US Threatens Serbia's Sovereignty

[conspiracy analyst]

Recognition of Kosovo: US Threatens Serbia's Sovereignty


by Bishop Artemije of Ras

Global Research, February 1, 2008






Bishop Artemije issued the following statement prior to his visit to Washington

Following today's publication of a Washington Times commentary written by former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, former UN Ambassador John Bolton and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Rodman urging the Bush Administration to withhold recognition of a unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence, His Grace, Bishop Artemije of Ras and Prizren issued the following statement prior to his visit to Washington to meet with Administration and Congressional officials and policymakers:




As I begin my latest mission to Washington, my country is being subjected to heightened threats from the government of the United States with respect to the future of the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. Having just returned from Berlin and consultations with Members of the Bundestag, the Administration, and think tanks, NGOs, and media, it is clear that America's European allies are increasingly concerned about the
consequences of the course Washington is trying to impose on them. The U.S. response has been to step up the pressure.

For example, the press in Slovenia, currently chairing the European Union, recently revealed American officials' diktat to supposedly independent countries. In an account confirmed by Slovenian official sources, we hear American diplomats commanding the timing of a planned unilateral declaration of independence by the Albanian Muslim administration in Pristina and its recognition by the U.S. and some other governments. Even exposed is the shameful intention to trigger the crisis on the Lord's Day to thwart Russia in convening an emergency session of the Security Council.

Threats have already been issued that after an independence declaration and recognition, force would be used to shut down so-called "parallel structures" in Serbian enclaves -- in reality the legitimate institutions of our state -- including the Mitrovica office of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija. Such actions, with expected attacks on Serbian citizens, would constitute a direct assault on the Serbian state and the Serbian nation. While it would be inappropriate to disclose Serbia's specific response, we will defend our territory and our people as would any other democratic country. Russia and other friendly countries are prepared to assist us.

Should Washington and its followers make good on their current threats to recognize Kosovo, Serbia would never accept it. Not only Russia but many other countries, especially those outside of Europe, would reject recognition. Kosovo would never become a member of the United Nations. We would regard the international presence in Kosovo, including the mission now being considered by the EU, as an occupation force. We Serbs have suffered many occupations in the past and triumphed over them. If necessary we would survive this one as well. Despite any intensification of the terror to which we Christians have been subjected since 1999, my flock in Kosovo has no intention of leaving their homes.

I do not welcome having to direct these critical words at the United States. Serbs have always regarded America as a friend and continue to do so. Americans and Serbs were allies in both World Wars. We are not the ones who are pursuing a confrontation today. But it is impossible for America to profess friendship with Serbia while demanding the amputation of the most precious part of our homeland.

Despite the mistakes made so far, I am convinced that there is still a chance reason will prevail and the disastrous path laid before us will be averted. Today three highly respected former U.S. officials published a thoughtful and constructive analysis of the looming injury to American national interests:

"We believe that an imposed settlement of the Kosovo question and seeking to partition Serbia's sovereign territory without its consent is not in the interest of the United States. The blithe assumption of American policy -- that the mere passage of nine years of relative quiet would be enough to lull Serbia and Russia into reversing their positions on a conflict that goes back centuries -- has proven to be naive in the extreme. We believe that American policy on Kosovo must be reexamined without delay, and we urge the Bush Administration to make it clear that pending the results of such reexamination it would withhold recognition of a Kosovo independence declaration and discourage Kosovo's Albanians from taking that step."

Secretary Lawrence Eagleburger, Ambassador John Bolton, and Assistant Secretary Peter Rodman conclude: "As with thorny questions elsewhere, viable and enduring settlements should result from negotiation and compromise. Such an outcome has been undermined by an American promise to the Kosovo Albanians that their demands will be satisfied if they remain adamant and no agreement is reached with Belgrade."

I believe that negotiations must continue until a mutually acceptable solution can be found to allow us and our Albanian neighbors to live together in peace. Honest talks, without ultimatums or guaranteed results for either side, with no outcome barred from discussion, can still bear fruit. I ask all Americans of good will to ask their leaders in Washington to choose this path.

For more information, please visit the American Council for Kosovo's Web site at

http://www.savekosovo.org

__________________

[festival of snickers]

news at www.tenc.net

bush wants to give us to mexico i guess or he doesnt care if they invade

[festival of snickers]

http://www.betterimmigration.com/candidates/2006/prez2008.html

shows romney is better

and paul cant win really because few like him

[conspiracy analyst]

The difference in results being less than 2% isn't but a pyrrhic victory for the existing President.

It will still be impossible to break up Serbia from Kosovo without serious international repercussions.

[festival of snickers]

[conspiracy analyst]

Serbia coalition close to collapse over EU accord


Ellie Tzortzi
Reuters North American News Service

Feb 05, 2008 12:56 EST

BELGRADE, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Serbia's prime minister on Tuesday denounced an offer to sign an accord with the European Union as a trick to lure it into rubber-stamping an independent Kosovo, piling pressure on his tottering coalition.



The statement by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica exposed the deep rift with pro-Western President Boris Tadic over Serbia's EU accession drive and could threaten plans to sign a deal that would put Serbia on the road to membership.

Tadic won re-election on Sunday on a pledge of pursuing EU membership no matter what happens with Serbia's breakaway province where the 90-percent Albanian majority is poised to declare independence this month, with the West's backing.

The EU, which on Monday authorised a supervisory mission to Kosovo ahead of its independence declaration, had hoped to sign the accord -- focusing on trade, visa and education issues -- on Feb 7 in the hope of preventing a nationalist backlash.

"The EU's proposal to sign a political agreement with Serbia while at the same time sending a mission to break apart our state is a deception aimed at getting Serbia effectively to sign its agreement to Kosovo independence," Kostunica said.

Tadic's Democratic Party and their technocrat allies G17+ could, mathematically, outvote Kostunica and his allies in government and go on to Brussels for the signing ceremony.

It was not clear, however whether the accord would be valid as such or require parliamentary approval.

Kostunica has rallied the nationalist Radicals, Serbia's strongest single party and collected enough signatures for an urgent parliament session, expected to be a showdown over the country's future direction.

"The parliament orders the government to neither sign the interim political agreement... nor the Stabilisation and Association Agreement," as long as the EU does not redress the reasons for this order, said a draft resolution put forward for the session by Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS).

The DSS and Radicals together have a majority in parliament.


