33

Thursday, 09.08.2007.

09:49

KPS: Short circuit caused fire in Serb house

A Serb-owned house in Svinjare burned to the ground due to faulty installations, police in northern Kosovo say.

Izvor: B92

KPS: Short circuit caused fire in Serb house IMAGE SOURCE
IMAGE DESCRIPTION

33 Komentari

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Jack

pre 16 godina

Dino

I'm sure B92 thoroughly appreciate your wonderful analysis of how bad you think they are. Please provide a link to an Albanian english language news source which comes even close to the quality of B92 and we will all move there!!

It would help us all if you would give us your opinion on what exactly is 'news-worthy' and how many 'news-worthy' events happen everyday in the Balkans? Also please show us a news-source which covers every single item, every single day(except for maybe the Monaco Times).

We all know how frustrating it can be to have a post edited or not appear at all. We should each use these incidents to reflect on what we have written and consider whether it was too rude, too radical, already stated by someone else, not relevant, incomprehensible english or some other reason.

This is not a site for mindless ranting(although many people still do), but for reasoned debate and the expression of individual opinions. If everyone who posted here was of the same opinion how boring it would be.

Many people who post here do a lot of research to back-up their opinions(some even provide original research or on the ground eye witness accounts such as Nick and HPD Guy the other day). Whether we all agree with these posts or not they are usually interesting and informative.

In short Dino, I like B92 even if it is not perfect. I believe B92 does try to walk the middle path. I also think you main reason for disliking B92 is because of its attemps at neutrality which do not fit in with your Albanian-centric view of the world. There are around 10 million Albanians in the world but more than 6 billion non-Albanians. That is a lot of people who don't view the world from an Albanian-centric angle. Deal with it.

Olf

pre 16 godina

It was the circuit.
See Kate and Princip how wrong you are. Prejudice and bad habits make you look naïve and innocent.
By the way Kate you state that Kosova Government and UNMIK should work on returning the displaced people. Here is one for you. K-Albanian property in northern part of Kosova occupied by Bridge watchers and 20-30.000 Albanians from Medvegja still not back to their homes since thier homes are still in ruins and of course are afraid terror.
See that the reality is a bit different from RTS propaganda.

Dino

pre 16 godina

B92,

I dont think you are quiet telling the truth as I have had my comments cut, which did not have obscene language or incited hatred.

You are seen as bias because you do not report everything that helps to give a balanced view and hence why its seen as bias and its why there are alot of complaints about B92. I personally think you have alot of potential but you do not report everything and as a media outlet, its not good enough!!!

this selective reporting leads to an over-reaction to something that has happened.
As a media outlet, you need to provide a balanced view to everything that happens, in and outside serbia. That is your job. This is how war in 90's started; selective reporting leading to over-reactions by all sides.


You say: “As for our poster Adrian, while we may fail to cover each story that emerges, and while this may be considered a professional sin, to suggest that it stems from our bias against any ethnic group is deeply disturbing and equally untrue. Our archives provide ample proof for this claim.”

If your failure to cover each story as it emerges does not stem from bias against any ethnic group then it stems from your incompetence and hence you should find competent people. Your archives may provide ample proof of unbiased view but what does ample mean? a handful of articles does not mean ample? ALL has to be reported. Especially if it gives a balanced view to another article.

One other point I have noticed is that u ask tough questions of American ambassador, of Del Ponte etc but I have never ever seen an article on B92 where you have questioned Serbian leadership about wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Why havent u asked those questions? Why havent you as a media demanded answers from these. Have you demanded a proper explanation of the documents hidden from ICJ for example? No matter what those answers are. You are responsible for piling on pressure. you do question other countries (Bosnia etc) role in those wars, which is fair enough, as you should. But do you see where the bias is and how having this policy gives an unbalanced version of events. I know you are a Serbian media outlet, however you need to be a bit more transparent because people can see what goes on.

I think you have a lot to work on as a key media but I do believe you have A LOT of potential.

I hope this doesn’t getting cut because a media outlet should not be free from criticism.

Bob Petrovich

pre 16 godina

Adriano, I suggest that you do not thread into the realm of Nazi revisionism. We have our current problems to discuss.

During WWII,
"Jewish question" (an euphemism for extermination of the Jews)on occupied territories was in the hands of The Third Reich apparatus (Gestapo, SS and Wehrmacht).

Serbia was not Hitler's ally,
Belgrade in 1942 and Serbia proper were under direct German military control. Serbia was sliced up and occupied by the Nazi allies - Hugarians, Bulgarians, Croatias and Albanians.

Unlike Estonians and Albanians, Serbs did not provide Waffen SS divisions for Hitler. So, putting Belgrade on the list among perpetrators is shameful, because it distorts the historical facts.

Your attempt to blame Serbia for the Holocaust can be understood as an attempt to exonerate the real perpetrators, German Nazis and their allies, Kosovo Albanian Waffen SS Division Skenderbeg for example.

When I said that Kosovo is Judenrein, I did not use the figure of speech. The entire Jewish community of Pristina was expelled in June of 1999
by Kosovo Albanian extremists.

Jews are rightfully called "canarians in the mine shaft".
Having in mind that Jews, Roma and Serbs were the Nazi victims, and Kosovo Albanians Nazi allies, this is alarming sign of resurrection of Nazism. Having in mind the evil deeds of Kosovo Albanian Waffen Division Skenderbeg during WWII, the use of the term Judenrein is accurate.

Criminal deeds of Kosovo Albanian extremists went unpunished to the present day.

Matthew

pre 16 godina

"Btw. do you know that Kosovo is Judenrein because of the extremists you seem to support? (Bob Petrovich, 9. August 2007 17:11)"
Bob, I always respect your comments, but I do want to add a little moderation to this debate in regards to the Roma and the Jews in Kosovo. I looked into it just a tiny bit and found the same statements by Cedda Prlincevic that you did. It does seem that the Jews of Pristina encountered discrimination and oppression. However, it seems that the Jews of Prizren speak Albanian and did not encounter the same level of discrimination that Jews in Pristina who speak Serbian do.

The repression against Jews and Roma appear, at least on the surface, to be based on what language they speak, rather than their ethnicity. Allowing both sides to claim the other is oppressing these traditionally abused minorities.

However, it does seem most if not all the Jews of Kosovo have left regardless of what language they spoke, which is truly tragic.

I also take exception with KLA's revisionist claims that no Jews died in the WWII holocaust. It appears to me that some were killed during that time, but the over all number did not change much as some Jews fled to Italian occupied territory as the Italians were not targeting Jews in the same manner the Nazi's were. In fact it seems the Italians protected many Serbs and Jews in areas under their control, engaging in fire fights with both Croatians and Albanians to protect our people.

Please correct me if I'm mistaken, I am not 100% solid on all these details. I could have made a mistake.

istref

pre 16 godina

I think B92 should have stronger policy toward people who plant hatered and spread propaganda, because people in in the region might be affected. I think we all should gave our comments or facts but not propaganda. And if you call people terrorist or criminals without having facts in the democratic world you might have to face the justice, you can call criminals people, such us, Bin Laden, Millosheviq, Karagjiq and Mlladiq, but you cant call and blame a nation just because the house was burned, even though i have never heard one Serbian that apologized for crimes in kosove and they are still following the Millosheviq politics, i cant call them terrorist, because is not adecuat word and is irritated.

Matthew

pre 16 godina

I have nothing but the utmost respect for B92 as an institution and believe they serve as an extremely positive influence in the Balkans regardless of whatever personal danger they may bring upon themselves for doing what is right. I also recommend that everyone here read Guerilla Radio by Matthew Collin in order to get a fuller understanding of the background and evolution of B92. These guys are real heroes in every sense of the word and put their very lives on the line in order to spread the truth.

