[Santino Sonny Corleone]

wendy, I know you didn't do it on purpose but misleading people is not cool. David Binder is a known Serbian apologist. He either pulled a Jayson Blair and reported what she saw on Belgrade TV or deliberately lied. What he wrote was being reported 24-7 on Serbian media to justify revocation of Kosovo's autonomy. Michael Sells and many others have shown that these are lies.

"These new allegations against NATO are ominously similar to Serb nationalists' charges in 1986 that Kosovar Albanians were destroying the monasteries. This charge was combined with other inflammatory allegations that Kosovar Albanians were illegal immigrants who should be expelled; that Albanians were using their high birth rate as a tool to commit" demographic genocide" against Kosova's Serb minority; and that they were carrying out widespread rapes of Serb women.

In 1986, Serbian Orthodox bishops repeated these allegations and charged that genocide was being carried out against Serbs in Kosova. The same charges were repeated in the famous "Memorandum" written by Serbian intellectuals attacking the Yugoslav constitution and the autonomy of Kosova. In this inflamed environment, Slobodan Milosevic made his leap to power by promising he would protect the Serb people and their shrines against their enemies.

What was the truth of these frightening allegations? There were genuine grievances by both Serbs and Albanians in Kosova, and both groups felt threatened. But Serb independent journalists and human rights workers found the more inflammatory charges to be total fabrications. A study of police records in Kosova showed only one rape of an ethnic Serb by an Albanian in an entire year. Similarly, the alleged destruction of Serb shrines turned out to involve isolated cases of vandalism, graffiti, and cutting of trees on church property -- hate crimes, perhaps, but surely not the organized, genocidal annihilation that was claimed."

You can search for yourself right here from several different scholars.

Regarding crime: Kosovo was no where near catching Serbia in crime; their entire Milosevic era was one big mafia state. They even had their PM killed in 2003. Now? Kosovo now has 3 murders per 100,000 people, safer than a lot of countries in Europe. www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/10585/ So let's debate, but not mislead by repeating allegations that have been proven false. Also Kosovo was the poorest part, so 7000 Serbs a year leaving (20k in 3 years) isn't that much, more leave NJ each month probably and many more Albanians emigrated to Europe.

[wendy1946]

wendy, I know you didn't do it on purpose but misleading people is not cool. David Binder is a known Serbian apologist.

I don't see how that's relevant to anything unless Binder had enough pull at the NY Times to cause them to totally fabricate stories in the late 1980s. It's basically the NYT describing albanian kosovars as savages (which they are) and, if you don't like the one Binder cited, there are many more to choose from.

[wendy1946]

What was the truth of these frightening allegations? There were genuine grievances by both Serbs and Albanians in Kosova, and both groups felt threatened. But Serb independent journalists and human rights workers found the more inflammatory charges to be total fabrications. A study of police records in Kosova showed only one rape of an ethnic Serb by an Albanian in an entire year. Similarly, the alleged destruction of Serb shrines turned out to involve isolated cases of vandalism, graffiti, and cutting of trees on church property -- hate crimes, perhaps, but surely not the organized, genocidal annihilation that was claimed."

Funny, every ethnic group other than albanians seems to have been driven out of KosovO by now and you claim nothing serious caused that? You think maybe the albunnies just made faces at all the other people until they got the creeps and left??

[FormerLib]

Hello there, Ronly Bonly Jones!

Back again in spite of your repeated bans, I see, and still quoting from the same old sources.

Don’t you ever tire of this game?

[FormerLib]

Ronly Bonly Jones returns with yet another screen name.

Hey, does anyone remember the one he was using last time? There have been so many, it’s hard to keep track.

[Honorary Serb]

Well, Bonly Boy, there you go quoting your usual bogus sources, especially the notorious PAID (via grant money) Muhammadan shill Michael Sells!!!! The Saudi embassies throughout the world are still giving out his "scholarly" piece of muslim propaganda, the PBS special "islam: Empire of Faith". Then there was that truncated version of the Qu'ran that he put together, with only the "mystical" surahs, that they made all the freshmen entering the University of North Carolina read before coming for the fall session.

Both of these "scholarly" works left out the parts about islam's long history of conquest, oppression, and mass murder, and the central role of jihad, conquest (Fateh), and the Dhimma in all of islam!!!!

As for David Binder, he was a highly respected reporter. We need more of him, instead of the New World Order shills who now populate our media. To a Serbophobe like you, Bonly Boy, anyone who tells the truth is a "Serb apologist".