Kosovo's independence...

[akell]

Bunch of crazies. WW1, Soviet, Milosovic, now attack US Embassy. Why? :roll:

[Ibrahim]

Po kukat Rusia, po kallet Serbia URIME TE QOFT KOSOVE PAVARSIA

[AuLoNa]

Kosovo is Serbia! WE (russian people) are with Serbs forever!

Провозглашенная независимость - беспредел, который творит Америка и её прихвостни. Всем известно для чего это делается, и не ради албанцев стараются америкосы, они преследуют только свои интересы.

You should be with serbs, they are your siblings, that's where they came from, that is not a mystery. You are right, that there is interests in everything, that's not a mystery, interests were not discovered yesterday. But so does Russia have interest in Serbia, not only now, but it has been for centuries. The problem in Balkans started when the Slavic nation arrived in 6-7AD. Now lets not bend things cause we like. And forget also the ancient history, lets talk about modern time, which Serbs as so proclaim to be civilized, where in humanity have they shown that. With all the neighbors they caused atrocities and pain. So in a way, Serbia lost everything all by itself, cause they have no clue how to act in a humane manner in a modern time, and no one will stand for that.


Translation:

Вы должны быть с сербами, они - ваши родные братья, это - то, откуда они прибыли, который не тайна. Вы правы, что есть интересы во всем, это не тайна, интересы не были обнаружены вчера. Но так делает Россия имеет интерес в Сербии, не только теперь, но и это было в течение многих столетий. Проблема в Балканах началась, когда Славянская нация прибыла в 6-7AD. Теперь позволяет не, сгибают причину вещей, которую мы любим. И забудьте также древнюю историю, позволяет разговору о современном времени, который Сербы

[AuLoNa]

we will throw your ass out just like we did in the 1960's from Albania, and you even left submarines and military stuff,

yes, and now, you will get the american submarines and military stuff....



So, the only real history was writen by the albanian nacion? Only? In the all world? DDDDDDDDDDD

No I never claimed that the history was written by Albanians, that is your myths that you have written history. But as I said the time for myths is gone, and the reality has come to light. People are more educated and can do research themselves without you and me barking here. on the contrary I think from all the nations, Albania as one of the most ancient ones, it's history was buried by all the superpower that tried to vanish it, but I guess no one has succeeded. As I said no matter what the truth at the end prevails even over pain and sufferings.

[AuLoNa]

Bunch of crazies. WW1, Soviet, Milosovic, now attack US Embassy. Why? :roll:

Serb nationalists brought their own downfall to themselves, cause they refuse to abide by the standard of modern world when it comes to human rights. What is more funny is that they have a voice to speak, when all their atrocities are seen all around their neighbors what they did. And as modern as they call themselves, they forget that today everything is recorded and it 's shoved in the face. But who can you talk too to a bunch of crazy nationalists. It is expected from them to blow steam that is no question about it, but the only problem that they have as a nation is that they just don't do it in a peaceful way, and with the over the top protests yesterday which was organized by their government and Russia behind as always they destroyed them selves, no one else. And more over in the eyes of the world it was once again made clear why Kosovas Independence was granted in the first place. What a shame one of the protesters was killed yesterday too, burned. Me and my mom prayed for him and his family, even though my people have suffered so much atrocities, cause we do not see people as christian or muslims, or budhists, we are all people of God. I am part Orthodox my self, but too me this people just go over the top with the religions crap from both sides, is just an ideology and nothing else. If you want to be a God's person, than do good by humanity, and you'll be fine. You don't need a name such as Christian or Muslim or whatever other religious are there, to be labeled and than you will go to heaven or whatever. Anyway this is my two sense, Kosova will never be under Serbia, the sooner the Serbs accept that the sooner things will be better for them, and enough with Kosova cradle of Serbia, as Albanians were there, prior to everyone else.

Thank you to all that support us.