BTW, this is being sent my work IP address, where I normally send from (I'm a slacker!!!!!) and not my dynamically assigned home ISP.

adriano

pre 16 godina

dear Bob Petrovich
about judenfrie, its a shameful example that you use such a tool in order to make an argument.
Estonia 1941
Belgrade 1942
Berlin 1943
these were proclaimed at that time to be jew free. As for albanians(wich includes all albanian speaking places, we aided the runaway jews, We got asian refugees, Chinese muslims, all sorts of people man.! Remember that next time you give provocative comments

B92

pre 16 godina

Dear all-

We use these pages fairly often to quite unorthodoxly repeatedly communicate with our visitors, and plead time and again with you to exercise moderation and tolerance while reacting to our news stories and other posters’ opinions.

Since we have not yet introduced an English language forum, we allow exchange of opinion to take place here.

Our repeated appeals do not come as empty slogans or convenient phrases – we struggle daily to balance between our visitors’ right to express their opinion and the necessity to maintain a civil debate. This is the only reason why we invest time in editing some comments instead of deleting them on sight.

We are saddened by your criticism in this instant, and believe that it is unjust and based on feeling rather than fact. The notion that our moderators edit or remove messages at will is baseless. Various, diametrically opposed opinions have been voiced here, and we will continue to provide space for the same purpose.

While looking into this matter, we found out that due to a technical error, our Write Us page accessed from the Send Your Comment form links to the Serbian, instead of the English language page. We will correct this shortly and will invite you to use it to send your complaints, suggestions, etc. via e-mail. Each of your messages sent this way will be read and answered by the editor of this site.

Specifically, addressing our poster Matthew, based on the IP address this message was sent from, we have records of only one censored message, posted in the globe section.

As for our poster Adrian, while we may fail to cover each story that emerges, and while this may be considered a professional sin, to suggest that it stems from our bias against any ethnic group is deeply disturbing and equally untrue. Our archives provide ample proof for this claim.

That said, we understand the often highly emotionally charged reactions from all sides, as they derive from our common recent, more than unfortunate history. We look to provide room even for such reactions as long as they are kept civil.

As always, we are grateful to receive your constructive thoughts.

Thank you for your time,

Editor, B92 English

alex_under_uk@yahoo.co.uk

pre 16 godina

You should expect this from inconsiderate citizens who don't pay their electricity bills and leave everything turned on in the house even when they're away just to cause KEK even more damage. Well this time it backfired, Literally.

Matthew

pre 16 godina

“Too many of us have felt B92's scissors of censure in our mouths, cutting away words and sentences. And I'm sure that while Serb posters have their obscenities cut out, for Albanians is more their arguments that B92 didn't like. (Adrian Gashi, 9. August 2007 17:53)”

Actually Adrian, I’ve had my comments outright censored as well and you know I never use obscenities or racism. I think it has more to do with the moderator then anything else, at least one of them is changing or censoring comments based on political ideas rather then whether something is truly offensive or not. I’ve had many comments that warned of the dangerous side of capitalism completely censored. So, just so you know, it’s not a Serbian/Albanian issue but more of an issue whether the moderator agrees with you or not.

“How is it that 97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians. (David Cohen, 9. August 2007 15:48)”

I’d also be interested in hearing your sources for this. However, keep in mind David that Serbs only make up around 5% of the population now, so of course the percentage is going to seem slanted like that even if it’s directly proportional to the population distribution.

Well, it looks like many posters jumped the gun on this one and its most likely simply a matter of a faulty electrical installation. However, maybe we ought to take a look at the rebuilding process as a whole. This type of thing could be endemic and a real problem in a couple of years.

Serbia & Russia

pre 16 godina

It is my personal and professional opinion that the Albanians did stage and execute this entire scheme of burning the poor man's house down to the ground. This man has every right to be there because it is his land, historically speaking. Agim Ceku's political scheme of "Albanians are getting impatient and will riot in the streets" has gotten to the heads of all Albanian extremists, who now use that man and his silly words to justify their attacks. But there is only so much they can do.

If Albania declares independance unilaterally, this immediately allows Serbia to do whatever it takes to protect its sovereignty because unilateral declaration in Kosovo goes against international LAW and the UN. The UN is the ONLY international body with judiciary power to change international borders, not the US, not the EU, and most definitely not Albania.

At the moment being, Kosovo is de facto Albanian in many ways, but this does not constitute a justification for it becoming an actual Albanian state. Albanians must respect that the sovereignty of Kosovo is entirely dedicated to Serbia, and only the Serbs themselves can change.

The days of harsh and deceptive political maneouvres from the West are over. Russia is now the biggest player on the international stage and apparently the only one who truly vouches for proper democracy and international law.

Gordo

pre 16 godina

Houses burn all over the world due to electrical problems. If the fire inspector is impartial, then we should respect the results of his investigation. Accusations now just make the racial flames burn brighter.

A good thing is that no one was injured. Electrical fault would not surprise me as I've seen lots of dodgey electrical work in the Balkans.

Bob Petrovich

pre 16 godina

David, can you corroborate your claim that "97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians" with hard facts? Please only spare us of war propaganda sources, because the most of it has been debunked in the last 8 years.

During the war, 47000 houses were destroyed, mostly Albanian. It is worth mentioning that Albanian houses were the most numerous, KLA used Albanian villages as strongholds, Kosovo was bombed around the clock by NATO and signifficant number of houses was destroyed as a result of combat, not arson.

After the war, more than 10 000 Serb and Roma houses were destroyed by Albanian extremists and this activity was condoned and supported by NATO, media and self-styled humanitartians as "understandable revenge".
This was an outright racist statement that best illustrates the mindset of the time. In March 2004 alone, 900 Serb and Roma houses were torched down.
Again, Albanian extremists were excused, mediua chose to ignore Pogrom because they could not defend it. The lie that Serbs drowned three Albanian boys was used as exuse for wanton destruction.


Your 3% number seems to be way off mark.

When it comes to violence, your statement is hurtful.

Albanian extremists murdered more than 1000 Serbs before the war and more than 1000 during NATO occupation, as well as more than 1000 fellow Albanians who were not terrorist supporters.

If this number of 2000 dead is 3%, corresponding number of dead Albanians would have to be 66 000 and we know this is not true.

It is good to be careful with numbers - you know the saying, "figures do not lie, liars figure".

Btw. do you know that Kosovo is Judenrein because of the extremists you seem to support?

Adrian Gashi

pre 16 godina

Dino: " Had this been revearsed, and it was an albanian house burnt in serbia, you wouldnt be calling it "beyond deplorable" but you would be calling for peace, everyone to get along, that its an isolated incident etc. "


Dino, there was only two days ago that an Albanian living in Belgrade had his house burned down by arsonists. It was reported in the "Express" newspaper, but of course B92 - and I'm sure other Serbian newspapers - didn't bother to report it. Now an abandoned house is burned and without any facts Albanians or KLA are being blamed. And on top of it B92 puts even a picture from 2004 to go along with this "news". If this is not inflamatory reporting I don't know what is. Let's be clear, for all the praise piled on it, B92 is still a Serbian propaganda site. The difference between Milosevic's propaganda and B92's, is that while one was thick and primitive, the other is more sofisticated, but the essence remains the same. Too many of us have felt B92's scissors of censure in our mouths, cutting away words and sentences. And I'm sure that while Serb posters have their obscenities cut out, for Albanians is more their arguments that B92 didn't like. Most likely my msg won't be posted either, but who cares, thankfully the future of the people of Kosova won't be decided by B92, or the throngs of cheap con-artists that overcrowd these spaces, but by the people themselves.