"DEEP CRISIS"

An explanatory annex noted the EU offer "does not express anywhere the EU's readiness to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia."

Kosovo has been ruled by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO forces pushed out Serb troops accused of killing civilians while fighting a brutal counter-insurgency war. Serbia, which sees the province as its heartland, rejects a breakaway.

Infrastructure Minister Velimir Ilic, a Kostunica ally, conceded in an interview "the government is in a deep crisis".

"I fear it might fall this month because of Kosovo and the signing of the accord with the EU," he told Press daily on Tuesday. If Kosovo went ahead and declared independence this month, a general election could be held in May, he added.

Former U.S. ambassador to Serbia William Montgomery warned Kostunica's stance was "not simply rhetoric".

He "seems determined to force the EU to choose between its plans for Kosovo and its relationship with Serbia. "It is hard to see how the impasse can end "any other way than in a breakdown in the ruling coalition," he wrote in a weekly column.

The session has not been scheduled yet, but Tadic's Democrats and his allies have made it clear they will not back down on the EU after months of being pushed by Kostunica into making Kosovo the main issue.

Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic said "there could not, and would not, be any compromise on Serbia's European future".

In Brussels, the spokeswoman of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said everything was ready for a Thursday signing.

"We'd like very much to sign," Cristina Gallach said. "We think it's a good offer, and at the same time we understand very well that ... they have to undergo internal discussions."

(Additional reporting by Ljilja Cvekic and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Richard Balmforth

[conspiracy analyst]

Russia warns EU, NATO of "illegal" Kosovo moves

Paul Taylor
Reuters North American News Service

Feb 06, 2008 12:44 EST

BRUSSELS, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Russia warned the European Union and NATO on Wednesday that their presence in Kosovo would be illegal if they acted in support of a self-proclaimed independent state.

Russian ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said the EU had no basis in international law to deploy a police and justice mission in the breakaway Serbian province, since that required a United Nations mandate.

Moscow has backed Belgrade's refusal to allow Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority their own state, blocking a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have granted the territory supervised independence.

"Any attempt to circumvent the U.N. Security Council would put the EU mission on a very shaky legal basis," Chizhov told a news conference.

He said the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo known as KFOR would be in breach of its U.N. mandate if for example it intervened to put down protests by Kosovo's Serb minority against a declaration of independence.

Both the EU and NATO consider that U.N. Security Council resolution 1244, adopted in 1999 after NATO bombing drove Serb troops out of Kosovo, provides adequate legal basis for the continued presence of outside peacekeepers and overseers.

The U.N. Security Council has not taken a position on this.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders have said they intend to declare independence within weeks but will time their move in coordination with Washington and Brussels.

Chizhov said the United States appeared to have already given a green light "but that means additional responsibility lies with Brussels", adding Moscow was not giving up hope of preventing such an outcome and was using all diplomatic means.

"My personal judgment would be that the moment KFOR starts violating (U.N. Security Council) resolution 1244 hypothetically by using force against Kosovo Serbs protesting over a unilateral declaration of independence would be the moment KFOR would be crossing the line," he said.

He noted that several EU member states such as Ireland needed a U.N. mandate to take part in peacekeeping operations.

Chizhov said Moscow would prevent Kosovo from joining the United Nations or other international bodies such as the Council of Europe or the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, although he acknowledged that Pristina might have access to major international financial institutions.

He said recognition by EU states of an independent Kosovo would strain relations between Russia and the bloc, creating a negative precedent, but he did not threaten specific retaliation and ruled out using Russian energy supplies as a lever.

"I can only guess that with those countries that recognise, this will be a thorn in our political dialogue. With those that don't, it will not be a thorn," he said. (Editing by Ingrid Melander)

[conspiracy analyst]

Poll: Majority of Albanians demand neighboring territories
February 6, 2008

An unscientific telephone poll conducted by the Albanian TV Station Vision Plus indicates that vast majority of Albanians favor acquiring territories from their neighbors - Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia and Greece - and constituting them into a one Albanian state.

Over 90% of the viewers voted for territorial acquisition of what they believe are the Albanian lands into a state they refer to as "one, natural Albanian state."

Former Foreign Minister Paskal Milo and analysts Koco Danaj and Sokol Dervisaj also supported the position.

Vast majority of Albanian leaders across Balkans are conditioning their ethnic kin that acquisition of territory from their neighbors is a just policy. In Kosovo, Albanian separatists demand that the Serbian province becomes a second Albanian state in Europe.

Albanian separatists in Kosovo have warned that if the international community does to acquiesce to their demands for independence that they will turn to violence in order to achieve their aims.

Albania will recognize independent Kosovo Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha said after meeting with Kosovo's officials because that will promote peace.

source: http://www.serbianna.com

[LFJ]

John Pilger article Slideshow about the Kosovo campaign but with electronic computer voice some amazing facts though!

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=FYuhvHqUKss

[conspiracy analyst]

EU "EULEKS" Poised for Nazi Style Blitzkrieg on Kosovo

11.02.2008

Unwanted, unwelcome, illegal, illegitimate, the EU mission is poised
to make a Nazi style blitzkrieg into Kosovo to broker the Sudetenland
Germans, I mean Albanian mafia criminal terrorists, for an unprecedented,
unparalleled post World War 2 land grab, tearing away for the first time the
land of a sovereign European state in violation of all norms, all
agreements, the UN Charter and UN Resolution 1244...the first time for such
an occurrence since the UN was founded to prevent such a thing from
happening again after the horror and devastation of bloody warfare
throughout Europe.

The Treaty of Rome establishing a European Economic Community was
signed 1957. In the 1950s, the leaders of six European countries (France,
Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the
Netherlands) agreed to integrate their economic policies and raw material
production through several treaties. The Preamble of the Treaty of Rome
outlines the objectives to improve the living conditions of individuals, to
promote education and to strengthen peace and liberty.

The Maastricht Treaty on European Union led to the creation of the
European Union. The Maastricht Treaty created new levels of
inter-governmental cooperation with the European Union by establishing the
"Three Pillars" of the EU. Pillar One incorporates the founding treaty
mentioned above, addressing the single European market and a variety of
social policies. Pillar Two addresses the EU's Common Foreign and Security
Policy. Pillar Three addresses cooperation in Justice and Home Affairs. The
Maastricht Treaty affirmatively states that Member States confirm "their
attachment to the principles of liberty, democracy and respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms and of the rule of law" as well as their
"attachment to fundamental social rights."

