Monday, February 18, 2008

Kosovo Declares Independence

Kosovo independenceToday Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, and was recognized by the United States and various European countries as a sovereign nation.

In 1999 the United States waged an air war against Serbia to drive Serbian forces out of Kosovo and allow the UN to take charge of the province. At the time some people insisted that Bill Clinton was using the opportunity presented by Kosovo to distract attention from his impeachment. However, he may just been making nice with the Saudis and doing a favor for the Europeans, who were alarmed by the bad press coming out of Serbia.

In any case, the Clinton administration started us down the path that led to today’s events. The Bush administration gladly took over the Kosovo project and pursued it vigorously. After 9-11 it was especially important to demonstrate that we weren’t anti-Islam, that we were willing to allow Christians to be ethnically cleansed and killed in order to benefit Muslims.

We’ve got nothing against you, Islam, and Kosovo proves it. So now do you love us? Well, do you?

An independent Kosovo is one of the most grotesquely wrong-headed policies ever pursued by the United States, ranking up there with Jimmy Carter’s love-feast with the Sandinistas in 1979.

It’s not just that Kosovo is Islamic. The province is a sinkhole of corruption, crime, and religious fanaticism all rolled together, and will be unable to function as a viable independent country for the foreseeable future. It’s the Gaza Strip of the Balkans.

In the nine years since the UN took over, Wahhabists funded by the Saudis have penetrated the area thoroughly, building mosques, recruiting violent radicals, and forming a “government” that is a deadly combination of Islam and mafia-style criminal gangs. The Kosovars have set themselves up as the kings of the European heroin trade, and an independent Kosovo will provide an unprecedented opportunity to compromise the new state’s banking system and make the government indistinguishable from a criminal enterprise.

An independent Kosovo in this form serves interests of no Western country. Drugs, gun-running, the prostitution of pre-teen girls, money-laundering, protection rackets, intimidation, and deadly turf wars, with all the proceeds going towards the funding of jihad and the further penetration of radical Islam into Europe.

Thank you, President Bush, for this present to southeastern Europe. It’s a gift that will keep on giving for decades to come.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

The Serbs have vowed to resist the establishment of an independent Kosovo. They responded to today’s events by recalling their ambassador to the United States. According to the AP:

Serbia has recalled its ambassador to the United States in response to the Bush administration’s recognition of Kosovo’s independence, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Monday.

“This decision by the United States will not turn the false state (of Kosovo) into a real one,” Kostunica told parliament. “The government has ordered the immediate withdrawal of the ambassador from Washington.”

The United States and key European countries recognized Kosovo as independent a day after the province’s ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia.

Giddy Kosovars danced in the streets when they heard of the endorsements.
- - - - - - - - -
Kosovo’s leaders sent letters to 192 countries seeking formal recognition and Britain, France, Germany and U.S. were among the countries that backed the request. But other European Union nations were opposed, including Spain which has battled a violent Basque separatist movement for decades.

“The Kosovars are now independent,” President Bush said during a trip to Africa. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Bush “has responded affirmatively” to Kosovo’s request to establish diplomatic relations.

“The establishment of these relations will reaffirm the special ties of friendship that have linked together the people of the United States and Kosovo,” Rice’s statement said.

As word of the recognition spread, ethnic Albanians poured into the streets of the capital Pristina to cheer and dance.

The European Union was unable to settle on a unified policy towards the new country — they ended up agreeing to disagree:

EU nations stood deeply divided over whether to recognize Kosovo as their foreign ministers met in Brussels, Belgium, to try to forge a common stance. At the end of the meeting, the ministers adopted a statement clearing the way for some member nations to endorse independence.

Kosovo’s declaration was “a great success for Europe, a great success for the Kosovars and certainly not a defeat for the Serbs,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Brussels.

Spain, however, said the independence bid was illegal under international law.

And what will Serbia and Russia do?

Serbia’s government has ruled out a military response as part of a secret “action plan” drafted earlier this week, but warned that it would downgrade relations with any foreign government that recognizes Kosovo’s independence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that independence without U.N. approval would set a dangerous precedent for “frozen conflicts” across the former Soviet Union, where separatists in Chechnya and Georgia are agitating for independence.

