Posted on 02/23/2008 10:09:12 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Hopes for a peaceful conclusion to the declaration of Kosovo's independence were fading as the European Union announced it had withdrawn its staff from the north of the fledgling country in the face of increasingly angry Serb protests.
The civilian staff were meant to be preparing for the EU to take over responsibility for security in Kosovo from the United Nations.
The announcement of the withdrawal came as the United States - which backed Kosovo's drive for independence - began to evacuate its American staff and their families from Serbia, offering US citizens the chance to join a convoy of 40 cars leaving Belgrade for Croatia.
"We are not sufficiently confident that they are safe here," said US ambassador Cameron Munter. On Thursday protesters stormed and burned the US embassy in Belgrade. A week after tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the Kosovan capital Pristina to celebrate the country's unilateral declaration of independence, Kosovo is already effectively partitioned.
The mostly Serb-populated northern region around the divided town of Mitrovica, next to the Serbian border, has made it clear that it wants no part of the newborn country that Serb officials consider "illegal". The bridge on the Ibar River that divides the Albanian and the Serb parts of Mitrovica has been closed to traffic, guarded by UN police and Nato on one side, and Serb strongmen on the other.
At the same time, KFOR, the Nato-led peacekeeping force, sealed the border to Serbia, after angry mobs torched border crossings. "This is a beginning of a secession of the northern part of Kosovo," Oliver Ivanovic, a Kosovo Serb leader from Mitrovica, told The Sunday Telegraph. "I fear it will lead to attacks on the remaining Albanians living in northern Mitrovica to force them to flee across the river.
The Albanians would then retaliate on the Serbian enclaves throughout Kosovo, and the ethnic cleansing will be completed under the eyes of the international community." According to Mr Ivanovic, while the Serb government officially pledges never to accept Kosovo's independence, some individual officials and their political groups are quietly orchestrating the secession. He himself was sidelined as a moderate leader and his influence diminished as the situation escalated and Belgrade-sponsored extremists won the upper hand.
Yesterday Peter Feith, the EU's Kosovo envoy, said security concerns were behind the withdrawal of his staff from northern Kosovo. They had been preparing the ground for a 2,000-strong EU rule of law mission. "I would like to appeal to the Serb community to be generous and to turn the page and look forward to working together with us," he said. "We hope that conditions will soon allow us to resume our activities."
Slobodan Samardzic, the minister for Kosovo in the Serb government, deemed the attacks on the border crossings "legitimate" and said they were in "accordance with the Serbian government's policy." Britain, the US and other Western countries have recognised independent Kosovo as a sovereign state, prompting criticism from countries such as Russia, a staunch Serb ally, but also China and some EU members, notably Spain, who claim the move to be a dangerous precedent that would weaken the rule of international law and encourage separatist movements across the world.
In the Serb part of Mitrovica, anti-independence rallies have been held every day since the independence declaration last Sunday, in an atmosphere of increasing tension and lawlessness instigated by Belgrade-paid agitators. Serbian government officials address the angry crowds as rocks, bottles and fireworks are being hurled at the UN police guarding the bridge, while thugs in track suits and leather jackets cruise the town as self-appointed guardians of security.
Officers of the Kosovo Police Service (KPS), the multi-ethnic police force which serves in northern Mitrovica, said they will no longer take orders from Pristina following the independence declaration and have vowed to swap their uniforms for those of the Serbian police. "I did not join the force to serve an illegal Albanian state. The capital of my state is Belgrade, as stipulated by the United Nations Resolution 1244.
I will soon change this uniform for a Serbian one and continue to serve my people," a KPS officer serving in Mitrovica told the Sunday Telegraph under the condition of anonymity. On the street dotted with Serbian and Russian flags and banners with anti-independence slogans, the police officer was engaged in a cordial conversation with one of the thugs known as 'bridge watchers', whose job is to make sure no Albanian crosses the bridge. He said: "We will not create incidents but we will not tolerate any form of Albanian rule. This is and it will always remain Serbia. We may be small, but we have the full support of Serbia and Russia. And we have weapons, should we be forced to protect ourselves."
Russia has already threatened to use force in Kosovo, and Serbia has sent dozens of busloads of protesters to support the rallies in the north. But following several days of unrest, KFOR decided to seal the border and halt the influx of potential protesters from Serbia. "We have issued orders not to let buses through or any individuals who could pose a potential threat to the security of Kosovo. We are also fully able and ready to prevent any clashes between Serbs and Albanians, "a KFOR spokesperson said.
