Peja's Blog: 3/1/08

31 March 2008

Kosovo Albanian gets 20 months for terror plot on Fort Dix

Kosovo Albanian gets 20 months for terror plot on Fort Dix

GEOFF MULVIHILL
March 31, 2008 2:26 PM

CAMDEN, New Jersey-A man who admitted letting a group of accused terror-plotters shoot his guns at a firing range was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Monday.

Judge Robert Kugler said Agron Abdullahu, who is originally from Kosovo, deserved more than the 10 to 16 months that sentencing guidelines call for because he knew the men who were talking about violence against Americans.

"I am convinced that he is not as innocent as he’d like us to believe," Kugler said before handing down his sentence. "This is not a common, ordinary, technical violation of the law."

However, the sentence was less than half the five-year maximum allowed.

With time served and credit for good behavior, it’s likely he will be free before the end of the year, though he could face deportation.

Abdullahu said he was sorry that he let his friends use his weapons at a firing range in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania on trips there in 2006 and 2007, and said he discounted their tough talk about hurting America. "Not at any moment did I think they were actually going to do what they said," he told the judge.

Abdullahu, 25, was arrested last May along with five men who are charged with conspiring to kill soldiers at Fort Dix.

Authorities said the other men, all of them, like Abdullahu, foreign-born Muslims in their 20s, were planning to sneak onto Fort Dix and attack soldiers there. No attack occurred at the New Jersey base, which is used mainly to train reservists heading to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The group was dubbed "The Fort Dix Six," and Abdullahu, a supermarket baker whose ethnic Albanian family escaped Kosovo when he was a teenager, was charged with letting brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka shoot two weapons that he owned legally. It is a crime to allow illegal immigrants like the Duka brothers to possess guns.

Deputy United States Attorney William Fitzpatrick said no grand jury was ever asked to consider charging Abdullahu with conspiring with the others to kill soldiers.

A secret recording made by a government informant captured Abdullahu saying it would be "crazy" to attack soldiers and urged some of the other men to think about their families.

Kugler said his sentence was harsher than it could have been partly because of drawings found etched into the door of Abdullahu’s cell at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. One had a gun pointed at the words, "FBI."

While the judge was disturbed by that behavior, as well as Abdullahu’s interest in making bombs, he seemed to struggle with finding an appropriate sentence.

"There’s too much good in this man," Kugler said, to give him the maximum sentence the government sought.

Abdullahu’s public defender, Richard Coughlin, said his client was grateful the judge considered his good traits along with his mistakes.

U.S. blunders by recognizing Kosovo independence

DETROIT FREE PRESS ~ LOCAL COMMENT

U.S. blunders by recognizing Kosovo independence

BY JAMES A. PALMER • March 31, 2008

The United States’ decision to recognize the independence of Kosovo is the most recent in a series of mistakes regarding the breakaway Serbian province. America has been making ill-fated decisions in the Balkans for at least a decade and a half. What separates this bungling of Kosovo from its prior decisions is that the recognition of Kosovo’s independence will have deleterious effects on international law and cause consequences in the region and beyond.

The main problem is that Kosovo’s independence undermines a system of international law that America helped create and from which it benefits greatly. The United Nations Charter enshrines the inviolability of state sovereignty. In recognizing Kosovo without a UN Security Council resolution, the United States and its European allies have weakened two of the fundamental principles of international law: that states are free to determine their internal composition and that their territorial integrity must be respected.
To make matters worse, the United States and the European Union have adopted a wildly expansive interpretation of Security Council Resolution 1244, which placed Kosovo under UN administration and provided for Kosovo’s autonomy within Serbia. Under this interpretation, administrative authority is being transferred from the UN-sanctioned mission in Kosovo to an EU mission that has no legal mandate in the province and whose prospects for success rely on Serb participation, which is far from guaranteed. Already, ethnic divisions are hardening into a de facto partition of the territory between Albanian and Serb-controlled areas.

Another problem caused by Kosovo’s independence is the precedent it sets for ethnic enclaves within other sovereign states. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s claim that "Kosovo cannot be seen as a precedent for any other situation in the world today" misses the point. It is doubtful that separatists from Xingjian to Catalonia will accept the niceties of Rice’s argument that Kosovo is exceptional due to its political and legal history. It is much more likely that these separatists will view the conflict for the precedent that it is: the carving off of a sovereign state’s territory in favor of an ethnic and religious minority threatening violence -- a model to be replicated elsewhere.

Russia has been particularly outspoken against Kosovo’s independence because of its concern that its restive Caucasian provinces will follow the Kosovo precedent. The United States currently requires Russian cooperation on two issues of great strategic importance to America: counterproliferation efforts against Iran and the implementation of new missile defense systems in Central Europe. Irritating Russia and spending useful political capital on a tiny, economically stagnant, breakaway region will only make Russian cooperation less likely -- even on issues that concern its security.

Finally, Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence has only reinflamed the divisions and enmities of the 1990s -- not a time that any of us should want to revisit in the Balkans. The declaration of Kosovo’s independence has emboldened Albanians in Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia in their calls for the creation of "greater Albania."

There is also the possibility that the largely Serbian north of Kosovo will decide to secede and ask its Serbian kinsmen to protect it. Will America defend Kosovo’s sovereignty after having destroyed Serbia’s?

The decision to recognize Kosovo’s independence was foolish. In doing so, the United States and its European allies have undermined international law and opened the door to separatist movements worldwide to follow suit. Relations with Russia are being strained at a time when America needs Russia’s cooperation. Most disturbing of all, the Balkan tinderbox could be reignited at any point. No amount of wishful thinking by our foreign policy leadership will fix the damage that’s been done.

JAMES PALMER, 26, grew up in Royal Oak, attended Dondero High School, has a degree in political science from Denison University in Ohio, and is a student in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. He can be reached by e-mail at james.palmer@tufts.edu.

U.S. Acceptance of Kosovo Poses Problem written by an American Military Vet

St. Cloud Times ~ Minnesota

Letter: U.S. acceptance of Kosovo poses problem

By John Meinhold Portsmouth, N.H.

Published: March 31. 2008 12:30AM

I am responding to the March 20 letter "The truth about Kosovo needs to be known."
Do you recall how the media did not question the actions by the Bush administration on the buildup to the Iraq war? As a military veteran, I call on the media to start doing real investigative reporting on Kosovo.

The Bush administration’s recent recognition of Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia is an extremely dangerous policy.

Not only is this action in violation of international law, but the current leaders of Kosovo were members of a terrorist group called the Kosovo Liberation Army. The KLA have documented links to al-Qaida.

The Washington Times reported on May 4, 1999, that "Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army ... were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden."

The newspaper cited intelligence reports that said "bin Laden’s organization, known as al-Qaida, has both trained and financially supported the KLA."

Mark Kramer, a senior fellow at Harvard University, recently wrote in The Washington Post that the new Kosovo prime minister, Hashim Thaci, "was involved in terrorist acts as a KLA leader."

President Bush recently authorized military weapons to be sent to Kosovo. Bush stated the weapons being sent "will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace."

How can supplying military weapons to known terrorists with past ties to al-Qaida promote world peace?

Why isn’t our Congress calling for hearings on the egregious and reckless policies the Bush administration is making in Kosovo?

