Byzantine Blog

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.