Reminder: It is 13 years since the start of NATO aggression against Serbia (FR of Yugoslavia) Zivadin Jovanovic, President of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals, Serbia 13 years since NATO aggression against Serbia (FR of Yugoslavia) Violation of Human rights of Serbs in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija The struggle for peace and the struggle for full respect of universal human rights, as defined by UN Declaration on protection of human rights, are interdependent and non-separable. Violations of sovereignty and territorial integrity, military interventions, aggressions and occupations go hand in hand with massive violations of the basic human rights. It is clear that there are no humanitarian military interventions. NATO military aggression against Yugoslavia ( Serbia ) which started March 24rth, 1999 was launched to allegedly protect human rights of Kosovo Albanians. It was carried out in blatant violation of the basic principals of International Law and without approval of UN Security Council. The precedent was used later in various other parts of the world whenever it suited the interests of USA and NATO: Afghanistan , Iraq , and Libya . There are threats that it may be used against other countries like Syria, Iran, North Korea or any other country. NATO aggression against Serbia (FR ofYugoslavia) in 1999 left close to 4000 dead and more tan 10.000 wounded, two thirds of whom where civilians including close to 1 hundred children. NATO forces were using missiles with depleted uranium, causing massive cancer disease, deformation of newly-born babies unknown before. NATO polluted soil, water and food production for unbelievable period of four billion years. Direct economic damage caused by aggression was estimated to an amount of over one hundred billion dollars. Immediately after the end of the aggression, USA constructed on Serbian soil in Kosovo and Metohija the biggest American base in the world known as Bondsteel. This was the beginning of mushrooming of USA and NATO military basis all over the Balkans and Eastern Europe . Today there are more USA and NATO military basis in Europe than any time during the Cold War Era. Why? Warsaw Pact has been disbanded. There are no confronting socio-political systems; all European countries apparently enjoy free market economies and multi-party parliamentary democracy. What and who to defend and where from by so many military bases and long range ballistic rockets carrying nuclear warheads? From international terrorism? Cyber attackers? International organized crime groups? Rogue states? The overall economic, financial, political and moral crises of the leading countries of the West will probably lead to further spreading of interventionism, militarization and total disregard of the basic principles of international relations. Cover up justifications will not be a problem. So far there has been abundance of "positive" experiences of "humanitarian interventions", "protection of civilians" from dictatorial regimes etc. The richest and militarily the strongest are not ready to carry alone the burden of the crises that they have caused themselves. Their might is serving them to transfer the burden of the crises to the weaker, especially, if the weaker happen to have oil, gas, or strategic minerals. The crises have already caused the most massive violation of human rights such as the right to employment, education, health, information, privacy. The consequences are that Kosovo and Metohija after 12 years of being under UN mandate continues to be the source of instability in the Balkans, organized international crime and spring board of extremism and terrorism toward the rest of Europe. The Province of Kosovo and Metohija is the birth place of Serbian nation, culture, religion and state. Thousands of Serbian medieval monuments witness to this. There are two large communities living in the Province - Kosovo Serbs, who are Orthodox Christians, and Kosovo Albanians, the great majority of whom are Moslems. Before the beginning of the Second World War Serbian population in the Province were majority. Today, Serbs make less than 10 percent of the total population of the Province. The drastic change in national structure was due to the policy of ethnic cleansing of Serbs occupation for about 500 years, then by fascist-Nazi occupation forces (1941 – 1945) of over decades if not centuries - first by Turkish Empire which kept the Province under Mussolini and Hitler and finally by NATO aggression and occupation which continues up to these days. UN Security Council Resolution 1244, of June 10, 1999 put the end of the NATO aggression but introduced military occupation of the Province, formally by international UN mandated forces (KFOR), in reality by NATO forces. Ever since June 1999, we have been witnessing large scale of individual and even institutionally-sponsored violation of basic human rights and freedoms of Kosovo Serbs and other non-Albanians. Here are some examples of major human rights violations. No free and safe return for 250,000 displaced Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija After June 1999, International Red Cross noted some 250,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians who had been expelled by terror, intimidation and ethnic cleansing leave their birth places and homes in Kosovo and Metohija. Current UNHCR data show return of some 18,000 Serbs, but in reality this number is some 6,000, or 2.1%. UN Mission and other international stakeholders organized the process of the return, but no results. Therefore, Serbia remains the country with the highest number of refugees and displaced persons in the whole of Europe. No justice for the victims After June 1999, close to 1,000 Serbian and other non-Albanian civilians have been abducted and eventually killed. In July 1999, 14 people, including children, in the village of Staro Gracko were killed while harvesting in the field. In the winter 2002, a bomb was planted and set-off under a passenger bus killing many Serb passengers. In August 2003 a group of Serbian children playing by the river in village of Gorazdevac , were killed. Thousands of other crimes against Serbs in the Province have been committed and none of the culprits brought to justice although justice and police are directly managed by UN and EU missions (UNMIK, EULEX). Human organs trafficking In December 2010, Special Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Swiss MP Dick Marty , published Report on trafficking of human organ of abducted Serbs in 1999. The Parliamentary Assembly adopted the Report and passed Resolution demanding independent international investigation. So far no results because the people involved in this organized crime are Kosovo Albanian top politicians, former leaders of the terrorist KLA (UCK). They enjoy support and protection from Washington, London and Berlin. We demand that the investigation in the human organs trafficking in Kosovo and Metohija be conducted under auspices of UN Security Council without further delay. Illegal occupation of Serbian-owned property After June 1999, Kosovo Albanians simply occupied all immovable and movable possessions of 250,000 Serbs who left Kosovo, but also of Serbs who remained there. Often, owners were either killed or expelled by force from their properties. In September 1999, the UN founded a body that was supposed to facilitate the return of property to legal owners, the Housing and Property Directorate, but there are no results. General insecurity Since June 1999, there was almost no freedom of movement outside the so-called enclaves in which Serbs found their safety. Today Serbs still cannot access their businesses and land without risk of being attacked end even killed. They still cannot go churches and cemeteries without