Kosovo Serbs, Balkan Palestinians by Wall Street Journal

Remember Kosovo? "Madeleine's war," Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansers, a million displaced Albanians and NATO's 78 days of bombing? So much history in the eight summers since has pushed this dusty Balkan plot off the map. But a relic of 1990s geopolitics is back in the headlines.

Caught between a pushy Kremlin, weak-kneed Europe and otherwise-occupied Washington, the Kosovars are being denied their happy ending. Unless the U.S. forcefully steps in to usher this province of two million to independence without any messy compromises, Southeast Europe could fall off track again, with nasty repercussions for everyone.

The Kosovo matter should've been closed by now. In the spring, U.N. mediator Martti Ahtisaari proposed internationally "supervised" independence -- the fervent desire of over nine in 10 Kosovars -- and protections for the remaining 100,000 or so Serbs. A year plus of diplomatic efforts went for naught when Russia last month threatened to veto the plan at the Security Council. The Europeans fast got Washington to sign off on 120 days of further talks. This empty concession punted the problem into autumn, encouraging Moscow and its Slavic mini-me cousins in Serbia to dig their heels in.

The U.S. and its allies have put billions in aid, political capital and boots on the ground to bring the former Yugoslav states to the doorstep of the West's elite clubs. Now comes the hitch. When NATO agreed to put its status in limbo at the end of the 1999 war and sent in a U.N. government, no one could know that a future President Vladimir Putin would turn Kosovo into a proxy for his larger fight with the West, along with missile defense and Iran.

Well-laid plans are in jeopardy. "Further progress depends on status. And if we don't get the status issue resolved now," says the U.N. administrator in Kosovo, Joachim Rücker, "there is actually a fair chance that the achievements we've made will start to unravel." Kosovo's Albanian leaders, who have popular legitimacy but limited powers, are sitting tight. This patience may not hold long. Fresh elections are due in November, coinciding with the end of the latest negotiation period. Pressure is on them to declare independence unilaterally.

Among the consequences could be that barely dormant ethnic nationalisms flare up. Kosovo's Serbs may try to cut away the northern sliver of the province, while Albanians feel emboldened to press anew for a "Greater Albania" uniting in a single state a nation currently scattered among four. Violence is a good bet. If it sounds like a recipe for another Cyprus, a 33-year-old frozen conflict to the south, then Moscow envoys have mooted the island as their model for Kosovo's future. The Balkans would then be harder to digest for the West. Which, naturally, suits Russia fine.

A different Europe might unite in response to the Kremlin's provocation. This one is splintering, as in the early 1990s also over the Balkans. Britain wants to push ahead on independence, while the Germans fear antagonizing Moscow. In between, the French claimed the diplomatic lead and pushed the three-month delay. Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister and the U.N.'s first "governor" of Kosovo after the 1999 war, stunned his hosts during a recent visit here by pointedly refusing to rule out a partition of Kosovo. Maps showing what an ethnically divided province might look like have been passed around for years. The Kouchner omission made people wonder how far the EU is willing to go to get a Security Council resolution in order to cover up its own divisions -- divisions that President Putin ably exploits.

Kosovo's Albanian leaders claim to put their faith in America. Prime Minister Agim Ceku tells me that Washington shares his commitment to eventual independence ("Serbs in Kosovo, yes," says Mr. Ceku, "Kosovo in Serbia, never") and no partition of the province. "From my point of view," he says, "nothing has been left to negotiate." But this former military man, who fought for Croatia against the Serbs and then returned home to lead the Kosovo Liberation Army in 1999, isn't naïve enough to think the final decisions have been made. Or that his little province has great control over the outcome.

"Russian resistance blocked the process," Mr. Ceku says. "They're just using Kosovo to prove they are a superpower again." Partition is so sensitive that, at first, Mr. Ceku refuses to talk about it. Pressed, he says, "If we start redrawing borders in the Balkans, the big question is where do we stop? . . . The Europeans have to be more careful."

Kosovo's Albanians aren't the only community held hostage to big power politics. Over the Iber River, around 50,000 Serbs live in their own limbo. In the seven years since I last visited the divided city of Mitrovica, little has changed. Over a bridge from the Albanian quarter, the Serbian dinar is used instead of the euro and all the cars have Serbian license plates. Belgrade insists these Kosovars boycott government institutions in Pristina, and calls all the shots in the U.N. negotiations, with little input from ethnic kin in Kosovo itself.

Kosovo Serbs are the Palestinians of the Balkans -- useful pawns who could soon, if Western will flags, get their own Gaza strip. Oliver Ivanovic, a community leader who right after the war organized special teams to guard the main bridge linking the town, says no Serb can accept independence for Kosovo. But tensions are less visible. What happened to the bridge watchers? "No need anymore." He acknowledges that the promised devolution is a good deal for the Serbs. "We oppose the Ahtisaari plan, but we're not going to say it would be worse. If it is implemented, it would be better than it is now," he says.

Any move to split off the region north of the Iber would be costly for the Kosovo Serbs, too. Just over half the Serbs live in the Albanian-majority regions. Without the Ahtisaari protections, another exodus to refugee camps in Serbia would be likely -- not an image that anyone, save perhaps for Moscow, should welcome.

Such an ending would be uglier still were Albanian separatists in Macedonia and Serb separatists in Bosnia -- two of the most uneasy multi-ethnic constructs in the Balkans -- encouraged to follow Kosovo's lead. Far better, says analyst Dukaghin Gorani in Pristina, to bury "Greater Albania" and other nationalist dreams for good and anchor the southern Balkans in the EU. "Boring Occidental politics" would then take the place of "the old joy of Balkan politics of ethnic cleansings and murders."

International shuttle diplomacy between Belgrade and Pristina planned for the coming weeks is pointless. Absent a sudden regime change in Moscow, America and Europe ought to see the writing on the wall and plan for an orderly, unilateral Kosovar declaration. Giving up hope of a U.N. blessing for independence, Mr. Ceku wants to set a date for "a coordinated declaration with the U.S. and EU, if possible, and key countries in the EU or" -- now bringing his expectations closer in line with reality -- "a significant number of countries in the EU." NATO troops and funds must stay, along with minority protections. Kosovars would, however, be better off with less "supervision" and greater leeway to, in the words of opposition leader Hashim Thaci, "build a new state." After all, the stress in self-determination ought to be on self.

