Kosovo to become an independent nation

[Astronuc]

Apparently next week, Kosovo, the small southern povince of Serbia is set to declare independence, which will become a reality if the EU and US recognize it.

Of course, Serbia and Russia disagree.


In Kosovo, it's 'Independence Eve'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080216/ap_on_re_eu/kosovo_independence

PRISTINA, Serbia - Tiny Kosovo — poor, mostly Muslim but feverishly pro-Western — braced itself Saturday for a historic declaration of independence from Serbia, a decade after a war that killed 10,000 people and years of limbo under U.N. rule.

The province's bold bid for statehood, expected Sunday, and its quest for international recognition set up an ominous showdown with Serbia and Russia. Moscow contends the move will set a dangerous precedent for secessionist groups worldwide.

Revelers took to the streets in giddy anticipation. Prime Minister Hashim Thaci — a former leader of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army — marked the eve of the new nation's birth by visiting a village where Serbian troops massacred ethnic Albanians in 1998.

"Tomorrow is a historic day in our effort to create a state," Thaci said in Prekaze, about 25 miles southeast of the capital, Pristina.

Thaci, a former leader of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, was expected to call a special session of parliament Sunday afternoon to declare an independent Republic of Kosovo and unveil a new flag and national crest.

In the provincial capital Pristina, the icing was on celebratory cakes and bottles of "Independence" wine chilled as the new reality sank in.

"Independence is a dream for all the people of Kosovo, and I am very happy, like everybody," said Lumturije Bytyqi, 20.

But Kosovo's small Serb population greeted the secession as though it were an amputation. Many vowed never to accept the loss of a region they consider the heart of their ancestral homeland.

. . . .

Certainly Russia's concern is based upon it's southern republics in the Caucuses - Dagestan, Osetiya, and Chechnya.

 

[Yonoz]

Russia's concern is also based on its wishes to stem US control and exert its own control over Europe, vis-a-vis the missile shield, NATO, and the two gas pipelines Putin and his old KGB buddies are shoving up Europe's behind. It's the lukewarm war :)
The Balkans have been the backdrop for much bloodshed over history. Let's hope this is a step towards the calming of that region.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

That name “Bytyqi” reminds me of this oldie but goodie from http://www.theonion.com/" :

Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia
Cities of Sjlbvdnzv, Grzny to Be First Recipients

Before an emergency joint session of Congress yesterday, President Clinton announced U.S. plans to deploy over 75,000 vowels to the war-torn region of Bosnia. The deployment, the largest of its kind in American history, will provide the region with the critically needed letters A, E, I, O and U, and is hoped to render countless Bosnian names more pronounceable

"For six years, we have stood by while names like Ygrjvslhv and Tzlynhr and Glrm have been horribly butchered by millions around the world," Clinton said. "Today, the United States must finally stand up and say, 'Enough.' It is time the people of Bosnia finally had some vowels in their incomprehensible words. The U.S. is proud to lead the crusade in this noble endeavor."

The deployment, dubbed Operation Vowel Storm by the State Department, is set for early next week, with the Adriatic port cities of Sjlbvdnzv and Grzny slated to be the first recipients. Two C-130 transport planes, each carrying over 500 24-count boxes of "E's," will fly from Andrews Air Force base across the Atlantic and airdrop the letters over the cities.

Citizens of Grzny and Sjlbvdnzv eagerly await the arrival of the vowels.

"My God, I do not think we can last another day, Trszg Grzdnjlkn, 44, said. "I have six children and none of them has a name that is understandable to me or anyone else. Mr. Clinton, please send my poor, wretched family just one 'E.' Please."

Said Sjlbvdnzv resident Grg Hmphrs, 67 : "With just a few key letters, I could be George Humphries. That is my dream."

If the initial airlift is successful, Clinton said the United States will go ahead with full-scale vowel deployment, with C-130s airdropping thousands more letters over every area of Bosnia. Other nations are expected to pitch in as well, including 10,000 British "A's" and 6,500 Canadian "U's." Japan, rich in A's and O's, was asked to participate in the relief effort, but declined.

