Former KLA members arrested in Preševo

Finally, after so many years this state has taken decisive steps in order to take down the criminals of the worst kind. I cannot imagine that these murderes walked free for so long amongst all of us and enjoyed all the benefits of our country.

The question is however as to why did our MUP wait for so long to take down these criminals?

Nevertheless, what ever the reason is, I am glad that this long planned action finally came into reality.
It is high time to bring these murderers before the court and hear what they have to say in their defence.
Hopefully they will get well deserved life-time imprisonment.

I can predict scenario these days that will take place in Presevo-Valley.
Of course, Albanians will begin with daily demonstrations against Serbian brutality and oppression. It will be said that Serbia once again demonstrates the force against “respectable” citizens of Albanian nationality. Only location will differ this time. It won’t be Kosovo but Presevo Valley.

Already seen, isn’t it? That is how Albanians stand up for their own criminals. Instead of be ashamed of them, they will justify their actions as always.

I can already imagine today’s comment made by the Albanians in regard to this news

What an irony!!!! Milosevic's cub imprisoning Kosovar Albanians for war crimes!!!! I wander where the killer of my friend Arben is having coffee these days?! Or he maybe working for Dacic? I also wander where the people that burned my sister's house are working these days? My god, is Serbs in Serbia where aware at least of 10% of crimes committed here in Kosovo, you would apologize and recognize our independence. I simply do not want to believe that you know what Milosevic’s people did and you do not care.

Albanians here only show their true face.
In stead of applauding this enforcment of justice they are defending their war criminals.
Look guys,I got some messages for you:

1) The Serbian state will not give a damn about terrorist supporters(on both sides),it will uncompromisly enforce the rule of law on its territory.
2)Presevo is not going anywhere.Period.
3)Just dare to try to give a response and rebutt on innocent civilians like you always do.KFOR and EULEX are prepared.
4)This is exactly the reason why I long time proposed the evacuation of Serbs out of the enclaves to Northern Mitrovica,they are delibaretly kept as hostages by the terrorist Albanian leadership.

I have to praise MUP for this excellent operation! This is the way do deal with albanian terrorists. Show the world what kind of "innocent victims" they really are.

And so it begins. Kosova should do the same with Serbs that want to return or live in enclaves. How many of them helped the paramilitaries to commit the worst attrocities since WWII?
(alban, 26 December 2008 14:01)

Arrested guys were terrorists! Etnicity no matters in this case!
As for expeling Serbs no comment! It's good to know who are we dealing with. You are disguised finally! No more masks!

As for Albanians in so called Preševo valley they were not forced to leave their homes and they still live there. They have a freedom of motion, unlike Kosovo Serbs who live behind barbed wire in some enclaves in "new born democratic state".

I am amused by the predictable responses of the Albanians to this development. If there is no evidence against these men then they will be released. If there is, let justice take its course. The fact is that the credibility of the KLA led colony of Kosovo is slowly but surely unravelling.

This is a great news article and the pictures are even better. It is about time that Serbia starts the house cleaning and picks up the trash.

I would hope that Thaci is rounded up next!

Please, don't hand them over to the Haague. If they are handed over they will be realased. If you want to do something, do it yourself. Put these scumbags away for as long as they live thier misserable lives.
Interesting how many albanians are commenting this article. I guess it's a shock to finaly realize that albanians have commited crimes against humanity as well as all other combatants. It's also a good thing you can read some objective news for once and learn about the truth, rather than hearing albanian propaganda 24/7.

Hand over to Hague, otherwise will be considered an "mise en scene"-cool down hot heads|! Everybody knows that the Hague is antiserbian and the example of Haradinaj show it very clear.If this high level criminal is free today, what can you expect from Hague to do?Lack of evidence, no witnesses...As a third part here i find that any country in this world will by all the means protect the territory . You albanians invaded peacefully Serbia but occupied with USA help and now look at you brave people! If there were no US there will never be a so-called state of Kosovo. You're very lucky that you found a partner in this crime and now you will share the pride: Bond Steel is not there to protect to you. BS is for controling the Balkans and you to.USA don't realy care about you, they care about US interest in the region.You will find out later...And again, for your robbery you've paid a price to low! Serbia by losing this territory ,being bombed, losing human lives being humiliated by the gangster ,brought to Hague for trying to protect it's citizens and land ,has paid a price as nobody did so far! shame on YOU UNATED STATES OF AAALBANIA!

Wow, what a response from team Albania! They are defending vicious murderers and criminals but no surprises there really! Just remember the Hague is not taking on any more cases and closes in 2010 so keep dreaming. If we starting handing over Albanian criminals, it would never close.

But this is just the beginning. Kosovo and the Albanians are just about to be introduced to the rule of law so you can expect many, many, many more of these situations where Albanian criminals that have enjoyed freedom for such a long time finally brought to justice!

The words, my dear Albanians, are "The Rule of Law" so you better get used to it. I wouldn't be surprised at all if MUP were working with the EU on this case.

Albanians were not the only victims in Kosovo. If these Albanians committed the crimes they are charged with then they deserve to be arrested. That's all.

What about Serb war criminals who killed over 10.000 Albanians during the same period 1988-1989 and who are now rooming around freely in Serbia enjoying their time? Serbian authorities prove once again that not everybody is equal before court of justice as in modern democratic states. Some “rule of law” you’ve got there in Serbia! I’m just happy Kosovo(a) does not share the same “rule of law” with you guys!

If you add up all of the crimes that Serbians committed against Albanians it is only a small fraction compared to the atrocities that Albanians have committed against Serbians. Do you albanians remember WWI and how you tried to exterminate the Serbs then? Do you albanians remember WWII and how you Nazi's tried to exterminate the Serbs then? What about the hundreds of thousands of Serbs that have been driven from Kosovo? What about the atrocities committed against Serb women and children? What about the destruction of all of the Serb cultural sites? Go to your Albanian sites and post your lies there. Where are the Gorani? Where are the Roma's? Why do you have drug dealers, rapists, kidnappers, and organ traffickers in your government?

The facts are is that Albanians were on the wrong side in both WWI and WWII! The facts are that all of your neighbors have been victimized by Albanians. Why are Albanians allowed to live and work in Belgrade while Serbs are being driven out of Kosovo? Why do you come and post your crap on this site yet Serbs can't post on Albanian sites? Soon all of Europe will tire of the drugs and corruption originating from Albania! Soon all of Europe will tire of the anti-christian and anti-european ideals coming from Albania!

Serbia is going back to the policies of the 1990s.

Dont blame international community if Presevo valley organises a referendum regarding whether they want to rule themselves or not.

Referendum is looking ever nearer.

Independence of Presevo more likely than ever.

I anticipate destabiliation of the region as the Albanians will not stay still, when they see crimes committed before they eyes.

Nothing changed in century as far as Serbia is concerned.

Cubrilovic=Rankovic=Milosevic=Tadic

SHAME.

could you please tell us why it took 10years to your mup to arrest these guys in serbia proper?
They were not hiding like your maldic and karadjic,so why was it so difficult for your policemen to arrest them a long time before?

Well here in the west when their is a mass raid on organised crime suspects, it is usually a result of someone selling them out- either to stay out of prison or for money or because they are rivals.

I am pretty sure that it is a reasonable assumption that some of these men's friends were not as patriotic as what you imagine your youth to be.

Or do you think that no Albanian would sell another Albanian, I guess you have forgotten what it was like for your cousins' during the time of Enver Hoxa and I guess you ignore that even some Albanians were victims in the organ trade.

And so it begins. Kosova should do the same with Serbs that want to return or live in enclaves. How many of them helped the paramilitaries to commit the worst attrocities since WWII?

I clicked the "Comment" link just for fun because I knew exactly the types of comments that would come here: Albanians screaming foul that 10 people they probably never met, nor ever heard of, are now arrested by Serb MUPs, on charges of being former KLA members.

