“New war if Kosovo denied independence”

A new war in Kosovo between which armed groups?If anybody kills even one NATO soldier that group's side will be finished presenting itself as the champion of European integration.I believe it was Bismarck who once remarked that the Balkans are not worth the bones of even one Pomeranian/German soldier.I am an economist and not a historian so if anybody wishes to correct me please feel free to do so.I assure you that many people in Germany still share this view to this present day.Violence only begets violence and will not be seen as a fight for freedom but an intentional declaration of war by people who choose the gun over the pen.Shalom to everybody.

oh boy, i am shaking of pure fear. and the western occupiers of south-serbia too. they are pretty scary that greater-albania-terrorists will attack the only shelter of justice.

go ahead, keep searching for that rainbow!

The ethnic-Albanians leadership know only too well that the final draft that is acceptable and will not be "futile & counterproductive" will include an obligation refering to Serbia iterritorial integrity as Wisner said only recently.

Those who were not happy on the 2nd February I guess won't be pleased with the watered down version that inevitably happens for resolutions to pass. However, the question will be how will the majority react.

Any who threaten violence need only be too aware that any escalation in threats and action of war will not be tolerated. Patience is a virtue and things come to those who wait - the thing is who will be able to wait the longest?

Oh goody. Yelling, screaming, crying, and throwing threatening temper tantrums if one doesn't get their way is SURELY the way to achieve one's policy. Someone tell this guy that independence is a privilege the world is granting Kosovo, not a right, not an obligation, and not an ultimatum.

Shame on the people who try to rage war, or even mention the word war. Kosovars can live together regardless of their differences, it was seen in the past and can been see again. Work is needed for both sides and forget the bloody past and look for a broghter future. Peace!!!

This is the problem that's created when both sides get so polarized, that they lose perspective on the whole issue...

Serbs! (and/or otherwise) lend me your ears!

As an Albanian who has never been to Kosovo, I would like to say that the Albanian people have a common vision, articulated over 200 years ago by their Italian-Albanian compatriots: their Pelasgic race must be under one roof.

The Albanian people are young and restless wheras Your people are aging, dying. Demography wins under any scenario.

The Albanians in Kosovo thought they might get away with independence by investing only 10,000 lives. I'm afraid the price they will have to pay is much higher than that. I think they are realizing this now.

This new state, should it happen, will be vibrant, will take over Albania, will re-invent it and those who would oppose it will face major 'philosophical' disputes on the value of multiculturalism.

luciano, the Balkans may not be worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier, but it certainly proved to be worth the lives of millions of Europeans dying in the WWI. One would hope, Europe has evolved from the mentalities of Bismarck. After all, the bloodshed and carnage in ex-yugo, proved beyond any doubt, the falure of such decisions as taken in the Congress of Berlin in 1878, where the Great Powers made peace among each-other by butchering the territories of the Balkans. Every single decision to carve up the Balkans taken in that Congress has been reversed, albeight with much blood and suffering. Balkans may be the powder keg of Europe, but the fuse has almost always been lit in the European capitals.

Mike, if freedom is a privilege and not a god-given right, why don't you check yourself in the first penitentiary that you can find. And maybe you can work from there to earn the privilege of being a free man again. Americans when they earned their freedom from the British, didn't negotiate and wait to be handed the privilege of being independent, instead they picked up the guns and forced their invadors out. No country has ever won their freedom, but through the barrel of the gun. That is, after all, the ultimate statement that you are and that you are willing to be.

He is a negotiator, he is in no place to make threats of war against another country and its citizens.

Having more constructive negotiators representing the Albanians (especially the peaceful ones) would really help out the possibility of a compromise.

Princip-“Patience is a virtue and things come to those who wait - the thing is who will be able to wait the longest?”

Now there’s a suggestion that could have been useful for Serbia itself! Interesting observation!

Raso-Your expressions are not comprehensible even to a native English speaker such as myself.Is it possible for the moderators not to post bad grammar,terrible spelling and incomprehensible statements here and reserve the space for articulate commentators?Princip-the Real-KLA has arrived.

I can't find that story in Washington Post. Can you please post the link?

where are the albanian posters here to condemn the threats of this irresponsible person?

or do they support him?

or how about condemning todays attack of a red-cross-van transporting a sick serbian woman to the hospital?

where´s the condemning??? where´s the humanity gone?

it´s really sad.

