I wonder, can we Macedonians, start similar insurgency in Bulgarian south-west province where majority of population are Macedonians and also in North Greece, where majority are Macedonians too?
Probably NO because those 2 countries are members of EU, despite fact that this 2 countries do not have a standards for ethnic minority's and have fake democracy.

All this matter with Kosovo is solving one problem, but opens a dozen new...

To concerned American: Your and NATO's case of Kosovo: “Self-determination” as an instrument of imperialist policy.

Control of the Balkans is of great strategic importance for both the US and the European powers, and the prerequisite for this control is the dissolution of Yugoslavia, which has now been completed with the secession of Kosovo.

The US maintains one of its largest military bases on European soil in Kosovo—Camp Bondsteel, near Urosevac. Camp Bondsteel also serves as a base for so-called “renditions,” involving the kidnapping and torture of alleged terror suspects. Washington’s military bases in the Balkans and Eastern Europe are part of the US strategy to encircle Russia by penetrating the former spheres of influence of the Soviet Union. At the same time, they serve to reinforce American influence in Europe.

The European powers, and above all Germany, also regard their intervention in the Balkans as crucial for enhancing their weight in Europe. The fact that the US is able to play such a leading role in Europe’s “back yard” is regarded by the European media as painful proof of the continent’s impotence.

Kosovo and the Balkans as a whole constitute an important access route to the Black Sea and the energy supplies of the Caspian Basin. There is currently a range of plans for competing gas and oil pipelines in which Kosovo plays an important role. Kosovo also has its own reserves of gold, lead, tin and brown coal.

In the ruthless pursuit of their own interests, the US and EU powers have swept aside basic elements of international law.That everyone in America does not see this for what it really is, is indicative of the overwhelming “brainwashing” of the American citizenry.

Self-determination you claim! As if!Kosovar Albanians argue that they should have this land because it is their home of which 95% are non-Serbian. One who knows anything about history needs to ask a simple question? How do they explain the Serbian heartland became so dominant of ethnic Albanians? If they want their own land, why don't they go to Albania-afterall this is where their alleged ancestors are?
To all of you I pose this question..Which none of you can answer.. If Serbs are truly so unjust to minorities, if they are truly so evil and so genocidal. Then why is Serbia, BY FAR the most ethnically diverse country in the Balkans. All the other nations are "pure". Serbia is the only place where they live in harmony. Think about this VERY HARD. If Serbs truly wanted to cleanse Serbia of Albanians, why didn't they start with the 100,000 Albanians living in Belgrade? Or the over 500,000 living in other parts of Serbis? No amount of propaganda can answer these questions can it... Why do you think it is so easy to cut up the country? May be because it is'n yours? Still you can't block the Sun and you can't kill the truth.

continued...

One thing is certain; Kosovo will never be a “normal” nation. It will remain nothing more than a protectorate of the US and NATO, because it will never have a seat at the UN General Assembly. Russia will veto that, not simply to cause problems, but rather because Kosovo statehood is illegal, and it was done unilaterally, without considering the interests of Russia and its Serbian ally.

So exactly how is it helpful for the world to move away from our present system where every nation is recognized by every other nation, based on universal principle and international law (UN state recognition), to a system where state recognition now becomes merely “subjective,” with some countries and blocks recognizing certain states and other countries and blocks not recognizing them? Wasn’t that exactly the unstable system the world had before our present system of international relations was so painstakingly set up in the decades after the Second World War? What American interest could possibly be served by such a move? But this is exactly what this action means. This just the latest idiotic move from this breathtakingly idiotic US administration!

What a ridiculous post! A lot of conspiracy theories and skin-deep arguments. Of course the port of Vlora in Albania is just a few miles away from the US refineries. And America's energy security depends on AMBO. What nonsense!
Further, being a senior Clinton official does not make one the most qualified person to pass judgment on what interests were involved in the break-up of Yugoslavia.

FYI the Republic Kosova is not built on thin air. It has all elements of statehood, i.e a people (yes over 90% of the citizens of Kosova are Albanians), borders (as they were under Yugoslavia), and a newly elected and functioning government! The NATO intervention prevented an irreversible ethnic cleansing which the Belgrade authorities (Milosevic and co.) were carrying out. From that moment on turning back under the same roof with the Serb regime was impossible! The likes of Kostunica would like an empty Kosova, just like Milosevic did! But the times of empty nationalist rhetorics and politics are almost over in the Balkans!

Turkey as well as other states recognized the State of Kosova as they're agreed that it is a sui generis case. Further, nobody is speaking about dividing Albania or Kosova, but the two Albanian States will obviously cooperate with each-other for the benefit of their peoples.

Independence for Kosova was easier to achieve than for any other independence movement, for all reasons which make Kosova a sui generis case! And mind you, keeping a people's future hostage because of hypothetical Doomday scenarios makes as much sense as this column.

I suggest that next time when you try to write something do a bit of research and read some history instead of selling half-baked arguments of someone whose name is Escobar and maybe does not even know where Kosova lies!

To FactsFinder:

Please check the facts before you write and don't create them according to your appetite! Serbia and Russia are concerned because international law is not being observed? Who are you kidding? If anyone was or is bullying others is exactly these two States!

Albanians are not an ethnic minority in Kosova! They are the overwhelming majority! And don't mix the notions of nation and State. They're very different! There are many nations which for one reasons or another are divided among different States. A case at hand are the Albanians, who are bordered on all sides by fellow Albanians! However, they are not asking for a reshaping of borders!

The State of Kosova is a reality, whether some States accept it or not! And recognition by the UN is not a condition for a State to exist. FYI China was not a UN member till the 70s, but would you say that it was not a State? Please, go back and study a bit of international law on the issue of State recognition and related theories. And wait and see, sooner or later Russia will have to accept that reality.

I strongly disagree with absurd claim that somehow Kosovo is unique case. And here is why.

Why Kosovo is NOT a unique case
I read here claims that Kosovo is unique because of…

1. Moral reasons, i.e. Slobodan Milosevic Milosevic era is over. Given their postwar treatment of Kosovo Serbs and other minorities (235.000 IDPs, 2000+ killed or kidnapped, 4600 armed attacks, 176 churches demolished, 20.000 homes usurpated...), Kosovo Albanians have also lost all moral credit

2.Majority wants
Right to self-determination does not precede territorial integrity
3.Ten years of institutional discrimination Kosovo Albanians have demanded independence even during Tito's golden age period
4.1998-99 conflict and 6,000 victims
In 1998-99, 40 conflicts worldwide were reported with at least 1,000 victims each
NATO intervention.NATO intervention was illegal from the point of view of international law
5.Presence of peacekeepers and transitional international administration
Dozens of UN missions in crisis regions, none has brought about a new state
6.Fear of violence
US, NATO and EU have all the instruments to prevent any such violence
7.Urgency
No violation of human rights, no armed conflict, therefore no urgency, compared to other hotspots

The "UnderReported"? Mr. Ganapathiraju, I think we understand your agenda enough by now for you to call it what it really is - the "AntiAmerican". This common theme in these strips is certainly not world events we haven't heard about - since when is Kosovo under-reported? What unites your articles is a desire to paint the US in the worst light possible in every situation, and to seek out the situations that lend themselves best to negative interpretation. I'm not sure what gave you this grudge against the US, but fortunately for you, it is one of the few countries where you are completely free to publish stuff like this. In that sense, every article you publish is actually a testament to the greatness of this nation.