KFOR military escort. Some of Serbian enclaves even today continue to be fenced by barbed wire and their inhabitants living in ghetto-like conditions. Rewriting history Ever since NATO aggression in 1999, there has been systematic destruction of any traces of Serbian monuments and Christianity in Kosovo. Some 150 Serbian Orthodox churches and medieval monasteries have been destroyed, originating from as early as 13th and 14th centuries, including some from the UNESCO List of World Heritage. In addition, there has been a wide-spread exercise to rename remaining churches and monasteries as "Byzantine" or "Albanian", or "Albanian castles and towers. Violation of right to health Kosovo Albanian authorities have been stopping and seizing shipments of medical equipment and medical drugs intended for medical facilities in Serbian enclaves. In addition, they have been willfully and intentionally trying to worsen situation for Serbian populated areas, by cutting the electric power supply. For three years in the row, in winter time they have been cutting power supply to Serbian enclaves. Violation of right to education Since June 1999, all cities and towns in Kosovo except Mitrovica in the north were ethnically cleansed and became mono-ethnically Albanian. Serbs and other ethnic groups were driven to villages. School facilities were inaccessible for Serbian schoolchildren. They had to resort to inadequate premises for schools. However, most drastic situation is in Gorani community. The Goranis are local Serbian speaking ethnic group of Muslim belief, who have been exposed to incessant assimilation attempts and forced to accept Albanian language and Albanian curriculum. This pressure still goes on. Struggle for peace and struggle for social, economic, political and cultural human rights are the duty of peace movements and all peace loving forces. Freedom, equality in rights and opportunities and sovereignty of states and nations are preconditions for full respect of human rights as provided for in the UN GS Declaration on human rights. Liberal corporate capitalism in its imperialistic stage is the chief source of massive violation of the basic human rights of the mankind. Global economic, financial, political and moral crisis of the western societies is accompanied by the most massive violation of the basic human rights after the end of the Second World War. Global interventionism, wars and violations of human rights, disrespect of the international law and abuse of United Nations, are immanent features of corporate capitalism. As the NATO aggression against Serbia (FRY) 13 years ago had shown there are no humanitarian military interventions whatsoever. NATO has become the most dangerous tool for massive violation of human rights in the second half of XX and first two decades of XXI centuries. Therefore NATO as remnant of the cold war area should be abolished and its entire military bases, as well as military bases of member countries all over the world, should be dismantled. The use of the missiles with depleted uranium should be formally banned by international convention. Abuse of human rights for spreading domination of imperialism is impermissible and should be stopped forthwith. All Serbs and other non-Albanians expelled from the Province after NATO aggression 13 years ago are entitled to free and safe return to their homes in the Kosovo and Metohija Province. Territorial integrity and sovereignty of each country should be fully respected in the interest of peace and stability. Natural and economic resources, including oil and natural gas reserves, are subject to sovereign control and exploitation by concrete countries and can not be excuse for any interference or intervention from abroad. The role of the UN, respect of the UN Charter and UN GS Declaration on protection human rights should be reaffirmed and reinforced. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia should be respected and UN SC resolution 1244 (1999) fully implemented. Unilateral secession of Serbian Province of Kosovo and Metohija is not acceptable and should not be recognized. We call for peaceful solution of the issue of the status respecting UN SC resolution 1244 and equal human rights of all inhabitants of the Province. All pressures and blackmails against Serbia to trade its sovereignty over the Province of Kosovo and Metohija in exchange for candidacy or membership in European Union are neocolonial methods which should be condemned and rejected as absolutely unacceptable. Best regards, Živadin Jovanović Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals 11000 B e l g r a d e Sremska 6/IV sprat Tel: + 381 11 32 83 778 Mob: + 381 63 327 859 |
March 03, 2012
Violation of Human rights of Serbs in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija
February 26, 2012
Despicable is Hillary Clinton
26.02.2012 | 03:29 |
Hillary Clinton is an interesting case study. She started four years ago as a charming Secretary of State, the smile on the snout to wipe out the snarl of her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice and four years on, she appears on camera butch, a trucker-type probably complete with tattoos, insolent, inconsequential and incompetent. We now understand Bill.
What happened to Hillary Clinton?
Her credentials for the position of Secretary of State were never that great; let us be honest: someone who lied on camera for all to see about getting off an aircraft in the middle of a war zone in Bosnia in the 1990s when in fact she arrived to a red-carpet welcome, complete with band playing... Since when is a red carpet and a band a war zone?
Right...
And now, the Chief of Diplomacy of the United States of America imitates her representative at the UNO, Susan Rice, in insolence, calling Russia and China "despicable" for spoiling her war plans in Syria (and beyond).
Insolence is indeed the mainstay and the keyword behind US diplomacy, intrusion ditto and hypocrisy has to be the toothpick in the throat of those who try to expound Washington's virtue on the world stage. And let us be perfectly frank. Hillary Rodham Clinton had a very easy passage before her as the outwardly visible sidekick of Barack Obama, elected after eight years of a Bush regime which confirmed all the worst nightmares of the conspiracy theorists. Did she pull it off? No she didn't.
For someone in her position, to label the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China as "despicable" because they exercised their right to block NATO's evil desire to make another Libya out of Syria, is a clear sign of how low US diplomacy has sunk. In fact, it is difficult to discern which of the last three Secretaries of State is worse: Colin Powell, with his lies at the UNO about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction; Condoleezza Rice, with her justification of Georgia's murderous attack against Russians and now Hillary War Zone Clinton, responsible for Libya and desperate to press further eastwards as she holds the hands of those whose human rights records are...in a word...despicable.
Despicable are those Gulf Royals, unelected, but in power, and accepted without a word of contestation by Clinton and Obama and company, some of whom allegedly go to Morocco and perform the most horrific sexual crimes with boys and girls...despicable are the leaders of the Gulf States favourable to the USA and its allies siphoning off their resources, which have carried out the most draconian measures against their citizens.
No mention from despicable Hillary War Zone Clinton.
Despicable is the United States of America and its policy of torture flights, on which CIA operationals carried out barbaric acts against detainees; despicable it is to flout international law, invade sovereign states and destroy their civilian infrastructures with military hardware.
