28 January 2009

Kosovo Serb villagers face catastrophe

January 28, 2009 – 8:04 pm

Serbs living a village Donje Drenovce near Kosovska Kamenica are facing a human catastrophe as they enter into the tenth day of no electricity, report the media.

Municipal mayor Boban Jeftic said that villagers are facing a humanitarian catastrophe and that most of their winter provisions they kept in refrigerators is lost.

“Replacement of the transformer at the transformer station in the village, which should be performed by the Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEK), is progressing very slowly. We do not know what to do, we do not have the right answer to this problem,” Jeftic said.

The villagers are afraid to wonder off from the village because of a danger that ethnic Albanians will kill them.

The ethnic Albanian coordinator for electrical supply company, Suljmije Keka, claims that the relay station has broken down because of over capacity.

However, in a statement, she blamed Serbs of not paying bills on time.

“We appeal on the users to pay their bills. If they were regular payers it is for sure that they would not stay 8 days with out the electrical energy,” Suljmije said.

Assistant to the Minister for Kosovo, Zvonimir Stevic, says that the responsible parties are the international community, the UN and EULEX.

“The international community should tell the public how much did they spend to revitalize electrical production in Kosovo and what was done on that matter,” said Stevic.

Stevic said that the appeal by Serbia to supply the Serb enclaves in Kosovo with electrical energy have not been addressed.

“Shortage of electrical energy is for them [Serbs] a nightmare and that is used to apply a psychological pressure on Serbs so they can leave,” says Stevic.

Kosovo is a Serbian province whose Albanian violent separatists have illegally declared independence in 2008 after ethnically cleansing over two thirds of the Serbian population while NATO troops, there since 1999, claim they are there to keep peace. The remaining Serbs are exposed to daily attacks of various sorts. Some states have extended a diplomatic recognition to these separatists claiming the province is a “unique” case.

06 June 2008

From Munich to Kosovo

Antiwar.com


From Munich to Kosovo
An Inconvenient Comparison


by Nebojsa Malic

On June 9, 1999, the 78-day war that NATO waged on what was then Yugoslavia came to a close. Representatives of Yugoslav military and NATO signed an armistice in the Macedonian town of Kumanovo, paving the way for NATO's takeover of the province. At the time, it was spun in the West as a victory for the Alliance – Yugoslav president Milosevic "caved" and "capitulated," and his army was "forced" from Kosovo. Yet on paper, it was a defeat; Serbia had resisted ten times longer than anyone in Washington or Mons expected, and the terms of the Kumanovo treaty were much better for Belgrade than the disgraceful Rambouillet ultimatum, which NATO sought to impose at the beginning of the bombing. What was to be a purely NATO occupation became a UN mission (UNMIK) and Serbia's territorial integrity was explicitly guaranteed by the UN resolution 1244.

The nine ensuing years showed precisely what NATO – and the Empire behind it – thought of the UN, treaties, and the law in general, as it stood idly by while the terrorist KLA rampaged through the province, not content with merely killing or expelling Serbs (and other non-Albanians, it needs to be said), but also destroying every trace of their history, culture and faith. Successive UN viceroys worked diligently not on enforcing 1244, but on subverting it, and "nation-building" an independent, Albanian state of Kosovo. It all led up to the declaration of "independence" by the Albanian provisional government this February, and lightning-quick recognition by foreign powers that supported them.

The Shame of Prague

So far, fewer than a quarter of the world's governments have recognized the "Republic of Kosovo." One of the most recent was that of the Czech Republic, despite the very strong dissent coming from both the Czech people and the country's president, Vaclav Klaus. Immediately after recognition, Klaus requested a personal audience with the Serbian ambassador and told him he felt "ashamed" of his government's actions. Interestingly, foreign minister Schwarzenberg, who led the push for recognition, stated that Prague had "no choice" in the matter, suggesting that it may not have been the Czech government's desire to recognize the Albanian separatists, but someone else's.

