Anti-Serb graffiti appears in Gnjilane

The Albanians have the nerve to say they will protect minorities if they get independence! What a joke. Every day we hear something awful about the Albanins and its almost always examples of hate and threats or actual assaults against Serbians. The Albanins are falling fast and hard from world sympathy!

You can't have security by taking a drug-traffiking terrorist group (KLA), give them different uniforms from what they had previously, and call them police (KPF) and actually expect them to be a bona-fide police force to provide security for everyone. This grafitti is just another example of the intimidation that non-Albanians are going through in Kosovo province. Thankfully, B92 is reporting it, but it is more of the intimidation/terror(ism) that non-Albanians are having to endure.

Well, if raping Serbian girls, beating Serb boys, and spray painting "death to all Serbs" is needed for some idiots to be "proud to be Albanian", they have a very poor image of themselves and bring down an entire race of people. The idiots who did these crimes deserve a public humilation.

'Death to all Serbs' written on a school where children can see it and their parents feel threatened. And some idiot being proud to be Albanian while writing graffiti on a church wall.

I hope this is roundly condemned by everyone.

This reminds of what the Nazis did before WWII...Im actually shocked that the west supports "people" like this. Its almost unhuman.

In the version of this same news in Serbian, B92 also reported that a Serbian couple was attacked in Gnjilane two days ago. The woman was sexually assaulted and the man was beaten up. The perpetrators have not been identified or arrested. Is that "mole's hole" too or maybe a sign of things to come for non-Albanians, Mr. Mospyt?

Oh-those albanian children at play again.Yesterday kidnaping and raping Serbian girl,today writing on the walls and covering the cross on the church doors.I have to say this kids need more supervison.Promise from uncle Gorgie and uncle Burns is giving them too much sugar high so let`s take the candy away and make them stop.
And parents should stop blaming that bad Serbian wolf for everything these criminal kids are doing.

maybe it was a roma, who is trying to express his feelings towards his familys torned psychological condition in serbia.
(adriano, 22. August 2007 14:48)

Well it certainly couldn't be Roma from majority Albanian areas as Roma have been effectively ethinically cleansed (murdered, chased away) during Albanian alignment with the Nazis and SS. Albania = 98% ethnically pure. Kosovo = soon to be ethnically pure (>95%). Adrijano, do you see a pattern with Albanians and their ability to live peacefully with minorities??? Now what was it that you were trying to say about Serbia (65% Serb composition) and its relations with its ethnic minorities?

...Stones, glass houses...

What about the crosses drawn on each Serb house and apartment in Kosovo during NATO bombing? What was the purpose and who told them to do so? Well, houses without cross on their doors, were targeted by Serb officers (police and military) as Albanian houses/apartments, in which they were allowed to enter, loot, kill inhabitants inside, deport them and burn the house. These recent slogans in Gjilan are nothing to compare with the ones/symbols that our neighbors Serbs, use to put on their doors. Nevertheless, it is a duty for police service to investigate this shameful case in Gjilan.

Behar: "What about the crosses drawn on each Serb house and apartment in Kosovo during NATO bombing?"

teni: "in contrast to Serbia proper where Sesejl used to call "Death to Albanians" in political rallies."

I cannot find any evidence to back these accusations up.

Ohhh common you can do better than this!!
Someone need to tell Vlastimir to get officially complain to the local police and wait the result of the investigation, before he goes to the media and play the victim.
Most certainly this is what people do in a civilised world.
As for the graffiti itself, of course is wrong, however i prefer graffiti to people try to get to each other throat.
May i remind to you that in northern Mitrovica, never mind the graffiti, but the Albanian's cannot get back to their houses in case it may upset the minority Serbs in Kosovo.
The Albanian's in Kosovo are fully aware, now that there country independence is very near in completing, there will be more incidents and provocation from their neighbour.
I just hope that innocent life can be safe and the media can be more accurate and to try to calm the tension in the area.

Teni you forgot to add in that Serbs wrote that themselves. Albanians would never do that. LOL, never accept responsiblity for nothing oh well. Wait for the next incident.

post 14 calls himself shqitar. I don't get it. Why is it offensive if a non-albanian says shqiptar. Are albanians shqiptars, or not? BTW, which is the best mosque in Pristina for me to write "Proud to be a Serb" and "Death to all Albanians"? Do you see how byond horrible that is?

