Govt. funded school demolished in Kosovo

Goes to show that the Kosovo Albanians pay only lip service to building a Multi-ethnic society. As a state with a population of 90% Albanians and mass expulsions this illegal UDI should not have the support of the USA or EU.
Why wasn't a retrospective permit sought? Can Serbs get permits to build anywhere in Kosovo given the attitude of the K.Alb towards Serbs & other minorities? Do Serbs need to seek permission from K.Alb? We do not recognise their authority, as far as Serbs are concerned Kosovo is Serbia! Can the Serbs likewise demolish Kosovo schools? Serbia must make the most of the negative publicity from this stunt to convince the world that the interests of all Kosovo citizens are protected by Serbia and not the self proclaimed Kosovo regime/mafia.

The lack of permit doesn't justify tearing down a school. There should have been a meeting while the school was 'closed' but not torn down. Innocents suffer....again.

This is scandalous. Citing the lack of permit is the feeblest of excuses, given the tens of thousands of illegal constructions across the length of Kosovo against which no action will ever be taken.

One wonders how Kosovo ever expects to be taken seriously as a modern European state when its authorities are prepared harassing vulnerable minorities in this way. Nothing appears to have changed since the Milosevic period except the ethnicity of the victims.

The greater Albanian fasicm at its work again!We need to publicize this and to publicize this effectively.
Albanian leaders want to ethnically cleanse this part of Southern Serbia even if the victims are no Serbs but Turks,Goranis.Period.

No permit? That is is the most silly justification I have ever heard.

Sure, permits and regulations are needed to prevent a free-for-all chaos. But one doesn't go about tearing down buildings because a permit it lacking. You send notices, you see if it is possible to retroactively issue the permit, etc. At worst, you end up in the court, and a judge issue a verdict to tear down the buildings. And in that case you are NOT tearing down the building due to a missing PERMIT - you are tearing it down due to a court ORDER! Is there such an order here? Or is it some zealous local mayor that tries to assert himself and prove he is the local king of the hill?

Get a grip on yourself Kosovars - actions like this is making you look like fools.
--

Question:

If the school "had not the proper permits" as is claimed, why not just use the EU or the UN to appropriate the land under its own control rather than destroy it? Unless the building was a health hazard - which I doubt - this seems like an incredibly stupid move, and the only ones who lose out on this are the Goranis.

It's also cute to see the same Albanian nationalists here trying to pass this off as a Serbian PR stunt.

Note from the civilized world: nobody likes it when schools are demolished. It has a kind of Talibaneqsue character to it.

xheffo, EA, C, Pavaresi:
As others have stated, tearing down a Gorani school just because a permit was not obtained is ludicrous. But to do so in Kosovo, where basic infrastructure is nominal at best, is blatant abuse of a minority.

This is not 'normal' in a democratic state, it is discrimination. And you are defending it.

"...the reconstruction and building works on the school came without an appropriate permit."

I knew that would be the reason since I read the headline of this article.
It is very similar to the Serbian provocation about the "delivery of medical supply for Kosovo Serbs". We all know very well now the Serbian tricks to manipuilate the public and represent themselves as victim.

This is normal to any democratic state...you cant just go to some country and build something without permit. I cant go to Belgrade and bulid a even orth.church without asking someone. Simple as that.

B92 should really ba ashamed of continuing Milosevic propaganda.Do you believe that you still can fool the world of what's going on here.That time is gone forever.

Oh, man! Everything is politicized here. The issue is simple: to counter attempts at widespread construction anarchy throughout Kosovo, the authorities are tearing down buildings that have no permits. Why does this need to be 'ethnicized' when the building happened to belong to a non-Albanian? I realize that thr authorities need to provide a back-up plan i.e. if they are tearing down a school building, they should provide funding for a new one. School matters. But do we know if the Kosovo education ministry is providing such funding? We don't - but thats the job of the B92 to ascertain whether there's Kosovo funding to replace the school. Thats whats objective reporting entails.

I can only regret what Mr. Pera has said. Unfortunately, such racist attitude of considering an entire people as being 'mafia' is precisely what got us into this never-ending conflict. 'Do Serbs need to seek a permission from K-Albanians?' he asks, as if Kosovo ALbanians are low life creatures.

Well, you know, there's a new reality in the Balkans. I was thinking the other night of this hypothetical situation in which Montenegro and Macedonia had recognized Kosovo's independence in the 1990s.

YOu know how Serbia would have responded? It would have probably razed Skopje and Podgorica to the ground - with tanks and missiles.

How did it react this time? They expelled ambassadors.

That to me says that the political regime of the 1990s in Serbia has completely wasted the ability of Serbia to project any meaningful power in the region. Serbia has been reduced in its influence to such an extent that it even talks of economic cooperation with Skopje and Podgorica - one day after they recognized Kosovo.

This new western Balkan reality is significant. It's a political geography in which Serbia will need to get used to being just one player, but by no means as the ONLY 'real' player.

Cheers and peace

In future, the Serbian government and the local Serbian authorities in Kosovo must remember to issue a permit.

They should also ensure that there are Serbian police there to prevent any illegal demolition of buildings by any of the Albanians who are running an illegal government within Serbian territory.

KFOR should also keep the peace within the terms of 1244 and stop ethnicially motivated destructive acts by the Albanians who live in Kosovo.

Building permits are rarely, if ever enforced on the territory of ex-YU. Building demolishing likely to happen only if there is a huge abuse on the government side (see milosevic) or on the other side (property investors on Vir Island who not just built illegally, but refused to pay tax and failed to appeal the decision).

In USA similar is with the traffic enforcement. The speed limits are rarely enforced strictly: it is obvious, enforcing it would mean complete traffic collapse nationwide. That means if you are stopped by the trooper or highway patrol: either you went with a speed not following the traffic flow (your abuse), or the troopers/CHP are on "revenue run" (their abuse). It is not that hard to stay out of trouble in the States. I am not a good driver, but between 1995 and 2008 I did not pay a single fine (knock, knock on the wood).

The question: what happened here? "On the paper" it was probably correct. But we do not know from the article:

- was a warning sent?
- was any venue to appeal?
- who really decided?
- what kind of building permit?
- what authorities are really "authorities"?

Given what is practiced "under normal circumstances", this case seem to me an abuse, even if "on the paper" it looks kosher for some here. From humanitarian point of view it is probably nothing else, but "ethnic cleansing" in disguise.

albanian terror.


will make it´s way into the documents for the ICJ, of course.

I know you probably don't like to admit my friend but Kosova has got its own laws and if anyone chooses to ignore it ,than this will be the end result.And we may not like it, but that's the law.
(Viti i Balit, 12 October 2008 14:01)

Viti i Balit,

This is incorrect. Let's assume, there is Republic of Kosova, it is recognized in Belgrade. Let's assume, I am caught stealing a laptop in Pristina.

A) Correct: they secure the laptop, prevent me from sneaking out, call the police, police escorts me to jail, in few weeks there is a hearing, I have to hire a lawyer. After some negotiating and appealing with the help of lawyer I get 5000 Euro fine plus some few years from the judge. In a year or so the management of the prison makes a proposal to the judge to make the term shorter or longer depending on the behavior, judge makes an other hearing, the term is reduced/prolonged depending on factors, under lucky circumstances I spend only 6 month, but still have to pay 5000 Euro and perform social work every weekend for an other two years.

B) Incorrect: the owner of the computer shop calls the police, police puts me in a small chamber for 6 month without any court verdict, than I pay 5000 bribe to the chef of police and go free.

This is what that EULEX is all about - be it "in line"/legal from 1244 point of view or not. IMO, it would have a very tough task because the general situation is probably closer to B) than to A).

The Albanian comments do reflect it, too. So far no one did noticed a small thing: where was the court decision, where was the lawyer, where was the State's case and where was the appeal?

What happened here was product of corruption, not "law". Law is there, but only judge is the one who can enforce it, otherwise it is self-justice. Self-justice is a crime, so who did that 'dozering HAVE TO BE PUNISHED FOR SELF-JUSTICE. This is how it works in Europe and USA. You want to be part of that system, than please adopt that way of thinking.

I don't think people realise that with the Gorani's, Serbia is fairly strong in the South of our province also and the more the Albanians continue with these provocative actions, the stronger we will get. They had to redraw the municipality border around Prizren to put these people in the minority.

It is very obvious that the Albanians simply cannot live with any of their neighbours and all they want to do it land grab instead of learning to live in harmony.

This will turn around to haunt them very soon I suspect. It really is a shame they though right to ethnically cleanse most of the non-Albanian population out of our province without any attempt to reconcile and return these people after almost a decade. I don't think this will go down well should the tables turn.

Destroying a school is harsh, but Serbia need to get the message. Why is Serbia not building them for Albanians but for Serbs and Gorani?


Why should Serbia build them for Albanians, they stole their land. Besides, millions of euros were promised to the ethnic Albanian leadership at the recent donor conference, they can build their own schools. I wonder what would have happened if this permit situation pertained to a ethnic Albanian school, somehow I don't think it would have been torn down, it would have been given a conditional use permit or something along those lines I believe.

My question is this...Are the ethnic Albanians going to rebuild this school and let the Goranis run it the way they want or will the Albanians (A) rebuild it to indoctrinate the Gorani minority or (B) not rebuild it and come back to tear down ANY building this minority might use to educate themselves in the future.

Also, if this was so cut and dry why did KFOR troops have to accompany the ethnic Albanians...was it in fear of what the Goranis may do to the ethnic Albanians or was it in fear of what the ethnic Albanians would do to this minority if they weren't present, Im pretty sure it's the second one.

I hear the words "multi-ethnic society" constantly coming out of western politicians mouths and ethnic Albanian leaders mouths, but I don't see any true signs of this happening only the usual lip service. I'd like to see actions, not words, showing sincerity regarding such ideals, but it's more than apparent both are using the art of doublespeak. Just because politicians speak such ideals doesn't neccesarily make it true, just like the countries calling Kosovo & Metohija "sui generis" or "a unique case" doesn't make it true (tell it to South Ossetia, Abhkazia, the ETA, Scotland, Transniestr, Nagorno-Karabakh and others).

