Posted on 03/17/2004 7:31:42 PM PST by Destro
Kosovo in flames as Albanians renew war on Serbs
By Harry de Quetteville, Balkans Correspondent
(Filed: 18/03/2004)
Ethnic Albanians rose against the Serb minority across Kosovo yesterday in co-ordinated attacks on them in the worst bloodletting in the province since the 1999 war.
A French peacekeeper was one of at least 11 people killed in grenade attacks and gun battles. About 250 were injured as the five-year peace in Kosovo was shattered.
The trouble started in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica, in northern Kosovo, where thousands of Albanians armed with heavy automatic weapons and hand grenades clashed with Serbs.
The explosion of ethnic violence apparently was provoked by reports that two ethnic Albanian children had drowned in the Ibar River after being pursued to their deaths by a Serb gang. The river is the dividing line between the town's Serb and Albanian populations.
It is thought that hardline Albanian political parties had been stoking existing tensions before the violence broke out. Fighting later spread south of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, and to towns in the west of the province.
"It's very dangerous. This is a very large, comprehensive uprising," said Derek Chappell, a spokesman for the United Nations police force.
He added that the force's 10,000 officers in the province had been mobilised.
"We are getting reports in all the time, from all over Kosovo. Wherever there is a Serbian population there is Albanian action against them," he said.
Mr Chappell described the violence as "by far the worst since 1999", when a Nato bombing campaign forced the withdrawal from Kosovo of Serbian troops sent by the then Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, to repress an Albanian independence movement.
After the campaign, about 40,000 Nato troops arrived in Kosovo to monitor the tentative detente between the province's Serb and Albanian communities.
Fewer than 20,000 troops remain, but many Serbs still live in ghetto conditions, and very few who fled with the Yugoslav army in 1999 have returned to their former homes.
Those who have remained now represent only about 10 per cent of Kosovo's two million population, and they appeared to have come under well-organised attack yesterday.
The first shots were fired as 3,000 Albanian protesters gathered at the bridge that divides Mitrovica demonstrate against the drownings.
As Serbs gathered on the other side of the bridge, heavy machineguns began firing and hand grenades were thrown. With ambulances rushing the wounded to hospital, hundreds of Nato troops and riot police under French command went to the scene, firing rubber bullets and teargas to disperse the crowds.
Four hours later, 11 Nato troops were injured, two UN jeeps had been set on fire and shots were still being fired, but the situation was a little calmer. By then, however, the violence was spreading across the province, with Albanians attacking a number of Serb enclaves.
One of them, the southern village of Caglavica, was the site of a recent drive-by shooting of a Serb youth, which may have prompted the retaliatory drownings of the Albanians in Mitrovica.
There, UN police erected a road block to prevent Albanians from the capital marching on the village, where Serbs had set up their own barricades to protest against the shooting.
But hundreds of ethnic Albanians broke through the road block, marching on Caglavica. A UN spokesman later said hand grenades were thrown and several houses were set on fire.
"These are well organised extremists leading these attacks," said Mr Chappell. "They hate the progress of the last four years and this is their final attempt to destroy any ethnic integration."
He called on leaders from both sides to appeal for calm, but reports emerged from Serbia that interior ministry forces were massing on the border with Kosovo ready to intervene if attacks on Serbs continued.
"We have closed the border with Albania and Macedonia," said Mr Chappell. "But we can't hold the entire province back."
This is untrue although the Albanians attempt to portray it as truth. I'm surprised to hear such lies still being repeated.
Ok, I guess I'm not surprised at all, all things considered.
The legally recognized international borders show that Kosovo-Metohia is a province of Serbia. End of story. Let the Serb army in.
Perhaps that has something to do with the terrorism that's forced nearly a quarter MILLION non-Albanians to flee the province since NATO took over.
Perhaps it has something to do with the lawlessness that has prevailed since. Gee, why wouldn't everyone want to live there? Perhaps it has something to do with old men being shot while plowing their fields, or young children being shot while they swim.
Hey, wouldn't you love to live in a neighborhood with the new illegal immigrants would burn down the centuries-old church just down the street from you?
The only reason why the U.N. says that Kosova is Serbian is because the UN diplomats don't want to deal with the same kind of Serb crazies on a screaming rampage I have to deal with simply by asserting obvious truths on FR.
Oh you poor little thing. Perhaps you should put yourself out of your misery.
But it's a done deal.
No, it isn't.
Get over it.
Oh, so we should just stand back while innocent civilians get killed? Sorry, we aren't going to let your buddies kill more people to help your jihad.
You lost the battle of Kosovo, for the second time.
It's not even close to being over, Muhammedan.
And this time you didn't even get a heavenly kingdom for your trouble.
Forget it, you and your scummy kind will never force us to bow towards Mecca, no matter how many planes you slam into American buildings.
Oh great. Then what would we do for comic relief? That Poohbah guy has terrible timing doesn't give me nearly the amount of belly laughs as Ronly.
You skipped over some important parts. Like WWII. That's when the pro-Nazi ethnic Albanians of Kosovo slaughtered and drove huge numbers of Serbs out. Then Tito wouldn't let the surviving Serbs go back to their homes in Kosovo. And he looked the other way as Albanians poured into Kosovo from his buddy Enver's stalag. There followed more abuses against Serbs, more Serbs fleeing the province. Meanwhile, residents of the rest of Yugoslavia had to pay a surtax to support the welfare state of Kosovo. Didn't make for happy relations, to say the least.
You skipped over some important parts. Like WWII. That's when the pro-Nazi ethnic Albanians of Kosovo slaughtered and drove huge numbers of Serbs out. Then Tito wouldn't let the surviving Serbs go back to their homes in Kosovo. And he looked the other way as Albanians poured into Kosovo from his buddy Enver's stalag. There followed more abuses against Serbs, more Serbs fleeing the province.
Cycling Challenge for the Orthodox Diocese of Raska-Prizren desperately seeks your help in retaining our cultural landmark.
All donations are tax-deductible, courtesy of the St Stephens Serbian Orthodox Church of Lackawanna, NY.
Off-line donations can be sent to:
St Stephens Orthodox Church - c/o PiP-04
177 Weber Rd
Lackawanna NY - 14218
Donations can be made online beginning after this weekend, or you may send it in directly to the church, in care of PiP-04
These are dark hours the Kosovo Serbs are facing, we need YOUR HELP!
Yes, still. The genocide that you tell us to "just get over" will not succeed.
Now hurry up or you'll be late for your "level flight" flying lessons!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.