Kosovo Serbs see constitution referendum crucial for their future in the province

Kosovo Serbs see constitution referendum crucial for their future in the province 



 

Kosovo Serbs see constitution referendum crucial for their future in the province

 

The Associated Press

 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2006

 

OSOJANE, Serbia In the tiny western village of Osojane in the breakaway province of Kosovo, Vlastimir Vukovic shared his home-made plum brandy with a fellow Serb. The bottle he kept it in had a label written in Albanian, as is virtually everything else surrounding the remote Serb enclave — from the road signs to the graffiti on the walls.

On Saturday, the Serbs plan to walk past NATO peacekeepers' tanks guarding the village and into the local school to cast ballots in a referendum on a new constitution that declares Kosovo an integral part of Serbia.

Vukovic says the vote is crucial if there is to be a future for the Serbs in Kosovo, where the majority ethnic Albanians are seeking independence.

"There is no life for Serbs here, unless Kosovo is part of Serbia," said Vukovic, 68.

Some 100,000 Serbs remain in Kosovo, most of them in isolated enclaves under the protection of the peacekeepers.

Although diplomats insist the referendum has no bearing on U.N.-led negotiations on the political future of Kosovo, the vote reflects the deep divisions between the province's communities.

The province, now administered by the United Nations, has struggled to recover from a 1998-99 war that left some 10,000 dead and pitted Serbs and ethnic Albanians against one another.

A key article in the new constitution reasserts the breakaway province — which the Serbs consider its cultural heartland — is a part of Serbia. Western diplomats say the province is likely to gain some form of independence.

"I will never live in an independent Kosovo," Vukovic said. "The constitution treats Kosovo as Serbia and that means Belgrade will protects us," he said.

He passed a glass of brandy to Jagos Djuric, sitting next to him. The two are among some 30 Serbs who returned to live in Osojane after initially fleeing in the aftermath of the conflict, when ethnic Albanians sought revenge for the actions of Serb forces.

Djuric, 52, said living conditions were difficult, jobs were scarce and there was no safety — issues he believes only Serbia can alleviate if it retains control of the province.

Ethnic Albanians insist Serbia has lost the right to govern the province after the death and destruction it brought.

"It cannot bring them any good," said Ylber Hysa, an ethnic Albanian legislator involved in talks with Serbia. "In Kosovo the vote is more an act of internal politics and a provocation rather than a true attempt to retain Kosovo within Serbia."

Analysts contend that the vote will just harden the stands of the opposing communities.

"The referendum will make it difficult for Belgrade to recognize any change in Kosovo's status," said Daniel Serwer, an expert on peace and security operations at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

"This is what Kostunica wants: Belgrade locked into a position of seeking recovery of territory. This could be a source of instability for many years to come," he said.

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/ap/2006/10/27/europe/EU_GEN_Kosovo_Constitution.php

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U.S. Ambassador Answers Questions on Serbia

U.S. Ambassador Answers Questions on Serbia

U.S. Ambassador Answers Questions on Serbia

USINFO Webchat transcript, October 27

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
USINFO Webchat Transcript

“Ask the Ambassador” with Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia Michael C. Polt

Guest:     Michael C. Polt
Date:      October 27, 2006
Time:      9:00am EDT (1300 GMT)

WEBCHAT MODERATOR: Join Ambassador Michael C. Polt at 1300 GMT (1500 CET) on October 27 to discuss global issues of concern to Serbs and Americans.

WEBCHAT MODERATOR: We'll be getting started very shortly. Thanks for coming today.

QUESTION [vpekic]: Dear Mr. Ambassador,

1. What have been your personal emotions/views regarding the Montenegrin independence process and the re-birth of this new nation in Europe after 88 years during your mandate in Belgrade?

2. What has surprised you most about Serbia and does it still surprise you?

ANSWER [Ambassador Michael Polt]

1. The most important element of the Montenegrin referendum was the free, democratic, and peaceful expression of the will of the people. Montenegrin independence is the only such peaceful result as a consequence of the break-up of Yugoslavia.

2. The resilience of the Serbian people and the worldliness and intelligence of the Serbian young people despite their relative isolation.

Q [Tony]: Where does Serbia need the most work? What kind of investment is the USA providing them?

A: In your economy, of course, to create more and better jobs for all. We are investing in virtually all sectors of your economy, from manufacturing to services. But you also need a new approach to the future. You can honor the past, but make for a better future.

Q [Tony]: When would you guess that Serbia would get into EU? NATO?

A: As soon as you are ready. Your future development is in your hands, not outsiders, as so many seem to believe. Of course, both NATO and the EU have membership criteria. I know you can meet all of them if you choose to.

Q [Guest]: Do you think it's still possible to reach Kosovo future status agreement by the end of this year?

A: Yes. Neither Serbians nor Albanians nor any other group, in any part of Serbia, including Kosovo, are helped by any further delay. Once a resolution is reached, all of the people of this country and this region can get on with building a brighter future.

Q [Guest]: Postovani Mr. Michael C.Polt,

Ja sam decko sa Kosova i Metohije, iz grada Prizrena i zelim znati da li postoji sansa da se vratim na Kosovo...

A: I really believe there is and my country is doing all it can to help create the right conditions for all who wish to live and work in any part of Kosovo can do so. In the end result, much will depend on the good will of all who live there. These people of good will do exist.

Q [Guest]: Postovani gospodine Polt,

Da li ce Amerika moci nesto da nauci iz situacije na Balkanu i u Srbiji, ili cemo uvek mi dobijati lekcije od Zapada?

A: Americans are always learning and we know that we don't have all the answers. All we can do is try and do our best. It is not our intention or in our interest to lecture. But at the same time, we are not willing to accept things that are not right, just because some argue that it has always been that way. The world -- our world -- can be a better place.

Q [Guest]: Dear Mr. Michael C. Polt, Is Manhattan the best and the prettiest city in the world?

Sincerely, Draga Duric

A: The people of Manhattan think so. They may be right. But then I like Tennessee...

 

Q [Guest]: Dear Michael C. Polt. Will the US Embassy start to give easier visas to students that were already accepted in some high school, college or university?

Sincerely, Anjelka Blagojevic

A: We want as many students from Serbia as possible to come and study in the U.S. I can promise you that we will work with all prospective students to make our visa process as easy as possible. I can also promise that we will always treat you with the utmost courtesy and respect when you come to our Embassy.

Q [Book Fair]:

INSPARED BY THE TODAY'S VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR THE END OF OCTOBER, I WOULD LIKE TO ASK MR. AMBASSADOR IF USA GOVERMENT IS GOING TO SIGN FOR THE KIOTO PROTOCOL, AND TO FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF CALIFORNIA. THANK YOU. NIKOLA NIKACEVIC, UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE

A: The United States of America shares the concerns of our globe on all issues, including on global warming. We have proposed many ways to deal with the potential threats of global warming and will work hard with all other nations interested in the most effective way to deal with this issue.

Q [Guest]: How does the independence of Montenegro affect the possibility of independence for Kosovo?

A: Kosovo is an issue on to itself. Under a United Nations mandate, the international community is dedicated to finding a solution to the real life concerns of the people of Kosovo. We are counting on support for that in Belgrade as well as in Pristina.

Q [Guest]: Dear Mr. Michael C. Polt,

My daughter has pictures of US presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.

My question is, is there any way possible to get picture of George W. Bush? Can Mr. Bush put his signature on a picture, because those presidents put his autograph on their pictures?

Thank you,

Dragan Lazovic

P.S. If you are able to send the picture please send it on:
[Personal information has been removed to protect individual’s privacy.]

A: I will be glad to send your daughter a picture of the President. Look for it in the mail soon.

Q [Guest]: What is the best book you have ever read?

A: It is too hard for me to choose among all the books I have read to say which is the best. I can tell you that one of the ones I read some years ago that impressed me deeply was "The Hope" by Herman Wouk, a novel about the struggle of the first decades of the State of Israel.

