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Keyword: wrongside

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  • Kosovo Muslims arrest Serbs over t'shirts

    06/04/2008 7:01:30 AM PDT · by montyspython · 37 replies · 320+ views
    Serbianna ^ | June 3, 2008
    Kosovo Muslims arrest Serbs over t'shirts SERBIANNA June 3, 2008 Brothers Miomir and Milos Stojanovic from Gnjilane have been arrested on the regional road from Gnjilane to Bujanovac for wearing t-shirts saying Kosovo is Serbia, stated official of the Kosovo Ministry Milorad Todorovic. He told the Serbian news agency Beta that two youths were arrested and brought before the municipal prosecutor in Gnjilane. The Islamic judge decided that the brothers, who are Christian, must either pay 250 Euros each or to spend 60 days in jail.
  • US man admits to plotting bombings in US, Europe

    06/03/2008 11:07:51 PM PDT · by Bokababe · 25 replies · 596+ views
    AFP via Yahoo News ^ | June 3. 2008 | Staff
    A US-born man pleaded guilty Tuesday to helping to train fellow Al-Qaeda agents to carry out bombings in Europe and the United States, after a five-year global investigation, officials said. The targets included European tourist resorts frequented by Americans, as well as US military bases, embassies and consular offices in Europe. "Today's guilty plea brings an end to the long, dangerous career of Christopher Paul, an Ohio native who joined Al-Qaeda in the early 1990s, fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia and conspired with others to target Americans both at home and abroad," said Acting Assistant US Attorney General Patrick Rowan....
  • A Dark Corner of Europe, Part I

    06/02/2008 1:46:11 AM PDT · by Dawnsblood · 33 replies · 171+ views
    Michael J. Totten's Middle East Journal ^ | 6/2/08 | Michael J. Totten
    “If Yugoslavia was the laboratory of Communism, then Communism would breathe its last dying breath here in Belgrade. And to judge by what [Slobodan] Milosevic was turning into by early 1989, Communism would exit the world stage revealed for what it truly was: fascism, without fascism's ability to make the trains run on time.” - Robert D. Kaplan “You bombed my country.” These were the nearly first words I heard after clearing passport control on arrival in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, from a taxi driver who flagged me down inside the airport. “Fifteen countries bombed my country.” I didn't...
  • Serbian police arrests two former Albanian rebels, seizes weapons

    05/27/2008 7:37:27 PM PDT · by Bokababe · 10 replies · 114+ views
    Kosovo Compromise ^ | uesday, May 27, 2008 | KC Staff
    Serbian police said they arrested two former ethnic Albanian rebels and seized large cache of weapons in a region of southern Serbia which was a scene of Albanian uprising back in 2000-01. Serbian police stormed the houses of two former leaders of the „Liberation army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja" (UCPBM) near the regional hub of Presevo on Saturday, and found five assault rifles, two RPG's, 20 missiles, ten heavy machine guns, five pistols, two hand grenades and more than 20,000 pieces of ammunition. The owners of those houses, brothers Nazmi and Adan Hajredini were immediately arrested, raising a storm...
  • Face of Defense: Mother, Son Prepare to Deploy to Kosovo Together

    05/15/2008 4:28:56 PM PDT · by SandRat · 75 replies · 3,687+ views
    Face of Defence ^ | Spc. Lindsey M. Frazier, USA
    CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind., May 15, 2008 – Many mothers sit at home and wonder what their deployed son or daughter is doing, hoping everything is all right and waiting for the next phone call. Some might see a mother deploying with her son as a great thing, but what onlookers might not think about is what is left back home. Army National Guard Spc. Roschell Eaton and her son, Spc. Jason Hutchins, both from 3175th Military Police Company, train at Camp Atterbury, Ind., for their upcoming deployment as part of Kosovo Force 10, Multinational Task Force East. U.S. Army...
  • FASCIST MUSLIM GROUP EXPECTED TO LOOT TEL AVIV IN 1948 (incl. Bosnian Muslims, Albanians and Croats)

    05/12/2008 5:57:07 AM PDT · by joan · 18 replies · 275+ views
    sanfranciscosentinel.com ^ | May 10, 2008 | SETH J. FRANTZMAN
    SETH J. FRANTZMAN On a pleasant Thursday in December 1948, Emilio Traubner, a correspondent for The Palestine Post, found himself near Abu Kabir, not far from Jaffa. Trenches and expended cartridges were strewn about, reminders of the fighting between units of the Irgun and local Arab forces that had taken place there seven months previously. There was a large Arab villa from where Traubner recovered a diary. It turned out to be the daily record of Yusuf Begovic of Pale, a town near Sarajevo in modern-day Bosnia-Herzegovina. In it Begovic had described his activities as a cook for the “Arab...
  • US Veteran Removes His Kosovo Medal

