Sunday, August 20, 2006
Local Albanian authoritiies in the village of Obilic near Pristina have forbidden Serb refugees access to portable buildings intended to house the most at-risk families, advised the Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija.
About ten portable buildings put up in the village of Plemetina to ensure basic housing for the most at-risk Serb families have been sealed shut on the basis of a decision by local Albanian authorities.
Local authorities in Obilic claim that "there is no need for this type of housing", while local Serbs see the move by Albanian authorities as yet another form of pressure on minority communities.
The portable buildings were brought to Plemetina last week under the auspices of the Serbian government and the Coordinating Center for Kosovo to provide housing for Serbs who were expelled from their homes during rampaging by Albanian demonstrators in 2004.
Of the 7,500 Serbs who lived in Obilic and surrounding villages before the outbreak of the conflict between Serbian security forces and Albanian guerrillas in 1999, today only some one hundred remain.
Refugee returns and minority rights are the primary prerequisites the international community has given the Kosovo Albanians in response to their demands for the proclamation of the province's independence.
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Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) deputies in the lower chamber of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Parliament have announced that they will vote against the Law amending the law on citizenship, which foresees the acquisition of B-H citizenship by naturalization.
The adoption of this law would result in several thousand mujaheddin from Islamic countries gaining B-H citizenship despite the fact that during the war they committed horrific war crimes against the Serbs while fighting under the wing of the Bosnian Muslim B-H Army, warned SDS deputies.
"Instead of these crimes being condemned and the criminals (who committed them) being brought to justice now there is a desire to make it possible for these warriors of jihad to acquire B-H citizenship," said SDS official Cvijetin Nikolic.
The SDS is demanding accountability on the part of everyone who made it possible for mujaheddin to stay in B-H because they represent a great threat to peace and stability in the region.
"This situation makes the whole region unsafe for investment and prevents the creation of a more favorable visa regime," said Marija Perkanovic, a woman SDS deputy in the lower chamber of the B-H Parliament.
The SDS thinks that all mujaheddin should be urgently deported from B-H because that is the main prerequisite for this region to have the possibility of greater peace.
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Thursday, August 17, 2006
WORLD champion Italy began life under new coach Robert Donadoni with a shock 2-0 friendly defeat by Croatia today (AEST).
Donadoni, who replaced Marcello Lippi after last month's World Cup triumph, picked only one player from the Germany squad, but it was hardly an auspicious homecoming for the Azzurri.
Croatia's victory was overhadowed by unsavoury scenes at the beginning of the match, when its fans formed a human swastika in the stand, which is even more pointed given the "Ultra" Livorno fans are known for their left-wing political leanings.
The home fans responded by chanting tributes to the thousands of Italians who were massacred by the Yugoslav partisans, led by Marshal Tito, during World War II.
On the pitch the Croats had the match wrapped up by half-time, goals by Brazil-born striker Eduardo and midfield player Luka Modric giving new coach Slaven Bilic a dream start against an inexperienced Italy side.
But Donadon did not blame his players for the defeat.
"I cannot blame the players," said the 43-year-old, whose previous coaching post was with Livorno.
"They did what they could at this stage of the season.
"We knew that the Croats would be in a lot better shape than us
"I am disappointed to have lost, but I am not disappointed by the performances of the players. They all did their best and they paid for two mistakes."
Source
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Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The list comprising these crimes was sent to UNMIK, together with a repeated request that the perpetrators are apprehended and brought to justice
The list of most heinous crimes committed against the Serbian population in Kosovo and Metohija following the arrival of international civil and military presences, that remained unpunished to this day
The Results of Ethnic Cleansing in March 17th-19th 2004
* 8 Killed Serbs * 143 Wounded Serbs * Approximately 5,000 Serbs Expelled * Torched 935 Homes Belonging to the Serb Owners * Destroyed 10 Health and Education Facilities Belonging to Serbs * Ethnically Cleansed Additional 6 Towns and 9 Villages * Burnt Down Additional 35 Orthodox Religious Edifices (Churches and Monasteries) * Desecrated Additional 3 Orthodox Cemeteries
1999
1. 22 July 1999 - 14 Serbian villagers were killed in a field near the village Staro Gracko, municipality of Lipljan. Natives of this village confirmed that massacred bodies of the harvesters had been found. The following persons were killed: Andrija Odalovic, brothers Radovan and Jovica Zivic, Novica Janicijevic and his father Momcilo, his uncle Mile and his cousin Slobodan Janicijevic, Bozidar and Stanimir Djekic, Sasa Cvejic, Ljubisa Cvejic, Miodrag Tepic, Nikola Stojanovic and Milovan Jovanovic. The international investigating authorities brought in four suspects of Albanian nationality, but after a while they were released.