Of course to the mindless nationalist, this automatically places these 10 people in the martyr's circle as wrongly accused freedom fighters, angels, ordinary men, and whatnot. Yet if the article were to report that 10 Serbs suspected of being members of Arkan's Tigers, the Zemun Clan, or any other paramilitary group, these same Albanians would, without a doubt, be calling for their heads.

It's simply incredible to see that after all this, there are still simple-minded people, regardless of ethnicity, who are incapable of recognizing that crimes were committed on both sides. Yes, that "freedom fighter" that you glorify is little more than a war criminal, sanitized for your own media-driven historical memory. Serbs have them, Albanians have them, Croats and Bosnians have them.

And how does this improve dialogue? It doesn't. We simply have the usual Albanian suspects engaging in knee-jerk reactions simply because the accused are their own. And to be fair, were the tables reversed, and Serbs were the ones arrested, it would be the Serbs yelling oppression, while the Albanians once again praise the KPS for being the best security organization this side of the Swiss Guard.

Again, mindless nationalism would actually be funny were it not so damn endemic.

As for expeling Serbs no comment! It's good to know who are we dealing with. No more masks!

"The KLA members are accused of violating the provisions of international and national law, murder, rape, imprisonment, torture and looting"

Oh my God! I cannot put it into words how ironic and cynical this sounds coming from the Serbs.

Anyways, while I think that all those who killed civilians should be punished, I don't think Serbia should be the one to do it. First, Serbia does not control or own Kosova anymore, and second, there will be reprisals for these arrests on Serbs in Kosova (something which I don't condone, but it will happen since there are hotheads among us).


Also, I think this is a way of Bruno Vekaric to save face, since his phenomenal fairytales of organ trading seem to be going nowhere.

Why Serbian Gov is undertaking this action under the Serbian war crime pres. office request and has not handed out the case to Hague???

Is there such a trust between the involving parties that Serbia can act in this way??

Certainly NO.

Hand the case to Hague.

However, I compliment the Serbian Gov in this action.

It simply shows what Kosova's Gov MUST do- ASAP.

If Serbs have some elements to arrest 1 KLA member we have for at least 10 Serb- soldiers, MUP members or the Seslejls and Arkans killers.

Thought, this could be just a preparation of ground from Serbia to take the northern Kosova and block any possible attempts of reciprocating in Preseva valley by neutralising some experienced combats.

The real test will be whether the US and EU, on behalf of Pristina, will put pressure on Belgrade to 'release' these people and what Belgrade's response will be...

I think these milosevic puppies haven't learned a lesson yet. I wonder where the killers of my gym professor are. Ahmet Hoxha was too nice to be killed only because he was an Albanian. Serbian regime will pay price for this mistake.

How desperate can Serbia get? Arresting 11 old men from the KLA 10 yrs after the war? LOL. Thanks for making my morning!

-Greetings from Albania!

Former KLA members arrested in Preševo ????
Serbia has no right to arrest civilians without evidence.

Hand over to Hague, otherwise will be considered an "mise en scene"

Its easy to arrest 10 albanian innocent unarmed people but what about Mladic? Where is he? How come Serbia does not arrest him? or its just because he is a serb hiding under some ponytail like karadzic used to hide?
Its interesting to see that serbs talk so much here based on hate against albanians but none of these serbs writes anything in regards to the "scorpioni" case where serb soldiers committed crimes against albanians in the case of Podujeva.
Dacic is a Milosevic era person, so of course he will make sure he will bring more destruction and isolation to Serbia.

And so it begins. Kosova should do the same with Serbs that want to return or live in enclaves. How many of them helped the paramilitaries to commit the worst attrocities since WWII?
(alban, 26 December 2008 14:01)

Alban, although the natural reaction would be precisely this, it is a very unexpected and delicate situation. This is clearly a dirty provocation whose goal might be precisely to trigger reactions of the same kind to build on the case for partition of Kosova. It's no coincidence that Dacic, Milosevic surrogate, uses such a provocative language. His statement is spoken in the most confrontational and stimulating way as if all this operation is design to insult and offend the suffering of K-Albanians during 99' conflict. Clearly they expect a reaction, and a reaction they will have but not the one they expect. To my opinion the government of Kosova should do it's outmost to prevent this provocation spread out in Kosova.

Dont be crying when Kosovo Police does the same on north, dont forget who's Kosovas leadership.

Great! It took MUP 9 years to arrest them. And where? Within the Serbian territory!
Simply great :)

Greets from Prishtina!

Leaving aside the political trash-talk of Mr. Dacic, can B92 explain who are these 11 people and what are their actual crimes they are suspected for?
Or is this one of Serbia's provocation to trigger the partition of Kosova?
Please, every one is soooo tired of propaganda. Give us some real facts of what is going on.

Serbia better have undisputed proofs for these arrests, otherwise it is going to bring a lot of heat over itself. The wounds of 99 and the brutality of Serbia's army and police are very fresh and alive in many peoples minds. It sent shivers through our spines. The pictures in here for sure satisfy the appetites of many serbian extremists commenting in here but are not going to incriminate the accused more than what they are accused for. Although serbian media is well known for distorting many truths. To many beliefs this is closely related to Kosova's partition that Serbian government is preparing to undertake. Either this is an ugly provocation or they are simply trying to secure Albanian populated region in southern Serbia before they make a move into Mitrovica. Serbian government also has asked Albanian representatives in Presevo not to politicize the event, but pardon me, can anything that happens in this area stay out of politics?
If the accused are considered "war criminals" by Serbia they should be sent to Hague. Serbia is not capable to exercise justice when it comes to Albanians especially under these circumstances, simply because the bias is too strong against everything Albanian. Soon we'll have the international community stand on this event and we'll learn the truth.

I don't see any Albanian here to complain about the fact that alleged Albanian war criminals are arrested.

On contrary, what most of Albanians here say is: hand the case to Hague so ALL OF US could be SURE of a FAIR trial.

What's wrong in this???

No Albanian was criminalising Hague when they sentenced Limaj (if I am not wrong). Which is not the case with Serbs. Serbs do criminalise Hague and at the same time glorify the NOVELS that someone of Hague writes.

Hand out the case to Hgue. Period. Simple and fair.

This is what most of Albanians me including are saying.

Why do you try always to put words that no one is saying and twist the reality???

send these terrorists to jail and to these albanians that talk on here like these albanians did nothing wrong, and the albanians are going to go to the north, let me guess albanians want another war? but with no western help this time because your the ones starting this war of words on here these guys.

Johnny

with respect to your querry about world war one.

In world war one the serbian army, among them my paternal grandfather whos name I carry, had the choice of surrender or retreat through Albania and into Greece where they would be resupplied and fight for Europes freedom again. the choice was obvious, simply give up your guns and go home and force the west to clean up the mess or march through Albania in the dead of winter with the Austirans chasing and bitter cold. As you might guess we Balkan types never do the sensible thing so the Serbs marched, often without boots through the Albanian mountains and wilderness. At that time, although official Albanian sentiments were with Austria and the German powers poor Albanian country folk took pity on them and provided the marching soldiers with what little they had-

100,000 Serbian volunteers fell during this march and the rest carried the dead over the mountains and valleys. when the rest reached Greece and recuperated on Corfu they were resupplied and went and gave the enemy hell at the battle of Thessaloniki and that is why the Serbian army marched through Albania in world war one. I don't care if you don't believe it is historic fact.

This is how I should've written it in my first post #37.

Hey Serbs, these lies on the Albanian posts, are not directed at you, as they know that you know better. It's another pitiful and cheap attempt to gain more sympathy from the West. I know!

Ivica Dacic !? is this a person who was a right hand man of Milosevic

could you please tell us why it took 10years to your mup to arrest these guys in serbia proper?
They were not hiding like your maldic and karadjic,so why was it so difficult for your policemen to arrest them a long time before?
Need a mise en scène again as you did 10 years ago?Need to provoce a massive reaction from the albanians so that you "enter" Mitrovica?
this will only make our young generation more patriotic and more determined to fight when needed!

Hey Serbs, these lies are not directed at you, as they know that you know better. It's another pitiful and cheap attempt to gain more sympathy from the West. I KNOW!

