Byzantine Blog

Albanian Terrorists Announce Greece is Next

According to an announcement on the Albanian-language website Dervina.com, a paramilitary formation named the Liberation Army of Chameria (LAC) had appeared in the north Greek region of Epirus, along the border with Albania.

Using the same recipe for hijacking the land employed in Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province, beginning with the albanization of the name of the region, Albanians refer to the Greek Epirus as the Chameria or Tchameria. Along the information that the Albanian terrorist unit covering this region has been formed, the web site also offers two videos previously shown on the Albanian television News 24.

Before the video footage was shown, president of the Albanian municipality Himara in the Valona region of Albania, stated that Epirus in Greece, populated by the majority of ethnic Albanians, should be given autonomy.

Video recordings from the Dervina web site show eight masked and armed men, with UCC (Ushtria Clirimtare e Camerise in Albanian, or Liberation Army of Chameria) acronym on their uniforms. One of them reads the statement about the formation of the UCC/LAC sitting at the table decorated with the USA and EU flags. On the walls behind, an Albanian flag and map of “Tchameria” are hanged. (Video 1, Video 2)

According to the Serbian news agency Tanjug, media in Athens has called on the Greek government to sharply condemn the threats issued by Albanian terrorists and to request the information from Yahoo which hosts the web site about the location of the site’s web master.

Posted by Svetlana at 09:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (1)

Croat Blood Spattered Flash

Memorial service was held in Belgrade Church of St. Mark on Sunday for Serbs killed in the Croat offensive Operation Flash on Western Slavonija, in 1995. The memorial service was organized by the families of Serbs killed and missing in Republic of Serbian Krajina and Croatia.

According to the data collected by the fact-finding center Veritas, during the purge that began at dawn on May 1, 1995, in 36 hours 283 Serbian civilians were killed or went missing, including 57 women and 9 children. Over 70,000 Serbs were purged from Western Slavonija region. At the time of the Croat military offensive, the territory of Western Slavonija was under the UN protection.

War Crime No Bosnian Muslim Was Charged With: Bodies of Another 17 Yugoslav Army Members Identified

The Republic of Srpska Office for Missing and Detained Persons identified the bodies of 17 Yugoslav Army members. The bodies were recovered from the Memorial Crypt in Bijeljina, which is said to contain 80-odd bodies of Yugoslav Army conscripts killed in the Tuzla Column, all buried as unidentified persons.

The assault occurred on May 15, 1992, at the onset of Bosnian civil war, when a Bosnian Muslim organization known as the Patriotic League in co-operation with local Muslim authorities in Tuzla, attacked the column of unarmed Yugoslav Army conscripts as they were retreating from Tuzla in a previously agreed move to evacuate Yugoslav Army barracks and reach Serbia.

200 Conscripts and Officers Retreating from Tuzla Killed, 140 Detained and Tortured

Before the civil wars, Yugoslavia had army consisting of conscripts from all parts of the country and of all nationalities. These ethnically mixed units were serving throughout former Yugoslavia, in the military posts located in almost every city of each of the republics, including Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, etc. When the wars for secession broke out, first in Slovenia, then in Croatia and Bosnia, the Yugoslav political and military leadership decided to evacuate each of the Yugoslav Army posts where mostly young conscripts age 18-25 served, in order to avoid thrusting them into the civil war. A number of those young men lost their lives in these retreats, through attacks on their columns retreating from Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. But the attack on the Tuzla Column was the bloodiest.

The attack on Tuzla Column had been broadcast live on a local television station, where it could be clearly seen that the shots came even from the hospital building in Tuzla. As many as 200 Yugoslav Army conscripts and officers were killed, and another 140 were detained and subsequently tortured.

Bijeljina-based Association of Missing Persons’ families chairman Zarko Radic said it was almost impossible to precisely assess the number of persons buried in the Crypt since the coffins often contained remains of several persons.

The Bosnian Prosecution says the investigation into the involvement of then Tuzla municipal authorities was underway. Nonetheless, no one has yet answered for the onslaught.

Part of the attack on the Tuzla Column, abuse and murder of the conscripts by the Bosnian Muslims is shown in the documentary “Truth.” While the local Muslim television was showing the burning column of Yugoslav Army vehicles, the studio commentator asks for cold beer and goes up another notch on the morbid sarcasm pole, informing the viewers they ought to “help out” one conscript he saw reaching the entrance of the nearby building.

A survivor of the Tuzla Column assault describes how one of his unarmed friends that was lightly wounded in the arm managed to hide in the entrance of a building, only to be handed over in a body bag six days later.

Posted by Svetlana at 06:16 PM | Permalink

Verbeke: No Prejudging, No Pressure, No Haste

At the end of a three-day UN Security Council fact-finding mission, head of the delegation, Belgian Ambassador Johan Verbeke said on Saturday that resolving the important Kosovo-Metohija issue should neither be prejudged, nor hastened by the artificial deadlines, and that all Security Council member states should reach a decision on the issue through mutual agreement and in peace.

“We will work on the issue without any prejudging and in peace,” Verbeke told a press conference at the Pristina airport at the end of the mission’s visit to Kosovo-Metohija province, assessing that there had to be allowance for a natural process of debate and agreement-reaching.

“We have not yet come to any conclusions, and we will not make haste, we will explain all the parameters and set an equation,” the Belgian diplomat added.

Verbeke announced that sometime next week, the mission would make a report on its visit to Kosovo.

Churkin: Mission Accomplished!

UN Permanent Representative of Russia Vitaly Churkin said hard work was ahead in the Security Council and that he was satisfied with the results of the mission, which he considers successful. He also positively assessed Belgrade’s proposal for the supervised autonomy for Kosovo and Metohija, instead of “supervised independence” proposed by Martti Ahtisaari.

“It certainly makes sense to study Belgrade’s initiative, since at the negotiations Ahtisaari led only his proposal was considered,” Churkin told Itar-Tass news agency in Pristina.

Churkin stressed that some Security Council members were impressed by the fact that Serbian side did not formulate its approach as an ultimatum, but as a basis for negotiations with the Albanian minority. Commenting the scheduled dinner with Ahtisaari as an unnecessary detour, Churkin said that “hardly anything new can be expected from such a meeting,” adding that significant work will follow in New York, where the Security Council mission is preparing a report on the visit to the region.

Failure to Implement Resolution 1244 Throws Ahtisaari’s Plan Out

“This is yet another opportunity to assess all the details of the fulfillment, or non fulfillment of Resolution 1244 and, based on that, to determine how mature the situation in Kosovo province was in order for any plan to be considered, let alone a plan that does not have the approval of both sides,” the Russian representative to the UN said, adding that “things should be viewed realistically.”

Emphasizing that other delegates concluded the mission was “useful, important and informative,” Churkin explained that “right now it is not so much the Ahtisaari plan that is talked about, but rather the situation in Kosovo province and the fulfillment of Security Council Resolution 1244, which was the main purpose of the mission proposed by the Russian side.”

Russia’s representative to the United Nations said it was particularly important for Security Council members to finally hear out Kosovo Serbs, because only representatives of the province’s self-governing bodies were coming to New York, while the Serbs from the province “have never been heard in the Security Council.”

“These contacts are very important,” Churkin said following a meeting with representatives of Serbs in Kosovska Mitrovica and the Orthodox clergy in Gracanica Monastery. “They created a whole new perspective and I expect that Security Council members will have something to think about,” he said.

He also pointed out that the situation with the return of Serbian and non-Albanian refugees expelled from the southern Serbian province was talked about very much these days and that now the question is “how is it possible that only a small number of Serbian refugees have returned in all these years.”

French Ambassador Pulling Wool Over Everybody’s Eyes

Advisor to the Serbian president Dusan Batakovc assessed on Saturday that the French UN Ambassador’s statement in Pristina was highly inappropriate and politically harmful in that it strives to prejudge the final report of the UN Security Council mission.

“The statement by the French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere that he was impressed by the readiness of Kosovo Albanian separatists to implement Ahtisaari’s plan went beyond balanced and measured statements appropriate for the UN SC mission,” Batakovic told Tanjug.

He underlined the importance of the Security Council mission which should not prejudge the situation before it toured the Serbian enclaves as well, and saw for itself the degree of destruction Serbian people and their cultural heritage had suffered during the past 8 years.

“Such statement was entirely inappropriate, it was unnecessary and politically harmful in attempt to prejudge and affect the final report of the mission, while neutralizing the picture of the overwhelmingly poor results of the Albanian self-government institutions in Kosovo-Metohija,” Batakovic, who is also a member of the state negotiating team, pointed out.

He said that Serbia expected the mission, once it visited the territory in the southern part of the province, would report objectively, in a way that would reflect the reality, specifying the “results of the mission’s work in the terrain, rather than in the office.”

U.S. State Department Needs a Reality Check

Ahtisaari’s plan has failed, and it is not only Serbia that “claims” such a thing, since Russia, as well as an increasing number of other Security Cuncil member countries point to the fact as well, and it would be good if the American side accepted the reality, Advisor to the Serbian Prime Minister Kostunica, Slobodan Samardzic told Tanjug on Saturday.

“Russia has been pointing to the fact for several weeks now, and a number of Security Council member states agree with this, either explicitly, or implicitly. If this had not been true, the Security Council mission would have never come to Serbia and visited Belgrade, Pristina and other places,” Samardzic said.

