albanians don't need german land we already have our land(Kosovo) it has been and it will be....
Besim,
You have your own country Albania but you do not want to go there. Perhaps you prefer more developed regions and since Kosovo is Serbia and do not want to give you independence, then ask Germans to give you piece of land whre you could run your own country. Germans do not have minorities or they do have but their status is not defined in that way. They are all imigrants just as you Albanians are in Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. Serbia was very democrtaic once when gave you a status of constitutanal nationality and with constitution in 1974 you had the all power. However, you abused that trust that Serbia gave you and thus you don't deserve anything more but autonmoy and status of national minority.
For the rest I might agree with you. For the sake of peace do accept what Belgrade offer now. Don't forget resolution 1244.
(bmrusila, 24 November 2007 12:17
"why don't you give Albanians some of the German's land and make us all happy?"
albanians don't need german land we already have our land(Kosovo) it has been and it will be....
we are not bit minority who is seeking independece we are seeking freedom in our coutry.
"Is there any minority living in Germany and does any of these minorities have a status of minorities or are they all just imigrants?
yes there are but the difference if Germany dosen't solve its problem with violence but with justice and law.... every citizen in germany has the same right and has the freedom. what else do you want you know how much money they gave to albanians and serbs who were azilants there come on you can't compare germany with Serbia.
in march 23 1999 serbia was 199 years behind germany now because of the nato bombing it's like 500 years..
Serbia i think has better things to do than trying to keep something that is gone (kosovo)
If you serbs are that patriotic why don't why support your patriots (veterans) who faught the wars and now are in the street.
people need to start learning how to think more humanly.
te learn how to leave in peace..
human's life is like an animals life we kill each other for money(don't come telling me every war is not about the money) one contry is stronger than the other the weak one get smashed animal life. that's how animals are they like to show the dominance one from another.
that's all live in peace freedom, with happiness
that's not look at each other as enemies, but human.
I guess the nature of humen is violence we human are violence by nature.
at time of peace we seek war at time of war we seek peace....
Wow! I love how these spindoctors twist and turn events. Um....Kosovo has been in the hands of extremism for a long time. It is not happening because the Serbs are difficult to negotiate something that belongs to them. Mr. Reucker and his cronies are extremely biased.
I agree with what you say in terms of the value of people living their lives and making ends meet for their families, and the craziness of wasting our time and emotions on the words of politicians.
Kosovo may in fact unilaterally break away from Serbia. I'm sure that many of the western powers are supporting that. (although some things are changing)
I for one have never supported Milosevic's Kosovo policies, which were a disaster. They were wrong for Albanians, and they were wrong for Serbs.
Moreover, Serbia needs to consider the long term effects of having an unfriendly large minority like the Albanians living within its borders. Serbia's future is better without them. For that reason alone Serbia may have to let something go.
However, at the same time Serbia is not without justified claims in the area. To just ignore them like what is happening now will only make more problems later.
One of the biggest issues for me is the status of the remaining Serbs in Kosovo. Politics or not their treatment hardly makes Kosovo look like a democratic state. You imply that ordinary people whether Serbian or Albanian should just get along and find common ground. As an Albanian you could walk the streets of any Serbian city safely. How many Serbs can say the same thing about going to Albanian areas of Kosovo? Maybe you can help change this.
In case of an armed conflict, which I hope doesn't happen I agree with you that the losers would be the Kosovo Serbs, especially those living south of the Ibar river. They would undoubtedly be isolated and threatened. What you fail to understand is that current events on the ground prove they're already under constant isolation and threat. I also think there would be other losers besides Kosovo's Serbs.
gnh-bg: "The redrawing of borders based on ethnicity is not smth that's impossible. And unlike the congress of berlin and London, Albanians today have more friends than they did in the past. So... you all be very careful with your comments."
Actually I think you should be more careful about your comments. NATO is not willing to conquer all those places for you. I'm sure you remember how easily the Serbian forces chased away the Albanian terrorists in Presevo a few years back. I don't remember seeing any NATO intervention then.
"Please show me any unbiased document that shows that albanians did actually commit artocities against serbs."
The New York Times, Monday, July 12, 1982
Exodus of Serbians Stirs Province in Yugoslavia
"Serbs .... have... been harassed by Albanians and have packed up and left the region.
"The [Albanian] nationalists have a two-point platform, ...first to establish what they call an ethnically clean Albanian republic and then the merger with Albania to form a greater Albania."
"Some 57,000 Serbs have left Kosovo in the last decade... The exodus of Serbs is admittedly one of the main problems... in Kosovo..."
The New York Times
November 1, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section 1; Part 1, Page 14, Column 1; Foreign Desk
HEADLINE:
In Yugoslavia, Rising Ethnic Strife Brings Fears of Worse Civil Conflict
BYLINE: By DAVID BINDER, Special to the New York Times
DATELINE: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia
Portions of southern Yugoslavia have reached such a state of ethnic friction that Yugoslavs have begun to talk of the horrifying possibility of ''civil war'' in a land that lost one-tenth of its population, or 1.7 million people, in World War II.
The current hostilities pit separatist-minded ethnic Albanians against the various Slavic populations of Yugoslavia and occur at all levels of society, from the highest officials to the humblest peasants.
A young Army conscript of ethnic Albanian origin shot up his barracks, killing four sleeping Slavic bunkmates and wounding six others.
The army says it has uncovered hundreds of subversive ethnic Albanian cells in its ranks. Some arsenals have been raided.
Vicious Insults
Ethnic Albanians in the Government have manipulated public funds and regulations to take over land belonging to Serbs. And politicians have exchanged vicious insults.
Slavic Orthodox churches have been attacked, and flags have been torn down. Wells have been poisoned and crops burned. Slavic boys have been knifed, and some young ethnic Albanians have been told by their elders to rape Serbian girls.
Ethnic Albanians comprise the fastest growing nationality in Yugoslavia and are expected soon to become its third largest, after the Serbs and Croats.
Radicals' Goals
. The goal of the radical nationalists among them, one said in an interview, is an ''ethnic Albania that includes western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, part of southern Serbia, Kosovo and Albania itself.'' That includes large chunks of the republics that make up the southern half of Yugoslavia.
Other ethnic Albanian separatists admit to a vision of a greater Albania governed from Pristina in southern Yugoslavia rather than Tirana, the capital of neighboring Albania.
There is no evidence that the hard-line Communist Government in Tirana is giving them material assistance.
The principal battleground is the region called Kosovo, a high plateau ringed by mountains that is somewhat smaller than New Jersey. Ethnic Albanians there make up 85 percent of the population of 1.7 million. The rest are Serbians and Montenegrins.
Worst Strife in Years
As Slavs flee the protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationalists have been demanding for years, and especially strongly since the bloody rioting by ethnic Albanians in Pristina in 1981 - an ''ethnically pure'' Albanian region, a ''Republic of Kosovo'' in all but name.
The violence, a journalist in Kosovo said, is escalating to ''the worst in the last seven years.''
Many Yugoslavs blame the troubles on the ethnic Albanians, but the matter is more complex in a country with as many nationalities and religions as Yugoslavia's and involves economic development, law, politics, families and flags. As recently as 20 years ago, the Slavic majority treated ethnic Albanians as inferiors to be employed as hewers of wood and carriers of
heating coal. The ethnic Albanians, who now number 2 million, were officially deemed a minority, not a constituent nationality, as they are today.
Were the ethnic tensions restricted to Kosovo, Yugoslavia's problems with its Albanian nationals might be more manageable. But some Yugoslavs and some ethnic Albanians believe the struggle has spread far beyond Kosovo. Macedonia, a republic to the south with a population of 1.8 million, has a restive ethnic Albanian minority of 350,000.
''We've already lost western Macedonia to the Albanians,'' said a member of the Yugoslav party presidium, explaining that the ethnic minority had driven the Slavic Macedonians out of the region.
Attacks on Slavs
Last summer, the authorities in Kosovo said they documented 40 ethnic Albanian attacks on Slavs in two months. In the last two years, 320 ethnic Albanians have been sentenced for political crimes, nearly half of them characterized as severe.
In one incident, Fadil Hoxha, once the leading politician of ethnic Albanian origin in Yugoslavia, joked at an official dinner in Prizren last year that Serbian women should be used to satisfy potential ethnic Albanian rapists. After his quip was reported this October, Serbian women in Kosovo protested, and Mr. Hoxha was dismissed from the Communist Party.
As a precaution, the central authorities dispatched 380 riot police officers to the Kosovo region for the first time in four years.
Officials in Belgrade view the ethnic Albanian challenge as imperiling the foundations of the multinational experiment called federal Yugoslavia, which consists of six republics and two provinces.
'Lebanonizing' of Yugoslavia
High-ranking officials have spoken of the ''Lebanonizing'' of their country and have compared its troubles to the strife in Northern Ireland.
Borislav Jovic, a member of the Serbian party's presidency, spoke in an interview of the prospect of ''two Albanias, one north and one south, like divided Germany or Korea,'' and of ''practically the breakup of Yugoslavia.'' He added: ''Time is working against us.''
The federal Secretary for National Defense, Fleet Adm. Branko Mamula, told the army's party organization in September of efforts by ethnic Albanians to subvert the armed forces. ''Between 1981 and 1987 a total of 216 illegal organizations with 1,435 members of Albanian nationality were discovered in the Yugoslav People's Army,'' he said. Admiral Mamula said ethnic Albanian subversives had been preparing for ''killing officers and soldiers, poisoning food and water, sabotage, breaking into weapons arsenals and stealing arms and ammunition, desertion and causing flagrant nationalist incidents in army units.''
