Dhimmi Watch: Kosovo: A Cautionary Tale

March 29, 2007

Kosovo: A Cautionary Tale

A cautionary tale that virtually no one is heeding.

It looks increasingly probable that Kosovo will gain its independence from Serbia, an outcome that should be of serious concern to Israel and its supporters. Ariel Sharon, to his credit, heard the alarm bells during the American bombing of Serbia in 1999, when he warned American Jewish leaders: "If Israel supports the type of action that's going on in Kosovo, it risks becoming the next victim. Brutal intervention must not be legitimized as a way to try to impose a solution in regional conflicts." And, it is no coincidence, as journalist Julia Gorin reminds us, that during the bombing of Serbia on behalf of Moslem Albanians in 1999 Saudi Prince Khaled Bin Sultan, commander of the allied Saudi troops during the first Gulf War, called on the US to do the same against Israel on behalf of Palestinians.
The fate of Jews and Serbs, which has intersected in the past, is doing so again. The jihadist effort to expunge Jews from Palestine mirrors the Moslem goal of incorporating Kosovo into a “greater Moslem Albania” while expelling Christian Serbs.

When Serbia became independent of Byzantine rule in the 12th century, its economic, cultural, social and religious institutions were among the most advanced in Europe. Serbia functioned as a bridge between Greco-Byzantine civilization and the developing Western Renaissance. The center of the Serbian Orthodox Church was in Kosovo where churches, monasteries and monastic communities were established. A form of census in 1330, the “Decani Charter,” detailed the list of chartered villages and households, of which only two percent were Albanian.

The Ottomans invaded Serbia in 1389 and consolidated their rule in 1459, propelling major parts of the Balkan peninsula and adjacent southeast Europe into a Koran-dictated Dark Ages. While a significant proportion of Serbian and Croatian nobility converted to Islam to escape the harsh conditions imposed on non-Moslems, most Serbian peasants clung to their Christian faith. Historian G. Richard Jansen reports: “Serbs and Jews became dhimmis subject to the dhimma or protection offered to Christians and Jews in newly Islamized lands in exchange for their lives.
Similarly Bat Ye’or, in Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide writes: “For the Orthodox Serbs… this same period [the centuries of Moslem rule] is considered one of massacre, pillage, slavery, deportation, and the exile of Christian populations. In their eyes it was a regime which found its justification in the usurpation of their land and denial of their rights....In their wars of emancipation-and, later, of liberation—the Orthodox Serbs found that their bitterest adversaries were their Muslim compatriots attached to their religious privileges and their domination over the humiliated Christians.”

In spite of forced migrations and oppression, like their Jewish counterparts, and unlike other Balkan nations, Serbs maintained their cultural and religious ties to their faith and shrines in Kosovo which, reinforcing the parallel, they called their Jerusalem. It was the Serbs who first mounted, in 1804 and 1813, insurgencies which spread through the region, culminating in the 1912 Balkan War which essentially eliminated the Ottomans from the Balkans.

Early in the twentieth century Serbian Christians were roughly two-thirds of the population of Kosovo, Moslem Albanians one-third. During World War I (triggered by the assassination in Serbia of the Austrian arch-duke) Serbs held off the Austrians for more than a year, before they were overwhelmed. Almost 800,000 Serbs perished, a fourth of the population. With full Serb support, the peace treaties of 1919-1920 established a state with the name "The Kingdom of Slovenians, Croats and Serbs." The awkward name was shortly changed to Yugoslavia with Kosovo an integral part of Serbia. At roughly the same time, the Balfour Declaration promised the Jews a restored homeland in Palestine which included what became the present day kingdom of Jordan.

From then on Kosovo’s population underwent sharp population shifts. During World War II, when Yugoslav Serbs refused to join a Nazi “community of nations,” an angry Hitler ordered the destruction of Yugoslavia. Following the Yugoslav army’s capitulation in 1941, Serbia was divided by the Nazis between the Italians and the Bulgarians, who encouraged armed gangs of pro-Nazi ethnic Albanians to attack the Serbs and to torch, destroy and desecrate ancient churches and shrines. The Moslem Albanians, who surprised their mentors with their barbarity and zeal for atrocities, were rewarded when parts of Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia were annexed to “Greater Albania.”

In 1943 the Nazis formed the 21st SS "Skanderbeg" division of Moslem Albanian volunteers to perform an “ethnic cleansing” (of Jews and Serbs) in Yugoslavia. Tens of thousands of Serbs were sent to a Croatian death camp and as noted by Raul Hilberg in The Destruction of the European Jews (1961) Skanderbeg played a major role in the Holocaust, rounding up Jews who were subsequently sent to Bergen-Belsen and various death camps. A Kosovar Moslem, Bedri Pejani, was appointed by the Nazis to rule occupied Kosovo. He promptly announced a plan to create a Great Islamic State in the region with the blessings of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini. The Grand Mufti, who had led a jihad in Palestine, escaped capture by fleeing to German-occupied Europe where, from Sarajevo he urged the Nazis not to flag in their destruction of the Jews. Needless to say the Serbian Christian population dwindled under this onslaught and the proportion of Albanian Moslems surged. By the end of World War II, Yugoslav deaths totaled more than a million, roughly half of them Serbs.

Although the province was restored to Yugoslavia after the war, the population balance in Kosovo did not shift in favor of Serbia. Tito, aiming for leadership of a wider Balkan alliance, did not allow Serbs who fled from their homes during the war to return. He did not enforce border controls and many thousands of Albanians infiltrated through the porous borders. (Like the Moslems in areas adjacent to Palestine in the interwar years, they were attracted by the superior economic conditions.) Seeking to pacify the restive Moslems, in 1974 Tito offered the province political, cultural, economic and juridical “autonomy,” along with large subsidies for agricultural and other projects, which merely had the effect of prompting a further influx of Moslems from across the border. For example, a new university was established in Pristina, with faculty from the University of Belgrade commuting by air.

All this did not pacify the restive Moslems who as early as 1960 demanded independence for Kosovo. There were intermittent riots which escalated and an emergent Kosovo Liberation Army gave as its stated goal “an ethnic greater Albania” to include portions of Macedonia and Montenegro, parts of southern Serbia and an “ethnically pure” (read Moslem-only) Kosovo.

In 1979 Menachem Begin, hectored by Jimmy Carter whose predilection for the Arab cause is well known, also offered the rioting Arabs of Judea and Samaria “autonomy” with the same disastrous results. As Henry Kissinger has noted, “autonomy” is a euphemism for independence.

Initially, the media reported the situation in Kosovo fairly. For example, in July 1982 The New York Times noted: "Serbs have been harassed by Albanians and have packed up and left the region. The Albanian nationalists have a two-point platform, first to establish what they call an ethnically clean Albanian republic and then to merge with Albania for a greater Albania. Some 57,000 Serbs have left Kosovo in the last decade.” Five years later, in 1987, the Times was still reporting the persecution of Serbs within Kosovo. "Slavic Orthodox churches have been attacked, wells poisoned, crops burned, Slavic boys knifed. Young Albanians have been told to rape Serbian girls…. Officials in Belgrade view the ethnic Albanian challenge as imperiling the foundations of the multinational experiment called federal Yugoslavia….Ethnic Albanians already control almost every phase of life in the autonomous province of Kosovo, including the police, judiciary, civil service, schools, and factories."

Milosevic rose to power with the promise of reversing this intolerable situation, restoring peace and Yugoslav control in Kosovo. But now international perception of the crisis turned against Serbia as Milosevic abolished the “autonomy” of Kosovo in 1989. There were arrests and house searches of Kosovar Albanians. And then the media went into a frenzy of accusations against the Serbs, much as it has against Israel and with similar distortions. The media depicted the armed, violent and jihadist Moslem Albanians as “unarmed civilians” despite the fact they called themselves an army and perpetrated assaults, bombings, murder of civilians and targeted assassinations of Albanians loyal to Serbia. President Clinton outrageously referred to a “holocaust” perpetrated by Serbia and compared the Moslems of Kosovo to the Jews—this, even though the Serbs had behaved well toward the Jews during the real Holocaust and Clinton himself was pressing Israel’s Jews to accept the “peace partnership” of Arafat, a brutal terrorist far worse than Milosevic, admittedly a dictator and a Communist thug.

The right was as vehement as the left in demanding action. In September 1998 such luminaries of the right as John Bolton, Jeane Kirkpatrick, William Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz joined such far leftists as Morton Halperin in a petition to President Clinton demanding that he not only stop “the carnage in Kosovo” but use “massive Western pressure” to obtain “a new political status for Kosovo.”

In March of 1999, the United States drew up a document, the “Rambouillet Agreement” which was, as Madeleine Albright boasted later, an absolute ultimatum to Serbia. It was a demand for Serbia to withdraw from Kosovo in favor of a NATO occupying force, something that no sovereign nation could or should accept. Incredibly, as The New York Times of April 8, 1999 reported, Milosevic accepted the entire package with the exception of NATO occupation of Yugoslavia itself. He wanted the troops to be under UN command. Dan Goure, then Deputy Director of the Center for Security and International Studies and a Pentagon official under the first President Bush said, "Rambouillet was not a negotiation, it was a setup, a lynch party." All this was in direct contravention of previously stated U.S. policy which declared that no national minority had the right to form a new state on other state territories…a policy which still guides the U.S. government in respect to recognizing Taiwan’s independence.

An interesting provision of the so-called “negotiations” demanded that the Serb army and police forces withdraw and a new Kosovar police force be formed to include members of the Kosovo Liberation Party, which was supposed to disarm. Sound familiar?

What happened subsequently is better known. In 1999 in concert with NATO, the Clinton administration commenced a 78 day bombing of Serbia. This action met with almost no objection in the West, hailed not only by liberal politicians and the media but by Margaret Thatcher, The Wall Street Journal and assorted conservative pundits and politicians.

To sum up: the demand for Kosovo's independence led to KLA terrorism which led to repression and expulsion of Albanians by Serbian military and police, which led to the assault by the United States and NATO. While the brutality of the Milosevic regime was indeed a complicating factor, he is long gone, but the KLA continues its assault on Serbs, on their churches, priests, homes, even on civilians sitting in cafes, this under the nose of the U.S. and UN troops which have now occupied Kosovo for eight years. Never mind that the State Department in 1998 listed the KLA as a terrorist organization, indicating (as Interpol’s assistant director for Criminal Intelligence Ralph Mutschke reminded Congress in December 2000) “that it was financing its operations with money from the international heroin trade and loans from Islamic countries and individuals, among them allegedly Osama bin Laden.”

Media and politicians alike, vastly indignant over Milosevic’s behavior, turn a blind eye. Speaking of Kosovo’s major city Pristina, where 40,000 Serbs lived before the UN took over (and where only 100 live now) Senator Joseph Biden, presidential aspirant and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared proudly that Kosovo was a “victory for Moslem democracy” and “Pristina is one of the rare Moslem cities in the world where the U.S. is not only respected but adored.” (Indeed there is a street named for Madeleine Albright, who played an especially scurvy role in ramping up pressure against the Serbs). Similarly the media takes notice of Kosovo only to berate the Serbs for failing to acquiesce speedily and gracefully to the loss of their “Jerusalem.”