US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried earlier during the day criticized in Brussels the authorities in Belgrade, accusing them of trying to convince its people that Ahtiaari’s plan was dead and that new negotiations would be launched, and announced that once the mission concluded the visit, the drafting of a new resolution, based on Ahtisaari’s plan, would begin.

Ahtisaari’s Plan Dead as a Doornail

Samardzic said that the Secuirity Council was a lot more realistic in seeking ways for resolving the Kosovo province issue, which could be viewed as the “first stage of a new process in determining Kosovo-Metohija’s status.”

“Serbia holds that in this new process negotiations should be launched. This is Serbia’s constructive stand, and those who believe that it is possible to find a solution for the Kosovo-Metohija issue without negotiations are very wrong,” said Samardzic, who is also coordinator of the state negotiating team.

According to him, a new decision or a new resolution cannot be reached “on the basis of a dead plan.”

“The announcements that U.S. will work on a new resolution are an attempt to pressure the other members of the UN Security Council, particularly the permanent member states, and this pressure is the last tool they have at their disposal,” Samardzic assessed.

Samardzic pointed out that it would be good if, in accepting the reality, the United States gave its support to the new phase of negotiations on southern Serbian province, instead of continuing to “pressure Serbian authorities and Serbia’s public opinion to accept something which we all know is dead and no longer exists.”

Bildt: Americans Are Playing With Fire

During the same “Brussels Forum” conference, where Daniel Fried tried to exert more pressure onto Serbian government to accept Ahtisaari’s proposal, even though it couldn’t be deader, going as far as to instruct Serbian media to advertise Finn’s plan among the Serbs, another American speaker, Richard Holbrooke repeated his set of threats, revolving around the promise to Albanian separatists United States will unilaterally recognize Kosovo-Metohija independence.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt sharply criticized the American bullying, saying that the claims by US diplomats that official Washington would recognize the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo-Metohija is “playing with fire” in Europe, playing with fire in transatlantic relations — relations between Untied States and Europe — and playing with fire in the Balkans.

Bildt warned that “such an attitude is unacceptable,” stressing that solution for the Kosovo-Metohija issue has to be reached through the UN Security Council and it is the Council of 15 member states that will jointly work on resolving the problem, not individual governments acting on their own impulses. Carl Bildt pointed out that the question of Kosovo-Metohija province has to be resolved “step-by-step,” that there are “no simple solutions” and that United Nations, European Union and Serbia have to be taken into consideration.

Posted by Svetlana at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

NATO/KLA Partnership in Kosovo Province

UN Security Council Ambassadors representing 15 states on Friday talked with the UN/NATO officials stationed in the Serbian province, of which two German nationals hold the main positions — Joachim Ruecker as the head of UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and Roland Kather, head of the NATO troops in Kosovo-Metohija, i.e. KFOR (Kosovo Force) troops.

Both are chiefly responsible for allowing the Apartheid to get entrenched in the southern Serbian province, for turning the blind eye to ghettoized Serbs and for complete lack of security for non-Albanians who have not been expelled from the region. It is also their deceiving reports, presenting situation in the province in rosy hues, that have prompted Serbia and Russia to request the UNSC delegation to visit the region and learn the truth.

UN Ambassadors also talked with the Albanian war criminal Agim Ceku, playing the role of “prime minister” of the Serbian province, and with the head separatist Fatmir Sejdiu, acting as the “president” of the region. According to the reports, the war criminal is very happy with the way the meeting went and confirmed all they had to say basically boils down to “independence, independence, independence.”

Unlike the Serbs, both in Belgrade and in Kosovo-Metohija, Albanian separatists did not offer any documentation or evidence that would back their claims that everything is better for everyone in every way under their criminal rule, but limited their presentation on sticking to their story: “We presented our arguments that Kosovo is thinking, acting and functioning as a real state,” said the war criminal. “We elaborated why Kosovo has to be independent and why there cannot be other solutions,” said separatist Sejdiu, instructing that “after this visit, it is the time for Kosovo’s status to be decided.”

U.S., French Representative Openly Side With Separatists

The mere word of Albanian terrorists turned to be more credible and heavier for some of the UN delegates than thousands of pages of documentation pointing to innumerable human rights violations and absolute lawlessness the province is ruled by. U.S. representative appeared entirely persuaded right away: “I think there was a lot of progress here. We have congratulated the officials on their success and a good job they did along with the international community representatives here,” Khalilzad was quoted, repeating the Albanian mantra that it was “important to bring the Kosovo status process to a successful conclusion.”

No one really knows what was Afghani-born Khalilzad talking about when he spoke of improvements in the southern Serbian province, since this is his first visit to Serbia in his lifetime, so there really is no way for him to compare the present situation to anything before — a year, two, five or ten years earlier — but it is nice to learn he still has a way of determining “a lot of progress” has taken place in Pristina under the criminal KLA/UCK reign.

Equally prone to hypnotic spells, Khalilzad’s French colleague Jean Marc de La Sablier said he was “impressed with Pristina’s dedication and engagement in implementing the UN Kosovo envoy’s plan, especially where it concerned minorities.” In other words, representative of France is impressed with the fact Albanian separatists are determined to amputate Serbian province from Serbia and get a second Albanian state on the Serbian territory. He is also in awe with the war criminal and other Albanian separatists’ word of honor that they will treat Serbs remaining in barb-wire ghettos well, if and when they are given another state.

Neither the U.S, nor the French representative have told us if they were also moved by the hotel UNSC Ambassadors were accommodated in, a cheesy display of sycophancy and a monument to embarrassingly poor taste known as “Victory Hotel” which features a copy of American Statue of Liberty perched on top, but the vision must’ve stirred some deeply buried tenderness.

Bishop Artemije: Kosovo and Metohija Will Never Be Independent

After the talks with Albanian terrorists, UNSC Ambassadors have met with Serbian Orthodox Church Bishop of Kosovo-Metohija, His Grace Artemije. Speaking about the meeting in Gracanica Monastery, Bishop Artemije told reporters that he conveyed the stance of Serbian Orthodox Church to the UN Ambassadors, that the Ahtisaari plan “is not, and cannot be the sole option.”

Underscoring that the indpendence of Kosovo and Metohija is absolutely unacceptable and that it will not take place, Bishop Artemije said “We have endeavored to present the true state of affairs of the Serbian people and other non-Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija province, who have been suffering for the past eight years and are living a life not fit for humans.”

Bishop Artemije has also handed to each member of the UN Security Council delegation the records of the Serbian Church of 156 burned and destroyed churches and monasteries in the province since UN/NATO overtook the security in the region, as well as the records about “crimes of Albanian extremists that continue to be carried out against our people, churches and monasteries,” including the official Human Rights Watch report detailing the ethnically motivated crimes committed in the province during past eight years.

No Time for the Desperate, Let’s Party!

Due to rigged itinerary, UN Ambassadors had no time to dwell on Serbian misery taking place since June 1999 till present, so they spent only few minutes in Serbian village of Svinjare near Kosovska Mitrovica, one of the villages that were completely razed to the ground during the March 2004 Kristallnacht. Few Serbs that returned to the village after the pogrom to burned-down houses were not given an opportunity to tell the international diplomats Serbs have tried to go back to their homes in 2005, only to be forced to move out again, through constant assaults, provocations and attacks by local Albanians.

Similarly, the UN delegation had no time to visit and speak with any of over 15,000 Serbian refugees that have gathered on the administrative boundary with Kosovo province. Perhaps the delegation’s time to speak with Serbs was additionally cut down due to the fact they had to return quickly to Pristina in order to attend a party Albanian thugs have kindly organized in their honor.

Churkin: Some UNSC Ambassadors Now Understand There is a Better, Third Way

Despite the largely successful ploys to narrow down and, in some cases, entirely prevent Ambassadors’ contact with displaced, homeless and ghettoized Serbs living in despair, Russia’s permanent representative at the UN Vitaly Churkin concluded Friday that during the mission’s visit to Belgrade and Kosovo-Metohija province, some UNSC members have realized there is an alternative to the severing of the province suggested by Ahtisaari.

“Some UN SC member-states only now understand that there is an alternative, and not one that must be imposed to the parties but one that would constitute the basis for further negotiations,” Churkin told Russian state TV.

“It is important to hear what Kosovo-Metohija Serbs have to say,” Churkin said, noting that this was why Moscow had requested a better program of the UN SC mission’s visit, including visits to various places and talking to the people in order to get a fuller picture of the real situation in Kosovo province.

Posted by Svetlana at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Speaking of the Devil...

Around the same time when 15 Ambassadors of the UN Security Council were informed by the members of Serbian government about the real situation in southern Serbian province, which happens to be very different from the one presented by the rosy reports Ruecker’s office keeps submitting to the UN from his Pristina parlor, Ranko Zdravkovic, a Serb from Gorazdevac in Kosovo-Metohija province, was savagely beaten by two Albanians at the gas station near the town of Pec.

“I stopped by the gas station and while I was waiting in queue two Albanians came up to me and started beating me for no reason. I fell next to my car after several punches, while they continued to hit me, cursing and threatening to slit my throat,” Zdravkovic, who managed to escape after a woman he was driving started calling for help, was quoted.