"With these valuable letters, the people of war-ravaged Bosnia will be able to make some terrific new words," Clinton said. "It should be very exciting for them, and surely much easier for us to read their maps."

Linguists praise the U.S.'s decision to send the vowels. For decades they have struggled with the hard consonants and difficult pronunciation of most Slavic words.

"Vowels are crucial to the construction of all language," Baylor University linguist Noam Frankel said. "Without them, it would be difficult to utter a single word, much less organize a coherent sentence. Please, don't get me started on the moon-man language they use in those Eastern European countries."

According to Frankel, once the Bosnians have vowels, they will be able to construct such valuable sentences as: "The potatoes are ready"; "I believe it will rain"; and "All my children are dead from the war."

The American airdrop represents the largest deployment of any letter to a foreign country since 1984. During the summer of that year, the U.S. shipped 92,000 consonants to Ethiopia, providing cities like Ouaououa, Eaoiiuae and Aao with vital, life-giving supplies of L's S's and T's. The consonant-relief effort failed, however, when vast quantities of the letters were intercepted and horded by violent, gun-toting warlords.

originally appeared in the ONION, Number One In News​

Dear mods, this is © but The Onion okayed it being reposted with the above citation as in the message from them at the bottom of http://ifaq.wap.org/society/voweldeployment.html" . (This article is no longer on The Onion's site.)

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[russ_watters]

Anyone else notice something interesting about the celebration pictures? They're waving American flags! How cool is that?

 

[lisab]

Wow...I've been completely unaware of developments there! What a surprise to me.

Years ago I knew a woman who was a video editor for a large Christian aid group. They would send in folks with video cameras to places that were reporting human rights violations. She would have to view all of it, as part of her job. She said that video of things she saw there was so horrible - "pure evil," as she put it.

I wish them all the best!

 

[Astronuc]

Kosovo declares independence from Serbia
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080217/ap_on_re_eu/kosovo_independence

PRISTINA, Kosovo - Kosovo's parliament declared the disputed territory a nation on Sunday, mounting a historic bid to become an "independent and democratic state" backed by the U.S. and European allies but bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia.

. . . .
"Kosovo is a republic — an independent, democratic and sovereign state," Kosovo's parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi said as the chamber burst into applause.

Serbia immediately denounced the declaration as illegal, and Russia also rejected it, demanding an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

From US Declaration of Independence -

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Serbia brutilized the people of Kosovo, and in doing so forfeits any rights and privileges to Kosovo!

 

[OmCheeto]

Kosovo declares independence from Serbia
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080217/ap_on_re_eu/kosovo_independence

From US Declaration of Independence -

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Serbia brutilized the people of Kosovo, and in doing so forfeits any rights and privileges to Kosovo!

The Balkans have had an incredibly violent history over the last thousand years. The Serbs have just been the latest to be caught in a time when it's no longer easy to hide that you've to commit genocide.

I have never, to my knowledge, met an Albanian. But I have met many Serbs over the last 10 years. They're hatred of Albanian's has no counterpart in America. Fareed Zakaria once said something to the effect that 9/11 brought the old world angst to America. We were pissed when it happened. At least I was. Imagine if that had happened a long time ago and set off a tit for tat feud that went on for centuries.

I can confirm that the following quote from your link is probably how most Serbs on the planet view the independence of Kosovo:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080217/ap_on_re_eu/kosovo_independence
"The Albanians can celebrate all they want, but this stillborn baby of theirs will never be an independent country as long as we Serbs are here and alive," said Djordje Jovanovic.

some telling numbers:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rb.html
Serbia (which included Kosovo until today)
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
228,000 (mostly ethnic Serbs and Roma who fled Kosovo in 1999)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7249034.stm
Kosovo
Population about two million
Majority ethnic Albanian; 10% Serb

Which implies that there are about 200,000 Serbs left in Kosovo.

Which along with this map:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7249034.stm#map

kind of indicates what I've been getting at; these people hate each other, and do not appear willing to live along side of each other.

Check out their neighboring country Macedonia:

http://www.macedonia.org/crisis/story2.html
The NLA: Human Rights Fighters or Terrorists?

