First UN SC session on Kosovo

I wonder why are you so afraid of a man like President Sejdiu!
Or maybe you are right cause man is armed but not with AK-47 but with much powerful weapon- Word wich hurts much more than bullets.

"Slobodan Samardžić said it would be unacceptable for Sejdiu to address the Council.
“That would be in breach of Resolution 1244 and Kosovo’s Constitutional framework. According to those documents, Kosovo can only be represented by the UN special representative in international communication, not by members of the interim institutions. They can attend, but not represent Kosovo,” he said."

There's your answer. You may be working on the basis of 'fear' and emotion, but thank goodness international law as stated sets out things in a more robust fashion. As Princip and others reinterated yesterday, Resolution 1244 cannot be ignored. It has to be fully implemented.
Whether you like it or not, Kosovo is still an integral part of Serbia.

Rifat,
You say that Sejdiu is armed with Word. Can you clarify if this is Microsoft Word 2007, or is it Word 2003? What about Word 97?

hahahaha

"?"an integral part of Serbia"?"
with no serbian state soldiers, serbian state powers, serbian state services in it. You have said something like Moon is an integral part of Serbia, which is as Kosova, that is very far away from being part of Serbia.

Well that remain to be seen, will they allow or not Sejdiu to address the Council. And if he is allowed then let see what Slobodan Samardžić and the others would have to say. Regardless who represent Kosovo, the report will NEVER be acceptable by Serbia's representative, see that on previous meetings. Hence, come to really Serbian nation!!!- even though sometime it hurts. If you look history of Serbia please look longer than 600 years ago when you lost the battle against Turks. I don't expect anything from Kostunica cause we know his stance, blackmailing Tadic when trying to form the government. Made me laugh when I red about that, feeling sorry for the Serbian nation who is representing them. Good luck and peace to everyone regardless the differences.

The truth about Kosovo: Arguments and fact for in support its independence
By: Esat Stavileci

The attention of world diplomacy is focusing on Kosovo ever more. We have now in the hands of UN Security Council a proposal addressed by former Finish President Martti Ahtisari which is attached to the document that sets the framework for a possible future status of Kosovo, has summarized the guarantees for the position of minorities, and in particular the Serbian minority has described the modalities for the relatively emphasized international presence in Kosovo, with executive authority as well as authority to interpret its mandate, even after the decision for the new status, which limits Kosovo’s eventual sovereignty. Now it is on the members of the Security Council to reach a decision on Kosovo’s future. We are aware that Serbia has undertaken a diplomatic offensive to influence the members of the Security Council of UN in order to unable the adoption of a new resolution, with the justification that Ahtisari’s proposal recommends “annexation of Serbia’s territory” and “removal of Serbia’s sovereignty over Kosovo” and that all of this, according to Belgrade officials, “is in contradiction with international law”. This is the reason why, in an effort to inform your readers and the members of the Security Council I, as a member of Kosovo Academy of Science and Arts and as a professor of law with an extensive political and legal bibliography, will highlight in broad lines a number of historic, political and legal arguments and facts that convincingly speak that Kosovo was occupied by Serbia in an unlawful manner, which is why Albanians, as a majority population in Kosovo, should enjoy the right to self-determination, whether that is as a majority population in an individualized territory or as their national right. By proving this truth, this article aims to, at the same time, prove that Serbia’s projects for the creation of two entities in Kosovo or its partition are unacceptable.

Firstly, given that Kosovo was annexed by Serbia in an unlawful manner Kosovo’s independence will in no way be in contradiction with international law. On the contrary, Kosovo independence even before being qualified as a “classic case of secession from a sovereign state”, as Serbs argue, should be considered as “annulment of an unlawful annexation. In fact it was Serbia that acted in contradiction with international law in 1912 when it annexed Kosovo through military occupation after its aggression against the Ottoman Empire, “even though Kosovo had its historic and ethnic identity, accompanied by its right to liberation, whether that was from the Ottoman occupation (1912) or Fascist occupation (1944), and in spite of its geographical demographic and cultural integrity”. Consequently, instead of admitting its unlawful act, which she committed while violating international law in a bold manner, Serbia is now using an argument which is scientifically and historically unsustainable, namely to “preserve its sovereignty over Kosovo”, which, as proved by facts, she held in an unlawful manner for a long period of time without ever asking the majority population of Kosovo or having their consent. Kosovo was occupied during Balkan wars (1912-1913) in contradiction with the aspiration of the Albanians, expressed during their national liberation movement 1878-1912. In this manner Serbia, in spite of getting the “international legitimacy” for the occupation of Kosovo, in no way was able to justify the legitimacy of its act. In addition to this, Serbian possessive attitudes towards Kosovo which refer to history are unfounded. Firstly they are unfounded in its methodological qualification of the national character of a territory because if history is to be taken as a criteria, in light of contemporary national-territorial realities, Hungary has the right to the Panonic part of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Hungary would argue about their rights over Belgrade, Greece would claim a right over Istanbul, Albania over Janina, Mexico over Florida and California, Sweden over Finland and Norway, Germany over Shlezi and Sudet regions, Denmark over Shlezivik, Iraq over Kuwait etc. Secondly, Serbia’s possessive attitudes towards Kosovo are unfounded in the aspect of material truth, since Kosovo, in spite of allegations of such nature “in neither a cradle of Serbian nation, nor of Serbian state”. Finally, imperialistic ambitions with “historic rights” could not be defended by England, France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, which, as it is known “with centuries held many nations under their occupation. Therefore “with the destruction of colonial empires over 120 new states were created”. Serbia was “under the occupation of Ottoman Empire for over five centuries (1389-1878). Spain “had conquered all Latin America in the beginning of XVI century. Neither do “Russians ever mention their historic rights over Ukraine”. Historic arguments speak very clearly that “Serbs were placed in Kosovo with their expansion under the rule of Nemanjics’”. As a result of occupations during the Ottoman Empire, many ethnic minorities, such as Serbs, Turks and Roma, were placed in the ethnic Albanian territories. The Serbian minority was greatly expanded with the violent colonization that occurred between two world wars; nevertheless their percentage never exceeded 10% of the overall population. On the basis of these facts the conclusion is very clear: it was in deed the Serbian aggression, occupation and annexation of Kosovo that violated the international law and not otherwise, namely that Kosovo independence would violate international law. History is a witness of denationalization policies; of gross crimes against Albanians during 1912-1918; for genocidal Serbian plans for the extermination of Albanians; for the deportation of Albanians in Turkey and for confiscation the lands of the population and its colonization with Serbs and Montenegrins. The time period between February 1998 and June 10, 1999 only exceeded these special cases and took the gravity of a general genocide of the Serbian regime against Albanians.
Secondly, the decision for Kosovo’s future cannot ignore the constitutional position of Kosovo in former Yugoslavia although Kosovo did not enjoy the status of a republic. However, most importantly, Kosovo was a constitute part of former Yugoslavia with a defined territory and borders, which could not be changed without its consent. Kosovo was directly represented in the former Yugoslav federation same as the other republics, not through Serbia because we would create a paradox as in that case Serbia would have three votes in the Federation, while the other units would have only one vote. With its political-territorial identities, its constitution, Kosovo was a federally constitute unit of the multinational federation of Yugoslavia. That Kosovo was not part of Serbia can be proven by the following historical and political facts: Kosovo was not part of the independent sovereign state of Serbia with its international personality recognized in the Berlin Congress (1878); Kosovo was not part of Serbia in the Second AVNOJ Congress (1943); Kosovo was not part of Serbia during its establishment as a federal unit in the Anti-Fascist Popular Liberation Council (1944); Kosovo was not part of Serbia in the structure of Constitutional Assembly of Yugoslavia when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was founded (1945). Kosovo was not included in the sovereign Serbia, except in federal Serbia within federal Yugoslavia, during the military occupation of Kosovo (1945). Finally it is worth mentioning that the abolishment of Kosovo’s autonomy with the amendments in the Constitution of Serbia, an act, which occurred on March 28 1989, was done in an unlawful manner. Even if we didn’t have the essential deficiencies regarding the declaration in the Kosovo Assembly, deficiencies that are proven, “lack of free will”, as a result of extraordinary political pressures, makes the declaration for constitutional amendments unconstitutional.
Thirdly, the future of Kosovo cannot be compared with secessions in some other parts of the world. The states that remain reserved towards Kosovo independence should be mindful of this fact. They should instead look and find the “common ground” between Kosovo and certain other countries of the world, which have agreed to the removal of sovereignty over other territories. In this regard, the relations between Kosovo and Serbia are comparable with the relations of Indonesia and East Timor. As it is well known, East Timor was occupied and annexed by Indonesia in 1975, contrary to the will of Portugal as the external sovereign, a fact which makes the annexation of Indonesia unlawful. In 1988 Indonesian government recognized the right to self-determination to the East Timor people. Singapore is another example that should be taken under consideration. This country was partitioned from Malaysia in 1965. The example of Eritrea is also meaningful for Kosovo. It was the Ethiopian government that recognized the right to self-determination to Eritrea in 1991. The case of Kosovo is also similar to the case of Namibia. Partition of Namibia from South Africa and its independence occurred in 1991. Therefore Kosovo’s independence should not be compared with secession of territories that were not annexed in a unilateral manner (against the will of the people of the original sovereigns), which joined existing states but that they are operating in territories that were part of these states at the time when they were established. In this way even the separatist movements in Transdnjestrovle (Moldavia), in Southern Osetia and Abkazia (Georgia) that do not have the ethnic basis that Kosovo has and which didn’t have an autonomous or federal status at the time of dissolution of former Soviet Union as Kosovo had at the time of dissolution of former Yugoslavia. Finally, Kosovo Albanians are not comparable with Catalonians, Scots, Wellsians, Basks or Corsicans… because they did not face a massive deportation from the states, which controlled them.
Fourthly, the existence of Albania as an Albanian state cannot hinder the independence and sovereignty for Kosovo, because as we can recall from history neither did the status of Romania hinder the independence of Moldavia nor did the existence of France hindered the establishment of the canton-state of Switzerland. Finally, even if Kosovo was constituted as an Albanian state in the Balkans, this would be a handicap rather than an advantage of Albanian population in the Balkans. Consequently Kosovo fulfills all the criteria for being an independent and sovereign state. If it is about the size of the territory, 34 states with smaller territory are members of the UN. If it is about the population, 58 states with a smaller number of population are members of the UN. If it is for the acceptance or not of new states in the UN, it should be noted that between 1990 and 2002, UN has accepted 34 new member states. The proverb that “wherever we have facts, words become unnecessary” is not meaningless.