Dragan

pre 16 godina

Just another nail in the coffin for the 'greater albania' plan. Keep on showing the world your intolerance towards minorities, keep on showing them your terrorist tactics to keep minorities out and ethnically cleanse the rest of them so you can be 'pure'....You are just showing the world your true face and making things much easier for the Russians and Chinese to veto, and for Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia, Portugal, to split Europe on this issue. The greater albania project is dead.

Princip, UK

pre 16 godina

David,
"How is it that 97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians"

- and your evidence being ???

adriano

pre 16 godina

Kate "This is a clearly an orchestrated message from the KLA that Serbs are not welcome back in Kosovo"
You in The UK Clearly saw all the evidence? NOt only that but you linked it to KLA? Tell us who killed Kennedy and Why Yeltsin choose Putin?
Srboslav, Abandoned means that there was nobody there!!! Minority has to be a group of people!!!
If it was done by Albanians, that's a shame because i don't want Kosovo to start fresh with the skill learned from the Northern neighbours!
I just dont get the logic that the KLA did it? Why would they try to burn down a house that would set a message that none could see? Well except for a newspaper journalist who desperatly needed to point a finger to the south... who did it himself!!! hahaa cought red handed b92

teni

pre 16 godina

Well Bob I cannot understand how you or your minister for Kosovo reach your conclusions. That's all. Has there been an investigation? No. So how do you know why a house in Kosovo burned? Unless you have a crystal ball you can't.
And as for terrorists: well if someone burned the house he/she is a criminal not neccesasrily a terrorist. There are arsonists everywhere. But if you refer to the KLA when you speak of extremists and terrorists there we have the terrorist/ freedom fighter dilema. I call the former VJ a terrorist army.
And I do not want to play the numbers game but did you ever stop to think of how many houses and mosques the Serbs burned in Kosovo? A lot of them had people inside.

David Cohen

pre 16 godina

How is it that 97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians, but somehow the Serbs always see themselves as the victims???

Bob Petrovich

pre 16 godina

Teni, you know the joke "I did not touch him, your Honour. He slipped on banana peel and fell on my knife, 17 times in a row".

Only, this is not funny.

You are right, Balkan is under heatwave. And it is tru that houses do burn. But they burn extremelly well when arsonists do their work. Especially when they return to the crime scene.

Do I have to remind you of number of Serb and Roma houses torched down after KLA was given free rein by occupying NATO forces? Do I have to remind you of March 2004?

Svinjare was the target of the Pogrom by Albanian extremists back then.

See IWPR report here

Atttack on Svinjare has symbollic meaning - it is meant to cleanse ALL Serbs from the village.

I can understand Albanian extremists and terrorists. But I can not understand you defending them.

Behar

pre 16 godina

Kate :This is a clearly an orchestrated act from the Serbian secret service by burning K-Serbs houses, trying to theatrically this way as a "K-Albanian nationalists did it".

Tex Willer

pre 16 godina

I'm sorry about the house, it's a great loss. But do not rush i judgements, also lot of Albanian houses were burned during the sum,mer but no one didn;t mention 1998-1999 burning of Albanian houses.
Peace to all good willing people

teni

pre 16 godina

This whole way of reporting and the statement of this Minister for Kosovo are reminiscent of the 1980 and especially that Martinovic guy (or whatever his name was). Just how did this Minister know who burned the house when half the Balkans are in fire because of the heat?

Srboslav

pre 16 godina

Feels great to know that the albanian police protects the minorities :-(
How could the serbs ever trust the albanians politicians and police?

Dino

pre 16 godina

Princip, where is your call for everyone to live in peace etc etc. Had this been revearsed, and it was an albanian house burnt in serbia, you wouldnt be calling it "beyond deplorable" but you would be calling for peace, everyone to get along, that its an isolated incident etc. But of course, in this instance serbs were not the ones responsible so i guess calling for peace is out of question.

Srboslav

pre 16 godina

Teni, you could be right. Of course it could be a gas leak or something, but do you think it would have been in the news then?

Princip, UK

pre 16 godina

UNMIK are contining to fail in upholding their responsibilities - this is beyond deplorable and yet it will no surprise at the next report by the UNMIK to the UN to suggest that everything is fantastic in Serbia's province!!!

kate

pre 16 godina

This is a clearly an orchestrated message from the KLA that Serbs are not welcome back in Kosovo unless the province becomes independent.

How disgusting that the homes of people who have been displaced should be burned to the ground because of their ethnicity (and I would say the same whoever these people were).

adriano

pre 16 godina

"The burning of a home in what was once a Serbian village that is now abandoned, is a terrorist act"
Targeting a house that no-one lives in it hence abandoned, That no one knows who did it! Of course IT WAS THE ALBANIANS! SAD SAD!
IS this how you want negotiations to start? Burning down houses its an old serbian trick that has worked in your colonisation process.
did you figure out who killed our people in Serbia by any chance, or the numberplate is knight riders???

Ahmet Isufi

pre 16 godina

Here we go againg without waitting for investigation this so called secreatry of Kosova, never heard of him(for sure he is not apponited by Kosova govermant, but maybe he is self appointed and lives in exile),but anyway he seems to know is a terrorist act but fails to tell us how and who.Shame on you guys, for dirty propagnada.

B92

pre 16 godina

Dear all-

We use these pages fairly often to quite unorthodoxly repeatedly communicate with our visitors, and plead time and again with you to exercise moderation and tolerance while reacting to our news stories and other posters’ opinions.

Since we have not yet introduced an English language forum, we allow exchange of opinion to take place here.

Our repeated appeals do not come as empty slogans or convenient phrases – we struggle daily to balance between our visitors’ right to express their opinion and the necessity to maintain a civil debate. This is the only reason why we invest time in editing some comments instead of deleting them on sight.

We are saddened by your criticism in this instant, and believe that it is unjust and based on feeling rather than fact. The notion that our moderators edit or remove messages at will is baseless. Various, diametrically opposed opinions have been voiced here, and we will continue to provide space for the same purpose.

While looking into this matter, we found out that due to a technical error, our Write Us page accessed from the Send Your Comment form links to the Serbian, instead of the English language page. We will correct this shortly and will invite you to use it to send your complaints, suggestions, etc. via e-mail. Each of your messages sent this way will be read and answered by the editor of this site.

Specifically, addressing our poster Matthew, based on the IP address this message was sent from, we have records of only one censored message, posted in the globe section.

As for our poster Adrian, while we may fail to cover each story that emerges, and while this may be considered a professional sin, to suggest that it stems from our bias against any ethnic group is deeply disturbing and equally untrue. Our archives provide ample proof for this claim.

That said, we understand the often highly emotionally charged reactions from all sides, as they derive from our common recent, more than unfortunate history. We look to provide room even for such reactions as long as they are kept civil.

As always, we are grateful to receive your constructive thoughts.

Thank you for your time,

Editor, B92 English

Ahmet Isufi

pre 16 godina

Here we go againg without waitting for investigation this so called secreatry of Kosova, never heard of him(for sure he is not apponited by Kosova govermant, but maybe he is self appointed and lives in exile),but anyway he seems to know is a terrorist act but fails to tell us how and who.Shame on you guys, for dirty propagnada.

adriano

pre 16 godina

"The burning of a home in what was once a Serbian village that is now abandoned, is a terrorist act"
Targeting a house that no-one lives in it hence abandoned, That no one knows who did it! Of course IT WAS THE ALBANIANS! SAD SAD!
IS this how you want negotiations to start? Burning down houses its an old serbian trick that has worked in your colonisation process.
did you figure out who killed our people in Serbia by any chance, or the numberplate is knight riders???