At stake isn't Serbian national sovereignty but liberty for the Kosovars. This province was part of Yugoslavia, a state that no longer exists; Serbia effectively lost its claim in the 1990s.

The EU plays softly-softly with Belgrade, even recently restarting talks toward eventual membership. Instead, Belgrade should be given a stark choice: a future in league with Russia, or the EU and NATO. Kosovo is the test.

From the moment Madeleine Albright pushed for military intervention, Kosovo became an American-led nation-building project. Of the ones currently on the docket, it ought to be the easiest, too. At the command of 2,500 peacekeeping troops in the southeast, Gen. Douglas Earhart says Kosovo is "where we'll like to be in Iraq and Afghanistan." Accepted by both Serbs and Albanians, America's advantage is not to be European. "We don't have a history in the Balkans," he says.

Calm now, Kosovo can blow up unexpectedly. Three years ago in March, Albanian-led riots left 19 dead and forced hundreds of Serbs to flee. The job isn't finished. "This is one of the places," says Gen. Earhart, "you have to see through to the end."

Mr. Kaminski is editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe.

Julia Gorin lies and fabrications

Finally some of US soldiers stationed in Kosovo decided to speak and end Julia Gorin lies once for ever. On their blog called The Liberty Zone they analyze every single lie Julia written regarding situation on Kosovo. So they conclude:

It is difficult to say where Ms. Gorin is getting her erroneous information, or whether she’s simply using her rather fertile imagination as a substitute for checking facts. However, her claims of what, in essence, are NATO-run concentration camps are simply untrue.

And there are more misrepresentations and outright lies. Gorin quotes a 2000 Washington Post article in order to paint the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA, as a continuing influence in the region. She calls the KLA “violent, jihadist, narco-terrorist mafiosos” which “has continued arming itself in the event that the province isn’t granted independence this year.” The truth, according to those actually on the ground – those who know the truth – is quite different.

“[The] KLA is not alive and well. It no longer exists as a military organization,” says Multi-National Task Force (East) Chief of Staff, Col. Damon Igou. “However, there are legitimate government institutions that employ some of the former members of the KLA. The KPS (Kosovo Police Service), and an organization similar to our National Guard, the KPC (Kosovo Protection Corps). These organizations are multi-ethnic, professional and legitimate and employ many former members of the KLA that meet their rigorous standards.”

We are not politicians. We are Soldiers. We do our jobs to the best of our abilities, and we have kept the situation stable and secure in Kosovo on our watch. To claim otherwise … to twist the facts, publish outright lies and accuse our brave troops of turning their backs on genocide that is allegedly going on right under our noses is unforgivable and unacceptable, as well as outrageous and disrespectful to those who serve.

As for Soilder who did write letter to Julia Gorin here is real truth after some investigation:

The Battalion Commander of the Soldier in question had a conversation with the troop upon seeing this letter. According to the conversation account, the Soldier is currently in combat stress counseling - not because of anything he has encountered here, but because of problems back home. "I believe he's a good troop," writes the Battalion Commander, "but was manipulated by Gorin while he is under tremendous amount of stress due to personal tragedy at home." The Soldier also admitted he knew of no U.S. Soldiers killed in Kosovo on our rotation. He further conceded that he knew of no Serbs who were hurt in our area of operations, nor any that have been denied freedom of movement. He told his commander that he had not realized Ms. Gorin was going to "take everything he said seriously and 'word for word'."

UPDATE: Ms. Gorin is quite the liar. Her latest blog entry says the following:

I was just about to publish the third letter from an American soldier in Kosovo when the military command discovered his correspondences with me and now he’s in deep doo-doo because our government doesn’t want you to know what’s going on in Kosovo. But the following excerpt from said letter is relevant here:

If these people are ready for independence, how come they don’t clean up their streets, towns, and cities, and remove the trash that has been sitting on the curb for several weeks to several months (the smell is getting to me)?…A lot of us feel like the Albanians here don’t really care nor give a crap about this place by the way they treat their countryside. Trash, filth — driving out into sector is a plethora of pungent aromas from burning trash, sewage, and God only knows what else. I suppose that’s because they really don’t know if this land will be theirs or go back to Serbia, but still. It doesn’t look good for them to want independence yet do nothing to clean up their community. Granted they are still very poor and don’t have the services we’re used to at home, garbage disposal, a good public health department to ensure that the living conditions are up to par, it still doesn’t give them the reason to just say “screw it”.

Interesting. No one has said this Soldier was in any kind of trouble at all. Did they? Nope. He's getting help from a counselor for his personal issues, but nothing has been said about "deep doo-doo." Hmmmm. Oh yes, there are OPSEC violations in his letters, but as far as I know, talking with your Battalion Commander does not constitute "deep doo-doo." Here's your prime example of how this woman twists the facts to suit her own agenda. Nice, eh?

ADDED IN RETROSPECT: I have to laugh... this woman doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to admit her mistakes. She doesn't have the guts to reply to anything that is posted here or on Brad's blog. She simply fabricates stories and claims "government conspiracy" as an explanation for her lies.

Here's your tinfoil hat, Julia. You've earned it.

Read rest of articles HERE and HERE

Israeli or Kosovo garbage?

Julia Gorin is again shocked by amount of garbage in Tirana Albania in her latest post , but in her post she parallel Tirana garbage situation with some US soldier letter from Kosovo. Looks like both of them forget that Tirana is in Albania and Kosovo is soon to be independent state. But never the less garbage is garbage in any country, but how about Israeli garbage how do they dispose of it? Throw it on Arabs looks like, that must be Israeli great civilization and humanity which they want to show to world.