On the basis of these arguments and facts emphasized, in broad lines, the new political legal and international status of Kosovo should be the equivalent, without any doubt, with independence and sovereignty with internationally recognized personality in all of its territory, in the manner to ensure the consistent enforcement of law, including the northern part of Kosovo and the so-called municipalities with Serbian majority, which in the proposal of Ambassador Martti Ahtisari have gained significant competencies in the name of an asymmetric territorial and ethnic based decentralization, which in spite of its well intentions threatens the future of Kosovo. Serbian claims for the creation of two entities or for partitioning of Kosovo are unacceptable for Kosovo. These claims ignore the fact of expressively different demographic and national quantum and proportions. In the end we would like to emphasize the fact that Kosovo is not an ethnically diversifiable territory of an enclave character. Therefore the violent surrounding of one part of Kosovo’s territory, in spite of painful compromises that Kosovo delegation agreed to with decentralization, protective zones around Serbian heritage sites and favorable legislative procedures for minorities would directly contradict the derivative political entity of that territory and would not be in accordance with it.
It is about time that Kosovo gets out from the “closed circle” in which it was for so many years. Kosovo is awaiting a new resolution from the Security Council of UN, which should be characterized from:
Firstly, political, legal and international clarity regarding the status of Kosovo, which would prevent ambiguity in regard to it.
Secondly, full international personality which would enable Kosovo to seek membership in international mechanisms, including UN.
Thirdly, territorial integrity, which would ensure the extension of Kosovo governing institutions and consistent enforcement of the law in its entire territory.
Fourthly, functional state of Kosovo, which would prevent its possible invalidation.

Prishtina
30.03.07

I wonder what will be discussed here for when Kosovo will be independent (very soon). Economy, Customs,..whatever just politics no, I hope.

Actually, Enis, as all of Kosovo is part of Serbia legally, that means that all the people who live there are Serbian. This is just a fact - like a Scotsperson is British, or an Algerian living in Paris is a French Algerian. Whether you like it or not, that is how it legally stands around the world.
That doesn't mean that autonomy shouldn't go as far as possible to recognise the rights of other groups living within a sovereign state.

kate*
90% of people in Kosovo are albanians(native people) rest are guipses, croats, muslims and serbs. In the nearest future the all gonna call themselves KOSOVARS, and proud one...

Kate you sound briliant in your knowledge about interantional laws,sovrenities etc... , but the way I see it you cannot walk a fine line because you tend to veer on one side only and you completaly forget about the other side.You can go on and on regarding historical myths b, but the facts on the ground speak for itself. getting back to article; Mr. Sejdiu has every right to speak in UNSC , because he is the president of country, which was democraticly voted in the office.Mr. Kostunica is a dissaster in making for Serbian state, and he is a blackmailer to his own people.

Kate you are kidding, I am from Kosova and in my identity card no where writes that I am citizen of serbia, also and in my travel document has no were the word serbia, per contrary with this travel document i goes everywhere, except serbia and rusia, and customs officials asks me where are you from I say I am from Kosova nobody asks me if I am serbian.

Kate- you have some sense of humour ( thanks for making me laugh), a Scottish person is British indeed and not English. We were Yugoslavians but not Serbian’s. Last time I checked there was no Yugoslavia. Therefore your stance has no bearing. You may continue to amuse us with your light-minded views but doesn’t change the fact that Kosova has been for the past 9 years independent of Yugoslavia and will soon be internationally recognised as the newest state in the world. Kosova INDEPENDENT state.

Cheers

Enis, your arguments were poorly constructed, your evidence was based on wishful thinking and misinterpretations of law and your conclusions were idiotic. If Albanians have a right to self-determination because they are the majority in one corner of Serbia then by your rational the Kosovo Serbs have the right to self determination in any place they happen to live in Kosovo.

If we followed this line of Albanian thinking at what point do we stop?

What area of land is to small to be partitioned? The Albanians want to partition a province from serbia. If it happens the K Serbs will follow and partition their municipalities from Kosova. Will the K albanians then partition their majority Albanian villages from these municipalities? Where will it end? Partition by street? By house? By room!?

How about we abandon this ridiculous Right to Self Determination notion now. Minorities have NO right to self determination in any country. What they do have is the expectation to be treated equally with the rest of the population.

Much of ex Yugoslavia is in poverty today, especially Kosovo, because rather than putting their enegies into intergration and tolerance, groups decided to be divisive from Federation, Republic, ethnicity, province.

The only people to blame for the situation today in Kosovo is the K Albanians. If they didn't like the system they should have worked with it to improve it not sought to destroy it.

Mr Gashi so if are from Kosovo then you documents are UNMIK correct that means you cannot travel outside the province to other than macedonia because EU will not allow travel. You say you are albanian does that mean you have documents from Albanina. I worked in Kosovo for 7 years and alot of people i work with now are from kosovo and are albanian and have Serbia travel documents. so that means there are citizens of Serbia not kosovo correct sir. Mike, you are still only speaking what your are told. I have been there longer than you sir and i do know who you are. So please stop listening to one side of the problem and open your eyes for a change.

Kate there is nothing more dangerous then sincere and honest ignorance. It’s ironic how you cheerfully invoke Resolution 1244 when it accommodates your argument, yet you fail to mention that your country and your own people brake every single UN resolution and Geneva convention from 1991 till 1999 – sad isn’t it. Also resolution 1244 is based on Rambouillet agreement .
“Resolution 1244 and its two annexes thus speak of "essential self-rule in Kosovo" and of "respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the FRY," but in line with the Rambouillet agreement. As it is well known, the final part of the Rambouillet Agreement contains the following provision: "Three years after this agreement goes into effect, an international conference shall be convened to establish a mechanism for the final resolution of the status of Kosovo, based on the will of the people, position of relevant authorities, efforts invested by all sides in regard to implementing this agreement, and the Final Helsinki Act, and it shall provide an overall assessment of this agreement's implementation and look into proposals of all sides in regard to undertaking additional measures."

KATE read it loud and clear,”based on the will of the people”.

Who is Samardzic to tell anyone that he has no right of speech on an UN meeting? If you do read the statute of UN, the meeting leader can call ANYONE, to hold meeting and speak, if he is relevant with what is being discussed, and Mr Sejdiu is very relevant in this case. Kosova is still de jure part of Serbia, but not and de facto, b/c Serbia has no sovereignity on Kosova. Very soon, Kosova will not be and de jure part of Serbia.

Enis,

who is Esat Stavileci??? Who ever they maybe it is clear that they have little academic background let alone a research background in history - depsite saying they might. Is this chap really an academic???

Serbia annexed Kosovo & Metohija - please get real!!! Are we to take it from this suggestion that this is all about handing back the Serbian province to a long gone Ottoman Empire who actualy annexed the Serbian nation in the 14 century??? Is this person suggesting only armed aggression should guarantee control on territorial integrity ???

"Thirdly, the future of Kosovo cannot be compared with secessions in some other parts of the world." Why ever not? When you try to illicit an illegal creation of another states territory on the basis of becoming a majority and twisting self determination rather then "conforming" to the state that you belong too - then what else will it be other then a precedent that can be used where and when ever.

The more that it is suggested the more ridiculous the folly of a "Kosovar" statelet becomes. I do hope this statement is passed around within the UN SC as it will certainly raise more concerns and guarantee a no vote as it would highlight the disingenious nature of this folly and show up the incompetence of those who promote it!!!

I really can only imagine B92 moderators were sniggering at the thought of publishing this comment and thought it would make a laugh as it certainly is not serious!

Jham you are completely wrong. People from Kosovo can travel to following coutries with UNMIK passport:

1. Albania
2. Armenia
3. Austria
4. Belgium
5. Bosnia and Herzegovina
6. Bulgaria
7. Croatia
8. Cyprus
9. Czech Republic
10. Denmark
11. Estonia
12. Finland
13. France
14. FYR of Macedonia
15. Germany
16. Greece
17. Hungary
18. Iceland
19. Ireland
20. Italy
21. Jordan
22. Latvia
23. Lithuania
24. Luxemburg
25. The Netherlands
26. Malaysia
27. Norway
28. Poland
29. Portugal
30. Romania
31. Slovakia
32. Slovenia
33. Spain
34. Sweden
35. Switzerland
36. Turkey
37. United Kingdom
38. United States of America
39. Uzbekistan

Jham did you find Macedonia? Try FYR of Macedonia. Stop disinforming. Say the truth.

