NATO peacekeepers shot at in Kosovo

AlJazeera ^ | Sunday 11 July 2004

[vooch]

very interesting take on subject.............I would suggest that one not lose sight that local KLA commander... Buja ?....gangpressed....aka "collected volunteers"...from among the Racak villagers that day.

[Wraith]

They were very lucky it was not a grenade which is the weapon of choice in the Lipljan area. Considering the lethal type of arms in the area and all of Kosovo I would say somebody was sending a polite message to the local FIN KFOR to lay off hence just wounding them. Seen the same tactic in southern Croatia in 1993 when a Canadian APC was hit with an RPG. The shooter waited for the squad to exit first before firing. The Canadians its seems were doing a very good job of collecting weapons at mobile checkpoints. The Driver suffered blown ear drums, could have been a lot worse....

As for General Buja it will be interesting to see what Milosevic has to say about the KLA involvement at Racak. Shukri Buja has a lot of blood on his hands......

[wonders]

CPC: When I first read it, I thought the same. But then I re-read it and caught the shotgun part. Yes, this could happen, four people injured by a single blast from a shotgun. Load it up with salt if you mean no harm but find the critter or person a nuisance, with birdshot if you're mildly ticked off at the person/critter, and with buckshot if majorly ticked. Hence the Tennessee expression "I'll pepper your backside with buckshot if you ever come round here again."

Wraith: I agree, a warning.

[CPC]

OK Ladies and Gentlemen, before I put down numbers but they were off the top of my head, but now i have it in writing.

I have the total dead for Serbs and Albanians 24 hours before the Kosovo bombing commenced. These are the William Walkers OSCE final body count figures you will not find publicly disclosed.

Kosovo Dead:
Albanian:: 3685
Serbian:: 2962

[Destro]

If those figures are true the Serbs being a smaller % of the population suffered more casualties per capita then the Albanian "victims".

[CPC]

These numbers are true and accurate and if they are not, Wm Walker and his verifiers are lying.

[CPC]

If those figures are true the Serbs being a smaller % of the population suffered more casualties per capita then the Albanian "victims".

Albanian:: 3685 = .002% of population (1.890.000 albanian sources) .
Serbian:: 2962 = .014% of population.(210.000 albanian sources)

[quote sources]The OSCE report summarizes the balance-sheet of ethnic Albanian refugees as numbering 862,979. In a secluded footnote at the bottom of the main table, the report nonetheless acknowledges that: "In addition [to the 862,979 ethnic Albanian refugees], more than 100,000 Serb IDPs [Internally displaced persons] are estimated to have left Kosovo and to have been registered in Serbia and Montenegro". 3 Whereas ethnic Albanians (including those who fled to Montenegro) are categorized as "refugees", Serbs who fled Kosovo during the same period are casually identified as "Internally Displaced Persons". The figures for ethnic Albanians are very precise in contrast to those indicated for the Serbs in the footnote. The number of refugees belonging to other ethnic groups who fled the province during the bombings is not even acknowledged.

According to Kosovo Albanian sources, the Province had a total population of 2.1 million of which 90 percent are ethnic Albanians, 8 percent Serbs and 2 percent are other ethnic groups. Based on these figures (which are accepted both by NATO and the post-conflict KLA provisional government) there were an estimated 1.89 million ethnic Albanians and 168,000 Serbs in Kosovo. [/end quote sources]

[Hoplite]

These are the William Walkers OSCE final body count figures you will not find publicly disclosed.

And you're relying upon your unimpeachable veracity to carry you through this little exercise, are you?

Thanks for the laugh.

Still waiting to hear you explain how you were both part of EUCOM and the VRS, per your tag line, sport.

Get ma bell to help you - he's got something of the same problem.

[CPC]

Piker, these are Walkers numbers. Your fondness for him in the past is admirable. Now you dispute what he writes, gomer? Ping, now you pong back in this tiresome repititive bore you call...'lawwwgic'.

[Hoplite]

Piker, these are Walkers numbers.

According to you. And that's the problem - you're a big fat zero multiplier on anything you bring to the equasion that can't be independently verified.

Oh, and say "hi" to ma bell - I'm sure he'd love to hear about your whole Bosnia schtick. You two can trade war stories or something.