Q [dvj]: Dear Sir, David Vujanovic here from AFP...

Do you think the proposed new Serbian constitution would be a positive step for the country, or do you think that it could complicate issues in the region?

Thanks

A: The real answer to that can really only be given by the Serbian citizens. If passed, it will be their constitution. A document that is viewed by Serbia as a way to identify itself as a democratic, open-minded, confident, forward looking and diverse country would be a good thing.

WEBCHAT MODERATOR: We would like to thank Ambassador Polt for all of his time today as well as all of the wonderful participants in Serbia.

You will be able to find the transcript of this chat later today at our Webchat Station http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/Products/Webchats.html.

Thank you

Created:27 Oct 2006 Updated: 27 Oct 2006

U.S. Ambassador Answers Questions on Serbia http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/Archive/2006/Oct/27-158475.html

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Kosovo falls hostage to big power rivalry

Kosovo falls hostage to big power rivalry

Kosovo falls hostage to big power rivalry

By Guy Dinmore in Washington

Published: October 27 2006 18:44 | Last updated: October 27 2006 18:44

The US has sent a special envoy to Kosovo and Serbia to press both sides to keep the peace as the international community prepares to decide the status of the United Nations-run province.

Diplomats and politicians on all sides expect a messy and inconclusive outcome, and fear further ethnic ­violence in Kosovo with peacekeepers from Nato caught in the middle.

Few believe that Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president acting as UN mediator, can broker a compromise. This weekend Serbian voters are likely to approve by referendum a new constitution reaffirming Kosovo as part of Serbia, while the province’s ethnic Albanian majority overwhelmingly aspires to, and expects, full independence.

The fate of Kosovo – run by the UN and protected by Nato since the 1999 air campaign stopped ethnic cleansing by Serbia – is also hostage to the deteriorating state of relations between the US and Russia. These are complicated by rising tensions in the southern Caucasus and competing interests over Iran and energy resources.

As Russia reasserts itself on the world stage, the US and Europe are wondering what price President Vladimir Putin will exact at the UN Security Council in exchange for consenting to Kosovo’s independence, or whether he will simply block the process completely.

Mr Putin warns that independence for Kosovo would set a precedent for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Russian-backed, separatist enclaves in Georgia. The US insists Kosovo is a “unique” case, thereby also seeking to assuage Chinese concerns over Taiwan and Tibet.

Diplomats expect Mr Ahtisaari will recommend a form of “managed” or “conditional” independence that falls short of full sovereignty, keeping Kosovo under international protection and guidance, possibly for three years.

Should Russia deprive Kosovo of the UN’s blessing for a path to independence, then the Kosovo Albanian government under Agim Ceku, prime minister, may be encouraged by the US to consider making a unilateral declaration of independence.

This heightens the risk that the Serb minority in Kosovo, mostly concentrated in Nato-protected enclaves, would follow suit and declare their own independence or allegiance to ­Belgrade.

Frank Wisner, the special US envoy, is expected to urge Belgrade to prevent any such breakaway move. Diplomats say his mission is to tell ­Kosovo and Serbia that they must accept Mr Ahtisaari’s “compromise imposed solution”.

Dimitri Simes, head of the Nixon Center think-tank which has close contact with Moscow, says Russia’s position on Kosovo is hardening but it may not have decided how it will vote at the UN.

“That depends on the overall status of the US-Russia relationship, the results of World Trade Organisation negotiations and the forthcoming meetings in November between Presidents Bush and Putin, first in Moscow and then in Hanoi,” he said.

But he warned that it might be difficult for Mr Putin to back down over Kosovo.

“The Russian leadership, including President Putin personally, is making it increasingly clear to the Bush administration that Georgia is becoming a defining issue in the US-Russia relationship the way Iran and North Korea are on the American side.”

Glen Howard, president of the Jamestown Foundation security think-tank, said Mr Putin had “let the genie out of the bottle with nationalism” and warned of the dangers posed by a Russia seeking to regain its Soviet-era domination of the Caucasus and its strategic oil and gas pipelines.

Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, kept making concessions only for Russia to keep “upping the ante”, Mr Howard said.

It was possible the Bush administration would seek to delay Kosovo’s bid for independence and Georgia’s bid for Nato membership to keep Russia on board over Iran and North Korea, he added.

Speaking of the deadlock facing Mr Ahtisaari, one Kosovo Albanian politician commented: “We are waiting for the real talks to begin – between the US and Russia.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/9f1143d2-65d8-11db-a4fc-0000779e2340.html

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EU Stance on Kosovo Could Backfire With Serbia, Say Analysts

EU Stance on Kosovo Could Backfire With Serbia, Say Analysts 



 

 

Posted 10/27/06 13:01

 

Print this story

 

EU Stance on Kosovo Could Backfire With Serbia, Say Analysts

 

By BROOKS TIGNER, BRUSSELS

Serbia’s new soon-to-be-adopted constitution remains fixated on Kosovo “as an integral part” of its territory, showing high political tension and a deep public malaise in the country, say experts.

The international community’s goal of finalizing an independence timetable for Kosovo ahead of Serbia’s parliamentary elections in December could backfire by tempting hardline nationalist leaders in Belgrade to stoke up ethnic tensions in the ever-volatile Balkan region, according to security analysts and European Union (EU) officials.

“Serbia is in no position to make war, but it could stir up trouble across the region if it wants to — in the Republic of Srpska [the ethnic Serbian component of the tri-state Bosnia-Herzegovina federation], in Kosovo and in Macedonia and Montenegro,” Judy Batt, research fellow on Balkan issues at the EU Institute of Security Studies, Paris, told an Oct. 18 conference here on Serbia’s democratic future.

Milan Pajevic agreed. His reformist liberal party, G17 Plus, is a junior member of Serbia’s coalition government and is threatening to withdraw from it over constitutional issues.

“There has been no clear and resolute break with our past. Some of the biggest profiteers and rabble rousers from the [Slobodan] Milosevic era have been absorbed into our current economic and political structures,” said Pajevic, referring to the late Serbian strongman who was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes during the 1991-1995 Balkan conflicts.

Serbia will hold a popular referendum Oct. 28-29 on the new constitution and its controversial reference to Kosovo. As for Serbia’s dialogue with Kosovo leaders in U.N.-sponsored negotiations to orchestrate the province’s independence, Belgrade has refused to yield an inch of ground. “Those talks have gone nowhere since they were launched in February,” Batt said.

The question now remains whether the Kosovo issue will play into Serbia’s parliamentary election in December, for which an exact date is still unknown.

Despite the international community’s mounting frustration with Belgrade’s intransigence, Batt advised against any premature move by the six-nation Contact Group. The group — comprising Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States — is responsible for organizing Kosovo’s political detachment from Serbia.

“The Contact Group wants to end these talks by the end of this year, with recommendations delivered to the U.N.,” said Batt. “This would fall right in the middle of Serbia’s election. I don’t think that would be a good thing. It would be better to delay the release of those recommendations [until after the election].”

Pajevic warned that “what we now have [in the attitude of Serbia’s leadership toward Kosovo] is a direct result of Milosevic’s deranged politics of the 1990s.”

“It will be very bad if that leadership exploits [the loss of] Kosovo to distort our relationship with the European Union.”

Whether Serbia uses its December election to rise above its past is, indeed, an open question. The country’s prospects for closer ties to the European Union have been frozen by the latter since May, due to Belgrade’s failure to deliver the last of its war criminals to the ICTY, such as the notorious former warlord Ratko Mladic.

“The status quo of Kosovo is intolerable for everyone — including Serbia — but we want the Serbian people to look to their European future rather than dwelling on their past,” said Heather Grabbe, an adviser to Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for enlargement policy. “But this means dealing with the ICTY and [the forthcoming loss of] Kosovo.”

