completing my essay

Tomorrow's news will provide the last paragraph to the short case report I wrote for the last class. After all the reading I did on the case, I am *really* interested in seeing the final ruling and how it will affect Serbia's application to the European Union, in light of the Copenhagen Declaration laying out the requirements for membership. World Court to deliver genocide ruling

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Can a state commit genocide? Should an entire nation — not just its presidents, generals, and soldiers — be held responsible for humanitys worst crime? In one of the most momentous cases in its 60 years, the U.N.s highest court will deliver its judgment Monday on Bosnia's demand to make Serbia accountable for the slaughter, terrorizing, rape and displacement of Bosnian Muslims in the early 1990s. If it rules for Bosnia, the International Court of Justice could open the way for compensation amounting to billions of dollars from Serbia, the successor state of Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia, although specific claims would be addressed only later. It also would be a permanent stain on Serbia in the eyes of history, regardless of any effort by Belgrade to distance itself from the brutality of those years.

One of the criteria in the Copenhagen Declaration is that country must have achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and, protection of minorities. Considering that the Serb province of Kosovo is still a UN protectorate, ya gotta wonder if that stability is achievable, especially when nationalists in the country are calling for leaving the UN, abandoning the EU application process, and sending troops into Kosovo should that province gain independence. Nationalists urge Serbia to abandon EU plans, quit UN if Kosovo gains independence

BELGRADE, Serbia: Serbia's ultra-nationalists said Friday the Balkan country should quit the United Nations and abandon its efforts to join the European Union if Kosovo becomes independent. The comments illustrate the pressure nationalists are putting on Serbia's pro-Western leaders, who have promised to participate in the final U.N.-brokered talks on Kosovo currently being held in Vienna, Austria, although they have rejected the possibility of independence for Kosovo, which is considered the heartland of Serbian statehood and religion. Serbs and Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians are discussing a U.N. plan for the Serb province which envisages internationally supervised statehood. Although it does not directly mention independence, Belgrade believes the plan would eventually lead to Kosovo becoming a separate country, and has rejected the document.

But then, we can always fall back on rewarding behavior. Carrot and stick. Sometimes it works.

Fearing that the extremists could return to power in Serbia because of the possibility of Kosovo's secession, EU officials have hinted that they would consider offering Serbia a shortcut to EU membership if it reconsiders its staunch opposition to Kosovo's independence.