JACK, You said that "The only people to blame for the situation today in Kosovo is the K Albanians. If they didn't like the system they should have worked with it to improve it not sought to destroy it"
I just want to let you know that the system you are talking about was orchestrated by Milosevic during the 1990's. That system did closed the albanian schools and wanted the albanians to study serbian only. THat system kicked out of work every albanian. That system didnt recognize that the albanians should have the rights they were granted during the 1974 constitution. That system my dear friend caused wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosova. Even the whole world had to fight against that system and its orchestrator Milosevic and you are saying that the albanians should have worked for it? From that system my dear friends more than 12000 albanians died, almost a million were replaced and you say that we should have worked for that system.
All the leaders of that system that killed hundreds of thousands in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosova were sent to HAGUE and you are saying that albanians should have worked for that system?
Shame on you JACK as for you have no idea of what was that system destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosova.
Thanks.

Stevo!
I do not blame you for your ignorance!
Only fool laughs to his own foolishness!Said an ancient filosofer called Aristoteles!
Not Onasis one!

Princip,
and what is you academic background? Because you should have one in order to challenge Esat Stavileci's arguments.
Why dont you accept that all you learned about Kosova's history is from Serbian books. Why for once in your life you and your serb fellow's do not try to consider other sources?
You will be supprised how different things might be.
Dont be afraid of the truth, even if that would shatter your beliefs about the "craddle of the serbian nation"
Sometimes the truth hurts.

Afrim if you want to create meaningful debate then please provide facts not just propaganda and fantasy numbers. You can repeat that stuff a million times but repetition doesn't turn fiction into fact.

Kosovo Albanians have wanted to separate for the last 100 years. This issue is not new. What I find interesting is that people tend to base their ideas about the future of Kosovo on what is "right". But, being "right" is a relative thing. What is right for me may not be right for somebody else. I am closer to believing that things happen because the parties interested in a certain scenario had more power than the opposing parties, and by parties I don't mean only political parties. Thus, whatever happens with Kosovo, It will not be because that was the right solution but because that was the proffered solution by the more powerful party. Power here is multi-dimensional, and at least partly based on public support.

Hermon
in reply to your question I don't think any indivdual needs a doctorate to question the academic [sic] validity of lies!

I am certain that any 10 year old could do a better historical account then that published here as a comment suggested as "The truth about Kosovo: Arguments and fact for in support its independence"

No one with any inteligence is deceieved. I am not afraid of the truth and am only too happy to be corrected if that was the case but please don't think if you have a degree that you can peddle lies as truth!!!

If you think that this would be useful in your cause then I really hope this is the case - I am certain that there will be an even greater reason for binning plan A-htisaari and will make the others question the intelligence of the US and UK in promoting such folly.

If this statement was used by the US to promote such folly it would remind me of the lies told regarding WMD in Iraq only this time I guess other members in the UN SC won't be so sure to believe such lies!!!

When will the penny drop - it's April 2007 and no new resolution and no likelyhood, unless of course, it adheres to the "obligation" that Wisner suggested would be incorporated to affirm Serbia's territorial integrity as spelt out in 1244.

Enis, while the article you posted is well written, it seems after everything I read, that Esat Stavileci is the Albanian counterpart to Dobrica Cosic, and if there was a K-Albanian version of SANU, he would defnitely be chairman.

The primary argument he raises concerns the validity of Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo since 1912, which he consistenly claims to be able to debunk by "facts". Yet these "facts" are historical interpretations reoriented towards an Albanian point of view. No doubt there are some validities to other states having the same rights to claim "sovereignty" over historical territory (Greeks, Bulgarians, Hungarians, etc). But he misses the point that Kosovo is currently under Serbian sovereignty (as recognized by international bodies), while the other states do not control the areas they seem to claim. It is also faulty to base claims of self-determination on grounds of ethnic descrimination. While no group would want to live in the same state as one's persecutors, such a legal precedent would certainly legitimize all those other cases Stavileci dismisses as an inauthentic comparisons. I don't discredit the entire article, but there are clearly areas where extreme interpretation of history is taken, and while I could apply the same methods to other areas of the world - say Greeks or Armenians in Turkey, the international community had not budged there either. I find the article interesting, but faulty at best, where the author clearly has a particular adgenda to push.

Just because the Albanians want something doesn't mean they can break apart Serbia otherwise Presevo would be next.

Dear Predrag,
that what you say is obviously true.
It had been true for all the human history.

To every Albanian here who is in denial about whether or not Kosovo is a part of Serbia. Can you answer me the question:

Why does EVERY single news organization (including those of your "allies" start with the same first words?

"Nasdaq - 2 hours, 10 minutes ago
PRISTINA, SERBIA (AP)--A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a court vehicle with U.N. plates"

International Herald Tribune - Apr 01 10:45 PM
PEC, Serbia -- Dragica Besovic and her sister-in-law were back in Kosovo


CNN - 1:47 a.m. EDT, March 28, 200
PRISTINA, Serbia (AP) -- Kosovo's minority Serbs should accept a

and the list goes ON and ON...

PRISTINA, SERBIA

PRISTINA, SERBIA

PEC, SERBIA

etc. etc.

You can repeat a lie a thousand times. But it will never become the truth. Accept reality my fellow Serbian.

"Dont be afraid of the truth, even if that would shatter your beliefs about the "craddle of the serbian nation"
Sometimes the truth hurts.
(Hermon, Tuesday, 3 April, 2007, 15:56)"
Hermon, I can not express strongly enough how racist and derogatory it is to dismiss another race's belief system. Obviously Pec being the head of the Serbian Church for much of its history supports that this area is extremely important to the Serbian Identity, however, that really is irrelevant.
Belief systems are based on faith not facts.
The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is incredibly sacred to the Muslims. The issue of whether the Palestinians or the Israeli's control East Jerusalem is a vital sticking point in resolving the differences between the two. If we employ your logic, then the Palestinians have no factual basis for considering this site Holy, as scientifically its impossible for someone to ascend to Heaven. Therefore the "truth" is its just an unimportant "myth" and the Muslims in the Middle East should "get over it" and "give it up".
I'm sure anyone can see how unproductive and offensive it would be for the Israelis to take such a stance on that issue. In fact they wouldn't ever consider making that sort of argument. Its just too incredibly offensive.
Why do you feel its justified to put down and insult our belief system?
While you may be upset and angry that a handful of Nationalistic Serbians committed some terrible crimes in Kosovo, I did not committ any crimes, nor did I ever support such actions. Kosovo belongs to all Serbians and Montenegrins everywhere in the world.
I am truly sorry about the suffering of the Kosovar people, but in order to bring peace and stability to the region, we all must act in a responsible manner. Insulting and demonizing the beliefs and history of the opposing side only serves to convince moderate Western Serbs such as myself that your position is only supported by weak and racist arguments.
I think you would find that if the Kosovar population were active in supporting Serbian belief system, instead of trying to tear them down, many moderates such as myself would be more willing to support an independent Kosovo. Right now, it almost seems many Kosovars would like to erase Serbia's connection to the region. Embrace it and be proud of it instead. Then you'll have some support in Serbia from its people. There is a lot to be said for the Kosovar families who protected our culture in Kosovo over the centuries and this connection needs to be out in the open and used for Public Relations purposes. Also do not underestimate the potential for tourism to such holy and sacred places.
There really is no benefit you will achieve by taking your current stance. You are much better off and will have a stronger position in the International Community by supporting and encouraging Serbian History and Culture in the region.
To me, tearing down and revising Serbian History, identity and culture is far more dangerous and painful then just losing the land.

I want to begin by saying that Enis, while being well spoken, provides arguments that ring hollow. Firstly, it is laughable to argue that the serbs annexed kosovo from the ottoman empire, when it was the ottomans who annexed nearly all of the balkan peninsula. Every nation in the balkans used armed 'aggression' against the ottomans to regain their former territories, including serbia. Any arguments about the illegality of such resistence to the oppressive ottomans hold no water. The islamic fundamentalist ottomans occupied land belonging to christian 'infidels'(Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians...) and those peoples who converted to the islamic faith (Albanians, Bosnians) received preferential treatment. Perhaps this, coupled with the fact that most serbs living in kosovo prior to ottoman occupation fled to the north, is why by the end of 500 year of ottoman rule the christians were, proportionally speaking, misrepresented in terms of the area of land they occupied at the time. Also, as far back as relevant history goes, the only nation other than the ottomans that included kosovo was serbia. There was no albanian nation prior to the ottomans.
It has also been argued that prior to serbian arrival in the balkans illyrians lived in what is now kosovo, and since albanians claim to be their decendants, kosovo was albanian before it was serbian. This is a weak argument, as it can't even be proven that Albanians are even trully decendants of Illyrians, and other than linguistics, the Albanians are likely the decendants of illyrians who interbred with the other balkan peoples (greeks, serbs...etc) Also, by this rationale, every nation in the balkans should return land to the rightful owners the albanians, as illyrians occupied most of the penninsula at one point. The serbs have a legitimate historical claim to kosovo, as the abundance of historical monuments and monasteries prove. These same historical pieces of evidence are constantly being attacked by k/ albanians in an attempt to erase the history of the land they now call home (over 100 cases of monasteries attacked or destroyed, see the most recent case of the UNESCO world heritage site the Decani monastery; recently attacked with rockets)
More recent historical arguments are equally shaky. While kosovo did enjoy autonomy from serbia in communist yugoslavia, this was an attempt to even the balance and promote equal influence of all constituent republics and peoples (socialism). A quick glimpse at an old map, or of yugoslav demographics shows that serbia was the biggest republic, and over 60% of the population of yugo was serb, despite the existence of 5 republics, and this threatened the political equality. This, coupled with Tito's desire to appease the albanians, due to his ultimate desire of expanding yugoslavia to incorporate albania, was likely the reason for its status (at the time the population of kosovo was about even btw.serbs and albanians). Regardless, this status as an autonomus province of serbia does not lend legitimacey to the independance movement.
As croatia declared indepedance from yugoslavia, the serbs living in the krajina region decided to secede and remain in union with the federation. The international community subsequently passed laws stating that only former republics had the right to be independant, as a means of preventing serbs in croatia and bosnia from following suit. The serbs, however, had as much if not more of a right than albanians in kosovo to do such in croatia, as they had been living there since the 15th century. During that time, croatia was part of Austria-Hungary, and the austrians invited serbs to live there and gave them their own land, in exchange for serbian participation in military resistance against the encroaching ottomans. The serbs were susequently 'ethincically cleansed' under international watch and US assistance. Most were never allowed to return, and their ethnic cleansing was never seen as a good reason to give the remaing serbs there independance. However, it is precisesly that same argument that is used by albanians and the US and EU to legitimize the independance of kosovo from serbia, against international law.
Someone suggested that resolution 1244 is binded to the Rambouillet agreement which states that "Three years after this agreement goes into effect, an international conference shall be convened to establish a mechanism for the final resolution of the status of Kosovo, based on the will of the people" but this passage is up for interpretation. As res. 1244 considers kosovo part of serbia, the will of the people can be interpreted as the will of the people of serbia as a whole, and albanians are a minority in serbia.
The hipocracy and one-sided policies of the international community have been anti-serb in every conflict in the former yugoslavia. This is likely because of 2 factors. The 1st being the serbs refusal to fully adapt to broader economic and political trends in the 90's, and the 2nd being that the international community prefers a balkans comprised of small helpless statelets that must heed to the desires of the US and europe.