Concerns Over Military
Coming three weeks after the ethnic Albanian draftee, Aziz Kelmendi, had slaughtered his Slavic comrades in the barracks at Paracin, the speech struck fear in thousands of families whose sons were about to start their mandatory year of military service.
Because the Albanians have had a relatively high birth rate, one-quarter of the army's 200,000 conscripts this year are ethnic Albanians. Admiral Mamula suggested that 3,792 were potential human timebombs.
He said the army had ''not been provided with details relevant for assessing their behavior.'' But a number of Belgrade politicians said they doubted the Yugoslav armed forces would be used to intervene in Kosovo as they were to quell violent rioting in 1981 in Pristina. They reason that the army leadership is extremely reluctant to become involved in what is, in the first place, a political issue.
Ethnic Albanians already control almost every phase of life in the autonomous province of Kosovo, including the police, judiciary, civil service, schools and factories. Non-Albanian visitors almost immediately feel the independence - and suspicion - of the ethnic Albanian authorities.
Region's Slavs Lack Strength
While 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins still live in the province, they are scattered and lack cohesion. In the last seven years, 20,000 of them have fled the province, often leaving behind farmsteads and houses, for the safety of the Slavic north.
Until September, the majority of the Serbian Communist Party leadership pursued a policy of seeking compromise with the Kosovo party hierarchy under its ethnic Albanian leader, Azem Vlasi.
But during a 30-hour session of the Serbian central committee in late September, the Serbian party secretary, Slobodan Milosevic, deposed Dragisa Pavlovic, as head of Belgrade's party organization, the country's largest. Mr. Milosevic accused Mr. Pavlovic of being an appeaser who was soft on Albanian radicals. Mr. Milosevic had courted the Serbian backlash vote
with speeches in Kosovo itself calling for ''the policy of the hard hand.''
''We will go up against anti-Socialist forces, even if they call us Stalinists,'' Mr. Milosevic declared recently. That a Yugoslav politician would invite someone to call him a Stalinist even four decades after Tito's epochal break with Stalin, is a measure of the state into which Serbian politics have fallen. For the moment, Mr. Milosevic and his supporters appear to be staking
their careers on a strategy of confrontation with the Kosovo ethnic Albanians.
Other Yugoslav politicians have expressed alarm. ''There is no doubt Kosovo is a problem of the whole country, a powder keg on which we all sit,'' said Milan Kucan, head of the Slovenian Communist Party.
Remzi Koljgeci, of the Kosovo party leadership, said in an interview in Pristina that ''relations are cold'' between the ethnic Albanians and Serbs of the province, that there were too many ''people without hope.''
But many of those interviewed agreed it was also a rare opportunity for Yugoslavia to take radical political and economic steps, as Tito did when he broke with the Soviet bloc in 1948.
Efforts are under way to strengthen central authority through amendments to the constitution. The League of Communists is planning an extraordinary party congress before March to address the country's grave problems.
The hope is that something will be done then to exert the rule of law in Kosovo while drawing ethnic Albanians back into Yugoslavia's mainstream.
ETHNIC RIVALRIES CAUSE UNREST IN YUGOSLAV REGION
By Jackson Diehl
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 29, 1986 ; Page A14
PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA -- Growing tension between lbanians and Serbs here this year has converted this poor southern region from a chronic local trouble spot into the potential flash point of a country increasingly divided by national rivalries.
Since the outbreak of riots here in 1981, authorities of the autonomous province of Kosovo have faced a steady challenge from separatist and nationalist groups among the dominant Albanian population. More than 1,000 people have been jailed for seeking Kosovo's independence from Serbia, the Yugoslav republic to which Kosovo nominally belongs, or unification with the neighboring nation Albania.
The significance of this conflict has been multiplied this year by the emergence of concern among Yugoslavia's Serbs, the country's largest ethnic group, about the "forced emigration" of Serbs from Kosovo under pressure from the Albanians.
Small farmers, tradesmen and professionals have been steadily leaving the province's cities and the small Serbian villages around them, raising the prospect that a historic seat of the Serbian nation will soon be populated only by Albanians. More than 20,000 have emigrated since 1981 out of a total Serbian population of about 220,000. Meanwhile, the Albanian population of over 1.2 million is expanding at the fastest pace in Europe.
The local Serbs, arguing that Albanian-dominated provincial authorities have offered them no protection from violent attacks, have signed petitions and staged several demonstrations outside Pristina this year. To the embarrassment of authorities, they have also sent three delegations to press their case in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and of Yugoslavia.
...For the Serbs who have remained, frustrated Albanian youth have kept up a steady harassment ranging from the painting of hostile slogans on Serbian homes and vandalism of Serbian graveyards to beatings and rapes.
"One cannot speak of these developments as being only the deeds of individual {Albanian} groups anymore," said Serbia's interior minister Svetomir Lalovic in a recent speech. "At issue are seriously disturbed inter-ethnic relations."
Few killings have been recorded since the 1981 riots. But in the three months of July, August and September, authorities recorded 34 assaults by Albanians on Serbians. Two instances of rape provoked outraged demonstrations near Pristina and motivated the last, angry delegation that marched on the federal parliament in Belgrade.
Yugoslav officials predict that it will take many years to resolve the tensions in Kosovo, and dissidents are even less sanguine.
"We did not deal with the emigration for a long time, and now that it has reached this stage it is very difficult to break the chain of events," said Jokanovic.
i posted 3 articles above, the second one i forgot to put the date:
The New York Times
November 1, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section 1; Part 1, Page 14, Column 1; Foreign Desk
HEADLINE:
In Yugoslavia, Rising Ethnic Strife Brings Fears of Worse Civil Conflict
BYLINE: By DAVID BINDER, Special to the New York Times
"In addition, Serbia has never attacked anyone. Serbia was in its long history only running the defending wars since many nations had aspirations towards Serbian teritory and for sure Serbia did everything in its power to protect its people of becoming someone's slaves."
brmsula you do not know the history of your own country. Can you please explain to me what were Serb troops doing in 1912 in Durres, right in the middle of Albania. Why did they kill Albanians in Durres. If that is not attacking and invading, then what do you call it; vaccation for the Serbian army? Or was Durres and Albania Serbia's heartland in 1912. Can you tell me what the Serbian troops were doing in Krume, part of the city of Kukes in Albania. If that is not invvading and attacking then what is it? Or do you conviniently forget about these cases. Or does it go even a step further and your government conveniently forgets about this and does not put this excellent part of your history in your schoolbooks.
Do you know that when we declared our independence in Albania we were fighting at the same time Serbs, Greeks, and Turks inside Albania? Again what were Serb troops doing in Albania if they were not attacking and invading.
Does this guy Ruecker have anything else to do other than make noise. He sounds like a broken record with his tired old story, the fact is that most people in Kosovo care about jobs and economic development in Kosovo, a future for their children, they are largely not interested in violence as this man keeps saying and if given a choice the majority of the Albanians would settle to keep Kosovo Serbian as it should be if they can be assured a better economic future and of course security. The security question can be solved by allowing the EU forces to stay in Kosovo for as long as it takes, Belgrade would not oppose this, and as for the economics question, all that is needed is to put this nonsense of independence to rest and then round up all the trouble makers in Kosovo no matter how many of them there are, and jail or expel them from Kosovo, and then in a couple of years, Serbia would join the EU and problem solved. The only losers (rightfully so) would be the Albanian extremist and I think people would be surprised how few of them there really is. I suppose America would be embarrassed if this turned out this way but I think all of Europe would rather have an embarrassed America then any further instability in the Balkans and serves them right for making so much noise like this guy Ruecker all these months.
You may claim it was propaganda as I claim that Albanians made own propaganda. Serbs did sell thier properties because they were forced to leave after being harrased, slaughterd, raped, terrorized. Who would live under such brutal conditions? Albanians were ready to pay good in order to make monoethnic society and some Serbs did used trying to find new oportunites. This terrorism you might even call a bit civilized way. However, when Albanians realised that this kind of terrorism does not work well and cost much, they deiceded to take another meassures by continuing to harass evryone who happend not to be an Albanian. You were commiting all these atrocities after you gained such power thanx to Tito's constitution in 1974. but you were still not satisified by own goals. Serbs were still there. Then you begun with new strategies by boycotting everything but never stopped to harras Serbs in all possible ways. Do you really think that Serbs do not remember that. I remember the TV testifies of the victims, even though I was just a kid then. And if I was to be asked Albanians do not deserve any selfgoverning in multicultural societies. But you don't have to worry now since you made Kosovo quite monoethnic and the rest of minorities keep behind birbed-wires. I just wonder what is the plan for those Serbs in North?
Surprisingly, you made my day too.
About the atrocities in the 80s, i'm going to tell you a story from my personal experience. I remember serbs *selling* their property in kosovo and moving to Serbia where they could put their money in better use whilst the price of feritle land was three times cheaper than anywhere in kosovo. My family bought around 5-6 various properties from serbs. And Kosovo serbs were not leaving Kosovo because of albanians' arocities (please leave the propaganda aside, for god sake) but for the only reason of economic properity. But of course, it was nice and neat argument that serbs used later on to put all the blame on albanian, who after 1974 gained more power and rights, which automatically made serbs unprivileged. And THAT was smth that serbs couldnt bare. Please show me any unbiased document that shows that albanians did actually commit artocities against serbs. If you're planning to show me any kind of propaganda, please spare yourself.
I see very often here that you are pointing out quite often here the Resolution 1244 as you are really "concerned" about its application.
Can you tell us whether Belgrade was complying with the Resolution 1244 by calling and threatening the Kosovar Serbs not take part in the last Kosova elections?
One more thing. Yugoslavia doesn't exist anymore. It is dead.
Unfortunatelly, it apppears that Kosovo is sliding into extermisam.
