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October 29,
2003
ERP KIM Newsletter
29-10-03
CONTINUATION OF ETHNIC
VIOLENCE MAKES IT CLEAR WHAT ALBANIAN EXTREMISTS WANT
New insignia of ethnic
Albanian nationalists|
UNITED STATES OF ALBANIA - REALITY LOOMING BEHIND ALBANIAN
NATIONALISTIC AMBITIONS IN THE BALKANS
(a photo from one of Pristina shop windows)
(four black eagles signify: Greater Kosovo (with parts of Montenegro and
Presevo valley); Republic of Albania, "Ilirida" (North Western Macedonia)
and Cameria (Northen Greek Epirus)
CONTENTS:
 CONTINUATION
OF ETHNIC VIOLENCE MAKES IT CLEARS WHAT EXTREMISTS WANT
Bishop Artemije briefed new KFOR Commander Gen. Kammerhoff
about the difficult position of the Serb community and the Church in
Kosovo and Metohija
WHO
WAS KILLING WHOM?
Arrest of
another group of former UCK "Rebels" for war crimes against other Kosovo
Albanians opens many interesting questions.
REUTERS:
ARRESTS FIVE KOSOVO ALBANIANS FOR WAR CRIMES
"They have
been charged on war crimes related charges which relate to actions against
the civilian population during the armed conflict in 1999," Singh told
reporters... They are suspected of kidnapping, causing injury, killing and
attempted murder of fellow Albanians, the media said.
JASHARI
FAMILY ACCUSES KFOR - KFOR SAYS THEY WERE ATTACKED
Two different
acconts of the event in Prekaz when a group of French soldiers was
attacked by armed Kosovo Albanians - members of the Jashari clan.
DONORS
CONFERENCE ON KOSOVO AND METOHIJA ON WEDNESDAY
A
donors conference for Kosovo and Metohija will be held in Belgrade on
Wednesday, it was announced by the Coordination Center for Kosovo and
Metohija on Monday.
SERBIA
AND MONTENEGRO: NO SECOND KOSOVO
We shouldn't forget the silent majority of decent, common Albanian people
who just want to live in peace, without headaches and intimidation from
mafia groups and militias. Yet the economic and political dislocation that
will accompany any international withdrawal is only likely to put more of
these thugs, not less, into power. The Kosovo experience since 1999 has
been of a timid UN rewarding former militants and war criminals by keeping
them armed and in power – through just changing their uniforms. And the
same timid, unaccountable UN has allowed this unsavory bunch to run
roughshod, driving out or exterminating Serbian, Roma and Macedonian
Muslim minorities.
TERRORISM
IN THE BALKANS ENTER SANDZAK?
Further, we may see a paradigm shift
in how this part of the Balkans is perceived, away from the east-west axis
and towards a north-south one that would provide the missing link between
Islamic activity in Bosnia and Kosovo- the two places now of most concern
to Western governments. If the Sandzak suspicions turn out to be
justified, the Western view on Montenegrin independence may shift, because
any weakening of security services from Belgrade can only expedite the
potential for Islamic terrorism from Bosnia and Kosovo- through a severed
Sandzak. That is something for the Western policymakers to think about.
More News Available on
our:
KOSOVO DAILY
NEWS LIST (KDN)
KDN Archive
This newsletter is available on our
ERP KIM Web-site:
/erpkiminfo.html
CONTINUATION OF ETHNIC VIOLENCE AGAINST KOSOVO SERBS MAKES IT CLEAR WHAT
EXTREMIST ALBANIAN LEADERS WANT
Bishop Artemije briefed new KFOR Commander Gen. Kammerhoff
about the difficult position of the Serb community and the Church in
Kosovo and Metohija
"My people and my Church have been
brought to the verge of physical extinction and no one seems to have any
solution how to prevent turning this Province into an ethnically cleansed
Albanian territory"
Bishop Artemije with the new KFOR Commander
Lieutenant General Holger Kammerhoff (German Army), Gracanica, Oct 28,
2003
TOP
ERPKIM
INFO-SERVICE
October 28, 2003
By continuation of ethnically motivated attacks against Kosovo Serbs and
recent provocations and attacks on KFOR soldiers Kosovo Albanian
extremists clearly demonstrate what kind of society they want to create
out of Southern Serbian Province. It is not a
modern democratic society in which all citizens would be equal in front of law, but an ethnic Albanian state in which there will be no place for other
ethnicities and the Serbian Orthodox Church, said Bishop Artemije in his
exclusive statement for the ERP KIM Info-Service after today's meeting
with the new KFOR Commander Lt. Gen Holger Kammerhoff.