All three speakers said defense reform would help Serbia achieve the democratic legitimacy and transparency it lacks today.

“Serbia does not have a proper rule of law or democratic control of its military. Why is it Belgrade cannot achieve full cooperation with the ICTY? Because it is linked to these two very real problems,” said Grabbe.

NATO could have had a role there but, like the EU, it excluded Serbia from joining its Partnership for Peace (PfP) program until the country resolves its ICTY problems. In Pajevic’s view, that was a mistake.

“It would be much better to have Serbia as a PfP member. Then it could work hand-in-hand with NATO allies to shape Serbia’s military forces and use them to find Mladic and other war criminals,” he said.

Batt seconded that view, arguing that Serbia’s PfP eligibility “should not have been linked to the ICTY—precisely because PfP addresses security and defense reform issues.”

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http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2307506&C=europe

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Serbia and the Referendum on the new Constitution - Public opinion polling

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Serbia and the Referendum on the new Constitution - Public opinion polling

Serbia and the Referendum on the new Constitution - Public opinion polling

The referendum on the adoption of the new Serbian constitution will be held on 28 and 29 October 2006. There are in total 6,639,385 voters who will have the right to vote at the referendum.

The wording of the new constitution which was approved by the Serbian National Assembly on 30 September 2006 differs in many aspects from the Milošević's 1990 constitution which is presently still in force.

The current constitution was adopted in the former Yugoslavia (SFRY) when Serbia was one of its federal units, while the draft new constitution points to the need to define formally and legally the statehood of the Republic of Serbia and to finally deal away with the remnants of Milošević's regime.

For quite some time this was generally understood as the main reason for the political consensus regarding the adoption of the new constitution. However, the referendum campaign is marked by the pre-election race for winning political points in view of the parliamentary and presidential elections which are to follow soon should the new constitution be adopted. For a positive result of the referendum 50% plus one vote of the total voting body is required.

When a few months ago the State Union Serbia and Montenegro was "buried", Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and his DSS (Democratic Party of Serbia) had to find a way out of the crisis into which they fell after they advocated the common state union with Montenegro. Koštunica's government was facing a collapse especially after the G17 plus ministers threatened to leave the government by 1 October unless the talks with the EU continue until 1 October.

Since constitution is Koštunica's "boy's dream" as the boss of the governing coalition he managed quite quickly to achieve a consensus which he wanted to capitalise on and present to the voters as his own political success. The opposition parties were ready to co-operate solely for own party interest in the early parliamentary elections.

However, the marginal, non-parliamentary parties – LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), LSDV (League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina), GSS (Civil Alliance of Serbia) and SDU (Social Democratic Union) – are openly calling for a boycott of the referendum under the slogan "YES to citizen constitution, No to party constitution".

There are some justified reasons for opposing the new constitution, for example the absence of a public debate on the draft constitution which is the usual practice in the west European states, since the aim of the public debate is, among other, to define the problematic issues and find ideas on how to correct or amend them.

The IFIMES International Institute is of the opinion that minor political parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties in Serbia will not be able to influence the results of the referendum since the present Serbian authorities have already prepared the scenario according to which the referendum will be pronounced as successful regardless of what will the citizens are going to express or the opposition of minor political parties.

http://www.balkanpeace.org/index.php?index=article&articleid=14059

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Remember Kosovo

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Remember Kosovo

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116189769296605213.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Wall Street Journal

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

Remember Kosovo
October 27, 2006

To get some perspective on Iraq and Afghanistan, let's revisit the previous decade's big nation-building project. Eleven years after U.S.-led forces went into Bosnia and seven after Kosovo, the Balkans remain prone to violence and riven by sectarian tensions. The scale of the difficulties wasn't appreciated at the start. Yet the alternative to the uneasy peace there today was -- and remains -- misery and instability on Europe's southeastern flank.

Tough decisions now loom for the Balkans, testing nerves and American leadership. By year's end, Kosovo is to move toward "final status," which to everyone but Serbia and Russia means independence. This will take finesse, so as not to push Serbia into the wilderness or rattle the weak multi-ethnic constructs in Bosnia and Macedonia. The U.S. and Europeans are also sure to come into conflict with Russia over Kosovo.

This tussle is Slobodan Milosevic's last gift to the world. In suing for peace with NATO in 1999, the late strongman made sure Kosovo stayed Serbia's on paper, and the U.S. and the Europeans let him get away with it. Though NATO troops and a U.N. government set up camp, and Belgrade no longer held sway, Serbians could indulge the fantasy that Kosovo wasn't gone for good.

The problem has festered for seven years. A U.N. negotiator, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, tried and failed to negotiate a solution. Milosevic's democratically elected successors aren't willing to take the blame for the loss of Kosovo, and Kosovar Albanian expectations were raised so high about sovereignty that their leaders had nothing left to negotiate. Mr. Ahtisaari called off the talks, and went to work on a plan for the Security Council.

The open secret is that the Finn will propose independence, but the timing and details are contentious. Both are worth sweating over. In an unstated quid pro quo, the internationals will hold off on Kosovo until Serbia holds parliamentary elections and gets a government with a four-year mandate, presumably enough time for voters to forget the loss.

But the Serbs must first call the poll, probably slated for early December, after this weekend's referendum on a new constitution, which was drawn up when Montenegro left their rump union earlier this year. (Shrinking is a Serbian speciality.) Though the constitution reasserts the claim to Kosovo, that clause is hardly legitimate, not least since the Kosovar Albanians didn't have a say in its drafting or ratification.

Any delay beyond early December risks the renewal of ethnic violence last seen in the spring of 2004, when the Kosovar Albanians rioted. In a telephone interview this week, U.S. envoy for Kosovo, Frank Wisner, told us by phone from Pristina that America remains committed to bringing the issue before the Security Council by the end of December.

Our sources tell us that the Ahtisaari plan takes inspiration from the sovereignty with strings attached granted Germany in 1949. Kosovo may not get a U.N. seat or a standing army for a while. It won't be called "conditional independence," but it'll be conditioned. Though Belgrade wants to carve away the Serb-dominated regions of northern Kosovo, partition is not on the table. It is, however, the reality on the ground and minority Serbs, the victims of ethnic cleansing since 1999, deserve reassurances about security. As do Serbs in Serbia proper about their religious sites in Kosovo.

Structured this way, with doors kept open to the EU and NATO on the ground, an independent Kosovo could thrive as other small, new European countries have. The wild card is Russia. Vladimir Putin recently tied the fate of Kosovo to unresolved territorial disputes in his own backyard. If Kosovo wins independence, he asked, why not the Russian-run breakaway regions of Georgia -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia? (By this reasoning, Russian Chechnya should also be a candidate for a U.N. seat but by now we shouldn't expect this Kremlin regime to be rational.)

So add Kosovo to Iran, Sudan, the Caucasus and other flashpoints where Mr. Putin works overtime to sabotage American policy. Russia may find an ally in China, nervous about "precedents" for Tibet and Taiwan. With Europe preferring to react than act in the Balkans, as in general on foreign affairs, Washington will be charged with pushing any resolution through the Security Council.

Of all the arguments thrown in the way of Kosovo independence, the territorial-integrity one holds up least well. Kosovo is a unique case -- a U.N.-run region that once belonged to a now defunct state, Yugoslavia. Serbia has little legal, much less moral, claim on Kosovo. Milosevic's ethnic cleansing campaigns struck the final nails in that coffin. The "threat" to Bosnia and Macedonia is another canard. Both countries have legitimate constitutions that prohibit secession.

As ever, Balkan politics are a mess, and loud nationalists grab a lot of the attention. In the West's 12 years in the region, lots of money went to waste, empowering extremists and fostering corruption. Mass murderers like Radovan Karadzic are on the lam. NATO will need to stay on in Kosovo for many years, and the U.S. and Europe will have to remain engaged in other ways. But who can reasonably claim it's not worth it?