So far, the ICTY failed to bring to justice those who, in violation of the UN embargo, supplied weapons to the warring sides in the Yugoslav conflict, who financed human rights violations in Croatia and Bosnia, who ordered one of the biggest ethnic cleansing in the history of Balkan wars - the expulsion of 150 000 Krajna Serbs, who incited the war in Kosovo by financing, arming and training the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, who allowed to use the territory of the former Yugoslavia as the training ground for the Al-Quada militants. A few Croatian generals, and one high-ranking Albanian drug-trafficker (Ramush Haradinaj), but that is about all the tribunal could achieve in terms of persecuting the non-Serbian war criminal suspects. To this day Milosevic is the only top politician from the former Yugoslavia to stand trial for the atrocities, committed by all sides, and not the least - by the US and European allies and pending members of the enlarged European Union. The information is in abundance, but the action is nil.

The ICTY was supposed to be the first step towards creating the permanent International Court of Justice. It was meant to define the logic upon which this new international institution ought be built. It should have affirmed the principle of justice for all, not for the handful of rich and powerful nations. Alas, it did not happen and it will not happen. As long as Carla Del Ponte remains chief prosecutor of the ICTY, incompetence and cynicism will prevail, condemning international jurisprudence to take on the function of the day time TV sitcom for the culturally disadventaged.

P.S. I am not a legal expert, and may be Milosevic was a real S.O.B. Nevertheless, I believe our democratic jurisprudence is based on the principle of the presumption of innocence. Was this principle ever applied to Milosevic?

Genti is obviously Albanian, He refers to the ficticious country as Kosova (called KOSOVO, always has, always will). Bottom line, Serbs should be proud they didn't sell themselves and their souls, as did the albanians, time and time again. Has anyone asked themselves, with billions of dollars in foreign aid pouring into Kosovo and the billions of dollars they make in illegal activity, why is their unemployment rate above 40%. Because its easier to take than to work for it! Genti, for someone who spews so-called facts, your knowledge is shallow. The AMBO pipeline is real, your statement towards FactsFinder proves, just because you can spell and use big words doesn't mean you know what you are talking about. As far as I can see Kosova (spelled Kosovo) is a big "Pipe Dream" not a humanitarian intervention. Oh, and Certi, I am going to take away your only response. Yes, I am Serbian, but I am American as well. This is coming from the American side, "hurry up with the oil, summer is coming and our SUV's are ready!

I bet a whole lot of Serbs are asking right about now is WHY the "Empire" is so hell-bent on supporting Greater Albania and dismembering Serbia? To say that atrocities - both real and quite made up - were the actual cause of Imperial intervention in the Balkans is folly; they were an excuse - hence all the fabrications - nothing more. Ignoring the real genocide in Rwanda while making up a genocide in Bosnia; imposing a UN blockade harsher than the one against Iraq because of alleged "Serb aggression," then launching aggressive wars of its own (1999, 2003); condemning "ethnic cleansing," but sponsoring the largest instances thereof (half a million or so Serbs from today's Croatia and Kosovo) - how much more proof do we need that the Empire does not have a moral compass?

Almost 2000 years ago, Apostle Paul wrote, "there is nothing new under the sun." That is certainly a good description of American foreign policy. Its Russophobia is British in origin; its dislike of Serbs appears to be borrowed from Austria-Hungary and Nazi Germany (as is its choice of "allies" in the region). But the sheer stupidity of demolishing the international order over a patch of land utterly insignificant to anyone but the Serbs and the Albanians... that's 100% Made in America.

They should have outsorced it. Seriously

I've spent a year on Bondsteel. Yes, there is an oil pipeline running through the area, but I don't think it's even in use. As for the “a sort of smaller — and friendlier — five-star Guantanamo, with perks like Thai massage and loads of junk food,” comment, CBS (Camp BondSteel) has a small detainment center, which rarely has inhabitants. The detainees never even have access to the PX to get the just food. Even if they did, they'd most likely have no money as most everyone there is rather poor. This isn't about oil at all. Our entire focus over there is the safety and wellbeing of the people of Kosova. I believe that Serbia has no right to assert reign over a peoples that does not want them. It's like us and the British, back in the revolution. We simply did not wish to be under British rule anymore. And we took matters into our own hand. We declared our Independance, and England reacted with war. Luckly Serbia hasn't done the same yet, and I hope they won't. I noticed how you keep saying the word "prevent" when you talk of the '99 war in Kosovo. We weren't preventing anything. The genocide wasn't about to happen. It was happening. We stopped it in progress. There was no "prevention" to it. Kosovars have the inaliable right to govern themselves as they see fit, not as Belgrade sees fit. When the dust finally clears from the secession, Kosova will begin to prosper and improve.

That Kosovo was “unique” has been the Western officials’ mantra for years! I see this Albanian guy "Genti" makes here hysterical statement illustrating the lengths to which his side will go to justify what obviously can’t be justified.

Milosevic tried to annihilate over one million Kosovar Albanian Muslims? The Foundation for Humanitarian Law led by Nata_a Kandi_, much beloved and much bankrolled by Western governments and non-governmental organizations, runs a project seeking to establish the number of dead and missing in Kosovo. According to an article in the Croatian magazine, Globus, “The project has documented 9,702 people dead or missing during the war in Kosovo from 1998 to 2000. Of this number, as things stand now, 4,903 killed and missing are Albanians and 2,322 are Serbs, with the rest either belonging to other nationalities or their ethnic identity remaining uncertain.” One should add also that these numbers say nothing about how people were killed, whether in combat or otherwise, and by whom. And there’s no clarification as to how many were killed by NATO bombs. What these numbers do reveal is that it was the Serbs, not the Albanians, who suffered disproportionately in Kosovo. If USA/NATO and Albanians are right and 94 or 95 per cent of the people that live there are Kosovar Albanian Muslims, that means that there are 19 times as many Albanians as there are Serbs in Kosovo. Yet, according to these numbers, the Albanians’ casualty numbers are only slightly more than twice the size of the Serb casualty numbers.

The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh resulted in far worse casualty numbers. The U.S. State Department itself admits, “More than 30,000 people were killed in the fighting from 1992 to 1994.”According to the CIA, “over 800,000 mostly ethnic Azerbaijanis were driven from the occupied lands and Armenia; about 230,000 ethnic Armenians were driven from their homes in Azerbaijan into Armenia.”

