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
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Kosovo independence splits EU on Geogia
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.
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.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Serbia: Kosovo Fuelled Georgia Conflict
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
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
Saturday, July 5, 2008
What comes around, goes around
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.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
The War Street Journal Invents Kosovo
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
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
Friday, June 27, 2008
GERMANY DEMANDS (ILLEGAL) KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
