Free Republic

Painting of Kaiser Wilhelm II by Max Koner 1890 Aleksandra's Note: It never ceases to amaze me how decades, and in this case an entire century, of cataclysmic change can run its course through the world and the history of its nations and peoples, but some things truly don't change. For the Serbs, "Deja Vu" has become a constant common denominator in the course of their history. This important bit of history from a 100 years ago should serve as a reminder to the Serbs that the passage of time, even a full century of time, really means nothing when...

(AFP) Serbia's nationalist President Tomislav Nikolic on Thursday personally apologised for the first time for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims, but stopped short of calling it genocide.

Alyse Radenovic (http://www.alyseradenovic.com) was born in 1973 therefore during her early adult life the war in the former Yugoslavia was blazing. This extremely talented artist was born in America and her adorable fine art covers many different themes and often flows in many directions. Many strong passions exist within Alyse Radenovic and this applies to her love of art and her deep respect towards many political issues. Of major concern for Alyse Radenovic is the distortion of reality when it comes to the coverage of what happened to the Serbs in Bosnia, Krajina and Kosovo. Therefore, this article is about...

<p>SARAJEVO, BOSNIA — Turkey conquered the Balkans five centuries ago. Now Turkish power is making inroads through friendlier means.</p> <p>Two Turkish-run universities have opened in Bosnia’s Ottoman-influenced capital in recent years, bringing an influx of Turkish students and culture to a predominantly Muslim country still reeling from a brutal ethnic war almost two decades ago.</p>

The supposed “responsibility to protect” has taken America into a war on the side of the ultimate killers of innocents. (See also "Rebel Libya: ‘Brothers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, now is the time to defend your land!" on the Tatler.) In the absence of any evident national interest justification for bombing Libya, the Obama administration is said to have been motivated by the so-called responsibility to protect — or “R2P” per the wonkish English acronym. In American discussions, “R2P” has quickly come to be associated with Obama advisor Samantha Power. But “R2P” did not emerge full-grown from the...

On November the 16th the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) outrageously reversed convictions, acquitted and ordered immediate release of the Croatian Colonel General Ante Gotovina, commander of a military offensive known as Operation Storm (Oluja in Serbian), and Colonel General Mladen Markac, Operation Commander of the Special Police in Croatia. Gotovina was on the run until 2005, when he was arrested in Spain and transferred to the ICTY. Needless to say the acquitted generals returned to Zagreb to a hero’s welcome with the 100,000 large crowd chanting “Victory, Victory.” In Belgrade there was a...

Serbians reacted angrily at the acquittal of a former Kosovo guerrilla leader by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), less than two weeks after the court freed two Croatian military commanders who were accused of war crimes, EurActiv Serbia reports. The acquittal of ex-Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leader Ramush Haradinaj was met by fierce criticism of The Hague tribunalÂ’s work. Serbian officials said the decision was a blow to international justice and made the process of reconciliation in the region more complicated. Â… Belgrade considers that the tribunal has lost credibility and has shown bias in acquitting...

The so-called EULEX mission, with a staff of roughly 2,500, has cost more than €1 billion since 2008. Nevertheless, the European Court of Auditors finds that levels of organized crime and corruption remain high, while the judiciary is inefficient and suffers from too much political influence. I compare the development of a police force in Kosovo with that of the Obilic power plant near the capital, Pristina. Since NATO drove the Serbs out of Kosovo in 1999, there have been plans to install a filter at the plant. The plant continues to spew pollution unabated into the air. It's the...

The most striking proof that the Arab anti-Israel cause is a common meeting ground for both Nazis and Communists --and that the Arabs welcomed supporters of both ilks-- lies in the friendship of Carlos, the notorious master terrorist who served the PLO, with Fran*ois Genoud, an old Nazi, one of the leading Nazis in pre-War Switzerland, later a financier who provided funds for Habash's faction of the PLO. "Carlos" (his nom de guerre) was what is called a "red diaper baby." His fabulously rich father, a Venezuelan lawyer and owner of estates, gave "Carlos" the name Ilich, Lenin's patronymic, as...