Western leaders are blind to the danger to themselves in the principle they are establishing, namely that recent illegal immigrants from another state have the right to declare independence over territory long recognized as part of a different sovereign state whose inhabitants they have ruthlessly forced to flee.

The United States, the EU and the vast majority of UN member states, now pushing strongly to establish Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, are also establishing a terrible precedent in flouting the very international law under which the UN’s occupation of Kosovo rests. UN Security Council Resolution 1244, drafted to end the NATO bombing, specifically reaffirmed that Kosovo belongs to Serbia. Detaching Kosovo from Serbia against Serbia’s will is to violate the UN Charter. Serbian President Vojislav Kostunica reports that “when we mention the need for legality, some of these officials [UN, EU, U.S.] become exasperated, even agitated. They respond with various comments to the effect that we should not be bound by ’mere’ legality.” (The UN’s ambassador to the “negotiations” with President Kostunica is former Finnish president Martii Ahtisaari, a close associate of George Soros and the openly pro-Albanian Soros-funded International Crisis Group.)

Finally, there is an additional peril for the West here. The “two state solution” which aims to strip Israel of its ancient Jewish heartland, and the demand for Serbia to surrender Kosovo, the locus of its Serbian Orthodox faith, both advance the cause of resurgent Islam and worldwide jihad. To quote Bat Ye’or again: “In 1991, before the conflict erupted, the English edition of [Moslem Bosnian President] Alija Izetbegovic's Islamic Declaration (1970) specifically stated: ‘There can be neither peace nor coexistence between Arabia, the cradle of Islam and non-Islamic social and political institutions.’" And he concluded: “The Islamic movement must, and can, take over power as soon as it is morally and numerically so strong that it can not only destroy the existing non-Islamic power, but also build up a new Islamic one.”

In Congressional testimony, our intelligence agencies have now disclosed that there are 16 terror training camps and arms depots in Kosovo. Julia Gorin warns: “Even conservatives, who support the war on terror and the war in Iraq, have a blind spot and an apathy when it comes to the Balkans, as well as to the fact that a lot of the terrorist attacks in Europe and elsewhere are connected to the Balkans.” Gorin notes wryly that when America needs to burnish its credentials among Moslems, it gloats about intervention on behalf of Moslems in Bosnia and Kosovo – and, of course, demands a solution to the “Palestine” problem. While Israel is not threatened with bombing by US/NATO forces, economic sanctions and threats will be enough to squeeze Israel into surrender.

Statesmen, commentators and pundits who urge solutions and negotiations both in Serbia and "Palestine" brush all historical claims off the table. They simply ignore the geographical facts of the Palestine Mandate where the Hashemites obtained over 82% of the land assigned as the Jewish National Home. They ignore the ancient and religious ties of the Jewish people to Palestine. They ignore the migrations of Arabs to Jewish towns in what Mark Twain called "The Wasteland". They ignore the strategic danger of a jihadist state in Palestine. With respect to Serbia, the “solution groupies” show the same disregard for historical and religious ties and sovereignty; the same indifference to the enforced migrations and immigrations which created an ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo; and the same blindness to the dangers of a jihadist “greater Albania” anxious to incorporate Kosovo into a Balkan caliphate.

And so Kosovo may become independent. Welcome to a new Moslem jihadist state, which will no doubt eagerly await the exchange of ambassadors with a jihadist Moslem state in Judea and Samaria.

Posted by Robert at March 29, 2007 7:23 AM
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Comments
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Very good article with my grate thanks to all of you at jw/dw for trying to win this battle. But, after all, its ovbious that albanian jihad over slavic christians eventually payoff, like everywhere else in the world.
Only, I can bet Morgaane is now braking its nails over keyboard reposting NGO findings over Serbian historic antisemitism.

Posted by: svemirko

at March 29, 2007 7:55 AM

It's the unbelievably persistent, mindless, ill-informed actions of almost all the western governments which have been instrumental in reviving the Islamic camp and Jihad,especially in the last 70 years.

The action against the Serbs will be judged by history as insane if not suicidal.

Here's a link to a site which gives the other, and more credible side of the Serbian story, usually buried alive by the msm:

http://www.hirhome.com/yugo/kosovo.htm

Posted by: Dunk

at March 29, 2007 8:35 AM

Good article, except for the part about Milosevic. His "brutal actions" were largely propaganda ploys and hoaxes. I suppose Mrs. King had to insert a dose of political correctness to get this published.

Posted by: Witch-king of Angmar

at March 29, 2007 8:46 AM

Just to clear up things: the "propaganda hoaxes" were the stories appearing in the western press of how Milosevic supposedly ordered "brutal actions".

Posted by: Witch-king of Angmar

at March 29, 2007 8:49 AM

Svemirko:

I had not planned to comment on this thread as I am very busy, and then I noticed your completely unprovoked ad hominem attack. Therefore, AT YOUR REQUEST, I will respond.

See following posts, but just one note in this one. Sharon's and probably Israel's sudden support of Serbia in 1999 -- after Israel sent the Mossad into Serbia to protect Jews in 1991-1992, and PRIOR to the most recent CURRENT (not historic) burgeoning of hateful anti-Semitism in Serbia -- is based not on any sense of fairness but a perceived threat to its statehood based on Serbia's assertion of ETHNIC rights. The State of Israel is a state based not on religion but on ethnicity, and Israel now perceives the Serbia's potential loss of territory based on an arguement of ethnic traditional lands a threat to Israel's own argument.

But that is NOT the argument being made from the other side. The argument being made by Bosnians, Croats, Albanians and others -- Muslim, Catholic and even Orthodox -- is that they want freedom from the Serbs because they engaged in mass murder, attempted genocide, mass rape, mass deportation, and torture in order to force a SERB nationalist agenda among all the ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia.

The difference is that Israel, though having the bomb since the 1960s, has never tried to genocide anybody. The State of Israel was formed by international agreement AFTER an attempted genocide of the Jewish people, and there are 1.1 million Arabs living in Israel who have NO DESIRE whatsoever to leave and who form no terrorist threat inside the country.

The false conflation of Albanian Sufism with the Wahhabis that besiege them -- Wahhabis who have declared them apostates and placed them under death fatawa -- is a lie almost as bad in itself as the debased violence to which Serb lust for power devolved in the 1990s.

Thank you, Svemirko, for your latest invitation to me to respond. Every time you place an ad hominem, lying attack on me on these boards, I will be pleased to respond.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 8:50 AM

For general reference for those on this comment area. This timeline of the Balkans Wars of the 1990s, while long, is the shortest complete outline of the conflict I have found. I apologize for its length, but it is something perhaps we should all be aware of. In itself it is a chronicle that makes clear the bad actions of a great many groups, but it is also clear who the aggressors were here and what actually happened.

June 1989
Serbs gather at the site of the Battle of Kosovo to commemorate its 600th anniversary. President Slobodan Milosevic, recently elected, uses the occasion to promote Serbian nationalism and strip Kosovo of all autonomy.

Jan. 1990
The Yugoslav Communist Party splits along ethnic lines
Deadly riots in Kosovo result in Yugoslav Army intervention.

Feb. 1990
Curfew imposed in Kosovo. Yugoslav troops deployed.
Multi-party system adopted in Bosnia-Herzegovina republic.

Apr. 1990
A pro-independence coalition wins in Slovenia.

May 1990
HDZ Party (Croatian Democratic Union) wins elections against the communists. HDZ leader, Franjo Tudjman, advocates a Yugoslav confederation of sovereign states.

June 1990
Serbia referendum in opposition to ethnic autonomy for Kosovo and Vojvodina and in favor of retaining one-party state.
HDZ proposes that Constitution in Croatia be amended to allow for a confederated system of sovereign states.

July 1990
Albanian delegates of the parliament of Kosovo declare independence from Yugoslavia. Belgrade responds by banning the Kosovo shadow government led by Ibrahim Rugova and shutting down or taking over local media.
The Slovenian legislature declares Slovenia a sovereign state.
The League of Communists of Serbia and the Socialist Alliance of the Working People of Serbia mere to become the Socialist Party of Serbia. Slobodan Milosevic is elected President by the delegates in a landslide.
Croatia adopts the proposed amendments to the Constitution which replace the flag and declare that Croatia would no longer be a socialist republic.
The Bosnian legislature adopts constitutional amendments declaring Bosnia-Herzegovina a democratic state with equality for all its ethnic groups.

Aug. 1990 ... As Croatia's move towards independence seems likely, ethnic Serbs in the Krajina area of Croatia argue for autonomy from Croatia. Serbs declare the Serbian National Council as the authority for Serbs in Croatia.

Oct. 1990 ... The Serbian National Council proclaims autonomy for Krajina.

Nov. 1990 ... A Macedonian party advocating a confederation of sovereign states comes to power in the first multi-party elections.
Bosnia-Herzegovina holds its first multi-party elections. Nationalistic parties win.

Dec. 1990 ... Milosevic wins the presidency of Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians boycott the elections.
The new Croatian Constitution recognizes ethnic Serbs as a minority, but does not grant rights to minority groups.
In a plebiscite in Slovenia, nearly 90% of voters favor sovereignty.

Jan. 1991 ... Macedonia elects a new President and adopts pro-sovereignty legislation. Slovenia announces that it will start legislative procedures towards independence.

Feb. 1991 ... Tensions increase in Croatian territories of Slavonia and Baranja where there are large numbers of ethnic Serb residents. The Serbian National Council declares that Krajina will remain in Yugoslavia should Croatia secede.

Mar. 1991 ... Milosevic orders a crackdown on opposition protests in Serbia.
Krajina Serbs declare autonomy from Croatia and are recognized by Milosevic. Armed conflict underway between ethnic Croats and ethnic Serbs in Croatia.
Serbia assumes authority over the dissolved Kosovo legislature.
The European Community, in response to the increased tensions in Yugoslavia, declares that it supports diplomacy and political dialogue over force and promotes unity and democracy in Yugoslavia.

Apr. 1991 ... Bosnian Serbs begin a war in a quest for their own ethnically pure republic. At a meeting of the six Presidents of Yugoslav republics, they agree that each republic should hold referendums on confederation or federation.

May 1991 ... Serbs refuse to accept a Croat president under the terms of Yugoslavia's rotating presidency. Referendum on separation of Croatia held. Over 90% votes for sovereignty and independence. Krajina Serbs boycott the referendum.

June 1991 ... Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina unsuccessfully propose a Yugoslav commonwealth of sovereign republics. Slovenia and Croatia declare independence from Yugoslavia. Krajina, a region with a large number of ethnic Serbs, declares independence from Croatia and has backing of Yugoslav People's Army. Yugoslav army tanks and helicopters attack Slovenia. After the Slovenian militia captures 2,000 soldiers, it trades their release for the right to control its own borders. The war in Slovenia lasts a total of a week. Fighting between Serbian and Croatian militias is more severe, especially in Krajina, Baraja, and Slavonia. The U.S. states support for unity and democracy of Yugoslavia and sovereignty determined through mutual agreement rather than unilateral secession. In light of the situation, the European Community freezes economic assistance to Yugoslavia.

July 1991 ... Slovenian protests in favor of independence.