now it´s official:
Mr.Sediju won´t be allowed to speak before the UNSC.

good decision. provisonal "presidents" simply shouldn´t attend to such a respectable meeting.

As far as I can see, the serbs tend to reapeat their lies to convince themselves...

I am Albanian born in Albania, and currently a British citizen!
I am totally and utterly disgusted with the rhetoric used here by different citizens of Serbia.
It is quite tragic that the ruling class in Serbia is not doing what it must to clarify the reality to its own nation.
This reality is simple, Kosovo has been lost, and this is the end of the argument.
They should also add that it is rightfully lost, and people shouldn’t have the slightest regret about it!

It’s quite unacceptable also that people use today a language of the last century.
It’s a shame for every responsible and reasonably aware and educated citizen of Serbia, to talk about Serbia’s claim over the Albanian Kosovo, the same way Britain was talking about India, or the way the ottomans were talking about their rights on the Balkans.

It is an unbearable reading, when people claim so innocently that Kosovo is part of Serbia, as Kosovo has never been part of Serbia. The provinces status was revoked illegally and brutally by Belgrade, act which affirms speculations judging its ability to run the vojvodina province or the presheva n bujanovc Albanian minority in the future?

If Serbia’s attitude doesn’t change, am awfully sorry to admit the inevitable coming reality that everything in that country will deteriorate with the time, until a fatal braking point.
The country will only recover when it totally scraps its old colonial policy making attitude.

To ????; If you showed your Unmik passport in Scandinavia, the authorities would throw you out the next second.

I am an impartial person that Liked to learn about this area of the world but it seems that commentators here are very one sided and it is getting boring and repetitive nothing new of the essence.
It seems that most of all Princip Kate JHam and others represent Serbian side. They work in coordination and look like they have some other channels through which they communicate with each or they are siting in the same rrom in different computers. They are makin g the arguments to look like they represent views of everybody in Serbia it seem to me that particularly Princip and Kate have an agenda to fulfill and I have a quick question for them
Since you, both spend so much time here in internet how you earn your living and how much you get paid? I can be an assistance to you since I spend some considerable time in internet.
In the other side is avni gashi and company representing the Albanians and they are not so much organized but they have better arguments and here is why
I checked the UMNIK website and there it gives places that you can travel so the Serbian argument is not true. There are some places you cannot go like Russia or Serbia but
A considerable number of countries accept those documents. It seems to me that Kosovo is already a state on its own since they can travel with their documents.

Princip every time someone else has something to say and I found it to be the truth you always try to down play or push aside as not serious (your quote) “really can only imagine B92 moderators were sniggering at the thought of publishing this comment and thought it would make a laugh as it certainly is not serious! “(My advice) When you have lost an argument, the best thing is not to say anything because every time you open your mouth untrue statement will follow which will worsen your intellectual stand. .
I have seen this from you in many websites like Scotsman over there you have another friend Neil or Scullion or easily you are playing many roles and I hope you get paid good from this.
To no offence, you Princip seem to me that you have an Elephant mentality everything that gets in your way you try to forcefully step on it. it that how the Serbians think if is that so for that reason all these problem that both sides have is so hard to resolve
As for the international law is that I did some research and found out that in 1912 Serbia militarily invaded Kosovo and that was not under Serbian state but under the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes so Serbia had no sovereignty over Kosovo but occupied it
So the Albanian argument stands
In the good side, I learned two words from both languages
Paqe = Peace
Mir = Peace

albano...

I am afraid you swallowed albanian propaganda,if you´re not albanian yourself...

fact is, Albanians have not even one single argument for their cause. if you´d done your research more properly, you´d know that.

and second,
Serbia did not invade KiM, in 1912 as Albanians are not tired to lie about, it was liberated from the ottoman empire, which came with military force and stayed for a couple of centuries, before Serbia sent them home again.

how about reading ( non-albanian ) books, instead of surfing around?

ps:if you got the impression of unorganised writing from the albanian side, you´re right, but I would say the reason for that is, that it´s mostly some teenagers being eager to sell their freshly learned propaganda here...

but, at least those readers, I mean non-serbians, who read this ( and I know some of them ) know very well to distinguish arguments from hate-related accusations...
don´t worry about that.

Albano, Serbia OCCUPIED Kosovo? Let me ask you this, did the OTTOMANS occupy Kosovo? and if so, who did they occupy it from?

FYI, In 1217, the Serbian Kingdom achieved recognition in PEC, Kosovo.

Hence, KOSOVO is the BIRTHPLACE of all that is Serbian. How many times do we have to tell you, that Kosovo is Serbia.

Btw, this is a KNOWN fact... not just what "some serb" wrote. Its in textbooks, its online... GOOGLE IT! Get use to it. Albanians have been trying to take Kosovo from the Serbs for CENTURIES now... and they've managed to fail every single time. This time will be no different.

it doesn't matter if Presednik Sejdiu is going to speak or not we ar independ of serbija from 1999 thats matter thank you Mr Ahtisari you are the hero

The first action that the US/NATO/EU/UN should take is to seat Mr. Ceku next to Mr. Haradinaj at The Hague. Maybe then the Serbians would see that the Western powers are truely trying to do what is right and just for both sides in Kosovo. Is it just me or, does it seem like the West has promised everything to the Albanians if they play along with the so called "Powers", and little to the minorities. Let's face it, many minorities have been cleansed from Kosovo under NATO's watchful eye. Why would anyone think it would be better with an impowered Albanian majority?

This 90's Clinton/Blair/Albright/
Holbrooke/etc., failed fiasco has to stop. The US got their Bondsteel camp on occupied Serbian territory and have established a presence in the Balkans. Now move on, your scheme has failed. Concentrate on Iran and Iraq, where the real problems are for America. Kosovo will do just fine without you. They can certainly do no worse without you.

"As for the international law is that I did some research and found out that in 1912 Serbia militarily invaded Kosovo and that was not under Serbian state but under the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes so Serbia had no sovereignty over Kosovo but occupied it
So the Albanian argument stands
In the good side, I learned two words from both languages
Paqe = Peace
Mir = Peace"
(Albano & Romina Power, Tuesday, 3 April, 2007, 21:38

- thanks for the compliments but the truth [sic] you espouse is far from the truth and it is clear that your research has in fact been limited by Albanian propoganda and creative historical accounting - maybe this is a throw back to communist inspired creative history accounting but the history you comment on was set before Albanians even existed as a sepreate nation state.

FYI the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats & Slovenes was formed on the 1st Dec. 1918 - 6 years after the Kingdom of Serbia liberated it's medieval heartland from the ocuppying Ottoman Turks who had invaded the area in the 14th century.

Also realise that Kosovo is a SERBIAN adjective meaning, "of blackbirds". It is a contraction of the term Kosovo Polje, or "field of blackbirds". The term Kosova, used by Albanian separatists, is nothing more than a transliteration of the Serbian word into Albanian, with no meaning whatsoever in Albanian. Moreover, the Serbian character of Kosovo is underscored by the region's traditional full name, Kosovo and Metohija, the latter term meaning "church lands". This refers to the numerous Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches scattered throughout the province, which numbered up to 3000 at one point.

Don't believe me look at any non-Albanian history book - or look on the internet.

In so many ways I really do hope that such lies are peddled in the UN SC as it is easy to show this folly for what it realy is. Moerover, such false claims put forth by Albanian commentators reminds us of the obnoxious statement made by Goebbels in 1939, "Tell a lie a hundred times and it become the truth."

- well I am busy ensuring the world hears the full truth be that on B92, Guardian, Scotsman or my MP, MEP or PM etc etc... rather then accept the outright lies peddled in the ILLEGAL act of acquisitioning 15% of Serbian sovereign territory. Fortunetly ther are many historical sources in the West that show up such lies for what they are!!!

