Doubts About Serbia's European Role

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Serbia takes over the chairmanship of the Council of Europe on Friday amid concerns about its suitability to run the continent's leading human rights watchdog after an ultranationalist was elected to the country's No. 2 position.

Countries rotate by alphabetical order every six months at the helm of the 46-nation body, and Serbia takes over just half a year after Russia, another country frequently criticized for rights breaches.

Belgrade's turn comes days after lawmakers elected Tomislav Nikolic, an admirer of the country's late autocratic President Slobodan Milosevic and a Serb Radical Party member, to the post of parliament speaker.

The Radical Party is led by Vojislav Seselj, who awaits trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands for allegedly committing atrocities during the Bosnian war in the 1990s.

Serbia is also embroiled in a four-month political deadlock, with pro-democracy parties still unable to form a Cabinet after Jan. 21 elections. Pro-western President Boris Tadic has given an alliance of conservatives and nationalists until Friday to resolve the stalemate or face new elections.

"It doesn't help that so long after the elections there is still no new government. We had hoped this would have been sorted out by now," said Matjaz Gruden, a spokesman for the Council or Europe. The council, based in Strasbourg, France, is the first pan-European political organization, founded in 1949 to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Nikolic's election has caused widespread consternation in Europe and led to European Union calls for reform-friendly parties to form a government on a "pro-European" path.

Council members said that a Serbia run by politicians such a Nikolic would not be suitable to run the organization - although no European government has so far officially voiced opposition to Belgrade taking over leadership.

"Nikolic's election is a burden on Serbia's ability to carry out its task," said Dutch senator Rene Van der Linden, who chairs the council's parliamentary assembly.

Belgrade is also under pressure to arrest fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic more than a decade after he was indicted for genocide in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, and is at odds with the European Union over a U.N. plan that would give independence to Kosovo, Serbia's southern province where ethnic Albanians form a majority.

The council has lost much of its clout since the fall of Communism in eastern Europe as more than half of its members have now joined the much more influential EU, but it has been profiling itself as a guardian of human rights in Europe.

Rights advocates say Serbia's leadership, coming three months after Belgrade was found to have breached the Genocide Convention by failing to hand over Mladic, the alleged architect of the killing of some 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica, Bosnia, raises questions about the organization's credibility, other rights advocates said.

"Ignoring Serbia's failure to comply with its obligations to turn over fugitives at this critical moment would risk undermining efforts to move Serbia towards a stable and democratic future. It would ... also bring into question the Council of Europe's standing as the leading institutional champion of human rights in Europe," New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a letter sent to the council last week.

Human Rights Watch last month also sharply criticized the council for yielding to pressure from Moscow and failing to respond to documented Russian violations of civil liberties in Chechnya.

Serbia's outgoing Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said Serbia must fulfill its obligations to the U.N. war crimes tribunal and apprehend Mladic and other remaining war crimes suspects.

But Draskovic, who will represent Serbia at the handover ceremony in Strasbourg on Friday, warned against granting independence to Kosovo, saying it could lead to further anti-Western sentiments in Serbia.

"The Europe we are seeking has overlooked the fact that Serbia will be humiliated if it is split against its will, law and history, and if the part of its territory where the Serbian state was born is taken away," he said, adding that he would do his best to ensure "Serbia ends its chairmanship with its current borders."