Aug. 1991 ... The Yugoslav army calls off intervention in Slovenia's independence.
Meanwhile, Yugoslav tanks and aircraft drive refugees from Vukovar and Dubrovnik. Fighting escalates. First international monitors arrive in Croatia.

Sept. 1991 ... The UN Security Council enacts an arms embargo against the former Yugoslav republics and an economic embargo on Serbia and Montenegro.
The European Community hosts a Conference on Yugoslavia in the Hague. Ceasefire between Serbia and Croatia signed. In spite of this, fighting continues.
In a referendum in Kosovo, ethnic Albanians vote for independence.

Oct. 1991 ... Croat and Muslim parties in Bosnia unite against Bosnian Serbs and plan for a referendum on the future of Bosnia-Herzegovina. President of Croatia Franjo Tudjman and President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic again sign a cease-fire. However Yugoslav Army remains in Croatia. The Conference on Yugoslavia reconvenes in the Hague. Co-Chairman Lord Carrington submits a proposal which supports independence and recognition for former republics and protection of rights of ethnic minorities. Serbia refuses to agree to the proposal even after changes are made, on the grounds that it does not support the unity of Yugoslavia. Albania's parliament recognizes Kosovo as an independent republic.
The Bosnian Muslim government declares itself a sovereign state.

Nov. 1991 ... 90% of Bosnian Serbs vote to remain within Yugoslavia.
Macedonian legislature proposes new Constitution declaring Macedonia sovereign and independent.

Dec. 1991 ... Germany recognizes Croatia and Slovenia. European Community decides not to apply economic sanctions to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia or Croatia. UN Special Envoy Vance's peace plan would provide UN peacekeepers to Eastern Slavonia, Western Slavonia, and Krajina following a ceasefire and withdrawal of troops and disbanding of irregulars, but offers no specific solutions to the ethnic conflict. The Bosnian Serbs adopt a Resolution to form the Serbian Republic (Republika Srpska) of Bosnia- Herzegovina within the framework of Yugoslavia. Ethnic Serbs in Krajina, Slavonia, Baranja and West Srem declare their own republic.

Jan. 1992 ... UN adopts resolution to send monitors and ultimately peacekeepers. 27 more countries and European Union recognize Croatia as an independent sovereign state. Temporary ceasefire in Croatia.

Mar. 1992 ... Bosnia votes for independence in spite of most Bosnian Serbs voting against secession. Bosnian Serbs set up their own Parliament and local militias. The fighting in Croatia expands to Bosnia.

Apr. 1992 ... The United States recognizes Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as independent sovereign states. Bosnian Serb forces start to drive Muslims out of small villages; many of these refugees flee to the larger Bosnian cities of Zepa, Srebrenica, Tuzla and Sarajevo. Siege of Sarajevo begins.

May 1992 ... Croatia accepted as a full member in the United Nations.
International sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro, the two remaining republics of Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanian writer Ibrahim Rugova is elected president of Kosovo in an election unsanctioned by the Yugoslav government.

June 1992 ... Croatia joins the war in Bosnia on the side of the Muslims.

Aug. 1992 ... UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) is authorized to use force to deliver humanitarian supplies to Bosnia, which is now 2/3 under Serbian domination. First international reports of "ethnic cleansing," rapes, concentration camps, and mass executions in Bosnia.

Sept. 1992 ... Serbia expelled from the United Nations.

Oct. 1992 ... Serb and ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo hold peace talks.
The UN imposes a no-fly zone over Bosnia.

Jan. 1993 ... Croatia launches an offensive in Krajina. Geneva Peace Talks underway. Under discussion is the Vance-Owen Plan, which would partition Bosnia and provide for a rotating presidency, but require no Serb troop withdrawals.

Feb. 1993 ... U.S. begins airlift of aid supplies to Bosnia.

Mar. 1993 ... War between Muslims and Croats in Bosnia.

May 1993 ... Bosnian Serbs reject Vance-Owen Plan. Some cooperation between Croatia and the Bosnian Serbs.

June 1993 ... Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic proposes several partition deals that would leave Serbs about half of Bosnia. The Bosnian Muslim government rejects this plan. UN declares "safe areas" in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bihac, Zepa, Gorazde, and Srebrenica.

July 1993 ... Krajina Serbs vote to join the Bosnian Serbs in "Greater Serbia."

Sept. 1993 ... Bosnian Muslims reject Owen-Stoltenberg Peace Plan to separate Bosnia into Muslim, Croat and Serb sections.

Feb. 1994 ... A Bosnian Serb mortar shell kills 68 people in a Sarajevo market. The attack increases international attention to Bosnia and western nations threaten air strikes if the Bosnian Serbs do not stop shelling Sarajevo. NATO shoots down four Serb aircraft.

Mar. 1994 ... Croatian and Muslim Bosnians agree on guidelines for a federated Bosnia. Krajina Serbs sign a ceasefire and zones of separation between Serbs and Croats.

May 1994 ... Western countries start air strikes against Bosnian Serbs, but end them as UN Peacekeepers are taken hostage by the Bosnian Serb army as "human shields."

Nov. 1994 ... U.S. ends embargo on arms to Bosnia.

Dec. 1994 ... Muslim-Croat Federation and Bosnian Serbs sign cease fire.

May 1995 ... Croatia seizes Western Slavonia. Krajina Serbs shell Zagreb.
Fighting escalates in Bosnia.

July 1995 ... Bosnian Serb forces enter the "safe areas" of Srebrenica and Zepa in eastern Bosnia. In what is considered the largest massacre since World War II, as many as 8,000 Bosnian Muslims are killed by Bosnian Serbs under the command of Ratko Mladic. Croatia expels ethnic Serbs from Krajina. Nearly 70 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo are sentenced to jail for setting up a parallel police force.

Aug. 1995 ... Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat forces fight Bosnian Serbs in Bihac. Serbs driven out of western Bosnia and Krajina. Serbian authorities settle several hundred Croatian Serb refugees in Kosovo.

Sept. 1995 ... NATO airstrikes against the Bosnian Serbs. Serbian forces withdraw weapons from around Sarajevo.

Oct. 1995 ... Ceasefire declared in Bosnia.

Nov. 1995 ... Proximity Talks between the Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Yugoslavia held in Dayton, Ohio.

Dec. 1995 ... The Dayton Peace Agreement is signed in Paris. The plan gives 51% of the Bosnian territory to Muslim-Croatian Federation and 49% to Bosnian Serbs. It also authorizes a right for refugees to return to pre-war homes and an international force (IFOR) to implement the peace plan. With regard to Croatia, the Dayton Plan recognizes the country's pre-war borders (including Eastern Slavonia).

Mar. 1996 ... The UN ends its embargo on small arms for the region. The United States approves arms and equipment for Bosnia.

Apr. 1996 ... Bosnian Muslim and Croat officials sign a Federation accord to jointly collect customs duties and have a common flag. Yugoslavia and Macedonia establish diplomatic relations. The international community pledges to raise $1.2 billion for the reconstruction of Bosnia. Bosnian Serbs refuse to attend as part of a delegation with Muslims and Croats.

May 1996 ... The International War Crimes tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia opens in the Hague. This is the first war crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. In Belgrade, workers protest economic conditions in Serbia, as the Milosevic government insists that IMF funds must be linked to recognition of Serbia as the only successor of the former Yugoslavia.
Radovan Karadzic officially steps aside as the leader of the Bosnian Serbs. Biljana Plavsic becomes the new leader. UN officials confirm the statement of Bosnian Prime Minister Muratovic that Bosnian Serbs are expelling Muslims from the Teslic area in central Bosnia.

July 1996 ... Leaders of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia sign an agreement to reduce arsenals of heavy weapons. The Bosnian Federation approves the merger of the Muslim and Croat armies. Mass graves discovered at Srebrenica.

Aug. 1996 ... Serbia and Croatia agree to establish diplomatic relations.

Sep. 1996 ... Bosnia holds the first national elections since the end of the war. Bosnian Muslim Alija Izetbegovic becomes the first chairman of the new, rotating presidency to be shared with Serbian Momcilo Krajisnik and Croat Kresimir Zubak.

Dec. 1996 ... After Milosevic anulls local election results, Serbs take to the streets in protests.

Jan. 1997 ... The Implementation Force (IFOR) is renamed the Stabilization Force (SFOR). The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a banned ethnic Albanian militia group suspected in car bombing of Serb rector of Pristina University. KLA leader killed by police.

Mar. 1997 ... Four people injured when a bomb explodes in the center of Pristina, Kosovo.

July 1997 ... The War Crimes Tribunal convicts Serbian police officer, Dusan Tadic to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity. Tadic is the first to be tried in the Tribunal. He appeals the conviction.

Sep. 1997 ... Bosnia holds municipal elections which are the first to allow voting in pre-war municipalities.

Feb. 1998 ... U.S. makes limited economic concessions to Serbia.

Mar. 1998 ... Battle in village of Prekaz in Kosovo with between 20-50 ethnic Albanians killed. U.S. ends concessions. Ethnic Albanians vote for president and parliament, but elections are declared illegals by Serbia.

Apr. 1998 ... Serbian referendum opposes Western intervention in Kosovo.
U.S. and Western Europe set new sanctions against Serbia, including freezing of assets abroad.

May 1998 ... Peace talks between ethnic Albanians and Serbs even as fighting continues.

July 1998 ... Kosovo Albanians inaugurate their outlawed parliament. Serbian police order legislators to disperse.

Aug. 1998 ... Serbian forces capture Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) stronghold of Junik. UN calls for a ceasefire in Kosovo.

Sept. 1998 ... NATO issues ultimatum to Serbia to stop violence in Kosovo or face air strikes. UN condemns massacres of Kosovar Albanians by Serbian troops.
NATO threatens airstrikes in spite of Russian protests.
Serbian forces appear to pull back, NATO halts threat, and UN authorizes monitors to ensure violence has ended.

Jan. 1999 ... Violence escalates in Kosovo. International monitors discover the bodies of at least 45 Albanians in Racak in southern Kosovo. UN war crimes prosecutor Louise Arbour is refused entry to Kosovo to probe killings.
NATO once again threatens airstrikes.

Feb. 1999 ... Rambouillet Peace Talks held in France between Serbs and Albanians. Kosovo Albanians conditionally accept ceasefire and draft accord in exchange for broad autonomy for Kosovo. Serbs accept conditional autonomy. In spite of small success, Serb forces expand in Kosovo.

Mar. 1999 ... Peace talks resume in Paris. The Kosovar Albanians sign the accord, but Serbia rejects international peacekeepers on their territory and boycotts the event. International monitors withdraw from Kosovo. In spite of last-minute diplomatic efforts to seek a peaceful solution, Serbia continues to reject any talk of NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo. NATO launches air war against Yugoslav military targets. Russia suspends cooperation with NATO. Yugoslavia breaks off diplomatic relations with United States, France, Germany and Britain.
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees flee to Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro.

