УКРОПИ

Ukraine Imposes Martial Law for 30 Days

Ukraine’s parliament voted Monday to impose martial law for 30 days as tensions spiked between Kyiv and Moscow. The action comes after Russian coast guard ships rammed and fired on three Ukrainian naval vessels Sunday in the Black Sea. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer has more.
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UK’s May Fights to Sell Brexit Deal to Skeptical Country

Prime Minister Theresa May made a blunt appeal to skeptical lawmakers Monday to back her divorce deal with the European Union: It isn’t perfect, but it’s all there is, and the alternative is a leap into the unknown.

In essence, she urged Parliament: Let’s agree and move on, for the sake of the voters.

Britain and the 27 other EU leaders signed off on a Brexit deal Sunday after more than a year and a half of tough negotiations. It was a day many doubted would ever come, but May was anything but triumphant as she reported back to Parliament, which now controls the fate of the deal. May confirmed that British lawmakers will vote Dec. 11, after several days of debate, on whether to approve or reject the agreement.

Scores of legislators — from both the opposition and May’s governing Conservative Party — have vowed to oppose it. Rejection would plunge Britain into a political crisis and potential financial turmoil just weeks before it is due to leave the EU on March 29.

“No one knows what would happen if this deal didn’t pass,” May told the House of Commons.

“Our duty as a Parliament over these coming weeks is to examine this deal in detail, to debate it respectfully, to listen to our constituents and decide what is in our national interest.”

Before then, May plans a frantic two-week cross-country campaign to convince both the public and lawmakers that the deal delivers on voters’ decision in 2016 to leave the EU “while providing a close economic and security relationship with our nearest neighbors.”

But May’s defense of her hard-won deal in Parliament was followed by a torrent of criticism, from hard-core Brexit-backers, pro-EU lawmakers and previously loyal backbenchers alike.

Trade with U.S.

In another potential blow for May, President Donald Trump said her deal would make it more difficult for the U.K. to strike a trade deal with the U.S. Brexiteers see a wide-ranging trade deal with the U.S. as one of Britain’s main goals after leaving the EU.

Trump said that “right now if you look at the deal they may not be able to trade with us, and that wouldn’t be a good thing.”

“I don’t think that the prime minister meant that and hopefully she’ll be able to do something about that,” Trump said outside the White House. “But right now as the deal stands, she may not, they may not be able to trade with the U.S. and I don’t think they want that at all.”

In response to Trump’s comments, May’s 10 Downing St. office said that under the deal agreed with the EU, “we will have an independent trade policy so that the U.K. can sign trade deals with countries around the world — including with the U.S.”

Criticism

But during Monday’s debate in Parliament, legislators again expressed their deep unease, if not hatred, of the deal that keeps Britain outside the EU with no say but still subject to the rules and the obligations of membership at least until the end of 2020 while a permanent new relationship is worked out.

Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said the “botched deal” would leave Britain worse off, with “no say over EU rules and no certainty for the future.”

“Plowing on is not stoic. It’s an act of national self-harm,” he said.

May argued that the British people are sick of endless debates about Brexit, and backing the deal would allow “us to come together again as a country whichever way we voted.”

“The majority of the British public want us to get on with doing what they asked us to,” she said.

The majority of lawmakers appear unconvinced. Dozens of Conservative legislators say they will reject the deal, either because they want a harder or a softer break with the EU. Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May’s minority government, also opposes it, as do all the main opposition parties.

“The Prime Minister and the whole House knows the mathematics — this will never get through,” said Brexit-backing Conservative Mark Francois, who described the deal “a surrender” to the EU.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay conceded that “it’s going to be a challenging vote.” But he said Britain would be in “choppy waters” if the deal was rejected.

Both Britain and the EU are adamant that the U.K. can’t renegotiate the agreement, and opponents of the deal do not agree on what should happen next if Parliament rejects it. Some want an election, others a new referendum, and some say Britain should leave the bloc without a deal.

“I can say to the House with absolute certainty that there is not a better deal available,” May said.

She said rejecting it “would open the door to more division and more uncertainty, with all the risks that will entail.”
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On Cyber Monday, Pope Urges Generosity, not Consumerism

Pope Francis says the “sickness of consumerism” is the enemy of generosity as he called for the faithful to give a little something to the poor.