No two conflict zones are the same. By quirk of timing, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan are all now at turning points. If the world has learned anything in the past decade plus, it's that trying to rebuild war-torn nations takes great amounts of perseverance, hard work -- and most of all time. In 1995, Bill Clinton promised to bring the GIs home from Bosnia within 12 months. The last U.S. troops left earlier this year.

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Update on “Non-Islamic” Kosovo

Update on “Non-Islamic” Kosovo

Update on "Non-Islamic" Kosovo by Julia Gorin [pundit/comedian] 10/26/06
	GORIN

A conspicuous Reuters headline in Tuesday's Washington Post: "Kosovo Islamic leaders join call for independence." This wouldn't have anything to do with helping form the eventual caliphate, would it?

Noooooooooo, according to the article, which desperately fishes out distinctions between Muslims and Kosovo Muslims. Note the language used: "In a rare foray into politics, Islamic leaders in Kosovo on Monday added their voice to the Albanian majority's call for independence from Serbia."

Contributor Julia Gorin Pundit, comedian and opinionist Julia Gorin is proprietor of www.JuliaGorin.com and is a contributing editor to www.JewishWorldReview.com..[go to Gorin index]

Nor is the following strident tone opposing any partition of the land or compromise with the Serbian infidel characteristic of Muslims either: "Marking the Eid al-Fitr feast in the capital, Pristina, the head of the Kosovo Islamic community, Mufti Naim Ternava, said independence for the breakaway Serbian province was the only acceptable outcome to talks expected to end within months."

Just in case we're wearing our thinking caps, the writer reemphasizes that "Islamic leaders have little influence in Kosovo and rarely venture into politics, contrary to Serbia's warnings that an independent Kosovo would become a hotbed of extremism in Europe."

Uh - huh.

Lest we start putting two and two together, the writer wants us to fear Christianity instead: "The Kosovo Albanians' secularism contrasts with the increasingly vocal role played by the Orthodox Church in Serbia's politics and society since the country emerged from 50 years of Socialist rule in the 1990s."

Then: "Most of Kosovo's two million ethnic Albanians are nominally Muslim, but they are proud of the territory's secular tradition. This year's Ramadan passed with little trace of piety."

As I noted Monday, it was a very busy Ramadan in Kosovo. Even if it's not up to snuff compared to the rest of the Islamic world, it was a more pious Ramadan than ever before. And next year it will be more so. And the year after that, more so. Just as this year it was more so than the previous year.

Don't believe me? Here's a weekend article from the online Turkish paper Zaman: "Turkish Troops, Kosovans Hand in Hand":

The Turkish battalion in Kosovo, operating under command of the NATO- led international Kosovo peace force, continues to help Kosovans in many ways. Turkish troops are admired by Kosovans for their help in areas such as health, food distribution and education and they also built and restored many facilities.

They restored the Kirik Mosque, built by the Ottomans when they conquered Kosovo, and built a park around it. Turkish troops also fixed cemeteries and built village roads. …They have built three mosques and three parks across Kosovo so far and organized annual circumcision feasts for needy and homeless children. During Ramadan, Turkish troops delivered dinner to Kosovans and provide stationery goods to students every year through liaison offices.

One wonders what the Turkish NATO troops are doing for the Auschwitz that the handful of Serb-populated enclaves of Kosovo have become.

Now, can you spot a tacit admission contained in the language of this sentence: "Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces accused of ethnic cleansing and atrocities against Albanians in a two-year war with guerrillas."

Drum roll, please. The shift in language to the disclaimer accused of marks the first time in seven years that a mainstream report from the region is backtracking on what had previously been represented to us as a given — that NATO bombs put a halt to actual ethnic cleansing and genocide by Serbs, period — no "accused of." Then again, Reuters is a British news service, and they know better about what did and didn't happen in the Balkans.

As well, Balkan-update dispatches used to start, more or less, like this: "Lifting themselves up from under the the ash heap of communism, the very secular and very peaceful, not-very-Muslim Albanians are rediscovering their roots and religion and have built a mosque to honor their peaceful religion…" Now, as we can see, these articles are starting with: "In a rare foray into politics, Islamic leaders in Kosovo…" Next they'll read, "In a rare foray into suicide bombings, the Islamists of Kosovo…" CRO

copyright 2006 Julia Gorin

Update on "Non-Islamic" Kosovo
http://www.theonerepublic.com/archives/Columns/Gorin/20061026GorinKosovo.html

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SCHRÖDER ON KOSOVO "The Goal Was Exclusively Humanitarian"

 SCHRÖDER ON KOSOVO "The Goal Was Exclusively Humanitarian"

SCHRÖDER ON KOSOVO

"The Goal Was Exclusively Humanitarian"

Schröder was only in government a few short months when the conflict in Kosovo hit the headlines. And it almost tore his government apart. The result was Germany's first post-war military engagement.

Gerhard Schröder was elected as German chancellor on October 27, 1998 -- and almost immediately he was faced with a foreign policy conundrum that threatened to tear apart his fledgling coalition.

Kosovo was burning. Serbs had entered the largely ethnic-Albanian province and were pursuing a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Having failed bitterly to stop the fighting during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the international community was eager to avoid a repeat. NATO was prepared to stop Serbia by force if necessary.

Germany, though, was only just making its first tentative steps onto the world stage. A hospital here, a humanitarian mission there -- that was when it came to German military presence abroad.

"It was fully clear to me," Schröder writes in his newly published memoirs, "that for many in the (Social Democratic) party -- and in society in general -- the idea that German soldiers, in this case fighter pilots, would intervene once again in a region that had suffered so much under German occupation during World War II was unbearable."

Nevertheless, Schröder writes, "I was convinced of the need for an active German contribution."

 

His foreign minister, Green Party head Joschka Fischer, didn't need much convincing. Even as his party had prided itself as being devoted to pacifism and peace, Fischer felt that German involvement was necessary, even if it was going to be a difficult pill for his party to swallow. Still, the two agreed it was a necessary step to take.

"Now, on the cusp of the 21st century," Schröder writes, "the real challenge seemed to me not just to douse the most recent fire in the Balkans, but to bring peace to the region.... The goal was exclusively humanitarian."

But the German public wasn't the only hurdle on the road to an involvement in Kosovo. Russia too, which traditionally throws its weight behind Serbia, had to be convinced to refrain from getting involved. Schröder is clear about who was responsible for this foreign policy coup:

"Moscow had for some time given the impression that it stood on the side of Belgrade out of a kind of pan-Slavic sentiment -- an alliance that the Serbian President Milosevic could use as a trump card. It was to the great credit of the German foreign ministry that it finally persuaded a hesitant Russia that it was in its own interest to withdraw its support for Belgrade."

The bombing campaign against the Serbs lasted from March until June of 1999, a relentless operation that took a special interest in the Serbian capital Belgrade. But not all went as planned. On May 7, a NATO bomb struck the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three journalists. The United States insisted the bombing had been a mistake -- the result of using outdated maps to plan the sortie. The Chinese, for their part, were outraged and convinced the bombing had been deliberate. Schröder had already been scheduled to make his first official visit to Beijing that month. He decided to go ahead with the trip.

"The visit was important to me; for me it was about apologizing to the Chinese government for the incident, openly, publicly, and as a representative of the alliance. Only in this way could China save face. And my impression of the meeting with the Chinese leadership was: My apology did not fail. There was a lot of coverage in the country's media about it. China maintained its neutral position in the Balkan conflict."

Finally, with the US and Britain publicly considering sending in ground troops, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic finally realized that the game was up and agreed to a UN peace-keeping force in Kosovo. But even as world attention quickly turned elsewhere, the repercussions were large for Europe and for Germany.

The Kosovo engagement, "taught Europe the lesson that without the help of the United States, it was not in a position to solve these kinds of conflicts," Schröder writes.

