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Security concerns grow
EBU begins looking at alternatives to Belgrade
Of main concern is the attacks on foreign embassies by a tiny minority of hooligans yesterday evening. Attacks on foreign buildings and potential harm to foreign nationals is a major concern for the Eurovision Song Contest organisers with thousands of officials from 42 delegations and fans travelling to Belgrade for the competition in May.
Whilst the EBU has yet to confirm that there are any discussions about the possibility of moving the contest to an alternative venue, they are watching developments very closely. Fans planning to travel to the contest are increasingly concerned about personal security issues.
News of the crisis conference came from Misa Molk of Slovenia yesterday. Slovenia's embassy in Belgrade was attacked by a small number of rioters. She is a member of the EBU's Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group and claimed on television that "that EBU now decided itself in order to collect together itself to one urgent telephone conference - a crisis meeting about the imminent risk in order to entire Eurovision Song Contest 2008 now possible must be moved to another country".
Travel insurance is usually invalidated for anyone travelling to a country that has a government travel warning. esctoday.com urges fans with tickets to check their government's travel status for Serbia to ensure they are aware of any changes in their own country's status with regards to Serbia.
esctoday.com will continue to monitor the situation and is in touch with EBU and key broadcasters and will bring you all the latest developments.
We ask readers to react responsibly to this article and concentrate on the issues of the Eurovision Song Contest ONLY, for those wishing to debate politics and reasons for the troubles, please find a politics or international relations forum.
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@ Zohar
Very good answer, a real Israeli (not to say Jewsih) way of thinking.
Unfortunately there are -and will always be- many other nations in this world apart of yours 
Take care.
People should read the official statement issued yesterday evening. It states as follows:
"Having complete understanding for all the concerns, RTS will obtain a security guarantee from the government of Serbia regarding a complete and absolute safety of all participants and visitors of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade."
Note the words 'will obtain'. NOT 'has obtained'. So the guarantee has not yet been given and until it is given, it is not clear how it is worded and if it will go far enough. Will such a guarantee be good enough to persuade national governments that their citizens are safe to travel to Belgrade? If not, they won't be able to get travel insurance.
This is not going to 'blow over'. After all, the Serbs are always referring to the hundreds of years of history which they claim gives them a right to keep Kosovo. They're going to give up that right in a few weeks? I don't think so. Furthermore, yes, the destruction in Belgrade has been caused by a minority of hooligans. That is not the point. The point is whether the Serb government properly condemns it. So far its condemnation has been mild, to say the least.
I think the finals should be moved from Belgrade. OK, so maybe the foreign visitors can be kept safe by being surrounded by armed police convoys. But what kind of an atmosphere is that to hold a show like this? It only takes for a few hooligans to beat up a small group of foreign music fans and that will be the news headlines all round Europe and that will be what the show will be remembered for. And no government in the world can guarantee that that won't happen.
i have a better idea.
Keep Eurovision in Belgrade, but in order to prevent tensions and violence against foreigners, have only serbian singers singing the songs chosen to represent each country, instead of sending the actual singers themselves. And since there is a free language rule, those singers can sing the song in Yugoslav ian or whatever language they sppek in Serbia. This will save the city all the delegations alot of money and time, and we'll have a trye balkan eurovision :-)
@kimberly shaw
You're from Cyprus and as a person who comes from a country which has similar problems to Serbia, I cannot believe how cruel, cold and cynical your comment is. I really can't.
[i]Only resonable alternative for Belgrade this year is suspension Serbia for next 10 years and take a Kosovo as a EBU member and replace this year ESC to last year runner up[/i]
Why not make it 20? 30, 50? In for a penny, in for a pound, eh?
And Khalid - before you say anything:
I have not said anything about moving the contest from Serbia.
I actually hope that Serbia are able to host the contest.
There are problems through out the world - including UK, Spain, France etc- yet you always just attack the UK.
Khalid
Please stop your anti UK bias - your comments are so predictable and boring.
Such flippant remarks are deeply offensive and inaccurate.
@ shuuichiro
By Northern Ireland in UK i take it you are making a reference to the IRA. Actually, you will find that the IRA stopped all hosilities some time ago.
Nothern Ireland in the UK.
Basque in Spain.
Abkhazia in Georgia.
Palestina in Israel.
Taiwan in Chian.
Why only Serbia?
We Japanese can't understand why.
I am certain that ESC will be in Belgrade, and they will do an excellent job of staging the contest. The minority should not be allowed to spoil things for the majority. I wish Sebia well with the contest, and look forward to an excellent show.
By the way, it may have escaped people's notice, but we in the UK are going about our daily lives, unhindered, safely and without any problems, we are not constantly under a barrage of explosions, etc (@ Kalid). The UK held a successful and peaceful EDC in London last year.