2000
2. 3 February 2000 - Near Cubrelj village, 15 kilometres southeast of Kosovska Mitrovica, an anti-tank guided missile was fired to a bus carrying a clear UNHCR sign with 49 persons of Serbian nationality in it. In this terrorist attack Plana Rajkovic from Banje village and Budimir Jovanovic from Rudnik village were killed, while five persons were seriously wounded. In the moment of the attack there were many women and children in the vehicle. The bus operated from northern Kosovska Mitrovica to the villages of Banje and Suvo Grlo and this line was used exclusively by the Serbs. The attacked vehicle was accompanied by KFOR.
3. 3 February 2000 - A bomb explosion in Kosovska Mitrovica wounded about ten young men of Serbian nationality who were immediately transferred to a hospital. The attack occurred about nine o'clock p.m., when an explosive device was dropped to a catering establishment "Belami" in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, where a bigger group of young people stayed. As in previous bombing attacks, the attackers ran away from the spot. This act of terrorism caused a revolt of citizens who gathered in a large number first in front of the hospital entrance and than in the hospital area.
4. 8 March 2000 - In a series of terrorist attacks in a settlement called Bosnjacka Mahala in the northern Kosovska Mitrovica 22 Serbs and 14 members of KFOR French forces, one of which was an officer, suffered from severe or lighter wounds. The attacks started some time before noon and lasted almost for two hours. During that time several bombs were dropped and light and heavy weapons were used to attack a group of Serbs, mostly high school students. The attack was initiated by Albanian Ljuan Miftari, who rushed with a metal rod at Serbian young men without any reason. After that a fire was opened at Serbs from a nearby Albanian house called Kratez. The attack continued with bombs. All this happened in sight of KFOR members of German contingent who did nothing about it. French soldiers tried to protect Serbs by forming a cordon, but two bombs were also thrown at them. Later on it was announced that four Albanians were arrested on reasonable suspicion of participating in these terrorist attacks, but no information can be found on their conviction for such acts.
2001
5. 17 February 2001 - near Livadice village, municipality of Podujevo, a planted bomb blew apart a bus of the company Nis-express causing death of 11 Serbs (two of which were children) and wounding 40 people. The bus with number plate NI 117-61 was accompanied by KFOR in a convoy of vehicles transferring 250 Serbs towards Gracanica. Despite the arrest of several suspects after the investigation, they were all released except Florim Ejupi who was found directly connected to Albanian organized crime and circles of former OVK (Kosovo Liberation Army). For the "safety reasons" Ejupi was transferred to American military camp "Bondsteel", out of where he managed to escape after a while. This tragic day for Serbs from Kosovo could have been even more tragic. On the other side of Kosovo the Ukrainian KFOR soldiers stopped near Rudar a convoy of Serbs who were travelling for Strpce. The convoy was stopped and returned because six [remote activated] explosive devices were discovered on the road and dismantled.
2003
6. 4 June 2003 - A three-member family Stolic, natives of Obilic, were killed in their village. Slobodan and Radmila Stolic (80 years of age both) and their son Ljubinko (50 years of age) were killed. Having killed them the assailants massacred their bodies and set their house on fire. Although UNMIK chief Michael Steiner offered 50,000 Euros for information which would enable the arrest of the committers, the investigation ended up without a result.
7. 11 August 2003 - Dragan Tonic (45) from Skulanevo in the municipality of Lipljan deceased today having suffered wounding in the head. Two unidentified assailants shot Tonic in his mouth while he was fishing on the River Sitnica in the late afternoon. Tonic was given first aid in Kosovska Mitrovica where he was operated. Due to a critical condition he was transferred to Belgrade on 13 August for further treatment, but despite all efforts made by doctors he succumbed to his wounds. Ever since the international forces came to Skulanevo near Lipljan, where 350 Serbs live, Dragan Tonic is the third victim, while five persons have been wounded, three of them children. None of the committers of these murders was ever found.
8. 13 August 2003 - unknown persons opened fire from automatic weapon on Serbian children who were having a swim in the River Bistrica in the village Gorazdevac near Pec. Pantelija Dakic (10) and Ivan Jovovic (19) were killed in the assault, while Bogdan Bukumiric (15), Dragana Srbljak (14), Djordje Ugrenovic (20) and Marko Bogicevic (15) were injured. As in previous cases when victims were Serbs, the investigation showed no results and the [perpetrators] of this terrorist crime were not found.
