OMPF Shares Concerns of the Council of Family Associations

UNMIK/PR/1106 ^ | Tuesday, 20 January 2004

[mark502inf]

OMPF Shares Concerns of the Council of Family Associations PRISTINA - The Office on Missing Persons and Forensics (OMPF) understands and shares the concerns of the Council of Family Associations, whose members are on hunger strike in their endeavour to draw attention to the issues faced by families of missing persons. OMPF has been left with a difficult legacy since its formation in June 2002. However, the Division has been making steady progress in securing the return of mortal remains from Serbia proper. On six occasions, OMPF coordinated the transfer of multiple remains from Serbia proper to Kosovo and to date, a total of 195 mortal remains have been handed over to the affected families. In order to further accelerate the missing persons’ process, UNMIK signed a joint MoU with ICMP on 26 th November 2003. OMPF shares the concerns of the families that better cooperation is needed from the authorities in Belgrade. Approximately 700 bodies exhumed in Serbia proper are awaiting return to the affected families. OMPF has the operational capacity to handle the return of these remains and shares the wishes of the families that the immediate return of approximately 246 positively identified mortal remains awaiting transfer to Kosovo is agreed by the Serbian authorities.

[Burkeman1]

Really- how many Mosques were raized by Serbians in Kosovo? Why is it that the many Mosques of Belgrade have not been raized or their population abused?

http://www.beograd.org.yu/english/upoznaj/religija/islam/

Why is it that Roma and Turk minorities flee to Serbian territory rather than stay in Albanian Muslem territory?

[FITZ]

If things were so bad for the Albanians in Serbia, then why didn't they go back to Albania? People with a homeland aren't going to stick around in some other land for people to kill them. One reason the Jews need Israel is so that kind of thing would not happen again.

[mark502inf]

He is not free of guilt

Your point is somewhat understated, but I agree.

the terror war in the Balkans I believe was started by the albanians

They've been arguing that in the Balkans for a lot longer than you or I have been around. Key to the most recent events was Slobo's typical brutal over-reaction to KLA terrorist attacks in which Serb atrocities & murders turned the KLA from what had been an organization with a few hard-core members and a couple hundred part-timers in 1996 into a widely supported popular uprising of tens of thousands of Kosovar Albanians in 1998.

by the way 700 bodies-!!??

Remember, that is only the bodies that they've found so far that were transported out of Kosovo and hidden in Serbia as part of Slobo's efforts to hide his crimes with his "clean the terrain" order during the NATO bombing in 1999.

finding 10,000 + multiple grave sites in Iraq

We should all be very proud that President Bush had the courage and character to do the right thing in spite of all the nay-sayers.

[Burkeman1]

Where are these 10,000 grave sites? Tell us? Where are they?

[Burkeman1]

And while your at it tell us the names of the 60 or so killed at Racek that lead to this war? SInce they were "Villagers" from Racek we must know their names? Right?

[mark502inf]

If things were so bad for the Albanians in Serbia, then why didn't they go back to Albania?

FITZ, ethnic Albanians have lived in Kosovo for at least seven hundred years--they consider it home. They have probably been the majority ethnic group in that region since about the time of the "Great Migration" of Serbs in the 17th Century. Which, btw, is how Serbs & Hungarians came to be mixed together up in Vojvodina.

[Destro]

Only 800? We mass buried more Muslims on the highway of death out of Kuwait. Enemy Combatants, especially those not in uniform are not covered under the Geneva conventions. Maybe next time we can triple the score.

[Burkeman1]

No- haven't since ENver Hoxha couldn't support his commie population and encouraged immigration to Kosovo. It was Serb majority until the late 70's.

[mark502inf]

Really- how many Mosques were raized by Serbians in Kosovo?

Again, both sides are wrong, but it does appear the Serbs did damage more Albanian mosques than Albanians damaged Serbian churches. According to Forum18, a religious freedom monitoring agency based in Oslo, there have been twice as many mosques damaged or destroyed as Orthodox Churches. An excerpt from one of their reports condemning Albanian attacks on Orthodox Churches in Kosovo states: “Although more than 100 [Orthodox Churches] have been damaged or destroyed since the international community took control in 1999, Forum 18 has found no evidence that anyone has been prosecuted for these attacks (just as no-one is known to have been prosecuted for Serbian paramilitary and army attacks on 215 mosques during the 1999 war)

Here's some examples from the Fine Arts Library at Harvard--the captions came with the photos; I bold-faced a couple parts that might help you better understand both sides of this conflict.

BEFORE: View of the 500-year-old Carshi Mosque in Vushtrri (Vucitrn), taken before its destruction. (Visible in the background just to the Left of the mosque is a modern apartment building, which can also be seen in the second photo, taken from the same vantage point after the war.) Photo taken in 1998 by Raif Virmica, Prizren (Kosovo), in the collection of the Kosovo Cultural Heritage Survey (Fine Arts Library, Harvard University)

AFTER: Site of the 500-year-old Carshi Mosque and the adjacent old bazaar in Vushtrri (Vucitrn), burned down with gasoline on March 26, 1999, and the remains completely bulldozed on March 28th by Serb paramilitaries. More than 200 mosques -- 1/3 of all Islamic houses of worship in Kosovo -- were destroyed or seriously damaged in 1998-99. Photo taken in October 1999 for the Kosovo Cultural Heritage Survey by Andras Riedlmayer (Fine Arts Library, Harvard University).

