Posted on 11/08/2002 10:34:38 AM PST by Destro
Progress in Kosovo 'Slow-Going,' Security Council Told
Thursday, November 07 2002 @ 04:05 PM GMT
NEW YORK - More emphasis needs to be placed on reconciliation efforts in Kosovo, where developments of the last four months illustrate the difficulties faced in making consistent progress in the province, the top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council today in an open briefing.
"It is, inevitably, slow-going," the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, said in his briefing on the latest developments as well as Secretary-General Kofi Annan's recent report on the work of the UN Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK). The ensuing discussion saw the participation of representatives of some 20 countries, including the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Mr. Guéhenno noted that while progress has been made on a number of fronts, there still have been some negative developments, most notably the continued existence of parallel government structures.
The consolidation of sustainable institutions depends on an effective public administration, but recruitment remains slow, the UN official said. Also, obstacles such as security concerns, inter-ethnic tensions in the workplace and the limited pool of minority community applicants still hamper the multi-ethnic character of the civil service.
As for the security situation, there has been a regrettable continuation of attacks targeting the Kosovo Serb community, including an assault last month against 50 elderly people registering for their pensions, Mr. Guéhenno said. UNMIK’s fight against crime, meanwhile, had yielded an increase in the amount of contraband seized and a subsequent rise in the number of arrests on charges of economic crime and corruption.
Nevertheless, although the elections on 26 October and the prior campaign passed largely free of violence, the day after the polls saw the killing of the President of the Kosovo Albanian Municipal Assembly and two others.
While the Kosovo Serb community has expressed a desire to see faster progress in many areas, Mr. Guéhenno said, its low turnout for those elections was to its own detriment, diminishing its ability to participate in decision-making processes throughout the province.
Meanwhile, Kosovo's leaders had a responsibility to create conditions conducive to improving "inter-communal" relations and promoting reconciliation, Mr. Guéhenno stressed. In that regard, he welcomed the statement made by political leaders last Friday.
"But more needs to be done, including turning words into actions and speaking out more clearly against violence," he said. "The brunt of the effort lies with the majority community."
-United Nations News Center. Redistributed via Press International News Agency (PINA).
Paying attention to the 'tribunal' videos on the net you can see the 'revisionalism' that was promulgated against the Serbs. The 'team', DelPonte, Nice and Judge May come across as the biggest 'slimeballs' ever.
Milosevic has framed the debate and has won. Not once has he been wrong on the facts and he is the main speaker. Yet everytime a 'witness' gives 'testimony' its riddled with 'lies'and every accusation may so far, IMO was 'perposterous' .
Only Milosevic's explanation makes any sense. Why is that?
Sorry, dude - if you support the Serbian version of events at Racak, you're either a dupe or a liar.
Best of luck to ya in rectifying your situation.
With the information available, it's painfully obvious the dead were KLA (or possibly local villagers forced to fight by the KLA).
Their is not dought in my mind that the Racak villagers were forced by the very persuasive KLA to defend Racak or else. I know how they operate. I have posted a while ago an incident that took place in the small village of Petrova which is not far from Racak. This was approx. 6 months prior. The KLA ordered the villagers there to not evacuate, that the KLA would defend them from the approaching Serbs. As I have stated like the villagers of Racak those from Petrova were also LKD supporters which made them simply cannon fodder to the KLA. Well the Serbian VJ and MUP came to Petrova who were there trying to flush out the KLA. No KLA showed as promised and the villagers evacuated due to the courage of a hand full of locals keeping the Serbs busy with one Ak-47 and a few bolt action rifles. The KLA commander that was despised after that still holds a lot of KLA weight in Stimlje. I met the coward.
This was a set up with the simple objective of trying to martyr some locals for the cause. It did not work but it did at Racak. Hoplite can bury his head in the sand and inhale dust as long as he wants but the mounting evidence points to the simple fact that the KLA needed local Albanian casualties for the Wild Willie Walker show. This time they made sure the villagers stayed wouldn't you with an Ak-47 pointed at your back.
Also, the fact that they had gunpowder on their hands isn't the only clue that they died in battle. There is the fact that the bullets entered their bodies from many random directions at long range (also confirmed by the Finns),
Well hoplite multiple entry wounds from different directions, reported from the Finns, Imagine that. Does this change anything from your prospective?
inquest.....rather than beating around the bush with Hoplite (the sole defender of Clinton's Foreign Policy left on FR)........why don't you ask him
....At the ICTY, the KLA commander at Racak testified he gangpressed a few dozen villager into fighting that day including elderly pensioners....isn't it likely that some of these human shields may have been killed by the KLA when they refused to fight ?