9. 31 August 2003 - In a bombing attack on a shop owned by a Serb in Cernica near Gnjilane, Miomir Savic was killed, and Bosko Dinic, Milos Petrovic, Novica Trifunovic and Ljubisa Simic suffered light wounds. Savic, who got killed and the wounded inhabitants of Cernica were sitting in front of the village shop in the Serbian part of the village when a bomb was thrown at them.
2004
10. 9 February 2004 - In a terrorist attack near Lipljan Zlatomir Kostic (36) from Kosovo Polje and Milijana Markovic (24) from Staro Gracko were killed. Their bodies were found near a fire station, on the outskirts of the town. According to investigating authorities' statement they were killed on a transit road while being in Kostic's car. They were ambushed near the fire station in Lipljan.
11. 17 March 2004 - Father and son Stolic were shot on the very doorstep of their home in Drajkovce, a village in the municipality of Strpce, where they lived after the exile from Urosevac. D. Stolic (1955) and B. Stolic (1984) lived in the village bordering on the neighbour Albanian villages.
2005
12. 27 August 2005 - In the terrorist attack to a bus on the line Belgrade - Strpce, near Albanian villages Firaja and Brod, Staja Ilic from Strpce was shot to death by a fire-arm. A sharp bursts of machine gun fire directed to the bus caused severe wounds to Radoslav Dabic, a refugee from Urosevac, Dragan Veljkovic from Stpce and one more person.
13. 29 August 2005 Young men Ivan Dejanovic and Aleksandar Stankovic from Novo Naselje near Lipljan got killed, and Aleksandar Janicijevic and Nikola Dukic wounded in an armed assault in Banjica, on the road Urosevac - Strpce in Kosovo, which occurred late Saturday night. About nine o'clock p.m. four young men took a car, "golf" model, with a number plate from Pristina, and went from Lipljan to Strbac. They noticed that they were followed by a "Mercedes". Then, near the village Banjica, the four Serbs heard a shot and that they had a flat tyre. When they pulled over to change the tyre, the fire opened once more from the "Mercedes", which was still following them. Dejanovic and Stankovic were shot to death, and Janicijevic and Dukic were wounded. The attackers ran away from the spot.
14. 26 October 2005 - On the road Urosevac - Strpce, near the place called Doganovic, a fire was opened at a vehicle of Kosovo police. The armed assault begun around 20.00, but neither of three police officers from the vehicle was hurt. Although the vehicle received several shots, the driver managed to continue towards Strpce, where the vehicle was examined. These were Serbian policemen in their service vehicle returning from their duty on the border crossing "Djeneral Jankovic" towards Macedonia. It was the second assault on policemen of Serbian nationality in last month and a half on the road from Urosevac to Strpce. One Serbian policeman was wounded in a previous assault near the village Brod in the municipality of Strpce.
15. 11 November 2005 at 01.25 in the village Suvi Do, municipality of Kosovska Mitrovica, an unknown person of Albanian nationality opened fire on Ilija Petronijevic. About 01.20 Petronijevic heard some movements around his house, so he turned on the light in his courtyard, got out and spotted an unknown Albanian who, having seen Petronijevic shouted something in Albanian and started running towards Ibar River. Afterwards, several unidentified persons fired about 15 shots from an automatic rifle in short bursts and 5-6 shots from a pistol, and went away towards a nearby Albanian village on Ibar River.
16. 26 December 2005 around 01.30 in Kosovska Mitrovica - northern part of the town- in John Kennedy Street, in the courtyard of "Branko Radicevic" primary school, where containers and mechanization of a public enterprise "Vodovod" were, [an identified assailant] performed an armed assault on Branislav Antovic, son of Ratomir, from Kosovska Mitrovica (security officer). During the assault [the assailant] fired four shots from a fire-arm - 7.62 mm pistol, of which two shots hit Antovic in his abdomen. He was transferred to a hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica where doctors concluded injuries of liver and large intestine. Antovic was operated, but the wounds put his life in jeopardize. Four 7.62 mm cases were found on the spot.
17. 2. December 2005. About 19.00 in the village Malo Rudare, municipality of Zvecan, unknown persons dropped an explosive device (most probably hand-grenade) on the houses owned by Vlado Antanasijevic and Djura Markovic. The attackers approached the houses from the main road Kosovska Mitrovica - Zvecan, which was 40 metres away from the houses. That is the spot they threw the explosive device from, which fell in the courtyard of Vlado Antanasijevic's house. The explosion made a smaller crater and shrapnel broke one window on the front side of the house and made damage to the façade. The owners of the houses spotted a vehicle which went away after the attack towards the village Lipa, municipality of Zvecan, inhabited by Albanian people.
2006.
