Free Republic

A largely Muslim nation this month is hosting an exhibition highlighting a chapter of world history that has received little public exposure until now: how some Muslims risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. It is well known that Islamic leaders, including the grand mufti of Jerusalem, collaborated with the Nazis in divining anti-Semitic propaganda and recruiting Arab officials to support Adolph Hitler's war against Jews. Many of today's Mideast leaders, such as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are notorious for their outspoken denial of the Holocaust. Often overlooked, however, are scores of Albanian...

Rome – Mauro Del Vecchio, former General of Italian Army who led the unit of 7,000 soldiers that entered Kosovo in June of 1999 after end of NATO air strikes on Serbia told Italian ‘Panorama’ weekly that during the first three weeks of the mandate ‘reports on the found bodies of killed Serbs and Romas arrived on his table each morning’, but that was a taboo topic they were not allowed to speak about with journalists. ‘The killing continued later but not so frequently. Those that have not fled Kosovo were under permanent risk to be killed or raped. Deserted...

A federal jury deliberating whether five Muslim men are guilty of planning to kill soldiers at a U.S. army base expects to deliver its verdict on Monday, the judge said on Sunday. U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler said the jury had ended a fifth day of deliberations and would return on Monday when they expect to conclude. "They said they expect to be finished tomorrow," Kugler told reporters and attorneys after the eight-week trial. The foreign-born men are accused of conspiracy, attempted murder and firearms charges in the alleged plot to attack New Jersey's Fort Dix army base in 2006...

Civilian law-enforcement officials from the European Union, the U.S. and a handful of other countries began working in Kosovo Tuesday to bolster shaky police, courts and customs systems. This unprecedented mission in a country recognized as a major conduit for smuggling drugs and weapons into Europe faces steep challenges. A bombing in Kosovo's capital of Pristina and a murky spy affair involving German agents highlight some of the diplomatic difficulties as the EU begins the ambitious effort in the Balkans...... In the BND report, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci...

BELGRADE -- An group calling itself the Army of the Republic of Kosovo has claimed responsibility for the bombing of the International Civilian Office (ICO) in Priština (on November 14th). Three German nationals were arrested on November 14 over the incident, but will probably be released due to a lack of evidence. The Albanian group sent a message via a personal e-mail account, threatening the Kosovo government, media and international organizations in the province. “As long as the UN plan is in force, we will attack with full might and there will be no security for Serbs that live in...

GORAZDEVAC, Kosovo (Reuters) - Darko Dimitrijevic lives in a Serbian enclave of Kosovo that is protected by international troops and rarely interacts with ethnic Albanians in surrounding villages. Better-stocked Albanian stores and cafes, as well as a cinema and other amenities, are minutes away by car from his village of 1,000 Serbs in western Kosovo. But like almost all residents of Gorazdevac, he stays away, fearing intolerance and perhaps violence. "We are Christians, they are Muslims. They have a different way of life," said Dimitrijevic, a 24-year-old radio station manager who like most young Serbs does not speak Albanian. He...

....If organised crime is a way of life in Kosovo, so is the systematic destruction of churches: more than 150 churches and monasteries have been blown up on the UN’s watch in the last nine years, as Albanians seek not only to expel all Serbs from the province but also to eradicate any physical record of their ever having been their in the first place. Kosovo, one should never forget, is the original heartland of medieval Serbia, the Serbs having migrated North to Belgrade and the Pannonian plane beyond as a result of the Turkish invasions. Images of an angry...

Velika Hoca, 14 Oct. (AKI) - By Vjekoslav Radovic - Just 600 Serbs now live in Kosovo's Velika Hoca enclave and many houses now stand empty after their owners moved to Serbia in search of a more secure and better life.The isolated 12th-century village lies some 60 kilometres southwest of Kosovo's capital Pristina, amid rolling hills that are dotted with vineyards. “My family roots here are centuries old, and I want to remain and raise my children in this place, but it’s not going to be easy,” Marko Spasic, 24, told Adnkronos International (AKI). An elementary school art teacher in...

GORA -- Kosovo Albanian authorities have torn down a school built from the Serbian government funds in the Gora area. Beta news agency reported on Saturday that the school, financed by the National Investment Plan (NIP), was located in the village of Mlike, inhabited by one of the province's minorities, the Goranis. Gora municipal president Alija Abdi said that citizens unsuccessfully tried to prevent bulldozers, accompanied by KFOR soldiers and Kosovo Albanian inspectors, from demolishing the premises, including new toilets and an IT classroom. The justification for this act, Abdi said, was that the reconstruction and building works on the...

SPRINGFIELD - The owner of Toni's Family Restaurant in Mount Clare pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to unlawful employment of illegal aliens. Besim Tabaku, 34, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Gentiana, 31, is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Court Judge Byron C. Cudmore on Oct. 23. Authorities confirmed to The Telegraph in May that two federal search warrants were executed (at Toni's Family Restaurant and a Benld residence) on May 28, resulting in four Mexican nationals being taken into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on suspicion of immigration violations. However, ICE spokeswoman...

