De-Albanizing Muslim Terrorists: Ft. Dix Redux
Three of the five men charged with plotting an attack on Fort Dix last spring have asked a judge to move them from a secluded part of their prison as they await trial, a youthful-sounding female NPR reporter told us on Monday night. She added that, in legal filings over the past week, the men complained that in the Special Housing Unit of the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia they are not being given “adequate access” to the government's evidence in their case. From her two-minute “featurette” and a few dozen similarly worded agency reports in the “Mainstream Media” you’d never guess that those “men” were Albanian Muslims from Kosovo and Macedonia illegally residing in the U.S., or that they were plotting to murder as many American servicemen as they could get into the sights of their automatic weapons.
Welcome to post-modern, self-hating and terrorist-abating American journalism: Your favorite Gannett daily paper/TV news channel/Web site will tell you that “the men, all foreign-born and in their 20s, were charged in May with planning a raid on Fort Dix. They face life in prison if they're convicted of conspiring to murder military personnel.” It’s a bit—no, it’s totally—like saying that “19 foreign-born men in their 20s died carrying out 9-11 attacks.”
The relevant information is as follows: the identity of the “men”—Albanian Muslim jihadists from the putative new state of “Kosova” still insanely supported by the U.S. Government, and its sister-statelet of Western Macedonia—is deliberately and mendaciously concealed. It is as heavy-handedly covered now as it was when the planned outrage first came to light: Last night the FBI arrested six Muslims who were planning a commando-style attack on Fort Dix in New Jersey, to “kill as many soldiers as possible,” authorities said.
Back in May, when the story first broke, we were not told that four of the six men were Albanians, but rather—according to Fox News and the Associated Press—they were “nationals of the former Yugoslavia.” Federal sources also said the group was from the “Balkans.” The only clue we got from other news sources that the four “Yugoslavs” were Albanian, and from Kosovo, is in sentences like these, which appeared in an earlier version of an AP report:
In 1999, [Fort Dix] sheltered more than 4,000 ethnic Albanian refugees during the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia…After that war, refugees were allowed to return to the U.N.-run province of Kosovo in Serbia or to seek permanent residency in the United States.
As Julia Gorin has noted, let’s pat ourselves on the back for resettling those “rescuees” here; but, terrorism aside, the Albanian mafia has already overtaken both the “Russian” and “Italian” ones. Yes, there was also that Kosovo Albanian whose al-Qaeda application was discovered in Afghanistan, to name just one of many such characters: “It’s called Balkan blowback, and it’s been happening since we stuck our nose where it didn’t belong throughout the 1990s and, for good measure, bombed the wrong side.”
To cut the long story short, at Ft. Dix last May we were presented with a classic case of the ubiquitous Sudden Jihad Syndrome. As we know, SJS doesn’t require any foreign terrorist ties: it is self-generated, spontaneous, community-driven. Of course the Albanians of Kosovo received material assistance from Osama bin Laden during the “liberation” leg of the movement, in advance of the bombing of Serbia in 1999, but don’t expect our MSM investigators to connect the dots. Hastily denying the Albanians’ link to al-Qaeda and other global networks is a political necessity for the proponents of Kosovo’s independence, however surreal the story will strike those who know the Balkan score. Julia Gorin is one of them:
What we’ve wrought in the Balkans truly is poetry in motion. The timing on these arrests, on the heels of the STATE-DEPARTMENT-SPONSORED tour of the Kosovo mufti couldn’t have been better. But no doubt the damage control machine is kicking into gear from the mufti-led State Dept. and our Albanian-bought politicians such as Tom Lantos, Eliot Engel, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Wesley Clark and—what the heck—let’s dig up the earliest Albanian purchase: Bob Dole, after whom a street is named in Kosovo. The imperiled soldiers of Fort Dix and the other military bases that were being considered for the attack thank you all!
So let’s continue pushing for Kosovo independence, she adds, giving the Albanian Muslims massive monetary support and covert assistance while they continue cleansing the remaining non-Albanian-Muslim population: “This Fort Dix plot is just another tiny bump on the road to burying this hot potato. Of course, it may get a little harder next month to wash our hands of all this business, since that’s when John R. Schindler’s book Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa’ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad comes out.”
It is especially galling that some Albanian propagandists—and notably the Albanian Ambassador in Israel—have the gall to claim that there is “no connection between being for the establishing of a state of Kosovo and the establishment of a Palestinian state.” In reality, in both cases we have a small piece of disputed land, rich in history but poor in everything else, whose preponderant population of two million Muslims wants to turn into a sovereign, internationally-recognized state.
By accepting at face value the standard claim of “genocide” by each and every secessionist minority (Tamils, Chechens, Palestinians, Kurds, Kashmiris, etc., etc.) the “International Community”—i.e., some West Europeans and North Americans—will create endless problems for itself, of course. The theory that outside powers can award part of a state’s sovereign territory to a “discriminated against” ethnic or religious minority would put in question not only the West Bank (aka Judaea and Samaria)—which, in any event, are not formally part of Israel—but even such areas as the southern Galilee and parts of the Negev. If Albanian Muslims can demand separation from Serbia today, citing alleged past mistreatment, why cannot Israel’s Arabs do the same tomorrow? Or Arizona’s Mexicans? Or Florida’s Cubans?
