February 23, 2008

EDMONTON JOURNAL More Letters

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=17d5e2cd-3718-49e5-bab0-96e6127e61e7&k=25630

EDMONTON JOURNAL (CANADA)

More Letters

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Kosovo will undoubtedly become a dependant independent state recognized by a
good number of the western worlds power brokers. The Albanian president is
already predicting his nation along with Kosovo will join the EU at the same
time. Bamir Topi's comments may be wishful thinking considering how many
nations have refused to recognize Kosovo as free from Serbia proper.

Listening to diplomats from the U.S., France, or Great Britain, or even the
world's media, one could come to the conclusion that Kosovo is more than
deserving of independence from Serbia. In reality, this is so far from the
truth. Of all the independence movements around the world, Kosovo is
probably the least qualified to join the group of free and democratic
nations. The media has done a poor job in presenting a balanced view of the
region, and a good job at further demonizing the Serbs of the area. Albeit,
the Serbian government has set the stage for the negative characterization
of their people.

This being said, one rarely reads or hears about the ethnic cleansing that
took place after the 1999 NATO bombing campaign. Since NATO peacekeepers
arrived in Kosovo, more than 200,000 citizens of the area have been forced
to flee. This total includes Serbs, Roma, Gorani, Bosnians, Turks, and other
minorities. The ethnic Albanian population, lead by the KLA, has made it
policy to remove all non-Albanians. Pristina is the only ethnically cleansed
capital in all of Europe.

How can the west have faith that the KLA-dominated Kosovo government will
secure its remaining minority population when the KLA is

known by European governments to have far reaching criminal activities? The
KLA, which was on the U.S. terrorist list before they decided to arm and
train them as proxy combatants in their battle against the milosevic regime,
is involved in heroin trafficking from Afghanistan, weapons smuggling, oil
and cigarette smuggling, as well as human trafficking of prostitutes from
Eastern Europe into western Europe. Kosovo's current leader (an ex-KLA
fighter himself), founded and organized the Drenica-Group. The Drenica-Group
is a criminal organization that has ties with other organized crime rings
throughout Europe and Albania. In fact, Thaci's sister is married to one of
the most infamous leaders of the Albanian mafia.

The U.S. push for Kosovo independence is perplexing when removing the idea
that this recognition will somehow appease the Muslim world. Considering the
ramifications of past American meddling and support of shady political
players(Bin Laden in Afghanistan), one would think the U.S. would have
learned by past failures when recognizing governments built on the avails of
criminal and terrorist activity.

Dawid Hurowitz, Edmonton