Who is going to fight who? If Albanians attack the UNMIK and other forces and agencies that have protected and built the economy, then the small economy would collapse. If Serbs are attacked, then Kosovars will be seem as the bully and agressor. Common sense should prevail. Look at Ireland. It is not united yet, but the people in both entities are happy and all alknowledge that unity will come about naturally, peacefully and soon. Serbia has possibly learned valuable lessons from the past. In their name, terrible conflict took place with war crimes. Those decisions left Serbs much worse off today as compared with before. The next generation of Serba and Kosovars deserve economic independence and prosperity, and not old school nationalistic talk that makes them feel that the situation is getting slowly worse

A new war well i hope the albanians realize that the US is not going to coming running to the rescue on this one. You are asking for war well war will come and who dies don't blame it on US blame it on yourselves. Innocent people will die for what living under a Serb boot i don't think there are any Serb boots in Kosovo as of yet but if you invite them i am sure they will come.

To J.Ham;
You will never see serbian boots in Kosova , ever again.What serbia did in Kosova is unforgettable, so I can understand Kosovar Albanians that if they don't get Independence, another war will breakout. Ahtisari's package is the best offer to date for Kosovars(Albanians and Serbs alike). Serbia should mine its own bussines and maddle in affairs of another country.

things like freedom do not come as your resting under the tree. sometimes you have to go out there and get them.
Avni

J.Ham you said "but if you invite them i am sure they will come."
this shows that you are aware what Serbian boots mean to a Kosovar. and yes, you are aware what the response of Kosovars will be on this case.
Avni

"Americans when they earned their freedom from the British, didn't negotiate and wait to be handed the privilege of being independent, instead they picked up the guns and forced their invadors out."

You're absolutely right about that Adrian, but when the fighting ended and the negotiations began, they REMAINED negotiations. Americans did not threaten to pick up their guns and threaten more war if they did not exactly get their way. In this light, Kosovo will get its independence, I have no delusions otherwise, but threatening more war while international arbitration is going on in Pristina's favor is not only counterproductive, it's foolhardy.

There were at most 5000 dead muslim Albanians in Kosovo conflict 1996-1999. Around 5,000 Serbian civilans were also killed by NATO bombs in 1999. So thats where 10,000 comes from. Now why doesn't EU accept Serbia? Then Kosovo wouldn't matter. They would all be a part of EU. I think Europe is purposely doing this to force the region into chaos, to divert attention from Czech and Poland US defense system against Russia. Its pretty obvious that if Kosovo doesn't get indep. Albanians will go to war. If it gets indepe. then Bosnia will burn again, as well as many other European and Asian areas. Vasque, IRA, Caucaus;

M.Miller,

You obviously don't have your facts straight.
Milosevic never did anything in Kosovo that even remotely compares to the crimes committed there by Albanian Nazis during WW2. The Albanian led S.S. Skanderburg Division ruthlessly butchered tens of thousands of innocent Serbs,Gypsies,Jews and others
during those years, and expelled well over 100,000.00
Serbs from Kosovo. Unlike the Albanian refugees after the 1999 war, these poor people weren't allowed to go home. The aformentioned Albanian led genocide, coupled with mass illegal immigration from Albania to Kosovo during the WW2, ultimately shifted the demographics of Kosovo's population to the Albanian's favor. (Kosovo had Serb majority for nearly 10 centuries prior to WW2).

M.Miller you also should know that since the late
sixties, and especially after 1981 (tito's death), ethnic albanian extremists
in kosovo committted countless acts of intimidation, violence, and terror against Serbs and other Non-Albanians in Kosovo, prompting many to leave the province in fear for their lives. This gross mistreatment of non-albanians in Kosovo was tolerated in Tito's Yugoslavia, were ethic albanians were given the power of local governance.

In response to Yugoslavia's revocation of Kosovo autonomy, elements of the Albanian population formed the KLA, alligned themselves with Osama Bin Laden, and began attacking Yugoslav police officers, serb orthodox clergymen, Serb and other Non-Albanians civillians, and even their own people (moderate Albanians who remained loyal to Yugoslavia, rather than the independent "kosova" idea). This behavior from the Albanians prompted the JNA to get involved, which starter the so-called "Kosovo War".

While western diplomats and albanians are all to eager to bring up Milosevic's alledged crimes during the Kosovo war whenever they can ("10,000 killed" and "1 million ethnically cleansed"), very few of them care to remember that when Nato took control of Kosovo in 1999, the KLA resumed their attacks on Serb, Roma, and other Non-Albanian civillians, which resulted in the disapperance of approx. 2,500 people and the expulsion of over 230,000
from there homes.
This was despite the fact that Nato had complete control of Kosovo when these events happened, and was legally obligated to protect all of Kosovo's people under UNSC Resolution 1244. Like their predecessors after WW2, the vast majority of these new serb refugees are prevented from reclaiming their homes.

