Kosovo update (depressing)

Oct. 25 - This report on the Kosovo elections is sharply critical of the failure of the U.N. and the recent elections (Kosovo poll reveals failure of UN rule) which were notable for their apathy and the boycott by Serbs:

Early results from the weekend's general election showed that five years of UN rule had only deepened ethnic divisions as Kosovo's voters signalled their despair with the Balkan province's administrators.

Barely more than half of Kosovo's 1.4 million voters went to the ballot box. While the province's majority ethnic Albanians were struck by apathy, its 130,000-strong Serb minority was seized by anger and completely boycotted the poll.

Only a handful of Serbs voted, following calls from Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian Prime Minister, and the Serbian Orthodox Church to stay away. Mr Kostunica described the election as a "failure".

[...]

A victory for the moderate Albanian LDK party of current President Ibrahim Rugova was indicated by early results but it has once again fallen short of an outright majority and will have to form a coalition.

Once formed, the local government will have a slim portfolio of responsibilities, while all meaningful power remains with the UN.

The provisional result equates to a maintenance of the political status quo by default, as both Kosovo's bitterly opposed ethnic Albanians and Serbs signalled their dissatisfaction with foreign rule.

[...]

At the moment, though run by the UN, Kosovo is still officially part of Serbia and a land which Serbs have cherished for centuries.

Long happy to do nothing, Kosovo's international administrators were stung by riots in March that made clear that maintaining the stand-off was counterproductive. Now Kosovo appears deadlocked.

Not the most postitive outlook.

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No Protection for EU Whistleblowers

Oct. 18 - The proper definition of whisleblower, as I understand it (and keeping in mind the I am not a lawyer disclaimer) is someone who goes to the press with information on matters of legal and/or ethical wrongdoing.

Many of us were surprised to learn that there is no whistleblower protection for UN workers, and a recent ruling by the European Court means that there is also none for EU workers (EU judges end human rights law for press) because it seems that Washington D.C. Brussels is above considerations like press freedoms and human rights:

The European Court has quietly brushed aside 50 years of international case law in a landmark judgment on press freedom, ruling that Brussels does not have to comply with European human rights codes.

In a judgment with profound implications for civil liberties, Euro-judges backed efforts by the European Commission to obtain the computers, address books, telephone records and 1,000 pages of notes seized by Belgian police - on EU instructions - from Hans-Martin Tillack, the former Brussels correspondent of Germany's Stern magazine.

It is a test case of whether the European Court will adhere to the democratic freedoms and liberal principles upheld for the last half-century by Europe's top rights watchdog, the non-EU Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, or whether it will pursue a more authoritarian line as it grows in power.

Maybe they still miss the point that power corrupts.

Mr Tillack had written a series of hard-hitting exposes of EU fraud and skulduggery, relying on inside sources. By obtaining his archive of investigative files amassed over five years, the commission can identify key sources and "burn" a generation of EU whistleblowers.

That's one way to handle corruption: fire the whistleblowers and block future exposes. There are other ways, which include rooting out and firing the corrupt officials, but that's doesn't seem to be an option. more...

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Madrid train bombings update

Oct. 17 - Police identify mystery ringleader of Madrid bombings, Allekema Lamari, as one of the men who blew themselves up in an apartment after a shoot-out with police shortly after the March 11 bombing.

A special operations policer officer was killed and several other policemen were wounded in that explosion.

The other suspected terrorists killed in the April suicide blast were identified as: Tunisian Serhane Ben Abdelmajid, Moroccans Jamal Ahmidan, Asri Rifaat, Abdennabi Kounjaa, and Rachid and Oulad Akcha, brothers who were also from Morocco.

Officials say several of the seven were ringleaders of the attack.

Another suspect, an Egyptian called Rabei Osman Ahmed who is currently in Italian custody awaiting extradition to Spain, is also suspected of helping mastermind the Madrid train bombings.

The response of the Spanish electorate to the bombings has been analyzed elsewhere, but what is notable is that, appeasers or no, those countries that did not participate in Operation Iraqi Freedom are nonetheless engaged in the larger war on terror by tracking down terrorists in their midst and that is something that should not be discounted.

Americans who counterpose police action vs. military action are missing the point: successfully combating terrorism will require any and all tools available. Neither course need be sacrificed to bolster the other and to argue issues on that merit either indicates a lack of understanding or lack of committment to combatting terrorism.

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