The Hague Tribunal has resumed legal proceedings in the case of Serbian General Ratko Mladic, who is accused of committing genocide against Muslims in the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995. The Director of the Center for the Study of the Contemporary Balkan Crisis of the RAS Institute of Slavic Studies Elena Guskova stated once again that genocide did not take place: “Today, the case of Srebrenica has become a subject of political speculation, in which the Serbs are being involved, although more and more data appears that Srebrenica was a premeditated and well-executed operation of...

The wartime spokesman of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was asked on Thursday to form a coalition government with a nationalist party, raising concerns among diplomats and investors about Belgrade's bid for European Union membership. Ivica Dacic, head of the Socialist party once led by Milosevic, said after being given the mandate to govern: "There will be no return to the 1990s," the decade when the former Yugoslavia was ripped apart by war. "As prime minister, I will never make a decision that will be an injustice to Serbia and its citizens," Dacic said after meeting President Tomislav Nikolic, head...

Republican Riot Saying it, so you don’t have to. June 04th 2012 06:49:15 AM WASHINGTON TIMES PRINTING NAZI PROPAGANDA Posted by Julia Gorin  Well we knew it wouldn’t be long. If nationalists win a Serbian election, it follows that there will be an article in the Washington Times by Croatian-supremacist Jeffrey Kuhner, as usual angling for a new war against Serbia — by making the argument that Serbia wants it. As a typical rapist would.Below is the letter I submitted to Washington Times, followed by a deconstruction of Kuhner’s latest excuse for Serbia needing another good bombing. Dear Editor:Are...

A German teenager has been rescued from a Bosnian couple who are accused of starving and beating her for years and of harnessing her to a horse cart and making her pull it.The 19-year-old, kept in a hamlet near the northeastern town of Kalesija since 2004, had been taken to safety and the couple had been detained for investigation, regional prosecutors said on Sunday. Damir Arnautovic, a spokesman for the prosecution in Tuzla, said the woman had been in a bad physical and psychological state and had no papers. She was not named. He said Milenko Marinkovic, 52, and his...

A Bosnian Muslim former soldier has become the first woman to be convicted of war crimes after pleading guilty to killing Croat civilians and prisoners during the 1990s war. Rasema Handanovic "participated with other members of her unit in the executions of three civilians and three soldiers", according to war crimes court judge Jasmina Kosovic.. The crimes were committed on April 16, 1993, in the village of Trusina, in southern Bosnia. A total of 18 Croat civilians and four prisoners of war were killed at the time.. She was a member of the Zulfikar special unit, which was under the...

Aleksandra's Note: While this excellent analysis by Srdja Trifkovic focuses on the "internal" history of Croatia, it is important to note that four days after Nazi Germany declared war on the United States, Hitler's staunch ally the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) declared war on both the United Kingdom and on the United States on December 14, 1941. What makes this especially significant is that less than three years later, on April 16, 1944, which was Easter Sunday for the Serbian Orthodox, the Anglo-American forces bombed Belgrade, the capital of their loyal and devoted ally Serbia, even though there was...

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbian pro-Western President Boris Tadic said Wednesday he is resigning, paving the way for an early presidential election where he will face a strong challenge from a nationalist candidate. Serbia’s parliament speaker is expected to call the vote for May 6, the same day when parliamentary and local elections are already scheduled. In the presidential vote, Tadic will be challenged by nationalist candidate Tomislav Nikolic who has received tacit support from Russia. Several other candidates are also expected to run, but without real chances of winning. Tadic, who has worked hard to bring Serbia closer to the...

Catholic Church, looking for a bulwark against communism, supported what became genocidal regime of Nazi satellite Croatia. Photo courtesy of the United States Holocaust Museum The controversy over the canonization of Pope Pius XII concerns whether he spoke out enough against the slaughter of Jews during World War II. But that question is a red herring when trying to grasp the big picture of the Vatican's role during the war. The real question is whether the Vatican supported the world order, or at least aspects of it, that the Third Reich promised to bring, a world order in which dead...