It was a conclusion that the US came to as well. Schröder writes that the US made certain that its European allies were left with little doubt as to who was left as the world's only superpower after the end of the Cold War. "It sometimes didn't come across as very diplomatic," he demurs.

For Germany, though, the Kosovo War marked the acceptance of Germany's full participation in world affairs. In the early 1990s there had been some international concern about a newly reunited Germany and discomfort about the idea of German soldiers being deployed even on peace-keeping missions.

"Only a few thoughtful observers were able to rightly appreciate the transformation of German's self-perception following two world wars. Regarding the participation of German soldiers in military operations abroad, there was the internal view and the external view, which didn't match."

Paradoxically, though, it was a governing coalition of Schröder's center-left Social Democrats -- also known as "the reds" -- and the environmental, pacifist Greens which led Germany into its new era of international military engagement.

"Perhaps it was a trick of history that of all things a Red-Green coalition had to take over political power in order for Germany to live up to its responsibilities."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,444727,00.html

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Experts at Washington Forum Warn of Difficulties in Determining Kosovo's Future

Experts at Washington Forum Warn of Difficulties in Determining Kosovo's Future

VOA News

Experts at Washington Forum Warn of Difficulties in Determining Kosovo's Future

By Barry Wood

Washington
Tuesday, 24 October 2006

Washington's Woodrow Wilson Center Friday brought together a panel of experts to analyze the Kosovo status negotiations that may conclude in the next few weeks or months. There is no expectation that Kosovo's Albanians and Serbia will agree on Kosovo's future.

All of the six presenters suggested difficulties in the months ahead. After seven years of being a ward of the international community, moves are underway to determine the status of the still nominally Serbian province whose population is 90 percent ethnic Albanian.

Serbia rejects independence while the Albanians refuse any other option.
Kosovo is ruled by the United Nations and security is the responsibility of NATO led peacekeepers.

Veton Surroi, a member of Kosovo's negotiating team, warned of the danger of an ambiguous outcome-partial independence, in which Kosovo would remain a weak and ill-defined territory. Kosovo, he said, must become a fully independent sovereign nation. "It is for a practical reason. Only sovereign states assume responsibilities. And this needs to be a sovereign state that assumes responsibility for everything, for its security, etcetera, etcetera," he said.

Steven Meyer, a professor at the U.S. government's National Defense University, outlined the dangers that might result from independence.
"Kosovo is a small, crime-infested very poor (state) with high unemployment that has always been integrated into a much larger, broader regional market," he said.

There was concern about the plight of the minority Serbs who fear the Albanians and whose communities require protection from the NATO-led force.
Vladimir Matic of Clemson University said it would be a disaster if these 100,000 Serbs are forced out. Ross Johnson of the Hoover Institution said that is a real possibility as 70 percent of Kosovo Serbs say they won't live in an independent Kosovo.

"Because what is being said over and over again is that Serbs can not survive in an independent Kosovo. Well, if you believe that, and if it looks like Kosovo will become independent, then you draw the consequence and if you have the resources you leave," he said.

NATO in 1999 undertook a three-month long bombing campaign against the Serbs accused of ethnic cleansing in their fight against secessionist Kosovo Albanian rebels. This past February the United Nations launched status negotiations between Serbia and the Kosovo Albanians. With those talks deadlocked, the UN chief negotiator has been authorized to present his own status proposal, which may be unveiled shortly.



                                   Serbian News Network - SNN

                                        news@antic.org

                                    http://www.antic.org/

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Constitution, Kosovo, and Media Misdirection

Constitution, Kosovo, and Media Misdirection

Inventing Irrelevance

by Nebojsa Malic

Constitution, Kosovo, and Media Misdirection On Saturday and Sunday, the citizens of Serbia are expected to vote in a plebiscite on the new constitution. In a rare display of political unity, the draft constitution was supported in the parliament by both the government and the opposition parties. However, remnants of the former DOS regime and the "non-governmental" organizations that support them have launched a campaign against the document; these Jacobins are assailing the constitution as "undemocratic," and particularly object to its preamble, which defines occupied Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia. This, rather than any other feature in the constitution, is the real point of contention between those who seek its passage, and those in Serbia – and elsewhere – who would like to see it fail. Inclusion of Kosovo in the new Serbian constitution complicates the efforts to force Belgrade into giving up the territory NATO occupied in 1999 on behalf of ethnic Albanian separatists. What Bothers the New York Times The New York Times, a stalwart supporter of NATO's 1999 war and a pillar of Empire's Official Truth, launched a sloppy attack on the new Serbian constitution on Monday, calling the document "faulty." Despite mentioning "critics" of the constitution at least five times in the article, the Times' Nicholas Wood comes up with only two: Omer Hadzimerovic, a regional judge, and Goran Jesic, mayor of a small town near Belgrade. There is not a single mention of the constitution's loudest critics: DOS leftovers, such as Cedomir Jovanovic, Zarko Korac, Vladan Batic, Nenad Canak, and their micro-parties; or the Western-backed "human rights" groups and quasi-NGOs that endorse their political agendas. It's impossible to verify some of the claims the unnamed "critics" are making. The text of the proposed constitution is publicly available (found here, in Serbian, as a .pdf file), but the document itself has 206 articles (!) in nine sections. For the sake of comparison, the United States Constitution has seven articles and 27 amendments. Much of the language in the proposed Serbian constitution is vague, subject to external definition (what are "European values," anyway?), and rather than providing a cornerstone for future legislation actually depends on it to be functional. In short, it's a constitution of a decidedly modern, social-democratic welfare state, whose guiding spirit was not God, John Locke, or even Serbian tradition, but the bloated bureaucracy of the EU. None of these bother the New York Times much, though. This part does: "Whereas the province of Kosovo and Metohija is an integral part of Serbian territory, with essential autonomy within the sovereign state of Serbia, and that this position of the Province of Kosovo and Metohija obligates the government to protect and represent the national interests of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija, in all its internal and external political affairs…." Given that the adoption of the constitution would cause new elections in Serbia and make the surrender of Kosovo an act of treason, the Times' claim that the constitution "will not have any effect on Kosovo's future" is not a statement of fact, but rather wishful thinking posing as such. "My Albanian Friends" The tough talk about the constitution's irrelevance and independence's inevitability seems calculated to soothe the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo, who are growing increasingly frustrated that their main political objective has not been achieved for over seven years, despite overwhelming Imperial support. In the past, they've taken that frustration out on the few Serbs who survived their ethnic cleansing in 1999. Now that most Serbs inconveniently live in barbed-wire enclosures guarded by NATO troops, they are targeting the UN and even NATO occupiers directly. AFP reported last Friday that "a U.S. soldier from the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) was assaulted and injured by three civilians" at a gas station in Urosevac. As befits every other act of violence in Kosovo over the course of NATO occupation, the perpetrators were not identified. But as the mainstream media so helpfully reminds us daily, "ethnic Albanians are the overwhelming majority in the province." Perhaps this is what motivated Frank Wisner, U.S. envoy to the Kosovo talks, to appeal to "my Kosovar Albanian friends" (AFP ) not to attack the Serbs during the referendum this weekend. Speaking during his visit to Pristina on Wednesday, Wisner assured the Albanians that "few of us have any doubts what final status means," and that: "What happens to you is a Kosovar matter and an international matter. It's not a matter of Serbian sovereignty, which changed when the UN agreed on [Security Council Resolution] 1244." And yet the Resolution that Wisner mentions says this: "Reaffirming the commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the other States of the region, as set out in the Helsinki Final Act and annex 2…." (emphasis added) The FRY was succeeded by the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, of which Serbia was the sole successor when Montenegro seceded this spring. So yes, Mr. Wisner, this rather is a matter of Serbian sovereignty. The Curious Incident of Mufti Naim Perhaps the most bizarre instance of misdirection, however, has to be a Reuters report by Fatos Bytyci from this Monday. Mr. Bytyci and his editors thought it newsworthy that Mufti Naim Ternava, top Muslim cleric in Kosovo, told the believers at the ceremony celebrating the end of Ramadan, that "independence … was the only acceptable outcome" of the status talks. According to Reuters, this represented a "rare foray into politics" by the Islamic clergy in Kosovo. Had Bytyci and Reuters stopped there, it would have been an interesting news item: even the Muslim religious leaders, normally politically inactive, endorse independence. Fair enough. But the story also included the following passages: "The Kosovo Albanians' secularism contrasts with the increasingly vocal role played by the Orthodox Church in Serbia's politics and society.… "Nationalists in the Church and political elite in Belgrade have tried to play up the Islamic angle to block Kosovo's bid for independence, warning of al-Qaeda infiltration and Muslim radicalization in Europe." Are Bytyci and Reuters trying to say that religious extremism was not a factor in the destruction and desecration of over 100 churches and monasteries during the occupation? Or that in the "secular" occupied Kosovo, hundreds of new mosques have not been built, and that fewer "secular" Albanians wear Wahhabi beards and headscarves, rather than more? Yet somehow, it's the Serbs who are to blame for somehow taking their besieged religious heritage seriously. Besides, if Islam matters so little in Kosovo Albanian society and politics… why is the statement of Mufti Naim so newsworthy, then? Just like the Empire, Reuters wants to have it both ways. Self-Deception After years of being used to groveling sycophants in Belgrade, the Empire is finding out that its planned imposition of Kosovo's separation is getting more difficult by the day. The pesky Serbs, who were supposed to follow orders and wallow in manufactured guilt over fabricated atrocities, have refused to play their part in the show. Unable to deal with Belgrade's newfound "intransigence," the Empire is putting out incoherent ramblings, from the New York Times' attack on the new constitution to Frank Wisner's misinterpretations of UNSCR 1244, in an effort to persuade both itself and the Albanians that the plan is on track, and "everything will be just fine." Except it isn't, and it won't.

