Americans for Serbian Sovereignty

Vichy Serbs Prevent Real Serbs From Entering Kosovo

2011-09-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

By Vojin Joksimovich, Ph.D.
Modern Tokyo Times

Bare-handed Kosovo Serbs continue to fight the NATO/KFOR and the EU mission of law and order (EULEX) over their support for the Kosovo Albanian police and customs officers in the takeover of checkpoints in Jarinje and Brnjak on the administrative border between Serbia and Kosovo. The purpose is to forcefully incorporate northern Kosovo into the US/EU created separatist Republic of Kosovo, an amputated cradle of Serbian civilization. Northern Kosovo is the last part of Kosovo that the US/EU is trying to submit to the Kosovo Albanian “thugocracy.” Both KFOR and EULEX, supposedly “status neutral” peacekeepers, have been violating the UNSCR 1244. Former UN official and a retired US diplomat Gerard Galucci has written: “When the international peacekeepers act outside the international law, they become outlaws.”

In addition, the Kosovo Serbs have to fight their own Vichy Government in Belgrade. In my previous articles I have explained the term Vichy Serbia. It stands for the contemporary Serbian Government in Belgrade, which has become vassals or quislings supported by mentors in Washington and Brussels at the expense of Serbian national interests. They desperately want their capital to be Brussels rather than Belgrade. This Vichy government has now prevented 2000 real patriotic Serbs from entering Kosovo in their show of support for their compatriots on the barricades in Northern Kosovo.

KFOR and EULEX have decided not to remove the barricades until the Godfather, Hashim Thaci, top thug masquerading as the Kosovo Prime Minister (PM), returns from New York, where he is lobbying governments of remaining UN members that the US has not arm-twisted thus far to recognize Kosovo. Meanwhile, KFOR and the Kosovo Serbs have been waging the war of leaflets. Popularity of the Russian ambassador Konuzin among the Serbs, living in Serbia or in diaspora, Serbia has risen exponentially as illustrated with his visit to Topola. In order to prevent the bloodshed, the EU is reportedly contemplating to institute a Northern Kosovo protectorate.

Vichy Serbia Betrays Kosovo Serbs

Dr. Marko Jaksic, a Kosovo Serb political leader in former PM Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), has revealed a plan negotiated by the Serbian interior minister and the vice VP Ivica Dacic (he calls him Tacic after Thaci) and EULEX. Dacic is the head of Milosevic’s Socialist Party, which is a part of the yellow ruling coalition with President Tadic’s Democratic Party (DS). The Dacic/EULEX plan was already implemented as the Serbian police have prevented some 2000 patriotic Serbs from arriving at the administrative border. In doing so, Dacic has protected the Albanian customs officers and enabled the Albanian flag to fly on the administrative border. Jaksic has also revealed that the Kosovo Serbs are being pressured by Belgrade to “relax” (remove) the barricades and thus expose themselves to a possible slaughter by the Muslim Albanians. He says that Tadic was ordered to do so by Brussels in order for Serbia to become an EU candidate in December.

Titoist Police Revamped

www.vidovdan.org, frequently hacked by the Albanians, published a blog written by a distinguished Serbian lady, Kosara Gavrilovic, titled (in translation) “Day when Serbs prevented Serbs from entering Kosovo and Metohija.” Ms. Gavrilovic, in her late eighties, left Baltimore in 2008 to join Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren (Kosovo) at the Gracanica monastery to become his interpreter. She is the daughter of Milan Gavrilovic, a Serbian minister, diplomat, writer and journalist in before WWII Yugoslavia. After WWII she lost everything in communist Yugoslavia and ended up in Washington DC where she taught Russian and was a State Department interpreter. The Serbian Orthodox Church yielded to the pressure from the Serbophobic international community and forcibly exiled Bishop Artemije from his eparchy.

On September the 17th, the Serbian police removed forcefully the passengers from five buses in Belgrade destined for Kosovo and even took away some of their cell phones. All public transport leading to Kosovo was suspended. Bishop Artemije’s car initiated his trip from Ljuljake, a village roughly half way between Belgrade and Kraljevo, but he was soon harassed and ordered back to Ljuljake by the Serbian police. Bishop wanted to deliver food to the Kosovo Serbs. Ms. Gavrilovic’s car was stopped once but allowed to continue because she had an American passport. The second time her car was ordered to return too.

Ms. Gavrilovic realized that now the Serbs in Serbia and the Serbs in Kosovo lead essentially the same kind of life. They live both under the NATO occupation. The Kosovo Serbs haven’t had the freedom of movement since 1999, but the Serbs in Serbia are now caught up with them. For this unification of Serbs president Tadic and his Vichy Serbs deserve the credit.

A friend of mine pointed out that there was a precedent when Milosevic in 1995 established a blockade on the Drina River between Serbia and Bosnia at the request of US/NATO. It is true that he did that. However, it was applied to weapons and ammunition, not to the freedom of movement. I can verify that because I crossed the border from Serbia into Bosnia without being harassed. I did have an American passport but my driver did not. Of course, US/NATO “reciprocated” for Milosevic’s services by bombing Serbia in 1999.

Godfather Thaci Indispensable

Nothing happens in Kosovo without Thaci’s approval. That applies to removal of the Serbian barricades as well. Thaci was in New York, together with the Kosovo president Arifete Jahjage to lobby world leaders during the annual UN General Assembly session. Incidentally, it was a smart move for the Kosovo Albanians to elect a woman as the president. Presumably, her hands do not have any blood stains. I have no doubt that the US or the British PR experts had a role in this. According to the Belgrade’s Beta agency she met president Obama, who was smart enough not to meet with the organ and drug-trafficking blood-stained chief. On the other hand his predecessor met with Thaci as well as with three US Secretaries of State: Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. None of them had problems shaking his blood-stained hand and reportedly were even charmed by him.

Thaci gets even published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Julia Gorin has written a brilliant blog titled Why Does The Wall Street Journal Publish Terrorists? “This year brought the Council of Europe’e report on the murder-for-organs scandal involving top echelons of the Kosovo Liberation Army, now wearing suits as Kosovo “legitimate” rulers. While top Albanian and Kosovo officials are being indicted for corruption, war crimes and deep mob ties, a Brooklyn man from Albania was arraigned last week on charges of providing material support to terrorists and planning to join a radical Islamic group in Pakistan—just months after an Albanian Kosovar shot five American servicemen in Frankfurt, killing two.(Which hearkens back not only to last year’s “North Carolina Eight” that included two Kosovo Albanians who targeted a Marine base, but also to the 2007 Ft.Dix plot in which three Albanian-Americans wanted to “kill as many American soldiers as possible.) She alludes that that WSJ might “finally feel a tinge of reservation if not shame about unequivocally following the Foggy Bottom (State Department) line on the Balkans.” In addition Ms. Gorin has made an effective use of the 2008 Italian documentary Infinite War and the February Foreign Policy article titled Thug Life. The Italian documentary shows a Serbian monk serving liturgy surrounded by NATO tanks and troops. The journalist Riccardo Iacona narrates: “In liberated Kosovo, this is the maximal possible freedom for Christians to profess their faith.”

While KFOR was waiting for Thaci to return they have been dropping leaflets telling the Serbs that barricades are illegal and therefore aren’t a part of peaceful demonstrations. NATO is telling the Serbs what falls into the category of “illegal.” This must be the ultimate in hypocrisy. After braking seven international laws, as discussed in my book Kosovo is Serbia and dropping 23,000 bombs and missiles in 36,000 sorties on Serbia in 1999, NATO is now lecturing the Serbs about what is illegal!! Shame on NATO! The Serbs on the barricades staged a home-made cabbage soup feast and served it to cabbage loving German soldiers. In addition, the Serbs organized a wedding on the barricades with the Serbian band playing folk music and participants dancing. Due to the barricades, KFOR can only use helicopters while the Serbs have to use goat trails to get their supplies from Serbia.

President Tadic was in New York too and met with Secretary Clinton allegedly telling her that Serbia will not recognize Kosovo. A friend in Belgrade interpreted that he actually said Kosovo is yours but do not bother us any longer. While his reading might be correct, I do not believe that amputation of Kosovo from Serbia would be the end game. During his speech he repeated that Serbia has two goals: to find a solution for the Kosovo issue acceptable to all parties involved and to join the EU. He emphasized that both issues are achievable and outlined key elements for protection of Kosovo Serbs.

Ambassador Konuzin Popularity

In my previous article I quoted the Russian ambassador Konuzin: “Are there no Serbs in this room?” As Jim Jatras wrote (savekosovo.org) Konuzin attempted to “shame the shameless” as none of them spoke in defense of their own country. The participants in a NGO, funded by the EU/US entities, global security conference were the “European Serbs”. On dozens of occasions I have been told that the Russians can’t be more Serbian than the Serbs when it comes to Kosovo. Well, ambassador Konuzin has demonstrated that he could be. His popularity in Serbia and even more so in the Serbian diaspora rose exponentially.

Ambassador Konuzin delivered a speech at Topola below the statue of Karadjordje, the leader of the first Serbian uprising against the Ottoman Empire. Topola was celebrating the two-hundred year anniversary as well as the Karadjordjevic dynasty family day. The citizens massively approached him and kissed his hand. His speech was interrupted with much applause. The Topola mayor, Dragan Jovanovic, sent the following message to the ambassador: “There are Serbs here, your Excellency. We salute our brothers on the barricades in Kosovo and hope that Serbia will help them.”

EU Ponders Solution

The Pristina paper Zeri reported: “International sources in Pristina said that under current conditions it is nearly impossible to find a quick solution. Therefore, to avoid an escalation of tension and conflict the issue of deploying of temporary international administration in the north is seriously discussed in international circles.” Needless to say, this in all likelihood would be another blow to Serbia’s control of the cradle of its civilization. Tanjug reported that the ongoing Pristina/Belgrade technical negotiations will be concluded by the year-end. Political negotiations would follow the Serbian parliamentary elections in April.

Vojin Joksimovich, Ph.D. is the author of three books and some 100 articles about the Balkans
The Revenge of the Prophet by Dr. Vojin Joksimovich is another classic book which gives great insight and knowledge about the Balkans, radical Islam, US foreign policy and other important areas. If you would like to buy the book then please email vjoksimovich215@gmail.com and forward your details.

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‘’KOSOVA’’ or ‘’KOSOVO’’

2009-01-23T06:24:00.000-08:00

‘’KOSOVA’’ or ‘’KOSOVO’’

J.P. Maher Ph. D. Professor Emeritus of Linguistics Northeastern Ilinois University Chicago
To the Editors of City.Net

‘’Kosovo’’ is a Serbian place name, more fully ‘’kosovo polje’’, meaning ‘field (or plain) of blackbirds’. ‘’Kosovo polje’’ lies just outside the city of Prishtina.

Ornithology lesson:
Among North Americans, Australians, and South Africans, only ornithologists can identify the species in question. Kosovo’s ‘’black bird’’ is no crow, nor raven, no starling nor grackle, but ‘’turdus merula’’, European cousin of the North American rusty-bellied thrush (‘’turdus migratorius’’), which Yanks call the ‘’robin’’.

In Britain and Ireland ‘’robin’’ is the name of another species, ‘’erithacus rubecula’’. (The ‘’four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie, of the English rhyme, were of the species’’merula’’, in Serbian called ‘’kos’’. From this term ‘’kosovo’’ is derived possessive adjective. Like America’s harbinger of spring, the black bird called ‘’kos’’ in Serbian language sings sweetly in the springtime and early summer.

For North Americans the feel of the Serbian place name ‘’Kosovo’’ can only be from a translation, Field of Robins’’.

Albanians have borrowed the word from the Serbs, whose once overwhelming majority was driven down, especially since the Congress of Berlin, by savage aggression from Albanians incited then and in WW I by Austria-Hungary and Germany, in World War II by Musolini’s puppet Albanians, and after WW II by the discriminatory ethnic cleansing of the Stalinist dictator Josip Broz.

Native Indian place names in America have no meaning in English:Eg. ‘’Michigan’’ means nothing in English. In Ojibwa ‘’Mishshikamaa’’ means ‘it is a big lake’.

Just so the place names of Ireland have transparent meaning in Gaelic but are meaningless tags in the colonialist English, eg. ‘’Dublin’’ is Gaelic ‘’dubh lin’’ ‘black pool’, and ‘’Kildare’’ is ‘’cildara’’ ‘church of the oak’.

Just so the name of the Serbian province of Kosovo are clear Serbian formations, but have no meaning in the Albanian language.

Proof of the Serbian origin of the name and the loanword status of the immigrant Albanian term is that the word ‘’Kosovo’’ has a clear etymology to anyone who knows a Slavic language, while Albanian ’’Kosova’’ is an opaque, meaningless place name in the Albanian language.
Kosovo is Serbian.
1997.

КОСОВО ИЛИ KOSOVA?

J.P. Maher, умировљени професор Лингвистике на Универзитету Илиноис, Чикаго

Косово је српски назив, потпуније, Косово поље, што значи поље, равница, пуно црних птица. Косово поље лежи непосредно уз град Приштину.

Орнитолошка лекција:
Међу Североамериканцима, Аустралијанцима, и Јужноафриканцима, само орнитолози могу да препознају врсту у питању из наслова. Црна птица косовска није врана, нити гавран, ни чавка, нити сврака, већ ``turdus merula``, европски рођак Североамеричке птичице сивкастог стомака (turdus migratorius), коју Јенкији зову `црвендаћ`.

У Британији и Ирској црвендаћ је назив за једну другу врсту, ’erithacus rubecula. (‘’ four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie``) -24 црне птичице испечене у пити“: из ове енглеске брзалице су ’’merula’ примерци на српском језику „кос“. По овоме се види да је термин „косово“ присвојни придев именице „кос“.

Као и амерички весник пролећа, ова црна прица која се зове кос, пева лепо у пролећно и летње доба. За Североамериканце осећај за српски назив „косово“ може бити по преводу фразе „Field of Robins’’ (поље косова).

Албанци су позајмили ову реч од Срба који су некад као већина протеривани са Косова, нарочито после Берлинског конгреса, бруталном навалом Албанаца подстрекиваним Аустроугарима и Немцима у Првом светском рату, у Другом светском рату Мусолинијевим слугама Албанцима, и после Другог светског рата дискриминаторским етничким чишћењем стаљинистичког диктатора Јосипа Броза.

Изворни индијански називи места у Америци немају значење на енглеском језику:
Нпр.‘’Michigan’’ ништа не значи на енглеском, али на Ojibwa језику ‘’Mishshikamaa“ значи „Велико језеро“.

Такође називи места у Ирској имају шире значенје на галском, али су без значења на колонијалистичком енглеском језику, нпр. ’Dublin’’ је Gaelic ‘’dubh lin’’ ‘Црно језеро’, и ‘’Kildare’’ је ‘’cildara’’, ‘Храстова црква’.

С тим у вези српски назив за покрајину Косово је чист српски израз и нема значење на албанском језику.

Доказ српског порекла овог назива као и позајмљен статус овог појма од Албанаца имиграната је тај да реч „Косово“ има јасну етимологију свакоме ко мало познаје словенске језике, док албанско „Kosova’’ је нејасан беззначењски термин на албанском језику.
Косово је српско!
1997.

INTERVIEW WITH NOAM CHOMSKY

2008-10-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

10/10/2008 06:44 PM

INTERVIEW WITH NOAM CHOMSKY

'The United States Has Essentially a One-Party System'

The linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky has long been a critic of American consumerism and imperialism. SPIEGEL spoke to him about the current crisis of capitalism, Barack Obama's rhetoric and the compliance of the intellectual class.

SPIEGEL: Professor Chomsky, cathedrals of capitalism have collapsed, the conservative government is spending its final weeks in office with nationalization plans. How does that make you feel?

A happy purchaser of a new iPhone. "Consumption distracts people. You cannot control your own population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption."

Chomsky: The times are too difficult and the crisis too severe to indulge in schadenfreude. Looking at it in perspective, the fact that there would be a financial crisis was perfectly predictable, its general nature, if not its magnitude. Markets are always inefficient.

SPIEGEL: What exactly did you anticipate?

Chomsky: In the financial industry, as in other industries, there are risks that are left out of the calculation. If you sell me a car, we have perhaps made a good bargain for ourselves. But there are effects of this transaction on others, which we do not take into account. There is more pollution, the price of gas goes up, there is more congestion. Those are the external costs of our transaction. In the case of financial institutions, they are huge.

SPIEGEL: But isn't it the task of a bank to take risks?

Chomsky: Yes, but if it is well managed, like Goldman Sachs, it will cover its own risks and absorb its own losses. But no financial institution can manage systemic risks. Risk is therefore underpriced, and there will be more risk taken than would be prudent for the economy. With government deregulation and the triumph of financial liberalization, the dangers of systemic risks, the possibility of a financial tsunami, sharply increased.

SPIEGEL: But is it correct to only put the blame on Wall Street? Doesn't Main Street, the American middle class, also live on borrowed money which may or may not be paid back?

Chomsky: The debt burden of private households is enormous. But I would not hold the individual responsible. This consumerism is based on the fact that we are a society dominated by business interests. There is massive propaganda for everyone to consume. Consumption is good for profits and consumption is good for the political establishment.

SPIEGEL: How does it benefit politicians when the populace drives a lot, eats a lot and goes shopping a lot?

Chomsky: Consumption distracts people. You cannot control your own population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption. The business press has been quite explicit about this goal.

SPIEGEL: A while ago you called America “the greatest country on earth.” How does that fit together with what you've been saying?

Chomsky: In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society. In America, the professor talks to the mechanic. They are in the same category.

SPIEGEL: After travelling through the United States 170 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville reported, "the people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe." Was he a dreamer?

Chomsky: James Madison’s position at the Constitutional Convention was that state power should be used "to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority." That is why the Senate has only a hundred members who are mostly rich and were given a great deal of power. The House of Representatives, with several hundred members, is more democratic and was given much less power. Even liberals like Walter Lippmann, one of the leading intellectuals of the 20th century, was of the opinion that in a properly functioning democracy, the intelligent minority, who should rule, have to be protected from “the trampling and the roar of the bewildered herd.” Among the conservatives, Vice President Dick Cheney just recently illustrated his understanding of democracy. He was asked why he supports a continuation of the war in Iraq when the population is strongly opposed. His answer was: “So?”

SPIEGEL: “Change” is the slogan of this year’s presidential election. Do you see any chance for an immediate, tangible change in the United States? Or, to use use Obama’s battle cry: Are you "fired up”?

Chomsky: Not in the least. The European reaction to Obama is a European delusion.

SPIEGEL: But he does say things that Europe has long been waiting for. He talks about the trans-Atlantic partnership, the priority of diplomacy and the reconciling of American society.

Chomsky: That is all rhetoric. Who cares about that? This whole election campaign deals with soaring rhetoric, hope, change, all sorts of things, but not with issues.

SPIEGEL: Do you prefer the team on the other side: the 72 year old Vietnam veteran McCain and Sarah Palin, former Alaskan beauty queen?

Chomsky: This Sarah Palin phenomenon is very curious. I think somebody watching us from Mars, they would think the country has gone insane.

SPIEGEL: Arch conservatives and religious voters seem to be thrilled.

Chomsky: One must not forget that this country was founded by religious fanatics. Since Jimmy Carter, religious fundamentalists play a major role in elections. He was the first president who made a point of exhibiting himself as a born again Christian. That sparked a little light in the minds of political campaign managers: Pretend to be a religious fanatic and you can pick up a third of the vote right away. Nobody asked whether Lyndon Johnson went to church every day. Bill Clinton is probably about as religious as I am, meaning zero, but his managers made a point of making sure that every Sunday morning he was in the Baptist church singing hymns.

SPIEGEL: Is there nothing about McCain that appeals to you?

Chomsky: In one aspect he is more honest than his opponent. He explicitly states that this election is not about issues but about personalities. The Democrats are not quite as honest even though they see it the same way.

SPIEGEL: So for you, Republicans and Democrats represent just slight variations of the same political platform?

Chomsky: Of course there are differences, but they are not fundamental. Nobody should have any illusions. The United States has essentially a one-party system and the ruling party is the business party.

SPIEGEL: You exaggerate. In almost all vital questions -- from the taxation of the rich to nuclear energy -- there are different positions. At least on the issues of war and peace, the parties differ considerably. The Republicans want to fight in Iraq until victory, even if that takes a 100 years, according to McCain. The Democrats demand a withdrawal plan.

Chomsky: Let us look at the “differences” more closely, and we recognize how limited and cynical they are. The hawks say, if we continue we can win. The doves say, it is costing us too much. But try to find an American politician who says frankly that this aggression is a crime: the issue is not whether we win or not, whether it is expensive or not. Remember the Russian invasion of Afghanistan? Did we have a debate whether the Russians can win the war or whether it is too expensive? This may have been the debate at the Kremlin, or in Pravda. But this is the kind of debate you would expect in a totalitarian society. If General Petraeus could achieve in Iraq what Putin achieved in Chechnya, he would be crowned king. The key question here is whether we apply the same standards to ourselves that we apply to others.

SPIEGEL: Who prevents intellectuals from asking and critically answering these questions? You praised the freedom of speech in the United States.

Chomsky: The intellectual world is deeply conformist. Hans Morgenthau, who was a founder of realist international relations theory, once condemned what he called “the conformist subservience to power”on the part of the intellectuals. George Orwell wrote that nationalists, who are practically the whole intellectual class of a country, not only do not disapprove of the crimes of their own state, but have the remarkable capacity not even to see them. That is correct. We talk a lot about the crimes of others. When it comes to our own crimes, we are nationalists in the Orwellian sense.

SPIEGEL: Was there not, and is there not -- in the United States and worldwide -- loud protest against the Iraq war?

Chomsky: The protest against the war in Iraq is far higher than against the war in Vietnam. When there were 4,000 American deaths in Vietnam and 150,000 troops deployed, nobody cared. When Kennedy invaded Vietnam in 1962, there was just a yawn.

SPIEGEL: To conclude, perhaps you can offer a conciliatory word about the state of the nation?

Chomsky: The American society has become more civilized, largely as a result of the activism of the 1960s. Our society, and also Europe's, became freer, more open, more democratic, and for many quite scary. This generation was condemned for that. But it had an effect.

SPIEGEL: Professor Chomsky, we thank you for this interview.

Interview conducted by Gabor Steingart

URL:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,583454,00.html

S. Ossetia, Abkhazia and New Political Reality

2008-09-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

September 01, 2008 3:00 AM
By Ivan Simic - Belgrade PalestineChronicle.com

On August 25, 2008 the Federal Assembly of Russia unanimously voted to urge President Medvedev to recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. On the following day, President Medvedev agreed, and signed a decree in which Russia officially recognized the two entities.

Georgia has rejected Russia's move. Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia, Giga Bokeria said: "This is an unconcealed annexation of these territories, which are a part of Georgia."

On August 26, 2008 Russian President Medvedev has instructed the foreign ministry to open talks with Abkhazia and South Ossetia on establishing diplomatic relations with Russia.
President Medvedev issued a statement saying: "This was not an easy choice to make, but it is the sole chance of saving people's lives" and calling on other countries to follow suit. In a televised address, he echoed the language of genocide used by Western leaders to describe Serbian attacks on Kosovo Albanians in 1999. Medvedev described Georgia in much the same way as Western leaders had once described Serbia.

Later, on August 26, a spokesman for the Palestinian group Hamas welcomed the diplomatic recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He said that there were similarities between the situations of the Abkhazian and South Ossetian people, and the Palestinian people. The spokesman said: "We, Palestinians, also struggle to attain recognition for our rights, the main of which is the right to be an independent state. We hope that the decision of Moscow becomes the beginning of recognition of peoples which combat for freedom and justice."

On August 28, Vasily Dolgolyov, the Belarusian Ambassador to Russia said that Belarus would in the next day or two recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The Russia's move was also supported by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, with China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan issuing a joint statement vouching support for Russia's "active role" in resolving the conflict.

So far, no other recognized state has recognized them; however there have been intensive international disapprovals.

The unilateral recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Russia was met by much disapproval from some members of the international community and other members of the United Nations, the NATO, the OSCE, and the European Council.

The United States President George W. Bush condemned the actions taken by the Russian authorities and called on them to reconsider their irresponsible decision. President Bush also said, "the two areas are within the internationally recognized borders of Georgia, and they must remain so."

The UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband accused Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of "inflaming" the crisis. He also called on Russia to stand by International Law as the basis for resolving this crisis and stated that he will assemble the "widest possible coalition against Russian aggression."

Eastern European capitals lined up in support of Georgia, with the Czech Republic in a statement calling Russia's action an attack on the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia.

The European Union leaders have condemned Russia's decision to recognise the Georgian breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, while Georgian rebels compared the move to the creation of Republic of Kosovo earlier this year.

The EU has tried to avoid parallels between Georgia separatism and the newly-created state of Kosovo in the past, saying Kosovo is "unique" despite the fact that 20 out of 27 EU states recognised its unilateral declaration of independence in February without an EU mandate.
Authorities in Abkhazia were happy to make the link, saying: "We use the same arguments as those used by the West with regard to Kosovo: All other possible means were exhausted. There was no possible way to reconcile with Georgia. This is purely a continuation of the Kosovo precedent. Of course some Western leaders will say that there is no link between Kosovo and Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but what can they say without contradicting themselves about what they said regarding Kosovo?"

The Ambassador of Russia to the NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, replied to accusations that Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is "irreversible", but called upon the NATO countries to withdraw and review their recognitions of independent Kosovo and subsequently act on the premise that this is the new political reality. He assures, moreover that any NATO attack on Russia-supported regions would mean "a declaration of war on Russia".

In relation to the current event in Georgia, in Moldavia, Moldovan rebels called for independence of the breakaway territory of Transnistria.

Currently, 15 EU states are confronted with secessionism, including Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, and the UK, among others.

Question is: who is next?

Ivan Simic lives in Belgrade, Serbia. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com

Kosovo independence splits EU on Geogia

2008-09-03T00:04:00.000-07:00

September 2, 2008 SERBIANNA

Diplomatic sorces say that EU countries that have recognized Kosovo came under ferocious criticism by the EU states that have not recognized Kosovo during the summit of EU heads of state in Brussels.

EU countries that have not recognized Kosovo are Spain, Portugal, Slovakia, Romania, Greece and Cyprus.

Serbian state agency Tanjug, citing diplomatic sources, says that these countries blamed Kosovo recognition for crisis in Georgia and the Russian recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The source says that Fance, which chairs the EU presidency, wanted to avoid any linkage between Kosovo and Georgia but the states that oppose Kosovo recognition insisted that Kosovo recognition has destabilized the security of the international order.

Romanian President Trajan Basesku said in Brussels that Romania remains consistent with its position not to recognize the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo.

Basesku confirmed that Romania had been given a document by Russia where Moscow explains why it has recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

At the summitt, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Kosovo could not be a precedent for South Ossetia and Abkhazia because its a unique case. Negotiations on Kosovo status have already been held with no results says Sarkozy.

Sarkozy said that Eu has to be consistent because just as Russia condemned recognition of Kosovo so must Europe condemn Russia.

However, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said that his country protects the territorial integrity of Georgia just as much as it protects the territorial integrity of Serbia over Kosovo.

Serbia: Kosovo Fuelled Georgia Conflict

2008-08-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

21 August 2008 Belgrade--US and western support for Kosovo’s secession from Serbia has helped fuel tensions in Georgia's separatist province of South Ossetia, Belgrade’s Foreign Minister insists.

Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic was quoted by Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti on Thursday as saying the recognition of Kosovo's independence on February 17 by the United States and its NATO allies has "destabilised" other parts of the world."We have pointed out to the international community from the very start that the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo could present a dangerous precedent," Vuk Jeremic was quoted as saying. "Unfortunately, this has proven to be true much sooner than anyone expected." Jeremic was not immediately available for comment, but his spokeswoman confirmed the authenticity of the newspaper interview.Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after it launched a military campaign there against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian separatists.

Then-President Slobodan Milosevic was forced to pull out of Kosovo after Serbia was bombed by NATO for 78 days in retaliation for its brutality against civilians in Kosovo.Serbia's new, pro-Western leadership that came after Milosevic was ousted in 2000 has refrained from using force in Kosovo but has refused to give up its claim on the territory. Earlier this month, Jeremic sought support in the United Nations for Serbia's request that the Netherlands-based International Court of Justice rule on the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence. Read more: http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/12366/If approved at the upcoming UN General Assembly session, the Serbian request would present an important diplomatic victory for Belgrade, although the court's ruling would be nonbinding.

Serbia has refused to acknowledge the secession of predominantly ethnic Albanian region. Russia has supported Serbia while the United States and its EU allies have stood by Kosovo.In Georgia, fighting broke out on August 7 when Georgia moved to take control of its separatist South Ossetia region. This triggered a massive intervention by Russia, which recaptured South Ossetia and then moved deep into other parts of Georgia.Georgia’s move may have been prompted by the likelihood that South Ossetia and Abkhazia were preparing to follow Kosovo's example and declare independence, while Russia says it is unfair of the West to back one people’s independence and deny it to another.

Read more: http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/analysis/12332/Jeremic said Serbia condemns the use of force in Georgia, and urged countries to find a "peaceful way through the United Nations, with respect to international agreements and international law.

Copyright BalkanInsight.com 2008

What comes around, goes around

2008-07-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

04 July 2008 Pristina

Kosovo’s Prime Minister said on Thursday that attempts by Kosovo Serbs to set up parallel institutions are "in vain" and "illegal."

“The creation of parallel structures and other non-institutional bodies is destined to be a failed, useless, illegitimate, unacceptable and illusionist policy,’’ Hashim Thaci said.

“We urge Belgrade to play a positive role for peace and stability in the region and refrain from any attempts to provoke negative actions in Kosovo,’’ he added.

Last weekend, Kosovo Serbs inaugurated their own parliament in the ethnically-divided town of Mitrovica with a declaration that Kosovo is a part of Serbia, defying criticism from the United Nations and ethnic Albanian leaders that the assembly is illegal.

The assembly is created based on the results of local elections held by Serbia in Kosovo, which Pristina and the UN also said were illegal. The assembly has no executive authority but reflects a deepening ethnic partition of Kosovo since its Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in February, backed by the West but opposed by Belgrade and its ally Russia.

The United States condemned the creation of the assembly while Russia said it was a logical revolt against the declaration of independence.

Earlier this week, Kosovo’s President Fatmir Sejdiu condemned the formation of the assembly saying that local Serbs are being manipulated by Belgrade. For more, read:
http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/11419

Speaking on Thursday, Thaci also reacted against local governance in the Serb-dominated municipality of Strpce in southern Kosovo, where a new mayor took his post based on the results of the May 11 polls.

“I emphasise again, everything related to this issue is illegal, irresponsible and non-functional,’’ said Thaci.

BalkanInsight.com 2008

The War Street Journal Invents Kosovo

2008-07-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

July 3, 2008
Being Walter Duranty
The War Street Journal Invents Kosovo

Lies about Kosovo are nothing new. For almost two decades now, there's hardly been any truth in reports that have reached the Western public concerning this southern province of Serbia now posing as an independent state. The 1988 constitutional reforms designed to rein in Albanian separatism were presented as "stripping Kosovo of autonomy." The 1989 speech by Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic at a commemoration of a historic battle against Ottoman invaders was routinely claimed to have been a call for hatred, nationalism, or violence – but never actually quoted. And with good reason – because it was nothing of the sort.

Lies ramped up in 1998, as the terrorist gang calling itself the "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA) emerged, targeting police officers, postal workers and fellow Albanians who would not "contribute" to the cause. Media in the West claimed the KLA were "freedom fighters" from Serbian "repression." In reality, they were fighting for an independent Kosovo ruled by Albanians, and eventually an "ethnic Albania" encompassing Albania proper, and parts of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece.

Events from 1998-99 ought to be familiar to the readers of this column: the Rambouillet "peace plan," the Racak "massacre," and finally the "humanitarian bombing" of Serbia that went on for 78 days. Lies piled up sky-high: hundreds of thousands of Albanians supposedly shot, or raped, or burned in ovens, or thrown down mine shafts… Each and every one was later revealed as complete and utter fabrication, only to be shrugged off by their authors, who would go on to make new claims shortly thereafter.

The "peace" that came in June 1999 was nothing of the sort; hundreds of thousands of Kosovo's Serbs, Roma, Turks, and other communities fled for their lives as the triumphant KLA took over under NATO's aegis. Thousands of homes put to the torch, ancient churches and monasteries dynamited, entire families massacred, everyone else's property looted – these grisly facts of "liberation" were dismissed in the West as "revenge attacks." Revenge for what?

Paradise Imagined

The Wall Street Journal's opinion pages can be considered the norm when it came to the Western media coverage of Kosovo. Serbs were always and ever evil, wrong and deserving of everything that happened to them. Albanians were virtuous victims who deserved "freedom" and statehood, laws and logic be damned. Never mind that it was WSJ's Daniel Pearl who criticized the propaganda about "genocide" in Kosovo and debunked the Trepca Mine myth. The cognitive dissonance between the news and opinion in the "War Street Journal" has been a fact for quite some time.

It is not surprising, therefore, that WSJ's travel writer Stan Sesser chose to follow the editorial page's tack, rather than the Pearl's. Sesser's June 27 article, titled "Europe's Unlikely Charmer," is about as facetious as Kosovo stories get, and par for the course at WSJ.

Only someone who knows nothing about the region could ever describe Kosovo as a "paradise," affordable or not. Yet that is how Sesser begins his story.

Sure, the streets may be filthy and the towns squalid, but everything is just hunky-dory in the "newest nation on Earth." He leaves out the fact that Kosovo's recent declaration of independence is hotly disputed by Serbia and another 150-odd nations, choosing instead to say that Kosovo "is currently recognized by more than 40 countries, including the U.S. and most European Union members." Well, hey, if Washington and Brussels say something is OK, that's surely so!

Sesser says he never once felt threatened – once he was identified as an American, anyway. Had he been identified as a Serb, or a Slav of any kind, Sesser would have been fortunate to escape the fate of Valentin Krumov. This Bulgarian UN employee was shot in broad daylight on a Pristina street for giving the time to an Albanian bystander in "what sounded like Serbian."

Failing Both Language and History

According to Sesser, the war "took 12,000 lives" and "destroyed Kosovo's economy." He doesn't say where he got the number from; most of his colleagues have been using the equally imaginary 10,000. Yet even counting the KLA casualties, the documented numbers so far are below 5,000.

Then there's an issue of language. Sesser was assigned an Albanian guide for his visit to the monasteries (which he mislabels "Greek Orthodox"). But he calls the Patriarchy "Peja" – which is a corrupted form of Albanian "Peje," itself a corruption of the Serbian name for the ancient city, Pec (Peć, meaning “stove” or “oven”). But the confusion becomes complete when he tries to make a bad wordplay on the name of the province's capital.

In Serbian, the administrative capital of Kosovo is Pristina (Priština). The Albanian name for the city is Prishtine. Both have a very emphatic "sh" sound. Yet Sesser makes a terrible pun about how the city is anything but "pristine."

