>From: "F J BERNAL" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>29Oct00
>By Mark Heinich
>
>PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Against the odds, Kosovo has
>just held the first free elections in its history without bloodshed,
>but also without the participation of its Serb minority.
>
>[ Not true; there were formally free elections w/o bloodshed in the
>past, only it was typically the Kosovo ALbanians who boycotted them,
>not the Kosovo Serbs. Perhaps those elections were far from perfect;
>but, then, so are these, Kouchner's elections, in spite of the
>self-serving, self-congratualting tone of the NATO and EU officials
>].
>
>
>No one denies that Saturday's municipal elections conducted by
>international administrators were a significant achievement just 18
>months after Kosovo was ablaze and its people in biblical upheaval.
>
>[ Not true -- the legitimate President of FRY does, so do the Kosovo
>Serbs, and so do all the relevant political parties and coalitions in
>Serbia outside of Kosovo. Nobody relevant in Belgrade finds these
>elections legitimate and fully legal, let alone "a significant
>achievement" . Last but not least, several international monitoring
>groups. including the British Helisnki Watch, have expressed openly
>their major reservations Re.: how "great" a step these municipal
>Kosovo elections are. ]
>
>
>"Kosovars have indeed passed the test of democracy with flying
>colours," said Daan Everts, head of the Organisation for Security and
>Cooperation in Europe mission which ran the vote.
>
>[ If it were nor sad and pathetic, it would be laughable. Some 200,000
>or more Kosovo residents did not vote, because they could not even
>safely come to the poll stations in Kosovo to begin with - for the
>non-ALbanians in Kosovo, there is no even elementary freedom of
>movement, yet this NATOcrat talks about a "test of democracy [passed]
>with flying colours" !?! ]
>
>
>Some 80 percent of the 900,000 registered Kosovans voted, but almost
>all were ethnic Albanians, and almost none from the formerly dominant
>Serb minority, who boycotted the polls in protest at their isolation
>in enclaves guarded by peacekeepers.
>
>[ How about the people ethnically cleansed from Kosovo, yet as
>legitimate Kosovo voters as those "80% of the reigstered 900,000
>voters" who "passed the democracy test with flying colours" ?? ]
>
>Provisional results of the election are expected on Monday, and the
>moderate LDK party of Ibrahim Rugova, a pacifist who led pre-war
>passive resistance to Belgrade, is expected to win majorities in most
>of Kosovo's 30 municipal assemblies.
>
>The PDK party of former Kosovo Liberation Army chief Hashim Thaci and
>a hardline nationalist offshoot, the AAK, who grabbed control of
>municipalities after last year's NATO bombing forced the Yugoslav army
>to withdraw, face serious losses to the LDK.
>
>
>SUSPECT DEMOCRATS
>
>[...]
>
>Whichever ethnic Albanian party gains control, all of them are
>committed to independence and most of their supporters believe the
>Serbs have forfeited any right to share power or even live in Kosovo,
>let alone keep the province in Yugoslavia.
>
>[ So, this Reuters report OPENLY CONDONES ethnic cleansing of Kosovo -
>forceful expulsion of over 200,000 Kosovo residents who were kicked
>out or intimidated and scared out of the province BECAUSE OF THEIR
>ETHNICITY. "The Serbs have forfeited any right to share power or even
>live in Kosovo" according to (basically, all relevant) political
>parties of the Kosovo ALbanians. Reuters apparently does nto find
>anything objectioanble about this brazenly Racist, xenophobic and
>fascist attitude of the "KosovarGandhi" Rugova and other Albanian
>separatist politicans. ]
>
>
>That mindset poses a volatile dilemma for U.N. authorities not only
>long term, deliberating Kosovo's final status, but just weeks from now
>when U.N. administrator Bernard Kouchner must decide whether to allow
>Serbian republic elections to be conducted in Kosovo too.
>
>[ This tells enough Re.: B. Kouchner and the NATO occupation of
>Kosovo. Since when is a temporary administrator, really a UN-approved
>foreign bureaucrat, in a province legitimately recognized to be a
>part of a certain country entitled to determine whether that country's
>elections apply to that particular province's territory as well, or
>not ?!? ]
>
>Albanians are sure to oppose the idea, maybe violently. But local
>Serbs look forward to voting for a new democratic Serbian government,
>hoping it will relieve their plight.
>
>With the recent fall of Yugoslav Serb autocrat Slobodan Milosevic and
>the election of democratic reformer Vojislav Kostunica as president,
>ethnic Albanian leaders privately worry that their watertight case for
>statehood has sprung leaks.
>
>Kostunica has taken giant strides to rehabilitate Belgrade in Western
>eyes by acknowledging Serbs committed genocide in Kosovo, pledging
>equal rights for all ethnic groups in Yugoslavia and harmonious
>relations with Balkan neighbours.
>
>[ THIS IS A BLOODY LIE, STRAIGHT AND SIMPLE!!!! Kostunica did take
>responsibility for the Serb share of crimes and atrocities in Kosovo,
>but he NEVER MENTIONED THE WORD 'GENOCIDE' in the context - and,
>indeed, there was never a Serbian genocide in Kosovo to talk about to
>begin with! For the Reuters' information, genocide is "the deliberate
>and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group"
>(according to Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary), and NOTHING of the
>sort ever happened in Kosovo; the total number of dead found after
>NATO occupied the province was slightly over 2,000 , including people
>of various nationalities and who died due to various causes, in a
>brutal ground armed conflict accompanied by almost ceaseless NATO
>bombing from 15,000 feet high. ]
>
>
>But he has also reaffirmed Yugoslavia's sovereignty over Kosovo and
>says he will press for a return of over 100,000 Serb inhabitants who
>fled ethnic Albanian reprisals after the war.
>
>[ First, the number of Serbs and others who have fled Kosovo is about
>twice what Reuters claims. Second, Kosovo *IS* a part of FRY according
>to the UN Resolution 1244, bad and of dubious legitimacy as that
>Resolution is (the previous Serbian authorities signed it under
>extreme duress, whcih, strictl, makes any Serbian concessions
>illegitimate, according to the 1980 Vienna Convention On Treaties).
>Third, asking for ethnically cleansed people to return to their homes,
>all of a sudden, seems to be a politically unjustifed, or at least
>dubious, request. Or, perhaps, the request appears dubious only when
>we talk about the ethnically cleansed Serbs (in Croatia, Bosnia or
>Kosovo) ?!? ]
>
>U.N. WANTS SERBS TO COME IN FROM COLD
>
>His stance dovetails with Big Power policy -- that Kosovo should get
>substantial autonomy but not independence which could destabilise
>other Balkan countries with disgruntled ethnic groups, and that Kosovo
>must be a safe place for minorities.
>
>In any case, Kosovo has a long way to go before good government,
>democracy and ethnic co-existence reign in a part of the world that
>has never known them.
>
>The bleak reality is that Kosovo will require long foreign engagement
>and billions of dollars of investment before it is self-sustaining.
>
>Health-threatening garbage smears the land, air pollution chokes the
>towns as car use explodes, public services are rudimentary,
>unemployment exceeds 50 percent despite bustling small trade, and law
>and order remains shaky.
>
>"This place would collapse in days if we handed it over to them now,"
>said a senior Western official. "The people of Kosovo are still quite
>unready to run their own affairs. They have much to learn about civic
>responsibility."
>
>
>
>Reuters Foundation accepts no responsibility for the accuracy,
>copyright compliance or legality of material contained in this site
>and disclaims any liability for any loss or damage arising out of the
>Service of any item of information contained in the Service.
>
>
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