Apr. 1999 ... Refugee crisis in Albania and Macedonia continue at levels as much as 20,000 people entering per day. Yugoslavia closes refugee exit points. Macedonia refuses to let NATO and UN set up more camps. NATO bombs hit a passenger train south of Belgrade and a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees.
Yugoslavia rules out a foreign military force in Kosovo but says it is willing to discuss a civilian presence. Yugoslavia breaks diplomatic relations with Albania. Yugoslav and Kosovar Albanian troops exchange fire at the border.
NATO missiles hit the headquarters of Milosevic's Serbian Socialist Party, his private residence, Serbian State Television, and the Defense Ministry.

May 1999 ... NATO missiles mistakenly hit a bus north of Pristina, the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, and a crowded bridge in central Serbia. They also hit the ethnic Albanian village of Korisa under the belief that it is a Serb military camp. NATO begins intensive bombing of Yugoslav electricity grid, disrupting power and water. War Crimes Tribunal indicts President Milosevic for crimes against humanity. Yugoslavia seemingly accepts a peace plan from the European Union and Russia, but still will not agree to NATO's terms. NATO bombing campaign increases.
Serb forces start withdrawal from Kosovo. NATO halts the air campaign.
Russian peacekeepers from Bosnia enter Kosovo and take control of Pristina airport. Ethnic Albanian refugees start to return home. Kosovar Serbs head north. The NATO air campaign officially over, as Serb withdrawal from Kosovo completed. The KLA promises to disarm.

Dec. 1999 ... Croatian President Tudjman dies of cancer.

Jan. 2000 ... Serbian businessman, paramilitary leader and indicted war criminal Arkan is assassinated in a Belgrade hotel. The Milosevic government denies involvement, although rumors spread that Arkan was ready to provide evidence in the Hague against Milosevic. The first case tried in the War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ends. Following the appeals process, Bosnian Serb Dusan Tadic is sentenced to 20 years for crimes against Muslim and Croat prisoners.

Feb. 2000 ... Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo spar with UN troops over their protection of Kosovar Serbs. New Croatian government promises to support internal democratic reforms and the independence of Bosnia, rather than foment a separatist movement among the Bosnian Croats. Serbian Defense Minister assassinated.

March 2000 ... More Serbian independent media shut down by government and Serbia seals its border with Montenegro. Several Bosnian Serbs are arrested by NATO troops and charged with war crimes between 1992-94 in Bosnia. Meanwhile, the new Croatian government hands over to the War Crimes Tribunal a Bosnian Croat who had commanded irregular forces against Bosnian Muslim from 1993-94.
Street battles in Mitrovica, Kosovo result in deaths of civilians and French peacekeepers.

April 2000 ... In Bosnian elections, the Social Democrats win in the Federation. The Serbian Democratic Party narrowly wins in Republika Srpska.
A Milosevic ally and head of Yugoslav Airlines is shot to death in Serbia.

May 2000 ... The head of the Vojvodina provincial government in Yugoslavia is shot to death. President Milosevic blames the political opposition for the murder. The Opposition holds rallies in favor of free elections. Milosevic continues crackdown on independent media. The Greek government removes religious affiliation from citizen identity cards. Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Slovenia are among nine nations petitioning for NATO entry by 2002.
A Serbian court convicts nearly 150 ethnic Albanians on terrorism charges stemming from the 1999 NATO bombings. Yugoslav President Milosevic closes universities early. The Security Advisor to the Montenegrin President is shot dead.

June 2000 ... Elections in Montenegro are split. Although the pro-western government wins, pro-Milosevic representatives win in heavily Serbian areas.
Serb opposition figure Vuk Draskovic survives an assassination attempt in Montenegro. Montenegro informs the UN that it does not wish to be represented by Yugoslavia.

July 2000 ... Yugoslav President Milosevic adjusts the constitution to reduce Montenegro's power in the legislature and to allow himself to run for reelection.

September 2000 ... Yugoslav elections take place. In spite of widespread vote fraud and the refusal by most Kosovar Albanians and Montenegrins to participate, opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica is elected. The Milosevic governmen insists that the victory was still less than 50% of the votes and declares that a second round of voting will take place in October. The opposition refuses to accept a second round and leads nationwide protests and strikes.

October 2000 ... Serb protesters storm the Parliament building and official state media outlets in Belgrade. Milosevic concedes power to Kostunica, who is sworn in as the new Yugoslav President. Alija Izetbegovic, citing poor health, steps down from the Bosnian Joint Presidency. As the last of the wartime leaders, his decision marks a new era in Balkan leadership.

February 2001 ... The International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague convicts the former Chief Executive of the Croatian Defense Council of crimes against humanity for his role in military offensives against Bosnian Muslim civilians in 1992-93. He becomes the highest-level official to date convicted in the Tribunal. In a separate case, the Tribunal reaches a conviction in a case where rape is seen as a motivated act of war. This is the first in international law.
The Yugoslav Parliament passes an amnesty law for 650 ethnic Albanians held in jails since the 1999 Kosovo War.

March 2001 ... Skirmishes along the Macedonian border between ethnic Albanians and Macedonians.

April 2001 ... Slobodan Milosevic arrested in Belgrade after standoff. Serbian government vows to try him at home rather than send him to the Hague. Survivors of Srebrenica storm U.N. Headquarters in Sarajevo following reports that a Bosnian Muslim Commander who defended the town would be charged with war crimes against Bosnian Serbs.

June 2001 ... On the anniversary of his "Field of Blackbirds" speech in Kosovo, Slobodan Milosevic is extradited to the Hague, where he will eventually stand trial at the International War Crimes Tribunal. Milosevic refuses to cooperate and the Court issues a Not Guilty Plea on his behalf. Violence in the Macedonian capital Skopje over NATO troops escorting ethnic Albanians from the country.

July 2001 ... Fighting in Macedonia continues, as government forces battle Albanian rebels in the western town of Tetovo. Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic found guilty of genocide for role in July 1995 Srebrenica execution of 7,000 Muslim men and boys. Macedonian government sign peace agreement with Albanian rebels. British-led NATO force enters country to disarm guerrillas.

November 2001 ... Bosnian Serbs convicted in the Hague of setting up prison system.

December 2001 ... Slobodan Milosevic charged with genocide at the Hague.
January 2002

February 2002 ... Trial of Slobodan Milosevic opens in the Hague, with Milosevic representing himself.

April 2002 ... The Dutch Government resigns amidst scandal over Dutch UN troops not preventing the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

July 2002 ... The presidents of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Yugoslavia meet for the first time since the war. The countries pledged to cooperate on the repatriation of refugees, fight organized crime, and assist each other in economic development. The United States extends its peacekeeping mission in Bosnia amidst negotiations over Americans being granted immunity from prosecution by International Criminal Court. Slobodan Milosevic's failing health due to heart disease slows down his trial in the Hague.

October 2002 ... Former Bosnian-Serb leader Biljana Plavsic admits to committing crimes against humanity during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war against Croats and Muslims.

November 2002 ... NATO invites Slovenia to join alliance, along with several Central and Eastern European countries.

February 2003 ... Yugoslav parliament votes to rename the country
Serbia and Montenegro. The new federation includes a joint administration of defense and foreign affairs and a future referendum on Montenegro's independence. Plavsic sentenced to 11 years in jail by the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

March 2003 ... Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is assassinated in Belgrade. Likely suspects are organized criminals with ties to Milosevic.

April 2003 ... Mirko Sarovic, the Bosnian Serb member of the tripartite presidency is forced to resign following a scandal over military exports to Iraq. Slovenia and nine others countries meet in Greece to sign a treaty to join the European Union.

September 2003 ... Wesley Clark -- NATO commander during the war in Kosovo -- announces he plans to run for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidency.

November 2003 ... HDZ wins more than 40% of the seats in parliamentary elections in Croatia.

December 2003 ... Political parties associated with nationalism in the 1990s gained power in Croatia and Serbia-Montnegro. HDZ, the party of Franjo Tudjman, wins in general election in Croatia. In Serbia-Montenegro, the Serbian Radical Party of Vojislav Seselj walked away with the most votes. Seselj and Slobodan Milosevic both won seats in spite of being held in the Hague on war crimes charges. SDSS (the main ethnic Serb political party in Croatia) agrees to support HDZ positions in parliament in exchange for concessions on rights for Croatia's Serbian minority, including helping refugees to return to or make claims on their properties. Bosnian Serb General Stanislav Gaic is convicted of war crimes in the Hague for his part in commanding the siege of Sarajevo from 1992-1994. Bosnian Serb commander jailed for 27 years for role in the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ends its broadcasts in Croatian (and six other Eastern European languages).

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 8:53 AM

There you go again Morgaan, trying to delete from record in Ministry-of-Truth style anything that happened before 1989.

Posted by: Witch-king of Angmar

at March 29, 2007 8:57 AM

Again, Svemirko, thank you so much for requesting that I post the CURRENT ANTI-SEMITISM IN SERBIA -- not historic, current -- for the edification of all who read this thread.

Balkan Crisis Report
Balkans home
Anti-Semitism Raises its Head in Serbia
Bos-Hrv-Srp Shqip

Though very small in number, Serbia’s Jewish community is being increasingly targeted by an array of ultra-nationalist groups.

By Dragana Nikolic-Solomon and Ljubisa Ivanovic in Belgrade (BCR No 544, 04-Mar-05)

The slogans hint at a future settling of accounts. "Juden Raus", "Achtung Juden", "Jews out of Serbia" and "Death to Jews and Gipsies", they proclaim, the words providing a chilling echo of the Holocaust that decimated European Jewry more than half a century ago.

But few Jews actually see these slogans in Serbia today. Providing ample proof of the claim that anti-Semitism doesn't need Jews to flourish, the latest wave of anti-Semitism in Serbia has broken over a community that is a shadow of its former self.

The community is now down to a tiny 3,000 or so among Serbia’s total population of around eight million, and in the 2002 census only about 1,200 people declared themselves Jewish.

Most Serbs have never even met a Jew. Even before the Second World War, the community was small, making up 0.45 per cent of the population.

After the Holocaust and the migration of most survivors to Israel, the figure has dwindled further to 0.3 per cent.

But while few Jews remain, anti-Semitism is flourishing. Many bookstores stock copies of the infamous Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, the early 20th-century book from Russia that fraudulently claimed to reveal a Jewish conspiracy against the world's non-Jewish, and especially Christian, population.

More disturbingly, a list of prominent Serbian Jews was recently posted on the website of a neo-Nazi organisation, alongside messages posted by site visitors calling for them to be killed.

Although Stormfront is a German group, most Serbian commentators conclude that they could only have obtained this list with the help of Serbian colleagues.

The list includes prominent activists and artists, such as the head of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, Sonja Licht, actor Predrag Ejdus, singer Djordje David, marketing expert Srdjan Saper and the head of the Union of Jewish Communities, Aca Singer.

A catalogue of anti-Semitic literature in Serbian, which it says "every National Socialist and racially aware nationalist should read" is contained on the site on a page named "Serbian National Socialist Library".

Among the recommended texts is an article entitled “Jews – the Enemies of the Balkan Peoples.”

Professor Ratko Bozovic, a sociologist at Belgrade University, told IWPR, “These incidents are not isolated. They are part of a growing phenomenon.”

Other experts agree that Serbia is becoming a hotbed of extreme racist ideologies - partly a consequence of a decade of warfare under Slobodan Milosevic, when the media painted Croats, Muslims and Albanians as the demonic enemies of innocent Serbs.

