[ Readings ]

Here is a selection of background articles and reports published in the last few weeks - for a quiet week-end at home or for relaxed beach holidays: "Southern Serbia: In Kosovo's Shadow", "The State of Media Freedom in Kosovo", "Human Security Agenda for the Balkans", "The Process of Decentralization in Macedonia: Prospects for Ethnic Conflict Mitigation, Enhanced Representation, Institutional Efficiency and Accountability", "The Hague Tribunal and Balkan Reconciliation".

International Crisis Group: "Southern Serbia: In Kosovo's Shadow" (click here to access direcly the pdf-file), 27.6.2006. Southern Serbia’s Albanian-majority Presevo Valley is a still incomplete Balkan success story. Since international and Serbian government diplomacy resolved an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001, donors and Belgrade have invested significant resources to undo a legacy of human rights violations and improve the economy. Tensions are much decreased (...). Nevertheless, the Kosovo status process threatens to disrupt the Presevo Valley’s calm.

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Miklós Haraszti: "The State of Media Freedom in Kosovo" (click here to access direcly the pdf-file), 3.7.2006. The paper offers concrete recommendations for further improvements in the context of the ongoing status negotiations. It points out that the framework of the Kosovo media has improved significantly after a series of laws were enacted, including one on broadcasting. (...) At the same time, the report says that the division of media along ethnic lines remains problematic, and suggests that some improvements can be expected as a result of the pioneering minority media fund, financed from 5 percent of the public service broadcast fee collected from Kosovo households.

Centre for the Study of Global Governance (London School of Economics): "Human Security Agenda for the Balkans" (pdf), Workshop Report, 17 May 2006, Helsinki. The Report summarises discussions and recommendations for developing a human security approach for the EU in the Western Balkans.

Institute for Regional and International Studies (Bulgaria), Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” (Skopje): "The Process of Decentralization in Macedonia: Prospects for Ethnic Conflict Mitigation, Enhanced Representation, Institutional Efficiency and Accountability" (pdf) (summary, report with appendix, additional report on regional instability factors). The process of decentralization in the Republic of Macedonia is being carried out as one of the major provisions of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, adopted in 2001, to provide political and institutional solutions to the ethnic conflict in the country. After 2001, the Macedonian Parliament developed and adopted a set of constitutional amendments and laws on decentralization starting the process effectively in 2005, preceded by a new territorial division of the country. (...) The report addresses critical areas of ongoing reforms in Macedonia by bringing together empirical data and analytical assessment and forwarding targeted policy recommendations.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting: "The Hague Tribunal and Balkan Reconciliation", 21.7.2006. The report's findings suggest that if the ICTY is able to play any role in fostering reconciliation in the Balkans, it can only do so within the context of an intricate web of interlinked factors which could take decades to unravel. At the heart of the problem lie an intense resistance by many in the region to the reality that their own ethnic kin committed atrocities, and unanswered political questions which make it difficult to look far into the future. At the same time, it is clear that whatever chance the ICTY had to contribute to the complex process of reconciliation was for a long time compromised by its failure to engage with people in the region.