Bishop
Artemije briefed the German General during the meeting that the security and economic
situation in which remaining Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija live today had
not essentially changed. One cannot deny improvements in some other
sectors but this has not affected the life of our people which remains
more or less isolated in their enclaves, said the Bishop. There is no real
progress in the process of returns of displaced Serbs, Kosovo cities have
been systematically depopulated of Serbs, our people have no free access
to regional medical and educational institutions which remain solely run
by ethic Albanians. All Serb inscriptions have been systematically removed
and the names of our towns and villages are being forcibly albanized. "My
people and my Church have been brought to the verge of physical extinction
and no one seems to have any solution how to prevent turning this Province
into an ethnically cleansed territory", Bishop concluded emphatically.
The Church is
facing particularly difficult situation because our pastoral work is
almost restricted to our tiny enclaves. More than 100 of our churches
destroyed or damaged by ethnic Albanian extremists after the armed
conflict in 1999 remain in ruins. So far we have not been able to
reconstruct a single one of our damaged or destroyed shrines, because
those who destroy them are still free and would do it again. In fact,
extremism in Kosovo and Metohija has been legalized through political
institutions which serve as a smoke screen for worst kind of ethnic
discrimination and organized crime in Europe today, said Bishop Artemije.
Murderers of
the Gorazdevac children, Staro Gracko farmers, the Stolic family and the
terrorists who blew up the Nis Express bus with dozens of Serb passengers
are still freely walking along Kosovo's streets while the conspiracy of silence makes any investigation of crimes
impossible. Political mentors of these murders without any shame make
public statements that they will never face the justice.
Bishop
Artemije expressed his hope that KFOR will continue protecting Serbian
people and their holy shrines and that reduction of troops must not be
continued on the expense of security of the vulnerable population. Kosovo Serb community is
dissatisfied with the work of local Kosovo police and UNMIK and the KFOR
presence is still indispensable. We cannot have confidence in those who
wore UCK uniforms just a few years ago. Bishop Artemije especially
expressed his expectation that KFOR will continue special regime of
protection and assistance for those monastic communities, primarily in
Western Kosovo, which constitute the most valuable shrines of the Serbian
Church and its people. Those monuments which survived centuries of Ottoman
oppression and the post conflict barbarism of extremists must not be left
unprotected.
At the end of
his statement for the ERP KIM Info-service Bishop Artemije reiterated
readiness of the Serb community to participate in building truly
multiethnic institutions and society which will equally respect all its
citizens regardless of its ethnicity and religions. But, Bishop said, we cannot support building of a society
tailored only for Albanians who plan to destroy all traces of our
cultural, spiritual and historical heritage. Our democratic right is to
resist to such oppression and request protection from the international
community.
TOP
WHO WAS
KILLING WHOM?
Arrest of another group of former UCK
"Rebels" for war crimes against other Kosovo Albanians opens many
interesting questions.
Commentary by K.T
TOP
ERPKIM
INFO-SERVICE
GRACANICA, October 29, 2003
Yesterday's arrest of five Kosovo Albanians, former UCK (KLA) members who
are suspected of "kidnapping, causing injury, killing and attempted murder
of fellow Albanians" brings up quite a legitimate question - How many ethnic
Albanians, who are offically claimed to have been victims of "Serbian
regime" were killed by their radical compatriots - UCK?