The further south and east you go in Europe, the more resistance there is to Kosovar independence. After much argument, Italy has decided to recognize Kosovo:

Italy will recognize the independence of Kosovo, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said here on Monday The caretaker diplomatic chief added that the former Serb province would be recognised as a ‘‘sovereign state under international supervision’’.

But opinion within Italy was far from unanimous. According to AGI:

‘Italy should not recognise Kosovo’s self-proclaimed independence and should not belong to the first group of countries to recognise the new state,’ said in a statement the minister for social solidarity Paolo Ferrero.

‘The decision made in Pristina, outside the UN framework, will further destabilise the Balkans. A region where the populations have been suffering for more than fifteen years from the effects of the war. The problem concerning the question of Kosovo is not side with someone against someone else, but to have at heart the reasons of peace and togetherness between the peoples.’

All the feel-good brouhaha in the media obscures the fact that Europe, and the EU itself, are deeply divided on the subject of Kosovo. After all the handshakes and photo-ops and bromides by President Bush the real trouble will begin.

According to ANSAmed:

United on the need to maintain stability and the European future for the western Balkans, including Serbia, but divided over recognising the independence of Kosovo.

It will be a difficult meeting, the one that the EU foreign ministers will have today in Brussels. Only a few hours after the declaration of independence by parliament in Pristina, they have to decide what to do after sending a civilian mission of 2,000 policemen and magistrates to Kosovo in order to assist its transition.

“Various EU member states are ready to recognise Kosovo,” Slovenian Foreign Minister and rotating president of the EU, Dimitrij Rupel, said specifying that the recognition is an individual act of each member state. And the EU does not want to be divided over a prerogative that it cannot even exercise. Therefore the EU presidency is working on a joint declaration that will only “take notice” of Pristina’s proclamation and will leave each member state free to act as they want.

Currently there are six states that have said that they will not recognise the new state: Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Greece and Spain. Madrid, which has already expressed its doubts, dismissed today all expectations to revise its position. “Spain will not recognise the unilateral proclamation of independence by the parliament of Pristina because it violates the international law,” Spanish minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said.

According to Madrid, the proclamation of Kosovo’s independence is an illegal act as it is made without an agreement between the two parties and outside of a UN mandate. “We do not know what the consequences of this act could be,” Moratinos added.

And what about the Kosovars? After we (meaning the UN) have done so much for them, they’re properly grateful, aren’t they? Now that we’ve proved we’re no Islamophobes, they love us — or do they?

Checkout this Swedish report from last June. It may not be up-to-the minute, but it’s unlikely that things have changed all that much since last summer. The author was reporting from Pristina:

“Revolution”, says Albin Kurti, emptying his cappuccino in one gulp, “we are going to make a revolution”. When he has said this for the third time people in the coffee shop start turning our way. They recognize him, they observe with expressionless eyes but prick up their ears.

He does not look like a revolutionary. More like an over-aged student from Berkeley. Somewhat chubby from hours spent at the computer, glasses, pale skin, soft white hands. But appearances can be deceptive. Albin Kurti is the idol of the young and that says a lot in a country where every second person has yet to turn 25. Ten years ago he had a Rastafarian hairdo and led the student protests against Milosevic. When peaceful actions turned out to be pointless he became a translator and an ideologue with UCK, the armed guerilla.

HE ALREADY HAS enough followers to poster the whole country with the word “Vetëvendosje”, (“self-determination”, which is also the name of his movement). Few people doubt that he could get the masses on to the streets.

Albin Kurti assures me that this revolution will be peaceful. One hundred thousand people will surround the headquarters, the police station and the court. They will stay as long as it takes. For a week, or maybe a month. That is how the colonial power will be chased out, this power that partitions his land, plunders its people and destroys its women. If I want to see where the Kosovo money went, says Kurti, I should look for newly built exuberant villas in London. Or in Amsterdam. If I want to learn about the morals of the colonial power I should count the number of brothels. “They were not here before you came.”

Outside jeeps pass by. The diesel-fuelled electric generators growl while Kurti quotes UN declarations, Malcolm X and African nationalist leaders. “Self-determination is the right of all peoples!” It could have been Congo in the sixties. But as I said we are in Kosovo, within a stone’s throw from Rome. And the colonial power, which will be thrown out — dear reader — is you and I. That is to say Sweden, one of the most dedicated members of the UN, who for seven years has governed Kosovo or in local slang “Unmikistan”, after UNMIK: United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo.