[Ric Lindsey]

..I am a retired US Marine and Im sickened by the corrupt politicians that rule my country and tries to impose it's ajenda on other nations..As for Kosovo and those stinking traitorous Muslem Albanians that live there,I hope the Serbs do the right thing and finish what they started,,it is Serbian land and was stolen by the mass illegal imigrants,the Albanians..
..During WWII it was the Serbs that stood up to Hitler,it was the Serbs who rescued and died while hiding American pilots,it was the Albanians that killed the American Pilots and turned them over to the Nazis..Us Americans have a hella way to show gratitude dont we.. :evil:

[AuLoNa]

..I am a retired US Marine and Im sickened by the corrupt politicians that rule my country and tries to impose it's ajenda on other nations..As for Kosovo and those stinking traitorous Muslem Albanians that live there,I hope the Serbs do the right thing and finish what they started,,it is Serbian land and was stolen by the mass illegal imigrants,the Albanians..
..During WWII it was the Serbs that stood up to Hitler,it was the Serbs who rescued and died while hiding American pilots,it was the Albanians that killed the American Pilots and turned them over to the Nazis..Us Americans have a hella way to show gratitude dont we.. :evil:

You are very wrong my friend, and do not make that evil face it does not suit you. Why don't you read some history, and see that Serbs got Kosova in 1913 when Albania was partitioned by the big powers. You should be ashamed, if it wasn't for Skenderbeg and the Albanian warriors the western world and Vatican today would've turned into Kostandinopul aka Insambul and we had to pay a bigger price than anyone. It was the Serb Prince that betrayed the coalition in the war against Kosova, not the other way around, and from that time forward the whole Balkans was just a piece of shit. You should be embarrassed calling as Muslim terrorists, as you know terrorists can also be christians, such as Timothy McVay who use to be in the army. Now individual incidents or group incidents happen all over the world, hell here in America, we have the biggest school shootings, are you blind too see, but when a government ethnic cleansing is done in a whole population that just crosses the line of human rights that you my friend marine are fighting for. So when you talk my dear try to sound more logical than hateful. Serbs have always used Russias power to oppress the people of Balkans. Albanians have been not only where Kosova is today but more further, so do not jump to conclusions when you are so ignorant of history. Now how so Serbs where so much better to you and we were not.. :roll: , weren't the Albanian muslim decorated recently by the World society for saving thousands of Jews in WWII. SO we killed the americans, but as a muslim nation saved the Jews, wow you must be really high on something. Also we Albanians never identify ourselves so much with the religion than our nationality, it is engraved on us by our forefather, the Religion of Albanian is Albanism. This is known fact even by bigger historians. We are not immigrant in Serbia we are the oldest people in Balkans, open some books will do you some good. So what happened in Bosnia, what happened in Croatia have you seen these or where you in deep sleep at the time. Do you know that these so called fighter of Christianity the Serbs that talk about Albanians burning their churches, what happened when they killed the Croats and burned their churches, what happened to their Christianity. My dear friend I don't want to say we are perfect, but compared to the Serbs you bet your ass we are.

Have a nice day...

[AuLoNa]

Belgrade smash 'n' grab becomes YouTube smash hit


BELGRADE (Reuters) - A video of two young women looting with gay abandon during rioting in the Serbian capital Belgrade was becoming a Balkan smash hit on the video-sharing Web site YouTube on Friday.

Police arrested some looters but public humiliation by YouTube may prove a far more painful punishment for the pair, whose spree on Thursday night was also aired on local television stations and was being discussed across the Internet.

A persistent amateur cameraman followed the women as they loaded up with chocolates at a corner shop, came out giggling, then went after designer bags, shoes and clothes at Belgrade's swankiest stores in its vandalized main shopping street.

"Get lost, stop filming," one of them shouted, so laden down with booty that clothes and bags dripped to the ground amid the broken glass below emptied storefronts.

"But you are the heroines of this protest for me," the cameraman replied sarcastically above the din of burglar alarms.

Looters seized their chance as rioters attacked Western embassies during a mass rally to protest at U.S. and European support for Kosovo's independence.

The second woman covered her face with a pair of looted shoes when she saw she was being filmed.

"Have you found your size yet?" asked the cameraman.

YouTube viewers were not amused.

"Shame on you," was the general message of hundreds of comments about the women's behavior, though most used unrepeatable vocabulary.

The video was entitled "Swapping Kosovo for a pair of sneakers" and the person who posted it, "Gvantanamo," gave a description:

"Belgrade bimbos exploit unrest to steal from smashed-up boutiques without the slightest shame. They are so greedy they even have to carry things in their teeth."

The next day text-message jokes about the video and the looting swept around Serbia.

"Swap you 11 left Nikes for 11 left Reeboks," read one.


Here's the video, make sure you read the response. I am glad you are showing the world who you are. You just even destroyed your own country forget anything else.


Kosovo za patike
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5VWZoKWBYXE

[jellou]

KOSOVO IS SERBIA!!! 4EVER

[Stefan]

There are a lot of indices that Kosovo's independence was sponsored by narcomafia's money and soon there will be a lot of curruption scandals in EU.
Also 90% of narcotics in Europe come through Kosovo.