    05/07/2008 10:22:37 AM PDT · by Bokababe · 271 replies · 795+ views
    Republican Riot ^ | May 6, 2008 | Julia Gorin
    Perhaps some insiders (or those unwillingly part) of the Clintonistas’ administration realized that what we (the USA) were doing was just not right - and so the award/medal could not be called/designated in more accurate terms as the “Re-establishment of the Islamic Caliphate” Medal… So better to have sent in the Girl Scouts - as things would have ended up basically the same as they have, except perhaps with less loss of innocent life. Anyway, it’s is also off of my uniform forever. My only desire is that in some very small way it may help people to become aware...
  • This Is A Kosovar Muslim

    05/06/2008 3:02:36 PM PDT · by forkinsocket · 31 replies · 46+ views
    Commentary ^ | Unk. | Michael J. Totten
    Lee Smith laments that American Muslims have to read almost exclusively about scary Muslims and slightly less scary Muslims in the mainstream American media. “One can only sympathize with American Muslims,” he writes, those who may or may not be religious, but surely have no attachment to the obscurantist fanatics that drove them from the region, and must now be wondering what is wrong with the New York Times that the only Muslims that register with the paper of record are very scary ones, and less scary ones. I have noticed and been annoyed by this tendency myself, and it...
  • HRW finds reports of abductions of Serbs from Kosovo credible.

    05/05/2008 4:40:27 PM PDT · by dschapin · 35 replies · 89+ views
    Human Rights Watch ^ | May 5, 2008 | Humab Rights Watch
    Kosovo/Albania: Investigate Postwar Abductions, Transfers to Albania Official Dismissals Premature (New York, May 5, 2008) – Additional information has emerged that bolsters allegations of abductions and cross-border transfers from Kosovo to Albania after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war, Human Rights Watch said today. The Kosovar and Albanian governments should open independent and transparent investigations to help resolve the fate of approximately 400 Serbs who went missing after the war. "Serious and credible allegations have emerged about horrible abuses in Kosovo and Albania after the war," said Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch, who investigated human rights violations in...
  • Censorship And The Yugoslav Civil Wars

    05/05/2008 7:36:49 AM PDT · by Doctor13 · 14 replies · 136+ views
    Swans Commentary ^ | 5 May 2008 | Michael Pravica
    The Kosovo debacle continues to haunt Western governments, especially the U.S., and has already exacerbated a number of conflicts in Turkey, China, Spain, and the Caucasus regions. The illegal recognition of Kosovo's "independence" by mostly Western nations (less than 40 out of 192) has encouraged terrorists that they can successfully alter the borders of sovereign nations via force. Though the Kosovo case is called "special" by many Western foreign policy "experts," in reality, it is the tremendous misreporting and censorship of the Serbian side of the tragic Yugoslav civil wars which condoned and justified mistreatment of Serbians that is unique...
  • The West-East conflict in a microscope: Kosovo & population imbalance

    05/05/2008 4:51:06 AM PDT · by Doctor13 · 3 replies · 81+ views
    International Analyst Network ^ | 4 May 2008 | Ioannis Michaletos
    The new situation arising from the unilateral Kosovo declaration of independence shapes a new reality that will have multitude and mostly negative consequences for countless nations across the globe. It is important also to illuminate around the existence of the Kosovo issue as a demographic one, shaped by the expansion of one group of people (Albanian Muslims) versus the other one (Serbian Christians). Moreover the existence of facts on the ground as resulting from the population growth of the former, signify a real precedent for other regions in the world. In 1913 when Kosovo & Metojia became a part of...
  • Bernard Kouchner Involved In Albanian Organ Market

    04/28/2008 12:03:48 PM PDT · by Doctor13 · 13 replies · 233+ views
    Javno ^ | 28 April 2008 | Milijana Mitrovic
    To see photos: please go to Bernard KouchnerInvolved in Albanian Organ Market Milijana Mitrovic was one of Carla del Ponte`s sources for information on death camps in which organs were taken from people, the Kurir daily writes. She claimed Albania is not only a Serbian “blue tomb”, but organs were taken from Romanians, Greeks, Montenegrins, Russians and Arabs as well. The very Albanian political top was in on it, along with KFOR and UNMIK representatives. Among other things, Mitrovic claimed that thanks to the fact she was close to an influential Albanian businessman, she had the opportunity to see the...
  • The Balkans - a hub of worldwide terrorist network

