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2014 Sweden Same old, same old...

27/4/2014

The LIES and the demonization of the Serb people never ends. I wonder if even the Jews were persecuted this much by the Nazi`s during WW2.

In Sweden as in many other countries around the globe, the media mostly parrots news coming from Reuters, CNN, BBC and similar. Therefore it is no wonder that the main view in Sweden of the Balkan wars in the nineties is that of “Serbs=bad, Croats=Good, Ustasha=ok, Muslims=victims” and so on.

One of the biggest news paper in Sweden. Expressen, is running yet one more article of demonizing the Serbs and trying to shut down anyone who has an opposing view from that of the Main Stream Media. (Click HERE if you understand Swedish)

Or CLICK HERE for a good ENGLISH explenation of the Expressen article made by ECOPOLA

In Serbia in recent days people are being arrested for posting names on facebook of the greatest Serb haters. In Sweden it seem as running huge articles pointing out individuals who don’t believe in all lies that have been spread, is acceptable.

Individuals are being attacked and called “Genocide deniers” and the paper continues to quote the unproved mantra of 7-8000 massacred young men and boys in Srebrenica by the Serb Army. This paper obviously have no problems whatsoever publishing outright lies and claims such as someone says that he heard in some conversation that a brother of someone who was sitting in a meeting had a friend who visited his uncle who heard a neighbour talk with someobody about cleansing………Poof!!! PROOF “we have a witness”

There are people having been first hand witnesses in Bosnia who do not agree with the mainstream media versions, UN-staff, generals from a variety of countries, soldiers, generals from the Bosnian Muslim army, Muslim politicians, Police chiefs, first hand witnesses (civilians from Srebrenica), soldiers from the Srebrenica “break through” column, analysts, investigators, professors and organizations in Sweden as in many other countries, who have absolutely no connection what so ever to Serbs and/or Serbia. Yet, all these are put together in one box and labeled “genocide deniers”

In the newspaper Expressen in Sweden, the organization Justitia Pax Veritas is under heavy attack simply because they dare to question and correct the lies of an employee in the Swedish government, Jasenko Selimovic. This government official is using his influence to continue the demonization of Serbia and the Serb people and to promote the Bosnian Muslim internal politics of Bosnia and Hercegovina.

The very few times when Justitia Pax Veritas have had a chance to reply to some of the many articles published by Jasenko Selimovic. This government official is exposed as the ridiculous and poorly fact equipped propaganda spritzer that he really is. However, this does not stop this irritating individual to continue and also step up the attacks on Serbia and Serbs.

Maybe its time to start and sue every single media who continues to spread false facts.

The “7-8000 massacred young men and boys in Srebrenica by the Serb Army” is one such false fact.

There is simply NO evidence backing up this claim, which is originally made by the Hollywood of wars, the white house in Washington during the Clinton administration. And it has been parroted, copied and pasted by both sleezy and lazy journalists from all over the world ever since. It is especially promoted and financed by the Muslim organizations and countries.

To refer to a judgment made in something we all pretend to be a 'court' which does not use the law from a legit judicial system, but only judging according to political motives issued by war criminals in NATO countries, is not facts or evidence. And even this lynching organization, the farse calling itself a "court", finds it difficult to collect enough body parts for sewing together the ordered version of Srebrenica. Jasenko Selimovic and disgusting lie and hate spreading media can shout all they want, that does not change the FACTS. and the FACT is that NO ONE has been able to PROVE that genocide or anything close to the version that Bill Clinton has ordered has been committed.

ALL Serbs around the world are convinced that war crimes have been committed in the bloody civil war, and it must be condemned, but it must be condemned irrespective of ethnicity of the perpetrator. Maybe we should start determine once and for all who committed CRIMES AGAINST THE PEACE and perhaps begin to spread in the world media about the logic, the TRUTH that everything that happened AFTER this crime against the peace is a consequence of that CRIME.

It's fine if I go to prison for defending myself against someone trying to kill me, by neutralizing the killer. But, it's NOT ok to completely IGNORE THE CRIME that caused my reaction.

No Serb wants to defend war crimes, but all Serbs are FORCED to fight off LIES coming from those who have directed, organized and carried out a massacre of a peaceful population in a country that has never been a threat to their environment, those who have robbed an entire population of its assets, those who today arrogantly laugh at ignorant people who buy all the tales of Serbs bestiality and guilt in everything that happens on this planet. "THOSE" who with the help of your and my tax money, have looted, murdered and destroyed Europe's ONLY truly multi-ethnic country, YUGOSLAVIA.

Nothing and absolutely NOTHING of all of this would have happened if "THEY" had not put their nose and interfere where their nose does not belong. And above all, NO and ABSOLUTELY NO BLOOD would have been spilled if Lynch-makers in media such as The New York Times, CNN, BBC and also EXPRESSEN and a whole bunch of others had indulged in journalism and not demonization of nations and satisfaction of their personal bloodthirsty dreams.

Den Galna Serben

Ref:

Related….

Every head of Albanian family had an order to kill 3 Serb fathers

18/4/2014

The book of Italian journalists Giuseppe Ciulla and Vittorio Romano "Wolves in the fog" documents the role of the UN, the EU and the U.S. in creating a criminal state in the heart of the Balkans and the setting of terrorists and criminals in the leading position of the state administration.

Translated from Italian to Serbian by someone and then its translated from Serbian to English by me, Den Galna Serben from this site: web-tribune.com

Mafia loves fog, as do wolves. These are the words of a police officer in Kosovo and represent a synthesis of reality in which the self-proclaimed state for more than ten years of administration by the UN did not bring either prosperity, judiciary or justice, but only misery and rising crime rates. In Kosovo, in the name of "stability in the Balkans" the ruling class is legitimized and double-knot tied with the Mafia.

Journalists Giuseppe Ciulla and Vittorio Romano, very conscientiously and meticulously examined the phenomenon of Kosovo "and published their observations in a book titled" Wolves in the mist "(" Kosovo: UN hostage to the mafia and the United States ").In it is drawn the balance sheet of international governance in the territory: blocking the process for people who have committed a war crime; sloppy conduct of investigations into the highest political leaders of Kosovo, mainly commanders of former KLA; mysterious disappearance of evidence on the way between the UN and the EU; Reports by OSCE observers who reported sluggishness of the UN, which are collecting dust in some dark corner of bureaucracy; The responsibility of the United States for what is happening on the field.

MAFIA STATE

The territory of Kosovo is the size of the region of Abruzzo, with 14,000 NATO troops it should be one of the safest places in the world. However, according to prosecutors, it is the most important traffic hinge for arms, drugs, human organs, and people in general towards the West. Why is it, ask the authors of the book, that truck loads are not controlled at the borders? And they conclude that: in the heart of the Balkans, which goes towards Europe, there is a self-proclaimed mafia state which takes us into a new Cold War.