Victor where were you in the last 24hrs.

maybe it was a roma, who is trying to express his feelings towards his familys torned psychological condition in serbia.

I understand why "death to Serbs" is unsettling to the Serb minority in Kosovo although it was probably some idiot who wrote in contrast to Serbia proper where Sesejl used to call "Death to Albanians" in political rallies. But I guess Kate is not interested in doing a bit of research on the subject and somehow a grafiti on a wall counts more than the leader of the single biggest party in Serbia calling for it publicly. A strange world we live in. And Kate there are hardly any Serbs in Gjilane and the "Death to Serbs" thingy was writen in the Albanian part of town. While condemnable it seems the Serbs would have to go out of their way to be able to read and be threatened by it.
But what I don't get is why people are so appalled at "Proud to be Albanian". Is there something wrong with an Albanian being proud of his ethnic background or what? I have seen enough T-shirts with Proud to be English, Dutch, German etc, why should Albanians be different?

Such graffiti does NOT represent the Albanian sentiment towards the Serbs. Someone's doodle is not an expression of a country's policy toweards its minorities. So, Canadian and Kate, get off it and don't make a mountain out of a mole's hole.

It's amazing how you guys seem to know every perpetrator of criminal acts in Kosovo. I did not say that what hapenned in Gracanica was not done by Albanians, but simply that no one knows who did it. Serbs do commit rapes too, that much has been made clear in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
And JHam I did not say that. I think the guys who wrote that were Albanians, but I was just trying to point out that the Albanians have no monopoly on slogans of this kind and that someone writing something like that is not the end of the world. It could very well have been a child. The Serbs are quite good at this sort of thing too you know. The Serb political class under Milosevic and afterwards (the Radicals now) still refer to the K-Albanians as Siptars, which is just as offensive to K-Albanians as the N word is for African Americans and what I said about Sesejl is pretty well documented. It was shown on Serb TV too. So please look at both sides and try to have a balanced view.

Teni - I hate the fact that you make me question anything about Seselj who is someone I would never defend. But when did he ever scream that at a rally (fact not hearsay)??

tenc, Well lets say that Shehu's death is disputed. Either way he died due to being shot.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9802E5D91338F930A35752C0A964948260&n=Top%2fNews%2fHealth%2fDiseases%2c%20Conditions%2c%20and%20Health%20Topics%2fSuicides%20and%20Suicide%20Attempts

Stambolic wasn't president when he was killed. Also he was president of the presidency of Serbia, not quite the same as the executive president of the republic.

Oh and the trial against Seselj hasn't started yet and he isn't even charged with anything to do with Kosovo.

Of course this has to be condemned, but, come on, lets not make a big deal out of it. It's just a graffiti - there's always bound to be some minority of people who won't go along with the mainstream.

Graffiti culture is a philosophy of its own, it shouldnt be outrightly linked to ethnic conflict. There's hatered, but one can hardly argue that it represents a majority view. There's highly racial grafiti in many western capitals, yet it cant be taken to mean that they necessairly represent any mainstream view about it.

I remember demonstrations of Serb university students on the Prishtina University campus back in the 1990s, holding pamflets and slogans, 'Dont give the pen to Albanians' - that, to me, represented one of the most ethnically-charged nationalistic rhetoric ever seen. It wasn't a grafiti - writen by a group of people - it was thousands of Serb students entertaining such a view.

I would add to that death to left wing conspiracy, anarchist nuts

SHAME. ACT TO BE CONDAMNED. It is the duty of the police to do the investigation. Only after can be pointed the finger to the guilty. Also the Albanians in Gjilan should distant themselves from this act, them being the last interested for such things to happen.
At the meantime, I cannot blame sb. asserting proud to be Albanian. BTW I'm proud to be Albanian, but I have not written it since I live somewhere in the Western Europe. Furthermore, it is not a sin for such a statement to be written in front of a church. For instance, the priest reading it, might say....well, I am proud to be a Serb.
Therefore, these two written statements don't have a linkage.
Anyhow, personally I really dislike all kinds of grafitti.

How's this news? A graffiti appears on a wall and now we must all hear about that? For comparison, do you report every case of anti-Roma graffiti appearing in Belgrade?
Come on, B92, get back to the real news.

vrnjak, kosovo would be 65%pure if it took serbian land up to belgrade but it would never try to rule people that dont want to be part of thet.