One argument invoked by the critics of recognition particularly resonates with the Czechs: the forcible seizure of territory from Serbia is all too reminiscent of the great powers' carve-up of Czechoslovakia seventy years prior. Jiri Dienstbier, former UN envoy for human rights in the Balkans, openly compared the separation of Kosovo with the European powers' appeasement of Hitler in 1938. Though Klaus has refrained from using such a strong comparison, he nonetheless said that, "no similar decision on a country's borders has been made since World War Two."

The ghost of Neville Chamberlain is often invoked by Imperial warmongers to justify attacking one country or another. Empire's enemy du jour is always likened to Hitler, and anyone who even suggests talks over bombs is branded an "appeaser."

But when the Czechs – who, after all, should know the fruits of appeasement all too well, given that they were its first and foremost victims – point out that the Empire is enabling the Kosovo Albanians to behave like Hitler, no one pays attention. In the postmodern world, it's not the behavior itself that is objectionable, but rather who does the behaving, and the Empire – by its own definition – can do no wrong, anywhere, ever.

Kosovo, Stolen

There are many victims of what happened in Kosovo: Serbs, Roma, Turks, Jews and other communities that were forcibly uprooted by the terrorist KLA, before or during NATO's occupation; those Albanians who wanted to live in peace with their neighbors, but ended up under a brutal, criminal KLA regime; international law as well, specifically the UNSCR 1244 and the Helsinki Final Act.

A similar fate was intended for a documentary produced by the Czech Television, Uloupene Kosovo ("Kosovo, stolen"), scheduled to air this spring but delayed by the government-owned network. After the recognition, the film's airing was cancelled altogether. In earlier times, this sort of censorship would have killed the film. In this day and age, however, it soon made its way onto Google Video and YouTube.

It is a breath of fresh air in the stale swamp of lies told and repeated about Kosovo 1999: it gives a brief historical overview of the conflict between Serbs and Albanians, NATO's involvement and its disastrous consequences. None of it is staged for effect: the people are real, their suffering is real, and the archive footage used is all too real. And at the end, as the camera pans over the burned and pillaged houses along a road, the following epilogue appears on the screen:

"The separation of Kosovo and Metohia from Serbia, was first recognized, in addition to the USA, by Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain, countries that signed the 1938 Munich Agreement."

A Really Inconvenient Truth

When an American soldier in Iraq used the Muslim holy book of Koran for target practice, he was disciplined, and the Emperor offered a personal apology to Iraqis. He didn't apologize for invading their country and causing over a million deaths over the past two decades – but hey, here's a new Koran, carry on.

But when Kosovo Albanians destroyed, dynamited and defaced over two hundred Serbian churches, the Empire rewarded them with a state of their own, carved out of Serbian territory against all law, custom and logic accepted by civilized people. And the Serbs were told to "deal with it."

This goes beyond the talk of double standards. There are no standards here at all. This is about a philosophy that one country can do whatever, whenever, to whomever it pleases; that it is above any law, even its own, because it is bigger, richer, better – and ultimately, simply more powerful than anyone else.

That is precisely what the Nazis used to think, and whether Americans like that comparison or not is, quite frankly, irrelevant.

Find this article at:
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmFudGl3YXIuY29tL21hbGljLz9hcnRpY2xlaWQ9MTI5NTE=

US and German dismemberment of Yugoslavia

US and NATO Needed to Ensure Permanent Military Presence in Europe After the Fall of Berlin Wall

As far as the United States are concerned, they have, first and foremost, their own interests in South-Eastern Europe, including former Yugoslavia. The mutual antagonisms and conflicts, impoverishment and the total inability to function independently on political, economic and every other level of the statelets or quasi-statelets created on the territory of former Yugoslavia represents the perfect ground for enabling the American political, economic and especially military presence in Europe.

