Posted on 02/11/2002 11:22:39 AM PST by Ichabod Walrus
Haselock: We did not mean to stigmatize the reputation of the KLA
PRISTINA, 7 February 2002 (Beta) - The head of the UNMIK Information Office, Simon Haselock, stated today in Pristina that the arrest of former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) were not intended "to stigmatize the reputation of that organization", but he warned that no one can be immune from the law.
Individual acts cannot influence the reputation of an organization, said Haselock.
Demonstrations throughout Kosovo towns were organized by certain forces which desire to realize their own narrow interests, he indicated, without specifying, however, to which forces he referred.
According to Haselock, the Kosovo judicial system will also concern itself with crimes committed prior to the time the UN mission assumed administration of the province since, according to Haselock, there is no statute of limitations on criminal acts.
He indicated that the arrest of former members of the KLA was carried out after a long investigation, which began after the deployment of NATO forces on Kosovo territory.
"The accusations are related to crimes perpetrated against Albanians, including also women and minors. They were arrested, tortured, beaten up and then killed. These crimes are not committed against soldiers during a state of war, but against unarmed civilians," said Haselock.
According to him, the UN mission is endeavoring to form an independent Kosovo judicial system and this system will be developed independently of the political process.
Despite a warning from UNMIK, the organization committee for protests to be held tomorrow has called for new mass demonstrations in Pristina as a sign of protest against the arrest of the former members of the KLA.
Translated by S. Lazovic (10 February 2002)
Be known by your friends.
Go prate to someone who doesn't know you as well as I do.
I don’t consider reporting pro-anyone if they are reporting the truth, and if they aren’t neglecting to report on a particular group's misdeeds that are newsworthy. So, I don’t consider the NYT '80's coverage on Kosovo or the Albanian Mafia pro-Serbian because none of it has been shown to be lies.
I do consider the coverage of the last dozen years anti-Serbian because the media has been caught in lies and blaming the Serbs for things they did not do. They also have presented funerals for Orthodox children as being those for Muslim children. They have shown Serb victims as Muslim. They have also pulled stunts, for example, as when a film crew put themselves behind a compound surrounded by a barbedwire fence (aimed to keep out looters), and filmed men who gathered to answer their questions. The footage was then presented to make it look like the men were imprisoned by the fence – which was untrue.
They have done things like the following to demonize the Serbs:
Time magazine provided similar coverage. The firing soldier in its cover photo of 'Serb murders wounded man' in Brcko wears a uniform unlike any worn by Bosnian or Serb forces; the architecture is foreign to Brcko; and a sign (Donn Zela) identifies the location as Slovenian. In fact, the picture was taken by a Reuters photographer in early May 1992! (Time, 17 May 1993)See, they can falsify the people (Slovene presented as evil Serb), the place (Slovenia town as Brcko, Bosnia), and the time (1992 as 1993) all at once, and all done for their demonize-the-Serbs campaign.
Never has it gone the other way in the last decade - that victims shown to be Serbs were actually non-Serbs. Never have they implicated a Muslim, Croat, or Albanian for crimes that were later shown to be done by Serbs. It is obviously anti-Serb, but none of the NYT coverage from the ‘80s which showed the Serbs as victims of Albanian violence has been shown to be false.
I think Kosovo is legitimately part of Serbia. You may think it deserves self-determination and should become a part of Greater Albania, along with Macedonia, and for all I know of the Islamic Albanian mindset, Toledo, Ohio.
When the Albanians living in Kosovo were given greater autonomy, they used their newly won state powers to oppress the Serbs and drive many from Kosovo. This was amply documented, in of all places, the NYT of the mid-80's.( look it up. The NYT is no friend of Serbia.) When the Serbs rescinded political autonomy for Kosovo, it was the Albanian police who became the nucleus of the KLA and allied themselves with Islamic terror groups from around the world.
Did the Serbs overreact (and very badly) when they got the chance? You bet. Simplistically, it would be a somewhat analogous case if the Mexican-Americans, whose families have lived in Texas and California for hundreds of years and newly arrived Mexican illegals, combining to become the majority, were to arm and dedicate themselves to driving the gringos out. Would not the gringos call for help from the other American states in the Union. If the Mexicans succeeded, would life be worth living for the remaining gringos ... without rights to property and representation?
There would probably be many atrocities on both sides in the ensuing civil wars. What side should any foreigner choose in such a case? (Come to think of it, Hoplite, this may not be THAT farfetched an analogy!)
Now our allies, the Albanians, are conducting operations in Macedonia as well as in Kosovo and are preparing, it is said, an offensive against cities in Southern Serbia. Who will stop them? NATO? The Russians? The Serbs and Montenegrins?
