From perusing comments, Diaries and
stories by our host, it seems there is a general consensus that the US-led bombing and occupation of
Kosovo was a good thing.
I disagree. However, it seems that America's most-celebrated case of 21st century "nation building" is rapidly falling apart.
On Dec 14, 2003
Kos said:
I've always had a problem with the US leadership's desire to focus the fight on the "enemy" on single personalities, be it OBL or Saddam Hussein. While Milosevic was a one-man political force, whose (internal) ouster effectively ended the Kosovo War, Osama and Saddam have proven removed from the day-to-day operations against US targets.
Yet here is a slice of what Kosovo is like today:
Furious ethnic Albanians blaming Serbs for the drowning of two children clashed with Serbs in a gunfight Wednesday that left eight dead and more than 300 injured.
Riots broke out in at least five other towns, touching off one of the worst days of Serb-Albanian bloodshed since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the violence, saying it "jeopardizes the stability of Kosovo and the security of all its people."
The conflict ignited amid reports that Serbs in a nearby village set a dog on a group of ethnic Albanian boys, sending three fleeing into an icy river.
Yet it turns out that the story of the Albanian boys "chased to their death" was part of CNN and the Western media's spin:
Some papers turned their guns on international media reporting, particularly over an incident on Tuesday when three Albanian boys drowned in a river outside the flashpoint town of Mitrovica. A 13 year old boy claimed he was with them at the time and that they were being chased by local Serbs
One Politika columnist accused CNN of being the first to report "untruths about the four Albanian boys", whose fate was seen as a trigger by some media.
In response to what it said were remarks by CNN that "there was not enough time for an investigation", Politika asked "were two days really not enough to question the surviving boy?"
Another analyst writing in the paper said "this was done by design, as CNN was in charge of giving media 'treatment' to the action, according to a familiar scenario."
The Albanian media "did their job well, too, raising tensions to the maximum, accusing the Serbs of allegedly chasing the Albanian boys and letting dogs after them," Politika's analyst said.
The tabloid Blic also poured scorn on foreign reporting of events.
Both the BBC and CNN fed their viewers the "story about bloodthirsty Serbs and their dogs" despite receiving from Blic an Unmik statement that the Albanian boys' deaths were an accident, and pledging to correct their reporting.
Meanwhile NATO chimes in with:
A senior NATO commander said today that Kosovo Albanian attacks on Serb villages this week were not far from turning into "ethnic cleansing".
Almost a thousand Serbs living in isolated villages among the majority Albanian communities in Kosovo have fled in the last three days as houses and churches were torched by Albanians despite a heavy presence of international peacekeepers.
"This kind of activity actually almost amounts to ethnic cleansing and it cannot go on," US commander of NATO forces for Southern Europe, Gregory Johnson, told reporters in Kosovo's capital Pristina.
"That's why we came here in the first place."
Meanwhile Serb leaders are hat in hand in front of the UN desperately begging for reinforcements:
Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia requested more security and appealed for help to quell the spiraling violence in Kosovo when he met Friday in New York with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Alexander condemned the recent violence committed against Serb enclaves in central Kosovo. The violence in the last two days has killed 28 people and destroyed 110 houses and 16 Serbian churches, according to a news release issued Friday by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.
Meanwhile the Russians are not taking this violence lying down:
The Russian parliament today unanimously passed a resolution saying the Serbian-Montenegrin military should be allowed to help defend the Kosovo Serbs.
The resolution also condemned the failure of international organisations to stem the ethnic violence between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo.
The lower house of parliament, the Duma, said a new UN resolution on Kosovo should be passed to reaffirm the Belgrade government's sovereignty over Kosovo and that "the military units of Serbia-Montenegro should take part in defence of the Serb population of the region, of Orthodox churches and guarding borders."
"So far all measures taken by KFOR and the UN mission have in fact brought nothing but a temporary freeze of the conflict," the Duma said.
The lawmakers, who passed the resolution by a 397-0 vote, said they were also ready to offer "any necessary assistance on Russia's part, including emergency measures to evacuate Serbs from the conflict zone and humanitarian aid" if Serbs are forced to flee Kosovo.
Say what you will but 397 to 0 is solidarity.
Putin himself isn't mincing words either:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described current developments in Kosovo as "ethnic cleansing" and said that Serbs in that province need to be protected.
The Serbian government has this to say:
The Serbia-Montenegrin Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodged a protest with the United Nations Security Council and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations late on Tuesday, following the injuring of Jovica Ivic in Caglavica near Pristina. The 18-year-old boy was shot three times in the belly and arm in a drive-by shooting on March 15.
This crime is a tragic proof that four years after the arrival of international peacekeeping forces to Kosovo-Metohija they still have not managed to secure the minimum of personal security for Serbs, whose basic right to life is not guaranteed, it is said in the letter of protest.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that the fact that even children are not spared ethnically motivated crimes should be a warning to the international community, adding that it will request again from the UNMIK and KFOR to clear up the crimes committed in the province and bring perpetrators to justice.
The Chargé d' Affaires of the Serbia-Montenegrin Mission to the United Nations, Roksanda Nincic, delivered the letter of protest to the president of the UN Security Council and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
The official UNMIK statement on the matter:
Denouncing "the large-scale inter-ethnic violence" that has led to the deaths of at least 31 people in Kosovo since yesterday, the United Nations Security Council today called for the province's authorities to ensure that the rule of law is maintained, all ethnic communities feel properly secure and the perpetrators of crimes are brought to justice.
Speaking at the outset of the session, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Council, "We cannot close our eyes to the fact that this violence is ethnically motivated, with communities attacking each other." He said they highlighted how fragile Kosovo remains despite the progress made since the war of 1998-99.
Mr. Annan described the deliberate targeting of residential houses and religious sites as "shameful and inexcusable."
Meanwhile, according to the US State Dept, Kosovo remains a center of human trafficking:
Violence and discrimination against women remained serious problems. Persons with mental and physical disabilities faced considerable social discrimination and lacked access to adequate social and health services, despite some efforts to improve facilities and security. The level of violence against Kosovo Serbs remained largely constant with several prominent and brutal incidents receiving widespread attention. None of the perpetrators of Serb killings with a presumed ethnic motivation were arrested during the year, causing considerable concern within the Serb community. Child labor increased as more poor rural families moved to cities. Trafficking in persons, particularly women for forced prostitution, remained a serious problem.
Any and all comments welcome. Will keep you posted as developments occur.
Peace