From Munich to Kosovo

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.

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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.

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."

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.

Belgrade's 1968 student unrest spurs nostalgia

Posted June 4th, 2008 by Sahil Nagpal

Belgrade - Belgrade is marking 40 years since Europe's 1968 student protests, a seemingly happier time long before the wars that ripped Yugoslavia apart.

As Serbia wavers over closer ties with the European Union, 1968 offers a nostalgic feeling that Serbs were then part of a global community, demonstrating for freer societies even though Josip Broz Tito's communist regime didn't shake.

"It was a year when the world dreamed one dream and Belgrade was the world, " Djordje Vukovic, who participated in the Belgrade protests, said at the opening of one of several exhibitions on the student unrest.

After youth protests erupted in Belgrade on the night of July 2, students at Belgrade University went into a seven-day strike. Police beat the students and banned all public gatherings.

Students then gathered at the university's Faculty of Philosophy, held debates and speeches on the social justice, and handed out copies of the banned magazine Student.

"For us it was a rare opportunity to be in a society which is in line with history, to have whatever is happening in the world happen here as well," Dragoljub Micunovic, one of the participants, told Serbia's Tanjug news agency.

To revisit 1968, film projections and forums are planned and the Historical Archive in Belgrade will host an exhibition including leaflets, copies of Student magazine, photographs and other archive materials from the year of upheaval.

Student protests had begun a few years earlier in the mid-1960s in the United States, then spread to Europe in 1967 and 1968, flaring up in places like Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Poland.

Two months before Belgrade, protests erupted in France that led to major unrest and a general strike. In August 1968, a Soviet-led invasion crushed Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring communist reform movement.

While Yugoslavia was outside the Iron Curtain, having broken with the Soviet Union two decades earlier, Tito ran the multiethnic, multi-religious country as a dictator.

"The protests in Belgrade are important because in Serbia's closed society that wanted to present itself as a harmonic one, a group of people wanted two main human rights to be respected - the right of political assembly and the right to free speech," Micunovic said.

Students also protested against economic reforms, which led to high unemployment and forced workers to leave the country and find the work elsewhere.

Tito gradually stopped the protests by giving in to some of the students' demands and saying that "students are right" during a televised speech. But in the following years, he dealt with the leaders of the protests by sacking them from university and Communist party posts.

The protests were supported by prominent public personalities, including film director Dusan Makavejev, stage actor Stevo Zigon, poet Desanka Maksimovic and university professors, whose careers ran into problems because of their links to the protests.

Although participants call it "last kick of the free society" and the "last world explosion of utopia energy," the protests left Serbia and former Yugoslavia without liberal groups and Tito as a lifetime ruler.

Protests also broke out in other capitals of Yugoslav republics - Sarajevo, Zagreb and Ljubljana - but they were smaller and shorter than in Belgrade.

"Those protests will never happen again. We live in a different society. Ideas of freedom and truth are gone and only the violence from 1968 lives on," said Nebojsa Popov, who took part in 1968 and wrote a book on student protests.

"That violence is being legalized since 1968 until this day and we still can't get democratic institutions which will deal with it," he said.

Kosovo extremist PM vows to apply new constitution

June 03, 2008 4:50 PM

BELGRADE, Jun 03, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX News Network) -- Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said on Tuesday that the new constitution would be valid in the entire territory of Kosovo despite the looming threat of division along ethnic lines.

Thaci told a government session that all Kosovo institutions would function in keeping with the new constitution as of June 15, when the constitution takes effect, the Serbian official news agency Tanjug reported.

"The new Kosovo institutions are ready to take on full responsibility in cooperation with international institutions so that the country will function completely in each of its segments, " Thaci was quoted as saying.

Kosovo, which is dominated by ethnic Albanians, unilaterally declared independence from Serbia with Western backing on Feb. 17. It has been run by the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) since 1999, when NATO bombing forced the Serbian government to end its crackdown against pro-independent Albanian guerrillas and pull its troops out of Kosovo.

According to the UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan for " supervised independence," the UNMIK is due to hand over its remaining powers to Kosovo's local authorities and the new EU-led police and supervisory mission (EULEX) by June 15.

However, Serbia and the some 120,000 Kosovo Serbs rejected Kosovo's independence and the deployment of the "illegal" EU mission without the UN authorization.

Thaci also asked all government ministers to be ready to accept their new mandates envisaged under the new constitution.

On April 9, Kosovo's parliament adopted the new constitution, which stipulates the establishment of a Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, security force, constitutional court and intelligence agency.

Thaci expressed optimism regarding the imminent clarification of the issue of the international presence in Kosovo.

There are certain dilemmas over the transfer of authority between the UNMIK and the EULEX, Thaci said, adding that he hopes Kosovo will have only one international decision-making center.

The UNMIK has said it is awaiting instructions from its headquarters in New York about how to carry out the transition, but it is certain to remain in northern Kosovo, where ethnic Serbs inhabit in large numbers, for some time under current the UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

Kosovo Muslims threaten "violence of the state"

June 3, 2008


The self-styled deputy prime minister of the Muslim Albanian separatist entity government in Kosovo, Hajredin Kuçi, is threatening to use the "violence of the state" in order to force Kosovo Serbs, who are Christian, to obey the laws Islamic separatist government plans to pass on June 15.

Kuçi's remarks that the government plans to use violence against Serbs came after the inquiry by the Islamic separatist paper Express as to how does the Islamic separatist "government" plan to impose its "law and order" in the north.

Kosovo Christians that live in the north have recently held their own elections after which they will create their own legislative Assemblies because the legislature imposed by the Albanian Islamic radicals in Pristina passas laws that routinely violate their human rights.

Over the past weekend, Islamic judge decided that wearing certain kinds of t'shirts by Christians is illegal and punished the two Christian brothers for that with a 500 Euro fine and/or 60 days in jail.

"I consider necessary that the results of the local elections shall be recognized by the Kosovo authorities, but also it is absolutely necessary acceptance of EULEX mission by Serb authorities," former Minister of Exterior of Serbia Goran Svilanovic said.