In March of 2004, mobs totalling nearly 50,000 Albanians, attacked serb villagies, cities, and churches. This wave of violence lasted 2 weeks, and resulted in 19 deaths, and another 4,000 serbs were expelled from their homes.
Again, Nato failed to protect Kosovo's Serbs.

Finally, since 1999 Albanians have destroyed over 150 Serb Orthodox Churches, and have either razed or usurped thousands of homes belonging to Serbs and others in Kosovo. Acts of Terror & Violence commited by Albanians against Serbs and others in Kosovo continues on a daily basis...Most recenly, a mob of Albanians attacked an ambulance vehicle because it was transporting a Serb woman to the hospital.

The Albanian's crimes against Serbs in Kosovo over the last 60 plus years are not only unforgettable, they are inexcusable.

As for Attishari's worthless proposal: Serbs are absolutely right to reject this, because it offers them nothing new that the UN hasn't already promised and failed to deliver.

"Minority" rights, protection of religious monuments, the right for refugees to return home, local self-government for Serbs with links to Belgrade,
these are all things the UN already guaranteed to Serbia
in UNSC 1244, but failed miserably to deliver. The only exception would be self government for Serbs in Kosovo, which the Serbs had to secure for themselves in North Kosovo (no thanks to UNMIK). Martin A's proposal actually offers Serbs even less than they have now in Kosovo, as it contains no mention of Serbia's Soveirnty or territorial integrity, nor does it allow for the return of Serbian security forces, both of which were guaranteed by UNSC 1244. Serbia is therefore absolutely right to stick with her principled stance, and to refuse any imposed revison of her borders.

God bless Serbia, to which Kosovo is, was, and always will be part of.

Mike: "You're absolutely right about that Adrian, but when the fighting ended and the negotiations began, they REMAINED negotiations. Americans did not threaten to pick up their guns and threaten more war if they did not exactly get their way. In this light, Kosovo will get its independence, I have no delusions otherwise, but threatening more war while international arbitration is going on in Pristina's favor is not only counterproductive, it's foolhardy."

Mike, why would Kosova go to war if it gets independence? Nobody is saying that. No one will attack NATO or UNMIK. But the Romanian contingent should pack up and go home. And if Serbia sent in the army to claim Kosova, Kosovars are ready to fight to the last drop of their blood to defend their homes and their families. This time serbs will really have a reason to cry.

Adrian, Serbia will not reinvade the province. I can assure you of that. They have neither the military capacity, nor the will to engage in another war. The conflict is over and Kosovo is now moving toward a new future - a future that should embody the lives of Albanians AND Serbs. It's not just your homeland. Serbs have a right to live there too, and both sides have an obligation to live together in peace. There's no need for another war, nor for threatening anyone with something "to cry about".

This time serbs will really have a reason to cry.
(Adrian Gashi, Wednesday, 21 February, 2007, 17:21)

If UNMIK needs any help, the Serbian army is ready , willing and able to secure the borders as per UNSC Resolution 1244.

He’s talking about War with the Western powers, its silly and ought to be simply ignored as political grandstanding.

Hey Mike, if there is a war i am pretty sure there will be serb boots again in Kosovo. Someone is now blowing up UN vehicles in Kosovo, one of the writers said that the Ukraine and Romanian peace keepers should leave. Well they are trying to chase out UN because it did not give them what they want. In Steps they will try to chase out the EU because they do not support them. I am sure Mike you need to check yourself. If you were not there during the 90's then please you don't know what happen and you only are listening to what you are told. There is always two sides to the story. Both Serbs and albanians committed crimes no one is totally innocent accept the victims on both sides there was cases of ethinc cleansing on both sides and dont' deny it because it happened. Two wrongs dont make a right my friend. So next time Mike look at the situation from both sides. Only a few can get rich while the majortiy suffers.

Kreshnik, you say that the Albanian people have a common vision to be reunited under one roof. After years of living in the Balkans, I have never met a Kosovar who supports this supposed theory of a “Greater Albania.” You say you have never been to Kosovo – I suggest a trip there to talk to the people to ask them if they actually have what you call a common vision – you will find out that this is an old myth and, like all other Balkan myths, should be left in the story books where it can no longer harm the future.

