ICJ Ruling: Blow to Serbia, Boon to Tadic & Jeremic

 

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http://www.balkanstudies.org/blog/icj-ruling-blow-serbia-boon-tadi%C4%87-jeremi%C4%87

 

ICJ Ruling: Blow to Serbia, Boon to Tadic & Jeremic

By Srdja Trifkovic
Thursday, 22 Jul 2010

 

 

Ever since the U.S. intervened in Serbia's domestic politics two years ago and helped the current coalition take power in Belgrade, Boris Tadic and his cohorts have been looking for a way to capitulate on Kosovo while pretending not to. The formula was simple: place all diplomatic eggs in one basket – that of the International Court of Justice – and refrain from using any other political or economic (let alone military) tools at Serbia's disposal. On July 22 the ICJ performed on cue, declaring that Kosovo's UDI was not illegal.

It should be noted that the ICJ has only assessed Kosovo's declaration of independence; it has not considered more widely Kosovo's right to unilateral secession from Serbia. Furthermore, the ICJ has not assessed either the consequences of the adoption of the UDI, namely whether Kosovo is a state, or the legitimacy of its recognition by a number of countries.

The ICJ advisory opinion is deeply flawed and non-binding, but the government in Belgrade now has a perfect alibi for doing what it had intended to do all along.

Following the appointment of Vuk Jeremic as Serbia's foreign minister in 2007, this outcome could be predicted with near-certainty. As President Boris Tadic's chief foreign policy advisor, Jeremic came to Washington on 18 May 2005 to testify in Congress on why Kosovo should stay within Serbia. In his subsequent off-the-record conversations, however, he assured his hosts that the task was really to sugar-coat the bitter Kosovo pill that Serbia would have to swallow anyway.

Two years later another advisor to Tadic, Dr. Leon Kojen, resigned in a blaze of publicity after Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer declared, on April 13, 2007, "We are working with Boris Tadic and his people to find a way to implement the essence of the Ahtisaari plan." Tout Belgrade knew that "Tadic's people" meant—Vuk Jeremic. Gusenbauer's indiscretion amounted to the revelation that Serbia's head of state and his closest advisor were engaged in secret negotiations aimed at facilitating the detachment of Kosovo from Serbia—which, of course, was "the essence of the Ahtisaari plan." Jeremic's quest for sugar-coating the bitter pill was evidently in full swing even before he came to the helm of Serbia's diplomacy.

In the intervening three years Tadic and Jeremic have continued to pursue a dual-track policy on Kosovo. The decisive fruit of that policy was their disastrous decision to accept the European Union's Eulex Mission in Kosovo in December 2008. Acting under an entirely self-created mandate, the EU thus managed to insert its mission, based explicitly on the provisions of the Ahtissari Plan, into Kosovo with Belgrade's agreement. 

That was the moment of Belgrade's true capitulation. Everything else -- the ICJ ruling included -- is just a choreographed farce…
The ICJ opinion crowns two decades of U.S. policy in the former Yugoslavia that has been mendacious and iniquitous in equal measure. By retroactively condoning the Albanian UDI, the Court has made a massive leap into the unknown. That leap is potentially on par with Austria's July 1914 ultimatum to Serbia. The fruits will be equally bitter.

Aiding and abetting Muslim designs in the Balkans, in the hope that this will earn some credit for the United States in the Islamic world, has been a major motive of American policy in the region since at least 1992. It has never yielded any dividends, of course, but repeated failure only prompts the architects of the policy to redouble their efforts.

It is virtually certain that Washington will be equally supportive of an independent Sanjak that would connect Kosovo with Bosnia, or of any putative Islamistan, from western Macedonia to southern Bulgaria to northern Caucasus. The late Tom Lantos must be smiling approvingly wherever he is now, having called, three years ago, on "Jihadists of all color and hue" to take note of "yet another example that the United States leads the way for the creation of a predominantly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe."

In the region, the ICJ verdict will encourage two distinct but interconnected trends: greater-Albanian aspirations against Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, and rump-Serbia (Preševo), and pan-Islamic agitation for the completion of the Green Corridor – an Islamic belt anchored in Asia Minor and extending north-westward across the Balkans into the heart of Central Europe.

Beyond the Balkans, it will breed instability in each and every potential or actual separatist hotspot, from Galilee to Kashmir, from the Caucasus to Sinkiang.

Kosovo is now an expensive albatross costing American and European taxpayers a few billion a year. It will continue developing, not as a functional economy but as a black hole of criminality and terrorism. The ever-rising and constantly unfulfilled expectations of its unemployable multitudes will eventually turn – Frankenstein's monster-like – against the entity's creator. There will be many Ft. Dixes to come, over there and here at home.

God acts in mysterious ways. Kosovo had remained Serbian during those five long centuries of Ottoman darkness, to be liberated in 1912. It is no less Serbian now, the ugly farce in Priština and at The Hague notwithstanding. It will be tangibly Serbian again when the current experiment in global hegemonism collapses, and when the very names of its potentates and servants – Boris Tadic and Vuk Jeremic included – are consigned to the Recycle Bin of history.

 

 

 

 

Kosovo judgment is chance to take fresh look at S-Ossetia, Abkhazia - deputies

Kosovo judgment is chance to take fresh look at S-Ossetia, Abkhazia - deputies

23.07.2010, 21.35

 

MOSCOW, July 23 (Itar-Tass) -- The UN Court judgment, which proclaimed legal the unilateral declaration of independent Kosovo, will enable the world to take a fresh look at sovereignty of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Federation Council members said.

"There must be no comments on court judgments. However, this judgment is another weighty argument in favor of sovereignty of South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Chairman of the Federation Council Defense and Security Committee Viktor Ozerov told Itar-Tass. "These republics had no less reasons for separating from Georgia than Kosovo had for separating from Serbia. The court judgment sets a precedent, which will enable politicians and the world public to take a fresh look at sovereignty of two Caucasian republics," he said.

"A different judgment was hardly possible, as the position of the majority of EU member countries was well known. However, we still think that the separation of Kosovo was an artificial affair," member of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee Vladimir Zhidkikh said.

In his opinion, the judgment "will not bring peace to Serbia or Kosovo, and the spot of tensions will remain in Europe."

"The court did not put an end to the Kosovo problem. Most probably, the judgment aimed to lull EU member countries that supported the proclamation of independent Kosovo," he noted.

  http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15343946&PageNum=0

After UN court ruling, fears of global separatism

 

After UN court ruling, fears of global separatism

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
The Associated Press
Friday, July 23, 2010; 12:55 PM

BELGRADE, Serbia -- Serbia and Kosovo are dispatching competing armies of lobbyists to governments that so far have wavered on recognizing the breakaway province.

Serbia, which considers Kosovo the cradle of its statehood and religion, fears Thursday's ruling by the top U.N. court backing the legality of the 2008 declaration of independence could lead to a wave of new recognitions.

Its best hope for preventing Kosovo admission to the United Nations may be vetoes by China and Russia which both have their own restive regions - a reflection of concerns in some countries that separatists will be emboldened by the development.

The U.S. and many in the West insist Kosovo's statehood is a special case because it is the result of a brutal Serbian ethnic cleansing campaign against Albanian separatists that led to an international administration in 1999, when NATO ejected Serb forces after a brief aerial war.

"We call on those states, who have not yet done so, to recognize Kosovo," U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley on said on Thursday. "Now is the time for them, for Kosovo and Serbia, to put aside their differences and move forward."

Some experts say there's no practical way to prevent other independence-minded regions from drawing inspiration from the Kosovo ruling.

"The West wants to say that this case has no precedential importance, but that's kind of a contortionist logic," said Dana Allin at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank. "You can say that, but whether you can enforce it is hard to say."

In its nonbinding decision announced Thursday, the top U.N. court said it did not rule on the legality of Kosovo's statehood, but only on its declaration of independence.

Regions around the world where separatists may be energized by Kosovo's secession include Spain's Basque country and Catalonia, Scotland, Italy's ethnic German-populated Alto Adige, and parts of Romania and Slovakia populated by restive Hungarian minorities.

South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which have declared independence from Georgia, will also be encouraged by the ruling that states that such unilateral declarations of independence are not illegal under international law. Nearby, Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabah region may seek to legitimize their secession dating back to the early 1990s.

