This posting on Russia/Kosovo/Georgia prompted a pointed comment from reader Will: Your article seems to be another in a series of lame attempts to minimize Russia’s responsibility for her actions in GA with a critique of the West’s Kosovo policies. Am I wrong on this? One point in which you […]
These celebrity revivals are sooooo exhausting. First we have the long-awaited return to the stage of Joker Karadzic, although without his funny costume and disguise he was really not that scary. And with him returns Batman Holbrooke, the distinguished former American diplomat whose considerable ego and ruthlessness helped bring peace to the […]
A bit more on Karadzic, alas. Dick Holbrooke says that there was No Deal struck by him with Karadzic under which if Karadzic left political life he would not be sent to the Hague Tribunal. Karadzic in his first appearance at ICTY tried to get this claim established, but failed. […]
Radovan Karadzic appears before the Hague Tribunal today. Kurir (a Belgrade newspaper with pronounced populist tendencies) quotes his lawyer as saying that Karadzic will not accept the start of ICTY proceedings until his laptop and 50 disks are returned to him. These items containing all the elements of his defence and […]
EU Referendum do a number on a judgement by the European Court of Justice which sets a precedent for thousands of other couples residing in Ireland and, more widely [and] better defines the rights of EU states to manage their own immigration policies. Under the EU directive on free movement of […]
When Milosevic was abruptly transferred to the Hague Tribunal in June 2001 I dusted off my barristerial wig and sent a lively telegram to London from Belgrade on the theme "Is Milosevic Innocent?". My point was that linking Milosevic to the calamitous events in Bosnia and other non-Serbia parts of former Yugoslavia […]
My earlier posting on Craig Murray’s telegram to the FCO recording serious human rights abuses in Uzbekistan dismissed the response he won from HQ, namely that the UK would press for an ‘EU demarche’. Why? It sounds grand and important. Not an easy question to answer simply. What is a […]
Tempting as it is to disagree on sight with everything written by Jonathan Steele in the Guardian, I did think about this one arguing the case against the International Criminal Court indicting the President of Sudan. Spared as I am from knowing the slightest thing about Sudan, what might I offer […]
Serving as HM Ambassador in Belgrade from 2001-2003 I had the task of advising London on how best to handle the aspirations of demands in Montenegro for independence from Serbia. At the time European capitals were just getting over the NATO bombing campaign aimed at ending Milosevic’s appalling rule over Kosovo. So […]
From this vast distance it is not easy to follow the procedural manoeuvres of the majestic and variegated Canadian ‘Human Rights’ industry in its pursuit of Mark Steyn. But Mark and Maclean’s magazine looks to have won one handy free speech victory, with the Canadian Human Rights Commission dropping its case against them: […]
