Serbia Plans to Break with Ugly Past

Serbia is completely coming out from its ugly past with the arrest of one of the Europe’s most wanted war criminal Ratko Mladic. Meanwhile the tall building which once served as the headquarters of Slobodan Milosevic which was damaged by a cruise bomb by America during the Kosovo war of 1999 has been privatized and refurbished. It was of the signs that Serbia is planning to break from its past and join the European Union.

The major achievement of the democratic president of the country Boris Tadic is the arrest of Mladic last week. The expected extradition to Hague after more than 15 years of search is a moral boost to the government of Tadic. It is expected that it will open the way for integration of the country into the European Union. It is further healing the old wounds of the bloody past.

However not many people in the country believe that the arrest of the war time criminal will change things in the country. The poor rating of the arrest is as a result of the poor showing of the economy which has made many of the citizens to live in abject poverty. It was the non arrest of Mladic that prevented the membership of Serbia to the European Union.

EU to support US sanctions on Syria

US Treasury will provide the names of the Syrian most powerful man and other officials against whom the financial and other sanctions will be imposed following death of 453 civilians in clashes between govt. backed army and anti-govt. protesters, special UN HRC session on Syria.

The statement issued by an EU executive confirms that EU members will discuss the possibility of slapping sanctions against Syria; other options will also be discussed in a meeting being held on Friday 29 Apr 2011.

Michael Mann, at European commission briefing also confirmed the scheduled meeting. In case EU members agreed for sanctions, there is a great possibility of imposing travel restrictions on key Syrian officials and freezing heir financial assets in foreign countries. The Syrian observatory for Human Rights confirmed having the names of 453 citizens killed in clashes.

In further developments against Syria, Germany supported the imposing of sanctions on Syria and demand that Damascus to punish those who are responsible for the human loss in clashes.

Steffen Seibert, German Government Spokes man stated at a news briefing. He further asserted that the sanctions would include travel restrictions on Syrian leader and officials, freezing of their financial assets in other countries and stopping all the economic aid being provided by the European countries.