WHEN THE UN LANDED almost eight years ago we were welcomed as liberators. Since then Swedes have been wounded and killed in this mission. More then eight billion crowns of taxpayers money (the biggest assistance per capita ever recorded) has been spent on security, rule of law, refugee help, education and economic development. But nowadays it actually happens that people spit in our faces or destroy our cars. In October there was a water closet placed outside the UNMIK headquarters inviting us to relieve ourselves there instead of in the country. “The only way to keep Kosovo clean is to kick you out of here” was Albin Kurtis message.

So after nine years of UN “protection” the Kosovars loathe the UN. Funny about that.

And they can’t wait to get rid of the blue helmets:

BEFORE WE PART Kurti says: “Do you remember Algeria? The guys who threw out the French had “freedom, equality, brotherhood” on their banners. We will throw out the UN in the name of the UN ideals, ideals which you betrayed in Kosovo.”

Kosovo is an economic basket case, or at least the legal part of the economy is:

WELL INTO THE EIGHTH YEAR of the UN mission, after spending close to twenty-two billion euros on an area the size of Scania (with a population of about 2 million), the black economy is thriving whereas the white one is close to collapse. There is a standard explanation to this misery: As long as Kosovo’s independence from Serbia is not confirmed, nobody dares to invest in the country. Very probable. But what investments do you need to grow cucumber?

I comb the markets to find some local produce. The soap is from Bulgaria, the shirts from Taiwan. How about the flour? Czech. Drinking water from Hungary. Kosovo’s GNP per capita is lower than Rwanda’s, so it is a surrealistic feeling to have to buy tomatoes from Turkey and salad from Italy — in an agrarian country where the fields lie fallow.

Why do they? Because, explains Mr. Bajrami at the Chamber of Commerce, it pays better to sell chewing gum to the UN staff than to toil in the fields. But also because the UN courts after seven years still have not managed to determine to whom the fields actually belong. Finally, what makes him most upset is the fact that the UN allows Europe to dump prices on food in Kosovo. (Yes, it is strange. One litre of milk travelling from Slovakia gets cheaper on its way. You can buy a bottle of imported Coca-Cola for only 29 cents.)

[…]

How is it possible, you ask yourself, that a UN-run state, possessing enough lignite to light up the whole of Balkans, who invested seven hundred million euros in its two power stations, has not managed to generate sufficient electricity, but instead create pollution 70 times above the limit permitted by the EU? Kosovo does not require much electricity, somewhere between 600 and 1,000 megawatts, similar to what is produced by one reactor of the Forsmark nuclear power plant. But most people have electricity only a few hours a day, others not at all.

[…]

Let’s look at the stakes. Next to ethnic hatred, corruption is Kosovo’s biggest problem. It drains the economy and dilutes justice. But a handful of brave individuals chose to do exactly what the UN have told them to. They defy clan culture (“never tell on your kinsman”) and take big risks by agreeing to give evidence to the investigators. (One person has been murdered in connection with this bribery business. The kind of risks the used women are running I need not tell.) They deserve all admiration and support.

But what a misunderstanding. It seems the villains are the ones enjoying protection by the UN.

You have to say that the persons who put their trust in the UN learned a lesson they will never forget.

Now that Kosovo is its own master, expect it to give the UN the boot, all the while holding its hand out for more “aid”.

But then who will protect the gangster state from the Serbs and the UN? Who will guard the borders and run the air patrols? Whose high-tech equipment and “advisers” will be called in when the need arises?

I’ll give you three guesses.


Hat tips: LN for the DNet report, insubria for the rest.

38 comments:

Don M said...

There is only one solution for Europe. It has 3 parts.
1. Lower the tax rate.
2. Cut welfare benefits
3. Have more babies.

If this cunning plan is followed, then European Christians will be full up with productive people that can perform all jobs that need humans. More people after that will have great incentive to move to Islamic countries, and will be welcomed for their productivity, for their civilization, and for their manners. Governments of Islamic countries will prefer the taxes of European immigrants over the irrational, unproductive and violent local crop.