    04/26/2008 12:50:26 PM PDT · by shhimundercover · 7 replies · 182+ views
    World Security Network Foundation ^ | April 25, 2008 | Christopher Deliso
    There has actually been a sharp increase of planned attacks involving Balkan actors - as in Istanbul, Turkey, in November 2003. The March 20 arrest of five Wahhabi Muslim radicals in Bosnia indicates the continuing threat of terrorism in, and from, the Balkans. The men were reportedly planning to carry out attacks against Catholic churches on Easter in addition to the obvious religious significance here, the event is also important as all of the aspiring terrorists were homegrown. As with a similar arrest in late 2005, also involving native Bosnian extremists, it shows that the radicalizing effect of foreign mujahedin...
  • Ann Coulter's Silence [Regarding Kosovo]

    04/26/2008 8:59:45 AM PDT · by Ravnagora · 58 replies · 2,371+ views
    The Washington Times ^ | April 25, 2008 | Julia Gorin
    Penn State's student newspaper The Daily Collegian reported on Ann Coulter's hour-long speech there this month: "For possibly the first time in her career the conservative commentator, had nothing to say about a political issue. 'I have no opinion,' she told a student who asked her about Kosovo and Ukraine. That may be the first time those words have passed my lips." "During her hour-long speech to a crowd of more than a thousand in HUB Alumni Hall last week, though, Ms. Coulter spoke candidly about her opinions on a variety of controversial subjects ranging from the war in Iraq...
  • THE KOSOVO QUANDARY

    04/23/2008 9:19:14 AM PDT · by Doctor13 · 14 replies · 87+ views
    CBS ^ | 22 April 2008 | Kevin Drum
    (Political Animal) THE KOSOVO QUANDARY....Liberal internationalist types tend to believe that non-defensive military action shouldn't be undertaken unless it's authorized by the UN. But Kosovo wasn't authorized by the UN, and most liberal internationalists seem to think it was a worthy effort anyway. Matt Yglesias, blogging about his new book over at TPMCafe, ponders this: It's a tough question for the liberal internationalist because generally speaking I would like to have my cake and eat it too here. Kosovo mostly accomplished good things, but the process — moving in without Security Council authorization — isn't something I can strictly speaking...
  • National Guard Troops Vigilant in Kosovo’s Transition to Nationhood

    04/17/2008 4:33:47 PM PDT · by SandRat · 2 replies · 62+ views
    American Forces Press Service ^ | Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill, USA
    GNJILANE, Kosovo, April 17, 2008 – Thronged sidewalks and cafes, jammed roads and packed store shelves suggest progress in this former war zone where National Guard troops play a key role in an international effort to keep the world’s newest country on the path of peace. Army Maj. Gen. Larry Shellito, adjutant general of the Minnesota National Guard; Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty; and Army Brig. Gen. John Davoren, commander of Kosovo Force’s Multinational Task Force East, tour Kosovo on April 12, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill, National Guard Bureau   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...
  • Kosovan army 'harvested organs from Serb prisoners'

    04/12/2008 8:09:51 PM PDT · by Doctor13 · 13 replies · 98+ views
    Mail & Guardian on line International ^ | 12 April 2008 | Ian Taylor
    Carla del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor for war crimes in former Yugoslavia, has unleashed a storm of recrimination with allegations of a trade in human body parts in Kosovo and Albania after Nato bombed Serbia in 1999. Del Ponte claims, based on what she describes as credible reports and witnesses, that Kosovan Albanian guerrillas transported hundreds of Serbian prisoners into northern Albania where they were killed, and their organs "harvested" and trafficked out of Tirana airport. The Kosovan government, now headed by the former guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci, dismisses the claims as untrue, while Serbia and Russia are demanding...
  • London Telegraph: Balkan Christians stripped of organs in Kosovo-- the story's finally mainstream

    04/11/2008 5:00:17 AM PDT · by Javeth · 46 replies · 74+ views
    The Daily Telegraph ^ | 4/11/08 | Harry de Quetteville and Malcom Moore
    Serb prisoners 'were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war' Serb prisoners had their internal organs removed and sold by ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo war, according to allegations in a new book by the world's best known war crimes prosecutor. Carla Del Ponte, who stepped down in January as chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal for crimes committed in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, said investigators found a house suspected of being a laboratory for the illegal trade. A senior adviser to Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's prime minister and a leading member of the Kosovo Liberation Army which is...
  • Russia wants details of del Ponte's controversial book [Re: Atrocities against Kosovo Serbs...]