Princip, UK

pre 16 godina

David,
"How is it that 97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians"

- and your evidence being ???

Dragan

pre 16 godina

Just another nail in the coffin for the 'greater albania' plan. Keep on showing the world your intolerance towards minorities, keep on showing them your terrorist tactics to keep minorities out and ethnically cleanse the rest of them so you can be 'pure'....You are just showing the world your true face and making things much easier for the Russians and Chinese to veto, and for Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia, Portugal, to split Europe on this issue. The greater albania project is dead.

Bob Petrovich

pre 16 godina

David, can you corroborate your claim that "97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians" with hard facts? Please only spare us of war propaganda sources, because the most of it has been debunked in the last 8 years.

During the war, 47000 houses were destroyed, mostly Albanian. It is worth mentioning that Albanian houses were the most numerous, KLA used Albanian villages as strongholds, Kosovo was bombed around the clock by NATO and signifficant number of houses was destroyed as a result of combat, not arson.

After the war, more than 10 000 Serb and Roma houses were destroyed by Albanian extremists and this activity was condoned and supported by NATO, media and self-styled humanitartians as "understandable revenge".
This was an outright racist statement that best illustrates the mindset of the time. In March 2004 alone, 900 Serb and Roma houses were torched down.
Again, Albanian extremists were excused, mediua chose to ignore Pogrom because they could not defend it. The lie that Serbs drowned three Albanian boys was used as exuse for wanton destruction.


Your 3% number seems to be way off mark.

When it comes to violence, your statement is hurtful.

Albanian extremists murdered more than 1000 Serbs before the war and more than 1000 during NATO occupation, as well as more than 1000 fellow Albanians who were not terrorist supporters.

If this number of 2000 dead is 3%, corresponding number of dead Albanians would have to be 66 000 and we know this is not true.

It is good to be careful with numbers - you know the saying, "figures do not lie, liars figure".

Btw. do you know that Kosovo is Judenrein because of the extremists you seem to support?

Jack

pre 16 godina

Dino

I'm sure B92 thoroughly appreciate your wonderful analysis of how bad you think they are. Please provide a link to an Albanian english language news source which comes even close to the quality of B92 and we will all move there!!

It would help us all if you would give us your opinion on what exactly is 'news-worthy' and how many 'news-worthy' events happen everyday in the Balkans? Also please show us a news-source which covers every single item, every single day(except for maybe the Monaco Times).

We all know how frustrating it can be to have a post edited or not appear at all. We should each use these incidents to reflect on what we have written and consider whether it was too rude, too radical, already stated by someone else, not relevant, incomprehensible english or some other reason.

This is not a site for mindless ranting(although many people still do), but for reasoned debate and the expression of individual opinions. If everyone who posted here was of the same opinion how boring it would be.

Many people who post here do a lot of research to back-up their opinions(some even provide original research or on the ground eye witness accounts such as Nick and HPD Guy the other day). Whether we all agree with these posts or not they are usually interesting and informative.

In short Dino, I like B92 even if it is not perfect. I believe B92 does try to walk the middle path. I also think you main reason for disliking B92 is because of its attemps at neutrality which do not fit in with your Albanian-centric view of the world. There are around 10 million Albanians in the world but more than 6 billion non-Albanians. That is a lot of people who don't view the world from an Albanian-centric angle. Deal with it.

kate

pre 16 godina

This is a clearly an orchestrated message from the KLA that Serbs are not welcome back in Kosovo unless the province becomes independent.

How disgusting that the homes of people who have been displaced should be burned to the ground because of their ethnicity (and I would say the same whoever these people were).

Tex Willer

pre 16 godina

I'm sorry about the house, it's a great loss. But do not rush i judgements, also lot of Albanian houses were burned during the sum,mer but no one didn;t mention 1998-1999 burning of Albanian houses.
Peace to all good willing people

adriano

pre 16 godina

Kate "This is a clearly an orchestrated message from the KLA that Serbs are not welcome back in Kosovo"
You in The UK Clearly saw all the evidence? NOt only that but you linked it to KLA? Tell us who killed Kennedy and Why Yeltsin choose Putin?
Srboslav, Abandoned means that there was nobody there!!! Minority has to be a group of people!!!
If it was done by Albanians, that's a shame because i don't want Kosovo to start fresh with the skill learned from the Northern neighbours!
I just dont get the logic that the KLA did it? Why would they try to burn down a house that would set a message that none could see? Well except for a newspaper journalist who desperatly needed to point a finger to the south... who did it himself!!! hahaa cought red handed b92

Srboslav

pre 16 godina

Feels great to know that the albanian police protects the minorities :-(
How could the serbs ever trust the albanians politicians and police?

David Cohen

pre 16 godina

How is it that 97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians, but somehow the Serbs always see themselves as the victims???

alex_under_uk@yahoo.co.uk

pre 16 godina

You should expect this from inconsiderate citizens who don't pay their electricity bills and leave everything turned on in the house even when they're away just to cause KEK even more damage. Well this time it backfired, Literally.

Princip, UK

pre 16 godina

UNMIK are contining to fail in upholding their responsibilities - this is beyond deplorable and yet it will no surprise at the next report by the UNMIK to the UN to suggest that everything is fantastic in Serbia's province!!!

Dino

pre 16 godina

Princip, where is your call for everyone to live in peace etc etc. Had this been revearsed, and it was an albanian house burnt in serbia, you wouldnt be calling it "beyond deplorable" but you would be calling for peace, everyone to get along, that its an isolated incident etc. But of course, in this instance serbs were not the ones responsible so i guess calling for peace is out of question.

teni

pre 16 godina

This whole way of reporting and the statement of this Minister for Kosovo are reminiscent of the 1980 and especially that Martinovic guy (or whatever his name was). Just how did this Minister know who burned the house when half the Balkans are in fire because of the heat?

Bob Petrovich

pre 16 godina

Teni, you know the joke "I did not touch him, your Honour. He slipped on banana peel and fell on my knife, 17 times in a row".

Only, this is not funny.

You are right, Balkan is under heatwave. And it is tru that houses do burn. But they burn extremelly well when arsonists do their work. Especially when they return to the crime scene.

Do I have to remind you of number of Serb and Roma houses torched down after KLA was given free rein by occupying NATO forces? Do I have to remind you of March 2004?

Svinjare was the target of the Pogrom by Albanian extremists back then.

See IWPR report here

Atttack on Svinjare has symbollic meaning - it is meant to cleanse ALL Serbs from the village.

I can understand Albanian extremists and terrorists. But I can not understand you defending them.

teni

pre 16 godina

Well Bob I cannot understand how you or your minister for Kosovo reach your conclusions. That's all. Has there been an investigation? No. So how do you know why a house in Kosovo burned? Unless you have a crystal ball you can't.
And as for terrorists: well if someone burned the house he/she is a criminal not neccesasrily a terrorist. There are arsonists everywhere. But if you refer to the KLA when you speak of extremists and terrorists there we have the terrorist/ freedom fighter dilema. I call the former VJ a terrorist army.
And I do not want to play the numbers game but did you ever stop to think of how many houses and mosques the Serbs burned in Kosovo? A lot of them had people inside.

Serbia & Russia

pre 16 godina

It is my personal and professional opinion that the Albanians did stage and execute this entire scheme of burning the poor man's house down to the ground. This man has every right to be there because it is his land, historically speaking. Agim Ceku's political scheme of "Albanians are getting impatient and will riot in the streets" has gotten to the heads of all Albanian extremists, who now use that man and his silly words to justify their attacks. But there is only so much they can do.