In any case, if bad treatment of the local population were to disqualify a state from exercising sovereignty over part of its territory, then an awful lot of countries would be eligible for enforced amputation: Turkey would have to be stripped of Turkish Kurdistan; Israel would long ago have been given the boot from the West Bank and other occupied territories; Indonesia would be denied Aceh and Papua; Pakistan would lose Waziristan.

Dear "American Soldier" I would like you to tell me where exactly you been in Kosovo and when. You see, I am wondering how you missed the Serbian enclaves, the places where 1000 year old monasteries were not just burned down, but the the foundation stones ripped out to symbolise total removal. How did you miss the daily attack on Serbs huddled in their NATO
guarded enclaves? How did you miss the abductions, the arms deals in the cafes, the trafficked women? So tell us “American Soldier”, where exactly were you? You see I think you misguided because I have never met anyone who has been to Kosovo who has not returned horrified by the plight of non-Albanian minorities there.
Independence for Kosovo Now? Naah, not convincing enough. Only If human trafficking, corruption and drug running were prerequisites for deserving independence Kosovo would satisfy such criteria hands down.

Kosovo’s provisional government (PISG) has had eight years to show that it is mature enough to lead all citizens of Kosovo into the future, but it has miserably failed. Eight years after NATO’S Bombing campaign and four years after the massive orchestrated Ethnic Cleansing campaign against Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jewish citizens in March 2004, there still is no assurance that all the citizens of Kosovo can live in peace, with security, with freedom of movement and with full participation in all the fruits of society. On the contrary, today in the capital Pristina, which had a pre war Serb population of 40000, not one single Serb resides in the capital. Can it be that all of these citizens were war criminals? Can it be that grandmothers and children were war criminals deserving retribution? However, in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, 110000 Albanians live comfortably and safely!

Throughout all of Kosovo 200000 Serbs have been ethnically cleansed , another 100000 Roma have been ethnically cleansed, thousands of other minorities citizens (Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jews) have been ethnically cleansed, the majority of which have sought refuge in Serbia Proper! Why is that? Kosovo says its ready for Independence, but why cant it guarantee the safety of these refugee citizens? It has been eight long years! Hardly any refugee citizens have been able to return, even though NATO is there to protect them. 1000 Serbs and Roma citizens have been murdered, another 1000 are still missing. How many Albanian citizens of Kosovo have been murdered in the same amount of time relative to their demographic proportion of society? 150 UNESCO recognized Christian Churches and Shrines have been destroyed by the majority Albanian citizens. None have been rebuilt even though the Kosovo government (PISG) has explicitly agreed to this task. Not one in eight years? But, yet Kosovo is ready for Independence?

"FactsFinder," just because you possess a distorted wet dream view of Kosovo, it does not make your rants legitimate.

If the majority of former Yugoslav countries recognize Kosovo (as it looks like it to be), its independence would be seen as a continuance of the dissolution of Yugoslavia, under international law. Remember that international law is still in its infancy and it is neither according to your views or the views of Serbia when it sees fit. If we were to abide by international law, then its highest primary component should have been respected in the first place by Serbia. These are called general principles, and it includes genocide and crimes against humanity.

If you want to use the "international law card," than please be consistent. The facts are that Kosovo was a constituent part of Yugoslavia, with the same vote as Serbia in the Federal Presidency. It had well defined borders and its own government.

The latest developments, namely Serbian army reservists attacking border checkpoints between Kosovo and Serbia shows quite clearly how things would have been under Serbia.

I believe that I am the only person (here) who is qualified to make a comment about the AMBO Trans-Balkan Oil Pipeline Project. This is because I was a co-founder of this project back in the Summer of 1993 (not 1986) along with other members of my family.

The reporting (and I refer to the full article in addition to the excerpt here) done by Pepe Escobar, a so-called journalist with the Asian Times is largely spurious and must be repudiated.

The routing for the AMBO project does NOT go through, in, or even near Kosovo. It connects the Black Sea with the Adriatic Sea and largely follows Corridor 8 in most cases which connects the Republics of Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Albania.

I firmly and completely reject any and all insinuations and conspiracy theorists who would attempt to link the AMBO project to Kosovo.

Philly, I note you deliberate use of the word "part" to describe Kosovo, thereby conflating it status with that of the Yugoslav republics to further the argument for secession.

In the Communist Yugoslavia Kosovo was an autonomous province, but it was nonetheless a province within the republic of Serbia. This is explicitly stated in all Yugoslav constitutions (I can provide references, if required). What's true is that gradually, through successive constitutions, both the republics and the two provinces (Vojvodina and Kosovo) grew more autonomous from the federal government, and did the provinces in relation to Serbia itself. With the 1974 Constitution the two provinces were basically equivalent to the republics, but even then they were formally still a part of Serbia.

Finally though the abolishment of the autonomy of the two provinces by Milosevic was certainly abusive, Kosovo remained a part of a new successor state of the former Yugoslavia, the FRY (Serbia and Montenegro), which, despite its claims to the contrary, did not have continuity with the old Yugoslavia. Serbia, however, DOES have continuity with the FRY, as was explicitly recognized, inter alia, by the UN, the Council of Europe, the ICJ and the ECtHR. Therefore, any safeguards of territorial integrity of the FRY stipulated in UNSC Res 1244 , continue to apply to Serbia

In other words, though the secession of Kosovo is historically certainly a part of the process of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, legally it is most certainly not. Kosovo is NOT a successor state of the former Yugoslavia, but is at best a successor state of Serbia (FRY), as is, bizarrely, the state of Montenegro, which obtained independence with Serbian consent and which actually was a full-fledged republic in the former Yugoslavia. Kosovo does not, for example, have a claim to any of the embassies or assets of the former Yugoslavia, which were divided among its successor states via treaty.

Diehard anti-Serb/pro-Kosovo independence enthusiasts have a series of talking points which in their view legitimizes the dismembering of Serbia.

Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo enjoyed all the human and civil rights due them before the intrusion of the Albanian terrorists and drug dealers who would organize the Kosovo Liberation Army, the notorious KLA. Just prior to the recent war in Kosovo, the University of Pristina in Kosovo had 37,000 students enrolled in it, eighty percent of whom were ethnic Albanians. The Pristina Radio and Television Station was broadcasting their programs in the Albanian language all day. There was one Albanian Daily and eleven periodicals. Just prior to recent war the government of Yugoslavia was providing enormous subsidies to the province of Kosovo. The mistake made by the Serbs was setting up a party-run state instead of a constitutional government that would give effective sovereignty to the Republic of Serbia over its entire territory, including Kosovo and Metohija. The assumption was that all the people of Kosovo and Metohija, including the majority of Albanians who lived there, would remain loyal citizens of the Republic of Serbia, endowed with all the same rights and privileges accorded to the Serbian population and in some cases, above and beyond those rights that had been accorded to the Serbs.