Francis made the comments during his morning homily Monday, so-called Cyber Monday when online retailers woo shoppers with bargains ahead of Christmas.

Francis made no mention of Christmas shopping — in Italy, the official season begins Dec. 8 — but his plea for generosity will likely be repeated in coming weeks.

Francis said giving away clothes, shoes or groceries can help the poor: “How many pairs of shoes do I have? One, two, three, four, 15, 20? … If you have so many, give away half.”

He said: “We can make miracles with generosity of little things.”

 
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Macron Feels Diesel Tax Anger After Paris ‘Battle Scenes’

French President Emmanuel Macron, caught off guard by violent demonstrations against diesel tax hikes, warned his cabinet on Monday that the protests could tarnish France’s image and said the government needed to listen to voter anger.

The 10 days of unrest, which on Saturday left some Parisian boulevards transformed into battlefields, hit Macron as he sought to counter a sharp decline in popularity, and have again exposed him to charges of being out of touch with voters.

He has shown no sign, however, of reversing the diesel tax hikes, which he says are needed to help spur a switch to greener energy, though he is now indicating a willingness to soften the blow for motorists on modest incomes.

Police on Saturday fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters who trashed restaurants and shop-fronts and set wheelie bins ablaze on Paris’ upmarket Champs-Elysees boulevard, a tourist magnet.

“We shouldn’t underestimate the impact of these images of the Champs-Elysees […] with battle scenes that were broadcast by the media in France and abroad,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said.

After meeting with business associations, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the protests would have a “severe impact” on the economy, though it was too soon to say what the effect on fourth-quarter growth would be.

Now in their second week, the “yellow vest” protests have blocked roads across the country, impeding access to fuel depots, out-of-town shopping malls and factories.

“Behind this anger there is obviously something deeper that we must respond to, because this anger, these anxieties have existed for a long time,” Griveaux said.

Protesters will be looking for concrete answers from Macron when he unveils a new longterm energy strategy on Tuesday.

Green credentials

Macron has stepped up his defense of the diesel tax, aware that the French treasury is hungry for the revenues the levy generates and that unwinding the tax would damage his green credentials.

He has earmarked 500 million euros to help poorer citizens buy less-polluting vehicles, seeking to answer criticism that his reforms have eaten into household spending.

The weekend’s violence also exposed tensions within the amorphous “yellow vests” movement, so-called because the protesters don the high-vis jackets which all motorists in France must carry in their vehicles.

They strove to maintain a united front on Monday, forming a committee tasked with securing a meeting with the president and Griveaux said that would happen if they came forward with concrete proposals.
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FIFA Urges Tough Line on Iran for Banning Women Fans

FIFA-appointed human rights experts want the soccer body to set Iran a deadline for ending a ban on women attending games.

The FIFA Human Rights Advisory Board says “FIFA should be explicit” giving the Iranian soccer federation a timetable to comply, and should warn of “anticipated sanctions if it does not.”

FIFA’s statutes prohibit gender discrimination, though its leaders typically avoid publicly criticizing Iran’s government. This month, several hundred mostly selected women were allowed to watch the Asian Champions League final in Tehran.

In the board’s annual report, FIFA says it will extend the eight-member panel’s mandate through 2020.

The expert group points to “consistent progress that FIFA is making across a range of issues,” and plans to focus its next report on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
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On UN Day, Thousands Protest Violence Against Women

Protesters in cities across Europe and elsewhere marked the U.N. International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Sunday, with tens of thousands turning out in Madrid and demonstrators in Istanbul greeted by tear gas.

Hundreds of women gathered in Istanbul’s Tunel Square to march on the city’s main pedestrian Istiklal Avenue. Dozens of police formed a barricade and prevented the group from marching, saying their demonstration was not permitted. Police fired several rounds of tear gas to stop the group.

The activists instead continued their demonstration in the square with a sit-in. They chanted slogans and dispersed peacefully.

Rights groups say violence against women is widespread in Turkey, and an online database called the Monument Counter says at least 337 women were killed by domestic violence in 2018.