[Bovenoid-RUS]

U all have a different sources 4 this topic. Beleive me, it's not simply isolation of Kosovo from Serbia. Many places of the world awaits of this thing to do something similar. And it's not so good 4 Kosovo, cause it's not democracy with it's popular meaning; it's not good 4 Serbia with it's revolts of ppl.
P.S.: Please, thing about the beginning of WW1... Europe. East Europe.

[Bovenoid-RUS]

Kosovo is Serbia! WE (russian people) are with Serbs forever!

Провозглашенная независимость - беспредел, который творит Америка и её прихвостни. Всем известно для чего это делается, и не ради албанцев стараются америкосы, они преследуют только свои интересы.

You should be with serbs, they are your siblings, that's where they came from, that is not a mystery. You are right, that there is interests in everything, that's not a mystery, interests were not discovered yesterday. But so does Russia have interest in Serbia, not only now, but it has been for centuries. The problem in Balkans started when the Slavic nation arrived in 6-7AD. Now lets not bend things cause we like. And forget also the ancient history, lets talk about modern time, which Serbs as so proclaim to be civilized, where in humanity have they shown that. With all the neighbors they caused atrocities and pain. So in a way, Serbia lost everything all by itself, cause they have no clue how to act in a humane manner in a modern time, and no one will stand for that.

Translation:

Вы должны быть с сербами, они - ваши родные братья, это - то, откуда они прибыли, который не тайна. Вы правы, что есть интересы во всем, это не тайна, интересы не были обнаружены вчера. Но так делает Россия имеет интерес в Сербии, не только теперь, но и это было в течение многих столетий. Проблема в Балканах началась, когда Славянская нация прибыла в 6-7AD. Теперь позволяет не, сгибают причину вещей, которую мы любим. И забудьте также древнюю историю, позволяет разговору о современном времени, который Сербы

Клёвый перевод
Cool translation, u know

[Me from Kosovo]

There are two things that I hate in this life! Nationalisem and Serbs Cheers for the Kosovo Indepenence!

[AuLoNa]

KOSOVO IS SERBIA!!! 4EVER

Ok keep dreaming, man get a nap... :lol:

[AuLoNa]

There are a lot of indices that Kosovo's independence was sponsored by narcomafia's money and soon there will be a lot of curruption scandals in EU.
Also 90% of narcotics in Europe come through Kosovo.

Well now aren't all the governments mafia, stop with these ridiculous statements, will not get you no where. For some country to just accuse one country for mafia and drugs and prostitution is a total hypocrisy.

[AuLoNa]

Kosovo is Serbia! WE (russian people) are with Serbs forever!

Провозглашенная независимость - беспредел, который творит Америка и её прихвостни. Всем известно для чего это делается, и не ради албанцев стараются америкосы, они преследуют только свои интересы.

You should be with serbs, they are your siblings, that's where they came from, that is not a mystery. You are right, that there is interests in everything, that's not a mystery, interests were not discovered yesterday. But so does Russia have interest in Serbia, not only now, but it has been for centuries. The problem in Balkans started when the Slavic nation arrived in 6-7AD. Now lets not bend things cause we like. And forget also the ancient history, lets talk about modern time, which Serbs as so proclaim to be civilized, where in humanity have they shown that. With all the neighbors they caused atrocities and pain. So in a way, Serbia lost everything all by itself, cause they have no clue how to act in a humane manner in a modern time, and no one will stand for that.

Translation:

Вы должны быть с сербами, они - ваши родные братья, это - то, откуда они прибыли, который не тайна. Вы правы, что есть интересы во всем, это не тайна, интересы не были обнаружены вчера. Но так делает Россия имеет интерес в Сербии, не только теперь, но и это было в течение многих столетий. Проблема в Балканах началась, когда Славянская нация прибыла в 6-7AD. Теперь позволяет не, сгибают причину вещей, которую мы любим. И забудьте также древнюю историю, позволяет разговору о современном времени, который Сербы

Клёвый перевод
Cool translation, u know

Well I tried, is not my first language.... :lol:
Хорошо я попробовал, не мой первый язык... :lol:

[AuLoNa]

U all have a different sources 4 this topic. Beleive me, it's not simply isolation of Kosovo from Serbia. Many places of the world awaits of this thing to do something similar. And it's not so good 4 Kosovo, cause it's not democracy with it's popular meaning; it's not good 4 Serbia with it's revolts of ppl.
P.S.: Please, thing about the beginning of WW1... Europe. East Europe.

