Posted on 02/28/2005 10:07:37 PM PST by jb6
Mark, just one clarification on the "albanians lost autonomy under Milosevic". Albanians VOTED for changes! The video of that famous session was shown as evidence in the Hague in defense of Milosevic.
After the voting everyone was clapping hands and cheering! Albanians included!
Those unsatisfied in the parliament (Albanian parties) had a right to oppose such changes, and then everything would have been matter of referendum.
No Albanian party EVER asked for referendum.
I'm not sure if transcript from when this video was shown in Hague, is available online at Hague’s website. It may be good to check.
Yugoslavians murdered Muslims....probably...but most often iin retaliation for egregious and blatant barbarous murder of Serbs !!!
Look up your own military intelligence instead of seeing a hair on the elephant and thinking you are an expert on pashyderms...
search Lt Col. John Sray....you are mistaken or deluded or an apologist ...pick one....
Return Kosovo to Serbia or continue to reward Islamic fascists....Chamberlain and Petain and Quisling would be proud of the leftist organized appeasement b eing shown here today
This is true.....back the left where it is always open season on any form of Christian culture....back the fascists and doom the West...go ahead....Clinton/Albright/Rubin showed you how...continue their despicable work
C'mon Nennsy - that was after Milosevic had purged the Albanian members of the parliament the previous November, and had seen three of his picked Albanian replacements attempt to resign. (Well, they did resign, but their resignations were rescinded against their wishes).
To attempt to portray the Kosovar Albanians as being supportive of what happened on 3/23/89 is utter nonsense. Knock it off.
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
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Paragraph 71 of the Tribunal’s indictment against Milosevic reads as follows:
“On 23 March 1989, the Assembly of Kosovo met in Pristina and, with the majority of Kosovo Albanian delegates abstaining, voted to accept the proposed amendments to the constitution. Although lacking the required two-thirds majority in the Assembly, the President of the Assembly nonetheless declared that the amendments had passed. On 28 March 1989, the Assembly of Serbia voted to approve the constitutional changes effectively revoking the autonomy granted in the 1974 constitution.”
These claims made by Serbia’s critics and by the Hague indictment are simply wrong, and Mr. Jokanovic came to court with the documents and video tapes to prove that.
The Kosovo Assembly met on March 23, 1989, and it voted to adopt the constitutional amendments. There were 190 members of the Kosovo assembly, 187 members were present and the vote broke down as follows: 175 in favor, 10 against, 2 abstained, and 3 not present.
The assembly members voted by raising their hands and this was recorded on a video tape, which was played during Jokanovic’s testimony. The vote was also recorded in the stenographic notes of the assembly session, which were also produced to the court as exhibits.
Therefore, the indictment is simply wrong when it says that the Albanian deputies abstained and that there was not the necessary two-thirds needed to pass the amendments.
Jokanovic testified that the members of the Kosovo assembly were elected by municipal boards throughout Kosovo. He said that over 70% of the members (142 to 143 out of 190 members) were Albanians in 1989 when the vote was taken.
In addition to the video tape of the Kosovo assembly session, and the stenographic notes, there were 180 journalists present at the assembly session.
Jokanovic brought newspaper clippings to court with him, both from the Serbian press and from the Albanian press. These press clippings confirmed what was seen in the video tape and what was recorded in the stenographic notes. The amendments passed the Kosovo assembly by a very wide margin with 175 out of 190 members voting in favor of the constitutional amendments.
In fact the assembly members all stood up and applauded when the speaker of the parliament (who was Jokanovic himself at the time) announced that the votes had been tabulated and the amendments passed. Pictures of these cheering assemblymen were published in the media, and this could also be seen on the video tape.
Jokanovic refuted false testimony from Ibrahim Rugova who claimed that the Yugoslav Army surrounded the Kosovo Assembly building with tanks in order to force the members to vote for the amendments. None of the press clippings from Albania said anything about tanks, and Jokanovic said that there were no tanks. He just strolled right up to the assembly building as normal on that day.
Jokanovic testified that the amendments were passed with the full support of the Yugoslav authorities. Had they not been supported by the Yugoslav government, they would have been struck down.
Azem Vllasi, who wasn't going to go along with the program, was arrested at the beginning of March and held for 5 months to keep him out of Milosevic's way. Charged with "counterrevolutionary activity, destruction of brotherhood and unity, and destroying the economic base of the country", he was honored with yet another bogus charge while in custody - that of being the moral author of the deaths of 24 Kosovo Albanians killed in the rioting which took place throughout Kosovo as a result of its autonomy being stripped.
The tragedy of this particular episode is that the US Ambassador at the time, John Scanlan, tried to talk some sense into Milosevic as far as keeping Vllasi in place, thereby keeping available the option of working with a Yugoslav-oriented Albanian.
But Slobo would not so do, and dismissed the suggestion out of hand, thereby showing his cards.
The rest, being the Slovenian and Croatian reaction to the stripping of Kosovo's autonomy, is, as they say, history.
The worst part about this is thanks to Clinton we were lock step with the UN.
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