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The EU insists that Kosovo is a tolerant and multi-ethnic society. So why are its minorities leaving?A highly critical report by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) maintains that members of minority communities are beginning to leave Kosovo over a year after its unilateral declaration of independence, due to persistent exclusion and discrimination. In contradicting the conclusions of the EU's general affairs and external relations council, the report once again demonstrates the emptiness and evasiveness of statements by members of the international community asserting Kosovo's supposedly multi-ethnic character. Without urgent measures to improve the position of minorities in Kosovo, such a...

We shall have bars and their girls making a living off NATO troops, who shall be deployed here in a dual capacity: Serving as a security prosthesis for our amputated land, and defending the Arabs from us. Their deployment would symbolize the new status of Israel and Palestine as areas under the auspices and monitoring of the International Quartet, in line with the original goal of the Road Map – both of them shall be sovereign just like Kosovo is. And so, the independence of our “third Temple� would turn out to be shorter than the independence of the Hasmoneans,...

May 21 (Kosovo Times) - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in a keynote speech, “Our shared future: Building coalitions and winning consent�, at Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies called for coalition of consent between the West and Muslim world. He said Britain is strongly supportive of reforms to the international system that institutionalize close political relations between western and Muslim majority countries. APP reports that Secretary Miliband also reflected on the cooperation between the west and the Muslim world over the case of Kosovo which is more than 90% Muslim. “And it is the basis of our very active (joint)...

The following piece is brought to us by Iseult Henry, author of Hiding Genocide in Kosovo. She penned it as part of a collection of Kosovo-oriented essays titled Kosovo: The Score. The occasional highlighting is my own, and just a reminder to American readers: “Kosovo” means “of blackbirds”, as in “field of blackbirds”. An observer at a Crow’s Court...

PRISTINA (AFP) – Vice President Joe Biden received a hero's welcome Thursday as the most senior US official yet to visit Kosovo since its disputed declaration of independence from Serbia last year. "Kosovo's independence was the only viable option for stability in the region," Biden told a special sitting of the Kosovo parliament in Pristina. "Your independence is irreversible," he said in a speech lawmakers greeted with several standing ovations. "The success of an independent Kosovo is a priority for our administration." Cheered on by a huge crowd, Biden's motorcade had made its way towards the parliament along streets lined...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32RXEuS6ZzY

<p>BELGRADE (AFP) — Serb ultra-nationalist lawmakers held up insulting signs in parliament Wednesday as US Vice President Joe Biden, considered a strong backer of Kosovo independence, arrived in Belgrade.</p> <p>"Biden, you Nazi scum, go home," said the posters brandished by opposition Radical Party deputies during the live national broadcast of a parliament sitting which coincided with the start of Biden's visit.</p>

US Vice President Joe Biden offered Belgrade a clean slate in ties here Wednesday promising Serbia would not have to recognise the independence of breakaway Kosovo. "The United States does not, I emphasise, does not expect Serbia to recognise the independence of Kosovo," Biden told a joint media conference with Serbia's pro-Western president Boris Tadic. "It is not a precondition for our relationship or our support for Serbia becoming part of the European Union." Biden, the most senior US official to visit Serbia since Jimmy Carter came to the then Yugoslav republic as president in 1980, said the US administration...

"Saudi Arabia is leading a campaign to “lobby a meaningful number of recognitions of Kosovo as an independent state” said Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic who is taking part at the Ministerial meeting of the Non Aligned nations in Havana, Cuba. "We are attempting not to have any new recognitions of Kosovo even though some formidable countries are attempting to achieve that," said Jeremic. "Saudi Arabia has recently recognized Kosovo as an independent state and some sources say that Kuwait and Bahrain are planing to do the same soon. In the early 1990s, Saudi officials have meet the Chief Imam...

PARIS (AFP) – Kosovo's former prime minister Agim Ceku, who is wanted in Serbia on war crimes charges, confirmed he had been expelled from Colombia and could not return, in comments to AFP Thursday.

