Posted on 03/18/2008 10:27:02 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PRISTINA, Kosovo - The United Nations accused Serbian officials Tuesday of complicity in the violence in northern Kosovo that left a U.N. policeman from Ukraine dead and dozens of people hurt.
Larry Rossin, the deputy U.N. administrator for Kosovo, told reporters in Pristina that "it is clear to us that the violence ... was orchestrated."
At the very least, Rossin said, Serbia's government failed to use its influence to prevent ethnic Serbs in Kosovo from launching the attacks, which left more than 60 U.N. and NATO forces and 70 Kosovo Serb protesters wounded.
The U.N. pulled out of the Serb-dominated part of Kosovska Mitrovica because of Monday's violence. Additional U.S. troops trained in riot control were sent to reinforce NATO peacekeepers stationed in Kosovo's north, a NATO official said.
Serbia's "interventions or lack of interventions with those who are causing these problems" are hindering U.N. operations in the Serb-dominated region of Kosovo, Rossin said.
"We've never had what we could consider a clear and unambiguous denunciation of this kind of violence from the ministers or indeed any other Belgrade government official that I can think of," he said.
Rossin called "objectionable" some of the statements made by Serbia's government minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, when Samardzic was in Kosovska Mitrovica on Monday.
Samardzic told protesters that "we will protect you just like we protect the Serbs in Serbia" and "we will reach the goal only if we are patient, smart and organized and if we believe in what we want to accomplish."
A senior Serbian government official dealing with Kosovo, Dusan Prorokovic, refused to comment on the accusations against Samardzic.
"All we have been doing is trying to calm the situation," Prorokovic said.
Serbian President Boris Tadic said Tuesday that his country will never agree to Kosovo's independence, and renewed talks under the authority of the United Nations are the only way to reach a compromise.
Serbia recalled its ambassador to Japan Tuesday after Tokyo recognized Kosovo's independence. On Tuesday, Canada became the latest nation to recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
Serb demonstrators traded gunfire with international peacekeepers Monday and attacked them with rocks, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails as police removed protesters from inside a U.N. courthouse.
The policeman from Ukraine who died in the clashes was identified as 25-year old Ihor Kynal. He died of injuries suffered from a hand grenade thrown by a protester.
"He basically bled to death," said Larry Wilson, the top U.N. police official in Kosovo. "Because of the gunfire it took us almost two and a half hours to evacuate him."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called "on all parties to refrain from violence and to engage in a constructive dialogue and work together to promote security and stability in Kosovo," said his spokeswoman, Michele Montas.
Britain's U.N. Ambassador John Sawers said, "What we saw yesterday showed the lengths to which some people ... in the Kosovo Serb community are prepared to go."
"The great bulk of Kosovo is calm and the majority of the Serb community are getting on with their lives. But there seem to be those who are deliberately stoking trouble in the north of Kosovo because they seem to want to see violence, they seem to want to have a confrontation," he said.
A Serb demonstrator who was shot in the head was in a coma. The U.N. in Kosovo said Tuesday that 41 more injured policemen were still being treated.
The top NATO commander in Kosovo said Tuesday the peacekeepers used "appropriate force" and warned that the 16,000 strong force showed it would not give in to violence.
"Don't put us in a position to show it again," Lt. Gen. Xavier Bout de Marnhac said.
Predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo has been under U.N. control since 1999, when NATO launched an air war to stop Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
Serbia, which considers the territory its historic and religious heartland, says Kosovo's declaration of independence was illegal under international law.
"We will fight until we die. This is Serbia and we will not let it go," said Milanka Sridic, a Serb resident of Kosovska Mitrovica. "Kosovo is Serbia forever. They cannot do anything to us."
On the other side of the divided city, ethnic Albanian residents accused the Serbs of seeking to destabilize Kosovo and the entire Balkans.
"They are trying to start another war," said Avni Kastrati, an ethnic Albanian. "It is not Kosovo they want, they want trouble in the region, like always."
More UN B.S.
I am hard pressed to name a single UN mission hat was a success..
The NATO commander sounds like he is ready to rumble..