[CPC]

The information both parties brings are skewed in each others eyes. Unfortunately, the information you have on Racak is way off base. Too much clouds hovering all the secrecy behind the orignial reports, which you support the how many reports were finally done to back the claim of KFOR/NATO? Why weren't the Serbian reports admonished?

History has a course of showing that truth supplants all lies with time and we are witnessing those lies being exposed (ahem, SM trial).

Then again, those lies revealed do not mean much now as actions, results and damage has been done.

The solution to rectify those errors will bring harsher re-actions down the road. So, the policymakers devising these plans look short-term, not long-term since they do not have to Till the soil, work the lands for their livelyhood so they don't care.

When the effected parties try to work out solutions, the answers are resolved through short-term bloodshed. That is acceptable as that does prevent further bloodletting which is what will occur this later this decade.

Therefore, you and your ilk do not have any credence to truth-telling as it does not serve your agenda.

So be it......

[Hoplite]

Who said anything about Racak?

Besides, don't you think it a bit odd that you're willing to suspend disbelief in regards to the purported OSCE casualty numbers you're pushing while being firmly set against accepting the OSCE's report on Racak?

X * 0 = 0

And get a dictionary already. It's embarrassing.

[CPC]

Racak and Kosovo are intertwined as one, regardless how dense you are.

I believe these numbers as reported by OSCE. Why aren't these numbers publicly announced and then addressed, Hoplite?

If they reported that the KLA was killing their own muslims, forcing Albanians to leave their villages and making them hide up in the wet cold windy mountains, covering up facts that Serbs were escorting Albanians to Crna Gora and Serbia (outside of the Kosovo region), Serbs were doing drug-interdicting runs, stemming the flow of illegal arms, drugs and human trafficking into Serbia from Albania and the list goes on...need more?

Contradicting what was reported to begin the Air Campaign was not an option(i.e Holbrooke, Clarke, Albright i.e). It is not good politics with their eyes focused on 2004 Elections.

I support these numbers and do I ever! My disbelief? YES! I figured the numbers were higher on both sides. My sources were a bit outside on the Kosovo information.

Racak was a prefrabicated set up as OSCE/Walker had less then 48 hours to prepare.

You think with that little time to lay the physical groundwork it wouldn't be difficult to make mistakes, with Walker dealing with the KLA, who are sloppy to begin with. The storyline was good and noteworthy of an Emmy nomination, but evidence on the ground was the breaking point in tearing down the lies.

The Racak event began when it was well known the Serbian MUP was preparing to take down a major KLA figure and Racak was the place. Figuring with all the bad press the MUP was recieving, disclosure of this operation was announced to OSCE and reporters for coverage. Now, why the hell would they kill in wonton fashion? Isn't that the KLA M.O? It is quiete easy to dispell the Albanian victimhood, just read the KLA/Albanian modern history.

X=(|^|) = Hoplite

[joan]

But what time frame does that cover: all of 1998 and the first few months of 1999 before the bombing, or does it include the entire KLA uprising which goes back to 1997 or 1996?

[Peach]

Do you have the number of US soldiers killed in Kosovo? I'm looking for an approximate number to write a letter to the editor regarding this matter.

Thanks for any help you can give me. I've done a google search, etc.

[vooch]

Even those numbers are wildly exagerated since they rely heavily on the KLA front group "Center for Defense of Human Rights and Freedom"

[vooch]

It must cover all deaths ( combatant, non-combatant, death from old age, etc) for a period of many years.

Note that when Hoplite and I were reviewing the detailed stats for KosMet, we arrived at less than 200 civilians killed in all of 1998

[joan]

I know there was a memorial to the US soldiers, perhaps as part of a memorial to all peacekeepers who had died in Kosovo, and it was posted on here, but I can't find it. The number of US soldiers, I believe, was like 17 or 19. Hoplite, however, had a name they overlooked.

The total for all peacekeepers, that they've official announced, was 99 as of late May 2003.

In Kosovo alone, 99 peacekeepers from various countries of the world died over the past four years.

[Peach]

Thank you so very much!

[joan]

Found the post I was thinking of from June 2002. The number of US soldiers, who are named (see the link: KFOR unveils memorial to those who died serving as Kosovo peacekeepers).

They list 13 soldiers 2 years ago, but Hoplite has one they missed. So it was 14 as of June 2002.

"Also, the Stars and Stripes omits GM2C Burkhart, 11/24/00."

posted on 06/14/2002 3:19:57 PM PDT by Hoplite