In the Middle East, Kurdish politicians in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region have also said they will carefully study the ICJ decision. Although the U.S. has insisted on keeping Iraq's territorial integrity since the 2003 invasion, the Kurds have repeatedly pointed out that they have been victims of Iraqi aggression under a variety of regimes since the 1930s.

The ruling could also have far-reaching effects on Indonesia, where at least two provinces, Aceh and West Papua, are seeking independence.

So far, only 69 countries of the 192 in the United Nations General Assembly, including the U.S. and most of EU states, have recognized Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia in February 2008. But a number of important countries, aside from China and Russia, have refused to do so, including India, Brazil, Israel, Egypt, Indonesia, and South Africa.

For Kosovo to obtain U.N. membership, it needs a two-third majority in the General Assembly, plus the approval by all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France.

"Already this weekend, special envoys will be dispatched to 55 countries throughout the world with my letter for the presidents of states or governments," Serbian President Boris Tadic said Friday.

"Many countries will be under pressure to recognize Kosovo before the U.N. General Assembly in September," he said. "Serbia will do its utmost so that there are the least possible such recognitions."

Kosovo Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni said he will send requests to 121 countries around the world asking for formal recognition of Kosovo's independence.

"The opinion of the court has created an entirely new context, and in line with this I have already started a new campaign today to animate the countries that have not recognized Kosovo yet," Hyseni told the Associated Press.

He said he will travel to the U.S. over the weekend for some 60 meetings with representatives of different nations in an attempt to get more recognitions ahead of the General Assembly.

But Serbia's Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic claimed Friday that many countries around the world "are worried about the possible misinterpretation" of the World Court ruling.

"It's a very dangerous precedent," Jeremic said. "Pandora's Box has been opened, and it must be closed before something flies out of it."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, however, urged more countries to recognize Kosovo.

"Kosovo has been functioning as an independent State for two and a half years," he said in a statement. "I encourage other states that have not so far recognized Kosovo now to do so. Kosovo is a unique case and does not set a precedent."

The EU countries that have not recognized Kosovo are Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus and Romania - most grappling with separatism issues.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said his country "respected" the U.N. court's ruling. But, he did not say whether Spain - which is faced with Catalan and Basque separatist movements - will now recognize Kosovo's independence.

Greece and Slovakia said the court's ruling won't make them change their minds.

Cyprus' foreign ministry said it remained firm in backing Serbia, reaffirming its "unwavering position to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia, which includes Kosovo."

Romania has not yet officially reacted on the ruling, but the leader of its restive ethnic Hungarians, Laszlo Tokes, said they should now follow the Catalan model and hit the streets to demand more autonomy.

"Kosovo gained independence, couldn't we achieve autonomy?" he said.

Sergei Bagpash, the president of Georgia's separatist Abkhazia region, also applauded the Kosovo ruling.

"I think the decision itself will have a great influence on the efforts we are making," Bagpash told The Associated Press. "There can be no double standards."

Russia recognized the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states after the 2008 Russian-Georgian war and has kept troops there.

In Bosnia, which was divided after the bloody ethnic war in the 1990s into two entities - a Bosniak-Croat and a Serb one - the Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said the ruling "represents a good road sign for our future," referring to the region's longtime desire to split from Bosnia.

"It's inescapable that this ruling could have implications for other territories and other peoples, but how this will play out remains to be seen," said Tim Judah, a London-based Balkan analyst and author.

"It's too early to say because the court ruled on a very narrow question, which was simply whether Kosovo's declaration was legal or not," Judah said.

---

Associated Press writers Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Nebi Qena in Pristina, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Sylvia Hui in London, Alison Mutler in Bucharest and Christopher Toothaker in Caracas contributed to this report.

© 2010 The Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/23/AR2010072303046.html

"Kosovo is as independent as Vichy France"

"Kosovo is as independent as Vichy France"

22 July, 2010, 18:27

The UN's highest court has ruled Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia did not violate international law. The decision rejects a claim by Serbia but is non-binding.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority declared independence from Belgrade in February 2008, after UN-brokered negotiations failed. The US and most European nations recognized the move, but Serbia – backed by Russia and China – called it a violation of its territorial integrity.

Kosovo had previously been administered by the UN, following the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999.

Washington-based journalist and historian Nebojsa Malic calls the decision a "death sentence for international law."

"It is a clear violation of UN Resolution 1244 and all the accepted norms of international law. I honestly was expecting a more nuanced decision. I did not expect the court to take such a directly pro-American position," he said.

As for Kosovo itself, Malic is convinced that "independent" is not the word to describe it.

"Kosovo is as independent as Vichy France was in WWII. It's a puppet state. It suffers from endemic corruption, abuse of power. Its governmental structure can be better described as organized crime," the journalist added.

Russia says that the ruling of the International Court of Justice will not change its stance on the status of Kosovo, which Moscow does not recognize as an independent state. A statement on the issue has been published on Russia's Foreign Ministry web site.

"The court has only assessed Kosovo's declaration of independence, noting that it has not considered more widely Kosovo's right to unilateral secession from Serbia," the statement reads. "Also, in its ruling the court has not assessed either the consequences of the adoption of this document, namely whether Kosovo is a state, or the legitimacy of its recognition by a number of countries."

Bojan Brkic, a foreign policy editor at Serbian public TV, says all attempts by Belgrade to negotiate the status of Kosovo have been declined.

"Serbia does not want to rule over Albanians and decide about their lives," he said. "It only wants a minimum of sovereignty over the territory recognized. Serbia had in the past several different proposals on how to resolve this, all of which were quickly rejected by big powers, except for Russia and China."

 

http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-07-22/kosovo-court-ruling-malic.html

WESTERN DECREPITUDE: The Meaning of the Srebrenica Myth, by S. Trifkovic

 

http://www.balkanstudies.org/articles/meaning-myth

 

Srebrenica, Islam & Western Decadence (AltRight) 

Like Communism, Islam relies on a domestic fifth column -- the carpet-kissing Rosenbergs, Philbys, Blunts, and Hisses -- to subvert the civilized world. It also relies on an army of fellow-travelers, the latter-day Sartres and Shaws in the ivory towers, on "liberal academics and opinion-makers" (as per Sam Francis) who "sympathize with Islam partly because it is a leading historical rival of the Western civilization they hate" and partly because they long for a romanticized and sanitized Muslim past that substitutes for the authentic Western and Christian roots they have rejected. Those roots must be defended, in the full knowledge that those who subscribe to Islam and its civilization are aliens, regardless of their clothes, their professions or their places of residence. They sense Western weakness and expect that if Islam supplies the only old religious tradition left standing 50 years hence, it may attract mass conversion. That would indeed be the end of the West, its final surrender to the spirit masterfully depicted by Jean Raspail in the preface to the 1985 French edition of his Camp of Saints:

The West is empty, even if it has not yet become really aware of it. An extraordinarily inventive civilization, surely the only one capable of meeting the challenges of the third millennium, the West has no soul left. At every level -- nations, race, cultures as well as individuals -- it is always the soul that wins the decisive battles.

The story that Raspail tells is rooted in a "onstrous cancer implanted in the Western conscience." One word, "Srebrenica," embodies it perfectly. Its roots are in the loss of Faith, and in the arrogant doctrine -- rampant in "the West" for three past centuries now -- that man can solve the dilemma of his existence by his unaided intellect alone. If that loss is not reversed, the game is over anyway -- proving yet again that where God retreats, Allah advances.

Before 1914, both the West and the Muslim world could define themselves against each other in a cultural sense. What secularism has done, since replacing Christianity as the guiding light of "the West," is to cast aside any idea of a Christian social, geographic, and cultural space that should be protected. Islam, "extreme" or "moderate," has not softened, however. The consequences will be very serious unless Muslims are either "westernized" -- that is to say, made as willing as Christians to see their religion first relativized, then mocked, and its commandments misrepresented or ignored -- or else Christianized, which of course cannot happen unless there is a belated, massive, and unexpected recovery of Western spiritual and moral strength.

As things stand now, the West faces two clear alternatives: defense, or submission and acceptance of sacred Arab places as its own. The latter is the visceral preference of the Western elite class, and "Srebrenica" is its totem.