BELGRADE, Serbia — At least 11,000 villagers have been trapped by heavy snow and blizzards in Serbia’s mountains, authorities said Thursday, as the death toll from Eastern Europe’s weeklong deep freeze rose to 123, many of them homeless people. The harshest winter in decades has seen temperatures in some regions dropping to minus 30 C (minus 22 F) and below, and has caused power outages, traffic chaos and the widespread closure of schools, nurseries and airports. The stranded in Serbia are stuck in some 6,500 homes in remote areas that cannot be reached due to icy, snow-clogged roads with banks...

While Germany and Austria have just blocked Serbia's entry into the European Union Croatia was admitted in a ceremony at which David Cameron shook the hand of Croat leaders, whose country by any democratic or moral standards is a disgrace. Serbia and the former Yugoslavia, in an exact reprise of the fascist 1940s, have been systematically attacked and dismembered by Germany and Austria since the 1980s. Germany, without the support of other countries, the EU or the UN, joined the Vatican in illegally recognising Croatia in 1991 which led to that State effectively declaring war on Yugoslavia (of which it...

Belgrade may hold the pulse, but the soul throbs well beyond the capital cityAs peace has returned to most of the Balkans, countries in the region, including those that broke off from the former Yugoslavia, are opening their doors to tourists. And Serbia, despite the unsettled conflict with Kosovo to its south, is no exception. To the Serbs, religion is a crucial part of life. And the most important spiritual sanctity in Belgrade is this grand cathedral dedicated to Saint Sava, the first archbishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the founder of Serbian law and literature. Saint Sava was...

The critics and movie-goers “doth protest too much.” Make that a silent protest because apparently they have better things to do than say much of anything about Angelina Jolie’s inaugural attempt at writing/directing “In the Land of Blood and Honey.” The first month’s box office take will likely not even amount to a .01-percent trickle of the $13 million blown on this celluloid cliché that promoters had tried to hype as a Romeo and Juliet tragedy set against the recent Bosnian war. By late January, the three-week mini-run that soaked $90,000 in ticket sales from gullible movie-goers is sputtering. Only...

Four years on from its independence, Kosovo is attempting to reaffirm its native traditions and is calling on the West for help to avoid being swallowed by the slow advance of radical Islam, which is taking advantage of tolerant traditions. Four years on from its independence, Kosovo is attempting to reaffirm its native traditions and is calling on the West for help to avoid being swallowed by the slow advance of radical Islam, which is taking advantage of tolerant traditions. The scenario is one of inter-religious dialogue that is progressing at its own slow pace, without making any fuss and...

(TIRANA) - Albania on Thursday slammed calls from a Kosovo hardline opposition leader to temporarily block the border with Serbia as a way of barring Serb products from entering the breakaway territory. Albania's foreign ministry said in a statement that the attempt to block the border was contrary to constructive efforts to make Kosovo a democratic state and multi-ethnic society. "The use of nationalist and pseudo-patriotic rhetoric" will not help key goals of the Albanians in both Kosovo and Albania to progress towards integration into the European Union, or new recognitions of Kosovo's independence, the ministry warned. Albin Kurti, a...

A new set of issues for Christians in Southeastern Europe has arisen, largely as a result of misdirected policies of the Clinton/Albright and successive Washington administrations.Believe it or not, Christmas Carols in the Washington Embassy of Romania which, once-upon-a-time, was the instrument of a strident Stalinist-style government that was overthrown in 1990! I say once-upon-a-time because, though not so long ago, it seemed to me like a fairy-tale. There we were, about seventy invited guests, in the upstairs reception Hall of the Embassy, where a 4-man Brass Quartette from a Romanian Baptist church in Virginia presented a concert of about...

Federal agents over the weekend arrested a Pinellas Park man described as having extremist jihadist beliefs who wanted to blow up a target in Tampa and create "terror" in victims' hearts. "I want to do something terrifying," he said, according to a federal complaint, "like one day, one night, something's going to happen. Then six hours later, something else." Sami Osmakac, 25, was taken into custody after an FBI sting operation in which he tried to buy explosives, at least 10 grenades, Uzis and an AK-47, authorities said. Osmakac's intended target shifted over the course of the investigation, which spanned...

