What you can do

Here are just a few suggestions

Come to our Yugoslavia delegation report back at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 on
Thursday 16th September
Order some leaflets to advertise our activities in your locality (£6 per 100, including p&p)
Make a financial contribution to help with our work - whatever you can afford will be greatly
appreciate. Standing order forms can be printed off from this site, click here.
Set up your own local group. Get in touch with others in your locality and participate in the many
activities that are going on around the country - vigils and protests, street leafletting, public meetings,
and many other imaginative ways of raising the voice of the anti-war movement
Use our petition to help gather support for local activities
Write letters to the local press - our regular news releases can be used as the basis of letters to your
local newspaper - and if they are not publicised, organise a protest
Send a postcard to your local MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA - and send a copy to Alice
Mahon MP, Chair Committee for Peace in the Balkans
Tell the British Foreign Office what you think - phone 0171 270 3176
Help us campaign for media accuracy and free speech on the war - if you're a journalist, please sign
our petition
If you want to complain about media coverage contact: · BBC 0181 734 8000 · ITV 0171 833 3000 ·
Channel 4 0171 396 4444 · Channel 5 0345 050505

PLEASE NOTE: All orders must be sent by post to Committee for Peace in the Balkans, c/o Alice Mahon
MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA, with an accompanying cheque/postal order made payable to
'Committee for Peace in the Balkans'.
Tel/fax: 0171 275 0164
E-mail: committee@peaceinbalkans.freeserve.co.uk


http://www.peaceinbalkans.freeserve.co.uk/

More news on:

http://news.inet.co.yu/


(6.10.1999.)

00:20 As sources from US
Senate reports, NATO and KLA delegations are
very close to agree with partial integration of the
KLA into KFOR forces.
23:35


During the morning at around 6am. Albanians
shelled village Dobrotin near Lipljan. They fired 7 mines which made damage
on few Serbian houses and one civilan was injured. One shell exploded near
one KFOR vehicle. There is still no electricity power in the village and also
there KLA members were gethering around the village during the day and
were waiting for new attempt to attack Serbs. Serbs from Dobrotin have no
weapons since KFOR took all their private hunting guns.



20:55 European Union decided on yesterday's
unformal meeting in Finland to suspend some sanctions against Montenegro.
This means that Montenegro will be able to buy oil freely and that comercial
air traffic will operate normaly. All sanctions against Serbia will still be active.
19:10


The Albanian
mafia has strengthened control over Kosovo and is collecting taxes, robbing
apartments and smuggling drugs, states today's "Sunday Telegraph". It is
believed that mafia has made enormous money snatching serbian flats under
the pretense of ethnic revenge, because almost all Serbs have been driven
out of Pristina. The mafia has now turned against local Albanians and the
international officials.

Phil wrote:

>> I appreciate your dilemma. But you see, my position relative to an issue changes with new information and sometimes even as the result of my own impulsive interpretation of that
information. I'm human and have all the frailties that follow. <<

No dilemma. Your response tells me not to take anything you write seriously, since tomorrow you may completely contradict yourself depending on an impulsive interpretration of whatever passes your way.

That may well be human, but not very conducive to maintaining a dialog or engaging in debate. I can only conclude that you have no position regarding the subject matter of this forum.

Oh well, "whatever", Mr. Dole.

Re: crisisweb.org

Downloaded and printed most of their briefings, but haven't had time to read them. Will do so asap.

I did note that their board of directors consists predominantly of liberal internationalists and former (western) government officials - the very same individuals who's support of past actions and policies of their respective governments and international organizations have greatly contributed to, and often been the cause of, current crises around the world.

tommygunns

" No dilemma. Your response tells me not to take anything you write seriously, since tomorrow you may completely contradict yourself depending on an impulsive interpretration of whatever passes your way.

That may well be human, but not very conducive to maintaining a dialog or engaging in debate. I can only conclude that you have no position regarding the subject matter of this forum. "

I'm not here to engage in rigorous debate. I do have every confidence in your ability to handle the matter tho. I certainly can't force you pay attention to me, nor would I demand that you to accept something I say that fails to make sense or is unsupportable.

" I did note that their board of directors consists predominantly of liberal internationalists and former (western) government officials - the very same individuals who's support of past actions and policies of their respective governments and international organizations have greatly contributed to, and often been the cause of, current crises around the world. "

But is their information accurate and supportable? You don't seem to be going so far as to say it's not credible. What you seem to be saying is that you do not agree with crisisweb's board of director's politics. I might not agree with some of their positios either. But, if their analysis is sound, it's sound.

I want to retch each time I read the Washington Times or The American Spectatior, but if their analysis is sound and their facts seem to be accurate, I'd be silly to go into denial just because I disagree with their politics. phil

This is exactly what I DID say:

>> Re: crisisweb.org

>> Downloaded and printed most of their briefings, but haven't had time to read them. Will do so asap.

>> I did note that their board of directors consists predominantly of liberal internationalists and former (western) government officials - the very same individuals who's support of past actions and policies of their respective governments and international organizations have greatly
contributed to, and often been the cause of, current crises around the world. <<

I made no mention of the soundness or credibility of their analyses, nor whether I agreed or not - because, as I wrote in the line you left out "[...} haven't had time to read them. Will do so asap."

I have subsequently read "Montenegro Briefing", "Law and Order in the New Kosovo", "Transforming Serbia", and "Why Will No One Invest in B-H?".

My conclusion is that the ideological basis of their analysis conforms to what I would suspect those who comprise the organizations board members to promote. There's nothing new there; the same crap you can read in the WSJ any day - i.e., the Balkan wars are the fault of evil Serbs and their evil leaders, the evils of "nationalism" (only as it applies to perceived rogue states that do not conform to western demands); the solutions are the same old western capitalist "reforms" - e.g., restructuring the economy along lines ammenable to transnational capital, creating a business oriented society open to international domination, etc., etc., etc.

