Posted on 11/03/2005 9:59:56 AM PST by joan
02 Nov 2005 15:49:05 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Matthew Robinson
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, Nov 2 (Reuters) - An armed group in Kosovo has given ethnic Albanian leaders until the end of the week to declare independence from Serbia, according to a communique published on Wednesday.
In an escalation of hardline rhetoric as the United Nations-run province of Serbia enters U.N.-led negotiations on its future, the warning published in two Pristina newspapers threatened "many difficulties" for Kosovo parliamentarians if they fail to act on the will of the people.
The communique was signed by a group calling itself the Army for the Independence of Kosovo, dismissed as no more than "bandits" by NATO officials but described as "organised" by U.N. police.
No hint of compromise is detectable between Serbia and Kosovo Albanians as they gear up for the U.N.-mediated negotiations on the future of Kosovo later this month.
The head of Serbia's most popular party has warned he will lead Serbs on to the streets if Kosovo won independence. The speaker of the mainly ethnic-Albanian parliament in Kosovo said the only solution "dead or alive" was independence.
Neither the NATO-led peace force nor the U.N. mission in Kosovo has given any indication that the "Army of Independence" could be a real threat. But Wednesday's message added to the growing sense of entrenchment.
Armed men in uniform have stopped and searched cars in Kosovo recently, handing out leaflets in the name of the group demanding the immediate creation of a Kosovo state.
STREET PROTEST WARNING
Legally part of Serbia, the province has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombed for 11 weeks to force the withdrawal of Serb forces accused of killing 10,000 Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatist rebels.
Kosovo's 2 million Albanians -- 90 percent of the population -- say they will accept nothing less than independence. Serbia is offering virtually everything but.
After six years in limbo with sporadic ethnic violence mainly by Albanians against Serbs, the United Nations says the status quo is no longer sustainable.
It appointed special envoy Martti Ahtisaari on Tuesday to start shuttle talks before the end of November, seeking to reconcile the demands of the overwhelming majority with Serbia's sovereignty and claims to the land going back 1,000 years.
"There will be mayhem in Serbia" if Kosovo becomes independent, warned Tomislav Nikolic of the ultra-nationalist Radical Party -- Serbia's most popular -- at the weekend.
People would take to the streets in protest "and I will be at the front", Nikolic said. Kosovo should have autonomy, but cannot be allowed to break away, he added.
But there is no mood for compromise among Albanians, who say Belgrade lost the moral authority to govern Kosovo in 1999.
"Dead or alive, Albanians cannot accept anything less than the independence of Kosovo," the speaker of the Kosovo parliament told Serbian television last week.
"We have clearly told the international community and NATO not to waste their energy, time and money on any other variation since our only compromise is independence for Kosovo."
bttp
90% Albanian. Didn't take but about 10-20 years for the Serbs to become extinct in their own country. Take heed of the balkanization of America taking place as we speak.
Remember KKKlinton sided with these thugs who were funded and trained by UBL, this is his baby let him go fix it.
PRISTINA, BELGRADE -- Thursday – Many analysts say that the economic aspects of Kosovo will be key to the status discussions.
When talking about Kosovo, the region is usually mentioned in a historical or territorial context, but rarely is the economic interest of Belgrade talked about.
The economic potential is based on its mining riches, mostly in Trepca, which has a reserve of seventeen billion tons of coal, which is enough to sustain the region for the next two hundred years. The agricultural life of Kosovo is also fairly developed with two complete irrigation systems. There are 540 active companies working in Kosovo, of which 120 were sold to by the Trast Kosovo agency, despite the reservations of the Serbian Government.
Director of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Slobodan Milosavljevic, said that protecting economic interests in Kosovo means protecting the economic interests of Serbia.
“In this context, we have been in contact with chambers of commerce around the globe, advising them to tell their companies not to participate in privatization activities in Kosovo.” Milosavljevic said.
Most of the companies in Kosovo depend on money from the Yugoslavian Fund for the under-developed, in which Serbia has greatly invested in. However, when these companies where sold or rented out during the last several years, the Albanian workers received money and the Serbian workers got nothing.
Economic analyst Milivoje Mihajlovic said that the Serbian Government can use its money and its ownership as a serious argument in the discussions.
“That is what the Albanians are afraid of because they have no rights of ownership.” Mihajlovic said.
Kosovo has old debts that it owes to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that total 1.4 billion dollars and Serbia puts aside 250 million dollars every year in order to pay these debts back.
And so the Albanian/Kosovo civil war begins. No surprise except that they held off for so long.
Peace will only return to Kosovo with the Serbian Army.
NOTE: This assumes that you do not consider the current state of Kosovo, with the ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Roma, and Jews nearly complete while ancient Christian Churches and Monasteries burn, to be "Peace", although some of our Islamofascist cheerleaders have deemed it so.
Ancient Christian Churches, (of great historical value), being burned to the ground by 'ethnic Albanians' is a little known fact because the media burries it. But when a mosque takes a bullet or two because muslims are shooting at our troops from them, the media is there with their magnifying glasses out to report on every single splinter of morter that fell.
nothing will materiaze, it will pass. KFOR will put surveillance on these guys and nothing more unless the albanians act. then they will be arrested and taken in as they are nothing but an NYC style-street gang.
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