Only one comment Julia "First clean in front of your house, before you look at other houses"

Israel plans to dispose of garbage on Palestinian land in the West Bank, and a Palestinian official immediately denounced it Monday as violating international law, saying, "We are not a dumping ground."' It will ruin all our groundwater, and it will pollute the air we breathe,' said a resident on the proposed landfill Israel plans to use to dump trash. The dump is to be built in a Palestinian quarry between the Jewish settlement of Kedumim and the West Bank town of Nablus, said Adam Avidan, a spokesman for the military's civil administration. The site is already being used. On Monday, there were thousands of tires, plastic bags full of household trash and plastic beverage bottles mixed in with construction debris in the old quarry.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the plan violates international law. "We are not the dumping ground for Tel Aviv's garbage," he said, adding the Palestinians would complain to Mideast mediators and the World Health Organization. International law prohibits a state from using occupied territory unless it benefits the local population, experts say. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war.

The law means residents of occupied territories "are supposed to maintain the normal life they had as much as possible," said attorney Reuven Laster.

"If you're talking about trash from Israel and depositing it on the other side of the line, you're certainly reducing their quality of life, and you're doing it as an occupier," he said, and that "doesn't look good under international law."

Avidan said the landfill didn't violate international law because Palestinians would also be allowed to use it. It's not the first time Israel has exported its refuse to areas over its 1967 borders, but this dump is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Avidan said. Four Palestinian villages stand within one to two miles from the landfill. On a hill about 500 yards away stand thousands of olive trees.

"It's scary what they're doing. It will ruin all our groundwater, and it will pollute the air we breathe," said Nasser Salman, from the nearby village of Kotzin. "They can't build a landfill near the olives and almonds we eat."

Avidan and Environment Ministry spokesman Sharon Achdut said those concerns were unwarranted, because the landfill is to be sealed and is to take only dry waste, and not household refuse that could pollute groundwater.

But an Israeli contractor authorized by the Kedumim council to operate at the site before the landfill was approved dumped household garbage and tires there over the past six months without sealing it first, Avidan said — a fact that calls into question the military's ability, or resolve, to keep environmental hazards out. The civil administration has issued orders to close the landfill until the Israeli contractor, D.S.H., removes the household waste it buried and seals the quarry floor, Avidan said.

D.S.H., the Kedumim Council, and Baron Park, the settler-owned company building the landfill, did not return calls seeking comment.

Kosova is Kosovo

In the last war in Kosova, the Serbian Criminal State killed around 14,000 Albanian people. Near 90% of them were unarmed civilians. The defenseless. Mainly children, women and old-aged men. Around 3.000 people were kidnapped and are still missing.
The overwhelming number of them are in Serbia. Near to 20,000 women were raped. 740,000 people were violently expelled. 120,000 houses were destroyed or damaged by the Serbian Criminal Army.

The distinctive aspect of the war was the destruction of Kosova's economy. The extreme exploitation and robbery of the 1990s culminated with purposeful destruction during the war.

Conclusion:

There is no alternatives to Kosova Independence, never again Kosova under Terrorist State of Serbia

WARNING: This video shows the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience. Parental discretion is advised.
This video was created for the sole purpose of educating those not aware of the horrors that occured in Kosova during the years of 1998-1999.

Kosovo: Serbian lies and deceptions

Julia Gorin on her latest blog posts try to use satirical quotes fro other comedians since she is clearly doesn't fit in comedian category, but using quotes like this:

So… it got me to thinking… There are a bunch of Kanadians (proof that this quote was written by Serb) who really like the island of Manhattan… we were thinking of coming down there en masse, breeding up huge families, setting our psycho and sociopaths loose on you, and then applying to the UN to start a new country… you figure it’ll work?

Is again deception for her readers, Albanians from Kosovo DIDN'T "come down" to Kosovo, they live on that land long before 7th century when Serbians came from Karpat mountains, and Kosovo is recognized in history autochthonous Ilyrian. For longer explanation you can look HERE

The Albanian language derives from the language of the Illyrians, the transition from Illyrian to Albanian apparently occurring between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. Ilyrian culture is believed to have evolved from the Stone Age and to have manifested itself in the territory of Albania toward the beginning of the Bronze Age, about 2000 BC. The Ilyrians were not a uniform body of people but a conglomeration of many tribes that inhabited the western part of the Balkans, from what is now Slovenia in the northwest to and including the region of Epirus, which extends about halfway down the mainland of modern Greece. In general, Ilyrians in the highlands of Albania were more isolated than those in the lowlands, and their culture evolved more slowly a distinction that persisted throughout Albania's history.

Kosovo was occupied during Balkan wars (1912-1913) in contradiction with the aspiration of the Albanians, expressed during their national liberation movement 1878-1912. In this manner Serbia, in spite of getting the “international legitimacy” for the occupation of Kosovo, in no way was able to justify the legitimacy of its act. In addition to this, Serbian possessive attitudes towards Kosovo which refer to history are unfounded.

Spain “had conquered all Latin America in the beginning of XVI century. Neither do “Russians ever mention their historic rights over Ukraine”. Historic arguments speak very clearly that “Serbs were placed in Kosovo with their expansion under the rule of Nemanjics’”.

That Kosovo was not part of Serbia can be proven by the following historical and political facts: Kosovo was not part of the independent sovereign state of Serbia with its international personality recognized in the Berlin Congress (1878); Kosovo was not part of Serbia in the Second AVNOJ Congress (1943); Kosovo was not part of Serbia during its establishment as a federal unit in the Anti-Fascist Popular Liberation Council (1944); Kosovo was not part of Serbia in the structure of Constitutional Assembly of Yugoslavia when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was founded (1945). Kosovo was not included in the sovereign Serbia, except in federal Serbia within federal Yugoslavia, during the military occupation of Kosovo (1945).

The future of Kosovo cannot be compared with secessions in some other parts of the world. The states that remain reserved towards Kosovo independence should be mindful of this fact. They should instead look and find the “common ground” between Kosovo and certain other countries of the world, which have agreed to the removal of sovereignty over other territories. In this regard, the relations between Kosovo and Serbia are comparable with the relations of Indonesia and East Timor. As it is well known, East Timor was occupied and annexed by Indonesia in 1975, contrary to the will of Portugal as the external sovereign, a fact which makes the annexation of Indonesia unlawful. In 1988 Indonesian government recognized the right to self-determination to the East Timor people. Singapore is another example that should be taken under consideration. This country was partitioned from Malaysia in 1965. The example of Eritrea is also meaningful for Kosovo. It was the Ethiopian government that recognized the right to self-determination to Eritrea in 1991. The case of Kosovo is also similar to the case of Namibia. Partition of Namibia from South Africa and its independence occurred in 1991.