Within the context of their ideological orientation their analysis may well be sound and credible to those who share their world view. To those of us who have a different perspective it's just more of the same propaganda BS that we're bombarded with daily via the corporate owned media that only serves to hide and obfuscate the ruthlessness of the business mentality.

"Mendacity and hipocracy!! It's all mendacity and hipocracy!!" - Big Daddy (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)

The emperor stands naked for all the world to see.

tommygunns

From www.emperors-clothes.com

WITH HER EYES OPENED

A Letter to the Serbian 'Democratic Opposition'

by Doncheva

[Note: http://www.emperors-clothes.com encourages everyone to distribute the following in any way possible but please include the entire text including this note. ]

I was an activist in the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) until June 1993. UDF is the mirror image of the Serbian Alliance for Change (the United Democratic Opposition).

The Bulgarian Union of Democratic Forces or UDF received a lot of money in 1990 - cars, computers, luxurious placards (transported from abroad in big trucks) for the 1990 elections and the next ones - until the consolidation of the UDF in power. We think that a certain amount of money continues to flow, but now it is directed only to the UDF officials presently in power.

You all know what the Bulgarian government of the UDF did during the US war against neighboring Yugoslavia. I will remind those who might happen not to know or who have forgotten.

1. It provided FULL SUPPORT for the USA.

2. It gave the US and NATO all the asked-for corridors - in the air and on the ground. (There is talk that Southern Serbia has been demolished by US planes flying over Bulgaria from a US Turkish base.)

3. For the first time since the end of the 500 year Turkish Yoke last century Turkish ground force passed through Bulgaria.

Here's an easy question: "From whence does money for the UDF (and now for UDF leaders) mainly come?" You get one guess.

So. We, here in Bulgaria, have had US-style democracy since 1989. For 10 years already.

MY TEN MOST AWFUL YEARS.

What happened during that most awful period of my life on Earth?

Through the ardent UDF leaders in power, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are successfully devouring Bulgarian industry, destroying the social fabric and opening national boundaries. (Our national boundaries, mind you, never those of the US or Germany.)

THREE WAYS THEY DEVOUR BULGARIAN INDUSTRY :

- privatizing the Bulgarian plants and factories and liquidating them afterwards;

- directly liquidating them;

- selling them for twopenny-halfpenny to powerful foreign corporations. For instance, the Copper Metallurgical plant near the town of Pirdop producing gold and platinum as well as electrolytic copper was sold in 1997 to Union Miniere, Belgium for next to nothing.

Conclusion: Bulgarian industry and infrastructure (the roads for instance) have been most successfully demolished - and this WITHOUT bombing! - in less than ten years. All this, just from doing what the Serbian opposition is saying the Serbs should do.

* A popular joke here during the US war on Yugoslavia: two Turkish pilots, flying over Bulgaria, are looking down at the Bulgarian landscape. One of them says: "I wonder… Have we dropped bombs here?" "Don't be silly," answers the other. "It is Bulgaria! They look like that without bombing.")

Side results: - hordes of unemployed, as you can well imagine.

Beggars in the streets.

Children dying in the street from drugs and malnutrition.

Old people digging in the rubbish containers for some rag or moldy piece of bread.

In 1989 my friend mother's pensions had been 105 leva. Now it is 46 leva at $1 = 1.87 leva. - August, 27. So, calculate for yourselves how much dollars that 75 year old woman receives per month.

Yesterday my brother in law told me he had seen the former headmistress of his son's school to dig in a rubbish container…

The Infant death rate has increased.

The Birth death rate has increased. The reasons in most of the cases: mothers suffering of shock and malnutrition).

The Death rate generally has increased.

Young people refuse to marry and have children.

Will there be a Bulgarian nation in the 21 century? What have the Big US think-tanks planned for Bulgaria? The answer is getting clearer with every year…

Eating away social privileges.

Before 1989 Bulgaria was a SOCIAL state: Free medical care, FREE education, social help and privileges for the mothers and the elderly. According to the old (totalitarian) pension law people retired at 55 years of age for the women and 60 years of age for the men.

According to the new (U.S.-democratic) pension law and the adopted new system there will not be any retired people here.

The new system demands gathering of 90 points for the women- age plus number of years in service - and 95 points for the men. The small number of people about 55 still at work will managed to retire at about 58 years of age (for the women) and 63 (for the men).

But what about the people at 35-40-45 years of age, some of them unemployed for years on a run already?

How will they gather the number of years in service, necessary for retiring?

Nobody needs them, nobody wants them at work, nobody offers work to them.

When you open the newspapers at the pages with job offers you see the repeated demand for age of 30 for the eventual applicants. Even if the offer is for building workers or scrub women.

So, if you are under 30, you have some chances to slave for 12 hours for next to nothing for a newly hatched businessman.

All the others are expendable and the only open exit for them is the crematorium. Amen.

And the IMF and WB aim will be achieved: less population, less pensioners, less children…And THEY (the Global Super Rich?) will get closer to their Global Aim of providing an Earth inhabited only by the Golden Milliard [billion] (after the messy job of clearing away the redundant/unwanted 6 milliards…)

WHAT ABOUT EDUCATION?

Now the number of children that do not go to school increases with every year. Only comparatively well to do parents or parents who still have some saved money can fulfill their children desire for a higher education.

HEALTH?

People have turned to old grannies' ways of healing.

Going to the dentist is looked upon as a kind of a luxury.

There are talks for a drastic raising of all the medicine prices here - with 60-70% - from September 1st 99.

The chasm between the handful of rich and the great majority of poor people is disastrously deepening with every day.

By the way, the last remnants of privileges will be taken away after the 1st of January 2000.

I have in mind the lower prices for train tickets for students, mothers with children and the elderly.

IMF DEMANDS:NO MORE SUBSIDIZED TRAVEL!

Taking away these special, lower fares was one of the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) conditions for the latest loan, agreed to willingly by the UDF leaders now in power. Note that the UDF is short for Union of Democratic Forces, whose program is the mirror image of the Serbian Alliance for change or United Democratic Opposition. Note that the names are almost the same, aren't they? Bad. A proof of very poor imagination on the part of the Money-givers. They should insist on variety in names.

