Posted on 03/26/2004 6:39:48 AM PST by wonders
BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana hit back at criticism from Serbs after violent riots erupted in Kosovo, saying the international community was not to blame for the flare-up.
Solana, speaking a day after he was jeered by displaced Serbs during a visit to the UN-run province, said: "I would not say that it is a failure of strategy of the European Union (news - web sites).
"I think it is a failure of the behavior of the people of Kosovo. We are not responsible for the behavior of the people of Kosovo," he told reporters.
"We have expended capital on Kosovo more than any other place in the world. The blame should not be put on the international community. I think the blame has to be placed on the people who have not been able to organize themselves."
During a visit to Kosovo Wednesday, Solana faced abuse by displaced Serbs demanding to know why the international community did not intervene until well after the three-day rampage by the ethnic Albanian majority began.
On Thursday, he accused local political leaders of exploiting the Albanian mobs to their own advantage.
"(The violence) was not completely spontaneous. There were already a lot of people organized to take advantage of that moment of spontaneity," he said, speaking shortly before the start of an EU summit.
"That is something which is very serious because those people who were already organized probably belong to a political party with heavy responsibilities. The leaders of that party have to come out and say very clearly and very strongly that this is not possible," he said.
The violence, which erupted on March 17, killed 28 people and left a trail of destruction through Serb areas of Kosovo. Thirty Serb churches and monasteries were torched, seven villages were razed and 3,600 people were made homeless.
Kosovo has been a United Nations (news - web sites) protectorate since 1999, when NATO (news - web sites) jets bombed Serbian forces to end a crackdown on the province's separatist ethnic Albanian majority.
"We have expended capital on Kosovo more than any other place in the world.
Well, sir, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, no matter how many euros you spend on it.
I think the blame has to be placed on the people who have not been able to organize themselves."
Organize themselves??? Looks like they organized themselves pretty well a few days ago. Oh, yeah, he realizes that. A few paragraphs later:
There were already a lot of people organized to take advantage of that moment of spontaneity," he said.
Hmm. I guess they weren't organized enough or something.
"That is something which is very serious because those people who were already organized probably belong to a political party with heavy responsibilities. The leaders of that party have to come out and say very clearly and very strongly that this is not possible," he said.
Now that's telling them! Hey, very clearly and strongly WHAT is not possible? That they have heavy responsibilities?
It was the Italians, Greeks, and Czechs who acted with integrity, and many of them were hurt in the process.
And guideline indeed changes. Kosovo is regularly called Serbian province. Population figures are reduced to 1,800,000 from 2 mil. Big lie shrinks gradually.
There is undclared war going on down there. Two UN police officers, one from Ghana, one from Phillipines were assasinated. Albanians have took weapons to the street and showed they are not disarmed.
NATO is now in the same position as Milosevic in 1996 and follows the same tactics of doing nothing and hoping the problem will go away by itself. It won't. It will get worse. Media reports only encourage terrorists and their sympathizers (majority of population)
"Serbian Orthodox Diocese is shocked by absence of any attempt on the part of the German army to protect a single Orthodox Christian site in Prizren. While their colleagues in other contingents were risking their own lives Germans in Prizren let the mob burn the churches, destroy frescoes and loot the Church valuables. Regrettably, two Germans: KFOR Commander Holger Kammerhof and the chief of UNMIK police Stephan Feller (nicknamed Mr. Fehler) are among the most responsible international officials for such terrible outcome of the last week's pogrom and the Church will insist on their resignation and leaving of the German contingent from Kosovo completely."
"The Diocese of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija received painful and shocking news today from Abbot Herman Vucicevic and priest-monk Benedict Preradovic of Holy Archangels Monastery who met today with the German military commander in Prizren, Colonel Hintelmann. The monks asked Hintelman to enable their return to the ruins of Holy Archangels as soon as possible, saying they would stay under a tent at first and restore the monastery itself over time. Colonel Hintelmann categorically stated that return is impossible "for security reasons", adding that if the monks should try to return on their own "before a political agreement is reached, they will be stopped by force".
"The Archangels monks informed the Diocese that the behavior of German KFOR is unprecedented and that the ERP KIM Info Service will soon publish a detailed report how German soldiers observed indifferently as Albanian rioters set fire to Holy Archangels and danced on the very tomb of the Holy King Dusan."