Zdravkovic sustained numerous injuries to his head and chest and was taken to the emergency hospital unit for urgent medical assistance.

Supervised Autonomy Instead of Supervised Independence

Meanwhile, several hundred kilometers up north, in Belgrade, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica presented to the ambassadors of the UN Security Council member states Serbia’s official stands on settlement of the future status of Kosovo and Metohija, which envisage supervised autonomy instead of supervised independence, according to Tanjug news agency.

Kostunica had informed the Mission members that Martti Ahtisaari’s plan not only violates the basic principles of the international legal order and the UN Charter, but also includes a shut-down solution with no possibilities of future reevaluations.

Serbia, on the other hand, proposed supervised autonomy instead of supervised independence, which would open possibilities for establishing a process that can be further adapted to the changing circumstances. Once granted, independence may never again be revoked despite the fact that granting independence violates the law, while changes are possible only when the autonomy principle is implemented and international law is respected.

Kosovo Apartheid

Serbia’s Prime Minister pointed out that reports submitted by UNMIK chiefs twice a year to the Security Council did not conform to real situation in Kosovo and Metohija, emphasizing that two thirds of the Serbian and non-Albanian population had been expelled from Serbian province, 200,000 Serbs cannot return to their homes, churches and monasteries are being destroyed even though many of them are under UNESCO protection, Serbian houses are demolished and looted, Serbs in Kosovo province are exposed to daily attacks, ethnically motivated violence and abductions are the most common news coming from the southern province since the summer of 1999.

Kostunica stressed that Serbs live in isolated enclaves which are virtual ghettos, without the most basic freedoms like freedom of movement, they are victims of ethnically motivated violence on a daily basis, and the perpetrators of the attacks are never found or punished.

Prime Minister pointed to the fact that 40,000 Serbs lived in Pristina before NATO aggression, while now there are only 87 Serbs living in that city and asked why Serbs, who are unable to return to remote areas, are also unable to return to the big cities, such as Pistina. Kosunica said there was no multi-ethnicity in Kosovo and Metohija and that today the only multi-ethnic town in the province was Northern Mitrovica, where majority of Serbs reside.

He said Serbia expected the Security Council to ensure the return of 200,000 expelled Serbs and to start real negotiations on the future status of the Province. Kostunica also asked the UN SC Mission to consistently review the implementation of standards from Resolution 1244.

Britain’s Pierce Offers Personal Interpretation of the International Law

Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Nations Karen Pierce gave her interpretation of the UNSC Resolution 1244 at the meeting, claiming that it “does not guarantee territorial integrity of Serbia but enables the United Nations to establish a political process which will lead to setting up of provisional institutions of self-government in Kosovo and creation of preconditions for the process of talks on the status.”

Prime Minister replied that he disagrees with such interpretation, but added that even if it were correct, the Securty Council would still be obligated to act in accordance with the UN Charter. Kostunica explained to Mrs. Pierce that Security Council may not violate its own basic act — the UN Charter — which guarantees sovereignty and territorial integrity of all of the member states, nor may its own Resolution 1244 be contrary to the institution’s Charter.

Pierce then cited the statement of NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer that the proposal for essential autonomy may not be implemented because it would require a large number of foreign troops to supervise such autonomy.

Rejecting that argument, Kostunica stressed that the number of deployed troops, as a matter of convenience to the Western states that deployed them, is not a core issue that could be decisive in determining if part of a state should be severed, reiterating that the condition for NATO to end its aggression against Serbia in 1999 was withdrawal of all Serbian police and army forces, after which KFOR, i.e. NATO states, had assumed responsibility for maintenance of peace and order in the territory of Kosovo-Metohija province.

Albanians a Minority in Serbia, With Albania as Their Ethnic State

The newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad asked what would Serbia do in case the SC backs the essence of Ahtisaari’s proposal, assessing that the SC is also faced with a serious issue and difficult options.

Premier Kostunica refused to get involved in such a hypothetical discussion, reiterating Serbia’s stand that the SC may not violated the UN Charter, because it would question itself.

French Ambassador in the UN said that the Security Council is in a difficult position, because it is being faced with “two contradictory international legal principles,” the principle of respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty of independent states on the one hand, and the right to self-determination, on the other.

Kostunica replied that the right to self-determination may not apply to an ethnic minority, and the Albanians are definitely an ethnic minority in Serbia, which they also were in previous Yugoslavia, because Albania is their ethnic state.

If such a principle were to be forced on Serbia regarding one of its ethnic minorities, then other ethnic minorities, not only in Europe but from all over the world, would claim their right to their own state, starting from the Hungarians in Romania, Hungarians in Slovakia, Serbs in Croatia, Catalonians in Spain, the Premier said.

Kostunica pointed out that the right to self-determination had been applied to former colonies and people who were under colonial governments, while the Albanians in the territory of southern Serbian province had never been in such position, since Kosovo-Metohija is an integral part of Serbian, not of Albanian state.

Third Option That Was Never Considered

South Africa’s UN Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo asked Kostunica about “the third way”, or what Serbia proposed as an alternative to the possibilities presented by the international community so far — either the status quo or the internationally supervised independence.

After hearing the arguments of Serbian government representatives, Kumalo said he “no longer views the issue as a straight choice between independence or not.”

“Until now an opinion prevailed that there were just two solutions,” Kumalo said, represented as “Serbian insistence on sovereignty versus a plan by Martti Ahtisaari” giving virtual independence to Serbia’s province.

After learning about Serbia’s proposition of the supervised autonomy, South Africa’s UN Ambassador said: “Now, after what you told us and explained, we see things differently.”

More Than 10,000 Albanians Live in Belgrade

The UN ambassadors also asked about the way Belgrade envisaged life with Albanians given the history of animosity and conflict between the two nations.

Kostunica responded by giving the examples of the Albanian minority in the south of Serbia proper, living in Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, showing that Serbs and Albanians can live together. Another proof of Serbia’s ability to accommodate other cultures and ethnic and religious groups including Albanians is the fact that over 10,000 ethnic Albanians live in Belgrade, showing that there is trust in the wider layers of society.

A New Outlook

Prime Minister’s adviser, Vladeta Jankovic told Tanjug that many members of the Mission had acquired a new perspective on Serbia’s view of a possible resolution of the Kosovo crisis.

He evaluated that the general impression from the meeting, which lasted an hour and a half, was that many of the ambassadors “got a completely new outlook on the entire set of problems, particularly Serbia’s vision of a possible solution, which would guarantee both preservation of the UN Charter and the ‘holy principle’ of multi ethnic coexistence.”

Detailed Evidence of Ethnic Cleansing, Persecution and Human Rights Violations — Complete Absence of Efforts to Implement Resolution 1244

Coordinators of the negotiating team Slobodan Samardzic and Leon Kojen, as well as President of the Coordination Center Sanda Raskovic-Ivic also met with the ambassadors.

During the meeting with the UN Ambassadors, Slobodan Samardzic expounded on negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija that took place in Vienna, under Ahtisaari’s guidance.

Samardzic recalled that only one of those meetings was organised on top level — on June 24, 2006, whereas 15 meetings referred to technical issues, noting that from September 2006 to February 2007 there was not a single meeting. He added that after Ahtisaari presented his proposal, meetings referred only to six chapters of that plan while seven chapters were never discussed. Samardzic also said it was indicative that more than 500 amendments that Belgrade proposed were flatly rejected, while the Albanian ones were approved and included into the Finn’s proposal.

Speaking about the meeting with the UNSC Ambassadors, Slobodan Samardzic said that Serbian government presented evidence of assaults on Serbs in the province, ethnically motivated violence, abductions, even desecration of graves, which should enable the mission to learn the truth for the first time on Serbia’s southern province.

The evidence presented to the UNSC mission consists of thousand-page files, CDs and documents detailing all ethnically motivated crimes against Serbs in the Province during past eight years, the non existence of investigations in the crimes, as well as precise data on the number of Serbs who have been expelled and who are living in collective centers. “They are aware of some things, but they do not know what was really happening because the reports of UN officials to the SC were mostly cosmetically touched up to conceal the truth. This is the first opportunity for them to learn about the real situation and their visit is therefore very important,” Samardzic told Serbian TV.

He expressed his conviction that Kosovo-Metohija province will not be independent, adding that there is a growing understanding that there can be no speedy solution and that the issue of Serbia’s southern province requires new negotiations, which means that resolving the status issue will take some time.

According to Samardzic, the mission will not visit the administrative boundary between Serbia proper and its Kosovo province, where more than 10,000 Serbian Kosovo-Metohija refugees have gathered over night and during the day, although the ambassadors were asked to do so.

7,000 Ethnically Motivated Attacks Since 1999

Coordination Council for Kosovo and Metohija President Sanda Raskovic-Ivic brought to the attention of the SC Mission facts that in Kosovo-Metohija province, according to UNHCR data, five percent of the expelled have returned, while according to data of the Serbian institutions the real number was less than two percent.

Since 1999 there have been 7,000 attacks on Serbs, of which 4,500 with firearms and 931 Serbs have been killed. UNMIK is conducting an investigation into only 90 cases, Raskovic-Ivic conveyed to the Ambassadors.

