YakimaGulagLiteraryGazett

New Neo-Nazi threat in Serbia

The whole neo-Nazi thing in any place is so wierd adn out of place anyway.

Napolean was in the news today. 1. I learned he brought a huge number of books with him when he conquered Eygpt. 2. He'd ride into battle reading a book, if he liked a page he'd do tear a page out and pass it to the man behind him. His army was one of the best read in history. 3. Napoleon was very excited by the first giraffe in Europe.
This information was part of a review on NPR of a book called 'Zarafa' which is about the first Giraffe ever to live in Europe. Zarafa is an Arabic word btw, it means 'tall one' certainly a good name for such a beast! I have always liked girraffes, because of their beautiful colours, because of their lovely eyes and their senstive natures.
I remembered my own encounters with giraffes, because of where I grew up, these encounters were in zoos. The zoo in Albuquerque used to have a special giraffe barn where you could go up some stairs and see giraffes face to face, I was once licked by giraffe! I would suspect that this enclosure was stressful for the giraffes. They are shy and sensitive animals.
This building was torn down many years ago.
People could have given them diseases, or caused them stress. I was careful to be very quiet in there when I went to see them, but children could have cried out or screamed, hurting their sensitive ears.
I read someplace that giraffes actually will feel sad and cry proper tears, and that this is for emotional reasons. So it's probably better the special barn was torn down.
It is cold and rainy today.
i put my houseplants outside yesterday, they spent their second full night out of doors this year. I hope they enjoyed the rain!
Well today is the teach -in on the proposed new immigration law.

At Yakima Gulag People's Institute of Higher Re:Education there will be a teach-in on the proposed new immigration 'reform' laws. It was a real 1960s moment a guy gets out there with a bullhorn and all that to announce it. So anyway I don't have class at that time tomorrow. I'm therefore going.
I had to get out of the math class I was in. Despite Mr. Bill's many 'beatings' I'm not ready for pre-algebra. I am doing some of what people my age call 'bonehead' math, and then I'll be fit for other things. I like the instructor, my son had him and it's mutual, they really think highly of one another. This man really is more of a history or geology guy, but he works at a pace that I can handle and knows his stuff.
Katrina Cottages

NPR has a very good story on the 'Katrina cottages' I wish they'd really go that way, it's CHEAPER than a damn trailer! and built very much better! HURRICANE code, prettier, and all that! They can be put up in a matter of days and aren't disaster magnets! Fema won't pay for them! jebiga! what a stupid law the Stafford act is.

I liked the report on the last wild coffee plants too. Coffee makes my world go around!

Wild Coffee



U.N. trying to help Kosovo Serbs stay See also Vuk Draskovic article same place.


Serbia Agrees Kosovo to be ruled by Albanian Majority

E.U. may ban smoking everywhere!

Serbia's GDP is up
And that's not even counting the 'gray market' or the 'black market'

And just because I'm just a bit geeky...
How to Save a Snowflake! Cool I want to do this sometime!
Blood Cleaner the Size of a Pen This is a real neat bit of technology! I wonder if dialysis is a possible future use?

Aid Recieve by Serbia Crna Gora over the last Five years.

Voinovic's thoughts on Kosovo

Interesting news on the intelligence report that military people in Serbia have been helping war crimes suspects evade capture

Jame's Blunt's Albumj a Review

Serbia Could Arrest Mladic but Won't

I guess Croatia isn't as safe as it used to be...

I plan to attend, and recommend my fellow Zeks to attend. This came in my e-mail today.


sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 4:36 PM
Subject: Unidad por nuestros Derechos Marcha!

Please join Yakima High School students in solidarity of immigrant rights and just immigration reform this Sunday, April 2 at 3:00p Miller Park in Yakima.
“UNITED FOR OUR RIGHTS: IMMIGRATION REFORM PEACE MARCH”

DATE: March 28, 2006

RE: IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE


Students and community members throughout Yakima County will be convening at Miller Park this Sunday. They are taking up the struggle to show their faith and support of the 12 million people living in America illegally. This peaceful demonstration and march will be to protest the attempts to toughen the immigration laws which would penalize farm-workers and growers. Students are advocating to amend the “Dream Act” so they will have the opportunity to attend college.


WHEN: Sunday, April 2, 2006

TIME: Gather at 2:30PM
March begins at 3:00PM

WHERE: Miller Park, 502 N. 4th St. Yakima

Children in Los Angeles have continued with their school walkouts. We had one such walkout here in the Gulag a few days ago, but the situation in Los Angeles is begining to remind me of the school strikes by Chicano students back in the 1960s. Few realize how much political change was initiated by Mexican-American people. It's like a hidden history. I have spent some of my college time learning about it, and it's amazing to me how resistant Americans of other ethinicities are to learning about them.
Various Rant Radio hosts have been raising Hell about this in a most inflamatory way.
The good news is the protests are having an effect. There indeed must be something done on the question of immigration in this country, but harsher laws are not the answer. I think part of the problem of illegal immigration is that it is such amiserable process immigrating legally. It has ALWAYS been a miserable process and the September 11th attacks made for a public demand for stronger immigration laws.
I think that reasonable investigation of people wishing to come here is fair, but makeing so much difficulty that it takes some people YEARS to legally immigrate, is not the answer. Instead some people are going to bypass the system.
The long border is still very crossable even if there is a lot of really terrible desert involved at some points. People die crossing.
Paradoxically tighter borders have meant more people from Latin America stay once they are here, because they don't want to go through all the difficulty again whether their entry was legal or illegal. So they stay.
On the other hand, continual entry of people who are willing to work for low wages and no benefits makes it harder for workers here in the U.S.
Easier legal entry might actually help solve that part of the equation. People with rights, who are here legally will be able to hold out for better working conditions.
A lot of these protesters are teenagers, and a lot are even younger. They may or may not know in whose steps they follow.
There is an aspact of the border issue in the U.Sl taht is unique, and that is the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which prevents a militarized border.
Most Americans know very little about this treaty or how it works. You can't talk to most Americans about this treaty because instead of sitting still to listen they get angry first.

Serb youth stabbed in Kosovo This sort of thing is not helpful...

Branch of European Movement Founded in BiH



From Boing Boing via Warchild'sNew Blog


Albanian Language in Macedonian Schools

French government a mess

Suspect In Murder of Zoran Dzindjic Gives Himself Up

Breaker of Thracian Code Accused of Plagerism I had a link to this story in an earlier post, not hunting for it right now.

Doktor had over 500 cell phone cards

Wrong Croatian Flag in World Cup Handbooks The Croats are not alone, Saudi Arabia for example had the wrong flag in the book, there's fewer than 2000 otu there can anyone say 'Collectors Item'?

Mouseland It's Canadian but it could be American!Thanks Connie!

Millions in 'Romania Face Poverty

Interesting Romanian Film

Secret Report says Mladic Recieved Help From Military and Intelligence in Staying on the Run

Economic Situation in Kosovo


Tribunals for some, nothing for others...

Goran Visnijc offered part in a flim about Gen Gotovina!

I don't even see enough of a resemblence ....maybe with lots of makeup ....

Russians see Kosovo as the Answer... Long Live Alania! Sorry this is just toooo NationStates for me!

Serbia suffers $18 millionfrom landslides
Nothing to do with the Balkans but kind of cool anyway!
Space News!