If the educated group of politically powerful policy makers who were so instrumental in fashioning policy towards the Serbs in the 1990s had taken one serious, honest look at the real status of the Albanian and other minorities in the Republic of Serbia, they would have discovered that these individual ethnic groups enjoyed national, cultural, and civil rights on par with the most modern and best constitutional systems in the world. Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that persons belonging to ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities shall not be denied the right in a community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to communicate in their own language. The ethnic Albanians in Kosovo had all of this guaranteed them and more. But it wasn’t enough. They wanted and continue to demand TERRITORIAL autonomy. Imagine the implications this scenario would have in the United States of America if such demands by different national and ethnic groups were initiated and granted. There would be no more United States, and there would be no more America.

To Can't fool me

Thank you for using some of my words in your post, it is flattering, you may use them when ever you like, maybe throw some quotes on them, but for the sake of full clarity, I have included my full post below. Sorry that I have to use more than one post, but this issue does lend itself to extensive analysis and comment.

GENOCIDE IN KOSOVO

The West would love Serbia if only it would forget the past and accept the reality that the West has created. But accepting this reality is accepting Genocide.

Kosovo's provisional government (PISG) has had eight years to show that it is mature enough to lead all citizens of Kosovo into the future, but it has miserably failed. Eight years after NATO'S Bombing campaign and four years after the massive orchestrated Ethnic Cleansing campaign against Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jewish citizens in March 2004, there still is no assurance that all the citizens of Kosovo can live in peace, with security, with freedom of movement and with full participation in all the fruits of society. On the contrary, today in the capital Pristina, which had a pre war Serb population of 40000, not one single Serb resides in the capital. Can it be that all of these citizens were war criminals? Can it be that grandmothers and children were war criminals deserving retribution? However, in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, 110000 Albanians live comfortably and safely!

This is not he first time Serbia has suffered Genocide, in WW2 upwards of 800000 Serbs, Jews and Roma were exterminated in the Nazi and Croatian Fascist extermination camps of Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska (a camp designed exclusively for woman and children). Likewise, tens of thousand of Serb, Roma and Jewish citizens were exterminated and ethnically cleansed in small villages throughout Yugoslavia by Nazis, Albanian Fascists of the SS Skandebeg Division, Croatian Ustashi Fascists and Bosnian Muslim fascists of the SS Handžar Division. Many in Serbia have tried to explain away some of the recent atrocities committed by Serbs, such as Srebanica, as a natural result of decades of emotional suppression, due to an organized communist campaign not to acknowledge the WW2 Genocide of Serbs, Roma and Jews in order to preserve unity among the different ethnic communities. However, regardless how this emotional suppression might have influenced the individual actors of the crimes committed, the universally accepted legal percept that one crime cannot justify another crime still is applicable. Likewise, whatever the extent of Milosevic's crimes in Kosovo (Albanians say 10 thousand dead, the UN acknowledges only 3500 on all sides) cannot justify the continued GENOCIDE of Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jewish citizens of Kosovo! All 300000 ethnically cleansed Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jewish citizens of Kosovo must be allowed to return to their homes. The International Community cannot sanction this GENOCIDE by recognizing a Illegal Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Kosovo. Serbia cannot acquiesce to this injustice. Serbs will invoke the anguished cry of our Jewish Brothers who have likewise suffered the indignity of Genocide....NEVER AGAIN the GEOCIDE STOPS NOW! There are over 600000 UN recognized Serb refuges in Serbia that have been cruelly cleansed from their homes in Croatia, Bosnia and KOSOVO! 250000 Serbs ethnically cleansed from Croatia, 150000 Serbs ethnically cleansed from Bosnia, 200000 Serbs from Kosovo and another 100000 Roma from Kosovo. None have been allowed to return. How is it possible that Serbs are accused of being the primary villain and purveyor of ethnic cleansing, but, yet again is the largest victim of ethnic cleansing? Is it possible that these innocent SERBS are somehow sub human not deserving of justice?

Kosovo is not part of Serbia?!Please go study some history books and stop with the pathetic attempts at deception by such crass statements that have no truth.

The fact remains even the US, UK and France saw it right to reaffirm Serbia's soverignity in formulating and signing UN SC Resolution 1244 only 8 years ago as frothwrath stated above

"the commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia"

- Republic of Serbia being UN recongnised succesor state of FR Yugoslavia. Resolution 1244 stipulates that the international civil presence shall "provide an interim administration for Kosovo under which the people of Kosovo can enjoy substantial autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and which will provide transitional administration while establishing and overseeing the development of provisional democratic self-governing institutions to ensure conditions for a peaceful and normal life for all inhabitants of Kosovo." Elsewhere the words
"substantial autonomy" and "self-government" is reiterated.
In Resolution 1244 "self-governing" is mentioned 3 times, "self-government" 4 times, "self-administration" 1 time, "substantial autonomy" 3 times whereas neither "selfdetermination" nor "independence" is mentioned in the document. The "sovereignty" of FRY is mentioned 3 times.

Yet why did we intervene in Serbia's southern province back in 1999 and was it not all about "humanitarian intervention"? A regular to CiF on the real events;

"The death toll in Kosovo was in the hundreds before the start of the bombing campaign. It was around 5,000 by the end. Not quite the "genocide" that some people claimed, incidentally, but not a good precedent either.

I was working at Amnesty International during the Kosovo crisis. I first visited refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia during the conflict and then spent a year in Pristina seconded into the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Tony Blair says that we "reversed ethnic cleansing" there, but I would not count the expulsion of over 100,000 Serbs and Roma from a province guarded by 40,000 Nato troops as a success."
- Conor Foley. April 20, 2007 3:30 PM. Oliver Kamm v Conor Foley: Should there be international intervention in Darfur?
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/t...

Pure spin & lies about WMG (Whereabouts of Mass Graves)was the reality of this earlier "illegal war". These manipulations were drawn upon in the false reasonings to again wage war against another sovereign state this time with the lie of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) while equally the earlier lie was just as much a lie over WMG (Whearabouts of Mass Graves).

As for Kosovo Independence, well in evaluating Kosovo’s independence, it is also important, I think, to know that Kosovo is not gaining independence or even minimal self-government.

It will be run by an appointed High Representative and bodies appointed by the U.S., European Union and NATO. An old-style colonial viceroy and imperialist administrators will have control over foreign and domestic policy. It is similar to the absolute power held by L. Paul Bremer in the first two years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. U.S. has merely consolidated its direct control of a totally dependent colony in the heart of the Balkans.

An International Civilian Representative (ICR) will be appointed by U.S. and E.U. officials to oversee Kosovo. This appointed official can overrule any measures, annul any laws and remove anyone from office in Kosovo. The ICR will have full and final control over the departments of Customs, Taxation, Treasury and Banking.

The E.U. will establish a European Security and Defense Policy Mission (ESDP) and NATO will establish an International Military Presence. Both these appointed bodies will have control over foreign policy, security, police, judiciary, all courts and prisons.

These bodies and the ICR will have final say over what crimes can be prosecuted and against whom; they can reverse or annul any decision made.