This is just one example of the Albanian campaign to drive out national minorities like the Gorani. Yet the West continues to claim that the KLA run Kosovo mafia state seeks to build a "multi-ethnic society". No, they hate Goranis and all ethnic minorities and will even bulldoze their schools. Where do minority nationalities flee to when the Albanians do this with the full connivance of KFOR? They flee to Serbia, a model of multi-ethnic unity.

The Albanian Goverenment in Kosovo didn't issue a permit for the education of minorities. No surprise. As such, they destroy anything remotely associated with that activity. Minorities live in lead-contaminated camps under the Same UN and Albanian Leadership!

This is normal to any democratic state...you cant just go to some country and build something without permit. I cant go to Belgrade and bulid a even orth.church without asking someone. Simple as that.
(xheffo, 12 October 2008 11:54)

Xheffo,

A good sample, how a democratic state does react is Croatia versus some builders on Otok Vir/Vir Island. It was/is a community you can call "multi-ethnic" with people from all ex-YU (majority), but also Germans from Germany and Hungarians building homes without permit.

Some homes were demolished and it was a (minor) scandal between Croatia and Hungary. Turned out, it was nothing about "ethnic cleansing", just our dear compatriots conveniently "forgot" to:

- get building permit (true, no one else did)
- obey basic sanitary and environment protection rules building homes within only few meters to the seaside
- pay the "boravista taxa" (tax for renting the home to vacationeers)
- appeal the decision.

Where Croatian authorities did freak out, was the rampant tax abuse, not building illegally. The homes built illegally were not for own use. Week after week, there were dozens of cars parking, each week different cars. The owners told everyone "they are our relatives" and did not pay the tax. Still, the authorities mailed out the paperwork and gave chance to appeal. Who did appeal - their homes were safe.

I feel, this case is somewhat different...

There are about 40,000 Albanians living in Belgrade and you know how many schools or even classrooms teach in Albanian language? Zero, null, nada. Why the democratic Serbia is not building schools for minorities in their own country and leave alone the neighboring countries deal with their minorities. Bottom line, Serbia does not have, as we all recall, a good history in dealing with minorities.
(BK, 12 October 2008 23:26)

Another monstrous lie.

Firstly there are over 100,000 Albanians living and working in and around Belgrade. How many Serbs are there again in Pristina?

Secondly, Serbia's record reagrding its ethnic minorities recently is excellent. Have you ever been to Belgrade, Stara Pazova, Pirot, Bosilegrad, Pirot, Novi Sad where the city council conducts its business in 6 different languages, Subotica, Banat etc. The Slovaks, Hungarians, Bosniaks, Bulgarians and Roma all have their own schools, newspapers, printed media cultural groups and centres all funded by the State.

The Albanians have those rights too in Belgrade and Presevo and in Kosmet where they elected instead to boycott them and kill anyone coperating with Yugoslav state institutions. What happened with tihs school was an abomination. Nobody can justify the KLA authorities destroying a non Albanian school on the flimsiest of reasons. Besides the Ministry of Education in Belgrade does not need permission to apply for planning permission in their own bloody country.

Dont be surprised if the hospitals are next.

A wise judge will always compell, under the penalty of being held liable of contempt to the court, both the school management and the local mayor to work out a solution.
(adrian/bucharest, 12 October 2008 16:58)

Yes, the judge was missing. And I am sad, that neither Serbs nor Albanians did notice that.

No judge = no verdict = no bulldozers.

Reversing the same:

bulldozers + no verdict = self-justice = crime.

It's simple like 1-2-3 and that is what happening in any "normal to any democratic state".

It is sad that something like this has happened. The gorani are a lovely people and it is sad that the albanian goverment in pristina is abusing the gorani. I find it hilarious when albanian posters talk about how ethnic minorities are all equal! Unfortuantely that's how it goes nowadays for the serbs and the gorani living in kosovo....

C,

The scenario was probably very similar to what we suffer from. Our son is visiting a gymnasium in BP. We did hear a hint from the teacher, that while the teacher staff is very enthusiastic, there is some feud between "big dogs" and as a result the school does not have proper funding and was not renovated in last 30 years.

This in BP, not even Albania/Kosovo/what-not. It is a feudal mentality of mutual back-scratching and feud between "big dogs".

What happened here is with 99% probability not some "Horrible Big Boss Albanian in Pristina" signing an order to demolish the building. It was probably a local feud run amok where Gorani lost because whoever had the bad intent had "better connections".

Under normal circumstances (see Croatia and Vir) this cannot happen because Croatia is now a country with relatively good working "checks and balances", but Kosovo is not. As we see, the "relatively good" is a key phrase because even Hungary has long way to go.

Besides - as I understand - it's a Gorane community, so the local decisions should be made as much as possible locally. Kosovo is full of illegally erected buildings. If there was no situation of danger due poor building standard, it was a very poor decision to touch the Gorani community.

Albanian terror and ethnic cleansing plain and simple. A spade is a spade. No puppet state built on injustice ever lasts. They always fall. But since Kosovo is not a state, but a province, I cannot think of a good analogy.

Time for Beograd enforcement of federal statues which protect all of Serbia's citizens. Time for Serbian armed forces to come back and patrol the Serbian enclaves since the communities get their orders from Beograd and NOT Pristina. Time for common sense and justice.

ZK obviously you no nothing about Serbia. In Kosovo prior to the KLA being put in power Albanians had schools in their own language, despite propaganda to the contrary. The fact that the KLA forced their own children to boycott these schools does not mean they didn't exist. In Serbia, Hungarians have schools in their own language, as do numerous other nationalities. Bulgarians (in for instance Banat) have schools in their own language. Virtualy every nationality has this. Can you name another country that has these benefits for national minorities? You can judge a country's minority policy by how well the Romani people get along with it. The Romani people always side with Serbia, and are terrified of the KLA/Albanian extremists because they are being cleansed. I wonder do minorities (ie the Greeks) have schools in their own language in Albania? Ha, doubt it! They put Greeks on trial for espionage.

Govt. funded school demolished in Kosovo
-You can build your Serbian schools only in Serbia, and not in Foreign Country.
This is only a Serbian Provocation and nothing else,
Shame on you....


Soooo...to you education is a provocation? Spoken like a true Talibanista, I guess if the ethnic Albanians cannot indoctrinate the minority populace with their rhetoric, that population will have to do without. I find that extremely mind limited, this was a school, plain and simple, I find the ethnic Albanians defending this action completely out of touch, I guess they are not ready to move into this century.

Also, you talk about building schools only in a particular country, yet the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia and Montenegro want their OWN schools in a foreign country and in some cases get them, this is hypocrisy at it's finest.

>> Serbia has put aside RSD 1.3bn from the budget for projects in Kosovo.


B92, how about adding a paragraph to explain how Serbia doesn't think they need a permit to build anywhere or bring anything in Kosova? Hungary cannot build anywhere in Serbia, and neither can Croatia. If Serbia doesn't recognize the Kosova government, great, let them waste money.

Destroying a school is harsh, but Serbia need to get the message. Why is Serbia not building them for Albanians but for Serbs and Gorani? OK, fr Serbs we can understand, but why leave only the Albanians out?

"There are about 40,000 Albanians living in Belgrade and you know how many schools or even classrooms teach in Albanian language? Zero, null, nada." BK

Are you actually implying that Serbs should learn a foreign language (Albanian) in their own country? Kosovo is still a legal part of Serbia last time I checked. Even it wasn't, it will always remain so in our hearts and minds.

Just because we have no interest in learning Albanian does not give you the moral right to impose it on us. I am not aware of any Serbs who live or want to live in Albania, and thus we do not demand schools in our own language there etc.

Albanian language has always been irrelevant to us because we expect YOU to conform to our host nation. Peace.

This is very cheap attempt to politicize this particular incident,similar incidents are occurring every day in Kosova,and most of them are K-Albanian houses and businesses that actually get demolished.My opinion is no permit no building's as simple as that people have to learn to obey the law, and it doesn't matter if your black,or white, or yellow.

pera,
Do Serbs need to seek permission from K.Alb? We do not recognise their authority, as far as Serbs are concerned

I know you probably don't like to admit my friend but Kosova has got its own laws and if anyone chooses to ignore it ,than this will be the end result.And we may not like it, but that's the law.

It's also cute to see the same Albanian nationalists here trying to pass this off as a Serbian PR stunt.
(Mike, 12 October 2008 18:55)

Mike, what to expect?

Please read through "newkosovareport-dot-com" and see the way they report. Few "gems"...


I fail to see, they would mention, the "scorpons" are in Serbian court. A simple Kosovar - reading it - would think, the trial is in Kosovo:

http://tinyurl.com/4ahj6d


"Conveniently" forgetting, these passports cannot be used to cross the Slovak or Romanian borders, they are in lieu of driver's license. Like we can't use D/L to cross to Canada, but once in Canada we can use our D/L to verify the identity:

http://tinyurl.com/3wn4u9


I find this one particularly cute. 77 "in favor", 74 "abstain", 6 "against", 28 were simply not present. We can formulate as we want, but this formulation beats everything I did read so far:

http://tinyurl.com/4gj8tp

No wonder. Why do they not publish this BLOG? The writer is American, Republican voter from Montana, she works at UNMIK.

http://www.mtcowgirl.us/kosovolog.html

Typical:

"Hey, Mr. PM Thaci, how is that 24/7 electricity promise going?"
"My friend very smartly responded that there is 24/7 electricity in Kosovo, just not in all locations."

There are about 40,000 Albanians living in Belgrade and you know how many schools or even classrooms teach in Albanian language? Zero, null, nada. Why the democratic Serbia is not building schools for minorities in their own country and leave alone the neighboring countries deal with their minorities. Bottom line, Serbia does not have, as we all recall, a good history in dealing with minorities.