<p>Imagine for a minute that memorial masses were held in two major cities in Germany on the anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler. Needless to say, such a ceremony would arouse fury, indignation, and widespread protests not only in Germany, but throughout the entire world. Last week, the local equivalent of such an event took place in Croatia, but instead of anger and demonstrations, not a single word of protest was heard from anywhere in the country.</p>

The eurozone crisis has not prompted panic in the Balkans even though the euro is the currency of reference here and Montenegro and Kosovo use it despite being a long way from membership. Throughout the region, loans are taken out and savings made in euros while salaries are determined based on the European single currency. "In the past, all of us in the Balkans were in love with the German mark. Since it disappeared, the euro rules," explained Zoran Jovanovic while sipping coffee at the popular Belgrade Biblioteka café. "It is the case in Belgrade, Zagreb, Podgorica, Skopje, Tirana, Sarajevo...

Several dozen young men are basking in the warm mid-day sun. They are Afghan and Pakistani. Behind them, on a white wall, is graffiti extolling the glories of the UÇK -- ex-Kosovo Albanian guerilla fighters.Over the past two years, the Macedonian village of Lojane, which borders Serbia, has become a stop-over on the illegal migration routes to Western Europe. “It started when groups of three or four would arrive periodically. It didn’t disturb us at first,” says Selam Mehmeti, the head of the village community. “But since this summer, it’s grown to a whole other dimension: there were 500 in...

DJAKOVICA -- An 82-year-old woman - one of only five remaining Serbs in the town of Djakovica in Kosovo - has died, it has been reported. Jela Mijovich and four other elderly women were the only Serbs left in the town after the March 2004 pogrom perpetrated by ethnic Albanians. They all lived in a rebuilt structure located in the yard of a Serbian Orthodox monastery in the town. Prior to 1999, several thousand Serbs lived in Djakovica. The four elderly women who still remain there live under 24-hour protection of the Kosovo police (KPS). One of them, 64-year-old Vasiljka...

Angelina Jolie has aroused praise and criticism in Bosnia with her first film as a director, a story of love and war set during the bloody Balkans conflict. ... But in the Balkans, another world from the star-studded American premieres and glitzy after-parties, the film is inflaming old and deeply-held emotions. ... Former Bosnian Muslim war prisoners and relatives of massacre victims, some of them initially critical, lauded In the Land of Blood and Honey after being invited to a private screening to allay earlier fears about the subject matter. But the leader of a Bosnian Serb prisoners group has...

In Sofia, Croatian ambassador to Bulgaria Danijela Barišić and Leszek Hensel, ambassador of Poland – current holder of the EU Presidency – hosted a celebration on December 9 of Croatia’s EU accession treaty signing. Ambassadors and guests from EU and other countries turned out in force to offer congratulations. Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer Croatia signed on December 9 2011 its accession treaty with the European Union and if all goes according to plan, will join the bloc in July 2013. Before the process progresses further, the country must within 30 days from December 9 approve in a referendum accession to the...

The Sicevo Gorge is a rugged, picturesque river canyon cut into the Kunivica plateau in southeastern Serbia... contains a series of caves, at least one of which has yielded evidence of human presence during the shifting glacial times of the Ice Age of present-day Europe... in 2008, anthropologists uncovered a partial human mandible (lower jaw), complete with three teeth, while excavating in a small cave... a fossil specimen, definitely a human that, at least in terms of morphology, predated the Neanderthal and may have had more in common, physically, with Homo erectus, thought by many scientists to be the precursor...

Georgia National Guard soldiers stack behind a wall during training at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, Nov. 9, 2011. National Guard soldiers from several states -- including the Wisconsin Army National Guard's 157th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade -- are part of the KFOR 15 rotation preparing to deploy to Kosovo in upcoming months. U.S. Army photo by Lynn Davis WASHINGTON, Nov. 29, 2011 – A senior U.S. military leader in Europe condemned recent violence against NATO troops in Kosovo just as a Wisconsin Army National Guard unit prepares to take command of the 15th rotation of peacekeeping forces...