30 March 2008

Need a Liver? Kill a Serb.

Saying it, so you don’t have to.

Need a Liver? Kill a Serb.

March 30th 2008 05:30:59 PM - Posted by Julia Gorin under Republican Riot

Well well well. For perhaps the first time in history, the mainstream media have deemed the dismemberment of Serbs newsworthy. More accurately, they have deemed newsworthy the dismemberment of the Serb and non-Serb victims of our friends, and almost all living Albanians’ great heroes, the KLA. (Recall the crowds cheering "KLA! KLA! KLA!" last month from Tirana to Pristina to Times Square. Below is just a taste of one of the many KLA activities they were cheering.) The new information is revealed in the forthcoming book The Hunt by Carla Del Ponte, former chief prosecutor for the Hague Tribunal. A few reports, starting with — gasp — the AP (which both the International Herald Tribune and Fox News deigned to carry):

Albanian trafficking in organs of killed Kosovo Serbs investigated

Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor is looking into reports that dozens of Serbs captured by rebels during the war in Kosovo were killed so their organs could be trafficked, the prosecutor’s office said Friday.

The Serbian prosecutor’s office said it received "informal statements" from investigators at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, that dozens of Serbs imprisoned by Kosovo Albanian rebels were taken to neighboring Albania in 1999 and killed so their organs could be harvested and sold to international traffickers.

Bruno Vekaric, the Serbian prosecutor’s spokesman, said later on B92 radio that Serbian war crimes investigators have also received their own information about alleged organ trafficking, but not enough for a court case. Vekaric said Serb investigators also received reports suggesting there might be mass graves in Albania containing the bodies of the Serb victims.

Serbian media reported that the issue was brought into the open in a book written by former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte that is to be published in Italy on April 3.

According to Serbia’s Beta news agency, which carried parts of the book in Serbian, Del Ponte said her investigators had been informed that some 300 Serbs were killed for organ trafficking.

The Beta report quoted Del Ponte as saying in the book that her investigators were told the imprisoned Serbs were first taken to prison camps in northern Albania where the younger ones were picked out, and their organs were later sold abroad.
…
Beta reported that Del Ponte says in her book that tribunal investigators looking into alleged war crimes by the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army were not able to complete a case on the organ trafficking claims and bring it to trial…

The Beta report:

The Hague Prosecution learned while investigating war crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army against Serbs and other ethnic communities that people that disappeared in 1999 in Kosovo were subjected to surgery in which their kidneys and other organs were taken from them and then the smugglers were selling them to foreign clinics, Carla Del Ponte, former chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal wrote in her book ’Hunt’.

’The victims were most likely abducted after [the] NATO bombing when international peace-keeping forces were already deployed in Kosovo’. Even high KLA members were involved in the operation of smuggling of organs, Del Ponte writes but [does] not specify their names.

She further writes that a group of ’reliable’ journalists told the investigators and UNMIK officials that in [the]summer of 1999 Kosovo Albanians transported by trucks about 300 abducted non-Albanians in camps in Kukes and Tropoja in the north of Albania. Younger and healthy prisoners were medically examined and detained in Burel and in the neighborhood.

In one room that was used as an operating theatre, the surgeons were taking organs from the victims. Via Rinas airport near Tirana the organs were transported to clinics abroad for clients that paid for them. One source claimed to have personally participated in one of such deliveries at the airport.

The victims left with one kidney were kept locked and later on killed for other organs.

’Other prisoners in the barrack knew what was to happen to them’, Del Ponte wrote. Among female prisoners there were women from Kosovo, Albania, Russia and former Yugoslav republics. Two sources claimed to have been helping in the burial of victims at a nearby cemetery…

Byzantine Sacred Art blog has more:

A Glimpse at the Harrowing Truth: What happened to Kosovo Serbs Kidnapped by KLA?

The Real Women in Black: Serbian women seek the truth about their

children, brothers, sisters and husbands missing in Kosovo province

Over 1,300 Kosovo Serbs, in addition to those…whom we know have been killed and whose remains were handed over to their families by the UNMIK during the past 8 years, are still listed as missing. In some cases the entire families were kidnapped by the KLA/UCK at some point during the 1998-1999 war and after UN/NATO took over the administration and security of the southern Serbian province…

Over the years, we have learned that a number of kidnapped Kosovo Serb girls and women have been used as sex slaves, kept under the lock and key in the dark, moldy cellars of Albanian bar and brothel owners, underfed, repeatedly raped and beaten, until they are deemed no longer useful and killed like dogs.

There were also reports in the Serbian media about Kosovo Serb boys and men being forced to work in unsecured, illegal private mines, but with uncooperative UNMIK and indifferent KFOR (NATO) no investigation was ever initiated, and Serbian families of the Kosovo-Metohia missing are still without answers.

Now, however, the much discussed Carla del Ponte’s book "The Hunt" offers a harrowing detail, revealing why Serbian men [have] been kidnapped throughout Kosovo province during past years instead of being killed on the spot, as is the usual KLA treatment for all non-Albanians, especially those of Serbian ethnicity: because they were used as a livestock for organ harvesting in the illegal trade with human organ transplants.

According to Glas Javnosti, writing about one of the failed investigations regarding the fate of around 300 abducted Kosovo Serbs who were taken to northern Albania, Del Ponte says that the kidnapped young men were not beaten and were well fed. There was an improvised surgery room in one of the houses, where young Serbs had their internal organs removed to be shipped over the Tirana airport "Mother Teresa" abroad, where the organs of the healthy young Serbs were sold.

The victims who had only one kidney removed during the first carve-up were sutured and returned to imprisonment, to live until they would get killed for their other vital organs, when the right buyer is found. According to Carla del Ponte, the Serbs held in this monstrous human stable Josef Mengele would envy, begged to be killed.

Sworn Serbian enemy, Del Ponte describes Kosovo-Metohia province under the KLA/NATO rule as a land with no laws and institutions, [a] land of blood feuds, ruled by the thugs who present themselves as heroes of the "suffering Albanian people". She claims that UNMIK and KFOR officials, and even some ICTY judges in the Hague, are fearful for their lives if connected to the KLA/UCK crime investigations, and feel threatened by the "Albanian reach".

In her book, Del Ponte says that those few and far between investigations of the terrorist KLA were the hardest during her appointment as the ICTY chief prosecutor, that her researchers were confronted by the clans, vendettas and political pressures, and that "policemen from Bern and Brussels and all the way to Bronx" are well aware about the insurmountable difficulties when it comes to the attempts to investigate Albanian organized crime.

Del Ponte traveled in 2003 to the alleged sites of the crime:

…"We are checking some informal statements we obtained through operative work that, in 1999, two trucks carrying imprisoned Kosovo Serbs were sent to Albania," said War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic.

He said that the informal information had been obtained from Hague Tribunal investigators. According to those sources, there are unregistered mass graves with bodies of murdered Serbs in Albania.
…
One group was held in barracks behind a yellow house some twenty kilometers to the south of that town [Burel, Albania], states the former prosecutor.

One room in that yellow house, according to the journalists, served as an operation room where doctors extracted prisoners’ organs.
…
Daily Vecerenje Novosti brings more details from the book, which says that the Hague and UNMIK investigators, and several journalist, along with an Albanian prosecutor, made a trip to the yellow house in 2003.

