www.savekosovo.org
Editorial comment: A growing chorus of international policy experts and opinion makers, now notably joined by The New York Times, realize that Kosovo’s provisional institutions are failing to govern responsibly in the Serbian province, making Kosovo independence impossible. As rampant criminality (trafficking of humans, weapons, and drugs), endemic corruption, Muslim Albanian violence against Christian Serbs and other non-Albanians, and the looming threat of jihad terror continue to pervade Kosovo’s society and its provisional institutions, it can be expected that others will come to the same conclusion reached by The New York Times - “a carefully conditioned form of limited autonomy [is the] most promising way to encourage further progress” in Kosovo. Also policy makers should take note that Iranians are cultivating Muslims near Kosovo. The American Council for Kosovo has been warning that forcibly and illegally detaching Kosovo from democratic Serbia would lead to further regional destabilization, encouraging radical elements in nearby areas. To illustrate the point, as reported by Iran's MehrNews, Iran's ominously named Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization (IIDO) recently hosted in Tehran a delegation of Islamic leaders from the Serbian region of Sanjak, just north of Kosovo. Sanjak, which was part of the Kosovo district during the last period of Islamic rule before 1912, would be a primary zone for further radical expansion if Kosovo becomes an independent rogue state. The prospect that such an independent Kosovo would become a beachhead for further expansion of what President Bush, Senator Rick Santorum, and others have described as Islamic fascism is becoming increasingly inescapable with the recent comments by a high official in Albania that Kosovo independence would be a step to further claims against Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece. The United States must not help facilitate the creation of the menace of an Islamic "Greater Albania" -- or really, a "Greater Kosovo" dominated by the criminal and terrorist leadership in Pristina. The New York Times editorial and media coverage detailing the Iranian cultivation of Muslims near Kosovo and calls for a Greater Albania under Islamic fascist leadership in Kosovo follow below. Included are: 1. An August 18, 2006 New York Times’ editorial, “Navigating Kosovo’s Independence.” The New York Times opines: The original plan was for Kosovo’s political leaders to demonstrate their ability to govern responsibly before formal discussions of sovereignty could begin. They haven’t really done so, although they have made some grudging moves under international pressure. Yet as a practical matter, Kosovo’s international wardship cannot be extended indefinitely. The most promising way to encourage further progress is by moving ahead to a carefully conditioned form of limited autonomy. The most critical issue, now as ever, is guaranteeing the rights of the ethnic Serb minority. Any independence arrangement will have to assure minorities a substantial role in government, particularly in sensitive areas like the Justice Ministry. 2. An August 24, 2006 FrontPageMag.com article “Kosovo risks ‘ethnic cleansing’ again-rights group” by Julia Gorin. Gorin writes: Kosovo is dominated by thugs who have attacked Serbs 186 times just since getting the green light for final-status talks last October… The UN is planning to evacuate tens of thousands of Serbs the moment we hand Kosovo to the terrorists this year. “Serbia is going to have to accept Kosovo independence” is code-speak for the West buckling under to terrorism in the Balkans as usual. It’s all the more unconscionable, given that today we know the London and Madrid explosives came from <http://listserv.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0512&L=twatch-l&D=1&O=D&F=P&S= &P=25849> Kosovo… by saying that Serbia will be better off “living in peace with a new Kosovo” [is] Just like [saying] Israel will be better off living “in peace” with a Hamas-led Palestine…While fugitive Serbian war criminals are fixated on, Albanian war criminals are allowed to enjoy political careers. Notice that no such criticism is raised about Kosovo’s prime minister Agim Ceku — a former KLA commander who is indicted in Serbia for command responsibility in terrorist killings of over 600 Serbs, Roma, Albanians and others, including beheading, torture, mutilation, and abducting more than 500 people, most presumed dead. The KLA, meanwhile, trained in al-Qaeda camps prior to our 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia. When America is leading a global war on jihad terror, it’s difficult to understand how Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warmly greeted this wanted terrorist in Washington this summer. We cannot fight terrorism with one hand while abetting it with the other…Although the intelligence community is fully aware of the Kosovo threat, our political leaders and media are denying it…Terror aside, the criminal rackets (sex slavery, the heroin trade) in Kosovo are closely linked to the KLA leadership that dominates the local Albanian administration operating under UN auspices, and are already a menace to Europe. If organized crime is uncontrolled under UN and NATO supervision, how will Kosovo’s independence improve things when the racketeers become the sovereign government? 3. An August 20, 2006 MEHRNEWS.com report, “Serbian Islamic society leaders meet IIDO director.” MEHRNEWS.com reported: Senior leaders of the Islamic society from the Muslim region of Serbia’s Sanjak held talks with the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization (IIDO) Director Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Mehdi Khamushi here on Sunday. 4. An August 23, 2006 BBC Monitoring Service report of FoNet news agency, Belgrade, “Serbia alarmed by Tirana official's remarks on Albanian unification.” FoNet news agency reported: Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic today assessed that the Albanian prime minister [Sali Berisha] had sent a direct message to Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro that these states in their current borders were not "natural creations" and that until 2013 all Albanians now living in five states would be united in a "natural Albania”… "As the Serbian minister of foreign affairs, I am asking the Contact Group for Kosovo, the European Union, USA, NATO, the UN Security Council and [UN special envoy] Mr Martti Ahtisaari the following question: Is it not, after all, certain that the destruction of Serbia's territorial integrity, by giving Kosovo the status of independence as a gift, directly leads into a Balkan drama of dangerous and unforeseeable proportions?" Draskovic asked. He noted that stability in the Balkans was defended primarily by protecting the existing borders in the Balkans, adding that he had been constantly warning about this key fact in the past and he was also warning about it now. "What they do not understand in Tirana or they cannot understand is that Albania would be the final victim of the insensible and dangerous project of independent Kosovo. Economically superior, a state of Kosovo - not Albania - would become pivotal in uniting ethnic Albanians into a single state - not into a greater Albania but rather into a greater Kosovo. This could only happen if other Balkan states whose territory is threatened stand aside and watch," Draskovic warned. 1. Navigating Kosovo’s Future The New York Times – August 18, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/opinion/18fri3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin The 1999 war over Kosovo left the former Serbian province in political limbo, postponing the question of possible independence for another day. That day is now at hand, and the main question facing the international community is not whether Kosovo will become independent, but when and how. Status talks are expected to conclude in the next few months, with the United Nations Security Council to rule on the issue by the end of the year. The original plan was for Kosovo’s political leaders to demonstrate their ability to govern responsibly before formal discussions of sovereignty could begin. They haven’t really done so, although they have made some grudging moves under international pressure. Yet as a practical matter, Kosovo’s international wardship cannot be extended indefinitely. The most promising way to encourage further progress is by moving ahead to a carefully conditioned form of limited autonomy. The most critical issue, now as ever, is guaranteeing the rights of the ethnic Serb minority. Any independence arrangement will have to assure minorities a substantial role in government, particularly in sensitive areas like the Justice Ministry. For the first few years at least, the powers of Kosovo’s new government must be strictly limited. An international authority will have to monitor the government’s fulfillment of internationally agreed conditions, paying special attention to issues like the rule of law and minority rights. A few thousand NATO-led troops should remain in Kosovo with the power to intervene when necessary to compel compliance. Most of the countries with troops in Kosovo would prefer to bring them home now. But Kosovo’s march toward independence is going to remain difficult and dangerous for years. The need for a continuing armed international presence should be non-negotiable. Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