Here we go again with media stunt. Who in right mind will comitt crime in neighboring state against citizens of another state and then go to live and/or hang out in said state? This is a nice bed time story for brainwashed kids.

MZ said:"Do you albanians remember WWI and how you tried to exterminate the Serbs then? Do you albanians remember WWII and how you Nazi's tried to exterminate the Serbs then? What about the hundreds of thousands of Serbs that have been driven from Kosovo?"

I have one question directed for the lame propaganda piece above. What the hell was the the Serbian army doing in Durres, the very heart of Albania, during WWI and WWII? After you answer that maybe then I'll bother talking about your comment. Also name me one time organized Albanian armies set foot on Serbia proper like Serbian armies have done countless of times before, and I am not talking about Kosova.

Serbia is an expansionist state. Your politicians still still hold Nacertanje as their Bible.

P.S In order to have a fair trial these suspects should be handed to the Hague. A state that still has arrest warrants for Ceku and Thaci cannot be trusted to have a fair trial for anything related to KLA and/or Albanians, lets not talk about the Serbian INjustice system of the 80's and 90's. If that is not done the other side will reciprocate. Only when that happens it will be the Serbs saying what Albanians are saying today.

There is a huge difference in the political reality of today and the late 90s. Back then, the US and EU could have dictated everything and probably could have put pressure on Serbia to release the arrested terrorists. The media would have followed the demands with photos of skinny Albanian prisoners in putative concentration camps. The world of stupid goody goods would have reacted by mobilizing their ranks of volunteers to stop another holocaust in the middle of Europe, a propaganda campaign created by Ruder Finn Global Public Affairs, a DC public relations firm hired by Bosnia and later Kosovo to manipulate the US media. However, times have changed, and now the Albanians of Kosovo have little ground to stand upon. They only have support of a little more than a quarter of the world's nations, they are going to be taken to the ICJ for their illegal declaration of independence, and their about to be investigated (whether true or not) for one of the most unimaginable crimes the world has ever seen, human organ trafficking. Why have things changed so much in the last ten years? There is only one answer, RUSSIA. Of course, the Albanians in Kosovo will respond in their usual very non-intellectual style with something like "LOL, Russia is weak, ha ha." The educated amongst us do not use terms like LOL. At any rate, I digress. Well, if Russia were as weak as you claim, how come the US and EU has not blocked everything Serbs have done recently? What are they afraid of? Oh, by the way I loved those pictures of the KLA terrorists in chains; it made my day.

All of the decent Westerners are probably shaking their heads in disqust by now. The Albanians' inflammatory lies toward the Serbs, and the manner in which they are delivered is troubling indeed. Obviously a highly energetic effort for the purpose of obscuring the truth and reality of these alleged yellow murderers. Seldom, if ever, did so many Albanians come to post and attack the Serbs in this fashion, and with such determination and desperation. Why? Is it maybe becase the West legitimized and promoted the KLA from their terrorist status, and proclaimed them and glorified them as bonafide freedom fighters? And thereby influencing the Albanians to actually believe that these alleged monsters are their freedom fighters?

The Kosovo debacle and it's tangled web is more obvious and transperent to the world than ever. Thanks to many credible authors, historians and journalists that are finally printing the truth.

Arm the KLA, promise them independence, create enough atrocities to force Milosevich to come to the Serb's rescue and attack the KLA criminals, while CNN and other super oiled propaganda machines (like in Bosnia) were in place to unleash their irresponsible lies to the world, thus promoting the longest non-stop bombing and land theft perpertrated on a sovereign nation and her people in modern history. Since it's relevant, I would like to take this opportunity to remind my fellow Americans, and others, how our same president Clinton reacted on our sovereign land in Waco, Texas and Ruby Ridge. We used army equipment in Waco in order to extract one armed, alleged religious fanatic with a small following that was supposedly a threat to innocent people. At Ruby Ridge, we sent a large team of FBI agents to arrest a man for illegaly selling just one sawed-off shotgun, killing the man's pregnant wife, 14 year-old son and the son's dog in the process. Both times trampling on our Constitution! The Serbs were prevented from defending their own and going after real criminals on their sovereign soil. Kosovo is not the only big mistake that is going to haunt Clinton's legacy. It's looking more and more that Bosnia's botched handling will haunt him even more than missing the opportunity to intervene in Rhawanda. The Rambouillet's well known "I'll make you an offer you have to refuse" was offered with such brutality that it saddened many Americans, including Senators and other members of Congress. The Croatian "Storm" should really haunt him. Unlike the Germans,and others that have denounced and condemned the dark parts of their past, the Croats are actually gloryfying theirs. Evident by Tudjman's own words in print in his book, also evident in Christiana Amanpour's CNN special that featured a segment in which she questions an official about the stylized swastika on a newer, State-built war memorial. Evident by the people they glorify by naming their parks and streets after. Evident also by the popularity of their neo-Nazi pop music band, which is notorious for lyrics which glorify their ugly past and the atrocities committed against the Serbian people. The messege of hate draws even large adult crowds-including a high official with his wife and children, who apperantly want to hear that kind of inflammatory rhetoric. They are intoxicated with their land grab victories, hence all the land disputes with their neighbors. We have made sure that Germany,s favorite pet in the Balkans--other than the Albanians--stole everything that they could at the expense of others. We allowed many self-proclaimed Ustashi, who proudly displayed themselves adorned in their fascistic garb and insignias, to be a large part of the mop-up crew on the ground during that "shameful storm." How much longer do the Serbian people need to suffer from our wretched wrath, before God unleashes His against us? I pray that the Irish are spared, as they were the only Western noble warriors that really stood out in the Kosovo peace-keeping mission that didn't twiddle their thumbs and watch the Albanians burn Serbian churces and monasteries and kidnap and murder Serbian civilians. They risked their young lives when the policy was that you didn't have to. We should all bow our heads to the Irish as I am convinced they would have acted in the same fashion if the Serbs were the perpetrators, or anybody else. That's a true mark of a brave, just, and noble warrior representing a brave, just and noble people that have suffered and overcome gruesome injustices in their own history.

"if you add up all of the crimes that Serbians committed against Albanians it is only a small fraction compared to the atrocities that Albanians have committed against Serbians. Do you albanians remember WWI and how you tried to exterminate the Serbs then? Do you albanians remember WWII and how you Nazi's tried to exterminate the Serbs then? What about the hundreds of thousands of Serbs that have been driven from Kosovo? What about the atrocities committed against Serb women and children? What about the destruction of all of the Serb cultural sites? Go to your Albanian sites and post your lies there. Where are the Gorani? Where are the Roma's? Why do you have drug dealers, rapists, kidnappers, and organ traffickers in your government?

The facts are is that Albanians were on the wrong side in both WWI and WWII! The facts are that all of your neighbors have been victimized by Albanians. Why are Albanians allowed to live and work in Belgrade while Serbs are being driven out of Kosovo? Why do you come and post your crap on this site yet Serbs can't post on Albanian sites? Soon all of Europe will tire of the drugs and corruption originating from Albania! Soon all of Europe will tire of the anti-christian and anti-european ideals coming from Albania!"

oh my god, the day after x-mas... it is like the usual barrage of hate tirades barely took a day and a half off, and then had to return with a vengeance!

it isn't the individual extremist nationalist haters that surprise or particularly offend me; one gets so accustomed to them here. but why are such comments published, and so freely? i mean i have to fight like hell to get HALF of my comments published, which are not only articulate but NEVER use racial or ethnic slurs, and very seldom even refer to individual posters. my targets are typically certain politicians (who are sooo0 offensive), certain govt. policies, certain intrnl. policies (or lack thereof) and a general (and buffered!) critique of this site. and yet i am continuously... edited, and these unbelievable tirades of hate and menace are practically highlighted.

"ethically challenged" really comes to mind here, and much, much worse...

roberto
USA

quite predictable, those of our dear k-albanian friends who can´t stand the truth, call it serbian propaganda, what else? =)

but, I hardly believe that this action was taken without the tacit approval of western countries in regard to ethnic albanian criminals in Serbia.

