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."

[Andy from Beaverton]

Your ability to repost pictures of ugly people don't make your arguments any stronger, corrie.
Your maturity is showing again.

[Andy from Beaverton]

The Albanians are 30% Christian.

Then I suppose we should bomb them too, eh?

The Muslims will find them soon enough. If they don't drive them away or convert them by sword, they will end up dead in a scene where they will blame the Serbs for genocide.

[Andy from Beaverton]

the Albanians were living in that land for at least a thousand + years before being kicked out by the Slavs in 600.
Can you show me your sources for this information, I'm truly interested.

[bray]

Not to worry, sex-president clinton is going to set-up the meals on wheels and start precision bombing from 50,000 feet. We'll be out by Christmas......he just didn't say which Christmas!

Pray for W and The Truth

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

UN intervention, the ultimate beginning of the World's Police force.

[Cronos]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/kosovo/110492.stm

Or this one:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/History-of-Albania

Another
<Brhttp://www.frosina.org/infobits/religionottoman.shtml

[Cronos]

And here's a good site:


Things in the Balkans are not black and white.

[joan]

Tim Judah's a propagandist, so I stopped reading once I saw his name. During the "revenge" after NATO troops came in, he sat with an Albanian woman drinking a beverage while Serbs were being terrorized and ethnically cleansed. Never a word from him about stopping violence. Never an offer by him to give water or help the Serb victims. He also seemed to gloat when the British soldiers set up in a half-built Serbian church and watched a popular soap opera.

The British were involved in a massacre and mutilation of Serb farmers that summer. The Serbs had asked for protection when they harvested their fields. They told the British soldiers the time of day, as well. Instead, KLA in British uniforms and vehicles given them by the Brits showed up. The Serbs thought they were in fact British soldiers, but they were KLA who fired on them and then used the Serbs' tractors to run over and mutilate the bodies. There were 13 or 14 Serb farmers killed.

Sorry, but the BBC can't be counted on as the unvarnished truth in the Balkans - especially given that they were party to bombing Serb civilians in Bosnia and Serbia.

[Cronos]

Sorry, but the BBC can't be counted on as the unvarnished truth in the Balkans

Then this may suit you better: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/History-of-Albania

[vooch]

The KLA has murdered more than 1,000 of the fellow Albanians.

[ma bell]

This is when I was in Kosovo last August, and the location of the UNMIK ambush by Albanians.

This is on top of the mountain while in a hide position overlooking an Albanian village. Two klicks south of the UNMIK scene. Half-way back down towards the main road from Leposavic-Kos Mitrovica, I discovered a hide position. This hide position was freshly made, grass was still trampled as it was obvious a person was lying down in ti. There were two apple juice cartons with Albanian lettering. Cover/Concealment was not bad, but the escape route was the best in the area.

This is the Southside Kosovo Mitrovica(Albanian section).

This is I, straddling the Ibar River, that seperates the Albanians from the Serbs in Kosovo Mitrovica.

[ma bell]

propelling a mass exodus into Albanian? Many Albanians were fleeing the NATO runs and from the KLA forced recruitment. Many Albanians fled into the arms of Serbia, Crna Gora AND Macedonia. You don't recall seeing the long lines leading into Macedonia on CNN?

[joan]

"Half-way back down towards the main road from Leposavic-Kos Mitrovica, I discovered a hide position. This hide position was freshly made, grass was still trampled as it was obvious a person was lying down in ti. There were two apple juice cartons with Albanian lettering. Cover/Concealment was not bad, but the escape route was the best in the area."

Couldn't you have sabotaged it?

[ma bell]

My friend freaked out and began running towards our awaiting transportation. French KFOR was circling above and it was not good.

Activity was high and the tension was boiling over in August, as the Serbs had their hands tied by KFOR, whereas, the Albanians would not allow UNMIK to patrol their areas without KFOR escort. The "Koka Kola" red UNMIK Cherokees were able to easily control/patrol the Serbs. Thereby, further hamstringing the Serbs ability to defend and police up their own communities from crime.

Wasn't it I who said last year that tension will implode and become overtly hostile the next summer?