Posted by Svetlana at 07:58 PM | Permalink

Keeping Tight Lid on Essential Bits of Information

Illustrating just how tight the lid on essential bits of information in the West really is, article by the Russian New York correspondent revealing the crucial information about current UNSC Mission to Kosovo-Metohija from behind the scenes that Western news agencies keep hidden from public is, sadly, even in Russian news left without English translation.

Daily Kommersant, a Soros-funded enterprise, which does have an English section where articles are translated, this time around chose to post a slightly touched-up version of Reuters’ bland, non-informative piece of drivel about the UNSC Mission instead of translation of Gornostaev’s article, with the same photo of Vitaly Churkin, suggesting it is mirroring the article in Russian, although the two aren’t even vaguely related.

Manipulating Itinerary to Bypass the Essence of the Mission

In its Russian edition, Kommersant on Wednesday reported that 15 members of the UN Security Council Mission are on their way to Serbia, via Brussels, on board two planes, which the daily sees as a clear signal of disagreement within the Security Council.

Both Kommersant and Vremya Novostei report on attempts to manipulate the Mission’s itinerary to practically bypass the essence of Russia’s initiative on the need to get a firsthand information about the situation in the field.

Citing UN diplomatic sources, Vremya Novostei reveals that Mission’s time-crunched two day itinerary surprisingly included dinner in Vienna with Martti Ahtisaari, that is to take place before UN Ambassadors return to New York. Russia objected to this unnecessary detour gobbling up more time away from Kosovo-Metohija residents, pointing out that Ahtisaari had ample time to drum up support for his proposal on April 3, in a day long UNSC session. In the end, the scheduled dinner with the Finn was accepted in order not to deepen the already wide rift within Security Council, although it is another clear indication that Western officials decided to throw dust in everybody’s eyes, while forcing Ahtisaari’s plan through, Russian daily concluded.

In its report from New York on preparations of the Mission, Kommersant quoted Russian permanent representative at the United Nations Vitaly Churkin as saying that Western diplomats had tried to set different “traps” during the development of the Mission’s program.

The program for the mission’s press briefing had, thus, suddenly included “names of people who are not supposed to be there,” and efforts to increase the number of protocol events, “aimed at reducing the time for meeting the local population,” which the Russian side is urging for, Kommersant reported.

Main Argument for Severing Serbia’s Province: Foreign Investors Need Reassurances

Reporting about the Monday briefing at the Security Council before the Mission’s departure, during which UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guhenno presented a report on Kosovo-Metohija province, Kommersant wrote that Britain now has two voices in the UN Security Council, since Emyr Jones Perry is sending his deputy to the Kosovo-Metohija Mission, Karen Pierce. Madam Pierce, contrary to the very essence of the Mission and in conflict with the main reason for it being initiated in the first place, feels that “there’s no need to review the implementation of the UNSC Resolution 1244” at all. According to the Kommersant, Pierce believes that UNMIK’s 2005 report submitted in New York represented an “excellent” review of Resolution 1244 implementation.

Kommersant’s New York correspondent also reported that the main argument in favor of independence during the Monday briefing and Guhenno’s presentation was that foreign investors are afraid to go to the province before the status is resolved.

This was followed by a question by an African representative, the daily wrote without specifying whether he was the representative of South Africa, Ghana or the republic of Congo, about whether the UN Mission and peace-keepers are being sent to Kosovo province to secure interests of foreign investors.

UNMIK Pressures Serbs in Kosovo Province to Falsify Facts

Similar manipulations and pressures are exerted on Serbs remaining in Kosovo-Metohija province by the UNMIK officials. According to the President of the Coordinating Center for Kosovo-Metohija Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, “UNMIK representatives regularly visit Serbian communities and exert inappropriate pressure with promises and mild threats in order to scare people into supporting UNMIK and Ahtisaari’s proposal.” She added that she will inform the UN fact-finding mission about these methods of exerting compliance with official Western tales.

Although Serbian officials gladly accept and await the arrival of the UN Security Council Mission, Coordinator of the state negotiating team for Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic stated today that Serbia will suggest that another, lower-ranking delegation travels to the province in the wake of the current visit, that would more thoroughly explore the actual state southern Serbian province is in.

UN Mission Won’t Have Time to Visit Any of Sites of 156 Churches Burned to the Ground

“Freedom of movement is restricted for Serbs in Kosovo, the safety situation is disastrous and 156 Orthodox Churches have been burned to the ground, while these facts are being covered up with optimistic tales about improvments and implementation of standards,” Samardzic told journalists.

“Serbia is not satisfied with the fact that the Mission will not have the time to visit any of the 156 devastated churches, Prizren, or Gorazdevac,” Raskovic-Ivic said.

“On Friday the mission will visit Bishop Artemije in Gracanica and we would like them to visit the collective center there, which is the container residence area where people afflicted by the March 17-18 pogrom now live,” Raskovic-Ivic added.

Serbophobe Ruecker Adds Insult to Injury

Meanwhile, thousands of Serbian refugees expelled from Kosovo-Metohija province since summer of 1999, when NATO-colonizers marched in, are gathering on the province’s administrative boundary, hoping to meet with the UN Mission in order to plead to be allowed to return to their homes. Of 250,000 Kosovo-Metohija refugees, more than 10,000 are expected to gather at Jarinje crossing, coming from cities, towns and villages across Montenegro and Serbia proper where they have been spending last eight years in a virtual limbo of impoverished, homeless, “internally displaced persons.”

UNMIK chief Joachim Ruecker has informed the Serbian refugees gathering at Jarinje from his Pristina office they would be allowed to enter their province only if they undergo “regular control,” a statement which president of the Serbian National Council Milan Ivanovic called insultingly cynical.

Ruecker’s Job is to Secure the Return of Kosovo Refugees, Not to Prevent It

“Ruecker is not in charge of inspecting IDs of Kosovo-Metohija refugees, but of securing the conditions for their return to the province and of implementing the basic provisions of the Resolution 1244,” Ivanovic told Tanjug Wednesday.

“Ruecker’s statement is malicious,” Ivanovic said, noting that over 10,000 Serbian refugees will come Thursday to an administrative boundary crossing in the vicinity of Raska to show that Ruecker is not working to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

“The false reports Ruecker has been presenting to the UN Security Council will be unmasked in the coming two days. His statement today demonstrates that he is following the anti-Serbian policy of his predecessors,” Ivanovic said.

Kosovo is Safe, Democratic and Multi-Ethnic, Just as Auschwitz Was a Summer Resort and a Spa for European Jews

With all dishonesty, cunning and manipulations Western powers are resorting to, let us hope that anything gets unmasked and that some of the truth does come out. Because if some of the UN Security Council representatives intend to present their conversations with corrupt NATO, EU and UN employees and local Albanian thugs from the pleasant shade and safety of their comfortable offices, as a “fact-finding” effort, they might as well rewrite their WWII books, accepting reports of Fuhrer’s officials stating that concentration camps are nothing but a humanitarian effort, where unemployed and hungry are given work, food and shelter during Reich’s war of liberation.

Posted by Svetlana at 08:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (2)

Kosovo Independence Will Not Pass

A solution for the future status of Kosovo-Metohija based on the plan drafted by the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari will not get through the UN Security Council, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov said on Tuesday.

“We have stated that we will not support a decision that is not backed by both parties to the conflict [the Serbs and Albanians] at the UN Security Council. The council will not pass a resolution based on the Ahtisaari plan,” Titov said according to the Interfax new agency.

Itar-Tass news agency reported that Russian diplomat warned that in case of an explosion of violence in Kosovo-Metohija province, Russia would demand that the Security Council considered the question whether it would make any sense to continue the political process.

Zero Tolerance for Kosovo Albanians Throwing a Fit

“Should there occur an escalation of violence in Kosovo, we shall at once demand considering the question whether it will make sense to continue the political process in view of the fact the situation in the territory is not ripe yet,” Titov said, pointing out that it was unacceptable that Kosovo Albanians blackmailed the international community.

“We find it surprising that the Kosovo Albanians are blackmailing the international community with a bloodbath in the province if they are denied independence. This is utterly unacceptable,” Titov underlined, adding that “nothing prevents Albanians in southern Serbian province from leading a normal life.”

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said that one should not accuse Russia for procrastinations in achieving a solution for the Kosovo-Metohija issue.

According to him, responsibility is not tantamount to guilt, and the guilt for a possible escalation of violence in southern Serbian province will be placed squarely on the shoulders of those who urge such a scenario.

Titov did not rule out the possibility that the European Union might play a greater role in the Kosovo province settlement, adding that a “transformation of the international presence in the territory matching the current tasks would be quite possible.”

Small Slovakia Puts Europe’s Giants to Shame

Unexpectedly, it turns out that almost all of the European Union member states are also coming to their senses, realizing that the U.S. State Department’s blind push to force dismemberment of Serbia through severing of Kosovo-Metohija province, regardless of the consequences, is far from good and can have devastating effect on all of Europe.

While the EU giants seem to be satisfied to merely execute the will of State Department bureaucrats, fulfilling their wishes and acting as the servants of the U.S. government apparatus, small Slovakia has taken a leading role within EU in the struggle for the international law and protection of the sovereignty of internationally recognized states, dwarfing Britain, France and Germany, among others.