I would agree to Tom O´Donoghue on this one - there seems to take place some kind of change, and it has nothing to do with Obama... :)

mass graves in Albania being monitored around the clock, several kla-bandits arrested...all within a few days...

I´d start thinking if I were an k-albanian these days.

let´s just see what future brings!

While we're on it, let's talk about the Racak HOAX as well!

Roberto,

LOL - Where, what X'mas? You probably forgot, most people here use Julian calendar and it's not the eve of January 6 yet. Except for few Catholic Albanians, Hungarians, Croats, Irish here who use Gregorian calender to celebrate X'mas. For the rest: Dec. 24-26 are just days as usual. Ever wonder, why the Russian "October Revolution" of October 25-26 was in November 7-8?

Otherwise, who were arrested probably deserved it very well. Just being an ex-UCK member is not enough to be arrested. You need to do a "little bit" more.

As for Hague: it has no capacity to deal with every case of the civil war. "Scorpios" are not in Hague either. Obviously, to land up in Hague one need to do more, than "just" kill/rape few civilians. This case is probably a "minor" one but we do not know much detail so everything else is just second-guessing. All we know, they are suspects now after being (presumably) sold to MUP by some Albanian informants.

BTW: a well-known tactic on both sides was to free some common criminals, arm them and send them to the "other side" to make some damage. Since there are common criminals everywhere, they became murders and rapists after being armed. It is not uncommon, a criminal is "selling" an other criminal to MUP (or KP if you like) for hope to get a pardon for a lesser crime. Not unknown in the States either, called "plea bargain". It's a pretty yucky world where the most "honorable" people are bank safe "specialists"/crackers.

don't come to the forum crying about injustice, if you are a criminal then you should be arrested. Slobadon M is dead that is beating a dead horse to death. No one wants to hear that crap it is now Boris Tadic and Hashim Thaci the old guard is gone. Stop whinining and crying.

Albanians are still today trating ALL serbs in Kosovo like criminals and animals. When, finally, albanians are caught to face justice this is all of the sudden wrong. This just proves what kind of people you are and how much a serbian life is worth to you. You assume without hesitation that these KLA members are innocent. In your twisted world apparently only serbs committed warcrimes. I'm starting to like the serbian government more and more.

Marko, just because you say it is a fact doesn't make it a fact. You want to believe it as a fact but thats a completely different matter-

Johnny you have no reason to believe me so I will let the facts stand up to scrutiny and provide you the strict proof there of. I will provide evidence of my claims
1, Serbs were attacked by Albania before Serbian and allied forces occupied albania in ww1
2, how the serbs could have given up and went home, but instead retreated from their country to fight for the rest of europe

3 a descripition of the conditions

4 Albanian help
I will do this without a single Serbian source,using what a reasonable person would agree are neutral sources.

Source 1
Albania attacks Serbia
New york times February 1915
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E05E4D61538E633A25756C1A9649C946496D6CF

Source 2
a refference to the strange decision to retreat through Albania rather than sensibly surrender:
http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww1/cou/ser/w1cs-ret16.html

Source 3
Description of Serbian retreat through Albania in late 1915 (November)
(PUBLISHED 1916 University of California)
http://www.archive.org/details/retreatfromserbi00aldriala

another description:
http://www.naval-history.net/WW1CampaignsSerbia.htm

source 4
Albanian help Esad Pashë Toptani:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essad_Pasha

Unfortunately Johnny I can only find Serbian sources that point out that Poor Albanian citizens were helping the wretched and dieing Serb soldiers; but why would you deny this?

Do you really think it is impossible for people to feel compassion for their sworn enemies? Sadly for the Serb and Albanian extremists our people have a lot in common and are neither better nor worse than any other humans anywhere and you don't have to believe that either; it is a historic fact

every country has the right to protect it's people from criminals and terrorists. when the kla decides to kill mailmen they are called terrorists in every country in the world. the only reason Kosovo even came to the point it is at now is due to the fact that the us wanted to test the full effect of russias most advanced weapon systems witch the Serbs had.

it takes you ten year to arrest them!and these people were in serbia!
Why?
it reminds me,and all of us,your past actions,when you came in kosova to arrest "the irredentists" and we all know the result!

This is just another pathetic attempt by Serbia to discredit he Albanians. If Mother Terrisa was alive and found in Serbia by the MUP, she would also have been treated as a common criminal. It is very difficult to believe that it took ten years to find these so-called terrorists. This shows that nothing has changed in the way Serbia treats Albanians. Just more of the same trumped up charges.

if the arrested guys really killed civilians than they schould burn in hell! but i dont think that they will get a fair trial in serbia so the simple reaction will be that arrested serbs in kosovo will also not get a fair trial i think also that this is only a provocation nothing more an will only damage the serbs in kosovo

Now this is weird. How did they manage to do this? They captured 10 (war criminals) and yet they can't find Mladic? Serbia's politics is still the same as in the 90'.

Marko, just because you say it is a fact doesn't make it a fact. You want to believe it as a fact but thats a completely different matter. Let me not talk about the Serbian army being in Durres in 1911 and 1912, around the time when we were fighting for our independence. You know which country was the one that most ardently opposed Albania's independence in 1912? You got it right, it was Serbia. Do you know what their argument was? Albania was old Serbia, it was Serbia's heart. Does it vaguely remind you of something similar we hear today?

I posted a similar post once here on B92 with sources from the Serb government officials of that time and their statement. Of course something like that never got published here. It went against the interest of the common Serb here.

The UN set up the ICTY for the explicit purpose of trying war criminals. Should Serbia start prosecuting opposition for war crimes it will never garner any international respect.
It does and will appear as politically motivated and a return to pre1999. Wasn't that the reason for the so called crack down and ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, to rid it of "war criminals", now it is starting in the probably the most concentrated Albanian areas of Serbia.
That should look good on the EU application.

Marko,
You should read more carefully your sources.
As far as the first point goes (Albania attacking first Serbia), the article itself states that the Serbian army attacked Albania in 1913.
I agree with you about some of your other points though.
In the Balkans people do not see the good side of each other.

Marko, Serbian armies were in Albania in 1911,1912 and 1913. You post links of Albanians in Gjilan, Kosova in 1915 and state we attacked first. Doesn't make sense.

Since you like links. Here's a random one. Not hard to google things. Just search for "Serbian" in the web page.

http://www.archiveeditions.co.uk/titledetails.asp?tid=18

The differene between us and Serbia is that we never eyed Belgrade or any other lands in Serbia proper. Serbia on the other hand has always had the desire to have a chunk of our Adriatic Cost. In order to satiate your expansionist agenda the West gave you that port in Montenegro. You wouldn't even have that if it wasn't for the west. Well now you don't, Montenegro has it.

This isn't even about Kosova. Serbia as a state is an expansionist state. If the west doesn't intervene and keep Serbia in check we know what we have. We will have another Bosnia, another Croatia, another Kosova and another Slovenia. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Serbian army gave it a try towards Albania and claim that as old Serbia, Serbia's heart or whatever epithet is good for the Serbian propaganda machine.
Thank Bill Clinton for not allowing the invasion of Serbia, otherwise Belgrade today would be a lot more similar to Bagdad.

P.S Serbian armies were never nor they will ever be welcomed in Albanian territories. Your retreat from Austrians theory holds no water.

Marko said "In world war one the serbian army, among them my paternal grandfather whos name I carry, had the choice of surrender or retreat through Albania and ...."
You are forgeting something else Marko: they thought that everywhere Serb soldier boot crossed is Serbian land, and they wanted that passage Albanian-free.
About these arrests: no one from the Albanian camp is saying these individuals are inocent, but since they are arrested for war crimes, they should be judged in a war crimes court. And well known Serbian propaganda takes the scene again: they claim that war crimes were comited to the Serb an non-Serb people, but instead they want to judge them in Serbian courts. Everybody is aware of the "fairness" of the judgment of an Albanian in a Serbian court, instead of sending them to the Hague. It is a court that is found by UN, which you trust more than even EU, the Union you dream to join in the future.