—
The top NATO commander in Kosovo said Tuesday the peacekeepers used “appropriate force” and warned that the 16,000 strong force showed it would not give in to violence.
“Don’t put us in a position to show it again,” Lt. Gen. Xavier Bout de Marnhac said.
Well, the "ethnic" Albanian residents have it wrong.
Specifically, the individuals that are destabilizing the the Balkans are EU and US bureaucrats. More specifically, those individuals in the US State Department.
how come the piaps has never been asked about bj’s war...that her co-president injected the US into on the wrong side of the conflict????
Its like being raped, and when you go to the police rapist familly accuses you of disturbing the peace...
Surreal.
“The United Nations accused Serbian officials Tuesday of complicity in the violence in northern Kosovo . . .”
Okay, so Serbia has had all it’s governmental agencies removed; its policemen executed, ethnically cleansed, or fired and even medicine Serbia has sent can’t get through UNMIK.
But *they* are responsible for the civil state of Kosovo? You take on the administration, you take on the responsibility.
UNMIK, KFOR and the KLA rule with iron fists, UNMIK, KFOR and the KLA are responsible. Serbia took control of the protests in Belgrade very quickly and restored order.
It’s not just the Serbs. There was a shootout in Pristina, which *won’t* get reported anywhere. http://www.b92.net/eng/news/crimes-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=03&dd=18&nav_id=48582
Advice to Arabs
The U.S. envoy to Kosovo is urging Arab governments to invest in Europe’s newest Muslim-majority nation.
Ambassador Frank G. Wisner called on the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to build on its statement of support issued after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17.
“I think Kosovars are ready for that and want it,” Mr. Wisner told America.gov, a U.S. State Department Web site.
Mr. Wisner, a former ambassador to India, the Philippines and Zambia, as well as to the OIC, argued that Kosovo is a good place for foreign investment.
“It’s a good investment in the future,” he said. “It’s a profitable investment in terms of the eventual economic evolution of southeastern Europe, and I hope a strong economic signal will accompany a political signal.”
He argued that the creation of the Kosovo republic has implications beyond Europe.
“To be able to secure a Muslim-majority state inside the European whole is a terrific signal that the Muslim world and the non-Muslim word can live side by side in peace and cooperation, one with the other,” he said.
“I believe that for most of the Muslim world, it’s very important that one looks at [Kosovo] as a matter of justice.”
Shame on those non-cooperative Serbs for not wanting a muslim country on their land. We will have to show them!!!
At the very least, the UN has failed to use its influence to prevent the EU and KFOR in Kosovo from violating it's own resolution 1244!
.....“To be able to secure a Muslim-majority state inside the European whole is a terrific signal that the Muslim world and the non-Muslim word can live side by side in peace and cooperation, one with the other,” [Wisner] said.....
WRONG!!!! It is a sign of the continuing Muhammadan CONQUEST (Fateh) of the Christian world, bit by bit. The theft of Kosovo from the Serbian people is in fact a major beachhead for the islamic conquest of ALL of Europe!!!!
Why is the “American” Frank G Wisner encouraging the Fateh? Is he one of the State Department officials who was trained by the major muslim shill John Esposito at Georgetown University? I don’t know, but it sure sounds like it.
The Serbian government "exercised undoubted, decisive influence over all of the political leaders in northern Kosovo", Rossin said. "We have never had what we would consider a clear and unambiguous renunciation of this kind of violence" by Belgrade officials, he added. Rossin also shed light on how the Kosovo Serbs managed to gain control of the courthouse Friday. Police at the scene, he said, were constrained in what they could do because Kosovo Serb demonstrators put women and children out in front -- a tactic he described with disgust.
"We are not going to injure women and children. We find it reprehensible that there should be women and children pushed out front, but that's the way it is," he said.
How would the Ukrainians like to have their country split east-west. The eastern part is very pro-Russian and has a lot of ethnic Russians, so why shouldn't they get independence if the majority want that?
These UN people took the homes of Serb families and the Serb families don't even receive a dime of rent for the stolen property the internationals live on.
Some are. No two ways about it.
Dhimmitude isn’t for everyone, chumley.
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