"It was now white," Del Ponte writes. "Despite the fact that investigators discovered traces of yellow paint on it, the owner denied it was ever repainted."

In its vicinity, investigators also found pieces of gauze, used syringes, two plastic IV solution bags, "petrified in mud", empty medicine bottles, including muscle relaxants used during surgeries. [Thank god for Greater Albania’s waste-disposal problems!]

Inside the house itself, forensics discovered traces of blood on the walls and on the floor in one of the rooms. A section of the floor, sized 180 by 60 centimeters, was clean.

"The owner of the house offered a series of explanations to the investigators when it came to the origin of the blood traces. First, he said that his wife gave birth in that room many years ago. But when the wife made her statement and said that all their children were born elsewhere, he claimed that his family used the room to slaughter animals in order to celebrate a Muslim holiday," Del Ponte writes.

As for the Albanian prosecutor who accompanied them, the former chief Hague prosecutor says he at one point bragged he had cousins who were KLA members.

"There are no graves of Serbs here," the Albanian official said. "But, if they took the Serbs from the Kosovo border and killed them, they did the right thing".

…Del Ponte writes that detectives had had to give up on this case because further investigation had proved "impossible".

Related: Kosovo PM admitted atrocities, prosecutor

UN personnel feared for their lives in Kosovo while some of the judges presiding over the Hague Tribunal for former Yugoslavia were in fear from Kosovo Albanians that have committed atrocities against Serbs and that is why very few cases of Kosovo Albanian war criminals have been prosecuted, writes Carla Del Ponte, former Chief Prosecutor of the UN Tribunal, in her new book.

"I am sure that some of the top UNMIK and even KFOR officials feared for their lives and the lives of their missions’ members," says Del Ponte…"I think that some of the judges of the Tribunal for Yugoslavia were afraid that the Albanians might come and get them," writes Del Ponte.

In her book, Del Ponte details her meeting with the current so-called Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, at the 5th Anniversary of the Dayton Peace Treaty that ended the Bosnian conflict and says that, while sitting at a table, Thaci admitted to her that Kosovo Albanians committed atrocities.
…
"I looked him in the eyes and told him that I have launched the investigation over crimes that the Albanians had committed in Kosovo. I have not said a word implying indictment against him, but Thaci certainly concluded that I had done so since his face turned into stone," Del Ponte writes.

Del Ponte also notes in her book Hashim Thaci and Agim Ceku are considered by UNMIK and KFOR as "more than dangerous in the peaceful efforts in the Balkans".

"Thaci and Ceku, in theory can stir up the minority Albanian rebels, to start violence in Macedonia, South Serbia and other regions," writes Del Ponte in her book reports news agency BETA…

If one were to follow any of the proceedings at the Hague court, he or she would be amazed to see just how nicely the Serb-hanging intent of that tribunal backfired. (While still hanging a few Serbs, guilty or not.) Del Ponte’s revelations are only the tip of the iceberg.

When we carved up Yugoslavia (though I could use the present tense), we also carved up actual people. Way to go, America. As we continue to enable brutality against the people who were the second-most brutalized party during WWII*, I say to my fellow Americans: Enjoy your new Albanian friends. You’ve earned them. But not to worry: As long as we keep feeding them Serbs, American organs should be safe. However, whether we keep our new masters — I mean, friends — happy or not, their plan is indeed to move on with the Greater Albania project which, as Ms. Del Ponte said, includes western Macedonia, southern Serbia, but also Montenegro and parts of Greece. So what happens when America and the international community call it quits on that project? Will we finally figure out that spilled Serbian blood is followed by the spilled blood of the rest of Western civilization?

*The reason that the Croatians didn’t kill as many Serbs and Jews in the Jasenovac camps as the Germans killed Jews and others in the German-run camps, is that rather than gassing or gunning down the Serbs, Croatians were savoring each kill by hand. From The Jerusalem Post, International Edition, week ending December 21, 1991:

"Goebbels lives — in Zagreb"

While not using the sophisticated extermination methods of the Germans, the Ustashi, the Croat Fascists, greatly outdid the Germans in their cruelty. Most of the killings were done with cold steel; if there was enough time, the Ustashi would also dismember their victims using handsaws.

Above: More Serbs wondering about the fates of their family members. Note: In the wake of Kosovo’s declared independence, the three-finger sign of the raised Holy Trinity seen here was referred to by at least one reporter (Catherine Philp of the London Times) as the Serbs giving a "Nazi salute": "There, as in Mitrovica, they chanted ’Serbia forever’ as they raised their hands in a Nazi salute."

The Trinitarian affirmation is Christian, not Nazi (though journalists often don’t see a difference between those two either). Swiss guards at the Vatican hold their hands the same way when they take their oath of service.

Aside from Nazi references, other requisite terms for describing Serbs, currently being recycled, include projections such as Serbian "extremists" and "nationalists" — with no mention of the Albanians’ hyper-nationalist nature, their Nazi history or extremist ties. It all adds up to a newly paved road for the next round of Kosovo-Serb organ harvesting. The shots have already been fired.

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Post Date : Sunday, Mar 30th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
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28 March 2008

Billary Support for Ethnic Cleansing

Hillary Must Repudiate Support for Extremists

March 28, 2008 12:00 PM EST by Scott Sullivan

Hillary Clinton has made a big mistake by taking on Reverend Wright and his congregation. Senator Clinton has opened the door to an examination of her own connections to extremist groups.

To be specific, Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton have long standing ties to extremist groups in the Balkans including Croatia’s neo-Nazi groups.

For example, in 1995, the Croatian military, which was receiving extensive training and arms from the US, thanks to President Bill Clinton, set up a special battalion (400 personnel) for the training of right wing extremists from Germany and France. Moreover, the Croats assigned personnel from this battalion to serve with units of the Croatian Army (HV) in Bosnia in combat operations against the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian Muslims. While operating in Bosnia, these neo-Nazi members of Croatia’s special battalion committed war crimes against Serbs and Bosnians.

The Federal Prosecutor of West Germany, according to press accounts at the time, was very concerned about these atrocities and wrote a letter to Bill Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations, asking for an investigation. The Bill Clinton Administration refused.

After supporting Croatia’s large scale ethnic cleansing in Bosnia , the Clintons provided military and intelligence advisors as the Croatian government carried out large scale ethnic cleansing of the Serbs population in Croatia itself. This Croatian ethnic cleansing of 250,000 Serbs in the Krajina district was one of the world’s greatest war crimes. Indeed, the UN is now prosecuting three Croatian generals for war crimes based on this ethnic cleansing. The Clintons, however, have yet to be investigated for their support for Croatia in this tragic affair.

How should Senator Obama respond to this Clinton attack on Reverend Wright?

First, Senator Obama should ask for the Clintons to reveal the details of their own relationships with political extremists in Croatia and with Albania’s Kosovo Liberation Army/KLA in Serbia. The KLA killed thousands of Serbian civilians in a terrorist "national liberation" campaign in 1999, a campaign endorsed by the Clintons.

Second, Senator Obama should call for the Clintons to repudiate their support for the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and for an independent state of Kosovo taken from Serbia. To fail to denounce the KLA for war crimes against the Serbs is to reward terrorism.