Damn this bothers me! Port Security Story

Albanian Crime Boss Busted

Milosevic Tribute Disrupted
*
The film 'Grbavica' has had one long over-due positive effect! The Bosnian Parliment FINALLY recognised the women
who were raped in time of war as war victims and voted to help them financially! This shouldhave happened immediatly! I am glad at last it did happen. I mentioned earlier what the Algerian government did about women and girls who were raped in their war of independance. For those who don't remember that post and don't care to hunt for it, here is what I said about it. I remember reading of terrible rapes commited by the French troops in that war, and Algeria is a largely Muslim country so the same stigma attaches to rape in Algeria. The Algerian government first of all declared these women as 'Martyrs of the Revolution', the other thing is that they gave such women twice the dowry customary at that time in Algeria for a virgin. The other thing they did was launch a vigorous education campaign aimed at MEN to make them understand that rape, especially in those circumstances is not the woman's fault, that nothing in Islam says that it is, and that such women need husbands and deserve husbands as much as other women who have not suffered this. It was considered a very forward thinking move on the part of the Algerian government and was at the time pretty well publicised. I am glad that finally Bosnia Hercegovina has taken this step, and I think it is ironic in a beautiful way that it was a woman of Serbian ethnicity who helped to make this happen by her forthright, frank and courageous discussion of this subject! Zive Jasmina Karanovic! Que Viva!

'Grbavica Shown in Belgrade

There was a protest of the proposed new immigration laws in the U.S. in our Gulag, students at Davis High School walked out of classes. Mostly Hispanic Students walked out, the police showed up for crowd control. Eisenhower Students also went. Superintendant Soria urged students to go back to class and they will face making up the class time.
The protest resulted in a large crowed in Lion's Park. This was reported on ClearChannel Affiliate KIT.


Stanislas Lem (sic) He was author of 'Polaris' He was born in Poland.

I am catching up on some of my lobbying. I used to subscribe to FAIR. In many ways they are a fine organization, but they have really in my opinion been less than stellar on the question of the Balkans, They made Balkans Witness's Massacre Deniers list, so I sent them an e-mail explaining why I was unsubscribing and unsubscribed.
Someone from FAIR sent me an e-mail, and asked when I felt they had denied the existance of war crimes.


Dear Mr. ///////////: Thank you for having replied to my earlier e-mail! These are a places on your own site which show that FAIR denied at least one massacre, and to put it charitably, the information was not adequately fact checked.

http://www.fair.org/press-releases/racak-update.htm
FAIR's article on Racak

http://www.fair.org/press-releases/racak.html
Update on previous article
Here is information that whoever wrote the previous two artcles should have consulted before writing.



http://www.hrw.org/reports98/kosovo/Kos9810-04.htm
Human Rights Watch on Racak
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/kosovo/Kos9810-05.htm
Human Rights Watch on Racak
http://racak.homestead.com/files/ranta.htm
Dr Ranta Interview
Dr. Ranta specifically states that the conclusions

Berliner Zeitung had in it's article were 'nonsense'

I am a person with some training in Medical Billing

and Coding, som reading things like autopsy reports

is a big part of my training. It is very easy to

mis-understand the effort of medically trained people

to remain objective, medical objectivity is a very strict

standard. If one reads what Dr. Ranta had to say,

one can see that the autopsy report was one thing

and the conclusions in Berliner Zeitung were another.

So far to my knowlege, in FAIR there has not been a

retraction.


I realize that many people at FAIR are ant-i war, is it

possible that someone there decided to be

'consistant' because they fell prey to the loud

non-sense from people like Rush Limbaugh, or

Sean Hanitty or God help us Paul Harvey who STILL

frequently attack former President Clinton for having

intervened in both Bosnia -Hercegovina, and

Kosovo?

Or is the problem that someone on staff was

sympathetic to the peculiar vision of history held

by supporters of the late Slobodan Milosevic?

There are a variety of organizations which fed

'information' into the 'alternative' media.

Serbian Unity Congress seems to be a source for a

lot of people commenting on the right wing side,

Pravda seems to be a source of disinformation for

people on the left.

What REALLY bothers me is that people on the

right have been almost word for word parroting the

line in Pravda. I don't expect much better on the left

side, but when massacres and human rights abuses

have been commited, I expect an organization like

FAIR to be objective, and to retract when they are

wrong. I am one person leading an overly busy life,

and I realize that it's easy for an organization to have

just one person lack objectivity skew things, still the

article stuck in my craw a long time ago, and things

like this bother me. It's of a piece with the 'all

Albanians are terrorists and the Bosnian Muslims

were all trained by al Qaida and all Croats are a

bunch of Nazis' type of thinking. It's lazy and beneath

the dignity of an organization which is supposed to be

objective.

There is an opposition in Serbia with it's own press. It

might have been useful to talk to some people from

that end of the scale, maybe someone should have

talked to someone from 'Women in Black' because

there are many Serbian people who did not go along

with the war, they were not happy to be bombed, but

they did not go along with the excesses of Milosevic's

followers.

I do very much apreciate that you took the time to

contact me!

personally. Not every organization does that.

Sincerly,


Katja ///////////

Anyway we'll see what happens. I would urge anyone else concerned with the issue to put pressure on any similar organizations they belong to if there have been similar instances of denial about war crimes.



From Warfare to Wireless in Macedonia
Pink TV expands broadcast area in Montenegro

I do not believe this study, I think it's rigged Especially the bit about people who live in cold climates are smarter, there is NOTHING smart about living in a cold climate!
That sort of rhetoric makes me think of the Eugenics Movement people and it stinks.

EU, UN call on Balkans to Ease Refugee Returns

Bulgarian Nationist Party Supports Laws in Support of the Clergy
Camp Bondsteel is HUGE, I've lived in towns smaller than the base in Kosovo, and I think this may be premature. It's potentially dangerous not only for the Albanians, but for the Serbs living in Kosovo.
From KosovaReport, US to close Kosovo Base and Relocate Troops

========******======***UPDATE***======
It's been several days and I've recieved no response on the e-mail I sent to FAIR. I guess they really don't know how to explain themselves. That or I have made their 's*** list! nekaaaaa! I'll let you all know when I hear anything out of them.

Far from the Balkans but very under reported and a situation with similar dynamics.

Chechnya update

File Under: Oh Puleeease!
The Milosevic Foundation?

Tastless,tackless , not safe for work...

Tasteless Joke About Slobodan Milosevic and Indira Ghandi This was hard for me to read since I don't really read Slovenian but this joke is simple enough to understand
***WARNING*** VERY ROUGH TRANSLATION***
Milosevic dies,leaves this world and on the other side he meets Indira Ghandi
Milosevic: Give me a little spirit!
Indira Ghandi: I can not, I am the spirit that is left it's people!
Milosevic: Give me a little luck!
Indira Ghandi: I can't I am the luck that is left to it's people!
Milosevic: Then give me a little pussy!
Indira Ghandi: I can't because if I gave taht to you, you are the prick that will leave your people!

It is disturbing one would do this to oneself... Thanks Metafilter!

Chip Me Baby! Privacy is so 60s! Privacy is so OVER Baby!

Al Masri Case to be Investigated by EU Parliment

Editorial on Kosovo from Deseret News
This story doesn't give a precise location, but I think it's safe to assume that bird flu is in Republika Srpska too.
Serbia Confirms Bird Flu in Domestic Fowl

Thracian Days Comemoration There are some quite nice pictures here

Alaskana Interesting because of stories of people from the Balkans and other Slavic areas and their arrival in this challenging part of America... There are many good side bar stories.

Vuk Draskovic says Mladic must be handed over

BiH Constitution to Parliment

Defense Language Institute gets now head

Arms Dump Found in Macedonia

Patiend dumping is real, it's been denied by hospitals, but an instance I'd call patiend dumping occured right in my own town with one of my friends, she was released to a very borderline situation with relatives. I was and remain in no position to take her in, things are simply too disrupted around here right now, wor I would have taken her in.
This however did not result in her being in the street, it did result in her being with a potentially very volatile relative.

That should NOT have happened.

This is even worse. I really hope someone sues in this case because it's uncalled for.

Hospital caught on video dumping a patient

We are not some impoverished war-torn back-water. We have a worse problem, denial.

I put this in even though it's old news, simply because I wasn't aware of it, and when I'm not aware of something like this I assume lots of other people aren't.
Hat tip to Joe B... found the link on his site!