"Fr. Sava Janjic, the editor in chief of the ERP KIM Info Service, personally spoke by phone today with Verica Grigorijevic, one of the 35-odd Serbs evacuated from Potkaljaje, the Serb quarter of Prizren completely burned by Albanian mob last week, who are presently lodged in a building on the German military base in Prizren. Mrs. Grigorijevic stated that many of the present Serbs are shaken and in a deep state of shock as a result of the terror they survived. Some of them were beaten by the Albanian crowd. Several of them are in very serious psychological condition. The Germans are giving them food and drink but people's minds are elsewhere, she said. Mrs.Grigorijevic informed Fr. Sava that today at about 15:30 a Roman Catholic priest arrived in the building where the Serbs are lodged without any invitation by them and told them he would SERVE MASS. Some Serbs asked why they did not allow their priests to come and serve them an Orthodox Christian service, but the Germans insisted that the R. Catholic mass should be served. The Serbs were asked to hold candles in their hands and at the end of the service the Catholic priest gave several of the elderly Serbs who are serious psychological condition Roman Catholic communion (wafers). Some of the Serbs refused to take this communion, horrified that they were being forcibly converted to a different faith, even though Orthodox monks and priest-monks from Holy Archangels are only five kilometers away from them but are being denied the right to visit their faithful people even though they have asked to do so. Weeping, Mrs. Grigorijevic reported this sad news with the request that Bishop Artemije and the Patriarchate in Belgrade be informed. The Diocese most strongly condemns this scandalous action of BLATANT PROSELYTISM on the part of the German military Roman Catholic priest and appeals for the evacuation of all remaining Orthodox Serbs from the base of the German soldiers whose behavior in the past and in this latest provocation have evoked the most difficult memories from World War II when Roman Catholic priests (in Croatia) took advantage of the suffering of the Serbs and pulled them out from under Ustashe Nazi knives in order to forcibly give their communion under the pretext of saving their lives. Forcible communion represents one of the most horrible examples of violence against religious freedom."
I will be certain to add here that two very Roman Catholic countries, Czechoslovakia and Italy, have been most honorable and shown great courage in protecting the Serbs. This is not an anti-Catholic post.
Deutsche Welle (03/19/04)....NATO Peacekeepers in Action in Kosovo
This was a week (3/19) ago. I'll do a little searching around to see if I can find something more detailed. Reading between the lines in the article above it seems like the familiar Russia-Serbia / Rest of the World standoff.
longjack
I found this commentary on the "Die Welt" site. I translated this, however, since the article is on a (free) members only page, you'll have to take my word on the fact that my translation mirrors the original German. Unless you're a (free) member, of course.
I found this commentary typical, somehow. Funny in a (real) sad way. I can actually visualize groups of people at the Stammtisch sanctimoniously parroting this same line.
After reading this you should understand the German perspective of the Kosovo situation, and that anything written previously about German behavior there is most likely accurate.
Here we go:
by Ulrich Clauss
Much speaks for the fact that the representatives of the United Nations in Kosovo are correct in their assessment that the murders of two UN policemen aren't directly connected with the most recent ethnic disturbances. Whoever is at the wrong place at the wrong time in Kosovo, even with an UN insignia on the hood, is just as less sure of his life as those on the Mitrovica Bridge where Serbian and Albanian hotheads went at each other to the hilt. Despite the still deep trenches between the ethnic parties in the region, devastated by three Balkan wars, the inhabitants have one thing is common, involvement in the rampant organized crime. The unresolved status of Kosovo, namely, has attracted every flavor of bandit and fortune hunter. With little fanfare the German Military has taken on the organized crime in Prizren with great skill. Their reports make your hair stand on end. Of course, as long as the European Union believes the question of Kosovo's status has to hang in the balance, little improvement, from a political order perspective, can be expected. Particularly, also, since one hears less about Kosovo as the hotbed of a European-wide network of organized crime than they do of the occasional flaring up of ethnic disturbances accompanied with a great deal of political bellowing. Drug pushers there are a danger for all of Southern Europe - and the terror-mafia there, as well.
As long as the status of Kosovo is not defined clearly, none of the problems there can be solved, because the authority questions are only provisionally in place and no tough security structures have been established. If Europe doesn't act soon, not only will the ethnic conflicts there increase again, but Kosovo and adjacent regions will definitely degenerate into the robbers' dens of South-eastern Europe, as well.
"Die Welt"..Commentary....Räuberhöhle
Membership login required (free)
Tranlated by longjack
longjack
Americans are fat and stupid and hedonistic. They never bother to learn a second language while most Europeans speak 3 even.
Russians are nice people but poor and stupid peasants who are superstitious. He said, and I can still hear him saying this today - "The Russians will never get anywhere".
The Russians and Serbs and the Orthodox church, because we resist westernization, because we skipped the Renaissance and had no Reformation, are considered backward.
Because we rely on a view of Christianity which emphasizes the soul, the heart, and a mystical personal communion with God, rather than rational, logical approaches ( which we actually deny as useful when it comes to knowing God), we are seen as ignorant.
So I truly believe in my heart that the Germans ( just as the rest of those who attempted to convert us, at times by the sword in the past) are just trying to lift we ignorant, superstitious peoples out of our backward swamp. But to stand by as ancient buildings were destroyed was unthinkable, and for that I can offer no excuse.