EU: No Unilateral Recognitions, Solution Must be Based on UN Security Council Decision

Slovakian Foreign Minister Jan Kubis proposed Monday to the European Union Council of Ministers to include in the joint declaration of the EU-US summit scheduled for April 30 in Washington a provision stating that the solution for the future status of Kosovo-Metohija province must result from a UN Security Council resolution, European diplomatic sources told Tanjug in Luxemburg.

The preliminary draft declaration drawn up by German EU Presidency says that the signatories wish a solution to be found within the UN Security Council, rejecting the possibility of unilateral recognitions by individual states. Slovakia, however, has proposed a formula that such a solution must be found in the UN Security Council, the sources said.

Slovakia’s initiative was supported by all EU foreign ministers, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said, “except for one EU member-state, which is also a permanent member of the UN Security Council,” and that could be only Britain or France.

The EU foreign ministers have expressed worries that it will be difficult to get the US to make a commitment to the stand that a UN Security Council resolution is necessary, approved earlier by the EU, the sources said.

Inconvenient Kosovo-Metohija Refugees, Forgotten by the Enlightened Elite

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Tuesday that Serbian government will ask the mission of the UN Security Council to establish a clear plan and activities for securing the return of 200,000 Serbs expelled from Kosovo-Metohija province to their homes.

“The new reality is that Ahtisaari’s plan has failed, because the very foundations of his plan were illegal and illegitimate,” Kostunica pointed out in a statement for the Tanjug news agency. “It is now necessary to make the most of the arrival of the Security Council mission in the best possible way,” Kostunica said.

“The time has come to open and resolve the issue of the return of 200,000 expelled Serbs, completely forgotten by Ahtisaari in his plan,” Kostunica said.

“Regrettably, we have not heard so far, ever, a determined appeal by the key states of the international community that the issue of expelled persons must be resolved using concrete measures and in a concrete time frame,” the Prime Minister said.

“Serbian government will ask the Security Council mission that the UN Security Council itself should define a clear plan and activities that will secure that all expelled persons return to their homes,” the Serbian Prime Minister said.

“We are confident that Security Council can initiate and secure, with its strong authority, the mass return of expelled Serbs to Kosovo and Metohija, which would create the best possible atmosphere for new and successful negotiating process,” Kostunica emphasized.

Cartoon by Ranko Guzina (Serbia)

Posted by Svetlana at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Are-We-There-Yet Campaign

For some reason the “EU Troika” (apparently, they turn Russian from time to time) seems to think that plain nagging can replace reason and even has the magical power to wear the best arguments down. One would expect EU’s highest officials, Solana, Steinmeier and Ferrero-Waldner would have something more substantive to say to Russia when arguing for the secession of Serbian Kosovo province they support than “are-we-there-yet?” but one would be very disappointed — that’s all they have to say, really.

Where Russian Federation was expected to show the signs of cracks when asked regarding Kosovo-Metohija province “are-we-there-yet?” once again today in Luxembourg, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has merely reiterated the firm, principled position: “Implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 that would allow continuation of negotiations is essential in order to resolve the Kosovo-Metohija issue. The solution accepted by both sides will remove the risk of further destabilization and reaching it is entirely possible, as long as there are no attempts to impose a unilateral solution.”

“There should be no unilateral efforts to impose solutions because these Balkan nations need to live together in the future,” Lavrov said. “We need a stable resolution. We shouldn’t plant a delayed action land mine under the Kosovo process.”

Meaning: No, we’re nowhere near.

250,000 Serbs and Non-Albanians Purged from Kosovo Province, Serbia’s Main Concern

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Monday that with the arrival of the UN Security Council mission to Serbia, we are entering a completely new cycle in the resolution of the future organization of Kosovo-Metohija province.

“We are leaving the failed Ahtisaari’s plan behind, and the Russian initiative that a Security Council mission begins an overall evaluation of the realization of standards is turning into a realistic ground for a new negotiation process,” Kostunica assessed in an interview for Tanjug.

Prime Minister added that the Serbian government puts an accent on the issue of return of 250,000 expelled Serbs and non-Albanians, a problem that cannot be further postponed.

“We have to begin with the most simple question — why is it that 40,000 Serbs cannot return to Pristina and live normally in their houses. The Security Council mission has to, above all, give an answer to this question and ensure that in new negotiations the issue of return of all expelled persons is resolved first,” he pointed out.

Kostunica underlined that “there is only one answer to the threats of terrorists that they will cause violence if the province does not get independence, which should represent a joint stand of Serbia, Russia and all other Security Council member states, the non-permanent ones in particular, being that the international community is stronger than the terrorists’ blackmailing and threats, and that it is capable and determined to ensure peace in the province and punish all those who may dare to use violence.”

The UN Security Council mission, which will obtain facts on the real situation in Kosovo, the fulfillment of international standards and implementation of Security Council Resolution 1244, will stay in Belgrade and Pristina from April 25 to 28.

Expelled Serbs Will Meet the UN Security Council Members

On the occasion of the arrival of the UN Security Council mission to the province, a number of Serbs expelled from Kosovo-Metohija will organize a mass gathering at the Jarinje border crossing on April 26-27, Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija stated at a news conference in Belgrade on Friday.

Council’s President Milan Ivanovic clarified that the initiative was launched by a large number of displaced and expelled Serbs, around 10,000 of them, who will gather at the Donje Jarinje administrative line, on the Raska-Kosovska Mitrovica road, in order to show that the situation in southern Serbian province is far from rosy as it keeps being described by KFOR and UNMIK in their reports.

“According to the information we have, not even one percent of the Serbs or members of other non-Albanian ethnic communities have returned to Kosovo-Metohija province over the past eight years,” said Ivanovic, underscoring that “the Mission is headed by a man from a country that supports severing of Serbian province.” The country is Belgium, and the man in question is Belgian Ambassador at the UN Johan Verbeke.

He called on the Mission to visit the Serb enclaves in Kosovo and Metohija and to see for themselves the difficult life and hopeless position of the Serbs there, emphasizing that compromise is the only possibility to solve the problem in the interest of all.

Serbs want to inform the mission about their problems in the province during the past eight years, in order to see for themselves that UN Security Council Resolution 1244 is being violated, Vice-President of the Association of the Serbs expelled from Kosovo and Metohija Goran Savovic said.

Pointing out that the gathering is a result of a democratic and civic initiative, he expressed readiness of the Serbs to return to southern Serbian province if their apartments, houses and land are freed.

Director of the Obilic-based company Povrsinski Kopovi Dragan Radakovic said that 8,000 workers of Elektroprivreda Kosova had also backed the democratic and civic initiative to gather at Jarinje crossing, stressing that 14.7 billion tons of coal — 76% of Serbia’s total supplies of coal — are in Kosovo-Metohija.

Serbia to Raise Issue of Its Property in Kosovo-Metohija

Martti Ahtisaari’s proposal is unacceptable to Serbs for a number of reasons, not least of which is that it legalizes the theft and plunder of Serbian property in Kosovo-Metohija. Serbian officials, including President Boris Tadic, have announced that they would raise the issue of ownership in the forthcoming negotiations on Kosovo province’s status.

According to the Ahtisaari draft, all movables and immovables belonging to Serbia, which are situated in the territory of Serbia’s southern province, should become the property of the proposed new ‘Kosovo state,’ thereby stealing Serbian property valued at astronomical sums by a simple decree.

According to the Coordination Center for Kosovo-Metohija, Serbian business enterprises own some 1,400 facilities in the province. Among them, the property of Serbian Electric Power Company (EPS) alone is worth nearly three billion euros (over 4 billion dollars), while the value of the private property of more than 30,000 Serbian families who left the province before the arrival of international troops in 1999 is assessed to be worth at least another 3 billion euros, or more than four billion dollars.

As for the ownership structure of enterprises, 30 percent is state-owned, 15 percent is the capital of the Kosovo Development Fund, 10 percent belongs to enterprises based outside the province, five percent belongs to owners from other republics of the former FR Yugoslavia, while the remaining 40 percent is the socially owned capital.

The value of immovables — farm and construction land, forests, institutional premises, office and residential buildings and state-owned special purpose facilities in Kosovo-Metohija province — was estimated at 162 million euros, or 220 million dollars in 2003, while the property of the military airfield near Pristina was assessed at 95 million euros, or 130 million dollars.

Head of the Serbian government’s economic team Nenad Popovic said previously that Serbia’s investments in the province between 1960 and 1990 amounted to approximately 12.5 billion euros, or 17 billion dollars.

He added that the foreign debt of Kosovo-Metohija enterprises amounted to about 1.2 billion dollars and that state of Serbia has been paying it off regularly, for years. Last year alone, Serbia paid 217.60 million dollars of the debt, or 120,000 dollars per day, and it did not collect taxes and contributions from enterprises in Kosovo-Metohija province.

By suggesting that its property in Kosovo-Metohija be simply snatched away, Ahtisaari and his handlers are advocating ripping off the Electric Power Company of Serbia of at least 1.5 billion euros (over 2 billion dollars). The suggested loss of other property, both state and privately owned is astronomical and entirely unacceptable.

Cartoon by Zoran Mihailovic (Serbia)

Posted by Svetlana at 07:42 PM | Permalink

Albanian Way of Hijacking Kosovo Province — Burn It All!