Mike: "The conflict is over and Kosovo is now moving toward a new future - a future that should embody the lives of Albanians AND Serbs. It's not just your homeland. Serbs have a right to live there too, and both sides have an obligation to live together in peace."

Mike, I agree with you that Kosovar Serbs have the right to live there too, and should be equal citizens of the country. Equal being the keyword here, not with less rights, but not with more rights either than everyone else. I wish they too can consider Kosova their homeland, maybe in the future they will.

Konstantin: Serbian army wasn't able to secure Kosova when they had a free reign, how do you think they will now. Serbian army is kind of a joke actually, yeah, they are brave and brutal with women and children, they can burn houses, and destroy villages with their tanks and howitzers, they can send refugees streaming out the borders, in those kind of maneuvers they can put to shame any military that has two bits of self-respect. However when faced with a real army, equally equipped, like in Krajina, they run away screaming. KLA was a nascent force, still in the phase of organizing and recruiting any random people with no military experience and yet, in three years they managed to give VJ the run around. Military experts agree that Milosevic signed Kumanovo agreement, when he saw that KLA was flushing out in the open the VJ units and NATO was annihilating them from the air. Decani area proved especially lethal in the last stages of the war.

Since you mention 1244, doesn't that document also obliges Serbia to send demining experts to mark and clear landmines? It has been 8 years, and nearly 600 people have been killed or maimed at those landmines, and god knows how many will in the future, and yet the so-called democratic govt of Serbia refuses to hand over landmine maps. Why?

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6E75L8?OpenDocument&rc

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/01/31/PM200701316.html

(Adrian Gashi, Thursday, 22 February, 2007, 08:14)

The KLA was hiding and burying themselves within the Kosovo Albanian civilians. The KLA as a fighting force was completely disabled and beaten back and Kosovo was clear of the terrorists except for isolated pockets of resistance in the FYROM and Albanian border.

General Pavkovic along with General Lazerevic led a complete and unchallenge victory in the ground. UN RESC 1244 was signed after 78 days of boming because public opinion of European nations was high against the illegal NATO bombing.

RE: The Serbian Military and how it fooled NATO

US stealth aircraft were tracked with radars operating on long wavelengths. If stealth jets got wet or started to drop bombs they would become visible on the radar screens. An F-117 Nighthawk was spotted in this way and downed with a missile, although this was admittedly a lucky shot. There were rumors that a new prototype of Russian SAM could detect and hit the F-117. This would explain why the Russian foreign secretary Primakov came with a huge transport the very next day to Belgrade.


Precision-guided missiles were often confused and unable to pinpoint radars, because radar beams were reflected off heavy farm machinery like old tractors and plows.

Many low-tech approaches were used to confuse heat-seeking missiles and infrared sensors. Decoys such as small gas furnaces were used to simulate nonexistent positions on mountainsides. Scout helicopters would land on flatbed trucks and rev their engines before being towed to camouflaged sites several hundred metres away. Heat-seeking missiles from NATO jets would then locate and go after the residual heat on the trucks. Similar tactics were planned in the case of the ground invasion - covert placement of heat emitters on territory that NATO troops were to enter, tricking B-52s into carpet-bombing their own positions and causing friendly-fire incidents.

Dummy targets were used very extensively. Fake bridges, airfields and decoy planes and tanks were used. Tanks were made using old tires, plastic sheeting and logs, and sand cans and fuel set alight to mimic heat emissions. They fooled NATO pilots into bombing hundreds of such decoys. (though "General Clark's survey found that in Allied Force, NATO airmen hit just 25 decoys-an insignificant percentage of the 974 validated hits.")[33]

However, NATO sources claim that this was due to operating procedures, which oblige troops, in this case aircraft, to engage any and all targets however unlikely they were real. The targets needed only to look real to be shot at, if detected, of course. NATO claimed that Yugoslav air force had been decimated. "Official data show that the Yugoslav army in Kosovo lost 26 percent of its tanks, 34 percent of its APCs, and 47 percent of the artillery to the air campaign." [34]

Bridges and other strategic targets were defended from missiles with laser-guidance systems by bonfires made of old tires and wet hay, which emit dense smoke filled with laser-reflecting particles.
Old electronic jammers were used to block U.S. bombs equipped with satellite guidance.

Yugoslav jets flew combat missions over Kosovo at extremely low altitudes, taking advantage of mountainous terrain to remain undetected by AWACS airborne radar aircraft.
Hispano-Suiza anti-aircraft cannons from the World War II era were used effectively against slow-flying drone aircraft.