Manipulations
with numbers of victims in the Kosovo armed conflict (1998-1999) were
huge. In the beginning, during the NATO bombing campaign the number went
as high as 100.000 killed Albanians. After the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army and
police and deployment of KFOR and UN Mission the numbers were suddenly
reduced to 10.000. Forensic investigations in the last four years have not
managed to prove that more than 5.000 Kosovans (both Albanians and Serbs) were killed, among
which there were definitely not few KLA rebels who clashed with
Yugoslav security.
The recent
arrests of some leading UCK commanders like Commander Remi (Rrustem
Mustafa) and his "Lap group", Daut Haradinaj and the "Dukagjini group" as
well as these five former UCK fighters all accused for murder and torture
of other Kosovo Albanians it appears that quite a number of victims which
have been so easily ascribed to "Serbs" were in fact killed by Kosovo
Albanian extremists. It is no secret that any Kosovo Albanian who
disagreed with UCK, not to speak of those who were loyal to Yugoslav
state and wanted to live with other ethnic groups, were marked as "collaborators" and became "legitimate targets" of
the new masters of Kosovo.
Continuation
of investigation will soon throw more light on this taboo topic.
Inter-Albanian killings, murders of witnesses, mysterious assassinations
of some leading political and military Albanian figures may prove that UCK
had a significant share not only in killing Serb policemen and civilians
but also other dissenting Kosovo Albanians.
For the Hague
Tribunal investigators it is extremely difficult to provide necessary witnesses to raise
indictments against some leading war-time UCK figures just because anyone
who decides to witness may run a risk to be killed like dozens or even
hundreds of others.
These new
elements in the story of war-time UCK behavior will definitely give much
clearer picture on the nature of the Kosovo conflict and mar the aura which UCK
enjoys among many Kosovo Albanians.
Of
course, quite a different topic, but not necessarily unrelated to the
first is the post war systematic liquidation of hundreds of Kosovo Serbs,
Roma, Bosniaks and other non-Albanians which was more or less coordinated
by the UCK warlords who in the meantime legalized their new position in
the society as leaders of political parties.
TOP
U.N.
ARRESTS FIVE KOSOVO ALBANIANS FOR WAR CRIMES
"They have
been charged on war crimes related charges which relate to actions against
the civilian population during the armed conflict in 1999," Singh told
reporters... They are suspected of kidnapping, causing injury, killing and
attempted murder of fellow Albanians, the media said.
TOP
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28643850.htm
REUTERS ALERTNET
28 Oct 2003 14:10:10 GMT
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, Oct 28 (Reuters) - U.N. police said on
Tuesday they had arrested five Kosovo Albanians on charges of war crimes
dating back to the 1999 conflict, a move denounced by former guerrillas in
the province.
U.N. Kosovo administration spokesman Neeraj Singh said the five men were
arrested early on Monday in Kacanik, near the Macedonian border.
Charges were issued by the Kosovo justice department and were not related
to the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague, the United Nations said.
"They have been charged on war crimes related charges which relate to
actions against the civilian population during the armed conflict in
1999," Singh told reporters.
Local media said they were members of the wartime Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) and quoted their relatives as saying the arrest warrant was issued
by the Pristina district court and signed by an international
investigation judge.
They are suspected of kidnapping, causing injury, killing and attempted
murder of fellow Albanians, the media said.
The arrest comes only days after former Kosovo Albanian rebel chief Agim
Ceku was briefly held and then released in Slovenia on an invalid Serbian
war crimes arrest warrant. His arrest sparked demonstrations by Kosovo
Albanians in Pristina.
Associations of KLA war veterans from Kacanik said in a joint statement
the acts did not serve peace, freedom and democracy in the province and
they proved that Serb "collaborators" were getting protection.
War crimes are a sensitive issue in the area, as many Kosovo Albanians see
KLA guerrillas as heroes in a war of liberation against harsh Serb rule.
