Simon Wiesenthal Center Director Efraim Zuroff stated that the center is searching for a former Nazi from the time of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). “We are now checking if the person from Croatia has been sentenced for his crimes during Tito’s time. If so, we will not be able to try him again. If not, we will ask Zagreb to indict him. The person did not live in Latin America and I cannot tell you if it is a male or a female,” Zuroff told daily Politika. In his opinion the debate about the number of victims in the Jasenovac Concentration Camp has to be finished, recommending that an expert international commission be established for getting access to all needed documents, archives, and historical material. “With the help of forensics, we would come up with an assessment regarding the real proportions of the executions in the Jasenovac Concentration Camp. If we want to determine the historical truth about the crimes during WWII, we cannot tolerate speculations about the number of victims. The difference between 50,000 and 700,000 is so unbelievable that it cannot be accredited to any historical fact,” he said. Zuroff added that ghosts of the past will not find peace as long as these numbers are being manipulated with. “As the time passes, it keeps getting harder to draw a conclusion about something as gruesome as the biggest concentration camp in the Balkans. Politics is mixing with justice and even history. The conclusion would have to be recognized by both Croatia and Serbia. Only then can the necessary healing process begin,” Zuroff concluded. To read more about Jasenovac Consentration Camp and the Jews, Serbs and Roma, who were victims, please click here.
The Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, whose country currently presides over the EU Presidency, is optimistic that a possible compromise over the name dispute between the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece can be reached before EU foreign Ministers meet on December 7th. Indeed, that is when a decision is supposed to be taken regarding whether or not Macedonia will receive a date to start talks over membership of the EU. The Swedish foreign minister’s statement came after Zoran Jolevski, Macedonia’s representative in the talks on the name dispute, told the UN's mediator, Matthew Nimetz, that Macedonia was ready for a solution to the name issue that will not affect the country’s dignity. Though Jolevski is expecting Greece to abide by the 1995 agreement and thus not prevent Macedonia from joining the EU, he would like to reach an agreement on the name dispute before the EU Council’s meeting on December 7. But why does the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia assume so much importance for Greek foreign policy? It is evident that this dispute does not simply concern the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic but what is actually conveyed through it. Since the independence of FYROM in 1991, Greece has felt threatened by the existence of a state over its northern border that, according to its new Constitutional Charter and recent history, claimed the right to control the whole of the Macedonian region. Furthermore, the new Republic manifested its claims over the ancient Macedonians’ cultural heritage, thus provoking the anger of the Greeks. FYROM’s territorial claims were almost immediately put aside in 1992 by changing the contested constitutional articles, namely Art. 3 and 49, which gave the new Republic the right to intervene in Greek internal affairs by claiming cultural homogeneity with those Slav-speaking Greeks living in the Greek Aegean Macedonia. However, FYROM’s claim over the cultural heritage of the classical Macedonians has not ceased. According to Greek sources, a process of ethno-genesis is still alive in the state-controlled educational system, giving birth to a generation who feel their cultural roots derive from the classical Macedonians; to the dismay of the Greeks who claim the Greekness of the people of Alexander the Great. FYROM has made it clear that it has no territorial claims on its neighbouring states. Nevertheless, bearing in mind the role the Communist Republic of Macedonia was supposed to play in Tito’s design for the unification of the whole Macedonian region under Yugoslav rule, Greece continues to feel threatened by a state which claims a name that embraces the whole Macedonian lands and clamours for a cultural heritage that is firmly part of Greek history. For this reason the Greek government is trying to make it clear that FYROM is and must remain only a geographical part of the Macedonian land. According to the Greek government, this can only be achieved with a name that underlines the geographical limits of FYROM – such as Vardar, Upper or Northern Macedonia. As December 7 approaches, a growing animosity can be felt in Macedonia. According to a Balkan Gallup opinion poll issued on November 18th, faith in the government has declined. The atmosphere in the Albanian bloc is also charged because of the statements of some politicians that “the Albanians will join NATO and the European Union with or without the Macedonians”. Another Greek veto will certainly incite nationalism amongst the Macedonian people. The country is not unfamiliar with acts of extreme nationalism and any failure in the EU Council meeting on December 7th could certainly reawaken those dark forces.
United Nations-backed talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots to reunite Cyprus are making headway and a positive outcome is possible, UN Secretary General Ban Ki- moon said. “The parties are making solid progress and I am cautiously optimistic that a solution can be achieved,” Ban said in a report on Cyprus for the UN Security Council, according to a statement yesterday on the UN Web site. Implementing in practice the agreed objective of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality “is ambitious, but it is achievable.” Cyprus has been divided between its Greek and Turkish- speaking communities since 1974, when Turkey invaded the northern part. As part of its bid to join the European Union, Turkey must implement an accord to lift a trade embargo on the Greek Cypriot-led Republic of Cyprus, Carl Bildt, the foreign minister of Sweden, which holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, said Nov. 26. Turkey, which does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member since 2004, must open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus and normalize relations with its southern neighbor while working to help reunite the island, the 27-member bloc says. Turkey will admit Cypriot vessels once the division on Cyprus is resolved, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters Nov. 26. Turkey’s position on the port issue is “unchanged,” though it remains committed to reaching a peace accord on the island, he said.