Despicable it is to maintain concentration camps, a festering wound on the collective face of humanity and a profound insult to human decency. Despicable it is to sodomise detainees; despicable it is to urinate in food, despicable it is to deprive detainees of sleep, despicable it is to water-board people, despicable it is to force Moslems to eat pork.
Despicable is Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, where the worst human rights violations in Latin America are perpetrated by the United States of America; despicable was Abu Ghraib concentration camp in Iraq, where the great American heroine Lynndie England was let loose on people who had been imprisoned without charge but hey! "just havin' fun". Despicable it is to detain people without due process, without access to a lawyer, without access to family visits and without even an accusation.
Despicable it is to arm terrorists overseas, as was the case in Libya and as is the case in Syria. Despicable, then, if we analyse with a modicum of intelligence, is Hillary R. Clinton and the hellhole that she represents.
To prove my point, in how many of the human rights violations mentioned above were Russia and China involved?
None.
Thank you. I rest my case. Hillary War Zone Liar Clinton: YOU are despicable.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
http://www.moscowtopnews.com/
February 19, 2012
Kosovo Massacre Fraud by Germany to justify Yugoslav War
KOSOVO MASSACRE FRAUD BY GERMANY TO JUSTIFY YUGOSLAV WAR
19th February 2012
German Television programme "Time Travel" broadcast in January 2012
Narrator: These are the photos that Rudolf Scharping didn't show. He didn't show the Albanians' weapons, their UCK badges and membership cards and their ammunition. He didn't show the clear evidence of fighting."
Henning Hensch (the photographer): "There can be no talk of a massacre here, and however inconvenient this might sound, these were military battles."
The extent of the lies told about what was happening in Yugoslavia in the 1990s in order to justify the war waged by NATO has long been known - but not acknowledged by the press and mass media in Europe or the USA.The Sarajevo market bomb was not set by Serbs but by Bosnian Muslims, as the UN later confirmed. The skeletal "Serb concentration camp" victim was a nonsense, as the BBC's John Simpson confirmed and the "10,000 deaths in Kosovo" were proved to be a complete myth.
Both the Commander of the OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission in 1999 (just before Yugoslavia was attacked) Roland Keith and the former Canadian Ambassador in Belgrade James Bissett have condemned the war and defended the Yugoslav Government. Bissett said that the 1999 attack was a "put up job" and quotes the most revealing admission by the former British Defense Minister, Lord Gilbert, who told the British House of Commons in July 2000 that the terms that NATO sought to force upon Milosevic at Rambouillet were deliberately designed to provoke war. Commander Keith described the KLA as a terrorist organisation which had a grip on most villages in Kosovo. He had direct experience of the lies told by villagers about ethnic cleansing and he said he never saw the Yugoslav Federal Army mistreat anyone in Kosovo.
Now we have a respected German televisions programme providing clear proof of the fraud practised by the German Government to justify to their public an attack on Yugoslavia in 1999. It is the equivalent of the "dodgy dossier" of that other great "builder of Europe" Tony Blair. Read the translation of the programme at:
February 16, 2012
Russia: Kosovo Referendum Results Signal To International Community
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_02_16/66235369/
Russian Information Agency Novosti
February 16, 2012
Lavrov: Kosovo referendum results "a signal to global community"
The results of the referendum held on February 14-15 in Kosovo are "a signal to the international community" and to the parties in the Kosovo talks, which cannot be ignored, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Vienna on Thursday.
The referendum on the legitimacy Kosovo's Albanian authorities was held in four Serbian communities in the north of the region on the initiative of the local authorities. The local residents were asked the following question "Do you accept the institutions of the so-called Republic of Kosovo?" According to the preliminary results, more than 99.5% of the voters said "No".
"This was a signal to Pristina, Belgrade, a signal to those who wants the international involvement in the settlement of the numerous aspects of this problem to continue", Lavrov said.
February 12, 2012
A House of Sand and Fog by Nebojsa Malic
A House of Sand and Fog
Posted By Nebojsa Malic On February 10, 2012 @ 11:00 pm In Uncategorized | 9 Comments
Last summer, as the Sandstorm mistakenly dubbed the "Arab Spring" swept across North Africa, a cadre of professional revolutionaries the Empire created in Serbia bragged about their role in the revolts to some European videographers. Sure, the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt may have begun spontaneously, but Empire-trained activists soon took control and channeled the rage into "regime change." It's what they get paid for.
Staging revolts and coups to replace foreign governments with more pliable ones is nothing new; only the techniques have changed, with "democracy activists" replacing Agency assets as the executors. But with the acceleration of information dispersal in the digital age came the shortening of the blowback window as well. It took twenty-six years for Persian resentment at the 1953 ousting of Mossadegh to manifest itself as Khomeini's Islamic Revolution. Now mere months are enough.
"The Cairo 19"
Last week, the military government in Cairo – caretakers of the country until the Muslim Brotherhood takes over - arrested some forty-odd "democracy activists," including 19 Americans. Reactions in Washington ranged from shock to outrage: how dare these foreigners touch the sacred missionaries of Democracy? Sure, these young people get paid big money by the unwitting American taxpayers, to foment unrest and subvert governments the world over, but isn't that the prerogative of Empire? Isn't it, like, oppressive and stuff, to prevent Serbian sellouts and sons of American government officials to earn their own private islands?
Even though foreign activism in the electoral process is strictly illegal in America itself, the rest of the world objecting to America interfering in their elections is just, well, "illiberal"! That's what passes for logic in the Empire these days.
Furthermore, the revolution business is booming, quickly becoming the Empire's major export. Granted, successful businesses are supposed to bring in profit, and the coups around the world are only sowing anti-American resentment – but what's logic got to do with the thrill of fame and power?
Julija Belej Bakovic, described by the Washington Post as a "former student activist in Serbia", now heads a regional office of the International Republican Institute (IRI) for Asia. She still believes what happened in Serbia is a "light at the end of the tunnel" for people everywhere. It certainly worked out well for her: she parlayed her "activism" into a well-paid international career. Most of her colleagues are lucky if they have jobs at all, in the "democratic" Serbia turned into a corrupt hellhole by Julija's revolution that wasn't.