http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=9918

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Serbs to Vote on Document That Is Faulty, Critics Say

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/world/europe/23serbia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

NY Times

Europe

October 23, 2006

Serbs to Vote on Document That Is Faulty, Critics Say

By NICHOLAS WOOD

BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 22 — Serbia’s leaders, normally riven by deep political rivalries, have shown a surprising degree of unity this month.

The country’s ultranationalists and its reformers, who are more democratically minded, have joined together to support a recently drafted constitution that will be voted on in a referendum on Oct. 27 and 28.

The problem, according to critics, is that the draft constitution is deeply flawed and was drawn up more to prove politicians’ bona fides on Kosovo than to set the country on the course to true democracy.

One of the most high-profile provisions of the draft says Kosovo is an “integral part” of Serbia.

The draft constitution will not have any effect on Kosovo’s future, since the United Nations Security Council is expected to vote within the next several months on whether Kosovo can break away from Serbia. But the country’s leaders see the provision as a way of assuring Serbians that they are doing everything they can to hold on to the province.

Many reformers in the legislature went along with the draft — although they dislike some of its undemocratic features — because they wanted to show support for keeping Kosovo. They fear that the United Nations vote will create a backlash that could lead to gains for the Serbian Radical Party, the leading nationalist party. They also agreed to rush through the drafting of the constitution so that it could be in place before the United Nations vote.

“This is the most important piece of paper that has been decided on in Serbia in years, yet it is being used for completely tactical reasons,” said a Western diplomat, who requested anonymity because he was not permitted to comment on the matter for attribution.

The new constitution is intended to replace one drawn up in 1990 by the government of Slobodan Milosevic, the autocratic ruler who was ousted in the 2000 Yugoslav presidential election by Vojislav Kostunica, who is now Serbia’s prime minister.

Mr. Kostunica, a moderate nationalist who favors Serbia’s integration with the European Union, has long promised a more reform-minded constitution. He supports the draft document and is touring the country promoting it. A government-financed campaign is also urging people to vote yes.

“Some provisions are revolutionary in a way,” Mr. Kostunica said in a recent interview with Politika, a conservative newspaper in Belgrade.

But many politicians and constitutional experts say the new document in some cases turns back reforms passed since Mr. Milosevic left power. One area that is particularly worrisome for critics is the amount of power the government will have over the judiciary.

For instance, under the current Constitution, Parliament has the final say on who becomes a judge, but an independent council of judges, the High Judicial Council, controls who is promoted to higher courts. Under the new system, Parliament will retain the power to select judges, but will also appoint the majority of the members of the council.

“All the protections of the judiciary enshrined in the Constitution are put into question by the way the High Judicial Council is appointed,” said Omer Hadzimerovic, a district court judge. He also noted that the judiciary’s financing is still going to be decided by the Finance Ministry.

Another area of concern is the amount of control the central government will have over local government leaders. The national government will be able to fire democratically elected local officials. The new constitution would also give the power to appoint mayors to city assemblies, which are beholden to the country’s major political parties. Since 2004, mayors have been elected.

In addition, Parliament would gain the right to dismiss the president with a two-thirds majority, although the presidency, largely a symbolic post, is elected by popular vote. That constitutional change, among others, has prompted accusations that Serbia’s leading political parties are seeking to sustain the substantial powers garnered by the Socialist Party of Mr. Milosevic, rather than to establish a state with complete separation of powers.

“We inherited this system from Milosevic and the Communists — this desire to have control over everything” said Goran Jesic, the mayor of Indija, near Belgrade, who will lose his job if the new constitution is approved.

Critics also say the constitution is fundamentally undermined because Albanians, a majority in Kosovo, cannot vote on it.

Despite the criticism of the constitution inside Serbia, neither the Council of Europe nor the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has commented on the document. That has prompted some critics of the draft to suggest those groups were more interested in Serbia’s short-term political stability than its long-term interests.

Behind Kosovo's Façade

Behind Kosovo's Façade
By Russell Gordon

Most respected [Nazi] party friend Lammers! I received your letter of April 29 together with the letter of the president of the central committee of the Second Albanian League of Prizren. At this time one Albanian SS division is being formed. As things now stand, I plan to form a second SS division, and afterwards an Albanian SS corps will be formed… Heil Hitler! Yours very faithfully,
H. Himmler

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Arrogantly strutting around the opulent OSCE restaurant, on an upper floor of its Pristina headquarters, Richard Holbrooke cut an imposing figure. The “Balkan peace negotiator” whose bloody legacy stretched from Vietnam and Indonesia to Belgrade minced no words about US policy for the region.

In front of the five heads of UNMIK he bellowed: “Forget multi-ethnic Kosovo. Forget Resolution 1244. We only signed that to get rid of the Serbs.”

It was a warm August 1999, and the official representatives of the “international community” remained coolly silent. Only one official, Dennis MacNamara, head of UNHCR spoke up, questioning why the UN took on the mission if the expulsion of the Serbs was a foregone conclusion. Holbrooke brushed off his inquiry; the other “dignitaries” remained quiet.

The Serbian province of Kosovo is nearing the artificially imposed time limit for a “final decision” on its status as either an autonomous Serbian province, or an independent state, albeit an international protectorate. And indeed the “decision” has probably already been made, which will see another tragic human exodus.

The casual observer could be forgiven for attributing normalcy to present day Kosovo upon first glance. Pristina’s cafes are filled with reveling Albanian and international patrons. Perhaps a quarter of the cars in urban areas are late-model BMWs, Mercedes or Audis. Shiny new construction projects rise along many major roads and Albanian population centers. It appears that Albanian Kosovo is undergoing an economic boom. The Albanian flag waves proudly beside the Stars and Stripes, perhaps the only Muslim region where it does so. And a spirit of freedom pervades the majority Albanian society. But image is not reality – neither in media, nor in strategic issues. And Kosovo is neither normal, nor stable.