A new war in Kosovo between which armed groups?If anybody kills even one NATO soldier that group's side will be finished presenting itself as the champion of European integration.I believe it was Bismarck who once remarked that the Balkans are not worth the bones of even one Pomeranian/German soldier.I am an economist and not a historian so if anybody wishes to correct me please feel free to do so.I assure you that many people in Germany still share this view to this present day.Violence only begets violence and will not be seen as a fight for freedom but an intentional declaration of war by people who choose the gun over the pen.Shalom to everybody.

oh boy, i am shaking of pure fear. and the western occupiers of south-serbia too. they are pretty scary that greater-albania-terrorists will attack the only shelter of justice.

go ahead, keep searching for that rainbow!

The ethnic-Albanians leadership know only too well that the final draft that is acceptable and will not be "futile & counterproductive" will include an obligation refering to Serbia iterritorial integrity as Wisner said only recently.

Those who were not happy on the 2nd February I guess won't be pleased with the watered down version that inevitably happens for resolutions to pass. However, the question will be how will the majority react.

Any who threaten violence need only be too aware that any escalation in threats and action of war will not be tolerated. Patience is a virtue and things come to those who wait - the thing is who will be able to wait the longest?

Oh goody. Yelling, screaming, crying, and throwing threatening temper tantrums if one doesn't get their way is SURELY the way to achieve one's policy. Someone tell this guy that independence is a privilege the world is granting Kosovo, not a right, not an obligation, and not an ultimatum.

Shame on the people who try to rage war, or even mention the word war. Kosovars can live together regardless of their differences, it was seen in the past and can been see again. Work is needed for both sides and forget the bloody past and look for a broghter future. Peace!!!

This is the problem that's created when both sides get so polarized, that they lose perspective on the whole issue...

Serbs! (and/or otherwise) lend me your ears!

As an Albanian who has never been to Kosovo, I would like to say that the Albanian people have a common vision, articulated over 200 years ago by their Italian-Albanian compatriots: their Pelasgic race must be under one roof.

The Albanian people are young and restless wheras Your people are aging, dying. Demography wins under any scenario.

The Albanians in Kosovo thought they might get away with independence by investing only 10,000 lives. I'm afraid the price they will have to pay is much higher than that. I think they are realizing this now.

This new state, should it happen, will be vibrant, will take over Albania, will re-invent it and those who would oppose it will face major 'philosophical' disputes on the value of multiculturalism.

luciano, the Balkans may not be worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier, but it certainly proved to be worth the lives of millions of Europeans dying in the WWI. One would hope, Europe has evolved from the mentalities of Bismarck. After all, the bloodshed and carnage in ex-yugo, proved beyond any doubt, the falure of such decisions as taken in the Congress of Berlin in 1878, where the Great Powers made peace among each-other by butchering the territories of the Balkans. Every single decision to carve up the Balkans taken in that Congress has been reversed, albeight with much blood and suffering. Balkans may be the powder keg of Europe, but the fuse has almost always been lit in the European capitals.

Mike, if freedom is a privilege and not a god-given right, why don't you check yourself in the first penitentiary that you can find. And maybe you can work from there to earn the privilege of being a free man again. Americans when they earned their freedom from the British, didn't negotiate and wait to be handed the privilege of being independent, instead they picked up the guns and forced their invadors out. No country has ever won their freedom, but through the barrel of the gun. That is, after all, the ultimate statement that you are and that you are willing to be.

He is a negotiator, he is in no place to make threats of war against another country and its citizens.

Having more constructive negotiators representing the Albanians (especially the peaceful ones) would really help out the possibility of a compromise.

Princip-“Patience is a virtue and things come to those who wait - the thing is who will be able to wait the longest?”

Now there’s a suggestion that could have been useful for Serbia itself! Interesting observation!

Raso-Your expressions are not comprehensible even to a native English speaker such as myself.Is it possible for the moderators not to post bad grammar,terrible spelling and incomprehensible statements here and reserve the space for articulate commentators?Princip-the Real-KLA has arrived.

I can't find that story in Washington Post. Can you please post the link?

where are the albanian posters here to condemn the threats of this irresponsible person?

or do they support him?

or how about condemning todays attack of a red-cross-van transporting a sick serbian woman to the hospital?

where´s the condemning??? where´s the humanity gone?

it´s really sad.