I wonder why are you so afraid of a man like President Sejdiu!
Or maybe you are right cause man is armed but not with AK-47 but with much powerful weapon- Word wich hurts much more than bullets.

"Slobodan Samardžić said it would be unacceptable for Sejdiu to address the Council.
“That would be in breach of Resolution 1244 and Kosovo’s Constitutional framework. According to those documents, Kosovo can only be represented by the UN special representative in international communication, not by members of the interim institutions. They can attend, but not represent Kosovo,” he said."

There's your answer. You may be working on the basis of 'fear' and emotion, but thank goodness international law as stated sets out things in a more robust fashion. As Princip and others reinterated yesterday, Resolution 1244 cannot be ignored. It has to be fully implemented.
Whether you like it or not, Kosovo is still an integral part of Serbia.

Rifat,
You say that Sejdiu is armed with Word. Can you clarify if this is Microsoft Word 2007, or is it Word 2003? What about Word 97?

hahahaha

"?"an integral part of Serbia"?"
with no serbian state soldiers, serbian state powers, serbian state services in it. You have said something like Moon is an integral part of Serbia, which is as Kosova, that is very far away from being part of Serbia.

Well that remain to be seen, will they allow or not Sejdiu to address the Council. And if he is allowed then let see what Slobodan Samardžić and the others would have to say. Regardless who represent Kosovo, the report will NEVER be acceptable by Serbia's representative, see that on previous meetings. Hence, come to really Serbian nation!!!- even though sometime it hurts. If you look history of Serbia please look longer than 600 years ago when you lost the battle against Turks. I don't expect anything from Kostunica cause we know his stance, blackmailing Tadic when trying to form the government. Made me laugh when I red about that, feeling sorry for the Serbian nation who is representing them. Good luck and peace to everyone regardless the differences.

The truth about Kosovo: Arguments and fact for in support its independence
By: Esat Stavileci

The attention of world diplomacy is focusing on Kosovo ever more. We have now in the hands of UN Security Council a proposal addressed by former Finish President Martti Ahtisari which is attached to the document that sets the framework for a possible future status of Kosovo, has summarized the guarantees for the position of minorities, and in particular the Serbian minority has described the modalities for the relatively emphasized international presence in Kosovo, with executive authority as well as authority to interpret its mandate, even after the decision for the new status, which limits Kosovo’s eventual sovereignty. Now it is on the members of the Security Council to reach a decision on Kosovo’s future. We are aware that Serbia has undertaken a diplomatic offensive to influence the members of the Security Council of UN in order to unable the adoption of a new resolution, with the justification that Ahtisari’s proposal recommends “annexation of Serbia’s territory” and “removal of Serbia’s sovereignty over Kosovo” and that all of this, according to Belgrade officials, “is in contradiction with international law”. This is the reason why, in an effort to inform your readers and the members of the Security Council I, as a member of Kosovo Academy of Science and Arts and as a professor of law with an extensive political and legal bibliography, will highlight in broad lines a number of historic, political and legal arguments and facts that convincingly speak that Kosovo was occupied by Serbia in an unlawful manner, which is why Albanians, as a majority population in Kosovo, should enjoy the right to self-determination, whether that is as a majority population in an individualized territory or as their national right. By proving this truth, this article aims to, at the same time, prove that Serbia’s projects for the creation of two entities in Kosovo or its partition are unacceptable.

Firstly, given that Kosovo was annexed by Serbia in an unlawful manner Kosovo’s independence will in no way be in contradiction with international law. On the contrary, Kosovo independence even before being qualified as a “classic case of secession from a sovereign state”, as Serbs argue, should be considered as “annulment of an unlawful annexation. In fact it was Serbia that acted in contradiction with international law in 1912 when it annexed Kosovo through military occupation after its aggression against the Ottoman Empire, “even though Kosovo had its historic and ethnic identity, accompanied by its right to liberation, whether that was from the Ottoman occupation (1912) or Fascist occupation (1944), and in spite of its geographical demographic and cultural integrity”. Consequently, instead of admitting its unlawful act, which she committed while violating international law in a bold manner, Serbia is now using an argument which is scientifically and historically unsustainable, namely to “preserve its sovereignty over Kosovo”, which, as proved by facts, she held in an unlawful manner for a long period of time without ever asking the majority population of Kosovo or having their consent. Kosovo was occupied during Balkan wars (1912-1913) in contradiction with the aspiration of the Albanians, expressed during their national liberation movement 1878-1912. In this manner Serbia, in spite of getting the “international legitimacy” for the occupation of Kosovo, in no way was able to justify the legitimacy of its act. In addition to this, Serbian possessive attitudes towards Kosovo which refer to history are unfounded. Firstly they are unfounded in its methodological qualification of the national character of a territory because if history is to be taken as a criteria, in light of contemporary national-territorial realities, Hungary has the right to the Panonic part of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Hungary would argue about their rights over Belgrade, Greece would claim a right over Istanbul, Albania over Janina, Mexico over Florida and California, Sweden over Finland and Norway, Germany over Shlezi and Sudet regions, Denmark over Shlezivik, Iraq over Kuwait etc. Secondly, Serbia’s possessive attitudes towards Kosovo are unfounded in the aspect of material truth, since Kosovo, in spite of allegations of such nature “in neither a cradle of Serbian nation, nor of Serbian state”. Finally, imperialistic ambitions with “historic rights” could not be defended by England, France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, which, as it is known “with centuries held many nations under their occupation. Therefore “with the destruction of colonial empires over 120 new states were created”. Serbia was “under the occupation of Ottoman Empire for over five centuries (1389-1878). Spain “had conquered all Latin America in the beginning of XVI century. Neither do “Russians ever mention their historic rights over Ukraine”. Historic arguments speak very clearly that “Serbs were placed in Kosovo with their expansion under the rule of Nemanjics’”. As a result of occupations during the Ottoman Empire, many ethnic minorities, such as Serbs, Turks and Roma, were placed in the ethnic Albanian territories. The Serbian minority was greatly expanded with the violent colonization that occurred between two world wars; nevertheless their percentage never exceeded 10% of the overall population. On the basis of these facts the conclusion is very clear: it was in deed the Serbian aggression, occupation and annexation of Kosovo that violated the international law and not otherwise, namely that Kosovo independence would violate international law. History is a witness of denationalization policies; of gross crimes against Albanians during 1912-1918; for genocidal Serbian plans for the extermination of Albanians; for the deportation of Albanians in Turkey and for confiscation the lands of the population and its colonization with Serbs and Montenegrins. The time period between February 1998 and June 10, 1999 only exceeded these special cases and took the gravity of a general genocide of the Serbian regime against Albanians.
Secondly, the decision for Kosovo’s future cannot ignore the constitutional position of Kosovo in former Yugoslavia although Kosovo did not enjoy the status of a republic. However, most importantly, Kosovo was a constitute part of former Yugoslavia with a defined territory and borders, which could not be changed without its consent. Kosovo was directly represented in the former Yugoslav federation same as the other republics, not through Serbia because we would create a paradox as in that case Serbia would have three votes in the Federation, while the other units would have only one vote. With its political-territorial identities, its constitution, Kosovo was a federally constitute unit of the multinational federation of Yugoslavia. That Kosovo was not part of Serbia can be proven by the following historical and political facts: Kosovo was not part of the independent sovereign state of Serbia with its international personality recognized in the Berlin Congress (1878); Kosovo was not part of Serbia in the Second AVNOJ Congress (1943); Kosovo was not part of Serbia during its establishment as a federal unit in the Anti-Fascist Popular Liberation Council (1944); Kosovo was not part of Serbia in the structure of Constitutional Assembly of Yugoslavia when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was founded (1945). Kosovo was not included in the sovereign Serbia, except in federal Serbia within federal Yugoslavia, during the military occupation of Kosovo (1945). Finally it is worth mentioning that the abolishment of Kosovo’s autonomy with the amendments in the Constitution of Serbia, an act, which occurred on March 28 1989, was done in an unlawful manner. Even if we didn’t have the essential deficiencies regarding the declaration in the Kosovo Assembly, deficiencies that are proven, “lack of free will”, as a result of extraordinary political pressures, makes the declaration for constitutional amendments unconstitutional.
Thirdly, the future of Kosovo cannot be compared with secessions in some other parts of the world. The states that remain reserved towards Kosovo independence should be mindful of this fact. They should instead look and find the “common ground” between Kosovo and certain other countries of the world, which have agreed to the removal of sovereignty over other territories. In this regard, the relations between Kosovo and Serbia are comparable with the relations of Indonesia and East Timor. As it is well known, East Timor was occupied and annexed by Indonesia in 1975, contrary to the will of Portugal as the external sovereign, a fact which makes the annexation of Indonesia unlawful. In 1988 Indonesian government recognized the right to self-determination to the East Timor people. Singapore is another example that should be taken under consideration. This country was partitioned from Malaysia in 1965. The example of Eritrea is also meaningful for Kosovo. It was the Ethiopian government that recognized the right to self-determination to Eritrea in 1991. The case of Kosovo is also similar to the case of Namibia. Partition of Namibia from South Africa and its independence occurred in 1991. Therefore Kosovo’s independence should not be compared with secession of territories that were not annexed in a unilateral manner (against the will of the people of the original sovereigns), which joined existing states but that they are operating in territories that were part of these states at the time when they were established. In this way even the separatist movements in Transdnjestrovle (Moldavia), in Southern Osetia and Abkazia (Georgia) that do not have the ethnic basis that Kosovo has and which didn’t have an autonomous or federal status at the time of dissolution of former Soviet Union as Kosovo had at the time of dissolution of former Yugoslavia. Finally, Kosovo Albanians are not comparable with Catalonians, Scots, Wellsians, Basks or Corsicans… because they did not face a massive deportation from the states, which controlled them.
Fourthly, the existence of Albania as an Albanian state cannot hinder the independence and sovereignty for Kosovo, because as we can recall from history neither did the status of Romania hinder the independence of Moldavia nor did the existence of France hindered the establishment of the canton-state of Switzerland. Finally, even if Kosovo was constituted as an Albanian state in the Balkans, this would be a handicap rather than an advantage of Albanian population in the Balkans. Consequently Kosovo fulfills all the criteria for being an independent and sovereign state. If it is about the size of the territory, 34 states with smaller territory are members of the UN. If it is about the population, 58 states with a smaller number of population are members of the UN. If it is for the acceptance or not of new states in the UN, it should be noted that between 1990 and 2002, UN has accepted 34 new member states. The proverb that “wherever we have facts, words become unnecessary” is not meaningless.