It brings to mind a saying from Serbia, "What a wise man is ashamed of, the fool parades with pride."
By The Numbers
Bolstered by the alleged success of the "Arab Spring," the Empire set its crosshairs on Moscow. In December last year, "activists" began organizing protest marches and claiming that elections for the Russian federal legislature were stolen. This is a trope right out of the handbook, by the way – and easily disproved by doing actual math and statistics.
While shaken initially, the government of Vladimir Putin has rallied and charged the demonstrators with being foreign mercenaries. Trite but true, the charge resonated in a country stripped to the bone in the 1990s by a quisling regime beholden to the Empire. Nor does it help the Empire's cause that Russians remember all too well the 2004 "Orange Revolution" in nearby Ukraine.
On February 4, as Empire's activists rallied in freezing weather at Moscow's Bolotnaya Square, a much larger crowd gathered to support the government at Poklonnaya Hill. The Western media promptly lied about the size of the demonstrations, but in Russia the difference was clear to anyone with eyes to see: the pro-government demonstrators vastly outnumbered the astroturfers. According to some observers, this may have taken the wind out of the revolutionaries' sails, at least for now.
The Road to Damascus
Last weekend, Russia and China vetoed a resolution at the UN Security Council that would have backed "regime change" in Syria. Imperial officials predictably denounced this as a "travesty." But was it?
Back in March 2011, both countries agreed to a resolution (UNSCR 1973) authorizing the no-fly zone over Libya, allegedly to protect innocent civilians. Supposedly, these civilians – or rather, the armed rebellion in Cyrenaica – were threatened by the Libyan air force. Within hours, the resolution became a fig leaf for a massive air campaign and special forces intervention on behalf of an Empire-backed rebellion. The Emperor argued it wasn't a war but a "kinetic military action." Is there another kind?
In Libya, the Bosnia scenario played out in fast-forward. Something similar began taking shape in Syria. However, a designated propaganda star of the Syrian revolt was exposed as a hoax early on, while the Libyan expedition took much longer than expected. For a while it seemed the Empire's next target might be Iran, but currently the war drumline is beating a march to Damascus.
Empire's moral outrage at Russia and China is hypocrisy at its finest. The warmongers in Washington and London are already bringing up Bosnia and Kosovo - two celebrated "successful" interventions that were nothing of the sort. There is definitely a pattern of aggression at work, but its source is not Assad.
Faced with a belligerent American Empire prone to attacking other countries with flimsy justification (or none at all), conducting drone wars worldwide, and organizing Astroturf revolutions in countries it finds too difficult to invade, it is honestly a miracle that Moscow and Beijing have waited this long.
Trouble in Paradise
Odds are the Chinese and Russian governments hardly think that a UN veto would keep the Empire in check; after all, lack of UN authorization didn't stop the 1999 Kosovo War, or the 2003 invasion of Iraq. A Russian Navy task force anchored in Syria, however, just might.
Simply put, it is no longer 1999. Actions have consequences, and the Empire has lied, stolen, killed and cheated enough over the past two decades for the rest of the world to take notice and take action. Worst of all, the Imperial officials are actually convinced their actions have created a favorable reality on the ground – where in actuality, they've build a house of sand and fog that's already falling apart.
Last April, the Maldives government – which came to power thanks to the efforts of professional revolutionaries – rewarded the activists with their very own tropical island. But that government is collapsing now, while angry mobs of militant Muslims destroy priceless statues in the museums. An AFP report from the islands includes this aside: "Islam is the official religion of the Maldives and open practice of any other religion is forbidden and liable to prosecution."
Some "democracy," indeed.
http://original.antiwar.com/malic/2012/02/10/a-house-of-sand-and-fog/
February 11, 2012
Kosovo Versus Syria: What Is Truly "Disgusting"
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2012/02/11/truly-disgusting-the-west-in-kosovo.html
Strategic Culture Foundation
February 11, 2012
Truly Disgusting - the West in Kosovo
Aleksandar Pavic
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Economically as well, Kosovo is a basket case, to put it mildly. The unemployment rate is variously estimated at 40-60%, or even 70%. The territory has been identified by various international agencies as the main European center for the distribution of heroin originating in Afghanistan, as well as a center for money laundering and human trafficking. It has been referred to more than once as "Afghanistan in Europe." In addition, the top of its ethnic Albanian leadership is currently under international investigation for human organ trafficking.
Western "hysterics" regarding Syria are old hat to those who've been watching similar performances being played out in the Balkans over the past two decades: first comes the Western media frenzy, followed by calls from Western capitals that "something must be done," followed by threats, sanctions and, lastly, foreign [i.e., NATO/EU] intervention and the installation of dysfunctional, kleptocratic, incomparably worse regimes, such as Thaci's "Kosovo" mafia-state.
There is no country in the world – and there has never been – whose government does not have flaws. But there has never been a media force that is able to exploit them to such an extent as today's Western global media – while simultaneously ignoring cases such as Kosovo, which no longer suit their immediate interventionist purposes. It seems, thus, that if they do not draw a line in the sand on Syria – Russia and China will soon be faced with a similar scenario elsewhere – closer to their own borders.
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In the tantrums thrown by the Western powers in the wake of the Russo-Chinese veto of their UN Security Council resolution on Syria, the US's UN Ambassador, Susan Rice, expressed "disgust" at these two states' behavior. In addition to these kinds of "hysterics" – as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov so aptly described them – being calculated to rally the global media further against the two Eurasian giants, they also serve the purpose of directing attention away from the West's own disastrous intervention track record. On February 8, just four days after the failed Syria resolution, the UNSC had a chance to discuss another Western interventionist "success story" – Kosovo.
Many might think that Russia's and China's reluctance to give a green light to foreign intervention in Syria is mostly based on the recent Libya (and Iraq and Afghanistan) experience. That is only partly true. For the occupied Serbian province of Kosovo has been under NATO/EU control for more than 12 years now – since June 10, 1999 – and offers a much better view of what Western intervention brings than the still-fresh, although already clearly disastrous, Libyan case.
