Serbia threatens military action in Kosovo

Financial Times ^ | March 19 2004 | Eric Jansson, Judy Dempsey

[SJackson]

Eric Jansson in Belgrade and Judy Dempsey in Brussels

Serbia-Montenegro has threat- ened to take action in Kosovo if Nato troops fail to protect Serbs attacked by ethnic Albanians, potentially plunging the region back into instability and sparking a wider conflict.

Boris Tadic, Serbia's defence minister, said Belgrade reserved the right to change its hands-off approach in Kosovo where mob violence has raged since Wednesday. His statement is the first official admission that Serbia's trust in international peacekeepers has begun to fray.

Seven member states sent reinforcements for Nato's 18,000-strong Kfor force. About 150 British troops landed on Friday, the first of a promised 750 soldiers. Germany said it was sending more than 600 soldiers and France pledged an extra 400.

Vojislav Kostunica, Serbia's prime minister, has called the violence a "pogrom". Few Serbs accept claims from Kosovo Albanian leaders that the sudden surge in violence came about spontaneously. Bajram Rexhepi, the ethnic Albanian prime minister of Kosovo's provisional government, has urged rioters to stop. In a poll of Serbs, a quarter said Serbian military engagement was the only solution, and more than half said that should remain an option if diplomacy failed. Thousands of Serbs marched in Belgrade on Friday demanding an end to the violence.

The fighting, which left at least 31 dead and hundreds more wounded, has proved an overwhelming task for Kfor troops, which have reportedly fled some Serb communities under their protection in the face of heavy mob pressure. European diplomats said France was highly embarrassed about the violence. Under Kfor - established in 1999 after a United Nations Security Council resolution - French troops are responsible for the area around the northern town of Mitrovica, where the violence began. The diplomats said US and German intelligence experts had warned Nato weeks ago of the danger of ethnic unrest.

Concerns that the violence could spill into Macedonia, as it did in 2001, were played down by Macedonia's national security council, which said that no problems were evident. However, the burning of an orthodox church in a Muslim-dominated part of Bosnia on Friday indicated that trouble could spread elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia.

Additional reporting by Stefan Wagstyl in Bratislava

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

This time EUROPE can clean up this mess!

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

This time EUROPE can clean up this mess!

[Tamodaleko]

What I hear is that NATO troops are hosting around 1,500 Serbian citizens in their camps, and waiting for orders where to relocate them, since their homes and churches have been burned.

[FormerLib]

Leave it to the men at Bondsteel and they'll be fighting alongside the Serbs.

You're little loser Clinton got us into a quagmire and on the wrong side. That's what happens when you spend all your time committing adultery with pudgy interns.

[Seselj]

Serbs shouldn't need permission to do anything in their own country. Time to pull foreign troops out of Kosovo. They have proven they are not capable and/or willing to protect the people from terrorists.

[eleni121]

Mohameddans of any stripe - Albanian, Slav, Brit, or the imported variety - have no business in Europe period.

[CrucifiedTruth]

Kfor troops, which have reportedly fled some Serb communities under their protection

All Serbs should leave Kosovo. Why? Because NATO will never protect the Serbs. No matter French or American, they have orders not to shoot at Albanians unless in clear self defense. NATO is there to keep the Serbs disarmed and to arm and protect the Albanians. By staying in Kosovo, Serbs leave themselves open to provocations. So leave. Go to Serbia. Fortify her. There is more war coming. Soros owns Albania and after NATO hands down Kosovo to him, Serbia will be attacked again. The script has been rehearsed just 5 years ago. Don't worry about Kosovo - remember the Ottoman Empire! This wave will be pushed back too. Don't count on Russia, they are still weak. Don't count on US, they are being eaten from within. This is what NATO is going to say after the fact (each and every single one of them):

Liberal ME: That is tragic. I hope things do work out somehow.

Now is the time for sacrifice and patience. Be smart.

[don-o]

The muslims are burning Christian churches again

[SJackson]

What I hear is that NATO troops are hosting around 1,500 Serbian citizens in their camps, and waiting for orders where to relocate them, since their homes and churches have been burned.

Bet it won't be in Kosovo.

[greenwolf]

As I read it, we're sending troops into back-to-back tours of duty in Iraq.

That suggests a way to kill two birds with one stone: Take any remaining troops out of the Balkans, wish Serbia good luck in heaving the slammies, and put the Balkan troops into the rotation for Iraq.

In fact, that might kill three birds with one stone. It might do something to restore relations with Russia to boot.

[Hamiltonian]

I've heard barely a peep about it on the TV or radio news.

The DC bagmen for the Albanian lobby were smart enough to throw money in both directions. Klintoon's backers cashed in on the results of the war, but then again, so did Brown and Root.

Cultivation of islamic terrorism in the Balkans has been a result of throwing the ignorance of corrupt klintoonites and career DC bureaucrats at a complex problem. There were dire results.

However the benefactors of both parties cashed in on the immediate results of the Kosovo war. therefore, it will never be a partisan issue..........

[CrucifiedTruth]

Kosovo is a lost cause for the Serbs

Um, no. I never said that Kosovo is a lost cause. I just asked them to regroup around the border. Leave the men in Kosovo, the rest go to Serbia. The war is still to come.