International police of the U.N. interim administration in Kosovo, UNMIK,
carried out the arrests, backed up by a special unit of Italian
Carabinieri.
Kosovo has been under U.N. administration since June 1999 after NATO
bombing forced Serbia to end its military crackdown on the ethnic Albanian
majority in the province.
TOP
KFOR HITS AN OLD WASP NEST -
JASHARI CLAN
Jashari clan - a wasp nest not only for
Serbian military but for KFOR too
Not far from the location of the latest incident
between Jasharis and the French KFOR Yugoslav
special police forces clashed with Adem Jashari in February 1998. Since
his death Adem Jashari
and his family have become a symbol Kosovo Albanian nationalism
JASHARI
FAMILY ACCUSES KFOR OF MISBEHAVOR, KFOR SAYS THEY WERE ATTACKED
Two different acconts
of the event in Prekaz when a group of French soldiers was attacked by
armed Kosovo Albanians - members of the Jashari clan.
TOP
KOHA
DITORE, Pristina daily in Albanian
OCTOBER 27, 2003
Pristina - An incident happened on Saturday night between the Jashari
family in Prekaz and KFOR members. A day later both sides gave different
versions of their statements referring to what happened that night, which
made Kosova Prime Minister, Bajram Rexhepi go to Prekaz, in this case more
as a friend of the family.
Members of Jashari family in Prekaz confirmed that KFOR members entered
their house yard on Saturday afternoon after they searched their property
of this family in the neighborhood. These family members confirmed that
this KFOR action seemed as rude since they entered the house yards
laughing, singing, and shouting and they also entered without any warning.
According to family members, all this happened under observation of a
helicopter from the air.
Talking about the incident, the representative of Jashari neighborhood,
Bilall Jashari said that recently there was a large KFOR presence in the
village and in the neighborhood. But on Saturday this presence was
increased and the behavior of the soldiers was arrogant.
“At approximately 1800, six armored vehicles came speeding in front of the
doors of the commander. Their behavior was so unusual that it made us
believe that they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” he
explained describing the behavior of the solders that according to him,
they were laughing loudly, singing, and grabbing their flack-vests and
weapons. This scene provoked the residents of the neighborhood that
requested the KFOR soldiers to leave. According to him, such thing caused
the incident but thanks to the cool headedness, it didn’t escalate into
violence.
Through a press release, KFOR officials gave a different version of the
event.
According to the MNB-NE Press Center release at 1730, one KFOR vehicle was
positioned near the house of TMK RTG 1 Commander, Bashkim Jashari in
Prekaz in order to observe the zone and the roads. Some men came out
cursing and threatening of the house with sticks and baseball bats and
with a dog in order to remove the patrol from the place near their house.
“At approximately 1800 another patrol came at the place where the first
patrol was stationed. This time, more than 20 men with axes and weapons (4
or 6 of them had pistols) exited their house and went towards the French
KFOR soldiers. The chief of the patrol was threatened with an automatic
weapon,” stated the KFOR press center.
“Gen. Ratel confirms his dissatisfaction about this incident and his
determination to continue to perform his duty according to Resolution 1244
and that he will not let anybody threaten KFOR soldiers,” said MNB-NE
Press Center Chief, Lt. Besse denying the accusations of the residents.
TOP
Ceku Fails To Meet With
Gen. Ratel
Tanjug
(Belgrade)
October 27, 2003
Kosovska Mitrovica - Kosovo Protection Corps (KZK) Commander Agim Ceku had
failed to attend a meeting with Commander of the Multinational North-East
Brigade Gen. Bernard Ratel, called to discuss the incident in the village
of Prekaz, when two dozen Albanians insulted and threatened with arms
French KFOR patrol, Tanjug learned on Monday at the KFOR press center.
Following the incident, a meeting between Bashkim Jashari, KZK Commander
Ceku and French Gen. Ratel was called for October 26. After receiving
information that Albanians would not attend the meeting, Gen. Ratel
returned to his office, Tanjug learned.
