2006-05-03

Miroodljub

I have just heard on B92, no written articles to link to yet, that Miroljub Labus has given his resignation as deputy premier in the Serbian government, giving as his reason the suspension of accession negotiations with the EU because of the most recent failure to arrest and extradite a prominent genocide indictee whose name everyone knows. He will also recommend, in the spirit of gestures which appear to be a compromise but are in fact pointlessly self-defeating, that his mysterious disappearing party G17+ withdraw its ministers from the government but continue to support the government in parliament.

If any interesting articles on this appear, I will add some links below.

Here is B92's news report, with comments.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm, what price yet more elections?

Still no sign of the man himself.

What is he thinking? That he can continue this way forever?

I think this will all end in 'bullets'.

Eric Gordy said...

It is easy to imagine a bad ending that satisfies nobody, and there is no telling what an election would bring if it were held right away. Between the government, ICTY, the various armed forces, and the internationals, nobody seems to be coming out of this situation well.

Anonymous said...

I feel that one way or another he wont live to make the trip to the Hague. - Unless that is his health is in such a bad state that they dare not try him.

Perhaps there is some truth to the fact that the Serbian government doesnt want him there (you can imagine him screaming blue murder down the phone saying he will incriminate everybody and everything - Bosnia vs SCG et al). So if Mladic resists its a satisfactory outcome if he dies - from the gvts perspective, but also from the perspective of Serbian citizens who will be rid of Mladic for once and for all.

If the Serbian government is genuinely searching for him then we have a more serious problem with the Milosevic era structures than we thought.

But its not like we didnt know this - when Legija was free to race round the streets of Belgrade in his jeep with his bodyguards. And when PM Djindjic was killed.

Perhaps there is truth in both theories.

Either way it makes you want to shake Kostunica and tell him to wake the hell up. Plodding is all very well but it has done nothing for Serbia since 2000.

Eric Gordy said...

Well said!