I know what you mean, but Serbs cause always problems, and that is not right. Is not enough that they are there as comers from different territory, but to enslave people that have been in those lands for more than 5000 years and even make them outsiders, that is ridiculous. Well they can go ahead and start whatever, people will not stay aside cause Serbs are bullies.

[Mihu]

There are a lot of indices that Kosovo's independence was sponsored by narcomafia's money and soon there will be a lot of curruption scandals in EU.
Also 90% of narcotics in Europe come through Kosovo.

Can you provide at least one proof?
All these fights and demonstrations are so stupid.. in the end for common people nothing will change.. they will go everyday to work, come home, eat sleep and shit. And it absolutely doesn't matter who wins the debate.. every individual is independent from his birth and can live his life the way he wants to.. why fight for things that don't really matters? Does it really matter how will you call yourself Albanian or Serb, in the end all we are humans that live on the same planet under the same sun, breath the same air and each of us want to be happy...

[AuLoNa]

There are a lot of indices that Kosovo's independence was sponsored by narcomafia's money and soon there will be a lot of curruption scandals in EU.
Also 90% of narcotics in Europe come through Kosovo.

Can you provide at least one proof?
All these fights and demonstrations are so stupid.. in the end for common people nothing will change.. they will go everyday to work, come home, eat sleep and shit. And it absolutely doesn't matter who wins the debate.. every individual is independent from his birth and can live his life the way he wants to.. why fight for things that don't really matters? Does it really matter how will you call yourself Albanian or Serb, in the end all we are humans that live on the same planet under the same sun, breath the same air and each of us want to be happy...

They can't prove anything, that's the problem. Anyway here's just a small version of the history of Balkans, not that Albanians ever complained until they saw that they were being enslaved by newcomers in their own land.


Although Belgrade has, for the time being, ruled out using military force to keep Kosovo, some of the Orthodox Church leaders have urged Serbia to retake Kosovo militarily. As usual, Russia has given its unconditional support to the Serbs, who, after so many deaths and so much suffering, still seem to believe in this "ancestral homeland" theory. So, the question is: Is this a myth or has it got any historical foundation?

In about the tenth century BC (long before the Slavs made their appearance on the Balkan scene), the Illyrians (of Indo-European origin), ancestors of modern Albanians, occupied a sizeable expanse of territory in Europe, which included not only the whole of modern-day Albania but also Kosovo.

In 168 BC, it became part of the Roman Empire. The conquered Illyrians rendered distinguished services in the Roman legions. It is also interesting to note that some of the most important Roman emperors, like Diocletian and Constantine the Great, were of Illyrian origin.

Although Hun and Visigoth incursions, in the period between the third and the fifth centuries, devastated the Roman Empire, they did not make lasting alteration to the ethnic composition of the Illyrian-speaking territories of the empire. But the Slav invasions, which started in the sixth century, completely transformed the ethnic structure of the area in approximately one hundred years.

Croatia, Serbia, Dalmatia, Montenegro and parts of Macedonia became Slav-dominated territories. Only the Albanians (including the Kosovars) survived as the direct descendants of the Illyrians.

Towards the end of the 12th century, Kosovo was conquered by the Serbians and annexed to Serbia. Despite efforts by the Serbian religious and political authorities to build many Orthodox churches and monasteries and to settle Serbs in Kosovo, its population remained predominantly Albanian. In this context, it is worth stressing that the Albanians and their ancestors had been living in Kosovo for more than two thousand years before any Serb ever set foot on its soil.

In 1389, a decisive battle was fought between the invading Turks and the Serbs, in which the Serbs were defeated, thus paving the way to the conquest not only of Kosovo but also the whole of Serbia by the Ottomans. The memory of this battle (the battle of Kosovo) is probably what gave birth to the Serbian myth of Kosovo being their "ancestral homeland."

After nearly five hundred years, as the military power of the Ottomans started to decline, the Serbs fought for independence and, finally, with the help of the Russians, Serbia became a fully independent country in 1878.

At the end of the second Balkan War in 1913, Serbia militarily occupied Kosovo, and at the end of the first World War in 1918, the peacemakers confirmed the annexation of Kosovo by Serbia because of Serb participation in the war on the Allied side and also to satisfy the Serb claim to their "ancestral homeland," thus sowing the seeds of ethnic dissension for the future. (This was the original sin committed by the West, which was in a way redeemed by President Clinton's decision to bomb Yugoslavia to save the people of Kosovo from genocide in 1999).