What taking away travel privileges really means

It means additional separation of people, forcing them to stay either in the towns, where they will die away from hunger, or in the villages with the same result. Because most of the still active pensioners presently add to meager family and personal income through some occasional jobs in the towns or by providing vegetables and fruit for the winter in their father's village gardens. It is possible and worth while NOW when they are travelling by train at half the price. After January 1 it will be senseless.

So the death rate will increase - one of the IMF's apparent goals will be successfully realized and the servile UDF leaders will be correspondingly rewarded.

I wonder. How much does it pay to destroy one's own people under the sweetened slogans of "democracy" (what democracy?) and joining the "Western civilization" (what civilization are we speaking of.) Does it pay really well?

Do you, the so-called opposition in Serbia REALLY think that the best road for you is joining THAT "civilization"? What will be the bitter fruit later of your efforts now? Cheap labor for the US and Western corporations and the humiliating agony of a slow torturous death through wretched poverty for your people.

Look back into your history - a history of tough people able to find solution of their OWN, to overcome obstacles with their OWN resources.

We saw what our contemporary "Western civilization" actually stands for during those awful 79 days.When they bombed a sovereign EUROPEAN country they defined themselves.

Since Yugoslavian capitulation we all are DAILY witnesses what Western civilization stands for in Kosovo.

Everybody knows now that:

1. The US and Europe are against ethnic cleansing of the Albanians by the Serbs.

2. But THEY are for the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs by the Albanians.

What has happened to the sugared talk about Human Rights?

Ah, sorry, I have forgotten. Serbs are not Human. (With the exception of those that take the U.S. and NATO countries' money to betray their people and their country!)

You in the opposition, do you really want to lick the soles of those cruel greedy monsters?

OPENING OUR BOUNDARIES, MAKING US AN 'OPEN SOCIETY'

...as expounded by George Soros, the international financier of newspapers, radio stations, NGO's and political parties that facilitate the destruction of previously viable nations. That philanthropist of the 'open society.'

We have learned the hard way what those pretty slogans about "opening the boundaries" mean.

It means KILLING the part of Bulgarian industry that is still managing to stay alive and thereby give bread to a certain number of people.

It means that lots of LOW QUALITY - I use the phrase deliberately: LOW QUALITY - food products and other goods (socks for instance) flow freely through the "open(ed) boundaries" into Bulgaria, undermining the efforts of local producers. We have been perhaps one of the biggest consumers of the notorious Belgian dioxin chickens. Result: some of the local producers have gone bankrupt and sunk into dismal poverty. Some of the salami and sausage producers have had the same fate. The same holds true for producers of veal and veal products.

I have a cousin who has a small farm - four cows. He hasn't been able to sell his calves for two successive years. Two of the cows have already died. He is smashed. The veal-buying firms explain that they prefer to work with the frozen meat imported at low prices ready to be stuffed and turned into salami and sausages. Never mind the salami and sausages' quality...

"Fasan", the sock and stocking factory in the Danube town of Rouse, is slowly sinking down (maybe it has already gone bankrupt and hundreds are in the streets). Because of the Turkish socks, flooding the Bulgarian market and sold at 0.5 leva a pair. The "Fasan" socks are sold at about 1 leva ($1=1.87 leva).

They cannot sell them at a lower price - they will go bankrupt.

They cannot sell them at the only possible-for-them price - and they have gone bankrupt. Amen. Rest in peace.

So much for "open boundaries." So much for Mr. Soros' "Open Society".

I hope you have now a clearer picture of what U.S.-type democracy has brought Bulgaria and its people. Of the real, practical meaning of the sugared phrases.

WHAT BREAKS MY HEART

I personally live in abject misery. I pay my Internet fee at the expense of great limitations in food, forgoing other needs as well. I do not know how long I will be able to support it.

But it is the sight of the old men and women, digging into the rubbish containers that is breaking my heart.

And the old people begging in the streets… the outreached trembling hands…the tears of pain and humiliation in the eyes…They make me cry.

Because, you see, street beggars might be only part of the New York scenery. But it is a new and very shocking sight for us here, and our hearts are bleeding.

PRICES - BEFORE U.S. 'DEMOCRACY' - AND AFTER

I enclose a comparing table of some prices in 1989 and 1999 from "Appeal", the monthly newspaper of our activist group. ($1 = 1.87 leva (as of 8/27/99))

PRICES IN LEVA 1989 1999

Bread, 1 kg (white flour) 0.48 0.63

Bread, 1 kg (wholemeal) 0.15 0.45

Salami, 1 kg 2,80 3,60

Yogurt 0.22 0.32-0.75

Tram ticket (Sofia) 0.06 0.25

Steam Heating, average 14.00 80.00-150.00

Elec,1 kwh:day/night 0.042/0.022 0.08/0.04

Luxury lady shoes 30.00-40.00 100.00

Suit, average price 100.00 300.00

Lighter, ordinary 0.20 4.00

Books 1.00-2.00 6.00-10.00

Cinema ticket 0.40-0.80 4.00-8.00

Salary, average 200.00 150.00

Pension, average 100.00 50.00

And so on and on and on …

All genocides are not equal in their eyes

The USA started bombing Yugoslavia officially because of the still unproven genocide on the poor Albanians by the Serbs, the Demons.

Meanwhile they are carrying out invisible at first sight but very effective genocide on my people in Bulgaria. As in all the countries in the deadly grip of the US type of democracy and its envoys, the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND and THE WORLD BANK.

WHAT ARE THE SERBS THINKING?

I am truly amazed at some Serbian people's reactions lately. I have never looked upon them as being a nation of suicides.

What are they striving for? What do they want? The dismal, hopeless life of their Bulgarian neighbors?

Do they REALLY want to see their old people dig in the dung containers?

Do they REALLY want to stop their children from going to school because of lack of money for shoes and text-books?

Do they REALLY want to slave for the American or German corporations 12 hours per day for miserable pay? Because think: what is the greatest attraction for a foreign corporation in a devastated country like Yugoslavia? The cheap labor! That is it!