Mospyt:

#1: Jews lived in Albania prior to WWII and were allegedly saved by the Albanians according to you?

Where have they gone if they at most constitue 0.02% of the population?

2001 Census Estimate:
Total: 3,069,275
Albanian 3,026,383 98.6%
Greek 35,829 1.2%
Macedonian 4,148 0.1%
Aromanian 992
Montenegrin 678
other 1,245


#2: "What about all the other thousand Jews who made their way from Serbia and other Balkan countries through to Albania because they knew they would be safe. Who else did this during the WWII?"

This may be true, but I was unable to substantiate the assertion. However, much of the ethnic killings caused in southern Serbia were by the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg. It is entirely plausible that the Albanians from Albania had nothing to do with the ethnic cleansing to "purify" Kosovo. But, more to the point of present day empathy for Jews: should a Jew in Kosovo feel a brotherly camaraderie with Albanians as they become ever more radicalized in Islam. See Osama bin Ladin mosque if you haven't already seen it --> http://news.serbianunity.net/2007/05/04/2436


#3 Albanians fighting against Nazis in Albania and Kosovo.

See #2


#4: Albania is 98% pure "not because it rid itself of minorities, but because half of the Albanian lands are outside its borders" makes no sense. Chalk that one up as textbook non sequitur.


#5 "As for Serbia's treatment of its minorties, you only need to look at the crime perpetrated by the Serbian army and Serbian paramilitary thungs in Kosova and Bosnia in 1990s."

Even if it were true, importing blood thirsty mujahadin from far away lands to kill infidels doesn't offset this? Care to see photos of beheaded Serbs being paraded around by Albanians in Kosovo?

Philip: maybe you should follow the proceedings of the trial against Sesejl. He screamed that at the top of his voice in a political rally during the Kosovo war. If anything it is even worse shouting something like that while you are at war and your paramilitaries are on the lose, don't you think?
And by the way Mehmet Shehu committed suicide and was not shot by a sniper. And we have had no president killed either like Stambolic.

It's just a graffity. If you live in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, you'd get used to it and wouldn't make such a big fuss about it. Nevertheless, I despise graffiti of any kind and those idiots should be found and forced to clean it in view of public.

For all of you who are accusing Albanians of everything because of some graffity writers, I wish to remind you that the time of nineties is gone when an Albanian would be senyenced to 5 years of prison for a simple graffity.

Get over your nostalgia for these days!

Teni, you don't see the distinction between writing graffiti on church walls and words on T-shirts. Graffiti defaces property. And is especially loathsome on religious buildings...whether church, temple or mosque.

To Papajohn,
I'm not offended at all to be called shqiptar by a non-albanian. What this story about?
You are asking for a mosque to write your stuff. Anyhow, I cannot help you since I am not a muslim. Still, if you persist you can find plenty of places to write down what you want. Take it easy. The fate of Kosova and the Albanian people is not to be decided by 1, 100 or 1.000 graphittis.

Destan,

You know very well that if any grafitti advocating the death of any ethnic group appeared in any city in the U.S. that it would be exposed to the most extreme form of condemnation by the civil leaders and the public.

Don't underscore the impact just because its directed towards Serbs.

This is a vengeful act - no matter who did it!

It is true, that you can't condemn an entire minority based on "one incident", but this is one of MANY incidents.

So, if this is how you show your albanian pride, shame on you all -

By the way, where's our buddy Ahmet - not a single post from him on this commentary.

Where does Vrnjak get his/her historical facts from. According him, Albania is 98% pure because it aligned with Nazis in WWII. Did it? If so, how come all the Jews living in Albania were saved and were not handed over? What about all the other thousand Jews who made their way from Serbia and other Balkan countries through to Albania because they knew they would be safe. Who else did this during the WWII?

Over sevety thousdand Albanian partizans fought the Nazi Germans and Italians over four years in Albania and Kosova. Two Albanian partizan divisions also helped Tito out, pushing German troops up to Visegrad. Your history does not seem to have recorded any of this. I wonder why!

Albania is 98 percent pure, not because it rid itself of minorities, but because half of the Albanian lands are outside its borders.