On the basis of these arguments and facts emphasized, in broad lines, the new political legal and international status of Kosovo should be the equivalent, without any doubt, with independence and sovereignty with internationally recognized personality in all of its territory, in the manner to ensure the consistent enforcement of law, including the northern part of Kosovo and the so-called municipalities with Serbian majority, which in the proposal of Ambassador Martti Ahtisari have gained significant competencies in the name of an asymmetric territorial and ethnic based decentralization, which in spite of its well intentions threatens the future of Kosovo. Serbian claims for the creation of two entities or for partitioning of Kosovo are unacceptable for Kosovo. These claims ignore the fact of expressively different demographic and national quantum and proportions. In the end we would like to emphasize the fact that Kosovo is not an ethnically diversifiable territory of an enclave character. Therefore the violent surrounding of one part of Kosovo’s territory, in spite of painful compromises that Kosovo delegation agreed to with decentralization, protective zones around Serbian heritage sites and favorable legislative procedures for minorities would directly contradict the derivative political entity of that territory and would not be in accordance with it.
It is about time that Kosovo gets out from the “closed circle” in which it was for so many years. Kosovo is awaiting a new resolution from the Security Council of UN, which should be characterized from:
Firstly, political, legal and international clarity regarding the status of Kosovo, which would prevent ambiguity in regard to it.
Secondly, full international personality which would enable Kosovo to seek membership in international mechanisms, including UN.
Thirdly, territorial integrity, which would ensure the extension of Kosovo governing institutions and consistent enforcement of the law in its entire territory.
Fourthly, functional state of Kosovo, which would prevent its possible invalidation.

Prishtina
30.03.07

I wonder what will be discussed here for when Kosovo will be independent (very soon). Economy, Customs,..whatever just politics no, I hope.

Actually, Enis, as all of Kosovo is part of Serbia legally, that means that all the people who live there are Serbian. This is just a fact - like a Scotsperson is British, or an Algerian living in Paris is a French Algerian. Whether you like it or not, that is how it legally stands around the world.
That doesn't mean that autonomy shouldn't go as far as possible to recognise the rights of other groups living within a sovereign state.

kate*
90% of people in Kosovo are albanians(native people) rest are guipses, croats, muslims and serbs. In the nearest future the all gonna call themselves KOSOVARS, and proud one...

Kate you sound briliant in your knowledge about interantional laws,sovrenities etc... , but the way I see it you cannot walk a fine line because you tend to veer on one side only and you completaly forget about the other side.You can go on and on regarding historical myths b, but the facts on the ground speak for itself. getting back to article; Mr. Sejdiu has every right to speak in UNSC , because he is the president of country, which was democraticly voted in the office.Mr. Kostunica is a dissaster in making for Serbian state, and he is a blackmailer to his own people.

Kate you are kidding, I am from Kosova and in my identity card no where writes that I am citizen of serbia, also and in my travel document has no were the word serbia, per contrary with this travel document i goes everywhere, except serbia and rusia, and customs officials asks me where are you from I say I am from Kosova nobody asks me if I am serbian.

Kate- you have some sense of humour ( thanks for making me laugh), a Scottish person is British indeed and not English. We were Yugoslavians but not Serbian’s. Last time I checked there was no Yugoslavia. Therefore your stance has no bearing. You may continue to amuse us with your light-minded views but doesn’t change the fact that Kosova has been for the past 9 years independent of Yugoslavia and will soon be internationally recognised as the newest state in the world. Kosova INDEPENDENT state.

Cheers

Enis, your arguments were poorly constructed, your evidence was based on wishful thinking and misinterpretations of law and your conclusions were idiotic. If Albanians have a right to self-determination because they are the majority in one corner of Serbia then by your rational the Kosovo Serbs have the right to self determination in any place they happen to live in Kosovo.

If we followed this line of Albanian thinking at what point do we stop?

What area of land is to small to be partitioned? The Albanians want to partition a province from serbia. If it happens the K Serbs will follow and partition their municipalities from Kosova. Will the K albanians then partition their majority Albanian villages from these municipalities? Where will it end? Partition by street? By house? By room!?

How about we abandon this ridiculous Right to Self Determination notion now. Minorities have NO right to self determination in any country. What they do have is the expectation to be treated equally with the rest of the population.

Much of ex Yugoslavia is in poverty today, especially Kosovo, because rather than putting their enegies into intergration and tolerance, groups decided to be divisive from Federation, Republic, ethnicity, province.

The only people to blame for the situation today in Kosovo is the K Albanians. If they didn't like the system they should have worked with it to improve it not sought to destroy it.

Mr Gashi so if are from Kosovo then you documents are UNMIK correct that means you cannot travel outside the province to other than macedonia because EU will not allow travel. You say you are albanian does that mean you have documents from Albanina. I worked in Kosovo for 7 years and alot of people i work with now are from kosovo and are albanian and have Serbia travel documents. so that means there are citizens of Serbia not kosovo correct sir. Mike, you are still only speaking what your are told. I have been there longer than you sir and i do know who you are. So please stop listening to one side of the problem and open your eyes for a change.

Kate there is nothing more dangerous then sincere and honest ignorance. It’s ironic how you cheerfully invoke Resolution 1244 when it accommodates your argument, yet you fail to mention that your country and your own people brake every single UN resolution and Geneva convention from 1991 till 1999 – sad isn’t it. Also resolution 1244 is based on Rambouillet agreement .
“Resolution 1244 and its two annexes thus speak of "essential self-rule in Kosovo" and of "respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the FRY," but in line with the Rambouillet agreement. As it is well known, the final part of the Rambouillet Agreement contains the following provision: "Three years after this agreement goes into effect, an international conference shall be convened to establish a mechanism for the final resolution of the status of Kosovo, based on the will of the people, position of relevant authorities, efforts invested by all sides in regard to implementing this agreement, and the Final Helsinki Act, and it shall provide an overall assessment of this agreement's implementation and look into proposals of all sides in regard to undertaking additional measures."

KATE read it loud and clear,”based on the will of the people”.

Who is Samardzic to tell anyone that he has no right of speech on an UN meeting? If you do read the statute of UN, the meeting leader can call ANYONE, to hold meeting and speak, if he is relevant with what is being discussed, and Mr Sejdiu is very relevant in this case. Kosova is still de jure part of Serbia, but not and de facto, b/c Serbia has no sovereignity on Kosova. Very soon, Kosova will not be and de jure part of Serbia.

Enis,

who is Esat Stavileci??? Who ever they maybe it is clear that they have little academic background let alone a research background in history - depsite saying they might. Is this chap really an academic???

Serbia annexed Kosovo & Metohija - please get real!!! Are we to take it from this suggestion that this is all about handing back the Serbian province to a long gone Ottoman Empire who actualy annexed the Serbian nation in the 14 century??? Is this person suggesting only armed aggression should guarantee control on territorial integrity ???

"Thirdly, the future of Kosovo cannot be compared with secessions in some other parts of the world." Why ever not? When you try to illicit an illegal creation of another states territory on the basis of becoming a majority and twisting self determination rather then "conforming" to the state that you belong too - then what else will it be other then a precedent that can be used where and when ever.

The more that it is suggested the more ridiculous the folly of a "Kosovar" statelet becomes. I do hope this statement is passed around within the UN SC as it will certainly raise more concerns and guarantee a no vote as it would highlight the disingenious nature of this folly and show up the incompetence of those who promote it!!!

I really can only imagine B92 moderators were sniggering at the thought of publishing this comment and thought it would make a laugh as it certainly is not serious!

Jham you are completely wrong. People from Kosovo can travel to following coutries with UNMIK passport:

1. Albania
2. Armenia
3. Austria
4. Belgium
5. Bosnia and Herzegovina
6. Bulgaria
7. Croatia
8. Cyprus
9. Czech Republic
10. Denmark
11. Estonia
12. Finland
13. France
14. FYR of Macedonia
15. Germany
16. Greece
17. Hungary
18. Iceland
19. Ireland
20. Italy
21. Jordan
22. Latvia
23. Lithuania
24. Luxemburg
25. The Netherlands
26. Malaysia
27. Norway
28. Poland
29. Portugal
30. Romania
31. Slovakia
32. Slovenia
33. Spain
34. Sweden
35. Switzerland
36. Turkey
37. United Kingdom
38. United States of America
39. Uzbekistan

Jham did you find Macedonia? Try FYR of Macedonia. Stop disinforming. Say the truth.

