Mijalkovski and Damjanov, authors of the book Terrorism of Albanian Extremists, displayed a map of Albania that provides an indisputable proof of the Albanian insurrection in the time frame April-September 1998. It shows eight sites including the KLA headquarters, firing ranges, weapons storage sites, transit centers, and numbers of terrorists at each site (all together 25,000). In February 1998 the KLA was characterized by Clinton’s special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, as a terrorist organization. Their modus operandi was unquestionably terrorist: a) Assassination of fellow Albanians who did not cooperate; b) Assassination of Serbian police; and c) Reign of terror against Orthodox Christians. From terrorists the KLA were made over by Washington into the freedom fighters of course with heavy assistance from the media that even compared Kosovo to Rwanda!
 
The KLA insurrection from Albania, however, did not succeed. The Clinton/Blair team was compelled to launch what amounted to a 78-day air war against Serbia in violation of host of international laws including the UN and NATO charters, in order to wrest Kosovo from Serbia. Walter Rockler, a Nuremberg prosecutor, stated: “Most brazen aggression since Nazi attack on Poland to prevent Polish atrocities.” NATO bombers killed more people than the tally in the 18 months of KLA terrorist actions. Ethnic cleansing took place as the Albanians either ran away from the NATO bombs or obeyed the order from the KLA to move either to Albania or Macedonia.

However, the official version for the public consumption was that U.S./NATO attacked sovereign country, Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), in order to stop “genocide.” This was a big lie that exceeded those used to justify wars in Vietnam or Iraq. Given inaction on genocide in Rwanda one would have to be ultra-naïve to accept that humanitarian considerations motivated the U.S./NATO to act in Kosovo with only 2,000 fatalities. There was no genocide. There was not even ethnic cleansing.  These arguments are substantiated in two of my books. A Belgian author Jean Bricmont used the term “humanitarian imperialism.”

Upon conclusion of the war the vicious propaganda, accusing the Serbs of genocide and ethnic cleansing, led to mass-grave mania. Mass grave is probably the most emotion-charged appellation. One of the mass graves claimed was at Trepca in Northern Kosovo. London’s Daily Mail reported: “The name of that place would live alongside Belsen, Auschwitz and Treblinka.” Following four months of investigation the Hague Tribunal investigators announced no bodies at all were found. Reporters and TV crews were criss-crossing Kosovo in search of mass-graves for weeks and months. In one case a TV team promised a pay-off to the tune of $250,000 for information leading to the location of an actual mass grave. There were no mass-graves in Kosovo but they were found in Iraq.

Lawlessness Instead of Implementation of UN Resolution #1244

The war ended with UN resolution #1244, which was, however, all but ignored by the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and NATO/KFOR (Kosovo Force). 40,000 NATO troops failed to prevent ethnic cleansing. Initially they were not directed to stop the abductions, retaliation killings, or massive property destructions by Albanian thugs. Essentially, KFOR/UNMIK ceded control of the province to the KLA. Kosovo became an organized crime, drugs and human trafficking center. Some 2,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians, Roma in particular, were killed without a single murderer identified and punished; over 200,000 were ethnically cleansed on the UN/NATO watch. Eradication of Christianity took place with 150 Serbian churches and monasteries demolished while construction of Wahhabi mosques proliferated, including the one named after bin Laden.

All in all the peace mission has been the caricature of justice. Stu Kellock, a 28-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service, served as head of UNMIK’s Regional Series Crime Unit in Pristina from September 2000-June 2001. During this pivotal period, Albanian terrorism spread into Southern Serbia and Macedonia. In an interview with Christopher Deliso of the Balkan Analysis.com, Kellock explained how his unit sought to crack down on criminals and terrorists but was systematically stopped because of the perceived need to safeguard the interests of the Western political elite and their local protégés. Prosecuting KLA thugs for criminal acts and war crimes was not politically palatable. Essentially, members of the KLA/KPC enjoyed immunity. “UNMIK Chief Administrator Bernard Kouchner ordered police that his explicit permission would be required if they sought to raid the premises of any of Kosovo’s leading families.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro, William Montgomery, wrote: “The former KLA got reorganized into the Kosovo Protection Corps, under the leadership of General Ceku and other higher KLA commanders. Members of this organization have been found responsible for violence in Kosovo and Macedonia. It could not be clearer that the ultimate goal of General Ceku is to have it become the army of independent Kosovo. He frequently states this publicly. It is equally clear that no Serb could feel secure or comfortable with such an army. Everybody really knows that, but nobody is ready to grab the bull by the horns and disband this organization. Nevertheless, prolonging the life of the KPC dooms the idea of a multi-ethnic Kosovo.”