Anonymous said...

A good article on the recent history of Kosovo, as well as revealing the string of lies that went in the making of an Islamic Kosovo

Independence in the Brave New World Order
NATO's Kosovo Colony


By DIANA JOHNSTONE

http://counterpunch.com/johnstone02182008.html

Anonymous said...

Don meaker

This business of having more babies is not the answer.

Noone can compete in the birth stakes with muslims. How can we ask women to start having 6 to 10 children? Even if that were possible, it wont stop Muslims. All it will do is to leave a nation bulging at the seams racked in poverty, and the inevitable civil strife, leading to partition into Muslim and non-Muslim countries.

History Snark said...

One of the saddest things is the culture of corruption that the UN itself has created there. Pre-teen prostitutes? Who has the money to pay for them? The UN. Who turns a blind eye to it all- the UN.

Our friends in the UN are the biggest moral sinkhole in the world. So I have to wonder how much of the $22 billion has been squirreled away by the UN folks.

Oh well. Now that the Islamic Albanians have gotten a homeland in Kosovo, I'm sure that they'll stop running drugs, enslaving young women, killing those who disagree with them, and last but not least, agitating for a Greater Albanian Homeland.

Right?

Profitsbeard said...

Balkanization should always begin in the Balkins.

And with empty-headed politicians.

The terror portal to the EU has been founded.

And "recognized" by the blind.

Bela said...

dp 111 please remember, my enemies' enemies are not always my friends, sometimes they are my enemies too. To quote anything from Counterpunch (Cockburn)from this hardcore Stalinist thug and his cohorts is a bizarre endeavor on your part.
Your heroine, Diana Johnstone, according to Wikipedia:

Diana Johnstone (born 1934), is a leftist political writer, focusing primarily on European politics and Western foreign policy. Johnstone received a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota and was active in the movement against the Vietnam War, organizing the first international contacts between American citizens and Vietnamese representatives.

Are you going to glorify Codepink's Medea Benjamin too?
Why don't you move to Dailykos' site?

Charlemagne said...

Oil.

That is the only possible explanation I have for the irrational support of Kosovo independence by the US and key EU members. We have become so dependent on OPEC oil, especially Saudi oil, that our nations will do virtually anything our Wahabbi masters ask of us. President Bush himself is one of the worst sycophants I have ever witnessed. And his lieutenant Condoleeza Rice and her State Dept. Are just as dangerous.
Breaking this extremely dangerous dependency on OPEC oil is the only way to cut the legs out from the Islamists. US politicians MUST make the case for increased domestic drilling. I think Americans understand the threat that continuing to fund radicals only provides them the funds and political leverage to destroy us.

Bela said...

dp111 I found many articles contradicting Diana Johnstone Bolshevik inspired evaluation of the former Yugoslavia. If you want to be fair you must properly characterize your sources as to keep your readers well informed.

"PROVING GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA"

Rebuttal of Diana Johnstone’s Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions.

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to offer a rebuttal of Johnstone’s book Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions. Diana Johnstone is a writer who belongs to a group of left intellectuals commonly known as revisionists. Characteristic of this type of historical revisionism is a tendency to blame the U.S. government for the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Link:
http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/indictments/KocevicRebuttal.htm

Frank said...

I hope this doesn't return to bite me in the arse, but I should point out that Canada has not *yet* recognized the sovereignty of Kosovo. I can only hope I can say the same thing this time next decade.

It's fun watching the conceptual gymnastics in Europe. Italy recognizes it as a ‘‘sovereign state under international supervision’’? Huh? That's like recognizing my city as a ‘‘sovereign city under Canadian supervision’’. It's utterly meaningless under intl law, for whatever good "intl law" is.

Even more meaningless is this trite nonsense from France: “a great success for Europe, a great success for the Kosovars and certainly not a defeat for the Serbs.” Really? Just like the loss of Alsace and Lorraine were "of course certainly not a defeat for France?" Odd that they spent half a century seething about it. I wonder what they'll say to Brittany next time an independence movement flares up?

Mind you, it's a perfect way to demonize Serbia the same way Israel is demonized...and the European elites don't even need to step outside Europe to find the new "Zionists." Kosovo will fall flat on it's economic face, start exporting terror, and whose fault will it be? Need we ask?