A new term, "Turk," was invented. It did not refer to ethnic Turks alone. Its wider connotation also included the Slav Muslims, who spoke Serbo-Croatian, and, of course, the Albanian-speaking Kosovars. Due to popular uprising by ethnic Albanians, Kosovo achieved autonomous status within Serbia in 1946.

During the days of Tito (1945-1980), who was a pragmatist, the people of Kosovo were allowed to manage their affairs and use their language as the medium of instruction. Tito's death in 1980 changed all that.

It was Milosevic, the Serbian dictator, who revived the "ancestral homeland" and "sacred rights to Kosovo" myths, and exploited the already existing anti-Albanian feelings among the Serbs to capture power. In April 1987, he visited Kosovo and declared that Kosovo was the heartland of the Serbian people and the ethnic Albanians were mere usurpers.

In 1989, he abolished Kosovo's autonomous status, put the entire province under Serb paramilitary rule (later replaced by the Yugoslav federal army), sacked tens of thousands of Albanians from their jobs, introduced an apartheid system, prohibited the use of Albanian as the medium of education and started a vigorous campaign of ethnic cleansing against the civilian population with the intention of emptying Kosovo of ethnic Albanians. The subsequent events that led to the birth of Europe's newest nation are well known to every one.

[avnillapi@hotmail.com]

Kosovo is a Serbian territory with historical Serbian cultural memorials. Now there is continued eradication of Serbian culture and religion in Kosovo. Serbian population in Kosovo is being terrorized and is forced to run away from their homes.

First of all, Kosovo has never been Serbian, and Serbs have never been the majority. You came from north and pushed away the Albanian population from their homes, last time you did it was not less then 9 years ago. You expect them to live under Serbian rule? What if Serbs elect another "slobo-minded" person as the radicals were almost close to win the last elections, what then? Sorry... Kosovo has chooses its way and its not under Belgrads umbrella.

I wish the Kosovar ppl a happy day on their Independence day tomorrow, you deserve it.

[avnillapi@hotmail.com]

Kosova ska qen dhe s'do te jet kurr e Serbise.Gjithnje ka qen toke e ilireve...Serbia ka okupuar
Kosoven pas vitit 1912.Keshtu qe ajo ka fituar ate qe i ka takuar me shekuj,mirepo nga
padrejtesit qe jua kane ber nga Evropa ajo ka mbetur e okupuar.

[Car Dušan]

What is it with all of you people:
1. Kosovo is ''home'' to all Serbian people, it is where Serbian Orthodox Church was ''born''!!!

2. Here's an example to all Catholic people who support Kosovo independence:

-What about Muslims from Iraq come and make their new home in Vatican, and in years they become the majority and after that they pronounce independent Muslim Republic of Vatican, and USA supports it. What would you say, how would you feel?
That is the way that Serbs are feeling.

3. Here is an example for all Muslim People out there who support Kosovo independance:

-What about Jews from Israel come and make their new home in Mecca, and in years they become the majority and after that they pronounce independent Jew Republic of Mecca, and USA supports it. What would you say, how would you feel?
That is the way that Serbs are feeling.

This is a begining if something bad, bad for all non-Muslim people. If you don't beileve watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkgHkxIfgBc

Kosovo je Srbija!
Srbija je Kosovo!

For Ever; we have paid for the Balkan wars, they have given sanctions to us, they bombed Belgrade, they killed Slobodan Milošević, they set up Tadić, but now it is enough, God will make revenge Serbia will be a world force again remeber ym words.....

Sa Kosova zora svice,svice,svice novi dan
Gračanica sva u sjaju dočekuje Vidovdan
Oj Kosovo,Kosovo zemljo moja voljena
Zemljo slavnih vitezova Lazara i Miloša
Sve delije od Srbije, svako srce ponosno
Voli i ljubi zemlju svoju Gazimestan Kosovo
Oj Kosovo, Kosovo zemljo moja voljena
Zemljo slavnih vitezova Lazara i Miloša
Srbadija kliče cela "Ne damo te Kosovo"
To je naše uvek bilo od dedova ostalo
Oj Kosovo, Kosovo zemljo moja voljena
Zemljo slavnih vitezova Lazara i Miloša

[naruto]

You know what? Deep inside you all know that you could have been born on either side, and you would have been supporting the side you were brought up with. You would have been Muslim, or a bashing Christian Muslim-hater. End the conflict, it is pointless.

