2013 Lives up to its Name: Twin Evils Consummated in Kosovo and Croatia - the Triumph of Terror and Fascism
Published on Friday, 28 June 2013 06:04
Written by Julia Gorin
Israeli Paper Wants Israel to be 100th Kosovo Recognizer as Kosovo's Mengele Commemorates Jewish Cemetery, Nazi-unrepentant Croatia Joins E.U. on Monday.
The year 2013 will witness a twin evil—imminently. As Kosovo is finally surrendered to terrorists by the nation it gave birth to (Serbia)—entering the “family of nations”—the E.U. this Monday will welcome the never de-Nazified Croatia as its newest member. It will be the consummation of backwards Western Balkan policy of the 90s, when the fascist remnants of both Kosovo and Croatia managed to recruit not only the world to its corner but also unlikely Jewish cheerleaders. Sadly, the cheering continues—from the pages of Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz and neoconservative Weekly Standard, to the Holocaust Museum in Skokie.
The leftist Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz recently ran an opinion piece arguing that Israel must become the 100th country to recognize Kosovo statehood. For Israel’s own sake, no less.
The article, which asks Israel to lay the foundation for its own demise by supporting a precedent for its own dismemberment by separatists, was a cheap rehashing of ‘90s-born pop platitudes and myths, referencing Milosevic’s “nationalist speech” (it was quite the opposite) and describing the Albanian goal as “the national aspirations of an oppressed people [who] suffered massacres, rapes and ethnic cleansing” – every charge that’s been debunked for more than a decade now, including by Serb-hunting Hague tribunal itself. The article was replete with Pristina-Washington talking points (Pristina is the Kosovo capital): “unique case, modern-dressed girls and alcohol sold freely -- no chance of Islamization.” The staff writer, Adar Primor, even cited the old, since-reduced figure of “quarter of a million” dead in the Balkan wars.
In arguing the case for a second Albanian state while Jews still struggle to hold on to just one, Primor did the usual projecting of the Albanians’ uncompromising all-or-war mentality onto the Serbian side, which for years has been offering one plan after another for unprecedented autonomy. The article also credulously quoted the notorious criminal and current prime minister of Kosovo, Hashim ‘the Snake’ Thaci giving his usual talking points in response to concerns of the worldwide domino effect whose rumblings we’re already witnessing (in Spain’s Catalonia and Basque, in Belgium’s Flanders and Wallonia, in Scotland, in Serbia’s Sandzak, Vojvodina, and Presevo, in Western Macedonia, etc): “Kosovo is a unique case and, as a result, its independence doesn’t set any precedent. On the contrary; its freedom will be a cornerstone of stability for the Balkans, which will enter an era of cooperation and peace.” Primor goes on to write, “From the perspective of five years hence, it’s clear: Thaci was right….”
Because a mere five years provides all the hindsight one needs? Five years, incidentally, during which the international overseers are still there and so Kosovo is still on good behavior compared to what observers (and Kosovo’s non-Albanian minorities) are bracing for once the high-minded reformers leave. And that’s if you don’t count a pogrom of the dead that started the year off, with Albanians digging up bodies throughout Kosovo and scattering the remains as they celebrated five years of ‘independence.’)
It’s true that last month Pristina dedicated a monument at a Jewish cemetery honoring Kosovo Jews who died in the Holocaust and the Albanians who saved Jews. But one is left speechless at a Holocaust dedication by Thaci who, a Council of Europe investigation found, presided over human vivisection in an murder-for-organ-trafficking racket to fund his Kosovo “Liberation” Army—crimes which have been widely compared to those of infamous Nazi doctor-experimenter Josef Mengele. That’s in addition to the irony of cemetery-destroying Albanians honoring a cemetery to begin with.
At the dedication, the Israeli ambassador said the plaque also “expresses gratitude for the renewal of Jewish life in Kosovo, including the maintenance of the cemetery.” This is the same cemetery that had been grown-over and unrecognizable as such for years until Kosovo’s race for recognitions was on, at which point a group of students from the Dartmouth College Hillel was recruited to clean it up in June 2011. It’s the same cemetery that—after the naïve students’ unwitting PR job was done--was desecrated just five months later with swastikas and “Jews Out.”