View of the burned-out Library of Hadum Suleiman Efendi in Gjakova (Djakovica). The library -- founded 1595; the building dates from 1733, held a collection of ca. 200 manuscript codices and 1,300 rare books in Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Aljamiado (Albanian in Arabic script), as well as the regional archives of the Islamic Community dating back to the 17th century. The library was burned by Serbian police and paramilitaries on March 27-28, 1999. Photo taken July 1999 by Prof. Sabri Bajgora, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Prishtina (Kosovo), in the collection of the Kosovo Cultural Heritage Survey (Fine Arts Library, Harvard University).

[Burkeman1]

Even your link speaks of minorities fleeing Albanians into Serbia proper as is the case to this day. A Jew or Turk wouldn't dare live in Pristina but would feel at home in Belgrade? Is that wrong?

[mark502inf]

i>Based on Milosevic's "clean the terrain" order... What order is that? Is it in evidence at his trial?

Don't know if its in his trial in the Hague. The Serb police came up with this evidence themselves and may want to use it when they get their chance at Slobo. Here's an excerpt from the link at post 1, down toward the end: "On May 25, [Belgrade Police] Captain Dragan Karleusa announced that evidence of crimes was removed from Kosovo and Metohija based on Slobodan Milosevic's orders, issued in mid March 1999, at a meeting attended by the them Minister of Internal Affairs Vlajko Stojiljkovic, the then head of the RJB General Vlastimir Djordjevic, the then head of the State Security Service General Radomir Markovic and others."

[MamaLucci]

This is the elephant in my room whenever I hear libs bleat their anti-war cry. What's with this? Saddam's "atrocities" beat Slobo's hands down. Why is Clinton and Clark's war not questioned by the peaceniks, yet Bush is vilified for taking down one of the most brutal dictators of all time?

And don't forget that the rats all insist we should have
gotten UN "permission" to go into Iraq, but not a freakin
peep when Clinton/Clark bombed Kosovo from 20,000
cowardly feet without going to the UN.
The hypocrisy of the democrat party is breathtaking,
and they must be called on it BIG TIME.

[Burkeman1]

LOL! My God you are that dim? Slobo has cut up the "court" he has been "tried in". The man has so easily defanged all that come against him that he was elected to parliment in his country (they get to watch it but we don't because it is a joke and would show us how much of a joke our foreign policy is). More power to old Slobo. We gave over 75 million to his gangster "opposition" to oust Slobo and whose "leader" was just assassinated. Gee- why? Did he displease our Beltway rulers or was it just local?

[ican'tbelieveit]

I thought they were in the 100k+ range in Iraq now.

[Hoplite]

Ever get the feeling that there's an IQ differential at play on these threads?

[mark502inf]

Maybe next time we can triple the score.

Big words, Destro--as usual. You know, we are actually fighting some real bad guys in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. There are recruiting stations pretty close to just about everywhere in the USA. When are you shipping out, Big Time? Oh, and here's an excerpt from the story: in Batajnica remains of eight children and one fetus were found. The rest were men and women.

Of course, instead of going to the trouble of travelling to Kosovo to join up with Frenki's Boys or the Black Hand so you could hunt down and kill dangerous children and pregnant women, and then have to truck them back into Serbia to bury them, you could always just get a job in an abortion clinic and "triple the score" of jihadist fetuses real fast.

[Burkeman1]

YOU question Destro? Hey newbie- get lost. Destro has been here far longer than you.

[Burkeman1]

Would love the names of the Dead at Racek? Must be a monument by know right?

[Burkeman1]

By now-

[Fusion]

They say Mr D is a hard man to find these days. After wandering the Tetovo Republic for much of the year the talk is he may be back to Manila to watch the Hawk overthrow president Arroyo this Summer. However if you happen to find him roaming the Makati -- invest 13 pesos in a San Miguel and ask him about the Kosovo campaign...

The Serbs murdered plenty of innocent Albanian citizens -- no doubt about that. Just like Lincoln did to the Confederate States of America, Milosevic put down an insurrection. Unfortunately he sanctioned state-sponsored murder to protect the state per his constitutional duties.

Whether this was legal or not in the defence of the Republic is up to the historians to decide. The fact is Yugoslavia was destroyed because it no longer fit within the New World Order that seeks to enslave all mankind. The Albanians had been patient for more than a hundred years, then saw their chance and rolled the dice...

They won and the Serbs lost and Albanianism will rule the Balkans for the next half-century. Mr D's buddy -- Fatos Nano -- will outmaneuver the European Union while the United States continues to enjoy strategic access as the modern day Bismarck romps to victory after victory around the globe until 2008.

Then JD Hayworth will battle Hillary Clinton for the White House -- but that another story for another time. They say Mr D knows JD too, but to get that story you'll need to cough up 300 leke for a birra madthe on the Block in Tirana -- Mr D thinks JD will crush her...

The Serb killers were professional. Their Special Forces taught Wesley Clark and the Americans a number of lessons during the war -- especially at Rinas airport. Mr D seldom talks about the Prishtina gun battle the first week of December 1998 but one suspects he came away from it with a new understanding about how the betrayal of Yugoslavia would be consummated ---

Especially that which would would happen a few weeks later at Racak...

You can't blame Serbs for defending Yugoslavia -- which all in all was a pretty nice place. You can't blame Albanians for seeing their chance to redress Great Power wrongs committed long before the modern Yugoslav state was created and going for it.

There are plenty more bodies to be discovered. Europe is a bad place to commit genocide unless you have a good PR firm and an understanding of neo-conservative revisionism...

What's the price of oil these days? Where are all the Russian forces South of the Terek River that were there six weeks ago?

The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.