At the end here is quote on which I can agree with Julia Gorin satiric comparison of Serbia and basketball:

I’ve read a bit of history and, for the past 10 years or so, I’ve thought that the world’s outrage against Serbia fits the “second foul syndrome” in basketball: Player A repeatedly holds, elbows, and fouls Player B, and gets away with it because the referee doesn’t see him fouling. Finally, Player B refuses to take it anymore, has his Donald Duck moment, and retaliates against Player A. Only problem is, the referee NOW sees Player B’s retaliatory foul, and calls a foul only on him.

But our Julia was in hurry and she forget to remind people that Player A actually is Serbia ...

Lack of Intellect with Guns

Today top story by Julia Gorin is called Intellectuals with Guns about Albanian intellectuals who want to speed up process of Kosovo Independence in which they stated:

“If the resolution of the Kosovo issue keeps being postponed,” Veliu threatened, “very soon, we will join UCK soldiers, first at big protests in order to internationalize the issue and then, if necessary, we will win Kosovo’s independence with weapons.”

Julia is calling them thugs who want Great Albania, but again without any proof at all. Albanian intellectuals simply gathered to speed up the process of Kosovo’s independence and they called all Albanians to gather around this program. Yes they stated they will fight if necessary but that is simply a response to their Serbian neighbors who are preparing to some "holy crusade war".

Serbian nationalists plan to form a paramilitary unit to prevent ethnic-Albanian Kosovo from gaining independence from Serbia, a report said Monday. Zeljko Vasiljevic, president of the Serbian veterans organization, said the nationalists will create a “Christian militia” to fight Kosovo’s ethnic-Albanians, who are mostly Muslim, the Belgrade daily Danas reported.

About 200 people gathered Saturday outside a Serbian Christian Orthodox church at Krusevac, 120 miles south of Belgrade, to set up the Guard of Prince Lazar, named after the leader who lost the 1389 Kosovo battle to the Ottoman Empire. Serbia was under Turkish rule for 500 years.
Vasiljevic said police arrested 27 men dressed in black T-shirts with the insignia of the Serbian Red Berets special police unit, known for its activities in the 1990s Yugoslav ethnic wars. Members of the disbanded Red Berets are currently on trial in Belgrade charged with the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in March 2003.

Ahtisaari bribe allegations

Another lies have been published in Julia Gorin blog, and this time she is using "reliable" sources and made-up stories. Funny thing is that all, "reliable" sources came from Serbian side like Serbianna.com she even linked Defense & Foreign Affairs alleged confirmation but link is actually blog called SerbBlog.

In that accusation she mentioned report by By Valentine Spyroglou, GIS Station Chief, South-East Europe and that report came from Alan Peters Newsbrief Exclusive. By checking GIS info and contacting Pamela von Gruber, Director of GIS, by telephone in the US it is confirmed they don't have employee named Valentine Spyroglou, specially in South-East Europe.
By checking more we found that mysterious Spyroglou exist only on Serbian blog's where he is mentioned as source for some questionable reports, but he is regular writer to late war crime accused Slobodan Milosevic website. So this obvious lie is lowest kind of Serbian propaganda machinery. Second lie is actual reporter Alan Peters from Newsbrief Exclusive who also as Valentine Spyroglou is mysterious person, he doesn't exist in any news agency which can be found on Internet, again he only exist on some Serbian blogs like SerbBlog.

Julia Gorin is making another lie which is quite funny she claim:

The Finnish News Agency, STT, published on June 26 and June 27, 2007, two articles stating that the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo was “bought” by the Albanian mafia in order to support independence for Kosovo.

But actually Finnish News Agency, STT published story as "Serbia's Dulic calls for inquiry in Ahtisaari bribe allegations", and agency made clear from who allegations came in first place.

Al-Qaeda on Kosovo

A shameful article written by Julia Gorin on American Thinker is accusing Kosovo Albanians as part of Al-Qaeda organization on Kosovo. Without any proof Julia Gorin try to hide real truth that Kosovar's was oppressed by Serbian government and she even try to hide war crimes under some "holy war" against Kosovo Muslims. But truth is opposite, there is no Al-Qaeda on Kosovo only in mind of Serbian propaganda machine which will do anything to grab land which doesn't belong to them historically in any way. Here is some of brave Serbian "holy war" victim's:

A few months old baby was found covered with a blanket in Abri e Epërme Village of Drenica. The baby was one of the members of the Delijaj family that was killed. The Serbian authorities claimed that only terrorists were killed. Does the above victim look like a Al-Qaeda terrorist?








Even this image look like scenes from horror movies it is actual images of Serbian war crimes on Kosovo Albanians.

Below you can find pictures of civilians killed by the serbian troops in 1998 only. Since they are very disturbing, we do not recommend viewing them if you are under 18 and / or sensitive.

Massacre in Rogove Village. January 1999.

Massacre in Reçak, Nerodime. January 1999

Massacre in Abri e Epërme, Drenicë. October, 1998.

Massacre in Lybeniq, Drenicë. Summer, 1998.

Massacre in Prekaz, Drenicë. February, 1998.

You can find additional information on the "Human Rights Watch" page, links listed below:

http://www.hrw.org/hrw/press98/dec/kos1211.htm
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/kosovo2/
http://www.hrw.org/hrw/campaigns/kosovo98/photo_2.htm
http://www.hrw.org/hrw/campaigns/kosovo98/index.htm

Battle on Kosovo

If a Web site were created just to record the daily lies of world leaders, politicians and quazi bloggers like Julia Gorin, overwork would soon wipe out its staff. But sometimes a week delivers such breathtaking dishonesty that someone has to step in to award them. Here goes:

The liar's medal for the last week in June 2007 goes to Serbian "patriots" who sought to march into Kosovo to remind the world of Belgrade's historical claims to that wretched territory - based on Serbia's defeat by the Ottoman Turks in 1389.

