Kosovo: Balkan Moment of Truth?

The Foreign Relations Senate Committee held a hearing today analyzing the recent independence of Kosovo and the problems being faced in the Balkan region. The hearing was divided into two sections with two different sets of witnesses.

During the first half of the hearing, Daniel Fried, assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, introduced the situation in Kosovo, presenting the American support. He talked about the newly free and independent nation and the problems with Serbia. Serbia is trying to isolate themselves from the rest of Europe, due to the recognition of the latter to the independence of Kosovo. According to Fried, the United State’s strategic interest is, for Serbia to find itself into the European Union, but after all it remains Serbia’s responsibility.
The financial situation of the country is creating some concerns regarding its independence; however Fried explained that 25 percent of the costs will be provided by the U.S., 50 percent from Europe and the remaining from organizations such as The World Bank and United Nations.

Witnesses present in the second half of the hearing were Janusz Bugajski, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Daniel Serwer, vice president for Peace and Stability Operations and lastly Ivan Vejvoda, the executive director of Balkan Trust for Democracy. They gave the European and local perspective of the situation. Serwer especially emphasized on the fact that Serbia is the problem and not Kosovo.

Comments

[legaleye]

GENOCIDE IN KOSOVO

The West would love Serbia if only it would forget the past and accept the reality that the West has created. But accepting this reality is accepting Genocide.

Kosovo's provisional government (PISG) has had eight years to show that it is mature enough to lead all citizens of Kosovo into the future, but it has miserably failed. Eight years after NATO'S Bombing campaign and four years after the massive orchestrated Ethnic Cleansing campaign against Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jewish citizens in March 2004, there still is no assurance that all the citizens of Kosovo can live in peace, with security, with freedom of movement and with full participation in all the fruits of society. On the contrary, today in the capital Pristina, which had a pre war Serb population of 40000, not one single Serb resides in the capital. Can it be that all of these citizens were war criminals? Can it be that grandmothers and children were war criminals deserving retribution? However, in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, 110000 Albanians live comfortably and safely! Throughout all of Kosovo 200000 Serbs have been ethnically cleansed , another 100000 Roma have been ethnically cleansed, thousands of other minorities citizens (Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jews) have been ethnically cleansed, the majority of which have sought refuge in Serbia Proper! Why is that? Kosovo says its ready for Independence, but why cant it guarantee the safety of these refugee citizens? It has been eight long years! Hardly any refugee citizens have been able to return, even though NATO is there to protect them. 1000 Serbs and Roma citizens have been murdered, another 1000 are still missing. How many Albanian citizens of Kosovo have been murdered in the same amount of time relative to their demographic proportion of society? 150 UNESCO recognized Christian Churches and Shrines have been destroyed by the majority Albanian citizens. None have been rebuilt even though the Kosovo government (PISG) has explicitly agreed to this task. Not one in eight years? But, yet Kosovo is ready for Independence? Tens of thousands of minority owned properties have been illegally occupied and appropriated by the majority Albanian citizens with no prospect of return to the rightful owners. Yet Kosovo society is ready for Independence? Tens of thousands of hectare/acres of Serbia Orthodox Christian Church owned land has been illegally appropriated with no prospect of return. Yet Kosovo is ready for independence? Kosovo suffers the highest unemployment rate in Europe, some estimates as high as 70%. But yet Kosovo is ready for Independence? Rampant crime and the center of European Heroin and Human Trafficking trade. Yet ready for independence? A few western countries cower for independence siting Albanian threats of violence if independence is not recognized, but the international community and the EU is divided because recognition of a illegal Unilateral Declaration of Independence is the sanctioning of GENOCIDE AGAINST 300000 Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jewish citizens of Kosovo! This is the reality the West wants Serbs to accept? No this is Genocide!

This is not he first time Serbia has suffered Genocide, in WW2 upwards of 800000 Serbs, Jews and Roma were exterminated in the Nazi and Croatian Fascist extermination camps of Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska (a camp designed exclusively for woman and children). Likewise, tens of thousand of Serb, Roma and Jewish citizens were exterminated and ethnically cleansed in small villages throughout Yugoslavia by Nazis, Albanian Fascists of the SS Skandebeg Division, Croatian Ustashi Fascists and Bosnian Muslim fascists of the SS Handžar Division. Many in Serbia have tried to explain away some of the recent atrocities committed by Serbs, such as Srebanica, as a natural result of decades of emotional suppression, due to an organized communist campaign not to acknowledge the WW2 Genocide of Serbs, Roma and Jews in order to preserve unity among the different ethnic communities. However, regardless how this emotional suppression might have influenced the individual actors of the crimes committed, the universally accepted legal percept that one crime cannot justify another crime still is applicable. Likewise, whatever the extent of Milosevic's crimes in Kosovo (Albanians say 10 thousand dead, the UN acknowledges only 3500 on all sides) cannot justify the continued GENOCIDE of Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jewish citizens of Kosovo! All 300000 ethnically cleansed Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Jewish citizens of Kosovo must be allowed to return to their homes. The International Community cannot sanction this GENOCIDE by recognizing a Illegal Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Kosovo. Serbia cannot acquiesce to this injustice. Serbs will invoke the anguished cry of our Jewish Brothers who have likewise suffered the indignity of Genocide....NEVER AGAIN the GEOCIDE STOPS NOW! There are over 600000 UN recognized Serb refuges in Serbia that have been cruelly cleansed from their homes in Croatia, Bosnia and KOSOVO! 250000 Serbs ethnically cleansed from Croatia, 150000 Serbs ethnically cleansed from Bosnia, 200000 Serbs from Kosovo and another 100000 Roma from Kosovo. None have been allowed to return. How is it possible that Serbs are accused of being the primary villain and purveyor of ethnic cleansing, but, yet again is the largest victim of ethnic cleansing? Is it possible that these innocent SERBS are somehow sub human not deserving of justice? The International Community must stop turning a blind eye to this GENOCIDE right in the heart of Europe. It is happening right before your eyes, with your assistance! Kosovo is the SERB's Jerusalem, they cannot agree to this GENOCIDE! Just like their Jewish Brothers who for centuries evoked the unifying cry of NEXT YEAR IN JERUSELEM, SERBS evoke THIS YEAR IN KOSOVO! All refuges must return NOW!Otherwise any recognition of a illegal declaration of independence is GENOCIDE! To the International community ALL SERBS DEMAND NEVER AGAIN, THE GENOCIDE OF SERBS STOPS NOW, THIS YEAR IN KOSOVO ! KOSOVO IS SERBIA!

[Marko]

This hearing was anything but. It was a meeting of the supporters of the Albanian policy, organized by the Albanian lobby. The speaker's list reads like a who's-who of the old serb-bashers. No one with a dissenting opinion was invited to speak.One only need to google the names of the speakers to see what I mean.