Archive through September 23, 1999 - Kosovo War

philtr — Thu, 23 Sep 1999 13:07:00 +0000

" Ah hell, Phil. What are you trying to do? Get me bogged down checking out allthose links? I'll never make it back here to my favorite
forum :o)!! "

T'gunn, does this mean you have not run into the Political Junkie web site at: http://politicaljunkie.com/ ? ;o{)

zoja — Thu, 23 Sep 1999 09:00:00 +0000

So, according to Daniela, this....

Daniela writes: "Even if the text is a true one - not just the usual albanian style lie - there`s a huge difference between what is in it and all the conclusions made out of it.
All this still doesn`t justify taking one`s sovereign territory, fighting on the side of the terrorists and killing innocent civilians by bombing them for three months... "

has nothing to do with this....

Zoja writes: But do you have to let children fall victim of the hate of the adults?
Nothing justifies bombing, but nothing justifies murdering babies and anciently old people either. And certainly nothing justifies letting our children grow up with fear, hate and ignorance, not in Serbia, not in Albania, not in the US, not anywhere. If we as the human race want to make a future for ourselves that is worth living, the first two things we must let go of is prejudice and hate.

It's very easy to practice an eye for an eye and dog eat dog, it is ten times harder to let go, but neccesary for our survival.

Makes me wonder. Probably the adolescent emtpyness of the mall at work here :-))

Our beloved leader Slob still knows how to fill people's minds, though, and graves, too. People's minds in Serbia are not polluted by the mall, but merely by hate and isolation, which only generates more hate and isolation. The resistance may seem to squabble and seem fruitless, but it's the only chance Serbia has, and I hope people are able to see it and take it.

If I look at what happened to Iraq, with Saddam losing the war, but still firmly in the saddle, the whole of the former Yugoslavia faces a grim future with the war criminals still in charge. You are not aware of what is really going on there, as you are to busy trying to solve your own puzzles. Neither socialism, nor capitalism really happened there. All of the people from the former Yuguslavia were not free to speak their minds under Tito , and certainly were not free to speak their minds when Slob and his mates took over. They simply have had no chance to speak for themselves ever, eventhough the leaders do everything in heir power to make it seem so.

The only way for humankind to get rid of any police state where ever in the world, is to start letting go of hate, prejudice and fear, because these are the vital nutrients for war and poverty.

Zoja

tommygunns — Thu, 23 Sep 1999 06:19:00 +0000

Ah hell, Phil. What are you trying to do? Get me bogged down checking out all those links? I'll never make it back here to my favorite forum :o)!!

Besides, the very first section of "newz" didn't even have a link to Workers World - harumph!! :o) Well, anyway it is a comprehensive collection of links, so there must be SOMETHING there of interest to a bah-humbug kinda guy like me, right?

With both hands stuck in the cookie jar, I'm already overextended. It's a tuff job trying to keep on your case, keep an eye on the beast at my work, and still have fun. :o) Oooops. I forgot, keeping on your case IS fun. :o) :o) (that deserves a double smiley).

I'm in such a hurry lately I had to copy your smiley just to save a few key strokes. :o) (see, there it is again) Oh well, that's the plight of the working class - "just keep 'em running, they won't have time to make trouble" (paraphrased, but you know what I mean).

tommygunns

BTW - here's a heads up for all you Yugo folks out there: Peter Gailbraith (ambassador to Croatia during the infamous Operation Storm) has met recently (secretly) with Montenegro mafia chieftan Djukanovic and reps from Alliance for Change. Scenario: Montenegro declares it's secession from FRY, instigating a reaction from Serbia, sparking a civil war and providing a pretext for a US/NATO final assault against Yugoslavia.

It's coming down the pipeline, so don't be surprised when the s**t hits the fan. :o)

philtr — Wed, 22 Sep 1999 21:17:00 +0000

T'gunn, you seem to be a comic strip kinda guy. If so go to:
http://crayon.net/using/links.html
Comic section is about 4/5ths of the way down the page. Enjoy. :o) phil

tommygunns — Wed, 22 Sep 1999 19:18:00 +0000

L'menexe,

You're missing the point. The material squalor of the mall, the emptyness and meaninglessness therein is precisely what imprisons todays younger people - the endless busyness and the mind-numbing emptyness whether in or out of the school, at the mall, or at home; constant surveillance whether by parents, school authorities, city, county, state, federal agents, as well as mall guards.

