Free Republic

he US yesterday made the case for offering Serbia incentives to reach agreement in negotiations over the final status of Kosovo, while setting out the possibility of independence for the province if the ethnic Albanian majority accepted compromises to accommodate its Serbian minority. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state, told a Senate hearing the US was neither championing independence nor autonomy for Kosovo. But diplomats said his testimony was a clear signal the US looked favourably on independence, under certain conditions. In what diplomats also called a significant policy statement, Mr Burns made clear the US had no objection to independence...

Despite his belief that most journalists are unwitting upholders of western imperialism, Noam Chomsky, the radical's radical, agrees to see me at his office in Boston. He works here as a professor of linguistics, a sort of Clark Kent alter ego to his activist Superman, in a nubbly old jumper, big white trainers and a grandad jacket with pockets designed to accomodate a Thermos. There is a half-finished packet of fig rolls on the desk. Such is the effect of an hour spent with Chomsky that, writing this, I wonder: is it wrong to mention the fig rolls when there is undocumented suffering going...

The retired General who had been refusing to declare himself a Democrat or Republican is now declaring himself a Democratic presidential candidate. But more important than his party affiliation is Wesley Clark’s bizarre view on how to fight terrorism. The media refer to Clark’s impressive military credentials but they fail to note that his main accomplishment under President Clinton was presiding over the establishment of a base for radical Islamic terrorism, including Osama bin Laden, in Kosovo. Clark, who has been making headlines by claiming that the U.S. decision to go to war in Iraq was a misjudgment based on...

=========================================================== The eradication of an ancient culture...The Destruction of the Churches of Kosovoby Jared Israel[Posted 25 December 2003]=========================================================== Alter area of the 16th century Church of St. Nicholas, which was looted, vandalized and seriously damaged by explosives. This happened after the arrival of Italian KFOR (NATO) troops in Pec, Kosovo, in  June 1999. The initials carved into the picture are 'UCK'. That's Albanian for 'KLA', the Kosovo Liberation Army, which NATO and the UN have installed in power.  [1]   I miss the culture of the East European Jews. I know that culture from my maternal grandfather. When I was...

Tower Bombed by NATO to Symbolize New Serbia Thu May 30,12:36 PM ET Serbian property developer Miodrag Kostic stands in front of an office tower May 25, 2002, which was bombed during the NATO air campaign over Belgrade three years ago. Kostic, whose consortium won a tender last year to purchase the tower and turn it into a modern office complex, invited NATO pilots who bombed the building to come to Belgrade and shake hands on opening day. Photo by Ivan Milutinovic/Reuters By Douglas Hamilton BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Serbian property developer Miodrag Kostic would like to meet the NATO...

Four years after it was "liberated" by a NATO bombing campaign, Kosovo has deteriorated into a hotbed of organized crime, anti-Serb violence and al-Qaeda sympathizers, say security officials and Balkan experts. Though nominally still under UN control, the southern province of Serbia is today dominated by a triumvirate of Albanian paramilitaries, mafiosi and terrorists. They control a host of smuggling operations and are implementing what many observers call their own brutal ethnic cleansing of minority groups, such as Serbs, Roma and Jews. In recent weeks, UN officials ordered the construction of a fortified concrete barrier around the UN compound on...

Introduction: War Crimes in Bosnia In May, 1992, Bosnian Muslim and Croat forces attacked and occupied Bosnian Serb villages around the Konjic municipality in central Bosnia-Hercegovina. The Muslim and Croat forces began rounding up and expelling the Bosnian Serb residents, a policy that came to be known as ethnic cleansing. Serbian villages and towns were burned down and destroyed and Bosnian Serb civilians were massacred. The Bosnian Serb civilians who survived, men, women, and children, were herded into collection or detention centers. Many of the Serbian women and children were confined in a local school. Approximately 400 men and some...