Friday 15711

okaaaaay finally caught up with the blogging, so i neednt try to maintain the appropriate tense...

today was another day of obscene hotness, good wakeup considering the night before, we went to meet with Veritas (http://www.veritas.org.rs/engleski/about_us.htm).

Veritas is an NGO established in 1993 in in Knin the capital of the Krajina (or military frontier as Mladen likes to say) which is the section of eastern Croatia dominated by Serbs, which actually claimed itself independent (much like the Republika Srpska in Bosnia) during the first round of fighting in the Croatian war for Independence.

the organization works on bringing attention to the warcrimes committed on Serbs by Croatia, it was the first NGO to do so, distributing its media through a Chicago-Serb.

the NGO has helped to locate and communicate with over 500 victims of warcrimes for the Hague, which ultimately helped the ICC to pass verdict on two major Croat generals for ethnic cleansing through criminal enterprise, and this led to Tudjman being found guilty of overseeing/administering ethnic cleansing, because he is the leader of the military according to the constitution, but he is dead, has been for a while now so its more of a closure thing. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franjo_Tu%C4%91man#War_crimes_allegations)

the NGO also has helped a group of Chicago lawyers to bring suit against MPRI (http://www.mpri.com/web/)for helping to equip and train the Croats in their ethnically driven efforts.

the group claims around 400,000 Serbs were forced from their homes in Croatia, and around 7000 Serbs were killed in some form of ethnic cleansing, however the NGO does not claim this is genocide.

we also met with a representative of the Democratic Party of Serbia, different from the Democratic Party

Now the opposition party, the man speaking began in 2001 in the youth wing, then moved into real politics, and worked under a number 2004 to 2008

Began in the 90s, when broke away from the Democratic party wanted to leave a coalition.

The party calls itself a center-right party, valuing nationalism to an extent but still upholding democratic ideals. Consider themselves legalists, and pro reforms however to do so slowly.

They believe in the free market, and democratic ideals, that slowly take place, in an evolutionary matter, on the premise that if it happens slowly and naturally, it is more likely to take

When Kosovo broke away, is when the coalition split, the dem party of serbia believes that Kosovo is part of Serbian sovereign territory, and wanted to break negotiations with EU because many of the EU countries saw Kosovo as independent. And the Dem party wanted EU integration more than straightening Kosovo issue.

The Democratic party of Serbia since being voted out, they began to discuss issues with radicals, as well as some of the socialists.

The Democratic party of Serbia does not want to recognize Kosovar independence at all. The party believes that many of the countries which recognize Kosovo because of bandwagoning with the US. They beleive the interest of the US in Kosovar independance, because it contains the largest US base in the world, providing the US with a
power projection.

Also the party believes that the international community is afraid for their soldiers/civilians, in that they know that there are many Albanians willing to take arms to get what they want.

The good neighbor policy of the EU is difficult as well, because Kosovo is considered part of Serbia, and relations are not good

The party considers the Dayton agreement as the way to interact with Bosnia, so all agreements are valid, the party has connections to the Republika Srpska, and thinks that relations should be strengthened

However this puts the party against the EU again because the EU is pressing for centralization of the federal state of Bosnia.

His party looks to the Russian alliance as a counterbalance to the NATO.

sorry i got lazy in the end there and copy pasted my notes....

tomorrows post will be up to date, and i wont have done a few before it itll be better i promise

tonight prolly not gunna be doing anything too exciting, though ive said that and been wrong before

maybe some sock and underwear washing, and sitting around in a bar, chatting n whatnot, though that has yet to happen.

again sorry for the late posts