Article 6 (2) as amended by the Amsterdam Treaty reads "The Union
shall respect fundamental rights, as guaranteed by the European Convention
for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Although the EU was ostensibly established with the expressed aim to
protect peace, stability and respect for established frontiers.it is doing
the exact opposite. It is promoting war, utter and total lawlessness,
violence, inequality, injustice and the tearing asunder of a European state
in order to promote mafia criminal narco terrorists and people traffickers
who have and will continue to use the province as a base from which to
launch violence, terror, prostitution and more and more bloody conflicts.
Largely due to its part in the Balkans, the living conditions of all ethnic
groupings have deteriorated and peace and liberty have been denied to
hundreds of thousands of people, especially Serbians and other Kosovo
minorities such as Jews, Roma, Turks and other groups.

In Kosovo, unemployment is rampant and massive. Without cash flows
coming from the empire, the criminal regime established by NATO, the US and
EU would not be able to survive despite its main means of extraordinary
economic opportunity: drug and people trafficking, wanton theft, murder for
hire and revenge killings.

The EU is actually anti-democratic: it raises interest groups and
lobbyists while EU commissioners function without accountability to nearly a
half a billion people. The EU consults with itself as it thinks it is the
only one talking sense. The European Convention, the body which met to draw
up the European Constitution, made a great show of inviting submissions from
"the people." Nearly 200 organizations were asked for their opinion. Every
one of these organizations was reliant on the EU for its funding.

Key documents for the Kosovo invasion are being adopted in Brussels
for the mission's arrival there. In the space of just a few days, two
important documents came before the Union, which, if adopted, will give the
mission the "green light" to go to Kosovo. They do not specify when the
mission to Kosovo will start. Rather, that it should last 28 months, with
the possibility of an extension. The mission will be financed by the
European budget, and the first 16 months alone will cost EUR 205mn.

It is stated that the aim of the mission, to be called EULEKS, more
properly they should call it Wehrmacht or Stormtroopers or SS or
Einsatzgruppen.is to promote democracy, economic development and stability
in Kosovo.

For different reasons, Belgrade and Pristina view the mission as being
the architect of the province's independence. The 30-page document that
represents the basis for establishing the mission does not contain a single
word referring to status. And that is no wonder because the EU has
absolutely NO authority to occupy historic, sacred Serbian land.

Serbia is not a member of the EU, but Serbia is by many standards the
most genuine democracy and example of European values on the entire
Continent. Additionally, an illegal and unrecognizable Albanian Kosovo will
NEVER be able to meet any EU standards for freedom, democracy or economic
development in the foreseeable future.

Director of the Swiss Institute of Federalism Thomas Fleiner says that
the UN resolution on the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija gives no
legal basis to the EU's mission plans. "The EU has made it clear that it is
sending a mission as part of preparations for the independence of Kosovo,
which would constitute a violation of Resolution 1244 article 10," said
Fleiner, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Freiburg.

The Swiss expert pointed out that Resolution 1244 also requires "the
full cooperation of FRY (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) in its
implementation," or that "one of the partner parties responsible for
implementing the solution prescribed by the resolution is FRY, or its legal
successor Serbia."

"That means that all matters relating to the implementation of the
resolution have to be done in cooperation with the chief partner-Serbia.
Once Kosovo province becomes an illegal independent state, states that are
supposed to cooperate in the implementation of the resolution will no longer
have a partner with whom they can cooperate."

Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador to Belgrade Aleksandr Alekseyev has
said that the EU mission can come to Kosovo only via a Security Council
resolution. Asked if Russia was prepared to give the "green light" to the
arrival of such a mission in the Security Council, Alekseyev replied that "I
think it would be a big mistake if the secretary-general gave some sort of
sign that could be interpreted as a "green light" for sending a mission to
Kosovo." Asked what Moscow could do should Brussels go ahead with sending
the mission, he replied, "Our two countries have already moved from
'coordinated' to common policies. You can rest assured that we will, in
common contact, find a way of responding to this challenge," said Alekseyev.

As far as a unilateral declaration of independence was concerned,
should it happen, the ambassador said that a Security Council session should
be called immediately, and that it "was obliged to take decisions to render
that declaration null and void." His response to a journalist's statement
that Russia would never recognize Kosovo was unequivocal: "You can rest
assured of that."

The EU's determination to meddle in what is strictly an internal
Serbian matter further demonstrates that the EU in its stated purposes has
been an utter failure except for the army of super rich Eurocrats whose only
intention in allowing this gross injustice is enrichment of the empire and
certain corporations, entities and individuals.

Who among the Eurocrats would like to step forward and proclaim
himself the new Hitler of the Fourth Reich also known as the European Union?
The EU is seeking to fulfill the dreams and aspirations of Herr Hitler, the
first powerful European to propose a Greater Albania among aliens in the
heart of Europe. Albanian thugs, war criminals and drug lords (not even the
ordinary common Albanian citizen who was frequently seen running towards
Serbian troops for protection from these criminal elements) now will profit
as direct descendents of Hitler's great friends and allies during that
miserable, bloody war. All this while they already have a state of their own
called Albania. The EU, acting exactly like Hitler and his Stormtroopers,
does so at its own peril and sadly at the peril of the entire European
continent it purports to secure.

[karlos]

According to several Kosovans it has been announced that Monday will be Kosovo independence day.
A public holiday has been declared and mass celebrations are planned.

Looks like the election of a pro eu president in Serbia has brought the formal declaration forward.

[LFJ]

How Silent Are the ‘Humanitarian’ Invaders of Kosovo?

Muted by the evidence of the Anglo-American catastrophe in Iraq, the international "humanitarian" war party ought to be called to account for its largely forgotten crusade in Kosovo, the model for Tony Blair’s "onward march of liberation." Just as Iraq is being torn apart by the forces of empire, so was Yugoslavia, the multi-ethnic state that uniquely rejected both sides in the cold war.

Lies as great as those of Bush and Blair were deployed by Clinton and Blair in their grooming of public opinion for an illegal, unprovoked attack on a European country. Like the build-up to the invasion of Iraq, the media coverage in the spring of 1999 was a series of fraudulent justifications, beginning with US Defence Secretary William Cohen’s claim that "we’ve now seen about 100,000 military-aged [Albanian] men missing... they may have been murdered." David Scheffer, the US ambassador at large for war crimes, announced that as many as "225,000 ethnic Albanian men aged between 14 and 59" may have been killed. Blair invoked the Holocaust and "the spirit of the Second World War." The British press took its cue. "Flight from genocide," said the Daily Mail. "Echoes of the Holocaust," chorused the Sun and the Mirror.