The so called Sweatshops.

I cannot believe my eyes and ears! AFTER 78 or 79 DAYS OF AMERICAN BOMBS at that! Over the bodies of killed Serb children by the A M E R I C A N bombs!

It is simply UNBELIEVABLE!

And after the good example of what the US kind of "democracy" has done to Bulgaria, the Yugoslavian neighbor.

I do not want to vindicate myself for having been an activist of the UDF till 1993. I only would like to point out that at that time we all believed the totalitarian state [the former, Communist Bulgaria] was simply lying about the USA. That all the warnings about the USA were simply propaganda lies. We had not heard anything about the IMF or the WB or the transnational corporations and their expansion policy in 1990. We fell for the seductive talk about democracy and openness and the rest.

But it is impossible to say the same for the so-called Serb Opposition.

Especially after the U.S. war on THEIR country!

They, the Serb Opposition, are even not ashamed of the $100 million of US "help", arrogantly announced in the face of the whole world! [This refers to US aid openly given to help the opposition in Serbia]

Don't you, all the Serbs that are hanging at the lips of that US or German flunkey, [Alliance for Change leader] Djindnic, feel humiliated at having chosen to work for the US and West European interests against your own people?

When the blood of the Serbian children is still fresh on the money they are giving you?!

SHAME, SHAME ON YOU!

Desanka Maksimovic has a poem saying:

"My forebears and fellow-villagers Have never been traitors. They have gone since times immemorial Where Justice has called them… "

She is lucky she is not alive today.

What is at issue?

The issue is not Milosevic. US and the "Western civilizations" are reaching greedily for your country. Their geopolitical interests and their corporations demand it: they need the land and what resources you have.

Doncheva,

Sofia, Bulgaria

www.albaniannews.com

Albanian Economic Tribune

Tuesday, September 7, 1999

ALBANIAN MAFIA MOVED INTO KOSOVO ON NATO'S HEELS

TIRANA - Albanian criminals wanted by the police have moved into Kosovo on the heels of the deployment of NATO troops to escape justice, police sources confirmed on Thursday.

A police spokesman said that investigators have compiled a list with the names of the 72 most wanted criminals believed to have found safe haven in Kosovo.

"When the border checkpoint at Morina was opened, dozens of criminals moved into Kosovo together with hundreds of thousands of Kosovo refugees," an official at the Ministry of Order said. He asked not to be identified.

Sources of the Albanian anti-Mafia investigation body reported that the criminals seeking refugee in Kosovo committed most of the notorious criminal attacks against the state institutions, and were involved in gang warfare.

Reports from Kosovo say that Albanian gangs are already running lucrative operations, smuggling drugs, cars, petrol and cigarettes.

On the Kosovo roads the mobsters' are easy to spot in their glossy black Mercedes with tinted windows and no number-plates, and in the flashy four-wheeled drives registered in Vlora, southern Albania.

Nermin Bashi, the former owner of a bar in the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica said Albanian organised crime was already established in the town. "I have already been contacted by Albanian criminal types about reopening my bar," he said. "The mafia bosses are laying plans for the future even though everything is destroyed for now," he added.

Nermin pointed to a row of cars with no registration plates. "You see... the KFOR thinks those are vehicles belonging to refugees and that the number plates were ripped off (by the Serbs), but everyone here knows they are smuggled stolen cars."

"The Kosovar population is simply trying to survive but the Albanians from Albania are coming to exploit our misfortune," he charged. "When they have unloaded their wares here, the Albanian smugglers go back carrying drugs," said Nermin, whose views were confirmed by other inhabitants of Mitrovica.

Since 1998, because of military operations in Kosovo, international drug networks smuggling heroin from Afghanistan to western Europe had temporarily abandoned the so-called "Balkans route" via Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and Italy.

But with the opening of the Albania-Kosovo border, the absence of proper political institutions and a police force in Kosovo, could encourage a revival of drug trafficking in the province, experts warn.

KFOR reported last month its soldiers had detained many Albanians citizens charged with looting private property and intimidation.

Albanian prosecutors said that notorious criminals may have been already arrested by KFOR, but the lack of an extradition agreement makes it impossible for these criminals to be returned to Albanian justice.

www.albaniannews.com

Albanian Economic Tribune

Tuesday, September 7, 1999

KOSOVO HUMANITARIAN AID SOLD IN ALBANIA

TIRANA - The head of the European Union's Customs Assistance Mission (CAM) in Albania has accused non-governmental organisations of abuse with Kosovo-bound humanitarian aid.

"Tonnes of (humanitarian aid) goods, administered by several non-governmental organisations, are passing through customs without taxes being paid, but which end up in the hands of charlatans in the black market," said Natalina Cea. "These goods are then sold all over the Balkans," she added, without providing details or pointing at any specific organisation.

Cea said that market prices of several goods in Albania have not changed even though the imports of these goods have ceased. "Sugar is not being imported from other countries, but there is no lack of sugar and its price has not changed at all," the Italian said. "In my opinion the sugar being sold here was supposed to go to Kosovo."

Cea added that the same thing is happening with wheat being smuggled into Albania from Kosovo.

"These goods come from different countries. The international community should take care with the destination of the humanitarian aid," she said.

The head of CAM-Albania said that "big" humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have prevented aid abuse. "These organisations have administered the aid themselves, handing them directly to the Kosovars," CEA said.

"The dark side of the story remains the small non-governmental organisations that mushroomed in Albania at the beginning of the Kosovo conflict, just to benefit from the humanitarian aid," she added.

CAM-Albania has prepared a report to be presented to the Albanian government and the European Union unveilling the smuggling between Albania and Kosovo.

From The Washington Post

GERMAN MARK TO BE KOSOVO CURRENCY

By Blerim Gjoci

Associated Press Writer

Friday, September 3, 1999; 11:02 a.m. EDT

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- In a major step toward severing Kosovo's remaining ties with Yugoslavia, the United Nations announced Friday that the German mark will replace the Yugoslav dinar as Kosovo's official currency.