Albanians still remember some of their German: “On Thursday the hate graffiti ‘Jud Raus’ - a misspelling of the German ‘Juden Raus,’ which means “Jews out” - could still be seen at the foot of a memorial.”
In other words, before, the cemetery was so covered with debris that no one even knew it was there. As soon as it was visible, however, it was desecrated.
An excerpt from the June 2011 AP article about the students’ good intentions:
…Ever since the end Kosovo’s 1998-1999 war, these graves — some of them dating back to the late 19th century — lay mostly forgotten. “You could hardly even see where any of the graves were,” said Susan Matthews, 21, from Chatham, New York. “We had to essentially find and uncover the graves, take down all the brush that had grown up the hill, wash all the stones so that we could read the etchings on them again,” she said. Matthews is among students visiting Europe as part of their inquiry into genocide.
…
Rabbi Edward S. Boraz of The Roth Center for Jewish Life at Dartmouth College said the aim of the tour was to look at genocide “as a human problem not specific to any one group of people.”
After [WWII], Kosovo’s small Jewish community dwindled. Some 300 died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany…Those that remained left for Israel and Serbia during and in the aftermath of the 1998-99 Kosovo war. Some 10,000 [sic] people died during the Kosovo war as Serbia launched a brutal crackdown on independence minded ethnic Albanians….
The construction of that last paragraph is AP reporter Nebi Qena keeping us on program. In order for readers to not know that it was the Albanian side in the ‘90s war that chased the Jews out, she inserts something that makes it seem like the exodus was all just an outgrowth of the war, the war “launched” by Serbia. Still, notice that the Jews fled to Israel — and Serbia.
To mark the one-year anniversary of the ‘useful’ students’ efforts, the cemetery was vandalized again in June 2012.
WWII Whitewash in Kosovo
About the 300 Kosovo Jews mentioned in the AP article, who died at Bergen-Belsen—incidentally, no inquisitive Ivy League minds asking how that might have happened, or how Kosovo’s Jewish population got down to today’s 56—a whitewashed explanation after the event came from Stephen ‘Suleyman’ Schwartz. He is a Jewish convert to Islam, who writes for The Weekly Standard and has been shilling for the Albanian (and Bosnian) sides of the Balkan wars since the early 90s, helping dupe Americans into waging our ‘90s wars on behalf of Muslims. Schwartz too quotes the notorious gangster-prime-minister Thaci respectfully:
Kosovo Revives Its Jewish Heritage (Huffington Post, June 3, 2013)
…Thaci pointed out that Kosovo had been a way-station for hundreds of Jewish refugees from the Balkans and other parts of Europe, who were protected in Albania…
Rabbi Levi Matusof, a European Jewish leader, recited a psalm and prayed in honor of the Kosovars…A handful of Jews were deported from Kosovo after a Nazi-directed raid in mid-1944. But most Jews who went to Kosovo and Albania were saved by local officials who provided them with false identity papers, or moved them from place to place. The Germans, who occupied Albania in 1943, demanded a list of Jews, and authorization to deport them, from the Albanian authorities, but were told that jurisdiction over the Jewish community belonged to the Albanian government alone. This action was recognized by Yad Vashem in 1998. […]
Here’s a realer picture of that WWII history, from “Jewish Art & Monuments” blog, a month after the first post-Dartmouth cemetery desecration:
New Treaty Could Protect Jewish Sites in Kosovo (Jan. 28, 2012, by Samuel D. Gruber)
…Ivan Ceresnjes, former head of the Bosnia Jewish Community and now a researcher at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been visiting Kosovo regularly for the past few decade[s] and reporting on the continued deterioration of Jewish sites…[H]e wrote:
“There were about 500 Jews before the Second World War, of whom 250 [by other accounts 281] were handed over to the Germans by Kosovar Albanians. There were also a few examples where Kosovars killed Jews, and there was also a Kosovar SS unit. About twenty righteous gentiles helped the other 250 Jews escape to Albania where the Jews were protected. After the war, in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, a huge memorial was erected [by Yugoslavia] for all victims of Nazism including the partisans and the Jews. When the Serbian-Albanian fighting broke out in Kosovo in 1999, almost all names were removed….”
And still no one makes the fascist connection to our Albanian clients.