Kosovo Muslims arrest Serbs over t'shirts

June 3, 2008

Brothers Miomir and Milos Stojanovic from Gnjilane have been arrested on the regional road from Gnjilane to Bujanovac for wearing t-shirts saying Kosovo is Serbia, stated official of the Kosovo Ministry Milorad Todorovic.

He told the Serbian news agency Beta that two youths were arrested and brought before the municipal prosecutor in Gnjilane.

The Islamic judge decided that the brothers, who are Christian, must either pay 250 Euros each or to spend 60 days in jail.

SREBRENICA: The story the American Media doesn't want you to know..

Ibran Mustafic: Srebrenica was a "Planned Chaos"

Immediately before the April 1, 2008 discussion before the Appellation Board of the Hague tribunal in the case of Srebrenica warlord, commander of the Bosnian Muslim army stationed in Srebrenica Naser Oric, a written testimony which reveals some of the previously unknown details about the "lord of life and death in war-torn Srebrenica" was published.



Ibran Mustafic, the author of the book "Planned Chaos", for which most Bosnian Muslim leaders wish it was never written, was an MP of the Party of the Democratic Action (SDA, headed by the Bosnian Muslim war leader, Alija Izetbegovic) in the Bosnia-Herzegovina Parliament constituted after the 1990 elections and just before the start of the civil war, and President of the Executive Board of Srebrenica Municipal Assembly.



At the start of the Bosnian civil war he clashed with, as he calls it, "Naser Oric Junta", which resulted in the series of attempts of his assassination. In the third assassination attempt on May 11, 1995, Mustafic was heavily wounded and it was deemed a miracle that he survived. Assaults by Bosnian Muslims against Mustafic became more frequent after his book was published. The latest took place on April 25 this year, when he was attacked and severely beaten by a group of thugs in Srebrenica downtown, in broad daylight.



"They call me a traitor," Mustafic says, "claiming I invented Naser Oric's crimes, but that kind of stupidity doesn't bother me in the least. The purpose of my book was not to defend the Serbs, but I will by no means defend the members of my nation who committed atrocities! Criminals are criminals, regardless of their name and ethnicity.

I categorically claim that Naser Oric is a war criminal without a par!"
Atrocious War Crimes Against Srebrenica Serbs

"Planned Chaos" sheds a new light on Srebrenica events during the war and represents first admission and a testimony by a Bosnian Muslim from Srebrenica about Serbian suffering in Srebrenica region. Apart from describing the crimes committed by the Bosnian Muslim army under the command of Naser Oric against the Serbs, Mustafic also testifies about arming of the Bosnian Muslims prior and during the civil war, including the period when Srebrenica was declared a demilitarized zone under the UN protection. He also describes the mutual clashes between Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica municipality, lorded over by the Naser Oric mafia.



According to Mustafic, Srebrenica warlord Naser Oric idolized Ustasha movement from the early youth, choosing his heroes among the notorious Croat Nazi cutthroats Jure Francetic, Kadrija Softic, Nurif Oric and other members of the Ustasha "Black Legion" and Bosnian Muslim 13th SS Handzar Division, indoctrinated with the contempt and hatred against the Serbs.



Despite the overwhelming evidence of widespread atrocities and war crimes committed by Oric and his gang in the town of Srebrenica and surrounding villages populated by the Serbs, the Kangaroo Court in Hague acquitted him of direct involvement in the murder and cruel treatment of Serbs, and of responsibility for the wanton destruction of entire villages, churches, homes and property. While he was convicted of "failing to prevent men under his command to kill and abuse imprisoned Bosnian Serbs," and sentenced to two years in jail, he was immediately released, since he has already spent three years in the Hague during the charade of a trial.


Naser Oric is a Monster, a War Criminal Without a Par

However, Mustafic's book offers additional evidence about Oric's direct involvement in some of the most macabre war crimes committed on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina during the civil war.



Probably the most shocking chapter of the book is the one with Naser Oric's personal admission of the first Serb he killed by his own hands, murder of the Srebrenica Judge Slobodan Ilic.



"When we took that group captured in Zalazje from [Srebrenica] prison to take them back toward Zalazje, and when the slaying begun, Slobodan Ilic came into my hands. I climbed on his chest. He was bearded and hairy like an animal. He looked at me without saying a word. I took out the bayonet and jabbed it straight into one eye, and then turned it back and forth. He didn't let the single sound out. Then I hit him with the knife in the other eye... I couldn't believe he's not reacting. Frankly, that's when I got scared for the first time, so I cut his throat right after that", Oric described his 'feat' to Mustafic word-for-word during one evening Mustafic visited him.



Oric's admission is followed by the testimony of Mustafic's uncle Ibrahim, who witnessed the same slaughter.



"Naser came over and told me to get ready at once and go with the flag in front of Srebrenica prison. I dressed up and went over. When I came in front of the prison, they took out all those captured in Zalazje and ordered me to drive them towards Zalazje. When we reached the depot, they ordered me to stop and park the truck. I moved to a safe distance. But, when I saw their savagery and when the slaying begun, I felt all the blood drain from my head. When Zulfo (Tursunovic) ripped the knife down the chest of the nurse Rada, while asking her where is her radio-station, I couldn't watch any longer. I came back to Srebrenica on foot from the depot, and they drove the truck over afterwards, which I took from Srebrenica to go home to Potocare. The inside was all bloodied up", Mustafic cites the testimony of his uncle.



The above mentioned medical nurse Rada Milanovic stayed in Srebrenica even after her family moved away. Srebrenica territorial defense headquarters assigned her to medical field group and to a local hospital.


"The Whole Bridge was Floating in Serbian Blood"

Mustafic also recounted other crimes against the Serbs from the town of Srebrenica which were more or less well known. He mentioned that, after the assault against the village Jezestica "Kemo from Pale [near Sarajevo] was carrying a severed head around with him, scaring people".



The murder of the Stjepanovic family is also described. Stjepanovic family members were taken out of their apartment in the Srebrenica Battalion Street by Oric's butchers in July 1992, and taken to nearby Potocare.