The first thing that struck one's attention was the fact that the Assistant Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet, referred to the situation in Kosovo at February 8 session as one of "fragile calm." Remember, this is more than 12 years after Western powers had taken complete control of the territory, and almost four years since they have unilaterally recognized its "independence." With tens of thousands of Western "peacekeepers" on the ground for over a decade and several billion dollars spent – we have nothing more than "fragile calm." A "success story" this is not.
Vuk Jeremić, the Foreign Minister of Serbia, whose province Kosovo still is according to UNSC Resolution 1244 (as well as Resolutions 1160, 1199, 1203 and 1239, all of which the Western powers have trampled in their unilateral recognition of the breakaway province), characterized the situation in Kosovo as a "ghetto and barbed wire," with the Serbian population being "the most imperiled in Europe."
Practically none of the over 200,000 people expelled from Kosovo since NATO and the EU have taken over have returned. The 100,000 or so Serbs and non-Albanians that have remained are waging a daily battle, not just for survival but for basic human rights. Pointing to this state of affairs, the Serbian FM cited reports of international organizations such as Human Rights Watch, the OSCE and Transparency International, which talk of rampant corruption, discrimination against non-Albanians, a politically influenced judiciary, inadequate witness protection, etc., while the European Commission has qualified the fight against corruption and organized crime as "inefficient."
Economically as well, Kosovo is a basket case, to put it mildly. The unemployment rate is variously estimated at 40-60%, or even 70%. The territory has been identified by various international agencies as the main European center for the distribution of heroin originating in Afghanistan, as well as a center for money laundering and human trafficking. It has been referred to more than once as "Afghanistan in Europe." In addition, the top of its ethnic Albanian leadership is currently under international investigation for human organ trafficking.
A report by Council of Europe human rights rapporteur Dick Marty published in December 2010 named Kosovo "prime minister" Hashim Thachi as the head of a "mafia-like" group responsible for smuggling human organs, drugs and weapons. Marty accused the international community [i.e., leading NATO/EU states] of failing to act on the intelligence they possessed. According to his report, Thaci and his accomplices carried out "assassinations, detentions, beatings and interrogations" dating back more than a decade. Some members of his group are also accused of smuggling unfortunate Serb prisoners into Albania after the 1999 Kosovo war, where they were killed and their organs harvested.
At the February 8 UNSC session, Serbia, Russia and China renewed their calls to place the investigation of this morbid crime under the auspices of the UNSC. However, as has been the case for almost a year, the US and other Western Security Council members rejected such calls, preferring to keep the investigation under EU, i.e., their own control.
At a previous UNSC session in December 2011, Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin was compelled to remark that Russia "does not understand why our Western colleagues in the UN refuse to implement" such a measure, while Serbia's foreign minister, Vuk Jeremić, added that "some [read Western] UN Security Council members are strongly opposed to the adoption of a resolution [calling for a UNSC-supervised investigation] proposed by Serbia," calling it a "moral abdication before criminals and war criminals." China has also backed Russia's and Serbia's efforts.
Certainly, one of the keys to this sort of "disgusting" behavior can be found in the startling admission made at the end of January by former Chief Prosecutor for the International Tribunal for war crimes in The Hague (ICTY), Carla del Ponte. In an interview given to the Serbian weekly Nedeljnik, she charged that "NATO and UNMIK [the UN's civilian Kosovo mission] prevented an investigation of the organ trafficking charges" and that, in addition, someone in the hierarchy had ordered the evidence destroyed. Obviously, an independent investigation under UNSC auspices would open up a highly embarrassing can of worms for the Western "humanitarians."
In any case, Western "hysterics" regarding Syria are old hat to those who've been watching similar performances being played out in the Balkans over the past two decades: first comes the Western media frenzy, followed by calls from Western capitals that "something must be done," followed by threats, sanctions and, lastly, foreign [i.e., NATO/EU] intervention and the installation of dysfunctional, kleptocratic, incomparably worse regimes, such as Thaci's "Kosovo" mafia-state.
Thus, when one reads of "unverified reports" of atrocities allegedly committed by the Syrian authorities, the first reflex ought to be – let's verify the reports first – especially as the Arab League Observer Mission had detected the presence of an unidentified "armed entity" (which is certainly one of the reasons why its report has been rejected not just by the West but by the very states that sent it) that was responsible for provoking armed response from government forces.
However, on the heels of the first thought should come a second – who would do the verifying? Just before the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, Western "observers/verifiers" came into the Kosovo province under the auspices of the OSCE, led by another US diplomat, William Walker, whose previous experiences included (democratically?) suppressing investigations into death squad killings of Jesuits in El Salvador during the 1980s, and accompanied by Western reporters. The result? The targets that were subsequently bombed were precisely located and marked by the "observers" (a nice name for reconnaissance agents, as it turned out) – while the Western media, with the help of several fictional "massacre stories" helped prepare the pretext for the almost 80-day bombing that ensued a few weeks later. Can anyone doubt that something similar is being planned for Syria? Can anyone blame Syrians that do not wish to become "Afghanistan of the Middle East?"
That is why it is vitally important for Russia, China and all the countries that support them to succeed in ensuring a balanced and, above all, sustainable solution to the Syrian crisis, one that involves the active participation of the entire Syrian public, whose outcome will not be the simple installation of purportedly "pro-Western" thugs. It does not, however, appear that Western politicians and media are willing to give either Russia, China, or the Syrian people this opportunity.
As status quo states that respect international law – one of whose chief principles is non-interference in other countries' affairs – Russia and China are once again at a clear disadvantage. They have been put on the defensive by the extremely aggressive Western global media apparatus.
There is no country in the world – and there has never been – whose government does not have flaws. But there has never been a media force that is able to exploit them to such an extent as today's Western global media – while simultaneously ignoring cases such as Kosovo, which no longer suit their immediate interventionist purposes. It seems, thus, that if they do not draw a line in the sand on Syria – Russia and China will soon be faced with a similar scenario elsewhere – closer to their own borders. So perhaps it's time for them to be more active and aggressive, not just in defending the status quo, but in pointing to the West's own sordid interventionist track record. The "disgusting" case of Kosovo is just one of the good places to start.