File this one under "What They Don't Tell You." Yes, the Serbs suffered a military calamity at Kosovo Field, where the better-disciplined Turks made short work of them. In the Serbs' national myth, Prince Lazar and his warriors were stalwart defenders of Christianity, embodying a great Serbian tradition that endures to this day.

What those Serb nationalists (who brought the world Srebrenica genocide and still protect war criminals) leave out is that, a mere seven years later, in 1396, the Turkish sultan, Beyazit the Thunderbolt, slaughtered a huge Christian army at Nicopolis. And he did it with Serb help.

Christian knights from France, Burgundy, Flanders, England, Bohemia and Hungary had united in a last crusade to drive the Turks from Europe. The Turks crushed them - as their new Serb allies delivered the coup de grace against their fellow Christians, then chilled out as thousands of prisoners were beheaded.

Nicopolis set the conditions for a Muslim military presence in Europe for the next five centuries. Thanks, Serbia but please don't help us again.

Another reader comment on poison posts by Julia Gorin

The continued references to Kosovo's government being 'Islamic' or 'Muslim' in nature are pure ignorance. Kosovo has been a secular society for nearly a century- in fact, more secular than the U.S.A. is today. Most Kosovars under the age of 50 today have never seen the inside of a mosque and know nothing of Muslim teaching and faith. They are in fact bewildered by these characterizations from western reporters and politicians.

Over the years, and in this report, there has been mention of al Qaeda ties to Kosovo. There is also the belief that the KLA were Islamic fundamentalists. Islamic Jihad. Where is the proof or even substantive evidence for either accusation? There is none.

As someone who travels to Kosovo frequently I wonder how and where the reporters who report such an image get their information or if they ever even leave their hotels. The politicians who visit obviously see only what confirms the opinions they arrived with.

The propaganda portrayed here regarding Albanian society, an Islamic government and violent connections with terrorists serves only to heat up the region for another war. Serb military and paramilitary forces committed brutalities against Albanians, which rival the most gruesome of the last century. The documentation is irrefutable. The Serbs still deny this, and reports like this are a de-facto sympathy for the Serb position.

As to an Albanian urinating on a church, I am disgusted at the display of disrespect. Revenge is on the minds of many Albanians. Albanians did their share of ugly retaliation. They all lived through a decade of martial law, massacres and a brutal war. People don't just get over this.

But a large majority has tried to put it behind them and is building institutions in their society to ensure a peaceful and productive future. I can provide many examples of this.

Reports like this which simply turn a blind eye to the big picture and give sympathy to one side serve only the purpose of continuing the cycle of hate and, as I said earlier, increase the possibilities for renewed war.

And another comment from US soldier :

This article is another attempt by Serbia to fool the world into believing that Kosova is an Islamic state similar to Iraq or Iran. Luckily, most intelligence people, including military people such as I, who have served in Kosova, recognize the Serbian propaganda for the pure hateful junk that it is. Serbia knows it has lost Kosova and is making a dying attempt to reverse time.

Is Julia Gorin communist ?

While Julia Gorin cry over Albanian blog poster on Huffington Post who seems cannot forget communist regime under Enver Hoxha, tyrant who declared Albania"the world's first atheist country,".

Erion Veliaj is acting just like Mr. Kokalari who used to write letters to the Congress and other representatives inviting Citibank and other big investors "not to go in Albania because it's communist"... so now you're basically saying "don't go to invest there at all becouse we have Chavez". Thus the end result is that you, the so called "Albanian-Americans" patriots don't do anything about the wellbeing of the country.

While Erion Veliaj cry because there are no McDonalds or ClubMeds in Albania, Julia Gorin use proven method to comment his post. She use quotes from comments of that post but funny she use only partial quotes to avoid viewing the whole meaning of comment. So her firsts quote is:

Dude, you must be paid a pretty penny by the Serbs,or Greeks to talk like that about Albania, its political past and future under Sali Berisha or any other Albanian leader. You should be ashamed calling yourself Albanian…

But that same user continues:

in a time when most of the EU countries and USA are trying their best to help the Albanian Cause, it's people like you that damage the immage of all good that is done during these transition period in our country. Nobody is perfect , but than what would you expect from a country that has no history in democracy, and its leaders were ex-communists until few years back. Do you think that they could become angels overnight. Look around the neighboring countries,in Greece they abuse the Albanian emigrant on daily basis, in Macedonia the Albanians had to pick up arms to defend their existence, and you know well what happened in Kosova. Now it is time for being united as ever before like George Kastrioti did 5 centuries ago, not the time to bicker about little problems that should be overshadowed in the big picture. But people like you, surely paid by the UDB, or other secret service police couldn't stay in place but have to spill venom like a snake. I say to you-- god bless and maybe one day you will understand how wrong you were, but I think that will happen when they stop paying you and your name will be posted like an informer on our newspapers.

After that Julia in her almighty godly powers bring protection by saying:

May God protect Erion Veliaj as his group does its important work.

I'm not sure which god Julia, because you obviously lost compass and even you don't know which god you are prying. For sure it is not Jewish god because you protect Serbian crimes over Jews , and antisemitism in Serbia today as I show you in this post here and here. If is it God of orthodox church read this to see what is expected from you. But I think you are unbeliever a simple small, pity communist from Odessa, USSR where your hearth belong.