And that it is a territory that was handed over to the mob is confirmed by numerous reports obtained by the authors (in the book dozens of faksimiles are published); this is said by prosecutors, people in the secret service, even KFOR troops talks about it in the NATO mission, where they are forced to turn a blind eye to the smuggling of drugs, weapons and human beings. The top of the criminal organizations coincides with the top of the political parties, not coincidentally made up of former members of the KLA. Thus, they have the political and economic power. They are the ones under investigation for bestial war crimes and the traffic of any type of drugs in this corner of the Balkans. The book contains documents that testify that the UN which administer Kosovo for more than ten years are blocking investigations against these individuals. Why?

Who will answer the question how is it possible that the UN mission UNMIK, spent wagons of money to create a modern state, the European mission EULEX created conditions for the rule of law, and that the NATO through the KFOR mission installed an army sufficient to confront the mafia of half of Europe - and that in spite of all this, Kosovo is a "mafia state", which, in addition to that also counting on joining the EU.

Italian police officer who has completed a mission to the UN talks about how he is disappointed of that organization. Answers the question of why Kosovo is a mafia state.

"We had 300 hours of material in which a wiretap of Hashim Thaci is recorded. These recordings ended up in a box in a Washington basement. No one can charge and judge him anymore. Is that enough for you? So the UN is protecting him. And not just him. They block processes, slowing down investigations, hiding evidence of the involvement of local politicians with organized crime. And every time we start an investigation into one of the top local politicians, an order arrives: STOP ".

Truth is learned on the streets, in the silence, or the whispers of international functionaries at dinner. Is there any evidence to what you are talking about, ask the authors. There are many. "After six months of being here I called the boss and told him: we were wrong in everything. These are criminals." Who are criminals? "We, Italy, NATO countries. We were wrong, we bombed the Serbs thinking that Albanians are the victims. And then UN took it into their own hands and turned all this into a mafia state. We bombed the wrong side."

What does Kosovo look like today? Pristina, one of the best restaurants, a few meters from the seat of the prosecution, luxury, Neapolitan music, girls who accompany American officials, cosmopolitan hubbub, Americans have the night off, the Neapolitans in branded clothes, drunk French officials.

Such an image of Kosovo is itself an answer to numerous questions made by the authors of the book. On the streets we are counting Lambourghinis, Ferraris, Mercedes, luxury SUVs. Whose are they? sons of big mafia bosses drive those cars, says the KFOR captain, although the roads are poor whith often run faeces and no light. Forty percent of the population lives with less than 70 euros per month, and 15 percent are extremely poor.

In the streets of Decani, former KLA commander Abdul Mushkolaj can be seen. Accompanied with the thirty most faithful, he became a national hero, was indicted by the Tribunal in The Hague for committed criminal acts. He was acquitted of all charges on 3 April 2008, a number of witnesses against him are killed, or died in the process under mysterious circumstances. In his office, even now is the flag of the KLA and a big picture of Ramush Haradinaj in a military uniform. And a huge photo of Haradinaj's brother Adrian, who died on May 6 in 1997 on the border with Albania. Abdul does not recognize the present, for him, all the international organizations that govern Kosovo and the EU are working on bringing a trap. According to him, the war is always there, just around the corner.

"Our job is not finished, my men and I are ready to fight at any moment. This time, the war would not be within Kosovo. We will be a country that fights against another country. But the UN needs to go. We also do not need the European mission. We need only KFOR soldiers, and the rest should go home, " he concludes pointedly. At the conclusion of journalists that the Albanians continued to drop bombs on the Serbian enclave after the end of the war, he replies that it's just propaganda, and the conclusion that Albanians attacked Orthodox Churches in 2004, he confirmed that he had been arrested in relation to that, released a month later, but makes the following claim:

"Now no one will attack our monasteries. "Yes, he literally pronounced "OUR" monasteries, the authors emphasize. Abdul concludes:

"I have visited many holy places in Europe, but none is surrounded by soldiers, our monasteries look like prisons."

Can the Serbs remain in Kosovo ask the authors of the book "Wolves in the fog?" followed by a choral response of former KLA members, "Only those who have not soiled their hands with our blood, and only those who recognize the independence of our country. Otherwise a new war could erupt. In northern Mitrovica this could happen at any moment, "they warn.

ORIENTAL EUROPE

Every neighborhood and every street of Pristina shows Balkan indecision. Looking to the East and the West, losing its own identity, robs it. The statue in bronze of Bill Clinton which the former U.S. President personally opened, the man who inspired the armed NATO intervention against Serbia, who is considered the founding father of the new country, a national hero. In The National Museum of Kosovo, the most valuable and best-known object is the uniform of General Wesley Clark, The NATO commander during the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.

Pristina is different from all other cities. The self-proclaimed Kosovo's capital, there are few Albanian flags, eyecatching are mainly the light blue ones, with 6 stars. Girls in the city center walk in mini-skirts. "Europeanize is, for us young people a way to forget war," they conclude. In the center is not much of Islam but in the outskirts is therefore a market for it, but everything else is reminiscent of the Orient.

Only 100 meters away, as if you are in Europe, America, or elsewhere in the West. Thousands of international officials living in Pristina. An economic rather than a social microcosm. It is a nation that consumes, accustomed to the European budget. Kosovo is a paradise for merchants, entire neighborhoods are in their hands. In four blocks are all the major international institutions concentrated for ten years looking for how to bring Kosovo out of the morass in which it ended up after the war.

Prosecutors' offices, the headquarters of the OSCE, courts and police are neuralgic points of the city. They know the secrets and lies of ten years of international administration. For many officials they were the springboard for a career millionaire. And everything is new in Pristina, the only trace of the past is the statue of Skenderbeg, the national hero of Albania. How far from all this are the Kosovo villages, Mitrovica or Peja. There traditions are jealously guarded.

With what luggage does Kosovo aspire to cross the road to Europe. Italian Ambassador Michael Giffoni said that "Kosovo looks primarily to the United States. The problem is that there is no serious and true model that could be relied upon, there is no relationship with the Albanian model, there is no Kosovo model, the Yugoslav model is lost. Taking the worst from America, bad taste architecture, fast food, hamburger, the rest is stolen from Europe, they copy but mainly all that is bad. And the elite that is leading the country does not have any education. "UN and Europe are therefore a hanger on which Kosovo is attached".

Donor's Conference of European countries funding Kosovo allocated for the period 2007 till 2011. 500 million euros for this self-proclaimed state. And from the end of the war (1999) to the independence of Kosovo, the UN has spent 33 billion euros; record figures. Mountain of money for a country that has two million inhabitants.