18. 12 March 2006 - About 20.45 in Klina, Drini Bardh Street, an explosion occurred in the courtyard of an empty house owned by Branko M. Mazic. In the moment of the explosion the owner was in a bedroom of the other house. The incident was reported to UNMIK police on 13 March 2006. According to eyewitnesses' statements, two windows on the house where nobody lived were broken in the explosion. A police patrol with a forensic unit made on-the-spot investigation. A detonator needle wrapped in a tape was found in the courtyard where the device exploded.
19. 1 June 2006 - About 02.30 Miljan Veskovic, a Serb from Zitkovac, was killed on a local road Zvecan - Zitkovac. On that local road the unknown committers made an improvised road block made of broken branches, and when Veskovic stopped his vehicle in front of it, a fire from automatic rifles was opened.
20. 27 July 2006. - About 23.45 in Dragas, municipality of Gora, an explosive device was placed and activated by unknown persons in front of the entrance door of a family house of a [Goran] Rustem Agus, son of Ramiz, born on 13 December 1955 in Dragas, residing in Belgrade. In the time of the explosion no persons were harmed, but the house was severely damaged. In the house of Agus Rustem there was another explosive device placed two years before also by unknown persons.
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Together with the Middle East, the border lands of southeast Europe known as the Balkans have been a region of the world where seminal events and trends in human history have taken place. It has been called many names, including "the powder keg of Europe" or "the graveyard of empires." The conflicts in the region have also been a mirror of history.
Long before Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations," in the period between the 14th and 19th centuries, the incessant ebb and flow in the conflict between Islam and the West took place in the Balkans. Early in the 20th century, Serbian gun shots in Sarajevo ushered in World War I, Communism and Nazism. At the end of the century, Bosnian Muslim fundamentalists fired gun shots in Sarajevo, killing several Christian Serbs at a wedding party and began a bloody war in Bosnia among Christian Serbs and Croats and Muslims. This war may have well reflected in earnest the renewed clash of civilizations.
The Berlin Wall fell at the end of 1989. The Soviet Union imploded and the end of Communism as a global force followed. Balkan countries joined the trend. However, the pivotal and largest state, Yugoslavia, rapidly descended into a bloody civil-religious war and dissolution. This decade-long war at the end of 20th century mirrored a number of important political, legal, religious and geopolitical precedents for the post-Communist world. Of particular significance are those involving America, the European Union and the United Nations.
At first, the United States favored the preservation of Yugoslavia, or at least its peaceful and orderly dissolution. Changing this position abruptly, America did not oppose Germany's drive for the dismemberment of Yugoslavia and then sided with Islamists in Bosnia. Secretary of State James Baker said "we have no dog in this fight" -- but in the end America was the top dog in the fight.
The international community's engagement in the Balkans have so far been a textbook illustration of the dangers of contradictory policies, chronic indecisions, confusion and ignorance about historical forces in play, double standards and flawed precedents. America was not prepared for the peace and the role of the only superpower in the world. Our leadership has failed in this task so far.
Apparently, not much has been learned from this experience. We could replace the location, inserting Iraq instead of the Balkans, and the aforementioned assessment would be similar today.
The Balkan mirror also shows the impotence and irrelevance of the United Nations. Any country and any people would be foolhardy to place their destiny in the hands of this inept institution. With America's complicity, the United Nations did nothing when its embargo on arms shipments was violated by Iran sending planeloads of arms to Bosnian Muslims. Subsequently, when veteran jihadists came to the country to fight Serbs, the West was also supportive.
The Serbian province of Kosovo has been ethnically cleansed from Serbs, Roma and other non-Albanians while 150 churches and many medieval monasteries have been destroyed during 10 years of U.N. governance.
The mirror showed the duplicitous methods by which world media influenced world opinion. With few exceptions, it has abused its power and professional responsibility, failing to heed Ed Murrow's admonition to examine all sides of a story and aim to elucidate, not advocate. It did the latter and in general continues to advocate an Islamic agenda in Bosnia and Kosovo.
The Balkan realities also show a great adaptability of Islamists to present a worldly, democratic face. Readily accepted by the West, Bosnian leader and fundamentalist Islamist Alija Izetbegovic was tolerated and praised as a democrat. Nevertheless, in his book "The Islamic Declaration" Izetbegovic asserted absolute validity of dominance of Islam: "There can be neither peace nor coexistence between Islamic religion and non-Islamic social and political institutions," he wrote. Later in the war, Mr. Izetbegovic was influenced and financially and militarily supported by fundamentalist Islamists (including Osama bin Laden). Similarly, some Kosovo leaders, previously called terrorists and thugs by U.S. special envoy Robert Gelbard, are now afforded respect in the United Nations and elsewhere.