Protests in Turkey have been especially restricted since 2013 after a wave of anti-government demonstrations, extremist attacks and a two-year state of emergency declared following a failed coup in 2016.

The women’s activist group Mor Cati said Turkey is more concerned with stopping protests than “preventing male violence.”

Activists marched in more than 40 cities and towns in Spain, with tens of thousands in Madrid joining a feminist group and shouting “no more victims, we want freedom” as they marched through the Spanish capital’s center.

Official figures show 44 women have died this year in Spain at the hands of their current or former partners. Since 2003, when Spain started keeping records, the total number of victims has been 999 — 972 women and 27 children.

Spain is training more than 600 judges on gender violence and preparing to reform the country’s laws on sex crimes following outrage over recent court decisions.

In Brussels for the E.U. Brexit summit, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani sported a red swipe under his left eye as he addressed the media. In Italy, his home country, the mark stands for support of the U.N. day.

Tajani said on Twitter that “Nothing can justify violence against women. My mother taught it to me. I taught it to my children.”

 
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France Braces for Economic Blow from ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire will meet retailers and insurers on Monday to assess the economic impact of nationwide protests against rising fuel costs, he said on Sunday.

Protesters clad in fluorescent jackets, dubbed “yellow vests,” have blocked highways across France since Nov. 17, setting up burning barricades and deploying convoys of slow-moving trucks, often denying access to shopping centers and some factories.

French retailers have warned that prolonged protests could hit the Christmas shopping season and threaten jobs, while President Emmanuel Macron has shown no sign of backing down on taxes introduced last year on diesel and petrol to encourage people to switch to cleaner forms of transport.

The unrest reached new heights in Paris on Saturday, when police clashed violently with thousands of demonstrators on the Champs-Elysees.

“Tomorrow I will bring together at the Economy and Finance Ministry representatives from retailers, merchants, craftsmen, chambers of commerce and employers federation Medef to assess the economic situation, its impact on sales and on our economy and the consequences we must draw,” Le Maire told BFM TV.

Police detained 101 people in Paris and there 24 people were injured in the clashes on the Champs Elysees.

“I saw a violence that is not acceptable. It is urgent to rebuild the nation’s unity and restart a dialogue,” Le Maire said.

Some yellow vests have called for a third weekend of protests on the Champs Elysees via a Facebook page called “Act 3 Macron resigns!”
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British Lawmakers Warn They Will Vote Against Brexit Deal

It took Britain’s Theresa May and 27 other European Union leaders just 40 minutes to sign the Brexit deal after two years of tortuous negotiations, but the trials and tribulations of Britain’s withdrawal agreement approved Sunday in Brussels are far from over.

As they endorsed the 585-page the agreement, and a 26-page accompanying political declaration that sets out the parameters of negotiating a possible free trade deal between Britain and the European Union, powerful political foes in London plotted strategies to undo it.

There is little evidence Britain’s embattled prime minister will have sufficient support to win legislative endorsement of the deal in a House of Commons vote next month. That was clearly on the minds of European Commission officials Sunday as EU leaders gave their backing to the terms of Britain’s split from Brussels after 44 years of membership.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned that Britain cannot expect to get a better deal, if its parliament rejects the agreement. “Now it is time for everybody to take their responsibilities, everybody,” he said.

“This is the deal, it’s the best deal possible and the EU will not change its fundamental position when it comes to this issue, so I do think the British parliament — because this is a wise parliament — will ratify this deal,” he added.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte warned British lawmakers that no better deal was on offer from the European Union, urging them to back the agreements.

“If I would live in the UK I would say yes to this, I would say that this is very much acceptable to the United Kingdom,” Rutte said, because the deal “limited the impact of Brexit while balancing the vote to leave”. In a bid to help the prime minister, he said May had “fought very hard” and now there was “an acceptable deal on the table”.

“You know I hate [Brexit], but it is a given,” he told reporters. “No one is a victor here today, nobody is winning, we are all losing.”

Opposition in Britain

Maybe it is a “given” in Brussels, but in Britain that is another matter altogether.

Both Remainers and Leavers in the British Parliament are warning that May doesn’t have the necessary support with the all the opposition parties lined up against the deal and as many as 100 lawmakers, Remainers and Leavers among them, from May’s ruling Conservatives pledging to vote against it as well.

Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader, said he would continue to oppose the deal because it “cedes huge amounts of power” to the European Union.

In Scotland, first minister and leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party Nicola Sturgeon said, “This is a bad deal, driven by the PM’s self defeating red lines and continual pandering to the right of her own party. Parliament should reject it and back a better alternative.”

She wants a second Britain-wide referendum, like a majority of Britons, according to recent opinion polls.

The agreement calls for Britain to stay in the bloc’s customs union and largely in the EU single market, without the power to influence the rules, regulations and laws it will be obliged to obey for a 21-month-long transition period following formal withdrawal on March 29. The deal would allow an extension of “up to one or two years” should the negotiations over “the future relationship” not be completed by the end of 2020.

May is campaigning to sell the agreement to the British public, hoping she she can build enough support in the wider country to pressure the House of Commons to endorse the deal. European Parliament approval is almost certain.

May’s warning

In an open letter to the British public published Sunday, May promised to campaign “with my heart and soul to win that vote and to deliver this Brexit deal.” If she is unable to do so, Britain would be plunged into what May herself has called, “deep and grave uncertainty.”

Her aides say she is banking on the “fear factor,” daring the House of Commons to vote down a deal which if rejected would leave Britain most likely crashing out of the bloc, its largest trading partner, without any agreements, which would be costly economically and would almost certainly push the country into recession.

Ominously, the Northern Ireland party, the Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 lawmakers May’s minority government relies on to remain in power, says it will vote against the deal. And DUP leader Arlene Foster warned Sunday she is ready to collapse the government to block a deal that would see Northern Ireland treated differently than the rest of Britain.

And a senior Labour lawmaker Tony Lloyd said there was a “coalition of the willing” in the Parliament ready to reject May’s deal and support a softer Brexit. So, if the deal is voted down, what then? A vote against could trigger a general election, a second Brexit referendum or even more negotiations, despite Brussels’ threat there can be no other deal.

 
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Italian Pasta Company Works to Improve Global Staple

Countries around the world have their own versions of pasta. In Germany there is spaetzle, in Greece there is orzo, throughout Asia there are dishes with noodles, and in Latin America you can find countless variations of spaghetti and other pastas. Voice of America reporter Iacopo Luzi visited the famed company Pasta Mancini in Monte San Pietrangeli, Italy, to see how they make this global staple.
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Global Catholic Nuns Urge Reporting of Sex Abuse to Police

The Catholic Church’s global organization of nuns has denounced the “culture of silence and secrecy” surrounding sexual abuse in the church and is urging sisters who have been abused to report the crimes to police and their superiors. 

The International Union of Superiors General, which represents more than 500,000 sisters worldwide, vowed to help nuns who have been abused to find the courage to report it, and pledged to help victims heal and seek justice. 

The statement, issued on the eve of the U.N.-designated International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, was the first from the Rome-based UISG since the abuse scandal erupted anew this year and as the sexual abuse of adult nuns by clergymen has also come to light. The Associated Press reported earlier this year that the Vatican has known for decades about the problem of priests and bishops preying on nuns but has done next to nothing to stop it. 

In the statement Friday, the UISG didn’t specify clergy as the aggressors. While such abuse is well known in parts of Africa, and an Indian case of the alleged rape of a nun by a bishop is currently making headlines, there have also been cases of sexual abuse committed by women against other women within congregations. 

Festering mistreatment

The UISG statement was broad, condemning what it called the “pattern of abuse that is prevalent within the church and society today,” citing sexual, verbal and emotional abuse as types of mistreatment that festers in unequal power relations and demeans the dignity of its victims. 

“We condemn those who support the culture of silence and secrecy, often under the guise of ‘protection’ of an institution’s reputation or naming it ‘part of one’s culture,’ ” the group said. 

“We advocate for transparent civil and criminal reporting of abuse whether within religious congregations, at the parish or diocesan levels, or in any public arena,” the statement said. 

To mark the U.N. day calling for an end to violence against women, the head of the Italian bishops conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, issued a video message on the subject — but didn’t mention sexual violence against sisters by fellow clergymen, evidence of how taboo the subject is within the church hierarchy. 