At the end of mentioned blog post again Julia use only sentence what Erion Veliaj commented but again she forget to put whole answer. Why is that? Yes because Erion is mention Serbs and Greeks oppression and tyrant's. Here is complete quote:

I can't comment on UDB, communist, serbs, greeks and all that nonesense - the unfortunate thing about many of us Albanians is that we're too busy fighting with ghosts. Because, if you Mjolti truly cared about Greek violence, you should have joined one of the MJAFT protests in Tirana, Fier, London about the incident - or better even organize a protest yourself wherever you live, or call your congressman, or call to the Helsinki Committee in Congress. (where MJAFT has testified against another appalling premier named Fatos Nano). Now, this would be patriotic wouldn't it Mjolti? And yes Valerie, i too can't wait to be Mjaft-ed out, as I feel rather exhausted fighting it out with a few committed colleagues who left their cozy NY apartments to deal with the Berisha's and Nano's of Albania. But that would mean that, you Valerie, and others who disagree, actually DO return to Albania, and bring your better and brighter ideas, to not only boot us out, but most importantly to work on the ground so that fundamental rights are respected and concrete progress is achieved - only then will you have a good story to sell for Albania. And then, you may realize that shooting the messenger and cyber-nationalism may not quite be the most effective ways to generate change.
Last, my email erionveliaj@mjaft.org may be a better way to redirect hate speech and paranoia. This way we spare western readers from more nasty 'image of albania' rhetoric, where folks are vilified for standing up for any principle.
Cheers,
Erion Veliaj

However, Mr Veliaj or anybody else like you or who may encourage you to write like this can not divert the real talk, the real issue, the most important issue, the imminent need for United Nations Security Council to adopt a new resolution on Kosova, based on Ahtisari recommendations and give Kosova, its so much deserved, and long waited: Freedom and Independence.

Kosova and Albania and Albanians in the Balkan and everywhere in the world, unlike some of their neighbours, Serbia, Greece, or Russia, will always support, be with and for America and Britain for many generations to come.

Kosovo: From Ideology to Aggression

Jovan Cvijic (1865-1927) is considered the founder of modern geographic science in Serbia. He did extensive research and writing on Balkan geography. He had a great knowledge not only of the geography of Serbia and the surrounding regions but also of the history and current events of those areas. There is no one work of Cvijic that can be set aside as some kind of geographic doctrine for the Greater Serbian idea, but his political inclinations regarding Serbia’s expansion can be seen throughout his body of work.

First, some of Cvijic’s general thoughts on Serbia’s need and fitness to dominate the surrounding areas. Here he displays a great deal of emotional involvement in the subject at hand:

“. . . all Serbs were inspired by high national morale and a desire to avenge the old defeats and found a new, even larger state.”

(Cvijic, “Balkansko Poluostrvo i juznoslovenke zemlje, osnove antropogeografije, I, Zagreb 1922.)

“The world must know and realize that Serbia can operate with a much larger entity that the territory it now holds. The greatest possible territorial transformations may take place with Serbia. And we must not flinch from this fear pouring into the world if it is useful to our national interests.”

(Cvijic, “O nacionalnom radu”, commemorative speech 1907, reprinted in Govori i Clanci, I, Beograd 1921 p. 51-76).

He has the following to say on Serbia’s need and ‘right’ to an Adriatic outlet:

“. . .the aspirations of Serbia for the Albanian coastline are justified and conditioned not only by geographic but also by historic tradition.” “. . .for economic independence, Serbia must acquire access to the Adriatic Sea and one part of the Albanian coastline: by occupation of the territory or by acquiring economic and transportation rights to this region. This, therefore, implies occupying an ethnographically foreign territory, but one that must be occupied due to particularly important economic interests and vital needs. Such occupation might be called an anti- ethnographic necessity and in such a form it is not against the principle of nationality. In this case it is all the more justified because the Albanians of northern Albania came about through a merging of the Albanians and Serbs.”

A memorandum presented to the Royal Yugoslav government which outlines methods for removing Albanians from southern Serbia - a blueprint for ethnic cleansing

Vaso Cubrilovic (b.1897) was a historian, teacher and politician. As a youth he was in the Young Bosnia political movement and was involved in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. After the war he was a high school teacher and professor in Belgrade. He was also a political adviser for the royalist government of Yugoslavia. After World War II, he became a member of the Communist Party and as such held various posts in the Federal Yugoslav government. He was also a member of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Cubrilovic presented the following memorandum to the Stojadinovic government in 1937.

While it deals with a specific topic, the expulsion of Albanians from southern Serbia, it also expresses Serbian paranoia at losing land or their perceived dominance in the Balkans. It shows the Machiavellian lengths some Greater Serbian ideologists will condone and employ to reach their goals, all of which is apparent in the present conflict. It is also interesting to note that many of the measures Cubrilovic suggests were and still are being used by the present Serbian regime in Kosovo.

Without a doubt, the main cause for the lack of success of our colonization in those regions was that the best land remained in the hands of the Albanians. The only possible way for our mass colonization of those regions was to take the land from the Albanians. After the war, at the time of the rebellion and actions of the insurgents, this could have been achieved easily by expelling part of the Albanian population to Albania, by not legalizing their usurpations and by buying their pastures. Here we must return again to the gross error of our post-war concept about the right to possession of the land, instead of taking advantage of the concept of the Albanians themselves about their ownership of the land they had usurped-scarcely any of them had title-deeds issued by the Turks, and those only for land purchased, to the detriment of our nation and state, we not only legalized all of these usurpations, but worse still, accustomed the Albanians to Western European ideas of private property. Prior to that, they could never have had these ideas. In this way, we ourselves handed them a weapon to defend themselves, to keep the best land for themselves and make the nationalization of one of the regions most important to us impossible.

Besides this block of 18 districts, the Albanians and other national minorities in the other parts of the southern regions are dispersed and therefore, not so dangerous to our national and state life. To nationalize the regions around the Sar Mountain means to bury any irredentism forever, to ensure our power in these territories forever.

As we have already stressed, the mass removal of the Albanians from their triangle is the only effective coursefor us. To bring about the relocation of a whole population, then the first prerequisite is the creation of a suitable psychosis. It can be created in many ways.

As is known, the Muslim masses, in general, are very readily influenced, especially by religion and are superstitious and fanatical. Therefore, first of all we must win over their clergy and men of influence, through money or threats, to support the relocation of the Albanians. Agitators to advocate this removal must be found, as quickly as possible, especially from Turkey, if it will provide them for us.