"Andjelija Stjepanovic (74) and her son Mihajlo (50) were among those brutally slain then. One Bosnian Muslim from Potocari described afterwards how the whole bridge where these poor people were slaughtered was literally swimming in blood. The killer of Stjepanovic family is Kemo Mehmedovic from Pale, Naser's loyal follower in atrocities. The executioner today lives in Austria, and there are tons of similar examples from Srebrenica. It is a shame that not one of these monsters in the human form have faced responsibility for their crimes, and their main organizer and the one who ordered them to kill, Naser Oric, is today parading in freedom," commented one of a handful of Bosnian Serb civilians who survived the hell of Srebrenica imprisonment.



The previously little known details about the torture and murder of the severely ill Krsto Dimitrovski and his wife Velinka, from Srebrenica, were also revealed in Mustafic's book, charging Ejub Golic, former commander of the "Independent Hill Battalion" from the village Glogovo. Golic was freed of charges raised against him for this crime.


Hague Tribunal Rewards Bosnian Muslim War Criminals

Apart from recounting these and many other savage tortures and murders of the Serbs who had the misfortune to remain in the town of Srebrenica occupied by Oric's butchers, Mustafic also describes how his testimony against the Srebrenica Muslim monsters in the Hague tribunal was turned down, and why he had no opportunity to tell the court what really went on in "Srebrenica safehaven" before General Mladic took the town over.



"I was, indeed, called to testify before the Hague tribunal as a Prosecution witness [in the trial against Oric], and I believe I was supposed to be the last witness for the Prosecution. After three days spent in the preparatory procedure, there was a major clash between the Prosecution representative and myself. First of all, the indictment against Naser was entirely ridiculous. He was charged for the things he wasn't guilty of, but not for any of the things he was guilty for. Secondly, the Hague tribunal was more and more starting to look like Carla Del Ponte's parade, so a number of processes turned into circus. Finally, I was most offended when they tried to blackmail me, by threatening me with up to seven years' imprisonment or the 200,000 Euros fine. I couldn't stay silent when I saw that paper, and I told the prosecutor: 'That's right! the whole purpose of me coming here to testify was to actually get a more severe punishment than Erdemovic [another Bosnian Muslim war criminal], who was rewarded by the Hague tribunal for admitting he personally took part in over 140 murders!' After all that, when I came in front of the courtroom, I was waiting for two hours, but they finally informed me that the Judges decided not to let me testify and that I can go back home," Mustafic wrote.


Srebrenica as a Safehaven for War Criminals, Thugs and Mafia

Regarding the situation in the "Srebrenica safehaven", Mustafic wrote that, when the region was declared a demilitarized zone and placed under the UN protection, there were no "provocations" by the Bosnian Serb Army. Despite that, according to Mustafic, Oric's Muslim troops kept digging the trenches around the town of Srebrenica and, alongside the humanitarian aid, weapons were being delivered to the "demilitarized zone" -- all in the plain sight of the Dutch UNPROFOR battalion.



Mustafic writes that, even though the boards were placed around the town of Srebrenica declaring it a "Demilitarized zone, every military operation is strictly prohibited, Article 60, Protocol 1 of Geneva Convention", delivery of weapons, ammunition, uniforms and explosives was never interrupted. The military equipment, despite the UN Resolution prohibiting the flights over Bosnia and Herzegovina, was delivered by helicopters. Likewise, the agreement signed by General Ratko Mladic on the Bosnian Serb side and Sefer Halilovic on the side of Bosnian Muslims, stipulating that "not a single soldier who finds himself within, or wishes to enter the demilitarized zone, except for UNPROFOR members, is permitted to carry arms, explosives, or ammunition", was deemed completely worthless by the Bosnian Muslim Srebrenica troops.



Mustafic writes that there were 18 flights carrying weapons, with most of deliveries carried out at the time Srebrenica, as a supposedly demilitarized zone, was under UN Peace Corps protection [UNPROFOR].



Mustafic lays a great deal of blame upon the Dutch troops stationed in Srebrenica, claiming they were fully aware about all the violations daily committed by the Oric's gang, but chose to silently observe, hoping to pass their service unscathed.



"Obviously, the Dutch accepted to patrol the lines together with our troops only in order to take responsibility off themselves, and to show the world that Srebrenica was not a demilitarized zone. Indeed, at the time, the Dutch battalion which was supposed to have some 600 troops, had around 250 soldiers, while [Oric's] 28th division was comprised of 5,500 allegedly demilitarized men," Mustafic wrote.



"When the battles for Srebrenica begun, one of our thugs, probably on order, killed a soldier from the Dutch battalion. This helped dissolve the entire system of Dutch responsibility," Mustafic revealed.


Foundation of the Muslim State Sealed by the Sacrificial Blood of the Innocent

He also notes that Srebrenica Muslim troops kept staging ambushes from the UN "safehaven", killing the members of the Bosnian Serb Army, and that they used the Srebrenica protected status to launch assaults against the surrounding Serbian villages, such as the raid under the Oric's commanders Ekrem Salihovic and Ibrahim Mandzic of the Bosnian Serb village Visnjica, where they killed civilians and torched the village.



"When I told Madzic that such attacks would justify the Bosnian Serb Army attack on Srebrenica, he said: 'This was not an action initiated by us. We received the orders from Sarajevo'," Mustafic testifies, adding that he later learned that "the order for the attacks on Serbian villages around Srebrenica was signed by General Enver Hadzihasanovic [of the Bosnian Muslim army, from their Sarajevo HQ].... Clearly, they wanted to provoke the response, to solve the Srebrenica problem".



However, it turned out that the "problem" Bosnian Muslim leaders and their foreign sponsors wanted solved was far more profound than the issue of one town in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that is how to take over the rule over the entire Bosnian republic after the destruction of Yugoslavia, even though Bosnian Muslims are just one of three large nations living in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and even today not a majority. The only way they thought this could be done, was if Bosnian Serbs were entirely exterminated or, failing that, if the entire Serbian nation is pinned with charges of "genocide", which would enable the complete assimilation of all the Serb-owned land and property in state.