Sonja Biserko surprised me with her remarks.
"Biserko told a news conference that she believed the authorities in Belgrade refused to recognize "that Kosovo is clearly not a part of Serbia for a number of years", and accused them "of holding Serbs there hostage".
And I can tell her, and anyone else that we all know who's holding Serbs in Kosovo hostage. Nice try to pass the blame.
She forgot to mention that Ahtisaari and other westerns "refused to recognize "that Northern Kosovo is clearly not a part of Kosovo for a number of years".
"Ivanović said that Kosovo was at this moment calm, but tense. He was once again sharply critical of the government for calling for a boycott of the recent provincial elections. Ivanović says it is in the Serbs "best interest to cooperate with Albanians".
We should all be sharply critical of all Albanian leaders who boycotted Serbian elections since early 90's. Clearly, it was in Albanian best interest to cooperate with Serbs.
"Belgrade is once again choosing human catastrophe that can come the moment Kosovo's independence is declared. I think that the government in Belgrade will be the sole responsible party for such a scenario."
See, buy doing those things above, Belgrade is sole responsible party and it chooses human catastrophy.
At least we now know who has sole responsability for human catastrophy in late 90's there. Albanians, if we use Biserko's logic. They boycotted Serbian elections.
They choose human catastrophy.
There, from horse's mouth.
It's unbelievable what some people can say.
Prishtina proposed the model of Namibia and decolonization
gnh-bg
You made my day, indeed. Serbia was not colonizer and in its long history has never colonized anyone. In addition, Serbia has never attacked anyone. Serbia was in its long history only running the defending wars since many nations had aspirations towards Serbian teritory and for sure Serbia did everything in its power to protect its people of becoming someone's slaves. Yes, Serbia had to defend its citizens from slaughtering firstly by the Turks, then Austro-Hungarians, then from Germans and Hungarians, and then from Croats and Bosnian Muslims and from the Albanians for long time. I do not want now to mention your atrocities against Serbs in Kosovo during the 80's. They are all very well documented.
For the end Pristina offered nothing else exept good neighbouring relationship. I guess even this was demanding to put on the paper and actually present some future vision. Perhaps you were waiting for Ahtisari to make you some new proposals. In my opinion what Belgrade offers is way to much. Btw. link me those proposals that Pristina offered, I am very curious and ready to expand my knowledge (in English language please)
Lets try and behave less passionately after the nationalistic gong. People like Thaci, Ceku, Ivanovic, Tadic, Kostunica, etc, will come and go, they are politicians that do their job and follow their agendas. People like you and me have simpler problems to deal with, and those problems will never be solved by those people, but only by ourselves and by working together. When you hear some politician, be that Albanian or Serbian, be they in Prishtina or Belgrade, try and put to work your filters as a non-politician in order to find out what really is going on and what the future holds for us as common people, regular citizens. A poor Serbian/Albanian in Kosova is a poor Serbian/Albanian in Serbia as well and that is a status that cannot change by orders from Belgrade or Prishtina. As sooner as the status of Kosova is regulated, as better will be for regular people who basically just want to go back to their lives and think about their business. No one wants to go back to violence as it would only make things worse, especially for Serbs of Kosova. It's time to understand what the reality on the ground is and retake positive positions. Kosova is de facto independent. International community knows that, Belgrade knows that, Russia knows that, European Union knows that, Balkan states know that. The only people still with dellusional hopes are Serbs in Kosova who have been fed with unscrupulous lies from Belgrade for the past 20 years.
Bmrusila, just so you know and expand your 'precious knowlendge' about everything that is going on in the process of negotiations, Kosovo Made various proposals as well! When Belgrade started prposing models such as Hong Kong or Aland, Prishtina proposed the model of Namibia and decolonization. But of course, serb team refused to pay attention to these models and which could actually work in the territory of kosovo. Im just too afraid that if another war starts a lot of Balkan states would be left with much less territory that they actually have. The redrawing of borders based on ethnicity is not smth that's impossible. And unlike the congress of berlin and London, Albanians today have more friends than they did in the past. So... you all be very careful with your comments, self-satisfaction is always good, but not necessarily true.
"they work together, in places like Novo Brdo, Kamenica, and even Štrpce"
this is what they have to show for after 8 years. unmik is very, very unsuccessful.
and ivanovic, "give them independence or they'll kill us"... no comment.
or actually just one: there's the best reason why they should not be given independence. there is no civil society there capable of dealing with problems in a mature and normal manner. mob is mob, society is society, states are not built on mob mood swings but on mature societies.
Mr Rucker, you may say your opinion, it is free country and everyone may say what ever suits them. However, why did you come to talk in Belgrade? Don't you think that you should be talking to Pristina. Belgrade is using all political means to keep its sovereignity over Kosovo and Metohija. As far as I remember Serbia made many proposals but Albanians refused them all and made negotiations pointless. Belgrade made great offer and it is up to Albanians whether they accept it or leave it. It is Serbian country that we are talking about and you as a hard German worker try to secede part of Serbia. I wonder what would you talking if Turkish minority tries to seced the part of Germany. OH, yes, Turks even have no status of minority overthere. Is there any minority living in Germany and does any of these minorities have a status of minorities or are they all just imigrants? I can see you are some very generous and honest man who seems to be very worried for negative outcome but why don't you give Albanians some of the German's land and make us all happy?
Mr Rucker if you want stability then turn to Albanians and talk to them to accept what is been offered. From your statement I concluded that NATO soldiers overthere are not ready if violence break out. You seem to keep something under control but you fear that soldiers might fail in such scenario. I fear too and insist that NATO cannot be trusted when it comes to protection of the people, especially Serbs.
As for Sonja Biserko & Co. no need to comment since they do not change the course.
As for you Mr Ivanovic, why didn't you take part in Kosovo elections? Did anyone forbid you? Belgrade just made proposal not to take part but you had right to think differently. If you want to participate in Kosovo government you are free to do it and still have a chance. After the battle everyone is the general!
- this implies that they WILL go on long after the 10th Decemeber irrespective of Rueckers wish for them to end on the 10th December!
Clearly Ruecker knows he is in a tough spot as he represents and must uphold UN resolution 1244 i.e. immeditaly nullify any illegal declaration that attempts to undermine the UNMIK administration and his authority over the PISG.
Clearly there will be more talks till a "negotiated compromise" is reached!
I guess Thaci will follow in the footsteps of Ceku with ever moving deadlines - immediatly after 10th December, has become within a few days, then weeks - whay next April 2008 and then Dec 20008 perhaps?
- this implies that they WILL go on long after the 10th Decemeber irrespective of Rueckers wish for them to end on the 10th December!
Clearly Ruecker knows he is in a tough spot as he represents and must uphold UN resolution 1244 i.e. immeditaly nullify any illegal declaration that attempts to undermine the UNMIK administration and his authority over the PISG.
Clearly there will be more talks till a "negotiated compromise" is reached!
I guess Thaci will follow in the footsteps of Ceku with ever moving deadlines - immediatly after 10th December, has become within a few days, then weeks - whay next April 2008 and then Dec 20008 perhaps?
Mr Rucker, you may say your opinion, it is free country and everyone may say what ever suits them. However, why did you come to talk in Belgrade? Don't you think that you should be talking to Pristina. Belgrade is using all political means to keep its sovereignity over Kosovo and Metohija. As far as I remember Serbia made many proposals but Albanians refused them all and made negotiations pointless. Belgrade made great offer and it is up to Albanians whether they accept it or leave it. It is Serbian country that we are talking about and you as a hard German worker try to secede part of Serbia. I wonder what would you talking if Turkish minority tries to seced the part of Germany. OH, yes, Turks even have no status of minority overthere. Is there any minority living in Germany and does any of these minorities have a status of minorities or are they all just imigrants? I can see you are some very generous and honest man who seems to be very worried for negative outcome but why don't you give Albanians some of the German's land and make us all happy?
Mr Rucker if you want stability then turn to Albanians and talk to them to accept what is been offered. From your statement I concluded that NATO soldiers overthere are not ready if violence break out. You seem to keep something under control but you fear that soldiers might fail in such scenario. I fear too and insist that NATO cannot be trusted when it comes to protection of the people, especially Serbs.
As for Sonja Biserko & Co. no need to comment since they do not change the course.
As for you Mr Ivanovic, why didn't you take part in Kosovo elections? Did anyone forbid you? Belgrade just made proposal not to take part but you had right to think differently. If you want to participate in Kosovo government you are free to do it and still have a chance. After the battle everyone is the general!
"they work together, in places like Novo Brdo, Kamenica, and even Štrpce"
this is what they have to show for after 8 years. unmik is very, very unsuccessful.
and ivanovic, "give them independence or they'll kill us"... no comment.
or actually just one: there's the best reason why they should not be given independence. there is no civil society there capable of dealing with problems in a mature and normal manner. mob is mob, society is society, states are not built on mob mood swings but on mature societies.
Prishtina proposed the model of Namibia and decolonization
gnh-bg
You made my day, indeed. Serbia was not colonizer and in its long history has never colonized anyone. In addition, Serbia has never attacked anyone. Serbia was in its long history only running the defending wars since many nations had aspirations towards Serbian teritory and for sure Serbia did everything in its power to protect its people of becoming someone's slaves. Yes, Serbia had to defend its citizens from slaughtering firstly by the Turks, then Austro-Hungarians, then from Germans and Hungarians, and then from Croats and Bosnian Muslims and from the Albanians for long time. I do not want now to mention your atrocities against Serbs in Kosovo during the 80's. They are all very well documented.