Serbia is just globalism’s first victim since annoys NATO/EU because it rejects the New World Order

Radical Islam v. Christian Serbs

Let's all get our heads lopped off!! It'll be Fun!

All reasonable people who wish to know more about activities in Kosovo and Albania by Osama bin Laden and his crowd of Islamic Fundamentalist terrorists, allying themselves with the KLA --Kosovo Liberation Army-- from the summer of 1998 on.

In February 1998, when the Yugoslav police crackdown on the KLA began, the US State Department recognized the KLS as an international terrorist organization. This means, among other things, that US residents are not allowed to contribute funds, trade weapons or in any way support such organizations. Yet a Washington Post article of May 26, 1998 indicates Washington understands that funds are flowing directly to the KLA. By the summer, the KLA-Osama connection was clearly established, even as the US was bombing Osama's Afghanistan installations with Tomahawks in retribution for the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
http://www.siri-us.com/backgrounders/...

as well as archive of newspaper articles of KLA Terror & Ethnic Cleansing
http://www.siri-us.com/backgrounders/...
For the Kosovo Albanians’ ties to international crime, see the articles by Michel Chossudovsky at http://www.globalresearch.ca

The EU has capitulated to a bunch of terrorists thugs and opened the door for every disgruntled ethnic group that wishes to persue its own narrow minded terratorial ambitions. And in the process they are willing to use brute force to coerce their own people so they can portray their movement as a popular nationalist movement. This was no nationalist movement. It was a land grab by a group of thugs who had fled their own homeland to escape the brutality of the Hoxha regime' and now, rather than return to rebuild the lands of their ancestors, they find it easier to take away the property of the very nation that gave them sanctuary. The EU/USA by its shameful actions has condoned this dagger to the back of Serbia and abroggated the charter on which the U N was founded.

Christian Churches Destroyed By Albanian Jihad Fanatics 1/2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAYlBL...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaqThr... (The Muslim Albanians- Heroin smugglers)

To American Soldier:
"...We weren't preventing anything. The genocide wasn't about to happen. It was happening. We stopped it in progress."

PLEASE!!!! Stopped what in progress? Christian Serbs responding to decades of Muslim Albanian terrorism? You use the term "Kosova" when even the international community still refers to it as Kosovo. The UN has refuted the original fabricated mess of hundreds of thousands of dead Albanians. I've talked to many Serbs in the US who have fled their home in KosovO as refugees, and their story is very different from yours my friend.

Furthermore, thanks for protecting the Serbian civilians in Kosovo. Because of the watchful eye of the democratic, moral authority of the world, over 250,000 have been expelled, several thousand killed, 130-150 Holy Shrines destroyed, and 80% of Serbian cemeteries desecrated.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/art...
There are countless more like this. Read for yourself...

G, very good observation by this alleged American soldier.

"Kosovo" is a Serbian place name, more fully "kosovo polje", meaning the 'field (or plain) of blackbirds'. "Kosovo Polje" lies just outside the city of Prishtina.
Ornithology lesson: Among North Americans, Australians, and South Africans, only ornithologists can identify the species in question. Kosovo's "black bird" is no crow, nor raven, no starling nor grackle, but "turdus merula", European cousin of the North American rusty-bellied thrush ("turdus migratorius"), which Yanks call the "robin".
In Britain and Ireland "robin" is the name of another species, "erithacus rubecula".
(The "four and twenty 'blackbirds' baked in a pie", of the English rhyme, were of the species "merula", in Serbian called "kos". From this term "kosovo" is the derived possessive adjective.

Like America's harbinger of spring, the black bird called "kos" in Serbian language sings sweetly in the springtime and early summer.
For North Americans the feel of the Serbo-Croatian place name "Kosovo" can only be had from a free translation, "Field of Robins".

Albanians have borrowed the word from the Serbs, whose once overwhelming majority was driven down, especially since the Congress of Berlin, by savage aggression from Albanians incited then and in WW I by Austria-Hungary and Germany, in World War II by Mussolini's puppet Albanians, and after WW II by the discriminatory ethnic cleansing of the Stalinist dictator Josip Broz.

Native Indian place names in America have no meaning in English: e.g. "Michigan" means nothing in English. In Ojibwa "mishshikamaa" means "it is a big lake".
Just so the place names of Ireland have transparent meaning in Gaelic but are meaningless tags in the colonialist English, e.g. "Dublin" is Gaelic "dubh lin" 'black pool', and "Kildare" is "cil dara" 'church of the oak', Just so the names of the Serbian province of Kosovo are clear Serbian formations, but have no meaning in the Albanian language.

Proof of the Serbian origin of the name and the loanword status of the immigrant Albanian term is that the word "kosovo" has a clear etymology to anyone who knows a Slavic language, while Albanian "Kosova" is an opaque, meaningless place name in the Albanian language.

Kosovo is Serbian.

'Red in blue', you say: "NATO has played midwife at the birth of a fascist pseudo-state run by narco-terrorists." The simple truth is that NATO prevented a fascist State, Serbia under Milosevic, from slaughtering powerless Albanian civilians in Kosova. The Republic of Kosova is a State committed to respect the human rights of all its citizens, independent of their ethnicity and is run by freely elected leaders. Narco-terrorists are powerful in Belgrade where the likes of Legija (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milorad_...), a former special forces commander (Red Berets) who committed war crimes alongside Arkan in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosova, a member of the Zemun clan (trafficking drugs, weapons and human beings) killed your then president Ivan Stambolic (with Milosevic's consent) and afterwards your prime minister, Zoran Dindic (again with Milosevic's consent and probably with Kostunica's too). That shows you how powerful and ruthless mafia is in Serbia.

As for civilization that was again shown recently in the attacking and burning of several foreign embassies (another sign of respect for international law) and the burning alive of own citizens in the act and the hooligan type devastations of the centre of Belgrade. One should add the burning and attacking of UNMIK personnel and buildings in Kosova.

You probably won't believe it but I deplore the state of affairs in Serbia, before and nowadays. The way forward for all Balkan countries is Europe, integration, and respect for human rights. They should be cooperating and trying to undertake all necessary reforms and steps to fulfill the requirements for their own sake. Unfortunately, Serbia seems to be on the wrong track again. Hopefully with these upcoming elections things will take a turn for good and that real democratic forces in Serbia will finally win them convincingly. If I can put it this way: Only then the skies will finally open and Serbs will be able to hear the joyful tunes of the 9th symphony of Beethoven!