Bernard Kouchner, head of the U.N. mission, signed a new regulation allowing the use of the mark, the U.S. dollar, the Swiss franc and other convertible currencies. But although other Western currencies can be used, the German mark will become the undisputed king.

Taxes are to be collected in marks and if fees are paid in dinars, the United Nations said an extra fee, which will be set later, will be tacked on to the bill.

``We don't want to outlaw the dinar but we will not encourage the use of it,'' said U.N. official Joly Dixon. ``Anybody that wants to pay in dinars has to pay an additional fee for the transaction.''

U.N. officials said the Yugoslav government, which officially retains sovereignty over Kosovo despite the presence of 40,000 NATO-led peacekeepers, was not consulted before the decision was taken.

The decision to give supremacy to the German mark codifies a system that had been in effect unofficially for some time due to the weakness of the Yugoslav dinar, which is not freely convertible.

Even before Yugoslav forces evacuated the province in June under a U.N.-sanctioned peace plan, the Germany mark circulated widely as a parallel currency, especially in areas controlled by the Kosovo Liberation Army.

THE GERMAN MARK IS THE PREFERRED CURRENCY FOR BLACK MARKET DEALERS THROUGHOUT YUGOSLAVIA.

Nonetheless, officially declaring the mark as the primary currency is a major step in a province where the majority ethnic Albanian population aspires to complete independence from Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic.

Under pressure from Russia, China and other countries, the United States accepted language in U.N. Security Council resolution 1244 -- which established the peacekeeping mission -- affirming Yugoslav sovereignty over Kosovo until the final status is determined.

Here's some useful URLs:


http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/index.html

http://www.swans.com/library/beyond_war.html


Unfortunately, the Janes Kosovo Crises page below doesn't contain the "cherry-picked" New Conservative Weekly article. Damn!!

http://defence.janes.com/

The following contains articles written BEFORE Kosovo hit the headlines. Interesting to juxtapose what was being written THEN with what is so recklessly bandied about NOW!

http://members.tripod.com/~sarant_2/ksm.html

tommygunns

The following 'opinion' article was posted to
Kosovo Daily News "decani@makelist.com" by Fr Sava. phil


COMMENT: SERBIA SEEKS AN EXIT FROM HISTORY

Now the epoch of Milosevic is over - and it surely is - Serbs must learn to free themselves from the burden of history and the destructive desire to make and remake it, over and over again.

By Stojan Cerovic in Belgrade

Slobodan Milosevic's epoch came to a close after the NATO intervention and the loss of Kosovo. This can be more clearly discerned at a distance from Belgrade; from a closer vantage point, it looks as if he still lasts, but only in a technical sense, as a form of authority, as a police routine or a transparent television lie.

All remnants of sense have vanished from his regime's discourse, there is no hope in a miracle. All have seen through the magic tricks, but the circus star and continues to repeat the performance, simply because there is no one to stop him or remove him. The alternatives to Milosevic cannot think of anything different, or better, to offer.

This could go on for a long time yet, even if the dream of so many Decent citizens of Serbia comes true and Milosevic departs. Let's just recall that the late Marshall Tito continued to rule the former Yugoslavia for years after he died. History has an inertial force of its own. Comparisons between Milosevic and Tito may be easily disputed, bar one: it is not possible to turn back the clock on their acts. Nothing can be as it was before their deeds. Indeed this was the ambition of Tito's epoch; it will certainly be the aim of Milosevic's.

Thus it will be appropriate to remember that, whatever people think of it now, Milosevic's epoch represented the supreme expression of old, deep, dominant Serbian statehood, its political, social and even cultural ambitions.

I know that many good Serbs will contest this view and try their hardest to prove that he was obviously wrong from the start. I could readily agree with that, but Serbia did not think that way in the beginning. It took a very long time, desperately long, to understand what was happening, and it is easy to be wise now.

At the beginning, when Milosevic was destroying everything in front of him, looking invincible, one needed a lot of energy and courage to grasp where everything was leading and to oppose it. Nobody minded that he did not renounce Communism, and as Yugoslavia broke up in 1991, very few spotted his reliance on naked force, or how it was destroying everything to which the Serbs could aspire.

Serbs became deaf and alone in the world. At home the merest mention of somebody else's rights became a kind of treason. Over time it became impossible for Serbs to put a case for the right to anything. And in the meantime a complex dispute over territorial, historical and ethnic rights and claims turned into an orgy of violence and crime.

At the end of the day, Milosevic's deeds remain largely undoable. But as Serbia's horror at what has been done in its name takes shape, it has no option but to be horrified at itself a little.

To acknowledge that Milosevic did not appoint himself, but was a legitimate, if extremely naughty, child of the Serbian national idea, is the act that requires new courage from the Serbian people. His own motives are not important. Maybe he always wanted to start a war with the United States, or claim total power for his own. The fact remains that the Serbian people chose him and not some other candidate at the critical moment.

The exaltation was so great at the time that the act could not have been accidental.

This is the hardest truth that Serbia will take into the next century. It is not about Milosevic, who one way or another must leave the stage soon. This is about the kind of genuine national defeat, that nations encounter only once in their history.

Of course it might have been that Serbian nationalism rather than the nation itself might have suffered the defeat, if Serbian nationalism is taken to mean the nation's irrational surplus of messianic and, as a rule, aggressive national aspiration. For while faith in the greatness, the uniqueness of Serbia and its special historical and cultural role in the Balkans, if not in Europe, has deep roots, such self-belief need not automatically lead to ugly and damaging consequences.

With a little luck Serbs might have found a way of resolving this faith peacefully, allowing them to turn quietly to small unhistorical tasks. But there was no luck. The people chose and the years began. Milosevic could be deadly for many different peoples but for his own Serbs he was the progenitor of a long nightmare that painfully tormented them, drove them to blackmail and quarrel, desperation and poverty and a resting place at the bottom of Europe's cesspit.