JACK, You said that "The only people to blame for the situation today in Kosovo is the K Albanians. If they didn't like the system they should have worked with it to improve it not sought to destroy it"
I just want to let you know that the system you are talking about was orchestrated by Milosevic during the 1990's. That system did closed the albanian schools and wanted the albanians to study serbian only. THat system kicked out of work every albanian. That system didnt recognize that the albanians should have the rights they were granted during the 1974 constitution. That system my dear friend caused wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosova. Even the whole world had to fight against that system and its orchestrator Milosevic and you are saying that the albanians should have worked for it? From that system my dear friends more than 12000 albanians died, almost a million were replaced and you say that we should have worked for that system.
All the leaders of that system that killed hundreds of thousands in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosova were sent to HAGUE and you are saying that albanians should have worked for that system?
Shame on you JACK as for you have no idea of what was that system destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosova.
Thanks.

Stevo!
I do not blame you for your ignorance!
Only fool laughs to his own foolishness!Said an ancient filosofer called Aristoteles!
Not Onasis one!

Princip,
and what is you academic background? Because you should have one in order to challenge Esat Stavileci's arguments.
Why dont you accept that all you learned about Kosova's history is from Serbian books. Why for once in your life you and your serb fellow's do not try to consider other sources?
You will be supprised how different things might be.
Dont be afraid of the truth, even if that would shatter your beliefs about the "craddle of the serbian nation"
Sometimes the truth hurts.

Afrim if you want to create meaningful debate then please provide facts not just propaganda and fantasy numbers. You can repeat that stuff a million times but repetition doesn't turn fiction into fact.

Kosovo Albanians have wanted to separate for the last 100 years. This issue is not new. What I find interesting is that people tend to base their ideas about the future of Kosovo on what is "right". But, being "right" is a relative thing. What is right for me may not be right for somebody else. I am closer to believing that things happen because the parties interested in a certain scenario had more power than the opposing parties, and by parties I don't mean only political parties. Thus, whatever happens with Kosovo, It will not be because that was the right solution but because that was the proffered solution by the more powerful party. Power here is multi-dimensional, and at least partly based on public support.

Hermon
in reply to your question I don't think any indivdual needs a doctorate to question the academic [sic] validity of lies!

I am certain that any 10 year old could do a better historical account then that published here as a comment suggested as "The truth about Kosovo: Arguments and fact for in support its independence"

No one with any inteligence is deceieved. I am not afraid of the truth and am only too happy to be corrected if that was the case but please don't think if you have a degree that you can peddle lies as truth!!!

If you think that this would be useful in your cause then I really hope this is the case - I am certain that there will be an even greater reason for binning plan A-htisaari and will make the others question the intelligence of the US and UK in promoting such folly.

If this statement was used by the US to promote such folly it would remind me of the lies told regarding WMD in Iraq only this time I guess other members in the UN SC won't be so sure to believe such lies!!!

When will the penny drop - it's April 2007 and no new resolution and no likelyhood, unless of course, it adheres to the "obligation" that Wisner suggested would be incorporated to affirm Serbia's territorial integrity as spelt out in 1244.

Enis, while the article you posted is well written, it seems after everything I read, that Esat Stavileci is the Albanian counterpart to Dobrica Cosic, and if there was a K-Albanian version of SANU, he would defnitely be chairman.

The primary argument he raises concerns the validity of Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo since 1912, which he consistenly claims to be able to debunk by "facts". Yet these "facts" are historical interpretations reoriented towards an Albanian point of view. No doubt there are some validities to other states having the same rights to claim "sovereignty" over historical territory (Greeks, Bulgarians, Hungarians, etc). But he misses the point that Kosovo is currently under Serbian sovereignty (as recognized by international bodies), while the other states do not control the areas they seem to claim. It is also faulty to base claims of self-determination on grounds of ethnic descrimination. While no group would want to live in the same state as one's persecutors, such a legal precedent would certainly legitimize all those other cases Stavileci dismisses as an inauthentic comparisons. I don't discredit the entire article, but there are clearly areas where extreme interpretation of history is taken, and while I could apply the same methods to other areas of the world - say Greeks or Armenians in Turkey, the international community had not budged there either. I find the article interesting, but faulty at best, where the author clearly has a particular adgenda to push.

Just because the Albanians want something doesn't mean they can break apart Serbia otherwise Presevo would be next.

Dear Predrag,
that what you say is obviously true.
It had been true for all the human history.

To every Albanian here who is in denial about whether or not Kosovo is a part of Serbia. Can you answer me the question:

Why does EVERY single news organization (including those of your "allies" start with the same first words?

"Nasdaq - 2 hours, 10 minutes ago
PRISTINA, SERBIA (AP)--A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a court vehicle with U.N. plates"

International Herald Tribune - Apr 01 10:45 PM
PEC, Serbia -- Dragica Besovic and her sister-in-law were back in Kosovo


CNN - 1:47 a.m. EDT, March 28, 200
PRISTINA, Serbia (AP) -- Kosovo's minority Serbs should accept a

and the list goes ON and ON...

PRISTINA, SERBIA

PRISTINA, SERBIA

PEC, SERBIA

etc. etc.

You can repeat a lie a thousand times. But it will never become the truth. Accept reality my fellow Serbian.

"Dont be afraid of the truth, even if that would shatter your beliefs about the "craddle of the serbian nation"
Sometimes the truth hurts.
(Hermon, Tuesday, 3 April, 2007, 15:56)"
Hermon, I can not express strongly enough how racist and derogatory it is to dismiss another race's belief system. Obviously Pec being the head of the Serbian Church for much of its history supports that this area is extremely important to the Serbian Identity, however, that really is irrelevant.
Belief systems are based on faith not facts.
The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is incredibly sacred to the Muslims. The issue of whether the Palestinians or the Israeli's control East Jerusalem is a vital sticking point in resolving the differences between the two. If we employ your logic, then the Palestinians have no factual basis for considering this site Holy, as scientifically its impossible for someone to ascend to Heaven. Therefore the "truth" is its just an unimportant "myth" and the Muslims in the Middle East should "get over it" and "give it up".
I'm sure anyone can see how unproductive and offensive it would be for the Israelis to take such a stance on that issue. In fact they wouldn't ever consider making that sort of argument. Its just too incredibly offensive.
Why do you feel its justified to put down and insult our belief system?
While you may be upset and angry that a handful of Nationalistic Serbians committed some terrible crimes in Kosovo, I did not committ any crimes, nor did I ever support such actions. Kosovo belongs to all Serbians and Montenegrins everywhere in the world.
I am truly sorry about the suffering of the Kosovar people, but in order to bring peace and stability to the region, we all must act in a responsible manner. Insulting and demonizing the beliefs and history of the opposing side only serves to convince moderate Western Serbs such as myself that your position is only supported by weak and racist arguments.
I think you would find that if the Kosovar population were active in supporting Serbian belief system, instead of trying to tear them down, many moderates such as myself would be more willing to support an independent Kosovo. Right now, it almost seems many Kosovars would like to erase Serbia's connection to the region. Embrace it and be proud of it instead. Then you'll have some support in Serbia from its people. There is a lot to be said for the Kosovar families who protected our culture in Kosovo over the centuries and this connection needs to be out in the open and used for Public Relations purposes. Also do not underestimate the potential for tourism to such holy and sacred places.
There really is no benefit you will achieve by taking your current stance. You are much better off and will have a stronger position in the International Community by supporting and encouraging Serbian History and Culture in the region.
To me, tearing down and revising Serbian History, identity and culture is far more dangerous and painful then just losing the land.

I want to begin by saying that Enis, while being well spoken, provides arguments that ring hollow. Firstly, it is laughable to argue that the serbs annexed kosovo from the ottoman empire, when it was the ottomans who annexed nearly all of the balkan peninsula. Every nation in the balkans used armed 'aggression' against the ottomans to regain their former territories, including serbia. Any arguments about the illegality of such resistence to the oppressive ottomans hold no water. The islamic fundamentalist ottomans occupied land belonging to christian 'infidels'(Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians...) and those peoples who converted to the islamic faith (Albanians, Bosnians) received preferential treatment. Perhaps this, coupled with the fact that most serbs living in kosovo prior to ottoman occupation fled to the north, is why by the end of 500 year of ottoman rule the christians were, proportionally speaking, misrepresented in terms of the area of land they occupied at the time. Also, as far back as relevant history goes, the only nation other than the ottomans that included kosovo was serbia. There was no albanian nation prior to the ottomans.
It has also been argued that prior to serbian arrival in the balkans illyrians lived in what is now kosovo, and since albanians claim to be their decendants, kosovo was albanian before it was serbian. This is a weak argument, as it can't even be proven that Albanians are even trully decendants of Illyrians, and other than linguistics, the Albanians are likely the decendants of illyrians who interbred with the other balkan peoples (greeks, serbs...etc) Also, by this rationale, every nation in the balkans should return land to the rightful owners the albanians, as illyrians occupied most of the penninsula at one point. The serbs have a legitimate historical claim to kosovo, as the abundance of historical monuments and monasteries prove. These same historical pieces of evidence are constantly being attacked by k/ albanians in an attempt to erase the history of the land they now call home (over 100 cases of monasteries attacked or destroyed, see the most recent case of the UNESCO world heritage site the Decani monastery; recently attacked with rockets)
More recent historical arguments are equally shaky. While kosovo did enjoy autonomy from serbia in communist yugoslavia, this was an attempt to even the balance and promote equal influence of all constituent republics and peoples (socialism). A quick glimpse at an old map, or of yugoslav demographics shows that serbia was the biggest republic, and over 60% of the population of yugo was serb, despite the existence of 5 republics, and this threatened the political equality. This, coupled with Tito's desire to appease the albanians, due to his ultimate desire of expanding yugoslavia to incorporate albania, was likely the reason for its status (at the time the population of kosovo was about even btw.serbs and albanians). Regardless, this status as an autonomus province of serbia does not lend legitimacey to the independance movement.
As croatia declared indepedance from yugoslavia, the serbs living in the krajina region decided to secede and remain in union with the federation. The international community subsequently passed laws stating that only former republics had the right to be independant, as a means of preventing serbs in croatia and bosnia from following suit. The serbs, however, had as much if not more of a right than albanians in kosovo to do such in croatia, as they had been living there since the 15th century. During that time, croatia was part of Austria-Hungary, and the austrians invited serbs to live there and gave them their own land, in exchange for serbian participation in military resistance against the encroaching ottomans. The serbs were susequently 'ethincically cleansed' under international watch and US assistance. Most were never allowed to return, and their ethnic cleansing was never seen as a good reason to give the remaing serbs there independance. However, it is precisesly that same argument that is used by albanians and the US and EU to legitimize the independance of kosovo from serbia, against international law.
Someone suggested that resolution 1244 is binded to the Rambouillet agreement which states that "Three years after this agreement goes into effect, an international conference shall be convened to establish a mechanism for the final resolution of the status of Kosovo, based on the will of the people" but this passage is up for interpretation. As res. 1244 considers kosovo part of serbia, the will of the people can be interpreted as the will of the people of serbia as a whole, and albanians are a minority in serbia.
The hipocracy and one-sided policies of the international community have been anti-serb in every conflict in the former yugoslavia. This is likely because of 2 factors. The 1st being the serbs refusal to fully adapt to broader economic and political trends in the 90's, and the 2nd being that the international community prefers a balkans comprised of small helpless statelets that must heed to the desires of the US and europe.