    04/11/2008 5:01:34 AM PDT · by Ravnagora · 12 replies · 129+ views
    RIA Novosti ^ | April 8, 2008 | RIA Novosti
    MOSCOW, April 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Foreign Ministry has asked the Hague to provide details on crimes described in a book by former chief criminal prosecutor Carla del Ponte, the ministry said on Tuesday. In her book called The Hunt: Me and War Criminals, Carla del Ponte described atrocities against Kosovo Serbs and other ethnic groups committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). "Batching freedom of speech concerning crimes against civilians, one may assume, is aimed at softening the reaction within international social and political circles to the facts revealing the criminal prehistory to the illegitimate sovereignty of Kosovo,"...
  • Russia: NATO's expansion follows "Cold War logic"

    04/08/2008 10:06:21 AM PDT · by Tailgunner Joe · 4 replies · 133+ views
    Moscow - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that NATO's willingness to enlarge eastward had 'nothing positive' about it and followed 'a Cold War logic.' Lavrov had tough words for the alliance's decision last week to keep its doors open to former Soviet states wishing to join. 'We will do everything in our power to prevent Georgia and Ukraine's acceptance into NATO,' Lavrov was quoted as saying Tuesday in an interview with radio station Ekho Moskvy. Russia views NATO's expansion eastward as a betrayal and an effort by Western states to persevere in the Cold War policy of containment....
  • Russia sees no sense in sending troops to Kosovo - Lavrov

    04/08/2008 9:46:05 AM PDT · by Tailgunner Joe · 15 replies · 117+ views
    itar-tass.com ^ | 04/08/08
    MOSCOW, April 8 (Itar-Tass) - Russia does not see any sense in sending troops to Kosovo, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an exclusive interview with the Echo of Moscow radio. He indicated that the situation around the UN mission in the breakaway Serbian province has not witnessed any dramatic changes compared with the period several years ago when Russia decided to pull its military contingent out of there. "We took this decision because we were unwilling to get associated with the policies conducted by KFOR, which could be described as 'the reverted ethnic cleansing'," Lavrov said.
  • As Kosovo Eyes Future Army, NATO Still In For the Long Haul (Kosovo Albanians Honor Savior-Clinton)

    04/07/2008 8:44:51 AM PDT · by fight_truth_decay · 40 replies · 200+ views
    Southeast European Times in Pristina ^ | 07/04/2008 | Blerta Foniqi-Kabashi
    Within this year, Kosovo expects to launch its own army, to be called the Kosovo Security Force (KSF). Compared to other military forces in Europe, the KSF will be small and lightly equipped; its size will be limited to 2,500 active troops and 800 reserves. It will be primarily responsible for crisis response, explosive ordinance disposal and civil protection. The plans are to develop the force out of a current emergency response organisation, the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC). Established eight years ago under UNMIK and KFOR supervision, it is involved in activities such as firefighting, search and rescue and medical...
  • St. Louis man convicted of bribery, fraud involving Sikeston Truck Driving testing center

    04/05/2008 7:11:04 AM PDT · by Lobbyist · 8 replies · 89+ views
    A St. Louis truck driving school owner who sent his students to Sikeston, Mo., for testing was convicted in federal court in Cape Girardeau in a bribery and fraud scheme to make the tests easy to pass. Mustafa Redzic, a Bosnian-born owner of Bosna Truck Driving School, was prosecuted personally by federal prosecutor Catherine Hanaway in federal court in Cape Girardeau. Investigators began looking at the operation in 2004, Hanaway said, as rumors spread through the growing Bosnian community in St. Louis that Redzic could obtain commercial driver's licenses easily and after the Missouri State Highway Patrol began investigating some...
  • PM: Serbia not choosing between Russia and West

    03/25/2008 1:34:32 PM PDT · by Bokababe · 29 replies · 403+ views
    B92 ^ | 3/25/08 | Staff
    BELGRADE -- PM Vojislav Koštunica says Serbia needs a stable government that will have a unanimous policy on Kosovo. The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) leader told the public broadcaster RTS last night that parliamentary elections had been called for this reason, following the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence. Koštunica did not directly answer the question whether he would cooperate with the Radicals after the vote, or whether he would participate in a government with the same partners. He said he would cooperate with the parties that support his party's key principles - "Kosovo Is Serbia," membership in the EU...
  • Serbia asks UN for partitioning of Kosovo