In 2003 UNMIK established eight Human Rights Standards for a civilized behavior of the Albanian majority in Kosovo such as sustainable returns of those who have been ethnically cleansed, freedom of movement, functioning of democratic institutions, establishment of rule of law, etc. The world was told how these Standards would have to be met before any talks on the Status could be initiated; i.e., Standards before Status. None of these standards have ever been met.

Kosovo Kristallnacht

On March 17, 2004, just like in the 1930s, a rumor spread by the Kosovo Albanian media became the ruse for the implementation of an orchestrated, prearranged Albanian ethnic cleansing plan. In this Kosovo Kritallnacht a 60,000-strong Albanian mob drove 4,500 Serbs from their homes. There were 19 deaths and some 900 injuries. There was widespread verbal condemnation from the internationally community and KFOR/UNMIK were slammed by the human rights organizations, but the instigators were never found. There were, however, also apologists for the terrorists.

Richard Holbrooke, dubbed the “Kissinger of the Balkans,” for his role in the Dayton Accords, which would have failed without Milosevic’s concessions at the expense of Bosnian Serbs, said that the “poor suffering Albanians” have grown tired waiting for the international community to give them what they deserve: independence. Subsequently, the Clinton cabal started urging the Bush administration to “finish the job” in the Balkans. Finishing the job is viewed as a moral U.S. obligation.  Kosovo independence would be the only way to mark the end of Milosevic’s era in Serbia! This metaphysical view is popular in London and has adherents in the State Department as well. Presumably it is also a part of the strategy to reduce Serbia to its pre-1912 borders. Ethnically cleansing the remaining 140,000 Serbs and other minorities from Kosovo after some half a million have already been cleansed from Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo is of little concern to these do-gooders.

Albanian Mafia Controls Kosovo

The Albania mafia has almost full control of Kosovo. This is an assessment of many Westerners, including Americans, contacted by this author who had served either with UNMIK or the OSCE in Kosovo. One of them characterized the situation in Kosovo as the worst of communism and fascism combined. According to German Junge Welt, BND has reached the conclusion that organized crime is deeply entrenched and that the top politicians are implicated. The mafia not only controls the Albanian political parties but also acts as a terrorist sponsor. The Albanian terrorist organizations operational in Kosovo are nothing other than the KLA, whose individual parts have only changed the name.

The mafia works closely with Al Qaeda when the interests coincide. Currently the Albanian mafia seems to have some control over Al Qaeda’s terrorist ambitions to kill Westerners. This is not, however, invariably true. A suicide attack on the canteen of the U.S. base at Bondsteel was fortunately foiled by the polygraph tests. Attacks have been happening against UNMIK with very few arrests. During this writing an UNMIK vehicle exploded in the center of Vitina. A Kosovo youth group flattened the tires of dozens of UNMIK vehicles to signal displeasure with planned status negotiations with Serbia. UNMIK/KFOR have become an obstacle for the founders of illegal Kosovo SHIK, linked with Albanian SHIK, which is preparing “Big Push” operation for Kosovo independence. Gazidede, considered an extreme fundamentalist, after spending years in exile in Turkey is back in Albania and according to the Defense & Foreign Affairs spent the first part of January in Kosovo meeting with radical Albanian politicians and associates. While in Turkey, Gazidede maintained contacts with radical Islamists including Al Qaeda.

Attacks against Serbs continue with no arrests. A hand grenade was thrown on the family house of Milorad Todorovic, VP of Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija. Ramush Haradinaj, indicted by 34 counts of war crimes by the ICTY goes to The Hague but returns while the chief prosecutor objected to Milosevic’s medical treatment in Moscow. Shortly before the indictment, Haradinaj became the prime minister. The UNMIK chief called him a friend. Investigators and witnesses who get close to the truth die.

