sustainable solution.” The European bloc has been trying to facilitate talks between Serbia and its breakaway region for the past decade, as Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence in 2008.

The deal comes after the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, called on the European Union to “convey a clear message that Europe has an interest in a European Balkans” after the bloc warned it can’t guarantee “six countries” (as most of the EU recognize Kosovo’s independence) future membership, as had once been promised.

Speaking ahead of a summit next week, Schmidt urged the EU to work to bolster “closer cooperation” between the bloc and Balkan nations, working on improving economic and infrastructure ties. The countries had all previously been promised they would be ultimately admitted to the EU bloc, with officials promising 18 years ago to give their “unequivocal support for the European perspective of the Western Balkans.”

The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina is a role that was established in the wake of the Dayton Agreement, signed at the end of the Bosnian War, to oversee the peace process in the region. Schmidt ascended to the role after his predecessor resigned despite some international opposition to his appointment, with Russia arguing he should have been approved by the UN Security Council.

Gas price keeps climbing in Europe as Brussels delays

Russian supplies via Nord Stream 2

30 Sep, 2021 08:20

© AP / Joerg Sarbach

The price of natural gas in Europe exceeded an all-time high of $1,100 per 1,000 cubic meters on Thursday, trading data from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) shows.

The cost of November futures on the TTF hub in the Netherlands reached $1101 per 1,000 cubic meters in morning trading. This is nearly $106 per megawatt-hour in household terms. The overall rise in gas prices was about 5% by 8am GMT.

European gas prices exceeded $1,000 per 1,000 cubic meters for the first time in history on Monday. Analysts attribute rising costs to inadequate supplies held in Europe’s gas storage facilities to meet the post-pandemic increase in demand. The current energy crunch has already resulted in higher costs for consumers, while still far from the peak winter season, and forced some industries to curb production, threatening to stall the continent’s economic recovery. 

Russian experts recently warned that gas prices could surge further due to a number of factors, including demand in Asia, the weather in Europe with winter on the way, as well as the timing of the launch of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Some view Nord Stream 2 as a means to stabilize the situation on the European energy market, with the pipeline capable of delivering the extra gas the continent needs. However, the project is still awaiting EU certification, which could take months due to bureaucratic setbacks and pressure from Washington and some Eastern European countries, which are opposed to increasing energy imports from Russia.

So, it appears some would rather freeze in the dark than buy gas from Russia.

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Emigration on the rise in crisis-ridden Lebanon

By Dalal Saoud

Activists and families of the victims of the port blast in Beirut, Lebanon, protest in front of the Justice Palace on Wednesday. The aftermath of the explosion is one of many crises driving a mass exodus from the country. Photo Nabil Mounzer/EPA-EFE

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Mounting economic hardships are pushing a growing number of Lebanon's population to seek a better life abroad in another mass exodus.

"We are planning to leave... We are working on an exit plan," Mira Mabsout, a landscape architect who is married with one daughter, told UPI.

It's a common refrain.

Mabsout and her husband are "lucky and blessed." They have good jobs and are well paid, mostly in U.S. "fresh dollars," worth 17,000 Lebanese pounds at the market trade, compared to 1,500 LL at the official exchange rate and 3,900 LL at the banks.

"But financial reasons are not everything... We don't feel safe," Mabsout said. She mostly fears for her 3-year-old daughter and the inability to secure proper medical care with the collapse of the health system.

Besides the dramatic economic and financial deterioration, the massive explosion at the Beirut port in August 2020 was a turning point. The blast killed more than 200, wounded 6,000 and damaged the homes of more than 300,000.

"We are looking anywhere outside [Lebanon]. We tried to go to Athens ... but it didn't work," Mabsout said. "We are not leaving just to leave ... without securing jobs outside."

However, she is longing to "live a normal life," and not to worry every day about electricity and gasoline. Lebanon has been facing crippling fuel and electricity shortages that increased power blackouts and led to hours-long queues at the gas stations.