I am not a supporter of the NATO intervention, but am so for reasons that have nothing to do with Serbia. Serbia almost forced the action upon itself and paid an enormous price for its choice. It may have been an unjustly high one, but Serbia lost the right to question the justice of the punishment after its guilt became clear. Serbia can only deal with its epochal downfall as best as it can.

How to do this? Not by asking how Serbia may exist, as some do, without Kosovo. The biggest and deepest change would be that which might well be dubbed The Exit From History. It may sound tragic to the defenders of Serbian historical mythology, but other peoples have found such an exit beneficial to both their lives and welfare.

For when Serbia no longer has anything big to tell the world, there will be no reason for big sacrifices to match and Serbs may turn their attention to matters of lesser import, like their tax returns.

The Serbs may suffer withdrawal symptoms as they give up history to others. Everything will look trivial and senseless at first, but in time they will get used to it. Soon the making of history will appear boring in comparison with the making of children. And the delights of cvarci and wine, of fishing and travelling, meeting, greeting and grumbling, will remain. For isn't it time to show the world what else Serbs can do other than fight?

Other neighbouring European states, many larger and more powerful, have passed through the same exit from history ahead of Serbia. Some came to terms with the change later rather than sooner, but are nevertheless through its portal.

For one could plainly see during the NATO intervention just how far Europe had given up the will to make its own history itself. Even the Russians, a people who once had the greatest of all messianic ambitions for world history, came to terms with the expense and stupidity, well before the Serbs ever did, and has probably given up the idea of meddling with history for good.

I believe that this experience of the defeat is so strong and obvious to everyone, that nothing more need be said, not even in refutation of the demagogues who will try to resist. They will be wasting their time. No one will ever again entice Serbia with tales of national greatness and historical rights. A defeat such as that just endured will act as a kind of inoculation against nationalist infection.

None of this will make Serbs inevitably different, let alone better or smarter. It is certain that they will learn how to resist the call of
stronger and bigger forces and to reject political projects based on bullying. But while the experience will be protection against another Milosevic epoch, it will not see Serbia shed the dead wood of self-deception, prejudice, bizarre theorising, ignorance and exaggeration bundled up in the last few years.

That intellectual garbage is picturesque and in a way entertaining, but something, nonetheless, has got to be done with it, if the Serbs do not wish to see their land reduced to an anthropological display.

Hence, the question is to find out what the Serbs want, and what they don't want, what they can do and what they can't, and especially, the means to pick between the two. Then find out how find who and how a new national leadership may be authorised to speak and act for Serbia. And to clear the garbage, not continue to pile it up.

Stojan Cerovic is a senior columnist and journalist at the Belgrade magazine Vreme, in which a version of this comment first appeared.

To all:

Please go to:
http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/logic.html

This site will help everyone to better understand what they are reading when articles are posted that support the many points of view expressed here and if bookmarked and referred to frequently will, I believe, prove invaluable to everyone in their attempts to evaluate the quality of said articles.

After carefully reviewing the sites contents please re-read the articles posted by Daniela, T'gunn, myself and others and bear this info in mind when reading future posts.

I'm hopeful that the quality of future posted articles will reflect this new found awarness. phil

Subject: [KDN] HousChron: Churches, Mosques Among Kosovo Casualties
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 16:42:57 -0400 (EDT)
From: Stephanie Niketic
To: Kosovo Daily News

Submitted by journalist John David Powell with the following comment:

(Note: this is the first time I have found any mention of widespread destruction of Moslem holy sites by Serbs. It is odd that until now, no
such reports have been made by the UN, Human Rights Watch, The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, NATO, the US Department of State, NGO's, or world media. Also, no mention of these acts are reported by the International Islamic News Agency at http://www.islamicnews.org/english/index.html
-- jdp)

===================================
Paper: Houston Chronicle
Date: SUN 09/05/99

Churches, mosques among the casualties in Kosovo / Some shrines destroyed date to 14th century

By RICHARD MERTENS
Special to the Chronicle

MUSUTISTE, Yugoslavia - Built in 1315, the Church of the Holy Virgin was among the oldest religious monuments in Kosovo. With walls of brick and stone 2 feet thick, it was built to last. And it did, nearly 700 years, surviving five turbulent centuries of Turkish rule and two world wars this century.

But it could not survive the latest spasm of violence in Kosovo.

Last spring, Serb forces looted and burned Musutiste, a mixed village of Serbs and ethnic Albanians that presses up against foothills of the Zar Mountains. They drove out the entire Albanian population and blew up the 135-foot-high minaret of the village mosque, which had been built in 1974. When the Albanians returned in June, their Serb neighbors had fled. But the Albanians paid them back in kind, burning their houses and blowing up their church.

Today, a heap of stone, old brick and broken plaster is all that remains of the Church of the Holy Virgin, lying in a pleasant grove of pine trees at the edge of the village.

Perched on a hill overlooking the village, the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, also from the 14th century, met the same fate.

A wooden arch juts at a crazy angle from the rubble that was once the monastery's church. The three nuns who lived at the monastery, and who carried on the ancient art of icon painting, are gone. The buildings in which they lived and worked stand burned and empty.

"After (the Serbs) destroyed the mosque, then our people mined the churches," explained Bekim Hoxha, an ethnic Albanian who is the village's imam, or Muslim cleric, as he stood in the damaged mosque. "First they, then us."

Dozens of churches and monasteries, among them some of Kosovo's oldest cultural monuments, have become casualties of this summer's ethnic violence in Kosovo. Serb Orthodox religious sites have been under attack ever since ethnic Albanians began returning to the province two and a half months ago, bent on revenge. Some of the sites, like those in Musutiste, date to the medieval Serb kingdom in the Balkans.

NATO troops are trying to protect many of those that remain undamaged.

Like the expulsion of the Serb people from Kosovo, the destruction of Serb religious monuments follows the Serbs' own example.

Before Albanians began destroying churches and monasteries , Serb army and police units in Kosovo were burning and blowing up mosques, some of them centuries old. In Pec, a city 40 miles from Musutiste, the Serbs burned all 34 mosques, according to the Kosovo Islamic Community. These included the Qarshise Mosque, built in 1471 and one of the oldest of its kind in Kosovo.