I, in my perhaps naive logic, would ask if the organized crime problem had always existed in Kosovo.
If the answer to that is false, then I would ask when it started.
If there were any conspicuous events that coincided with the start of the lawlessness (such as the influx of refugees with a history of such behavior in their land of origin), I would re-consider any blanket statements as to who was causing what.
There were German cities, at least in Rheinland-Pfalz, already complaining about law and order problems with their Albanian refugees in the late 90's 'fer crissakes. The author of the "Die Welt" commentary might as well be smoking what the Albanians have to offer if he doesn't know that.
I'm trying letting off a little steam, here. If I'm completely wrong about this, I wouldn't mind being told that, it may make me calm down a little.
longjack
Albania was having horrible depression and poverty and there was no requirement at all to move across the border into Kosovo. Additionally some many years ago, some of it had been part of a larger ( greater) Albania.
Typical of muslim expansionist approaches, they began to move into Kosovo and dilute the population to their own favor. Eventually they began to speak about take overs. I think the Serbs at some point were harsh in that they refused to allow them their own language in the schools, some thing along those lines.
After that I think it pretty much just became ugly. I hope that Joan can add something to this. This is the history as given to me by a young guy who had a website while we were bombing Kosovo five years ago, name of Voji. It was called something like Under the Gun. He would post each day during the bombing.
I am so envious. It is one of my dreams to get there before I die. Thanks for telling me about it.
This is of course, the significance of the entire issue.
Just as it is in Israel.
"I think it is a failure of the behavior of the people of Kosovo. We are not responsible for the behavior of the people of Kosovo," he told reporters.
Solana, you duplicitous son of a b*tch, tell the truth just once. The problem is with the Kosovo Albanians, who are doing exactly what anyone with a brain could have told you would happen if you prevented the Serbs from defending themselves.
They have been able to organize themselves quite well, you idiot!! They've organized to cleanse themselves of the serbs. The euros are going to be overrun by the muslims and they deserve it.
And, while I'm at it, I have become so allergic to the word "community"!! Anybody else?
Me!
The Serbs have been a pain the German butt's for a long long time. It was a Serb that started WW1 by assassinating a German (I consider Austria and Germany, German) Duke. The cause of the bad blood is German attempts a dominating the Slavic peoples. Hitlers murdering a million Serbs (with Albanian help) in WW2 didn't help things.
If Russian bombs Albania, I will send them a donation for their trouble.
Time to rethink our involvment in NATO. Do we really want to fight over the Balkins? I think not. Let the Russians and German fight over it, my money is on the Russians.
Additionally some many years ago, some of it had been part of a larger ( greater) Albania.
The more time anyone spends in former Yugoslavia, the more than someone sees how it all goes back to WWII. Have a look at this map (wait, and move your mouse, and a button to enlarge the map will appear at lower right). You'll notice the shaded "Occupied by Albania 1941-44" corresponds to the present "Greater Albania" map. Just as in the old Nazi days, most of Kosovo, plus chunks of Macedonia and a sliver of Montenegro are included.
During the WWII occupation, Serbs and Roma were slaughtered and driven from Kosovo by Nazi-allied Albanians. Tito did not allow the Serbs to return to their homes after the war and present boundaries had been established. (I honestly don't remember, if I ever knew, about the Roma, whatever Roma were left alive in 1945.) Meanwhile, Tito looked the other way as Albanians snuck out of Enver's insane gulag into Kosovo. Illegal immigration from Albania continued, of course, in the post-Tito years.
I'll let someone else take over for the poverty/autonomy/boycott issues. Got a headache. Also hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong here, add anything that should be added. I just wrote this from memory, didn't check any sources.
I do know from reaing the paper from Kaiserslautern in Southwestern, Germany, in the late 90's that there was a UCK criminality problem. The mayor, I think talked about it.
I was reading the paper more to get soccer scores, so I can't give all the details, other than remembering the criminality issues in Kaiserslautern and, I think, Mannheim.
When I was in Germany in the late 70's and the 80's Yugoslavia was a hot vacation spot. I really can't remember Yugoslavia having any where near even a thievery rap, let's say, like Italy had back then.
I'm sure the tourist areas were north of the Kosovo region, but even then, figuring organized crime would radiate toward tourist areas, there weren't any real criminal issues that I can remember.
Was there a point, that you can remember, when there was a turning point (if there was a turning point, that is), when the crime wave really became noticeable, say in the early 90's?
Thanks for the cordial introduction :>)
longjack
Organized crime is one of the nasty byproducts of a free market. In fact, organised crime is epitome of a deregulated free market economy. I imagine if free market reforms are inserted without matching it with an equal effort of curtailing organised crime, organised crime will gain a strong hold within that setting.