The Cyprus government decided Friday to impede Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union yet without giving any clues as to what actual sanctions it will impose. Cyprus blames Turkey for its failure to comply with a protocol agreement to extend recognition to the Cyprus Republic along with other countries which joined the European Union in 2004. It also charges Ankara with intransigence in talks to reunify Cyprus. In 1974, Turkey occupied the northern third of the Mediterranean island and retains some 40,000 troops in the self-proclaimed "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which is recognized only by Ankara. A Cyprus government spokesman said following a meeting on Friday of the National Council, an advisory body to the President, that Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou had been empowered to take all necessary action at a European Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels next Monday. He refused to answer questions on what this action might be, saying circumstances were "critical". Cyprus President Demetris Christofias has already given written notice to all other EU leaders that, if Turkey insists on its present policy, it will not escape untouched when the European Council evaluates its negotiating progress later this month. He has also stated that he has equal rights with all other European leaders and he will exercise them to safeguard Cyprus's dignity. Well-informed government sources in Nicosia say this implies blocking some of Turkey's negotiating chapters, despite a refusal by almost all other European Union countries to sanction Turkey.
The Abkhaz Foreign Ministry said on Thursday Ecuador would consider the recognition of the former Georgian republic as an independent state. The Abkhaz delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Maxim Gvindzhiya is currently paying a visit to the Latin American state. "Ecuadorian diplomats pledged to consider the official request by the Republic of Abkhazia to be recognized [by Ecuador as an independent state]," Sergei Shamba said. During a visit to Moscow on October 28-30, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said his country is ready to consider the requests by Abkhazia and another former Georgian republic, South Ossetia, to recognize them, should such requests be submitted. "Abkhazia asked Ecuador to recognize it immediately after the Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's statement," Shamba said. Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent republics shortly after a five-day war with Georgia in August 2008 that began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control. Nicaragua and Venezuela have also recognized the two former Georgian republics.
Muslim reaction across the world to Sunday’s Swiss referendum banning the construction of further minarets for mosques in the tiny Alpine nation has been almost entirely negative. Indonesia’s Maskuri Abdillah, leader of the largest Muslim organization in the world’s most populous Muslim nation said the vote reflected Swiss “hatred” of Islam and Muslims. Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, close to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, said the ban was an attempt to “insult the feelings of the Muslim community in and outside Switzerland.” Yet the referendums outcome pales in comparison to restrictions on non-Muslims who aim to practice their faith in Muslim lands. In fact, the vote only brought Swiss legal practice closer to that of many majority Muslim states that also place limits on the construction of houses of worship. Here’s a review of practices in four large majority Muslim states: 1. Indonesia. In a state with large minority populations of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and animists, the US State department reported in 2009 that at least 9 churches – and 12 mosques associated with the Ahmadiyya Islamic sect (which mainstream Muslim groups consider heretical) – were forced shut by violence or intimidation from community groups, and that a number of churches and Hindu temples have struggled to receive official permits in recent years. The Indonesian government has on a number of occasions stepped in to prevent church construction, largely over fears that it would stoke sectarian violence. But religious practice, by and large, is freer in Indonesia than most other Muslim majority states. 2. Egypt. The country has a sizeable minority of Eastern Orthodox Christians, or Copts. By law, their churches must receive the permission of local Muslim communities before new construction is allowed. The State Department’s religious freedom report on Egypt in 2009 says in part: “Church and human rights leaders complain that many local officials intentionally delay the permit process. They charge that some local authorities refuse to process applications without ’supporting documents’ that are virtually impossible to obtain.” 3. Saudi Arabia, home of Mecca and Islam more generally, is one of the least religiously free nation’s on earth. In the Kingdom, the public practice of any faith but Islam is illegal. Christian’s and Jews receive 50 percent of the compensation that a Muslim would receive in personal injury court and the country has no churches at all, though it officially tolerates private worship in homes. 4. Pakistan. Freedom of religious worship is constitutionally guaranteed, but in practice the government sets limits and there has also been a rise in attacks by militant groups on both Christians and Shiites in the majority Sunni Muslim country in recent years. The State Department found that “societal discrimination against religious minorities was widespread, and societal violence against such groups occurred.” District level government “consistently refused to grant permission to construct non-Muslim places of worship, especially for Ahmadiyya and Baha’i communities” the State Department found, while also noting that missionaries are allowed to work inside the country. In 2009 “public pressure routinely prevented courts from protecting minority rights and forced judges to take strong action against any perceived offense to Sunni orthodoxy,” the report said.
The head of the Greek Orthodox Church has voiced his opposition to a court ban on crucifixes in classrooms in Italy and will hold an emergency synod to lay out a plan of action to combat the ban. Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece said that the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) had ignored the role of Christianity in Europe’s history. According to the BBC, he added that majorities, not only minorities, have rights. The Orthodox Church fears the EHCR ruling could trigger similar rulings about the public display of Christian symbols in other countries. The self-described human rights group Helsinki Monitor is seeking the removal of icons of Jesus from Greek courts and an end to Christian oaths in the witness box. It also wants Christian symbols to be removed from Greek schools. The EHCR had ruled that the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates the European Convention on Human Rights’ protections of the right to education and the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. According to the court’s ruling, the crucifix’s presence in the classroom could be interpreted by pupils as a religious sign and they would feel “that they were being educated in a school environment bearing the stamp of a given religion.” The Strasbourg-based court argued that this situation could encourage religious pupils but could be disturbing for pupils of other religions or were atheists, “particularly if they belonged to religious minorities. The ruling caused outcry across Italy and the Italian government plans to appeal it.