7. The US Government along with key EU allies never had any intention of allowing Serbia a fair opportunity to negotiate with the Kosovar provisional government on the possibilities of a workable settlement that might have been permanent. I was party to a couple of meetings where US Government officials point blank told the Kosovar representatives that no matter what, the US will support independence and that going to these conferences in Vienna were just to give a favorable impression on the world opinion.These are the facts. Some people might be outraged and some might be supprised however it really doesn't matter in the final analysis of all things considered. Superpowers will do what they want.Kosovo independence will do nothing for stability of the region, in fact, the opposite will occur.The Kosovar Albanians are now joyous they will have a new nation but, when all the partying ends and the dust clears, all that will exist is another backward, poverty stricken,underdeveloped, internationally protected country in an area of hostile neighbors thats todays news story and tomorrows breeding ground for extremism and resentment

This article is now relevant as it was in 1999.
Forty reasons why the Serbs are not the new Nazis and the Kosovars are not the new Jews:
By Julie Burchill
Ffrom guardian.co.uk

1) Because the Nazis did not put Jews on the train to Israel, as the Serbs are now putting ethnic Albanian Kosovars on the train to Albania.
2) Because we're the ones fighting alongside the Luftwaffe and the Serbs are the ones whom the Luftwaffe is bombing.
3) Because the Serbs tend to be really good- looking, especially the women.
4) Because pop stars don't, and never will, dress up as Serbs.
5) Because Serbs don't feature in pornography.
6) Because Dirk Bogarde never played a Serb.
7) Because my father taught me never to kiss a Nazi, whereas I've certainly snogged a few Serbs in my time.
8) Because Robin Cook says they are.
9) Because Clinton is a liar.
10) Because Milosevic doesn't have a moustache.
11) Because the Kosovan Liberation Army is a terrorist organisation that has been killing innocent Serbs for years, whereas the Jews were model citizens.
12) Because, if the Serbs were really Nazis, the Times, Daily Mail and their like would be right behind them, judging from their track record during the Thirties.
13) Because it wasn't the Serbs who fought with the Nazis in Yugoslavia during the second world war - it was the Croats and the Muslims. (Nazi Muslims! What an absolutely mind- blowingly terrifying concept!)
14) Because, if they were Nazis, the US wouldn't be fighting them but funding them, like all those old pigs it props up in Latin America.
15) Tony Benn doesn't back no Nazis! Come outside and say that!

16) Because anyone who knows anything about European history before 1945 backs the Serbs.
17) Because Volkswagen recently broadcast a commercial on German television that compared the thrill of driving its latest model to being a Nazi invading Czechoslovakia. Serbia has never, does not and never will make car commercials about the thrill of going into Kosovo. (Just a guess!)
18) Because, if you make a film saying that it was a real hoot being in a Nazi concentration camp, you get lots of Oscars, whereas if you decided to make a film saying that it was a real hoot being in an Albanian refugee camp, Tony Blair would have you shot under some arcane wartime law which Cherie has just discovered on the statute books.
19) Because those ultra-Lefties who want the Serbs bombed are always the ones who are on the side that's against the Jews.

HAHA, Certi is funny. If you call albanian propaganda (Ruder-Finn - look it up) news, i'll pass and stay stupid, you got room in your club? That's right, coca-cola, not "COKE" as in your case, or is it Heroin?

Mr. Tashkovich, gave his opinion, did not prove anything, just stated his opinion. Besides he said himself, he and his family are a part of the AMBO, a little biased in my book, but he is entitled to his opinion and I respect that.

My allegience is to the USA, born and raised. A little history, My great grandfather died in WW1 as an ally, my grandfather spent a majority of WW2 in a Nazi camp (as an ally), My father flew an American flag until the day he died. Give us a little history of your Albanian ancestry and their loyalties during these wars? You want me to answer that? Oh and by the way, when were American soldiers ever in battle on the ground in Kosovo, for us to fear for their lives. American troops were never in harms way in Kosovo.

Kostunica had nothing to do with handing over Milosevic, "The initial investigation into Milošević faltered for lack of hard evidence prompting the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić to send him to The Hague to stand trial for alleged war crimes instead." as they danced on the billions of dollars they got for turning him in. Trying to re-write history again, I see. If you want to talk Facts, have some, if not, Disneyland has a forum for you.

I will bet my life, if you tell the Serbs "give us Mladic so we can put him on the same bus to the Hague as Ceku, Thaci, Tudjman, Izetbegovic, etc.." they would pay for the gas. Haradinaj was replaced by who?

I am waiting to hear your response, but PLEASE use facts not fiction. Until then, I will be listening to my radio in my SUV, with a COKE AND A SMILE!

5. Islamic extremism is a fear many try to use in dissuading EU countries and the USA from supporting Kosova. It is an argument that won't and cannot stick. Albanians generally are by far the most supportive people of EU and USA in the whole of Balkans.
6. Mass graves were found during your rotation? What was it? Rotation? Tour? Picnic? Apparently you were rotating too much instead of fulfilling your mission, if you had any?! Of course besides being an interlocutor of the highest level you were also a forensic expert analyzing human remains, right?! Indeed, many mass graves were found after the war. Of Kosovar Albanians of all ages and both genders massacred by the Serb para-military, military and police forces during their rampage in 98-99.
7. US and EU did not allow Serbia a fair opportunity to negotiate or dictate? Probably as a military man you might not see the difference between the two! However, to answer your concern Kosova's independence will bring stability. That would happen sooner if Serbia accepts the reality and ceases and desists from interfering in the internal affairs of the new State. Let it not be forgotten that there are minorities on both sides of the border!

Long Live Kosova and its vital people! Thank you NATO, EU and USA!

Do you mean "who" am I? I am the guy that has been trying to keep you honest and to tell you the truth, you are not helping any. Can you answer my questions, enlighten me.

I find it deplorable, how you responded to Centurion1, is he not a part of the same military as American Soldier. Or is it because he speaks the truth, something your posts seem to lack. You should thank him for your freedom not dispute his evaluation.

ok, so there were 100 Albanians that were saving jews, what was the rest of the population doing? Let me guess, humanitarian activities for uncle Adolf. I don't know why I answer your post, since your selective in which questions you answer.

I am not boasting, don't have too, and I don't need your respect. Don't ask me where my loyalties are and then be demeaning when you don't like the answer. Something you will need to learn if you want to have an educated discussion.

Oh, so since Serbs didn't stop Milosevic from going to the Hague, they are guilty of self interest. You are starting to sound like a child.

Sure, got plenty of room, third row seating, he can sit IN my car next to the rest of them. Don't worry though, I have a special place for you on my lap.

"Long Live Kosovo and its vital people! Thank you NATO, EU and USA!" can we get a check now!

For the neutral readers who wish to learn facts, please go to a library. Don't read these amateurish kindergarden pieces" including yours. Ferdinand was an arch duke not an emperor, he was killed by Gavrilo Princip, a 16 year old "Terrorist" haha. So your war, was not for expansion? Kind of funny, since you had someone else fighting for your independence. You want to know why the Serbs are the bad guys. Because they stood up for themselves and didn't have a PR firm like Ruder-Finn helping them like Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. You want some truth?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29y1L9...

Genti: "Serbia has been creating problems for the world ever since. In 1912 they started the Balkan Wars. In 1914 a Serb terrorist group killed emperor Franz Ferdinand AND his wife in Sarajevo. World War 1 was essentially a continuation of the Serb wars of expansion."