Talks on Future of Kosovo

On October 24, despite the fact that the Standards were nowhere close to being met, the UN Security Council backed the proposal to open talks on the future of Kosovo. Special UN envoy Norwegian Kai Eide acknowledged that the inter-ethnic relations remained bad, “biggest threat to the future of Kosovo…Little has been achieved to create foundation of a multiethnic society…Property rights are neither respected nor ensured…Illegal construction and occupation of homes is a widespread phenomenon.” Nevertheless, he said the status quo was untenable and recommended that implementation of Standards would have to continue in parallel with talks. He also called for extended NATO military presence. Chief of the OSCE’s mission in Kosovo Werner Wnendt stated that progress of the implementation of standards has stalled. At this writing, Kofi Annan has informed the UN Security Council that he was “seriously concerned” by the slow progress and setbacks in recent months. One more time the ground rules have shifted and the root causes have not been addressed. Elections, institutions, laws passed during UNMIK rule cannot secure democracy unless the rule of Albanian mafia is confronted and the KPC disbanded. It appears that the UN and the West are unwilling to fight Albanian mafia/terrorism as if the war on terrorism did not apply to the Balkans.

At this UN Security Council session the Prime Minister of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, pointed out that the “dismemberment of a democratic state and the change of its internationally recognized borders against its will are options not to be contemplated. This would not only be an unprecedented case in international law and the practice of the UN, but also a dangerous precedent with grave long-term consequences for the international order in general…What is at stake here is a set of core principles that the UN is based on, and should act upon, in its mission of safeguarding the world peace.” The principle is supported by the basic sources of international law, including the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act, and confirmed in UN resolution #1244. According to this resolution “the people of Kosovo can enjoy substantial autonomy within Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), now Serbia & Montenegro. In the resolution “substantial autonomy” and the sovereignty of Yugoslavia are each mentioned three times. The terms “self-determination” and “independence” are not mentioned once. Furthermore, Kostunica pointed out that all UN Security Council Resolutions on the Kosovo crisis prior to #1244; i.e., resolutions 1160 (1998), 1199 (1998), 1203 (1998) and 1239 (1999) explicitly recognize the sovereignty and territorial integrity of FRY, now Serbia & Montenegro.

In an interview, Kostunica made the point that Albanians cannot form two Albanian states. “Albanians have used their right of self-determination by forming Albania and they cannot form another Albanian state on the Serbian territory now, almost a century later. That would be a simply inconceivable precedent that would destroy the principles on which international law and stable European order rest.”

It should be noted that Kosovo was given unprecedented autonomy under the 1974 Yugoslav constitution. Kosovo had only formal links to Serbia but no right of self-determination. The Albanians had their own national bank, Supreme Court, independent administration, schools and universities in Albanian language, and were given priority over other Yugoslav regions in the distribution of federal funds. However, the Albanians abused these privileges. Persecutions amounted to desecrating Serbian churches, stealing and destroying properties, employing duress to force Serbs to sell their holdings, etc. This led to the exodus of Serbs and Montenegrins. The Albanians repeated the same tactics on UN/NATO watch.

Contact Group Sets Principles

The Contact Group (U.S., Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Italy) announced that a set of principles had already been agreed upon: (a) No partition of Kosovo; (b) No return of the situation before March 1999; (c) No union of Kosovo with neighboring states; (d) Protection of minorities. Nicholas Burns, Assistant Secretary of State, confirmed this during his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but added the decentralization. Burns, however, said that Serbia will have to compromise and there would be rewards for cooperation: NATO membership. If Serbia can arrest General Mladic the reward will be NATO Partnership for Peace. In the same hearing, Richard Holbrooke bluntly stated that Serbia has to choose between Kosovo and memberships in the EU and NATO.

The principles seemed to have been designed to strongly favor the independence option before any serious negotiations took place. The logic for no return to autonomy within Serbia is that “due to special history of Kosovo one cannot imagine Kosovo under Belgrade rule” or that this option was forfeited by Milosevic’s refusal to sign the Rambouillet “peace proposal.” The criterion of no partition is also a strange one since the Kosovo has not been a distinctive territorial unit with established borders. The Yugoslav communists arbitrarily established Kosovo borders, as an autonomous province within Serbia, in 1946. It was a way to lure Albania into Tito’s Balkan Federation. Prior to that in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Kosovo as an entity did not exist. In 1929, Yugoslavia was administratively divided into nine banovinas. Kosovo was not one of them.

