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Saturday, November 13th, 2010 at 11:26 am

In The Aftermath Of The Meeting, Serbian Papers Are Reporting That 2 States Which Had So Far Been Understood To Have Recognised Kosovo, Now Say That In Fact They Did not.

The first serious working week after the summer vacations has produced a wealth of stories here in the western Balkans. Some are way more significant than others, unless of course you live here, when they are all serious. Here is a roundup of a few of them.

Outside the old Yugoslav Fed. Parliament building in the Serbian capital they are rolling up the red carpet which had been unrolled to greet representatives to the 50th birthday hit of the Non-Aligned Movement, which I wrote about here. Serbia, which hosted the gathering, is not a member, but never mind that. It finds it handy to lobby over the Kosovo issue and for business.

In the result of the meeting, Serbian papers are reporting that two states which had as yet been accepted to have recognised Kosovo, now say that they did not. Oman says it just, kind of, um ah, sort of claimed it wanted Kosovo in the UN, but that is totally different. The West African state of Guinea Bissau claims that recognition was held up in parliament.

Vuk Jeremic, Serbia's foreign minister adds that a criminal enquiry has started in one African country against a senior official. He said :

"There are set up suspicions that he received a bribe from an Albanian businessman from Kosovo in order to start the procedure to recognize Kosovo independence. If that investigation gives results we are expecting, this country will also withdraw its recognition of Kosovo independence."

In the piece I wrote in this week's print edition I noted that many nations find the Non-Aligned Movement's meetings handy because they enable countries to lobby and network. However in a stinging commentary (behind a paywall,) at Balkan Discernment Milan Misic, the Washington correspondent of the Serbian daily Politika, argues the entire shebang was mounted because Belgrade "needed something to boost its confidence". It was simply a show of nostalgia for all its players argues Mr Misic and "dwelled on the past achievements of the movement. "

At the meeting the ex-Yugoslavs all sat together. They'd better be careful. Folk (particularly Croatia's Nova TV) are raising questions. Why Ivo (Josipovic, the president of Croatia) was spending a great deal of time with Boris (Tadic, the president of Serbia). Two men of the same age, same background, same jobs, same Problems, what a scandal...

In the meantime, as some Croatian journalists were obsessing about Ivo and Boris a little Croatian paper, the Makarska Kronika, seems to have a world-beating scoop, if true of course. In February I wrote about the close connections between the former Yugoslavia and Colonel Qaddafi. The press then wrote that his wife Safiya was initially Sofija Farkas, a Croat with Hungarian roots from Mostar in Hercegovina. According to the paper, Mrs Qaddafi has recently been trying to buy land and property in Igrane on the Croatian Adriatic coast not far from Mostar.

Mrs Qaddafi and some of the family are now in Algeria. This summer the Balkan press has been full of stories of diverse celebrities in assorted stages of inebriation or undress, from Prince Harry to Beyonc, who have been taking a vacation in Croatia. Whether Mrs Qaddafi fits the profile the Croats want, I'm not sure, but , if she is actually a Bosnian Croat she has every right to a Croatian passport and therefore visa free travel through Europe.

On a rather more sombre note, Dimitar Bechev of the Sofia office of the European Council on Foreign Relations writes about the "protracted death of democratic Albania." Talking about the political conflict which has paralysed Albania for the last two years he is saying that both Edi Rama, the leader of the opposition Socialists and Sali Berisha, the prime minister are to blame . However Mr Berisha "must take the lion's share." He is hell bent, announces Mr Bechev, on gaining control of all the Albanian institutions which still remain beyond his grip.

Why are normal Albanians willing to permit such de-democratisation? One reason might be that, unlike any other previous Red states, normal folks see in the EU nothing different from Albania. To the side, across the Mediterranean, is Italy, with its unique type of game-show politics ; to the south, over the mountain ranges, lies broke Greece. If this is what it means to be an ECU state, many Albanian baby-kissers can be excused for thinking they already live in one, or should qualify for membership."

Not quite so dramatic, but still, alarm bells have begun to ring in Montenegro too. Thomas Roser, of the Austrian daily Die Presse has written about the crop of attacks on autos belonging to Vijesti, one of the nations main dailies. Four have been torched in the last few months. Zeljko Ivanovic, the paper's managing editor announces that the media situation in the country is appalling and that the attacks are messages from folk hooked up to orgainised crime which in Montenengro have invariably been thought to overlap with political interests that "they are stronger than the state" and so Vijesti's reporting about such issues is purposeless. Who cares about the global economy when you can stress about media liberty in Montenegro. Watch this space, writes tagza.com.
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