ESC will go ahead in Serbia, end of. Balls to nato etc
Only resonable alternative for Belgrade this year is suspension Serbia for next 10 years and take a Kosovo as a EBU member and replace this year ESC to last year runner up
i reckon it will stay in belgrade, not saying that im for or against. im just saying that yes, there's security concerns, but there always is at big events.....it will come and go.
but anyway....i hope everything can be resolved peacefully
Hey, why not the US? And let the american tax payers pay for it all?? Now that would be a laugh!
i prefer mauritius...
UK? No thanks, I don't want to be blown up in the metro or in the airport by a crazy pakistani immigrant. Belgrade is safer
this really is ashame for serbia if the contest is going to be switched to a different venue. serbia sent a really good song which was the true winner in the end so deserve their shot at hosting. however if there is going to be a high risk of violence in the country i agree that it should be switched. the safety of the participants and fans is a major issue. to those that say uk shouldnt be considered for a possible venue, be quiet. uk has proved it can hold this kind of thing many times and shouldnt be discounted because of that. hopefully a change of venue wont be necessary anyway. i think alot of what is going on in serbia just now will likly blow over anyway.
When they are going to move it, I hope they'll decide it soon because we have to book the hotels...
Well, in fact, it would be nice if it is in Belgrade but otherwise, I'm really not very interested to make holidays in a city where the people are burning the embassies...
ESC is not meant to be about war, so they should move it to another place IMO because Belgrade is too unsecure...
Helsinki would be nice - why not Helsinki?...
They should hold in it Cyprus!!! Then i'd be able to go lol besides they are already planning for JESC and Cyprus may be small but ideal.
I hope for Germany or Spain as a possible alternative host country. If Serbia will be taken away the ESC, I think it should take place in one of the Big-3 countries (Germany, Spain or France). But I doubt that France would like to do the job. So, Germany or Spain! UK have already hosted it for 8 times. That's enough, I think. :-)
When Serbia won last year I was very happy. So happy that I decided that for the first time I would take some days off work and go there to assist to my first Eurovision live... And I do hope that it will be possible I don't really want to go to any other country to see it. Serbia won the right to host the contest, and I would be so annoyed if it was sent to Finland or any other place. Je suis avec toi la Serbie
Arian: And I'm sure that future will be oh so bright, it's showing already, isn't it. Let's discuss this in a little while, when Kosovo independence hits your wallet as a Western taxpayer. It's already proved to be a bottomless black hole - countless zillions of euros have already been poured into the province without any visible result. In fact it's still a mafia & organised crime haven in world terms. Arms, narcotics and human trafficking are the only "economy" to speak of. Let's not delude ourselves.
One other thing - if Kosovo wasn't a military interest for the US, they so wouldn't CARE whether it's independent or not. So much for higher justice.
Darko S., you should not accuse the USA. France, Germany and the UK agree with that policy. This policy has given Kosovars a future.
That country has a proven track record of being the instability factor round the world due to their "elephant in a china shop" foreign policy. That policy is brutal, hypocritical, selfish, arrogant and insidious.
That could be also applied to the world potencies along the history, such as the empires of the UK, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Belgium, Ottoman Turkey, Austria-Hungary and Portugal, and to the nazi Germany, the Soviet Union (and now Russia) and Serbia (during Yugoslavia).
Every attempt should be condemned. I don't mind if the embassy is from Slovenia, USA, Swaziland or my town.
Kathrin: I'm desperately sorry for any damage done to any Belgrade embassy, particularly the Slovene one. But I'm afraid I don't quite share the same sentiment regarding the US embassy, even though what happened last night deserves every condemnation. That country has a proven track record of being the instability factor round the world due to their "elephant in a china shop" foreign policy. That policy is brutal, hypocritical, selfish, arrogant and insidious. I wish they finally left Europe alone to deal with its own problems as it sees fit. You won't agree, I'm sure, but there it is.
I also hope that Serbia can host Eurovision!! It will be my first Eurovision, and Serbia happens to be one of my favourite ESC countries so for me the victory came at a perfect time. (If before September) the contest would be taking place in another country, I would also consider going.. but not with the same happiness.. so.. GO Serbia!
I would like to invite all the people from anywhere in the world to come to Belgrade in May. I wouldnt be that arrogant to take your time reading this message, if I am not absolutely sure everything will be OK.
There is a planty of normal, tolerant and altruisitc people in Belgrade who wouldnt let Eurovision to become anyting, but a big party.
Already today, situation in Belgrade is normal. People work, as I do, too, and children go to school. I saw people sad about all happened last night. I was very sad, too. I hope I ll be that much happy when I see all the flags waving in Belgrade Arena in May.
Love Europe!
Greetings from Belgrade!
Velio
Let's hope all is solved before the contest, Serbia deserves it and won it fair and square (in spite what a lot of so-called fans have stated on East-West division). However, it is wise to look for an alternative city to be ready, but I certainly don't think it should be in the UK. Probably it should be left to luck among the last hosts, since I think that there has been no show like the Greek one in a long time, so let luck decide among Finland, Greece, Ukraine and Turkey
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