Nor is Sesser's history any better than his linguistics. Apparently, Pristina was named after an "ancient king of the Ilyrians [sic], the ancestors of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians." However in Adrian Room's Placenames of the World (McFarland, 2003), Pristina is derived from "prisht," the Serbian word for boil (see page. 292). There was no Illyrian "king Pustule."

Albanians may believe that they are descended from the Illyrians, who inhabited the Balkans in pre-Roman times, but that doesn't mean this is actually true, or supported by evidence. The "Illyrian theory" was first postulated by Austrian court historians in the late 1800s, and it has been challenged since.

So That is What 'Coexistence' Means…

At one point, Sesser admires the medieval city of Prizren. He quotes one Naim Shahini, who "spent a day volunteering his labor to help renovate an old Prizren mosque" as saying that for 500 years, "Greek [sic] Orthodox and Catholics lived with Muslims without any problem."

Those five centuries, mind you, were the era of the Ottoman Empire, in which Christians (and Jews) were allowed to live, but as dhimmi – the disenfranchised infidels, who had to defer to Muslims in every respect, pay taxes and give up their children to become Janissaries. In Muslims' eyes (be they Albanian or Bosnian), it was those pesky infidels demanding freedom from the sultan that created "problems."

Sesser does not mention the fact that Albanian mobs sacked and torched the Bishop's residence and the Church of St. George in Prizren during the March 2004 pogrom. Some "coexistence," that.

This isn't just an omission, either. Sesser chooses to illustrate Kosovo reality by lamenting the fact that Albanians living in the northern, Serb part of Mitrovica need NATO escort to go to school or work. How ironic, given that needing an armed escort to go anywhere is precisely one salient characteristic of Serb life in occupied Kosovo. And note how there are Albanians living in north Mitrovica. The number of Serbs in the south part is precisely zero.

But tourists should not worry, says Sesser, because NATO is there:

"To forestall ethnic conflicts, 17,000 NATO troops, supplemented by thousands of police under U.N. auspices, are everywhere, paying special attention to the historic mosques, churches and monasteries that are among the country's treasures."

What else to call this but extremely facetious? Those troops (back when there were 40,000 of them, even) and police have done nothing to prevent a mass ethnic cleansing of Serbs in 1999, or any of the thousands of attacks on Serb lives and property since, including the 2004 pogrom. Over 150 churches and monasteries have been destroyed in the presence of these troops. Never happened, at least according to Sesser. Not in his affordable paradise of coexistence…

No Excuse

Perhaps it is being unfair to Stan Sesser to single him out for scrutiny, when hundreds of his colleagues have misrepresented Kosovo for years. He could be simply an ignorant travel writer, not knowing much about history, politics or language, focusing on hotels and their amenities and simply repeating the information he was fed by Albanian handlers and editors in New York. But when is a lie tolerable? When are omissions of truth "OK"? When is ignorance an excuse, for a reporter?

The right answer should always be "never," else all journalists end up resembling Walter Duranty. Unfortunately, that's now how things work when it comes to Kosovo.

Nebojsa Malic
antiwar.com

GERMANY DEMANDS (ILLEGAL) KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE

2008-06-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

Report by the German Journalists of www.german-foreign-policy.com
Of 13 February 2007, translated by Edward Spalton

INTRODUCTION BY RODNEY ATKINSON Ever since the end of the Second World War the German State has sought the break up of Yugoslavia, just as it has promoted the reversal of many other conditions of the 1918 and 1945 post war settlements. Throughout the 1980s the German secret services were active within Yugoslavia in particular through its war time fascist and genocidal allies, the Croats. It equally funded and armed its Albanian Muslim allies - the Kosovo Liberation Army which murdered and ethnically cleansed so many Serbs that the former now form the vast majority of the population of Kosovo which was historically a Serb province and under International law still is. Kosovo and Metohija is today still a haven for terrorist activity and massive cultural and ethnic cleansing of Christians (and gypsies and Jews) by Kosovo Albanians - under the eyes of UN and now EU forces. All this is the result of the most illegal war in modern history (see on this website: www.freenations.freeuk.com/news-2007-01-19.html)

Berlin's policy of forcing the split of the Serbian state of Kosovo from Serbia is causing fear of other secessionary movements throughout Europe. If Kosovo becomes an independent State after the successful violent campaign of the Albanian Muslim KLA other ethnic groups will claim a similar right to "self determination". Particularly affected would be Spain, France Greece and Britain. The Basques especially claim sovereignty both in Spain and parts of France.

So basic is the historical religious and ethnic foundation of Kosovo as a Serb province that its secession would be like Britain losing Kent (with Canterbury) to France. There is a far better case for the secession of Bavaria from Germany - but of course Germany only promotes regional and ethnic secession in other European countries, not at home!

BELGRADE/PRISTINA/TIRANA/BERLIN (own report) Serbia should relinquish its southern province of Kosovo and place itself under the patronage of its former enemies. That is the gist of the offer which the German presidency made to the Belgrade government last Monday. As a reward for the renunciation of Kosovo, negotiations would be opened with the EU for an association agreement. The territorial self-amputation, which Berlin expects in the name of the EU, would break the Serbian constitution and create a dangerous precedent of forced secession of territories by appeals to “self determination” from violent minorities.

Organisations connected with German foreign policy have pushed these sorts of theories for years, aiming at the dismemberment of neighbouring countries. The offer by the German presidency followed demonstrations by violent Kosovo separatists which claimed two lives last week end. The disorders were promoted by a terrorist organisation which demands an end to the need for Kosovo to achieve standards in human rights and already has a branch office in Germany. Its ringleaders were among the co-conspirators of the former German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel in the preparations for the Yugoslav/Kosovo war of 1999. They cooperated with the underground Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) which was supported and sustained by Germany. Those ringleaders form the government in Pristina today. The ensuing violence is a consequence of the change of power enforced by Germany which gave suspected war criminals and crooks the decisive influence in Kosovo.

As announced following an EU foreign ministers’ conference which took place last Monday under German chairmanship, the former aggressors are offering Belgrade a resumption of talks on a so-called treaty of association. It is a condition that the Serbian government should fulfil all demands of the UN tribunal in the Hague and extradite former high ranking officers of its armed forces to the victors. Additionally Serbia should accede to the plan for Kosovo’s secession, drafted by the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari on behalf of the UN and break its own constitution by renouncing claim to its southern province of Kosovo. To avoid the appearance of a complete capitulation by Belgrade, the planned secession is called “partial independence” although the founding of Kosovo as a state is decked out with all the insignia and trappings of a sovereign state. The “association agreement”, which requires further discussions with Belgrade, will bind Serbia irrevocably to the EU and distance Belgrade from its former ally, Russia, which continues to refuse its agreement to Kosovo’s secession (1).

Occasion and Cause

The offer by the EU foreign ministers had already been made public in the run-up to the conference and provoked Kosovan terrorists who stirred up a storm of protest against the cosmetic restrictions on their anticipated “self determination”. They want to establish their new EU state without controls from Brussels and to keep open the possibility of further frontier encroachments against bordering states, including Greece. Coordinated demonstrations, which took place on the eve of the foreign ministers conference and claimed two lives, were designed to make an impression. The protests were planned by an organisation called “ Vetevendosje” (Self determination) which has campaigned for several years for the union of Kosovo with Albania and for the annexation of parts of Macedonia, Montenegro and Greece.

The Kosovo uprisings of March 2004 (in which 18 people were killed and numerous Orthodox churches and monasteries were destroyed) served as a model for the recent disturbances – with some success. According to critics, the planning of that episode was advised beforehand to German secret service and military authorities. The riots were not prevented by the occupying troops and this provided Berlin’s foreign policy with the occasion to press for early secession of the south Serbian province. (2)

Introduced Everywhere
Experts evaluate the Vetevendosje organisation as terrorist. It demands the immediate ending of the negotiations on secession and the unconditional founding of the state of Kosovo. A long term observer (3) reports that its main slogans are “Smite the Serbs” and “Freedom, no Standards”. “Standards” in this case mean, amongst other things demanded by the UN, the protection of minorities from murderous pogroms. Vetevendosje works within circles of the veterans of unification “Balli Kombetar”, an earlier terror organisation of Greater Albanian nationalism which collaborated with Nazi Germany in the early Forties. The leader of Vetevendosje, Albin Kurti, has good contacts in Germany which he uses to secure his influential position in the Kosovo secession movement. During the preparations for the war in Yugoslavia, as a representative of the underground Kosovo Liberation Army(UCK) , he was introduced everywhere “in the whole western world as a charismatic student leader” – so reports a government adviser of the time (4) . Among Kurti’s contacts is the former foreign minister, Klaus Kinkel.

Advances

Kurti’s German contacts could flourish in the orbit of the long term support which the German intelligence community offered to the Kosovo Liberation Army. As a result “advances in the Albanian area” had already begun by the end of the Eighties. According to the intelligence expert Erich Schmdt-Eenboom, the then German foreign minister Hans Dietrich Genscher initiated these contacts. (5) The aim was to use the break up of the Warsaw Pact states to establish a presence quickly on the borders of Yugoslavia. Alongside weapon supplies, Tirana received espionage equipment from 1991 – just at the time that the Albanian secret service started to build up the newly founded Kosovo Liberation Army. Some of the German supplies were later found in Kosovo. According to press reports, the German Secret Service (BND Bundesnachrichtendienst) went over to arming the Kosovo Liberation Army directly in 1996, just as it was starting its first large campaign with bomb attacks on five Serbian refugee camps. The secret service connections continue openly to this day. A year ago the Belgrade press reported that both the BND and German Inland Secret Service had begun training espionage and state protection organisations (6)

The Whole Spectrum

The close political connections with Berlin which are enjoyed by the ruling clans in Pristina are built on the secret service contacts established in the pre-war and wartime periods. Former KLA pupils of German foreign policy have provided two of the four previous “prime ministers” of Kosovo. Agim Ceku, who was KLA Chief of Staff responsible for ground operations within the framework of the NATO attack, has led the Kosovo government since last year. He stands accused of serious war crimes and, as a result of Western pressure, has been twice released from investigative custody without coming before a court. Ramush Haradinaj, Ceku’s predecessor but one in office, converted the KLA into the paramilitary “Kosovo Protection Corps” after the war. Two years ago the BND reported on Haradinaj using its intimate knowledge of Kosovo “ The clan structure in the Decani area around Ramush Haradinaj is concerned with the whole spectrum of criminal, political and military activities which considerably affect the security conditions in all Kosovo. The group has about 100 members and is active in drug and weapon smuggling and in illegal trade in goods subject to customs duties. Additionally it controls organs of local government.” (7)

Despised

The prospect of building a state on such a power basis at Berlin’s insistence provoked the former Kosovo Ombudsman, Marek Antoni Nowicki, to sharp criticism. Nowicki reported last year “Kosovo society is dominated by a fine-meshed network of great Albanian families, which rule the area as clans. In this part of the world, cooperation with the police and justice departments is never valued and is, in fact, despised” (8) He reported after a thorough-going analysis of the security and justice systems, as well as corruption, organised crime and discrimination against minorities that the human rights situation in the protectorate “remains continually below minimum international standards” (9). As the final procedures for the splitting off of Kosovo became evident, Nowicki was removed from his post. His successor has not been known to make any critical remarks.

Stolen Kosovo (Ukradene Kosovo)

2008-06-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

EuroVision 2008 - Jelena Tomasevic, ORO

2008-05-24T02:21:00.000-07:00

San Diego Rally Video

2008-05-24T00:53:00.000-07:00

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Vidovdan National Kosovo Rally -- June 28

2008-05-24T00:44:00.000-07:00

American Voice Radio to Feature "Kosovo is Serbia" Group

2008-05-10T03:37:00.000-07:00

Vojin Joksimovich will host a radio program, May 16, on American Voice Radio (AVR), 3-5 pm. AVR is a satellite radio station that also broadcasts on the internet: theamericanvoice.com.

In addition to Dr. Joksimovich, a nuclear engineer and author of more than 50 articles and several books on the US foreign policy in the Balkans, the program will feature Fr. Bratso Krsic, priest of St. George Serbian Orthodox Church; Bill Dorich, author of numerous books on Balkan subjects, including the 1992 book, Kosovo; Miro Copic, San Diego businessman and entrepreneur; and Jennifer Milanovich, sales executive and organizer of the San Diego Kosovo is Serbia group.

Franklin's Choice -- History in the Making

2008-05-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

May 8, 2008
by Nebojsa Malic

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

It's a well-known dictum, attributed to Benjamin Franklin. He was only the publisher of the book in which it appeared; what he actually wrote, some time earlier, was "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power." Either way, Franklin was talking about the core issue in the affairs of men: the constant struggle between freedom and "security," the latter being the chief promise of the state.

Franklin's descendants seem to have made their choice long ago; even as every politician pays lip service to liberty, and the current Emperor actually wages wars of conquest across the globe in the name of "freedom" (what a perversion of the very idea!), American politics these days is all about "security."

On the other hand, "Franklin's choice" is still available to the people of Serbia – a country whose history in the past two decades has been affected by the American Empire as much as that of Iraq or Afghanistan. For the past seven years, Serbia has been ruled by parties and personalities set in power by the U.S.-sponsored "democratic revolution" of October 2000. It was neither a revolution nor particularly democratic – indeed, one of the first things the "revolutionaries" did was burn the parliament and the ballots from the recent presidential election. Nor did the victorious "democratic reformers" pay any heed to such insignificant details as the law, the constitution, or parliamentary procedure, bulldozing over anything that found itself in the way of their ambition: to make Serbia into a "normal" country by joining the EU and NATO, and taking its rightful place at the Empire's feet.

Selling a Pipe Dream
For seven years, Empire's willing executioners have run Serbia, promising progress and prosperity. They delivered on none of those promises, instead bringing debt, plunder, and humiliation.

To fully chronicle the abuses heaped upon Serbia by the sycophants and bootlickers of those who sought the End of History and sneered at the "reality-based community" would take more time and space than is available here. This column has noted but a few things over the years, from the blatant and unrepentant trampling of any legal order, to the wholesale plunder of the country, ending with what in any "normal" state would be considered high treason: acquiescence in the illegal seizure of Serbia's territory that was the "declaration of independence" by rebel Albanians in the occupied province of Kosovo.

In exchange for giving up their land, identity, culture, faith, history, and property – such trifles! – the Serbs are being offered a golden future in the European Union. Set aside for now the question whether a modern-day USSR is really the paradise they make it out to be; there is one tiny problem standing in the way of this utopian dream. Namely, the Empire has explicitly ruled out Serbia's "integration." Even when the EU pretends to make deals with Serbia, they are dead on arrival at best.

Passing the Blame
Even the "reformers" are aware that their promises of prosperity have worn thin. They have long since stopped promising hope – except in the most abstract sense – and turned to fear. If Serbia votes for the "nationalists" both they and their Imperial masters despise and demonize, it will "return to the 1990s" of blockade, isolation, and even bombing (they imply, and sometimes flat-out say). How odd, then, that the majority of those "liberals" and "democrats" and "reformers" have roots in the old Communist regime…

Confronted with the devastating reality of their rule, the "reformers" try to shift the blame on Slobodan Milosevic. But Milosevic has been dead since 2005, and he was arrested and extradited in 2001. His supporters have been marginalized since the October 2000 coup. And seven years is ample time to at least start repairing the damage done during Milosevic's rule. How come that hasn't happened?

Well, they say again, Vojislav Kostunica has been prime minister since 2004, after the "true believers" were ousted in the polls (ah, that pesky democracy!). Everything was just peachy while Zoran Djindjic was in power, and even after he got killed and the self-proclaimed Jacobins declared martial law… Except that nothing was going well even in Djindjic's time, and the very same people – "expert economists" from G17 Plus – were in charge of Serbia's economy since October 2000 regardless of who was prime minister or president.

In worshipping the Empire, the "reformers" went as far as to design the symbols of government after those found in Washington. Yet so different is the America many Serbs once knew and loved that Vojislav Kostunica, who once translated the Federalist Papers, is now being labeled a "hardline nationalist," while corrupt neo-Bolshevik Ceda Jovanovic is praised as a "pro-Western reformer."

Patriots and Reformers
If Kostunica is to be blamed for something, it is that his presence and involvement lent credibility to DOS and the quisling apparatus that emerged from it. In the end, it was not law, or reforms, or the economy that shattered the false peace between Kostunica and President Tadic and his henchmen, but the latter's insouciant reaction to the secession of occupied Kosovo. On Feb. 17, all the cards were on the table, and all the masks came off.

Now the battle lines have been drawn. On one side stand the "Patriots" – Kostunica, the Radical Party, and the Socialists, all committed to preserving Serbia's sovereignty and rights. On the other are the "Reformers" –Tadic's Democrats and G17 Plus, leading a motley coalition of separatists, ethnic minorities, neo-Jacobins and "non-governmental" activists amply financed by involuntary "donations" of American taxpayers.

The "Reformers" constantly invoke the Radicals as a specter of Milosevic's return. Yes, it is true that at one point in time the Radicals were allied with Milosevic (after years of being his bitter enemies). The same is true of Vuk Draskovic. The difference? Draskovic has recently been reanimated from his political grave to join the Democrats, as they desperately seek any allies that might give them a fighting chance.

The Devil's Own Bargain
In just about every respect, Serbia is in rotten shape. Its economy has never recovered from the 1990s blockade and bombing, followed by the destructive "transition" overseen by the G17. Its airwaves and newsprint are dominated by foreign corporations, foundations, and even governments. Even the people's cultural identity is endangered, as the very language and alphabet – not to mention the religion or traditions – are targets of a propaganda onslaught by the "reformers."

The so-called democrats, liberals, and reformers who seek the continuation of their seven-year dominance argue thus: everything that's wrong is the fault of Milosevic, or the nationalists, or the traditionalists. Both the EU and the U.S. wish Serbia nothing but the best, and everything they've done – from the blockades to the bombing – has been for the Serbs' own good. Only the ungrateful, the primitive, and the stupid cannot see that. All the Serbs need to do is give up their identity, faith, honor, and dignity. Is that really so much?

Echoes of the Past
It is not the first time such a choice has been presented. Consider this:
"Being in the situation we are in, having no choice, we must admit that we have lost a great deal of our sovereignty due to the careless and fatal policies of the previous government, and that we must obey the decisions of foreign powers. The best we can do for Serbia is to look the truth in the eye. We cannot afford further defiance, which would lead the country and the people into oblivion. We must obey international law and join the family of nations that surround us, a family of which we are a natural part."

These are not the words of today's "democratic reformers" in Empire's service, much as they resemble them. It is rather an excerpt from a speech by fascist politician Dimitrije Ljotic, given in April 1941 (after Nazi Germany destroyed the old Kingdom of Yugoslavia), urging the Serbs to submit to the inevitability of Nazi domination and integrate into the European "family of nations."

Ljotic's message fell on deaf ears. The Serbs revolted, either through the Royalist resistance or favoring the Soviet-backed Communists. The Communists eventually won, bringing their own inevitabilities.

May 11
Before Iraq, before Afghanistan, the American Empire showed its true colors by intervening in the Balkans. From stoking the fires of separatism to blockades and bombing, those who claimed to uphold international law have been its foremost violators. It is hard to expect anything different from those who make a desert and call it peace.

It is anybody's guess whether the American people will ever wake up to the monstrosity that's been created at their expense. Perhaps not, until the realities of economics, physics, and entropy catch up with the Empire. But Serbia has a chance, maybe one last chance, to refuse to be a part of the nightmarish world of transnational tyranny masquerading as peace, democracy, and freedom. Its people have a choice between liberty – with all the hardships it entails – and an illusion of safety in the suffocating bosom of the Empire. They should weigh the choice well, for it will be with them forever.

Find this article at: http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=12804

Church opposition to Kosovo independence

2008-04-27T07:19:00.000-07:00

Friday, 25th April 2008. 7:16pm
By: George Conger.

The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church has denounced the cession of Kosovo as unjust and a violation of Serbia’s cultural, social and political integrity.

“In these times of Easter joy and the divine mercy for all, the Serbian Orthodox Church especially dwells on human injustice and violence of the power-wielders over Kosovo and Metohija, over Serbia, and the entire Serb nation,” His Holiness Patriarch Paul of Belgrade said in his Easter Pastoral. Released on April 19, the pastoral letter will be read in Serbian Churches on April 27 --- Easter Sunday in the Orthodox Church calendar.

Paul’s call for justice for Serbian Kosovars resonates across the Serbian political spectrum with pro-Western, Slavophile and the former Communist parties rejecting Kosovo’s Feb 18 unilateral declaration of independence. However, the nation’s political leaders are divided over how to respond to the crisis.

Elected president on Feb 3, Tadic’s coalition government led by his Democratic Party (DS) collapsed on March 8, in the wake of mass demonstrations in Belgrade over Kosovo. Tadic lost the confidence of his coalition partner, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) forcing new elections set for May 11.

The pro-Western Tadic has argued that Serbia’s future lies in closer ties to the EU, while Kostunica's democrats have demanded the return of Kosovo before Serbia joins the EU. The opposition radicals --- the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) led by ultra-nationalist Tomislav Nikolic and the Socialist Party of Serbia formerly led by the late Slobodan Milosevic --- have called for closer ties with Moscow, rejecting the EU.

All of the leading Serbian political parties have rejected Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence --- which has been endorsed by the EU and the US, but rejected by Russia and China. However, Tadic has argued that adopting anti-Western policies are shortsighted, as it would cut off EU aid for Serbia, and prevent Serbia from having a say in the future of an independent Kosovo.

Tadic’s democrats and the radicals are polling even in the run-up to the General Elections, prompting most analysts to argued that Kostunica’s democrats will hold the balance of power in any coalition government.

While remaining above the political fray, Patriarch Paul’s Easter message underscores the Serbian rejectionist line. "Kosovo is an integral part of the life of every Christian Orthodox Serb," the pastoral letter said.

The "creators of this historic injustice [Kosovo independence] have inflicted on the Serb people a pain and suffering that, in spite of everything, points the way to the unique message of the suffering and salvation on Calvary,” Paul said.

Church urges Serbs to take Kosovo vow in Orthodox Easter message

2008-04-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press

Sunday, April 27, 2008

BELGRADE, Serbia: The Serbian Orthodox Church urged its followers in an Easter message on Sunday to take a vow to defend Kosovo.

The head of the church, Patriarch Pavle, and other top dignitaries said in the message that "Kosovo is part of every Orthodox Christian Serb's life."

"We are urging all, from scientists and politicians to the youngest and most modest sons and daughters of our nation, to deserve and preserve Kosovo with our work and honorable living," the message said.

Kosovo was the ancient seat of the Serbian church and the Serbian medieval state. But the region is now dominated by ethnic Albanians who declared independence from Serbia in February.

Kosovo statehood has won recognition from the United States and its European Union allies. Serbia and its traditional Orthodox Christian ally, Russia, have rejected the move as illegal under international law.

The Serbian church said in its message that Western support for Kosovo amounted to "human injustice and violence by the world powermongers against our Kosovo, Serbia and the entire Serbian nation."

"Creators of this historic injustice wanted to hurt us in the worst possible way, and inflict unspeakable pain and sorrow," the church said.

"But if we take that vow (to defend Kosovo), no one can take Kosovo away from us," the message added.

Serbia lost control over Kosovo is 1999, after NATO launched an air war to force Belgrade to halt a brutal crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists.

Serbian leaders have refused to let go of Kosovo, vowing to one day take the territory back.

Widespread anger over Kosovo's secession has also led to a rise in nationalism ahead of key parliamentary elections in May, which may see the return to power of allies of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Underscoring the importance of Kosovo in Serbia, pro-Western President Boris Tadic traveled to the 14th century Decani monastery in western Kosovo on Saturday to attend an Easter service there.

The official Tanjug news agency quoted Tadic as saying there that "we have an obligation in the years to come to remain dedicated to this place, our Kosovo and our Serbia."

Serbs and other Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter several weeks after observances by other Christian denominations.

Americans Outraged at Absolut Ad!

2008-04-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

To all the Americans outraged by this ad.

Now you know, how we, the people of A Serbia must feel, after your government helped separating the Kosovo province out of Serbia

Posted by: vanja | April 06, 2008 at 04:01 PM

Mexico reconquers California?
Absolut drinks to that!
The latest advertising

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic In Kosovo Trip

2008-04-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

03 April 2008 Mitrovica _ Serbia’s best tennis player, Novak Djokovic, was greeted by thousands of Kosovo Serb fans when he visited Mitrovica.

“All my tennis victories I devote to you people. My family is also from Kosovo,” Djokovic said.

Djokovic, who is seeded third in the global men’s tennis rankings, visited his admirers at a tennis court some two kilometers north in Zvecan, where his father was born, and where Djokovic has been declared an honorary citizen.

This is not the first time Djokovic has expressed patriotic sentiment over Kosovo.

He addressed a huge rally in Belgrade on February 21 via a video link where he expressed his defiance to ‘Kosovo’s unilateral act of independence.’

The rally was followed by riots and looting in the Serbian capital, that saw the United States Embassy, along with several others, partially torched and shops in the city centre looted.

Dozens of Serbian actors, singers, sportsman, and other public persons have already addressed Kosovo Serbs in the northern half of the divided town of Mitrovica.

Some stars have courted controversy.

Serbian swimmer, Milorad Cavic was suspended from the European Championships when he appeared in a ceremony to collect his gold medal wearing a ‘Kosovo Is Serbia’ t-shirt. Sports stars are barred from making political statements during events.

Kosovo Serbs in north Mitrovica have held protests on a near-daily basis since the declaration of independence from Serbia by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders on February 17.

Copyright BalkanInsight.com 2008

New focus on the western Balkans

2008-04-02T23:33:00.000-07:00

Joint article by Dr. Dimitrij Rupel, President of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, and Mr Bernard Kouchner (April 2nd, 2008)

Last Saturday at Brdo, Slovenia, the 27 EU foreign ministers sent a clear message of reaffirmation of the EU perspective for the Western Balkans - a message much needed in the aftermath of the Kosovo independence, in advance of Bucharest NATO summit this week and ahead of parliamentary elections in Serbia in May.

Notable was the presence at Brdo of both Serbian Foreign Minister Jeremic as well as Kosovo PM Thaci. The EU acknowledged in February that the decision to recognize Kosovo is left to individual Member States, but this does not change the common commitment Kosovo should take part into the regional co-operation and benefit from the EU perspective for the region, of which it is a part.

We are revealing no secret by saying that Serbia was at the centre of attention at Brdo. As one of our colleagues said on Saturday, we all want for Serbia the same that Slovenia - once Serbia’s fellow republic in former Yugoslavia, now presiding the EU - had achieved. The Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia was initialled last November and now waits to be signed. Undoubtedly, Serbia needs to meet its international and moral obligations in order to join the EU family. We understand that Serbia on the eve of elections is uncertain about its future and lukewarm about Europe. It is therefore the conviction of both the current and the future EU Presidencies that partners need to find innovative ways to give Serbia’s pro-European forces this much needed boost, while not compromising on values on which the EU is based. As Kosovo, Serbia is in many respects a unique case too. For this reason as proposed in Brdo, we want to show the willingness of the EU towards the people Serbia and put forward the proposal of trying to get a free of charge visa regime towards Serbia.

We will, however, insist firmly that Serbia respect previously made commitments and refrain from any inflammatory rhetoric or activities which might endanger the security situation in the region. We fully respect the feelings of our Serbian friends, but good regional co-operation is one of the conditions for the EU aspiring countries and this goes as well for Serbia. And EULEX and EUSR missions to Kosovo are a sign of the EU commitment for Kosovo. One cannot at the same time aspire to join EU while refuse talking to its missions that are there for the sake of Kosovo Serbs in the first place. Above all, Serbia should not let the Kosovo issue to determine its relationship with the EU.

One measure that could win hearts and minds of people in the Balkans is to continue working on the visa-liberalisation plans for all countries of the region by completing soon the so- called roadmaps, setting down realistic and concrete conditions which, if and when met, would open way to visa-free travel. We should not discount the frustrating paradox of the fact that the countries of former Yugoslavia already had the experience of visa-free travel before 1990.

While our eyes have recently been - for very obvious reasons - focused on Serbia and Kosovo, we should not forget about the rest of the region. The progress made recently by Montenegro and Albania should be recognised. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement is within reach, provided that police reform is implemented - in the next couple of days, the parliament of BiH will have another opportunity to make bold and courageous moves on this matter.

Finally, our special attention goes to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. We have been encouraged by some progress made in the last couple of days on the name issue and we sincerely hope that mutually acceptable solutions will be followed allowing Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to join Nato. This is the future of the country and its people, and has the real potential to make grow country stronger and the region more stable.

from France diplomatie

NATO Marches Eastward

2008-04-02T23:14:00.000-07:00

We're on a dangerous collision course with Russia, no matter who wins the White House

April 2, 2008
by Justin Raimondo

The relentless march of NATO, decades after the implosion of the Soviet Union and the death knell of the Leninist project, is surely an object lesson in the real motivations and character of "democratic" imperialism, here and in Europe. The Communist enemy may be long gone, but NATO soldiers ever onward, and ever eastward. Suddenly we're back in the heyday of the Cold War: once again we hear the War Party's clarion call – "The Russians are coming!"

What they really mean to say however – as the video clip above makes visibly and audibly clear – is that the Americans are coming, along with the Brits, actively seeking to delegitimize and destabilize the government still dominated by Vladimir Putin. A new campaign for "regime change" is in the making, this time aimed at Moscow.

When the neoconservatives launched their campaign to exclude Russia from the G-8 summit, in retaliation for their arming of Syria and refusal to get on board the Iraq war-wagon, Russo-American relations took a steep dive. Vice President Dick Cheney was quick to join the refrain, accusing the Russians of using oil as a "weapon" against Ukraine in what is presumably a new cold war. Bush, who had previously gazed into Putin's eyes and found a fellow spirit, is now championing NATO membership for Ukraine and – incredibly – Georgia.

The Europeans are having none of it, with France and Germany opposed outright and several of the smaller NATO members "skeptical," as news accounts put it. That doesn't really matter to the Bushies, however, who are doing this for domestic political reasons, as a show of support to McCain and the McCainiacs.

The links between the McCain campaign and the campaign for NATO expansion, and Russophobic circles in general, are extensive. Randy Scheunemann , McCain's top foreign policy adviser, is a key figure in the NATO expansion campaign: he has been a top lobbyist for British Petroleum, several major defense contractors, and various Baltic and Central European governments. He worked with Bruce Jackson, a former vice president in charge of planning for Lockheed-Martin and Pentagon official, on the U.S. Committee for NATO. Scheunemann has been an American adviser to the Georgian government and a registered lobbyist for Macedonia, Romania, and Latvia, as well as a corporate lobbyist for BP America and Lockheed-Martin. To top it off, Scheunemann was a founding member of the Project for a New American Century and a co-founder and director of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. He is, in short, the embodiment of all the pressure groups and special interests who profit, materially and ideologically, from the renewal of the Cold War.

The old drama has been revived, let there be no doubt. That is the meaning of the U.S.-funded and stage-managed "color revolutions" from Kiev to Kyrgyzstan, epitomized by that whole mysterious business with the alleged poisoning of Victor Yushchenko – an affair that resembled the hokiest sort of Cold War propaganda.

Even more bizarre is the case of Alexander Litvinenko, the ex-KGB spy who supposedly "knew too much" – so much that his former bosses bumped him off by poisoning him with a rare radioactive isotope, a substance that just happens to play a key role in making triggers for nuclear devices. Was it a KGB assassination, or, perhaps, something along the lines of what Sibel Edmonds is describing – an underground network of nuclear smugglers? In any case, it's like something out of a novel by John le Carré, or, perhaps, one of his substandard imitators.

In spite of these histrionics, however, the regnant anti-Russian hysteria – induced and maintained by these sensational stunts, which give every indication of being carefully staged – doesn't have much popular resonance, particularly in the front-line trenches of Cold War II. Ukrainian voters have since turned sour on the "Orange Revolutionaries," on account of their wrecking the country economically and their warmongering Russophobia, especially the radical wing led by the fiery Yulia Timoshenko, the "gas princess," whose ultra-nationalist tirades against Russia are the key to her limited electoral appeal. Support for Ukrainian NATO membership may be popular in Washington, D.C., but it is distinctly unpopular in Ukraine, where only 30 percent are in favor.

In Ukraine, many people can barely feed their families. Why should they care if the Ukrainian air force, such as it is, is being upgraded to meet NATO standards? The real constituency for this is in Washington, where lobbyists for arms contractors – Scheunemann's old buddies at Lockheed-Martin, for one – are delirious with joy at the prospect of more NATO members, all of which will have to be outfitted with and trained to use sophisticated new weapons systems. Guess who rakes in billions in profits, at taxpayers' expense?

Ideological ambidexterity is the key operating principle inside the Washington Beltway, where policymaking is all about corporate socialism for the rich – Lockheed-Martin and Bear Stearns – and social Darwinism when it comes time to foreclose on some poor schmuck's mobile home.

There is also an ideological motivation, congruent with the corporate interest in NATO expansion, and that is the neoconservative insistence on continental hegemony. In practice, this means the maintenance of American military supremacy in Europe as well as the Middle East. An important addendum to this is the extension of American military influence in the Caucasus, and, as usual, McCain has been in the vanguard of this trend. The candidate has been a big booster of Georgia, although he's had no comment on the recent government crackdown on the opposition, the obviously phony elections, and the spectacle of Georgian cops beating peaceful protesters in the streets of the capital city.

McCain once traveled to the disputed region of Abkhazia, whose pro-Russian inhabitants seek independence from Tbilisi and close relations with Moscow, where he declared the Russians must not be allowed to possess one square inch of "sovereign" Georgian territory. As president, he'd have us involved in every territorial dispute along the periphery of the former Soviet Union, from the snowy fields of Latvia to the steppes of Central Asia.

Unlike Bush, who keeps up the insulting pretense that the U.S. is intent on building a missile shield in Poland and the Czech republic to counter an alleged "threat" emanating from Iran, President McCain would make no secret of the real target of this "defensive" weapon – which, for the first time, makes a first strike on the Russians militarily feasible. McCain, the "Atlanticist," is unleashing the most feverish phraseology, describing Russia as "revanchist" and even accusing Moscow of launching cyber-attacks on Latvia – without, of course, any supporting evidence. Perhaps, as president, he would launch a preemptive cyber-strike at the Russians, applying the Bushian-neocon military doctrine to the Internet – and maybe not just there…

As for the other aspirants up for admission into this archaic Cold War conclave – Croatia, Macedonia, and Albania – NATO's secretary-general is cautiously optimistic that at least two out of three will be welcomed into the fold at the Bucharest summit. Macedonia may not make it because of a dispute that gives a hint as to why the word balkanize means to split up into a multitude of irreconcilable camps. The admission of Croatia and Albania, the allies of NATO during the Euro-American war of aggression against the former Yugoslavia, is a reward for their fealty, as well as alms for the American arms industry. It is also insurance that if Kosovo blows up again, the Croatians can repeat their performance in the Krajina, where they slaughtered nearly 2,000 Serbs, burned down 73 percent of Serbian homes, and forced thousands more to flee.