This last bit, the military presence, is important to United States because after the fall of the Warsaw Pact, the US military presence in the Western [European] states has lost the whole purpose and justification. So, it is no wonder that the United States has been active in producing this miserable state of affairs most Balkan statelets find themselves in.

After the break-up of the Eastern Bloc, some form of the Cold War has continued in this context of using all the means to prevent the survival of a society which could serve as an example of the successful alternative to the current crude pasting of the capitalist model, even though it too has its own problems.

In that sense, Yugoslavia could not have been allowed to survive the Warsaw Pact, because it would represent an inconvenient example to the other East European countries, an example of independent development and the alternative to the unquestioning acceptance of the Western values. This would have made it an obstacle to the new world order, as well as to the world shaped by the United States, as the sole remaining superpower in the world. In other words, this would have made it an obstacle to the transformation of the world into the corporate society, under the leadership of New York banks, where the plunder is the main motive.

In March 1990, the US Congress adopted the "Foreign Operation Appropriation Law", which ended every form of financial assistance to Yugoslavia, except for democratic parties, and in a way that the Nazis and Islamic fundamentalists were also regarded as the democratic parties which needed to be supported. Later on the Albanian terrorists too, while the Albanian separatists were there all along.

It is also known what was the role of a privatized segment of the American army called MPRI [Military Professional Resources Incorporated], which trained the Croat and Muslim army and played the key role in the offensive against Krajina [Serbian-populated region in present-day Croatia]. This too confirms that the American behavior regarding the Yugoslav crisis actually had the purpose of ensuring the American military presence in Europe, which has been accomplished in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Kosovo and Metohija, and in Macedonia, as well as the dominant influence of USA and NATO throughout Europe.

I believe that I don't even need to mention here the economic interest, as an interest that stands above all the others. Such aspirations for dominating this part of the world are the only explanation for some, at the first glance irrational actions by the US, like influencing Alija Izetbegovic to withdraw his signature on the Cutileiro Plan, or a bit less known to the public at large American thwarting of the later negotiations, such as Vance-Owen Plan, Owen-Stoltenberg Plan and the other peace agreements. Obviously, peace in the Balkans was not in the interest of United States, up until the moment when military and the other forms of US and NATO presence were secured, and until the conditions were ripe to reach a solution under the American patronage.


Criminal Clinton Administration Forms Dangerous Liaisons with World Wide Terrorists

The identical goal was also confirmed by the American insistence on the Rambouillet conference, where they demanded NATO military presence on the entire territory of Yugoslavia, as well as by the aggression, sole purpose of which, obviously, was occupation of Kosovo-Metohija, occupation of all of Yugoslavia, securing the permanent NATO presence in this part of the world.

Along the way, William Clinton administration formed dangerous liaisons and alliances with the Islamic fundamentalist organizations and individuals, such as Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, terrorist UCK [KLA] in Kosovo, and others. In a word, precisely with those organizations and individuals who are, especially after September 11, 2001, considered the greatest threat to the United States and the West in general.

The price of such criminal policy of Clinton administration is enormous and, unfortunately, it is being paid by the innocent citizens throughout the world, including the American citizens, but also those of other Western states, such as Spain and others.


Naumann's Dream Came True: European Union is Great Germany & Satellites

However, while the objectives of Germany, Vatican and United States in the Yugoslav crisis were more or less clear and obvious, the behavior of other European Community -- later, the European Union -- members is entirely shocking, especially the drastic changes of their position under the German pressure.

This in spite of the European Community's declaration about Yugoslavia which emphasized, quote, "that the united and democratic Yugoslavia has the best prospects of harmonious integration into the new Europe". Even after Slovenia and Croatia declared independence, and after the flaring of the armed conflicts, the European Parliament on July 9, 1991, adopted Resolution on Yugoslavia in Strasbourg, which did not support the unilateral acts of secession by the two Yugoslav republics. The Council of European Community Ministers, the European Council, as well as the European Community institutions have also supported the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.

