> KOSOVO BURNING, By Nebojsa Malic
>
> Sat, 20 Mar 2004 20:18:35 -0800
>
> http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=2164
>
> Kosovo Burning
> Pogrom in the Occupied Serbian Province
> by Nebojsa Malic
>
> It is Déjà vu in Kosovo, back to 1999. After for years of creeping
> secession
> and covert ethnic cleansing, the Albanians have taken the next step and
> begun a war on UNMIK, KFOR, and whatever Serbs remained after the 1999
> war.
> Throughout the occupied province, Serb houses and churches are burning,
> UN
> offices and KFOR troops are under fire, and those non-Albanians who
> survived
> the ethnic cleansing of the past four years are fleeing for dear life,
> as
> mobs of well-armed and apparently closely coordinated Albanians continue
>
> their rampage. Since Wednesday, March 17, Kosovo has been a war zone.
>
> "Clashes" With Reality
>
> Almost all media reports from Kosovo described the situation as
> "inter-ethnic violence" or "clashes," implying there were battles
> between
> Albanians and Serbs. Very few noted that the only real clash was in
> Mitrovica, where the Serbs have organized resistance, while in the
> helpless
> Serb enclaves throughout Kosovo Albanians rampaged with impunity. Also
> missing was the fact that besides Serbs, Albanian mobs were openly
> attacking
> KFOR and UNMIK personnel.
>
> Here is how one UNMIK official, fleeing Albanian mobs in Gnjilane (in
> the US
> sector), described the situation:
>
> "Kristallnacht is under way in Kosovo," the official told B92 on
> condition
> of anonymity. "What is happening in Kosovo must unfortunately be
> described
> as a pogrom against Serbs: churches are on fire and people are being
> attacked for no other reason than their ethnic background," he added.
>
> Consider now the words of KFOR commander, German general Holger
> Kammerhoff,
> who warned that "thousands of ethnic Albanians that attacked KFOR, the
> police, Serb enclaves and churches should be aware of robust reserve
> forces." (Reuters) Note how clearly he identifies the attackers and
> their
> targets.
>
> The Daily Telegraph's headline was just as precise: "Kosovo in flames as
>
> Albanians renew war on Serbs." Interestingly, the story suffers from
> cognitive dissonance, as the correspondent's words and "editorial
> guidance"
> passages often contradict each other. Here is the correspondent:
>
> "Ethnic Albanians rose against the Serb minority across Kosovo yesterday
> in
> coordinated attacks. the five-year peace in Kosovo was shattered.
> thousands
> of Albanians armed with heavy automatic weapons and hand grenades
> clashed
> with Serbs. It is thought that hardline Albanian political parties had
> been
> stoking existing tensions before the violence broke out."
>
> He also quotes UNMIK spokesman Derek Chappell:
>
> "This is a very large, comprehensive uprising. We are getting reports in
> all
> the time, from all over Kosovo. Wherever there is a Serbian population
> there
> is Albanian action against them. These are well organised extremists
> leading
> these attacks..."
>
> According to UNMIK, 14 Serbian churches have been destroyed. Church
> sources
> put the number at 22. There are no more Serbs in Pristina - the last
> have
> been evacuated by KFOR - and the same is happening in half a dozen other
>
> enclaves.
>
> The Kosovo human rights Ombudsman, Marek Nowicki, said Thursday that
> "there
> exists the intent to cleanse this land from the presence of all Serbs."
>
> Clearly, what is taking place is not "clashes," but a pogrom by the
> Albanians against the Serb population wherever possible. UNMIK and KFOR
> troops are also targets, whenever they stand in the way of Serb-killing.
>
> A Spin on Murder
>
> Attacks of Albanian mobs are only one aspect of the pogrom, though. For
> whatever reason, Western media is covering the crisis in a way that
> absolves
> Albanians of responsibility and obstructs the extent of their
> persecution of
> Serbs. Classifying the situation as "clashes" and Albanian militants as
> "protesters" or "demonstrators" (what exactly are they protesting, or
> demonstrating against - the existence of Serbs?) are just two specific
> examples.
>
> BBC's main report on Kosovo, around 2300 GMT on March 17, called the
> situation "inter-ethnic clashes" and "protests" by Albanians. BBC's
> analyst
> Gabriel Partos also spoke of "clashes," strongly implying that it was a
> two-sided fight and that Albanians were provoked by Kostunica's
> statements.
> Papers such as the New York Times and the Guardian also repeated the
> "clashes" definition, and implied Serbia was somehow responsible.
>
> But the worst media atrocity was the incessant repetition of the blood
> libel
> broadcast by Kosovo Albanian TV just as before the first wave of attacks
> was
> underway: that Serbs chased a group of Albanian boys into the river Ibar
>
> Tuesday, where three drowned in the rapid currents. Sometimes it was a
> "gang," sometimes a group of children, sometimes they had a dog - the
> story
> varied, but they were always Serbs.
>
> UNMIK's press briefing from March 17 (PDF) mentions that one boy, Fitim
> Veseli, alleged something - though not what. Subsequent statements by
> UNMIK
> personnel indicated that the boy did not claim a Serb attack in the
> statements to them - only to the Albanian media. All too eager to run
> such a
> story, they published Veseli's allegations as fact. Agencies and wire
> services picked up the refrain and appended it to all stories from
> Kosovo,
> until it became fact by virtue of repetition. Editors at one paper even
> coined the phrase "retaliatory drownings" (The Daily Telegraph).