What an irony!!!! Milosevic's cub imprisoning Kosovar Albanians for war crimes!!!! I wander where the killer of my friend Arben is having coffee these days?! Or he maybe working for Dacic? I also wander where the people that burned my sister's house are working these days? My god, is Serbs in Serbia where aware at least of 10% of crimes committed here in Kosovo, you would apologize and recognize our independence. I simply do not want to believe that you know what Milosevic’s people did and you do not care.

What about Serb war criminals who killed over 10.000 Albanians during the same period 1988-1989 and who are now rooming around freely in Serbia enjoying their time? Serbian authorities prove once again that not everybody is equal before court of justice as in modern democratic states. Some “rule of law” you’ve got there in Serbia! I’m just happy Kosovo(a) does not share the same “rule of law” with you guys!

And so it begins. Kosova should do the same with Serbs that want to return or live in enclaves. How many of them helped the paramilitaries to commit the worst attrocities since WWII?

"The KLA members are accused of violating the provisions of international and national law, murder, rape, imprisonment, torture and looting"

Oh my God! I cannot put it into words how ironic and cynical this sounds coming from the Serbs.

Anyways, while I think that all those who killed civilians should be punished, I don't think Serbia should be the one to do it. First, Serbia does not control or own Kosova anymore, and second, there will be reprisals for these arrests on Serbs in Kosova (something which I don't condone, but it will happen since there are hotheads among us).


Also, I think this is a way of Bruno Vekaric to save face, since his phenomenal fairytales of organ trading seem to be going nowhere.

Serbia is going back to the policies of the 1990s.

Dont blame international community if Presevo valley organises a referendum regarding whether they want to rule themselves or not.

Referendum is looking ever nearer.

Independence of Presevo more likely than ever.

I anticipate destabiliation of the region as the Albanians will not stay still, when they see crimes committed before they eyes.

Nothing changed in century as far as Serbia is concerned.

Cubrilovic=Rankovic=Milosevic=Tadic

SHAME.

Former KLA members arrested in Preševo ????
Serbia has no right to arrest civilians without evidence.

Leaving aside the political trash-talk of Mr. Dacic, can B92 explain who are these 11 people and what are their actual crimes they are suspected for?
Or is this one of Serbia's provocation to trigger the partition of Kosova?
Please, every one is soooo tired of propaganda. Give us some real facts of what is going on.

How desperate can Serbia get? Arresting 11 old men from the KLA 10 yrs after the war? LOL. Thanks for making my morning!

-Greetings from Albania!

And so it begins. Kosova should do the same with Serbs that want to return or live in enclaves. How many of them helped the paramilitaries to commit the worst attrocities since WWII?
(alban, 26 December 2008 14:01)

Alban, although the natural reaction would be precisely this, it is a very unexpected and delicate situation. This is clearly a dirty provocation whose goal might be precisely to trigger reactions of the same kind to build on the case for partition of Kosova. It's no coincidence that Dacic, Milosevic surrogate, uses such a provocative language. His statement is spoken in the most confrontational and stimulating way as if all this operation is design to insult and offend the suffering of K-Albanians during 99' conflict. Clearly they expect a reaction, and a reaction they will have but not the one they expect. To my opinion the government of Kosova should do it's outmost to prevent this provocation spread out in Kosova.

Why Serbian Gov is undertaking this action under the Serbian war crime pres. office request and has not handed out the case to Hague???

Is there such a trust between the involving parties that Serbia can act in this way??

Certainly NO.

Hand the case to Hague.

However, I compliment the Serbian Gov in this action.

It simply shows what Kosova's Gov MUST do- ASAP.

If Serbs have some elements to arrest 1 KLA member we have for at least 10 Serb- soldiers, MUP members or the Seslejls and Arkans killers.

Thought, this could be just a preparation of ground from Serbia to take the northern Kosova and block any possible attempts of reciprocating in Preseva valley by neutralising some experienced combats.

Its easy to arrest 10 albanian innocent unarmed people but what about Mladic? Where is he? How come Serbia does not arrest him? or its just because he is a serb hiding under some ponytail like karadzic used to hide?
Its interesting to see that serbs talk so much here based on hate against albanians but none of these serbs writes anything in regards to the "scorpioni" case where serb soldiers committed crimes against albanians in the case of Podujeva.
Dacic is a Milosevic era person, so of course he will make sure he will bring more destruction and isolation to Serbia.

Dont be crying when Kosovo Police does the same on north, dont forget who's Kosovas leadership.

I think these milosevic puppies haven't learned a lesson yet. I wonder where the killers of my gym professor are. Ahmet Hoxha was too nice to be killed only because he was an Albanian. Serbian regime will pay price for this mistake.

Serbia better have undisputed proofs for these arrests, otherwise it is going to bring a lot of heat over itself. The wounds of 99 and the brutality of Serbia's army and police are very fresh and alive in many peoples minds. It sent shivers through our spines. The pictures in here for sure satisfy the appetites of many serbian extremists commenting in here but are not going to incriminate the accused more than what they are accused for. Although serbian media is well known for distorting many truths. To many beliefs this is closely related to Kosova's partition that Serbian government is preparing to undertake. Either this is an ugly provocation or they are simply trying to secure Albanian populated region in southern Serbia before they make a move into Mitrovica. Serbian government also has asked Albanian representatives in Presevo not to politicize the event, but pardon me, can anything that happens in this area stay out of politics?
If the accused are considered "war criminals" by Serbia they should be sent to Hague. Serbia is not capable to exercise justice when it comes to Albanians especially under these circumstances, simply because the bias is too strong against everything Albanian. Soon we'll have the international community stand on this event and we'll learn the truth.

could you please tell us why it took 10years to your mup to arrest these guys in serbia proper?
They were not hiding like your maldic and karadjic,so why was it so difficult for your policemen to arrest them a long time before?
Need a mise en scène again as you did 10 years ago?Need to provoce a massive reaction from the albanians so that you "enter" Mitrovica?
this will only make our young generation more patriotic and more determined to fight when needed!

Finally, after so many years this state has taken decisive steps in order to take down the criminals of the worst kind. I cannot imagine that these murderes walked free for so long amongst all of us and enjoyed all the benefits of our country.

The question is however as to why did our MUP wait for so long to take down these criminals?

Nevertheless, what ever the reason is, I am glad that this long planned action finally came into reality.
It is high time to bring these murderers before the court and hear what they have to say in their defence.
Hopefully they will get well deserved life-time imprisonment.

I can predict scenario these days that will take place in Presevo-Valley.
Of course, Albanians will begin with daily demonstrations against Serbian brutality and oppression. It will be said that Serbia once again demonstrates the force against “respectable” citizens of Albanian nationality. Only location will differ this time. It won’t be Kosovo but Presevo Valley.

Already seen, isn’t it? That is how Albanians stand up for their own criminals. Instead of be ashamed of them, they will justify their actions as always.

I can already imagine today’s comment made by the Albanians in regard to this news

Hand over to Hague, otherwise will be considered an "mise en scene"

Here we go again with media stunt. Who in right mind will comitt crime in neighboring state against citizens of another state and then go to live and/or hang out in said state? This is a nice bed time story for brainwashed kids.

I have to praise MUP for this excellent operation! This is the way do deal with albanian terrorists. Show the world what kind of "innocent victims" they really are.

Great! It took MUP 9 years to arrest them. And where? Within the Serbian territory!
Simply great :)

Greets from Prishtina!

Albanians here only show their true face.
In stead of applauding this enforcment of justice they are defending their war criminals.
Look guys,I got some messages for you:

1) The Serbian state will not give a damn about terrorist supporters(on both sides),it will uncompromisly enforce the rule of law on its territory.
2)Presevo is not going anywhere.Period.
3)Just dare to try to give a response and rebutt on innocent civilians like you always do.KFOR and EULEX are prepared.
4)This is exactly the reason why I long time proposed the evacuation of Serbs out of the enclaves to Northern Mitrovica,they are delibaretly kept as hostages by the terrorist Albanian leadership.