Third, Senator Obama should call upon Congress to repudiate Croatia and Kosovo in favor of closer US ties with Serbia and its allies Russia and China. This is a good time to break with Croatia, which is preparing to annex the Croatian areas of Bosnia-Hercegovina (B-H). Croatia’s power grab in B-H will collapse the fragile Bosnian state and could restart the civil war in Bosnia.

Fourth, Senator Obama should call upon US Jews, US WW II military veterans, and US leftist groups to repudiate the Croatian and Albanian extremists. To put this issue in basic terms, Serbia fought the Nazis and supported the US in WW II, and for that reason alone are entitled continued US support. In contrast, the Croatians and Albanians supported Germany in WW II.

Fifth, Senator Obama shall call upon the Clintons to reveal the details of their cooperation with Senator McCain on behalf of Croatian extremists and the KLA. The Clintons and McCain have been in lockstep in support of Croatian and Albanian extremists for a decade or more. This Clinton-McCain collaboration with the Croatian and Albanian extremists is the real crime, not a few sermons on the part of Reverend Wright.

27 March 2008

Two Anniversaries

Two Anniversaries
2003 and 1999

March 27, 2008 by Nebojsa Malic

On March 20, 2003, American forces began their invasion of Iraq. According to the Emperor himself, the purpose of the war was to "disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.

Five years later, U.S. troops are still occupying Iraq. Four thousand of them have died, and tens of thousands have been injured, many seriously. The Iraqi death toll runs in the hundreds of thousands (the Empire refuses to "keep score"), and the number of displaced Iraqis is over a million.

The path to that war was "paved with false assumptions and lies," in the words of Rep. Ron Paul. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere had nothing to do with Hussein. And the only things people of Iraq have been "liberated" from were their lives, property, and dignity. By every reasonable standard, and a few unreasonable ones, the Iraqi adventure has been a complete and utter fiasco.

In today’s America, it is a popular belief among those against the Iraq war that Bush the Lesser is to blame, and that things will turn around after he is replaced. That is a dangerous folly. The road to damnation did not begin in March 2003 – or in September 2001, for that matter – but in March 1999. Iraq was not the first instance of an illegal, aggressive war launched from Washington. That dubious honor goes to the 1999 attack on then-Yugoslavia, in support of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army. The Kosovo war provided as precedent for Iraq, a "pattern of aggression," as British historian Kate Hudson famously noted in August 2003.

Bombs Over Belgrade

Operation Allied Force (incorrectly known in Serbia as "Merciful Angel") was launched on March 23, 1999, without UN approval or even a pretext. Even though the press today claims that NATO’s air war was launched to stop or prevent "repression" of Albanian rebels by Yugoslav and Serbian forces, the actual justification invoked as the attack began was that Serbia had to be bombed into signing the "Rambouillet agreement" – a disgraceful ultimatum demanding NATO occupation of Kosovo and a free hand in the rest of Serbia. Even Empire’s war planners quickly recognized the abject absurdity of "bombs for peace" and directed the media to change the official line in a "humanitarian" direction. The war thus became about "saving the Kosovars" (sic). Tales of alleged Serbian atrocities abounded, routinely compared to those of the Nazis: mass deportations, mass executions, mass graves, mass rapes.

They proved as real as the "Iraqi WMDs.

Even though Allied Force was officially a NATO operation, the vast majority of sorties were flown by American warplanes. As in Iraq, the assumption of the U.S. leadership was that the war would be short and victorious. It was neither; instead of capitulating within a week, the government of Slobodan Milosevic fought on for 78 days, agreeing to let NATO occupy Kosovo only after receiving explicit guarantees of Serbian sovereignty. When Yugoslav troops retreated from Kosovo, they did so nearly unharmed and in perfect order, showing that the bombing was primarily directed against civilian targets and intended to terrorize.

Kosovo was a Rubicon that the Empire needed to cross: a demonstration that it could attack anyone, anywhere, for any reason.

Brutal Occupation

As in Iraq, the occupation turned out to be worse than the actual war. The UN took over administration of the NATO-occupied province, but in practice that meant turning it over to the terrorist KLA. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Roma, Turks, and other non-Albanians were ethnically cleansed. Over 150 churches and monasteries, cemeteries and chapels were destroyed and desecrated. Non-Albanians were beaten, murdered, and even allegedly harvested for organs. Entire villages were razed during a pogrom in March 2004. Eventually, those who launched the 1999 invasion sought to legitimize it by supporting the Albanians’ declaration of independence in February this year.

In Kosovo and Iraq alike, the occupiers set up puppet governments, organized elections, and even promulgated constitutions. None of it changed the savage reality. Iraq continues to be divided between mutually hostile communities that all resent the occupation, while Kosovo continues to be dominated by a terrorist organization transformed into an organized crime syndicate, oppressing non-Albanians but brutalizing other Albanians as well.

Belief and Reality

Much as the Imperial policymakers believe that their beliefs can shape reality itself, the world today is a much different place than the world of 1999, or 2003. China never forgot the attack on its embassy in Belgrade. Nor did Russia forget the humiliation of having a U.S. lackey in the Kremlin stand helplessly by as NATO savaged Serbia.

NATO did not claim a victory in Kosovo until the U.S.-funded and organized opposition managed to depose Milosevic in an October 2000 coup. Even though Serbia has since been ruled by various combinations of pro-Imperial politicians, who have demonstrated an almost limitless capacity for groveling and sycophancy over the intervening years, there is still some defiance left in her.

The Empire does not care much; convinced its will has triumphed in Kosovo, Washington believes that the upcoming Serbian elections in May will finally bring to power a servile, pliant leadership that will sign on the dotted line and follow along. It also believes that Iraq will become a peaceful parliamentary democracy. The "reality-based" community, however, begs to differ.

Twilight of America

The upcoming presidential elections in the U.S. offer a slate of candidates who at best disagree on the flavor of Imperial aggression. John McCain was a hawk on Kosovo as much as he is on Iraq. Policymakers advising Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama alike believe that Kosovo was a triumph of liberal, "humanitarian" interventionism. In truth, it has been a triumph only for aggression and terror.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman once infamously claimed that supporting the terrorist KLA was "fighting for human rights and American values." What became of the America whose founders hoped would not go abroad "in search of monsters to destroy" and nurture "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations"? It is now a global Empire, invading, occupying, and supporting terrorism even while claiming to oppose it.

What happened in March 2003 – and in March 1999 – was a defeat; of the American republic, international law, and perhaps even of peace at the end of a century that has seen precious little of it. On these solemn anniversaries, one can only hope that these defeats were temporary and transient. Otherwise, the future looks less like utopia, and more like Kosovo.

26 March 2008

Six Little Reasons

Six Little Reasons
Gray Falcon blog (Nebojsa Malic)

March 26, 2008 on 7:33 am In News in English, Kosovo & Metohija
On the anniversary of NATO’s bombing of Serbia, March 24, 1999 - March 24, 2008

By Slobodan Antonic

(translated by GrayFalcon; all flaws and mistakes mine. Original at NSPM)

Serbia is the only European country that was bombed by NATO. The bombing was illegal, without UN Security Council authorization. While bombing Serbia, NATO committed atrocities against civilians. This is why Serbia cannot just join NATO. That might be possible only when Serbia receives a clear apology from NATO leaders, even if only for the "collateral damage" it suffered in 1999.