The really bad news is that U.S.-Russian relations are likely to undergo a radical decline no matter which presidential candidate takes the White House. What this means is that McCain's malevolent vision of a "revanchist Russia," backsliding into authoritarianism and a threat to its neighbors, may well become a self-fulfilling prophecy in the not-too-distant future. In our search for endless enemies, the worst, it seems, are our own creation.

Exposed: how Kosovo Serbs were butchered for organs

2008-04-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

Russia Today
April 1, 2008

For Video:
http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/22913/video

A former Chief Prosecutor at the International Court
of Justice in the Hague has given details of suspected
atrocities by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999.

Carla Del Ponte's book 'The Hunt: Me and War crimes'
claims that before killing Serbs and members of other
ethnic communities, Kosovo Albanians removed their
organs to sell for transplants.

According to Del Ponte, a one-time prosecutor at the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia, the kidnapped Serbs were given a medical
test. Those who passed were treated well, fed and
looked after until they were brought under the
surgeon’s knife.

From several concentration camps in Kosovo, they were
then transferred to cities in the north of Albania.

Their body parts were later flown to Europe.

General Mamir Stayanovich was head of the intelligence
service of the Serbian army during the war.

He has no doubt that the claims in Del Ponte’s book
will sooner or later be proven. The places she
mentions as hidden operation rooms are in exactly the
same location as the camps Albanians used for training
soldiers.

“In these hospitals they decided amongst themsemselves
what each commander of the KLA would have after
victory. They decided who would make his money from
drug dealing, who from weapons, and who from selling
body parts. Hashim Thaci, the prime minister, was
among them,” General Stayanovich claims.

There are more than 2,000 names on the list of missing
Serbs. Sima Spasich is the leader of an organisation
trying to discover their fate. He showed the pictures
of body parts he filmed in 2003.

“Right after the war, when we understood that too many
people had disappeared, I went to the K-For commanders
and asked them where were the people, and they just
shrugged their shoulders. Only after they saw Serbian
people demonstrating and were afraid of their anger,
they took me to some place,” Spasich said.

“I cannot explain what I saw there. It was a small
mountain of pieces of bodies and the first thing I saw
was a baby who’d been taken from his mother’s stomach,
lying there. It was impossible to look. It was a
massive grave they’d dug before. Today I know in this
massive grave were 26 Serb bodies - also there was my
brother Milosh,” Spasich added.

Families who once had a small glimmer of hope of
finding their loved ones are now planning to sue Del
Ponte. They claim she withheld this information for
years - and in that way helped the criminals with
their crime.

U.S. blunders by recognizing Kosovo independence

2008-04-02T03:00:00.000-07:00

March 31, 2008

The United States' decision to recognize the independence of Kosovo is the most recent in a series of mistakes regarding the breakaway Serbian province. America has been making ill-fated decisions in the Balkans for at least a decade and a half. What separates this bungling of Kosovo from its prior decisions is that the recognition of Kosovo's independence will have deleterious effects on international law and cause consequences in the region and beyond.

The main problem is that Kosovo's independence undermines a system of international law that America helped create and from which it benefits greatly. The United Nations Charter enshrines the inviolability of state sovereignty. In recognizing Kosovo without a UN Security Council resolution, the United States and its European allies have weakened two of the fundamental principles of international law: that states are free to determine their internal composition and that their territorial integrity must be respected.

To make matters worse, the United States and the European Union have adopted a wildly expansive interpretation of Security Council Resolution 1244, which placed Kosovo under UN administration and provided for Kosovo's autonomy within Serbia. Under this interpretation, administrative authority is being transferred from the UN-sanctioned mission in Kosovo to an EU mission that has no legal mandate in the province and whose prospects for success rely on Serb participation, which is far from guaranteed. Already, ethnic divisions are hardening into a de facto partition of the territory between Albanian and Serb-controlled areas.

Another problem caused by Kosovo's independence is the precedent it sets for ethnic enclaves within other sovereign states. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's claim that "Kosovo cannot be seen as a precedent for any other situation in the world today" misses the point. It is doubtful that separatists from Xingjian to Catalonia will accept the niceties of Rice's argument that Kosovo is exceptional due to its political and legal history. It is much more likely that these separatists will view the conflict for the precedent that it is: the carving off of a sovereign state's territory in favor of an ethnic and religious minority threatening violence -- a model to be replicated elsewhere.

Russia has been particularly outspoken against Kosovo's independence because of its concern that its restive Caucasian provinces will follow the Kosovo precedent. The United States currently requires Russian cooperation on two issues of great strategic importance to America: counterproliferation efforts against Iran and the implementation of new missile defense systems in Central Europe. Irritating Russia and spending useful political capital on a tiny, economically stagnant, breakaway region will only make Russian cooperation less likely -- even on issues that concern its security.

Finally, Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence has only reinflamed the divisions and enmities of the 1990s -- not a time that any of us should want to revisit in the Balkans. The declaration of Kosovo's independence has emboldened Albanians in Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia in their calls for the creation of "greater Albania."

There is also the possibility that the largely Serbian north of Kosovo will decide to secede and ask its Serbian kinsmen to protect it. Will America defend Kosovo's sovereignty after having destroyed Serbia's?

The decision to recognize Kosovo's independence was foolish. In doing so, the United States and its European allies have undermined international law and opened the door to separatist movements worldwide to follow suit. Relations with Russia are being strained at a time when America needs Russia's cooperation. Most disturbing of all, the Balkan tinderbox could be reignited at any point. No amount of wishful thinking by our foreign policy leadership will fix the damage that's been done.

JAMES PALMER, 26, grew up in Royal Oak, attended Dondero High School, has a degree in political science from Denison University in Ohio, and is a student in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. He can be reached by e-mail at james.palmer@tufts.edu.

Further disintegration of Serbia bad

2008-04-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

March 31, 2008
SERBIANNA

In search of a coherent explanation behind recent Western decision to recognize Serbian separatist province of Kosovo, a little known letter by a German Bundestag member Willy Wimmer has surfaced as a prophetic diplomatic document that shed's light on events taking shape in the Balkans now.

Writing in 2000 to the then German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Wimmer's letter warns that during a meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, that was jointly organized by the American State Department and the American Enterprise Institute, the participants of which a large number were prime ministers, declared that the union of Serbia and Montenegro called Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was outside of the legal framework of the Helsinki Final Act referring to the inviolability of state borders and that Serbia, as its successor will have to be dismembered.

Wimmers letter to German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder"The war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was waged in order to rectify General Eisenhower’s erroneous decision during World War II. Therefore, for strategic reasons, American troops must be stationed there, in order to compensate for the missed opportunity from 1945," notes Wimmer in his fourth point to Schröder.

In the letter, Wimmer also noted that the 78-day bombing of Serbia in 1999 was to overcome the legal obstacle of NATOs New Strategic Concept of April 1999 which stipulates that the alliance cannot participate in military missions outside its member countries.
"Serbia (probably for the purposes of securing an unhindered US military presence) must be permanently excluded from European development," concluded Wimmer in his eighth point of the letter to Schröder.

European Union's foreign ministers on Saturday agreed to help the pro-European camp in Serbia led by Serbia's President Tadic in order to pave the way for its integration and that signing a Stabilization and Association Agreement which is a trade and aid pact and a visa-free agreement would help the pro-European forces at the May 11 elections in Serbia.

Serbia's Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said that May 11 election in Serbia are crucial in determining the future coarse of the country.

"The result (of the elections) will produce radical consequences for the future development of Serbia and the Western Balkans," Jeremic said, adding that "no one's choice will be unaffected by the issue of Kosovo."

In light of Wimmer's letter, to many in Serbia such hopeful pronouncements by the EU appear as a deception.

In a recent interview, Kosovo Serb Bishop Artemije alluded to Wimmer's document citing his eighth point as the foregone conclusion to any of Serbia's efforts to join the EU.

"It is rather impossible that our President [Tadic], besides so many of his advisers, not to be privy on a letter that Willy Wimmer wrote," said Artemije. "One has to be honest to his people and say it bluntly that... there is no European perspective" for Serbia.

In an interview for a Serbian daily Vecernje Novosti, Willy Wimmer noted over the weekend that it is up to the EU to create preconditions for Serbia's membership into EU and NATO.
"Preconditions must be made by EU. I underline this sentence," says Wimmer. "Precisely over this I have the most reservations. Mission EULEX for Kosovo clearly indicates that EU in its actions is no longer on the clear legal basis."

Wimmer also says that the reason for American military presence in Kosovo has more to do with controlling land routs from the Black Sea into Europe then over local issues.

"NATO summit in Bucharest will show whether Russia will be pushed out of Europe in the future as well," says Wimmer and assesses that "It is hard to conclude what will be of Serbia in the near future... The worst out of the already difficult position is for Serbia to internally disintegrate."

Kosovo is the soul of Serbia (song)

2008-04-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Kosovo is the soul of Serbia
Hallowed ground, most Serbian
Kosovo is Faith, Hope
Land of martyrdom for the cross
Kosovo is most Serbian
Face of the Lord
There where the soul remained
There too is our destiny
There where the heart was
Where the Lord's will was done
All that is there, all is Serbia
All is Serbia

REFRAIN:
One most beautiful field
Adorned with peonies
One most sacred field
Has ascended to heaven
One faith safeguarded
Bathed in blood
When reality replaces the dream
Only an icon remains
And when Eternity counts the days
Above Serbia the sun shines
Kosovo is always Serbia
Always Serbia

Kosovo je duša Srbije
Sveto polje naj Srpski je
Kosovo je Vera, Nada
Mesto gde se za krst strada
Kosovo je naj Srpski je
Lice Božije
Tamo gde je duša ostala
Tamo je I naša sudbina
Tamo gde je srce bilo
Gde se Božije do godilo
Tamo sto je, sve je Srbija

Jedno polje prelepo
Božur rom se kitilo
Jedno polje presveto
U nebo se propelo
Jednu veru ćuvao
U krvi se kupalo
Kad se java razdeli od sna
I ostane samo ikona
I kad većnost broji dane
Nad Srbijom sunce grane
Kosovo je uvek Srbija
Uvek Srbija

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsN0lA-I2_g

Sign the Kosovo Petition

2008-04-01T02:04:00.000-07:00

We invite you to sign our petition to be sent to our US Congress Representatives in Washington, DC. Give your signed copies to Father Bratso Krsic at St. George Church.

MAKECOPIES_AND_SIG N

Two Anniversaries: 2003 and 1999

2008-03-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

March 27, 2008

by Nebojsa Malic

On March 20, 2003, American forces began their invasion of Iraq. According to the Emperor himself, the purpose of the war was to "disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people."

Five years later, U.S. troops are still occupying Iraq. Four thousand of them have died, and tens of thousands have been injured, many seriously. The Iraqi death toll runs in the hundreds of thousands (the Empire refuses to "keep score"), and the number of displaced Iraqis is over a million.

The path to that war was "paved with false assumptions and lies," in the words of Rep. Ron Paul. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere had nothing to do with Hussein. And the only things people of Iraq have been "liberated" from were their lives, property, and dignity. By every reasonable standard, and a few unreasonable ones, the Iraqi adventure has been a complete and utter fiasco.

In today's America, it is a popular belief among those against the Iraq war that Bush the Lesser is to blame, and that things will turn around after he is replaced. That is a dangerous folly. The road to damnation did not begin in March 2003 – or in September 2001, for that matter – but in March 1999. Iraq was not the first instance of an illegal, aggressive war launched from Washington. That dubious honor goes to the 1999 attack on then-Yugoslavia, in support of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army. The Kosovo war provided as precedent for Iraq, a "pattern of aggression," as British historian Kate Hudson famously noted in August 2003.

Bombs Over Belgrade

Operation Allied Force (incorrectly known in Serbia as "Merciful Angel") was launched on March 23, 1999, without UN approval or even a pretext. Even though the press today claims that NATO's air war was launched to stop or prevent "repression" of Albanian rebels by Yugoslav and Serbian forces, the actual justification invoked as the attack began was that Serbia had to be bombed into signing the "Rambouillet agreement" – a disgraceful ultimatum demanding NATO occupation of Kosovo and a free hand in the rest of Serbia. Even Empire's war planners quickly recognized the abject absurdity of "bombs for peace" and directed the media to change the official line in a "humanitarian" direction. The war thus became about "saving the Kosovars" (sic). Tales of alleged Serbian atrocities abounded, routinely compared to those of the Nazis: mass deportations, mass executions, mass graves, mass rapes.

They proved as real as the "Iraqi WMDs."

Even though Allied Force was officially a NATO operation, the vast majority of sorties were flown by American warplanes. As in Iraq, the assumption of the U.S. leadership was that the war would be short and victorious. It was neither; instead of capitulating within a week, the government of Slobodan Milosevic fought on for 78 days, agreeing to let NATO occupy Kosovo only after receiving explicit guarantees of Serbian sovereignty. When Yugoslav troops retreated from Kosovo, they did so nearly unharmed and in perfect order, showing that the bombing was primarily directed against civilian targets and intended to terrorize.

Kosovo was a Rubicon that the Empire needed to cross: a demonstration that it could attack anyone, anywhere, for any reason.

Brutal Occupation

As in Iraq, the occupation turned out to be worse than the actual war. The UN took over administration of the NATO-occupied province, but in practice that meant turning it over to the terrorist KLA. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Roma, Turks, and other non-Albanians were ethnically cleansed. Over 150 churches and monasteries, cemeteries and chapels were destroyed and desecrated. Non-Albanians were beaten, murdered, and even allegedly harvested for organs. Entire villages were razed during a pogrom in March 2004. Eventually, those who launched the 1999 invasion sought to legitimize it by supporting the Albanians' declaration of independence in February this year.

In Kosovo and Iraq alike, the occupiers set up puppet governments, organized elections, and even promulgated constitutions. None of it changed the savage reality. Iraq continues to be divided between mutually hostile communities that all resent the occupation, while Kosovo continues to be dominated by a terrorist organization transformed into an organized crime syndicate, oppressing non-Albanians but brutalizing other Albanians as well.

Belief and Reality

Much as the Imperial policymakers believe that their beliefs can shape reality itself, the world today is a much different place than the world of 1999, or 2003. China never forgot the attack on its embassy in Belgrade. Nor did Russia forget the humiliation of having a U.S. lackey in the Kremlin stand helplessly by as NATO savaged Serbia.

NATO did not claim a victory in Kosovo until the U.S.-funded and organized opposition managed to depose Milosevic in an October 2000 coup. Even though Serbia has since been ruled by various combinations of pro-Imperial politicians, who have demonstrated an almost limitless capacity for groveling and sycophancy over the intervening years, there is still some defiance left in her.

The Empire does not care much; convinced its will has triumphed in Kosovo, Washington believes that the upcoming Serbian elections in May will finally bring to power a servile, pliant leadership that will sign on the dotted line and follow along. It also believes that Iraq will become a peaceful parliamentary democracy. The "reality-based" community, however, begs to differ.

Twilight of America

The upcoming presidential elections in the U.S. offer a slate of candidates who at best disagree on the flavor of Imperial aggression. John McCain was a hawk on Kosovo as much as he is on Iraq. Policymakers advising Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama alike believe that Kosovo was a triumph of liberal, "humanitarian" interventionism. In truth, it has been a triumph only for aggression and terror.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman once infamously claimed that supporting the terrorist KLA was "fighting for human rights and American values." What became of the America whose founders hoped would not go abroad "in search of monsters to destroy" and nurture "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations"? It is now a global Empire, invading, occupying, and supporting terrorism even while claiming to oppose it.

What happened in March 2003 – and in March 1999 – was a defeat; of the American republic, international law, and perhaps even of peace at the end of a century that has seen precious little of it. On these solemn anniversaries, one can only hope that these defeats were temporary and transient. Otherwise, the future looks less like utopia, and more like Kosovo.

Find this article at:
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=12588
Copyright 2008 Antiwar.com

McCain Supports Radical Muslims In Kosovo

2008-03-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

By Cliff Kincaid
March 27, 2008

If the media are on the lookout for gaffes by the presidential campaigns, they missed a big one on Wednesday, when Cindy McCain met with Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in Kosovo's capital Pristina, while her husband was giving a major foreign policy speech calling for "new foundations for a stable and enduring peace." Kosovo's declaration of independence, which McCain accepts and was implicitly recognized by Cindy McCain's visit to Pristina, is a major threat to global peace and security. It could spark a U.S. war with Russia.

It may be asking too much, however, for the media to cover a gaffe like this. The Kosovo policy is a bipartisan blunder. For the liberal media, Iraq, where McCain differs with Hillary and Obama about the length of stay of the U.S. military, seems to be the only foreign policy issue worth talking about. But the U.S. faces other major problems.

We need to recall that the war against the former Yugoslavia was depicted by the liberal media as a worthwhile humanitarian intervention. But it was waged on the basis of Clinton Administration lies of a "genocide" being waged against Albanian Muslims in Kosovo, a province of Serbia. In fact, the Clinton Administration's NATO war against Yugoslavia probably cost more lives than were lost in the civil war in Kosovo. Serbian troops were forced to withdraw in exchange for an international guarantee that Serbia would retain sovereignty over Kosovo but the province would get substantial autonomy. The U.S. agreed to that, but that agreement was violated when the Bush Administration, with backing from McCain and Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, recently recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.

Sending his wife to Kosovo confirms that McCain accepts Clinton's fraudulent version of what happened there and that he agrees with Bush's "solution," which can only make the situation worse.

Conservatives should contemplate what is happening here. McCain, who says he wants to wage a vigorous war against Islamic radicals worldwide, is prepared to let Muslim extremists come to power in Kosovo and even have their own sovereign state. This is itself a major gaffe. But McCain compounded it when he gave a speech urging the building of "international structures for a durable peace," including strengthening NATO. This sounds good, except that McCain has to know that recognizing Kosovo's independence has split Western nations and even NATO itself. It is a major foreign policy blunder that the next administration, Democrat or Republican, may never recover from. It represents a direct threat to the international order of nation-states. That is why many nations have not recognized this new state of Kosovo. They realize that Kosovo's independence could spark other groups to wage wars against established regimes around the world.

This is not to say that some territories under the control of internationally recognized regimes do not deserve their independence. Tibet, under Chinese Communist occupation, deserves its freedom and sovereignty. And Taiwan should become an independent state as well. China's communist rulers, who opposed Kosovo's independence because they fear it could serve as a precedent for Tibet and Taiwan, are the illegitimate ones. The regime in Beijing should be undermined. But China, which supplies so many of our products and invests so much in our economy, is too big an adversary to pick a fight with. This shows the fallacy of claims of the U.S. being a "superpower." We are at the mercy of China, and the presidential candidates of both major political parties know it. Only a commentator like Lou Dobbs of CNN dares to address the controversy on a regular basis.

Atrocities occurred on all sides as the former Yugoslavia went through disintegration. But Serbia was involved in trying to hold the former Yugoslavia together when outside powers, including various Arab and Muslim states, were trying to carve the nation up. Kosovo's Muslims, who are a majority, may not be as radical as those in other Arab states. But wait until the radical Mosques that are being established around the territory, with the financial assistance of Saudi Arabia, begin to exert their influence on the next generation. They won't be waving American flags out of gratitude for NATO waging war on Serbia. Meanwhile, many Christian churches In Kosovo have been destroyed, and many Serbs, who are Christians, have fled the province. No wonder Serbian demonstrators recently burned the U.S. embassy there. And yet McCain says he wants to repair America's bad image in the rest of the world. Start with reversing the disastrous Kosovo policy, Senator McCain.

Conservatives should be concerned about the Kosovo policy for another reason. In his Wednesday speech to the World Affairs Council, McCain talked about the security of the state of Israel. He doesn't seem to realize that recognition of Kosovo is a precedent for the creation of another Muslim state, Palestine, in the heart of the Middle East, which could end up being just as much of a threat to the Jewish state as a nuclear Iran. Israeli analysts have recognized this threat. They know that Kosovo is to Serbia what Jerusalem is to Israel. Bush, of course, is the first U.S. president to campaign for the creation of an Arab/Muslim Palestinian state. He encouraged the elections that brought the terrorist group Hamas to power in the Palestinian territories. Does McCain favor this suicidal approach for the state of Israel? Or does Israel's security lie in asserting its own sovereignty and building a border fence? McCain, of course, seems to have an aversion to border fences, at least when they are on the U.S. southern border.

Hillary Clinton was accused of lying about her visit to Bosnia when she was First Lady. The more important controversy is why the U.S. was militarily involved in Bosnia in the first place. The record shows that her husband approved the shipment of Iranian arms to the Bosnia Muslims so they could fight the Christian Serbs. Clinton then expanded that policy to helping the Muslims in Kosovo. So the Iranian influence that McCain warned about in his World Affairs Council speech has already been brought into the Balkans by the Clintons, in a policy that he supported all along.
If you have noticed the evidence that the Arab/Muslim bloc of nations benefited from the Clinton policy in the former Yugoslavia, then you have grasped an essential truth about what has led to the current precarious state of affairs. It should be noted that Osama bin Laden, who was accused of supporting the Muslim extremists in Bosnia and Kosovo, would go on to order an attack on the U.S. on 9/11, killing nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens. So he is clearly not grateful for the U.S. helping his Muslim brothers.

The lesson, which McCain says he recognizes in Iraq, is that the terrorists cannot be appeased. But he wants to appease the Muslim extremists, backed by bin Laden, in Kosovo.

The mystery is why President Bush, who authorized our soldiers to fight Muslim extremists in Iraq, embarked on this policy to accommodate them in Kosovo, and why McCain backs this wrong-headed approach. Some may see a conspiracy in this, but I prefer the stupidity theory of history. I don't think our foreign policy elites, and the politicians they control, are that smart about what constitutes the national security interest of the U.S. Bush may be under the manipulation of career bureaucrats in the State Department. They seem to have an inordinate influence on McCain as well.

Since the Democrats won't quarrel with McCain or Bush on this unfolding catastrophe, it is up to what used to be called an "adversary press" to raise this uncomfortable foreign policy problem. It is an emergency because another war could be on the horizon. This "adversary press" now includes, more than ever, conservative commentators and bloggers. But some of those blogs seem to be running more and more "McCain for President" advertisements. This is a bad sign.
McCain, in his Wednesday speech, seemed to go out of his way to offend the Russian government, making it clear that he doesn't regard the regime there as a democracy. He even wants to exclude Russia from the G-8 group. Russia, McCain said, does not qualify as a member of what he proposes as a global "League of Democracies." But how can democracies survive if their countries face dismemberment by groups of nations and alliances acting outside of established and acceptable modes of conduct? How does it benefit the U.S. to increase the membership of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) by adding states such as Bosnia and Kosovo?

Russia, which is promising to go to the aid of the Serbs remaining in Kosovo, has recognized the danger to its own territorial integrity. It doesn't want to see Chechnya, another potential member of the OIC, inspired to more violence in order to attract recognition as an independent Muslim state like Kosovo. A war with NATO forces in Kosovo cannot be ruled out.
Then the situation may get some serious media attention.

If foreign policy is McCain's strong suit, we are in serious trouble. His policy is the same as that of Democrats Hillary and Obama. And yet McCain says that Russia has a deficit of democracy.

Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org.

Videos from the LA Rally!

2008-03-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/drphotoandvideo

„Milosrdni anđeo“ i dalje ubija bez milosti

2008-03-24T00:21:00.000-07:00

NATO je tek nedavno priznao da je tokom napada na SR Jugoslaviju upotrebljavao nedozvoljeno oružje - municiju sa radioaktivnim sadržajem, otkrivajući 112 lokacija! Podaci pokazuju da je bačeno najmanje deset tona obogaćenog uranijuma, koji daje radijaciju kao 437 atomskih bombi bačenih na Hirošimu, zbog čega je u Srbiji 2004. godine zabeleženo 40 odsto više novih slučajeva raka nego 1999.

Danas se navršava tačno devet godina od kada je tadašnji generalni sekretar NATO Havijer Solana, mimo Saveta bezbednosti UN, doneo odluku o napadu na SR Jugoslaviju. Već sutradan je NATO alijansa, sa 19 članica, u kojima živi preko 700 miliona ljudi, napala malu Srbiju sa svega 10 miliona stanovnika. Alijansa je od 24. marta do 10. juna 1999. godine - primenjujući sve postojeće tipove oružja i, što je najgore, municiju sa radioaktivnim primesama - ubila oko 2.500 civila, među kojima 89 dece, rušeći i paleći njihove kuće, crkve i kulturne spomenike, bolnice i škole, fabrike i mostove. Na kraju je i 250.000 Srba bilo proterano sa Kosova i Metohije, nakon čega je stvoren prostor da se u srpskoj istorijskoj kolevci albanskoj manjini omogući stvaranje kvazidržavne tvorevine koja je, danas je to svima jasno, i bila krajnji cilj bombaškog pogroma pod ciničnim nazivom „Milosrdni anđeo“!

Braneći otadžbinu, život su izgubila 1.002 pripadnika Vojske i policije Srbije, a oko deset hiljada ljudi je ranjeno i povređeno. Materijalna šteta naneta maloj Srbiji procenjena je na stotinu milijardi dolara.

Kao posledica upotrebe raketa sa osiromašenim uranijumom - koji je, inače, najstrože zabranjen u ratnim dejstvima - umrlo je tokom proteklih devet godina, koliko se zna, mnogo ljudi, i Srba i Albanaca, ali i vojnika NATO, pre svega Italijana i Nemaca, koji su bili u zoni gde je pao najveći broj bombi sa radioaktivnim primesama. Pod pritiskom, NATO je tek nedavno priznao da je upotrebljavao nedozvoljeno oružje, otkrivajući 112 lokacija! Ali, ovo je tek vrh „ledenog brega“. Postoji opravdana sumnja da je južno od 44. paralele posejano još raketa od kojih će generacije i generacije u budućnosti umirati.

Međunarodna javnost gluva
Imajući u vidu činjenicu da je NATO koristio municiju sa osiromašenim uranijumom pri ranijim dejstvima u Zalivskom ratu tokom 1991. godine i Bosni i Hercegovini tokom 1995. godine, nadležni organi Savezne Republike Jugoslavije su, još pre bombardovanja, upozoravali međunarodnu javnost da postoji opasnost da tako bude i na prostoru SRJ. Samo sedam dana posle početka agresije, 30. marta, srpska vojska je dokazala da je NATO upotrebio municiju sa radioaktivnim primesama. Posle 10. juna, kada je urađen redovni ekološki monitoring, to je nepobitno ustanovljeno.

Nalaze jugoslovenskih stručnjaka da je na Pljačkovici iznad Vranja i kod Preševa korišćena municija sa osiromašenim uranijumom potvrdili su najpre ruski stručnjaci koji su boravili u okviru međunarodne misije FOKUS - organizacije koju su osnovali Švajcarska, Rusija i Grčka, kojima se kasnije pridružila i Austrija. Eksperti Programa Ujedinjenih nacija za životnu sredinu - UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), odmah nakon NATO bombardovanja SR Jugoslavije, u avgustu 1999. godine, obavili su misiju za procenu ugroženosti životne sredine usled agresije, ali se njihov izveštaj objavljen u novembru iste godine - kako se i moglo očekivati - više odnosio na hronologiju bombardovanja i političke ocene nego na stručnu ocenu stanja životne sredine.
- Problem korišćenja municije sa osiromašenim uranijumom sveo se uglavnom na preporuke pripadnicima međunarodnih snaga na Kosovu i Metohiji kako da se ponašaju ukoliko borave u potencijalno ugroženim područjima - kaže naš vrhunski toksikolog, primarijus Radomir Kovačević, načelnik Centra za radiološku zaštitu - Kliničkog centra Srbije. - Uznemirenost međunarodne javnosti zbog pojave takozvanog „balkanskog sindroma“ u leto 2000. godine primorala je predstavnike UNEP-a da se ponovo pozabave posledicama korišćenja municije sa osiromašenim uranijumom po životnu sredinu - dodao je Kovačević.

NEDOSTAJU SREDSTVA

Zabrinjava činjenica da nema potrebnih sredstava za stalni monitoring
ugroženosti zdravlja barem rizičnih grupa stanovništva, kao ni za
monitoring podzemnih voda i monitoring ugroženosti biljnog i
životinjskog sveta. Unošenje osiromašenog uranijuma u lanac ishrane je
realna opasnost. Takođe, nema sredstava ni za adekvatno skladištenje
kontaminiranog zemljišta i prikupljenu neeksplodiranu municiju.
Praćenje ugroženosti životne sredine (vazduh, vode, zemljište, biljni i
životinjski svet) hemijskim i radioaktivnim dejstvom osiromašenog
uranijuma do sada je obavljano nesistematski i od slučaja do slučaja.

Primarijus Kovačević ističe da je u svim izveštajima UNEP-a umanjivana ugroženost životne sredine, ali je, ipak, evidentirano korišćenje municije sa osiromašenim uranijumom, a u nekim uzorcima pronađen je čak i plutonijum! Stoga je i upozoreno da svetska javnost mora ozbiljno da se pozabavi stepenom ugroženosti životne sredine u lokalitetima u kojima je korišćena takva municija.

Ćutanje o humanitarnoj katastrofi
Međunarodna zajednica, ali i pojedini srpski političari, međutim, uporno ćute o nespornom ratnom zločinu koji je učinjen prilikom agresije na Jugoslaviju, iako je savršeno jasno da je NATO, koristeći municiju sa osiromašenim uranijumom i stavljajući nuklearni otpad u jeftinu bojevu municiju umesto u preskupe betonske sarkofage, napravio pravu humanitarnu katastrofu.
Da li je podatak da u Prizrenu i okolini ima mnogo sahrana Šiptara (a ponajviše njihove dece) koji su umrli od malignih bolesti kao posledica dejstva osiromašenog uranijuma zapravo potvrda one teze po kojoj cilj agresije na Jugoslaviju i nije bila navodna zaštita Šiptara i proterivanje Srba sa njihovog vekovnog ognjišta - već ispitivanje „in vivo“ najnovijih čuda savremene vojne tehnologije, kao i stvaranje najveće vojne baze u ovom delu sveta?

- Bombardovati municijom sa osiromašenim uranijumom, plutonijumom i mnogim drugim supstancama bio je besplatan način da se Amerika oslobodi radioaktivnog otpada koji niko neće da preuzme - kaže primarijus Radomir Kovačević.
- Političari zemalja koje su nas bombardovale i deo naših koji su očigledno protivnici srpskih interesa zataškavaju istinu. Bačeno je najmanje deset tona obogaćenog uranijuma, koji daje radijaciju kao 437 atomskih bombi bačenih na Hirošimu (zbog čega je u Srbiji 2004. godine zabeleženo 40 odsto više novih slučajeva raka nego 1999). Podaci se friziraju i sakrivaju. Na primer, Zavod za statistiku je do pre deset godina objavljivao podatke o zdravstvenom stanju građana na desetine stranica, a od 2002-2003. svega na dve cele stranice! Ministarstvo zdravlja je upoznato sa svim našim rezultatima i projektima i svesno je rizika, ali nam nikada nije dalo zeleno svetlo i sredstva da zaista praktično nešto i uradimo - kaže Kovačević.

- Za razliku od političara, mi, naučnici, širom sveta nemamo dilemu o katastrofalnim posledicama osiromašenog uranijuma. Čak lepo sarađujemo i sa američkim kolegama. U njihovim stručnim časopisima objavljuju se radovi našeg tima o posledicama NATO bombardovanja, a kod nas ne samo u političkom već i u stručnom delu kao da žele da umanje katastrofu s kojom se Srbija suočila kao jedina zemlja u Evropi. Posledice su nesagledive - istakao je primarijus.
- Otvoreno pitam vladu, Ministarstvo odbrane, Ministarstvo zdravlja i sve ostale relevantne institucije, zašto ne tuže NATO za ratni zločin i traže odštetu sa kojom bi se moglo sprečiti veće zlo, a mogu se sanirati ozračena područja i preventivno reagovati kako bi se sprečio dalji, upozoravam, pomor stanovništva usled posledica ozračenosti. Osim toga, potrebno je organizovati preventivne zdravstvene preglede svih pripadnika snaga bezbednosti koji su bili 1999. godine na Kosmetu, mada je, nažalost, veliki broj već umro i oboleo od malignih oboljenja - kaže dr Kovačević.

AMERIKANCI BACAJU SVOJE ĐUBRE

I američka naučnica dr Helen Kaldikot opisala je medicinske posledice osiromašenog uranijuma još 2001. godine i ukazala na težinu problema. - OU je u stvari uranijum 238, ono što ostane pošto se fisioni element uranijum 235 izvuče iz rude i koristi kao gorivo za oružje i nuklearne reaktore. 700.000 tona ovog odbačenog radioaktivnog materijala je akumulirano za prošlih 60 godina širom Sjedinjenih Država dok američka vojska nije otkrila da je vredan. Gotovo dvaput veće gustine od olova, prolazi kroz oklop tenkova kao vruć nož kroz buter. Pošto je bio besplatan i u velikim količinama, meci i granate od osiromašenog uranijuma bili su jeftini za proizvodnju i dobar način da se Amerika oslobodi balasta radioaktivnog otpada koji niko neće da primi - rekla je Kaldikotova.

ZATROVANE TERITORIJE I - BUDUĆNOST

Uranijum 238 ima poluživot od 4,5 milijardi godina, dok neptunijum 237 i plutonijum 239, koji su mnogostruko karcinogeniji od uranijuma, imaju poluživote od nekoliko stotina do nekoliko hiljada godina. Znači, Irak, Kuvajt, Bosna i Kosovo su kontaminirani karcinogenim radioaktivnim elementima zauvek. I zato što je latentni period karcinogeneze - vreme inkubacije malignosti - od pet do 50 godina, skoro je sigurno da su malignosti koje su prijavljene u NATO trupama i mirotvorcima koji su služili na Balkanu i kod američkih vojnika i njihovih saveznika koji su služili u Zalivu, kao i civila koji žive u tim zemljama, tek uvod u katastrofu koja sledi - rekao je Kovačević.
Proučavanjem veterana iz Zalivskog rata pronađeno je da izlučuju uranijum 238 u svom urinu i semenoj tečnosti. Procenjeno je da je oko 300.000 američkih veterana bilo izloženo inhaliranom osiromašenom uranijumu.
Kovačević kaže da je Berluskonijeva vlada pala upravo zbog afere koja je nastala kada se doznalo da je pedesetak italijanskih vojnika koji su bili u Bosni i na Kosovu umrlo i da ih je još oko dve stotine teško bolesno, uglavnom od raka.
Izveštaji kažu da je jedan broj dece vojnika koji su duži period proveli na Balkanu rođen sa telesnim nedostacima. Slične izveštaje podnela su udruženja vojnika u Belgiji, Španiji, Portugaliji i Holandiji. I Sjedinjene Države i Velika Britanija potvrdile su da prah osiromašenog uranijuma može da bude opasan ukoliko se udiše, ali insistiraju na tome da je takva opasnost kratkotrajna i ograničenog dejstva.
Za decu u Iraku - gde je preko 300 tona OU u upotrebljenim granatama i aerosolizovanom prahu ostalo iza saveznika - javljeno je da imaju veći procenat malignosti i urođene nakaznosti nego što je normalno. Slični izveštaji dolaze i iz bolnica iz Bosne i sa Kosmeta, dok neka proučavanja dece američkih veterana izgleda pokazuju veći nego normalan procenat urođenih mana. Fotografije te dece sve govore.