In his piece about the dedication, Schwartz did describe, though purposely without a sense of irony, an interesting episode: “During Thaci’s remarks the Muslim call to prayer was heard from a nearby Ottoman-era mosque. Following the prime minister, Israeli diplomat Yosef Levy commented on the coincidence as symbolic of interfaith harmony.”
What a coincidence. Pardon the sarcasm, but what are the chances of the Islamic call to prayer sounding over Muslim Kosovo? Now ponder the position of poor Levy. The little interfaith song-and-dance is suddenly interrupted by — what? Church bells? No. Hava Nagila? No. Hare Krishna tambourines? No. By — what else — a Muslim call to prayer. What it’s “symbolic” of is that ‘interfaith’ gatherings always seem to have one faith in particular asserting itself. It’s also symbolic of Kosovo’s Western-expedited increasingly Islamic character. So the Jewish diplomat is interrupted by reality, and he reaches for the go-to platitude for a positive spin on the sound that speaks to the futility of the exercise he’s engaged in.
The KLA, whose goals both Schwartz and the Israeli paper champion, all but achieved “Juden Raus” (Jews Out) in 1999, and so the plaque ceremony was finally too much for one ex-Kosovo Jew to take. Nissan Conforti--who left for Israel before the NATO attack--objected to the memorial which, he pointed out, mentions that Kosovo Jews were taken to Bergen-Belsen but not that the SS Skanderbeg division of Albanian soldiers arrested the Jews or that Serbian and Roma families had to hide Jews from Xhaver Deva, Hitler’s Albanian clone. (May 28, 2013: We were expelled, we will sue Kosovo – Jews from Pristina)
With Croatia’s E.U. Membership, the New Europe Looks a Lot like the Old One
Indeed, all the Balkans-oriented Holocaust PR over the past 20 years has promoted not the far more numerous Serb saviors of Jews but those who, as nations, sided with the Nazis. Which helps explain why in 1999, as researcher Ceresnjes mentioned, the Nazis’ victims’ names were removed from the memorial in Kosovo the moment the Albanians found their next sponsor after their Nazi “liberators” (as Albanians perceived them): NATO. And yet, not only have the historically Axis-aligned Albanians been touting their Jew-saves, but now even the Jew-liquidating, Serb-eye-gouging Croats are touting their saves--without ever first telling the world about their genocide of Serbs and Jews:
Like virtually every other Holocaust museum (including Yad Vashem itself), the one in Skokie, Illinois which last week held an event honoring Croatian Righteous, doesn’t have an exhibit of Jasenovac, WWII’s second-deadliest camp, which remains largely unknown, unspoken of, and unexamined. It was run by Croatians, no German oversight needed. In other words, before they’ve even taught the public, 60 years late and counting, the word “Jasenovac” — which defines WWII Croatia — the Holocaust archivists are skipping right over it to divert attention to a few good Croats. And thus Croatia’s march proceeds to the E.U., official membership date this Monday, July 1st.
On the same point, while the aim of the Dartmouth students’ Europe-wide genocide-study tour was to look at genocide “as a human problem not specific to any one group of people,” one can’t help noticing that they were steered to Kosovo and not Croatia, where a much realer and older but still suppressed genocide occurred, not only of 40,000 Jews but of close to a million Orthodox Serbs, in WWII.
Perhaps the November photo below says it best, taken just a day after The Hague’s acquittal of Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac for ethnically cleansing Serbs in the 1991-95 war – a reversal of their 2011 convictions. The new verdict was designed precisely to purify Croatia for its July 1st E.U. entry:
Nuremberg, Germany (Nov. 17, 2012) -- After scoring a goal for his Bayern Munich soccer team, Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic saluted fans on the verdict as Albanian midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri ran up to show support.
A more recent snapshot of Croatia:
“A girl gestures during a protest against Cyrillic signs at Zagreb's main square April 7, 2013. Around 20,000 Croats, mostly war veterans, rallied on Sunday on the central square in the capital Zagreb to protest against a plan to introduce signs in the Cyrillic alphabet used by Serbs. REUTERS/Antonio Bronic” [Notice that Reuters doesn’t define or describe the gesture, in contrast to how mainstream presses have inaccurately described the Serbian three-finger Trinity salute as a “Nazi” gesture.]