"My daughter knows that there is a fuel crisis and that gasoline is a big problem to us... and this is something that kills me. Even if I want to hide it, she is living that," Mabsout said. "Also, I want to grow my family and have other children, but I cannot because I cannot find diapers, baby milk or basic needs."

"I don't feel like to be resilient, and I don't want to adapt.. I simply want normal things," she added.

Passport applications increase

Last month, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, head of Lebanon's General Security Directorate, disclosed that his agency, which usually handles 3,000 passport applications per day, has been receiving 7,000 and 8,000 every day.

"But this does not mean that all [applicants] are actually leaving the country," said Dal Hitti, president of Moubadarat Wa Kararat (Initiatives and Decisions) Association, who has a doctorate in human resources.

Although no official statistics are available, Hitti estimated the number of those who left the country since the economic crisis broke out in 2019 to range between 400,000 and 500,000, including students, doctors and other highly skilled workers. They are now being followed by families heading mainly to Canada.

The 1975-90 civil war witnessed the largest exodus, with the emigration of nearly 980,000 people. Between 1990 and 2019, some 750,000 people have left, Hitti said.

"We have been living in a bubble since the 1990s, and we lost the feeling of belonging, contrary to the time of the civil war, when people remained steadfast and stayed in the country more than now, despite the difficult situation then," he said.

Dubai, an attractive but expensive spot, is hosting 70,000-75,000 Lebanese who left. But 50,000 of them haven't found jobs, and "some are accepting meager salaries barely reaching $1,000 a month just to help their parents or hoping to get a better job, while the minimum wage there is $4,000."

"This is no more about desperation. This is suicide," Hitti said.

The Crisis Observatory at the American University of Beirut recently warned that Lebanon is entering a third wave of mass emigration, citing three alarming indicators: the high percentage of Lebanese youth who want to leave (77% based on a survey last year, the highest percentage among Arab countries), the mass migration of medical and education staff and the expected chronicity of the current crisis.

"The last wave of emigration was not a reaction to a conflict, a war. It was genuinely because of the conditions that deteriorated so much," said Dr. Jasmin Diab, assistant professor of Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University.

'Intersection crisis'

Lebanon, Diab explained, always had "intersection crisis," and the current one was not just about the COVID-19 pandemic, constraints about the politics and economy but also the Beirut port blast, and people having lost their homes and not having access to their money frozen at the banks.

Moreover, the recent fuel crisis has "so much humiliated" the population to the point that "getting bread or gasoline becomes an achievement."

"There are so many intersections why people want to migrate in this period," Diab told UPI, adding that COVID-19 exasperated the situation further. Then came the port explosion, which "was definitely a major push factor ...that put the Lebanese on a high level of emergency."

Many countries, like Canada and across Europe, became more lenient in their emigration policies, facilitating migration of the Lebanese for a short time as a reaction to the explosion, Diab said.

"Our country is not in a state of conflict or violence. So, the Lebanese could not seek asylum like the Syrians, although interestingly, things are very similar on both ends," she said. "Lebanese want to leave, but the international community does not consider Lebanon in a state of emergency."

Eurozone inflation highest in 13 years, surging to 3.4% in September

By Zarrin Ahmed

Euro sign at European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.

File Photo by canadastock/UPI

Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Eurozone inflation surged to 3.4% in the month of September, hitting its highest level in 13 years.

German consumer prices hit their highest levels in 30 years, rising to 4.1% in that month and prompting protests from workers demanding higher pay.

Rising energy prices have driven the increase, which isn't expected to end until 2021 before easing next year. Economists are debating whether the central bank needs to change its monetary policy.

Of the 19 countries affected by rising energy prices, France is the latest to increase measures to mitigate costs. Prime Minister Jean Castex said Thursday that the government will block natural gas price increases and rises in electricity taxes. Italy, Greece, and Spain have also announced measures to counteract inflation.

