Eastern approaches

Ex-communist Europe

Balkan police abroad

Forging the Yugosphere in Haiti

Jan 28th 2011, 15:09 by T.J. | PORT-AU-PRINCE

OUT on the mean streets of Port-au-Prince, the earthquake-devastated capital of Haiti, the Yugosphere—the ties that still bind the people of the former Yugoslavia—appears to be alive and well. Marin Mikulec (pictured left), a Croat, trains UN and Haitian policemen. Vojkan Ivanovic from Serbia (pictured right) spends his day protecting the UN police chief here. But when the day is done, they hang out together as friends.

Lt Col Ivanovic and Senior Police Inspector Captain Mikulec are part of the UN’s deployment of 3,243 policemen in Haiti. Today there are five Serbs in the stabilisation mission, which is known as MINUSTAH, and three Croats. They do a variety of jobs but all live on the same floor of the same building. If they were attacked, says Capt Mikulec, “we would defend ourselves together.”

Capt Mikulec’s first experience of action was in 1991, when as a teenager he manned the barricades in his home town of Zadar against Serbs, whose short-lived breakaway Republic of Serbian Krajina, in Croatian territory, extended to the edges of the town.

After Croatia attained independence he became part of the police drugs squad, worked on de-mining operations and in other special police unit jobs. But then he got bored. In 2006 he went to train Iraqi policemen in Jordan. Today he is on his second tour in Haiti.

Lt Col Ivanovic is from Nis in central Serbia. Aged 31, he is too young to have fought in Croatia, but from 1997 he was deployed by the police in Kosovo. He fought there during the war, and then saw action in the Presevo region of south Serbia in 2001. Today he is a senior officer in Serbia’s paramilitary gendarmerie. When he arrived in Port-au-Prince last July, he slept in Capt Mikulec’s room for two months. “We took care of them when they arrived, and when my guys arrived earlier, the Serbs took care of them,” says Capt Mikulec.

Policemen have a reputation among journalists of being sparing with information, and Capt Mikulec and Lt Col Ivanovic don’t disappoint. Capt Mikulec took part in the major campaigns of 1995 that crushed rebel Serbs in Croatia. Lt Col Ivanovic came under NATO bombardment in Kosovo in 1999. But ask them to recall the most dramatic moment of their wars, and they become coy. It was war, they say: it was tough but it's behind us.

The two policemen have more to say on the question of money, pointing out that that one of the perks of working in places like Haiti is that they can save in one year what would take ten back home. They also agree that although Haiti’s palm-fringed beaches are nice, the sea is too warm; not like the refreshing Adriatic.

Among those who think about security issues in the western Balkans it has long been a mantra that former security “consumers”—countries where UN missions and so on operated—should become contributors, providing troops and police for international missions. Sending a few policemen, who the UN finds it much more difficult to procure than soldiers, does wonders for a country's reputation.

But there is another element at play here: the forging of personal bonds. “Of course that could be useful,” says Lt Col Ivanovic. One area of potential co-operation is in tackling drugs smuggling. Lt Col Ivanovic's home town lies along the infamous Balkan smuggling route. Capt Mikulec’s home town, Zadar, has a serious drugs problem.

Serbia and Croatia are planning to open a joint police cooperation centre, later perhaps to be joined by other former Yugoslav states. Joining the dots to catch the criminals will be that much easier if intelligence can travel directly from one former room-mate to the other. The new centre is scheduled to open in Belgrade but, initially, to be headed by a Croat. In future Balkan criminals may well do to be wary of the Haitian connection.

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lpcyusa

Irrefutable Proof ICTY Is Corrupt Court/Irrefutable Proof the Hague Court Cannot Legitimately Prosecute Karadzic Case By Jill Starr

http://picasaweb.google.com/lpcyusa
(The Documentary Secret United Nations ICC Meeting Papers Scanned Images)

https://sites.google.com/site/jillstarrsite/irrefutable-proof-icty-is-co...

This legal technicality indicates the Hague must dismiss charges against Dr Karadzic and others awaiting trials in the Hague jail; like it or not.

Unfortunately for the Signatures Of the Rome Statute United Nations member states instituting the ICC & ICTY housed at the Hague, insofar as the, Radovan Karadzic, as with the other Hague cases awaiting trial there, I personally witnessed these United Nations member states having a substantial conversations, and, openly speaking about trading judicial appointments and verdicts for financial funding when I attended the 2001 ICC Preparatory Meetings at the UN in Manhattan making the iCTY and ICC morally incapable trying Radovan Karazdic and others.

I witnessed with my own eyes and ears when attending the 2001 Preparatory Meetings to establish an newly emergent International Criminal Court, the exact caliber of criminal corruption running so very deeply at the Hague, that it was a perfectly viable topic of legitimate conversation in those meetings I attended to debate trading verdicts AND judicial appointments, for monetary funding.

Jilly wrote:*The rep from Spain became distraught and when her country’s proposal was not taken to well by the chair of the meeting , then Spain argued in a particularly loud and noticably strongly vocal manner, “Spain (my country) strongly believes if we contribute most financial support to the Hague’s highest court, that ought to give us and other countries feeding it financially MORE direct power over its decisions.”