Another means would be coercion by the state apparatus. The law must be enforced to the letter so as to make staying intolerable for the Albanians: fines and imprisonments, the ruthless application of all police dispositions, such as the prohibition of smuggling, cutting forests, damaging agriculture, leaving dogs unchained, compulsory labor and any other measure that an experienced police force can contrive. From the economic aspect: the refusal to recognize the old land deeds, the work with the land register should immediately include the ruthless collection of taxes and the payment of all private and public debts, the requisitioning of all state and communal pastures, the cancellation of concessions, the withdrawal of permits to exercise a profession, dismissal from the state, private, and communal offices etc., will hasten the process of their removal. Health measures: the brutal application of all the dispositions even in homes, pulling down encircling walls and high hedges around houses, rigorous application of veterinary measures which would result in impeding the sale of livestock on the market, etc. can also be applied in an effective and practical way. When it comes to religion the Albanians are very touchy, and thus they must be harassed on this score, too. This can be achieved through illtreatment of their clergy, the destruction of their cemeteries, the prohibition of polygamy, and especially the inflexible application of the law compelling girls to attend elementary schools, wherever they are.

Private initiative, too, can assist greatly in this direction. We should distribute weapons to our colonists as need be. The old forms of cetnik action should be organized and secretly assisted. In particular, a tide of Montenegrins should be launched from the mountain pastures, in order to create a large-scale conflict with the Albanians in Metohija. This conflict should be prepared by means of our trusted people. It should be encouraged and this can be done easily once the Albanians revolt; the whole affair should be presented as a conflict between clans and, if need be, ascribed to economic reasons. Finally, local riots can be incited. These will be bloodily suppressed with the most effective means, but by the colonists from Montenegrin clans and the cetniks, rather than by means of the army. There remains one more means, which Serbia employed with great practical effect after 1878, that is, by secretly burning down Albanian villages and city quarters.

Hence, if we want the colonists to remain where they are, they must be assured of acquiring all the means of livelihood within a few years. We must ruthlessly prohibit any speculation with the houses and properties of displaced Albanians. The state must reserve for itself the unlimited right to dispose of the fixed and movable assets of the people transferred and must settle its own colonists there immediately after the departure of the Albanians. This must be done because it will rarely happen that a whole village departs at once. The first to be settled in these villages should be the Montenegrins, as arrogant, irascible and merciless people, who will drive the remaining Albanians away with their behavior, and then the colonists from other regions can be brought in.

Julia is happy again ...

She is glowing in the dark, the UN asked Albanians in Kosovo to change their flag, whic obviously made Julia happy on her comments in Politcal Mavens column here are quotes:

KOSOVO must give up the black-on-red, double-headed eagle of the Albanian national flag and reflect the multi-ethnicity of the region.

But under a Western-backed United Nations plan for a Kosovo state, the new symbols must reflect that the region is also home to 100,000 Serbs as well as Romany and Turkish minorities.

So here is my suggestion to Albanians, accept this UN proposal and add this serbian flag so that you never forget what happened on Kosovo, so that generations know who to blame ... here is my idea what you need to add to flag.



Julia please tell us which flag is this and what doest it represent , and No Julia it isn't Pirates of the Caribbean

Kosovo untold Julia story

In her latest fairy tale on Political Mavens, our bellowed comedian and expert for Balkan pointed again some things and used well known method to show Kosovo people as "muslims" and enemies of whole world. But did she offer anything to confirm her story. As usually NO. She claim that opposite things happened in Kosovo, Serbs was expelled not Kosovari. Even she knows (or maybe paymaster didn't tell her) that Serbian government did send Croatian refugees on Kosovo they came, sell their by Serbian regime given properties and they left but that is another story. So lets elaborate for Julia a little what happened on Kosovo and remind her because the whole free world know only she need this remind.

In the Spring of 1999, NATO launched an air war against Yugoslavia to stop Serbs from terrorizing Albanians. The ethnic cleansing of Kosovo expanded and intensified despite military intervention by the international community. The U.S. State Department reported on ten broad categories of human rights violations in Kosovo: forced expulsions, looting, burning, detentions, use of human shields, summary executions, exhumation of mass graves, systematic and organized rape, violations of medical neutrality, and a new type of ethnic cleansing, identity cleansing.

At the end of the 20th century, war waged between armed soldiers dressed up in uniform fighting only against each other is extremely rare. The trend now is that 90 percent of war-associated casualties occur in the civilian population. In Hague, the UN has assembled the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia which is investigating the genocide in Kosovo. The War Crimes Tribunal will test the reach of international law and the will of governments to bring high officials to justice.

On the 26th of June 1990, Serbia intensified its cultural, social and economic persecution of Albanians and, when the Kosovan assembly tried to block it and instead propose the recognition of Kosovo as a republic, the Serb controlling the assembly adjourned the meeting.

On the 2nd July 1990, when the Kosovan assembly was not recalled as promised, it met anyway and declared Kosovo a republic, to which Serbia responded by dissolving Kosovo's government. On the 7th September, a democratic constitution for a sovereign, independent Kosovo was made public, which was accepted by referendum in 1991 and on the 24th of May 1992, secret voting elected a democratic government for Kosovo.

From then on, the Serbian government's harrying of Kosovo Albanians was carried into every aspect of life and when Serbia attacked Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bosniak and Albanian identities were collapsed into a singular "Muslim" identity, as they were caricatured as Islamic fundamentalists set on holy war against Christian Europeans. Under Rugova's leadership, Kosovo Albanians responded by appealing for international intervention, employing non-violent resistance and maintaining an autonomous administration, complete with education and health systems, funded by a voluntary tax on emigres.

By the time Milosevic had withdrawn his troops from Kosovo, NATO troops had entered and the UN Kosovo Force (KFOR) had been mobilised in June 1999, in addition to the 10,000 people who had been killed and the 800,000 who had been displaced , 70,000 of Kosovo's 500,000 homes had been reduced to rubble and 207 of its 609 mosques had been damaged or destroyed .