Bat let us get back briefly to the mother of all issues in 2008, that of Muslim terrorism. It was not a Serb propaganda organ, but the Washington Times that revealed, a week after 9-11, that 9-11 hijackers were "connected to Albanian terrorist cell":
Albania is one of several places U.S. intelligence agencies are focusing their resources . . . Islamic radicals, including supporters of bin Laden, have been supporting Albanian rebels fighting in the region, including members of the Kosovo Liberation Army . . . KLA members have been trained at bin Laden training camps in Afghanistan . . . As of last year [2000], the group operated a residence in Tirana, and the CIA has been pressing Albania's government to expel all associates of the Islamic terrorists.
Two months after 9/11, we learned of "Al Qaeda's Balkan Links"(European edition of the Wall St. Journal). In March 2002 Conrad Black’s National Post article revealed that "U.S. Supported al-Qaeda Cells during Balkan Wars, Fought Serbian Troops":
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network has been active in the Balkans for years, most recently helping Kosovo rebels battle for independence from Serbia with the financial and military backing of the United States and NATO . . . In the years immediately before the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the al-Qaeda militants moved into Kosovo . . . to help ethnic Albanian extremists of the KLA mount their terrorist campaign against Serb targets in the region.
Plus ça change: this month's report by the European Commission says: "Due to a lack of clear political will to fight corruption, and to insufficient legislative and implementing measures, corruption is still widespread . . . Civil servants are still vulnerable to political interference, corrupt practices and nepotism" and "Kosovo's public administration remains weak and inefficient," the report added. Furthermore, "the composition of the government anti-corruption council does not sufficiently guarantee its impartiality," and "little progress can be reported in the area of organized crime and combating of trafficking in human beings." In addition, war crime trials of Albanians are being "hampered by the unwillingness of the local population to testify" and "there is still no specific legislation on witness protection in place.” "Civil society organizations remain weak" and "awareness of women's rights in society is low."
As The American Council on Kosovo, an NGO based in Washington D.C., points out,
If this is the society based on “social cohesion and religious harmony” in advance of what the Ambassador hopes will be conferral of independence, one shudders to think what “disorder” would look like. To be sure, the Albanians make use of the usual dodge that Kosovo's progress is limited by the absence of clarity on our future status, namely independence. But Taiwan, by contrast, has gone without such clarity for over half a century and is nothing like the disaster over which Mr. Ceku and his ilk currently preside. Instead of falling for his fairy tales about Kosovo's fitness for sovereignty the international community needs to open its eyes to the reality of this corrupt, criminal, and nonviable entity. Granting independence to Kosovo, which would mean handing de jure power to those responsible for this state of affairs, can only turn a disaster into a catastrophe.
That’s where we stand, dear reader, as we approach December 10, when Messrs. Ceku, Thaci, and their ilk say they will declare their “independence,” and the U.S. Government promises to support their UDI with unilateral recognition. But it ain’t over yet . . . Please watch this space.
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Welcome to post-modern, self-hating and terrorist-abating American journalism: Your favorite Gannett daily paper/TV news channel/Web site will tell you that “the men, all foreign-born and in their 20s, were charged in May with planning a raid on Fort Dix. They face life in prison if they’re convicted of conspiring to murder military personnel.” It’s a bit—no, it’s totally—like saying that “19 foreign-born men in their 20s died carrying out 9-11 attacks.”
Ha! This couldn't have been more timely. I just read an article in the New York Times last night about the rioting "youths" in the suburbs of Paris.
It all begs one question. For what specific reasons have (at least) two last U.S. administrations been pushing Kosovo secession? All their public rhetoric aside, what is their actual rationale - from their own self-interest point of view, that is?
As posted in CIA's World Factbook for Serbia's geography: Controls one of the major land routes from Western Europe to Turkey and the Near East.
KosMet (Kosovo&Metohija) has been a major post where drugs from Asia and trafficked women from eastern Europe were prepared for delivery to the western Europe by Shiptars aka Albanians.
It involves a big-time money. A big time money. I cannot really claim that Shiptars bought Clinton or Bush personally, but certainly they have few individuals that were and are key advisers for both administrations. Nicholas Burns, for example.
And, of course, granting independence to "Kosova" would present USA in a better light to key muslim "allies", like Saudi Arabia.
@ Johan Dieckmann
"For what specific reasons have (at least) two last U.S. administrations been pushing Kosovo secession? All their public rhetoric aside, what is their actual rationale - from their own self-interest point of view, that is?"
Appeasement of another population of Muslim grievance-mongers would seem the most likely "rationale" for supporting the secession of Kosovo.