By June 1999, with the bombardment over, international forensic teams began subjecting Kosovo to minute examination. The American FBI arrived to investigate what was called "the largest crime scene in the FBI’s forensic history." Several weeks later, having not found a single mass grave, the FBI went home. The Spanish forensic team also returned home, its leader complaining angrily that he and his colleagues had become part of "a semantic pirouette by the war propaganda machines, because we did not find one – not one – mass grave."

In November 1999, the Wall Street Journal published the results of its own investigation, dismissing "the mass grave obsession." Instead of "the huge killing fields some investigators were led to expect ... the pattern is of scattered killings [mostly] in areas where the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army had been active." The Journal concluded that Nato stepped up its claims about Serb killing fields when it "saw a fatigued press corps drifting toward the contrarian story: civilians killed by Nato’s bombs ... The war in Kosovo was "cruel, bitter, savage; genocide it wasn’t."

One year later, the International War Crimes Tribunal, a body effectively set up by Nato, announced that the final count of bodies found in Kosovo’s "mass graves" was 2,788. This included combatants on both sides and Serbs and Roma murdered by the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army. Like Iraq’s fabled weapons of mass destruction, the figures used by the US and British governments and echoed by journalists were inventions – along with Serb "rape camps" and Clinton’s and Blair’s claims that Nato never deliberately bombed civilians.

Code-named "Stage Three," Nato’s civilian targets included public transport, hospitals, schools, museums, churches. "It was common knowledge that Nato went to Stage Three [after a couple of weeks]," said James Bissell, the Canadian ambassador in Belgrade during the attack. "Otherwise, they would not have been bombing bridges on Sunday afternoons and market places."

Nato’s clients were the Kosovo Liberation Army. Seven years earlier, the KLA had been designated by the State Department as a terrorist organisation in league with Al Qaida. KLA thugs were feted; Foreign Secretary Robin Cook allowed them to call him on his mobile phone. "The Kosovo-Albanians played us like a Stradivarius," wrote the UN Balkans commander, Major-General Lewis MacKenzie, last April. "We have subsidised and indirectly supported their violent campaign for an ethnically pure Kosovo. We have never blamed them for being the perpetrators of the violence in the early 1990s and we continue to portray them as the designated victim today in spite of evidence to the contrary."

The trigger for the bombing of Yugoslavia was, according to Nato, the failure of the Serbian delegation to sign up to the Rambouillet peace conference. What went mostly unreported was that the Rambouillet accord had a secret Annexe B, which Madeline Albright’s delegation had inserted on the last day. This demanded the military occupation of the whole of Yugoslavia, a country with bitter memories of the Nazi occupation. As the Foreign Office minister Lord Gilbert later conceded to a Commons’ defence select committee, Annexe B was planted deliberately to provoke rejection by the government in Belgrade. As the first bombs fell, the elected parliament in Belgrade, which included some of Milosevic’s fiercest opponents, voted overwhelmingly to reject it.

Equally revealing was a chapter dealing exclusively with the Kosovo economy. This called for a "free-market economy" and the privatisation of all government assets. As the Balkans writer Neil Clark has pointed out, "the rump of Yugoslavia... was the last economy in central-southern Europe to be uncolonised by western capital. ‘Socially owned enterprises,’ the form of worker self-management pioneered under Tito, still predominated. Yugoslavia had publicly owned petroleum, mining, car and tobacco industries, and 75 per cent of industry was state or socially owned."

At the Davos summit of neo-liberal chieftains in 1999, Blair berated Belgrade, not for its handling of Kosovo, but for its failure to fully embrace "economic reform." In the bombing campaign that followed, it was state-owned companies, rather than military sites, that were targeted. Nato’s destruction of only 14 Yugoslav army tanks compares with its bombing of 372 centres of industry, including the Zastava car factory, leaving hundreds of thousands jobless. "Not one foreign or privately owned factory was bombed," wrote Clark.

Erected on the foundation of this massive lie, Kosovo today is a violent, criminalised UN-administered "free market" in drugs and prostitution. More than 200,000 Serbs, Roma, Bosniacs, Turks, Croats and Jews have been ethnically cleansed by the KLA with Nato forces standing by. KLA hit squads have burned, looted or demolished 85 Orthodox churches and monasteries, according to the UN. The courts are venal. "You shot an 89-year-old Serb grandmother?" mocked a UN narcotics officer. "Good for you. Get out of jail."

Although Security Council Resolution 1244 recognises Kosovo as an integral part of Yugoslavia, and does not authorise the UN administration to sell off anything, multinational companies are being offered 10 and 15 year leases of the province’s local industries and resources, including the vast Trepca mines, some of the richest mineral deposits in the world. After Hitler captured them in 1940, the mines supplied German munition factories with 40 per cent of their lead. Overseeing this plundered, murderous, now almost ethnically pure "future democracy" (Blair), are 4,000 American troops in Camp Bondsteel, a 775-acre permanent base.

Meanwhile, the trial of Milosevic proceeds as farce, not unlike an earlier show trial in The Hague: that of the Libyans blamed for the Lockerbie bomb. Milosevic was a brute; he was also a banker once regarded as the west’s man who was prepared to implement "economic reforms" in keeping with IMF, World Bank and European Community demands; to his cost, he refused to surrender sovereignty. The empire expects nothing less.

December 9, 2004 John Pilger

[conspiracy analyst]

[festival of snickers]

i guess we will have to cancel the elections and fight world war three over this little kosovo i guess

lol

[conspiracy analyst]

The iraqui resistance seems to be spreading arriving now in Europe.


US embassy in Belgrade attacked


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7256158.stm


A day later a Stealth bomber crashes. Last time that happened was in the NATO-Serbian war...

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/newsmlmmd.dbb4b687cd856f535bf8 9767a268204d.221.html

[QuitTheirClogs]

AFP:

[conspiracy analyst]

nternational Action Center

To:
rolf.mart...@comhem.se

Cc:
Activist alerts and news.

Sent:
Friday, February 22, 2008 7:42 PM [EST]

Subject:
U.S. Hands Off Serbia - No New Colony in Kosovo

U.S. Hands Off Serbia!
U.S./Nato OUT of the Balkans!
No to a new U.S. colony in Kosovo!

