Kosovo in flames as Albanians renew war on Serbs

telegraph.co.uk ^ | 18/03/2004) | Harry de Quetteville

[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."

[Cronos]

The Balkans are a region of multiple ethnicities -- Slavic SErbs, croats, slovenes, Greeks, Macedonians and Illyrians (moern day Albanians). Trying to whitewash the problems as merely christian versus muslim is incorrect when you know that there are Muslim and Christian Albanians.

As early as the eighteenth century, a mystic Islamic sect, the Bektashi dervishes, spread into the empire's Albanian-populated lands. Probably founded in the late thirteenth century in Anatolia, Bektashism became the janissaries' official faith in the late sixteenth century. The Bektashi sect contains features of the Turks' pre-Islamic religion and emphasizes man as an individual. Women, unveiled, participate in Bektashi ceremonies on an equal basis, and the celebrants use wine despite the ban on alcohol in the Quran. The Bektashis became the largest religious group in southern Albania after the sultan disbanded the janissaries in 1826. Bektashi leaders played key roles in the Albanian nationalist movement of the late nineteenth century and were to a great degree responsible for the Albanians' traditional tolerance of religious differences.

[claudiustg]

---how did the Christians in Kosovo became minority?---

The Serbs migrated to the northern industrial zone (Kosovo is largely agricultural). Albanian peasants moved in and raised large families. Under Tito Kosovo enjoyed a sort of home rule. After Tito the Serbs clumsily tried to reassert their control. By then the Albanian Kosovars were secure in their numbers and were moving toward separation from the Serb majority disintegrating Yugoslavia. A Greater Albania movement was pushing things along. Enter the US and Nato. We basically gave the Albanians the victory they could not have won for themselves.

[claudiustg]

I should add that I think what we did in Kosovo was not altogether a bad thing. The Albanians represent a growing population and the Serbs do not. Both groups have a strong historical claim to the area, but the Albanian Kosovars have a more immediate and needful claim.

[Cronos]

The Albanians are 30% Christian. Then I suppose we should bomb them too, eh?

Why would you want to do that??? Are you some kind of anti-Christian left winger?

[Cronos]

Both groups have a strong historical claim to the area, but the Albanian Kosovars have a more immediate and needful claim

Quite right, but I'm not sure what could be done -- the Albanians are the descendents of the Illyrians who were there during Homeric times, but were pushed out of the Balkans into the Albanian mountains by the Slavs who have lived there since the 600s. Almost like the Israelis returning home. However, the Serbs were not as pyscho as the PLO and were generally willing to live and let live until Slobo came along and started slaughtering Slavic Christian Croats, Slavic Muslim Bosnians and non-Slavic Muslim-Christian mixed Albanians. There is no nice solution. neither side can have it all, they HAVE to live in a mixed society.

I only hope that many Albanians return to the Christian fold from which they were wrest by the Ottoman turks. And many of the Albanians ARE converting back.

[Cronos]

Well then what do you mean? My point was that since the Serbs are christian and the Albanians are partly Christian and partly a mixed form (the Bektashi dervishes) saying that this is a Muslim-Christian fight is wrong. It is an ethnic fight.

[StriperSniper]

Maybe Haiti should send some Peacekeepers. :-/

[Cronos]

White. You mean White in Skin Colour or White as in Caucasian? Both are Caucasian. however, I don't think Illyrians/Albanians are Aryans, but then neither are the slavs. The languages however are both branches of the Indo-European family.

It IS multi-culturalism, but here, the Albanians were living in that land for at least a thousand + years before being kicked out by the Slavs in 600. Now they've moved back in. The land HAS to be multi-cultural as it has symbolic meaning for both.

Besides multiculturalism has worked before -- in the Roman, persian, Assyrian, etc. empires. And it has worked, soemwhat in modern day india and in the US.

[Lion in Winter]

According to my nephew who spent a tour of duty at Camp Bondsteel, the Serbians were disarmed by the clintonistas and the UN and the albanians still have weapons. He said they walk around armed to the teeth and the UN allows it.

He got out of there just in time from the looks of it. THANK YOU GOD.

Pity the poor Serbain civilians though.

[Lion in Winter]

Oh, PLEASE.

Try using that "more immediate and needful" claim for the palis against Israel, why don't ya?

Gee whiz, what a weird statement in favor of muslim extremists!

[Lion in Winter]

Great argument... BASICLY WHITE!! Love it.

[freedom4me]

Let's see...9/11, Haiti, Kosovo. In the last four years, Bush has had to continually "mop up" after Clinton's foreign policy follies. Tragic in terms of the human cost, but very instructive to the American people on how foreign policy should NOT be conducted.

[joan]

According to my nephew who spent a tour of duty at Camp Bondsteel, the Serbians were disarmed by the clintonistas and the UN and the albanians still have weapons. He said they walk around armed to the teeth and the UN allows it.

Did he tell you what kind of weapons the Albanians were carrying? Any other interesting observations by your nephew?

[Fredy]

I should add that I think what we did in Texas was not altogether a bad thing. The Mexicans represent a growing population and the Americans do not. Both groups have a strong historical claim to the area, but the Mexicans have a more immediate and needful claim.

Just because someone have more kids do not give him right to claim your house. Think about democracy : One person one vote and then think about what you talking.

[philosofy123]

Again, we can see the religion of peace at work. I bet Bush would send troops to support the Islamic terrorists against the Christians. You know, we want to appaer impartial, and would love for the Saudis to like us.

[Marko37]

the Albanians are the descendents of the Illyrians who were there during Homeric times

Riiight. And I'm descendant of Ramses the 3rd. Any book to prove your point (other than Enver Hoxa's)? Any other written historical document? Monuments in Albania?

However, the Serbs were not as pyscho as the PLO and were generally willing to live and let live until Slobo came along and started slaughtering Slavic Christian Croats, Slavic Muslim Bosnians and non-Slavic Muslim-Christian mixed Albanians.

Of course. Too bad we're not retards with poor memory. Cause I seem to remember WWII, "Skanderbeg" SS division, Serbian majority in Kosovo pre-WWII, Declaration of Prizren League, and last, but not the least, 1981. riots in Kosovo. And where was Milosevic back then? Where is he right now?

Do yourself a favor, find out who, when and why first mentioned "ethnic cleansing" to describe situation in Kosovo. non-Slavic Muslim-Christian mixed Albanians

Maybe in southern and northwestern parts of Albania. But not in Kosovo. Vast majority of Albanians there are Muslim. Furthermore, even Christian Albanians in Kosovo are threatened by Muslim Albanians.

[Andy from Beaverton]

claudiustg is right. Blame Tito and the new Ottoman Empire. Albanians have succeeded in Kosovo where the Palestinians is Israel have not by sheer breeding and immigration.