The self-interest involved (if any) is hard to locate - but sympathizing with the Albanian demand for Kosovan independence gives the US a sort of moral distinction as an impartial mediator in the Balkan imbroglio
The past two admins' have acted with malice of forethought towards Serbia, primarily to curry favor in the muslim world particularly to appear as an honest broker between the Palestinians and Israelis. Additionally, the Bush admin's view of international relations is colored by the cold war, so that the US meddles with Russia's 'near abroad' and cannot ally itself with Russia or friends of Russia, even though the Russians and Serbs have been killing muslims for hundreds of years, which among many other reasons makes them natural allies in the War on "terror". Which brings up the point that Bush has never accurately or adequately defined this war and what and who the enemy are. We know Islam and muslim individuals and countries are the enemy, that we are locked in a civilizational war that may last 100 years, and that "terror" is a tactic, and not the precise enemy. This tragedy that now involves Serbia's Jerusalem KiM, was set in motion when the western powers betrayed Gen. Mihailovich and his Chetniks, and allied with Tito's commies. With that betrayal came the weakening of the Nation State, falling birth rates, economic backwardness and specifically the infiltration of Albanian aliens into Kosovo, and its resultant ethnic cleansing of non-albanians. This sad tragedy is in its final act, but I can't yet tell if it will end with a bang or with a wimper.
"It all begs one question. For what specific reasons have (at least) two last U.S. administrations been pushing Kosovo secession? All their public rhetoric aside, what is their actual rationale - from their own self-interest point of view, that is?"
Stupidity might be as good an explanation as any or corruption perhaps. These are likely to be part of the picture whatever the motive and for the purpose of my argument assume them insufficient. Given that new client populations are always welcome to the big government table in the US and abroad why would you imagine that self interested actors would be opposed?
The fact that this sets a poor precedent relative to any self identified minority peeling off a slice of formerly majority territory and running up a flag is only a concern to people with conventional views of sovereignty. It may very well suit some factions to have this kind of precedent hanging over the heads of the American people. When was the last time the national government paid more than lip service to the actual wellbeing of the citizenry?
Imagine all the uses a fractious pseudo/proto-national entity within the contiguous US could be put to. Reflect on the shameless manner in which the political classes have used racial divisions to expand government powers. The consistent refusal and I do mean refusal, not failure; to secure the USA’s borders in direct opposition to the wishes of the citizenry is part and parcel of this. Paranoid? Farfetched? Well aren’t we after all passing most of the landmarks on the road that the Serbs have been going down?
First of all, why is it that every time Serbians talk about Albanians their main point is religion?? Learn the facts: Albanians are the most religiously diverse people out there, and religion amongst Albanians has never posed a problem amongst the Albanian population. If anything, this fact only means that, out of all the Balkans peoples, Albanians are the ones who have proved and continue to prove that diversity is a welcomed notion and that they have always worked together with other groups. Who, for example, helped the displaced Macedonians from Skopje in 1963? Albanians, my friends. ALBANIANS! Also, the Jews had never even heard of Albania prior to the Nazi Germany, but ask them today and they will proudly let you know that every Jewish family that was hiding in Albania, survived the war! Yes, those "terrorist" Albanians somehow managed to risk their own lives and save Jewish refugees' lives. And so the list goes on and on, and you and everyone reading this already know this. But we all know that Serbia does not have any other weapons left other than propaganda, and props to them, they do a great job! However, in the age of great technological advances, this has kind of cramped Serbia's style of dirty politics.
I have one question: Macedonians and Montenegrins are the same religion as the Serbs; correct me if I am wrong, but did they not recede from the Great Federation of Serbia?? No need to say Yugoslavia, we all know what happened there.
With all due respect, Serbians look so ignorant in the eyes of the world when they claim things as Mr. Trifkovic's article does. I am not going to sit here and claim that every Albanian is perfect; however, trying to throw mud at us all to cover up for Serbia's attrocities (which are very well documented) is, well, absurd. Maybe so absurd that I feel like I am being redundant here, but just in case some people have been living in caves in the past few decades, I felt the need to state a few facts. Let us hope and pray that this kind of misinformation does not roll into a ball of hate, and ultimately create another war in the Balkans!
This article shows a lot of Serbian national hatred that has been cultivated by the Serbian regimes in the Former Yugoslavia in the last 50 years, which eventually brought down the existance of Yugoslavia and resulted with four wars one after the other, from Slovenia, going down to Croatia, Bosnia and ending up in Kosova.
The U.S. Administration stopped all these wars eventually and brought peace and stability in the region and at the same time brough the Serbian former leader Slobodan Millosheviq in front of International Justice in the Hague.
The article gives a religious color in the matters that don't have any kind of religious character. The four men indicted for an attack may have been of any kind of nationality and they don't represent any kind of relationship with the future state of Kosova, at least with the Albanian people.
The future state of Kosova is the right thing to happen in the Balkans because that is the only solution for peace and stability in Southeastern Europe, by respecting the basic principles of democracy, in particular the principle of self-determination that Kosova as a former unit of ex-Yugoslavia should enjoy, the same as Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro.
It is said to see how Serbian sponsored journalists link every single thing with religion. They forget to write that Croatians are catholics and Dubrovnik and Vukovar were bombed and thousands of innocent Croatian civilians were killed by Christian Serbs. They also forget to write that in one single day Serbs killed more than 8000 Bosnian civilians in Srebrenica. They also forget to write that Serbian troops massacred more than 12,000 Albanian civilians, both catholics and muslims. There is no religious explanation for none of these crimes committed by Serbs and it is said to see how the true religious sentiments of the people around the world are being misused by journalists and it is said to see how crimes committed by Millosheviq regime are tried to be justified by so called religious wars.