February 08, 2012
Russia and the Western Media, by S. Trifkovic
Russia And The Western Media
- February 7, 2012
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Srdja Trifkovic
Most Western media professionals tend to subscribe, consciously or not, to a neo-liberal world outlook in general and to the tenets of multiculturalism in particular. The result is notable media favoritism of allegedly disadvantaged, non-Western, traditionally non-Christian societies.
Behind the veneer of all-embracing diversity, however, we find a carefully calibrated scale of acceptance or rejection of "the Other" depending on the cultural and political preferences of the media professionals themselves. The result is moral and intellectual relativism, which enables the media elite to pick and choose, which group or nation will be approved for the status of sympathy or victimhood, and which will be denied the benefit of the doubt.
The image of Russia in the Western media indicates that Russia has been relegated to the latter category. "It sounds paradoxical," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, referring to the Western attitude toward Russia, "but there was more mutual trust and respect during the Cold War." His correct hint is that the Western opinion-makers detest post-Soviet Russia – the state that no longer is subservient, as it had been in the 1990s, but reviving its statehood and identity – more than the Cold War leaders of the West detested the USSR.
The problem of bias, stereotypical reporting and quasi-analysis is by no means new. The collapse of Russia's institutions and social infrastructure under Yeltsin was accompanied by Western approval of the key engineers of the disaster (Anatoly Chubais, Yegor Gaidar, Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov…). Their small political factions, lionized by the Western media, were duly supported by the quasi-NGO network funded in part by the Western taxpayers.
Various anti-Russian stereotypes notably prevailed over common sense and journalistic integrity at the time of Mikhael Saakashvili's attack on South Ossetia in August 2008, with the mainstream media pack attacking Russia's "aggression" and criticizing Western "passivity."
While never missing an opportunity to hector Russia on democracy and criticize her human rights record, the Western media have been and still are notably silent on the discriminatory treatment of large Russian minorities in some former Soviet republics.
In other words, the verdict depends on an actors' status in the ideological pecking order of the media elite itself, not on his words and actions as such – in line with the Leninist dictum that the moral value of any act by anyone is determined by that act's contribution to the march of history. V.V. Putin's high approval rating is thus cited as further "evidence" of his manipulative populism and "proof" that democracy remains underdeveloped in Russia.
The similarity of reactions to Russia on the right and left ends of the Western media spectrum reflects the perception that Russia belongs to a tradition that is unworthy of multiculturalist tolerance. The problem stems not from any misunderstanding of the Russian mindset and tradition, but, on the contrary, from an accurate assessment by the media class that Russia as such is an obstacle to the realization of their political, economic, and ideological preferences in the modern world. The sin of the Russians, in the eyes of the Western media elite, is that they are still defined by their ethnic, cultural and religious identity.
The problem exists. For it to be solved we need a paradigm shift in the West that would pave the way for a "Northern Alliance" of Russia, Western Europe and North America, as all three face similar geopolitical and demographic threats in the decades ahead. We need to rediscover and cherish the commonalities of the spiritual traditions, history and culture of the extended European family, from Anchorage via Berlin to Vladivostok.
Srdja Trifkovic is Foreign Affairs Editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, and Executive Director of The Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies
January 24, 2012
West tells Serbia to pull police from Kosovo
West tells Serbia to pull police from Kosovo
January 24 2012 at 08:34pm
By Fatos Bytyci and Matt Robinson
Pristina/Belgrade - Western powers overseeing Kosovo's independence called on neighbouring Serbia on Tuesday to quit "interfering" in the country and withdraw clandestine security forces.
The call by the 25-member International Steering Group (ISG), including the United States and major EU powers, signalled rising impatience with Serbia's role in a small slice of northern Kosovo populated by minority Serbs.
The country of 1.7 million people, 90 percent of them Albanians, was the last to emerge from socialist Yugoslavia when it seceded from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the major Western powers.
Eighty-six countries have recognised the new state, but a small slice of the north populated by some 50,000-60,000 Serbs reject the secession and flashes of violence continue to challenge its stability.
The north functions largely as part of the Serbian state in a de facto ethnic partition of Kosovo that the West says is unacceptable.
Serbia says it will never recognise Kosovo as independent, but pressure has been growing on Belgrade to loosen its hold on the north if it is to make progress towards membership of the European Union.
Meeting in Vienna, the ISG said in a statement that it hoped to end its supervision of Kosovo by the end of the year, but that more should be done on rights and protections for the Serb minority.
It called on Serbia "to abide by its international commitments and refrain from interfering in Kosovo, including by withdrawing its police, security, and other state presences, and supporting efforts by international actors and the institutions of Kosovo to promote the rule of law".
The Serbian government denies having any police in Kosovo, but Western diplomats, security officials and observers say Serbian security structures have been present in the north since NATO wrested control of Kosovo from Serbia in 1999.
"Serbia has no police or security structures anywhere in Kosovo," a Serbian government spokesman said in response to the ISG statement.
Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after an 11-week NATO air war to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians by Serb forces fighting a two-year counter-insurgency war.
Serbia was denied official candidate status for membership of the EU in December, after months of sporadic violence in north Kosovo. It will have another chance when the EU meets against in March.
Tensions had been bubbling since July last year, when Kosovo's government tried to take control of two border crossings between Serbia and the Serb-populated enclave in the north.
It was repelled by Serbs, who then threw up barricades. The EU's police and justice mission, deployed in 2008, has since been unable to operate freely in the north, and NATO peacekeepers have clashed repeatedly with armed Serbs.
Pieter Feith, the Dutch diplomat tasked by the ISG with overseeing Kosovo's progress, described a "climate of harassment, of intimidation and even of violence that continues to dominate the situation" in the north.
"The whole process of ending supervised independence and the future of Kosovo as a modern multiethnic democracy should not be held hostage by leaders in the north who have a different agenda," he told a news conference after the Vienna meeting. - Reuters
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/west-tells-serbia-to-pull-police-from-kosovo-1.1219453
January 17, 2012
Human organ trafficking in Kosovo finds support in the West
Human organ trafficking in Kosovo finds support in the West
17.01.2012
Russia will investigate the facts of abuse of its citizens in Kosovo. Russian citizens fell victims to illegal human organ trafficking in Kosovo, and there is big politics involved in the story. The case is directly connected with accusations of illegal organ trafficking that have been set forth against Prime Minister of Albanian Kosovo, Hashim Thaci.