Ibran Mustafic confirmed this claim back in July 1996:

"According to our [Bosnian Muslim] custom, when someone finishes the foundation for a house, an animal must be slaughtered on top of it. It seems that Srebrenica was a sacrificial lamb for the foundation of this [Muslim] state."

Alerts rise for Jihadi attacks in the Balkans

By Ioannis Michaletos
June 2, 2008

The current period, a sequence of developments has as a result the increase of the alert regarding attacks by Islamists or other radical elements in the Balkan region. To a great extent the above are influenced directly by the declaration of independence of Kosovo that unleashes a circle of events that may lead to new regional conflicts or even a chain of terrorist attacks.


Albanian developments



In early May 2008 a new political party was formed in Kosovo, named "National Party for Greater Albania", that has as a main purpose the unification of the Albanian communities in one state centered on Kosovo. According to estimations the finance of this party will come from American-Albanians in New York and New Jersey, whilst they are also willingly supported by radical elements in Tetovo and Albania. They are also planning to enact a series of referendums in the aforementioned regions in order to complete the creation of a "Grand Albanian" state and from what it seems their ultimate goal is to make Pristina the capital of this state.

Moreover troubles in FYROM during the 1st June elections took place and one Albanian from DUI party official shot dead in the Albanian populated Skopje municipality while tens of violent incidents with injured people were documented elsewhere. Moreover for the first time in recent history, an Albanian crowd gathered in the Slavic majority sector of Skopje chanting the acronyms "UCK-UCK" on the 30th of May.

Since late 2007, the Albanian press has reveled that the secret service of the country, named SHISH and its commander Bahri Shaqiri, have drafted plans for the recruitment of more HUMINT sources amongst the Albanian communities in the Balkans along with the upgrade of the capabilities of the service. In parallel the Albanian finance Ministry in late 2007 banned the presence of tens of Islamic radical groups and charities from operating in the country. There are also approximately 150 ex-SHISH agents that were fired by the Berisha government in the previous period and some of those have found employment in other countries such as Bulgaria working as security officers for legal and not-so-legal enterprises.

It would not be improbable as to assume that the terrible explosions in early March 2008 in the outskirts of Tirana are connected to the above. More specifically due to the explosions an unspecified amount of weaponry has been "Lost" and in parallel in case of a terrorist attack somewhere in the Balkans the disgruntled Islamists which were stripped of their protection; could be tempted to strike, provided they get a hold of this weaponry. In this hypothetical scenario a course of events similar to that of 1997 (Riots in Albania) to 1998 (Unrest in Kosovo) could be unraveled.

FYROM developments


In the former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia, the Albanian Imam Bekir Halimi, was arrested recently by the authorities in Skopje due to his involvement in illegal funding by pro-terrorist organization. The Albanian descent Halimi received 2,115 euros payments from the Kuwaiti Organization "Revival Islamic Heritage Society" – RIHS-.

The Revival Islamic Heritage Society has been blacklisted by the United Nations because of their close ties to terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda", said Interior Ministry's spokesperson, Ivo Kotevski. The money transfer through a swift account was done via Kuwaiti and two German banks eventually ending up on Halimi's account.


RIHS has been accused of financing Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, as well as extremist groups in Pakistan, under the pretext of humanitarian care and since the 11th of January 2002 it was classified in the UN's black list of international organizations.

The organization operated over the previous years in Kosovo, Bosnia and Albania, whilst it seems that it aimed at penetrating FYROM through Bekir Halimi's actions. According to reliable information himself was under supervision by the local security forces and he was also about to complete his work by importing into the country, radical Islamic figures from the Middle East.

It seems that he was a part of a larger plan of destabilization in the Southern Balkans and it would not be improbable as to assume that the revelations are related to the violent climate of the 1st June elections and the previous culminations in Albania.

Bosnia developments


According to information relayed in the international media, the Bosnian intelligence service is about to upgrade considerably it's (Anti) espionage capabilities abroad with a special focus in the Balkans, due to "Islamic terrorism".

Already in March 2008 a group of 5 radical Wahhabbis were arrested near Sarajevo who had a large amount of armaments and were connected with extremist groups. In May 2008 another group of 10 people were arrested because of their connection with illegal arms contraband from Bosnia to Croatia and to Central Europe. Most of them were war veterans that fought with the Muslim federation in the mid-90's and were also related with the Mujahedeens who ventured from the Middle East and North Africa. For the latter already 350 of those have been stripped of their Bosnian citizenship, although for most, their whereabouts are unknown, thus making them suitable for covert and subversive action.

Lastly, according to reliable information, certain extremist circles in Bosnia are trying to regroup the "Patriotic League", which was a Muslim paramilitary force during the Bosnian war and was also responsible for the transportation of Jihad fighters from the M. East.

Other parameters

The Balkans were deemed as a safe territory for the Islamists for the past 15 years, and Albania was often named as "The safe hotel", a place with lax control for the movements of these groups. The current developments bring to surface a wider campaign against the Islamic networks, although they have actually upgraded their capabilities since their former allies have reached positions of power, such as the case of Kosovo relates to. More importantly it has to be noted that terrorism and organized crime are closely interrelated in the Balkans therefore any sudden change in the balance of powers signals a round of conflict between the oppositional crime rings.

Moreover sources which are related with the Homeland Security in the USA, have already reported that the 2007 catastrophic wildfires in Greece were probably a form of "Pyro-terrorism" by Jihadists, whilst Greek press often reports that up to 2,000 Muslims are being monitored 24/7 for extremist behavior and connections , mostly in the Athens region. Bulgaria last year unraveled its own Jihadi network, which was composed by proselytes and Serbia has managed to break up a radical group in the Sanjak eparchy.

In addition to the above, the coming USA elections provide by definition an opportunity to Jihadists to strike against Western interests in order to create the psychological framework on which they seek to manipulate political events. The Russian-American antagonism in the Balkans is another factor that hinders international cooperation on security affairs and the increasing involvement of the Turkish intelligence; especially in FYROM is another x-factor in the wider picture.