A wider European, or rather the Euro-American forum, the CSCE [Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe] Council of Ministers, at the meeting in Berlin on July 19, 1991, adopted a declaration which, among else, expressed its support to the unity and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, in line with the Helsinki Accords. The preservation of the state's territorial integrity was especially stressed. That the similar attitude prevailed on the other side of the Atlantic at the time, was confirmed by the fact that the US State Secretary [James] Baker, at the end of his visit to Yugoslavia in June 21, 1991, stated that the US supports the united and democratic Yugoslavia, future of which has to be decided through the mutual agreement, and stressed that the United States will not recognize the unilateral acts of secession.

Still, the European Community, the organization created as a result of a progressive process in Europe and the world, finally chose at the end of 1991 to support an extremely retrograde process, secession of Slovenia and Croatia, as well as the other secessionist republics. On December 17, 1991, the European Community adopted a declaration on the criteria for recognition of the new states in the Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and a Declaration on Yugoslavia, which called upon all the Yugoslav republics to submit their requests for recognition by December 23, with the proof that they have met the recognition criteria.

With this document, the European Community had not only trampled its own position from the March 26, 1991 Declaration on Yugoslavia, it has also violated a document it adopted only a month and a half earlier, the European Community Declaration published in Rome on November 8, 1991, which set out that the possibilities for recognizing the republics who so wish can only be considered within the overall solution. So, even though the role of Germany in this change of course in the position of the twelve is clear, it is still not only surprising, but also incredibly humiliating that eleven states allowed themselves to be forced to do something they initially and basically disagreed with, and under the pressure of only one, twelfth state, regardless of how influential and powerful that state may be.

I already mentioned Friederich Naumann who, during the World War I, presented the concept of the German domination over the Central Europe through the fragmentation of that part of the world and the creation of the small obedient states he called the satellite states. Of course, Naumann never thought about creation of satellites in the West. But the diktat which tied secession of the Yugoslav republics and their recognition imposed by Germany to the European Community members, and their bowing to that diktat in contrast to their own views and principles, and even while being aware of the secessionist tendencies in some of those very states, contrary to their most immediate interests, points to a humiliating fact that the members of this organization have also stooped so low to become German satellites. Thanks to the opportunism and the weakness of their incompetent leaders, some of the former Great Powers have also found themselves in this humiliating position. As shown by their later involvement in the score of NATO operations, including the aggression against Yugoslavia, they have also been degraded to a level of United States' satellites.


Crime Against Peace Remains to be Processed in the Real International Court

So, the Yugoslavia's right to survival cannot be questioned, nor can the unlawful character of its destruction, as the basis for eruption of the conflicts, be questioned. In all this it is, to say the least, cynical for those who have brought the Yugoslav nations to the mutual wars, cycles of violence and hatred, for them to now pretend to be naive and to administer justice. Our nations must never forget who is the main guilty party for the tragedy that took place on the territory of former Yugoslavia, and that will be clearly shown.

In Nuremberg, the first and main crime was the crime against peace, which is not so in this illegal tribunal of yours only because, in that case, those who have established this unlawful court would have to be placed on trial first.

It is not hard to prove, looking at historical events which were all well documented and available to the side across ["prosecution"], that the nationalism on the territory of former Yugoslavia did not start in Serbia, from the Serbian nation or the Serbian leadership, but mainly from the extreme right-wing separatist movement in Croatia, in Kosovo and Metohija, in Bosnia and Herzegovina -- from the Ustashas and neo-Nazis, the Islamic fundamentalists and the Albanian terrorists.

It is not hard to prove, and you will see how that goes, that the fratricidal war on the territory of former Yugoslavia was instigated and militarily supported by the West, precisely by those who have established this farcical court: Germany, Vatican and United States. That they had carried out the destruction and dismemberment of a sovereign state in violation of both the internal and the international law.