A Giant U.S. Military Base and Total Domination Is the Reality – NOT
Independence
Serbian Demonstrators Show Resistance to U.S. Colonial-Style Land Seizure

The demonstration of over 500,000 people in Belgrade and the attack on the U.S.
Embassy show the depth of outrage and anger over the seizure of the Serbian
province of Kosovo. In the past three days two Kosovo border posts were
destroyed, one by fire the other in an explosion, along with ten McDonald's
outlets and several Western banks and other hated targets.

The Western media had overwhelming applauded the U.S. destruction in 1999 and
it now has a responsibility to explain the reason for the mass anger of
millions of people. The outrage is because the province of Kosovo is not
actually being granted “independence.” Millions of people see this week’s
recognition of Kosovo “independence” as an effort to legitimize a direct U.S.
colony and to permanently secure a giant U.S. military base in the region.

Regarding the hypocritical condemnation by Washington that angry demonstrators
had targeted the U.S. Embassy, it should be remembered that when the U.S.
bombed Serbia for 78 days in 1999, U.S. bombs destroyed the Chinese Embassy.
Nineteen other diplomatic and consular missions were damaged in the U.S.
bombing, along with 480 schools and 33 hospitals, heating plants, sewage
plants, bridges, communications, the electric grid and other civilian targets.

The “declaration of independence” by Kosovo, a province of Serbia, and its
immediate recognition as a state by the U.S., Germany, Britain and France, is a
fraud. Three things should be understood about the events this week.

First, Kosovo is not gaining independence or even minimal self-government.
Kosovo will be run by an appointed High Representative and bodies appointed by
the U.S., European Union and NATO. An old-style colonial viceroy and
imperialist administrators will have control over all aspects of foreign and
domestic policy. Washington has merely consolidated its direct control of a
totally dependent colony in the heart of the Balkans.

Second, Washington’s immediate recognition of Kosovo confirms once again that
the U.S. government will break any and every treaty or international agreement
it has ever signed, including agreements it drafted and imposed by force and
violence on others.

The recognition of Kosovo is in direct violation of such law—specifically U.N.
Security Council Resolution 1244, which the leaders of Yugoslavia were forced
to sign to end the 78 days of NATO bombing of their country in 1999. Even this
imposed agreement affirmed the “commitment of all Member States to the
sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Serbia, a republic of Yugoslavia.

Thirdly, U.S. imperialist domination does not benefit the occupied people.
Kosovo after nine years of direct NATO military occupation has a staggering 60
percent unemployment rate. It has become a center of the international drug
trade and of prostitution rings in Europe.

The once humming mines, mills, smelters, refining centers and railroads of this
small resource-rich industrial area all sit silent. The resources of Kosovo
under NATO occupation were forcibly privatized and sold to giant Western
multinational corporations. Now almost the only employment is working for the
U.S./NATO army of occupation or U.N. agencies.

The only major construction in Kosovo is of Camp Bondsteel, the largest U.S.
base built in Europe in a generation. Halliburton, of course, got the contract.
The U.S. base guards the strategic oil and transportation lines of the entire
region.

Over 250,000 Serbian, Romani and other nationalities have been driven out of
this Serbian province since it came under U.S./NATO control. Almost a quarter
of the Albanian population has been forced to leave in order to find work.

The plan under which Kosovo’s “independence” is recognized by the U.S, Germany,
France and Britain not only violates U.N. resolutions but it is consolidates a
total colonial structure. It is similar to the absolute power held by L. Paul
Bremer in the first two years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The documents
setting out the new government for Kosovo are available at
unosek.org/unosek/en/statusproposal.html. A summary is available on the U.S.
State Department’s Web site at state.gov/p/eur/rls/fs/100058.htm

An International Civilian Representative (ICR) will be appointed by U.S. and
E.U. officials to oversee Kosovo. This appointed official can overrule any
measures, annul any laws and remove anyone from office in Kosovo. The ICR will
have full and final control over the departments of Customs, Taxation, Treasury
and Banking.

The E.U. will establish a European Security and Defense Policy Mission (ESDP)
and NATO will establish an International Military Presence. Both these
appointed bodies will have control over foreign policy, security, police,
judiciary, all courts and prisons. They are guaranteed immediate and complete
access to any activity, proceeding or document in Kosovo.

These bodies and the ICR will have final say over what crimes can be prosecuted
and against whom; they can reverse or annul any decision made. The largest
prison in Kosovo is at the U.S. base, Camp Bondsteel, where prisoners are held
without charges, judicial overview or representation.

The recognition of Kosovo’s “independence” is just the latest step in a U.S.
war of re-conquest of this strategic region. But as yesterday’s massive
demonstration shows this reckless and illegal maneuver may unleash a whirlwind
of opposition and resistance.

U.S. Hands Off Serbia!
U.S./Nato OUT of the Balkans!
No to a new U.S. colony in Kosovo!

The International Action Center sent a delegation to Serbia during the US/NATO
bombing in 1999 and has published several books on the crisis in the Balkans,
including Hidden Agenda: U.S./NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia, NATO in the Balkans:
Voices of Opposition, and The Defense Speaks for History and the Future - all
available from Leftbooks.com.

Sign up for updates
http://iacenter.org/action_list/

Donate to help with organizing expense
http://iacenter.org/donate/

About the IAC
http://iacenter.org/about/

[END OF QUOTE]

______________

[conspiracy analyst]

Attack on US Embassy Bears Zbigniew Brzezinski's Signature



In addition to reports about current investigation of Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which suggest that attack on US embassy in Belgrade in the shadows of the massive "Kosovo is Serbia" rally was a setup aimed at debasing and suppressing Serbian resistance to criminal Western actions against the state of Serbia, there are indications that an ultra-violent wing of American CIA could be behind the staged attack.

American political analyst and author Webster G. Tarpley, in the article "Brzezinski Seizing Control Over US Policy In Slow-Motion Coup" published on February 23, assessed that greasy fingerprints of one of the most notorious Russophobes, a fanatically aggressive warmonger Zbigniew Brzezinski, are all too visible in the latest events taking place in Serbia, including the recent torching of an office in the Belgrade US embassy:

“The attack on the US embassy in Belgrade, Serbia by gangs of drunken students is a classic Brzezinski operation. The tactic of having an incensed rent-a-mob of swarming adolescent patsies attack the US Embassy in order to gin up a crisis is one of Zbigniew's signature specialties.