After razing to the ground over 150 Serbian churches and monasteries, there are very few left to destroy and those that still remain are heavily guarded day and night by the foreign troops. The ground where glorious medieval Christian churches once stood is today mostly cleared and the new mosques, memorials and monuments to terrorist KLA/UCK have been erected in their place.

A number of Serbian villages have also been burned during the NATO-brought “peace”, since the summer of 1999, especially during the March 2004 Kristallnacht, another mass expulsion of Serbian Kosovo-Metohija residents. Three years ago, 7 Serbian villages were entirely wiped off the earth, along with 800 Serbian houses scattered in the tiny ghettos throughout.

But in a province that has been Serbian for over a millennium, there is still much more to destroy, more ways to force the remaining non-Albanians to flee, more devastation to cause in order to erase ten centuries of history and change the face of the region for good.

Serb-Owned Forests Set Ablaze

Tanjug reports that a series of fires set up near the Istok municipality in Kosovo-Metohija province since Saturday have so far ravaged 200 hectares (over 490 acres) of Serb-owned forests.

“In only four days Albanian terrorists set fire on Poljana and Bogace forests owned by local Serbs, ravaging more than 100 hectares (over 240 acres). The same happened yesterday in Tucep where the fire has not been put out yet. According to locals, more than 200 hectares (approx. 495 acres) of Serbian forests has so far been ruined,” the Coordinating Center statement said.

As the raging fire is quickly surging towards Serbian villages Osojane, Tucep, Blagaca and Poljane, the alarmed residents have no doubt the fire was set up by the Albanian terrorists, since it was started in the Albanian village on the road to Rakos and spread from there.

“When similar incidents keep repeating in a short period of time, there can be no doubt we are dealing with the organized actions aimed exclusively at intimidating and purging Serbian residents from Kosovo-Metohija province,” Istok municipality coordinator Rados Vulic told the press Saturday.

He said that fires have been intentionally started for the last eight years, adding that the local Serbs were persistent in dealing with innumerable hardships, enduring and remaining in their homes.

The Coordinating Center stressed that “KFOR and UNMIK representatives failed to respond to numerous appeals to protect Kosovo Serbs.”

The Kosovo Coordinating Center said in a statement that “the fire started near Tucep village in the vicinity of the Istok municipality and spread into the neighboring village of Poljane as a result of an unprofessional and untimely intervention by the Istok fire brigade.”

“Locals fear it may last two more days and devastate more than 600 hectares (over 1480 acres) of forest.”

Rightful Owner

News like this inevitably brings up the question of rightful ownership — if southern Serbian province ought to be gifted to those who would rather see it completely destroyed, turned to ashes and smoke, just to spite the Serbs and force them to leave.

At one point Albanians launched a bizarre propaganda campaign attempting to persuade the world Orthodox Christian churches and monasteries in the province, built centuries ago, are actually Albanian property that Serbs took away, “stole” from them at some point in time. Father Sava (Janjic) of Decani Monastery asked: If that is so, then why are you destroying them?

In one Buddhist story, two monks fought over a cat, each claiming the ownership and refusing to let the other one have it. The dispute was settled only when the monastery elder took a sword, telling monks to hold their share of cat each. As he swung to cut the cat in two, one of the monks quickly let go, telling the elder to let the other one have it: “Don’t kill it, master, let him have the cat!” The elder decided the one who was willing to see the cat killed, just so the other monk doesn’t have it, couldn’t possibly be the rightful owner.

Owning something involves responsibility and love, taking care of it, being proud to see it grow, prosper and endure, and being heartbroken to see it in misery, demolished and destroyed. The only thing Kosovo-Metohija Albanians have proven thus far is that they never really owned a thing in Kosovo-Metohija and they don’t deserve a single foot of Serbian land, let alone the entire Serbian Kosovo.

Posted by Svetlana at 04:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Ahtisaari: Discredited Mediator With Failed Proposal

Despite the shockingly treacherous behavior on behalf of some U.S. lawmakers and State Department bureaucrats, who are openly advocating surrender to jihadist demands and territorial concessions over Serbia’s back, in hope to placate the insatiable beast of Islamic fundamentalism, there is a growing awareness of the dangers Ahtisaari’s proposal for tearing up a sovereign state entails.

On his recent visit to Serbia, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov pronounced Ahtisaari’s proposal for Serbian Kosovo province officially dead, since its objective was not to find a viable solution that would ensure peace and stability in the region, by taking into account positions of both sides in the conflict. Instead, Ahtisaari from the very start focused on fulfilling the wishes of Albanian Muslim separatists to secede southern Serbian province and be given a gift of state on Serbian territory.

By directly prohibiting discussion about any other possible solution to the Kosovo province problem during the mock-negotiations he presided over, by openly siding with Albanian separatists, by advocating dismemberment of a sovereign state and, thereby, proposing violation of the international laws, by recommending a “solution” which would reward terrorism, ethnic cleansing and armed insurrection as valid means for attaining political goals, former Finnish president has been irreparably discredited as an international mediator.

UN Security Council’s Majority Rejects Finn’s “Solution”

Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, informed that only four out of 15 UN Security Council member states have expressed support for Ahtisaari’s proposal during the April 3 session. Security Council is comprised of five permanent members with the power to veto decisions, preventing them from being turned into legally binding resolutions: U.S., Russian Federation, China, U.K. and France, and ten non-permanent members rotated yearly, without the power of veto.

Two out of five permanent Security Council member states — Russia and China — have voiced their firm support for Serbia, demanding respect of the international law which guarantees preservation of state sovereignty and border inviolability. Both Russia and China have the power to prevent adoption of any resolution in the UN Security Council that would attempt to redraw Serbia’s borders, by granting an independent status to Kosovo-Metohija province, an integral part of its territory.

But even if neither Russia nor China were to use their power of veto, the new UN resolution which would open a road to dismemberment of Serbia could not be adopted in the UN Security Council, since no other of non-permanent member states except Belgium seems to be in favor of such illegal and illegitimate “solution.”

On the contrary, a number of them have also openly rejected Ahtisaari’s proposal.

Ghana Supports Serbia, Urges Respect for the UN Charter

Ambassador of Ghana to Serbia Njaho Njaho-Tamalko told Tanjug on Friday that negotiations on Kosovo-Metohija province should be continued, both between Belgrade and Pristina, and inside the UN Security Council.

“Only in that way a lasting solution can be reached that is acceptable to both sides and the international community,” said the ambassador of Ghana, one of the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, and agreed with the position put forth by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Belgrade on Thursday.

Njaho-Tamalko welcomed the Security Council decision to send next week a delegation to Kosovo and to Belgrade, highlighting the need for it to visit the Serbian enclaves.

“We believe Security Council representatives should learn firsthand the situation in the province and upon return should have thorough discussions in the Security Council,” he said, noting that of course that meant they should visit the Serbian enclaves.

Ghana’s ambassador reminded that the position of his country, when it comes to Serbia and its southern province of Kosovo-Metohija, was unchanged — that in this, just as in other cases, the UN Charter and its provisions that guarantee the sovereignty and territorial integrity of UN member states must be respected.

The Security Council, according to him, should not make a decision on the issue of Kosovo province that is based on the opinion of only several countries, but a consensus of all UN Security Council members should be reached.

Indonesia Supports Territorial Integrity of Serbia

Indonesia supports the territorial integrity of Serbia, the newly appointed Indonesian ambassador in Belgrade, Mohammad Abduh Dalimunde, stated on March 15.

Dalimunde was received by the Serbian foreign minister, Vuk Draskovic. The Indonesian Ambassador declared his country’s support to the territorial integrity of Serbia and pointed out that the U.N. Charter had to be honored, it was said in the statement.

South Africa Backs Serbia Against UN Charter Violation

Although criticized by the U.S. mainstream media for its “cold reaction” to Ahtisaari’s proposal advocating secession of Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province, South African representatives remain firm in their refusal to accept the abuse and dictatorial attitude of world powers. “The council should stick to resolving international conflicts and not abuse its role by bullying small countries or expanding its authority into areas beyond its jurisdiction,” said South Africa’s UN Security Council Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo.

In this respect, Ambassador Kumalo believes his government had “remained faithful to the values of the struggle against Apartheid.”

On his recent visit to South Africa, Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Draskovic was reassured that South Africa supports Serbia’s position that the UN Charter which guarantees territorial integrity of the internationally recognized states, has to be respected. Serbian Foreign Minister was received by South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki and Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

South Africa’s UN representative has also been extremely supportive of the Russian initiative to send the UN fact-finding mission to southern Serbian province, stating that the only way for Security Council members to responsibly engage in a discussion about Kosovo-Metohija province was to learn, firsthand, about the actual situation on the ground and if and how the currently binding UN SC Resolution 1244 has been implemented.

Posted by Svetlana at 11:16 AM | Permalink

U.S. Counter-Terrorism Expert: Kosovo is a Black Hole in the Midst of Europe

If the status of Serbian Kosovo and Metohija province were to be resolved according to Martti Ahtisaari’s proposal, a mono-ethnic criminal state would emerge in the heart of Europe, U.S. counter-terrorism expert Michael Radu warned on Friday.

What kind of control suggested by the Ahtisaari’s “supervised independence” proposal can be exerted if, according to the same proposal, Kosovo Albanian terrorists would be allowed to have their own armed force and government, and to participate in the work of international organizations, asked Radu in an interview with Vremya Novostei, and is the European Union prepared to supervise the activities of criminal Kosovo authorities.

