Posted on 11/08/2005 5:33:26 PM PST by jb6
BELGRADE, PRISTINA, BRUSSELS -- Tuesday – Russia has taken a firm position at the beginning of negotiations on the final status of Kosovo, insisting that the solution must be the result of an agreement between Belgrade and Pristina.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Pristina yesterday presented his country’s position on Kosovo to President Ibrahim Rugova as identical to that of the Contact Group, saying that negotiations on status must go hand-in-hand with the establishment of international standards in the province.
Rugova said after the meeting that Pristina insists on direct recognition of independence which, he says will calm the region down, and added that Kosovo is prepared to guarantee the rights of all its minority communities.
Lavrov had earlier said in Belgrade that Moscow would fight for the discussions on Kosovo’s status to be held in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.
In Brussels yesterday the EU appointed Austrian diplomat Stefan Lehne as its representative for the Kosovo status talks. Lehne is a close associate of EU foreign affairs boss Javier Solana, and part of his Balkans team. Lehne will act as assistant to the UN’s special envoy for the talks, Finnish diplomat Maarti Ahtisaari.
Solana sees Ahtisaari and Lehne, representing the UN and the EU, as working towards a joint resolution. “These are two different appointments with a common goal, to find a formula for resolving the present situation and a definitive formula for status. The principle which we will fight for is that Kosovo, regardless of the solution, will be part of Europe and perhaps part of the EU, either independently or as part of some other state,” he said.
The march of history is proving that the Serbs had the only successful method of dealing with Islamics, until the continuous Clinton campaign took notice.
We've been following Bubba's pogrom for the past 5 years. We still support the KLA. Why?
The French better look out. This is how they will lose their land to Muslims.
The French and Germany will do what the Serbs were punished for. Mark my words.
Well, Andy, then President Rugova of Kosovo will have to expel himself--he is a Christian.
One of our Soros fluffers was just posting about Russian turning her back on the Serbs.
Don't these folks every get anything right?
Peace will only return to Kosovo alongside the Serbian Army (this assumes that you do not consider the ethnic cleansing successfully completed in Kosovo since Clinton's war and the destruction of ancient Christian churches are monasteries to be "peace" unlike certain Muhammedan thugs who post around here).
Rugova will be killed by the KLA during the Kosovo civil war...unless the Serb Army gets there soon enough to save him.
for the albs, it has nothign to do with religion. it has to do with ethnicity...alb can be a muslim, cathlolic or orthodox, as long as they are albanian and loyal to the ruling clan, they are fine. Until, they go stray, then they are killed.
I'd guess two reasons:
It's not 'proper' for a new administration to trash the prior one or to point out the glaring errors "we" pulled in foreign affairs. (Don't hear much from this or any other administration about Carter's disaster in Iran).
And,
If you ignore the reality of who was who in FRY...it fits into the pattern of heroic US actions to restore or create popular governments where they did not exist before. (Meaning, official pronouncements still link invading Serbia with liberating Iraq)
Besides, it was SOOOO easy!
Soros and the Mullahs pay well, the Devil has given them plenty of cash.
quote: "Well, Andy, then President Rugova of Kosovo will have to expel himself--he is a Christian."
president ibrahim, a christian!? wow!
with letting all those churches burn to the ground, must be that an islamist "baptised" him?
Because the cat got their tongue or because they do know more than they are willing to admit?
Don't forget Bill Kristoll's slip ("Crush Serb skulls")
True, but recognition of that fact is very inconvenient for Serb nationalists. They want to continue to exploit how little most people know about the region in order to portray the Kosovo conflict as religious in nature and Kosovar Albs as Islamists in the hopes of gaining allies among those of us fighting the war on terror.
There are real arguments for maintaining Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo based on history and legally recognized borders versus the Kosovar Albanian arguments of self-determination and the illegitimacy of an oppressive government. The Islamist stuff is a canard.
The biggest problem the Serbs have right now is that the US & other big-power negotiators working on Kosovo have no confidence that the Serbs won't pick up the ethnic cleansing where they left off in 1999.
The Serb Radical Party is still the largest party in Serbia and its leader is still preaching Greater Serbia from where he is on trial for crimes against humanity; a great portion of the Serb population (as reflected by some of our FReepers as well) remains so indoctrinated by the Milosevic propaganda machine that even when videotape of Serb warcrimes is aired and hundreds of bodies of warcrime victims are discovered hidden deep inside Serbia itself, they still do not believe those things happened.
On the Kosovo final status negotiations, here is what is going to happen: as long as the Serb Radical Party still preaches nationalist extremism, as long as Mladic & Karadzic remain unarrested, and as long as the Serbs continue to slow-go on the return of Kosovar-Albanian bodies to their families, the more likely that Kosovo will be independent.
1- I would go get and hand over Mladic in exchange for Ceku and Thaci. Leave Karadzic alone, he has minimal involvement in current day to day politics/life over the Serb people/party. Of course, I would expect the $5 million to be deposited into my account within 24 hours (33% of that would be deposited into the Decani Monastery Relief Fund - and, I'd have to be on "deployable" status for the tax-exempt :)) )
2- Rugovi admit the bodies for Racak were transported in overnight from eastern Kosovo, from a previous killing (this was Alb-on-Alb fighting - anti-KLA Albanians were gunned down, that is who those bodies were).
3- Any bodies that are in Serbia, returned. Same with the Albanians, they return the bodies and identify where they put dead bodies of Serbs.
4- Albanians admit the 2001 major rioting along the Ibar River crossing bridge in Kos. Mitrovica was precipiated by the Albanians raping then murdering a 19 y/o Serbian girl.
For the Serb Radikal Party, the US Military Liason quietly orders Nikolic to shut the f*ck up with ramifications to him personally if he does not go quietly.
In return for Autonomy for Kosovo along the lines of BiH is set up.
I believe that is fair. The Serb Police would be allowed to patrol and do their law enforcement job. EEO would be requirement and a limitation on heavy weapons.
Sounds fair?
So it's OK for your Albanian buddies to wage genocide against everyone else so long as they keep religion out of it, eh? Sounds as if your vision of peace means they kill everyone else and then it's peaceful.
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.