Islam should not be blamed for being what it is, nor should its adherents be condemned for maintaining their traditions. We should not "hate" it, nor ban it, if it reforms itself to the standards of a civilized, that is, non-Muslim society. If it does not happen -- and miracles are always possible -- it should be banned, of course. The Kuran's exhortations to the believers to annihilate the non-believers, to confiscate their land and property, to take their women and enslave their children are clear and unambiguous, and the fruits have been ghastly. In the present state of Western weakness, such Muslim firmness may appear attractive to the legions of cynical nihilists and lead further millions to the conclusion that we should all become Muslims, since our goose is cooked anyway, spiritually and demographically.

Those of us who do not cherish that prospect should at least demand that our rulers present that option fairly and squarely. To pretend, as the ruling elite does, that Islam is "a religion of peace," rather like Episcopalianism, is stupid or deeply dishonest.

Islam might have been made much less threatening if the West had not conciliated or sponsored its most threatening exponents. Islam was exposed to a devastating collapse in credibility within the Arab world itself in the middle of the twentieth century. The forces of secularity were very strong indeed. But America opposed them at every turn because they were socialist or communist or simply not "in the national interest." America gave whole-hearted support to the worst nation on earth: Saudi Arabia, a veritable hotbed of raw barbarity that makes Kim Jong Il look eminently clubable. As the economies of real states falter and haltr, the Saudi petrodollars are poured into establishing violent fanaticism as the big alternative.

"As a man thinketh, so is he." The real problem of the Muslim world is not that of natural resources or political systems. Ernest Renan, who started his study of Islam by praising its ability to manifest "what was divine in human nature," ended it -- a quarter of a century and three long tours of the Muslim world later -- by concluding that "Muslims are the first victims of Islam" and that, therefore, "to liberate the Muslim from his religion is the best service that one can render him."

Islam is a collective psychosis seeking to become global, and any attempt to abet such madness is to become part of the madness oneself. The purveyors of "Srebrenica" are worse than criminal: they are mistaken.

Walk Away from the Balkans

Walk Away from the Balkans

by E. Wayne Merry

07.09.2010

Messrs. Abramowitz and Hooper have very well reviewed the state of play on Kosovo for readers who might be forgiven for not having thought about the place in years. The upcoming advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice will insert the "Kosovo question" into Western newspapers for a day or two, but few Americans are likely to consider it of even tertiary importance. As Washington turns its back on the Balkans, we might consider some lessons for our pursuits in southern Asia and for understanding developments in the Caucasus.

In all these conflict areas, fragmentation is the essential threat to any type of effective governance (whether pluralist and representative or not). U.S. policy has tended to shatter what political and social cohesion existed and then bemoan the ensuing fragmentation. The United States waged war against Serbia and sponsored an independent Kosovo largely to punish Belgrade for its real and perceived sins, not because Kosovo warranted statehood. The Clinton administration demonized Slobodan Milosevic (as we later did his Iraqi counterpart) and sought to weaken him by fragmenting the state he ruled. Kosovo was bad enough (certainly Serb rule of the Kosovar Albanians had lost any legitimacy), but what about our short-sighted sponsorship of an independent Montenegro? How is the European state system better for partitioning Serbia, not once but twice?

Now, we are told, any partition of Kosovo to benefit the largely Serb population of the north must meet the maximum demands of the government in Pristina, acknowledged to be a sinkhole of corruption. In the past decade it is the Serbs who have shown a capacity to reform, despite the views of Washington Serbophobes, and are now the regional state best qualified to bring something of value to Europe's common table.

The United States is walking away from the Balkans, and rightly so. Sadly, the manifest love for this country among Kosovar Albanians is misplaced, because Washington will find very little attention and fewer resources for Kosovo or Bosnia or Macedonia with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on its plate. Give priority to Kosovo? Don't make me laugh.

So, the headache is Europe's, as it always should have been. Are EU institutions up to the job? Perhaps not, but nobody else will step up. The tasks are many, but all come down to reversing the fragmentation of the 1990s. So far, Brussels has not even been able to allow Macedonia its proper nomenclature. This issue brought down one Greek government, so don't expect Athens to bend much.

Might partition of Kosovo incite similar ethnic divisions within Macedonia? No doubt, but the question remains why Europe is better off with two Albanian states on its map rather than one. Redrawing the political borders of the former Yugoslavia is probably not finished, but the policy objective should be to make those borders of less and less importance.

Finally, the U.S. official pretense that our sponsorship of an independent Kosovo was not a precedent for separatism elsewhere is just bunk. Russian recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia after the August 2008 conflict was a blunder, but Abkhaz and Ossets are no more likely to return to Georgian rule than Kosovar Albanians are to Belgrade's. The Abkhaz, at least, have as much justification for an independent state as does Montenegro or Kosovo. In the Caucasus and in the Balkans, wars have consequences, and peace is usually provisional. These games never end.

 

E. Wayne Merry is a former State Department and Pentagon official and now a Senior Associate at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC.

http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=23680

Schoolbook used today in Serbia --The new way of interpreting medieval history!