“Kosovo, with its semi-educated population and criminal armed formations, is a black hole in the midst of Balkans, which reminds me of Chechnya in the 1995-1999 period or Pridnestrovye in the 1990s,” said Radu, who is the co-chairman of the Center on Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute.

He added that although Kosovo Albanians officially do not have their own army after Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA/UCK) was supposedly disbanded, NATO-formed “Kosovo Protection Corps,” comprised of former KLA members “in reality is a militarized nationalist organization with a criminal background.”

Independence Means War

According to Radu, members of the “Kosovo Protection Corps” are involved in crimes against humanity, and every criminal activity known to men, including drug and arms trafficking, supplying European brothels with “bodies,” and they have good connections with the Italian mobsters, in Calabria, for instance.

Radu stressed that Belgrade had issued an indictment for crimes against humanity against provisional Kosovo “premier,” war criminal Agim Ceku and his fellow KLA fighters, while the Hague tribunal is already processing the brutal war crimes of former Kosovo-Metohija UN-appointed “premier” Ramus Haradinaj.

Warning that granting independence to Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province would lead to war and pointing out that “Serbia’s armed forces are still the strongest in the Balkans,” Radu explained that compliance with Albanian separatist demands for independence on behalf of a part of the current U.S. administration is a direct result of the influence of Albanian crime-funded lobby on Western mass media.

Posted by Svetlana at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Rooting Out Serbia’s Jihadists

Serbian Ministry of Interior issued a brief statement Friday, informing that the anti-terrorist police unit came under heavy fire as it attempted to arrest leader of a Muslim terrorist group in a dawn raid on three village houses in predominantly Muslim region of Raska (Sandzak), where recently a jihadist training camp was found, along with the large cache of weapons and explosives.

A statement said police surrounded three houses in Donja Trnava, near Novi Pazar, around 4:50 a.m., after a tipoff that Ismail Prentic, 28, head of Wahhabi terrorist group in Raska region, with links to Bosnian and other jihadist terrorist groups, was hiding there. Police officers were attacked by a pack of dogs as they approached the entrance of one of the houses and then came under attack by grenades and gunfire which injured one police officer. The terrorists tried to flee throwing hand grenades behind them, when police opened fire killing Prentic and injuring Senad Ramovic, 34.

Beta news agency said Ramovic was in stable condition. The third member of the terrorist group, Safet Becirovic, 59, was arrested.

Prentic was described as “armed and dangerous” by the UN police stationed in Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohija and wanted for illegal firearms possession and trafficking weapons and explosives for the planned attack on the international KFOR troops stationed in the province, according to the recent NATO intelligence report that was leaked to media.

Injured police officer was treated in Novi Pazar hospital and sent home for recovery.

Journalists in Raska Region Seek Protection

On April 2, Beta news agency informed about Belgrade media correspondents reporting from Novi Pazar who said the town’s Muslim mayor was blaming them for reporting about jihadists hiding in the region.

“According to mayor Ugljanin, we are to blame whenever we report on blasts that occur in the town, or give an account of Wahhabis disrupting concerts in town, or of an armed stand-off in and outside a mosque,” Novi Pazar correspondents said in a letter dispatched to Independent Journalists Association (NUNS) and Journalist Association of Serbia (UNS).

The letter explained that Ugljanin’s remarks indicated that “the journlalists were also guilty of reporting on murders and kidnappings, on informing the public when police discovered hidden training camps and arms caches.”

“We cannot turn a blind eye and remain silent on events that actually happen so as to embellish the image of Novi Pazar,” they added.

In an interview to a local TV station, Sulejman Ugljanin said that certain “unethical Belgrade media correspondents are held responsible for the fact foreign donors and investors avoid coming to Novi Pazar. Reporters linked the Wahhabi training camp discovered in Sjenica municipality with Novi Pazar, creating direct disinformation,” Ugljanin said.

The reporters in question confirmed that they made such a connection, explaining that all suspects arrested in the case were Novi Pazar citizens. “We will continue to provide timely and objective coverage on events in Novi Pazar, and seek support and understanding from fellow journalists, our viewers, readers, and all citizens,” the statement ends.

Posted by Svetlana at 06:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

China and Russia Oppose Dismemberment of Serbian State

Current whirlwind of diplomatic activity on behalf of Serbian government seeking to preserve their state highlights strong support of both Russia and China, permanent members of the UN Security Council with the power of veto.

Urging respect for currently binding UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which reaffirms Kosovo-Metohija province as an integral part of Serbia, China’s Vice Premier Hui Liangyu stressed that “China is against an imposed solution to Kosovo-Metohija status and the imposition of deadlines for finding a solution, adding that a compromise resolution must be reached through talks between Belgrade and Pristina.”

Today, Belgrade has received another confirmation of the equally firm support from the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, who expressed his conviction that the UN Security Council will not trample over the Resolution 1244 which safeguards the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia and repeated, for the thousandth time, that Russia is resolutely “in favor of continued dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina,” stressing that “a stable solution cannot be reached without an agreement, and there can be no agreement without negotiations.”

Growing Opposition to Severing Serbian Province Among the EU Member States

Apart from the big players on the international scene, such as veto-holding Russia and China who are strongly opposed to dismemberment of internationally recognized Serbian state, a number of smaller EU member-states have also spoken against tearing Serbia apart for the sake of Albanian minority with separatist agenda. Despite the overwhelming pressure from the U.S. State Department, NATO leadership and the leading EU officials to present the “unified front” in favor of enforcing the one-sided, biased Ahtisaari’s proposal which advocates the amputation of southern province from Serbia, there is a sense of growing awareness within the EU block of states that a precedent-setting Ahtisaari draft represents an alarming threat to peace and the world order, bound to produce exactly the opposite of what its proponents claim: destabilization and fragmentation endangering Europe, plunging it back into the medieval battlefield for expansion and territories.

Former Czech Foreign Minister and the UN rapporteur for human rights in Bosnia, Jiri Dienstbier has recently articulated some of the fears a number of EU member states have vocalized, pointing out that the most solid ground on which real, sustainable solutions can be built is the law itself, not the proposed lawlessness.

Dienstbier: Kosovo Independence — the Worst “Solution”

“Since there are no good solutions, we should opt for respecting the international law,” Jiri Dienstbier told Czech weekly MF Plus on April 17. Stressing that internationally binding Helsinki Charter regulates that any alteration of state borders could be applicable only if all concerned parties gave consent, Dienstbier said: “Let’s take the Czechs and the Slovakians for an example, or the Russians and the Ukrainians. What is more, prudent politicians know that the recognition of Kosovo can have immense consequences elsewhere. The Republic of Srpska may then seek partition, or Hungarians in Slovakia, or maybe Catalonians and the Basque in Spain.”

He added that “all these years the issues in Kosovo remained unsolved, with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) still in power, regardless of what they call them nowadays.” The U.S. and the EU’s insistence on granting the province independence is, according to Dienstbier, “a senseless continuation of their politics from the 1990s.”

“There are no good solutions for Kosovo, and independence is surely the worst,” Dienstbier said, explaining that the goal of the Albanian separatists in Kosovo was “to unite all Albanians under one flag,” creating the “Greater Albania” which “would entail the break-up of the entire Balkans and Europe, for that matter.”

“Should we send our troops there like we did in Iraq,” Dienstbier asked, reiterating his firm position that “the international law should be respected in case a good solution was not available.”

Connecting the Dots

At the time when opposing statements and claims are being issued left and right, retracted and reiterated on a daily basis and when the problem appears way too complex to be able to get some sense out of it, like in the case of Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province right now, taking a step back to have an overview of the positions held by opposing sides is the only way to gain the proper perspective. Serbian historian and political analyst Nebojsa Malic offers such an overview that connects the seemingly disparate issues in his latest column, War of Words.

Posted by Svetlana at 09:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

Kosovo Province, Europe’s Shame: Beatings, Torture and Terror With UNMIK Ruecker’s Blessing

The Coordinating Center for Kosovo-Metohija reported on Wednesday that Kosovo Albanian police and KFOR arrested this morning representative of Serbian forestry company “Srbijasume” Milan Mirkovic from Strbac.

According to the Coordinating Center report, at 4 a.m. members of the ethnic Albanian special police and KFOR stormed the home of Milan Mirkovic, the head of the Serbia Forests company in Strpce, and conducted a search in a brutal, heavy handed and destructive manner. Following two hours of harassment and beatings, during which Milan and his sons Nikola and Jovan were kept tied up, Milan was arrested.

“Mirkovic’s sons bear the marks of torture and beatings by the brutal Albanian police who carried out the ethnically-motivated torture over the Serbs before the eyes of KFOR members and who completely demolished the Mirkovic house after finding legally owned, licensed hunting guns,” the statement said.

According to Forest company director’s lawyer, Dragan Veljkovic, Mr. Mirkovic was again brutally beaten by the Albanians in the Urosevac police station where he was taken “for questioning.” He was kept in prison for the next 72 hours, after he gave a statement, reports Tanjug.

“Mirkovic was brought to the Urosevac police station bleeding, with visible head wounds,” said Veljkovic, confirming that his client was beaten in the police station again for half an hour, by the four or five Albanians who were calling him “chetnik” and a “paramilitary.”