Brainwashing on the Balkans at Universities
Like ants, the ethnic lobbies crafting “history” proceed on course with the big lie, utilizing a few Righteous Gentiles and a kernel of truth. No matter the obstacles that may come in their way. No matter the veritable hemorrhage of exposés about Kosovo recently. But it seems that only one set of opposing facts about our Kosovo kampf takes seed in the American mind. The easier set. And so our students — whether at the community college level, Ivy League, or grade school — have been getting the same, remedial lesson plan on the subject. Ensuring that vulnerable young minds — from a 60 I.Q. to a 140 I.Q. — get the Zero I.Q. version of Kosovo.
Indeed, who knew that Dartmouth students could be in a ‘class’ with Monmouth students? Kosovo’s president Atifete Jahjaga did. She came personally to infuse young minds at both Monmouth and Dartmouth with the same Kosovo “knowledge”:
Kosovo’s President Addresses Monmouth University, Seeks Normal Relations with Serbia (Asbury Park Press, Dec. 14, 2011)
…She spoke of over a century of oppression that the Kosovo people lived under but then gained some freedom as an autonomous Serbian province under Josip Broz Tito’s rule. [So they did benefit from that communism that we billed them as “freedom-fighters” against.]
When Slobodan Milosevic came to power in Serbia, he abolished those gained freedoms [he simply abolished them?], committed atrocities [sic, sic, sic, sic and sic], denied human rights [sic] and forced Albanian Muslims out of Kosovo to be replaced with Christian Serbs. [As if a column of hand-picked families from across Serbia were lined up at the Kosovo border, just waiting to get in on the peasant life. That is yet another inversion: This “replacement” was exactly what the Albanians accomplished: a flood of Albanians replaced the displaced Serbs.]
…
She appeared at the lecture with Christopher Dell, who was appointed U.S. ambassador to Kosovo in 2009, and is related to a staff member at Monmouth University. […]
And you see how pat and easy it all is? The Kosovo story is one-size-fits-all. You’re not expected — or wanted — to figure it out, so even though your intelligence will be insulted, you won’t know it. From Monmouth, Atifete Went to Dartmouth:
Kosovo president addresses students (The Dartmouth, March 7, 2012, By Erin Landau)
…Jahjaga, the first woman to serve as president of a Balkan nation, [to show how progressive a thugocracy can be] discussed her experiences with the education system in Kosovo, in which students were forced to attend university in private homes to avoid punishment. She said that prior to the creation of Kosovo, a “fear of repression was attached to my desire to learn” because Serbian officers used to “break into classes to imprison teachers and stop us from being knowledgeable.”
…
“Now, students can learn in a regular school environment,” she said.
Regular school environment: Grenade Explodes in Serb Classroom in Kosovo; Albanians stab female Red Cross worker, stone school; Kosovo: Serb school attacked again; “Death to Serbs” Graffiti appears on primary school in Gnjilane; Kosovo authorities threatening Gorani over school curriculum; Bomb Explodes in Serbian School; Kosovo: Schools in Serb enclaves left without water; Serb teacher in central Kosovo town notes “frequent attacks”, police inactivity; Tadic Strongly Condemns Attack On Serb Teacher — “[Vuko] Danilovic was attacked by young Albanians who were hitting him in his face and stomach with their fists…He and a group of five Serb children were participating in the “Multiethnic Camp” which was organized by OSCE…”
At the end of her speech, Jahjaga presented the Mother Teresa Award for contribution in the field of humanism to James Strickler DMS ’51, who led Dartmouth’s efforts to provide resources to Kosovo and help the nation reconstruct its health education and health care systems.
The College first sent aid to Kosovo in conjunction with Dartmouth Medical School faculty who provided critical care to refugees after the war, according to College Provost Carol Folt…[T]here have been more than 200 exchanges of medical faculty and students between Dartmouth and Kosovo. [One wonders who’s teaching whom about organ-extraction.]
…
In June, a group of Dartmouth students and recent graduates traveled to Kosovo with Project Preservation and, working with American University in Kosovo students, helped restore a Jewish cemetery in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital.