The ugliest and most dangerous reflection in the mirror is that of double-standards. As we are facing challenges and dangers of radical Islam and terrorism worldwide, let's not dismiss the Balkan experience. Our policies must contain moral dimensions. International agreements, legal precedents and evenhanded treatment of warring people were not followed in the Yugoslav tragedy. If we are to get out of the Middle East quagmire we must change these policies. Failing to realize that by endeavoring to resolve complex problems by double standards, we more often than not double them in the end.
In addition, the Balkan Mirror has provided important and troubling reflections upon Islam and the new world (dis)order.
Michael Djordjevich, an American of Serbian origin, founded and was the first president of the Serbian Unity Congress.
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Monday, August 14, 2006
Slave trade that feeds Europe's appetite for sex
Louisa Waugh recounts her harrowing journey along the continent's human trafficking routes
When anybody asks what made me decide to write a book on human trafficking, the only answer I can give is that it was a gut-level response to press reports on modern-day slavery.
They described young women and girls from the Balkans being sold to pimps across Europe and other indebted migrants being bullied and beaten into working long hours for almost no pay.
I was immediately fascinated, appalled and wanted to know more. I contacted Anti-Slavery International, spent a week immersed in its sober south London library and emerged determined to write a book about the experiences of trafficked people.
I visited villages in Moldova that had been emptied of people who had left in search of any kind of paid work; some had almost no young people. Others had become infamous for the number of young women who'd gone missing or the number of men who had resorted to "donating" a kidney for a few thousand US dollars. While a few Moldovans were raking in the cash through crime, the poor were desperately trying to get out of the country.
I interviewed two Moldovan women who had been trafficked. They had left home to work abroad because they needed to support their children. Anna was bought by a Macedonian pimp, sold on so many times she lost track of how many men had "owned" her and ended up in Albania. Olga was taken to Kosovo where she spent two years forced to work as a prostitute in a local bar. She was beaten about the head so savagely she was almost blinded.
I then followed the trafficking routes they had taken. Many Albanian women are trafficked by people they know, often a relative or "friend" who offers them work in Italy or Greece.
Across the mountains, in Kosovo, there is 60% unemployment and small brothels are strung along the back streets of almost every town. There, United Nations and Nato peacekeepers have a lot to answer for. Trafficking escalated as soon as they arrived and though the situation has improved, the brothels I visited were full of women for rent.
Reading a trafficking report in a newspaper is one thing, listening to a woman explaining how she has survived being raped and beaten on a daily basis is profoundly different. Some women will never recover from what they've been through. Others are angry about what has been done to them and want justice.
In the Balkans, many trafficked women are supported in refuges run by fierce and inspiring local women who have dedicated their lives to taking on traffickers within their communities.
These women are titans. They refuse to be cowed by threats or lack of money and deserve far more support than they receive.They talked to me about the chronic poverty, unemployment and domestic violence that "push" women and girls into prostitution. Though some women have been tricked into sex work, many agree to prostitute themselves because they believe they'll be able to choose who they have sex with and make decent money.
Traffickers are ruthless businessmen and women who know that when people live in relentless poverty they make hard choices and take risks. When trafficked women are deported from destination countries such as the UK, they face the very real danger of being immediately re-trafficked.
With this in mind I attempted to unravel the scale of the sex industries in England and Scotland, child trafficking into this country and migrants forced to work in industries such as agriculture, construction and food processing.
The majority of sex workers in Britain are migrant women, though nobody knows how many have been trafficked. Here in Scotland the police admit they have scant intelligence on trafficking into sex work, though women from 28 countries have been identified working in Glasgow saunas and the off-street sex industry is apparently "flourishing".
Bronagh Andrews, who is assessing the scale of trafficking into Scotland for the executive, says that over the past couple of years "a small number" of trafficked women have been given sanctuary by Glasgow social services.
Operation Pentameter recently highlighted that women and girls are being trafficked across the UK. Five trafficked women were identified in Scotland during the operation and four people are being held on suspicion of trafficking offences. If successfully prosecuted they will be the first to be convicted here.
In terms of "rescuing victims", Pentameter was a success. It failed, though, to address the controversy of women being deported if they do not immediately identify themselves to the authorities. Women and girls are still being removed from other parts of the UK even if they have been trafficked.
The Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings guarantees at least 30 days' "recovery and reflection" for people who have been trafficked. This period applies whenever "there are reasonable grounds to believe the person is a trafficking victim".
Under current British legislation it is almost impossible to prosecute a trafficker without a "victim" testifying in court. We need these victims to testify so their traffickers can be locked up and stripped of their assets, making it clear to others that the UK is not a good place for their business.
