Russians plan Kosovo
intervention, warns general
Yugoslav army to launch
ground offensive against NATO?
By I. J. Toby Westerman
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
A high-ranking Russian general has warned that Russia is preparing plans for military intervention in Kosovo, and that the Yugoslav army could launch a ground offensive against NATO troops in the war-ravaged province, according to an official Russian news report.
Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov's comments were broadcast on the "Voice of Russia" World Service Short Wave Radio Broadcast, the official broadcasting service of the Russian government.
Ivashov condemned the growing violence in Kosovo and warned the turmoil there could spread into the Balkans and into Europe. Ivashov called for emergency measures to end the violence in the region, and to suppress what he referred to as "Albanian terrorists." He also demanded that NATO follow U.N. resolution 1244, which calls for a settlement of the conflict that includes continued Yugoslav rule in Kosovo.
Well acquainted with the politics of the region, in June 1999 Ivashov conducted Russia's negotiations with the U.S. Department of Defense regarding Russia's role in the peacekeeping operations following NATO's air war against Yugoslavia.
In the midst of these negotiations, Russian paratroopers seized the airport in Kosovo's capital city of Pristina.
Until the Russian paratroopers came into Pristina, NATO had avoided giving Russia any kind of "zone of responsibility."
The Voice of Russia added its own warning to that of Ivashov, stating, "Clearly these words are a signal of approaching disaster, and Moscow is not exaggerating."
In order to avoid war in Kosovo, the Voice of Russia demands that NATO end sanctions against Yugoslavia and that the alliance holds direct talks with the Belgrade government.
At present, the leader of the Belgrade government, Slobodan Milosevic, is an indicted war criminal.
"Delay is fraught with danger," the Russian broadcasting service stated gravely. In addition to the people of Yugoslavia, the threat of war hangs over "nationals of other countries" who believe they are unaffected by the region's events.
Ivashov's remarks follow by less than two weeks similar statements made by the Russian Defense Minister, Igor Sergeyev. In an address to a special session of the lower house of the Russian legislature, the State Duma, Sergeyev stated that Yugoslav troops could confront NATO, and that Russian forces could find themselves in a standoff with the Western alliance.
Since the end of the air war against Yugoslavia, Moscow has consistently decried the treatment of the Kosovo Serbs at the hands of NATO. Moscow cites the large number of refugees, most of whom are Serbs, fleeing Kosovo, and the ill treatment of the remaining Serb population at the hands of the ethnic Albanians.
The situation in Kosovo has become so disordered that NATO leaders find themselves in a precarious position.
Moscow's support of Yugoslavia is deeply rooted in history and remains intense. Yugoslavia has been granted permanent observer status at the parliament sessions of the union state of Russia and Belarus, and there has even been discussion in some political circles in Moscow and Minsk of admitting Yugoslavia into the Russian/Belarussian union.
One year after NATO's victory over Yugoslavia, any real resolution to Kosovo appears as remote as ever.
I. J. Toby Westerman is a contributing editor to WorldNetDaily.com and WorldNet magazine.
hello,daniela...
lately the russ page could be calling itself "the
_other_ yugo page"...
Hey L'Menexe,
take a look-see who posted above
ol' PhilTR come back to visit
well, how 'bout that?
========================
Hey PhilTR, ya old buzzard
how ya doin'?
400% eh?
but you're already rich
you don't need it
you could give to the Balkan refugees?
speaking of which
how do you like all the revelations of the past year during nato/us/uk occupation of the
SERBIAN PROVINCE of KosovO?
have you changed your mind any?
after DMS I changed my name and graduated to
the Serbian Cafe, a very nasty place
that makes DMS seem like a high school pep rally!
had lots of fun
but that site too has finally imploded.
T'gunns
Hey T'gunner, I'm real disappointed in how the KLA have handled the political situation in Kosovo. So many missed opportunities. It's disgusting. Seems like you were right about the role oil played in the conflict. Forgot about pipelines to the coast and all that. But I'm wondering if Milo will get the Trepc/Mitrovica region cantonized from the rest of Kosovo. That would be quite a coup for him if he is successful. philtr
yo, m'sieu Gunns
how's it hangin"?
yeah i thought of you when i saw phil had shown up.
""
ps> workin' hard, or hardly workin'?
Yo PhilTR,
and you were right about the Trepca mines.
I wouldn't venture to predict anything at this point. Almost anything is possible. The whole US/Nato/UN/"Int'l Community" facade is crumbling at a rapid pace. I suppose it depends on how desperate the US (and the Clinton Admin) is to maintain the facade and it's foothold at Camp Bondsteel. The Balkans is a much more dangerous powder keg now than ever, and desperate acts by the US could blow all to hell.
=============
Hi L'Men,
all's ok.
between contracts, looking for another.
meantime updating my pc
will probably be offline for a few days while
I reinstall everything onto bigger drives, more
ram, etc.