In overall, it is important to stress the emergence of a deteriorating scene concerning Balkan security affairs and a fair estimation is that the 2008 summer period will have a high alert status and in particular in Kosovo, Albania and FYROM.

Balkan Oil and Energy Politics

By Nikole Thompson

In the last few months, a number of stories have emerged about Serbia's potential deal with Russia's Gazprom for South Stream and what it might mean to the West's US-backed Nabucco project to provide alternative energy sources to Europe. But there have also been indicators that the Balkans may also contain some valuable oil reserves, themselves.

A few days ago, Croatia's Javno News Agency ran a story that said the US Amoco Oil Company has known about oil in Bosnia-Hercegovina since the early 1990's, but that the original reports were sold to the Russians years ago. One analyst estimated that the oil reserves in Hercegovina could make Bosnia one of the richest countries in the world and another went as far as saying the Hercegovina reserves could be as substantial as those of Saudi Arabia (although this could be a great exageration). Estimates say that BH could be sitting on roughly 500 Million tons of oil . Apparently, some energy analysts are taking this seriously.

New Kosova Report, stated that vast oil reserves have also been located in Northern Albania. According to their sources, "The Balkans region has proven oil reserves totaling approximately 345 million barrels. Of that, 198 million barrels is located in Albania. And the unproven reserve holds up to 2.987 billion barrels of oil and 3.014 trillion cubic feet of natural gas."

Britain's Med Oil has been drilling offshore to try and locate Albanian reserves off the coast in both the Adriatic and Ionian Sea

To date, these are the prime oil and gas reserves that have been located in the neighborhood, but the Balkans are still a critical transit route of many plans to get Caspian oil to Europe & beyond.

One pipeline project is AMBO (Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian-Oil), which is backed by the US government. It would transport 750,000 barrels of oil per day from Burgas, Bulgaria to Vlore, Albania, thereby avoiding the potential of spills into the Bosphorus shipping lanes. This project, conceived in the mid-1990's, has already received over $900 million in financing and has passed major political and environmental hurdles.

Both the knowledge of Balkan oil reserves and many of these pipeline projects have been in the works since the late 1980's and early 1990's, although the information had not been widely released to the general public until recently.

So how, if at all, has this affected Western political attitudes and actions regarding the break-up of Yugoslavia and other countries in the Balkans?

More than a few political analysts & veteran bloggers believe that this why we bombed Serbia and took away Kosovo in the first place -- it had nothing to do with Milosevic, Serbia and Albanians -- it was that the oil companies wanted to build a military base in Kosovo to guard the AMBO pipeline and Balkan oil reserves. The fact that plans for Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo were on the table before the first bomb was ever dropped on Serbia, helps make the case more convincing. Global Research deduced the following:

Camp Bondsteel was not the outgrowth of a humanitarian or "Just War" on behalf
of Kosovar Albanians. The construction of Camp Bondsteel had been envisaged well
in advance of the bombings and invasion of Kosovo in 1999.

The plans to
build Camp Bondsteel under a lucrative multibillion dollar DoD contract with
Halliburton's Texas based subsidiary KBR were formulated while Dick Cheney was
Halliburton's CEO.

Construction of Camp Bondsteel was initiated shortly
after the 1999 invasion under the Clinton administration. Construction was
completed during the Bush administration, after Dick Cheney had resigned his
position as Halliburton's CEO:

The US and NATO had advanced plans to
bomb Yugoslavia before 1999, and many European political leaders now believe
that the US deliberately used the bombing of Yugoslavia to establish camp
Bondsteel in Kosovo.. According to Colonel Robert L. McCure, "Engineering
planning for operations in Kosovo began months before the first bomb was
dropped." (See Lenora Foerstel, Global Research, January 2008)

One of
the objectives underlying Camp Bondsteel was to protect the
Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil pipeline project (AMBO), which was to channel
Caspian sea oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to the Adriatic.

Coincidentally, two years prior to the invasion, in 1997, a senior
executive of ..Brown & Root Energy, a subsidiary of Halliburton, Edward L.
(Ted) Ferguson had been appointed to head AMBO. The feasibility plans for the
AMBO pipeline were also undertaken by Halliburton's engineering company, Kellog,
Brown & Root Ltd.

The AMBO agreement for the 917-km long oil
pipeline from Burgas to Valona, Albania, was signed in 2004.

When George Bush went to Albania last year, Albanians were waiving flags stating "Proud to be Partners". While most Americans assumed that the Albanians were referring to an "Albanian partnership with America", it's a lot more probable that they were referring to a partnership with the Bush oil business. America fire power just facilitated Albanians' new-found fame and territory (Kosovo) while Americans will continue to be stuck with a rising price per gallon in filling up their tanks for many years to come.

West accused of downplaying Islamist threat in Bosnia

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political)

- May 30, 2008, Friday

Text of report by Bosnian Serb privately-owned centrist newspaper Nezavisne novine, on 28 May

[Commentary in "Personal View" column by Slavko Mitrovic:

"Al-Qa'idah Without a Passport"]

Bill Clinton: "We managed to prevent mujahidin from coming to power in Bosnia-Hercegovina when the war ended in 1995."

This statement by former US president clearly illustrates the strength and the intensity of radical Islam that was involved in the war conflicts in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Although many years have passed since this statement was made, Bosnia-Hercegovina is still not safe from the epidemic that the European soil spawned at the time. Al-Qa'idah was born in the war against Russian troops in Afghanistan in late 1980s, but it grew its wings and left its cocoon only with the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina, after which it spread its wings all over the world. After the Dayton peace, Bosnia-Hercegovina was no longer in the focus of major world politics. It has made a comeback in the context of a possible regional crisis pertaining to the recognition of Kosovo as a self-proclaimed state. At the same time, seeing the light of day are just fragments of what is called radical Islamization of the entire Balkans. World Security Network recently published a text entitled "Balkans - a Hub of Worldwide Terrorist Network?" This text say that imported radical Islam threatens the local Bosnian branch of Islam, although the latter is putting up resistance. Nevertheless, there are no signs that the strength of Islamic movements controlled from the outside has dropped to the level where it was 17 years ago, at the beginning of the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Radical Islam has taken root, and its presence is felt in the current political turmoil, social stratification, and the large safe haven for people linked to terrorism and organized crime. Western intelligence agencies responded to all of this only with "increased, if quiet attention." The intention of occasional arrests of people of Afro-Asian origin (which is a euphemism for mujahidin, Wahhabis, and Al-Qa'idah), which take place every several years, is to show that there is knowledge of these groups and individuals and that they are being observed, so Bosnia-Hercegovina and other countries are allegedly safe.