Why is Kosovo so important to Europe and the United States, asks the authors of the book. The chorus of the Italian ambassador is "stability of the Balkans"; He added: "This is an area that can not be kept out of the process of European integration." There are no international officials who did not repeat the same refrain. But they do not hear the voices of many young Albanians: "The truth is that we do have in power a mafia, but we like the mafia more than the dominance of the Serbs."

They're the lesser evil. We do not know what dominance they are talking about, and their guarantee, as often heard, is the easternmost U.S. base, because "while we have Bondsteel no one can attack us." And what about those few Serbs that live in enclaves? How does Serbia think to embrace Europe without resolving the problem of the Serbian enclaves? How and who can give an answer to this question?

About the "yellow house" and that the Serbs were kidnapped and taken to Albania and killed getting their organs, so many pages were written, but for the international institutions to begin investigation into the traffic in human organs in Kosovo 2008, it was needed at the airport in Pristina to deny the Turk, who came in person to the clinic "Medicus" to sell his kidney for 2,000 euros. Thats why the investigation that a forensic doctor conducted at its request in Albania, and his entire work located on a CD for years have been in the hands of UN prosecutors, and when everything passed into the hands of European Prosecutors in 2008- the material was most likely destroyed.

Serbian secret service informed of the existence of the CD. So, this kind of criminal activity continued for ten years, first in a time of war, and then in full swing during activities of the UN and its management of Kosovo. In the book a published document clearly shows on the request of UNMIK and the recommendations sent to the UN to continue the investigation allready in 2005, on this and some other clinics that were seeking a large amount of blood, but that the request is obviously hampered by the UN.

SNAKE IN THE PARLIAMENT

"Snake in the Parliament" is a section of the book with frightening image of the power which criminals, former KLA leaders, who came to the top of government, and who gave the orders for the implementation of the horrific torture of Albanians. Rooms for torture were created by order of Latif Gashi. But it was by decision of the UN "sensitive cases", and thus decisions were arriving only from UN about what to do. Italian Francesco Florit, Judge of the European mission was supposed to judge the snake in the Parliament, the former head of "Ljapi group," a special unit of the KLA secret service, which opened between August 1998, And June 1999. near Podujevo five centers for prisoners, places for torture and most of all for death, and all this at the order of Hashim Thaci. Gashi was commander and personally attended the torture and execution of some of the murders.

Who were the Albanian prisoners? Civilians who had to falsely testify that they were Serb associates and are not sufficiently loyal to the KLA. During the trial Gashi Rustem Mustafa and others from the group denied any involvement. Gashi is arrested on 28 January 2002, Mustafa in August of the same year, protests starts in Pristina and Podujevo in solidarity with those arrested, according to the Secretary General of Thaci's party Jakup Krasniqi "charges against them are a threat against the values of the Albanian fighters for the liberation of Kosovo."

In Kosovo, anything is possible, even threat and execution of witnesses before they appear in court. Investigation follows, judgment which in 2005 is canceled by the Supreme Court, explains the Italian judge. Meanwhile Gashi becoming a parliamentarian, a man very close to Thaci, and judges in UN who are supposed to re-open the process inexplicably have not moved a finger.

It was a hot potato, or as defined by the United Nations, one of those "sensitive cases". Local judges are not able to deal with the pressures of organized mafia, or those from the political leadership. And psychological pressure already functions. On the second of October 2009. District Court of Pristina, where the Italian judge Florit is a member, sentenced Gashi to six years in prison, and Mustafa to four years. And for all the members of the Ljapi group there is an indictment for murder. A rare case. The issue of judicial honor.

But such was not the case with the mayor of Skenderaj. Sami Lushtaku, former KLA fighter, A Thaci man, grabbing the throat of Judge Sami Gerdovcija who need to empty the apartments in the center of Pristina, belonging to Serbs and are illegally occupied by Albanians. He was personally interested in these flats. Mayor threatens to murder the judge in front of the police, which does not respond while the judge calls the President of the Municipal Court, and tells him what's going on in the street, and that same president warns: "Leave everything and go."

That's how the judiciary in Kosovo works in 2005. And OSCE persistently writes reports that Lushtaku is commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, but no use. A man who knows that his phone is tapped threatens a judge, because he knows that he is protected, and in the process, none of the police officers did say what he saw, which he attended; Fear is dominant, although their task was to protect the judge.

All questions and answers are clear to everyone, they are in the relationship between local political authorities and UN officials who together ruled Kosovo until the European mission joined. The answers are also in the inactivity of KFOR and, as evidenced by an Italian carabinieri, "They keep us here to control that there are no conflicts of Serbs and Albanians. And so little effort is needed for us to figure out where the weapons are. It would be enough with an order to search the valley, for half the morning there would be no more guns. "But no one gives the orders.

Bondsteel

The most secret place in Europe

Did you hear of any court having a secret registry which is marked "sensitive investigation"? Who are the figures in such registry? Stephen Cook, a former U.S. general, with long experience in the Balkans, is retired 2005, and in the following year, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed him as his Special Representative for Kosovo. A year later he is questioned "because of his aggressive behavior, poor professionalism and the closeness to the then Minister for Energy Ethem Ceku." In 2007 UN does not renew contract with him, but still 2008 any blame towards him is removed because of "lack of evidence". Stephen Cook is now advisor to Ramush Haradinaj.

In 2006 he is a strong figure in Kosovo, convened UN prosecutors and judges and tells them that "from now onwards all investigative actions by certain persons whose outcome may somehow destabilize Kosovo have to be granted by me personally." Some judges protested, but his word is law, above the law of courts.

On each case he adopts another measure, orders police officials of UN to put on their desk the results of investigations relating to crimes of a financial nature, involving figures from the top of Kosovo's communities with the intent to authenticate it before moving into the hands of competent prosecutors. Absolute control.

All these details are recorded in the report of the OSCE. In vain. The result of this control is also the judgment of Lushtaku of only four months prison, which was never realized because no local judge was ready to implement it. So the same man is for the UN, "one person in the top of power who needs to be drawn out," and for the OSCE a "terrorist."

Kosovo is highly illustrated also in chapters of the book "Hitman under the protection of the UN." The emphasis in this section is placed on Ramush Haradinaj and the famous massacre in his directing (7 June 2000, Strelce) when he was wounded and transferred to a U.S. military hospital at Camp Bondsteel, "most secret mysterious place in Europe," which is not on any map, and which can not be approached without permission in a radious of five kilometers. Americans saved his life without asking him about the 6,000 missiles fired that night. They only worried about saving him and as soon as possible have him up on his feet for new political adventures.

In Pec, then begins the process-farce of UN administration. The evidence against him was overwhelming, but witnesses, one after another, losing their head, a main opponent Tahir Zemaj (Chief of Brigade Merđimi) and his son are slain in Peja with 60 shots. Who ever try to resist Ramush Haradinaj - dies. As the investigation progressed, the UN gets more precise information on the assassins in Kosovo, but sabotage the process, lets witness after witness lose their head, knowing that the former KLA terrorists become elected political interlocutors who was awarded the role to "keep the peace in the heart of the Balkans."