Also Remind Hoplite that Racak was a ANTI-KLA village.
I suppose the list starts with Cain and Able and the through line includes; The Ottoman Turks, the Serbs that ill treated the Muslim Albanians after the Turks were driven out, the Albanians that ill treated the Serbs during their control of Kosovo during the Albanians' Axis days during WW2, Tito's handling of the dilemna post WW2, the Albanians' ill treatment of the Serbs from 1974-1989, the Serbs' ill treatment of the Albanians from 1989-1999, the KLA's terrorist activities against Serb policemen and loyalist Albanians during that same time period, the BBD, the CIA, Madeline Albright, Richard Holbrooke, the KLA for forcing them to stay as bullet stoppers for the cause, and the Serbs that shot them.
Hope that you have a good time and zdravo to everyone there :o) Kate
Kate: I have to ask whether your Belgrade friends know that you used to say on this site that you supported the KLA?
I second your question, Kate. Tropoljac did state on his homepage, previously, that he supported the KLA against the Serbs. Also, he has said some cruel things about Krajina Serbs and laughed after stating "What do they have now?"
Why doesn't Biljana sign up and argue if she knows what to believe or not to believe? I take it she's not a refugee from Krajina. Was she an Otpor supporter? Is she friends with Natasa Kandic?
You know, Tropoljac, I discovered a poster on usenet who writes exactly like you do. I know what your name is. You write the same anti-Serb stuff and tell the same stories - for example, the incubator story - that you do here. I got you figured out better than your Serb friends. I just wish I could refind what you said about Krajina refugees in a FR post about a year ago - I wonder what your friends would think of you then.
These Serb friends of yours are probably of the kind that worked to get Albanian terrorists released from jails in Serbia while ignoring the 1,600 kidnapped Serbs in Kosovo. The Kosovo Serb families often state how unsympathetic those in Belgrade are. Ask Biljana if things are better in Serbia since Milosevic was overthrown. How much reconstruction has the new government done?
I thought I said ultimately responsible not collectively? In any case I still like your sense of humor.
Part one
GENERAL PROVISIONS
THE SUBJECT OF THE LAW
Article 1
This Law regulates the respect for the individual and collective rights guaranteed to the persons belonging to national minorities by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or by international agreements.
This Law also regulates the protection of national minorities from all forms of discrimination in exercising their civil rights and freedoms, creates instruments that guarantee and protect special rights of minorities to minority self-governance in the fields of education, use of language, media and culture, and establishes institutions for fostering the participation of national minorities in government and in the management of public affairs.
Issues regulated by this Law can further be regulated by republican or provincial legal rules, in accordance with the Constitution and the Law.
DEFINING A NATIONAL MINORITY
Article 2
Under the terms of this Law, a national minority is a group of citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia sufficiently representative, although in a minority position on the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, belonging to an autochthonous group of the population with a lasting and firm connection with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and possessing some distinctive features, such as language, national or ethnic belonging, origin or religion, upon which it differs from the majority of the population, and its members should show their concern over preservation of their common identity, including culture, tradition, language or religion.
Under the terms of this Law, all groups of citizens who consider or define themselves as peoples, national or ethnic communities, national or ethnic groups, nations or nationalities, and who fulfill the conditions from paragraph 1 of this Article, will be treated as national minorities.
Part two
BASIC PRINCIPLES
PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION
Article 3
All forms of discrimination toward persons belonging to national minorities based on national, ethnic, linguistic or racial grounds are prohibited.
Authorities of the federation, republic, autonomous province, town and municipality have no right to pass a law or some other legal normative act, or take measures which are not in accordance with the first paragraph of this Article.
MEASURES FOR SECURING EQUALITY
Article 4
Authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia can, in accordance with the Constitution and the Law, pass legal rules, individual legal acts and take measures with the aim of securing full and effective equality for the persons belonging to national minorities and to the majority nation.
Authorities will pass legal acts and take measures from the first paragraph of this Article with the aim of improving the position of persons belonging to Roma national minority. Legal rules, individual legal acts and measures from the first paragraph of this Article will not be regarded as acts of discrimination.