There are about 40,000 Albanians living in Belgrade and you know how many schools or even classrooms teach in Albanian language? Zero, null, nada. Why the democratic Serbia is not building schools for minorities in their own country and leave alone the neighboring countries deal with their minorities. Bottom line, Serbia does not have, as we all recall, a good history in dealing with minorities.



Please, Ive been to that part of the world and although there may be little or no Albanian schools in Belgrade there are plenty in the Presevo Valley and Bujanovac (especially primary and secondary schools). Im sure there are many more Albanian languaged schools throughout all of Serbia than there are Serbian or other minority speaking schools throughout all of Kosovo.

As far as history goes, I haven't seen anything in the past 100 years that indicates the Albanians in the region are dealing with minority issues any sweeter or more tolerant than the Serbs.

Jan Andersen,

With all due respect, you are being judgemental. Big time. But, thats no surprise.

You have no information regarding the case, except from this B92 reporting - yet you are almost explictly assuming that there was no court order. Its obvious you leave no room for giving the benefit of the doubt to the local authorities, and you quite explictly err on the side of the 'victims.'

There's so much distrust in the western Balkans. The news item by B92 gives so little information on the issue - yet everyone's jumping to interpret the case as either mafioso-instigated, an attempt at ethnic cleansing, or a pure action to enforce rule of law.

We're so poisoned with propaganda that facts don't matter any more. We simply do not need them to inform our prevailing worldviews, but even in the presence of facts we would surely twist them around to support our pre-determined outlook of the region.

Yep, Jan - that's what Croatians did in Vir.

1) Mayor complains
2) The issue goes up till Croatian Environment Protection Minister
3) She issues the guidelines, asks the local court to handle the case
4) Court makes a hearing
5) Court makes a decision
6) The decision is mailed, reasonable time given to appeal
7) The court has the second hearing, who appeals/pays the tax are spared the 'dozering
8) The court issues the final decision
9) Dozers came

Reasonable enough, in my opinion.

As a PR move, this is quite foolish and self-damaging from the "new kosovo authorities".
So, they miss a permit. Is it because they just refused to ask for it from some authorities they do not recognise (so it's just the text on the stamp that is the problem) or because they built for ex. on top of a water/gas pipe so the building is damaging a greater public interest?
The power given to the public authorities by the citizens, resides in the fact that the public authorities are called upon to look for and protect the public interest, which in the specific situation means proper fulfilment of the legal and technical norms regarding constructions set forth by the applicable laws.
Public institutions, like schools, exist in order to serve another public interest, access to education in this case. So, which of the two is more important?
A wise judge will always compell, under the penalty of being held liable of contempt to the court, both the school management and the local mayor to work out a solution.

This wouldn't happen in the North. K albs will have an easy time demolishing the rest of those "illegal structures" occupied by the remaining minorities. How sophisticated these K albs are now that they understand concepts like "permits", and "procedure". I can see great things in store for them.

BK,

Serbia treats its minorities better than any other country in Europe and maybe even the western world for that matter. And they have always had a very good record of doing so.

About this school the Albanians just tore down. I thought the new and independent Kosovo was supposed to be "multicultural"... so why would it matter who built the school or where the money came from?

This kind of unreasonableness the Albanians are displaying is an example of why Kosovo will never be independent and why Serbia will again have formal control over their southern provence in the not so distent future.

Pathetic! How pathetic! The K-Abanian government in cahoots with their masters, tearing down a school. Pathetic. Shame on you. Are you gonna build another one now with funds from the E.U...or do you have to get a new permit. Absolultely pathetic!

I can only regret what Mr. Pera has said. Unfortunately, such racist attitude of considering an entire people as being 'mafia' is precisely what got us into this never-ending conflict. 'Do Serbs need to seek a permission from K-Albanians?' he asks, as if Kosovo ALbanians are low life creatures.

In response I should state that 'C' has completely misinterpreted my statements I am neither racist nor Mr.
As for the regime/Mafia I was of course referring to the Kosovo government and NOT the good people of Kosovo.

Pera (Mrs)

No, Pera. Thats a really cheap shot. Having spent most of my life in the region, that kind of 'the government is the mafia, not its people' propaganda holds no water.

Maybe a naive westerner might buy into it, not me. Thats so typical of a Serbian double-game, where they are trying to be nice to you on the formal level, yet stabbing you on the back at the next moment.

The people of Kosovo do not need the love of the Serbs. I know this very statement is harsh, but when we think of the murderous Serbian government of the 1990s - we cannot so simply divide the 'people' from the 'government.' For Kosovars, they were/are the same.

Milosevic didn't take over Serbia out of the blue. There was wide popular support for his policies.

It was only when he made Serbia implode from within that the 'people' rose to bring him down. It wasnt for his misdeeds, it was because your living standards in Belgrade were thumbing you too much.

So, even though Kosovo's government is most probably captured by narrow interests who are in some way linked with organized crime - that would be nothing new for a region in which mafia has substantial influence in any elected government. It's not a Kosovo phenomenon. It's the same in Serbia. As far as I know, we never had the mafia assassinate a prime minister in broad daylight.

So, Kosovo government's links with mafia would probably be of the magnitute that corresponds with the regional trends. But, to go outright in labelling a government as 'mafioso' implies a 'black-and-white' mentality in which you are merely playing a double game i.e. first in trying to convince the 'ordinary people' that you guys love us, and second to hide a very racist attitude toward the average Kosovo Albanian.

No one, NO ONE, in the whole world that is not an animal torn down a school. A school is for education of children and believe me, no ethnicity is more valuable than the other. Period. This is out in the world press already and believe me, it does not look good for Kosovo. Also ICJ members and governments read this. The only one this is great news for is Serbia. In my profession I have heard at least 15 times today that "the Albanians are really crazy" and "this is one of the biggest events in Kosovo in 10 years". Judge for your self.

Say what? 100,000 Albanians living and working in and around Belgrade? Where did you get these figures from? Who did this census? Or when was this census conducted? I searched over the internet, and the largest number of Albanians living in Serbia that I came across is this: 50,000 est (a census conducted in 2007) (referral: Wikipedia [link] “Regions with significant populations” section). We’re talking here in the whole Serbia. But some other figures I came across are as follows (again, according to Wikipedia [link] - under the section “Belgrade”):

“Belgrade has a small Albanian community. In the census of 1981, 8,212 Albanians were registered. In 1991 there lived only 4,985 Albanians in Belgrade. After the Kosovo War this number decreased to 1,492.

Year 1948 - Albanians 1137
Year 1953 - Albanians 3262
Year 1961 - Albanians 8262
Year 1971 - Albanians 6978
Year 1981 - Albanians 8212
Year 1991 - Albanians 4985
Year 2002 - Albanians 1492”

Next year we’ll have the updated and the new census in the independent Kosova and will provide you with the exact number of Serbs living all over Kosova!

“Besides the Ministry of Education in Belgrade does not need permission to apply for planning permission in their own bloody country.”
(Niall O'Doherty, 13 October 2008 15:35)

Perfectly said Niall, “bloody country” is the term that perfectly describes Kosova from the Serbian perspective. I think you guys have started to see the big picture here. No one is arguing the permissions that the Ministry of Education in Belgrade needs to construct schools or whatever in Serbia, we’re talking about Kosova here.

If, alleging Kosova is Serbia (your, Serbian, point of view), Kosova decides to construct a school in Serbia, you are saying that we don’t need a permission form no one to build one? Or maybe we’re talking here about double-standards that you Serbs tend to mention them a lot. Well, what goes around comes around.

About the school construction/demolition, well guys, no one is above the law. We are only 8 months old as a STATE, and we prefer to obey the law rather than disobey it!
(AO KS, 14 October 2008 02:32)

Stop twisting my words. If you want to have a constructive and mature argument then please engage in proper discourse.

100K Albanians in Belgrade, well see here -
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/mostert/Mostert1.html

and here -
http://opinionleaders.htmlplanet.com/prealbrule.html

and here -
http://byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2007/09/western-allies.html

and here -
http://eatthestate.org/03-37/WarWatch.htm

and here -
http://evattmachado.com/randy/english.html

Serbia as you know is a bastion of peaceful co-existense and multiethnic society. I dont have to tell you how many times that in the apartment block where I lived in BG I counted some 17 different nationalities including quelle surpise - Albanians. If Serbia really wanted to get rid of its ethnic Albanian, Croat, Bosniak or Slovenian populations they would have long time ago. Thats why I always point out to the protaganists of the Western propaganda machine who spread nothing but lives.

Guys, I'm not a Serb nor do I have any link with the place but livinig there really opened my eyes and totally contradicted the biased accounts that we in the West were fed for years. The Balkan Nazis they were called. Well I like to point out to my many friends that they should come to Belgrade and see for themselves the peacefull coexistence of many different groups together.

Next August I'm off to Guca to see for myself the richness and joy that the Roma community have brought to Serbian society.

ZK obviously you no nothing about Serbia.
(Brian, 13 October 2008 06:51)
--
Brian, I assume you meant BK and not ZK as I do not disagree with what you say.

The reason that this becomes "politicized" is that because the ethnic - Albanian PISG continues to ignore the illegal building- which is often dangerous.

From my time in Kosovo with US KFOR I can count and list unmeasurable examples of ethnic - Alb construction but I will limit this to two. In the village of Buzovik outside of Binac, KEK and ethnic - Albs built power lines on the ruins of a pre - schism monastery to the Archangel Gabriel and the nearby graveyard. Has the municipality of K. Vitina been out to remove the lines, or protect private property, no?

In the village of Binac itself next to the multi-ethnic school an ethnic - K Alb moslem moved in on illegal property and illegally connected his house to the school's power lines. KFOR, myself being involved in the projects, invested thousands of Euros in the refurbishment of the schools of the community. Illegal power lines are dangerous and often spark fire. But has KEK or the municipality addressed this issue for the safety and security of the children of Binac or to foster the relationship between the Christians of this community.

I have also been to Serbia proper and Belgrade and I can attest to the number of minorities living in harmony in the rest of the country.