Personal bodyguard of Ramush Haradinaj, Bedri Krasniqi, an extremist, a paid assassin, who dreams of the unification of all Albanian people. Receives the task to kill Sebahate Tolaj and Isuf Haklaj, former members of the Merđimi brigade, who joined the Kosovo police and began an investigation into the killing of their former Chief Zemaj. On September 19, 2007 Bedri is sentenced by the UN court to 27 years in prison.

No judge in the world would be able to release him. But only in Kosovo administered by the UN administration, the killer, sentenced to 27 years would be out after serving only 13 months. November 2008 his cell is opened and he comes out in full splendor and luxury suit at the main entrance. Bedri is free because Bedri's bodyguard of Ramush Haradinaj.

This clip of Kosovo reality deserves one more explanation in response to who is to blame for the creation of a gangster state in the Balkans. Two killed policemen - Sebahate and Isuf - were involved in drug trafficking, and Ramush Haradinaj wants to secure one hundred percent control in the traffic of heroin in Kosovo. So, pampered by the United States, protected by UN, guarded by NATO, he has a monopoly on heroin.

The authors were in possession of documents which results in that the secret service and the UN top were very familiar with crimes by Haradinaj and decided to ignore it. And what does EU know? What do the judges and the police know, who in December 2008, received the mandate from the Council of Europe for combating organized crime in Kosovo? There is no doubt that a trail of blood in the enumerated crimes and murders originates from Haradinaj, but he does not go to court.

EVERYBODY OUT

In the Court in Decani no one goes through a single page for seven long years, everything remains motionless until one morning March 2009.. EULEX is formally tasked to "monitor, teach, and suggests" in Kosovo. International judges are smiling, there are 1,900 of them (including police officers) who have exclusive jurisdiction in five sectors: organized crime, terrorism, financial investigations, multi-ethnic and corruption offenses.

In short, the hunt for big fish and a role to stop the traffic of Afghan heroin refining in Kosovo and distributed via Austria and Italy to the rest of European soil. EULEX Chief of Justice , Alberto Perduca explains that the UN December 2008, have surrendered only 35 open cases to EU officials on which they are supposed to "understand the full criminal issue of Kosovo." Looking through the cases, among those files there is no one by the name Ramush Haradinaj.

Archived cases are sealed in boxes and sent to New York, and a copy ended up on the first floor of the office building of public prosecutors in Pristina. These folders are not taken into consideration by European officials because they are "closed cases". In March 2009 one EULEX official begins to examine the "closed cases" and finds the case of Ramush Haradinaj closed by the UN and in that way being guaranteed impunity. Is it too late?

"Yes, because in July 2010 the statute of limitations on crimes that he has committed expires - technically there is no time to start a new process. During the research of case files, conclusion is reached that for many cases that have complete documentation there is no time because they are not registered in the office of public prosecutions. Italian Francesco Mandoi (EULEX) said that UN police has developed a great ability to investigate and come to a very good knowledge of crimes in Kosovo. Public prosecutors conducted very articulate numerous investigations, and after that there was no process, and are not followed by arrests. Why? You'd have to ask our colleagues from the United Nations. On the question why it is like that, even the author of militant Movement for Self-Determination Albin Kurti gives an answer by the following incident(23 avgust 2009. some twenty EULEX jeeps overturned by members of the Movement, with shouts of "Go home," "UN get out", "EU Out" "everybody out").

"EULEX is as UNMIK useless and harmful. You want to know why neither of them are able to arrest the real criminals in Kosovo. The answer is simple, because then all the main leaders of Kosovo would be in jail, the former KLA guerrillas, the same ones that UN has entrusted to govern the country. How can you arrest your partners. This mission is a farce, "concludes Kurti.

And so the international community with one hand wants to guarantee the stability of the Balkans, and therefore enter into agreements with the leaders of the KLA who controll the territory, and with the other to impose law and justice. That's why It sends 1,900 judges and police officers to arrest the criminals and speculators, leaders of the KLA. Can there be stability without justice? And how will it be achieved now when UN for ten years of rule were the ones choosing which process their prosecutors woulld take care of, and which to leave for the Kosovo counterparts.

MITROVICA IN CHAOS

A tragic reminder of the "Wolves in the fog" and researchers in the field, Giuseppe Culi and Vitorio Romano is collected in a sketching of Mitrovica in the north and the south. What the UN kept secret was operational plans found in the Albanian houses (before they burned down in 1999): Kill the Serb neighbors on a specific signal from Pristina. Each head of the Albanian families had orders to kill three Serbian fathers during the same night. The papers with these plans were destroyed, there is no process, but a UN investigator who examined the case, confirmed the course of events: "The Albanians have using gold, bought the homes in the Brdjana valley, settled down, spread out and through the years Serbs had become a minority; everything with legal methods. It was only the first step. There are plans for 'state of emergency' for definitive expulsion and physical elimination of all Serbs in Northern Mitrovica. Always functions like this: at first there is some sort of a pressure, strong but legal, then comes real ethnic cleansing. They tried 2008 but we stopped them."

November 2008, UN investigators have noticed that something is not right in Brdjani: Minister for Refugees granted nine Albanian families in three years to return to the valley. For the reconstruction is being earmarked millions of euros. The money goes through NGO and ends up in private accounts of three local politicians and "all just one month before the end of the UN mission," said this investigator, and adds:

"And at that moment, we discover the washing cycle of mafia money run by Albanian politicians over the reconstruction of houses in Brdjani. A very complicated investigation that we had to do and hand over in thirty days to new European officials."

UN Administration blocks work and one Serbian official has, in the name of Belgrade, offered the figure of one million euros for the purchase of Albanian houses that were burnt down in 1999. One million euros for muddy ground and four burnt stones in the most vandalized place in the Balkans, an opportunity to quickly be embraced you might think. But Albanian families say thank you but no thank you to the offer: "Do you think it's a heroic act," said an investigator. "From the wiretapped telephone conversations can be heard threats that came directly from Pristina. The command was: stand or die."

A month after the self-proclaimed independence of Kosovo another project for the reconstruction of Albanian homes in Brdjani is presented: hundreds of houses on two floors should occupy the entire valley surrounding the Serb houses. This plan encouraged revolt. The international administration observes that and suggests an agreement: Albanians and Serbs were allowed to each build five houses. The plan is unsustainable.

"I did not understand her then I do not understand her now, but I have only one doubt: Mitrovica has to remain in chaos. Deep in the fog ", believes the man from UN.