Energy prices may continue to increase with the transition from fossil fuels to other sources of energy.

"Things have picked up faster and that is true for growth, that is true for inflation, and that is true for employment," European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told CNBC last month. "So, in a way, it is a package of good news because it means that our economies are responding."

Gas prices have reached record highs (see story above) while Russia's Nordstream II pipeline has just been completed. The EU is resisting buying Russian gas even as they run out of it. Go figure!

European Politics > Iceland's Girlie Parliament Lost in Recount; Germany's Gov't in Chaos After Vote; Kosovo - Serbia Conflict, 10 Arrests

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Matriarchy hopes dashed: Women will NOT take up majority

of seats in Icelandic parliament after vote recount

27 Sep, 2021 04:17 / Updated 14 hours ago

An election poster from the Social Democratic Alliance, saying "green attack" in Reykjavik, Iceland,

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. © AP Photo/Brynjar Gunnarsson

While the initial election results put Iceland on course to become the first European country with a female-majority parliament, making international headlines, the new tally shows the female MPs fell short of the mark.

Multiple media outlets (including this one) reported on Sunday that Iceland’s parliamentary elections propelled more women into the country’s legislature than men in a first for Europe. Reports citing local electoral officials put the number of would-be female lawmakers at 33, and men at 30.

Icelandic public broadcaster RUV called the election historic, while numerous public figures rushed to congratulate Reykjavík for the results, which were portrayed as a victory for gender equality.

Some drew parallels between Iceland’s parliament and less women-dominated legislatures in other developed countries, such as Canada and the US.

According to projections, Iceland is about to elect the first majority-woman parliament in European history. It's expected 52% of their legislative body will be women. By comparison, 27.4% of the U.S. House and 24% of the U.S. Senate are women, both records.

— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️‍🌈 (@cmclymer) September 26, 2021

The updated tally, released late Sunday, however, showed that men will retain their fragile majority in the 63-seat parliament with 33 seats, AFP reported, citing the head of the electoral commission in one of the six Iceland’s constituencies, Ingi Tryggvasonmen.

Tryggvason said the decision to hold a recount, which robbed Iceland’s female lawmakers of their chance to enter the history books, was made because the “result [of the elections] was so close.” The official said that no party had requested the recount.

The recount did little to change the political make-up of the future parliament. Iceland’s ruling left-right coalition of three parties led by Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir received the majority of votes, and is expected to renegotiate the tripartite deal.

It remains to be seen if Jakobsdottir will continue to serve as prime minister, after her Left-Green Movement won 8 mandates as opposed to 11 in the 2017 election. She could be replaced by the leader of the Independence Party, Bjarni Benediktsson, whose party retained its 16 seats.

Conservative wing of Merkel’s bloc says party leadership

must resign after ‘debacle’ in Germany’s general election

27 Sep, 2021 08:44

Workers remove a campaign poster showing Armin Laschet, the Christian Democratic Union’s candidate for chancellor,

in Bad Segeberg, Germany, September 27, 2021. © Fabian Bimmer / Reuters

The conservative wing of Angela Merkel’s center-right CDU/CSU union said the party’s leadership is responsible for the historic failure in Sunday’s parliamentary election in Germany.

“The board of directors and party leaders of the CDU and CDU must draw the conclusions from the election debacle in the federal elections on September 26, 2021 and resign immediately,” the party’s informal conservative wing, the Values Union, said in a statement.

The group argued that Armin Laschet, the CDU’s leader and candidate to replace Merkel as chancellor, and Markus Soeder, the head of the CDU’s sister party in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CSU), bear personal responsibility for the loss and must step down as well. The Values Union called for the new leadership of the CDU to be elected directly by all party members, rather than through a system of delegates.

The Values Union was formed in 2017, mostly by longtime members of the CDU and CSU, according to their website.