Such an apology has not come. Quite the contrary, NATO and U.S. officials incessantly repeat that the 1999 aggression was "necessary," and don’t mention atrocities at all. Numerous NGOs in Serbia, receiving a steady stream of funding from the U.S. and other NATO countries, keep telling the Serbian public that all Serbs must atone for crimes. Meanwhile, NATO is not only not atoning for its misdeeds, but considers it somehow rude of Serbia to even mention them.

This made it possible to have a welcoming ceremony for an U.S. Air Force Major in Belgrade on July 13, 2006. As a member of the 555th Squadron, Maj. Andrew Wiles took part in the NATO attack on Serbia; some Serbian media even claimed that it was his plane that cluster-bombed downtown Nis. That did not bother the Serbian Minister of Defense, who greeted Maj. Wiles and welcomed him to Serbia. It seems like the "Euro-reformers" in Serbia agree with U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter, who told the weekly Evropa (November 22, 2007): "We believe that [the bombing of Serbia] was hard, but also necessary. It was needed to depose Miloševic."

Due to this belief, the "Euro-reformers" in Serbia have systematically endeavored to repress the memories of NATO’s crimes. Today we remember only the bombing of the Serbian Television - and that not as a crime committed by NATO, but something for which a Miloševic official was blamed. Even the memory of crimes has been subject to spin and political manipulation.

Serbia must clearly recall six "little" crimes of NATO, become aware of them, and challenge NATO to recognize them. Only after there is an explanation, Serbia and NATO can talk again. These six "little" NATO crimes are the six "little" reasons that Serbia, under current circumstances, should not join NATO.

The first "little" reason is the 2-year-old Marko Simic. He went for a walk with his father Vladan, on May 31, 1999 at noon, in his hometown of Novi Pazar. When they reached the apartment building at Stefana Nemanje 74, there was an explosion. The building was struck by a missile probably intended for the nearby bus station. (Why the civilian bus station was targeted still remains a mystery.) Besides Marko and Vladan, nine more civilians were killed. Shortly after this tragedy, Marko’s mother gave birth to a girl. When she grows up, maybe she will read the monograph "NATO Crimes in Yugoslavia" and find a photograph of her little brother, on a hospital bedsheet, his face bloody and his left leg gone.

The mother of 11-month-old Bojana Tošovic, another "little" witness of NATO’s un-atoned crimes, was six months pregnant. Then her house in the village of Merdare (near Kuršumlija) was hit by a bomb on April 10. Her husband Božin was holding Bojana when the ceiling caved in. Mother Marija could only watch helplessly as her husband, crushed by the concrete ceiling plate, died slowly with their daughter in his arms.

Three-year-old Milica Rakic, of Batajnica, is our (and God’s) third "little" witness. On April 17, around 9:30 PM, she told her mother Dušica she needed to go potty. Dušica took her to the bathroom, put her on the chamber pot, and went to make the bed. They felt safe, because their house was four kilometers away from the military airfield. Then a bomb hit near the building. Right away, father Žarko ran into the bathroom. Milica lay there in a pool of blood, hit by a shrapnel from the bomb. They took her to a nearby emergency room, but she was beyond help. She, too, was photographed on the hospital bedsheet. The photo shows her bandaged left leg, and her deathly pale face, beautiful and gentle. The angelic face of a murdered child.

There is no picture of the dead Branimir Stanijanovic, age six, of Aleksinac. With his father Vidosav and mother Divna, he was on a train that found itself on a bridge at Grdelica on April 12, twenty minutes before noon. The pilot, NATO officials later said, had the mission to destroy the bridge, but he saw the train too late. I guess that’s why he came back a few minutes later and hit the train again. Not the bridge - the train. And in the same spot, cars number two and three. The entire Stanijanovic family perished, along with another fifteen or so passengers. There is no exact count of the dead, since their charred bodies fell into the depths of south Morava River. Branimir’s body was one of them. If the pilot who did this, and NATO spokesman Jamie Shea - who disavowed any blame for these deliberate murders - are interested in knowing whom they’ve killed, there is a picture of Branimir in existence. It shows him at a school pageant, serious, smartly dressed, with a bow tie. Maybe that is what he is wearing that now, walking in God’s garden?

Eight-year-old Stefan and his sister, five-year-old Dejana Pavlovic are in that garden now as well. They were asleep in their family home, in Ralja near Belgrade, when it was hit by a bomb on May 26. It remains unclear what target of any military importance could have possibly been nearby. Father Vladimir died with his children. Mother Branislava survived. Her only memory of her family, snuffed out in the blink of an eye, is a photograph. It shows the children in colorful pajamas, laid out on the blue bedsheet. Dejana’s nose is slightly bloodied. Stefan looks untouched.

Those are the six "little" witnesses of NATO crimes, six "little" reasons why Serbia has to demand an explanation from NATO leaders. The explanation is simple. At the Tašmajdan park, there is a monument to children killed in the NATO bombing. (It is falling apart - of a statue of a girl with butterfly wings, only the wings remain. Perhaps some day the Belgrade authorities will set aside some funds to restore the monument; if they don’t have enough, they should say something - the people will pitch in.) So, NATO Secretary-General Jap de Hoop Scheffer, or another NATO official, needs to come before this monument and clearly say, "Forgive us." We don’t need him to kneel, or light a candle. All he has to do is bring one flower and ask forgiveness. And Serbia will forgive.

Until then, there’s nothing to talk about. Not in Belgrade, not in Brussels, not in Ohio. One flower at Tašmajdan - that’s the condition for any further talks. One flower at Tašmajdan - and only then can both we and you be human again.

Belgrade Prosecutor to Investigate Albanian Butchering Camps, Byzantine Blog

Belgrade Prosecutor to Investigate Albanian Butchering Camps, Byzantine Blog

March 26, 2008 on 7:31 am In News in English, Kosovo & Metohija, In Focus

On March 21, Belgrade war crimes prosecutor announced opening a case regarding the massacre of Kosovo Serbs kidnapped by the Albanian terrorist KLA for the sale of their vital organs during and after the 1999 NATO aggression.

"We are verifying statements obtained through operative work that, in 1999, two trucks carrying imprisoned Kosovo Serbs were transfered to Albania," said War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic, adding that the information had been obtained from Hague Tribunal investigators, according to which there are unregistered mass graves with bodies of mutilated and murdered Kosovo Serbs in Albania.

Since Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti published the initial bits of information about the monstrous organ harvesting in Mengele- prison camps Thaci’s and Ceku’s KLA operated in northern Albania, apparently with the knowledge and approval of the highest officials in Albanian government, a lot of additional information with grisly details available in Del Ponte’s book has been published in the Serbian media.

Yellow House of Horrors in North Albania

In her book, "The Hunt", to be published in Italy in April, Carla Del Ponte says that the ICTY prosecution was informed that Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA/UCK) conducted an illegal human organ harvesting and trafficking, using Kosovo Serbs it previously abducted as their livestock for organ extraction.

