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The most recent concern regarding radical Islam in the Balkans is the fear that Al-Qaeda has begun a recruitment campaign of “white Muslims.” The arrest and pending trial of three young men in Bosnia, suspected of planning terrorist attacks on Western targets, has raised questions regarding Bosnia’s vulnerability of becoming a haven for terrorists. The suspects were arrested last October in the Sarajevo suburbs of Butmir and Hadzici. Since their arrest, Bosnian police has appealed to Scotland Yard and the FBI for forensic assistance to strengthen the case against the men. Jamestown Foundation reports that this particular investigation has extended...

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia's Parliament speaker on Sunday officially called for a national referendum this month on a new constitution that would declare U.N.-run Kosovo is part of Serbia regardless of ongoing negotiations on the breakaway province's future. Predrag Markovic set the plebiscite for Oct. 28-29, urging voters to come out in large numbers and support the new constitution, which underscores Serbia's opposition to possible independence for Kosovo. Independence, sought by the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo, is one of the options under discussion in U.N.-brokered talks. In Kosovo, a separatist leader dismissed Serbia's move as a "provocation." Kosovo's Deputy...

Serbia's parliament has unanimously approved a new constitution that claims sovereignty over the UN administered province of Kosovo. The move, passed during a special session of parliament, opposes calls for the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo to be given independence. 'Integral part' Mr Kostunica said the country's new constitution would provide a strong legal foundation for Serbia and allow it to move closer to European standards and values. Mr Kostunica said there was no need to wait for the Kosovo issue to be settled before adopting the new constitution. Instead, he said it would "cement the truth that Kosovo always...

Serbian police said Thursday they arrested four drivers for allegedly trying to illegally transfer 12 Albanians to Croatia, on their way to Italy. A Belgrade police spokesman said four men, Serbian nationals from the western town of Sremska Mitrovica, were arrested Tuesday at two toll gates on a major highway outside the Serbian capital, RTS, Serbian radio-television, reported. The four suspects allegedly were planning to drive eight Albanians and four ethnic-Albanians from southern Serbia's Kosovo province across the Serbian border to Croatia on their way to Italy. Five illegal emigrants under the age of 18 were handed over to a...

The plight of Muslim Kosovo Albanians has attracted widespread sympathy in the Arab world. But support is tempered by scepticism about Nato's motives in bombing Yugoslavia, with some observers suspecting the West of having a hidden agenda. In Egypt, demonstrators have been protesting against the abuse of Muslims in Kosovo and some have been calling for volunteers to be allowed to join the struggle. Angry students recently gathered outside a Cairo university chanting: "Rise Up, Muslim, and wage your holy war. The soil of Kosovo is Your Land!" One protester said: "We want Egypt to open the door to every...

Congressional Advisor Warns of Kosovo-Based Terrorists Infiltrating Europe; Kosovo Independence Would Create an Islamic Republic in Europe; Muslim Albanians from Kosovo Plan Montenegrin Terrorist Attack; Additional Terror Attacks Against Christian Serbs Friday, 15 September 2006 Editorial comment from the American Council for Kosovo: The American Council for Kosovo has long warned of the jihad terror threat in Kosovo and the dangers that Kosovo independence would pose to Europe. This past week’s planned terrorist attacks in Montenegro and a dire prediction by a US Congressional advisor of the danger of Muslim Albanian terrorists infiltrating Europe are warning signs that the United...

PRISTINA, Serbia -- Serbia's foreign minister has warned of possible renewed conflict in the Balkans if the province of Kosovo becomes independent without the Serbian government's approval, according to comments published Monday. Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic suggested Kosovo should have full autonomy but not be allowed to hold separate membership in the United Nations and NATO. "Kosovo's independence would produce trouble in the region, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia," Draskovic was quoted as saying in the Kosovo Albanian daily Epoka e Re. "You know that no border in the Balkans has been changed with an agreement," he said. "Borders have...

PRISTINA, Serbia A bridge linking the two communities in an ethnically divided northern Kosovo town was closed hours after reopening when a group of Albanian men attacked a Serb, international police said Tuesday. The bridge over the Ibar River in Kosovska Mitrovica, 45 kilometers (30 miles) north of Pristina, reopened Monday morning. It had been closed after an attack in August in which an explosive was thrown into a bar, injuring nine people — seven Serbs, a British policeman and a pregnant Dutch woman. Police closed the bridge to civilian traffic again late Tuesday after a group of ethnic Albanian...

BELGRADE, Serbia, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Serbia's prime minister tells a senior U.S. envoy that predominantly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province will not be independent of Belgrade. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica Monday told Daniel Fried, U.S. assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, a unique stand of Serbia's all institutions is that Kosovo has always been and will be component part of Serbian territory, the RTS Serbian radio-television said. Kostunica said Serbia favors a compromise solution and offers "essential autonomy" for Kosovo. Fried said Belgrade students the Kosovo future status will be solved within the next six months. U.N.-led Serb-ethnic...

This week at the United Nations, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela announced to the world body : "Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world. "I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples...