It is also not hard to prove that they used extremely undemocratic methods for destruction of Yugoslavia, contrary to the constant assurances of their humanity.

Regarding this, it can be said that what they call the international community, on the territory of Yugoslavia -- Croatia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina alike -- has been supporting a totalitarian chauvinist elite: terrorists, Islamic fundamentalists and neo-Nazis, whose goal was ethnically clean state, i.e. the state without Serbs.

The methods of cleansing the Serbian nation conducted by the Croat ultra-nationalist movement at the beginning of the 1990s with its paramilitary units, are quite identical to what was done 50 years earlier to the same nation, in the same region. At the beginning of the 1990s, it was the Serbs who were being killed and expelled from Croatia, even before Tudjman came to power. Serbs were the ones who were being killed and expelled from Kosovo and Metohija. The so-called international community headed by the US, sided with and was actively aiding the Islamic fundamentalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo-Metohija, which carried out numerous crimes against the Serbs. On top of everything, the crimes against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija are being carried out with the full cooperation of the occupation forces headed by NATO, through the complete violation of the Security Council Resolution 1244 which codified the terms of ending the war offered to Yugoslavia.

When Yugoslavia could not be occupied and when the war had to be ended, the terms guaranteeing Yugoslavia sovereignty and territorial integrity were offered, stipulating that the United Nations protection forces will come to Kosovo to protect -- with an obligation to protect the entire population [in the province] -- and that the army and the police of Yugoslav state and Serbia will also have to be present to some extent and will return to Kosovo. None of this was fulfilled, but everything else was done. NATO soldiers came over shoulder-to-shoulder with criminals and expelled hundreds of thousands of people, killed thousands, torched dozens of churches... but I will come back to this later.


Hague Prosecution Demonstrated it Knew Fully Well Milosevic Did Not Start Any Wars

What I wish to say now is that there is an enormous amount of detailed documentation about the crimes against the Serbian nation committed during the past ten years. This documentation has been offered to this institution from various institutions throughout the world, but the side sitting on the opposite side hasn't even glanced at it. The reason for this is that the international community, while instigating conflicts in our part of the world, decided in advance that Serbs were to be blamed for everything. That is why everybody else could and had to be presented as a victim.

As to how the war was instigated in the territory of former Yugoslavia, the authors of the so-called Kosovo indictment against me, in paragraphs 79 and 80 stated one of the rare true assertions within the overall entirely false and shameful act. I'm quoting their text: "On June 25, 1991, Slovenia declared independence from the SFRY, which led to the outbreak of war." This is written in their document&183; "Croatia declared its independence on June 25, 1991, which led to fighting between the Croat forces, on the one side and JNA and paramilitary formations and the Army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, on the other. Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence on March 6, 1992, which, after April 6, 1992, led to a widespread war. "

So, the very authors of this fake indictment, probably without thinking that they will later be putting together also the Croat and Bosnian indictment against me, have said who caused the war in former Yugoslavia. The participants in this enterprise, which can most certainly be called criminal, and they include both the internal and the external protagonists, have acted in complete contravention of both the internal, Yugoslav, and the international law. By such violation of the law and through the realization of the forceful secession of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, they have committed the essential and the gravest of all crimes processed in Nuremberg and Tokyo -- the crime against peace, which falls under the jurisdiction of the legal and permanent International Criminal Court [ICC].

Defending Yugoslavia, Serbia was the Only One on the Side of Law

As opposed to the Croat and Slovenian authorities, and the Muslim-Croat authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which have carried out the armed secession, and as opposed to their instigators and supporters from Germany, Austria, Vatican, the rest of European Community and later on the US and NATO pact, Serbian nation and Serbian leadership, including me, kept trying to preserve the Yugoslav state. By doing so, we were on the side of law, while the destroyers of Yugoslavia were flagrantly violating both the internal and the international law. Their invocation of the right to self-determination was nothing but a smokescreen, an effort to obscure the essence of their criminal act -- the unlawful and forceful secession. Because the Yugoslav nations, and especially its republics, did not have the right to unilaterally desert the Yugoslav state, neither by the Yugoslav Constitution, nor by the constitutions of the individual republics. They especially did not have the right to reach for their objective over the corpses of their co-citizens from the common state.