Monday Paige leaves the Yakima Gulag, and the Yakima Gulag People's Institute of Higer Re:Education to study at Central! So we had to throw a surprise party for her of course! A selection of party pictures, most of the people at the party sit at THE Table
I should explain the History of The Table, probably it will actually go in Potemkin Selo instead of here.






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Us surprising the Hell out of Page, sorry I wasn't able to include sound, my camera doesnt' do that.

The Sexiest Nazi, and Mellow-Drama Page with Wendy,
Paige with a best friend, She's a big Taco Bell customer, be nice to her!

While I am glad that the streets here have been patched, it's good for everyone, that has come with a terrible amount of high pitched headache inducing noises, and the disagreeable smell of tar. So I'm glad it's Saturday so that I don't need to put up with that!
Yes SeeSaw already put something on this, but why not have a look at how it is viewed in Croatia?

Tito's Widow to go to Brijuni?
Rest of Story
there is a nice typo in here! :)
Prisoners fear a conflict

Amnesty Leader Speaks

Not yet known when trial of Macedonians begins at the Hague

Senator Voinovich(R) Ohio
Yet another Dyncorp scandal
Worker injured in Kosovo brushed aside by U.S. and the U.N.
I halfway expected this and probably it needs to be enforced.
Arrest Warrent for Mirjana Markovic Reinstated

Communist Party USA Commentary on Milosevic, Yugoslavia

Norman Markowitz is a professor of history at Rutgers.

A man I didn't know about, this is an interesting article.
Fred Cuny


I've been busily clearing out old paper stuff from my house, and of course the fact I withdrew from the four B&C classes had the anticipated effect on my financial aid. So I went to start the petition for reinstatement process. If it works, I will continue on, until I have a degree, if not no biggie, I am also getting ready for the eventuality of moving for a time to either BiH or Croatia. Nice music on, it's got some Bosnian bagpipes in it, it's quite good music.
Must get back to work, my lunch break is over. I don't even know when I'll know about my school situation. I am not concerning myself too much with results. I also ran into a guy who can do my lawn, he's broke and needs the work and doesn't scare the Hell out of me.

The Dailye Campus had this editorial

Who killed Arkan?
Rest of the Story
Rest of Story on Krasniqi

US Bases in Bulgaria

Rice Signs Base Agreement

Interpol Removes Kosovo Premier from Wanted List

Macedonia's EU progress

Human Trafficking on the Rise in Macedonia

Code cracked on Ancient Thracian Alphabet?

Kosovo Destination Rather Than Transit Point For Traffickers in Humans

Update on Prison Sex Scandal

Former Ambassador Calls for Kosovo Independance

Bulgarian made computer game

After I saw his picture I had to wonder who would sleep with him? I mean he's not exactly my idea of attractive... no accounting for tastes a lid for every pot yeah I know...
Pavkovic article
Update to earlier story about the Lunar real-estate deal
Just so you know I wasn't making this up!

Albanian Mafia Chief shot dead in Zagreb

BALKAN UPDATE

General Pavkovic becomes a father and a grandfather on the same day, for the story see above link

Actually in Heathrow there is a man who runs a place for left luggage, I was in Heathrow a number of hours on two occasions and on the second one, I went to enquire about the price to leave my bag overnight rather than take them to the hotel. I ended up getting a place very close to Heathrow and decided to take my bag after all. The man also seals luggage after inspeaction so that once it's searched there's proof it's been searched. He puts it in a huge shrink wrap deal.
He's a very nice man with ears that stick out a bit...
his name..
Slobodan Milosevic!

I told you guys pirated CDs were a major part of the underground economy in the Balkans!
The amount destroyed is probably only the tip of the ice- berg!
Serbia destroys pirate CDs
Montenegrin Cadres will go to Montenegrin Army in Event of Independance

Man who did a lot of good for Romania dies
The flooding in Bulgaria has been quite bad, this year and last and cause accidents..one of my online friends is from Sliven so Inoticed this.
Landslide near Sliven Investigated

Belgrade persuing Mira Markovic, Milosevic's widow
I could be snarky and ask 'just what do Irish people know about peace!' but that would be mean wouldn't it! The Ceasfire has basicallly held for ten years.
Irish troops for Kosovo

Visa Lines a major hassle for Balkans peoples wishing to leave for a bit

Speaking of which...remember that stupid riot in Dublin?
Some good news
Mad Cow Disease on the Decline Worldwide

I heard a funny story on Faux News too, an older woman heard knocking on her door, and she went to look. She saw an 8 foot long alligator so she called 911. Meanwhile the alligator slipped into a pond in her back yard. A trapper caught the big fellow.
Whew! I thought it was going to be 'Little Red Riding-hood Southern Style.
Then a wierd scam in Bulgaria, selling to Bulgarians Lunar Real Estate. China shut one of these scams down! The office for it is in Plovdiv in case you were curious to check it out.

The Croatian government halted an Austrainian from makeinga crossing many Croats and others from former Yugoslavia died making. It is a dangerous crossing to make alone.

Aussie Adriatic Crossing Halted


Stakic used to be mayor of Prijedor, he also was once a doctor.


Stakic gets 40 years

Russia wants investigation into conditions in the Hague prison

Another thing, now the effort is on to find out what happened to millions of dollars Milosevic managed to spirti out of Yugoslavia. Tracing this money has proven to be a difficult matter.


This case upset a lot of people when it happened. Now it's about to make U.S. legal history
Update on the Sarajevo Six

Turkey Angry with Bulgaria over lack of flood warnings

Terzic 'Chagrined' by death of Milosevic Read down, he also says that Serbia needs prosperity and democracy in order for nationalism of the kind Milosevic used to be lessened. He's right, nearly every time there's been a dictator who was popular, there has been economic problems which preceded his rise to power.

War of course isn't the only disaster that can befall people, there are 'natural' disasters as well.

Conference on Natural Disaster Preparedness Confrence in Dubrovnik
For example the floods that are a problem in Bulgaria every spring and sometimes autumns, or this in Serbia...
Mudslides in Central Serbia
Bulgarian Roulette
Serbia Overdue handing over Mladic
Eurovision War?
Before anyone starts in on me, the man in question has a name that looks like it's a Serbian name.
Man allegedly tortured by Serbian police
Air Link between BiH and Pakistan now

Wierdness

Prison sex scandal in Bulgaria

And this doesn't have to do with the Balkans but it is very welcome news!

ETA Declares Permanant Cease Fire


To Karl Malden: Sretan vam rodjendan! Carl Malden is 94 today!

RomaRoma
had this marvelously old fashioned cartoon. It makes me think of cartoons back when they knew how to mix art with satire.

A Production About Tesla
OSCE Wants Croatia to Involve Minorities in Decisions More

Slobo's Trying Moments in Court



Yesterday a lot of little birds were on my porch. I think they go there to hang out by the door to keep warm. I found their footprints in the snow in February and late January. Sometimes I put our walnut meat for them. They haven't reacted to being photographed, I should have some pictures of them up soon. Probaby I ought to try for video of them. They are very active.

News from the Balkans:
Tje Attacl Party has already been a source of controversy,

Attack Party Against Bases in Bulgaria
Note the sidebar story on flooding in Bulgaria, last year it happened around the time of Hurricane Katrina, and flood relief was similarly bungled.

