Replies

It's called Freedom, you know.

And you are free to believe as much anti-American swill as you can stuff into your head - just as I am free to point out that that is exactly what you are doing.

BHHRG's only claim to fame is that they glommed onto the idea of associating themselves with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, which explicitly dissociates itself from the BHHRG.

I suppose your confusion in regards to the Balkans is somewhat rooted in the way your chosen sources ignore the human rights abuses of the Milosevic regime in favor of nipping at America's heels for addressing those abuses.

Whatever.

" Since 16 March, around 30 persons were killed in Kosovo, and 870 were injured, in clashes between Kosovo-Albanians and the minority Serbian population. 3,600 Serbs in Kosovo were forced from their homes by the Kosovo-Albanian mob. Dozens of UN police and KFOR soldiers were attacked and wounded. UN and military vehicles were burned. A UN policeman and a local policeman were killed in the north of Prishtina on 23 March. Nearly 300 houses were destroyed, among them ambulances and schools used by Kosovo Serbs. Over 30 Orthodox churches and monasteries were burnt down, including the Holy Virgin of Ljevis Cathedral in Prizren, the monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren and the St. Nicholas Church in Prishtina. Even before the latest outbreak of violence, 112 Orthodox churches had been destroyed since the U.N. took over the administration of Kosovo in 1999. Noone has been brought to justice so far in connection with these acts of destruction. According to the Kosovo Helsinki Monitor, during and after last week’s clashes about 200 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence. Investigation proceedings are trying to clarify cases of illegal possession and use of arms, murder, looting, arson, and organizing and instigating violence.
According to information received by the IHF, the ethnic violence was fuelled by extremist organizations and criminal gangs in Kosovo, taking the still officially unclarified drowning of three Kosovo Albanian children (allegedly chased by Serbs into the river Ibar) as a pretext and trigger.

Inflammatory reporting about the drowning of the children in television and printed media is considered to have encouraged the violence as well. Intolerant speech towards minorities implying their second class status and creating an environment of national exclusivity for Kosovo Albanians, sometimes turning into instigating hate speech particularly against the Serbian minority, has been present to different but considerable degrees in most of the Kosovar media and public discourse since the end of the war in 1999."

Source