…
“Your efforts have been profoundly moving to me because you are bringing democracy to that region,” Folt said [addressing Jahjaga]. “The first time I visited the homeland of my ancestors, I was filled with optimism for the future.” […]
And with that, we’ve just learned that the provost of Dartmouth is Albanian herself. There wouldn’t be anything wrong with this except that that particular ethnic loyalty has steered America down a self-destructive course, which crosses the line from being inspiring examples of high-achieving immigrants to acting as plants in various fields, which they then influence in furtherance, at all costs, of their own ethnic interests.
Below is a comment from someone who listened to Jahjaga’s “lecture”:
The INCREDIBLE irony of all this is that Kosovo universities demanded to conduct classes in ALBANIAN ONLY throughout the 1980s and 1990s, even though Serbo-Croatian was the language of Yugoslavia, and even though Kosovo was a province of Yugoslavia, NOT a province of Albania.
…What would happen if a state in the U.S. suddenly insisted that ALL classes in public schools and universities had to be conducted in Spanish or Swahili or Hebrew, and refused to allow classes to be taught in English? Would those students, trained only in those languages, be prepared to land jobs in an English-speaking nation? Would that foster common ground, or separatism?
…
She blames the Serbs there for “illegal parallel structures?” What the heck was the entire separation of Kosovo? Don’t choke too hard when you hear…that this was NATO’s “most useful, successful mission,” or that Kosovo is a multinational country where tolerance is a great success. Sure, that’s why they destroyed or desecrated more than 400 churches, raped nuns and citizens, killed Serbs living in their own ancestral homes for 600 years.
Interesting that Dartmouth didn’t want to allow questions at the end, and set up NO microphones for the students…This slimy propaganda was a disgrace and insult to higher education.
The thoughts were seconded by author Bill Dorich, who wrote a letter to the student paper The Dartmouth:
The remark that there was “fear of repression in the desire to learn” is not just insulting, it is moronic considering that Albanians were permitted to be educated in their own language…Over the past three decades Albanians in Kosovo had numerous ethnic newspapers, radio and television stations…I also remind your students that during the Tito regime when he gave the Albanians “autonomy” without a single vote of the Yugoslav parliament, the Albanians fired every Serb from their jobs including doctors, teachers, college professors, policemen and judges.
…During the autonomy of the 1970s another 120,000 Serbs were forced from Kosovo during a campaign of terror that included the burning of over 500 Serbian farms, the rape of Serbian nuns and Serbian girls and the burning of 3 Serbian monasteries and 2 major Serbian libraries. Albanian officials burned over 2 million Serbian books including priceless manuscripts…Since the arrival of [40,000] NATO troops in 1999, the Albanians have destroyed [hundreds of] ancient Serbian Orthodox Christian churches as your student body remained silent…
The letter naturally went unpublished, nor did Mr. Dorich even hear back from the then editor or publisher, Branko Cerny or Emily Fletcher.
And still it gets richer, as this additional write-up of Jahjaga’s talk demonstrates:
Dartmouth Physician and Dean Honored by Kosovo President at Public Lecture (Dartmouth Now, By Susan J. Boutwell, March 6, 2012)
…Folt told the Moore Hall auditorium that her trip allowed her to see the roots of her own Albanian heritage for the first time…Former Dartmouth Medical School Dean Dr. James Strickler ’50, DMS ’51…has been awarded the Humanitarian Medal of Mother Teresa, an award given by the president of the Republic of Kosovo to citizens and foreigners who contribute to the field of humanism. [A humanism award. From a woman representing a state run by organ-harvesters, and partly owing its birth to funds from stolen organs — not to mention that today it reigns supreme in human-trafficking.]
…
In her lecture, she told students that her college days had been much different than theirs. She and her peers studied in safe houses, fearing discovery by police who would imprison teachers and “stop knowledge.” […]
American Understanding of Kosovo Mafia Spokeswoman: It’s All About Girl Power!
Jahjaga’s stop at Dartmouth was part of her whirlwind U.S. tour last year. Two days later she was an invited attendee at one of those fluffy girl-power events called “Women in the World,” organized by Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Jahjaga’s introduction to naïve Westerners touting her femaleness inspired a misplaced mention in this list: 10 Muslim Women Every Person Should Know (Huffington Post, March 24, 2012, Fazeela Siddiqui)
Jahjaga with the Obamas in September 2011, when she also attended a reception by Bill Clinton and met with Frank Wisner, U.S. envoy to Kosovo during the 2007 status talks. (Frank Wisner Sr. had recruited Albanian Fascists for the CIA after WWII in “Operation Mocking Bird.”)