Well those bulldozer will be pretty busy there are no way to find out what is has been legally built and illegally built. Oh well Multi ethinc and those Kfor soliders just sealed the cake. How are issueing the proper documentation have the school pay for it and be done with that was not probably offered ok. back the drawing board.

There is LAW in the independent Kosova, and people from other countries such Serbia cant just come and built whatever they like to.
We plan to follow the law, we will not be a rogue state like Serbia is.
CG, there is no fascism in Kosova but look for the meetings of neo-nazis in Serbia.

What an outrageous action. This is a harassed minority being attacked here.

Govt. funded school demolished in Kosovo
-You can build your Serbian schools only in Serbia, and not in Foreign Country.
This is only a Serbian Provocation and nothing else,
Shame on you....

Ataman

The case in Vir, Croatia has a perfect parallel to Kosovo.

1. There were (are) 8-9000 illegally built houses/apartments in Vir

2. Some big dick realises that foreigners are buying up apartmans/houses from Hungary and other countries

3. These houses were built according to the local regulations effective before 2004

4. They change RETROSPECTIVELY the regulations and declare that less than 70 metres from the see it is illegal to build and even CONTINUE TO EXIST

5. Demolishing verdict is mailed to Hungarians 3 days prior to bulldozers appear

5. Hungarian owners are prevented from entering houses and taking out movable properties

6. Rest of 9000 illegal homes are offered to be legalized on the island

If we call this procedure the right course of action in Croatia, it is the right course of action in Kosovo as well.

Of course Hungarians were upset, because unlike in the Balkans in general, in Hungary there are no illegally built houses, parobably 1% which is torn down afterwards.

The diplomatic tension was caused by the righteous outrage of Hungarians whose property was destroyed, while their neighbour's property built absolutely illegally could remain.

Right according to the book, but wrong morally.

However, because I know Serbian attitude, I can easily believe they just said, Kosovo is Serbia and did not even bother to apply for permit or appeal the decision.

I wonder if Hungarians built a school in Szabadka (Subotica) saying we don't need permit since apart from the last few decades, for a thousand years this has been Hungarian land, what would Serbia do?

There is no excuse for tearing down a school. An institute of education. There is no excuse in the world. There is no legal justification for tearing down a school. This is as bad as the Taliban tearing down schools in Afghanistan with other means. Shame on you. Let the world see with its own eyes the reality of their creation now.

Now everyone can see the true face of these ...

rocky london,

The ironic thing is that there is a Serbian school - in London. There is also an Albanian one.
The point you're making attemtps to justify this revolting act of denial of schooling.

It would not surprise me if we hear Beslan attack being justified on these pages due to the rampant venomous anti-Serbo-Russian propaganda floating about new colonial world...oops, I meant ''democratic''.

hruz, you have a point. however, vojvodina is not a disputed territory. Is is accepted that it is a part of serbia, no disputes about it. Kosovo is a disputed issue (thats what both serbs and albanians are missing). It is recognized by powerful countries, but does not have a UN seat and no recognition from other very powerful countries (Russia, China, India, Brasil) so therefore it is disputed. That is the main difference.

This is not 'bad PR for Kosovo' as some of you are trying to convince yourselves. Well, outside the region this could only make some Russian peasants angry and that's it.
If Serbia really cared about these people (Goranis) they would have made sure that all documentation needed was in order i.e. forget everything else HELP the people. But obviously they had a different agenda by trying to undermine Kosovan authorities. In normal circumstances maybe this school wouldn't get demolished but since its main purpose was to symbolise Serbia's bullying attitude than it had to go down. And down it went.

Here is my 2 cents worth:

1 -- bulldozing a school, unless it is about to fall down on the kids, is just insane. i just do not get it. natually, i -- we -- don't have all of the facts, and b-92 and other such media outlets have a bad habit of... how shall i say it -- leaving certain things out. but even so, it seems so crazy to me. who is so awash in money?? in schools?? classrooms, equipment. i mean, don't get me started. can you guess that i'm an educator and have been working in schools for many, many years?

2 -- some of my highly esteemed colleagues waste no opportunities to "club" kosovo/a and its govt one way or another. of course, this is nothing new, this is standard fare. if the blgd regime purposely and deliberately works in kosovo/a (as it does) to destabilize and humiliate the govt in pristina, then we need to be very clear about things. in this case, i think there is plenty of guilt (not to mention stupidity) from and on all sides.

there is only one real way to change this hostile environment, and that is for the blgd regime to recognize the govt in pristina, or at the very least, sit down at the table with them, and as equals, not as colonial master with their underlings.

otherwise, who suffers? but the common people, the children (of whatever ethnicity) that we all claim to support and care for.

thank you.

roberto

Don't trust Serbs even when they bring gifts... that are not coordinated with the authorities in Prishtina.

Serbia has all rights to be interested on the Serbian minority in Kosova but it has to go through the leagl authorities in Prishtina. If Belgrade by-pass Prishtina than the authorities in Prishtina have all rights to exercise their power and reestablish the rule of the legitimate law.

why isn't B92 broadcasting the event on TV, if we see it in camera then OK, you can freely call it abuse of human rights cause we have illegal buildings in center of Pristina today, but since we are informed only by text, consider it as self made up or exaggerated

People, I have a close friend in that area and I called him some minutes ago... he says that no school was destroyed. However, if that really happened (tomorrow I will get more information from the ground), it is a terrible decision from whoever it was.
The bad thing is seeing all these prejudices from most of you here... doesnt give me that much hope for the future.

Firstly there are over 100,000 Albanians living and working in and around Belgrade. How many Serbs are there again in Pristina?
(Niall O'Doherty, 13 October 2008 15:35)

Say what? 100,000 Albanians living and working in and around Belgrade? Where did you get these figures from? Who did this census? Or when was this census conducted? I searched over the internet, and the largest number of Albanians living in Serbia that I came across is this: 50,000 est (a census conducted in 2007) (referral: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanians “Regions with significant populations” section). We’re talking here in the whole Serbia. But some other figures I came across are as follows (again, according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanians_in_Serbia - under the section “Belgrade”):

“Belgrade has a small Albanian community. In the census of 1981, 8,212 Albanians were registered. In 1991 there lived only 4,985 Albanians in Belgrade. After the Kosovo War this number decreased to 1,492.

Year 1948 - Albanians 1137
Year 1953 - Albanians 3262
Year 1961 - Albanians 8262
Year 1971 - Albanians 6978
Year 1981 - Albanians 8212
Year 1991 - Albanians 4985
Year 2002 - Albanians 1492”

Next year we’ll have the updated and the new census in the independent Kosova and will provide you with the exact number of Serbs living all over Kosova!

“Besides the Ministry of Education in Belgrade does not need permission to apply for planning permission in their own bloody country.”
(Niall O'Doherty, 13 October 2008 15:35)

Perfectly said Niall, “bloody country” is the term that perfectly describes Kosova from the Serbian perspective. I think you guys have started to see the big picture here. No one is arguing the permissions that the Ministry of Education in Belgrade needs to construct schools or whatever in Serbia, we’re talking about Kosova here.

If, alleging Kosova is Serbia (your, Serbian, point of view), Kosova decides to construct a school in Serbia, you are saying that we don’t need a permission form no one to build one? Or maybe we’re talking here about double-standards that you Serbs tend to mention them a lot. Well, what goes around comes around.

About the school construction/demolition, well guys, no one is above the law. We are only 8 months old as a STATE, and we prefer to obey the law rather than disobey it!

To everyone.


I think you all have to stop getting too emotional on the subject,

It was a very simple, you dont build anything without a permition, be it church , musk, school, hospital.

Serbia doing what it does best provoke!

Kosova sending messages to them that we are independent, and this is our country, our laws.

If Serbia wants to help serbs in Kosovo there are other ways, they can pick up the phone and call Kosovo leadership.

99.9% of all demolitions in Kosovo are illegal properties belonging to Albanians. I am not here to argue if this policy is the correct one or not, but one thing that it is not for sure is targeted at a particular ethnicity.

There needs to be work done on the streamlining of urban planning, permits etc, and the population informed and educated on it for sure. But this is not a govt. decision alone, there are court orders for this. The problem may be that each case is not looked very specifically, instead the demolitions are happening en masse, just like the illegal building. A solution without politicizing the issue needs to be found soon in my opinion.

Niall O'Doherty, I checked every link you posted here, but they are all out-dated! I provided you with the most recent census made in Serbia, so these figures you delivered here are old (those that had dates on them were all 1999, and the others had no dates at all).
I would really like to believe in those figures that you provided here, but they are old. That's why nations conduct censuses every once in a while. So, unless you provide me with some serious and updated figures, the Wikipedia figures are the ones that show the real number of the Albanians living in Belgrade.

"Serbia as you know is a bastion of peaceful co-existense and multiethnic society."

If there's a such thing as Serbia being a bastion of peaceful co-existence and multi-ethnic society, probably millions (or billions?) of people all over the world are sick and ill-thinking snobs. It's the propaganda coming from people like you from the west that present Serbia as a peace-loving nation. But hey, you should have been in Kosova or elsewhere in the Balkans during the wars so you could see who the real Serbia is.

"If Serbia really wanted to get rid of its ethnic Albanian, Croat, Bosniak or Slovenian populations they would have long time ago."

Did you see those figures I provided you in my previous post?

Year 1948 - Albanians 1137
Year 1953 - Albanians 3262
Year 1961 - Albanians 8262
Year 1971 - Albanians 6978
Year 1981 - Albanians 8212
Year 1991 - Albanians 4985
Year 2002 - Albanians 1492

Do you see the number of Albanians increasing and decreasing during the years? What do you think these figures show? A peace-loving and a multi-ethnic Serbia? No man, no!

But nevermind, it's your word against mine (and vice-versa).

One more thing: The United Arab Emirates has just recognized Kosova - well done Serbian diplomacy ;)

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/14/news/ML-Emirates-Kosovo-Recognition.php

Greets from Prishtina!