The same journalists forget also to write the Albanians are among the first Christian nation in the world and after all they are the nation that gave to the world Mother Teresa.
This article, while denounces what four indicted individuals tried to do in Fort Dix, does not show anything at all about the reality in the Balkans and former Yugoslavia, the least about the future state of Kosova.
Ah, yes, another predictable attempt by another Serb to make the world forget about the four wars started by Serbia in a single decade, about the hundred thousand innocent Bosnian and Kosovar Albanian civilians killed, about the one million Kosovars expelled from their homes, about the rape camps, about Srebrenica, about Sarajevo.
As Tim Judah writes in his book on Kosovo, foreign jihadists who turned up in northern Albania to join the fighting were turned AWAY by Albanians, who told them that this was not a religious struggle. Any objective person (non-Serb, non-Greek) who knows the least bit about Albanians knows that religion is by far secondary to their national identity.
This defamatory article is pure propaganda aimed at scaring the West into keeping Kosovo under Serbian rule. Ask yourself this: why did Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro split from Serbia?
I think Serbians will benefit giving indipendence to Kosovo as their reputation will no longer be mixed with that of Albanians.
The usual serb propaganda........just in time before the declaration of independence.
It goes back to the sixth century when we( the illyrians) welcomed you in our lands ...and what do we get????
serbs claiming our land. you never had Kosova 14 centuries ago...and you do not have Kosova now, over 90% of the population is Albanian.
So stop the unbased claims for the land that was never yours.
Just face it: KOSOVA IS AND WAS ALWAYS ALBANIAN.
I think, it is very immature or lame for a Serb author (someone who most probably carries Albanian blood in his vain) to imply that Albanians were plotting against Americans (who helped their country or people from mass ethnic cleansing). Well, they should deserve the punishment of a criminal if they are found guilty to do so. I know 100% (one hundred percent) that every Albanian will agree with my opinion. We carry in our shoulders many centuries of experience and civilization to be able and tell who our real enemies are. Well, that is a different story, something that our Serb author (who we taught how to write) will never be able to understand (without asking the answer to the people whose land he calls home). Serbs choose not to sit in our vatra, (that the serb knows very well, what it means, since he likes the taste of our food) and learn, instead he choose to steal it from us, and further more he claimed ownership for what was not rightfully descended to him.
I carefully read your paper and the message behind it:
“If Albanian Muslims can demand separation from Serbia today, citing alleged past mistreatment, why cannot Israel’s Arabs do the same tomorrow? Or Arizona’s Mexicans? Or Florida’s Cubans?”
If you do not recognize the author of this paragraph, I will always be more than pleased to show you but remember to ask first, in your first sentence, very politely. We Albanians are open to dialog with your civilized representatives to find a common solution to our numerous problems because with hater we will only be left far behind o our neighbor serb. If you want to know the yearning of what pushed you to write the first letter I guess you know who to ask. Now that you know, I wish you good luck because you will need it.
"Ti Shqiperi me jep nder me jep emrin Shqipetar"
Mr Srdja Trifkovic,
Just out of curiosity: Are you Serb? Your name sounds very Slavic to me! if that is the case, we are neighbors, I am Albanian. I have heard a lot of words how Serbia treats neighbors. The words of my Lord Jesus Christ came to mind: "Love your neighbors as yourself"
It seems that you made a long search and came up with somewhat of a case. You must have studied really hard to come up with all these odd and disconnected sources. You have my respect, since it must have been very, very hard to find all those resources from the English newspapers and books. Did you get all these references somewhere? Maybe a website in another language...
However your points are very week to the point that anyone who knows the situation would start laughing. Let's bring the story closer to home, is that OK?
If you were to write an article about the US, you would have mentioned the Uni Bomber, The Oklahoma City Bombing, The Menendez brothers, and hmmm..., the Texas Chainsaw massacre (yes I know this last one is fiction) , all this to come to the conclusion that America is a country of Terrorists. Everyone that knows America knows that this is not true, but ... who knows, someone would have believed you.
A few men who have not faced trial yet and a few unofficial sources do not represent an entire people! I did say that! I called Kosovar Albanians "a people". You know why? Because Kosovo is slightly smaller than the size of Connecticut, and has a population larger than that of West Virginia or New Mexico. They speak their language, they have their traditions, they love their neighbors as themselves, and they make a fantastic spinach pie. It looks to me like they should have some rights to govern themselves too, shouldn't they? They do have a democratically elected parliament, prime minister and an internationally respected President. Maybe they should have a little more than just "Autonomy" which Serbia is offering to Kosovo Mr. Srdjia Trifkovic!
And let us talk about the US troops, since you mentioned them Mr. Srdjia Trifkovic. In the last 8 years that Americans have been deployed in Kosovo, there has not been one, NOT EVEN ONE American Casualty in Kosovo. Furthermore, according to a study, Kosovo is the country that mostly admires America. Do you know where Serbia rests? It is somewhere at the bottom of the list with all the happy countries like North Korea, Iran, Venezuela etc. I would not recommend that America send any troops in Serbia. Kind of hard to find that friendship in a Muslim country mr Srdjia Trifkovic! Kind of hard for Muslim Jihadist countries to name their streets and Plazas after American Christian Presidents and Congressmen, Mr. Srdjia Trifkovic! But of course you missed that particular...