Date: Monday, July 5, 2010, 3:36 PM from Dr. J. P. Maher Professor Emeritus of Linguistics Northeastern Illinois University; formerly University of Hamburg (Germany) 3 January 2009 to Radio Free Europe (Nenad Pejic) Mr Pejic repeats propaganda on a subject of which he personally knows nothing. The claim of Albanian chauvinists and their sponsors (e.g. Frank Wisner, the ENRON man) to be the first settlers of the Balkans is nonsense. . Scholars of Napoleon's time used the term "Illyrian" to refer to Serbo-Croatian. In a lecture at the University of Ljubljana in 1990, an ethnic Albanian professor from the University of Pristina demonstrated that Albanian is of northern origin since it shares with Rumanian, and only with Rumanian, a set of some 60 vocabulary items that are not found in other languages of the region.  He spoke in Serbian to the Slovenes. Competent scholars reject as a political fiction, like Nazidom's "Aryan" concept, the claim that Albanians are descendants of the aboriginal Balkan people, who were pushed into the Dinaric Alps by waves of Slavic Serb invaders in the 6th Century AD. After the Huns migrated into the Balkans the region was sparsely populated. Greeks and some Hellenized peoples were the immediate predecessors of Slavs in the Balkans, and they themselves had migrated from the north into a land already settled for millennia by pre-Indo-European peoples. If the ancestors of Albanians weree present in the Balkans classical times, there would be loanword evidence in Greek and Latin. There are no Albanian nor Slavic loan words in Ancient Greek, which however does evidence old contacts with Celts, Scyths, Persians, Semites (Phoenicians) and Egyptians. The Albanian lexicon is full of Greek, Slavic and Latin vocabulary. Previous to Old European civilizations the Balkans were inhabited by hunting bands, e.g. at Lepenski Vir on the Danube in Serbia. Marija Gimbutas [1921-1994] demonstrated that agricultural "Old European" civilizations go back to 7000 BC in the Balkans. No Indo-European, hence Greeks, Latins or Slavs, above all no Illyrians, no Albanians. The Albanians occupy part of the former territory of the Illyrians... Albanian is first attested only in the fifteenth century, already having undergone very substantial phonological changes." -J. P. Mallory and D. Q. Adams, Editors. 1997. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London & Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn.]. It is most probable that the modern language only recently called "Albanian" and "Sqip" is NOT descended from ancient "Illyrian". Indo-European languages are divided into two groups, termed centum-and satem-languages, respectively from the Latin (centum) and Avestan (satem) words for 'hundred ' Ancient Illyrians inscriptions are in a centum-language. Modern Albanian is a satem-language. –Wikipedia has good discursions of these terms. See also Louis.H. Gray. 1939. Foundations of Language. New York: Macmillan. Professor of Comparative Linguistics in Columbia University NY. (Gray was an expert in the subject.) J. P. Mallory. 1989. In Search of the Indo-Europeans. London & New York: Thames & Hudson. Marija Gimbutas's biography and bibliography see Wikipedia ?body=http://www.rferl.org/contentspapers_Tell_The_Story/1365796.html?page=2&x=1#relatedInfoContainer --- On Sun, 7/4/10, A Jekich Pullinger <ajpullinger@gmail.com> wrote: From: A Jekich Pullinger Subject: The new way of interpreting medieval history! Date: Sunday, July 4, 2010, 1:15 PM ---------- Forwarded message ---------   In this text the author shows parts from schoolbook used today in Serbia, where it's author Rade Mihaljcic (a historian) writes about Albanians being the first to come to Balkan, while Serbs came later! This is what Serbian children learn nowadays about Kosovo, otherwise called 'the sacred land'... The author of the schoolbook forgot something quite important, to prove history one must have at least one proof of cultural heritage! T Српска историја у уџбенику за шести разред основне школе   Милан Дамјанац    петак, 02. јул 2010. Национални интерес сваке озбиљне државе јесте, пре свега, успешна и одговорна културна политика и квалитетно образовање деце. Нема ничег важнијег за будућност српског народа од демографске обнове, заштите културног наслеђа, очување националне свести и историјског памћења. У скорашњем тексту Слободана Антонића „Самомрзитељи"[1], имали смо прилике да прочитамо приказ лика и дела директора Народне библиотеке Сретена Угричића. Не само што је у нашој лепој држави могуће да неко попут Сретена Угричића постане директор једне од најважнијих установа, тиме доказујући да ова земља нема никакву културну нити образовну политику, већ су и уџбеници у служби дневнополитичких дешавања. Као што ћемо имати прилике да видимо, идеолошка злоупотреба младих пошиње од основне школе. Албанци – староседеоци Балкана и дошљаци Срби Претходних дана, помно сам ишчитавао и бележио занимљивости из уџбеника историја за шести разред основне школе у издању Завода за уџбенике Београд. Аутор овог уџбеника Раде Михаљчић износи неке фрапантне тврдње. Након читања овог уџбеника, нисам више сигуран да познајем српску средњовековну историју. Може бити да само нисам довољно проучавао дела албанских и хрватских историчара. Наиме, у овом уџбенику који се бави историјом средњега века, могао сам да научим да „...подела друштва увек води и стварању државе која штити богати, владајући слој"[2]. Занимљива опаска. Након што сам ову значајну лекцију савладао, упознао сам се са староседеоцима Балкана – Албанцима. Након описа доласка Словена на Балкан и сукоба са староседеоцима аутор каже „...међутим, староседеоци који су живели заједно и чија су насеља груписана у веће скупине нису словенизирани. Обичаје, језик, и друга народна обележја сачували су Албанци. Део досељених Словена примио је језик и обичаје Албанаца и стопио се с њима".[3] Запањен овом констатацијом, сасвим случајно сам пронашао објашњење у првој проширеној верзији истог уџбеника, у реченици које нема у садашњој: „Албанци воде порекло од староседелаца на Балканском полуострву, највероватније Илира, романизованих у мањој мери. Са њима су се мешали стари Грци, Словени и други народи...". [4] После оваквог сазнања, нема смисла приговарати Албанцима на својатању Косова и Метохије, српских манастира и културне баштине. Они су ионако балкански староседеоци, а Срби су узурпатори. Читајте децо, учите српски ђаци, своју историју! Ви сте припадници дошљака и узурпатори албанске земље и све што доживљавате – доживљавате са разлогом. Албанци не узимају српску земљу, већ враћају своју натраг. Ето, и то доживесмо од српског историчара који нашу децу учи средњовековној историји. Тврди човек да су Албанци потомци Илира, и тиме директно помаже њихове освајачке походе и отимачину српске земље. Одавно је утврђено да Албанци немају поморску и рибарску терминологију, чиме нам је немачки лингвиста, академик, проф. др Густав Вајганд (G. Weigand, 1860–1930) доказао да Албанци нису Илири. Ово је један од његових дванаест чувених аргумената који су преведени, објављени и продискутовани (па и усвојени) од стране свих светских признатих истраживача. Штавише, и од самих албанских трезвених научника, лингвиста, историчара и академика, као што су академик, проф. др. Eqrem Çabej (1908-1980), др Ardian Klosi, Ardian Vehbiu, Fatos Ljubonja и пуно других. Без обзира на то што је научни свет прихватио истину о пореклу Албанаца, албанске власти, подржане од стране квазинаучних теорија, настављају да тврде да су пореклом Илири. Тиме су преплавили своју литературу, почев од буквара, који стављају у руке својој деци од првог дана школе, па све до "научних" студија и дисертација. Све то очигледно није довољно појединим српским академицима као што је случај са Радетом Михаљчићем. Кога брига за карту Европе из 814. године на којој се јасно види српска држава на Балкану и албанска која се граничи са Јерменијом и Азербејџаном. Моја непросвећена маленкост, недовољно заражена еврофанатизмом и регионалним духом сарадње и братства, не може да схвати овакву тврдњу у уџбенику за шести разред. Уколико сте помислили да је то све, варате се. Након тога сам проширио своја сазнања научивши да је „ Стефан Немања освојио Косово и крајеве северне Албаније" [5]. Наравно, писац уџбеника је могао рећи – крајеве данашње Албаније. Ништа од тога. Понадах се, у тренутку, да је у питању случајан превид. Постоји још један случајан превид, који додуше, вероватно није ауторова грешка, али показује стање духа људи који су учествовали у припреми овог уџбеника за штампу. У одељку „Историја и легенда", српски јунаци Топлица Милан и Косанчић Иван су, сасвим случајно, заменили имена, те се наводи „ ...њима је предање придодало измишљене, неисторијске ликове као што су Југовићи и побратими Милоша Обилића, Иван Топлица и Милан Косанчић". Као неко ко је одрастао на косовском завету и српским епским песмама, не могу да разумем овакав превид (да не говоримо о сигурности са којом аутор тврди да су ликови измишљени). Након свега овога, био сам убеђен да читам дело из албанске историографије. Нажалост преварио сам се. Понадам се да ће се аутор исправити у одељку о османлијским освајањима, међутим: „После Маричке и Косовске битке, Турци су све више угрожавали албанске области"[6]. Након тога говори о јунаштву Ђорђа Кастриота Скендербега и ниједном речју не напомиње да је Скендербег пореклом био Србин, нити долазак Албанаца на Балкан након слома арапске Сицилије. „Македонски Словени" и њихова национална самобитност Уколико нисте знали – ваша деца знају.  Македонци су стари европски народ. Некада су се звали „Македонски Словени" и међу првима су прихватили ћирилицу: „ ...на Балканском полуострву ћирилицу су прихватили Срби, Македонски Словени и Бугари".[7] Међутим, каже аутор, ћирилицу су, сем Срба, Македонаца и Бугара прихватили и људи који живе у „ Босни и приморским крајевима југоисточно од Сплита". [8] Ко ли би ти, непознати људи, могли бити? Да ли је разумно претпоставити да су у питању били Срби? Не, не, то нипошто, бошњачки историчари у својим уџбеницима уче децу да у средњем веку у Босни није било Срба. Нећемо ваљда пропагирати великосрпску политику у уџбенику за историју, није европски од нас да исказујемо претензије на суседне и пријатељске нам државе. Зато ћемо, како бисмо изгледали европеизовано и сорошевски, рећи да постоје неки неидентификовани људи, ван границе данашње Србије, који су користили ћирилицу. Та формулација звучи модерно. Аутор је овај маневар искусно извео, и самим тим заслужује награду „Најевропљанин". Заслужни носилац овог престижног признања је и Ивица Дачић. Аутор даље говори и о патњама и страдању „Македонских Словена". Наиме, „после слома Бугарске, над Македонским Словенима успостављена је византијска власт. Нова управа изазвала је незадовољство које је прерасло у отпор... "[9] О патњама „Македонских Словена" говори и у одељку о српским средњовековним освајањима: „ ... Од Византије краљ Милутин је освојио Македонију, у којој су живели Македонски Словени..."[10] Такође, Душан Силни је освојио „већи део албанских крајева"[11]. Одмах се види да смо лидери у региону. Председник Тадић решава хрватско – словеначке спорове, а историчар Михаљчић разрешава велику енигму историје и дневнополитичких збивања. Срби и Бугари су вршили претензије на македонску територију тероришући македонски народ (шта би са свим оним Србима у Македонији који су се тако изјашњавали до 1945, они су изгледа, статистичка грешка) а Грци без разлога нападају Македонце за узурпацију грчког имена и злоупотребу историје. Дневнополитичка енигма. Управо је то и суштина овог уџбеника – пропаганда у служби дневнополитичких збивања и потреба, корак напред ка „помирењу у региону". Научио сам, такође, да је Маричка битка била катастрофа македонске, а не српске државе и народа.[12] Македонија је, каже аутор, „ изгубила самосталност".  Значи, наши преци су ослобађањем јужних српских крајева 1912 године у ствари извршили агресију на македонски народ. Боже, нисам имао представу да смо ми Срби народ освајача. Што би рекао Брана Црнчевић, „ колико Србија треба да буде мала да не би била велика". На овом месту не могу а да не споменем неколико речи Данка Поповића из уста његовог јунака Милутина: „ Заузесмо ми Кајмакчалан, синовче. Прекрисмо га лешевима. Само коња шта је остало да се распада на оним падинама... Добро, благо ујаку, а што ми онда љубисмо земљу?...  Имадосмо ли ми нека друга посла него да по Македонији гинемо? Јесу ли, благо ујаку, велим, јесу ли ти чија је земља знали раније да је њина? Ако јесу, што је не освајаше и ослобађаше, како се тек сад сетише чија је?... – смеје ми се у брк... Сви они пишу сад и говоре да смо ми отели Македонију кад смо прешли преко Кајмакчалана. А ја, синовче, видим нас како љубимо земљу кад смо прешли на ову страну Кајмакчалана, па ми криво. Што је нама било потребно да љубимо земљу Кајмакчалана па да се Македонци љуте на нас... Што да Македонија буде за нас три пута гробница, па да нас чак и наши школовани људи кајмакчаланским аветима називају и да нас подругљиво зову Солунцима, ко да је лако бити Солунац. Зашто се заборавља да је и од оне шаке јада што је са Халкидикија пошла као десеткована српска војска до краја изгинуло више од половине... Зашто да испаднемо смешни на крају? "[13] Закључак Сваки народ покушава да у својим уџбеницима „улепша" историјске догађаје и представи себе у бољем светлу, те често претера. Једино је код нас немогуће очекивати бар минимум објективности, бар минимум самопоштовања и поштовања историјске истине. Како изгледа концепција будуће регионалне сарадње у погледу заједничке историје и чињеница у уџбеницима, најбоље можемо видети по публикацији Сорошевог Фонда за отворено друштво Босне и Херцеговине „ Образовање у Босни и Херцеговини – чему учимо дјецу?" [14] Ту можемо пронаћи позитивне и негативне уџбеничке примере. Наравно, на основу процене Фонда. На пример, у критици уџбеника из Српског језика и културе изражавања у Источном Сарајеву каже се: „ Већи део наведених примера односи се на имена везана за српску културу и историју, нису присутни примери из културе и традиције других конститутивних народа и не доминирају примери везани за Босну и Херцеговину: „На пример: Улица српских владара, Улица бана Лазаревића, Улица Бранка Чопића, Улица Немањина, Трг слободе, Трг жртава фашизма; Првомајска улица, Његошева улица ...На пример: Основна школа "Петар Кочић", Филозофски факултет у Бањалуци, Народна библиотека Србије, Грађевинско предузеће "Рад", Општина Требиње ..." " [15] Занимљив је коментар на песму Алексе Шантића: „ Избор ове Шантићеве песме из целокупног песниковог стваралаштва говори о свесној намери аутора уџбеника да кроз наставу књижевности пласира идеолошку поруку, чији је примарни задатак - формирање националног бића. Песма је, с обзиром на контекст, политичка, а будући да је национално јасно одређена, и патриотска: „МОЈА ОТАЏБИНА ....И свуда гдје је српска душа која, тамо је мени отаџбина моја, мој дом и моје рођено огњиште. ""[16] Тако изгледа наша срећна будућност на Балкану. Да се вратимо на крају уџбенику историје. Сем поменутих тврдњи, на неколико места аутор даје и непотребне и паушалне опаске, које су непримерене за један уџбеник историје (независно од тога да ли су исправни или не). Тако, на пример, каже да је папа Гргур сматрао да су „владари дужни да му љубе ноге". Шта бих у закључку могао рећи о овом уџбенику? Лично, плашим се да узмем у руке уџбеник за седми и осми разред основне школе, у којима се говори о модерној српској историји. Из свега приложеног, јасно је закључити у ком се правцу креће тумачење историјских догађаја. Тужно је користити уџбенике за децу у циљу промовисања идеолошких порука и дневне политике. Несрећа је што је овај и овакав уџбеник издао Завод за уџбенике, установа која по правилу служи управо за одбрану ђака од пласирања лажи и полуистина и њиховом исправном образовању. Просто ме обузме туга када се сетим да сам се залагао за детаљну проверу садржаја уџбеника које објављују приватне издавачке куће, када овако изгледа ремек-дело Завода за уџбенике. Имамо ли права да било шта очекујемо од других када смо сами себи највећи непријатељи? На крају, наградно питање – шта мислите, какве ће ставове о српској држави и народу имати ова деца када порасту? [1]  http://www.nspm.rs/polemike/samomrzitelji.html [2] Историја, Раде Михаљчић, Завод за уџбенике, Београд, 2009, стр. 27 [3] Историја, Раде Михаљчић, Завод за уџбенике, Београд, 2009, стр. 42 [4] http://www.ihtus.us/ihtus/viewtopic.php?t=490 [5] Историја, Раде Михаљчић, Завод за уџбенике, Београд, 2009, стр. 86 [6] Историја, Раде Михаљчић, Завод за уџбенике, Београд, 2009, стр. 125 [7] Историја, Раде Михаљчић, Завод за уџбенике, Београд, 2009, стр. 53 [8] Историја, Раде Михаљчић, Завод за уџбенике, Београд, 2009, стр. 53 [9] Историја, Раде Михаљчић, Завод за уџбенике, Београд, 2009, стр. 47 [10] Историја, Раде Михаљчић, Завод за уџбенике, Београд, 2009, стр. 90 [11] Историја, Раде Михаљчић, Завод за уџбенике, Београд, 2009, стр. 92 [12] Историја, Раде Михаљчић, Завод за уџбенике, Београд, 2009, стр. 117 [13] Књига о Милутину, Данко Поповић, Књижевне новине, Београд, 1986, стр. 40,41 [14] http://www.soros.org. ba/docs_obrazovanje/2009/ analiza_sadrzaja_uzbenika_nacionalne_grupe_predmeta.pdf [15] http://www.soros.org.ba /docs_obrazovanje /2009 /analiza_sadrzaja_uzbenika_ nacionalne_grupe_predmeta.pdf [16] http://www.soros.org.ba /docs_obrazovanje/2009/ analiza_sadrzaja_uzbenika_nacionalne_grupe_predmeta.pdf   Your E-mail and More On-the-Go. 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Nebojsa Malic // Pushing the Myth