Del Ponte says that she learned from groups of reliable journalists about some 300 Serb hostages who were kidnapped by the Kosovo Albanians and taken to Albania in trucks in the summer of 1999, after the end of the NATO aggression on FR Yugoslavia, at the time when international peacekeepers, investigators and representatives of human rights groups were in Serbian province of Kosovo.

The kidnapped victims were first imprisoned in camps in Kukes and Tropoje. The younger and fitter prisoners were examined by Albanian medics, got food and were not beaten. After that, they were kept imprisoned in other camps in Burel and the surrounding area.

One group was held in barracks behind a yellow house some twenty kilometers to the south of that town, states the former prosecutor.

One room in that yellow house, according to the journalists, was used for involuntary surgeries, where the prisoners’ organs were extracted.

Afterwards, the organs, according to the sources, were sent abroad from Mother Teresa airport in Tirana where they were used in transplantations for Western patients who could afford to pay for it.

The victims who had one kidney removed at first were returned to the same barrack to wait to be taken to a butcher block again, for other vital organs, and be killed.

"In this way, the other camp prisoners knew about the destiny that awaits them. According to the sources, they begged, in terror, to be killed at once," Del Ponte says.

There were also women among the prisoners, mainly from Kosovo province, but also from Albania, Russia and former Yugoslav republics. Two sources who testified about one of these monstrous camps claimed they were helping to bury the victims from the barracks surrounding the yellow house, at the nearby graveyard.

Even though the journalists’ informations and those collected from UNMIK officials were incomplete, Hague investigators said that the details fit together, confirming the information collected by the Tribunal.

All of the victims for which the sources claimed they were imprisoned in the butchering camps’ barracks around the yellow house in Albania in the summer of 1999, have been listed as missing around the same time and were never seen again.

Evidence from Del Ponte’s 2003 Visit to the Scene of Crime

Del Ponte says in her book that she made a trip with a group of Hague investigators and one Albanian ’prosecutor’ to the yellow house in Albania in 2003.

"It was now white," Del Ponte writes. "Despite the fact that investigators discovered traces of yellow paint on it, the owner denied it was ever repainted."

In its vicinity, investigators found pieces of gauze, used syringes, two plastic IV solution bags "petrified in mud", empty medicine bottles, including muscle relaxants used during the butcheries.

Inside the house itself, forensics discovered traces of blood on the walls and on the floor in one of the rooms. A section of the floor, size 180 by 60 centimeters, was clean.

"The owner of the house offered a series of explanations to the investigators when it came to the origin of the blood traces. First, he said that his wife gave birth in that room many years ago. But when the wife gave her statement and said that all their children were born elsewhere, he claimed that his family used the room to slaughter animals in order to celebrate Muslim holidays," Del Ponte writes.

The Albanian ’prosecutor’ who accompanied them, according to Del Ponte, "revealed a whole other dimension of the problems in cooperation."

"He bragged about his cousins who are KLA members and told the Tribunal investigator: ’There are no graves of Serbs here. But, if they took the Serbs across the border from Kosovo and killed them, they did the right thing’," recounts Del Ponte.

Describing detailed information she has on the matter, Del Ponte writes that detectives had to give up on this case because further investigation had proved "impossible".

Families of the Kosovo Serb Victims to Sue Del Ponte

On March 23, Tanjug reported that the Association of the Families of Missing Kosovo Serbs said it will file a lawsuit against Del Ponte.

The announcement came Sunday after new details emerged from the former chief Hague Tribunal prosecutor’s new book, which shed new light on the grim fate of the Serbs still missing from the province.

The Association’s president, Simo Spasic, said the families will sue the Swiss prosecutor for covering up the crimes committed against the Serbs kidnapped and killed by Kosovo Albanian terrorists since the end of the 1999 war.

"In 2004, Del Ponte told us in The Hague that she had information that all Serbs kidnapped in Kosovo were later murdered, but she kept silent about her knowledge that before they died their organs were removed," Simic told the Podgorica daily Dan.

"Del Ponte hid the truth and left this information about the horrific crimes committed against the kidnapped Serbs out, in this way helping the crime, although she received the list of names of those kidnapped and those who kidnapped them in 2001. She never arrested anyone and she must account for this," Spasic said.

He said it is impermissible to have a chief prosecutor do nothing, although she knew the names of the Serbs who were abducted in their land, in front of their homes and in their farms, to later have their organs carved out and killed in the end.

"Del Ponte needs to explain why there were no convictions of the KLA leaders and why she never stopped it, the butchering of our loved ones for their organs, when she had information from many sources, Deutsche Welle, Sky News, BBC journalists, who said KLA was securing the transport of the kidnapped Kosovo Serbs to Albania," Spasic said.

More than 1,300 Kosovo Serbs are still missing from the southern Serbian province.

17 March 2008

Kosovo – prelude to the destiny of Europe?

Kosovo – prelude to the destiny of Europe?
By Harry Vinter
March 17, 2008

Kosovo seen through the eyes of a Dane.

The situation in Denmark

The Danes are descendents of people who entered the landscape, which is now Denmark, when the ice withdraw after the ice age 12,000 years ago. Neither the Roman Empire nor the large emigrations reached Denmark. For this reason the Danes have little experience with the kind of ethnical conflicts, which the Serbs have endured through centuries.

It was therefore easy for different NGOs and irresponsible politicians to make the Danes accept an influx of immigrants from the beginning of the 1970ies. The immigration was presented as a "cultural enrichment", which would bring about a "colourful society".

Today, 30 years after, these positive words are never heard any more. Now the key word is "problems": Problems with integration, problems with criminality, problems with ghettos, problems with forced marriages, "honour" killings and terrorism.

The main problem seems to be, that the vast majority of the immigrants are Moslem. A few years ago a respected Danish economist said, "I don't think we would have had any immigration problem, if we had had 200,000 Chinese in stead of 200,000 Moslems".

"New Danes" demonstrating in Copenhagen

Reality has opened the eyes of most Danes, and in 2001 an immigration friendly Government was replaced by a Government, which tries to limit the immigration. This Government is supported by a party, which is strongly opposed to immigration and which has now become the third largest political party in Denmark.

But the damage has been done. Denmark has a growing population of Moslems, who are directly hostile towards the Danes and the democratic tradition, which the Danish society is based on.

Riots in the streets - including many cases of severe arson, primarily targeting schools and cars - have become part of daily life in Denmark. Stabbings, which until a few years ago happened very rarely in Denmark, are now an integrated part of the nightlife. The vast majority of the culprits are young Moslems, and the victims are almost always Danes.

Enormous economic means are spent in an attempt to fulfil the demands of the Moslem immigrants, who have been given many special privileges. But most of these attempts are immediately rejected as "too little" and "not good enough".

The well-known "Mohamed-cartoons" can be seen as an attempt to overcome the atmosphere of fear and terror, which gradually descend on public life in Denmark.

The situation in EU

The situation is similar in all the old EU-countries. Growing groups of Moslems are becoming increasingly hostile towards their host countries. Fear, terror and self censorship has become part of life in many large cities all over Europe. Everything is done to appease the Moslem immigrants. Piggy banks are abolished, people refrain from wearing crosses in necklaces, companies abolish the traditional Christmas lunch, schools serve halal-food, and criticism of negative sides of Moslem culture silences. Freedom of expression is gradually abolished and with it democracy itself.