For the end Pristina offered nothing else exept good neighbouring relationship. I guess even this was demanding to put on the paper and actually present some future vision. Perhaps you were waiting for Ahtisari to make you some new proposals. In my opinion what Belgrade offers is way to much. Btw. link me those proposals that Pristina offered, I am very curious and ready to expand my knowledge (in English language please)
"Please show me any unbiased document that shows that albanians did actually commit artocities against serbs."
The New York Times, Monday, July 12, 1982
Exodus of Serbians Stirs Province in Yugoslavia
"Serbs .... have... been harassed by Albanians and have packed up and left the region.
"The [Albanian] nationalists have a two-point platform, ...first to establish what they call an ethnically clean Albanian republic and then the merger with Albania to form a greater Albania."
"Some 57,000 Serbs have left Kosovo in the last decade... The exodus of Serbs is admittedly one of the main problems... in Kosovo..."
The New York Times
November 1, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section 1; Part 1, Page 14, Column 1; Foreign Desk
HEADLINE:
In Yugoslavia, Rising Ethnic Strife Brings Fears of Worse Civil Conflict
BYLINE: By DAVID BINDER, Special to the New York Times
DATELINE: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia
Portions of southern Yugoslavia have reached such a state of ethnic friction that Yugoslavs have begun to talk of the horrifying possibility of ''civil war'' in a land that lost one-tenth of its population, or 1.7 million people, in World War II.
The current hostilities pit separatist-minded ethnic Albanians against the various Slavic populations of Yugoslavia and occur at all levels of society, from the highest officials to the humblest peasants.
A young Army conscript of ethnic Albanian origin shot up his barracks, killing four sleeping Slavic bunkmates and wounding six others.
The army says it has uncovered hundreds of subversive ethnic Albanian cells in its ranks. Some arsenals have been raided.
Vicious Insults
Ethnic Albanians in the Government have manipulated public funds and regulations to take over land belonging to Serbs. And politicians have exchanged vicious insults.
Slavic Orthodox churches have been attacked, and flags have been torn down. Wells have been poisoned and crops burned. Slavic boys have been knifed, and some young ethnic Albanians have been told by their elders to rape Serbian girls.
Ethnic Albanians comprise the fastest growing nationality in Yugoslavia and are expected soon to become its third largest, after the Serbs and Croats.
Radicals' Goals
. The goal of the radical nationalists among them, one said in an interview, is an ''ethnic Albania that includes western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, part of southern Serbia, Kosovo and Albania itself.'' That includes large chunks of the republics that make up the southern half of Yugoslavia.
Other ethnic Albanian separatists admit to a vision of a greater Albania governed from Pristina in southern Yugoslavia rather than Tirana, the capital of neighboring Albania.
There is no evidence that the hard-line Communist Government in Tirana is giving them material assistance.
The principal battleground is the region called Kosovo, a high plateau ringed by mountains that is somewhat smaller than New Jersey. Ethnic Albanians there make up 85 percent of the population of 1.7 million. The rest are Serbians and Montenegrins.
Worst Strife in Years
As Slavs flee the protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationalists have been demanding for years, and especially strongly since the bloody rioting by ethnic Albanians in Pristina in 1981 - an ''ethnically pure'' Albanian region, a ''Republic of Kosovo'' in all but name.
The violence, a journalist in Kosovo said, is escalating to ''the worst in the last seven years.''
Many Yugoslavs blame the troubles on the ethnic Albanians, but the matter is more complex in a country with as many nationalities and religions as Yugoslavia's and involves economic development, law, politics, families and flags. As recently as 20 years ago, the Slavic majority treated ethnic Albanians as inferiors to be employed as hewers of wood and carriers of
heating coal. The ethnic Albanians, who now number 2 million, were officially deemed a minority, not a constituent nationality, as they are today.
Were the ethnic tensions restricted to Kosovo, Yugoslavia's problems with its Albanian nationals might be more manageable. But some Yugoslavs and some ethnic Albanians believe the struggle has spread far beyond Kosovo. Macedonia, a republic to the south with a population of 1.8 million, has a restive ethnic Albanian minority of 350,000.
''We've already lost western Macedonia to the Albanians,'' said a member of the Yugoslav party presidium, explaining that the ethnic minority had driven the Slavic Macedonians out of the region.
Attacks on Slavs
Last summer, the authorities in Kosovo said they documented 40 ethnic Albanian attacks on Slavs in two months. In the last two years, 320 ethnic Albanians have been sentenced for political crimes, nearly half of them characterized as severe.
In one incident, Fadil Hoxha, once the leading politician of ethnic Albanian origin in Yugoslavia, joked at an official dinner in Prizren last year that Serbian women should be used to satisfy potential ethnic Albanian rapists. After his quip was reported this October, Serbian women in Kosovo protested, and Mr. Hoxha was dismissed from the Communist Party.
As a precaution, the central authorities dispatched 380 riot police officers to the Kosovo region for the first time in four years.
Officials in Belgrade view the ethnic Albanian challenge as imperiling the foundations of the multinational experiment called federal Yugoslavia, which consists of six republics and two provinces.
'Lebanonizing' of Yugoslavia
High-ranking officials have spoken of the ''Lebanonizing'' of their country and have compared its troubles to the strife in Northern Ireland.
Borislav Jovic, a member of the Serbian party's presidency, spoke in an interview of the prospect of ''two Albanias, one north and one south, like divided Germany or Korea,'' and of ''practically the breakup of Yugoslavia.'' He added: ''Time is working against us.''
The federal Secretary for National Defense, Fleet Adm. Branko Mamula, told the army's party organization in September of efforts by ethnic Albanians to subvert the armed forces. ''Between 1981 and 1987 a total of 216 illegal organizations with 1,435 members of Albanian nationality were discovered in the Yugoslav People's Army,'' he said. Admiral Mamula said ethnic Albanian subversives had been preparing for ''killing officers and soldiers, poisoning food and water, sabotage, breaking into weapons arsenals and stealing arms and ammunition, desertion and causing flagrant nationalist incidents in army units.''
Concerns Over Military
Coming three weeks after the ethnic Albanian draftee, Aziz Kelmendi, had slaughtered his Slavic comrades in the barracks at Paracin, the speech struck fear in thousands of families whose sons were about to start their mandatory year of military service.
Because the Albanians have had a relatively high birth rate, one-quarter of the army's 200,000 conscripts this year are ethnic Albanians. Admiral Mamula suggested that 3,792 were potential human timebombs.
He said the army had ''not been provided with details relevant for assessing their behavior.'' But a number of Belgrade politicians said they doubted the Yugoslav armed forces would be used to intervene in Kosovo as they were to quell violent rioting in 1981 in Pristina. They reason that the army leadership is extremely reluctant to become involved in what is, in the first place, a political issue.
Ethnic Albanians already control almost every phase of life in the autonomous province of Kosovo, including the police, judiciary, civil service, schools and factories. Non-Albanian visitors almost immediately feel the independence - and suspicion - of the ethnic Albanian authorities.
Region's Slavs Lack Strength
While 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins still live in the province, they are scattered and lack cohesion. In the last seven years, 20,000 of them have fled the province, often leaving behind farmsteads and houses, for the safety of the Slavic north.
Until September, the majority of the Serbian Communist Party leadership pursued a policy of seeking compromise with the Kosovo party hierarchy under its ethnic Albanian leader, Azem Vlasi.
But during a 30-hour session of the Serbian central committee in late September, the Serbian party secretary, Slobodan Milosevic, deposed Dragisa Pavlovic, as head of Belgrade's party organization, the country's largest. Mr. Milosevic accused Mr. Pavlovic of being an appeaser who was soft on Albanian radicals. Mr. Milosevic had courted the Serbian backlash vote
with speeches in Kosovo itself calling for ''the policy of the hard hand.''
''We will go up against anti-Socialist forces, even if they call us Stalinists,'' Mr. Milosevic declared recently. That a Yugoslav politician would invite someone to call him a Stalinist even four decades after Tito's epochal break with Stalin, is a measure of the state into which Serbian politics have fallen. For the moment, Mr. Milosevic and his supporters appear to be staking
their careers on a strategy of confrontation with the Kosovo ethnic Albanians.
Other Yugoslav politicians have expressed alarm. ''There is no doubt Kosovo is a problem of the whole country, a powder keg on which we all sit,'' said Milan Kucan, head of the Slovenian Communist Party.
Remzi Koljgeci, of the Kosovo party leadership, said in an interview in Pristina that ''relations are cold'' between the ethnic Albanians and Serbs of the province, that there were too many ''people without hope.''
But many of those interviewed agreed it was also a rare opportunity for Yugoslavia to take radical political and economic steps, as Tito did when he broke with the Soviet bloc in 1948.
Efforts are under way to strengthen central authority through amendments to the constitution. The League of Communists is planning an extraordinary party congress before March to address the country's grave problems.
The hope is that something will be done then to exert the rule of law in Kosovo while drawing ethnic Albanians back into Yugoslavia's mainstream.
ETHNIC RIVALRIES CAUSE UNREST IN YUGOSLAV REGION
By Jackson Diehl
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 29, 1986 ; Page A14
PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA -- Growing tension between lbanians and Serbs here this year has converted this poor southern region from a chronic local trouble spot into the potential flash point of a country increasingly divided by national rivalries.
Since the outbreak of riots here in 1981, authorities of the autonomous province of Kosovo have faced a steady challenge from separatist and nationalist groups among the dominant Albanian population. More than 1,000 people have been jailed for seeking Kosovo's independence from Serbia, the Yugoslav republic to which Kosovo nominally belongs, or unification with the neighboring nation Albania.
The significance of this conflict has been multiplied this year by the emergence of concern among Yugoslavia's Serbs, the country's largest ethnic group, about the "forced emigration" of Serbs from Kosovo under pressure from the Albanians.