    03/24/2008 7:25:04 PM PDT · by Diocletian · 26 replies · 473+ views
    Guardian UK ^ | March 25, 2008 | Ian Traynor
    Serbia has formally proposed partitioning Kosovo along ethnic lines for the first time, asking the United Nations to ensure that Belgrade can control key institutions and functions in areas of the newly independent country where Serbs form a majority. In a document sent to the UN in New York, proposed to the UN in Kosovo last week and published in the Belgrade press yesterday, the government in Belgrade insists that Serbia be allowed to control the police, the courts, the judiciary and customs in the Serbian enclaves in Kosovo and in the northern strip around the tense Serb-controlled town of...
  • Russias Putin orders aid for Kosovo Serb enclaves

    MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin asked ministers on Monday to draw up plans to send humanitarian aid to Serb-populated enclaves of Kosovo, Russian media reported. Moscow has joined its ally Belgrade in opposing Kosovo's independence from Serbia and has refused to recognise it as a sovereign state. The United States and most European countries have recognized Kosovo's independence. Russian television showed a meeting between Putin and his ministers at which Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Serbian government had requested the aid, citing a deterioration of the situation in Serb-populated areas of Kosovo. "We considered it important to...
  • Serbia returns to the offensive over Kosovo

    03/23/2008 3:17:10 PM PDT · by kronos77 · 4 replies · 369+ views
    BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica on Sunday accused NATO peacekeepers and United Nations police of using "snipers and banned ammunition" to quell a Serb riot against Kosovo's independence. "It was the international forces," he told the daily Vecernje Novosti in an interview, referring to a riot in the Kosovo Serb stronghold of Mitrovica last Monday in which a Ukrainian U.N. policeman was killed and a Serb badly wounded in the head. "Obviously, the situation in Kosovo is very difficult and there are reasonable and unreasonable people. The battle is on for the whole of Kosovo," Kostunica said....
  • Bush OKs supplying arms to Kosovo

    03/19/2008 4:08:36 PM PDT · by joan · 85 replies · 1,596+ views
    AFP ^ | March 19, 2008
    WASHINGTON (AFP) — President George W. Bush authorized Wednesday supplying Kosovo with weapons, signaling the establishment of government-to-government relations after recognizing its independence, the White House said. In a memo to the State Department made public by the White House, Bush said: "I hereby find that the furnishing of defense articles and defense services to Kosovo will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace." A senior official said the authorization followed US recognition of Kosovo's independence and was part of the normal process of establishing relations with a new government. In a comment apparently meant to...
  • UN accuses Serbs of encouraging violence

    03/18/2008 10:27:02 PM PDT · by NormsRevenge · 16 replies · 485+ views
    AP on Yahoo ^ | 3/18/08 | Nebi Qena - ap
    PRISTINA, Kosovo - The United Nations accused Serbian officials Tuesday of complicity in the violence in northern Kosovo that left a U.N. policeman from Ukraine dead and dozens of people hurt. Larry Rossin, the deputy U.N. administrator for Kosovo, told reporters in Pristina that "it is clear to us that the violence ... was orchestrated." At the very least, Rossin said, Serbia's government failed to use its influence to prevent ethnic Serbs in Kosovo from launching the attacks, which left more than 60 U.N. and NATO forces and 70 Kosovo Serb protesters wounded. The U.N. pulled out of the Serb-dominated...
  • What Happened to Kosovo Serbs Kidnapped by KLA? (Involuntary Organ Donors)

    03/17/2008 10:36:09 AM PDT · by Bokababe · 36 replies · 2,030+ views
    Byzantine Sacred Art ^ | March 15,2008 | Byzantine Staff
    Over 1,300 Kosovo Serbs, in addition to those for whom we know they have been killed and whose remains were handed over to their families by the UNMIK during the past 8 years, are still listed as missing. In some cases the entire families were kidnapped by the KLA/UCK at some point during the 1998-1999 war and after UN/NATO took over the administration and security of the southern Serbian province. These people were taken away in an unknown direction and, for all we know, disappeared from the face of the earth. Over the years, we have learned that a number...
  • Crisis in K. Serb enclaves (Kosovo Albanians Deny Serb Hospitals Medicine)