B92 should really ba ashamed of continuing Milosevic propaganda.Do you believe that you still can fool the world of what's going on here.That time is gone forever.

"...the reconstruction and building works on the school came without an appropriate permit."

I knew that would be the reason since I read the headline of this article.
It is very similar to the Serbian provocation about the "delivery of medical supply for Kosovo Serbs". We all know very well now the Serbian tricks to manipuilate the public and represent themselves as victim.

This is normal to any democratic state...you cant just go to some country and build something without permit. I cant go to Belgrade and bulid a even orth.church without asking someone. Simple as that.

Oh, man! Everything is politicized here. The issue is simple: to counter attempts at widespread construction anarchy throughout Kosovo, the authorities are tearing down buildings that have no permits. Why does this need to be 'ethnicized' when the building happened to belong to a non-Albanian? I realize that thr authorities need to provide a back-up plan i.e. if they are tearing down a school building, they should provide funding for a new one. School matters. But do we know if the Kosovo education ministry is providing such funding? We don't - but thats the job of the B92 to ascertain whether there's Kosovo funding to replace the school. Thats whats objective reporting entails.

I can only regret what Mr. Pera has said. Unfortunately, such racist attitude of considering an entire people as being 'mafia' is precisely what got us into this never-ending conflict. 'Do Serbs need to seek a permission from K-Albanians?' he asks, as if Kosovo ALbanians are low life creatures.

Well, you know, there's a new reality in the Balkans. I was thinking the other night of this hypothetical situation in which Montenegro and Macedonia had recognized Kosovo's independence in the 1990s.

YOu know how Serbia would have responded? It would have probably razed Skopje and Podgorica to the ground - with tanks and missiles.

How did it react this time? They expelled ambassadors.

That to me says that the political regime of the 1990s in Serbia has completely wasted the ability of Serbia to project any meaningful power in the region. Serbia has been reduced in its influence to such an extent that it even talks of economic cooperation with Skopje and Podgorica - one day after they recognized Kosovo.

This new western Balkan reality is significant. It's a political geography in which Serbia will need to get used to being just one player, but by no means as the ONLY 'real' player.

Cheers and peace

>> Serbia has put aside RSD 1.3bn from the budget for projects in Kosovo.


B92, how about adding a paragraph to explain how Serbia doesn't think they need a permit to build anywhere or bring anything in Kosova? Hungary cannot build anywhere in Serbia, and neither can Croatia. If Serbia doesn't recognize the Kosova government, great, let them waste money.

Destroying a school is harsh, but Serbia need to get the message. Why is Serbia not building them for Albanians but for Serbs and Gorani? OK, fr Serbs we can understand, but why leave only the Albanians out?

There are about 40,000 Albanians living in Belgrade and you know how many schools or even classrooms teach in Albanian language? Zero, null, nada. Why the democratic Serbia is not building schools for minorities in their own country and leave alone the neighboring countries deal with their minorities. Bottom line, Serbia does not have, as we all recall, a good history in dealing with minorities.

This is very cheap attempt to politicize this particular incident,similar incidents are occurring every day in Kosova,and most of them are K-Albanian houses and businesses that actually get demolished.My opinion is no permit no building's as simple as that people have to learn to obey the law, and it doesn't matter if your black,or white, or yellow.

pera,
Do Serbs need to seek permission from K.Alb? We do not recognise their authority, as far as Serbs are concerned

I know you probably don't like to admit my friend but Kosova has got its own laws and if anyone chooses to ignore it ,than this will be the end result.And we may not like it, but that's the law.

Jan Andersen,

With all due respect, you are being judgemental. Big time. But, thats no surprise.

You have no information regarding the case, except from this B92 reporting - yet you are almost explictly assuming that there was no court order. Its obvious you leave no room for giving the benefit of the doubt to the local authorities, and you quite explictly err on the side of the 'victims.'

There's so much distrust in the western Balkans. The news item by B92 gives so little information on the issue - yet everyone's jumping to interpret the case as either mafioso-instigated, an attempt at ethnic cleansing, or a pure action to enforce rule of law.

We're so poisoned with propaganda that facts don't matter any more. We simply do not need them to inform our prevailing worldviews, but even in the presence of facts we would surely twist them around to support our pre-determined outlook of the region.

Govt. funded school demolished in Kosovo
-You can build your Serbian schools only in Serbia, and not in Foreign Country.
This is only a Serbian Provocation and nothing else,
Shame on you....

The greater Albanian fasicm at its work again!We need to publicize this and to publicize this effectively.
Albanian leaders want to ethnically cleanse this part of Southern Serbia even if the victims are no Serbs but Turks,Goranis.Period.

Destroying a school is harsh, but Serbia need to get the message. Why is Serbia not building them for Albanians but for Serbs and Gorani?


Why should Serbia build them for Albanians, they stole their land. Besides, millions of euros were promised to the ethnic Albanian leadership at the recent donor conference, they can build their own schools. I wonder what would have happened if this permit situation pertained to a ethnic Albanian school, somehow I don't think it would have been torn down, it would have been given a conditional use permit or something along those lines I believe.

My question is this...Are the ethnic Albanians going to rebuild this school and let the Goranis run it the way they want or will the Albanians (A) rebuild it to indoctrinate the Gorani minority or (B) not rebuild it and come back to tear down ANY building this minority might use to educate themselves in the future.

Also, if this was so cut and dry why did KFOR troops have to accompany the ethnic Albanians...was it in fear of what the Goranis may do to the ethnic Albanians or was it in fear of what the ethnic Albanians would do to this minority if they weren't present, Im pretty sure it's the second one.

I hear the words "multi-ethnic society" constantly coming out of western politicians mouths and ethnic Albanian leaders mouths, but I don't see any true signs of this happening only the usual lip service. I'd like to see actions, not words, showing sincerity regarding such ideals, but it's more than apparent both are using the art of doublespeak. Just because politicians speak such ideals doesn't neccesarily make it true, just like the countries calling Kosovo & Metohija "sui generis" or "a unique case" doesn't make it true (tell it to South Ossetia, Abhkazia, the ETA, Scotland, Transniestr, Nagorno-Karabakh and others).

There is LAW in the independent Kosova, and people from other countries such Serbia cant just come and built whatever they like to.
We plan to follow the law, we will not be a rogue state like Serbia is.
CG, there is no fascism in Kosova but look for the meetings of neo-nazis in Serbia.

No, Pera. Thats a really cheap shot. Having spent most of my life in the region, that kind of 'the government is the mafia, not its people' propaganda holds no water.

Maybe a naive westerner might buy into it, not me. Thats so typical of a Serbian double-game, where they are trying to be nice to you on the formal level, yet stabbing you on the back at the next moment.

The people of Kosovo do not need the love of the Serbs. I know this very statement is harsh, but when we think of the murderous Serbian government of the 1990s - we cannot so simply divide the 'people' from the 'government.' For Kosovars, they were/are the same.

Milosevic didn't take over Serbia out of the blue. There was wide popular support for his policies.

It was only when he made Serbia implode from within that the 'people' rose to bring him down. It wasnt for his misdeeds, it was because your living standards in Belgrade were thumbing you too much.

So, even though Kosovo's government is most probably captured by narrow interests who are in some way linked with organized crime - that would be nothing new for a region in which mafia has substantial influence in any elected government. It's not a Kosovo phenomenon. It's the same in Serbia. As far as I know, we never had the mafia assassinate a prime minister in broad daylight.

So, Kosovo government's links with mafia would probably be of the magnitute that corresponds with the regional trends. But, to go outright in labelling a government as 'mafioso' implies a 'black-and-white' mentality in which you are merely playing a double game i.e. first in trying to convince the 'ordinary people' that you guys love us, and second to hide a very racist attitude toward the average Kosovo Albanian.

This is not 'bad PR for Kosovo' as some of you are trying to convince yourselves. Well, outside the region this could only make some Russian peasants angry and that's it.
If Serbia really cared about these people (Goranis) they would have made sure that all documentation needed was in order i.e. forget everything else HELP the people. But obviously they had a different agenda by trying to undermine Kosovan authorities. In normal circumstances maybe this school wouldn't get demolished but since its main purpose was to symbolise Serbia's bullying attitude than it had to go down. And down it went.

Don't trust Serbs even when they bring gifts... that are not coordinated with the authorities in Prishtina.

Serbia has all rights to be interested on the Serbian minority in Kosova but it has to go through the leagl authorities in Prishtina. If Belgrade by-pass Prishtina than the authorities in Prishtina have all rights to exercise their power and reestablish the rule of the legitimate law.

Here is my 2 cents worth:

1 -- bulldozing a school, unless it is about to fall down on the kids, is just insane. i just do not get it. natually, i -- we -- don't have all of the facts, and b-92 and other such media outlets have a bad habit of... how shall i say it -- leaving certain things out. but even so, it seems so crazy to me. who is so awash in money?? in schools?? classrooms, equipment. i mean, don't get me started. can you guess that i'm an educator and have been working in schools for many, many years?

2 -- some of my highly esteemed colleagues waste no opportunities to "club" kosovo/a and its govt one way or another. of course, this is nothing new, this is standard fare. if the blgd regime purposely and deliberately works in kosovo/a (as it does) to destabilize and humiliate the govt in pristina, then we need to be very clear about things. in this case, i think there is plenty of guilt (not to mention stupidity) from and on all sides.

there is only one real way to change this hostile environment, and that is for the blgd regime to recognize the govt in pristina, or at the very least, sit down at the table with them, and as equals, not as colonial master with their underlings.

otherwise, who suffers? but the common people, the children (of whatever ethnicity) that we all claim to support and care for.

thank you.

roberto

albanian terror.


will make it´s way into the documents for the ICJ, of course.