It is OK however! This is a free country (not quite like Serbia) and anyone can say whatever they want. So thanks for your article. Now can we also make Serbia a free country? I would like to publish some articles there without risking my life...
Trifkovic's article constitutes an outrageous Serb propaganda, the same propaganda that paved the way for Milosevic to use his state mechanisms for the total destruction of Kosova Albanians as well as Bosnians, Croations etc. during the '90s. His article is full of lies, and misinterpretation.
The attacks on Fort Dix DO NOT respresent the beliefs of the Albanian nation. The leaders of the Albanian nation in Albania, Kosova and other lands have strongly condemned that attack and have reassured the United States of America that it has a powerful ally, and therefore, the ultimate support of the Albanian nation in their struggle to prevent acts of terrorism. Indeed, it was the Republic of Albania, not Serbia, that joined the US coalition in overthrowing the Taliban regime in Afganistan.
It is not true that Muslim fundamentalists provided material support, training, or assistance in any way to the Kosova Liberation Army in the 1990s. The leaders of KLA categorically refused to accept such support because the war in Kosova was not a religous war, but rather a rightous war to prevent the killings and exodus of the Kosova Albanians. KLA received financial support not from organized crime but from hard-working Albanian immigrants living and working in Western Europe and USA. KLA trained in Albania and Kosova, not Afganistan. The Albanian nation constitutes an excellent example for the rest of the world of how Muslism, Chrisitians, Jews, and others can peacefully coexist.
The international community have realized that granting Kosova's independance is a secure investment in promoting peace and democracy in the Balkans. Kosova, as independant state, will not become a safe heaven or an ally of the jihadists. Rather, Kosovar will remain committed to advancing the values of freedom, democracy, transparent governance, and maintain peaceful relations with its neighbours (unlike Serbia that terrorized entire nations in the Balkans). An independant state of Kosova and the Albanian nation in general will continue to be a key ally of the United States and Europe as they strive to establish peace, democracy and economic prosperity in the Balkans.
Therefore, Serb propaganda is a call to Serbian ultra-nationalism, hatred, which will eventually lead the destabilization of the Southeastern Europe. Europe and the US have made it clear that they support Kosova's independance because Kosovars and Albanians are a peacuful, tolerant, Western-oriented, and a progressive nation.
You, guys, seem to be marching onto these discussions in bulk, every time anyone even mentions Kosovo. Apart from the old wisdom that walking in crowd hardly leaves a trace, you are only globalizing an old times-reputation of Albanians being a favorite Balkan Joke, with these hysterical tribal orgies of slogan-yelling, dull copy/pasting of Illyrian fantasies, talentlesss attempts of spin-doctoring, and so on... I must thank you for proving the Serbian point much more successfully than any (futile) attempt to discuss Kosovo with the most of you ever could.
Anyway, here you have a guy whom you might not like, but the man has some pretty respectable credentials for the analyses he writes.. Plus, he engages in discussions on the subjects in question... looks like a perfect opportunity for you to start a civil and meaningful dialogue for a change, and counter your arguments to his, if you have any. Instead, you're yelling and screaming, acting like at some Great Albanian Rally, with outrageously entertaining chants and slongans about A Free 'Kosova'
and Your Glorious Westernized Leaders... and it looks like you've just escaped from The Simpsons episode. The next thing you'll do, I presume, is mentioning that you just won a championship in a difficult sport of group hugging and kissing George Bush Jr., "The Most Glorious Man Who Has Ever Visited Albania" (to quote the words of the Albanian president gone extatic). I must admit that, having watched that, I felt sorry for a poor guy who was so obviously embarrassed by the emotions he aroused among the cheering Albanians.
Anyhow, to give you a clue, this site is not about "making your point" with torturing all other participants by flooding an' ruining EVERY SINGLE TOPIC. CNN-mantras and old Goebbelsian tunes about "hundreds of thousands of poor Bosnian Muslim/Kosovo Albanian civilians" have been discredited and proven lies, a long ago. This fake fact-spinning victimology is not going to strenghten your point, but to make it even more detestable. Plus, you're being plain dull and boooooooring. The saddest thing here is that you, folks, don't seem to have moved a slightest bit from your old tribal crowd-makes-it-right-mentality. An uniformed mass that cheered Hitler and Enver Hoxha, remained the same old Favorite Noble Savage of their post-modern offspring.
The Serbian and Yugoslav government offensive in Kosovo that began on March 20, 1999, four days before NATO bombing commenced, was a methodically planned and well-implemented campaign. Key changes in Yugoslavia's security apparatus in late 1998, including a new head of Serbian state security and a new chief of the Yugoslav Army General Staff, suggest that preparations for the offensive were being made at that time. In early 1999, a distinct military build-up in Kosovo and the arming of ethnic Serb civilians was observed. Police and army actions in late February and early March around Vucitrn (Vushtrri) and Podujevo (Podujeve), called "winter exercises" by the government, secured rail and road links north into Serbia.