	Kosovo Serb widow and refugee (IDP) Dragana Dejanovic must raise her three small children without their father after her 23 year old husband Ivan was murdered by Albanians, shot to death on 8/27/2005, while she was still pregnant. The Serb members of the Kosovo Police Force (15%) tried to help, but the Albanian dominated force does not seek perpetrators of crimes against Serbs. Local Albanians told her: "What are you waiting for [to leave]? We already killed your husband. Do we have to kill you and your children too?"

Kosovo today is the nerve center of organized crime in Europe. The Kosovo Albanian mafia – whose capos are the ethnic Albanian leaders of Kosovo (Hashim Thaci, Agim Ceku, Ramush Haradinaj, and hundreds of others), and America’s allies – control most of the heroin, arms, and white slavery rings in Europe. Most of the luxury autos in Kosovo are stolen in central Europe, and given false papers; there are so many that prices are as low as 4000 Euros.

Kosovo is the safe-haven for their laundered funds, often invested back into construction projects on real estate stolen from Serbs. Kosovo Albanians have committed armed robberies in France with automatic weapons and RPG’s, and have overtaken the Sicilian Mafia in Italy, largely due to their ruthlessness, and closed society. Their criminal rackets stretch into London and throughout the US. Their money has bought off US senators and congressmen; their revisionist history and expansionist aims made official policy of the US Congress, and State Department.

In Kosovo, their heroin labs are protected and heroin transported by units of the US military. During the Albanian insurgency of 1997-1999 (and through 2001 in Macedonia and Presevo), US Special Forces and British SAS armed, trained, and gave battlefield expertise to Albanian separatists waging brutal separatist campaigns in the region. During the war in Kosovo in 1999, the US military airlifted the Albanian UCK terrorists into some Serbian villages, where every civilian was slaughtered.

The Kosovo “Prime Minister” General Agim Ceku, is perhaps the most blood-soaked leader in the region. Ceku, an American-trained former General of the Croatian Army, led the brutal Operation Storm in the Krajina in 1995 – Europe’s largest ethnic cleansing since World War 2 – which drove 250,000 Serbs from their ancestral homelands, and killed over 2000 civilians. The operation received Clinton's air-cover and precision bombing, used UN observers as human shields, and violated other Geneva Convention rules of war by disguising military vehicles as if belonging to the UN, calling out to Serbs to come out of hiding, then slaughtering them by bullet, knife, and axe. European Neo-Nazis joined as volunteers, and participated in the carnage. Ceku’s Albanian UCK forces operated similarly against largely defenseless Serb civilian populations. Given these facts, Ceku’s recent claim that “the Serbs are cowards” seems profoundly hypocritical.

Cynically, one of Kosovo’s most notorious Albanian war criminals and Mafiosi, Hashim “The Snake” Thaci (darling of Madeleine Albright and Christiane Amanpour, whose Victory Hotel in Pristina is adorned with a Statue of Liberty) recently stated in Koha Ditore:

“…organized crime and mafia which has penetrated to the highest ranks of the government pyramid are the biggest dangers for Kosovo…but what will happen after the status? Who will stop the criminal gangs that have been installed by this weak government?”

Certainly it won't be the very criminals who are the prime culprits.

Islamist influence is spreading rapidly in Kosovo, due to the influx of Arabs.

The official response of US Government officials to questions about the role of jihadist and radical Islamist elements in the Kosovo Albanian independence movement is that it is an inconsequential phenomenon, and that most Albanians are secular nationalists.

However, Western military intelligence officials have extensively documented the inroads made by jihadist/terrorist elements, and their presence throughout Kosovo, and links to global Islamist terror networks and narco-mafias is widely known.

In many areas young Kosovo Albanians are being converted to the Wahabist faction, and are highly visible in their telltale short haircuts, beards, and ankle-length pants. As well, many Arabs are present from the Middle East and France, presumably leaders of jihadist cells.

Anti-Western jihadist sermons are now a regular feature at many of the new mosques. Western military intelligence officials have stated that the findings of their investigations into the jihadist terror networks is routinely ignored or blocked by NATO, UN and US officials.

While globalist “think tanks” and policy hacks espouse an independent “Kosova”, they are either party to that policy, or are seeing only the roadside glitz because there are two very distinct Kosovos easily visible today to inquiring minds.

In minority enclaves (Serbs, Gypsies, Gorani, Egyptians, Croats, Turks, Ashkali and others) populations live in a state of constant fear from Albanian intimidation and attack, which occur almost daily.

Not one Jew remains in Kosovo. All have been cleansed by Muslim Albanians.

Serbs are wantonly and routinely murdered with no legal recourse, as the “justice” system is entirely in the hands of Muslim Albanians, placed there by Hashim Thaci and blessed by the UNMIK officials.

While 9% of the Kosovo Police Corps are ethnic Serbs, they are mere stage-props, as the real power is in the hands of its Albanian core that temporarily maintains a façade of minority tolerance to appease their backers in the “international community.”

In one incident, Muslim Albanians dressed in NATO/KFOR uniforms approached a group of 14 Kosovo Serb farmers in Staro Gradsko, slaughtered them, and mutilated some of the ones they killed. British NATO forces botched the entire forensics investigation and no one has been caught.

Since 1999, over 1000 ethnic Serbs have been kidnapped and murdered, with few of the bodies recovered. Few Muslim Albanians have been arrested or tried for these murders, or for the destruction of over 130 Serbian churches, the countless monuments and graveyards vandalized, or the ethnic cleansing of 230,000 Serbs and other minorities. Even where a rare personal relationship exist between a Christian Serb and a Muslim Albanian, the Muslim will not testify against another, either out of a religious duty of being a Muslim or fear that being just and truthful will cost him his life.

Those non-Christian minorities that remain in Kosovo do so in conditions very different from the majority Muslims.

Serbs and other persecuted minorities venture out of their hamlets and enclaves at great risk, and having been completely disarmed by KFOR/NATO, have no means of defense even within them. Armed incursions by Albanian attackers still occur, and are often directed against isolated, defenseless, and often elderly civilians.

Even if Serbs had the means to defend themselves, the Albanian leadership waits for any possible excuse to launch another pogrom against Serbs, such as that of March 2004, where thousands of Serbs were ethnically cleansed under the watchful eyes of NATO troops, and dozens of centuries’ old churches demolished. Then, the pretext was a false rumor that some Albanian boys drowned in a river, drummed up by an Albanian radio to have been chased there by Serbs and their dogs. The pogrom was centrally directed, well organized, and methodic in its brutality. One Western military intelligence officer in the region commented that one of the reasons for the pogrom might have been a suggestion that the UN may pull out of Kosovo, thus divesting many Albanians from the biggest source of employment in the region.

When the “international community” has voiced any consternation at the Muslim savagery in Kosovo, it has been at the inconvenience it causes to American policy designs for the region.

Holbrooke, returning to Kosovo in 2005 as a $250,000 paid advisor of the Kosovo Albanian regime, suggested that it would be easier to get independence “if [they'd] stop killing Serbs.”

Given his anti-Serb penchant, and previous comments that “Serbs are murderous assholes,” one assumes he would lodge no protest if the “final solution of the Serbian Question” was resolved AFTER the status decision.

	In Kosovo, an intolerantly violent nationalism (the Albanian flag) has its complement in the Islamic jihadism as Albanian mosques are springing up across the province while Churches are being destroyed and looted.

The League of Prizren in 1878 sought to create a Greater Albania autonomous from the Ottoman Empire throughout Albania, Kosovo, parts of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece. This was promoted at the Congress of Berlin, and the Second League of Prizren in 1943. The issue of militarist Albanian designs on the region was made known as early as 1912 when at a London conference a Kosovo Albanian leader said “We will fertilize the land of Kosovo with the bones of Serbs.”