This is just one example of the Albanian campaign to drive out national minorities like the Gorani. Yet the West continues to claim that the KLA run Kosovo mafia state seeks to build a "multi-ethnic society". No, they hate Goranis and all ethnic minorities and will even bulldoze their schools. Where do minority nationalities flee to when the Albanians do this with the full connivance of KFOR? They flee to Serbia, a model of multi-ethnic unity.

why isn't B92 broadcasting the event on TV, if we see it in camera then OK, you can freely call it abuse of human rights cause we have illegal buildings in center of Pristina today, but since we are informed only by text, consider it as self made up or exaggerated

99.9% of all demolitions in Kosovo are illegal properties belonging to Albanians. I am not here to argue if this policy is the correct one or not, but one thing that it is not for sure is targeted at a particular ethnicity.

There needs to be work done on the streamlining of urban planning, permits etc, and the population informed and educated on it for sure. But this is not a govt. decision alone, there are court orders for this. The problem may be that each case is not looked very specifically, instead the demolitions are happening en masse, just like the illegal building. A solution without politicizing the issue needs to be found soon in my opinion.

The lack of permit doesn't justify tearing down a school. There should have been a meeting while the school was 'closed' but not torn down. Innocents suffer....again.

Goes to show that the Kosovo Albanians pay only lip service to building a Multi-ethnic society. As a state with a population of 90% Albanians and mass expulsions this illegal UDI should not have the support of the USA or EU.
Why wasn't a retrospective permit sought? Can Serbs get permits to build anywhere in Kosovo given the attitude of the K.Alb towards Serbs & other minorities? Do Serbs need to seek permission from K.Alb? We do not recognise their authority, as far as Serbs are concerned Kosovo is Serbia! Can the Serbs likewise demolish Kosovo schools? Serbia must make the most of the negative publicity from this stunt to convince the world that the interests of all Kosovo citizens are protected by Serbia and not the self proclaimed Kosovo regime/mafia.

This is scandalous. Citing the lack of permit is the feeblest of excuses, given the tens of thousands of illegal constructions across the length of Kosovo against which no action will ever be taken.

One wonders how Kosovo ever expects to be taken seriously as a modern European state when its authorities are prepared harassing vulnerable minorities in this way. Nothing appears to have changed since the Milosevic period except the ethnicity of the victims.

Building permits are rarely, if ever enforced on the territory of ex-YU. Building demolishing likely to happen only if there is a huge abuse on the government side (see milosevic) or on the other side (property investors on Vir Island who not just built illegally, but refused to pay tax and failed to appeal the decision).

In USA similar is with the traffic enforcement. The speed limits are rarely enforced strictly: it is obvious, enforcing it would mean complete traffic collapse nationwide. That means if you are stopped by the trooper or highway patrol: either you went with a speed not following the traffic flow (your abuse), or the troopers/CHP are on "revenue run" (their abuse). It is not that hard to stay out of trouble in the States. I am not a good driver, but between 1995 and 2008 I did not pay a single fine (knock, knock on the wood).

The question: what happened here? "On the paper" it was probably correct. But we do not know from the article:

- was a warning sent?
- was any venue to appeal?
- who really decided?
- what kind of building permit?
- what authorities are really "authorities"?

Given what is practiced "under normal circumstances", this case seem to me an abuse, even if "on the paper" it looks kosher for some here. From humanitarian point of view it is probably nothing else, but "ethnic cleansing" in disguise.

This is normal to any democratic state...you cant just go to some country and build something without permit. I cant go to Belgrade and bulid a even orth.church without asking someone. Simple as that.
(xheffo, 12 October 2008 11:54)

Xheffo,

A good sample, how a democratic state does react is Croatia versus some builders on Otok Vir/Vir Island. It was/is a community you can call "multi-ethnic" with people from all ex-YU (majority), but also Germans from Germany and Hungarians building homes without permit.

Some homes were demolished and it was a (minor) scandal between Croatia and Hungary. Turned out, it was nothing about "ethnic cleansing", just our dear compatriots conveniently "forgot" to:

- get building permit (true, no one else did)
- obey basic sanitary and environment protection rules building homes within only few meters to the seaside
- pay the "boravista taxa" (tax for renting the home to vacationeers)
- appeal the decision.

Where Croatian authorities did freak out, was the rampant tax abuse, not building illegally. The homes built illegally were not for own use. Week after week, there were dozens of cars parking, each week different cars. The owners told everyone "they are our relatives" and did not pay the tax. Still, the authorities mailed out the paperwork and gave chance to appeal. Who did appeal - their homes were safe.

I feel, this case is somewhat different...

No permit? That is is the most silly justification I have ever heard.

Sure, permits and regulations are needed to prevent a free-for-all chaos. But one doesn't go about tearing down buildings because a permit it lacking. You send notices, you see if it is possible to retroactively issue the permit, etc. At worst, you end up in the court, and a judge issue a verdict to tear down the buildings. And in that case you are NOT tearing down the building due to a missing PERMIT - you are tearing it down due to a court ORDER! Is there such an order here? Or is it some zealous local mayor that tries to assert himself and prove he is the local king of the hill?

Get a grip on yourself Kosovars - actions like this is making you look like fools.
--

I can only regret what Mr. Pera has said. Unfortunately, such racist attitude of considering an entire people as being 'mafia' is precisely what got us into this never-ending conflict. 'Do Serbs need to seek a permission from K-Albanians?' he asks, as if Kosovo ALbanians are low life creatures.

In response I should state that 'C' has completely misinterpreted my statements I am neither racist nor Mr.
As for the regime/Mafia I was of course referring to the Kosovo government and NOT the good people of Kosovo.

Pera (Mrs)

xheffo, EA, C, Pavaresi:
As others have stated, tearing down a Gorani school just because a permit was not obtained is ludicrous. But to do so in Kosovo, where basic infrastructure is nominal at best, is blatant abuse of a minority.

This is not 'normal' in a democratic state, it is discrimination. And you are defending it.

In future, the Serbian government and the local Serbian authorities in Kosovo must remember to issue a permit.

They should also ensure that there are Serbian police there to prevent any illegal demolition of buildings by any of the Albanians who are running an illegal government within Serbian territory.

KFOR should also keep the peace within the terms of 1244 and stop ethnicially motivated destructive acts by the Albanians who live in Kosovo.

I know you probably don't like to admit my friend but Kosova has got its own laws and if anyone chooses to ignore it ,than this will be the end result.And we may not like it, but that's the law.
(Viti i Balit, 12 October 2008 14:01)

Viti i Balit,

This is incorrect. Let's assume, there is Republic of Kosova, it is recognized in Belgrade. Let's assume, I am caught stealing a laptop in Pristina.

A) Correct: they secure the laptop, prevent me from sneaking out, call the police, police escorts me to jail, in few weeks there is a hearing, I have to hire a lawyer. After some negotiating and appealing with the help of lawyer I get 5000 Euro fine plus some few years from the judge. In a year or so the management of the prison makes a proposal to the judge to make the term shorter or longer depending on the behavior, judge makes an other hearing, the term is reduced/prolonged depending on factors, under lucky circumstances I spend only 6 month, but still have to pay 5000 Euro and perform social work every weekend for an other two years.

B) Incorrect: the owner of the computer shop calls the police, police puts me in a small chamber for 6 month without any court verdict, than I pay 5000 bribe to the chef of police and go free.

This is what that EULEX is all about - be it "in line"/legal from 1244 point of view or not. IMO, it would have a very tough task because the general situation is probably closer to B) than to A).

The Albanian comments do reflect it, too. So far no one did noticed a small thing: where was the court decision, where was the lawyer, where was the State's case and where was the appeal?

What happened here was product of corruption, not "law". Law is there, but only judge is the one who can enforce it, otherwise it is self-justice. Self-justice is a crime, so who did that 'dozering HAVE TO BE PUNISHED FOR SELF-JUSTICE. This is how it works in Europe and USA. You want to be part of that system, than please adopt that way of thinking.

This wouldn't happen in the North. K albs will have an easy time demolishing the rest of those "illegal structures" occupied by the remaining minorities. How sophisticated these K albs are now that they understand concepts like "permits", and "procedure". I can see great things in store for them.

A wise judge will always compell, under the penalty of being held liable of contempt to the court, both the school management and the local mayor to work out a solution.
(adrian/bucharest, 12 October 2008 16:58)

Yes, the judge was missing. And I am sad, that neither Serbs nor Albanians did notice that.

No judge = no verdict = no bulldozers.

Reversing the same:

bulldozers + no verdict = self-justice = crime.

It's simple like 1-2-3 and that is what happening in any "normal to any democratic state".

Albanian terror and ethnic cleansing plain and simple. A spade is a spade. No puppet state built on injustice ever lasts. They always fall. But since Kosovo is not a state, but a province, I cannot think of a good analogy.

Time for Beograd enforcement of federal statues which protect all of Serbia's citizens. Time for Serbian armed forces to come back and patrol the Serbian enclaves since the communities get their orders from Beograd and NOT Pristina. Time for common sense and justice.

To everyone.


I think you all have to stop getting too emotional on the subject,

It was a very simple, you dont build anything without a permition, be it church , musk, school, hospital.

Serbia doing what it does best provoke!

Kosova sending messages to them that we are independent, and this is our country, our laws.

If Serbia wants to help serbs in Kosovo there are other ways, they can pick up the phone and call Kosovo leadership.

Niall O'Doherty, I checked every link you posted here, but they are all out-dated! I provided you with the most recent census made in Serbia, so these figures you delivered here are old (those that had dates on them were all 1999, and the others had no dates at all).
I would really like to believe in those figures that you provided here, but they are old. That's why nations conduct censuses every once in a while. So, unless you provide me with some serious and updated figures, the Wikipedia figures are the ones that show the real number of the Albanians living in Belgrade.

"Serbia as you know is a bastion of peaceful co-existense and multiethnic society."

If there's a such thing as Serbia being a bastion of peaceful co-existence and multi-ethnic society, probably millions (or billions?) of people all over the world are sick and ill-thinking snobs. It's the propaganda coming from people like you from the west that present Serbia as a peace-loving nation. But hey, you should have been in Kosova or elsewhere in the Balkans during the wars so you could see who the real Serbia is.