The only ones running freely in Kosovo are those without registration plates: speculators. Its a shame, that neither of the two international missions (EU and UN) who overlap in Kosovo does not have sufficient authority to re-establish the rule of law. If there is one thing that is common to both sides of the bridge over the Ibar River, it will be the inscriptions against international organizations: EULEX, UNMIK go home. The government in Belgrade plays a double game, says Marko Jaksic from the shadow cabinet of Serbs in northern Mitrovica, "In public Belgrade vowed to never leave Mitrovica but on the field, de facto, preferences are different. Not surprising, because this government is very strongly pressured by the United States and England."

And Kosovo is, as is clear to all for ten years, in the hands of bandits. And it has been donated to them by us. The bandits are armed, funded and trained by the West, the Italian authors conclude. It is enough to understand the moment of transition from UN to EU and disclosure of scandals: the cases are closed, archived and forgotten. And to understand the fundamental rationale of this international disability, one should start with those that have achieved the greatest benefit from the Kosovo war: the United States.

Milica Ostojić

Translated from Serbian to English by Den Galna Serben from: Web-tribune.com

More reading:

2014 Bosnia Donji Vakuf 7 corpses found

17/4/2014

Donji Vakuf, Bosna & Hercegovina April 15, 2014 (Den Galna Serben)

In operation Maestral, NATO starts heavy bombardment of Serb positions, mostly around Sarajevo. Izetbegovic Muslim forces and Tudjmans HVO forces from Croatia use this advantage and starts a coordinated attack on Serb populated places in Western Bosnia & Hercegovina.

The propaganda trigger used for this action was the Massacre in the Sarajevo Markale market on Aug 28, 1995.

The Joint NATO, The Muslim Army and Croatian HVO army occupies large areas in Western Bosnia including places such as: Drvar, Sipovo, Jajce, Bosanski Petrovac, Bosanska Krupa, Kljuc and Donji Vakuf just to name a few..

The operation Maestral offensive lasted between September 8 and September 17, 1995.

The so called International community had no problem with Croatia sending its troops to Bosnia and in a joint operation together with NATO and the Muslim Army, cleanse all the areas in Western Bosnia of its Serb population.

September 13 Donji Vakuf Serb population reach an agreement with the Muslim forces which will allow the civilians to be evacuated from Donji Vakuf. The evacuation is almost carried out but the Muslims decides to NOT allow all vehicles to leave. At least one bus filled with civilians including women and children is shot at and burned before it managed to leave the city...

In Donji Vakuf area, Bosnia and Hercegovina this year 2014, on the site of the Orthodox cemetery near local hospital, seven total human corpses were exhumed. They are presumed to be the remains of Serbs killed in 1995. says spokesperson for the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina Lejla Cengic.

The remains contain bones of five men and two women. Bone samples for DNA analysis were taken on site and remains were returned to the same burial sites from which they were exhumed. They will remain there until the final determination of identity.

Cengic stressed that the exhumations at the site of the Orthodox cemetery in Donji Vakuf will be continued tomorrow.

Examination of places where Serbs are believed to be buried, does not seem to be of any priority to the Bosnia & Hercegovina authorities since there still are some 700 known places which are still NOT checked after all these years.

Source….

2014 Kosovo KLA Crimes!

15/4/2014

Photo Tanjug/S. Radovanovic (archive)

4/15/2014 3:02:00 PM

Williamson has large dossier on KLA crimes

PRISTINA - Clint Williamson, the head of Eulex's special investigation team, has a large dossier on crimes committed by the former "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA) and is expected to hand it over to the judges of a special court that will look into the findings of the former Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty, the Pristina-based Express daily has reported.

The US prosecutor's dossier contains the names of 120 former leaders of the KLA (an ethnic Albanian paramilitary formation), who are expected to be charged in connection with the disappearance of 320 Serbs in the Orahovac and Drenica areas and the Metohija region, the paper's sources said.

Express reported that all suspects are expected to be arrested once the legal conditions for establishing the tribunal have been met.

Most of the names are those of wartime commanders of the KLA from Drenica and Metohija, but the dossier also includes people who operated in northern Albania, near Kosovo, the Pristina paper reported on Monday.

For almost four years now, Williamson's team has been investigating the allegations from Marty's report, which describes crimes by the self-styled KLA against Serbs, Roma and "disloyal" ethnic Albanians after the withdrawal of Serbian military and police forces from Kosovo in 1999.

Allegations of an organ harvesting operation run in the so-called Yellow House, some 20 km from Burrel, central Albania, sparked the most attention. The organs were allegedly extracted from kidnapped civilians and subsequently sold on the black market.

In an interview with the Radio Television of Kosovo, Eulex mission head Bernd Borchardt said yesterday that forming a special court to investigate war crimes is a necessity because it must be established whether the court can dismiss or uphold Dick Marty's allegations of organs having been extracted from Serb civilians for trafficking.

Setting up the court would demonstrate that Kosovo and its leadership are not afraid of such a court, which would also contribute to positive signals from the EU, he said.

The move is not targeting individual KLA commanders, but persons suspected of specific acts, Borchardt said.

Source: TANJUG

2014 Croatia War On Cyrillic

13/4/2014

3/21/2014 7:00:00 PM

Milanovic: Referendum on Cyrillic a disgrace

BRUSSELS/ZAGREB - Croatia's Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said on Friday that the Croatian parliament (Sabor) should make a decision on the initiative to call a referendum on the use of the Serbian Cyrillic script in this country.

"I think that this referendum is a disgrace. The same opinion was voiced here in the European Union, that is, in the European Parliament, when the initiative by Biljana Borzan (a Croatian member of the European Parliament) was even supported by several prominent representatives of the National Democratic Party of Germany", said Milanovic.

“This was a clear message to their friends in Croatia about the European values and about barbaric behavior,” Milanovic stressed in a statement reported by the Zagreb-based daily Vecernji list.

Members of the European Parliament wrote a letter to the Croatian public last month, warning that the campaign against the use of the Cyrillic alphabet in Croatia is "absurd and, above all, dangerous for Croatia and the EU."

"We want to send a strong message to the Croatian public, organizers and supporters of this unjust and dangerous initiative," said the signatories of the letter - 74 MEPs from 19 countries.

The anti-Cyrillic campaign has been led in Croatia since September last year, with the opponents of the official use of the Cyrillic script damaging bilingual signs on public institution buildings in cities where the Serbs make up more than one-third of the population.

Spearheading the campaign are the war veterans in Vukovar who launched an initiative to call a referendum on the use of the Serbian language and script, which was supported by 700,000 people across Croatia.

They demand a change to the Constitutional Law, which currently allows members of the national minorities to use their own language and script in municipalities and cities where they account for more than 30 percent of the population.