Promise to Serbia to join so called “Euro-Atlantic” integrations in exchange for giving up Kosovo should be received with skepticism in Belgrade. Peter van Ham writing in the International Herald Tribune said: “…both the EU and NATO are being transformed in the new American mind-set into fringe clubs whose support may be welcomed, but whose criticisms safely ignored.” He also said: “Americans just can’t be bothered anymore with the troubles of Bosnia and Kosovo, especially with Iraq gradually turning into a new Vietnam.” Hence, losing Kosovo for joining two “fringe clubs” should be approached with high degree of skepticism. In addition, how can the Contact group guarantee to Serbia joining the EU when the chief ICTY prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, seems to be able to terminate the negotiations between the EU and Serbia with respect to the Stabilization and Association Agreement.

Foregone Conclusion?

Charles Kupchan, former Clinton National Security Council member, wrote in the Foreign Affairs: “Harsh realities on the ground make independence for Kosovo the only viable option.” Others have advanced the argument that independence is the only pragmatic solution. It should be noted that pundits like Albright, Holbrooke and Kupchan were the architects of the deeply flawed Clinton Balkan’s policies based on appeasement of radical Islam which led to 9/11 as briefly discussed above. Clinton might end up in history as Chamberlain of the 1990s.

My computer is overflowing with hundreds of articles suggesting that the international community is now steering the process towards the conditional or supervised independence in 2006 (NATO military presence plus EU monitoring of the local government). “Everything seems to indicate that the looming negotiations for the future status of contested Kosovo province will be nothing more than chronicle of independence foretold” wrote Stavros Lygeros in Kathimerini. Reportedly, the British ambassador to Serbia, David Gowen, declared that Serbia should abandon UN Resolution #1244 and accept Kosovo independence. Albanian leaders are confident that the negotiating process is nothing but pro-forma. Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi is convinced that independence would be granted by June. The International Crisis Group (ISG), a premier Serbophobic NGO, headed until recently by the now UN Kosovo mediator, former Finish president Martti Ahtissari, has been lobbying for independence for years. The European Parliament Rappoteur for Kosovo, Joost Lagendijk, voiced a view that the primary task of negotiators would be to convince Serbia to accept independence. The Albanian lobby in Washington is launching huge a lobbying effort, called Alliance for New Kosovo, run by the American firm Jefferson Waterman.

According to the Economist announced negotiations between the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians with the UN mediation are a farce. Allegedly much of the bargaining has already happened among interested great powers: U.S., Britain, France and Russia and the degree of consensus were “surprising.” All four powers agreed that Kosovo should have conditional independence. The dispute is over tactics. Negotiations will be about the status of Serbs in independent Kosovo. The Serbs have Hobson’s choice: “Belarus or Brussels”—isolation or Europe.

Public statements made by Russian officials run contrary to the Economist analysis. Russian UN ambassador stated that the Security Council could support only an agreed-upon rather than unilateral solution, as it would establish a negative precedent for frozen conflicts in the world. President Putin in his marathon annual conference, answering questions from 64 reporters over 3.5 hours, spoke against independence of Kosovo: “If someone considers that Kosovo ca be given full state independence, then why must we refuse this to the Abkhazians or South Ossetians.” He advocated that the “principles have to be universal” and instructed Russian Foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, to veto a paragraph proposed by the Western diplomats at the London meeting of the Contact Group which said that the final solution for Kosovo would not pose a precedent for volatile situations in neighboring countries. Lavrov also opposed attempts to force deadlines for the end of future Kosovo status negotiations.

Sawers Disastrous Visit to Pristina and Belgrade

John Sawers, Britain’s Foreign Office political director, visited Pristina and told Serbs in Kosovo that they should accept independence. He told the Albanians that independence could be “delivered” if they showed enough democratic maturity that respects minority rights. Prime Minister Kostunica blasted Britain for promoting Kosovo independence and accused Sawers of “advocating a one-sided approach to solving the problem of Kosovo…even before the official start of the negotiations.” Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, Serbian government coordinator for Kosovo policy, responded appropriately by saying “If that’s the opinion of the entire Contact Group, the Belgrade should reconsider its participation in negotiations.”