 

http://grayfalcon.blogspot.com/2010/07/pushing-myth.html

Pushing the Myth

A little while ago, several Liberal MPs in the Canadian Parliament proposed a resolution declaring July 11 "Srebrenica Remembrance Day." Fortunately, Prime Minister Harper would have none of it, so the proposal was taken off the table - for now.

The resolution was not a product of altruism and sheer goodness of the Liberals' hearts, but rather an initiative mounted by the Congress of North American Bosniaks, and something called the "Institute for the Research of Genocide" (whose URL identifies them as the "Institute for Genocide").

After Mr. Harper put the kibosh on the resolution, the CNAB and the Institute raised a ruckus. Their initial protest, on June 23, included a long list of people identified as an "international team of experts" and claiming illustrious academic titles. The post with the list, however, has since been taken down from the Institute website.

Here are just some of the names from the list:

* M. Cherif Bassiouni (former UN rapporteur on the events in Bosnia, who endorsed the ridiculously inflated casualty figures and the "mass rape" hoax)
* Francis A. Boyle (international ambulance-chaser and author of the "genocide" lawsuit by the Izetbegovic government against Serbia, rejected before an actual court)
* Florence Hartmann (once spokesperson for Carla Del Ponte at the ICTY)
* Marko Attila Hoare (a world-renowned Serbophobe-cum-historian)

* Daniel Toljaga (listed as member of the Board of Directors at the Congress of North American Bosniaks, but better known as proprietor of the Srebrenica Genocide Blog)
* Dzemaludin Latic and Fatmir Alispahic, champions of militant Islam and Serbophobia considered even in Bosnia to be the lunatic fringe.Suffice to say that the list was a veritable who's who of professional victims, genocide entrepreneurs, and people who have built their careers on the myth of Bosnia. So, these folks have taken upon themselves to have the Canadian Parliament endorse their version of history by government fiat - i.e. by force, since they can't actually prove it in court. It is as if they don't believe their argument good enough to just persuade people, even though it has enjoyed almost uncontested dominance in the media for the past 15 years!