    03/13/2008 2:53:36 PM PDT · by Bokababe · 16 replies · 516+ views
    B92 ^ | March 13, 2008 | Staff
    BELGRADE -- Belgrade has demanded assistance from the World Health Organization over a crisis in Kosovo. A shipment of medicines and medical supplies, worth RSD 3.5mn, has been confiscated by the Kosovo Albanians and UNMIK in the province as it reached Kosovska Mitrovica. It was destined for the isolated Serb enclaves, where hospital officials are now warning they are running out of medicines. Health Minister Tomica Milosavljević has reacted today by saying the government will ask the WHO to intervene. The representatives of the UN mission in the province, UNMIK, said they "will not comment" on the increasingly difficult circumstances...
  • No US consideration of Serbian sacrifice

    03/14/2008 4:48:04 PM PDT · by Bokababe · 50 replies · 652+ views
    New Europe ^ | March 10, 2008 | Wes Johnson
    Today there seems to be little if any national memory of history to influence the foreign policy of the American super-power – merely what appears to be the most expedient at the moment, whether it conforms to international law and a United Nations organization established to act as a moderating force among nations, or not. How else to view Washington’s latest project to foist a second Albanian state on the international community: Kosovo, which has been torn out of Serbian territory rich in historic meaning and tradition to a Slav Orthodox Christian people who consider it to be the very...
  • Missouri National Guard troops to head to Kosovo

    03/09/2008 6:29:20 PM PDT · by Tailgunner Joe · 87 replies · 1,689+ views
    St. Louis Post-Dispatch ^ | 03/09/2008 | Phillip O'Connor
    Specialist Robert Terrio and his wife, Kary, thought they had avoided a dangerous deployment a few months ago when he learned that his Missouri National Guard unit would do a tour in Kosovo instead of Iraq or Afghanistan. "There's a certain amount of relief that we weren't being deployed to an active war zone,'' Robert Terrio said. Then, last month, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, a move Serbia refused to recognize. Suddenly, Kosovo started to look a little more dicey. Demonstrators torched the U.S. Embassy in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, mobs attacked several United Nations border posts, and gun...
  • AP Interview: Sweden's FM says UN will have to stay in Kosovo

    03/08/2008 10:45:35 AM PST · by Tailgunner Joe · 14 replies · 322+ views
    AP ^ | 03-08-2008
    PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Sweden's foreign minister said Saturday that the United Nations will have to stay in Kosovo to act as a buffer between nations that recognize Kosovo's statehood and those that do not. Carl Bildt said the U.N., European Union and NATO would need to adjust their plans in Kosovo after the U.N. was sidelined last month when Kosovo declared independence, due to a deadlock caused by Russia's opposition and U.S. and key European countries' backing for the new country. "We are operating in a somewhat different situation from the one that we were planning for," Bildt told...
  • Serbian police prevent hundreds of army reservists from heading to Kosovo

    KURSUMLIJA, Serbia: Serbian police have stopped hundreds of ex-army reservists from going to the border with Kosovo. Former Serb fighters from the Kosovo war planned to remove a border sign saying "Republic of Kosovo" at the Merdare border crossing. But hundreds of police blocked the reservists from leaving the town of Kursumlija. Police scuffled with the protesters but there were no serious incidents. The demonstrators are dispersing but have pledged to come back again on Monday. The Serbs are angry over the Feb. 17 declaration of independence by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership.
  • Serbia - Serbian government collapses over EU and Kosovo

    03/08/2008 7:46:54 PM PST · by HAL9000 · 96 replies · 1,389+ views
    The Economic Times ^ | March 8, 2008
    excerpt - BELGRADE: Serbia's government collapsed on Saturday and early elections loomed as pro-Western President Boris Tadic and nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica faced off over Kosovo and EU integration. Kostunica said his cabinet would meet on Monday to formally dissolve parliament and urged Tadic to call new elections for May 11, the same date as existing municipal polls. "The government of Serbia has no united policy any more on an important issue related to the future of the country, Kosovo as a part of Serbia," Kostunica told reporters in Belgrade. "Such a government could not function any more. This...
  • Serbs Struggle to Understand Western Support for Kosovo Independence

    03/05/2008 4:08:54 PM PST · by Bokababe · 110 replies · 497+ views
    Center for Peace in the Balkans ^ | Mar 5, 2008 | Ljiljana Smajlovic
    BELGRADE, Serbia -- As editor-in-chief of Serbia's oldest and most prestigious daily newspaper, Politika, I am at a loss to explain the West's stubborn support for Kosovo independence to my readers. Only nine years ago, my country was bombed for 78 days by the most powerful military alliance the world has ever seen, and the last thing I want is to pour oil over the fire of anti-Western sentiment. But the truth is, I find myself grappling with the same bitterness and resentment as most of my countrymen. I was very much part of the democratic upheaveal that rid Serbia...
  • The Kosovo Catastrophe