Of course, we all face the same kind of encroaching "police state" apparatus and it's authoritarian structures and attitudes, but as an adult I still have some ability to fight back. Today's youth have NO rights; they either belong to their parents, the state, or they run away and live on the streets somewhere.

tommygunns

L'menexe — Wed, 22 Sep 1999 13:28:00 +0000

m'sieu gunns
i wonder which of us is more recently removed from
our american adolescence, however protracted we've
managed to make it (grin).
but a quick perusal of any happenin' mall on a
weekday after school wouldnt turn up too many
adolescents who felt they were "imprisoned by the
state and at the mercy of their parents".
and this wouldnt seem to have been the case in
littleton either.
dostoevsky's 'rat hole' is exceptionally furnished
these days; someone better go tell those
contemporarily well-equipped kids they're
prisoners of the state.
not to mention the kids out there who wish their
parents were around and available enough to so
much as try to put them at their mercy.

oh indeed there's something terribly rotten in the
state...just surprised at where you went w/that
post.

daniela — Wed, 22 Sep 1999 00:22:00 +0000

You`ve lost your marbles woman.

Do you realise that your comment has nothing to do with mine; you are in a totally delusional state...

zoja — Tue, 21 Sep 1999 09:31:00 +0000

Daniela writes: "Even if the text is a true one - not just the usual albanian style lie - there`s a huge difference between what is in it and all the conclusions made out of it.
All this still doesn`t justify taking one`s sovereign territory, fighting on the side of the terrorists and killing innocent civilians by bombing them for three months... "

Bur do you have to let children fall victim of the hate of the adults?
Nothing justifies bombing, but nothing justifies murdering babies and anciently old people either. And certainly nothing justifies letting our children grow up with fear, hate and ignorance, not in Serbia, not in Albania, not in the US, not anywhere. If we as the human race want to make a future for ourselves that is worth living, the first two things we must let go of is prejudice and hate.

It's very easy to practice an eye for an eye and dog eat dog, it is ten times harder to let go, but neccesary for our survival.

Zoja

tommygunns — Tue, 21 Sep 1999 06:18:00 +0000

Daniella,

<< Even if the text is a true one - not just the usual albanian style lie - there`s a huge difference between what is in it and all the conclusions made out of it. <<

Good point. It's the (implied) conclusions that people interpret that are the seeds of lies and distortions.

Are school children incapable of understanding they just had the s***t bombed out of them. Now they should be protected from the truth and drugged with fantasies?

Really, I think children are a hell of a lot smarter than most adults and can handle the truth much better.

Here in the USA we have an entire artificial class of people called "adolescents" that are completely disenfranchised and virtually imprisoned by the state and at the mercy of their parents (who also live in fear of the state). Then adults wonder why some of them go on a shooting rampage killing other students and teachers. To paraphrase Dostoevsky, "If you keep a man locked in a rat hole for 40 years, what do you expect?"

Adults claim that young people are not emotionally mature to handle the problems of life, but it's the adults who keep them in an artificial, suspended state of immaturity in the first place?

Oh yes, there's something terribly rotten in the state.

tommygunns

tommygunns — Tue, 21 Sep 1999 05:59:00 +0000

It just goes on, and on, and on, and on . . . . . . . .Thaci's having a snit-fit, KLA extends KFOR's (?) deadline, the U.S. trained the Indonesian militias now destroying East Timor, and is now giving $3.5 billion (THAT'S BILLION!!!!) to Colombia. Is there no end to this madness, mendacity, and hipocracy?

tommygunns

from www.UnitedStates.com

KFOR: NO SIGN OF SERB PARAMILITARIES

MITROVICA, Yugoslavia, Sept. 18 (UPI) - A spokesman for Kosovo's international peacekeepers said Saturday there was no sign of paramilitary activity among Serbs in northern Kosovo.