TOP
DONORS CONFERENCE FOR KOSOVO-METOHIJA ON WEDNESDAY
A
donors conference for Kosovo and Metohija will be held in Belgrade on
Wednesday, it was announced by the Coordination Center for Kosovo and
Metohija on Monday.
TOP
TANJUG,
BELGRADE
October 27, 2003
Belgrade - A donors conference for Kosovo and Metohija will be held in
Belgrade on Wednesday, it was announced by the Coordination Center for
Kosovo and Metohija on Monday.
The conference will be opened by Coordination Center for Kosovo-Metohija
Nebojsa Covic, while some thirty ambassadors in Serbia and Montenegro,
including U.S. Ambassador William Montgomery, German Ambassador Kurt
Leonberger, Russian Ambassador Vladimir Ivanovski, as well as OSCE Mission
Head Mauricio Massari, had confirmed their participation.
TOP
SERBIA &
MONTENEGRO: NO SECOND KOSOVO
We shouldn't forget the silent majority of decent, common Albanian people
who just want to live in peace, without headaches and intimidation from
mafia groups and militias. Yet the economic and political dislocation that
will accompany any international withdrawal is only likely to put more of
these thugs, not less, into power. The Kosovo experience since 1999 has
been of a timid UN rewarding former militants and war criminals by keeping
them armed and in power – through just changing their uniforms. And the
same timid, unaccountable UN has allowed this unsavory bunch to run
roughshod, driving out or exterminating Serbian, Roma and Macedonian
Muslim minorities.
TOP
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=170
Posted on Monday, October 27 @ 02:00:00 EST by CDeliso
As the situation in Iraq continues to worsen, amidst daily reports of new
American and civilian deaths, the administration is embarking on a
whitewashing campaign designed to prove that things aren't so bad in an
occupied country that offers no exit for the US. However, due to its
dizzying speed, today's global media – so useful for governments'
propaganda purposes – can turn on its masters, without even having to try
very hard.
Unfortunately for the War Party, there really is nowhere to turn for good
news. The victorious occupation of Afghanistan is being tainted by charges
of sleaze, rampant corruption and pesky resurgences from the old Taliban
gang. And, much further afield, an even earlier failed intervention is
unraveling, having arrived at its logical conclusion.
Kosovo Protests: 'Out With the UN! We Don't Need You Here!'
The internationals really should have known better. Protected by special
badges, shiny cars, air-conditioned offices and plenty of disposable
income, the UN corps in Kosovo presumed some sort of inviolability, some
dispensation from on high that would leave the Kosovars eternally
awe-struck and grateful.
This wasn't the case, as an eye-opening recent dispatch from the Guardian
indicates. Kosovo's Albanians are sick and tired of being babysat by
internationals who they've found to be both callous and corrupt. They
blame them for misappropriating large sums of money from public coffers,
for fueling the explosive increase in prostitution and other
mafia-supported services, and for prolonging the status quo of limbo, one
that prevents the resolution of vital issues like property ownership and
privatization, all of which have kept foreign investors at arm's length
from Kosovo. As the Guardian's Helena Smith reports:
"…the first chant came from the back of the crowd. 'Go home!' yelled a
youngster, as he stood in Pristina's dusty Mother Teresa Square, the site
last week of Kosovo's first post war demonstration.
'Out with the UN!' screamed an elderly woman, producing a placard that
conveyed the same message. 'We don't need you here!'
As locals grapple with price increases and worsening poverty, it is the
'internationals' who have become symbols of the contradictions threatening
to tear the UN protectorate apart. Across the province, men and women
appear disgusted by their foreign guardians' 'corrupt' beneficence and
depraved 'colonial' ways.
'They came to keep the peace and now they're causing tensions,' said
Qamile Blakcori. 'We are very grateful that Western forces saved us from
the Serbs, but now it's time they go.'"
According to the report, everyone from the street all the way to the
highest political offices has reason to criticize the internationals – an
ominous sign for the UN mission:
"'…last week's protest, timed to coincide with the start of historic but
widely unpopular reconciliation talks in Vienna with the Serbs, is just
the beginning,' says Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi.
