Posted on 03/26/2004 6:39:48 AM PST by wonders
BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana hit back at criticism from Serbs after violent riots erupted in Kosovo, saying the international community was not to blame for the flare-up.
Solana, speaking a day after he was jeered by displaced Serbs during a visit to the UN-run province, said: "I would not say that it is a failure of strategy of the European Union (news - web sites).
"I think it is a failure of the behavior of the people of Kosovo. We are not responsible for the behavior of the people of Kosovo," he told reporters.
"We have expended capital on Kosovo more than any other place in the world. The blame should not be put on the international community. I think the blame has to be placed on the people who have not been able to organize themselves."
During a visit to Kosovo Wednesday, Solana faced abuse by displaced Serbs demanding to know why the international community did not intervene until well after the three-day rampage by the ethnic Albanian majority began.
On Thursday, he accused local political leaders of exploiting the Albanian mobs to their own advantage.
"(The violence) was not completely spontaneous. There were already a lot of people organized to take advantage of that moment of spontaneity," he said, speaking shortly before the start of an EU summit.
"That is something which is very serious because those people who were already organized probably belong to a political party with heavy responsibilities. The leaders of that party have to come out and say very clearly and very strongly that this is not possible," he said.
The violence, which erupted on March 17, killed 28 people and left a trail of destruction through Serb areas of Kosovo. Thirty Serb churches and monasteries were torched, seven villages were razed and 3,600 people were made homeless.
Kosovo has been a United Nations (news - web sites) protectorate since 1999, when NATO (news - web sites) jets bombed Serbian forces to end a crackdown on the province's separatist ethnic Albanian majority.
That's where "Serbs destroyed my I.D." ploy kicks in. Since 1941 Kosovo Shiptars have expelled more than half a million people from Kosovo province. Many Albanian Shqiptars immediatelly after crossing the border were sheltered by Kosovo Shqiptars and provided with housing, helth care and pensions. All this without being citizens of Yugoslavia.
What we saw during last week (burning Serb houses in order to claim property is very much what happened 1941-45, 1945-48 and until 1989. Even during Milosevic rule illegal immigration was not much subdued (I suspect heavy bribes to police and border units)
Kosovo Shqiptars are criminalized society. The knowledge that crime does pay is the major motor of criminality and major obstacle to prosperity.
Tito's Yugoslavia, Post-Tito's Yugoslavia and Serbia have invested BILLIONS OF DOLLARS into Kosovo to no result.
Eu, UN and international community invested more than $10B with no results. ISraelis have made garden out of desert with less money.
Now, Kosovo became a major European problem. Only fools believe it will vanish by itself once Kosovo is given independence. It will only get bigger.
One need not look any further than Albanian home country, Albania, to see that outlook is not bright.
As long as people live by the motto "crime does pay" they have no incentive to change.
Rspecting private property and laws is the only way out to drain Kosovo cesspool.
Kosovo Shqiptars are not only ones to blame. They exploited window of opportunity. More dangerous are those who helped problem to grow.
-KLA was armed and trained by Germany and Clinton Administration
KLA was put in power by NATO
-lies of ICTY are widely supported by all European countries and U.S. even today when it is clear what really is going on in this hellhole (e.g. ICTY 'witnesses' arested for instigating ethnic cleansing)
-media are still supportive of "poor innocent kosovo albanians" who are the chief heroin suppliers to europe
And so on. The only one more dangerous than a pit bull with AIDS is the owner who infected him.
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