In Sunday’s vote, the CDU showed its worst result since the first democratic vote in the postwar era in 1949. The CDU/CSU bloc came in second with 24.1%, trailing behind their main rivals the Social Democrats (SPD), which received 25.7%. According to official projections, Merkel’s party lost 49 seats, while the SPD gained 53, becoming the biggest party in parliament.

The Values Union argued that the CDU took “a fatal turn to the left” during Merkel’s long tenure as chancellor. “For the first time in a long while, the [party] is clearly not the strongest force and has fallen to a second place.”

Values Union chairman Max Otte said the CDU and CSU must return to their conservative roots. “A large part of the [party’s] base shares conservative values. The task of the CDU and CSU is to represent these values on political stage. Instead of marginalizing such members, they must be put back where they belong – in the center of the party.”

The CDU has been bleeding support over the past several years, as Merkel oversaw the influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, and most recently the economic downturn due to the harsh lockdowns amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Before the general election, the CDU/CSU bloc and SPD ruled together in a coalition government. Germany’s leading parties will now have another round of negotiations to determine whether they want to continue working with each other or form a government with other parties.

The 2021 German Bundestag election was a blow to the Left Party and Alternative for Germany (AfD), showing a massive increase in support for the Greens. The Left lost 30 seats from the last election, while AfD lost 11 seats. The Greens gained 51 seats for a total of 118, making them the third-biggest party.

10 Albanians arrested in Kosovo after attacking Serbs

as ethnic tensions flare, drawing in Serbia & NATO

28 Sep, 2021 09:30 

FILE PHOTO. Kosovo special police in Jarinje, Kosovo. ©REUTERS / Laura Hasani

Police in self-proclaimed Kosovo say they have arrested 10 Albanian citizens for attacking ethnic Serbs. Ethnic tensions have escalated in the breakaway Serbian region, with Serbia, Russia and NATO getting involved.

The 10 Albanians were detained on Monday in the city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, after they attacked a group of Serbs visiting a government building on official business, the police reported. The city itself is predominantly Serb, but the incident happened in the southern part, which is overwhelmingly populated by ethnic Albanians.

Eight detainees were kept in custody and charged in connection with the alleged attack, while two others, identified as minors, were released, the report said. The police pledged to hold the underaged assailants accountable for their actions.

The incident highlights the ongoing escalation of ethnic tensions in Northern Kosovo, which ratcheted up last week due to a row between Kosovo and Serbia over the issue of the opposing sides’ non-recognition of the legitimacy of each others’ vehicle licence plates. Kosovo authorities decided to no longer recognize plates issued by Serbia, forcing drivers of vehicles who want to cross the border to buy temporary Kosovo-issued plates instead.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence and never treated its licence plates as legitimate, so it has been issuing temporary plates for cross-border traffic for a long time.

The Kosovo move was perceived as discriminatory by the local Serb population even as the authorities insisted it was reciprocal. Many Kosovar Serb truck drivers responded by blocking border checkpoints in the north in a gesture of protest. The Kosovo government deployed special police forces to the border in response, further fueling resentment of the Serbs.

As tensions in Kosovo grew, Belgrade got involved too, with President Aleksandar Vucic ordering a military bulid-up along the border and saying that troops would intervene if Kosovar Serbs were targeted with violence. Serbian military planes and helicopters were reported flying along the border in an apparent show of force.

Russia, Serbia’s long-time ally, showed its support by sending officials to inspect Serbian troops in the border region during the weekend. It also stated that the responsibility for the latest escalation was with the Kosovo side and called on them to return to the status quo.

Meanwhile, NATO’s KFOR mission in Kosovo on Monday ramped up patrols along the border, touting it as an attempt to de-escalate the situation. NATO played a key role in helping Kosovo split from Serbia in the late 1990s amid a bloody civil war. The breakaway region declared itself an independent nation in 2008 in a move that was not recognized by two members of the UN Security Council, Russia and China.

Yeah, right, NATO de-escalating - oxymoron!