'Being ruled 5,000 miles away from New York is simply not working,' he
snapped. 'With no road maps, or political deadlines, or sense of resolving
their unclear international status as a non-state entity, Kosovars are
fast losing hope.'
'What was especially galling to Kosovars was the brazen "corruption"
within the mission,' said Rexhepi, who was elected in March 2002. He added
that not only was the UN refusing to grant his people more self-rule, it
was also abusing power 'at the highest levels.'
The malpractice – reluctantly confirmed by Western diplomats – had made
him 'feel very ashamed'. A lot of the misplaced funds, he suspected, were
local taxes. 'Unmik claimed it has zero tolerance for corruption and
organised crime, but there is serious corruption involving huge amounts of
money right at its core,' he lamented."
A Hydra's Head of Complexities
However, the situation is more complicated still. Were the foreigners to
immediately pull out of the province, and were the issue of Kosovo's final
status to be decided, would the economy suddenly start to grow? Or would
the sudden removal of Kosovo's economic life-support apparatus swiftly
bring about the patient's demise?
There is the additional complexity of negotiating sovereignty – a total
mess in the case of Kosovo. Regarded as a Serbian province by both Serbia
and (in theory, at least) the UN, Kosovo is regarded as a shining example
of a 19th-Century nation-state by Albanian nationalists, some of whom also
see it as merely a sub-state of a larger hypothetical Albania. But Serbs
are reluctant to let it go, and it is not unlikely that in the end it will
be partitioned – making an already puny, untenable nation even smaller.
As the Guardian relays, the West is beginning to understand that Kosovo is
setting the precedent for a future of failure worldwide:
"…officials readily admit that any of the alternatives – independence,
partition, continued international stewardship – are unlikely to satisfy
everyone.
'It's just like Iraq, whatever we do is going to affect the entire
region,' said one senior EU diplomat.
'Kosovo is a perfect example of the confusion the West is likely to get
into if it doesn't think through the political implications of its
military strategy. If we go on like this we're going to have to set up a
colonial service.'"
We shouldn't forget the silent majority of decent, common Albanian people
who just want to live in peace, without headaches and intimidation from
mafia groups and militias. Yet the economic and political dislocation that
will accompany any international withdrawal is only likely to put more of
these thugs, not less, into power. The Kosovo experience since 1999 has
been of a timid UN rewarding former militants and war criminals by keeping
them armed and in power – through just changing their uniforms. And the
same timid, unaccountable UN has allowed this unsavory bunch to run
roughshod, driving out or exterminating Serbian, Roma and Macedonian
Muslim minorities.
Where to Turn Now?
In short, we have a situation whereby a large, frustrated group of people
have found a common enemy to replace their previous one. However, they
needed – and still need – both. The Serbs gave Kosovo's Albanians a
feeling of nationhood, a strident victimology and a common cause. As
predicted, this sentiment of Albanian unity proved an evanescent one,
collapsing immediately after NATO's bombing campaign ceased. At that
point, with nationalistic unity no longer necessary, Kosovo's Albanians
turned to settling their own internal scores.
And, as said above, the Albanians also need the internationals. They
provide a lucrative market for the legal and illegal service industries
alike, as well as employment in NGO's and other aid groups. Kosovo has
also received generous international grants, and its international limbo
has shielded it from some of the most common coercive measures in the
Western arsenal. Kosovo may be "freed" soon, but what will happen to its
hard-won sovereignty when its political decisions are made by groups like
the IMF? Currently, Serbia is still responsible for Kosovo's international
debt – though it doesn't pay any taxes to Belgrade. Indeed, being a
protectorate or a province is sometimes more comfortable than having to go
it alone.