On the up side the OSCE shares my conclusion that now that he's dead, Milosevic is a spent force. While the crowds were huge, they were not as big crowds as those which went to the funeral of Djindjic, or the funeral of Rugova.
Milosevic death may jepordise handover of Mladic

From Slobodna Dalmacija, Kehoe, one of the legal defense team for Gotovina is not able to participate due to conflict of interest. So far Gotovina has only one defense lawyer.
Kehoe is without permission to participate due to conflict of interest

Article in Time Magazine on Milosevic's Passing
I don't knkow a lot about this guy, but he raises some interesting points. There is a Balkans comparison, namely Slovenia, Slovenia pretty much decided NOT to have the IMF in there telling them what to do. That was very intelligent, they are as a result the most prosperous and least troubled Balkans nation. Granted Slovenia has a more homegenous ethinc composition, which has been the case a long time, granted they only had ten days of war compared to ten years of war for the rest of the region, but still, keeping the IMF's noses out of their business has proved very healthy for the economy. Even in Ukraine which had a fairly succesful overthrow of a previous very corrupt administration, I can't say I feel totally confident in their current leadership. I think there's still too many apparatchiks and too many people who got sudden wealth.
Far from the Balkans but still in Eastern Europe...
This article raised some good points...
can one cheat justice by dying?
Sorry I just could not resist the title of this article! The Minutemen are a bunch that gets a lot of airplay on certain radio talk shows.
Minutemen take Civics Lesson From ACLU
Body of Milan Babic Flown to Serbia

AIDS Vaccine developed in Bulgaria and Italy ?

Your intreped reporter has made it through the Tunel and then zig-zagged down Snajper Alley just to say hi! one of my regular readers said there were ads on my blog, I didn't authorize any ads, what's up with this?
I hope Blogger fixes this mess.

Here's some odds and ends of news;

Milan Babic Will Be Buried in Belgrade

EU Expresses Willingness to Help Serbia

Turkey to Host Meeting Against Terrorism


Murder Case Against Slobodan Milosevic Dropped
Milosevic's Lawyers Seek Medical Files

Argurment over Mother Theresa Bust

Representative Sanches Visites Srebenica Mortuary in Tuzla

Bomb Defused in Kosovo

The funeral of Slobodan Milosevic, I did do one little thing, since many of my readers cannot read Serbian I went ahead and put the links in English. It's live. It will give anyone who cares to view it a good idea of the atmosphere

Estavisti

Glas Javnosti Funeral Films


just click on dio 1, 2, 3, 4. it's all there

And now for something else to talk about!

CIA Prison in Ukraine?

This is in a former nuclear power plant allegedly. I hope this is not true!

Mostly notable for the picture of the Serbian female soldier kissing Milosevic's grave.
Some more about Milosevic funeral
Mostly notable for the picture of how the grave is decorated in a Communist era way.
Another persons take on the post Milosevic era
The family was in fact not thrilled with the funeral.
Slobodan Milosevic's daughter did not like the funeral very much

Milosevic's son didn't like the funeral much either

I can tell you that many families fragment for at least a time after a death in the family, grief is an emotion so close to anger anyway, that it's hard to avoid that, the Milosevic family however are out there in public, and they are under scrutiny, so it's going to look very bad. Most people handle all of that grief and anger privately and try to maintain some dignity in the public setting.
OK I read that Mira planned the funeral and to believe the son, she was shaking with rage too. There was a solution, grow a pair and go to the funeral and keep people from turning it into a political rally, however I bet that the Milosevic family did not in fact pay for this funeral.

As well, how is it the reports keep saying Pozaravac is Milosevic's home village if both he and Mira were born in Montenegro? What's up with that? oh I know send a bunch of reporters to anyplace in the Balkans and they will all be confused. STill it's not like there's a huge number of duplicated place names like there are in the U.S.

So why am I only a Crunchy Crustacean? OK I'm hoping that makes me at least a nice big lobster or something....
I made my rice pudding for breakfast.
Here's how it's made

1 cup of leftover cooked instant rice from last night, do not refrigerate the rice overnight, that ruins it for this dish!
1 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons of Land o Lakes margerine
1 half cup of sugar
1 pinch of saffron
1 half teaspoon cinnimon
3 green cardomon

I put the rice in the thickest enamaled pan I have with the margerine, and the milk and sugar and the spices, bring it to a low boil, and take it off the burner and leave it covered ten minutes.
It's going to have some milk not part of the rice.
I was too hungry to wait as long as one ought to wait. It's better if you can let it simmer for long enough for all the milk to be absorbed.
That usually results in some low level scorching though.
Later I'll go to the peace action which is taking place at noon today.


Oh marvelous SPAM! I've been selected for EURO MILLIONS
Yeah right! uh huh! as IF!

About 100 people give or take turned up today at 1:00 pm for a peace action at Millenium Plaza here in the Yakima Gulag, it was part of a world-wide protest against the war in Iraq. It was planned by Yakima Valley Peace Action Network, and a number of people involved with Pax Christi were present.
Tomorrow, Sunday March 19, 2006 there will be an action by female vetrans of the Iraq war. It is going to be at 16th Avenue and Nob Hill Boulevard. It is to take place at 12:00 pm. Basically people will hold up signs.

Video of Memorial

Milosevic buried

The coverage I had to look at became so massive that it was necessary to make a second folder just for the funeral of Slobodan Milosevic! There were 50 foreign delegations present despite the non-state nature of the funeral, and the funeral was put off until five o'clock local time, it's about five o clock local time as I write this, Blogger is acting up still. They say it's a server problem...like I'm going to believe that. My mouse is also not in the best shape it's ever been in. I have a deadline too, there's an anti war march locally, I'm bringing my camera so I can take pictures.


Mirjana Markovic definately not at the funeral






Man dies in procession


Zyuganov calls Hague criminal at memorial

Milosevic funeral Reuters

UN Jails, We should all be so lucky!

50,000 at Belgrade Funeral Ramsey Clarke went to the funeral, those in the know will recall that Ramsey Clarke was part of Milosevic's defense team and also on the team of Saddam Hussein.

Slobodna Dalmacija's Coverage

Rest of story


On NPR Sylvia Poggioli reported from the square in front of the Revolution Museum, where it was pretty noisy

Over 50 Foreign Delegations to Attend Milosevic funeral

Memorial in Belgrade

No one from Attack Party (Bulgarian Nationalists) At Slobodan Milosevic funeral

Flood Relief in Bulgaria and Corruption, no Fema isn't the only screwed up agency in the world..

Bosnians Divided Over Milosevic

She said what I said!

Sarajevan Esma Jasarevic, 57, was amused that Milosevic was to be buried under a linden tree in his hometown of Pozarevac, rather than in Belgrade's Alley of the Great.

"They are putting him under a tree, like a dog. He wanted to create Greater Serbia but ended up in his own backyard," she said.

20 busses of Bosnian Serbs went to Belgrade for the funeral, leaving at midnight local time.

I think it may be harder for Bosnian Serbs to distance themselves from Milosevic than for Serbs in Serbia.

This man covered the war basically from begining to end.
Reporter's Notebook



Bosnian Muslim views of the funeral

Thanks Mate!
Roots of Modern Serbian Agression

********************************************************************************
In Summing Up
********************************************************************************

Belgrade Blog Sums It All Up


The 'anti-funeral'

NPR reportage


Ambulances busy at the 'funeral'

They released a 199 white doves! ummmm! I see a wierdness issue here!

Eyewitness account of the burial

I learned a lot of interesting things I did not know about Milosevic in this article.

In depth article on Milosevic


This film is about military contractors, looks very interesting. The man who made this film is a Croatian-Canadian.
Shadow Company a review

Quod called my attention to this...She has had some good comments, and often notices things not noticed by others. That is what makes her a terrific photographer, and what makes her blog worth a read. She referred to this blog.

Viktor over at Belgrade Blog took excellent pictures of the line to see the body of Milosevic. He also has a counter obituary in his blog that is worth seeing.
Thanks to Balkan Scissors

Belgrade Blog

March 17 Happy Saint Patrick's Day to those of my readers of the Hibernian persuasion! Have fun and come home from it alive!

Blogger repeatedly down since yesterday. I'm really annoyed because for example an infrequently updated blog like my friend Idajevo is accessable. While neither mine nor East Ethnia is accesible. I have a visceral longing to do someone bodily harm for this state of affairs. When this situation changes I will leave this comment intact. While I'm grateful that Blogger is free, I am not happy about this spate of unavailability. My inclination ever to upgrade services at some point is now non existant.