A NORWEGIAN court placed three men in provisional detention overnight on suspicion of planning attacks against the US and Israeli embassies in Oslo, news agency NTB reported. The court set the provisional custody period at one month for two of the suspects, one of whom is of Pakistani origin, and at two weeks for the third. Authorities did not reveal the identities of the men, aged between 26 and 29 years old, whom they also suspect of spraying a synagogue with bullets last week. No one was hurt in the incident. He was then released and went to Kosovo where...

24 September 2006 | 13:17 | FOCUS News Agency New York. Serbia’s President Boris Tadic stated during the UN Security Council that any imposed decision with regard to Kosovo would trigger an ethnic conflict with dire consequences, Serbian newspaper Politika reads today. According to Mr. Tadic the imposed decision that would grant Kosovo independence would be detrimental for three reasons: “It would contradict the international legislation which excludes any kind of separation of a sovereign territory; it would be extremely unjust towards Serbia and thirdly – it could lead to an ethnic conflict with unforeseeable consequences”. Serbia’s President added all...

I first visited Kosovo in 1988 with a group of Serbian-American students who toured some of the many historic monasteries and churches of Serbia and Montenegro. Even then, it was obvious to me that there were ethnic tensions in the Serbian province as ancient Churches were desecrated with Albanian graffiti, a car with Belgrade license plates was overturned, and we had to always walk with a guard during our stay at the Patriarchate of Pec. For me, this visit was critical in solidifying my cultural awareness and pride as a Serbian-American. In that spirit, I strongly encourage the government of...

KIM Info Service Pec, September 20, 2006 Today Vicar Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan was escorted by Italian KFOR to Pec Hospital to visit the four Serbs who were wounded in yesterday's bomb attack on their apartment in Klina. Bishop Teodosije and several Decani monks stayed for an hour speaking with the wounded Milorad Pavlovic, his wife Rada, mother Jela, and cousin Dragica Raicevic. Pavlovic told the Bishop that last night at about 7:30 p.m. the four of them were in their apartment in Klina when an explosive device was thrown in through the window. They heard a strong explosion and...

But what does the newly released tape tell us? Was 9/11 a result of American support for Israel? Or the presence of our troops in Saudi Arabia, or the U.N. embargo of Iraq -- the grievances that bin Laden himself in 1998 cited as grounds for murdering Americans? Not according to two of the captioned "Martyrs of the Manhattan Raid," who spoke freely in this newly released tape. Saudi nationals Hamza al-Ghamdi (who helped crash Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center) and Wail al-Shehri (who joined Mohammed Atta on Flight 11 to topple the North...

"They [the Serbs] think that if there could be one kind of municipality with a Serb majority, they would feel more safety," he said. "So I proposed this simple plan for one city with two municipalities for an interim period of three years." But Dr. Rexhepi's plan is unpopular with both Serbs and Albanians. The Serbs want more than just an interim period of self-government and do not want to be linked to the more populous Albanian area in the south of Mitrovica. Albanians want a unified city and oppose a Serbian entity, believing it could be a first step...

PRISHTINA — Scholars in Kosovo are gearing up for a very busy schedule during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, while local radio stations are preparing special programs. "Professors of the Faculty of Islamic Studies will be touring Kosovo especially in Fridays for khutbah (sermons) and leading Tarawih Prayer in some farthest villages," Sabri Bajgora, head of imams of the Islamic Council of Kosovo (ICK), told IslamOnline.net. He added that the ICK will also be organizing religious activities in several cities across Kosovo, including iftar with poor people in traditional restaurants. Bajgora said that like in every year the imams...

SARAJEVO, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Serbia is invoking the spectre of a breakup of neighbouring Bosnia before elections there, as it battles to block the independence of its southern province of Kosovo. Bosnia's Serbs are talking of secession in the campaign for the Oct. 1 election because Serbia is using them as a lever, analysts and diplomats say. "Belgrade has been using Bosnian Serbs in its bargaining, telling them to speak up and say they'll claim independence if Kosovo goes," said a Sarajevo-based diplomat. GENIE OUT OF THE BOTTLE Politically, however, there is at least a theoretical risk that a...

The jihad in Serbia is one that is obscured in a particularly vexing way. Accordingly it must be emphasized that in alerting people to attacks on the Serbs, and to the destruction of ancient churches and monasteries, and on the infiltration into the area of Arabs bringing a brand of Islam quite different from the relaxed, syncretistic local version (not exactly full-bodied Islam in practice, because that local practice was affected by the centuries of proximity to non-Muslims, and to the effect of Communism), one is not endorsing any massacres by some Serbs. One can distance oneself --most Serbs do,...

Negotiations regarding the future status of Kosovo have begun and it is increasingly clear that the overwhelming majority of the world media, not to mention the government of the United States and its allies, favor giving independence to the Serbian province of Kosovo, which since the 1999 war has been administered by the United Nations under NATO military control. In effect, the western world is in favor of detaching Kosovo from (Christian) Serbia by fiat of power and making it into an independent Muslim state. The main argument of those supporting this scenario - notably in the United States, where...