    03/04/2008 7:47:39 AM PST · by ZGuy · 14 replies · 97+ views
    Human Events ^ | 3/4/8 | Martin Sieff
    It is hardly a conservative policy to support the establishment of an Islamist state on the European continent, turn a blind eye to the well-documented persecution of an ancient Christian community, engage in a Woodrow Wilson-style passion for nation building and follow in the footsteps of Bill Clinton. Yet that is what the United States has done by recognizing the independence of Kosovo. Kosovo is the ancient heartland of the Serbian people going back to the dawn of their history. It certainly had a Muslim ethnic Albanian majority before Clinton and his Secretary of State Madeline Albright bombed Belgrade back...
  • Kosovo: A Crying Shame

    03/02/2008 2:18:35 PM PST · by Doctor13 · 124 replies · 222+ views
    The Jewish Defense League ^ | 26 February 2008 | Shelley Rubin
    Once again the United States has sold out the good people and rewarded the bad. I am speaking of the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by our government. As a bit of background information, the Jewish Defense League was the only activist Jewish organization to support the Serbian people and their right to their ancestral homeland during the war that dissolved Yugoslavia during the 1990s. While we did not approve of alleged war crimes by some Serbians, we understood they felt they were entitled to settle the score with their Nazi-loving Croatian and Bosnian neighbors. . . ....
  • Welcome To Kosovo! The World's Newest Narco State

    02/29/2008 8:51:16 AM PST · by Fennie · 22 replies · 117+ views
    The Intelligence Daily ^ | February 29, 2008
    Last Sunday's unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, former warlord/commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), heralds the birth of a new European narco state. The illegal dismemberment of Serbia, completing the U.S./EU/NATO destruction of Yugoslavia, is proclaimed by ruling elites and their sycophants as an exemplary means to bring "peace and stability" to the region. This provocative move, outside the framework of international law, threatens any sovereign state with similar treatment should they deviate from the "Washington consensus." Far from bringing "peace" let alone "stability," an "independent" Kosovo will serve as a militarized outpost for...
  • Kosovo will almost certainly be a failed state

    02/28/2008 6:21:26 PM PST · by Doctor13 · 19 replies · 67+ views
    QIANJIANG Evening News (China) ^ | 26 Feb. 2008 | OPINION
    Kosovo declared independence Sunday, but it's unlikely any time soon to become the world's 193rd country. What it will almost certainly be is a failed state, unrecognized by the United Nations, unable to govern itself, dependent on Europe for its police and NATO for its armed forces. After eight years as an international protectorate and billions of dollars in aid and reconstruction funds, its economic prospects are grim. Unemployment is 57 percent, and among youths it's more like 70 percent; half the population is under 25. Small wonder then that its chief export is organized crime. It remains ethnically cleansed...
  • Basque leader: Kosovo feeds our resolve

    PARIS -- A Basque separatist leader yesterday said that his "struggle was inspired by the Kosovo example". Gabriel Mueska, who spent 17 years in prison for his membership in the terrorist group ETA, was speaking in a French television debate, dubbed "The death of nations", that also included Serb, Albanian and Flemish separatist representatives, and French analysts. "The Basques were exceptionally happy after the declaration of Kosovo's independence," he confided. "I was with the young people when the declaration took place and I did not manage to explain to them why us Basques do not have this possibility for freedom,"...
  • Russia's Medvedev warns Kosovo's independence could set Europe ablaze

    02/27/2008 11:07:49 AM PST · by Tailgunner Joe · 25 replies · 125+ views
    AP ^ | February 27, 2008
    The man all but certain to win Russia's presidency warned Wednesday that Kosovo's independence could destabilize Europe. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who is expected to easily win Sunday's presidential vote, said Kosovo's independence has "jeopardized security and stability of the vast region." Medvedev said recognition of Kosovo's declaration Feb. 17, spearheaded by the United States, has "put Europe in a very difficult situation." "The United States is far away and is not facing any risks, but Europe could go ablaze," he said in a campaign speech in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod. "It's enough to put...
  • UN mission in Kosovo set to transfer power to EU, local govt

    02/27/2008 2:12:22 PM PST · by Tailgunner Joe · 3 replies · 34+ views
    RIAN ^ | 27/ 02/ 2008
    BELGRADE, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - The UN mission in Kosovo has drafted a plan to hand over power to a new European Union mission and the local government, the UN mission press secretary said on Wednesday. The EU has announced plans to deploy a 2,000-strong police, justice and civil administration mission in the Albanian-dominated region, which declared independence from Serbia on February 17, to replace the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). "Given from the European Union's statement that Brussels is prepared to take on some authority in Kosovo along with local government bodies, the UN mission...
  • The Oil factor in Kosovo independence (hmmm ...)