now it´s official:
Mr.Sediju won´t be allowed to speak before the UNSC.

good decision. provisonal "presidents" simply shouldn´t attend to such a respectable meeting.

As far as I can see, the serbs tend to reapeat their lies to convince themselves...

I am Albanian born in Albania, and currently a British citizen!
I am totally and utterly disgusted with the rhetoric used here by different citizens of Serbia.
It is quite tragic that the ruling class in Serbia is not doing what it must to clarify the reality to its own nation.
This reality is simple, Kosovo has been lost, and this is the end of the argument.
They should also add that it is rightfully lost, and people shouldn’t have the slightest regret about it!

It’s quite unacceptable also that people use today a language of the last century.
It’s a shame for every responsible and reasonably aware and educated citizen of Serbia, to talk about Serbia’s claim over the Albanian Kosovo, the same way Britain was talking about India, or the way the ottomans were talking about their rights on the Balkans.

It is an unbearable reading, when people claim so innocently that Kosovo is part of Serbia, as Kosovo has never been part of Serbia. The provinces status was revoked illegally and brutally by Belgrade, act which affirms speculations judging its ability to run the vojvodina province or the presheva n bujanovc Albanian minority in the future?

If Serbia’s attitude doesn’t change, am awfully sorry to admit the inevitable coming reality that everything in that country will deteriorate with the time, until a fatal braking point.
The country will only recover when it totally scraps its old colonial policy making attitude.

To ????; If you showed your Unmik passport in Scandinavia, the authorities would throw you out the next second.

I am an impartial person that Liked to learn about this area of the world but it seems that commentators here are very one sided and it is getting boring and repetitive nothing new of the essence.
It seems that most of all Princip Kate JHam and others represent Serbian side. They work in coordination and look like they have some other channels through which they communicate with each or they are siting in the same rrom in different computers. They are makin g the arguments to look like they represent views of everybody in Serbia it seem to me that particularly Princip and Kate have an agenda to fulfill and I have a quick question for them
Since you, both spend so much time here in internet how you earn your living and how much you get paid? I can be an assistance to you since I spend some considerable time in internet.
In the other side is avni gashi and company representing the Albanians and they are not so much organized but they have better arguments and here is why
I checked the UMNIK website and there it gives places that you can travel so the Serbian argument is not true. There are some places you cannot go like Russia or Serbia but
A considerable number of countries accept those documents. It seems to me that Kosovo is already a state on its own since they can travel with their documents.

Princip every time someone else has something to say and I found it to be the truth you always try to down play or push aside as not serious (your quote) “really can only imagine B92 moderators were sniggering at the thought of publishing this comment and thought it would make a laugh as it certainly is not serious! “(My advice) When you have lost an argument, the best thing is not to say anything because every time you open your mouth untrue statement will follow which will worsen your intellectual stand. .
I have seen this from you in many websites like Scotsman over there you have another friend Neil or Scullion or easily you are playing many roles and I hope you get paid good from this.
To no offence, you Princip seem to me that you have an Elephant mentality everything that gets in your way you try to forcefully step on it. it that how the Serbians think if is that so for that reason all these problem that both sides have is so hard to resolve
As for the international law is that I did some research and found out that in 1912 Serbia militarily invaded Kosovo and that was not under Serbian state but under the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes so Serbia had no sovereignty over Kosovo but occupied it
So the Albanian argument stands
In the good side, I learned two words from both languages
Paqe = Peace
Mir = Peace

albano...

I am afraid you swallowed albanian propaganda,if you´re not albanian yourself...

fact is, Albanians have not even one single argument for their cause. if you´d done your research more properly, you´d know that.

and second,
Serbia did not invade KiM, in 1912 as Albanians are not tired to lie about, it was liberated from the ottoman empire, which came with military force and stayed for a couple of centuries, before Serbia sent them home again.

how about reading ( non-albanian ) books, instead of surfing around?

ps:if you got the impression of unorganised writing from the albanian side, you´re right, but I would say the reason for that is, that it´s mostly some teenagers being eager to sell their freshly learned propaganda here...

but, at least those readers, I mean non-serbians, who read this ( and I know some of them ) know very well to distinguish arguments from hate-related accusations...
don´t worry about that.

Albano, Serbia OCCUPIED Kosovo? Let me ask you this, did the OTTOMANS occupy Kosovo? and if so, who did they occupy it from?

FYI, In 1217, the Serbian Kingdom achieved recognition in PEC, Kosovo.

Hence, KOSOVO is the BIRTHPLACE of all that is Serbian. How many times do we have to tell you, that Kosovo is Serbia.

Btw, this is a KNOWN fact... not just what "some serb" wrote. Its in textbooks, its online... GOOGLE IT! Get use to it. Albanians have been trying to take Kosovo from the Serbs for CENTURIES now... and they've managed to fail every single time. This time will be no different.

it doesn't matter if Presednik Sejdiu is going to speak or not we ar independ of serbija from 1999 thats matter thank you Mr Ahtisari you are the hero

The first action that the US/NATO/EU/UN should take is to seat Mr. Ceku next to Mr. Haradinaj at The Hague. Maybe then the Serbians would see that the Western powers are truely trying to do what is right and just for both sides in Kosovo. Is it just me or, does it seem like the West has promised everything to the Albanians if they play along with the so called "Powers", and little to the minorities. Let's face it, many minorities have been cleansed from Kosovo under NATO's watchful eye. Why would anyone think it would be better with an impowered Albanian majority?

This 90's Clinton/Blair/Albright/
Holbrooke/etc., failed fiasco has to stop. The US got their Bondsteel camp on occupied Serbian territory and have established a presence in the Balkans. Now move on, your scheme has failed. Concentrate on Iran and Iraq, where the real problems are for America. Kosovo will do just fine without you. They can certainly do no worse without you.

"As for the international law is that I did some research and found out that in 1912 Serbia militarily invaded Kosovo and that was not under Serbian state but under the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes so Serbia had no sovereignty over Kosovo but occupied it
So the Albanian argument stands
In the good side, I learned two words from both languages
Paqe = Peace
Mir = Peace"
(Albano & Romina Power, Tuesday, 3 April, 2007, 21:38

- thanks for the compliments but the truth [sic] you espouse is far from the truth and it is clear that your research has in fact been limited by Albanian propoganda and creative historical accounting - maybe this is a throw back to communist inspired creative history accounting but the history you comment on was set before Albanians even existed as a sepreate nation state.

FYI the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats & Slovenes was formed on the 1st Dec. 1918 - 6 years after the Kingdom of Serbia liberated it's medieval heartland from the ocuppying Ottoman Turks who had invaded the area in the 14th century.

Also realise that Kosovo is a SERBIAN adjective meaning, "of blackbirds". It is a contraction of the term Kosovo Polje, or "field of blackbirds". The term Kosova, used by Albanian separatists, is nothing more than a transliteration of the Serbian word into Albanian, with no meaning whatsoever in Albanian. Moreover, the Serbian character of Kosovo is underscored by the region's traditional full name, Kosovo and Metohija, the latter term meaning "church lands". This refers to the numerous Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches scattered throughout the province, which numbered up to 3000 at one point.

Don't believe me look at any non-Albanian history book - or look on the internet.

In so many ways I really do hope that such lies are peddled in the UN SC as it is easy to show this folly for what it realy is. Moerover, such false claims put forth by Albanian commentators reminds us of the obnoxious statement made by Goebbels in 1939, "Tell a lie a hundred times and it become the truth."

- well I am busy ensuring the world hears the full truth be that on B92, Guardian, Scotsman or my MP, MEP or PM etc etc... rather then accept the outright lies peddled in the ILLEGAL act of acquisitioning 15% of Serbian sovereign territory. Fortunetly ther are many historical sources in the West that show up such lies for what they are!!!