PLJAČKOVICA - 113. LOKACIJA

Iako je NATO potvrdio korišćenje municije sa osiromašenim uranijumom na 112 lokaliteta, tačan broj i precizne mikrolokacije još nisu utvrđeni, posebno na Kosovu i Metohiji. Naši timovi koji su radili na proučavanju otkrili su, međutim, i 113. lokaciju, koju NATO nije potvrdio, a to je bombardovani repetitor na Pljačkovici. Otkrili smo ga tako što su neki radnici RTS-a, koji su radili na saniranju repetitora, osetili izvesne zdravstvene probleme, kaže za naš list primarijus Kovačević.
Prema podacima NATO, na području južno od 44. paralele ispaljeno je oko 31.000 projektila. Prema procenama Vojske Jugoslavije bilo ih je oko 50.000, dok ruski stručnjaci smatraju da ih je bilo i preko 90.000.
Autor:
Branka Lazić

Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) challenged on support for Serbia

2008-03-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

By Jim Tankersley
Washington Bureau
9:58 PM CDT, March 21, 2008
WASHINGTON

Even in a rhetorically charged political season, House candidate Steve Greenberg stands out: He's all but accusing Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) of disloyalty to the United States.

At issue is Bean's support for Serbia, the country her grandparents left for America, and Serbian-Americans' financial support for her re-election campaign. Greenberg, a Republican, said in a press release this week that Bean was "flagrantly working on behalf of foreign interests against the interests of the United States"—and that the Serbian government was repaying her by illegally steering contributors her way. He's also charged Bean with supporting "Serbian criminals" and "anti-American fundamentalists," referring to the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade

Bean's spokesman and her supporters rejected Greenberg's comments, which have touched off a surge of donations from across the Chicago area, home to the largest ethnic Serb population in the U.S.

Ryan Rudominer, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Greenberg "has resorted to saying anything to get attention—regardless of how shameful and desperate." Bean's spokesman Jonathan Lipman said the congresswoman "doesn't respond to ethnically and religiously divisive attacks, even when they go so far as to demonize an entire ethnic community and question their patriotism."

Greenberg campaign spokesman Brad Goodman responded: "It's very typical of Washington politicians, like Ms Bean, when caught under ethical clouds, the first thing they do is blame someone else."

Nearly a year ago, Bean sponsored a House resolution opposing Kosovo's efforts to secede from Serbia, a measure also supported by freshman Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), a Greenberg backer. Greenberg criticized Bean for the resolution late last month, after Kosovo declared independence and the Bush administration recognized it diplomatically. Roskam's spokesman declined to comment for this story. No vote was taken on the resolution.

Greenberg's press release slammed Bean for taking money from a pro-Serbian group in Washington. It repeatedly called the congresswoman "Melissa Luburich Bean," invoking her Serbian maiden name. Critics likened it to opponents calling the Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois "Barack Hussein Obama."

This week, after Bean scheduled a fundraiser at the home of an American supporter who is married to Serbia's consul general in Chicago, Greenberg called for the FBI and the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether foreign nationals were illegally helping Bean's campaign. Greenberg's campaign said the main attraction of the event was access to the consul general, Desko Nikitovic. It offered no proof of any donations to Bean by non-U.S. citizens, which federal law prohibits, but called the event an "unethical, illegal … quid pro quo."

Nikitovic's wife, Ryann Whalen, said her husband had no involvement with the fundraiser and no plans to attend it. His name is not listed on the invitation, though Whalen is identified as "Ryann Whalen Nikitovic."

After Greenberg publicized the event, Whalen asked organizers to relocate it to a Serbian restaurant on Chicago's Northwest Side, citing safety concerns. "In my opinion," said Whalen, president of the Serbian Bar Association of America, "this brings negative campaigning to an entirely different level."

The chairman of the American Conservative Union, David Keene, criticized Greenberg this week in an online column for The Hill newspaper for "suggesting that Bean should neither take money from nor associate with Serbian-Americans because they, like Bean, are not to be trusted or treated as loyal Americans.

"This is, of course, both silly and dangerous," Keene continued, before concluding that Bean is vulnerable on other issues such as a pro-union vote.

A National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman, Ken Spain, did not directly address the Serbian issues in a statement on Bean's fundraiser and Greenberg's reaction. "There is a clear difference between taking a public stand on an issue and attempting to parlay legislative activity into campaign cash," Spain said. "At the very least, Melissa Bean's fundraising practices certainly warrant some questioning."

The flap is reminiscent of the 2002 Democratic primary for the open House seat eventually won by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.). A prominent Polish-American supporter of Emanuel's opponent, Nancy Kaszak, incorrectly accused Emanuel of holding Israeli citizenship and serving in its military. The supporter, Edward Moskal, said Israel "defiles the Polish homeland and continues to hurl insults at the Polish people."

Kaszak severed her relationship with Moskal and called on him to apologize.

jtankersley@tribune.com

Milorad Cavic receives big reception upon return home to Serbia after Kosovo protest

2008-03-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press

Saturday, March 22, 2008

BELGRADE, Serbia: Milorad Cavic, suspended from the European swimming championships for wearing a T-shirt proclaiming "Kosovo is Serbia," was given a rousing reception Saturday upon his return to his homeland.

Cavic was greeted by hundreds of fans and met with Serbian nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who called the swimmer a "hero."

The 23-year-old Cavic was expelled from the championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands, for wearing the T-shirt as he collected his gold medal for winning the 50-meter butterfly on Wednesday.

The European swimming league ruled it a political slogan a reference to Kosovo's controversial declaration of independence from Serbia on Feb. 17 and ejected the American-born swimmer.

"I had no political intentions," Cavic said Saturday in a news conference broadcast live on state TV. "I had to help my people knowing it could be a big risk for my swimming career. I'm proud of what I did."

After the incident, Cavic became an inspiration among Serbs who object to losing Kosovo, an ethnic Albanian-dominated territory which many Serbs consider the historic cradle of their nation.

Kosovo's independence has been recognized by the United States and most European Union nations.

Cavic, who was born in Anaheim, California, to Serb parents and trains in Florida, said he was just trying to send "positive energy" to the country he represents.

He said he made up his mind to wear the T-shirt with the text in Cyrillic two weeks before the event.

"I had to do it to help the (Kosovo Serbs), knowing how hard it is for them there," Cavic said.

Because of the expulsion, Cavic missed Saturday's 100 butterfly, in which he was one of the favorites.

"I'm really sorry I missed that race. I trained very hard for it," Cavic said.

The “Petrified Church” in Kosovo (!?)

2008-03-23T00:58:00.000-07:00

By Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes

You may well ask: what in the world am I talking about here? “Petrified Church”, indeed!

Recently, I was reading about a little-known lecture delivered during Great Lent 1916 in England – in the middle of the Great War – by an Orthodox prelate who was examining the written commentary of a German professor who had described the Orthodox Church of the East as a “petrified” church.

As the Archbishop pointed out nearly 100 years ago, our church knew then (as we know today) what this German scientist was sarcastically referring to. The Venerable Archbishop’s insightful words strike a dramatic chord with us today and we can easily detect the parallels between his time of crisis, violence and tragedy – and the conflicts that we face in 2008. His commentary simply resonates!

“Comparing the unchangeable image of Christ, fixed in the East once for all, with the confusing thousand opinions of Christ in Protestant Germany, he was quite justified in calling our Church by a striking name, so differentiating her from his own. I am glad he invented the name ‘petrified’”. (!)

Later he says that, “if ‘petrified’ means intact, or whole, or undestroyed or living in the same dress, but still living, then the famous professor may be right. Yet this ‘petrified church’ has always come victorious out of any test to which she has been put.”

The term “petrified church” could well apply to 2008 and the crises that challenge our world and our Holy Orthodox faith. To my way of thinking, “petrified church” could have at least two relevant meanings today:

The first meaning refers to the long and glorious history and legacy of Orthodox Christianity – which is the same today as it was in 1916. Our Holy Church has not changed with the tides and trends that have afflicted other religions; we are the same church with the same faith and the same culture today that we were more than 2000 years ago! We have truly stayed the course, and this amplifies what St. Nicolai Velimirovic said in 1916.

The second meaning – and somewhat different from the first – could well refer to the apprehension and concern of all Eastern Orthodox Christians around the world with respect to the conditions in Serbia and Kosovo. We are correct in feeling petrified or afraid about the growing humanitarian crisis that currently confronts our brothers and sisters in both Serbia and Kosovo.

Sanity requires that we be petrified; our Holy Orthodox Faith requires that we continue to do something about it!

These are times for all of us, as pious and Orthodox Christians being the period of Great Lent to pray for our struggling and suffering brothers and sisters in Christ our Lord in the region of Kosovo/Metohija.

Recently many kind loving souls and good hearts offered their donations towards the Decani Monastery Relief Fund and more then fifteen thousand dollars were raised to help ameliorate the difficult situation faced by our brothers and sisters in Kosovo.

The matter is going to get worse day by day and we will have an unbelievable humanitarian crisis very soon.

Kindly send your tax deductible donations to the following address:

Decani Monastery Relief Fund
C/O Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
2618 West Bannock Street
Boise, ID 83702

Thank you and may our Lord God always bless you!

21 March 2008
Boise, Idaho
USA

Cujte Srbi!

2008-03-23T00:44:00.000-07:00

Bio sam s vama kada ste bili u nevolji. Delio sams vama patnje i da bih to mogao, zrtvovao samsjajan zivot i veoma lepu karijeru koja je mnogoobecavala. Zavoleo sam vas, jer sam na delu videovase ljude iz naroda u bitkama i presudnimtrenucima, kada se prepoznaje istinski karakterneke nacije. Zavoleo sam vas i zbog zrtava kojesam radi vas podneo, jer za ljude i stvari se utoliko jace vezujemo u koliko nas to vezivanjekosta zrtvovanja.

Video sam vam, medjutim, i mane, mane koje su seuzasno iskazale posle rata. Neke vase mane ce, akoih ne otklonite, biti pogubne po vasu naciju. Nebih vam bio prijatelj ako ne bih povikao"cuvajte se" i ako vam ne bih, uz vrline, koje suistinske i lepe, ukazao, kao u ogledalu, na vaselose strane.

Vasa nacija je imala veoma lepu proslost, poslekoje su usledili dugi nesrecni vekovi. Postoste osnovali veliko carstvo, koje je, sudeci poonome sto je od njega ostalo, mnogo obecavalo iu svoje doba bilo napredno poput zapadnih carevinai kraljevina, pali ste pod prevlast Turaka, zatimi u njihovo ropstvo.

Ipak, uprkos svim tim nevoljama, veoma je malovasih voljenih pokusalo da izbegne taj groznipolozaj prihvatanjem muslimanske vere. Velikavecina vasih predaka je, i pored dugotrajnihpatnji, ostala odana staroj veri i nije htela dapovije vrat pred okrutnim tudjinom.

Narod vam je hrabar i njegova hrabrost cesto sezedo junastva. Mogu to s pravom da kazem, jer samgledao vase vojnike, a oni su bili nista drugo dosam narod, u skoro svim bitkama velikogoslobodilackog rata.

Narod vam je rodoljubiv. Ne znam ni za jedan narodu kojem legendarni nacionalni junaci toliko zive unarodnoj dusi kao kod vas.

Pretvorili ste svoju religiju u narodnu crkvu, boljereci u narodnu tradiciju. Medjutim, vi nistereligiozni. Niste mogli da prihvatite Boga kakav jeu Bibliji, pretvorili ste ga u vecnog i svemocnogglavara svog naroda. Ako bih mogao da u ovoj oblasti upotrebim trivijalan izraz, rado bih rekao da vas"bog" nosi oklop i bradu Kraljevica Marka, sajkacu vaseg ratnika sa Cera i Jadra, Kajmakcalana i Dobrog polja.

Vas narod je gostoljubiv.

Narod vam je demokratican, i to zaista demokratican,a ne na nacin politicara. Medju vasim ljudima covekse ceni onoliko koliko je covek, a ne po onome stosu od njega ucinili odelo i titule. Vas narod znaza samilost i ponekad je takav u trenucima kada secovek ne nada da ce kod njega naci tu lepu ljudsku osobinu.

Narod vam je ponosan, ali ne i ohol. Najzad, vi stebistar narod, jedan od najbistrijih koje sam zazivota video.

Pogledajmo sada mane vaseg naroda.

Niste veliki radnici. Cesto odlazete za sutra, cak iza prekosutra, ono sto biste mogli da ucinite danas.Posledica je da se to, cesto, nikada i ne uradi.Koliko ste samo licnih i, jos gore, koliko stegubitaka po svoju zemlju podneli zbog tog olakogdangubljenja! Treba, ipak, reci da se kod vas tajnedostatak radne energije objasnjava na dva nacina.Najpre, pod turskom vlascu vam je i najtezi rad malokoristio. Od njega se bogatio samo vas ugnjetac.Tokom vekova navikli ste se da radite samo onolikokoliko je neophodno. Zatim, zemlja vam je tolikoplodna. Uz veoma malo rada imate sto vam je potrebnoza zivot.

Jedna od vrlina koja je kod mnogih medju vamaiscezla jeste zahvalnost.

Postali ste strasno nezahvalni. Mnogi medju vamasu veoma bogati i nemilice trose da bi se istaklii iz zabave, ali kada valja pokazati zahvalnostprema onima koji su se zrtvovali, nista ne daju,ama bas nista. Vase vodje nisu jos, za ovih desetgodina koliko je proslo od zavrsetka rata,svecano obelezile ni jedan od onih velikihdogadjaja kojima dugujete slobodu i velicinuzemlje. Jasno je, takve svecanosti bi bilenezgodne vecini vasih sadasnjih vodja zato stooni, dok vam je zemlja bila u smrtnoj opasnostii kad se trebalo zrtvovati, nista nisu uciniliza nju, vec su se samo brinuli kako da sklonena sigurno svoju dragocenu licnost, cak su nekiiskoristili nesrecu otadzbine da bi se obogatili.

Sta ste ucinili za svoje ratne invalide? Od svihzemalja koje su ucestvovale u ratu vasa senajgore odnosi prema njima. Dok nekoliko stotinavasih bivsih ministara, samozivih politickihprofesionalaca, koji, u vecini slucajeva, nistanisu ucinili za otadzbinu, vec obilato napunilidzepove, sredjuje sebi isplacivanje "penzija"koje vas kostaju nebrojenih miliona, invalidivam mogu umirati od gladi.

Vas covek iz naroda, seljak, neiskvaren uticajemprofesionalnih politicara, nije podmitljiv."Inteligencija" vam to jeste, i to od najsitnijegcinovnika sa ili bez diplome, do ministra."Inteligencija" Srbije skoro nista nije ucinilaza svoju zemlju i jedina joj je briga bila dasvoje dragocene clanove skloni na sigurno.

Vrativsi se u otadzbinu posle pobede, u kojojnisu ucestvovali, vasi intelektualci su tezilida upravljaju svim poslovima. Seljaci,(les seljaks), njima nisu nista znacili iako sucinili ogromnu vecinu u Srbiji, a vojnici, tvorcipobede, za njih su bili "prostaci", dobri da mlateneprijatelja i ginu, i ni za sta drugo.

Kao i sva nemoralna bica, i inteligencija se divisili, cak i kada se najvise zloupotrebljava. To juje navelo da se, posle rata, skoro odmah pomiri sanajgorim neprijateljima svoje zemlje, sa Nemcima.

Umesto da deluje pozitivno vasa inteligencija jedelovala negativno. Umesto da gradi, ona jerazgradjivala. Ona je zariste trulezi iiskvarenosti, od cega toliko trpite. Ako jojdopustite da nastavi, zemlja vam je izgubljena.

Vas narod je veliki ljubitelj politickih ilibolje receno, stranackih vodja.

Sa sve nadmocnijim stupanjem na vlastinteligencije, pojavljuju se ljudi koji shvatajukakva se licna korist moze izvuci iz vasesklonosti za stranacku politiku. Oni stvarajuzanimanje od iskoriscavanja vase sklonosti zastranacku politiku, pa sada imate profesionalnepoliticare koji na tome zaradjuju za zivot. Ma,sta govorim - oni zgrcu bogatstvo.

Tako su vam politicari iskvarili zemlju.

Obicaji profesionalnih politicara prvoiskorenjuju vrline srpskog tla. A, na nesrecu,politicari su vam svemocni. Politika se mesa usve i svuda upravlja. Ukaze li se neko mesto uvlasti, bilo ono vazno ili osrednje, svejedno,o izboru ne odlucuju zasluge kandidata, vecpoliticke veze. Moze on biti i najvecaneznalica, najnecasniji covek, ako je "sticenik"politicara-strancara stranke na vlasti, pobedicei coveka najkvalifikovanijeg i u strucnom i umoralnom pogledu.

Funkcioneri su vam, po pravilu, najgoregkvaliteta. Cesto nisu ni sposobni da obavljajuposao koji se trazi od mesta koje zauzimaju.

Posebno dobro poznajem vasu policiju jer sam,na svoju nesrecu, neko vreme saradjivao sanjom. U policiju su vam politicari postavililjude kaznjivane zbog kradje i drugih zlodela.Vasi policajci su, posebno u juznoj Srbiji,krali od naroda i otimali novac. Prijavio samto vasim vlastima, ali ti policajci-zlocinci,koji su istovremeno bili i strancari, nisu bilikaznjeni, a mene su toliko izvredjali da sambio prinudjen da podnesem ostavku.

Kada stignu do ministarskog polozaja, vasipoliticari postaju toliko oholi da je to skoro smesno.

Opasan vetar vam zahvata omladinu i gasi onajprociscavajuci rodoljubivi plamen. Za vecinuvase sadasnje omladine rodoljublje se sastojiod neke vrste zavisti pune mrznje. Zavidezemljama koje su bogatije ili mocnije odnjihove i tom ponizavajucem osecanjunakaradno daju ono lepo ime rodoljublje.

Savremeni mladic smatra da nije njegovo daobezbedjuje zivot drzavi, nego da je drzavaduzna da njemu pribavi sve kako bi on mogaoda vodi sto je moguce prijatniji zivot. Otudai ona jurnjava mladih za funkcijama. Svi bida budu cinovnici, i mladici i devojke. Vidite,mladi oba pola jako dobro znaju da sada u vasojzemlji nije potrebno nikakvo znanje ilisposobnost da bi neko postao cinovnik, potrebnoje samo da ga pogura neki poslanik, ministar,ili uticajni politicar-strancar.

Danasnja omladina ce vam odlucno reci da nipostone zeli da gine, jer joj to nista ne donosi.Zna ona iz iskustva, gledala je to svojim ocima,i kako oni koji su se zrtvovali, kod vas, uvasoj modernoj Srbiji, dobijaju samo nogom pozadi.

Nemojte dozvoliti da vasa lepa dusa propadne utom djubretu koje se na njoj natalozilo narocitoposle rata. Nacija koja je, poput vase, odolelavekovnom ropstvu, koja se povukla preko Albanijei koja je, izgnana iz svoje zemlje, ali ne iporazena, uspela da se vrati na svoja ognjistakao pobednik - ne dopusta da je podjarmi sakasebicnih i podmitljivih politicara, gnusnihsicardzija, prezira dostojnih zabusanata izlocinskih profitera i zelenasa.

Winning The Battle Of Kosovo

2008-03-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, Europe and America back Kosovo's declaration of independence, but most of the world does not.

by Michael Freedman, Newsweek
Tuesday, March 18, 2008

After years of violence and diplomatic wrangling, Kosovo, on Feb. 17, declared its independence, and within a day the world's most powerful nation, the United States, congratulated and recognized the newborn state. Britain also immediately recognized the war-torn nation, and in the days and weeks to come other big and wealthy nations would do likewise: France, Germany, Italy and Australia and two dozen others have all recognized Kosovo's sovereignty, representing, by one count, just more than half the world's GDP, and a majority of the members of NATO and the European Union.

But those figures obscure a central fact: while Kosovo has largely won its battle for recognition in Europe, Serbia is winning over the rest of the world. The vast majority of the United Nations' 192 members have withheld recognition, either by silence or explicit rejection. Brazil, China and India have all thus far refused to recognize the nascent nation, and Russia has not only rejected Kosovo's independence, but has become Serbia's proxy at the U.N. Security Council, vowing to veto any resolutions that would help clarify its status or grant Kosovo the ultimate symbol of sovereignty: a seat at the United Nations itself. Even some stalwart U.S. allies have rejected or remained silent on the Kosovo question, including Israel and Canada, as well as members of the European Union and NATO such as Spain, Cyprus and Slovakia.

Now, in a move that is virtually unprecedented in diplomatic history, Serbia is trying to reverse Kosovo's declaration of independence. At home, its leaders are threatening to retake Kosovo, stoking violence against the West with fiery rhetoric that echoes the former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Abroad, Serbian officials are recalling ambassadors from nations that recognize Kosovo and lobbying to stop further recognitions by insisting Kosovo's actions are an illegal and dangerous precedent. Last week, in a speech at the U.N. Security Council, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic urged nations that have already recognized Kosovo to "reconsider," and called upon those that have not "to stay the course."

So far, Serbia has been remarkably successful. While there's no magic number after which a country is considered truly sovereign, diplomats from the United States and Europe say Kosovo will acquire a critical mass after receiving recognition from somewhere between 50 and 100 countries. But as of mid-March, only 32 nations have recognized Kosovo, and though more may be forthcoming, the Serbian government expects a total of just 50 to sign on in the near future.
Countries have been slow to recognize for all sorts of reasons, including as a result of their own internal legal bureaucracies. Brazil, and to a certain extent India, are waiting for a critical mass of nations to form before going ahead themselves. Both countries want a seat at the U.N. Security Council but fear that getting too far ahead of the world on the Kosovo issue will antagonize Russia and China, both Security Council members with veto power. Islamic countries, noticeably slow to recognize a new Muslim nation, appear to be waiting for the nod from Saudi Arabia, which has thus far made no official statement on the matter.

But the numbers suggest countries the world over are also rejecting U.S. ideals of human rights, self-determination and what U.S. Sen. Joe Biden has called the "sacred trust between government and its people." For the United States, which declared its own independence after the people lost trust in King George, Kosovo's independence "upholds the ideal that people are entitled to govern themselves" when those people are minorities mistreated by their rulers, says Daniel Serwer, a former diplomat now at the United States Institute of Peace, a think tank.
To many nations, that American ideal looks self-defeating in a world of multiplying separatist movements. Spain, Cyprus and many others say they fear accepting Kosovo's sovereignty would establish a precedent for separatists in their own countries. Canadians have voiced similar concerns, though Canada has stopped short of rejecting Kosovo altogether. Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, argued recently that Kosovo's independence would be a "very good example for other parts of countries that are not happy with what is going on around them."

Kosovo argues that it has on its side the countries that truly matter-the United States and the biggest EU nations. But Vladimir Petrovic, temporary chargé d'affaires at the Serbian Embassy to the United States, points out that Kosovo is missing virtually all of Africa and Latin America. After all, he says, "there's not a single country in Africa that doesn't have some kind of minorities of different ethnic groups." Also in Serbia's camp is China, navigating its issues with Taiwan's longstanding quest for independence, and its belief that Kosovo is a European issue, with few links to Chinese economic or security interests.

Then there is Russia. Linked to Serbia by cultural and ethnic ties, an independent Kosovo poses a danger to its expansionist goals. Diplomats say Russia is trying to divide the United States from Europe, and regain the influence it lost in the Balkans during the 1990s, when Russian geopolitical power was at a low point. Russia has also used its support for Serbia's position on Kosovo as leverage to get a better deal from Belgrade on a natural-gas pipeline that Russian energy giant Gazprom wants to run from Russia through Serbia to the rest of Europe. Last month, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president-elect, was in Belgrade with the head of Gazprom to work out details of the pipeline deal, and to blast Kosovo's "illegal" declaration of independence.

Russian support gives Serbia a proxy vote in the U.N. Security Council, which prevents Kosovo from taking a seat at the United Nations. Yet this may be something of a Pyrrhic victory. While Serbia is tied to Russia, increasingly a pariah state, little will change for Kosovo. It can join the ranks of Taiwan and others with a quasi-official diplomatic status, backed and protected by the 32 (or possibly more) countries that ultimately recognize it. More crucially, this poor nation can have access to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. And notwithstanding the concerns of Spain and some other EU members, it will retain the support of NATO and the European Union in their ongoing mission there.

Much depends on how Serbia resolves its internal confusion. For most Serbs, the idea of giving up Kosovo is a nonstarter. Yet polls show that 70 percent of Serbs want to move closer to Europe, not to Russia or the big Asian powers. For now, however, that is the way the Serbs are moving: farther from the West, closer to the rest of the world.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/123449

Serious points about Kosovo's self declared independence hardly mentioned by others

2008-03-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

Friday, 29 February 2008
by Alan Jaksic

Kosovo's Albanian leaders have declared independence from Serbia. But what has happened since?

Albanians in the province-turned-self-declared-state celebrated it, along with fellow ethnics in Europe and America. Serbs in Kosovo, on the other hand, have demonstrated against it, along with their fellow ethnics in Serbia, Bosnia and elsewhere. Both reactions were to be expected, just not some of the actions we've seen, such as the burning of other countries' embassies in Belgrade.

Many countries in Europe - read, in the European Union (EU) - were keen to recognise Kosovo's independence from Serbia, convinced that it is the best solution for the province, as does America. (The EU, of course, has recently sent in EULEX to help form a new legislative infrastructure in Kosovo.) Russia opposes it, convinced that it could set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the world, and Spain within the EU opposes it, along with a few other EU countries, due to internal problems with separatists of their own.

Serbia doesn't want to recognise the self-declared republic of Kosovo; a large body of Serbs don't want to recognise it. And you know what? They don't have to. It's their right not to recognise it, just like it is the right of other countries like Albania and other private individuals around the world to do the opposite.

There are many problems with the unilateral declaration of independence, however peaceful and dignified the ceremony in Priština was. However, I want to share other reasons that I have never heard specifically mentioned by any one else. Maybe alluded to by others, but not explicitly and not with great focus.

But first of all, let me tell you what I think isn't the problem, or isn't just the problem. It's:

1. NOT Koštunica, and I have to say this, because there are people who are actually blaming him for the way Serbs in Kosovo and Belgrade have reacted to the declaration! At the recent rally in Belgrade, he gave a very patriotic, even nationalistic, speech against Kosovo's independence and separation from Serbia. But I can't take such an accusation seriously. You see, what these people are forgetting is that Vojislav Koštunica represents what many Serbs already think and feel about Kosovo and other issues without him having to mention anything openly. Those young men who attacked the embassies in Belgrade might have felt encouraged to do so by the rally, which was attended by hundreds of thousands of people, if not a million, and many famous people from Serbia and neighbouring countries spoke there - not just Koštunica. But Vojislav himself can't be held personally responsible for such vandalism. (By the way, I don't agree with many of Dr. Vojislav Koštunica's views; some of them are just not impractical and thus, not helpful/beneficial for Serbia.) Also it's

2. NOT JUST Milošević, who, as we know, caused a lot of the modern-day problems that the people of Kosovo face, both Serbian and Albanian though in different ways and for the other minorities. And of course,

3. it's NOT about "Greater Albania", even if some Albanians want it! (Actually, Kosovo Albanians prefer the independent state option and no doubt Albanians in Albania do as well, presumeably seeing such a state as a "natural ally" in the region.)

This issue is, of course, a statist issue: specifically, a region within a state has declared independence from the mother state, which in turn doesn't recognise its declaration nor its new-found existence. Being an anarchist, I don't believe in the concept of states. In fact, because of what is happening with Kosovo, my belief in the anti-state principles of Anarchism is that much justified.

For me, the problems in Kosovo between Serbs and Albanians, which I hardly hear anyone mention are these three things:

1. Lack of TRUST;
2. Lack of INTER-ETHNIC DIALOGUE. And hence,
3. Lack of INTER-COMMUNAL UNDERSTANDING.

Kosovo Albanians have wanted independence for a long time, and no doubt with even greater determination since the Kosovo war that ended almost ten years ago in 1999. Because of the recent events in history, and also before, they don't want to be part of Serbia any more. Kosovo Albanians don't trust Serbia, which is, considering the history, understandable. But what doesn't seem to occur to many of them and even other people (!) - or at least I haven't seen that it substantially has - is that Kosovo Serbs don't trust them, i.e. Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo governmental institutions.

The distrust that Kosovo Serbs have for Kosovo Albanians has existed for a very long time. Even during Tito's Yugoslavia, there was, let's just say, nowhere near as much social cohesion - read, "Brotherhood & Unity" (Bratstvo i Jedinstvo) - between them as there was between Serbs, Croats and Muslims in Bosnia, where there were plenty of mixed marriages.

And just to set the record staright, it wasn't Milošević who created this distrust that Kosovo Serbs feel for Kosovo Albanians; he infamously utilised it! (Remember "Niko ne sme da vas bije" and the revocation of Kosovo's autonomy? There you go.) And neither did Koštunica create it; he just doesn't have either the ability or the will or both of which to remedy such sentiment.

And so, Kosovo Albanians have declared independence for Kosovo without truly and meaningfully securing the trust of Kosovo Serbs. That is really amazing. I don't know whether they know how to encourage Kosovo Serbs to trust them or whether they even want to. But it's amazing how even now that Kosovo Albanians have declared independence, Kosovo Serbs still look to Belgrade. And although it is true that Dr. Vojislav Koštunica and others have discouraged Serbs in the region from participating in Kosovo institutions lest they tacitly recognise its independence and separation from Serbia, I repeat that he is NOT to blame for the distrust that Kosovo Serbs feel and have felt for a very long time for Kosovo Albanians and institutions run by them. Period.

And this is where the second problem I mentioned above has prolonged this problem.
A major problem that no-one seems to have considered (!) is the utter lack of inter-ethnic dialogue between Serbs and Albanians. Sure, Kosovo Albanian leaders and Serbian leaders from Belgrade have done many rounds of negotiation regarding the future status of Kosovo over the past few years. It's good that there was even that kind of dialogue! But what about dialogue between ordinary Kosovo Serbs and Albanians, the civilian populaton? Hmm?

Even in Israel/Palestine, further southeast of the Balkans, there is some form of interethnic relations between Jews and Arabs in the heart of the Middle East, while virtually nothing - NOTHING - of the sort can be said for Serbs and Albanians in southern Europe! Indeed, for many Serbs and Albanians, Serbo-Albanian relations don't even exist.

And so I ask myself, are Serbs and Albanians not ashamed of themselves? Israelis and Palestinians who live on the centuries disputed Holy Land have better relations with one another than Serbs and Albanians who live in the heart of southeastern Europe! Israelis and Palestinians get on much better with one another than Serbs and Albanians!!!

Many Serbs view the Albanians of Kosovo as a completely "alien" group of people, no better than "interlopers", even though the overwhelming majority of them have ancestors who lived in the region going back hundreds of years. On the other hand, Albanians look at Serbs from Kosovo as somehow eternally "influenced by Belgrade", even when they are expressing deeply rooted fears that they have felt throughout their lives living there.

(Oh, it's easy to blame Serbian leaders from Belgrade for such sentiments Kosovo Serbs harbor! But actually, dear readers, such attitude is highly short-sighted and grossly ignorant.)

As you've seen on the news, Kosovo Serbs wave Serbian flags, proclaiming "Kosovo is Serbia!", and most importantly, they wholeheartedly reject the independence of Kosovo that other countries perhaps blindly recognise, and make it clear that Kosovo is still territorially part of Serbia and that they recognise no separation from Serbia. Kosovo Albanians wave Albanian flags and flags of other countries, proudly proclaiming "Kosova is free!", and no longer consider their towns and villages to be part of Serbia (of course, they haven't done so for a long time).

I saw the rally in Belgrade, Serbia, attended by hundreds of thousands of Serbs, maybe even a million, voicing loudly their great opposition to Kosovo independence. In Priština, Albanians were dancing and singing on the streets and scribbling on the newly erected "New Born" sculpture.
These two people just don't talk to one another! And when they do, they're just rude and abusive to one another, and such dialogue can never be described as "civilised". Serbs relate the things they know, heard of, believe and feel about Kosovo, and are bewildered by what Albanians recount to them; and Albanians are likewise bewildered at what Serbs tell them, and share with them what they know, heard of, believe and feel. Rudeness, abuse, inconsideration and ignorance abound, and they are seen on and come from both sides. There is therefore a lack of basic understanding between the two, or like I mentioned above, lack of inter-communal understanding.

Kosovo Serbs don't understand why Kosovo Albanians don't feel safe under Belgrade and Serbia; while Kosovo Albanians, and perhaps other countries, don't understand why Kosovo Serbs feel that only under Serbian sovereignty and Belgrade can they feel safe.

And yet, should you try to explain to the other side what they other side thinks, there is sheer dismissal from both sides; the other side is either deluded or just tells lies. No compassion and no understanding. Appalling.

So along with distrust, there is a lot of contempt as well: Albanians have a lot of contempt for Serbs, based on their own historical experience; and likewise, Serbs have contempt for Albanians, but not based on the same historical experience.

I'm not going to beat around the bush. I have never supported Kosovo independence before, and now that its Albanian leaders have declared it, not to mention unilaterally (which means without either the consent of or based on any agreement with Belgrade), I can truly see how it is in no way the solution to the above-mentioned problems.

In my opinion, only one country can give the self-declared republic any legitimacy, and that's Serbia. Not America or the EU, and certainly not Albania or the Turkish Republic of Cyprus! It's Serbia's inherent right as a state to either accept or reject the secession of a region within its sovereign territory, without being pressured either way.

The only true solution to the Kosovo issue is not for Priština or Brussels to force Kosovo Serbs and Belgrade to accept the self-declared independence, or God forbid another war, but inter-ethnic dialogue between the Serbian and Albanian people, through which the two people can raise their concerns to one another in a civilised and non-abusive manner. Everything that could be helpful and prove beneficial for both peoples, will come from that.

----------------------------------------
Of course, it would be better if there were NO states on the planet and hence no borders. But even I acknowledge that we don't live in such a world.

We are dealing with people's emotions here, you know. I have seen so many times how national pride is something so strongly linked - inextricably so - to one's own sense of personal dignity. So let us bear that in mind when dealing with Kosovo and other issues throughout the war-torn Western Balkans, the former Yugoslavia.

http://balkan-anarchist.blogspot.com/

Nothing better than love and service, Universally speaking, I win in the long run

2008-03-22T00:14:00.000-07:00

March 21, 2008
by Ed Alexander

Political protests at sporting events are nothing new, and moreover they should in general be welcome so long as they are made in good faith. They help to show the very importance of sport, namely that it is more than just sport. One does not have to necessarily agree with the message being made, but one must respect the bravery and awareness of those individuals who make them. In a world in which we regularly hear about overpaid athletes living in bubbles of luxury it is encouraging to see that some still remember that they have the potential to speak for their people.