On March 24, 1999, the eyes of the world turned to Kosovo as aircraft from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization began to bomb targets in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The start of NATO's air war against Yugoslavia was also the beginning of the bloodiest period in Kosovo since the end of the Second World War. In the twelve weeks that followed, Serbian and Yugoslav military, police, and paramilitaries expelled more than 850,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, internally displacing several hundred thousand more.1 Many were robbed and beaten as they were forced from their homes, which were frequently looted and burned. Scores of women were raped. Thousands of adult males were detained, and many of them were executed, in some cases together with women, children, and the elderly, although the total number of civilians executed is still unclear. In more than a dozen mass killing sites, government forces tried to hide the evidence by destroying or removing bodies. The brutal campaign against ethnic Albanian civilians came to a halt only after the withdrawal of Yugoslav soldiers and Serbian police and paramilitaries and the entry of NATO forces on June 12, 1999.

Despite the scale of the displacement during 1998 and early 1999, many observers believed Kosovo, with its 90 percent ethnic Albanian population, would be exempt from large-scale ethnic cleansing, if only for the practical obstacles to the expulsion of an entire people. In ethnically-mixed Bosnia and Herzegovina, and contested areas of Croatia where no one ethnic group had an absolute majority, the expulsion of one ethnic group was a means of consolidating control over that territory by a rival group. By contrast, Kosovo with its overwhelming ethnic Albanian majority had experienced a steady outflow of its Serb population over preceding decades, with Belgrade resorting to forced resettlement of Croatian Serbs in an attempt to reverse the migration of Serbs out of the province.



A second explanation for the "ethnic cleansing" is that it was designed to destabilize the neighboring countries of Albania and Macedonia. In March 1999, the young state of Macedonia, with two million inhabitants, at least 25 percent of whom are ethnic Albanian, was widely perceived as unstable and, at the same time, as a pivotal country for regional stability. The mass influx of refugees from Kosovo could easily have disrupted the fragile ethnic balance, if not destablized the entire country.

More than eight years after the end of the war, the total number of victims killed between March and June 1999 remains unclear. Although the explanations for the lack of clarity in the death toll are straightforward and common to many post-conflict situations, the total number of dead remains one of the most controversial aspects of the war. Ultimately, however, what matters is not whether the dead number 5,000 or 15,000, but that large numbers of civilians were targeted for execution by Serbian and Yugoslav security forces.

The more direct reason for the uncertainty, however, is a deliberate attempt on the part of the Serbian and Yugoslav government to destroy evidence and remove bodies. Both the ICTY and Human Rights Watch have documented cases where bodies were disinterred and removed from the crime scene, in an apparent attempt to conceal the killing. A radio documentary broadcast on National Public Radio in the United States on January 25, 2001, called Burning the Evidence, claims that Serbian and Yugoslav forces systematically transported the bodies of Kosovar Albanians to the mining complex at Trepca near Kosovska Mitrovica, where they were incinerated. Citing Serbian fighters and "a well-placed Serbian intelligence officer," between 1,200 and 1,500 bodies were destroyed at Trepca, according to the report. So I ask Julia does she hide something in her closet.

Who was responsible?

As Madame Justice Louise Arbour pointed out, the indictment handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in May 1999 marked the first time a sitting head of state had been charged "during an on-going armed conflict with the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law." On May 27 1999, the Tribunal announced the indictment for war crimes in Kosovo of Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president until he was overthrown in October 2000; Serbian President Milan Milutinovic; Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic; Dragoljub Ojdanic, Chief of Staff of the Yugoslav Army; and Vlajko Stojiljkovic, Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs. All were charged on "three counts of crimes against humanity and one count of violations of the laws or customs of war" (ICTY press release, May 27 1999). Massacres and other atrocities at Racak, Bela Crkva, Velika Krusa, Mali Krusa, Djakovica, Crkolez, and Izbica figured in the indictment, with 340 individuals given as the preliminary list of victims -- overwhelmingly men who had been summarily executed.

The specific charges against the four Serbian leaders are that they conspired to commit:

1. Murder, a crime against humanity, punishable under Article 5(a) of the Statute [of the Criminal Tribunal], and also a violation of the laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of the Statute (namely a violation of Article 3 common to the 1949 Geneva Conventions);

2. Persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, a crime against humanity pursuant to Article 5(h) of the Statute [of] the Tribunal; and

3. Deportation, a crime against humanity, punishable under Article 5(d) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Many others in the mafia-ridden Serb regime played a crucial role in planning and perpetrating the atrocities in Kosovo. Down to the operational level, Yugoslav military commanders stood by as the notorious paramilitary forces, who had done most of the gendercidal dirty work in Bosnia and Croatia, were sent in to "cleanse" and destroy Kosovar communities. In many ways the strategy was that adopted, on a far vaster scale, by Nazi forces towards Jews, Soviet males, and others on the eastern front during World War Two (see the case-study of the Jewish holocaust). In both cases, the measures were designed to allow the regular military to maintain something of a "hands-off" approach to the worst of the atrocities, while still ensuring that the crimes were carried out. It is an important feature of the Tribunal indictment that Yugoslav Army Chief Dragoljub Ojdanic is among those accused of war crimes in Kosovo, just as recent scholarship on the fate of Soviet POWs and Jews has increasingly tied the regular German army to the genocides committed against those groups. The chain of responsibility for genocidal and gendercidal actions in Kosovo therefore extends from the Serb leadership down to the paramilitary units that carried out the murderous commands, and the regular army officers who looked on approvingly.

At the time of writing, it was unclear whether the Tribunal's indictment would be extended to include the charge of genocide. In the view of Gendercide Watch, the indictments should be aggressively pursued, and broadened to include the genocidal actions of the Serb leadership in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995.

In October 2000, a huge mass movement succeeded in toppling President Milosevic from power. His successor, Vojislav Kostunica, became the first Serb leader to acknowledge guilt for the genocidal atrocities inflicted upon Bosnians and Kosovars, stating: "as a Serb I will take responsibility for many of these ... crimes." (See "President Admits Genocide", The Sydney Morning Herald, October 25, 2000.) Shortly afterwards, however, Kostunica issued a statement claiming he had been misquoted (see "Kostunica Denies He Admitted Serb Atrocities in Kosovo to CBS", The Chicago Tribune, October 27, 2000.)