That said, Kosovo – whether partitioned or not – will have to come
crawling back to someone. But to who? Certainly not Serbia. Even though a
majority of the people in both places may not want it, joining the
even-poorer Albania may be Kosovo's only hope. The West failed to
understand that if a province has historically been poor, there is usually
some good reason why – and not merely, as Albanian nationalists claim,
that it was forever ignored by Belgrade. In fact, part of the reason
Yugoslavia split was that more affluent regions like Croatia and Slovenia
were fed up: they felt their tax remittances were disproportionately being
siphoned into poor Macedonia, and sucked into the vertiginous black hole
of Kosovo.
Into the Vortex
And that's pretty much the only way to describe it. Kosovo embodies all of
the worst Balkan qualities. It is like a centrifuge, a vortex in which all
of the incongruent discourses of the region and the West have come to
jostle and grate, with increasing speed and volatility. That the West even
thought it could successfully intervene there in the first place was sheer
folly. It has caused far more problems than it solved – though it has made
many people very rich while doing so.
Looking back, one is baffled at the stupidity of the "experts" who
launched this adventure. At how they could possibly have failed to see the
necessary outcomes of the intervention: the destruction of minorities; the
destabilization of Macedonia; the reversion to mafia rule; the corruption,
Western and domestic; the lack of long-term economic viability, and most
crucially, the lack of a clear exit strategy.
Violence Surges, But the Truth Speeds Up Too
In the end, considering the wide knowledge and experience of the war
planners, it becomes hard to believe that the Kosovo job was done for any
other reasons than political posturing, corporate war profiteering,
manipulating cheap nationalism, and giving NATO a reason to live.
Luckily, as Iraq is now showing, history won't let the world get away with
the same thing twice. In Iraq, popular dissent arrived so fast that we
might say the events themselves have sped up. They are impatient, having
gotten used to all the same characters – the international aid groups, the
opposition leaders, the ethnic infighting, the foreign contractors –
previously encountered in Kosovo. They don't waste time anymore, as they
did in Kosovo, in guarding their secrets in seed form. Now, in the age of
terror, they bloom forth immediately and die just as fast, stripping
themselves of any meaning or significance – save to remind us that
invading Iraq was a really bad idea.
Indeed, there will be no second Kosovo. This time it will be much worse.
Yet with the acceleration of volatile events, fortunately, we will also
see an acceleration of truth. The one that reminds us that, when planning
folly abroad, there is a basic need to plan for all eventualities in
advance, and to not undertake a course of action if it is likely to end in
disaster. This is the truth that the Bush Administration is so feverishly
trying to obscure right now. Unfortunately for everyone now in Iraq, we
can have faith that the events there will violently outpace them – but so
will the truth, eventually.
TOP
Serbia on the crossroads of terrorist
supply links which lead through Kosovo, Sandzak and Bosnia towards Western
Europe
(a map from an Israeli anti-terrorist presentation)
Further atomization of the Balkans would necessary create many unstable
states which would not be able to deal with challenges of contemporary
terrorism
Moslem inhabited areas of the Balkans potentially present a gateway of
Islamism on its
way towards Western Europe
TERRORISM IN THE BALKANS - ENTER SANDZAK?
Further, we may see a paradigm shift
in how this part of the Balkans is perceived, away from the east-west axis
and towards a north-south one that would provide the missing link between
Islamic activity in Bosnia and Kosovo- the two places now of most concern
to Western governments. If the Sandzak suspicions turn out to be
justified, the Western view on Montenegrin independence may shift, because
any weakening of security services from Belgrade can only expedite the
potential for Islamic terrorism from Bosnia and Kosovo- through a severed
Sandzak. That is something for the Western policymakers to think about.
*Sandzak (Sanjak) is an Ottoman name of
the old Serbian province of Raska (Rashka). It dates from the 19th century
and denotes an Ottoman administrative unit (county) (comment by ERP KIM
Info)
TOP
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=168
BALKANALYSIS.COM
Analyses and articles from the Balkans and beyond
October 24, 2003, 13:55:00 EDT by C.Deliso
Macedonian and Serbian security forces are paying increasing attention to
the partially Muslim-inhabited Sandzak region, a small, rugged territory
straddling the Montenegro-Serbian borders and suspected of supporting
foreign and Bosniak mujahedin, as well as Albanian militants from Kosovo.