Who is going to fight who? If Albanians attack the UNMIK and other forces and agencies that have protected and built the economy, then the small economy would collapse. If Serbs are attacked, then Kosovars will be seem as the bully and agressor. Common sense should prevail. Look at Ireland. It is not united yet, but the people in both entities are happy and all alknowledge that unity will come about naturally, peacefully and soon. Serbia has possibly learned valuable lessons from the past. In their name, terrible conflict took place with war crimes. Those decisions left Serbs much worse off today as compared with before. The next generation of Serba and Kosovars deserve economic independence and prosperity, and not old school nationalistic talk that makes them feel that the situation is getting slowly worse

A new war well i hope the albanians realize that the US is not going to coming running to the rescue on this one. You are asking for war well war will come and who dies don't blame it on US blame it on yourselves. Innocent people will die for what living under a Serb boot i don't think there are any Serb boots in Kosovo as of yet but if you invite them i am sure they will come.

To J.Ham;
You will never see serbian boots in Kosova , ever again.What serbia did in Kosova is unforgettable, so I can understand Kosovar Albanians that if they don't get Independence, another war will breakout. Ahtisari's package is the best offer to date for Kosovars(Albanians and Serbs alike). Serbia should mine its own bussines and maddle in affairs of another country.

things like freedom do not come as your resting under the tree. sometimes you have to go out there and get them.
Avni

J.Ham you said "but if you invite them i am sure they will come."
this shows that you are aware what Serbian boots mean to a Kosovar. and yes, you are aware what the response of Kosovars will be on this case.
Avni

"Americans when they earned their freedom from the British, didn't negotiate and wait to be handed the privilege of being independent, instead they picked up the guns and forced their invadors out."

You're absolutely right about that Adrian, but when the fighting ended and the negotiations began, they REMAINED negotiations. Americans did not threaten to pick up their guns and threaten more war if they did not exactly get their way. In this light, Kosovo will get its independence, I have no delusions otherwise, but threatening more war while international arbitration is going on in Pristina's favor is not only counterproductive, it's foolhardy.

There were at most 5000 dead muslim Albanians in Kosovo conflict 1996-1999. Around 5,000 Serbian civilans were also killed by NATO bombs in 1999. So thats where 10,000 comes from. Now why doesn't EU accept Serbia? Then Kosovo wouldn't matter. They would all be a part of EU. I think Europe is purposely doing this to force the region into chaos, to divert attention from Czech and Poland US defense system against Russia. Its pretty obvious that if Kosovo doesn't get indep. Albanians will go to war. If it gets indepe. then Bosnia will burn again, as well as many other European and Asian areas. Vasque, IRA, Caucaus;

M.Miller,

You obviously don't have your facts straight.
Milosevic never did anything in Kosovo that even remotely compares to the crimes committed there by Albanian Nazis during WW2. The Albanian led S.S. Skanderburg Division ruthlessly butchered tens of thousands of innocent Serbs,Gypsies,Jews and others
during those years, and expelled well over 100,000.00
Serbs from Kosovo. Unlike the Albanian refugees after the 1999 war, these poor people weren't allowed to go home. The aformentioned Albanian led genocide, coupled with mass illegal immigration from Albania to Kosovo during the WW2, ultimately shifted the demographics of Kosovo's population to the Albanian's favor. (Kosovo had Serb majority for nearly 10 centuries prior to WW2).

M.Miller you also should know that since the late
sixties, and especially after 1981 (tito's death), ethnic albanian extremists
in kosovo committted countless acts of intimidation, violence, and terror against Serbs and other Non-Albanians in Kosovo, prompting many to leave the province in fear for their lives. This gross mistreatment of non-albanians in Kosovo was tolerated in Tito's Yugoslavia, were ethic albanians were given the power of local governance.

In response to Yugoslavia's revocation of Kosovo autonomy, elements of the Albanian population formed the KLA, alligned themselves with Osama Bin Laden, and began attacking Yugoslav police officers, serb orthodox clergymen, Serb and other Non-Albanians civillians, and even their own people (moderate Albanians who remained loyal to Yugoslavia, rather than the independent "kosova" idea). This behavior from the Albanians prompted the JNA to get involved, which starter the so-called "Kosovo War".

While western diplomats and albanians are all to eager to bring up Milosevic's alledged crimes during the Kosovo war whenever they can ("10,000 killed" and "1 million ethnically cleansed"), very few of them care to remember that when Nato took control of Kosovo in 1999, the KLA resumed their attacks on Serb, Roma, and other Non-Albanian civillians, which resulted in the disapperance of approx. 2,500 people and the expulsion of over 230,000
from there homes.
This was despite the fact that Nato had complete control of Kosovo when these events happened, and was legally obligated to protect all of Kosovo's people under UNSC Resolution 1244. Like their predecessors after WW2, the vast majority of these new serb refugees are prevented from reclaiming their homes.

