Strange Bedfellows: Whose idea was it to send Serb peacekeepers to Afghanistan?

Time Europe ^ | 10/6/2003 | By DEJAN ANASTASIJEVIC

[Burkeman1]

The last time Serbian soldiers saw combat, they were being bombed out of Kosovo by U.S. missiles. Now they're set to fight alongside their former foes.

Following an offer from Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic to send up to 1,000 troops to aid U.S. forces in Afghanistan or Iraq, a Serbian battalion is being readied for Kandahar, where it will hunt al-Qaeda terrorists and Taliban guerrillas.

The Serbs' choice of leader for the force, General Goran Radosavljevic, could be contro-versial. During the Kosovo war, he led a cluster of anti-guerrilla teams that, human-rights groups claim, committed atrocities against civilians. Human Rights Watch alleges they killed 41 ethnic Albanians in the village of Cuska in May 1999; Radosavljevic was never indicted. A New York court is also considering charges that he and other police officials are responsible for the execution of three Albanian-Americans.

A senior Serbian security official tells TIME the general, who denies the allegations, "insists that he command the unit." Serbian and Montenegrin officials visited U.S. military leaders last week to talk about participation in Afghanistan. Radosavljevic was not part of the delegation, but was represented by his deputy.

[Destro]

Ex-foe Serbia to Boost NATO's Kabul Peace Force

[Burkeman1]

I agree. If he was such a "butcher" then why do we accept him now? America would never do that? Would they?

[Burkeman1]

You can be excused because Fox News nor do the rest of American media follow anything at all in Serbia since Clinton.

[NYC Republican]

You can be excused because Fox News nor do the rest of American media follow anything at all in Serbia since Clinton.

I have friends on all sides, living in Manhattan. I try to take an objective viewpoint, though I resent the revisionist history some of you are trying to portray, and will continue to speak on it.

[Gael]

Sounds like an invasion to me:

Berisha is based on his family estate in Prist, near Tropoje, where he has become the de facto independent ruler of northern Albania. He has allowed the KLA to establish major command centers and training camps at Bajram Curi, Tropoja, Krum, Kuks, and Peskopeja.

* * *

In the same vein as the KLA’s demand that all able bodied men within Kosovo join its ranks, the KLA has also made a similar demand upon Kosovo Albanians living elsewhere. According to the Washington Times (April 20, 1999), the only Albanians that the KLA considers exempt are those who are ill or those who are in a position to significantly aid the KLA financially. According to the same report, the KLA has raised literally thousands of volunteers from the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and other countries. Of course the vast majority of these foreign volunteers have no military experience at all, so they are formed into “foreign units” and largely used as cannon fodder or for propaganda purposes behind the lines.

To supplement their manpower with trained fighters, the KLA has also relied heavily upon foreign mercenaries and Islamic fundamentalist mujahedin from elsewhere. At the training facilities in northern Albania, mercenaries and other former officers from Albania, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and elsewhere have been training KLA volunteers, recruits and conscripts. At the same time, many Islamic mujahedin, many of whom are combat experienced fighters (veterans of other conflicts in Afghanistan, Sudan, the Kashmir, &c), have been identified in Albania proper. However, the U.S. as well as INTERPOL has been working with the legitimate government of Albania to keep these mujahedin out of Albania. Thus far, there has only been one confirmed report of mujahedin actually fighting inside of Kosovo and this was a mixed unit serving in a support role for KLA units in the Drenica region in late 1998. There are exhaustive reports online detailing various stories of KLA-mujahedin cooperation on Kosovo, but it is hard to say exactly how reliable this information is, therefore the full scope of this cooperation remains a mystery.

[norton]

Am I on drugs?
Yeah, you busted me; it's the caffene talking.

Lying?
Not so's you'd notice.
We, the USA, tore up a sovereign nation and handed large parts of it over to Albania and to whichever financial interests in the west (Germany, France come to mind) thought they'd benefit from it.

