Posted on 06/12/2004 11:06:25 PM PDT by Jane_N
11 June 2004 – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Ambassador Kai Eide of Norway to investigate the wave of ethnic violence that roiled Kosovo in mid-March, leaving 19 people dead, hundreds injured and many homes and Serbian religious and cultural sites damaged or destroyed.
Ambassador Eide has been tasked with probing the political implications of the violence between ethnic Albanians and Serbs and recommending ways in which the province’s residents can live together again peacefully.
The appointment of an investigator follows a pledge made in April by Mr. Annan in his regular report to the Security Council on the work of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
In that report, Mr. Annan said “the onslaught led by Kosovo Albanian extremists against the Serb, Roma and Ashkali communities of Kosovo was an organized, widespread, and targeted campaign.”
At least 3,000 people, mostly Serbs, were driven from their homes or had to evacuate them during two days of riots and attacks starting 17 March. The violence followed the drowning deaths of three Albanian children a day earlier.
UNMIK described the violence as some of the worst since it took control of the province in June 1999, when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) drove Yugoslav troops out amid fighting between the Albanian and Serbian communities. Kosovo’s permanent future status remains yet to be determined.
Ambassador Eide and a team of aides are expected to begin work on the inquiry in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, next week.
Meanwhile, Harri Holkeri, the outgoing head of UNMIK and Special Representative of the Secretary-General, yesterday described the March violence as “a big setback” as he looked back on his 10 months of service in the province.
In a farewell press conference following his resignation last month, Mr. Holkeri warned “there may still be difficult days ahead” as some people try to undermine peace efforts and called on the people of Kosovo to “reject extremism, reject division, and listen to their responsible leaders.”
At the same time, he noted that much progress had been achieved before the recent clashes. “Kosovo had no functioning institutions when the UN arrived here [in 1999], but, since then, three elections have been organized and Kosovo now has a functioning government and an elected assembly.”
No kidding Harri. And don't let the door hit you on the way out.
What the hell is there to probe? The Albanian Muslims want each and every Kosovo Christian exterminated. Duh.
Maybe we should be glad that he is a Norwegian. Albanians are very unpopular here in Norway these days due to what they do best which includes 'criminal activities.' And were recently described by the justice minister as a threat to state security.
clinton Legacy Bump!
Much more getting over the Slobo hangover than the Clinton legacy.
Such as their elected Christian President, Rugova? This is a conflict between Serbs & Albanians, not Christians and Muslims. On the Kosovar Albanian side there are numerous Christians--mostly Albanian Catholics--to include among their elected leaders. And during the 1999 conflict there was a mix of Kosovar and expat Albanian Sunni, Catholic, Bektashi, Orthodox, and irreligious in the KLA. On the Serb side, until recently you had Milosevic as the leader and he was not a Christian (have read both that he was an atheist and that he was simply irreligious--not sure which is correct). Then the Serb allies in Kosovo--the Gorani, Ashkali, & Roma--are almost all Muslim.
Serb apologists work very hard at trying to gain international sympathy, especially from the USA, by portraying their wars with their neighbors as some sort of Christian versus Muslim conflict. That portrayal is belied by the Chrisitanity of many of the Serb opponents and the essentially non-Christian character of many Serb actions. Here are some recent threads discussing those points: link and link
Wonder if this guy is related to Hans Blix?
Tell that to the Jews, Roma, and non-Muslim Albanians who have been attacked, murdered, or driven from their homes in Kosovo. They might find the thought amusing.
The narco-terrorists made some excellent investments in Western PR firms to flood the market with their propaganda. To this day, we still hear the same old tripe being repeated as the truth.
Their current fixation is to redefine the conflict as only being a Serb vs. Albanian conflict (having vilified the Serbs to the unknowing) as they are very aware of the fact that this is really a "radical Muslim vs. everyone else" conflict and that the Serbs and the US are fighting the same enemy.
There is a lot of evidence that the KLA plotted numerous times to murder Rugova.
It is a fact that virtually anyone who holds leadership positions in Rugova's party gets murdered, presumably by the KLA
While I agree that the overall conflict is primarily an ethnic one, not a religious one, a few points for those who are not Balkans regulars and may be confused by your post:
The ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo is less than 7% Catholic.
Rugova is LDK. The narco-terrorist KLA is the problem -- to their own people as well as everyone else.
thanks for the calrification, let's hope Mark502 sees also
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