Charlemagne said...

Scott are you aware of this coming Canadian disaster:
http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/canada-planning-to-take-85000-refugees-from-kenya/

Charlemagne said...

Scott - this disaster

Frank said...

No I wasn't. Good God.

Tuan Jim said...

I must remark that the article quoted reminds me of another country that recently gained independence after a long, violent struggle -- East Timor (Timor L'Este - whatever you want to call it).

While I'm certainly not condoning the initial invasion or the atrocities carried out by Indonesian troops and paramilitary organizations over the occupation period, since gaining independence, the Timorese haven't been able to do too much beyond repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot. Even now I don't see any likelihood of the Australian peacekeepers leaving in the near future.

Of course in this case, the Timorese are the "Christians" and the Indonesians are the secular muslims (not that it makes much difference in the big picture).

laine said...

"The Gaza strip of the Balkans", that about sums it up.

Just as in Iraq, Bush is trying to promote a Muslim state, any Muslim state, that will follow the democratic capitalist model, in the hope that the other Muslim states are inspired to remake themselves in a domino effect. Then the idea is that the standard of living rises and everyone is so busy buying stuff that they forget this crazy Israel extermination, world caliphate and suicide bombing business.

However, any state that makes Islam the state religion and sharia its legal system is doomed to failure as well as aggression to divert the populace from failure.

You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

X said...

I was struck by some urge to visit you-know-where and found a post pointing out the resemblance between the new Kosovo flag and some badge worn by some SS unit in world war 2. Never mind the long, deep history of the two-headed eagle in eastern europe and the areas south of the caucasus, lets call em nazis! As if there wasn't enough evidence of wrong-doing without having to destroy the credibility of an argument with spurious comparisons...

Why would they pick a two-headed eagle in an area where most of the flags bear a two-headed eagle? To look like nazis, or to look like they were part of the area? Do you think that an independent muslim state in, say, northern France would suddenly pick an arabic flag, or would they pick a tricolor-style flag to try and blend in for a bit?

And that's exactly what's happened. "Look," they're saying, "we're just like our neighbours, we've got the same sort of flag and everything! Surely you can't think we're dangerous, can you?"

Fellow Peacekeeper said...

That flag they use themselves, the red one with a two headed cockroach, is the national flag of Albania.

But, with "independence" they appear to have adopted a bosnia-alike euromasturbatory new one : blue and yellow with white stars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Kosovo

Design by committee at its worst. I imagine including the map of Kosovo is already maneauvering to preempt the logical subsequent succession of the Northern Serb districts.

Afonso Henriques said...

I tought you people had give up of reprting the situation in Kosovo.
I briefly stopped commenting here dued to the situation of Kosovo was unreported in Gates of Vienna.

I think such major blog in "the moviment" should have known better how to report the creation of the FOURTH MUSLIM STATE IN EUROPE!!!

I have to confess, I get a bit disapointed.

By the way, I got even more disapointed by your American government policies.

I found it shamefull for America, and to all the American people, that no American stand for the Serbs, or at least, no American got in the media stood for the Serbs, which is the same f*c*ing thing.

The least some Americans could do (and I believe that many Americans are against Kosovo's Independence, maybe 1 or 2 million off 300) was to get some attention to them but...

The present is black, the future looks even darker...

Afonso Henriques said...

"Thank you, President Bush, for this present to southeastern Europe. It’s a gift that will keep on giving for decades to come."

Come on Baron! You live in America, America is a democracy, the thing is, you are getting too European.

You can not escape your responsabilities, you can not blame Bush for it, you HAVE TO BLAME THE WHOLE AMERICAN PEOPLE, specially United States's Whites and even specially, the Democrats. It's the American people and not the president Bush honour and credibility that is at stake right now, I thought you Americans were a bit different from us Europeans, but... I am getting so much disapointed with all this. One usually say "Americans are idiots, so they are sorry" in a sense that Americans simply don't care about History, Culture, Foreign Lands etc. because they have such a great power to lead but sometimes, that is not a proper justification.