The opponents of the use of the Serbian language and script in Croatia demand that this baseline be increased to 50 percent.
The initiative to call a referendum and obtain the opinion of citizens on the use of the Cyrillic script in municipalities and cities where the Serbs make up a majority of the population has been submitted to Sabor, but a debate on this issue has not been held yet.

Cyrillic plate daubed in Pula
PULA - A Cyrillic plate on the Serb Minority Council building in the Croatian town of Pula was daubed with spray paint on Orthodox Christmas Eve, Croatian media have reported.

The police, who are looking for the perpetrators, established that the act was committed between 5 pm on January 6 and 12.40 am on January 7, when a police officer on duty in the area noticed that the Cyrillic plate on the building of the Serb Minority Council was daubed, the Hina news agency reported.

Criminal damage charges have been filed with the state prosecutor's office against the unknown perpetrators, Natasa Vitasovic, the spokeswoman of the police administration of the Istrian region, told the agency on Tuesday.

This is the first such incident in Istria, the agency said.

Zagreb 2013
Letter to Pope on ban on official use of Cyrillic in Croatia

ZAGREB - Representatives of the non-governmental sector in Croatia addressed a letter to Pope Francis, voicing concern about the stances of Cardinal Josip Bozanic and several bishops concerning the bilingual signs in Vukovar, Croatian media reported.

In the letter to the head of the Roman Catholic Church, NGOs underline that Cardinal Bozanic and several bishops publicly demonstrated their opposition to bilingualism in Vukovar, using certain phrases in their public statements that in no way contribute to peace and reconciliation, but rather lead to further deepening of conflicts.

Representatives of the civic sector called on the Pope to send a message of Christian hope and peace to the Croatian society, bishops in particular.

Marina Skrabalo, a senior consultant at the Gong association, explained the motivation behind the letter, saying that NGOs noted that messages of hate and acts of violence against Serbs in Croatia have been occurring more and more frequently, and stressed that no initiative for reconciliation and dialogue came from church circles.

Since September, war veterans in Vukovar have led a campaign against the installment of bilingual signs, to which Serbs are entitled under the Law on the Protection of Minority Rights that guarantees this to a minority that makes up over 30 percent of a town's population.

War veterans and their Headquarters for the Defense of Croatian Vukovar are fiercely opposing the official use of the Serb, Cyrillic script, so they and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) launched an initiative and managed to change the town's charter, so the Cyrillic script was declared non grata.

Serbs in Vukovar turned to the Constitutional Court, asking for protection from such a decision, as the 2011 census showed that citizens of Serb nationality account for over 35 percent of the town's population.

Bosa Prodanovic, charge d' affaires at the Serbian Embassy in Zagreb, voiced a strong protest to Croatia's Assistant Foreign Minister Zeljko Kupresak on Friday, November 15, over more frequent incidents targeting Serbia and Serbs in Croatia.

It has been made clear to the Croatian side that the latest attacks on the Serbian Consulate-General in Rijeka, the posting of an anti-Serb placard titled “the Serb family tree” showing hanged Serbs, graffiti on Serb houses that call on Serbs to leave Croatia, and the overall anti-Serb campaign over the installment of bilateral signs in Vukovar are unacceptable and give cause for concern, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a release.

These incidents and hate speech against the Serb community in Croatia are, unfortunately, the most evident illustration of difficult conditions in which Serbs in Croatia live, the release reads.

11/5/2013 1:34:00 PM
Bilingual plate removed in Varazdin, no Cyrillics in Vukovar VARAZDIN - The bilingual plate set up on the building of the Council of the Serbian National Minority in Varazdin has been removed.

The plate in the Latin and Cyrillic scripts was taken off by an unidentified person on Sunday afternoon, confirmed Varazdin police spokesperson Marina Kolaric.

Mile Sekulic, President of the Council of the Serbian National Minority, told Hina that the Council was appalled by this event. He stressed that although the Croats constitute 98 percent of the population in Varazdin, it has always been considered an open and multethnic community.

About 380 members of the Serb national minority live in Varazdin.
A bilingual plate was also removed from the Serbian National Minority Council building in Osijek ten days ago, but it was reinstated soon after.

Forced removal of bilingual plates started in Vukovar in early September, immediately after they were placed, when the Headquarters for the Defense of Croatian Vukovar staged protests. The removal of plates continued, and the police kept putting them back.

In the meantime, the opponents of the Cyrillic script organized talks with Croatia's Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, but no agreement was reached.

The Headquarters demanded that Vukovar be exempt from the implementation of the Law on National Minority Rights and declared a place of special reverence, while Milanovic and his cabinet insisted on implementation of the law according to which the Serbs are entitled to public use of the Cyrillic script, as they constitute more than 30 percent of the city's population.

The Headquarters succeeded in its intention on Monday, when the Vukovar City Council accepted amendments to the Statute declaring the city area as a “place of special reverence for sacrifices in the Homeland War“, reaffirming Croatian as the official language and Latin as the official script in Vukovar.

Changes to the Statute were brought about by votes of council members from the ranks of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starcevic (HSPAS), and one independent council member.

9/9/2013 3:35:00 PM
EU will not interfere in conflict in Vukovar
BRUSSELS - The EU has no intention of interfering in the conflict concerning Cyrillic plates in Vukovar, eastern Croatia, which is home to a considerable Serb population, spokesman of the European Directorate for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Dennis Abbott told Tanjug on Monday.

When asked to comment on the situation in Vukovar where protesters are preventing the installation of plates with Latin and Cyrillic scripts as envisaged in the law, Abbott recalled that respect for cultural diversity and rights of minorities is built in the fundamental documents of the EU, but member countries hold jurisdiction over the matter.

Abbott compared the situation in Vukovar to the linguistic conflict between Flanders and Walloonia, which has been burdening Belgium for quite a while.

It would not be good for Belgium to interfere in the conflicts in Belgium and it will not interfere in similar conflicts in Croatia either, he said.

Croatia became a member of the EU on July 1.

Source….

2014 Croatia Missing!

13/4/2014

Golubic memorial

2/25/2014 3:40:00 PM

Croatia did not exhume 400 known gravesites

BELGRADE - Coordination of the Serbian Associations of Families of Missing Persons from the territory of former Yugoslavia stated on Tuesday that the Zagreb government's insistence on resolution of the issue of missing persons in the past war is “insincere and hypocritical”, having in mind that the remains of 400 Serb victims have still not been exhumed from known gravesites in Croatia.

This non-governmental organization commented on the statement made by the Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic during her Monday's visit to Belgrade that the conditions that were necessary for dropping the genocide charges (before the ICJ) have not been met, and that the issue of the missing persons is still on the agenda.

"It is little known to the general public, but to this day Croatia has not exhumed the remains of Serb victims from known gravesites, although it is possible to do so immediately," Serbian Associations of Families of Missing Persons announced.