The row over licence plates is just one aspect of the festering conflict over Kosovo’s status. Kosovo authorities want to resolve the stand-off by having both sides drop the temporary licence plates scheme. Serbia rejected the proposed solution and demanded a withdrawal of Kosovo troops deployed to the border before EU-mediated talks on the issue could take place.

European Politics > Serbia - Kosovo Tension Rises; Iceland's Young Girlie Parliament; Swiss Approve Same-Sex Marriage

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Serbia’s president blasts world’s ‘thunderous silence’ over ‘occupation’

of northern Kosovo as tensions in breakaway region soar

26 Sep, 2021 21:57

Kosovo police officers near a border crossing in Jarinje, September 21, 2021. © Marjan Vucetic / AP

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic says foreign partners are turning a blind eye to a security crackdown in Serb-majority areas of Kosovo, where the breakaway region’s forces have brought essential cross-border traffic to a halt.

“The complete occupation of northern Kosovo and Metohija with armored vehicles by Pristina (Capital of Kosovo) has been going on for the past seven days, and everyone in the international community stays thunderously silent,” Vucic said on Sunday, referring to the region by its Serbian name.

The statement refers to the ongoing crisis in northern Kosovo, involving several crossings into inner Serbia, which have been effectively blocked by the partially recognized authorities of Kosovo after the government in Pristina banned cars with Serbian license plates from entering the region.

Accompanied by a ramped-up security presence, Kosovo police proceeded to seize license plates from the locals, saying they had to be replaced by Republic of Kosovo plates. They banned drivers with Serbian plates from entering Kosovo unless they paid a tax and acquired the newly mandated plates before crossing the border, creating kilometers-long traffic jams.

The situation has disrupted food and medication deliveries to local communities, which, despite now living in the breakaway province, are dependent on supplies from inner Serbia. Attempts by ethnic Serbs to protest at border crossings against what they view as Pristina’s occupation and a crackdown on their local autonomy, have been quelled by tear-gas-firing Kosovo police. On Friday, Reuters cited the police as having said that two government offices were attacked in northern Kosovo, and that disgruntled Serbian residents were blocking the roads.

Serbia responded to the situation by deploying tanks and fighter jets right next door, with footage of the armored vehicles rolling in triggering calls for “restraint” from the US and their allies.

Vucic remarked on Sunday that everyone was “suddenly worried” when they saw “Serbian helicopters and planes over the territory of central Serbia because, I guess, they shouldn’t take off until [Kosovo Prime Minister Albin] Kurti or someone from the international community approves.”

Despite cozying up to the US for years, Vucic has had no public support from Washington, and attempts to resolve the situation via NATO have proven similarly fruitless. Speaking by phone to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Vucic stressed that Serbia remained committed to the 2013 EU-brokered agreement that laid the groundwork for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. Stoltenberg only urged Vucic and Kurti to take steps towards de-escalation and dialogue.

Russia, which does not recognize Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, said the Pristina authorities were to blame for the escalation of tensions. The Russian ambassador to Belgrade toured the positions of the Serbian military with the country’s defense minister on Sunday, the Russian embassy saying the Serbs had been acting “responsibly” in the circumstances.

Meanwhile, the EU foreign policy head, Josep Borrell, issued a statement urging both the Serbian and Kosovo authorities “to unconditionally de-escalate the situation on the ground by immediately withdrawing special police units and dismantling roadblocks,” and said they must resolve the crisis via “the EU-facilitated dialogue.”

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, just over a decade after NATO’s ‘humanitarian intervention’ in the Yugoslav conflict, which saw a bloody guerilla campaign, led by ethnic Albanians, met with a military crackdown by then-President Slobodan Milosevic. The US and its allies sided with the guerilla fighters, bombing former Yugoslavia for three months, destroying its military, as well as civilian infrastructure, and NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force was deployed in Kosovo. An ethnic Albanian rule was eventually established in the province, except for several Serb-majority regions that maintained de-facto autonomy. Despite years of talks, the signing of the 2013 Brussels Agreement, and various suggestions of mutual exchange of territories, the situation remains unresolved, and Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Iceland’s ruling coalition retains power as women win majority

of seats in parliament for 1st time in European history

26 Sep, 2021 12:03

Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir talks to reporters at a polling station in Reykjavik,

Iceland, September 25, 2021. © Arni Torfason / AP

Iceland’s ruling coalition has increased its majority in the general election, while the final tally shows that women will make up the majority of a country’s parliament for the first time in European history.