Fox News Video: Albanian Terror Plot on Fort Dix

US blames Muslim separatists for low Kosovo recognition

May 27, 2008

Washington has expressed criticism at the low number of states that have recognized Kosovo Albanian illegal declaration of independence saying that such outcome is a result of bad lobbying by Islamic separatists reports Islamic separatist TV Station Kohavision.

About 40 states have recognized Kosovo as independent and many of them, such as Marshall Islands, are ones that no one has ever heard of.

"Part of the joint American-Kosovo plan was to have 97 recognitions by September. Afterwards, Kosovo would apply for membership in the UN, when the General Assembly convenes," an unnamed international official told Kohavision.

Washington says that more states need to recognize Kosovo's illegal declaration of independence in order to demonstrate to the UN that vast number of members favor violating a UN charter so that the separatist entity could be granted a membership status within the UN.

Reportedly, the Assistant to the US Secretary of State, Rosemary DiCarlo, has conveyed this message during her recent visit to Kosovo capital Pristina where she held consultation with the separatists.

Islamic separatist TV station says that Washington is suggesting that the separatists hire Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari to assist them in lobbying efforts. Ahtisaari has been instrumental in writing a plan for Kosovo that Serbia did not agree to but NATO is using it anyways.

Washington has warned Islamic separatists in Kosovo that Serbia is allegedly preparing a UN resolution against independence that will be presented to the UN General Assembly for a vote.

The self-styled "foreign minister" of the Kosovo's Islamic separatist entity, Skender Hyseni said that he had received assurances from Saudi Arabian ambassadors in Vienna that the Islamic Sultanate will soon recognize the illegal declaration of independence of Kosovo.

Kosovo is a Serbian province that has been ethnically cleansed of Serbs by Kosovo's Muslim Albanian armed gunmen after Washington intervened on their behalf by driving off Serb troops from the province in 1999 allowing the Islamic separatists to kill and expel Kosovo Serbs who are Christian.

Czech President ashamed by recognition of Kosovo

May 27, 2008

President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, feels ashamed that his country has recognized the illegal decration of independence by the Serbian province of Kosovo.

"It is not a secret and I cannot agree with the recognition of Kosovo’s independence," Klaus told Czech media.

Kosovo is a Serbian province that has been ethnically cleansed of Serbs by Kosovo's Muslim Albanian armed gunmen after Washington intervened on their behalf by driving off Serb troops from the province in 1999 allowing the Islamic separatists to kill and expel Kosovo Serbs who are Christian.

In the past, Klaus reminisced on the similarities between Hitler's break-up of his country to the impose break-up of Serbia.

A Belated Discovery

Posted by Julia Gorin under Republican Riot

My friend Karol Sheinin, who runs the blog AlarmingNews.com, last week alerted me to a post she had a year ago this month concerning the would-be Fort Dix terrorists, the Duka Brothers:

A little too small a world

When Elvis and Dritan Duka, two of the three brothers arrested on terrorism charges in Fort Dix, were kids, they were neighborhood bullies. When they got a little older, they became drug dealers.

How do I know? They grew up in my neighborhood, my brother and his friends used to brawl with them on a fairly regular basis. My brother's best friend's mom was friends with their mom. Then they moved to New Jersey and became Jihadis. Of all possible paths for the Duka kids, that one didn't seem the most likely.

They've been here since they were kids, illegally it turns out, lived American lives, went to our public schools, and then decided to try and kill some of our troops. I don't know that I'll ever get used to this world.

A few surprisingly clueful comments that appeared below the post:

by Gerard:

I forget what part of Bensonhurst they're supposed to be from-I was reading a story in the Post yesterday about the gullible cujine one of these hajjis married-but the neighborhood definitely has changed since the time I lived there.

There are a lot more Albanians who own-or at least operate-pizzerias in places like Brooklyn, unfortunately.

Yet another reason to detest the La Cosa Nostra, since very frequently they are the ones responsible for training them.

Organized crime is bad enough, but dealing with Albanian jihadis is an entirely different category of trouble.

Thank goodness we had Bill Clinton to bombe all those nasty Serbs.

*sarcasm implicit*

from Stan LS:

I grew up around 65th street in brooklyn, and yea, those albanians loooooooooooove to fight.

by Sean:

Does anyone have any "good Albanian" stories? I sure have plenty of bad ones, as does pretty much anyone who has lived in non-premiere sections of Brooklyn at one time or another.

There's one family across the street from my aunt (the family, not just the kids) who has basically terrorized the block for about 30 years.

It's not a muslim thing either. They terrorize the nice Bangladeshi muslims the worst, because the Bangledeshis (on this block) are a very peaceful group…I still don't know why, to this day, we took (and continue to take) their [Albanians'] side in anything.

by Former Bay Ridger:

…seems like there's a whole contingent of Muslim/Arab/Albanian pseudo-Jihadi angry teenagers now in that part of Bay Ridge, roughly between 4th and 8th avenues in the 60s - but beginning to stretch down to the higher streets.

by Kent Gordis:

The Swiss government boasts that it has admitted 250,000 Albanian refugees. Based on population, this is equivalent to admitting about 12 million Albanians to the U.S.