This statement in utterly laughable. The Austro-Hungarian (AH) empire was a land grabbing dictatorship. AH occupied Bosnia and was beginning to sanction Serbia economically. Instead of twiddling his thumbs, the Serbian King established economic and military relations with the Western nations in Europe, namely France. France began to build all of Serbia's military equipment, while AH was basically left out to dry. A Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip and his group, which actually included on Muslim, took matters into their own hands and revolted against what was an oppressive regime. Unlike Muslims, Serbs didn't look for pity, nor did they look to act as a never-ending victim. Serbians have historically been guilty of one thing and that is stubbornness. They never stopped for over 500 years against the Turks, lost over 50% of their male population fighting against tyranny in WW1, CHOSE (bolje rat vego pakt!) to fight against the Nazis, and now they choose not to give in the corrupted Western powers.

albi: "Refrigerator trucks filled with Albanians were pulled out of Danube"

Rest assured, we'll always get one of those stories that no human being can stand to question. John Laughland questioned it here:
http://www.antiwar.com/spectator/spec...

How about those Trepca mines too:
http://www.mediamonitors.net/gowans1....

I hope the Albanians don't get too comfy with their new western allies. The "moral warriors" will find a way out of your friendship as soon as their national interests change.

Also,rest assured that the Serbs will be back in Kosovo. They have outlasted many empires, and they'll outlast this one.

There are no "clean hands" in the Balkans. The Western media's characterization of the Serbs as "evil" and the Albanians as "innocent" fails to put events of the past 10 years into historical context.

Unless a dialoge is reestablihsed between Serbia and the Kosovo Albanian leadership, the future will be quite problematic.

I strongly believe the Albanians of Kosovo will one day, in the not so distant future, turn against the US once they come to view their "country" as being occupied by NATO. Kosovo has the potential of becomming what Lebanon was in the 1980s.

Tensions will escalate in the entire region, especially in Bosnia and Macedonia. Integration into NATO will do little to help the situation. In Bosnia, the Serbian Republic, and very possibly the Croatian enclave in Hertsigovina, will seek independence. In Macedonia, the north-west Albanian district may demand more autonomy, setting the stage for a possible declaration of independence. The situation in Macedonia is complicated due to its political problems with Greece and Bulgaria, specifically the lingering issue of Slav-Macedonian ethnicity.

We'll see what happens!

Thank you for an excellent, factual and restrained report. Bravissimi, University of Washington & A. Ganapathiraju: your impressive reporting eclipses a great deal of what appears in the major media outlets.

Claims that "Albanians were in these parts" before the 7th century are specious: we all have ancestors who were "somewhere" three thousand, four thousand years ago, fifty thousand years ago. That's to be established by the DNA record. It is not a basis for "statehood." The written historical records of nations do matter. Some nations have recorded histories that go back quite a few thousand years; we know for a fact that the great Asian cultures had organized themselves as states with governments and laws as far back as ten thousand years ago. And those that have remained viable after all those years do have certain prerogatives & authority that others have not been able to claim yet.

Thus, in 1843, Hawai'i was a sovereign nation, recognized as such by Great Britain and France. And? What happened? Since the US supports the aspirations of Albanians in Kosovo, why not of Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico? Who has the better claim? Why shouldn't Alaska, for example, separated from the main 48 states by Canada, mostly sparsely settled and with substantial enclaves of natives, not ask for sovereignty?

To all those who would defend a sloppier, less precise interpretation of the past, one driven by expediency or flavor-of-the-month sympathies, rather than adherence to actual executed international statutes, such as the Helsinki Final Act of 1975: imagine the kind of world that would result!

To those well familiar with US history & its land grab methods, the long shameful history of treaties signed by Washington DC with the leaders of First Nations -- and then simply shredded -- or of the pattern of taking the minerals out of the lands owned by "tribes" -- and then not paying the billions owed by the US Dept of the Interior: how is this different? Isn't this just the same idea as the worst excesses of 'eminent domain', only on a much bigger scale, and in a completely different part of the world? One over which Americans in the US have remotely zero jurisdiction?

This whole episode around Kosovo, including the 100+ churches and monasteries that have been burned & destroyed since 1999 while UNMIK & K-FOR stood by, doing nothing but collecting their paychecks, has nothing to do with the sovereignty of Albanians -- they have a country -- and everything to do with oil, pipelines, the European market for street drugs, the slave trade and other lucrative but ultimately destructive ways of making money. Sure, Mr. Cheney approves. Should you?

... continued...

As far as negotiations: they don't work with Albanians or any other friends of the West. Serbia came to the negotiating table last year with concrete offers of autonomy, which I personally think was too much to begin with. Autonomy is detrimental to multi-ethnic societies in Europe because it lays a foundation for separation from the mother state. The spawns of this type of separation are usually mono ethnic states that are in constant turmoil with opposing ethnicities surrounding them. Yugoslavia was itself a great idea and great country for decades, despite the disease of Communism. If the Western powers were true to their word of preserving multi ethnicity, Yugoslavia would be thriving as we speak. No amount of eu hegemony would be able to bring it down. Instead of supporting moderates in the early 1990s such as Fikret Abdic, they supported the Sharia-promoting terrorist Alija Izetbegovic. And now they are choosing Hashim Thaci as their ally which is the biggest sham of all. I guess the us, the Saudis, and Hashim can all walk hand in hand across the White House lawn.

I digress, though...

Albanians seem to be quite the nationalists, but only in other nations' lands. Very sad, indeed, that this proud people cannot figure out how to build there own economy, society, and moral foundation on something other than drugs, slave trade, and the black market. Of Saudi money always results in democtratic insitutions...

Just over two thousand people, from all sides, died in Kosovo up to 1999 when NATO started it's murderous campaign of bombing from 15.000 feet. Here is a source I found out citing the figures given by the forensic unit which was on the ground http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/...

International law has been broken. The UN has been sidelined in this adventure by the EU and the US. The repercussions will be felt all over the world. This has opened the door to any tin pot terrorist organisation.

Instead of negotiations the US gave a promise to a terrorist organisation, which is headed by two war criminals, that Kosovo would be given independence, thus making it unnecessary for them to attend the negotiating table.

What to do now? That is EU's headache. The US has got its huge base, Bondsteel near Urosevac and they're laughing! The EU will have to fund this failed state until it suits the KLA when they will turn on their benefactors just as they turned on the Serbs and all other minorities making Kosovo almost totally ethnically pure. Good job!

As an American I personally have no stake in this argument. However, I do think the Serbs and Albanians were in a civil war. Both sides were doing terrible rotten things to each other...they were both ethnically cleansing each other. But this conflict was a politically correct war and we picked the side who were supported by the terrorist. We only saw Christiane Amanpour's heart wrenching broadcast of fleeing refugees and all the horrors they encountered. Mean while, the Clinton Administration was trying to stop the bloodshed. I thought the Clinton Administration was doing the right thing but as I do more research it appears they did more harm than good. Did you know innocent Serbs civilians were killed? Nato forces attacked a bridge and killed them. Clinton Administration acted unilaterally without UN approval.

