[Update 2: changed the title.]
A relevant reminder: Soj doesn't believe that genocide occurred in Srebrenica. Soj sides with the Serbs
this time by portraying the Kosovar Albanians as criminals not deserving of independence, and yet does not offer a single solution.
Detailed rebuttal of the propaganda on the flip, but here's why Serbs have no right to rule Kosovo::
'Once you touch the woman, you touch the honour of the family and you provoke the man to react. The Serbs knew this. Belgrade had, for years, put out propaganda that the only thing Albanian women could do was produce like mice. So daughters were gang-raped in front of their fathers, wives in front of their husbands, nieces in front of their uncles, mothers in front of their children, just to dehumanise, just to degrade.'
It is estimated by the World Health Organisation and the US-based Centre for Disease Control that as many as 20,000 Kosovar women (4.4 per cent of the population) were raped in the two years prior to Nato's forces entering the benighted territory. Numbers to match Bosnia, if not more.
(You want to know what the incidence of rape was before that? Practically nil. Read
Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War by Julie Mertus.)
Kosovo - You might be forgiven if you thought the fighting in Kosovo is over. The bombs and guns are mostly silent, but this area is on the verge of exploding yet again. (In italics are Soj's words.)
Sure. After years of obstacle-building by the UN, Kosovo is as poor as ever. Those UN folks love it there, because there are no insurgents trying to blow them up. There's only a people yearning peacefully for independence. (Yes, I know about the riots in March of 2004. The majority of the 19 people killed were Albanians shot by Serbs.) It's on the verge of exploding because people aren't given their right to self-determination. The UN imposed a Catch-22, called standards before status. Before independence could be considered, the Kosovars were asked to implement the institutions of a democracy but weren't given the power or funds to do that.
Why should you care?
A fully independent Kosovo, however that is achieved (referendum, mandate, etc) would incite a lot of anger in Serbia, including those who are moderates and want to work to join the EU. Russia is a major ally of Serbia's and is not likely to support full independence.
I see. Just as in Bosnia, we should reward the Serbs for their aggression by returning Kosovo to Serb rule. They don't want to work with the EU? They can go to hell. Do you call shielding Karadzic and Mladic wanting to work with the EU? Soj, Serbia has no choice but to work with the EU. I'll bet anything you want: Kosovo gets its independence, Serbs grumble but join the EU anyway.
And I don't give a fuck how angry Russians and Serbs get. The Serbs started four wars in a decade, killed over 200,000 innocent civilians in Bosnia and Kosovo, drove millions more innocent civilians from their homes, and raped tens of thousands of women. One million Kosovar Albanians were forcibly expelled from their homes in 1998 and 1999, 800,000 of them beyond Kosovo's borders. I interviewed hundreds of them on behalf of the Red Cross at the army base at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Now you think Kosovars are going to return to that rule? Are you out of your mind?
The Balkans have always been a flashpoint for regional instability and an independent Kosovo could light the match, especially in neighboring Bosnia.
Complete nonsense, 100% drivel straight out of the Republican fear-mongering playbook. Can you explain how an independent Kosovo would incite the least bit of trouble in Bosnia? It wouldn't, unless the Serbs started yet a fifth war. Bosnia and Kosovo are on their own paths.
Actually, one thing you wrote is partially true. The Balkans have often been a flashpoint, but who started the wars each time? Serbia. Sure, let's appease them because it will make them peaceful.
Besides all of that, Kosovo has devolved into the European headquarters for drug, weapons and human trafficking. Women from eastern countries are literally sold into sexual slavery in the west.
Shameful indeed, but you're voting for more oppression of women.
Kosovo is the poorest place in Europe. Nobody in their right mind would invest there because of its uncertain status. Without other prospects, people often turn to crime, but Serbs and Russians shouldn't exactly cast aspersions on others when it comes to organized crime including drugs and prostitution. Now, Soj, you deplore the crime there but you're FOR its perpetuation. Brilliant. Oh yeah, I suppose things were better under Serbian Martial Law. Let's bring that back and it will all be better. There's law and order throughout Serbia and Russia. They can restore order to Kosovo like nobody else.
NATO's intervention in Kosovo ended a decade of brutal apartheid during which the Albanian language was outlawed and all Albanians were fired from their state jobs. That decade capped a century of Serb aggression against Albanians. You want dates and specific villages? It's going to take us a long time. Ever hear of The Expulsion of The Albanians by Vaso Cubrilovic, a member of the Serbian Academy of Science? And yet you help the Serbs perpetuate their myth of victimhood.
In the PBS documentary on Otpor, the US-funded anti-Milosevic "democratic" resistance movement, not one word of sympathy is uttered by the student "leaders" about the victims of Serbia. Not one. Instead, they only talk about what other countries, their neighbors included, did to them. That would sound odd if it weren't part of a long pattern.
Over 90% of Kosovo's population yearns for independence. Maybe they're sick of oppression and poverty, and maybe, like most people, they want self-determination. They aren't likely to want to be ruled by an oppressive people who will again fire them from their jobs, outlaw their language, rape their women and kill their men, burn down their homes, and expel them. Sounds reasonable to me.
[Update: here's the diary in question. It's still on the rec list.]