http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=17d5e2cd-3718-49e5- bab0-96e6127e61e7 <http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=17d5e2cd-3718-49e5 -bab0-96e6127e61e7&k=25630> &k=25630
EDMONTON JOURNAL (CANADA) More Letters Saturday, February 23, 2008 Kosovo will undoubtedly become a dependant independent state recognized by a good number of the western worlds power brokers. The Albanian president is already predicting his nation along with Kosovo will join the EU at the same time. Bamir Topi's comments may be wishful thinking considering how many nations have refused to recognize Kosovo as free from Serbia proper. Listening to diplomats from the U.S., France, or Great Britain, or even the world's media, one could come to the conclusion that Kosovo is more than deserving of independence from Serbia. In reality, this is so far from the truth. Of all the independence movements around the world, Kosovo is probably the least qualified to join the group of free and democratic nations. The media has done a poor job in presenting a balanced view of the region, and a good job at further demonizing the Serbs of the area. Albeit, the Serbian government has set the stage for the negative characterization of their people. This being said, one rarely reads or hears about the ethnic cleansing that took place after the 1999 NATO bombing campaign. Since NATO peacekeepers arrived in Kosovo, more than 200,000 citizens of the area have been forced to flee. This total includes Serbs, Roma, Gorani, Bosnians, Turks, and other minorities. The ethnic Albanian population, lead by the KLA, has made it policy to remove all non-Albanians. Pristina is the only ethnically cleansed capital in all of Europe. How can the west have faith that the KLA-dominated Kosovo government will secure its remaining minority population when the KLA is known by European governments to have far reaching criminal activities? The KLA, which was on the U.S. terrorist list before they decided to arm and train them as proxy combatants in their battle against the milosevic regime, is involved in heroin trafficking from Afghanistan, weapons smuggling, oil and cigarette smuggling, as well as human trafficking of prostitutes from Eastern Europe into western Europe. Kosovo's current leader (an ex-KLA fighter himself), founded and organized the Drenica-Group. The Drenica-Group is a criminal organization that has ties with other organized crime rings throughout Europe and Albania. In fact, Thaci's sister is married to one of the most infamous leaders of the Albanian mafia. The U.S. push for Kosovo independence is perplexing when removing the idea that this recognition will somehow appease the Muslim world. Considering the ramifications of past American meddling and support of shady political players(Bin Laden in Afghanistan), one would think the U.S. would have learned by past failures when recognizing governments built on the avails of criminal and terrorist activity. Dawid Hurowitz, Edmonton