What the Director of the Tito Museum thinks of this

Hundreds pay their last respects to Milosevic

600 troops from Germany going to Kosovo

German troops for Kosovo

NATO plans show of force in the Balkans


Milosevic Not Poisoned


Article with more information from Santa Fe New Mexican

Reuters Article with Pictures

Warning: There are dead bodies shown, of people who have been dead awhile in the first video.

Mass Grave Found in BiH

Not Guilty Pleas in Srebenica Trial

Opposition Angry Milosevic's Body was on Display in Belgrade



Farewell to a Tyrant

Letter to the Editor about Milosevic

Local Colour Piece on Milosevic

For the most part only the most loyal go to view Milsosevic's body

A Signal Honour Comes to the Yakima Gulag Literary Gazett! Bora Zivkovic at Science and Politics has said this Blog is one of two giving the best coverage on the death of Milosevic. He reads a LOT of blogs, many more than I have time for. The other blog is based in Belgrade, and I had a visit there, and it looks like I'm doing pretty well for being 24 hours away by air give or take...

March 16 2006
Milosevic's Body on Display at the Museum of the Revolution Hundreds Show Respect:

My comments here, Rugova had Nearly a Million people at his funeral! Izetbegovic had THOUSANDS, I know that Tudjman had a decent turnout. Maybe I'm living up to the stereotypes about the end of my family that called the Death and Funeral Notices section of the paper the Sporting News, but seriously, from what I have just heard Sylvia Poggioli report, the funeral sounds badly organized, like the family were still arguing over this and that. The viewing was in the Tito Museum. Granted when Tudjman died, he was still a Head of State, and the one who led Croatia in the final struggle for independance, when Izetbegovic died, he was not a Head of State anylonger, but he was the leader of BiH's struggle. Whatever anyone thinks of either of those men, they did have strong support of their people, and Rugova must have been revered, to judge by turnout.
One of the Irish rebel cousins of my family Countess Constance Georgina Gore-Boothe Markievicz had most of Dublin at her funeral and she was not a Head of State. She was beloved not only for fighting for a people not her's by blood but her's by ties of soul,
When a leader is really beloved, huge numbers of ordinary people of all ages turn out.
Another thing, the people who turned out were mostly older people, they can't have been in wonderful health. So what happens? Those poor old people had to stand in line for hours in the cold! I never had a high opinion of Milosevic, never,but that does not mean I think he should have a funeral so badly organized that old people are left standing out in the cold outside the Tito Museum. The party might have had some consideration for the old people!

Milosevic is not being buried next to his ancestors, he is not being given a State Funeral, and hardly anyone shows up.


CNN coverage

Viewing was in the Tito Museum
There are some decent videos here.
No Official Mourning....


What Milosevic Meant to Them: editorial

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, very far off topic, Rush Limbaugh is now trashing my favorite Croatian American, Denis Kucinich. I am so tired of people trashing him,alright I realize he grew up in a car and is a vegetarian and hasn't been married in a long time, but damn is there something so wrong about wanting to get the U.S. out of the constant war mode? Well consider the source.

Years ago, this young couple were married, I'm sure my regular readers know who they were, a young couple, faintly nerdy, obviously nervous, and it looks like they are in love.
Yes that is Slobo and Mira Milosevic! Things went so wrong! They seem so sweet and harmless in this picture.
One never knows what will happen at all in this world.
(hvala najlipsa Connie!)

I can't find the source but some more troops are being sent to Kosovo. It seems a good idea right now.

Border Changes only in Kosovo and Montenegro

CNN

BBC

The party officials have asked any military people to wear their uniforms, and they've asked the same of retired military people. I guess they want to give it what ''state' feeling they can.


This was a heart operation.

Borislav Milosevic undergoes operation


This is an interesting take on things!

Itar Tass article

This article has a little of the history of Pozaravac.
Feelings in Pozaravac run high

Yakima Herald Republic Coverage


NEW: Milosevic's body arrives in Belgrade for funeral

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - The body of former President Slobodan Milosevic returned to his homeland Wednesday as his supporters planned a funeral that raised fears of Serbian nationalists using the ceremony to try to regain power.

Zoran Andjelkovic, a deputy leader of the Socialist Party, told The Associated Press that Milosevic's remains will be laid to rest Saturday on the grounds of his family home in the gritty industrial town of Pozarevac, about 30 miles southeast of Belgrade.

Serbia's government refused to hold a state funeral for Milosevic, but his Socialist allies - determined to lay him to rest with as much private pomp as possible - organized Wednesday's arrival ceremony.

Milosevic's body arrived on a commercial JAT Airways plane from The Hague, where he died Saturday during his trial on charges of war crimes and genocide.

The coffin, wrapped in clear plastic and packing tape, was removed from the jet after the rest of the passengers' baggage on a small yellow vehicle with a conveyor belt.

As snow flurries fell, a group of Socialist Party officials marched solemnly to the plane, put a red, blue and white Serbian flag and a wreath with red roses on the coffin, and kissed it. A red ribbon on the wreath read: "Slobo the Hero."

They then carried it a short distance to a hearse, which drove slowly away from the plane. Other mourners then went up to the hearse, which had its rear hatch open, and they in turn also kissed the coffin. Serbian television carried the arrival live.

Several hundred die-hard supporters - some wiping away tears or flashing the three-finger Serbian victory salute - walked behind the hearse before it drove away to a the morgue in Belgrade's central St. Sava Hospital.

Several people tossed flowers at hearse as a few elderly women wailed loudly, a traditional way of mourning in Serbia.

"You came home, my son, Slobo!" cried one, Milica Kojic, 74. "They killed him in that dungeon."

Before the burial, the body will be put on public display in a large tent in front of the federal parliament building in the center of the capital, Andjelkovic said.

He said the Socialists decided to hold the viewing in the street after Belgrade city authorities denied permission by put the body inside the parliament building or at another unspecified location.

"Let them dare remove the tent," Andjelkovic said.

There are fears that nationalists could use the funeral to try win back power.

The Serbian Radical Party, an allied ultranationalist party, urged retired police and army officers to appear at the Milosevic funeral in ceremonial uniforms in a show of respect for the man who took them to four wars during his 13-year rule.

The Socialists, who were ousted from power along with Milosevic in 2000, threatened to topple the minority government if he were denied a funeral in Serbia and his widow was not allowed to mourn him at home.

They had demanded a funeral with state honors at a cemetery reserved for prominent Serbs, but authorities rejected this demand, reflecting the controversy about Milosevic's legacy.

Andjelkovic said Milosevic's body also will be displayed for public viewing in the Pozarevac City Hall before the burial. Milosevic's followers hold municipal power in Pozarevac, unlike in Belgrade, where the city authorities are dominated by the pro-Western Democratic Party, led by President Boris Tadic.

Milorad Vucelic, vice president of the Socialist Party, could not say if Milosevic's widow, Mirjana Markovic, or his son, Marko, would attend. Both have been living in Moscow in self-imposed exile.

But Sergei Baburin, a Russian nationalist lawmaker, said in Moscow that Markovic would not travel to Serbia for the funeral because Serbian security guarantees were "insufficient." There was no immediate comment from Markovic.

A Belgrade court on Tuesday suspended a warrant for her arrest but also ordered her passport to be seized upon arrival, which would prevent her from leaving the country immediately after the burial.

Mira Markovic won't be going to the funeral, I can't say I blame her, she'd never get back to Russia if she did.

Mira Won't Go to the Funeral

Serbian People Pay Their Respects

Same basic Information as above, different pictures

*
Sylvia Poggioli's coverage

And business as usual...he's NOT home! Get a CLUE!


Karadzic Home Raided Again

The Viewing in Pozaravac

For any one with the bad taste to gloat...