Of 63 seats in the Althing, the island nation’s parliament, 33 seats – or roughly 52% – were won by women, Iceland’s public broadcaster RUV reported, citing projections based on the final results of Saturday’s vote.

I see two women who look like they might be over 40. So many young women - this should be a very interesting session for Iceland's Parliament.

No other European country has ever had more women than men in its parliament, according to AFP. Countries where currently over 50% of MPs are women include Rwanda, Cuba and Nicaragua, while half of MPs are women in Mexico and the UAE, the news agency said.

Before the election, the Althing had 25 female MPs, 24 of which were chosen by voters and one had replaced a male colleague who resigned.

The ruling left-right coalition of three parties has strengthened its majority by winning 37 seats. The party leaders previously said they would renew the coalition if their alliance returned with a majority, according to RUV.

Negotiations will determine if Left-Green Movement leader Katrin Jakobsdottir continues to serve as prime minister. 

The official turnout for the vote was 80.1%. 

Swiss voters approve same-sex marriage in national referendum

26 Sep, 2021 10:19

FILE PHOTO. ©REUTERS/Mal Langsdon

Switzerland has voted to legalize same-sex marriage in a national referendum on Sunday. It gives extra rights to gay couples, who previously faced some legal restrictions.

Final results published on Sunday said the initiative has been accepted by nearly two-thirds of voters, with 64.1% voting in favor. Opinion polls conducted prior to the referendum indicated similar support levels. The final tally of the vote is expected later on Sunday afternoon.

Before the vote, same-sex couples had the option of a civil partnership under a 2007 law, but some of their rights were limited, compared to married couples. They couldn’t get joint custody of adopted children, for example, and couldn’t adopt children to whom they are not related by blood.

And now they can! Wonderful! OMG

Once same-sex marriage is legalized, lesbian couples in Switzerland will be entitled to use sperm from donors and other forms of medically assisted conception, on par with heterosexual couples.

Legalization will also make things smoother for mixed-citizenship, same-sex couples who want to get a foreign spouse naturalized.

The “marriage for all” initiative was spearheaded by the Swiss government, which touted it as a matter of equality.

Opposition was led by groups upholding conservative values, who claimed it could lead to a surge in surrogate pregnancies – which are illegal in Switzerland – and would hurt children conceived from donors. Such children have to wait until they are 18 to learn the identity of their biological father, under Swiss law.

19 Years After NATO Bombed Serbia, Most Serbs Won’t Take Apology From Alliance – Poll

In the 1990s, NATO lost its raison d'être when the Iron Curtain fell and Communism collapsed. They had to find a new reason for their existence and where better to find a reason for a military alliance than in the Balkans. They got their new lease on life and it only cost a few thousand lives at most. 

Since 1999, NATO has seemingly made a art-form out of provoking regional wars - Libya, Syria, etc., but as both these missions became absolute disasters, NATO has turned it's attention to fear-mongering - creating hysteria about Russia that is way over the top. But they are making and selling weapons like never before in history, so everyone is getting filthy rich. 

© Marko Djurica / Reuters

A majority of Serbs today would not accept an apology from NATO for its 1999 military intervention in Kosovo. Only 10 percent would wish to see their country become a member the trans-Atlantic defense bloc, recent poll shows.