There's a breaking story just about to go online about the alleged serious fraud and corruption swirling around the millions the European Union pumped into Kosovo just after the war ten years ago. Internal documents Kosovo and the Misuse of EU Funds show that at least GBP62.3 million was pretty severely compromised in two key economic projects, funded by the EU and supervised by the United Nations. The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) ran the protectorate from 1999 to 2008 following the controversial Nato intervention there. ____________________

As Judge Fernando Andreu of Spain's National Court decided on Monday to push on with the inquiry into a 2002 IAF bombing in Gaza that killed Hamas terrorist Salah Shehadeh and 14 others, Almagor, the Terror Victims Association, was finalizing a lawsuit against NATO personnel who approved bombings in Yugoslavia in the 1990s that killed some 2,500 civilians. In this July 23, 2002 photo, people sift through the rubble of a Gaza house destroyed in an IAF strike, in which Hamas military wing head Salah Shehadeh and 14 other people were killed. Photo: AP [file] SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region |...

MOSCOW, April 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is concerned over the rising tensions between the Serb and Albanian population in Kosovo, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. "The use of international police and activities against Serbs is unacceptable," spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said. Nesterenko said that there is a growth in the destabilization of northern Kosovo that could lead to an escalation of tensions throughout the region, adding that "balanced actions in the interests of all parties are needed." Kosovo's minority Serb population, which is dominant in the north of the territory, began to protest last week in Brdjani, an Albanian...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- KFOR and EULEX members have used tear gas and stun grenades against protesting Serbs in the Brđani settlement of northern Kosovska Mitrovica. International forces reacted to prevent the protesters from approaching the so-called yellow line of separation with ethnic Albanians. Shots were also heard today from firearms. No casualties were reported, and it remains unclear who used the weapons. The Serbs remind that the reconstruction of Albanian houses is possible only with an agreement reached by both sides – a provision of a deal reached in 2000. Strong KFOR and EULEX forces are on the Albanian side,...

BELGRADE, Serbia — A war crimes court on Thursday found four Serbian former policemen guilty of the massacre of 48 Kosovo Albanians and sentenced them to up to 20 years in prison. The Serbian court's judges said the victims of the worst single massacre of civilians during the 1998-99 Kosovo war included 14 children, two infants, a pregnant woman and a 100-year-old woman. After a three-year trial, two of the men were sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in jail, one to 15 years and another to 13 years. All the defendants had denied the charges. Three other men...

BELGRADE -- An international expert on territories under international administration says Kosovo Albanians' UDI is tantamount to illegal secession. “The local Albanians do not have the right to self-determination and Kosovo is not an independent state,” Professor Ralph Wilde said in a statement for Belgrade daily Ve�ernje Novosti published on Tuesday. Wilde is a consultant for a number of governments and international organizations, a member of the Law Faculty of University College London, the University of London, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. “Under international law, a new state can be formed out of a part of...

The Ahtisaari Plan-mandated decentralization will strengthen further Serb-Albanian divisions in education and other public services. When asked, most of the Serbs involved in the parallel education system will tell you that this is a way for them to secure their identity and survival here. They don’t realize how their choices defeat the purpose. For them this is a loaded emotional issue and counterintuitive. They refuse to acknowledge, that at least in Kosovo, God has stopped speaking Serbian. Albanian has been the language of the majority here prior to 1999 as well, although many of the parents of these children can’t...

GRAÄŒANICA -- Orthodox Serb Christians are celebrating Easter in the north of Kosovo and in their enclaves throughout the province. In the monastery of Gracanica, close to the enclave, the Holy Midnight Liturgy was served last night to celebrate the beginning of the most joyous Christian Holiday. Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Bishop Artemije led the Liturgy, attended by several hundred locals and Serbs who arrived from various towns in central Serbia. In Kosovsko Pomoravlje, worshippers flocked to the SPC churches and temples to attend Easter celebrations. Some 100 Serbs, escorted by Kosovo police, KPS, visited the St. Sava temple in...