At the beginning of the wars in Yugoslavia, the regime initially tried to link Serbs and Jews as joint victims of fascism during the Second World War, promoting the activities of front organisations such as the Serbian-Jewish Friendship Society.

But when this initiative failed to achieve the desired result internationally, anti-Jewish propaganda began to circulate, including claims that Serbs were falling victim to a Jewish lobby in Washington.

This propaganda reached a climax during the 1999 NATO air strikes over Kosovo, when Jews in President Bill Clinton’s administration were accused of being behind a master-plan to bomb Serbia.

Bozo Prelevic, a Belgrade lawyer, says belief in an anti-Serb conspiracy among the Jews is a legacy of the Milosevic era, when the regime media began to list Jews and Freemasons among all the other schemers plotting Serbia’s misfortunes.

Even after democratic parties took power in October 2000, Serbian society continued to blame others for its problems, Professor Bozovic says - regardless of whether these others are Roma, Jews, Albanians, Americans, the Hague tribunal or rich investors, whom many see as economic colonisers.

A casual surf of right-wing web sites in Serbia reveals an abundance of anti-Semitic literature and propaganda.

The site of the Serbian Defence League, an organisation which says its mission is to document the Zionist "genocide against the Serbs", features the claim that "research has uncovered that Jews in position of power were conspiring to break up Yugoslavia into states friendly with Israel, because it needed their votes in the UN Security Council".

The organisation claims Jews were directly responsible for NATO's bombing of Serbia in the late Nineties. "The Jews introduced resolutions [to the UN] to bomb the Serbs and make them pay for what Israel is doing to Moslems," it says.

The Serbian Defence League says Jews have "stolen the Serbian holocaust" because "the biggest genocide in World War II was committed against the Serbs in Nazi Croatia, and not against the Jews in Germany".

Aca Singer, veteran leader of the diminished Jewish community in Serbia, says the wave of hostile graffiti, as well as the threatening messages on various websites, are a cause for concern.

The community has now filed six criminal-law cases against the perpetrators but there is little hope that anything will be done.

The websites are located abroad, so neither the police nor the courts can take action and there is no law penalising the propagation of hatred on the internet.

Singer says it is significant that anti-Semitic incidents have increased since the fall of the Milosevic regime in October 2000. He believes this may be because the advent of democracy has released feelings about Jews that were previously well concealed.

"In the past five years over a hundred anti-Semitic books have been published in Serbia," said Singer.

"Some of the latest are ‘The Serbs In The Claws Of The Jew’ and ‘Jewish Ritual Murder’. The latter, published by IHTUS Christian Books, says

Jews kill Christian children in order to knead bread with their blood."

The IHTUS web site features copious amounts of anti-Semitic literature and calumnies. An article entitled "Ritual Murder among Jews" repeats all the old medieval libels against Jews as killers of innocent Christians.

"When a ritual murder is carried out for [the Jewish feast of] Purim,” it says, “then the victim is usually a grown-up Christian.

“This blood is then dried and mixed with baking powder to make triangular cakes…. It is possible to use the dried blood left over from the murder at Purim for the upcoming Passover festival."

The IHTUS publishing house is a privately-owned company, whose headquarters are in Zabalj in Vojvodina, the northern province of Serbia.

Publisher in chief Ratibor Djurdjevic was a member of a right-wing, pre-Second World War organisation named Dimitrije Ljotic. After emigrating to the US, Djurdjevic returned to Serbia in 1990.

Djurdjevic expounds his views on the website, claiming his books are important for Serbs and Christians because they disclose information about "the powerful, but unrecognised rulers of the world – Jewish bankers. They are the most important collaborators of Satan in his evil enterprise against Jesus Christ."

He adds that these unnamed Jewish bankers have brought much evil to the Serbs, having "started the war against the Serbs; provided assistance to the disintegrating forces in Yugoslavia; set Bosnia on fire; imposed a cruel embargo on Serbia and Montenegro; armed the Croats and Muslims... [and] demonised Serbs all over the world".

The Serbs are an obstacle to the forces of Jewish conquest in the Balkans, he argues. Djurdjevic's site promises future publications in a similar vein.

IWPR tried to contact Djurdjevic, using the email and telephone number listed on his website, but without success.

However, Branislav Jakovljevic, a director of IHTUS, told IWPR that their books did not accuse all Jews of crimes against Christians, merely some.

“It is a sin to accuse all Jews,” he said. “Amongst them there are ordinary people who haven't sinned against God.”

The problem begins, he added, with “the European and American media who are run by Jewish bankers and who are responsible for creating a bad image of Serbs”.

Anti-Semitism in Serbia is not limited to discussions on foreign-registered websites and slogans painted anonymously on walls, however.

It reaches young people through organisations such as Obraz, which target students and other young people with their hardline nationalist message.

Obraz, which means “Honour” is a right-wing movement preaching allegiance to the Serbian Orthodox Church and to Serbdom in general and encouraging passionate hostility to a list of what it calls enemies of the nation and the church.

Mladen Obradovic, president of Obraz, told IWPR that Obraz’s core values were love of God and good will to people, regardless of where they come from.

But their website tells a different story. A mission statement on the site contains a strongly-worded "Proclamation to the Enemies of Obraz", who are defined as "Zionists, converts to Islam, Ustashe [Croat fascists], democrats, false pacifists, perverts, criminals and drug addicts".

The above groups "shall be justly punished, because they should not be allowed to ruin the health of Serbian youth", the proclamation adds menacingly.

Obradovic was more nuanced in describing Obraz’s stance on Jews to IWPR.

“Because we are Christians, we cannot and do not want to hide the truth that many Euro-Atlantic powerful people of Jewish origin have revealed themselves as open enemies of the Serbian people,” he said.

“Differentiating between enemies and friends cannot be called anti-Semitism,” he added. According to Obradovic, the only people in danger in Serbia today were the Serbs themselves.

How far such views reach down to ordinary people is open to question.

According to a survey in 2003 by the Belgrade Centre for Studying Alternatives, a think-tank specialising in tracking public opinion, anti-Semitism was more widespread than many once thought.

Nine per cent of respondents openly declared themselves as anti-Semites, while another 31 per cent said they were undecided, the survey said.

Many people on the street seem confused in their understanding of history and ready to blame Jews for their country’s recent setbacks.

One taxi driver told IWPR that “Hitler was Jewish and the fact that they [the Nazis] killed millions of their own people is evidence of how bad they are”.

He said Jews were responsible for the destruction of Yugoslavia because “Tito was Jewish”. He added, “The Jews wanted to destroy Yugoslavia for their own economic interests”.

Another woman interviewed on the street said Jews exaggerated the dangers of anti-Semitism for their own benefit. “Jews use anti-Semitism on purpose to gain privileges for themselves,” she said.

According to Belgrade University professor of psychology Zarko Trebjesanin, anti-Semitism appeals to the many losers in Serbia’s troubled society.

“Anti-Semites are people who feel unfulfilled, so they often identify strongly with their own race,” he said. “These people suffer from inferiority complexes and seek an identity in the collective, embracing extremist theories in the process.”

Trebjesanin pointed out that many Serbs had died while trying to save the Jews from the Holocaust, “The Yad Vashem Centre in Jerusalem has cited 113 names from Serbia among the 19,141 righteous”, a reference to the people honoured for saving Jews.

While the websites continue churning out their poison, most of Serbia’s remaining Jews say they feel calm, while calling for the government to react more firmly.

Aca Singer says the current legal penalties against the dissemination of hate-filled views are too weak.

"The penal code should include a provision on anti-Semitism as a criminal offence," he said.

Serbia’s poor economic situation is one factor behind the upsurge of anti-Semitism, he added.

"Jews have been suspected by many nations throughout history. Particularly so if you take into account the deeply-rooted belief that the Jews control global financial and political developments."

Dragana Nikolic-Solomon is IWPR country director for Serbia and Montenegro. Ljubisa Ivanovic works for the Belgrade daily Politika

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 9:08 AM

"the Clinton administration commenced a 78 day bombing of Serbia. '

....WITHOUT Congressional approval....

Posted by: exsgtbrown

at March 29, 2007 9:09 AM

Witch-King:

Bring it to The Hague. Have it tried. Punish everybody who did anything wrong.

The simple fact of the matter is that the Serbs under Milosevic took all the materiel of Yugoslavia, engineered the disarmament of other ethnic groups, then tried to genocide them.

Now, declaring the living spaces of majority-others they tried to exterminate "Serb ethnic ancestral lands" they try to exert hegemony over those they tried to genocide.

They've lost the right, if they even ever had it.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 9:12 AM

Oh, that's rich. A bombing of Serbia. No, a bombing of the province of Kosovo, a bombing begged for the people living there.

And it was NATO that ordered the bombing, and that's quite a bit more than the USA.

But no matter. You guys are blind as bats and deaf as posts, and you will keep at it until there is another war, a war promised to me, BTW, from a poster who said that the aim of all good Serbs at this time is to do enough disinformation in the United States to get away with another war, this time bringing the United States in on the Serb side.

I take this man at his word.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 9:14 AM

The IWPR(a well known hotbed of anti-Serb propaganda, BTW) report is so misleading it would be utterly hilarious if it's concequences could not be rather serious.

The report blatantly contradicts itself when it first says that "antisemitism is a consequence of Milosevic policy" and then only a couple of paragraph's later IWPR quotes Singer saying "antisemitism increased after Milosevic fell from power".

Then it goes on to quote a well known Soros-fund activist Ratko Bozovic, an unbiased source if there ever was one. They never give any evidence to their claim that antisemitism is a "growing phenomenon". All they do is interview a founder of a meaningless publishing house(the kind of which the USA has at an abundance in every town), a website of the so-called "Serbian Defense League" owned by an American citizen that lives in the USA(a fact IWPR conveniently neglects to mention) and just as equally minor organization called Obraz. As a cherry on top of a cake they give us a conversation with a taxi driver as their proof. Wow, folks! Let's interview a random NYC cab driver, then we'll know everything we need to know about America.

This is a typical anti-Serb propaganda matrix: take up a couple of Serb moonbats with delusions of grandeur and paint them as a representative of Serbs as a whole with NGO activists ever-eager to smear anything Serb presented as reliable source.

Posted by: Witch-king of Angmar

at March 29, 2007 9:33 AM

And finally, just for you, Svemirko, an analysis from Dr. Stephen Roth of Tel-Aviv University on Serbian anti-Semitism, from http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw2005/serbia.htm

Republic of Serbia

A great deal of antisemitic graffiti was reported in 2005 on the walls of Jewish facilities, as well as on property of institutions allegedly under Jewish control. Numerous nationalist far right organizations are active in Serbia, some closely connected to the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The Jewish community

The Jewish community in Serbia and Montenegro has some 3,000 members out of a total population of 7 million. Most live in Belgrade, the capital, and the rest are dispersed among Novi Sad, Zemun, Subotica and a few smaller cities. The roof organization is the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia and Montenegro (FJCSM), located in Belgrade. The Jewish Museum in Belgrade operates a database on the Holocaust and collects testimonies from survivors. The American Joint Distribution Committee supports local activities and enhancement of the cultural and economic life of the communities. Although there are no Jewish educational institutions, Hebrew is taught at the community level. At Sajmisthe, an eternally lit menorah memorializes Jews persecuted during World War II.

