Long before the crap hit the fan in Kosovo I worked with a woman from Albania here in Chicago. It was 1994 and I had just gotten back from Kosovo. She was very adament about me not equating Kosovo Albanians with Albanians from Albanian. She went on and on about her disdain for Kosovo Albanians (I won't repeat what she said here because much of it was over-generalized and borderline racist). It was at that time that I realised that there were vast differences between Kosovo Albanians and those from the homeland. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. The differences between Croatian Serbs, Bosnian Serbs, Kosovo Serbs and Belgrade Serbs is often as different as Kentucky Americans, California Americans and New York Americans.
You'd never know it by reading the official line by America's corporate media, State Department reports, or Free Republics resident Serbophobes though.
My parents village in albania didnt even allow Kosovar refugees to set up camps there let alone support them in a sepratist war. Sure the Serb Paramilitary committed crimes but little is said about the KLA radicalizing the conflict to draw in international support. Where are the news about the KLA killing albanians and driving them from homes or their drug running operations?
Make no mistake, i do not condone what Serbia did. There were other ways to handle it, but i will NEVER support Kosovo independence at the hands of a violent seperatist movement that started it.