The much less organized Canadian Serbs have protested this proposal with letters. The response they got was pretty much a set of talking points reminiscent of the content found on the SGB, Hoare's blog, or the CNAB site.

The letter says that the "the genocidal nature of the particular incident at Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 has been internationally recognized." It specifically mentions the ICTY and ICJ verdicts, claiming they were "thoughtful results of fair and independent investigation and testimony."

Yet the ICJ verdict specifically said it had not considered the Srebrenica events itself, but simply accepted the ICTY rulings at face value. To call the ICTY's verdicts "thoughtful", their investigations "independent" and the testimonies of serial perjurers "fair" - that's just rich. Let's see: their crown witness, on which the entire case hangs, is a liar. They have conducted sloppy forensic work and later destroyed much of the evidence. They refuse to show the DNA evidence, then claim it proves something that is physically impossible for DNA evidence to prove (i.e. manner of death). And that's just the tip of the iceberg! The ICTY verdicts have more holes in them than a kitchen sieve.

Another argument in the response is that others have done this - the European Parliament, the US House and Senate, and hey, even the (quisling) government of Boris Tadic in Serbia! - so why not the Canadian legislature? Well, since when did "everyone is doing it" become a valid argument? Just because some lawmakers in Europe and the US have voted with their hearts for a well-prepared piece of propaganda does not have the magical power to transform that propaganda into fact. Truth is not a matter of majority vote - or even consensus.

From the first days of the Bosnian War, the Izetbegovic regime's weapon of choice was propaganda. They aimed to win the war by getting outside forces to do the fighting for them, based on heart-rending stories of massacres, mass rape, concentration camps and genocide. One after another, those stories have been exposed as fabrications and deliberate distortions of the already horrifying reality, while the full horrors of the war were never reported, so as not to interfere with the mythical narrative. The Srebrenica "genocide" is the last lie that remains, the one myth that was built up and reinforced more than any of the others. By now, Srebrenica has become a post facto justification for everything: the ethnic cleansing of Serbs, the foreign mujahedin, the rise of Wahhabism and terrorism, the re-Islamization of Bosnia's Muslims (a goal Izetbegovic set for himself in the 1970s, mind you), the ongoing refusal of Muslim politicians to abide by the
country's Constitution, and the equally ongoing attempts to fulfill their wartime objectives politically, by overturning the Dayton Accords.

All of this rests on the foundation of a myth that what happened in July 1995 in Srebrenica was "genocide". Even though the women and children were safely evacuated. Even though the column that refused to surrender and set off across the mountains and minefields to Tuzla was a military formation. Even though the actual number of people who died on that march was never established (the "8,000" figure is equally arbitrary as the "300,000" we'd heard for a decade, before facts became impossible to ignore), and the actual evidence suggests that the number of people actually murdered (as in executed, which indeed is a war crime) is several hundred. Even though nothing was ever produced to demonstrate intent on part of the Bosnian Serbs to actually exterminate the Muslims as a people - apart from the very strong belief by the Muslims that this was the case.

Yet in a proper court of law, it doesn't matter what one believes - only what one can prove. Fully aware that the ICTY judgments are based on belief and conjecture rather than actual facts, the believers in the Srebrenica Genocide Myth are now trying to impose it by force, by getting governments to pass resolutions. Next up will probably be demands that anyone questioning their myth be prosecuted as a "holocaust denier." So, not only are theydisparaging the actual Holocaust by declaring Srebrenica a "genocide," they are also exploiting and abusing the mechanisms established so no one could strive to rehabilitate the Nazis and deny the suffering of the Jews. When you consider the fact that the ancestors of many of those Muslims actually helped the Nazis in their ghastly "Endloesung", it becomes obvious that Srebrenica is not just about the present and the future, but also aboutwhitewashing the past.

I understand why it is in the interest of the Bosnian Muslims' religious, political and propaganda leadership (and their associates, fellow-travelers and useful idiots in the West and elsewhere) to promote the Srebrenica Genocide Myth. How that would serve Canada's interests, however, is beyond me. Stephen Harper appears to have reached a similar conclusion - and for that he deserves thanks, not just of the Serbs living in Canada, but all Canadians who care about their own country.

Germany Withholds Key Documents In Karadzic Trial

Germany Withholds Key Documents In Karadzic Trial?   By Ljubica Vujadinovic The Hague : Netherlands | Jun 30, 2010   Former President of the Republic of Srpska Radovan Karadzic accused Germany of hiding the crucial documents relevant for his trial on war crimes in The Hague. Allegedly, they are to prove that some of the NATO states were conducting illegal weapons trade during the war in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, while the United Nations' arms embargo was in force. After the German government denied it posses such documents, Karadzic addressed the German embassy in the Netherlands asking that country to make more effort in order to locate them. In his letter to the German embassy, Karadzic also referred to the statement of the former German Telecommunications Minister Christian Schwarz-Schilling who said it was "possible that the documents have compromising information, for example, information that France or Great Britain smuggled weapons into Bosnia and Herzegovina". Karadzic requested eight categories of documents: reports, memorandums, correspondence and reports of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) related to the weapons' deliveries to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH), especially to Srebrenica in 1995. Germany is not the only country which refused Karadzic's requests. Some countries stated they couldn't meet his requirements as the evidence he asked for were military documents of confidential nature. The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for the war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia, including genocide and crimes against humanity against Bosnian Muslims and Croats. Karadzic, who acts as his own lawyer, claims the West was heavily involved in the conflicts in Bosnia and the war was fostered from abroad as the Muslims were getting weapons supplies. http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6200816-germany-withholds-key-documents-in-karadzic-trial

 

USA Trying to Impose the Kosovo Model in Sri Lanka

USA Trying to Impose the Kosovo Model in Sri Lanka
Posted on June 29th, 2010

- Kumar Moses

USA has "strongly urged" the Sri Lankan government to make use of the "panel"(1). Now that came as a surprise to some; didn't it?  And how strange that it was appointed just a week after "fact finding missions" by four US top officials. (2) The cat is out the bag! It is no longer a secret who is behind Ban-Ki Moon's panel. It's the same old Uncle Sam trying out the same old Kosovo model. What the USA is cooking for Sri Lanka is the same concoction it cooked for Serbia-Kosovo five years ago. It was one successful concoction that worked for a change. Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Although not recognized by the UN and most countries, USA, UK, France and a few others recognize it. USA managed to create a permanent dependant satellite state in the strategically important central Europe.

Kosovo, Bosnia, etc. have given USA a reason or an excuse to deploy a large force in the all important central European region. Using US friendships in the region, American defence agencies are trying to put up a missile defence system targeting Russian ICBMs. After trying it in Poland and the Czech Republic, now the focus has moved to Romania. It is easy to guess the next move will be to the region Albania-Bosnia-Kosovo. And that will be the final resting place.

South Asia is even more strategically important and USA is trying every trick in the book to have a permanent presence in the region. Afghanistan in the long haul is too dangerous and winning hearts and minds of Afghans is not going to happen. Ethnic Albanians and Bosnians who are very closely related are elated when a visiting US official stops by. So will be the piglets of Tamil Elam when the mother swine comes around. After that it will be turned into a military post to maintain US strategic defence interests in the all important South Asian region with open doorways to the Middle East and Far East.  

What is the Strategic Importance of a South Asian Island?

Diego Garcia saw one of the most despicable acts of genocide perpetrated by two superpowers. However, they found out that it is too far "from the action". Action includes military action currently underway and proposed action. Currently Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been set alight for no reason. Iran may be the next.

Proposed military action includes interfering in the Taiwan and Tibet regions of China, India, Indonesia, etc. Why is the region so important for these superpowers?