================
:O) just had a funny thought:
Gee, we're all being so civil to each other. Kind of like we fought the battles in our time, now it's someone else's turn, eh?
Take care ya'll,
T'gunns
m'sieu gunns,
stories are chock-full of people becoming 'pals'
after beating upon each other.
i've deployed a justifiable scatter gun on the
russ page for _months_. acquired meself no 'pals'.
very weary of battling right now.
not sure to what degree i'll return to the russ
page.
===
have fun pumpin' up yr machine, dude.
L'm
Tommyguns, L'menexe.
Wish sometimes I'd been there, to know why you are both so convinced. Must have been one hell of a battle.
Unicef ;O)
unicef, by any other name:
perdonnez-moi.
in your case, i _did_ acquire a 'pal' on the russ
page
Unicef,
Hmmmmmm...do I detect an unexpressed thought here?
I'm not sure what we're "both so convinced of".
Care to clarify?
As for the "battle", it was rather tame compared to others I've witnessed. Strangely, (speaking for myself) I've experienced a kind of affection for my adversaries in this forum, even those who no longer drop in.
[Yoohoo! ~~~~~ Dr KD, hello out there :O) :O) -- as nutty as you are, we do miss you and think of you occasionally.]
[note: these ~~~~~ are waves]
T'gunns
Mr T'gunns,
Hi, I have arived here from a disintegrating battle close by. Despite several months of discussion I still am not convinced by the arguments, made by a certain Lady(L'menexe says she turned his head). They seem just too extreme.
I was commenting on what you said to mr Philtr.
It just seems that an agreement has been reached here regarding Nato's role. I was just wondering why that was and what that was based on. Since elsewhere there is certainly no concensus re Nato's role in the Balkans. You seem to agree that it was wrong for Nato to intervene.
Just curious really.
Unicef
Unicef,
I'm familiar with the "certain Lady", but not familiar with her position(s) on the other board.
I think the "agreement" you perceive is an unspoken understanding between some of us that we fought our battles last spring and summer on this board and now see no reason not to be civil with each other.
Recent revelations about the break-up of Yugoslavia and subsequent events in Kosovo may have changed some people's minds, but others may well hold on to their original positions.
"We", as a group, no longer meet regularly in this forum and apparently only pop in now and then to stay in touch. I guess it's true that you can form "relationships" in cyberspace. Although I've never met any of those I've communicated with here, I feel like I know them to some extent and have a sense for them as real people.
Speaking for myself, I have been from the beginning adamantly against NATO's attack on Yugoslavia and have not wavered from that position. The goal of the USA has been, since at least the mid-80s, the destruction and dismantling of Yugoslavia for a variety of reasons that together represents the USA's current historical need for imperialist expansion into new markets and access to new resources. All the hysteria about ethnic strife, atrocities, humanitarianism, who's right and who's wrong is just fog in the public's eye while our "masters" pillage and plunder the planet -- which I also admit allows me to sit here in relative comfort writing these words (isn't life full of contradictions?)
In short, we in the USA have a voracious economy that requires periodic expansion to feed it's apetite and for places to dump it's excess, lest it all come crashing down on us.
What a hell of a position to be in, eh?
Articles written when Kosovo was not famous...
Background material about Kosovo, especially the material disseminated by mainstream channels, is
deficient in many aspects, but perhaps the most startling feature of many such articles is the singular way
of examining the history of the region. We are told that Kosovo is the cradle of Serbian nation and we learn
about the battle of 1389 and then, in most articles, with a gigantic leap that would make envious any
athlete, the article strides 600 years later, in 1989, when the Kosovo autonomy was rescinded by Milosevic.
What happened during these 600 years, pray tell? Or, at least, what happened during the last few years
before 1989?
It is now difficult to write about the recent past of Kosovo without taking into account the war which is
raging just now. So, it occurred to me that if I managed to find articles written in the 80s, when Kosovo
was not famous, at least these would be free of any bias due to the later events.
A good friend who is also a wizard in database searching undertook the task and here is the fruit of his
labours, a bunch of older articles about Kosovo. Be warned, the articles were not written for posterity.
These were run-of-the-mill, "boring" articles about contemporary events. But perhaps here lies their
interest, for they present the situation without any make-up. Anyway, here they are...
N.S.
http://members.tripod.com/~sarant_2/ksm.html
daniela...
this morning i e-mailed m'sieu gunns that "daniela posted a _post_ and not a _paste_!"
ooops!
well, perhaps the "n.s." suggests otherwise,
but you've seen no references to "h'niq" from me [take note, m'sieu n.s.]
oh, we're just a bunch of springtime sweeties.
yes, i'll check out some of the "boring" articles.
Yes, you are absolutely right - that wasn't mine, but N.S.'s
Why do I become lazy to write my own opinion about these events
around Kosovo? got tired of accusations and personal insults
over the things I knew
therefore I decided to call upon some other "authorities".
It doesn't metter, you just keep making fun of my 'paste' stuff since
I don't know how to please (!?) everyone =))