The Albanians continue to commit 'war crimes' against the residents of Kosovo (including the so-called 'moderate' Albanians, which may be newspeak for "Christian Albanian" ) Macedonia, and perhaps even Bosnia. They are harboring al-Qaeda and others. They have massacred Gypsies (Rom) They burn churches and monasteries, killing priests and nuns. Where are the arrests and trials for them? Is there any doubt that the Albanians would not allow the Serbians rights in a Kosovo they would dominate? They certainly did not when they ran the place before.
By all means, try Milosevic. Let him cross-examine Clinton and Blair. Let's find out who did what. If the court still finds him guilty, hang him high. But who will put an end to the megalomaniac Albanian dreams of the Islamic Greater Albania?
We can't very well do it if they are our allies against the Serbs.
Point taken.
Cabbage crates over the briny? Sorry, don't understand your lingo - I only perpetrate being educated. = )
I think that Kosovo is also legitimately part of Serbia, and that the borders that we have in place today should remain – I also realize that this is going to necessitate a sea change in both Pristina and Belgrade as to how to treat ethnic minorities in one’s midst. I have hopes that this can be done, and have historical precedents to base those hopes upon – same same with Macedonia and Southern Serbia, Greater Albania is a chimera, and is as viable as any other Greater whatever.
I don’t disagree with your premise that the Kosovar Albanians, when given the opportunity, turned into Nationalist thugs, but turning Kosovo back over to a different set of Nationalist thugs isn’t the answer, and right now the 40,000 troops who wield the true political power out the end of their gun barrels don’t subscribe to a Nationalist ideology. Hopefully, their presence will give the residents the opportunity to explore more rational forms of politics than the current failed ethnic based standard, and the moderates will prove that pragmatism is more attractive than hatred, and crimes will be considered crimes, regardless of the ethnicity of the victims.
The counterpoint to your Mexican analogy is that we don’t treat Mexican illegals as punching bags, and their offspring are given the opportunity of integrating into our society rather than continuing to be alienated from it – strangely, those that I know don’t seem the least interested in driving me out, nor returning California to Mexico, and I would be a ‘race traitor’ before I turned upon the people who I share common values with instead of a common skin color. (I’m for enforcement of existing immigration policy, btw, so don’t anybody get any stupid ideas.)
I told you so..... didn't I.
The counterpoint to your Mexican analogy is that we don’t treat Mexican illegals as punching bags, and their offspring are given the opportunity of integrating into our society rather than continuing to be alienated from it – strangely, those that I know don’t seem the least interested in driving me out, nor returning California to Mexico, and I would be a ‘race traitor’ before I turned upon the people who I share common values with instead of a common skin color. (I’m for enforcement of existing immigration policy, btw, so don’t anybody get any stupid ideas.)
Well, Hoplite, thanks for letting my analogy off the hook so gracefully. And yes, that is pretty much what happened when the Serbs came back to town. Unlike our resident Mexicans, however, the Albanians got in a lot of damage in their brief legal rule over Kosovo during the days of autonomy. Given this area's location on the edge of Christendom, and the woeful history of the Ottoman Empire's treatment of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, it was not a good idea for the Albanians, in their new police uniforms, to burn churches, wreck monasteries, rape nuns, and murder priests.( I know I know, Mother Teresa was an Albanian, Islam is religion of peace and love, and of course incredible tolerance, etc. ad nauseam)
What the hell is wrong with having most of these incredibly fast-breeding brigands back living in Albania? Many Albanians have lived in Kosovo "forever," but just as many have not. Rather than spend the money shooting them, which is what it is coming to, why not spend it on developing Albania? This notion of the Greater Albania, which our tax dollars are encouraging,is sheer idiocy. All our investment is getting for us is the return of the Russians as the dominant regional power. When you see them and the Bulgarians in Macedonia, it will be all over for the Albanians, and unfortunately a lot of others.
In regard to "integrating offspring," how are people of the Christian West supposed to integrate with heavily armed, dope-dealing polygamists on jihad? This integration stuff cuts both ways.
We seem to have done alright, integrating those non-WASPs into our society, and Bosnia most recently was an ok place to be until circa 1990 when the wolves took over leadership positions in the various flocks, indicating that the moderate Balkans brand of Islam wasn't quite the imminent danger it's been portrayed as.
I don't quite agree with your Bulgarian/Russian take on things either: they're basically broke, and aren't able to offer anybody anything - hell, the Russians are losing their own back yard, Central Asia, to America, never mind the Balkans.
Seems that anyone who has an opposite point of view than yours you then drop the liar card on them. The pattern is obvious in your posts 58 and 59 and to me which shows your lack of objectivity. A legend in your own mind perhaps?
Hmm.
I knew you would defend your favoured organisation.
Why? You are desperate to excuse your KLA buddies.
As someone put it here, the difference between them is supposed to be remarkable. Really? How remarkable is that difference? What is remarkable in what those paramilitary forces did? Now lets see the answers...
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