Imagine what would happen to a handful of Jewish veterans of the Israel Defense Forces who tried to move from Tel Aviv to an Arab country to open a bistro and bar. In only a few countries could they even get through the airport without being deported or, more likely, arrested. If they were somehow able to finagle a permit from the bureaucracy and operate openly as Israelis in an Arab capital, they wouldn’t last long. Somebody would almost certainly kill them even if the state left them alone. Kosovo is a Muslim-majority country, but it isn’t Arab. The ethnic...

Serbian police said they arrested two former ethnic Albanian rebels and seized large cache of weapons in a region of southern Serbia which was a scene of Albanian uprising back in 2000-01. Serbian police stormed the houses of two former leaders of the „Liberation army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja" (UCPBM) near the regional hub of Presevo on Saturday, and found five assault rifles, two RPG's, 20 missiles, ten heavy machine guns, five pistols, two hand grenades and more than 20,000 pieces of ammunition. The owners of those houses, brothers Nazmi and Adan Hajredini were immediately arrested, raising a storm...

Three armed men, believed to be Albanians, burst into a cafe in the central Athens district of Aghios Panteleimonas late on Wednesday night and shot dead three customers in what police believe was a settling of accounts between rival protection gangs in the area. According to police, two of the three victims were probably killed by mistake. A 38-year Albanian was the target of the attack. A second Albanian, aged 26, and a Romanian, aged 37, were probably killed accidentally, according to police who found 35 cartridge cases at the scene. The assailants entered the cafe at about 10.30 p.m.,...

Thursday May 8, 2008 Police said yesterday they had smashed a gang of 16 robbers believed to be responsible for nearly 50 burglaries with a total haul worth hundreds of thousands of euros. The gang is suspected of having broken into 15 homes, 19 cars and 14 company offices recently, according to a police source. “It is one of the largest Albanian gangs that have been operating in the country,” the source added. Authorities have arrested five of the total number of suspects, all aged between 15 and 30, and are searching for the remaining gang members. No information was...

http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2001/10/12102001123602.asp RFE/RL Weekday Magazine 12 October 2001 Albania: Blood Feuds -- 'Blood For Blood' (Part 1) By Jolyon Naegele In Albania, one of Europe's poorest countries, the centuries-old tradition of blood vengeance has seen a resurgence over the past decade. The law-and-order vacuum created by the collapse of communism has sent many Albanians back to the oral common laws of their tribal roots -- laws that include the right to murder to avenge an earlier killing. In a three-part series, RFE/RL correspondent Jolyon Naegele reports from Tirana on the return of the ancient tradition of "gjakmarrja" -- and its devastating ...

A GROUP of doormen stamped and kicked a man to death after refusing him entry into a club for looking too young, a court heard on Monday. Lee Rayner, 30, of Franklin Road, Hornchurch, who was due to get married, was beaten and trampled as he lay helpless on the ground following a confrontation with doormen at the Opium Lounge in North Street, Romford, on June 16 last year. The blows were so savage his skull was almost fractured in half and he later died from brain damage. Doormen Johnives Kalu, 23, and Albanian Rustem Geca, 24, are standing trial...

April 23, 2008 Police believe they've found those responsible for the so-called "Ninja Burglaries" on Staten Island, but they're short of evidence, so they're turning to immigration authorities to throw the suspects out of the country. Investigators say they have closed the book on the so-called Ninja Burglar case,without making any arrests. Police sources say an effort is underway to deport a group of illegal immigrants from Albania. Investigators say they don't have enough evidence to charge them, but the men have been arrested for other burglaries in the past. A string of 19 burglaries began last May. The ninja...

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo's former prime minister urged ethnic Albanians on Tuesday to reach out to the Serb minority in an effort to overcome objections to Kosovo's declaration of independence. Ramush Haradinaj's comments come less than a month since a U.N. war crimes tribunal acquitted him of the murder and torture of Serbs in the 1990s. In an interview with The Associated Press, the 39-year-old former guerrilla commander said Serbs in Kosovo's north should be given social and economic incentives to join Kosovo's ethnic Albanian-dominated institutions. "At this stage, we should present a proper offer, as well as interpret...

Lawrence Eagleburger, Jimmy Carter’s ambassador to Belgrade and George Bush Sr.’s Secretary of State, has been a busy bee lately, weighing in on the right side of the Kosovo issue repeatedly in recent months. As opposed to the past nine years, when his influential input might have had some effect on policy. While we take what allies we can get on the dissenting side of the Kosovo surrender — an underappreciated catalyst for the demise of Western civilization – this is not a case of ‘better late than never’. Considering the influence this man could have had with a brand...

(Translation) INTERVIEW: Scott Taylor, Regarding a Secret Plan by the Western Alliance for Kosovo NATO is preparing a "blitzkrieg." During the next few weeks there will be an artificially provoked attack, bigger than March 17th, the borders around Kosovska Mitrovica will be closed, Serbian leaders arrested, the Serbs disarmed, the city handed over to the Albanians in the KPS, claims a well-known Canadian reporter, Scott Taylor, author of a number of books about the Balkans. - "NATO is preparing a blitzkrieg on Kosovo which will enable them to tear down the Serbian resistance in the whole area, and as early...