The very least these women and girls deserve is legal protection, physical sanctuary and an assurance their ordeal is over.
Selling Olga: stories of human trafficking and resistance by Louisa Waugh is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on August 24. The author will be reading at the Edinburgh International Book Festival at 10.30am on Friday
The Largest Heroin Depot is in Kosovo
This comes from same people that captured Spain's terrorists that bombed trains.
Belgrade. The largest heroin depot is in Kosovo, says Dusan Bogosavlevic, director of the Anti-drugs department with the Serbian Office for Combating Organized Crime, Blic newspaper reports. Bogosavlevic explained that there were three different roads for drugs.
"Cocaine from South America reaches two destinations in Europe - Spain and Portugese Island. Then it is transferred to Western European countries", he explained. In his words cocaine from Spain arrives in Serbia and 20% of it remains there, while the rest 80% goes to Italy, Germany, etc.
Bogosavlevic stresses that there were two ways for distribution of heroin - one from Afghanistan through Turkey, and the other - from Afghanistan through the countries from the former Soviet Union to Western Europe. Marihuana is the third kind of drugs that is distributed on Serbian market from Albania through Skadarsko Lake and Montenegro.
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PEJ News - C. L. Cook - So it's come back? Israel sniped this past week at the growing chorus coming out of civilized Europe against their murder spree in Lebanon, and continued practice of routine atrocity in Gaza and the West Bank, with a tart retort to the Germany's, France's, and lesser's, of their own complicity in the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo not so many years ago. The implication is simple enough to see, as is its logical presumption: "My evil is no greater than yours.
" Well, then: Bombs away!
How fitting Israel should retaliate European criticism of its murderous rampage, currently burning nicely, with its most lethal, but rarely used, diplomatic Weapon of Sass Destruction: The Truth. Europeans, at least those that rule over the major, and aspiring nations, of Europe are complicit in the abortion of justice and abrogation of the duty to Humanity during that was the NATO scourge of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. Fitting for the lessons learnt, and practiced with precedent impunity in Lebanon, and elsewheres.
Apt, when considering the use of cluster bombs, and depleted uranium munitions, drones, and satellites, missiles, and smart bombs, and on, and on, combined as it is with the systematic brutalisation of prisoners, and the deliberate targeting of essential civic services; services like: Water, and sewage; power, and communications; transit routes, and hospitals; houses, schools, fire and police stations; ambulances, fire trucks, and now "any vehicle" with the temerity to be piloted by one so desperate to risk flight 'neath the IDF terror being wreaked about her's, and her children's ears.
Yes, it sounds as lot like the "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovo.
Appropriate too remembering the involvement of Osama, his crew, his then-C.I.A. paymasters, and the carnage leading to that particular conflagration loosed on largely the citizenry. All done then, Israel implies now, with the official primatur of both NATO, and the UN.
Just so! Amazingly, Israel - and, I beg pardon of those Arab and "fringe" Israeli's opposing the fanatical fascism currently made most starkly visible, hath spake two truths in a single day!
But, the amazing parallels well exceed that, when looking a little more deeply into the goings-on, both today, and in those benighted days in the Balkans. In those dark times, an entire people, identify racially, were driven from the land they'd lived upon for millennia; driven wholesale from their purchase. These same were sent, they survivors the on-slaughts, to the winds; scattered to find some new landing, the only certainty being they could not now, nor perhaps ever, go home.
They speaking for the so-called Israeli nation have put on notice all that would dare oppose naked, military conquest, and their neighbours. In Lebanon, Robert Fisk reports today, leaflets falling the heavens, each one an identical indictment of international criminality; each an admission of the abandonment of Geneva Convention, the rules that have ostensibly guided the world in this unprecedented time.
Israel's blood-stained ministers are correct in their condemnation of NATO, its members, and the pulbic that allowed the destruction of a nation, all conducted in the name of justice, and based on lies and blatant, criminal deception. They are correct too in wondering: "Why complain of we when doing your dirty business?"
And, that is the heart of it.
The dichotomy is an illusion: "Israel" and "America" are a single entity. This is no news to those living beneath the boot of the rising tide of oppression in those far-flung places. It seems only in the United States, where the results of a recent poll - if you believe in such things - claimed: More than half of "Americans" asked didn't know which year the rather well publicized 9/11 attacks occurred. This of course played in conjunction with the ceaseless 24/7 "news" cycle reportage of the next, newest "terrorist plot;" a convenient distraction from military reversals in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the continuing hammering of the populace in Occupied Palestine.