Inhabitants of Kumanovo, a town of over 100.000 people, filling water containers after the ethnic Albanian terrorists cut off the water supply to the town for ten days in the middle of the summer. The event was largely ignored by the international media.

Given the status of the ethnic Albanian minority in the Republic of Macedonia, most Macedonians believe that the KLA/NLA is a group of thugs with the sole intent of further destabilizing the Balkans, not human rights fighters. After all, following the withdrawal of the Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo, virtually all non-Albanians were forced to flee their homes, and Christian monuments were destroyed.

Where on Earth am I going with all this?
I would say, that after listening to the Serb side of the story for quite some time, and researching the Albanian side, trust nothing anyone says about this region. Neither side has any respect for life outside of their own ethnic group. One day we were discussing favorite movies, and one of the Serbs got almost giddy when he said that he loved "The Godfather". Knowing what I knew, in a sad kind of way, it made perfect sense.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

Serbia brutilized the people of Kosovo, and in doing so forfeits any rights and privileges to Kosovo!

By the way, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVC1KMTOgwiSoMQyT2LwZc9HyAgA"

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[Astronuc]

By the way, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVC1KMTOgwiSoMQyT2LwZc9HyAgA"

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Sure, why not.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

What I'm saying is, hopefully they won't get run down and shot by the U.S. Army or besieged by the FBI like has happened every previous time in the last couple of centuries. It seemed apropos next to your description of Serbia's treatment of Kosovo.

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[lisab]

Uh-oh, this isn't good - protesters storm the US Embassy:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23277147/

But the article said they had evacuated the embassy. Good foresight there.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

I just found out about this too. Did the Lakotas know this was going to happen? What perfect timing for them. If I was a Serbian I would say, “We'll let Kosovo go if you let the Pine Ridge Reservation and the others become separate nations within the U.S.” The Lakotas ought to get in touch with Serbia.

Not that the Serbians would really want to call the U.S.'s bluff, I've been to Pine Ridge and it's more like poor parts of Mexico than anywhere I've been in the U.S. - Kosovo is undoubtedly much more valuable economically to Serbia.

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[chemisttree]

US Embassy in Serbia Stormed and Burned

This could just be the beginning...

It took police about 45 minutes to appear at the scene, and firefighters arrived about the same time and put out the blaze. Police secured the U.S. Embassy and surrounding area, blocking off all access.

Crowds outside cheered and chanted. Riot police drove armored jeeps down the street and fired tear gas to clear the crowd.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. ambassador to Serbia was at his home and in contact with U.S. officials.

Security officials and Marine guards were in a different part of the compound, but nobody was inside the embassy building, he said.

"We want to strongly urge them, and we are in contact with them, to make sure that they devote the assets to deal with this situation," McCormack told reporters, referring to the Serbian government.

Serbia has "a responsibility now to devote the adequate resources to ensure that that facility is protected," McCormack said.

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said he was "outraged" by the attack and would ask the U.N. Security Council to issue a unanimous statement "expressing the council's outrage, condemning the attack, and also reminding the Serb government of its responsibility to protect diplomatic facilities."

Serbia's President Boris Tadic, on an official visit to Romania, appealed for calm and urged the protesters to stop the attacks and move away from the streets. Tadic said that violence was "damaging" Serbia's efforts to defend Kosovo, which declared its independence from Belgrade on Sunday.

The protesters appeared to have been in the Embassy's consular building area, McCormack said. U.S. security officials and Marine guards were in a separate part of the compound, the chancery, but no staff were present at the Embassy, he said.

More than a dozen nations have recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence on Sunday, including the United States, Britain, France and Germany.

But the declaration by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership has been rejected by Serbia's government and the ethnic Serbians who populate northern Kosovo. Russia, China and numerous other nations have also condemned the declaration, saying it sets a precedent that separatist groups around the world will seek to emulate.

Elite police paramilitaries drove armored jeeps down the street outside the U.S. Embassy and fired dozens of tear gas canisters to clear crowds. The protesters fled into side streets where they continued clashing with the police.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331695,00.html

 

[CaptainQuasar]

I hear that the Kosovars just assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria!