The invading Muslim Ottomans, Imperial Austrians, Communist Tito, Nazi Albanians, and now NATO have killed or driven out the Serbs in huge waves, reducing their numbers from majority to a minority in less than two generations.

	Bali i Kombetar, the Albanian NAZI party insignia on Pristina wall, 2006. Bali i Kombetar was a volunteer Kosovo Albanian Nazi organization formed in 1939 and reported of by Himmler to Hitler as the most elite of Kosovo Albanian Nazis that have killed and expelled thousands of Serbs and Jews in WWII. Today, this Albanian Nazi organization is freely flourishing under the protection of NATO troops.

The map Hitler created of a Greater Albania based on the League of Prizren is espoused by current Albanian nationalists, and openly backed by some in Washington and Brussels. Hitler’s legacy thus continues today. Bill Dorich writes:

"Albanians exposed their Nazi ideas during the Holocaust when they joined Hitler in liquidating over one million Serbs, 60,000 Jews and 80,000 Roma. That should preclude Albanians from stealing Serbian or any territory 60 years later. Kosovo’s autonomy was a dictator's decision and Tito did this without a single vote of the people of Yugoslavia or its communist government. Demanding that the Serbs now abide by rules of law is absurd… during the “autonomy” (1974-89) the Albanians banned the Cyrillic alphabet of their minority Serb population - an alphabet and language used by the Serbs since the 800s. Serbs were fired from their jobs in Kosovo and a reign of persecution followed. Every policeman, judge, teacher, doctor, and government official was an Albanian. These Albanian authorities removed Serbian books on history, religion and music from Kosovo schools and libraries and burned over 2 million volumes. During this period they also destroyed a Serbian monastery, raped Serbian nuns and Serbian girls and burned hundreds of Serbian barns to encourage Serbs to leave… more than 125,000 Serbs fled Kosovo from 1974 to 1989."

	Gracanica Monastery seen through barbed wire.

Even during the times of Tito’s multi-ethnic Yugoslavia, Muslim Albanians of Kosovo were known for their brutal campaigns against Christian Serbs. As Balkan authority David Binder noted in the New York Times throughout the 1980’s:

Nov. 28, 1982
“In violence growing out of the Pristina University riots of March 1981, a score of people have been killed and hundreds injured. There have been almost weekly incidents of rape, arson, pillage and industrial sabotage, most seemingly designated to drive Kosovo’s remaining indigenous Slavs – Serbs and Montenegrins -- out of the province.”

Nov. 9, 1982
“Such incidents have prompted many of Kosovo’s Slavic inhabitants to flee the province, thereby helping fulfill a nationalist demand for an ethnically ‘pure’ Albanian Kosovo. The latest Belgrade estimate is that 20,000 Serbs and Montenegrins have left Kosovo for good since the 1981 riots.”

Nov. 1, 1987
“Ethnic Albanians in the government have manipulated public funds and regulations to take over land belonging to Serbs…Slavic Orthodox churches have been attacked, and flags have been torn down. Wells have been poisoned, and crops burned. Slavic boys have been knifed, and some young ethnic Albanians have been told by their elders to rape Serbian girls…As Slavs flee the protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationalists have demanded for years…an ethnically ‘pure’ Albanian region, a ‘Republic of Kosovo’ in all but name.”

The predatory, aggressive and expansionist behavior prevalent in the 1980’s continues today. Serbs watch from their houses as Albanians usurp their fields and livestock. Many rural Serbs live in abject poverty, unable to continue farming or herding to feed their families for fear of attack or murder. When Serbs try to farm, herd or fetch firewood on their land, they are often shot on the spot.

Those Serbs that remain in predominantly Albanian areas fare the worst, under constant pressure to either sell their property at rock-bottom prices, or abandon their homes and farms outright.

One woman whose 23 year old husband was shot dead by Muslim Albanians was warned: “What are you waiting for? We already killed your husband. Do we have to kill you and your three children too? Go!”

	Kosovo Serb refugees at Obilic container camp, live in containers donated by Russia. They were ethnic cleansed by Albanians. Hot in summer and freezing in winter, the people have little assistance. Some are handicapped, and other are aged. Since 1999, over 200,000 Kosovo Serbs have been ethnic cleansed by Albanians, over 1000 murdered. Many have had their land, livestock, houses and posessions violently expropriated from them by Albanians, with no protection of justice offered by NATO, the EU or UN who occupy the Serbian province. Meanwhile, UNICEF has spent billions of dollars renovating mosques in the province.

The Clinton administration billed the bombing of Yugoslavia as a “humanitarian intervention to stop genocide” – in reality a low-level counter-insurgency that had killed 1800 people in one and a half years of fighting, one third of them non-Albanians. The bombing killed an estimated 2,600 Serbian civilians of various ethnicities. A CIA official admitted last year in the European press that the US had been supporting Kosovo Albanian guerillas since 1997. A Human Rights Watch report is particularly instructive of how the Albanians operated:

“…The KLA was responsible for serious abuses in 1998, including abductions and murders of Serbs and ethnic Albanians considered collaborators [sic: loyal to] the state. In some villages under KLA control in 1998, the rebels drove ethnic Serbs from their homes. Some of those who remained are unaccounted for and are presumed to have been abducted by the KLA and killed… The KLA detained an estimated 85 Serbs during its July 19, 1998 attack on Orahovac. Thirty five of these people were subsequently released, but the others remain missing as of August 2001. On July 22, 1998, the KLA briefly took control of the Belacevac mine near Obilic. Nine Serbs were captured that day and they remain on the ICRC’s list of the missing. In September 1998, the Serbian police collected the 34 bodies of people believed to have been seized and murdered by the KLA, among them some ethnic Albanians, at Lake Rodanjic, near Glodjane. Prior to that the most serious KLA abuse was the reported killing of 22 Serbian civilians in the village of Klecka… The KLA… engaged in military tactics which put civilians at risk. KLA units sometimes staged an ambush or attacked police and army outposts from a village, and then retreated, exposing villagers to revenge attacks… Most seriously, as many as 1000 Serbs and Roma [gypsies] have been murdered or have gone missing since June 12, 1999…elements of the KLA are clearly responsible for many…of these crimes… There is also a clear political goal in many of these attacks: the removal from Kosovo of non-ethnic Albanians in order to better justify an independent state.”

	Kosovo Serb Djordjevic family in October 2006. Kosovo Christian children like these are growing up in poverty and are precluded from schooling because Muslim Albanians will kill them if they ever venture out of their enclave.

While the international community [sic: Washington] screamed at Belgrade for alleged discrimination of ethnic Albanians during the 90’s, it has been noticeably silent in demanding Muslim Albanian compliance with modern human rights standards of tolerance.

The northern Kosovo city of Mitrovica is particularly instructive. There, the town is divided by the Ibar River into a multi-ethnic North, and a “pure” – cleansed – Muslim Albanian South. No Christian was left alive in the South, nor are any able to visit or return.

In the predominantly Serb North, 4000 ethnic Albanians, plus Roma, Bosnian Muslims, and Croats live side by side with Serbs in normalcy and tolerance. But the South of Mitrovica has been totally cleansed of its non-Albanian inhabitants, violently so, and is a focal point for Islamist/jihadist organizing in the region.

Serbs in the North suffer insecurity due to provocations and raids by Albanians who cross over from the South to bomb, knife and shoot Serbs with impunity. Recently, a 16 year old Albanian youth crossed over from the South and threw a hand grenade in a multi-ethnic café, wounding several people. The Muslim was arrested, but liberated very quickly and no trial is pending.

While UN and NATO troops stage frequent raids of Christian Serb houses to confiscate the last vestiges of arms for self-defense, few such operations are undertaken against the heavily armed Muslim Albanians.

As UN forces and Muslim Albanians create “facts on the ground,” Holbrooke’s stated policy of ridding Kosovo of Christian Serbs is coming to fruition.

http://www.serbianna.com/columns/gordon/004.shtml