Bosnian Muslims Convicted

Sucat and signatures, the first one shows where General Gotovina signed. A lot of croats can't believe he did that. The first image is from Slobodna Dalmacija the second is from Reuters
Milosevic will be buried in Pozaravac on Saturday

Milosevic's Body Arrives in Serbia

Milosevic's Brought back to Serbia


Milosevic's Body Taken to Pozaravac, his home town

Hundreds of People Follow Milosevic's Hearse from the Airport

oh and a side note, see the sidebar on one of the Reuters stories, the Russian doctors endorse the results of the Dutch autopsy. It was if you read the earlier article I posted, very thorough.
Toxicology isn't in yet, I'd be interested to see it.
And this article from the American Prospect.... the author was an intern at The Hague early in the Milosevic trial so it's interesting. The late Judge May's record in Britain was familiar to me. I might say he was very familiar with people who would not recognize the court, but in general Irish people who did not recognize the court did so and then sat quietly.
So Long Slobo

Favorite Quote in this article: 'following a meeting between Milosevic and the notorious gang leader Arkan, a government official handed Arkan a briefcase of cash worth millions -- this at a time when thousands of Serbians were going hungry.'

Another person who'se blog I read regularly posted something about this case recently. I'm following up with this because it's a bit more detailed and raises some issues the article he found did not raise.

A more thorough story on the deportations of the 19 Serbs from Phoenix AZ

for purposes of immediate comparison, the article he had in his blog.

What happened to the Phoenix 19?
note, this site will ask your zip code, year of birth, and gender.
Officials Admit they knew about the contraband medications and alchol, also further details on the autopsy

Milosevic being buried in Belgrade, definately

Milosevic's body moved

Marko Milosevic claims his father's body

You have to read this little jem! Milosevic actually though Dubrovnik was full of Muslims! That was his excuse! Why was he not tranquilizer darted and checked for dementia years ago? Seriously! That's just wack!
Memories of MIlosevic


Fellow Indictees sign tribute to Milosevic


McFadden notified the Tribunal about Milosevic's smuggled goodies, alchol and unprescribed drugs.
Tribunal Knew of Milosevic's Drugs

Milosevic's daughter objects to Milosevic being buried by 'his betrayers'

Serbia's Jews Do Not Cry For Milosevic

Marko Leaves Amsterdam without the body

Milosevic's dead body sent to Amsterdam

BBC says Belgrade

Happy Pi (e) Day 3.14

Today is the biggest celebration of the importance of Nerdly values...so why is stuff like this happening? Simple, not enough nerds in the world, too many people who are sunk in superstion.
This happened in Romania before, sometime last year.

A nun was crucified in Romania as part of a wierd exorcism ritual. Even once was too often. I am really distressed to hear of this again.
No! Please Not Again!

Milosevic updates:
Well I guess it will be in Serbia
Marko Milosevic, has collected his father's body

Although given the conditions, I wonder, the second article has a deceptively attention getting title though.

Mira Markovic would be able to attend the funeral in Serbia

Mira Markovic to be interrogated in Serbia
Victory in Death


Milosevic could get hold of contrabandrugs and alchol
Thanks for the memories!



BiH to try Srebenica case in May

Simpsoni Uzivo

And on a lighter note! In honour of Pi(e) Day and Purim! Happy Purim to my Jewish friends, especially Kinky Friedman! I hope

this is really amusing! honk if you can't stand Rush! He reminds me of my least favorite teacher in junior high! I used to like having male teachers as a rule, but this one guy was a total exception to the rule. Rush has lost control of the classroomm here at the EIB ! xaxaxaxa!

Mad Cow Disease in Alabama

Looks like the case of Mad Cow disease was confirmed. I"m really upset about it, for reasons I put in my earlier post, there is just no excuse for cattle to have this disease, it IS preventable.

Hrt Coverage with pictures

According to PBSBiH Milosevic to be buried in Belgrade
According to PBSBiH Marko Milosevic will go get the late Slobodan Milosevic's body and the funeral will be in Belgrade.

yet another update

The doctor who said Milosevic was taking rifampicin is now a known name.

Dutch expert Donald Uges said he found rifampicin, a powerful antibiotic used to treat leprosy or tuberculosis

Milosevic Not to be buried in Serbia ... ?

No objection to funeral in Serbia, I guess it's just that no one is going to drop charges on Mirijana Markovic...



this was my favorite quote from the article, looks like he made up for all that obedience!
@Bora, sorry I was having a very bad time with my mouse that day, it's been dying on me at crucial moments.
Home Town Memories of Milosevic
One neighbour, who prefers not to give a name, says Slobodan Milosevic is remembered in the town as a quiet, rather effeminate boy, who did not play football, but was always obedient to his parents.

Well obviously without a defendant, there is no trial, this was totally expected.
ICTY ends Milosevic Trial

I am so sick of Mike Savage! I did agree with him about the ports issue, he was right for all the right reasons, and I give him credit for it.
However Mike Savage sincerly believes that Milosevic was poisoned.

The stuff about the antibiotic is not conclusive evidence. The doctor who claims this is NOT giving his own name*, also why wasn't there publicity about it a week ago? The parts of the Internet where I go poking around for news would have HAD even the faintest rumor of this. In fact if Milosevic really thought he was being poisoned, he could have raised some serious Hell about it, by way of his own tirades in court, maybe he did, I haven't checked that yet, but I think if he did that it would have been news a number of places I go to find news!
He could haver raised Hell by way of his lawyer, a friend, or the Russians. None of them were doing that before he died that I know of.
So I am disinclined to believe the poisoning thing.

Another thing: AGAIN the Hard Left in America and the Hard Right are using practically the SAME rhetoric on this issue, to look at agitprop places like 'Antiwar.com' and to listen to Mike Savage on this subject is to hear the same thing!
So has Savage joined the Communist Party of the United States of America? Or has the Hard Right, the Rant Radio Right been infiltrated by Communists? Seriously, am I the only one who has noticed this? Am I the only one who thinks it's wierd that aboth the Commies and Rush Limbaugh and Mike Savage all use the same 'It's All Clinton's Fault' thing?
I had BETTER NOT be the only one who finds this wierd! I better not be the only one who has serious questions about this.

Just for kicks here's an analysis of the Naom Chomsky position.

Noam Chomsky and the Milosevic Lobby,

*Since I wrote this the doctor who did the tests has been identified. The other stuff I don't really know. It just seems strange to me that nothing was said sooner.
If the Hague bears any responsibility for the death, it's the possibility that Milosevic could lay hands on unauthorized drugs of any kind.
fI really do not buy the poisoning theory. But know what, we will be stuck with that theory floating around and it will poison discourse on the subject of Milosevic forever.
let's see $200 million down the toilet, or 30 cents for a lump of lead and brass, or whatever it is they are charging for good Manila hemp rope these days...
I think the better model for war crimes trials might be the way it was done in Nurenburge. I'm not against housing the prisoners in comfort, that's perfectly fine with me, but in the case of proven guilt, nothing they were authorized to hand out as penalties was commesurate with the crimes. I'm not just talking about Milosevic here!
And not only speaking of Serbian defendants.

I still say had I been in charge of the prison regime in The Hauge, I would really have insisted on a workup medically that included checking for any signs of dementia bcaused by organic, physical causes. I think given that it isn't young men and women who end up leading nations, it's a reasonable thing to do in a situation of a war crimes trial. Any other trial where the defendant is over say 50.
I am convinced that it wouldn't be a bad idea before people ran for office either, or during their term of office.
People who'se brains are not working properly should not be deciding importabt life and death issues.
Sometimes Alzheimers has an early onset. This happened to President Reagan. No one understood about early onset Alzheimers when he was president, but now we know about that stuff.
Another thing, persistant high blood pressure is quite hard on the brain. So is heavy smoking, and everyone is aware that over use of alchol is bad for the brain.
Slivovica, which I like myself, does have a few things which are bad for one quite aside from alchol. The plum pits have compounds that make slivo higher in wood alchol than most spirits. An intelligent person who is going to drink slivo only drinks it in the tiny glasses customary in the Balkans and stops at three such glasses. I cn tell you from experience, you can really get a headache if you break that rule!
Well do that to excess over long enough, and it starts being mroe tahn a headache, becuse the compounds in slivo I'm talking about are more like wood alchol.
Slobodan Milosevic over the years put away a good bit of slivo.