EU contributes actively to this development. The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) supervises the development in all EU countries, and any attempt to counteract the negative influence of Islam is condemned by the Centre as being "Islamophobia".

At the same time EU is developing the Euromediterranian project, the aim of which is to merge EU with the countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

Demonstrating moslems in Copenhagen. Officially they are called "new Danes".

The demographic consequence of this project is obvious. Millions of people from these countries will rush into Europe and multiply the 40 millions, who are in EU already.

But even without this future influx, the collapse of the European civilisation seems to be inescapable. The low birth rate of the Europeans and the high birth rate of the Moslem immigrants will have the consequence, that the Europeans will be outnumbered within few decenniums, - unless something drastically is done very soon.

Serbia

The demographic development, which is now threatening the mere existence of the European civilization, has been going on for many years in Kosovo. And the consequence looks the same.

Albanians have the highest birth rate in Europe, so even without the ethnical cleansings of non-Albanians from Kosovo, the Albanians would have made up the majority anyway.

Now USA has used its power to give Kosovo as an appeasement gift to the Moslem world. Let's hope that the last word has not yet been said in this matter.

At the same time it is a fact, that the future of Serbia does not look bright with Kosovo as part of the country. The high birth rate of the Albanians will inescapably have the consequence that the Albanians are going to become the majority in Serbia within a number of years.

I do not need to tell Serbians how life is for Christians under Moslem rule.

Denmark, EU and Kosovo

In many ways the development in Kosovo looks as a prelude to the fatal development in the rest of Europe. The hostile attitude and behaviour of Moslem immigrants in Denmark and other EU-countries reminds of the hostile attitude and behaviour of Albanians towards non-Albanians in Kosovo.

However, only few Danes know the facts about Kosovo's newer history. Most media start the description of the situation in 1989, when an "evil nationalist" named Milosevic abolished the home rule of Kosovo. They never mention, why the home rule was abolished.

Only few people remember what the newspapers wrote about Kosovo back in the 1980'ies. At that time they actually mentioned how non-Albanians were chased out of the province.

Most Danes believe the official truth, which is, that USA/NATO intervened in 1999 in order to stop suppression and ethnic cleansing of Albanians, and most Danes accept the secession of Kosovo, because the media never tell the full truth about the newer history of Kosovo.

Most media describe Serbs as "nationalists", when they want to keep Serbia united, and they describe Serbs in Srpska as "nationalists", when they express wishes of doing as the Albanians did in Kosovo. "Nationalist" is a negative word, which is never used about Albanians.

The violation of international law is never mentioned by the media.

However, there are more and more Danes – including the third largest political party, who reject the official policy, and many Danes argue in letters to editors and in blogs and homepages, that if it is accepted, that the Albanians can tear away Kosovo from Serbia, then immigrants in Denmark can also tear away parts of Denmark and declare independence.

There is an increasing understanding for the Serbian point of view among Danes. But it is a struggle against the clock – and the Moslem birthrate. Moslem immigrants and the supporters of immigration were those who most strongly demanded "bomb Serbia" in the early 1999.

Why?

Why do the leaders of Europe want to destroy their own civilization and exchange it with a culture, which has never produced anything but babies and poverty?

And why does USA support this development, for example by speaking for Turkish membership of EU?

There are many theories about this, and it is beyond the scope of this article to explain them here. But of course the oil of the Arab countries plays a key role. During the first oil crisis in 1972 the Arab oil countries demanded, that EU should open for "Arab culture", which is the same as Islam.

The first outcome of this demand was the Arab European Dialogue, which started in the middle of the 1970'ies.

The support of USA and EU to the Moslems in both Bosnia and Kosovo shall no doubt be understood in this context.

Because of the power of energy resources, the friendship with Russia is Serbia's best hope for the future. And I dare say: Probably the hope for Denmark and the rest of EU as well.

16 March 2008

Kosovo & the population imbalance

ANALYSIS: The West-East conflict in a microscope
Kosovo & the population imbalance
By Ioannis Michaletos Blog
March 16, 2008

In a recent article in this column the importance of the Kosovo precedent was discussed, from the point view of the international law as it has been exercised for the past generations. Certainly the new situation arising from the unilateral Kosovo declaration of independence shapes a new reality that will have multitude and mostly negative consequences for countless nations across the globe. It is important also to illuminate around the existence of the Kosovo issue as a demographic one, shaped by the expansion of one group of people (Albanian Muslims) versus the other one (Serbian Christians). Moreover the existence of facts on the ground as resulting from the population growth of the former, signify a real precedent for other regions in the world.

In 1913 when Kosovo & Metojia became a part of the Serbian state the population of Christians exceeded 50% , whilst the Albanians counted around 350,000 souls, approximately 40%, the rest being occupied by Roma, Bosniaks, Turks and people of mixed origin. A generation later in 1948, after WW2 that resulted in the killings of 20,000 Serbs and the expulsion of some other 150,000 by the Nazi Albanian collaborators, the balance tilted in favor of the Albanians. On top of that, the Tito administration willingly opened up the border up to 1949 and accepted 150,000 illegal immigrants in order to deliberately change the population makeup of the province as a counter-measure against the Serbs. Tito's motto was "For a strong Yugoslavia we need a weak Serbia".

"Slovenia document" Copies from the Slovenia Ministry of Foreign Affairs reporting around the staged negotiations between Lubliana and Washington to push for Kosovo indepedence regardless of any EU objections

Thus, in 1961 the Albanians numbered 650,000 people, and the analogy was 65% Albanians, 28% Serbians. From that period onwards a dramatic –And basically unexplained- population expansion derived from the Albanian community. In the mid-60's the Albanian population had a 6.5 children per woman ratio, whilst the Serbians around 2.5. Although the second number is enough to replace the previous generation, it was much less and that resulted in a virtual takeover of the land by the Albanians. In 1981 just after Tito's death and the start of the first rebellions in Pristina, the Albanians numbered 1.2 million, a 100% increase in less than 20 years. The pressure exercised by them against the Serbian farmers that took the form of homicides, arsons, rapes and vandalism obliged to an exodus a considerable part of the Christian populous.

Nowadays the Albanian population is estimated at around 1.8 million people, and one has to consider that a part of the population immigrated to Western Europe and Northern America during the past 15 years. In short the demographic imbalances altered the established order and of course the international intervention took advantage of this fact by initiating a round of land take over from the Serbian state. The message that a neutral observer can get is the following: Population imbalances endanger national sovereignty therefore measures have to be taken to ensure that the Kosovo precedent does not apply to them.

In simple terms no prudent government would let its minority citizens reproduce to a pace that will ultimately lead them to declare themselves independent, or even worse form a state that will constitute a real threat against them. The intervention in Kosovo instead of making a positive contribution to the world stage will certainly raise the above issue and result to future minority massacres, forced abortions and ethnic cleansing of a grand scale. For the policy-makers who conduct their profession based in a pragmatic approaches of every day life it is a notion perfectly understandable. Unfortunately modern day diplomacy seems to be hijacked to an extent, by radical elements that lead each and every nation towards a new age of barbarity.