Tensions run high on Serbia's border with northern Kosovo, as neither of the conflicting sides is prepared to rule out a further escalation of violence. ­Local Serbs say NATO forces are to blame, for breaking an agreement by trying to remove a barricade blocking the way to one of a number of disputed checkpoints. The move prompted violent clashes that left dozens injured on both sides. Last night in Northern Kosovo passed without violence though this does not mean that the source of tensions has disappeared. On November 23 the NATO’s KFOR forces attempted to remove a barricade put up...

KLA Detention Camps In my late December essay in 2010 called Amorality of US Kosovo Policy: Friends with the Snake I have published reactions to the Council of Europe (CoE) 27-page report authored by the Swiss-Italian politician, senator and prosecuting lawyer Dick Marty. The report, after his two-year investigation, claimed that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) thugs headed by the current Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaci, known as the “Snake,” abducted mostly Kosovo Serbs but also some Albanian so called “collaborators,” transported them to northern Albania, murdered them, extracted their organs like the kidneys, and sold them on the black...

BELGRADE -- Oliver Ivanović says he does not rule out the possibility that Serbs from northern Kosovo may "declare independence" of that part of the province. Oliver Ivanović (Beta, file) This could happen if the West continues to insist on the implementation of the agreement on customs stamps and other issues in Priština's favor, the Ministry for Kosovo state secretary said in Belgrade on Friday, after a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Kosovo and Metohija. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in early 2008, but Serbia rejected it as an illegal act of secession. Serb north of the...

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog gives it to bankers, protestors and a bull.

Source: Beta, Interfax MOSCOW -- The possible arrival of Serbs to Russia, says Russian ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin, would represent "a treasure" for his country. Dmitry Rogozin (Tanjug, file) Rogozin spoke after announcements that some Serbs from Kosovo, faced with the ongoing crisis in the province, would seek Russian citizenship. But the diplomat welcomed even the idea that they might move to his country - which is experiencing "great demographic problems". Those Serbs would easily adapt to the new surroundings, "and there should be no issues with employment", according to Rogozin. He also added: "Serbs from Kosovo should be...

Thank goodness for those among us who remain vigilant against the lies... Review: “Tito’s War” by John Brown, World War II History Magazine, November, 2011, Volume 10, No. 7, pp. 54-61. Review by Carl Savich In the November, 2011 issue of the military history magazine "World War II History", published in Herndon, Virginia, an article entitled “Tito’s War” by Australian author John Brown purports to chronicle the conflict in Yugoslavia between Draza Mihailovich’s Chetnik guerrillas and Josip Broz Tito’s Communist Partisans during World War II. This account is fake. It is a phony history of World War II. John Brown...

BELGRADE -- More than 1,000 Serbs have been murdered in Kosovo since June 1999 - when the war ended and international forces were deployed in the province. This is according to Assistant Minister for Kosovo Kruna Kali�anin, who spoke in Belgrade on Thursday. She also noted that "almost nobody" was charged and put on trial for those crimes. The international community, in the meanwhile, showed a tendency to "minimize" the importance of Serb victims, Kali�anin added. These statements came a day after a Serb man was shot and killed, while two others were wounded in Kosovska Mitrovica. Kali�anin also accused...

Is Bosnia-Herzegovina doomed? The small Balkan nation is being subverted by powerful internal forces that threaten its existence. The West must wake up before the former Yugoslav republic descends once again into sectarian bloodshed. Last month, an Islamic terrorist from neighboring Serbia, Mevlid Jasarevic, opened fire on the U.S. embassy in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo. The 23-year-old jihadist was armed with hand grenades and an automatic weapon. Fortunately, no one was killed. Mr. Jasarevic was protesting American policy toward the Muslim world. He was arrested and is awaiting trial. Police also raided a northern Bosnian village, Gornja Maoca, which is a...

The brutal gang rape of a British woman by five Afghan refugees has sparked a massive protest against illegal immigrants in a Serbian spa town. The 38-year-old woman - who bravely managed to film the attack on her mobile phone - was repeatedly raped after befriending a group of Afghan men in a park in Banja Koviljaca. Despite handing the video footage to police, only one alleged attacker - identified by police only as Abdurashid D., 25 - has been arrested. Now local mothers have told police they are boycotting local schools from next week (nov 7) unless they clear...