An AP investigation found that cases of priests abusing nuns have emerged in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia, underscoring how sisters’ second-class status in the church has contributed to a power imbalance where women can be mistreated by men with near impunity. 

Reluctance to talk

While some nuns are finding their voices, buoyed by the #MeToo movement, many victims remain reluctant to come forward. Experts told AP sisters have a well-founded fear they won’t be believed and will instead be painted as the seducer who corrupted the priest. Often the sister who denounces abuse by a priest is punished, including with expulsion from her congregation, while the priest’s vocation is preserved at all cost. 

The Vatican has known for years about the problem in Africa after a series of major studies were commissioned in the 1990s. Religious sisters reported that African nuns were being particularly targeted by priests seeking to avoid HIV transmission from prostitutes or other women. 

In the wake of the AP report, the umbrella organization of U.S. sisters, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, urged sisters who had been abused to report to both civil and church authorities. Many of the LCWR’s members also belong to the global UISG, which can provide a point of contact with the Vatican.  
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Thousands in Europe Protest Violence Against Women

Tens of thousands of people rallied across Europe on Saturday against sexist violence, with more than 30,000 turning out in Paris, where a separate protest against rising fuel prices brought clashes. 

Anti-violence rallies across France drew around 50,000 people in all, according to organizer Caroline de Haas, to answer a citizen collective’s call for a “feminist tidal wave” of outrage against gender violence brought into sharp focus by the #MeToo movement. 

Elsewhere, a thousand people braved driving rain in Rome, while similar protests drew several hundred demonstrators in Geneva and Athens. 

“The fight against violence against women is progressing daily but our society has a long way to go — everyone must act and fight as this is everybody’s business,” President Emmanuel Macron tweeted in offering his moral support. 

Authorities put the Paris turnout at 12,000 and similar marches in Lyon, Marseille and Rennes at between 1,000 and 2,400, but de Haas felt moved to salute “the largest [feminist] mobilization France has known,” far bigger than a rally that drew 2,000 last year.  

Participants clad in purple, the color of the #NousToutes women’s activist protest movement, shouted slogans including “Sick of rape,” “End impunity for aggressors” and “A woman is never responsible for the violence she suffers,” while also demanding government resources to tackle the issue. 

“I am here to support all the victims and continue this struggle, which started long before I came along,” said French actress Muriel Robin, who had organized a similar rally last month in the capital. 

Men, too

The rallies drew a number of men, including Tanguy, a 19-year-old student who turned out in the western city of Rennes to declare backing for “a movement which is not based on sex — it’s not a fight pitting men against women but a fight by men and women, together, against inequality.” 

The #NousToutes movement started out in France in September, inspired by the #MeToo campaign that began last year. Since then, the number of cases of sexual violence reported to police in France has risen 23 percent. 

Latest French government figures say 2017 saw 225,000 cases of domestic violence against women by their partners, while 2016 saw 123 deaths. 

A day ahead of Sunday’s U.N.-designated International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, there were further marches in a number of cities across Europe.  

Macron last year made sexual equality a priority of his presidency. 

But “if the money is not forthcoming, public policy won’t follow on,” warned de Haas, speaking two days after several civil organizations called for a huge increase in public resources dedicated to the problem.  
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Talk of Kosovo Land Deals Stokes New Worries

The stone steps leading into the medieval church where Serbian Orthodox worshipers enter are worn. In the half-light of the interior, some pilgrims reverentially lean on or drape themselves across the tomb of King Stefan Dečanski, considered by Serbs a “holy monarch.”

Others light candles. One young woman has dozens of tapers in her hand, lighting each one slowly and methodically after a brushing kiss and a silent prayer.

Many of the pilgrims have driven six hours from Belgrade to pray this Sunday in one of the most revered Serbian Orthodox churches, the 14th century Visoki Dečani.

For many Serbs, Visoki Dečani is a besieged church, surrounded as it is by Kosovar Albanians and located deep in the territory of Kosovo, the former province that broke away from Serbia in 1999 after a U.S.-led NATO intervention brought a year-long ethnic war to a halt.

