http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=852
Strategic Cultural Foundation July 17, 2007 Kosovo Field for Serbia and Russia Pyotr Iskenderov -"For decades we had normal relations with our Albanian neighbours. Here, in the Uroshevac community, virtually all the villages had a mixed Serbian and Albanian population. "The problems started when Albanian terrorists supported by NATO arrived here. Now there are villages with totally Albanian populations." -Both Ristic and Iovanovic are wary of one and the same thing – that the West would succeed in pushing through the UN Security Council a resolution on Kosovo's independence. "Then it will all be over. We could then forget all about the peaceful coexistence between Serbs and Albanians, and Serbs who are still here would leave the province." -Messrs Bush, Ruecker, Solana and associates need something different than the Kosovo status. They need Serbia reduced to the position of a rogue country and a Russia that is forever squeezed out of the Balkans. The Kosovo field is currently a battlefield not [contested] between Serbs and Albanians (nations of the Balkans would challenge the "civilized" European peoples by 100 to 1 in their propensity to forgive and live side by side with their neighbours), but between the West and Russia. The writer of this article visited Kosovo in early July, exactly at the time when UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, the U.S envoy to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad and head of the provincial administration of the UN mission German diplomat Joachim Ruecker as a matter of fact came with an ultimatum on the issue of the status of the province. And the ultimatum was not designed for Albanian militants supporting the so-called movement "Self-Determination" who openly threaten to murder international representative in Kosovo. No, all the anger of Western representatives is targeted at Russia. Its gist is if Kosovo is not granted independence right off, the situation in the province would very soon blow up. "People in Kosovo are losing their cool," is the phrase Herr Ruecker used in one of his interviews, and it has become a leitmotif of the frantic rush the West is engaged in with an eye at granting Kosovo independence, that is being shyly disguised by the amorphous "state of surveillance" over it to be effected again by NATO and the EU. A direct study of the situation in Kosovo does not confirm Western apocalyptic scenarios. Even the German KFOR commander general Roland Kater beams serenity and confidence. "As the KFOR commander I testify that the situation in Kosovo is quiet and serene," he said to the author of this article. And according to him KFOR troops are in active cooperation with Serbia, in particular with an eye to ensure the corresponding regime at the administrative border of Kosovo. But, can it be that the fast solution of the issue of Kosovo status is what the Albanian majority of the 2 million-province wants so badly? It does not look like it. Regardless of the loud declarations by the leaders of the province out of the numbers of militants of the formally disbanded terrorist "Kosovo Liberation Army", the present-day status quo is quite good for the many construction companies and auto repair stations personnel (who are mainly engaged in disassembling stolen cars for spare parts, while car bodies are lying around at many junk heaps near Kosovo's administrative centre), people in the hotel and restaurant business, who speak both perfect Serbian and English. Wireless Internet in Pristina hotels works faster and steadier than in Brussels without any independence. The price of a comparable suite is 5 times as cheap, and taxis called via the radio or by mobile phones would immediately take you to any place in Pristina, while the waiters at restaurants would politely and with a grain of salt tell you about the similarities and differences (that are quite conditional) of the Serbian and Albanian cuisines. Signs "No to negotiations! Self-Determination!" can indeed be seen on the walls of houses in Kosovo. But to use this as a basis for the blackmail of the world community telling it about the inevitable explosion in Kosovo is strange, to say the least. Take the Serbian village of Srpsky-Babush to the south of Pristina. About 300 people lived there before 1999. With the connivance of NATO Albanian terrorists burnt down all the houses, leaving just furnace chimneys intact. Its residents fled to Central Serbia. In June 2007 the UN mission began implementing its programme of refugee re-settlement. More than 70 houses were built anew (chiefly by the Greek KFOR troops). The first group of about 130 people returned home. "We have returned intending to never leave this place," says Velio Ristic on behalf of his family of 7, including his 90 year-old father. "For decades we had normal relations with our Albanian neighbours. Here, in the Uroshevac community, virtually all the villages had a mixed Serbian and Albanian population. "The problems started when Albanian terrorists supported by NATO arrived here. Now there are villages with totally Albanian populations. "We have no contact with them, but neither do are we in conflict with them. When we are settled, inter-ethnic relations will gradually straighten out." At least monthly subsidies to the re-installed refugees are paid by both the Serbian government and the provincial authorities. And Novica Iovanovic, the warden of the village of Srpski-Babush, is already talking about his managerial ideas: "We are asking the peace-keepers to help us go into business. We want to build a poultry farm and to organise production of essential oils. This can be done within a month. When we get the money we will use it for different things, and new families would return to Kosovo." Both Ristic and Iovanovic are wary of one and the same thing – that the West would succeed in pushing through the UN Security Council a resolution on Kosovo's independence. "Then it will all be over. We could then forget all about the peaceful coexistence between Serbs and Albanians, and Serbs who are still here would leave the province." Kosovo Serbs are least of all willing to speak about politics. The very idea that the world community can of its own accord deprive them of their Motherland seems absurd to them. And Serbs do not understand why all the rush about the Kosovo status. The current status quo does not prevent Kosovo Albanians from living the way they like. And Serbs get certain confidence in the future, knowing that the preservation the internationally recognised borders of Kosovo as part of Serbia. However, there is an influential force in the world that is all but interested in tearing Kosovo away from Serbia, despite the new humanitarian catastrophe that this step would ensue. It is represented by politicians, diplomats and officials who in the 1990s began the economic strangling of then Yugoslavia, its bombings and territorial division. When the leaders of the United States, NATO and the EU (and Xavier Solana, then general secretary of the North-Atlantic Alliance, who in March of 1999 issued orders to start bombing Yugoslavia is now the EU Chief representative handling issues of foreign policies and security policies) are calling to "turn over the last page of the Balkan crisis" and to close down "the Kosovo dossier", thus making haste to reap the fruit of activities they had been engaged in for 15 years, whose essence is the eradication of the Slavonic and Orthodox foundations of the Balkan world. Actually, Messrs Bush, Ruecker, Solana and associates need something different than the Kosovo status. They need Serbia reduced to the position of a rogue country and a Russia that is forever squeezed out of the Balkans. The Kosovo field is currently a battlefield not [contested] between Serbs and Albanians (nations of the Balkans would challenge the "civilized" European peoples by 100 to 1 in their propensity to forgive and live side by side with their neighbours), but between the West and Russia. Starting from early 1990s Russia has been unchangeably giving in. But the peculiarity of geopolitical games is that unless the final step is made, the game is not finished. The resurrection of Serbia and all the Balkan Serbs as well as the Russian state in the Balkans can start in Kosovo, this cradle of the Serbian statehood and the Balkan Orthodoxy. That is exactly what the West is so wary of, openly blackmailing the United Nations with threats of disorders and riots in Kosovo.