“During the time that Brzezinski was running the foreign policy of Trilateral puppet Jimmy Carter, there were bloody attacks on the US embassies in Pakistan and in Afghanistan, both countries that featured prominently in Brzezinski's arc of crisis theory. Most famous of all was of course the attack on the US embassy in Teheran, Iran, which led to the taking of hostages and the huge international crisis which helped to doom the Carter administration to extinction at the polls.

“If US diplomats or State Department personnel are taken hostage anywhere in the world in the weeks and months to come, this must be attributed to Brzezinski,” Tarpley stressed.

Obama's Key Adviser Seeks an All-Out War With Russia
Furthermore, the lunatic who cheered jihadists and bragged about his involvement in allying United States with Bin Laden and Taliban mujahedins in the war against Russia in Afghanistan, is also one of the key persons behind the amputation of Kosovo and Metohija province from Serbia. According to Tarpley, Brzezinski's goal is not so much to destroy Serbia (though a welcomed bonus), as to provoke an all-out war with Russia:

“The independence of Kosovo has opened a new crisis front in Eastern Europe, with the potential for very nasty complications in regard to Russia. This is the essence of the Brzezinski anti-Russian policy.

“Kosovo independence is of course a flagrant violation of all existing norms of international law, most notably the Helsinki CSCE treaty of 1975 which finally put an end to World War II by declaring that all borders in Europe were to be considered final unless and until any changes had been agreed through mutual consultation of the interested parties.

“Since the Serbian government in Belgrade is vehemently opposed to Kosovo independence, the unilateral actions of the US, British, and NATO are the very essence of international anarchy. The new regime in Kosovo goes far beyond the usual kleptocracy of NATO puppets favored by Brzezinski and his circles. The new regime in Kosovo is essentially the terrorist KLA, an organization devoted to gun-running, drug-running, and trafficking in human slaves.

“The KLA is a Balkan version of Al Qaeda, and both are wholly owned creations of the CIA and British intelligence. With Kosovo independence, the US, British, and NATO stand ready to use armed force to defend the right of a terrorist gang to assert sovereignty over a segment of modern Europe.

“The criminal obscenity of this policy could hardly be greater, but for Brzezinski all methods are legitimate provided that they increase tension with Moscow, and in that respect Kosovo independence is already a glowing success.”

This raving madman is Barrack Obama's top adviser and positioned to take up one of the key posts in the US Administration should any Democratic candidate win the presidency.

Entire analysis by Webster G. Tarpley »

Posted by Svetlana at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)


Another Setup

"Kosovo is Serbia" rally in Belgrade was so massive that all the streets and bridges surrounding National Parliament building were filled with people who could not reach the plateau where the gathering was held.
Was Thursday Attack on US Embassy in Belgrade a Setup?
According to the Serbian media, investigators of the Serbian Interior Ministry have found hand-drawn maps pointing to the streets and buildings of the US and other embassies in Belgrade in the pockets of a group of vandals who were arrested in Thursday riots.

Serbia's Interior Ministry has confirmed their investigation is focused on the identity of a group of young men who were caught with rather unusual maps after instigating violent riots at the same time when half a million Serbs were gathered in the state capital to peacefully protest imposed dismemberment of Serbia, and as the procession of over 500,000 peaceful demonstrators streamed out of St. Sava Cathedral where they attended the prayer service. The investigators are currently trying to determine under whose authority and instructions were these men sent to create chaos in the streets of Belgrade, effectively taking the world's attention off Serbia's massive and dignified protest, and refocusing that same attention to the outburst of violence that occurred in the shadows of the big event.

“According to our investigation, apart from setting fire to the embassies and consulates, these individuals intended to draw citizens that were attending a peaceful rally in the downtown Belgrade, in the violence. The first outbursts have started in the midst of a rally, while the demolition and attack on embassies occurred when citizens started returning from the St. Sava Church,” Serbian Interior Ministry investigators explained.

They have discovered that a number of those who were engaged in the violent attacks on embassies have not attended the large rally in front of the National Parliament building and never intended to attend the scheduled peaceful demonstrations, but to instigate violence.


Common Prayer, Moleban for Kosovo and Metohija, was led by Metropolitan Amfilohije and Bishops of Serbian Orthodox Church at 7p.m., after the rally. Feb. 21, 2008, Belgrade, Serbia
“We are currently investigating the identity of those who were arrested and analyzing the objects found on them at the time of arrest. Some among them have attempted to justify the maps they carried as a means of finding their way to the big rally, since they are not from Belgrade. But they could not explain why, instead of having maps with directions on how to reach the National Parliament building where the rally was held, it was the diplomatic buildings that were marked on their maps, e.g. the US Embassy and those belonging to Croatia, Slovenia, UK and Turkey,” one of the investigators told the media, under the condition of anonymity.

The police is also looking into the arrestees' biographies and dossiers, as well as their contacts abroad.

“Some of the arrestees have very interesting biographies and contacts, and we are currently also looking into their connections abroad,” the MIF investigator revealed.

The investigator would not say whether the police and Serbian national security services are suspecting or have discovered the involvement of the foreign factors and foreign secret services in the outburst of violence.

“We are following every lead and every possible connection right now,” he said.

Until the investigation is finished and we learn the results, we might want to consider few questions:

Which state officials/leaders are rapidly losing all credibility and every shred of moral "high-ground" and would, therefore, tremendously benefit from showing the Serbs as the actual bad guys once again?
Who has been most eager to milk the outburst of violence in Belgrade, until our eyes and ears start bleeding of their righteous indignation and "moral outrage"?
Theoretically, if one would want to take the world's eyes off the flood of criticism aimed at Washington these days and off the entire Serbian nation standing up in protest against this last act of molestation, what would be the best way to "turn the tables" and re-direct some of that anger at Serbs yet again?