Responding to rumors that Yugoslav soldiers plan to come back in civilian clothes after the Kosovo Liberation Army is demilitarized, Commandant M. Declercq of KFOR's Mitrovica contingent said there is no indication this is actually happening.

Declercq said Serbs in northern Kosovo are using walkie-talkies not because they are paramilitaries, but because they are afraid.

He said anything could happen, and if there is violence, "we will intervene."

The KLA's demilitarization is scheduled to be completed by midnight on Sunday.

NATO waged an 11-week war against Yugoslavia this spring to stop Serb-led ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians.

Many Serbs abandoned the province after the war, and some of those left behind have been targeted in apparent revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians.

Serbian Resistance Movement leader Momcilo Trajkovic says Yugoslav soldiers are allowed to come back under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, which permits the army to watch over historical sites and to mark mine fields.

No date for their return is specified in the resolution.

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

from www.lineone.net

The Express Online News (UK)

KOSOVO AID SCANDAL

By John Laughland

Scandal of aid crates left on the dockside Kosova refugees were denied vital supplies of food, medicine and blankets as a result of theft, inefficiency and mafia corruption.

In April, readers of The Express joined donors from around Europe in a wave of sympathy for the refugees from the Kosovo war. Food, clothes, medicines and other goods were sent. But now, in a scandal which is rocking Italian politics, some of that aid appears to have been sucked into the morass of criminality from which the Kosovo Liberation Army and its mafia allies in Albania emerged to fight Yugoslav rule in the first place.

I have recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Italy with the British Helsinki Human Rights group. We found that for months now, more than 900 shipping containers full of aid have been lying on the docks in Bari, Italy's major port on the Adriatic coast opposite Albania. They contain medicine, food, blankets and other items donated by British, Italian and other organisations. There are a further 1,000 containers lying in Vlore, the Albanian port some 50 miles away.

While there is no doubt that large quantities of aid did get through, there is some that never reached the refugees who have now returned home anyway. British donors, who sent aid in the spring, were promised that it would be in Albania within days. The Italian military had said it would ensure an air bridge from a military base near Milan straight to the Albanian camps. Arcobaleno, the organisation responsible for shipping the aid, is theoretically a non-governmental body but in reality it operates out of the Italian prime minister's office in Rome. As a result, the prime minister, Massimo D'Alema, has been severely embarrassed by the scandal and has had to write entire articles in the Italian press excusing himself.

Mr. D'Alema has now promised that the aid will be sent to help earthquake victims in Turkey instead. But a date has still not been fixed for its transport. Questions are being asked in Italy by the public prosecutor about the nearly £50 million which Italians donated in cash and which remains unspent. Meanwhile, the Italian social security department is paying thousands of pounds every day in rental for the containers which are lying idle on the dockside.

It is possible that the aid was left at the port simply through negligence. Certainly, so much flooded into Albania during the Kosovan war that there was simply not enough space for any more of it in Vlore.

But there is also evidence that organised crime may have been responsible for diverting some of the aid that did leave Italy. Many of the clothes and medicines were stolen by the Albanian mafia and can now be purchased - at market prices -in ordinary shops in Albania. Indeed, according to Sokol Kociu, a prosecutor in Albania, the millions of pounds worth of aid became part of an ugly deal between the Albanian and Italian mafias, in which the Italian mafia paid off the Albanian mafia for various favours, including the supply of prostitutes.

The scandal demonstrates two things. The first is that the war against Yugoslavia continues to generate severe fall-out, affecting innocent people. Because Western governments needed to maintain public support at fever pitch for their attacks on Yugoslavia, they used the media to dramatise the humanitarian situation to the fullest possible degree. This meant that the amounts of cash and goods donated turned out to be vastly in excess of requirements.

By the same token, western governments - especially our own - systematically played down the fact that the KLA was in fact controlling the refugee camps we saw on our television screens every night. Away from the cameras, during the war, pimps kidnapped girls from the camps to sell into prostitution in Italy; and once the war was over, refugees had to pay the KLA a fee to be allowed to leave the camps and go home. It is inconceivable, under such circumstances, that aid could have got to the refugees without the KLA stealing it.