If Albania declares independance unilaterally, this immediately allows Serbia to do whatever it takes to protect its sovereignty because unilateral declaration in Kosovo goes against international LAW and the UN. The UN is the ONLY international body with judiciary power to change international borders, not the US, not the EU, and most definitely not Albania.

At the moment being, Kosovo is de facto Albanian in many ways, but this does not constitute a justification for it becoming an actual Albanian state. Albanians must respect that the sovereignty of Kosovo is entirely dedicated to Serbia, and only the Serbs themselves can change.

The days of harsh and deceptive political maneouvres from the West are over. Russia is now the biggest player on the international stage and apparently the only one who truly vouches for proper democracy and international law.

Matthew

pre 16 godina

“Too many of us have felt B92's scissors of censure in our mouths, cutting away words and sentences. And I'm sure that while Serb posters have their obscenities cut out, for Albanians is more their arguments that B92 didn't like. (Adrian Gashi, 9. August 2007 17:53)”

Actually Adrian, I’ve had my comments outright censored as well and you know I never use obscenities or racism. I think it has more to do with the moderator then anything else, at least one of them is changing or censoring comments based on political ideas rather then whether something is truly offensive or not. I’ve had many comments that warned of the dangerous side of capitalism completely censored. So, just so you know, it’s not a Serbian/Albanian issue but more of an issue whether the moderator agrees with you or not.

“How is it that 97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians. (David Cohen, 9. August 2007 15:48)”

I’d also be interested in hearing your sources for this. However, keep in mind David that Serbs only make up around 5% of the population now, so of course the percentage is going to seem slanted like that even if it’s directly proportional to the population distribution.

Well, it looks like many posters jumped the gun on this one and its most likely simply a matter of a faulty electrical installation. However, maybe we ought to take a look at the rebuilding process as a whole. This type of thing could be endemic and a real problem in a couple of years.

Matthew

pre 16 godina

I have nothing but the utmost respect for B92 as an institution and believe they serve as an extremely positive influence in the Balkans regardless of whatever personal danger they may bring upon themselves for doing what is right. I also recommend that everyone here read Guerilla Radio by Matthew Collin in order to get a fuller understanding of the background and evolution of B92. These guys are real heroes in every sense of the word and put their very lives on the line in order to spread the truth.

BTW, this is being sent my work IP address, where I normally send from (I'm a slacker!!!!!) and not my dynamically assigned home ISP.

Bob Petrovich

pre 16 godina

Adriano, I suggest that you do not thread into the realm of Nazi revisionism. We have our current problems to discuss.

During WWII,
"Jewish question" (an euphemism for extermination of the Jews)on occupied territories was in the hands of The Third Reich apparatus (Gestapo, SS and Wehrmacht).

Serbia was not Hitler's ally,
Belgrade in 1942 and Serbia proper were under direct German military control. Serbia was sliced up and occupied by the Nazi allies - Hugarians, Bulgarians, Croatias and Albanians.

Unlike Estonians and Albanians, Serbs did not provide Waffen SS divisions for Hitler. So, putting Belgrade on the list among perpetrators is shameful, because it distorts the historical facts.

Your attempt to blame Serbia for the Holocaust can be understood as an attempt to exonerate the real perpetrators, German Nazis and their allies, Kosovo Albanian Waffen SS Division Skenderbeg for example.

When I said that Kosovo is Judenrein, I did not use the figure of speech. The entire Jewish community of Pristina was expelled in June of 1999
by Kosovo Albanian extremists.

Jews are rightfully called "canarians in the mine shaft".
Having in mind that Jews, Roma and Serbs were the Nazi victims, and Kosovo Albanians Nazi allies, this is alarming sign of resurrection of Nazism. Having in mind the evil deeds of Kosovo Albanian Waffen Division Skenderbeg during WWII, the use of the term Judenrein is accurate.

Criminal deeds of Kosovo Albanian extremists went unpunished to the present day.

Behar

pre 16 godina

Kate :This is a clearly an orchestrated act from the Serbian secret service by burning K-Serbs houses, trying to theatrically this way as a "K-Albanian nationalists did it".

Gordo

pre 16 godina

Houses burn all over the world due to electrical problems. If the fire inspector is impartial, then we should respect the results of his investigation. Accusations now just make the racial flames burn brighter.

A good thing is that no one was injured. Electrical fault would not surprise me as I've seen lots of dodgey electrical work in the Balkans.

adriano

pre 16 godina

dear Bob Petrovich
about judenfrie, its a shameful example that you use such a tool in order to make an argument.
Estonia 1941
Belgrade 1942
Berlin 1943
these were proclaimed at that time to be jew free. As for albanians(wich includes all albanian speaking places, we aided the runaway jews, We got asian refugees, Chinese muslims, all sorts of people man.! Remember that next time you give provocative comments

istref

pre 16 godina

I think B92 should have stronger policy toward people who plant hatered and spread propaganda, because people in in the region might be affected. I think we all should gave our comments or facts but not propaganda. And if you call people terrorist or criminals without having facts in the democratic world you might have to face the justice, you can call criminals people, such us, Bin Laden, Millosheviq, Karagjiq and Mlladiq, but you cant call and blame a nation just because the house was burned, even though i have never heard one Serbian that apologized for crimes in kosove and they are still following the Millosheviq politics, i cant call them terrorist, because is not adecuat word and is irritated.

Matthew

pre 16 godina

"Btw. do you know that Kosovo is Judenrein because of the extremists you seem to support? (Bob Petrovich, 9. August 2007 17:11)"
Bob, I always respect your comments, but I do want to add a little moderation to this debate in regards to the Roma and the Jews in Kosovo. I looked into it just a tiny bit and found the same statements by Cedda Prlincevic that you did. It does seem that the Jews of Pristina encountered discrimination and oppression. However, it seems that the Jews of Prizren speak Albanian and did not encounter the same level of discrimination that Jews in Pristina who speak Serbian do.

The repression against Jews and Roma appear, at least on the surface, to be based on what language they speak, rather than their ethnicity. Allowing both sides to claim the other is oppressing these traditionally abused minorities.

However, it does seem most if not all the Jews of Kosovo have left regardless of what language they spoke, which is truly tragic.

I also take exception with KLA's revisionist claims that no Jews died in the WWII holocaust. It appears to me that some were killed during that time, but the over all number did not change much as some Jews fled to Italian occupied territory as the Italians were not targeting Jews in the same manner the Nazi's were. In fact it seems the Italians protected many Serbs and Jews in areas under their control, engaging in fire fights with both Croatians and Albanians to protect our people.

Please correct me if I'm mistaken, I am not 100% solid on all these details. I could have made a mistake.

Dino

pre 16 godina

B92,

I dont think you are quiet telling the truth as I have had my comments cut, which did not have obscene language or incited hatred.

You are seen as bias because you do not report everything that helps to give a balanced view and hence why its seen as bias and its why there are alot of complaints about B92. I personally think you have alot of potential but you do not report everything and as a media outlet, its not good enough!!!

this selective reporting leads to an over-reaction to something that has happened.
As a media outlet, you need to provide a balanced view to everything that happens, in and outside serbia. That is your job. This is how war in 90's started; selective reporting leading to over-reactions by all sides.


You say: “As for our poster Adrian, while we may fail to cover each story that emerges, and while this may be considered a professional sin, to suggest that it stems from our bias against any ethnic group is deeply disturbing and equally untrue. Our archives provide ample proof for this claim.”

If your failure to cover each story as it emerges does not stem from bias against any ethnic group then it stems from your incompetence and hence you should find competent people. Your archives may provide ample proof of unbiased view but what does ample mean? a handful of articles does not mean ample? ALL has to be reported. Especially if it gives a balanced view to another article.