The church came under attack during the Kosovo War, which was sparked by a massive repression of Kosovar Albanians by Serbian forces. The Serbs conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign, driving thousands of ethnic Albanians from their homes, and they were accused by rights groups and Western governments of other major rights violations, including abductions and murder.

“We have had a very hard time since the last Kosovo conflict,” says Father Sava Janjic, Visoki Dečani’s abbot.

“Last” seems an appropriate word, hinting at the possibility of more conflict to come.

And taking the long, historical view, it is not hard to imagine that sometime in the future, monks at Visoki Dečani will again hear the fearsome echo of war raging around them — like many other Balkan churches and mosques caught on the wrong side of history.

The church has been plundered over the centuries by Ottoman troops, Austro-Hungarian soldiers, and during World War II, it was targeted for destruction by Albanian nationalists and Italian fascists. During the Kosovo War, the final one in a series of Balkan wars in the 1990s, the church was attacked five times. In May 1998, two elderly Albanians were killed 400 meters from its walls reportedly by the Kosovo Liberation Army for allegedly collaborating with Serbian forces.

“This is one of the most politically turbulent areas in Europe. The Balkans have always been on the crossroads of civilizations and invasions,” Fr. Sava said.

As he talked with VOA, soldiers from the NATO-led Kosovo Force of peacekeepers patrolled the grounds – as they have done every day since the war’s end.

“Since 1999, we have had three mortar attacks and one RPG (rocket-propelled grenade), bazooka attack. Thank God no particular damage was made and nobody was hurt,” says Fr. Sava. A strong advocate of multi-ethnic peace and tolerance, he likes to think of the church as “a haven for all people of goodwill.” During the war, the church sheltered not only Serbian families but also Kosovar Albanians and Roma.

He adds, “I’m still trying to believe that the majority of Kosovar Albanians don’t harbor negative feelings toward us. But very often we are seen just as Serbs. This church is seen as something alien here, as a kind of threat to the new Kosovo identity.”

He says Kosovar Albanians shouldn’t fear the church or see it as representing anything bad from the past. He says he hopes people will see the church as a “signpost” of a possible future, one where multi-ethnicity is embraced. His plea echoes those of other Balkan clerics — Orthodox and Muslim — who find themselves, their places of worship, and their flocks, left thanks to conflict and animosity as awkward islands.  

But he worries about whether Serbia and Albania can put conflict behind them. Serbs and Kosovar Albanians remain at odds over Kosovo, and the jigsaw puzzle of the Balkans map is not helping them.

The presidents of Serbia and Kosovo have considered border changes in a bid to reach an historic peace settlement which, if sealed, could advance their countries’ applications to join the European Union and, for Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, to secure U.N. membership. More than 100 countries recognize Kosovo as an independent state, but not Serbia. The EU has said it will not consider advancing accession talks until Belgrade and Pristina have made up.

Most EU leaders have long opposed any Balkan border changes, fearing any tweaks large or small might spark a return of ethnic violence.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton earlier this year indicated that Washington could entertain the idea of border changes.

The U.S. ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt, appeared more cautious about a land-swap deal, but kept the door open. In an interview with VOA during an international trade conference in Thessaloniki, Pyatt said, “There are no blank checks,” he said. “What we have been very clear on is that this process needs to be locally-owned and locally-driven and we are supporting European Union efforts to see progress.”

Various possible land deals have been mooted, officials in Belgrade and Pristina say. One possible variation could see the Serbian border would be extended south to include Serbs in Kosovo’s north and some majority ethnic Albanian areas in Serbia traded in return by Belgrade. That would not help the majority of Serbs in Kosovo, who are spread across the south and west of the country.

Fr. Sava worries any kind of land-swap deal, if pulled off, would amount to ‘peaceful’ ethnic cleansing. “Land swaps, where the majority of Kosovo Serbs would not just be left in majority-Albanian territory but also probably be forced to leave, would be very unjust,” he said.

Ultra-nationalists on both sides loudly reject land swaps.

Serbia’s main opposition leader, Vojislav Šešelj, dismisses the idea out of hand. “What are we talking about? Kosovo is just part of Serbia,” he told VOA. Kosovo is being illegally occupied, he said, due to assistance from the West, and especially the U.S, according to Šešelj seen by many as an extremist. 