"if you add up all of the crimes that Serbians committed against Albanians it is only a small fraction compared to the atrocities that Albanians have committed against Serbians. Do you albanians remember WWI and how you tried to exterminate the Serbs then? Do you albanians remember WWII and how you Nazi's tried to exterminate the Serbs then? What about the hundreds of thousands of Serbs that have been driven from Kosovo? What about the atrocities committed against Serb women and children? What about the destruction of all of the Serb cultural sites? Go to your Albanian sites and post your lies there. Where are the Gorani? Where are the Roma's? Why do you have drug dealers, rapists, kidnappers, and organ traffickers in your government?

The facts are is that Albanians were on the wrong side in both WWI and WWII! The facts are that all of your neighbors have been victimized by Albanians. Why are Albanians allowed to live and work in Belgrade while Serbs are being driven out of Kosovo? Why do you come and post your crap on this site yet Serbs can't post on Albanian sites? Soon all of Europe will tire of the drugs and corruption originating from Albania! Soon all of Europe will tire of the anti-christian and anti-european ideals coming from Albania!"

oh my god, the day after x-mas... it is like the usual barrage of hate tirades barely took a day and a half off, and then had to return with a vengeance!

it isn't the individual extremist nationalist haters that surprise or particularly offend me; one gets so accustomed to them here. but why are such comments published, and so freely? i mean i have to fight like hell to get HALF of my comments published, which are not only articulate but NEVER use racial or ethnic slurs, and very seldom even refer to individual posters. my targets are typically certain politicians (who are sooo0 offensive), certain govt. policies, certain intrnl. policies (or lack thereof) and a general (and buffered!) critique of this site. and yet i am continuously... edited, and these unbelievable tirades of hate and menace are practically highlighted.

"ethically challenged" really comes to mind here, and much, much worse...

roberto
USA

This is a great news article and the pictures are even better. It is about time that Serbia starts the house cleaning and picks up the trash.

I would hope that Thaci is rounded up next!

Wow, what a response from team Albania! They are defending vicious murderers and criminals but no surprises there really! Just remember the Hague is not taking on any more cases and closes in 2010 so keep dreaming. If we starting handing over Albanian criminals, it would never close.

But this is just the beginning. Kosovo and the Albanians are just about to be introduced to the rule of law so you can expect many, many, many more of these situations where Albanian criminals that have enjoyed freedom for such a long time finally brought to justice!

The words, my dear Albanians, are "The Rule of Law" so you better get used to it. I wouldn't be surprised at all if MUP were working with the EU on this case.

Hand over to Hague, otherwise will be considered an "mise en scene"-cool down hot heads|! Everybody knows that the Hague is antiserbian and the example of Haradinaj show it very clear.If this high level criminal is free today, what can you expect from Hague to do?Lack of evidence, no witnesses...As a third part here i find that any country in this world will by all the means protect the territory . You albanians invaded peacefully Serbia but occupied with USA help and now look at you brave people! If there were no US there will never be a so-called state of Kosovo. You're very lucky that you found a partner in this crime and now you will share the pride: Bond Steel is not there to protect to you. BS is for controling the Balkans and you to.USA don't realy care about you, they care about US interest in the region.You will find out later...And again, for your robbery you've paid a price to low! Serbia by losing this territory ,being bombed, losing human lives being humiliated by the gangster ,brought to Hague for trying to protect it's citizens and land ,has paid a price as nobody did so far! shame on YOU UNATED STATES OF AAALBANIA!

I don't see any Albanian here to complain about the fact that alleged Albanian war criminals are arrested.

On contrary, what most of Albanians here say is: hand the case to Hague so ALL OF US could be SURE of a FAIR trial.

What's wrong in this???

No Albanian was criminalising Hague when they sentenced Limaj (if I am not wrong). Which is not the case with Serbs. Serbs do criminalise Hague and at the same time glorify the NOVELS that someone of Hague writes.

Hand out the case to Hgue. Period. Simple and fair.

This is what most of Albanians me including are saying.

Why do you try always to put words that no one is saying and twist the reality???

And so it begins. Kosova should do the same with Serbs that want to return or live in enclaves. How many of them helped the paramilitaries to commit the worst attrocities since WWII?
(alban, 26 December 2008 14:01)

Arrested guys were terrorists! Etnicity no matters in this case!
As for expeling Serbs no comment! It's good to know who are we dealing with. You are disguised finally! No more masks!

As for Albanians in so called Preševo valley they were not forced to leave their homes and they still live there. They have a freedom of motion, unlike Kosovo Serbs who live behind barbed wire in some enclaves in "new born democratic state".

Please, don't hand them over to the Haague. If they are handed over they will be realased. If you want to do something, do it yourself. Put these scumbags away for as long as they live thier misserable lives.
Interesting how many albanians are commenting this article. I guess it's a shock to finaly realize that albanians have commited crimes against humanity as well as all other combatants. It's also a good thing you can read some objective news for once and learn about the truth, rather than hearing albanian propaganda 24/7.

Ivica Dacic !? is this a person who was a right hand man of Milosevic

send these terrorists to jail and to these albanians that talk on here like these albanians did nothing wrong, and the albanians are going to go to the north, let me guess albanians want another war? but with no western help this time because your the ones starting this war of words on here these guys.

MZ said:"Do you albanians remember WWI and how you tried to exterminate the Serbs then? Do you albanians remember WWII and how you Nazi's tried to exterminate the Serbs then? What about the hundreds of thousands of Serbs that have been driven from Kosovo?"

I have one question directed for the lame propaganda piece above. What the hell was the the Serbian army doing in Durres, the very heart of Albania, during WWI and WWII? After you answer that maybe then I'll bother talking about your comment. Also name me one time organized Albanian armies set foot on Serbia proper like Serbian armies have done countless of times before, and I am not talking about Kosova.

Serbia is an expansionist state. Your politicians still still hold Nacertanje as their Bible.

P.S In order to have a fair trial these suspects should be handed to the Hague. A state that still has arrest warrants for Ceku and Thaci cannot be trusted to have a fair trial for anything related to KLA and/or Albanians, lets not talk about the Serbian INjustice system of the 80's and 90's. If that is not done the other side will reciprocate. Only when that happens it will be the Serbs saying what Albanians are saying today.

I am amused by the predictable responses of the Albanians to this development. If there is no evidence against these men then they will be released. If there is, let justice take its course. The fact is that the credibility of the KLA led colony of Kosovo is slowly but surely unravelling.

If you add up all of the crimes that Serbians committed against Albanians it is only a small fraction compared to the atrocities that Albanians have committed against Serbians. Do you albanians remember WWI and how you tried to exterminate the Serbs then? Do you albanians remember WWII and how you Nazi's tried to exterminate the Serbs then? What about the hundreds of thousands of Serbs that have been driven from Kosovo? What about the atrocities committed against Serb women and children? What about the destruction of all of the Serb cultural sites? Go to your Albanian sites and post your lies there. Where are the Gorani? Where are the Roma's? Why do you have drug dealers, rapists, kidnappers, and organ traffickers in your government?

The facts are is that Albanians were on the wrong side in both WWI and WWII! The facts are that all of your neighbors have been victimized by Albanians. Why are Albanians allowed to live and work in Belgrade while Serbs are being driven out of Kosovo? Why do you come and post your crap on this site yet Serbs can't post on Albanian sites? Soon all of Europe will tire of the drugs and corruption originating from Albania! Soon all of Europe will tire of the anti-christian and anti-european ideals coming from Albania!

This is just another pathetic attempt by Serbia to discredit he Albanians. If Mother Terrisa was alive and found in Serbia by the MUP, she would also have been treated as a common criminal. It is very difficult to believe that it took ten years to find these so-called terrorists. This shows that nothing has changed in the way Serbia treats Albanians. Just more of the same trumped up charges.

Hey Serbs, these lies are not directed at you, as they know that you know better. It's another pitiful and cheap attempt to gain more sympathy from the West. I KNOW!

Albanians were not the only victims in Kosovo. If these Albanians committed the crimes they are charged with then they deserve to be arrested. That's all.