Serious violations of international humanitarian law had accompanied all previous government offensives, but the period of the NATO bombing saw unprecedented attacks on civilians and the forced expulsion of more than 850,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. For the first time in the conflict, fighting moved from the rural areas to the cities.
No one predicted the speed and scale of the expulsions. Within three weeks of the start of NATO bombing, 525,787 refugees from Kosovo had flooded the neighboring countries, according to the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). All told, government forces expelled 862,979 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, and several hundred thousand more were internally displaced, in addition to those displaced prior to March 1999. More than 80 percent of the entire population of Kosovo-90 percent of Kosovar Albanians-were displaced from their homes.
Areas with historic ties to the KLA were hardest hit. The municipalities of Glogovac (Gllogofc) and Srbica (Skenderaj) in the Drenica region, the cradle of the KLA, were the scene of multiple massacres of civilians, as well as arbitrary detentions, torture, and the systematic destruction of homes and other civilian property. Mass killings, forced expulsions, and the destruction of civilian property were also common in the southwestern municipalities of Djakovica (Gjakove), Orahovac (Rrahovec), and Suva Reka (Suhareke), where many villages had long supported the insurgency. Sixty-five percent of the violations documented by Human Rights Watch took place in the above-mentioned five municipalities (see Figure 2 in the chapter Statistical Analysis of Violations).
Explanations for the abuses in other municipalities are more complex and less conclusive. The municipalities of Pec (Peja) and Lipljan (Lipjan), both of which had significant Serbian populations, were targeted for mass expulsion of ethnic Albanians, but killings were more localized, such as in the villages of Slovinje (Sllovi), Ribare (Ribar), Ljubenic (Lubeniq), Cuska (Qyshk), and the town of Pec. Although the KLA was active in the Pec municipality and present in the western-most part of Lipljan municipality during 1998 and early 1999, there is little or no evidence to tie the KLA to some of the villages in which massacres occurred. The killings were consistent with a broader pattern of operations to terrorize the population into fleeing Kosovo employing military, police, and paramilitary forces.
There was little KLA presence or violence during 1998 and early 1999 in the ethnically-mixed northwestern municipality of Istok, for example. Nevertheless the municipality suffered mass expulsions of its Albanian residents into Montenegro spurred by the burning and looting of their homes. Istok was also the scene of one of the bloodiest incidents of the war, when Serbian forces killed more than ninety ethnic Albanian inmates in the Dubrava prison in May 1999, after two days of NATO air strikes had killed an estimated nineteen inmates.
The forced expulsion was well organized, which suggests that it had been planned in advance. Villages in strategic areas were cleared to secure lines of communication and control of border zones. Areas of KLA support, as well as areas without a KLA presence, were attacked in joint actions by the police, army, and paramilitaries. Large cities were cleared using buses or trains and long convoys of tractors were carefully herded toward the borders. Refugees were driven into flight or transported in state organized transportation to the borders in a concerted program of forced expulsion and deportation characterized by a very high degree of coordination and control.
Human Rights Watch also documented the common practice of "identity cleansing": refugees expelled toward Albania were frequently stripped of their identity documents and forced to remove the license plates from their cars and tractors before being permitted to cross the border. Before reaching the border, many Albanians had their personal documents destroyed, suggesting the government was trying to block their return.
The mass expulsion of Kosovar Albanians may have served a number of purposes. First, it might have been intended to alter Kosovo's demographic composition-a policy often mentioned by Serbia's extreme nationalist politicians throughout history. Demographic shifts might also have led to an eventual partition of the province into two parts, one for Serbs and one for Albanians. Second, the expulsions might have been intended to destabilize the neighboring countries of Albania and Macedonia. Lastly, the goal might have been to tie down NATO forces in the neighboring countries, thereby hindering a ground invasion, or at least to weaken the resolve of the NATO alliance. If undercutting the international community's determination was the aim, it clearly failed, as the images of beleaguered refugees only provoked public outrage and increased calls for action.
This is a response to Boyan K.
Marching Boyan is for men who follow their ideals for what they believe is true and is not for cowards that try to hide in the crowd. You speak of facts, and I will give you the past, you question the truth and I will give you the present, but be careful Boyan because the future requires fortitude, determination, purpose, and rationale principles not concealment (it’s a thing of the past who you seem to have mastered a little to late). Well, there is the name of the land, the language of the people, and the tradition passed from parents to their children (father to son from mother to daughter). The land belongs to them and you will need more than a hand full of burned documents to take it from them because they will respond back with what you have never had.
Im really battling with my consience to honour an article of twisted truth,such is this,with my reply.However my pride has edged me to say a thing or two.
STOP THE PROPAGANDA!!!!
KOSOVO HAS ALWAYS BEEN (in heart and soul at least) AND WILL ALWAYS BE ALBANIAN!
GET OVER IT!
As for wanting to kill americans,ingaging in acts of terrorism and so on, one only has to gain reports from people who really know, departments that are responsible for protecting us all from such acts. Therefore my fellow cohabitant (even though you shouldnt even be that) inform yourself with reports from the pentagon,white house,FBI,CIA and even Mr Bush himself and you will find out the real truth. You will find out that a people such as ours doesnt deserve dumbfound comments trying to dent the prospect of indipendence in Kosovo.