Hashim Thaci will not file a legal claim against Swiss politician Dick Marty who wrote a Council of Europe report linking the Kosovo prime minister to organ trafficking in the 1990s, media reported on Thursday. Thaci "does not want to influence the (independent) investigation opened by US prosecutor John Clint Williamson," Kosovo deputy prime minister Hajredin Kuci told local media. Prosecutor Williamson heads up a working group set up by the European Union's EULEX rule of law mission in Kosovo to investigate the claims made in Marty's report. In the report, Marty said that members of Thaci's Kosovo Liberation Army...

The young man wore a long beard and pants that stopped above his ankles. He sprayed the U.S. embassy in Bosnia with machine gun fire. The recent rise of militant Wahhabis and other Islamic radicals across the Balkans, including in Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and even European Union member Bulgaria, has triggered concerns that the region could become a breeding ground for terrorists with easy access to Western Europe or the U.S. The shooter in Friday’s incident, 23-year-old Mevlid Jasarevic, came from Serbia — the southern region of Sandzak, a Wahhabi stronghold — but also had strong links...

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A man opened fire with an automatic weapon outside the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia on Friday, and authorities said he was targeting the building in a terrorist attack. The man injured at least one police officer guarding the embassy before police surrounded him. After a 30-minute standoff, the sound of a single shot echoed and AP Video showed the shooter — brandishing a Kalyshinkov on a street corner outside of the embassy — slump to the ground. Police arrested the wounded man and took him away in an ambulance as pedestrians watched from behind buildings and...

SARAJEVO -- An unidentified man on Friday in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, fired shots at the building housing the embassy of the United States. The shooter is seen at a Sarajevo intersection (Tanjug) Initially, local media in Sarajevo said that the shooter was "shot and killed by members of the Bosnian police", but Tanjug news agency is reporting that it received confirmation that the man was lightly injured and arrested. Some local media also claimed that the attacker was accompanied by two other men. A Bosnian police officer was also injured during the incident. Eyewitnesses claimed earlier on Friday that the attacker...

Sarajevo. A gunman with an automatic weapon opened fire at the United States embassy in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on Friday and police rushed to the scene, a Reuters witness said. A Reuters photographer said police were trying to surround the gunman, who was armed with a Kalashnikov rifle. A source close to the embassy said two security guards had been wounded. The U.S. embassy is located in the central business, university and shopping district of the capital.

NATO peacekeepers have used tear gas against Serb protesters in northern Kosovo. They dispersed the crowd in order to start dismantling barricades erected in a protest against deployment of customs checkpoints on the border. The tension has already spilled into violence in Kosovo, reports RT’s Maria Finoshina. One Serb was gunned down and two wounded near the city of Pec in the west of the province. The shooting was done by their Albanian neighbor, she says. Meanwhile some 300 Serbs tried to prevent the Kosovo peacekeeping force (KFOR) from tearing down the barricades in Kosovo’s north, but the soldiers were...

As the deadline for Serbs in northern Kosovo to dismantle their border barricades nears, they remain firm in their protest. The barricades are meant to stop attempts by Kosovan police, and NATO and EU forces to take over border crossings with Serbia. Stones and sand of the barricades are the only weapons the Serbs living in Kosovo have in their arsenal to make the others listen to them. The roadblocks they have set up throughout the northern part of the region are making headlines and getting feedback. Local resident Voityla is reading a leaflet that KFOR, a NATO-led international peacekeeping...

To the naked eye, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to be moving from strength to strength. Erdogan was welcomed as a hero on his recent trip to Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. The Arabs embraced him as the new face of the war against Israel. The Obama administration celebrates Turkey as a paragon of Islamic democracy. The Obama administration cannot thank Erdogan enough for his recent decision to permit NATO to station the US X-Band missile shield on its territory. The US is following Turkey's lead in contending with Syrian President Bashar Assad's massacre of his people. And according...