[getgoing]

Geez, you've been busy. Can't stay around & chat, so will share some "best of" my bookmarks.
A MUST READ:
The New Rome & The New Religious Wars http://www.srpska-mreza.com/guest/DefenseFA/New_Rome.html

2/28/04 Pristina University Professor Enver Hasani analyzes Kosovo’s political outlook (by adviser to the Kosovo Albanian delegation at the Rambouillet negotiations in 1999) http://balkanreport.tol.cz/look/BRR/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=9&NrIssue=1&NrSection=8&NrArticle=11645

BIN LADEN GATE THREADS: Clinton‘s Bin Laden Gate
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/551667/posts
&
Catastrophic Intelligence Failure - Clinton's Bin Laden Gate
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/535793/posts

Despite Tales, the War in Kosovo Was Savage, but Wasn't Genocide (note the author)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a386c976f6ffa.htm

LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN E. SRAY U.S. POLICY AND THE BOSNIAN CIVIL WAR: A Time for Reevaluation http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b73d82b283e.htm

Selling the Bosnia Myth to America: Buyer Beware, Lieutenant Colonel John E. Sray (practice for Kosovo war)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b7900a23027.htm

10/12/00 CLINTON Had a Chance to Avoid Bombing Yugoslavia by U.S. Air Attache in London in 1999 Col Alan J. Parrington http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39e651d63219.htm

1998 U.S. condemned KLA (4 TIMES) then we gave them weapons
http://www.diaspora-net.org/food4thought/us_condemned_kla.htm

6/28/98 US envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard "I know a terrorist when I see one and these men are terrorists"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/121818.stm

7/11/98 KLA ADMITS CRIMES & ALB DEATHS-KLA spokesman Jakup Krasniqi http://hrw.org/reports98/kosovo/Kos9810-10.htm

SARAJEVO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/665355/posts

1945 RESOLUTION 343 http://members.tripod.com/Balkania/resources/legal/resolution343.html

The Arab/Nazi Connection http://www.FreeRepublic.com/focus/news/656675/posts

PLOTTING THE WAR AGAINST SERBIA: AN INSIDER'S STORY http://members.tripod.com/Balkania/resources/military/insider_story.html

FR balkan threads by Askel5-Jan 2001 http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a8240be252d.htm

BTW, there ARE those in our government who still support the Clinton policies:
US Amb Hays in October 2003 escorted his former boss, Clinton Administration State Dept. official Richard Holbrooke, around Bosnia, introducing him as “the next US Secretary of State”, presumably when the Democratic Party took over from the present Republican Bush Administration. Holbrooke, with Clinton, had gone to great lengths to support Izetbegovic. Now, it appears, Amb. Hays’ motive for attempting to suppress the links between the SDA and al-Qaida and the Iranian clerical leaders was to avoid the embarrassment of having the Clinton Administration’s links with the 9/11 attackers brought to light in a US Presidential election year.
http://www.kosovo.com/erpkiminfo_jan04/erpkiminfo16jan04.html

Why are we in Kosovo? Research the Cox Report/Prather Report: "The White House is using the espionage angle to mask the real security risk, which comes not from foreign spies but rather from the Clinton administration's own ill-conceived security strategy."

[theFIRMbss]

>This is I, straddling the Ibar River, that seperates the Albanians from the Serbs in Kosovo

Incredible post.
Thanks for the great stuff. Stay safe.
And keep on posting!

[claudiustg]

---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.---

We took Texas under just that sort of claim. At the time you literally had to pay Mexicans to go up into Texas. Life revolved around Mexico City. The ones that did go had almost no interest in farming. The Mexican government tried to restrict the number of Americans immigrating into Texas to no avail. At the time American society was agrarian and Americans had large families.

My family had three farms in the Austin area before the Civil War.

[ma bell]

Down the street, about 250 meters, I was chased by 3 Albanians who had a pick and an axe. German KFOR stood by and looked at the foot race go by their checkpoint.

the Ibar rossing

This is in a hide position, as we were observing at movement down below.

[claudiustg]

---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!---

Sorry, but Kosovo is not Israel and the Albanians are not muslim extremists.

[Incorrigible]

	a forum of news and ideas for decision makers

http://www.albaniabriefings.com/

 

Alas, I am unable to read Albanian.

It would be nice if there was some of that previous analysis written in English that could be found at that website!

(Looks like it's working now Hoplite, for what it's worth!)