“We are not exchanging the land,” Šešelj said.  “They can only have the highest level of autonomy.  We will not recognize their independence,” he emphasized.

Šešelj, a onetime deputy to Serbia’s wartime leader Slobodan Milošević, was found guilty by the U.N. court of crimes against humanity for instigating the deportation of Croats from the village of Hrtkovci in May 1992. He argues Serbs and Albanians cannot possibly live together and that they should be in separate communities. “Albanian ones in Kosovo could be allowed some self-administration rights,” he concedes.

Earlier in September, Kosovo Albanian nationalists led by veterans of the 1998-1999 war disrupted a planned two-day visit by Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, to Kosovo by blocking roads and burning tires. Their action showed how inflammatory the whole issue can easily become. Banje, the village west of the capital, Pristina, that Vučić planned to visit was the scene of the first crackdown by Serbian troops against ethnic Albanian separatists in 1998, which triggered the outbreak of open hostilities.

“All the wars in the former Yugoslavia were focused on territory and division, and to continue with the idea of territory is dangerous and will inflame nationalistic passions,” warns Nataša Kandić, a Serbian human rights campaigner and Nobel Peace prize nominee.

Talk of land swaps appear to have been shelved for now. But may well re-appear.

Fr. Sava harbors the same fear. “We still see people who are drawing up maps, and these maps in the 1990s became actually the killing fields. Do we still need it now?” he asked. “I am just trying to be hopeful that politicians see the risk of going into this story again.”

Most Kosovar Albanians and Serbs view the idea of border revisions with horror, according to recent opinion surveys.
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Police Turn Tear Gas, Water on French Fuel-Tax Protest

Police fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse protesters in Paris who are angry over rising fuel costs and President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies, the second weekend of “yellow vest” protests that have caused disruption across France.

Several hundred protesters had converged on the Champs Elysees where they faced police sent to prevent them from reaching the nearby presidential Elysee Palace.

Some protesters sang the national anthem while others carried signs with slogans saying “Macron, resignation” and “Macron, thief.”

​Fears of extremists

For more than a week, protesters clad in the fluorescent yellow jackets that all motorists in France must have in their cars have blocked highways across the country with burning barricades and convoys of slow-moving trucks, obstructing access to fuel depots, shopping centers and some factories.

They are opposed to taxes Macron introduced last year on diesel and petrol, which are designed to encourage people to shift to more environmentally friendly transport. Alongside the tax, the government has offered incentives to buy green or electric vehicles.

Security forces are concerned that far-left and far-right extremists may infiltrate the demonstrations, escalating the crowd-control challenges. Around 30,000 people were expected to protest in Paris alone, Denis Jacob, secretary general of police union Alternative Police, told Reuters.

“We know there are ultra-right and ultra-left infiltrators. You can also expect gangs from the suburbs and ‘black-blocks,’” he said, referring to a militant protest force.

About 3,000 police officers have been drafted in to work in Paris on Saturday, city hall said, with security forces having to handle a demonstration against sexual violence, a soccer match and a rugby game in the capital on the same day.

Last Saturday, when nearly 300,000 people took part in the first yellow vest demonstrations countrywide, retailers’ daily revenue fell 35 percent, according to consumer groups.

Protests spread

The unrest is a dilemma for Macron, who casts himself as a champion against climate change but has been derided as out of touch with common folk and is fighting a slump in popularity.

Despite calls for calm from the government, the yellow vest protests have spread to French territories abroad, including the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where cars were set on fire.

The unrest has left two dead and 606 injured in mainland France, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.

While the movement, which has no leader, began as a backlash against higher fuel prices, it has tapped into broader frustration at the sense of a squeeze on household spending power under Macron’s 18-month-old government.

Since coming to power, Macron has seen off trade union and street demonstrations against his changes to the labor rules, and overhauled the heavily indebted state rail operator. Foreign investors have largely cheered his pro-business administration.

But political foes have dismissed him as the “president of the rich” for ending a wealth tax, and voters appear to be growing restless, with the 40-year-old president’s popularity slumped at barely 20 percent.
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