What differs, during the most recent outrages against humaneness is the Israeli Stete's literal declarations of war against a civil population has not been seen since the Nazi occupation of Greece. Collective Punishment of civilians is clearly indicated upon the thousands of leaflets dropped before the bombs in Lebanon; as the most knowing English-language reporter from the scene, Robert Fisk reports.
These are clearly open declarations, on the part of the current Israeli leadership, of defiance to any and all conventions yet constructed in hopes of making of this world a more equitable place. And, the lack of effective reaction to these obvious transgressions, on the part of the "world" community, and are a damnation of collusion in ethnic cleansing; a cleansing some already are calling "Holocaust."
Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host of Gorilla Radio, a weekly exploration of the muck and mire comprising what is today, laughingly referred to as civilization.
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Tuesday, August 08, 2006
A Russian government minister said Monday Moscow supports Serbia's stand to keep Kosovo as an autonomous Serbian province.
Sergey Shoygu, the Russian minister for civil defense and emergency situations, told Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica the position of Russia and President Vladimir Putin is that Kosovo's future status must not be imposed, nor should talks about Kosovo's future have a time limit.
Shoygu said the best solution for Kosovo is to remain an autonomous province within Serbia's borders, the RTS Serbian radio-television reported.
Kostunica applauded Putin's stand on Kosovo and said the Serbian government's position is based on the fact that Kosovo has been and should remain part of Serbia forever. Kosovo was a part of the Kingdom of Serbia until it was annexed under the Ottoman Empire and many of its Albanians converted to Islam. It was reunited with Serbia at the dawn of World War I.
U.N.-led talks between Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority on who shall govern the province once the United Nations and NATO troops leave have been held in Vienna since February. But no major breakthrough has been reached.
The Serbian government in Belgrade, representing Kosovo's 100,000 Serbs, insists no independent Kosovo is acceptable, while leaders of ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population, insist on a Kosovo independent of Belgrade.
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Thursday, August 03, 2006
The newly signed agreement between Serbia and the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS) to build a new bridge linking the two has become a bone of contention between Bosnian Muslim and Serb leaders. Muslim member of Bosnia-Hezegovina's three-man rotating state presidency, Sulejman Tihic. has slammed the deal terming it illegitimate and a conspiracy against Muslims. It was signed last week by RS prime minister, Milorad Dodik, and Serbian premier Vojislav Kostunica.
Tihic said Dodik had no right to sign the agreement to build a modern bridge over the Sava River near the town of Sremska Raca northwest of Belgrade. The new bridge, which Serbia has offered to construct at its own expense, is intended to facilitate the flow of people and goods between the two countries, and clear a decades-old bottleneck that causes long tailbacks of vehicles at the border crossing.
Dodik has dismissed Tihic's allegations of an anti-Muslim plot and claims the RS received clearance to sign the Sava bridge agreement from the central Bosnian authorities. He has accused Tihic of using the bridge as political tool to coalesce the Muslim vote ahead October parliamentary elections.
"Instead of touring Arab countries and collecting money to build mosques, Tihic would do better if he collected money for at least one bridge," Dodik commented.
Bosnian transport minister Branko Dokic, a Serb, said his ministry backs the deal, claiming that it is in the best interest of Serbia and the RS. "Bosnia-Herzegovina should be grateful to Serbia for such an important donation, because even in Andric's stories, bridges brought people together rather than dividing them," said Dokic.
He was referring to Yugolslav Nobel laureate Ivo Andric (1892-1975), who claimed that bridges best symbolised closeness and brought people closer. His novel 'The Bridge on the Drina', for which he won the 1961 Nobel prize for literature, describes relations between Serbs and Muslims over four centuries of occupation under the Ottoman Empire. The Drina River is in Visegrad, now eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Under the Dayton peace accord which ended the 1992-1995 civil war, Bosnia was divided into two entities, a Muslim-Croat federation and the RS. Animosities between Serbs, Croats and Muslims still run high in Bosnia and can surface over such apparently benign issues as the building of a bridge.
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Serbia's Interior Ministry says it will rent out its police officers and equipment, including helicopters and horses, in a bid to raise money.
The ministry published a list of rental prices that drew criticism from private security companies complaining the police represent unfair competition, Belgrade media reported Wednesday.
Riding a police horse will cost $36.70 per day, walking a dog $27.50 and wearing a police uniform $18.30 per day. The ministry has not announced conditions under which citizens would be allowed to rent police personnel and equipment.