One other point I have noticed is that u ask tough questions of American ambassador, of Del Ponte etc but I have never ever seen an article on B92 where you have questioned Serbian leadership about wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Why havent u asked those questions? Why havent you as a media demanded answers from these. Have you demanded a proper explanation of the documents hidden from ICJ for example? No matter what those answers are. You are responsible for piling on pressure. you do question other countries (Bosnia etc) role in those wars, which is fair enough, as you should. But do you see where the bias is and how having this policy gives an unbalanced version of events. I know you are a Serbian media outlet, however you need to be a bit more transparent because people can see what goes on.

I think you have a lot to work on as a key media but I do believe you have A LOT of potential.

I hope this doesn’t getting cut because a media outlet should not be free from criticism.

Olf

pre 16 godina

It was the circuit.
See Kate and Princip how wrong you are. Prejudice and bad habits make you look naïve and innocent.
By the way Kate you state that Kosova Government and UNMIK should work on returning the displaced people. Here is one for you. K-Albanian property in northern part of Kosova occupied by Bridge watchers and 20-30.000 Albanians from Medvegja still not back to their homes since thier homes are still in ruins and of course are afraid terror.
See that the reality is a bit different from RTS propaganda.

Srboslav

pre 16 godina

Teni, you could be right. Of course it could be a gas leak or something, but do you think it would have been in the news then?

Adrian Gashi

pre 16 godina

Dino: " Had this been revearsed, and it was an albanian house burnt in serbia, you wouldnt be calling it "beyond deplorable" but you would be calling for peace, everyone to get along, that its an isolated incident etc. "


Dino, there was only two days ago that an Albanian living in Belgrade had his house burned down by arsonists. It was reported in the "Express" newspaper, but of course B92 - and I'm sure other Serbian newspapers - didn't bother to report it. Now an abandoned house is burned and without any facts Albanians or KLA are being blamed. And on top of it B92 puts even a picture from 2004 to go along with this "news". If this is not inflamatory reporting I don't know what is. Let's be clear, for all the praise piled on it, B92 is still a Serbian propaganda site. The difference between Milosevic's propaganda and B92's, is that while one was thick and primitive, the other is more sofisticated, but the essence remains the same. Too many of us have felt B92's scissors of censure in our mouths, cutting away words and sentences. And I'm sure that while Serb posters have their obscenities cut out, for Albanians is more their arguments that B92 didn't like. Most likely my msg won't be posted either, but who cares, thankfully the future of the people of Kosova won't be decided by B92, or the throngs of cheap con-artists that overcrowd these spaces, but by the people themselves.

David Cohen

pre 16 godina

How is it that 97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians, but somehow the Serbs always see themselves as the victims???

Ahmet Isufi

pre 16 godina

Here we go againg without waitting for investigation this so called secreatry of Kosova, never heard of him(for sure he is not apponited by Kosova govermant, but maybe he is self appointed and lives in exile),but anyway he seems to know is a terrorist act but fails to tell us how and who.Shame on you guys, for dirty propagnada.

adriano

pre 16 godina

"The burning of a home in what was once a Serbian village that is now abandoned, is a terrorist act"
Targeting a house that no-one lives in it hence abandoned, That no one knows who did it! Of course IT WAS THE ALBANIANS! SAD SAD!
IS this how you want negotiations to start? Burning down houses its an old serbian trick that has worked in your colonisation process.
did you figure out who killed our people in Serbia by any chance, or the numberplate is knight riders???

Behar

pre 16 godina

Kate :This is a clearly an orchestrated act from the Serbian secret service by burning K-Serbs houses, trying to theatrically this way as a "K-Albanian nationalists did it".

kate

pre 16 godina

This is a clearly an orchestrated message from the KLA that Serbs are not welcome back in Kosovo unless the province becomes independent.

How disgusting that the homes of people who have been displaced should be burned to the ground because of their ethnicity (and I would say the same whoever these people were).

Adrian Gashi

pre 16 godina

Dino: " Had this been revearsed, and it was an albanian house burnt in serbia, you wouldnt be calling it "beyond deplorable" but you would be calling for peace, everyone to get along, that its an isolated incident etc. "


Dino, there was only two days ago that an Albanian living in Belgrade had his house burned down by arsonists. It was reported in the "Express" newspaper, but of course B92 - and I'm sure other Serbian newspapers - didn't bother to report it. Now an abandoned house is burned and without any facts Albanians or KLA are being blamed. And on top of it B92 puts even a picture from 2004 to go along with this "news". If this is not inflamatory reporting I don't know what is. Let's be clear, for all the praise piled on it, B92 is still a Serbian propaganda site. The difference between Milosevic's propaganda and B92's, is that while one was thick and primitive, the other is more sofisticated, but the essence remains the same. Too many of us have felt B92's scissors of censure in our mouths, cutting away words and sentences. And I'm sure that while Serb posters have their obscenities cut out, for Albanians is more their arguments that B92 didn't like. Most likely my msg won't be posted either, but who cares, thankfully the future of the people of Kosova won't be decided by B92, or the throngs of cheap con-artists that overcrowd these spaces, but by the people themselves.

Dino

pre 16 godina

B92,

I dont think you are quiet telling the truth as I have had my comments cut, which did not have obscene language or incited hatred.

You are seen as bias because you do not report everything that helps to give a balanced view and hence why its seen as bias and its why there are alot of complaints about B92. I personally think you have alot of potential but you do not report everything and as a media outlet, its not good enough!!!

this selective reporting leads to an over-reaction to something that has happened.
As a media outlet, you need to provide a balanced view to everything that happens, in and outside serbia. That is your job. This is how war in 90's started; selective reporting leading to over-reactions by all sides.


You say: “As for our poster Adrian, while we may fail to cover each story that emerges, and while this may be considered a professional sin, to suggest that it stems from our bias against any ethnic group is deeply disturbing and equally untrue. Our archives provide ample proof for this claim.”

If your failure to cover each story as it emerges does not stem from bias against any ethnic group then it stems from your incompetence and hence you should find competent people. Your archives may provide ample proof of unbiased view but what does ample mean? a handful of articles does not mean ample? ALL has to be reported. Especially if it gives a balanced view to another article.

One other point I have noticed is that u ask tough questions of American ambassador, of Del Ponte etc but I have never ever seen an article on B92 where you have questioned Serbian leadership about wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Why havent u asked those questions? Why havent you as a media demanded answers from these. Have you demanded a proper explanation of the documents hidden from ICJ for example? No matter what those answers are. You are responsible for piling on pressure. you do question other countries (Bosnia etc) role in those wars, which is fair enough, as you should. But do you see where the bias is and how having this policy gives an unbalanced version of events. I know you are a Serbian media outlet, however you need to be a bit more transparent because people can see what goes on.

I think you have a lot to work on as a key media but I do believe you have A LOT of potential.

I hope this doesn’t getting cut because a media outlet should not be free from criticism.

Jack

pre 16 godina

Dino

I'm sure B92 thoroughly appreciate your wonderful analysis of how bad you think they are. Please provide a link to an Albanian english language news source which comes even close to the quality of B92 and we will all move there!!

It would help us all if you would give us your opinion on what exactly is 'news-worthy' and how many 'news-worthy' events happen everyday in the Balkans? Also please show us a news-source which covers every single item, every single day(except for maybe the Monaco Times).

We all know how frustrating it can be to have a post edited or not appear at all. We should each use these incidents to reflect on what we have written and consider whether it was too rude, too radical, already stated by someone else, not relevant, incomprehensible english or some other reason.