"If Serbia really wanted to get rid of its ethnic Albanian, Croat, Bosniak or Slovenian populations they would have long time ago."

Did you see those figures I provided you in my previous post?

Year 1948 - Albanians 1137
Year 1953 - Albanians 3262
Year 1961 - Albanians 8262
Year 1971 - Albanians 6978
Year 1981 - Albanians 8212
Year 1991 - Albanians 4985
Year 2002 - Albanians 1492

Do you see the number of Albanians increasing and decreasing during the years? What do you think these figures show? A peace-loving and a multi-ethnic Serbia? No man, no!

But nevermind, it's your word against mine (and vice-versa).

One more thing: The United Arab Emirates has just recognized Kosova - well done Serbian diplomacy ;)

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/14/news/ML-Emirates-Kosovo-Recognition.php

Greets from Prishtina!

C,

The scenario was probably very similar to what we suffer from. Our son is visiting a gymnasium in BP. We did hear a hint from the teacher, that while the teacher staff is very enthusiastic, there is some feud between "big dogs" and as a result the school does not have proper funding and was not renovated in last 30 years.

This in BP, not even Albania/Kosovo/what-not. It is a feudal mentality of mutual back-scratching and feud between "big dogs".

What happened here is with 99% probability not some "Horrible Big Boss Albanian in Pristina" signing an order to demolish the building. It was probably a local feud run amok where Gorani lost because whoever had the bad intent had "better connections".

Under normal circumstances (see Croatia and Vir) this cannot happen because Croatia is now a country with relatively good working "checks and balances", but Kosovo is not. As we see, the "relatively good" is a key phrase because even Hungary has long way to go.

Besides - as I understand - it's a Gorane community, so the local decisions should be made as much as possible locally. Kosovo is full of illegally erected buildings. If there was no situation of danger due poor building standard, it was a very poor decision to touch the Gorani community.

Yep, Jan - that's what Croatians did in Vir.

1) Mayor complains
2) The issue goes up till Croatian Environment Protection Minister
3) She issues the guidelines, asks the local court to handle the case
4) Court makes a hearing
5) Court makes a decision
6) The decision is mailed, reasonable time given to appeal
7) The court has the second hearing, who appeals/pays the tax are spared the 'dozering
8) The court issues the final decision
9) Dozers came

Reasonable enough, in my opinion.

The Albanian Goverenment in Kosovo didn't issue a permit for the education of minorities. No surprise. As such, they destroy anything remotely associated with that activity. Minorities live in lead-contaminated camps under the Same UN and Albanian Leadership!

As a PR move, this is quite foolish and self-damaging from the "new kosovo authorities".
So, they miss a permit. Is it because they just refused to ask for it from some authorities they do not recognise (so it's just the text on the stamp that is the problem) or because they built for ex. on top of a water/gas pipe so the building is damaging a greater public interest?
The power given to the public authorities by the citizens, resides in the fact that the public authorities are called upon to look for and protect the public interest, which in the specific situation means proper fulfilment of the legal and technical norms regarding constructions set forth by the applicable laws.
Public institutions, like schools, exist in order to serve another public interest, access to education in this case. So, which of the two is more important?
A wise judge will always compell, under the penalty of being held liable of contempt to the court, both the school management and the local mayor to work out a solution.

Well those bulldozer will be pretty busy there are no way to find out what is has been legally built and illegally built. Oh well Multi ethinc and those Kfor soliders just sealed the cake. How are issueing the proper documentation have the school pay for it and be done with that was not probably offered ok. back the drawing board.

Question:

If the school "had not the proper permits" as is claimed, why not just use the EU or the UN to appropriate the land under its own control rather than destroy it? Unless the building was a health hazard - which I doubt - this seems like an incredibly stupid move, and the only ones who lose out on this are the Goranis.

It's also cute to see the same Albanian nationalists here trying to pass this off as a Serbian PR stunt.

Note from the civilized world: nobody likes it when schools are demolished. It has a kind of Talibaneqsue character to it.

It's also cute to see the same Albanian nationalists here trying to pass this off as a Serbian PR stunt.
(Mike, 12 October 2008 18:55)

Mike, what to expect?

Please read through "newkosovareport-dot-com" and see the way they report. Few "gems"...


I fail to see, they would mention, the "scorpons" are in Serbian court. A simple Kosovar - reading it - would think, the trial is in Kosovo:

http://tinyurl.com/4ahj6d


"Conveniently" forgetting, these passports cannot be used to cross the Slovak or Romanian borders, they are in lieu of driver's license. Like we can't use D/L to cross to Canada, but once in Canada we can use our D/L to verify the identity:

http://tinyurl.com/3wn4u9


I find this one particularly cute. 77 "in favor", 74 "abstain", 6 "against", 28 were simply not present. We can formulate as we want, but this formulation beats everything I did read so far:

http://tinyurl.com/4gj8tp

No wonder. Why do they not publish this BLOG? The writer is American, Republican voter from Montana, she works at UNMIK.

http://www.mtcowgirl.us/kosovolog.html

Typical:

"Hey, Mr. PM Thaci, how is that 24/7 electricity promise going?"
"My friend very smartly responded that there is 24/7 electricity in Kosovo, just not in all locations."

I don't think people realise that with the Gorani's, Serbia is fairly strong in the South of our province also and the more the Albanians continue with these provocative actions, the stronger we will get. They had to redraw the municipality border around Prizren to put these people in the minority.

It is very obvious that the Albanians simply cannot live with any of their neighbours and all they want to do it land grab instead of learning to live in harmony.

This will turn around to haunt them very soon I suspect. It really is a shame they though right to ethnically cleanse most of the non-Albanian population out of our province without any attempt to reconcile and return these people after almost a decade. I don't think this will go down well should the tables turn.

It is sad that something like this has happened. The gorani are a lovely people and it is sad that the albanian goverment in pristina is abusing the gorani. I find it hilarious when albanian posters talk about how ethnic minorities are all equal! Unfortuantely that's how it goes nowadays for the serbs and the gorani living in kosovo....

Govt. funded school demolished in Kosovo
-You can build your Serbian schools only in Serbia, and not in Foreign Country.
This is only a Serbian Provocation and nothing else,
Shame on you....


Soooo...to you education is a provocation? Spoken like a true Talibanista, I guess if the ethnic Albanians cannot indoctrinate the minority populace with their rhetoric, that population will have to do without. I find that extremely mind limited, this was a school, plain and simple, I find the ethnic Albanians defending this action completely out of touch, I guess they are not ready to move into this century.

Also, you talk about building schools only in a particular country, yet the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia and Montenegro want their OWN schools in a foreign country and in some cases get them, this is hypocrisy at it's finest.

Ataman

The case in Vir, Croatia has a perfect parallel to Kosovo.

1. There were (are) 8-9000 illegally built houses/apartments in Vir

2. Some big dick realises that foreigners are buying up apartmans/houses from Hungary and other countries

3. These houses were built according to the local regulations effective before 2004

4. They change RETROSPECTIVELY the regulations and declare that less than 70 metres from the see it is illegal to build and even CONTINUE TO EXIST

5. Demolishing verdict is mailed to Hungarians 3 days prior to bulldozers appear

5. Hungarian owners are prevented from entering houses and taking out movable properties

6. Rest of 9000 illegal homes are offered to be legalized on the island

If we call this procedure the right course of action in Croatia, it is the right course of action in Kosovo as well.

Of course Hungarians were upset, because unlike in the Balkans in general, in Hungary there are no illegally built houses, parobably 1% which is torn down afterwards.

The diplomatic tension was caused by the righteous outrage of Hungarians whose property was destroyed, while their neighbour's property built absolutely illegally could remain.

Right according to the book, but wrong morally.

However, because I know Serbian attitude, I can easily believe they just said, Kosovo is Serbia and did not even bother to apply for permit or appeal the decision.

I wonder if Hungarians built a school in Szabadka (Subotica) saying we don't need permit since apart from the last few decades, for a thousand years this has been Hungarian land, what would Serbia do?

Firstly there are over 100,000 Albanians living and working in and around Belgrade. How many Serbs are there again in Pristina?
(Niall O'Doherty, 13 October 2008 15:35)

Say what? 100,000 Albanians living and working in and around Belgrade? Where did you get these figures from? Who did this census? Or when was this census conducted? I searched over the internet, and the largest number of Albanians living in Serbia that I came across is this: 50,000 est (a census conducted in 2007) (referral: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanians “Regions with significant populations” section). We’re talking here in the whole Serbia. But some other figures I came across are as follows (again, according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanians_in_Serbia - under the section “Belgrade”):

“Belgrade has a small Albanian community. In the census of 1981, 8,212 Albanians were registered. In 1991 there lived only 4,985 Albanians in Belgrade. After the Kosovo War this number decreased to 1,492.

Year 1948 - Albanians 1137
Year 1953 - Albanians 3262
Year 1961 - Albanians 8262
Year 1971 - Albanians 6978
Year 1981 - Albanians 8212
Year 1991 - Albanians 4985
Year 2002 - Albanians 1492”

Next year we’ll have the updated and the new census in the independent Kosova and will provide you with the exact number of Serbs living all over Kosova!

“Besides the Ministry of Education in Belgrade does not need permission to apply for planning permission in their own bloody country.”
(Niall O'Doherty, 13 October 2008 15:35)

Perfectly said Niall, “bloody country” is the term that perfectly describes Kosova from the Serbian perspective. I think you guys have started to see the big picture here. No one is arguing the permissions that the Ministry of Education in Belgrade needs to construct schools or whatever in Serbia, we’re talking about Kosova here.

If, alleging Kosova is Serbia (your, Serbian, point of view), Kosova decides to construct a school in Serbia, you are saying that we don’t need a permission form no one to build one? Or maybe we’re talking here about double-standards that you Serbs tend to mention them a lot. Well, what goes around comes around.