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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Over on antiwar.com
Nebojsa Malic has posted his regular weekly column. Here is small excert:
Belgrade is not insisting on capture and trial of Albanian terrorists charged with gruesome crimes against civilians – Albanian, as well as Serb, Roma, Turk, and other. Nor is it demanding the full and unqualified "reintegration" of Kosovo into the Serbian constitutional order, the way Franjo Tudjman's Croatia did in Dayton, concerning the last Serb enclave his troops had not managed to ethnically cleanse. It is not even demanding the full implementation of UNSCR 1244, which provided for deployment of Serb police and military on Kosovo's external borders – something the province's occupiers never bothered to enforce, along with other burdensome duties explicitly required in that document, such as protecting the lives and property of non-Albanians. Kostunica and Tadic are merely demanding that the "international community" obey its own laws and desist from its efforts to carve out 15 percent of Serbia's territory.
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Vassil Bozhkov Runs Casino in Kosovo
Vassil Bozhkov, owner of the CSKA FC, and an Albanian businessman have taken a casino in Kosovo. The gambling boss, who is one of the richest Bulgarians, intends to develop this activity in the Serbian province. The personnel of the casino will consist of local people who will get high salaries.
Nove Holding, owned by Bozhkov, haven't commented the news. The former Yugoslav republics have turned into a kind of Klondike for the Bulgarian businessmen who buy plants and develop construction business there.
Casino in Kosovo? With unemployement rate of 50% and more, people have all the time to gamble, but what did they gamble with? Maybe casino is for UNMIK employees and KFOR?
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Herbert London, president of the Hudson Institute, say the new "Superman Returns" movie is politically correct in that the man of steel has come back not to protect the American way of life but to save the world. Superman, London says in a Washington Examiner column, "has been converted into a transnationalist. I suspect that in a sequel, Superman will be employed by the United Nations."
One might say, if that was the case, the world body might actually get something constructive done, rather than sexually abuse kids and spread AIDS through its "peacekeepers."
London goes on to say, "Superman is a symbol of extraordinary actions, actions-I should note-that only the United States can perform. If the day comes when American military forces are obliged to wear a U.N. insignia, the United States' stature on the world stage will be in decline."
Well, I've got news for him: that day has come. It occurred under the Clinton Administration when Army Specialist Michael New was ordered to wear a U.N. uniform, including a U.N. insignia. New was given a bad-conduct discharge for refusing to carry out this illegal and unconstitutional order. The additional tragedy is that the Bush Administration has continued the Clinton policy of putting our troops under U.N. command and in U.N. uniforms, despite the campaign pledge of George W. Bush not to do so.
Attorneys for Michael New have fought this case in the courts for over 10 years. Most recently they filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on the Fourth of July, for an en banc hearing on his recent dismissal by a three-judge panel from the same court.
"By the current Uniform Code of Military Justice," their press release points out, "President Bill Clinton should have been either court-martialed, or impeached, for attempting to change the U.S. uniform in direct contradiction of the Army Regulations then existing."
The Bush Administration's continuation of the Clinton policy reflects one of the key failings of the President-his inability or unwillingness to reform federal bureaucracies in order to carry out his campaign promises.
Despite the welcome nomination of John Bolton as Ambassador to the world body, U.S. policy toward the U.N. is being handled largely by Nicholas Burns, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and a Clinton Administration holdover. He has engineered several moves to appease the anti-American majority at the U.N., such as the recent decision by the U.S. to drop insistence on a budget cap in order to force the adoption of reforms. A career senior foreign service officer, Burns was Spokesman for the Department of State and Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Secretary Madeleine Albright during the Clinton Administration.
Burns, who was recently on all of the Sunday interview shows discussing the North Korean problem, is also the architect of the Bush/Clinton Administration policy on Kosovo, which anticipates the dismemberment of Serbia and the establishment of an independent Muslim state in its province of Kosovo.
But like his policy toward the U.N., this approach is running into several problems. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that if Kosovo becomes independent, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia should similarly become independent.
In a BBC interview, Burns protested that "Kosovo is unique." Because a "major international war was fought there," he insists, "Kosovo's sovereignty needs to be determined and agreed by all of us in the international community."
But that war, waged by the Clinton Administration, was never approved either by the U.S. Congress or the U.N.!
Letting the "international community" decide the national sovereignty of a country under these circumstances is not only unique but unprecedented and dangerous. This kind of diplomatic doublespeak opens the door for more U.N. authority and control over the nations of the world.
Notwithstanding the failure of the U.N. force in Lebanon, U.N. chief Kofi Anan is now calling for another U.N.-backed force to help restore Lebanon's sovereignty. It demonstrates how the world body exploits its own failures to grow in size and influence.
Will Rice back a U.N. role in Lebanon? She should make a break with Burns. CRO
Cliff Kincaid, serves as editor of the Accuracy in Media (AIM) Report.
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