Security officials in Skopje recently told Balkanalyis.com that a
bi-national investigation of a specific incident is now underway, but that
results cannot be publicly reported yet.
Geographically speaking, the Sandzak is perfect for illicit
activities- mountainous, isolated, bordering two poorly policed failing
states (Bosnia and Kosovo). Drugs, weapons, and even sugar are smuggled
with regularity by many means (including the humble donkey).
It is as a liaison and rear staging post that the Sandzak is being
investigated, rather than as a forward base for terrorist operations. As
part of Serbia, the region is subject to Serbian police jurisdiction and
thus remains controlled. However, transit through the area has worried
Macedonian authorities.
They are trying to avoid a repeat of 2001's Albanian insurgency- itself
partially propelled by Islamists.
In the last Yugoslav census (1991), the Sandzak numbered 420,000
people- 278,000 in Serbia and 162,000 in Montenegro. 54 percent were
Bosniaks. Widespread emigration since then may have left them a minority
in Sandzak, ".a suspicion supported by the strong showing of Serbian
nationalist parties in the recent presidential elections in Serbia,"
reported RFE/RL one year ago. "Nevertheless, in Novi Pazar and some other
communities, Bosniaks still form a clear majority."
Historically, the Sandzak has been both multi-ethnic and much debated.
Rival football hooligans taunted each other by saying it is a part of
Serbia- or, oddly, Turkey. Others claim that they are of "Illyrian"
descent- a very loaded term, as the Albanians claim to be direct
descendents of the mysterious ancient Illyrian tribes, and therefore to be
more "authentic" Balkan residents than the "Slav colonizers" all around
them. This claim remains unproven.
For years well-organized Muslim lobby groups in the Sandzak have decried
alleged Serb abuses and some have even demanded independence, petitioning
the US and other governments and international organizations to their
cause.
The RFE/RL report summed up the ethnic, religious and linguistic
complexities of this mountainous region composed of Bosniaks, Albanians,
Turks, Montenegrins and Serbs. The Bosnian government has in the past
tried to "Bosnianize" the Muslims there, by getting them to call their
language "Bosnian" whereas many prefer to call it Serbian. The area is
wedged between Bosnia and Kosovo and was affected by the wars in both,
receiving refugees as well as being a smuggling crossroads for Muslim
militants in both places.
Extremist politicians in Sandzak, like SZS chairman Fevzija Muric have
threatened that Serbian failure to grant the region special status could
set off what he called "a potential powder keg." However, it seems that
save for the occasional street fight or political provocation, this is for
now, at least, an exaggeration. Nevertheless, would-be nationalists like
Muric have called for some special kind of unification for Sandzak Muslims
living on both sides of the Serbian and Montenegro
border- aiming, apparently, at the infinite disintegration of the already
dismantled country. (After it's all over, will Serbia be composed only of
Belgrade and Kragujevac?)
Macedonian and Serbian interest in the Sandzak's potential for trouble
confirms something that had been suspected. Should the story develop,
perhaps the most compelling result of this will be a new and different
orientation towards the mental map of the Balkans. All Western media,
whenever producing reports or graphics, have depicted the
Serbia-Montenegro issue as one between two distinct, color-coded political
entities- thereby ignoring the cross-border east-west issue of the Sandzak,
as well as the general geographical reality of the region.
Further, we may see a paradigm shift in how this part of the Balkans is
perceived, away from the east-west axis and towards a north-south one that
would provide the missing link between Islamic activity in Bosnia and
Kosovo- the two places now of most concern to Western governments. If the
Sandzak suspicions turn out to be justified, the Western view on
Montenegrin independence may shift, because any weakening of security
services from Belgrade can only expedite the potential for Islamic
terrorism from Bosnia and Kosovo- through a severed Sandzak. That is
something for the Western policymakers to think about.
TOP
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