The second point highlighted by the scandal is the stranglehold the Albanian and Kosovo mafia wields over the Adriatic region. The Strait of Otranto and the east coast of Italy are its springboards into Europe. Every evening you can see the motor boats on the beach in Albania waiting to make the short night hop across the Adriatic into Italy. The strength of the extended family structure in Albanian society - it is divided into elaborate "clans" - makes it well suited to mafia activities. In recent years the Albanian and Kosovan mafias have made great strides in displacing even the biggest Italian mafia organisations.

The Albanian and Kosovan mafias now control the traffic of migrants, prostitutes, cigarette smuggling and drugs into Europe. Interpol confirms that 80 per cent of the heroin market in central Europe has been in the hands of Kosovo Albanians for years: control of the brothels in Brussels (where NATO and the EU are based) has also fallen into their hands.

The power of these mafia gangs will be boosted further by the Albanian victory in the Kosovan war because Kosovo has long been a central transition point for the heroin and cocaine trades.

As the chief Italian prosecutor with responsibility for the Albanian mafia in Italy told me, "Europe is being submerged by a tidal wave of organised crime from Albania" - a sentiment confirmed by the British National Criminal Intelligence Service, which warned that Albanian mafia gangs were preparing to move over here too.

The power of the Albanian mafia is also relevant to the current influx of asylum seekers into Britain - more than 200 people a day are now coming here as refugees. Those who cross the Adriatic have all paid the mafia smugglers between £300 and £500 for the short trip. I have visited a number of these "asylum seekers" in Dover, Calais and in southern Italy in recent weeks: not one of the Kosovo Albanians I met said he or she was a victim of political persecution; they all wanted to come to Britain to work.

A massive 80 per cent of those who make an initial application for asylum in Italy never see it through because they travel on immediately to Germany and Britain instead. Because the European Union has abolished border controls on the Continent they can be in Calais within 24 hours. The only significant group suffering real persecution are the Kosovar gypsy refugees, chased out of their homes by Albanians on the rampage. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to go to a richer country like Britain to seek your fortune, it is certainly wrong for the present mass influx to be occurring thanks to an abuse of an asylum process which was set up to help genuine victims of persecution.

The Yugoslav war was fought on the basis that the Serbs were diabolical beasts and that the Albanians were passive victims. Both visions were exaggerated for the purposes of propaganda. During the war, this led to civilian deaths on both sides and to the impoverishment and disruption of the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians. But now it has also led to the swindling of thousands of well-meaning Britons as well.

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

ITALIAN INCOMPETENCE UNDER INVESTIGATION

From Philip Willan In Rome

ITALIAN opposition politicians have called for a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal. In the Sicilian town of Ragusa and in Bari, magistrates have opened investigations into possible corruption and incompetence in Italy's aid programme for Kosovo.

In Ragusa, officials are investigating allegations that out-of-date medicines were distributed to refugees and that Kosovar women were exploited as prostitutes at a camp set up in the former US air base of Comiso.

In Bari, a magistrate is attempting to discover why 920 containers of aid were left to rot in the hot August sun.

Significant quantities of aid went astray in the lawless conditions of Albania. "I saw huge quantities of supplies being sold in the markets of Vlore and Durres," said Italian senator Fiorello Provera.

Attempts to avoid pilfering led the Italian authorities to stock containers end to end so that they couldn't be opened - even by the authorised relief agencies.

But despite these difficulties, the Italian people responded rapidly to the plight of the Kosovar refugees who flooded across the border into Albania. Not only did the goods they supplied go to those in refugee camps but more than 3,000 homes in Kosovo have been rebuilt as a result of Italian financial aid.

The government decided to hold back containers because Kosovo's roads were blocked by military traffic and there were no aid organisations in place to distribute the supplies, according to Italian officials.

Staffan De Mistura, the UN representative in Italy, said: "In the implementation of this mission there were no mortal sins committed, only venial sins," he said. "Italy's only mistake is not to have admitted that." © Express Newspapers Ltd.