Serbia stands in prayer for its southern province of Kosovo and Metohija
In theory, if one would want to distract the world's attention from a spectacularly massive peaceful gathering of over half a million people protesting the great powers' brute force, what would be the best way to show the actual victims in a negative light and turn them into "perpetrators"?
Who is getting desperate for failing to force Serbia to take few steps back and resign to the loss of the most precious part of its state, instead of continuing the very serious, unanimous resistance?
Why would the Soros-owned and funded B92 and each of the Soros employees in Serbia insist on mercilessly clogging Serbs over the office burned in the US embassy on that evening, allowing it to entirely overshadow the incomparably more massive and more important event that took place at the same time?
When you think of Thursday, February 21, when all of Serbia stood up in common prayer in face of the latest injustice of the world's Empire, do you remember the ocean of people testifying that Kosovo is Serbia, or the pictures of a hundred young men torching the office in American embassy in Belgrade?
Consider also another angle from which the issue ought to be viewed:

In a Tale of Two Embassies, UK journalist and commentator Neil Clark reminds of another embassy in Belgrade that was brutally attacked by a savage gang of thugs.

American author Jeremy Scahill in his latest article The Real Story Behind Kosovo's Independence reveals that “the greatest crime against any embassy in the history of Yugoslavia was committed not by evil Serb protesters, but by the United States military.”

__________________
I remind you of the words of the British historian, William Harold Temperley, who said of the Serbs in 1918: 'There is no race which has shown a more heroic desire for freedom than the Serbs or achieved
it with less aid from others or at more sacrifice to itself.'

[festival of snickers]

Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence is disputed by Serbia, Russia, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and other nations. The official position of these countries is that Kosovo is a Serbian province under ad interim UN control, formally known as Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (Serbian: Аутономна покрајина Косово и Метохија, Autonomna pokrajina Kosovo i Metohija, also Космет, Kosmet; Albanian: Krahina Autonome e Kosovës dhe Metohisë).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo

today it said india and Slovakia doesnt agree

wikipedia makes it clear this is serb land ripped off by ottomans and turks

[festival of snickers]

In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming bolder. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers.[14] Encouraged, Hitler began making claims on the Sudetenland; France and Britain conceded these for a promise of no further territorial demands.[15] Germany soon reneged, and in March 1939 fully occupied Czechoslovakia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#War_breaks_out

welcome to world war 3

[festival of snickers]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2536261.stm

interesting atricle

[festival of snickers]

this is odd

http://www.infowars.com/?p=305&cp=1#comments

a alex jones posting odd things

very weird

on his site

[conspiracy analyst]

Kosovo is Serbia on youtube with response

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9d27nxSH4k&feature=related

Russia will not change its stance on Kosovo - Medvedev, RIA Novosti

BELGRADE, February 25 (RIA Novosti) - First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reaffirmed on Monday that Russia will maintain a firm stand on territorial integrity of Serbia.

“We believe that Serbia is a unified state, whose jurisdiction extends over its whole territory, and we will maintain this position in the future,” Medvedev said at the talks with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica in Belgrade.

The Kosovo parliament unilaterally adopted on February 17 a declaration on the breakaway republic’s independence from Serbia. Belgrade has called the decision illegal and is demanding to cancel it. The United States and some other Western countries have recognized Kosovo’s independence.

Medvedev, who is the Kremlin’s front-runner in the upcoming presidential elections, said the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo had undermined the situation in the Balkans and the whole Europe.

“To a larger extent, the negative consequences of this precedent are spreading over other regions and states, where the issue of territorial integrity has become a matter of concern,” Medvedev said.

Protests against Kosovo’s independence, the largest in Serbia’s history, turned into street riots in Belgrade last week leaving at least 130 people injured and 192 rioters arrested.

Rioters attacked the embassies of the United States, Croatia, Belgium and Turkey, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.

Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Hustled away from the embassies, the rioters - mostly young people - moved down the streets looting and damaging at least 90 shops, kiosks and setting cars on fire.

Washington and the UN Security Council condemned the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade and urged Serbs to stay within international law and to respect the status of diplomatic missions. The EU followed suit.

Medvedev said at a joint news conference with the Serbian premier on Monday that Russia and Serbia would coordinate their efforts to resolve the current political crisis over Kosovo’s independence.

“This coordination will be maintained in the framework of all interested bodies and organizations,” he said.

Vojislav Kostunica echoed Medvedev’s statements by saying: “We will fight together with Russia and will demand the annulment of these illegal decisions [announcement of Kosovo’s independence].”

He added that the Russian and Serbian position on Kosovo issue was supported by some other countries that “keep the respect toward the fundamental principles of international law close to their hearts.”

The U.S., Australia, and several leading European countries, including France, Italy and Germany, have so far recognized Kosovo as an independent country, while Russia, Serbia, China and Spain have condemned the independence move.

[conspiracy analyst]

On Kosovo Independence and Implications for Greece


Mikis Theodorakis-End the Betrayal and Ugliness

Irrespective of the results of the US elections, ie independently from who will be the future President, the colossal military machine has already gone forward with the aim of exterminating all those it feels to be its enemies. Even Greece which does follow blindly its instructions. Iran, North Korea, the Arab world and non-subjugated and naturally among them Russia and in the far depth China.


Then the insolent of South America will have their turn. An immediate multifaceted many legged like an octopus will make slowly and surely its appearance in the vanguard of world history. Today's aim are the Balkans with the main aim the creation of a 'Greater Albania', starting with Kosovo and in collaboration to those responsible for mass murders in the KLA-UCK. This was not enough an event extraordinary for us in and of itself but various ‘scientists’ chose the main Polytechnic University to develop in public their basic demand for a 'Greater Albania', the occupation of Ipirus until Preveza with the justification that it belonged to Albanian Tsamouria from where the Greeks threw them out for their criminal acts.

Obviously we are dealing with an organised provocation by the USA so as to study our reactions and to prepare us psychologically for the territorial expansion of Albania after Kosovo independence and to a certain extent the Albanian speakers in Skopje and consequently on our lands.

On the other hand the alliance of Turkey with the USA on Kosovo which became one of the first to recognise it, is preparing the climate for devious plans against our country on the basis not only of the Aegean sea and Cyprus, but the muslim minority in Thrace which following the example of Kosovo may demand its independence.



The policy of the leadership of Skopje appears to show from first hand the plans of the USA and that is why they show such disconcern about their intransigence. That is why in this phase they are allied with the policy highlighted. But what will they do when the second phase continues of this friendlyalbanian tactics, whereby their statelet will be divided in half as they will recognise that they may be called Macedonians, but ethnically they are part of the enemies with Russia, Serbia but also Bulgaria and they must not have those illusions as they are Slavs.


Thus returning to us the Greeks we must see that the situation is developing as it is developing and it is beyond tragic given the fact that the Americans aren’t convinced however many times the American friendly leaders in Greece beg them and that is why they are frightened as they hate our people, who they are conscious of the fact negate their war plans, that is why they want to punish us with every means possible unless we decide all together to kneel and kiss their feet and from now on swear to be good citizens and obedient organs in their policies.