A Petty Hitler

By Wesley K. Clark
March 13, 2006; Page A18
The Wall Street Journal

Slobodan Milosevic's death in The Hague is a real tragedy for the international community. But most of all it will be a tragedy for the Serbs themselves. It will likely be another step in a series of historic Serb failures, martyrdom and isolation, all of which Milosevic himself grandly evoked to gain and maintain his power. I knew him as a nationalist leader and wartime adversary.

Along with the other Americans on Richard Holbrooke's 1995 Balkan peace talks mission, I spent countless hours with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. As NATO's then supreme allied commander, Europe, I haggled with Milosevic about war criminals and the Dayton Peace Agreement implementation in 1997, delivered NATO's warnings and threat in 1998, implored his cooperation in heading off renewed conflict, and then, when all else failed, I led the NATO military campaign which forced him to end ethnic cleansing and remove his troops and police from Kosovo. In 2003, I faced him again when I testified for the prosecution in his war crimes trial at The Hague.

While his death at The Hague ends his interminable trial, nothing is resolved. His death only compounds many of the difficult issues still facing the international community, Europe and Serbia itself.

In his 64 years, Milosevic was an army officer, a Communist, a bureaucrat, a banker and, above all, a Yugoslav Serb who used his skills and harsh nationalist rhetoric to parlay himself into the highest office in Yugoslavia only to then alienate and attack his fellow Yugoslav citizens. In four successive conflicts which he all lost, Milosevic used war as a means of plundering and disassembling his own country. He forced millions from their homes and caused several hundred thousands of deaths. He was rational and sometimes cunning, often a brilliant tactical negotiator but ultimately a fool of a strategist, whose reckless crimes included murder and genocide, and who has cost humanity as a whole and his own Serbs dearly.

* * *

As a young man Milosevic was a dutiful communist and an outstanding student who scored top marks in school. His mother was a teacher who encouraged his studies but kept him away from sports. He fell in love with Mira Markovic, a personal favorite of Tito, who lost her mother during World War II in still unresolved circumstances. Her partisan mother was captured by the Nazis who interrogated, tortured, confessed and then supposedly killed her. More likely she was released only to be killed as a collaborator by fellow partisans. Milosevic himself lost both his parents and an uncle to suicide. But though he clearly had a dark side, I never saw Milosevic as a suicide risk -- he was too committed to himself and to his ideas.

During the many hours of our negotiations in the summer and autumn of 1995, we dined with him, chatted with him about history and geopolitics, and talked about everything from his experiences as a young man in America to his concerns for his family. Given his gruff, commanding manner, many joked during the Dayton peace talks that he was the real Godfather. But we quickly came to think of him more appropriately as a petty Hitler, an unlawful dictator capable of malice, murder and ethnic cleansing. Any arrangement with him had to be weighed morally: for its legitimization of Milosevic as well as its value in ending a bloody conflict.

During the Dayton peace talks, all of Milosevic's "qualities" were at display: his stubborn cunning and blustering outbursts, his often grandiose dreams of Serbia as one of the seven gateways of Europe, his patent disloyalty to his fellow Serbs and transparent lies about everything from Srebrenica to his attitudes toward other nations. He smoked and drank excessively, even as he complained about his blood pressure and his health. At the Paris signature ceremony for the Dayton negotiations, Milosevic was center stage, conversing with world leaders like President Bill Clinton. But he failed to deliver on many of his promises, especially regarding indicted war criminals like former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic. By the late summer of 1997, Serb resistance to NATO-led enforcement of the peace accords was rising and we called again on Milosevic for help. But he stubbornly refused to assist us. He still held dreams of a greater Serbia and he thought he had NATO's measure.

In the spring of 1998 he unleashed the next round of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, this time turning his Special Police against a prominent Albanian family in Kosovo, killing 60 of them, including women and children. For most of that year NATO struggled to find a balanced approach, alternating negotiations with intensifying threats to head off another war in former Yugoslavia. But Milosevic foolishly believed he could defy NATO warnings and launch a broad ethnic cleansing effort with impunity.

It was another strategic miscalculation by Milosevic. NATO followed through in its threats, unleashing a 78-day, gradually intensifying air campaign and threatened ground intervention. Coupled with Russian diplomatic assistance and his indictment for war crimes, Milosevic was forced to pull his forces out of Kosovo. It was yet another blow to his vision of a greater Serbia. When he tried the next year to win re-election, his opponents in Belgrade were ready -- demanding an honest vote and his resignation. Soon he was delivered to The Hague.

Predictably, his cause of death is being disputed by some of his Serb countrymen who blame the U.N. He will surely be lionized and glorified by the radical nationalists he so nurtured.

History's longest war crimes trial will never be concluded. Milosevic's many victims and their families will be denied justice. And the Serb people themselves will have one more escape from the awful truth of the crimes under Milosevic's leadership. His death comes at a bad time.

Serbia is struggling to acknowledge its past and face its future.

Indicted war criminals like Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are still at large -- most likely living under official protection. The future status of Kosovo is unresolved and Serb participation in a resolution would be helpful. Another challenge will be Montenegro's upcoming referendum on its independence. And even as Serbia looks westward for help, its future alignment is still unsettled as the Serb people struggle to recognize how badly they have been deceived and misled.

Even during Milosevic's rule, many in Serbia yearned to join the EU and work with NATO. Its economic modernization would strengthen all its neighbors, including NATO members Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Its participation as a modern state would help promote political reconciliation and development throughout the Balkans. But all this means giving up the kind of hypernationalism that Milosevic trumpeted and fanned, and for many in Serbia, this has long been a mythology they have come to believe to offset the reality of deprivations, corruption and poverty.

Milosevic's death will likely bury the truth beneath another layer of charges and countercharges. His trial had been a long-running national TV drama in Serbia. The impact there of the evidence so painstakingly presented was blunted by Milosevic's star status at home and his grandiloquent and often irrelevant argumentation.

Now there will be no conviction and Serbia's weak leaders will have to cope with yet another obstacle in re-educating and reorienting their people. His death is as much a tragedy as his life. Both in life and in death, Milosevic has deprived millions of people of justice, hope and a better future.

Mr. Clark was supreme allied commander of NATO during the 1999 Kosovo campaign and a Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency in 2004.

Slobodna Dalmacija on Milosevic

Rest of Story

Milosevic may have tried to make his medical condition worse in order to go to Russia

Milosevic may have tried to get to Moscow

Wrong Drug?

Could the 'Grapefruit Effect Have Killed Milosevic?


Very telling quote: "Russia is not a known destination for treatment for heart disease. Either you are treated in Western Europe or the United States - Houston was the main centre for treatment for many years. Russia does not have a great track record - and I remember that when Boris Yeltsin had heart disease he himself was treated in Switzerland."

Personally I remember when Izetbegovic was in his last illness, he did NOT go to Russia, he went to Saudi Arabia, which has a lot of American trained doctors for coronary care, maybe not as good as either the U.S. or Switzerland, but not to be sniffed at either!
Russia is not without some good specialists in other medical treatments. One Bosnian person I know of sent a younger relative to Russia for eye treatment and this person was a Croat not a Serb! It is the Russians who invented the lazer surgery for eyes.

It's not entirely unheard of for people to worsen their medical condition to do or not do something. Avoidance of the draft in the U.S. in past decades when we had conscription, I knew an elderly woman from India who deliberately took a drug that raised her blood pressure so that she could stay in the U.S. so this sort of thing is not so rare in my own personal experience. I probably know personally at least as many people who have taken risks with their own health in a similar way as I know who have say committed adultary for example.


Marko Milosevic applies for a Dutch Visa

Vuk Draskovic asks West to Back off about Mladic and Karadzic

I haven't posted from any American Left type sources since anything they have to say is being said more coherently by the Russians ANYWAY complete with polemics.
I really wish the American hard left would please get over it about Milosevic as victim.