"This is the house of God," said Fetah Miftari, a young teacher who sat outside the mosque one afternoon. "He will punish them. They burned his
house."

Not far away, old men hunched over water spigots, washing their hands, feet and faces in obedience to Muslim custom. The smell of ash hung heavily in the air. The mosque was still standing, but it was scorched on the outside and completely burned inside. The whole neighborhood, the old Turkish part of the city, lay in ruins.

The violence in Kosovo is not a religious war, but religion has sharpened the conflict. Most ethnic Albanians in Kosovo are Muslim, while the Serbs are Orthodox Christian. This difference has made religious institutions a natural target when Serbs, and now Albanians, tried to sever the other group's ties to the province.

According to the Islamic Community of Kosovo, 187 mosques were burned or damaged by explosives between March 1998 and this past June, when Serb forces withdrew from Kosovo. Since then, the Serb Orthodox Church says more than 40 churches and monasteries have been damaged or destroyed.

Clergy, too, have been caught up in the violence. The Islamic Community says that 30 Muslim clergy and religious students were killed this spring. Three others are missing, while 10 languish in Serbian prisons. The Orthodox Church says that two priests have disappeared since NATO entered Kosovo.

Kosovo is an old center of Orthodox Christianity, and its churches and monasteries make up the richest part of the province's cultural heritage. According to the Orthodox Church, 1,300 churches and monasteries are scattered throughout Kosovo. Some of them are from the 13th century, well before the Turks brought Islam to the Balkans. The attacks against the Orthodox churches strike at this legacy, and at the very roots of the Serb presence in Kosovo.

Some of the churches have been looted and burned. Others, like the churches in Musutiste, have been demolished by explosives, suggesting to some that the motive is not simple revenge but a systematic effort to drive Serbs from Kosovo. The oldest and most prized Orthodox sites, celebrated for their old frescoes and impressive architecture, have been spared, largely because of NATO's protection.

"Thank God we have managed to preserve the most important ones," said Father Sava Janjic, a spokesman for the bishop of the Serb Orthodox Church in Kosovo. "But if it continues like this, I am afraid."

The destruction of religious monuments is nothing new in the Balkans. During the war in Bosnia, Serbs destroyed hundreds of mosques, often bulldozing the wreckage so that no trace of the building remained. The aim was not simply to drive away Bosnian Muslims, but to erase any reminder of their former presence. In Kosovo, the Serb forces had no time for such thorough destruction. Most, if not all, of the mosques can be repaired or rebuilt.

In Musutiste, the Albanian villagers were not greatly attached to their mosque. The imam complained that since villagers began returning in late June, no one had offered to help him clean it up. The explosion that toppled the minaret also brought down the roof. The place was a mess - roof beams lying akimbo, carpets moldering. But the attack angered the villagers nonetheless. Jetish Xhemajli, a 69-year-old shopkeeper, complained that ethnic Albanians had long tolerated Orthodox churches, even defended them. And now this.

"From 1941, when the Germans entered the village, we protected the church up there," he said, sitting in a shop that, like other buildings in the village, no longer has a roof. "My father protected that church so that no one would rob it."

Few Albanians regret the loss of these old Orthodox monuments. In their eyes, the churches and monasteries of Kosovo were less houses of worship or cultural monuments than instruments ofpolitical repression. Until recently, the Orthodox Church enjoyed friendly relations with the Serb regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. As the regime clamped down on Kosovo, turning the province into a police state, the church was busily building new churches and cathedrals - some of which have since been destroyed.

Ethnic Albanians also blame the church for the campaign of terror against them this spring. In Musutiste, villagers maintain that the church helped distribute guns to local Serbs. Albanians throughout Kosovo accuse the church of encouraging Serb nationalism and of making little protest when it turned violent.

"People think everything came from the church," said Sabri Bajgora, the assistant mufti of Kosovo. "The Serbian church never denounced what happened to the Albanians. They denounced three times the NATO bombing, but they never mentioned the exodus of a million people."

In Musutiste, retaliation against the church pretty much completed the destruction of the village. Along a narrow lane that leads south out of the village, old houses built of field stones and thick timbers have been reduced to charred rubble. The Church of the Holy Virgin is just one more ruin at the end of the road.

Some people in Musutiste are glad, Jetish Xhemajli said. Others have doubts. "It's not good for both sides," he said. "I mean, it's not good that the mosque was destroyed, and it's not good for the churches."

Re: SERBIA SEEKS AN EXIT FROM HISTORY

Mr. Cerovic is in desperate need of Prozac. His piece posted to the Kosovo Daily News wallows in defeatism and overflows with guilt and self-loathing. It is one man's bleak and depressing vision of the Serbian people committing national and cultural suicide in order to pass through some mythical portal and exit history so they can be like others in the European "cesspit" (his word)!

The reward for this exercise in self-destruction is, apparently, a giddy freedom from the chains of history and a new dawn where Serbs, like their European counterparts "may turn their attention to matters of lesser import, like their tax returns." (and let's not forget other matters of import in this brave new history-less world, like choosing the best laundry detergent, toothpaste, or shampoo. Gosh, Serbs will be so grateful and happy to have "freedom of choice" for the things that really matter! Hell, pretty soon they'll even forget who they are [or were] and they'll become indistinguishable from the rest of the masses of consumers on the planet.)

In Mr. Cerovic's nightmare, ALL Serbs are painted with the brush of guilt for the alleged misdeeds of their leaders and all blame for 10 years of war, destruction and the dismantelling of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is placed at the feet of that arch-demon, Milosevic. Not even a suggestion of the role in this process played by western governments, thier security apparatus, and their spy-ridden NGO lackys.

By following Mr. Cerovic's vision, Serbians will most certainly "see their land reduced to an anthropological display". Serbs will then be allowed to develop their crafts industries so they can pay those taxes by selling what's left of their culture to over-feed and ignorant tourists. How quaint! Pretty much like the rest of Europe.