THE FREEDOM OF NATIONAL AFFILIATION AND EXPRESSION
Article 5.
In accordance with the freedom of national affiliation and expression of national belonging proclaimed in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, no one will suffer any damage as a result of his/her affiliation or expression of national belonging, or of his/her not doing so.
Any registration of persons belonging to national minorities that obliges them to express their national belonging against their will is prohibited.
Any act or measure towards forced assimilation of persons belonging to national minorities is prohibited.
THE RIGHT TO CO-OPERATE WITH CO-NATIONALS IN THE COUNTRY AND ABROAD
Article 6
Persons belonging to national minorities have the right to establish and maintain free and peaceful contacts within the FRY and abroad with persons lawfully residing in other states, especially with persons with whom they share common ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity or common cultural heritage.
Do you deny that you wrote this on usenet?:
"Just like the Serb propaganda story about Croat soldiers taking 40 Serb babies out of incubators and killing them in Vukovar in '91, right Kirill?" (August 18, 2002)
I have spent a fair bit of time in Serbia and particularly Belgrade, and all of the Serbian people that I know (from many different backgrounds) agree with the following things:
- That the Serbs from Krajina (who you recently said 'cleansed' themselves!!) were treated terribly. Many of them have ended up settling in Kosovo only to be made refugees a second time around;
- That although many agree that social rights for everyone under Milosevic (Serbians and Croatians in Serbia included) left a lot to be desired, not one of them supported the goals or the objectives of the KLA (and certainly wouldn't have stated such);
- That Kosovo remains rightfully part of Serbia (although one friend did comment that they were happy for the UN and Nato to stay in Kosovo for the longhaul because they were having to foot the bill of supporting a totally non-viable and artificial society in the province which they had created... 'they dug their own hole etc.').
Joan - re. the reconstruction of Serbia... I think that business is starting to open up and things are starting to improve slowly (after all, Serbia is at the heart of Europe and of vital importance). But I want to see the Nato countries honour their promise of reparations!!
Another bitter winter is coming (death for some of those poor refugees still surviving in Serbia outside Kosovo) and very little help has been forthcoming in international aid. I am always heartened to hear you mention these people and the people who are suffering in Kosovo today. At least some people remember them. Mind you, I suppose they're not a cause celebre?!
Really?
I guess I must have misread the portion of the report which refers to the Serbs putting the muzzle(s) of their weapon(s) too close to one (per table 3) of the victims:
Signs of contact or close-range firing were recorded
and missed the portion of the report which states what you said it does.
Here, why don't you find the exact passage you are referring to and bring it to my attention?
It wasn't
The EU-FET had no opportunity to take samples for the gun powder analysis before the removal of the victims from the site of the finding. When the contamination is already probable, the results are unreliable and open to various interpretations.
that you transmogrified into your statement above, was it? Because it has to be matched with the results from the SEM EDX testing they did, which was negative for GSR. Ahem...
Traditionally, a paraffin test has been used in gunshot residue analysis (GSR). To remove residues from the hand, casting with paraffin has been suggested. This test lacks specificity, however, and at the Interpol meeting in 1968 it was officially stated that it no longer should be used. The most successful technique to date for the analysis of GSR analysis is without doubt the Scanning Electron Microscope with an Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analyzer (SEM-EDX). Only this method has the ability of determining the metallic content without concern about environmental contamination. With the SEM-EDX, the sample is virtually unaffected by the analysis and can be re-examined, if necessary, many times. The sample for the GSR analysis is collected by means of a tape-lift taking into consideration routine precautions (contamination). Paraffin test was for the above reasons not used by the Finnish Team. Test samples for SEM-EDX were taken and they proved to be negative. source
Now kindly explain yourself so I can determine if you are a liar or a dupe or just simply can't read.
If you did, you wouldn't be asking such stultifyingly stupid and misinformed questions - spraying a line of men in a ditch with automatic weapon fire results in their being sprawled on the ground and accounts for the variable bullet trajectories (each corpse had, on average, ~ 6 gunshot wounds). The fact that bullets which had carried flesh from the victims were found in the ground under them is damning to both the Serbs who killed them and to anyone who would attempt to exculpate those killers - and that means you, Wraith.
So go call for the Serbian Police to return to Kosovo somewhere where I can't see it - because you're all played out, just like Fusion.
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