In March of 2004, mobs totalling nearly 50,000 Albanians, attacked serb villagies, cities, and churches. This wave of violence lasted 2 weeks, and resulted in 19 deaths, and another 4,000 serbs were expelled from their homes.
Again, Nato failed to protect Kosovo's Serbs.

Finally, since 1999 Albanians have destroyed over 150 Serb Orthodox Churches, and have either razed or usurped thousands of homes belonging to Serbs and others in Kosovo. Acts of Terror & Violence commited by Albanians against Serbs and others in Kosovo continues on a daily basis...Most recenly, a mob of Albanians attacked an ambulance vehicle because it was transporting a Serb woman to the hospital.

The Albanian's crimes against Serbs in Kosovo over the last 60 plus years are not only unforgettable, they are inexcusable.

As for Attishari's worthless proposal: Serbs are absolutely right to reject this, because it offers them nothing new that the UN hasn't already promised and failed to deliver.

"Minority" rights, protection of religious monuments, the right for refugees to return home, local self-government for Serbs with links to Belgrade,
these are all things the UN already guaranteed to Serbia
in UNSC 1244, but failed miserably to deliver. The only exception would be self government for Serbs in Kosovo, which the Serbs had to secure for themselves in North Kosovo (no thanks to UNMIK). Martin A's proposal actually offers Serbs even less than they have now in Kosovo, as it contains no mention of Serbia's Soveirnty or territorial integrity, nor does it allow for the return of Serbian security forces, both of which were guaranteed by UNSC 1244. Serbia is therefore absolutely right to stick with her principled stance, and to refuse any imposed revison of her borders.

God bless Serbia, to which Kosovo is, was, and always will be part of.

Mike: "You're absolutely right about that Adrian, but when the fighting ended and the negotiations began, they REMAINED negotiations. Americans did not threaten to pick up their guns and threaten more war if they did not exactly get their way. In this light, Kosovo will get its independence, I have no delusions otherwise, but threatening more war while international arbitration is going on in Pristina's favor is not only counterproductive, it's foolhardy."

Mike, why would Kosova go to war if it gets independence? Nobody is saying that. No one will attack NATO or UNMIK. But the Romanian contingent should pack up and go home. And if Serbia sent in the army to claim Kosova, Kosovars are ready to fight to the last drop of their blood to defend their homes and their families. This time serbs will really have a reason to cry.

Adrian, Serbia will not reinvade the province. I can assure you of that. They have neither the military capacity, nor the will to engage in another war. The conflict is over and Kosovo is now moving toward a new future - a future that should embody the lives of Albanians AND Serbs. It's not just your homeland. Serbs have a right to live there too, and both sides have an obligation to live together in peace. There's no need for another war, nor for threatening anyone with something "to cry about".

This time serbs will really have a reason to cry.
(Adrian Gashi, Wednesday, 21 February, 2007, 17:21)

If UNMIK needs any help, the Serbian army is ready , willing and able to secure the borders as per UNSC Resolution 1244.

He’s talking about War with the Western powers, its silly and ought to be simply ignored as political grandstanding.

Hey Mike, if there is a war i am pretty sure there will be serb boots again in Kosovo. Someone is now blowing up UN vehicles in Kosovo, one of the writers said that the Ukraine and Romanian peace keepers should leave. Well they are trying to chase out UN because it did not give them what they want. In Steps they will try to chase out the EU because they do not support them. I am sure Mike you need to check yourself. If you were not there during the 90's then please you don't know what happen and you only are listening to what you are told. There is always two sides to the story. Both Serbs and albanians committed crimes no one is totally innocent accept the victims on both sides there was cases of ethinc cleansing on both sides and dont' deny it because it happened. Two wrongs dont make a right my friend. So next time Mike look at the situation from both sides. Only a few can get rich while the majortiy suffers.

Kreshnik, you say that the Albanian people have a common vision to be reunited under one roof. After years of living in the Balkans, I have never met a Kosovar who supports this supposed theory of a “Greater Albania.” You say you have never been to Kosovo – I suggest a trip there to talk to the people to ask them if they actually have what you call a common vision – you will find out that this is an old myth and, like all other Balkan myths, should be left in the story books where it can no longer harm the future.