Article 5 of the Yugoslav Constitution which was in force at the time -- the Constitution adopted in 1974, states: "The territory of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is integral and comprised of the territories of the socialist republics. The borders of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia cannot be changed without the consent of all the socialist republics and autonomous regions". Based on this, it unambiguously follows that not a single republic or nation in SFRY, as explicitly stated in the Constitution, was independently endowed with the right to secede from SFRY, or to secede any part of its territory. This was possible only through the consent of all.

Bearing all this in mind, along with the desire expressed in Slovenia and Croatia, and later in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, to leave the Yugoslav Federation, and precisely in the effort to avoid any conflict, as confirmed by the witness Borisav Jovic -- the President of the Yugoslav Presidency and later on member of the Presidency, Serbian side tried to persuade, since August 1990, the representatives of the other republics in the federal bodies to adopt a law which would appropriately regulate the realization of the right to self-determination. But, as Jovic said in his book you have quoted here, "they were determined to go to the very end, even at the cost of incidents and conflicts. "

I will remind you of a grand Tudjman's speech cited here, when he said that "there would have been no war had Croatia not wanted it". Because without war, without that kind of war, no one could expell half a million Serbs from the territory they populated for centuries. At the time of Croat secession Serbs in Croatia did not request any kind of state, but only autonomy since, up to that moment and according to the Croat own constitution they were a constitutive nation in Croatia, because Croatia was defined as a state of Croat, Serbian and other nations, but they were simply deleted from the Croat constitution [when Tudjman came to power].

So, when the cited Constitution provisions are taken into account, the Yugoslav republics of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia have declared their independence, or their secession through the violation of the Constitution. And being that the secession of these republics was carried out through the armed force, this was an illegal, armed, violent secession. An illegal, armed, violent secession, consequences of which are tens of thousands of deaths, is a crime according to both the internal, Yugoslav, and the international law, as much as the encouragement and aiding of such a horrific act by the side-protagonists is a crime. These are the same ones who are behind this illegal court, the purpose of which is to exonerate them, while shifting the blame from them onto the victims of their crimes. Those victims are among all the Yugoslav nations.

05 June 2008

American Al Qaeda Cut His Jihadi Teeth in Bosnia

A U.S.-born man who trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan and fought in Bosnia in the 1990s pleaded guilty on Tuesday to plotting to bomb targets in the United States and Europe, the Justice Department said.

Christopher Paul, 44, entered his plea in U.S. district court in Columbus, Ohio and he agreed to serve 20 years in prison under terms of the deal.

Paul was born in Ohio as Paul Kenyatta Laws and converted to Islam while in college, the Columbus Dispatch reported. He grew a beard and addressed some friends in Arabic. New acquaintances were surprised to learn he was American.

Paul, known also by a string of aliases including Abdul Malek Kenyatta, was arrested in 2007 in Ohio on charges of conspiring to aid terrorists, conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and providing material support to terrorists.

He pleaded guilty to the second count and also acknowledged a three-page fact summary detailing his involvement with al Qaeda.

Paul trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in basic battle techniques, then joined the group and received advanced training in rappelling, explosives and military history.

In a statement of facts read during the hearing, Paul admitted that he traveled to Pakistan in the early 1990s to join the mujahedeen (Islamic fighters) and was trained by Al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan.

Upon his return to Ohio, Paul began recruiting "local individuals with extremist intentions in order to establish a jihadist group in Ohio," the US Justice Department said in a press release.

He used various passports and false identities to travel to the Balkans and fought in conflict zones such as Bosnia from 1993 through 1995.