An exlusive documentary archive of destroyed and vandalized churches and monasteries in Kosovo.

Last week, Richard Goldstone, the South African judge who was chief prosecutor for war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, was selected by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate allegations that Israel violated international laws in its assault on Gaza. The Human Rights Council is a body of nations not controlled by either the UN secretary general or the UN's high commissioner for human rights. The secretary general, the first high-ranking international official to visit Gaza after the attacks, has not tried to block what is essentially a war crimes investigation. Israel's relations with the United Nations...

The streets of Moldova and Georgia are boiling with protest and anger, while Kosovo continues to grapple with its self-proclaimed statehood. All three situations originate in the departure from the Cold War-era agreements respecting borders. We are witnessing the repercussions of the "Kosovo precedent," and they're not pretty. What is happening in Moldova? Is it another so-called "colored revolution," or simply an expression of rage by young people who demand to live better lives? It’s anyone's guess. There are certainly specific individuals who are interested in stirring up trouble in Moldova, both within the country and in Romania. Some Romanian...

Michael Montgomery BBC Radio 4, Crossing Continents The man spoke plainly as he explained the horrors he lived through in a Kosovo Liberation Army prison camp 10 years ago. He told me about how he watched people beaten with steel pipes, cut with knives, left for days without food, and shot and killed. Civilians were detained by the KLA and kept in prisons where some were killed "What can you feel when you see those things?" he said. "It's something that is stuck in my mind for the rest of my life. You cannot do those things to people, not...

PRIŠTINA -- Croatian President Stjepan Mesic; said Croatia and Kosovo have well-developed bilateral cooperation at all levels and this cooperation should be strengthened. In an interview with Radio Television Kosovo (RTK), he said that Kosovo was well organized, that all state institutions had been formed and were functioning, and that it was becoming a more functional state. “The proof is in the fact that more than 50 countries in the world have recognized Kosovo,” Mesic said. He said that the development of industry was of special importance, to encourage foreign investors to come to Kosovo and to take advantage of...

Jakup Krasniqi, the Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo, met today with the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe,Tomas Hammarberg Speaker Krasniqi and Commissioner Hammarberg assessed the developments in Kosovo and the work of the Kosovo's legislative body, particularly regarding the guarantees and achievements on the human rights. Speaker Krasniqi spoke extensively on the work of the Parliament regarding the adoption of laws which have been done carefully in accordance with legislation of European Union countries. Meanwhile, speaking of the legal protection for human rights and freedoms, Krasniqi emphasized that they are guaranteed by...

A delegation of French businessmen accompanied with the French Ambassador to the Republic of Kosovo,Delphine Borione, met yesterday with the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce representatives. They agreed to continue to further the support on the economic level and establish better flexibible economic policies to enhance the investment activity in Kosovo. The Kosovo Chamber of Commerce Secretary General, Berat Rukiqi, invited the French businessmen to find their place in the Kosovar market as well as begin concrete investments in the newborn country. "Kosovo Chamber of Commerce will offer support for all the business activities and economic cooperation among businesses of France...

The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recognizes the Republic of Kosovo passports and the Saudi Arabia consular diplomatic office is authorized to provide visas for the Republic of Kosovo citizens, informs the Kosovar-Arab Chamber of Friendship and Economic Cooperation. Saudi Arabia is among the countries that are in the process of recognizing Kosovo. The Kosovar-Arab Chamber for Friendship and Economic Cooperation informs that all citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, who want to travel to Saudi Arabia, can use the passports of the Republic of Kosovo, reports Kohavision. "Recognition of the Passports is a great achievement for Kosovo...