Even Washington Times got in on the act. A few months before her March 2012 student-duping tour, Jahjaga was on another propaganda tour through the U.S. targeting newspapers. No longer wanting to be left out of the sucker club, the Washington Times editorial board invited her to serve them up her mush, then fed it to their readership:
Kosovar leader speaks softly, carries big hope, Insists separatism set no precedent (Dec. 18, 2011, By Guy Taylor):
…Mrs. Jahjaga is the first woman to rise to the highest office of a Balkan nation, and she is only 36…Mrs. Jahjaga, a Muslim and ethnic Albanian, has taken an unyielding stance on the issue of Kosovo-Serb land disputes since she was elected in April by parliamentary vote. [It’s called “unyielding” when it’s the Albanian side, and written about positively, but it’s called “uncompromising” when writing about the perpetually yielding Serb side.]
…[H]er optimism spoke loudly, reflecting a forward-thinking generation of postwar Balkan politicians. [Forward-thinking mafia kingpins and terrorists whom this woman answers to.] She added that her election represented a “historical moment, not only for Kosovo, but for all of the Balkans.” […]
Because it was the first time that the West threatened Kosovo’s masters, instead of the other way around? After all, that is how she came to be president in the “parliamentary vote”:
Kosovo: New president handpicked by Americans, predecessor says
Closing with a final note on our college students being fed a made-for-Americans pabulum, a watered-down version of the watered-down Kool-Aid that the rest of the country drank on Kosovo. Just before the Dartmouth kids’ trip to Kosovo, they were injected with the standard Kosovo whitewash by a functionary named Jason Steinbaum, chief of staff for Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY). Again, his words were faithfully disseminated by the student paper The Dartmouth:
Jason Steinbaum, “expert”; senior foreign affairs committee staffer for Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.
“Kosovo expert calls for sovereignty”
By Matthew Mc Nierney, The Dartmouth Staff, May 17, 2011
Kosovar independence was instrumental to ending genocide in the region [interesting chronology there], and international recognition of Kosovo’s sovereignty is essential to the country’s future stability, according to Jason Steinbaum….When Engel was elected in 1998, a group of Albanian-Americans drew Engel’s attention to the “quiet ethnic cleansing” orchestrated by Serbians living in Kosovo. The group brought Engel to a rally, where the participants’ heavy accents led Engel to think they were chanting “free cold soda” instead of “free Kosovo,” Steinbaum said. [More likely “free Kosova,” as Engel’s Albanian financiers pronounce the Serbian name.]
Congressional response to the Kosovar conflict was much quicker than many Americans believe is possible from their government, according to Steinbaum. [Oh, Congress moves fairly quickly if there’s some Serb-killin’ to be done.] “If anyone ever tells you that members of Congress don’t listen to their constituents, I can tell you that after 20 years of doing this, they do listen,” he said…
That’s an innocuous-sounding version of this, from the April 26, 1999 Insight article Flirting with KLA Terrorists:
Arming the KLA is attracting an unlikely coalition of Democratic and Republican lawmakers with ethnic Albanian constituencies…On April 14, six congressmen led by Rep. Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, introduced the Kosova Self-Defense Act to allocate $25 million to train and arm the KLA...Sens. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, and Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, have prepared similar legislation…."Some politicians have apparently confused the KLA with the Nicaraguan Contras or the Afghan mujahideen of the 1980s," says Michael Radu of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia…[A]rming the KLA "would display both American ignorance of the true nature of the KLA..." …Not only does the KLA stake territorial claims on other countries, including NATO ally Greece, but Insight's sources say it has roots in the Sigurimi secret police of Albania's late Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, who had designs on a Greater Albania carved from Greece and countries that made up Yugoslavia. "Some of its founders and leading cadres were associated with the Yugoslavian Communist secret police….”
But back to Steinbaum’s Kosovo balm:
…The violence began when Slobodan Milosevic…delivered a speech calling Serbians to regain their “national heritage,” which led to the treatment of Albanians as second-class citizens and began the widespread genocide, according to Steinbaum.