They also noted that, based on the data provided by the Croatian side itself, there are records of gravesites of 150 Serb victims killed in Croatian military operations Flash and Storm. According to the non-governmental Documentation and Information Center Veritas from Serbia, there are records referring to gravesites of around 400 Serbs who went missing during the civil war in Croatia, from 1991 to 1995.

"On the other hand, Serbia has conducted exhumations at all known gravesites. Therefore, any insistence on the issue of missing persons coming from the Croatian side is insincere and hypocritical, until all Serb victims have been exhumed from the known gravesites in Croatia," stressed the release.

Coordination of the Serbian Associations of Families of Missing Persons from the territory of former Yugoslavia stated that it is not satisfied with the work and organization of the Serbian government's Commission for Missing Persons and expressed hope that after the early parliamentary elections on March 16 the fate of missing Serbs will be one of the priorities of the new government.

The Croatian list of missing persons contains 844 names, while according to Veritas, the Serbian side is searching for 1,984 missing persons.

Veritas also possesses information on the so-called “garden graves” and mass graves of Serb victims, the organization's president Savo Strbac told Tanjug, and added that besides the unexhumed gravesites, there is also the problem of 430 Serb victims who have still not been identified.

Source: TANJUG / InSerbia

2014 Croatia Vukovar Ustasha!

13/4/2014

Photo Tanjug, T. Valic

4/10/2014 5:07:00 PM

Criticism against calls for boycott of Serb businesses

ZAGREB - The invitation to boycott shops in Vukovar owned by the local Serbs is a revitalization of fascism,several Croatian organizations have said and called on the government to condemn that action by the Headquarters for the Protection of the Croatian Vukovar,an organization that is famous for opposing the use of the Serbian Cyrillic scrip in Croatia.

The Association of Zagreb Defenders of Vukovar, and the Association of Antifascist Veterans and Antifascists of Croatia told a news conference Croatia had accepted the obligation to respect all human and minority rights when it entered the EU.

Officials of the two organizations, Franjo Habulin and Damir Jasarevic said the invitation was an attempt to promote fascism in Croatia and that the government should react, as it was its duty to protect all Croatian citizens, regardless of confession and ethnicity.

The publication of the list of businesses in Vukovar owned by people of different ethnicities and confession and the invitation to boycott them is reminiscent of Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany in 1938, when the Nazis destroyed Jewish shops and homes and began the Holocaust, they stated.

The invitation to boycott Seb businesses was posted on Facebook several days ago, citing that the boycott hsould continue until the Cyrillic script was excluded from official use.

Milorad Pupovac, president of the Serb National Council (SNV) and member of the Croatian parliament, condemned the call in the harshest terms on Wednesday, and urged the authorized institution to react.

Pupovac told an impromptu press conference in Zagreb that if no reaction takes place, he will inform the authorized foreign institutions, Croatian news agency HINA reported.

The call for boycott issued over social networks refers to Serb goods and 35 shops owned by Serbs who are doing their jobs properly and trying to make their living, Pupovac underlined.

This is characteristic of Nazi, Fascist and Ustasha (Croatian fascists) regimes in 1930 and should not occur in the European democracies, he said.

Such incidents can seriously poison the relations between Croatia and Serbia, Pupovac said.

Source: TANJUG

2013 Kosovo UNMIK Failure Report

13/4/2014

27 August 2013

UN must make up for failure to investigate Kosovo missing

The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) singularly failed to investigate the abduction and murders in the aftermath of the 1998-1999 conflict.

“UNMIK’s failure to investigate what constituted a widespread, as well as a systematic, attack on a civilian population and, potentially, crimes against humanity, has contributed to the climate of impunity prevailing in Kosovo
”
Sian Jones, Amnesty International’s expert on Kosovo
Tue, 27/08/2013

The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) singularly failed to investigate the abduction and murders of Kosovo Serbs in the aftermath of the 1998-1999 conflict, Amnesty International said in a report published today. It comes on the eve of a UN Security Council debate on Kosovo on 29 August.

“UNMIK’s failure to investigate what constituted a widespread, as well as a systematic, attack on a civilian population and, potentially, crimes against humanity, has contributed to the climate of impunity prevailing in Kosovo,” said Sian Jones, Amnesty International’s expert on Kosovo.

“There is no statute of limitations on crimes against humanity. They must be investigated and the families of the abducted and murdered must receive redress. The UN should not be allowed to shirk its responsibility any longer.”

In Kosovo: UNMIK’s Legacy: The failure to deliver justice and reparation to the relatives of the abducted, Amnesty International reveals how UNMIK failed to investigate reports of abductions and killings, despite being charged by the UN Security Council with protecting human rights in Kosovo.

The report is based on the initial findings of the Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP) set up by UNMIK to receive complaints from those who consider their rights to have been violated by UNMIK. The HRAP has received some 250 complaints from relatives of missing persons – primarily Kosovo Serbs believed to have been abducted by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Each complainant claimed that UNMIK had failed to investigate the abduction and subsequent murder of their relative or relatives.

The panel found that in several cases UNMIK was not able to present any evidence that an investigation took place, while in others UNMIK police appear to have given up on the investigation after the victim’s body had been handed over to the relatives. In one case UNMIK police were even unaware that the bodies of a missing husband and son had been found and returned to their family for burial.

In spite of the panel’s findings and recommendations, no further measures appear to have been taken by UNMIK to provide redress and reparation.

Although the report focuses on the abductions of Kosovo Serbs, allegedly by the KLA, Amnesty International’s own research has led to similar findings with regard to UNMIK’s failure to investigate enforced disappearances of ethnic Albanians by Serb forces.

Since 1999-2000, Amnesty International has monitored UNMIK’s progress in a number of emblematic cases of enforced disappearance and abduction. In five cases, involving the enforced disappearances of 27 ethnic Albanians, no-one has yet been brought to justice. In 10 other cases involving the abduction of 13 Serbs and Roma, only one perpetrator has been brought to justice, but by the Serbian authorities.

For nearly a decade after the conflict, UNMIK police and prosecutors failed to initiate prompt, effective, independent, impartial and thorough investigations into many reports of enforced disappearances and abductions. As a result, very few of those suspected of criminal responsibility for the war crimes and crimes against humanity have been brought to justice in international or domestic courts.

“Years have passed and the fate of the majority of the missing on both sides of the conflict is still unresolved, with their families still waiting for justice. The cases considered to date by the HRAP reveal how the victims of human rights violations have been left in limbo due to the lack of will within the UN system to ensure they receive appropriate compensation and other reparation,” said Sian Jones.

UNMIK’s responsibilities for police and justice ended on 9 December 2008, when the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) took over its policing, prosecutorial and judicial functions. This included responsibility for the investigation and prosecution of serious crimes, including crimes under international law. EULEX inherited 1,187 war crimes cases which UNMIK had failed to investigate

“While it is now up to EULEX to open investigations into cases of post-war abduction and murder, UNMIK must make sufficient funds available to provide the relatives of the missing with adequate and effective compensation for moral damages and their pain and suffering, in accordance with international law and standards,” said Sian Jones.