Nationalist Organizations

Almost all extreme right nationalist parties claim that they have nothing against other nations and minorities and only want to strengthen national identity. None are overtly antisemitic, probably due to the law prohibiting incitement of racial, religious or ethnic hatred and intolerance.

The Serbian Radical Party (Srpska Radikalna Stranka – SRS) is an extremely right-wing nationalist organization. Its founder and director Vojislav Sheselj is currently on trial in The Hague, accused of war crimes and atrocities against humanity. Similarly, Raznatovic Arkan, founder of the ultra-nationalist Party of Serbian Unity (Stranka Srpskog Jedinstva) and the leader of paramilitary forces during the Balkan wars, was wanted for war crimes, but was murdered in 2000. Borislav Pelevic is acting leader of the party.

The Serbian Orthodox Church (Srpska Pravoslavna Crkva − SPC), as well as groups associated with it, is known for its ambivalent attitude toward the Jews and antisemitism, and some high-ranking Church officials have been observed at nationalist events. While on the one hand, representatives of the Church have condemned antisemitic acts and stated that antisemitism is not in the nature of Serbian Orthodoxy, on the other, the Church recently proclaimed an antisemite − Archbishop Nikolaj Velimirovic − a saint.

A highly educated man who became a symbol of Serbian thought, spiritualism and Orthodoxy, Velimirovic freely expressed his antisemitic beliefs in several of his works, including those − published repeatedly − from his days in Dachau concentration camp in 1945, where the German occupiers had imprisoned him because of the perceived threat he posed due to his promotion of Serbian strength and values and unity of the Orthodox world. For example, in Through the Cell Window (Valijevo, 2003, pp. 160−2), he said:

But many Jews… stood against Christ, stepped on him and killed him... Inspired by the stinking spirit of Satan, they judged and murdered Christ. And above all they showed themselves worse enemies of God than Pilate himself …

and,

… one indeed wonders how baptized and Christianized Europeans surrendered totally to the Yids [Jeeds], so they think with a Yid’s head, accept the Yids’ programs, adopt the Yid’s fight against Christ… what is most important is how Europe became the servant of the Yids…”

Velimirovic warns Serbs to correct their thinking and deeds so that they, too, do not become “sons of Satan.”

Velimirovic is the spirit behind several nationalist organizations: Obraz (or Otcastveni Pokret Obraz − Face), a well-organized ultra-rightist group, was formed in the mid-1990s in Belgrade University’s Faculty of History. Some of its members, such as Rados Ljusic, known as the unofficial ideologist of the movement, are known for their radical views. Originally, the official Obraz website included a “Declaration for the Enemy,” which threatened Jewish or Judeo-Masonic individuals or groups. It was eventually replaced with the text:

Will Serbs exist in the near future or will we be murdered by Shiptars [derogatory term for Albanians], those who converted to Islam, or die by the hand of Judeo-Masonic NATO murderers?... or will we… drown in the sewers of the Soros Open Society [Open Society Institute − a foundation of Hungarian American Jew George Soros] and the New World Order?

Many antisemitic and racial incidents, such as graffiti writing on Jewish facilities, on buildings where Jews are employed or on institutions perceived to house liberal/open-minded people (Belgrade University’s Faculty of Philosophy, B-92 TV [an independent TV channel which opposed the Milosevic regime], Helsinki Committee for Human Rights), have been attributed to Obraz, but have not been proven. The current leader is Mladen Obradovic. The site provides links to far right organizations throughout Europe.

The nationalist, religious Saint Justin the Philosopher (Sveti Justin Filozof) movement, named after a pupil of Velimirovic, attracts conservative and Orthodox members, and is reportedly supported by SPC. Branches of the movement exist in many universities in Serbia.

Begun in Belgrade University’s Faculty of Philology in 1999, Dveri (Gates) is one of the largest movements, attracting both extreme right and Orthodox supporters. The organization opposes globalization and mondialism (an alternative form of globalization). It has close links to the SPC and Church officials sometimes lecture at their weekly meetings at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. In 2001, Dveri claimed that Orthodox Serbian unity cannot be achieved with those who do not accept the Truth, such as Jews, Muslims, Protestants. Their ideology is based on conspiracy theories (such as powerful forces controlling the world) and extreme xenophobia, requiring Serbia to unite nationally and religiously. The movement has a journal and is expanding rapidly throughout Serbia.

The Serbian People’s Movement (Svetozar Miletic), located in Vojvodina, is a far right organization, although this is not apparent from its program (due to the law prohibiting incitement of racial, religious or ethnic hatred). Many of its members are professionals and academics and the movement has the support of high-ranking SPC officials. Its website has links to the organizations mentioned above, as well as to groups, such as Final Combat (see below) which share its point of view.

Final Combat (Poslednji Obracun), led by Dimitrije Najdanovic, has members from Serbia and among Diaspora Serbs, as well as from other nations. Their ideology, a slightly modified version of National Socialism, opposes interracial relations. In regard to the Jews, their manifesto reads: “World Jewry should be avoided even when they offer gifts. A skill which will teach how to prevent any contacts with them and a skill how to intercept their actions should be established…[sic]” The main difference between Final Combat and other groups is that while the latter concentrate on the spiritual-intellectual side, the former emphasizes physical preparation in order to defeat the enemy.

The Serbian Right (Srpska Desnica) apparently acts as an umbrella for all Church-related far right groups. Other nationalist organizations, with varying degrees of antisemitism, include: the Serbian Knights (Srpski Vitezovi), also based on Serbian Orthodoxy and located in Belgrade University’s medical faculty; Rasionalisti, the Serbian division of Stormfront; the extremely antisemitic US-based Serbian Defense League, connected to Stormfront; and the neo-Nazi National Line (Nacionalni Stroj).

Antisemitic activity

Antisemitic activity in Serbia is usually confined to graffiti on walls and buildings, usually belonging to Jewish individuals and organizations, but sometimes on non-Jewish ones because the perpetrators assume that the Jews control everything. Such activity was reported in many Serbian cities in 2005. For example, on 26−27 January, a memorial plate dedicated to Jewish victims of World War II in Novi Knjazevac was coated with oil paint and a swastika and the words “Jews” (Zhidovi), scrawled on it. Central Belgrade and its surroundings were covered with anti-Zionist/antisemitic posters and graffiti on 22 March. Slogans on the wall of the Jewish cemetery read: “Fight the 5 October Zionist occupation of Serbia [fall of Milosevic regime]; “B-92 is Jewish Television!” “Jewish parasites get out of Serbia”; “We want freedom and not Jewish occupation! Serbia belongs to Serbs!” Similar graffiti appeared on buildings of the Rex Cultural Center (which engages in ‘cultural decontamination’ − showing films and lectures about recent Balkan wars and Serbian responsibility for them), formerly, the Jewish Oneg Shabbat Center; the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and the Foundation for Humanity and Law. The graffiti accused the heads of the last two institutions of being “Jewish puppets.”

In May, several buildings in the city of Zrenjanin, Vojvodina, including a restaurant with a memorial plate to the synagogue that once stood there and to Jewish victims of the Holocaust were covered with fascist and antisemitic messages. In Nish, southern Serbia, the synagogue was desecrated twice – in June and July − with antisemitic slogans such as “Death to servants of Zionism” and “Arbeit macht frei.”

In February 2005 a list of Jews living in Serbia, including their home and office phone numbers and addresses appeared on the white supremacist Stormfront site, Serbian section. Although it was eventually removed, the site continues to regularly explain the damage Jewish people do to the world in general and particularly to Serbia.

An anti-fascist meeting at the University of Novi Sad was interrupted by a group of youths who resembled skinheads. Introducing themselves as ‘the National Line’, they saluted in the Nazi fashion and harassed and insulted the speakers and audience, They were apprehended and arrested a few days later. Literature found by the police on members of the National Line indicated the neo-Nazi orientation of the group.

A brochure containing the tract “Serbs in the Claws of Jews,” by Milorad Mojic, was distributed in Novi Sad, in February. The piece was originally written in 1940/1. The author claims, inter alia, that “Jews can dishonor non-Jewish girls.”

Antisemitic Publishers and Literature

The most antisemitic publisher is the Christian IHTUS, founded and owned by Ratibor Djurdjevic, who returned in the early 1990s from the US where he had immigrated. Djurdjevic receives support from Zarko Gavrilovicn a retired priest from the SPC. Djurdjevic wrote, translated and published books such as: The Elders of Zion; 3000 Years in the Service of the Satan; The Myth about the Holocaust; Judeo-Bankers and the Rise of Hitler and The Human Victim in Judaism. These books can be purchased cheaply in Belgrade; in fact, one of the bookshops specializing in such literature is located in the center, beside the Museum of Genocide. Although the local Jewish community brought legal charges against him, he was unable to appear in court, allegedly due to ill-health; nevertheless, he continues to write and publish.

Other publishers of antisemitic books include Ekopress in Zrenjanin, and Vojvodina, which printed Mein Kampf (foreword written by well-known Serbian writer Radomir Smiljanic). Dejan Lucic specializes in ‘conspiracy theories’ and blames the Jews for all the evil in the world, and especially in Serbia. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is widely available.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 9:35 AM

Yeah, Witch-King, and Srebrenica is a lie, too, right??? Despite the fact the Serb government acknowledges it and has apologized.

So, here's a thought for you. Why don't you guys clean up your nationalism, anti-Semitism, etc., and stop declaring -- jihad style -- that every criticism of you is just people martyring you.

Then you could become a real asset to anti-jihadism because you would not longer simply be ANTI EVERYBODY ELSE.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 9:37 AM

Morgaan, you are hilarious! Your "majorities" came to be through a REAL GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING THAT OCCURED IN WWII not phony and non-existent ones you promote here! But according to you, they have the right to those lands and the Serbs WHO WERE REALLY GENOCIDED 60 YEARS AGO have no rights!

Posted by: Witch-king of Angmar

at March 29, 2007 9:39 AM

So Witchipoo ...

How come it's all right for Serbs to try to genocide their neighbors in the Balkans in the 1990s for something that happened in World War II.

Is it all right for the Norwegians to exterminate the Catholics because of the inquisition of their native religionists in the Middle Ages?

Is it all right for the Muslims to claim rights to now-Christian lands (and let the people living their die in masses for their claims)they claimed in 1350?

I find Serbs going back to 500- and 600-years-old battles to try to justify taking land and killing people less than a decade ago.

The Serbs did too much wrong and they cannot be trusted with the administration of any peoples other than their own.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 9:45 AM

Serbs have a right to their own country, Serbia, not their and that of others on whom they inflicted rape, torture, genocide, etc.

I would be in the SAME place if the Albanians tried to take over Belgrade. I would say: No, back in your own majority place.

The only hope for peace in the Balkans is if the ethnic groups all stay separated for awhile.

I do not know what you guys are thinking that you even WANT Kosovo, because if you try to take and impose your will on a population that is 90% non-Serb you will have another war, and this time it is likely that it will happen where Serbs are presently living and I have no idea what the death toll will be, but if even one more Serb, Croat, Bosnian, Albanian, or Jewish kid dies in a conflict on the basis of a lust for land, I hope any adult involved it burns in hell.

