Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has apologized for all crimes
committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina by any individual on Serbia’s behalf.
"I kneel and ask for forgiveness for Serbia for the crime committed in Srebrenica," said Nikolic in an interview for Bosnian national Television BHRT, which is expected to be broadcasted tonight (April 25). source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9c-iF9Li8tY A lot of comments are on twitter regarding Nikolic's apology. Some of them you can read here:
EU
Commissioner for enlargement, Stefan Fule, congratulated both Serbia and Kosovo
on reaching the agreement and expressed his support on their European path:
The two teams
adopted a 15-point draft agreement, presented by Ashton in the ninth round of
talks, on April 17. According to Ashton, the text of the agreement has been
initialled by both prime ministers.
The
draft agreement envisions that the local Serbian community will choose local
police commanders, while the composition of the police will reflect the ethnic
structure on the ground. The draft also proposes more judges coming from the
Serbian minority.
A so-called Association of Serb Municipalities with broad powers will include
the four Serb-run northern municipalities of North Mitrovica, Leposavic, Zvecan
and Zubin Potok.
EU High Representatives for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine
Ashton, and EU Commissioner for enlargement, Stefan Fule, have informed the
European Council today of the progress made in Belgrade-Pristina talks and the
progress of both countries on their way towards the EU accession, after which
the Council may grant Serbia an accession talks date in June.
On his
twitter account EU Commissioner for enlargement, Stefan Fule, informed the
public that the Commission has adopted recommendation to the EU Member States
to open negotiations a SAA with Kosovo and a proposal to Member State allowing
Kosovo to participate in EU programmes and for EU membership with Serbia:
You
can read the full report presented by the EU High Representative for foreign
affairs and security policy Cahterine Ashton to the European Parliament and the
Council on on Kosovo's progress in addressing issues set out in the Council
Conclusions of December 2012 in view of a possible decision on the opening of
negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement in the following
link:
Comments
on today's positive recommendations for Kosovo from the European Commission can
be seen on twitter accounts of the highest Kosovo officials including Foreign
Affairs Minister Enver Hoxhaj, the Kosovo Minister for European Intergation
Vlora Citaku and Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga:
Serbian government has
adopted today the First agreement on the principles governing the normalisation
of relations, reached through dialogue on Kosovo in Brussels. More on the
twitter comment from the Serbian government:
International state officials are congratulating Serbia and Kosovo on
reaching the agreement on April 19th in Brussels and Serbian government on
ratifying the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina. More in the following
comments:
Most Serbs in northern Kosovo who feel betrayed
by a historic deal reached by Belgrade and Pristina to normalize the relations
between the two countries organized protests in Mitrovica, Northern Kosovo, at
noon today.
Also in the Serbian capital of Belgrade several hundred protesters from the Serbian
nationalist organization Dveri gathered yesterday to protest against recognition
of Kosovo as an independent
state. You can watch the protests in the following clip published on the Dveri
webpage- http://www.dverisrpske.com/sr-CS/index.php
The Democratic Party
of Serbia, DSS, led by former Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, has
scheduled a protest in Belgrade for today at 15:00 CET over the government's
decision to initial an agreement with Kosovo. The party will call on Serbian
President Tomislav Nikolic and the government to resign.
Here are some photos from twitter of protests in Belgrade:
You can read more in
the following twitter comments:
Twitter comments from the social media users from Serbia on
the agreement signed between Belgrade and Pristina on April 19th you can found
below:
Serbian Orthodox Church
(SPC) has appealed on the Serbian authorities that by ratifying the agreement
between Belgrade and Pristina signed on April 19th in Brussels Serbs will pay a
high price for securing the date for the EU accession negotiations for Serbia. More
in the following twitter comments:
On
March 22, numerous national football teams from Southeast Europe play
in in the qualifications for the FIFA World football championship in
Brazil in 2014. Many of the matches will be played under strict security
measures (Serbia vs. Croatia) or even with no audience (Hungary vs.
Romania, Bulgaria vs. Malta), due to the history of clashes or racist
behavior of local fans.Sport
and politics in the Balkan region have never been strictly separated,
as it has been shown before, during and after sport matches
before.
Clashes in Kranj,
Slovenia, after the water-polo match between Croatia and Serbia and
Montenegro in 2003:
Since clashes between the fans
of the teams from former Yugoslav countries occurred almost regularly
in the previous years before and after the matches, officials from Serbia
and Croatia used traditional and social media ahead of March 22 football
match to send the same message: „Let us play football and leave the past
behind“. As
regards to wider public some say that the the fans' passionate
performances should be subdued to show that fans can behave in a civilized
manner, whereas others are supporting spreading hatred and showing once
again violence in the stands. Here are some of the comments:
An
article on history of football and nationalism in the
region:
" Kada se u petak (22.3.) zakotrlja lopta na Maksimiru, nekoliko miliona
ljudi rizikovaće srčani udar gledajući nešto što bi trebalo da bude samo
– igra. Posljednja takva „igra“ iz 1999. godine praćena je ogromnim
nacionalnim nabojem. Tada je na Maksimiru bilo 2:2, ali je zapravo
pobijedila Jugoslavija jer se plasirala na Evropsko prvenstvo. Drugi gol
za Hrvatsku postigao je Mario Stanić, kojeg smo pitali da li su se i
koliko tenzije smirile od 1999. godine? „Teško da se nešto može
promijeniti kad, evo, Vi i ja sada opet razgovaramo o prošlosti. Problem
Balkana je teret prošlosti koji nosimo na leđima i koji nam ne
dozvoljava da gledamo u sadašnjost i budućnost“, kaže Stanić koji danas
piše uticajan sportski blog".
An article on Croatia-Serbia
relationships specifically:
"18 GODINA nakon završetka rata koji je navodno počeo na maksimirskom
stadionu i 14 godina poslije dvoboja s krnjom Jugoslavijom, Hrvatska će
prvi put igrati protiv samostalne Srbije".
On the web site http://www.igraliste.hr columnist and former footballer in the Croatian national team Mario Stanic recommends that football should be above politics.
World betting shops estimate that Croatia is the main
favourite in today's match against Serbia in the World football championship
qualifications. Betting shops give a quota of 1.70 for Croatia and who invests
money on Serbia can get between 4.90 and 5.75 EUR on each invested EUR.
The most famous betting shop is William Hill gives a
quota of 5.00 on Serbia.
Neither the domestic betting shops are favouring the „Eagles
team“: the biggest line of betting shops Mozzart gives Serbia quota of 5.00 and
similar quotas are given also by other domestic betting shops.
In Bosnia
and Herzegovina is also an euphoric atmosphere. National football teams from BiH and Greece
will meet this evening at the Bilino polje stadium in Zenica, at the match
for the qualifications for the World Championship in Brazil in 2014; large
number of fans have already arrived in Zenica from all over BiH and abroad and
police has increased security measures around the stadium.
Arrival of "Bosnian Dragons" at Zenica hotel Dubrovnik