Small farmers, tradesmen and professionals have been steadily leaving the province's cities and the small Serbian villages around them, raising the prospect that a historic seat of the Serbian nation will soon be populated only by Albanians. More than 20,000 have emigrated since 1981 out of a total Serbian population of about 220,000. Meanwhile, the Albanian population of over 1.2 million is expanding at the fastest pace in Europe.
The local Serbs, arguing that Albanian-dominated provincial authorities have offered them no protection from violent attacks, have signed petitions and staged several demonstrations outside Pristina this year. To the embarrassment of authorities, they have also sent three delegations to press their case in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and of Yugoslavia.
...For the Serbs who have remained, frustrated Albanian youth have kept up a steady harassment ranging from the painting of hostile slogans on Serbian homes and vandalism of Serbian graveyards to beatings and rapes.
"One cannot speak of these developments as being only the deeds of individual {Albanian} groups anymore," said Serbia's interior minister Svetomir Lalovic in a recent speech. "At issue are seriously disturbed inter-ethnic relations."
Few killings have been recorded since the 1981 riots. But in the three months of July, August and September, authorities recorded 34 assaults by Albanians on Serbians. Two instances of rape provoked outraged demonstrations near Pristina and motivated the last, angry delegation that marched on the federal parliament in Belgrade.
Yugoslav officials predict that it will take many years to resolve the tensions in Kosovo, and dissidents are even less sanguine.
"We did not deal with the emigration for a long time, and now that it has reached this stage it is very difficult to break the chain of events," said Jokanovic.
Unfortunatelly, it apppears that Kosovo is sliding into extermisam.
Sonja Biserko surprised me with her remarks.
"Biserko told a news conference that she believed the authorities in Belgrade refused to recognize "that Kosovo is clearly not a part of Serbia for a number of years", and accused them "of holding Serbs there hostage".
And I can tell her, and anyone else that we all know who's holding Serbs in Kosovo hostage. Nice try to pass the blame.
She forgot to mention that Ahtisaari and other westerns "refused to recognize "that Northern Kosovo is clearly not a part of Kosovo for a number of years".
"Ivanović said that Kosovo was at this moment calm, but tense. He was once again sharply critical of the government for calling for a boycott of the recent provincial elections. Ivanović says it is in the Serbs "best interest to cooperate with Albanians".
We should all be sharply critical of all Albanian leaders who boycotted Serbian elections since early 90's. Clearly, it was in Albanian best interest to cooperate with Serbs.
"Belgrade is once again choosing human catastrophe that can come the moment Kosovo's independence is declared. I think that the government in Belgrade will be the sole responsible party for such a scenario."
See, buy doing those things above, Belgrade is sole responsible party and it chooses human catastrophy.
At least we now know who has sole responsability for human catastrophy in late 90's there. Albanians, if we use Biserko's logic. They boycotted Serbian elections.
They choose human catastrophy.
There, from horse's mouth.
It's unbelievable what some people can say.
Does this guy Ruecker have anything else to do other than make noise. He sounds like a broken record with his tired old story, the fact is that most people in Kosovo care about jobs and economic development in Kosovo, a future for their children, they are largely not interested in violence as this man keeps saying and if given a choice the majority of the Albanians would settle to keep Kosovo Serbian as it should be if they can be assured a better economic future and of course security. The security question can be solved by allowing the EU forces to stay in Kosovo for as long as it takes, Belgrade would not oppose this, and as for the economics question, all that is needed is to put this nonsense of independence to rest and then round up all the trouble makers in Kosovo no matter how many of them there are, and jail or expel them from Kosovo, and then in a couple of years, Serbia would join the EU and problem solved. The only losers (rightfully so) would be the Albanian extremist and I think people would be surprised how few of them there really is. I suppose America would be embarrassed if this turned out this way but I think all of Europe would rather have an embarrassed America then any further instability in the Balkans and serves them right for making so much noise like this guy Ruecker all these months.
You may claim it was propaganda as I claim that Albanians made own propaganda. Serbs did sell thier properties because they were forced to leave after being harrased, slaughterd, raped, terrorized. Who would live under such brutal conditions? Albanians were ready to pay good in order to make monoethnic society and some Serbs did used trying to find new oportunites. This terrorism you might even call a bit civilized way. However, when Albanians realised that this kind of terrorism does not work well and cost much, they deiceded to take another meassures by continuing to harass evryone who happend not to be an Albanian. You were commiting all these atrocities after you gained such power thanx to Tito's constitution in 1974. but you were still not satisified by own goals. Serbs were still there. Then you begun with new strategies by boycotting everything but never stopped to harras Serbs in all possible ways. Do you really think that Serbs do not remember that. I remember the TV testifies of the victims, even though I was just a kid then. And if I was to be asked Albanians do not deserve any selfgoverning in multicultural societies. But you don't have to worry now since you made Kosovo quite monoethnic and the rest of minorities keep behind birbed-wires. I just wonder what is the plan for those Serbs in North?
Lets try and behave less passionately after the nationalistic gong. People like Thaci, Ceku, Ivanovic, Tadic, Kostunica, etc, will come and go, they are politicians that do their job and follow their agendas. People like you and me have simpler problems to deal with, and those problems will never be solved by those people, but only by ourselves and by working together. When you hear some politician, be that Albanian or Serbian, be they in Prishtina or Belgrade, try and put to work your filters as a non-politician in order to find out what really is going on and what the future holds for us as common people, regular citizens. A poor Serbian/Albanian in Kosova is a poor Serbian/Albanian in Serbia as well and that is a status that cannot change by orders from Belgrade or Prishtina. As sooner as the status of Kosova is regulated, as better will be for regular people who basically just want to go back to their lives and think about their business. No one wants to go back to violence as it would only make things worse, especially for Serbs of Kosova. It's time to understand what the reality on the ground is and retake positive positions. Kosova is de facto independent. International community knows that, Belgrade knows that, Russia knows that, European Union knows that, Balkan states know that. The only people still with dellusional hopes are Serbs in Kosova who have been fed with unscrupulous lies from Belgrade for the past 20 years.
Bmrusila, just so you know and expand your 'precious knowlendge' about everything that is going on in the process of negotiations, Kosovo Made various proposals as well! When Belgrade started prposing models such as Hong Kong or Aland, Prishtina proposed the model of Namibia and decolonization. But of course, serb team refused to pay attention to these models and which could actually work in the territory of kosovo. Im just too afraid that if another war starts a lot of Balkan states would be left with much less territory that they actually have. The redrawing of borders based on ethnicity is not smth that's impossible. And unlike the congress of berlin and London, Albanians today have more friends than they did in the past. So... you all be very careful with your comments, self-satisfaction is always good, but not necessarily true.
I see very often here that you are pointing out quite often here the Resolution 1244 as you are really "concerned" about its application.
Can you tell us whether Belgrade was complying with the Resolution 1244 by calling and threatening the Kosovar Serbs not take part in the last Kosova elections?
One more thing. Yugoslavia doesn't exist anymore. It is dead.
gnh-bg: "The redrawing of borders based on ethnicity is not smth that's impossible. And unlike the congress of berlin and London, Albanians today have more friends than they did in the past. So... you all be very careful with your comments."
Actually I think you should be more careful about your comments. NATO is not willing to conquer all those places for you. I'm sure you remember how easily the Serbian forces chased away the Albanian terrorists in Presevo a few years back. I don't remember seeing any NATO intervention then.
Surprisingly, you made my day too.
About the atrocities in the 80s, i'm going to tell you a story from my personal experience. I remember serbs *selling* their property in kosovo and moving to Serbia where they could put their money in better use whilst the price of feritle land was three times cheaper than anywhere in kosovo. My family bought around 5-6 various properties from serbs. And Kosovo serbs were not leaving Kosovo because of albanians' arocities (please leave the propaganda aside, for god sake) but for the only reason of economic properity. But of course, it was nice and neat argument that serbs used later on to put all the blame on albanian, who after 1974 gained more power and rights, which automatically made serbs unprivileged. And THAT was smth that serbs couldnt bare. Please show me any unbiased document that shows that albanians did actually commit artocities against serbs. If you're planning to show me any kind of propaganda, please spare yourself.
i posted 3 articles above, the second one i forgot to put the date:
The New York Times
November 1, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section 1; Part 1, Page 14, Column 1; Foreign Desk
HEADLINE:
In Yugoslavia, Rising Ethnic Strife Brings Fears of Worse Civil Conflict
BYLINE: By DAVID BINDER, Special to the New York Times
albanians don't need german land we already have our land(Kosovo) it has been and it will be....
Besim,
You have your own country Albania but you do not want to go there. Perhaps you prefer more developed regions and since Kosovo is Serbia and do not want to give you independence, then ask Germans to give you piece of land whre you could run your own country. Germans do not have minorities or they do have but their status is not defined in that way. They are all imigrants just as you Albanians are in Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. Serbia was very democrtaic once when gave you a status of constitutanal nationality and with constitution in 1974 you had the all power. However, you abused that trust that Serbia gave you and thus you don't deserve anything more but autonmoy and status of national minority.
For the rest I might agree with you. For the sake of peace do accept what Belgrade offer now. Don't forget resolution 1244.
"In addition, Serbia has never attacked anyone. Serbia was in its long history only running the defending wars since many nations had aspirations towards Serbian teritory and for sure Serbia did everything in its power to protect its people of becoming someone's slaves."
brmsula you do not know the history of your own country. Can you please explain to me what were Serb troops doing in 1912 in Durres, right in the middle of Albania. Why did they kill Albanians in Durres. If that is not attacking and invading, then what do you call it; vaccation for the Serbian army? Or was Durres and Albania Serbia's heartland in 1912. Can you tell me what the Serbian troops were doing in Krume, part of the city of Kukes in Albania. If that is not invvading and attacking then what is it? Or do you conviniently forget about these cases. Or does it go even a step further and your government conveniently forgets about this and does not put this excellent part of your history in your schoolbooks.