Indeed, dozens of armoured vehicles and tanks have been deployed at key points in the border region, after Belgrade officials announced that they would march into Kosovo in their thousands — albeit for peaceful rallies. "KFOR troops are trained and well-equipped to answer any challenges coming from inside or outside of Kosovo," a radio advertisement, paid for by KFOR, warns Serbian listeners.
But Mr Ivanovic, is sceptical. "In case of real clashes KFOR will first protect themselves and then come to count the causalities. The Serbs here have access to weapons, and I know that the Albanians living on this side of the river have recently been armed. "I see no reason for optimism."
Wrong. We can not back down now and lose face to Russia. Shall we pull out of Iraq and let al Qaeda win there too.
It looks like the USA will have to come to the rescue again. Europeans are seemingly worthless for fighting wars.
President Bush is smart enough to realize that we can not back down from our confrontation with Russia. The Soviet Empire must not be allowed to rise again.
This goes way beyond Kosovo and Serbia. It is our best chance to isolate Russia and keep Adolph Putin from revitalizing the Soviet Reich.
Spineless EU, and guess who gets to clean up the mess?
As predicted in Revelations.
The US needs Croatia over an agreement between Iran and Serbia
http://www.nacional.hr/en/articles/view/29168/
The EU and UN pack their graft and flee. There’s a shocker.
Those are mainly civilian staff. The same as the U.S withdrew staff from Serbia. The multi-national military forces still remain stationed along the border. Serbia has no military power to take on what is stationed in Kosovo at the moment.
A little confusion from the article: So EU forces have withdrawn from nothern Kosovo and Serbian irregulars are in charge, but KFOR is still at the actual border between Kosovo and Serbia and not letting Serbs through th checkpoints. Is that correct?
BS
The only thing that will stop this scenario is the Serbs completely backing down. They will not to that, they feel they are right and that their nation is being unfairly broken up. They are even given more gravitas in that Putin has publicly come out in support of the Serbian position.
what bothers me is the lack of reporting on this issue in the major media outlets - it bothers me, but it does not surprise me.
Please provide links, documentation or any verifiable evidence.
I find it highly unusual (and unlikely) that a fundamentalist Islamic government would engage in a security agreement with an Orthodox Christian nation that has a long history as being an enemy of Islam and is currently in a dispute with one Muslim 'state' (Kosovo) and was recently at war with another(Bosnia).
The only thing that will stop this scenario is the Serbs completely backing down. They will not to that, they feel they are right and that their nation is being unfairly broken up. They are even given more gravitas in that Putin has publicly come out in support of the Serbian position.
what bothers me is the lack of reporting on this issue in the major media outlets - it bothers me, but it does not surprise me."
The wild card in all of this is the Russians. If they make it clear that they would turn off the gas to Europe and let it freeze this winter, NATO's response might be delayed. If the Russians are more demonstrative and start causing trouble in the Baltics, for instance, NATO and the EU might be deterred, etc. If it is the Serbs alone, then Serbia hasn't got a chance.
Too late. Condi and the ClintonHoldoverStateDepartment have already got us involved.
20/20 hindsight is that Bush shoud have fired the holdovers and withdrawn from KFOR on day one.
“But Mr Ivanovic, is sceptical. “In case of real clashes KFOR will first protect themselves and then come to count the causalities.”
Talk about handwriting on the wall. There is no way the Serbs are going to turn over at the very least northern Kosovo with what 120,000 Serbs in that region. They’ve been through the 78 day NATO bombing campaign so they know exactly the worst they might POSSIBLY expect. But there are major differences between 99 and today. Right now we’re engaged on two other fronts and there is constant sceaming to bring the troops home and I don’t think our NATO allies are all that excited about Kosovo once real bullets start flying. Also, in 99 Russia was in absolute tatters owing the IMF something on the order of $200 billion with an economy on life support spiraling downward and no help in sight. Several years ago Russia paid off those external debts and now is running a huge trade surplus with $1 bln per day coming in from crude sales alone. Russia is slowly isolating Europe from an energy viewpoint so that’s another reason the Euro’s will think long and hard before any serious engagement.
There’s no doubt this is going to boil over, the only question is at this point how important is an independent Kosovo to the US?
While I hardly think Serbia constitutes the restablishment of the Soviet Empire...in any event, if Russia decides to go all in with Serbia, do you think Bush isn’t going to back down? Of course he is.
how is it predicted in revelations...
t
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