Montreal forum on Kosovo

By Boba Borojevic
May 27, 2008

The illegal, unilateral proclamation of independence (UDI) by rebel Albanians and Canada's subsequent recognition of Kosovo on March 18 was a rationale for organizing a public debate on Kosovo. "The lack of media attention to the gravely dire circumstances in Kosovo and Metohija coupled with misrepresentation of the facts of those circumstances has compelled us to organize such an occasion where people who have been directly involved in this issue can speak about their experiences," explained Lilly Petrovich one of the organizers. The forum was sponsored by the Centre for Research on Globalization, and "Concordia Students Model UN Association" and took place at Concordia University in Montreal on May 15.

Prof. Michel Choussuodovsky, Boba Borojevic, Maj-Gen Lewis MacKenize

They were joined by very distinguished guests: Ret. Maj-Gen Lewis MacKenzie, most famous for establishing, manning and commanding sector Sarajevo, part of the UN Protection force or UNPROFOR in Yugoslavia in 1992 and author of the book "Peacekeeper, Road to Sarajevo"; H.E. James Bissett, former Ambassador to Yuogoslavia (1990 -1992) and chairman of the Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies; Scott Taylor, war correspondent publisher of the military magazine Esprit de Corps and author of five books, two of which deal directly with Kosovo conflict: "Inat: Images of Serbia", "Diary of an Uncivil war" ; Prof. Sunil Ram, who teaches Balkan conflict and peacekeeping at the American Military University, and Prof. Michel Choussuodovsky director of the Center for Research and Globalization and professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa.

After giving a brief historic overview on dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia, Maj-Gen Lewis MacKenzie explained the circumstances that led to the so-called "Rambouillet Agreement" and its two clauses that "the drafters – read Madline Alblight - knew Milosevic could never accept: 1) NATO would have total freedom of movement within Yugoslavia and 2) the will of the people of Kosovo could well be the determining factor on the future of Kosovo in three years." He briefly explained the situation on the ground that led to the Racak "massacre" and the subsequent bombing of Serbia in 1999. MacKenzie echoed his government's standpoint that there were "substantial negotiations" between Serbs and Albanians before the unilateral declaration of independence by Albanians, although he would question the substantive quality of these "negotiations" and some of the criteria like self-supporting economy. MacKenzie noticed that a very intensive and successful PR campaign by Albanians against Serbia was a determining factor in the realization of the Albanians' goal.

"The Bosniaks success in convincing the West to take up their side was not lost on the terrorist organization (Kosovo Liberation Army - KLA) branded so by the CIA. No one can accuse the Serbs of treating the Kosovo Albanians with kid gloves. Over the decades following World War II," MacKenzie stated, "Serbs restricted Albanians in getting top jobs in the civil service and universities. These restrictions were ill founded but not brutal. But, the KLA correctly anticipated that if they commenced a campaign of killing Serbian security forces the central government in Belgrade would overreact. Because, this is what governments do. And they were right", MacKenize added.

So, it was not the pass or fail of the qualifying criteria for the UDI that bothered him, but the way that "Kosovars orchestrated their independence" which raises issues about its legitimacy. MacKenzie noted that Canadians should find outrageous the fact that in spite of the UN Resolution 1244 that granted "substantial autonomy" to Kosovo within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , tens of thousands of Serbs were expelled, or ethnically cleansed in spite of the presence of NATO peacekeepers. Equally outrageous was the appointment and election of Kosovo [Albanian] leaders. "In 2006 Agim Cheku was appointed Prime Minister" of Kosovo, said MacKenzie and reminded the audience of Cheku's participation in Croatian army war atrocities in the Medak Pocket "massacre". Cheku "was also the commanding general during Operation Storm, a US inspired ground offensive down to the Krajina and into Bosnia", MacKenzie explained. He also noted that the current Prime Minister Hashim Thachi, "according to open reports has occasionally bragged about orchestrating the Racak massacre." If the nation is to be judged by the quality of its leaders Kosovo has got a rough future, said General MacKenzie. In sprite of high expectation following the UDI the majority of countries did not rush to recognize Kosovo. "Forty out of 192 countries of the UN have done so", said MacKenzie, "the leaders of majority of the world's population have not – Russia , China , India , and Indonesia- the world's largest Muslim country but Canada unfortunately, did." It is not easy to find the exact reason for Canada 's recognition of Kosovo. "Someone has suggested that Canada did so as quid-pro-quo for Americans reinforcing Canada in Southern Afghanistan , although I don't believe that this is the reason. Perhaps to not recognize the UDI would be to acknowledge that the bombing campaign was a mistake – which it was", said MacKenzie.

As the result of the brilliant PR campaign, Kosovo of today is "a statelet with a foreign presence, drugs and prostitution as the only sources of income led by individuals directly responsible for war crimes," concluded Maj-Gen Lewis MacKenize.

H.E. James Bissett was Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1990 to 1992. He eye witnessed first hand the Yugoslav tragedy to which he attribute much of the blame on western diplomatic blundering and deliberate scheming. Bissett was very critical of the failure of western democratic countries and later the US, to try and resolve the problem of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia without violence and bloodshed. Their intervention in 1991 "prolonged the violence that took place in the Balkans and added to and intensified the bloodshed." He said that the policies and actions of the US led NATO powers in dealing with the former Yugoslavia have been marked by "duplicity, double standards, mismanagement and by cowardness". Bissett discussed four of the most serious mistakes made by these powers in dealing with the former Yugoslavia:

1) Premature recognition of Slovenia and Croatia following German demands; 2) The recognition of Izetbegovic's declaration of independence of Bosnia and the violation by the USA of the arms embargo and by allowing the entry into Bosnia of thousands of Mujihadeen fighters; 3) The illegal bombing of Serbia in March of 1999 and 4) The illegal recognition of UDI by the US and some NATO countries.

The Resolution 1244 of the UN that ended the bombing set out, in Bissett's opinion "parameters for a very reasonable settlement, whereby all of the people of Kosovo had an opportunity of living together in peace and under a democratic government with full rights given to the minorities and return of refugees to Kosovo. The KLA and all other armed groups were to be disarmed and Serbian Holy places were to be guarded by the return to Kosovo of a limited number of Serbian security forces who would also patrol the borders. 1244 also reaffirmed Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo. Tragically, none of the provisions of the UN SC 1244 has been implemented and obviously, there was never an intention of doing so," said Bissett.