KFOR Silently Permits Abuse

According to the lawyer, the abuse and beatings were witnessed by the two international policemen, a Pakistani and an American, to whom the lawyer complained, saying it’s an utter disgrace to beat a helpless elderly man who wasn’t resisting arrest.

The entire action was conducted by the special Kosovo Albanian police unit “Rosa,” comprised exclusively of members of terrorist KLA/UCK, recently deployed through remaining Serbian enclaves with the UN Mission in Kosovo — UNMIK’s — blessing, despite the Serbian protests. Residents of Serbian Strpce municipality today again requested from Joachim Ruecker, UNMIK’s chief, to suspend the activities of Albanian KLA unit in their enclave.

Coordinating Center’s press service strongly condemned “the unacceptable conduct of the ethnic Albanian policemen that are openly torturing the Serbian population.”

“The nurturing of ethnic discrimination and the intimidation of the Serbian population by the ethnic Albanian police is unacceptable, as its aim is to complete the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs from the territory of Serbia’s southern province,” the statement said. Coordinating Center warned that everything taking place before the eyes of the international community is alarming, because part of the international community obviously does not want to hear and see that its representative in Kosovo-Metohija province, Joachim Ruecker, is “openly and brutally trying to create the independent Kosovo by practically instigating the extremists to speedily complete the ethnic cleansing.”

Ruecker “is no longer even trying to conceal this, but is openly advocating and claiming that Kosovo will be independent,” Coordinating Center’s statement said, stressing that “Ruecker’s path, and that of the ethnic Albanian extremists, is a back road that will lead us into the hinterlands from where we will need much more strength and will to emerge.”

Serbian Government: Brutal Terror as the Continuation of Ethnic Cleansing

Director of the Serbian government’s Office of Media Relations Srdjan Djuric said today that the Serbian government condemns the beating of the Mirkovic family and demolition of their house in Strbac, describing this as an act of most brutal terror in Kosovo-Metohija.

Djuric told news agency Tanjug that just before the arrival of the UN Security Council’s mission, the most brutal terror against Serbs continues with a clear message “that not only must the return of Serbs be prevented by any means, but others should be expelled too.”

The Serbian government most severely condemns the flagrant aggression against the Mirkovic family and the demolition of their house and demands that those who order and instigate the action of systematic expulsion of Serbs from Kosovo-Metohija be punished, Djuric said.

Posted by Svetlana at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

Misquotitis Spreading Like Wildfire

As the UN Security Council’s fact-finding mission to Serbian Kosovo province is approaching, Belgrade is quickly turning into Europe’s main destination hosting, this week alone, the highest representatives of a number of states, including China, Russia, Norway, Greece and Austria.

Being that Kosovo-Metohija province has turned to be as indispensable to the U.S. State Department as it has been to Serbian nation for the past ten centuries, if not more, it shouldn’t be surprising that at the very time when Serbia’s diplomatic activity aimed at preserving its borders and territorial integrity has shifted into a high gear, the pressure on Serbian government officials to relinquish the cradle of their state has also been brought to the point of a searing heat. The only problem is that it seems Western officials exerting the most pressure would prefer to have their thuggish activities kept away from the public as much as possible, and reserved for Serbian officials alone, along with the initiated bureaucratic circles from which the pressure can be steadily increased.

Since this wish of theirs can’t be fulfilled, we end up in a cheap political burlesque over Kosovo-Metohija province where boorish statements and countless threats are being hurled at Serbia from various Western strongmen, only to be immediately withdrawn as soon as they hit the headlines — all of a sudden, everyone seems to be misquoted, misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Burns: That’s Not What I Said! (Although I Meant It)

The latest self-proclaimed “victim” of media zeal is the U.S. State Department’s Nicholas Burns, quoted telling the Council on Foreign Relations U.S. will unilaterally recognize independence Kosovo Albanian separatists demand in case Ahtisaari’s proposal for “supervised independence” fails to get support in the United Nations (“asked [...] whether the United States would rule out unilateral recognition of Kosovo” Burns said “We will support a declaration of independence by the people of Kosovo”).

As soon as the AP carried Burns’ threat across the globe and Serbian government responded equally firmly in a public statement (“Resolution 1244 explicitly establishes and confirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia in Kosovo-Metohija [...] Serbian government is giving a timely warning that Belgrade will reject any recognition of the independence of Kosovo-Metohija as invalid, since it will be nothing but direct interference in Serbia’s internal affairs”), Mr. State Department retracted his statement addressing Serbia’s national TV station RTS, saying that’s not what he said or, if he did, it’s not what he meant. Or something like that (“I am sorry I was misquoted and you can help me rectify this in Serbia”).

Russia: State Department Engages in Wishful Thinking

Russian officials, on the other hand, are puzzled by Burns’ suggestion that Russia also backs amputation of Serbian Kosovo province, claiming that “after analyzing the position of the UN Security Council member states following the continuation of the debate on the issue, the United States has come to a conclusion that all governments believe that independence is the right solution” (emphasis added).

“This wishful thinking is puzzling, because Burns cannot be accused of lacking information. The United States knows our position, and the positions of other countries, that a legal and stable solution to the Kosovo issue cannot be found without the consent of both parties to the conflict,” a high-ranking source in the Russian Foreign Ministry told Interfax Tuesday. “We oppose double standards, according to which the principle of territorial integrity is maintained in some situations, while in the case of Kosovo it is ignored,” the source said.

President Putin: Serbian Kosovo Province Refugees Greatest Concern

Before his upcoming visit to Belgrade scheduled for April 18-19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov conferred with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday. Following the meeting, Russia’s President said the UN Security Council fact-finding mission should determine how Resolution 1244 is being implemented, including the return of refugees, Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency reported. Lavrov underscored that the Security Council mission would deal with the implementation of Resolution 1244 from all its aspects, and added that the issue of refugees was one of the most important concerns.

Today, however, as the language used by the U.S. State Department has become sharper and more threatening, Russian daily Vremya Novostei announced in rather strong terms that “Russia is prepared to veto a draft resolution on the independence of Kosovo in the UN Security Council.”

Kosovo Precedent, a Most Serious Threat to Israeli State

The paper recalled that Russia maintains its previous position on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija province and is opposed to hasty solutions that contain the threat of creating a dangerous precedent not only for the former Soviet republics. “No one is proposing the speedy creation of a Palestinian state without the agreement of the conflicting sides under the guise of avoiding violence in the Palestinian territories, although this applies much more to the Palestinians who have been pressing for their own state since 1947, than to Kosovo,” Vremya Novostei said.

In a text titled “What Do Kosovo and Palestine Have In Common,” the daily said that the key argument of the Western countries advocating speedy independence of Serbian province is that chaos could break out in the province, because the Albanian separatists can no longer wait, which is nothing but pure blackmail by the international community.

The parallels between the “Palestinian” and “Kosovar” issue, including the identical means these two separatist groups have been employing for decades in order to achieve their goals have been already drawn very successfully by Western journalists, emphasizing the dangers of a precedent-setting “solution” that would reward violence with integral parts of internationally recognized states.

Chinese Vice Premier to Visit Belgrade — China Strongly Opposes Imposed Solutions

Finally, among the most important guests Belgrade is about to host on April 18 is China’s Vice Premier Hui Liangyu. China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, strongly opposes imposing a solution for Kosovo-Metohija province and believes that only a negotiated settlement can lead to a positive outcome, high official of the Chinese Parliament Pan Janlin said earlier. Announcing an official visit to Belgrade of his country’s Deputy PM, Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Li Guobang told Tanjug Saturday that Beijing advocates resumption of dialogue and finding a compromise solution for southern Serbian province that would be acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina.

An inadequate solution would endanger peace and stability in the Balkans and the entire Europe, said Ambassador Li Guobang in an exclusive interview to Serbian news agency. Patience and wisdom are needed for resolving the issue of Kosovo-Metohija province and China is opposed to a hasty or imposed settlement, he said.

China advocates resumption of dialogue and finding a compromise solution which would be acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina and which can get wide support. This will be useful for a successful settlement of the Kosovo issue and for lasting peace and stability in the Balkans, Li said. China also advocates the protection of equal rights and interests of all communities in Kosovo-Metohija and believes that the need for implementing standards should be kept in mind in the process of discussing the future status of the province, he said.

Posted by Svetlana at 10:15 PM | Permalink

Marlise Simons, Loyal Servant of Total Propaganda

One of the most loyal servants of total propaganda this side of Atlantic, Marlise Simons of New York Times, apparently decided she won’t let the 15 United Nations Judges off the hook as long as there is a trace of agility left in her fingers.

Despite the World Court’s ruling that exonerated state of Serbia of involvement in the Bosnian war, Comrade Simons — who figures she knows better — is doing her very best to “prove” Serbia IS guilty for the Bosnian war and nobody will tell her otherwise. And if she can’t actually prove a thing, the least she can do for NY Times/State Department cause is to try to smear the Court and make a lot of noise while doing the dirty work someone (fer chris'sake!) has to do.

Comrade Simons has found a loving home in New York Times Politburo which, for years “has been riding a [...] propaganda bandwagon on the wars and dismantlement of the former Yugoslavia — but in contrast to its performance over Iraq’s non-existent WMDs, once the Times climbed aboard this