Now, the Serbs THEMSELVES told ethnic Serbs to leave Kosovo because of what they planned to do to the Albanians there. And they didn't want Serbs dying because other Serbs couldn't recognize them when they used the tanks and pulverized the place.

So Serbs left of their own free will, and now you want to claim the land and send them back.

It would never have got to this point if you guys had simply NOT GONE TO WAR AGAINST NEIGHBORS WHO DIDN'T WANT TO BE RULED BY SERBS ON AN ETHNIC-CLEANSING BASIS.

And whenever anybody asks you to stop being so damned militant, ethnically superior, etc., you go find whatever you can in the past to excuse yourselves for present behavior.

Now who does that sound like? Whose logic does that sound? That sounds like Al Qaeda/Muslim supremacist thinking to me. Don't do it. It's beneath you.

Come back to us as the good people you once were and can be again. And stop trying to start another war and pull MY country into an ethnic supremacy/cleansing deal that we will never be able to live with on a moral level.

Thank you.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 9:51 AM

Moron Sinclair(I didn't resort to insults, but I give as good as I get), the Serbs did not try to genocide anybody. Your claim is a lie! And I have legal paper that proves it! The International Criminal Court decided that it was a lie!

For the record: there were war crimes comitted by Serbs in Srebrenica but it was not genocide. The Dutch parliament confirmed that the women and children from the town were evacuated to muslim city of Tuzla. What happened at Srebrenica was a response to this:

http://real-srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/

Brought to you by your beloved Naser Oric.

And with this I finish any polemics with you, I have spent enough time with you in the sewer, I don't want to descend there anymore.

Posted by: Witch-king of Angmar

at March 29, 2007 9:52 AM

Prizren and Pec are just as Serb as Belgrade is. But taking over those towns is OK according to some individual's perverted logic.

Posted by: Witch-king of Angmar

at March 29, 2007 9:53 AM

And yes, Witchipoo, I am aware of the Serb genocide during World War II and it is heart-breaking. But accusing the Jews of "stealing the Serb Holocaust" ...

... AND BLAMING THAT GENOCIDE ON THE JEWS [http://sdlusa.com/sdl/] ...

... is not helpful to the issue. And blaming Serb wars of aggression on issues in the past is NO DIFFERENT than blaming Israel and the United States for 9/11.

Come on. Give us the Serbia we need. You have a brilliant, wonderful past, but a new radical nationalism will only wind up leaving Serbia in the place it is now, despised as the worst attempt at genocide since the Nazis, for decades and decades more.

Serbia should be offering a hand of friendship and a model of tolerance to all its neighbors so that healing can begin. Healing can't begin with Serbia's neighbors fearing further future aggression.

Once Serbia shows itself to be level-headed, removes its anti-Semitism, and acknowledges other ethnic groups in the Balkans as equal on a racial and ethnic basis, then Serbia can ally with those Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo to help remove the well-financed Wahhabi effort there. Bosnia last week expelled 400 forein nationals, and in Kosovo there are emerging battles in villages to remove the Wahhabis altogether.

Serbia can be part of this effort if she can be found to be trustworthy about the safety of her neighbors.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 9:58 AM

The linkage with Israel is strong... especially in terms of 'the solution.' For Kosova, the solution was imposed 'from above' by others. 'This is the way it is.' The Saudi solution for Israel calls for an immediate two-state solution with Israel giving up parts of Jerusalem, back to the '67 borders, but also 'the right of return' with Arabs coming back to inside the '67 borders wherever their hearts desire. In effect... the end of Israel. The Saudis call for no negotiations... they call for Israel to take it or leave it and warn of war if the complete set up is accepted. James Baker and others are coming around to the Saudi position, going so far to call for an outside solution to be imposed on Israel.

But before a solution could be imposed on Serbia, complete vilification of Serbs had to be marshaled; ever seen a bad Muslim Albanian on TV or in the movies, or a kind-hearted Serb? With three generations since the destruction of Europe's Jews, the vilification of Israel picks up steam. Israel's 'friends' such as the Kind of Jordan and Condi and Turkey suggest open minded examination of the 'Saudi Peace Plan' and Israel's typical leftists dupes such as Shlomo Ben-Ami chirp in that Israel should accept the plan.

If Israel not only retreats to the pre-'67 borders, but also asorbs millions of Arabs into such borders, will that 'final demand' calm down the Arabs, reform Islam, or will it embolden the Jihadis? Have Albanians calmed down now that they are in the driver's seat... will they bring peace to the Balkans, ushering in a golden age of dhimmitude? What do you think?

Posted by: biorabbi

at March 29, 2007 10:03 AM

It's wonderful how some people never actually deny anything posted in the original article but rather insist on their distoted view of history that somehow miraculously stops at a certain year. From there a twisted logic is born that it is alright for some people to keep a majority acquired through real genocide while at the same time not only dismissing the real victims' legitimate wish not to live under peoples that tried to exterminate them but also reversing the roles through made-up genocides using every propaganda tool and slur they can think of.

On the other hand these same individuals go absolutely haywire when somebody makes light-hearted fun about their land of origin. And insults when people debunk their perverted worldview come naturally.

Why do I waste time with such people? They themselves certainly are not worth it. I just don't want someone falling prey to their lies and distortions.

Posted by: Witch-king of Angmar

at March 29, 2007 10:09 AM

Ang-mar ... excellent.

For everyone else, please read the Balkans Timeline above.

As to Witch-King's assertion that there was no genocide, that is true only because NATO intervened. Note the following from the report that Witch-King cites:

QUOTING:

"The acts committed at Srebrenica ... were committed with the specific intent to destroy in part the group of the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina as such, and accordingly ... these were acts of genocide" committed by Bosnian Serb forces, the judgment said.

It specifically demanded that Serbia hand over for trial Gen. Ratko Mladic, the general who oversaw the Bosnian Serb onslaught at Srebrenica, to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Serbia has said it has been unable to arrest Mladic since his indictment 12 years ago.

By 13-2, the court found that Serbia had the power to foresee and prevent the Srebrenica slaughter _ the worst in Europe since World War II _ and failed to use it. Only the Serbian judge opposed the demand for Mladic's transfer.

Serbia's claim that it was powerless to prevent the massacres "hardly tallies with their known influence" over the Bosnian Serb army, said the ruling.

END QUOTE.

The UN court found that Serbia **as a country** could not be held accountable for all the actions of the Bosnian army and the Serb paramilitaries operating in Bosnia because they did not have total control of them. That seems fair to me. But they were aware of operations going on and had the ability to stop them and did not, the court found.

NOW ...

If Serbia would like to regain its reputation, it MUST turn over Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić to the War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague for prosecution on charges of mass murder and torture.

Enough already. Put up or shut up. And note that the Serb judge on this court VOTED AGAINST TURNING OVER MLADIC.

It doesn't looking promising.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 10:13 AM

Of course, details that do not suit the agenda are unpublished, such as the parts where it says that Bosnian war was not a war of agression by anybody or that war crimes there do not characterize genocide. Or that the part is based on an ICTY decision that had to broaden the definition of "genocide" so much that even the BBC noted that according to that ruling any local attrocity could be deemed genocide.

Posted by: Witch-king of Angmar

at March 29, 2007 10:17 AM

poor moron Sinclair continues with his spam odyssey .....

Care to explain, Moron old bean, why your hero - Izetbegovich - met with Bin Laden, had very close links with TWRA - who organised the first terror attack on the WTC - and helped infiltrate Iranian AL Qud forces into Bosnia. To prove his Islamist credentials, he pointedly refused to pay his respects at Ataturks grave. To Hard case Islamists he's an apostate. The only other country's leader to behave in such a way was - you guessed it - Iran.

Serbia and Bosnian Serbs on the other hand were deluged with Israeli military hardware and more importantly, vital intelligence.

Poor Sinclair. The penny refuses to drop.

But keep up with the spamming, do. Maybe you could write a book. "Spam the World in 80 Days"

Posted by: ewha1

at March 29, 2007 10:26 AM

Morgan,
I mean this comment respectfully, but can you shorten your posts at all? I am trying to understand you point of view. However I do not have the time to spend reading such long posts and I imagine others on here do not also. If you could condense them into one or two paragraphs that would be helpful to the discussion. Otherwise they are either passed up or skimmed.

Regardless of the pasts sins of the Serbs, when I see pictures of desecrated Orthodox Churches occuring in the present, I can only image what is to come in Kosovo under total islamic rule.

On the same topic, I wonder what the Macedonias should do? Should the UN also grant the militant Albanias a seperate region of that country in which it will eventually be incorporated into a greater muslim Albania?

Should Serbia give up land on its borders with Kosovo that are in dispute? Should Russia give up Chechnya to islam? Should Georgia give up Abkazia? Should North Ossetia be given up to islam? Does Armenia relinquish Nagorno-Karabakh? Where does it end...

Posted by: adobe

at March 29, 2007 10:37 AM

Adobe,

I'm sorry for the length of some posts, but sometimes posting substantive timelines and articles with honorable citation is the only way to make a point on the basis of fact, not opinion or argument. I don't like to, but sometime I have to.

I tend to believe things are not as applicable across the boards as many do. Each situation is unique:

Chechnya has a long and complicated history with the Russians, who force-marched many out of the country when they took it over. In the 1990s Chechnya elected a non-Islamic independence-minded person. Russia assasinated him. The local independence movement was NOT Islamic to begin with, but became so with the introduction by the Wahhabis of Basheyev, who made it thus, assassinating BTW the moderate Muslim there whom Putin had erroneously conflating with an Islamist movement to begin with. Putin is largely responsible for the mess that is in Chechnya now, and given now that the movement has been infiltrated by Wahhabis, I would say Russia should hang onto it, becuase Al Qaeda LOVES A VACUUM of any kind. They can exploit such a vacuum at the drop of a hat.

Should Georgia give up Abkazia? No.

Should North Ossetia be given up to Islam? Don't know.

Does Armenia reliquish Nagorno-Karabakh? No.

Should Serbia give up border lands with Kosovo? No, the Serb majority enclaves in Kosovo should remain Serb territory; the Albanian-majority areas should be Kosovo.

The question underlying this is one that implies that we must make a decision between all Islam and everything else. That, I feel, is both foolish in terms of potential MASSIVE wars that draw radical terrorists from all over the Middle East into yet another "vacuum". The Muslims of the Balkans don't want it, but if they are attacked and defenseless, they not only cannot defend themselves against the Serbs, they also cannot defend themselves against the Wahhabists, whom they call "space aliens" and against whom they are defending themselves admirably against the onslaught of Wahhabi financing and threats of violence.

What we all need lies along another line: We need to stop Saudi financing, on which all of this runs like a freight train. To do that we need to get off oil as fast as we can.

We need to lobby hard worldwide for laws that forbid foreign financing of religions and political groups BY ANYBODY in the United States and elsewhere. That would end all foreign PACs like AMPAC, APAC, ISNA, ICNA, and CAIR and stop Saudi financing of "charities" that dupe the poor into believing the most radical Islam in the world is a friendly thing to them.