Economic power in the world is shifting it to the Asian region. China and India will be the first and third economic powers in time to come. This is a challenge to the traditional economic powerhouses. Even in traditional economic powerhouses, people of Indian and Chinese origin are increasing their hold.

Apart from economic power, there is military power. Defence expenditure is rapidly increasing in this region which means the emergence of powerful nations capable of taking on traditional superpowers. Traditional superpowers want to nip it in the bud.

Over 50% of the world population live in this region. It makes it strategically important for superpowers. Bombarding them with propaganda, winning their support or at least not antagonising them to the global exploitation process and making use of them to counter themselves are some of the "uses" of this population.

Further, world's largest Islam population is in Indonesia while the second, third and fourth largest Islam populations are in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. In other words, the region has close to 50% of the world Islam population too. Most Islamic fundamentalists to cause calamities for western superpowers originated from this part of the world. Therefore, it pays to keep a close watch over them.

The large Tamil Diaspora in western countries makes matters even easier to create a puppet nation in the North-East of Sri Lanka. Tapping into the Tamil Diaspora to have inroads into the region is another advantage.

These are some of the very powerful reasons why traditional western superpowers are eyeing the region. To their misfortune, they cannot establish military bases in the region. Then the only option is to create a puppet nation that will have no option than to house a large military base even if it means the same fate as Diego Garcia. At the very least the puppet nation will agree to allow Americans the use of it's territory, continental waters and the exclusive economic zone for their military work.

The Kosovo Model at Work in Sri Lanka

Following the brutal war in former Yugoslavia, NATO troops occupied the area. The conflict ended and Bosnia-Herzegovina gained freedom. However, things didn't end here for the Americans. They wanted more. That was how Kosovo was separated a decade after the conflict ceased. At first a bogus reconciliation process was initiated by the USA. Strangely, it was more about keeping people separated based on ethnicity than integration. (3) Occupying US troops made it difficult for Serbia to carry out any integration with Kosovo (Kosovo was and still is a part of Serbia according to Serbia and most countries). It is this same twisted reconciliation model the US follows on Lanka.

Interestingly, Tamil groups in the USA highlighted the need for a two state "reconciliation" model. (4)

The puppet nation needs to do basic land and resource management in its territory. This aspect has been taken over by USAID projects. (5) Under the guise of sustainability, a series of workshops have been carried out in Kosovo and Sri Lanka to "empower" persons from the respective regions. Many concerned Sri Lankans highlighted the dubiousness of the project. (6)

However, unlike in Kosovo, USA cannot deploy troops. This deficiency is overcome by compelling Sri Lanka to devolve power to the regions, especially to the North-East region. In doing so, USA seeks the support of other regional nations like Bosnia and France in the case of Kosovo and India in the case of Lanka. For the time being, the US strategy perfectly aligns with the Indian strategy on the North-East. The next step is to establish the infrastructure for independent diplomatic missions. As in Kosovo (Pristina) before independence (7), USA plans to establish a separate "American Corner" in Jaffna.

Subjugating leaders, both political and military, to give up on the targeted territory is the next step. In the case of Kosovo, war crimes trials commenced as there were genuine war crimes. Yet, apart from an obvious connection to Bosnia, Kosovo was not connected. But by subjugating Serbia over it's war crimes committed mainly in Bosnia, US planners managed to keep Serbia silent. In the case of Sri Lanka, there are not even genuine allegations of war crimes but the US insists on investigations. It is for the same thing – to subjugate Sri Lanka so that there will be little resistance to the separation of the North-East.

Ban-Ki-Moon played a unique role in the Kosovo affair. (8) He used his position to quell any tensions that was arising from the incident. However, the Kosovo project was appropriately retaliated just eight months later in a spectacular display of military might by Russia, which made the Americans speechless. Pro-Russian South Ossetia and Abkhazia gained independence from pro-US Georgia following a short war. Given their resources, size and access to the strategic Black Sea means there is the clear winner and a loser from the whole episode. Although it was a unique case, Ban-Ki-Moon has once again become the cat's paw. When the UN Security Council rejected interference, Americans by-passed it using Ban-Ki-Moon who comes from pro-US South Korea to appoint a highly ambiguous panel. While Moon claims that it is to advise him, US contradicts his claims by saying that it is to investigate Sri Lanka. This bias shows the need to appoint the UN General Secretary from a nation that is not aligned to any of the superpowers.

In short, most groundwork in the second Kosovo project has been already commenced.

It all Adds Up

During the last stages of the war, USA offered its military assistance to Sri Lanka but was refused. In the immediate aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, US troops landed on the island fearing the repetition of what happened in Aceh, Indonesia. Following extensive tsunami destruction, Aceh rebels were quickly overpowered by the Indonesian troops, forcing them to give up. This is what the American troops wanted to avoid. After it was clear it would not happen, they left. There was no real aid they brought in as it was a sham operation! (9)

In 2009, USA issued a possible war crimes report and wanted Lanka to answer to the claims. Why did the US and not any other nation initiate this? However, following a series of other developments, the matter was shed.

Blake – the US ambassador to Colombo repeatedly acted in very hostile manner. This was something unseen from all previous US ambassadors. He tried every trick to halt the war to save the tiger administration. Although Chilcott – the British High Commissioner – too followed a similar approach, he didn't interfere as much as Blake did. Blake was very popular before his ugly manoeuvre. Why?

After more blames and absurd allegations, Hilary Clinton declared in April 2010 the recommencing of US-SL joint military exercises. (10) These were done weeks ahead of a planned Russian military drill in the region. (11)

Although seem unrelated, all these add up in the scheme of things.

How to Overcome this Threat?

This got to be overcome by friendly means. The problem got to be fixed not in the arena of SL-US relations but in frustrating the Tamil Elam separatism project. If a separate nation or any other autonomous entity cannot be created in North-East, the US, etc. plan collapses. Sure, they will try other means and other countries but this particular threat will disappear if Lanka acts with diligence. Rapid and increased militarisation of the North is key to addressing the issue. Large, permanent security forces bases should be erected in the North. Land and police powers should not be given to any regional administrative body. Paramilitaries must continue to carry weapons. In essence, nothing significant should be allowed to function in the north without the sanction of security forces.

However, this is not going to achieve anything permanent. Change of government certainly changes defence priorities. To ensure continued military presence, large agricultural and industrial colonization schemes must be carried out adjoining army camps. Since security will be an ongoing issue, camps will have to stay here despite politicians' whims and fancies. In addition to huge economic development, increase in food production, reduction in unemployment and ease of landlessness, these colonization schemes would bring, they can supply army camps with agricultural produce saving billions of rupees every year. These new settlements should be provided with schools, hospitals, electricity, access roads, entertainment facilities, libraries, sport facilities, etc. The Gam Udawa scheme must be revived to create new villages in the North reawakening the past glory in the region.  

Most defence forces' personnel don't own land despite winning 1,000,000 hectares of land for the country from terrorist occupation! Building large housing projects adjoining army camps in conjunction with colonization schemes will provide not only housing but also a better work-life balance to forces personnel and less travelling. These are essential requirements to keep troop morale high and manage defence expenditure at a sustainable level.

Colonization frustrates the Tamil Elam project. Trincomlaee and Ampara districts are good examples. Decades ago racist political parties won in these districts but thanks to large scale colonization schemes such as Gal Oya, Senanayake Samudra, etc. ethnic composition has changed for the better. Tamil racist political parties including ACTC, ITAK, TULF, TNA, etc. promote separatism and racism making it difficult for ethnic integration. Making them less powerful is the surest way to weaken the Tamil Elam project. Today national political parties win these two districts and communal parties lose. In short, the "ethnic problem" has been sorted in these districts. When communal parties are not powerful, it helps people to resolve their problems.

References

(1). http://www.colombopage.com/archive_10A/Jun25_1277450687CH.php

(2). http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/06/20/samantha-power-genocide-chick-sri-lanka-%E2%80%93-latest-attempt-us

(3). http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sc9015.doc.htm

(4). http://www.tamilsforobama.com/Tamils.asp

(5). http://srilanka.usaid.gov/press_detail.php?press_id=42

(6). http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/02/28/is-anyone-watching-usaid/

(7). http://kosovo-americancorners.net/  

(8). http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=25659&Cr=Kosovo&Cr1

(9). http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers13/paper1213.html

(10). http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=31554

(11). http://www.brahmand.com/news/Russia-sends-Moskva-missile-cruiser-to-Indian-Ocean/3607/1/14.html

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/06/29/usa-trying-to-impose-the-kosovo-model-in-sri-lanka/

Bosnia: Suspected Islamist bombing 'the beginning' say experts

Bosnia: Suspected Islamist bombing 'the beginning' say experts

 

Sarajevo and Belgrade, 28 June (AKI) – Sunday's bloody bombing of a police station in Bosnia in a suspected radical Islamist attack is only the beginning of a wave of violence in Bosnia, terrorism experts said on Monday.