This was the case when Serbian swimmer Milorad Cavic took to the rostrum to celebrate his victory in the 50m butterfly-stroke at the European Championships in Eindhoven. Draped in a Serbian flag and wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Kosvo is Serbia”, Cavic will no doubt have angered both Albanian ultra-nationalists and grey-suited officials from FINA, the sport’s governing body. Many of us who firmly support Kosovo’s independence will have paradoxically supported Cavic’s protest though, seeing in it an expression of the democratic right of the individual to speak his mind. When so many athletes concern themselves solely with wearing branded sportswear advertising their latest commercial endorsement, Cavic has shown that some athletes are still proud to represent their people and that sport, along with other mediums such as theatre and art, remains one of the most vital bastions of the defense of public interest when we become disillusioned with politics. Cavic has been banned for the remainder of the European Championships, meaning that he will miss out on the 100m Butterfly-stroke event, a decision which surely reflects poorly on FINA since the winner will never know whether he was the best or whether Cavic would have beaten him.Whilst avoiding cliché, it seems that now is the time to bring up Voltaire’s much used soundbite: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it!

Sport is adored by the masses worldwide. One need only look back to great sporting statements, such as Jesse Owen’s success in the Nazi Olympics of 1936 or the black power salutes made by John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Olympics, to see that sport is not, and never should be, viewed outside the context of politics. If an individual feels that he can make an influence, or at least show solidarity to his people, then it is in many respects his responsibility to do so. A good deal of rational and sane Serbs do not wish for Kosovo to be separated from Serbia, and it is for these people that Cavic speaks, not for the violent and thuggish protesters who harm their own cause through their ignorance.

In a global context, the responsibility of athletes to make a political stand is all the more relevant as the Beijing Olympics approaches. The deaths of protesters has not gone unnoticed but now it is time for World Class Olympians to show their solidarity with the people of Tibet. Chinese officials will not be impressed, and it is likely that the national sporting federations of the athletes might not back them either, but now is not the time to listen to bureaucrats, now is time for sport to speak to the people.

Balkan Baby blog

European Union - the betrayal of elites: A Political trap where the EU has fallen: Challenges, Errors and Solutions

2008-03-21T00:58:00.000-07:00

by Franck Biancheri
Thursday, 13 March 2008

One must be honest. By letting Kosovo go ahead with its declaration of independence, the European Union has fallen into a major political trap which will weigh on its internal and external policies for many years. This trap is documented for years[1]. It was obvious to most observers. Nevertheless, our EU elites, once again, acted in a way which betrayed the EU's common interest, in order to satisfy either their short term national interests or their foreign masters’ (in that case, essentially Washington).

Until an EU political leadership is able to project a crystal-clear vision for the accession of all the Balkan countries still out of the EU, the Europeans will be trapped into both the internal consequences of the Kosovo's declaration of independence (strengthening the move towards independence on the part of several regions within the EU member states, growing financial and diplomatic costs of peace operations in an increasingly unstable region, speeding up organized-crime development throughout the EU using the Balkan as a privileged hub…); and its external consequences (USA and Russia's permanent interferences, Turkey and other Muslim countries meddling with the region’s affairs…).

And these factors will make it even more complicated for the EU to develop any consistent policy regarding the integration of the whole Balkans into the EU. Just to underline how inconsistent the EU is on this issue, one can contemplate two facts:. for Bosnia, the EU says that it is important to compell several cultural groups to live together into a single state. for Kosovo, the EU says that it is legitimate for a cultural group to make secession from an existing state.

If it was not so dramatic, such an arbitrary behaviour disguised under the appearance of international law, would be laughable.

In short, EU elites have once again chosen a path which leads to more problems for the future and to a weaker EU[2]. Once again, our current so-called 'leaders' are shelving problems to be solved by the next generation of EU leaders.

Well, we are this 'next generation' and we really are fed up by such a level of incompetence, lack of will and irrelevance of today's EU elites.

Therefore, in order to give a flavour of what tomorrow will bring once we take in charge the EU affairs, let's put a few things straight:

1. Kosovo's independence is an illusion which will not go through the next decade. The political and historic trends which are at play in the region will end up in the breakdown of Kosovo as well as Bosnia into several regional entities which will be attached to Serbia, Albania and Croatia, with a wide-ranging autonomous status. The only key reason why Kosovo is able to claim its independence today is the USA. In the coming 10 years, the USA will no longer be in a position to play any significant political role within the EU territory. So, without its « creator's force » to support the existence of an independent Kosovo, Kosovars will have to follow the path to EU integration.
2. Kosovo, Bosnia, and all these issues are directly related to the EU integration process. The so-called 'forces for independence' of what used to be mere provinces (not even republics) of former Yugoslavia are essentially a grouping of non European interests (American, Russian, Turk, ... interests) and of local and international mafia groups. One of the key common interests of these players is to keep the region as fragmented as possible, out of the EU’s legal framework and preveting the younger generations of the region to pave a way towards democracy and European integration.
3. When Newropeans will be in the European Parliament in 2009, we will push forward the « Balkans 2014 Agenda : Closing a Century of European Civil Wars », calling for a crystal-clear accession process for the region[3]. As previously presented in this magazine, it will focus the process on a major celebration, in July 2014, in Sarajevo, called « Closing a Century of European Civil Wars », which should also mark the crucial moment for the accession of the Balkans to the EU. Some countries will join already in 2014, others will only start officially their accession negotiations then, but in any case, all countries in the region will be embarked in the EU process on that date. A trans-European referendum on the Balkans accession will be organized the same year within the EU.
4. A special focus should now be given to Albania which is being currently transformed into a mix of a US army aircraft carrier and a major mafia hub on European soil. The EU should put an emphasis on Albania with the objective to have it ready to embark on an accession process in 2014 while being ready to integrate the autonomous region of Kosovo at the same time. Albanian infrastructures, education, justice, ... have to be upgraded to the average level of the whole region by 2014. It is time for the EU to acknowledge the fact that Albania will be part of the EU in the next decade and that it holds a major key of the region's stabilization. So that it has to become an EU priority in the region, and not a 'left-over' as it has now been for more than a decade.
5. A slow but efficient process of reshaping the Serb-, Albanian- and Croatian-speaking regions of Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo should be started by the end of this decade. By using only a fraction of the vast amount of money which this region costs to the EU and member states’ budgets every year, a 'relocation fund' will be created in order to generously sponsor the relocation of families in order to create more homogeneous political entities : 100,000 euros per family accepting to relocate in the first year of the 5 years relocation scheme, 75,000 euros per family if they wait for the second year, 50,000 euros only if they move in the third year, 10,000 Euros afterwards.

If such a policy sounds too bold, too politically incorrect to you, then, don't vote for Newropeans in June 2009. But if on the contrary, you think that it is more than time that a real leadership emerges on the EU level, capable of tackling complex challenges such as these ones in an innovative way, with a truly common European vision and a bottom-line taking in consideration people's interests instead of the various mafias and non EU-vested interests, then Newropeans is the right political choice for you.

Franck Biancheri
President of Newropeans
Cannes - France (03/03/2008)

[1] In this very magazine, for instance, which is widely read among political circles, we have been explaining for years why the independence of Kosovo was neither in the interest of the EU nor in the interest of the Balkan's populations (Kosovars included). >> Read: Kosovo - The "Balkanic Road to the EU"

[2] As they already did with the refusal to hold referenda on the new EU treaty or with the refusal to put clearly Turkey in front of a decent offer of 'strategic partnership' rather than the illusory future accession. By the way, it is more than amazing to see that many EU leaders claim to be willing to listen at the 'Kosovo's people voice' when they refuse to listen at their own people's voice when it comes to EU treaty's ratification.

[3] This policy proposal will be discussed in details and proposed for adoption by Newropeans members by Spring 2008.

Kosovo as close as East Timor

2008-03-21T00:16:00.001-07:00

Serbia PM Slams Kosovo Military Aid

2008-03-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

20 March 2008 Belgrade _ Serbia’s caretaker prime minister described a decision by the United States' President to send military aid to Kosovo as 'utterly wrong' and aimed at creating a NATO puppet state in the region.

"This is the latest and 'utterly wrong' U.S. move that came after illegal recognition of Kosovo’s unilaterally declared independence,” Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said in an interview with the Vecernje Novosti daily.

In a presidential statement posted on the White House’s official Web site late Wednesday, Bush said Kosovo was eligible “to receive defence articles and defence services under the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act.”

In his decree, Bush said military assistance to Kosovo "will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace."

Although its constitution envisions so, Kosovo does not yet have a standing army. The Kosovo Protection Corps, a civilian defence organization that emerged from the now-defunct Kosovo Liberation Army, should serve as an embryo for the future military, according to the blueprint for Kosovo's 'supervised independence' devised by UN Special envoy, Martti Ahtisaari. The territory maintains its police force which is under United Nations control.

In excerpts from the interview that will be published on Friday, Kostunica said that “there are too many weapons in Kosovo.”

Kostunica, a conservative politician is bitterly opposed to the U.S. policy of recognising and aiding Kosovo after it declared independence on February 17.

With the backing of key ally Russia, Serbia, which considers Kosovo as the heartland of its Orthodox Christian civilisation is trying to block territory’s access to the United Nations and other international organizations.

Ljubodrag Stojadinovic, a columnist with Belgrade's Politika daily and former military spokesman said "such a move indicates that Washington is ready to throw all of its weight" behind Kosovo.

"Americans are more concrete in backing their Kosovo Albanian allies than Russians who are supporting Serbia only verbally," he said.

A total of 33 countries, including leading Western powers have recognised Kosovo’s independence so far, prompting Serbia to protest and to pull out ambassadors from respective capitals for consultations.

The recognition of Kosovo by the U.S. and the West angered Serbs and many embassies were attacked in the February 21 riots in Belgrade.

“Instead of arming (Kosovo) Albanians, the U.S. should revert to adherence of the international law and the UN charter. Kosovo does not need new weapons but new negotiations” over its status, Kostunica said.

Serbia’s outgoing premier whose Cabinet collapsed on March 13 over disagreements about European integration with pro-Western coalition partners loyal to President Boris Tadic said “the American decision is only confirming implementation of a dangerous plan of creating a NATO puppet state in the world.”

"American authorities must know that the Serbian people are dismayed over the policy of force the U.S. is pursuing in its relations with Serbia. Our duty is to fight for the right and justice that belong to Serbia and to win either today or tomorrow,” Kostunica said.

In 1999 the U.S. administration under President Bill Clinton, led the NATO bombing of the now defunct two-republic Yugoslavia in an attempt to oust Serbian troops from Kosovo, then Serbia’s southern province and end their crackdown on ethnic Albanian rebels.

The U.S. currently maintains a 1456-strong military presence in Kosovo and the Bondsteel military base, as part of NATO’s KFOR peacekeeping contingent.

Serb Minister: UN Wants Wider Conflict

2008-03-21T00:07:00.000-07:00

20 March 2008 Belgrade _ Serbia has evidence that UN intervention against Serbs in north Mitrovica this week, was aimed at sparking a wider conflict, a top-ranking Serbian official has alleged.

“We have evidence so an investigation that must follow, we have TV footage, bullets extracted from wounded people, casings from sniper rifles that were targeting Serbs,” Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia’s Minister for Kosovo, said in an interview with the Vecernje Novosti daily published on Thursday.

Samardzic, a key ally of conservative Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica sought to defend Serbs from Mitrovica saying they were provoked by “the brutality of United Nations police troops.”

“We have evidence that someone wanted to provoke conflict and introduce martial law in Kosovo,” he said.

One Ukrainian policeman serving with the UN in Kosovo died in riots Monday which erupted after international troops raided a local court in northern part of Mitrovica taken over by local Serbs last week.

Two civilians remained hospitalised and in serious condition, while at least 150 people, civilians, UN police and NATO peacekeepers were injured.

UN authorities in Kosovo launched an investigation into the incident. They also accused Serbia of having a covert presence of its police in Mitrovica court, something denied by the government in Belgrade.

Serbia has also demanded a separate probe by the UN Security Council over alleged excessive use of force by international troops.

Samardzic’s remarks came amid election campaign for the May 11 general elections which will pit conservatives loyal to Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and nationalists of the Serbian Radical Party against a pro-Western bloc led by the Democratic Party of the country’s President Boris Tadic.

Samardzic dismissed Tadic's repeated claims that Serbia can only defend Kosovo as its constituent part only if it joins the European Union as “a post-modern fairy tale and a lullaby for the people.”

“It is fiction. Even without Kosovo (as an ongoing crisis) … we could not become a (European Union) member within a decade,” he said.

Earlier this week, Tadic’s loyalists lashed out at Samardzic accusing him of having a role in instigating violence in Kosovo’s north.

BalkanInsight.com 2008

Macedonia Divided over Kosovo

2008-03-21T00:05:00.000-07:00

20 March 2008 Skopje _ Almost half of the people in Macedonia oppose the recognition of their northern neighbour Kosovo,an opinion poll by a local non-governmental organisation shows.

Of the people surveyed, 45% answered negatively while 36% approved when asked whether Macedonia should recognize Kosovo’s independence, the Centre for Research and Policy Making, CRPM said.

The other 19% answered either that they are indifferent or that they do not have an opinion.

Macedonian Albanians represent around one quarter of the overall population and had a much stronger opinion regarding recognition with 95% of ethnic Albanians surveyed saying they want to see Kosovo recognised by Skopje.

However 60% of ethnic Macedonians are against recognition.

A slight majority of people, 55%, think that the mutual border should be marked first if Macedonia is to recognise the newly declared state.

Skopje’s border with Kosovo has been left unmarked for years due to an earlier dispute between Pristina and Belgrade over who has jurisdiction over Kosovo's boundaries.

The CRPM poll also shows divided opinion over regional security with nearly 28% believing that security will be increased with Kosovo’s recognition while 25% say it will worsen. The rest of those surveyed answered either that it will remain the same or that they do not know.

The poll was made by telephone on a sample of 1100 people, CRPM said.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in mid February. Macedonia has not yet recognized the newly emerged state in part due to fear of retribution by Belgrade since its economy is closely linked to the country.

BalkanInsight.com 2008

Kosovo Welcomes US Military Aid

2008-03-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

20 March 2008 Pristina _ Kosovo's leaders welcomed a decision by the United States' President to send military aid to the territory but refused to reveal what kind of weapons they will be supplied with.

Both President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci said the U.S. military assistance is an important milestone in the new history of Kosovo but refrained from explaining what weapons Kosovo will have.

“The cooperation between the U.S. and Kosovo has not ended with independence,” Sejdiu told media, adding “it will continue in the future”.

Thaci, also greeted the U.S. decision but did not specify from when the military aid will arrive in Kosovo.

Under the blueprint devised by Martti Ahtisaari, the former United Nations special envoy who drew up the plans for Kosovo's 'supervised independence,' the current Kosovo Protection Corp is to be transformed into a new army-like Security Force for Kosovo.

The Kosovo Protection Corp is a civilian defence organization that emerged from the now-defunct Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought against Serb forces in the 1998-1999 conflict. The Corps is now a multi-ethnic entity and only acts as a civil force in cases of natural disasters or similar.

The new security force will be regulated by Kosovo's new constitution which is expected to be passed by the beginning of April.

Late on Wednesday, U.S. President George Bush authorised military assistance to the government in Pristina in a move that cemented the determination of the United States to back newly-independent Kosovo.

In a presidential statement posted on the White House’s official Web site, Bush said Kosovo was eligible “to receive defence articles and defence services under the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act.”

In his decree, Bush said military assistance to Kosovo "will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace."

The United States was among the first countries to recognise Kosovo after its February 17 declaration of independence. A total of 33 countries worldwide, including top Western powers and Serbia’s neighbours, Hungary and Croatia have also recognised the government in Pristina.

The U.S. currently maintains a 1456-strong military presence in Kosovo and the Bondsteel military base, as part of NATO’s KFOR peacekeeping contingent.

Serbia angered as neighbours recognise Kosovo

2008-03-20T23:45:00.000-07:00

Thursday, 20 March, 2008

Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary have formerly recognised newly independent Kosovo in a joint move that has infuriated Serbia, which responded by recalling its ambassadors to Zagreb and Budapest.

In a joint statement, the three regional neighbours -- which all have borders with Serbia -- declared that their decision to recognise Kosovo as a sovereign nation was "based on thorough consideration".

It brought to 32 the number of countries worldwide that recognise Kosovo's independence -- unilaterally declared on February 17 by the parliament of the predominantly ethnic Albanian territory that had been a province of Serbia.

But it also dealt a blow to Serbia's firm opposition to Kosovo's independence, and in addition put strains on relations with Croatia, which like Serbia had been part of the former Yugoslavia.

Ambassadors recalled

Making good on its warning that relations would suffer, Belgrade swiftly recalled its ambassadors to Zagreb and Budapest for consultations.

In a statement in Belgrade, Serbian foreign ministry said the ambassadors -- Radivoj Cveticanin in Croatia and Predrag Cudic in Hungary -- should leave their host countries in the next 48 hours.

It added that a protest note had also been fired off to Monaco, the latest country to recognise Kosovo.

Unrest in Mitrovica

Wednesday's developments came just two days after the worst violence in Kosovo since independence, in which a UN police officer was killed and more than 150 people hurt in clashes in the divided Kosovo city of Mitrovica.

Many Serbs regard Kosovo as the cradle of their Orthodox faith, culture and identity, but how to respond to independence has triggered a political crisis in Belgrade, prompting elections to be called for May 11.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, speaking on Wednesday to Croatian television, welcomed the nod from Sofia, Zagred and Budapest, saying: "We are very satisfied that we have been finally recognised by ... our friends."

In a statement, the Croatian government said it "accepted" Kosovo's independence -- prompting deputy prime minister Slobodan Uzelac, who represents the country's Serb minority, to tender his resignation in protest.

Croatia went on to underline its "readiness to continue developing universal and intensive relations with Serbia".

"Ties between the countries in the region are of special importance and their lasting stability remains an irreplaceable factor of peace and security in Europe," it said.

Slovenia was the first former Yugoslav republic to recognise Kosovo, but Croatia's move is more sensitive, as it threatened to harm delicate post-war ties between the two neighbours.

Serbian President Boris Tadic had already stated that recognising Kosovo would have an "immediate impact on our bilateral ties".

In its statement, Hungary called on Belgrade to ensure the safety of 350,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Vojvodina, a Serbian province where the minority group has been targeted in the past by Serb nationalists.

Serbia's neighbours act on Kosovo

2008-03-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

By Nick Thorpe
BBC News, Kosovo

The recognition of Kosovo by Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria comes at a crucial moment.

Serbian diplomats and their Russian allies have tirelessly argued that the independence of Kosovo undermines the stability of the Balkans.

Those who back independence, led by the United States, Britain, Germany and France, argue that it serves stability; that the last loose piece of the Balkan jigsaw has now been pushed into place.

As Serbia's neighbours, Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria have shown that they accept the latter argument.

"Ties between the countries in the region are of special importance and their lasting stability remains an irreplaceable factor of peace and security in Europe," the Croatian government said in a statement on Wednesday.

Hungary's recognition of Kosovo was taken with a heavy heart

The first country to leave the old Yugoslavia, Slovenia, which will hold the presidency of the EU until July, was among the first countries to recognise independence.

Croatia, at war with Serbia in 1991-92 and again in 1995, has worked hard to repair ties with Serbia.

Trade has grown rapidly, and reached $1bn in 2007. But Zagreb preferred to risk Serbia's ire, than live comfortably and ignore Kosovo.

SERBIA AND ITS NEIGHBOURS

Croatian President Stipe Mesic, himself a former Yugoslav leader, even identified with Kosovo in his statements after Croatia's recognition of Kosovo was made public. He compared Pristina's need for international recognition today, with Zagreb's need for recognition in 1991.

Another important factor which may have influenced Croatia's step is the forthcoming Nato summit in Bucharest in April.

Croatia, along with Albania and Macedonia, is hoping to receive an invitation in the Romanian capital to join the military alliance.

The US, as Kosovo's most powerful backer, has been urging all countries to recognise Kosovo. Anyone who wants to please the US today must follow that line.

Fears in Budapest

Hungary's recognition of Kosovo was taken with a heavy heart. Some 280,000 ethnic Hungarians live in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina.

They have been the target of isolated but persistent attacks over the years: mostly physical assault and abuse by young Serbs, displaced from their homes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo by the conflicts of the 1990s.

And fears have been expressed in the past weeks in the Hungarian media that recognition of Kosovo by Budapest could spark more attacks.

With the influx of Serb refugees in Vojvodina has come a growing strength for the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party.

One Radical Party deputy suggested in recent days that ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina might again be targeted.

His comments were angrily rounded on by ethnic Hungarian leaders. But the real test for the Hungarian minority in Serbia has already passed.

In March 1999 Hungary joined Nato. Ten days later, Nato began bombing Serbia, using Hungarian facilities and airspace.

As ethnic Hungarians queued to enter air-raid shelters in Novi Sad and other Serbian cities, their Serb neighbours asked why they didn't "go home".

The ethnic Hungarians insisted that their first loyalty was to Serbia. Some 50 young ethnic Hungarian conscripts died in Yugoslav army uniforms, fighting for Belgrade on the battlefronts in Croatia and Kosovo.

Bulgarian loyalties

Bulgaria's decision to recognise Kosovo is painful for Serbia in a different way. As a predominantly Christian Orthodox country, it has a long history of friendship with Belgrade.

The two countries are also co-operating with Russia, with new gas pipelines across their territories, which will help Russia consolidate its increasingly important role in energy supplies to the whole of Europe.

Apart from pleasing the US, Bulgaria's leaders may also have decided that Russian influence in the Balkans is growing alarmingly.

And as a Nato member, Sofia wants to show where its own, first loyalties lie.

There is a rather 19th Century feeling in the Balkans today - small countries, choosing allies carefully, in a strategic battle between the Great Powers.

Blood: Serbs & UN Clash in Kosovo

2008-03-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

March 20, 2008
By Nebojsa Malic
in antiwar.com

Four years ago this week, Kosovo burned; tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians – armed, organized and determined – systematically went after the province's Serbs. They burned churches and monasteries, destroyed entire villages, and drove over four thousand people out of their homes. NATO troops occupying the province cowered before the rampage, with a few honorable exceptions. Claiming their responsibility was to protect "people, not property," they would evacuate the Serbs, and then watch their villages and churches burn. The pogrom lasted for four days; only when American troops were brought out to protect a Serb enclave did the Albanians stop.

Four years hence, none of the 30,000 Albanians involved in the pogrom has faced any sort of legal sanction. Quite the contrary, their three-day rampage across the province, compared to "Kristallnacht," became a justification for giving Kosovo to the Albanians as an "independent" state: March 17, 2004 led directly to February 17, 2008.

The very same Western media that willingly cheered on the NATO invasion and occupation of the Serbian province in 1999, reported on the pogrom in a downright shameful manner. Organized attacks on Serb civilians became "clashes" and "violence"; many also accepted as fact the blood libel presented at the start of the pogrom, that Serbs had caused the drowning of Albanian children in the Ibar river. (It later emerged that the drowning story originated from a professional KLA propagandist, Halit Barani.) Testifying both to the awesome power of deceit and the almost limitless gullibility of the public, the media blitz that followed the pogrom completely shifted perspectives, proclaiming Albanians the victims – of Western neglect and frustration. Far from revealing the truth about Kosovo, the pogrom was used to edify the lie; efforts that culminated in the declaration of dependence last month can be traced directly to the policy offensive in the aftermath of March 2004.

The Anniversary Raid

Given all this, it is entirely possible that those who ordered the heavily armed UN police and KFOR troops to storm a courthouse in Kosovska Mitrovica, in the early hours of March 17 this week, did not know it was the anniversary of the 2004 pogrom. Had they known, they would not have been surprised at what happened next.

The courthouse in question was the site of a protest by Serb judges, forced out by the NATO/KLA occupation in 1999, who wanted their jobs and lives back. It was supported by the local community as another way of civil disobedience to the KLA regime and its NATO/UNMIK enablers. Yet to the occupiers of Kosovo, this was "occupation" and usurpation of UN authority – so they sent in the troops.

They were met by a hailstorm of rocks and Molotov cocktails by Serb protesters, who gathered to stop the raid. Clashes lasted for almost five hours, until the UN withdrew from the city, leaving it under de facto martial law. Belgrade daily Politika mentions 70 Serbs were injured, 15 of them seriously (one was comatose after being shot in the head). On the UN/KFOR side, there were 63 injured, 48 of which were police. Western reports confirmed Politika's numbers of UN casualties, but made no mention of Serbs whatsoever. Early on Wednesday, it was reported that one Ukrainian police officer had died from his injuries.

UNMIK's spokesman claimed that the raid had "no alternative," because there were "credible reports" another UN building was about to be "occupied." If the objective of the raid was to demonstrate force and "liberate" the courthouse from Serbian judges, 1999-style, then it failed miserably; the UN is out of Mitrovica, and the seized judges have all been released.

Malice, not Error

On the surface, it sounds like something one would expect from the UN: an ill-timed and bungled police action that accomplished precisely the opposite of its goal, leaving death and injury in its wake. However, malice, rather than incompetence, seems to be a more likely explanation.

The province's American deputy viceroy wasted no time in claiming some grand conspiracy from Belgrade was at work. Deputy head of UNMIK Larry Rossin told the press in Pristina that it was "clear" to him that the violence was "orchestrated." Then he turned around and accused Belgrade of not controlling the Serbs in Kosovo. Serbia's "interventions or lack of interventions with those who are causing these problems" was hindering UN operations, he said.

Behold, the pinnacle of nation building and social engineering: an American deputy viceroy who fails at elementary logic. But no matter – what's important is that Serbs are to blame, no matter what they do (or do not). Thus has it been in Kosovo since 1998.

Any observer capable of reasoning would find it hard to believe that Belgrade is orchestrating anything; the government has just fallen, and there is much confusion and disagreement on whether to defend Kosovo at all, let alone how. Kosovo waters are so murky that speculation about a secret Serbian "partition plan" has been reported as fact.

It is interesting to note that KFOR commander Lt. Gen. Xavier de Marnhac claimed his troops used "appropriate force," and threatened the Serbs with more of it. De Marnhac, by the way, is best known for stating back in November 2007 that, because the Albanians had so many more children than the Serbs, "there will be some kind of biological end to the problem" because "one of the population(s) will simply disappear." (emphasis added)

One is tempted to ask whether De Marnhac and his superiors intend to hasten that "biological end." Unable to conquer the Serbs, who continue to refuse the fabricated and imposed "reality" that Kosovo is now an Albanian state, the Empire is now attempting to cast them as "occupiers" and aggressors in their own country. It's been done before, in Croatia and Bosnia, with horrific results.

Litmus Test

Meanwhile, Canada and Japan joined the still short list of countries that recognize the Kosovo abomination as an independent state. Canada's foreign minister, Maxime Bernier, hastened to add this was not by any means a precedent for anything. It remains to be seen whether his fellow Quebecois agree. His Japanese counterpart Masahiko Komura expressed hope the recognition would stabilize the region and not hurt the "traditional friendship" of Japan and Serbia. Yet that is precisely what is not going to happen.

Canada's Bernier also claimed that recognizing the Albanian quasi-state meant joining "the international community." For years, the Empire in the Balkans used this vacuous expression to lend itself legitimacy; it wasn't the UN, or NATO, or a group of countries acting arbitrarily and against all rules, but the "international community" that bombed, embargoed and held sham negotiations to impose ultimatums. Apparently, the willingness and ability to obey Washington's every whim is the chief criterion to belonging to this "community," which is in no way, shape or form "reality-based."

Whether its architects planned this or not, Kosovo has become a litmus test for the world. By recognizing Kosovo, governments the world over can show whether they want to hitch their horse to the Empire's wobbling cart. While the choice of Canada and Japan is regrettable, the Empire and its satellites are still a very small minority. Washington's moment of triumph is shaping up to be anything but.

Kosovo recognition has no bearing on Quebec, PM says

2008-03-20T01:37:00.000-07:00

By INGRID PERITZ
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
March 19, 2008 at 9:07 PM EDT

MONTREAL — Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his government's recognition of an independent Kosovo yesterday even as sovereigntists in Quebec celebrated the move as a precedent-setting boost for their movement.

A day after his government officially recognized the onetime Serbian province, Mr. Harper insisted Kosovo was a "unique" case that had no bearing on Quebec.

"It's a completely different situation from the democratic debate in Canada and Quebec," Mr. Harper told reporters in London, Ont.

He said war and suffering by the Kosovars prompted the international community to intervene and eventually led to a "de facto separate state."

Quebeckers, meanwhile, are tired of debates and referendums on independence, the Prime Minister said. "They want to get on with building a strong Quebec within a strong Canada."

The Parti Québécois has seized on Ottawa's move as evidence Canada was prepared to recognize a newborn state that achieved independence over the objections of the country it left.

In an interview, former PQ premier Bernard Landry said that despite major differences with Quebec, Kosovo illustrates "that the right of nations to independence is a sacred thing."

"Canada, as tradition dictates, did what it had to do," he said. "How could it recognize Kosovo … and say it will not recognize the independence of Quebec?

"The right of Quebec to independence is clear, and when it's democratically decided, Canada will recognize it, because Canada is a great democracy."

Ottawa has tiptoed around Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia, waiting a month before following the leads of allies such as the United States.

Serbia responded to Canada's nod yesterday by temporarily recalling its ambassador, who warned that Ottawa's decision would buoy Quebec secessionists seeking to unilaterally declare independence.

Both sovereigntists and federalists in Quebec underscored important differences between Quebec and Kosovo, which was marred by conflict and ethnic cleansing in the wake of the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Liberal Premier Jean Charest refused to draw parallels.

"The situation in Kosovo is not at all the same as what we have here in Quebec," he said in Quebec City. "I don't think you can really compare the two."

The Bloc Québécois criticized Canada for dragging its feet on the decision for fear of playing into the hands of the Quebec sovereignty movement.

"We're happy with the recognition [of Kosovo] because it's a sign that a new country is joining the concert of nations," said Bloc MP Vivian Barbot. "But the government was very slow."

Political scientist Stephen Saideman, a scholar of separatism at McGill University, said Kosovo and Quebec are so different that Ottawa's decision would have little impact.

"Over the past 40 years, Ottawa and Quebec have negotiated and bargained to give Quebec most of what it wants, whereas in Kosovo, the Kosovars never saw a chance of being a significant member of the political community in Serbia," said Prof. Saideman, Canada Research Chair in International Security and Ethnic Conflict.

But Alain Gagnon, a political scientist at the University of Quebec in Montreal, said Canada's blessing would certainly provide inspiration for Canada's homegrown independence movement. "[Kosovo] is a full-fledged nation that decided to exercise its right to self-determination," said Prof. Gagnon, Canada Research Chair in Quebec and Canadian Studies. "It offers proof that independence is a realistic and feasible project."

With a report from Rhéal Séguin in Quebec City

Some history... back to the purpose of 1999

2008-03-19T01:04:00.000-07:00

Is this another Guantanamo in the pristine mountains of Kosovo? What's the 21st Century term for "gunboat diplomacy?"