The Euro-Atlantic Club of Kosovo was formed today in Prishtina. The Club aims to help Kosovo in the process of NATO integration. The Club Board includes representatives of the Euro-Atlantic institutions, political parties, civil society and minorities. Former Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Çeku was elected chairman of the Euro Atlantic Club. "As a first step, the Euro-Atlantic Club will assess the vision and the steps that the state of Kosovo should follow towards NATO integration," said its Chairman, Agim Çeku. On March 26, 27, at the invitation of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, Information Center of NATO in Sofia and...

"The strongest passion in the world is jealousy, but the sweetest is revenge." An old Cossack saying "Do not envy a sinner; you don't know what disaster awaits him." The Bible Kosovo's independence proclamation by the Albanian secessionist administration in Pristina in February 2008, follows a course that was drafted back in March 1999 when NATO started a war against the then Yugoslavia and more specifically against Serbia, who at that time composed more than 90% of Yugoslavia. Although a decade has passed and numerous efforts have been made by the international authorities, along with a tremendous cash-flow of aid;...

Spain’s pacifist defense minister, Carme Chacón, has ignited a firestorm of criticism for her surprise announcement that Madrid will pull its 630 troops out of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo by the end of summer. During a visit to the Spanish base at Istok in Kosovo on March 19, Chacón unilaterally declared: “Mission accomplished. It’s time to go home.” Her decision, which came almost completely out of the blue, not only breaks solemn commitments that Spain has with NATO, it also leaves Spanish allies in the lurch and further reinforces Spain’s image as an unreliable partner. Chacón’s announcement...

Из других извора �е �азнаје да ће потпред�едник парламента Војтех Филип иницирати процедуру на првој �едечој �едници парлемента. The withdrawal of Kosovo recognition possible with the new Czech government 26 March 2009. The Czech Parliament Vice-Speaker, Voitech Filip, said that, after the voting of no confidence to the minority government, a possibility of reconsideration of the Czech decision to recognize independence of Kosovo is opened. The toppled government recognized the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo despite the stands of most parliamentary parties and the president of the state, which opens up a possibility of reconsideration of that decision, Filip told...

SERBIANS marked the 10th anniversary of the start of a NATO blitz on the former federal republic of Yugoslavia on Tuesday with commemorations honouring over 3,000 victims. Air-raid sirens sounded at noon throughout the country, while schools opened classes with a minute's silence for the 89 children who were killed in the 78-day bombing campaign, which was initiated without UN security council backing. NATO claimed that it had launched Operation Allied Force in order to force then president Slobodan Milosevic to stop a military crackdown against Western-backed separatist insurgents in Kosovo province and pull out his troops. But the US...

BELGRADE: Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci says that the air strikes on Yugoslavia 10 years ago were “a great historic event for Kosovo.” Thaci thanked the countries that had backed Kosovo on its path to independence. “The successful culmination of the NATO campaign opened a new chapter in Kosovo’s recent history. A chapter of liberty and the construction of real democracy,” he said in a statement to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the start of the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia, which claimed the lives of around 2,500 civilians, including 88 children. The prime minister said that the Kosovo...

BELGRADE -- Today is the tenth anniversary of the NATO air strikes on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). The scenes 10 years ago (FoNet, archive) At midday, air raid sirens sounded throughout the country in a mark of remembrance for the victims. The government, which has decided to build a memorial center dedicated to the victims of the air strikes, called on all citizens to stop whatever they were doing and respect the minute’s silence for the victims. Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković said that the air strikes had been an illegal act that could have been avoided. "Could the...

Today Serbia is marking the 10th anniversary since beginning of the NATO air strikes. All schools in the country shall begin their classes with a minute of silence for the people who lost their lives. The Parliament shall not work, meetings shall be held across the whole of Serbia, while officials shall lay wreaths on the monuments to the dead. Addressing the UN Security Council at the session dedicated to Kosovo, Serbia President Boris Tadic said that ten years ago the Serbs had been punished with bombs and Kosovo Albanians five years ago in spite of expelling Serbs and...