As for Serbia's treatment of its minorties, you only need to look at the crime perpetrated by the Serbian army and Serbian paramilitary thungs in Kosova and Bosnia in 1990s. And, don't blame everything on Milosevic. He could not have rewritten your historical texbooks as well.

BTW, B92 thanks for providing the opportunity for such a frank exchange of historical facts.

Nato wont allow Serbian police and military in Kosovo, but do nothing to prevent things like this from happening?

These slogans are nothing compared to what the Serbs have done during the war. Also, these slogans are written by perhaps some regular people but are not orchestrated by the kosovar government at all.
In the other side, you have the serbian governement who even in their website has harsh accusations against the albanians who are called terrorists and so on.
You have even the Serb orthodox priests who call the albanians terrorists.

The serb government claims that it is a government of all people living in Kosova but if you go to their websites it mentions NOTHING about the 10000 albanians killed during the war but it only mentions about the few hundreds of serbs killed.
Also, in Serbia you see daily graffitis against albanians and the jews. Just recently couple of jews were beaten near the Belgrade stadium just because they were jews.

I repeat, the slogan that said " death to serbs" is not right at all but at least its not orchestrated by the kosovar government as it used and it still is orchestrated the hate against the albanians by the Kostunica government.
As for " proud to be albanian" I do not know why cant we say that? any serb will say proud to be a serb, so why dont we have the right to say proud to be albanians?
This shows how intolerant serbs are, they dont even want to let us say that we are proud of what we are.
Before serbs can accuse us of these things they have to do two things, they have to apologize to us for the crimes done by the serbs and orchestrated by the serb government and the second thins is that serbs have to stop their grafittis against the albanians.
Thanks.

Sad, anybody care to claim were Kosovo to be under Serbian / Albanian / international control than things would be any different? Maybe in 20 years - provided the econimic situation improves.

This is just further evidence that Kosovo desperately needs development, employment and all that comes with it.

Still I guess people would rather wave flags and argue over ownership (whilst the 'ship' continues to sink)

Papajohn,

Write it on the one that was financed by Bin Laden!

"Death to all serbs" written in serbian language, that is funy. I can assure you that 99.9% is written by a serb. The reason I am so sure becasue we had some stuppid graffiti in Gjakova and other towns but even though were direted towards serbs they were written in Albanian. End of story.

'Death to all Serbs' written on a school where children can see it and their parents feel threatened. And some idiot being proud to be Albanian while writing graffiti on a church wall.

I hope this is roundly condemned by everyone.

The Albanians have the nerve to say they will protect minorities if they get independence! What a joke. Every day we hear something awful about the Albanins and its almost always examples of hate and threats or actual assaults against Serbians. The Albanins are falling fast and hard from world sympathy!

This reminds of what the Nazis did before WWII...Im actually shocked that the west supports "people" like this. Its almost unhuman.

maybe it was a roma, who is trying to express his feelings towards his familys torned psychological condition in serbia.

Teni you forgot to add in that Serbs wrote that themselves. Albanians would never do that. LOL, never accept responsiblity for nothing oh well. Wait for the next incident.

Victor where were you in the last 24hrs.

You can't have security by taking a drug-traffiking terrorist group (KLA), give them different uniforms from what they had previously, and call them police (KPF) and actually expect them to be a bona-fide police force to provide security for everyone. This grafitti is just another example of the intimidation that non-Albanians are going through in Kosovo province. Thankfully, B92 is reporting it, but it is more of the intimidation/terror(ism) that non-Albanians are having to endure.

I understand why "death to Serbs" is unsettling to the Serb minority in Kosovo although it was probably some idiot who wrote in contrast to Serbia proper where Sesejl used to call "Death to Albanians" in political rallies. But I guess Kate is not interested in doing a bit of research on the subject and somehow a grafiti on a wall counts more than the leader of the single biggest party in Serbia calling for it publicly. A strange world we live in. And Kate there are hardly any Serbs in Gjilane and the "Death to Serbs" thingy was writen in the Albanian part of town. While condemnable it seems the Serbs would have to go out of their way to be able to read and be threatened by it.
But what I don't get is why people are so appalled at "Proud to be Albanian". Is there something wrong with an Albanian being proud of his ethnic background or what? I have seen enough T-shirts with Proud to be English, Dutch, German etc, why should Albanians be different?