>
> That the Western media chose to disseminate demonizing disinformation is
> not
> surprising. They've done so about the Serbs, specifically, for over a
> decade
> - and longer in some other instances. What should be shocking is the
> sheer
> banality of their evil. According to reporters of the German-owned
> Serbian
> daily Blic, the BBC European News editor told them his network "has not
> received any other news while he has to explain to the world public why
> the
> clashes occurred." So they lied, and they keep on lying. Nothing
> personal;
> just laziness.
>
> "Serbian Rampage"
>
> Hearing the news from Kosovo, small but angry crowds in Belgrade, Novi
> Sad
> and Nis attacked mosques in those cities. Despite the efforts of Serbian
>
> police to stop them, and even the appeal of the bishop in Nis, the
> mosques
> were set ablaze. It was an immoral, cowardly act, and one which will
> most
> likely antagonize Serbia's Muslim population - ironically, themselves
> victims of Albanian terror in Kosovo. Western media, however, played it
> for
> all it was worth, imputing moral equivalence between organized Albanian
> pogroms and Serb hooliganism, grasping at straws to retain the well-worn
>
> stereotype built so painstakingly over the years. Both are immoral, of
> course, and neither justifies the other, nor is justifiable by anything
> rational. However, the Serbian government has already pledged to rebuild
> the
> torched mosques. If the Albanians have their say, all the Orthodox
> churches
> in Kosovo will be gone forever. Therein is the difference.
>
> Appeasement Now!
>
> The New York Times suggested Thursday that "the violence reflected a
> growing
> impatience among Kosovo's Albanian majority about the future of the
> province."
>
> Certainly, Albanian leaders from Hashim Taqi to Ibrahim Rugova, have
> used
> the occasions to call for independence. Albanian members of the Kosovo
> "parliament" proclaimed that "the only way to calm Kosovo was to declare
> it
> independent." (Reuters)
>
> In a Friday editorial in the Washington Post, the Albanians' onetime
> advisor
> and eminence grise of Washington politics, Morton Abramowitz, confirmed
> the
> violence was committed - and even planned - by Albanians. But he blamed
> Serbia and the EU for that, noting the West only ever listens to
> violence,
> and that withholding independence from the deserving Albanians incurred
> their wrath. Abramowitz argues that "freeing Serbia" from Kosovo - and
> Montenegro, while at it - would help "fundamental reform" and stabilize
> the
> Balkans. Besides, now that Albanians have made their hatred of Serbs
> abundantly clear, what is the point of trying for a multiethnic
> democracy?
> Independence is now the only solution.
>
> UNMIK spokesman Chappell has a theory about the attackers: "They hate
> the
> progress of the last four years and this is their final attempt to
> destroy
> any ethnic integration." (The Daily Telegraph) But there has been no
> "progress" in integration whatsoever - unless one deems it such when the
>
> murder rate drops from one Serb a day to one Serb a month. And though
> progress towards independence - a topic dear to Albanians - has been
> slow,
> but steady, it appears their patience has run out. Albanians have played
> the
> fait accompli card once before, using NATO's occupation to expel most
> Serbs.
> Now they want to finish the job. So it is a "final attempt," after a
> fashion
> - at the Final Solution.
>
> There is no doubt the pogrom's goal is to force the issue and leave
> UN/NATO
> no choice but to recognize the fait accompli. And there appears to be no
>
> question as to whether Washington's interventionist establishment -
> gathered
> around Abramowitz and the International Crisis Group - firmly believes
> that
> pogrom should be rewarded, and Albanians' wrath appeased. What a
> marvelous
> "coincidence," such synchronicity bordering on predestination.
>
> Last Chance
>
> By March 19, Reuters finally seemed to recognize the truth:
>
> "Albanians are trying to cleanse the Serbs and create a fait accompli
> before
> any talks," said a Western source on condition of anonymity. "Anyone
> with
> political experience can see that."
>
> The question now is not what Kosovo's Imperial overlords can or cannot
> see,
> but what they plan to do about it. At this point, NATO is issuing what
> amounts to empty threats. UNMIK is still in denial about what is
> happening.
> Washington and Brussels offer meaningless condemnations of "violence,"
> as it
> if was somehow committing itself. Meanwhile, Serbs are being ethnically
> cleansed wholesale, many are being murdered, and their history is going
> up
> in flames. The occupation of Kosovo - illegal, immoral and irrational
> from
> day one - has now been emphatically demonstrated as such. Kosovo is
> burning,
> but the West is only vexed over what tune to fiddle.
>
> The Alliance, so full of bluster when it bombed Serbia from afar, now
> seems
> both unwilling and unable to stop what is effectively genocide, or at
> the
> very least a humanitarian catastrophe. Both reasons, people may
> remember,
> cited in justification of the original intervention in 1999. What is
> happening in Kosovo right now is a direct consequence of that
> intervention.
> When KFOR and UNMIK ousted Serbian law enforcement and military -
> indeed,
> the Serbian state and society - from Kosovo in June 1999, they assumed
> responsibility for the protection of all in the province. From the first
>
> exodus of over 250,000 non-Albanians in 1999, to the present pogrom,
> they
> have consistently failed in that responsibility. They should start
> living up
> to it right now, this very minute - or admit failure, leave forever, and
> pay
> damages to the victims of their criminal stupidity. And leave the
> resolution
> of the conflict to people who are both willing and able to see it
> through.
> In the meantime, any blood spilled in the province over the past four
> days,
> and likely to be spilled yet, is on NATO's hands.
>
>
>
>
>
>