Posted on 11/29/2007 8:49:04 AM PST by Bokababe
WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Predicting tough times ahead, the NATO commander in Kosovo called on Wednesday for clear guidance on how his force should act if the Serbian province declares independence as expected.
French Lt. Gen. Xavier de Marnhac also said the problem of tense relations between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority and Serb minority would eventually reach a "biological end" as the average age of the Serbs was much older.
Ethnic Albanians and Serbs failed in three days of talks in Austria to reach an agreement on Kosovo's final status, mediators said on Wednesday. Leaders of the 90 percent Albanian majority are preparing to declare independence within months.
De Marnhac said his KFOR peacekeeping force was prepared for a rise in tensions but declared: "It's going to be tough and to expect to do that without breaking eggs, forget it. We will definitely break some eggs."
Speaking by videolink from Pristina, he said: "We need, from a military perspective, to have a very clear understanding on what is the international community intent here in Kosovo."
He said this was particularly true for the Serb-dominated north if Serbs and the Serbian government refused to accept the authority of an ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo government.
Western powers are widely expected to accept Kosovo independence under European Union supervision. But Belgrade, backed by Russia, insists Kosovo should remain part of Serbia.
The province, with a population of around 2 million, has been under U.N. administration since NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to end Serb repression of ethnic Albanians.
At the briefing organized by the Atlantic Council of the United States in Washington, de Marnhac said the Serbian government had exerted increasing influence in the administration of Serb areas of Kosovo.
He said it appeared Belgrade was considering "some kind of separate ruling of these areas."
POLICING GAP
De Marnhac also said he was worried there could be a gap in the capabilities of Kosovo's international police force while it made the transition from a U.N. to an EU mission.
"Any gap that might happen in the changing of the international police presence here in Kosovo is a major concern for me," he said.
Albanian riots erupted in Kosovo in March 2004, killing 19 people and catching NATO flat-footed.
Asked if he had requested more troops for his 16,000-strong force, de Marnhac said he could call on reserve forces outside Kosovo but had not done so yet. One such battalion was conducting mission rehearsals in Kosovo now, he said.
In his briefing, de Marnhac also noted the average age of Kosovo's Albanians was 28, while the figure for Serbs was 54.
"In the mid to long term there will be some kind of biological end to the problem here because, you know, one of the population(s) will simply disappear," he said. (Editing by David Wiessler)
Death to Xavier de Marnhac!
America’s future in a microcosm.
So we drove out over 200,000 non-Albanians who want to return but aren't allowed to, so that NATO's final solution for Christian Serbs in Kosovo can "reach a biological end and disappear".
This is like watching the crowd scream to "save Barabbas" and let our Lord die.
Americans were more in the dark about Kosovo than about Iraq. I tried to read some history, but it was hard to sort out at the time. A lot of the genocide turned out to be lies imo, and there was just as much on the other side. I've since read more. The Albanians who worked in electric plants were sabotaging them on a regular basis and other provocations. How do you deal with that? It was not a good time leading up to it for the Serbs.
No, we certainly weren't out of there like we were told. There is no end in sight to it either.
And that will solve nothing. What gets me is how calmly they talk about genocide and no one starts screaming their head off; it's like watching the Nazis, calmly and coolly, discussing methods for destroying an entire race of people, as though it is an accomplishment.
“Serb minority would eventually reach a “biological end” as the average age of the Serbs was much older”
Nature is both cruel and pure. If you don’t make babies, you cease to exist.
Yes, it will remove a Nazi-like evil person and Serb-hater. Each one goes down is a reason to celebrate because each one as an individual causes harm (their talk, their plots, their actions - no telling all the measures he's implemented and his talk about "breaking eggs" probably means killing those Serbs (in their own homeland) in his way) - has their imput in all the millions of stabs directed at Serbs. And even one less is better than nothing.
The Kosovo situation is such that Serbs don't have opportunities to raise a family safely and have little hope for the future - THAT is why there's this older population. Many, many young families and children have fled to Serbia or abroad (if they could). Kosovo Serbs actually had larger families than other places.
And this guy simply talking about Serbs dying as ending the "problem" is similar to Nazi talke about the solution to the Jewish problem. The guy is a neo-Nazi.
What an idiotic post. The man states an obvious demographic fact, and you go nuts.
You seem to forget that the young people fled and can't return because of how NATO and guys like him have made it for ethnic Serbs and other non-Albanians.
You have no clue of the evil of guys like him, and yes he - the old grayhead (biological fact of his aging) and his ilks deaths will make problems go away as well.
He's just another evil plain-looking old man implementing policies to kill selected peoples and cultures.
Yeah and you can just sit back contentedly on your haunches, as I see the suffering of Serbs and agenda against them doesn't bother you a bit. Go read your biological factbooks if that is all you get from his statement - I see much more in it in the entire background of what is going on which you just don't understand and probably won't ever.
The man stated a demographic fact. You went nuts. The problem is yours, not his.
Stick around for the third act in this world play:
“The province, with a population of around 450 million, has been under U.N. administration since NATO bombed North America in 2099 to end North American repression of ethnic Mexicans.”
In the old communist system, the more prosperous people were forced to pay for the Albanian baby-making problem so that they could not afford to have more children themselves. (Kosovo Albanians still have the highest birthrate in Europe). Then when communism finally came to an end, and the Albanians were in a majority, they killed, bullied and intimidated more Serbs to leave. Milosevic tried to stop that exodus by brutally cracking down on Albanian separatists -- Milosevic's methods may have been harsh, but this was the one place where he wasn't completely wrong in his intentions. (If you read the arrest warrant for Hashim Thaci, the recently elected Kosovo Albanian Prime Minister, you'll understand why Milosevic cracked down on them.) Finally NATO came long to finish off the job, not allowing the younger Serbs to return to Kosovo after the bombs drove them out.
For this NATO General to tout the complete destruction of Serbs in Kosovo as "the final biological solution to the problem" is so cruel, cold and evil and that it is enough to drive anyone "nuts".
But where I disagree with Joan, is that this NATO General is not "the problem"; he is nothing more than "a symptom of the problem" because when he dies, there will just be someone to take his place. It is the entire Nazi-like thinking and ideology that is the real problem and reaches across Europe and into our own government, here. Otherwise, President Bush wouldn't be kissing Muslim Albanian butt and pushing for what he knows will be the final end to Christianity in Kosovo.
If our civilization ever manages to survive the period of time we are currently living through, this period will likely be called "The Demographic Wars", because we are having the same problem here in the US, and this problem isn't likely to happen peacefully here, either.
What's not coming across to you is that joan is a loon.
It's hard not to "go nuts" when you have seen what we have seen. The chasm between reality and what is being sold as "reality" is so enormous that it is harder not to "fall in" than you know. You try to live in a world where "black" is now supposedly "white", and "good" is supposedly "evil" and when you point it out, you are called "nuts".
My education is in Behavioral Science and trust me, you can drive a sane person crazy when you turn their core beliefs in good and evil upside down. It's the reason that I have to walk away from this once and while to smell the rose, lest I completely lose it too. But different personalities handle things, differently.
Are you not reading the posts...they seem pretty clear to me...you sound predisposed against the Serbs...right.
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