Sorry, another long one. Apologies [s].

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 11:11 AM

Adobe ... Last note.

You'll notice that my initial response, and all following, came after an ad hominem attack in the first post.

What follows are rants by people accusing me of lies. When people do this I post solid information to back up my opinions.

When people lie, they can do it in a sentence.

When you have to explain why you believe what you do, it can take much longer. I don't ask people to believe me because I said so. I give them the information with which to form their own opinion.

The people in the Balkans have been killing themseleves over ethnicity -- not religion -- for 900 years. Now the Serbs try to claim that it's now "religion". It isn't. It's ethnic hatred and needs to be dealt with as such.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 11:13 AM

Morgaan Sinclair

You really are foolish if you think another Islamic state is good for the world. You can make post after post on this till the end of time and it still does not change that fact.

Then again we have already clashed so many times why even respond. I have already won and you already have lost this one. Kosovo (just like Bosnia before) is the blueprint for jihadist everywhere. In Thailand, Israel, Sudan, and others the jihadist make the same claims but for some reason you only buy it with Kosovo and not with others (or perhaps you do).

Once again how does a Islamic state in Kosovo help anyone? You know and I know where they are getting their money from (Arabia). Your endless defense of the enemy should be noted. Just like your savage attacks on Hirsi Ali is noted.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/015150.php

I am sorry but you have never apologized for that brutal assult. You never answered my questions. You also lacked facts and made up quotes to defend you position then also.

Kosovo should stay in the hands of the Serbs not becuase the serbs are choir boys but because I am sick of muslims getting land grabs because bleeding hearts like you Morgaan keep buying their propaganda. They then use that land to make another land grab etc. It never ends until somebody says no.

Posted by: greatcometof1577

at March 29, 2007 11:16 AM

I'll repeat what I said in another post. The Serbs were bombed because they acted like beasts. The deserved whatever they got. It was all to do with creating a Greater Serbian empire.
There's not much between them and Muslims, they are both have a whining "we're always the victims" mentality. They sowed the winds of their own destruction.
That being said, Kosovo shouldn't be given to Albania, it shouldn't be given to Serbia either.
Perhaps I could have it.

Posted by: Ian

at March 29, 2007 11:18 AM

Ian

Big difference Serbs want a greater Serbia...

Muslims want a greater world.

Is any of this sinking in????

Posted by: greatcometof1577

at March 29, 2007 11:20 AM

I vote for Ian getting Kosovo. Actually, I think the UN should continue to administer it for a period of 25 years.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 11:30 AM

GreatCometofWhenever ...

It's clear I know a great deal more about this conflict than you. You never answer with anything substantive at all, are completely unaware of the politics on the Serb far-right that is right now designing a new war, and apparently have no compassion for people at all if they're not of the right ethnicity or religion for you.

My goal here is to prevent another wholesale slaughter in the Balkans, one that will draw Al Qaeda there worse than they were drawn to Iraq. You don't want to go there. Because if you do, there WILL be a Wahhabi satellite there, not because the Albanians or the Bosnians want it, but because the Serbs will have made sure that they, as extremely Europeanized pluralistic Sufis, are robbed of the strength to prevent it.

There are only three real possibilities for the development of a schismatic liberal Hanafi fiqh that throws out the hadith and bad verses of the Qur'an: progressive thinking in Turkey (NOT Erdogan), Islam lite in Indonesia in the non-Aceh provinces that invented the Pancasila doctrine, and Sufi Islam in the Balkans. Of all of them, Sufi Islam in the Balkans stands the best chance of being an Islam that we can live with over the long haul.

Again, the conflicts in the Balkans are not principally religious. They are ethnic, nothwithstanding the efforts of the Serbs now to paint them as religious for their own benefit.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 11:45 AM

Actually, I think the UN should continue to administer it for a period of 25 years. Posted by Morgaan Sinclair

Following which we can have local girls gangraped by UN troops this time, instead of the evil Serbs. Just like the UN peacekeepers did in the Congo.

I thought you said at the top of this thread that you were busy. Didn't stop you from going way beyond what svemirko accurately predicted you would. Can we see even oneSerbia/Albania/Kosovo/Bosnia thread go by without your plethora of copy/paste jobs from the Cordoba protocols, or other such UN hack jobs?

Posted by: Infidel Pride

at March 29, 2007 11:49 AM

@ Morgaane

AAARGGGH, beautifull, realy beutifull. Please excuse moi, Morgaane cos Iam late for posting. I was absent from my pc, but I thank you cos at least for a first time, seeing your comment bring a smile on my face. And as I can see from your comment, you were busy too (cooking some serb for a dinner perhaps?).

It would realy make me tired to copy/paste myself as you usualy do,and as I did waste one hour for typing the comment on previous Kosovo topic, which you succesfully delited almost immidiatelly (which make me wonder how in reality you are distanced from moderator ;). It would be realy nice from jw/dw management to bring that post back cos there you can find a lot of answers for your rahitic arguements. So Ill try this time to be brief.

'I had not planned to comment on this thread as I am very busy, and then I noticed your completely unprovoked ad hominem attack. Therefore, AT YOUR REQUEST, I will respond.'

No honey, I didnt request. But if you are so willing to indulge my request, well, thank you. Thats realy nice. Than please, do me a favor (and to the rest of 'enemy of islam world') and stop posting at all, at least on the topics about western-serbian relationship. That would be my most honest request for you. Or to put it more simply: please spare us from your comments. Aaah, but you will not do that, right. Too much is in stake.

'Thank you, Svemirko, for your latest invitation to me to respond. Every time you place an ad hominem, lying attack on me on these boards, I will be pleased to respond.'

Beeep. Wrong again. It was not an invitation (as it was not the request).It was diagnose. And not of your brain or personality (cos it would take a lot of time), but just of your political view.But I am very proud that you are willing to use me as an EXCUSE for bombing, pardon, I meant to say flooding...no wait, actually smearing this website and Serbs on any possible occasion. Than I promise that I'll start to post on any other topic, and you can copy/paste your reports as much as you like. Actually, you can post it anywhere baby. I mean, imagine the news on jw: ,scuicidal bomber blow up himself in sunny mosk;casulties: 25 dead man,woman, camels and goats'. Than you jump in with your 'timeline', than ngo report on serbian nazist swarming allaround, than your usual 'serbian-war-genocide' relationship, and we all end up happy. Imagine that Morgaane. What a happyness. Even those sunnys, camels and goats will be happy not just for 72 virgins in eternal orgasmus, nooo; theyll be happy to know that it was actually the serbs who did it. They start everything. You can actually print all of your posts (all 5 of them) and stick it to a forehead (if you allready didnt) and walk all aroud united states. And dont forget to visit ban kee moon (you know, the guy with a funny name) in U.N. buliding, cos he just said today that its israel to be blame and occupation of palestine territories, for m.e. crisis. But he will be very gratefull to you, to remove stone from his neck (if he have it at all, I mean on neck, not stone), and tell him that it wasn jews, it was Goddamned serbs again. And if he than finds a time, nervs and eyes to read all your timelines and reports you maybe even get a nobel prize for peace.

Now excuse me. I just received a simptoms of my chronic genocidal attack, and I got to metamorphose myself in my natural serbian subhuman state. Maybe I shouldnt breakfast those albanian girl. Damn it. My mother warned me: 'Dont eat albanian, dont eat albanian. You can just get a diarea'. But I didnt listened dear mamma.Shit, I'll try some bosnian next time.

Posted by: svemirko

at March 29, 2007 11:58 AM

Svemirko, dahlink! You're back.

You know, you're the first Serb cannibal I've ever known. I thought that existed now only among South Kore of New Guinea, but I stand corrected. Watch out, though, eating another human being can give you kuru, and we wouldn't want you to have that.

And, dear me, can't you keep your posts shorter? We don't want you getting typists' cramp!

Try to calm down. This is a discussion on merits, and you don't seem to be able to able to polemcisism long enough to proffer a coherent thought.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 12:12 PM

svemirko

If the moderators deleted anything of yours, the least they could do is delete all of Morgaan's excessive copy/paste jobs from wherever. It's getting tiresome seeing every Serb thread dominated by her anti-Serb rants, including the Trolley Square massacre, where she took on Robert.

So far, I haven't asked for Morgaan to be banned, but given her tolerance for posts such as yours, I am openly asking for it right now.

Robert? Hugh? Marisol? Anybody?

Posted by: Infidel Pride

at March 29, 2007 12:14 PM

The Guns of August was a popular book in my household when I was growing up. When the Soviet Union ceased to exist, I immediately thought of the Balkans, silent for so long, but historically the ignitor of world wars. I wondered what will happen now? I guess we know.

This area is NOT just a flash point for parochial ethnic divisions, but IS the tinderbox of world wide struggles. You fellows can nit-pick the history of the Serbian-Croatian conflicts, but it does boil down to the present reality: There is a world-wide struggle for Islamic supremacy and one of the crucibles of the still nascent conflagration-to-come is Kosovo.

The United States occupation of Iraq may not be everyone's preferred venue for this struggle, but the West, dar-al-harb, has taken the struggle to them, in dar-al-Islam. And for them, the thirteen-hundred year agressors, that is a paradigm shift that has not been adequately received. That may be because of the inadequacy of the delivery.

Posted by: thelittlegreekwoman

at March 29, 2007 12:25 PM

Infidel Pride ...

I sent your request to Robert, so I'm sure if they see any merit in your request they'll do something about it.

The posts of svemirko's that were deleted in this and other threads were flatly libelous.

Whether you, the class bully, think so or not, I have a right to my opinion, which is backed up by SOLID REFERENCE OF THE FACTS.

When people call me "nazi" "taqiyyah Al Qaeda" and the like for doing so that is libel. When people make sexual references to me, that is porn.

Either a person is capable of a debate on the facts of the matter or they're not.

That you try to have punished and banned everyone who doesn't agree with you gives ample evidence of the side of civility on which you stand and have stood every since I first apologized to Robert many months ago now -- you with your demands to know the names of people so you could hurt them and the details of relationships that are none of your goddam business.

Well, we'll see. If JW bans me for posting opinoin backed up by solid information, then this is not a site that I will be supporting further.

But thus far, I have only seen banned people for the fairest of reasons -- people who engage in filthy speech, postulations of genocide against Muslims, unwelcome sexual innuedos toward women.

Posting solid historical and contemporary information to counter people make without substantiation is not only a right, it's a duty.

I don't care if you don't like it.

Posted by: Morgaan Sinclair

at March 29, 2007 12:37 PM

While I do not consider myself qualified to express much of an opinion on the issues that have been discussed over these latest threads relating to Kosovo and Serbia, it seem obvious that there are some fairly strong opposing views on the subject.

What I do not understand, is how it has come to the point where we are discussing requesting the banning of a poster on the basis of their actually having an opposing view.

If I remember correctly, we accuse many internet bloggers and commenters on the political left of outright censorship, deletion of posts and banning of members if so much as a whisper of disagreement with the party line is uttered.

Are we now to go down that same path?. I would understand it if the poster in question were little more than a mere 'troll' seeking to disrupt debate. Yet to seek the banning of a poster for disagreeing and being willing and able to argue those points of disagreement well?; That smacks of intolerance towards o