In Kosovo the 1,500 Churches, Monasteries and pilgrimages constitute one of the "Holy places" of Eastern Orthodox Christendom on par with Mount Athos, Meteora, Constantinople (Hagia Sophia), Alexandria, Jerusalem, Ohrid and Mystras and other important regions. A 350 million strong Eastern Orthodox population is being subject to a humiliation of historical proportions, similar to that of the Ottoman conquest with two major differences: The Turks were far more tolerant and respectful towards the Christians than the modern-day Albanians and secondly the role of the West has been a total disappointment, to say the least.

The rest 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, Protestants and the Jewish communities are also negatively affected judging by the demise of their numbers in the world stage and the re-emergence of two cultural and social giants; the Arabic-Muslim one and the Confucian-Chinese one. Of course there are quite a few analysts that do not conform to the notion that the world was, is and will be divided in ethnic-cultural zones on which religion often plays a decisive role. It seems the everyday news and special broadcasts from the Middle East, Africa or East London- (-istan) haven't still grasped their attention. Human history is a spiral never-ending procedure. On that basis everything is possible and nothing can be excluded in the end of the day.

Since 13/06/1999, 350,000 Serbians, Roma, Gorani and other were forced to flee from Kosovo. It was a flight of survival, considering the 1,500 homicides against Serbs in the coming months, up to early 2000. Around 80 UNESCO "protected" Christian monuments were blown up by the Albanians in front of the eyes of 40,000 KFOR personnel. It has to be stressed once more that even during the days of the Ottoman Empire and the numerous battles in the eparchy, nowhere close did the destruction of shrines came that close. This constitutes another issue having to do with the psycho-synthesis of the nationality that committed these acts and has a specific modus opperandi from the medieval ages and onwards. Another 1,300 Serbs were killed up to 2003, 80,000 houses and estates were grabbed by the Albanians along with 20,000 automobiles and 15,000 shops, barns and commercial property. Some other 30,000 houses were burned to the ground in well-organized arson a campaigns another method regularly exercised by Kosovo-Albanians over the 20th century. It is also interesting to point out the situation in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. Until 1999, Serbians constituted some 20% of the population. Nowadays there is a mere 0.1% having being entirely wiped out. The declaration of Kosovo's independence as a multicultural state-Without minorities- is one of the worst public relation campaigns that someone would advise the Albanian leaders in Kosovo. Certainly it is something that only certain State Dept. officials could explain.

In 2004 the last phase of the most recent genocide in a European soil (By Muslims against Christians) took place. In a space of 2 days, 27 Churches were burned to the ground, 7 Serbian villages, 40 people dead, 1,000 wounded and 4,000 refugees on their way to Serbia. The 17th of March 2004 constitutes a stigma for the United Nations and marks the imposition of the will of the fanatics that control Kosovo.

"Palaeologieagle" A Byzantine eagle emblem often used in various versions by the Eastern Orthox Churches

A state that is much interested in the Kosovo precedent and history is Israel. Up to 1987, Tel-Aviv controlled the situation in the West Bank and Gaza, having being victorious in five consecutive wars against its Arab neighbors. The start of the first Indifada, the population explosion of the Muslim Arabs, the dramatic appearance of international Jihad, and the relative decline of the Western (European) support to Israel poses a strategic-survival dilemma to the Israeli policy makers:

Should they try to push towards a conciliation approach towards the Palestinians and decide for a low key strategy against them, or to oppose all calls for bargain and form a strategy of a total war. That was the same dilemma the Serbians reached in the early '90's. The firstly used the tactic number one and it failed. The second option was barely begun to be implemented in late 1998 and would have yielded total success bar the NATO air campaign in 1999. Note however the Kosovo is a province of the Serbian state therefore in contrast with the Israelis the Serbians are not in fear of "Being driven to the sea". One certain conclusion is that countries such as Israel will invest considerable intellectual capacity in making concrete analysis based on Kosovo's recent history.

The present day situation in Kosovo will lead ultimately to a division between the Serbian-controlled North and the rest of the province. That means that the multiethnic concept is dead and a new Christian-Muslim division line will be established. The only hope for the region is the assistance of the EU in creating the necessary conditions for an overall security framework for the Western Balkans. It is a gigantic task that has to face the USA-Russian antagonism, the internal EU differences, moves towards a "Great Albania", the widespread poverty & corruption, and the presence of active Islamic groups. If there was a bet most would choose the option for another conflict in these lands. The Kosovo issue will soon become another frozen conflict that will erupt from time to time in accordance to the local geopolitical balances, the demographic shifts and the various economic interests. What will remain though is that Kosovo marks the first definite victory of the European Islam since the occupation of Crete by the Ottomans in 1669. The

difference was that then all the major European powers fought in unity.

NOTE: The role of religion is often omitted by many analyses on the issues of regional conflicts. By itself any religion cannot ignite a war, but one has to take into account that any religion is simply the outer appearance of a whole system of beliefs, norms and mentalities of particular groups of people that have been molded by historical events and have constructed collective archetypes and cultural icons. The mistakes made by Western policy makers will come to haunt sooner than latter, even if they aren't aware of the stakes involved in the first place.

Sources:

2) RADIO FREE EUROPE Research, RAD Background Report/186
(Yugoslavia), 4 August 1983
EMIGRATION AND DEMOGRAPHY IN KOSOVO, By Steve Reiquam
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vZmlsZXMub3NhLmNldS5odS9ob2xkaW5ncy8zMDAvOC8zL3RleHQvMTE4LTItODAuc2h0bWw=

3) Counter Punch Magazine, March 4, 2008.
Kosovo and the Press, By MIKE AVERKO: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmNvdW50ZXJwdW5jaC5vcmcvYXZlcmtvMDMwNDIwMDguaHRtbA==

4) The Hamilton Spectator, February 25, 2008
Kosovo -- A dangerous precedent, By Michael Biljetina: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnRoZXNwZWMuY29tL09waW5pb25zL2FydGljbGUvMzI5OTM1

5) Arutz Sheva -Israel National News.com-, February 25 2008
Kosovo and Us, By Atty. Elyakim Haetzni: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmlzcmFlbG5hdGlvbmFsbmV3cy5jb20vQXJ0aWNsZXMvQXJ0aWNsZS5hc3B4Lzc3OTA=

6) University of California, Berkeley-Departments of Anthropology and Demography-
Anthropology Today 9 (1): 4-9, Feb 1993 Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
Demography and the Origins of the Yugoslav Civil War, By E. A. Hammel: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmRlbW9nLmJlcmtlbGV5LmVkdS9+Z2VuZS9taWdyLmh0bWw=

7) Videos of cultural genocide in Kosovo
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9ZGZHS1QzOTRnRUk=
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9ZGZHS1QzOTRnRUkmYW1wO2ZlYXR1cmU9UGxheUxpc3QmYW1wO3A9OUNCNjBGRkZDODg3NEJDRiZhbXA7aW5kZXg9Mw==

8) Excerpts from "Albanian Nazi troops in WW2 Launched a Wide Spread Terror Against Kosovo Serbs"
By Carl Kosta Savich: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lm1pY2hhZWxzYXZhZ2UuY29tL2tvc292by1nZW5vY2lkZS5odG1s

About the Author

Ioannis Michaletos is an Associate Analyst in the International Security Research & Intelligence Agency and a South Eastern European Editor in the World Security Network Foundation.