This is not a site for mindless ranting(although many people still do), but for reasoned debate and the expression of individual opinions. If everyone who posted here was of the same opinion how boring it would be.

Many people who post here do a lot of research to back-up their opinions(some even provide original research or on the ground eye witness accounts such as Nick and HPD Guy the other day). Whether we all agree with these posts or not they are usually interesting and informative.

In short Dino, I like B92 even if it is not perfect. I believe B92 does try to walk the middle path. I also think you main reason for disliking B92 is because of its attemps at neutrality which do not fit in with your Albanian-centric view of the world. There are around 10 million Albanians in the world but more than 6 billion non-Albanians. That is a lot of people who don't view the world from an Albanian-centric angle. Deal with it.

Princip, UK

pre 16 godina

UNMIK are contining to fail in upholding their responsibilities - this is beyond deplorable and yet it will no surprise at the next report by the UNMIK to the UN to suggest that everything is fantastic in Serbia's province!!!

Srboslav

pre 16 godina

Feels great to know that the albanian police protects the minorities :-(
How could the serbs ever trust the albanians politicians and police?

Tex Willer

pre 16 godina

I'm sorry about the house, it's a great loss. But do not rush i judgements, also lot of Albanian houses were burned during the sum,mer but no one didn;t mention 1998-1999 burning of Albanian houses.
Peace to all good willing people

Dino

pre 16 godina

Princip, where is your call for everyone to live in peace etc etc. Had this been revearsed, and it was an albanian house burnt in serbia, you wouldnt be calling it "beyond deplorable" but you would be calling for peace, everyone to get along, that its an isolated incident etc. But of course, in this instance serbs were not the ones responsible so i guess calling for peace is out of question.

Srboslav

pre 16 godina

Teni, you could be right. Of course it could be a gas leak or something, but do you think it would have been in the news then?

teni

pre 16 godina

This whole way of reporting and the statement of this Minister for Kosovo are reminiscent of the 1980 and especially that Martinovic guy (or whatever his name was). Just how did this Minister know who burned the house when half the Balkans are in fire because of the heat?

Bob Petrovich

pre 16 godina

Teni, you know the joke "I did not touch him, your Honour. He slipped on banana peel and fell on my knife, 17 times in a row".

Only, this is not funny.

You are right, Balkan is under heatwave. And it is tru that houses do burn. But they burn extremelly well when arsonists do their work. Especially when they return to the crime scene.

Do I have to remind you of number of Serb and Roma houses torched down after KLA was given free rein by occupying NATO forces? Do I have to remind you of March 2004?

Svinjare was the target of the Pogrom by Albanian extremists back then.

See IWPR report here

Atttack on Svinjare has symbollic meaning - it is meant to cleanse ALL Serbs from the village.

I can understand Albanian extremists and terrorists. But I can not understand you defending them.

Princip, UK

pre 16 godina

David,
"How is it that 97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians"

- and your evidence being ???

teni

pre 16 godina

Well Bob I cannot understand how you or your minister for Kosovo reach your conclusions. That's all. Has there been an investigation? No. So how do you know why a house in Kosovo burned? Unless you have a crystal ball you can't.
And as for terrorists: well if someone burned the house he/she is a criminal not neccesasrily a terrorist. There are arsonists everywhere. But if you refer to the KLA when you speak of extremists and terrorists there we have the terrorist/ freedom fighter dilema. I call the former VJ a terrorist army.
And I do not want to play the numbers game but did you ever stop to think of how many houses and mosques the Serbs burned in Kosovo? A lot of them had people inside.

adriano

pre 16 godina

Kate "This is a clearly an orchestrated message from the KLA that Serbs are not welcome back in Kosovo"
You in The UK Clearly saw all the evidence? NOt only that but you linked it to KLA? Tell us who killed Kennedy and Why Yeltsin choose Putin?
Srboslav, Abandoned means that there was nobody there!!! Minority has to be a group of people!!!
If it was done by Albanians, that's a shame because i don't want Kosovo to start fresh with the skill learned from the Northern neighbours!
I just dont get the logic that the KLA did it? Why would they try to burn down a house that would set a message that none could see? Well except for a newspaper journalist who desperatly needed to point a finger to the south... who did it himself!!! hahaa cought red handed b92

Dragan

pre 16 godina

Just another nail in the coffin for the 'greater albania' plan. Keep on showing the world your intolerance towards minorities, keep on showing them your terrorist tactics to keep minorities out and ethnically cleanse the rest of them so you can be 'pure'....You are just showing the world your true face and making things much easier for the Russians and Chinese to veto, and for Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia, Portugal, to split Europe on this issue. The greater albania project is dead.

Bob Petrovich

pre 16 godina

David, can you corroborate your claim that "97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians" with hard facts? Please only spare us of war propaganda sources, because the most of it has been debunked in the last 8 years.

During the war, 47000 houses were destroyed, mostly Albanian. It is worth mentioning that Albanian houses were the most numerous, KLA used Albanian villages as strongholds, Kosovo was bombed around the clock by NATO and signifficant number of houses was destroyed as a result of combat, not arson.

After the war, more than 10 000 Serb and Roma houses were destroyed by Albanian extremists and this activity was condoned and supported by NATO, media and self-styled humanitartians as "understandable revenge".
This was an outright racist statement that best illustrates the mindset of the time. In March 2004 alone, 900 Serb and Roma houses were torched down.
Again, Albanian extremists were excused, mediua chose to ignore Pogrom because they could not defend it. The lie that Serbs drowned three Albanian boys was used as exuse for wanton destruction.


Your 3% number seems to be way off mark.

When it comes to violence, your statement is hurtful.

Albanian extremists murdered more than 1000 Serbs before the war and more than 1000 during NATO occupation, as well as more than 1000 fellow Albanians who were not terrorist supporters.

If this number of 2000 dead is 3%, corresponding number of dead Albanians would have to be 66 000 and we know this is not true.

It is good to be careful with numbers - you know the saying, "figures do not lie, liars figure".

Btw. do you know that Kosovo is Judenrein because of the extremists you seem to support?

Gordo

pre 16 godina

Houses burn all over the world due to electrical problems. If the fire inspector is impartial, then we should respect the results of his investigation. Accusations now just make the racial flames burn brighter.

A good thing is that no one was injured. Electrical fault would not surprise me as I've seen lots of dodgey electrical work in the Balkans.

Serbia & Russia

pre 16 godina

It is my personal and professional opinion that the Albanians did stage and execute this entire scheme of burning the poor man's house down to the ground. This man has every right to be there because it is his land, historically speaking. Agim Ceku's political scheme of "Albanians are getting impatient and will riot in the streets" has gotten to the heads of all Albanian extremists, who now use that man and his silly words to justify their attacks. But there is only so much they can do.

If Albania declares independance unilaterally, this immediately allows Serbia to do whatever it takes to protect its sovereignty because unilateral declaration in Kosovo goes against international LAW and the UN. The UN is the ONLY international body with judiciary power to change international borders, not the US, not the EU, and most definitely not Albania.

At the moment being, Kosovo is de facto Albanian in many ways, but this does not constitute a justification for it becoming an actual Albanian state. Albanians must respect that the sovereignty of Kosovo is entirely dedicated to Serbia, and only the Serbs themselves can change.

The days of harsh and deceptive political maneouvres from the West are over. Russia is now the biggest player on the international stage and apparently the only one who truly vouches for proper democracy and international law.