The continued animosity towards NATO in Serbia was highlighted by an opinion poll conducted by the Belgrade-based Institute for European Affairs in mid-March. According to the poll, only 10 percent of Serbs support membership of the military bloc while 84 percent oppose it. The mood is particularly strong in the Serbian capital, where the level of support for NATO membership is 5.8 percent, and among young people aged 18 to 25 (7.7 percent). Only 18 percent believe that becoming an ally would be beneficial for Serbia.

Former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic and his policies are perceived as the main reason for the bombings by 17.4 percent of Serbs. The second-most mentioned reason was that the US and Western powers were simply pursuing their interests. It was cited by 15.2 percent of respondents. Other popular explanations included a goal to push ethnic Serbs out of Kosovo (12.6 percent) and to remove Kosovo from Serbia (10.5 percent).

If NATO were to offer Serbs an apology for the bombings, 62 percent of them would not accept it according to the poll. The defiant attitude is most prominent among Belgrade residents (65.9 percent) and people aged 30-44 (67.3 percent), who were teens or young adults during the bombing campaign. A majority of 66 percent said NATO bombings of Yugoslavia could have been avoided.

NATO justified its intervention in Kosovo by accusing the Milosevic government of ethnically cleansing the province. 

Of course, only NATO would believe that the way to end ethnic cleansing is to drop bombs on people.

The bombings lasted 78 days and officially claimed at least 758 civilian lives, though Serbian sources say the true figure may be double that. The violence in Kosovo followed decades of inter-ethnic alienation and tension in the province. The loss of the province was a great symbolic blow to Serbs, who historically consider the land essential to their statehood and of great spiritual significance.

Macedonia Blames Kosovans for Kumanovo Clashes Killing 8 Officers

From BBC Europe

Police officers run across a street in Kumanovo, Macedonia, 9 May 2015

Macedonia says five Kosovans led the armed group which was involved in clashes with security forces in the northern town of Kumanovo.

Eight officers were killed and 37 injured, as well as 14 gunmen, Interior ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.

Those named were members of the now dismantled Kosovo Liberation Army.

Mr Kotevski said the threat in Kumanovo, near the Serbian-Kosovan border, had been "eliminated" and a large amount of weapons seized.

Last month, about 40 ethic Albanians from Kosovo briefly took over a Macedonian police station in the village of Gosince near the border, demanding the creation of an Albanian state in Macedonia.

Map showing Kumanovo in Macedonia

In 2001, rebels demanding greater rights for the ethnic Albanian minority launched an uprising against the government, and tensions have continued despite a peace deal.

About a quarter of Macedonia's two million population are ethnic Albanians.

Men in uniforms

Sami Ukshini, Beg Rizaj, Dem Shehu, Muhamet Krasniqi and Mirsad Ndrecaj were the leaders of the armed group that clashed with police in a suburb of Kumanovo, some 40km (25 miles) north of the capital, Skopje on Saturday, the interior ministry spokesman said.

Only one of the 14 uniformed bodies had been identified - that of another Kosovo national, named Xhafer Zymberi, said the spokesman.

"More than 30 terrorists, mainly Macedonian nationals and one from Albania, surrendered yesterday [Saturday] to the police forces," he added.

Ethnic Albanians in the village of Studenicani pray during the funeral of
Isamedin Osmani, one of the police officers killed in the Kumanovo operation

An elderly woman is evacuated in an armoured vehicle near a police
checkpoint in Kumanovo, Macedonia May 10, 2015

People on bicycles pass in front of the Government building where the national
flags are lowered at half mast, in Skopje, Macedonia May 10, 2015

They would face Macedonian justice, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said. The group had tried to destabilise the country, he said, after paying tribute to the security forces.

His government is already under pressure over claims of illegal wire-tapping and police brutality.

The opposition and the government have accused each other of deliberately destabilising the country.

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he was following the situation with "great concern" and urged all sides to "exercise restraint and avoid any further escalation, in the interest of the country and the whole region".

Earlier, the European Commission issued a similar call.

Macedonia, which is a candidate for European Union membership, is observing two days of mourning.