[Ofelia]

Finaly
Kosova got its Independence, it is a kind a relief comparing what albanians went
Why do I believe that, well History has been ignored for a long time, here have a look to a part of memorandum of the albanian nation sent to the most important foreign ministries in 1995.

Part of article taken from :
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.albanur.net/kosovo/independence_of_kosovo.html">http://www.albanur.net/kosovo/independe ... osovo.html</a><!-- m -->
Kosova as a Colonial Problem: Albanians under Belgrade Rule

Serbia’s treatment of Albanians as an oppressed and unwanted people did not begin with the war of 1999, or Swith Miloševic ‘s rise to power in 1989. Ever since Serbia’s invasion and annexation of Kosovain 1912-13 - i.e. of a territory where, according even to Serbian estimates, around 60% of the population was non-Serb - Kosovaor Albanians have suffered constant repression and persecution, and have continuously been viewed by Serb nationalists as a threat to the interests of the Serbian state. At the same time, Serbia’s expansion into non-Serb territories and the systematic maltreatment of its non-Serb population has had a deleterious effect on its will and capacity to create a democratic polity. The anti-Albanian policy continued after the formation of the Yugoslav kingdom in 1918. Albanians were deprived of the right to education in their mother tongue; their rights as a minority population (rights enjoyed by other minorities such as the Hungarians and Germans in the north) were not recognized; and they were excluded from citizenship. Until 1929 indeed, Belgrade emphatically denied the existence of any Albanian minority in the kingdom, while simultaneously instituting a policy aimed at changing the ethnic structure of the Kosovaor population. In the period between the two world wars, Serbia confiscated over 200,000 hectares of land from the local population - nearly half of all arable land - and distributed it to Serb settlers. The number of settlers soon rose to around 60,000, or over 15% of the overall population. There were also plans, only partly realized, to deport most of the Albanian population of Kosovato Turkey. After the end of World War II and the constitution of Federal Yugoslavia, Kosovabecame an autonomous province within the newly constituted Republic of Serbia. Anti-Albanian terror continued, however, under the direction of the Serbian and Yugoslav hard-line leader, interior minister Alexander Rankovic (4). It was only after his removal and the marginalization of dogmatists within the Yugoslav League of Communists in the mid 1960s that it became possible to create a new constitutional arrangement, as a result of which Serbian rule was removed from Kosova. The latter now became a self-governing federal unit, with rights and responsibilities equal to that of Yugoslavia’s six republics and the province of Vojvodina. It remained a self-governing federal entity until 1989, when an orchestrated campaign to revise the Yugoslav constitution was launched by the Communist League of Serbia headed by Slobodan Miloševic . Kosova’s autonomy became the first casualty in Miloševic ‘s war against Federal Yugoslavia(5). Following the violent abrogation of Kosova’s autonomy in 1989, Miloševic ‘s regime expelled Albanians en masse from state and public employment (around 90% of Albanians working in the administration and 70% of those working in public and socially owned enterprises were dismissed); shut down the University of Prishtina and nearly all high schools; closed down or muzzled Albanian-language media; exerted brutal repression against Albanian political activists; and established a generalized system of apartheid in Kosova, where the Serb minority now ruled with the military, police, political and economic backing of Belgrade. During the 1990s, Belgrade tried to return Kosovato the condition in which it had been in the 1930s. This project was destined to fail, however, because the Albanian population was no longer what it had been at that time, having already enjoyed an improved political position under the advanced autonomy of the former Yugoslav federation and Kosova’s own institutional and state structures. Thus the attempt to bring Kosovaback to a regressive state triggered a mass mobilization of its Albanian inhabitants, initially for resistance and later to fight for the right of self-determination, as with the other entities of the former Yugoslavia(6). The Albanians’ bitter experience under Belgrade’s rule during most of the twentieth century, culminating in the mass killings and expulsions of 1999, abolished any Serbian claim to legitimate rule over Kosova. It is clear, moreover, that the attitude of the Serbian leadership towards Kosovahas undergone no fundamental change despite the removal of Miloševic from power.
Faced with systematic Serbian state terror, the KosovaAlbanians maintained a peaceful resistance for several years. At the end of the 1990s, however, when purely political resistance had proved ineffective, the armed resistance of the KosovaLiberation Army was born. This won the support of the majority of Kosovaors. We view these two forms of resistance as complementary rather than exclusive, since each under certain circumstances and at a certain time contributed to fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Kosova.
NATO’s military intervention in 1999 following the unanimous decision of 22 countries and in support of chapter VII of the UN Charter, and the resulting withdrawal of Serbian forces, created conditions for a just settlement of Kosova’s future in the form of international recognition of its independence. This decision should have been made by the Western powers already in 1999, but for various reasons - including pressure from Russia and lack of determination among Western political and diplomatic circles - it was not. The delay further complicated the situation in Kosova and the Balkans. The international civilian and military presence in Kosova- KFOR and UNMIK - created conditions for security, reconstruction, and the establishment of the first democratic institutions after the 2001 municipal elections and the subsequent parliamentary ones. However, the fundamental question in Kosova- the sovereignty over its territory - remained unresolved. Without a definitive solution to this problem, it is illusory to hope for long-lasting stability in Kosova and the Balkans. As mentioned earlier in this report, the crisis and dissolution of the former Yugoslavia was set into motion by Serbia’s violent policy towards the Albanians of Kosova. The Serbian leadership even now continues to mobilize Serbs in both Kosova and Serbia on a nationalist platform. In the last couple of years, rather than focusing on Serbia’s democratization and its serious economic and social problems, Serbian political parties and opinion makers have preferred to keep the Kosovaissue on the boil. Recent opinion polls and monitoring of the Serbian media show a high level of hatred against Albanians, much higher than against other nations with whom Serbia fought even bloodier wars, such as Croats or Bosnians. At a conference held in Prishtina in June 2005, two of the most prominent Serbian intellectuals and political activists, Žarko Korac and Latinka Perovic , denounced such attitudes as shameful and racist (7).
Official Serbia has never admitted the atrocities perpetrated by their forces against the Albanian population of Kosovaduring the war of 1999. This aggression, which principally targeted the civilian population, resulted in the killing of nearly 10,000 people; the expulsion of almost half the local Albanian population; the disappearance of thousands; the rape of countless women; the destruction of nearly 150,000 homes; as well as other traumata and sufferings impossible to quantify. It is illusory, if not downright immoral, to believe that after such an experience a population could be forced to live in a union with the state that carried out such aggression, and that has yet to express remorse and accept full responsibility (8).
The complete and unconditional separation of Kosova and Serbia would represent both a guarantee to Albanians that they will not face renewed repression, and an opportunity for Serbia seriously to address its past and redefine its political identity. Freeing Serbia from Kosova would represent an opportunity for it to break once and for all with aggressive nationalism and archaic colonial thinking, and to commit itself to its own democratization. Such a development would provide the basis for a healthy and peaceful cooperation and co-existence between Serbia and Kosovain the Balkans.