We did it because (take your pick) our president wanted us looking the other way, our state department wanted to make nice with both the islamic world and revisionist european politicians, or just because Bill Clinton wanted to show that he was indeed the commander in chief.

It was wrong.

It still ain't right.

After witnessing part of the Albanian [Kosovar] influx in your fair city; I believe even more strongly that we backed the bad guys and that we should in some manner step up to it as part of any war on terror.

[NYC Republican]

We, the USA, tore up a sovereign nation and handed large parts of it over to Albania and to whichever financial interests in the west (Germany, France come to mind) thought they'd benefit from it.

First of all, not a square inch was handed to Albania... Second, Kosovo was 90% Albanian before the war... Now, it's 95%. It's unfortunate that the KLA slime are involved in drug trafficking and other crimes, and it's also disgusting that non-Albanians are either threatened to leave or Serbs/Roma/Gypsy feel so intimidated that they can't stay, but don't change the facts.

Pure revisionist history on your part. You can debate the merits of going to war to stop the Serbs, but the invasion theory is nuts.

[NYC Republican]

What propoganda site are you referring to? God forbid, you'd cite anything reputable.

[Gael]

Now that's what I call a substantive response.

[NYC Republican]

There's nothing to respond to... You've referenced garbage from a non-reputable site, and we should respond to it? It's like the looney libs that reference articles from Rense.com, and preach it like it's gospel. This is garbage, and you know it.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Shouldn't there be 100,000's of Muslim deaths by now?

[norton]

Kalifornia is nearly 50% mexican and will be close to your numbers in ten years.

That's the result of an invasion and once the numbers turn, invasion will be a far more accurate description than today.

Much as I'd like to see this state get what it deserves, I doubt that we will hand it over to senor Fox, senor Bustamente, or any other reconquesta slime (your word for drug running, white slaving, opportunistic neighbors) just because they have become the super-power of diversity.

Or, maybe we will, if so, don't look for a lot of opportunities for non-mestizo english speakers.

[Gael]

Correction: there's nothing that you're capable of responding to. You claimed there was no invasion, and that this assertion was the result of Mr. Norton's being a liar or on drugs (the latter no doubt supplied by your KLA pals). I posted material demonstrating the KLA's basing and recruitment outside Kosovo. That those forces later entered Kosovo is by definition an invasion, e.g. "A warlike or hostile entrance into the possessions or domains of another; the incursion of an army for conquest or plunder."

Now what's your response? Do you demonstrate that the facts cited are incorrect -- that, for example, there were no KLA bases in northern Albania? that the KLA didn't recruit outside Kosovo? that the Washington Times erred in reporting that al-Qaeda was in cahoots with the KLA? No, of course not -- the rebuttal facts ain't there to support you, and looking for them is beyond your ken in any event. Instead, we get an assertion that the linked site material is "garbage". Wow, that's persuasive.

[NYC Republican]

Thus far, there has only been one confirmed report of mujahedin actually fighting inside of Kosovo and this was a mixed unit serving in a support role for KLA units in the Drenica region in late 1998.

This is from the article you guys referenced... Hardly an invasion...

there were no KLA bases in northern Albania? that the KLA didn't recruit outside Kosovo?

Of course these are true, but I didn't dispute them.. I disputed calling it an invasion...

[Wraith]

It is obvious that your ignorance becomes you. You know nothing.

[Banat]

How do you call a stampede of 500.000 illegal aliens from Albania entering Serbia from 1945 onwards? And those 500.000 have since created a new half-milion Albanians. At the same time, in the last 50 years, as many as 600.000 Serbs have been ethnically cleansed.

Now, THAT is an invasion.

[NYC Republican]

How do you call a stampede of 500.000 illegal aliens from Albania entering Serbia from 1945 onwards? And those 500.000 have since created a new half-milion Albanians. At the same time, in the last 50 years, as many as 600.000 Serbs have been ethnically cleansed. Now, THAT is an invasion

TOTAL fabrication of numbers. TOTAL lie