Bush Administration must Focus on Conditional Autonomy within Serbia

This author wishes to remind the U.S. and European policy makers that the Kosovo issue is not much less complex than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the Kashmir. So called Oslo process was initiated in September 1993 and lasted through September 2000 before second intifada was initiated. Kashmir has been an unresolved issue between India and Pakistan for decades. Therefore Kosovo issue is not amenable to quick-fix solutions such as conditional independence before the year-end, which in all likelihood would destabilize the region as redrawing the international borders of Former Yugoslavia have amply demonstrated. Statements such as those made by U.S. special for the Kosovo status talks, Frank Wisner, or John Sawers, that the Kosovo talks must be wrapped up this year should be viewed as less than responsible.

President Bush while visiting Latvia last year expressed regrets that the historic Yalta pact led to “one of the greatest wrongs in history” sacrificing the freedom of small nations in eagerness to bring stability in Europe. In this spirit President Bush should abandon failed Clinton’s administration policies in the Balkans. Kosovo independence is close to the hearts of neolibs and Soros’ Open Society--their values are alien to the Bush administration Here are some reasons why the Bush administration should support conditional autonomy within Serbia instead:
 
1. The international law must not be circumvented. Dismemberment of a democratic state and change of internationally recognized borders against its will would establish a bad precedent. Any solution not sanctioned by the UN Security Council would inflict a new blow to the international law. The framework for the resolution lies within the UN Resolution #1244. The resolution could be amended but no need for fresh resolution.

2. Kosovo independence precedent would open a Pandora’s box threatening to destabilize many corners of the world as it would encourage secessionist movements in Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh), Canada (Quebec), China (Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjang), Cyprus (Turkish Republic), France (Corsica), Georgia (Abkhazia, South Ossetia), India (Kashmir), Moldova (Transdnestr), Turkey/Iraq/Iran (Kurdistan), Philippines (Mindanao), Rumania (Transylvania), Russia (Chechnya), Spain (Basque Country, Catalonia), Sri Lanka (Tamil), Sudan (Southern Sudan), etc. Dimitri Simes, president of The Nixon Center, made the same point in his The National Interest piece Jihad Unintended.

3. Stability in the Balkans could be undermined. One does not need a degree in history to conclude that peace and security in Europe depend on peace and security in the Balkans. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said, “Stability in the Balkans is part of Europe’s stability.” A deal without the Serbian signature means regional instability. Independent Kosovo would mobilize neighboring Albanian minorities in Southern Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro. Fragile democracy in Serbia could be doomed.

4. Terrorism and terror must not be rewarded. The KLA was and continues to be a terrorist organization although it has operated under different names. It is blatantly hypocritical to exempt the KLA from the war on terror. Post June 1999, the KLA exercised rule of terror against the Serbs and other minorities. Independence would inevitably turn Kosovo into a monoethnic state thus rewarding both terrorism and the rule of terror. The world has been told on numerous occasions that Kosovo must be multiethnic.

5. The Albanian narco-mafia has been using Kosovo as a safe haven for their criminal operations: drug trafficking, people and weapons smuggling, sex-slavery, abductions, and murders. Kosovo was described as the republic of heroin. Italian prosecutor Cataldo Motta declared Albanians the most dangerous mobsters, brandishing them as a threat to Western society. Impact of drugs on the Western society is probably worse than the impact of terrorism. Independence will most certainly make a bad situation even worse.

6. Institutional plunder must be stopped. During failed UNMIK’s administration of Kosovo, UNMIK formed a Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA) and empowered it to seize Serbian-owned property. According to Serbianna.com, Serbian government that has pumped in over $17 billion into Kosovo since 1970 was dispossessed of all property. These acts of plunder must be reversed with the property returned to their rightful owners.

7. U.S. investment in Serbia must be preserved. The U.S. is the #1 foreign country investing in Serbia; e.g., U.S. Steel, Philippe Morris, Galaxy Tires, Microsoft, U.S. Dyncorp, etc. The U.S. administrations have traditionally protected investments of U.S. companies, which independent Kosovo could conceivably jeopardize.

8. Induced Islamization in neighboring Albania with open borders to Kosovo would move to other Balkan states and Italy as discussed in recent Italian report of the Democratic Security Service. Iran and Saudi Arabia would compete as economic donors, as they do in Bosnia, with associated Islamist ambitions including terrorism.