A wise man once said: Noble is he who knows how to criticise his own instead of blaming the others.
I hope this somewhat embarrases you.
Apologies are welcome.
#17
Oh, c'mon, you are aware how ultimately stupid your little diatribe actually sounds, aren't you? As for confronting the facts, I tried my best on an earlier occasion here. With one of your fellow Albanians, some time ago. The guy was surprizingly articulate and refreshingly literate, in comparison with you and your merry little crew here, but... To every fact I've mentioned (that beared unfavorable aspect in regard to Albanian position), he responded with "this is the Balkans, I'm very sorry". So I gave up. With you, even a start would be utterly pointless. You don't seem to grasp the fact that your nation's history of a constant land grab, mass murder, gaining favor by doing the most dishonorable things on behalf of EVERY conceivable genocidal conqueror that enslaved you, from Turkish Sultans to German Nazis and beyond, is, actually, a thing that hardly anoyone could be too proud of. So, yes, go on and enjoy your little Mondo Bizarro where the blood-and-soil-concept is an acme of civilization. And, please, don't play a tough guy here, with this silly little quotes that you've probably picked from some action movie, or some 3rd-rate take on history. These pathetic little rants on "tradition", "parents passed to their children", and so on. It's funny, because you know that I know that all the "tradition" you have consists of the grandftahers who served as Hitler's vultures some sixty five years back. After that, a big Commie gulag, Comrade Mao-style -:). Now you've moved on, selling dope to the kids in America and Europe. Real effin achievement...
Everyone knows just about enough of your "bravery" and "manhood" toward the unarmed civilians, women, children, elderly, monks and nuns. You've had your chance with the Serbian army, but you decided to crybaby NATO in, instead of fighting like the men. Just like the WW2, when you cheered the Nazis, and waited 'till it was safe to start pillaging, raping, murdering and ethnic cleansing around. First Hitler, then Comrade Hoxha, then Bill and Hitlery...I don't envy you. Not by a long shot
Apparently, I somehow managed to mix the comments 16, 17 and 18 up.
I read and answered in a haste, so it sounds a bit confusing. My apologies to #17, for addressing him inadequately.
Of course, a sane and civilized dialogue is always preferable in comparison to a generalization of any sort (which is, simply, next to pointless). That's why I like this site. This time, I engaged in this silly little game of stereotypes and generalizations, just to paint the picture to these guys (16 and 18) who followed my comment with those silly slogans and copy/pastes...
I mean (for the cheering copy/pastin' Albanian crowd in the cheaper seats of this thread), I'm NOT calling ALL Albanians the drug dealers, ethnic cleansers or Nazis. That would require to apply the same nonsensical "logic" that this Albanian contigent here subscribes to. I that is the last thing I would want. I was just trying to show that teo can play the game... Albanians here seem to be taking the silly little myth of their "pre-historical right" to this or that part of Balkans for granted, mixing it with the boring old tune of their exclusive "victimhood" (like there is not just enough Serbs around, who horribly suffered at hands of the Albanian gangs) and pretending that they have made their point by copy/pasting it ad nauseam. This just ain't gonna work.
I that is the last thing I would want. I was just trying to show that teo can play the game…
Should read:
AND that is the last thing I would want. I was just trying to show that TWO can play the game…
The same longing Boyan drives us all to be irrational sometime. Some people are conspicuously driven by it, and there are other people Boyan who were told that outcomes is all that matter. Ok Boyan this is where we stand, I know you can very easly move forward, and think in your own, and in our best interest. Is it worth it to keep fighting each-other for another year, a decade, or we can even spare another century, I am positive we will have many of those in the future, or should we two (it is always a good start) begin the future together?
Lets just face it Boyan, we will always be there whether your side or my side likes it or not, I say we both condemn any antisocial acts and we gradually propose and support a unified Balkans where all people without exception will be free to express themselves socialize with neighbors and build our prosperous future.
Wow Boyan, isn’t that a dream to march toward to? Well if you don’t like the idea you can find many reasons to look the other way, and insult with all the words that we preffer to use in times when hate and darkness blinds our sight. But you have to accept it as well as I did that what constitutes prosperity is freedom and not terror. Our author is also welcome to express his opinion and lets see how far in time we can see together.
In regard to Muslims, what do you sirs think of this list of serious "Muslim" inventions? Though it appears that they developed in spite or despite of Islam, as Dr. Trifkovic would say:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventions_in_the_Muslim_world
Riggs,
yes, recognizing where we stand is an important part of the puzzle. But,the easiest one as well, I'm afraid. The problem is the mutual exclusivity of our aims here. Not to mention the principles they're based on. In the simpliest terms: you want Kosovo-Metohija out of Serbia, no matter what price, and I'm not giving up on Kosovo-Metohija as her part. Not in a million years.
