3/Most nations recognise independence of Kosovo
U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the U S. officially recognises the independence of Kosovo. She said this step is testimony to the "special friendly relations between the people of the U.S. and Kosovo." The European Union accepted a declaration on taking into consideration the de facto independence of Kosovo and it was decided that every EU member country will independently recognise Kosovo de jure. In the foreseeable future many states will finally decide on two very important issues: to recognise the independence of Kosovo and what the price of such recognition might be. Political analysts believe that Kosovo's independence will be recognised by: Great Britain, Italy, Germany, France etc. The Czech Republic, India, Greece and Norway are undecided about whether or not to recognise Kosovo's independence, while Slovakia, Spain, Cyprus and Russia strongly opposed to such recognition.
Greece and India believe that the problem of Kosovo had to be resolved through dialog between all interested parties. Cyprus, for which the precedent of Kosovo could result in Turkey recognising Northern Cyprus, strongly protested. Fearing the aggravation of separatist moods in.Basque country, Spain diplomatically explained its decision by the fact that it will not recognise unilateral declarations. The position of Russia was absolutely clear even earlier - Moscow made all efforts to help Serbia not lose its rebellious province.
The events that could happen after the recognition of Kosovo by most countries could have a serious impact on the global geopolitical situation. The Kosovo precedent can trigger a historic and geographic repartitioning of the world when dozens of frozen conflicts in various parts of the world that the global community has been trying to settle peacefully for years will turn into "hot spots".
Certain analysts extrapolate the situation in Kosovo onto Crimea in Ukraine where, in their opinion, the Crimean Tatars can now demand independence. Finally, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry avoided giving an unambiguous assessment of the proclamation of independence in Kosovo.
4/Last chance to catch Nazis in South America
A final effort to track down and prosecute Nazi war criminals who fled to South America after the second world war was launched in Argentina yesterday. The Simon Centre, a Jewish human rights group, called its initiative Operation Last Chance because there was little time left to catch the suspects before they died.
It will take the form of a media campaign in Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil and offer financial rewards for information that leads to convictions. The scheme, announced at a press conference in Buenos Aires, shone fresh light on South America's murky and embarrassing role as a haven for Nazis after Hitler's defeat in 1945.
Between 150 and 300 suspected war criminals are believed to have slipped across the Atlantic to new lives, in some cases with the connivance of host governments, notably Argentina where President Juan Peron branded the Nuremberg trials an "infamy" and organised rescue missions to smuggle Nazi officers out of Europe and relocate them as "technicians" in Argentina's armed forces.
The Simon Centre first launched its scheme in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in 2002. The operation yielded the names of 488 suspects from 20 countries, it said. Of that number, 99 cases have been submitted to local prosecutors, resulting in three arrest warrants, two extradition requests and dozens of ongoing investigations.
"Given the large number of Nazi war criminals and collaborators who escaped to South America, the launching of Operation Last Chance has the potential to yield important results," said the centre's chief Nazi-hunter, Efraim Zuroff. There was greater political will to prosecute suspects than before, he added.
The highest-profile catch was Adolf Eichmarm, one of the orchestrators of the Holocaust, who was kidnapped by Israeli agents in Argentina in I960 and spirited to a trial in Jerusalem where he was executed two years later Those who evaded capture included the Auschwitz doctor, Josef Mengele, who lived in Argentina before dying in Brazil in 1979, and the Butcher of Riga, Eduard Roschmann, blamed for the deaths of 40,000 Jews in Riga in Latvia, who died in Paraguay in 19T7. Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who founded the centre, died in 2005.