Kosovo Liberation Army Terror Squad loses one of it's foremost American cheerleaders

As is customary when a known person dies, it is appropriate to look back on their record and consider their legacy. Though the legacy of Lantos, unfortunately, may turn out to have a permanent impact on the future, as is often the case, he will not be around to face the consequences of his "misguided" activism and policies. Aleksandra Rebic

CONGRESSMAN TOM LANTOS ON THE OUTLOOK FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF KOSOVA (The Islamic Spelling of Serbia's Kosovo.)

HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION APRIL 17, 2007

It was some 20 years ago that I visited Kosova, and, as a huge crowd was gathering around the hotel where my wife and I met with Kosova leaders, at the edge of this vast group of people, policemen were beating up men, women and children for no reason whatsoever.

I have followed closely and intensely developments in this last region of the former Yugoslavia for years with numerous trips and with constant attention. And I am pleased beyond words that we have reached the point where the distinguished former President of Finland has come forward with a proposal which, reading Secretary Burns’ testimony with great care, the administration supports, I support and I believe all rational people on both sides will support...

In the 1990s, the people of Kosova lived a nightmare that only NATO intervention could end. They have since awakened from the horror of ethnic cleansing. But today they are living in a state of suspended animation-free from the repression from the past, but haunted by the possibility of its return and uncertain about their future security in their own land.

For Kosova, there can be no freedom without independence. And for the international community, there is no acceptable solution other than independence. The issue here is not the ethnic solidarity of any other nation with any group in Kosova. The issue is fundamental justice and the best hope for peace, stability and prosperity in the Balkans.

This is the moment to put a war torn past behind us. For the Kosovars, it is the moment when centuries of imposed rule from far-away empires and nearby dictators must come to an end...

Clearly this is not a perfect solution. I would have preferred something different. But there is no better settlement in sight; there is no more time to wait. The strong support of the United States—its unwillingness to accept anything less than a vote for independence by other members of the Security Council—is absolutely critical. For Kosova there can be no freedom without independence.

The fate of Kosova represents a broad and fundamental issue: The realization of full self-determination in former satellite nations forced behind an iron curtain of artificial borders enforced by authoritarian rule.

Under the rule of Tito, Kosovars were accorded only semi-autonomous status. They were not recognized as a full republic with the Yugoslav federation, but were an acknowledged province within the Republic of Serbia. They were not accorded the limited sense of nationhood given to Bosnian Muslims and Croatian Catholics.

From the mid 1990s on, as the old Yugoslavia fractured under the pressure of new demands for freedom and national recognition, the United Nations and the international community recognized the independence of all the former Yugoslav republics that chose or won their sovereignty: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and, most recently, Montenegro. By population and any other set of criteria, Kosova was equally entitled to full independence and sovereignty. But it alone was excluded from the process of self-determination.

Those who are trapped in the past or yearn to repeat the bygone era of political divisions in Central Europe and the Balkans continue to suggest that, in effect, Kosova ought to be reintegrated into Serbia in both name and reality.

Serbia smashed any hope for this solution in 1999 when it carried out its vicious, systematic, brutal and premeditated ethnic cleansing directed against the Albanian majority in Kosova. No one who watched the news coverage in those days can forget the wrenching scenes of Albanian refugees desperately fleeing the marauding Serbian troops—old women, tiny children, men frantically trying to save their families.

The tide of history cannot be turned back. Serbia has lost all legitimacy to assert sovereignty over Kosova. It not only failed to protect the rights of the Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the population of Kosova; it also actively sought to drive out the Albanians.

NATO’s bombing finally stopped the ethnic cleansing of Kosova and stemmed the massive flow of refugees being driven from their own homes and their own land. Since then, the United Nations has worked to keep the peace and rebuild the burned out homes and shattered lives of the Kosovars. The challenge has been to ease local tensions, to convince both sides to come to the table and to reach a lasting solution.

The United Nations and the European Union deserve our respect for their determination and their success thus far. We have seen 8 years of relative peace despite pressure from militant elements.

At no time during this past 8 years has the proposition that Kosova should remain part of Serbia been even a thinkable option under consideration by the international community. From the start, the U.N. stewardship was designed to serve as a transition to full independence. And everyone in the international community knew that.

Now is the time to end the remaining uncertainty. Only fully recognizing and implementing the independence of Kosova will permit the political and economic development that will lead to stability and prosperity. And only independence can help heal the wounds of a war-ravaged region.

Ethnic Albanians comprise some 90 percent of the population of Kosova, yet their international status remains in limbo. They again await the recognition from the international community that their neighbors have enjoyed for many years. For them, there is no freedom without independence.

If we mean what we say about self-determination and democracy, if we are truly ready to finish the job of liberation we started when NATO intervened in 1999, if we want to see the final defeat of Slobodan Milosevic’s hateful project, and if we hope to avoid a relapse into ethnic tension and terror in this part of the world, the entire world must recognize Kosova as an independent nation...

....Let me just raise a few items, Mr. Secretary. The first one, just a reminder to the predominantly Muslim-led governments in this world that here is yet another example that the United States leads the way for the creation of a predominantly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe. This should be noted by both responsible leaders of Islamic governments such as Indonesia and also for jihadists of all color and hue. The United States’ principles are universal, and in this instance the United States stands foursquare for the creation of an overwhelmingly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe...

It was some 20 years ago [1987] that I visited Kosova (sic), and, as a huge crowd was gathering around the hotel where my wife and I met with Kosova (sic) leaders, at the edge of this vast group of people, policemen were beating up men, women and children for no reason whatsoever.

Mr. Lantos... Some people look, but do not see, they do not understand! Slobodan Milosevic also saw a vast group of people. It was Albanian Policemen [that] were beating up Serb men, women and children for no reason whatsoever.

"In April 1987, Slobodan Milosevic, who had been elected Chairman of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia in 1986, traveled to Kosovo...

The Kosovo Police [etnic albanians] had begun beating people in the crowd with clubs, and the crowd defended itself by throwing rocks at the police. Milosevic and Balevic went outside to see what the commotion was about, as they were coming out the door, some people came up to Milosevic and told him that the police were beating them. Milosevic responded to those people by saying, “nobody should beat you.”

Milosevic did not address this remark to the entire crowd; he did not have a loudspeaker to address the crowd. He was only speaking to the people who were talking to him.

When he saw what the situation was, he had a loudspeaker set up and he addressed the crowd. He asked the crowd to calm down, and the situation calmed down. There was no battle cry, all Milosevic did was appeal for calm.

A joint investigation conducted by provincial, republican, and federal authorities determined that the police had provoked the incident, by beating-up people [Serbs] in the crowd who hadn’t done anything wrong."

So, Mr. Lantos... what you saw were Serbs being beaten by Albanian Policemen. But what those policemen did to the Serbs that night pales compared to what you inflicted upon them. May you rot in Hell!

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