Oh-those albanian children at play again.Yesterday kidnaping and raping Serbian girl,today writing on the walls and covering the cross on the church doors.I have to say this kids need more supervison.Promise from uncle Gorgie and uncle Burns is giving them too much sugar high so let`s take the candy away and make them stop.
And parents should stop blaming that bad Serbian wolf for everything these criminal kids are doing.

maybe it was a roma, who is trying to express his feelings towards his familys torned psychological condition in serbia.
(adriano, 22. August 2007 14:48)

Well it certainly couldn't be Roma from majority Albanian areas as Roma have been effectively ethinically cleansed (murdered, chased away) during Albanian alignment with the Nazis and SS. Albania = 98% ethnically pure. Kosovo = soon to be ethnically pure (>95%). Adrijano, do you see a pattern with Albanians and their ability to live peacefully with minorities??? Now what was it that you were trying to say about Serbia (65% Serb composition) and its relations with its ethnic minorities?

...Stones, glass houses...

Behar: "What about the crosses drawn on each Serb house and apartment in Kosovo during NATO bombing?"

teni: "in contrast to Serbia proper where Sesejl used to call "Death to Albanians" in political rallies."

I cannot find any evidence to back these accusations up.

How's this news? A graffiti appears on a wall and now we must all hear about that? For comparison, do you report every case of anti-Roma graffiti appearing in Belgrade?
Come on, B92, get back to the real news.

Papajohn,

Write it on the one that was financed by Bin Laden!

These slogans are nothing compared to what the Serbs have done during the war. Also, these slogans are written by perhaps some regular people but are not orchestrated by the kosovar government at all.
In the other side, you have the serbian governement who even in their website has harsh accusations against the albanians who are called terrorists and so on.
You have even the Serb orthodox priests who call the albanians terrorists.

The serb government claims that it is a government of all people living in Kosova but if you go to their websites it mentions NOTHING about the 10000 albanians killed during the war but it only mentions about the few hundreds of serbs killed.
Also, in Serbia you see daily graffitis against albanians and the jews. Just recently couple of jews were beaten near the Belgrade stadium just because they were jews.

I repeat, the slogan that said " death to serbs" is not right at all but at least its not orchestrated by the kosovar government as it used and it still is orchestrated the hate against the albanians by the Kostunica government.
As for " proud to be albanian" I do not know why cant we say that? any serb will say proud to be a serb, so why dont we have the right to say proud to be albanians?
This shows how intolerant serbs are, they dont even want to let us say that we are proud of what we are.
Before serbs can accuse us of these things they have to do two things, they have to apologize to us for the crimes done by the serbs and orchestrated by the serb government and the second thins is that serbs have to stop their grafittis against the albanians.
Thanks.

What about the crosses drawn on each Serb house and apartment in Kosovo during NATO bombing? What was the purpose and who told them to do so? Well, houses without cross on their doors, were targeted by Serb officers (police and military) as Albanian houses/apartments, in which they were allowed to enter, loot, kill inhabitants inside, deport them and burn the house. These recent slogans in Gjilan are nothing to compare with the ones/symbols that our neighbors Serbs, use to put on their doors. Nevertheless, it is a duty for police service to investigate this shameful case in Gjilan.

I would add to that death to left wing conspiracy, anarchist nuts

Ohhh common you can do better than this!!
Someone need to tell Vlastimir to get officially complain to the local police and wait the result of the investigation, before he goes to the media and play the victim.
Most certainly this is what people do in a civilised world.
As for the graffiti itself, of course is wrong, however i prefer graffiti to people try to get to each other throat.
May i remind to you that in northern Mitrovica, never mind the graffiti, but the Albanian's cannot get back to their houses in case it may upset the minority Serbs in Kosovo.
The Albanian's in Kosovo are fully aware, now that there country independence is very near in completing, there will be more incidents and provocation from their neighbour.
I just hope that innocent life can be safe and the media can be more accurate and to try to calm the tension in the area.

Such graffiti does NOT represent the Albanian sentiment towards the Serbs. Someone's doodle is not an expression of a country's policy toweards its minorities. So, Canadian and Kate, get off it and don't make a mountain out of a mole's hole.

In the version of this same news in Serbian, B92 also reported that a Serbian couple was attacked in Gnjilane two days ago. The woman was sexually assaulted and the man was beaten up. The perpetrators have not been identified or arrested. Is that "mole's hole" too or maybe a sign of things to come for non-Albanians, Mr. Mospyt?