The UN set up the ICTY for the explicit purpose of trying war criminals. Should Serbia start prosecuting opposition for war crimes it will never garner any international respect.
It does and will appear as politically motivated and a return to pre1999. Wasn't that the reason for the so called crack down and ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, to rid it of "war criminals", now it is starting in the probably the most concentrated Albanian areas of Serbia.
That should look good on the EU application.

Marko said "In world war one the serbian army, among them my paternal grandfather whos name I carry, had the choice of surrender or retreat through Albania and ...."
You are forgeting something else Marko: they thought that everywhere Serb soldier boot crossed is Serbian land, and they wanted that passage Albanian-free.
About these arrests: no one from the Albanian camp is saying these individuals are inocent, but since they are arrested for war crimes, they should be judged in a war crimes court. And well known Serbian propaganda takes the scene again: they claim that war crimes were comited to the Serb an non-Serb people, but instead they want to judge them in Serbian courts. Everybody is aware of the "fairness" of the judgment of an Albanian in a Serbian court, instead of sending them to the Hague. It is a court that is found by UN, which you trust more than even EU, the Union you dream to join in the future.

As for expeling Serbs no comment! It's good to know who are we dealing with. No more masks!

Now this is weird. How did they manage to do this? They captured 10 (war criminals) and yet they can't find Mladic? Serbia's politics is still the same as in the 90'.

This is how I should've written it in my first post #37.

Hey Serbs, these lies on the Albanian posts, are not directed at you, as they know that you know better. It's another pitiful and cheap attempt to gain more sympathy from the West. I know!

I clicked the "Comment" link just for fun because I knew exactly the types of comments that would come here: Albanians screaming foul that 10 people they probably never met, nor ever heard of, are now arrested by Serb MUPs, on charges of being former KLA members.

Of course to the mindless nationalist, this automatically places these 10 people in the martyr's circle as wrongly accused freedom fighters, angels, ordinary men, and whatnot. Yet if the article were to report that 10 Serbs suspected of being members of Arkan's Tigers, the Zemun Clan, or any other paramilitary group, these same Albanians would, without a doubt, be calling for their heads.

It's simply incredible to see that after all this, there are still simple-minded people, regardless of ethnicity, who are incapable of recognizing that crimes were committed on both sides. Yes, that "freedom fighter" that you glorify is little more than a war criminal, sanitized for your own media-driven historical memory. Serbs have them, Albanians have them, Croats and Bosnians have them.

And how does this improve dialogue? It doesn't. We simply have the usual Albanian suspects engaging in knee-jerk reactions simply because the accused are their own. And to be fair, were the tables reversed, and Serbs were the ones arrested, it would be the Serbs yelling oppression, while the Albanians once again praise the KPS for being the best security organization this side of the Swiss Guard.

Again, mindless nationalism would actually be funny were it not so damn endemic.

The real test will be whether the US and EU, on behalf of Pristina, will put pressure on Belgrade to 'release' these people and what Belgrade's response will be...

it takes you ten year to arrest them!and these people were in serbia!
Why?
it reminds me,and all of us,your past actions,when you came in kosova to arrest "the irredentists" and we all know the result!

could you please tell us why it took 10years to your mup to arrest these guys in serbia proper?
They were not hiding like your maldic and karadjic,so why was it so difficult for your policemen to arrest them a long time before?

Well here in the west when their is a mass raid on organised crime suspects, it is usually a result of someone selling them out- either to stay out of prison or for money or because they are rivals.

I am pretty sure that it is a reasonable assumption that some of these men's friends were not as patriotic as what you imagine your youth to be.

Or do you think that no Albanian would sell another Albanian, I guess you have forgotten what it was like for your cousins' during the time of Enver Hoxa and I guess you ignore that even some Albanians were victims in the organ trade.

if the arrested guys really killed civilians than they schould burn in hell! but i dont think that they will get a fair trial in serbia so the simple reaction will be that arrested serbs in kosovo will also not get a fair trial i think also that this is only a provocation nothing more an will only damage the serbs in kosovo

Johnny

with respect to your querry about world war one.

In world war one the serbian army, among them my paternal grandfather whos name I carry, had the choice of surrender or retreat through Albania and into Greece where they would be resupplied and fight for Europes freedom again. the choice was obvious, simply give up your guns and go home and force the west to clean up the mess or march through Albania in the dead of winter with the Austirans chasing and bitter cold. As you might guess we Balkan types never do the sensible thing so the Serbs marched, often without boots through the Albanian mountains and wilderness. At that time, although official Albanian sentiments were with Austria and the German powers poor Albanian country folk took pity on them and provided the marching soldiers with what little they had-

100,000 Serbian volunteers fell during this march and the rest carried the dead over the mountains and valleys. when the rest reached Greece and recuperated on Corfu they were resupplied and went and gave the enemy hell at the battle of Thessaloniki and that is why the Serbian army marched through Albania in world war one. I don't care if you don't believe it is historic fact.

quite predictable, those of our dear k-albanian friends who can´t stand the truth, call it serbian propaganda, what else? =)

but, I hardly believe that this action was taken without the tacit approval of western countries in regard to ethnic albanian criminals in Serbia.

I would agree to Tom O´Donoghue on this one - there seems to take place some kind of change, and it has nothing to do with Obama... :)

mass graves in Albania being monitored around the clock, several kla-bandits arrested...all within a few days...

I´d start thinking if I were an k-albanian these days.

let´s just see what future brings!

Roberto,

LOL - Where, what X'mas? You probably forgot, most people here use Julian calendar and it's not the eve of January 6 yet. Except for few Catholic Albanians, Hungarians, Croats, Irish here who use Gregorian calender to celebrate X'mas. For the rest: Dec. 24-26 are just days as usual. Ever wonder, why the Russian "October Revolution" of October 25-26 was in November 7-8?

Otherwise, who were arrested probably deserved it very well. Just being an ex-UCK member is not enough to be arrested. You need to do a "little bit" more.

As for Hague: it has no capacity to deal with every case of the civil war. "Scorpios" are not in Hague either. Obviously, to land up in Hague one need to do more, than "just" kill/rape few civilians. This case is probably a "minor" one but we do not know much detail so everything else is just second-guessing. All we know, they are suspects now after being (presumably) sold to MUP by some Albanian informants.

BTW: a well-known tactic on both sides was to free some common criminals, arm them and send them to the "other side" to make some damage. Since there are common criminals everywhere, they became murders and rapists after being armed. It is not uncommon, a criminal is "selling" an other criminal to MUP (or KP if you like) for hope to get a pardon for a lesser crime. Not unknown in the States either, called "plea bargain". It's a pretty yucky world where the most "honorable" people are bank safe "specialists"/crackers.

There is a huge difference in the political reality of today and the late 90s. Back then, the US and EU could have dictated everything and probably could have put pressure on Serbia to release the arrested terrorists. The media would have followed the demands with photos of skinny Albanian prisoners in putative concentration camps. The world of stupid goody goods would have reacted by mobilizing their ranks of volunteers to stop another holocaust in the middle of Europe, a propaganda campaign created by Ruder Finn Global Public Affairs, a DC public relations firm hired by Bosnia and later Kosovo to manipulate the US media. However, times have changed, and now the Albanians of Kosovo have little ground to stand upon. They only have support of a little more than a quarter of the world's nations, they are going to be taken to the ICJ for their illegal declaration of independence, and their about to be investigated (whether true or not) for one of the most unimaginable crimes the world has ever seen, human organ trafficking. Why have things changed so much in the last ten years? There is only one answer, RUSSIA. Of course, the Albanians in Kosovo will respond in their usual very non-intellectual style with something like "LOL, Russia is weak, ha ha." The educated amongst us do not use terms like LOL. At any rate, I digress. Well, if Russia were as weak as you claim, how come the US and EU has not blocked everything Serbs have done recently? What are they afraid of? Oh, by the way I loved those pictures of the KLA terrorists in chains; it made my day.