Meanwhile, those worthy of dreams of History and Destiny shall rule the world as masters of that History, comfortable with the knowledge that their praetorian functionaries, journalists, and academicians guard the portals that keep a few in and the rest out! A perfectly ordered NWO, each nation in it's place serving the Master power.

=================

Arggggh, if that article wasn't so damn depressing I'd ROTFL! - especially the part about tax returns. What a weird witch's brew of part Catholic confessional, part neo-Marxist liberation. I'd love to see a Swiftian re-write of this piece. Anyone out there willing to give a try?

Maybe a TV show like "Mr. & Mrs. Serbia - This is Your Life!"

Or a quiz show called "Where's the Exit", or "Don't Slam the Door on Your Way Out", or "Which Door Hides the Prize? Is it door #1, door #2 or door #3?"

====================

OK, I feel better now. Thanks for letting me "share". <:')

tommygunns

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

ALBANIAN MAFIA TARGETS BRITAIN

Source: The Guardian (UK)

Author: Nick Hopkins, Crime Correspondent

Published: September 7, 1999

Heavily-armed gangs throw out Italian families to seize control of the criminal underworld in Milan

The Albanian mafia is targeting Britain in an effort to expand its European-wide illegal immigration, drug trafficking and arms dealing operations, security experts warned yesterday.

According to the national criminal intelligence service, heavily armed Albanian gangs have established footholds in Germany, Switzerland, Greece and Italy and in recent months there have been signs of "organised criminal activity" in Britain.

NCIS investigators said the power of the groups, which recently took control of the criminal underworld in Milan after a two-year power struggle, must not be underestimated.

"They threw out the Italian mafia families," said an NCIS source. "That is how violent they are." Ian Morrison, head of NCIS's south-east region, said many Albanians seeking asylum in Britain were criminals posing as refugees.

"There is evidence from customs and excise that this is happening. It stands to reason that some criminal groups will start to become established here. The same thing has happened in mainland Europe. The experience on the continent is that they are very aggressive. They present a serious and growing threat."

The Albanian mafia is regarded as the fastest growing in Europe.

It is thought to control many of the people-smuggling routes from east to west and has muscled in on the heroin trafficking trade run by Turkish mafias.

Like traditional Sicilian mafias, the Albanian organisations are built around families. Every mafia member observes the Besa - a strict oath of trust and loyalty.

Albanian gangs have been particularly active in Italy.

Earlier this year, Pier Luigi Vigna, Italy's senior mafia prosecutor, chaired a summit in Bari to discuss how to tackle a crime wave that included the reported smuggling of 10 containers of radioactive material for sale on the black market.

In November last year, police at Brindisi boarded a boat from Albania and seized four kilograms of liquid mercury which was being shipped to western Europe, probably for illegal weapons manufacture.

Albanian gangs are also thought to have taken control of prostitution, gambling and drug dealing along Italy's Adriatic coast.

The potential threat posed by the groups to Britain emerged yesterday when NCIS published its annual report.

John Abbott, the director general, said the trafficking of illegal immigrants into Britain was currently controlled by 50 gangs, who charged up to ?10,000 for each person.

Nearly all of the gangs were run by Britons.

He said many immigrants found themselves press-ganged into prostitution, forced labour or criminal activity, to pay for their travel.

"The last five years has seen a tremendous growth in illegal immigration, we see no reason to predict that
it is going to decrease," Mr Abbott said.

"The number of gangs involved in this kind of activity has increased enormously in the last two years."

A criminal intelligence service assessment of the level of organised crime in Britain has been compiled in a confidential report for police chiefs and the home office.

Mr Abbott refused to reveal details of the study, but said: "The threat is increasing and we need a robust response."

He added: "Serious and organised crime is becoming more international, faster moving and more sophisticated, and its effects are increasingly felt in every local community throughout the UK."

====================================================================================

London Telegraph

September 5, 1999

By Julius Strauss in Pristina

THE Albanian mafia, among Europe's most feared, is consolidating its grip on Kosovo, imposing taxes on lorries, taking over flats and houses, running drugs and targeting the burgeoning and well-financed aid community.

Taking full advantage of Kosovo's open border with Albania, the gangsters have swiftly filled the power vacuum left by Serb police and militia, setting up operations together with local criminals. Albania has long been an incubation house for organised crime. The north is controlled by rival heavily-armed gangs who operate out of village bases.

During the Nato air strikes they prospered by fleecing the huge number of international aid workers, journalists and government officials who moved into the area as Kosovar refugees fled over the border. Once Serb forces pulled out, the streets of Pristina and other large towns teemed with swarthy men in four-by-fours with number plates from Tirana and the gangster towns of Vlor? and Bajram Curri.

The mafia is thought to have made a huge profit taking over Serb flats, using ethnic retribution as a convenient cover. Soaring property prices have multiplied their gains. ... With most Serb flats now occupied and their contents looted, the organised criminals have begun to target ethnic Albanians and internationals. ...

The Albanian mafia is perhaps Europe's fastest growing. ... The mafias control many of the people-smuggling routes into Europe, as well as running drugs from Asia.

When war broke out between Nato and Yugoslavia in March, the Kosovo Liberation Army, which had always used Albania as a supply point, poured most of its resources into a cross-border campaign against the Serbs. Links between KLA elements and the Albanian mafia were strengthened, and there are reports that some KLA commanders promised gangsters concessions in a post-war Kosovo in exchange for guns. ...

The woeful inadequacy of the United Nations police force - now responsible for law and order in Pristina and set to take over other parts of the country - is apparent to even the casual observer. There is no system of fines or other effective deterrence. ...

These conditions provide the mafia with easy pickings. Near the Albanian border lorries have been made to pay "fines" to gunmen who melt away as soon as a Nato patrol approaches. Ethnic Albanians looking after Serb flats for their owners have been told to hand them over. One Kosovo Albanian student commented: "We didn't want to be in Serbia, but we certainly don't want to become part of Albania."