((((((((((((((((((((((((( ((((((((((((((((((((((((( Instead of censoring the country representative from Spain for even bringing up this unjust, illegal and unfair judicial idea of bribery for international judicial verdicts and judicial appointments, all country representatives present in the meeting that day all treated the Spain proposition as a ”totally legitimate topic” discussed and debated it between each other for some time. I was quite shocked! The idea was “let’s discuss it.” "It’s a great topic to discuss."

Some countries agreed with Spain’s propositions while others did not. The point here is, bribery for judicial verdicts and judicial appointments was treated as a totally legitimate topic instead of an illegitimate topic which it is in the meeting that I attended in 2001 that day to establish the ground work for a newly emergent international criminal court.))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

In particular., since “Spain” was so overtly unafraid in bringing up this topic of trading financial funding the ICC for influence over its future judicial appointments and verdicts in front of every other UN member state present that day at the UN, “Spain” must have already known by previous experience the topic of bribery was “socially acceptable” for conversation that day. They must have previously spoke about bribing the ICTY and ICC before in meetings; this is my take an international sociological honor student.

SPAIN’s diplomatic gesture of international justice insofar as, Serbia, in all of this is, disgusting morally!SPAIN HAS TAUGHT THE WORLD THE TRUE DEFINITION OF AN “INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT.”

I represented the state interests’ of the Former Yugoslavia, in Diplomat Darko Trifunovic’s absence in those meetings and I am proud to undertake this effort on Serbia’s behalf

lpcyusa

What It’s Like to Chill Out With Whom the Rest of the World Considers As The Most Ruthless Men: Ratko Mladic, Goran Hadzic and Radovan Karadzic (+) Confessions of a Female War Crimes Investigator By Jill Louise Starr NJ USA

https://sites.google.com/site/jillstarrsite/what-it-s-like-to-chill-out-...

Retrospectively, it was all so simple, natural and matter of fact being on a boat restaurant in Belgrade, sitting with, laughing, drinking a two hundred bottle of wine and chatting about war and peace while Ratko Mladic held my hand. Mladic, a man considered the world’s most ruthless war criminal since Adolf Hitler, still at large and currently having a five million dollar bounty on his head for genocide by the international community. Yet there I was with my two best friends at the time, a former Serbian diplomat, his wife, and Ratko Mladic just chilling. There was no security, nothing you’d ordinarily expect in such circumstances. Referring to himself merely as, Sharko; this is the story of it all came about

xrocker

Basis for peaceful coexsistence is laid by acknowledging each own share of responsibility, not by spreadig the blame evenly.
The first and formost culprit is Milosevic and majority of the Serbs who wholeheartedly and foolishly supported him throughout former federation of Yugoslavia - to own detriment.

Vrop

I fail to understand why is it made to sound as something special that ordinary citizens (or police officers for that matter) from former Yugoslav countries work, live or play together? It is logical and natural that peoples with such culturally similar backgrounds would get along. There is really no need to make it seem as something so extraordinarily special...

Borrmillvoid

Given that all the countries of Europe waged wars against each other in their past, 20th century was a turning point for settling conflicts among the nations,so the countries opted for mending rifts in a civilized way and cooperated for theirs and other people’s welfare. Do not let us forget that from the time of Charlegmane there were wars, political conflicts and clashes between France and various German states, but it did not hinder them to be the first to initiate the establishing of the European community which now comprises majority of E.states. The war and political conflicts between two countries, previously being republics of former Yugoslavia ,should be regarded a hideous past which should be prevailed by good relations and mutual cooperation. Serbia and Croatia are not only linked with the same language, but there are also lots of blood relatives on both sides. The two countries have renounced violence and they do not pose a threat to each other any longer. In this respect no form of cooperation is bizarre,so I take it normal that Serbian and Croation policemen work mutually for the same course.BV

Aron F

Thank you Economist for writing this article. Usually, when it comes to the relations among the ex-Yugoslav countries, it is the issues regarding the war or topic that sides disagree. It is necessary to realize that nations of the once a unified state had friendly relations. There were always the ones that hated one another and the polar opposite. The only question is which one prevailed. Unfortunately, the war has shown that the nationalist sides in both nations had prevailed in the 1990s. Today, peoples of Yugosphere had to concentrate on economic prosperity, which was entirely forgotten in the previously mentioned period.

Svarog

Bravo! Peace and cooperation are made by ordinary people in everyday life. Many people ask me how come that Croats and Serbs go along well when meet or work outside of the the ex Yugo area? Well, have a think why. War in the former Yugoslavia was initiated by radical nationalistic leadership who had personal interests- looting of the wealth that the former Yugoslavia had and war was helped by dirty media war, immature intelligentsia, mistakes form the communist leaders who didn't clear out war crimes from the WW2 (which occurred in large thanks to the support from the out side of Croatia and Serbia itself and even more by massive economic crisis in the former Yugoslavia. Ordinary Croats and Serbs didn't wanted the war. In fact they wanted to co-live if not as brothers than at least as good friends or relatives.

About Eastern approaches

Eastern approaches deals with the economic, political, security and cultural aspects of the eastern half of the European continent. It incorporates the long-running "Europe.view" weekly column. The blog is named after the wartime memoirs of the British soldier Sir Fitzroy Maclean.

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