It goes about the events which took place in August 2008. The story took place at Medicus clinic, in Kosovo's administrative center - Pristina. Two Russian citizens, who decided to become donors, had their left kidneys removed for further transplantation. The patients did not receive any money. The Kosovo Albanians used the same scheme to deceive the citizens of several other countries as well.
On July 14th, 2011, the Principal Investigative Administration of the Russian Federation filed a criminal case in connection with alleged human trafficking and causing severe bodily harm against unidentified members of a transnational criminal group. The group was trafficking Russian citizens to subsequently remove their organs, Vladimir Markin, an official spokesman for the Investigative Department said, The Kommersant newspaper wrote.
Read article: Key witnesses in war crime trials die mysterious deaths in Europe
The scandal with illegal organ trafficking erupted in Kosovo in March 2008 - a month after the Albanian administration of the region declared independence single-handedly. Former Prosecutor of The Hague Tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, presented her book, "The Hunt" in which she wrote that Albanians took several hundreds of Serbs and other non-Albanians from the Serbian region to Albania in 1999. All those people had their organs harvested in a barbaric way. The would-be prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, was aware of all that, Del Ponte wrote in her book.
Western officials preferred to turn a blind eye on Del Ponte's book. It became quite a hardship for the author to have her book translated from Italian. However, it became impossible to silence the problem. In August 2008, the name of a medical institution - Medicus - appeared in the media. Representatives of the international peacemaking mission in Kosovo arrested several individuals and put two others on wanted list on the allegation of illegal organ trafficking.
The story received an extensive coverage. It was revealed that Kosovo-Albanian medics illegally transplanted a kidney from a 23-year-old Turkish national to a 70-year-old citizen of Israel. The latter was supposed to pay 120,000 euros. The Turkish man was arrested while he was leaving to his homeland. The Israeli patient was arrested at hospital.
The investigation showed that the organizers of the gruesome business were seeking potential donors in Russia, Kazakhstan, Moldavia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. They promised rewards of up to 20,000 euros to the donors, but none of them received anything.
Read article: Hashim Thaci: Terrorism pays!
Russian investigators will now have to find out who committed the grave crimes against the Russian citizens. There is definitely big politics involved in the story.
Carla Del Ponte has already announced her intention to participate in the investigation. Therefore, Russian detectives may technically join their efforts with the person, who had served as the chairwoman of The Hague Tribunal for many years.
It is worthy of note that Del Ponte was cooperating with her countryman Dick Marty, a Swiss parliamentarian. In December 2010, Marty delivered a report at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe about the issue of illegal human organ trafficking. Marty particularly claimed that the Prime Minister of the region, Hashim Thaci, was directly involved in the shady business.
Del Ponte said that she offered Marty to come to The Hague to see the evidence. However, it turned out that as many as 400 pieces of evidence (presumably the DNA of the victims) had been destroyed upon the judges' instructions. The news came as a big surprise to Del Ponte.
Marty's report was made in December 2010. The document said that Hashim Thaci, a field commander also known as "The Snake", was in charge of a criminal group. The group was kidnapping people, conducting assassinations and selling human organs. Western leaders were informed about Thaci's activities ten years ago, although they did nothing to stop him.
European officials believe that the investigation of the crimes committed in Kosovo should be conducted by the EU's police mission in the region - EULEX. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon shares this point of view as well. Serbia and Russia believe that it is the United Nations that needs to play the main role in the investigation.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic stressed out that his country was prepared to cooperate with EULEX. However, he said, EULEX could not work outside Kosovo. To put it otherwise, the EU mission in Kosovo does not hold the necessary mandate and the territorial jurisdiction to conduct the investigation properly.
Jeremic paid attention to the problem of the safety of the witnesses on the cases connected with the Kosovo crimes. The key witness on the case of field commander Fathmir Limaj mysteriously died in Germany, for instance.
Many in the West do not want Hashim Thaci and other Kosovo Albanian figures to testify during the investigation of the human organ trafficking case. All of those figures are always welcome in Washington, Brussels, Berlin, etc. The US administration does not need the truth about the human organ trafficking for political reasons.