Camp Bondsteel and Americaʼs plans to control Caspian oil

By Paul Stuart

29 April 2002

Camp Bondsteel, the biggest ʽfrom scratchʼ foreign US military base since the Vietnam War is near completion in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo. It is located close to vital oil pipelines and energy corridors presently under construction, such as the US sponsored Trans-Balkan oil pipeline. As a result defence contractors ʽin particular Halliburton Oil subsidiary Brown & Root Servicesʼ are making a fortune. In June 1999, in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of Yugoslavia, US forces seized 1,000 acres of farmland in southeast Kosovo at Uresevic, near the Macedonian border, and began the construction of a camp. Camp Bondsteel is known as the ʽgrand dameʼ in a network of US bases running both sides of the border between Kosovo and Macedonia. In less than three years it has been transformed from an encampment of tents to a self sufficient, high tech base-camp housing nearly 7,000 troops, three quarters of all the US troops stationed in Kosovo. There are 25 kilometres of roads and over 300 buildings at Camp Bondsteel, surrounded by 14 kilometres of earth and concrete barriers, 84 kilometres of concertina wire and 11 watch towers. It is so big that it has downtown, midtown and uptown districts, retail outlets, 24-hour sports halls, a chapel, library and the best-equipped hospital anywhere in Europe. At present there are 55 Black Hawk and Apache helicopters based at Bondsteel and although it has no aircraft landing strip the location was chosen for its capacity to expand. There are suggestions that it could replace the US airforce base at Aviano in Italy. According to Colonel Robert L. McClure, writing in the engineers professional Bulletin, Engineer planning for operations in Kosovo began months before the first bomb was dropped. At the outset, planners wanted to use the lessons learned in Bosnia and convinced decision makers to reach base-camp ʽend stateʼ as quickly as possible. Initially US military engineers took control of 320 kilometres of roads and 75 bridges in the surrounding area for military use and laid out a base camp template involving soldiers living quarters, helicopter flight paths, ammunition holding areas and so on. McClure explains how the Engineer Brigade were instructed ʽto merge construction assets and integrate them with the contractor, Brown & Root Services Corporation, to build not one but two base camps [the other is Camp Monteith] for a total of 7,000 troops.ʼ According to McClure, at the height of the effort, about 1,000 former US military personnel, hired by Brown & Root, along with more than 7,000 Albanian local nationals, joined the 1,700 military engineers. From early July and into October [1999], construction at both camps continued 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Brown & Root Services provides all the support services to Camp Bondsteel. This includes 600,000 gallons of water per-day, enough electricity to supply a city of 25,000 and a supply centre with 14,000 product lines. It washes 1,200 bags of laundry, supplies 18,000 meals per day and operates 95 percent of the rail and airfield facilities. It also provides the camps firefighting service. Brown & Root are now the largest employers in Kosovo, with more than 5,000 local Kosovan Albanians and another 15,000 on its books. Staff at Camp Bondsteel rarely venture outside the compound and their activities are secretive. Whilst other KFOR patrols are small and mobile with soldiers wearing soft caps and instructed to integrate with the local population, US military personnel leave Bondsteel in either helicopters or as part of infrequent but large heavily armed convoys. In unnamed interviews US troops complain that hostility to their presence is growing as local inhabitants compare the investment in Camp Bondsteel with the continuing decline in their own living standards. Those visiting Camp Bondsteel describe it as a journey through 100 years in time. The area surrounding the camp is extremely poor with an unemployment rate of 80 percent. Then Bondsteel appears on the horizon with its mass of communication satellites, antennae and menacing attack helicopters circling above. Brown & Root pay Kosova workers between $1 and $3 per hour. The local manager said wages were so low because, ʽWe canʼt inflate the wages because we donʼt want to over inflate the local economy.ʼ The escalating US presence at Bondsteel was accompanied by increased activity by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Since its appearance most Serbs opposed to the KLA have been murdered or driven out. Those remaining dare not leave their houses to buy food at the local stores and the need for military escorts stretch from childrenʼs swimming pools to tractors taken away for repair. According to observers the KLA continue to act with virtual impunity in the US sector despite the high tech military intelligence facilities at Bondsteel. When US troops arrive at Camp Bondsteel, they are more likely to be met by a Brown & Root employee directing them to their accommodation and equipment areas. According to G. Cahlink in Government Executive Magazine (February 2002), army peace keepers joke that theyʼre missing a patch on their camouflage fatigues. ʽWe need one that says Sponsored by Brown & Root,ʼ says a staff sergeant, who, like more than nearly 10,000 soldiers in the region, has come to rely on Brown and Root Services, a Houston based contractor, for everything from breakfast to spare parts for armoured Humvees. The contract to service Camp Bondsteel is the latest in a string of military contracts awarded to Brown & Root Services. Its fortunes have grown as US militarism has escalated. The company is part of the Halliburton Corporation, the largest supplier of products and services to the oil industry. In 1992 Dick Cheney, as Secretary of Defence in the senior Bush administration, awarded the company a contract providing support for the US armyʼs global operations. Cheney left politics and joined Halliburton as CEO between 1995 and 2000. He is now US vice president in the junior Bush administration. In 1992 Brown & Root built and maintained US army bases in Somalia earning $62 million. In 1994 Brown & Root built bases and support systems for 18,000 troops in Haiti doubling its earnings to $133 million. The company received a five-year support contract in 1999 worth $180 million per-year to build military facilities in Hungary, Croatia and Bosnia. It was Camp Bondsteel, however, that was dubbed ʽthe mother of all contractsʼ by the Washington based Contract Services Association of America. There, ʽwe do everything that does not require us to carry a gun,ʼ said Brown & Roots director David Capouya. The aim of outsourcing military support and services to private contractors has been to free up more soldiers for combat duties. A US Department of Defence (DoD) review in 2001 insisted that the use of contractors would escalate: ʽOnly those functions that must be done at DoD should be kept at DoD.ʼ In sectors controlled by other Western powers, KFOR soldiers who are living in bombed out apartment blocks and old factories joke, ʽwhat are the two things that can be seen from space, one is the Great Wall of China, the other is Camp Bondsteel.ʼ More seriously a senior British military officer told the Washington Post, ʽit is an obvious sign that the Americans are making a major commitment to the Balkan region and plan to stay.ʼ One analyst described the US as having taken advantage of favourable circumstances to create a base that would be large enough to accommodate future military plans. Camp Bondsteel has become a key venue for important policy speeches by leading officials of the Bush administration. On June 5, 2001 US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld explained to troops at Camp Bondsteel what role they played in the new administrationʼs economic strategy. He declared, ʽhow much should we spend on the armed servicesʼ... My view is we donʼt spend on you, we invest in you. The men and women in the armed services are not a drain on our economic strength. Indeed you safeguard it. Youʼre not a burden on our economy, you are the critical foundation for growth.ʼ One month later, President George W. Bush made his first trip abroad to see US troops at the camp. He traveled directly from the Rome G8 summit, where tensions with European governments had come to the fore. In a speech described as a ʽretrenchingʼ of the US in Europe, he insisted that US troops were in Kosovo to stay, had gone in together and would ʽleave togetherʼ. In a break from normal procedure, in front of cheering troops, Bush signed into law a Congress-approved increase in military spending of $1.9 billion. Since then Camp Bondsteel has continued to grow, as it spearheads the first phase in a realignment of US military bases in Europe and eastward. The Bondsteel template is now being applied in Afghanistan and the new bases in the former Soviet Republics. According to leaked comments to the press, European politicians now believe that the US used the bombing of Yugoslavia specifically in order to establish Camp Bondsteel. Before the start of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the Washington Post insisted, ʽwith the Middle-East increasingly fragile, we will need bases and fly over rights in the Balkans to protect Caspian Sea oil.ʼ The scale of US oil corporationʼs investment in the exploitation of Caspian oil fields and the US government demand for the economy to be less dependent on imported oil, particularly from the Middle-East, demands a long term solution to the transportation of oil to European and US markets. The US Trade & Development Agency (TDA) has financed initial feasibility studies, with large grants, and more recently advanced technical studies for the New York based AMBO (Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria Oil) Trans-Balkan pipeline. Announcing a grant for an advanced technical study in 1999 for the AMBO oil pipeline through Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania, TDA director J. Joseph Grandmaison declared, ʽthe competition is fierce to tap energy resources in the Caspian region.... Over the last year [1999], TDA has been actively promoting the development of multiple pipelines to connect these vast resources with Western markets. This grant represents a significant step forward for this policy and for US business interests in the Caspian region.ʼ The $1.3 billion trans-Balkan AMBO pipeline is one of the most important of these multiple pipelines. It will pump oil from the tankers that bring it across the Black Sea to the Bulgarian oil terminus at Burgas, through Macedonia to the Albanian Adriatic port of Vlore. From there it will be pumped on to huge 300,000 ton tankers and sent on to Europe and the US, bypassing the Bosphorus Straits ʽthe congested and only route out of the Black Sea where tankers are restricted to 150,000 tons.ʼ The initial feasibility study for AMBO was conducted in 1995 by none other than Brown & Root, as was an updated feasibility study in 1999. In another twist, the former director of Oil & Gas Development for Europe and Africa for Brown & Root Energy Services, Ted Ferguson, was appointed as the new president of AMBO [1997] after the death of former president and founder of AMBO, Macedonian born Mr Vuko Tashkovikj. According to a recent Reuters article, Ferguson declared that Exxon-Mobil and Chevron, two of the worlds largest oil corporations, are preparing to finance the AMBO project. The building of AMBO risks antagonising Turkey, the USʼs main ally in the region. According to the Reagan Information Interchange, ʽwhile the United States is making an advantageous economic decision, it is overlooking its crucial strategic relationship with Turkey.ʼ The US is also antagonising its European allies and Russia with Camp Bondsteel and other smaller military bases run alongside the proposed AMBO pipeline route. It has been built near the mouth of the Presevo valley and energy Corridor 8, which the European Union has sponsored since 1994 and regards as a strategic route east-west for global trade. In April 1999, British General Michael Jackson, the commander in Macedonia during the NATO bombing of Serbia, explained to the Italian paper Sole 24 Ore ʽtoday, the circumstances which we have created here have changed. Today, it is absolutely necessary to guarantee the stability of Macedonia and its entry into NATO. But we will certainly remain here a long time so that we can also guarantee the security of the energy corridors which traverse this country.ʼ The newspaper added, ʽit is clear that Jackson is referring to the 8th corridor, the East-West axis which ought to be combined to the pipeline bringing energy resources from Central Asia to terminals in the Black Sea and in the Adriatic, connecting Europe with Central Asia. That explains why the great and medium sized powers, and first of all Russia, donʼt want to be excluded from the settling of scores that will take place over the next few months in the Balkans.ʼ

The Troubled Birth of Kosovo

2008-03-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

By Charles Simic
March 6, 2008
The New York Review of Books

The decision of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, and a number of other countries to break with international law, which regards the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states as sacrosanct, and to permit Albanian separatists in Kosovo to declare independence from Serbia was an act so extraordinary in international relations that it had to take place outside the United Nations, where its illegality would have been hard to justify. The excuse given for this initiative is that the ethnic cleansing and humanitarian catastrophe caused by Serbia in 1999 exempted the countries that hurried to recognize Kosovo on February 17, 2008, from the rule stipulating that international borders can be changed only with the agreement of all parties.

After congratulating the Kosovars on their independence, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice explained that this was to be "a special case," the sole exception ever to the rule of territorial integrity of nations under international law, and that separatists elsewhere ought not to look upon this act as a precedent. Spain, Portugal, Greece, Slovakia, Malta, Bulgaria, and Romania—nearly a third of the member states of the European Union—were unimpressed by her explanation and have so far refused to recognize Kosovo. They also doubt that the brutal treatment of Kosovars by former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic is the only reason for the United States' decision. As is almost always the case when it comes to the Balkans, a local dispute has been used by the great powers to advance their own national interests, which have little to do with the desire to have justice done.

"Had Kosovo declared its independence two years ago, when the Russians barely cared about what was going on in the Balkans, the process would have been easier," an Albanian wrote to The Boston Globe the other day. He's right. The Serbian loss of Kosovo was inevitable, not because Serbs do not have legal and historical rights to the province, but because Albanians, after their own turn at ethnic cleansing since 1999, outnumber them there ten to one and have no intention of being ruled by them ever again. Moreover, a lot of Serbs know, though they won't say it publicly, that having two million Albanians who hate your guts under the same roof is not a sensible option.

Other Serbs continue to delude themselves that with the help of Vladimir Putin they can prevail. How the dead horse of Serbian Kosovo is to be brought back to life is not spelled out, but it's not hard to guess that some sort of violence would be involved in its resurrection. Like our own American lunatics who dream of bombing more and more countries, these Serbs do not consider the consequences of their actions. The simple truth that sooner or later you may have to pay for killing women and children and chasing hundreds of thousands of blameless people out of their homes is beyond their comprehension. Yes, two years ago their voices were not so loud. Today, with the deepening involvement of Russia in the crisis, and with anti-Serbian United States policies, they have become a menace, especially to their own people.

Let me begin with the policies of the United States. At some point in 1998, or perhaps earlier, the State Department decided to take the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army—whose members were being armed from Albania, where the US already had a military and CIA presence—off the US list of terrorist groups, and to describe its forces instead as an insurgency. The change most likely had more to do with the aim of maintaining a US military presence in that part of the world than with outrages committed by Serbs in what they saw as revenge for the gunning down of their policemen and civilians. The moment Kosovo was liberated by NATO forces in 1999, after weeks of US bombing of not only Kosovo but also Belgrade and other parts of Serbia, the US started building Camp Bondsteel on 955 acres of farmland near the Kosovar town of Urosevac, on what was then still Serbian territory. The US strategists clearly expected that this area would never again be part of Serbia.

As a result, when Serbs and Kosovars later sat down to negotiate the future status of the province, the Kosovars knew that it was a farce, since Kosovo's future had already been settled in Washington and a Serbian offer of complete autonomy could be rejected out of hand. The European Union's motives were different. They realized better than the United States how important Kosovo was to the Serbs and that therefore the Serbs could not solve the problem by themselves. The Europeans wanted them to be "realistic," offering them as an inducement the possibility of membership in the EU on the condition that they first deliver the wanted war criminals Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. In the months before Kosovo's declaration of independence, even that requirement was shelved.

Serbs were wary. They could see the hypocrisies, the double standards, the failures of the Western countries to be honest brokers. In 1999, the Western countries had insisted that Kosovo first had to become a tolerant, multi-ethnic state before being granted independence. But for the most part, the US and European negotiations with Serbia ignored the heinous ethnic cleansing of Kosovo's Serbian population, the destruction of Serbian churches and monasteries, and the inability of most of the remaining Serbs to live anywhere safely, except in enclaves guarded by foreign troops. They greeted with much skepticism the plan for protection of minorities in Kosovo by the UN Special Envoy Marti Ahtisaari, which would grant them the right to run their own municipalities, have their churches and properties protected, be educated in their own language, and carry two passports— promises that were to be implemented after the declaration of independence. In response to such plans, the Kosovo Serbs observed that they still couldn't move about safely among the Kosovars and that newspapers in Europe and the United States continued to depict them as collectively guilty for the crimes of Milosevic and the sole cause of all problems in the region.

Even worse, as far as the outcome was concerned, Serbs have been led at home in the years since the 2003 assassination of prime minister Zoran Djindjic by a coalition of three and sometimes four democratic parties of unequal strength and different political ideas that, as recently as the presidential elections this February, have been either unwilling or too weak to make a clean break with the past.

Outside the government, but having the largest number of representatives in the parliament, is the ultra-conservative Radical Party, whose former leader, Vojislav Seselj, is currently on trial in The Hague for crimes against humanity, and whose membership consists of a few right-wing intellectuals, thousands of disgruntled workers who lost their jobs after the fall of communism, and hundreds of thousands of Serbs who were ethnically cleansed from Croatia, Kosovo, and Bosnia and live in dire poverty in Serbia. The Radicals are a party of anger and resentment, with, as far as I can tell, not a single concrete idea about how to improve the lives of their followers. They adore Putin's authoritarian style, love the way he has silenced the opposition in Russia, and hope to do the same in Serbia when they get a chance. But their present leader, Tomislav Nikolic, lost his bid to become president, if only by a narrow margin.

The man who was reelected, Borislav Tadic, leads the largest pro-Western party. He is a sensible though extremely cautious politician trapped in a marriage of convenience with Vojislav Kostunica, the leader of a small, democratic, nationalist party, who is the prime minister of the country and who wields the real day-to-day power. Even before Kosovo became the one and only issue in Serbian politics, this government didn't function well. Everything from improving Serbia's relationship with the European Union to the promise to deliver the remaining war criminals to The Hague was sabotaged by Kostunica, who like Milosevic is incapable of dialogue and compromise. If he hasn't yet formed a government with the Radicals, it is because there are still members of his own party who find themselves uncomfortable in that company. Nevertheless, we can see from the events of recent weeks how that coalition of reason and madness works in Serbia. While some ministers incited the burning of the US and other embassies and the looting of foreign business with their statements, other ministers in the same government did their best to calm the situation.

Who or what will prevail? The alliance with Russia of some of the Serbian political parties that hope to secure its help in settling scores with their domestic opponents adds a sinister and unpredictable dimension to the crisis. Both Kostunica and Nikolic have said, more or less openly, that they would welcome becoming a satellite of Russia in order to keep Kosovo. Tadic has said that he still hopes to join the EU and that it would be foolish for Serbia not to do so. The people who voted for him and for closer union with Europe expect no less from him; but with nationalist passions and the threat of violence running high, they are staying quiet. This is a far from reassuring atmosphere for foreign capital and for domestic companies seeking open markets.

The political and economic consequences of such behavior will surely be considerable. "Life must stop until Kosovo is returned to Serbia" is how a friend described the message Kostunica had for his people, following the declaration of independence. He's demanding, for instance, that countries that recognized Kosovo annul their decision or Serbia will have nothing to do with them. In other words, either history is reversed and the past restored, or we'll go into isolation, mainly supported by Russia. A nation unable to look at its present—what could be more tiresome and pointless to the rest of the world?

Kosovo will thrive, barely workable as a state, its bills paid by the European Union and the United States, its electrical power and food sold to it by Serbia. The northern part with its Serbian population of more than 40,000 people will try to secede and will be told by the international community that the territorial integrity of Kosovo must be respected. Unless force is used, the new state will remain partitioned. As for the two thirds of the Serb population that lives south of the Ibar River, which separates the Serbian enclave in the north from the rest of Kosovo, I'd be surprised if many of them still remained there a few years from now. Some of the biggest monasteries and churches, with their beautiful medieval frescoes and the few attendant priests, monks, and nuns, will be cared for by NATO.

As for the rest—God knows! That it all should have been settled more sensibly and fairly twenty years ago is something that the most perceptive observers of the conflict would probably agree on—but that, too, would have been another pipe dream. As long as national identity is defined almost solely by the hatred of others, the unhappy will outnumber the happy among peoples in the region.

Simic is a Serbian-born US poet, essayist, translator, and current US Poet Laureate. Article available at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21190

Islamic Conference Refuses to Recognize Kosovo Independence

2008-03-14T03:11:00.000-07:00

Experts of the 57 Islamic member-states met in session ahead of a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Council of foreign ministers, but strong disagreements broke out after Turkey attempted to secure that the closing document of the 11th OIC summit should include an article expressing the recognition of the independence of Kosovo, Russian media reported from the Senegalese capital of Dakar on Tuesday.

Quoting reports in Turkish papers and statements by diplomats of Azerbaijan, from which the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh has seceded, the media said that Turkey wanted to contribute an article on the recognition of the independence of Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohia, but that most of the Islamic countries were against such an initiative, following the example of Azerbaijan, Egypt, Sudan, and Indonesia.

In the end, it was decided that the document should include only an article expressing “solidarity with the people” of mafia statelet on the territory of Serbia, without giving support to Kosovo-Metohia secession and without encouraging member states to recognize the illegal quasi state on Serbian territory. The US-servant Turkey announced it will continue lobbying for Pristina separatists—a task it was given by the US State Department.

Only five Muslim countries, the main US puppets, have so far recognized the illegal secession of southern Serbian province—Albania, Turkey, Malaysia, Afghanistan, and Senegal. According to Russian media, such a move is being planned by the other two major US clients, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

This is a rather worrying development for Washington, which expected a deluge of recognitions from the Muslim world, after it attempted to portray its criminal creation on the territory of Serbia as United States' "positive gesture" towards Islam. However, such announcements of American bureaucrats were met with widesperad skepticism in the Muslim countries.

Pictures from San Diego Rally

2008-03-14T02:19:00.000-07:00

Before and After: A Gallery of Kosovo Churches

2008-03-14T02:14:00.000-07:00

A gallery of Kosovo churches as they were before the destruction and as they are now. Perhaps these pictures, more eloquently than any words, relate the tragedy of one of the largest European nations, which, strangely, was bypassed by world news reports.
1. THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY VIRGIN, Musutiste near Suva Reka
2. ST MARK'S OF KORISA MONASTERY, in Korisa near Prizren
3. ST GABRIEL'S MONASTERY, in Binac near Vitina
4. DEVIC MONASTERY, near Srbica
5. THE CHURCH OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE HOLY VIRGIN in Dolac near Klina
6. ST NICHOLAS' CHURCH, in Slovinje near Lipljan
7. THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER and PAUL, in Suva Reka
8. THE HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, in Petric near Pec
9. THE HOLY TRINITY CATHEDRAL, in Djakovica
10. ST ELIJAH'S PARISH CHURCH, in the village of Zegra near Gnjilane
11. THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY HEALERS COSMAS AND DAMIAN, village of Novake near Prizren
12. ZOCISTE MONASTERY AND THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY HEALERS COSMAS AND DAMIAN
13. THE PARISH CHURCH, in Grmovo near Vitina
14. THE CHURCH OF ST KNEZ LAZAR, in Piskote near Djakovica
15. THE MONASTERY AND THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY ARCHANGEL, Gornje Nerodimlje
16. The Cathedral
17. The Church of the Holy Saviour
18. The Diocesan Administration in Prizren

Scott Taylor on Kosovo demonstrations in Toronto

2008-03-14T02:06:00.000-07:00

Scott Taylor, Canadian reporter, at Kosovo demonstration in Toronto on March 1, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=scott+taylor+speaks+at+kosovo+demonstration+in+toronto&search_type=

Article in Espirit de Corps
Kosovo declaration spells Balkan trouble

By Scott Taylor
February 23, 2008

Last weekend the streets of Kosovo were flooded with citizens celebrating a unilateral declaration of independence by ethnic Albanian Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. This much-anticipated announcement formally severed all official ties between the disputed province and the rest of Serbia, thereby creating Europe's newest state.

The United States was the first to recognize Kosovo's independence, with George Bush sending his congratulations to Thaci from a stop in Tanzania. The United Kingdom, Germany and France were quick to follow suit, and with these big powers on board, the Albanian Kosovars popped the champagne corks and throughout the capital city of Pristina throngs of people waved a sea of red and black flags in celebration.

For people only paying casual attention to this long-simmering Balkan hot spot, Thaci's declaration of independence may indeed be viewed as a joyous occasion. In fact, most Canadians may be forgiven if they thought this whole matter was resolved back in the summer of 1999.
After a 78-day bombing campaign, NATO had negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Serbian government. Under the terms of UN Resolution 1244, Serbian security forces would withdraw from Kosovo, and under NATO military supervision, the 800,000 Albanian Kosovar refugees who had fled the fighting would be repatriated.

The Albanian guerrillas - known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) - were to be disarmed and demobilized by NATO troops, who would also ensure the safety of Kosovo's 200,000 ethnic Serb civilians. Resolution 1244 also made it very clear that under the UN Charter, Kosovo would remain the sovereign territory of Serbia.

Over the past nine years, NATO has failed to uphold its part of the bargain. The KLA was never disarmed; they were simply formalized into the Kosovo Protection Corps. Serb civilians suffered widespread violent reprisals from Albanian extremists resulting in a mass exodus with fewer than 40,000 ethnic Serbs still residing in protected enclaves. There was also no progress made towards a negotiated settlement of Kosovo's status between Belgrade and Pristina authorities.
With Serbia unwilling to relinquish the sovereignty of this province - the religious heartland of the Serbian people - there was no legal way to push independence through the UN Security Council. That impasse is what led to last Sunday's unilateral declaration, and the deep divide within the international community over this clear violation of the rule of law and the UN Charter.

The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department understands that any rapid recognition of a disputed province's declaration of independence from another country could create a dangerous precedent, which might come back to haunt us. So while Canada looks at what diplomatic options are available, let's review some of the background.

Up until 1998, the U.S. State Department regarded the KLA as a terrorist organization. The KLA's assassinations and bomb attacks against government officials led to a heavy-handed Serbian military crackdown.

At this point the Americans changed horses and decried the Serb reprisals rather than the terror provocations of the KLA. Under U.S. pressure an ultimatum was issued by NATO to Serbia in February 1999, and the KLA was suddenly legitimized as freedom fighters. By March 24 of that year, when the deadline expired without Serbia's compliance, NATO began bombing Kosovo and Serbia.

Within days a trickle of refugees became a flood as some 800,000 Albanians fled the renewed fighting and the NATO bombing.

Once this whole incident had ballooned into a humanitarian crisis of epic proportion, NATO used the suffering of the Albanians to further justify their intervention.
Putting recent history aside, the fact remains that Kosovo is simply not viable as an independent country. It is a landlocked, mountainous province, not quite twice the size of Prince Edward Island, with a population of two million.

The unemployment rate stands at 50 per cent; for those working the average annual income ranges around $2,400 CDN a year. Prostitution and illegal drugs form the major pillar of Kosovo's economy, with the other main infusion coming from the annual foreign donations of approximately $600 million.

The red and black flag they wave is the Albanian flag, not Kosovar. And as a result of the ongoing violent attacks against non-Albanians in the province, this is now one of the most ethnically-cleansed territories in all of Europe.

Prime Minister Thaci is a former ruthless KLA warlord who called himself "Snake" and the commander of the Kosovo Protection Corps is Agim Ceku, who made a notorious name for himself as a war criminal in Croatia.

Given the rotten foundation upon which Kosovo intends to build its own independent state, I think Canada would be well advised to uphold the UN Charter in this instance, and to respect the rule of international law.
_____________________________________________
Scott Taylor reported from inside Serbia and Kosovo during the 1999 bombing campaign and has made more than 20 subsequent visits to the region.
http://www.espritdecorps.ca/Ontarget%20080223.htm

Kosovo, the European Union's New Colony

2008-03-09T22:40:00.000-07:00

source: Banner of Liberty

By Mary Mostert, Analyst

Sunday, 9 March 2008

My first reaction to media reports on February 16 of jubilant Albanians in Kosovo gleefully celebrating their "independence" from Serbia was simple bewilderment. In the first place, I noted from pictures of their jubilation that they are not waving a Kosovo flag. What they wave is the flag of Albania.

Secondly, according to the Kosovo Plan developed by Marti Athtisaari,former president of Finland and the United Nations special envoy to Kosovo,their independence requires that "Kosovo must uphold, promote and protect internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms. All persons in Kosovo are entitled to these rights and freedoms without discrimination of any kind."

History proves that Albanians simply don't recognize the rights and freedoms of others. In fact, when Albania declared itself an "atheist state" in 1967, all churches and other buildings owned by religious groups were closed down. In an article published April 1, 1999 I reported that over 166,000 Greeks were driven out of Albania between 1993 and 1997 From 1991 to 2000 the percentage of Greeks in Albania dropped from 8% of the population to 3% of the population. In Kosovo the Serb population dropped from almost 15% of the population in 1981 to 5% of the population in 2007.

The Kosovo Albanians waving an Albania flag is exactly comparable to illegal alien high school students in California ripping down the US flag and raising the flag of Mexico at their school. They justify their behavior by claiming that California is really a part of Mexico. In Kosovo, Albanians that have flooded across the open borders between Kosovo and Albania are now claiming that Kosovo is really part of Albania. Actually, Kosovo has never been part of Albania, except during World War II when it was overrun by then fascist Italy that had also occupied Albania. California was part of Mexico until the treaty of Guadalupe of 1847 when it ceded California, Texas and New Mexico (including all the present-day states of the Southwest) to the United States in exchange for the US withdrawing its troops from Mexico City.

Kosovo, on the other hand, has been the home of Serbs for more than a thousand years and part of the nation of Serbia for for 700 years although it has been occupied by other nations a number of times. The latest occupation has been the 9 year occupation by NATO troops.

And, like every other state or province within nations, Kosovo had its own budget and its own debt. During these nine years of occupation by a foreign power, Serbia has continued to service that debt, although it has received no taxes from Kosovo during the NATO occupation. Belgrade has been paying $150 million a YEAR to service Kosovo's debt. That compares with less than $20 million a year the World Bank has given to Kosovo from 1999-2006. (A week ago Serbia's Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic wisely urged his government to stop paying Kosovo's debts as long as it is occupied by NATO and the European Union.) The World Bank reports that since June of 1999 over $2.57 BILLION dollars has been spent trying to rebuild Kosovo and make a modern, viable state out of it.

In spite of all that money, the World Bank reports that growth in Kosovo "has weakened from 21.2% in 2000 to 4.2% in 2006 in line with declining donor resources." As the Serbs and other minorities have been ethnically cleansed from Kosovo due to crime and violence that KFOR seemed to be unable or unwilling to control, unemployment has skyrocketed to a reported 50-70% of the workforce.

The English word independent, in my dictionary is defined as: (1) Not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, etc; (2) Not subject to another's authority or jurisdiction (3) Not relying on another or others for aid or support (4) declining others' aid or support; refusing to be under obligation to others.

That does not define Kosovo. It is clearly dependent on outside money and even outside policing to keep it reasonably in line. How is it that the Albanians in Kosovo with such non-productive background even SURVIVE - much less be granted such favor by the international community that it is being recognized as an "independent nation?"

Actually, the answer to that is in Albanian past and present history. Piracy and illegal trading has been part of Albania's economy for hundreds of years. According to an article by Peter Klebnikov in the February 2000 edition of Mother Jones Magazine, which strongly favors legalizing currently illegal drugs, most of the illegal drugs consumed in Europe are supplied by Albanian crime "families."Klebnikov wrote: "in the six months since Washington enthroned the Kosovo Liberation Army in that Yugoslav province, KLA-associated drug traffickers have cemented their influence and used their new status to increase heroin trafficking and forge links with other nationalist rebel groups and drug cartels.

"The ascent of the Kosovar families to the top of the trafficking hierarchy coincided with the sudden appearance of the KLA as a fighting force in 1997. As Serbia unleashed its campaign of persecution against ethnic Albanians, the diaspora mobilized. Hundreds of thousands of expatriate Kosovars around the world funneled money to the insurrection. Nobody sent more than the Kosovar drug traffickers -- some of the wealthiest people of Kosovar extraction in Europe. According to news reports, Kosovar Albanian traffickers launder $1.5 billion in profits from drug and arms smuggling each year through a shadowy network of some 200 private banks and currency exchange offices."

That was more than eight years ago. The "Serbia persecution" mentioned by Klebnikov was a effort by Belgrade to stop the killing of Serb policemen. Time marches on. Today the man who headed Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 2000, Hashim Thaci, is the prime minister of Kosovo. Until President Bill Clinton removed it in 1999, the KLA was on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations.

In February 1999 I also wrote about what I could see was a puzzling situation then developing in Kosovo. Frankly, at the time I knew nothing about the area but did know that the Albanians were the poorest, most backward and most devotedly communist nation in all of Europe. They thought the Russians were not proper "communists." I wondered how they could afford to create an army and finance expensive modern weapons to challenge the Yugoslavian army.

This was more than 2 years before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but even then in that article I had tracked down connections between the KLA and Osama bin Laden. I observed: "The KLA actually is the successor to the Ustashi regime of World War II which slaughtered over 700,000 Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies living in Croat-controlled territory in the forgotten part of the Holocaust. They have hated the Serbs for several hundred years - the Serbs supported the Allies in World War II and the Ustashi supported Mussolini and Adolph Hitler."

According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime the global drug trade generated an estimated $321.6 billion in 2003. That compares with the $358.2 billion that was spent in the 2003 US Defense Department budget. The size of the world's illicit drug trade, which fuels much of world terrorism and crime, is equivalent to .9% of the world's entire GDP and higher than the GDP of 88 percent of the countries in the world.

When the Albanians declared Kosovo "independent" the Serbs also gathered. In fact, their leaders - traditional, elected and spiritual, gathered to pray for the survival and the well being of the Serbs in Kosovo, most of whom have already been either driven out of Kosovo or killed in recent years. Crown Prince Alexander II addressed the gathered Serbs at Saint Dmitri Church in Mitrovica, Kosovo as follows: "Peace, determination, decisiveness, faith, and goodwill - these are our only 'weapons'. And, of course, law and justice, which are on our side. I appeal for the respect of human rights.

"Once again, I repeat my appeal for unity, for wisdom, for the unity of all politicians leading Serbia at this grave hour, so that we can live up to our ancestors who created this country with great effort, and our successors, to whom we must leave this country in legacy."

On one hand we are told that all the problems in the Balkans will simply go away when a "new" nation created by and for terrorists, drug dealers and criminals is recognized by other nations as legitimate and can join the United Nations. On the other hand we have the old nation of Serbia that is praying for the survival of the small group of Serbs still remaining in Kosovo.

I can hardly wait to see what happens next.

Kosovo - where Might is Right

2008-03-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

By H. L. de Silva

The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge (A Jewish Proverb in the Book of Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 31. 29)

The hope and expectation that the UN Charter would provide an effective answer to the use of aggressive force and unlawful interventions in the internal affairs of sovereign states, and be an acceptable instrument in the management of international conflicts, was not realized and may be described, in the words of Antonio Cassese as "the end of a magnificent illusion". Likewise the hope that the end of the Cold War would usher in a new world order has ended in world-wide disappointment. Instead the conviction has grown that law and justice in international society is irreversibly vitiated by hegemonic power. It would appear that the words of the Athenians addressing the leader of Melos (as reported by Thucydides in his history of the Peloponnesian War) – "the powerful do what they will and the weak accept what they must" remain as true to-day as they were centuries ago.

The practical workings of the R2P doctrine of intervention ( as formulated later) as seen in the Kosovo conflict and the extension of its scope even beyond the original limits endorsed by the General Assembly in its Outcome Document (2006), portends an aggravation and exacerbation of the problem in the coming years of this century.

To appreciate the true nature of this unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo a brief review of the history of the conflict and a chronology of events is helpful. Kosovo, though claimed by both Serbs and Albanian Kosovars as their respective homelands from centuries past, was at the relevant time, incontestably, an integral part of the territory of Serbia (a constituent unit of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) The Serbs who had ruled the area from about the 6th Century lost control of it since their defeat in 1389 by the Ottoman Turks in "the Field of the Blackbirds" (Polije) where as in cities like Pec there remain the sacred monuments of the Serbian Orthodox Church and became the spiritual heartland of Serbia during the Nemanjic dynasty. These incontrovertible facts of history attest to their settled conviction that Kosovo is part of the indivisible territory of Serbia where they fought and died defending their faith against the invading Turks in those ancient days.

On the other hand, under the Ottomon Empire, the Albanian Kosovos, who claim to be descendents of the Illyrians who occupied this area in the 4th and 5th Century, adopted the Islamic faith and remained under their domination for nearly four and a half centuries, until the end of the Balkan Wars and the recovery of this territory by the Serbs in 1912. At the end of World War I Kosovo was confirmed to be part of the territory of Serbia with the defeat of the Turks in the war. It remained so with the establishment of the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia at the end of World War II (1945) and despite some convulsions that occurred during the breakup of the Yugoslav Federation in the nineties, it has remained a Province of Serbia in the south along with Vojvodina – another province of Serbia in the north. The province enjoyed a substantial degree of autonomy during the Tito regime and the Albanian Kosovars constituted ninety percent majority of the population in Kosovo.

With the grant of autonomy the Kosovars thirsting for independence, followed a policy of discrimination against the minority Serbs. With the election of Milosevic as President of Serbia in 1989 and the rising tide of Serb nationalism, the Albanian Kosovars in turn faced discrimination and even persecution. In 1997 with the formation of the Kosovo Liberation Army the Albanian separatist struggle gained momentum. The KLA’s attacks on the Serbs in Kosova is said to have led to it being designated a terrorist group by the United States, Serbia and others. It is estimated that 10,000 people were killed by the KLA’s military campaign. Milosevic responded by seeking to change the demography of the Province by the notorious method of ethnic cleansing that had already been practised in other parts of the former Yugoslavia. 1998 saw a full-scale civil war between the Serbs and the Albanian Kosovars. This escalation of violence led to massive waves of refugees leaving for Serbia and Albania respectively and in March 1999 NATO launched an aerial bombing campaign against Yugoslavia to stop the bloodshed and the exodus. After this sustained campaign of bombing lasting 78 days, Belgrade capitulated when it became clear that Russia was not willing to come to the aid of the Serbs and withdrew its troops from Kosovo.

The Security Council adopted resolution SC1244 in June 1999 in terms of which a political solution to the Kosovo crisis was to provide for the establishment of an interim administration for Kosovo, taking full account of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and other countries of the region and the de-militarization of the K.L.A. There was to be deployed in Kosovo under United Nations auspex’s effective international civil and security presences acting under Chapter VII of the Charter. It is significant that these measures in Kosovo, followed a report by Ms. Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights that incorrectly reported the genocide of 200,000 civilians in Kosovo which warranted UN intervention. This figure estimated by Ms. Arbour was hopelessly contradicted by the discovery of only 5000 bodies in Kosovo at Milosovice’s subsequent trial at The Hague.

Despite these measures conditions remained unstable and worsened in March 2004, when there were concerted Kosovo-wide riots by Albanian Kosovars leaving many dead and hundreds injured despite the UN Security presence. Thousands of Serbs fled their homes in Kosovo as hundreds of houses and dozens of Orthodox churches were set on fire. In 2005 Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinage resigned from office to face war crimes charges at The Hague. The UN launched direct talks on the status of Kosovo between Belgrade and the Kosovo authorities then established in office, produced no result. Meanwhile, the Finnish Prime Minister Martti Ahtissari who had been invited to mediate, proposed in 2007 supervised independence for Kosovo, which was rejected by both Serbia and Russia, which set the stage for the unilateral declaration of Independence of Kosovo a move encouraged by the US and several States of the European Union. The declaration was made on 18th February 2008. As was expected the United States, the UK, France and Germany and some others of the European Union have recognized the new State and its secession from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now consisting of Serbia and Montenegro.)

These events have the most for-reaching consequences as far as the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of multi-ethnic states and the efficacy of the prohibitions against aggression and interference in the internal affairs of States in International law and under the UN Charter.
The critical turning point in these events that led to the unilateral declaration of Independence with Western support was the intensive NATO bombing of Kosovo and vital installations in of Serbia for 78 days, which led to the withdrawal of the Serb armed forces and the entry of NATO ground forces into Kosovo, which was to all intents and purposes an invasion of the territory and an act of aggression against the F.R.Y.

