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http://news.serbianunity.net May 15, 2002 The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Chairman The Senate Foreign Relations Committee 221 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senator Biden, I am writing you in behalf of a large segment of the Serb-American community, which the Serbian Unity Congress represents. Our many friends and we are deeply troubled and concerned with your recent speech at the meeting of the Albanian-American Friendship Society. Reportedly, you have set forth four conditions for support of the United States of Yugoslavia. Namely, Yugoslavia must (1) "stop influencing" the Republica Srpska entity in Bosnia, (2) fulfill its obligations to the Hague Tribunal, (3) stop division of the town of Kosovska Mitrovica and stop "negatively influencing Kosovo" (currently under control of the KFOR and international community) and (4) publicly apologize for genocide in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia. If this is correct, the first two conditions are known, the other two are brand new. Thus, our first question, if we may: are we moving the proverbial goal post once again? At what point will we stop re-creating preconditions for normal relationship with Serbia? Our second question, which indeed profoundly concerns us, deals with the matter of apologies. First, it seems, we must place the war for the Yugoslav succession in its proper perspective; that is, reputable scholars have defined it as a civil war. So has the Hague Tribunal itself. Any civil war is the worst of wars, witness our own between the North and the South. In such wars, there are no angels. Our task is to respond with integrity and not to use double standards. Violence and murder are wrong, whether they are "theirs or ours." Not far from the Capitol Hill is the Holocaust Museum. It contains inconvertible evidence about genocide committed against Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia by the Independent (Nazi) State of Croatia and Moslem SS Handzar division during the 1941-1944 period. The fact of the matter is that more Serbs were murdered in the death camp of Jasenovac alone in a few years than the Croatian or Moslem civilians were killed by the Serbs in a few centuries! Hundreds of thousands of civilians - men, women, children were wantonly tortured, murdered, thrown alive into deep mountains pits, burned in their churches and homes. Possibly close to one million perished. Their only guilt was that they had been Serbs. Now, Senator, it happens that those innocent victims were fathers, mothers, aunts and uncles, cousins and neighbors of the present-day Serbs of Bosnia and Croatia who also said: NEVER AGAIN. These were Serbs who could not accept Izetbegovic's "Islamic Declaration." They fought the Bosnian Moslems and al Qaeda mujahedins, as well as the resurrected ideology of the Nazi State of Independent Croatia as embodied in the late President Tudjman. Who should start apologizing? More Serbs have been ethnically cleansed during 1992-1999 than any other group in Yugoslavia. By far the largest and most premeditated single action of ethnic cleansing of the Yugoslav civil war occurred in August of 1995. Croatia expelled 200,000 of its citizens of Serbian origin from their ancestral lands in Kraina and Slavonia. In the process, many homes were totally destroyed and civilians murdered. Let's look at Kosovo. The KFOR troops entered Kosovo and Metohija in June of 1999. Since their arrival, over 300,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral lands, their homes destroyed and properties looted. More than 100 Serbian Orthodox churches and medieval monasteries have been razed to the ground. Official statistics reveal that Albanian extremists have murdered approximately 2,000 Serbs. This is apparently more than the number of Albanians died in fighting prior to and during the NATO intervention. All this is well documented by international agencies involved with Kosovo. To put all this in the proper context and historical perspective, I wish to ask just one more question, Senator: when peace comes over the smoldering ruins of the present-day Israel and Palestine, whom do you think you will ask to apologize? I know that you are extremely busy. Nonetheless, considering the gravity and far-reaching impact of these matters, we would indeed appreciate your reply and the opportunity to learn more about your views. Sincerely yours, Michael Djordjevich President Serbian Unity Congress cc: Members of the Foreign Relations Committee, United States Senate ----- May 20, 2002 The Honorable Colin L. Powell Secretary of State United States Department of State 2201 C Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20520 Dear Mr. Secretary, We understand that Mr. Bajram Redzepi, the leader of the Provincial Assembly of Kosovo will be visiting with you this week. Among many important issues, such as international smuggling of drugs, trafficking in humans and economic aid, we have no doubt that the future status of the province will be the key topic of discussions. The United States engagement in the Balkans during the past decade provides a textbook illustration of the dangers of short-term crisis management. What began as emergency diplomatic reaction escalated to controversial armed intervention and lives on as an open-ended commitment to "nation building." We believe that President Bush and you wish to reorient our policy in the Balkans and to bring our commitment to a level commensurate with our rational interest in the region. Nonetheless, we hasten to point out that there is a host of unresolved and vexing issues left over from the Clinton-Albright policy mismanagement in the region. Self-sustaining and durable regional stability remains a worthy albeit difficult and elusive objective. The future of Kosovo is at the center of this problem. The current state of affairs in Kosovo is far from normal. In fact, it is rather dismal. Since arrival of the KFOR troops to the province in June of 1999, over 250,000 Serbs and other ethnic minorities have been ethnically cleansed from their ancestral lands, their homes destroyed and properties looted. More than 100 Serbian Orthodox churches and medieval monasteries have been razed to the ground. Official statistics reveal that Albanian extremists murdered close to 2,000 Serbs, while 1,600 are still missing. Serbian monasteries and a few remaining villages resemble fortifications guarded by the KFOR around the clock. There has been no return of refugees, while guarantees of basic human rights are non-existent. Moreover, Kosovo continues to be a growing European cancer of criminality. There can be no serious and responsible discussion of the Kosovo problem without dealing with the issue of the "Greater Albania." Succinctly, the idea of a "Greater Albania" is essentially a nationalistic construct. Its driving energies spring from the Albanian vision of their ethnic borders and territories "Albanianized" by Albanian settlers during past century. The first successful implementation of this concept took place in 1941, when a "Greater Albania" was created as a fascist Italian protectorate and lasted until the defeat of the Axis forces. As in the recent case after the NATO intervention, the Albanians forcibly expelled the non-Albanian population from the areas of their control during the World War II. The current drive for an independent and a monoethnic Kosovo, therefore, is nothing but a phase in the process leading to fulfillment of a nationalistic dream. Since the Albanians will not accept the death of this dream, the problem seems to be insolvable. The Albanians must be unequivocally told that continuing the quest for a "Greater Albania" would permanently destabilize the region, as it would demand redrawing the borders of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece and, very likely, Bosnia. The United States should encourage reasonable leaders on all sides of the issue to understand that differences must be settled by negotiations rather than force. The overall goal should be self-sustaining regional stabilization leading to democratic consolidation and economic revival. Sincerely, Michael Djordjevich President Serbian Unity Congress Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