By removing the Serbian police from Kosovo and inserting the impotency of the international community's "rent-a-cop", organised Albanian crime has flourished.
Looking back, then, the commentary was correct as far as the structures necessary for bringing law and order aren't rigid enough to stop it.
Right now the foxes are in charge of the henhouse, and the EU, in this case Solano, are telling the hens that they're a major part of the problem.
It's probably time to let the hens defend themselves rather than have the UN pretend to do it for them. They'll do a better job.
longjack
There was crime in Albania, but I think it was mainly thievery. We were sternly warned not to wander over the border into Albania (crime in Albania was notorious at the time). Just two weeks before, a British tourist family had mistakenly crossed the border and were murdered by Albanian thieves, their car completely stripped. We nearly did the same, as we somehow wound up driving along an unpaved goat track in the mountains near the Kosovo-Alabania border, but the local people kindly helped us keep on track and inside the border.
The crime problems in Yugoslavia in the 90s had to do with economic problems, the sanctions (sanctions always spawn mafia activity in and around the target country), the civil wars. I don't know much about crime, if any, in the late 80s.
The turning point, as far as the organized crime concerning Albanians from Kosovo was around late 1997/early 1998, I think. Oh, here we go, I found this (from The San Francisco Chronicle:
The rise of Kosovar bosses to the pinnacle of the drug trade -- and the sudden, simultaneous appearance of the KLA -- dates from 1997, when the Berisha government fell in Albania amid nationwide rioting over a collapsed financial pyramid scheme that destroyed the savings of millions and wrecked the economy. In the unchecked looting that followed, the nation's armories were emptied of weapons, explosives and ammunition.
It's a long article with lots of info.You can read it here: KLA Linked To Enormous Heroin Trade Police suspect drugs helped finance revolt
Thanks again for your help and translations, and for taking an interest in the Balkans issues. :)
Right now, there is a will. I think, Putin is making careful steps at winning the hearts and minds first, without appearing interventionist while letting the Kosovo fiasco play itself out.
Besides, until recently, the Serbian government was completely oriented towards Washington and totally committed to desconstructing the nation into an amorphous non-entity palatable to the ilk at the International Crisis Group.
And Solana is just one of the many public figure jerks who will deny that anything he or his ilk do wrong is somehow their fault?
"Misanalyzied" the Kosovo Albanian thugs? Whose fault is that? These mental midgits who run public and political affairs nowadays are infantile enough to think that pouring money into soemthing will somehow spirtiually and culturally change it. "Buying peace" and "Buying friends" is their approach to "solutions" in the world.
The fact is, all these interventions are proving to be monumental failures, one after another, for creating death and desrtuction and solving nothing. In fact, these interventions have only created fertile grounds for further disruption, violence and death to come.
If someone needs a qualified person to do a simple job of leading a worker's party, or teaching a class, and turns out he or she who applied for the job is not qualified because he or she is incapable of controlling the workers or the children, and -- when questioned -- charge that "the fault is with the children in the class" there is something seriously mentally wrong with such a person.
Take for instance the incident of burning the mosque in Belgrade by angry mobs and the failure or unwillingness of the police to stop it. What did the Serbian authorities do? Simple: they fired the police chiefs on whose watch this happened! No one ever thought of saying the police chiefs are not at fault because the fault is with the mob!
BTW, Serbian youth organizations personally apologized to the mufti of Belgrade for the dispicable act of vandalism committed by some Serbs. They took the reponsibility of a small group upon their conscience to apologize. It is quite clear who is adult and who is not in this world. And it ain't career scumbags like Solana and his spineless ilk in the so-called international community.
Old German friendships, like Croatian nationalists, Slovene servitude, and so on. The WWII buddies -- the Nazi Veteran's Club is kept alive. The Germans never forgave the Serbs for spoiling their dreams in the 20th century.
History is very much alive and present in most of the world. Dismissing history and part of the present is what causes Americans to "misanalyze" these situations consistently. The old Latin saying says Historia est mater studiorum (history is a mother of learning). We are a product of our past experiences, individually and collectively.
And where is the West going? To Mars? Is that like a little bee going from a beehive to the next pranch on a tree? How significant is that compared to the rest of the earth?
It's that Western self-aggrandizement, deification of mankind, we can do anything and everything...really deep, and completely laughble and false.
The plain simple truth is, perhaps Russians will never go anythere, ...as they observe the German frantically running in an activity cage trying to convince the Russian that the German is actually going somewhere because he is running while the Russian is standing.
The UN is a total failure. Without the US totally in charge, everything they touch turns to.....well......you know.
This was the massive depression I was thinking of, the reason, supposedly, that they moved across the border in hordes.
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.