[AuLoNa]

Thank you Offelia.


The Serbs' Self-Inflicted WoundsWith Kosovo independent, Yugoslavia is finally dead.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, at 12:51 PM ET
Serbian protesters rally against Kosovo's declaration of independence. Click image to expand.Serbian protestors in Belgrade

Someone with a good memory of the conversation once told me how Lord Carrington, then one of the "mediators" of the incipient post-Yugoslavia war, came to the conclusion that Slobodan Milosevic was a highly dangerous man. Well-disposed toward Serbia (as the British establishment has always been), Carrington told the late dictator that he understood Serb concerns about significant Serbian minorities in Bosnia and Croatia. But why did Milosevic also insist on exclusive control over Kosovo, where the Albanian population was approximately 90 percent? "That," replied Milosevic coldly, "is for historical reasons." It's a shame, in retrospect, that it took us so long to diagnose the pathology of Serbia's combination of arrogance and self-pity, in which what is theirs is theirs and what is anybody else's is negotiable.

We used to read this same atavistic proclamation by the hellish light of burning Sarajevo, and now we glimpse it again through the flames of the blazing U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, and by the glare of similar but less dramatic arsons set by Serbs in ski masks in northern Kosovo itself. But it needs to be understood that "Serbia" itself has lost nothing and has nothing to complain about. With the independence of Kosovo, the Yugoslav idea is finally and completely dead, but it was Serbian irredentism that killed the last vestige of that idea, and it is to that account that the whole cost ought to be charged.