Spain’s Justice Minister Resigns By VICTORIA BURNETT Published: February 23, 2009 MADRID — Spain’s justice minister resigned Monday after a political uproar erupted over a recent hunting trip with a judge who is investigating members of the conservative opposition party. The minister, Mariano Fernández Bermejo, was on the same deer-hunting expedition in Andalusia as Baltasar Garzón, a high-profile terrorism judge involved in a corruption investigation...

BELGRADE -- Five years ago today the largest-scale attack against Kosovo's Serbs took place since the international administration was established in the province in 1999. A ransacked Serb church (FoNet, archive) Ethnic Albanians attacked the Serb enclaves, massively destroying property, leaving 19 people dead and 950 wounded after a two-day rampage. Eight Serbs were killed, along with 11 Albanians. The Albanians mostly died in clashes with international troops and police. 63 KFOR soldiers and 123 members of international and Kosovo police were injured. On March 17-18 2004, some 4,000 Serbs were driven out of their home, while 900 of their...

Russia is categorically against Kosovo joining the UN and international financial institutions. This country’s envoy to the OSCE, Anvar Azimov, said on Thursday that attempts to push the Kosovo separatists into such organizations violated legal and moral principles that all talk that UN membership will help the region’s administration improve the plight of the local ethnic Serb population simply holds no water. This is exactly the slogan the separatists’ sponsors used when prodding the region towards unilateral independence they proclaimed last February and which pushed even further back the creation of a multiethnic society in Kosovo, Azimov said. _____________

BRUSSELS (AFP) — US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said Saturday that NATO's air attack on former Yugoslavia a decade ago was "the right thing to do" and had improved the lives of Kosovo Albanians and Serbs. Speaking at the Brussels Forum conference, Holbrooke -- former envoy to the Balkans -- recalled how 10 years ago this week he had given the final ultimatum to former strongman Slobodan Milosevic to comply or face air strikes. "I look back on it and I think that sometimes it's necessary to use force, and the result was good in the end," the new US representative...

The United States is issuing unusually strong criticism of NATO ally Spain by expressing surprise at its decision to pull out its troops from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. State Department spokesman Robert Wood says the United States was "deeply disappointed" by the decision. He says Washington only learned of the move shortly before Spain announced it publicly. Defense Minister Carme Chacon made the announcement Thursday, saying, "The mission has been completed and it is time to return home." Asked if the United States shared that assessment, Wood said, "Not at all."

It is a year since Kosovo, with NATO backing, made a unilateral declaration of independence, breaking away from Serbia. Fifty countries, most of which have little knowledge of the political intricacies of the Balkans and even less about the complicated historical interplay between the various ethnic and religious groups living in the area supported the move. As a state it is doubtful whether Kosovo can survive. It has virtually no industry, no service sector, tourism is non existent and agricultural exports minimal. The economy has been propped up artificially by the presence of NATO KFOR troops and foreign aid. Its...

Want someone murdered? Albanian hitmen are touting for business in London, apparently without any fear of the law are we living in Chicago or a scene of the "Goodfellas" News Desk The London Daily News has discovered that professional Albanian assassins are "touting" for business in the capital claiming to be able to "take out" targets for as little as £5,000. In an under cover investigation into criminal gangs operating in north London Albanians who fought in the KLA during the bloody Balkans conflict against Serbia, now have now established themselves as formidable figures in the London's underworld. Experienced users...

There is something happening inside Britain's Muslim communities. The disgraceful, treacherous protest in Luton last week at the homecoming of the brave Royal Anglian regiment is an indication of resurgent extremism. Does our Government have the political stamina to fight it? It's comfortable for us to think that these are the actions of a small minority – but are they? The vile mob that hurled abuse against returning troops does not operate in a vacuum, somehow removed from other Muslims. Only two weeks ago, the same group of extremists openly marched in Tower Hamlets, Britain's most densely populated "Muslim area"....