Police have arrested at least five people over the attack in the central town of Bugojno, in which one person was killed and six wounded.

Among those arrested was Haris Causevic, who admitted planting the explosive device near a police station in the town 75 kilometres northwest of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.

Causevic is believed to be a member of the fundamentalist Islamic Wahabi Islamist movement. Benevolence towards Wahabism by Bosnian authorities have allowed it to radicalise supporters and plot violence, according to Galijasevic and other terrorism experts.

Local politicians have for too long treated Wahabi groups propagating violent Islam with excessive tolerance, Bosnian terrorism expert Dzevad Galijasevic, told Adnkronos International (AKI).

"This (attack) was to be expected and it is just the beginning," Galijasevic, who is a Muslim, told AKI.

"Bosnia has a very stormy period ahead," he warned.

Galijasevic said about five percent of Bosnia's 1.5 million Muslims had been indoctrinated by Wahabi ideology, but the number of their supporters may be about 12 per cent of the population.

Though Wahabism is considered a radical religious movement in Bosnia, Wahabis are playing a central role in terrorist activities in the Musim-majority country, according to Galijasevic.

"Their activities have nothing to do with religion," he said.

There had been scores of murders and terrorist activities in Bosnia, but local authorities have played these down as "isolated incidents and ordinary crime," Galijasevic said.

"Bosnia-Herzegovina simply isn't ready to explicitly call it terrorism, although western intelligence agencies are pefectly aware of what's going on," he stated.

Galijasevic claimed radical Islam had a strong supporter in wartime Bosnian Muslim president Alija Izetbegovic and current Muslim member of the joint state presidency Haris Silajdzic, who condemned Sunday's bombing as an attack on the state.

Galijasevic heads a non-governmental southeast European counter-terrorist organisation with Serbian expert on terrorism Darko Trifunovic and a Croatian Domagoj Margetic.

They have frequently warned that Bosnia has become a European hotbed of radical Islam and Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist activities.

Trifunovic agreed that most of Bosnian Muslim leaders have ignored the activities of radical Islamists and played down their terrorist activities.

"We have been highlighting this problem for years, but no one paid attention," he told AKI.

Attacks such as the one in Bugojno were the "logical consequence" of ignoring the security threat posed by Wahabism, he said.

"I'm afraid this is not the end," Trifunovic said.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.1.607685816

Police actions questioned following G20 weekend

Police actions questioned following G20 weekend

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Riot police push against a crowd during a street demonstration on the closing day of the G20 Summit in Toronto, Sunday, June 27, 2010. (AP / Carolyn Kaster)

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CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Mon. Jun. 28 2010 1:35 PM ET

As Toronto begins cleaning up after a weekend of G20-related violence, questions are being raised about the actions of police.

On Saturday, the Integrated Security Unit was criticized for allowing the "Black Bloc" anarchists to run amok on Queen West and Yonge St, destroying property and torching police cars.

But on Sunday, police cracked down hard on protesters, including what some have described as lawful protests.

One video on YouTube shows police, dressed in riot gear, charging a group of protesters who were singing 'O Canada' and were seemingly non-threatening.

Jason MacDonald submitted a video to MyNews.CTV.ca, in which he alleges he was hit by a riot shield in the face, cutting his forehead. The video shows blood streaming down the left side of his face from a cut above his eye.

Minutes later he is tackled to the ground and arrested.

The video was taken at the standoff at the Queen and Spadina intersection, which has drawn intense criticism for coordinating off both protesters and anyone else caught in the crossfire.

Mayor David Miller has defended the actions of police, saying they had an extraordinarily difficult task.

"I think compared to similar events around the world, our police did a remarkably good job and people should be starting from that perspective," he told Canada AM Monday morning.

Later, in a news conference the mayor said he regretted that some innocent people "got caught up" in the arrests and blamed the arrests on police having to deal with "Black Bloc" tactics.

Miller said that there is civilian oversight of the police, and there is a proper channel for complaints.

Toronto police spokesperson Tim Burrows told CTV News Channel that the police will review their actions and will be even harder on themselves than the public or media.

"The biggest lesson is still to come . . . we don't want blind criticism or deaf praise, we need to learn from and be constructive about what happened," he said. "In the end the greatest criticism we will have, is from ourselves."

Swift police action

Police appeared to lower their tolerance to protests Sunday after watching four of their squad cars burn Saturday.

At one point Sunday, police and protesters were engaged in a tense and bizarre four-hour standoff at a busy intersection in the city's core, when a large contingent of police boxed in a group of about 200 people in heavy rain.

Police moved in and picked out certain protesters and arrested them. Then, just before 9:45 p.m. local time, police let the remaining crowd go free.

Talking to reporters late Sunday night, Toronto Police Staff Superintendent Jeff McGuire was pressed to explain why police had barricaded people for so long in the rain. McGuire responded: "We're not perfect in everything we do, but our interest was in the safety of the citizens of Toronto."

He added that police were trying to prevent the kind of violence caused by Black Bloc tactics the day before, and found weapons in the area.

"I don't know the specific weapons. I've been advised that some weapons were found along the route as the officers were forming around this group," he said.

Earlier Sunday, there was a tense standoff at a temporary detention centre where hundreds of people arrested during the protests were held.

A riot squad used rubber bullets and blank rifle shots to drive back about 100 demonstrators at the seemingly peaceful sit-in outside the detention centre. Police then apprehended an alleged member of an anarchist protest group.

Eventually, police made a deal with the crowd, telling them they would release some of those arrested if the crowd moved off a busy street. The deal appeared to work and the crowd stepped back.

Police also raided a building on the University of Toronto campus Sunday and arrested at least 70 people -- not believed to be students. A spokesperson for the Integrated Security Unit said officers found a cache of "street-type weaponry" such as bricks and fuels.

Journalists among arrested

There are also questions being raised about the number of journalists who were arrested while covering the G20 protests. At least one journalist is reported to have been struck by police during his arrest.

Jesse Rosenfeld, a Canadian activist freelance journalist, was on assignment for The Guardian when he was arrested Saturday night.

Steve Paikin, host of the Agenda on TVO, witnessed the arrest and reported that Rosenfeld was punched in the stomach and then elbowed in the back when he was doubled over.

Two Reuters photographers were arrested Sunday night while covering a protest near Queen West and Spadina, despite wearing prominent media badges.

They were released without charges.

Two National Post photographers, Brett Gundlock and Colin O'Connor, were arrested Saturday while attempting to photograph police clashing with protesters.

They spent about 24 hours in custody and were both charged with obstruct peace officer and unlawful assembly.

A CTV producer was also arrested and released without charge on the weekend.

Toronto police chief Bill Blair told CTV News Channel that reporters would be arrested if they did not disperse with the protesters they were covering.

"We asked the innocent to leave three times and they chose not, and if a tourist, or even a reporter, chooses to remain in that crowd . . . then they had to deal with the consequences of being detained," he said.

No win situation

Security expert Alan Bell says there's no way police could have won the public relations battle of securing this summit, since they were condemned for not doing enough Saturday, then slammed for coming down too hard on Sunday.

"The big problem we have is that police are going to be damned if they do, damned if they don't," he told Canada AM.

He says it seems the protesters were methodical in their actions, trying to create distractions in certain pockets of the downtown so that other demonstrators could move in on the inner security perimeter around the summit site. The job of the 10,000 law enforcement officers brought in from around the country was to attempt to thwart that, he says.

"Trying to move so many police around different areas while maintaining the integrity of the security zone was very difficult. And I think they learned quite a lot from the Saturday interaction. Then on Sunday, they got it right. They went out there and prevented these things from happening," said Bell.

"They got criticized for that as well, but I don't know what people expected them to do."

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