NATO bombing and Entry of Armed Forces.
The first and foremost among the purposes of the United Nations, as set out in the Charter, was to maintain international peace and security and to that end: "To take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace and for the suppression of acts of aggression and to bring about by peaceful means and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, the settlement of disputes". The positive prohibition and injunction against the use of force was contained in Article 2 para 4 which declared that all Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity of political independence of any state.

While the acts of the Serbian armed forces in Kosovo in seeking to suppress the rebellion and the attacks of the KLA was not "aggression" as contemplated in Article 2.4 as it did not involve force against a foreign State, being the suppression of an internal rebellion, the bombardment carried out by NATO were clearly a violation of this prohibition, because it did not fall within the exception created by Article 2.7, which permitted the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII. Under Article 42 it was only the Security Council that was empowered to take such action by air, sea or land forces to maintain or restore international peace and security, assuming that the internal conflict in Kosovo province of Serbia fell within the meaning of a breach of "international peace" and not merely violations of internal peace within Serbia.

Although NATO fell within the category of a regional arrangement of states for dealing with matters relating to the maintenance of international peace and security, Article 53 provided that no enforcement action was to be taken by such an organization without the authorization of the Security Council. No such authorization by the Security Council was either sought or granted to NATO before it launched the attacks on Kosovo and Serbia and accordingly they were unlawful.

The General Assembly by its Resolution 3314 (xxix) (1974) in defining aggression, considered it "the most serious and dangerous form of the illegal use of force" It defined aggression as the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State (The definition of "State" was stated to include the concept of a "group of States", so the definition of state applied to NATO as well as the prohibition) Among the acts that fell within the definition was invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State or any military occupation of the territory of another State and bombardment of the territory of another State.

Article 5 of the General Assembly Resolution stated in unequivocal terms:
"No consideration of whatever nature, whether political, economic, military or otherwise may serve as a justification for aggression" It went on to state that a war of aggression". is a crime against international peace and gives rise to international responsibility. What is of special significance here is that the Resolution also states no territorial acquisition or special advantage resulting from aggression is or shall be recognized as lawful. This has a bearing on the recognition of the new state by the international community despite this flagrant illegality.

Violation of Territorial Integrity
This Resolution also reaffirmed the duty of States not to use armed force to deprive peoples of their right to self-determination, freedom and independence, or to disrupt territorial integrity. The acts of force, coercion and aggression of NATO in their attacks and occupation of the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was also a clear violation of Article 2 para 4 of the UN Charter which states that: All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State……." Kosovo was only a province of Serbia which was a constituent unit of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the acts of aggression of NATO was an infringement of the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and was also an infringement of the right of self-determination of the People of Yugoslavia.

Violation of Sovereignty and Unlawful Intervention
The violation of Yugoslavia’s territorial integrity was ipso facto a violation of its sovereignty, recognized in the principle of the sovereign equality of all UN Members. Accordingly para 7 of article 2 of the Charter prohibited the United Nations and its Members from intervening in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction, unless it involved the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII which required as a prerequisite the decision of the Security Council in regard to the measures to be taken in conformity with Articles 41 and 42 or 53.

It is clear that, apart from the fact that no such authorization was granted by the Security Council, the NATO states acted in defiance and in clear violation of Security Council Resolution (S/RES/1244 – 10th June 1999) which reaffirmed the commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as set out in the Helsinki Final Act (1975) and Annex 2 of the Resolution, and authorized Member States and relevant international organizations to establish the international security presence in Kosovo only as set out in Annex 2. which in point 8: provided for a political process towards the establishment of an interim political framework providing for substantial self government for Kosovo taking into account…… the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It is clear therefore that any political arrangement which envisaged a unilateral secession was excluded by the terms of the Security Council Resolution and was unlawful.

By the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (the Helsinki Act of 1975) the participating Countries which included the NATO countries agreed to "respect each other’s sovereign equality and individuality as well as all the rights inherent in and encompassed by its sovereignty, including in particular the right of every State to juridical equality, to territorial integrity and to freedom and independence. They were also required to respect each other’s right freely to choose and develop its political, social economic and cultural systems as well as its right to determine its laws and regulations (i.e. the right of self-determination). The Helsinki Act also went on to state: "hey consider that their frontiers can be changed, in accordance with international law, by peaceful means and by agreement" This clearly precluded unilateral secession by the use of force, involving a change of the international boundary.

It needs hardly be stressed that the deliberate and blatant violations of the UN Charter and principles of International Law shown above have given rise to serious misgivings in regard to the credibility of the United Nations and stability of the International Legal order which unless these anomalies are set right in accordance with the prevalent International law, will result in anarchy in the international legal order. It is regrettable that the US and the NATO powers embarked upon this wholly illegal course of action, despite the fact that the Security Council Resolution ( 1244 of June 1999) confirmed the willingness of Yugoslavia to adopt a political solution to the Kosovo crisis which involved a political process towards the establishment of an interim political framework agreement providing for substantial self-government for Kosovo and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, which precluded a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo.

In the face of these flagrant violations of international law and the UN Charter it is incomprehensible how some commentators on these events can claim that despite the illegality, the actions of NATO were nevertheless legitimate. Such an assessment seeks to deny the paramountcy of legal prohibitions underpinned by ethical and moral values, and. negates the very foundations of the legal order. Legitimacy requires not only conformity with the legal order but also justification on moral and ethical grounds of such political considerations that only strengthen the stability of the international legal order and do not undermine its very foundations. Hence to admit its illegality and yet affirm its legitimacy is a contradiction in terms where fundamental rules of law are involved and not mere peripheral rules.

It is not within the scope of this article to discuss the significance of the Kosovo secession for us in Sri Lanka, despite the vain hopes and expectations of the LTTE leader and the exaggerated fears and apprehensions of some political analysts who consider it a grim prospect and call for concessions to be made. The consequences of regarding it as a precedent for other secessions by dissatisfied ethnic groups are such that they involve a shaking of the tectonic foundations of International Law and an unraveling of the fundamental basis of legal order. As the International Law scholar Malcolm Shaw observes: "self-determination cannot be utilized as a legal tool for the dismantling of sovereign states….self-determination does not provide groups with the legal right to secede from existing independent States and create a new State". The former US President Bill Clinton in a speech made in Ottawa on the Canadian Separatist Movement observed:

If we are to divide all the countries on ethnic lines, we would end up with something like 8000 political entities. This would clearly be bedlam which is unexpected. In this day and age where economic globalization calls for bigger and more effective political units, anything which takes not one step but ten steps backwards and breaks the world on a virtually tribal basis would be a retrograde step and an unacceptable situation.

Considering such views the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by the U.S. and the major states of the European Union can only be explained on grounds of real politique.

http://www.island.lk/2008/03/10/features6.html

Thousands rally in Sydney against Kosovo independence

2008-03-09T01:53:00.001-08:00

Posted Sat Mar 8, 2008 6:00pm AEDT

Several thousands members of Sydney's Serbian community have rallied in the city this afternoon calling on the Federal Government to reverse its decision to recognise Kosovo as an independent state.

The protesters marched from Martin Place to the Federal Government offices in Sydney this afternoon.

They carried signs saying "Kosovo is Serbia" and the "United Nations is dead".

They are angry the Australian Government recognised Kosovo's declaration of independence last month.

The protesters, who were mostly members of the Serbian community, are calling on the Federal Government to reverse its decision to recognise Kosovo as an independent state.

They say Kosovo's declaration breaches international law and have called for an apology.

Serb PM resigns blaming divided coalition

2008-03-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

Sat Mar 8, 2008 10:58am 1

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica resigned on Saturday, announcing the end of a governing coalition too divided over Kosovo to carry on.

"This is the end of the government," Kostunica told a news conference. "I have called a government session on March 10 to discuss dissolution of parliament."

If adopted, Serbia would hold an early parliamentary election in May to decide a fundamental question -- can it continue seeking membership of the European Union now that the EU has recognized the independence of the southern province?

Dissolution was the best course for "a government that is not working", Kostunica said. The election would most likely take place on May 11, the date set for local elections in Serbia.

Kostunica gave no clue to whether his small nationalist party would now seek an alliance with the hardline nationalist Radical Party -- Serbia's biggest -- and the Socialists of the late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic.

Such a coalition would be likely to adopt an unyielding position on Kosovo, possibly shutting down Serbia's bid for EU membership in favor of closer ties with Russia, which has backed Kostunica's stance on Kosovo.

Kostunica has indirectly accused his pro-Western coalition partners of giving up defending Serbia's claim to Kosovo in favor of better ties with the West, which backs Kosovo's secession.

He said part of the coalition wanted Serbia to be a member of the European Union only if the independence of Kosovo, which two-thirds of EU members have recognized, is revoked, while a majority did not want EU membership linked to Kosovo.

His decision to end the government puts him in direct conflict with Serbia's pro-Western president, Boris Tadic, and his party, who formed the backbone of the coalition which came to power 10 months ago.

Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) says it will support a Serbian Radical Party (SRS) resolution in parliament, calling on the European Union to "clearly and unambiguously" confirm Serbia's territorial integrity, as a condition for further European integration.

Tadic's Democratic Party and its liberal G17 Plus partner opposed the resolution in cabinet earlier this week and defeated it two-to-one.

The pro-EU parties say the resolution will not bring back Kosovo -- whose Albanian majority declared independence on February 17 with Western backing -- but put a halt to Serbia's bid to join the European Union, which is their key policy aim.

(additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac, Ljilja Cvekic, Ellie Tzortzi; Edited by Elizabeth Piper)
© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Kosovo quandary is dividing United Nations members

2008-03-07T23:50:00.000-08:00

March 07, 2008

by Dobrinko Doslo

Since the universal declaration of independence by Kosovo Albanians on Feb. 17, the world's nations are dividing themselves into two categories.

Division A includes those which deem the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo Albanians to be against the current international law and the charters of the United Nations, and do not recognize the new Kosovo. Put Spain, China, Romania, Russia, and Slovakia in that category.

Division B includes those nations which have already or will recognize Kosovo -- such as Afghanistan, France, Costa Rica, the United States and Italy.

So, what's the difference between these two lists? Both include NATO members, European Union members, members of the G8, large countries, small countries,Western democracies and totalitarian regimes. All of these countries, in both divisions, are members of the UN which signed up by agreeing to follow certain principles -- one of them being that it is illegal to force upon a member state forceful division against its will. So far, so good.

Countries in both divisions read the law from same UN document, yet are acting in opposing ways. How so?

Those in the B division believe, first, that Kosovo deserves independence because of the suffering endured during the years of tyranny under the late Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic.

But that should not be so, argues the opposing camp, citing the example of Kurdistan within Iraq.

Second, those in division B contend that in the past, during the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia, the Serbian state violated some international laws itself, so it shouldn't really have any right to call upon them now.

That may be so, the other side argues, but two wrongs don't make a right?

Third, negotiations between Kosovo Albanians and Serbia reached impasse, and after they failed it was time for decisive action. However, Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiators are showing the world they will take as much time as needed to reach a settlement.

Finally, those in the B division argue, Kosovo is a unique case (name a country that isn't) and this may never be used as a precedent in any other dispute. Well, tell that to the Basques in Spain and Transylvania Hungarians in Romania who have already articulated their eagerness to follow the Kosovo example, just to mention two simmering hot spots on the arms-length list of the world's ethnic minorities aspirations. The concept of a "unique precedence" exists since Feb. 17, and exclusively so, to the nations in division B.

So, where does that leave us ?

Well, the magic number seems to be 99 -- meaning, basically, 50 per cent plus one of 197 UN member countries.

If division B gets to that magic number it would mean that a majority of UN states are really not in favor of the rules currently in place. Or, it will, de facto, be acknowledged that it is really up to each state to cherry-pick only those international laws they feel so inclined to follow, making this world a rather dangerous place to live in.

Nevertheless, just to spice the whole thing up, there is the UN security council, with its permanent, veto-bearing members.

If the number of countries in division B comes up short of that magic one, those which recognized the independence of Kosovo could establish diplomatic ties, and would be able to provide financial assistance to prop up the Kosovo economy, and Kosovo Albanians would be able to travel to those countries using new passports -- the newly created symbols of independence.
Despite that, Kosovo would not be able to join the UN, nor the International Monetary Fund, nor any other organization with a membership reserved for UN members only.

Come to think of it -- for Kosovo Albanians the post-Feb. 17 world is not all that different from the predeclaration days.

But it is the outcome of the numbers game between divisions A and B that will determine whether the world still has rules that must be observed. Or, will they signal a full and graceful degradation of the UN into oblivion?

What's the alternative? A world of 197 different and often conflicting rules to play by? Humankind has been there and done that over many hundreds of years, and it wasn't all that pretty.

So, here we go.

The million dollar question is: which division will Canada choose, and why?

Dobrinko Doslo lives in Kitchener and is a member of the Serbian-Canadian community. Second Opinion articles reflect the views of Record readers on a variety of subjects.
Published in TheRecord.com.

From Terrorist to Partners - What is Different Today?

2008-03-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/fr033199.htm


March 31, 1999

The Kosovo Liberation Army: Does Clinton Policy Support Group with Terror, Drug Ties?
From 'Terrorists' to 'Partners'

On March 24, 1999, NATO initiated air attacks on Yugoslavia (a federation of two republics, Serbia and Montenegro) in order to impose a peace agreement in the Serbian province of Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority. The Clinton Administration has not formally withdrawn its standing insistence that Belgrade sign the peace agreement, which would entail the deployment in Kosovo of some 28,000 NATO ground troops -- including 4,000 Americans -- to police the settlement. But in recent days the Clinton public line has shifted to a demand that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic halt the offensive he has launched in Kosovo, which has led to a growing humanitarian crisis in the region, before there can be a stop to the bombing campaign.
One week into the bombing campaign, there is widespread discussion of options for further actions. One option includes forging a closer relationship between the United States and a controversial group, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a group which has been cited in unofficial reports for alleged ties to drug cartels and Islamic terrorist organizations. This paper will examine those allegations in the context of the currently unfolding air campaign.
Results of Week One
The air assault is a product of a Clinton policy, which for months has been directed toward intervention in Kosovo, in either the form of the use of air power or of the introduction of a peacekeeping ground force -- or of air power followed by a ground force. [For details on the turbulent history of Kosovo and of the direction of Clinton policy leading to the current air campaign, see: RPC's "

Senate to Vote Today on Preventing Funding of Military Operations in Kosovo: Airstrikes Likely This Week," 3/23/99; "Bombing, or Ground Troops -- or Both: Clinton Kosovo Intervention Appears Imminent," 2/22/99; and "Bosnia II: The Clinton Administration Sets Course for NATO Intervention in Kosovo," 8/12/98.] Just hours before the first bombs fell, the Senate voted 58 to 41 (with 38 Republicans voting in the negative) to authorize air and missile strikes against Yugoslavia (S. Con. Res. 21). The Senate then approved by voice vote a second resolution expressing support for members of the U.S. Armed Forces engaged in military operations against Yugoslavia (S. Res. 74).

Prior to the air campaign, the stated goal of Clinton policy, as noted above, was Belgrade's acceptance of the peace agreement signed by the Kosovo Albanian delegation (which included representatives of the KLA) on March 17. Now, more than a week into the air campaign, that goal appears even more elusive as the NATO attack has rallied Serbian resistance to what they see as an unjustified foreign aggression.

Since the NATO bombing campaign began, Serbian security forces also have intensified an offensive in Kosovo that began as the airstrikes appeared inevitable. According to numerous media reports, tens of thousands of Albanians are fleeing the Serb army, and police forces and paramilitary groups that, based on credible allegations, are committing widespread atrocities, including summary executions, burnings of Albanian villages, and assassination of human rights activists and community leaders. Allied officials have denounced the apparently deliberate forced exodus of Albanian civilians as ethnic cleansing and even genocide. But according to some refugee accounts, the NATO bombing is also a factor in the exodus: "[M]ost residents of the provincial capital say they are leaving of their own accord and are not being forced out at gunpoint, as residents of several western cities and villages in Kosovo say has been happening to them. . . . Pristina residents who made it to Macedonia said their city is still largely intact, despite the targeting of ethnic Albanian businesses by Serbian gangs and several direct hits from NATO air strikes in the city center" ["Cause of Kosovar Exodus from Pristina Disputed: Serbs Are Forcing Exit, Some Claim; Others Go on Own," Washington Times, 3/31/99].

At the same time, the Clinton Administration, consistent with its track record on Kosovo, has ignored credible but unconfirmed evidence from sources not connected to Milosevic's Serbian government that the NATO campaign has resulted in far more civilian damage than has been acknowledged.

Making Things Worse?

The Clinton Administration and NATO officials flatly reject any suggestion that their policy has exacerbated an already bad situation on the ground in Kosovo. With neighboring Albania and Macedonia in danger of being destabilized by a flood of refugees, questions are being raised about NATO's ability to continue the campaign unless positive results are evident soon:

"With critics arguing that the NATO campaign has made things worse, the alliance must slow the Serbs' onslaught or watch public support and alliance unity unravel. U.S. and NATO officials angrily rebutted the critics, arguing that Mr. Milosevic, the Serbian leader, and his forces were already on the rampage before NATO strikes began." ["NATO Is Set to Target Sites in Belgrade," Wall Street Journal, 3/29/99]

If the immediate NATO goal has now shifted to stopping the Serb offensive in Kosovo, observers point to three likely options [WSJ, 3/29/99]:

"Option One is to continue the air campaign, increasingly targeting Serb frontline troops [in Kosovo], but it could be days before the onslaught is really slowed." This option, which NATO has already begun to implement, is likely to entail greater risk to NATO aircraft and crews, due to the lower and slower flightpaths needed to deliver tactical strikes. Still, most observers doubt the offensive can be halted with air power alone. Late reports indicate increased bombing of targets in Belgrade, the capital of both the Yugoslav federation and the Serbian republic.

"Option Two is to start considering intervening on the ground." In recent days, the Clinton Administration has begun to shift its position on NATO ground troops from a categorical assurance that ground troops would go in only to police a peace settlement to hints that they might, depending on some unspecified "conditions," be introduced into a combat environment. For example, in comments on March 28, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Henry Shelton suggested that certain "assessments" had been made, but that there was as yet no political agreement on ground troops:

"There have been assessments made, but those assessments were based on varying conditions that existed in Kosovo... At this point in time, there are no plans per se to introduce ground troops." [NBC's "Meet the Press," 3/28/99]

"Option Three: arming the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army to carry the war on the ground while NATO continues it from the air." This option, which would make NATO the overt air force of the KLA, would also dash any possibility of a solution that would not result in a change in Balkan borders, perhaps setting off a round of widespread regional instability. Clinton Administrations officials have begun to suggest that independence may now be justified in view of the Serb offensive. The KLA has been explicit in its determination to not only achieve an independent Kosovo but to "liberate" Albanian-inhabited areas of Montenegro (including the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica), Macedonia (including the Macedonian capital, Skopje), and parts of northern Greece; most of these areas were in fact annexed to Albania under Axis occupation during World War II. (For a visual representation of the areas claimed by the KLA, see the map at the website of the pro-KLA Albanian-American Civic League at http://www.aacl.com/

Note that arming and training the KLA, as called for in Option Three, would highlight serious questions about the nature of the KLA and of the Clinton Administration's relationship with it.

The KLA: from 'Terrorists' to 'Partners'

The Kosovo Liberation Army "began on the radical fringe of Kosovar Albanian politics, originally made up of diehard Marxist-Leninists (who were bankrolled in the old days by the Stalinist dictatorship next door in Albania) as well as by descendants of the fascist militias raised by the Italians in World War II" ["Fog of War -- Coping With the Truth About Friend and Foe: Victims Not Quite Innocent," New York Times, 3/28/99]. The KLA made its military debut in February 1996 with the bombing of several camps housing Serbian refugees from wars in Croatia and Bosnia [Jane's Intelligence Review, 10/1/96]. The KLA (again according to the highly regarded Jane's,) "does not take into consideration the political or economic importance of its victims, nor does it seem at all capable of seriously hurting its enemy, the Serbian police and army. Instead, the group has attacked Serbian police and civilians arbitrarily at their weakest points. It has not come close to challenging the region's balance of military power" [Jane's, 10/1/96].

The group expanded its operations with numerous attacks through 1996 but was given a major boost with the collapse into chaos of neighboring Albania in 1997, which afforded unlimited opportunities for the introduction of arms into Kosovo from adjoining areas of northern Albania, which are effectively out of the control of the Albanian government in Tirana. From its inception, the KLA has targeted not only Serbian security forces, who may be seen as legitimate targets for a guerrilla insurgency, but Serbian and Albanian civilians as well.

In view of such tactics, the Clinton Administration's then-special envoy for Kosovo, Robert Gelbard, had little difficulty in condemning the KLA (also known by its Albanian initials, UCK) in terms comparable to those he used for Serbian police repression:

" 'The violence we have seen growing is incredibly dangerous,' Gelbard said. He criticized violence 'promulgated by the (Serb) police' and condemned the actions of an ethnic Albanian underground group Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) which has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Serb targets. 'We condemn very strongly terrorist actions in Kosovo. The UCK is, without any questions, a terrorist group,' Gelbard said." [Agence France Presse, 2/23/98]

Mr. Gelbard's remarks came just before a KLA attack on a Serbian police station led to a retaliation that left dozens of Albanians dead, leading in turn to a rapid escalation of the cycle of violence. Responding to criticism that his earlier remarks might have been seen as Washington's "green light" to Belgrade that a crack-down on the KLA would be acceptable, Mr. Gelbard offered to clarify to the House Committee on International Relations:

"Questioned by lawmakers today on whether he still considered the group a terrorist organization, Mr. Gelbard said that while it has committed 'terrorist acts,' it has 'not been classified legally by the U.S. Government as a terrorist organization.' " [New York Times, 3/13/98]

The situation in Kosovo has since been transformed: what were once sporadic cases of KLA attacks and often heavy-handed and indiscriminate Serbian responses has now become a full-scale guerrilla war. That development appeared to be a vindication of what may have been the KLA's strategy of escalating the level of violence to the point where outside intervention would become a distinct possibility. Given the military imbalance, there is reason to believe the KLA -- which is now calling for the introduction of NATO ground troops into Kosovo [Associated Press, 3/27/99] -- may have always expected to achieve its goals less because of the group's own prospects for military success than because of a hoped-for outside intervention: As one fighter put it, "We hope that NATO will intervene, like it did in Bosnia, to save us" ["Both Sides in the Kosovo Conflict Seem Determined to Ignore Reality," New York Times, 6/22/98].

By early 1999, the Clinton Administration had completely staked the success of its Kosovo policy on either the acceptance by both sides of a pre-drafted peace agreement that would entail a NATO ground occupation of Kosovo, or, if the Albanians signed the agreement while Belgrade refused, bombing of the Serbs. By committing itself so tightly to those two alternatives, the Clinton Administration left itself with as little flexibility as it had offered the Albanians and the Serbs.

At that point for the Administration, cultivating the goodwill of the KLA -- as the most extreme element on the Albanian side, and the element which had the weapons capable of sinking any diplomatic initiative -- became an absolute imperative:

"In order to get the Albanians'... acceptance [of the peace plan], Ms. Albright offered incentives intended to show that Washington is a friend of Kosovo...Officers in the Kosovo Liberation Army would . . . be sent to the United States for training in transforming themselves from a guerrilla group into a police force or a political entity, much like the African National Congress did in South Africa." [New York Times, 2/24/99]

The Times' comparison of treatment of the KLA with that of the African National Congress (ANC) -- a group with its own history of terror attacks on political opponents, including members of the ethnic group it claims to represent -- is a telling one. In fact, it points to the seemingly consistent Clinton policy of cultivating relationships with groups known for terrorist violence -- not only the ANC, but the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) -- in what may be a strategy of attempting to wean away a group from its penchant for violence by adopting its cause as an element of U.S. policy.

By the time the NATO airstrikes began, the Clinton Administration's partnership with the KLA was unambiguous:

"With ethnic Albanian Kosovars poised to sign a peace accord later Thursday, the United States is moving quickly to help transform the Kosovo Liberation Army from a rag-tag band of guerrilla fighters into a political force. . . . Washington clearly sees it as a main hope for the troubled province's future. 'We want to develop a good relationship with them as they transform themselves into a politically-oriented organization,' deputy State Department spokesman James Foley said. 'We want to develop closer and better ties with this organization.'
"A strong signal of this is the deference with which U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright treats the Kosovar Albanians' chief negotiator Hashim Thaci, a 30-year-old KLA commander. Albright dispatched her top aide and spokesman James Rubin to Paris earlier this week to meet with Thaci and personally deliver to him an invitation for members of his delegation to visit the United States. Rubin, who will attend the ceremony at which the Kosovar Albanians will sign the accord, is expected to then return to Washington with five members of the delegation, including Thaci. Thaci and Rubin have developed a 'good rapport' during the Kosovo crisis, according to U.S. officials who note that Thaci was the main delegate they convinced to sign the agreement even though the Serbs have refused to do so. [ . . . ]
" '[W]e believe that we have a lot of advice and a lot of help that we can provide to them if they become precisely the kind of political actor we would like to see them become.' Foley stressed that the KLA would not be allowed to continue as a military force but would have the chance to move forward in their quest for self government under a 'different context.' 'If we can help them and they want us to help them in that effort of transformation, I think it's nothing that anybody can argue with.' "

Such an effusive embrace by top Clinton Administration officials of an organization that only a year ago one of its own top officials labeled as "terrorist" is, to say the least, a startling development.

Even more importantly, the new Clinton/KLA partnership may obscure troubling allegations about the KLA that the Clinton Administration has thus far neglected to address.

Charges of Drugs, Islamic Terror -- and a Note on Sources

No observer doubts that the large majority of fighters that have flocked to the KLA during the past year or so (since it began large-scale military operations) are ordinary Kosovo Albanians who desire what they see as the liberation of their homeland from foreign rule. But that fact -- which amounts to a claim of innocence by association -- does not fully explain the KLA's uncertain origins, political program, sources of funding, or political alliances.

Among the most troubling aspects of the Clinton Administration's effective alliance with the KLA are numerous reports from reputable unofficial sources -- including the highly respected Jane's publications -- that the KLA is closely involved with:

The extensive Albanian crime network that extends throughout Europe and into North America, including allegations that a major portion of the KLA finances are derived from that network, mainly proceeds from drug trafficking; and
Terrorist organizations motivated by the ideology of radical Islam, including assets of Iran and of the notorious Osama bin-Ladin -- who has vowed a global terrorist war against Americans and American interests.

The final two sections of this paper give samples of these reports. (Many of these reports are available in full at www.siri-us.com, the website of an independent think tank called the Strategic Issues Research Institute of the United States, under "Background Issues".) In presenting samples of such reports for the consideration of Republican Senators and staff, RPC does not claim that these reports constitute conclusive evidence of the KLA's drug or terror ties. Nor are these reports necessarily conclusive as to the policy advisability of the Clinton Administration's support for that organization. They do, however, raise serious questions about the context in which decisions regarding American policy in the Balkans are being made by the Clinton Administration.

All of these sources are unclassified and unconnected to official agencies of the U.S. government, although some quote sources in intelligence agencies. Possible objections could be raised that the relevant U.S. government agencies may not have made available similar reports concerning the KLA. While it is not possible to discuss, in the context of this paper, what information is or is not available from classified sources, the author of this paper offers what he regards as two helpful observations. First, one should recognize that the absence of reporting on a given topic may indicate that the information has not been obtained, assembled, or disseminated by the agencies in question, but not necessarily that it does not exist. That is, silence by official sources does not constitute disproof of unofficial sources. The second and more troubling observation is that the Clinton Administration has demonstrated, to an unprecedented degree, an unfortunate tendency -- in some cases possibly involving an improper politicization of traditionally non-political government agencies -- to manage or conceal inconvenient information that might call into question some of its policies. Examples of this tendency include:

China espionage: Numerous critics have faulted the Clinton Administration's less-than-forthcoming attitude towards the investigation of possible negligence regarding Chinese theft of U.S. nuclear secrets; obstruction efforts may have included misuse of the classification process. [For details, see RPC's "Contradictions Abound: Did the Administration Respond 'Vigorously' to Chinese Nuclear Espionage?" 3/24/99; "The Public Record: China's Theft of U.S. Nuclear Secrets," 3/12/99; and "Commentators Hit Clinton Administration on Nuclear Technology Theft and Suspicious China Ties," 3/12/99.] The effectiveness of the current Kosovo crisis in getting the China espionage scandal off Page 1 has not gone unnoticed: "In the days leading up to the initiation of hostilities with Serbia, it had become increasingly apparent that the usual administration damage control techniques (official denials, misleading statements, obstruction of inquiries, attacks on the accusers, etc.) were not working in the face of cascading revelations that the Clinton team had abysmally failed to address [Chinese] penetration of America's nuclear weapons laboratories.... The only option: change the subject, regardless of the cost in American lives, national treasure, and long-term interests" [Frank Gaffney, Jr., Center for Security Policy, "Hidden Trigger on Guns of Intervention?" Washington Times, 3/30/99].

Mexico drug certification: The Clinton Administration has consistently certified that Mexican authorities are cooperating with U.S. anti-drug efforts -- despite strong evidence to the contrary. [See, for example, Los Angeles Times, 3/25/99; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2/27/99; and The San Francisco Chronicle, 2/26/99].

Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia: The Clinton Administration concealed its active cooperation with the Iranians for arms shipments to the Muslim fundamentalist regime of Alija Izetbegovic in Bosnia in violation of the United Nations arms embargo on the former Yugoslavia. [For details on the Clinton Administration's active connivance with the Iranians, see RPC's "Clinton-Approved Iranian Arms Transfers Help Turn Bosnia into Militant Islamic Base," 1/16/97.] This track record undermines the Clinton Administration's insistence that Russia, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, is obligated to observe the same embargo with respect to Serbia [as stated by State Department spokesman James Rubin, daily briefing, March 24, 1999].

Eradication of the Serbs in Krajina: The Clinton Administration has stalled efforts to investigate what has been called the "biggest ethnic cleansing" of the Balkan wars, one which the Clinton Administration may itself have helped to facilitate:

"Investigators at the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague have concluded that the Croatian Army carried out summary executions, indiscriminate shelling of civilian populations and 'ethnic cleansing' during a 1995 assault that was a turning point in the Balkan wars, according to tribunal documents. The investigators have recommended that three Croatian generals be indicted, and an American official said this week that the indictments could come within a few weeks. . . . Any indictment of Croatian Army generals could prove politically troublesome for the Clinton Administration, which has a delicate relationship with Croatia, an American ally in preserving the peace in Bosnia with a poor human rights record. The August 1995 Croatian offensive, which drove some 100,000 Serbs from a large swath of Croatia over four days, was carried out with the tacit blessing of the United States by a Croatian Army that had been schooled in part by a group of retired American military officers. Questions still remain about the full extent of United States involvement. In the course of the three-year investigation into the assault, the United States has failed to provide critical evidence requested by the tribunal, according to tribunal documents and officials, adding to suspicion among some there that Washington is uneasy about the investigation. Two senior Canadian military officers, for example, who were in Croatia during the offensive, testified that the assault, in which some 3,000 shells rained down on the city of Knin over 48 hours, was indiscriminate and targeted civilians. . . . A section of the tribunal's 150-page report is headed: 'The Indictment. Operation Storm, A Prima Facie Case.': 'During the course of the military offensive, the Croatian armed forces and special police committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law, including but not limited to, shelling of Knin and other cities,' the report says. 'During, and in the 100 days following the military offensive, at least 150 Serb civilians were summarily executed, and many hundreds disappeared.' The crimes also included looting and burning, the report says." ["War Crimes Panel Finds Croat Troops 'Cleansed' the Serbs," New York Times, 3/21/99]

The Krajina episode -- the largest in the recent Yugoslav wars, at least until this week in Kosovo -- exposes the hypocrisy of the Clinton claims as to why intervention in Kosovo is a humanitarian imperative:

"Within four days, the Croatians drove out 150,000 Serbs, the largest [until this week] ethnic cleansing of the entire Balkan wars. Investigators in the Hague have concluded that this campaign was carried out with brutality, wanton murder, and indiscriminate shelling of civilians. . . . Krajina is Kosovo writ large. And yet, at the same time, the U.S. did not stop or even protest the Croatian action. The Clinton Administration tacitly encouraged it." [Charles Krauthammer, "The Clinton Doctrine," Time magazine, 4/5/99]

In short, the absence of official confirmation of the reports cited below can hardly be considered the last word in the matter. And given this Administration's record, one might treat with some degree of skepticism even a flat denial of KLA drug and terror ties -- which thus far has not been offered. As the Clinton Administration searches for new options in its Kosovo policy, these reports about KLA should not be lightly dismissed.

Reports on KLA Drug and Criminal Links

Elements informally known as the "Albanian mafia," composed largely of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, have for several years been a feature of the criminal underworld in a number of cities in Europe and North America; they have been particularly prominent in the trade in illegal narcotics. [See, for example,"The Albanian Cartel: Filling the Crime Void," Jane's Intelligence Review, November 1995.] The cities where the Albanian cartels are located are also fertile ground for fundraising for support of the Albanian cause in Kosovo. [See, for example, "Albanians in Exile Send Millions of Dollars to Support the KLA," BBC, 3/12/99.]