SHAME. ACT TO BE CONDAMNED. It is the duty of the police to do the investigation. Only after can be pointed the finger to the guilty. Also the Albanians in Gjilan should distant themselves from this act, them being the last interested for such things to happen.
At the meantime, I cannot blame sb. asserting proud to be Albanian. BTW I'm proud to be Albanian, but I have not written it since I live somewhere in the Western Europe. Furthermore, it is not a sin for such a statement to be written in front of a church. For instance, the priest reading it, might say....well, I am proud to be a Serb.
Therefore, these two written statements don't have a linkage.
Anyhow, personally I really dislike all kinds of grafitti.

It's amazing how you guys seem to know every perpetrator of criminal acts in Kosovo. I did not say that what hapenned in Gracanica was not done by Albanians, but simply that no one knows who did it. Serbs do commit rapes too, that much has been made clear in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
And JHam I did not say that. I think the guys who wrote that were Albanians, but I was just trying to point out that the Albanians have no monopoly on slogans of this kind and that someone writing something like that is not the end of the world. It could very well have been a child. The Serbs are quite good at this sort of thing too you know. The Serb political class under Milosevic and afterwards (the Radicals now) still refer to the K-Albanians as Siptars, which is just as offensive to K-Albanians as the N word is for African Americans and what I said about Sesejl is pretty well documented. It was shown on Serb TV too. So please look at both sides and try to have a balanced view.

Philip: maybe you should follow the proceedings of the trial against Sesejl. He screamed that at the top of his voice in a political rally during the Kosovo war. If anything it is even worse shouting something like that while you are at war and your paramilitaries are on the lose, don't you think?
And by the way Mehmet Shehu committed suicide and was not shot by a sniper. And we have had no president killed either like Stambolic.

Well, if raping Serbian girls, beating Serb boys, and spray painting "death to all Serbs" is needed for some idiots to be "proud to be Albanian", they have a very poor image of themselves and bring down an entire race of people. The idiots who did these crimes deserve a public humilation.

Teni - I hate the fact that you make me question anything about Seselj who is someone I would never defend. But when did he ever scream that at a rally (fact not hearsay)??

Sad, anybody care to claim were Kosovo to be under Serbian / Albanian / international control than things would be any different? Maybe in 20 years - provided the econimic situation improves.

This is just further evidence that Kosovo desperately needs development, employment and all that comes with it.

Still I guess people would rather wave flags and argue over ownership (whilst the 'ship' continues to sink)

It's just a graffity. If you live in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, you'd get used to it and wouldn't make such a big fuss about it. Nevertheless, I despise graffiti of any kind and those idiots should be found and forced to clean it in view of public.

For all of you who are accusing Albanians of everything because of some graffity writers, I wish to remind you that the time of nineties is gone when an Albanian would be senyenced to 5 years of prison for a simple graffity.

Get over your nostalgia for these days!

tenc, Well lets say that Shehu's death is disputed. Either way he died due to being shot.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9802E5D91338F930A35752C0A964948260&n=Top%2fNews%2fHealth%2fDiseases%2c%20Conditions%2c%20and%20Health%20Topics%2fSuicides%20and%20Suicide%20Attempts

Stambolic wasn't president when he was killed. Also he was president of the presidency of Serbia, not quite the same as the executive president of the republic.

Oh and the trial against Seselj hasn't started yet and he isn't even charged with anything to do with Kosovo.

Teni, you don't see the distinction between writing graffiti on church walls and words on T-shirts. Graffiti defaces property. And is especially loathsome on religious buildings...whether church, temple or mosque.

post 14 calls himself shqitar. I don't get it. Why is it offensive if a non-albanian says shqiptar. Are albanians shqiptars, or not? BTW, which is the best mosque in Pristina for me to write "Proud to be a Serb" and "Death to all Albanians"? Do you see how byond horrible that is?

vrnjak, kosovo would be 65%pure if it took serbian land up to belgrade but it would never try to rule people that dont want to be part of thet.

Of course this has to be condemned, but, come on, lets not make a big deal out of it. It's just a graffiti - there's always bound to be some minority of people who won't go along with the mainstream.

Graffiti culture is a philosophy of its own, it shouldnt be outrightly linked to ethnic conflict. There's hatered, but one can hardly argue that it represents a majority view. There's highly racial grafiti in many western capitals, yet it cant be taken to mean that they necessairly represent any mainstream view about it.