(For the mods' sake so I'm not suspected of spreading misinformation - I'm just kidding, that's how World War I started in Serbia.)

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[fourier jr]

The US recognises Kosovo, I wonder if they will recognise an independent Vermont as well?

 

[Art]

This could just be the beginning...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331695,00.html

To be fair to Serbians they were bombed by the US and the rest of Nato and now a large chunk of their territory has been taken away. It is understandable feelings are running high.

If the international will was to create an independent Kosovo then a fairer way of doing this would have been to leave those provinces bordering Serbia with large Serbian majorities in Serbian control.

Although in the recent conflict most of the atrocities may have been committed by Serbs given the means and the opportunity the Albanians have shown themselves quite capable of equal brutality such as when they supported the Axis forces during WW2.

As it is this imposed solution will lead to conflict between Albanians and Serbs for another 100 years

 

[chemisttree]

To be fair to Serbians they were bombed by the US and the rest of Nato and now a large chunk of their territory has been taken away. It is understandable feelings are running high.

If the international will was to create an independent Kosovo then a fairer way of doing this would have been to leave those provinces bordering Serbia with large Serbian majorities in Serbian control.

Although in the recent conflict most of the atrocities may have been committed by Serbs given the means and the opportunity the Albanians have shown themselves quite capable of equal brutality such as when they supported the Axis forces during WW2.

As it is this imposed solution will lead to conflict between Albanians and Serbs for another 100 years

Absolutely. This could be the first of many incidents.

Several hundred Serbian army reservists hurled stones at police and NATO-led peacekeepers yesterday as they crossed into Kosovo during a clash at a border checkpoint.
The demonstrators - most wearing their uniforms and chanting "Kosovo is ours! Kosovo is Serbia!" - threw rocks and burned tires to create a billowing smoke screen before surging past the checkpoint in Merdare, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

U.N. police said the demonstrators, all army veterans who fought on the Serbian side in Kosovo's 1998-99 war, arrived from the Serbian town of Kursumlija in buses and brought a bulldozer.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw riot police with shields and batons erecting a large steel barrier across the road in an attempt to keep them from getting deeper into Kosovo.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=97107

What will NATO do if (or when) Russia decides to throw in with the Serbs and station their troops inside Serbia? Would Russia lend/lease the materiel needed to reclaim Kosovo? It's a real possibility.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

The US recognises Kosovo, I wonder if they will recognise an independent Vermont as well?

Not only that Fourier jr, but the Lakota, a Native American group and subgroup of the Sioux who live on a variety of reservations in the West, just in the last few months began http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVC1KMTOgwiSoMQyT2LwZc9HyAgA" .

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[Jimmy Snyder]

Kosovo means a great deal to the Serbian people. I doubt that this is going to end well.

 

[chemisttree]

Yeah, it's likely we'll be stationing troops there for a long time... like a hundred years! Maybe McCain just had the wrong Islamic country in mind when he made that hundred years comment.

 

[lisab]

Ugh. I think France should take this one...we've kind of got our hands full at the moment.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

Yeah, it's likely we'll be stationing troops there for a long time... like a hundred years! Maybe McCain just had the wrong Islamic country in mind when he made that hundred years comment.

Heheh, good point. It definitely seems as feasible, if not more so.

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[russ_watters]

The US recognises Kosovo, I wonder if they will recognise an independent Vermont as well?

Do you even think that that is worthy of a response?

 

[OmCheeto]

Ugh. I think France should take this one...we've kind of got our hands full at the moment.

I've heard that men are from Mars and women are from Venus.
It has been my experience that Serb's are from the Andromeda galaxy.

We American's will never comprehend the old world angst.

Well, at least I can't.

Think of the movie, The Godfather.
Now imagine if life were really like that here.
If you're not Sicilian, you're not crap.

If you're not from Texas, you may as well be an ant.
Just step on it. It'll be dead. Then we won't have to worry about it anymore.

The old world thinks that way.

Kvala bogu, ja zam American!