Authorities searching Paul's home in Columbus found a master list of "terrorist contacts and bomb-making information" that he had created while in the Balkans, the summary said.

It said al Qaeda members in Europe in 1997 asked him to form a jihad group, which he trained around Columbus. He went to Germany in 1999 to meet members of a Islamic fundamentalist cell. Asked to provide explosives training, he agreed to help the group, which also intended to attack within the United States, the summary said.

From March 31, 1999 until January 31, 2000, Paul made 44 calls to an Islamic fundamentalist co-conspirator in Europe, who was arrested in 2003 and later convicted of a terrorist conspiracy, the statement said.

"Today's guilty plea brings an end to the long, dangerous career of Christopher Paul (who) ... conspired with others to target Americans both at home and abroad," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Rowan.

"His conviction demonstrates our continuing resolve to protect the American public against terrorism."

04 June 2008

Serbia is bursting out all over at French Open

In tennis it's become Serbia vs. the world, and Serbia is winning, as Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic reach semifinals at a Grand Slam -- again.

By Chuck Culpepper, Special to The Times

June 4, 2008

PARIS -- Every so often, tennis conducts an unofficial Serbia day, a day of Serbian ubiquity, Serbian excellence, Serbian panache, maybe even a few Serbian flags in the crowd.

The French Open had a Serbia day Tuesday, and it wound up promising two juicy semifinals that will be -- as if it weren't obvious -- Serbia-heavy.

"It's getting better and better," Novak Djokovic said.

"At least we have
one Serbian for sure in the final," Ana Ivanovic said.

"I think we're
going to be dominating this tennis world soon," Jelena Jankovic said.

She might have erred there, for you can make the case they're dominating
it already. Of the 40 semifinal slots at the last five Grand Slam tournaments, a
single, small, landlocked country slightly smaller than South Carolina and with
the population of Michigan (about 10 million) has managed to earn 12.

On a Serbia day, like Tuesday, you might see Ivanovic and Jankovic, Nos. 2 and 3 in
the world, win quarterfinal matches to set up a semifinal between them, their
first in a Grand Slam tournament after two previous meetings in L.A. (split) and
one in Indian Wells (Ivanovic), plus three others overall (Ivanovic leads, 5-1).

As if that weren't novelty enough, you might see Djokovic, consistently
marvelous and marvelously consistent, reach a French semifinal set for Friday
against three-times-defending champion Rafael Nadal, the official machinery of
the 2008 French Open, putting away perfectly excellent opponents such as No. 20
Nicolas Almagro, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.

"What happened?" somebody asked Almagro.

"Didn't you see?" Almagro said. "Well, I think there was a guy called Nadal on the center court, and he played much better than me all the time, a bit like a flash."

It's a testament, then, to No. 3 Djokovic's indispensable conceit, and to Serbia day itself, that Djokovic can see a match with Nadal -- who is 26-0 here lifetime and has lost zero sets this tournament -- and then start talking about various things he must do and say, "And then I have a good chance."

So that's Ivanovic, Jankovic and Djokovic, in the semifinals, just as at the 2008 Australian Open and the 2007 French. Remind Djokovic of this, and he corrects, "Plus doubles. You didn't mention doubles. We have like five or six guys in doubles. Four, whatever. Seven. I don't know, seven altogether?"

The doubles draw does show that two Serbian men will play the doubles semifinals, though not on the same team.

So on a Serbia day, in the Roland Garros players' lounge you might see some Ivanovic people sitting and unwinding at an outdoor table after Ivanovic has just won, while through the
window at an indoor table Jankovic's mother Snezana has taken out a black magic
marker and drawn a heart on Jankovic's bandaged right forearm, then added
letters to make an "I ? Paris."



At this moment, while Jankovic smiles and seems, as ever, the center of
happy hubbub, she awaits the quarterfinal that will put her through to the
semifinals, and she does so just below a TV that shows Djokovic playing the
fearsome rising Latvian star Ernests Gulbis in a quarterfinal that will put him
through to a semifinal.