Mike: "The conflict is over and Kosovo is now moving toward a new future - a future that should embody the lives of Albanians AND Serbs. It's not just your homeland. Serbs have a right to live there too, and both sides have an obligation to live together in peace."

Mike, I agree with you that Kosovar Serbs have the right to live there too, and should be equal citizens of the country. Equal being the keyword here, not with less rights, but not with more rights either than everyone else. I wish they too can consider Kosova their homeland, maybe in the future they will.

Konstantin: Serbian army wasn't able to secure Kosova when they had a free reign, how do you think they will now. Serbian army is kind of a joke actually, yeah, they are brave and brutal with women and children, they can burn houses, and destroy villages with their tanks and howitzers, they can send refugees streaming out the borders, in those kind of maneuvers they can put to shame any military that has two bits of self-respect. However when faced with a real army, equally equipped, like in Krajina, they run away screaming. KLA was a nascent force, still in the phase of organizing and recruiting any random people with no military experience and yet, in three years they managed to give VJ the run around. Military experts agree that Milosevic signed Kumanovo agreement, when he saw that KLA was flushing out in the open the VJ units and NATO was annihilating them from the air. Decani area proved especially lethal in the last stages of the war.

Since you mention 1244, doesn't that document also obliges Serbia to send demining experts to mark and clear landmines? It has been 8 years, and nearly 600 people have been killed or maimed at those landmines, and god knows how many will in the future, and yet the so-called democratic govt of Serbia refuses to hand over landmine maps. Why?

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6E75L8?OpenDocument&rc

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/01/31/PM200701316.html

(Adrian Gashi, Thursday, 22 February, 2007, 08:14)

The KLA was hiding and burying themselves within the Kosovo Albanian civilians. The KLA as a fighting force was completely disabled and beaten back and Kosovo was clear of the terrorists except for isolated pockets of resistance in the FYROM and Albanian border.

General Pavkovic along with General Lazerevic led a complete and unchallenge victory in the ground. UN RESC 1244 was signed after 78 days of boming because public opinion of European nations was high against the illegal NATO bombing.

RE: The Serbian Military and how it fooled NATO

US stealth aircraft were tracked with radars operating on long wavelengths. If stealth jets got wet or started to drop bombs they would become visible on the radar screens. An F-117 Nighthawk was spotted in this way and downed with a missile, although this was admittedly a lucky shot. There were rumors that a new prototype of Russian SAM could detect and hit the F-117. This would explain why the Russian foreign secretary Primakov came with a huge transport the very next day to Belgrade.


Precision-guided missiles were often confused and unable to pinpoint radars, because radar beams were reflected off heavy farm machinery like old tractors and plows.

Many low-tech approaches were used to confuse heat-seeking missiles and infrared sensors. Decoys such as small gas furnaces were used to simulate nonexistent positions on mountainsides. Scout helicopters would land on flatbed trucks and rev their engines before being towed to camouflaged sites several hundred metres away. Heat-seeking missiles from NATO jets would then locate and go after the residual heat on the trucks. Similar tactics were planned in the case of the ground invasion - covert placement of heat emitters on territory that NATO troops were to enter, tricking B-52s into carpet-bombing their own positions and causing friendly-fire incidents.

Dummy targets were used very extensively. Fake bridges, airfields and decoy planes and tanks were used. Tanks were made using old tires, plastic sheeting and logs, and sand cans and fuel set alight to mimic heat emissions. They fooled NATO pilots into bombing hundreds of such decoys. (though "General Clark's survey found that in Allied Force, NATO airmen hit just 25 decoys-an insignificant percentage of the 974 validated hits.")[33]

However, NATO sources claim that this was due to operating procedures, which oblige troops, in this case aircraft, to engage any and all targets however unlikely they were real. The targets needed only to look real to be shot at, if detected, of course. NATO claimed that Yugoslav air force had been decimated. "Official data show that the Yugoslav army in Kosovo lost 26 percent of its tanks, 34 percent of its APCs, and 47 percent of the artillery to the air campaign." [34]

Bridges and other strategic targets were defended from missiles with laser-guidance systems by bonfires made of old tires and wet hay, which emit dense smoke filled with laser-reflecting particles.
Old electronic jammers were used to block U.S. bombs equipped with satellite guidance.

Yugoslav jets flew combat missions over Kosovo at extremely low altitudes, taking advantage of mountainous terrain to remain undetected by AWACS airborne radar aircraft.
Hispano-Suiza anti-aircraft cannons from the World War II era were used effectively against slow-flying drone aircraft.