This is much worst than Hitler's invasion of Chekoslovakia.

i don't know if the American media showed it, but all over Europe images were showed with Albanians and American flags side by side in Kosovo.
Distastefull, I have never thought I was going to see in my lifetime such profanation of the American flag. If I were an American, I would prefer them to burn my flag.
That's just to show, how the whole of the American people is at stake, the American Nation, not just a simple President.

"Spain which has battled a violent Basque separatist movement for decades."
Well, it's not rally that violent.

"Serbia’s government has ruled out a military response as part of a secret “action plan” drafted earlier this week"
This is a f*c*ing casus belli!! For what other reason should we fighht for if not to protect our History, our Nation and our people?
If the Nationalist had won, corpses were in the floor in Pristina by now. Is it better to fight for oli, as in Iraq? I don't think so.

"Italy has decided to recognize Kosovo"
Now imagine if Italy was under Berlusconi. It would never happen.

kepiblanc said...

I'm extremely ashamed of my country, Denmark, and its claphat foreign minister, Per Stig Moeller. I wish he would go to Kosovo and stay there. Useless idiot.

spackle said...

Several days ago I sent an e-mail to the Serbian embassy here in the US to show my support for them in resisting Kosovo's independence. I suggest all like minded Americans do the same. If you want to see some graphic examples of Muslim atrocities against ethnic Serbs go over to Atlas Shrugs for the link. The worst were committed by a group called the "Mosque Doves". God help any Serb left in Kosovo because no one else will.

. said...

Somehow, Baron, you are a whole decade late in the recounting of the history that led to the declaration of an independent Kosovo. Here is a more complete recent timeline: http://www.slate.com/id/2184478, from which I quote:

As not everybody now remembers, the wars of Yugoslavia actually began not in Bosnia, nor in Croatia, but in Kosovo. The chain of events that led to the Srebrenica massacre and the bombing of Belgrade started there in the late 1980s, when late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic launched a series of repressive measures against this mostly Albanian, semi-independent, "autonomous province" of Serbia. These culminated in 1989, when Milosevic ended the semi-independence, revoked Kosovo's autonomy, installed a new police force, shut down Albanian newspapers, fired university professors, and generally inflicted economic and political chaos.

Milosevic's intention was to reassert Serbian and Orthodox dominance over Kosovo, the site of a historically significant battle between the Serbs and the Ottoman Empire in 1389 (the Serbs lost) and home to a genuinely substantial Serbian minority. The result? This week, nearly two decades later, Kosovo—an Albanian-speaking Muslim state in which, it's safe to guess, Serbs will be less than fully welcome and no Orthodox church will be safe from vandalism—has just declared independence from Serbia. A more eloquent demonstration of the law of unintended consequences would be hard to find.


Perhaps there is a lesson here for all of those who would wage mindless counter-Jihad.

David M said...

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 02/19/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.

Fellow Peacekeeper said...

Well, well, tpfkag, why not go back another decade further?

35 Injured as Police in Yugoslavia Break Up a Protest by Students REUTERS March 29, 1981

Student protests over cafeteria food? But at a guess that well have been misreported by the Yugo commie media which would have been loathe to ascribe unrest to nationalism. The next news article suggests it was the culmination of several protests ...

Belgrade Reported to Send More Troops to End Unrest AP April 5, 1981

That's Albanian nationalist unrest, (the first warm days of spring are apparently Albanian riot season)...

SACRED SERBIAN SITE DAMAGED BY BLAZE By MARVINE HOWE, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES April 21, 1981

They did not even wait for the verdicts before torching monasteries ....

EXODUS OF SERBIANS STIRS PROVINCE IN YUGOSLAVIA By MARVINE HOWE, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES Published: July 12, 1982

Ethnic cleansing, by Albanians, despite the oppresive powers of the communist Yugoslav state, in 1982.

And much much more from then until 1989. Indeed, Milosevic may never have come to power as a nationalist without the Albanians and their violence.

A LAND OF SERBS AND ALBANIANS AND TROUBLE ALAN COWELL, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES : April 29, 1987

Around this time communist peacemaker Milosevic became Serb nationalist troublemaker Milosevic

In Yugoslavia, Rising Ethnic Strife Brings Fears of Worse Civil Conflict DAVID BINDER, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES : November 1, 1987

Which states that As Slavs flee the protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationalists have been demanding for years, and especially strongly since the bloody rioting by ethnic Albanians in Pristina in 1981 - an ''ethnically pure'' Albanian region, a ''Republic of Kosovo'' in all but name.