As for anti-social acts, personally, I have no problem to condemn any of them, done in Serbian part; we both know that you'll hardly find ANYONE within Serbia's political spectrum as we speak (hardline nationalists included!) to say anything in favor of that. But, frankly, can we say the same for the Kosovo Albanian political leaders? And I'm being hopelessly euphemistic here, knowing that quite a many of those very same "political leaders" took the PERSONAL part in the most despicable war crimes against Serbs, just a few years back (and, no, I'm not talking about Suroi and Rugova here, both having been the most convenient poster-boys of "Albanian Gandhiism" for a far too long).
As for "freedom vs. terror", I agree that nobody even remotely sane would subscribe to a living under any form of the latter one. It's only that I would prefer - if only for the sake of argument here - that we stop playing the old,borin' blame-your-Serb-game, which has became gruesomely frequent a part of almost ANY political discussion on the Balkan issues, both home and abroad. We could pretend that you don't know anything about Serbia's subsidies to Kosovo-Metohija in the last half of a century (yes, the "Evil Milosevic's Reign Of Terror"
included). And we're talking about THE BILLIONS of (Serbian taxpayers') dollars here. Call me crazy, but I just fail to imagine how the fact of opening the VERY FIRST Albanian university, creation of a modern infrastructure and availability of modern medical care system, along with quite a considerable social benefits enjoyed mostly by Albanian majority in Kosovo-Metohija, would fit into the catchy stereotype of"the Serbian goal of eradicaton of the Albanians". Or we can just check the numbers and the percents, and see how many Serbs forcibly left Kosovo from 1941-1980's, and what happened to the Albanian facts and figures at the same time. Not to mention the fact that (after the old communist state imploded), the "institutions" of the Albanian para-state were merrily IGNORED (and de facto allowed) by Milosevic, while the Albanian political leaders have been constantly BEGGED by the Serbian opposition to start ANY form of dialogue. Then the hell broke loose, and we cannot take back any innocent life, neither Serbian nor Albanian. But, I'm not too eager to forget that the first bullets were not shot by Serbs. But the first victims were Serbs, along with all those "treacherous" Albanians who "served the oppressor" by the utmost crime of maintaining the state jobs and living peacefully with their Serbian neighbors, despite the consensus of their most extremist leaders and terrorists to discourage it, borne upon ALL Albanians as the "national priority".
But, that's all water under the bridge. We are where we are. Clearly, the most of Albanian population wants nothing to do with Serbia any longer,at least for now. But, the majority of Serbs are not giving up on their country, their people, their history and their future.
So, yes, it's hard to foresee any viable solution. The land grab is not one, for what I know. "Serbs cannot be the only people in the Balkans and in Europe who are endlessly bullied into rewarding EVERY neighboring ethnic group with the parts of their territory". This bitter but horrifyingly truthful capture of the "international community's" hypocrisy toward Serbia and Serbs was not coined by some Euroskeptic nationalist,but by the late Dr.Zoran Djindjic, the most pro-Western Serbia's Prime Minister in the last sixty years, every so often both praized/villified (from different parts of Serbia's scene) as "too soft on Kosovo".
And, no, I don't think that any respectable political force among Serbs would be deluded enough to picture Kosovo without Albanians. I can only hope that, someday maybe, Albanians would produce a visible political belief to the same effect.
Terror in Kosovo
Is this the type of aggression against the Serbs that we should reward by allowing the al-Qaeda-affiliated Albanian narcoterrorist/jihadists to remain in Kosovo?
My Trip to the Kosovo Kitchen and the Holy Serbian Church Land - Zvezdana Stojanovic Scott, Serbian Unity Congress
This article gives an inside view of the Warsaw Ghetto that the US, NATO, and the Albanian jihadists have created for the Serbs of Kosovo. The Albanian jihadists who have infiltrated Kosovo over the past decades - with notably hostile intent - need to be defeated and expelled, not rewarded with a gift of land.
Allowing them to keep control over Kosovo, or even to remain there, would make about as much sense as letting Germany keep France or Poland after the Second World War.
No, it is NOT too late to remove militant Islam from Kosovo!
Some commenters insist that the proposed turnover of Kosovo to the local al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist/narcoterrorist gang is a fait accompli, simply because of demographics. I say that’s just plain wrong.
Nor should the Serbs be condemned to live among a population of enemy infiltrators who seek only to exterminate the Serbs (and everyone else who is not Albanian). These infiltrators will not stop their lies, threats, and violence until they have accomplished their goal - or until they are defeated.
You can see this attitude from the Albanian commenters above. Why should the Serbs be compelled to live with these invaders' knives at their throats?
I am aware that "no respectable political force among Serbs would be deluded enough to picture Kosovo without Albanians" - but then, all of the "respectable political forces" fear being killed or hauled off to the Hague if they take even the most elementary steps toward securing the lives and property of the Serbian people.
I don't care about being "respectable" - I care about justice. I certainly can picture Kosovo without hostile Albanians, and the time for that is now. Wrongdoers must be defeated soundly and thoroughly, not rewarded.
The Albanians who have infiltrated Kosovo over the past century, and especially in the past few decades, do have a place to which they can, and must, return: Albania.
The fact that their own relatives and countrymen have made Albania unfit to live in matters not. They must return there. To allow them to remain in Kosovo would be to reward a century of genocide against Serbs. That is intolerable.