Julia Gorin's unpublished letter to the Washington Times: The Washington Times recently gave print space to William Walker, described as a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer and former ambassador. But Walker is much more than that. In Kosovo, he remains a hands-on operative who has trained, and implemented the demands of, our terrorist ally the KLA — which as predicted now controls the Serbian province as its “legitimate” rulers. The piece (“A Separate Take from Serbia”, Feb. 24) was presented as a response to an op-ed by Serbian President Boris Tadic, when in fact it was an attempt by essentially...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2009 – Deployed servicemembers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Kuwait will not miss out on Girl Scout cookies this year, thanks to the troop-support group “Hugs for Our Soldiers.” Brownie Troop 61, from Duluth, Ga., display the Girl Scout cookies they plan to send to deployed sevicemembers as part of “Operation: Taste of Home.” Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The group’s first Girl Scout cookie drive was in 2004. Five years later, the group continues to partner with Gwen Lawrence and her Brownie Troop 61 to collect cookies for “Operation: Taste of Home.”...

<p>Kosovo celebrated the first anniversary of its independence last month, but the festive spirit was tempered. Only 54 members of the UN have recognised it as a sovereign state and five countries in the European Union itself – Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Slovakia – still do not treat it as such.</p>

Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero has reaffirmed that Spain will not recognise Kosovo as independent, newspapers in Kosovo and Serbia reported on March 10 2009. "Spain's position on the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence is known - it is non-recognition," Zapatero was quoted as saying by Kosovo daily Koha Ditore. "We have maintained this position and we will continue to do so in the future." Addressing a joint news conference on March 9, Serbian president Tadic said that his country would never recognise Kosovo, which unilaterally declared itself as independent in February 2008. "Serbia will not give up on...

The United States has reconfirmed its support for the new state of Kosovo and has promised to lobby for more recognitions, according to a report in Pristina daily Koha Ditore. The newspaper said that Kosovo leaders president Fatmir Sejdiu, prime minister Hashim Thaci and foreign minister Skender Hyseni were given these guarantees in a meeting on February 26 2009 with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton. "The US together with its European allies will continue to give its large and substantial support for the newest democracy in the world," Koha Ditore quoted Clinton as saying. "Support for Kosovo is coming...

SKOPJE -- Skopje has no official information on the claims that there was trafficking of Albanians' organs through Macedonia during the Kosovo conflict. Albanian language media in Kosovo recently picked up articles in Macedonian papers in Albanian that the organs of Kosovo Albanians listed missing were "harvested and sold to Russians by Serbs". The Macedonian Interior Ministry (MUP) told the Beta news agency that this is the first time they have heard these allegations, and that there have been no demands for investigations. A similar statement was given by the Macedonian Foreign Ministry as well. The Albanian language daily Lajm,...

Freedom’s Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention, Gary J. Bass, Knopf, 509 pagesBy David BromwichThe Clinton administration believed in the good of humanitarian intervention, and the Kosovo War aimed to set a pattern for such efforts. The 11 weeks of bombing and the 12,000 killed on the ground seemed to its architects a fair price for so clear a demonstration of enlightened resolve. That false rumors of massacre were used to incite the war, that the ethnic killings turned out to be mainly a consequence and not a cause of the bombing—these were seen as side-effects of a humane exuberance.By...

As someone who often denounced the repression of the late Slobodan Milosevic, I do not minimize his responsibility for the 1999 conflict in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. Nevertheless, William Walker's heaping of every foul claim human malice can concoct on Serbs collectively, even more than on Milosevic himself, is another matter ("A separate take from Serbia," Op-Ed, Feb. 24). I live in Kosovo and know firsthand what actually happened - and did not happen - during the NATO war against my country. Mr. Walker describes the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) as "a tiny band" fighting "systematic"...