I remember demonstrations of Serb university students on the Prishtina University campus back in the 1990s, holding pamflets and slogans, 'Dont give the pen to Albanians' - that, to me, represented one of the most ethnically-charged nationalistic rhetoric ever seen. It wasn't a grafiti - writen by a group of people - it was thousands of Serb students entertaining such a view.

To Papajohn,
I'm not offended at all to be called shqiptar by a non-albanian. What this story about?
You are asking for a mosque to write your stuff. Anyhow, I cannot help you since I am not a muslim. Still, if you persist you can find plenty of places to write down what you want. Take it easy. The fate of Kosova and the Albanian people is not to be decided by 1, 100 or 1.000 graphittis.

Destan,

You know very well that if any grafitti advocating the death of any ethnic group appeared in any city in the U.S. that it would be exposed to the most extreme form of condemnation by the civil leaders and the public.

Don't underscore the impact just because its directed towards Serbs.

This is a vengeful act - no matter who did it!

It is true, that you can't condemn an entire minority based on "one incident", but this is one of MANY incidents.

So, if this is how you show your albanian pride, shame on you all -

By the way, where's our buddy Ahmet - not a single post from him on this commentary.

Where does Vrnjak get his/her historical facts from. According him, Albania is 98% pure because it aligned with Nazis in WWII. Did it? If so, how come all the Jews living in Albania were saved and were not handed over? What about all the other thousand Jews who made their way from Serbia and other Balkan countries through to Albania because they knew they would be safe. Who else did this during the WWII?

Over sevety thousdand Albanian partizans fought the Nazi Germans and Italians over four years in Albania and Kosova. Two Albanian partizan divisions also helped Tito out, pushing German troops up to Visegrad. Your history does not seem to have recorded any of this. I wonder why!

Albania is 98 percent pure, not because it rid itself of minorities, but because half of the Albanian lands are outside its borders.

As for Serbia's treatment of its minorties, you only need to look at the crime perpetrated by the Serbian army and Serbian paramilitary thungs in Kosova and Bosnia in 1990s. And, don't blame everything on Milosevic. He could not have rewritten your historical texbooks as well.

BTW, B92 thanks for providing the opportunity for such a frank exchange of historical facts.

Mospyt:

#1: Jews lived in Albania prior to WWII and were allegedly saved by the Albanians according to you?

Where have they gone if they at most constitue 0.02% of the population?

2001 Census Estimate:
Total: 3,069,275
Albanian 3,026,383 98.6%
Greek 35,829 1.2%
Macedonian 4,148 0.1%
Aromanian 992
Montenegrin 678
other 1,245


#2: "What about all the other thousand Jews who made their way from Serbia and other Balkan countries through to Albania because they knew they would be safe. Who else did this during the WWII?"

This may be true, but I was unable to substantiate the assertion. However, much of the ethnic killings caused in southern Serbia were by the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg. It is entirely plausible that the Albanians from Albania had nothing to do with the ethnic cleansing to "purify" Kosovo. But, more to the point of present day empathy for Jews: should a Jew in Kosovo feel a brotherly camaraderie with Albanians as they become ever more radicalized in Islam. See Osama bin Ladin mosque if you haven't already seen it --> http://news.serbianunity.net/2007/05/04/2436


#3 Albanians fighting against Nazis in Albania and Kosovo.

See #2


#4: Albania is 98% pure "not because it rid itself of minorities, but because half of the Albanian lands are outside its borders" makes no sense. Chalk that one up as textbook non sequitur.


#5 "As for Serbia's treatment of its minorties, you only need to look at the crime perpetrated by the Serbian army and Serbian paramilitary thungs in Kosova and Bosnia in 1990s."

Even if it were true, importing blood thirsty mujahadin from far away lands to kill infidels doesn't offset this? Care to see photos of beheaded Serbs being paraded around by Albanians in Kosovo?

Nato wont allow Serbian police and military in Kosovo, but do nothing to prevent things like this from happening?

"Death to all serbs" written in serbian language, that is funy. I can assure you that 99.9% is written by a serb. The reason I am so sure becasue we had some stuppid graffiti in Gjakova and other towns but even though were direted towards serbs they were written in Albanian. End of story.