“The legacies of the Kosovo conflict must be resolved – this includes resolving the fate of missing persons from all communities in Kosovo, bringing to account those

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Index card
Serbia (Kosovo): UNMIK Legacy: The failure to deliver justice and reparations to the relatives of the abducted

Download Report: PDF

Index NumberEUR 70/009/2013
Date Published27 August 2013
Categories Serbia

This report reveals how the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), charged with the protection of human rights in Kosovo, signally failed to initiate prompt or thorough investigations when people reported their family members missing in the immediate aftermath of the war. Amnesty International considers that the abductions which took place after the end of the armed conflict in June 1999, were part of a widespread, as well as a systematic, attack on a civilian population and may constitute crimes against humanity and must be investigated as such.

This document is also available in: Serbian / Srbski / Srpski

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Source….
https://www.amnesty.org/en/news/un-must-make-failure-investigate-kosovo-missing-2013-08-27
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2014 Kosovo Protests in Pristina!

13/4/2014

Students lead wide-ranging protests in Kosovo

Kosovo remains a hotbed of tension and turmoil. The unemployment rate is soaring, especially among young people, and corruption is rampant. Protests are on the rise, with students leading the charge.

In March 1981, students in the University of Pristina protested for better food in the campus cafeteria and improved living conditions in dormitories. The demonstrations sparked widespread unrest across Kosovo, as ethnic Albanians took to the streets demanding more autonomy within Yugoslavia.

More than three decades on, Yugoslavia is gone and Kosovo is an “independent” state, but students at the University of Pristina are once again at the vanguard of attempts to forge better conditions in this small Balkan nation.

Last week, students at the state university clashed with police in the Kosovan capital following reports that their professors had forged academic works. On Saturday (08.02.2014), Pristina University's rector Ibrahim Gashi resigned, having been accused of submitting plagiarized papers to a bogus journal based in India.

Start of something bigger
"I hope that my resignation will start the normalization of work at the University of Pristina," Gashi said in the wake of his resignation.

But some in Kosovo are hoping that last week's protests could be the start of something bigger.

"You had people of all ages, including parents whose children who were not even in University of Pristina and who joined the protest because they are not satisfied," said Flutura Kusari from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, in Pristina.

There is plenty to be unhappy with in Kosovo. International agencies put the national unemployment rate at between 35 and 45 percent. For young people, the figure is even higher - more than 65 percent of Kosovans aged 15 to 24 are without work.

"The dissatisfaction has been growing for a long time," said protester Dren Pozhegu. "The recent event (reports of academic forgery) was so obviously wrong that it helped a large base of people of different backgrounds gather and protest. Add to this whole situation the chronic problem of unemployment, poverty, lack of prosperity and generally an economically depressing environment, and the whole protest makes perfect sense."

Until now, such large-scale mobilizations have been something of a rarity in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Vicory for students
"The fact that we had this protest is a positive thing," said Kusari. "This is one of the very few protests that we have had where Kosovans went public and demanded something concrete. Previously we had general protests - on war crimes, on corruption - but we didn't ask for specific investigations, or anything concrete."

During last week's protests, Kosovan authorities made a number of arrests, including opposition MP Il Hodza and the director of the Kosovo Institute for Political Studies and Development, Ilir Deda. Both men were released on Monday (11.02.2014) but must report twice a week to a police station in Pristina.

"They want to make me the first dissident in an independent Kosovo," said Deda. '"There were no grounds for my detention. It is clear to everyone how political it is. If this is what some of us have to go through to wake up our people, then we will go through it."

Deda hailed rector Gashi's resignation as a victory for the students. "[Kosovo authorities] have basically given up the entire university now," he said. "The students feel empowered. It is the first time there is this empowerment in Kosovo. In the big picture, the trends are really good - there is a waking up in our society.

'Ticking bomb'
A young population and poor economic prospects makes Kosovo a "ticking bomb," said Lumir Abdixhiku, executive director of the Riinvest Institute, a Pristina-based think tank.

"Most of the economic policies in the country have been oriented toward sustainability of the public sector - which remains big and costly - while the severe presence of corruption, bureaucracy, informality and political instability prohibited new domestic or foreign investments to occur sufficiently," he said.

Not only are jobs scarce, but Kosovo's education system is failing to produce skilled graduates, says Abdixhiku. On top of this, a very strict visa regime makes it extremely difficult for Kosovans to leave the country.

There has been a "lack of political and economic vision by the Kosovo government," said Gezim Krasniqi, a researcher at CITSEE, a project looking at citizenship in post-Yugoslav states at the University of Edinburgh.

"Since the end of the war, both the international community engaged in Kosovo and the local government have been led by the paradigm of stability," Krasniqi said. "Nobody invested in long-term economic development. The main idea was that as long as Kosovo is stable, that is a positive thing in itself."

A sense of hopelessness prevails, he added, "because there are so many factors that leave the present situation very unfavorable."

National elections are expected to take place this year. The ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), led by Hashim Thaci, could struggle to hold onto power, especially after two senior figures, Fatmir Limaj and speaker of the parliament Jakup Krasniqi, recently announced they were leaving the PDK to form a new party.

Rule of law
An EU probe into organ trafficking during the war with Serbia is expected to report in the coming months, potentially implicating senior government figures in the harvesting of organs from prisoners.

On February 23, contested elections in the Serb-run town of North Mitrovica will be held again for a third time after Krstimir Pantic, the first Serb mayor elected in elections organized by the Pristina government following last year's Brussels agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, unexpectedly turned down the position.

What Kosovo needs most is rule of law, says Flutura Kusari from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. "If you don't have rule of law," he said, "politicians can misuse their power because they know nobody will investigate them."

Source....

2013 Kosovo, Car owned by Serb damaged

13/4/2014

September 27, 2013

Car owned by Serb damaged in Kosovska Mitrovica

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - A car owned by a Serb was damaged in northern Kosovska Mitrovica and a bullet was found in the interior of the vehicle.

Head of the Operative Regional Department of the Kosovo Police Service Zeljko Bojic told Tanjug that the owner of the damaged vehicle reported the incident to the police on Friday.

Bojic said that the vehicle was parked and the owner had not used it for three days which is why the exact time of the incident cannot be established.

The windshield of the car was damaged by a bullet which was found in the interior of the vehicle, Bojic said and added that the investigation into the case is still underway.

This is not the first attack on Serb-owned vehicles in Kosovska Mitrovica in Zvecan this month, as an unidentified individual damaged two cars in the city in early September, while one more vehicle was damaged in Zvecan.

Source: TANJUG

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