And the only redeeming feature about the late Mr. Milosevic that I can think of, he and his wife did have a very strong bond, they really did love each other.

Sleep Well my darling..

WAIT this might be an Orang Revolution Update too!

Ukraine Enters Orange Revolution Song

Lejla! by Hari Mata Hari! Lovely! I love a country with the mental security to enter something pretty!
I like that this contestant isn't some underage thin female that is shaking what all she doesn't have too! The guy singing has a lovely smooth voice, the kind that gives those Balkans guy their apeal! to hear the song click on 'Poslusate' there's music notes if you need a further hint.
BiH Entry into Eurovision

Results indicate heart attack

Tadic Says No to State Funeral

A couple other updates:

Better to Prevent Mass Murder Than to Clean up the Mess Afterwards

Adieu Milosevic

And just for an interesting glimps into the difference between Federation BiH and Republika Srpska coverage have a look here
Republika Srpska Radio TV
RTRSR
PBS BiH
PBSBiH

And a bit from the Scotsman, about the Eurovision contest, I need something light after all this.
Serbia vs Montenegro Row at Eurovision Qualifying Contes

This morning I"ve been quite frustrated with computers, as this is a second go at this posting. I won't bore you with the diatribe on this. Suffice it to say, I had Ivan the Terrible give me some further computer lessons on how to survive with no jebame mouse, or when the mouse is being bad.
I called my significant other yesterday in Sarajevo. He had the news on full volume, and I had only three minutes on my phone card.
I asked him where he was when he got the news Milosevic had died, and how people in Sarajevo feel about it, Nerma Jelacic's article in the Observer

Nerma Jelacic's article in the Observer

Nerma Jelacic
Sunday June 24, 2001
The Observer

Nine years ago my life was shattered by a man named Slobodan Milosevic. I was 14 then. Yesterday as I waited for the Yugoslav Government's decision on the fate of this man who committed some of the worst acts of genocide since World War Two, I wondered why their decision that has opened the way to send him to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague did not fill me with the happiness I had expected.

Instead I experienced the same sense of confusion I felt when I watched my country being ravaged, my people being killed by soldiers of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), the same men, I had been taught since kindergarten, in whose trust I should place my safety and my life.

I am not happy that Milosevic is going to be extradited on charges which reflect only a small proportion of the crimes he committed, that are not related to the wars in Croatia and Bosnia.

But I cannot think of a fitting alternative for this man to repay the pain he caused my family and my nation. Milosevic was the main culprit in the Balkan wars. He was my Enemy Number One. Everyone else was a puppet in his hand.

In January 1992, one of my cousins came back from national service in the JNA with horrific stories of the war in Croatia. He told me of the death, blood and pain he saw there. It all seemed as distant as Africa to me. I could not imagine this lunacy crossing the border into Bosnia, where the nationalities lived in mixed communities.

Three months later I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of gunfire and the sight of burning houses on the hill nearby. That morning I found out who the pyromaniacs were as they set up barricades only metres from our house.

The JNA, whose job until the day before had been to protect me, today had the orders to kill me or forcibly remove me from the land which Milosevic envisaged as part of the greater Serbia. I can only imagine how my parents, both respectable white-collar workers, felt when they saw the JNA weapons, for which they had 4 per cent of their salary deducted since the beginning of their working life, aimed at our house.

We left as shells from the hills started hitting the city. We fled to a holiday home in the mountains, but after a few days we joined a group of 200 who fled their homes moments before the JNA arrived and set them alight.

In the darkness of night, we moved like a flock of sheep along the country roads and into a thick forest where we waited for the morning before deciding what to do. But at dawn a group of JNA soldiers surrounded us and led us into a clearing while they abused us. They separated women and children from men, and as I looked at my brother and father standing in the line opposite us I feared the worst. That day, however, they relented and allowed us to go home.

A week later the town had organised its defences. One of my cousins, who was 24, was given the only machine-gun and told to prevent the 'Serbs' from crossing the bridge which marked the border between my town of Visegrad and Serbia proper.

The noise was deafening as column after column of green trucks from Belgrade, Cacak and Uzice crossed on their way to the motorway which led to the Bosnian towns of Zvornik, Foca, Gorazde, Srebrenica and Sarajevo. Some trucks were full of drunken, unshaven soldiers, shooting in the air. Other trucks were covered with canvas and rolled ominously along.

Another cousin, the one who told me of atrocities in Croatia, was also expected to defend his country. He was given an old rifle and two bullets. He is now in Gorazde a nervous wreck. His brother was killed while defending Gorazde; his father (my uncle) was shot when he went back to retrieve his body.

Ironically, my mother, brother and myself escaped across the Serbian border, my father was the second to last non-Serb to leave our city. His friend, the headmaster at my school, was the last Muslim there. He was killed the following day. In less than a month since the JNA entered Visegrad, the demography of this border town had changed completely. It remains so to this day.

Now, almost nine years after my arrival in England, the final chapter of my escape from Bosnia is about to be written. And through it all Milosevic was the only constant. When I was 10 he started inciting ethnic hatred in Kosovo; by my 14th birthday the Yugoslav Army was destroying Vukovar and the monuments of Dubrovnik. When I turned 15, his troops made my family stateless. When I reached my 21st birthday it was only to read about the dead of Kosovo.

Now, after so much pain, history will only be honoured if the indictment against Milosevic is amended to include charges of genocide and if he answers for his role in the other Balkan wars.

***********************
This article is a fair summing up of opinion. No one is terribly sad Milosevic is dead, and I think my guy was trying not to let on that he's a little nervous about all this.
Anyway, he pretty much said, well the bad part is the trial is not finished.
Now there are Milosevic supporters saying he was poisoned, which is utter rubbish. There is no benefit to poisoning him at this late date. There might have been sense in shooting him ten years ago, when the war ended, but that's a different matter.
If it was not in the interests of world leaders that he be tried, if it was in their interest to poison him, that would have happened long ago. If I'd been doing it, I would have seen to it before he ever left Serbia! Just saying....
Seriously this story here, is interesting

Milosevic may have spat out pills

This article has been floating around now for the last few hours in various guises also.

Wierd Drugs in Milosevic's blood

So neither poisoning nor suicide can be ruled out. I am going to speak from my extremly brief experience of dealings with paranoid people, and older people, because the Hague in some ways is almost a geriatric prison, Milosevic at 64 was in very bad health, he came from a family which did commit suicide his father, his mother, his favorite uncle. Suicide is in clusters, think about it, Babic commited suicide just six days before. Emotionally that was probably rougher on Milosevic than anyone could judge.
I think the Hague was right not to send him to Russia but they could have flown in any Russian doctors he liked, given the cost of the trial a few doctors from Russia would have been chicken feed!
Another thing, all the prisoners on entry should have had thorough healt check ups and it should have been done again at intervals, severa articles mention that no one remembered Milosevic's last physical!
Given that McFadden is a humane prison administrator, I'm rather surprised, then again he used to work for the Northern Ireland prison service, still to be fair he worked for it after considerable reforms were made and after the worst of the abuses were over.
Four Serbian defendants have died in the Hague, it's highly likely that fact will be used by various people who do not want peace.
I personally am very distressed to read the autopsy results are so indicative of a suspicious death.
What should have been happening:
Prisoners needed to be checked on more, just to be sure they are o.k.
These are high profile prisoners.
The other thing is that Milosevic should really have also been checked for signs of early onset dementia. He had a lot of the risk factors, physically and mentally. I also would not put it past Milosevic to have gotten hold of drugs to take and to havemade his suicide look like murder. He would know the effect of such a thing.
Anyway final results on the toxicology are not going to be out for maybe a week.
One report says that a drug used for tuberculosis and leprosy was found in his blood stream before. I wish they'd named the particular drugs, I could research them and tell you what are the potential effects! That's one thing I took home from school, how to do that, and what to look for.
=Autopsy ended.