The mind just boggles, no? Sometimes it seems there is nothing new under the sun. So cease and desist that "started in 1989 with Milosevic", because it is rubbish.

mikej said...

Charlemagne makes an interesting point in saying that oil is the only possible explanation for the irrational support of Kosovar independence by the US and key EU members. I would only add that, besides increasing domestic drilling, there's another simple measure that we could take: concern ourselves less with imposing a new government on Iraq and more with extracting Iraq's oil. After all, we did conquer the filthy place, didn't we?

Unfortunately, America seems not to be under the control of Americans. At least, the American government seems incapable of acting in the interests of Americans. Worse yet, it goes out of its way to oppose the interests of its own citizens, as in Kosovo and more recently in Pakistan. Can anyone explain this?

PRCalDude said...

Perhaps there is a lesson here for all of those who would wage mindless counter-Jihad.

Perhaps you don't know history, as fellow peacekeeper pointed out. There is never a single instance in the history of the West where the Muslims were not the first aggressors. Even when the Russians conquered central Asia and oppressed the Chechnyans under Stalin, it's very hard to have any sympathy for the Muslims given their history.

Afonso Henriques said...

Tuan Jim - Mea Culpa.

Timor Leste agony is partly my country fault.

Timor Leste (East, in Portuguese) is a country that has been a Portuguese colony since the XV century. Actually, all Indonesia was a Portuguese colony back then. We lost Indonesis in 1580 when the Spaniards anexated us and the Dutch atacked our colonies in Asia. We spent all the XVI century fighting the Dutch in Asia and all we got was the Easten half of the Island of Timor, Timor Leste. That's why Timorese are Catholics.
The thing is, during WWII Japan went over Timor and the Japanese killed some 10 to 20 percent of the population and virtually all the whites in order to be seen as liberators. Thr Timorese did not felt that way. Anyway, my government acted cowardly back then and never declared war upon Japan - we should have done it, specially after little boy was lauched.

The Americans gave Timor to us again and, our fascist governor (the same) was very greatefull. In 1974 there was a big revolution in Portugal to get the fascists out of government and to give independence to all the colonies.
In 1975 Indonesia invaded Timor with American support and you know the rest.
It has nothing to do with Kosovo.

Frank said...

The Poster Formerly Known as Gordon said...
Somehow, Baron, you are a whole decade late in the recounting of the history that led to the declaration of an independent Kosovo.


Unfortunately you're a whole half millenium late. Look up 1389, or 1489. The Serbs were chased out of their own homeland centuries ago by the Muslims, and this idiotic fiasco has helped set it in stone. Again.

Frank said...

Here's a good history. Given the pre-amble, it's remarkably evenhanded.

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~grjan/kosovohistory.html

History Snark said...

Stratfor just had an article a couple hours ago. It seems that the Serbs in Kosovo are now putting up a fight. And the UN had to intervene to protect the Albanian authorities, who were pretty helpless (so much for a state needing to be able to protect their own borders).

Long story short, it appears that part of Kosovo will secede and join Serbia. And there doesn't seem to be much that anyone will be able to do about it.

Law of Unintended Consequences indeed!

X said...

I wonder how long it'll be before the EU or someone else demands intervention to preserve kosovo's territorial integrity.

VinceP1974 said...

I think it's safe to say there will be no stop to the march of Islam.

If we were ever to do anything realy ballsy that really went against the Hydra... we'd be shut off from energy.

And we wouldn't have the balls to react to that, other than to cry in our hands.

In any case, the struggle really is about ideas and wombs and assertiveness.

The gatekeeper of ideas in the West are blind, deaf, and dumb... our wombs have been shut down and we dare not be assertive.

The metric for the war is the spread or contraction of sharia law.

Other than cab drivers and a town in Canada, I'm having a hard time thinking of any loses on the sharia side.

Once Sharia reaches a critical mass somewhere the Caliphate will establish itself.. and with it, the unquestionable Islamic authority to go to real war against everyone else everywhere.