The reported link between drug activities and arms purchases for anti-Serb Albanian forces in Kosovo predates the formation of the KLA, and indeed, may be seen as a key resource that allowed the KLA to establish itself as a force in the first place:

"Narcotics smuggling has become a prime source of financing for civil wars already under way -- or rapidly brewing -- in southern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, according to a report issued here this week. The report, by the Paris-based Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues, or Geopolitical Observatory of Drugs, identifies belligerents in the former Yugoslav republics and Turkey as key players in the region's accelerating drugs-for-arms traffic. Albanian nationalists in ethnically tense Macedonia and the Serbian province of Kosovo have built a vast heroin network, leading from the opium fields of Pakistan to black-market arms dealers in Switzerland, which transports up to $2 billion worth of the drug annually into the heart of Europe, the report says. More than 500 Kosovo or Macedonian Albanians are in prison in Switzerland for drug- or arms-trafficking offenses, and more than 1,000 others are under indictment. The arms are reportedly stockpiled in Kosovo for eventual use against the Serbian government in Belgrade, which imposed a violent crackdown on Albanian autonomy advocates in the province five years ago." ["Separatists Supporting Themselves with Traffic in Narcotics," San Francisco Chronicle, 6/10/94]

At the same time, many Albanians in the diaspora have made voluntary contributions to the KLA and are offended at suggestions of drug money funding of that organization:

"Nick Ndrejaj, who retired from the real estate business, lives on a pension in Daytona Beach, Fla. But the retiree has managed to scrape up some money to send to the Kosovo Liberation Army, the rebel force that is opposing Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic. 'It's hard, but we have had to do this all our lives,' says the elderly man. Mr. Ndrejaj is one of many Albanians in America who are sending all they can spare to aid their beleaguered compatriots in central Europe. The disaster in Kosovo is uniting the minority into a major fund-raising and congressional lobbying effort. [ . . . ]
"Typical of the donors is Agim Jusufi, a building superintendent on Manhattan's West Side. Mr. Jusufi gets a weekly paycheck. He describes himself as an ordinary 'working man.' However, he has donated $5,000 to the KLA. 'It is always stressed that we should donate when we can,' he says, 'We are in a grave moment, so we are raising money.' Jusufi bridles over reports that drug money funds the KLA. There has been an Albanian organized-crime element involved in the drug trade for decades. But, he says, in this country, the money comes from hard-working immigrants. 'We have canceled checks to prove it,' he says. " ["Pulling Political and Purse Strings," Christian Science Monitor, 3/31/99]

Without access to the KLA's ledgers, it is hard to estimate what part of the group's funds might come from legitimate sources and what part from drugs. One unnamed intelligence source puts the percentage of drug money in the KLA's coffers at one-half ["Drugs Money Linked to the Kosovo Rebels," The Times (London), 3/24/99]. The following is a sample of the reports linking the KLA to funding by narcotics-smuggling crime organizations:

"The Kosovo Liberation Army, which has won the support of the West for its guerrilla struggle against the heavy armour of the Serbs, is a Marxist-led force funded by dubious sources, including drug money. That is the judgment of senior police officers across Europe. An investigation by The Times has established that police forces in three Western European countries, together with Europol, the European police authority, are separately investigating growing evidence that drug money is funding the KLA's leap from obscurity to power. The financing of the Kosovo guerrilla war poses critical questions and it sorely tests claims to an 'ethical' foreign policy. Should the West back a guerrilla army that appears to be partly financed by organised crime? Could the KLA's need for funds be fuelling the heroin trade across Europe? . . . As well as diverting charitable donations from exiled Kosovans, some of the KLA money is thought to come from drug dealing. Sweden is investigating suspicions of a KLA drug connection. 'We have intelligence leading us to believe that there could be a connection between drug money and the Kosovo Liberation Army,' said Walter Kege, head of the drug enforcement unit in the Swedish police intelligence service. Supporting intelligence has come from other states. 'We have yet to find direct evidence, but our experience tells us that the channels for trading hard drugs are also used for weapons,' said one Swiss police commander. . . . One Western intelligence report quoted by Berliner Zeitung says that DM900 million has reached Kosovo since the guerrillas began operations and half the sum is said to be illegal drug money. In particular, European countries are investigating the Albanian connection: whether Kosovan Albanians living primarily in Germany and Switzerland are creaming off the profits from inner-city heroin dealing and sending the cash to the KLA. Albania -- which plays a key role in channelling money to the Kosovans -- is at the hub of Europe's drug trade. An intelligence report which was prepared by Germany's Federal Criminal Agency concluded: 'Ethnic Albanians are now the most prominent group in the distribution of heroin in Western consumer countries.' Europol, which is based in The Hague, is preparing a report for European interior and justice ministers on a connection between the KLA and Albanian drug gangs. Police in the Czech Republic recently tracked down a Kosovo Albanian drug dealer named Doboshi who had escaped from a Norwegian prison where he was serving 12 years for heroin trading. A raid on Doboshi's apartment turned up documents linking him with arms purchases for the KLA." ["Drugs Money Linked to the Kosovo Rebels," The Times (London), 3/24/99]
"Western intelligence agencies believe the UCK [KLA] has been re-arming with the aid of money from drug-smuggling through Albania, along with donations from the Albanian diaspora in Western Europe and North America. . . . Albania has become the crime capital of Europe. The most powerful groups in the country are organized criminals who use Albania to grow, process, and store a large percentage of the illegal drugs destined for Western Europe. . . . Albania's criminal gangs are actively supporting the war in Kosovo. Many of them have family links to Albanian groups in Kosovo and support them with arms and other supplies, either out of family solidarity or solely for profit. These links mean the UCK fighters have a secure base area and reasonably good lines of communiction to the outside world. Serb troops have tried to seal the border but with little success." ["Life in the Balkan 'Tinderbox' Remains as Dangerous as Ever," Jane's Intelligence Review, 3/1/99]
"Drugs traffickers in Italy, in Germany, in Spain, in France, and in Norway: Kosovo Albanians. The men from the Special Operations Section [ROS] of the carabinieri [i.e., Italian national police], under the leadership of General Mario Mori, have succeeded in neutralizing a fully fledged network of Albanian drugs traffickers. The leader of this network is a certain Gashi Agim, aged 33, originally from Pristina, the capital of the small region that is being torn apart by the struggle between on the one hand the local population, 90 percent of whom are of Albanian ethnic origin and who are calling for independence from Serbia, and [the Yugoslav government] on the other . . . Gashi was arrested early this summer along with 124 drugs traffickers. 'Milan at this juncture has become a crossroads of interests for many fighting groups,' a detective with the ROS explained. 'These groups include also the Albanians from Kosovo who are among the most dangerous traffickers in drugs and in arms. . . . The war in Kosovo has partly slowed down the criminals' business because many Albanians have been forced to take care of their families. Some of them are activists in the armed movement of the KLA fighters and have gone home to fight. They feel Albanian. They are fighting to achieve annexation to Albania. And it is precisely there that at least a part of the sea of money that the Albanian drugs traffickers have amassed is reported to have ended up, to support the families and to fund both certain political personalities and the anti-Serb movement. In spring, a number of Albanian drugs traffickers actually went as far as to take part in the organization of a rally in favor of independence for Kosovo. . . . Drugs, arms, and the Koran: Could this be the murderous crime mix of the next few years?" ["Albanian Mafia, This Is How It Helps The Kosovo Guerrilla Fighters," Corriere della Sera (Milan, Italy), 10/15/98]
"A group of Kosovo Albanians smuggling arms back to their troubled province were among 100 people arrested in a massive, countrywide anti-drug operation in Italy, police here said Tuesday. All the 100 -- 90 of whom were arrested in Italy, the rest in other European countries -- face weapons charges related to international drug trafficking. Anti-Mafia prosecutors in Milan, who conducted the operation with paramilitary police units, identified eight criminal structures active on an international scale. One hundred kilos (220 pounds) of heroin and cocaine was seized in the bust across several Italian regions. Investigators said the groups used Milan as a base, with cafes, restaurants, garages and other firms acting as fronts. The Kosovar Albanian gang allegedly used drug money to buy the weapons in Italy, which were then sent to Kosovo where a three-month conflict is pitting Serbian forces against armed ethnic Albanians seeking independence. Another separate group of Egyptians with links to Calabrian and Albanian gangs were arrested on suspicions of laundering money through Switzerland for use by fundamentalists in Egypt." ["Major Italian Drug Bust Breaks Kosovo Arms Trafficking," Agence France-Presse, 6/9/98]
"The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has claimed responsibility for more than 50 attacks on Serbs and Albanians loyal to the Belgrade government, but little is known about the separatist group. . . . Details of the KLA, which the United States calls a terrorist organization, are sketchy at best. Western intelligence sources believe there are no more than several hundred members under arms with military training. Serbian police estimate there are at least 2,000 well-armed men. The KLA is said to rely heavily on a huge network of informers and sympathizers, enabling it to blend easily among the population. The Western sources also believe the core of the organization consists of Albanians who fled into exile in the 1970s and based their operation in Switzerland, where its funding is gathered from all over the world. 'If the West wants to nip the KLA in the bud, all it has to do is crack down on its financial nerve center in Switzerland,' one source said. Part of the funding, this source believes, comes from the powerful Albanian mafia organizations that deal in narcotics, prostitution and arms smuggling across Europe. The KLA has admitted having training bases in northern Albania, which the Albanian government does not condone but is powerless to stop." ["Speculation Plentiful, Facts Few About Kosovo Separatist Group," Baltimore Sun, 3/6/98]
"The bulk of the financing of the UCK [KLA] seems to originate from two sources: drug-related operations and Kosovo Albanian emigres in the West. The former Yugoslavia has always been on the main European drug transit route. With the break-up of that country, the route has been somewhat modified; West-Europe-bound narcotics now enter Macedonia and Albania and are then distributed towards Western Europe through Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Croatia." [Jane's Intelligence Review, "Another Balkans Bloodbath? -- Part One," 2/1/98]
"Socially organized in extended families bound together in clan alliances, Kosovar Albanians dominate the Albanian mafia in the southern Balkans. Other than Kosovo, the Albanian mafia is also active in northern Albania and western Macedonia. In this context, the so-called 'Balkan Medellin' is made up of a number of geographically connected border towns . . . . If left unchecked, this growing Albanian narco-terrorism could lead to a Colombian syndrome in the southern Balkans, or the emergence of a situation in which the Albanian mafia becomes powerful enough to control one or more states in the region. In practical terms, this will involve either Albania or Macedonia, or both. Politically, this is now being done by channelling growing foreign exchange (forex) profits from narco-terrorism into local governments and political parties. In Albania, the ruling Democratic Party (DP) led by President Sali Berisha is now widely suspected of tacitly tolerating and even directly profiting from drug-trafficking for wider politico-economic reasons, namely the financing of secessionist political parties and other groupings in Kosovo and Macedonia." ["The Balkan Medellin," Jane's 3/1/95; Albanian then-president Berisha lost power in 1997 and is now a known KLA patron in northern Albania.]

Reports on Islamic Terror Links

The KLA's main staging area is in the vicinity of the town of Tropoje in northern Albania [Jane's International Defense Review, 2/1/99]. Tropoje, the hometown and current base of former Albanian president Sali Berisha, a major KLA patron, is also a known center for Islamic terrorists connected with Saudi renegade Osama bin-Ladin. [For a report on the presence of bin-Ladin assets in Tropoje and connections to anti-American Islamic terrorism, see "U.S. Blasts' Possible Mideast Ties: Alleged Terrorists Investigated in Albania, Washington Post, 8/12/98.]

The following reports note the presence of foreign mujahedin (i.e., Islamic holy warriors) in the Kosovo war, some of them jihad veterans from Bosnia, Chechnya, and Afghanistan. Some of the reports specifically cite assets of Iran or bin-Ladin, or both, in support of the KLA. To some, "mujahedin" does not necessarily equal "terrorists." But since the foreign fighters have not been considerate enough to provide an organizational chart detailing the exact relationship among the various groups, the reported presence of foreign fighters together with known terrorists in the KLA's stronghold at least raises serious questions about the implications for the Clinton Administration's increasingly close ties to the KLA:

"Serbian officials say Mujahideen have formed groups that remained behind in Bosnia. Groups from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Chechnya are also involved in Albanian guerrilla operations. A document found on the body of Alija Rabic, an Albanian UCK member killed in a border crossing incident last July, indicated he was guiding a 50-man group from Albania into Kosovo. The group included one Yemeni and 16 Saudis, six of whom bore passports with Macedonian Albanian names. Other UCK rebels killed crossing the Albanian frontier have carried Bosnian Muslim Federation papers." [Jane's International Defense Review, "Unhealthy Climate in Kosovo as Guerrillas Gear Up for a Summer Confrontation," 2/1/99]
"Mujahidin fighters have joined the Kosovo Liberation Army, dimming prospects of a peaceful solution to the conflict and fuelling fears of heightened violence next spring.. . . . Their arrival in Kosovo may force Washington to review its policy in the Serbian province and will deepen Western dismay with the KLA and its tactics. . . . 'Captain Dula', the local KLA commander, was clearly embarrassed at the unexpected presence of foreign journalists and said that he had little idea who was sending the Mujahidin or where they came from; only that it was neither Kosovo nor Albania. 'I've got no information about them,' Captain Dula said. 'We don't talk about it.' . . . American diplomats in the region, especially Robert Gelbard, the special envoy, have often expressed fears of an Islamic hardline infiltration into the Kosovo independence movement. . . . American intelligence has raised the possibility of a link between Osama bin Laden, the Saudi expatriate blamed for the bombing in August of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and the KLA. Several of Bin Laden's supporters were arrested in Tirana, the Albanian capital, and deported this summer, and the chaotic conditions in the country have allowed Muslim extremists to settle there, often under the guise of humanitarian workers. . . . 'I interviewed one guy from Saudi Arabia who said that it was his eighth jihad,' a Dutch journalist said." ["U.S. Alarmed as Mujahidin Join Kosovo Rebels," The Times (London), 11/26/98]
"Diplomats in the region say Bosnia was the first bastion of Islamic power. The autonomous Yugoslav region of Kosovo promises to be the second. During the current rebellion against the Yugoslav army, the ethnic Albanians in the province, most of whom are Moslem, have been provided with financial and military support from Islamic countries. They are being bolstered by hundreds of Iranian fighters, or Mujahadeen, who infiltrate from nearby Albania and call themselves the Kosovo Liberation Army. US defense officials say the support includes that of Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi terrorist accused of masterminding the bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. A Defense Department statement on August 20 said Bin Laden's Al Qa'ida organization supports Moslem fighters in both Bosnia and Kosovo. . . . The KLA strength was not the southern Kosovo region, which over the centuries turned from a majority of Serbs to ethnic Albanians. The KLA, however, was strong in neighboring Albania, which today has virtually no central government. The crisis in Albania led Iran to quickly move in to fill the vacuum. Iranian Revolutionary Guards began to train KLA members. . . . Selected groups of Albanians were sent to Iran to study that country's version of militant Islam. So far, Yugoslav officials and Western diplomats agree that millions of dollars have been funnelled through Bosnia and Albania to buy arms for the KLA. The money is raised from both Islamic governments and from Islamic communities in Western Europe, particularly Germany. . . . 'Iran has been active in helping out the Kosovo rebels,' Ephraim Kam, deputy director of Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, said. 'Iran sees Kosovo and Albania as containing Moslem communities that require help and Teheran is willing to do it.' But much of the training of the KLA remains based in Bosnia. Intelligence sources say mercenaries and volunteers for the separatist movement have been recruited and paid handsome salaries. . . . The trainers and fighters in the KLA include many of the Iranians who fought in Bosnia in the early 1990s. Intelligence sources place their number at 7,000, many of whom have married Bosnian women. There are also Afghans, Algerians, Chechens, and Egyptians." ["Kosovo Seen as New Islamic Bastion," Jerusalem Post, 9/14/98]
". . . By late 1997, the Tehran-sponsored training and preparations of the Liberation Army of Kosovo (UCK -- Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves -- in Albanian, OVK in Serbian), as well as the transfer of weapons and experts via Albania, were being increased. Significantly, Tehran's primary objective in Kosovo has evolved from merely assisting a Muslim minority in distress to furthering the consolidation of the Islamic strategic axis along the Sarajevo-to-Tirane line. And only by expanding and escalating subversive and Islamist-political presence can this objective be attained. . . In the Fall of 1997, the uppermost leadership in Tehran ordered the IRGC [Revolutionary Guards] High Command to launch a major program for shipping large quantities of weapons and other military supplies to the Albanian clandestine organisations in Kosovo. [The supreme Iranian spiritual leader, the Ayatollah] Khamene'i's instructions specifically stipulated that the comprehensive military assistance was aimed to enable the Muslims 'to achieve the independence' of the province of Kosovo. . . . [B]y early December 1997, Iranian intelligence had already delivered the first shipments of hand grenades, machine-guns, assault rifles, night vision equipment, and communications gear from stockpiles in Albania into Kosovo. The mere fact that the Iranians could despatch the first supplies within a few days and in absolute secrecy reflect extensive advance preparations made in Albania in anticipation for such instructions from Tehran. Moreover, the Iranians began sending promising Albanian and UCK commanders for advanced military training in al-Quds [special] forces and IRGC camps in Iran. Meanwhile, weapons shipments continue. Thus, Tehran is well on its way to establishing a bridgehead in Kosovo. . . The liberation army was to be only the first phase in building military power. Ultimately, the Kosovo Albanians must field such heavy weapons as tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery, and rocket launchers, if they hope to evict the Serbian forces from Kosovo. . . . The spate of UCK terrorism during the Fall of 1997, . . . should be considered intentional provocations against the Serbian police aimed to elicit a massive retaliation that would in turn lead to a popular uprising. Thus, the ongoing terrorism campaign in Kosovo should be considered the initial phases in implementing the call for an uprising. Iran-sponsored activists have already spread the word through Kosovo that the liberation war has already broken out. If current trends prevail, the increasingly Islamist UCK will soon become the main factor in overturning the long-term status quo in the region. Concurrently, the terrorist activities have become part of everyday life throughout Kosovo. Given the extent of the propaganda campaign and the assistance provided by Iran, the spread of terrorism should indeed be considered the beginning of an armed rebellion that threatens a major escalation." ["Italy Becomes Iran's New Base for Terrorist Operations," by Yossef Bodansky, Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy (London), February 1998. Bodansky is Director of the House Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. This report was written in late 1997, before the KLA's offensive in early 1998.]

Thousands march in NYC to say: 'Kosovo is Serbia'

2008-03-07T03:13:00.000-08:00

By John Catalinotto
New York

Published Mar 6, 2008 9:22 PM

A march more than five blocks long went from Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, near the United Nations, through Times Square and past Madison Square Garden to protest the U.S. theft of Serbia’s Kosovo. Many New Yorkers and tourists watched with interest as the marchers went on their way to the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church on 25th Street near Broadway.

WW photo: John Catalinotto

The province of Kosovo and Metohija, ruled by the same people now who took over the province under cover of a NATO war and occupation in 1999, declared its “independence” from Serbia on Feb. 17. The new entity, however, is administered by European Union officials and policed by U.S.-NATO troops. The Pentagon maintains a major military base, Camp Bondsteel, in Kosovo, with 7,000 U.S. troops. Speakers at the rally preceding the march ridiculed the idea that this ministate could be called “independent.”

The demonstrators carried a huge Serbian flag along with the flags of the 170 countries that had not recognized the new Kosovo entity. The many flags fluttering in the wind gave an international feeling to the protesters, who also carried many posters with the major slogans of the march: “U.S. hands off Serbia; Kosovo is Serbia” and “No to the U.S. colony.”

At a rally starting at 2 p.m. in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, speakers represented organizations in the local Serb and Yugoslav community and the Greek community as well as many others. Among the speakers were Father Djokan Majstorovic from St. Sava, who led an opening prayer; human rights leader Ramsey Clark, who visited Yugoslavia in solidarity as the U.S. was bombing that country in 1999; and former Serbian Information Minister Radmila Milentijevic, a professor emeritus at the City University of New York.

Russian composer Lara Kritskaya, Serb-American author Nadja Tesich, Puerto Rican activist Arturo Perez-Saad, Serb-American composer Milos Raickovich and professor Barry Lituchy were among the other speakers and working-class organizations. The action was called jointly by the STOP Coalition and the International Action Center. The rally was chaired by IAC co-director Sara Flounders and John Bosnitch from STOP.

Every reference to anyone having to do with either the Bill Clinton administration or the George W. Bush administration was soundly booed by the audience. Every statement that “Kosovo is Serbia” was repeated and chanted by the people there.

The march was accompanied by the voices of the St. Sava children’s choir.

Catalinotto—who co-edited “Hidden Agenda—the U.S.-NATO takeover of Yugoslavia,” spoke at the rally as an editor of Workers World newspaper.

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UN Security Council set to hold Kosovo session

2008-03-07T03:03:00.000-08:00

09:32 | 07/ 03/ 2008

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 (RIA Novosti) - On Serbia's request, Russia has called for a session of the UN Security Council to be held next Tuesday to discuss Kosovo, a spokesperson for Russia's office to the UN told reporters on Friday.

Supported by Russia, which has strongly opposed Kosovo's independence, Serbia called on Thursday for a new UN Security Council session to be held on Kosovo's secession. Russia holds the rotating UN Security Council presidency in March.

A previous Security Council session, held shortly after Kosovo declared independence on February 17, ended without agreement on a resolution or a joint statement regarding the "world's newest state."

Speaking after a meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic in New York on Thursday, Viltaly Churkin, Russia's envoy to the UN Security Council, said Russia was "attentively following the situation in Kosovo."

Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's envoy to the European Union, said his country was not exerting pressure on EU member states not to recognize Kosovo's unilateral independence.

"The lack of unity in the EU on the recognition of Kosovo's independence is not a result of Russia's attempts to divide the European Union," Chizov told the press in Brussels.

The official said he believed this was not an end to the Balkan crisis, but a transition to a new stage of it.

"I am very much afraid that this phase will be more intense than the last one," Chizhov said.

So far over 25 states, including the United States, Australia, Japan and major European countries, have formally recognized the Republic of Kosovo.

Belgrade has recalled its ambassadors from a number of countries recognizing Kosovo's independence. Russia has pledged to block any move by Kosovo to join the United Nations.

Why India must oppose Kosovo’s independence

2008-03-07T02:48:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, 05 March , 2008, 20:36

by Maloy Krishna Dhar
I am not sowing a new idea. I am just sharing the concerns and apprehensions expressed in several world capitals over the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, a breakaway Albanian Muslim majority province of Serbia.

Normally a distant Muslim province of two million people of which 10 percent are Orthodox Christian Serbs should not bother us. So far, it has certainly not bothered the government of India and our Great Political Parties.

However, history has put the Balkan people, especially the Serbs, at the cruces of civilisations. The Turks finally defeated the patriotic Serbs at the battle of Kosovo in 1389 and began its advance into European heartland. The Serbs have never got over it, as most patriotic Indians cannot forget the dubious defeat of Prithwiraj Chauhan at the Second Battle of Tarain.

Serbia was the most advanced segment of Eastern Europe. The Turks patronised the pliable Bosnians and converted them to Islam and persecuted the Orthodox Christians in Serbia. The last gasps of the Cold War initiated the disintegration of Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia-1991; Bosnia-Herzegovina-1992; Montenegro-2006 and now the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo on February 18, 2008, when the territory is still under UN administration.

The proud Serbs are yet to forget the bloody bites of history. European historiographers agree: the Serbs do not forget their history.

The US has probably seeded another poison-tree that might lead to the Third World War. Sarajevo in Bosnia had sparked off the First World War. Sarajevo was the scene of several important battles between Allied resistance fighters and the Germans in World War II

These new ethno-religious states are somewhat like the creation of Israel after unplanned withdrawal of British mandate in 1948, and the creation of Pakistan after their planned escape from India in 1747. Creation of new nations based on religion and redrawing national boundaries of several states had started after the First World War. After the Second World Order, the Big Powers assumed this task as a matter of international policing privilege.

Kosovo had been on the boil since 1989. The turmoil during the last decade in which the NATO assumed the role of Big Protector of Islamic minority in the Balkans paving the way for creation of Bosnia had encouraged the Kosovar Albanians to wage a jihad-type struggle with Turkish, Iranian, Pakistani and Al Qaeda backing. These very pro-jihad forces had also interfered in Bosnia.

Kosovo has not only committed a crime against Serbia by unilaterally breaking away; it has also committed a crime against the UN by flouting its mandate under transparent encouragement of the US and its major allies, France, Britain and Germany. These countries have already recognised the illegitimate country and its illegal government.

Serbia has lodged a complaint with the Security Council, where China and Russia are likely oppose the US and EU action. Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic has said Kosovo’s declaration of independence was illegal and illegitimate. Speaking at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, he said those who had recognised Kosovo had set a dangerous precedent.

Condemning the positioning of a EU Mission in Kosovo as an act of flagrant violation international law, he said: “By the actions of some European member-states, every would-be ethnic or religious separatist across Europe and around the world has been provided with a tool kit on how to achieve recognition.”

It is clear that Pristina’s declaration of independence has divided the world capitals. The UN has again been proved to be an ineffective international mechanism for conflict resolution.

Russia has reacted with reasonable alarm. It described Kosovo’s proclamation of independence as a “gross violation” of international law and criticised the European Union’s sending of a “Rule of Law Mission” intended to help stabilise Kosovo. The mission comprises some 2,000 people who would train and mentor police, judges and customs officials.

Kosovo’s move appeared as a litmus test of attitudes in Asia and elsewhere toward secession from mother countries.

Russian concerns have been echoed by China, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. China criticised Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia while Taiwan welcomed it. China is worried about similar action by Taiwan, which has recognised Kosovo. China is also concerned about its western Xinziang area, where Uyghur Muslim rebels are fighting a ‘liberation war’ for over three decades. The Tibet issue too has the potential of troubling Beijing again.

Sri Lanka has voiced concern out of fear that the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) might follow the Kosovo example and might even be recognised by some world capitals.

Indonesia has already lost East Timor and is worried about the Aceh province, where rebels want to secede from the mainland regime.

Thailand is involved in fighting the Muslim minorities in the three southern provinces. International Islamic Jihad is patronising the Thai Muslim rebels.

These are not the only areas where the seemingly affected ethno-religious groups can take Kosovo style action. Similar situations exist in Darfur region of Sudan and the Shan, Kachin and Rakhine (Arakan) provinces of Myanmar. What would the US and UN reaction be if these ethno-religious groups break away and declare independence? Would they come to their help, send an EU Mission, establish embassies and open up UN aid missions? This may sound filmy, but after Kosovo everything appears to be possible.

If this policy of the US and its allies is accepted as part of the new global political order, the Chechens, Dagestanis and Ingusetians should also have solid international support to breakaway from Russia. Russia has already indicated that the Kosovo principle can be applied to Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh of Georgia and Armenia. These regions are already trying to merge with Russia. They might as well declare unilateral independence.

Would the US and its allies now go for three separate nations in Iraq - Sunni, Shia and Kurdish? Would the UK agree to create a separate Northern Ireland and give full political rights to the Catholic Irish community?

Can the US and the EU recognise the unilateral declaration of sovereignty by Balochistan and Balawaristan (the Northern Areas of Pakistan-part of greater Kashmir)? If they do, what would remain of Pakistan? Washington should not aid Islamabad to suppress the Balochis and Balawaris while it abets secession by Kosovo.

India exists as a nation as all ethno-religious and linguistic subnationalities have mutually agreed to make it a nation-state, rising above narrow considerations. However, Pakistan continues to incite and abate sections of misdirected Kashmiri and mainland Muslims for seceding from India.

The Kashmir Media Service (February 20, 2008), a pro-separatist website, quoted the pro-liberation leaders like Syed Ali Gilani and Shabbir Ahmad Shah of the All Party Hurriyat Conference and chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Muhammad Yasin Malik as saying that the sacrifices of the Kashmiris would not be allowed to go waste. They cited Kosovo as a ray of hope and urged the international community to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

Would the US and EU now accept a unilateral declaration of independence by the pro-Pakistani Kashmir leaders? Can New Delhi prevent them?

Western media like the International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Moscow Times, and The Jerusalem Times etc have highlighted that besides Kashmir, disaffected Sikh groups, ethnic and tribal groups in the northeast are also keen to secede from India.

Can India afford to cope with these insurgencies, separatist movements in addition to fighting the ‘proxy war’ launched by Pakistan and the marauding guerrilla actions by the Maoist groups? Would the US and EU come forward to support the NSCN, ULFA and PREPAK etc in the northeast?

Why not? Kosovo has written new international laws for all the simmering separatist movements.

The government of India has so far remained silent about the Kosovo developments basically out of fear that any opposing statement would erode its ‘secular’ image, annoy its targeted vote banks and displease its supposed friends in the comity of Muslim nations.

It is time for India to stridently oppose unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, while under UN administration. India should openly support Russia and China in the UN and ask Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to explain to the world body as to how the US and allies could bury the UN mandate and agree to the creation of another nation on ethno-religious considerations.

Kosovo would not be the last, in case the Big Brothers are allowed to use the NATO as a mandated force of the neo-imperialists. Who could prevent the NATO to frog-leap to Kashmir from Afghanistan?

This new world order is likely to lead to greater world-disorder.

Maloy Krishna Dhar started life off as a junior reporter for Amrita Bazaar Patrika in Calcutta and a part-time lecturer. He joined the Indian Police Service in 1964 and was permanently seconded to the Intelligence Bureau. During his long stint in the Bureau, Dhar saw action in almost all Northeastern states, Sikkim, Punjab and Kashmir. He also handled delicate internal political and several counterintelligence assignments. After retiring in 1996 as joint director, he took to freelance journalism and writing books. Titles credited to him are Open Secrets-India's Intelligence Unveiled, Fulcrum of Evil — ISI, CIA, al-Qaeda Nexus, and Mission to Pakistan. Maloy is considered a top security analyst and a social scientist who tries to portray Indian society through his writings.

The State Is A Lie--Kosovo, Dependent

2008-03-06T14:31:00.000-08:00

by Nebojsa Malic
antiwar.com

It has been more than three weeks since the occupied Serbian province of Kosovo declared dependence and gained recognition from a handful of countries presuming themselves above international law. Serbia has refused to accept this seizure of its territory. Serbs in Kosovo are engaging in civil disobedience to the Albanian-dominated regime, and the EU mission sent to "guide" it. There have been protests against the illegal separation of Kosovo around the world for the past two weeks [ed. emphasis] . In Belgrade, hundreds of thousands marched peacefully, gathering for a prayer service afterwards; a handful disgracefully used the protests as a cover for looting, while one group attacked foreign embassies, including that of the U.S.

Washington's reaction – howls of self-righteous indignation – exposed the full frontal hypocrisy of the Empire. The embassy attack was denounced as a gross violation of U.S. sovereignty, even as State Department officials were busily spreading falsehoods about the U.S. violation of Serbian sovereignty as something desirable, acceptable, and proper. American media just about declared an open season on Serbs.

Already, there is blowback from the decision to detach Kosovo from Serbia and recognize it as a EU protectorate. Separatists the world over have taken note of the development, and despite official proclamations from Washington, London, Paris, and Berlin, very much believe it is a precedent for the future. Last week, Costa Rica recognized Kosovo – and threw in Palestine while at it.

Failed From The Start

Declaring "independence" of Kosovo, leader of the terrorist KLA and "prime minister" of the separatist province, Hashim Thaci, boasted how he would get a hundred recognitions in no time. So far, there have been less than thirty, out of nearly two hundred states in the world.

Torturing the body and spirit of UNSCR 1244, the EU dispatched a mission to the province, ostensibly to "help out" the Thaci government. The incongruously named EULEX ("lex" meaning "law," where there just isn't any), however, bears more resemblance to the protectorate established in nearby Bosnia, with Dutch "diplomat" Peter Feith as acting viceroy. Feith, by the way, is no stranger to working with the KLA. In 2001, he was the NATO envoy who brokered an end to their banditry in southern Serbia.

Feith is also the head of the International Steering Group, a body of countries that have recognized the "independence" of Kosovo and are taking a hand in steering it. The ISG was envisioned by the failed Ahtisaari plan, never approved by the UN and vehemently rejected by Belgrade. It appears the KLA regime's sponsors are trying to implement it anyway. However, further complicating things, the UN has not authorized the EU mission, and there appears to be quite a jurisdictional conflict between it and UNMIK. Between the UN, the EU, the Albanians, and the Serbs' refusal to recognize the new regime, the province is an even bigger mess than at any point since 1999.

Both the Thaci regime and its international sponsors have spoken out against "partition" of Kosovo, with Thaci threatening he would not "yield one inch" of territory. Having just wantonly violated the borders of Serbia, the KLA and the Empire now dare claim the borders of Kosovo are sacred…

Lies Diplomats Tell

On February 27, the New York Times and International Herald Tribune published an op-ed by Serbia's Minister Vuk Jeremic, arguing against the carve-up of his country. Jeremic, educated in the U.S. and the UK, was personally appointed by Empire's fair-haired boy, Serbian president Boris Tadic. His appeal drew on themes from American history (borrowing the title from the Pledge of Allegiance) and used the very latest in politically correct phraseology.

It did him absolutely no good. The outgoing undersecretary of State, Nicholas Burns (for the past three years at the helm of the Bush administration's Clintonian Kosovo policy) condemned Jeremic's reasoned statement as "invective" and called it hypocritical (!). How dare they complain, said Burns, when they "marched into Kosovo" in 1999 and "tried to drive a million Kosovar Albanian muslims out of the country"?

It was a typical Burnsian torture of truth; the only people "marching into Kosovo" in 1999 were NATO occupiers. The alleged plan to expel Albanians was shown to be a fabrication. One more thing of interest; Burns has on multiple occasions emphasized the Albanians' Islamic faith. Yet U.S. officials and the Albanians themselves jeer when anyone brings up the issue of Islam. Well, which is it? Are they Muslims first and foremost (and therefore one can discuss Islamic radicalism), or not? It can't be both, or neither, whenever convenient.

Another U.S. "diplomat," Deputy Secretary for Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried, also engaged in wholesale torture of history in a C-SPAN appearance on February 22. As transcripts of the show demonstrate, he tried to justify U.S. actions in the province by invoking "facts" with little or no basis in reality.

Secretary Rice herself demonstrated either ignorance or stupidity when she told the press that Kosovo was a done deal and the Serbs should get over it: "I mean, after all, we're talking about something from 1389. It's time to move forward." Her spokesman, Tom Casey, told the press on February 25, "it ought to be clear to everybody at this point that Kosovo is never going to be a part of Serbia again."

One doesn't know where to start, confronted with such arrogance, hypocrisy, stupidity and mendacity. Perhaps it is best to quote an observation by Joshua Trevino of the Brussels Journal:

"They wished to bring to an illusory close the feel-good narrative of America's last 'good war,' in an era were such narratives are pitifully thin; and they simultaneously wished to isolate that narrative from history in toto. Their desire is strong enough that they will lie to the American people and the world as needed: see here, for example, Under Secretary Burns reversing the chronology of the 1999 Kosovo war, and egregiously mischaracterizing the explicit content of U.N. Resolution 1244. The exercise deceives no one but themselves."

Open Season

From the remarks by U.S. "diplomats," it is pretty clear that their Serbophobia was not caused by the attack on the U.S. embassy on February 21, but was rather deep-seated and already established. Something similar can be said for the Washington Post, a paper noted for its rabid Russophobia. And what are Serbs but surrogate Russians, right? In an invective-laden editorial on February 23, the Post denounced Prime Minister Kostunica as a "thug" and his policies as "poisonous nationalist posturing." The latter mirrors the language used in a mid-2006 iditorial, also denouncing Kostunica (and president Tadic as well), and bearing equal resemblance to reality.

The Post editorial seemed to open a season on Serbs; within two days, it was followed by the Seattle Times, which also used the "thug" meme, and argued that Serbia ought to be "smacked down." By the end of the week, Serb-bashing had made its way to American politics. The Republican challenger running against Congresswoman Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) has brought up her Serbian heritage and "disturbing" support for Serbia as campaign issues.

Uncertain Future

Pompous pronouncements from Foggy Bottom notwithstanding, the declaration and recognition of the KLA regime in Kosovo has opened a veritable Pandora's box in international relations. Countries all over the world are observing the trampling of law and order by the American Empire, and wondering if they are next. By seeking to finish what Clinton started, the Bush administration has demonstrated that the Empire is a bipartisan project; that both John McCain and Hillary Clinton support "Kosova" is proof how little choice Americans actually have come November. (True to form, Barack Obama has issued an equivocating statement, supporting the false state but also claiming Serbia's place is in the West.)

Ten years ago, Kosovo was a local conflict, one that Serbs and Albanians have waged for control of the territory since the 1700s. By arming, training and funding the KLA, then stepping in as its air force, the Empire has made it into global issue. By recognizing the occupied province as an "independent," ethnically cleansed, Albanian Muslim state, it has rejected law in favor of force, and morals in favor of power. It is hard to predict what will follow, but whatever it is, it won't be good.