    02/27/2008 3:05:35 AM PST · by canuck_conservative · 13 replies · 612+ views
    uruknet.de ^ | Sunday, February 24, 2008 | Abdus Sattar Ghazali
    On February 17, Kosovo broke away from Serbia and declared its independence. Not surprisingly it was instantly recognized as a state by the U.S., Germany, Britain and France. With 4203 square miles area, Kosovo may be a tiny territory but in the great game of oil politics it holds great importance which is in inverse proportion to its size. Kosovo does not have oil but its location is strategic as the trans-Balkan pipeline - known as AMBO pipeline after its builder and operator the US-registered Albanian Macedonian Bulgarian Oil Corporation - will pass through it. The pipeline will pump Caspian...
  • Is this crazy, or is this crazy?

    02/26/2008 3:45:21 AM PST · by Doctor13 · 35 replies · 55+ views
    SPECTATOR.co.uk ^ | 24 February 2008
    The decision by Britain, America and certain other European countries to recognise Kosovo as an independent state is mind-blowingly stupid and suicidal and of a piece with their obvious determination to capitulate in the war for civilisation. It is a rotten decision for the following reasons: 1) It endorses a breach of a country's right to maintain its own integrity. Serbia is a properly constituted democratic country. To recognise the validity of such a secession is to undermine the principle of a country's right to determine its own composition. It puts up two fingers to international law, which explicitly recognises...
  • Our Balkan Error

    02/25/2008 8:04:59 PM PST · by Doctor13 · 31 replies · 103+ views
    Investors Business Daily ^ | 25 February 2008
    Europe: The removal of European Union officials from Kosovo, the newly independent former Serbian province, is bad news. Trouble is on the way, and once again the U.S. may be asked to clean up the mess. The State Department's decision to back Kosovo's independence from Serbia will go down as a major mistake. Supporting a Muslim separatist movement within Europe strikes us as a fool's errand, one that could lead to similar uprisings around the world from aggrieved minorities. Demonstrations and riots on Serbia's border with northern Kosovo -- which Serbs consider to be their nation's heartland -- have caused...
  • Russia assures Serbia of its support on Kosovo

    02/25/2008 5:37:04 PM PST · by kingattax · 30 replies · 38+ views
    International Herald Tribune ^ | February 25, 2008 | C.J. Chivers
    Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian first deputy prime minister and the presumptive successor to President Vladimir Putin, committed the Kremlin on Monday to long-term support in backing Serbia against an independent Kosovo. Medvedev appeared in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, with Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica of Serbia. It was his first significant foreign policy appearance since he became the front-runner for Russia's highest office, and he restated Putin's position and made it clear that it would be his own. "We proceed from the understanding that Serbia is a single state with its jurisdiction spanning its entire territory, and we will stick to...
  • Bush's Kosovo policy, like Chamberlain's Munich policy, could lead to war

    02/24/2008 3:50:09 PM PST · by kronos77 · 198 replies · 387+ views
    History has been a harsh critic of Neville Chamberlain's decision in 1938 to allow Adolf Hitler to trash the WWI Versailles peace treaty to seize control of and change the borders Europe, first France in the Rhineland, then Czechoslovakia and Poland. President George W. Bush's quick acceptance of the efforts of the Albanians in Kosovo to change the borders of Serbia will also be viewed in history as an appeasement that did not work. World War II actually began when Adolf Hitler marched a mere 14,500 troops into the Rhineland on March 7, 1936, in violation of the Treaty of...
  • Russia will never use force to solve Kosovo problem - envoy

    02/24/2008 12:37:47 PM PST · by NoLibZone · 19 replies · 53+ views
    RIA Novosti ^ | Feb. 24, 2008 | RIA Novosti
    MOSCOW, February 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will never use force to solve the problem of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia, Russia's envoy to NATO said on Sunday. "This [use of force] will never take place," Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with the Vesti television channel in reply to a request to comment on his statement made at a February 22 Moscow-Brussels video conference and wrongfully interpreted by some media. Some media claimed, referring to Rogozin's statement on Kosovo, that he admitted of the use of force to restore international law. These reports prompted an angry...