As the game for us is already lost, then let us fall down with our head held high. Let us not wait help from anywhere. We neither have allies, we are all we are, let us at least ensure to become good, proud and why not happy as we have taken all the big decision to become one great fist united against the betrayal and the ugliness which is banging on our door..

For it is a betrayal the independence of Kosovo without the acceptance of the international community of the UN, the recognition in other words of a province which has been part of Serbia and what would we feel if tomorrow we lost half of Cyprus, Thrace and Ipirus?

As it is ugliness to accept to be despised and to be sworn at hidden under the wings of the Americans by the Skopjians and us to plead to them and to ask for the intervention of the Americans, losing every day our dignity and pride.

Lets close our borders lets stop our economic and diplomatic relationships let us leave them calling themselves what they want,ridiculing only themselves.


We are obliged to pass from this new test with our head held high. We may suffer, but the issue is to remain Greeks and we will remain Greeks if we do not forget from how many tests we have passed till now as in the end we came out victorious.

The same will occur in the future.
Mikis Theodorakis
Athens
23/2/2008

[conspiracy analyst]

Clashes started with NATO today.

Soon either the Serbs will be expelled from Kosovo or NATO will.

http://www.pr-inside.com/un-and-nato-troops-clash-with-r488577.htm

UN and NATO troops clash with Kosovo Serbs after retaking UN courthouse

Kosovo rioting forces UN peacekeepers out of Serb-dominated Mitrovica

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3566627.ece

[conspiracy analyst]

Latest pictures from a new war that has started...

http://tinyurl.com/2sxz2t

[conspiracy analyst]

Serbian Held in "Pig Farm" Massacre
British resident held over Serbian war crimes
By Katie Franklin and agencies
Last Updated: 4:43pm GMT 25/03/2008



A Serbian man living in the UK has been arrested on suspicion of war crimes, the Foreign Office has said.


Vukovar was devastated during the Croatian War of Independence
Milorad Pejic, who holds a British passport, is accused of involvement in the deaths of more than 200 people in a small town in Croatia.

It is alleged Mr Pejic was a member of the Serbian force that massacred prisoners from Vukovar hospital at a pig farm in Ovcara in 1991.

Mr Pejic, who has lived in Corby, Northamptonshire, for years, was detained at the airport when he returned to the Serbian capital Belgrade last week.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of his arrest and we are monitoring the situation."

Serbia's war crimes prosecutor's office said it had begun investigating Mr Pejic's alleged involvement in the killings in 2003, but he had been out of reach because he lived in Britain, where he worked as a locksmith.

Serbian forces entered Vukovar amid heavy fighting in November 1991, and prisoners of war sought refuge in a hospital.

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When the city fell, Serbian troops seized the prisoners.

At least 200 were taken to a pig farm at nearby Ovcara, where they were beaten, tortured and killed.

Their bodies were later found in mass graves.

In December 2005, 14 former soldiers were sentenced to jail terms of up to 20 years for their involvement in the massacre.

But Serbia's Supreme Court has ordered a retrial, citing alleged irregularities in the initial proceedings. This has triggered outrage among the victims' families.

In September 2007, the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague convicted two former Yugoslav Army officers over the massacre.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...5/nserb125.xml
__________________

[conspiracy analyst]

Serbia asks UN for partitioning of Kosovo

* Ian Traynor, Europe editor
* The Guardian,
* Tuesday March 25 2008
* Article history

About this article
Close
This article appeared in the Guardian on Tuesday March 25 2008 on p18 of the International section. It was last updated at 00:00 on March 25 2008.

Serbia has formally proposed partitioning Kosovo along ethnic lines for the first time, asking the United Nations to ensure that Belgrade can control key institutions and functions in areas of the newly independent country where Serbs form a majority.

In a document sent to the UN in New York, proposed to the UN in Kosovo last week and published in the Belgrade press yesterday, the government in Belgrade insists that Serbia be allowed to control the police, the courts, the judiciary and customs in the Serbian enclaves in Kosovo and in the northern strip around the tense Serb-controlled town of Mitrovica.

Described as a blueprint for the "functional division of Serbs and Kosovo Albanians" by the Serbian minister pushing the policy, the proposal is the nearest Serbia has come to calling openly for partition, although it is working on the ground on Kosovo to make the division a reality.

The Serbian government of Vojislav Kostunica, which utterly rejects Kosovan independence, never officially urges the ethnic partition since to do so would be to forfeit its claim to Serbian sovereignty over all of Kosovo. But the proposal acknowledges the UN as the sole authority in Kosovo, rejecting the legitimacy of both the Kosovo government and the EU mission that is supposed to take over from the UN over the next three months.

Clashes between Serbs and UN and Nato forces in Mitrovica last week left one Ukrainian dead and scores injured. The UN said Belgrade was behind the trouble, which erupted over a Serbian takeover of a local courthouse. Mitrovica Serbs are promising to stage a large demonstration again today in the town, which Serbia has controlled for most of the nine-year UN mission in Kosovo.

Slobodan Samardzic, the Serbian minister running the partition policy along with Kostunica, implicitly threatened more unrest in Mitrovica if the demands were ignored. "If [the UN] want peace and stability, they must reach a lasting agreement with the Serbs, and not try to put out a fire every other day through violence," he told the Belgrade newspaper Politika.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/25/serbia.kosovo

[karlos]

The Crepulje project is located in Northern Kosovo, Lydian a company 50% owned by the World Bank was granted an exploration license in 2006. Crepulje has very good quality zinc deposits, non-sulphide zinc deposits which coincidentally are also found in Mehdiabad, Iran.

Lydian's management team has a track record of success in grassroots discovery, in acquiring and developing undervalued assets, and in building companies. Lydian has a strong social agenda and a deep understanding of the complex social and political issues that characterise emerging environments.

The Company's two main projects are gold at Amulsar in Armenia, and zinc, lead, silver and gold at Drazhnje in Kosovo. Lydian also has a pipeline of promising gold and base metal exploration projects in the Balkans region, and operates a 50/50 gold and copper exploration joint venture.

There is also rhodium deposits in Kosovo which the World bank probably finds too sensitive to talk about. Rhodium in case anyone was confused is TEN TIMES more valuable than gold.