Do you know that when we declared our independence in Albania we were fighting at the same time Serbs, Greeks, and Turks inside Albania? Again what were Serb troops doing in Albania if they were not attacking and invading.
Wow! I love how these spindoctors twist and turn events. Um....Kosovo has been in the hands of extremism for a long time. It is not happening because the Serbs are difficult to negotiate something that belongs to them. Mr. Reucker and his cronies are extremely biased.
I agree with what you say in terms of the value of people living their lives and making ends meet for their families, and the craziness of wasting our time and emotions on the words of politicians.
Kosovo may in fact unilaterally break away from Serbia. I'm sure that many of the western powers are supporting that. (although some things are changing)
I for one have never supported Milosevic's Kosovo policies, which were a disaster. They were wrong for Albanians, and they were wrong for Serbs.
Moreover, Serbia needs to consider the long term effects of having an unfriendly large minority like the Albanians living within its borders. Serbia's future is better without them. For that reason alone Serbia may have to let something go.
However, at the same time Serbia is not without justified claims in the area. To just ignore them like what is happening now will only make more problems later.
One of the biggest issues for me is the status of the remaining Serbs in Kosovo. Politics or not their treatment hardly makes Kosovo look like a democratic state. You imply that ordinary people whether Serbian or Albanian should just get along and find common ground. As an Albanian you could walk the streets of any Serbian city safely. How many Serbs can say the same thing about going to Albanian areas of Kosovo? Maybe you can help change this.
In case of an armed conflict, which I hope doesn't happen I agree with you that the losers would be the Kosovo Serbs, especially those living south of the Ibar river. They would undoubtedly be isolated and threatened. What you fail to understand is that current events on the ground prove they're already under constant isolation and threat. I also think there would be other losers besides Kosovo's Serbs.
(bmrusila, 24 November 2007 12:17
"why don't you give Albanians some of the German's land and make us all happy?"
albanians don't need german land we already have our land(Kosovo) it has been and it will be....
we are not bit minority who is seeking independece we are seeking freedom in our coutry.
"Is there any minority living in Germany and does any of these minorities have a status of minorities or are they all just imigrants?
yes there are but the difference if Germany dosen't solve its problem with violence but with justice and law.... every citizen in germany has the same right and has the freedom. what else do you want you know how much money they gave to albanians and serbs who were azilants there come on you can't compare germany with Serbia.
in march 23 1999 serbia was 199 years behind germany now because of the nato bombing it's like 500 years..
Serbia i think has better things to do than trying to keep something that is gone (kosovo)
If you serbs are that patriotic why don't why support your patriots (veterans) who faught the wars and now are in the street.
people need to start learning how to think more humanly.
te learn how to leave in peace..
human's life is like an animals life we kill each other for money(don't come telling me every war is not about the money) one contry is stronger than the other the weak one get smashed animal life. that's how animals are they like to show the dominance one from another.
that's all live in peace freedom, with happiness
that's not look at each other as enemies, but human.
I guess the nature of humen is violence we human are violence by nature.
at time of peace we seek war at time of war we seek peace....
Surprisingly, you made my day too.
About the atrocities in the 80s, i'm going to tell you a story from my personal experience. I remember serbs *selling* their property in kosovo and moving to Serbia where they could put their money in better use whilst the price of feritle land was three times cheaper than anywhere in kosovo. My family bought around 5-6 various properties from serbs. And Kosovo serbs were not leaving Kosovo because of albanians' arocities (please leave the propaganda aside, for god sake) but for the only reason of economic properity. But of course, it was nice and neat argument that serbs used later on to put all the blame on albanian, who after 1974 gained more power and rights, which automatically made serbs unprivileged. And THAT was smth that serbs couldnt bare. Please show me any unbiased document that shows that albanians did actually commit artocities against serbs. If you're planning to show me any kind of propaganda, please spare yourself.
Mr Rucker, you may say your opinion, it is free country and everyone may say what ever suits them. However, why did you come to talk in Belgrade? Don't you think that you should be talking to Pristina. Belgrade is using all political means to keep its sovereignity over Kosovo and Metohija. As far as I remember Serbia made many proposals but Albanians refused them all and made negotiations pointless. Belgrade made great offer and it is up to Albanians whether they accept it or leave it. It is Serbian country that we are talking about and you as a hard German worker try to secede part of Serbia. I wonder what would you talking if Turkish minority tries to seced the part of Germany. OH, yes, Turks even have no status of minority overthere. Is there any minority living in Germany and does any of these minorities have a status of minorities or are they all just imigrants? I can see you are some very generous and honest man who seems to be very worried for negative outcome but why don't you give Albanians some of the German's land and make us all happy?
Mr Rucker if you want stability then turn to Albanians and talk to them to accept what is been offered. From your statement I concluded that NATO soldiers overthere are not ready if violence break out. You seem to keep something under control but you fear that soldiers might fail in such scenario. I fear too and insist that NATO cannot be trusted when it comes to protection of the people, especially Serbs.
As for Sonja Biserko & Co. no need to comment since they do not change the course.
As for you Mr Ivanovic, why didn't you take part in Kosovo elections? Did anyone forbid you? Belgrade just made proposal not to take part but you had right to think differently. If you want to participate in Kosovo government you are free to do it and still have a chance. After the battle everyone is the general!
I see very often here that you are pointing out quite often here the Resolution 1244 as you are really "concerned" about its application.
Can you tell us whether Belgrade was complying with the Resolution 1244 by calling and threatening the Kosovar Serbs not take part in the last Kosova elections?
One more thing. Yugoslavia doesn't exist anymore. It is dead.
Lets try and behave less passionately after the nationalistic gong. People like Thaci, Ceku, Ivanovic, Tadic, Kostunica, etc, will come and go, they are politicians that do their job and follow their agendas. People like you and me have simpler problems to deal with, and those problems will never be solved by those people, but only by ourselves and by working together. When you hear some politician, be that Albanian or Serbian, be they in Prishtina or Belgrade, try and put to work your filters as a non-politician in order to find out what really is going on and what the future holds for us as common people, regular citizens. A poor Serbian/Albanian in Kosova is a poor Serbian/Albanian in Serbia as well and that is a status that cannot change by orders from Belgrade or Prishtina. As sooner as the status of Kosova is regulated, as better will be for regular people who basically just want to go back to their lives and think about their business. No one wants to go back to violence as it would only make things worse, especially for Serbs of Kosova. It's time to understand what the reality on the ground is and retake positive positions. Kosova is de facto independent. International community knows that, Belgrade knows that, Russia knows that, European Union knows that, Balkan states know that. The only people still with dellusional hopes are Serbs in Kosova who have been fed with unscrupulous lies from Belgrade for the past 20 years.
- this implies that they WILL go on long after the 10th Decemeber irrespective of Rueckers wish for them to end on the 10th December!
Clearly Ruecker knows he is in a tough spot as he represents and must uphold UN resolution 1244 i.e. immeditaly nullify any illegal declaration that attempts to undermine the UNMIK administration and his authority over the PISG.
Clearly there will be more talks till a "negotiated compromise" is reached!
I guess Thaci will follow in the footsteps of Ceku with ever moving deadlines - immediatly after 10th December, has become within a few days, then weeks - whay next April 2008 and then Dec 20008 perhaps?
Bmrusila, just so you know and expand your 'precious knowlendge' about everything that is going on in the process of negotiations, Kosovo Made various proposals as well! When Belgrade started prposing models such as Hong Kong or Aland, Prishtina proposed the model of Namibia and decolonization. But of course, serb team refused to pay attention to these models and which could actually work in the territory of kosovo. Im just too afraid that if another war starts a lot of Balkan states would be left with much less territory that they actually have. The redrawing of borders based on ethnicity is not smth that's impossible. And unlike the congress of berlin and London, Albanians today have more friends than they did in the past. So... you all be very careful with your comments, self-satisfaction is always good, but not necessarily true.
"In addition, Serbia has never attacked anyone. Serbia was in its long history only running the defending wars since many nations had aspirations towards Serbian teritory and for sure Serbia did everything in its power to protect its people of becoming someone's slaves."
brmsula you do not know the history of your own country. Can you please explain to me what were Serb troops doing in 1912 in Durres, right in the middle of Albania. Why did they kill Albanians in Durres. If that is not attacking and invading, then what do you call it; vaccation for the Serbian army? Or was Durres and Albania Serbia's heartland in 1912. Can you tell me what the Serbian troops were doing in Krume, part of the city of Kukes in Albania. If that is not invvading and attacking then what is it? Or do you conviniently forget about these cases. Or does it go even a step further and your government conveniently forgets about this and does not put this excellent part of your history in your schoolbooks.
Do you know that when we declared our independence in Albania we were fighting at the same time Serbs, Greeks, and Turks inside Albania? Again what were Serb troops doing in Albania if they were not attacking and invading.
"they work together, in places like Novo Brdo, Kamenica, and even Štrpce"
this is what they have to show for after 8 years. unmik is very, very unsuccessful.
and ivanovic, "give them independence or they'll kill us"... no comment.
or actually just one: there's the best reason why they should not be given independence. there is no civil society there capable of dealing with problems in a mature and normal manner. mob is mob, society is society, states are not built on mob mood swings but on mature societies.