In concluding, Bissett, stressed that accepting the independence of Kosovo violated the UN Charter on territorial integrity of a sovereign state and the Helsinki Accords that not only reinforce the principles of the UN Charter but also specify that borders cannot be changed .It was an illegal act and contrary to international law. He expressed the view that it is unlikely that Kosovo will ever be admitted to the UN since only about 40 of the 192 nations of the UN have accepted its independence. "The bombing of Serbia by the NATO powers in March 1999 without UN approval was an historic turning point," said Bissett. He explained that: "Article 1 of NATO Treaty states very clearly that NATO will never, under any circumstances use force or even threatened to use force in the resolution of international disputes and that NATO would always operate in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter. This set a dreadful precedent and threatens the very foundation of peace and security in the nuclear age. It was during the bombing of Serbia in April 1999, on the 50th anniversary of NATO that the American president Bill Clinton announced a new role for NATO. From that date on NATO will have the power to intervene wherever and whenever it decides to do so."

Bissett, who argues against the illegal recognition of Kosovo doesn't believe that "the last charter has been written" and hopes that the problem of Kosovo can be resolved in a "much more satisfactory" way.

Scott Taylor tried to put a personal face on the Balkan issue during his presentation by showing slides and telling what he saw in Kosovo during his visits. His eye witness reports of atrocities committed in the name of "humanity" were published in his books that deal with the Kosovo issue: "Inat" and "Diary of an Uncivil war". His first experience with the Balkans started in Croatia in 1992 while reporting about Canadian soldiers involved in peacekeeping operations there. Taylor argued strongly against the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, which made him go to Belgrade and spend 28 days there during the NATO campaign. He was critical of reporters, "some 1200 of them" who came to Kosovo immediately after the NATO bombing with only one purpose - to see "the destruction of Serbian army there, the rape camps and mass graves". "In their unsuccessful effort to locate that, they were manufacturing stories" such as the story of Serbs setting the main mosque on fire in Pristina, said Taylor. "Myself and the Swedish guy walk up the hill and saw that mosque was not on fire. The former Serbian brigade headquarter was and Albanians were setting it on fire." Taylor spoke about atrocities committed by Albanians against the Serbs in Kosovo which went unreported and about Albanian intolerance, daily provocations and destructions of Serbian cemeteries, houses and cultural heritage by Albanians. He showed the pictures of banners of former KLA leaders, turned statesmen publicly displayed to intimidate the remaining Serbs in Kosovo. In spite of this, Serbs are determined not to give in. "Serbs in Mitrovica in particular still protest daily against the UDI and are still defiant. Showdown between [Serbs and Albanians] are expected. What happens in Mitrovica is going to determine what happens in the rest of Kosovo," concluded Taylor.

Speaking against the UDI in Kosovo, Prof. Sunil Ram pointed out the fact that Kosovo is in danger of becoming not only "a new jihadist," entity but also the major heroin and drug hub of Europe. According to him:"Jihadist movements have been able to operate with a certain level of impunity in this region given where the money is coming from and the political groups involved. What we have today is "a circle of money, violence and politics that feeds the region of Kosovo, a region run by the very criminals who were put in power by the international community. What we see essentially in Kosovo is a new jihadist stronghold in Europe ," said Ram. "The problem is that the western media are ignorant [of the Balkans] as is western academia who never challenge the reality, because they are [more] worried about their tenure than the truth. The same can be said for the majority of western politicians who have their own interests in simply towing the line. The price for this ignorance has been paid by the Serbian people and Serbia ," Ram had said.
While Prof. Ram had debated the issue of the criminalization of the state, Prof. Michel Choussuodovsky spoke of well documented plans and processes implemented to destabilize and destroy the Yugoslav Federation as a nation. "The process of destabilization of Yugoslavia started in the early 80s," said Choussuodovsky.

"It was on two levels. One was the process of economic destabilization, which was implemented under IMF World Bank auspices. In the late 80's it was conducive to the establishment, what the World Bank called the bankruptcy program, which was essentially to trigger the bankruptcy of the whole Yugoslav economy. The process was deliberate and manipulative in order to destroy the basis of institutions and productiveness of the regional economic power, the Yugoslav federation - at that time a multi ethnic and multicultural society", stressed Choussuodovsky.

Alongside with the destabilization of the Yugoslav economy, Choussuodovsky discussed the role of the American and Islamic organizations in Kosovo and the Balkans.

"The same process of financing Islamic Al-Quida insurgences through the CIA by the US since the Soviet Afghan war, was applied first in Bosnia then in Kosovo," he said. The KLA has similar roots. It received training from Al-Quida and from the American mercenary organization called Military Professional Resources INC.

"Wars that characterized Yugoslavia in the course of 1990s were not civil wars. They were US sponsored insurgences with the view to creating divisions coupled with very dramatic and deadly economic reforms which impoverish people, create those divisions and ultimately fracturing the country into a small protectorates," explained Choussuodovsky. According to him "the KLA was supported by the CIA and financed by the drug trade. KLA leaders as well as former and current Prime Ministers of the KLA government in Kosovo, Hasim Tachi and Agim Cheku are on Interpol list as criminals. "Why the so-called International community would want to appoint criminals? He asked and explained that "these criminals are not criminals of last resort. They are the instruments of global capitalism. Narcotics are a tremendously profitable business, so is prostitution. It is all protected by bona fide financial institutions, the oil companies, military complexes etc." said Choussuodovsky. He criticized those who recognized independent Kosovo and concluded that "we were dealing with a geopolitical dimension and the sheer criminality of the heads of western countries, the UN and NATO in supporting that type of mafia state in Kosovo in violation of international law and of the borders and sovereignty of Serbia."

Question and answer period followed the presentations with an active participation of the audience. Mr. Dusan Vujacic, political attaché of the Embassy of Serbia and Rev. Zivorad Subotic of Serbian Orthodox Church Holy Trinity in Montreal were also present.
The forum was well organized and well attended.