So it's logical that Jankovic would say, "You know, one of us will reach No. 1," and it could be herself or Ivanovic by the end of this tournament, what with No. 1 Maria Sharapova gone.

Sharapova exited in the fourth round, a fate that has happened to the three top Serbians
only a collective five times in their last 18 Grand Slam appearances since the
beginning of 2007, pointing up consistency as a national trait.

"I think the country has only positive thoughts about tennis now," Djokovic said. "It's
the No. 1 sport. I'm feeling happy when I see the guys of my country,
country-fellows, you know, girls and men, doing so well. . . . For such a small
country, it's a big success. We represent our country. Yeah, we support each other."

>

Serbia may co-rule Kosovo with UN

June 4, 2008


UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon may opt for a compromise deal with Serbia on the nature of the international presence in Kosovo after June 15 when the Islamic separatists in Kosovo plan to proclaim their own so-called constitution.

The compromise deal as reported by several news sources could ensure partnership between UN and Serbia in governance of Kosovo. In exchange, some analysts say, Serbia may agree to presence of EU mission to Kosovo at the UN Security Council.

If implemented without Serbia's agreement, the EU mission known as EULEX would violate a UN Resolution 1244 which says that Kosovo is not independent but an integral part of Serbia.

Several states including US have violated that UN Resolution by recognizing an illegal independence proclamation by Islamic separatists in Kosovo who have violently seized power in this Serbian province in 1999 and since have expelled and murdered thousands of Serbs who are Christian.

News sources say that the UN chief Ban Ki-moon is ready to send a letter to the Serbian President Tadic in which it is expected that UN will agree with all the demands Serbia has made as expressed by the Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic.

Ban Ki-moon was also able to secure an agreement with Russia on continuation of international presence in Kosovo. After phone conversation with Ban Ki-moon, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia is will to support international presence in Kosovo at the Security Council level if such presence is supported by Belgrade and Pristina.

Lavrov also noted that Russian proposal to renew Kosovo status negotiations is still on the topic of discussion.

Russian Ambassador at the NATO Dmitrii Rogozin requested a special meeting of the NATO Council-Russia to be held this month or early next because Moscow fears violence in the province that will be provoked in Kosovo in order to remove the UN mission and have it replaced with the EU.

Meanwhile, Islamic separatist authorities who have seized power in Kosovo are opposed to Serbia's legitimate presence in its province and have demanded an end to, what they refer to as "parallel structures".

A so-called Islamic president of Kosovo Fatmir Sejdiu demanded yesterday from the UN to end these "parallel structures" while the illegal separatist "parliament" in Pristina issued an ultimatum to the UN administrator Joachim Rücker to remove those structures by June 15.

Over the weekend, a separatist Muslim Albanian so-called "deputy prime minister" Hajredin Kuçi said that "violence of the state" will be used to end the "parallel structures" and assure that the illegal laws are forced upon Kosovo Serbs who are Christian.

Kosovo is Serbian province that has been ethically cleansed of Serbs while hundreds of churches have been demolished by Islamic Albanian extremist that hold power in the province.

European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner noted yesterday that EU believes that Kosovo has a European perspective.

US Report: Albania Source for Human Trafficking

04 June 2008 Tirana

A U.S. State Department report describes Albania as a source for women and girls trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.

Albanian victims are being trafficked to Greece, Italy, Macedonia, and Kosovo with many trafficked onwards to West European countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands, the report says.

Approximately half of all Albanian trafficking victims are under the age of 18. Internal sex trafficking of women and children is also on the rise.

According to the report, the government of Albania does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is noted that it is making significant efforts to do so.

The report recommends that Albania vigorously investigate and prosecute human trafficking offences as well as law enforcement officials' complicit in trafficking cases.