Forget all the nonsense that you may have heard about Kosovo being "the Jerusalem" of Serbia. It may contain some beautiful and ancient Serbian and Serbian Orthodox cultural sites, but it is much more like Serbia's West Bank or Gaza, with a sweltering, penned-up, subject population who were for generations treated as if they were human refuse in the land of their own birth. Nobody who has spent any time in the territory, as I did during and after the eviction of the Serb militias, can believe for a single second that any Kosovar would ever again submit to rule from Belgrade. It's over. But how did it begin? In fact, Kosovo has never been recognized internationally as part of Serbia. It was only ever recognized as part of Yugoslavia, and with the liquidation of that state Serbian claims upon its territory became null and void. A little history here is necessary.

During the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, the then-distinct kingdom of Serbia, with some regional allies, did manage to invade and annex a formerly Ottoman territory that had been the scene of a Serbian military defeat in—wait for it—1389. (In that year, England was laying emotional claims to large and beautiful areas of France.) Serbian monarchist and nationalist propaganda hailed the "liberation" of the ancestral land, but the shrewdest foreign correspondent of the day took a different line:

Do not the facts, undeniable and irrefutable, force you to come to the conclusion that the Bulgars in Macedonia, the Serbs in old Serbia, in their national endeavor to correct data in the ethnological statistics that are not quite favorable to them, are engaged quite simply in systematic extermination of the Muslim population in the villages, towns and districts?

Leon Trotsky, writing this in January 1913 as an open letter in the (Menshevik) paper Luch ("The Ray") was addressing the "liberal" Russian chauvinist politician Pavel Miliukov. So, as you can see, the arrogant Russian support for Orthodox Christian ethnic cleansing in the Balkans is not a new problem. (Under Russian President Vladimir Putin's pious rule, though, our own timorous press prefers not to call attention to the way in which Russian political thuggery is increasingly backed by an Orthodox religious hierarchy.)

The same Balkan war—as Trotsky had predicted—went on to draw in the whole of Europe and indeed the rest of the world, and by the time it ended, the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires had imploded entirely and there was to be a new state, Yugoslavia, where they had once jostled at the borders. You might argue that Kosovo was now part of Serbia by "right" of conquest (in other words, de facto), but in fact, not even Serbia had adjusted its own laws to make it a legal province de jure, and this was in any case moot because all future treaties and agreements were signed between Yugoslavia and the no-less-new state concept calling itself republican Turkey. Legal instruments agreed between these two entities recognized Belgrade's sovereignty over Kosovo, but solely in the sense that they recognized Belgrade as the capital of Yugoslavia. (For a more extended discussion of this essential constitutional point, see Noel Malcolm's Kosovo: A Short History.) Thus, and if we exempt some decisions made by Stalinist bureaucrats after the re-creation of Yugoslavia in 1945, Kosovo has never been treated or recognized as Serb territory within Yugoslavia and never at all by international treaties outside that former state. Even those hasty Stalinist decisions were later undone by Tito, who granted Kosovo a large measure of autonomy in 1974. It is very important to remember that Slobodan Milosevic launched his own petty and violent career, as the head of a Serb-Montenegrin crime family, precisely by canceling Kosovo's pre-existing autonomy in 1990, remaking himself as a nationalist demagogue instead of a Communist one, and bringing in the roof of the Yugoslav federation.

You will by now have read dark remarks made by partisans of the Russian and Serb Orthodox viewpoint, to the effect that if one "secession" is allowed, then what is to prevent every Gypsy or Chechen or Ossetian from proclaiming their own statelet? You should, first, ask if the Bosnian Serbs ought not to have thought of this first and been better advised by the "realist" or Kissinger school that now weeps such hypocritical tears. You should, second, ask if you know of any case comparable to the Kosovo one, where a national minority was so long imprisoned within an artificial state. Of course, one ought to acknowledge that this is a calamity for the Serbs and indeed an injustice in the sense of an insult to their pride and history. But the injustice was self-inflicted. I remember seeing, in Kosovo, the "settlements" for Serbs that the Milosevic regime was building in a vain effort to alter the demography. And who were the bedraggled "settlers"? The luckless Serbian civilians who had been living in the Krajina area of Croatia until their fearless leader's war of conquest for "Greater Serbia" had brought general disaster and seen them finally evicted from farms and homesteads they had garrisoned for centuries. Promised new land on colonized Albanian territory, they had been uprooted and evicted once again. Where are they now, I wonder? Perhaps stupidly stoning the McDonald's in Belgrade, and vowing fervently never to forget the lost glories of 1389, and maybe occasionally wondering where they made their original mistake.