Prishtina proposed the model of Namibia and decolonization
gnh-bg
You made my day, indeed. Serbia was not colonizer and in its long history has never colonized anyone. In addition, Serbia has never attacked anyone. Serbia was in its long history only running the defending wars since many nations had aspirations towards Serbian teritory and for sure Serbia did everything in its power to protect its people of becoming someone's slaves. Yes, Serbia had to defend its citizens from slaughtering firstly by the Turks, then Austro-Hungarians, then from Germans and Hungarians, and then from Croats and Bosnian Muslims and from the Albanians for long time. I do not want now to mention your atrocities against Serbs in Kosovo during the 80's. They are all very well documented.
For the end Pristina offered nothing else exept good neighbouring relationship. I guess even this was demanding to put on the paper and actually present some future vision. Perhaps you were waiting for Ahtisari to make you some new proposals. In my opinion what Belgrade offers is way to much. Btw. link me those proposals that Pristina offered, I am very curious and ready to expand my knowledge (in English language please)
i posted 3 articles above, the second one i forgot to put the date:
The New York Times
November 1, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section 1; Part 1, Page 14, Column 1; Foreign Desk
HEADLINE:
In Yugoslavia, Rising Ethnic Strife Brings Fears of Worse Civil Conflict
BYLINE: By DAVID BINDER, Special to the New York Times
(bmrusila, 24 November 2007 12:17
"why don't you give Albanians some of the German's land and make us all happy?"
albanians don't need german land we already have our land(Kosovo) it has been and it will be....
we are not bit minority who is seeking independece we are seeking freedom in our coutry.
"Is there any minority living in Germany and does any of these minorities have a status of minorities or are they all just imigrants?
yes there are but the difference if Germany dosen't solve its problem with violence but with justice and law.... every citizen in germany has the same right and has the freedom. what else do you want you know how much money they gave to albanians and serbs who were azilants there come on you can't compare germany with Serbia.
in march 23 1999 serbia was 199 years behind germany now because of the nato bombing it's like 500 years..
Serbia i think has better things to do than trying to keep something that is gone (kosovo)
If you serbs are that patriotic why don't why support your patriots (veterans) who faught the wars and now are in the street.
people need to start learning how to think more humanly.
te learn how to leave in peace..
human's life is like an animals life we kill each other for money(don't come telling me every war is not about the money) one contry is stronger than the other the weak one get smashed animal life. that's how animals are they like to show the dominance one from another.
that's all live in peace freedom, with happiness
that's not look at each other as enemies, but human.
I guess the nature of humen is violence we human are violence by nature.
at time of peace we seek war at time of war we seek peace....
albanians don't need german land we already have our land(Kosovo) it has been and it will be....
Besim,
You have your own country Albania but you do not want to go there. Perhaps you prefer more developed regions and since Kosovo is Serbia and do not want to give you independence, then ask Germans to give you piece of land whre you could run your own country. Germans do not have minorities or they do have but their status is not defined in that way. They are all imigrants just as you Albanians are in Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. Serbia was very democrtaic once when gave you a status of constitutanal nationality and with constitution in 1974 you had the all power. However, you abused that trust that Serbia gave you and thus you don't deserve anything more but autonmoy and status of national minority.
For the rest I might agree with you. For the sake of peace do accept what Belgrade offer now. Don't forget resolution 1244.
Unfortunatelly, it apppears that Kosovo is sliding into extermisam.
Sonja Biserko surprised me with her remarks.
"Biserko told a news conference that she believed the authorities in Belgrade refused to recognize "that Kosovo is clearly not a part of Serbia for a number of years", and accused them "of holding Serbs there hostage".
And I can tell her, and anyone else that we all know who's holding Serbs in Kosovo hostage. Nice try to pass the blame.
She forgot to mention that Ahtisaari and other westerns "refused to recognize "that Northern Kosovo is clearly not a part of Kosovo for a number of years".
"Ivanović said that Kosovo was at this moment calm, but tense. He was once again sharply critical of the government for calling for a boycott of the recent provincial elections. Ivanović says it is in the Serbs "best interest to cooperate with Albanians".
We should all be sharply critical of all Albanian leaders who boycotted Serbian elections since early 90's. Clearly, it was in Albanian best interest to cooperate with Serbs.
"Belgrade is once again choosing human catastrophe that can come the moment Kosovo's independence is declared. I think that the government in Belgrade will be the sole responsible party for such a scenario."
See, buy doing those things above, Belgrade is sole responsible party and it chooses human catastrophy.
At least we now know who has sole responsability for human catastrophy in late 90's there. Albanians, if we use Biserko's logic. They boycotted Serbian elections.
They choose human catastrophy.
There, from horse's mouth.
It's unbelievable what some people can say.
Does this guy Ruecker have anything else to do other than make noise. He sounds like a broken record with his tired old story, the fact is that most people in Kosovo care about jobs and economic development in Kosovo, a future for their children, they are largely not interested in violence as this man keeps saying and if given a choice the majority of the Albanians would settle to keep Kosovo Serbian as it should be if they can be assured a better economic future and of course security. The security question can be solved by allowing the EU forces to stay in Kosovo for as long as it takes, Belgrade would not oppose this, and as for the economics question, all that is needed is to put this nonsense of independence to rest and then round up all the trouble makers in Kosovo no matter how many of them there are, and jail or expel them from Kosovo, and then in a couple of years, Serbia would join the EU and problem solved. The only losers (rightfully so) would be the Albanian extremist and I think people would be surprised how few of them there really is. I suppose America would be embarrassed if this turned out this way but I think all of Europe would rather have an embarrassed America then any further instability in the Balkans and serves them right for making so much noise like this guy Ruecker all these months.
You may claim it was propaganda as I claim that Albanians made own propaganda. Serbs did sell thier properties because they were forced to leave after being harrased, slaughterd, raped, terrorized. Who would live under such brutal conditions? Albanians were ready to pay good in order to make monoethnic society and some Serbs did used trying to find new oportunites. This terrorism you might even call a bit civilized way. However, when Albanians realised that this kind of terrorism does not work well and cost much, they deiceded to take another meassures by continuing to harass evryone who happend not to be an Albanian. You were commiting all these atrocities after you gained such power thanx to Tito's constitution in 1974. but you were still not satisified by own goals. Serbs were still there. Then you begun with new strategies by boycotting everything but never stopped to harras Serbs in all possible ways. Do you really think that Serbs do not remember that. I remember the TV testifies of the victims, even though I was just a kid then. And if I was to be asked Albanians do not deserve any selfgoverning in multicultural societies. But you don't have to worry now since you made Kosovo quite monoethnic and the rest of minorities keep behind birbed-wires. I just wonder what is the plan for those Serbs in North?
"Please show me any unbiased document that shows that albanians did actually commit artocities against serbs."
The New York Times, Monday, July 12, 1982
Exodus of Serbians Stirs Province in Yugoslavia
"Serbs .... have... been harassed by Albanians and have packed up and left the region.
"The [Albanian] nationalists have a two-point platform, ...first to establish what they call an ethnically clean Albanian republic and then the merger with Albania to form a greater Albania."
"Some 57,000 Serbs have left Kosovo in the last decade... The exodus of Serbs is admittedly one of the main problems... in Kosovo..."
The New York Times
November 1, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section 1; Part 1, Page 14, Column 1; Foreign Desk
HEADLINE:
In Yugoslavia, Rising Ethnic Strife Brings Fears of Worse Civil Conflict
BYLINE: By DAVID BINDER, Special to the New York Times
DATELINE: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia
Portions of southern Yugoslavia have reached such a state of ethnic friction that Yugoslavs have begun to talk of the horrifying possibility of ''civil war'' in a land that lost one-tenth of its population, or 1.7 million people, in World War II.
The current hostilities pit separatist-minded ethnic Albanians against the various Slavic populations of Yugoslavia and occur at all levels of society, from the highest officials to the humblest peasants.
A young Army conscript of ethnic Albanian origin shot up his barracks, killing four sleeping Slavic bunkmates and wounding six others.
The army says it has uncovered hundreds of subversive ethnic Albanian cells in its ranks. Some arsenals have been raided.
Vicious Insults
Ethnic Albanians in the Government have manipulated public funds and regulations to take over land belonging to Serbs. And politicians have exchanged vicious insults.
Slavic Orthodox churches have been attacked, and flags have been torn down. Wells have been poisoned and crops burned. Slavic boys have been knifed, and some young ethnic Albanians have been told by their elders to rape Serbian girls.
Ethnic Albanians comprise the fastest growing nationality in Yugoslavia and are expected soon to become its third largest, after the Serbs and Croats.
Radicals' Goals
. The goal of the radical nationalists among them, one said in an interview, is an ''ethnic Albania that includes western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, part of southern Serbia, Kosovo and Albania itself.'' That includes large chunks of the republics that make up the southern half of Yugoslavia.
Other ethnic Albanian separatists admit to a vision of a greater Albania governed from Pristina in southern Yugoslavia rather than Tirana, the capital of neighboring Albania.
There is no evidence that the hard-line Communist Government in Tirana is giving them material assistance.
The principal battleground is the region called Kosovo, a high plateau ringed by mountains that is somewhat smaller than New Jersey. Ethnic Albanians there make up 85 percent of the population of 1.7 million. The rest are Serbians and Montenegrins.
Worst Strife in Years
As Slavs flee the protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationalists have been demanding for years, and especially strongly since the bloody rioting by ethnic Albanians in Pristina in 1981 - an ''ethnically pure'' Albanian region, a ''Republic of Kosovo'' in all but name.
The violence, a journalist in Kosovo said, is escalating to ''the worst in the last seven years.''
Many Yugoslavs blame the troubles on the ethnic Albanians, but the matter is more complex in a country with as many nationalities and religions as Yugoslavia's and involves economic development, law, politics, families and flags. As recently as 20 years ago, the Slavic majority treated ethnic Albanians as inferiors to be employed as hewers of wood and carriers of
heating coal. The ethnic Albanians, who now number 2 million, were officially deemed a minority, not a constituent nationality, as they are today.