Matthew

pre 16 godina

“Too many of us have felt B92's scissors of censure in our mouths, cutting away words and sentences. And I'm sure that while Serb posters have their obscenities cut out, for Albanians is more their arguments that B92 didn't like. (Adrian Gashi, 9. August 2007 17:53)”

Actually Adrian, I’ve had my comments outright censored as well and you know I never use obscenities or racism. I think it has more to do with the moderator then anything else, at least one of them is changing or censoring comments based on political ideas rather then whether something is truly offensive or not. I’ve had many comments that warned of the dangerous side of capitalism completely censored. So, just so you know, it’s not a Serbian/Albanian issue but more of an issue whether the moderator agrees with you or not.

“How is it that 97% of the violence and house burning in Kosovo was commited by Serbs on Albanians. (David Cohen, 9. August 2007 15:48)”

I’d also be interested in hearing your sources for this. However, keep in mind David that Serbs only make up around 5% of the population now, so of course the percentage is going to seem slanted like that even if it’s directly proportional to the population distribution.

Well, it looks like many posters jumped the gun on this one and its most likely simply a matter of a faulty electrical installation. However, maybe we ought to take a look at the rebuilding process as a whole. This type of thing could be endemic and a real problem in a couple of years.

alex_under_uk@yahoo.co.uk

pre 16 godina

You should expect this from inconsiderate citizens who don't pay their electricity bills and leave everything turned on in the house even when they're away just to cause KEK even more damage. Well this time it backfired, Literally.

B92

pre 16 godina

Dear all-

We use these pages fairly often to quite unorthodoxly repeatedly communicate with our visitors, and plead time and again with you to exercise moderation and tolerance while reacting to our news stories and other posters’ opinions.

Since we have not yet introduced an English language forum, we allow exchange of opinion to take place here.

Our repeated appeals do not come as empty slogans or convenient phrases – we struggle daily to balance between our visitors’ right to express their opinion and the necessity to maintain a civil debate. This is the only reason why we invest time in editing some comments instead of deleting them on sight.

We are saddened by your criticism in this instant, and believe that it is unjust and based on feeling rather than fact. The notion that our moderators edit or remove messages at will is baseless. Various, diametrically opposed opinions have been voiced here, and we will continue to provide space for the same purpose.

While looking into this matter, we found out that due to a technical error, our Write Us page accessed from the Send Your Comment form links to the Serbian, instead of the English language page. We will correct this shortly and will invite you to use it to send your complaints, suggestions, etc. via e-mail. Each of your messages sent this way will be read and answered by the editor of this site.

Specifically, addressing our poster Matthew, based on the IP address this message was sent from, we have records of only one censored message, posted in the globe section.

As for our poster Adrian, while we may fail to cover each story that emerges, and while this may be considered a professional sin, to suggest that it stems from our bias against any ethnic group is deeply disturbing and equally untrue. Our archives provide ample proof for this claim.

That said, we understand the often highly emotionally charged reactions from all sides, as they derive from our common recent, more than unfortunate history. We look to provide room even for such reactions as long as they are kept civil.

As always, we are grateful to receive your constructive thoughts.

Thank you for your time,

Editor, B92 English

adriano

pre 16 godina

dear Bob Petrovich
about judenfrie, its a shameful example that you use such a tool in order to make an argument.
Estonia 1941
Belgrade 1942
Berlin 1943
these were proclaimed at that time to be jew free. As for albanians(wich includes all albanian speaking places, we aided the runaway jews, We got asian refugees, Chinese muslims, all sorts of people man.! Remember that next time you give provocative comments

istref

pre 16 godina

I think B92 should have stronger policy toward people who plant hatered and spread propaganda, because people in in the region might be affected. I think we all should gave our comments or facts but not propaganda. And if you call people terrorist or criminals without having facts in the democratic world you might have to face the justice, you can call criminals people, such us, Bin Laden, Millosheviq, Karagjiq and Mlladiq, but you cant call and blame a nation just because the house was burned, even though i have never heard one Serbian that apologized for crimes in kosove and they are still following the Millosheviq politics, i cant call them terrorist, because is not adecuat word and is irritated.

Matthew

pre 16 godina

I have nothing but the utmost respect for B92 as an institution and believe they serve as an extremely positive influence in the Balkans regardless of whatever personal danger they may bring upon themselves for doing what is right. I also recommend that everyone here read Guerilla Radio by Matthew Collin in order to get a fuller understanding of the background and evolution of B92. These guys are real heroes in every sense of the word and put their very lives on the line in order to spread the truth.

BTW, this is being sent my work IP address, where I normally send from (I'm a slacker!!!!!) and not my dynamically assigned home ISP.

Matthew

pre 16 godina

"Btw. do you know that Kosovo is Judenrein because of the extremists you seem to support? (Bob Petrovich, 9. August 2007 17:11)"
Bob, I always respect your comments, but I do want to add a little moderation to this debate in regards to the Roma and the Jews in Kosovo. I looked into it just a tiny bit and found the same statements by Cedda Prlincevic that you did. It does seem that the Jews of Pristina encountered discrimination and oppression. However, it seems that the Jews of Prizren speak Albanian and did not encounter the same level of discrimination that Jews in Pristina who speak Serbian do.

The repression against Jews and Roma appear, at least on the surface, to be based on what language they speak, rather than their ethnicity. Allowing both sides to claim the other is oppressing these traditionally abused minorities.

However, it does seem most if not all the Jews of Kosovo have left regardless of what language they spoke, which is truly tragic.

I also take exception with KLA's revisionist claims that no Jews died in the WWII holocaust. It appears to me that some were killed during that time, but the over all number did not change much as some Jews fled to Italian occupied territory as the Italians were not targeting Jews in the same manner the Nazi's were. In fact it seems the Italians protected many Serbs and Jews in areas under their control, engaging in fire fights with both Croatians and Albanians to protect our people.

Please correct me if I'm mistaken, I am not 100% solid on all these details. I could have made a mistake.

Bob Petrovich

pre 16 godina

Adriano, I suggest that you do not thread into the realm of Nazi revisionism. We have our current problems to discuss.

During WWII,
"Jewish question" (an euphemism for extermination of the Jews)on occupied territories was in the hands of The Third Reich apparatus (Gestapo, SS and Wehrmacht).

Serbia was not Hitler's ally,
Belgrade in 1942 and Serbia proper were under direct German military control. Serbia was sliced up and occupied by the Nazi allies - Hugarians, Bulgarians, Croatias and Albanians.

Unlike Estonians and Albanians, Serbs did not provide Waffen SS divisions for Hitler. So, putting Belgrade on the list among perpetrators is shameful, because it distorts the historical facts.

Your attempt to blame Serbia for the Holocaust can be understood as an attempt to exonerate the real perpetrators, German Nazis and their allies, Kosovo Albanian Waffen SS Division Skenderbeg for example.

When I said that Kosovo is Judenrein, I did not use the figure of speech. The entire Jewish community of Pristina was expelled in June of 1999
by Kosovo Albanian extremists.

Jews are rightfully called "canarians in the mine shaft".
Having in mind that Jews, Roma and Serbs were the Nazi victims, and Kosovo Albanians Nazi allies, this is alarming sign of resurrection of Nazism. Having in mind the evil deeds of Kosovo Albanian Waffen Division Skenderbeg during WWII, the use of the term Judenrein is accurate.

Criminal deeds of Kosovo Albanian extremists went unpunished to the present day.

Olf

pre 16 godina

It was the circuit.
See Kate and Princip how wrong you are. Prejudice and bad habits make you look naïve and innocent.
By the way Kate you state that Kosova Government and UNMIK should work on returning the displaced people. Here is one for you. K-Albanian property in northern part of Kosova occupied by Bridge watchers and 20-30.000 Albanians from Medvegja still not back to their homes since thier homes are still in ruins and of course are afraid terror.
See that the reality is a bit different from RTS propaganda.