Kosovo is one more step there.

Anonymous said...

Bela

Thanks for reminding me of Diane Johnstone. When I first read it, her name did ring a little bell, but unfortunately I ignored it - which was negligent of me. Thanks anyway for letting me know.

Yet the substantive points remain, that an internal conflict did not entitle the US and the UK to interfere

1. Albanians in Kosovo started the conflict, which led Serbia to take preventive measures.

2. The US then intervened by issueing Serbia the Rambouillet ultimatum, i.e., accept the seizure of a historic part of Serbia or face a war with the US. Going by memory, Secretary Albright issued this ultimatum immediately after her trip to Saudi Arabia.

3. Serbia was quite right in refusing to accept her dismemberment, and that led to a war on Serbia, in violation of the UN charter. This act led to expulsion of Albanians in Kosovo, and not the other way round.

4. Serbia’s eventual surrender to force, led to the occupation of Kosovo by KFOR, the ethnic cleansing of Serbs, and the destruction and vandalisation of churches in Kosovo. All this took place under the aegis of KFOR, and as the occupying power, it must bear responsibility.

5. US and UK (Blair and Cinton) involvement in Kosovo has internationalised a conflict that was primarily local in nature.

6. It has led to the founding of an Islamic state in Europe, with all that means for the extension of the Jihad.

The implications of an Islamic state in Europe are just as large as Turkey's entry into the EU. Both of these policies are supported by the US and the UK, for reasons that I cannot fathom.

Again, thanks for reminding me of Diane Johnstone, it was really quite negligent of me.

Anonymous said...

"Gaza of the Balkans" sums it up nicely. Thanks for the great post.

Anonymous said...

PS

Please see my comments posted here for a lot of relevent references.

I'm especially fond of this little gem.

Enjoy.

Unknown said...

First of all, you have to know that albania is not muslim and has nothing to do with islam. If we turn back in a retrospective and see who was the greatest fighter against turks during the 15 century we will find Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeu. He was the terror of turks. He fought without mercy and till he was alive turks were not able to reconquest albania. He now is the albania national hero. All Albanians are proud of him.Lets explain why Scanderbeg was so important for the western Christianity. When Mehmet II conquested Costandinople he started conquesting other lands in the balcans, as serbia was one of them. In this time Albania remained untouched cause of the bravery of Scanderbeg even that it was attached hardly. Mehmet II conquests where so large in land that his name changed to 'Mehmed II the conquester'. Scanderbeg died in 1468, but Albania resisted till 1478 when it falls to the turks cause of the 10 years siege. 2 Years later turks invaded Italy on the Ottranto War, making a massacre there. (you can read the full story in wikipedia). 1 year after Mehmet II died in 1481. The next sultan did not continue the expansion in italy couse of an internal fear of putch. So if Scanderbeg and albania had not resisted till 1980 than mehmet II would have more time and surely had have conquested italy. the heart of christianity.

Another Albanian that proves that we are not muslim is Mother Teresa.

Albania belongs to Europe. 65% of Albanians are atheists (exmuslims) 20% Orthodocs Christian, 10% Roman Catholics and only 5% practicant muslims as there are in all Europe.

VinceP1974 said...

From the CIA Factbook:

Religion in Albania:

Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%

note: percentages are estimates; there are no available current statistics on religious affiliation; all mosques and churches were closed in 1967 and religious observances prohibited; in November 1990, Albania began allowing private religious practice

VinceP1974 said...

gjergji:

I noticed that my comment might be seen as me trying to contradict what you said.

That wasn't my intention.. obviously you know you're country a lot better.

I was just providing some published info.

AlbKrist said...

VinceP1974,

You are right, cause you want facts not words.. We see the facts here as "gjergji" explained" i`m adding this information for you.


The majority of Albanians today are either atheists or agnostics. According to an official US Government Report [1]: "No reliable data were available on active participation in formal religious services, but estimates ranged from 25 to 40 percent.," leaving 60 to 75 percent of the population non-religious (or, at least, not practicing a religion in public).

Refrerences:

Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns," chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005)

Goring, Rosemary (ed). Larousse Dictionary of Beliefs & Religions (Larousse: 1994); pg. 581-584. Table: "Population Distribution of Major Beliefs

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