Vadim Trukhachev
Pravda.Ru
http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/17-01-2012/120254-human_organ_trafficking_kosovo-0/
January 14, 2012
American Thinker: Three Jihadis - by Pamela Geller
... Osmakac is from Kosovo, making his jihad another thank-you for U.S. involvement in Bosnia. And the U.S. still supports an independent Kosovo state, a militant Islamic state, in the heart of Europe. That is our policy. America refuses to own up to the terrible mistake we made in Europe -- worse still, we continue to prosecute the Christian Serbs. ... ... The police, in what has become standard practice in dealing with Islamic supremacists, treated the perpetrator and the victim with equal contempt, actually charging the bloodied Christian with battery. This was in the same town, Tampa, that classified what was obviously an honor killing of a Muslim woman, Fatima Abdallah, as a "suicide." ... ... What's it going to take? America, where are you on this? [ Superbly written. Bravo Pamela Geller ! ] Three JihadisAmerican Thinker January 13, 2012 It is almost every day now. Jihadi attacks in America. This past week there were three attempted jihad attacks. And what does the media consider the problem? Racistislamophobicantimuslimbigots, of course. On Saturday, a Muslim named Sami Osmakac was arrested in Florida on charges of plotting to go jihad on nightclubs and the Tampa, Florida, sheriff's headquarters. "We all have to die," Osmakac said, "so why not die the Islamic way?" Osmakac is from Kosovo, making his jihad another thank-you for U.S. involvement in Bosnia. And the U.S. still supports an independent Kosovo state, a militant Islamic state, in the heart of Europe. That is our policy. America refuses to own up to the terrible mistake we made in Europe -- worse still, we continue to prosecute the Christian Serbs. Media reports said that Osmakac, a devout Muslim, was "self-radicalized." You have to wonder if Western dhimmis stay up nights thinking up new terms for jihad. Pathetic. Soon after his arrest, video emerged that showed how pious and violent Sami Osmakac really was, as he attacked and bloodied Christian street preachers. The pious Osmakac, who was completely the aggressor, then cried victim to the police, saying that he had been "insulted," the same fictitious narrative that we are bombarded with daily by Islamic groups and Muslim Brotherhood organizations like the Hamas-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The police, in what has become standard practice in dealing with Islamic supremacists, treated the perpetrator and the victim with equal contempt, actually charging the bloodied Christian with battery. This was in the same town, Tampa, that classified what was obviously an honor killing of a Muslim woman, Fatima Abdallah, as a "suicide." Even worse, after the terrorism arrest, Hassan Shibly, director of the Florida chapter of CAIR, cried "entrapment." This is, of course, typical of jihadis, but what is really outrageous is that the FBI briefed Shibly prior to Osmakac's arrest. Hamas-CAIR was briefed? Was Qaradawi briefed, too? "The weapons and explosives were provided by the government. Was he just a troubled individual, or did he pose a real threat?" Shibly asked. Hey, Shibly, he was a devout Muslim. Watch the videos: he is preaching the word of Allah in one and head-butting Christians in another. Also on Sunday, a Muslim in Alabama named Luis Ibarra-Hernandez (the media did not release his Muslim name) shot out store windows and tried to get into a shootout with police officers. Gadsden, Alabama Police spokesperson Capt. Regina May said: "After the man was taken into custody, he reported that he knew he must do something extreme to draw attention to Islam and himself, so he planned to shoot police officers." I think it is poetic that this Alabama Muslim wanted to call attention to Islam by shooting at police. He is right, of course. Such actions best illustrate the violent and true nature of jihad. He would have been richly rewarded in paradise, perhaps 73 virgins instead of 72. But as Islamic scholar Robert Spencer points out, "he did not, however, succeed in gaining the space that is guaranteed in Paradise for those who 'kill and are killed' for Allah (Qur'an 9:111)." Meanwhile, the military jihad continues. Last Friday, a former U.S. Army soldier named Craig Baxam was arrested and charged with trying to join al-Shabaab, a jihad terror group in Somalia. Baxam converted to Islam while in the U.S. Military. He said he wanted to die defending Islam, and was "looking for dying with a gun in my hand." So three jihads in one week, and an ongoing sharp increase in jihad activity in Obama's America. Yet this is never remarked upon. It is deliberately ignored. And it's astonishing. Is this what we can expect from our politicians and the media? We're under siege by the enemedia, and by craven politicians, and by the enforcers: CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, etc., that have these government agencies in their back pocket. What's it's going to take? America, where are you on this? Pamela Geller is the publisher of AtlasShrugs.com and the author of the WND Books title "Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance." |
January 13, 2012
Kosovo: Sticking-point for Serbia’s EU hopes
Kosovo: Sticking-point for Serbia's EU hopes
Published: 13 January, 2012, 10:39
Kosovo Force (KFOR) soldiers from Germany and Austria spray tear gas towards Kosovo Serbs during clashes in the village of Jagnjenica near the town of Zubin Potok November 28, 2011 (Reuters / Bojan Slavkovic)
Serbia's hopes of joining the EU are now closer to realization. EU lawmakers have called on the European Council to grant Belgrade long-anticipated candidate status at a session in March. However, Kosovo remains the main obstacle to accession.
The Jagnjenica checkpoint in Northern Kosovo may not look like an obvious triumph of peace.
Since the summer, EU-backed Kosovan Albanians have tried to take control of the border between Serbia and Kosovo. The Serb minority erected barricades in response. They do not recognize Kosovo's independence, saying the province – which has a majority Albanian population – is still part of Serbia. Now, both sides have finally agreed that the border will be jointly policed. Vehicles from all territories are now able to pass freely through the checkpoint.
However, while the current situation has improved, many here wonder if Serbs have once again paid too high a price for the compromise, and if the long-term prospects for a resolution have improved.
Belgrade tried to talk Serbs in Kosovo down from the barricades. Serbia wants to join the EU, which made a peaceful solution to the border issue a pre-condition.
Despite progress on the border, Belgrade's application for candidate status has been stalled in the latest round of talks with Brussels.
"Some countries which did recognize Kosovo…feel that Serbia is weak just before they are getting the candidacy status," said Oliver Ivanovic, State Secretary of Serbia's Ministry for Kosovo. "That is why they are squeezing Serbia to try and achieve something more than they are usually asking the candidates."
Just meters from the EU, soldiers in Jagnjenica, are Serbian militia. Many here have been engaged in conflicts with Albanians since 1999, when an ethnic war divided the territory in two. They have been coming to this roadblock since July, and say the border deal makes no difference.
"Why should we be happy that EU soldiers give us permission to use this road? We never used to need permission to use it at all," one of the militiamen said. "We do not trust the EU or Albanians one bit, when our relatives and friends have been injured in this conflict for the past 12 years."
Those who have gained the most from the border compromise are ordinary Serbs. Blocked roads prevented many children from attending school and their parents from buying even basic foodstuffs. Still, normality is some distance away.
"There are constant warning sirens during the lessons," said educational psychologist Biljana Janicevic. "These children are not growing up normally. Their lives are defined by the conflict."
This is true not just for children, but for all Serbs who have been living in Kosovo for 12 years. While opening the roads is a step forward, the Serbs' status in a Kosovo state, which they do not consider their own and that does not appear to want them, remains as uncertain as ever.
http://rt.com/news/serbia-kosovo-eu-membership-673/
January 10, 2012
Kosovo terrorism comes to America
Kosovo terrorism comes to America
Published: 10 January, 2012, 00:36
Sami Osmakac is shown in this booking photo supplied by the Hillsborough Country Sheriff's Office January 9, 2012 (Reuters / Images)
The aftermath of America's involvement in the Kosovo conflict is felt a decade later, but it isn't only in war-torn Serbia where the fruits of NATO's labors are displayed.
http://rt.com/usa/news/kosovo-america-osmakac-serbia-415/print/