Maybe they were convinced by Christiane Amanpour's stories. Were we duped?

What were we doing?

What we should of done was to get the two sides at the peace table but no we picked a side. We thought we were helping the victimized Muslims but we helped the Muslim extremist and look we got in return....911!

"...Bin Laden directly aided the Bosnian Muslims, both financially (weapons procurement) and with training. In addition, that same “aid” was extended to the separatist Albanians of Kosovo and Macedonia. Ironically, the US found Bin Laden and his supporters “convenient” allies when dealing with Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians, again in another so-called struggle for “freedom”."

http://www.balkanpeace.org/our/our09....

The chief beneficiary of U.S. military intervention, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), is a terrorist criminal syndicate, Maoist in its ideological bent, hard-wired into the international heroin trade, and tightly allied with Osama bin Laden. Additionally, American servicemen deployed in Kosovo would serve under the operational command of foreign military officers. In brief, the mission would advance the cause of international narco-terrorism, help entrench the European network of the world’s most notorious Islamic terrorist, and accelerate the erosion of U.S. sovereignty.

http://thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/03...

For goodness sakes they were calling General Wesley Clark a war criminal. What is going on here? Did we picked the wrong side?

http://wesclarkwarcriminal.tripod.com/

It has now become fashionable to distrust the US government and to second guess everything Uncle Sam does. However, US intervention in Kosovo was correct and justified.

Since 1912 Serbs have been nothing but colonial rulers in Kosovo, and they have tried multiple times to get rid of Kosovo's Albanian majority.

Serb academic Vaso Cubrilovic in his 1944 "Memorandum" on the "Minority problem" wrote: "After examining why the cleansing of minorities is necessary, let us now see what options are available for carrying out the task." (See <http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts/... )

In 1999 Serbia had ready plans to get rid of all Kosovo Albanians. The execution was flawless, it was not ad hoc, not amateurish. What I'm trying to say is that Serbia has a long standing policy of trying to solve its "Albanian minority" problem one way or another. The western decision-makers have understood this.

To moral relativism:

If Serbs were colonizers, what do you refer to the participants of the League of Prizren? Land grabbers??? You're telling me the Serbs were so horrible that they forced the poor Albanians into the hands of Nazis under the SS Skanderberg division... Serbia liberated Kosovo from Ottoman rule in 1912. It was the final decisive blow that began in the north and ended in the southern Serbian province.

You're telling me the Serbs tried to get rid of the Albanian minority multiple times, but your argument isn't supported with facts. The demographics in Kosovo since WW2 have been drastically in favor of the Albanians. Hitler's annexation of Kosovo, followed by Tito's opening of the borders allowed the Albanians to enter Serbia at will. They were leaving the miserable country they refer to as Albania and soon became separatists. The Albanians in Kosovo terrorized and expelled thousands of Serbs from their homes. The New York Times reported in 1987 that 20,000 Serbs were expelled from Kosovo due to consistent Albanian separatists pressure and terror. From WW2 to today, the percentage of Albanians has gone from the 60s to almost 90%. Can you honestly continue your argument of a Serbian ethnic cleansing? Furthermore, the UN has refuted all arguments claiming the hundreds of thousands of dead Albanians. Serbia responded to Albanian terror with military and police action, which in my opinion was not enough. Don't think for a minute that because of American support that Albanians were the "good guys." This is the same America that has sold out its 3,000 dead New Yorkers by allying with saudi oil.

Albanians have always rode the tide of imperialism. They had support from the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Nazi, and now American empire. They have failed miserably in the past and in short time will do so again. Little have they had historically in terms of some kind of public revolution against tyranny.

For Pete's sake, even an adviser to your beloved Bill Clinton referred to the KLA as terrorists.

And since you're giving us quotes, here are some for you:

When spring comes, we will manure the plains of Kosovo with the bones of Serbs…
-Isa Boletini, Kosovar political leader, 1913

The Serbian population of Kosovo should be removed as soon as possible. Serbian settlers should be killed.
-Mustafa Kruja, Nazi-fascist Prime Minister of Greater Albania, June, 1942

The time has come to exterminate the Serbs. There will be no Serbs under the Kosovo sun.
-Ferat-bey Draga, Nazi-fascist Kosovar Muslim political leader, 1943

So please... spare me your victim hood. Any sane person with half of a brain cell sees through your weak arguments.

It does not matter what is driving Albanian side prolific posting. The general style and of-the-hip fired references are reminiscent of the professional propagandists from the CNN message board during the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. There is nothing that can be said that will make change their philipiques against Serbs. Logically, should anyone in the West try to deport their Muslim immigrants for the sake of survival of their own country, or a part thereof (remember Malmo), then they should never be allowed to ever control the area again. It is stunning how far some people would go in imposing their view on everybody, only to feel good about their own views and attitudes. Arguing with their kind is literally a headache.

My real reward came some 5 years after the Yugoslavian war, at an air show in Omaha. A recogniscance helicopter pilot asked me about my home country, and then told me that he was stationed in Kosovo for a couple of years. I did not express any opinion about his mission, we only talked about flying in the Balkans - weather, terrain etc. Than, at the end he added: "As for the war, I think Miloshevic was right." Yes it is just one opinion of one Midwestern guy, it was not official, not recorded, may be or may not be the opinion of the other soldiers stationed there etc., etc.
And a million Albanian postings can not change it.

I should apologize for my last post being a bit harsh and unclear about American and saudi oil. I meant to say the American government not America. The emotions attached with my views about Kosovo caused a bit of an incoherent statement on my part. I know any red-blooded American is disgusted with our government aligning with saudi arabia and of course the albanians in Kosovo.

My humblest apologies...

And yes, I agree with AlphaNumericus... Great post.

kosova-dardania-

We Macedonians that live in Greece Declare that we are Greeks since the beggining of our history and we have nothing to do with the so called 'Republic of Macedonia', a state situated in the Northen part of Historical Macedonia that is part of Greece. This new State created by the communist regime of Tito in 1944, has no connection with Historical Macedonia, Culture and Language!
This new State is not recognized by UN under this name but only as 'Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia' until they accept a name that respects their identity that is SlavoBulgarian and that also respects Greece's History of Macedonia!
Slavobulgarians of FYROM try to confuse with their posts in various sites on internet the minority of them who dosen't know the historical and geografical reallity of Macedonia and so in a future time can have a minimum support on their fake claims.
FYROM is a State that lives on drug and army traffic, having a 60% of unalphabetism and the bigger percentage of corruption in all europe!

This Kosovo issue is beyond morbid. Supporting muslim terrorists against other Christian Europeans!! Does anyone even remember Afghanistan anymore?