Albanians are still today trating ALL serbs in Kosovo like criminals and animals. When, finally, albanians are caught to face justice this is all of the sudden wrong. This just proves what kind of people you are and how much a serbian life is worth to you. You assume without hesitation that these KLA members are innocent. In your twisted world apparently only serbs committed warcrimes. I'm starting to like the serbian government more and more.

Marko, just because you say it is a fact doesn't make it a fact. You want to believe it as a fact but thats a completely different matter. Let me not talk about the Serbian army being in Durres in 1911 and 1912, around the time when we were fighting for our independence. You know which country was the one that most ardently opposed Albania's independence in 1912? You got it right, it was Serbia. Do you know what their argument was? Albania was old Serbia, it was Serbia's heart. Does it vaguely remind you of something similar we hear today?

I posted a similar post once here on B92 with sources from the Serb government officials of that time and their statement. Of course something like that never got published here. It went against the interest of the common Serb here.

While we're on it, let's talk about the Racak HOAX as well!

Marko, Serbian armies were in Albania in 1911,1912 and 1913. You post links of Albanians in Gjilan, Kosova in 1915 and state we attacked first. Doesn't make sense.

Since you like links. Here's a random one. Not hard to google things. Just search for "Serbian" in the web page.

http://www.archiveeditions.co.uk/titledetails.asp?tid=18

The differene between us and Serbia is that we never eyed Belgrade or any other lands in Serbia proper. Serbia on the other hand has always had the desire to have a chunk of our Adriatic Cost. In order to satiate your expansionist agenda the West gave you that port in Montenegro. You wouldn't even have that if it wasn't for the west. Well now you don't, Montenegro has it.

This isn't even about Kosova. Serbia as a state is an expansionist state. If the west doesn't intervene and keep Serbia in check we know what we have. We will have another Bosnia, another Croatia, another Kosova and another Slovenia. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Serbian army gave it a try towards Albania and claim that as old Serbia, Serbia's heart or whatever epithet is good for the Serbian propaganda machine.
Thank Bill Clinton for not allowing the invasion of Serbia, otherwise Belgrade today would be a lot more similar to Bagdad.

P.S Serbian armies were never nor they will ever be welcomed in Albanian territories. Your retreat from Austrians theory holds no water.

don't come to the forum crying about injustice, if you are a criminal then you should be arrested. Slobadon M is dead that is beating a dead horse to death. No one wants to hear that crap it is now Boris Tadic and Hashim Thaci the old guard is gone. Stop whinining and crying.

All of the decent Westerners are probably shaking their heads in disqust by now. The Albanians' inflammatory lies toward the Serbs, and the manner in which they are delivered is troubling indeed. Obviously a highly energetic effort for the purpose of obscuring the truth and reality of these alleged yellow murderers. Seldom, if ever, did so many Albanians come to post and attack the Serbs in this fashion, and with such determination and desperation. Why? Is it maybe becase the West legitimized and promoted the KLA from their terrorist status, and proclaimed them and glorified them as bonafide freedom fighters? And thereby influencing the Albanians to actually believe that these alleged monsters are their freedom fighters?

The Kosovo debacle and it's tangled web is more obvious and transperent to the world than ever. Thanks to many credible authors, historians and journalists that are finally printing the truth.

Arm the KLA, promise them independence, create enough atrocities to force Milosevich to come to the Serb's rescue and attack the KLA criminals, while CNN and other super oiled propaganda machines (like in Bosnia) were in place to unleash their irresponsible lies to the world, thus promoting the longest non-stop bombing and land theft perpertrated on a sovereign nation and her people in modern history. Since it's relevant, I would like to take this opportunity to remind my fellow Americans, and others, how our same president Clinton reacted on our sovereign land in Waco, Texas and Ruby Ridge. We used army equipment in Waco in order to extract one armed, alleged religious fanatic with a small following that was supposedly a threat to innocent people. At Ruby Ridge, we sent a large team of FBI agents to arrest a man for illegaly selling just one sawed-off shotgun, killing the man's pregnant wife, 14 year-old son and the son's dog in the process. Both times trampling on our Constitution! The Serbs were prevented from defending their own and going after real criminals on their sovereign soil. Kosovo is not the only big mistake that is going to haunt Clinton's legacy. It's looking more and more that Bosnia's botched handling will haunt him even more than missing the opportunity to intervene in Rhawanda. The Rambouillet's well known "I'll make you an offer you have to refuse" was offered with such brutality that it saddened many Americans, including Senators and other members of Congress. The Croatian "Storm" should really haunt him. Unlike the Germans,and others that have denounced and condemned the dark parts of their past, the Croats are actually gloryfying theirs. Evident by Tudjman's own words in print in his book, also evident in Christiana Amanpour's CNN special that featured a segment in which she questions an official about the stylized swastika on a newer, State-built war memorial. Evident by the people they glorify by naming their parks and streets after. Evident also by the popularity of their neo-Nazi pop music band, which is notorious for lyrics which glorify their ugly past and the atrocities committed against the Serbian people. The messege of hate draws even large adult crowds-including a high official with his wife and children, who apperantly want to hear that kind of inflammatory rhetoric. They are intoxicated with their land grab victories, hence all the land disputes with their neighbors. We have made sure that Germany,s favorite pet in the Balkans--other than the Albanians--stole everything that they could at the expense of others. We allowed many self-proclaimed Ustashi, who proudly displayed themselves adorned in their fascistic garb and insignias, to be a large part of the mop-up crew on the ground during that "shameful storm." How much longer do the Serbian people need to suffer from our wretched wrath, before God unleashes His against us? I pray that the Irish are spared, as they were the only Western noble warriors that really stood out in the Kosovo peace-keeping mission that didn't twiddle their thumbs and watch the Albanians burn Serbian churces and monasteries and kidnap and murder Serbian civilians. They risked their young lives when the policy was that you didn't have to. We should all bow our heads to the Irish as I am convinced they would have acted in the same fashion if the Serbs were the perpetrators, or anybody else. That's a true mark of a brave, just, and noble warrior representing a brave, just and noble people that have suffered and overcome gruesome injustices in their own history.

Marko, just because you say it is a fact doesn't make it a fact. You want to believe it as a fact but thats a completely different matter-

Johnny you have no reason to believe me so I will let the facts stand up to scrutiny and provide you the strict proof there of. I will provide evidence of my claims
1, Serbs were attacked by Albania before Serbian and allied forces occupied albania in ww1
2, how the serbs could have given up and went home, but instead retreated from their country to fight for the rest of europe

3 a descripition of the conditions

4 Albanian help
I will do this without a single Serbian source,using what a reasonable person would agree are neutral sources.

Source 1
Albania attacks Serbia
New york times February 1915
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E05E4D61538E633A25756C1A9649C946496D6CF

Source 2
a refference to the strange decision to retreat through Albania rather than sensibly surrender:
http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww1/cou/ser/w1cs-ret16.html

Source 3
Description of Serbian retreat through Albania in late 1915 (November)
(PUBLISHED 1916 University of California)
http://www.archive.org/details/retreatfromserbi00aldriala

another description:
http://www.naval-history.net/WW1CampaignsSerbia.htm

source 4
Albanian help Esad Pashë Toptani:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essad_Pasha

Unfortunately Johnny I can only find Serbian sources that point out that Poor Albanian citizens were helping the wretched and dieing Serb soldiers; but why would you deny this?

Do you really think it is impossible for people to feel compassion for their sworn enemies? Sadly for the Serb and Albanian extremists our people have a lot in common and are neither better nor worse than any other humans anywhere and you don't have to believe that either; it is a historic fact

every country has the right to protect it's people from criminals and terrorists. when the kla decides to kill mailmen they are called terrorists in every country in the world. the only reason Kosovo even came to the point it is at now is due to the fact that the us wanted to test the full effect of russias most advanced weapon systems witch the Serbs had.

Marko,
You should read more carefully your sources.
As far as the first point goes (Albania attacking first Serbia), the article itself states that the Serbian army attacked Albania in 1913.
I agree with you about some of your other points though.
In the Balkans people do not see the good side of each other.