About the school construction/demolition, well guys, no one is above the law. We are only 8 months old as a STATE, and we prefer to obey the law rather than disobey it!

rocky london,

The ironic thing is that there is a Serbian school - in London. There is also an Albanian one.
The point you're making attemtps to justify this revolting act of denial of schooling.

It would not surprise me if we hear Beslan attack being justified on these pages due to the rampant venomous anti-Serbo-Russian propaganda floating about new colonial world...oops, I meant ''democratic''.

BK,

Serbia treats its minorities better than any other country in Europe and maybe even the western world for that matter. And they have always had a very good record of doing so.

About this school the Albanians just tore down. I thought the new and independent Kosovo was supposed to be "multicultural"... so why would it matter who built the school or where the money came from?

This kind of unreasonableness the Albanians are displaying is an example of why Kosovo will never be independent and why Serbia will again have formal control over their southern provence in the not so distent future.

There are about 40,000 Albanians living in Belgrade and you know how many schools or even classrooms teach in Albanian language? Zero, null, nada. Why the democratic Serbia is not building schools for minorities in their own country and leave alone the neighboring countries deal with their minorities. Bottom line, Serbia does not have, as we all recall, a good history in dealing with minorities.



Please, Ive been to that part of the world and although there may be little or no Albanian schools in Belgrade there are plenty in the Presevo Valley and Bujanovac (especially primary and secondary schools). Im sure there are many more Albanian languaged schools throughout all of Serbia than there are Serbian or other minority speaking schools throughout all of Kosovo.

As far as history goes, I haven't seen anything in the past 100 years that indicates the Albanians in the region are dealing with minority issues any sweeter or more tolerant than the Serbs.

ZK obviously you no nothing about Serbia. In Kosovo prior to the KLA being put in power Albanians had schools in their own language, despite propaganda to the contrary. The fact that the KLA forced their own children to boycott these schools does not mean they didn't exist. In Serbia, Hungarians have schools in their own language, as do numerous other nationalities. Bulgarians (in for instance Banat) have schools in their own language. Virtualy every nationality has this. Can you name another country that has these benefits for national minorities? You can judge a country's minority policy by how well the Romani people get along with it. The Romani people always side with Serbia, and are terrified of the KLA/Albanian extremists because they are being cleansed. I wonder do minorities (ie the Greeks) have schools in their own language in Albania? Ha, doubt it! They put Greeks on trial for espionage.

"There are about 40,000 Albanians living in Belgrade and you know how many schools or even classrooms teach in Albanian language? Zero, null, nada." BK

Are you actually implying that Serbs should learn a foreign language (Albanian) in their own country? Kosovo is still a legal part of Serbia last time I checked. Even it wasn't, it will always remain so in our hearts and minds.

Just because we have no interest in learning Albanian does not give you the moral right to impose it on us. I am not aware of any Serbs who live or want to live in Albania, and thus we do not demand schools in our own language there etc.

Albanian language has always been irrelevant to us because we expect YOU to conform to our host nation. Peace.

ZK obviously you no nothing about Serbia.
(Brian, 13 October 2008 06:51)
--
Brian, I assume you meant BK and not ZK as I do not disagree with what you say.

There are about 40,000 Albanians living in Belgrade and you know how many schools or even classrooms teach in Albanian language? Zero, null, nada. Why the democratic Serbia is not building schools for minorities in their own country and leave alone the neighboring countries deal with their minorities. Bottom line, Serbia does not have, as we all recall, a good history in dealing with minorities.
(BK, 12 October 2008 23:26)

Another monstrous lie.

Firstly there are over 100,000 Albanians living and working in and around Belgrade. How many Serbs are there again in Pristina?

Secondly, Serbia's record reagrding its ethnic minorities recently is excellent. Have you ever been to Belgrade, Stara Pazova, Pirot, Bosilegrad, Pirot, Novi Sad where the city council conducts its business in 6 different languages, Subotica, Banat etc. The Slovaks, Hungarians, Bosniaks, Bulgarians and Roma all have their own schools, newspapers, printed media cultural groups and centres all funded by the State.

The Albanians have those rights too in Belgrade and Presevo and in Kosmet where they elected instead to boycott them and kill anyone coperating with Yugoslav state institutions. What happened with tihs school was an abomination. Nobody can justify the KLA authorities destroying a non Albanian school on the flimsiest of reasons. Besides the Ministry of Education in Belgrade does not need permission to apply for planning permission in their own bloody country.

Dont be surprised if the hospitals are next.

Pathetic! How pathetic! The K-Abanian government in cahoots with their masters, tearing down a school. Pathetic. Shame on you. Are you gonna build another one now with funds from the E.U...or do you have to get a new permit. Absolultely pathetic!

The reason that this becomes "politicized" is that because the ethnic - Albanian PISG continues to ignore the illegal building- which is often dangerous.

From my time in Kosovo with US KFOR I can count and list unmeasurable examples of ethnic - Alb construction but I will limit this to two. In the village of Buzovik outside of Binac, KEK and ethnic - Albs built power lines on the ruins of a pre - schism monastery to the Archangel Gabriel and the nearby graveyard. Has the municipality of K. Vitina been out to remove the lines, or protect private property, no?

In the village of Binac itself next to the multi-ethnic school an ethnic - K Alb moslem moved in on illegal property and illegally connected his house to the school's power lines. KFOR, myself being involved in the projects, invested thousands of Euros in the refurbishment of the schools of the community. Illegal power lines are dangerous and often spark fire. But has KEK or the municipality addressed this issue for the safety and security of the children of Binac or to foster the relationship between the Christians of this community.

I have also been to Serbia proper and Belgrade and I can attest to the number of minorities living in harmony in the rest of the country.

What an outrageous action. This is a harassed minority being attacked here.

hruz, you have a point. however, vojvodina is not a disputed territory. Is is accepted that it is a part of serbia, no disputes about it. Kosovo is a disputed issue (thats what both serbs and albanians are missing). It is recognized by powerful countries, but does not have a UN seat and no recognition from other very powerful countries (Russia, China, India, Brasil) so therefore it is disputed. That is the main difference.

No one, NO ONE, in the whole world that is not an animal torn down a school. A school is for education of children and believe me, no ethnicity is more valuable than the other. Period. This is out in the world press already and believe me, it does not look good for Kosovo. Also ICJ members and governments read this. The only one this is great news for is Serbia. In my profession I have heard at least 15 times today that "the Albanians are really crazy" and "this is one of the biggest events in Kosovo in 10 years". Judge for your self.

People, I have a close friend in that area and I called him some minutes ago... he says that no school was destroyed. However, if that really happened (tomorrow I will get more information from the ground), it is a terrible decision from whoever it was.
The bad thing is seeing all these prejudices from most of you here... doesnt give me that much hope for the future.

There is no excuse for tearing down a school. An institute of education. There is no excuse in the world. There is no legal justification for tearing down a school. This is as bad as the Taliban tearing down schools in Afghanistan with other means. Shame on you. Let the world see with its own eyes the reality of their creation now.

Now everyone can see the true face of these ...

Say what? 100,000 Albanians living and working in and around Belgrade? Where did you get these figures from? Who did this census? Or when was this census conducted? I searched over the internet, and the largest number of Albanians living in Serbia that I came across is this: 50,000 est (a census conducted in 2007) (referral: Wikipedia [link] “Regions with significant populations” section). We’re talking here in the whole Serbia. But some other figures I came across are as follows (again, according to Wikipedia [link] - under the section “Belgrade”):

“Belgrade has a small Albanian community. In the census of 1981, 8,212 Albanians were registered. In 1991 there lived only 4,985 Albanians in Belgrade. After the Kosovo War this number decreased to 1,492.

Year 1948 - Albanians 1137
Year 1953 - Albanians 3262
Year 1961 - Albanians 8262
Year 1971 - Albanians 6978
Year 1981 - Albanians 8212
Year 1991 - Albanians 4985
Year 2002 - Albanians 1492”

Next year we’ll have the updated and the new census in the independent Kosova and will provide you with the exact number of Serbs living all over Kosova!

“Besides the Ministry of Education in Belgrade does not need permission to apply for planning permission in their own bloody country.”
(Niall O'Doherty, 13 October 2008 15:35)

Perfectly said Niall, “bloody country” is the term that perfectly describes Kosova from the Serbian perspective. I think you guys have started to see the big picture here. No one is arguing the permissions that the Ministry of Education in Belgrade needs to construct schools or whatever in Serbia, we’re talking about Kosova here.

If, alleging Kosova is Serbia (your, Serbian, point of view), Kosova decides to construct a school in Serbia, you are saying that we don’t need a permission form no one to build one? Or maybe we’re talking here about double-standards that you Serbs tend to mention them a lot. Well, what goes around comes around.

About the school construction/demolition, well guys, no one is above the law. We are only 8 months old as a STATE, and we prefer to obey the law rather than disobey it!
(AO KS, 14 October 2008 02:32)

Stop twisting my words. If you want to have a constructive and mature argument then please engage in proper discourse.

100K Albanians in Belgrade, well see here -
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/mostert/Mostert1.html

and here -
http://opinionleaders.htmlplanet.com/prealbrule.html

and here -
http://byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2007/09/western-allies.html

and here -
http://eatthestate.org/03-37/WarWatch.htm

and here -
http://evattmachado.com/randy/english.html

Serbia as you know is a bastion of peaceful co-existense and multiethnic society. I dont have to tell you how many times that in the apartment block where I lived in BG I counted some 17 different nationalities including quelle surpise - Albanians. If Serbia really wanted to get rid of its ethnic Albanian, Croat, Bosniak or Slovenian populations they would have long time ago. Thats why I always point out to the protaganists of the Western propaganda machine who spread nothing but lives.

Guys, I'm not a Serb nor do I have any link with the place but livinig there really opened my eyes and totally contradicted the biased accounts that we in the West were fed for years. The Balkan Nazis they were called. Well I like to point out to my many friends that they should come to Belgrade and see for themselves the peacefull coexistence of many different groups together.

Next August I'm off to Guca to see for myself the richness and joy that the Roma community have brought to Serbian society.