The “widespread genocide” that was dropped from all Kosovo indictments at the Hague years ago, by virtue of its not existing. Meanwhile, if the violence “began” in 1989, what does one call the decades of clan-ordered violence against non-Albanians that was pushing the latter out of the province? And the 1981 race riots weren’t violent? Or the 1968 ones, for that matter? As for “second-class citizens,” the Albanians were an oppressing minority, not an oppressed one, which may have made them less than well-liked. And as for discrimination by a host society in general (though in the case of Serbs and Albanians, that was a two-way street), one can only answer, “Welcome to Europe.” As one commentator asked: Should the U.S. be in the business of telling Europe which of its oppressed minorities deserve to get their own state? Back to Steinbaum:
The Albanians, led by a pacifist president, responded to the genocide by creating their own “parallel system,” including a separate government, schools and health clinics, according to Steinbaum. [Wait, so the 1999 ‘genocide’ happened in the 1980s? And notice how the Albanians’ parallel system is OK, but the Serbs’ “illegal parallel structures” aren’t.]
…Steinbaum helped advise the Albanians to settle for autonomy rather than independence, a provision they correctly guessed the Serbians would not grant them. As a result, Albanians appeared willing to compromise in the eyes of the international community, causing NATO to begin bombing Serbian forces [and civilians], he said...When the Albanians began to commit atrocities against the Serbians [“began”?], Steinbaum said he and other government officials realized that Kosovar independence was the only long-term solution to the problem. […]
So then the Albanians weren’t so compromising. And their violence paid off.
Given the recurrence of Kosovo in the student paper, in April 2012 I sent an email to The Dartmouth’s Emily Fletcher and Branko Cerny, asking for some space to present the other side of the story. Predictably, I didn’t hear back. Not even a note addressing why giving the other side equal time—or any time—wouldn’t be possible. Being Class of ‘13, Branko and Emily have moved merrily along into the world, where they will do just fine, as they know what to block out. But with their silence, they’ve made themselves part of the suppression. So much for the future generation. And future generation of journalists.
An Ignored Student Voice, but Nonetheless a Glimmer of Hope for the Future
A rare exception to Kosovo conformity and ignorance among American college students came from a junior at Yale’s Saybrook College in February 2008, named Peter Johnston. Closing with an excerpt from his article in Yale Daily News, where he had a regular column, “An independent Kosovo could breed terrorism”:
In two nearby villages, all Serb males were kidnapped and later found dead…[E]ven though the Zociste Monastery served both Serbs and ethnic Albanians throughout the fighting, KLA forces arrested the monks, looted the monastery and desecrated the church…
The Clinton administration would have Americans believe a simple narrative to justify U.S. involvement. As the story goes, Slobodan Milosevic, nearly a dictator, initiated genocidal ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, but America intervened, stopped the violence and paved the way for Kosovar independence from the oppressive Serbs. The story is attractive, especially when accompanied by the festive scene from Kosovo, of Albanian and American flags held aloft in celebration of Kosovar independence declared last Sunday.
But the reality is much more complex…[T]hough neither side was blameless in its military conduct, the Serbs have been mischaracterized. In particular, the suggestion that they systematically engaged in ethnic cleansing is not supported by the evidence. Though Serbian forces did wipe out villages they deemed hotbeds of support for the KLA, they passed by the vast majority of ethnic Albanian communities…
[Statehood] recognition legitimizes separatism around the world. Perhaps even more problematic is the prospect that successful separatists do not disband…In the aftermath of the Kosovo war, it became clear the KLA was not a simple band of "freedom fighters" -- they continued to terrorize the Serbs living in Kosovo. In the two years following the war, another 2,000 Serbs were killed or kidnapped by the KLA, prompting mass relocation…Meanwhile, the KLA began a systematic elimination of the Serbian religious heritage in Kosovo, destroying more than 100 churches…With a new nation, the KLA has triumphed. But a single triumph never satisfies; terrorists always want another fight.
Julia Gorin is an opinion columnist with a focus on the Balkans. Her articles have appeared in Jerusalem Post, Wall St. Journal, NY Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, NY Post, Washington Times, New York Observer, Christian Science Monitor, American Legion Magazine, and scores of others. She blogs at www.RepublicanRiot.com. When not trying to set the record straight on self-destructive Western interventions in the former Yugoslavia, Julia is a recognized name in conservative comedy
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