Were the ethnic tensions restricted to Kosovo, Yugoslavia's problems with its Albanian nationals might be more manageable. But some Yugoslavs and some ethnic Albanians believe the struggle has spread far beyond Kosovo. Macedonia, a republic to the south with a population of 1.8 million, has a restive ethnic Albanian minority of 350,000.
''We've already lost western Macedonia to the Albanians,'' said a member of the Yugoslav party presidium, explaining that the ethnic minority had driven the Slavic Macedonians out of the region.
Attacks on Slavs
Last summer, the authorities in Kosovo said they documented 40 ethnic Albanian attacks on Slavs in two months. In the last two years, 320 ethnic Albanians have been sentenced for political crimes, nearly half of them characterized as severe.
In one incident, Fadil Hoxha, once the leading politician of ethnic Albanian origin in Yugoslavia, joked at an official dinner in Prizren last year that Serbian women should be used to satisfy potential ethnic Albanian rapists. After his quip was reported this October, Serbian women in Kosovo protested, and Mr. Hoxha was dismissed from the Communist Party.
As a precaution, the central authorities dispatched 380 riot police officers to the Kosovo region for the first time in four years.
Officials in Belgrade view the ethnic Albanian challenge as imperiling the foundations of the multinational experiment called federal Yugoslavia, which consists of six republics and two provinces.
'Lebanonizing' of Yugoslavia
High-ranking officials have spoken of the ''Lebanonizing'' of their country and have compared its troubles to the strife in Northern Ireland.
Borislav Jovic, a member of the Serbian party's presidency, spoke in an interview of the prospect of ''two Albanias, one north and one south, like divided Germany or Korea,'' and of ''practically the breakup of Yugoslavia.'' He added: ''Time is working against us.''
The federal Secretary for National Defense, Fleet Adm. Branko Mamula, told the army's party organization in September of efforts by ethnic Albanians to subvert the armed forces. ''Between 1981 and 1987 a total of 216 illegal organizations with 1,435 members of Albanian nationality were discovered in the Yugoslav People's Army,'' he said. Admiral Mamula said ethnic Albanian subversives had been preparing for ''killing officers and soldiers, poisoning food and water, sabotage, breaking into weapons arsenals and stealing arms and ammunition, desertion and causing flagrant nationalist incidents in army units.''
Concerns Over Military
Coming three weeks after the ethnic Albanian draftee, Aziz Kelmendi, had slaughtered his Slavic comrades in the barracks at Paracin, the speech struck fear in thousands of families whose sons were about to start their mandatory year of military service.
Because the Albanians have had a relatively high birth rate, one-quarter of the army's 200,000 conscripts this year are ethnic Albanians. Admiral Mamula suggested that 3,792 were potential human timebombs.
He said the army had ''not been provided with details relevant for assessing their behavior.'' But a number of Belgrade politicians said they doubted the Yugoslav armed forces would be used to intervene in Kosovo as they were to quell violent rioting in 1981 in Pristina. They reason that the army leadership is extremely reluctant to become involved in what is, in the first place, a political issue.
Ethnic Albanians already control almost every phase of life in the autonomous province of Kosovo, including the police, judiciary, civil service, schools and factories. Non-Albanian visitors almost immediately feel the independence - and suspicion - of the ethnic Albanian authorities.
Region's Slavs Lack Strength
While 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins still live in the province, they are scattered and lack cohesion. In the last seven years, 20,000 of them have fled the province, often leaving behind farmsteads and houses, for the safety of the Slavic north.
Until September, the majority of the Serbian Communist Party leadership pursued a policy of seeking compromise with the Kosovo party hierarchy under its ethnic Albanian leader, Azem Vlasi.
But during a 30-hour session of the Serbian central committee in late September, the Serbian party secretary, Slobodan Milosevic, deposed Dragisa Pavlovic, as head of Belgrade's party organization, the country's largest. Mr. Milosevic accused Mr. Pavlovic of being an appeaser who was soft on Albanian radicals. Mr. Milosevic had courted the Serbian backlash vote
with speeches in Kosovo itself calling for ''the policy of the hard hand.''
''We will go up against anti-Socialist forces, even if they call us Stalinists,'' Mr. Milosevic declared recently. That a Yugoslav politician would invite someone to call him a Stalinist even four decades after Tito's epochal break with Stalin, is a measure of the state into which Serbian politics have fallen. For the moment, Mr. Milosevic and his supporters appear to be staking
their careers on a strategy of confrontation with the Kosovo ethnic Albanians.
Other Yugoslav politicians have expressed alarm. ''There is no doubt Kosovo is a problem of the whole country, a powder keg on which we all sit,'' said Milan Kucan, head of the Slovenian Communist Party.
Remzi Koljgeci, of the Kosovo party leadership, said in an interview in Pristina that ''relations are cold'' between the ethnic Albanians and Serbs of the province, that there were too many ''people without hope.''
But many of those interviewed agreed it was also a rare opportunity for Yugoslavia to take radical political and economic steps, as Tito did when he broke with the Soviet bloc in 1948.
Efforts are under way to strengthen central authority through amendments to the constitution. The League of Communists is planning an extraordinary party congress before March to address the country's grave problems.
The hope is that something will be done then to exert the rule of law in Kosovo while drawing ethnic Albanians back into Yugoslavia's mainstream.
ETHNIC RIVALRIES CAUSE UNREST IN YUGOSLAV REGION
By Jackson Diehl
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 29, 1986 ; Page A14
PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA -- Growing tension between lbanians and Serbs here this year has converted this poor southern region from a chronic local trouble spot into the potential flash point of a country increasingly divided by national rivalries.
Since the outbreak of riots here in 1981, authorities of the autonomous province of Kosovo have faced a steady challenge from separatist and nationalist groups among the dominant Albanian population. More than 1,000 people have been jailed for seeking Kosovo's independence from Serbia, the Yugoslav republic to which Kosovo nominally belongs, or unification with the neighboring nation Albania.
The significance of this conflict has been multiplied this year by the emergence of concern among Yugoslavia's Serbs, the country's largest ethnic group, about the "forced emigration" of Serbs from Kosovo under pressure from the Albanians.
Small farmers, tradesmen and professionals have been steadily leaving the province's cities and the small Serbian villages around them, raising the prospect that a historic seat of the Serbian nation will soon be populated only by Albanians. More than 20,000 have emigrated since 1981 out of a total Serbian population of about 220,000. Meanwhile, the Albanian population of over 1.2 million is expanding at the fastest pace in Europe.
The local Serbs, arguing that Albanian-dominated provincial authorities have offered them no protection from violent attacks, have signed petitions and staged several demonstrations outside Pristina this year. To the embarrassment of authorities, they have also sent three delegations to press their case in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and of Yugoslavia.
...For the Serbs who have remained, frustrated Albanian youth have kept up a steady harassment ranging from the painting of hostile slogans on Serbian homes and vandalism of Serbian graveyards to beatings and rapes.
"One cannot speak of these developments as being only the deeds of individual {Albanian} groups anymore," said Serbia's interior minister Svetomir Lalovic in a recent speech. "At issue are seriously disturbed inter-ethnic relations."
Few killings have been recorded since the 1981 riots. But in the three months of July, August and September, authorities recorded 34 assaults by Albanians on Serbians. Two instances of rape provoked outraged demonstrations near Pristina and motivated the last, angry delegation that marched on the federal parliament in Belgrade.
Yugoslav officials predict that it will take many years to resolve the tensions in Kosovo, and dissidents are even less sanguine.
"We did not deal with the emigration for a long time, and now that it has reached this stage it is very difficult to break the chain of events," said Jokanovic.
gnh-bg: "The redrawing of borders based on ethnicity is not smth that's impossible. And unlike the congress of berlin and London, Albanians today have more friends than they did in the past. So... you all be very careful with your comments."
Actually I think you should be more careful about your comments. NATO is not willing to conquer all those places for you. I'm sure you remember how easily the Serbian forces chased away the Albanian terrorists in Presevo a few years back. I don't remember seeing any NATO intervention then.
I agree with what you say in terms of the value of people living their lives and making ends meet for their families, and the craziness of wasting our time and emotions on the words of politicians.
Kosovo may in fact unilaterally break away from Serbia. I'm sure that many of the western powers are supporting that. (although some things are changing)
I for one have never supported Milosevic's Kosovo policies, which were a disaster. They were wrong for Albanians, and they were wrong for Serbs.
Moreover, Serbia needs to consider the long term effects of having an unfriendly large minority like the Albanians living within its borders. Serbia's future is better without them. For that reason alone Serbia may have to let something go.
However, at the same time Serbia is not without justified claims in the area. To just ignore them like what is happening now will only make more problems later.
One of the biggest issues for me is the status of the remaining Serbs in Kosovo. Politics or not their treatment hardly makes Kosovo look like a democratic state. You imply that ordinary people whether Serbian or Albanian should just get along and find common ground. As an Albanian you could walk the streets of any Serbian city safely. How many Serbs can say the same thing about going to Albanian areas of Kosovo? Maybe you can help change this.
In case of an armed conflict, which I hope doesn't happen I agree with you that the losers would be the Kosovo Serbs, especially those living south of the Ibar river. They would undoubtedly be isolated and threatened. What you fail to understand is that current events on the ground prove they're already under constant isolation and threat. I also think there would be other losers besides Kosovo's Serbs.
Wow! I love how these spindoctors twist and turn events. Um....Kosovo has been in the hands of extremism for a long time. It is not happening because the Serbs are difficult to negotiate something that belongs to them. Mr. Reucker and his cronies are extremely biased.
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